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.
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