Gaz's Week of Sporting Stress. Issue 2

Last weeks results were a bit of a mixed bag. Bristol Rovers won their first league game on the Saturday only to be gently guided away from any points by Portsmouth after being the better team. Not helped by Chris Lines’ nine minute substitute appearance that consisted of Let me on,score a goal, commit a foul, see Red and go for an early shower! Doh! The Packers looked fairly convincing in their 52 point haul against the Pittsburgh Steelers in preseason game 2 and Dinamo Bucharest with an away defeat to top of the table Cluj which, to be honest, was not totally unexpected.

No A-Rod

This weeks round of festivities started with the Packers preseason game 3 versus the Oakland Raiders at 8:20 central time on Friday 24th. This kick off for me in Bucharest was at gone 4 am so I wasn’t planning to stay up, especially as I couldn’t watch the game on TV anyway and would have to follow on twitter. As it happened, I woke up for part of the first half and had a sneaky check to see how we were getting on. It looked a pretty low scoring affair early in the game which for the Packers was a positive sign because the Raiders were planning to play Derek Carr and their Starters on offence and defence for a chunk of the game whereas the Pack were going with mostly second string from the start. Aaron Rodgers was not even kitted up, as expected.

Backup QB Race Was Hotting Up

This was the Pack’s first test away from Lambeau Field and with a number of questions going into the game I was looking forward to seeing how they fared. The continuing battle of the QB’s in training camp is getting to the business end now. It is very unlikely that both Brett Hundley and DeShone Kizer will make the final squad of 53 and a trade is unlikely seeing that teams know that the Pack will cut one of them. How will the second string offensive line perform against a lively starting defensive front for the Raiders? How far along is Mike Pettine’s defence and will they be ready for Game 1 against the Bears?

A Sieve-Like O-Line

The news headlines that I woke up to were about the shocking play of the offensive line. They were being slapped around by the Raiders and never maintained a pocket for the QB’s to work with. If either of our starting OT’s get injured we have problems. From the QB standpoint, Hundley fared better than Kizer probably putting him slightly ahead for the backup job behind Aaron Rodgers. J’Mon Moore finally held on to a pass and the fourth round pick in this years draft has one more (excuse the pun!) game to stake his claim for playing time come the start of the regular season. Reggie Gilbert continues to impress and is by far and away the best backup for Matthews and Perry He may even command a few snaps in the game planning, he’s been so good.

Jaire Alexander and Josh Jackson both had interceptions (Jacksons cancelled out by a hold from another player) and increasing look like they will give the Packers defence some added ballhawk/playmaking ability. On the injury front ILB Oren Burks has dislocated his shoulder but the signs are that he will be back sooner rather than later.

The final score was Packers 6 Raiders 13

In a related note the Packers have covered themselves and made a trade with the Indianapolis Colts and acquired Antonio Morrison an inside linebacker for the cornerback Lenzy Pipkins. It’s an interesting trade because all signs were that Pipkin’s; who has slightly disappointed in training camp, was going to be cut anyway.

Roster Prediction Time

The deadline for reducing the roster to 53 players is on Saturday 1st September. I’m going to try and predict the final roster and see how many I get right. So here goes:

Offence

1.QB Aaron Rodgers
2.QB DeShone Kizer
3.RB Jamal Williams
4.RB Aaron Jones
5.RB Ty Montgomery
6.FB Aaron Ripowski
7.OL David Bakhtiari
8.OL Brian Bulaga
9.OL Lane Taylor
10.OL Corey Linsley
11.OL Justin McCray
12.OL Lucas Patrick
13.OL Justin Spriggs
14.OL Byron Bell
15.TE Jimmy Graham
16.TE Marcedes Lewis
17.TE Lance Kendricks
18.WR Devante Adams
19.WR Randall Cobb
20.WR Geronimo Alison
21.WR Jake Kumerow
22.WR J’Mon Moore
23.WR Marques Valdes-Scantling
24.WR Equanimeous St Brown
25.WR Trevor Davis (KR)

Defence

26.DL Mike Daniels
27.DL Kenny Clark
28.DL Muhammad Wilkerson
29.DL Dean Lowry
30.DL Montravius Adams
31.LB Clay Matthews
32.LB Nick Perry
33.LB Blake Martinez
34.LB Oren Burks
35.LB Reggie Gilbert
36.LB Ahmad Thomas
37.LB Kyler Fackrel
38.LB Vince Biegel
39.LB Antonio Morrison
40.CB Kevin King
41.CB Tramon Williams
42.CB Jaire Alexander
43.CB Davon House
44.CB Josh Jackson
45.CB Quinten Rollins
46...S Ha Ha Clinton-Dix
47...S Kentrell Brice
48...S Josh Jones
49...S Jermaine Whitehead
50...S Marwin Evans

Specialists

51.LS Hunter Bradley
52...K Mason Crosby
53...P JK Scott

Notable Cuts:

Brett Hundley QB, Kyle Murphy OL, Joe Kerridge, Josh Hawkins CB, Demetri Goodson CB,

Practice Squad:

Tim Boyle QB, Robert Tonyan TE, DeAngelo Yancey WR, Devante Mays RB, Adam Pankey OL, James Looney DL, Cris Odom LB, Kendall Donnerson LB, Greer Martini LB, Raven Greene S.

It's important to mention the QB situation. Even though Hundley is slightly ahead of Kizer at the moment he has 4 years in this system and is 3 years older than Kizer. Kizer clearly has more upside and I think thats what will swing it.

The fourth and final preseason game is on Thursday and is against the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium. Kick off time is at 7:30 central time.

Saturdays Double Header

I love that feeling of game day. The anticipation of the match and the three points in the bag. Today was a double helping of Bristol Rovers at home to Southend United to be watched on iFollow. Then a quick dash to the pub to meet up with the guys and go to my first Dinamo game of the season at home to Hermannstadt, the newly promoted team from Sibiu.

Running In Mud

Rovers played pretty well in their loss to Portsmouth so the positivity was still there but only just. The online chat was a little critical of Linesey’s sending off and our inability to stop teams from scoring when a little pressure is applied. The formula at the back has not been adjusted and we still look, at times, like a deer in the headlights! The problem so far is being ruthless in both boxes. What I mean by that is that we do not make the most of the chances that our midfield create going forward but equally we have the inability to kick the ball more than 10 meters when we are defending our own goal. It’s like when you are having a nightmare and you are running in mud and unable to move fast. That’s our defenders at the moment!

The Prediction Competition

Every Rovers game me and a group of friends on whatsapp have a competition to guess the very unpredictable starting lineup for the team. Our manager likes to change things regularly more than most managers, and that makes his choices hard to guess. This makes for a fun pregame ritual that we have embraced.

The scoring rules are:

1pt for entering for the first time in a season (stops people that have bothered to enter being on zero)
1pt for finishing with the most correct starting players. (joint or lone)
1pt bonus point if you are the lone winner. (example, the only player with 9 correct and all others have less)
1pt bonus if you guess all 11 starting players

A scoring example: if you are the lone participant to correctly guess all 11 players you would score 3pts (not a first timer)

Teams need to be submitted no later than one hour before kick off or before the official team announcement.

The current predictions table:

Gaz 8 pts
Hols 4pts
Mark and Parky 2pts
Laura, Shaun, Geoff, Chaney and Joe 1pt

I will post the results each week starting with the current table. If anyone would like to join in the chaos then please feel free. Just post your team in the comments section of the previous Sporting Stress post before the deadline.

My Bristol Rovers team for the Southend game was:

Smith, Leadbitter, Lockyer, Craig, J Clarke, Sercombe, Upson, O Clarke, Bennett, Nichols, Payne.

The first sign of bad things to come was that our captain and best defender Tom Lockyer pulled out of the game in the warm ups with an injury. Dan Leadbitter replaced him in the starting line up. That situation unsettles a team just before kick off, especially one that is struggling to stop goals going in to our own net.

Injury Strikes Again

We start the game fairly brightly and look like we are trying to take the game to Southend. Tom Nichols hits the crossbar after a lovely move down the left involving Liam Sercombe. Unfortunately, that was to be liams last contribution after sustaining a hamstring injury. That bad feeling that I had at the beginning had struck again.

As You Were

As the game wore on, Southend were gaining in confidence after a shaky start. They were mounting attacks of their own, due in part to Rovers indecision. There was a decent ball into our box and we had three different opportunities to make a stop but we took none of them and the goalie was picking the ball out from the back of the net. Same old situation! We cannot clear our lines.

So Close

The second half started like the first. Rovers had regrouped and we trying to go forward with the ball and fashion some chances for the strikers that, up until now had very little service. Ollie Clarke made an incisive run from midfield and the gap opened up for him to have a go. He struck it beautifully from a good 30 yards out and it was rising all the way. Just as your expecting the net to bulge, Southend's goalkeeper flung himself at the ball and tipped it around the post. The noise from the crown was like YeeeeaaaahOOOOOOOOOHHHHHaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!!!! All in one go.

The manager made a couple of substitutions swapping the two attacking players to see if that would make a difference. Alas, it never and the remaining minutes of the match were very lacklustre and slightly worrying.

Rovers

The score finished 0-1 to Southend.

The talk after the game is that the team play some nice, neat and tidy football in the middle of the park but really struggle to score or stop teams from scoring. This will need to be rectified quickly as the season is now a few weeks in and the table is starting to take shape.

Next up is a League Cup second round game against Queens Park Rangers at Loftus Road in west London. QPR are a championship team one level higher than Rovers and, although they have started their season poorly, it will be a tough game.

Bear With A Sore Head

As soon as the game finished I shut everything off and, grumpily, said goodbye to Jayne and Jaime. Dinamo were playing at 9pm and I was meeting a couple of guys in the Trafalgar Pub in Bucharest. Today we were missing some of the guys but we did have a new recruit in Geoff who I was meeting at the Metro station just down the road from me. It takes about 15 minutes to walk to the station and I met him at the platform.

The New Guy

Geoff is from Manchester and is a Manchester City fan and knows his football. He has just moved to Bucharest and now works at the same school that my wife and daughter are also at. He is a knowledgeable addition to our Dinamo fan club! We left the Metro after a ten minute ride and the a little walk further we arrived at the pub. We ordered some drinks and watched the Liverpool v Brighton game while we were waiting for the other member, Paul, who duly showed up. One more beer and then it was time for the football.

Tickets Please

I haven’t organised my season ticket yet so we were going to the ticket office to purchase some game day tickets. To my surprise there was a considerable queue for tickets with less than 20 minutes until the game kicked off. I guess it was because the season is new and the weather is still good that the crowds are good. Or so I though! Our tickets were 45 lei each which was a price hike of 10 lei from last season. As we were walking around to our entrance I noticed a tweet from a Romanian reporter showing a video of a manager tripping up an opposition player while he is flying down the wing. Here it is:

Ridiculous but as I’ve come to realise in Romanian football, anything is possible.

Sit Anywhere You Like, Again

We scan our tickets and find our seats and after the wait at the ticket office I was eager to see a bigger crowd than normal. Something like 5 or 6000 people maybe. Nope! Just 2000 which has been dwindling in the two years that I have been going to watch Dinamo. The only games that seem to get the big attendances are the derbies with Steaua where you can get 40,000 plus.

Because of the ticket fiasco we are about 5 minutes late for the match and as we are queuing; and having our coins confiscated of off us, we hear a cheer! Dinamo have scored, we don’t know who has scored but it’s one nil and I could use a positive result tonight! We sit down in our usual spot; with a very Romanian disregard for our actual seats, and turn our attention to the match.

Popovici

Dinamo were clearly on top at this point and playing well. Salomao was the scorer of the goal and the tricksy little winger was causing the opposition all sorts of trouble. A player that Geoff picked out was Sergiu Popovici. One of the new players was playing well and on the ball being creative. Indeed it was Popovici that was set free down the right who cut in and crashed the ball against the upright. All 2000 of us out of our seats for that brief moment.

Half Time

Half time rolled around and Dinamo had been comfortable leaders of the game so far but there was a warning in there. My previous experiences of watching these guys had told me that, to coin a phrase, it’s a game of two halves and Dinamo are prone to poor second half performances. To add to that Hermannstadt could only get better! I half jokingly said that Hermnnstadt will win this 2-1!

Whats This Round Thing?

Sure enough Dinamo came out sluggish and Hermannstadt were right on it with their tails up. Dinamo couldn’t trap a bag of sand all of a sudden and it was game on. Hermannstadt broke away down the right buy in a really tight area that should have been covered by the defender but the attacker managed to swing a big high hanging cross over to the far post and N’Kololo finished it with a beautiful volley that Penedo, in the Dinamo goal, couldn’t stop from going in. 1-1 and deserved.

It's Getting Intense

That natives were getting restless now as their teams performance was steadily declining. Romanians are emotional and passionate people and if they are upset or annoyed they are comfortable letting you know. Every miss-control or poor shot is met with derision or frustration. Hands slapping down on tables, shouting derogatory comments at players or the inevitable turning on the owner Ionut Negoita (pronounced Nego-eetz-ah).

Surely Not?

It looked like a lost cause with minutes remaining. The threat from the first half well and truly gone. Then in true football fashion Dinamo carved out a chance. The ball was played out to the right wing and a quality cross was chipped in and it was heading for the substitute, Pesic. Seconds remain on the clock, the ball is in slow motion as it archies over to the waiting Pesic. He shapes his body to direct the ball goalwards with his head and…………… Goooooooaaaaaaaal!

Dinamo

A great finish by Pesic and Dinamo, with virtually the last kick of the game, win 2-1 to send us all home happy! Well, happier!

Next up is a tough away game versus Craiova at the Stadionul Ion Oblemenco.

My final sporting stress for this issue is Bristol Rovers’ trip to face QPR in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday 28th August. One thing to add of real note was the 1750 fan that we took on the 240 mile round trip to London on a weeknight.

This was an iFollow radio broadcast as it was a cup game and live footage was unavailable.

The Prediction Results for Southend:

Chaney 8
Mark, Parky and Joe 9
Hols, Gaz and Shaun 10 (1pt)

The Table

Gaz 9
Hols 5
Mark, Parky and Shaun 2
Laura, Geoff, Chaney and Joe 1

My team prediction:

Smith, J Clarke, Lockyer, Broadbent, Craig, Lines, O Clarke, Upson, Bennett, Nichols, Payne.

More Injuries :(

The game, like our team at the moment, was a bit of a shambles. We conceded early and lost confidence against a team that had pretty much played a reserve side albeit from a higher division. There was a full debut for the young left back Michael Kelly to be cheerful about but not a lot else. The injury list keeps growing!

Armchair Supporter Time

2-0 down at half time and the forum chatter is deadly. Quotes like, ‘The manager is clueless’, ‘The owner should sell’, ‘Nichols (Striker) should quit’, ‘The new defensive coach is useless’. etc, etc.

Go Mr Ed

So after 15 minutes of reading that negativity I pick my head up off of the floor and continue to listen. The performance looks like it is improving and we are clearly adept at possession and going forward but what we still lack is that defensive organisation and scoring some goals. We go 3-0 down and then late on Ed Upson scores a debut goal for The Gas to give us a little consolation.

Final score 3-1 to QPR

Out of the cup but bigger fish to fry on Saturday against Shrewsbury at the New Meadow. The Shrews are second from bottom and struggling so this is a huge game for both teams.

Thanks for reading and see you next week.

Previous Issues:
Issue 1

Stressed Gaz

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