riday morninriday mornin | Forum
123
Apr 4 '19
West Hams top-four hopes suffered a blow after they were beaten 4-1 by Swansea on Saturday in the penultimate game to be played at Upton Park. Air Max 270 Cheap Wholesale . A victory for the Hammers would have taken them within two points of fourth-placed Manchester City, but a rampant Swansea sprung a shock through goals from Wayne Routledge (25), Andre Ayew (31), Ki Sung-yueng (51) and Bafetimbi Gomis (90+3) .Stephen Kingsleys own-goal (68) had briefly reduced the deficit for West Ham, who remain in sixth place after suffering their first home defeat since the end of August. Swansea move up two places to 11th after claiming their first victory in east London for 60 years. West Ham will play their final match at Upton Park on Tuesday night when they take on Manchester United, live on Sky Sports 1 HD. Slaven Bilic praised Swanseas approach to the game but criticised his side for playing like passengers Slaven Bilic made two changes to the West Ham team that won 3-0 at West Brom last Saturday, with Darren Randolph and Victor Moses coming in for Adrian and Diafra Sakho, and he was initially rewarded with a positive start. Dimitri Payet came close to opening the scoring inside three minutes, but his curling effort from the edge of the box was turned behind by Lukasz Fabianski. Swansea winger Modou Barrow gets to the ball ahead of West Ham midfielder Chiekhou Kouyate The France international continued to be a threat for West Ham and went close again after 18 minutes, firing a free-kick just over the crossbar. But, against the run of play, Swansea broke the deadlock and stunned a boisterous home support into silence. Ki and Kyle Naughton combined to great effect with the latter delivering a fabulous first-time ball across the six-yard box for Routledge to tap home. Francesco Guidolin thought Swansea were excellent in their 4-1 win but refused to answer any questions regarding his future From then on, Swansea grew in confidence and were soon 2-0 up. Kingsley, one of six changes made by Francesco Guidolin, picked out Ayew inside the 18-yard box and the forward made no mistake, crashing his effort past Randolph. West Ham briefly threatened to pull a goal back before half-time, but Andy Carroll and Manuel Lanzini failed to keep their efforts on target. After the interval, Swansea continued to be the most threatening of the sides and grabbed their third when Ki rattled his volley into the bottom corner of the net following good work on the left flank by the impressive Modou Barrow. Kingsley raised hopes of a West Ham comeback when he inadvertently bundled home from close range after Michail Antonio and Sakho were denied by Fabianski.But Swansea would extend their lead in the closing stages with substitute Gomis slotting his shot into the bottom corner after a neat exchange of passes with Ayew. Pick your team Aguero? Ozil? De Bruyne? Pick your Fantasy Six-a-Side team for the chance to win ￡10,000 Soccer Saturday verdict - Paul MersonI thought Swansea were outstanding, I really did. They picked their passes on the counter attack and they were very ruthless.The atmosphere at the start of the game was absolutely phenomenal, at the end you would have thought it was raining. It was terrible. The fans couldnt believe it, Bilic couldnt believe it.Everybody has one of those games in their locker during the season, I dont care who you are. But to pick this day, and I really do think it was Oh, Swansea have got six changes, well turn these over Match ratingsWest Ham: Randolph (6), Antonio (5), Cresswell (5), Reid (5), Ogbonna (5), Noble (6), Kouyate (5), Moses (5), Lanzini (6), Payet (6), Carroll (5). Subs used: Valencia (N/A), Sakho (6), Emenike (5).Swansea: Fabianski (7), Naughton (7), Fernandez (7), Amat (7), Kingsley (7), Ki (8), Cork (7), Fer (7), Routledge (7), Barrow (8), Ayew (8).Subs used: Rangel (7), Britton (N/A), Gomis (7).Man of the match: Andre Ayew. Air Max 270 Sale Uk . LOUIS -- Valtteri Filppula assisted on three of Tampa Bays four goals, and the Lightning beat the St. Air Max 270 Cheap Online . Vettel was 0.168 seconds faster than Red Bull teammate Mark Webber around the Suzuka circuit. Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg was two tenths of a second off Vettel. "The car balance is decent, but I think we can still improve," Vettel said. http://www.airmax270cheapuk.com/ . -- Ty Montgomery had 290 all-purpose yards and two touchdowns, and fifth-ranked Stanford held on to beat No. RIO DE JANEIRO -- Jaco van Zyl is a professional golfer of modest success, capturing most of his tournament titles in his homeland of South Africa, only briefly able to crack the PGA Tour.Prior to this year, van Zyl had qualified for just three major championships in a 15-year career, not making the cut in any of them.Clearly getting into the games biggest tournaments is the dream, the goal for any golfer. Those who are consistently ranked among the top 50 in the world dont have to worry about their spots in the Masters, U.S. Open, Open or PGA Championship, but the rest of the games players fight and scratch to earn those spots.And that is why a decision van Zyl made this summer was met with amazement: he skipped two major championships for which he was exempt in order to prepare for the Olympic Golf Tournament.If I had to prioritize, this was it for me, van Zyl said of playing the Olympic event. Not to take anything away from majors, but next year there are four more, the year after that there will be four more, 100 years after I retire there will be four more.This was an opportunity. Im not 21 years old anymore. I really wanted to experience it. And I havent regretted for it for one minute.Van Zyl (pronounced van-seel) is 37 and has won 14 times on the Sunshine Tour, the main pro tour in South Africa, with his biggest victory coming at the Telecom PGA Championship, one of four victories in 2009.Two years earlier he had qualified for the PGA Tour, but made just four cuts. And in 2011 he qualified for the European Tour, posting five top-10 finishes. Van Zyl still competes on both the European and Sunshine Tours and earlier this year, for the first time, moved into the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking.That helped him secure spots in the U.S. Open, the Open and the PGA. But after missing the cut at Oakmont, van Zyl headed to the BMW International Open in Germany where he picked up an illness. The following week at the French Open he wasnt any better.With the Open looming and tthe Olympic tournament not far away, he made the decision to pull out of the remaining major championships and focus on the Olympics. Nike Air Max 270 Cheap Uk. . Prior to this week, he had not played competitively since a tie for 62nd in Paris in early July.The majors are ultimately why we play, he said. But this is just something unique. For some of us its a once in a lifetime opportunity.Van Zyls decision is even more amazing when you consider how many male players pulled out of the Olympic tournament. There were 21 eligible who declined a spot, including the top four in the world: Jason Day, Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy.South Africans Louis Oosthuizen, Charl Schwartzel and Branden Grace also declined, opening up a place for van Zyl. Brandon Stone is the other South African golfer in the tournament.What Jaco did was an important statement for golfs future in the Olympics, said Gary Player, 80, the winner of nine major championships who is serving as an advisor for the South African golfers this week. What if he wins a gold medal after sitting out of two major championships to prepare? What a story that would be.I like to think of it as he put his country ahead of himself. He had a chance to win prize money and world ranking points at The Open and PGA Championship, but being able to say you are an Olympic athlete and potentially a medalist for your country is priceless. Hats off to him and all the other golfers in Rio, men and women.Van Zyl will need a big rally to get one of those coveted medals after opening the tournament with an even-par score of 71 and not being able to make up any ground on Friday morning after shooting 74. He is now 3 over through 36 holes.Basically for me this is a big week, van Zyl said. Id like to do well and Id like to play well. Whether a medal is there at the end of the week, I just want to walk away having played nicely. ' ' '
Share:
