One more feather in the cap for Hull City as whole as Boaz gets picked as keeper for Wales’ friendly against Denmark.
GOOD FOR HIM!
Archive for the ‘Hull City’ Category
Boaz Myhill Gets the Call-Up for Duty from Wales
Tuesday, November 11th, 2008Edwin van der Sar Gives Hull Some Respect
Monday, November 3rd, 2008Personally, I’d like to see him give a little more, but at least he acknowledged that the Tigers “are a team that never give up.”
In this Goal.com article, Edwin states that Man U needs to learn from their mistakes and not slow their game down when they have a good size lead, which they did last Saturday. As I’ve already discussed, they were up 4-1 by the 60th minute and ended the game in a 4-3 win…kinda sloppy for Man U.
I say even if United full-on attacked, Hull would’ve still gotten those two goals because, as Eddie just said, Hull City do not give up.
Hull City…What I’ve Learned…
Sunday, November 2nd, 2008…and the answer is A LOT!!!
Let me start off by saying that I am THRILLED that my Chelsea Blues beat Hull on 29 October. I was, however, disappointed by their 1 November loss to Manchester United: partially because I wanted to see the underdogs win and partially because when one supports Chelsea, throwing a little dislike to the Red Devils is the default position.
But while watching these two games, I had my BEST footie knowledge experience to date.
The Chelsea game was a mess for the Tigers from start to finish. Geovanni and Daniel Cousin did what they could but the entire defense (Boaz Myhil included) acted as if they did a few bong hits prior to coming on to the pitch. They gave up a goal with in the first three minutes and allowed Nicholas Anelka a goal. I mean, I love my Blues but Anelka is not exactly a goal scoring machine. Chelsea takes the match 3-0…a bit of a surprise but not a disappointment on my part. Hull City then goes on to lose at Old Trafford three days later, but it was a completely different game. Hull lost to Man U 4-3 but not after getting three goals off of the Red Devils and forcing them to work to preserve their lead. Any team that forces Manchester United to work deserves props.
Now while none of these end results are surprising when you think about it, the Chelsea game deserves a little scrutinizing. See, Chelsea’s good right now, they’re just not that good. Regardless of Anelka’s performance, he’s no Didier Drogba and can be locked down without much effort. And Frank Lampard may be the most consistent scorer for Chelsea right now but is he scoring that much? Nope. Hull could’ve beaten Chelsea last Wednesday, but played as if they didn’t want to. But it was WHOOOOOOOLE different ball of wax against Man U. Hull faced a marquee team which contains three of the current top scorers (Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney and Dimatar Berbatov) and puts three goals on them. This was without question, United’s toughest win to date as Hull pushed them to the limits, forcing Rooney to try and score and making sure he was unsuccessful at every attempt. Either they blocked him or they forced him to take quick shots, but the belief that he was the man this season in the EPL was, for 90 minutes, shut down by the Hull Back Four. Hull earned the respect of many on 1 November, including Manchester United. Why? Because they walked out onto the pitch with the confidence that they could win!!!!
And therein lies the moral of this post: that I learned that confidence is a key characteristic of any winning team, and it’s a must that Hull corner the market on it since it’s what’s really winning them games right now. As an example, let’s take a look at Chelsea again, particularly during the 2007/08 season. When José Mourinho vacated the Chelsea managerial post in October 08, everyone wrote them off for the rest of the season. Yet they not only made the UEFA Champions League final that season but also made sure that the EPL Champions didn’t get confirmed until the last day of the season. That’s confidence and that’s one of the many reasons why my Blues support is unwavering.
I’ve said before that Hull has such confidence and still believe that they have it. They just need to be consistent with it, especially if they want to stay in the EPL.
Chelsea Vs. Hull City (10/29/08) – My Conflict And My Assesment
Tuesday, October 28th, 2008
Anyone that’s read this blog knows that the current EPL season is causing me some internal conflict. I’m a “blue-till-I-die” Chelsea fan; however, I find myself passionately rooting for the Tigers in every game. And with the two due to meet up tomorrow, I found myself somewhat conflicted on who to root for. I LOVE Chelsea but how can one not root for the underdog?
I meditated over this and have decided to stick to my guns and root for Chelsea, but have acknowledged that Hull City could win it. Not only could they win it but they have a good chance when you line up each teams good points and bad points. Let’s take a look at those, shall we:
CHELSEA CAN WIN BECAUSE…
They have more experience: Chelsea’s been in the top flight for sometime now and it’s been ages that they’ve been anywhere else. They’ve been against the best and have beaten more than their fair share of top notch clubs.
They have a better manager: Phil Brown is great but Felipe Scolari is better.
They have the home pitch advantage: Regardless of Liverpool ending Chelsea’s loss-less home record, the Blues are still tough to beat at Stamford Bridge. Speaking of which…
They’re pumped to win after their Liverpool loss: Chelsea’s home record (86 home games without a loss) is phenomenal! Because the Merseyside Kings just ended it, the Blues are most likely seeking redemption from any source that they can get it….destroying Hull may be that source.
HULL CAN WIN BECAUSE…
They have the confidence: If you ask me, this is the primary source for the Tiger’s success. Simply put, Hull have either won or drawn games that many (including myself) predicted that they would lose, and one of the games that they won was against Arsenal at the Emirates. They know that they can beat the best when it comes down to it.
Their team “backbone” is stronger than Chelsea’s right now: By this, I mean that on each level of pitch formation (goalie, defender, midfielder, striker) lies a top notch player. And with Boaz Myhill, Ian Ashbee, Geovanni. and Daniel Cousin, Hull’s backbone is the strongest. Chelsea’s almost there, with Peter Cech, John Terry, and Frank Lampard. but Nicholas Anelka is the weakest link in the chain right now.
Peter Brown is still good at what he does: As I said before, Scolari is the better manager. On the other hand, so is Arsene Wenger and just look how Peter came off on that one. Yes, Hull City is confident that they can beat the best, as is Peter Brown.
Look REAAAAAAL closely at the standings: Yup, Chelsea’s in second place and Hull’s in third. Look at the games played though and you’ll notice that Hull is one of only two teams have beaten the traditional “big four”. That counts for something.
At the end of the day, I’m rooting for Chelsea but will be secretly happy if Hull takes it. All in all, I expect a good game.
Who is this Phil Brown guy?
Tuesday, September 30th, 2008
Continuing with my current love affair with the Hull City Tigers, I looked for some info on their current manager, Phil Brown. Gotta say that this guy intrigues me: he’s personable, loves his club, and quite animated on the touchline like Jose Mourhino is. Phil’s also kinda stylish like the Special One, too: he’s Target to Jose’s Armani though.
My research shows that the man has every right to hold a managerial job: 18 years of playing on the pitch for four clubs (including Bolton and Blackpool), was a caretaker for Bolton, and a full-on manager for Derby County. Only at Derby for seven months but don’t hold that against him: DC will continue to rotate managers until it finds one that can accomplish the difficult task of whipping the squad into shape. Phil just happened to be in the rotation.
But enough of the past, let’s move on to the present. He took Hull City to the top during the Championship League promotion playoffs, earning them a slot in the EPL. Since joining the top flight, the Tigers have played six games and have lost only one, but man did they lose that game! 0-5 against Wigan. Past that, they’ve won or drawn five games that many (including me) thought that they would lose, especially the 2-1 pimpslap they put on Arsenal this past weekend. Yes, performances by HC players Boaz Myhill, Daniel Cousin, and Geovanni led to victory (how about that Geovanni strike?!?!?!?!) but tactical moves by Phil Brown paved the way for those performances. ‘Nuff said.
Now let’s just hope that Phil keeps both his squad and himself from becoming cocky because if anything can do them in, it’s that. My hope is that they continue to go out and play the best game that they can, with goal of remaining in the Premier League at the end of the year. If they do that then I believe that the team will will develop into more of cohesive unit and they’ll get some more TV rights money which will allow them to grab one or two key players, possibly from La Liga. I’ll repeat my very risky prediction and say that they’ll grab the fifth spot in the EPL next year, hereby securing a UEFA Cup slot (Cup, NOT Championship). But I’ll add to this risky prediction that none of this will happen if Phil Brown leaves the club. He’s the straw that’s stirring the drink right now.
As stated, the main purpose of this blog is for me to learn about footie and the biggest lesson that I’ve learned so far is that every season is full of surprises. The last season is different from the next and the Phil Brown-led Tiger’s current performance has done the most to drive this point home to me. I seriously believed that Tottenham Hotspur had the best chance to break the EPL’s top four, while the Tigers were simply on a little vacation from the C’Ship League (Along with West Brom and Stoke) and would go back there next year. Now the current sixth-place Hull is set to square off against the current last place Spurs this weekend in an already sold out match where Hull is the away team but is still the odds-on favorite. Throw this surprise in with less-than-stellar performances by Man U, Real Madrid, AC Milan, and Inter, and very little has happened as I predicted it would this season…so far.
I need to close by referring back to what this post is about: my love affair with Phil Brown and Hull City. “Love affair” is the active phrase here because Hull City is my mistress while Chelsea is my wife. I am geeked that my Blues are currently number one and will be fully rooting for them when the play Hull on October 29th this year and February 7th in 2009. But I will be watching every Hull City game I can and root for them full on.