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.