No Double for Atletico

For the second Saturday in a row, we were treated to intriguing, high quality soccer.  While many followers of BFS may be dismayed that Atletico did not bring home the double, hopefully even they will admit that it was thrilling to watch.

Diego Costa, suffering from a hamstring injury, tried to duplicate Willis Reed's performance in the 7th game of the 1970 NBA Finals but could not make it through 10 minutes.  This was a major blow to the Atletico offense and to all those who thought horse placentas had a future in sports medicine.  Still the Mattress Makers struck first, aided by a questionable decision by Casillas to come off his line; he watched helplessly as Godin's soft header floated over his head into the goal.  Real Madrid's fortunes seemed to improve dramatically upon the introduction of Marcelo into the line up in the 59th minutes but through 92 minutes, Atletico still had the lead.  Then Sergio Ramos converted Luka Modric's corner with a beautiful header into the side netting to square the match in the 93rd minute.

Frankly, at that point, Atletico looked exhausted and it seemed likely that Real, like Arsenal the week before, would dominate in extra time.  And that indeed was the case.  Di Maria, who had wreaked havoc all day, made a beautiful run from the left; Courtois (Belgian!) made a nice save but the rebound found its way to Gareth Bale, who hung in the air long enough to redirect it into the net in the 110th minute.  Things got a little out of hand from that point and the 4-1 final score does not do justice to the Atletico effort.  A noble effort from both sides.

Heard grumbling from some quarters on the five minutes of stoppage time in the second half.  But
1) the neutrals at 6911 had estimated 4 minutes and 5 didn't seem unreasonable
2) the goal was scored in the 3rd minute

And thus endeth the European season.


Whither Newcastle

Just 32 days until the start of what will be an important summer transfer window for Newcastle.  A few simple numbers should demonstrate why.  Yohan Cabaye was a member of the squad through the 22nd match of the year.  By then Newcastle had accumulated 36 points; extrapolating for a 38-game season, that projects to 62 points, which would have been good enough for 8th place.  In the final 16 matches, they managed to earn just 13 points, which translates to 31 points over a full season or good enough for 19th place.

But wait, it gets worse.  It wasn't just Cabaye.  Loic Remy played in 26 matches.  The Magpies took 45 points in those matches and just four points in the 12 matches in which Remy didn't play.  See where I'm going?  They need to replace both Cabaye and Remy. This is probably oversimplification but all the rest of the personnel decisions will be equivalent to rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic if they don't address those positions - a playmaker and a scorer.  All the other positions were good enough that they were headed to a solid finish before Cabaye left and Remy missed time due to injury and suspension.  Looking around, that makes some sense to me.  Krul is excellent in goal.  Debuchy seems fine.  Coloccini is aging but not awful.  Anita, Gouffran, Tiote and Sissoko are good enough. I have no idea what's up between Ben Arfa and Pardew.

So will they do it?  I read an article that I can no longer find about Sports Direct, the sporting goods chain that Newcastle owner Mike Ashley heads.  If I remember right, the essence was that the merchandise was affordable but not high quality - i.e. good enough for what you paid but far from the best.  Newcastle seem to operate that way too; like, as long as we stay in the Premier League and get that TV money, place does not matter.  But now relegation looks highly likely unless they act decisively this summer.  They either have to find underpriced, lesser-known talent (and they have had some success at that) or put out some serious bucks.  Will be following the transfer news closely.


EPL Esoterica courtesy of Football Manager

Did you know that EPL teams must have at least 8 "Home Grown" players on their 25-man rosters?  I didn't until I was working on the roster for my newly promoted Chester Blues.  As I was going through the transfer lists I kept getting a message that I needed 8 Home Grown players.  What?  From the EPL website:

All 20 Clubs must include eight Home Grown players out of a squad of 25 for that Premier League season.

A Home Grown player will be defined as one who, irrespective of his nationality or age, has been registered with any club affiliated to the Football Association or the Football Association of Wales for a period, continuous or not, of three entire seasons or 36 months prior to his 21st birthday (or the end of the season during which he turns 21).

The intent was to keep the EPL rosters from becoming completely stocked with foreign talent.  Turns out I had plenty but didn't know that until the players were "registered."

We've made some important signings, including major upgrades at keeper, left back and midfield.  Getting $48 million in TV money allowed for a $17 m transfer budget (before this year the most I had was $150k) and a weekly payroll of $210k (compared to $72k last year).  But it's also much more expensive up here.  Two key transfers took about $12 m.  Loans now typically have a $500k or more fee and the lending team usually requires the borrowing team to pay the player's full salary.  Free transfers continue to be a major source of talent.  Still a few holes to plug and we have some friendlies coming up so we are not completely set at this point - it's mid-July in game time. 


MLS

Let's take a quick look at how the Union are doing. Oh, that's not good.  A good result vs KC followed by pastings at the hands of New England and LA.  Sitting in 9th in the East, nothing seems to be working.  They play Western Conference cellar dwellar Chivas on Saturday.  Would think they need a win for Hackworth to keep his job.

Not much better farther north.  Red Bulls have just one point from their last four matches.


USMNT

Seemingly millions of words have already been spilled about Landon Donovan's omission from the World Cup roster.  Somewhat reluctantly, I will spill a few more.  Some say it's about youth but Donovan was really competing against guys like Brad Davis or Wondolowski, neither of whom are spring chickens in soccer.  I completely discount the idea that this decision was made with an eye towards the 2018 World Cup.  No national team coach can afford to look past a World Cup cycle.  Some says it's personal between coach and player but any national team coach knows he lives and dies by World Cup performance; can Klinsmann afford to let personal differences affect his choice of the best players to take to Brazil?  And though I personally have great memories of Donovan's time on the USMNT (WC goals in 2002 vs Mexico and 2010 vs Algeria stand out), the question is whether the experience is outweighed by the deterioration in skills.

On the face of it, if I had to choose between Donovan and Wondo, I would take Landon.  The one hesitation is whether he can be effective coming off the bench. 

A side note, Donovan's was hardly the only notable omission from the squad.  Parkhurst and Edu aren't huge surprises given that they were invited late in the process.  But Brad Evans, Clarence Goodson and Eddie Johnson were key players in last year's Gold Cup win and the World Cup qualifiers; Johnson didn't even make the 30 man roster.  I don't plan to judge Klinsmann on whether the US gets out of group play as that is a tall order given the group.  But I do plan to judge him on how the US plays.  If they are uninspired, uncreative, easily rattled, I think you can lay those at the feet of the Klinsmann and his roster decisions.

The newly named squad played a friendly on Tuesday night versus Azerbaijan.  The cold, gray and windy Candlestick Park in San Francisco seemed unchanged from when it was the home of the baseball Giants; probably made any EPL players feel right at home.  Recalling that friendlies aren't really about the result but rather how you played and also recognizing that Azerbaijan, ranked 85th the in world, was hardly the most challenging opponent, can't say this was a smashing success.  Wondo had two great opportunities early but couldn't put them away; that might be harsh as the keeper may have had something to do with it but you don't get all that many chances and you have to bury the ones you get.  Nobody was really in top form, though Johannssonsonnnnsonnn's heading finish for the second goal was pretty clinical.

And the fun starts in less than 2 weeks.