I Mentioned the Bisque

So here are the highlights from a big weekend that included a Saturday night trip to Talen Energy Stadium for the Union match with Montreal and a Sunday morning gathering to watch Newcastle's return to the Premier League with a home match against Spurs:

- traffic to and from Talen Energy Stadium was very light
- we did not get rained on despite the forecasted severe thunderstorms
- Laura made a great fruit salad

Did I leave out anything important?  Don't think so.  Yadda, yadda, yadda

They Were Mediocre Until They Started to Suck

For 50 minutes you could argue that the Union were not awful in the match versus Montreal.  Neither side distinguished themselves but it was basically even.  The bad news was that everything that was working last week against Dallas was a little off; not quite as good on the ball, passes not hitting the target, more dump and chase versus build up play.

From about 50 to 65 minutes they even looked decent, getting their best scoring chance, a shot from Wijnaldum that hit the post.  Shortly thereafter the wheels fell off.  A quick counter resulted in Montreal's first tally and two more followed before the whistle mercifully ended things.  Hard to think this is true in an 0-3 loss but the Union's best player was likely keeper John McCarthy, who has more than adequately filled in several times this year for Andre Blake.

The defeat drops the Union to 9th - they managed to stay out of 10th only because New England's margin of victory was just one goal.  Pretty much the worst case scenario for the weekend.  They are still six points out of the playoff spot except that now the 6th place team has two games in hand and there are two other teams between them and 6th.  With 10 games to go this is not impossible but seems so unlikely given their inconsistency.

They Were Mediocre Until They Went Down to 10 Men

Sometimes it's annoying to be right.  Check out this quote from yours truly in the BFS 7/29/17 post:

All the activity so far seems helpful, but mostly in adding depth to the squad - certainly an important step in preparing for the coming season so that when, for example, Shelvey gets suspended, as he inevitably will, we're not shorthanded.

Turns out "inevitably will" was just 48 minutes into the new season.  He felt compelled to "playfully stomp" on Dele Alli's leg and was appropriately sent off.  To that point, Newcastle were holding their own defensively but generally not threatening.  The match could have easily ended 0-0 or maybe 1-0 either way.  The sending off gave Tottenham - who looked okay but not great - the advantage they needed to put two past keeper Rob Eliot.

A positive result here was always a long shot so the 0-2 loss by itself isn't awful.  But Shelvey is now out for 3 matches.  Maybe worse are the injuries picked up by Paul Dummett and Florian LeJeune, who are both likely out for several weeks.  LeJeune's injury was the result of a nasty tackle by Harry Kane.  I know Kane doesn't have a rep for this kind of stuff but it was a scissor tackle from behind that deserved a red card.  I'll admit real time I thought yellow was appropriate but replays show it was worse.  Not blaming the ref or Kane, mostly just whining that a key acquisition, who up to that point had been playing solid D, will be out for awhile.

3 of 5 Men from USA take in EPL opener

The small gathering at 6911 did open and share the vintage 2016 bottle of Newcastle Brown Ale that had been sitting in the fridge since the day the Magpies were relegated.  Probably aged better than those who sampled it.


Around the League

Some fun stuff at other grounds.  Arsenal's come from behind 4-3 win at Leicester on Friday got the season off to a cracking start.  The second match of the season also delivered the goods, with Watford rescuing a 3-3 draw at home against Liverpool with a goal in stoppage time.  After 13 goals in two games, the pace had to slow and it did.  Still, Everton-Stoke was decent.  Early on I noted that the only difference I could see in Wayne Rooney upon his return to Everton was that he was whining to the ref while wearing a blue shirt instead of red.  Then he scored the match's only goal on a well-directed header so I shut up.

David Silva channeling his inner Pablo Zabaleta

Burnley had a man advantage for 76 minutes and a two-man advantage for 10+ minutes but the match still hung in the balance right up to the final whistle; Sean Wyche and Burnley were happy to come home from Stamford Bridge with the 3-2 win regardless of how it played out.  Not an upset of the same magnitude but Huddersfield put a 3-0 hurting on Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park no less.  Bob K immediately announced that he will be joining Patrick Stewart as a Terrier fan.

Both Manchester franchises were victorious. Took me a while to realize the bald guy in midfield for Man City was the recently shaved David Silva, making some kind of tribute to departed teammate Pablo Zabaleta.


Chester Blues Update

The only good news of the weekend came on the virtual pitch and even that was a struggle.  Chester pushed Arsenal all over the place but the Community Shield match was 0-0 at the end of regulation time.  Fortunately, the Blues calmly deposited each kick from the spot into the net and claimed the victory.  We open the EPL season at the Stadium of Light.  Still some time left in the transfer window but we will probably stand pat.


Reload

Okay, let's try this again.  Newcastle go to Hudderfield goes on Sunday at 8:30 (NBCSN) in an early clash of newly promoted/trying not to get relegated sides.  The Magpies have added a new striker - Joselu from Stoke - which is helpful but again feels like added depth as opposed to a big increase in quality.  Obviously the Terriers are a side Newcastle will need to beat to stay up.

Spurs-Chelsea at 11 am (NBCSN) makes for a fine Sunday doubleheader.  The Blues will be without Cahill and Fabregas due to red card suspensions so maybe slight edge to Tottenham?  This will be Spurs first match in their temporary Wembley home.

Monday's match (3 pm NBCSN) between Man City and Everton could be fun.  The Toffees just added BFS fave (and ex-Chester Blue) Gylfi Sigurdsson, continuing their massive makeover.   Saturday TV matches include Swansea-Man United (7:30 NBCSN) , Liverpool-Crystal Palace (10 am NBCSN) and Stoke-Arsenal (12:30 pm NBC).  Swansea has more than $50 million to spend after selling Sigurdsson but probably won't have had the chance to do anything with it in time for Saturday's match so they could be up against it.  Liverpool and Crystal Palace will be wanting to put opening day behind them.

Holding off as long as I can but I'll probably plunk the $50 down next week to get the NBC Gold EPL package so I can see Newcastle-West Ham.

On the MLS side, the Union have to find the way to San Jose.  Given their record on the road (1-7-3), the prospects are bleak.  We note that the Earthquakes are 7-1-4 at home so this shapes up really well for the Union.  And they travel to Toronto the week after that so results could get mighty scarce in these parts.  But we'll hang in there.  Why? Gotta support the team.

Team Schizophrenia

Driving down to Talen Energy Stadium on Saturday night, Jeff H and I spent the entire time discussing the ongoing track and field World Championships in London.  As we got to the stadium, we finally addressed the elephant in the room - our monumentally low expectation as to how the Union would fare against FC Dallas.  The best we could come up with was they don't totally suck at home.

And then the whistle blew.  There was this team in blue working the ball out of the back, making nice spin moves to elude would-be tacklers, putting through balls to attackers and generally dominating play.  Who are these guys? Certainly not the same gang I watched lose 0-3 to New England last week.

The Union play was superb and this series of passes for the opening goal in the 17th minute seemed like the only logical outcome of the their work; Ilsinho's back heel return to Medunjanin alone could have been the YouTubeable Moment of the week.  Of course this was followed by some shaky defending but they held out long enough for Ilsinho to one-time a failed clearance for a 2-0 lead.  Which of course was followed by more shaky defending.  I will specifically absolve Jack Elliott from any of the blame for that as he seemed to be everywhere, cleaning up others miscues.  Oh, and Ilsinho made several fine defensive plays himself.  The good guys added a third goal in the 68th minute, which  meant that the FC Dallas goal in stoppage time did not lead to a chaotic, tense finish.

Their circumstances are not dramatically different than last week.  They are three points out of a playoff spot instead of six with 11 to go.  But the question is which team will show up on any given night.  Saturday's team would have every reasonable expectation of challenging for a playoff spot; the team from a week ago would be a relegation candidate if MLS had such a thing.


We Love the Video Assistant Referee

Referee here is not answering a question as to how big is his TV screen.
He's giving the soon-to-be universally recognized signal for a review.

This weekend marked the implementation of video assistant referee (VAR) in MLS and wouldn't you know we got to see its first use.  Up 3-0 the Union had appeared to concede a goal in the 79th minute. From our distant view it sure looked like McCarthy had gotten kicked in the groin and the goal never should have counted.  While McCarthy was being treated, I kept my eye on the referee who clearly was having a conversation with the booth.  Then he made the soon to be famous box gesture to indicate the play was indeed under review.  Didn't take long to overturn the goal.  You can see the incident here.

The call was completely correct.  You can see it was about three minutes between the ball going into the net and play restarting.  In this case there would have been a delay anyway for McCarthy's treatment.  Turns out the VAR was also used later in the Portland - LA match.  That replay is here.  Again, looks like it took about three minutes and use of the VAR resulted in the right call.  I'll lay even money that somebody like Paul Gardner will argue that it doesn't matter that they got the call right.  Gardner, you may recall, is the pundit who last year refused to praise an AR who, replays showed, had gotten an incredibly tight offside call correct; Gardner felt if it was that close the AR should be ignoring the offside in the interests of more scoring.  Look, if you don't like the rules then mount a campaign to change them.  Good luck with the effort to make it legal to kick the keeper in the balls as long as you score on the play.

Okay, having made fun of him I now have to acknowledge that one of his concerns about the VAR is likely on point.  I have a feeling that the VAR will in fact result in a net reduction in goals.  It can be used in four situations - goals, penalty kicks, straight red cards and mistaken identity.  While in theory everything could net out, I'm betting the bias will be more "should that goal stand?" and "was that really a foul in the box?" because there's a natural stoppage in play.  Asking the opposite questions - e.g., did we miss a foul in the box - has to wait until the next stoppage of play to be addressed.  Very awkward if much time passes at all.

But for now we think it's great...


The Wait Is Over

And the agony begins...

The EPL season gets under way this week.  Most will play on Saturday but Newcastle will open at home on Sunday against Tottenham.  Plenty of preview articles available now.  Here are links to three:

The Guardian
The Mirror
Goal

And a table summarizing the predictions (including some "super computer"):

Guardian      Mirror        Goal       Super Computer Arsenal 6 5 5 5 Bournemouth 11 11 12 14 Brighton 20 19 17 19 Burnley 18 17 19 18 Chelsea 2 3 3 3 Crystal Palace 14 9 15 10 Everton 7 7 7 7 Huddersfield 19 20 20 20 Leicester City 8 10 8 12 Liverpool 5 4 6 6 Manchester City 1 2 1 1 Manchester United 3 1 2 2 Newcastle 13 14 13 15 Southampton 9 13 10 9 Stoke City 16 15 13 16 Swansea City 17 16 18 13 Tottenham Hotspur 4 6 4 4 Watford 15 18 16 17 West Bromwich 12 12 11 11 West Ham United 10 8 9 8

Ooh, going to be some unhappy Gunners fans and Spurs supporters off of those predictions.  I'll be thrilled if Newcastle finish 13th.  No, wait, that's not true.  A club with this fan base and resources should be a perennial top ten.  Let's say I find 13th or 14th optimistic.  They have added depth - certainly an important piece to surviving in the EPL - but without some additional personnel moves (minimum is a quality striker) this looks to be another relegation battle.  I suppose 14th place and relegation battle may not be mutually exclusive.  Interesting that the predictions for 13 of the teams differ by no more than two places.  Only Crystal Palace, Leicester, Southampton and Swansea differ by four or more.

Reading The Guardian  preview for the Magpies was exceptionally depressing.  Most of the other previews discuss players and tactics; the Newcastle piece is about who holds sway in the board room and whether Rafa will stay.  


DVR Overload Alert

Simply too much going on this weekend with the EPL starting up and the track and field World Championships running thru Sunday.  If you see smoke, it's just my DVR.  Oh, and the old you can catch any EPL match on NBC Livestream?  Been replaced with NBCSportsGold; the Premier League Pass is $49.99 for the season.

Things start at 2:45 Friday with Arsenal hosting Leicester on NBCSN.  Saturday offers four matches on TV - Watford-Liverpool (7:30 NBCSN), Chelsea-Burnley (10:00 NBCSN), Everton-Stoke (10:00 CNBC) and Brighton-Man City for the featured NBC match at 12:30.  Add two more Sunday on NBCSN, with Newcastle hosting Spurs at 8:30 and Man United-West Ham at 11.

Spurs will likely remember the ridiculous season finale at St. James' two seasons ago - a useless win for the Magpies that allowed Arsenal to slip past Tottenham for second in the table.  Payback's a bitch I hear.

I'll be at Talen Energy Stadium Saturday night to see which Union side shows up to play Montreal.  With Columbus playing Chicago and Orlando traveling to NJ to face the Red Bulls, by 10 pm Saturday night the Union could be sitting in the sixth and final playoff spot.  Or they could have slipped back to 10th in the table.  That's the way it goes with this split personality team.

What To Do?

If Yogi Berra was a soccer guy, he might have said:

You can't gain ground on the teams above you in the table if you keep losing to teams below you because pretty soon there won't be teams below you in the table you can beat to gain ground on the ones above you.

Exactly.  You can't look it up but I think he's right.

Another wretched road performance from the Union as they fell to New England 0-3.  The 3 part is slightly misleading as there were some late goals but the 0 part is dead on.   They were better in the second half and I had hopes that when Picault and Ilsinho came on at 60 minutes that the Union would take advantage of the Revolution side that does allow a good number of goals.  Never happened.  So 9th in the table (New England slides past them) and six points short of a playoff berth. With 12 games to play you should be saying this ain't over but without any consistency, you don't see them making a run.

So what's up with this team?  I looked at two measures of player performance - the Audi Player Index (API) and the ratings at whoscored.com.  I'm a little skeptical of the Audi stuff based on a few things I've read plus I couldn't find the index using a per minute basis; this means more playing time can boost your ranking in comparison to an equally good player with fewer minutes.

First thing you notice is the dearth of players in the top 20 in either system.  C.J. Sapong's quality year is borne out by his rankings of 13th in the API and 15th at whoscored.  Blake is doing okay too at 35th and 32nd.  Medunjanin has been decent in my books, though he's dropped off a little bit lately;  he's at 47th and 54th, which is in line with my overall assessment.    One problem area I see is our designated player, Alejandro Bedoya is only at 153rd (partly of function of missed playing time I think) and 72nd (seems like a more accurate placement).  That's not awful, except in the context that he's supposed to be our standout player.  Sure wish we could see performances like he put on in the Gold Cup group play.

Onyewu (106/51) and Elliott (216/101) aren't awful either, while Gaddis (329/182) is somewhat worse than I would have guessed and Fabinho (254/98) is about where I'd expect.  The other place we are getting hurt is in the supporting cast.  Alberg (400/277), Ilsinho (331/159), Pontius (203/128) and Picault (295/137 - a little surprised those aren't better) don't rate well at all.  Simpson (430/294) just hasn't worked out so far.

You look at the Union goals scored and goals allowed and they are actually a plus two differential.  Twenty-nine goals is 9th lowest in the division but twenty-seven allowed is 4th best.  Short assessment for me - we don't have a standout or two (with apologies to CJ) and too many in the supporting cast aren't as good as we thought.  At least we don't have to worry about relegation.


Not Your Father's Gillette Stadium

For those [sorry souls?] that did tune in to see the Union-Revolution match, you might have been wondering why I had said the venue was perhaps the second worst in MLS.  I was shocked myself.  Where's the artificial turf? Where are all the football lines cluttering the playing surface?  Why does it seem larger?  Looked like a pretty good place to play.  Ah, it turns out there was some international club action scheduled the next day and those sides refuse to play on artificial turf.  So they laid down a real soccer pitch.  The players took out some serious divots but I thought it held up pretty well.

Also, did anybody else notice what Diego Fagundez does with his shorts?  Somehow he tucks the ends up so that they are shorter.  Couldn't find a picture from the match but in this promo shot you can see what I'm talking about.  I guess he feels the length gets in the way.






Pro and Con Pro/Rel

Speaking of relegation Soccer America just ran a recent piece on the advantages and disadvantages of American soccer moving to system of promotion and relegation.  You can read the article here.  The pro arguments are fan interest, incentive for player development and the threat that once expansion ends, the lower leagues will die off.  The cons are the investors and owners didn't put money into MLS with the expectation that they would be at risk for relegation and that getting relegated sucks.  As long as the league is expanding, it's probably going to be tough to implement pro/rel but I do think we'll need to get there eventually if we want to have professional soccer at something better than League Two quality.


MLS All-Stars 1 Real Madrid 1

Another contest unlikely to win over American fans.  More entertaining and wide open in the second half but I was hoping for more goals. The score is mildly misleading in that RMA had more possession and more shots and the MLS goal came late.   I always debate which side has the advantage in this format.  MLS players are in mid-season form but Real Madrid (or whichever international club team the all-stars take on) is a squad that plays together regularly.  Real Madrid held out Ronaldo (probably couldn't back from his court date on tax evasion) and Modric but played many other first teamers.  I still think this is a better format than MLS East vs MLS West.


A Word on Chester

One more friendly to go.  Still fine tuning the roster.  We did add Martin Skrtel of Liverpool fame for some depth at center back.  We are experimenting with five at the back.  The game's analytics and my coaches are telling me a 5-3-2 is our strongest formation but not completely sold on it yet.


Nothing New Tyneside

Except a pile of rumors.  Apparently the talks for McCarthy are still on but he just doesn't seem worth 25 million.  Many rumors about striker Lucas Perez being available for 14 million but for some reason this seems to be a tough one to close.  Part of it is Perez may want to go to Deportivo.  Also, I sometimes forget that the transfer fee isn't necessarily the sticking point - it could be the salary.  So you can't say if Newcastle are willing to sign McCarthy at 25 mil, why not Perez who's fee is so much less.  That happens to me all the time in Football Manager.  I get excited when I see Santi Cazorla is available for a $10 million transfer fee (which I can afford), then quickly realize the board will never approve his $105k per week salary.


The Weekend

Will be at Talen Energy to see the Union take on FC Dallas. They are second in the West, have a stingy defense and a pretty good goal differential.  Yeah, this should go well.

Hardware!

The sand of the ocean is still ringing in my ears (not a typo, I got slammed by a wave and am still shaking sand out of various body parts) but we will soldier on.  A good win for the USMNT, a split for the Union and continued activity in Newcastle.


A Trophy Is A Trophy

ROBYN BECK/Getty Images

CONCACAF is a trap for the US - damned if you don't win, discounted if you do.   Screw that - winning the Gold Cup was a key accomplishment.  First of all, you can only win the confederation championship of your confederation - we can't move to Europe.  Second, CONCACAF is not as bad as people say.  Third, I realize Jamaica didn't even make it to the Hex for World Cup qualifying but this group of Reggae Boyz is way better than they were a year ago, when Theodore Whitmore took over as interim manager.  Fourth, yes some of the teams were not at full strength (e.g., Mexico and Costa Rica) but remember the US was without all of their European players (Pusilic, Cameron, Yedlin, etc.).  Let the confetti fall!

After a string of lackluster outings, the US put up two consecutive strong performances.  The 2-0 semi-final win over Costa Rica was a bit of payback for the 0-4 WC qualifier disaster last year.  If I remember right, the US got off to a good start but needed a couple of key saves from Howard to stay level.  Then Dempsey came on to set up Altidore for the first and put the match away with a well-struck free kick.

They also started brightly in the final against Jamaica.  Of course, that can be a little misleading because Jamaica willingly cede possession to the other side and then catch you napping with their speed on the counter.  Altidore's late first half free kick gave the US a 1-0 lead at the break (Question - does Andre Blake, who had to leave the match with a lacerated hand, make the save on that shot?  Miller got a hand to it so maybe Blake gets all of it.  Hard to say and it was a great take from Jozy) but Jordan Morris lost his man on a corner kick and Jamaica leveled things at 50 minutes.  That got Dempsey into the match possibly a little earlier than planned.  US had the run of play for the rest of the match and Jamaica were clearly running out of steam.  Subs Zardes and Dempsey combined to put a ball right on Morris' foot and he buried the game winner in the 88th minute. The sweet finish from Morris is this week's YouTubeableMoment.

So where do we go from here?  Back to the WC qualifiers in September.  For me some of the players whose stock went up in the Gold Cup were Morris, Nagbe, Villafana, and maybe Dwyer.  Acosta was up and down but did show some promise.  Howard is still a force in goal.  If Dempsey is cool with the role of super-sub, that's good.  Altidore got some goals after a long quiet period.  I'll be interested to see how the team plays when they fold the European guys back in. But certainly the best we've been able to feel about the USMNT in a while.


Treading Water

The news is not so good on the local front.  The Union completed its third straight match on a night with the USMNT playing and finally got a win.  Last week's 0-1 loss at Columbus wasn't much fun to watch, though you could argue that an 0-0 draw wouldn't have been a totally unfair result.  The winning goal was a random deflection off of Yaro.  However, when you manage zero, zilch, nada shots on goal, 0-0 is the best you can hope for.

Wednesday's home return against the Crew went a little better.  An early goal provided some momentum and they could have been up 2-0 after Sapong got pulled down in the box.  But Alberg was stopped on the PK.  Did you notice the "discussion" between Sapong and Alberg as to who would take the kick?  According to The Inquirer, before the match Curtin had said Alberg would take any PKs.  You can see Sapong pleading with Alberg to take it.  Bedoya has to come in and tell Sapong to stick with the plan.  Not the best thing to have happening on the pitch but apparently they got things smoothed out at halftime.  Playing a man up for much of the match, and two up at the end, the Union sailed to an easy 3-0 win.  Sapong for his part had a role in all the goals.

But trading wins isn't going to make up ground.  With 13 matches to play, the Union are in 8th, five back of Columbus (with a game in hand) and three back of Orlando.  Not insurmountable but they will need some road wins to cut into the gaps.  Tonight's match (7:30) at Foxboro vs the Revolution  would be a good place to start.  I can hardly bring myself to watch matches at Foxboro; almost as bad as Yankee Stadium as a soccer venue.


Another Signing

On Friday, Newcastle completed the transfer for holding midfielder Mikel Merino (loan with purchase after a year).  He played at Osasuna first, then Borussia Dortmund.  Looks like a decent acquisition.  All the activity so far seems helpful, but mostly in adding depth to the squad - certainly an important step in preparing for the coming season so that when, for example, Shelvey gets suspended, as he inevitably will, we're not shorthanded.  But IMHO, all of this work, which has been done with a very low net spend, needs to be capped off by at least one bigger signing.  I'd prefer that be for a high quality striker.  I keep hearing about getting James McCarthy but the price of $25m (euros, pounds, dollars, whichever) seems like a ridiculous sum to spend on a player of his quality.  Also too, he doesn't help the striker situation.  Still plenty of time in the transfer window.

Either my internet skills are declining or maybe it's too early but I didn't find any good team-by-team previews of the upcoming EPL season.  I did find one betting firm's computer prediction here.  Will keep looking.

This Is Not My Beautiful Game; This Is Not My Beautiful Team

Musical Accompaniment for this post Courtesy of the Talking Heads

I watched all or part of three matches on Wednesday.  By the end, I was ready to take up curling.


Waiting for Godoy

Joined the Costa Rica-Panama Gold Cup quarterfinal match at about 50 minutes with the score 0-0.  What I didn't know at the time was that earlier Panama's Anibal Godoy had pulled down a Costa Rican attacker in the box but was not penalized.  Neither team offered much of an attack and the match was seemingly drifting towards PKs to get a result (no extra time for the quarters or semis in the Gold Cup, straight to kicks).  But in the 77th minute Godoy sent a beautiful header off a free kick into the net; the problem was that it was his own net.  The header was awesome - check it out here.  
Textbook case of karma.  That was it for the scoring and Costa Rica is on to the semis.


El Salvador Not So Toothless

Eric Lichaj puts US up 2-0

Moving to the US - El Salvador match, things were not much better even worse.  The US were mostly disorganized on defense and couldn't string together two passes in the attack.  El Salvador had them on their heels.  Tim Howard saved Eric Lichaj's butt after Eric delivered a classic hospital ball off a back pass and there were several other breakdowns but fortunately no goals.  Late in the half Michael Bradley delivered a flat free kick into the box that Omar Gonzalez slightly redirected for the opening goal.  Minutes later, Lichaj - holding up his run like an experienced striker even though he's a right back - took a clever and perfectly weighted pass from Clint Dempsey and nutmegged the keeper for a wholly misleading and arguably undeserved 2-0 half time lead.  Lichaj's poor celebratory head-first slide into the corner presaged the greater ugliness to come in the second half.

After the break, the US continued to have breakdowns and errant passes so a third goal was unlikely.  Fortunately, El Salvador seemed more interested in physical play and simulating fouls than scoring.  Just an ugly half that featured Henry Romero giving Jozy Altidore a purple nurple (there's an expression I never expected to use in my adult life, much less a soccer blog).  Not satisfied with that assault, Romero bit Altidore minutes later.  I am not making this up.  Neither infraction was spotted by the referee or his assistants.   Neither side cloaked themselves in glory but the US does advance to play Costa Rica in the semis.

I can see a number of line up changes for the Costa Rica match.  Hedges was not too good at center back and Morrow (who had showed well in earlier matches) wasn't much better at left back.  Gonzalez and Lichaj had some bad moments but also some decent stuff plus they each got a goal.  Arriola wasn't awful but can't seem to get a shot on goal.  So we might see Besler, Villafana and McCarty get starts.


Playoffs?  Playoffs?

Wednesday's depressing trilogy with the beautiful game concluded with the Union's underwhelming 1-2 loss to Montreal.   As I said last week, a draw wouldn't be good enough for a side with playoff aspirations so the defeat suggests we are back in Jim Mora territory with respect to the Union's playoff chances.  Totally forgettable - all I remember is that the Union goal was an absolute gift and that the winning goal came off some confusion/misplay by Wijnaldum and Elliott.  Missing Bedoya, Pontius, Blake and Herbers didn't help the Union cause.  Just a bad night and a blow to the playoff chances.


The Other Side of the Bracket

 The other Gold Cup quarterfinal matches were much more watchable.  Canada spotted Jamaica two goals, got one back but came up short in a 1-2 loss; Andre Blake did some decent work in goal for the Reggae Boyz.   The speed of Honduras gave Mexico all they could handle but El Tri came away with a 1-0 win that featured good up and down the field action.  Despite six yellows and a few dust-ups, I didn't find it as chopped up by constant fouling as the US-El Salvador match.  Maybe because it was more competitive, maybe it was better refereeing but it was just more fun to watch.


In Praise of the Fourth Official

Yeah, I know they don't actually have the pressure of making the big calls, but after watching the Honduran manager blister the fourth official for a non-call by the referee, I have to give these guys some love.  Checking the Laws of the Game to see the specific duties of the fourth official we find:

- Taking sh*t from managers and players

Look it up if you don't believe me.


Action on the Tyne

A veritable flood of new signings by Newcastle.  First they added winger Jacob Murphy from Norwich; Murphy hasn't played above the Championship level yet but did appear for England's U21 team this year. Shortly after, they added full back Javier Manquillo from Atletico.   Manquillo is listed as right back but can play both sides.  I'll maintain that they still need a striker, especially with the departure of Daryl Murphy.  Mixed feelings about Murphy moving on; he's probably not EPL level at this point in his career but he saved Newcastle's butt a few times last season.

It was reassuring to see the Magpies reel in some targets.


Hoping for Better

So Saturday will be another USMNT/Union double header.  The Union is on the road to take on the Columbus Crew, who fell out of the top six last week.  Still an important chance for the Union to gain ground on a side ahead of them.  That's at 7:30.  Later that night (10 pm on FS1), the US takes on Costa Rica in the Gold Cup semi-final.  What to expect?  Who knows.  I'm not planning for a pretty game.  The other semi - Jamaica vs Mexico - is Sunday night at 9 pm on FS1.  The final will be on Wednesday at 9:30 on FS1.

21 days to go for the EPL season, 23 if you're Newcastle or Tottenham.

Entertaining Isn't Always Good

Not when you're the USMNT playing a squad of amateurs and sixth division French players.  Sure, the US 3-2 win over Martinique held your attention but for the wrong reasons.  After a scoreless first half (not a good sign right there) the US did break through for a 2-0 lead.  But then they surrendered that lead and entered the 75th minute tied with a minnow (from the small CONCACAF pond no less).  Fortunately, one of the players who did have a good match, Jordan Morris, got his second goal of the night for the game winner in the 76th minute (this week's YouTubeableMoment).  Exciting when it shouldn't be.  Coming on the heels of a mediocre performance in a 1-1 draw with Panama on Saturday night, this was not a good few days for the team.

Bruce Arena, correctly IMHO, assessed his needs for the group stage play and chose a roster to give some players a chance to impress him.  The gamble will likely pay off in so far as the US looks to be in good position to advance to the knockout stage despite the mediocre performances.   But the news is bad in that Arena probably hasn't found a lot of prospects for the first team.  The depth of the US squad is quite suspect at this time.   Dom Dwyer and Jordan Morris have likely seen their stock rise.  I thought Eric Lichaj (pronounced "Smith" "Lehigh") showed pretty well at right back.  Kelyn Rowe did some nice work setting up the goal versus Panama but was also partially culpable on the Panama goal.  Was there anybody else you'd like to see get more playing time when the critical matches come up?  Maybe Gyasi Zardes?  Kellyn Acosta at this point is not playing like the heir apparent to anybody.

Mexico is employing the same strategy as the US - playing their second team to get through the knockout stage.  Their match with Jamaica was a bit of disappointment, a 0-0 draw that wasn't as freeflowing as I had expected.  Brad Friedel may be right; Jamaica gave the Mexicans too much respect and didn't attack like they could have.  I don't know Costa Rica's squad as well but Bryan Ruiz was playing; they only managed a draw with Canada.  With the rosters likely to change for the knockout rounds, handicapping the tournament is difficult.


Road Point

John McCarthy makes a big time save

to keep the Union in the match

I only saw the highlights of the Union draw against Sporting KC but they sure make it look like the home side ran rampant over our squad and only a fine performance by John McCarthy in goal kept us in the match.  The PK on Sapong that allow us to get a tie?  Close call but for me (biased of course), the fact that Sapong had gotten past the defender inside the box means that any contact is not likely to be accidental and certainly not shoulder-to-shoulder.  I'm okay with the call and very happy with a point in a place where most sides come home empty handed.  Good to have that be the final action before the Gold Cup break.



Dithering on the Tyne

Another week full of rumors and speculation but no signings for Newcastle.  For me they are walking a fine line.  Overpaying for transfer targets by 20% is not a good strategy.  But at some point they will likely have to compromise, at least a little on some of the transfer fees.  Maybe clubs will get nervous that they can't unload the players and prices will come down a little.  Then Newcastle look like geniuses.   I keep hearing about possible rifts between Ashley and Benitez but the issue to me looks like it's as much Rafa who's unwilling to grossly overpay as Ashley being a tightwad.

It's also not like this has been a hyperactive transfer window so far, with maybe Everton being the exception.  The Toffees have been busy this summer and just added Wayne Rooney.  Man United has acquired Romelu Lukaku to replace Zlatan Ibrahimovic, at least in theory.  


Coming Up

Some of you may need to brush up on your Spanish for the US-Nicaragua match at 7 pm on Saturday.  TV coverage is FXX (691 on my Fios) - not sure how many get that channel.  Your alternative is Univision.  Quarterfinal matches are Wednesday and Thursday.  Wednesday's matches are at Lincoln Financial Field.

Wednesday will also see the Union traveling to Montreal.  The club could still be missing Bedoya, Pontius and Blake because of the Gold Cup action but that tournament won't have an, um, impact on Montreal.  I suppose a draw is acceptable but if the Union are going to be a play-off team, this is a club they must beat.

Plus C'est La Meme Chose

French for it appears that nothing much has changed since we last spoke.  Not entirely true but pretty close.


Transfer Doings on the Tyne

Two weeks ago Newcastle's only transfer signing was to make the Christian Atsu loan permanent.  A lot of water has flowed under the bridge or over the dam since then and for all that activity, there has been exactly one more completed deal.  Returning to the old pattern, the Magpies have added a Frenchman who's under 27 and cost less than $15m.  Meet Florian Lejeune.  This does appear to be a good signing and Newcastle did not overpay.  There are plenty of stories and rumors about Benitez being frustrated and/or ready to quit because of the slow progress in the transfer window.  There may be a little bit of fire behind the smoke if owner Mike Ashley is limiting Rafa to younger, cheaper players.  On the other hand, Benitez may just be frustrated that the market is way overpriced right now and though he knows he needs to add players, Rafa is not likely to grossly overvalue his targets.  Hopefully the Lejeune signing will silence some of this noise.

Not all EPL teams have had such a quiet summer so far.  Everton have done well, adding keeper Jordan Pickford from Sunderland, playmaker Davy Klaassen from Ajax (altogether class, it's pronounced  I - yaks) and defender Michael Keane from Burnley.  Bournemouth have also been busy, adding keeper Asmir Begovic from Chelsea, Jermain Defoe from Sunderland and Nathan Ake from Chelsea.  Man City have done more housecleaning than anything else, dropping Pablo Zabaleta (picked up by West Ham), Gael Clichy, Jesus Naves, Willy Caballero (who chose Chelsea over Newcastle, imagine that) and Bacary Sagna.  Decent players all but not surprising they are gone as Man City will be aiming higher this year.  They did add a high quality playmaker in Bernardo Silva.

On the managerial front, we have "new" faces in Mauricio Pellegrino at Southampton, Frank deBoer at Crystal Palace and Marco Silva at Watford.  A new manager at Southampton is like the swallows returning to Capistrano - a regular annual event.


Union Doing Okay

Six points from three matches while we were away for the Union.  Not too bad, though the wins came against two of the division's weaker sides - DC United and the Revolution.  Still, as a colleague once noted, you can only beat who you play.  Made sense at the time.  Even in the loss to the Red Bulls, they showed heart.  After being pushed around in the first half and looking totally vulnerable at the start of the second half, Derrick Jones got sent off.  We expected a slaughter at that point.  Instead, they played much better and even had a couple of great set piece opportunities to take the lead.  In the end though they surrendered two late goals but maybe they learned something in the process.

A common pose for CJ Sapong lately

C.J. Sapong is having a great season, not only with his own goal scoring but in creating opportunities for others.  Haris Medunjanin leads the team in assists and is providing leadership on the pitch.  Simple but effective pass here from Med to Alberg for a goal; the quality of the strike makes it this week's YouTubeableMoment.  Fafa Picault provides speed like we've not seen before, which means that the previously annoying habit of sending long balls forward that no one could get to is now a serious attacking option.

Yes, it's been much better of late but let's not get ahead of ourselves.  The team is still prone to lapses on defense and has depended on some excellent shot stopping from Andre Blake.  Even in the 3-0 win over New England, at 2-0 the Revolution hit the post and at 2-1 that match could have gone in any direction.  The Union now have three straight away - Sporting KC on Thursday, Montreal on 7/19 and Columbus on 7/22.  The latter two are really big as they are trying to get separation from Montreal below them and catch Columbus, who currently hold the last playoff spot.    As of today, the Union are three out of that spot with two games in hand.


Glorified Friendlies

Tried to get into the Confederations Cup but just couldn't.  Recall that this is essentially a tune up for the host country in preparation for next year's World Cup.  Not clear how much the players are into summer tournaments after a long club season, especially with WC qualifying matches to be played later this year.  I did see the first Mexico-Portugal match and it was decent but still didn't entice me to watch any others.  Feel free to give me crap for missing out on good stuff if there was.  Germany won.

The Gold Cup, which is the bi-annual CONCACAF championship, is a little more real - more on a par with the quadrennial European Championships, except the teams aren't as good.  But it does tend to stir national rivalries and the matches will have more bite (if less quality) than the Confederations Cup. You can get more details here on the tournament.  The winner of the tournament does get a chance to possibly play in the 2021 Confederations Cup but having just sort of trashed that competition, it doesn't sound like such a big prize.  But it would be good for the US to play in a tournament like that.


Chester

Slightly ahead in the virtual calendar as we are well into pre-season friendlies.  The board has ramped-up expectations for the club this year.  In addition to competing for the EPL title (which we've won the last two years), they want us in the Champions League quarter finals and the FA Cup semi finals.  So I'm diligently fine tuning the roster, adding some older players in hopes of getting the wins in the tournaments, which is much different than the week-to-week process of winning a league title.

TV

The Gold Cup will dominate the schedule for the next few weeks.  Fox and FXX will have the games.  Only 37 days to the start of the EPL season.