Advochaat: Pachuca 3 Sunderland 1 but ‘we’re making progress daily’

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The return of Advocaat. Dick, by Jake
Dick, by Jake

Another your game, another defeat, another ‘don’t worry’ from the boss. Playing the new green away kit, Sunderland (see line-up*) got off to a perfect start in Sacramento, Jack Rodwell finishing well from Emanuele Giaccherini’s pass. There were chances to extend the lead but the Mexican Premier league side were level after 25 minutes, ahead and on top at half time and comfortable winners by the end, Jordan Pickford having to save a second-half penalty. We’re still waiting for Jesse Burch’s Salut! Sunderland ‘Sunderland Out West’ report but here, with a minimum of detail or fuss, is what Dick Advocaat made of it ..

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Vergini: adiós amigo. Forgive us for remembering that goal for Southampton

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Not being part of Dick Advocaat’s plans does not make Santiago Vergini a bad player. Nor does scoring the wonder goal you see above, sadly against his own side. Anyone selected to play for Argentina deserves respect.

But trips with the Development Squad to Tow Law – see Sixer’s first-class report at https://safc.blog/2015/07/sixer-says-lawyers-defence-found-lacking-as-development-squad-hit-five/ – are not what he came to the UK for. And, clearly, he’s not a player Advocaat would ever again willingly choose for a Premier League game.

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Sixer Says: everything you wanted to know about Jeremain Lens. And more

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Image: Aleksandr Osipov https://www.flickr.com/photos/15267882@N06/5040811551
Image: Aleksandr Osipov
https://www.flickr.com/photos/15267882@N06/5040811551


Salut! Sunderland extends a warm welcome to Jeremain Lens, our new signing from what Pete Sixsmith prefers to call Dinamo Kyiv, Monsieur Salut was effusive at ESPN – “precisely the player Sunderland lacked all last season, a man with the flair and pace to open up defences, set up strikers with chances and score goals” – and now Sixer introduces us to the player and the man …


The first major target of the transfer window was signed, sealed and delivered last night when Jeremain Lens penned a deal at the Stadium of Light, leaving the magnificent 70,000-capacity Valeri Lobanovskyi Dynamo Stadium for the only slightly less magnificent Stadium of Light.

He also leaves a country riven by civil war for the relative safety of the Costa del Wearside – unless he stumbles into Southwick on a Saturday night.

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Sunderland Out West: a stiffer test looms against Pachuca from Mexico’s Premier

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Jesse
Jesse Burch

So Sacramento Republic move offstage and CF (that’s FC to us) Pachuca are ushered on from the wings. Paul Pattison, from the Sunderland AFC North American Supporters’ Association (and long before that from Annfield Plain), did sterling – or should that be top-dollar – work before and after the defeat at Sacramento. Now Jesse Burch – appropriately an actor and as through-and-through American as the name suggests – takes a bow, introducing himself and the second match of SAFC’s North American tour, when the Lads return to Sacramento’s Bonney Field stadium to take on a club founded by British miners, tin not coal, in the capital of Mexico’s Hidalgo state, in honour of whom Salut! Sunderland has dug out a clip of the marvellous Show of Hands song Cousin Jack …

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Sixer Says: Mandron on target again as another Sunderland team wins

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Pete Sixsmith: 'whatever happened to Consett's red dust?'
Pete Sixsmith: ‘whatever happened to Consett’s red dust?’

Pete Sixmsith was at the bus stop in time but the United to Sacramento – see Advochaat at https://safc.blog/2015/07/dicks-post-sacramento-advochaat-its-just-pre-season/ – must already have gone. So he pitched up at Consett instead …

The Development Squad continued its tour of the west of Durham by moving up the A68 from Tow Law to Consett, a distance of eight miles but worlds apart football wise.

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All about Eve: owner’s wife joins USA red and whites in Sacramento

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eve
Eve Short checks the transfer news


Bob Dylan’s Zimmerman Blues revisisted. Sunderland played Sacramento Republic and lost (1-0) in the first of three games in the trip our west.

And the Zimmerman in question, given a dose of the blues after seeing the Lads go down to admittedly better prepared opponents, was Eve, wife of Sunderland AFC’s owner, Ellis Short.

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