Arsenal 3 - 4 Liverpool

Okay, I'll get my complaints out of the way first:

-  Playing Holding and Chambers together was suicidal.  There's no reason Kos couldn't play, and Monreal would have been the better choice to deputize.  I'd have used Holding before Chambers, but neither were better than Monreal.  Gibbs would have been fine on the left.

-  I thought it was nuts to leave Coquelin out there so long with a yellow card.  I was yelling for Xhaka.  But when he came in, he looked pretty bad--and picked up a yellow as well.  Coquelin finished the game (but was very fortunate to do so).  So maybe I'm complaining about myself.

-  Walcott should not have taken that penalty.  Alexis and Ramsey at least would be ahead of them in the pecking order.

-  [edited to add] The fans who left the Emirates early, and those who stayed and booed at the end.  With supporters like that, it's amazing Arsenal has done so well so long.

I'm not going to bitch about Arsenal mistakes.  Both teams made plenty, but both teams looked fairly crisp when allowed to play, and put enormous energy into the play.  The Liverpool goals were excellent.  I thought Cech went down too early on the second (from Lallana), but he's the pro and made some good saves on the day.  Liverpool played defense just well enough, and both Coutinho and Mane found the upper left corner when given the opportunity.  The officiating was fine.  In short, it was a great game and the better eleven won it.

I'll be checking to see how serious Ramsey's injury is.  It looked like a hamstring issue.  Midfield is where we can afford to lose a player, though, so it's not crucial if Ramsey has to take a month off.

I'm going to try to take a more relaxed view this season.  I didn't watch any other games.  It's probably Wenger's last season with Arsenal.  I love him, but it's time.

Ugly Americans

I missed the USWNT game today, a loss after PKs to Sweden.  From all accounts, Sweden bunkered in and got a very nice goal that the US matched.  Hope Solo made an ass of herself by calling the Swedes "cowards," for which she was justly pilloried by nearly everyone.  The writeups of the game also noted she tried some gamesmanship by pretending she had a glove problem before the last PK.  She's a very good goalkeeper, but she needs to be dumped from the team, in my opinion.  She's dragging them all down in the class department.

I did see most of the group stage games, and I thought the US was flat.  I've never seen them play so poorly in a tournament.  They really seemed to think they were so much better than everyone else that all they had to do was show up.  They gave away stupid fouls, they misplaced passes all over the pitch, and their tempo was way too slow.  Finishing was dreadful too.  The neutrals will be delighted, and I don't blame them.  We deserved to be dumped out of the tournament early.  We stank.

Guadalajara 1 - 3 Arsenal

Three nice goals (the Ox's was lovely), and some valuable experience for the players, especially the young guys.  Debuchy really looks like a man who'd rather be somewhere else.  It's hard to take away any real lessons from a game against the second string of a Mexican League outfit, even one as strong as Chivas.  But winning is better than losing.  And it doesn't seem as though there've been injuries.  Wenger says that Alexis will be ready soon.  Only Per is out long term.

Walcott is struggling to make an impression up front.  He's not a front man and we're overdosed with good wingers--ones who actually try to play defense some of the time as well as make runs forward.  I wish we'd sold him five years ago, or more.  All that jerking AFC around in contract talks, the ridiculously high salary that no one else will match, the months injured every year...it's not worth the goals he gets, considering that he's cost some too with his lack of defensive effort.

The "British core" may be shifting, with Walcott, Jenkinson, and Gibbs on the way out, and Chambers, Holding, and Welbeck coming in.  There's no reason AOC, Wilshere, and Ramsey can't still be regulars.  Iwobi should continue to develop.  Akpom may be an option up front; he seems to have the tools.  The Jeff could contribute.  Zelalem needs time, but I like him.

It was nice to see Cazorla looking sharp out there, wasn't it?  Coquelin lacked discipline; he'd have been sent off it it weren't a friendly.  Xhaka and Elneny are ready to start too.  The Coq will find it hard to get on the field.  We've got enough mids with bite to afford to play Ozil without fear of being soft through the middle.

I like the team now, but a strong, experienced center back has suddenly become a requirement, and of course we still need a fearsome striker.

Two weeks before Liverpool.  I just watched them against Roma (they lost 2-1) and they looked pretty good.  I don't think they're where they need to be, but it looks as though they're getting Klopp's message.

MLS All-Stars 1 - 2 Arsenal

I know it was just an exhibition match, but the play was spirited and open.  We got to see what some of the young guys could do.  And we won.  It didn't look as though anyone picked up an injury, either.  I was encouraged by the way guys like Zelalem and Reine-Adelaide played.  Holding and Bielek as central defenders were unconvincing, but it didn't prove fatal.  Drogba bullied them pretty thoroughly.  Chambers looked more assured when he came in.  I thought that Arsenal was good value for the scoreline.  It could have been like 4-3 or even 6-4 had the forwards been more clinical, but Arsenal looked better on the night, despite having so many youngsters out there.  Yes, it was a hastily assembled group of non-teammates, but MLS beat Spurs last year, and several other London clubs before that.

Xhaka has a shot, doesn't he?  He looked like a mid who will pot 5 or 6 for us from deep.  The Jeff, Akpom, Iwobi, and Willock seemed almost as effective as the Ox, who played like a man who had something to prove.  Walcott didn't do much to help himself.  Wilshere did his job and I hope he rounds into form by the start of the season.  I love the way Elneny gets back on defense; no one works harder.  No EPL team is going to give us that much space in the attacking third, but there were some nice combinations in attack.

I don't really want to talk about transfers, but I guess I have to.  Do we need Mahrez?  I don't know.  Having him and Alexis on the field at the same time seems dangerous for us and the opponent.  We still need a striker and a central defender, and they have to be top drawer.  I like the midfield.  But we can only play five of them at one time.  Guys like Walcott and Campbell may be surplus, as good as they are.  Coquelin, Wilshere, Cazorla, Walcott, Campbell, the Ox, and Ramsey are not certain starters.  Hell, maybe Ozil is the only certain starting midfielder, and Alexis when his ankle heals.  Someone has to make room for the Jeff, and Mahrez would have to start if we buy him.

Will Gibbs want to move on?  Will Debuchy be moved on?  We need fullbacks if they do.  Who knows what will happen with Szczesny.  Well, it won't be long until the season starts and we're tested against massively reinforced opponents with powerhouse new managers.  I don't think Chuba Akpom is going to be our savior.  It'll be interesting.

Well, England Did Want Out of Europe

And sure enough, Roy's boys ratified the Brexit vote with as limp a defensive and offensive display as you'll ever see.  I watched the game in a London pub, and the wild cheering after Rooney's penalty quickly turned into grumbling, then angry resignation.  Some of the comments:

"These wankers couldn't beat anybody!"

"Rooney, yer past it, mate!"

"The combined salaries of the England players is more than Iceland's GDP."

England never looked like scoring from the run of play.  Everyone looked poor almost all night.  Kane was ineffectual, and of the other Spurs stars, only Kyle Walker looked as though he belonged out there.  Rooney had one of the worst games of his career.  Sturridge was awful; Sterling barely better.  The substitutes (including Wilshere) didn't do much to change the dynamics except for Rashford, who was put on too late.  Iceland's goals should have been prevented, though they were well executed.  The Times had published a diagram of Iceland's throw-in play the day before the game.  Lee Dixon in the commentator's seat said exactly what Iceland was going to try to do.  The next day's Times fumed that Iceland did to England what Stoke used to do to Arsenal when Rory Delap zipped his throw-ins into the area.  Well, the England defense went to sleep and it was like none of them were there.  Pathetic.  On the second goal, there was too much space for Iceland to get the shot off.  Well done Iceland, but come on.

A humiliating Engxit.

Watford and Arsenal

There's no comparison, really.  This was brought home to me by accident.  My younger daughter was playing for New Zealand in the World Ultimate (frisbee) Championships at the University College London athletic fields in London Colney.  UCL is where Watford FC has its training ground, and is next door (literally) to Arsenal's.  At the tournament, thousands of players and spectators trampled all but two fields in this large complex, and tracked mud through the Watford FC eating facility.  When I tried to drop in on Arsenal's training facility, a guard stopped me from even taking a picture of it.  I got closer to the Scottish crown jewels on this trip, and pictures were OK.  Sheesh.  There was a sign outside telling people that autographs were not to be solicited, leading to sad scenes like this.


So, Brexit.  That happened during the tournament.  Among other things, it's going to mean that every English club is at a disadvantage.  It took three years to get a work visa for Joel Campbell.  Imagine if that were the case for Monreal or Bellerin.  Today, if a prospect from Poland looks promising, any English club can have him playing the next season.  Not after the Brexit takes effect.  Then, it'll be a French or German or Italian club that snaps him up.

This and That

David Ospina is showing why he deserves to start somewhere.  He's been awesome for Colombia, keeping out several shots (including a dynamite free kick from Clint Dempsey) that would have eluded quite a few Copa America keepers.

Olivier Giroud is giving his critics reason to rethink their position.  He won't convince any of them until he scores several goals in the Euros, though.  He should feel very confident.  He's been quite good for France recently.

My earlier optimism about DC United has evaporated.  Losing to struggling Seattle at home was a real low point.  At no point did United look as though they were likely to win or even score.  I don't get it.  They appear to have quality, even flair, in a lot of positions.  Their keeper is fantastic.  The coach is smart and a motivator.  So why do they stink?  It's tough enough to watch MLS games after seeing EPL players.  Watching second-rate soccer when your team is losing is really galling.  I dislike RFK and was hoping to see more games in person at the new park.  But it would be nice to see a winning team.

I will admit that I was not happy to read about the possibility of Vardy coming to Arsenal.  I reconciled myself to it and even started thinking about the possibilities, and then the stories came out that Vardy wanted to stay at Leicester.  So, back to square one on the search for a lethal striker.  Fine.  At this rate, we'll be bringing Sanogo back for another run up front before we acquire someone.

Juventus was brilliant again this season, but it didn't start out that way.  Here's the sequence in Serie A:

LLDWDLWDWLWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWDWWWWWWWWWWLW

After a dreadful start, they got 15 wins in a row, then a draw, then another ten wins in a row, then lost to a team desperate to avoid relegation long after Juve had sealed the top spot.  They also progressed through Champions' League until a quarterfinal loss to Bayern (in heartbreaking fashion) and won the Coppa Italia, so this was an all-fronts campaign.  In the process, they became the first Italian team to win the domestic double two years running.  Not too shabby.

Szczesny did very well for Roma, who will have a play-in for a Champions' League spot again.  I like him a lot, and was hoping he'd be starting at Arsenal this year and every year, but he may have needed this.  Cech has done extremely well for us, so we're not suffering; but Szczesny could be our future at the position.  Unfortunately, we're overdosed on excellent keepers and can't play them all, so we'll lose more of them, as we already have Fabianski and Mannone.

Fiorentina will be in Europa League.  Milan is not going to be in Europe next season, which I like, nor is Lazio, which I like even more.  Inter and Sassuolo (!) round out the Italian Europa League places, and of course Napoli is in Champions' League.

I hope to see Theo Walcott working on his defensive skills when I visit London Colney in a couple weeks.  Maybe I'll pick up some news, such as spying Alvaro Morata ducking through a side door for a medical.  I'll be sure to post it here.