Are You Ready For Some Football?

Both US national teams onto the semis in their respective competitions, the Union on the road and Newcastle still on the road to hell.  So much to watch, it's a good thing work has been relatively quiet.


On To the Semis

It wasn't easy or even pretty but the USWNT took a 2-1 win over France.  Rapinoe's free kick goal was hockey like in that it made through a screen of a bunch of players.  The second goal was pretty good starting with the nice passing by Morgan and Heath that ended with a great cross from Heath to Rapinoe for the second goal.  A set piece from France meant a tense finish but they held on. 

On the one hand, there were many negatives.  France outpossessed the US 61-39, out shot the US 20-10 and US passing accuracy was an abysmal 64%.  On the other hand, despite the possession and shot disadvantage, the US still seemed in control of the match.  Only five of the shots were on goal.  The back line moved with precision, which led to six offside calls against the French.  In the end, the result matched what I thought I saw on the field, if not in the statistics.

England started fast and put away Norway 3-0.  We'll make Lucy Bronze's goal this week's YouTubeableMoment because a) it's a bullet and b) you never score from the top of the box.  The Saturday quarters were pretty good too.  Netherlands were just better than Italy and earned their 2-0 win.  The upset of the quarters came when Sweden rallied from 0-1 to get past favored Germany 2-1.  Can't remember any other come-from-behind wins in this tournament.  So we move on to two pretty interesting semi-final matches. 


Who Are Those Guys?

Panama vs Jamaica at the Linc (before the fights broke out)

A group of five of us traveled down to South Philly to catch the Gold Cup quarterfinals at the Linc.  Great weather, great seats, pretty good soccer.  The first match was a tight one between Panama and Jamaica that was decided on a hand ball call late in the match.  None of us were happy about the call, as the ball had come off the head of the defender and struck his arm, which happened to be raised above his shoulder.  Clearly no intent.  Except the new law says basically it's automatically a hand ball if the arm is raised above the shoulder.  Well that sucks.  And is stupid.  But the ref did not blow the call and VAR would have upheld his decision.

The second match was US vs the mighty island of Curacao, population 160,000 or barely more than South Philly as Philip S pointed out.  The US did have the run of play - sort of - and Pulisic's cross to McKennie for a goal at 25 minutes was well done.  Except from there you have to say the match was even.  These guys can play.  Turns out there's a reason.  We took to our phones to get more info about the Curacao players and you could argue that their pedigree might be better than the US.  Leandro Bacuna plays for Crystal Palace, defender Martina plays for Feyenoord but is on loan from Everton.  A bunch of them play for first division Dutch clubs. Another plays for a first division Belgian team and others play in the lower tiers of English football.  Jeff H wonders if this is a case of Curacao taking advantage of its Dutch roots and finding players with dual citizenship.  Not today but I'm also going to look at world ranking vs population.  These guys might be number 2 behind only Iceland.

In the other quarters on Saturday, Costa Rica took Mexico to extra time but lost on kicks from the spot.  Haiti spotted Canada two goals but came roaring back for a 3-2 win.


The House That Was Ruthlessly Built

The Union continued their nightmare run of games at Yankee Stadium.  Nothing seems to go right for them in the Big Apple.  The match started out well enough as they had 1-0 and 2-1 leads but things eventually fell apart and they went down 2-4.  The first two NYCFC goals came on PKs that might not bear up under the weight of too much scrutiny.  The first was probably okay but still not sure about the second.  But failure to mark Castellanos was their ultimate undoing.  I think the shorter field had something to do with it.

Fortunately the Union had snuck away from Foxborough with a point after a late goal from shuh-BILL-koh.  They were positively awful in the first half, looking like they were rusty after a layoff and playing on turf.  Much better in the second half and the draw was more than deserved. 

Somehow after dropping five points in two matches, the Union still sit first in the table.  DC United only managed a draw at home vs Toronto and Atlanta took the measure of Montreal.  Remember though, several teams below us have games in hand so it's somewhat of an illusion.  On the other hand, never expected any points from the NYCFC game and a point at New England wasn't terrible.  More important to see how they do with the home and home series with Orlando this week.


Waiting for the Other Shoes to Drop

No good news from Newcastle this week.  Names continued to be bandied about as Rafa's replacement with Mikel Arteta now leading the pack.  Ashley put a two-week deadline to complete the sale which means it probably won't happen.  Fears of player departures rise; probably won't be able to keep Rondon.

From Dennis we have the following chart:



Should be looking forward to the new season but hard to feel good about what's to come.


To the VAR Critics

I give you this scene from the Mexico-Costa Rica Gold Cup quarterfinal.  Joel Campbell was brought down near the box by Mexican defender Luis Rodriguez at 49:45.  The call on the field was a PK and there is no VAR in the Gold Cup so that's what played out.  Reviews indicated that the foul took place outside the box but Rodriguez coulda/shoulda been sent off for DOGSO.  Big difference.  But that's not my point.  With all the arguing and pleading and dramatics, the kick was taken at 51:45 - two minutes after the incident.  So stop whining about VAR slowing the game down.  With or without it, the restart is going to take forever anyway so why not use the time to get the call right.


Wrong Venues

So in the course of the week we saw:

- soccer played in a one-fifth full football stadium on turf with the football lines still visible (Union vs New England in Foxborough)
- baseball played in a soccer stadium which resulted in American football scores in both games (Red Sox vs Yankees at  London Stadium, home of West Ham)
- soccer played in a baseball stadium with the field length appropriate to U13 (Union vs NYCFC at Yankee Stadium)

Talen Energy Stadium is conveniently located to no one but at least it's a proper soccer venue.  Well, except for the new grass that comes up in huge chunks.  And yeah, the Linc wasn't even half full for the Gold Cup quarterfinals but at least 1) it was real grass and 2) there were no football markings on the pitch.  We won't discuss the nasty fan violence that broke out between Jamaican and Panamanian fans after the first match except to note that security was a joke.  Eagles and Giant fans in the same setting is one thing but this...


Better Living Through Science

Did you catch this?  During the France - US match sideline reporter Alex Curry had just done a quick bit about how the US players were given regular hydration tests and had individual electrolyte replacement regimens.  To which Ally Wagner replied:

The hydration test is simply look at the color of your urine.  But it sounds technical.

I smell an ESPY.


Revolution 2.0

So 243 years later to the day after the Declaration of Independence was approved by the colonies (the vote took place on 7/2, it was officially adopted on 7/4 - history lesson here), the USWNT will take on England for a berth in the World Cup Final.  That will be at 3 pm on Tuesday.  The other semi - Netherlands - Sweden is Wednesday at 3 pm.

Similar schedule for the Gold Cup.  Haiti - Mexico is at 10 pm on 7/2 and Jamaica - US is at 9 pm on 7/3.

Somehow we have to fit in Orlando vs the Union at 7:30 on Wednesday as well.  Would be nice if the various schedulers talked to each other occasionally.