The Red and Blue Soccer Chat - 10/11/23

The Red and Blue Soccer Chat

Hello, Reds and Blues! The 2nd international break of the Fall is now underway, so let’s catch up on what’s happened with our clubs, as well as what we can expect from the upcoming USMNT friendlies.

Chelsea’s results in the past few weeks have been promising, at least when compared to their overall start to the season. Since the home loss to Villa they have won at home against Brighton and picked up 2 away wins against Fulham and Burnley. The performances themselves have not always been quite what they would hope at time, with the Burnley game another example of their occasional shortcomings. But fans will point to 3 wins in a row with 2 clean sheets, and a team performance to come back from an early goal down to comfortably win 4-1. So perhaps the break comes at an inopportune time at the moment, as both players and manager will want to build on these results as well as some momentum. Chelsea returns from the break to face Arsenal and then Brentford, both at home. Good performances in both matches could finally see them turning things around and moving back into the top half of the table as the holidays approach. Question marks abound, but there is reason for optimism. Also, tip of the hat to the retiring Eden Hazard. He is a Chelsea legend, and all fans should be grateful to have seen him play.

“Football. Bloody hell!” Sometimes that’s all you can say in the face of the game’s strange events. After completely dominating Palace in the Carabao Cup at home United faced them again only a few days later. But the performance and result were much different. Conceding yet another early goal, United looked completely without ideas on how to break down a defensively compact team. They had more than an hour to find an equalizer, but despite nearly 80% of possession and 19 shot attempts they managed only 4 tamely on target. That was followed by a home fixture in the Champions League against Galatasaray. The team that famously welcomed them to hell in the mid-90s came to Old Trafford to repeat it. Hojlund scored an early goal only for the visitors to respond immediately. This was repeated halfway through the 2nd period with United then Gala scoring minutes apart. That was followed by yet another howler of a pass from GK Onana, which forced Casemiro into another bad decision of a tackle and got sent off. The ensuing penalty was missed badly, but the momentum was truly with the visitors and they bagged a winner late on. Which brings us this past weekend’s match with Brentford. United looked beaten even before the match begun, and more poor defending led to a Brentford goal. And once again United looked unwilling and unable to get things level. Scott McTominay was brought on late, but few could expect what would happen next. But as Sir Alex famously said, this game is sometimes hard to comprehend. Scott would bag 2 goals in injury to take all 3 points in front of a rapturous home crowd. It is obvious that there is much to work on and players that don’t seem to fully buy into the team concept just yet. With 3 games left in October upon their return from break, Erik ten Hag has little time to get them to gel prior to the first Derby of the season. Finally condolences to Sir Alex, who’s wife passed away this weekend.

GGG has called up a strong and largely unsurprising squad for the upcoming fixtures against Germany (who is also bringing a decent team) and Ghana. Considering the excellent form of several Yanks so far this season for their clubs, it’s not ridiculous to believe the US should get some positive performances and results. Gio Reyna finally got some minutes for Dortmund, so hopefully he can contribute to what Puli, Weston, Yunus, Timothy, Tim, and several others have been doing. 2 wins would go a long way toward (some) fans finally buying into GGG’s long-term plans.

We’ll be hoping for no technical glitches this time around. So, join us live from Chatham Tap Fishers at 7pm, follow along on Facebook Live and YouTube Live, or catch us at your leisure on our other platforms listed below. Please like, subscribe, and comment wherever you choose to find us. CHEERS!

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