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.