Patched Tube

I'm glad for his sake this happened sooner rather than later.

Not exactly the place for it but... I had the occasion to watch a women's college football match between two of the better programs in the US yesterday as a friend of mine had a niece playing. We got the VIP treatment got nice seats and were able to loiter around areas fans normally aren't allowed in which was new to me. Now obviously I've never scouted much less coached talent (never mind elite talent) before but she was outstanding. She plays center back, tall, athletically built and graceful and the first thing I noticed was she economical in her movements; she walks about patrolling her area and following the flow of play occasionally breaking into a easy jog (that covers ground surprisingly quickly) and then closes on the ball or her player with a burst of speed that is a bit surprising given her size. As I saw later she has a nice turn of speed but she doesn't flash it needlessly. The next thing I noticed was her composure. Never seeming rushed, she picked her spots, knew how to use her size and strength to take an opponent off the ball or her speed to pick up an errant pass. She was an accurate passer partially b/c her foot work is very good but also because she holds the ball until she is sure she can make an accurate pass. She has a tendency to go right and probably needs to work on making her distribution a bit more even but that may have been by design. She just appears very unruffled and in control of her game. She has some offensive potential particularly in set pieces where she used her height and vertical leap very effectively and given a chance she went on a run of about 45 yards through the defense and fired a nice cross that hit her target team mate in stride. It came to nothing but that was no fault of hers from what I could tell. She has attracted interest from some professional clubs (her program is rated pretty highly and there is an alum - Janine Beckie - who plays for Man City) but she won't be hearing much about that until after her season ends. It was a good match and if her side came out on the short end it was no fault of the back four who were outstanding; unfortunately they are in desperate need of another striker (on of their forwards was either having the worst game of her life or is simply not good enough) and a holding mid fielder but that is the normal ebb and flow of college teams as players eligibility expires. There was a wide wide midfielder on the other team that was weasel quick with delightful footwork; right in front of me she split two defenders with a dummy and a quick flick and was off and running with the ball in less time than it takes to tell. So it was quality football with nice seats and if it wasn't so chilly and spitting rain it would have been a near perfect day out. The one odd moment was, after seeing someone looking so poised and mature on the field, to come face to face with a 21 year old women who seemed so young (and they seem younger every year). But she is a very pleasant young lady and it was a pleasure to have spent a few minutes chatting with her.

Please let it be so.

Ranieri out!!

Right now, IMO, they some good signings; quality, steady players that will keep them up and give something to build on. Amazing can come a couple of years down the road.

What will be interesting will be the January transfer window. Barring some semi-miraculous turn around in the league table you'd have to expect the new owners to fire Bruce and try to pick up some players in the window and then its all hands to the pumps to keep the team up. Be a hell of a thing to buy a PL club just to watch it go down 7 months later.

After the blowback for not starting "he who must always start" this weekend I'm looking forward to their match against Liverpool late this month. If Liverpool play 80% as well as they did this weekend and MU puts a statue in the starting line up they will get ripped to shreds.

Brilliant second half, best match of the season so far going away. Two quality clubs playing scintillating football. I need a drink and a nap after that one.

I expect Klopp and Pep would be content to each taking a point; this has been interesting.

Townsend's goal celebration is the kind of pettiness I can really get behind.

Obviously a good result for City today but I think it will suit Liverpool. Maybe not as much as a draw but probably a decent result for them. Of course its early and the league table doesn't mean a whole lot yet.

MC playing well - better than I expected TBH - and Jesus's goal was well deserved all around. They can't let up though - I expect Chelsea is too well coached and too confident to let this rattle them much.

New players? They would have had to buy a whole team to cover that list.

Oh dear.

I said what I said. Though I was out doing my marketing so I missed this one.