Almost There

An incredible month continues.  Factoring in the Champions and Europa Leagues, April will be fixtureless for Premier League sides only on 4/4, 4/19, and 4/25.


Only Really Scary Scenarios Remain

Newcastle were hardly dominant at King Power on Friday but still came away with a 1-0 road win over Leicester.  The only moment of quality from either side was the cross from Ritchie to Perez that yielded the game's only goal. Otherwise it was a contest of missed opportunities for both sides and especially careless passing by the Magpies.  But the three points are real and critical given some of the other results.  The scenarios that end with Newcastle getting relegated are increasingly few and decreasingly plausible.  I also enjoyed getting the result on the books on Friday afternoon, leaving the rest of the weekend to enjoyably take in the other matches as a neutral.


Holding Serve

Liverpool - Chelsea lived up to its billing.  The 2-0 final score overstates how evenly matched this seemed.  Liverpool goals came in a four minute flurry.  Mane's was good, but Salah's was even better.  Though passed over for the YouTubeableMoment, we still present the video here.  The loss leaves Chelsea at the mercy of other clubs; they could win out from here but will need upsets of Spurs or Arsenal to make up ground in the chase for Champions League spots.  For Liverpool, all the win does is keep pace with Man City.  They will likely run the table but without an upset of City, it will not be enough.

Form held at the top, though sometimes shakily.  Man City were steady but not awesome in a 3-1 win over Crystal Palace. Spurs were unpressed in the win over Huddersfield but the 4-0 final flatters them.  Man United failed to score during the run of play but prevailed over West Ham by 2-1 based on two PKs from Pogba; frankly one might not have survived VAR and the other came at 1-1 when the Hammers were looking the more dominant side.  But the shakiest of them all was Arsenal 1-0 over Watford. Here's the goal - a lackadaisical clearance (one pundit said he dithered over the ball) by Foster that Aubameyang blocked back into the goal.  Shortly thereafter, Deeney got himself sent off for a "blow" to the face.  Some will call it soft but the rules are different for contact to the face.  As opposed to "excessive force" the standard for contact by the arm to the face is "not negligible."  The Arsenal player made a meal of it but it sure looked like more than negligible.  Surprisingly, this did not help Arsenal's cause.  Tuning in without context, a viewer would have been surprised to hear that Watford were playing a man down, such was their command of the play.  But the 1-0 lead stood and Arsenal held serve, as it were.

Down at the other end, the relegation special between Burnley and Cardiff was intense if not quality football.  The 2-0 win is likely enough to ensure safety for the Clarets.  Southampton also bolstered their chances to stay up with a 3-1 win over Wolves, who may be losing steam as the season winds down.  Not so happy for Brighton as they were bombed 0-5 by Bournemouth.  Things only got worse when Cardiff took their measure on Tuesday.  In short, the Seagulls have been dragged back into the relegation battle.   The remaining fixtures for both are presented below:

Cardiff		Brighton
Liverpool		Wolves (A)
Fulham (A)		Tottenham (A)
Crystal Palace		Newcastle
Man United (A)		Arsenal (A)
		Man City

Brighton have a two point lead and a game in hand but nothing looks assured.  Maybe they get some points versus Wolves and Newcastle.  Cardiff's list ain't great either but Fulham and Crystal Palace offer potential results.


Sweet April-time - O Cruel April-time (Dinah Craik)

Champions League quarterfinals wrapped up on Tuesday and Wednesday.  Barcelona were too much for Man United.  Up 1-0 with an away goal, they put the issue to rest quickly.  Check out this goal from Messi, our choice for this week's YouTubeableMoment.  I admit that on video, the goal doesn't seem has impressive as I remember at the time but the combination of winning the ball, the touch to get past the defender, the next touch to set up the shot and the accuracy of the shot are all top shelf.  For United, things just went downhill from there.  My time would have been better spent watching the Cinderella team of the competition - Ajax - beat Juventus with a gutsy 2-1 road win to win 3-2 on aggregate.  As expected, Liverpool were not seriously threatened by Porto and took that quarterfinal with a 5-1 aggregate.

The ball probably did hit Llorente's arm but that doesn't
mean it was a handball

Guardiola realizes the quadruple is gone

But what to say about the fourth of the quarterfinals, the classic at the Etihad?  Recall that Spurs took a 1-0 lead over Man City into that second leg.  Sterling took less than four minutes to erase the lead.  But Son counted a bare three minutes later with an away goal to give Tottenham a big edge.  Another from Son at 10 minutes meant City was going to need a three more goals to advance.  Took them just one minute to get the first and another 10 minutes to get the second.  The third didn't come until 59 minutes but at that point they were up 4-3 on aggregate.  Spurs did not go quietly into the night.  Llorente got a messy looking goal off a corner at 73 minutes to tie the score, meaning Spurs would advance on away goals.  That score was not without controversy.  It probably did deflect off Llorente's arm but did not look like hand to ball to me or the referee (who did go to the video to check).  [Note that under rules set to go into effect on July 1, 2019, the goal would likely be disallowed as contact with the arm, accidental or not, on the way to a goal will be enough to see it waved off.] That set up a final 20+ minutes of all out attack from City.  As you might expect, they got the game winner in stoppage time after Eriksen's ill-advised back pass.  But the celebration was short lived.  Eriksen's ball had clipped off a Man City player on its way to a "standing in an offside position" Aguero.  VAR clearly showed the touch and there was no doubt as to the correct call.  The roller coaster ride was over.  And so are City's hopes of the rare "quadruple" - EPL, FA Cup, League Cup and Champions League.  Spurs move on to face Ajax in the semis while Liverpool and Barcelona will tangle on the other side of the bracket.


To Live and Die in LA (musical accompaniment Wang Chung)

Mostly the latter for the Union in their trip to face the Galaxy.  Can't think of anything that went right and those of us staying up to 12:30 to see the match through didn't have much to cheer about.  Fabian went off with an injury at 23 minutes.  Ibrahimovic got the opener at 27 minutes.  I eventually satisfied myself that he probably didn't foul Trusty in the process but it was close.  Did Wagner foul the Swede in the box at 36 minutes?  Not so sure about that one.  We saw it plenty of times as the VAR process played out and I'm still puzzled how it stood up to review.  But Zlatan put the PK away for a 2-0 lead.  Not that Union looked in any danger of mounting a comeback but that was put to rest for good when Trusty got his second yellow at 76 minutes.  Shots were even at 11 but Union had just two on target compared to five for LA.  Just an incredibly flat performance.


Ya Done Good Mike

We do tend to beat up on Mike Dean a bit here so it's only fair we point out the positives too.  In the Burnley - Cardiff City match Claret defender Ben "F" Mee had the ball come off his arm twice in a matter of seconds.  I think it was on the advice of the AR that Dean signaled for a PK. But then he went for a consultation and waved the penalty off.  On the replays, which were not available to Dean, it looked like one was a close range shot that Mee had no chance to avoid and the other came off his head.  In short, Mr. Dean got this right and without the aid of VAR. Well done.


More April Soccer

Still 11 days left and 10 have matches.

No sleeping late this Saturday as the weekend gets off to a quick start with Man City hosting Tottenham.  Right, just three days after their epic clash in Manchester they meet again in Manchester.  Weird but there it is.  My forecasts say Spurs can afford to lose this one and still make Champions League but City can't afford to drop any points here if they want to finish ahead of Liverpool.  Will it be like a hangover?  Is the hair of the dog the best remedy?

The 10 am matches offer little except maybe to the relegation aficionados.  That would be the Wolves-Brighton match on NBCSN.  Brighton are significant under dogs here but other than their fixture against Newcastle, have precious few realistic chances to grab points; even a draw would be big and frankly Wolves have been subpar of late.

NBC's featured match at 12:30 will have my full attention as Newcastle host Southampton.  A Newcastle win combined with Cardiff draw or loss on Sunday would clinch Michael B's steak dinner.  But the Saints will be hungry too as any points here will move them closer to safety.

All three of Sunday's matches are important in one way or another.  Man United take on Everton (8:30 on NBCSN) needing all three points to keep their fading hopes of a CL spot alive.  A London derby featuring Arsenal and Crystal Palace at 11 is relegated to NBC Gold.  The Gunners are in command of their fate; this should be a safe three for them and they can't afford to let them slip away.  The 11 am TV match is Liverpool at Cardiff.  Unless Man City create an opening by losing to Spurs on Saturday, this is a must win for Liverpool.  Actually, if you want to be EPL champions, you have to beat Cardiff.  Chelsea host Burnley on Monday at 3 pm (NBCSN) to close out this match week.

How much would you pay for EPL action like that?  But wait, there's more.  Two on Tuesday and two on Wednesday.  On Tuesday, NBCSN has Tottenham-Brighton at 2:45 while NBC Gold will present Watford - Southampton.   Wednesday features Wolves - Arsenal at 2:45 (NBC Gold) and the Manchester derby from Old Trafford at 3 (NBCSN).  All four will have EPL title, Champions League, or relegation ramifications.

Somehow, we have to fit in Union-Montreal, which has been inconveniently scheduled for 1 pm on Saturday, in competition with the Newcastle match.  Good thing someone invented DVR.  Montreal are one point above the Union in the table.  This is a match that tells us what kind of season we may be facing - a high place in the table with an easy road to the playoffs or a season-long struggle.  Would be nice to break with tradition and go with the former.