So What'd I Miss?

 apologies to Lin-Manuel Miranda and Daveed Diggs

Our first Hotel California

Left for SF on Thursday 6/1.  Not totally off the grid so I saw a few things live and saw highlights of other stuff as we made our way from San Francisco to LA over a leisurely two weeks.  Stops in Berkeley, Monterey, Big Sur and Pismo Beach so far.  Definitely not in Kansas anymore.

FA Cup Final - Part II of the Treble

I did get to see that one live since it was before we left.  Decent enough match/Manchester derby.  Gundogan had two goals but don't forget DeBruyne had two assists before leaving at 76 minutes.  Thought the handling call on Grealish was incredibly harsh (exactly what is a natural position of the arms when making an off-balance leap?) but it did make the game more interesting.  At 2-1 in the closing minutes, Garnacho (who made United much more competitive coming on for Eriksen) hit the crossbar. So City were the better side but it was still close.

No World Cup For U-20

Also before I left, the USMNT U-20 side went rather quietly into the night, falling 0-2 to eventual champion Uruguay.  The match was closer than the score indicates as the second goal was an unfortunate own goal.  On the other hand, they didn't look especially threatening, so it was probably a fair result.

Desparate Enough

On the Wednesday before we left, I did take in the second half of the Europa Conference League Final between Fiorentina and West Ham.  That one looked headed for extra time until Jarrod Bowen took a beautiful through ball from Paqueta to steal the match in the 90th minute.  Yeah, it's a lower tier competition and I watched only to kill time waiting for the laundry to dry, but as you can see here, David Moyes was happy enough.

Champions League Final - The Treble is Complete

This one was tougher, with kickoff at noon but departure time for the wedding at 1:30.  Saw the first half and a little of the second in the hotel room.  Had the live stream on the phone on the drive to the church.  Still about five minutes to go when we headed to the pews.  Checking the phone as discretely as possible as we waited for the bride to come down the aisle.  Fortunately, the final whistle came before the first notes of Pachelbal's Canon in D.  Very happy I was not that guy who yelled "Goal" in the middle of the ceremony.  

Probably due to the disrupted viewing, I don't actually remember much of the match.  I want to attribute that to Inter's execution of catenaccio.  Maybe a bit unfair as Inter had more shots and more shots on goal than City but as the announcer pointed out, going in 0-0 at half time, Inter probably felt they were winning.  They did not however have the moment of perfection provided by Rodri, who scored the match's only goal on a laser from the top of the box; we make it this week's YouTubeableMoment.  City get the EPL title, the FA Cup and the Champions League.  Sure they spent a lot of money and have more resources than just about anybody but it's still a signature achievement.

I Know the Way to San Jose

Ironic that I'm out here in California, about 30 minutes up the road, as the Union are taking on San Jose.  But I'm still at the wedding reception.  I could only check in the progress of the match throughout the night.  The stats suggest the U were the better side, outperforming San Jose on most metrics; notably xG was 2.05-.8 favor Philly.  But without seeing the match, it's hard to know if that's a fair assessment.  Probably didn't help that they had to abandon the 3-5-2 after Lowe got hurt.  The 1-2 final was their first loss in a while.

CONCACAF Nations League

Speaking of lower tier competions.  I still maintain that these Nations League formats are glorified friendlies.  The US took care of Mexico 3-0 in the semis and Canada 2-0 in the final.  I didn't see the semi but Dennis tells me the US were dominant in building a 3-0 lead and then the match descended into various forms of shithousery.  Unfortunately the US got caught up in too, losing Dest and McKennie for the final via straight red cards.  Didn't seem to matter in the final.  I did see the second half; Canada had a few chances but not many - the result looked right to me.  It is a trophy I guess.

No Treble For Sportif Allentown

Sportif Allentown will listen to offers

Dennis's Over 30 team picked up the indoor title a few weeks ago, building on their win in Canada.  Alas, they came up short in the outdoor league semis so they will have to settle for just two trophies this year.  The EPL transfer window is open and BFS Co-founder Dennis F (pictured right) is said to be available.  

A"Bolt" of Lightning

BFS Track Consultant Jack W sends along this video of Usain Bolt scoring in a charity soccer match.  Clearly the guy could have been a football star too.

Sport Imitates Art

BFS Artistic Director Laura O sends along this picture (left) 

from the website artbutmakeitsports.  Who knew that Pep Guardiola was the inspiration for William Blake's Nebuchadnezzar?

Trail of Beers

The beach at San Simeon, not the
Sacrilege taproom after Happy Hour

As an aside, we've been sampling the offerings of the various breweries along the way.  I was already familiar with Anchor Brewing Company in SF, but discoveries include:

- Almanac Brewing Company in Alameda - TRUE Kolsch

- Sacrilege Brewing in Half Moon Bay - Spring Tour Pale Ale (we passed on the FukWit sour); their motto is What Would Jesus Brew?

- Barebottle Brewing in Bernal Heights - Hefe Moon Bay

- Anderson Valley Brewing Company in Boonville - Boont Amber Ale

- Firestone Walker in Pasa Robles - Cal Poly Lager, Mind Haze IPA, Pivo Pils and 805 Blonde

- Figueroa Mountain Brewing Company in Buellton - Danish Red Lager

- Antigua Brewing Company in San Luis Obispo - Ragged Glory (American Lager) and Hazy Baby

- There Does Not Exist in San Luis Obispo - Sowing the Sun (Kolsch)

Geez, you'd think we didn't do anything but drink beer.  Not true, we've also been drinking wine.
 

What's Next?

Monday we head out for Thousand Oaks and LA.  Probably includes a stop in the Santa Monica Mountains.  Then various activities (museums, gardens, comedy clubs, etc.) in LA proper.

Oh, you meant soccer-wise.  Well, the Union are in action on Wednesday night versus Orlando in Florida. Recall that Philadelphia lost to them at home in March during their celebrated blue period.  Orlando are slight favorites this time, likely due to the home field advantage.  Probably won't get to see that one.

And there are various competitions coming up like the Gold Cup and the Leagues Cup (all MLS and Liga MX sides) but we will defer discussion of those until I have a real keyboard to work with.