A Little Drama Left

The weekend and midweek results leave a few issues unresolved as we head into Sunday's season finale.  Leicester got their first FA Cup ever.  There was a pile of games that were of little consequence but we watched anyway.  And a play that never works, worked for once.

A Long Time Coming

We love to make fun of the FA Cup's fallen standing as a competition but we do follow it.  Most of the time, we're just happy when Newcastle are out of it so they can focus on the annual task of avoiding relegation.  We should be more respectful.  It was first played in 1871-1872 so it's had been around for awhile.  This year, 736 teams participated.  It's still a pretty big deal.

Leicester fans love you too, Youri

So for Leicester, a club founded in 1884, to get its first FA Cup title, you can understand why they might be a little excited.  Aside from the Premier League title in 2015-16, this is the second biggest accomplishment for the franchise.

The 1-0 game was a decent watch for the neutral.  Maybe a little dull in the first half.  The contest turned on a laser strike from Belgian Youri Tielemans.  Given the quality of the shot and its context, we'll make it this week's  YouTubeableMoment.  Of course it came with some controversy (see below) but that shouldn't distract from the moment.  Kasper Schmeichel made a great stop in the 76th minute to protect the lead.  There was a late goal for Chelsea that was denied on a close offside VAR review; sure it was tight but we've seen many much closer this year.  Details are failing me at this point but I just remember thinking the whole thing was pretty cool.

One Shade of Gray

They say history is written by the winners.  Maybe, but in soccer, it is the losers that litter social media with loads of what at best can be described as misinformation.  Within minutes of the final whistle, Chelsea fans were screaming "we wuz robbed," citing the no-call on Ayoze Perez "handling" shortly before Tielemans' blast. You can see the context of Perez's involvement in the play in the YouTubeableMoment video above.  The micro view of Perez's action can be seen here.  There are three aspects to this non-call, one of which is crystal clear, one that is a judgment but I argue is also clear and maybe one that is in a gray area.

First, I saw many claim this had to be called because it led to a goal scoring opportunity.  A few months ago that was true.  But that rule changed in March 2021 (amended law here); the accidental handling provision now applies only to the goalscorer himself.  The money line: 

Accidental handball that leads to a team-mate scoring a goal or having a goal-scoring opportunity will no longer be considered an offence.

So that means we move to whether this deliberate handling.  Looks to me like the ball strikes his leg, then his arm. His arm is not above his shoulder.  Is his arm in an unnatural position?  Try to lift your left leg like that without your right arm coming up.  A judgment call maybe but one that seems pretty easy, especially with the guidance from the rule book that says:

Except for the above offences, it is not an offence if the ball touches a player’s hand/arm directly from the player’s own head or body (including the foot)

Lastly, there was some question as to why there was no VAR on the play.  It is a gray area as to how far back the VAR should go in the build up to look for potential infractions.  However, even if VAR had intervened, I don't see how the video evidence would suggest a clear and obvious error.

Key thing to remember - unless it is the actual goalscorer, it doesn't matter what the result of the handling was, only whether it was deliberate under the laws of the game, a simple point lost on thousands of players, coaches and pundits.

Dreams of Europe

You've seen it hundreds of times.  Last second corner kick.  The goalkeeper trots up the field to be an extra man in the box.  In the words of noted soccer pundit, Rocket J. Squirrel, that trick never works.  So Sunday, Liverpool are level at 1-1 with West Brom, seeing their Champions League hopes likely dying.  The Reds win a corner in the 95th minute.  Keeper Allison dutifully trudges up the pitch to take his position in the box.  Then this, a Special YouTubeableMoment (of the year?). What a time for this finally to work.  The celebration says it all.

Followed up with a 3-0 win over Burnley on Wednesday, Liverpool now are favored to take one of the two remaining Champions League spots.  Chelsea, with a 2-1 win over Leicester on Tuesday, are odds on favorites to take the other spot.  Leicester, seemingly running out of steam, look consigned to Europa League.

West Ham's CL hopes went down in flames with a 1-1 draw at Brighton.  Spurs slim chances survived the weekend (a 2-0 win over Wolves) but not the week when they fell to 1-2 to Aston Villa.  For the 15th time this year, Michael B has informed BFS that he no longer follows the EPL.

With Leicester (FA Cup winner) and Man City (League Cup winner), guaranteed top five finishes, 6th and 7th will get you one form of Europa or another.  Still in the hunt for those spots are West Ham, Spurs, Everton and Arsenal.  Well technically Leeds too but they'll need a 15 goal win over West Brom plus other results to go their way.

Other Stuff

£20 million for Willock sounds worth it

Newcastle had a fun match with Man City on Friday but eventually fell 3-4 to the champions.  Wednesday's 1-0 win over Sheffield United was not spectacular and included Joe L. Linton, Allan Saint-Maximim and Joe Willock all being subbed out with injuries.  At least Willock got another goal, the sixth straight match in which he has scored.  Next week we'll match him up against Jesse Lingard for Loanee of the January Window. We can only hope that Newcastle can work out a deal with Arsenal to make the loan permanent.

Man United could only manage a draw with Fulham but at least they got this goal from Cavani.  Your basic 36 yard strike.  Watched other stuff but can't remember much.  More accurately, I had games on but was multi-tasking.

Runnin' On Empty (apologies to Jackson Browne)

Playing their third match in nine days, Martinez still suspended, Ilsinho still injured and a bench that averaged about 17.5 years in age, the Union looked a bit tired on Saturday night but held on for a 1-0 win over the Red Bulls.  There weren't enough protein packets in the world to get Alejandro Bedoya through this one and Curtin was forced to sub him late, something he never does.  

Burke's 9th minute tally was enough

The good news is that Cory Burke scored early to give the Union a cushion to work with.  Through most of the match, they also had little trouble moving the ball into dangerous positions. We will always be big Ray Gaddis fans but Olivier Mbaizo (BYE-zoh) is tearing it up down the right side. The bad news is that they didn't convert these chances into a second or third goal so the match hung in doubt until the final whistle.  They were also opened up frequently by what sure looked like a mediocre Red Bulls squad.   Against a stronger team this might have been 1-3 or worse.  

The hardest part was watching Curtin pace on the sidelines facing the choice of whether and which of his gassed starters he could risk replacing with a sub who probably didn't even have a drivers license.  This is not a knock on the young guys, just the reality that it's not easy to put a 17 year-old into the final minutes of a tense 1-0 match.  Two steps up and one step back on that front.  Martinez will be back from suspension and they have added attacking midfielder Daniel Gazdag, a 25-year-old considered one of the top players in Hungary's first division.  Unfortunately, Ilsinho just had an operation and looks to be out for two months.  Overall though, feeling better about the squad after the shaky start to league play.

Interchangeable Lingo - Conversation That Could Have Taken Place and Did

I made rare trip to Citizens Bank Park (free tickets!) to see the Phillies take on the Marlins.  I had trouble making the adjustment as evidenced by the text I sent to Dennis:

Steve: Phillies got a late equalizer against the Marlins in the 190th minute.

Dennis: Get that result 

Matches of Consequences

Chelsea, Liverpool and Leicester will finish third through fifth, though the final order is still up in the air.  Chelsea are away to Aston Villa (USA), Liverpool host Crystal Palace (NBC) , and Leicester host Spurs (NBCSN).  I was trying to come up with a simple way to summarize the scenarios but with Liverpool and Leicester level on points and goal differential of just four in favor of Liverpool, it gets difficult.  I'm sure Chelsea are in with a win; should they draw or lose, both Liverpool and Leicester would have to win to knock the Blues down to fifth.  In general, all Liverpool have to do is not be four goals worse than Leicester.  That is, if they both win, the Reds are in unless Leicester win by four goals more than Liverpool's margin.  Same thing with a loss, just lose by no more than three goals more than Leicester.  If both draw, Liverpool are in.

Sixth and seventh still matter for Europa.  West Ham host Southampton (Peacock), Spurs are away to Leicester, Everton get to travel to face Man City (CNBC) and Arsenal have Brighton at home (Peacock).  West Ham are in reality pretty much in; even if the Hammers lose, Spurs and Everton would both have to win and Everton would have to wipe out an  8 goal differential as well.  Spurs are in theory best positioned to be the other qualifier but who knows what team will show up on Sunday - possibly Harry Kane's last in a Tottenham kit.  Arsenal have about a 25% of finishing 7th, which would be amazing given their roller coaster ride this year.  

As usual all the final day matches start at 11 am, which makes viewing multiple matches harder.  Two at once isn't too difficult so I'll probably start with Aston Villa-Chelsea and Leicester-Spurs.  I suspect there could be some channel switching as story lines develop.  

Saturday is not a wash out.  The second legs of the Championship Division playoffs can be had on ESPN+.  Brentford, who have never been in the top division, host Bournemouth at 7:30; the bad news is that they are trailing 0-1 heading into the second leg.  The other semi is Swansea hosting Barnsley holding a 1-0 lead; that one is at 1:30.  These are usually good views, with so much at stake.

And you can wrap up the weekend with the Union versus DC United Sunday at 7 pm on PHL-17.