Cardiff City v AFC Bournemouth

billythekid

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AFCB Will Need To Prepare For An Aerial Battle

A hard fought battle on Tuesday against QPR resulted in a 2-1 victory and two home wins in a row for AFCB. Our next game is a trip to Wales to play Cardiff City on Saturday at 3 pm. This will be a different test for our team facing a side who like to get crosses into the box from open play, set pieces and long throws for their three big players. Central defenders, 6’ 4” Sean Morrison, 6’ 6” Aden Flint and up front, 6’ 5” Kieffer Moore, 8 of the 11 Bluebird’s goals have come from headers this season.

The experienced Mick McCarthy is now in his first full season as the Cardiff City manager, having taken on the job in January this year. He started his new job last season with two draws, then his side had a purple patch with 6 wins in a row (1 FA Cup) and the last of those wins was at Dean Court, City moved into the last play-off place replacing the Cherries with both sides having the same number of points and goal difference, only City had scored more goals. After this that good run of results turned into a mix of wins, draws and defeats, Cardiff City finishing the season in 8th position, 2 places and 9 points behind AFCB.

This season the Bluebirds started off the new season with a home 1-1 draw against Barnsley. This was followed by two away games, first at the seaside town of Blackpool, this resulted in Cardiff’s City’s first win of the season 0-2. Next game was at Peterborough and it finished in a 2-2 draw. Then it was followed by two homes games, a 3-1 win against Millwall and their first defeat of the season against Bristol City 1-2. Then followed two more away games, a 1-2 win against Nottingham Forest and Wednesday evening a 1-0 away defeat against Coventry City.

Our last away games against Cardiff City was in October last year where both sides shared the points in a 1-1 draw. AFCB took the lead with a goal from Dominic Solanke assisted by Jack Stacey in the 35th minute, this was how it stood at half-time. In the second half our old loanee from Liverpool, Harry Wilson in his first start, equalised for City.

In our away league games against Cardiff City, AFCB have W 2, D 7, L 9.
All competitions, AFCB have W 18, D 12, L 15.

Cardiff City Team News
Players who missed the Coventry City away game through injury or illness, Leandro Bacuna, Ryan Giles and Joe Ralls. Isaac Vassell and Lee Tomlin have had setbacks from their returns from long term injuries.

Cardiff City Player To Watch
After watching City away game at Nottingham Forest, defender Aden Flint is a real handful, especially in the air and is leading scorer with 4 headed goals. Last season Kieffer Moore was their leading scorer in the league with 20 goals, this season he has been coming off the bench more than starting. He certainly made a difference in the Forest game with City losing 1-0, had a hand in both goals, one an assist, for the young 19-year-old midfielder player Rubin Colwill who came on at the same time as Moore and scored two good goals with his left foot, was MOM and one to watch for the future.

AFCB Team News
Everybody it seems came through the game on Tuesday night without any problems, so Scott Parker has a strong squad to pick from as he picks a side to combat the aerial threat of Cardiff City.

AFCB Player To Watch
This gets harder to pick as there are a few candidates, the young pairing of Jaidon Anthony and Jordan Zemura. Also Dominic Solanke leading the line and scoring goals. Our defence to see how they cope with the aerial threat of Cardiff City.
 
From my Cov mate who went last night:

They had nothing but long balls, long throws, free kicks and corners. Dealt with the hoof, the physicality, and fouls

A funny stat: we only made 3 fouls all game, but we got 2 yellows and a straight red for them. They made 15 fouls and got 1 yellow
 
9 out of the 11 who started against Coventry City are 6’ or more, the other two are ‘shorties’ at 5’ 11”.
 
I'll give Mick a ring then if that is the only criteria.
I can lumber along with the best of them.
 
Josh Smith is the referee.

AFCB have never had him before, Cardiff City did in their League Cup game at home against Sutton U.

He normally refereed lower league games.

https://www.efl.com/clubs-and-compe...fficials/referee-profiles-201920/josh-smith-/

https://www.soccerbase.com/referees/referee.sd?referee_id=2324&season_id=154

Anyone has to be better than that fat prick Jon Moss. H was a joke last time I went there in that set up 2-0, post Sala memorial match.
 
Look at it in another way : our speedy forwards could have a field day up against these lumbering giants!
Coventry killed them with the speed of their transitions .... O'Hare kept finding pockets of space and exploiting the fact that the Cardiff players were very slow to get back into their defensive shape....I mean painfully slow!.... Cardiff will probably sit a bit deeper against us but we should definitely be looking to break quickly from any set piece they have.
 
They are at home this time where they have lost against Bristol City and beat Millwall and drew with Barnsley.

They also scored in every home league game.

Might be different in front of the home crowd.

Be an interesting game after Barnsley and QPR.
 
Does anyone know how many we're taking? I know it's sold out but couldn't see anywhere where it stated how many the allocation was...?

Should be a decent game... a winnable game if we're 'on it'... But as has been the case for so many years, we never seem to know if we're going to be 'on it' or not...
 
Does anyone know how many we're taking? I know it's sold out but couldn't see anywhere where it stated how many the allocation was...?

Should be a decent game... a winnable game if we're 'on it'... But as has been the case for so many years, we never seem to know if we're going to be 'on it' or not...
I think the figure given was just over 1300.
 

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