Alan Curbishley is considering his options before his team take on in-form
MLS side Columbus Crew
20.07.2008
A busy first full day of training on the club's North American tour was
typical of the intensity of pre-season preparations for West Ham United.
The 22 players who travelled out from Heathrow had two sessions on Saturday
and another this morning to contend with before the opening match of the
two-game tour against Columbus Crew at 5pm Sunday night (10pm London time).
There is a good mix of youth and experience in the squad with a selection of
senior professionals deliberately joined by a number of youngsters who have
progressed through Tony Carr's successful Under-18 side last season.
Two players in doubt for Sunday night are left-wingers Matthew Etherington
and Luis Boa Morte because of slight groin and back troubles respectively.
It is hoped both will be fit enough to get a run-out in Thursday's
high-profile game against the Major League Soccer All-Stars on Sunday night.
The duo, who also sat out last Thursday's win at Hampton and Richmond
Borough, were hard at work over the weekend with personal training
programmes - especially on Saturday afternoon at the Crew's leafy Obetz
training centre.
The rest of the squad are in contention to play and during their sessions
enjoyed a high energy practice eleven-a-side that saw some good finishing on
view, not least from Carlton Cole and Dean Ashton. Aside from Freddie
Ljungberg, who has not made the trip because of his Euro 2008 exertions, and
England Under-19 duo James Tomkins and Freddie Sears, there are a few others
who remained at Chadwell Heath to focus on being fit before the big 16
August season kick-off.
Kieron Dyer is due to resume full training on Monday after nearly a year out
with a double leg break while Matthew Upson is also working towards the
pre-season games that will follow the North American trip having had the
all-clear on his previous calf muscle problem. George McCartney should also
be involved for the next games after slight hamstring trouble and Lee Bowyer
has continued his summer work to recover from last season's groin injury.
North America tour squad
Goalkeepers: Robert Green, Jimmy Walker
Defenders: Calum Davenport, Anton Ferdinand, Ashley Miller, Lucas Neill
(captain), Bondz N'Gala, Jordan Spence, Joe Widdowson
Midfielders: Jack Collison, Matthew Etherington, Julien Faubert, Hayden
Mullins, Mark Noble, Scott Parker, Kyel Reid, Junior Stanislas, Tony Stokes
Forwards: Dean Ashton, Craig Bellamy, Luis Boa Morte, Carlton Cole
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The West Ham file -The Columbus Dispatch
Sunday, July 20, 2008 3:40 AM
. Coach: Alan Curbishley
. Location: Upton Park, London
. Stadium: Boleyn Ground (cap. 35,300)
. Founded: 1895 (as Thames Ironworks factory team)
. Notable achievement: Five-time FA Cup finalists (1923, 1964, 1975, 1980,
2006), three-time champion ('64, '75, '80)
. Notable players: Jonathan Spector, Dean Ashton
. Notable former players: Carlos Tevez, Michael Carrick, Bobby Moore, Geoff
Hurst
. Quick kicks: One of five Premiership teams in metropolitan London with
Arsenal, Chelsea, Fulham and Tottenham Hotspur. . Finished 10th in 20-team
Premier League in 2007-08 (13-15-10, 42 points). . Has never dropped below
the second division . Relegated from Premiership in 2003 and promoted in
2005. . Captain is Australian Lucas Neill. . Considered by its fans to have
'won' the 1966 World Cup after West Ham players Hurst and Martin Peters
scored all of England's goals in a 4-2 victory over West Germany in the
final.
-- Shawn Mitchell
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Crew prepared for a British invasion - The Columbus Dispatch
Sunday, July 20, 2008 3:40 AM
By Shawn Mitchell
The Columbus Dispatch
The West Ham file
Coach: Alan Curbishley
Location: Upton Park, London
Stadium: Boleyn Ground (cap. 35,300)
Founded: 1895 (as Thames Ironworks factory team)
Notable achievement: Five-time FA Cup finalists (1923, 1964, 1975, 1980,
2006), three-time champion ('64, '75, '80)
Notable players: Jonathan Spector, Dean Ashton
Notable former players: Carlos Tevez, Michael Carrick, Bobby Moore, Geoff
Hurst
Quick kicks: One of five Premiership teams in metropolitan London with
Arsenal, Chelsea, Fulham and Tottenham Hotspur. . Finished 10th in 20-team
Premier League in 2007-08 (13-15-10, 42 points). . Has never dropped below
the second division . Relegated from Premiership in 2003 and promoted in
2005. . Captain is Australian Lucas Neill. . Considered by its fans to have
'won' the 1966 World Cup after West Ham players Hurst and Martin Peters
scored all of England's goals in a 4-2 victory over West Germany in the
final.
-- Shawn Mitchell
Mark Noble is a West Ham United man.
He grew up in impoverished Canning Town, three East London tube stops from
Upton Park, home of the English Premier League team that will play an
exhibition with the Crew today and take on the Major League Soccer All-Stars
in Toronto on Thursday.
Noble, 21, is one of the club's most promising young midfielders and one in
a long line of the East End team's homegrown players. He joined the club as
an adolescent and made his debut with the pro team at age 17.
"I've always supported West Ham," Noble said. "It's everyone's dream to play
for the club you support."
The hundreds of West Ham fans that will converge on Crew Stadium this
afternoon would prefer the rest of their team's players exhibit that same
loyalty, but they understand that West Ham doesn't have the payroll to
compete with Europe's prestige clubs.
West Ham, the "Academy of Football," has one of the top player-development
systems on the planet. It has produced scores of world-class players, most
of whom have moved on to richer contracts with richer clubs.
So it goes in big-time European soccer, where there are no salary controls
and the richest clubs eventually obtain the most talented players.
Such a system has relegated West Ham to the middle of the Premiership
standings or worse. It was demoted to the second division in 2003 but
rejoined the top league in 2005.
"We're everybody's favorite second club because of the players we produce,"
said John Hall, an Englishman living in Columbus who began attending West
Ham games in 1975 and is co-founder of the team's American supporters club.
"Look at the last Champions League final (between Manchester United and
Chelsea). Michael Carrick, Rio Ferdinand, Joe Cole, Frank Lampard -- all of
them spent time (with West Ham)."
Watching their top talents move on is part of being a supporter of a club
that doesn't have the money of an Arsenal or Liverpool.
"When you see how many homegrown players leave, that does cause some
resentment," Hall said. "But it makes it all the more sweeter when you
actually beat them."
Hall said that at least 500 West Ham fans will be in Crew Stadium. They'll
be coming from at least 19 states and England.
The devotion is no surprise to East London ex-pat Chris Lupton of
Washington, who will be in attendance today.
Lupton is "old school" and doesn't think women or children should be allowed
into soccer stadiums. He didn't shy away from speaking about West Ham's
hooligan tradition, another of the club's claims to fame.
Although the violence that plagued English soccer is on the wane, English
author Dougie Brimson wrote last year that Boleyn Ground is still "not a
place to visit if you are of a nervous disposition."
"(Hooliganism) is the first thing people think of when you say 'West Ham,'
even in England," Lupton said. "There was a lot of honor to it. It was very
organized. No knives, but just a big punch-up."
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