EXTRA TIME

Second Leg Looming

May 14, 2023 at 7:43 am 2 comments

On Thursday it’s now or never for West Ham United. The Hammers have waited 47 years to play in a European final once again, and it’s 58 years since they won the European Cup Winners‘ Cup in 1965. Leading 2-1 from the first leg of the Conference League semifinal against AZ Alkmaar, the tie is in West Ham’s control. RapidHammer is looking back to a similar situation twelve years ago when the Hammers had also won the first leg of a semifinal tie 2-1 and were about to make it to a Cup final. But with West Ham you never know…

Hammers Social Club next to Upton Park (2011)

The games I am timidly looking back to are not last year’s Europa League semifinal matches but a domestic two legged semifinal in 2011, because last season in the Europa League West Ham were trailing a 1-2 deficit from the first leg. They also lost the second leg away to Eintracht Frankfurt and could not get to the final, contrary to the Cup Winners’ Cup of 1975/76, when West Ham overcame Frankfurt at semifinal stage. The opportunity was wasted last year, would the Hammers get another chance to progress to a Cup final any time soon or would they have to wait again for years?

As it turned out in this strangest of seasons in which West Ham like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hide have been around the Premier League’s relegation spots much too long but are unbeaten in all of their European games (10 W 1 D), the wait was only 12 months, not an other eleven or twelve or even 47 years. And though it’s only the less prestigious Conference League this time, being successful on the second attempt one year later would be a perfect script.

It isn’t an unusual proceeding in football that a team that has failed on their first trying, does win the competition in the next year! There are fringe benefits of failure, defeat can teach you a lesson and make you stronger. Remember Bayern Munich that lost their „Finale dahoam“ and were beaten on penalties by Chelsea in 2012, but won the Champions League the next season with a 2-1 over Borussia Dortmund at Wembley. I‘m sure some more examples will come to your mind…

Reaching a semifinal the second year running gives West Ham the chance to make amends for last year‘s defeat against Eintracht Frankfurt and also for this season’s disappointing Premier League campaign.

The Telegraph described the first leg of the semifinal against AZ Alkmaar, which West Ham won 2-1 after being 0-1 down at halftime, as “a night of angst and drama in east London”, but in contrast to last year when the first leg was lost 1-2, this semifinal tie is in West Ham’s control, and deservedly so. The Hammers haven’t lost any of their European games this season and now a draw at Alkmaar would be enough to reach the final.

As said above, it is 47 years since the last final which West Ham reached in continental competition when the Hammers played Anderlecht in the Cup Winners’ Cup in 1976.

In the domestic cups, the last final in which West Ham played was the FA Cup Final in 2006 which the Hammers reached by beating Middlesbrough in the semifinal at Villa Park with the only goal scored by Marlon Harewood. The final (which was not played at Wembley, but in the Millennium Stadium at Cardiff) was lost on penalties against Liverpool after a dramatic 3-3 draw a.e.t. The last silverware won by the Hammers was the FA Cup 1980 when they beat Arsenal 1-0 thanks to Trevor Brookings’s famous header.

The latest chance to reach a domestic cup final came in 2011 with the League Cup semi when West Ham played against Birmingham. Back in 2011, the situation was not unalike the current one as the Irons were struggling in the Premier League, but had excelled in their cup ties so far, beating Manchester Utd 4-0 in the quarter-final at Upton Park.

After this pleasant result I decided to travel to east London in January 2011 to watch the first leg of the semifinal tie against the Blues at Upton Park. I witnessed a narrow 2-1 win under the lights, and I remember very well celebrating this win and the goals by Mark Noble and Carlton Cole with my friends from the the then popular website “Football United” at the “Hammers Social Club” (WHU Supporters Club) next door to the Boleyn Ground. But I also remember the supporter sitting next to me in the ground saying that he feared a one-goal-lead would not be enough…

Twelve years later the score from the first leg in the Conference League is the same as the one from January 11th, 2011. And what happened two weeks later when the away tie was played at St Andrew’s in Birmingham?

West Ham played well in the first half and looked on course for victory when Carlton Cole’s spectacular strike gave them an interval lead and extended their advantage in the tie. But in the second half the Hammers crumbled, ex-Hammer Lee Bowyer levelled the game on the night scoring in the 59th minute, and Roger Johnson’s powerful header 11 minutes from the end of normal time restored equality to the semifinal. The tie went to extra time, and only four minutes into the extra period Birmingham’s Craig Gardner who had already struck the woodwork twice, was the hero at St Andrew’s with another low drive that keeper Rob Green was powerless to prevent going in. The Hammers couldn’t score within extra time and eventually lost 1-3, wasting their advantage from the first leg and their lead at the interval of the second game.

Let’s hope that twelve years later history will not repeat itself. AZ Alkmaar is said to be a strong team especially at home, but the boys of Moyes have been looking to write their own chapter in recent years and, after falling short at this stage of the Europa League last season, they will hopefully play with a visible determination to go one further, at least, this time around and not get overwhelmed by the occasion.

Moyes had rested Paquetá, Rice, Zouma, Antonio and other important players in this weekend’s game against Brentford, making nine chances from Thursday’s European cup game. The match against Brentford was always going to be a tough contest against a Bees side which has done very well this season. Brentford had already beaten the Hammers at their ground, and in the reverse fixture it soon was crystal clear that, while West Ham’s team of fringe players were struggling, the west London side was able to cope with the absence of their best striker Ivan Toney and would gain maximum points that season against their East-end opponents.

For West Ham though the defeat scarcely seemed to matter. Indeed, perhaps the most concerning aspect of West Ham’s afternoon came with news that Michail Antonio has a calf injury, seemingly making him a major doubt for next Thursday’s clash with AZ Alkmaar.

Paquetá and his fellow Hammers will have to play like they did in this clip below last Thursday, and David Moyes has to get his match plan right and resist the temptation to sit back and just go for a draw.

Regarding the Premier League, West Ham still is not mathematically safe from relegation threats. With two games to go Southampton is already relegated, but it’s not entirely impossible that Leeds United sitting currently in 18th (with Sam Allardyce as their third manager this season in a desperate attempt to safe them from relegation) as well as 19th ranked Leicester City with a game in hand could leapfrog the Hammers if they beat them in the remaining games in which the Hammers play both Leeds and Leicester.

However the odds aren’t good for Leicester having to play Liverpool and Newcastle next. Before they host West Ham in their last game of the season, the Blues could already be relegated.

I think it is more likely that Leeds avoid the drop. Apart of West Ham away next Sunday, Big Sam’s team has to play Tottenham a week later. Spurs aren’t doing well in the second half of the season and after Antonio Conte’s departure they are likely to miss out on securing a European spot. With Nottingham Forest and Everton still in Leicester’s and Leeds’s reach the relegation battle is probably not going to be decided before the last round of the season.

Well, when we are going into West Ham’s last two Premier League games of 2022/23, we will already know if the Hammers are able to play a third match before the season ends. This would require defending their lead from the first semifinal leg next Thursday. Let’s hope that on Thursday – much contrary to their tie against Birmingham in 2011 when a 2-1 was not enough to reach the final of the League Cup – the Hammers will rise to the occasion and keep their unbeaten record in all the continental games of this season. Then the last game of the season would not be Leicester away, but the Conference League final in Prague.

Come on you Irons!

Hammers Social Club after the demolition of the Boleyn Ground (2017)

An other version of this article has been posted on ▶️West Ham Till I Die: Now or never for West Ham

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