Club World Cup, Gold Cup and MLS, Oh My

Busted.  I watched more Club World Cup games.  And Gold Cup.  And the Union.  A lot of football.  What did we learn?

1) A one goal lead is the most dangerous in football

Freeze frame: Matt Freese with one of his 3 PK saves 

Panama were probably the better side against Honduras but never added to their 1-0 lead.  Honduras got the equalizer at 82 minutes and then won the penalty shoot out (they don't play extra time except for the final).  Somewhat the same story for Canada in their contest versus Guatemala except they added another degree of difficulty by getting a man sent off late in first half stoppage time. They were up 1-0 but conceded in the 69th minute, then were lucky to hold on for PKs.  Didn't matter as they lost the shoot out 5-6.

Exhibit C for the danger of the one goal lead is the US.  They fell behind Costa Rica 0-1 on an early PK but rallied nicely and carried a 2-1 lead late into the match.  I thought they were the better side but they conceded the equalizer at 71 minutes.  Nice work by Matt Freese to lead them to a 4-3 win in the shootout.You can see his three saves here.

2) Smoke and mirrors can only work for so long

The Union had done a great job getting results despite being shorthanded due to injuries, international duty and suspensions.  That run came to an end with a 1-0 loss at Columbus.  Expected goals (1.4-.7)  and no shots on target for the U suggest maybe this was the right outcome.  But the way the Union pretty much ran things in the second half makes me feel like they deserved a draw.  They really need a healthy Baribo.

3) Club World Cup is looking like UEFA Champions League with a few guests

Five European sides have advanced to the quarter finals.  It could have been seven if not for a couple of upsets on Monday.   Fluminense tripped up Inter Milan 2-0, then the Saudi club Al-Hilal triumphed over Man City in a 4-3 extra time classic.   Here's the game winner from Marcos Leonardo, his second goal of the night, that sent City home.

4) The gap between MLS and European Leagues is wider than the Atlantic Ocean

Maybe it's a bit unfair to use the PSG 4-0 thrashing of Inter Miami as a yardstick since the Parisien team has been scything through European opposition too.   However, at no point did it look like Miami stood a chance against PSG in this Club World Cup Round of 16 match.

5) Scoring early and often is a better strategy

Not the goal scoring Diego Luna

Very thankful that US, behind early goals by Diego Luna (not the star of Disney's Andor), had a 2-0 lead on Guatemala by the 15th minute in the Gold Cup semi-final.  We make Luna's second goal this week's YouTubeableMoment; pretty much a marvelous individual effort.  Unfortunately the US lost the plot somewhere in the first half and spent the rest of the match on their heels.  Eventually, they allowed a goal in the 80th minute, making the last 15 or so minutes squeaky bum territory.  Pochettino is acting like the Argentine version of Jim Curtin, waiting very late to make substitutions.  He put Aaronson in at 58, but waited until 77 and 85 to make further changes.  We'll never know but maybe earlier substitutions might have blunted some of Guatemala's momentum.

The US will now face Mexico, who struggled to get past Honduras 1-0 in the other semi.  El Tri did have another goal called back for offside based on an interpretation of what's a deliberate play, not whether the player was in an offside position.  I couldn't find a good video but this one wasn't as controversial for me; it came off the keeper making a save, and bounced off another Honduran player.  The key point here is that it was a save:

A player in an offside position receiving the ball from an opponent who deliberately plays the ball, including by deliberate handball, is not considered to have gained an advantage, unless it was a deliberate save by any opponent.

I would think the US are decided underdogs in the final.  As Dennis put it "Yay, we get to go lose to Mexico."  For me, regardless of what happens Sunday, this Gold Cup goes down as a successful competition for the USMNT.  They played with a squad that was missing 7-9 starters from next year's likely World Cup squad and, despite looking shaky more often than we'd like, still made the final.  Slightly disappointed that Pochettino didn't take a longer look at some of the newer players - channeling his inner Jim Curtin again?  But, I think we found out that Chris Price, Malik Tillman and Diego Luna will do very nicely on next year's team.

BFS Book Club

I have been remiss in not mentioning this.  BFS Scandinavian Correspondent Philip S lent me the book Godwin: A Novel by Joseph O'Neill. It''s a fictional tale of people who see a video of the next potential Messi playing in anonymity somewhere in Western Africa.  We follow them as they attempt to track down and sign this phenom.  Like Ted Lasso, the story is grounded in soccer but the more important stuff is what the author has to say about family relationships, work relationships, career choices and deciding what you want in life. Highly recommended.

Permit me one small spoiler about the book.  One of the characters is a grizzled scout who has toiled in Europe all his life.  He is sitting with the protaganist at one point, thoroughly disparaging the American game and Major League Soccer.  "MLS, it sounds like a disease, not a soccer league."  Ouch, that'll leave a mark.  

Thanks For Nuthin'

I don't mean to be a curmudgeon, but the recent announcement (seen here), that NBC Sports Philadelphia will rebroadcast Union matches is a joke right?  The matches will reair between 48 hours and 7 days after the original broadcast.  Union president Tim McDermott was very self-congratulatory:

“This collaboration greatly enhances the visibility of the MLS Season Pass original content to the wide range of viewership for NBCSP so that our passionate fans are closer to the game than ever before.”

"Closer to the game than ever?"  Please.  You mean like when we could watch real time with our own broadcast team (Dellacamera and Higgenbotham - arguably best in MLS)?  This is only useful if you're willing to wait 2-7 days to see the result or if you don't care if you know the score and just want to see how they looked.  I won't totally disparage the second part because some find that useful but overall this is thin gruel.

One If By Car, Two If By Subway

The Union crew is off to the Linc Friday night to see the quarter final Club World Cup match between Palmeiras and Chelsea.  There's a good chance the crowd will exceed 50,000 and given that the City is already a hub of activity on July 4th with concerts and fireworks, getting to and from the South Philly venue could be an adventure. I believe the Broad Street subway is the preferred alternative.

I'm hoping Opta has this one wrong as they have Chelsea at 65%, Palmeiras at 15% with a 20% chance of extra time.  A more optimistic preview, at least in terms of an exciting match, can be found here.  

The other CWC quarters are Fluminense - Al-Hilal (guaranteeing one non-European side in the semis), Dortmund - Real Madrid and PSG -Bayern (guaranteeing at least two Euro sides in the semis).  Opta sees Al-Hilal, Real Madrid and PSG advancing.

The Gold Cup wraps up with the US - Mexico final Sunday at 7 pm.  Opta has that one at 43% Mexico, 31% US with a 26% chance of extra time.  

Don't despair, even as these tournaments wind down, there is still some mid-week football to be had.  The Club World Cup semis are Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons at 3 pm.  Better still, the Union take on Red Bulls Wednesday night at Subaru Park in the US Open Cup quarterfinals.  

But, a slow period is on the way, which might not be a bad thing.