INTERNATIONAL SOCCER NEWS: Matchday Explorer: Former Minnesota United Manager Dismantled by Norwich City in FA Cup
- Calum Ewing
- 1 day ago
- 7 min read
NATIONAL SOCCER NEWS: www.nationalsoccernetwork.com
Welcome to the Matchday Explorer, a series that will cover the grounds, clubs, fans and overall away day experiences that make soccer great. In the future, this series will mostly focus on American culture and cities, but for the opening editions, we will review stadiums and matches in the English football pyramid.
For my first exploration, I would have a quick one-day turnover from a nine-hour flight as I packed into a car with my cousins, uncles, and dad for a three-hour road trip. We were driving to the eastern coast of the United Kingdom to visit our favorite club, West Bromwich Albion, away at Norwich City’s Carrow Road for 4th round FA Cup action.
Carrow Road is an interesting stadium overall. It has the outside appearance of a brick apartment building surrounded by apartments old and new. There is barely much room to breathe upon entry, a common theme in English grounds. Once entering the ground, you are welcomed to a large South Stand with good views for traveling supporters, yellow and green seats, and two-tiered East and West stands. The top tier of each went surprisingly high up into the nosebleeds compared to other grounds in the country, but the bottom tiers were packed and close to the action. The East Stand’s lower section was specifically meant for standing, allowing for good banter between home and away supporters only separated by the small space between stands and the Holiday Inn.
Yes, there was a Holiday Inn hotel in the southeast corner of the stadium. I do not know why. A night’s stay costs more money than the ticket price to attend the match, and some of the windows facing the ground are blocked by the main video board. Nevertheless, it is one of the most unique inclusions in a stadium that I have ever seen.
Before kick off, there wasn’t much hope among the away supporters. West Brom were winless in 6 games since the hire of Eric Ramsey as head coach from Major League Soccer’s Minnesota United. This was after the firing of former Tottenham interim and assistant manager Ryan Mason, appointed before the beginning of the season with a final record of 9-5-13. He was the second attempt at replacing fan- favorite coach Carlos Corberan, who left for and now leads Valencia in LaLiga, after legendary former Albion manager Tony Mowbray returned but failed to push the club back to the EFL Championship playoffs (5-5-8 record). Albion made the playoffs under Corberan in 2024, but fell to Southampton 1-3 on aggregate in the semifinal.
Ramsey’s appointment has marked a winless streak that includes a 0-3 loss to relegation favorites Portsmouth, a 0-5 loss at home to Norwich City themselves, and back-to-back scoreless draws. Ramsey has worked hard to try and organize West Brom’s defense, but it was still leaky adapting to an unfamiliar 5-back formation. To Ramsey’s credit, he has attempted to be flexible, shifting to a 4-back formation (seen during this match) and often making many halftime substitutions. However, many of those substitutions have left players out of position, hindering performances. Ramsay has also caught flack for struggles replicating Minnesota’s success on the counter attack and from set pieces. West Brom are not scoring from those positions, with 1 goal in the last 5 games, and they can’t create other scoring opportunities due to issues building out from the back.
Not all of the blame can be put on the head coach. In many games, lack of effort has been extremely noticeable to fans from multiple starters. Also, the club dealt with poor roster decisions by former President and Sporting Director Andrew Nestor (stepped down after 2 years at the beginning of February) during a period where the Albion had to be wary of Financial Fair Play laws (former ownership by Guochuan Lai nearly bankrupted the organization, but WBA was sold in February 2024 to Shilen Patel) and lost Premier League parachute payments. However, Ramsay, known in the MLS for getting the most out of his players, was still getting a lot wrong on the pitch that had put the club into a relegation battle.
This caused the mood in the South Stand, with supporters desperate for a “new manager bounce”.
Norwich fans, on the other hand, felt rather optimistic. Last in the Premier League during the 2021/22 season, the club qualified for the 2024 Championship playoffs alongside West Brom, but fell 0-4 in the second leg and on aggregate to Leeds United. This caused the firing of David Wagner, and his replacement Johannes Hoff Thorup was fired after one average season. To start the year, the Canaries appointed Liam Manning, who led Bristol City to the playoffs in the previous season. Unfortunately, he went 3-3-11 and was fired with the club facing demotion to EFL League One. Former Rangers manager Philippe Clement was the replacement and made an instant impact, moving the team away from danger in the table while winning 6 out of the last 7 matches in all competitions going into the FA Cup 4th round fixture. The team looked completely different on the field, and with the benefit of a positive home crowd, they were the easy favorites to advance.
Just two minutes after kickoff, it was actually the away side with the first chance of the match. A long throw led to faulty clearances and a shot from debutee Mustafa off the right post. The rebound popped to forward Josh Maja, who converted easily, but he just barely called offside. On replay, it seemed that his shoulder was the only part of his body behind the defender.
It was all Norwich City for a while afterwards. West Brom bunkered behind the halfway line in a tight 4-4-2, but Norwich slowly found space and created chances when pressing the Baggies out from the back. Josh Griffiths was called into action for multiple saves, including one diving to his right to deny a huge opportunity from a bad giveaway in the back. He did have one nervy moment, sliding out of his box and fouling a Norwich forward running onto a through ball, but the offside flag went up before the surefire red card.
West Brom tried to hold on during a barrage of corners for the Canaries, but the home side finally forced a breakthrough. A header back into the 6-yard box by Harry Darling met the head of Paris Maghoma, who looped the ball into the top right corner for a 1-0 lead. The away side would attempt to respond before the half with a Mustafa attempt at the near post nearly spilt in by the goalkeeper, but Norwich City would keep their advantage going into the break.
The first few minutes of the second half were a repeat of the first. A long throw for West Brom was controlled by Harry Whitwell, whose shot to the left of goal was saved. The rebound was tapped in once again by Josh Maja, and once again he was in an offside position.
Norwich would attempt to double their lead a few minutes later, as Oscar Schwartau beat multiple players while dribbling from the defensive to attacking third and played a lovely through ball diagonally from right to left. It skimmed past defenders to Jacob Wright, and his attempt was miraculously saved by new Albion goalkeeper Max O’Leary. The Irish international was recently signed from Bristol City to be the new starter, and after subbing on due to a Griffiths injury, he stocked out a powerful left hand while diving right to tip the ball over the bar.
In the 68th minute, West Brom won the ball near midfield and passed to Ousmane Diakite. The Malian is known for being great with his feet but a poor passer, so it was a surprise when he hit a perfectly weighted through ball towards Josh Maja. The striker, on struggling form this season recovering from a calf injury, took his first touch with the inside of his left foot and used his right to chip the goalkeeper for an unlikely equalizer.
The away end was absolutely rocking after that. While not at its best or loudest, the West Brom fans had been significantly louder than the Norwich fans for the majority of the match. Norwich City had a loud drummer who helped lead chants to similar tunes MLS supporters sections are known for using (For fellow Atlanta United fans, think the tune of “We are the A”; for non-Atlanta fans, it ends with “sha-laa-la-laaaa”), but original chants were lacking along with support from the overall crowd. The “Football in a Library” chant was a perfect description, sung many times by the Baggies faithful. After the goal, the club anthem “The Lord is My Shepherd” was belted, and in addition to a song for Maja and many other chants, I was having a blast for the 15 minutes West Brom were pushing for a winner.
Unfortunately, it was Norwich that scored the winner. A giveaway in the midfield by Alex Mowatt led to a Norwich attack, with the ball finding its way to left winger Ben Chrisene. He hit a wonderful low strike from the top left corner of the 18-yard box to the bottom right corner, making it 2-1.
West Brom still pushed to keep their FA Cup hopes alive. Josh Maja received a ball at the top of the penalty area after a great run and targeted pass by substitute Issac Price, cut inside onto his right, but hit the shot straight at the goalkeeper. That would be the last big chance for an equalizer.
Defender and Crystal Palace loanee Danny Imray had been a strong performer for West Brom all match, but he faltered on Norwich City’s third and final goal. Anis Ben Slimane received a long diagonal ball forward into the box with his chest, hit it over Imray’s head, and crossed to the head of Mohamed Toure, icing the game.
West Brom added to their winless streak under Eric Ramsay, and one wonders how long the manager may have left after MLS standout Wilfried Nancy only had 8 games in charge of Celtic. This Saturday’s home matchup against league leaders Coventry will be the 8th game for Ramsay. The two managers have different tactics and are in different situations, but both struggled to adapt and gain needed results, which may spell doom for the former Minnesota United head coach.
The Baggies are now left to focus on league play, sitting only two points above the relegation zone in 21st with 14 games remaining. Norwich are 7 points above the drop and 9 points behind a playoff spot, and will face familiar foe Leeds United away in the FA Cup fifth round on March 7.
For my final recommendation this matchday, please explore Norwich if making the trip to Carrow Road. While the stadium atmosphere is not the best, the ground is nice, the city is very walkable, and they have an incredible cathedral. Thank you for reading the Matchday Explorer, and be on the lookout for our articles covering Stoke, Shrewsbury, and West Bromwich.
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