The Soccer Thread (Version 8)

The refs no-showed my daughter's U-12 game this evening and I was the only parent who volunteered to take the whistle. I will never again make fun of Mark Clattenburg or Howard Webb. I ran over 6 miles, had to deal with a crazy coach of the other team (who thought that I blew an offsides call where his player was, conservatively, 20 yards off) and my parents, who were screaming at me for every call that I didn't make.

 

Any parents of kids on your daughter's team should be ashamed. None of them wanted to do it, and it is a tough job.

 

I tried to slightly favor the other team and not to make any calls helping my daughter. Both teams were a little loose with the elbows and I warned them over and over again before I started calling fouls. A girl on their team was coming up the wing and my daughter stopped her. The other girl then hit her with an elbow in the ribs (nothing super malicious but she was trying to clear space) and I called a foul. The coach told her -- keep doing that until he blow the whistle. Crazy.

As to my parents -- the mom of one the girls was screaming at me on every throw where I called it to the other team.

Meanwhile, my hamstrings are burning like I have gonorrhea.

 

That's an important skill which I had when I reffed hoops. That was between adults and the parent aspect makes it harder.

 

Newcastle bounce right back to the EPL.

 

Yedlin getting EPL experience? I like it.

 

21 teams in 25 seasons of the EPL era have bounced right back up one year after relegation to the Championship. Shows you just how big a gap there is between the two flights.

 

Never knew that was an indicator!

 

Is Newcastle still owned by that lunatic, Ashley is his name? Probably destined to be a yo-yo club until they get a sensible plan in place, though they shouldn't be, as St. James' Park and that fanbase are probably on the tail end of the top 10 in England by pure size.

After finishing DFL in the EPL last season, Aston Villa appears to have gotten things straightened out. Too late to make a serious challenge at promotion (the playoffs are now all but locked in as Reading, Sheffield Wednesday, Huddersfield and Fulham or maybe Leeds), but after a fall full of draws and worse, I think they've got some pieces in place to make a good run at promotion next time out. My other "favorite" club, Nottingham Forest, has had about 14 managers this year, at least one aborted takeover bid and is not out of the woods for relegation to League One (in 20th of 24, three points above the drop zone with two matches to play). I want to enjoy the Premier League, but as a non-morning person whose favorite clubs have been relegated, I've found myself sleeping through a lot of matches instead of watching them.

In other news, I went to Minnesota United's home match vs. Colorado on Sunday and am happy to report they may have jumped forward from '62 Mets bad to '93 Rockies bad. They beat the Rapids (who were without the suspended Tim Howard) 1-0 and have put together a handful of decent results since their terrible start. It was a good experience and I hope to see them again on one of the rare days I don't have to take time off from the desk (I work Saturday nights) to attend.