Monday, February 11, 2019

Weekend Recap Feb 8 and Midweek Schedule Feb 13

Blech, time to sign up for the terrible service that is B/R Live again as we re-enter European tournament season.

Also going to have to find a more long term solution to BeIn at some point.



DayTimePlayerClubOpponentTV
Wednesday3:00 PMSon Heung MinTottenhamDortmund (CL)B/R Live
Thursday3:00 PMLee Kang InValencia@Celtic (EL)B/R Live



Son Heung Min-- Son started off well, moving well and continuing his strong dribbling and had an early penalty claim that somehow turned into a yellow for simulation despite clear contact. But he started to disappear as he started to fatigue. And yet Poch's reluctance to take him off paid off when Son ran onto a cleared ball and outraced the Leicester defense and scored the third to ice the match. He's clearly running on fumes but he's also on form and the battle of those two forces will define Tottenham's push towards the title and CL until reinforcements arrive. Those reinforcements of Kane and Alli won't be here for Dortmund so Son will have to start though he can go all out knowing he has the weekend off.


Lee Kang In-- From cup hero to left off the squad again. It appears to be a bit of a power struggle between a manager who's fighting for his job/EL/CL vs. a club trying to get LKI to commit his future to Valencia with the suspicious timing of LG sponsorship announcement further clouding the issue. I'd think EL isn't too important for Valencia so perhaps LKI gets a start or at least a long run to calm fans down, save his team's legs and so on.


Ji Dong Won-- This match got ugly pretty fast so hard to judge Ji's play though he was somewhat at fault for two goals, once by having a stray header lead into a Werder Bremen counterattack goal and then getting a foul for diving (?) that led to free kick for third goal. That said, Ji wasn't really defensively responsible for either and he had some positive moments despite the poor cooperation of his teammates. He wasn't great in attack this time with a bit of sloppy play perhaps from fatigue from midweek work. It was a miserable showing for Augsburg regardless.


Koo Ja Cheol-- Remained out... unclear if injury or preference right now given midweek absence.


Kwon Chang Hoon-- Seemed to be energetic, albeit a bit sloppy, in touch videos and played full 90 but Dijon remain only a point out of the relegation zone.


Paik Seung Ho-- Came on a surprise sub after an hour and provided what he does at this point in his career: some good touch, balance and vision, but also some mistakes and unnecessary risks, notably trying to beat three defenders on the dribble, not once but twice in a single sequence. Promising in a difficult situation, but certainly feels like a sign that PSH might have a longer term role in the season.


Ki Sung Yueng-- Left out of squad. Perhaps precautionary given the extra rest coming up with FA cup elimination, but also a sign of confidence in existing DM pair of Longstaff and Hayden. Ki will have to step up in their mini-break in Spain to ensure a role in the final months.


Suk Hyun Jun-- Started and played a bit under 70 minutes in a win.