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.