Best Ever?

While Newcastle were stinking up the joint in Wales, at least the Union put on a fine show in Chester.


This Is Not Your Father's Union

Union resurgence coincides with more playing time for Cory Burke

To quote Butch Cassidy -"who are those guys?"  We had seen glimpses of the new look Union - control of the midfield, possession passing, pleasing soccer.  But never to this degree or with this consistency.  Even though the first half was scoreless, it was good stuff from the Union.  Blake had an incredible save and also offered us a hairy moment when he left the goal for others to defend.  The boys came out strong in the second half; Jeff hadn't even gotten back to his seat when Accam was barely denied.  Shortly thereafter Sapong put one over the bar.  Finally, the dam broke with a Dockal pass to Burke down the left side and the Jamaican delivered a clinical finish.  Later Ilsinho confirmed that he is indeed Brazilian with a remarkable solo effort to seal the match.  We'll make that this week's  YouTubeableMoment.  I mean, the goal was so good, Jim Curtin went all the way to the goal line to congratulate Ilsinho.

But it some ways it wasn't the result and more about how they did it.  Throughout the match, combination passing allowed the Union to work the ball end-to-end with an ease I've never seen by them before.  One sequence included an audacious side volley by Medunjanin that elicited a collective "wow" from the stands.  In the first half they looked a little vulnerable to NYCFC's direct counterattacking ability (like they have all season really) but in the second half, the visitors offered little in the way of offensive threats.  In the end, possibly the most complete performance by a Union side ever and a big three points against team ahead of them in the standings.

Montreal won but only by a goal so we added one more to our goal differential advantage and New England lost so we're now four points clear.  But DC United is just six points back, with two games in hand and hot; oh, and 9 of their 12 remaining matches are at home, where they are 6-1-1 so far.  As good as things have been, there's precious little room to work with.  I was curious enough about how the run in will play out that I went through the 538 projections for each game and tabulated the final table, presented below.

ATL	69
NYRB	69
NYCFC	67
COL	53
DC	48
PHI	45
TOR	41
MON	39
NE	39
CHI	31
ORL	30

My sense that DC United is a threat looks correct.  But in the end we hang on for 6th with a few points to spare.  I'll update this as actual results come in.


Championship Football

And I mean that in the worst way.  The Cardiff City - Newcastle match looked like a fixture from the second division.  Three things apply to both teams:

1) each played poorly, very poorly
2) each were lucky to get a point
3) each were unlucky not to get three points

There was no jersey big enough for Kenedy to hide behind after
 his performance at Cardiff City (Picture from Getty)

Wah? The seeming contradiction of points 2) and 3) is because although Newcastle played the last half hour or so down a man, they also failed to convert a PK in stoppage time.  The red card came after a rash challenge by Isaac Hayden; fortunately for the Magpies, Cardiff were utterly incapable of doing anything with the advantage.  Late in stoppage (and why did referee Craig Pawson feel that the world needed an extra six minutes of this match?) Newcastle mustered an attack that led to a handball in the box; Kenedy, capping off his bad, awful day (he failed to complete a pass in the first half?!), kicked the ball right at the keeper.  No matter, for Newcastle to have walked away with three points from this performance would have been stealing.

No, a list of good things that came out of this match begins and ends with:

Kenedy did not receive a retroactive three-match ban for a questionable challenge that was called for a foul but not even a yellow by Craig Pawson.

As if to highlight the depth of the mediocrity in the EPL, Newcastle muster a pitiful 0-0 draw against Cardiff City yet move up a place, to 12th, in the table. Yeah, baby.


Other Stuff

The marquee match looked like it was going to disappoint after Chelsea jumped on Arsenal early for a  2-0 lead with the Gunners seemingly content to be skying shots over the crossbar. [Modified golf joke - Alex Iwobi: I think I'm going to drown myself.  Gunners fan: Are you sure you can keep your head down long enough?] But Arsenal did manage a first half comeback with goals in the 37th and 41st minute.  A decent match that was decided with Alonso's goal in the 81st minute. It also provided this week's U12 moment:  Arsenal goal kicks failed to clear the box three times.  I realize that Emery is insisting the Gunners play the ball out from the back as opposed to just kicking the ball downfield but it has been painful to watch these last two weeks.

Tick, tick, tick?

Man City's massive four goal first half against Huddersfield (final 6-1) allowed me to switch over to Burnley-Watford at half time. Two quick Watford tallies in the space of 3 minutes seemed to stun the Clarets and they went down 1-3; surprising to see Burnley surrender that many at home.  Man United had a rough time in Brighton, going down 2-3 (and the 2nd was a stoppage time PK!).  One wonders if the Mourinho third-year-with-a-club meltdown is gathering steam.  Crystal Palace were disappointing in an 0-2 loss to Liverpool; usually even in a loss there's something exciting but this one felt flat.  Spurs started slowly against Fulham but by the middle of the second half they looked to have found their stride and the 3-1 score is a fair reflection of the match.  Newly promoted Wolves got to play a man up again but still went down to Leicester 0-2. Wolves have played 74 minutes of this young season with a man advantage but have just one point so far.


Schedule

Another six pointer for the Union, as they take on New England at Talen Energy on Saturday.  A win and the cushion goes to seven points.  Toronto host Montreal (a draw would be just fine) while the NJ Red Bulls face DC United (happy to see the bovines take all three here).

Newcastle will take on Chelsea without Kenedy - he avoided suspension but because he's on loan from the Blues he can't play against his own club.  Despite his awful game last week, I think we will miss him.  Not hopeful of a result here.

Feature EPL match of the week is easily Man United - Tottenham on Monday (3 pm NBCSN).  The Red Devils have not impressed this season so maybe this is a break for Spurs to get them as they struggle.

We continue to have a 7:30 Saturday morning match; this one is Wolves - Man City which doesn't sound too thrilling.  For the Saturday 10 am group, I'd be inclined to go with Bournemouth (2 wins so far) at Everton (win and a draw); these look like they might be two evenly matched mid-table sides.  That's on NBCGold.  In the 10 am TV match winless Arsenal take on winless West Ham in a London derby.

The NBC match is Liverpool-Brighton.  The Seigels Seagulls are coming off the big win against Man United but Liverpool are yet to have conceded a goal.  Might try to catch Watford - Crystal Palace Sunday at 8:30. The Hornets are off to a great start, sitting 4th in the table.

A crowded non-soccer schedule and nice weather mean the DVR better be working properly this weekend.