Magical Moments

Some decent international action and the EPL schedule is out.


Can't Win For Drawing

Start with these facts:

• Scotland hardly ever beat England
• Scotland had arguably outplayed England in this match but had surrendered a goal in the 70th minute and were down 0-1
• Leigh Griffith had leveled things in the 87th minute with a great free kick that beat Joe Hart to his left
• A point was better than none but Scotland really needed three to keep its WC hopes alive

Okay, now watch this video as Leigh Griffith lines up to take another free kick in the 89th minute.  Stunning as he beats Joe Hart to his right this time.  Two superb free kicks in two minutes from the same guy to rally Scotland from an 0-1 deficit to a 2-1 lead.  Full disclosure requires that I tell you that Harry Kane had a brilliant strike of his own in the closing seconds to snatch the victory away from the Scots.  Still, that moment must have been awesome for those Scottish fans.  I like the England team a lot but Scotland needed the three way more than England needed one.

Rummaging around the other European qualifiers, it was a decent round for the United Kingdom (how many countries are in this country - four).  Aside from the Scotland-England draw, Northern Ireland got a win and Wales got a point in Serbia.  England still leads its group and Northern Ireland looks like a decent bet to get to the playoff round.  Sweden took the measure of France and are now tied with the Frogs at the top of their group.  And BFS fav Iceland snatched a critical win at home against Croatia on a 90th minute corner from Gylfi Sigurdsson that Magnusson put away for the winner.  The victory puts the Our Boys level on points with Croatia at the top of the Group I table with 13; but since Turkey and Ukraine are close behind with 11 points each, nothing is settled in this group.  For those wondering which two sides are the punching bags in that group, they would be Finland and Kosovo who have one point a piece. And yes, they got their lone points in a draw against each other.


Thrilla in Azteca

Michael Bradley (4), who scored, and his United States teammates
 after a draw against Mexico on Sunday in a World Cup qualifying
 match. CreditRebecca Blackwell/Associated Press

Michael Bradley's deft chip aside, the Mexico-USA match didn't have quite the singularly dramatic moments of Scotland-England contest, but the 1-1 draw will be remembered for some time.  That the draw felt like a victory for the UMSNT is evident from the picture at the right.  But we get ahead of ourselves.

First there was the workmanlike win over Trinidad & Tobago. Our guys took their time in getting unraveled but goals from Christian Pulisic at 52 and 62 minutes were enough to kill the drama there.  I would be remiss if I didn't cite the performance of Newcastle's own DeAndre Yedlin, who had a hand in both goals.  With the three points in hand, the trip to Mexico wasn't quite as scary as it could have been.

For the Mexico match, Bruce Arena made seven lineup changes and went with three central defenders and two wingers (five man back line on defense but the wingers became midfielders in possession).   You'd have to say it was bit of break when Bradley scored an improbable goal in the sixth minute.  I don't speak Spanish but I believe the announcers in this video are offering grudging respect for Bradley's effort.   The US gave it back when Bobby Wood basically fanned on a shot in the box and Ochoa's outlet pass sent Mexico off to the races; any kind of shot from Wood probably means there is no chance for a quick counter.  Though there would be no more scoring, it was still intense all the way to the final whistle.  As Michael B notes, the result might be more important to the USMNT psyche than the point they took home.  Certainly the Hex does not look as daunting as it did last November.

And that is partly due to some help from Honduras, who worked a draw on the road against Panama.  Though they got a point in Costa Rica, Los Canaleros may be ruing missed opportunities.  They played a man up against Costa Rica but only got a draw and then found themselves outplayed by Honduras, rescuing a draw with a dramatic 90th minute goal.  That allows the US to slip past Panama into the third and final automatic qualifying spot.  Still four to go but the schedule favors the US going forward.


EPL Fixtures Announced

The season schedule is up at the EPL website here.  Actually, the schedule at this point is more what you'd call guidelines because the TV guys haven't worked their magic yet.  Many games will be moved from Saturday to Friday, Sunday or Monday; even games that don't change dates could change starting times.  But you get the general picture.

Newcastle get to open at St. James' Park but face a tough side in Tottenham.  From there the schedule looks to be a bit inviting until it gets really nasty in December. Always seeing the glass half empty, the Magpies cannot afford to get off to a slow start given that schedule.

Nothing worth reporting on the transfer front - just more rumors and speculation.  This was supposed to be the summer of Rafa but not so much yet.  And another rumor is that Ashley is preparing to sell the team to Chinese investors.  Observers are suggesting it may be true this time because Ashley, unlike other times, has not issued a denial.  I saw one commenter express hope that it isn't true, saying the devil you know, etc.  You mean the devil who has presided over two relegations in less than 10 years?

BFS will be taking a few weeks off, though in this case it really means shifting to the track and field blog to focus on the US Champs and a three meet Tracktown Series pitting teams representing NYC, Portland, San Francisco and Philadelphia against each other (details here).

Don't forget Gold Cup and Confederations Cup and MLS action.  Plenty to watch.  Check your local listings as they say.

Football Can Be Unfair

We've all watched matches where the result doesn't fit with our sense of how the game played out.  A team that dominated possession, outshot their opponent 8 to 1 and hit the woodwork a few times somehow lost 0-1.  Check out this feature on Nate Silver's fivethirtyeight blog.  I draw your attention to two items - shot based expected goals and non-shot expected goals.  There's more detailed explanation at the site but they are basically an analysis of how many goals the team could have been expected to score based on the chances they created.  The authors like the metric but caution that they've only been collecting the statistic for about six years and are not willing, at least for public consumption, to fully stand behind it yet.  But it can serve as a good reality check.

Remember a few weeks ago I suggested the Union were more than just a little lucky to come away with a 3-0 win over the Red Bulls.  These metrics suggest at best a close match and indicate that maybe the Red Bulls were the better team.  Looking at the DC United, Houston and Colorado data suggests those were reasonably fair results.  Same for Real Salt Lake and the NYCFC scores (discussed below).

Looks like a fun site to check in with after you're left scratching your head when a result doesn't match what you just saw.


Get Real

Damn Real Madrid.  One minute we were having a competitive Champions League final, the next minute it was a blow out.  Quite an offensive display by Real Madrid, including two from Ronaldo (who took some criticism from the female viewers at 6911 for the frosted tips - see right).  Even if we count Mandzukic's incredible goal at triple value, Juventus still loses 3-4.  But the goal was truly awesome and the context (leveling the final at 1-1) makes it even better. We'll make it this week's (year's?) YouTubeable Moment.  Hard to deny that Real were by far the better side though.


Union in the Big Apple

Didn't Mick Jagger say something like playing soccer in this town must be tough, tough, tough, tough?  The Union were bad for about 85 of the 90 minutes but were lucky enough to be holding a 1-0 lead into the 80th minute thank's to a quick moment of brilliance involving C.J. Sapong and Fafa Picault and some more fine goalkeeping from Blake.  For a moment I thought about how good it would be to steal out of Yankee Stadium with all three points.  Then I realized that was greedy, especially given how they were playing, and admitted that even sneaking home with one point was a pretty good thing.  Of course they got neither, surrendering two goals within 5 minutes off of NYCFC corners.  The result was an absolutely fair reflection of the match.


Sliding Into Second Base

Separating it from the result so as not to make it look like an excuse for the loss, I still have to comment on the ridiculous idea of playing soccer in Yankee Stadium.  It's bad enough that they play on an 8 v 8 sized pitch but the number of players that slipped on the grass laid over the infield dirt was possibly a bigger issue.  Why don't they just play their home games at Red Bull Arena until they get something better?  Oh right, we can't have two "New York" football teams playing in the same New Jersey stadium.  That would be unprecedented.  Based on this article, sure doesn't look like there's an alternative coming in the near future.


Silly Season

The stories coming out about possible Newcastle transfers are too numerous and often baseless rumors anyway so we'll just wait until there are real signings.  It does appear that the Magpies lost out to Villarreal on one target and Arsenal are possibly going to snatch another one away.  So at this point, other than signing Christian Atsu, there's nothing new.

Sad news that Cheick Tiote died of an apparent heart attack on the training ground of his club in China.  The former Magpie defensive midfielder was just 30 years old.  In remembrance here's a video (love the announcer's "boom, boom, shake the room!") of what was easily Tiote's most memorable moment with Newcastle, as he completes the Magpies comeback from 0-4 down against Arsenal.


USMNT

Serious business afoot for the US in World Cup qualifying.  Thursday night they are in Colorado to take on Trinidad & Tobago (7:50 FS1) and Sunday night they are in Mexico (8:30 pm, also FS1).  The T&T match is in the must-win category.  Mexico?  If we get a point out of that, I'll be thrilled.

Looking at the other matches, at the end of this round the US could still find themselves sitting in the uncomfortable fourth position in the Hex table.  Recall that spot doesn't get you to the World Cup final, just to a play-in series versus the fifth place side from Asia. We get a bit of break in that the two teams just ahead of us, Costa Rica and Panama, have to play each other Thursday.  But their second matches in this window are against the bottom two sides.  One will probably get a minimum of three points and the other possibly a maximum of six.  I think I'd prefer to see Costa Rica take all three against Panama.  That way, if we do eke out a point in Mexico, the US could move into the third spot based on goal differential.  You can look at various scenarios in this Soccer America Daily update.

TV coverage is pretty good so you can follow other key matches in the Hex.  On Thursday you can see Costa Rica-Panama (beINSports at 9:50) and Honduras-Mexico (FS1 at 10 pm).  Tuesday you can watch the Panama-Honduras contest at 9:25 on beINSports.

You can also catch a smattering of the European qualifiers, including Sweden-France (Friday at 2:45 on FS2), Scotland-England (Saturday at noon on FS2) and Serbia-Wales on Sunday at 2:45 on FS2.

Just a heads up - BFS will take a week or two off after this international window is done.

FA Cup Saves Wenger Again

A good FA Cup Final, a dismal performance from the Union and a tense but ultimately unsatisfying Championship Division Final.  Also, getting ready for a "busy" summer of international action.


A Match of Two Calls

Ramsey heads in Giroud's cross for the game winner

Overall I thought Saturday's FA Cup Final was a great match for the neutral with plenty of back and forth attacking football.  Recognizing that I still believe that referees' decisions don't cost you games, there were two calls that, shall we say, changed the complexion of the match.  One I think Anthony Taylor got wrong but he was spot on with the other.

At four minutes, Alexis Sanchez got Arsenal on the board with a play that was a) a handball, b) offside, c) handball and offside or d) no infractions at all.  Taylor and his assistant went with d) no infraction but a) might be the correct answer.  You can see a decent video of the incident here.  For me, Sanchez extended his arms in an unnatural way and guided the ball so that he could maintain control; in other words, he handled it.  I agree with the announcer that the play was not offside.  You could try to make a case that Courtois didn't get a clear view of Sanchez as early as he otherwise might have, coming around Ramsey as he did but that's about it.  You also might say the rule stinks if that play was not offside but I don't think Taylor was wrong in not calling offside.

The Arsenal goal probably helped make this a lively contest.  But then it seemed Chelsea's fate was sealed with a textbook dive by Victor Moses, right in front of Taylor, for which Moses was awarded his second yellow of the match and was sent into exile.  The video, complete with laugh track, is here.  BFS co-founder and Diving Analyst Dennis F was especially impressed with the technique but ultimately awarded only a 4.5 out of 5 saying there "was not enough embellishment for the full 5."

Chelsea promptly showed how devastating the loss was by equalizing eight minutes later on a fine play by Diego Costa.  But Arsenal would carry the day with a great cross from Giroud that Ramsey headed emphatically into goal for the winner.  This was the third title for Arsenal in four years but probably carries a bit more prestige given the quality of the opponent.  This is not a knock on Hull City or Aston Villa.  Wait, it actually is.

And I would be proven wrong about Wenger, as days after the win, he signed a two-year contract extension.  So, Arsenal fans will still have him to kick around.


Union Run Out of Luck

The Union put up another stinker but this time there would be no PKs or sending off to save them.  I don't know if the Union were slow or if Salt Lake was pressing them but it seemed like every pass was made under pressure, with the result that they were intercepted or otherwise ultimately unsuccessful.  Without heroics from Blake, this would have been 0-3 or 0-4 instead of the final 0-1.  Graham R points out that this team is probably not as bad as the early record suggested nor as good as the recent form might indicate.  No, without improvement or changes, this is a mediocre team that could contend for one of the last playoff spots.  This latest loss helped them to slip back to 9th.  They are back in action at 1 pm vs NYCFC, who sit 5th in the table.  Not hopeful of a good result here, plus soccer at Yankee Stadium is practically unwatchable; the pitch is about as wide as a bowling lane.


Huddersfield Are Going Up

Sir Patrick Stewart displays the full range of a football fan's
 emotions while taking in  Huddersfield-Reading

With Sir Patrick Stewart (right) urging them on, Huddersfield Town edged out Reading in a penalty shootout to secure the last promotion spot from the Championship Division to the EPL.  The match had all the tension you would expect and for about 75 minutes, though scoreless, wasn't terrible.  From there on, through the 30 minutes of extra time, it was just tense, as it looked like everybody was playing not to lose so it was still scoreless after 120 minutes.  Somewhat understandable - would you want to be known as the guy who cost his team $150 million?   Thus, it came down to kicks from the spot and Huddersfield won out, 4-3.  They return to top flight football for the first time since 1972.


Champions League Final

The European club season draws to a close on Saturday with the Champions League final between Juventus and Real Madrid (Fox, 2:45).  The oddsmakers suggest this should be a close match, with Real Madrid a slight favorite.  We will be rooting for Juventus for marginally suspect reasons.  First, the Juventus black and white kit (left) is very Newcastle-like.  Second, as a casual Atletico fan (I do have a scarf), Real Madrid is not a particular favorite of mine.  Mostly, though, I'd just like to see a decent match decided in the run of play, not on a shootout.


International Calendar

Though European club soccer is done, there will be a vigorous international schedule.  The US has two world cup qualifiers in June - 6/8 vs Trinidad & Tobago and 6/11 vs Mexico.  The Gold Cup, Concacaf's biennial tournament, runs from 7/7 to 7/26.  Europe will have a round of WC qualifiers between 6/9-6/11.  And there's the Confederations Cup, an eight team tournament that serves as a dry run for the next World Cup host (Russia in this case).  That will run from June 17 to July 2.  So definitely not as busy as August to May but you'll be able to find some good stuff.