Family matters have left me short on time, viewing and mental energy.

In short, there were games last weekend, there will be games this weekend and there will be games during the week.

We won't rule out the possibility that another Newcastle loss (2-1 to Chelsea) has dampened my enthusiasm for writing as well.  Frustrating that the Magpies beat Chelsea a mere three days later in a Carabao Cup Round of 16 match.  They needed the points in the EPL much more than a trip to the quarter finals.

Conversation That Could Have Taken Place and Did

Steve:  Great, Newcastle lose to Chelsea in EPL but of course they beat them in the Carabao Cup. What a waste.

Dennis: It's not like you have other European midweek games to be concerned about though.

Yeah, that left a mark.

Wasting the New Manager Bounce

So, after a 2-1 loss to West Ham, Man United finally sacked Erik ten Hag.  With the Red Devils sitting in 14th with just 11 points, this can't have been a surprise even after the "vote of confidence" he got before the season started.  Of course, in their first match after the sacking, United properly pasted Leicester 5-2 in their Carabao Cup fixture.  That seems like a waste of a perfectly good new manager bounce.  

Limited Viewing

Probably won't see any of Saturday's games.  With Newcastle hosting Arsenal, this may not be a bad thing.  Sunday has Spurs-Aston Villa and Man United - Chelsea.  That latter might be good if United didn't use up all their new manager bounce.   Full complement of Champions League, Europa Cup and Europa Conference League mid-week.  First round of MLS playoff continue.

Hopefully more viewing and more time next week.

No Points For Moral Victories

A lot of teams played well but got nothing for their efforts.

So much to get to and so little time.  You know what that means - mostly random observations of the week's action. Coverage a mile wide and an inch deep.

Ninth Place Says It All

Welbeck slips the ball past Pope for the game winner

The Magpies scoring drought from the run of play continued in their 0-1 loss to Brighton.  For those keeping track at home, that makes six hours and 44 minutes since the last non-PK goal.  Brighton are a decent side so a tough match was expected.  And Newcastle actually played pretty well in all aspects except for scoring.  But, to paraphase Jerry Seinfeld, that's really the most important part, the scoring. Isak was clearly rusty in his return after injury, though others were culpable as well.  Brighton, on the other hand, took advantage of their one big chance.  So, at the end of matchweek eight, they sit deservedly in ninth place.

Text Messages to Dennis That Could Have Happened and Did

Steve at 10:23 am: I expect to report in 10 minutes that Brighton have scored against the run of play.

Steve at 10:35 am: I was wrong.  It was 12 minutes.

 

I Made That Happen 

Here comes the Son; Hueng-min was part of the 
Spurs scoring outburst

Spurs were pushing West Ham all over the place but early in the second half they were still stuck at 1-1.  When Bissouma put them up in the 52nd minute, I texted Michael "blow out from here."  Sure enough, within eight minutes, the score was 4-1 and Spurs were fine from there.  Michael texted back "keep up the good work."

Relegation Six Pointers

Teams at the bottom of table have limited chances to pick up points so when they face one of their relegation rivals, it's a critical match regardless of whether it's August, October, May or whatever.  You simply don't have many matches to work with.  

Everton's 2-0 win over Ipswich gave the Toffees a five point cushion from the bottom three. Even bigger was Leicester's comeback against Southampton. Come May, we may look back on Southampton's collapse here as a key factor in their relegation.  Watching the highlights, this was probably the match of the week.  Never underestimate how compelling those relegation six pointers can be.  The Saints carried a 2-0 lead well into the second half but saw the deficit cut in half at 64 minutes.  The match then really turned at 73 minutes when Ryan Fraser was sent off for DOGSO (no sympathy from us as you could clearly see the shirt pull) and Vardy converted the PK.  The collapse was completed in the 98th minute when Jordan Ayew put in the corner from Harry Winks.  You can see the play here as this week's YouTubeableMoment.  Southampton stay winless, with one point, level with Wolves at the bottom of the table.  Yeah, that'll leave a mark.

No Points For Moral Victories

Speaking of Wolves, they were resolute at Molineux and looked to be ready to nick a point from Manchester City.  John Stones killed that notion with a last second header goal to seal a 2-1 win for City. Wolves argued that Silva was interfering from on offside position but that argument did not pass muster (correctly we think) with the VAR.  Yep, you played well against one of the league's best but it still counts for zero in the standings.

Interesting Result and Compelling Watch Are Not the Same Thing

I know there were several matches that we pooh-poohed as likely blowouts.  Wolves - Man City and Bournemouth - Arsenal come to mind.  I did see the former, which turned out to be a surprisingly close match as noted above.  Though the result hung in the balance, I can't say I was glued to the TV.  I didn't get to see the Bournemouth - Arsenal match in which the Gunners got their first defeat of the season.  Dennis told me not to be fooled by the 2-0 final in favor of the Cherries; yes, it was a surprise result but the game "was kinda boring."

This Week in Refereeing

The big call of the week was the DOGSO against Arsenal's William Saliba for fouling Bournemouth's Evanilson.  You can see the play here.  The call on the field by Rob Jones was just a yellow card for Saliba.  VAR Jarred Gillett sent him to the monitor and Jones changed his call.

We are less than convinced this was the right result, as it hinged on judgments (two separate ones actually) as to what constitutes "obvious."  The first O part of DOGSO - Obvious - looks at four factors:

• - distance between the offence and the goal

• - general direction of the play

• - likelihood of keeping or gaining control of the ball

• - location and number of defenders

Two and three look pretty good but does the distance between when Evanilson will likely gain control of the ball give Saliba (assuming he doesn't foul) or Ben White (the other defender in the picture time to intervene?  That is, are one and four obvious?  The second use of obvious comes in the overturning of the call.  It is supposed to be a clear and obvious error for the call on the field to be reversed.  Was that an obvious mistake?  Our conclusion is that we would have been fine with whatever the referee called on the field but not completely cool seeing Jones' initial call overturned. 

Draught excluders; even the kids are doing it now

On a personal note, while doing a U12 match, I saw one of the teams employ a draught excluder for a free kick about 25 yards from goal.  That was a first for me.  

The Ownest of Own Goals

The Union got some help from Charlotte, who beat DC United, but failed to do their part, falling to Cincinnati 2-1.  The winning goal came on an own goal off the foot of Jakob Glesnes. Seen here, this captures the season in a single moment.  I only saw the low lights but it was reliably reported to me that they really did not look like a side intent on making the playoffs.  They finish 12th out of 15th in the East.

In one sense, this team's fate was sealed when management decided to roll the dice one more time with basically the same side as the last few years.  That gamble was not helped by the mid-season departures of key components of the team like Carranza, Martinez and Lowe.  The Inquirer's Jonathan Tannenwald wrote a comprehensive obituary on the season, which you can read here (hopefully the Inquirer part isn't behind a paywall.)  We think he does a good job of laying out the key factors.  

On Top of the World (or at least the Champions League)

No baloney; Duran scores in Champions League too

After a convincing 2-0 win over Bologna, Aston Villa find themselves at the top of the Champions League table through three matchweeks.  Second place is Liverpool, who along with the Villans, are the only two undefeated and untied sides at this point.  Man City are third and Arsenal, hampered by a weak goal differential, are 9th despite two wins and a draw.  Five more match weeks to go but a good start for the EPL sides.

In Europa Cup, Tottenham remained perfect with a 1-0 win over AZ Alkmaar and sit second in the standings based on goal differential.  Man United could only manage a 1-1 draw with Fenerbache, their third straight in this competion and they languish in 21st right now.

And the EPL's seventh side in European competitions - Chelsea - dispatched Panathinaikos 4-1 to stay top of the European Conference League.

Turning the Clocks Back

If you're in England that is. 

Know how to tell a fixture is really important?  It's only on Peacock.  That is the case for Sunday's 12:30 contest between third place Arsenal and and league leader Liverpool.  Opta has this as a close one, with the Gunners slightly favored.  

There is a Friday afternoon fixture between Leicester and Nottingham Forest.  Eighth place Forest have just one loss against three wins and four (!) draws while Leicester have won their last two; sounds like a good enough reason to blow off work early and turn on USA at 3 pm.

No Saturday 7:30 match; that's a damn shame.  Four matches at 10 am.  The TV contest (USA) is Aston Villa - Bournemouth, which shouldn't be too difficult for the Villans unless they've been reading their press clippings and lose their focus.  Still, it may be the best of the lot.  Man City hosting Southampton, Wolves at Brighton and Brentford - Ipswich don't sound all that appealing.  The feature 12:30 on NBC however should be good with Everton hosting Fulham.  The Toffees have rebounded from a horrible start with two wins and two draws in their last four while Fulham have not been an easy opponent.

Three matches on Sunday at 10 to warm us up for the big one, except they all reek of mismatches.  USA gives us Chelsea - Newcastle; eesh, off of recent form this feels like a blowout for Chelsea, especially at Stamford Bridge.  Crystal Palace hosting Spurs isn't any better.  The neutrals may do best to go with West Ham - Man United; the Hammers are slight underdogs which sounds about right since the match is in London and Man United haven't really been overwhelming anybody this year.

No European action mid-week.

I was going to ignore the MLS playoffs assuming that everything was going to be double paywalled but maybe they are getting smarter.  Every playoff match is either FS1 and/or "free" Apple. The full bracket can be found here.  Oh wait, they still have the dumbass best of three format in the first round.  Recall that this format requires a penalty shootout for any first round match that ends is a draw.  Lots of product for the Apple Overlords.  Why yes, I am cynical about a soccer playoff system that puts 18 of 30 teams into the playoffs, then does a best of three in the first round.  Might be the only action mid-week so there's a chance I'll watch anyway

And, We're Back

Took in a few friendlies and some Nations League action but otherwise a quiet week.  We didn't have any club games either.  Footballless Saturdays are not a pretty sight.

We have regularly mocked the Nations League concept as a vehicle to glorify what are still basically friendlies.  Having watched a few more, I will say that the lineups and the effort seems more "honest" than the old friendlies so maybe it's not a terrible idea.

Guadalajara Won't Do (apologies to Steely Dan)

Pochettino: Remind me why I took this job?
Photo:Eduardo Verdugo/AP

So what did we learn from the two USMNT friendlies vs Panama (2-0) and Mexico (0-2)?  Mostly that Pochettino has his work cut out for him.  Against Panama they were inconsistent but did have a couple of moments of clinical finishing, like this YouTubeableMoment from Yunus Musah.  Great work from Robinson to get the ball off the touch line to Pulisic, who then executed a textbook give-and-go with Aaronson before Pulisic put the cross right on Musah's foot.  But overall, not that great a performance against the 37th ranked side.

The picture from Guadalajara was worse, where the Yanks were fairly well dominated by the home side.  Maybe they missed Pulisic, who was rested for load management, but not sure how much he could have helped in this situation.

Certainly after just two matches, it's way too early to make any judgments about the long-term future here.  Pochettino is a smart guy.  What worries me though is that there are no transfer windows in international football.  He will have to work with the talent the country has produced.

Last Chance

As we noted last week, the Union's playoff bid  requires that they beat Cincinnati at home while one of DC United (vs Charlotte at home) or Montreal (vs NYCFC at home) lose.  Well, technically, if Atlanta win, they can't win by more than 13 goals more than the Union win.   For simplicity of the following exercise, I'm going to assume that this won't happen.  If it does, you can blame me.

I had suggested that the chances of making the playoffs were probably less than 20 percent.  What I did not expect was that Opta would have the Union with a 46.8% chance of winning against Cincy.  That seems incredibly optimistic to me.  However, it does line up well with the betting lines, most of which have the U odds of winning at over 50%.  I can't identify what's driving those numbers.  Thinking Cincy won't care because they finish third regardless of the result?  Their recent poor run of form (lost three straight, no wins in last four)?  Injuries?   

Anyway, when I take the Opta odds for the three matches (DC at 37.1% to lose and Montreal at 39.8% to lose), I get the Union with a 28.94% chance of making the playoffs. Like I said, that is way better than I was expecting.  Dennis F did review the spreadsheet.  Though not a CPA he did hedge just like a real one, noting that assuming I correctly identified the scenarios in which the Union advance and that I correctly transcribed the numbers from Opta, my spreadsheet was correct.  So it was really a compilation opinion rather than an audit.

Atlanta, with whom we are currently tied, has almost the same scenario except with the added requirement that the Union not win against Cincinnati OR both Montreal and DC have to lose.  That last scenario would have four teams finishing 10-14-10 for 40 points but the Union and Atlanta would qualify based on goal differential.  I ain't doin' that spreadsheet.

London Calling (apologies to The Clash)

Michael, Don, Steve, Graham, and Charlie - aka the
"Five Men from USA" - are heading back to England for more football

It's official.  After eight long years, the "Five Men From the USA" are returning to England. This will be an abbreviated trip of less than a week and we probably won't get out of London.  Saturday morning looks like Spurs - Newcastle, Sunday will be Fulham vs Ipswich at Craven Cottage and Monday we'll see Queen's Park Rangers take on Luton Town at Loftus Road.  That latter fixture is in the Championship division; we decided against a two-hour train ride to Wolverhampton to see Wolves - Nottingham Forest.  Besides, QPR and Loftus Road have a rich history.  The personnel (see picture) are the same and we're hoping we get the same welcoming reception we got in 2016.  And, since we won't need a rental car, no one will have to drive on the wrong side of the road - or incur a "congestion charge" for driving in the wrong place at the wrong time.

When Kevin Hart Was David Beckham

BFS Artistic Director Laura O sends along this clip of Kevin Hart getting into character by shadowing David Beckham.  Don't tell anyone but it's an ad for H&M clothing.

The Week

A weekend with mismatches but also some intriguing stuff.  In theory the marquee match of the week should be Liverpool - Chelsea (Sunday 11:30 on USA). Except, off of recent form, maybe not.  Indeed, Opta has Liverpool at 59% and Chelsea at just 19%.  That doesn't sound all that exciting.

Things kick off at 7:30 Saturday with a London derby between Tottenham and West Ham.  Neither side have been living up to expectations but figure Spurs at home should be up to the task here.  The 10 am matches present some great choices.  We will of course take in Newcastle vs Brighton at St. James' Park; those two sides are level on points but maybe the home field advantage will be enough for the Magpies to get a point or three.  USA thinks that's the best choice as well.  But, Fulham hosting Aston Villa could be a good watch too. Opta actually has the Cottagers favored but I think that's just the home field advantage; after the sloppy/sleepy 0-0 draw with Man United, I'm looking for Villa to be tough here. Southampton - Leicester and Ipswich - Everton are important clashes for those relegation don't wannabes.  The only 10 am match maybe to skip is Man United - Brentford, although recent form there hints at something closer than you'd expect.

The "feature" NBC match is Arsenal at Bournemouth, which doesn't sound all that great.  Sunday morning, before the Liverpool - Chelsea contest, you can watch Wolves - Man City (9 am USA) , which also doesn't sound that great.  The match week concludes with Nottingham Forest - Crystal Palace on Monday at 3 pm (USA); Forest have lost just once so far while Palace are still winless.

But wait, there's more.  Champions League has Matchday 3 of 8 running on Tuesday and Wednesday.  Tuesday we will definitely be watching Aston Villa - Bologna, though we note that Arsenal will face Shakhtar Donetsk at the same time.  On Wednesday our choice is likely RB Leipzig - Liverpool over Man City - Sparta Praha.

Still not done.  Europa Cup action has Man United at Fenerbahce and Tottenham hosting AZ Alkmaar, both at 3 pm on Thursday.  

Are we there yet?  No.  There's also Europa Conference League action with Chelsea at Spanakopita   Panathinaikos, Thursday at 12:45.  Wait, that means we can watch Chelsea, then Spurs?

Taking a sneak peek ahead, Leicester play Nottingham Forest next Friday so we have football every day this week.  

As for MLS, all the Eastern Conference matches start at 6 pm on Saturday, with the Western Conference games kicking off at 9 pm.  They call it Decision Day.  Looks like every match is double paywalled behind an Apple subscription and a Season Pass.  But, but, you can see any match you want.  It's so much better.  In any case, I'm not going to be the guy streaming Union soccer at my 50th high school reunion so I won't see it anyway.  

About the only thing I won't see if the week goes well.

Spoiler Alert - Everybody Ties

Well, not everybody but there were draws in several of the key matches.  Hopefully you didn't follow last week's viewing advice too closely as many of the matches did not pan out as we had hoped.  There was good viewing to be had, just not where we expected.

One Dimensional Offense

Gordon Not - Pickford denies the PK

Some kind of power glitch caused our DVD to malfunction so I only saw the last 20 minutes of Newcastle's 0-0 draw with Everton.  This turned out to be a good thing.  For the third straight match, the Magpies failed to score from open play.  Also for the third straight time, a penalty offered them the chance for a result.  Except this time Anthony Gordon's weak attempt was easily saved by Jordan Pickford.   The Goodison Park faithful were eminently pleased to see the ex-Toffee mess up.  He also missed a pretty good opportunity late to steal the match as well.  Guess it's true you can't go home.

It's hard to win with an offense that relies on PKs, especially when you miss them.  Clearly the side is missing Isak, who may or may not be back for next Saturday's match versus Brighton.  That they are seventh in the table maybe speaks more to mediocrity of everyone below Liverpool, Man City and Arsenal; the Magpies still look no better than upper mid-table.

Incomplete for the Course

Our high hopes for the Aston Villa - Man United match were not realized and we were treated to a 0-0 draw and not the good kind of 0-0 draw.  We saw this as an important test for both sides and regrettably we must give them both incompletes.  Though Man United may be the slightly happier of the two, the draw leaves them in 14th place with just eight points, their worst start to a season in 35 years.  For Villa this was a chance to put down a marker as a nouveau top four that went begging.

So Where Was the Better Viewing?  

Almost anywhere.  Crystal Palace - Liverpool was a tight 0-1 win for the Reds.  Fulham did not exactly go quietly into the night, making Man City work for a 3-2 win.  Brentford - Wolves had five goals between them by 28 minutes; that one ended 5-3 favor the Bees.  We didn't get to see the Chelsea - Nottingham Forest 1-1 draw but that looked pretty tense, especially with Forest down a man after 78 minutes.  

"Best" match of the weekend was probably Brighton - Tottenham.  Spurs went up, fairly easily, with goals by Johnson and Maddison; leading 2-0 at half they seemingly had everything in hand.  Shockingly, Tottenham proceeded to allow three unanswered goals and by 66 minutes, they were down 3-2.  We make Welbeck's game winner this week's YouTubeableMoment.  Other than possession, the stats suggest this was result was about right.  The win moved Brighton past Newcastle and into sixth place.  Arsenal's 3-1 win over Southampton keeps them level on points with Man City; the Gunners and City remain the only two unbeaten teams.

In other news, Michael B announced he no longer follows the EPL.

The Window Is Closing

The Union got off to a terrible start in Columbus, falling behind on a Hernandez goal in the 4th minute.  Nathan Harriel got one back at 25 minutes but the U couldn't keep it level until half time as Farsi got one in the 41st minute.  A second goal by Hernandez looked to have put the matter to rest but McGlynn responded quickly so there was still hope they could scratch out a point.  Alas, it was not to be and the 3-2 final leaves the Union's playoff hopes dangling by a thread.  I won't be able to calculate the exact numbers until Opta puts up its predictions next week but the scenario can be described in one sentence:

Union beat Cincinnati AND either DC United lose to Charlotte OR Montreal lose to NYCFC

Playing around with some win percentages, it turns out the probability isn't as low as I would have guessed.  It's probably going to be something in the 14-18% range.  That's better than Lloyd Christmas territory, though still very much a long shot.  

 

International Break

We've been clear that international friendlies are not our cup of tea.  We will be making an exception this week when Mauricio Pochettino makes his debut as the USMNT manager.  They have a match with Panama Saturday night (9 pm on TNT) and another against Mexico on Tuesday (10:30 pm also on TNT).   Not sure exactly what I'm hoping to learn about the team except maybe to see if there is any chance to their system of play.

Normally, we'd be getting ready for the World Cup qualifying process but for 2026, as one of the host nations, the US get an automatic berth.  I wonder if this is a good or bad thing.  Pochettino will be taking a team to the World Cup that will have very limited (no?) competitive opportunities before the tournament.  

Short post I know but not as much action as usual, I missed a lot due to refereeing, and my dog ate my homework.  Also, the sun was in my eyes.

The Sun Never Stays Out For Very Long

This was Jon Champion's characterization of the weather in England but it could easily apply to the fortunes of any football fan.  Fortunately, it can work the other way too. If you're patient, the sun will eventually return.  Usually.

Draws of varying degrees of satisfaction for Newcastle, Aston Villa and the Union.  Noted football pundit Rosie Perez explains it all here:

 

A Good Draw

Joelinton was the unsung hero against City (Getty Images)

Nice to see the team show up at kickoff for the match with Man City.  Even though they fell behind 0-1, there was reason to believe the Magpies would get something out of the game.  That confidence was confirmed when Gordon was fouled in the box and he converted the PK at 58 minutes.  That would be the end of the scoring and the 1-1 final looked like a fair result.  City had the better of possession (63/37), shots (16/11) and shots on target (6/4) but Newcastle had the better xG (1.48-1.13).

I'll give "most improved" to Joelinton, who had been largely been disappointing in recent outings.  On Saturday he was both a "destroyer" interrupting City's offense and a playmaker composing the best attacking plays, including the pass that sprung Gordon loose for the penalty.  Newcastle no doubt benefitted from the absences of DeBruyne and Rodri but that takes nothing away from the intensity that we saw from the Magpies.

A Bad Draw

The opposite of Newcastle's "good draw" was Aston Villa's 2-2 tie with Ipswich.  Yes it was on the road but this was Ipswich, a side looking for its first win.  Aston Villa fell behind early but they do not panic in that situation.  Indeed, Rodgers and Watkins had them up 2-1 by the 32nd minute.  The problem was that the Villans seem to want to coast from there.  They paid for it when Delap got his second at 72 minutes.  The most disturbing stat from the match was that Villa had just seven shots and only three on target.  Not good enough for a team looking to repeat in the top four again.

The Worst Draw

If the Aston Villa draw was disappointing, the Union's 1-1 result at home against Atlanta was border line soul crushing.  They looked decent enough in the first half but couldn't convert any of the decent scoring chances.  Harriel got them the lead at 61 minutes but as is their tendency, the Union conceded a goal on sloppy defending in the 72nd minute.  That would be Atlanta's only shot on target, though curiously Atlanta had the better xG 1.8-1.0.

Though the point lifted the Union into 9th place, they really needed all three based on the schedules.

Playoffs? Playoffs? (apologies to Jim Mora)

But as bad as the Atlanta draw was, the 2-1 loss in Orlando was even worse.  Again, they looked decent enough but eventually found themselves down 2-0 by 64 minutes.  Sullivan came on as a sub and cut the deficit in half.  Harriel had a couple of golden chances to level the match which probably explains why xG was close at 2.6-2.3. Not to be though and the loss combined with results elsewhere dropped the Union to 10th.  The silver lining is that they are level on points with 9th place Toronto with a game in hand.  Balance that against the fact that DC United are also tied on points but have New England and Charlotte as their final two fixtures.

Results Elsewhere

The approaching deadline means I can only offer limited observations on the other EPL action.

- Cole Palmer had a hat trick by the 31st minute, then added a 4th by the 40th minute in Chelsea's 4-2 win over Brighton (their first loss of the season by the way)

- Arsenal looked headed for a draw with Leicester but got two stoppage time goals (one an OG) for a 4-2 win 

- Spurs handed Man United another loss (3-0) but the talking point from that match - the red card to Fernandes - is addressed below

We Sort of Carabao It

Well, we chose Newcastle's Carabao Cup match with  AFC Wimbledon over some Champions League matches like Arsenal - PSG or Slovan Bratislava - Man City.  In the end, none look like a very good choice.  The Magpies did pretty well dominated their League Two opponent but the 1-0 win (on a PK at that) doesn't look all that impressive.  Their reward is a Round of 16 home match against Chelsea, which actually could be an interesting fixture.

A Famous Win

Multiple EPL teams were in action Tuesday-Thursday but the big news has to be Aston Villa's 1-0 win over Bayern.  This is probably the biggest victory for Aston Villa since 1982, when they beat Bayern to win the Champions League final.   The hero?  Super sub Jhon Duran of course.  Check out his goal here as this week's YouTubeableMoment; the clip includes bonus footage of several Martinez saves that kept the match 0-0.

Man City, Arsenal and Liverpool also won their Matchday 2 fixtures, all with shutouts like Aston Villa.

In Europa Cup action, Man United stumbled again with a 3-3 draw at Porto.  Pretty wild with United up 2-1, then down 2-3 before Maguire rescued a draw with a stoppage time goal.  We note that Bruno Fernandes was sent off again, this time for two yellows.  Spurs got a 2-1 win over Ferocious Fevervirus Ferencvaros. In Europa Conference League, Chelsea got a Matchday 1 win over Gent.

This Week in Refereeing

Late in the first half of the Man United - Spurs contest, Bruno Fernandes attempted a weird and ugly challenge on Maddison.  You can see the play here.  The call by Kavanaugh on the field was red and it was supported by VAR Bankes.  Though lacking excessive force, the height of the leg and the studs up lunge were enough for those two.  The league statement shortly after the match backed up that view.  But the red card was overturned on appeal and viewed as incorrect by the Key Match Incident panel.  My view was that even as he was slipping, Fernandes went for a pound of flesh with that lunge.  The law references excessive force but it also includes the phrase "endangering the safety of an opponent."  Fernandes was out of control and I don't have a problem with either Kavanaugh or Bankes actions, even if the appeal was successful.   Neither does the EPL as both have assignments this week.  As we noted last week, the consequences for serious foul play and attempted serious foul play are different even if the intent is the same.

Dennis reports that in a Champions League match, Anthony Taylor gave a player a yellow card for waving an imaginary yellow card.  Good to hear that Taylor was not cowed by the abuse he took for issuing 14 yellows in the Bournemouth - Chelsea match.

Speaking of not being cowed, check out this clip of a referee from one of the lower divisions of English Football sent along by BFS Artistic Director Laura O via BFS Historical Archivist Mackenzie W.  We think he may be ready for the big time.  

More locally, I sadly report that the Chestnut Hill Youth Sport Club had to suspend a U-10 Girls coach for running out on the field to confront a referee about a call.  FFS, this is intramural soccer where we don't keep standings or even the scores.  Maybe this explains why I'm so willing to throw the book at players and coaches who misbehave.  My question is does the behavior at the younger levels come from watching the professionals or do the professionals do it because they gotten away with it since they were at the U-10 level? Or maybe:

A Break

The international break will temporarily bring an end to the nonstop action.  All we have are full match weeks for the EPL and MLS.  And some international action.

Most interesting match of the weekend for me (and arguably for neutrals) is Aston Villa vs Man United at 9 am on Sunday (USA).  Opta has Villa as prohibitive favorites (42-33-25) and this is an important test for both sides.

The weekend opens at 7:30 Saturday morning with a possible mismatch of Crystal Palace vs Liverpool. The Eagles are all of a sudden a relegation candidate off a terrible start which finds them winless through six matches.

Five to work with at 10 am.  USA would have you watch West Ham - Ipswich but that doesn't sound all that great.  Actually none of them do.   I might go with Leicester - Bournemouth.  Certainly Arsenal - Southampton or Man City - Fulham don't look competitive.  Brentford - Wolves might be the second choice.  The 12:30 "feature match" on NBC is Everton - Newcastle, which looks closer than I would like (31-44-25).

Up against the Aston Villa contest is Chelsea - Nottingham Forest on Peacock.  Meh.  The 11:30 match looks better with Brighton hosting Tottenham; Spurs likely prevail here but need to be ready. 

The Union are in Columbus, which does not look like a promising oppotunity for points.  Toronto have Miami so that's not good for them.  Atlanta have Red Bulls at home so that could be a point.  Montreal are on the road at Charlotte which isn't an obvious result for them.  Ditto for Nashville at NYCFC.  However, DC United get 14th place New England, albeit on the road.  Worst case scenario could see the Union in 11th at the end of the weekend.

There are two USMNT friendlies that will mark the debut of Mauricio Pochettino as their coach on the horizon - vs Panama on 10/12 and Mexico 10/15.  Not a big friendly viewer but will likely look in on those two matches.

There are also two matchdays of Nations League competition if you want some European action.  Check your local listings.

Are we there yet?

Results Over Performance Only Works So Many Times

Newcastle's mantra had been we may not be pretty but we get results.  Yeah, how'd that work out this week?  Other BFS sides fared much better.

Loaf A Half

For the second straight week, Newcastle sleepwalked through the opening 45 minutes.  This time - against Fulham -  it cost them an 0-2 halftime deficit.  Barnes got one back right after the break but the Magpies never found the equalizer and a stoppage time goal made the final 1-3.  Newcastle could have no complaints about the scoreline.  

Gordon thinking "damn we're not as good at we thought"
Getty Images

Multiple sets of fingerprints were found at the crime scene.  Joelinton's give away and tepid response set up the first goal.  Schar probably could have closed Jiminez down better on that first goal plus he missed a golden opportunity to level things in the second half.  Nick Pope should have stopped Fulham's second goal.  Anthony Gordon displayed incredibly poor body language every time things did not work out as he wanted, which was often.  Bruno Guimaraes put the ball on a platter for the third goal; ironically this came after a morning reffing U12 games and listening to coaches plead with their kids not to clear the ball to the middle.  

This match exposed Newcastle as the team I thought they were - a side with talent but also some holes and a penchant for inconsistency.  Generously, we will call them a work in progress.

Talking Points Good and Bad

Much to digest from the 2-2 draw between Man City and Arsenal.  The quick takeaway is that City rescued the point with a 98th minute goal from John Stones against a 10-man Arsenal side.  But a lot of water had passed under the bridge before that moment.  Haaland put City up early with his 100th goal for the club, in just 105 appearances.  Calafiori leveled it shortly thereafter with a beautiful shot but the goal was not without controversy.  With play stopped for an Arsenal free kick, Michael Oliver called Kyle Walker, as team captain, over to discuss something.  As Walker started to retreat back to a logical defensive position, Partey quickly took the kick to Martinelli who passed to Calafiori who deposited it in the back of the net. Not to take anything away from the strike, which you can see here, Man City protested vigorously that Oliver should not have allowed the kick to be taken so quickly.  For my money, they have a point; once Oliver has called Walker over, this has to be what they call a "ceremonial" restart (i.e. you can't take the kick until the ref blows the whistle).  On the other hand, Walker would have gotten back faster if he hadn't raised his arm to complain (for offside - which it wasn't - or for the quick kick); also, he was essentially in position to defend against Martinelli's pass.  As we found out earlier this year, VAR cannot intervene on restarts.

Arsenal took the lead late in the first half but that goal had some controversy as well; was Ederson fouled on the play or was he simply out-positioned by Arsenal attackers?  I saw it as the latter and so did VAR.  But we weren't done with first half talking points.  As the half wound down, Trossard (already on a yellow) barged into the back of Silva.  Oliver quickly whistled for the foul (which it was) and almost immediately showed Trossard a second yellow, then the requisite red.  The timing led us to believe the card was for a reckless challenge, which looked like a harsh decision, but we were later told it was for delay of game for kicking the ball away.  There was some question as to whether the story changed to make the call more palatable.  Gooner fans see it as a continuation of the league conspiracy against them.  There is some question about the consistency with which this yellow for delay of game is being displayed but my advice to the players is stop doing it and you won't get called.

The sending off did ruin the second half, as Arsenal could do little but bunker in.  They did defend gamely but Stones got the late equalizer for City.  But the "fun" was still not over.  As seen here, Haaland took the ball out of the net and "threw" it at the back of Gabriel's head.  Very classy.  He appears to have escaped any punishment as the VAR was probably reluctant to conclude that it was thrown with excessive force and by rule couldn't intervene to suggest Oliver show him a yellow card.  Still a dick move.  

For me, a draw between the light blue fascists and the red fascists was okay.

Meanwhile...

Random observations on the other results.

- As we suggested, Man United found that Crystal Palace at home is no walk in the (Selhurst) park.  Maybe they deserved better but all they got was a 0-0 draw.

- Everton are no longer pointless after a 1-1 draw at Leicester.  Also, looks like there is an agreement to transfer ownership to the Friedkin Group.  That could be bad news for Sean Dyche.

- Undefeated sides Brighton and Nottingham Forest remain unbeaten after a riveting, back-and-forth 2-2 draw.

- Aston Villa are quietly cementing their position as a top four side; this week they calmly recovered from a 0-1 deficit with a second half comeback 3-1 win.  Watkins and Duran were on the scoresheet again, both assisted by Rogers.

This Week in Refereeing - Even Jesus Was Shown A Yellow Card

By my count, the EPL broke last week's record total of yellow cards (not counting coaches), ending up with 66 this week.  Notably, Anthony Taylor was not the referee for any of the matches and Newcastle didn't get any yellows - the only team to escape with none this weekend.  I have not seen any articles on this, which may be partly due to how the EPL seems to count cards.  There were two players sent off for second yellows this weekend and it appears that those show in the stats as two red cards but no yellows.  That would lower the count to 62, which still seems noteworthy to me as it would have broken the old record.  

Apparently attempted murder only gets you a yellow
Martinez flies in on Kamada (photo: BBC)

We already highlighted Michael Oliver's fun day at The Etihad.  Note that the Key Match Incident
(KMI) panel agreed with the call on Trossard, though not unanimously.   Lisandro Martinez somehow escaped a red card for a full-blooded, two-footed challenge on Palace's Kamada.  I couldn't find a good video but the picture gives you some idea how ridiculous it was.  Martinez was given a yellow.  The KMI unaminously backed the referee and the VAR on this one.  For me, this is in the same category as why is the punishment different for murder and attempted murder; intent is the same, it's just that in the latter case you failed.  

I don't remember specific cases but both Dennis and I noticed that the supposed higher threshold for VAR interventions is resulting in fewer overturned calls.  As Dennis put it "now we can get back to our roots of just criticizing the center ref."

Always One Game Away From A Crisis

That was the announcer's assessment of Man United as they faced FC Twente in their Europa Cup opener.  I think it's more accurately always one goal away from a crisis.  Despite pushing the visitors all over the pitch, the Red Devils were unable to add to their early 1-0 lead.  Eventually they paid for it as Twente got the equalizer at 68 minutes.  Man United did have some good chances in closing but never got the game winner.  Fortunately for them, the new format which mirrors the Champions League approach is probably more forgiving of a misstep like this in the opener. 

Tottenham on the other hand made lemonade out of lemons.  As explained here, the requirement that there be eight home grown players on the roster meant that Spurs could only name 23 players and had to leave Reguilon and Spence out.  Then, Ragu Dragusin got himself sent off for DOGSO in the 7th minute.  None of this seemed to rattle Spurs, who calmly went out and beat the Azerbaijan club Qarabag FK 3-0.  

Conversation That Could Have Taken Place and Did

Steve (late in the Man United - Twente match level at 1-1):  Here's my hierarchy for the result

    1) Twente win on a Maguire mistake

    2) Twente win

    3) Twente draw

    4) Twente lose but Fernandes is not the goal scorer

Dennis: This late in the match, probably can't have 2) without 1)

Apologies to Jeff H.

Still Too Early To Caraboa It

This week was the third round and people might notice that I didn't even mention it in last week's post.  Newcastle did not play because the pitch at AFC Wimbledon was basically ruined; they will play next week.  Several EPL squads crashed out in this round, though mostly they lost to other EPL sides.  Fulham lost 15-16 on PKs to Preston while Everton (Southampton), Wolves (Brighton) and West Ham (Liverpool) also bailed out.  Round of 16 matches are all on Tuesday October 29.  

Head Above Water

Sullivan's two assists give him 10 for the year
Caean Couto-Imagn Images

Weeks of treading water paid off as the Union's dominating 4-0 win over DC United finally put them back in a playoff position.  This was pretty much a total beat-down and the score fully reflects what happened on the pitch (i.e. not like the luckier win over NYCFC).  A quick double from Uhre (whose scoring form is improving) and Gazdag had Philly up 2-0 by 16 minutes.  Baribo (yeah, him again) made the margin 3-0 early in the second half.  Check out the work of Quinn Sullivan to set up the goal and Baribo's textbook header form in this week's YouTubeableMoment; this might have been Sullivan's best game as he was a constant offensive threat and deservedly came away with two assists.

The good news is that the U now hold the last playoff spot but the bad news is how tenuous that hold is.  There are four teams below them within three points.  The remaining schedule has pluses and minuses.  We finish with Atlanta, Orlando, Columbus and Cincinnati so that's not great.  But at least the chase pack has some matches among themselves so there will be dropped points along the way.  

Don't Blink

The next week is a veritable blizzard of action, with a full slate of EPL and MLS matches over the weekend, an extra full MLS match week on Wednesday, Champions League on Tuesday/Wednesday, Europa Cup on Thursday and Europa Conference League on Wednesday and Thurday.  

Ominously, the whole thing kicks off at 7:30 Saturday morning with Newcastle hosting Man City on USA.  Not counting a League Cup win, you have to go back to Jnauary 2019 to find the last Magpie win over the Citizens.  I can find no reason to think this time will be different; I'm surprised Opta has it at only 56% for City.

There are five choices at 10 am.  The USA option is a London derby between Brentford and West Ham, which might be decent.  I'd go with Everton - Crystal Palace as the most competitive, though Nottingham Forest - Fulham will likely be pretty good too.  Arsenal - Leicester looks like a blowout and Chelsea look poised to pin a first defeat on Brighton. The 12:30 feature match (on USA as NBC goes for President's Cup golf over soccer) doesn't look all that great either with Wolves hosting Liverpool

Two games on Sunday, both on USA.  At 9 we have Ipswich - Aston Villa; Opta has Villa at 49% for the win - a little lower than I expected - so they're saying there's still a chance for the Tractor Boys.  Looking forward to the second match at 11:30 with Man United playing Tottenham at Old Trafford.  United are a slight favorite at Opta but I think Spurs will be tough opponent.  To make sure we don't have a day off, there's a Monday match with Bournemouth - Southampton; that's 3 pm on USA.

We will be at Subaru Park Saturday night (on TV behind double Apple pay wall) for the critical Union match against Atlanta. Like last week, I tried to frame this as must-not-lose but it's really must-win, given the three games after this.  Montreal and Nashville have easier contests against San Jose and New England respectively.  Not so much for DC United as they must face Columbus.  Eighth place Toronto get Chicago.

The Wednesday slate is a mixed bag as well.  The Union have a tough away match against Orlando.  The chase pack has to play each other with Atlanta facing Montreal and Nashville hosting DC United.

Busy mid-week in Europe.  EPL participants in the Champions League include Man City at Slovan Bratislava, Arsenal hosting PSG onTuesday,  Aston Villa entertaining Bayern on Wednesday and Liverpool vs Bologna at Anfield on Wednesday.  The Europa Cup action on Thursday includes Spurs at Ferencvaros and Man United at Porto. The Europa Conference League participant is Chelsea, who host Ghent on Thursday.

This is seriously going to test my stamina.

Have You Tried Being Luckier?

Plenty of action this week, including the favorite of semi-retired and work-from-home people - midweek Champions League action.  Newcastle and the Union both had moments where being lucky was more important than being good.

Wolves Forget To Close The "Barnes" Door

Except for maybe the opening 10 minutes, Wolves were easily the better side in the first half at Molineux and fully deserved the 1-0 lead over Newcastle.  By all accounts, Eddie Howe lit into the squad in his halftime talk (see treatment, hair dryer).  He also made some pointed tactical substitutions, swapping out Longstaff for Tonali and Barnes for Joe L. Linton.  The changes did ramp up the intensity of the Magpies' effort but they were still short on creativity in the final third.

Schar: You cannot score if you do not shoot (Getty Images)

So Fabian Schar decided to take matters into his own feet.  He launched an audacious shot from 30 yards out that deflected off of Craig Dawson and into the goal. Schar explained his thinking here in a post-match interview.  Possibly emboldened by his teammate, Harvey Barnes decided to have a go from about 25 yards out.  His shot, only slightly less audacious, was this high quality curler that needed no help from Wolves' defenders to go in.  Arguably, the Wolves should have done a better job closing Barnes down but he did make the most of the space they gave him.  So Newcastle grabbed all three points after looking like they'd come home with none.

Hopefully, they don't read too much into this great early start - 10 points from four matches.  The offense is just not all that potent right now.  A couple of late unconverted late chances made the xG against Wolves look reasonable for the result (1.43-1.24) but for long stretches you wondered how they would ever score.  Also, one could have looked at the first four fixtures (Southampton, Bournemouth, Spurs and Wolves) and concluded that 10 points was not an unreasonable expectation.  As in, I'd say the jury is still out on this team.

 

Exception To The Two-Goal Lead Rule

As you know, BFS does not buy into the idea that a two-goal lead is the most dangerous in soccer; a one-goal lead is.  However, we are considering something called the Everton Exception after watching the Toffees snatch consecutive 2-3 defeats after building a two-goal cushion.  Their latest folly was against Aston Villa.  Goals by Dwight McNeil and Dominic Calvert-Lewin had Everton up 2-0 by the 27th minute.  Villa tend not to be rattled by deficits anyway and this was Everton so there was no reason to think this was a lost cause.  Sure enough, Ollie Watkins got things level with goals at 36 and 58 minutes.  Tell me that brace didn't go a long way to calming fears about his scoring prowess.  The comeback was completed in the 76th minute with this YouTubeableMoment of a goal from Jhon Duran.  Three minutes before the goal, Dennis had texted me that manager Unai Emery had said earlier this week that he expects Duran to be one of the best strikers in the world within 12 months.  I could only respond "I guess it wasn't hyperbole."

North London Dullby

The Spurs 0-1 loss to Arsenal was disappointing, at least to the neutrals and Spurs fans.  For two teams that supposedly hate each other, that was remarkably tepid.  Biggest surprise for me was the lack of an intense response from Spurs after they went down 0-1.  As Dennis put it "put the ball in the goddamn box."  

In other news, Michael B announced that he no longer follows the EPL and quickly fled the country after the final whistle.  He is pursuing a career on the senior cycling tour in Italy.

We Got Your Homefield Advantage Right Here

Well we certainly oversold the home field advantage this weekend.  After noting that the 10 am matches looked like walkovers for the home sides, only one (Man City over Brentford) managed to get all three points.  Brighton drew 0-0 with Ipswich.  Didn't see it but that one reads like must-miss TV.  The Seagulls dominated the stats but couldn't score and there were 30 fouls between the two sides.  This is not my beautiful game.  Crystal Palace rescued a 2-2 draw with Leicester on a stoppage time goal.  Fulham probably weren't too dismayed with a 1-1 draw with West Ham.  But at least those three got draws.  Liverpool crashed out Anfield 0-1 to Nottingham Forest (that's undefeated Forest to you); my guess is that maybe they did walk alone after that one. You can see the game winner from Callum Hudson-Odoi here.  On any other weekend, he might have gotten the YouTubeableMoment but he's third behind Duran and Barnes; also he got a two-tenths deduction for an incomplete celebratory slide.

All those who had Man City, Arsenal, Newcastle, Brighton and Nottingham Forest as the unbeaten sides after four weeks, raise your hands.  Yeah, sure you did.

If They Can Make It There...(apologies to Frank Sinatra)

They might be able to make the playoffs. After a somewhat frustrating 1-3 loss in Miami, the Union came up really big in the city that never sleeps at the stadium that should never be used for soccer.  Ironically, both the Miami score and the 5-1 win over NYCFC are misleading.  Against Miami, Messi's brace negated Uhre's early goal so it was 1-2 for most of the match before Suarez got a stoppage time goal to pad the margin.  But the U had more shots, more shots on target and a better xG (2.3-1.4); this was a surprisingly close contest.

Baribo scores again

In NY, they were outshot and out xGed (3.1- 2.4) but took advantage of every NYCFC miscue (and
there were several) to fashion a 3-1 lead by halftime.  City then proceeded hit the woodwork or flat out miss golden chances while the Union added two more in the second half. Not every goal was pretty but this one by Glesnes off a Wagner corner was pretty good.

So this one easily could have been a draw too.  But math tells us that a win beats two draws (0+3>1+1) and we are fine with the results.  Even though Atlanta picked up an unexpected point in Miami, this win catapulted the Union into 9th place (albeit on goal differential), the final playoff spot.  However, nothing is solid here with DC level on points, Atlanta and Nashville just one behind and Montreal only two back.  This Sunday at home vs DC United is huge.

This Week in Refereeing

1) Consider this scenario.  White team takes a corner kick that goes directly to a blue defender in the box, who deliberately takes a shot on his own goal.  Blue keeper makes a save but white score on the rebound.  After the ball goes into the goal, the blue defender then punches the blue keeper.  What is the correct call?

a) Goal counts, red card for the blue defender, restart with a kickoff for blue

b) Quit this league because it is totally nuts

c) Suspend the match because the blue team forgot to reserve the field and a U12 tryout takes over the pitch

d) Proceed to the nearest bar and discuss the incident over pitchers of beer                       

e) Both b) and d)

Though a) is the technically correct call, turns out c) was what actually happened.  I could make a strong argument for b), d) or e) though.  Not giving away too much but the guy's name who took the corner for white rhymes with "tennis."

2) I got to call a U12 player for holding when he grabbed an opponents shirt in the box. Teach 'em early as Dennis says.  It sort of played out in slow motion in my head.  The shirt pull happened right in front of me but it took a few seconds to blow the whistle.  I say that's holding on red.  Then I look down and notice the foul occurred in the box.  So I announce it's a PK.  My co-ref (two man crew for this match) said it was interesting watching the call unfold.  

Taylor must be thinking "I'm going to get a lot of shit for this"
Image: Catherine Ivill/AMA)

3) The EPL set a bunch of records related to yellow cards.  Anthony Taylor doled out 14 cards in the Bournemouth Chelsea match, which breaks the old record of 12 set only last September.  Note that the count is really 16, as two coaches were cautioned as well.  By my count, there were 51 yellows issued in the eight matches on Saturday.  As far as I can tell, that breaks the previous one day record of 44, also set last year.  For the match week, there were 65 cards across the 10 matches, which also breaks the previous record of 57.    I saw a bunch of them and have a sense that the jump is due to reduced tolerance of shithousery.   

As noted here, some pundits are racing to the fainting couch.  Also, Anthony Taylor is taking incredible abuse on social media.  Enough abuse that he will only work as a fourth official this weekend; to be clear, I believe this is about safety concerns as opposed to a reprimand for his performance.  If I were omnipotent, I would send anyone who posted abuse or threats to a deserted island for the next version of Survivor: Mole People Who Shouldn't Be Allowed Near a Computer.

Oy, where to start?  The EPL said they wanted to crack down on the shithousery so Taylor was refereeing as directed.  If you have a problem with this, your beef is with the league, not the referees.  Second, there is a simple solution to the "excessive" number of yellow cards and that is for the players to stop being dicks out there.  This kind of bullshit has been tolerated for so long that it may take some time for players to adjust but to stop the campaign to cut this crap out now would be sending a mixed message.  Do you want it to stop or not?

4) Conversation That Could Have Taken Place and Did

Dennis - Equal shirt pulling means no shirt pulling?

Steve - Please, the correct term used by VARs is "mutual engagement"

Champions League

With the new format of eight league play matches instead of six and no groups but one unified table, each match isn't quite as critical as before; as in a opening day loss in your group could mean you'd be scrambling through the rest of the group stage.  For the EPL sides, this wasn't a problem as all four managed to get results.  Aston Villa handled the Young Boys 3-0 (maybe rephrase that?), Liverpool fell behind to AC Milan but ralled for a 3-1 win, Man City could only manage a 1-1 draw with Inter and Arsenal drew 0-0 with Atalanta.  They have a week off and return for matchday 2 on 10/1 or 10/2.

Keep It Coming

Reffing and a lot of Peacock are going to make this weekend's viewing tough and unfortunately, it's an intriguing set of fixtures.

Easy choice for the match of the weekend - Man City hosting Arsenal at 11:30 on Sunday (USA).  Opta does not see this as particularly close, putting City's chances of a win at 52% compared to 23% for Arsenal (25% chance of draw).  

Yes, it's early but there are some key fixtures down at the relegation end.  You can check out Leicester (2 points) hosting Everton (0 points) or Southampton (0 points) versus Ipswich (2 points); both are at 10 am Saturday on Peacock.  We loves us some relegation six pointers so these could be interesting.

Newcastle have a very tricky fixture as they travel to Craven Cottage to face Fulham (10 am Saturday on Peacock).  If the Magpies don't find some offense, they could easily find themselves getting just one point, or even nothing out this.  

You could get up early Saturday to catch the London derby featuring West Ham and Chelsea on USA.  Both are somewhat hard to figure out so far.  The 10 am TV game on USA is Liverpool hosting Bournemouth; after last week's stumble you have figure the Reds will take it to the Cherries.  Of course, that's what we said last week.

Feature TV match at 12:30 on Saturday is Crystal Palace - Man United.  The visitors are favored but not by as much as you might think.  Rounding out the schedule is a sort of Midlands derby between Aston Villa and Wolves (10 am Saturday on Peacock), Spurs - Brentford (a not obvious London derby at 10 am on Peacock), and Brighton - Nottingham Forest (two of the undefeated sides) Sunday at 9 on USA.

Sunday is a big one for the Union as they host DC United at 6:15.  The TV people see this as big too, as it will be on FS1 and "free" Apple TV.  I tried framing this as only a must-not-lose match but with so many teams chasing them and some tougher matches waiting for them in October, this really is a must-win for the Union.  Montreal have Chicago at home, though both Nashville (Cincinnati) and Atlanta (Red Bull) have tougher opponents.  

No Champions League this week but we do have Europe League.  Man United host Twente on Wednesday and Spur are home to Grab Bag Qarabag FK on Thursday.  

Are we there yet?