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Are you ready for some Football (Associated)

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.
Click to expand...
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.
 
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