Two wins for Newcastle, a road draw and home win for the Union and two wins for Aston Villa. Plus the Phillies swept their wildcard playoff series. That's a good week right there.
Don't Look Now
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| Miggy had early goals vs Burnley and PSG to make live easier Photograph: Michael Regan/Getty Images |
The midweek Champions League win followed on the heels of a workmanlike 2-0 win over Burnley at Saint James Park. Not overwhelming but they got the job done, winning their third consecutive match. Yeah, it was a great week to be Tyneside.
Two Men Down
Liverpool's penchant for red cards (they have 4 of the 17 handed out so far this year) finally caught up with them in the 2-1 loss at Tottenham. Even then, it took two red cards, a blown VAR call and an own goal in the dying seconds. The first red card to Curtis Jones, seen here, has drawn some criticism. Several pundits argued that because 1) his foot came over the ball, 2) he had no evil intent, or 3) tackles look worse in slow motion, this is not a red. Maybe, but the language reads:
Any player who lunges at an opponent in challenging for the ball from the front, from the side or from behind using one or both legs, with excessive force or endangers the safety of an opponent is guilty of serious foul play.
I'm okay with red there. Liverpool's appeal was denied.
Then we have the massive VAR screw-up. In the 34th minute, Diaz took a pass from Salah and went on in to score what would have been the opening goal. Nope, the assistant referee raised the flag for offside. Shortly thereafter, VAR Dan England told Simon Hooper "check complete." Except England believed that the play was called onside on the field and he was confirming the goal. But Hooper heard it as there was no reason to change the call on the field. Play was restarted. A few seconds later, the VAR crew realized their mistake (according to the audio released, Dan England's exact words were "Oh f***") but believed that protocol says it doesn't matter now because play has restarted. I'm reading several pundits say screw protocol and/or cite the France Tunisia World Cup match in which Greizmann's goal was ruled offside after play restarted. Well, yeah, except the consensus was that the referee screwed up on that one; France lost that appeal because IFAB VAR Protocol says a match cannot be invalidated because of mistakes in the process. And Law 5 is pretty clear about when VAR can intervene after play restarts:
If play has stopped and restarted, the referee may only undertake a ‘review’, and take the appropriate disciplinary sanction, for mistaken identity or for a potential sending-off offence relating to violent conduct, spitting, biting or extremely offensive, insulting and/or abusive action(s).
Fortunately, this type of screw up is really easy to fix going forward and we already saw it during Monday's Fulham - Chelsea match. All it takes is a few more words between the VAR and the referee to make sure they are on the same page.
Meanwhile, we are still 0-0 in the match. The teams trade first half goals and it's 1-1 at halftime. Then Jota, who came into the match at the start of the second half, picks up two yellow cards in a minute so Liverpool are down two men for the remaining 20+ minutes. The Reds do a marvelous job of denying Spurs as the match drifts into stoppage time. In the sixth minute of stoppage time Matip redirects an awesome Spurs cross into his own net for the game winner. You can see the agony of defeat in this week's YouTubeableMoment.
No doubt Liverpool were hard done by the VAR foul-up. But all we "know" is that the score would have been 0-1 with 60 minutes to go and Liverpool still a man down. You can't extrapolate to the final score and say the call cost Liverpool a point. There are infinite scenarios in play from that moment on. Some are suggesting that provisions within the EPL rulebook do offer a path for an independent commission to determine that the match should be replayed. To me that sounds like a very unwise path to go down. This wasn't the first time an official's decision had a big impact and it won't be the last.
Two Mans Down
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| Guardiola has a sad as he watches City loss while serving suspension Photograph: Michael Regan/Getty Images |
Nice Days in the (Villa) Park
Aston Villa's week was basically a mirror of Newcastle's. First they thrashed Brighton 6-1 on Saturday, with the margin being enough for the Villans to jump ahead of the Seagulls in the table. Then on Thursday they got a stoppage time goal from captain John McGinn to snatch a 1-0 win over Zrinjski.That drama can be seen here (I was so hoping I could find a video from the stands but no luck). Frankly, it was no less than they deserved after outshooting the Bosnian side 27-3. So fun times in Birmingham.
In Other News...
Hold off on that article about Everton's resurgence. They fell 1-2 to Luton Town at Goodison Park. That was the first win for the newly promoted Hatters. Liverpool couldn't get a result with red cards but Nottingham Forest managed a 1-1 draw with Brentford despite being down a man. Chelsea looked better in 2-0 win over Fulham and Arsenal breezed to a 4-0 win over Bournemouth. The weekend left Tottenham and Arsenal as the only unbeaten sides but Man City still on top by a single point.
Peacock Ruffles Some Feathers
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| Peacock's error message; can't imagine this went over well as people were missing games they paid extra to see |
Real time, people weren't so lucky. Apparently, for a number of games, the streams went down for several minutes. Many got to see the picture (above) when they tried to load the stream. One of the dropouts was Newcastle - Burnley while Almiron was scoring. Yeah, I would not have been happy. Seemed like the platform tackled a lot this weekend with more games then usual plus the Ryder Cup but I don't know if that could have caused the problems.
Fit To Be Tied
Until Wednesday's 3-2 win over Atlanta, that seemed like an apt description of the Union's fate. It was nice to break the streak of five straight draws.
I could only listen to Saturday's 1-1 draw against Columbus on 97.5. Play-by-play announcer Dave Leno seems like an excitable guy in general and he was in great form for this one. The bad news was that well over half the time he was breathlessly describing another Columbus attack. Though it was not exclusively one way traffic, the stats tell how much pressure the Union were under. Possession was 68/32, shots were 23/11, shots on target were 9/2 and xG was 2.7/1.4. Leno's most used line was "another great save by Blake." Remarkable that the Crew's only goal came on a PK. And a draw on the road wasn't a bad result against a side chasing us in the standings.
I also did not get to see the win over Atlanta as that was on MLS Season Pass not "free" Apple. Following on-line, it was heartening to see last year's Big Three - Gazdag, Uhre, and Carranza - became a scoring juggernaut again. They put up three quick goals in a remarkable flurry late in the first half. All three were pretty good looking but we'll show Carranza's here as the teamwork was reminiscent of 2022. Things got a little too close for comfort as Atlanta got two in the second half but the U hung on for all three points.
While they now sit in third, unfortunately we really can't take fifth of the table yet because they finish the season with New England, who also have a game in hand.
The Miami Math Gets Messier
This was not a good week for Inter Miami's playoff hopes. They played two "six-point" matches without Messi and came away with just a single point. Saturday they needed a 95th minute goal to even grab a home 1-1 draw against NYCFC. Wednesday was even worse, a 4-1 loss at Chicago. The good news is that actually didn't lose any ground on the 9th spot - they are still five points out. The dark cloud behind the silver lining is that they have fewer games to work with and that teams in 10th through 12th are now in play as well. In short, they no longer control their destiny. They could win their final three matches (Cincinnati and Charlotte at home, Charlotte away) and get to 42 points. But Chicago can get to 46, Montreal and NYCFC to 44, and Red Bulls to 43. And if Messi is still out, what are the odds of winning any of the final three?
YouTubeable Moments - BFS Family Division
We have a couple of videos of goals scored by BFS-related players. First up is Will D-H, son of BFS Ultra-marathon Consultant Jeff H. We're not sure if he got the assist or the goal on the play but he certainly knew how to celebrate properly.
You can hear a defender calling for offside but the video clearly (?) shows he was on. If you're thinking this technology could help the EPL with their VAR problem, forget it because it took about six weeks to get this.
Syzygy
Barring unforeseen circumstances, Saturday night will see a conjunction that has never occurred before. Scott, Dennis and I will all be at Subaru Park to see the U take on Nashville. Since Dennis has been playing some keeper for his team lately, could we say this is a meeting of the father, son, and goalie host? Probably shouldn't.
That will come after a full slate of Saturday EPL matches, none of which will get the blood racing. We start with Luton Town - Spurs at 7:30 on USA; hard to see the Hatters raining on Tottenham's parade, especially since they could be top of the table by day's end. The four choices at 10 aren't great but a couple offer some interesting questions. For example, will Everton struggle against relegation candidate Bournemouth like they did against Luton Town last week? If they do, doesn't that make the Toffees a potential relegation candidate? The TV game features two sides - Man United and Brentford - that have underperformed so far this year; will one of them pull out of their funk? Burnley - Chelsea and Fulham - Sheffield United are the other two choices. The feature 12:30 match (back on NBC now that the Ryder Cup is over) between Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest doesn't overwhelm either.
Fortunately, Sunday's fare is much more appetizing, although our cup runneth over at 9 am, with three decent options. Brighton - Liverpool isn't a bad choice but in our humble opinion, West Ham - Newcastle is a more interesting contest. These two look very evenly matched; Opta has it at 36/29/35, giving the Hammers the slightest of edges. It's also the TV game. And Wolves - Aston Villa should be good too; Opta has that one at 32/30/38, with the Villans favored. Then at 11:30 we get the game of the week with Arsenal hosting Man City. This will be a good chance to see if City are going to continue in a league of their own or if there are some teams that will challenge them this year.
Yeah, I know there was a lot of Champions League, Europa League and Europa Conference League action but the deadline approaches. Next week is an international break so check your local listings for the European Championship Qualifiers.
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