West Ham Win Away at Villa
That could hardly have gone any better! West Ham immediately bounced back from their disappointing defeat against Liverpool last Sunday and won 3:1 at Villa Park on Wednesday night.
West Ham gave a superb display from back to front and were rewarded with all three points. Loan signing Jesse Lingard (above) was man of the match and really brought quality in to the team.
Tomas Soucek got us going six minutes after the break, before Jesse Lingard (28), on loan from Manchester United since January, took over with a debut double. With Lingard West Ham had a “Grealish” of it’s own.
And Villa’s Jack Grealish got two “securities” on “his” left side of the park, a perfect move from West Ham manager David Moyes.
West Ham remain fifth, two points behind fourth-placed Liverpool who lost 1-0 at home to Brighton, while Villa stay ninth, six points behind the Hammers.
Best season since 1986
The win on Wednesday gave West Ham 38 points, their highest tally after 22 matches of a top-flight season since 1985-86.
The Hammers have won three consecutive away league matches for the first time since December 2018 and have already beaten last season’s total of 10 Premier League victories with their eleventh win last night! A brilliant season so far – exceeding all our expectations!
In David Moyes we trust!
O Captain, our Captain!
In the 1989 movie “The Dead Poets Society“ by Peter Weir, the poem “O Captain, my captain“ by Walt Whitman is referred to several times. The poem was written in 1865 about the death of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. In Weir’s movie it is the respectful address of the club’s students for the popular English teacher John Keating (Robin Williams). When Keating is fired and returns to collect his belongings, the students stand on their desks and address Keating as “O Captain! My Captain!”
Now the first line of it was used by a commentator in The Telegraph by telling us about the death of 100 year old Captain Tom Moore. The WWII veteran had raised almost 40m Pounds for the NHS in spring by walking 100 laps in his garden in Bedfordshire.
Captain Sir Tom Moore rallied the nation’s morale at a low moment during the spread of coronavirus. He wasn’t a knight then, of course. “One small soul like me won’t make much difference,” he said as he set out to do 100 laps of his garden in the days before his 100th birthday. He did it, and he raised more than £32 million. It was not the money that made him lovable, but straightforward decency. This was a man who loved restoring fast motorbikes, and then did his duty as a despatch rider in Burma in the war. Duty meant risking his life. And what could have been more moving than to see the Queen knight him with her father’s sword? She knew well what duty meant. It was no irony that he succumbed to the virus against which he had found something noble to do. That is the hero’s way.
Remarkable Captain Tom was the very best of us (The Telegraph)
West Ham Still Number One…
The Hammers are still number one of the six London Premier League clubs. Despite their disappointing defeat to Liverpool (1:3) on a rainy Sunday afternoon, they remain fifth in the table, in front of Tottenham, because Spurs were beaten in the evening game by Brighton and have now lost twice in a row. In contrast, FC Liverpool have now taken six points within four days from their last games in London against Spurs and West Ham and have moved up to third in the table.
After West Ham’s six wins in January so far, I had hoped for a better result, remembering a 3:1 win over Liverpool back in 2014 which I have witnessed myself in London at Upton Park. Sam Allardyce was West Ham’s manager then, and the Reds were coached by current Leicester manager Brendan Rogers.
Well, it was a 3:1 again – but it was Liverpool that scored three goals (two of them coming from man of the match Mohamed Salah) and West Ham’s Craig Dawson could only add a consolation when the score was already 3:0. West Ham manager David Moyes had decided to approach this game with a very defensive strategy which worked in the first half, but West Ham really never looked like they truly believed they could extend their run of six straight wins in all competitions against the reigning champions.
Chelsea with their new coach Thomas Tuchel also played on Sunday. Their lunchtime kick-off game brought the first win for their new manager with a 2:0 win over Burnley. The Blues are sixth, level on points with Tottenham and two points behind West Ham.
On Saturday Crystal Palace beat Wolves, and Arsenal and Fulham drew their respective games. Arsenal are tenth, the Eagles moved up to thirteenth and Fulham with manager Scott Parker remain in the bottom three after a 2:2 draw with fellow strugglers West Brom. Albion have replaced manager Slaven Bilic with Sam Allardyce to little effect so far and are 9 points from safety. The Cottagers are 7 points behind Brighton in 17th.
In the Championship London club Brentford which had been beaten by Fulham in the 2020 play-off final is again chasing promotion and sit third in the Championship table after trashing Wycombe 7:2 this weekend.
West Ham v Liverpool 1:3 (0:0)
Match report (BBC): www.bbc.com/sport/football/55769215
2021: Played 6, won 6
West Ham’s superb run continues: the Hammers beat Crystal Palace 3-2 away on Tuesday evening and have now won all of their six games in 2021.
On Sunday Liverpool will come to the London Stadium for West Ham’s last game of January.
For tonight the Hammers, that were a joy to watch in this game which will live in the memory of what’s become a seriously memorable season, are fourth of the Premier League table. They have leapfrogged last season’s champions and their London rivals Tottenham and will stay ahead of them until Thursday when these two clubs meet at Spurs:
Goals: www.whufc.com/news/articles/2021/january/26-january/goals-crystal-palace-2-3-west-ham-united
Extended Highlights: Extended Highlights: Crystal Palace 2-3 West Ham United | West Ham United (whufc.com)
Don‘t want to know about…
… the worst case scenario. The best case scenario says that lockdown will end in spring. The Times tells us when lockdown could be finished.
Glastonbury may be off but Wimbledon, Glyndebourne and other staples of the British summer could be back on — albeit with social distancing. Then, with luck, by the autumn — perhaps even after two weeks in a Covid-approved destination — we will all be vaccinated. In the best case, look forward to strawberries and cream. Just don’t share a spoon.
Third Lockdown Extended
Leben ohne Kaffeehaus …
Ist das Leben?
Gerd Kunze, Besitzer des Café Eiles in der Wiener Josefstädterstraße würde gerne wieder aufsperren – selbstverständlich mit Sicherheitskonzept! – und schildert die Probleme, die der weitere Lockdown mit sich bringt.
Und ich würde gerne wieder dort sein im Café Eiles oder im Cafe Weidinger oder im Sperl oder im „Schottenstift“. Denn Leben ohne Kaffeehaus, das ist kein Leben, das ist schön langsam ein unerträglicher „Erdloch-Lockdown“ (Copyright Peter Hacker, Wiener Gesundheitsstadtrat)!
24-7 A Door into Heaven
www.bible.com/97/rev.4.9-11.msg
HTB and other churches have a 24-7 Prayer Room. There is worship and prayer twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week: ‘night and day, never taking a break’ (Revelation 4:8, MSG).
You do not need to wait until heaven to experience ‘heavenly’ worship. This worship is happening now – 24-7 – in heaven.
In this passage of the Revelation John’s eyes turn from the church on earth to the church in heaven. The author of the Revelation looks through an open door in heaven (v.1). As those around the throne contemplate the wonder of God the natural response is to turn to worship – and this is the first thing that John finds going on in heaven. There are five worship songs in the next two chapters.
In this passages we get a glimpse of what praise and celebration in heaven look like.
Every time you worship, you join in with the worship of heaven.
(Nicky Gumbel, Bible in One Year – A Commentary)
Three times 1
West Ham have a hundred percent record in 2021: they celebrated three 1-0 victories so far. With wins over Everton, Stockport in the FA Cup and Burnley in their latest league game that has been a good start into this year.
Due to Covid-19 I haven’t been to Vienna’s West Ham pub “Tube Station” for quite a long time, and I haven’t been to London either for more than 14 months now.
Well, the only good thing is that almost every West Ham game has been televised since the restart of the Premier League after last spring’s coronavirus break. But live football is terribly missed!
With Haller having departed to Ajax, West Ham now is in search of a new striker, but the Irons‘ number one striker is Michail Antonio who brilliantly lead the line against Burnley and scored the only goal of the game. He then celebrated in a funny way lying on his back “swimming” … With Antonio back from injury, West Ham can keep their cool and can consider various options until they sign a new forward. According to the rumour mill this could be Arnautovic who wants to return to Europe from China or Patson Daka from Salzburg.
But tonight defender Craig Dawson also should be mentioned: since he came into the team against Southampton, he and his partner in the Center of the Hammers’ defence Angelo Ogbonna are yet to see a goal conceded. With the 30 year old loan signing from relegated Watford the Hammers have chalked up three wins from four games, and Dawson scored the winner in the FA Cup victory over Stockport.
Ronaldo oder Pepi Bican weltbester Torjäger?
Die BBC Sport-Website zeigte am Montag das Bild eines ehemaligen Rapid-Spielers, Pepi Bican, und verglich die enorme Anzahl der von ihm erzielten Tore mit jener von Cristiano Ronaldo.
Cristiano Ronaldo, der am 5. Februar 36 Jahre alt wird, gilt jetzt gemeinsam mit Josef Bican als bester Torschütze aller Zeiten, seitdem er gegen Sassuolo beim 3:1-Sieg von Juventus das 759. Tor seiner Karriere erzielt hat.
Ronaldo erzielte fünf Tore für die Kampfmannschaft seines Ausbildungsvereins Sporting Lissabon (2002/03), ab 2003 spielte er in England und traf 118 Mal für Manchester United, dann 459 Mal in Spanien für Real Madrid und seit 2018 schon 84 mal für Juventus Turin. 102 Tore schoss Ronaldo für das Nationalteam von Portugal.
Cristiano Ronaldo ist jetzt der gemeinsame Torschützenkönig aller Zeiten, sagen viele Berichte nach dem 759. Tor seiner Karriere, das er am 10. Jänner erzielt hat – aber stimmt das? Ist er nun wirklich der “joint all-time top goalscorer“?
Eigentlich ist laut den Daten von Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation, einer Organisation zur Sammlung von Fußballdaten, noch immer Josef Bican (1913 – 2001), der für Rapid, Admira und Slavia Prag spielte, der Fußball-Torschützenkönig aller Zeiten (mit Ausnahme von Spielern, die noch nie auf höchstem Niveau gespielt haben) mit 805 Karrieretreffern (aus nur 530 Spielen). Darauf folgen Romario mit 772 und Pele mit 767.
Bereits als 17-Jähriger hatte der Wiener Bican für Rapid in der ersten österreichischen Liga gespielt und erzielte im Laufe seiner Karriere angeblich über 5000 Tore, davon 643 in einer ersten und zweiten Liga: außerdem spielte er für Österreich und nach seinem Wechsel zu Slavia Prag und der Annahme der tschechischen Staatsbürgerschaft ab 1938 für das tschechoslowakische Nationalteam.
1934 spielte der damalige Rapidler für Österreichs als “Wunderteam” bezeichnetes Nationalteam unter Hugo Meisl bei der WM in Italien. Österreich wurde überraschend “nur” Vierter.
In der Folge wechselte er nach dem Meistertitel 1934/35 zur Admira, wo er zweimal Meister wurde, und ab 1938 nach Prag zu Slavia, wo er 1939 bis 1944 fünf Mal in Folge Europas bester Torschütze war. Mit Slavia Prag wurde Bican 1938 Mitropacup-Sieger. Dass er nochmals zu einer WM gefahren wäre, verhinderte der 2. Weltkrieg.
Bican führt gemäß den Daten von Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics mit 805 Toren in 530 Spielen die Rangliste von insgesamt 28 Spielern an, die 500 oder mehr Tore in offiziellen Spielen mit den Nationalmannschaften in allen Altersklassen sowie in den Fußballvereinen in allen Fußballligen erzielt haben; unbelegte Spielerdaten wurden dabei ausgeklammert. Für diese Leistung erhielt Bican 1997 in München von der Internationalen Organisation der Fußballhistoriker die Trophäe für den weltbesten Torjäger des 20. Jahrhunderts überreicht.
EXTRA TIME 
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