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By Tony Attwood
As we expected this was in many ways Arsenal’s backup and youth team members against much of Bournemouth’s first team squad. Arsenal’s lineup for this early-hours (well at least where I live) game was
Karl Hein
White Timber Heaven Lewis-Skelly
M’Hand Partey Nwaneri
Vieira Nkenitah Nelson
And of course there were substitutions if not by the score then at least by the ten…
- Half time Odegaard for M’Hand
- 60 Minutes: Rekik for Timber
- 62 Minutes Jorginho for Partey
- 63 Minutes Zinchenko for Lewis-Skelly
- 63 Minutes: Kiwior for Heaven
- 63 Minutes: Jesus for Nketiah
- 63 Minutes Trossard for Nelson
- 64 Minutes Sagoe for Vieira
- 78 Minutes: Nichols for White
- 84 Minutes Gower for Nwaneria
I am grateful to ESPN and to Arsenal.com for some of the details in what follows.
Eddie Nketiah was the captain. Emile Smith Rowe was on the bench but I am not sure he came on – you may need to help me here, but the reports don’t mention him. I wonder if there was a significance in that – I think we will get more of an idea when we see who plays in the next game.
The result was a 1-1 draw, with Vieira scoring on 17 minutes and Semeyo having a shot deflected into the net on 72 minutes. Arsenal then won the penalty shoot out.
In that subsequent penalty shoot out Odegaard, Zinchenko, Jorginho, Trossard, Jesus and Kiwior all had a go. Trossard missed but the others scored to give Arsenal the match on penalties, 5-4.
There was only one change at halftime (and I suspect this and most of the other changes were planned rather than a response to the flow of the game) wherein Martin Odegaard (who of course hasn’t been playing in silly internationals with accompanying delayed trains or crowd violence in Germany and South America) coming in. After that the ebb and flow of the game was constantly disrupted by the arrival and departure of players.
The Bournemouth goal came after a sort of “lets have a shot and see where it goes because there is nothing else to do” shot hit Ben White and managed just to make it into the net. It wasn’t really Hein’s fault. And indeed the keeper was a star in the shoot out, which further secured his reputation within the club.
Now it must be noted here that there was going to be a penalty shootout no matter what the result because…. well because there was going to be a penalty shootout no matter what the result, and anyway American TV likes it.
But then, as it happened the game was a draw so the shootout could be justified from a European perspective. Odegaard took the lead for Arsenal and scored, and with Bournemouth getting their goal it was, as you might imagine, 1-1 at that point.
But then Hein made a super save for the second penalty and Alex Zinchenko got his goal from the spot and so those with calculators were able to see it was 2-1.
Arsenal then kept the advantage through penalties from Ouattara, Jorginho and Adam Smith (not the one who wrote “The Wealth of Nations”) scored the next three penalties, but Trossard hit the post so the shoot-out went to the fifth penalty.
One could say the tension was mounting, but then one can say anything these days such as the Euros and the South American games were a great organisational success, and of course just saying something doesn’t actually make it true, although the media don’t quite get that.
So at the end Jebbison scored and Gabriel Jesus equalised when to do anything else would have been an Arsenal disaster.
Hein who really did show he is a keeper that Arsenal are going to keep (as it were) and Jakub Kiwior sent the Bournemouth goalkeeper heading in the wrong direction to win the shoot out and indeed the game for Arsenal.
The next game in the tour is once again in Los Angeles but in the SoFi Stadium where the opposition is a certain Manchester United of whom it has been said, and sometimes fairly accurately. Tickets are available. Quite a lot of them apparently.
Young fellow Omar Rekik had a tough day. I’m not sure if it was he who slipped when a Bournemouth player cut in from the right but Hein bailed him out. Then, he tried to dribble out from the back through two defenders and was disposessed leading to the deflected goal. It is difficult to say what was going through his head when he tried to take on two players. Certainly, a defender that can move the ball forward at his feet instead of always passing is a hot commodity, therefore it is possible that he was told to be aggressive in those situations or it could be simply that he felt that this was an opportunity to show his skills and just decided to take the chance.
In both halves we presented an unbalanced side which is to be expected especially in our first preseason friendly. We were more solid at the back in the first half and it was the reverse when Odegaard et al came on later.