Net One Point in Stoppage Time

Newcastle grabbed an extra two points in stoppage time but the Union dropped one on a goal in the 98th minute. Note that the 90th minute is not stoppage time so we're not counting the equalizer, which would have made it three points dropped in stoppage time for the Union.  Also, an interesting weekend for referees and we mean that in the worst way.

Have We Said How Much We Like Alexander Isak?

Isak volley to level things
Photograph: Carl Recine/Reuters

Pretty sure we have.  He had both goals in Newcastle's gritty 2-1 win over Nottingham Forest.  The first was in first half stoppage time, a nifty shin volley off a well-placed pass from Willock.  You can see the goal here.  Because the clip starts way back in the build-up you get to hear commentator Jim Beglin opine that Newcastle were quite capable of coming back in this match as they have displayed a certain "ruggedness" this season; well that was prescient wasn't it?  Maybe a little bit of luck here but Isak might also just be that good.  His second was a PK in stoppage time.

I thought Forest were bit heavy with the shithousery stuff but hard to blame them I guess given they are now thoroughly engaged in a relegation battle.  Good for Newcastle to, for the most part, stay above the fray and focus on getting all three points in a tough road match.  Especially pleased about this because at times, the Magpies have shown themselves more than willing to get dragged into the mud.  The hope will probably kill me but this result suggested to me that maybe top four is not out of the question.  Biggest issue I have right now is fans showing off their Geordie bellies pride by taking off their shirts.  Well, that and maybe Botman being in a little bit of a slump.

And by the way, it's still pronounced Esock.  

Shrinkage

Losses for Crystal Palace (4-1 at  Arsenal) and Wolves (2-4 at home to Leeds) coupled with Southampton's unlikely 3-3 draw with Spurs means the spread from 12th to 20th is now just four points. Everton snatched an unexpected point from Chelsea with a late goal from Simms, seen here; good result for the BubbleGums Toffees.  Leicester also got a valuable point on the road with a 1-1 draw at Brentford; that wasn't totally out of the blue.  

Early goal from Douglas Luiz helps Villa ease past Bournemouth

Bournemouth weren't likely to get more than a point at Aston Villa, so the 3-0 loss there wasn't a big
surprise but the loss did much to wash away the great feelings after their win over Liverpool.  Villa took way longer than necessary to make Dennis feel comfortable but they were dominant and deserved all three points; they are 11th, level on points with Chelsea, 11 points ahead of 12th place and 14 points clear of relegation zone.  Idle West Ham had the misfortune to drop back into the bottom three as Leeds flew past them with their win.  The good news for the Hammers is that they have two games in hand compared to four of the other eight relegation combatants and one compared to the other four.  Notice that without playing a match, their relegation percentage dropped slightly from 21 to 19.

Makes for compelling viewing.

The Conte Watch

Well, as of publication, he was still the manager of Spurs.  After his outburst, following the 3-3 draw with Southampton, we figured he was toast.  I mean, besides berating the players, he was calling into question the culture of the club under Levy's ownership.  Sounded like he was saying "sack me please." The international break would have been the perfect time to make the move but now we're almost halfway through it and he's still there.

The draw still has them in fourth but they have played two more games than Man United, Newcastle and Liverpool.

Tough Weekend To Be A Referee

Oy, where to begin?  And I only saw a handful of the controversial decisions. See ESPN's full list here. Paul Tierney certainly had a interesting day as he took charge of the Nottingham Forest - Newcastle match.  For my money, he failed to show at least a yellow card on two dangerous challenges from behind; I thought you could  have argued for red as they were scissor tackles.  Tierney got more attention for the offside call that denied a Newcastle a goal. You can see the play here. The issue is not whether Longstaff is in an offside position; he clearly is.  The question is whether he received the ball from a deliberate play by the Forest defender. This takes it out of the usual "black and white" issue on offside (i.e. it's not about the lines); it's now a subjective decision.  Though the language in Law simply says "deliberately played the ball," last July, the IAFB issued clarifying directions (available here) for that phrase.  Note that one of the clarifications is that:

The player had time to coordinate their body movement, i.e. it was not a case of instinctive stretching or jumping, or a movement that achieved limited contact/control

Hmm, the defender did look like he was stretching for the ball.  But that wasn't the call on the field.  Tierney went to the monitor at VAR's direction and overruled himself.  That seems borderline to me; was that a clear and obvious error?

That's definitely a shirt grab but did it have an impact?

In the thriller at Molineux, Wolves manager Julen Lopetegui spent much of the match being furious at Michael Salisbury.  I remember specifically the no-call in the box, probably one of those borderline that whatever the call was on the field would not have been reversed. I recall several other instances where he was less than happy with the call.  The final straw came in stoppage time.  After clawing back from a 0-3 deficit, Wolves were trying to grab the equalizer.  On a play at midfield, A Leeds defender clearly grabbed Traore's shirt.  Nothing was called, play continued and within seconds, Leeds had the insurance goal they were looking for.  The play was sent to VAR but Salisbury decided that the impact of the shirt pull was inconsequential and he let the goal stand.  I have mixed feelings about this.  I don't like shirt pulling at all and wouldn't mind a directive that says "you grab a shirt, it's a foul" regardless of whether it impedes a player; i.e, just call it every time and I'll bet the practice is greatly reduced.  But that's not the rule.  I thought Traore might have been slightly impeded but he also simply stopped, expecting to get the call.  Also,  I am happy to see a high standard for overturning calls.

Meanwhile, down at Saint Mary's, Tottenham were clinging to a 2-3 lead over Southampton when Sarr was whistled for a foul in the box against Matiland-Niles in the 90th minute.  You can see the play here, although admittedly, not a very helpful review of the incident.  It did happen right in front of referee Simon Hooper and it did withstand a VAR review.  Was it a foul?  Not completely clear to me that it was.  Should it have been overturned by VAR?  Probably not as it does look like there was some contact.  

Toughest day of the weekend probably goes to Kris Kavanaugh, although he can argue it's not my fault and we would largely agree with him.  Fulham were up 1-0 on Man United through 70 minutes of their quarterfinal FA Cup match.  A quick counter by Man United led to this play by Willian in the box and the fun began.  The initial signal from Kavanaugh was a corner but VAR was quickly in his ear and it's off to the monitor.  While he was reviewing the play and before he made a decision about Willian, Fulham manager Marco Silva leaves his technical area to approach Kavanaugh.  Silva is quickly shown the red card; since entering the review area is only a yellow, Silva must have said something as well (he later admitted that he did).  Kavanaugh completes his review and strides out on the field pointing to the spot, which means Willian is going to see red as well.  But wait, we're not done.  Mitrovic loses his cool and shoves Kavanaugh.  The trifecta is complete - three red cards on one play.  Full highlights here.  Well played Fulham.  Willian, who you could argue was a touch unlucky here, probably gets a one match ban.  Silva will get a touchline ban but we don't know the length as of yet.  Mitrovic will certainly get more than the normal three match ban and could be looking at up to 10 games.  Fine by me.  United used the two man advantage well and walked away with a 3-1 win.

And one more.  In the Montreal - Union match a late goal was initially pulled back after the referee went to the VAR and determined that the Montreal player was offside.  However, before play was restarted, he got a signal to check the play again.  Turns out he had missed a Union player near the end line so the goal stood.  To be fair, 1) the player was not visible on most of the replays and 2) he got the call right.  However, it was not a good look to see two trips to the monitor for just one play.

A Worthy Game Winner

Turning back to the prettier aspects of the beautiful game, we did watch the second half of the FA Cup quarterfinal between Sheffield United and Blackburn.  Twice Sheffield had rallied from one goal deficits and the match looked headed for extra time.  Then Tommy Doyle delivered an incredible laser of a shot in stoppage time to allow Sheffield to advance to the semi-finals.  For the combination of quality and context, we make it this week's YouTubeableMoment.

As for the other quarterfinals, we already discussed Man United's comeback win over Fulham.  We skipped both Man City's 6-0 thrashing of Burnley and Brighton's 5-0 rout of Grimsby Town.  BFS Scandinavian Correspondent Philip S notes that DeBruyne and Haaland did some cool stuff in the Man City win.

The semi-final match ups on April 22 are Man City vs Sheffield United and Brighton vs Man United.

Taking on the Evil Empire

Our struggles with Apple and their MLS Season Pass subscription service continue.  For the Montreal - Union match, I thought I had foiled their evil intentions only to have my plans foiled in the end.  I knew I was going to be out during the match, meaning that when I sat down to watch the replay later in the evening, I'd see the score.  So I started the stream before I left (it was actually still the pre-game), then hit pause, thinking that when I returned, it would pick up from where I had paused and would not see the score.  Whaddya know, it worked! Well, except for one klitch.  Cruising along through the 87th minute, I was feeling quite triumphant.  Then, all of sudden, I got an error message that the stream could not continue.  I was kicked out and had to find the replay to see the final minutes, at which point, I saw the final score.  F**k me twice.  See details below.

Skip the Ending

Ay Carranza; A second yellow leaves the U down a man

At the time I lost the stream, the Union were up 2-1.  They had fallen behind early on a handling call by Glesnes but had rallied on two fine goals from Mikael Uhre.  You can see the second one here.  Actually, the first one wasn't all that different.  Things were proceeding reasonably well until Carranza picked up a second yellow for a bad foul.  I know there were some complaints about the first one he got but if I read the report correctly, it was for persistent infringement, which means the referee doesn't have to judge it as reckless.  The second one looked reckless to me, the kind of challenge you simply shouldn't be making if you're carrying a yellow card. 

From then on it was mostly frantic defending by the Union.  Through 87 minutes they had been successful.  Then I lost the stream.  When I find the replay I see that the final was 3-2 Montreal.  Excuse me but WTF?  The equalizer came in the 90th minute in the play with the double VAR described above.  The game winner came in the 98th minute on a header in which Mbaizo was either muscled or shoved off the ball; the goal stood so it must have been the former.

This was a tricky fixture but being in position to come home with all three points so ending up with nothing was frustrating.  Lost points like this are why we didn't win the Supporters Shield last year.

International Break

You'll have to get by with MLS scraps and Euro Championship Qualifiers.  Actually, the latter offers some pretty good matches and they count.  Check out FS1 and FS2 for your choices.

We'll be back at Subaru Park Saturday night for the 7:30 match with Orlando City.  For BFS readers this likely means a week off from me complaining about Apple's MLS Season Pass.  Normally, we would be relatively confident of a result here but the squad will be missing many players due to international duty, suspension or injury.  Gazdag, Martinez, Lowe, McGlynn and Sullivan are playing for their respective countries. Carranza has a one-game suspension for that red card and Blake is still recovering from his groin injury.

MLS not exactly helping their brand by playing during the international break.  At least they're raking in the dough from MLS Season Pass.  I'm not bitter or anything.