Friday 12/08

Franklin Munoz
December 08, 2023

☃️ 🎁⚽️ Happy Friday Statesiders! In a shocking turn of events, the mighty Santos FC has been dealt a devastating blow as they find themselves facing the unthinkable: relegation. For the first time in its illustrious 111 year old history, this Brazilian soccer powerhouse has been knocked off its pedestal, and let’s just say that fans were left in a state of disbelief. As the dust settles and the reality sinks in, one can only help to imagine what the legendary Pele would think about the state of his home club, where he dedicated 18 seasons and nearly 600 goals. Pele must be rolling in his grave.

Giveaway: Wake up and smell the coffee. Just in time for the Holidays, our next giveaway will be a $30 gift card for our favorite coffee brand- Kickoff Coffee. As always, each friend that you refer to subscribe to the newsletter is an entry to our raffle. Best of luck!

Copa America
The Groups Are Set!

@CopaAmerica

✈️🚎 All set for 2024. The Copa America group drawing was held last night in Miami, and the stage is finally set for next Summer. We have some exciting matchups in the group stages from the USMNT taking on Uruguay at the iconic Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Brazil facing Colombia at the Levi’s Stadium, home of the San Francisco 49ers to Argentina taking on Copa America rivals Chile at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.

🏆🛣️ No Excuses. Sure, the USMNT have a tough matchup against Uruguay, but a win against them, who has recently beaten both Brazil and Argentina, would be the statement win they desperately need to show they belong amongst the top nations. Copa America play is known to be a physical game with scrappy play at times, therefore the games against Panama and Bolivia are no easy matchups either, but at this stage, there are no longer any excuses for the USMNT not making it out of the group stage and making a good run in this tournament.

Thursday’s Round Up

Premier League

Yankees Abroad Antonee Robinson and Tim Ream, via FotMob

Liverpool puts pressure on Arsenal via FotMob

Good Ebening from Emery via FotMob

Ten Hag avoids the sack! via FotMob

Everton crawls out of relegation zone with big W via FotMob

Spurs back to being Spurs? via FotMob

Report of The Day
Hold The Whistle Ref

GIF by Tenor

⚫️ ⚪️ Referees these days: How many of you ever felt personally victimized by a referee’s match officiating? We can see that the Honduras Soccer Federation and CONCACAF hands are raised, and for valid reasons.

😥 😠 Both Honduras Soccer Federation and CONCACAF have expressed dismay with Ivan Barton, the official who was in charge of the second leg between Mexico and Honduras for the Quarterfinal of the Nations League at the Azteca Estadio. To recap, the first leg between the two teams ended in a 2-0 victory for Honduras.

▶️ ⚽️ Honduras were keen on maintaining the aggregation in their favor; but the game had something else in store. Towards the end of the match, Barton decided to add on 9 minutes of injury stoppage time, and then an additional 3 more minutes paving the way for Mexican International Edson Alvarez to level the tie on aggregate and bringing the match into penalty kicks where Honduras ultimately conceded defeat. Furiously, the Honduras Soccer Federation are planning to take legal action against Barton over his officiating.

🆘 ⏲️ CONCACAF has similarly raised concerns over how Barton handled the game and his failure to follow the Confederation’s protocol after homophobic chants were repeated at least 15 times. These concerns resulted in CONCACAF banning Barton from officiating any games involving Honduras or any Honduran club team.

However, to Mexico’s defense, Honduras wasted almost 10 minutes in the second half between free-kicks, goal-kicks, and substitutions in efforts to further run down the clock.

👀 👀 I always feel like somebody’s watching me and I have no privacy! Meet Sanchez Martinez, the match official in charge of last weekend’s match between Atletico Madrid and FC Barcelona. What is already a riled up and energetic match, does not need any more beef to further the rivalry… or does it?

It is alleged that Martinez sent his assistance down the stadium tunnel to spy on the teams’ locker rooms as Martinez was keen to discover what the players were saying about him. It is further alleged that Martinez himself attempted to enter Barcelona’s dressing room. Nonetheless, the match ended in a 1-0 victory for Barcelona after former Atletico Madrid Joao Felix found the back of the net in the 28^th minute.

🦸 🕵️ What’s there to do? The Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) have issued several apologies for referee blunders. But the PGMOL have had enough with apologies and are working on a potential solution to reduce controversial referee decisions. The former-World Cup Final referee, Howard Webb was put in charge of the PGMOL in 2022, and stated interest in being more transparent with decision making behind certain calls. Webb seeks to recruit 12-former players to fast track them in an ambitious refereeing scheme.

Such recruits will aid the perceptions of current referees as top level officiating continues to fall short. Incidents similar to Curtis Jones’ red card during the Liverpool v Tottenham, divided opinions among former professional players who drew experience from their playing days to analyze harsh-controversial calls. PGMOL are in search of a new chair in a role to support Howard Webb, who is often the only one in the spotlight following the latest referee blunder, to take some pressure off of Webb’s shoulders. Think you’re up for the call? Forward your CV here.