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.