Archive for July, 2020
A crucial game ahead
Tonight West Ham play Watford at home (in an empty London Stadium) and could already reach their goal of staying up if they manage to beat their fellow strugglers. With Aston Villa and Bournemouth failing to win their matches this round, West Ham would be six points ahead of the relegation zone with only two games to play if they achieve a victory over Watford. Albeit not mathematically safe, due to their superior goal difference the Hammers could start planning another season in the Premier League and David Moyes could begin reshaping the club.
But as we all know, we should never take anything for granted at West Ham. A victory over Watford isn’t unlikely at all, as West Ham’s form has improved and Tomas Soucek and especially Michail Antonio are a real threat for their opponents’ defence now. But in recent weeks a win over Chelsea and a draw at Newcastle were followed by a disappointing loss to Burnley, and inconsistency has been some kind of a “trademark” to this Club for quite a long time. Therefore nobody would be very surprised if West Ham suffer an other setback by losing this crucial game tonight. Having to play Manchester United in the penultimate game of the season, then the relegation battle could go down to the wire with strugglers Aston Villa coming to the London Stadium in the last round.
It’s this habit of “bursting bubbles” shortly after they have started to fly, which David Moyes wants to change. The manager wants a cultural reset – away from the view he had of West Ham when he was at Everton, namely of a “flaky, inconsistent” side.
That is a view that was reinforced by one of his earliest memories from the first time he was appointed manager in November 2017, when Watford were his first opponents.
“My biggest memory from that night was Marko [Arnautovic] coming off with a sore finger,” said the Scot. “I thought ‘my goodness, what is this I have got here?’.
“It was my perception [that West Ham were soft] and a lot of managers would still see it that way. It is something we need to change. We have to alter that culture.”
Moyes points to a word he heard during lockdown: “One of the things I heard in lockdown came from the Archbishop of York. He said ‘promise less, deliver more’. That has to be a bit of West Ham,” said Moyes ahead of tonight’s game against Watford.
“We can’t keep promising that we are going to go so high. We were in a difficult position when I arrived and we are still in it. Away in the distance is a wee spot of light and we are aiming to get to it.”
West Ham’s first victory this season back in August was an away win over Watford with Sébastien Haller scoring his first goals in front of a packed Vicarage Road. Mark Noble made his 468th appearance for the Hammers in the 15th anniversary of his debut for the Club. It was a different kind of world inside and outside the football ground back then, and nobody would have expected the very different kind of mood in which the reverse fixture is played now.
However, the bubbles machine will let the soap bubbles fly tonight in London Stadium when the teams step onto the pitch, and the melody of the Hammers’ “Bubbles” song will be heard from the stadium speakers ahead of the game. But there will be no crowd to sing along and a no goose bumps will arise in the stands when the music stops, as there won’t be 55,000 or more supporters to clap their hands and belt out “UNITED UNITED” to cheer their team to victory. With no “claret and blue army” present, just the owners and staff and a small number of other people are allowed inside the ground. Hopefully they will be able to watch what could be an almost final step to achieving the goal David Moyes has been appointed for a second time. Back in 2018 he had “done his duty“ and was replaced by a manager of – supposedly – “higher calibers” when the Board decided to hire former Manchester City and Real Madrid coach Manuel Pellegrini.
This time round it is all but secure that David Moyes will remain in his managerial position if he guards West Ham to safety. When he came back to London in December he said that he refused to consider surviving Premier League relegation a “success” and insisted that in the long term his ambitions sat far higher than that.
But Moyes is keen not to get carried away with thoughts of next season. In his press conference he refused to agree victory against Watford would secure a ninth successive top flight season and, after a difficult start to his second tenure, when he won only two of his first 12 Premier League games, he noted his hair has changed a bit.
“There are a lot of grey hairs but I don’t think anyone would have expected anything else,” he said.
Let’s hope that no more grey will be added to the Scot‘s head tonight and bubbles will not fade and die this time.
Come on you Irons!
Derzeit keine “Air Bridges” von UK nach AUT
Für die schon bisher vom österreichischen Landeverbot betroffenen Staaten wird sich einstweilen nichts verändern: Flüge aus
– Weißrussland (Belarus),
– China,
– Großbritannien,
– dem Iran,
– Portugal,
– Russland,
– Schweden
– und der Ukraine nach Österreich sind weiterhin untersagt.
Ab Donnerstag dürfen auch Flugzeuge aus den Westbalkan-Ländern
– Albanien,
– Bosnien-Herzegowina,
– Kosovo,
– Montenegro,
– Nordmazedonien,
– und Serbien,
– sowie aus Bulgarien,
– Rumänien,
– der Republik Moldau und
– Ägypten nicht mehr in Österreich landen.
Deutliche Auswirkungen hat das auch auf das Streckennetz der AUA: Aktuelle Verbindungen aus Belgrad, Bukarest, Kairo, Podgorica, Sarajevo, Sibiu, Skopje, Sofia, Tirana und Varna nach Wien-Schwechat müssen zumindest bis Ende Juli gestrichen werden.
Four-goals-Michail in the Footsteps of the Eighties
“Scoring four goals is an amazing feeling” (Michail Antonio, 11 July 2020)
Three hundred and eighty five games into his senior career, Michail Antonio has achieved plenty.
But on the 386th he took a step he had never taken before to give West Ham United a huge three points at Norwich City on Saturday.
Antonio netted his first senior hat-trick to help the Hammers to a 4-0 victory, and even better than that, he notched all four goals on a remarkable afternoon for the visitors.
In doing so, he became the first Hammer since David Cross to score four in a game – and that came back in September 1981 – so it was without surprise that the No30 wore the broadest of smiles after the final whistle.
Forward David Cross played for West Ham from 1977-1982. He won the FA Cup with West Ham in 1980 (1-0 against Arsenal, goal: Trevor Brooking) and was the Division 2 Golden Boot winner of the 1980/81 season. He scored four goals in a game on two occasions, against Grimsby Town on 11 April 1981, and against Tottenham Hotspur on 2 September 1981.
On 1 October 1980, Cross scored West Ham United’s first, and to date only, hat-trick in European competition in a 5–1 win against Castilla.
Within the current season, fifty years after West Ham’s last win of silverware, one of the Club’s goalkeepers is David Martin, son of Alvin Martin who was a member of the FA cup winning team of 1980. And now Michail Antonio follows in the footsteps of David Cross, an other hero of that generation!
Clockwise: Alvin Martin and his son David, Trevor Brooking celebrating his 70th birthday last year, four goals-heroes David Cross and Michail Antonio
40 years 1 month and 1 day from today FA Cup Final 1980
Happy Hammers: revisiting West Ham’s triumph: West Ham 1 Arsenal 0 https://www.theguardian.com/football/triumph-in-pictures
Video 1980: West Ham 1-0 Arsenal https://youtu.be/B0Iwn9o86HM
Video 2020: Norwich City 0-4 West Ham
https://www.whufc.com/news/articles/2020/july/11-july/goals-norwich-city-0-4-west-ham-united
Four goals, that’s six points clear
West Ham have convincingly beaten Norwich on Saturday afternoon with Michail Antonio scoring all four goals. The Hammers mustered their first away win since David Moyes has taken over in January and are now six points clear of the relegation zone with only three games to go.
Michail Antonio is the first West Ham player to score four goals in a top-flight match since David Cross in 1981Norwich are relegated with this seventh successive league defeat which left Daniel Farke’s side anchored at the foot of the table, 13 points from safety with only three games – and a maximum nine points – to play.
Norwich’s third relegation in seven seasons was sealed by Antonio’s superb performance in front of goal.
The forward volleyed the first from inside the six-yard area after Issa Diop’s flick from a corner before using his head to guide Mark Noble’s free-kick beyond Tim Krul.
Hammers skipper Noble also provided the ball over the top for Antonio’s hat-trick. Krul saved his initial shot but it fell invitingly for the West Ham player to head over the line. His fourth was a tap-in after Ryan Fredericks’ pass.
West Ham’s first Premier League away win under David Moyes lifts them six points above the relegation zone, with two of their remaining three matches at home to fellow strugglers Aston Villa and Watford (winning 2-1 over Newcastle at the same time) and an away game against Manchester Utd.
Michail Antonio: “Being the first player to score four goals in one game for West Ham in the PL is an amazing feeling”
Match report: Norwich City 0-4 West Ham United: Michael Antonio scores four to send Canaries down
Masked Britain
FACE MASKS will become mandatory in shops and enclosed spaces, Boris Johnson has indicated, as he said it was time for the country to “go back to work”, The Telegraph reports.
The Prime Minister, who posed in a face covering for the first time yesterday, said the Government needed to be “stricter” on enforcing guidelines for wearing them indoors.
He said: “It’s very important that people should be going back to work if they can now. I want to see more people feeling confident to use the shops, use the restaurants, get back into work, but only if we all follow the guidance.”
On Tuesday, Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor, announced £30 billion in giveaways to encourage “cautious” people to return to pubs, restaurants, shops and attractions, which were allowed to reopen last weekend. Many retailers have remained closed, particularly in town centres, as office workers on whom they rely for much of their trade were still mostly working from home.
Endlich wieder nach England
Endlich ist es soweit: ab Freitag, dem 10. Juli, wird die Quarantänepflicht für Besucher aus Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz bei der Einreise nach England aufgehoben. Die britische Tourismusorganisation Visit Britain freut sich, bald wieder Urlaubsreisende in England begrüßen zu dürfen.
Ob Wanderungen an der Küste oder entspannte Ausflüge ins Grüne – bald ist es wieder möglich, die Schönheiten und Eigenarten der Insel zu besuchen und zu erleben.
Viele der Sehenswürdigkeiten haben unterschiedlichste Möglichkeiten erarbeitet, um ihre Besucher wieder willkommen zu heißen – von reservierten Zeitfenstern und begrenzten Besucherzahlen bis zu Einbahnstraßen-Regelungen. Diese Maßnahmen sollen sicherstellen, dass man den Besuch in Großbritannien genießen kann.
Eine Eigenart des von mir absurderweise geliebten Fußballklubs West Ham United – dass auf ein gutes Match und einen wichtigen Sieg gegen ein favorisiertes Team wie Chelsea meist unmittelbar eine Enttäuschung auf dem Fuße folgt – würde ich allerdings nicht live im Stadion erleben können: die beiden obersten englischen Fußballligen werden auch ab dem 10. Juli weiterhin ohne Zuschauer in den Stadien auskommen müssen. Blowing Bubbles gibt‘s daher nur vor dem Fernseher! Allerdings hat der Klub auf der Tribüne Billy Bonds Stand Fotos von 1900 Fans installiert:
Unabdingbar ist vor einer Reise eine Information über die aktuellen Hinweise der britischen Regierung und der Regierung des eigenen Landes. ▶️Jetzt informieren
Glyndebourne At Home
The famous Glyndebourne Opera Festival which has taken part on the estate of Lord Christie in Sussex for more than 85 years had to be cancelled due to Covid-19 this year.
But to help keep the spirit of Glyndebourne alive, every Sunday from May 24 “Glyndebourne Open House” broadcasts productions of recent years via YouTube. Each Sunday from 5 pm it is possible to join and enjoy world-class opera in the living room for free. By this it is possible to be united with opera lovers from all over the world and refresh old or create new memories.
This Sunday we can watch Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier, one of opera’s greatest romantic comedies. The performance on show has been captured live at the Festival 2014.
I am very happy to watch this opera, playing in a fairytale Vienna and reminding me of our visit to Glyndebourne two years ago when we also watched the “Rosenkavalier” and had the obligatory picknick in the wonderful gardens of the Christie estate. 🧺
Let’s hope that Glyndebourne Festival as we know it will be back again in 2021. In the meantime at least a reopening of the gardens has taken place from July 1st for a shortened summer season.
From mid July there will also be musical performances on Glyndebourne’s glorious grounds and, though the opera house will be silent, the gardens will be full of music during the Glyndebourne Garden Concerts. The large gardens and the restricted number of tickets on sale should guarantee everybody’s safety in these challenging times.
What a pleasure it would be to make a trip to Glyndebourne this summer, but so far there are no flights from Vienna to England.
However, on Monday a list of countries will be published from which people can enter Great Britain without having to self-isolate for 2 weeks. This would make a trip to Glyndebourne possible.
However, I’m afraid the tickets for the Garden Concerts will already have sold out!
But never mind, Strauss’s Rosenkavalier will be available until 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, 12 July, and afterwards an other opera, “Billy Budd” by Benjamin Britten, will be shown online via YouTube!
If you have enjoyed Glyndebourne Open House, you are asked to support artists and staff and consider donating to Glyndebourne’s Covid-19 emergency fund.
It’s England‘s Independence Day Today!
The 4th of July isn’t only the United States’ Independence Day this year: today can also be dubbed an Independence Day for England because people get back the freedom to go to hairdressers, pubs, hotels and churches. They are all allowed to reopen by July 4th after months of lockdown!
Therefore as of tomorrow, also Sunday Church services are allowed back, for the first time since the pandemic started. Again, it will all feel very different as The Telegraph reports. There will be no hymns due to the higher risk of transmission while singing, and worshippers have been asked to bring their own Bible or holy book with them. Where worshippers are unable to do so, books should be cleaned and quarantined for 48 hours after use, the Government says. Muslims should also bring their own prayer mat to services. Communion will be allowed, but worshippers are advised not to drink from the same wine glass or share the same bread. “Peace be with you” handshakes have been suspended.
St Paul’s Cathedral is one of the churches that will restart their services. On Sunday the Eucharist with Sermon will be celebrated at 11:30 a.m. at St. Paul’s Cathedral. However, it seems that a lot of churches will still remain closed and celebrate their services online like they have done since March.
Anyway, it’s not only a small step, it’s a big leap back to normality in England!
The new rules and guidelines though do not apply in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. And also Leicester in the English East Midlands has got their own thing going on. The lockdown in Leicester was tightened in recent days because of a coronavirus case rise and the loosening of restrictions is not taking place there.
Chelsea Double Gives West Ham Boost
West Ham United beat Chelsea 3-2 (1-1) on Wednesday night and moved three points clear of the relegation zone.
It was West Ham’s second win over Chelsea this season. The Hammers twice came from behind and scored the winner in the 89th Minute, securing their first double against Chelsea since 2002/03.
The goals in London Stadium were scored by Soucek (1-1), Antonio (2-2) and Yarmolenko (pic above, 3-2). Soucek had also brought West Ham in front in the first half, but the goal was ruled out by VAR.
Michail Antonio who had a brilliant night playing as a lone striker: “It gives us that confidence, it gives us that belief. Not that we won, but we went down, we had a goal taken away from us, and we came back.”
West Ham are the first team in the current bottom five of the table to win a Premier League match since the league resumed after the coronavirus suspension. Brighton, Bournemouth, Watford and Aston Villa as well as Norwich all lost, which means that West Ham after this round are 16th in the table with 30 points, three points behind Brighton (15th), 2 points in front of Watford and 3 points in front of Aston Villa (18th).
Things look much better after that thriller with a Happy End against Chelsea!
Come on you Irons!
West Ham 3-2 Chelsea: BBC match report
▶️ http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/52080261
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