11/2 Eddie Lewis: Preston vs. Burnley 12:35 PM EST kickoff. Audio for both clubs requires subscription fee. Preview: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/soccernet/preview?matchID=49650&leagueCup=ENG.2
Preston up 1-0 in third minute. Eddie with another assist. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport/hi/english/static/football/statistics/teams/p/preston/live_hi.stm Lewis is mentioned everywhere in the text commentary
http://www.soccernet.com/england/2002/20021102/reports/49650_full.html "The home side opened the scoring as early as the third minute, Fuller taking advantage of wonderful work from Eddie Lewis down the left to drill home right-footed from 12 yards past an exposed Marlon Beresford."
I'm not a huge Eddie Lewis fan, but he seems to be having the best year of any non-goalie YA out there. IT's good to see him shaking off all the mockery of the past couple yeras and leading his team. Where is PReston right now? They're at least on the fringes of the promotion picture, aren't they?
They are 8 points out of the final playoff spot with still a long way to go. Let's hope the form continues. I want to see Eddie have one shot at Fulham!
Like water, Eddie finds his level. He seems to fit very well on a mid-table to promotion chasing nationwide side. Not surprisingly, this a place where a number of ex-MLS have been able to show pretty well (Jovan, John, Lewis, McBride, Olsen.) (Which is not to say these guys can't play in the EPL, it's just that having an impact day in day out is that much harder - as is just getting on the field.)
Maybe, maybe not. Among all the MLS field players gone overseas, I thought Lewis had the greatest potential. Had the Fulham coaches and their runny-nosed supporters not shattered his confidence early on, who knows where he might have ended up? It's not like he was overwhelmed by the world's best this summer. He'd do fine on a lower level Prem. side right now.
It's good to see eddie staring to settle in at PNE. It took him a few matches but he's finally living up to expectations after a drawn out, on again off again contract talks that took place this summer.
I went to this game. At this level, Lewis looks a good - but not oustanding - player. Whilst it's true he had a role in two of the goals, the first was really the result of some awful defending that let Lewis break away down the left, and the third was a shot that took a fortunate deflection over the Burnley 'keeper. For the first half Lewis played a pretty advanced position hugging the left touchline and created a lot of danger. After Burnley equalised early in the second half and then had a ten minute spell where it looked like they might overrun Preston's defence, Lewis played a deeper role picking up Burnley's right winger Glen Little who was causing sorts of problems for Preston. Lewis didn't look particularly effective at doing this. But all in all it was a pretty good overall performance by him. As the Preston fan next to me said, "Lewis is class". For this division, I'd agree with that.
How many chances did Eddie actually get at Fulham? He didn't "fail", he was never given a chance. All he did was score goal after goal in the reserves. Tigana made his decision and Eddie had to live with it, but that's a far cry from actual failure (which you are not suggesting). On the flip side, I have no delusions about him starring in the Premiereship, but I do think he could make important contributions to a Premiereship team (side) if given the chance. If he stays on at Preston, he might just get that chance thru promotion.
For those who think that Lewis wasn't given a fair chance at Fulham, can you tell me which Fulham player would you sit to make room for Lewis.
I think you should say that Tigana never gave him a chance. Didn't he play a number of games before Tigana arrived? IIRC, he was pretty much universally considered a worthless "fancy dan" by all but BrittanySpears.
Eddie may have been used as a late game substitute. If he had actually made the bench for any of the games, this might have been a possibility.
The only thing that worries me about Eddie's current situation is PNE is just one big "I" away from pine...
Lewis At Fulham it was the system that Tianga employed using four central midfielders across the midfield with no wingers. Lewis is not a central midfielder. Also the manager was an ass toward Lewis and just seemed to have it in for him.