Derby

Der·by[dur-bee; for 1, 2 also British dahr-bee] — n
1.	the Derby  an annual horse race run at Epsom Downs, Surrey, since 1780: one of the English flat-racing classics
2.	any of various other horse races
3.	local Derby  a football match between two teams from the same area

From dictionary.com.  Note the pronunciation for 3.  It's not like we don't have fierce rivalries here too but in England they have a special name for them.  The cliches are about the same though; "Yes Nigel, you have to throw out the won-loss records for these derby matches, anything can happen."  Of course, it's sort of true.  Sunderland has been bloody awful this year but still managed a 2-1 defeat of Newcastle in October and were quite happy with themselves.  And like some of the better American rivalries, they have names, albeit not as creative, relying on a river, town or region name - Merseyside (Everton-Liverpool), Wear-Tyneside (Newcastle-Sunderland), Midland (Aston Villa-West Bromwich Albion), North London (Tottenham-Arsenal), South Wales (Swansea-Cardiff), etc.  Many have a rich history; the Sunderland-Newcastle match in October was the 145th meeting between the two sides.   And they run deep.  A Newcastle daughter might find herself cut out of the will for marrying a Sunderland supporter.  It explains why Luke's only comment with respect to anything Tottenham is "f--- Spurs."

Speaking of derbies, the Everton-Liverpool match on Saturday had to be one of the season's best so far.  Liverpool went up early but Everton got the equalizer quickly.  Suarez (worst overbite in the EPL) put Liverpool back on top in the 19th minute with a well-taken, bending free kick; Laura and NBCS commentator both wondered if Tim Howard correctly positioned the wall for that kick.  It stayed 2-1 until Romelu Lukaku tied things up in the 72nd minute.  Ten minutes later Lukaku put the Goodison faithful into a frenzy as he drilled a header into the upper left corner for Everton's first lead.  That wouldn't hold up though as Danny Sturridge  headed a low hard cross from Steven Gerrard past Howard in the 89th minute.  Have to say a draw seemed like a fair result to this neutral observer.  Derby indeed.  And it was only the first match of the weekend.

Newcastle continued it's good run with what sounded like a relatively easy 2-1 win over Norwich.  Didn't mean I wasn't sweating the last 10 minutes plus 7 minutes of stoppage time.  Happy to see them beat a team they should beat.  What to make of Arsenal's 2-0 win over Southampton?  Looks good, puts them 4 points clear of Liverpool and a win is a win.  But...the first goal came on a complete screw up by the Southampton keeper and the second was a PK (accurately called IMHO) in the 86th minute.  I didn't see Arsenal dominate this match but I'm saying that not as a knock on the Gunners but more in speculation as to whether we've heard the last of Southampton.

Sunday morning brought the much anticipated Man City-Tottenham match.  Pardon my French but WTF?  Man City scored in the first 13 seconds and basically didn't stop scoring until the...well they really never stopped - the 6th and final goal came in stoppage time.  The pasting was enough to wipe out Tottenham's goal differential advantage with Newcastle and dropped them to 9th in the table.  Michael wept but Luke, ever sentimental, commented "f--- Spurs."  Sunday concluded with Man United conceding a goal right at the 90 minute mark and only coming away with a tie;  I believe I can speak for most on this distribution list to say what a shame, just a damn shame.  Sure.

Monday wasn't a bad day for Dennis, though it didn't start well.  His Villans took only 10 minutes or so to concede two goals to West Brom's Shane Long.  The first really was a thing of beauty and worth googling; the second was also a good finish but was set up by a particularly bonehead defensive play.  In true derby spirit, Aston Villa came back with goals at 67 minutes and 76 minutes to take away a well-earned draw.  An excellent result on the road, especially given the atrocious start.

And just to prove that sometimes a derby is just a mismatch by any other name, in La Ligue action, Bob's Sevilla bested Real Betis 4-0.

The MLS Cup Final (December 7th - a date which will live in infamy) is set after Sporting KC and Real Salt Lake took the semi-final matches. 

No rest for the weary this weekend, especially those involved in mid-week Champions League or Europa Cup matches.  Aston Villa hosts Sunderland and has every chance of taking all three points there.  Arsenal is away to Cardiff City - that may not be a cakewalk.  Newcastle takes on West Brom at St. James Park; like that it's a home match but the Baggies are no pushovers.  And things get no easier for the Spurs, who take on Man U at White Hart Lane.  Some other matches to watch include Chelsea-Southampton (let's see how they deal with the loss to Arsenal), Hull City-Liverpool (in second just 4 points back of Arsenal) and Man City hosting Swansea.

The Chester Blues had an interesting week.  Our match vs Peterborough was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch.  At my request, the board as agreed to re-lay the pitch but not until after the season so this might be a regular occurrence given the English climate.  Unfortunately the match has been rescheduled in the middle of an already crowded schedule which will have us playing 6 matches between 1/28 and 2/15.  We played a friendly against a local unaffiliated club to stay fresh.  The good news was that after some continued negotiation, I was able to extend the loan period for two key players who had initially balked at staying longer.  Feeling much better about the squad now heading into the next 4 months.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving.

International Break

No club soccer but an active period of World Cup qualifiers and international friendlies, topped by the four European 2 leg playoffs on Friday and Tuesday.  Huge underdogs Iceland fought gamely but went down by 0-2 aggregate score to Croatia.  In the first leg, Iceland had a man sent off early in the second half but defended well and earned a 0-0 draw.  They fell behind 0-1 midway through the first half of the second leg but a golden opportunity presented itself when Croatia had a man sent off late in the first half.  A 1-1 tie would have been enough to sent Iceland on but instead they surrendered an early goal in the second half.  Frankly watching this match, it was hard to tell who was a man up.  They will speak well of this Iceland team but Croatia really was the better side.

 

France was left for dead after the first leg in Kiev.  They looked weak and then there was Koscielny's bad awful day - gave up a PK on a sloppy foul in the box, then later earned a straight red for a shove in the face of a Ukrainian player.  Down 0-2 they turned everything around in the second leg, tying the aggregate up fairly early in the first half.  Ukraine had a man sent off (second yellow) and the advantage went to France.  They capitalized with a goal in the 72nd minute and will go to Brazil.

 

Portugal v Sweden was advertised as a battle to see which superstar - Ronaldo or Ibrahimovich - would miss the World Cup.  Portugal won the aggregate 4-2.  Perhaps not surprisingly the aggregate was also Ronaldo 4 Ibrahimovic 2 as the superstars were responsible for all the goals.  Taylor Twellman commented that it was like watching somebody playing EA Sports FIFA 2013.

 

Didn't get to see much of Greece/Romania but it sure seemed like it wasn't much of a contest with Greece winning on aggregate 4-2.

 

The Mexico New Zealand WC playoff was interesting in a way.  The Mexico manager Herrera eschewed (gesundheit) several European stars in favor of local club athletes thinking he would have more time to work with them and travel would be less of a factor.  The strategy certainly worked for the first leg, a 5-1 thrashing of the "All-Whites," who were dressed in all black.  Regardless of what they were wearing the New Zealand squad looked like they had just finished a 20-hour, 7000 mile flight from Wellington. Though some skeptics said it wasn't over, it really was over.  Mexico went up 3-0 in the second leg and coasted to a 9-3 aggregate win.  We will be interested to see what Herrera does with the squad come WC; what blend of European and Mexican club players will he use?

 

The USMNT had two mediocre performances against non-WC teams, drawing Scotland 0-0 and losing to Austria 0-1.  I'm not one to put too much stock in friendlies like these where the focus is probably more about determining the WC squad.  Still, you would hope for better results.  One thing I think I understand about Klinsmann's system is that it requires a quick tempo; when they don't get that, they simply can't score.

 

Everybody's back in action this weekend.  Newcastle has a completely winnable match at home vs Norwich; already steeling myself for a bad result there.  Arsenal has a bit of test hosting Southampton, who find themselves just three points back of the Gunners.  Tottenham have to visit the enigmatic Man City.  And Aston Villa will have its hands full away at West Brom- thinking a draw might be a good result there. Other matches of note include Everton v Liverpool, West Ham v Chelsea and Cardiff v Man U (who are starting to scare people again).  Bob's Sevilla FC has what should be an easy match versus bottom of the table Betis.  MLS semifinals continue with second leg matches.  Real Salt Lake is up 4-2 on Portland while Sporting KC and Houston are 0-0.  Midweek includes a host of Champions League and Europa Cup matches.  Luke's Arsenal side takes on Marseilles while Michael's Spurs take on some club that I haven't identified yet - kind of like a stock market ticker name.  The NFL has 3 games on Thanksgiving.  Big deal, there are 18 Europa Cup matches on Thursday.

 

Didn't get to any Chester matches this week, just doing a lot of scouting for both the end of this season and some younger players for the long-term.  Not finding anything in my price range that looks like an improvement.  Not going to spend money just because the transfer window is open if it doesn't make us better. 

 

This week we should remember to give thanks that our sport has a full calendar for the next 8 months.

Playoffs? Playoffs?

A colleague at work thinks playoffs are where great athletes rise to the occasion and "chokers" are exposed.  I see playoff performance as a small sample where the differences are probably due to luck.  As such, I'm usually going to see the team that did the best in "regular season" as the best team in whatever league is under discussion.  The 2011 baseball season is my favorite example - if you want to tell me that the Cardinals, who made the playoffs only because the Phillies beat the Braves on the last day of the season, were the best team in baseball that year, go for it.  They won the World Series but the season-long accomplishments of two other teams - the Phillies and the Yankees - seemed more important to me than performance in a string of short series.  But my co-worker is convinced that Nelson Cruz dropping the fly ball that opened the door for the Cardinals to win the World Series was no accident but a character-revealing moment.

 

And why am I raising this issue here?  To point out the fate of the New York Red Bulls, the team which compiled the best regular season record in the 2013 MLS season but failed to make it out of the quarter finals of the playoffs.  In the English Premier League, the top of the table season would have been recognized for the significant accomplishment it is.  In MLS, all it gets you is a better seed for the playoffs.  Sure, Red Bulls got the Supporters Shield but I would guess most don't see it as a big deal.  So NY played a great first half in the first leg versus Houston.  Then, a key defender (Olave) gets red carded (some saw it as a harsh call) so they play the second half of that leg down a man and surrender two goals, including one in stoppage time.  With Olave suspended for the second leg, they play to a 1-1 draw over 90 minutes but give up a goal in extra time to lose by the aggregate score 4-3.  And pardon my French but WTF - why wasn't that game on TV?  MLS had two tense, competitive matches on Wednesday that most of the US soccer viewing world did not get to see.  Some brilliant marketing there guys.  Wait, where was I?  Oh yeah, around the same time, Arsenal lost to Chelsea in the Capital One League Cup, which is the EPL version of playoffs.  That they hold mid-week during the regular season.  And often leave key players out so they're at full strength for the league matches on the weekend.  The ones that really matter.   So Chris, revel in your team's Supporters Shield.  I for one will recognize them as the best team in the MLS this year.

 

Some will find it hard to believe I went two paragraphs without getting to NEWCASTLE'S AWESOME 1-0 VICTORY OVER TOTTENHAM (at White Hart Lane no less).  Again, the Magpies started slowly but Remy broke through on a great ball from Gouffran to score the only goal of the match in the 13th minute.  Tim Krul was simply lights out between the posts; I lost track of how many game saving plays he made.  Six points from matches versus Chelsea and Tottenham - did not see that coming.  I am fighting my cynical side that keeps asking "yeah but let's see how they do in the upcoming string of matches where they are expected to take some or all of the points."  I've also been able to enjoy my team on TV rather than watching on the computer since so many of the recent matches have been against the bigger boys.

 

Of course my joy on Sunday was matched by Michael's dismay, though he did seem heartened by the fact that Tottenham generated many more scoring opportunities than in recent matches.  It's a long campaign and he was also relieved to see Arsenal go down 1-0 at Old Trafford.  The loss kept Arsenal from opening a bigger lead at the top of the table and, alas, made Luke sad. That ex-Gunner van Persie was the goal scorer must have hurt just a little more.  But we will not extend that much sympathy to Luke since his side is still two points clear at the top.  Dennis got to see Aston Villa take 3 points from Cardiff on two late goals that ended a long scoring drought.  Liverpool and Southampton had easy wins that now have them in 2nd and 3rd respectively.  Chelsea holds the 4th spot after a 2-2 draw against West Brom, thanks to Andre Marriner's decision to award a PK for a foul on Ramires in the box just before the final whistle.  I know refs are supposed to stick together but I have to say that looked on the soft side to me.  Not a dive because there was contact but not enough for a foul either.

 

In La Liga, Bob's team (Sevilla FC, which might be the Newcastle of La Liga) got a big win over Espanyol to move up to 11th in the standings.  Olympique Lyonnais, the team we hope to see when we visit Mackenzie in France, also won and now sits in 7th in Lique 1.

 

Everybody's off this weekend for the international break but that does not mean there are no tasty fixtures to follow.  Many eyes will be on the European WC qualifiers, a series of home and away matches on Friday and Tuesday that will send another four teams to the WC Finals.  Sentimental favorites may be Iceland as they attempt to become the smallest country - population wise - to make the finals; the road will not be easy as they must face Croatia.  Iceland are a special favorite here because the squad has two Chester Blues players - Gylfi Sigurdsson and Kari Arnason.  My guess is many will be pulling for them, except maybe the grinchy Luke, who can't bring himself to root for team with a Tottenham player.  Another intriquing match up is France versus Ukraine.  I understand Chris is partial to the Ukrainian side and Michael still hasn't forgiven France for the Henry handball that eliminated Ireland in 2010.  Mackenzie will likely show her support for the French, being that she's there right now; I might have a mild rooting interest as the team often features a Magpie or three.

 

Speaking of the Chester Blues, they got a 2-2 draw on the road versus Watford.  Not the best result given Watford's standing but we were favored to lose and needed a late goal to get the draw so we'll take the point.  Coupled with Blackburn's loss, we are now tied with them for first place (ahead on goal differential) in the Championship Division.  If only the season ended now.  At least I don't have to worry about making the playoffs.*

*Actually that's not exactly true - first and second place are automatically promoted, third thru six go through a playoff for the third promotion spot to the EPL.  Still think my point about a basic difference between soccer and US league sports is valid.

On Any Given Saturday

...Newcastle can either amaze or torment its fans.  Fortunately this week it was the former.  What better way to erase the memory of the derby loss to Sunderland than to take Chelsea down 2-0.  The Blues had the run of play early but at about 25-30 minutes the game seemed to change.  A second half free kick from Cabaye into the box was perfect and Gouffran gave his body up for the header to put the Magpies up 1-0.  I'm starting to think maybe we come away with a draw at this point.  But Newcastle continued to play well and a late goal by Loic Remy sealed the deal.  Earlier in the week they held Man City scoreless in regular time before surrendering 2 goals in the extra time in the Capital One League Cup match.  I was a bit concerned that 120 minutes of soccer on Wednesday might have left them a little fatigued but that was not the case.  This is a hard team to figure out right now - some high quality performances but some puzzling let downs too.  Not to mention all the off-field silliness, like 3 local newspapers being banned from St. James Park press events because of coverage of a protest parade by fans.  Here's hoping that football like last Saturday's will refocus attention to the pitch.

Mixed bag, though nothing awful for the other non-neutrals on the distribution list.  Dennis is still looking for Aston Villa's first win, (first goal?), since announcing his allegiance.  But a 0-0 draw at West Ham isn't terrible, though I expect he'd like to see the offense get in gear.  Luke is of course thrilled with the 2-0 defeat of Liverpool by his beloved Gunners.  Can't say that Liverpool looked all that competitive as Arsenal pulled clear by 5 points at the top of the table.  Michael won't admit it but a 0-0 draw for the Spurs on the road versus Everton is acceptable, though he too must be wondering where the goals are at this point.  Seemed like a bit of a chippy match but a fair result.

Midweek, Arsenal went out to Chelsea in the Capital One Cup but Luke didn't seem too bothered by it.  Tottenham had to go to PKs to beat Hull City and one wonders if all that midweek football hurt them Sunday against Everton.

Turning to MLS, haven't heard from Chris yet about the Red Bulls 2-2 draw at Houston in the first leg of the Eastern semifinal, but my guess is he's not happy/fuming.  Sailing along 2-0 at half (not winning the possession battle but unleashing some lethal counter attacks), they proceed to go down a man, surrender a goal, then have Houston tie it in stoppage time.  From my mostly neutral vantage point, I thought the yellow to Henry against the keeper was totally unjustified and the red to Olave, while more defensible, should have been yellow.  They have their work cut out for them in the second leg on Wednesday (?) at home in Harrison (wow a NY team that plays in NJ, wonder if that's ever happened before).

Some mid-week Champions League and Europa Cup action for Arsenal (vs Dortmund) and Tottenham (Sheriff).

Be a shame if the Spurs are a bit tired for their Sunday match vs Newcastle; on the road at White Hart Lane is never good but maybe we can steal a point.  Arsenal gets a test on the road vs Man U.  Aston Villa has a tricky fixture hosting Cardiff City; they could really do with a result soon.


The Chester Blues - we've had better weeks.  Lost away to Bristol City 2-1 in the FA Cup.  More distressing is that two key players I have on loan are not interested in extending beyond February.  Replacements are not jumping out at me as I search the transfer data base.  I did find a decent midfielder on a free transfer but other clubs are expressing interest too so I may be outbid.  Going to be a tough 5 months down the stretch to secure the promotion.