Top Stories

Fulham vs. Chelsea: Your Running Commentary

Dempsey (Getty Images)

Clint Dempsey is in fine form for Fulham, having scored four times in his last six matches. He'll try to add to that tally Monday afternoon as the Cottagers host Chelsea in a West London derby (2:55 p.m., ESPN2/ESPN3.com).

The match is notable for other reasons than just Dempsey being involved. It is also Fernando Torres' second game since joining Chelsea on transfer-deadline day, and he is getting the start in place of Didier Drogba atop the Blues' 4-2-3-1 formation. The Blues' other new signing, David Luiz, is starting aside John Terry in central defense.

With a victory, Fulham would vault into the top half of the Premier League table. Chelsea needs the three points in order to keep its thin hopes of another league title alive and also to keep pace with Tottenham in the race for a 2011-2012 UEFA Champions League berth.

If you will be watching the match, please feel free to share any thoughts, opinions and some play-by-play in the comments section below. Enjoy the action.

Comments

  1. They are making excuses. He was tired is a poor excuse. Drogba came in to early, etc all excuses. Those saying he shouldn’t have taken it, are probably right.

    And that post was aimed more at the posts above, mine just after the tired/ Drogba posts

    Reply
  2. Altidore couldn’t draw a penalty against the sisters of the poor. His first touch would have betrayed him and it would have been goal kick.

    Reply
  3. Fair enough. Obviously they were parking the bus for the draw. But for a good amount of time there Fulham couldn’t even complete one pass.

    Reply
  4. Who had blinders on? All the comments are people saying it wasn’t a good penalty, that he was tired, that someone else should have taken it, etc. One person said they’ve seen those go in before (which is true, it happens all the time)

    Reply
  5. yep. Firstly i think research has shown the guy who was just fouled for the penalty is more likely to miss than someone else, secondly Dempsey was clearly drained. Cooler heads should have prevailed and Gudjohnsen or Gera probably should have taken it.

    Reply
  6. Terrible penalty.

    Down the middle and he converts, in the corner he converts. He put it right in the no-no spot 1/4 into the net.

    Terrible.

    Reply
  7. The real story of this game is how misused Torres is. These past two games have been a serious black eye to the season and coaching career of Ancelotti.

    Drogba was worse than Torres, and the Chelsea attack was non-existent after Torres was taken off.

    Reply
  8. I’m thinking it’s because Deuce took one recently against Stoke, and if I’m a Fulham player (not named Danny Murphy) then I don’t think I wanna try to convince Clint to let me take it.

    Reply
  9. I have to say that as a Midfielder today, Deuce was ok. Kind of like with the US team, when they moved him up to striker, he got more into the game. He was a big part of the game after they took off Johnson, and put him up front. Overall, I’d give him a 6 (would be 7.5 if he hadn’t missed the penalty).

    Reply
  10. Okay, he could have done better on the penalty. But honestly, penalties are kind of a crap shoot. A lot of it is based on luck, and a whole lot of people don’t make it. Unfortunate that he missed it, but he had a very good game altogether. We’ve seen many worse penalties this season–Cech was still only able to punch this one away.

    If the ref had been watching closely enough, I think it should have been retaken, anyway.

    Reply
  11. I wouldn’t say completely down the middle.

    If you were to say the left post (from Clint’s perspective) was 0 and the right post was 100, and the middle was 50. Then I’d say dempsey probably hit it at the 30 or 35

    Reply
  12. Ok guys we need to take the good ol’ USA blinders off (stop making excuses for a beloved USMNT player)… That was a horrendous PK. He earned the penalty, but my god that was bad.

    Reply
  13. Tough break for Dempsey after a great play. When it comes to PKs, it seems like going top shelf is always a better bet, because even if the keeper guess the right way to jump, he usually can’t stop it if it’s in the top half of the net. Of course, easier said than done.

    Reply
  14. Okay I didn’t watch the game, but from ESPN’s gamecast it looks like he pretty much went down the middle, but some of the peeps above are saying Drogba was pretty much 2 yards from Deuce by the time Clint took the shot, so shouldn’t it been retaken?

    Reply
  15. Yeah but if anybody other than Deuce takes it then we’d have had a meltdown on these boards. Unfortunate that he missed it after he did well to earn it(questionable or not)

    Reply
  16. Fresh legs should have taken it. Dempsey was exhausted and Cech is no slouch. But I also strongly believe that if the guy who drew it wants it he should get it unless the manager says otherwise. Tough break for Demps. Cech guessed and still only pushed it back out.

    Reply
  17. It wasn’t THAT poorly taken of a penalty…there are millions of penalties just like that have scored even when the keeper goes the right way, simply unfortunate in this situation…it could have been a better kick but it was by no means terrible.

    Reply
  18. meh, he played okay. he obviously does a lot well, but there were 3 or 4 50-50 balls he didn’t even try on, which makes fans mental.

    Reply
  19. I thought for sure when he won that that Davies would take it-isn’t he usually the guy who takes it when Murphy is not on the field? Help me out Fulham fans.

    Reply
  20. I agree.

    Droga ran up like he was going to take the penalty itself.

    How that was not called back for encroachment is beyond me.

    Reply
  21. Unlucky for Dempsey. Taking a penalty in the 93rd minute in a game like that can’t be easy.

    And I highly doubt it’ll hurt his confidence. Dempsey has been around awhile.

    Reply

Leave a Comment