Schweinstieger meets MLS refs

Day -419 WorldCup2018

Bastian Schweinstieger was in Toronto tonight playing for Chicago against Toronto FC. He didn't leave happy. TFC won 3-1 and at the end of the match was involved in a very long, intense discussion with the referee. My feeling was that he was giving the ref a quick explanation of some of the rules of football. I try to defend the MLS but there are some refereeing decisions which are absolutely ludicrous. It was telling that Toronto's manager, Greg Vanney, was having an equally involved discussion with the assistant referees. It's unusual for a winning manager to be so angry.

I was back and forth between the football and the Maple Leafs, playing game number 5 of playoff series against Washington. It went to overtime, again, and my superstition was proved right, unfortunately. This time, I watched it and the Leafs lost. It's a good thing, maybe. I'll say again; that game is so frantic.

Boring United? Does it matter?

Day -420 WorldCup2018

Sorry everybody. Day -420 got away from me. Boring United made it to the Europa League semifinals. Does style matter, or just results?

Champions League permutations and negative mass liquid

Day -421 WorldCup2018

Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Juventus, Monaco. The Champions League semifinalists. I'm going through all the combinations of my head to figure out what final has the best ring to it.
Juventus-Monaco. They've both been so impressive this year and will make a pleasant change.

Monaco-Real Madrid. The 11 time champions against the kids. Tasty.

Real Madrid-Juventus. The two grand old teams. A classic. But boring? Who else thinks Real are not that much fun to watch?

Monaco-Atletico Madrid. Sounds odd. Atletico would probably go all out to destroy any hint of flash from Monaco.

Juventus-Atletico Madrid. Feisty. I like the thought of this one. I see a good old fashioned physical, cynical battle.

Atletico-Real. Please, no. Been there, seen that. Not again.

In completely different news, but in keeping with my marking of significant events over these 1000 days, physicists at Washington State University announced that they have created a "negative mass" liquid that defies Newton's Second Law of Motion. When the liquid is pushed it moves towards the pusher, rather than in the direction of the push. The physicists "cooled rubidium atoms to just above the temperature of absolute zero (close to -273C), creating what's known as a Bose-Einstein condensate." (BBC News)

And in other news physicists at Washington State University tried to figure out why Carlo Ancelotti was so upset about two of Real Madrid's goals yesterday. They are looking for volunteer students to from a group that can explain the offside rule. The students will have a year long mandate.

God 1 Villa 0

Day -422 WorldCup2018

I did not get round yesterday to wrapping up (probably) my Aston Villa story for the season.

Dr. Tony, Villa's owner, sent someone to negotiate with the Aston church of St. Peter and St. Paul before Easter. Dr. Tony's team would have offered St. Peter and Paul's team to not have a match at Villa Park on Good Friday in return for what? Whatever it was that was said must have not been received very well further up the chain. The saints may have discussed it, and, possibly puzzled and confused, took it to the big boss for clarification and direction. He (with the capital H) must have snorted his disapproval and laughed at Dr. Tony's offer.

In the meantime, Dr. Tony's guys probably went back to him feeling pretty good about themselves, unawares that they were being laughed at. By Monday afternoon, Dr. Tony would have been shaking his head. He went to the church looking for a miracle. They came back to him with two consecutive 3-1 defeats. A coincidence? Maybe not.

The number three is not taken lightly in the bible. From biblestudy.org:
"It pictures completeness, though to a lesser degree than 7."
"......it is the first of four spiritually perfect numerals...."
"There are 27 books in the New Testament, which is 3x3x3, or completeness to the third power."
"Jesus prayed three times in the Garden of Gethsemane before His arrest. He was placed on the cross at the 3rd hour of the day (9 a.m.) and died at the 9th hour (3 p.m.). There were 3 hours of darkness that covered the land while Jesus was suffering on the cross from the 6th hour to the 9th hour. "

And, of course, Jesus rose on the third day. And these defeats happened over the Easter weekend. I tell you, God is pretty sarcastic. Take that, Dr. Tony. You've been outdone. You had to cheek to ask us for a promotion miracle in return for one peaceful Good Friday, after many years of drunk fans traipsing through our services on their way to Villa Park. And you thought the 1-3, twice, was down to bad defending. Maybe next year we'll be nicer.

Brighton and Hove Albion and Coronation Street

Day -423 WorldCup2018

Brighton and Hove Albion will be in the Premier League next season, officially clinching promotion today. They were last in the old First Division in 1983 when I remember them in a very exciting FA Cup final against Manchester United. It ended 2-2 and I thought Brighton were pretty good. Only after a few days of hearing the words "relegated", "relegation" and "second division" did I understand what had happened to them. I was young and still had my head filled with visions of Aston Villa winning the European Cup and Brazil at 1982 World Cup. Teams being so bad as to be relegated was a new thing for me. And if they were that bad how come they were in a final? Man. United won the replay 4-0 and by then I was an expert: "No surprise. Brighton were relegated," I knowingly proclaimed to anybody talking about it.

This is great news for Brighton. There's a nice feel about them being in the Premier League. I tried to suppress my cynicism but I wondered how long it would be before the good work Chris Hughton did over the last two years will be forgotten when they are struggling next season. I hope he survives longer than he did with Newcastle. After convincingly leading them back into the Premier League in 2009, he was sacked the following season with the team in 12th place in the Premier League.
And as we warm up for the end of season fun in May, two more teams wrapped up promotion today. Portsmouth and Plymouth are moving up to League One. It was a good day for the south coast of England.

And now for my embarrassing story of the day. You may not take me seriously as a sports fan after this. But it was hockey, not football, I shout in my defence. We were joining in the excitement around Toronto by watching the Toronto Maple Leafs on TV playing game 3 of their playoff series against Washington. The Leafs came back from 3-1 down to send the third game in a row into overtime. Oh, how exciting. But still so frantic. And sudden death. It's too hard to take sometimes. So what to do in that 20 minute break? Have a drink, pace the house to release tension, watch the experts talk about who has the best chance to win? Good ideas. Or catch up on the day's episode of Coronation Street on the PVR. We have to fit it in somewhere every night, ok. So why not use this time? If we fast forward through the ads it's on for 23 minutes. I could take the risk that nothing will happen. Yes, yes. I hear you. How could I? Well, something did indeed happen. As soon as the first note of the closing music of Coronation Street started I switched it back. And the hockey wasn't on. Not live anyway. It was highlights of something that had just happened. And from the voices excitedly describing what happened, and the fact that what they were leading up to was happening in front of the Washington net, we quickly surmised that the Leafs had scored. And there it was. The second game in a row one by a Leafs sudden death goal. And the second one in a row that we had missed because we stopped watching. Two days ago it had nothing to do with British soap operas detailing in a very realistic manner the weddings, affairs and murders that all happen on one street in a suburb of Manchester. But what it did say to me and my sports superstition is that if the next game goes to overtime I need to find something else to do.

Post-season....

Day -424 WorldCup2018

Chelsea are doing a good job of keeping up the possibility of an exciting May in the Premier League for Tottenham and neutral fans. But as Spurs continue to look like not only will they never lose but like they are winning for fun, and Chelsea not only seem like all of a sudden they could lose every week and are actually losing, I wonder again about the excitement value of a league versus a play-off system.

I am surrounded by play-offs now with two Toronto teams, hockey and basketball, competing in the post-season. Post-season. Look at me, sounding like a real local. Post-season is a funny term though, isn't it, because doesn't it mean that the season has ended? Whatever it may be called it means a lot of nail-biting games which all count. Nobody can play for a draw. Every game needs a winner. And then they do it again two days later until one of them wins four times. Of course the intensity of playing so many times in a short period doesn't work for football, but even the two home and away matches in the MLS makes me wonder if it's a more exciting end to the season than one team meandering to the title in May.

Yesterday we watched the Toronto Maple Leafs win in the second period of sudden death overtime. There's another joy of the playoffs. You've watched three twenty minute periods of non-stop action and there's still no winner. So they start another twenty minute period, and then another one until somebody scores. I struggle with how frantic hockey is and the constant change of possession of the puck. Hold on to it, I keep wanting to yell at the TV. But the intensity can be mesmerizing.

Fifa have already tweaked the 2026 World Cup and guaranteed themselves more revenue. But, as opposed as I used to be to any gimmicky rule changes, I wouldn't mind something different in the future to not have to endure any more turgid Costa Rica-Greece 0-0 draws. Play 10 minutes of extra time, five a side? Or just very simply bring back the silver and golden goals. The 2026 World Cup is going to be in North America. It has to be exciting and appealing to the locals

Janssen! Janssen!

Day -425 WorldCup2018

Did you see it? At White Hart Lane today? Live or on TV? Yes, Vincent Janssen smiled and 40,000 people plus smiled with him. The man scored a goal. One goal. Finally. Spurs were already 3-0 up and any competitiveness had long before disappeared from this match. But the smile. Myself and the 40,000, probably, didn't think it was possible.

When Janssen was standing on the sideline waiting to come on he had the expression on his face which seems to be the norm for him: fear (that he's not going to score again), disappointment (with the premonition that he's going to, yes, disappoint again), foreboding (definition from Cambridge Dictionary: "a feeling that something very bad is going to happen soon", like another terrible miss) and I even think, boredom. He never looks excited to play, never seems to be having any fun.

Tottenham seem to have a problem with spending a lot of money of centre forwards, strikers, number 9's, goalscorers who seem to forget how to do exactly that when they move to Spurs. And they don't just fail. They fail spectacularly. Remember these superstars: Rebrov, Postiga, Bent, Zamora, Dumitrescu and of course Soldado? They were good, just not at Spurs. Then there was the player who was supposed to become a superstar because Martin Jol, the manager at the time, said he would: Grzegorz Rasiak. Who? I only came across his name by accident

But well done, Vincent. Let's hope it's just that you took slow starting to a whole new level. Eight months. We look forward to many more smiles.

Oh, and before I go, for those of you who don't see any results below the Premier League, or Serie A, or La Liga, the good people of the congregation of the St. Peter and St Paul parish church in Aston must not have a good line to God as Aston Villa lost today (see yesterday). There was no return favour. Or they prayed for a Reading win as a punishment for all the years that football took precedence over Good Friday. Either way they'll be stuck with miserable supporters of a second tier team walking past their church for at least one more year.