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Well, Plymouth were up 1-0 at the half, but a draw for Luton meant that Argyle needed about 27 more goals to stay up. They missed the target by 29, and dropped all the points. This provided Leeds the Championship title.

Bristol City managed to claw back from a 2-0 deficit to draw even in their match, which kept them in the playoff as long as Blackburn didn't win. Rovers were up, but they got evened up. The final whistle blew in Bristol City to only mild cheers, as they awaiting the result in another stadium. Bradford promoted up on the final day at home. The relegation - promotion battles are what make the International Football model superior to the American. Especially when we have access to most of the games on the final day. Stoke City need to figure something out (that doesn't involved Wayne Rooney). I saw Plymouth's Hardie was potentially on the selling block, which would suck because he scored several important goals this season.

Sadly Champions and Europa/UEFA/Whatevera leagues are all auto-make it. This makes the final games less important in the EPL.
 
One game left in the season, or two if you are Man City. Five teams are targeting three spots in the Champions League. Man City (65 pts), Chelsea (66 pts), Newcastle (66 pts), Aston Villa (66 pts), and Nottingham Forest (65 pts). City have the advantage with two games remaining. It'd be difficult to imagine them blowing this as they usually only blow Domestic Cup finals. That'd mean the remaining four are in a battle for the last two spots. The two that don't make will be qualifying for the Europa league with a 6th place finish (which used to be something that mattered as a solid consolation prize) and the Conference League Playoff as the fitting consolation prize of remotely irrelevent consolation prizes. Technically playing in a European tournament, technically no one cares. Especially when you were just two places away from playing the greatest teams in Europe... and the very very good teams in Europe... and the teams that weren't remotely champions, but they finished in the top three to five in their league, so huzzah!

An interesting drama, though not quite like it was when these spots were fewer and involved qualification rounds.
 
Meanwhile in promotion battles:

Championship: Sheffield United v Sunderland. Sheffield completely flopped at the end of the season. They were founding members of the EPL, but dropped in '94 and haven't been back since. Sunderland used to be more common in the EPL, but have been yo-yo'ing for a bit.

League One: Charlton v Leyton Orient. Charlton used to be in the EPL back when I first started having exposure to the league via Fox Sports World. Leyton Orient crashed hard in the 2010's dropping from League One to Conference! But in the last few years, they have resurrected themselves and are fighting to get back to the Championship for the first time in nearly 50 years!

League Two: AFC Wimbledon v Walsall. AFC Wimbeldon shot through the rankings in their Resurrection period after the team was moved and renamed MK Dons, and hit the glass ceiling in League One. They were relegated and now have a chance to get back to League One. Walsall are perennial third/fourth division club.
 
Sheffield United were on their way to promoting, going up 2-0, only for the goal to be called back as a man who was offside was in the line of sight for the keeper. Sunderland came back and fans of the Blades suffer yet another playoff exit. The Dons and Charlton also promoted in their respective leagues.

As some might have heard, Liverpool FC had their parade yesterday and while things were starting to wind down, a person in a vehicle drove into a group of people, hurting over 40, a couple people badly. Marred what was otherwise a great day in Mercyside (Liverpool half at least).
 
USMNT loses fourth straight under Pochettino, a 4-0 nail biter without a shot on target... at home.

There are a couple ways to look at this. Pochettino is failing and the US is doomed. The other issue is that footballers are run through a grinder every season and they barely have a week or two to rest, so when they actually do rest and they don't play in a meaningless international... is there anything to take from this?
article said:
That, astonishingly, is the state of the USMNT with a year to go. Two years after former head coach Gregg Berhalter said "the sky's the limit" for what many believed was a "golden generation" of players, they are insipid and astray, uninspired and uninspiring.

Many of those prominent players were absent for Tuesday's loss to Switzerland and Saturday's to Türkiye, so there are caveats. But they and their dubious effort were responsible for the first two losses, in March to Panama and Canada.

When they bowed out of these summer friendlies and Gold Cup — either to rest, or to recover from injuries, or to compete at the Club World Cup — the hope was that their replacements would fight and light a fire under those far-too-comfortable regulars. On Saturday, even in defeat, Pochettino was pleased with the newcomers and their passion. A shaky ship had seemingly been steadied.
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Since the take over, the record is wobbly, but in reality, specific games matter. And when most of the team is trying to recover from another grueling season as UEFA finds more and more ways to squeeze money out of players. Way too early to press the panic button... and whomever was thinking a semi-final appearance in the World Cup was on offer... dude, you ain't paying attention. Getting out of the Group is priority. Winning a game in the knockout round is awesome. Getting to the quarterfinals is out of this world. Of course, having 128 teams (or whatever) teams in the World Cup, it could be easier to get out of the group stage and get that knockout win. But that is a full year down the road.
 
The Club World Cup is on going in the US right now as a preview to the World Cup in 2026. The action is tight, the tension could be cut with a knife... oh wait... no. This is the Club World Cup... a Cup that meant very little and FIFA is trying to make it "a thing". And America, which is a usually a bit adverse to soccer, seems to care little about it.

Chelsea played LA FC in Atlanta, allegedly to a half full stadium. The Club World Cup is just another cash grab by FIFA, an organization more corrupt than Boss Tweed, as they squeeze as much capital from soccer players as they can. The Club World Cup used to be a much smaller affair, with 4 or 8 teams who were top dogs in their regions. Now it has 32 bloody teams, including 3rd place K-League (Korea) Ulsan, 6th place Serie A (Italy) Fluminense FC, and an Kiwi amateur team, Auckland FC.

This expansion is consistent with FIA expanding the 2026 World Cup to 48 fucking teams, where the top 2 in each of the 12 groups and 8 of the third place teams go to the Round of 32 where 8-0 final scores seem inevitable.
 
Grimsby fans console themselves with win in Carabao Cup, telling themselves despite being a shell of what they were, Manchester United is still technically an EPL team and this win was still technically an upset.
 
What a game, Manchester United v Grimsby Town. After falling behind 2-0 Manchester Utd managed a late comeback and tied the game 2-2 to force the game into a penalty shootout (no extra time in this tournament) which Grimsby Town won 12-11. All credit to the plucky underdogs who took Grimsby all the way but there was to be no cup upset.
 
US draw into a wickedly "easy" group. Of course, with the larger field, the groups are generally easier than in the past.
 
Jimmy Higgins said:
US draw into a wickedly "easy" group. Of course, with the larger field, the groups are generally easier than in the past.
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Any group with the USA as its top seed is going to be a wickedly easy group.

It's an inevitable consequence (and the intended consequence) of giving the co-hosts top seed positions. Of the three co-hosts, only Mexico has anything close to the international ranking and history necessary to begin to justify top seed status.

The simple fact is that if the USA doesn't get past the group stage, the total cash income from the competition will be dramatically lower than if they proceed to the knockout rounds (where there's a fair chance that with home ground advantage, they might even progress further).

TV ratings translate directly into money, and US TV ratings are worth a LOT more money than anyone else's; FIFA stands to make a killing if they can get the USA as far as possible in the contest; So ensuring they have the easiest possible group stage, was (and is) far more important than such trivia as integrity or fairness.

FIFA like money. They have always been pretty meh about fairness, and if they ever stumbled upon an integrity in the wild, they wouldn't know whether to shit or go blind.
 
bilby said:
Jimmy Higgins said:
US draw into a wickedly "easy" group. Of course, with the larger field, the groups are generally easier than in the past.
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Any group with the USA as its top seed is going to be a wickedly easy group.

It's an inevitable consequence (and the intended consequence) of giving the co-hosts top seed positions. Of the three co-hosts, only Mexico has anything close to the international ranking and history necessary to begin to justify top seed status.
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Canada is near their peak of all-time, but not ready to step out of CONCACAF really. Mexico is near a low. The USA... it has been a really long time since their performance in 2002. There was that Klinnsman performance, but that was really an underperformance despite getting out of the group stage when they struggled to get the damn ball in the net again Al-fucking-geria.
bilby said:
The simple fact is that if the USA doesn't get past the group stage, the total cash income from the competition will be dramatically lower than if they proceed to the knockout rounds (where there's a fair chance that with home ground advantage, they might even progress further).
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Someone should check for a CO2 leak wherever bilby is. He sounds delusional the US could make a 'run for it'. However, I remember 2002 and South Korea and Japan getting some very friendly calls. In fact, I worked with an Italian who was mouthing off about my complaints on that in the Group Stage. His take on it was changed after Italy was taken out by South Korea.
bilby said:
TV ratings translate directly into money, and US TV ratings are worth a LOT more money than anyone else's; FIFA stands to make a killing if they can get the USA as far as possible in the contest; So ensuring they have the easiest possible group stage, was (and is) far more important than such trivia as integrity or fairness.
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Really, I'm wondering if Mexico would draw better. US will do better than Curacao, but *goes to check how USA did ratings wise last World Cup*... *oh yeah... that's right*

The US is a rare country. The right-wing hates football and they actively avoid it. One of the number of reasons it just doesn't catch nationally here.
bilby said:
FIFA like money. They have always been pretty meh about fairness, and if they ever stumbled upon an integrity in the wild, they wouldn't know whether to shit or go blind.
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Half expecting the US players being allowed to steel chair shot opposing players when the refs are looking the other way. We'll know if that'll happen if Jim Ross is hired to do commentary.
 
Meanwhile, Liverpool continue their slide from prominence to... was Jota holding things together that much? Liverpool up 2-0, then 3-2, and the game finishes 3-3. It was a great game overall. And parity in the league is notable. But Liverpool are having serious trouble at the moment with points. They were 7-0-0 when scoring the first goal this season. Of course, most of those wins were probably before this turn to mediocre football club. I'm uncertain what the problem is exactly. Granted, this is what was expected last year and they ran away with the title.

So maybe last year was a minor miracle and things are back to normal.

YNWA!
 
Mo Salah and Liverpool are having a thing. Salah, who has otherwise been an absolute legend for Liverpool has apparently lost his mind and went mouthing off to the press. This has greatly tarnished what has otherwise been a remarkable tenure at Liverpool that has seen success in Champions League and two EPL titles.
 
How about those Silkmen?

Not since a non-league team called Crystal Palace beat FA Cup holders Wolverhampton Wanderers in 1909 has a non-League team defeated the current champs in an FA Cup match.

Until now.

Macclesfield FC (who play in National
League North, the sixth tier of the English football ladder) just beat the current Cup holders 2-1. And in a strange twist, that incumbent is a Premier League team by the name of Crystal Palace.

Wolves fans have waited 119 years for this. ;)
 
For the layperson, the FA Cup is a virtually all teams in the nation tournament. Think of it like a baseball tournament including the MLB, AAA, AA, A, Semi-pro, pretty much down to but not including the corporate picnic softball team. In the beginning of the tournament the much lower level squads are playing against each other before the big boys get involved. But by Round Three, it gets real.

So what happened for Macclesfield did was equivalent to a semi-pro team beating an MLB team. There are asterisks involved with top teams generally not playing their top players, but Macclesfield's players have real jobs and their football is a hobby, not a career. Hopefully they draw an away tie with an EPL side for the Fourth Round and pay for the team's expenses for the next three to five years.
 
Looking over the results, one close call for a multiple tier upset was Grimsby Town (League 2... 4th rung) over Weston-super-Mare (National League South... 6th rung). Tied 2-2 late, but an 86th minute winner scored by Grimsby. Mansfield Town League One side took out Sheffield United Championship side.

Into the 4th Round, 2 League Two sides, 5 League One sides remain. The third and fourth Round of the FA Cup is much like the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament. Pretty much can cheer for all the upsets except against your team of course... like when those bastard Pilgrims beat the Reds last year. It was like the only good thing for Plymouth Argyle all season. ;)
 
Jimmy Higgins said:
There are asterisks involved with top teams generally not playing their top players, but Macclesfield's players have real jobs and their football is a hobby, not a career. Hopefully they draw an away tie with an EPL side for the Fourth Round and pay for the team's expenses for the next three to five years.
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I hear that Crystal Palace have donated their half of the matchday gate receipts to Macclesfield - it's a pittance to Palace, but a lot of money to the Silkmen.

That's a truly sporting gesture and I for one would like to see more of that kind of interaction between the EPL clubs and the lower tier and non-league clubs.
 
The relegation battle in the EPL has become interesting, with the hammers making a late run.

Nottingham Forest are looking increasingly nervous; West Ham held Man United to a 1-1 draw yesterday, and Leeds came back from 2-0 down to steal a valuable point at Stamford Bridge.

Forest are playing the hapless Wolves this morning, with Wolves still needing three points just to equal Derby County's record of lowest points total for an EPL season; with just minutes to go, neither team has scored, though Forest have have been dominant in posession and Wanderers have never really threatened to score.
 
So, it finished goalless, advancing Wolves to a massive nine points from 26 matches, and leaving Forest looking very nervous only three points ahead of West Ham, whose next few matches are against fairly easy opposition, such as Brighton, Fulham, and Liverpool. ;)

It would be a very brave call to pick Forest to stay up and the Hammers to go down based on current form. Spurs loss to Newcastle puts them on a sliding trajectory too, so they could yet rescue both Nottingham and West Ham by dropping into the Championship themselves.

Leeds are still not as safe as I would like, but are starting to climb away from the trapdoor, and are showing some real determination - yesterday's 2-2 at Chelsea felt like a massive win, for all that it only bagged a single point.

Leeds, Spurs, and West Ham all still have another match to play against Wolves, which (if you are not Forest) feels like it should be a sure three points; Leeds play Wolves as our last home match of the season, so if we still need the points at that stage, a certain degree of confidence is justified.

Arsenal travel to Brentford tomorrow to complete round 26, and would go six points clear at the top if they won; Brentford have had a surprisingly strong season though, so it's no easy game for the Arse Gunners.

The blue half of Manchester will certainly hoping that the Bees can secure the points at the Community Stadium.
 
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