Too Much Is Never Enough

apologies to Mick Jagger

Soccer really got shortchanged this week.  Up at 7:30 to watch Liverpool-Everton, then over to the Water Tower to ref two games, back home to watch Newcastle - Crystal Palace replay, speed watch the DVR of Man City - Brighton, then the DVR of Chelsea - Arsenal, finishing with the Union - New England.  And that was just Saturday....

It Started Off So Well

Somehow this overhead flick ended up in the net for Murphy

Saturday's match against Crystal Palace couldn't have gone better.  Newcastle scored in 4th minute, dominated the first half and were up 3-0 at halftime.  True, Murphy's early goal was totally lucky, a random over the back cross that caught Johnstone completely off guard.  And the next goals didn't come until first half stoppage time.  But there really wasn't much doubt about this one, even with a somewhat rotated line-up and the 4-0 final looks on target.  Besides the weird goal, Murphy added two assists. 

The news wasn't as good later in the week.  With a tough 0-1 home loss to Dortmund, Newcastle were knocked from atop the Group F standings and now find themselves in third.  As in not advancing to knockout stage third.  The Magpies certainly gave up enough chances in the first half and were lucky to be down just 0-1 at the break.  They were much more organized and dangerous in the second half, hitting the crossbar twice. Only halfway through the group stage but Newcastle have to face PSG and Dortmund away, with AC Milan their only home match remaining. Oh, and they lost Isak to a re-aggravated groin and Murphy to a dislocated shoulder.  Excellent.   

And the week ended on a very sour note, with Sandro Tonali getting a 10-month ban for betting on football.  Details here.  Not a pretty situation.  It will also serve to point out the limitations of having a rich owner.  Off-season moves, especially the acquisition of Tonali, put Newcastle close to several of the restrictions imposed by the Financial Fair Play rules.  That means they won't simply be able to throw money around to replace Tonali.  There do appear to be some candidates for whom the transfer fee won't be a problem and some loan options as well.  But in general, this sucks.

Derbies Good and Boring

Overall a disappointing set of derbies.  Liverpool - Everton was a complete snoozefest with the Reds dominating but unable to score.  They finally got on the board courtesy of a PK for a tough but probably accurate handling call on Keane.  Liverpool added a stoppage time goal to make the final 2-0, continuing Everton's poor track record in this derby.  

Chelsea - Arsenal was mostly just weird and ultimately entertaining despite some uninteresting stretches.   Chelsea got up early thanks to a PK. They added a second goal just after the break on a "beautiful accident" from Mudryk - a cross clearly intended for the far post that found the net.  The next 30 or so minutes were uninspiring enough that I almost hit the FF button.  Then, keeper Sanchez made a gift pass right to Rice, who one-timed it to the left corner of the net.  Game on.  Blood in the water.  Something like that.  Sure enough in the 84th minute, Saka put a beautiful cross into the box that found the well-timed run of Trossard who slotted it in for the equalizer. Context and quality make that goal this week's YouTubeableMoment.  Watching live it felt like Chelsea had control of the match but the stats do suggest in the end this was a pretty even contest and the final result, though disappointing to Blues fans, may have been about right.

The pile of empties building during Spurs - Fulham

Hung out with Michael B and Charlie O for Monday's Spurs-Fulham Monday afternoon derby.  Early drinking as you might expect.  I think we killed six cans of seltzer between us.  This was not the finest effort from Tottenham as many of their passes found unintended targets.  Still, they got goals from Son and Maddison and were generally not pressed in the 2-0 win.  Put it down as a workingman like effort.  Ange postgame talk might have been something like "good result but we'll need to up our game against better opponents."  Fair enough, but Tottenham are top of the table right now.

I Got Your Transitive Property Right Here

Aston Villa put up another result making hash of the transitive property.  You know, if A beats B 4-1 and B beats C 4-1 then A should beat C 8-2.  Recall that Newcastle beat Aston Villa 5-1 to start the season.  Newcastle drew 2-2 with West Ham last week.  Under the transitive property, Villa should lose to the Hammers by four goals.  Except they won 4-1.  This has happened as least one other time, suggesting that the opener might be one of the most anomalous results of the season. 

Unlike Newcastle, they followed up the good weekend result with a solid performance on the European stage, thrashing the Dutch side AZ Alkmaar 4-1.  Through the first half of their group stage, the Villans are top of Group E.

Red Card Update

Another bumper crop (four) of red cards but this time it didn't go so well for most of the offenders.  Three of the four lost (Everton, Burnley and Bournemouth) and the side that won - Man City - didn't see red until the 95th minute so even though they were protecting a 2-1 lead, the disadvantage lasted only about five minutes.  Through Week 9, that puts red carded teams at 7-5-10.

Limping Into the Playoffs?

Though we already have it as the worst venue in MLS, Gillette Stadium fell even further in our rankings after Saturday night's match.  They were sort of able to scrub the football lines off but that just made the pitch a paler green.  Then add a driving rain and the stadium lights and you're looking at the whitest pitch you'll ever see.  Footing wasn't all that great either.  Some suspicion that Blake slipped as he was unable to stop Bou's game winner.

The game was as ugly as the field.  The Union took an early lead on this strange goal from Carranza (see what I mean about the pitch?).  But, two goals from Bou - one a PK - put New England up by half time.  The write-ups say they played a second half but damn if I remember anything about it.  The only good thing about the 2-1 loss was that it kept the Union ahead of New England on the tiebreaker.  

I say limping into the playoffs but in fairness that was their first loss since August.  On the other hand, in their last 10 matches they are 2-6-2, hardly an inspiring record.  

Peacock and Apple 

Oh bother, the EPL looks to be pushing Peacock telecasts again and of course, MLS playoffs will be exclusively on Apple.  At least Peacock usually has the replay up within two hours of the final whistle and you can get to it without having to see the score.  

The EPL weekend starts Friday with a London derby as Spurs take on Crystal Palace at one of our favorite venues, Selhurst Park.  Not a slam dunk for Tottenham but they should leave "feeling glad all over."  Saturday is a somewhat abbreviated schedule that does not leave us breathless.  You can rise early to catch Chelsea - Brentford at 7:30 on USA.  Or not.  Just two choices at 10 - Arsenal vs Sheffield United (USA) or Bournemouth - Burnley (Peacock).  Actually, we reommend the latter as it is an early clash for two of the more likely relegation candidates that looks pretty even on paper.  Saturday finishes with Newcastle again getting a feature match, this time at Wolves at 12:30 on NBC.  The Magpies will need to be alert for this one; Opta has it at 30/30/40, suggesting they should win but are certainly not runaway favorites.

Sunday's schedule makes no sense to me but I'm not the one raking in billions of dollars televising English football so what do I know.  First they have West Ham vs Everton starting at 9 on USA.  Then, while that game is in progress, three others kick off at 10 am, all on Peacock.  That includes Aston Villa- Luton Town, Brighton - Fulham and Liverpool - Nottingham Forest.  And to conclude the madness, the Manchester derby kicks off at 11:30 (i.e. before any of the 10 am matches are completed) and that's on Peacock too.  Pardon my French but WTF are they doing?  I get keeping the Manchester derby on Peacock; it's greedy but logical to put the best match where people have to pay extra.  But why have all the start times step on matches in progress?

Speaking of greed and scheduling...I give you the MLS playoffs.  Start with the first round format.  It's a best of three, which means they need a winner in each match, which means they'll go to PKs after 90 minutes if it's a draw.  Hey, let's be like baseball and have a system where there's a low percentage chance the best teams will even make it to the second round.  But best of three gives Apple plenty of product to peddle.  Which brings us to the scheduling.  The Union's first match is 10/28; their second game is 11/8, or 11 days later.  If they go to a deciding third game, well that's 11/12, or just four days later.  Brilliant.  The Union's situation is the most extreme but others are close.  Here's the table:

LAFC and Vancouver also would play the deciding match four days after the second.  Why aren't the matches spreadsheet reasonably evenly across the 16-day window, you know basically everybody plays on the weekend?  All together now, because if you did that you wouldn't have any week games to fob off on the viewing public on Apple TV.  

A cursory survey of predictions and betting lines suggests the U are the favorite on Saturday and that makes sense.  The wild card here is that in regular season play we could be fully confident of a win or draw at home; in this round of playoffs, if it's a draw, they don't even go to extra time but head straight to PKs.  That's a mildly scary scenario.

This week's mid-week stuff is the Carabao Cup Round of 16.  Since Newcastle are still in it, we still Carabao it.  Recall that the Magpies upset Man City in the previous round.  Their reward is a Round of 16 match against...Man United, clearly the most difficult match up in this round.  That's Wednesday at 4:15.   All the fixtures are listed here.  Tuesday you could watch Mansfield Town vs Port Vale at Field Mill, the oldest ground in the EFL or you can do Exeter City vs Middlesbrough.  We'll obviously go with Newcastle on Wednesday but West Ham - Arsenal could be good.  Also, Ipswich Town (currently 2nd in the Championship Division) versus Fulham could be competitive.

Don't think this gets any easier.  The week after will be just as crazy.