During that time Portsmouth lost to Real Betis 5-1 in Sevilla and signed no one (I'm content with that as we have a good team atm, need loan bolstering).
Once again we face Cardiff early on in the season at home, this time Cardiff aren't as strong as they were in 2010 and we are not as weak as then. This time it could be said the teams were both evenly matched, with Cardiff signing Andrew Taylor (big bloke!), Robert Earnshaw, Kenny Miller etc. they look formidable. After a tedious 0-0 draw with Bristol City we had our first chance look at Erik Huseklepp and it seemed very promising with him turning and flat footing many City defenders! So would he be able to replicate this once more against Cardiff and terrorize the defense of the Welsh team?
We went into the game with the knowledge of another signing which is Marko Futacs a Hungarian international from Werder Bremen on a free, a striker by position and at 6ft 5 inches will give Kitson a challenge in the first team (which is nice).
The warm up was interesting, usually it isn't, but seeing Futacs and Huseklepp warm up gave us a taste of what they can do, especially the strange new training routine which I've not seen before (forgive me I've not seen this) of passing it to a coach, they lay it off on the edge of the box and the player strikes it first time at the goal with Henderson between the sticks. Interesting because the first player was Huseklepp who hit a rocket of a shot into the top corner, made the Fratton end somewhat excited!
Onto the game! The line-up looked like Cotterill had opted for a 4-4-2 formation with Kitson and Huseklepp partnered up front, a promising start! We looked to finally break away from the stifling 4-5-1 formation. The first half was alright, it wasn't a pulse racing first half as usual, Cardiff were far more threatening in the first half, in terms of clear shots on target, our best chance was a strange cross/shot from Joel Ward which dipped and pinged off the crossbar, very unlucky! Robert Earnshaw was a right handful for the defense with Ben Haim and Pearce kept very busy. First gripe is our stifled attacks, I mean we just don't go for it, if a attack by Cardiff is stopped we just wait around holding possession in the hope that a long ball can be used with Kitson flicking it on to head into the box, but this never works! It never does, mainly because Kitson track backs too much at the moment, often he is found too wide nearly taking off players kneecaps! An example of this is when Kitson stole the ball off a defender who was being too lethargic around the halfway line and then passed it to Lawrence. Now I thought Kitson would run into a attacking position and run towards goal, but he decided to track back!? WHY?! He should've been running in on goal, this led to a large groan from the entire stadium and almost bemusement from the Cardiff fans.
Huseklepp was kept quiet, he was man managed well by the Cardiff defense and given no room to move around in, which i think dosen't suit him at all. Never the less he had a few flashes of good skill in possession. Again we attacked down the left hand side which was quickly dealt with after the 10th time of doing it, Huseklepp and Lawrence were stood idle on the right side, almost anonymous! Half time came and agreeing with the people behind me "Could've had more fun at a funeral".
Second half was much better (strange eh?) we looked more threatening, changed to a 4-3-2-1 formation with Huseklepp and Varney in winger positions and Kitson as lone striker. Again we stifled in our attacks, focusing more on going down the left hand side and feeding crosses into the box, rather than shots or short passing into the box (or a mix of the three be nice). After some dreadful play by Kitson who was working hard but kept doing too much I felt, it's nice but he often led to loss of the ball and stifled attacks. Benjani got changed and we thought it be the end of Kitson, nope, Huseklepp went off which was agreeable as he had a forgettable home debut, with little touches and almost forgotten on the right hand side it was time for him to go. Halford was unfortunate not to score after his free kick shot rocketed off the post, was such a fierce strike! Cardiff then got the goal they were often threatening with a superbly worked goal, with the ball flashing from the right to the left and fell to Andrew Taylor in space to pick his spot and hammer home to the delight of the horrid Cardiff fans who tried to trample the stewards and get onto the pitch. Why not celebrate where you stand?!
We responded well by trying to go for goal once more, constantly attacking, threatening, so much so we had two very close goal line chances, first one I swear was over the line! But don't think the ball was all the way over to be honest, just a quick gut instinct! The second fell to Benjani with the goal at his mercy and he slammed it into the defender on the line, shame, but he didn't have much time to place his shot, only to hit it first time.
Then on the 80th minute came our reward, after a cross deflected back to Ben Haim he tracked back and picked a cross heading to the far post which Kanu got down low and headed past David Marshall to make the score level! Good cross and great finish from the
The rest of the game was both teams fighting back and forth towards each others halves trying to get the winning goal, both counting out each of their attacks.
Overall it was a interesting game, with some positives and negatives. The positives is that as a team we seem more a unit, especially our defensive line up which seemed solid and able to cope well with most Cardiff attacks.
But again our going forward mentality is stifled, and gives the chance for the opposing team to regroup and block out our attacks. Moving down the left flank and getting cut out as we try switch the play, or often hoofing the ball over the midfield and into the often caught out Kitson leading to lost possession.
I don't know what we need to do to improve this, perhaps a loan signing of an creative/attacking midfielder to give us that edge in the middle of the pitch. We shall see how Futacs gets on in his first game and if Huseklepp gets a good innings against West Ham also.
Enough of my ramblings! Hope you enjoyed this report!
Oh Pompey did sign someone today, it was Jed Wallace from Lewes, yup, massive signing ;)
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