Tag Archives: wigan

Meet Roger Espinoza — the inside scoop on Latics’ Honduran target

Posted by Ned in News, Other, Specials and tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

2012-roger

As today’s news reports have all but confirmed the signing of Honduran Roger Espinoza, we thought we’d seize the opportunity to introduce him through a Kansas-tinted lens. Though familiar on this side of the pond for his star turn in the summer olympics, the midfielder is a far cry from Wigan’s typical Latin American recruits.

Born in Puerto Cortes, Honduras, Espinoza moved the United States at the age of 12, where he has resided since — becoming a citizen in the process. He played collegiate (university-level) football for Yavapai College before transferring to the much bigger Ohio State Buckeyes, where he was identified as a talent and selected in the “draft” by the Kansas City Wizards.

He has since made more than 100 appearances over a four-season span for the club — now known as Sporting Kansas City — and amassed 25 for his native Honduras since his first call-up in 2009, not including the four for the olympic squad this past summer.

Not only will Espinoza become the fourth Honduran to don Wigan Athletic colours — strengthening the ever growing bond between our club and the central american country — he also arrives with fluent English, a huge advantage over his countrymen. As one Wigan supporter humorously, if somewhat inaccurately pointed out, he will be the first “American-sounding” player at the club since Jason de Vos.

When I reached out to the independent supporters club, the KC Cauldron, their response was warm and swift. Latics supporters know a thing or two about losing quality players for little or no money, and the feeling in Kansas is not unlike what we have experienced so many times in the past — sadness and resignation, mixed with pride and genuine wishes for the player to succeed on the big stage.

Without further ado, the words of James Starritt, who writes and speaks about Sporting Kansas City on the web and local radio, on sportingtimes.net and kicktheball.us — and has been thoroughly impressed by Roger in his four years at the club.

A frenzy of crunching tackling and combative running

“Roger is a fantastic player who has shown enormous capacity to grow over the last few years. As is typical for MLS he was played out of position for a while — on the flanks early — before being converted to full-back. He didn’t do well, and was a fairly average presence until Honduras popped him into central midfield, and he immediately carved out some fantastic performances. An injury crisis in the middle in 2011 forced a similar move shortly afterwards from Sporting Kansas City, and in his first game he simply dominated the entire midfield, scoring a goal, and breaking up opposition possession in what I can only describe as a frenzy of crunching tackling and combative running. He has never looked back.

If you watched Paul Ince, David Batty or Roy Keane back the days, he is cut from that mold. He is passionate and dominant when he is on his game, and he leaves everything he has on the field. He thrives on the competition, and seems to get stronger as games go onwards. He is very, very consistent. If he can play … he is on.

He is very dangerous around either area, breaking up possession in front of his defense and winning it back around the top of the opponents box. He is ideal sitting right between a defensive midfielder and an attacking/creative one — at least at this level. He can drop back into defensive midfield comfortably, however. He is not terribly dynamic going forward but he does create chances for other players to play around him simply by winning the ball and pressuring people into mistakes, he won’t make goals, you’ll still need players to capitalize on the possession he wins for that. If he can raise his game to BPL levels, Wigan should see more of the ball just having him out there. He is a decent passer, he won’t score many goals, but I think he will only improve with better players around him.

The transfer will go through, goodbyes have been said – I see no reason that he will not pass the medical. He may be a little beaten up after a long season but nothing stands out as problematic long-term that should prevent this going through. Pay will not be an issue either as he is on less than £80,000 currently … annually. The only question is whether he can handle the step up in level … what you get with Roger is a guy who will die trying. He is 26 now but players start later in MLS (they go to college/university and then play…) he is still learning and growing and doesn’t have 8 years of time on his legs. He’ll earn his share of yellows and reds… it is just the nature of his play, he isn’t malicious or dirty but if he dives in, he is going all in. You’ll get no histrionics, no diving – he goes down and bounces right up and gets right back into the game, not much complaining, no drama off the field, and he is a nice guy to talk to – he won’t have problems fitting in with the squad unless he struggles to feel at home within Wigan itself.

If he can handle the BPL I think he has the capacity to be a bit of a fan favorite, maybe not a huge star but a good solid pro who you’ll miss when he isn’t out there. We certainly will.”

Is there ever a good time to play a good team?

Posted by Ned in Match Previews, News, Specials and tagged with , , , , ,

The business of writing match previews is a repetitive one. Who starts, who misses out, what happened last time and what tactical approach might lead us toward a path of destruction and misery. Hardly original stuff.

But while fans may rejoice at the absence of the opposition’s star striker, or brace themselves when their three natural centre halves are set to miss out through injury, one such pre-game quandary causes more tossing and turning than others: is this a good time to play them?

There is no denying that form influences matches. Confident players are willing to take risks, confident teams are more likely to recover from setbacks, match fitness and sharpness are hugely important. So good form is almost always a good thing.

But lets take Newcastle, in terrible form by their standards. A squad of talented internationals that hyper-achieved last season but have struggled with injuries and morale this time around. A squad that thought they had three points in the bag at the rowdy cauldron that is Stoke’s Britannia Stadium before two smash-and-grab strikes in the last ten minutes spoiled the party and sent them home sad once again.

They are like a wounded animal, out for revenge. They may be in poor form, but will be fired up, out to reverse the curse in front of their rabid home supporters. Who, by the way, will be thinking, “Well, we got robbed at Stoke, but that was always a tricky fixture. Wigan at home next: that should get the good times rolling again!”

And so, is this a good time to play Newcastle?

The Optimist: Yes. They’ll be fired up and throw everything at us in the first 20 minutes. But if we can keep them at bay, the crowd will get on their backs, they’ll start to rush things, and errors will creep into their play. They’ll be under pressure to win convincingly and leave space at the back for our speedy strikers to exploit.

The Pessimist: No. They’ve got a squad full of talented players, returning from injury, who feel they were robbed at Stoke. The focus will be on eliminating the defensive lapses that cost them those points at the Brittania. Pappis Cisse scored on his return to the squad. They have 5-6 players with something to prove, and any of them could win the game for them. We’ve had it.

Case closed, clearly.

What side of the fence do you fall on? Leave us a comment here or on Facebook.

Return to Alcaraz, please

Posted by Ned in News, Other and tagged with , , , ,

Despite the current glut of injuries at the DW, and the efforts of the competent and ever-improving Ivan Ramis, this young season’s biggest blow is nothing new. In fact, it is the same as last year’s — Paraguayan centre-back Antolin Alcaraz.

While the Martinez-era Latics have never had a particularly strong goal-scoring record, the team has achieved remarkable results when the back line has been fully fit. In contrast to Gary Caldwell and Maynor Figueroa, who rarely miss a game, Alcaraz has sat out significant amounts of football. Put simply, when he has been out of the team, form has ranged from erratic to poor. His fitness problems (and later, suspension) last year coincided with the club’s worst ever run of form and kept him out until December. While results have been a bit better this season, the defence has been leaky without him and particularly weak in the air. His return should coincide with a tightening of the rearguard and positive run of results much as it did a year ago.

With two other centre-backs ruled out for the City fixture, his return cannot come soon enough. His performances in the early season pre-injury were strong — excellent in distribution and strong in his defending. He enjoys excellent understanding with Gary Caldwell, Maynor Figueroa and Emmerson Boyce, who he has now played with for three years, and should do well with the also Spanish-speaking Ramis. More than a month ago, Martinez reported that he was back training with the team and approximately two weeks away from action. Little has been heard since.

The question is — assuming recoveries for Caldwell and Ramis — who will drop to the bench when he does return? Caldwell is the captain and leader at the back. Ramis is now vice-captain and has become an important player in a short amount of time. And Figueroa offers balance and tactical versatility with his ability to push wide as left-back or into the wingback position. Who would you drop?

Injuries and suspensions are likely to make this a non-issue. But with all three natural centre-backs out at present, it will be interesting to see how Martinez shifts his lines. A return to four at the back for the City fixture should not be discounted as the Spaniard used one in the corresponding fixture last year. Or will Lopez be given a chance alongside Boyce and Figueroa after impressing against Reading?

Wednesday may come too soon for Antolin, but his return can’t come soon enough.

Twin strikers at Wigan Athletic — a trip down memory lane

Posted by JJ (Tony) in News, Other, Reflections, Specials and tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

1964-65 : Wigan Athletic 3 Oswestry 0. Harry Lyon gets on to a Walter Stanley cross as Carl Davenport lurks menacingly. Allan Brown looks on from midfield (photo from Wigan World). 

In the late 1970s, my Dad and I would typically go out for a beer on Friday nights. We would rarely discuss things like politics or the weather, preferring to focus our conversations on Wigan Athletic’s progress in the Cheshire League. Among our discussions would be recollections of trips to watch Latics in exotic places like Stalybridge, Mossley and Oswestry. We lived in the south of Wigan, rugby league territory, so the pubs around us were steeped in that kind of nostalgia. One of those was ‘The Waterwheel’, run by ex-Great Britain rugby player, John Stopford. In his heyday in the early 1960s Stopford had been a lightning-fast winger for Swinton. Although he never played for Wigan RLFC, Stopford would draw rugby enthusiasts to his pub. We mostly avoided such places, preferring to walk further afield to pubs that were more salubrious for Wigan Athletic supporters.

One rainy night we succumbed, and tried ‘The Waterwheel’. Upon opening the door and the sight of the scrum surrounding the bar we started to think twice about it. There were some burly men there, faces like boxers, some with arms in slings. We were just about to walk out when my Dad said “Look it’s Harry Lyon over there.” It was indeed my hero from my teenage years. Chatting with Harry was easy. He just made you feel comfortable talking with him. Although he had left the club a decade before you could tell that Wigan Athletic was his first love. He said that it was a wonderful feeling running down the tunnel at the start of a game at Springfield Park, with some 3,000 people urging you on.

Harry Lyon was a great favourite with the fans, Wiganers not only appreciating his incredible goalscoring record, but also loving his commitment on the pitch. I asked him who was the best manager he had worked under – he had 5 during his time at the club from 1962-1968 — his reply was Allan Brown. Brown caused waves in the non-league world in 1964 when he took over at Wigan as player/manager, hiring a swath of full time professionals in a semi-professional league. After training, Brown would sometimes take his players to the town centre restaurant where my mother worked. I would be thrilled when she would bring home players’ autographs, usually written on the backs of serviettes.

Brown’s teams played an attacking 4-2-4 with the manager orchestrating from the centre of midfield. Carl Davenport was Lyon’s striking partner in Brown’s first year. Like Lyon he was an excellent header of the ball. I recall going to the Anchor Ground – aptly named at the time, a real quagmire of a pitch – to watch Latics play Darwen in a cup match. My Dad would recall for many years how Davenport had risen so high that his head was well over the height of the crossbar as he put the ball in the opponents net. Although Davenport was often referred to as an inside forward in those days, he was in reality a twin striker with Lyon. No teams found it easy to cope with the two of them. That season Harry Lyon scored 67 goals!

However, when I asked Harry who was the best striking partner he had played with he immediately retorted: Bert Llewellyn. Unlike Carl Davenport, Bert Llewellyn was only 5 feet 4 inches tall. A headed goal was a rarity, but after joining Latics in the summer of 1965, he scored 49 goals in 39 league appearances over the course of the season. Llewellyn was far from an elegant player, but was a natural goalscorer, sniffing around the penalty box for deflections, toe-poking and scrambling the ball into the back of the net. In his four years at Springfield Park, Llewellyn scored 140 goals in 185 appearances in all competitions. Remarkably, he outscored Lyon in his time at the club. Check out this wonderful article on This Northern Soul on Bert Llewellyn.

Since that era there have been lots of twin striking partnerships at Wigan Athletic. What a pity that wonderful pairing of Jason Roberts and Nathan Ellington was broken up when Latics reached the Premier League. How refreshing that Robert Martinez has adjusted his tactical system to play with two big strikers this season. The interplay between Arouna Kone and Franco Di Santo is a joy to watch. It is almost like turning back the clock.

We would love to hear from our readers – which has been your favourite striking partnership at Wigan Athletic?

Tottenham 0 Wigan Athletic 1: Return of the giant-killers

Posted by Ned in Match Reports, News and tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

Wigan Athletic made up for their slow start to the season with an away performance reminiscent of the famous victories at Anfield and the Emirates of last term, climbing to 12th in the league table in doing so.

Tottenham’s starting XI — and indeed the thousands supporting them at White Hart Lane — appeared to approach the fixture as a foregone conclusion ahead of a series of tricky fixtures. Much will be criticized about their performance, but it won’t tell the whole story. While Villas Boas shifted and tweaked throughout and his players huffed and puffed in the second half, Roberto Martinez’s men knew exactly what their gameplan was and executed it to perfection.

In fact, so dominant were the Latics before Ben Watson’s breakthrough, they should have gone at least two or three up. While Gareth Bale was clearly the best player on the pitch, you got the sense that Spurs are at present just a team of expensively assembled individuals, while Wigan look an organized and well-oiled machine.

The Good: 

Roberto Martinez. The second youngest manager in the league put on a tactical masterclass for the youngest. This is the second 1-0 win in three away fixtures at White Hart Lane, against Spurs teams that have hardly struggled for goals. If you go back a fourth fixture, you get to the horrific 9-1 loss in Roberto’s first season. Where most chairmen would have panicked, Dave Whelan kept faith, and Martinez has repaid it. The team showed today it is already — this early in the season despite losing Victor Moses and having to bed in new signings — capable of the form shown that kept us up last year. Which bodes very well indeed.

The defence. Gary Caldwell was immense, as he was in the final stretch of last season. Ivan Ramis, next to him, had a brilliant match save one foul on the edge of the box that might have proven costly on another day. He looks comfortable in the league and tactical system, a quality signing. Figueroa had to cope with Lennon and Bale and got the job done, albeit with the occasional mistimed challenge. Emmerson Boyce, whose attacking play was non-existent, must receive huge praise for his defensive work as well.

Attacking link-up play. There are some excellent partnerships developing between the attacking trio. First, Maloney set up Kone. Then Kone returned the favour. Di Santo was quiet today but has been on the same wave length in recent fixtures. Latics created the five clearest chances of the match.

The Bad: 

Finishing. Both Kone and Maloney, when through with just the keeper to beat, shot straight at him. It comes down to confidence and composure. Both played very well otherwise, but you get the sense they each need a goal to get things going again. Ben Watson, who had an odd match — at times rusty, others very effective and ultimately scoring the winner — missed another sitter by blasting over.

Player Ratings: 

Ali Al-Habsi: 8.5 — Excellent. Held onto a couple stinging shots that other keepers would have spilled. Dominant in the air.

Ivan Ramis: 8.5 — Cracking performance from the Spaniard. Strong and excellent with his distribution. The way the back three knocks the ball around these days is a joy to watch. Very rarely is a ball hacked away in panic.

Gary Caldwell: 9 — Man of the match. Didn’t put a foot wrong, he was dominant. His passing out of the back, under pressure, was fantastic.

Maynor Figueroa: 7 — Had a tough time with Bale and Lennon at times, but got a very difficult job done. Lucky not to be given a yellow card in the first half, which was fortunate as he received one in the second.

Emmerson Boyce: 7.5 — Passing was at times poor and didn’t get forward, but his primary function was defensive. He had Bale to watch for most of the match, and defended well on set pieces.

Jean Beausejour: 8 — In good form. Got forward on several occasions in the first half with some quality deliveries. Neat in footwork as always, and put a real defensive shift in.

James McCarthy: 7.5 — Usual energetic, neat performance.

Ben Watson: 8 — Got the match winner. Going from Bradford to Spurs within the space of a few days must have been an adjustment, and his passing was a little wayward at times. But he was very frequently in the right place at the right time to make defensive interceptions, and stuck the ball in the back of the net — which no one else managed.

Shaun Maloney: 8 — Top class in the first half, buzzing about and creating. Should have scored his one-on-one opportunity. Faded as the team retreated in the second half.

Franco Di Santo: 7 — Couldn’t get going in this one, though he held the ball up well when required. Substituted with 20 minutes to go.

Arouna Kone: 7 — Another promising performance full of dangerous movement and skill but no goal. They’ll come.

Subs: 

Jordi Gomez: Played a couple delicious flicks that Kone and Maloney might have been quicker to pounce on. Drew a couple fouls that eased the pressure. Overall, did the job he was sent on to do quite well.