Just about time for another season of Premier League Football. First match is Friday afternoon 8/10 at 3 pm when Manchester United host Leicester.
Summer Transfer Window
Seems like a relatively quiet summer so far. How do I know this? Because Newcastle haven't done all that much but still look more active than most clubs. First they added (avoided subtraction?) by keeping Dubravka and Kenedy. They added Ki for the midfield. Most recently they signed defender Fabian Schar but this is really just replacement for the departed Chancel Mbemba. Analysts are saying this is probably an upgrade and Newcastle got real value for the money with this signing. And now they are simply waiting for a work permit to complete the signing of Yoshinori Muto. He's a center forward with a decent goal scoring history in the Bundesliga. However, it's not clear he's the real scoring threat Benitez is still craving. Now that they've completed the sale of Mitrovic to Fulham for 20+ million pounds, maybe Benitez has the funds to get a striker he really wants.
Liverpool look like the real winners in this transfer window, which now closes the day before the season starts as opposed to September 1. They spent a lot on a new keeper - Alisson from Roma - but given how costly their weakness at that position was for them last year, it's probably money well-spent. They've also added Shaqiri and Fabinho to bolster both offense and defense, plus Keita in the midfield.
Of course there's still plenty of time for some blockbuster transactions to occur (Maguire to Man United?) so stay tuned.
Early Predictions
As I sift through some of the preview and prediction articles, I'd say the EPL is plagued by a surfeit of mediocrity. Last year the mid-table arguably consisted of Burnley and Everton. This year looks even worse. It's like there are six teams at the top and an indistinguishable blob of sides after that. Here are some links with predictions for the coming season:
The 18 - Don't know anything about this but they are interesting
Guardian - This is a series in progress that will be completed in the next week or so
We Love VAR: Part Infinity
In its short history, VAR has been a great friend to the Union and last Wednesday's match with Houston added two more examples. Down 0-1 Bedoya may or may not have been offside when he took a pass from Dockal and leveled the match. These days, if it's close, the ARs are keeping the flag down, knowing that if the play results in a goal the VAR will make things right. But, if it was tight to begin with, the VAR probably won't overrule the call on the field because it won't be a clear and obvious error. So the goal stands. Then, in the 59th minute, the VAR signals the center referee (Dickerson) about a possible red card foul; after consulting the monitor, Dickerson judges that Martinez had stomped on Trusty and sent him off. People keep yapping about intent, as in Martinez did not seem to go in with intent, but that's not the criteria. Dickerson decided it was excessive force. I was skeptical at the time; that the independent panel rescinded the card supports that view. But there it was. The Union score two goals while a man up and come away with another three road points.
This was a much happier outcome than the 1-3 loss at home to LAFC the previous Saturday, which Graham and I enjoyed in the pouring rain. Geez, Ibrahimovic is huge. Seems like a real ass too.
The Union have a tough road match on Saturday against Portland so not looking for any points there. Big six-pointer at New England on 8/11; massive implications for the Union playoff chances in that one.
Neymar Apologizes (Sort Of)
In this article Neymar admits to overacting but says he does suffer a lot. He promises to improve. We assume that means he'll stop acting as opposed to being better at acting.
Keeping it short this week. Will be back next Thursday, the eve of the Premier League season start.
After seeing the quarters go about as well as I could have wanted, the semis were on the disappointing side. France bottled Belgium up in a 1-0 win and England went down in extra time to Croatia 1-2. The final? I think I was pulling for France but mostly wanted an interesting match, which it was. Certainly happy for many of the French players like Pogba, Giroud, Griezmann. Also happy to see Luka Modric get recognition as the tournament's best player. Rounding out the awards, Kane was the top scorer, Courtois got the Golden Glove as best keeper and Kylian Mbappe was cited as the best young player. All seem like reasonable choices to me. The biggest problem now is reconciling with the fact that an awesome tournament is over.
What's A Girl Gotta Do?
Wow, win the WC with a 4-2 victory in the final and get dissed by at least two of the commentators and other pundits as well. I swear we heard more about how France won despite mediocre play throughout the tournament than how good they were. Huh? Les Bleus won six and drew once. Along the way they beat squads like Argentina, Belgium and Uruguay. They won high scoring contests and defensive battles. I thought they were the most complete and the most balanced team of the tournament.
In the final, there were indeed long spells when Croatia had the run of play. Both Belgium and Croatia outpossessed France in the final two matches. But, of course, the object of the game is not to have more possession but more goals (looking at you Spain). I like thisanalysis from Rory Smith of the NYT; I think it goes a long way towards explaining why maybe France didn't seem as awesome as they really were.
Sympathy for the Red Devils (h/t Michael B - musical accompaniment courtesy Rolling Stones)
France ended Belgium's deep run into the tournament with a 1-0 win in the semis. How do you stop a team with a deadly counterattack? Let them have possession and keep your defensive shape. The NY Times called it the "Stifle Tower." Nick a goal on a set piece and take the win.
Eden Hazard leads the cheers in Brussels
So this marvelous Belgium team goes home once again without any hardware. But, this was definitely better stuff from them than we saw at the last World Cup or European Championships. They did achieve some level of satisfaction with a 2-0 win over England to nail down third place in the tournament. The 2-1 win over Brazil will likely rank as one of the better matches in World Cup history. Was it enough to be a sort of redemption? The country celebrated like it was (see right). Their only loss was a close one to the eventually winner. For some stretches, they were the most exciting team at the World Cup. On balance, I think they deserve to celebrate.
And what of England's performance - success or no? I thought Gareth Southgate's assessment was quite realistic:
“We finished in the top four, deservedly in this tournament, helped by the draw,” Southgate said. “But we're not a top four team yet. And we know that.”
No rose-colored glasses there. Progress but more to do.
Heavy Cloud No Rain (musical accompaniment courtesy Sting[Newcastle fan!])
Every day the Newcastle newspapers are filled with new transfer rumors for the Magpies and every day, well, no rain. We got Dubravka and Kenedy which is excellent in that we didn't lose two critical cogs from last year's squad. We also added midfielder Ki Sung-yueng on a free transfer. A decent player I guess. But the list of names that we a) pursued and didn't get b) are pursuing but can't nail down or c) are rumored to be pursuing is frustratingly long. Not even going to bother going through some of the names. The scary part is that we've been through this before and I'm left wondering if there really is a decent transfer budget.
Jeff H sent along this post which suggests the Magpies might benefit from many of their early opponents dealing with World Cup hangovers. As I noted to him, this is pretty thin gruel on which to be hanging your early season prospects.
Other sides have not been as quiet. Liverpool have added Fabinho and Shaqiri and maybe Brazilian keeper Allison. Man City, ever in need of more scoring punch, got Riyad Mahrez from Leicester City. Man United have Fred and are rumored to be ready to plunk down big money to get Gareth Bale back in the EPL. News today is that Petr Cech may be returning to Chelsea. And speaking of Chelsea, in case you missed it, Antonio Conte was indeed sacked and replaced by Maurizio "Love Means Never Having to Say You're" Sarri.
Accam Before the Storm?
After watching Chicago rally from a goal deficit three times - the last one coming in the 94th minute - I was already doing the negotiating in my head. A draw for the Union on the road isn't awful, blah, blah, blah. And then we get this YouTubeableMoment from David Accam. An outstanding individual play at a critical moment in the season from a player who was expected to have a big impact but until this play, hadn't really registered much of anything. Does this mark a turnaround for him? And a rallying point for the team?
Also, with Cory Burke getting a brace and generally creating havoc in the attacking end, C.J. Sapong will probably see some time on the bench. Feel a little bad for him but the Union need scoring punch. The win leaves the Union 7th, three points behind Montreal but we have two games in hand. At least my worst fear - that we would wake up after the World Cup and find the Union hopelessly out of it - has not materialized.
The Union also continued their history of deep runs in the US Open Cup with a 1-0 win over Orlando. Didn't see the match. Jeff H reports that it was generally a good night at Talen Energy except for too many shots that weren't on frame. They will play Chicago in the semis.
Best Use of Soccer Move in a Non-soccer Setting
Another reason this was such a great World Cup is the near-universal mockery of Neymar's injury antics now engender. Check out this (h/t Dennis) moment from Wimbledon. The setting was a Seniors Doubles match and Jonas Bjorkman is the player. Really, he should be ashamed at this point. Neymar not Bjorkman. Hopefully, the mocking will make it stop but I guess we'll see.
Light Viewing Ahead
Nothing like the last 5-6 weeks with the World Cup done. We have the Union on Saturday night home against the LA Galaxy. For those who need a more international fix, there is the International Champions Cup (details here), a kind of glorified pre-season tournament for European clubs that brings many of them here to the United States. Sorry folks, but that's going to have to be enough to carry you to August 10th, when Man United will host Leicester in the EPL opener. Ah, we can all probably use the break.
Pre-tournament our short list of preferred sides would have gone something like Belgium, England, Iceland and France. To see three of these countries in the semis is pretty cool. France were too much for Uruguay without Cavani while England were just plain better than Sweden. Russia-Croatia was the expected hot mess that went to PKs; I guess Putin couldn't rig the kicks this time. Brazil-Belgium was a gem; I haven't been as invested in a match since the US-Belgium classic in 2014.
YouTubeable Moments
Lukaku might not win Golden Boot but has there been a more valuable performer?
My pick for goal of the quarters is this one from Kevin de Bruyne. Sure I'm slightly biased here as
this was the difference in Belgium's 2-1 win over Brazil but you have to admit it's a beauty. Also, don't miss the complete work by Lukaku to set it up - first the hold up play, then the dribble forward, then the pass to de Bruyne. Great tournament from him so far.
Runner up is the goal by Fernandes in extra time that brought Russia back to level with Croatia. I was hoping to capture the emotion in the home crowd and this video sort of gets it but on TV the pandemonium seemed even greater.
Exclusive Club
With the departure of Brazil, we now know that this will be just the 7th final out of 21 which did not include Germany or Brazil. If we add Italy to that list, this will be just the 4th without that trio. Throw Argentina into the mix and we're looking at just the 2nd final in World Cup history missing one of those four countries. There's also a chance the final will include first timers for the first time since the second tournament in 1934 when Italy faced Czechoslovakia. On the other hand, this list of semi-finalists doesn't change the stat that only countries from Europe or South America have ever competed in the final.
Non-imperialists will clearly be backing Belgium and Croatia, as neither England nor France have a particularly savory record in that regard.
Why Bother?
As the Russia-Croatia match ground towards extra time, Dennis and I were thinking that extra time is, well, a waste of time. Nobody scores in extra time so why not save everybody 30 minutes of tepid attacks and bus parking and go right to the spot kicks? Then we remembered in 2014 that Belgium scored in extra time to beat the US and Germany did the same to Argentina in the final. And the 2010 final -same thing; Spain scored in extra time. So we have a certain perception but what do the data tell us?
First thing though is you can't count matches prior to 1978 because kicks from the spot was not an option; they played until there was a winner. Since then, I count 49 matches that were tied at the end of regulation. Of those, 20 (41%) were decided in extra time while 29 went to kicks. That's a higher percentage decided before kicks than I expected. Additional research found that both teams scored in 3 of those 29 that went to kicks. So that means there were goals in 23 (47%) of the 49 overtime contests. I'd argue that the data say the added 30 minutes is not an exercise in futility.
Most Inappropriate Use of a Soccer Move in a Non-soccer Setting
So I'm taking a break from WC, checking in on the Diamond League track meet in Lausanne Switzerland and see this at the finish of the men's 5,000. At first I'm thinking yellow card for a tactical foul but clearly the correct call is a straight red card for DOFPO (denying obvious first place opportunity). Kejelcha (the grabber) was disqualified, track's equivalent of a red card. Balew (the grabbee) finished with a season best 13:02.67 but was probably headed to a sub-13 minute 5k (for non-track enthusiasts, that's a big deal) before the incident.
Three Lions? Meh
Our own big cat Fabbio was clearly not impressed with England's performance against Sweden, keeping his back to the TV for the whole telecast. Yes, after too many posts in a short period, I am left putting up pictures of my cat. I graded England's performance somewhat better than Fabbi. They were better than last time out against Colombia and the 2-0 win does not flatter them. The second goal, connecting Trippier to Lingard to Dele was nice work. Some of the players (they know who they are) I've been less than thrilled to see out there performed pretty well.
Mark Geiger Revisited
Happy to see some push back defending Mark Geiger's performance in the England-Colombia match. First we have this from the Sporting News, suggesting that Geiger's only problem here was that he was American and therefore was viewed as unqualified. Geiger says as much here in his post match interview. And from Dr Joe Machnik (FIFA Match Commissioner) we have this longer review of refereeing at the tournament in general which includes the assessment that Geiger's work in that match was fine.
Union Lose
But you guessed that already didn't you? They weren't awful in some phases of the game but finishing continued to be a problem. Some well-crafted chances ended up going right at keeper Brad Guzan or missing the target completely. Blake gave up a PK for one of the goals (although his work was pretty good, keeping the score down) and another defensive breakdown led to the other. Atlanta are the best in the East so 0-2 is not a totally disastrous result. But the finishing has to get better. Hard to watch CJ Sapong right now; nothing worse than seeing a striker with a crisis of confidence. The Union have a big 6-pointer with Chicago on Wednesday.
Semis and Final
Tuesday has France-Belgium at 2 pm and Croatia-England is Wednesday, also at 2 pm. Third place match, if you're into that kind of thing is Saturday at 10 am while the final is Sunday at 11 am.
Well that was some mixed viewing. Three unqualified successes (France-Argentina, Uruguay-Portugal and Belgium-Japan), two pretty decent matches (Brazil-Mexico and Switzerland-Sweden) and three sketchy to downright awful contests (Spain-Russia, Croatia-Denmark and England-Colombia). Okay, the fact that there had to be a winner provided some redemption for those last three matches; at least there was the drama of who would advance. I'll assume you know all the results and will move onto the things I remember from the Round of 16.
Impossible to Pick YouTubeable Moment
I can think of at least four strong candidates.
1) Pavard's goalthat brought France back to level with Argentina in Les Bleus marvelous 4-3 win; the technique here is incredible
2) Cavani's second goal in the 62nd minute that proved to be the game winner in Uruguay's 2-1 triumph over Portugal; his first goal should probably be on the list as well
3) Akinfeev's kick save (and a beauty) that sealed Russia's shoot out win over Spain; I know from Football Manager that Akinfeev is in fact an awesome keeper, just not as well-known because he plays his professional football in Russia
4) Chadli's game winner at 94 minutes that completed Belgium's 3-2 comeback win over Japan; Lukaku never touched the ball in the sequence but this goal probably doesn't happen without his dummy run
Each moment has such quality and context that I'm throwing my arms in the air and declaring it a four-way tie.
Tiki Taka D'oh
When they are playing well, Spain are fun to watch. But when they don't want to attack, well, it's death by 1,000 passes. Seriously, Spain completed 770 passes in regular time and 1,029 passes including extra time. I realize this is a family blog but a soccer friend of mine once said that "possession without penetration is just masturbation." Other than maybe in the second period of extra time, Spain seemed content to string together passes in the midfield. Certainly the Russian plan was to park the bus but they didn't even really have to do that, except late in extra time when they were clearly playing for a shootout. The whole thing left pundits and long-time fans disappointed and new fans wondering what the hell was so great about this sport.
Just Putin It Out There
VAR reviews whether Ramos was pulled down in the box
By the extra time, I found myself rooting for the hosts in spite of myself. I mean, Putin had nothing to do with this, right? Just because Russia benefited from two close calls by Dutch referee Bjorn Kuipers doesn't mean the match was fixed, right? Dennis and I seem to be in the minority here but neither of us think that Pique should have been called for handling in the box. His back was to the ball, there was no movement of arm to ball and Pique was jumping so his arms could go anywhere to provide balance. Others think he had deliberately put his arm straight up in a desperate attempt to block the shot, pouring cold water on the conspiracy theorists. And then late in stoppage time, you could argue that Ramos was wrestled to the ground in the box on a free kick; Dennis and I agree that while there have been worse (much worse) transgressions in the box that haven't been called, this was probably a penalty. Again, others don't agree. That one even went to VAR (see the picture above) so if there is a conspiracy, it must run deep. An American in Moscow
Geiger gets an earful from Falcao (AP photo)
Or, depending on your view, The Ugly American. The Colombia-England match turned out to be a very difficult refereeing assignment for Mark Geiger. Post-match he's taking criticism from both teams, though especially from Colombia (details here). I'm not going to argue that Geiger (who is from New Jersey, as announcer Derek Rae noted about a dozen times) had an awesome game; I think he got to the point where he had to issue some yellows that maybe you could argue were justified on the grounds of persistent fouling but really didn't look that bad to me. The real problem here was a borderline disgraceful display of what Mackenzie calls male posturing from both teams. The head "nuzzle" by Barrios on Henderson was ridiculous. There was no force applied by Barrios but what the hell is he doing? Similarly, Henderson then proceeds to go all Neymar after the nuzzle, writhing on the ground in fake pain. Geiger has been faulted for showing yellow here and they may be right - it's probably red or nothing. For me it's nothing. But if anything, in this instance Geiger showed leniency towards Colombia, trying to keep the match at 11 v 11 in spite of the aggressively stupid behavior. A Colombian assistant appeared to do a mild shoulder barge on Sterling as he's leaving the pitch at half time. The English weren't blameless here. Aside from Henderson's terrible thespian performance, Lingard and Maguire could have seen yellow for diving. And so it went on. A very choppy match, generally unpleasant viewing. The whole thing left me wishing that Japan could advance in place of either of these teams.
One thing I feel Geiger definitely got right was the PK. We've heard all tournament how FIFA instructed referees that making calls for holding in the box on set pieces was a priority and we've seen close to jack squat on that front. At least Geiger had the guts to make the call when Sanchez arm tackled Kane in the box; he had to know that was going to set off a firestorm. You could fault him for allowing the Colombian protests to delay the kick for three minutes, though I believe Falcao got a yellow in the process so he did penalize the behavior.
I'll be surprised if Geiger gets another assignment in the World Cup because of the outcry. On balance though, I didn't see a big problem with his refereeing; I just saw petulant players who maybe believed they had a chance to intimidate an American referee. I was pleased to see FIFA essentially tell Maradona, who felt the result was "monumental theft," to STFU. You would think after being photographed falling asleep during a match and giving the finger with both hands during another that he would have figured out that a lower profile might be a good idea.
Whoa, I believe that turned into a bit of a rant. Sorry mates.
One of Your Own
BFS European correspondent Michael B notes that three of the four English PKs were made by Spurs players (Kane, Trippier and Dier). For Kane, that was his second successful PK of the night. On a related note, I found this clip of a young Geoffrey Chaucer introducing Harry Kane at a local match.
World Cup Vocabulary
de·noue·ment
ˌdāno͞oˈmäN/
noun
the final part of a play, movie, or narrative in which the strands of the plot are drawn together and matters are explained or resolved.
synonyms:
finale, final scene, epilogue, coda, end, ending, finish, close; More
the climax of a chain of events, usually when something is decided or made clear.
"I waited by the eighteenth green to see the denouement"
synonyms:
outcome, upshot, consequence, result, end;
informalpayoff
"the debate had an unexpected denouement"
Derek Rae continues to expand our word power, using this term as the Russia-Spain
match entered its final stages.
Quote of the Week
Bob K: Croatia advanced because they had the "ic" to succeed
or
Rob Stone: The Belgian comeback was real and it was spectacular
or
Dennis: Neymar is asking for someone to Roy Keane his ass so he better be careful
Mackenzie's Fair Play rankings
BFS Resident Historian Mackenzie has taken a look at the eight teams in the quarterfinal from the perspective of their imperialist reputation. Kind of a Fair Play ranking based on the yellow and red cards the countries have accumulated on the world stage throughout time. Here's her analysis:
Sweden / England
Sweden
Even though Sweden was a colonial power, it was mostly a failed effort, losing out to larger European powers like England.
Uruguay / France
Uruguay
Colonizing in 4 continents automatically disqualifies you. Though Uruguay is not very racially diverse, a colonial legacy is a more influential factor.
Brazil / Belgium
Brazil
This is a tough one. Belgium wasn’t a sovereign nation until 1830. The Belgian Congo was basically Belgium’s only colony. Brazil, on the other hand, was a colony, but suffered many years of political corruption. They also see race as skin tone and not heritage, and being mixed race has its own census category, Pardo. If it was just my opinion, I would say Belgium because a) Brazil wins all the time and Neymar is annoying and b)waffles [ed note: what about the mussels too?]
Russia / Croatia
Croatia
Because Russia is actively trying to take over the world.
Anybody Watching?
The less said of the Union loss to LAFC (1-4) the better. They were missing Medunjanin (continuing suspension from Atlanta match) and Dockal (wife giving birth - Lamaze excuse?) and LAFC were unbeaten in six matches at home so the likelihood of grabbing points here was never high. A bit disappointing to see Trusty and McKenzie beaten so much in one night but I guess that was bound to happen to young central defenders. More worrisome is Sapong's complete loss of confidence anywhere near the goal. They take on Atlanta on Saturday night.
Quarters
Friday has Uruguay - France at 10 am and Brazil - Belgium at 2 pm. Saturday is Sweden - England at 10 and Russia - Croatia at 2. 538 says Croatia, France, Brazil and England are in the 60%+ range to win. Maybe, but if I were Croatia, I'd check very closely who is in the VAR booth.
