The first soccer update email
Setting up a new longform-writing destination is as good an opportunity to pick up writing about the stuff that’s interested me, and of course that means it’s time to write about soccer again, and at probably the best possible time. In Europe, the season is starting, with the new UEFA Champions League format having had its first matchweek. Here in the US, the season is reaching its crescendo, as teams fight to stay above the cutoff for playoff contention. There’s a lot to talk about, so let’s skip a lengthy introduction and just get right to it.
Manchester City Hearing
On Monday, Manchester City’s hearings over the alleged violations of the EPL’s profit and sustainability rules began. It should not surprise anyone that the trial, over 115 different specific charges, will probably take the majority of the season to settle, and it’s anybody’s guess what the end result of these hearings will actually be if the charges stick. Everton had two separate charges in the previous season that amounted to a total 8 point deduction. Given the sheer number of charges, it’s little wonder some sports news (such as ESPN) are calling it “the sports trial of the century”. Given that the charges, dating back to 2009, line up with the current ascendency of City, expect that every other premier league team is hoping for some harsh penalties to come down on them.
Note that these hearings are not trials but private arbitration between the club and the league. As a result, until we actually see a decision (which almost certainly won’t show up until 2025), there’s no reason to believe any particular reporting about the trial; I would advise readers to take leaks about as seriously as twitter rumors from supposed insiders about the next big video game press conference.
(Which probably means there will be something that, like the recently-announced Like a Dragon pirate spinoff, isboth extremely ridiculous sounding and incredibly true that comes out of it all. Thank you, RGG Studios, for keeping the spirit of the Saints Row series alive.)
UEFA Champions League
The hearings certainly won’t be stopping City from being one of the 36 teams in the first groupless Champions League season. Their first game had them hosting Inter Milan in a rematch of the final from two seasons ago, with both teams holding each other to a scoreless draw. Not unwatchable, but considering the pedigree of both teams, a surprisingly tepid match compared to most of what else was on offer.
Bayren-Munich, however…what a match they had! After many seasons of dominance in the Bundesliga, their last season found them ranking under a seemingly divinely-protected Bayer Leverkusen. Their response to underperforming (and not terribly so — finishing third behind Leverkusen and Stuttgart) was to hire Vincent Kompany, who in that season and the previous had overseen Burnley’s promotion into and relegation from the Premier League. While the decision sparked plenty of skepticism, including from me — surely they’d rather hire someone who had actually finished in the top half of their table — the results so far suggest they’ve hired a good man for the job, as today they’ve now won all 4 of their Bundesliga games. During the week, they played Dinamo Zagreb in the UCL, scoring 3 quick goals, and after letting in two near the start of the second half, proceeded to destroy them with another 6 more. Harry Kane scored 4 goals — 3 off penalties. Considering that Bayern struggled to make good use of him despite paying a premium for his transfer, perhaps the hiring of Kompany is to get a coach who, like Kane, has more insight into what English football looks like, and can help get more out of him. Hopefully, the future will bring more open-play goals for Kane, but no fans should complain when their team can consistently draw fouls and penalties, at least.
Monaco’s game against Barcelona also had some major twists. Barcelona’s true wonderkid Lamine Yamal can seemingly do no wrong right now; he was instrumental in getting Spain to the final at the Euros this year, and has been setting all kinds of records for the team so far. Unfortunately, that was not only Barcelona’s only goal, but their only shot on target in the game. Marc-André ter Stegen, trying to play out from the back through the center (seriously, what and why) made a very easily-intercepted forward pass, and as defensive midfielder Eric Garcia tried to stop the direct march in on goal, he got called for a foul which, naturally, got him a straight red; the intercepting player, attacking midfielder Takumi Minamino, was right in front of goal just outside of the box with no other defenders around. A questionable decision following another one — while there’s no guarantee ter Stegen could have stopped that one, Barcelona would have had a much better chance of victory had they not had to play about 80 minutes with a man disadvantage. Instead, they looked defensively underprepared when Maghnes Akhilouche scored in the first half, and exhausted when George Ilenikhena scored in the second.
My general thought of Celtic is “oh, right, they have a league in Scotland too, don’t they”, which might be a little unfair given they’re a popular team and certainly are no stranger to winning matches. I put it mainly to their relatively low performance in UEFA matches; not necessarily surprising considering the financial muscle that many of their opponents can flex, but consequently leading me to classify them as less of a big-name team. However, they certainly brought a forceful welcome to Slovan Bratislava, who played their first Champion’s League match ever at Celtic. With a final score of 5-1, Celtic got to an early lead and never really gave Bratislava a chance to get back into it.
Leverkusen may have already lost their chance at an undefeated Bundesliga season, but their electric playstyle hasn’t gone away. Their decisive 0-4 win at Feyenoord may not be the most surprising result this first week, but the fact that they scored all four goals in the first half is atypical of their victories — even before first-half stoppage time, at that. Indicative of a season in the Eredivisie for Feyenoord that has surely been disappointing for fans; sure, they haven’t lost a game yet, but one win in four games isn’t the kind of rate a team needs to stay in the top of the table; it is a truly middling pace.
Some other thoughts: PSV Eindhoven, who did win the Eredivisie, fell to Juventus; Italian football may not be in the greatest state, but their teams can still win. Bologna isn’t one of them; after transferring striker Joshua Zirkzee to Manchester United, they’ve lacked potency at the top of the pitch, and had a scoreless tie against Ukraine’s Shakhtar Donetsk. Neither is AC Milan, who lost 1-3 to Liverpool; Pulisic got them to a very early lead but nobody else could get on the scoresheet, and they struggled to muster a solid defense against Liverpool. Milan and Italian teams in general might take solace in the fact that they’re still looking better than France, whose TV rights issues probably make it a significantly less financially-appealing target for players. An Mbappe-less PSG managed to eke out a win against Girona after forcing a very late own-goal, LOSC Lille fell to Sporting Portugal 2-0 with midfielder Angel Gomes getting sent off after a second yellow, and Stade Brestois managed an acceptable win against Sturm Graz despite letting in an own-goal at the end of the first half.
That said, a third Italian team joined Inter Milan and Bologna in that group of teams managing scoreless ties that first weekend: Atalanta, hosting Arsenal. As an Arsenal fan, I felt compelled to watch the game, but haven’t seen it, I wish I hadn’t. The match was a pretty bland, tentative affair which only produced one real highlight, though what a highlight it is: David Raya’s penalty-and-rebound save, which must be seen to be believed. If this youtube embed doesn’t start there, skip to 4:45.
Prem Grudge Match
Four years of Manchester City dominance and two years of Arsenal looking ready to dethrone them but failing to fully match their efforts has imparted tomorrow’s game between the two (hosted at City) with an air of deep significance. Last time the two faced off was near the end of the season, and Arsenal played a deeply defensive game described as bland, which wasn’t helped by their inability to take good advantage of the few moments they had on counterattack. Neither team has been beaten, but City has one more win that Arsenal after the latter had a poor showing at Brighton which saw a particularly pointless red card shown to Declan Rice, his first with the team, which gave Brighton the space to find the net.
If Arsenal’s performance against Atalanta had an air of conservatism about it, perhaps it’s because they wanted to save their strength for this game, as City still looks to be a major favorite to win the title (pending the result of those aforementioned arbitration proceedings) and being able to beat them will put Arsenal at the top of the table. Plenty of reason for them to play to win on this one. We can certainly hope — it’ll be something to write about for sure.
Speaking of which, USL’s one to write about
Looking at the USL, Wednesday featured a rescheduled match where New Mexico hosted Sacramento Republic for a game with comparable significance in the USL’s western conference table to the City-Arsenal matchup, and with the two teams slotting into similar archetypes.
Right now, Sacramento Republic has been consistently dominant. Not to the degree of City, sure, but with significant results under their belt. They’ve got a notable roster of big name players in the USL: keeper Danny Vitiello; midfielders Justin Portillo, Rodrigo “Roro” Lopez, and Luis Felipe; defender/winger Jack Gurr; and striker Russel Cicerone. Last year (with most of these big names in the club), Sacramento finished top of the conference table, and the year before that had the spectacular US Open Cup run that took them all the way to the final.
Indeed, both teams having been very competitive in the Open Cup was why this match was rescheduled to now, as it was right as NM had to travel to face MLS’s then-#1 LAFC, after a previous round beating then-#1 Real Salt Lake handily, and Sacramento hosted the Sounders. Notably, neither USL team won; LAFC’s ability to recover the ball after their strikes were blocked gave them a 3-1 win, and Sounders’ two first-half goals meant they could slow down and play more defensively in the second, letting in only one Sacramento goal, who got close with some late attempts but simply weren’t penetrative enough in attack. Special mention to Sounders goalkeeper Andrew Thomas, who was actually a late-season emergency loan after an injury to starting keeper Alex Tambakis, and whose efforts were pivotal in getting New Mexico over the playoff line.
New Mexico, meanwhile, has undergone a massive restructuring. It’s a squad with a lot of younger, fresher faces, many of whom were pulled up from lower leagues (in particular, MLS Next Pro) and with a new coach, Eric Quill, who had previously been with a dominant South Texas SC, brought in during the middle of the last season to help motivate a team that looked like it was treading water and was struggling to come up with new tactics. Now, they’re very defensively-organized team whose wins come narrowly but consistently, with an attack that tentatively manages possession around the outside of the box looking for attempts to strike cleanly (something Arsenal fans may find familiar).
There’s been struggle with New Mexico offensively. Most games are won narrowly, decided by only a goal difference. In fact, because of a couple disastrous away losses to eastern conference teams early in the season, when NM reached the top they actually did so with a negative goal differential. Right now the most consistent goal-scorer is forward Greg Hurst, whose season this year is a marked improvement over his last, but is still marked by stark contrast in his hot and cold periods. While you’d expect Sacramento to win most of their games, many New Mexico games take on the overall tenor of nail-biters.
Some of the team players fit roles that feel almost uncannily similar to ones for Arsenal players: Avionne Flanigan, an attacking winger who is mobile but does very little to show up directly on the scoresheet through shots or assists, resembles how Martinelli plays for Arsenal; David Bruce, a former midfielder, is constantly on the hunt to get the ball with a high pass, and now plays almost exclusively at the top, like Kai Havertz; Bukayo Saka’s equivalent might be Mukwelle Akale, who’s been a strong attacking presence in front on the wing and a very effective dead-ball player.
Now, given that comparison and the way that last Arsenal v. City matchup turned out, contextualized with the fact that NM was 7 points (effectively two wins and a draw) ahead of Sacramento (who do have an extra game to play and could thus would still need to count on winning one more game than NM from here to the end of the season), you might think New Mexico was going to play tentatively or conservatively and try to force the draw. For a lot of the first half, that is how it looked — actually quite familiar to the aforementioned Premiere League game, with the ball spending most of the time in the NM defensive half but with NM playing consistently defensively enough that they kept the score even (and some very solid saves from Tambakis) and only getting a few breakaway chances on goal that didn’t end up amounting to much.
I’m pleased to announce the second half wasn’t like that at all.
Those breakaways in the first half were certainly a sign that Sacramento, fighting for the chance to truly exert dominance on the standings for the first time in about half the season, were stretching themselves thin enough that New Mexico could break through. Break through they did, with a perfectly placed free kick that was headed into goal by Abdi Mohamed; they’d had a bit of practice earlier with a similarly-positioned free kick that couldn’t quite catch a friendly head, and only a little tweaking was necessary to put it right. Sacramento, who’d been playing for the win, had to push their lines higher, which meant that the long balls for Hurst to reach behind their defenders had more space to target, and little wonder that he managed a brace not long after that.
Sadly, the clean sheet wasn’t a possibility. A stoppage-time cross to Sacramento’s Juan Sebastián Herrera, that I maintain (as did most of the people in the stadium that night except the officials) had him offside, found him easily. No defenders in sight meant he finished it off easily. At least we can point to the score sheet and say that meant we beat Sacramento handily despite the fact they really did show up (since 3-0 is the socre recorded when a team forfeits). The consolation goal was otherwise pretty meaningless in the overall result — the game was all but over at that point.
A Breaking USL Update
As I’m writing this, Charleston Battery’s forward Nick Markanich has scored a goal against Tampa Bay Rowdies and has given him the league’s single-season scoring record with, as of this moment per the USL website, 25 goals, of the team’s 60. The team effort is second in the league, though, below Lousiville City's 69. The two teams don't have any games against each other at this point in the season, but their close contention for the first place-spot I think deserves its own post. Stay tuned for that as long as I'm not overwhelmed by other tasks.
Other games to watch out for
The previously-mentioned US Open Cup will have its final match this Wednesday. Like the previous rounds, it should be free to watch on Apple TV. It’s two MLS teams this year (alas!): LAFC faces Sporting Kansas City, making this a game between two teams on seemingly opposite sides of their conference table. While LAFC are the obvious favorite, don’t rule out SKC; LAFC have already qualified for the CONCACAF Champions Cup by reaching the Leagues Cup final, in which they lost to Columbus Crew. Last year, Inter “We Want Messi” Miami won the Leagues Cup but lost to Houston Dynamo in the Open Cup final, and the year before that it was the low-ranked Orlando City that won against that Sacramento Republic team.
In the Bundeslia, a big, potentially table-defining, match happens next Saturday between Bayern and Leverkusen. While Vincent Kompany is certainly having early success with Bayern, this game is going to do a lot to color the perceptions of the wider public over whether or not this is a job he can do; similarly, Leverkusen will get a chance to prove their unprecedented win last season wasn’t a fluke.
However, tomorrow, in addition to the City-Arsenal battle, the Derby della Madonnina between Inter and AC Milan is set to happen. Both teams have recent titles under their belt and have been consistently near the top of the standings each time. Serie A has a pretty stark divide between the good teams and the rest, but neither team has performed in the standings as well as they’d have hoped compared to those previous seasons. AC Milan in particular will want to win in order to reach a continental competition, while Inter will want to get into something better than the Conference League, which they’ll qualify for if they keep these same positions through the season.
One Last Thing
Wrexham have rocketed up the EFL and are looking poised to get a third promotion in as many seasons. They’re now so popular that they’re getting the equivalent of the fire marshall threatening to shut them down. The club’s statement has the tenor of a humblebrag.
Until next week. Let’s keep it kicking!