What was truly a tale of two halves saw the likes of Bobby Zamora and Bjorn Helge Riise dictate play and Brede Hangeland rise above and score a crucial header in the first 45 minutes. On the flip side, Okaka Chuka was completely absent as were Roma’s entire midfield.

In the second 45 minutes, Fulham were all too willing to give away possession to a team that either remembered they were supposed to be playing a game or had a livid half time talk. And adding the likes of Claudio Pizzaro and Mirko Vucinic helped too.

It was really only a matter of time before they tied it up or won it. We can look at the ridiculous penalty by and ejection of Steven Kelly — who is all but gone for the rest of the Group Stage — and thank Mark Schwarzer for saving our skins, but Roma deserved at least a point. Thankfully, they did not take all three.

Yet Fulham also deserved a point in this uneven but still crackling affair. According to Bill Simmons’ “13 Levels of Losing” I’d say this was a Level XII. Tough, but fair.

We can take away several positives from this match. First, Zamora clearly has the monkey off his back. Bjorn Riise should be challenging Gera on the depth chart (or maybe he was especially just up for it considering he played against his brother?) Greening can boot it from distance. We’re probably going to be seeing a lot of Chris Smalling on defense now that Kelly is suspended. And according to the comments in Chris’ The Offside–Roma blog, we have some new fans!

View, if you can stomach it:

Fulham 1 – Roma 1.

Zamora and Kamara got on the score sheet in a match that should all but seal Phil Brown’s fate as Hull City’s manager. ESPN2 should have done a study where a non-footy fan watched that match and judged Hull City’s performance. And then tell that same person he’s won just three games since March.

The telling moment for me of how the match would fare was when Fulham were attempting to walk the ball into the back of the net and Hull had 10 men behind the ball. Twenty minutes into the game.

Nonetheless its hard to find any complaints about how Fulham played. Duff looked creative and hungry, and Baird should now seriously be considered as a CM. Schwarzer could gotten more involved.

Highlights

Roma on Thursday in the Europa League. Should be a cracker.

Well, looking at these two charts that is only sort of true.

Against Villa Paul Konchesky and John Painstil had almost double the amount of passes than against Everton. Not only that, but both had way more incomplete passes against Everton than Villa.Yet Fulham beat the Toffees and lost to the Villans.

The ball is round, no?

The obvious differences between the charts is the average location of each pass. Painstil was a threat on the wing against Everton — easy prediction alert: he’s going to score this season — and the stats show. Konch looks to be in the same position in both matches, but the direction of the passes were forward instead of sideways or backwards, and not a hive below the half line.

But there was so much more in this victory than the defeat two weeks ago. AJ and Zamora’s pairing should be canonized. Murphy is the catalyst to defense and offense. And Duff proves he still has it.

The lads are off to Sofia on Thursday to start the Europa League group stages.

Can’t really explain why, but I’ve always wanted to travel to Bulgaria. Luckily, my girlfriend was able to when she was studying abroad recently. She said it was quite filthy and decrepit — and that’s coming from someone living in Baltimore — with stray dogs running amok. To her, it was more remiscent of her time in South Africa than what is considered “Europe”. Which is maybe why I am fascinated by the nation, and the rest of Eastern Europe.

Hopefully the lads, and the fans, leave with a better impression. I’ll still be jealous. Or on second thought maybe not?

PFC CSKA Sofia (obviously, they’re the army team) is currently leading the Bulgarian A PFG (Professional Football Group) with four wins and a draw. Oh, and they’ve yet to concede a goal, while scoring 14. Nil-Nil written all over it.

Lastly, can’t stop listening to the new dirty projectors. Here’s their hit, but not best, song:

Dempsey’s deflected shot off Zamora was enough for Fulham to win 1-0 over Pompey in a rather uneventful, if not typical away, match. Standard Hodgson.

Portsmouth occasionally threatened, attempting to stretch our defense with crosses from the wings but Schwarzer gobbled them up while Hangeland and Hughes smacked them away.

The only jaw dropping moment came when Pompey defender Marc Wilson whiffed on a header leaving little AJ a clear chance on goal. Either misjudging the bounce or hitting too hard, the gift sailed wide right.

For those wondering why I didn’t preview the team and season before today, I did it on purpose. I’m going to write a season preview once the transfer windows ends. Sure, it may be cheating as we’ll have played three matches — all against good opposition — and may be in or out of Europe by then.

But its sort of silly to write season previews before the window closes. Why? Because everything could be completely dated as of September 1. Look back at ManCity previews last year, or even Tottenhams — they were old news within a week. Not because they were over/underrated, but the actors changed.

Although I don’t see mountains moving for us before September 1, Duff is reportedly coming to town, KG is still stuck in a tribunal — I think — and may not be able to sign for us, and Arsenal could lodge a successful 15 million quid bid for Hangeland. Or Dempsey may even receive a similar deal from Everton. There’s just too many variables to be accurate or lasting.

No midweek Prem action, as the lads host Perm in the Europa League. Derby next weekend — should be a good one.

But yeah, Fulham won away and I’m not completely stunned. Strange days, indeed.

Been a busy 24-plus hours! Where to start?

Well, according to the News of the World, Hodgson said Zamora rejected terms with Hull. Whether that’s before or after he scored a brace against Peterborough is unclear.

Speaking of Peterborough, a 3-0 lead quickly evaporated as time expired but thankfully Fulham wasn’t humiliated like Newcastle. Roy, as always, sums up the match superbly:

“I’m not too bothered about results in pre-season matches quite frankly. I’m worried about the performances and as I said I thought we played very well.“

Then today SkySports reports that Pompey have accepted an offer for Crouch. But then ‘Arry says he’s unaware of that. I doubt that.

Nonetheless Crouch going to Spurs doesn’t surprise me because the move, like most of Tottenham’s dealings, doesn’t make any sense. It just raises more questions than answers. Can he play with Robbie Keane? Will Defore now be a supersub? Will Bent and Pavlyucehnko fart around in the reserves? Why isn’t Spurs spending the 10 million on a defender, something they need?

Sorry to jump back to Friday, but EJ’s lone goal was enough for the reserves, including newbie Riise and more familiar faces, to win 1-0 over the Rising Phoenix. After today’s shocking display by the USMNT Development Squad, I expect a call up for EJ’s services up front soon.

I’m going to miss the reserves match on Tuesday and the Europa League match on Thursday as my new job (Americorps) requires a four day orientation in Philadelphia. Have a good week!

And had it not been for Spurs being gifted 3 points, our ticket would already be punched thanks to today’s predictable (yet still anxious) 1-0 victory and West Ham losing.

Barrages came, the line held, Schwarzer saved, Kamara scored. Not too much else to say, really. Seeing AJ and Zamora start on the bench was odd, though.

We knew Newcastle would threaten, that they’d go after Gera and Pantsil, and that they couldn’t score — at least not have it count.

Look at this chalkboard, particularly the general locations of Steven Taylor’s and Danny Murphy’s passes.

Taylor was never allowed forward, and Murphy quickly passed in that denied space. Although Danny was 46/10 for successful/unsuccessful ratio, Taylor connected all 36. But it didn’t matter.

Newcastle appeared threatening, and almost scored several times, but they didn’t break us down. And, in my mind, that is what made the difference: we broke them down.

Looks like next weekend will be another stomach churner. A win — hopefully Moyes trots out the JV team — and we’re golden. A draw, and we have to hope Spurs don’t win by more than 6 goals. A loss, and we have to count on (the already vacationing) Liverpool side to win.

No Simon Davies going into it was not a usual site — that the first match he’s ever missed through injury? — and then Zamora goes down before I’m even fully awake.

Then AJ hobbles off. Later, it’s PK’s turn. Good observation by Roy, saying last 30 minutes were quite poor because of tired legs.

In my mind, the injuries probably hurt the midfield, not attack or defense, the most. Murphy looked totally gassed after the 65th minute or so but no help was available. Had there been fresh legs, then Fulham could have nipped one or two on the counterattack. But there was just not enough players forward, nor creativity between Kamz and Nevland. Thanks to Hangeland being the cookie monster he is with aerial balls, 1-0 was a fair result.

Hopefully AJ’s knee injury Roy spoke of doesn’t keep him out long. We need him in this final run — today Fulham had just 2 shots on target. Against Stoke City.

But at least we GJ got 70-plus minutes to swoon over Nevland. “I love that bloke” he said after Nevland put us 1-0 up.

Yes, GJ we know you do. In fact, we’ve known it since September. Glad you finally admitted it. Here’s hoping things work out between you two. [On a side note, does anyone have a photo of GJ? I've got a photoshop in mind but cant find an image of the lad anywhere]

Chelsea next week. Should be a cracker.

That that right there is our home form against the Big Four this season. Although Liverpool come to town in a fortnight and could muck it up, thats still an unbelievable stat.

After two matches in a month and 7-0 aggregate, what was so different this time around?

You could chalk it up to some visitation from lady luck. Or Scholes and Rooney, and possibly Ronaldo, going mental. Or Schwarzer’s finest performance of the season, worthy of a statue outside the Cottage, immediately.

But its simpler than that in my mind. For once, we attacked them.

Remember when Barcelona went through that rough patch? All the pundits said it was because people went after them, and they were so unused to it they buckled under the pressure.

The same can be applied for United. For most of the season teams were content with letting them do their thing. Granted their thing was the best thing around, but a 2-0 loss was inexplicably viewed as an accomplishment.

Our trip to Old Trafford highlighted that, as it seemed Roy’s pre-game talk consisted of “See you in 90!”. The FA Cup match at Craven Cottage strategy was slightly different, but still revered Carrick too much.

Today? We came out firing. Last week? Liverpool came out firing.

Although we learned Zamora doesn’t have a right foot, in case we didnt know already, he took a quarter(?) of the TWENTY-FOUR shots today. Johnson was not lethal, but a presence. The real change was in the middle of the park, as Murphy and Etuhu, and Dacourt once Murphy hurt his leg, were ferocious.

Like last week against ‘Pool, luck was not with the Red Devils. But neither were brains, thanks to Scholes’ gifting us what seemed at least a point, and Rooney sealing all three. There were moments were they seemed to be back on track, particularly the first 25-plus minutes of the second half.

We couldn’t hold onto the ball, and Schwarzer was called upon. Dacourt and particularly Kamara’s introduction helped steady the ship. Especially Gera…

Who I would be remiss to not congratulate, as I actually yelled the f-word when he was subbed in. Now? I’ll bite my tongue. What a finish.

I was just finishing my deadline and had a reporters meeting during most of this match (I work for a newspaper), so needless to say I paid attention for all of about 5 minutes.

But what about Bobby Zamora, eh?

He goes almost 6 months without scoring, then nets two in consecutive matches. And the two are match winners. In case you want to see the first one, the official has some highlights up. Still searching high and low for the second, though…

The result and Bobby’s (hopeful) return to form comes at a great time. Including today, Fulham have 6 games in three weeks. But they also don’t have to leave London until March 14. Arsenal away, Hull home, ManU home [FA Cup], Blackburn home, Bolton away.

Could be worse, no?

One interesting tidbit though: because Liverpool drew the match and lost the title at the same time, Fulham are tied for the second-best home record in the league with, well, Liverpool. Ten points behind United. And 8 points atop the Fair Play table!

So here’s a cute photo for you.