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New Signing: Thilo Kehrer
Das ist West Hamâs Neuer: eine dringende VerstĂ€rkung fĂŒr die Abwehr. Diop wurde kĂŒrzlich an Fulham abgegeben, Ogbonna ist noch nicht einsatzfĂ€hig und Neuzugang Nagerd hat sich bekanntlich verletzt.
Der deutsche Nationalteamspieler Thilo Kehrer (25) kommt um EUR 12 Mio von PSG. Herzlich willkommen in London und in der Premier League!
Ukraine: Footballâs coming back
Ukraine’s football leagues were stopped when Russia’s invasion begann in February 2022, but now half a year into the war, football is going to resume in the country. It is a sign of bravery and confidence that Ukraine will win.
Now, six months into the war, Ukraine is preparing to resume its domestic football competitions – despite the constant danger the ongoing conflict brings.
The BBC has a lengthy article on the topic: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/62503419
During Second World War football was also played most of the time: Rapid Vienna won the German Championship with a famous 4:3 (0:2) win over Schalke 04 in Berlin in 1941 (goals: Schors, Binder 3). The final was played in front of 95,000 fans in the Olympic Stadium.
One year earlier West Ham Utd won the 1940 Football League War Cup with a 1-0 victory over Blackburn Rovers (goal: Sam Small). The final was played in London at Wembley Stadium in front of a crowd of 42.000 despite fears that there would be an attack from the Luftwaffe.
The new campaign of Ukrainian football leagues will go ahead from 23 August – Ukraine’s Day of the National Flag – following an order from president Volodymyr Zelensky. It is seen as “a sign to the world that Ukraine can and will win. It’s also a sign to society that we are confident,” says Andriy Pavelko, head of the Ukrainian Football Association.
Dinamo Kiev has already played in the UEFA Champions League qualification earlier in the summer and defeated Austrian club Sturm Graz 3-1 on aggregate. The Ukrainian club played their home tie in Poland. They now play Benfica in the play-offs on Wednesday evening, the game again taking place in ĆĂłdĆș (Poland).
Russian clubs have been disqualified by the UEFA and are not allowed to compete in the 2022/23 European cups.
Two defeats on the Sunday
Holidays are coming to an end, and Sundayâs football games didnât help my mood either.
West Ham lost away at newly promoted Nottingham Forest on a hot afternoon when Premier League football returned to the City Ground after a 23-year-absence. The Hammers twice hit the bar, and Declan Rice missed a glorious chance to rescue a draw when his weak penalty was saved by brilliant Forest goalkeeper Henderson. Scamacca came on late for Antonio and was of no impact, but Benrahma played very well and was unlucky when he had a goal disallowed by VAR and when his second half strike only went onto the crossbar.
A bad day for West Ham, a great afternoon for Nottingham ForestâŠ. đł West Ham didnât play bad today though, and could well have won. But after another loss, now we have to be grateful that ManUtd are so sh*t, otherwise we would be bottom of the table!
David Hautzig in his match report wrote that he had felt for some time that this season would not be anything like the previous two. Unemotionally it could be seen as a season to consolidate. But next Sunday WHU have to host Brighton, and âwe all know our dismal record against them. So we could be looking at zero points after three games. You cannot spin that in a positive manner. We have started the season short on players, and now we are short on results and maybe confidenceâ, Hautzig said, and he concluded: âI know I am.â
And SK Rapid arenât victorious either: at the time of starting to write this post they were trailing a 2-0 in their away game in Upper Austria against LASK with less than 10 minutes to go. LASK are managed by former Rapid coach Didi KĂŒhbauer who of course would be happy to inflict defeat on his former club and cement LASKâs first place in the Austrian Bundesliga after four rounds played.
In the 94th minute Marco GrĂŒll scored a consolation goal, but Rapid lose 1-2. They can at least add to their excuse that after exhausting 120 minutes in the Conference League three days ago, the manager changed his starting XI quite a lot, bringing in eight players who hadnât started against Baku on Thursday.
For both clubs their next game is the first leg of the UEFA Conference League play-off with West Ham playing Danish green-white side Viborg, and SK Rapid having to overcome FC Vaduz from Liechtenstein. Everybody has to pick himself up now and try to find some confidence ahead of these games. Because in football âitâs all about confidenceâ, as the saying goes.
Just look at poor ManUtd, they very well proof at the moment that the saying is all but true.
Danke, Rapid!
2:0 (0:0, 1:0) n.V. – Rapid hat es ins ECL-Play-off geschafft! Nichts fĂŒr schwache Nerven, es ging in die VerlĂ€ngerung und dauerte bis zur 112. Minute, bis Rapid 3:2 on aggregate in Front war! Danke, RAPID, fĂŒr einen stimmungsvollen, packenden und letztlich erfolgreichen Europacup-Abend!
Das mit groĂem Einsatz zur Sache gehende Team in GrĂŒn-WeiĂ spielte ganz viele Chancen heraus, aber es gab auch Möglichkeiten fĂŒr Baku inklusive einem Stangenschuss!
Entschieden haben das Match ein Super-Tor von GrĂŒll nach toller Flanke von KĂŒhn (66′) und substitute Ferdy Druijf in der extra time (112′). Rapid erkĂ€mpfte mit Forechecking den Ball, und nach Flanke von Jonas Auer trifft der eingewechselte Druijf bei seinem Comeback per Kopf zum Siegtor!
Jetzt gegen FC Vaduz im Play-off!
âHappy birthdayâ
Alles Gute zum Geburtstag wĂŒnschten mir diese vier Herren kĂŒrzlich erfreulicherweise. Aber die gröĂte Freude im August könnten mir Guido Burgstaller, Thorsten Schick, Maxi Hofmann und Ferdy Druijf machen, wenn sie ĂŒber die beiden HĂŒrden, die den SK Rapid von der Gruppenphase der Conference League trennen, drĂŒberkommen und es drei weitere Europacup-NĂ€chte im Allianz Stadion gibt.
Die drei erstgenannten Gratulanten stehen am Donnerstag Abend beim RĂŒckspiel gegen Baku in der Startelf, Druijf ist Ersatz; den offensiven Part ĂŒbernehmen in diesem Spiel der dritten Qualifikationsrunde von Beginn an KĂŒhn, Bajic und GrĂŒll und ganz vorne “Rapids Lebensversicherung” Guido Burgstaller. Ein 1:2 gilt es aufzuholen.
Auf geht’s Rapid, kĂ€mpfen und siegen!
“A bit stale” vs. “a bit shit”
Nach dem 0:2 gegen Meister Manchester City im ersten Spiel der neuen Saison, in dem West Ham ĂŒberhaupt keine Chance hatte – im Gegensatz zum letzen Heimmatch gegen den selben Gegner am Ende der vorigen Spielzeit (2:2) – meinte Hammers-Manager David Moyes:
âWe are a bit stale at the moment.â
âStaleâ, das heiĂt âverbrauchtâ, âschalâ, âaltbackenâ. Nicht gerade das, was man von einem Team am Beginn einer Saison erwartet!
Aber genau so meinte es der West Ham-Manager offenbar, denn er sagte auch: âWe need to freshen up a bit. There is a lot work to do.â
Und Moyes musste zugeben, seine Mannschaft wurde von Manchester City âcompletely outdoneâ (völlig ĂŒbertrumpft). Es war zwar kein 0:5 wie im ersten Spiel der Premier League-Saison 2019, als WHU unter dem damaligen Neo-Manager Manuel Pellegrini einen total verpatzten Saisonstart hinlegte. Aber abgesehen von einer einzigen guten Gelegenheit gleich am Anfang des Spiels hatten die Hammers auch diesmal keine Chance gegen die Citizens.
Vor 62,500 Zuschauern im London Stadium hatten die Irons niemals Zugriff auf das Spiel und waren mit dem 0:2 gut bedient. Erling Haaland erzielte bei seinem Premier League-Debut beide Tore, verletzte bei einem ZusammenstoĂ West Ham-Keeper Fabianski und vergab eine tolle Kopfballchance in der zweiten Halbzeit, sonst wĂ€re er mit einem Hattrick in die Saison gestartet. Beim Interview sagte er, es sei âa bit shitâ gewesen, dass ihm der Hattrick nicht gelungen sei, und als der Kommentator ihn aufmerksam machte, keine Schimpfwörter beim Interview zu verwenden, meinte der Typ: âOh shit!â
Die haben gut lachen bei Manchester City⊠Wir dagegen bei West Ham mĂŒssen uns ĂŒber einen ernĂŒchternden Saisonstart beklagen, bei dem zwar die bisher meisten Zuschauer bei einem Hammers-Heimspiel waren, aber die meisten werden sich wohl gedacht haben, was Haaland ausgesprochen hat: âA bit shitâ.
NĂ€chsten Sonntag (15 Uhr) gibt es eine neue Chance: es geht fĂŒr West Ham auswĂ€rts gegen Aufsteiger Nottingham Forest, der – mit Jesse Lingard – ebenfalls 0:2 (gegen Newcastle) verloren hat. Dann heiĂt es wieder:
Come on you Irons!
Biggest Home Crowd in WHU History
Manager David Moyes and captain Declan Rice have paid tribute to West Ham United fans on the eve of the new season, with the Club set to kick-off the 2022/23 Premier League season in front of a record 62,500 capacity crowd at London Stadium on Sunday â the biggest home attendance in the Clubâs 127-year history.
After yet another campaign to remember last term, with so many massive moments at London Stadium, the Club has made exciting changes to further enhance the matchday experience, with capacity increased to 62,500.
Demand for a Season Ticket ahead of the new season has been exceptionally high this summer, with a record 55,000 Hammers fans securing their seat for the upcoming campaign â the highest number of Season Ticket holders of any Premier League club.
The Hammers start their campaign of 2022/23 with a home game against PL champions Manchester City on Sunday, 5:30 p.m. (MEST). This match will conclude the first round of the new Premier League season.
Play-off Draw for SK Rapid and West Ham
SK Rapid will play the winner out of the tie FC Vaduz (LIE) v Konyaspor (TUR).
The play-off ties take place on 18 and 25 August, with extra time and a penalty shoot-out if required after the second leg. SK Rapid would play the first game away, West Ham will play the first tie at home. The group stage draw will take place in Istanbul on the Friday after the second play-off leg at 4 p.m. (MEST).
UECL Draw Today
SK Rapid and West Ham will learn their possible opponents in the UEFA Conference League Play-offs on Tuesday at 2 p.m. (MEST) when the draw is made at UEFA headquarters in Nyon. Both Clubs are going to be seeded, so they canât play each other at this stage of the competition.
Seeded SK Rapidâs and West Ham Unitedâs opponents will be drawn out of the following unseeded clubs in the draw which will be streamed live:
SK Rapidâs potential opponents in the Play-offs:
West Ham United will play one of these five third qualifying round ties:
Paide Linnameeskond (EST) v Anderlecht (BEL)
Wolfsberger AC (AUT) v GĆŒira United (MLT)
Riga (LVA) v Gil Vicente (POR)
AIK (SWE) v KF Shkëndija (MKD)
Viborg (DEN) v B36 TĂłrshavn (FRO)
SK Rapid first have to overcome Neftci Baku (Azerbaijan) in the third qualifying round. These roundâs ties will be played over the next two weeks, with second-leg ties involving their and West Hamâs potential opponents being completed on Tuesday 9 August and Thursday 11 August.
Should they boys in green and in claret and blue win the two-legged play-off round tie, they will join 21 other UECL play-off round winners and ten clubs eliminated from the Europa League play-off round in the group stage.
The draw for the group stage will be made on 26 August at 4 p.m. (MEST).
These are the Group stage dates
8 September 2022: Matchday 1
15 September 2022: Matchday 2
6 October 2022: Matchday 3
13 October 2022: Matchday 4
27 October 2022: Matchday 5
3 November 2022: Matchday 6
Come on you Irons and you Boys in Green!
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