The Occasion Is Better Than the Game

Jon Champion applied that description to the Championship Division playoff but it applies as well to the Champions League final.  And to the Union match.  Just not very inspiring football.

Doing a special Memorial Day post, then taking a couple of weeks off timed to coincide with the international break.

No Triple for Liverpool

Courtois - Key to RM victory
Photo: IMAGO/Sportimage/David Klein

Though Liverpool had the run of play in the Champions League final, Real Madrid won where it counted.  Shots were 24-9, shots on target were 9-2, possession was 54-46 and expected goals were 2.45 - .6.  The scoreboard said 1-0 Real Madrid.  A good part of this is explained by another otherworldly performance by Thibaut Courtois.  I remember at least three game saving saves.  

So Liverpool, who were looking at a quad as recently as last Sunday, now have to settle for the EFL League Cup and FA Cup.  Dennis noted they did "all this work for two booby prizes."  It's certainly true that they won the two decidedly least important pieces of the quad.  Ultimately how do they view a season that includes those two cups, second in the EPL by a single point after losing just two matches all year and a Champions League final in which they ran into a hot keeper?  Probably depends on whether you're looking at it from the view last August versus last Sunday.  Hard to say it wasn't an amazing season.

See below for additional thoughts on the offside call and the events outside the stadium.

We Will Be Seeing the Forest

Steve Cooper - The most British looking British
football manager will be managing in EPL 
Photo:Mark Cosgrove/News Images

Hard to believe, but somehow the match for $100+ million in new revenues just didn't have the
intensity we would have expected.  Nottingham Forest prevailed over Huddersfield 1-0 in a match with just two shots on target (none for Huddersfield).  Certainly looked like Forest were the better side.  Huddersfield fans will feel hard done by the no-call on a potential PK late in the match that could have tied it up (more on that below).  Still, it's not like the Terriers stepped up in a big game.  You also have to admire the determination of Nottingham Forest. When Steve Cooper took over in September, Forest had one point from seven matches and sat at the bottom of the table.  There's a great article in The Athletic about the turnaround but unfortunately it's behind a paywall.  As Michael B put it, fun to have new blood in the top tier.  It's been 23 years since NF last played there.

Take the Point and Leave Quickly

Completing the weekend of less than intriguing football, the Union pretty much stole a point up in New England with a 1-1 draw against the Revolution.  They were slightly shorthanded in that Carranza was suspended (yellow card accumulation) and Uhre was not ready to start (recovering from injury).  The makeshift line up generated nothing of interest in a totally moribund first half.  Some half time adjustments perked things up a bit but still felt like they could play all night and not score.  An unfortunate handling call on Elliott (more on that below) gave New England a goal they probably didn't deserve.  That forced Jim Curtin, who had been thinking a 0-0 draw was perfectly acceptable, to put Uhre in.  Incredibly, he scored within a minute on his first touch.  Yeah, it was a terrible give away by New England but we'll still make it this week's YouTubeableMoment.  

So while the handling call was incredibly unlucky, you still have to say the Union were incredibly lucky to take a point from this game.  The stats say it well: shots were 5-22, shots on target 2-4, possession 40/60 and xG .8-2.65.  The latter number is padded a little by the PK but the difference is still huge. Take the point and get on the plane. 

Bad Days for Officials

Watched three matches this weekend and all had incidents drawing attention to officials.  And by officials, I don't just mean referees.  UEFA and stadium security at Stade de France have some 'splaining to do and so far they are doing a shitty job.  We'll take them in reverse order of egregiousness.  

Benzema Offside

Late in the first half, Benzema had a goal chalked off by the assistant referee for offside. You can see the play here.  No judgment required to determine whether Benzema is in an offside position when the play is played - he clearly is.  But the ball came to him from Fabinho, not a teammate.  Therefore, we have to decide whether Fabinho deliberately played the ball or did it merely deflect off him.  If the latter, then the touch by Valverde governs and Benzema is offside.  Clearly, Fabinho did not deliberately pass the ball to Benzema.  But that doesn't mean it wasn't a deliberate play on the ball.  For me, this was not offside.  I can find plenty of support for that view.  I can also find plenty of others, including a former pro referee, that say it wasn't deliberate.  I found Peter Walton's explanation unconvincing.  One theory I had, and I saw in another article, was that this was a rare offside call in which the term clear and obvious error applied.  Usually, you draw the lines and it is or isn't offside.  This time it's a judgment as to whether it was a deliberate play.  The ruling on the field was that it wasn't deliberate and the video evidence did not reveal that it was a clear and obvious error.  Works for me but now feel like I want more guidance on what constitutes a deliberate play on the ball.  

Elliott Handling

In the Union match, Jack Elliott was called for handling in the box.  That play can be seen here.  Freemon did not whistle for the foul at the time; VAR told him he should go to the monitor, at which point he changed his mind.  I have two problems here.  First, this is re-refereeing; I don't see a clear and obvious error.  Second, I flat out just don't think it's handling.  A player is moving at full speed and has to brake quickly.  What do you think his arms are going to do?  They are going to move...unless you are Raquel Welch.  

Colback Trip

We go to the Championship Division playoff, in which Jon Moss was refereeing his last game. In the 78th minute with Huddersfield trailing Nottingham Forest 0-1, Harry Toffolo and Jack Colback had an incident in the box.  You can see the play here.  The call on the field was a yellow for simulation.  Whoa!  A quick reminder that it is a foul if a player "trips or attempts to trip" another player.  They did have VAR at this contest but the decision was to let the play stand as called on the field.  Moss didn't even go to the monitor.  Brutal.  Huddersfield went on to lose 0-1.  

Stadium Security

Lastly we have the SNAFU at the Champions League final in Paris, in which thousands of Liverpool fans were kept outside the stadium and many were eventually tear gassed by police.  Before venturing too far into this story, I will suggest that Liverpool fans will not react well to attempts by police or soccer administrative bodies to pin the blame on them for the disruptions.  They have been there before.  And it started again right away this time too.  Initially, we were told that the delay was due to "late arriving Liverpool fans."  That was exposed as a lie fairly quickly but not much more information was forthcoming at the time.

Now the story is that many Liverpool fans were attempting to enter the stadium with fake tickets.   That there was a massive number of fake tickets does appear to be true but that lacks context, probably isn't completely accurate and misses other key aspects of the problem.  First, this wasn't a case of Liverpool fans trying to sneak in with fake tickets but rather fans who thought they had legitimate tickets being denied admission at the gate.  And it appears that some with legitimate tickets were also denied admission.  Were Liverpool supporters climbing the gates to gain entry anyway.?  Possibly, but it appears that the majority doing that were French youth gang members.  Lastly, was tear gassing necessary?  As of today, French authorities are doubling down on putting the blame squarely on Liverpool fans.  Maybe a full investigation will reveal that to be the case but the story to date doesn't seem to support that.  No, it looks more like authorities are making shit up as they go along to deflect blame.  Sorry for the mini rant but this doesn't smell right so far.

Manager Changes - How'd That Work Out For You?

Technically there were 13 in-season managerial changes in the EPL.  Three of them involved replacing interim place holders.  For the purposes of what follows, I'm only looking at what happened after the permanent manager was sacked, so we have 10 situations to assess.  The table below summarizes pre and post sacking performance. 

On a very micro level, performance did improve in 8 of the 10 situations, with Watford (twice) being the exception.  The biggest jump by far was Newcastle under Eddie Howe.  We have discussed how he certainly benefitted from an open check book offered by the new owners but also that Howe deserves credit for making other changes as well.  Conte at Spurs and Jackson at Burnley (but that's just 8 games) were also notable.  What if we look at the bigger picture - did the teams achieve their larger goal (making Champions League, avoiding relegation)?  Those results are more mixed, with only half of the teams hitting their targets.  I was critical of the Conte change but they did make Champions League; we can debate how much of that is Conte but the point is they made it.  Everton and Leeds barely escaped relegation but in this case, how close it was doesn't really matter.  Biggest disappointment probably has to be Man United.  They have much work to do in the off season.

Union Product Makes Good

Brendan Aaronson will be gracing our screens on a regular basis next season as he has completed a transfer to Leeds.  Great for him, great for the Union, who get a nice chunk of the transfer fee.  Given our issues with Leeds, we might have preferred a different EPL side but it is what it is.  BFS Travel Consultant Jeff K sends along this great article about the Aaronsons.

Extended International Break

Frankly, most of the stuff is friendly or pseudo-friendly matches.  There are however, two important World Cup qualifying matches.  Scotland - Ukraine will face off on Wednesday, with the winner to take on Wales on Sunday.  US fans will care about this because the winner of this final spot will be the USMNT's first opponent in the World Cup.  

Speaking of the USMNT, they have four matches in the break.  First, they'll have friendlies with Morocco (6/1) and Uruguay (6/5).  Then they have two CONCACAF Nations League contests against Grenada (6/10) and El Salvador (6/14).  The Nations League is mostly a gimmick to make friendlies look more competitive; teams farther down in the rankings would disagree as this is a chance for them to get to bigger competitions.  We'll probably watch even though not much at stake, just to get a sense of which US players may be in the final roster for the World Cup.  Even then, things could change drastically by November, especially with so many of our players in European leagues now.  

Next Union match is 6/17 versus Cincinnati.  We will take advantage of the lull and take an extended break.  See you in a couple weeks.