By FRANCO PANIZO
Brek Shea is off to a promising start, even if his new club can’t say the same.
Just days after finalizing a loan move to Birmingham City in an effort to earn consistent playing time, Shea was handed a start by the club in Saturday’s showdown against Leeds United. Shea made good on manager Lee Clark’s faith, assisting on the opener in what was an eventual 1-1 draw at St. Andrew’s Stadium.
Shea, deployed on the left, hit a strong pass in the 37th minute that Wesley Thomas received and buried home to put the hosts in front. Unfortunately for the Blues, they surrendered an equalizer 14 minutes before the final whistle and now have a subpar 1-2-3 record that has them in 19th place in the Championship.
The 24-year-old Shea was not on the field when Birmingham conceded. He lasted until the 67th minute before being subbed out, an understandable development given that the U.S. Men’s National Team winger’s last club match came in March while on loan at Barnsley.
Fellow American Jonathan Spector made a late cameo off the bench and contributed 11 minutes for the Blues while young Will Packwood was not in uniform.
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What did you think of Shea’s debut? Encouraged by the assist and performance? Will his confidence skyrocket now that he has had a promising first match?
Share your thoughts below.
Really people? Did any of you hating (or praising for that matter) actually evben take the time to watch the match? Clearly that question was rhetorical….
I see both sides here: For those praising it’s not smart to assume the whole match he played well just from getting an assist, as that won’t always be the case, however in this match it was accurate..
For those hating: GET A LIFE!!! to say he looked awful and his touch was bad is a horrendous judge of the match which clearly shows it’s all simply out of hatred. The lad had only been with the team for a few days, had 1 full training session, started, and within his first 45 had an assist, that in itself is impressive, not mention the movement he and the goalscorer had off the ball with pass and go movement which leads to a goal, IMPRESSIVE… two shots on goal (one a long range strike and the other a nice header jsut over the bar but beat the keeper), IMPRESSIVE…. highest rated player on most sites for BCFC and MOTM honours on multiple sites for BCFC, IMPRESSIVE…. the lads were impressed, the manager was impressed, BCFC fans were impressed, yet fans (fair-weather) supporters of hsi own country hate??? come on people…
Great showing Brek, baby steps for regain that form!!!
I think he looked bad. His touch left him. Unfortunately, his replacement was a terror. Gray will be starting before too long. Maybe Brek will improve with more minutes, but feel his minutes will evaporate soon.
thanks for reminding me again to stop reading comments.
I was pleasantly surprised with Shea. Looked lively and his assist was good. Thought he was the best player on the pitch in the first half. Tired in the 2nd and apparently started cramping so was taken off but the manager said he had expected that.
As for Packwood, it is a depth thing with BCFC at center back. The CB captain of the team has been relegated to the bench and they can only really have one center back on the bench due to less subs in the Championship so Will is relegated to the developmental squad. with
Hard to ask for more. Good job Shea.
Thanks bryan. Coach Jurgen said we’d have a pizza party if I did a good game so yeah you should come.
My favorite pizza topping is pepperoni.
Well you enjoy that ppepperoni pizza
Looked terrible, seem out-sync with the poor passing. Maybe regain his fitness in couple some months.
eh, i thought he looked alright; certainly not terrible. definitely could work a little better with his teammates, but he’s only been there for a couple days.
And yet hear his assist was brilliant?
Haters gonna hate.
Yeah, I have never understood why people hold grudges against players. Brek played quite well for his first start in ages.
What hate? Shea was terrible, I understand Shea is full bench-rust, I won’t pretend Shea was amazing because of the assist.
What hate? lol Hmm maybe the hate your throwing at him right now. His first game and he gets an assist and you use the term terrible. Then he needs to play terrible more often in your term
He clearly wasn’t terrible. I kind of doubt you even saw the match.
he could’ve just seen the second half–shea was definitely struggling then.
The manager disagrees with you – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0xJ-Gt9M4s
He looked pretty good in the first half but wore down in the second. Didn’t seem to have the final burst he needed to go past defenders, maybe because of fitness. He worked hard, though. His passing was a little hit and miss but not awful. His main flaw was his air game. He had a lot of chances in the air. If he can refine that part of his game, he can pick up a few more goals and assists.
Well, SBI commentators are known for their hyperbole, but I’ll go with the law of averages and deduce he probably wasn’t “terrible.” Sounds more like an average performance, which is better than expected considering how little he’s played lately and how bad he was for the Nats the other week. Plus, he had a crucial impact on the match.
Only thing that seems terrible here is your analysis.
nice. But where is the match day running commentary post?
It’s buried about 6 posts down already, but it’s there.
oh, thanks. And yet posts from long before show up at the top. Seems to happen here often.
Awesome Brek!! But does anyone YET know what has happened to Will Packwood??
Who?
I always hear this name and I’ve never seen him play a single minute.
Well he started most games last season but none this season. Went from first team starter to reserve team. He’s very young though.
promising young cb. he made a name for himself at birmingham last season, consistently putting in solid performances. it’s really annoying that he’s not getting any minutes this season (so far).
There are DC United ads at the Tottenham – Sunderland game. Wow.
i think dcu and sunderland have some sort of partnership; can’t remember exactly what it entails.