“Get your first defeat out of the way early”, that’s what I say, and similarly to last season, Sunderland have lost their first away game to a newly-promoted side, with former winger Jack Clarke scoring a late winner for Ipswich Town in typical Sunderland fashion.
How did the game play out? Well, let’s relive it, if you can bear it.
Sunderland started out with a largely expected eleven: Robin Roefs in goal, Thomas Meunier, Dan Ballard, Luke O’Nien and Reinildo making up the back four, Granit Xhaka,
Noah Sadiki, Enzo Le Fée, Trai Hume and Nilson Angulo across the midfield, and Brian Brobbey up top.
Ipswich started the match brightly, as expected, pressing us high and making life difficult early on without really creating any chances.
Brobbey had the first chance of the game, with some good link-up play in the Lads’ midfield leading to a good ball in behind from Le Fée and Brobbey taking maybe a fraction too long to get the shot off, giving Leif Davis time to get back and make a very good block.
Further into the season, a fully up-to-speed Brobbey probably puts this chance away; alas, it wasn’t meant to be on this occasion.
The opener came twenty four minutes in, and was frustratingly avoidable.
O’Nien played a sloppy pass to give the ball to Julio Enciso, who then skipped past the challenge as well as beating Dan Ballard way too easily before squaring the ball past Roefs for the easiest finish Emersonn will have all season.
Sunderland responded fairly well to going a goal behind, and some good play down the right resulted in a Hume cross which was met by Sadiki, with the Congolese midfielder unlucky not to bring the Lads level after a good stop by Ipswich’s giant Kjelle Scherpen in goal.
Later in the first half, we saw a moment of real quality.
Issa Diop brought down Xhaka down on the edge of the box and Angulo stepped up to whip a brilliant free kick over the wall, the ball smashing off the underside of the crossbar and over the line to make it 1-1. A first Sunderland goal for the Ecuadorian, and hopefully a sign of things to come this season.
The rest of the first half played out with Sunderland largely on top, with some positives to take from the first half performance, and a hope we would go on to improve in the second forty five.
However, the second half was a different story as Enciso continued to look dangerous for the home side, running through our midfield and defence seemingly at will at times and coming close to a goal as well as an assist in the early stages of the second half.
Brobbey had another opportunity after turning inside the hox, but his shot was blocked, with Meunier laying the rebound off to Hume, whose cross was ultimately cleared. Brobbey could’ve gone for this first time but tried to move the ball over to his right foot, costing him the opportunity, in all honesty.
The second half was mostly a subdued affair, with little game changing quality on show on either side.
Chemsdine Talbi came on for goalscorer Angulo on the hour mark, but Sunderland struggled to really pin Ipswich in their own half.
O’Nien gave the ball away again shortly afterwards, dallying on the ball and eventually being tackled by Enciso, bringing him down in the aftermath and receiving a yellow card. Following this, Régis Le Bris made further changes as O’Nien was replaced by Omar Alderete and Brobbey was replaced by Wilson Isidor.
There was little attacking rhythm in Sunderland’s play and the Tractor Boys began to look fairly comfortable with the slower pace of the game. Chris Rigg and Habib Diarra replaced Hume and Le Fée with ten minutes remaining, but Ipswich remained solid and disciplined without the ball.
With added time approaching, Alderete played another sloppy Sunderland pass, with Ipswich moving the ball quickly to Clarke, who placed the ball perfectly into the bottom corner — reminiscent of Tommy Watson for the Lads in the playoff final.
Sunderland were unable to create any further chances and the match came to a close with Ipswich coming away with a 2-1 victory.
A promising first half was followed by a second that didn’t leave much to be desired.
It’s still early days and there’s a chance to bounce back immediately at home to Fulham next week — something the Lads have been brilliant at over the last couple of seasons — and there’s also the small matter of the Europa League draw on Friday, so it’s not all doom and gloom.
It wouldn’t be Sunderland if we did it the easy way, and this season will be no different. Let’s get the campaign up and running next week at the Stadium of Light, and show everyone that we aren’t just one-season wonders.
Haway the Lads!
