The first shoe has dropped in Newcastle. Rafa Benitez is leaving the club. They can bicker and argue about who left whom but for me this was clearly about owner Mike Ashley being unwilling to let Benitez run the club. Now we wait for the other shoe to drop - will the club actually be sold. And the third shoe to drop is who will replace Benitez. Some of the sad details of the saga can be found in this article.
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| Ashley - in the words of NUFC blogger Ed Harrison "a bigger wretch than we thought he was" |
No, I'm not bitter at all...
Wednesday AM update: Things still suck. Sean Dyche's name has surfaced as a possible replacement for Benitez. He's managed under essentially the same conditions as Rafa - trying to stay up with limited funds. But as long as Ashley stays, that will be the limited goal so forgot about competing for Europe or Cups or anything.
No, I'm still not bitter at all.
One of These Is Not Like the Others
Actually, maybe it is. Check out the list of the WWC quarterfinal line up:
Norway v England (Thursday at 3 pm)Seven European squads and the United States. While there were a few "surprises" along the way, given the rankings and the draw, this list is not dramatically different than we might have expected. Likely quarterfinalists Canada and Australia were "replaced" by Sweden and Norway. Italy is probably the biggest surprise.
France v USA (Friday at 3 pm)
Italy v Netherlands (Saturday at 9 am)
Germany v Sweden (Saturday at 12:30 pm)
The games themselves? An odd mix. Germany cruised. Actually, England cruised too but the behavior of the Cameroon squad made it seem like a more difficult match. Details of that mess are here. The timing did make it seem like the deck was stacked against Cameroon but the calls looked right to me and the ref could have called for another penalty on one play and a straight red on another. I thought China and Japan outplayed Italy and the Netherlands respectively but don't have the results to show it. Japan were hard done by a handball in the box; the defender was pulling her arms back and the shot was struck at close range. France had to go to extra time to vanquish Brazil (24 fouls? This is not my beautiful game) while Sweden slipped by Canada 1-0.
The US - Spain contest wasn't a thing of beauty either. The Spaniards were not shy about being physical (18 fouls) and that disrupted the flow of the game. It also cost them as two of the fouls were in the box and Meg Rapinoe converted both PKs. The two calls in the box were not the hardest fouls we've seen in the tournament but they were probably fouls. The US never looked all that confident but got the 2-1 win.
VAR continues to take a beating but I'm wondering if what people are really reacting to is how the Laws are written. The sloppiest use I've seen was the first French goal against Brazil being disallowed and my problem has more to do with the explanation than the result. We've been told that the French attacker knocked the ball out of the Brazilian keepers hands. Really? I didn't see that. I did see the ball come off the French attacker's arm and under the new rules, there is no assessment of intent needed. That would have made more sense to me, though I don't really like the rule change. You can see the video here. VAR is confirming or identifying initially unseen fouls in the box that, while there was contact, don't seem all that egregious. But the rules don't allow for a different standard in the box; if it's a foul, it's a PK. Sure, you could change the offside rule to require daylight between the attacker and defender but that won't eliminate close calls; it will just change which ones are controversial.
If 538 is right (they got 5 of 8 right in previous round), the quarterfinal winners are England (69%), US (54%), Netherlands (79%) and Germany (63%). If you're wondering how the US and France have to meet in the quarterfinals, it's basically the unluck of the draw. Based on how the pots were set up for the draw, the US would have most likely had to meet one of Germany, France, Canada, England or Australia; there would have been a small chance that it would have been a Netherlands or Sweden or someone like that but the odds were high it was going to be a top six team.
Gold Cup Twist(s)
All those who had Haiti beating Costa Rica 2-1 to take the Group B, raise your hand. That's what I thought. Los Ticos punishment for that stumble is they get to face Mexico in the quarterfinals instead of the semi-finals. That looks like a good one to check out on Saturday at 10 pm. The earlier match will be Haiti and Canada. Tuesday night saw Curacao tie Jamaica with a goal in stoppage time. A cursory internet search did not provide me a nickname for the team. Whatever they are, the players then gathered in the stands to watch the second match of the night and celebrated as Honduras thrashed favored El Salvador 4-0; that result meant Curacao took second in the Group C and advanced to the quarterfinals.
Speaking of the quarterfinals, a mighty contingent of five of us from NW Philly will head down to the Linc on Sunday night to see the USMNT take on Jamaica or Curacao, depending the outcome of tonight's match with Panama. A win or draw versus Panama means they face Curacao, a loss gets them Jamaica.
Remember the Union?
When we last saw them, they were coming back from an 0-2 deficit to beat the Pink Cows. They return to action on Wednesday at 7 pm, facing New England on the road. Think of it as a club/nation doubleheader; watch the Union at 7, then the USMNT at 9. They then have a short turnaround to take on NYCFC at Yankee Stadium ( I can barely bring myself to say that). They'll have to repeat that quick turnaround again next week, playing Orlando in Florida on Wednesday, then back home on Saturday.
Andrew Wooten, a striker from a lower division in the Bundesliga, will be added to the roster once the transfer window officially opens in July. This doesn't seem like a terrible move; we do hope it works out better than the last time we took on a player from a lower tier of European football - that would be Jay Simpson.
For the "off season" there sure is a lot of football to be had. Constantly clearing my DVR to make room for new stuff. This should be the least of my problems, right?
Let us all open our hearts and tip our hats to the blogster who must endure Rafa's exit and live with the fear of Ashley not selling... Yet, even during these uncertain times, he managed to provide an excellent accompanying song... Steve is a man of the football people!
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