Who Needs Fancy? Striker Charlie Austin Is Carrying Q.P.R. By ROB HUGHES, DEC. 21, 2014 please log in to view this image Charlie Austin, center, scored three goals Saturday to help his team rally from a 2-0 deficit. Credit Adam Davy/Press Association, via Associated Press LONDON â When Charlie Austin thinks of Christmases past, he remembers laboring on construction sites while dreaming of scoring goals in his spare time. Move five years to the present, and the former construction worker has turned into a big-game winner in the English Premier League. This Christmas, Austin has what he wanted all along. He took home the match ball on Saturday after scoring three times as his London team, Queens Park Rangers, came back from two goals down to beat West Bromwich Albion 3-2. He is the first Rangersâ player to score a hat trick at this level in 21 years, and his goals could be the difference between Q.P.R. remaining a Premier League team or being relegated at the end of the season. Austin is 25, which is middle-aged for a player in this company. He has arrived after a career that began nine leagues below the Premiership. He is a laborer, still, in the sense that he runs miles and miles for the chances that seem to fall his way. Hunger and desire are visible in many athletes, but they are most evident in the way that Austin plies his trade. Take a look at the list of the top Premier League scorers this season. 1) Sergio Agüero, Manchester City, 14 goals 2) Diego Costa, Chelsea, 12 goals 3) Charlie Austin, Q.P.R., 11 goals. Agüero, an Argentine, and Costa, a Brazilian, are among the highest-paid predators on earth. Austin, born some 50 miles from where he plays, is still eager to nail down a new contract, no matter the numbers written on it. The most curious part about Austinâs rise to fame is that while he now stands 6-foot-2, the official reason that he was discarded by his local club when he was 16 was that he was âtoo small.â But Austin has been able to strike goals at every level he has played. At the top of the Premier League sit Chelsea and Manchester City. And while Chelsea has re-recruited the Ivory Coast striker Didier Drogba to stand in whenever anything happens to Costa, Cityâs plight is such that it took to the field Saturday without any recognized center forward, and still won, 3-0, against Crystal Palace. Agüero is injured. So are Edin Dzeko and Stevan Jovetic, and so City Coach Manuel Pellegrini worked all last week on a new system designed to get midfield players to score. David Silva did so twice Saturday, as did Yaya Touré, who sealed the victory with that fantastic long stride of his. Meanwhile, Radamel Falcao, another foreign talent, scored with a superbly timed header to rescue a point in Manchester Unitedâs 1-1 tie at Aston villa. Falcao has always had the ability to score in his arsenal, but he has struggled to get over the serious knee surgery he suffered with Monaco at the start of the calendar year. Falcaoâs goal Saturday was his second since he arrived in England on a loan that is costing United almost $10 million just for this season, plus a reported salary of $400,000 a week. Whatever Austin is getting will be a fraction of that. Yet he is always fit and ready for action. His style, it has to be said, is less flamboyant than the imported stars who have lifted the quality of the Premier League way beyond the English seasons of old. The header that Falcao produced Saturday was extraordinary because the ball was traveling slightly behind him, yet he somehow reached back in midair and found a way to get his forehead to it. The goals so often scored by Agüero are miniature pieces of art, as he appears out of the blue to strike with deft and deceiving shots before anyone can even see the opportunity. And Austin? He scored Saturday first with a penalty kick, the second goal knocked in on the rebound after the ball hit the crossbar, and the third came from powerful header following a corner kick. Each strike combined opportunism and the knack of being in the right place at the right time. There is no lasting impression of elegance from Austin, yet time and time again he gets into position to finish off the chances. With 11 goals in the first 15 games, he no longer can be regarded as just someone on a lucky streak. Austin makes little attempt to explain his long road to stardom. With the game ball cradled between his left arm and his body, he spoke in clichés on Saturday about being pleased to do his bit for the team, while deflecting premature suggestions about how soon it will be before England calls him to its national team. Modesty is probably the proper response. The season is not yet halfway through, and Queens Park is a team that is overdependent on him. His 11 goals constitute more than half of Q.P.R.âs 20 goals in its first 17 games. Austin still has his rough edges and just completed a ban for accumulating five yellow cards as he literally fights for his right to the ball. He made an invaluable interception deep on defense after West Brom took a two-goal lead Saturday. A strong work ethic combined with natural ability has propelled this discard toward the top of the Christmas scoring charts. But Q.P.R., without a win or a point away from its home field, still has work to do to prevent this year from being a one-season wonder in the Premier League. A version of this article appears in print on December 22, 2014, in The International New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/22/sports/soccer/who-needs-fancy-striker-charlie-austin-is-carrying-qpr.html?&_r=0 Good article, nicely chosen angle by the reporter. Big article in the New York Times must be good for branding.
Rob Hughes is a good writer, think he used to do a lot for Four Four Two (which I have not read for years) and this is a nice article, but an American sub-editor has been at it, hence the reference to "Queens Park".
