Sheffield Wednesday's Relegation Battle

I haven't written about Sheffield Wednesday much this season. While few people who read Sean's Ramblings care about the team, almost as important for writing purposes is that they have been awful. If Sheffield Wednesday was awful because the team was only playing younger players, that wouldn't be terrible. If they were tanking in the hopes of getting the top draft pick like Sidney Crosby, LeBron James, or Trevor Lawrence, that would be understandable. However, there are no drafts in European soccer, and the team isn't playing many young players. They are just bad.

A little background on the season. The team started with a 12-point deduction because of shady financials. I'm not going to elaborate on this since I don't fully understand the financial fair play regulations, but just know that before the season started, every team in the English Football League Championship had 0 points while Wednesday had negative 12. It looked funny in the standings, and it probably was for fans of the other 23 clubs in the league. Fortunately, the 12-point reduction was later reduced to 6 points. 

On the field, defender Dominic Iorfa, the team's player of the year for the 2019-2020 season, played only 10 league games before rupturing his Achilles. Solid midfielder Massimo Luongo has also only played 12 matches because of various injuries. I honestly think that if Iorfa was healthy all season, the team would be safe from relegation, and missing him and Luongo have been big losses. It also doesn't help that the team can't score goals. The team has scored 37 goals in 45 league matches. That's good (well not good) for 20th of the 24 EFL championship clubs and a major reason why they have been awful. 

Let's talk about managers for a moment. The team started with Garry Monk until he was fired in November and replaced by Tony Pulis. Pulis lasted all the way until the end of December until he was canned. Neil Thompson served as the caretaker manager until the club hired Darren Moore at the beginning of March. People seem high on Moore, but unfortunately, he has missed several games after developing pneumonia as a result of COVID. Moore will also miss Saturday's match with Jamie Smith taking on the managerial duties. Not very much consistency here.

Oh, did I mention that there have been several times when the players haven't been paid in full? If your employer is unable to pay you in full on time ONCE, maybe you chalk it up to a mistake as long as it's fixed quickly. If this happens several times, I can't imagine that you want to stay there. Yes, plenty of people say that they would love to play sports for free, but if you have to pay a mortgage, buy food, and spend money on childcare, you're not going to play sports for free for very long. I can't imagine that the players feel any type of loyalty to the club if the organization can't even do the most basic function of paying them on time.

So if you made it this far, you understand that the team is a mess. Still with all this, the team is still amazingly alive to remain in the championship division. For those of you not familiar with relegation/promotion, the best teams in this particular league get promoted to the Premier League for the opportunity to get destroyed by Manchester City, Manchester United, Leicester City, Chelsea, etc. However, the difference of being in the Premier League and the EFL Championship is millions and millions of dollars. Plus, you get the chance to compete with these teams. The bottom three teams get relegated to EFL League One. Think of the Premier League (or at least the top teams in this league) as a private jet. The Championship is probably the middle seat of a commercial flight. League One is a DC to New York bus. Little to no television coverage and much less money involved. You really don't want to go to League One.

So on Saturday, Sheffield Wednesday plays against Derby County managed by DC United great Wayne Rooney. (He may have played somewhere else too.) If Sheffield Wednesday wins and Rotherham United (yes, this is a real team) loses or draws Cardiff City, Sheffield Wednesday will finish in 21st and avoid relegation. Despite being awful, Derby and Rotherham have been just as bad if not worse. According to the FiveThirtyEight website, Wednesday has an 83% chance of getting relegated. This seems bad until you realize that this percentage was in the mid-90s a week or two ago.

So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to wake up for the 7:30 AM Sheffield-Derby match on a Saturday morning. (One or more of my kids is usually up by this time, so it's not as taxing as it would have been in my younger days.) I'm going to buy ESPN+ specifically for the match. I'm going to put on my Sheffield Wednesday T-shirt. And I'm going to cheer for Wednesday to win and stay up. 

And if they lose, I guess I can write a blog post this fall to try to figure out what a MK Dons is and who Accrington Stanley might be.

DC United Field Trip

One of my favorite topics to write about on Sean’s Ramblings has been attending live sports events and concerts. From Max Scherzer’s no-hitter (and nearly perfect game) to Fleetwood Mac and Paul McCartney shows to my hockey road trips, it’s fun to look back at events I’ve attended over the years.

Last week, I received an email from DC United informing me that I won two tickets to its game against Toronto FC. I won these tickets from their booth at Celebrate Fairfax, proving again that I made a fantastic decision to take my two older kids to the festival despite a little rain. With eight year old The Moose set to go to a friend’s birthday party, I decided to take five year old Pedro Tulo with me. I knew that this would bring some challenges, but that he would also enjoy going. Unlike The Moose who could sit in his seat at a live sporting event for hours, Pedro Tulo needs to move around. Plus, I figured that an 8:00 PM kickoff would not be ideal for him. I was right.

Let’s get to DC United for a second. The team started in 1995 when Major League Soccer formed and has been the second most successful team in league history, winning 4 MLS titles. Granted, most of those titles occurred in the 90s, but they still count. I attended a few games over the years at crumbling RFK Stadium, but this was my first time at Audi Field which opened last summer. Let's just say WOW!

* I’ve been to soccer specific stadiums in Columbus, Ohio and New Jersey, but Audi Field just blows them away. The stadium in Portland is the only one I’ve been to that rivals this, but I only saw a portion of the stadium in Portland as it wasn't open to the public. (If the Portland Timbers or Portland Thorns want to fly me and my family out on an all-expenses paid trip to Portland to get a full comparison between the two, please contact my agent. Of course I don’t have an agent, so just contact me. Maybe fellow Pittsburgh native Meghan Klingenberg can hook me up!) I don’t think there’s a bad seat in house at Audi Field. As you can probably tell from some of the pictures above, we were in the southern end of the stadium right above the corner flag.

* Props to the Kind people for giving out free bars outside the stadium! Props to Audi Field staff for letting people bring the free bars into the stadium!

* After having the Kind bars and about 10 minutes into the game, Pedro Tulo decided he wanted something else to eat. There were some good options including food like pupusas and arepas that you usually don't see at concession stands. Naturally, Pedro Tulo requested pizza. Since he had pizza for dinner about 2 hours earlier, I said no. He decided on popcorn. Then, as soon as we got in line, he wanted a soft pretzel instead. Despite all of the appetizing food including options curated by famed chef José Andrés, the soft pretzel was below average and that's being generous. Before the end of the half, Pedro Tulo decided to launch a small piece of the pretzel several rows in front of us. I scolded him and made sure not to make eye contact with anyone in front of us. The last thing I wanted to hear during my first trip to Audi Field was, “Sir, please come with us.”

* Of course, we missed Toronto scoring a goal during our time getting food as well as Wayne Rooney having an amazing opportunity to score but pushing the shot just high and wide.

* DC United watered the field at halftime. I've never seen this before. Is this normal?

* There is no parking at the stadium. The team encourages you to take Metro or drive and park using the SpotHero app. While I would normally take Metro (which is still a good 1/2 mile walk from the stadium), I knew this wouldn’t be a good option for Pedro Tulo because it would be crowded and probably an hour-long Metro ride starting around 10:00 PM. Besides it being so late, the bigger issue was that Pedro Tulo was still in a temporary cast from breaking two bones in his left arm recently. I didn't want to take a chance of him possibly re-injuring his arm by getting bumped on a crowded Metro train.

* At the 58th minute (9:25 PM), Pedro Tulo turned to me and said that he was tired and wanted to go home. While I felt safe around the stadium, there are always people asking for money outside any sporting events, so I didn’t particularly want to walk the 1/2 mile or so back to the car by ourselves. Over the next 20-25 minutes, we walked towards the stadium entrance/exit with stops at the restroom and clubhouse store where he really wanted to buy a Christmas tree ornament, the perfect souvenir from a late June game. (I didn’t buy one.)

* I've decided there should be a rule in sports. If you have naming rights to a stadium, then you also need to give away your product to the fans. In this case, one person should win an Audi at each game. Seems reasonable to me!

* Wayne Rooney didn’t score a goal from 70 yards away like he did in preceding DC United game. Doesn't something like this happen in every soccer match?



* I can say, though, that I saw Rooney play in person and was at a game where he scored a goal. Granted, I didn't see the goal, but we heard the roar of the crowd from about two blocks away from the stadium and a second one about a minute later. (It turned out that the first roar was for a VAR call awarding DC United a penalty kick. The second roar was for Rooney converting said kick.) Here's proof that I saw Rooney on the field via this somewhat blurry photo.

* I did not, however, see Michael Bradley and Jozy Altidore play for Toronto as they are away playing for the US national team at the Gold Cup.

* The best name on DC United is clearly Frederic Brillant. Guinness even had an entire advertising campaign a few years ago in his honor.



* I find it very cool that many soccer teams have sections for its most passionate supporters. I don't know if it's the team's supporter club Barra Brava or Screaming Eagles or both, but the people in the section on the opposite side from where I sat stood, chanted, and waved flags the entire match.

* Who do these Toronto fans think they are taking pictures of themselves? Actually, they are Toronto fans thinking about celebrating an early Canada Day during halftime. That's who they think they are!

* Finally, here are highlights from the game and recaps from DC United and The Washington Post



Looking forward to going to another DC United game at Audi Field soon. Maybe for an afternoon game!

2019 Loudoun United Schedule From An Official Team Blogger (That's Me)

Although Loudoun United hasn't accepted my request yet, I'm considering myself an official team blogger. Maybe I'm the only team blogger or there could be others out there. Either way, here are my qualifications:

- I started playing organized soccer at age 6.
- With the exception of a few years after college, I have been a certified soccer referee since 1990.
- I coached my oldest son's soccer team.
- I had a Pittsburgh Spirit logo as my Twitter profile picture for several years.
- I've written a blog for nearly 14 years.
- I think it's neat to see a professional soccer team in Northern Virginia, and I want to help it succeed.
- See this picture: The kid in the middle just looks like a future official team soccer blogger!

You may not be familiar with Loudoun United since the team hasn't played any games yet and the stadium is under construction. 2019 is the team's inaugural season in the United Soccer League, the second division of soccer in the US and Canada. Loudoun will compete against teams like the Pittsburgh Riverhounds, Nashville SC, New York Red Bulls II, and Atlanta United II. While I'm not sure if there is shared ownership, there is certainly a partnership between Loudoun United and the Major League Soccer team in the region, DC United, and it seems like some DC United players (not named Wayne Rooney) will play for Loudoun. Think of Loudoun as being a AAA team for DC United.

The USL announced its 2019 schedule on Wednesday, so in my capacity (hopefully) as an official team blogger, I'm happy to share your Loudoun United schedule:

Saturday, March 9 - @ Nashville SC
Saturday, March 16 - @ Memphis 901 FC
Saturday, March 30 - @ Tampa Bay Rowdies

Saturday, April 13 - @ Ottawa Fury FC
Saturday, April 20 - @ New York Red Bulls II
Saturday, April 27 - @ Birmingham Legion FC

Friday, May 3 - vs Bethlehem Steel FC
Saturday, May 11 - @ Charlotte Independence
Saturday, May 19 - vs Hartford Athletic
Saturday, May 25 - vs Saint Louis FC

Wednesday, June 5 - @ Swope Park Rangers
Saturday, June 8 - Louisville City FC
Saturday, June 15 - vs Indy Eleven
Saturday, June 29 - vs Atlanta United 2

Saturday, July 6 - @ Saint Louis FC
Wednesday, July 17 - @ North Carolina FC
Saturday, July 20 - @ Indy Eleven
Saturday, July 28 - vs Louisville City FC

Friday, August 2 - @ Atlanta United 2
Friday, August 9 - vs Charlotte Independence*
Wednesday, August 14 - vs Charleston Battery
Saturday, August 17 - vs Ottawa Fury FC
Saturday, August 24 - @ Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC
Wednesday, August 28 - vs Birmingham Legion FC
Saturday, August 31 - vs North Carolina FC

Saturday, September 7 - @ Hartford Athletic
Friday, September 13 - vs Memphis 901 FC
Wednesday, September 18 - @ Bethlehem Steel FC
Wednesday, September 25 - vs Swope Park Rangers
Saturday, September 28 - vs Nashville SC

Tuesday, October 1 - vs Pittsburgh Riverhounds
Friday, October 4 - vs Tampa Bay Rowdies
Sunday, October 13 - @ Charleston Battery
Saturday, October 19 - vs New York Red Bulls II

* The schedule shows August 9th as the first game at Loudoun United Stadium. The home games prior to that game are listed as TBD. I would offer my "front yard" as an option, but there isn't enough room for 22 people on it and there's a tree in the middle.

We'll call the October 1st game against the Riverhounds the Sean’s Ramblings Derby since I never root against a Pittsburgh team, yet I want Loudoun to do well.

More information about Loudoun United including how to get tickets is available at www.loudoununitedfc.com.

As a (hopefully) Loudoun United team blogger, you can (again hopefully) see fun posts about the team here in 2019. I plan on (hope) to do some player profiles and share posts about the progress on the construction of the new stadium. Perhaps I’ll even get a press pass and can watch a game from there. Maybe the team will let me bring my kids on to the field sometime to kick the ball around.

So many cool possibilities that could happen when (if) I actually become a team blogger!

World Cup Notes

Since I’m a soccer referee, several people have asked me over the last few days to explain the call by referee Koman Coulibaly during the US-Slovenia game which nullified Maurice Edu’s probable game-winning goal. I’ve got nothing. He definitely blew the whistle before the ball went into the net, but if anything, the call should have resulted in an American penalty kick.

On the topic of the US-Slovenia game, Landon Donovan’s goal (and this picture) was just awesome.



The best quote about the goal came from Tom Dart of the London Times. "The match was transformed after 48 minutes when Donovan capitalised on a defensive slip to race clear on the right. He leathered his shot into the roof of the net so forcefully that [goalie] Samir Handanovic appeared to decide not to try to save it for fear that the ball might amputate one of his hands."

Donovan’s goal reminded me a lot of Evgeni Malkin’s goal against the Philadelphia Flyers during the 2008 NHL playoffs. I think Malkin and Donovan just thought, I'm going to hit this as hard as I can and dare you to stop it. Take that!



I watched the US-Slovenia match at one of the best known soccer bars in the DC area. Despite this fact, someone yelled "c'mon ref throw the flag" after a Slovenian player fouled Jozy Altidore. He was not joking.

Play-by-play guy Martin Tyler, who called the Brazil-Ivory Coast and US-England matches, is really good.

However, where is JP Dellacamera, America’s best soccer play-by-play announcer?

I love the exchanging of jerseys after World Cup games. If I’m playing against England, I’m immediately running over to Wayne Rooney at the conclusion of the match to get his jersey. Now the question I have is what the players do with the jerseys after the game. Do they wash and frame them or do they put them on Ebay?

Look at the possible jerseys in Group G. If I’m a North Korean player, I’m getting an Ivory Coast Didier Drogba jersey; a Cristiano Ronaldo Portugal jersey and a jersey of just about any Brazilian player (let’s say Kaka, mostly since it's fun to say Kaka). Of course, Kim Jong-Il will probably just take those jerseys after the team returns home.

Before or after nearly every commercial break as part of the ESPN/ABC coverage, there is a 5-second song played over the World Cup logo. Does anyone know the lyrics? For all I know, they are singing, buy Coca-Cola now. At this point, I think I’d even settle for the language of the lyrics.

The New Oxford American Dictionary announces the word of the year annually. The 2009 word of the year was unfriend. The 2010 word of the year has to be vuvuzela, right?

Speaking of vuvuzelas, they have been banned from Wimbledon.

You may or may not know that the French team is a disaster. Striker Nicolas Anelka was sent home the team director resigned and the team refused to practice on Sunday. If anyone from Ireland or Irish soccer fans read this, are you happy to see the French mess or are you upset that Ireland arguably should be in South Africa instead of France (or both)?

Finally, here's the scenarios by which the U.S. can advance to the knockout stages (courtesy of Deadspin).

Slovenia is in the driver's seat in group C, with 4 points. The US and England each have 2, and Algeria 1. This puts the USA in control of their own destiny, because

If the US wins, they're through to the round of 16. A win would give us 5 points in the group. With England and Slovenia playing each other, there's no way both could finish with more points.

If the US loses, they're out. Ceding three points to Algeria lets them leapfrog us, and we're unable to catch Slovenia, no matter what they do in their final game.

The US could also draw their final game (they've shown themselves quite proficient at that). That's where things get complicated.

If the US draws, and England beats Slovenia, they're out. England would finish with 5, Slovenia with 4, and the USMNT with 3.

If the US draws, and Slovenia beats England, they're through to the round of 16. Slovenia would win the group with 7, the US with 3, and England and Algeria with 2 apiece.

If the US draws, and Slovenia and England draw, it comes down to tiebreakers. Slovenia would win the group with 5, and England and America would be tied with 3. Here are the variables:

•The first tiebreaker is goal differential. The US and England would have tied all three matches, so we move on.
•The second tiebreaker is goals scored. After two games, the US has scored 3, while England has scored 1. That looks good for the US, as long as the England/Slovenia match isn't high-scoring. It's possible for England and Slovenia to finish 3-3, and the US/Algeria to finish 0-0. In that case England would move on. If England/Slovenia finished, say, 2-2 and the US plays a scoreless draw, we move on to the next tiebreaker.
•The third tiebreaker is points obtained in head-to-head matches. The US and England tied, so we move on.
•The fourth tiebreaker is goal differential in head-to-head matches. Again, a tie.
•The fifth tiebreaker is goals scored head-to-head. That's one apiece, so we move on.

If the US and England are still tied after all the tiebreakers, FIFA draws lots to determine who moves on. Yes, at the most important sporting event in the world, a coin will be flipped to decide the winner.