Sporting Kansas City 0 – 0 Newcastle United: Ben Arfa stretchered off
Posted on July 21st, 2011 | 21 Comments |
The 100 degree Fahrenheit climate was described as ‘brutally hot’ in Kansas as Newcastle lined up to take on Sporting Kansas City in the first of three matches as part of a pre-season tour of the United States.
The weather, combined with an in-form opposition who are unbeaten in 11 games, transpired to create a 0-0 draw.
Newcastle started with:
Tim Krul.
Ryan Taylor, Steven Taylor, Fabricio Coloccini, Jonas Gutierrez.
Peter Lovenkrands, Dan Gosling, Cheik Tiote, Sylvain Marveaux.
Hatem Ben Arfa, Demba Ba.
Jonas played at left-back, Lovenkrands was on the right wing and Ben Arfa was up front with Demba Ba.
Sporting Kansas tried to take advantage of our unfamiliarity with such hot weather by keeping the tempo of the game high but we were up to the task, at least defensively.
After just 4 minutes we got our first injury when Dan Gosling had to leave the pitch to get a head injury dealt with, although he was okay to continue after 10 minutes of treatment.
Ben Arfa and Silvain Marveaux showed some excellent form when it comes to taking on players and Dan Gosling looked lively too but, despite that, Newcastle couldn’t find a shot on goal in the first half. Kansas were no better in that respect with Kamara, Bravo and – most dangerously – Jeferson all getting chances but failing to find the target with them.
Worry on 30 minutes though when Ben Arfa is stretchered off holding his leg after a tackle by Espinaza. Shola Ameobi is brought on for the injured player.
Plenty of chances for both teams in the first half although neither managed a shot on target and each team picked up a yellow card with Tiote being the rather predictable recipient for Newcastle.
For the second half, Tavernier replaced Marveaux and goes to left-back while Jonas is pushed forward; Tiote is replaced by Mehdi Abeid and Lovenkrands is replaced by Alan Smith.
The second half began at a slower tempo than the first but the first shot on goal came in the 65th minute when Kansas substitute Soony Saad spun around and cracked one at the goal. Fortunately it was an easy save for Tim Krul.
After 62 minutes Danny Simpson is brought on for Dan Gosling and on 71 minutes Leon Best replaces Demba Ba.
Newcastle lift their game a bit for the last 10 minutes and Danny Simpson gets our first shot on goal after Jonas makes an excellent run and plays him in, although the shot is straight at the keeper. And with 3 minutes to go Shola sees his shot deflected out for a corner.
Kansas nearly sneaked the win on 89 minutes but Krul saved the curling shot from Kansas’ Sapong.
After the game, Alan Pardew said:
“This was a great exercise for us in terms of the opposition. I’m pleased with our clean sheet. We lacked sharpness, but I’m very, very pleased.”
And his counterpart at Kansas – Peter Vermes – said:
“With an exhibition like this, you get an opportunity to play such a storied club as Newcastle, it’s great for your team. I thought it was good for us.”
Hmm, ‘storied’ eh?
As to the Ben Arfa injury, NUFC have today released an update which reads:
Hatem Ben Arfa sustained an injury to his left ankle in a tackle during the club’s friendly against Sporting Kansas on Wednesday evening and went to a local hospital for a precautionary x-ray.
Consequently he will be leaving the club’s US tour tomorrow and the injury will be reassessed over the next 48 hours.
FFS – I do hope this turns out to be merely precautionary.
Anyway, one down and two to go in the US. HWTL!
NUFCBlog Author: Hugh de Payen
I'm a baby-boomer of the punk rock persuasion, currently exiled in Somerset for crimes committed in a previous life where locals keep trying to poison me with something called 'scrumpy'. Hates sprouts, coat-hangers, Cilla Black, ornaments, Steven Seagull movies and 50 Cent (he's not worth 10).
Hugh de Payen has written 634 articles on this blog.
latest on benny here http://www.nufc.co.uk/articles/20110721/ben-arfa-injury-update_2281670_2397940
but it goes to show we go 1 player down and we look piss poor again, looks like the whole team is based around ben arfa and if he’s missing the players seems lost, they had no shape after Arfa was taken off the field and no depth MA needs to get that £35 million out and actually buy some players that can cover if needed.