Three Points Is (Are?) Three Points

Merino sends home the game winner (from EPL website)

Newcastle played like crap, well maybe except for the last 20 minutes after Merino, Diame and Mitrovic came in for Hayden, Perez and Joselu.  But Crystal Palace were worse, managing exactly no shots on goal.  The stats say Newcastle pass completion was 80% but sure didn’t seem like that to me.  This was tepid stuff, not even Championship Division quality.   But another Matt Ritchie corner, this time to Mikel Merino in the 86th minute, was enough for a 1-0 win and three points.  They surely would have lost a match like this before Benitez.  His substitutions rescued the result and they play with more confidence even if things aren’t going smoothly. So we take the three points and move on.

That said, let us not get ahead of ourselves too much.  The schedule has been generous, they are not blowing these weaker sides out of the water and in fact could be considered lucky to have the point total they do.  We got the three points Saturday but the way they played it could have been one or even zero.  Which is why a sale is so critical.  If Ashley is still the owner at the start of the new year, the net transfer spend in January will be zero, meaning Benitez will have to address the lack of quality finishing by selling players.  The stakes seem incredible right now; this is a franchise possibly poised to return as a force in the EPL but which, without a change in ownership, will be doomed to many more years of life in the relegation zone.

Sorry, no Amanda Staveley pictures this week...

Failure Cross the Mersey (Musical Accompaniment courtesy Gerry & the Pacemakers)

Not a good weekend Merseyside.   Tottenham/Harry Kane pounced early and often against the beleaguered Liverpool backline and had a 2-0 lead by 12 minutes.  Salah’s goal at 24 minutes provided some hope of a more competitive affair but Dele’s late first half tally squelched that.  Liverpool looked mostly demoralized/disinterested in the second half; the 4-1 final score does not flatter Spurs. 

Oh but things were worse for Everton.  Midweek in Europa League action, they had an ugly 1-2 home loss to Olympique Lyonnais in which a hockey game broke out, complete with a fan throwing punches at one of the French players.  In Sunday’s match with Arsenal, also at Goodison Park, the Toffees got off to a great start thanks to a laser from Wayne Rooney.  But by 53 minutes they were down 1-2 and Idrissa Gueye’s second yellow pretty much sealed things.  The final was 2-5 and the whole thing just looked bad for a franchise of Everton’s reputation.  Ronald Koeman was sacked the next day.  My distaste for that as an remedy is well-known but this side was not gelling and the team looked disorganized and undisciplined; those are issues that are certainly the manager’s responsibility.

Speaking of disinterested play, Man United came up short at Huddersfield and fully earned the 1-2 defeat.  The Terriers got two first half goals, Man United didn’t get on the board until the 78th minute and I don’t recall much of a creative or urgent performance from the Red Devils.  So they drop five behind Man City, who dominated Burnley but took some time putting the pesky Clarets away 3-0.  Chelsea – Watford was a great watch and the 4-2 final score doesn’t tell the story well.  Chelsea had a 1-0 lead but the Hornets rallied to take a 2-1 lead.  Chelsea leveled and a draw was looking a likely result until Azpilicueta  put the Blues in front at 87 minutes.  A stoppage time goal from Batshuayi makes the result seem more decisive but this was a close match. 

Not much to recommend in the "featured" Southampton – West Brom match on NBC, except that it provided this week’s YouTubeable Moment.  Watch this solo run from Boufal.  I think my favorite part is when he gets two West Brom defenders to collide into each other.

Union Finale

Okay, that wasn’t exactly Orlando’s first team but still – 6-1?  Two for Sapong so he gets the club record for goals in a season.  Brian Carroll got a nice, unsolicited tribute when he walked out on the field, then a more formal one in a pre-game ceremony.  Not sure if he was in Curtin’s plan for the day or the blowout created the opportunity but Carroll did come in for the second half.  Fun to hear the crowd yell “shoot” any time he touched the ball, even if he was in the Union half.  A good day to be there but it would have been more fun if this had been a tune up for the playoffs. 

Jeff H and I compiled a list of some things that did go right for the Union this year:

- Ashli Rice singing The Star Spangled Banner at most home matches
- Mad Beatz Philly drumline outside the stadium and on the field before home matches
- the sausage sandwiches

Okay, maybe Jack Elliott's rookie season and C.J. Sapong's scoring record should be on the list too. 

Playoffs?  Playoffs?

I hope Toronto’s Supporters Shield doesn’t get diminished by whatever they do or don’t do in the playoffs.  At 69 points, 12 points up on the closest pursuer, can we acknowledge that Toronto are far and away the best side in MLS this year?  Good on whoever wins the MLS Cup but that’s such a crap shoot compared to dominating over six months.    

First round matches featured a very mild upset by the Red Bulls over Chicago; the upset was probably more the way that New Jersey dominated play in the 4-0 win.  The other match was a blowout too, with Vancouver sending San Jose packing 5-0.  And exactly how did San Jose make the playoffs anyway?  Their goal differential was a whopping minus 21!  Looking at results, they tended to win close and lose big, getting beat by three (or more) many times.  Atlanta - Columbus was an intriguing 0-0 draw, with the Crew advancing on kicks from the spot.  Houston slipped by KC in the final knockout match.  

Designated Players

Digging a little deeper into Taylor Twellman's view that designated players (DPs) could be all the Union need to become a competitive side, I got list of all the designated players and their Audi player ratings from the MLS website.  I have to say he's onto something.

First, let's look at the numbers per team.  The Union had just one DP (Alejandro Bedoya) who actually appeared in any games; Maurice Edu is also a DP but he didn't play at all.  Two teams - DC United and Minnesota - had no DPs; they both finished with fewer points than the Union.  Three teams had two DPs - Colorado, FC Dallas and Montreal; of those three, only FC Dallas had more points than the Union.  That means 16 teams had the maximum of three DPs.  Of those, only two - Los Angeles and Montreal - finished behind Philadelphia.

Next, I looked at the Audi ratings for the DPs and how they ranked within their team.  Of the 55 DPs, Bedoya's rating was 37th.  He was the 6th highest rated player on the Union, behind Blake, McCarthy (not a joke - he was superb filling in for Blake), Sapong, Medunjanin and Onyewu.  More than half of the other DPs were either the 1st, 2nd or 3rd highest rated player on their squad.  So most teams had 1) more DPs and 2) DPs that were typically the teams stars.  This is not saying Bedoya is a bad player, just that almost every other team got way more out of the DP process than the Union.  Of course, I can find an exception; Montreal had 2 DPs who were easily the team's two best players but they finished three behind the Union.  On balance though, the argument looks pretty good.

Is the Union so cash poor that it can't afford to do what nearly every other franchise in MLS does with respect to designated players?  

Remember to Turn the Clocks Back (if you live in England)

We're heading into that two week period when we're only four hours behind so don't forget to take that into account in your viewing habits.

Newcastle head to Turf Moor for a tough match against Burnley.  Curiously, the Clarets have actually been better on the road than at home this year but I still think this is going to be a difficult fixture for Newcastle.  They are close in the table (Newcastle ahead by just a point) and their scoring stats are very similar.  Reminds me of an NFC East matchup - intense, competitive, not necessarily pretty to watch.  I would be happy with a draw here.  That's at 4 pm on Monday on NBCSN.

The weekend has a great match to start - Spurs going to Old Trafford at 7:30 Saturday on NBCSN.  Man United are a bit off right now.  Tottenham appeared to be on fire but curiously surrendered a 2-0 lead to (gulp) West Ham in a mid-week League Cup match.  Michael B reminds me this was the fixture that put him into a funk last year on the Sunday we were in Newcastle watching the match at the Akenside Bar.  He has reason to hope for better this time.

For me the most interesting 10 am match is the London derby featuring Crystal Palace - West Ham.  Slaven Bilic did not get the dreaded vote of confidence after last week's blowout loss to Brighton (and Hove Albion) but his tenure is hanging by thread.  It's possible that the League Cup win over Spurs buys him more time but a loss to Palace might be the end for him.  That's on Universo if you get that station.  West Brom looks like more fodder for Man City unless complacency wins out; that's on NBCSN.  The EPL website lists two matches on CNBC at 10 - Liverpool v Huddersfield and Watford - Stoke; hoping it's the former as that seems the more interesting of the two.  Saturday concludes with Chelsea traveling to Bournemouth for 12:30 featured match on NBC.  

Sunday's contests at the later 9:30 and 12 times are Brighton - Southampton and Leicester - Everton.  Caretaker manager David Unsworth, in his second spell in that role for Everton, already has a loss under his belt (League Cup defeat to Chelsea) while Claude Puel will be managing his first game for Leicester.  

Plenty of MLS playoff matches if you're into that kind of thing.  The first leg of the four conference semi-final series will be spread out between Sunday, Monday and Tuesday on ESPN or FS1.  Check your local listings as they say.  I'll be focusing on the Toronto - Red Bulls match up.  Could be a classic case of hot team that maybe underachieved causing fits for the Supporters Shield winner.

All I Want For Christmas

Decent news on the pitch for Newcastle but possibly even better stuff happening off the field as the likelihood of a sale before the end of the year increases.  Some interesting EPL results as well.


Good Draw

I'm going with the glass 3/4 full view for the Magpies 2-2 draw with Southampton.  Yeah, maybe it could have been a 2-1 win if not for Florian LeJeune's brain cramp of a foul in the box.  But overall they played well and Newcastle's history at the Little Stadium of Horrors (St. Mary's Stadium) says it was a good point to get.  The Saints were pressing hard so there's no guarantee Newcastle don't surrender the tying goal late even without LeJeune's mistake anyway.  Nice to see 1) great work rate from Perez and 2) a goal for him.  I'd say overall it was pretty good viewing for the neutral - a tight, competitive match and the non-PK goals were top quality.  In fact, we going with a Newcastle goal - Isaac Hayden's blast from the top of the box - for this week's YouTubeableMoment.


Not Rumors Anymore

Next Newcastle owner?

Reports have Amanda Staveley (right) making a £300 million bid (plus a commitment to spend £150 million in the next two transfer windows).  Today's reports say she has signed a non-disclosure agreement which would allow due diligence to proceed.  There is reported interest from Russian, Chinese and Turkish parties as well.  Ashley has indicated he wants out by the end of the year.  This would be a good thing since he has indicated there will be no money for the January transfer window under his ownership.  Whether a deal can actually be completed this quickly is not clear.  One can only hope.



Don't Look Now But...

Watford, after a 2-1 win over Arsenal, are now fourth in the table, ahead of bigger names like Chelsea, Liverpool, and Arsenal.  Another great game for the neutral with the Hornets scoring the winner in stoppage time - off the foot of one of Dennis' all-time favorites, Tom Cleverley (jk).  But the bigger upset of the weekend was clearly Crystal Palace taking the measure of Chelsea.  The Eagles are no longer goalless, pointless or winless after the 2-1 result at Selhurst Park.  Their first tally was actually on own goal and Chelsea responded fairly quickly with one of their own.  Wilfired Zaha, returning from injury, got the game winner late in the first half.  Gotta love the Crystal Palace faithful, who were in full throat for the entire match.

Looking around at other draws last weekend, sometimes it's hard to say who is happier.  Jurgen Klopp must be thrilled that his Liverpool side kept Man United off the scoreboard but slightly disappointed that all he got was a 0-0 draw.  Can't think that Mourinho saw much to be pleased with for his side.  Leicester grabbed a late draw from West Brom via an 80th minute goal from Mahrez.  We're going to put this in the category of a bad draw since the Foxes manager, Craig Shakespeare, was sacked after the match.  Everton must consider themselves lucky to sneak away from the coast with a point after needing a PK in stoppage time to rescue a 1-1 draw with Brighton.  And Hove Albion.  That result won't do much to take the pressure off of Ronald Koeman.  And lastly, Sean Dyche can't be too pleased with Burnley's 1-1 draw at home to West Ham given that his side played a man up for over 60 minutes.  Still, the result leaves The Clarets seventh in the table, ahead of all expectations at this point.

At the top end of the table, Tottenham got a workmanlike 1-0 win at home versus Bournemouth to stay third in the table.  Man City pasted Stoke 7-2, padding their already gaudy goal differential and opening a two point gap over Man United.


At Least They Didn't Have Their Flip-flops On

Full credit to the Union squad, who have nothing to play for at this point but pride or perhaps ensuring a spot on next year's team.  On the road against the Chicago Fire, they fell behind quickly but rallied to take a 2-1 lead.  Check out the soft touch from Bedoya on the Union's second goal; at Jeff H's insistence, we'll make this the YouTubeableMoment - MLS Division.  Alas, Chicago is just a better side and quality will out.  Jack Elliott surrendered a PK (actually his second mistake of the game - but really he has been one thing that went right for the Union this season) and then the Fire got the game winner in the 78th minute with Nikolic completing his hat trick.  Good effort but no result for the Union.  We note sadly that in 2015 the Union finished seven points ahead of Chicago but this year are 16 points behind the Fire.


European Playoffs

The draw for the European WC qualifying playoffs was held on Tuesday.  Here are the match-ups:

Northern Ireland - Switzerland
Croatia - Greece
Denmark - Ireland
Sweden - Italy

Each is a two game series with the winner on aggregate score advancing to the World Cup.  The games will be played in early November.


The Weekend

Well, I finally have to plunk down the $50 for NBCSN Gold as the Newcastle - Crystal Palace match is not on TV.  A hearty thank you to Chelsea for letting the Crystal Palace get their first win last week so at least the Eagles don't come to St. James' Park looking for their first goal or result.  Still, the Magpies better not be overconfident.  Anything less than three points here is a bad result.

Sunday has a good double header.  Clear underachievers Everton host an arguably underachiever Arsenal at 8:30 followed by Tottenham - Liverpool at Wembley at 11.  Both are on NBCSN.  Saturday's fare is somewhat less enticing though Chelsea - Watford has some potential (7:30 NBCSN).  Both Manchester sides are on at 10 am - City take on Burnley (CNBC) while United travel to Huddersfield (NBCSN).  Huddersfield surrendered two more in a loss to Swansea last weekend and have scored more than only Bournemouth and Crystal Palace.  The "featured" NBC match at 12:30 on Saturday is Southampton - West Brom; actually, it might be an interesting, competitive match between two mid-table teams.  For those looking for an excuse to blow off work early on Friday, West Ham is hosting Michael B's beloved Siegels Seagulls at 3 pm on NBCSN.

I'll be at Talen Energy Stadium on Sunday to see the Union conclude their season against Orlando.  Neither have much to play but here's hoping the Union put in the same effort as last week.

Oh wait, if I don't mention Tottenham's 1-1 at Real Madrid in the Champions League, Micheal B will be all over my case. 

Yankee Stay Home

Perhaps the title of last week's post should have been "Wither the USMNT."  Certainly they stepped up with a good effort in the 4-0 win at home against Panama but Tuesday's sleepy 1-2 performance against Trinidad & Tobago simply wasn't good enough.  Combined with wins by Honduras and Panama, the US will being watching next year's World Cup on TV.

Pulisic's reaction says it all (ASHLEY ALLEN / GETTY IMAGES)

Despite the 4-0 scoreline, the US performance against Panama was not flawless.  They did take advantage of Panama's defense, which was "shambolic" in the words of commentator Ian Darke.  But the US defending was nothing to write home about either; Kasey Keller labeled it "laxical," which it was, even if it is not a word.  Tuesday's effort was inexplicably awful.  Don't blame the field (hilarious though that the pump draining the last of the water that had flooded the pitch was louder than the crowd).  Don't blame the short turnaround (the team had clicked on Friday and it made sense to go with the same group of players).  Still at a loss as to how they couldn't at least get a draw.

So now everybody should expect a kind of Spanish Inquisition.  Bruce Arena was a caretaker manager for the rest of this WC cycle so he was leaving anyway.  Bucknellian Sunil Gulati is unlikely to be reelected to lead US Soccer next February.  But the changes likely have to run much deeper than that.  We have a lot of people playing soccer; don't have the figures but it has to be way more than we had in, say the 80s.  Why aren't we producing more top level players from that expanded pool?  I realize that basketball and football take away a huge chunk of talent but that can't be the only thing.  One potential reason is addressed in this article from June 2016; I might have chosen "rich" instead of "white" as the defining characteristic but the point ends up being the same.  I should probably do a more thorough analysis of this but it sure seems to me that the teams ahead of us in the Hex table have plenty of MLS players on their roster.  In other words, we're not getting beat by sides that depend on professionals from the European league. 

As things were unraveling on Tuesday night I started to wonder if it would be better if the US didn't even get into the play-in series with Australia.  Kind of like Newcastle getting relegated in 2016.  This is a sign that you can't keep doing things the way you have been for the last 15+ years.  We came a long way between 1986 and 2002 but things seem to have stagnated since then.  Of course this is really painful lessen but maybe it is necessary.


Shaqiri and Madonna Share the Stage

A boatload of critical matches for the final rounds of group play in Europe.  The Portugal-Switzerland match featured Shaqiri on the pitch for the Swiss and Madonna in the stands rooting for the Portuguese. (Her son is now enrolled at the prestigious Benfica soccer academy.)  A win or draw for the Swiss would have given them the automatic berth but they looked pretty listless in a 0-2 loss that means Portugal is in.

How about that Iceland side?  Friday, they got a big win in Turkey at the same time Croatia stumbled through a draw with Finland.  All the Vikings had to do was handle Kosovo at home on Monday - which they did 2-0 - and they punched their ticket to Russia.  Croatia will be left to survive a playoff series.

WDDDDDWWWL is not Welsh for "we are not going to the World Cup this year" but rather their sequence of results in European WC qualifying.  They had a great run, losing just once in 10 matches but that tense 0-1 loss to Ireland in the final contest sends the Irish, not Wales, to a playoff spot.  Scotland's draw with Slovenia meant that Slovakia will be heading to the playoffs.  Northern Ireland closed with two losses but will still be in the playoffs.  So the tally for the Four Countries in That Country is one in for sure (England), one still alive (Northern Ireland) and two out (Scotland and Wales).

Netherlands didn't make it either.  A third place finish in Group A means they'll be home for the WC.  Italy lost just once in group play but had the misfortune to be in the same group as Spain so they have to make it through a playoff series as well.  The draw for that playoff series is Tuesday with the matches to be played in November.


No Picnic in South America

Very tough to make it out of CONMEBOL qualifying.   Only Brazil had a spot going into the final two matches and there had been a lot of shuffling of places throughout the process. When the music stopped and the chairs were filled, Chile was the one left standing without a ticket.  Another pretty good squad, Ecuador, is also staying home.   Uruguay and Argentina finished well to take 2nd and 3rd behind Brazil.  Colombia kind of limped home with a loss and a draw but still finished 4th.  Peru managed two draws in the final match days and grabbed the playoff spot. 

And another thing...look at the heavyweights that can't make it out of the European and South American confederations WC qualifying, then look at CONCACAF.  Makes you realize how far behind the US really is.    If you can't win the Ivy League title, you ain't ready for the Bowl Series Division.  Jeff H has suggested a losers' friendly series, an NIT of the World Cup if you will.  Certainly we could have the US, Netherlands, Chile and Ghana.  The European playoff losers could help fill out the brackets. 

Joy in Mudville

Somewhere the sun was shining and you can find any number of great videos of fans reacting to their country qualifying for the WC.  My favorite so far is this guy getting down on his knees as Mo Salah's PK in stoppage time sent Egypt to the WC for the first time since 1990.  Hey, who among us hasn't watched a match in pajamas?  Here's the actual play; pretty good call by the commentator, who might actually be crying.


Did I Miss Anything in Newcastle?

Um, apparently I did.  First there was a training ground dust-up in which Jamaal Lascelles was trading punches with Mo Diame and Jon Jo Shelvey tried to play peacemaker (I am not making this up) only to get a broken finger for his efforts.  Despite media efforts to make a big deal of it, not sure there's a big problem here.  More importantly, the rumors and speculation of an impending sale of Newcastle are rampant. Details can be had here.  Apparently as many as four groups are interested.  Why yes, now that you mention it, Amanda Staveley is quite attractive; I hadn't noticed.  Unfortunately that's not a characteristic I'd be looking for in an owner.  My concern is a willingness to do what it takes to make Newcastle the club it should be.  The Magpies could be a real bargain at about $400 million.  I heard Liverpool would sell for about a billion. 


Chester-on-Delaware

Better known as the Union, they didn't play over the international break but managed to be eliminated from playoff contention anyway as the Red Bulls beat Vancouver over the weekend to wrap up the last spot.  If MLS was more like Europe without the conference setup, the Union would sit 17th in the table of 22 teams.  If three were relegated each year, they would be safe but not by much.  In EPL terms, this is a lower table side and you'd be hard pressed to find many positives about this season. We'll save a post mortem on them for a few weeks. 


Chester (FM version)

My apparently undisciplined managerial style (to some anyway) resulted in a 2-0 win at St. James' Park in which we limited the Magpies to one shot on goal.  That we only got two goals is a tribute to the Newcastle keeper and maybe all we could expect against a side that played four in the back plus a sweeper to try to slow us down.  We also got a 5-1 win vs St. Pat's Athletic in Champions League group play using mostly second team players. 


Weekend

Feels like forever since the EPL played.  If you're motivated or don't have a life, you can catch seven of the 10 matches this weekend without even having to resort to streaming.  Not saying they're all classics though.

Newcastle have a tough fixture as they head to the coast to take on Southampton Sunday at 11 (NBCSN).  The Saints haven't been setting the league on fire and have just five goals in seven matches; they've been held scoreless in four.  But they don't give up a lot either.  The EPL website notes that Newcastle have failed to keep a clean sheet at St Mary's Stadium in 26 visits dating back to 1969 and that Rafa is 0-0-3 in previous trips here.  Yeah, I'd be happy with a draw.

Saturday's 7:30 match (NBCSN) has second place Man United taking on Liverpool at Enfield.  This a big test for Liverpool's defense; was Klopp able to address some of their issues over the break?  You have a choice at 10 am - Crystal Palace vs Chelsea at Selhurst Park (NBCSN) or Spurs-Bournemouth at Wembley (CNBC).  Palace's woes have been well-chronicled and it's hard to see how playing Chelsea is a good thing for them.  Spurs have the quality to handle the Cherries, though maybe they will have to imagine they're playing somewhere other than Wembley.  Saturday's viewing concludes with Arsenal traveling to Watford for the 12:30 NBC match; though the Hornets are a surprising 8th in the table and have just one loss, only West Ham and Crystal Palace have surrendered more goals.

Everton take their troubles to the coast to face the Brighton.  And Hove Albion.  On paper the Toffees are favored but that hasn't helped them much this season.  That's at 8:30 Sunday on NBCSN.  You can also catch the Leicester-West Brom match at 3 pm on Monday on NBCSN.

Michael B would probably get on my case if I didn't mention Atletico Madrid is hosting Barcelona on Saturday.  Probably a good match if you're into that league...

Whither the USMNT

CONCACAF qualifiers for the World Cup end this week with matches on Friday and Saturday.  The US will take on Panama in Orlando on Friday at 7 pm on ESPN2 and then travel to Trinidad & Tobago Tuesday for an 8 pm match on beIN Sports.  ESPN has a simple synopsis of the situation here.  The short analysis is that two wins for the USMNT gets them no worse than third place and an automatic ticket to Russia.  A draw with Panama on Friday opens up all kinds of unpleasant scenarios ranging from needing to play a team from Asia to being out of the World Cup altogether.  The odds still look pretty good but this cycle has been way harder than recent years.  Happy to see that DeAndre Yedlin will be back on the right side either as a fullback or wingback; this has been a problem spot and they were much better in the matches in which Yedlin occupied this position.

The South America qualifying situation is pretty tight with only Brazil having assured a spot at the table.  Several of the matches will be on beIN Sports on Thursday at 4, 6 and 7:30.  Curiously, and unfortunately, the most interesting match - Argentina vs Peru - is only available on beIN Sports en espanol.  Good matches on Tuesday too, including Peru vs Colombia; all of those matches start at 7:30 but I don't know the TV coverage (beIN has the US match at 8).  This analysis from goal.com walks you through the various scenarios.

And there'll be several matches for the European qualifiers too.  Your best bet there is online ESPN3 but you can catch a few on Fox Sports.  Sunday has Slovenia-Scotland (FS2) and on Monday there's Wales-Northern Ireland at 2:45, also on FS2.


A Good Result

Newcastle's Joselu scores the equalizer against Liverpool 

Maybe Newcastle were a little lucky to walk away with 1-1 draw against Liverpool.  The fivethirtyeight metrics suggest Liverpool did not do well with the opportunities they created while Newcastle didn't create that many.  Definitely agree on the latter but I thought the Magpies defended pretty well, absent maybe Ciaran Clark's miskick.  Liverpool did have 17 shots but just two were on target.  Yedlin certainly made a game saving tackle coming from nowhere to squelch what looked like a golden opportunity for the Reds.  Somebody else (Lascelles?) cleared one off the line.  Wijnaldum hit the post.  As I think about it, Newcastle probably were lucky to come away with the point.  And getting just one goal and limited chances against the suspect Liverpool defense doesn't speak well of our attacking game.  But we already knew that was an issue.  Whatever, this was a game we surely would have lost in the last few years so something is going right.  Maybe we'll turn out to have a solid, lower mid-table side that doesn't have to sweat through a relegation battle.  That's a start.


Damage Report No. 1

Patrick Stewart reacts to another Spurs tally

Jean Luc Picard's team took it on the chin in a 0-4 defeat at home to Spurs.  Harry Kane got two more and Tottenham's win here was never in doubt.  They looked right at home, certainly more so than they do in their own home park.  Huddersfield surrendered more in one afternoon than they had all season.  The Man City-Chelsea was marquee match up was decent enough - at least the winner was a high quality strike from Kevin deBruyne; we'll make his goal the week's YouTubeableMoment; if you want to torment a Chelsea fan, send him this video with the goal from like 15 different angles.

Who's got it worse - Crystal Palace or Everton?  So Crystal Palace already had five defeats and then looked at their upcoming fixtures to see Man City, Man United and Chelsea as their next three matches.  That's some cruel scheduling.  Man United did not save their fire power for late this time and were up 1-0 by the 3rd minute.  It was 3-0 by early in the second half and the only thing left to watch for was whether the Eagles might get their first goal of the season.  Didn't happen so the ledger reads seven losses, seventeen goals allowed and none scored.

But consider Everton, which spent a gazillion dollars this last transfer window, languishing at 16th in the table with just four goals scored in seven matches.  The recent 0-1 defeat to Burnley at home means the Toffees have four losses in five matches.  To be fair, there was Chelsea, Tottenham and Man United in that sequence but Burnley?  Apparently Lukaku was less expendable than they thought.  Is it an issue of bringing in quality players without regard to how they fit in as a team?  Crystal Palace you felt might struggle but this was not expected and is probably all the more frustrating to the Everton ownership and fans.


Not Dead Yet

The Union came up with a very solid performance against Seattle.  The 2-0 win combined with the Red Bulls loss to Toronto means they are not mathematically eliminated from the playoffs.  The Bulls do play over the international break so a win at home over Vancouver would mean it's over before the Union get to play again.  But for now, we're in the same boat as Lloyd Christmas.


Seriously?

Our favorite Football Manager side - Chester - has won all eight EPL contests, won its initial league cup match and sits atop its group in the Champions League play.  Everybody is getting decent playing time and injuries are minimal.  Everything is peachy, right?  So my top player, Bernardo, who has been the playmaker we hoped for, says he is having trouble settling in at Chester.  Next, some of the players think our top scorer, Perez, is full of himself; others are getting down on those that are dissing Perez.  And now a key defender has gone to the press to say the club lacks discipline.   I'm not even sure what his beef is.  We don't have an issue with excessive fouling or accumulation of cards.  People aren't skipping practice; the last time that happened I immediately fined the player.  Geez.


What Would You Do?

Not a metaphorical depiction of Crystal Palace's season.
This is the taxi in which Aguero was a passenger.

Among the multitude of injuries plaguing Man City is the loss of Aguero for up to four weeks due to broken ribs sustained in a car crash.  Aguero was not the driver; he was in a taxi on the way to the airport.  So it's not his fault right?  Except here's a few more details.  He was in Amsterdam on Thursday night to attend a concert, with the critical match versus Chelsea on Saturday morning.  There's been much discussion about whether this is cool or not.  His manager Pep Guardiola, at least publicly, says he's fine with it, just bad luck.  I was surprised how strongly I reacted the other way.  What the f#^& is he doing flying to concert with a big match like coming up in less than 48 hours?  I'm not saying he should have been home in bed - I'd be fine if he went out to the local pub for a beer.  But international travel?  Man, talk about managerial discipline...


I close with this message from USMNT coach Bruce Arena.  Thank goodness the match isn't in Harrison NJ.