That Was The Week That Was

A Thanksgiving cornucopia of stories for this week.


Howay The Lads!

Gayle scores number two. Photograph: Nigel French/PA

The Rafalution marches on and for once I got to watch, though not the full 90 minutes as discussed below.  Newcastle came out strong away at Leeds and though the actual goal was lucky, the 1-0 lead was fully deserved.  Around 30 minutes, momentum shifted and the Magpies were being pushed all over the field. Leeds fans probably feel cheated there was no call for handling in the box against Jack Colback but I think the ref got it right.  Then there was some good keeper play from Karl Darlow to preserve the lead.  Around 50 minutes I texted Dennis to suggest this had all the makings of a 1-2 loss.  No sooner had I hit send then Shelvey, Anita and Perez made some incisive passes which ended with an unmarked Gayle making a sliding run to the far post for the second goal.  The air went out of Leeds sails and Newcastle smartly chose not to give up a late goal just to make the last five minutes more interesting, as they have been wont to do lately.  Newcastle finished the weekend five up on Brighton and nine up on Reading.


Who Let Rosemary Woods Into the Editing Room?

For some inexplicable reason, as a youth I was a big Notre Dame football fan.  I told my parents I was going to play football for them.  They said "but you're not Catholic."  "Neither is Joe Theismann," I responded.  A cool thing about being a Notre Dame fan back then, in the era of four VHF and maybe five UHF TV stations, was that late Sunday morning there was always a replay of Saturday's game. The only problem was they had to cram it into an hour; I clearly remember the constant refrain "with the score still the same, we skip to further action in the game."

I bring this up because the time slot for the Newcastle-Leeds contest, shown on delay, was 1 pm to 2:30 on beIN Sports.  Clearly, there was going to have be some editing to fit the match in the allotted 90 minutes so I was watching closely.  For nearly an hour, everything was kosher.  Then at 59:40, Leeds were whistled for offside.  The camera pans downfield in anticipation of Darlow's free kick. The ball lands and the clock reads 70:40.  Wow, talk about your hang time.  Probably didn't miss anything and if you weren't paying attention, the edit was seamless.  Still, I was surprised they went for a big cut as opposed to multiple smaller ones.


Oh To Be In England Now That Stoppage Time Is Here

I see two North London sides that are happy that matches are 90 minutes plus stoppage time. Tottenham was facing a completely unacceptable 1-2 loss at home against West Ham while Arsenal were close to a disappointing but not awful 0-1 loss away at Man United.

In the 89th, Harry Kane was able to bring Spurs level with a real poachers goal.  So an unacceptable loss had been converted to a slightly less unacceptable draw.  But two minutes later, Son was fouled in the box and Harry Kane converted the PK to complete an improbable 3-2 comeback victory.  This was a total surprise to me as earlier someone had told me the score was 2-2 at 90 minutes.  I cited him for dvr violation but he tried to cover his tracks by saying well, it wasn't full time so anything could happen.  I did not rescind the yellow card but was glad I watched anyway.

Though technically not in stoppage time, Olivier Giroud's 89th minute header snatched a draw from the jaws of defeat for Arsenal at Old Trafford.  A 1-0 win for Man United would have been a fair result for the home side given their strong play for most of the game but they paid for not putting away earlier chances.  They will also feel hard-done by Andre Marriner's decision not to whistle Monreal for a foul in the box in the first half.  Monreal did put out a straight arm and there may have been contact with Valencia's chest.  As we have discussed here many times, if you do those things in the box you have little room to argue if the referee signals for a PK.  However, IMHO Monreal did not impede Valencia, who decided he needed to fall down away, and Marriner got the call right.  The match ended with Rooney complaining to the referee about a different non-call, which as we have noted before, usually means a good result, unless you're a Red Devil fan.


The Stadium of Cellphone Light

A running joke here at BFS has been to make fun of Sunderland's woes by altering the name of their park - the Stadium of Light - to reflect the hard times faced by the club.  Last Saturday, we didn't even have to make it up, as reality and ragging caught up.  At about 51 minutes, the stadium experienced a power failure and for 10 minutes the pitch was illuminated solely by cellphone lights. Turns out the joke was on Hull, as the Black Cats put a 3-0 hurting on the visitors.  They may have also stumbled on a winning formula - get a man sent off.  They now have two wins against one loss in matches that they play a man down.  Addition by subtraction perhaps?


The Shrinking Middle Table

Have you looked at the table lately?   There are five teams within three points of the relegation zone, another two within four points and two more within six points.  At the top there are five teams that are five or more points clear of sixth.  That leaves three mid-table sides - Man United, Everton and Watford.  Leicester are only two points clear while Crystal Palace and West Ham are only safe by one point.  Not even a third of the way into the season I realize but the smell of relegation flop sweat is already in the air.  This might make for a really busy January transfer window with teams overpaying for players to avoid the demotion.


That's Entertainment


I have vague recollections of being unimpressed with the MLS conference finals in previous years.  Not so this time around as the first legs of both series were highly entertainingly, if not high quality.  The Eastern Conference match got off to a slow start as, in this week's U12 moment, the field was improperly lined.  As you can see from the picture (left) the penalty areas were about two yards short on both sides.  Once this was corrected, Montreal went nuts, staking themselves to a 3-0 lead.  Usually, you can afford to lose 1-0 in the road match and maybe 2-0 but a 3-0 deficit is big trouble.  But then the stars came out for Toronto as Michael Bradley and then Jozy Altidore pulled the visitors to within one.  They are now well-positioned for the home leg; scores like 1-0, 2-0 and 2-1 are now good enough to advance to the final.  In Seattle, the field was properly lined and it was Colorado that jumped to the early lead.  But the Sounders responded well and completed a 2-1 win in the first leg. Still, Colorado's position isn't awful on the strength of the away goal, though their margin for error isn't as good as Toronto's.


Jurgen Out

We knew it was a distinct possibility that Klinsmann would not survive the week and indeed he didn't.  We can't say "Jurgen, we hardly knew thee" as his tenure was one of the longest for a USMNT coach.  As I said last week, I've been more supportive than most but I'm okay with this decision, even though it comes in the middle of WC qualifying.  To wait until March was just too risky if things didn't get sorted out.  Bruce Arena was a safe the only choice given the timing in the qualifying cycle.

I don't think his tenure was as awful as people suggest.  Some say the US advanced out of the 2014 World Cup group stage despite his efforts.  That seems harsh; they got out of the most difficult group, drew Portugal (and came with a minute of winning that match) and took Belgium to extra time. Sacking him after the 2015 Gold Cup debacle and subsequent loss to Mexico in the playoff for the Confederations Cup might have been fair, given that Klinsmann himself had put so much weight on those competitions.  The 0-2 loss to Guatemala in the early stages of WC qualifying certainly provided enough justification to let him go.  But after reaching the quarterfinals of the Copa America Centenario, it was harder to pull the trigger.  My memory may not be complete here but I can think of only three times the US won a match in the knockout phase of a tournament (1994 WC Colombia, 2002 WC Mexico and 2016 Copa America Centenario Ecuador) and Klinsmann has one of them.  But in the end, I think you can point to a lack of progress as the ultimate factor here.  We are still not the biggest fish (at least regularly and by a wide margin) in the little pond of CONCACAF so how far have we really come?  Some significant part of that must be attributed to Klinsmann.


Other Stuff

Yeah, I know there was Champions League and Europa but sorry.  Also, in virtual reality of Football Manager, Chester suffered a few losses - to Atletico in Champions League and Man United in EPL play - but we are on to the knock out stage in CL and have a three point lead in EPL so something must be working.


A Quiet Weekend?

Easily the most interesting match this weekend in Chelsea-Tottenham at 12:30 on Saturday (NBC).  My second choice would be Swansea-Crystal Palace because of the desperation of both managers to get a win. Pardew has all but conceded he is out unless they get a result in Wales; Bradley probably has a little more rope but not that much.  Unfortunately, you can only stream that match.  Another match infused with some relegation drama, that you can see, is Leicester at home against Middlesbrough (Saturday, 10 am CNBC).   Matches involving other top of the table sides include Burnley- Man City (Saturday 7:30 NBCSN), Liverpool-Sunderland (Saturday, 10 am NBCSN) and Arsenal-Bournemouth (Sunday 9:15 CNBC).

Don't forget second legs of MLS conference finals.  Colorado-Seattle is 4 pm on Sunday (ESPN) and Toronto-Montreal is 7 pm on Wednesday (FS1).  I'm expecting the field marking lines to be spot on for both matches.

The Way to San Jose

The US is off to a terrible start in the Hex, Tim Howard is injured, the team seems in disarray and Klinsmann is under the microscope again.  Did I leave anything out?

The loss to Costa Rica was not unexpected.  We never win at Estadio Nacional de Costa Rica in San Jose; in World Cup Qualifying the USMNT is 0-9-1.  But the magnitude of the defeat (0-4), coming on the heels of the 1-2 loss at home against Mexico, has everybody associated with US soccer scrambling a bit right now.

The attention/blame seems to be spread evenly between the players and Klinsmann.  And that seems about right.  Bobby Wood, Christian Pulisic and maybe Brad Guzan are the only players who weren't bad to awful.  As for the rest, check out the all the 1's, 2's and 3's in this Soccer America player assessment.  Regarding Klinsmann, I think it's fair to ask why he chose to unveil the 3-5-2 for the Mexico match as opposed to some earlier friendlies.  The element of surprise?  Yes the Mexicans were surprised - at how easy it was to shred the defense.  It could have been 0-3 by 30 minutes.  The coach must also take some responsibility for the players coming out so flat in San Jose.  And why did he sub Pulisic, the only one who had generated any offense, albeit limited, in a like for like change with the US already down against Costa Rica?

I have been one of his more loyal supporters.  I thought the 2014 World Cup was fair progress but the 2015 Gold Cup and CONCACAF playoff were disasters.  The US performance in the Copa Centenario this summer seemed like a recovery.  But now I don't know.  If these were just bad games as opposed to a serious problem with the team, the situation in the Hex, with eight matches to go, is entirely retrievable.  If they are symptoms of bigger problems, waiting until after a few more matches in the spring to make wholesale changes may be too late, as we learned with Newcastle earlier this year.


On Other Continents

Brazil (6 points) and Chile (4 points) were the big winners in the CONMEBOL qualifying.  Brazil solidified their position at the top while Chile moved into the top four.  Colombia (1 point) were probably the biggest loser, falling out of the top four and now sitting in a non-qualifying spot.  Some of the marquee matches came up uncompetitive, like Brazil 3-0 over Argentina or Colombia going down 0-3 to Argentina.  Chile-Colombia was 0-0 but devoid of any excitement.  The two Uruguay matches (2-1 win over Ecuador and 1-3 loss to Chile) were probably the best viewing.

I only got to see a few European matches.  England-Scotland was enough of a blowout that I switched at 70 minutes to the more competitive and compelling France-Sweden contest.  Fortunately I had dvred it so I started at about 50 minutes with the score at 0-0.  Sweden got a short-lived lead with a goal at 55 minutes that was matched by Pogba three minutes later.  I recall thinking there was something squirrelly about the goal but don't remember what it was.  Payet got the game winner at 68 minutes.  Croatia-Iceland in Zagreb was competitive but the home team was clearly the better side and deserved their 2-0 win; the visitors probably missed their injured star striker Alfreo (Huck) Finnbogason.


Sports and Politics

An empty MAPFRE Stadium, Columbus Ohio

Sorry gang but though we'd like them to be separate, that's not possible.  I was reminded of this as I tuned into the Croatia-Iceland WC qualifier to see an empty Stadion Maksimir in Zagreb.  Once again, the Croatia national team would be playing in front of an announced crowd of zero following a stadium ban by FIFA because of racist and homophobic actions by their fans.  The spike of similar incidents in the US by people emboldened by the election results made me wonder if it could happen here.  Not if we speak up and speak out.  It is not overly PC to challenge these behaviors, it's being a decent human being.  Let's make sure the picture above is not one from a future US international home match.  It would be extremely disappointing if a US national team ever had to play in an empty park because of a stadium ban.


Green Stadium

BFS Architectural Consultant Philip S. sends along the story of a stadium made entirely of wood, the new home of fifth division Forest Green.  Besides looking really cool, it has an organic pitch cut by solar powered robot mower.   Wood fell out of favor as a stadium material after a fire in 1985 but advances in flame retardant treatments have addressed safety concerns.  The Rovers are currently leading the division by a healthy margin and are on track to promotion to League 2.


Back to Club Football

A rare treat for me this Sunday as the Newcastle match away at Leeds United will be televised (on delay) at 1 pm on beINSports.  Very much looking forward to that.

The EPL schedule gets going early Saturday with Man United hosting Arsenal at 7:30 on NBCSN. Hopefully even with all the craziness surrounding Mourinho/Mourinho and Wenger/Mourinho and the world, the focus will be on the match.  I can dream can't I?  Southampton-Liverpool is probably the best of the 10 am matches and NBCSN has figured this out too.  I might be tempted to check out Watford-Leicester but I think this only available via streaming; the Foxes are six places and three points behind the Hornets.  The NBC match at 12:30 is a London derby featuring Tottenham and West Ham.  Despite four straight league draws, Spurs are hanging in fifth but really can't afford not to get three points at home against the Hammers.  Sunday at 11 is Middlesbrough hosting Chelsea; hard to see an upset there.  Monday is West Brom vs Burnley, which surprisingly is a solid middle table match up.  Still, you'll be forgiven if you skip it.

MLS playoffs continue on Tuesday with the first leg of the conference semi-finals.  Montreal and Seattle are home against Toronto and Colorado at 8 pm (ESPN) and 10 pm (FS1).  Second leg for Colorado-Seattle is Sunday 11/27 at 4 pm (ESPN) while Toronto-Montreal complete their series on Tuesday 11/30 at 7 pm (FS1).  Why it's not Sunday and Sunday, I have no idea.

You know where to find me Sunday at 1 pm...

Time for Some Hex Mex

Everybody shuts down this week for international action, including US-Mexico from Columbus. Plus plenty of action from last weekend.


Stupid Stupid Playoffs

Great, just great.  We'll have 3 vs 5 seeds in the East and 2 vs 4 in the West.  Ze Roberto suggests the bye week is a disaster, noting that all four of the top seeds failed to score in the away match of the conference semi-final.  Only Colorado was able to rescue the situation and they had to go to kicks from the spot to do that (nice work Timmeh Howard!).  NYCFC self-destructed, Red Bulls surrendered the opening goal, making their work that much harder, and Dallas just had too much of a deficit to overcome.

So Dallas and Red Bulls are left with a feeling of failure for what were otherwise excellent seasons. Taylor Twellman speculated on what they might do.  His point was that even though both did very well over the course of 34 games without a heavy reliance on superstar/designated players, those type of players may be necessary for success in the playoffs.  Maybe.  Sounds like we're getting close to that old debate of whether there are "clutch players" and "non-clutch players."  For me, the sample sizes are too small, especially in soccer, to believe that's the whole story.  Superstars sometimes fail to deliver in a single game and people wave their hands and talk about magical clutch performance to explain it.  I'd still like to see some tweaking of the post-season format.

So I will root for Colorado the rest of the way, largely because of the presence of ex-Union player Sebastian LeToux (whose work rate is undiminished) and US national keeper Tim Howard.  And they're the only top seed remaining.


You Dissing My League?

Italian national team coach Giampiero Ventura on why Sebastian Giovinco (21 goals and 17 assists in 31 games for Toronto) was not picked for the Italian team:

"I have done everything to help him but the reality is that he plays in a league that doesn't matter much. And the number of goals he scores is less important because with the quality he has got, he is bound to make a difference in that league. The problem is that if you play in that type of league, and you get used to playing in that type of league, it becomes a problem of mentality."

Yes, I think he is.

Tests Passed

We suggested that both Liverpool and Chelsea faced moderate tests as to whether they might be contenders this year as they took on Watford and Everton respectively.  With their 6-1 and 5-0 wins they both passed with flying colors.  I realize it's not the same as facing the very top of the table but the quality of these wins over upper table sides was impressive.

I can report that Michael B and Luke P were well-behaved as they watched the North London derby together.  Spurs fans came away the happier group with the 1-1 draw.  Tottenham, dealing with injuries, have been just good enough lately.  Gunners fans might have seen this as a chance, especially at home, to take all three points.  A great match for the neutral.

No car crash in Wales, as Manchester United came away with a 3-1 win over Swansea.  Check out Paul Pogba (also on my Football Manager Chester Blues side!) opening goal, this week's YouTubeableMoment.  With the Special One relegated to the stands, serving a suspension for his antics against Burnley, maybe it wasn't as nutty as usual.

Things just aren't getting better for Leicester as the Foxes fell 1-2 at home to West Brom.  Same for Crystal Palace.  Alan Pardew moves up to second in the sack race after a 2-3 loss to Burnley.  David Moyes gets to stay at least another week based on the Black Cats improbable 2-1 win at Bournemouth while playing a man down.  Everybody else at the top, and neutrals as well, likely celebrated Middlesbrough's tying goal in stoppage time against Man City.

And I can't forget the opening ceremonies of games the last few weeks honoring veterans from WWI and other conflicts.  Nicely done and appropriate when you realize the UK lost about 750,000 in that conflict.  But I hope this isn't sacrilegious to point out that some of the "marching" is evocative of John Cleese as the Minister of Silly Walks.

2-0 Is A Deceiving Lead

Gouffran scores against Cardiff, his third league goal of the season

For the second week in a row, Newcastle were cruising with a 2-0 lead late into the match.  Then, Cardiff City scores at around the 80th minute and the Magpies once again had to hang on for dear life.  They did so and keep their three point lead over Brighton.  Better still, they extended the gap over third place Huddersfield to eight points; this matters because the top two teams are automatically promoted to the the Premiership, while third through sixth have a grueling playoff to decide the third spot.

Great Moments in Refereeing

Me (having forgot a coin to decide opening kickoff): Pick a number between one and two

Blue captain (pausing to ponder the possibilities): Does it have to be a whole number?

Me: Do you go to Masterman [Philadelphia magnet school]?

Blue captain: Yes

International Stuff

A veritable stew of acronyms with CONCACAF (more familiarly known as North America, Central America and the Caribbean), CONMEBOL (that's South America to you) and UEFA (more simply, Europe) holding World Cup qualifiers.  Plenty to watch.

We'll be focusing mostly on the last step of CONCACAF qualifying, the six team round robin competition affectionately known as the "Hex."  The first three teams automatically go to the World Cup final; fourth place plays fifth place from the Asian Confederation (right now that would be South Korea or Japan but that could easily change) for the last spot in the final.  The USMNT jumps right in with two tough matches - home against Mexico on Friday night and away to Costa Rica on Tuesday night.  The other three nations competing are Honduras, Panama and Trinidad.  With 10 matches in the process, there is a little room for slip-ups but not much.  We note that Costa Rica opens away against Trinidad in a match to be played in Hasely Crawford Stadium; non-track fans will be excused for puzzled looks but Crawford was the 1976 Olympic Champion at 100 meters in an upset over Don Quarrie and Valeriy Borzov.

Meanwhile, in South America, Chile picked up two points and Peru three, without playing a match. In this week's U12 moment, Bolivia were found to have used an ineligible player in those matches, converting a draw for Chile and a loss for Peru into wins.  We head into Matchdays 11 (Thursday) and 12 (Tuesday) with Chile and Argentina outside the four automatic playoff spots.  Eight matches to go so plenty of time for that to change but Uruguay and Ecuador have been tough so far.   Thursday looks especially tasty as the top six face each other - Colombia v Chile, Uruguay v Ecuador and Brazil v Argentina.  I think all three are on beINSports Thursday afternoon/evening. Tuesday matches include Argentina-Colombia and Chile-Uruguay.  Standings could look very different by Wednesday morning.

Europe will see matches on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  Friday you can see France-Sweden at 2:45 on ESPN2 and England-Scotland at 2:45 on FS1.  Other matches of interest (to this blog anyway) but not sure of coverage include Croatia-Iceland at noon on Saturday and Belgium-Estonia on Sunday. Still very early in UEFA qualifying process.

Beats watching election returns...

The Beat Goes On

There was a crap-ton (technical term, look it up) of football in the last 10 days.  Sorry if your team isn't mentioned below as we report on what struck us as noteworthy.


To The Union

As expected, they went down in Toronto.  The 3-1 final is a fair representation of the match.  Credit to the players for not packing it in at 0-2.  Their goal in the 73rd minute, just as Jeff H was about to leave the viewing party here at 6911, gave us the prospect of an entertaining finish.  A third defensive mistake restored the two goal deficit in the 85th minute, prompting Jeff to leave for real this time.

So what do we conclude of this season?  Compared to pre-season expectations, it was a success. They were supposed to be better but still not considered playoff material.  They were better and made the playoffs to boot, without one minute of playing time from one of their designated players, Maurice Edu.  But it's hard to paint a rosy picture of the future.  Two players - Nogueira and Barnetta - instrumental to that success will be gone.  Bedoya wasn't bad but also not the player we hoped for. This may be because he didn't have time to fit in and/or was asked to play out of position.  Maybe he's just better on the wing.   Herbers is fast and does a great job tracking back on defense but doesn't seem to be a scorer; he did have a lot of assists though.  Pontius was fine.  The back line was inconsistent.  Tribbett had his troubles and Yaro, though seemingly a more consistent player, missed time because of multiple injuries.  Sapong now seems to struggle up top as teams body/foul him constantly; maybe we need to employ two up top?  Alberg had flashes of brilliance but was not consistent enough.  Ilsinho looks like a role player who can shake a game up when he tries to beat one man instead of three on the dribble.  Certainly Blake is fine in goal.

Earnie Stewart's job to me seems the same as last year - he first has to find talent to stock the central midfield.  Without that, any other changes just aren't going to matter than much.  My order would be two center midfielders, a striker and another central defender.  Of course, quality players in these positions are just lying around waiting to be signed by teams so I will not underestimate the task ahead for Stewart.


Stupid Playoffs

Once again, the two best teams over the season are in danger of not even making the conference finals.  The Red Bulls, down 0-1 to Montreal, are probably okay as they return to Harrison for the second leg but have no margin for error.  Not so much for Support Shield winner FC Dallas, who are down 0-3 to Seattle.

Oh Christ here comes the soap box.  The last time a conference winner was in the MLS Cup Final was 2011 with the LA Galaxy.  Why even bother with the regular season if you're going to let 12 teams into the playoffs?  Over the course of 34 games, FC Dallas clearly established that they were a better team than Seattle but the Sounders are on a bit of roll so Dallas is likely going down.   Is this playoff centered approach exciting?  Probably.  Does it reward quality?  Not so much.

At least for once after belly aching I at least have a proposal that might offer a compromise between playoffs and no playoffs.   In its simplest form, I would have a post season in which two groups of four teams are formed - the top team from one conference and second through fourth from the other conference.  Group play involves the standard home and home matches among all teams with three points for a win and one point for a tie.  At the end, the top two in each group advance to the MLS Cup Final.  You could vary it by having play-in for the lower slots of each group or by having a preliminary rounds and use groups of three.

This preserves a post season and all the excitement that goes with that.  But it reduces the "cost" of a bad game, which presumably makes it more likely that the best teams advance to the final.  There would be more games to get to a champion - seven as opposed to five or six in the current format if you go with the four-team groups.  Probably still susceptible to capture by a mediocre team that gets hot late but certainly not so much as the current approach.  Yeah, I'll wait to hear from MLS on this one.


Stupid Fox Pundits

No, not the political ones, though if the shoe fits..., the soccer ones.   A panel of Fox "experts" is reviewing the Champions League highlights and gets to Atleti's 2-1 win over Rostov which featured a goal in stoppage time by Griezmann.  Their voices are dripping with sarcasm about the mistake by the officiating crew.  Griezmann was clearly offside in their not so humble opinion and we all know it right?  Wink, wink.  If you're interested reviewing the play before I go into my second rant of this post, check out the different link -go to 3:35. [video here - go to the -1:11 mark to see the play].  What happened was the Atleti player launched a ball towards the box.  An Atleti player (Godin) and a Rostov player both jump and the ball goes off a head to Griezmann, who is past the last defender.  The Atleti striker calmly lofts the ball over the keeper's head for the game winner.  The AR's flag is up (see picture as every Rostov player is pointing to the AR) but the referee overrules.  He does so because the ball came off the Rostov defender, not Godin.  The revised rules say you cannot be offside from a ball deliberately played by the defender.  The Rostov player went for the ball; it was not a random deflection.  But, even if you want to go that route, it's still not offside.  If you view the touch by the Rostov defender as a deflection, you then have to assess Greizmann's position at the moment his teammate played the ball.  If you check that out on the video, you'll see he was clearly onside.  The only way there can be offside on this play is if Godin touches the ball; videos pretty clearly indicate he did not.  The guys at Fox were likely just being too smug to have noticed these minor details.  Is there something in the water there that affects every Fox pundit, sports or otherwise?


Happy Tyneside

Damn, those rants get tiring.  Probably a pain to read too.  Anyway, Newcastle had a good few days, first pounding Preston North End 6-0 in the League Cup, then hanging on for dear life for a 2-1 win in a rematch on Saturday in Championship Division play.  The best news may be that with top scorer Dwight Gayle being rested for precautionary reasons, Aleksandar Mitrovic jumped in with four goals in two games.  I got a small taste of live TV when beIN Sports lost the feed for the Liverpool Tottenham match and they moved around to the other venues until the signal was restored.  Saturday it was back to the Live Chronicle feed.  The Magpies lead the Brighton by three and Huddersfield by six.  And they got a favorable draw for the League Cup quarterfinals in which they'll face Hull City.


Other Stuff

Apologies to any Man United followers out there but damn it was fun when MSNBC cut to Old Trafford for the end of that match and we see Jose Mourinho in the stands and Wayne Rooney whining to referee Mark Clattenburg.  You know things have not gone well for the Red Devils.  And they didn't, as Manchester could only manage a draw at home against Burnley.  Mourinho had been ejected for arguing a non-PK call and Rooney was complaining about a missed call late in stoppage time.  It's a shame...

Tottenham seem to have lost the plot a bit right now.  First a 1-2 loss to Liverpool in the League Cup, then a 1-1 draw vs Leicester, and topped off with a 0-1 lost to Leverkusen in Champions League.  Sure looks like they miss Harry Kane.  But notice they are still unbeaten in EPL play and sit fifth, only three points out of first.

To which Luke P says f Spurs, likely noting that his Gunners are playing well with wins in League Cup, EPL and Champions League play.  They sit second in the table, behind Man City on goal differential.  With Liverpool and Chelsea rounding out the top four, one fears that the glass ceiling, shattered last season by Leicester and Tottenham, may have been replaced with plexiglass.


The Weekend

Despite a calendar mostly devoid of marquee match-ups, there could be some interesting stuff nonetheless.  There is of course the North London derby at 7 am on Sunday morning.  Just remind yourself it will feel like 8 am because of the time change and drag yourself out of bed to see Arsenal-Tottenham.  Chelsea host Everton at 1:30 on Saturday; the Blues seem to have found themselves again but the Toffees should be a good test of how solid a contender they really are.  Liverpool-Watford is a match between two in-form teams that might be worth a look at 9:15 on Sunday on NBCSN; the Hornets sit 7th in the table!   For those who want to see if the car crash that is Jose Mourinho continues, you can watch Swansea-Man United, also at 9:15 on Sunday on CNBC.

Those MLS playoffs that I love so dearly also continue on Sunday at 2 pm (Colorado down 0-1 to LA), 4 pm (Red Bulls down 0-1 to Montreal), 6:30 pm (NYCFC down 0-2 to Toronto) and 9 pm (FC Dallas down 0-3 to Seattle).  I don't really have a horse in the race but I would like to see the Red Bulls do well.  I usually root against the home team at Yankee Stadium and even though I think Toronto has a bunch of whiners (looking at you Bradley and Altidore) I'll still cheer for the visitors; plus the pitch at Yankee Stadium probably isn't big enough for 8 v 8 let alone professional soccer so having no more games there would be fine with me.  Will probably pull for Dallas just because it would be an unprecedented come-from-behind in MLS history.

And the Magpies will be the heavy favorite as they host Cardiff City, who have returned to their traditional blue uniforms after a very unpopular stint wearing red.  They are the Bluebirds for crissake, what were they doing in red?

Apologies for items not covered this week but there was a lot going on.  Even with a DVR, it's hard to keep up.