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.
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