Fulham v. Crystal Palace

I dont need no stinkin' shirt, I just want to see more goals. :character-beavisbutthead:

 

I hate to bring a wet blanket to everyone's party, but did we really see evidence yesterday that our performance against a likely-to-go-down team can carry over to stouter opposition - like, say, Southampton, who gave MU all they wanted and a bit more, on the road. Palace are indeed a squad with much spirit but very limited quality, rightly in the bottom 3. Climbing to 13th/14th place with this win is sweet, but does it portend anything for taking on teams that have quality as well as spirit?

But those were two magnificent goals! Kasami's was a scorcher, but I'm pleased for Sidwell, recipient of much stick on other forums. And I loved Berbatov's late-game pass to Kasami on the counter, requiring the Palace keeper to make a fine save lest Fulham's total reach 5. Lovely stuff. If/when we do it against a better team, I will STFU and enjoy, enjoy, enjoy.

 

Those WERE some quality goals, regardless of the level of the competition. They are, after all, in the league for a reason. That being said, it's obvious that they'll struggle to stay there. Who had Ian Holloway in the manager's sacking pool? Listen, I'll take whatever I can get in light of our recent, long running form. Will it carry over? I dunno. I'm gonna enjoy this one for a while, at least until the next one. Not lost on me is the fact that two of the goals were from poorly defended set pieces, but it's my understanding that they count the same on the scoreboard as those tallied during the run of play. Who do we play next? Don't care right now. WE SCORED FOUR GOALS! AND LOOKED COOL DOING IT! AND WON THE GAME!

COYW!

 

Yes, Palace is weak. Yes, Southampton will surprisingly be a challenge with their excellent form, but it's worth noting we are 1 point out of 9th place (that's even with factoring in goal difference) and more than 3 points out of relegation (factoring in goal difference). Obviously, it'd be nice to be better, but we're not far from where we're supposed to be (Top 10), we just have taken a typically Fulhamish route to get there.

The level of heart and confidence we saw I think is more critical. After Palace scored in the 7th minute, I had a brief moment where I considered stopping watching. As the commentators pointed out, we basically lose without fail when conceding first and early. After Kasami's strike, the level of confidence throughout the side was astonishing. As usual, I agree with most of what Don has to say in his View From South Texas, good matches for Kasami, Sidwell, Senderos, Parker and Berbatov, but I'd also add in an underrated performance from Richardson. There was an errant cross or two, but overall he worked very hard on both ends of the pitch for 90 minutes and considering that he's made of glass and we could use a solid performance from the Left Back position that's pretty notable. Although it's difficult to integrate all of them into the attack, I also enjoyed seeing Bent, Berbatov and Ruiz all on the pitch together. They are our three best offensive weapons and eventually they've got to figure out how to play off each other sooner rather than later. Although, man it was nice to see our midfield play so well together- this formation and lineup is the closest I've seen to playing to our strengths- of course, it could just be that our opponent was an inferior side. I don't know what else can be said about Kasami's goal- I'm not sure I agree with Don saying it's the finest goal scored by a Fulham player in the past 10 years, but it's still pretty tough to argue against it.

I'm actually excited for Saturday's match- been a while since I've been able to say that... (to be fair, I'm still more excited that BOTH of my alma maters are undefeated and in the Top 5 of the BCS- but it's been a once-in-a-lifetime season so far, it's like arguing both teams scuffling their way to minor bowl games was more exciting than Fulham being Europa League runners-up)

~ Steve

 

Couldn't watch as I was heading back into work. But got to listen to some of the first half on Sirius/XM. The TalkSport announcers kept talking about Kasami's goal, seemed like they would bring it up every 2 min or so and what a goal it was. They were still talking about it when Sidwell scored. I didn't DVR the match as I figured I would already know the score. Wishing I had now. I have seen Kasami's goal but not the others.

 

I'm happy to have enjoyed most of the match and see several good goals, and one amazing one. I agree with Don and would say it's up there among the best I've seen from anyone in White. If not the best, top 3.

As for Palace, they're terrible. I disagree with Don about them being spirited. Maybe for the first 15-20 minutes, but having seen Palace, Hull and Cardiff all a couple of times, if Palace are spirited, Hull & Cardiff are slamming Red Bulls while taking adrenaline shots to the heart a couple of times a half. That said, we beat them like you'd expect (or hope) to beat a terrible side. In the last 2 years, we've done quite well with teams that don't press us and that was the case on Monday. If we could just get everyone to take that approach, we'd have a lot more to enjoy. I doubt Southampton will be so accommodating, but then I didn't think WBA would last year either and they were kind enough to let us do the double on them.

If nothing else, we'll take a confidence boost from this match and that can only help.

 

You're right, Matt. Confidence and momentum are two intangibles the side has been lacking for a while. Hopefully more good results to follow!

 

I was able to watch the highlights on NBCSports.com. What great goals. We seemed the score the ones that are usually the type that go against us. We need to keep up that type of play.