Now we’re out of coke, can we still get high?

OLAS 428 DECEMBER 26th 2007

So it was first and second blood to Everton in our brace of games against them. Although we competed well, especially in the first 25 minutes of the cup game, Everton looked the team most likely to win. The league game was no contest at all. We fluffed the few clear chances we made and then handed it to them on a plate. The only question in the second half was how long it would take Everton to get their second goal. My general advice to West Ham is: don’t play Everton more than three times a season and especially, don’t play them twice in one week.

But we can learn some lessons from them. Everton defended well in both games – headed clearances usually found their players – they broke with pace, using the wings to put us under pressure, and though they had few clear cut chances in either game they always looked dangerous. The gap in quality was especially evident when it came to the kind of ball pumped into the danger zone, whether from open play, free kicks or corners. I don’t know what Freddie Ljungberg has been doing while resting between occasional appearances but it sure as hell hasn’t been practising taking corners. His efforts from the corner flag in the cup game might have just about succeeded against a team of pygmies but not against Everton’s defence. In the league game Solano’s corners at least put some pressure on Everton. And had Ginger Pele been fully awake he would have profited from one of them that landed right at his feet unmarked 12 yards out.

For all the disappointment other OLAS writers expressed about the cup failure, that night’s efforts look so much better after the wretched league game on Saturday.

On the Wednesday night we showed guile and determination at the start which was justly rewarded with another goal by New King Cole. Cole, Ljungberg and Boa Morte all looked sharp in that initial period but like the bubbles they faded and died as Everton asserted control.

I’ve been critical of Boa Morte and Curbs throughout this season (and half of last season too – now that’s consistency for you) but I have to recognise that at the moment Curbs is getting the best out of him. With his level of aggression in the tackle, he can go over the top, but it puts fear into our opponents, inspires his team-mates and enthuses the crowd. His first touch sometimes lets him down but he has got electrifying pace and if we play to his strengths he can unsettle the best teams. The price for having him in the team though is not having Etherington – which at the moment is difficult call. Ethers lacks the aggression but is a trickier player who can cross well or get to the by line and win corners. In the league game we lacked both Ethers and BM – and it showed.

Literally, the heaviest disappointment on Wednesday was Deano, especially after justifying his starting place with a strong second half performance at Blackburn. He looked very tentative and subdued in the cup game and showed little improvement on the Saturday. He seriously looks like his shorts are weighing him down and anchoring him to the ground.

In both games he won very few headers and those he did he generally failed to direct to another West Ham player. His shooting was mostly aimed at the upper tier of the stands. And when he had the ball on the ground he generally ran into trouble and lost possession cheaply.

Without doubt he has had massive blows to his confidence with two England disappointments but he somehow needs to put that behind him and remind himself that he is a player of enormous talent and potential who should be bossing games. Leaving aside his curiously leaden shorts, It seems that it is much more of a mental attitude problem than an issue of footballing technique.

A lot of us fancied we were on a cup run to Wembley, so how did we actually lose out? Everton’s first goal was well worked and hard to defend against. Their second was the result of an appalling mix-up where Greeny, Gabbs and Upson all had the opportunity to do a safety first action which may have conceded a corner. Having said that, the prospect of freezing my goolies off for another half hour of extra time was not that enticing. And I suspect Everton would have still gone on to win. We only had one further sub we could make – Noble or Spector – they had three quality players raring to go. Who knows? Maybe Noble would have made the difference. It’s hard for him at the moment with Parker and Mullins both playing well and I’m glad he got at least part of a game on the Saturday.

So no Coke for us this year – but full credit to Everton, who, alongside Arsenal, looked the best team to play at Upton Park this year. I’m going to try to forget these two games now, because before then we had been starting to play much more as a team. We’ve got a few tough fixtures looming. If we can intersperse any defeats with good victories we’ll go into 2008 with confidence and some optimism. And when you think about Greeny, Noble, a fully fit Parker, Ashton finding his confidence again, Faubert and eventually Dyer coming back to fitness you can see the core of team that could be pushing for Europe, rather than counting how many points we stand above the drop zone.

Some of you may not have needed to see Gary decked out in fairy lights to have noticed that Christmas is here, and these days more and more people are doing charity gifts. If you are inclined to do this there is a very sound football and health-related charity that I’ve done some work for that would make excellent use of any donations they get. They are called Alive&Kicking (check them out at: www.aliveandkicking.org.uk). Apart from a skeleton staff in a tiny office here, they are based in Africa. They make cheap but good quality, repairable leather footballs, which are sold or donated to schools, youth clubs, orphanages and projects working with street children.

Most footballs on sale in Africa are imported from Asia where they are made mainly for the European market and for your average European park surface – a far cry from the hazardous, rocky surfaces that a lot of kids are learning their skills on in many African towns and villages. For kids in Kenya, when their balls burst they usually can’t afford another so they improvise by making balls out of newspapers and plastic bags tied round with string.

Alive&Kicking use locally sourced leather – cast-offs from a shoe factory bought at the market price – for their footballs and also make volleyballs and netballs. Each ball is stamped with preventative health messages about the three biggest killer diseases locally – HIV/AIDS, Malaria and TB – which young people are particularly vulnerable to. The pace at which these health problems are rising often outstrips the pace at which effective health education can be provided. So Alive and Kicking are trying to find alternative spaces as well as schools where kids can be exposed to effective health education. They have enlisted the support of locally famous African footballers, boxers (women and men) and athletes to support their health education work.

They started in Nairobi where Adidas used to have a factory but Adidas moved to find even cheaper labour elsewhere. Alive&Kicking took on around 15 unemployed football stitchers and paid them to train up job-seekers from Nairobi’s slum areas. They now have two cooperative factories supporting around 100 workers in Nairobi, and similar operations are starting up in Zambia and South Africa – where the next World Cup will be played. Here in London, Alive&Kicking are developing a website to enable young people here to learn about kids their age in Africa and think about the idea that every child in the world has the right to play. I’m sure they will appreciate anything you can give.

And if you do give - let them know you’re a Hammer. I’ve been in Africa – East and South – a few times in recent years, and will be there again as you are reading this, as my treat for reaching 50 years on Planet Earth (42 of them an Upton Park aficionado). The English premiership is big out there but the most popular premiership teams in Africa are Arsenal, Man U and Chelsea. In South Africa there has long been a place called “East London” (without the geezers, though), and I think it’s time to put our East London’s team on the map of the continent where the world’s best footballing geezers will be coming in 2010.

To Gary, my co-writers and readers, whatever you are celebrating at this time of year – Christmas, Chanukah, Eid, Winter Solstice, Spurs being 4 lovely points below us in December, their “England’s number 1” having let in nearly 30 goals so far…have a good one. Let’s get high(er) in 2008!