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Old 03-18-2014, 01:49 AM   #290
NoSkillz
College Benchwarmer
 
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: St. Catharines, Canada
Sat. August 13, 2022

Barclays Premier League
Everton vs. Dover
Goodison Park, Liverpool, UK

Betting Odds: Everton: 5-4 (Favourites) Draw: 11-5 Dover: 7-4
Past Meetings: 4W 1D 4L

Everton are one of those teams that are almost always in the upper part of the table but not quite good enough for Continental play. They finished 11th with 57 points last year and the year before, they had 58 points but it was good enough for 6th and a Europa League spot. Pundits are picking them to finish 10th this year. They basically broke even in the transfer market, buying £17.5 million worth of players and selling off £17.75 million. Their top addition was AML Daniele Bentivoglio, a 21 year old who was brought in from Atalanta in Italian Serie A for £9 million. He looks very good. Their second biggest buy was from us, spending £4 million on right fullback Jozef Kuciak. He will likely get some playing time as Milan Mojsky, Everton's fine DR, was moved to big-spending Tottenham for £14.25 million. Everton's top scoring threat is striker Chris Wood but he's 30 years old now and that's when strikers usually start to regress. A case in point is another one of their 30 year old strikers Ekow Mumuni, who scored 19 goals as a 27 year old, 15 as a 28 year old then scored ONE goal last year for the club. He's still hanging around, as is 31 year old Jack Rodwell. These guys are decent and will be tough at home but they are certainly beatable.

We'll start as good a lineup as possible today. Shanon Andrea, despite struggling with form, will start up front with Chiquinho and I'm also going to start Paulus Tjiuoro at DC alongside Rayane Hamon. Otherwise it's all of our normal starters today. I'm going to start in a counter attacking system on the road but will move to a control if and when necessary.

Dover: 4-4-2 Counter
GK - I. Wilke
D - R. Gaucho, P. Tjiuoro, R. Hamon, S. Loucif
M - A. Bamba, , N. Cairney, A. Rocca, G. Bolis
S - S. Andrea, Chiquinho
Bench - D. Traore, C. Contreras, S. Spall, Mancini, G. Allan, W. Rooney, P. Moses

Everton are in a 4-4-2 diamond formation, the first time I've seen them in this look. Chris Wood is up front with Erik Uhrik and Franco Di Capua is in goal. Jozef Kuciak isn't dressed at all for them. My assistant feels we should tell them to go out and perform for the travelling supporters so I go with it. Let's get off to a good start boys!

1' - Right off the bat, Chiquinho makes his presence felt, as he takes a pass from Andrea Rocca, sprints past his marker and drills a blast that Di Capua is ready for.

17' - Bamba cuts in from the byline and sends a great pass over to Gianluca Bolis. He's outside the area and sprints through the defence but his shot is weak and right at Di Capua.

21' - Everton with a nice little play to spring Chris Wood but Wilke makes a great save from in tight and we clear to safety.

23' - Rayane Hamon has it at midfield and heads it up to Neil Cairney. He immediately passes up to Shanon Andrea and he turns on defender Tomas Kalas and heads toward goal from about 10 yards outside the area. Another Everton defender, Ryan Shawcross, tries to cut Andrea off just as he reaches the edge of the penalty area but somehow, Andrea switches the ball to his stronger right foot and blasts one that gets past Di Capua and into the short side for the opening goal! Great shot! DOVER GOAL 1-0

26' - Wilke again makes a brilliant save on a blast from just outside the area by Rodwell.

29' - Chiquinho with the ball down the right flank and his cross hits an Everton defender and goes right to Andrea. He's in too close though and his blast hits Di Capua and dribbles just wide!

37' - Wood with a nice through ball to dangerous wide midfielder Henri Atangana but Wilke again makes a marvellous save.

39' - Everton seem to be pressing hard and are very aggressive on the ball and they get called for a foul around halfway in their territory. We send a bunch of men forward and Rocca's kick into the area is headed first by Rayane Hamon and then by Gianluca Bolis and it's past Di Capua and into the net! Bolis!!! DOVER GOAL 2-0

HALFTIME - Everton hold 52% of possession in the first half but we outshoot them slightly 9-9 (5-4 on target). I think we're playing decently and while we're sitting back a bit in the counter, there is no reason to change when we have a two goal lead on the road. I tell the team I'm pleased.

46' - Everton get an early corner and the cross is headed toward goal but Wilke dives full out and gets his fingertips on the ball. Great save Wilke!

50' - Shanon Andrea blatantly dives in the Everton penalty area and is called for it. Yellow card.

52' - Andrea and Chiquinho work a little give and go and Andrea sends a ROCKET from outside the area that is saved in fine fashion by a diving Di Capua. The rebound pops right out to Bolis and he has a complete open net but shoots WIDE. Ugh!

67' - Atangana is dribbling down the right flank and Bamba is in pursuit. He looks like Cristiano Ronaldo with all the cross overs but he gets to the byline and sends a cross that eludes our defence and goes right to substitute Daniel Sturridge and he makes no mistake and Everton are back in the game. EVERTON GOAL 2-1

72' - Everton are controlling this half bigtime and now they take Bolis down and he's hurt. He only needs to come off temporarily but he takes a fitness hit. For now, I take out the yellow carded Shanon Andrea and bring in Paul Moses.

78' - I bring in Graham Allan for the hurting Gianluca Bolis.

84' - Yikes. We're completely disjointed in this half. Everton are moving everyone forward and Sturridge gets loose and shoots past Wilke but hits the goal post and we clear to safety just in time. We clear off the ensuing throw in and Chiquinho sends a long ball up field for Paul Moses. He cuts in toward goal but his shot is JUST high.

85' - Andrea Rocca is out and Mancini comes in.

90'+4 - Off a failed corner, Allan crosses into Chiquinho and his header looks destined for the net but Di Capua saves.

A bit tougher than we hoped for after the early 2-0 lead but we'll take the three points!

Everton 1 - 2 Dover
Goals - Shanon Andrea (7.5), Gianluca Bolis (7.9)
Assists - Neil Cairney (7.2), Rayane Hamon (6.9)
Man of the Match - Ingo Wilke (8.8)
Other Dover Notables -
Attendance - 40,158

We end up edging them on possession with 51% but they outshoot us 21-17 (10-8 on target). Wilke was fantastic. Good road win against a pretty good team. This is the first game I recall that Chiquinho hasn't scored for us since arriving. He was still dangerous all game and Andrea played great as well.

-- The only slight surprise is seeing Reading defeat Manchester United 2-1 otherwise all the games seem to go as expected. Chelsea beat Liverpool 1-0, City beat up on newly promoted Birmingham 3-0 and Tottenham win 2-1 versus Stoke.



Dover U18 Update

-- Our kids get off to a great start, defeating Kingstonian 4-0 behind a brace from stalwart MC Emmerson Harvey. New striker Tomas Liska and midfielder Pete Smith notch singles. I have a loaded youth team and I fully expect another solid season from them.



Transfer Enquiry

-- Hmm. FC Bayern submit an official enquiry for reserve fullback Carlos Guzman, asking how much I want for him. He's only a 1.5/3.0 player right now at 19 years old, valued currently at £2.3 million. I say I want £6.5 million plus clauses, a ridiculous number for sure but lets see if they just go away or if they come back with something. I'm guessing it's the former.

-- Yup. They aren't that interested. Haha.

-- Palermo bid £20 million for Gianluca Bolis. Haven't they already tried this? Denied.



Season Ticket Sales Update

-- We announce that season ticket sales have reached 4562 for the year, up from 4078 last year. That's a nice 10%+ increase.



Premier League Team of the Week

-- Shanon Andrea is selected to the team of the week. Surprised that Ingo Wilke didn't get the nod.



Injury Update

-- Lots of injuries right now but nothing super serious. Zoltan Bardi is almost ready to come back from his twisted ankle. Kostas Zagos (Broken Arm) and Said Henni (pulled hamstring) are about two weeks away from returning to full training. Reserve goalkeeper Louis Read dislocated his shoulder in training and will miss a few months.



Champions League Update

-- In Champions Playoff and Best Placed Playoff action, AaB wins over Ferencvaros 3-1, Grasshoppers beat M. Tel-Aviv 2-0 and Partizan beat FC Wacker Innsbruck 1-0. Also, Club Brugge win over Le Mans FC 2-1 and Porto knock off Olympiakos 3-1. Also winning are Liverpool, Fiorentina, Barcelona and Zrinjski while Slovan Bratislava and Sheriff battle to a scoreless draw.



Dover Reserve Team Update

-- We start off the reserves season with a bland 1-0 win over Fulham, with U18 winger Lyubomir Kunchev, a recent acquisition, scoring the only goal. I started a lot of U18s in this game just because of our injury trouble - my "mid-grade" depth this year is poor, as I've changed my approach somewhat to have a number of "starter quality" backups and the fact that I'm fearful of starting them in reserves games will likely mean that our reserves team will suffer somewhat.



Next Up

-- We host big spending Tottenham in our Premier League home opener at Crabble Athletic Ground.
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