Rorshach

On a fun note: Neal Maupay's contribution today was to get booked before he was substituted on.

We're going down. Sad thing.

Today - three games before season's end - Bryne FK are mathematically safe for the season. Well done us! Match today was largely frustrating, we absolutely battered the bottom team in the division, but the finishing was subpar for almost the entire match and I completely expected us to do an Everton. Then we suddenly managed to take advantage of a defensive error and score. We're four points outside qualification to the PL too, but - given three games left - I'd say that's beyond a long shot. We'd have nothing to do in the PL anyway.

McTominay moves his arm a tiny fraction out there before he tries to move it away ... I wouldn't say a penalty there.

Had you been watching, you'd be dropping even further.

That sentence seems like an oxymoron.

Makes sense Salah only gets something from open play after Mykolenko goes off.

I mean ... that was as difficult as predicting the sun rises in the east.

An arm out to stop a player running past you? Yellow every day of the week and twice on days with "day" in them.

Third post in a row, but Pawson not sending off Konate there? Way to be a home ref. Heh. Klopp knows, too. Pawson screwed that up royally.

Oh, and as I write that, Dyche has the total brain fart to put in Michael Keane. I expect FSG to have bought him. No other reason makes sense.

Would make it more of a masterclass if he does. Though, I fully expect us to lose this now.

I think for Norway, mentality is a big block too. We've tried a lot of different football over quite a period of time, and we've been consistently bad. Now, we're struggling to come to grips with a new playing style again. I tend to think we could be better, but it would require us to start bedding in Nusa and Bobb consistently, drop Berg for Berge and never, ever select Strandberg again. Getting another keeper would be a bonus too. With that, I think we can qualify (with a bit of luck), but it's by no means guaranteed.

Not American at all, but wouldn't electing Jordan just make Congress as a whole more dysfunctional? He might (big *might* there) be able to get something through the House with R backing, but I can't see much he'd advance that Senate would touch. This being a stupid timeline, everyone would then rush to their Friendly Cable and complain about the no good Other Side, perpetuating deadlock. Tell me I'm wrong.

Re: Norway, biggest problem isn't that we don't have good attacking players at this time, it's that we're shit at the back. Østigård is ok at CB and Ryerson is decent at RB. Our second CB is shit by every international metric, our LB is quite average and our keeper is at best mediocre. We lost to Scotland owing to them being terrible.

AFAIK it's a topic of discussion among historians whether the Madagascar plan was a serious plan that Germany was intent to follow, or if it was more an idea put forward that was loosely considered. However, it's been some 20 years since I did this topic, so it's possible consensus has changed since then.

Very true. I also support Bryne FK, who took a dive into the equivalent of League One seven seasons ago and just resurfaced to the Championship equivalent three years ago. ETA: don't know the exact reason I picked Everton, I was all of six years old. Very interested in sports, and watched everything I could. So reason could be blue shirts (as I said: six), this being our golden years (1984-1987), Neville Southall (no comment needed) or something else entirely. Bryne FK is a family matter on my father's side.

So Kovacic is still on the pitch? That's a gamble from Guardiola.

Playing with ten men has been almost an advantage for the top teams so far this season, so VAR is trying to keep Arsenal in this...?

Tiny correction: there is no curriculum in Norwegian schools. Though I guess most teachers will read Fosse now.

It's only Bournemouth, but it's still nice to see us play well and score three.

Good reason not to watch the MLS.

So we get a functioning striker, and suddenly we win at Villa. Who knew scoring goals mattered?

Card on the board before the game. He has IM before his name and a rating of 2448. I was relatively happy not to get completely overrun - just lose normally

Just on a personal note: Was at a tournament with my son today (like me, he'll be a very middling player) and organizers had made a parent's bracket. So I joined. Another parent, it turns out, is an IM. I .... didn't win that game.