That Was The Week That Was

A Thanksgiving cornucopia of stories for this week.


Howay The Lads!

Gayle scores number two. Photograph: Nigel French/PA

The Rafalution marches on and for once I got to watch, though not the full 90 minutes as discussed below.  Newcastle came out strong away at Leeds and though the actual goal was lucky, the 1-0 lead was fully deserved.  Around 30 minutes, momentum shifted and the Magpies were being pushed all over the field. Leeds fans probably feel cheated there was no call for handling in the box against Jack Colback but I think the ref got it right.  Then there was some good keeper play from Karl Darlow to preserve the lead.  Around 50 minutes I texted Dennis to suggest this had all the makings of a 1-2 loss.  No sooner had I hit send then Shelvey, Anita and Perez made some incisive passes which ended with an unmarked Gayle making a sliding run to the far post for the second goal.  The air went out of Leeds sails and Newcastle smartly chose not to give up a late goal just to make the last five minutes more interesting, as they have been wont to do lately.  Newcastle finished the weekend five up on Brighton and nine up on Reading.


Who Let Rosemary Woods Into the Editing Room?

For some inexplicable reason, as a youth I was a big Notre Dame football fan.  I told my parents I was going to play football for them.  They said "but you're not Catholic."  "Neither is Joe Theismann," I responded.  A cool thing about being a Notre Dame fan back then, in the era of four VHF and maybe five UHF TV stations, was that late Sunday morning there was always a replay of Saturday's game. The only problem was they had to cram it into an hour; I clearly remember the constant refrain "with the score still the same, we skip to further action in the game."

I bring this up because the time slot for the Newcastle-Leeds contest, shown on delay, was 1 pm to 2:30 on beIN Sports.  Clearly, there was going to have be some editing to fit the match in the allotted 90 minutes so I was watching closely.  For nearly an hour, everything was kosher.  Then at 59:40, Leeds were whistled for offside.  The camera pans downfield in anticipation of Darlow's free kick. The ball lands and the clock reads 70:40.  Wow, talk about your hang time.  Probably didn't miss anything and if you weren't paying attention, the edit was seamless.  Still, I was surprised they went for a big cut as opposed to multiple smaller ones.


Oh To Be In England Now That Stoppage Time Is Here

I see two North London sides that are happy that matches are 90 minutes plus stoppage time. Tottenham was facing a completely unacceptable 1-2 loss at home against West Ham while Arsenal were close to a disappointing but not awful 0-1 loss away at Man United.

In the 89th, Harry Kane was able to bring Spurs level with a real poachers goal.  So an unacceptable loss had been converted to a slightly less unacceptable draw.  But two minutes later, Son was fouled in the box and Harry Kane converted the PK to complete an improbable 3-2 comeback victory.  This was a total surprise to me as earlier someone had told me the score was 2-2 at 90 minutes.  I cited him for dvr violation but he tried to cover his tracks by saying well, it wasn't full time so anything could happen.  I did not rescind the yellow card but was glad I watched anyway.

Though technically not in stoppage time, Olivier Giroud's 89th minute header snatched a draw from the jaws of defeat for Arsenal at Old Trafford.  A 1-0 win for Man United would have been a fair result for the home side given their strong play for most of the game but they paid for not putting away earlier chances.  They will also feel hard-done by Andre Marriner's decision not to whistle Monreal for a foul in the box in the first half.  Monreal did put out a straight arm and there may have been contact with Valencia's chest.  As we have discussed here many times, if you do those things in the box you have little room to argue if the referee signals for a PK.  However, IMHO Monreal did not impede Valencia, who decided he needed to fall down away, and Marriner got the call right.  The match ended with Rooney complaining to the referee about a different non-call, which as we have noted before, usually means a good result, unless you're a Red Devil fan.


The Stadium of Cellphone Light

A running joke here at BFS has been to make fun of Sunderland's woes by altering the name of their park - the Stadium of Light - to reflect the hard times faced by the club.  Last Saturday, we didn't even have to make it up, as reality and ragging caught up.  At about 51 minutes, the stadium experienced a power failure and for 10 minutes the pitch was illuminated solely by cellphone lights. Turns out the joke was on Hull, as the Black Cats put a 3-0 hurting on the visitors.  They may have also stumbled on a winning formula - get a man sent off.  They now have two wins against one loss in matches that they play a man down.  Addition by subtraction perhaps?


The Shrinking Middle Table

Have you looked at the table lately?   There are five teams within three points of the relegation zone, another two within four points and two more within six points.  At the top there are five teams that are five or more points clear of sixth.  That leaves three mid-table sides - Man United, Everton and Watford.  Leicester are only two points clear while Crystal Palace and West Ham are only safe by one point.  Not even a third of the way into the season I realize but the smell of relegation flop sweat is already in the air.  This might make for a really busy January transfer window with teams overpaying for players to avoid the demotion.


That's Entertainment


I have vague recollections of being unimpressed with the MLS conference finals in previous years.  Not so this time around as the first legs of both series were highly entertainingly, if not high quality.  The Eastern Conference match got off to a slow start as, in this week's U12 moment, the field was improperly lined.  As you can see from the picture (left) the penalty areas were about two yards short on both sides.  Once this was corrected, Montreal went nuts, staking themselves to a 3-0 lead.  Usually, you can afford to lose 1-0 in the road match and maybe 2-0 but a 3-0 deficit is big trouble.  But then the stars came out for Toronto as Michael Bradley and then Jozy Altidore pulled the visitors to within one.  They are now well-positioned for the home leg; scores like 1-0, 2-0 and 2-1 are now good enough to advance to the final.  In Seattle, the field was properly lined and it was Colorado that jumped to the early lead.  But the Sounders responded well and completed a 2-1 win in the first leg. Still, Colorado's position isn't awful on the strength of the away goal, though their margin for error isn't as good as Toronto's.


Jurgen Out

We knew it was a distinct possibility that Klinsmann would not survive the week and indeed he didn't.  We can't say "Jurgen, we hardly knew thee" as his tenure was one of the longest for a USMNT coach.  As I said last week, I've been more supportive than most but I'm okay with this decision, even though it comes in the middle of WC qualifying.  To wait until March was just too risky if things didn't get sorted out.  Bruce Arena was a safe the only choice given the timing in the qualifying cycle.

I don't think his tenure was as awful as people suggest.  Some say the US advanced out of the 2014 World Cup group stage despite his efforts.  That seems harsh; they got out of the most difficult group, drew Portugal (and came with a minute of winning that match) and took Belgium to extra time. Sacking him after the 2015 Gold Cup debacle and subsequent loss to Mexico in the playoff for the Confederations Cup might have been fair, given that Klinsmann himself had put so much weight on those competitions.  The 0-2 loss to Guatemala in the early stages of WC qualifying certainly provided enough justification to let him go.  But after reaching the quarterfinals of the Copa America Centenario, it was harder to pull the trigger.  My memory may not be complete here but I can think of only three times the US won a match in the knockout phase of a tournament (1994 WC Colombia, 2002 WC Mexico and 2016 Copa America Centenario Ecuador) and Klinsmann has one of them.  But in the end, I think you can point to a lack of progress as the ultimate factor here.  We are still not the biggest fish (at least regularly and by a wide margin) in the little pond of CONCACAF so how far have we really come?  Some significant part of that must be attributed to Klinsmann.


Other Stuff

Yeah, I know there was Champions League and Europa but sorry.  Also, in virtual reality of Football Manager, Chester suffered a few losses - to Atletico in Champions League and Man United in EPL play - but we are on to the knock out stage in CL and have a three point lead in EPL so something must be working.


A Quiet Weekend?

Easily the most interesting match this weekend in Chelsea-Tottenham at 12:30 on Saturday (NBC).  My second choice would be Swansea-Crystal Palace because of the desperation of both managers to get a win. Pardew has all but conceded he is out unless they get a result in Wales; Bradley probably has a little more rope but not that much.  Unfortunately, you can only stream that match.  Another match infused with some relegation drama, that you can see, is Leicester at home against Middlesbrough (Saturday, 10 am CNBC).   Matches involving other top of the table sides include Burnley- Man City (Saturday 7:30 NBCSN), Liverpool-Sunderland (Saturday, 10 am NBCSN) and Arsenal-Bournemouth (Sunday 9:15 CNBC).

Don't forget second legs of MLS conference finals.  Colorado-Seattle is 4 pm on Sunday (ESPN) and Toronto-Montreal is 7 pm on Wednesday (FS1).  I'm expecting the field marking lines to be spot on for both matches.

The Way to San Jose

The US is off to a terrible start in the Hex, Tim Howard is injured, the team seems in disarray and Klinsmann is under the microscope again.  Did I leave anything out?

The loss to Costa Rica was not unexpected.  We never win at Estadio Nacional de Costa Rica in San Jose; in World Cup Qualifying the USMNT is 0-9-1.  But the magnitude of the defeat (0-4), coming on the heels of the 1-2 loss at home against Mexico, has everybody associated with US soccer scrambling a bit right now.

The attention/blame seems to be spread evenly between the players and Klinsmann.  And that seems about right.  Bobby Wood, Christian Pulisic and maybe Brad Guzan are the only players who weren't bad to awful.  As for the rest, check out the all the 1's, 2's and 3's in this Soccer America player assessment.  Regarding Klinsmann, I think it's fair to ask why he chose to unveil the 3-5-2 for the Mexico match as opposed to some earlier friendlies.  The element of surprise?  Yes the Mexicans were surprised - at how easy it was to shred the defense.  It could have been 0-3 by 30 minutes.  The coach must also take some responsibility for the players coming out so flat in San Jose.  And why did he sub Pulisic, the only one who had generated any offense, albeit limited, in a like for like change with the US already down against Costa Rica?

I have been one of his more loyal supporters.  I thought the 2014 World Cup was fair progress but the 2015 Gold Cup and CONCACAF playoff were disasters.  The US performance in the Copa Centenario this summer seemed like a recovery.  But now I don't know.  If these were just bad games as opposed to a serious problem with the team, the situation in the Hex, with eight matches to go, is entirely retrievable.  If they are symptoms of bigger problems, waiting until after a few more matches in the spring to make wholesale changes may be too late, as we learned with Newcastle earlier this year.


On Other Continents

Brazil (6 points) and Chile (4 points) were the big winners in the CONMEBOL qualifying.  Brazil solidified their position at the top while Chile moved into the top four.  Colombia (1 point) were probably the biggest loser, falling out of the top four and now sitting in a non-qualifying spot.  Some of the marquee matches came up uncompetitive, like Brazil 3-0 over Argentina or Colombia going down 0-3 to Argentina.  Chile-Colombia was 0-0 but devoid of any excitement.  The two Uruguay matches (2-1 win over Ecuador and 1-3 loss to Chile) were probably the best viewing.

I only got to see a few European matches.  England-Scotland was enough of a blowout that I switched at 70 minutes to the more competitive and compelling France-Sweden contest.  Fortunately I had dvred it so I started at about 50 minutes with the score at 0-0.  Sweden got a short-lived lead with a goal at 55 minutes that was matched by Pogba three minutes later.  I recall thinking there was something squirrelly about the goal but don't remember what it was.  Payet got the game winner at 68 minutes.  Croatia-Iceland in Zagreb was competitive but the home team was clearly the better side and deserved their 2-0 win; the visitors probably missed their injured star striker Alfreo (Huck) Finnbogason.


Sports and Politics

An empty MAPFRE Stadium, Columbus Ohio

Sorry gang but though we'd like them to be separate, that's not possible.  I was reminded of this as I tuned into the Croatia-Iceland WC qualifier to see an empty Stadion Maksimir in Zagreb.  Once again, the Croatia national team would be playing in front of an announced crowd of zero following a stadium ban by FIFA because of racist and homophobic actions by their fans.  The spike of similar incidents in the US by people emboldened by the election results made me wonder if it could happen here.  Not if we speak up and speak out.  It is not overly PC to challenge these behaviors, it's being a decent human being.  Let's make sure the picture above is not one from a future US international home match.  It would be extremely disappointing if a US national team ever had to play in an empty park because of a stadium ban.


Green Stadium

BFS Architectural Consultant Philip S. sends along the story of a stadium made entirely of wood, the new home of fifth division Forest Green.  Besides looking really cool, it has an organic pitch cut by solar powered robot mower.   Wood fell out of favor as a stadium material after a fire in 1985 but advances in flame retardant treatments have addressed safety concerns.  The Rovers are currently leading the division by a healthy margin and are on track to promotion to League 2.


Back to Club Football

A rare treat for me this Sunday as the Newcastle match away at Leeds United will be televised (on delay) at 1 pm on beINSports.  Very much looking forward to that.

The EPL schedule gets going early Saturday with Man United hosting Arsenal at 7:30 on NBCSN. Hopefully even with all the craziness surrounding Mourinho/Mourinho and Wenger/Mourinho and the world, the focus will be on the match.  I can dream can't I?  Southampton-Liverpool is probably the best of the 10 am matches and NBCSN has figured this out too.  I might be tempted to check out Watford-Leicester but I think this only available via streaming; the Foxes are six places and three points behind the Hornets.  The NBC match at 12:30 is a London derby featuring Tottenham and West Ham.  Despite four straight league draws, Spurs are hanging in fifth but really can't afford not to get three points at home against the Hammers.  Sunday at 11 is Middlesbrough hosting Chelsea; hard to see an upset there.  Monday is West Brom vs Burnley, which surprisingly is a solid middle table match up.  Still, you'll be forgiven if you skip it.

MLS playoffs continue on Tuesday with the first leg of the conference semi-finals.  Montreal and Seattle are home against Toronto and Colorado at 8 pm (ESPN) and 10 pm (FS1).  Second leg for Colorado-Seattle is Sunday 11/27 at 4 pm (ESPN) while Toronto-Montreal complete their series on Tuesday 11/30 at 7 pm (FS1).  Why it's not Sunday and Sunday, I have no idea.

You know where to find me Sunday at 1 pm...

Time for Some Hex Mex

Everybody shuts down this week for international action, including US-Mexico from Columbus. Plus plenty of action from last weekend.


Stupid Stupid Playoffs

Great, just great.  We'll have 3 vs 5 seeds in the East and 2 vs 4 in the West.  Ze Roberto suggests the bye week is a disaster, noting that all four of the top seeds failed to score in the away match of the conference semi-final.  Only Colorado was able to rescue the situation and they had to go to kicks from the spot to do that (nice work Timmeh Howard!).  NYCFC self-destructed, Red Bulls surrendered the opening goal, making their work that much harder, and Dallas just had too much of a deficit to overcome.

So Dallas and Red Bulls are left with a feeling of failure for what were otherwise excellent seasons. Taylor Twellman speculated on what they might do.  His point was that even though both did very well over the course of 34 games without a heavy reliance on superstar/designated players, those type of players may be necessary for success in the playoffs.  Maybe.  Sounds like we're getting close to that old debate of whether there are "clutch players" and "non-clutch players."  For me, the sample sizes are too small, especially in soccer, to believe that's the whole story.  Superstars sometimes fail to deliver in a single game and people wave their hands and talk about magical clutch performance to explain it.  I'd still like to see some tweaking of the post-season format.

So I will root for Colorado the rest of the way, largely because of the presence of ex-Union player Sebastian LeToux (whose work rate is undiminished) and US national keeper Tim Howard.  And they're the only top seed remaining.


You Dissing My League?

Italian national team coach Giampiero Ventura on why Sebastian Giovinco (21 goals and 17 assists in 31 games for Toronto) was not picked for the Italian team:

"I have done everything to help him but the reality is that he plays in a league that doesn't matter much. And the number of goals he scores is less important because with the quality he has got, he is bound to make a difference in that league. The problem is that if you play in that type of league, and you get used to playing in that type of league, it becomes a problem of mentality."

Yes, I think he is.

Tests Passed

We suggested that both Liverpool and Chelsea faced moderate tests as to whether they might be contenders this year as they took on Watford and Everton respectively.  With their 6-1 and 5-0 wins they both passed with flying colors.  I realize it's not the same as facing the very top of the table but the quality of these wins over upper table sides was impressive.

I can report that Michael B and Luke P were well-behaved as they watched the North London derby together.  Spurs fans came away the happier group with the 1-1 draw.  Tottenham, dealing with injuries, have been just good enough lately.  Gunners fans might have seen this as a chance, especially at home, to take all three points.  A great match for the neutral.

No car crash in Wales, as Manchester United came away with a 3-1 win over Swansea.  Check out Paul Pogba (also on my Football Manager Chester Blues side!) opening goal, this week's YouTubeableMoment.  With the Special One relegated to the stands, serving a suspension for his antics against Burnley, maybe it wasn't as nutty as usual.

Things just aren't getting better for Leicester as the Foxes fell 1-2 at home to West Brom.  Same for Crystal Palace.  Alan Pardew moves up to second in the sack race after a 2-3 loss to Burnley.  David Moyes gets to stay at least another week based on the Black Cats improbable 2-1 win at Bournemouth while playing a man down.  Everybody else at the top, and neutrals as well, likely celebrated Middlesbrough's tying goal in stoppage time against Man City.

And I can't forget the opening ceremonies of games the last few weeks honoring veterans from WWI and other conflicts.  Nicely done and appropriate when you realize the UK lost about 750,000 in that conflict.  But I hope this isn't sacrilegious to point out that some of the "marching" is evocative of John Cleese as the Minister of Silly Walks.

2-0 Is A Deceiving Lead

Gouffran scores against Cardiff, his third league goal of the season

For the second week in a row, Newcastle were cruising with a 2-0 lead late into the match.  Then, Cardiff City scores at around the 80th minute and the Magpies once again had to hang on for dear life.  They did so and keep their three point lead over Brighton.  Better still, they extended the gap over third place Huddersfield to eight points; this matters because the top two teams are automatically promoted to the the Premiership, while third through sixth have a grueling playoff to decide the third spot.

Great Moments in Refereeing

Me (having forgot a coin to decide opening kickoff): Pick a number between one and two

Blue captain (pausing to ponder the possibilities): Does it have to be a whole number?

Me: Do you go to Masterman [Philadelphia magnet school]?

Blue captain: Yes

International Stuff

A veritable stew of acronyms with CONCACAF (more familiarly known as North America, Central America and the Caribbean), CONMEBOL (that's South America to you) and UEFA (more simply, Europe) holding World Cup qualifiers.  Plenty to watch.

We'll be focusing mostly on the last step of CONCACAF qualifying, the six team round robin competition affectionately known as the "Hex."  The first three teams automatically go to the World Cup final; fourth place plays fifth place from the Asian Confederation (right now that would be South Korea or Japan but that could easily change) for the last spot in the final.  The USMNT jumps right in with two tough matches - home against Mexico on Friday night and away to Costa Rica on Tuesday night.  The other three nations competing are Honduras, Panama and Trinidad.  With 10 matches in the process, there is a little room for slip-ups but not much.  We note that Costa Rica opens away against Trinidad in a match to be played in Hasely Crawford Stadium; non-track fans will be excused for puzzled looks but Crawford was the 1976 Olympic Champion at 100 meters in an upset over Don Quarrie and Valeriy Borzov.

Meanwhile, in South America, Chile picked up two points and Peru three, without playing a match. In this week's U12 moment, Bolivia were found to have used an ineligible player in those matches, converting a draw for Chile and a loss for Peru into wins.  We head into Matchdays 11 (Thursday) and 12 (Tuesday) with Chile and Argentina outside the four automatic playoff spots.  Eight matches to go so plenty of time for that to change but Uruguay and Ecuador have been tough so far.   Thursday looks especially tasty as the top six face each other - Colombia v Chile, Uruguay v Ecuador and Brazil v Argentina.  I think all three are on beINSports Thursday afternoon/evening. Tuesday matches include Argentina-Colombia and Chile-Uruguay.  Standings could look very different by Wednesday morning.

Europe will see matches on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  Friday you can see France-Sweden at 2:45 on ESPN2 and England-Scotland at 2:45 on FS1.  Other matches of interest (to this blog anyway) but not sure of coverage include Croatia-Iceland at noon on Saturday and Belgium-Estonia on Sunday. Still very early in UEFA qualifying process.

Beats watching election returns...

The Beat Goes On

There was a crap-ton (technical term, look it up) of football in the last 10 days.  Sorry if your team isn't mentioned below as we report on what struck us as noteworthy.


To The Union

As expected, they went down in Toronto.  The 3-1 final is a fair representation of the match.  Credit to the players for not packing it in at 0-2.  Their goal in the 73rd minute, just as Jeff H was about to leave the viewing party here at 6911, gave us the prospect of an entertaining finish.  A third defensive mistake restored the two goal deficit in the 85th minute, prompting Jeff to leave for real this time.

So what do we conclude of this season?  Compared to pre-season expectations, it was a success. They were supposed to be better but still not considered playoff material.  They were better and made the playoffs to boot, without one minute of playing time from one of their designated players, Maurice Edu.  But it's hard to paint a rosy picture of the future.  Two players - Nogueira and Barnetta - instrumental to that success will be gone.  Bedoya wasn't bad but also not the player we hoped for. This may be because he didn't have time to fit in and/or was asked to play out of position.  Maybe he's just better on the wing.   Herbers is fast and does a great job tracking back on defense but doesn't seem to be a scorer; he did have a lot of assists though.  Pontius was fine.  The back line was inconsistent.  Tribbett had his troubles and Yaro, though seemingly a more consistent player, missed time because of multiple injuries.  Sapong now seems to struggle up top as teams body/foul him constantly; maybe we need to employ two up top?  Alberg had flashes of brilliance but was not consistent enough.  Ilsinho looks like a role player who can shake a game up when he tries to beat one man instead of three on the dribble.  Certainly Blake is fine in goal.

Earnie Stewart's job to me seems the same as last year - he first has to find talent to stock the central midfield.  Without that, any other changes just aren't going to matter than much.  My order would be two center midfielders, a striker and another central defender.  Of course, quality players in these positions are just lying around waiting to be signed by teams so I will not underestimate the task ahead for Stewart.


Stupid Playoffs

Once again, the two best teams over the season are in danger of not even making the conference finals.  The Red Bulls, down 0-1 to Montreal, are probably okay as they return to Harrison for the second leg but have no margin for error.  Not so much for Support Shield winner FC Dallas, who are down 0-3 to Seattle.

Oh Christ here comes the soap box.  The last time a conference winner was in the MLS Cup Final was 2011 with the LA Galaxy.  Why even bother with the regular season if you're going to let 12 teams into the playoffs?  Over the course of 34 games, FC Dallas clearly established that they were a better team than Seattle but the Sounders are on a bit of roll so Dallas is likely going down.   Is this playoff centered approach exciting?  Probably.  Does it reward quality?  Not so much.

At least for once after belly aching I at least have a proposal that might offer a compromise between playoffs and no playoffs.   In its simplest form, I would have a post season in which two groups of four teams are formed - the top team from one conference and second through fourth from the other conference.  Group play involves the standard home and home matches among all teams with three points for a win and one point for a tie.  At the end, the top two in each group advance to the MLS Cup Final.  You could vary it by having play-in for the lower slots of each group or by having a preliminary rounds and use groups of three.

This preserves a post season and all the excitement that goes with that.  But it reduces the "cost" of a bad game, which presumably makes it more likely that the best teams advance to the final.  There would be more games to get to a champion - seven as opposed to five or six in the current format if you go with the four-team groups.  Probably still susceptible to capture by a mediocre team that gets hot late but certainly not so much as the current approach.  Yeah, I'll wait to hear from MLS on this one.


Stupid Fox Pundits

No, not the political ones, though if the shoe fits..., the soccer ones.   A panel of Fox "experts" is reviewing the Champions League highlights and gets to Atleti's 2-1 win over Rostov which featured a goal in stoppage time by Griezmann.  Their voices are dripping with sarcasm about the mistake by the officiating crew.  Griezmann was clearly offside in their not so humble opinion and we all know it right?  Wink, wink.  If you're interested reviewing the play before I go into my second rant of this post, check out the different link -go to 3:35. [video here - go to the -1:11 mark to see the play].  What happened was the Atleti player launched a ball towards the box.  An Atleti player (Godin) and a Rostov player both jump and the ball goes off a head to Griezmann, who is past the last defender.  The Atleti striker calmly lofts the ball over the keeper's head for the game winner.  The AR's flag is up (see picture as every Rostov player is pointing to the AR) but the referee overrules.  He does so because the ball came off the Rostov defender, not Godin.  The revised rules say you cannot be offside from a ball deliberately played by the defender.  The Rostov player went for the ball; it was not a random deflection.  But, even if you want to go that route, it's still not offside.  If you view the touch by the Rostov defender as a deflection, you then have to assess Greizmann's position at the moment his teammate played the ball.  If you check that out on the video, you'll see he was clearly onside.  The only way there can be offside on this play is if Godin touches the ball; videos pretty clearly indicate he did not.  The guys at Fox were likely just being too smug to have noticed these minor details.  Is there something in the water there that affects every Fox pundit, sports or otherwise?


Happy Tyneside

Damn, those rants get tiring.  Probably a pain to read too.  Anyway, Newcastle had a good few days, first pounding Preston North End 6-0 in the League Cup, then hanging on for dear life for a 2-1 win in a rematch on Saturday in Championship Division play.  The best news may be that with top scorer Dwight Gayle being rested for precautionary reasons, Aleksandar Mitrovic jumped in with four goals in two games.  I got a small taste of live TV when beIN Sports lost the feed for the Liverpool Tottenham match and they moved around to the other venues until the signal was restored.  Saturday it was back to the Live Chronicle feed.  The Magpies lead the Brighton by three and Huddersfield by six.  And they got a favorable draw for the League Cup quarterfinals in which they'll face Hull City.


Other Stuff

Apologies to any Man United followers out there but damn it was fun when MSNBC cut to Old Trafford for the end of that match and we see Jose Mourinho in the stands and Wayne Rooney whining to referee Mark Clattenburg.  You know things have not gone well for the Red Devils.  And they didn't, as Manchester could only manage a draw at home against Burnley.  Mourinho had been ejected for arguing a non-PK call and Rooney was complaining about a missed call late in stoppage time.  It's a shame...

Tottenham seem to have lost the plot a bit right now.  First a 1-2 loss to Liverpool in the League Cup, then a 1-1 draw vs Leicester, and topped off with a 0-1 lost to Leverkusen in Champions League.  Sure looks like they miss Harry Kane.  But notice they are still unbeaten in EPL play and sit fifth, only three points out of first.

To which Luke P says f Spurs, likely noting that his Gunners are playing well with wins in League Cup, EPL and Champions League play.  They sit second in the table, behind Man City on goal differential.  With Liverpool and Chelsea rounding out the top four, one fears that the glass ceiling, shattered last season by Leicester and Tottenham, may have been replaced with plexiglass.


The Weekend

Despite a calendar mostly devoid of marquee match-ups, there could be some interesting stuff nonetheless.  There is of course the North London derby at 7 am on Sunday morning.  Just remind yourself it will feel like 8 am because of the time change and drag yourself out of bed to see Arsenal-Tottenham.  Chelsea host Everton at 1:30 on Saturday; the Blues seem to have found themselves again but the Toffees should be a good test of how solid a contender they really are.  Liverpool-Watford is a match between two in-form teams that might be worth a look at 9:15 on Sunday on NBCSN; the Hornets sit 7th in the table!   For those who want to see if the car crash that is Jose Mourinho continues, you can watch Swansea-Man United, also at 9:15 on Sunday on CNBC.

Those MLS playoffs that I love so dearly also continue on Sunday at 2 pm (Colorado down 0-1 to LA), 4 pm (Red Bulls down 0-1 to Montreal), 6:30 pm (NYCFC down 0-2 to Toronto) and 9 pm (FC Dallas down 0-3 to Seattle).  I don't really have a horse in the race but I would like to see the Red Bulls do well.  I usually root against the home team at Yankee Stadium and even though I think Toronto has a bunch of whiners (looking at you Bradley and Altidore) I'll still cheer for the visitors; plus the pitch at Yankee Stadium probably isn't big enough for 8 v 8 let alone professional soccer so having no more games there would be fine with me.  Will probably pull for Dallas just because it would be an unprecedented come-from-behind in MLS history.

And the Magpies will be the heavy favorite as they host Cardiff City, who have returned to their traditional blue uniforms after a very unpopular stint wearing red.  They are the Bluebirds for crissake, what were they doing in red?

Apologies for items not covered this week but there was a lot going on.  Even with a DVR, it's hard to keep up.

Man, The Matches Are Non-stop

Coming to you early this week because there's a packed Tuesday-Thursday agenda that might be of interest.  And yes, this post's title is a Hamilton reference.

Slumping Towards the Playoffs

The Union continued their descent into post-season with a 0-2 loss at home to the Red Bulls.  This was better than last week's stinker against Orlando but not by much.  Since they only had to keep the goal differential change to no more than 12 and with a playoff match on Wednesday, Curtin rested several players.  I would have done the same but unfortunately, they enter the playoffs on a seven game winless streak, with five of those being losses.  The offense continues to be punchless.  We have concluded that a successful corner for the Union is one that doesn't turn into a good counterattacking opportunity for the opposition.

Before the match Jeff K and I noted that while Maurice Edu never appeared in an MLS match this year, at least he didn't get hurt.  Wrong.  No sooner were the words out of our mouths than we see Edu coming out of the tunnel on crutches.  He fractured his tibula in training.

One of the ARs for this match was Kermit Quisenberry, who was an instructor at a referee recertification clinic I attended a few years ago.  He was roundly booed by the crowd for not calling Bradley Wright-Phillips offside on the first goal.  I was pretty sure he got it right.  Graham R, Chief Referee Consultant for BFS, checked the tape and confirmed that it wasn't even close to offside, which again shows that the fans either don't know the rule or are blinded by their partisanship.  Or both.  Ya done good, Kermit, though not sure about that handling call on Fabinho.

BTW, kudos to the Red Bulls for overcoming a horrendous start to win the East and getting within three points of a second consecutive Supporters Shield. 

Nil-Nil Is Not Necessarily Boring

At least that's my view after watching Bournemouth-Tottenham and Arsenal-Middlesbrough back-to-back.  The fact that these were underdogs going toe-to-toe with two of the big boys probably helped, as you could see the effort put forth to hang on to a precious and unexpected point.  The games were end-to-end and neither Tottenham or Arsenal had a monopoly on good scoring chances.  And they were, um, shall we say spirited.  At Bournemouth, Craig Pawson handed out six yellows and could have easily shown Sissoko a red for an elbow in the face to Arter; Sissoko's likely looking at a three match ban anyway once the post-match disciplinary review is finished.  

Not a back weekend overall for underdogs.  Besides Bournemouth and Middlesbrough, Burnley picked up a win at home against Everton, Swansea snagged a point at home versus Watford and Southampton came away with a draw at Man City.  The latter match wasn't quite as pretty as I had hoped but it was intriguing.  

If I Had Picked Southampton, I'd Be in the Premier League Now

A brief comment on the Saints.  Southampton have seen a steady departure of coaches (Pochettino, Koeman) and quality players (check out this starting 11) yet continue to finish higher and higher up the table each year.  Somebody is doing something (many things) right there.  This suggests an institutional culture and systems as opposed to a club that can't survive the departure of key management or players.  I'm not trashing Man United per se but they have been wildly inconsistent since Fergie's departure.   And if I had picked Southampton instead of Newcastle, I wouldn't be following my team on ChronicleLive, getting updates every five minutes or so.  But I'm not complaining.

Is Mourinho the Donald Trump of Football?

I usually stay away from politics here but sometimes the obvious must be pointed out.  His team was thoroughly dismantled 4-0 by a superior Chelsea side and the story is that The Special One thinks Chelsea manager Antonio Conte humiliated him with wild celebrations after each goal and by encouraging the crowd to join in.  Funny aside, as Mourinho spoke into Conte's ear on the touchline after the match, we laughingly speculated that Jose was saying something like "You're dead to me."  Turns out we were basically correct.  And there may have been some unpleasantness between the staffs in the tunnel on the way out. 

To be fair, he did take some responsibility for the disaster in subsequent post-game remarks:

"Every time they went up, they scored. But I told to the players that we should take the risk in the second half even though we know they are very good on the counter-attack."  He later told United's official website: "I have to apologise for that as the leader of this dressing room. But there is only one answer: training and keep fighting."

BFS was able to obtain secret footage of Mourinho's reaction to events at Stamford Bridge (NSFW) here.  Yeah, that probably sums it up.

Newcastle Clear

Matt Richie celebrates scoring his side's third goal - PA Wire

Ayoze Perez had the Magpies up 1-0 in 60 seconds in the home match against Ipswich.  But the Tractor Boys are a good defensive side and things remained tight until well into the second half.  But then Perez got a second and Ritchie (right) added a third and things calmed down at St. James Park.  Meanwhile, Norwich were losing at home against Preston and by day's end, Newcastle were top of the table by three points.  Will try to keep calm and continue watching following updates on Chronicle Live but things certainly seem on track.

No One Said This Would Be Easy

So what's all this about a jammed mid-week schedule?  Let's start with the Round of 16 League Cup matches on Tuesday and Wednesday.  I know I have dissed this competition more than once regularly but this time Newcastle are still in it!  Among Tuesday's fixtures we have Liverpool-Tottenham (2:45 beIN Sports) plus Newcastle-Preston and Arsenal-Reading.  Wednesday has some derbies with West Ham-Chelsea and Man United-Man City (2:45 beIN Sports) plus Southampton-Sunderland.

Wednesday-Thursday see the MLS knockout games involving the third through sixth finishers in each conference.  We'll be following the Union up in Toronto at 7:30 on Wednesday.  Paraphrasing musician Steve Forbert, "you cannot win, if you do not score."  If they do advance, they'll face...the Red Bulls in a home and home series.  Conference semi-finals start Sunday 10/30 with games at 3, 5, 7 and 9:30.  Check your local listings.

And of course we have the regular weekend happenings in England.  Newcastle will face Preston again.  This is the second time this season their league cup opponent and regular season opponent for the week are one and the same.  Last time they won the cup game and lost the conference match.  If they can't win both, can we please get the points in Championship play as winning the league cup is a pipe dream?

EPL fixtures are a mixed bag.  There is Tottenham-Leicester at 10 am Saturday; both teams have been listless but somehow Spurs are one point out of first.  I fancy the Southampton-Chelsea match on Sunday at noon (? - right, they end daylight saving time a week before we do); Chelsea are also just a point out of first while the Saints sit in 8th.  Other matches involving the top of the table may or may not produce interesting football.  Sunderland (with 2 points in 10 matches!) host Arsenal, Mourinho gets to return to Old Trafford to face Burnley, Man City travel to West Brom, Liverpool goes to slumping Crystal Palace (Pardew might do well to stop talking about Newcastle and focus on his team), and Everton try to bounce back against a revived West Ham side.

I'm guessing you'll find something in there that interests you.  

PS - I understand there were matches in Spain and Italy but I'll let the NY Times - or BFS readers - handle them.

Parity vs Parody

A stinker from the Union, good news from St. James' Park and what kind of manager are you?


Backing Into the Playoffs

Yes there were a lot teams in the playoff hunt in both conferences until the very end.  Yes that sounds like parity.  But we shouldn't confuse that with good football.  Take the Union for example. They were in position to clinch a playoff spot on Sunday at home but turned in a generally uninspired performance, losing to then 9th place Orlando 0-2.  But no mind, because at the same time the Union were handing the opening to the Revolution, New England was in the process of losing 1-2 to last place Chicago.  So the Union are in good position to take the last playoff spot even if they don't win on Sunday because of the tiebreakers.

Ze Roberto notes that the Union have four losses and two draws in their last six matches.  This is, in the end, a mediocre team.  I'm not forgetting that they used to be an awful team and most pundits, while expecting progress this year, did not expect the Union to make the playoffs.  I can only hope that management realizes that making the playoffs in the MLS is a pretty low bar, given that 60% of the teams get a spot in post season and the rampant mediocrity in the league and will set their sights higher.  The league is expanding - two teams for 2017 and two more for 2018.  Though existing teams likely will have improved records, in the short run at least, they won't actually be better teams. In fact, the expansion draft means they might actually be worse.  I know I tell people we have to support MLS because that's all we have here but it's hard when they seem intent on diluting the product.


Six More Points for Newcastle

Very good news for the Magpies as they win on Saturday (over Brentford 3-1) and Tuesday (over Barnsley 2-0), thanks in part to a boatload (bootload?) of goals from Dwight Gayle.  At the same time Norwich got a win and a draw and Huddersfield Town lost twice.  So going into the weekend, Newcastle sit atop the Championship table.  According to The Newcastle United Blog, they are four points ahead of where they were seven years ago when they won promotion from the Championship to the Premiership.  A long way to go before I can open that special bottle of beer but I like how things are progressing.  Maybe it sounds a bit snotty but I do believe that the only team that can stop them from winning the division is themselves.



DVRed But Unwatched

I recorded a bunch this weekend but many went unviewed.  Some, like the Sunday EPL matches just weren't that interesting.  I saw the results from the other key MLS East matches while watching the Union so I didn't need to go through them.  I was hoping to sit down to enjoy the Liverpool- Manchester United contest but saw the result of that one too - gotta change my home page from Yahoo.  In that case, the spoiler was a good thing because by all reports, the match was uninspiring and I didn't have to waste 90 minutes on it.  Paradoxically, the YouTubeableMoment, actually two of them, come from this match; we present DeGea's saves Part I - Coutinho and Part II - Emre Can.

I did catch Chelsea-Leicester, where the Foxes looked spectacularly mid-tablish as they fell 0-3 at Stamford Bridge.  The 1-1 draw between Man City and Everton was well worth the time.  Two PK stops from Maarten Stekelenburg saved the Toffees asses in a taut, well-played contest.  Though I hadn't been watching the match, I covered up the out of town scores on the TV screen when I saw Arsenal-Swansea at 3-2 with the Gunners down a man; took in the last 20 or so minutes of that one, which ended 3-2 despite the Swans man advantage.  Also "saw" Crystal Palace-West Ham, that is, if you count fast forwarding to get a sense of the game; that may have been more attention than the 1-0 win for the Hammers deserved.  Didn't see it but Spurs came away with just a draw at West Brom, losing a chance to gain on Man City.


Midweek Football

A lighter work schedule allowed for some Champions League and Europa Cup viewing.  It was pouring rain in Leicester, the Foxes were outpossessed by Copenhagen - you knew those things without me telling you, right? - and they looked no more than competent but got a 1-0 win.  Somehow they are undefeated and unscored on in Champions League play and look like good bets to advance to the knockout stage, even as they languish in 13th in the EPL. Man City wasn't totally out of it at Camp Nou until keeper Bravo got a red card for DOGSO.  Pretty soon it was 4-0 Barcelona.  Spurs completed a week of draws with a 0-0 result against Leverkusen; they've been slighly less than awesome recently but haven't paid a price for it yet.  Thursday I sampled Europa league action, watching the 1-0 win by Inter Milan over Southampton; never mind the score, it was an intriguing match.



What Kind of Football Manager Manager Am I?

Scott and Katie got me this book called The Football Manager Guide to Football Management.  I was expecting a guide on how to be better at Football Manager but instead found a primer on aspects and characteristics of real football management.  Still a good read with loads of anecdotes about current and former managers.  Near the end, the author does ask what kind of manager are you. The choices:

Dynastic - not thinking about the next match or even the next season but several seasons ahead
Tactical - knows that the left full back is slow and will pound that side with a speedy winger
Transformative - change the way the club does everything
Dictatorial - my way or the highway
Wheeler-dealer - there's this striker in Mexico we can get for about $1m
Media Darling - make nice with the press
Ideologue - who cares if we win, was it attractive football?

I'd say I'm 35% wheeler dealer, 35% dynastic and 30% tactical.  With limited resources I've had to rely on transfer bargains and loans, even now in our third season in the Premiere League.  Always keeping on eye on which players will need to be replaced in a few years.  And though I don't get way into player details, I do spend a lot of time assessing which formations and touch line instructions make a difference.

Chester had a good week with a clinical 3-0 over Preston North End to advance to the League Cup quarterfinals and a sweet 2-0 win over Man City in league play.


The Weekend

I'll be at Talen Energy Stadium Sunday to see the Union take on the Red Bulls.  Since both teams merely need to be sure they don't lose 12-0 to meet their objectives - Red Bulls top of division, Union in the playoffs - this has all the markings of a 0-0 draw.  Perfect.

Newcastle are heavy favorites against Ipswich.  Again, complacency is probably the bigger opponent here.

Sunday looks like a tasty doubleheader for the EPL.  At 8:30 Man City takes on Southampton at The Etihad.  As you know, I've been wrong before but this could be some fun watching.  Then at 11, The Special One returns to Stamford Bridge as Man United under Jose Mourinho take on Chelsea.  Both contests can be seen on NBCSN.

Saturday's action looks like some mismatches, except maybe not.  Tottenham travel to Bournemouth, who haven't been awful so maybe Spurs need to be careful, that's at 7:30 on NBCSN.  Arsenal host Middlesbrough at 10 on NBCSN and the Gunners should be favored here.  The 12:30 NBC match is Liverpool at home to West Brom; the Baggies are on a good run so Liverpool need to be careful.

Better to have dvred and not watched than to never have dvred at all.

International Football

Random thoughts on matches from Europe, South America and Africa.  I won't represent it as comprehensive review, just a survey based the smattering of matches I saw.


Keep Your Pants On

That proved to be difficult in Colombia as monsoon rains turned the pitch into a quagmire. Check out Yerry Mina after scoring the tying goal in the 2-2 thriller with Uruguay.  Great match to watch, and not just because Ray Hudson was doing color.  Colombia was up 1-0, then down 1-2 before Mina's tally.

Chile did themselves no favors with a 0-3 loss to Ecuador.  Then they struggled against Peru, pulling out a narrow 2-1 win with a late goal from Arturo Vidal.  They are certainly not out of the picture but have left themselves plenty to do in the last eight games of qualifying.  Argentina, without Messi, didn't have a great break with a draw at Peru and a loss at home to Paraguay and now sit in the fifth spot.

Still eight matches to go but the play of Uruguay and Ecuador so far suggest that one of Argentina, Chile or Colombia might find themselves in that fifth spot which means a playoff series instead of an automatic ticket to Moscow.


Can't Anybody Here Spell?

As players exited the tunnel in Reykjavik, did you notice their warmups - Island and Turkye? Hopefully they didn't pay for those.  A very good international break for "Our Boys" always a favorite here at BFS.  First they put in two stoppage time goals to turn a potential 1-2 loss into a 3-2 win over Finland.  Then, they disposed of Turkey (or Turkye or however you're supposed to spell it) 2-0 to move into second place in the group, behind Croatia on the tiebreaker.  This is a competitive group but Iceland should be in the mix, along with Croatia, Ukraine and Turkey.

Several of us gathered at Michael B's new pad to watch but Spain-Italy was hardly an advertisement for the beautiful game.  Keeper Buffon absolutely butchered a clearance, missing the ball completely and giving Spain the opening goal.  Italy gave little indication that they would tie the match but amazingly they did.  Overall, not enough attacking football to make the match enjoyable and the takeout food from the Co-op was the highlight of the evening.  France-Netherlands was only 1-0 but it was much more watchable as the Dutch made a match of it in the second half.  Belgium defeated Bosnia and Herzegovina 4-0 then Gibraltar 6-0 to stay atop their group.


Didn't You Used to Play for the Union?

Checked in on the Algeria-Cameroon match as it looked to be the most competitive of the offerings from African qualifying.  And there was Rais M'Bolhi in goal.  He was perhaps Exhibit A in the clusterf*** [Ed Note: Although the NY Times and the Philadelphia Inquirer both broke historical precedent in the last week by fully spelling out the f-bomb, we at BFS will not follow their leads.  We note that Donald Trump and Chris Christie were the subjects of  the articles in which the word appeared.  Probably just coincidence right?] that was Union management prior to the arrival of Earnie Stewart.  It wasn't that he was awful - which he was - it was we already had two potential number one keepers and his arrival made no sense.  Anyway, he wasn't terrible in this match, though he did let the tying goal through the five hole and made me happy that Blake is our keeper.  Cameroon was more than happy to leave with a 1-1 draw.


Chester Scoring Drought

The Blues are having trouble putting their shots on frame but haven't paid a disastrous price yet.  We beat Atletico 1-0 in Champions League group play but followed that up with a lackluster 1-1 draw at Newcastle. Chester sit third in the table, behind Aston Villa and Tottenham, but we better sort out the offense before we face the heavies.  The manager probably needs to adjust the training regimen.


Back to Work

MLS league play resumes with four teams competing for three playoff spots open in the East. The Union can clinch one of those with with a win at home against Orlando this Sunday.  And really, if you can't beat this team at home, do you deserve a playoff spot?  I believe the Union could also back into a spot if Chicago can beat New England on Sunday.  And the Red Bulls still have a legitimate chance to win the East, especially with home match vs Columbus and a road game with the Union to conclude their season.

In the Championship division, Newcastle are a huge favorite at home against Brentford; anything less than three points here is a disappointment.  Huddersfield Town (vs Sheffield Wednesday) and Norwich (vs Rotherham) are also favorites so the Magpies likely stay in third through the weekend.

In the "really big shew" (as Philip S calls it), we have another mostly underwhelming card.  Chelsea Leicester at 7:30 Saturday morning (NBCSN) is probably worth a look.  NBCSN agrees that Man City Everton is the best of the 10 am games, though you can check out Bob Bradley's debut as Swansea manager (first American in the Premier League managerial ranks) against Arsenal on CNBC.  Tottenham fans can only live stream their beloved Spurs as they travel to the Midlands to face West Brom.  Monday's Liverpool-Man United match looks like a good dvr game for those with full-time jobs.

Now get out there and watch.