Good Until It Wasn't

As a teenager, Dennis once offered up a succinct review of the film Chronicles of Narnia, stating "it was a good movie until it started to suck."  That would be my review of the 1-6 Newcastle loss to Manchester City this weekend.  The first 41 or so minutes couldn't have been better, especially the header by Mitrovic that had given the Magpies a 1-0 lead.  The late first half goal by Aguero, which seemed only annoying at the time, was really foreshadowing a disaster.  Three goals in four minutes and five goals in 13 minutes left the score at 1-6 by the 62nd minute.  Five of the six tallies were from Aguero.  Somebody was going to pay for his scoring drought.  Unfortunately it was Newcastle.

So, heading into the international break off this defeat, Newcastle sit in last place with three points from eight games.  I choose to look at the bright side because I am a glass is 1/16th full kind of guy.  Looking through the eight matches so far, I would argue that had things gone okay, the Magpies would still only have six points right now.  Losses to Chelsea, Arsenal, Man United, and Man City were pretty likely.  Draws against Southampton at home and Swansea City and West Ham on the road should have garnered three points.  Watford at home should definitely have been a win.  They missed the five points from the West Ham, Swansea and Watford games but picked up unexpected points in the draws against Chelsea and Man United.  That's a net loss of three points.  Probably shouldn't panic at this point but I'm guessing they will.  I probably will too if they don't come away with a good number of points (say eight) in the next four matches against Norwich (H), Sunderland (A), Stoke City (H) and Bournemouth (A).


Meanwhile, Up in Birmingham

Dennis is away so he won't be telling us whether 'tis better to have led and gotten your ass kicked then never to have scored at all.  I didn't see the match so all I know is that his Villans lost 0-1 to Stoke in the friendly confines of Villa Park.  This was not the result he was looking for.


Merseyside Derby

Interesting enough.  Certainly spirited if not filled with goals.  Everton remain with just one win over their rivals in the last 18 matches.  But the draw was not enough for Brendan Rodgers to keep his job.  The mild mannered, generally reserved Jurgen Klopp will be taking over. His former club, Borussia Dortmund tweeted:


Arsenal - Manchester United was exciting for about 19 minutes, or as long as it took the Gunners to fire three past David DeGea.  The goals, especially the two by Sanchez, were of the highest quality (YouTubeable quality in fact) but we were left with 70+ minutes of non-descript "action."  Best match of the weekend for me was Chelsea-Southampton.  Willian put in a free kick of even higher quality than his strike last week against Newcastle to give Chelsea the early lead.  But the Saints leveled things just before half-time, then added two in the second half to stun the reeling Blues 3-1.  Didn't see the Swansea-Tottenham 2-2 draw but sounded like a decent match; Michael B seemed happy enough, both with the result and the overall trend of his Spurs.  Luke P simply said "f Spurs."


Back Up Plans

With our respective sides currently residing in 20th and 18th, Dennis and I have been scouting replacement sides should Aston Villa and Newcastle be in the Championship Division next year.  Dennis has always had an affinity for Leicester's style of play since they were promoted last year and their recent form suggests they'll be around for awhile.  Me, I've been developing a growing attachment to Crystal Palace and have seen most of their matches this season.  I realize it looks like I'm following Pardew around and maybe there is something to that.  While's the jury's still out on whether he's in the top echelon of managers, he has clearly demonstrated that he is not woeful, as many Newcastle fans still suggest.  The best way to get me backing somebody is to trash him unfairly.  But it's more than that.  I always liked Cabaye and hope that other EPL talents take to heart his cautionary tale about chasing the money.  And there are other exciting players as well, like Yannick Bolasie, Wilfried Zaha, and Dwight "Crystal" Gayle.  Maybe backups won't be necessary but it never hurts to be prepared.


EPL Sack Race

When we last checked in, Dick Advocaat and Brendan Rogers were 1-2 on the list.  Gone and gone.  Top spots now belong to Newcastle's Steve McClaren (15 to 8) and Chelsea's Jose Mourinho (11 to 4).  Tim Sherwood (Aston Villa) has worked his way up to number three at 6 to 1.  The deadly accuracy of the oddmakers so far this year should make all three very afraid for their jobs.


Playoffs? Playoffs?

Finally the mathematics caught up with reality and the Union are officially out of the playoffs after a 1-3 loss to Toronto.  They are also out of a CEO as Nick Sakiewicz was removed from the position this week.  In a letter to fans explaining the change, Chairman Jay Sugarman also indicated that they are still trying to identify the right person to fill the role of Sporting Director; this would be someone "with significant experience to add to the MLS knowledge of Jim Curtin and Chris Albright and help us materially improve our player acquisition processes, player evaluation methods and player development capabilities."  That does sound like someone who might have had a more organized approach to personnel moves and wouldn't have ended up with 12 goalkeepers but not enough scoring punch.

Up the turnpike, the MLS New Jersey franchise d/b/a (doing business as) the New York Red Bulls gave themselves some breathing space with a pair of 2-1 wins over Columbus and Montreal.  One point in their final three matches gives them the Eastern Conference; the Supporters Shield race is a little tighter and right now they need six to lock it away.


How Many Countries in This Country?

Four, and three look to be advancing to the Euro Championships next spring.  England and Northern Ireland are already in and Wales look to be a lock as well.  Only Scotland, after a draw with Poland on Thursday won't be in moving ahead.  Ireland are at least in the playoffs of third place finishers after a 1-0 win over Germany on a cracking goal by Shane Long.  They play Poland on Sunday (2:30 ESPN) but will need to win since they trail in the tie breaker.  Maybe the most interesting stuff is the Netherlands fighting to even get into the third place playoffs.  They trail Turkey by two points but the Turks have to play Iceland and the Czech Republic so they have no easy points left while the Dutch a golden opportunity to snag three against Kazakhstan before facing the Czech Republic.

BFS favorite Belgium are in pretty good shape, especially with Andorra as their next opponent. With all their talent, this is a side that should challenge for the championship next spring.

Aside from Euro qualifying, this international break also features CONMEBOL World Cup qualifying matches.  CONMEBOL is the incredibly intuitive acronym for the South American soccer federation (derived from CONfedercion  SudaMEricana de futBOL - now how hard was that?).  Upsets in the first round of games include Ecuador stunning a Messi-less (and eventually Aquero-less) Argentina and Chile besting Brazil (maybe not that much of an upset).  Five of the ten members get spots in the World Cup - well really four and one gets to play a side from another federation in a play-in match.

Here at home, we have the US-Mexico playoff for a spot in the Confederations Cup (9:30 pm kickoff on Saturday night on FS1).  Mexico are in disarray over their coaching situation but the US aren't exactly poised for the kill after their weak showing in the Gold Cup.  Klinsmann has gone with a veteran-heavy roster (though without Omar Gonzalez, likely based on poor recent form?) so maybe we'll see a better performance.  But, this does not have the dos a cero feel of recent encounters.

Hey, we can sleep in this weekend!