Another Tie for Fathers' Day?

 A distressingly familiar scene at Subaru Park.  Lots of talk but no signings Tyneside

Jim Curtin Has Enough Ties Already

Well, it was entertaining - good end to end action.  The 1-1 result with Cincinnati is certainly fair, matching up with what we saw on the field and in the stats.  But there's no way the Union should be getting a home draw with Cincinnati.  Two glaring and consistent issues mark the season to date:

1) Poor pass completion percentage consisting of:

    a) Passes directly to the opposition

    b) Passes made with no recognition that a defender is ready to step into the passing lane

    c) Passes made on the wrong side of the run

2) Lack of a dynamic attack

They only gave up one goal but Blake had his hands full 
with Cincinnati getting 17 shots off

Not a great day for Uhre; he had an unbelievably low 11 touches the whole game.  He did have one decent header chance but fitting for the day, it went wide.  Trying to remember that it took a while for Gazdag to settle in last year.  Uhre has somewhat a similar situation in that he didn't get to the club until after the season began.  

This was the league leading 8th draw for the Union.  On the positive side they remain undefeated at home.  The negative? Just three wins in eight tries in the friendly confines of Subaru Park.  That's too many dropped points at home.

Side note: Ray Gaddis and Haris Medjunanin were in the starting XI for Cincinnati.  Very nice that the usual chant of "Sucks" when their names were announced was quite muted.  Still both respected here.  Relieved that Gaddis did not break his scoreless streak with a goal against us.

No One Wants To See How the Sausage (Sandwich) Is Made

We are big fans of the sausage sandwich at Subaru Park.  A Premio sausage on a fresh roll garnished with fried peppers and onions.  A top five stadium offering.  Conveniently located in the upper concourse right behind our seats.  And the line is never longer than five and is usually just 2-3.

Yet somehow, it takes 15 minutes to get served.  Even if there is sufficient inventory (which rarely happens), it takes 5 minutes from order to delivery.  This is partly because the cashier takes the order and lets the cook do the assembly, even as she's cooking.  The bigger problem though is that they never have enough cooked sausages and garnishes.  Seems like there's never more than 10 or so sausages on the grill, so it doesn't take too many orders to deplete the supply.  Best example came this Saturday when Dennis and I were lucky to get the last of the peppers and onions and we watched as the cook put enough raw items on the grill for about 3 more orders despite there being 4 people behind us.

Yes, it's a slow week when I have to complain about the food prep at Subaru Park.  Maybe it's better the process is slow.  Keeps demand down.  Like Yogi Berra said, it's so crowded nobody goes there anymore.

Names, Names, Names

Still mostly a cavalcade of names being paraded through the media without much real action in the transfer window for Newcastle.  Thursday they did land their second signing of the summer, completing a deal for Burnley keeper Nick Pope.  We do have a decent keeper and Pope is not exactly a youngster at 30.  Also, I've been supportive of Karl Darlow.  Yet, I am okay with this, as Dubravka has missed significant time the last two seasons with injuries and Darlow hasn't been the keeper I thought we had back in 2016.   This feels like an improvement.

Unfortunately, the rest of the news is about supposed negotiations or possibly outright rumors and speculation.  Botman and Ekitike remain the most frequently mentioned.  Hearing Moussa Diaby's name more often.  Still see links to Jesse Lingard and new ones to Gareth Bale.  Also, Richarlison mentioned as alternative to Ekitike - please, please, no.  

Lucy In With the Sky Diamonds (apologies to The Beatles)

I just finished "Manifesto," the autobiography of Dale Vince, who owns the Forest Green Rovers.  A fascinating story of a man who went from a new age traveler to building a windmill on a hill to founding Ecotricity, a green energy company.  Here's a decent synopsis and review of the book.  There's only one chapter on Forest Green, how he brought his principles on energy, food and transport to a football team.  Like the review says, the book is a cross between telling his story and pitching his philosophy.  

The Epilog references a project he was working on at the time of publication - Sky Diamonds, that is making diamonds from the carbon in the sky. I am not making this up.  Since publication, the production of Sky Diamonds has become a reality.  Details on the process are here. 

Side note: Forest Green was promoted to League One and Vince's goal remains getting the club to the Championship Division.

Back to Subaru Park

Sunday evening it's back to Chester for me and Jeff H as we'll watch the Union take on NYCFC.  At 538 they see the match as a dead even - 36% chance for either to win with a 28% chance of a draw.  That feels optimistic to me, although I forget we did beat them 2-0 up in NYC in March.  NYCFC are in first, one point up with a game in hand.  The Union are perched precariously in third, with first definitely in sight but seventh only a bad weekend away.  Hard to imagine they sort out their offensive issues against this team but a 1-1 draw does seem possible. 

Yeah, short post but you got a food review and a book review so there's that.

World Cup in Philly

Certainly a quieter period but there was some important stuff, including World Cup qualifiers, some USMNT matches and the Allentown Over 30 Championships.  And news that The Linc will host some 2026 World Cup matches.

Final Tickets Punched

With a couple of European playoffs and two international playoffs, the last spots in the World Cup line up were filled during this international break.  Wales defeated Ukraine - who had earlier defeated Scotland - to grab the final Europe spot.  This was a tight 1- 0 affair, with the only tally coming when a Bales' free kick was redirected into the net by Yarmolenko for an own goal.  Ukraine actually held a pretty decent statistical advantage; sometimes it's just not your year.  The result means that Wales will be the USMNT's first opponent in the World Cup.  

I didn't see the Australia - Peru playoff but maybe that was for the best.  It featured three shots on target and went to kicks from the spot, which the Aussies won 5-4.  I did see the other international playoff between Costa Rica and New Zealand.  Also, not a goal-laden affair.  Costa Rica got a quick one from Joel Campbell at three minutes and that stood for the entire match.  Biggest takeaway for me was watching Newcastle's Chris Wood see the frustration of his club season carry over to the international level.  He had a goal taken away by VAR for a foul in the build up, saw several good assist possibilities wasted by teammates and missed a few of his own.  

Who Was In the VAR Booth?

VAR says "nyet" to Ukraine PK

Ukraine's luck against Wales was probably worse than I let on above.  Late in the first half, they were arguably hard done by the decision of Mateu Lahoz to not call a penalty against Joe Allen for a potential foul in the box. You can see the play here (should open to 4:04 to see the play).  Certainly the VAR was consulted but Lahoz was not asked to even venture over to the monitor for a second look.  I thought it was a foul.  Makes you wonder who might have been in booth.  

USMNT Active

Hello Muddah, hello Faddah,wish we could play
against Grenada; Pulisic in the mire (Getty Images)

They had four matches over the break - friendlies with Morocco and Uruguay and Nations League
contests ("glorified friendlies?) with Grenada and El Salvador.  I missed the 3-0 win over Morocco which featured a goal from Medford's own Brenden Aaronson.  The 0-0 draw with Uruguay seemed like a useful experience.  This was a good test against a top ranked (13th) team.  The 5-0 rout of Grenada was expected and frankly didn't offer enough of a challenge to help in the WC prep.  The El Salvador match probably had some value in that regard.  Not that El Salvador are that highly ranked but it was a road match against a team that doesn't like us in absolutely ridiculous conditions (mud and downpour).  The US fell behind in the late in the first half and their prospects didn't look so good after Arriola was sent off - incorrectly in our opinion - with a straight red.  They still had the run of play and when Costa Rica had a defender sent off for DOGSO, you felt like a draw was important.  And they got it, courtesy of a nice header from Jordan Morris, his first goal since returning from surgery. 

A decidedly mixed bag for the window.  Biggest thing I saw was even better performances from Musah.  I've always liked his game but it seemed like he stepped it up a notch.

Hardware for Sportif Allentown

Sportif Allentown celebrate - Dennis is third from left in the back

We traveled up the Northeast Extension (I-476 for you younger readers) to see Dennis and his Over 30 team play for the league championship.  Clearly not a neutral here but I thought his team had the run of play but simply couldn't convert.  They finally got a tally mid-way through the second half but the lead was short-lived.  The prospect of two 10-minute sudden death periods, or worse, kicks from the spot loomed.  Fortunately there was a handball in the box and the PK was converted in the 84th minute.  No controversy about the call; it was so obvious, the offender's teammates yelled at him, not the  referees.  

Dennis scored an important goal in the semis but in this one his contributions were good runs, some that were seen, others not.  In a way, he contributed to the first goal, as he was standing at the center line ready to replace the guy who scored the goal; good thing he didn't get in right away.

All Things Considered, FIFA Would Rather Be In Philadelphia

Or Boston, Miami, New York/New Jersey (you can't fool us, it's Secaucus), or Toronto.   Actually, those are just the cities in the Eastern group; there are Central and Western venues.  The full list is here.  Knowing how FIFA works, we can only hope that there were no bribes involved and that we won on the merits.  

Farrah vs Bolt

Wait, how does a 10k man face off against a sprinter?  In a charity soccer event that's how.   BFS Track and Field Consultant Jack W sends along this article about a fun event at London's Olympic Stadium.  We like both athletes, though we note that Farrah is an Arsenal fan.  

EPL Fixtures Released

You can see the full list here.  Highlights include that each team will play 38 matches, two against each team, one home and one away.  

Another highlight is that the English Football Association asked the EPL not to schedule matches between top six clubs on the final weekend before the World Cup starts.  Their thinking was that a large percentage of the English national team players come from these clubs and they were hoping not to have a tough contest right before the world tournament.  Part of me gets that but as Dennis noted, it looks like more effin' Big Six privilege.

Back to Subaru

Things will actually get even lighter now that the international break is over.  All we got for a while is MLS.  Dennis and I will be at Subaru Park on Saturday night as the Union take on Cincinnati FC; that's 7:30 on PHL 17 I think for those who can't make it down to the park.  I'll also be there a week from Sunday when the U take on NYCFC.  That should be fun.