Crisis? What Crisis?

Musical Accompaniment courtesy Supertramp

Ball is on the way for Newcastle's first goal
of the season courtesy Joselu

Who knew it could be that easy.  Basically every aspect of Newcastle's game was working Saturday in the 3-0 defeat of West Ham at St. James' Park.  Christian Atsu showed good judgment in foregoing the shot in favor of a pass to Joselu for the first tally.  Matt Ritchie did phenomenal work in the corner to maintain possession and loft a perfect cross to Ciaran Clark's head for the second goal.  Very happy with the work of the back four.  Also, Mikel Merino's work as a holding midfielder was outstanding, which may mean we are no longer dependent on Shelvey staying unsuspended.  

Hard not to notice that Rafa's off-season moves on the shoe-string budget have already paid off.  Atsu continued his fine work on the wing, Manquillo is doing well at fullback and we've already mentioned Merino and Joselu.  Would have been up the Tyne without a paddle if not for these replacements for injured and suspended players.

The cold water part of this?  Well, West Ham are a side basically in complete disarray (three losses to open the season) so we shouldn't get too revved about this result.  Without one or two additional quality players, I don't see these kinds of results against the better squads.  Which means another season hanging in or far too close to the relegation zone.  But damn that was fun to watch on Saturday.


Bournemouth vs Manchester City featuring Mike Dean

The weekend got off to a cracking start with Saturday's 7:30 match.  Charlie Daniels got Bournemouth off the mark with their first goal of the season.  And not just any goal but possibly YouTubeableMoment of a Generation.  A sweeter strike you'll never see, especially from a full back.  Alas the lead lasted a mere eight minutes before Gabriel "it's pronounced Jay Zeus" leveled things with a pretty good goal of his own.  Back and forth they went, hard fought.  Also very chippy, with 28 fouls and 11 yellow cards.  Each side hit the woodwork in the second half. Late in stoppage though Raheem Sterling lofted a ball over Begovic to grab all three points for the Citizens

This was actually two games in one - the one on the pitch and the one Mike Dean saw.  Curious decisions for my money at every turn.  Fouls that weren't called.  I didn't see any defenders between Jay Zeus and the goal as he was grabbed by Ake but the Bournemouth man only got shown the yellow.  I distinctly remember a play when a Bournemouth clearance was accidentally blocked by Dean and a Bournemouth player clearly committed a foul seconds later but Dean, as if to be saying the foul was my fault, allowed play to continue. Some (like Eddie Howe) question whether it was really a foul that allowed Man City the free kick that led to the winning goal.   But the call that has universally been lambasted (and had the least impact on the match) was Sterling's second yellow for excessive celebration after scoring what would be the winning goal.  Yes, Sterling celebrated with the traveling Man City fans but he did not leave the pitch to do so; they left the stands to join him.  Pretty silly.  We have said on more than one occasion, it seems like Mr. Dean has no problem making his presence known.


You Think You Have Problems

For a second straight week, we had to talk Michael B off the ledge, this time after Tottenham surrendered the tying goal to Burnley in stoppage time.  A loss and a draw in their two "home" matches at Wembley isn't great but they really can't let it get into their heads.  And other clubs have things much worse.  We already mentioned West Ham's bad start.  Crystal Palace has no points and no goals.  Brighton has yet to score as well.  And Arsenal, hoo boy.  Anybody who saw the 4-0 shellacking they took from Liverpool knows 'zactly what I'm talking about.  Players who don't want to be there (and playing like it), a defense in disarray (eight goals allowed in three games) and a general lack of purpose.


Shields Up

Huddersfield have clearly taken a page from top fan Patrick Stewart's work on the USS Enterprise as they have yet to be scored on this season.  Their latest outing was a 0-0 draw at home to Southampton.  Also unscored upon so far is Man United, who again took their time in putting an opponent away.  Though clearly dominant, they didn't get on the scoreboard until the 70th minute and of course padded their lead with a goal after the 80th minute.  I had hoped for a more lively match.


Who Invented Stoppage Time?

For the second consecutive Saturday, the Union yielded the tying goal after 90 minutes, this time to Atlanta.  And for the second consecutive Saturday, Josh Yaro was in the middle of it.  We got two early goals - both quality efforts from Alberg and Bedoya.  Of course, they gave one back mere minutes after taking a 2-0 lead so you knew it was going to be tense.  Then Yaro grabbed an Atlanta attacker heading in on goal and got the requisite red card in the 52nd minute.  Actually the Union responded pretty well to being a man down and looked to be close to pulling out the win.  Alas, Tyrone Mears pounced on a Blake rebound in the 91st minute.  Good bye three points.

The Union's playoff chances are now the opposite of a side view mirror - objects are farther away than they seem.  Results elsewhere have the Union in 8th, just five points out of the final playoff spot. But every club in striking distance ahead of them have two or three matches in hand. Well, we'll let Laura Nyro and Patti Labelle sing about the Union's prospects at this point.


Transfer Window Closing

At 6 pm our time I believe.  The Chronicle has a million stories up about possible last minute deals for Newcastle but nothing that seems certain.  Looks like Oxlade-Chamberlain is leaving Arsenal for Liverpool.  That's going to leave a mark and Sanchez may be with Man City by the time the window closes.  Swansea appear on the brink of losing Llorente (Spurs mentioned as possible landing place), which will certainly further deplete their squad.


International Break

Most leagues are off until next weekend for the international break.  The USMNT has two big matches - Friday vs Costa Rica at Red Bull Arena in NJ (7 pm ESPN) and Tuesday in Honduras (5:30 beIN Sports).  Friday's match is not exactly a must-win but the road to Moscow (apologies to Al Stewart) can be easy or hard depending on the result here.  Panama, just one point behind the US, has Mexico on Friday but Trinidad and Tobago on Tuesday so figure three points for them.  Four points from these two matches would be good, two clearly not enough.  Some injuries for the US squad but mostly intact.  Full fire power up top.  Should be a good match.

You can probably catch some other confederations action with some tooling around the dial.  The most interesting South American qualifier - Uruguay vs Argentina - doesn't look to be available but Chile-Paraguay might be worth a look.  I know there's European action but can't get a handle on what we could actually see.

Insipid and Moribund

These are words Jon Champion actually used to describe Newcastle's performance during the telecast of the Magpie's 0-1 loss to Huddersfield.  Late in the match he also noted, and I quote directly "there is still no suggestion that Newcastle are capable of finding an equalizer."  Really, there is nothing to add.  This was 2nd division football at its worst.

Speaking of second division, Newcastle continued to impress this season as they lost to Championship side Nottingham Forest in the League Cup on Wednesday.  The score this time was 2-3 in added extra time.  Alarm bells should be going off everywhere but we'll see if Rafa can pry any money out of Ashley to make changes.  I get that you shouldn't pay $25 million for a midfielder worth half that but Newcastle are getting hung up on much smaller amounts.


One Point From Two Road Matches

Things were not much better this side of the pond.  Yeah, a point at San Jose was unexpected but when you enter the last minute of stoppage up 2-1 you start thinking about the three points.  Yaro's penalty negated what would have gone down as a tremendous road win, especially after falling behind.  More kudos to defender Jack Elliott for another great effort on the back line.  Wednesday's match against MLS juggernaut Toronto went as expected.  Check out this free kick from Giovinco, this week's YouTubeAble Moment.  The 3-0 finally was fully justified.

On paper, the standings say the Union are still six points out of the playoffs but most of the teams in front of them have one, two or three games in hand.  We're far enough back that Soccer America Daily didn't even bother to include the Union on the list of critical losses on Wednesday night.


Get A Real Home

BFS notes NYCFC will be bumped from Yankee Stadium for a game in September.  They'll play in East Hartford CT at a stadium frequently used for US international matches.  In other words, a decent soccer venue.  With both teams looking at post season berths, scheduling conflicts during the playoffs is a remote possibility.  The picture at left reveals another reason - besides having the width of a U12 pitch - that soccer in Yankee Stadium is a dumb idea.  Check out how far away from the action most of the seating is.



Places Where the Sun Is Shining

Given the current fortunes of Newcastle and the Union, we must look elsewhere for happy scenes for BFS regulars.  Oops, not at Wembley - Tottenham's home away from home - where Spurs went down 1-2 to Chelsea.  Seemed like decent energy in the stadium for the home side and Spurs looked to have the run of play; indeed fivethirtyeight.com metrics suggest that Spurs might have earned a win and certainly a draw.  Down 0-1, an 82nd minute own goal seemed to have rescued a point for Spurs.  Minutes later though, Marcus Alonso slipped a shot past Lloris that stood as the game winner.  We got Michael B down off the ledge by Tuesday.

Moving on, Arsenal probably...oh never mind, they lost 0-1 at Stoke despite clearly dominating.  Next.  Well Jeff H has to be happy, as Man United completes a second consecutive 4-0 thrashing, this time at Swansea.  On one hand, you might say the score flatters United, since the score at 80 minutes was just 1-0.  But the three goals in the final 10 minutes truly reflect the total Red Devils dominance of the match.  Jeff K is probably okay with Everton's away draw with Man City.  A strange match that one.  Wayne Rooney gave the Toffees a lead at 35 minutes and when Kyle Walker was sent off at 44 minutes for a second yellow, their prospects were looking good.  Except Man City dominated the second half.  Sterling scored in the 82nd minute and the Citizens were pressing for a game winner.  Schneiderlin got sent off in the 88th minute with his second yellow and the last minutes were a real scramble for Everton.  They were lucky to come home with the draw.

Didn't see it (haven't plunked down my $50 for NBCSN Gold subscription yet) but Southampton-West Ham might have been the most exciting viewing.  Down a man and two goals, Chicharito rallied the Hammers with two tallies of his own.  Only a PK in stoppage by Charlie Austin rescued the win for the Saints.


Virtual Sunshine

One place the sun is shining is Chester, even if it's only on the computer. The Blues opened up at the Stadium of Light, thumping Sunderland 5-2, with both goals allowed after the result was a foregone conclusion.  We turned around quickly for a Tuesday match against Chelsea that on paper looked much more difficult.  Except we were up 3-0 by half and were never pressed in the 4-0 win.  Um, this was with our #1 striker out with an injury.  Off season transfers to bolster the front line seemed to be paying off.


The Calendar

With trepidation, we look at the weekend's fixtures.  Newcastle's home match with West Ham, for unknown reasons, was moved from NBCSN Gold to NBCSN at 10 am Saturday.  Clearly based on these clubs histories, not current performance.  Frankly, I'd be happy with a draw here.

I'm drawn to Sunday's 11 am match on NBCSN between Liverpool and Arsenal.  Both sides have looked very tense in their matches so far so this could be a taut affair.  Come to think of it, this might not be the place to go if you're looking for goals.  Maybe Man United-Leicester at 12:30 Saturday on NBC would be a better choice for that.  The Foxes will have their hands full.  Probably will check out Chelsea-Everton Sunday morning at 8:30 (NBCSN) as well.  Rounding out the TV  games is the Saturday morning opener, Bournemouth hosting Man City at 7:30 (NBCSN).

Spurs fans will need NBCSN Gold to see their match against Burnley, Sunday at 11.  A good opportunity for a bounce back win to squash any of this Wembley jinx talk.  Bob K, working on his second week as a Huddersfield supporter, will also need Gold to catch his beloved Terriers against Southampton on Saturday.

The Union face what could be their last chance to get a playoff drive going when they host Atlanta at Talen Energy Stadium Saturday night.  We hear about how the Union are good at home but we are confusing "better" with "good."  Just checked the table and only Orlando and DC United have fewer points per home game than the Union. Regardless, Atlanta is one of the clubs ahead of them in the table and the Union can't miss any more opportunities to gain ground.

Big match for the USMNT coming soon.

I Mentioned the Bisque

So here are the highlights from a big weekend that included a Saturday night trip to Talen Energy Stadium for the Union match with Montreal and a Sunday morning gathering to watch Newcastle's return to the Premier League with a home match against Spurs:

- traffic to and from Talen Energy Stadium was very light
- we did not get rained on despite the forecasted severe thunderstorms
- Laura made a great fruit salad

Did I leave out anything important?  Don't think so.  Yadda, yadda, yadda

They Were Mediocre Until They Started to Suck

For 50 minutes you could argue that the Union were not awful in the match versus Montreal.  Neither side distinguished themselves but it was basically even.  The bad news was that everything that was working last week against Dallas was a little off; not quite as good on the ball, passes not hitting the target, more dump and chase versus build up play.

From about 50 to 65 minutes they even looked decent, getting their best scoring chance, a shot from Wijnaldum that hit the post.  Shortly thereafter the wheels fell off.  A quick counter resulted in Montreal's first tally and two more followed before the whistle mercifully ended things.  Hard to think this is true in an 0-3 loss but the Union's best player was likely keeper John McCarthy, who has more than adequately filled in several times this year for Andre Blake.

The defeat drops the Union to 9th - they managed to stay out of 10th only because New England's margin of victory was just one goal.  Pretty much the worst case scenario for the weekend.  They are still six points out of the playoff spot except that now the 6th place team has two games in hand and there are two other teams between them and 6th.  With 10 games to go this is not impossible but seems so unlikely given their inconsistency.

They Were Mediocre Until They Went Down to 10 Men

Sometimes it's annoying to be right.  Check out this quote from yours truly in the BFS 7/29/17 post:

All the activity so far seems helpful, but mostly in adding depth to the squad - certainly an important step in preparing for the coming season so that when, for example, Shelvey gets suspended, as he inevitably will, we're not shorthanded.

Turns out "inevitably will" was just 48 minutes into the new season.  He felt compelled to "playfully stomp" on Dele Alli's leg and was appropriately sent off.  To that point, Newcastle were holding their own defensively but generally not threatening.  The match could have easily ended 0-0 or maybe 1-0 either way.  The sending off gave Tottenham - who looked okay but not great - the advantage they needed to put two past keeper Rob Eliot.

A positive result here was always a long shot so the 0-2 loss by itself isn't awful.  But Shelvey is now out for 3 matches.  Maybe worse are the injuries picked up by Paul Dummett and Florian LeJeune, who are both likely out for several weeks.  LeJeune's injury was the result of a nasty tackle by Harry Kane.  I know Kane doesn't have a rep for this kind of stuff but it was a scissor tackle from behind that deserved a red card.  I'll admit real time I thought yellow was appropriate but replays show it was worse.  Not blaming the ref or Kane, mostly just whining that a key acquisition, who up to that point had been playing solid D, will be out for awhile.

3 of 5 Men from USA take in EPL opener

The small gathering at 6911 did open and share the vintage 2016 bottle of Newcastle Brown Ale that had been sitting in the fridge since the day the Magpies were relegated.  Probably aged better than those who sampled it.


Around the League

Some fun stuff at other grounds.  Arsenal's come from behind 4-3 win at Leicester on Friday got the season off to a cracking start.  The second match of the season also delivered the goods, with Watford rescuing a 3-3 draw at home against Liverpool with a goal in stoppage time.  After 13 goals in two games, the pace had to slow and it did.  Still, Everton-Stoke was decent.  Early on I noted that the only difference I could see in Wayne Rooney upon his return to Everton was that he was whining to the ref while wearing a blue shirt instead of red.  Then he scored the match's only goal on a well-directed header so I shut up.

David Silva channeling his inner Pablo Zabaleta

Burnley had a man advantage for 76 minutes and a two-man advantage for 10+ minutes but the match still hung in the balance right up to the final whistle; Sean Wyche and Burnley were happy to come home from Stamford Bridge with the 3-2 win regardless of how it played out.  Not an upset of the same magnitude but Huddersfield put a 3-0 hurting on Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park no less.  Bob K immediately announced that he will be joining Patrick Stewart as a Terrier fan.

Both Manchester franchises were victorious. Took me a while to realize the bald guy in midfield for Man City was the recently shaved David Silva, making some kind of tribute to departed teammate Pablo Zabaleta.


Chester Blues Update

The only good news of the weekend came on the virtual pitch and even that was a struggle.  Chester pushed Arsenal all over the place but the Community Shield match was 0-0 at the end of regulation time.  Fortunately, the Blues calmly deposited each kick from the spot into the net and claimed the victory.  We open the EPL season at the Stadium of Light.  Still some time left in the transfer window but we will probably stand pat.


Reload

Okay, let's try this again.  Newcastle go to Hudderfield goes on Sunday at 8:30 (NBCSN) in an early clash of newly promoted/trying not to get relegated sides.  The Magpies have added a new striker - Joselu from Stoke - which is helpful but again feels like added depth as opposed to a big increase in quality.  Obviously the Terriers are a side Newcastle will need to beat to stay up.

Spurs-Chelsea at 11 am (NBCSN) makes for a fine Sunday doubleheader.  The Blues will be without Cahill and Fabregas due to red card suspensions so maybe slight edge to Tottenham?  This will be Spurs first match in their temporary Wembley home.

Monday's match (3 pm NBCSN) between Man City and Everton could be fun.  The Toffees just added BFS fave (and ex-Chester Blue) Gylfi Sigurdsson, continuing their massive makeover.   Saturday TV matches include Swansea-Man United (7:30 NBCSN) , Liverpool-Crystal Palace (10 am NBCSN) and Stoke-Arsenal (12:30 pm NBC).  Swansea has more than $50 million to spend after selling Sigurdsson but probably won't have had the chance to do anything with it in time for Saturday's match so they could be up against it.  Liverpool and Crystal Palace will be wanting to put opening day behind them.

Holding off as long as I can but I'll probably plunk the $50 down next week to get the NBC Gold EPL package so I can see Newcastle-West Ham.

On the MLS side, the Union have to find the way to San Jose.  Given their record on the road (1-7-3), the prospects are bleak.  We note that the Earthquakes are 7-1-4 at home so this shapes up really well for the Union.  And they travel to Toronto the week after that so results could get mighty scarce in these parts.  But we'll hang in there.  Why? Gotta support the team.

Team Schizophrenia

Driving down to Talen Energy Stadium on Saturday night, Jeff H and I spent the entire time discussing the ongoing track and field World Championships in London.  As we got to the stadium, we finally addressed the elephant in the room - our monumentally low expectation as to how the Union would fare against FC Dallas.  The best we could come up with was they don't totally suck at home.

And then the whistle blew.  There was this team in blue working the ball out of the back, making nice spin moves to elude would-be tacklers, putting through balls to attackers and generally dominating play.  Who are these guys? Certainly not the same gang I watched lose 0-3 to New England last week.

The Union play was superb and this series of passes for the opening goal in the 17th minute seemed like the only logical outcome of the their work; Ilsinho's back heel return to Medunjanin alone could have been the YouTubeable Moment of the week.  Of course this was followed by some shaky defending but they held out long enough for Ilsinho to one-time a failed clearance for a 2-0 lead.  Which of course was followed by more shaky defending.  I will specifically absolve Jack Elliott from any of the blame for that as he seemed to be everywhere, cleaning up others miscues.  Oh, and Ilsinho made several fine defensive plays himself.  The good guys added a third goal in the 68th minute, which  meant that the FC Dallas goal in stoppage time did not lead to a chaotic, tense finish.

Their circumstances are not dramatically different than last week.  They are three points out of a playoff spot instead of six with 11 to go.  But the question is which team will show up on any given night.  Saturday's team would have every reasonable expectation of challenging for a playoff spot; the team from a week ago would be a relegation candidate if MLS had such a thing.


We Love the Video Assistant Referee

Referee here is not answering a question as to how big is his TV screen.
He's giving the soon-to-be universally recognized signal for a review.

This weekend marked the implementation of video assistant referee (VAR) in MLS and wouldn't you know we got to see its first use.  Up 3-0 the Union had appeared to concede a goal in the 79th minute. From our distant view it sure looked like McCarthy had gotten kicked in the groin and the goal never should have counted.  While McCarthy was being treated, I kept my eye on the referee who clearly was having a conversation with the booth.  Then he made the soon to be famous box gesture to indicate the play was indeed under review.  Didn't take long to overturn the goal.  You can see the incident here.

The call was completely correct.  You can see it was about three minutes between the ball going into the net and play restarting.  In this case there would have been a delay anyway for McCarthy's treatment.  Turns out the VAR was also used later in the Portland - LA match.  That replay is here.  Again, looks like it took about three minutes and use of the VAR resulted in the right call.  I'll lay even money that somebody like Paul Gardner will argue that it doesn't matter that they got the call right.  Gardner, you may recall, is the pundit who last year refused to praise an AR who, replays showed, had gotten an incredibly tight offside call correct; Gardner felt if it was that close the AR should be ignoring the offside in the interests of more scoring.  Look, if you don't like the rules then mount a campaign to change them.  Good luck with the effort to make it legal to kick the keeper in the balls as long as you score on the play.

Okay, having made fun of him I now have to acknowledge that one of his concerns about the VAR is likely on point.  I have a feeling that the VAR will in fact result in a net reduction in goals.  It can be used in four situations - goals, penalty kicks, straight red cards and mistaken identity.  While in theory everything could net out, I'm betting the bias will be more "should that goal stand?" and "was that really a foul in the box?" because there's a natural stoppage in play.  Asking the opposite questions - e.g., did we miss a foul in the box - has to wait until the next stoppage of play to be addressed.  Very awkward if much time passes at all.

But for now we think it's great...


The Wait Is Over

And the agony begins...

The EPL season gets under way this week.  Most will play on Saturday but Newcastle will open at home on Sunday against Tottenham.  Plenty of preview articles available now.  Here are links to three:

The Guardian
The Mirror
Goal

And a table summarizing the predictions (including some "super computer"):

Guardian      Mirror        Goal       Super Computer Arsenal 6 5 5 5 Bournemouth 11 11 12 14 Brighton 20 19 17 19 Burnley 18 17 19 18 Chelsea 2 3 3 3 Crystal Palace 14 9 15 10 Everton 7 7 7 7 Huddersfield 19 20 20 20 Leicester City 8 10 8 12 Liverpool 5 4 6 6 Manchester City 1 2 1 1 Manchester United 3 1 2 2 Newcastle 13 14 13 15 Southampton 9 13 10 9 Stoke City 16 15 13 16 Swansea City 17 16 18 13 Tottenham Hotspur 4 6 4 4 Watford 15 18 16 17 West Bromwich 12 12 11 11 West Ham United 10 8 9 8

Ooh, going to be some unhappy Gunners fans and Spurs supporters off of those predictions.  I'll be thrilled if Newcastle finish 13th.  No, wait, that's not true.  A club with this fan base and resources should be a perennial top ten.  Let's say I find 13th or 14th optimistic.  They have added depth - certainly an important piece to surviving in the EPL - but without some additional personnel moves (minimum is a quality striker) this looks to be another relegation battle.  I suppose 14th place and relegation battle may not be mutually exclusive.  Interesting that the predictions for 13 of the teams differ by no more than two places.  Only Crystal Palace, Leicester, Southampton and Swansea differ by four or more.

Reading The Guardian  preview for the Magpies was exceptionally depressing.  Most of the other previews discuss players and tactics; the Newcastle piece is about who holds sway in the board room and whether Rafa will stay.  


DVR Overload Alert

Simply too much going on this weekend with the EPL starting up and the track and field World Championships running thru Sunday.  If you see smoke, it's just my DVR.  Oh, and the old you can catch any EPL match on NBC Livestream?  Been replaced with NBCSportsGold; the Premier League Pass is $49.99 for the season.

Things start at 2:45 Friday with Arsenal hosting Leicester on NBCSN.  Saturday offers four matches on TV - Watford-Liverpool (7:30 NBCSN), Chelsea-Burnley (10:00 NBCSN), Everton-Stoke (10:00 CNBC) and Brighton-Man City for the featured NBC match at 12:30.  Add two more Sunday on NBCSN, with Newcastle hosting Spurs at 8:30 and Man United-West Ham at 11.

Spurs will likely remember the ridiculous season finale at St. James' two seasons ago - a useless win for the Magpies that allowed Arsenal to slip past Tottenham for second in the table.  Payback's a bitch I hear.

I'll be at Talen Energy Stadium Saturday night to see which Union side shows up to play Montreal.  With Columbus playing Chicago and Orlando traveling to NJ to face the Red Bulls, by 10 pm Saturday night the Union could be sitting in the sixth and final playoff spot.  Or they could have slipped back to 10th in the table.  That's the way it goes with this split personality team.

What To Do?

If Yogi Berra was a soccer guy, he might have said:

You can't gain ground on the teams above you in the table if you keep losing to teams below you because pretty soon there won't be teams below you in the table you can beat to gain ground on the ones above you.

Exactly.  You can't look it up but I think he's right.

Another wretched road performance from the Union as they fell to New England 0-3.  The 3 part is slightly misleading as there were some late goals but the 0 part is dead on.   They were better in the second half and I had hopes that when Picault and Ilsinho came on at 60 minutes that the Union would take advantage of the Revolution side that does allow a good number of goals.  Never happened.  So 9th in the table (New England slides past them) and six points short of a playoff berth. With 12 games to play you should be saying this ain't over but without any consistency, you don't see them making a run.

So what's up with this team?  I looked at two measures of player performance - the Audi Player Index (API) and the ratings at whoscored.com.  I'm a little skeptical of the Audi stuff based on a few things I've read plus I couldn't find the index using a per minute basis; this means more playing time can boost your ranking in comparison to an equally good player with fewer minutes.

First thing you notice is the dearth of players in the top 20 in either system.  C.J. Sapong's quality year is borne out by his rankings of 13th in the API and 15th at whoscored.  Blake is doing okay too at 35th and 32nd.  Medunjanin has been decent in my books, though he's dropped off a little bit lately;  he's at 47th and 54th, which is in line with my overall assessment.    One problem area I see is our designated player, Alejandro Bedoya is only at 153rd (partly of function of missed playing time I think) and 72nd (seems like a more accurate placement).  That's not awful, except in the context that he's supposed to be our standout player.  Sure wish we could see performances like he put on in the Gold Cup group play.

Onyewu (106/51) and Elliott (216/101) aren't awful either, while Gaddis (329/182) is somewhat worse than I would have guessed and Fabinho (254/98) is about where I'd expect.  The other place we are getting hurt is in the supporting cast.  Alberg (400/277), Ilsinho (331/159), Pontius (203/128) and Picault (295/137 - a little surprised those aren't better) don't rate well at all.  Simpson (430/294) just hasn't worked out so far.

You look at the Union goals scored and goals allowed and they are actually a plus two differential.  Twenty-nine goals is 9th lowest in the division but twenty-seven allowed is 4th best.  Short assessment for me - we don't have a standout or two (with apologies to CJ) and too many in the supporting cast aren't as good as we thought.  At least we don't have to worry about relegation.


Not Your Father's Gillette Stadium

For those [sorry souls?] that did tune in to see the Union-Revolution match, you might have been wondering why I had said the venue was perhaps the second worst in MLS.  I was shocked myself.  Where's the artificial turf? Where are all the football lines cluttering the playing surface?  Why does it seem larger?  Looked like a pretty good place to play.  Ah, it turns out there was some international club action scheduled the next day and those sides refuse to play on artificial turf.  So they laid down a real soccer pitch.  The players took out some serious divots but I thought it held up pretty well.

Also, did anybody else notice what Diego Fagundez does with his shorts?  Somehow he tucks the ends up so that they are shorter.  Couldn't find a picture from the match but in this promo shot you can see what I'm talking about.  I guess he feels the length gets in the way.






Pro and Con Pro/Rel

Speaking of relegation Soccer America just ran a recent piece on the advantages and disadvantages of American soccer moving to system of promotion and relegation.  You can read the article here.  The pro arguments are fan interest, incentive for player development and the threat that once expansion ends, the lower leagues will die off.  The cons are the investors and owners didn't put money into MLS with the expectation that they would be at risk for relegation and that getting relegated sucks.  As long as the league is expanding, it's probably going to be tough to implement pro/rel but I do think we'll need to get there eventually if we want to have professional soccer at something better than League Two quality.


MLS All-Stars 1 Real Madrid 1

Another contest unlikely to win over American fans.  More entertaining and wide open in the second half but I was hoping for more goals. The score is mildly misleading in that RMA had more possession and more shots and the MLS goal came late.   I always debate which side has the advantage in this format.  MLS players are in mid-season form but Real Madrid (or whichever international club team the all-stars take on) is a squad that plays together regularly.  Real Madrid held out Ronaldo (probably couldn't back from his court date on tax evasion) and Modric but played many other first teamers.  I still think this is a better format than MLS East vs MLS West.


A Word on Chester

One more friendly to go.  Still fine tuning the roster.  We did add Martin Skrtel of Liverpool fame for some depth at center back.  We are experimenting with five at the back.  The game's analytics and my coaches are telling me a 5-3-2 is our strongest formation but not completely sold on it yet.


Nothing New Tyneside

Except a pile of rumors.  Apparently the talks for McCarthy are still on but he just doesn't seem worth 25 million.  Many rumors about striker Lucas Perez being available for 14 million but for some reason this seems to be a tough one to close.  Part of it is Perez may want to go to Deportivo.  Also, I sometimes forget that the transfer fee isn't necessarily the sticking point - it could be the salary.  So you can't say if Newcastle are willing to sign McCarthy at 25 mil, why not Perez who's fee is so much less.  That happens to me all the time in Football Manager.  I get excited when I see Santi Cazorla is available for a $10 million transfer fee (which I can afford), then quickly realize the board will never approve his $105k per week salary.


The Weekend

Will be at Talen Energy to see the Union take on FC Dallas. They are second in the West, have a stingy defense and a pretty good goal differential.  Yeah, this should go well.