The Dog Days of Summer

Not much to do for a few weeks except wonder if Newcastle will keep Alexander Isak.

Hoorah for Uhre

Minutes away from a disappointing 1-1 draw with visiting Colorado, Mikael Uhre found his scoring touch and poured in two goals in the match's closing moments.  The Union had run the Rapids ragged all night so a draw would have been a particularly galling outcome.  Possession (not the U's strong suit) was 60/40, shots were 30/5 and shots on target were 11/1.  The kicker was an xG of 4.8 - 1.

A productive Uhre would be a big help down the stretch
Picture: Philadelphia Union

After dominating the first half, they fell behind on Navarro's header rebound at 37 minutes.  Second half was more of the same until a Wagner cross found Baribo at the far post to level things at 64 minutes.  But really, a draw at home to Colorado would simply not have been good enough.  Fortunately Uhre, a 73rd minute sub, came on to work some magic.  For the first tally, seen here as this week's YouTubeableMoment, he simply pushed the ball with his right foot into an open area just inside the box, then slotted a left footed shot in off the far post; if you note just before he took the shot, there's a circle of five Rapids around him but none are in position to do anything about the shot.  For the second, he took a breakout pass from Bedoya (a late sub himself) and basically outran the defender to put a shot through the five hole.

With Nashville and Columbus losing while Cincinnati was getting a draw with Miami, the U creep back into the top spot. The fly in this ointment is that while Miami are eight points back in 5th place, they have three matches in hand.  Three time three is, well, you get the picture.

Hail Brittania

In the Euro Championship Final, England, as they are wont to do, fell behind Spain in the 25th minute.  You wouldn't say it was against the run of play.  However, the Lionesses are no slouches when it comes to defending and importantly kept the score at 1-0 through the first half.  Spain were still the better side in the second half but England did break through with the equalizer at 57 minutes.  Then, it was over an hour of goalless football.  This chart from Opta shows how Spain dominated play in those 60 minutes:

So Spain generated another 1.35 expected goals in the last hour of the match while England generated what looks like .04.  That Spain didn't win before PKs seems like a combination of shots not on target and a couple of solid saves from English keeper Hannah Hampton.  In the dreaded PK shootout, Spain got the jump and were up 1-0 before missing three straight (including two saves from Hampton) and England prevailed 3-1.  

Bronze Gets Gold

Lucy Bronze sports her gold while leading England's celebration
Photo:Eddie Keogh/Getty Images

We would be remiss if we did not point out the obvious.  Lucy Bronze is England's captain.  

A Week Off

A week of friendlies or pre-season or whatever you want to call them.The Union will play Eintracht Frankfurt (who feature ex-Union Paxten Aaronson).  Wait, why the break this week?  Well, we have the League Cup featuring sides from MLS and Liga MX, so the MLS regular season is on hold for week.  The U, by virtue of their low finish last season are spared this spectacle.

We will probably take off next week and return in time for the EPL kickoff on 8/15.

Summer "Break" Is Almost Here

Thin schedule but we'll catch up on a few EPL items.  We get a couple of quiet weeks before things ramp back up.  

There's Context and Then There's Context

The better Agyemang? Patrick might learn something from Michelle
Photo:Reuters

Both Euro Championship semis went to added extra time but neither made it to a penalty shoot out. England got a stoppage time goal from super sub Michelle Agyemang to level the match at 1-1, then got a PK call in the 119th minute.  Chloe Kelly's shot was stopped but she put in the rebound for the game winner.  The call, which you can see here, was not without controversy.

I heard two arguments about why this should not have been called, one which I'm not buying but the other has some merit.  Some argue that this was too soft a foul to call in the 119th minute of a contest.  For me that's in the same vein as you can't give a yellow card in the opening minutes of a match.  If it's an infraction, call it regardless of the time and score.  On the other hand, several pointed out that this referee had been lenient about calling fouls the entire game and had been playing on through stuff that looked similar to this one for nearly 120 minutes.  That context I do think is relevant.  The replays I saw didn't really help sort it out and if you watch the video.  In the end, the referee was in perfect position to make the call and had the best view of anybody so I don't have a big problem with this.

Spain - Germany was tense as neither side could score in regulation.  Spain got the breakthrough on a goal from Bonmati, which is presented here as this week's YouTubeableMoment.  First, the dummy to let the ball through was brilliant.  She went near post as the keeper seemed more concerned about the cross than the shot.  Dennis said that Spain players knew that Berger had a habit of leaving the near post open.  Clearly worthy of a game winner.

So we get a repeat of the World Cup Final - Spain versus England.

Memo to Women Soccer Players

Does that look accidental to you?
Photo:. Sebastian Christoph Gollnow/dpa

STOP WATCHING THE MENS GAME! In the Club World Cup final a few Sundays ago we saw Neves sent off for pulling Cucarella's hair.  In Saturday's quarterfinal against France, Germany's Hendrich got sent off for pulling Mbock's hair.  She got the requisite red card.  What was particularly galling was that Hendrich seemed stunned by the call, as in "What did I do?  How is that a red card?"  The German manager also got a yellow, I'm pretty sure for arguing the call.  The excuses continued after the match as a German official claimed that "her hand got caught in her hair."  Hmm, the picture (left) suggests otherwise. The bottom line: shithousery is definitely on the rise in the women's game.

Conversation That Could Have Taken Place and Almost Did

Dennis: Did you say it's hard to score goals against Germany?

Steve: No, I said they have a Knaak for defending.

 

Back to Third

Completing their third match in eight days, the Union could only manage a 1-1 draw in Houston.  I did see the match live, though it was admittedly distracted viewing.  Definitely chippy, with 44 (!) fouls (25 by the Union) seven yellow cards and a late red card for Frankie Westfield.  Early in the first half we saw the referee pleading with the teams to tone it down but it didn't seem to make much difference.  To me, despite only 37% possession, the U seemed the better side.  Expected goals was 1.7-1.5 favor the Union but if you adjust for Houston's PK, the difference is 1.7-.7.  As in, we're still not scoring like we should.

Bedoya's scruffy goal gave them an early lead but Jack McGlynn's PK in first half stoppage time leveled the match and ended the scoring for the night.  From what I could tell, Bueno did a chicken wing with his right arm and the PK was probably deserved.  On the other hand, the foul called against Harriel in the buildup that negated a PK foul against Damiani looked really soft.  The game had other consequences, with both Harriel (yellow card accumulation) and Westfield (straight red card) suspended for Saturday's match versus Colorado.  And, with Cincinnati and Nashville picking up wins, the U dropped to third in the East.

 

Who's Your Gaffer?

Answers to last week's trivia question:

If they were all in one room, somebody might be tempted to say "Look around, half of you won't be here next year."

Not So Fast

Got a few comments on Anthony Elanga's sub-11 second 100 meter clocking.  Most notably, BFS Track and Field Consultant Jack W observed that:

Hmmmm.....sub 11 is quick, but certainly not "elite". For context, less than 100 USA high school boys (rough estimate) run that fast each year. You'd have a solid shot at making the USA women's Olympic team. A person with 10.0 speed would get about 10 yards of separation from a 10.9 runner in a full pitch breakaway...i.e. leave them in the dust. 

Fortunately, Elanga will not be competing against any of them.

Who's Your Oddsmaker?

Not seeing enough predictions for the coming EPL season yet.  But, for fun, we can look at how people did last year.  See the chart below:

We use Sum of Squared Errors (SSE) to assess accuracy.  Opta was gold medal winner, with Pinnacle and Average silver and bronze.    Opta got eight picks spot on, one that was a single place off and three that were two spots off.  Arsenal was the most correct pick across the board - no one missed by more than one place.  Man United, Tottenham and Nottingham Forest stumped the experts most often, with most recording double digit misses on all three.  Yogi was right.

Short Schedule

So we have the Union on Saturday night at Subaru Park vs Colorado.  The Rapids are decidedly a mid-table side so we should be looking for three points here.  Opta agrees, giving them 63% chance for a win.  They will be a little short in the back but probably still okay.  I'd be interested in more goals from Baribo, Damiani and Uhre.

We also have the Women's Euro Final featuing Spain and England.  Kickoff is at noon on Fox.  I had figured Spain would be a clear favorite here but that's not what Opta has.  They show Spain at 38%, England at 35%, with a 27% chance of added extra time/penalty kicks.  

Three weeks until EPL starts.

Back on Top

Clearly buoyed by my attendance at consecutive matches, the Union got two wins.  The Club World Cup ended in disarray.

Playing With a  Full Deck

The Mighty Quinn: Back from international break with two assists

With injuries and international duty easing, the Union starting XI on Saturday and Wednesday were close to what Manager Bradley Carnell might have projected back in February.  Not surprisingly, they got two wins, 2-0 over Red Bulls and 2-1 over Montreal.  Alas, the glass is half empty.

The half full part includes mostly stuff from the Red Bulls match;

- a dominant first half against Red Bulls in which the Union controlled the pitch and built a 2-0 lead in 24 minutes

- creative passing patterns in the Red Bull match, including a sequence that led to the second goal, seen here as this week's YouTubeableMoment

- pretty much a lockdown defense against Red Bulls that allowed no shots in the first half and only one shot on target, which came in second half stoppage time

- a gritty win against Montreal despite an overall poor performance

The half empty stuff?

- frequently intercepted passes in both matches

- inability to win a 50/50 challenge in midfield in both matches

- some shocking breakdowns in marking in the Montreal match

- these wins were against two of the weaker sides in the East

For sure the Montreal match was a "trap game," a home contest against the last place side in the middle of three games in eight days.  The numbers are not pretty.  Possession was 60/40 and shots were 14/12 favor the Union.  But shots on target were 4/4 and most notably, xG was 1.7/1.4 favor Montreal.  That last number suggests maybe some key saves from Andre Blake and indeed he did come up big late.  

Last week we argued that four was minimum and six expected from these two matches so the U met that target.  They finished the week back in first place by a point over Cincinnati and two ahead of Nashville.  Inter Miami are eight back but have three matches in hand.  No time to rest and they will need to be better against top teams.

Woke Up It Was A Chelsea Afternoon (apologies to Joni Mitchell)

Straight red? But his hair is curly

I can't say I saw this coming - total domination by Chelsea in a 3-0 pasting of PSG.  Cole Palmer had two identical goals at 22 and 30 minutes.  He then set up Joao Pedro with a perfectly weighted through ball that made it 3-0 just before the half time whistle.  You can see replays of the goals here; the video is worth it for the screaming commentator in the background alone.  PSG showed better in the second half but never broke through and frustration took over, as witnessed by Joao Neves grabbing Marc Cucarella's hair for a straight (curly?) red card.

A disappointing contest was followed by ugly post match afters on the pitch, including Luis Enrique shoving Joao Pedro to the ground plus Donald Trump trying to take over the award ceremony and possibly pocketing a gold medal.  Somehow, it all seems to capture FIFA at its best.

Make That 60% Less Shithousery

Caught a few of final group stage matches for the women's Euro Championship and was mildly disappointed at how some of the men's antics are creeping into the women's game.  Exaggerating the impact of minimal contact and grabbing body parts in pain that were never touched were the most common examples.  Just stop it.  

The two quarterfinals so far were tight.  Italy got a 90th minute goal from Girelli to beat Norway while Sweden - England went to seven rounds of PKs.  The Lionesses advanced 3-2 when Sweden missed their seventh PK.  England had fallen behind by two goals early after some shaky play out of the back but got two goals in quick succession at 79 and 81 minutes to level things.  

The Italy - Norway match provided a teaching moment about the offside rule.  A Norwegian attacker was wrestled to the ground in the box and the refereee promptly signaled for a PK.  The announcers noted the attacker was in an offside position when the ball was kicked and were puzzled when the VAR upheld the PK.  Mark Clattenburg provided a succinct explanation: the foul occurred before an offside infraction could occur. That particular scenario is specifically addressed by IFAB in Law 11.  In a situation where:

• a player in an offside position is moving towards the ball with the intention of playing the ball and is fouled before playing or attempting to play the ball, or challenging an opponent for the ball, the foul is penalised as it has occurred before the offside offence

We can debate whether this logical but the language is clear.  It's kind of like the keeper is supposed to know to ignore the guy standing in an offside position.  

The quarter finals continue over the weekend with the semis and final next week.

A Sort of Palace Coup

As explained here, Crystal Palace have been demoted from the Europa Cup to the less lucrative Europa Conference League.  The issue is that UEFA rules for club competition prohibit two clubs that share more than 30% ownership to participate in the same UEFA club competition.  Something about ensuring the integrity of the competition.  UEFA believes that the ownership structures of Crystal Palace and Lyon violate the rule so they moved Palace to the Conference League; they bumped Palace because of Lyon's higher finish in their league.  Nottingham Forest get to move up from Conference League to Europa Cup.  Palace have appealed so this isn't really over yet.  

You Can't Teach Speed

Newcastle have never been accused of great team speed.  The signing of Anthony Elanga changes that.  As shown here, Elanga has sub-11 second 100 meter speed.  Dennis is not impressed, telling me that a guy on his summer team has a PR of 10.8 and that's not even his primary event.  

Rumors continue to fly about Isak's possible departure to Liverpool but it's hard to know what the real story is.  The money Newcastle would get for him might make some of the financial regulations easier to meet but for me it would be a major disruption of the team they've been building over the last few years.

Who's Your Gaffer?

With the EPL just a few weeks away, we'll start to ease into the season.  Can you match the manager with his team?

 Working from scratch I could only get 12 but with all the names I did manage 16.

On the Light Side

We have the Union at Houston at 8:30.  This will be a chance to see Jack McGlynn with his new team.  Houston aren't exactly tearing it up but it is an away match and the U's third in eight days.  Houston have had a similar schedule so maybe that will even out.  

At the Euros, Spain and Switzerland face off today at 3 pm and France versus Germany is Saturday at 3 pm.  The semis are Tuesday (Italy vs England) and Wednesday (winners of Friday and Saturday quarterfinals), also at 3 pm.

Cornucopia

Yes, an abundant supply of good things, even if every result isn't what you want.

A Proper Footballing Experience

I won't say the Club World Cup contest between Palmeiras and Chelsea at the Linc matched seeing Newcastle at St. James' Park, but it was close.  The Linc was packed with 65,872 fans, a significant and vocal majority of whom were Palmeiras supporters  They knew their role and played it well with songs, chants, banners and rollouts regardless of what was happening on the pitch; see here.  Would their team's backline been as well organized.  Chelsea fans were abundant too but tended to be quieter until their side actually did something.  

Our seats for Palmeiras - Chelsea; $200 doesn't buy what it used to

The match was close.  Palmeiras did some attacking early but Chelsea slowly took over.  Palmer's goal was the inevitable result of that pressure. (Wait, you can't spell Palmeiras without Palmer!)  Fortunately, Palmeiras did not concede a second before the halftime whistle and they came out with a better game plan in the second half.  From our vantage point, we have no idea how Estevao's shot got past Sanchez but it leveled things in the 53rd minute.  Back and forth from there and the prospect of extra time loomed.  Chelsea got the game winner on an own goal off defender Agustin Giay in the 83rd minute.  

The Union crew at the Linc

I won't say they were just happy to be there but Palmeiras supporters seemed to take the loss in stride, taking comfort perhaps in the good run their club had in the competition.  Chelsea fans were a bit more vocal leaving than they had been arriving.  

Except for maybe our seats not being the best, the four Union guys had a great time too.  Technically we
were neutrals looking for a close match but I think we became de facto fans of Palmeiras because of their underdog status.  Thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

Ya Done Good Philly

Inquirer writer Jonathan Tannenwald highlights here how well Philly came off as it hosted Club World Cup matches.  Attendance for the eight matches was just under 350,000 and two fixtures drew over 60,000.  Reviews from players and fans alike are positive for the venue, the restaurants and bars, and even the Broad Street subway.  To the extent this was a dry run for next summer's World Cup, the results are encouraging.  

All-Euro Final For CWC

I didn't see Fluminense's quarterfinal 2-1 win over Al-Hilal 2-1.  PSG did not exactly blow Bayern out the water despite what the 2-0 final suggests.  They didn't score until the 78th minute, then proceeded to have players sent off at 82 and 90+2 minutes to make the end more exciting.  Except Dembele scored in stoppage time to end the drama.  Speaking of stoppage time goals and drama, Real Madrid's 3-2 win over Dortmund featured three second half stoppage time goals.  Frankly the match wasn't all that exciting until then as RM jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first 20 minutes.  Dortmund got one back at 90+2, but Mbappe restored the two goal lead two minutes later.  But Dortmund got another via a PK at 90+8 in a play that saw Huijsen sent off for RM.  Not much time left but Courtois was called upon to make a game saving save in the final minute.  

The semis were more tepid affairs.  Chelsea was never really threatened in a 2-0 win over Fluminense.  PSG obliterated Real Madrid 4-0, scoring three times in the opening 24 minutes.  I didn't see the match but the stats back up the final score; possession was 69/31, shots 17/11 and shots on target were 7/2, with xG 2.45/.74.  Hmm, Real Madrid did no better than Inter Miami against PSG.

No Gold Cup for US

Some of the focus after the US 2-1 loss to Mexico in the Gold Cup Final has been on the no handling call in the box (we'll get to that in a minute) but really the point is that US were thoroughly outplayed by the Mexicans.  Great that it was a hard-fought match but the US were clearly the second best team that night.  And I don't think it's really a big issue either.  This was a team that was missing 8-9 likely starters from next year's World Cup so expectations should be adjusted accordingly.  We learned a few things about which players might (or might not) be deserving of a spot on the WC roster.  We don't need any hand wringing right now.

As for the no handling call, you can see the play here.  Not a close call for me as the defender was falling after contact with the US player and was extending his arm to brace for the fall.  It seems like a tremendous stretch to say he was making himself bigger.  But some are still making the case; the still picture looks very damning but when you see the video, it doesn't look anywhere near as egregious.  There were also complaints about the foul that set up the free kick for the winning goal and about possible offside on the play as well.  A little too much whining for my taste given that the bigger issue was they were seriously outplayed. 

Maybe it's over but maybe it's not; the back of the goal
 post is in line with the back of the goal line so...

Also, I've scanned the web for a picture with a definitive image that shows Richards' header was completely over the line but found none.  Doesn't mean it wasn't the correct call; the AR had the best view and there was no reason for VAR to overturn the call.  My question though is how does the Gold Cup not have Goal Line Technology for the final.  This is supposedly a major competition in a venue that will be hosting World Cup matches next year.  Was this a budget cutting measure?  Did DOGE have anything to do with it?

Does US Soccer Have a Type?

Pochettino found a line up he liked and didn't mess with much rotation.  He was also extremely slow on the subs, often not doing much until after the 80th minute.  Not sure it mattered in this competition in terms of results but does it do much for the morale of those who were looking for a chance to make their case for the World Cup team.  Last August I noted that the USWNT manager Emma Hayes was not a big fan of rotation and used subs sparingly.  At least she gets to point to an Olympic gold medal.  Again though, a little worried about what that strategy does to the morale of the backups.  Didn't they both manage Chelsea?

Stuck Inside of Nashville with the Columbus Blues Again (apologies to Bob Dylan)

It was late in second half stoppage time with the Union and Nashville level at 0-0, which was annoying given that the U had been up a man since the 63rd minute.  BFS Artistic Director Laura O said she knew Nashville were playing for a draw at that point but might the Union also being willing to settle for just a point?  I said maybe but they shouldn't be.  About 30 seconds later, they get caught on a counter, Makhanya commits a foul in the box, Nashville converts the PK and the Union wind up with nothing.  Should have listened to Laura.

This is the second straight 1-0 loss from a match that they should have at least gotten a point.  They haven't scored in over 260 minutes and that was a PK from Damiani in the 10th minute against Chicago.  The loss drops them to third in the Eastern Conference.  They've been playing with a thin roster so some of the decline is understandable.  The good news is that Baribo made a late appearance against Nashville, though he didn't score.  Also, Sullivan and Harriel will be back from international duty.  Uhre and Westfield might be available Saturday as well.  Definitely need to see some goals again.

No Bulls

Yeah, that's unplayable
Photo: Bill Streicher - Imagn Images

The Union's quarterfinal US Open Cup match against Red Bulls was postponed when a  line parallelogram of thunderstorms took its time rolling through Southeastern PA.  The match is rescheduled for August 13.  The Union might benefit in two ways from the delay.  First, several players who would have been unavailable may well be ready by that date.  Second, thanks to the League Cup, Red Bulls will have seven matches between July 26th and August 16th, including contests on 8/7 and 8/10; they might be a bit fatigued at that point.

I Don't Think She Was Faking It

Dennis notified me of an interesting play in the Germany-Denmark Euro Championship match.  You can see the play here.  The Danish defender slams the clearance right into the face of the teammate and she goes down like she's been shot.  The ball ricochets right to a German attacker, who lays it off for a teammate, who scores the go-ahead (and winning) goal.

The Danish player clearly has a head injury.  Shouldn't the referee stop play immediately? The answer it appears, it elusive.  Here's the language from IFAB.

stops play if a player is seriously injured and ensures that the player is removed from the field of play

I saw many posts that add the word "immediately," but did not find that word in any IFAB documents.  Mark Clattenburg, who I almost always agree with, said there was no way the referee could stop play in that situation.  Part of the reasoning is based on the fact that it was a Danish player who kicked the ball into her teammate's face and therefore Germany shouldn't lose a goal scoring opportunity.  But wait, if the issue is player safety and getting treatment as soon as possible for the injured player, why does who kicked it matter?  If you watch the referee, I think she had just turned her head away from the play and did not see the ball strike Snerle in the face so maybe she wasn't sure if she needed to stop play right away.  I'm more okay with that line of reasoning, although she really should be following the ball at that point. I suppose you could argue that there was no disadvantage for Denmark as even if Snerle had not gone down, there's no way she could have been helpful in stopping the goal.  Again, if the issue is player safety and immediate treatment, that's irrelevant.  

All the Soccer with 80% Less Shithousery

I only picked up on the Women's European Championship with Thursday's group stage match featuring Finland and Switzerland.  The Finns needed a win to advance whereas a draw would have been enough for the Swiss.  Finland got their goal in the 79th minute on a PK but Switzerland got the equalizer in stoppage time and advance to the knockout stage.  Norway were the winners in that group.  

BTW, the women's game is noted for much lower level of shithousery than the men, though Dennis suggests Italy can shit house with the best of them.  I saw clearly in the Finland - Switzerland match that the women do not know the proper procedure for a PK.  The keeper went straight to the goal line, the taker went to the PK spot and everybody else lined up outside the box.  Don't they know everybody is supposed to crowd the PK spot for five minutes before going to these positions?

Still Plenty To Do

Two Union matches this week - Red Bulls Saturday at 7:30 and Montreal Wednesday at 7:30.  I have a ticket for both so two trips to Subaru Park for me.  The Union are favorites in both matches, especially against Montreal.  Six points is needed and four points is a minimum.

The Club World Cup concludes on Sunday afternoon at 3 pm on TBS with Chelsea facing PSG at the Meadowlands.  Opta has PSG as moderate favorites (42-32 with a 26% chance of the match going extra time).  The French club has been on a tear so Chelsea will have to bring their best game.  

The Women's Euro Championships finishes the group stage with two matches each Friday, Saturday an Sunday, all starting at 3 pm.  Quarterfinals run from Wednesday-Saturday with one match each day at 3 pm.    

Five Fridays from today, the EPL starts.

Club World Cup, Gold Cup and MLS, Oh My

Busted.  I watched more Club World Cup games.  And Gold Cup.  And the Union.  A lot of football.  What did we learn?

1) A one goal lead is the most dangerous in football

Freeze frame: Matt Freese with one of his 3 PK saves 

Panama were probably the better side against Honduras but never added to their 1-0 lead.  Honduras got the equalizer at 82 minutes and then won the penalty shoot out (they don't play extra time except for the final).  Somewhat the same story for Canada in their contest versus Guatemala except they added another degree of difficulty by getting a man sent off late in first half stoppage time. They were up 1-0 but conceded in the 69th minute, then were lucky to hold on for PKs.  Didn't matter as they lost the shoot out 5-6.

Exhibit C for the danger of the one goal lead is the US.  They fell behind Costa Rica 0-1 on an early PK but rallied nicely and carried a 2-1 lead late into the match.  I thought they were the better side but they conceded the equalizer at 71 minutes.  Nice work by Matt Freese to lead them to a 4-3 win in the shootout.You can see his three saves here.

2) Smoke and mirrors can only work for so long

The Union had done a great job getting results despite being shorthanded due to injuries, international duty and suspensions.  That run came to an end with a 1-0 loss at Columbus.  Expected goals (1.4-.7)  and no shots on target for the U suggest maybe this was the right outcome.  But the way the Union pretty much ran things in the second half makes me feel like they deserved a draw.  They really need a healthy Baribo.

3) Club World Cup is looking like UEFA Champions League with a few guests

Five European sides have advanced to the quarter finals.  It could have been seven if not for a couple of upsets on Monday.   Fluminense tripped up Inter Milan 2-0, then the Saudi club Al-Hilal triumphed over Man City in a 4-3 extra time classic.   Here's the game winner from Marcos Leonardo, his second goal of the night, that sent City home.

4) The gap between MLS and European Leagues is wider than the Atlantic Ocean

Maybe it's a bit unfair to use the PSG 4-0 thrashing of Inter Miami as a yardstick since the Parisien team has been scything through European opposition too.   However, at no point did it look like Miami stood a chance against PSG in this Club World Cup Round of 16 match.

5) Scoring early and often is a better strategy

Not the goal scoring Diego Luna

Very thankful that US, behind early goals by Diego Luna (not the star of Disney's Andor), had a 2-0 lead on Guatemala by the 15th minute in the Gold Cup semi-final.  We make Luna's second goal this week's YouTubeableMoment; pretty much a marvelous individual effort.  Unfortunately the US lost the plot somewhere in the first half and spent the rest of the match on their heels.  Eventually, they allowed a goal in the 80th minute, making the last 15 or so minutes squeaky bum territory.  Pochettino is acting like the Argentine version of Jim Curtin, waiting very late to make substitutions.  He put Aaronson in at 58, but waited until 77 and 85 to make further changes.  We'll never know but maybe earlier substitutions might have blunted some of Guatemala's momentum.

The US will now face Mexico, who struggled to get past Honduras 1-0 in the other semi.  El Tri did have another goal called back for offside based on an interpretation of what's a deliberate play, not whether the player was in an offside position.  I couldn't find a good video but this one wasn't as controversial for me; it came off the keeper making a save, and bounced off another Honduran player.  The key point here is that it was a save:

A player in an offside position receiving the ball from an opponent who deliberately plays the ball, including by deliberate handball, is not considered to have gained an advantage, unless it was a deliberate save by any opponent.

I would think the US are decided underdogs in the final.  As Dennis put it "Yay, we get to go lose to Mexico."  For me, regardless of what happens Sunday, this Gold Cup goes down as a successful competition for the USMNT.  They played with a squad that was missing 7-9 starters from next year's likely World Cup squad and, despite looking shaky more often than we'd like, still made the final.  Slightly disappointed that Pochettino didn't take a longer look at some of the newer players - channeling his inner Jim Curtin again?  But, I think we found out that Chris Price, Malik Tillman and Diego Luna will do very nicely on next year's team.

BFS Book Club

I have been remiss in not mentioning this.  BFS Scandinavian Correspondent Philip S lent me the book Godwin: A Novel by Joseph O'Neill. It''s a fictional tale of people who see a video of the next potential Messi playing in anonymity somewhere in Western Africa.  We follow them as they attempt to track down and sign this phenom.  Like Ted Lasso, the story is grounded in soccer but the more important stuff is what the author has to say about family relationships, work relationships, career choices and deciding what you want in life. Highly recommended.

Permit me one small spoiler about the book.  One of the characters is a grizzled scout who has toiled in Europe all his life.  He is sitting with the protaganist at one point, thoroughly disparaging the American game and Major League Soccer.  "MLS, it sounds like a disease, not a soccer league."  Ouch, that'll leave a mark.  

Thanks For Nuthin'

I don't mean to be a curmudgeon, but the recent announcement (seen here), that NBC Sports Philadelphia will rebroadcast Union matches is a joke right?  The matches will reair between 48 hours and 7 days after the original broadcast.  Union president Tim McDermott was very self-congratulatory:

“This collaboration greatly enhances the visibility of the MLS Season Pass original content to the wide range of viewership for NBCSP so that our passionate fans are closer to the game than ever before.”

"Closer to the game than ever?"  Please.  You mean like when we could watch real time with our own broadcast team (Dellacamera and Higgenbotham - arguably best in MLS)?  This is only useful if you're willing to wait 2-7 days to see the result or if you don't care if you know the score and just want to see how they looked.  I won't totally disparage the second part because some find that useful but overall this is thin gruel.

One If By Car, Two If By Subway

The Union crew is off to the Linc Friday night to see the quarter final Club World Cup match between Palmeiras and Chelsea.  There's a good chance the crowd will exceed 50,000 and given that the City is already a hub of activity on July 4th with concerts and fireworks, getting to and from the South Philly venue could be an adventure. I believe the Broad Street subway is the preferred alternative.

I'm hoping Opta has this one wrong as they have Chelsea at 65%, Palmeiras at 15% with a 20% chance of extra time.  A more optimistic preview, at least in terms of an exciting match, can be found here.  

The other CWC quarters are Fluminense - Al-Hilal (guaranteeing one non-European side in the semis), Dortmund - Real Madrid and PSG -Bayern (guaranteeing at least two Euro sides in the semis).  Opta sees Al-Hilal, Real Madrid and PSG advancing.

The Gold Cup wraps up with the US - Mexico final Sunday at 7 pm.  Opta has that one at 43% Mexico, 31% US with a 26% chance of extra time.  

Don't despair, even as these tournaments wind down, there is still some mid-week football to be had.  The Club World Cup semis are Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons at 3 pm.  Better still, the Union take on Red Bulls Wednesday night at Subaru Park in the US Open Cup quarterfinals.  

But, a slow period is on the way, which might not be a bad thing.