Crystal Palace Thread [R]

[THFC1]

Palace have had a £2m bid for Clinton Morrison accepted. Its between Norwich and Palace. I hope he goes to Palace because he will score more goals than Jon Macken IMO.

How ironic it would be having Morrison and AJ upfront after they AJ was involved in the deal that took Morrison to Birmingham.

[THFC1]

http://skysports.planetfootball.com/list.asp?hlid=301734&CPID=10&CLID=&lid=2&title=Palace+seal+Clinton+capture&channel=football_home

Clinton Morrison signs for Palace for £2m on a 3 year deal.

IMO that is a good signing for Palace, i'm not convinced with Macken. AJ and Morrison have the ability to score at least 15-20 goals each.

[bigbrooklynlou]

The joys of work .... ugh.

As stated by THFC, Palace have gotten Morrison back. All I can say is Thank You Steve Bruce and BCFC. Clint was the gift that kept on giving. Thank you Clint's mom for pushing Clint to return to CP. Clint and AJ have already developed a love fest, High Fivin each other, patting each other - beautiful. Thank yoyu SJ, just one more piece, all we need is a freakin' attacking midfielder.

The first 2 games were a horror with a make-do CP midfield (Aki and Hughes were out due to niggling injuries) and backline (Ward stayed out of half the first game and Granville is still recovering). Dowie was forced to play the kids and it showed as CP was being bossed around in the midfield. The last 20 minutes of the Stoke game on Saturday was the first time in the campaign that the advertised first team played and it showed in the amount of possession and opportunities generated.

As for the AJ goals, they were very very pretty. (See link) nice little dummy / 1-2's with Macken on the first and Clint in the second.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/craigdwallace/Stoke/050827_Palace_Stoke.wmv

As for AJ in the England team, seems he's the injury backup. If Crouch wasn't out with a hammy pull, I doubt he would have gotten the call up. That said, congrats to the call up AJ. well deserved.

Countdown before I go to London, 4 weeks.

[THFC1]

What games are you going to when you come to London?

[bigbrooklynlou]

What games are you going to when you come to London?

The footie Itinerary is as follows (definites):

Sep. 23 (arrive)
Sep. 24th CP v. Preston
Sep. 26th Tottenham v. Fulham
Sep. 27th CP v. Sheff Wed
Oct. 3rd QPR v. CP
Oct. 5 (depart)

And I'm trying to score tickets to the Fulham ManU game, Arsenal Birmingham, or Charlton THFC.

If really bored may catch a Leyton Orient game or some CP reserve team games.

TH, where are you located? I think a beer or two may be involved ...

[bigbrooklynlou]

CPFC Latest

Crystal Palace put a nice performance in today winning their 4th game in a row and lifting the team to 9th place. its also the 4th clean sheet in a row as well. Still to early to be looking at the table, but its nice to see the club within striking distance of the top 6.

Due to injury to our lone winger (McNuff) CP was forced to play a 433 with Macken, AJ and Morrison being the front three. The game saw a tap in goal from Clint and 90th minute AJ vs. the keeper put away.

Considering how discombobulated CP was at the start of the season, little by little, the parts of the team are starting to gel. The back four are all on the same sheet of music with Ward calling the shots. The front line is starting to gel now. AJ is learning to play with others (he played 451 for an entire year in the EPL) Clint is getting back into the rhythm of first team action, and Macken is getting his confidence back bit by bit. A nice goal from him will do wonders for his head. The boy needs it.

The midfield is still in flux with Mcnuff out and Aki and Hughes coming off minor knocks, but the kids that were thrown to the Wolves (and the hatters) in the first 2 games are starting to show promise. Soares set up the first goal with an end to end run weaving his way through a bunch of Hull players. Though we still need an offensive midfielder if we get promoted, it does bode well for the club's future if the two kids (Watson and Soares both on the U-21 team) learn their trade on the first team this year.

Next up Reading. This will be a huge game and real test of the slowly gelling squad considering how Reading is 2nd.

[amancalledmikey]

The lack of good wide players is why I tipped Palace to struggle this time. Last time there was Gray and Routledge, now it's just McAnuff.

[bigbrooklynlou]

The lack of good wide players is why I tipped Palace to struggle this time. Last time there was Gray and Routledge, now it's just McAnuff.

McAnuff and now, drumroll please .... Marco Reich. Already the Germany / WWII jokes are flying fast and furious.

CP Fan #1 - Marco Reich is now on trial at Selhurst
CP Fan #2 - What's he on trial for? War Crimes?
Cp Fan #1 - No Left wing.
CP Fan #2 - What number will he get on his uni? Twenty Nein?
CP Fan #3 - Is he married? Just wondered what the Reich Stag party was like.
CP Fan #2 - Great goal he scored last night to win the game against Coventry.
CP Fan #! - So that was the First Reich strike. Does that mean we should get really worried if he scores another two?

and on and on and on ...

AJ News
AJ had his operation to clean up his knee and will be out till mid-October. Of course this all happened to screw up my vacation since he will be coming back to play AFTER I leave the UK.

Macken News
Macken out for 3 weeks due to a severe hamstring pull. Again god is messing with my vacation plans.

Morrison News
The only person I have to look forward to seeing play (along with Kiraly and his magic pajamas). So of course he will get hit by a bus before Friday and be match fit by October 7th.

[THFC1]

I forgot about this thread.

So BrooklynLou didn't see Palace lose or Tottenham lose which is more important:p
Shame you never saw AJ play.

Palace 1 Preston 1 (Morrison '90 mins)
Palace 2 Sheff Wed 0 (Morrison '16 mins, Whelan O-G '56 mins)
Q.P.R. 1 Palace 3 (Reich '14 & '17, Soares '89)

Reich must be signed on a permanant deal.

[bigbrooklynlou]

I forgot about this thread.

So BrooklynLou didn't see Palace lose or Tottenham lose which is more important:p
Shame you never saw AJ play.

Palace 1 Preston 1 (Morrison '90 mins)
Palace 2 Sheff Wed 0 (Morrison '16 mins, Whelan O-G '56 mins)
Q.P.R. 1 Palace 3 (Reich '14 & '17, Soares '89)

Reich must be signed on a permanant deal.

Hey TH, I'm back. came in on Thursday and lucky I did because we almost had a house flooding on Saturday from a blocked sewer line.

On Palace

The boys are finally finding some form, and more importantly, a clue.

The team is for some reason mentally fixated on Wingers. They may have produced some fine strikers but any success they have had is due to guys like Routledge and Gray, and now McNuff and Reich. Without the width the team doesn't seem to function or work properly. For lack of a better term, they sputter.

I am slowly coming to the conclusion that Soares and Watson (more on him later) can become a good central midfield. Simon Jordan's money can probably be better spent on picking up two more wingers as back up. Hell, have a reunion party and see if Birmingham is willing to sell us back Gray.

On Reich

This years shirt order will have his name on it. Is he fast? No. Has he fully meshed with the guys yet? No. Does he know what to do with the damn ball on the left wing? Yes. Dowie, sign the boy up now.

On Watson

Will become a world beating midfielder one day. When is that day? The day he stops listening to the voices in his head.

Watching Watson during the Preston and SW games, you realize that at pretty much all times he does the opposite of what needs to be done. The fan has a birds eye view of the pitch and sees everthing with a certain amount of clarity that the players on the pitch do not possess. Everytime Watson got the ball, he passed when he should have shot, went backwards when he should have rushed forward. Passed wide instead of putting a through ball down the middle. He frustrates the hell out of Palace supporters because he is so technically good and yet so mentally bad all at the same time.

I don't think its an issue of vision or confidence, but an issue of putting a chip inside his head to make him do the opposite of what his brain tells him. He needs to go into the soccer equivalent of Costanza mode and realize that his instincts are telling him the wrong thing.

On Atmosphere

Wow. I can't say how great it was seeing Palace up close. All the people / fans I met were fantastic. On one of the Palace boards Barry Richardson seeing I was coming to the games from the US arranged for a tour of the stadium prior to the Preston game. The Palace DJ Dave Fox even announced us furing the game and crammed our bags with old programs. Dinner and drinks with other fans was a blast. Seeing the stands filled with kids brough home how much a family / neighborhood thing palace is for South London / Croydon.

The best game atmosphere wise was the QPR game. The Palace fans were singing non-stop. Hell, they were singing in the subway after the game as well. A group broke out in song at Victoria station.

On the rest of the season

I'm not too worried. Thankfully Palace has two thing most of our rivals lack. Cash and Depth. QPR without Gallen and a few others was a lesser team. The top 5 teams of the table (Sheff Utd, Reading, Luton, Wolves, Watford) are a few injuries/knocks away from mid table mediocrity. Its that depth that allowed Palace to get promotion two years ago and will probably insure its promotion this year as well.

Upcoming Matches

The dreaded Brighton rivalry heats up again on the 18th and Liverpool in the Cup on the 25th. I feel a cold coming on Monday night of the 24th. AJ may not be ready in time for the Coventry game on the 15th, but he should be set for Brighton. We actually saw him jogging lightly and waving to the fans on the Sheffield Wednesday game. Tiny little guy.


On the Spurs
First off, I can never become a TH fan. Nope. No way. Never in a million years.

Why, you may ask? BECAUSE OF THE FRICKIN' LONG ASS WALK TO WHITE HART LANE FROM THE TUBE STOP! Who the hell builds a stadium miles from any convinient public transportation? 20 minute walk my ass. The trek from the Seven Sisters tube stop to the stadium is a half hour easy. Its 20 minutes on a trot which is waht you usually do it in thanks to the scenary from the stop to the stadium. I live in Brooklyn and have worked in some less than stellar neighborhoods, but the neighborhood where WHL is, left me a little bit concerned.

I got to see the Spurs v. Fulham game. Showed up 10 miutes late (see section on the long ass walk) and missed the only goal of the night.

1. Your new midfielder David did not impress. Seemed at times to suffer from Watson disease.

2. Seeing Arsenal sputter, I realize why TH made a splurge in the off-season. Arsenal is vulnerable and TH has a legitimate shot of making it into the top 4 club of the EPL. All they need is a muscular striker that can head the ball. Defoe has great pace, but without a big guy in the front, it can be nuetralized.

3. Can you please pick a midfielder from the 10 you already possess and loan him to us come January. Pretty please? You're making a run for European football come next year, you cant play them all and you'll need to maintain their form somehow.

Pictures

Tour of the Grounds
http://home.nyc.rr.com/lmanios/pictures/selhurst1.jpg
http://home.nyc.rr.com/lmanios/pictures/selhurst2.jpg

Family and new Friend
http://home.nyc.rr.com/lmanios/pictures/selhurst3.jpg

QPR Game

Warmup
http://home.nyc.rr.com/lmanios/pictures/qpr1-warm.jpg

My Bald Head
http://home.nyc.rr.com/lmanios/pictures/qpr1-me.jpg

Marco Reich goal # 1
http://home.nyc.rr.com/lmanios/pictures/qpr1-mr.jpg

Marco Reich goal # 2
http://home.nyc.rr.com/lmanios/pictures/qpr1-mr2.jpg

[bigbrooklynlou]

And some news ....

Butterfield keeps options open

http://home.skysports.com/list.asp?hlid=313177&CPID=10&clid=&lid=&title=Butterfield+keeps+options+open

Butterfield 'is keeping his options open'. If he keeps playing the way he did against QPR, his bags may already have been packed. All through the game he failed to run after loose balls or track back quickly enough. I actually did not yell at Watson during the game because I was too busy screaming "Butters! Move you ass". The QPR goal was his fault. He broke the main Dowie rule, ie a lack of hustle. Its what got Kolka and Lakis out and now it rears its ugly head with him.

Dowie can forgive alot of thing, but not hustling or playing a lazy game is not one of them. Is Wayne Andrews a great striker? No. Will he get playing time? yes. Why, because he practically trips over himslelf trying to hustle after the ball. Butters, I'll make a prediction for you. Let me wish you well in your next team come January.

[THFC1]

Where abouts did you sit at Selhurst and at Tottenham?

Palace's away support is fantastic, they don't stop singing.

About Tottenham, that walk is a nightmare luckily i don't get the tube their.

Palace could take Michael Brown or Sean Davis then we will be left with around 8 midfielders.

[bigbrooklynlou]

Where abouts did you sit at Selhurst and at Tottenham?

Palace's away support is fantastic, they don't stop singing.

About Tottenham, that walk is a nightmare luckily i don't get the tube their.

Palace could take Michael Brown or Sean Davis then we will be left with around 8 midfielders.

Sat in Whitehorse Lane stand for the Preston game and the Holmesdale for the SW game. As for WHL, see the attached pic. I have no idea how the Spurs name the stands.

http://home.nyc.rr.com/lmanios/pictures/whl.jpg

As for the midfielder to take on loan, just pick one, put a name in a hat and pick one. :-)

[bigbrooklynlou]

Palace on a roll

What a game. The team is running on all cylinders. Last week they beat QPR 3-1 on the road. Today they beat Coventry 4-1 on the road. Seven goals on the road and all without AJ.

Ward : 1-0
Gets his second goal on a corner. Last year CD Popovic only got two goals all season.

Morrison : 2-1
In the dying moments of the half, just after Coventry equalized and all the Palace fans were moaning 'not again', Morrison plants a diving header in the back of the net to put Palace back up 2-1 before the half.

Watson : 3-1
Watson!!! Get in!!! Second ever goal for Watson. Thats the second goal from midfield in two games. It looks like Watson is starting to sort himself out and him and Soares are starting to gel. Soares made runs like crazy all game long. Lets hope this gives Watson that little bit of confidence he needs to take the step up.

Macken : 4-1
AJ and Macken come on. Everyone was expecting an AJ goal and Macken gets his first for the club, a nice little tap in. That will help his confidence massively.

Upcoming Matches
10 out of the last 12 points and the team is healthy and in form. We play the next two games at home. The hated Brighton on Tuesday and a weak Burnley on Saturday. That should be another 6 points. Which brings us to ...

Liverpool in the Carling Cup on Tuesday the 25th. I'll get flamed but I smell upset. Liverpool has been having problems finding goals and AJ will be game fit by then and coupled with Clint we'll have a very nice attack.


TEAM_____________________P___Pts___GD
Sheff Utd................13...33...14
Reading..................12...27...14
------------------------------------
Luton....................13...24...6
Leeds....................12...21...4
Crystal Palace...........12...20...8
Wolverhampton............13...19...5
------------------------------------

Best Quote
From Mickey Adams the Coventry boss: "At the end of the day they took Clint Morrison off who is a 3 million pound player and put on a 9 million pound player in Andrew Johnson". Lets hope we become the Chelsea of the Fizzy Pop league :D

[bigbrooklynlou]

Links to the goals against Coventry

http://www.zippyvideos.com/2722444071730666/5524/

[bigbrooklynlou]

This Week in Palace

Palace 0 - Brighton 1 (http://home.skysports.com/list.asp?hlid=317626&CPID=10&CLID=31&lid=&title=McShane+settles+derby+clash&channel=championship)

We lost to Brighton 1-0 on what probably was an own goal by Boyce. The loss was disgusting because of (a) the rivalry between the two teams (b) Brighton was propping up the division (c) Palace played like lazy crap. Hate to say it, but Brighton deserved the win.

Dowie was livid at the 'quality' (if we can use that word) of play. Hopefully this game acts as a wake up to the team that even though they've won their last few games by healthy margins, there are no walk over teams in this league. They need to consistently lay down the smack down and not expect any gifts. The fact that Simon Jordan has said nothing about this game, speaks volumes.

To understand the level of disgust from the fans, they took the colored cards used for the half time display and started making paper airplanes and throwing them on the field, delaying the game as the ref made the players pick them up.

Palace 2 - Burnley 0 (http://home.skysports.com/matchreport.asp?fxid=278216&CPID=10&channel=championship)
Good solid workmanlike win. Nothing fancy. A goal apiece from Morrison and Freedman. First one for Dougie all season. Now that he's found the back of the net, maybe he'll start scoring some more. The team played professionally and crisply as opposed to the Brighton game.

Every team has a striker that can't score. Ours is Wayne Andrews. Wayne came in at the start of the second half due to McNuff getting hurt (not badly. Should be back next week) and set up the second goal. He did well because he stopped trying to be cute and started doing what he was required to do. Hopefully that point gets drummed into his head.


Palace 2 - Liverpool 1 (http://home.skysports.com/list.asp?hlid=319796&cpid=8&CLID=&lid=4161&title=TUESDAY+CARLING+CUP+ROUND-UP&channel=skysports_home_page)
Sweet :)

Nice little upset. Dougie Freedman strikes again (somebody stop him!) and everyones favorite right footed left winger, Marco Reich, gets another Carling Cup goal. Great team effort. We played the sub back line and they (for the most part) held firm. Hudson's mistake though led to Gerrard's goal. The general consensus of the Palace fans are that Liverpool without Gerrard at full strength is half the team it should be. He is the big boss of the midfield and until he gets up to full strength, they are going to suffer.

Crouch was again found wanting. Just mark him tight. He has no natural power to his header but instead needs to launch his whole body at the ball. Limit his space and he can't head the ball. Take that away from his game and all you have is an average (though freakish looking) striker. Bad signing by Rafa. He'll be back in fizzy pop within 2 years unless he (a) gets some upper body strength or (b) figures out how to quickly turn and shoot in the box. Morientes seemed toothless as well. The only real threat Liverpool has is Cisse and he (rumored) wants to leave.

Next week we take on Crewe. Another bottom of the table team. Hopefully Dowie got it into their skulls that these are the teams we need to feast on, not screw around with.

[bigbrooklynlou]

I'm baaaaack. Will start posting again as PAlace make their promotion push

[THFC1]

Welcome back mate, Palace could end up playing either Watford, Leeds or Preston. Even though they are currently third i think Watford would be a good team to face in the playoffs. I think they would be better off avoiding Leeds.

[bigbrooklynlou]

Welcome back mate, Palace could end up playing either Watford, Leeds or Preston. Even though they are currently third i think Watford would be a good team to face in the playoffs. I think they would be better off avoiding Leeds.

Ahh, Palace. The biggest little club in all of England.

Hi THFC, long tme (and don't think I've forgotten that long ass walk from the 7 sisters station neither). The Arsenal - Barca game has me in a bind, I feel bad rooting against a 'English' team but I love the city of Barcelona (plus the team wears red and blue). All the Spur fans, I assume must all be feeling a bit torn rooting against an English team since if Arsenal win, no Europe for the Spurs. But a year of Highbury Squirel jokes will get old real fast. Go Barca!

Whats new with the Palace roller coaster? Lots actually.

1. Playoff on Saturday vs. Watford. Will be televised live on Setanta Sport. Don't have a satelite dish but want to watch the game? Try Setanta Broadband (http://play.www.setanta.servecast.net/setanta/us/default.aspx?aff=1). Needless to say, we we need a win.

2. AJ for England? (http://home.skysports.com/list.asp?hlid=384184&CPID=4&clid=31&lid=&title=Dowie's+backing+Johnson) With the Roon out thanks to the logo filled tissue paper that Nike fashioned into a shoe like shape, who knows, a couple of killer performances in the playoffs and the chanting for AJ will begin. Compared to likes of Bent, at least AJ can find the goal. If Sven is in the stands on Saturday, the game should become very interesting ...

3. Milwall and Brighton relegated! Birmingham relegated! Steve Bruce potentially fired! Curbishley leaves Charlton! All we need is to get promoted and this will be a centenary to remember. A Palace fan put together a lovely video of all the goals scored against
Milwall (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_JY-6QiXIk) this season. Enjoy.

4. Coolest news of the day??? Palace are coming to America! Thats right folks the Eagles are landing in the US. Palace will be playing some pre-season friendlies against USL and MLS teams this July as well opening up a USL based Academy / farm team in Baltimore. Needless to say, I will be there.

Crystal Palace Football Club are delighted to announce that they have launched an Academy and Developmental Club in the United States of America.

The club, which will be called Crystal Palace FC USA, will have a system for identifying and developing the best young talent in the United States. The club will play host to Under 9 through to Under 18 teams, with the top of the pyramid being a United Soccer Leagues (USL) side.

The USL serves as the FIFA affiliated second and third divisions in the US, under Major League Soccer. The Baltimore, Maryland based club will train and play at the finest facilities in the Mid-Atlantic Region.

Bob Dowie, Palace's Director Of Football, commented: "One of the key briefs Simon Jordan gave me when I came on board was to develop the footprint of Crystal Palace worldwide. More specifically, he wanted us to establish a presence in developing football countries, to give the club access to their best and brightest, up-and-coming young talent, as well as their current star players.

"Simon, Dominic Jordan and myself have been working hard over the past eight months or so to define the US based Academy set-up and this culminated in Dominic and myself visiting the Baltimore and Annapolis area in late April, to personally validate the facilities and the people who will run the US venture."

Dominic Jordan, Vice Chairman, added: "We see this as a vital extension of our already growing recruitment network. The facilities and people involved in the CPFC USA are first class and just as importantly, represent a true extension of the Palace way of doing things.

"We continue to make investments in the Club's future and are excited by the prospect of our investment giving us access to the top US youth talent, in what is without doubt, one of the fastest growing football nations."

The venture appears to be bearing early fruit, as after a successful trial period, one of the outstanding USA youth players is likely to be coming to Crystal Palace in the coming season.

The training camp at the United States Naval Academy, Maryland

Crystal Palace FC will hold their 2006/07 pre-season training in the United States of America. The club will be landing in Washington DC on the 13th of July, 2006 for a three match tour and will be training at the premier facilities of the United States Naval Academy in Annaoplis, MD. The match schedule will be as follows:-

July 16th - vs Crystal Palace FC USA (7.00pm kick-off at The United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland)

July 19th - vs Los Angeles Galaxy (Current Champions of Major League Soccer) (7.30pm kick-off at The University of Richmond Stadium in Richmond, Virginia)

July 22nd - vs Virginia Beach Mariners (7.00pm kick-off at The Virginia Beach Sportsplex in Virginia Beach, Virginia)

But with the good, comes the bad. Obviously if Palace don't get promoted, bye bye Dowie. Bye Bye AJ.

Welcome to the rollercoaster.

[THFC1]

Sorry about the walk from Seven Sisters. At Tottenham's last home game some people in the crowd wore Barcelona shirts, some had scarfs, others had banners so yes we do need Barcelona to win but we need to beat West Ham first.

I don't personally think Dowie will go, well he won't get sacked, Charlton may try to get him though.
If Palace don't go up AJ will certainly be going, but hopefully not to Tottenham.