You Can't Handle the Ball

Last week's theme was sending off.  This week was all about handling.  Three critical calls that I saw in the EPL and it came up in the Union match as well.  Also, a week in which failing to stay with a match all the way to the final whistle meant you missed a lot.

Let's start with a quick look at the handling rule.  The relevant section of The Laws of the Game can be found here.  We'll focus on these key lines that say it's handling when a player:

touches the ball with their hand/arm when:

• the hand/arm has made their body unnaturally bigger

• the hand/arm is above/beyond their shoulder level (unless the player deliberately plays the ball which then touches their hand/arm)

The first is a judgment call, the second basically leaves the referee with no choice.  As an aside, I'm trying to figure out if this video is the IAFB trying to figure out what a natural position of the arms really looks like or a defender complaining about the impossibility of complying with the rules.  Also, before tackling the separate incidents, we remind you of an important BFS maxim - the referee's decision did not cost you the game.  You had 90+ minutes to affect the outcome of the match.

Pretty clearly handball from Maupay

Looking at the incidents in reverse order of my assessment of "harshness," I'll start with Brighton - Man United.  The Siegals Seagulls had arguably been the better side all day but had only managed to level things at 2-2 with a goal in the 94th minute.  Chris Kavanaugh had blown the whistle for full-time after Maguire's header came up short.  Man United players immediately surrounded Kavanaugh with appeals for handball.   Have to say, this was not that difficult a call.  Maupay's arm was above his shoulder but he also moved the arm towards the ball. Fernandes converted the spot kick for the 3-2 win and Man United crept home with the win.

We next turn to Spurs-Newcastle.  A typical contest between these two sides.  The Magpies park the bus (5-4-1 formation), Spurs have target practice.  That we even have reason to discuss the handling incident in this match comes down to incredible work by replacement keeper Karl Darlow.  We make this highlight reel of his saves this week's YouTubeableMoments.  So the match is winding down with Spurs up 1-0 and the ball is pinging around inside the Tottenham penalty area, striking Dier's arm.  You can see the incident here.  Clearly not hand to ball and Dier really doesn't know much about it.  But this is in the category of terrible rule as opposed to terrible call.  The Laws of the Game leave Peter Bankes with no choice.  Callum Wilson takes and makes the PK and Newcastle slink out of London with a point.  Sure it's a tough result - 538 has expected goals at 3 to .8 in favor of Spurs.  But Darlow saved a bunch and Spurs didn't convert other times.  I'd feel worse if I thought the ref messed up but don't think he did.

Speaking of the ref messing up, that brings us to Crystal Palace - Everton.  Have to say the Toffees probably were the better side here based on games stats and 538 expected goal analysis.  But the margin of victory in the 2-1 win for Everton came from another tough handball call on Joel Ward.  You can see the episode here.  It's even more interesting in that Kevin Friend had already consulted VAR for a previous possible handling incident but decided against awarding a PK.  The second time Ward was not so lucky.  This one bugs me the most because it looks like the ball strikes Ward as opposed to the other way around.  We have the argument as to whether his arms are in a natural position and was he trying to make himself bigger.  Yes, Ward's arms are not pinned to his side - but unless you are Raquel Welch, nobody doesn't swing their arms when they move. It's not natural.  Also, the Law specifically allows an exception if it comes from a ball struck by a player who is close.  Friend could have let this one go but he didn't. 

Lots of noise about the flurry of calls and whether the rule needs to be changed.  

Other Last Minute Heroics

Just as we would have predicted, Chelsea fell behind 0-3 to West Brom by the 27th minute.  Kind of like the favorite dropping the baton in a relay race; was there enough time to recover?  Barely.  Goals at 55 and 70 minutes set up a wild finish, which Tammy Abraham completed with a stoppage time equalizer.  Loved the way Chelsea (think it was Mason Mount) grabbed the ball to get it back to the center circle, as the Blues were thinking there might still be time to snatch victory.  Didn't happen but it was a great match for the neutral.

At Bramall Lane, Sheffield United and Leeds participated in a mostly uninteresting contest, somewhat surprising given the 14 goals in the first two Leeds' matches.  This one also was resolved late, with Patrick Bamford scoring in the 88th minute, allowing the visitors to take all three points.  Last year's surprise package Sheffield have no points - and no goals - through three matches.

Who Are These Guys?

Guardiola hits the bottle during
City's performance vs Leicester

Sure it was Fulham, but Aston Villa made hash of their hosts with an easy 3-0 win at Craven Cottage.  So easy in fact that Dennis said he was already comfortable at 2-0, a far cry from last year when he sometimes wouldn't relax with a four-goal cushion.  So the Villans are undefeated and unscored upon, sitting 4th in the table with a game in hand.  Unfortunately, it's with Man City but still.

Speaking of Man City, they were the other side of who are those guys.  A quick goal put them up 1-0 versus Leicester but then the Foxes put up four unanswered goals.  The final was 5-2, an incredible turnaround, taking Leicester to the top of the table on goal differential.  

Fontana of Youth

Youngster Fontana got his 4th in the rain vs Miami

This had the makings of a better test of the Union's mettle.  Miami's line up looked pretty formidable with the addition of Higuain and they already had Matuidi.  Anthony Fontana got the boys off to a great start with a goal in the 25th minute.  The second goal, much later, was a real piece of teamwork.  Watch the play from Aaronson to Monteiro to shuh-BILL-koh to Ilsinho as seen here.  Looks effortless.

But at 2-0, we got the Union's brush with tough handling calls.  The incident can be seen here.  I would slot shuh-BILL-koh's offense as worse than Dier's but not as bad as Maupay's.  Swinging the arm like that, looking like he propelled the ball, hard not to make that call.  Fortunately Higuain's attempt soared over the net.  A successful PK could have easily changed the tone of that match.  As it was, the Union added a third in stoppage time for a nifty looking 3-0 win.

I felt pretty good about the win until I checked at 538, which suggested that Miami had a higher expected goals.  Some of that is undoubtedly due to the PK.  In retrospect, Miami was able to get the ball into the Union 18 with some regularity.  They did have 59% of possession and 16 shots versus 7 for the Union.  A key stat may be that seven of those shots were blocked by Union defenders.  So maybe the final score is flattering.  Still think the U were the better side that night and deserved the win though.

Ted Lasso Takes Over at AFC Richmond

The legend is back, this time at the fictional Premier League club AFC Richmond.  And it's not a series of promos but a whole series.  Holding my breath because the promos were so good it was hard to believe they could transition the concept to a series.  We've watched the first three episodes and have to say they pulled it off.  Mostly because they took the time to write a story instead of stringing together gags, though there are enough classic Ted Lassoism's to satisfy.  Don't take my word for it, check out this review.

Back to Peacock

We were much happier with last week's balance between NBCSN and Peacock.  Alas, it swings the other way this weekend.  Also, for the first time (I think) this season, some matches have the same starting time, which means you can't watch everything live, if you're into that kind of thing.

I'm going with Man United - Tottenham as the match to watch - Sunday at 11:30 on NBCSN.  Spurs are bigger underdogs than I might have guessed but it still looks like the most interesting contest of the weekend.  In terms of tight matches, Newcastle - Burnley (3 pm Saturday on Peacock) is probably the most competitive.   Though not necessarily exciting.  Since their return to the Premier League, Newcastle are 2-2-2 against the Clarets, scoring six and allowing three.  This will likely not be a display of open football.

We'll definitely check out the NBC feature match (12:30 on Saturday) between Leeds and Man City.  By rights, City should crush the newcomers, especially given how motivated they should be after the Leicester debacle.  Just remember though how Leeds did not go down easy (3-4) to Liverpool.

Two undefeated squads in Aston Villa and Liverpool face off at 2:15 on Sunday (NBCSN).  The Reds are big favorites there.  The other unbeaten sides - Leicester and Everton - take on West Ham (Sunday at 7 am on Peacock) and Brighton (10 am Saturday on NBCSN) respectively.  

Big showdown for the Union as they take on Toronto on the road in East Hartford (crossing borders just doesn't work during a pandemic) on Saturday at 7:30.  This is a slight advantage for the Union as the match is played at essentially a neutral location instead of Toronto's home field.  Even so, 538 still has Toronto has a decent favorite.  A winner here could likely finish the weekend in first given Columbus has to play FC Dallas.  

The Union have five matches in 16 days as the MLS will cram nine more games in for each team to close out the regular season by November 8th.  There'll be a boatload of playoff games.  The top eight automatically make it from the West, the top six from the East.  In addition, seventh through tenth will have play-in games to round out the field of eight for the East.  From there, they'll proceed with single elimination matches, ending with the final on December 12th.