Midweek Round up: Stunning saves from Kirkland
By Martin Sanders • Nov 12th, 2008 • Category: Midweek ReviewsNot a week goes by anymore with out any midweek football action. This week sees the return of the Carling Cup.
Tuesday night saw the start of the 4th round stages, after a weekend filled with keepers in the spotlight after fine displays Tuesday night proved to take of where the weekend left off.
The match of the day had to be Wigans trip to Arsenal, Arsenal’s first XI got their season back on track in the Premier League by beating Manchester United on Saturday 2.1 and their youth team lived up to the hype by embarrassing an experienced Wigan Athletic side at the Emirates Stadium.
Wigan’s humiliation would have been far greater if Chris Kirkland wearing Adidas Finger Tip E7S had not been at the top of his game in goal. The goalkeeper, playing with a back injury after he seemed to be struggling after landing awkwardly, the stopper went on to pulled off a string of great saves in front of Fabio Capello, the England manager, as Arsenal’s teenagers ran riot in the first half . Arsenals Wilshere won Man of the Match but Kirkland can not have been far behind with a fine display.
Arsenal’s came from a pinpoint pass from Jack Wilshere set up fellow teenager Jay Simpson to poke home on his first start for the club. They added a second when a blistering counter-attack ended with Carlos Vela squaring for Simpson to sidefoot home. Vela outpaced Titus Bramble before chipping Chris Kirkland with a stunning lob to complete the scoring.
To top off the keeper action Fabianski wearing Uhlsport Cerberus Absolutgrip Moulded ensured a miserable night all round for Wigan when he somehow kept out an Amr Zaki close-range effort in the dying stages.
Else where in Tuesdays nights action saw Manchester United beat Championship side QPR, Carlos Tevez struck from the penalty spot in the 76th minute as United edged into the quarter finals following a dour match. Kuszczak made a rare start for United in goal wearing the Puma V1.08 tricks glove. Derby, Stoke and Swansea all booked their places in the last 8 with wins.
Puma V1.08 as worn by Kuszczak of Manchester United
Wendesday Carling Cup action was filled with goals holders Tottenham strode into the quarter-finals with a clinical win over Liverpool in a thrilling tie. 3 goals in six first-half minutes put the hosts in control, Roman Pavlyuchenko drilling in the opener. Fraizer Campbell then got his first goals in a Spurs shirt when he clipped home before heading in from 12 yards. Damien Plessis and Sami Hyypia headed in replies for Liverpool after Heurelho Gomes wearing Uhlsport Cerberus Absolutgrip Moulded made errors yet again, but Pavlyuchenko tapped in his second in between to wrap it up the win for the north london club. This was an excellent performance from new manager Redknapp’s side that have been rejuvenated almost beyond recognition under the new man, and now only 3 matches now stand between the north Londoners and a return to Wembley where they won the trophy last season.
Liverpool may point to the fact that their side featured 7 changes to the side that won at the weekend. In goal for Liverpool was Diego Cavalieri who now wears Umbro goalkeeper gloves.
Else where saw money bags Chelsea go out on Pens 5.4 to Championship side Burnley at the Bridge. Carlo Cudicini started in goal for Chelsea wearing Uhlsport Cerberus Supersoft Roll
Other Results: Sunderland 1 Blackburn Rovers 2
Martin Sanders is the Retail Manager at Great-Save.com. Martin mixes his day between helping customers on the telephone, designing eye-catching advertising campaigns and producing our product photography.
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Martin
Who do you believe is the best goalkeeper in the Premiership? I’m from Newcastle so I’m biased to wor Shay!! Also, what are your favourite gloves?
Cheers
David
p.s. love your website blog!
The best keeper for me has to be between 2: Petr Cech & Shay Given, i did a interview for great-save magazine a few years back with Shay Given, and what a great guy he was, no question was a problem, Cech is is class act too, brave and his reflex’s are quality. I think we are so lucky with the Premiership, so many top goalkeepers at the moment, Paul Robinson is coming back into good form, i thought he looked good on Sunday when they played Chelsea at Ewood, also some good young keepers around too, Joe Hart is a class act as well as Ben Foster at Manchester United. Capello will have a good choice of keepers to pick from over the next few seasons.
As for gloves i am a fan of anything that has somthing new! i kind of get fed up with all of the same! same back hand diffrent colour! I love to see Brands trying new things, new cuts, fits, and most of all technology, to be honist there are some wondeful latexs palms around at the moment, the best has to be the Sells Adhesion H20 Ultimate as well and Nike Contact Foam. The Gunn is nice i love the fit and feel, also a huge fan of the Sells Contact Evo range. Puma are up and coming and one of the best gloves i’ve used this season is the King XL.
Thanks again David keep loging on to our blog, its great to get coments and questions.
Kind Reagrds Martin
Hi Martin, thanks for the replies.
Another English keeper in great form is Chris Kirkland, his display the other night was out of this world!
When I was the school goalkeeper in the very late 70’s (I’m 42 now) my mam used to buy me Uhlsport gloves from Sukan Sports! Phil Parkes was the director. I used to get really excited when the parcel arrived in the post! My favourites where these black all foam gloves with a big white Uhlsport logo on the back hand. A similar one came out afterwards with a red palm! Nowdays, the technology is just amazing! I shall check out the Sells Adhesion H20 Ultimate.
Regards
David