No Joke

Throughout my 25+ years in soccer as a coach and fan, I have steadfastly maintained that while referees make bad calls, they are not the cause of your demise.  Steve Martin (not the comedian but his performance was a joke), in the center for Newcastle's 1-2 loss to Nottingham Forest made me almost give up on that principle.  A short list of grievances include:

- not awarding a PK when Clark was pulled down in the box
- disallowing a goal by Clark for an alleged foul
- sending off Shelvey at 33 minutes for a kick against an opponent
- sending off Dummett at 44 minutes for denying an obvious goal scoring opportunity
- not whistling Bendtner for offside on the first Forest goal

An impressive list.  That the FA overturned both red cards would seem to back up the claim that the Magpies were screwed.  Instead of playing a man down for 11 minutes and two men down for 46 minutes, Newcastle would have been at full strength for the entire match.  As it was, they looked in control even at 10 men.  Indeed, shortly before Dummett's sending off, they had taken a 1-0 lead thanks to Matt Ritchie.  Both red call fouls were in the box but Darlow saved both.

So how do I let Mr. Martin off the hook?  It takes some work but hear me out.  I thought Shelvey's red card was deserved.  That he kicked Lansbury in retaliation to being kicked himself doesn't excuse the action.  That Lansbury overacted (grabbing his face when the kick was to the body) is also not an excuse.  Shelvey put his team in jeopardy with his action.  The rest of the stuff probably wouldn't have mattered had Shelvey not been ejected.  They were bad calls but even at 10 men, Newcastle probably get at least a draw and maybe a win.  By the way, Shelvey is also facing a five match ban for allegedly using racially abusive language towards a Wolves player back in September; his hearing for that charge is sometime the week of 12/19.  Benitez does not have a history of tolerating players that constantly find themselves in hot water, regardless of how talented they are.

Oh, and the best part?  This was one of Newcastle's televised matches so I got to see the whole thing in living color.  I can see a definite advantage in becoming a neutral.  Another side note, comedian Steve Martin got trolled by angry Newcastle fans who mistakenly tagged his account on Twitter.  Raving lunatics indeed.


Life As A Neutral

After Friday's debacle, the weekend's matches were much easier to take in without a serious rooting interest.  The featured Chelsea-Manchester City match did not disappoint.  An own goal near half time gave the Citizens a 1-0 lead but they probably felt hard done by referee Anthony Taylor's decision not to send off David Luiz for interfering with Aguero on a breakaway, not awarding a PK on Cahill for handling and not awarding PK against Kante for a challenge in the box.  (IMHO, Taylor got the latter two calls right but not so sure about Luiz).  But as I just said, the fault isn't in the referee's stars, it's in your stars.  Like when Kevin deBruyne, who is having an awesome year, missed a golden opportunity to make it 2-0.  Minutes later Costa leveled things for Chelsea.  Then a Willian breakaway at 70 minutes and a similar effort from Hazard at 90 minutes completed the comeback win.  Man City can point to Taylor all they want but they might do better to get their back line more organized.  Things got ugly in stoppage time when Aguero launched into a tackle and Fernandinho pushed Fabregas over the advertising stand.  Both got multi-game suspensions.

Ryan Fraser celebrates after scoring Bournemouth’s second goal
Photograph: JASONPIX/Rex/Shutterstock

As good as that match was, my favorite for the weekend was Bournemouth-Liverpool.  Two lightning strikes had Liverpool up 2-0 by 22 minutes.  Full credit to Eddie Howe's side as they never quit and to the Vitality Stadium faithful as well, who roared approval with every run and challenge.  The hard work paid off with a PK that cut the deficit at 56 minutes and it was game on.  Even after Emre Can restored the two goal lead in the 64th minute, somehow you knew not to turn away just yet.  Sure enough at 76 minutes substitute Ryan Fraser got one back and two minutes later Steve Cook tied things at 3-3.  Both team had chances in the closing stages.  In a match where neither keeper distinguished himself, a mistake in stoppage time by Liverpool's Karius, left a loose ball for Nathan Ake to slip into the net for the game winner.  Ironically, the man responsible for Liverpool's lost points is on loan from rival Chelsea.  Ouch.

Man United woes continue but I'm not going to dump on Mourinho here.  Yeah, Fellaini was a late sub and it was his foul that gave Everton the PK in the 89th minute that allowed them to snatch a draw.  Seems just plain unlucky to me.  And he didn't kick over any water bottles, at least that I know of.

In the top five, both Arsenal and Spurs got relatively easy three points.  With a 3-1 win over Watford, we officially welcome West Brom into the mid-table; the Baggies have three wins and a draw in the last four matches and sit in seventh, just one point behind Man United.  Bournemouth's win also moves them into that semi-rarefied air.  So, heading into the weekend, the expanding mid-table includes Man United, West Brom, Everton, Stoke City, Bournemouth and Watford; hmm, one of these is not like the others.  Leicester remained tightly linked to the relegation zone with a 1-2 loss to Sunderland at the Stadium of Increasing Light.

Southampton could have put some distance between them and the relegation zone but came up really lame against Crystal Palace.   I mean really lame.  Check out keeper Forster's bad awful day in this week's  YouTubeable or U-12 Moment, take your pick.  The win means Alan Pardew is around for this week's match with Hull City.  I thought he was gone after the Swansea loss so I'll be less bold in predicting his departure if the Eagles don't get a result in this one.


Five Men From USA

On Thursday, a group from our Monday night basketball game (Graham, Don, Charlie, Michael and Steve) leave for 10 days and three matches in England.  We have tickets for Newcastle-Birmingham at St. James' Park on Saturday afternoon, Tottenham-Hull City at White Hart Lane on Wednesday night and Crystal Palace-Chelsea at Selhurst Park the following Saturday.  Email correspondence from the manager at the Newcastle hotel has been carrying the subject line "Five Men From USA" so that's become our handle.

We won't see any of Saturday's EPL matches.  At the top of the table you have Arsenal hosting Stoke (10 am NBCSN) and Man City traveling to the Midlands to take on struggling Leicester (12:30 NBC).  Relegation battles include Hull hosting Crystal Palace and Sunderland at Swansea; any of the four managers of those sides could be gone by Monday.

Sunday likely will feature a pub crawl in Newcastle as we search out venues to watch Chelsea-West Brom, Man United-Tottenham and Liverpool-West Ham.  With the action starting at noon local time (7 am here), I put the emphasis on crawl.

We will likely see Everton-Arsenal at a London pub on Tuesday.  We'll miss the Wednesday matches unless they are shown on TV screens in the Nicholson Suite, from which we'll be taking in Spurs-Hull.  Sweet indeed.

Not sure what our prospects are for seeing the MLS Cup.  With kickoff at 1 am local time (8 pm here) on Saturday, we will probably miss the Toronto-Seattle final.  Though with my sleep habits, you never know.  I'm pulling for Toronto in this one, mostly because I feel like they were the better side for most of the season whereas Seattle is employing the NCAA college basketball approach - just make sure your regular season is good enough to get to the tournament, then get hot.

As events allow, I plan to provide regular updates and pictures throughout the trip.  Also, if you get one of those emails pleading for money because we were mugged outside our hotel in London, I'd still be suspicious; even though we're actually there, it's probably still a scam.