Random Thoughts

Thoroughly pressed for time so can only offer random observations from a busy week of football.  Hey, retirement is way harder than it looks...

Newcastle lose one and win one.  People (looking at you Toon Army) really need to chill out about this team.  They play 46 games in the Championship Division so we have a long way to go.

Maybe Bedoya did not overwhelm in his Union debut but he certainly looked steady in the midfield in their 4-0 win over New England.  The score somewhat flatters the Union but they did look pretty good.  Looking forward to Barnetta and Bedoya developing a rapport.

Leicester sees how hard it will be this year, losing 1-2 to a Hull City side that is in total disarray.  But, see Newcastle comment above - long way to go.

Thoroughly entertained by the Liverpool 4-3 win over Arsenal.  EPL at its best.  Chelsea 2-1 over West Ham was a good watch too, except for the fact that the reviled (here at least) Costa scored the winning goal.

USWNT just couldn't put enough shots on goal (or in the net for that matter) and were eliminated by Sweden.  Carli Lloyd may or may not have been offside on the disallowed goal; I thought it was possible her knee was ahead of the Swedish player and that AR had been calling offside tight all match.  She also may or may not have pushed off the Swedish defender.  But the offside call that disallowed the Swedish goal was pretty bad.  Not even close.

Brazil men have found their scoring touch and will play in the final against Germany.  Not exactly a rematch of the 7-1 World Cup pasting Germany put on Brazil since these are U23 teams but still should be a good match.

The schedule continues to be full:

Friday

12 - Women's Olympic bronze match (Brazil-Canada) MSNBC
3 pm - Man United - Southampton (USA -one of several Friday matches this season)
4:30 - Women's Olympic gold match (Sweden-Germany) NBCSN

Saturday

Too many to mention - Olympic bronze and gold medal matches, full slate of EPL and MLS matches.  Spurs-Crystal Palace only available on streaming (sorry MMB).  Frankly, other than Leicester-Arsenal at 12:30 on CNBC, the EPL schedule looks a mite tepid to me.  Big MLS match for the Union vs playoff rival Toronto at 7 pm.

Sunday

Two more EPL matches including what I believe is the new Northeast derby between Sunderland and Middlesborough at 8:30 on NBCSN.  Also, there's RedBulls vs DC United at 3 pm on ESPN; used to be a lot of fire in that match but I would think the Red Bulls should be able to handle this.  

Enjoy.