ON THE PITCH
Soccer weekly recap: Italy bows out of FIFA World Cup
Nov 14, 2017, 10:19 am
The Dynamo returned to the pitch to prepare for the Western Conference finals. Victor Araiza
International soccer was the focal point of the weekend with the World Cup picture becoming complete. Only three spots remain to be filled and those teams will be known within the next 24 hours.
FIFA World Cup Qualifying
Senegal, Morocco and Tunisia have secured the final three spots left from the African confederation by virtue of winning their respective groups. Morocco returns for the first time since 1998, Senegal since 2002 and Tunisia since the 2006 World Cup. The results also eliminates a regular like Ivory Coast, who was looking to make a fourth consecutive World Cup.
In Europe, Switzerland, Croatia and Sweden have gone on to secure their spot via a playoff series. Switzerland carried over a 1-0 score from the first leg to eliminate Northern Ireland and Croatia also advanced via their first leg win, 4-1 over Greece. The big shock in Europe - at least in terms of historical powers - was the elimination of four-time champion Italy, who will miss their first FIFA World Cup since 1958. The Azzurri could not overturn the 1-0 defeat at Sweden in the first leg and join the list of countries that will miss out next summer, including the Netherlands and the United States.
Both of the interconfederation playoffs ended in nil-nil draws in the first leg and will have everything to play for on Wednesday. Houston Dynamo players Alberth Elis, Romell Quioto and Boniek Garcia will look to qualify Honduras to their third-consecutive World Cup with a win or a draw with goals in Australia while the Socceroos need a win to advance. New Zealand held Peru to zero goals at home and will need a win or a draw with goals to advance to their first World Cup since 2010. Peru will look to ride their home crowd to a win and a return to the World Cup for the first time since the 1982 edition.
Friendlies
The Mexican national team traveled to Europe to face two fellow national teams that have booked their ticket to Russia. El Tri managed a thrilling 3-3 draw against Belgium on Friday, behind a double from 22-year-old Hirving Lozano, and followed it up with a 1-0 draw at Poland on Monday.
Argentina managed a 1-0 draw at World Cup hosts Russia thanks to Sergio Agüero goal. The Albiceleste will be without Lionel Messi as they stay in Russia for a friendly against Nigeria on Tuesday.
Neymar, Marcelo and Gabriel Jesus all scored in Brazil’s 3-1 win against Japan and continue to look every bit the contender. On Tuesday, they face off against an England side that played Germany to a scoreless draw on Friday. Germany faces off against France on Tuesday. Spain, meanwhile, dominated Costa Rica to a 5-nil win and faces Russia to close out their international fixtures.
Major League Soccer
Teams continue to train during the international break ahead of the conference finals next week. The Houston Dynamo returned to their normal schedule on Thursday after a four day break following their 2-1 win in Portland. The break comes at a great time as injured players like DaMarcus Beasley and Leonardo could feature in next Tuesday’s Western Conference final opener against Seattle.
NASL/USL
Both of U.S. Soccer’s second division leagues came to a close over the weekend. The San Francisco Deltas won the North American Soccer League championship 2-0 over the New York Cosmos to cap off their debut season. Tommy Heinemann and Devon Sandoval scored for San Francisco. The official attendance was 9,691.
In the United Soccer League playoffs, 14,456 were on hand at Slugger Field to see Louisville City FC win their first USL Cup over Swope Park Rangers. The game’s only goal came from Cameron Lancaster in the 88th minute of the match.
Liga MX
Monterrey and Santos played to a 1-1 draw on Thursday night in the league’s only official match while other team’s toured the U.S. with friendlies. The 2017 Apertura season concludes this weekend with the final playoff spots to be determined. This weekend also features the Monterrey derby between Monterrey and Tigres, a match with the top seed in the table up for grabs.
MVP of the Week - Gianluigi Buffon
Italian legend Gianluigi Buffon is this week’s MVP after a valiant effort to not allow any goals in Italy’s scoreless draw with Sweden. Despite his performance, his side’s failure to convert means they will watch next year’s World Cup from home. The 2006 FIFA World Cup champion goalkeeper immediately apologized after the match for his country’s failure to qualify and officially called it an end to his international career. Many will remember him for his class, the same he showed in defeat as he did as a winner as he goes down as one of the greatest goalkeepers the game has produced.
Upcoming matches (All Times CT):
Tuesday, Nov. 14:
10:30 a.m.- Friendly: Argentina vs. Nigeria (beIN SPORTS)
12:45 p.m.- Friendly: Russia vs. Spain (ESPN3)
1:45 p.m.- Leg 2: Ireland vs. Denmark (FS2)
1:45 p.m.- Leg 2: Ireland vs. Denmark (FS2)
2:45 p.m.- Friendly: Portugal vs. USA (FS1/UniMas/Univision Deportes)
Wednesday, Nov. 15:
3 a.m.- Leg 2: Australia vs. Honduras (beIN SPORTS)
8:15 p.m. - Leg 2: Peru vs. New Zealand (beIN SPORTS)
Friday, Nov. 17:
1:30 p.m.- Stuttgart vs. Dortmund (FS2)
Saturday, Nov. 18:
6:30 a.m.- Arsenal vs. Tottenham (NBC Sports)
8:30 a.m.- Bayern Munich vs. Augsburg (FS1)
9 a.m.- Leicester City vs. Manchester City (NBC Sports)
9 a.m.- Liverpool vs. Southampton (NBC Sports)
9 a.m.- West Brom vs. Chelsea (NBC Sports)
9:15 a.m.- Leganes vs. FC Barcelona (beIN SPORTS)
10 a.m.- PSG vs. Nantes (beIN SPORTS)
11:30 a.m.- Manchester United vs. Newcastle (NBC Sports)
11 a.m.- Roma vs. Lazio (beIN SPORTS)
1:45 p.m.- Atletico Madrid vs. Real Madrid (beIN SPORTS)
1:45 p.m.- Napoli vs. AC Milan (beIN SPORTS)
7 p.m. - Monterrey vs. Tigres (Univision)
Sunday, Nov. 19:
8 a.m. - Sampdoria vs. Juventus (beIN SPORTS)
12 p.m. - Toluca vs. Tijuana (Univision)
1:45 p.m.- Inter Milan vs. Atalanta (beIN SPORTS)
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After finishing up with the Guardians the Astros have a rather important series for early May with the Seattle Mariners heading to town for the weekend. While it’s still too early to be an absolute must-win series for the Astros, losing the series to drop seven or eight games off the division lead would make successfully defending their American League West title that much more unlikely.
Since their own stumble out of the gate to a 6-10 record the Mariners have been racking up series wins, including one this week over the Atlanta Braves. The M’s offense is largely Mmm Mmm Bad, but their pitching is sensational. In 18 games after the 6-10 start, the Mariners gave up five runs in a game once. In the other 17 games they only gave up four runs once. Over the 18 games their starting pitchers gave up 18 earned runs total with a 1.44 earned run average. That’s absurd. Coming into the season Seattle’s starting rotation was clearly better on paper than those of the Astros and Texas Rangers, and it has crystal clearly played out as such into the second month of the schedule.
While it’s natural to focus on and fret over one’s own team's woes when they are plentiful as they have been for the Astros, a reminder that not all grass is greener elsewhere. Alex Bregman has been awful so far. So has young Mariners’ superstar Julio Rodriguez. A meager four extra base hits over his first 30 games were all Julio produced down at the ballyard. That the Mariners are well ahead of the Astros with J-Rod significantly underperforming is good news for Seattle.
Caratini comes through!
So it turns out the Astros are allowed to have a Puerto Rican-born catcher who can hit a little bit. Victor Caratini’s pedigree is not that of a quality offensive player, but he has swung the bat well thus far in his limited playing time and provided the most exciting moment of the Astros’ season with his two-out two-run 10th inning game winning home run Tuesday night. I grant that one could certainly say “Hey! Ronel Blanco finishing off his no-hitter has been the most exciting moment.” I opt for the suddenness of Caratini’s blow turning near defeat into instant victory for a team that has been lousy overall to this point. Frittering away a game the Astros had led 8-3 would have been another blow. Instead, to the Victor belong the spoils.
Pudge Rodriguez is the greatest native Puerto Rican catcher, but he was no longer a good hitter when with the Astros for the majority of the 2009 season. Then there’s Martin Maldonado.
Maldonado’s hitting stats with the Astros look Mike Piazza-ian compared to what Jose Abreu was doing this season. Finally, mercifully for all, Abreu is off the roster as he accepts a stint at rookie-level ball in Florida to see if he can perform baseball-CPR on his swing and career. Until or unless he proves otherwise, Abreu is washed up and at some point the Astros will have to accept it and swallow whatever is left on his contract that runs through next season. For now Abreu makes over $120,000 per game to not be on the roster. At his level of performance, that’s a better deal than paying him that money to be on the roster.
Abreu’s seven hits in 71 at bats for an .099 batting average with a .269 OPS is a humiliating stat line. In 2018 George Springer went to sleep the night of June 13 batting .293 after going hitless in his last four at bats in a 13-5 Astros’ win over Oakland. At the time no one could have ever envisioned that Springer had started a deep, deep funk which would have him endure a nightmarish six for 78 stretch at the plate (.077 batting average). Springer then hit .293 the rest of the season.
Abreu’s exile opened the door for Joey Loperfido to begin his Major League career. Very cool for Loperfido to smack a two-run single in his first game. He also struck out twice. Loperfido will amass whiffs by the bushel, he had 37 strikeouts in 101 at bats at AAA Sugar Land. Still, if he can hit .225 with some walks mixed in (he drew 16 with the Space Cowboys) and deliver some of his obvious power (13 homers in 25 games for the ex-Skeeters) that’s an upgrade over Abreu/Jon Singleton, as well as over Jake Meyers and the awful showing Chas McCormick has posted so far. Frankly, it seems unwise that the Astros only had Loperfido play seven games at first base in the minors this year. If McCormick doesn’t pick it up soon and with Meyers displaying limited offensive upside, the next guy worth a call-up is outfielder Pedro Leon. In January 2021 the Astros gave Leon four million dollars to sign out of Cuba and called him a “rapid mover to the Major Leagues.” Well…
Over his first three minor league seasons Leon flashed tools but definitely underwhelmed. He has been substantially better so far this year. He turns 26 May 28. Just maybe the Astros offense could be the cause of fewer Ls with Loperfido at first and Leon in center field.
Catch our weekly Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast. Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and I discuss varied Astros topics. The first post for the week generally goes up Monday afternoon (second part released Tuesday) via YouTube: stone cold stros - YouTube with the complete audio available via Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.