How to Blow a Lead
Happy international break everyone! Time to head home and hang out with your national teams, probably get injured, or get covid, and then not be in good form when you return! Like a much needed long weekend, this break comes at a key time for a lot of teams looking to fix things up and press restart. Or, it’s a time to get a new manager and hope for the best! Either way, we’ve got some action to break down from the last week so let’s! get! into it!
In the Champion’s League…
Off this week as players head to international break. Briefing on that: Key games coming up for Italy (facing Switzerland) and Spain (facing Greece) that are MUST WINS to secure a good spot in World Cup Qualifying. I know, you’re thinking: They’re ALREADY doing world cup qualifying????? Yes! It starts VERY far in advance it is INCREDIBLY complicated and it is rigged against the teams in Africa. But we don’t have time to talk about EVERYTHING so let’s just move on.
In the Premier League…
Several Managers went from the hot seat to the pit of flames- Aston Villa dumped their coach after an extremely disappointing start to the season as did Norwich, who are trying to avoid bouncing back down to the second tier (for the second straight time after being promoted). Aston Villa, you may remember, sold Jackie Grealish (#MrsGrealish69) to Man City this summer, losing one of their biggest stars (not losing the support of their other biggest star, Prince William, a die-hard fan for some reason), and haven’t done anything to change the team or add any assets since then. If you’re thinking, but what about our friend Ole, who is supposedly getting fired any day? Well, after a miserable showing in the Manchester Derby (losing 2-0, with no good chances and absolute trash defending), many rumors about the next coach of Man U have started to circulate. In other news of the weekend, West Ham beat Liverpool (upset alert!) and Burnley beat Chelsea (From Thomas Tuchel: If the game ended at 80 minutes, it would have been our best game of the season. Spoiler thomas, it doesnt!) but you know, everyone is allowed to have an off day. See our NFL post for more details!
In Ligue 1…
ASSE GOT THEIR FIRST WIN OF THE SEASON BABY!!!! ASSE ASSE ASSE They were down 2-0 against Clermont and made a GREAT comeback to win 3-2. You know who else had a great weekend? Lens, who have been on a TEAR this season. They’re strong contenders to finish top two, and based off the troubles PSG have been going through. Theme of the season for the big clubs: Blowing their leads & getting too confident!! PSG had a 2-0 lead over Bordeaux going into the half and then decided NOT TO PLAY the second half. News flash fam, the game is 90 minutes and you have to play for THE FULL 90 MINUTES! (maybe this is where Thomas Tuchel got the idea from?) Also not having a great time: Lille, who are just completely uninspired this season. From the way they’re playing you would never know they were champions, and that most of the championship squad is STILL ON THE TEAM. Ugh. Get it together fam! The biggest game of the last weekend, or at least the one that was most fun to watch, was Rennes’ absolute thrashing of Olympic Lyonnais. They did concede a late penalty in stoppage time (preventing them from getting a clean sheet) but Lyon totally underperformed.
In La Liga…
Ayy dios mio! Everyone welcome aboard Xavi, the new coach of Barca, who has been tasked with saving the legacy of the club (currently sitting down in 8th place) with very little cash to spend! In his first match this past weekend, Barca came out roaring and scored 3 goals before the half. But, per the theme for big clubs this week, they then conceded 3 goals in the second half, ending in a draw. So much for the new manager bump! Xavi is targeting Premier League stars like Cavani, Timo Werner, and Raheem Sterling, but he only has $10million (not a lot in the world of soccer), so it’s iffy what he’ll be able to accomplish. Darlings of the league Real Sociedad (REAL SOCIETY) are still on top after beating a feisty Osasuna (Ozuna?!!?!?!) this weekend whereas Real Madrid put themselves in danger of a draw by- you guessed it- giving up during the second half of the match. Atletico Madrid DID only get a draw, by playing zero defense against Valencia. I mean, creds to Valencia actually because they played an excellent game, but still.
In Serie A…
MILANO DERBY WEEKEND!!!!!!!!!! Our favorite CBS Pundit Aaron West did a lot of EXCELLENT promo and content for this, including an interview with Zlatan (who else) which you should definitely check out. (Side note: we will accept sponsorships from anyone, especially if you wanted to, idk, send us to milan to cover something. We are VERY busy but we can squeeze it in our schedules). As usual, this derby was a HOT contest, which tbh Inter should have won, but didn’t, and it ended ~excitingly in a 1-1 draw (while I’m editing this post, I am now seeing why everyone says ‘soccer is boring and nothing happens’ since all these games were draws but! I promise you things do happen!). They did talk about this game for about a half hour on my podcast, but honestly, it wasn’t that interesting. A more interesting matchup: Venezia beating Mourinho’s Roma, 3-2. Mourinho has gone into Evil Mourinho mode, drawing attention to himself in the press & complaining about referee decisions, when, in reality, his team just isn’t playing that well. There WERE some controversial ref decisions across the league, including 3 red cards thrown out: one for Verona, for Udinese, and for Fiorentina. Some justified, some not, but we’re not here to question the decisions of PROFESSIONALS (especially when they don’t involve teams we actually care about). Also a fun one- Last week Lazio hosted Marseille in the Europa league, and this happened:
In women’s soccer…
Sadly the women’s soccer news is always BAD which is really not doing wonders for the viewership! In this week’s latest scandal, it’s not sexual assault for once (yay!) but it is assault (not yay!) linked to the women’s PSG team. After clinching the Championship last year (overthrowing DOMINANT women’s team OL), PSG ladies have been on a rise, meaning they’re attracting better players and becoming more competitive. Well, that’s apparently causing some friction! Last week players Kheira Hamraoui and Aminata Diallo were pulled out of their car on the way home from a team dinner (pasta party); Aminata was held to the side while Kheira was whacked on her legs and hands with a baton of some kind a la Nancy Kerrigan ! Funnily enough… Aminata and Kheira play the same position, and Kheira has been getting more playing time. Aminata was subsequently arrested and held in custody for 72 hours ( a la Tonya Harding!) but was released without charges (French law only allows short holds without official charges). Unclear who these men were, if Aminata was involved, or what’s going to happen next. Fortunately, Kheira is going to be okay, but she sustained heavy bruising and had to get stitches so she’s out for now.
