November’s Albion International Round Up: Part One
The big news from the first round of November international games was Lewis Dunk becoming just the fourth ever Brighton and Hove Albion player to represent England.
Dunk played the whole 90 minutes as the Three Lions eased to a 3-0 win over the United States at Wembley on Thursday night, following in the footsteps of Tommy Cook, Peter Ward and Steve Foster who also represented the nation.
It was a comfortable evening for the Brighton-born defender as the USA offered little as an attacking threat. Goals from ex-Albion loanee Jesse Lingard, Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold and Plucky Little Bournemouth’s Callum Wilson earned Gareth Southgate’s side victory.
Wayne Rooney appeared for a 33 minute cameo from the substitutes bench in what was the record goalscorer’s 120th and final cap in an England shirt while for Dunk, the fact that the Three Lions didn’t concede meant that he has now recorded clean sheets on both his Brighton debut and his England debut.
Dunk’s defensive partner Shane Duffy also kept a clean sheet as the Republic of Ireland drew 0-0 with Northern Ireland at the Aviva Stadium on the same evening.
A shockingly poor game saw Northern Ireland squander a number of opportunities with Republic goalkeeper Darren Randolph taking home the man-of-the-match award, which says it all.
It was Duffy who had the Republic’s only meaningful effort on goal but his header was saved by the brilliantly named Bailey Peacock-Farrell in the Norn Iron goal.
Down in Australia, Maty Ryan pulled off one of the best saves you’ll ever see as the Socceroos scored a stoppage time equaliser to draw 1-1 with South Korea.
In their first game on home soil for a year, Australia fell behind in the first half to Korea’s only shot on goal as Hwang Ui-Jo slotted a one-on-one coolly past Ryan.
The Albion goalkeeper then flew across the entire length of his goal to claw a Ju Se-Jong free kick out of the top corner in the 71st minute, paving the way for Massimo Luongo to net in the dying seconds with a little help from the video referee.
Gaetan Bong played the full 90 minutes for Cameroon as they were defeated 2-0 away in Morocco in the African Cup of Nations Qualifiers.
Hakim Ziyech scored both goals for the hosts in Casablanca to inflict on Cameroon both their first loss under Clarence Seedorf’s management and their first ever defeat to Morocco.
Also in AFCON Qualifying, it was Percy Tau against Leon Balogun as South Africa and Nigeria played out a 1-1 draw in Johannesburg.
An own goal from South Africa defender Buhle Mkhwanazi gave the Super Eagles the lead before a piece of brilliance from Tau helped to supply Bafana Bafana with the equaliser as the striker flicked the ball past two defenders and burst into the box where he unselfishly crossed for Lebo Mothiba to tap home.
Tau had a good chance of his own but saw his effort well blocked by Samuel Kalu. The point was enough to secure Balogun and the Super Eagles’ place at this summers tournament in Cameroon but it wasn’t much use for both South Africa’s hopes of qualifying or helping Tau’s quest for a British work permit by boosting his nations FIFA World Ranking. They must now avoid defeat in their final group game away in Libya in March to qualify for the finals.
Finally, back in Europe there was a huge 7-0 win for Israel over the might of Guatemala in a friendly. Beram Kayal played the first 55 minutes before being substituted, by which time his side were 4-0 ahead with the Albion midfielder assisting Munas Dabbur for Israel’s fourth just a few minutes prior to his withdrawal.
That continues Kayal’s excellent recent form which saw him finish second in our WeAreBrighton.com October Player of the Month poll. Tomer Hemed was an unused sub.
