Our final preseason fixture kicked off at the London Stadium which pre-game saw us announce the signing of Mads Hermansen with the Dane putting pen to paper this morning before the fixture.
Our lineup started as the same we put out against Bournemouth which’ll most likely indicate we will start the season with the same lineup with the exception of perhaps Hermansen taking the number one spot.
A few chances here and there but the first half was fairly dissapointing, a decent chance for Ward-Prowse whom had about 20 corners and free kicks across the entirety of the match which all led to nothing.
In addition to our dismal first half, Giroud would continue his scoring ways against us with a phenomenal acrobatic strike into the top corner… he is 35 so fits the criteria, wondering as to why we didn’t go after him.
The Hammers went into the second half down by 1 but all to play for in order to win the elusive Boyle Sports cup.
We started to look more lively in the second half which saw us create even more chances and persistently put Lille under pressure, apart from one or two close chances, the French side were outplayed in the second half by the unchanged side.
Our breakout would come just after Jarrod thumped the crossbar from a ranged effort, with Soucek driving the ball across the 6-yard box into Fuller who’d end up taking the game to penalties.
Hearts racing as the fans roared to see the Hammers fight for their first silverware of the season, but hearts would stop as Fullkrug’s bottom left corner penalty was saved, leaving Potters side trembling with no more mistakes able to be made.
As all hope was lost, Areola peeled back his memory to remember Hermansen has taken the ‘1’ off Fabianski, and with no Fodderingham in sight, the Frenchman made a superb back to back penalty save to secure West Ham the Boyle Sports cup and give the London Stadium its first of many cheers this season.
However, in all seriousness, it was a fairly poor first half followed by a much better second half and the penalty shootout gives the players some confidence coming into the new season.
The hunt for the midfielder begins and hopefully after Hermansen it’s not stopped, the feeling of needing a new midfielder hasn’t disappeared despite the result.
