Clear and Obvious Errors

The referees got more attention than is healthy.  Some interesting results.  A quality win for the Union. Despite the trip to NH, I did get to see a few matches but some were consumed on the phone while others didn't get my full attention.  I will fill in as best I can.

Salisbury Mistake?

Isak goes for chip but might have done better going far post

Even on the small screen of my phone, it looked like Newcastle outplayed Crystal Palace but came away with a 0-0 draw.  Actually, most of the stats don't match that impression; most are pretty close.  A notable exception is xG at 538; those suggest a 2.85 - 1.00 Magpie advantage.  The problem of course is that the numbers are saying that Newcastle had more and better chances but didn't convert.  That matches what I saw.  Isak had a breakaway but Guaita denied the cheeky chip.  

Not to put the draw all on referee Michael Salisbury's shoulders but he and Lee Mason looked to have screwed up in chalking of an own goal that would have given Newcastle a first half lead.  You can see the play here or here (fast forward to 6:25 of video).  Salisbury called it a goal on the field so he had decided either that Willock's contact with Guaita was not worthy of a foul or that Mitchell had pushed Willock into Guaita.  VAR Lee Mason sent Salisbury to the screen.  I am not the only one puzzled as to how Salisbury concluded he had made a clear and obvious error.  The PGMOL admitted that this was a mistake.  Lee Mason was dropped from VAR duty this week, although Salisbury is assigned as VAR for Southampton - Brentford.  I find this curious.  I don't have a big problem with Mason telling Salisbury to go to the monitor.  The error was that Salisbury didn't see that his initial call was correct, or at a minimum, was not a clear and obvious error.  Circling back, none of this would have mattered that much if Newcastle had put away some of the chances. 

Seven points from six matches doesn't sound all that great until you look at the fixtures.  With their schedule, a dream start would have been probably eight points at best.  Also, remember that they were without Wilson, Saint Maximin and Guimaraes for the Palace match.  

Keeping Good Company

Foster and Lasse Viren in 1976
Olympic Final: Running 10Ks prepares
 you for the difficult
job of being a Newcastle fan

Several more famous Magpie supporters were revealed to me this week.  First, during the Crystal Palace match, the camera found 10k Olympic medalist Brendan Foster among the crowd.  His Newcastle United bona fides are solid.  Later, in a text string discussing the Roxy Music reunion tour, we found out that Bryan Ferry is also a Magpie fan.  Between Sting, Mark Knopfler and Bryan Ferry, we have an all-star band.  Maybe they need a keyboard player?

Now You Raise the Flag?

NBC is lucking out a bit with their feature game selection.  On paper, Man City should have had an easy run against Aston Villa, regardless of where they play.  Not this time.  Villa played City tough and got a great "equalizer of real quality" from Bailey, seen here.  

But the story doesn't end there.  In the 79th minute, Coutinho had looked to put Villa up 2-1 only to be denied by an offside call.  You can see the play here.  Except 1) Coutinho was not offside when Watkins made the pass and 2) given how long ARs have been waiting to raise the flag on plays where the offside was way more obvious, why did Hooper choose this time to blow the whistle before Coutinho took the shot?  Because of that, the play was not reviewable by VAR.  I also saw some comment about there possibly being a touch by a Villa player after Watkins made the pass at a point where Coutinho had in fact moved into an offside position.  But the central question remains, after seeing ARs hold off on so many way more obvious offside calls, why was the flag raised on one that was actually close?  Still a good point for Villa.

 

VAR's  Bad Week Continues

Alas, we are not through with the VAR stuff for the week.  Late in Chelsea's 2-1 over West Ham, the Hammers had the potential equalizing goal called back for a foul on the keeper (where have we heard that before?). You can see the play here or here (forward to 13:32).  Andy Madley has a great view of the play and does not call a foul on Bowen.  Again, I don't have a problem with the VAR suggesting Madley look at it to make sure he saw what he thought he saw.  What I don't get is why he reversed himself.  At most, his initial call wasn't wrong; at a minimum, it was not a clear and obvious error.  PGMOL agrees, saying this was mistake as well.

We Correlate, You Decide

Man United are undefeated since taking Maguire and Ronaldo out of the starting line up.  This time the Red Devils took care of the last team with a perfect record, handing Arsenal a 3-1 defeat.  Half watching the game while going through moving boxes at my Dad's place, I had the impression that Man United were clearly the better side here; the stats look more like a draw though.  Four wins on the spin perfectly correlated with the benchings.

 I had Brighton on but don't really remember much other than these two clubs have gone in opposite directions in recent years.  The 5-2 win for the Seagulls looked thoroughly deserved.  Liverpool look to have caught whatever Man United had; their statistical edge did not translate into goals and they had to settle for a 0-0 draw with Everton.  In their first six matches, Liverpool have already dropped nine points.  The stat sheet says Tottenham ran Fulham ragged but in the end they only came away with a 2-1 win. Whatever, they are still unbeaten.

Arsenal continue top of the table but Man City and Spurs are close behind.  Steady and surprising Brighton are currently fourth, though their fortunes may be about to change, as you'll read below.

Heard on Peacock

Leeds keeper Meslier 
is older than he looks

Dennis noted that the announcer in the Brentford - Leeds match (won by the Bees 5-2) said "it's hard to believe Meslier is only 22."  To which Dennis responded, "Come on dude. It's easy to forget that he's older than 12."

Sieve-rpool?

Not the best of starts for EPL sides in the Champions League Group Stage play.  Man City were fine, handing Sevilla a 4-0 defeat on the road.  Spurs got a 2-0 win, which sounds great, except they played half the match up a man, managed only two shots on goal and needed late goals from Richarlison to get the victory.  Chelsea were beaten 0-1 at Dinamo Zagreb (and Tuchel was sacked - more on that below).  But easily the strangest result was seeing Liverpool being completely taken apart by Napoli.  The 4-1 final could have been even worse.  Dennis texted me early in the second half when Napoli added their fourth - "what are we even watching?"  Tough games for Gomez and Van Dijk.  At least Klopp didn't get fired.

Buh Bye

On the face of it, the sacking of Thomas Tuchel after the loss to Dinamo Zagreb was out of the blue, so to speak.  Turns out, Tuchel's fate was probably sealed long ago.  There's a great article in The Athletic here (behind a paywall) outlining how the situation had been deteriorating for some time.  I pulled out the best summary paragraph from the article here:

 Understanding how Chelsea’s new owners settled on this drastic and ruthless course of action requires a closer look at the sequence of events that led to this point — a remarkable story that includes:

• Tuchel delegating some recruitment meetings to his agent owing to tensions with owners
• “Slapstick” moments as new owners got used to soccer, including a 4-4-3 formation Chelsea deny happened
• Tuchel feeling he wasn’t given the signings he asked for
• Too many players left feeling isolated or even ignored, with separate pre-season meetings
• Tuchel believing he had verbally agreed a new contract with Chelsea
• Tuchel feeling he was close to sack on pre-season over tensions with Behdad Eghbali
• Boehly displaying detailed knowledge of Potter’s career in Cucurella meeting
• How communication from owners dried up after Leeds defeat

Tuchel is out only 16 months after leading Chelsea to Champions League glory, and the new ownership group led by Boehly and Clearlake Capital have made their most divisive decision yet.

The article points out there is a marked difference in Chelsea's performance in his first 50 matches compared to the last 50 matches.  

The other shoe to drop in this story is that Chelsea have hired Graham Potter away from Brighton.  You wonder how this will affect Brighton going forward.  Potter got them to their highest ever finish last year (9th) and they are off to an excellent start, seemingly not missing a beat after losing key players like Cucurella and Maupay.  Brighton fans are not happy. I liked Potter and was impressed with what he did with that club.  Now...well, won't be same for me.

YouTubeableMoment - College Division

BFS Track and Field Consultant Jack W sends along this video from a Long Beach State match.  Love the honest reaction: I can't believe what I just did.

How You Like Me Now?  (apologies to The Heavy)

Last week we suggested that maybe people were downplaying the Union's recent accomplishments because of the quality of the opposition.  Okay, so let's take a trip up the NJ Turnpike to face the Red Bulls in their home stadium for a third match in eight days.  That's a fair test, right?  So what will people say after the Union brought home a 2-0 win?

I should be careful not to overstate this win.  Red Bulls probably had the run of play for the first 30 minutes.  Andre Blake had his usual collection of saves to keep us in the match.  They slowly grew into the match, perhaps needing some time to adjust to a revised lineup that saw Bedoya and Martinez not starting with McGlynn and Flach replacing them.  It was McGlynn who helped get the scoring started with a cool flick over a defender followed by a sweet through ball to Uhre.  Watch it here as this week's YouTubeableMoment - Professional Division.  A NY defensive lapse in the 74th minute gave Daniel Gazdag a chance to add to his season record goal scoring total and he did not miss, netting his 18th of the year.  The stats says this was closer than 2-0 and xG actually favors NY.  Except the Union get 1-2 critical stops per game from Blake and the quality of finishing is high right now, two factors that can skew the xG stats. 

The U go into the weekend knowing they can finish no lower than third.  They have an eight point lead over second place Montreal, who have a game in hand.  Orlando could also still catch them as they still have six to play.  The U are also level on points with LAFC for the Supporters Shield, although again, LA have a game in hand.  

League Interrupted

With refereeing for the Chestnut Hill Youth Sports Club starting up this weekend, I was figuring I'd be watching Saturday's matches on delay.  Apparently, everyone else will too.  A long delay.  As of publication there wasn't an official announcement but the expectation is that all EPL matches will be postponed as England enters a 12-day period of mourning following the Queen's passing.  If I did my counting right, a 12-day period would mean that next weekend's matches will be postponed.

The Union match is still on as far as I can tell.  They'll play Orlando at 7:30 on Saturday night at Subaru Park.  A win will mean they can finish no worse than second.  LAFC have a tough road match against Dallas.  

Geez, I might end up watching the NFL - .nah, not going to happen.  Maybe the US Open though.