Fulham vs. Manchester City

Fulham is one of just three teams that can stop the Manchester City juggernaut from getting a fourth title in a row and their sixth in seven years. Fulham's recent history against Manchester City indicates this match will be nothing more than a speedbump for Pep's squad. Fulham's biggest loss this season was at the Etihad when Fulham went down 5-1. Fulham was even at 1-1 until a late first half goal and then a second half hat-trick for Haaland. Fulham also haven't earned a point against City in 13 years, but you know, every day is one day closer to the day when Fulham finally DO get a point! It just probably won't be Saturday. The match kicks off early at 7:30am EDT on USA Network.

 

Should’ve gotten a point against them last year when Jedi made that unnecessary foul super late and Leno guessed right but couldn’t keep Haaland’s penalty out. Since Madrid parked the bus and were able to knock Citeh out on PKs they have been annihilating teams, and I don’t expect anything different. That said, Fulhamish was coined for a reason.

 

Arrggh! That was painful.

 

@pettyfog, at least you didn’t get up at 4:25 to watch that. I guess the strategy was to stall and try to go in at HT 0-0 or 0-1. The one time in the first 20 min we were remotely close to their goal, we had a throw in by the corner flag and we proceeded to back pass our all the way to Leno (not sure if I’ve ever seen that). Played much better to start 2nd half (or it looked like we were going to attempt to get in the final 1/3), then the Jedi mistake that caused the mark to leave Foden and once it was 0-2 it might as well have been 0-20.

 

I'm proud of myself. I watched the whole thing. My only regret was I didn't bet it. It went exactly how I expected.

 

I caught the first 90 minutes and then had to head off to my youngest son's college graduation. I thought, "Well that wasn't great, but at 0-3 it wasn't an embarrassing loss." I was pretty surprised to see a red card and another goal thrown in after I headed out. Ouch.

For me the match highlighted the need for another CB to pair with Bassey. Diop got twisted around and just gave up on the first goal. Then when the game was wrapped up he desperately threw himself to block the ball and gave up the penalty. I wanted to see that effort on the first goal, not the last. Diop just doesn't have great decision making and it seems to lead to at least one goal scoring chance in every game.

The most positive thing I can say is that Muniz held his own against a highly talented defense. That's another encouraging sign for the future. If Fulham's mid-field had made quicker decisions, they might have generated more opportunities, but they were just to slow and ended up having to back pass when they should have tried to catch City in transition. City is just very good and makes it hard to think quickly.

 

I woke up at 5:30am to check the score; if close, I was watching the second half. 0-1, was close, and I exited my bed to watch Fulham not concede for 20 or so minutes before it broke open for City. The crunching tackle by Palhinha on Silva was a great experience for about 1 second until the ball rolled to an unmarked Foden to grossly scuff into the back of the net. Still, that tackle was awesome.
COYW