Fulham vs Queens Park Rangers

Fulham hosts a West London derby with QPR on Saturday morning. Once again, it is a good news/bad news thing for US fans - the match will be on ESPN+ however it is also on in the early slot at 7:30am.

After the last international break Fulham became a shadow of the team they were at the start of the season. A lot of that could be due to some key injuries, but unfortunately there isn't much good news there. As expected, Tete is still out, but Carvalho is not ready to return either. Fulham will also have to gauge the fitness of a number of players who featured for their international squads. On the plus side, Cairney will be available again, but that doesn't fill me with excitement the way it used to.

QPR come into this match on a two game win streak and now sit just two points behind Fulham. QPR have only beaten one team in the top half of the table, so they come into this match with a lot to prove and a lot to gain. Fulham will be looking to put the embarrassing loss at Coventry behind them and keep pace with the other teams at the top of the table.

Fulham has won three straight vs QPR, but I'm still feeling pretty down after losing three of six matches following the last break. I'm expecting more disappointment on Saturday.

 

Stomping the HaHa’s 4-1 is a nice way to start the weekend!! @jumpkutz, cue it up Sir!!!

 

It was good to see all the dominance rewarded. For a time, I was worried that the Fulham was going to boss the game only to frustratingly end up with a draw.

It was fun to see Johansen and his former teammates interact throughout the match. It was not fun to see two injury subs for Fulham. Not exactly sure what happened to Cavaleiro and hoping Bryan’s is just a bruise.

 

Overall solid performance. Was obviously miffed about the ease with which they split our center backs to equalize, but it’s hard to complain when you respond with three unanswered. The energy and forechecking was really good. It seems more and more obvious to me, as some some of you have already ascertained, that we need to get the ball to Mitro inside the 6 yard box early, often and by whatever means necessary. The biggest thing was the response to the equalizer. We didn't exactly take the match by the scruff of the neck, but we finally got it to #9 in a decent position. He made it an excellent position with a well placed header to put us back in front. Then Bobby and Antonee made sure of the result when we asserted ourselves again. I especially liked BDR's effort, one he's been in a habit of just missing in recent seasons. Nailed it, on the move, perfectly. Robinson's effort was very good. His forward runs led to both Mitro's second goal, then Bobby's, then his own. An imperfect, but solid, bounce back from the atrocity at Coventry and a good start to the next slate of matches before the next international break. If we can duplicate the energy and execution, then build on it, that would be lovely. On to Wednesday night's visit from Cardiff City!

 

How do y'all often watch the games? What is the cheapest way to see it live? Or is there a live audio option that's cheaper?

 

Hello VolRaider, and welcome! I only watch the ones on ESPN+. Today's was the early match, which is usually broadcast on regular TV. The rest, I just try to catch the highlights on YouTube, usually on the opponent's channel, because our club charges to watch any extended versions of said highlights...but not always. Fulham's been better recently about posting the shorter highlights for free on their YouTube channel. But it's usually on the other club's channel before that. I've never tried the club's subscriber streaming service but, from what I've gathered, it's somewhat less than reliable. It's much easier to watch them when they're in the Premier League because NBCSN and/or Peacock almost always have them on for a reasonable cost. I'm too cheap to pay for two subscriptions to watch every match. Besides, I'm still a working stiff, so I can't watch the midweek games. Others here may have better advice or correct some potentially erroneous information I've given you.
Welcome again!

 

The games are either on ESPN+ or Fulham's own channel FFCTV. League games are always on at least one, but never on both. ESPN+ is a monthly subscription and can come bundled with Disney+ and Hulu. The FFCTV games can be purchased one at a time or get the whole season for about $230 - this includes live game video (when not on ESPN+), highlights, replays, and audio commentary from Gentleman Jim. You can get all of that without the live video for about $70 for the season.

I watch games on both services and they have generally been reliable. It took me a little while to get my FFCTV account set up, so plan ahead if you want to use that. I've also noticed that the FFCTV live game feed often tells me I can't watch the stream at first, but then I just reload the page and it works. The quality of the camera work and replays are better for the ESPN+ matches, but the FFCTV stream is still pretty good, especially now that there is a nice gantry in the new stands for cameras.

 

So I can purchase one game at a time and get a live feed? That would be good - I can't watch every game.

 

Here are the highlights:


Fulham really should have been up 2-0 in the first half. There was a fantastic corner from Wilson that Mitrovic flicked on that forced the keeper into a reaction save and then the follow-up shot almost went in too. It was so much fun to see the classic Mitrovic back in action.

I don't think Reed looked great out there today. He had a couple sloppy passes and there were some times when others sent passes into empty space that they expected Reed to be occupying. He just didn't seem to be in sync with the rest of the team. I also wasn't hot on Seri's performance until that amazing thread-the-needle pass to DeCordova-Reid - it could not have been better.

While the midfield struggled at times, I thought Fulham looked good on the wings. I was pretty happy with how Bryan was playing, but I am worried about him after crashing into the post. Robinson didn't look jet-lagged at all and poured on the pressure just when Fulham needed it.

Rodak did well and probably earned himself the starting spot until he gives up 4 goals. Gazzaniga on the bench seemed to have a thousand-yard-stare - clearly not happy with the decision.

West Brom and Bournemouth both won, so Fulham kept pace, but with Stoke and Coventry both losing they moved up two spots to third.

 

I was getting some background info for tomorrow's match against Cardiff and came across this post Fulham made of GJ calling the four goals. Way better than the highlights on YouTube. You know it is a good day when GJ says in a horse voice to the opposing fans "And you can go home now."