The View from South Texas -- Fulham FC v. QPR

Only One Question Left to be Answered After Sunday’s Match

And that is … yes, but can AJ score against Premier League defenses? :lol:

This has got to be the easiest “View” to write ever – so I'm sorry for posting it almost 24 hours after the match ended. Band commitments and old age contrived to ensure that I didn’t finish watching the match until 2130 Central last night [12+ hours after kickoff], and then it was time to crash.

About the match? Well, it’s fun when so many players play their best ever match in Fulham kit on the same day – John Arne Riise, Moussa Dembele, and Our Late President all fall into that category. The defense was solid. With Brede Hangeland dominating and Chris Baird sure and certain, Riise and his fellow wide defender Grygera were free to supplement our midfield and attack. I can never remember seeing a Fulham midfield so full of menace and aggression – not to mention passing the ball around so well.

QPR clearly have been punching above their weight, with only Paddy Kenny’s consistent excellence [until yesterday] not a surprise. From the moment Colin signed Joey Barton, it seemed clear to me that there would eventually be a bust-up between Barton and Taarabt. There’s just not room for two prima ballerinas in one dance company. Perhaps we’ve seen a bit of that beginning at half time yesterday. If AJ and Zamora put on a great display of how your Classic English Centre Forward and your Classic Fox in the Box can carve a defense apart, then Bothroyd and Campbell showed just how NOT to play the striker position. How many goals would either of the rampant strikers in white have gotten from the chances that just Bothroyd spurned? How many for Dempsey? How many for Zoltan Gera?

Having said that, The Earl of Baltimore famously said that you’re never as good as you look when you win or as bad as you look when you lose. I will be surprised if QPR play that badly again this season – and, if they do, I’ll be stunned if they do so against a team so on-form and on-song as the one they met yesterday. I feel fairly comfortable in predicting another scintillating brace of SW London derbies next season.

When HatterMom and I were in town for the Man City match, we were told in the post-match celebrations at the Brick that the noise we heard that day from the Hammersmith End was the loudest ever. If that’s true – and I certainly couldn’t argue so brilliant was the support that day – then perhaps it was even greater yesterday. Well done the supporters. And, by the way, well done those in blue and white who occupied the Putney End. So many of them stayed on until the bitter end [no pun intended], and they did their best to keep their singing and chanting at the same level as the home support. THAT’s what a derby is all about.

If there’s a downside to all this, it was the commentary on the international feed so full of reports of a bust-up between Zamora and Jol, and the almost certitude that our England striker could be on his way in January. Perhaps that’s the meaning of AJ’s ear circling goal celebration. Over here in the US of by god A, that motion means that SOMBODY is crazy. Perhaps AJ is saying that Jol is crazy to chase Zamora out of SW6. Based on the brilliant match he played yesterday, it does seem silly to even consider letting Zamora leave. As usual, I haven’t read a word about the match as I write this. Perhaps, after I’ve posted and perused the message boards, I’ll discover that it was all some of the usual crap that’s stirred up to fill the back pages of the Brit tabloids. I certainly hope so.

Until then, I'm still smiling over yesterday’s performance – individually and collectively certainly the greatest display of Fulham power in our Premier League history.

HatterDon’s MotM: Our Late President, Andrew Johnson.

 

1. Yes, it was showboating.
2. Yes, it was appropriate. The Hammersmith End had been giving a HUGE amount of support to the lads, and Dempsey was giving them a bit of a treat as thanks. Under those circumstances, and considering where on the pitch he did it, I think it's fair to call that bit of showboating "entertainment."