Chelsea 0 - Fulham 0, Americas Finest, a Seol-less Korean, and the worlds best keeper
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by Ibearg
Fulham came out today and shocked Chelsea at Stamford Bridge by taking a point with a tie. On display were 3 American international players who start for the national team. Clint Dempsey had an average game as he was as dangerous as possible given the lack of balls sent his way. He had a good chance in the first half as a ball was sent onto his head with little pace on it and he fired it narrowly wide. he also set up one of his teammates well going forward in the final third, but that was his main influence on the game. Carlos Bocenegra who I and many fans have questioned why he's earned a spot in the Premiership or National team, showed for the first time in almost a year and a half why his coaches have faith in him. He was all over the field, harassed Drogba all game and was arguably the player of the match. Kasey Keller got the start over Antti Niemi and showed his class. He made a couple huge saves and even on the one Chelsea chance he couldn't get to he had put himself into position to cut down the angle and helped force Cole into shooting the ball wide of target.
the worst player on the pitch was a close race between Andriy Shevchenko and Seol Ki-Hyeon. Neither had a very good game, but as Seol gave up the ball every time he touched it I'm going to give the edge to him.
Fulham nearly pulled out the victory with Chelsea down to ten men for slightly over 15 minutes in the second half. Chelsea could have no complaint about Drogba being sent off as he nearly took of Chris Bairds head with a kick to the face clearly deserving his second yellow card. However Petr Cech showed why if he isn't the best keeper in the world (as Jose Mourinho has said) he certainly is in the discussion. He made a great save on Paul Konchesky who was in on goal. Chelsea will clearly need him to remain on form as this result is another in a line of poor results showing how much of a struggle it has been for Chelsea this season.
