Saturday August 16, 1014 Match Thoughts

When I have the time and the inclination, I will publish a few thoughts on the BPL games I watch this season.  As an American, I have access to virtually any game on TV or my ipad, but generally I watch only the TV games and the Southampton games. These are not match reports unless you work for the BPL press office and are evaluating me for formal press accreditation.

Manchester United—Swansea

One of the problems in watching early season games not involving Southampton is that I don’t know who to root for.  This would, of course, matter a lot more if my rooting decisions had any chance of effecting  the outcomes.  Alas, they do not.

Here I would root for Swansea if I thought Southampton was competing for the championship, competing for the Champions’ League, or trying to improve on last year’s eighth place finish.  Otherwise I would root for ManU because Swansea is a possible competitor for the mid-table and far more likely to be relegated than ManU.  All these thoughts immediately went out the window when the game started and it became clear to me I was for Swansea.  Actually, everyone in the league should be rooting against ManU now that we know that at least one of their lucrative new sponsorships will be substantially reduced if they miss Champion’s League football two years in a row.

16^th Minute:  ManU started with three at the back including a new young player, Tyler Blackett, who made an excellent defensive clearance.  I have no ability to judge his talent or even his overall performance today, but now I will always think of him as being pretty good.  (“As in, whatever happened to Tyler Blackett?  He was pretty good.”)

28^th Minute: Ki scores.  What was interesting to me was Bony’s block of Jones.  This probably would have drawn a penalty in the NFL as an illegal pick.  I guess this is one of the few times when you will see physical contact which would be illegal in the NFL, but is legal in the BPL.

53^rd Minute:  Rooney does one of those overhead kicks to score a good goal.  Predictably, the announcer characterizes it as “head over heels”.  Equally predictably, I tell my TV that head over heels is the normal position. This kick was unusual because the heels were over the head.  My TV did not respond.

81^st  Minute: Fellani whacks Ki in the face twice but Ki gets a yellow card for shirt pulling.  I guess Ki deserved his card but Fellani should have received a red card.  Also, I preferred his whacky afro.

Stoppage time:  One of my pet peeves is the way stoppage time is administered.  Here, a Swansea player goes down with an injury more or less at ninety minutes.  He does not get up until 91:35.  That means that the four minutes of stoppage time should end no earlier than 95:35.  Surprisingly, the referee gets it right and calls the game at 95:41.  At the 95 minute mark, the announcer asks “Where is this time coming from?”  Is there a requirement that announcers not understand stoppage time?

Leicester—Everton

In the United States, when there is a choice, we always get the Everton game on TV because Tim Howard is the best known American in the BPL.  We used to get a lot of Fulham games too.

It occurred to me that if Martinez had moved on to coach Tottenham, Everton probably would have lost Stones, Coleman, and Barkley.  They could not have signed Lukaku and Barry and they would have been the team in crisis.

Throughout the first half Everton couldn’t do what was necessary to get the lead their playing deserved.  I had a feeling of déjà vu.

39^th Minute: Dean Hammond comes on and the announcer pointed out that he was with Southampton, but was dropped when we reached the BPL.  I was hoping he would do well but I don’t think I heard his name again.

80^th Minute:  Phil Jagielka goes down with a head injury.  He leaves the field but returns moments later.  So much for the new rules about head injuries.  I guess this is one of those not-so-series head injuries I predicted would become quite common in my August 8, 2014 blog. (http://redsloscf.blogspot.com/2014/08/concussions-and-brain-injuries-in_8.html )  Jagielka could not have been checked for concussion symptoms and medically cleared before he returned to the field.  I doubt the “Tunnel Doctor” even got out of the tunnel on this one.

Stoppage Time:  Nothing worth noting here.

Arsenal—Crystal Palace

Two former Southampton players started, Chambers and Puncheon.  Oxlade-Chamberlin came on later.

Puncheon got a stupid second yellow card which may very well have been decisive.

Otherwise, I don’t have much to say about this match, which will probably be normal for the third match of the day.

Stoppage Time:  When the clock hit 89:24, the announcer informed us that there would be five minutes of stoppage time.  At this point a Crystal Palace player was down with an injury.  The game did not restart until 90:21.  Arsenal scored at 90:40 and the game did not restart until 91:45.  To me that looks like a couple of minutes that should have been added to stoppage time, but the referee ended the game at 95:02—much too early by any standard.