Limited Duty

After so many weeks crammed with action, that was like a vacation.  Took in a couple of UEFA World Cup qualifiers and the Union match. It's sheer coincidence that in a weeked with limited viewing, I moved a lot of junk out of the basement to various recycling outlets, took care of some items related to my car and slept in late both Saturday and Sunday.  

Three Points Is Three Points

Glesnes led a resolute defense
Photo: Ron Soliman

The Union slipped by St. Louis 1-0 in a chippy and tense contest at windswept Subaru Park on Saturday night.  The glass half full aspects include things like they were missing five key players, Glesnes had a solid performance with several key interceptions, they generally kept St. Louis away from the goal.  In fact, their expected goals was only slightly better than Graham and Steve (St. Louis was .52, Graham and Steve 0.00).  The U did not have the majority possession but much of St. Louis possession was non-threatening.  Ian Glavinovich's header goal, this week's YouTubeableMoment, was pretty sweet too. It was the first goal St. Louis had allowed this season.

The glass half empty group notes that the result was in doubt until the final whistle; one well-timed ball over the top was all St. Louis needed to get a draw.  Andrew Rick had a clean sheet as Blake's replacement but also made a few questionable choices, getting himself too far out of goal.  One time he made a brilliant but desperate save, and on another the ball was barely over the cross bar.  Particularly annoying was that the U simply could not put the match to bed despite playing up man from 66 minutes on.

Regardless of how it looked, the result still shows up on the standings as three points.

You're Going To Need A Bigger Window

I only saw the score (2-1 favor Canada) but apparently the "wake up call" of the 0-1 loss to Panama went unanswered.  Writing for Yahoo Sports, Chestnut Hill's own Henry Bushnell documents here how poor the performance was.  His account includes one of my favorite words that describes boring soccer - "snoozefest."

Attention now turns to the Concacaf Gold Cup in June and July.  The good news is that this will be a longer window for Poch to work with the team.  The bad news is that they really need it.

We Return to EPL Action...

But first, there are the FA Cup quarter finals on Saturday and Sunday.  Then we get our EPL match week spread over Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.  As Michael B as unilaterally decided, this is the beginning of the Here's the FA Cup schedule:

Fulham - Crystal Palace at Craven Cottage  Saturday at 8:15 am

Brighton - Nottingham Forest at American Express Stadium Saturday at 1:15 pm

Preston - Aston Villa at Deepdale Sunday at 8:30 am

Bournemouth - Manchester City at Vitality Stadium Sunday at 11:30 am

Hmm, it's a who's who of the EPL mid-table (3,5,7,8,9,10,12).  Wait, one of these is not like the others.  Preston currently sit 14th in the Championship table.  The matches are only available on ESPN+.

Michael B and I have unilaterally decided that the EPL run-in officially starts after the spring international break.  Others seem to agree, as evidenced by this analysis at soccerstats.com.  Check out the visual table that graphically highlights where the gaps and tight races are in the standings:

The bad part about a full midweek EPL schedule is that you're pretty much limited to one match each day.  Tuesday I probably go with Nottingham Forest hosting Man United to keep following maybe the most interesting story of the year.  I'll let you decide whether that's the surprising performance of Forest or the surprising performance of Man United.  Other choices are Arsenal - Fulham or Wolves - West Ham.  The latter might actually be a good contest.

Wednesday we are locked in with Newcastle vs Brentford at Saint James' Park.  The Magpies will be favored at home and really should handle the Bees but it's probably closer than we'd like.  Neutrals will likely be better off with Brighton - Aston Villa; the Seagulls have taken 13 of the last 15 points on offer but Villa are rarely outplayed regardless of the opponent.  Plus, a win for either significantly boosts their European credentials.  The other four choices don't look particularly appealing - Bournemouth - Ipswich, Man City - Leicester, Southampton - Crystal Palace and Liverpool - Everton.  Okay, that last one is a Merseyside Derby so you don't know for sure but I'm still going with Brighton - Villa as the recommendation.

Thursday's lone fixture is a London derby between Chelsea and Spurs at Stamford Bridge.  Who knows what to expect here, except maybe Chelsea's inconsistency has been less pronounced than Spurs' mediocrity.  

MLS has a tasty matchup with first place Union taking on Miami, Saturday night at 7:30.  This will be the first serious test for the Union, especially on the road.  Alas, it's on MLS Season Pass so unlikely to see any more than just the highlights.  

Looking at the April calendar, between EPL action and the European competitions (quarter finals for all three) I count eight "off days" for the month.  There's a game every day from 4/1-4/21 except for the three Fridays in that period (4th, 11th and 18th). There's actually four straight days late in the month with no action - 4/22 through 4/25 - and you can take the last day of month off.  

Works for me.