Beat the Traffic

At Subaru Park (and I would imagine many other venues), anyone seen heading for the exit before full-time is serenaded with a chant of "beat the traffic."  I guess the home version would be something like "change the channel."  If you did that this weekend, there was a good chance you missed the drama.  The following series of numbers is the minute when the key goal was scored in each of the EPL matches this weekend:

81,92,23,86,85,90,94,91,NA,70

The NA is West Brom - Burnley, a scintillating 0-0 draw (and I mean that in the worst way - I reviewed that at 4x speed and had no reason to stop at any point).  The 23 is Raheem Sterling supplying the only goal in Man City's win over Arsenal.  Leeds dominated the first half against Wolves but didn't look so good in the second and were beaten on a deflected goal in the 70th minute.  That leaves seven matches decided after the 80th minute and four of those were determined in stoppage time.

The Merseyside derby is the first one in the series and Everton getting the tying goal in the 81st minute is just one of many story lines there, not all of them good.  The score line is interesting enough.  Mane' got Liverpool a quick lead but Keane got it back.  Salah put the Reds in front again at 72 minutes before Calvert-Lewin got one to level things.  An interesting enough 2-2 draw.  The bigger stories are what's not on the scoresheet.  

Early on we had one of the stranger plays of the year.  Everton keeper Jordan Pickford executed a nasty tackle on Virgil van Dijk only to be spared by an offside call.  You can see the incident here.  The call on the field was offside but VAR was involved because if it wasn't offside, Pickford's challenge was pretty clearly a PK.  Under the new rule (shoulder extends to the bottom of the sleeve) does look to be offside so there can't be a PK.  Everything gets gray and/or goes downhill from there.  Depending on when and where you read, PGMOL said that VAR David Coote did or did not also review the play for possible sanctions against Pickford.  Depending on who you read, a red card for serious foul play can or cannot be shown if the ball was not in play at the time.  The laws say it can't be a foul when the ball is not in play, so how can there be serious foul play?  But as Dennis points out, that doesn't make sense because it sets up a kind of "open season."  Sort of but not completely as you can be sent off for violent conduct if there's no legitimate challenge for the ball.  The PGMOL didn't offer any guidance or statement when you can cite a player for serious foul play.  Seems like a very important point worthy of clarification.

Offside, I guess, but damn that's close

Story line number two Jordan Henderson's stoppage time goal that was disallowed - for offside.  In the picture (left) the red line is slightly ahead of the blue line, meaning it is offside.  Again, the new definition of shoulder came into play.  Is this false precision?  Was this the exact moment the ball was struck?  Can't really fault Michael Oliver (center ref) or Coote on this one based on how the rules are written but maybe we need some margin to recognize it's not this precise.

We've been "picking" on Pickford a bit here at BFS and don't like to pile on.  However, he was rescued from what could have been a bad awful day.  Without the tight offside call on Van Dijk, he gives up a PK (and is probably sent off) in the first half.  Without the tight offside call on Mane, he gives up an arguably soft game winning goal in stoppage time.  Not exactly building confidence. 

And this was all before 9:30 am on Saturday.

A Trend

The theme was set for the weekend. Chelsea Southampton was next.  Chelsea coughed up a 2-0 lead but appeared to have snatched the win back with a goal from newcomer Kai Havertz.  Nope, Jannik Vestergaard tied it up in the 92nd minute.  Then Newcastle had Man United at 1-1 until late at St.James' Park.  Bruno Fernandes put the visitors up in the 86th minute.  Of course, in true Newcastle style, one wasn't enough at that point and two more were surrendered to bring the final to 1-4.  That flatters Man United a bit but the win was deserved, especially since Newcastle's only tally was a lucky deflection.  The Magpies, though not necessarily awful, looked lower mid-tablish.

Sunday was just one after another like that.  Sheffield rescued a 1-1 draw with one in the 85th minute.  Brighton ran Crystal Palace ragged but were trailing 0-1 until MacAlister tied it in the 90th minute.  Tottenham scored early and often and entered the late stages of their match against West Ham with a comfortable 3-0 lead.  Then the wheels fell off.  One by Balbuena at 82 minutes followed by an own goal from Sanchez at 85 minutes.  Still, all would be okay, right?  Nope. Lanzini finished the come back with another at 94 minutes.

Which takes us to Leicester - Aston Villa.  A decent match despite no goals.  Thinking very much that a draw was a fair result and a good one for the Villans.  Hold that thought and check out this YouTubeableMoment from Ross Barkley in the 91st minute.  Yeah, the same Ross Barkley Dennis and I regularly disparage.  We will concede that in his two appearances so far, he has looked like an important piece of the puzzle.  With the 1-0 win, Villa are second in the table and apparently "a team to be taken seriously."

Dooping Along

Fontana is literally carrying the team right now
Photo: Yong Kim

I believe the expression is better to be lucky than good.  Might the Union's motto.  They were less than dominant against New England at Gillette Stadium (second only to Yankee Stadium as worst venue in MLS - at least this time the football lines were gone) and owed their 1-0 halftime lead to 1) more heroics from Andre Blake and 2) an own goal from Andrew Farrell. Second half was more of the first.  Blake made an incredible save at 65 minutes and shortly thereafter, Anthony Fontana got his 6th goal with a cheeky lob from a seemingly undangerous position.  A goal from Tajon Buchanan made the last 10 minutes scary and Blake was called upon again to preserve an unlikely 2-1 win for the Union.

The Revolution had the edge on the stats page with shots (22-7), shots on target (8-3) and possession (57-43).  Expected goals say Revolution were better too.  And the stats matched what I saw.  Blake was the key.  I guess maybe the 7 blocked shots also tell us something about the defense.  Jack Elliott, though not the typical physical specimen of a defensive midfielder, did well in his first (and only?) start there.  But this lackluster play can't continue.  They'll get a good test on Saturday night when Toronto come to town (7:30 Saturday night).  Good to hear Jose Martinez will be back from international duty and quarantine.  Sure the Union got 10 points in 4 matches while he was gone but I'm with Curtin: "We're better when he's on the field."

Virtual Reality

Everybody's tastes are different.  I'm still spending inordinate amounts on time on Football Manager.  My sons, Scott and Dennis, are on the latest Star Wars release from Steam.  In my game, Burton just hired away our chief scout so I had to do a staff search.  One of the names that came up is the husband of a lawyer who I worked with on a few projects.  I did know about him as he was with the Union for a while before taking a job with Man United.  

Dennis: So your video game is blurring the lines into reality. If only that were true for me too.  Then I could have an X-Wing.

Watch 'em All

With fans still absent, the schedulers have been minimizing the number of concurrent matches.  For Match Week 6, you can see them all live if you want.  Friday starts us off with a good one - Aston Villa hosting Leeds.  Villa are the only side still with a perfect record while Leeds have been nobody's pushover.  That's at 3 pm on Peacock.

Saturday's early match, West Ham v Man City on Peacock, isn't calling out for me to set an early alarm.  Fulham - Crystal Palace looks competitive, but more from a relegation stand-point; that's the 10 am NBCSN game.  Feature match on NBC at 12:30 looks solid with Man United hosting Chelsea. The day ends with Sheffield United possibly being sacrificed at the Anfield altar; Liverpool are heavy favorites for that 3 pm contest on Peacock.

Sunday looks like fun, and not just because Britain ends daylight savings time and all the matches are an hour later here.  Southampton and Everton are at 10 am on NBCSN followed by Wolves Newcastle at 12:30 on NBC.  This match up doesn't favor the Magpies and I wonder if we'll see them try to bottle things up again.  The day ends with a very tasty match up with Arsenal hosting Leicester (3:15 on Peacock).  Both of them are off to decent starts and this could be some interesting football.

But wait, we're not done.  Monday at 1:30 on NBCSN you can catch Brighton v West Brom and Burnley - Spurs at 4 pm on Peacock.  Okay, maybe not the most exciting matchups, though I'll be interested to see how Tottenham rebound after the West Ham debacle.

Will be hard to top last week though.