Sadder Day in the Park

What a day of "character building."  Not much good news for the home teams.


Saturday 8:45 am Manchester United 4 - Aston Villa 1

Things are off to a good start.  The Villans are doing well, helped in part by Man United's indifferent play.  At 13 minutes, Westwood puts a free kick past de Gea, who was completely let down by his wall.  Could be a good day.  Even after Rooney's equalizer at 20 minutes, AV are still looking dangerous, though the missed opportunities are troubling.  A Rooney PK in first half stoppage time gives MU the lead at half.  But our heroes refuse to go quietly, at least at first.  Two more golden opportunities missed by Benteke to start the second half and now you feel the Villans may have missed their chance.  Yep, Mata scores his first for MU and the lead is 3-1.  Time for Dennis to start making sandwiches - a lot of them, and quickly.  Except today the magic does not work and the match is gone.


Saturday 11:00 am Southampton 4 - Newcastle 0

Things are off to a terrible start.  The defense can't even find their marks let alone stay with them, the midfield (even Ben Arfa) is showing no creativity, the crosses aren't in the same postcode as their intended target and we don't even have a shot on goal. Only Rob Elliott's (starting for the injured Krul) outstanding work in goal has kept this match at 0-0.  Then Haidara blows the offside trap at 45 +1 and the half ends 1-0.

Second half, worse than the first.  Again, other than Elliott, there is nothing good to say about the Magpies performance.  Southampton is a good team and the game was at St. Mary's Park so a loss was not unexpected but this performance was dreadful, even worse than at Fulham a few weeks ago.  How many times did the announcer comment on the "pooher" play of Newcastle?  Yes, they did perform "pooherly."  What really sucks is that I didn't get to see Crystal Palace-Chelsea (see below) because I was watching this dreck. 


Saturday 4:00 pm  Union 1 - Montreal 1

First trip to see the Union live this year.  We could be in England.  It's about 50 degrees with wind-driven rain.  Rain pants, (official Union) poncho, multiple layers.  Fortunately we are sort of sheltered by the overhang and the press box at PPL Park so it's all good.

Even better, the Union continued their improved play.  Unfortunately, they have held onto their adorable practice of allowing shockingly easy chances against the run-of-play.  But today, they hold fast and Noguiera put them up 1-0 at 35 minutes after taking a great pass from McInerney and gliding in from the right to slot a shot past the Montreal keeper.  Despite giving the Impact a few more chances, the Union took the lead into the locker room.

The Montreal manager must have done a better job in the halftime speech because the Union were on their back foot right from the start of the second period.  But they managed to weather the attacks and when Wenger (not a good week for that name) got a straight red at 75 minutes (studs up challenge), there was a sense that maybe we would hold on.  But Montreal continued to get good chances, mostly because the Union were giving Di Vaio too much space.  Finally, he broke through.  I understand Okugo's reluctance to challenge Di Vaio directly but if you look at the replay, he did not position himself between Di Vaio and the goal; thus he could only lunge in vain at the game-tying shot.  The Union had a few near misses in the last 10 minutes but could not find a game winner.  Cold and wet and two points "pooher" than we should have been, we headed home for a hot shower and cold beer.

Consensus high marks from our group for Wheeler and Gaddis on defense, Carroll in midfield and Nogueira up top.  Not so much for Edu, who may have been looking ahead to his USMNT call up for the friendly against Mexico on Tuesday (by the time he gets to Phoenix, we'll have given up two points...).


Meanwhile, back at the top of the EPL...

Surely, you say, Chelsea must have easily disposed of Crystal Palace to maintain their slim lead.  Except they didn't, as John Terry's own goal was the only "scoring" in the 1-0 win for Crystal Palace.  And stop calling me Shirley. After the match, Master of the Silly Soundbite Jose Mourinho said something like "with this loss we may not be able to avoid relegation." Okay, what he actually said was "it is now impossible to win the title."  Right, their six remaining fixtures are Stoke, Swansea, Sunderland, Liverpool, Norwich and Cardiff.  I'm not ignoring that Man City has two games in hand but you're not fooling anybody Jose.

Liverpool was more than willing to take advantage of Chelsea's stumble, pasting enigmatic Tottenham 4-0 at Anfield.  A Kaboul own goal in the second minute says it all. Suarez added another at 25 minutes and it was never really a contest after that.  Liverpool are back in first, two points clear of Chelsea, four ahead of Man City (who have played two fewer games than Liverpool).  Unlike Newcastle, the Spurs made the effort but were just ineffective.  Starting to think that for Tottenham, the whole is less than the sum of the parts.

Q: Why don't the Spurs have a website?
A: They've been unable to put 3 W's together.

Manchester City and Arsenal both gained on Chelsea with their 1-1 draw.  This was an excellent match for the neutrals.  David Silva put the visitors up 1-0, setting up the play with a great pass to Dzeko and then putting away the rebound off the post.  By rights he should get the assist too.  According to whoscored.com, Silva leads the EPL with 3.5 key passes per game; Ozil is a distant second at 2.9.  With the Gunners recent outings I feared the early goal might be insurmountable but they got the equalizer from Flamini at 53 minutes.  Arsenal sit in fourth, but only by four over Everton, who struggled at first against Fulham but ultimately pulled away for a 3-1 win.


And at the other end of the table...

I would be remiss in not commenting on the contest between relegation candidates West Brom (17th place) and Cardiff City (18th place).  In these matches, you're really looking for the win and the three points for your team but if you can't win, a draw is essential to keep the other side from getting all three points.  And these two sides went at it.  Highlights from the match, including some interesting goals, are this week's YouTubeable Moment.  The video doesn't quite do justice to the managers' reactions - West Brom thinking they had all three points and seconds later Cardiff City rescuing a point - but you get the picture.


A Little Bit of Everything

The USMNT takes on Mexico Wednesday (corrected from Tuesday) night at 11 pm in Phoenix.  They call it a friendly but is that really possible with these two sides anymore?

Tuesday and Wednesday feature the first legs of the Champions League quarter final matches.  Michael B.'s Atletico faces a tough challenge in Barcelona.  Man United gets to play Bayern Munich; Arjen Robben gives this blog goosebumps as he is always just a step dive away from our favorite event - a booking for simulation.  Chelsea and PSG looks interesting - a chance maybe to see our old pal Yohan Cabaye in action.  The last match up is Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund, featuring our favorite manager, the mild-mannered Jurgen Klopp.





And after the Champions League fun we have a full slate for the EPL.  Most of the good stuff is between relegation candidates but 8:30 Sunday morning is Everton-Arsenal.  A win for the Gunners would put them seven points up on Everton for the last Champions League spot.  The top three all have what look like winnable matches - Liverpool at West Ham, Chelsea home to Stoke and Man City hosting Southampton, though that could be a potential speed bump for the Citizens.

Big relegation matches include Cardiff-Crystal Palace, Aston Villa-Fulham, Hull City-Swansea, and Norwich-West Ham.

As I read the Europa League qualification rules, sixth place will get you there this year because Man City won the league cup but they will likely qualify for the Champions League.  Right now that spot is occupied by Tottenham, who play Sunderland a week from Monday.  But close on their heels is Man United, just two points back; they are Newcastle's opponent this Saturday.  Not sure I can bear to watch...but I will because that's what we do.