Going into the match, we clearly had low expectations, taking on one of the league's best in their home park. A lively start by the Union was capped by tasty shot from Sergio Santos in the 25th minute. Carlos Vela took care of that lead with a quality finish at 38 minutes. New import Jakob Glesnes got what would be a wild second half off to a great start. Check out this goal, easily this week's YouTubeableMoment. Based on the mowing lines on the pitch, it looks like about 38 yards to me. Apparently Glesnes is Norwegian for "Thunder Foot." A minute later that lead was gone thanks to Diego Rossi. Andre Blake was making all kinds of saves to keep the score level until Santos teamed up with Aaronson to get the Union their third lead of the night. That one lasted all of two minutes. Fun all the way to the end, the 3-3 draw was as entertaining as it was unexpected.
Someday when I have the time, I'll do research on the Five Minute Rule, which basically says that a disproportionate share of goals are scored within five minutes of an earlier goal. Certainly Saturday night offered some examples.
des·ul·to·ry
/ˈdesəlˌtôrē/
adjective
- lacking a plan, purpose, or enthusiasm.
Last weekend was full of riveting EPL contests. This weekend not so much. If you missed all of the 10 am matches, consider yourself lucky. Most of the others weren't that great either.
Almost Over the Line
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| ASM after what would be the game winner Getty Images |
Newcastle came out lively enough but the match with Southampton was definitely poised to go either way. Then Djenepo was sent off on a straight red for a serious foul on Hayden. The initial call was yellow but Graham Scott went to the monitor himself and realized it had to be red. That put the Magpies on the front foot for the rest of the match. Unfortunately it wasn't until the 79th minute that Saint-Maximin scored the game's only goal. Along the way Matt Ritchie missed Newcastle's first PK of the year. To be fair it was one of six excellent saves by keeper Alex McCarthy. Gayle started up top and had several good chances but missed. Ritchie had an ugly trifecta that included a missed PK, yellow card and early hook. Not pretty but a critical win that takes Newcastle to 13th place with 35 points. Relegation is looking unlikely at this point though we wouldn't mind another three to five points.
The rest of Saturday's catalog was just as ugly but at least the results went mostly in the right direction for me and Dennis. Liverpool were listless but ultimately beat Bournemouth 2-1. Crystal Palace scratched out a 1-0 win over Watford, as did Sheffield United against Norwich. Arsenal eked out a 1-0 win over West Ham as we saw VAR give instead of take away a goal. Ozil had been flagged for offside but the review showed he was on, just on. Surprisingly, Wolves only drew Brighton at home but even that meant dropped points for a relegation rival.
Spurs continued to flounder in a 1-1 draw against Burnley. Sure the Clarets are tough at Turf Moor but something is just not right with Tottenham and one feels it's more than just missing Kane and Son.
So we were totally wrong about Sunday's early match as Chelsea easily dispatched Everton 4-0. Probably because the Toffees were wearing salmon colored jerseys. The Manchester derby was worth watching and gave Jeff H more cause for celebration. United got the lead on a nifty set piece; that the free kick resulted from a questionable foul call by Mike Dean takes nothing away from Martial's finish. Plus anyway, United should have gotten a PK minutes later when Fred was booked for simulation though the replay pretty clearly showed he was kicked/tripped in the box. A back and forth contest with six yellow cards that stayed 1-0 until stoppage time, when McTominay curled in a long shot after a give away by keeper Ederson.
The match week concluded with a depressing 0-4 loss by Aston Villa at Leicester. I know we weren't looking for a result but the final score just underscores how far things have gone off the rails for Villa after a decent start last fall.
With their wins, Leicester (95%), Chelsea (79%) and Man United (75%) are now big favorites to get the Champions League spots behind Liverpool. Wolves are next closest at a distant 23%. At the other end of the table, Norwich (94%) have just about sealed their fate while Aston Villa (70%) face long odds. Bournemouth (52%) are the leading candidate for the third spot but West Ham (31%), Watford (25%) and Brighton (19%) are right there; Southampton and Newcastle are looking better at 4% chances.
Champions League
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| Getty Images |
Tuesday saw yet another bad day for Spurs as they looked overmatched against RB Leipzig. The 0-3 result meant an 0-4 loss on aggregate. But Michael B's bad run came to an end on Wednesday when his beloved Atletico Madrid engineered an unlikely come back against Liverpool, at Anfield no less. Recall that Atleti came in with a 1-0 lead. But they were pressed by a relentless Liverpool from the jump. A goal by Wijnaldum at 30 minutes leveled things. Despite the constant pressure, Liverpool could not find a goal in regulation so we proceeded to extra time. Firmino's goal just four minutes into extra time seemed to be the final blow to Atleti's chances. Except that an away goal by Atleti would allow them to advance even with a 2-2 aggregate. So three minutes later there was substitute Marcos Llorente slotting one passed replacement keeper Adrian. Still plenty of time for Liverpool to find a game winner. Except it was AM that scored - twice more in fact - to seal the improbable 4-2 win on aggregate. And all of sudden Liverpool look very mediocre.
So Dumb Even a Caveman Wouldn't Make That Argument
(describing the scientific basis for “the average 10-12% performance gap between elite male and elite female athletes,” which includes differences between males and females in “skeletal structure, muscle composition, heart and lung capacity including VO2 max, red blood cell count, body fat, and the absolute ability to process carbohydrates,” and noting, by way of example, that “no matter how greate the great Katie Ledecy gets…she will never beat Michael Phelps or his endurance counterparts in the pool”)
I'll acknowledge that there may be pay differences that arise because of prize money available, revenue generated, etc; though some of them aren't convincing either. For example, there appears to be no restriction preventing USSF from pooling all FIFA revenues to equalize pay. And the men's team doesn't seem to be opposed to that concept.
But all that aside, did USSF really want to advance this particular argument? Since the document was filed 1) the president of USSF resigned, 2) the USSF has publicly apologized and 3) sponsors like Coca-Cola and AllState are pissed. Brilliant.
What Happens Now?
By Friday morning just about everything is shut down. I was fretting over whether to go to the Union opener Saturday night. MLS made that decision for me by suspending the season until April 11. EPL and Champions League had appeared headed to a policy of playing the games in empty stadia but eventually they went with postponement too. Premier League play is suspended until April 4th; the schedule for Champions League fixtures "will be communicated in due course." La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga and Ligue 1 are now, or will be shut down.
Frankly, I'm less concerned about getting coronavirus than I am about finding out how shallow my life is without soccer.
| Same guy, different color tie |
I do have one plan to fill the void. FOOTBALL MANAGER! I did a second reboot last fall. After starting with FM 2019 and Chester, I realized that one of the things I like about the game is seeing some of my players in FA Cup, international and other matches. But with an older version of the game and a team in the sixth division, which is where Chester currently play, it might be years before I'd see any of those players. So I bought FM2020 and got myself hired by Forest Green. Why them? They've been featured twice in BFS for their green stadium and vegan stadium food. Plus they are League 1. So with a newer edition of the game and a higher level team, I might be seeing some of these players soon, especially some of the loaned players from the Premier League and Championship division that are actually willing to play for Forest Green. It's 1/4/20 in virtual time and we look pretty good for automatic promotion. This was a good team at its core with (had been a good bet for promotion in real life though they have faltered) but a couple of key loan deals made them even better. With the real game suspended, I should be able to catch up to real time.
As for BFS, we'll play it by ear. Maybe I'll tackle some of those research projects I've threatened to do - like the Five Minute Rule.
Stay healthy.
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