The City party are returning to Cardiff today after a week in Austria which seems to have gone well in terms of preparedness and team bonding for the new season and results against three opponents that were, Kortrijk apart perhaps, a step up from what we’d faced beforehand were perfectly acceptable – i thought, generally speaking, performances were promising as well.
Before going on the the matches played over the past five days against Hamburg, South African multi times Champions Mamelodi Sundowns and Hertha Berlin, the only hint regarding new signings this week came from the manager himself as Erol Bulut, speaking after the Sundowns game on Tuesday, said that he was hopeful of bringing in two, possibly three, new signgings before the week was out.
I have to say that, as yet, there has been nothing to justify the manager’s optimism. However, it is being claimed on one of the City messageboards that there is a medical taking place today for Man City’s twice capped Australian international midfield player Alex Robertson who we have been linked to for the last few weeks.
I’ve seen nothing anywhere else about Robertson having a medical and so I think it’s very much take it with a pinch of salt for now, but what has become pretty clear is that there is something to these rumours of our interest in the player, hence why I’ve broken what has been a rule I’ve tried to stick to this summer (I’ve not always succeeded mind!) of not going into details about transfer rumours until they have something concrete to them.
To return to the games played in Austria, City gained what I’ll call revenge for their heart breaking Cup Winners Cup Semi Final defeat by Hamburg fifty six years ago by beating them 3-0 on Sunday.
Hamburg are very much in the fallen giants category currently as they are finding returning to the Bundesliga much tougher than they would have expected to when they were relegated in 2018, but, to be fair to them, their comprehensive defeat probably had a lot to do with them having faced Nantes, of all teams, the day before – I checked the Hamburg side which faced StPauli in the derby game in May when ex City man Robert Glatzel scored the only goal and there were two or three members of that team in from the start against us.
Glatzel was not one of them, apparently he was injured, and Hamburg did look pretty toothless without the man who has scored 63 times in 100 Hamburg league appearances. It was all pretty low key in the first half as City struggled to make chances themselves in the opening forty five minutes, but, not for the first time on the tour, the introduction of substitutes who generally tended to be younger than the players they were replacing livened things up.
Soon after the interval, Jamilu Collins, City’s best player in the eyes of many who watched the match, crossed to the far post where Ollie Tanner scored with a simple header. Once ahead, City took a degree of control and it was two of the younger substitutes who combined when Joel Bagan played a long ball out from the back (and it was a pass as opposed to a hoof) which enabled Isaak Davies to sprint clear of the last defender and shot calmly past the keeper.
It was a real reminder of what Davies might be able to give us this season – certainly, I don’t think we had anyone capable of scoring that goal last season and therefore the number of options facing anyone trying to play the ball up to our forwards was reduced.
The scoring was completed by Callum Robinson who netted from twelve yards from a half cleared corner in the closing minutes and, without creating that many chances, City had been able to add three more goals to the ten they’d scored in their previous two matches against Kortrijk and Pen y Bont.
Mamelodi Sundowns on Tuesday represented a step up in class though and, by the end, City could probably consider themselves a little fortunate to come out of a testing afternoon with a 1-1 draw. The Sundowns have been South African Champions for the last seven seasons and had a speed and effective press to them that marked them out as definitely Championship standard to me,
City went with a younger looking starting line up and, as they did in all three matches, offered little in the way of a goal threat in the first 45 minutes. The Sundowns were the team on the front foot most of the time, but, in truth, although I found it an interesting watch in many respects, there was not a great deal of goalmouth action throughout.
Joel Colwill had played at right back in the first half, but the half time introduction of Ronan Kpakio and Cian Ashford (both of whom have done themselves no harm at all in the last week I’d say) enabled him to move into his normal central midfield role for the second period and, just as against Hamburg, City had a goal to celebrate within a couple of minutes of the restart as Ashford fed Colwill who scored from fifteen yards with an assured left foot finish.
City were quite comfortable after that until around the seventy minute mark when the Sundowns seemed to step up a gear and put us under increased pressure. Ironically though, the equaliser came via a rapid counter attack after one of City’s best moves of the game – City found themselves short of cover at the back as Collins was sucked into the middle and Tashreeq Matthews was given plenty of room to run into down our left before placing a good shot from the corner of the penalty area across Ethan Horvarth, who was making his first appearance of the season and into the corner of the net.
The tour ended with another 1-1 draw yesterday. Although not quite the historical force that Hamburg have been in German football, Hertha are a side that I always tend to associate with the Bundesliga, but they did no better than a mid table finish in Germany’s second tier last season after being relegated in 22/23.
Like Hamburg, Hertha had the excuse of having played a game not long before this one. Indeed, they’d been beaten 2-1 by Huddersfield at a different venue in the area only a few hours later – this would explain why yesterday’s match was watch by Cardiff and Hertha fans, plus a small number from Yorkshire!
Therefore, once again, we were probably faced by something which was some way short of Hertha’s strongest team, just as had been the case against Hamburg, but that was counterbalanced to an extent by the fact that the Bundesliga 2 season starts next weekend, so both Hamburg and Hertha were probably quite a bit further down the fitness path than we are currently,
That said, it was noticeable yesterday how we finished the match much stronger than Hertha and, if we had been somewhat fortunate to draw with the Sundowns, the same applied in reverse to Hertha – it certainly felt like a game we were going to win if it had lasted for an extra ten minutes.
As it turned out, City were behind for about ninety per cent of the match. However, it was us who threatened first as Davies and Aaron Rmasey combined well and the Hertha keeper had to turn the former’s shot over the bar.
Within minutes, the Germans had the lead as a corner was half cleared, Tanner was beaten too easily out on the left and the resultant cross was headed in firmly from eight yards by Linus Gechter.
The goal apart, there was little between the sides and the next hour or so passed with chances at a premium, but with a feeling that City were, gradually, taking a measure of control. In saying that, they would have been two down midway through the second half were it not for a fine clearance off the line by Mark McGuinness.
By then, both of our summer signings had come on for their first action in City colours. Calum Chambers came on for the last half an hour and made an impression by moving into midfield twice as City looked to develop attacks, while Chris Willock had a promising twenty minutes as he was instrumental in gaining a string of corners as City stepped up the pressure.
Rubin Colwill made a difference as well in the final quarter of an hour or so as he became an influential performer in the middle of the park, but it was on the flanks where he proved most dangerous as his cross led to a header by McGuinness which was turned over the bar by the keeper and then from the result corner, Colwill eventually crossed and David Turnbull’s shot was blocked into the path of Robinson who jabbed in from six yards with a minute to go.