Best Night Evah at Talen Energy Stadium?

An inspiring performance by the Union on Saturday took away a little of the sting of a lackluster showing by Newcastle earlier in the day.


First Place Again

To be perfectly honest, I wasn't looking forward to the match as much as the circumstances might have otherwise dictated.  Sure it was one versus two but Atlanta was hot and fundamentally a better team.  Just looking for a competitive contest.  My fears were largely borne out in the first half as Gaddis and Medunjanin were often beaten, allowing Atlanta to get some dangerous chances.  It had all the feel of an 0-2 loss.  The goal in first half stoppage time did nothing to quell that sense.  Not that the Union were bad, just Atlanta were better; seemed like everything the Union could do with some difficulty came easy for Atlanta.

That was somewhat of an audacious shot by Kacper

Fortunately, Gaddis and Medunjanin were much steadier in the second half.  Good entertaining football.  Still, without some changes, the match still seemed out of reach.  So Curtin put in Ilsinho at 57 minutes and four minutes later, Aaronson slips one past Guzan.  Next we see Santos at 77 minutes.  A draw doesn't seem so outrageous now.  That is, until Blake and Elliott have a horrible miscommunication that by all rights should have been converted to a goal by Josef Martinez.  Except he misses.  Minutes later, Wagner carries the ball past midfield, puts a good pass to Santos, who eludes the defender and sends the ball into the box to shuh-BILL-koh, who somehow puts this laser shot past Guzan for a 2-1 lead.  An easy pick for this week's YouTubeableMoment, it was likely the most electrifying moment in Union history.  The malodorous blue and yellow smoke had barely cleared the field before shuh-BILL-koh returned the favor with a pass that Santos easily deposited in the net for the insurance tally.  Pandemonium reigned!  Orlando's loss later in the evening meant that not only were the Union top of the table, they clinched a playoff berth.  On August 31st?  Definitely not your father's Union. 

Just a little cold water now.  Realistically, given the schedule and that both NYCFC (2) and Atlanta (1) have games in hand, holding onto to first or second will be a challenge. Second place would be awesome as that would offer the possibility of a second round home match versus Atlanta or NYCFC instead of a road match.  Third place probably means a first round home contest with the sixth place team (currently New England but could easily be Toronto, Montreal, DC United or even Red Bulls).


Mediocrity Reigns

Last year's returning top scorer, Schar opens his account in 2019.

Things weren't so great on the other side of the pond.  A home match with Watford certainly held out the chance of three points.  Except not when you surrender a goal in the second minute.  It was a bit unlucky but there it was.  Fortunately, the Magpies did not collapse.  But they didn't exactly excite either.  A very funky looking goal from Schar got things level just before halftime.  Watching the replay, I thought there was a real chance it would be ruled out because it sure looked like the ball game off Hayden's arm in the scramble that led up to the goal.  I would argue that Newcastle were the better side in the second half but that is a relative term.  The 1-1 draw was fair in my mind.   Did you notice that Javi Gracia got a yellow card in the second half?  One of the rule changes this year - managers can get booked.

They didn't miss Ritchie as much as I feared.  Willems may be an okay replacement.  And Atsu can do some of the things they were hoping that Saint-Maximin would provide.  I'd argue the biggest issue right now is converting Almiron's work rate into scoring chances.  No doubt the guy runs his butt off.  It's just that so far it's not generating much offense.  I'm hoping it's just adjusting to players other than Rondon and Perez. 

At four points from four matches, you can't say Newcastle are too far off what you would have expected, maybe just not collected in the way you would have predicted.  Settle in, it's going to a long season.


Too Much Sunshine

Can I just say the English football is not meant to be watched in sunshine, at least on TV?  The stands cast uneven shadows that give the cameras fits, you lose sight of players either because it's too bright or the shadows too dark.  Geez, watching the broadcast from Saint James' Park, with that baffled overhang, Watford in their traveling green were invisible much of the time.

Saturday offered a forgettable slate of matches that turned out to be head turning for a variety of reasons.  Man United fans will be forgiven for hitting the panic button after a 1-1 draw away to Southampton.  The result is particularly galling given they had a man advantage from the 73rd minute on but failed to find the game winner.  Same for Chelsea fans, who saw their side cough up a 2-0 lead - at home no less - to Sheffield United; the own goal charged to Zouma looked harsh to me but maybe I didn't see it clearly.  The upstart newcomers have five points so far, same as Man United, Chelsea and Spurs.  Ooh, one of these is not like the others.

Saturday's match noir would have to be Crystal Palace - Aston Villa.  A scoreless first half saw four Villans (Villains?) get yellow carded by Kevin Friend; he was already not Aston Villa's favorite. Trezeguet got himself a second in the 54th minutes.  Crystal Palace took the lead at 73 minutes courtesy Jordan Ayew.  But in the 96th minute, Lansbury seemingly snatched a draw for AVL.  Except Friend had blown the whistle for a Jack Grealish dive.  The goal was disallowed; the only part of the play that was reviewable was whether Grealish had been fouled in the box because Friend had blown the whistle before the goal was scored.  To complete the ugly day, Villa fans got into all kinds of skirmishes with security inside and outside the stadium.  You can see the key plays with extended highlights here; the Grealish incident is at about 8:00.  For our money, that was an incorrect call.  Grealish takes contact twice before going down and frankly it's not clear he even embellished the fall.

Sunday was better football.  As we had suggested the Everton - Wolves match was a joy to watch.  Don't remember the announcer but somebody said Wolves might be suffering from "Europa League fatigue" as they went down, not without a fight, 2-3.  Dennis relayed to me that Men in Blazers said "Europa League must be stopped.  It's the climate change of the football world."  Not sure if this is an improvement but a few years ago these same guys said qualifying for the Europa League is like getting an STD from a super model.  Anyway, we digress - it was a great match.

Then on to the main course - a North London Derby.  Up 2-0 by 40 minutes, Spurs seemed to be in charge.  A late first half goal gave Arsenal hope.  The second half was wide open and Arsenal pulled even in the 71st minute.  The Gunners definitely had the run of play from there on in and Spurs might consider themselves lucky to walk away with a point.  At one point in the second half, Spurs looked in total disarray, like they needed a time out to get reorganized.  Clearly they have some work to do. 


Random Notes

BFS Track & Field Consultant Jack W sends on this example of all-out defending.  Reminds me of this underrated defender. 

Literary critic Philip S alerted me to some excellent prose from the Guardian:

Burnley’s fibrous, streetwise approach make them the closest the modern footballer will get to playing Wimbledon at Plough Lane.

Alas, that fiber might have been stretched a bit in a 0-3 loss to Liverpool.


International Break

No club football this weekend but there are some tasty looking European Championship qualifiers.  Good luck finding them though.  You can see Ireland-Switzerland on Thursday and Germany Netherlands on Friday but from there college and NFL football takes over.  I'm guessing you'll need ESPN+ to catch the likes of Sweden Norway or Scotland Belgium.  Ah well.  Maybe we need the rest anyway.