Azerbaijan GP 2025 Recap: Sainz Podium, Palace Stun Liverpool

Podcasting from Studio 2520. Somewhere near Akron, Ohio. Bringing you all the latest in motorsport and soccer from around the world, this is Tackling the Chicane.

A befitting opening, uh, tune for this podcast as we are currently in the middle of postseason baseball here in the greater Cleveland area, and our beloved Guardians are facing the Detroit Tigers in the Wild Card Series. Game, uh, series tied 1-1. Winner goes on to face Seattle in the ALDS.

So keeping a very close eye on this, uh, as we, uh, talk about soccer and motorsport, we can't shy away from the fact that we have other interests, right? So yeah, usually, well, from a privileged perspective of the Guardians being usually in the playoffs, at least every other year. They finally broke the, uh, even year or odd year curse this year. But, uh, typically when the Guardians make the playoffs, my other sporting interests kind of go to shit as long as they're in, in the playoffs. That's okay, you're allowed to focus.

Um, I mean, we, we could do an entire podcast on the history of this team and what it's meant to me, what it's meant to you growing up. And who cares, maybe someday we'll deviate in the depths of winter where there's nothing going on. Yeah. And we can couple that with our soccer talk because motor racing will end at some point. But I think that would be a good show.

Yeah. Just kind of remembering what your first experience was and I have lots of color on how horrible this team was for 40, about 40 years of my life, or 30 years of my life. So yeah, I would say generally it's been pretty good for me in my lifetime. The first year I actually remember watching the Guardians was 2013, of course, uh, under a different name back then. Um, but, uh, that year they made the wildcard round and lost.

And back then the wildcard used to be one game, so you had one opportunity. And, uh, if you faced someone's unhittable ace, you were pretty much up shit's creek, which is what happened. Well, I mean, I think that was a good call, and I think that was about 12 years ago or so that they went to a 3-game series. No, it's, it's only been about maybe 4 years. 4.

Okay. But yeah, well, it's better than 1. Yeah, the 1 game is a little silly to me. Like, you play 162 and then you get 1 opportunity, and then you go 5 in the, in the division series, then 7 in the world. Yeah, so it makes sense mathematically.

Yeah, yeah. So, um, my point was the The Guardians, uh, slash Indians have been good, generally speaking, most of my time watching them. I, I wasn't alive in the '70s and '80s when they were a laughingstock, but yeah. Well, that— yeah, I think that'd be a good podcast. There's, there's some contrasting experiences there, and I could call upon some players and things that you wouldn't believe, smoking in the dugout, et cetera.

Yeah. But it's a different game now. Um, and thankfully, you know, we have a venue and even the guys on ESPN today mentioned, uh, what a great place Progressive Field is to watch a baseball game. And I wholeheartedly agree with that. So yeah, it's a good place, uh, accessible.

Tickets are never really, uh, out of this world, at least, you know, to get in. Um, I can't imagine what the— what this Yankees-Boston series is costing these folks to watch. Probably a lot. Probably. As of this morning, the walking or standing ticket at Progressive was still $49.

Yeah, when you're playing at 1:08 PM, you gotta— any way you can get fans in to pack it out, uh, is appreciated. I mean, they're doing their best. I'd say it's probably 95% full, which is pretty solid considering that, uh, you know, you're playing in the middle of the day in the middle of the week. Yeah, well, Cleveland fans find a way to get to the ballpark or the stadium. If necessary.

And that means a lot of sick calls. Yeah, today and yesterday and tomorrow. So some people are going to come down with a 3-day virus of some sort. Yeah, so, uh, we'll, we'll see. We'll, we'll have more, uh, I guess color next time on what happens.

Hopefully still alive. That would be great next time out. But, uh, for now, let's Let's dive in. We, we had a week off, I think. Uh, there's a swing and a drive.

Uh, we went to a Guardians game in lieu of recording last week, which was a good decision. Yeah. And also, uh, you know, uh, bracketed the week with time off for me and a trip to Florida. So Those types of weeks make it tough for us to get down here to the studio to even sit for an hour. And yeah, I would agree.

The decision was made that we were going to Cleveland on Thursday afternoon to watch that game. And that was the right, the right choice. So yeah. So in the meantime, there's of course, you know, our other sporting interests don't just stop. Because of a baseball team.

So we've had an F1 race, which we're going to talk about, in Azerbaijan, which I, I'd say provided, uh, a number of points of interest, um, to discuss. And then of course the world of soccer wouldn't stop if a meteor hit Earth. So, um, we've had a, a shake-up the top of the table, uh, in the Premier League and in Scotland as well. Um, the first falter of the year from Liverpool, which we, we will discuss on the back half of the program. So let's talk this F1 race, Azerbaijan, the streets of Baku.

Let— yeah, so let me cast my memory back. And you're gonna get there someday too, where 8 or 9 days might as well be a month. Um, there was heavy, heavy issues with qualifying in this race. Is that— am I remembering that correctly? Yeah, so I actually didn't— I didn't really watch qualifying for this one.

Uh, it— they set a record for red flags, and, and basically there was a ton of cars that got collateral damage during qualifying, and it showed in the grid position for the start and actually in, in the race as well. Uh, right off the rip, uh, uh, Piastri lap 1, and he, he struggled in qualifying also, but he is out in lap 1, full safety car. Not even a full lap completed, and that, you know, changed— shuffled the position of everyone in the front 6 or 7 cars.

Again, there, there's a little bit of stuff to talk about during the race itself, but the key here is what the grid looks like at the finish.

You know, to have Kimi Antonelli and Liam Lawson at positions 4 and 5, Tsunoda at 6, all these people finished above Lando Norris for McLaren, which is a big deal.

So we, we still didn't really get that swing in the championship that I think F1 is probably begging for at this point. Considering that Piastri junks it in the first lap, which he had a bad start, um, and then of course wrecks on the first lap and is out. Lando Norris, what did he make up, like 3 points, 4 points? What, what, yeah, the position, the delta, as you said, that F1 would, would like to stay so close, you know, it's still close. It wasn't that big of a deal.

Um, I'll go to— let me just go to the standings here real quick. We'll get some actual data. Uh, 324 for Piastri, 299 for Lando Norris. So still 20, a 25-point difference there. Yeah, I think it was only a 6-point swing when, when, sure, your championship rival wrecks in the first lap.

Ideally, you're not finishing 7th. I think it's of note though to see rookies, this many rookies in the position that they were in with Antonelli and Lawson being 4 or 5. And also, you know, Hamilton and LeClaire has done better, but you know, for Hamilton to be in the mix, Hadjar position 10 and then Bordeletto 11. So I mean, if you go to the top 15 or so, now you're really talking about, you know, some different rookie placement here. Yeah.

I don't remember anything really, you know, impressive about the race necessarily. This is a tough track and it showed that it was a tough track.

Sainz had a big, you know, a big podium finish for Williams. Yeah. I mean, I'd say that's, that's probably just, that's the story of the race is that Sainz finished 3rd. You know, this Williams team continues to be scrappy down below all of the hype. And I'll be interested to see, I'll be interested to see next year if they can carry that into the new era of, of F1 and the new chassis or, or new development of the vehicle.

Uh, but yeah, I mean, for them, this, that's pretty huge. Yeah. For Sainz and for Williams. Yeah. I think it's a little bit, honestly, I think it's a bit bigger of a deal for Sainz because He's hopefully gotten the monkey off the back at Williams.

Let's be real, he hasn't been that great this year. Yeah, Williams, this is their first podium finish in the last 4 years. '21 was their last podium finish, which wasn't even a real podium because I believe it was a half-points race and they finished— it was 3 laps or some bullshit at Belgium. I don't recall, but that I'm fairly certain they said that on the broadcast. So really it's like their first podium in a long, long time.

Best, yeah, best finish for Liam Lawson in his career in F1 at 5th. So yeah. Yeah. Hooray. Yeah.

I mean, I'm just, I'm trying to pull some nuggets of interest. I mean, out of basically the weekend was because of either weather or track conditions, and this is a city street circuit, was basically a carnage fest. And all they did is wreck a bunch of fucking cars during qualifying. Yeah, the racing product I think is still kind of shit this year, if I'm gonna be harsh on F1. I, I, considering the fact that this is the closest title race we've ever had on this show, uh, I would really like to, to come out of a race and go, wow, that was really entertaining.

Still not getting that even with mixed up grids. I think if you're my— so I won't try to loop your thought process into mine, but in the back of my head, subconsciously, The problem is, is that the other open-wheel series has provided a little bit better, if not a lot better racing. Yeah. And so now it's— now we're going, okay, so F1 is F1, which we, we've known that since we got into it, right?

Follow the leader, hard to pass, easy to crash. But I think what, what my brain is trying to calculate or trying to think about is we have this other series where it's just, it's just a little bit better, if not a lot better, racing from week to week. So we'll— I'll continue to think about that as we move forward and It's going to be a completely different scenario, I hope, next year. We don't know. Could be the same thing, uh, even though the car is going to be new, quote unquote.

But yeah, I think when we're at the grinding part of the series here for F1. Yeah. And it's a little bit tough to— I think they have too many races. It could be. It could be, but follow the money.

Yeah, you know, it didn't used to be 24 rounds. Um, even since we started, they've added races. Um, yeah, and they do that because they make— apparently they make a lot of money. So doing it— yeah, I, I just, um, I, I think the season drags at points and always does, and And I think this is usually the point where it starts to drag because with the timing of what we cover, soccer ramps up and you have IndyCar coming to a close. And meanwhile, F1's still like, oh, 7 races left, 8 races left.

It's going to get better and it'll be a little bit more quickfire too with the last couple of months of the season. Yeah. And the fact of the matter is, is that Take for example the Constructors' standings.

No one cares who finishes 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. And that's where the race is. It's 4 points between Mercedes and Ferrari for 2, 3. And then 272 is Red Bull, which no one— who gives a shit? McLaren's going to take the Constructors' Championship.

And that's That's, so that's a done deal.

I would probably say, okay, 7 through 10 is interesting to us because we always want to know where Haas is. They're going to lay an egg this year. They'll be lucky if they finish in 9th place.

Wow. I'm just being honest, or at least honest in my opinion.

They've bet as high as 6th place. Yeah. They're so hit or miss. I don't know if it's hard to predict what they can actually do. Yeah.

It'll be interesting to see if we're talking about Cadillac next year as, as a team that's in the shitter. Oh, in the shitter. Yeah. I thought you were going to say better than Haas. No, no, I don't.

No fucking way. I hope not. Absolutely no way. I think Cadillac are going to be terrible. Yeah, but that's— we'll see.

I guess you never know. I guess that'll inject some interest into, into the F1 series for next year. Yeah, and it's not to say this has been bad. I just, I find watching the races can slip into laborious somewhat quickly this year, and there's just not a lot of on-track action at the moment. And hasn't really been this, this year.

And all the, the F1 superfans would probably pick apart that statement, but I don't really care. So, well, I understand. I mean, it's— we're at the, we're at the back end of this, and I keep waiting for Norris to actually strike when the iron's hot, and he doesn't, which doesn't help either. Uh, well, I think if we're, if we're quite honest, the team controls the outcome of these races in most cases. But look at this one where Piastri wrecks immediately.

The, the best Norris can do is 7th, right? Yeah. So that's a— if he wins this race, the, the championship is 1 point, right? Right. Difference.

Yeah. And I don't know if that's just the track This, this is a very— as I watched the race, I was looking at some telemetry, and this is a very, very— this is second to Monaco as far as a really difficult street track. It's tight. It's very tight. Hence the wrecks.

Yeah. And in this case, it was cold, and they were talking about how there was a lot of debris coming from like trees and shit. And people laugh, but that leaves make a difference in racing if they're on the course. They just do. And it can be 3 leaves or 30, but they make a difference.

Yeah. So, uh, okay. Uh, Singapore coming up here this weekend. Uh, P1 is slated for, uh, the 3rd of October, which is, uh, tomorrow. Nope, that is Friday.

Oh, Friday. Okay, Friday P1, P2, P3 on Saturday, qualifying Saturday as well. So let's see, this is a crazy track too.

Only around since 2008. Fastest lap Daniel Ricciardo. Street course and the only track that Max Verstappen is. And here's the one on— so Ricciardo set the fastest lap time last year.

I've seen, according to this data, you know why? I believe that was his last race ever. And remember, they put him on soft tires to get the fastest lap of the race. Just— that makes sense. Makes sense.

I think that's why. Yeah, because he got axed. Um, Verstappen has never won at Singapore. Only track on the calendar he's never won at. So something to keep in mind because Verstappen has quietly won the last 2 races, right?

So anything can happen and you should never count him out. Is there a chance? There's always a chance, especially if— I don't want to say McLaren's laid an egg the last couple races, but As you said, Norris definitely should have had a better showing in this particular GP than he did, I think. Yeah. Hard to say.

So I guess if there's anything to be excited about at the end of this F1 season, it's will Max make a comeback? Or should I do that with some kind of— Go ahead. Will Max make a comeback?

Still on. There you go.

Uh, I don't think he actually will, but, uh, maybe he can make it interesting. I, I— we're still looking at a Piastri, uh, championship, which at the beginning of the year, mind you, you predicted that would happen, and I thought you were a fucking dumbass, and here we are. All right, well, just, uh, give your dad some props sometimes. I know you're— I know you're freshly educated and smart, so just, uh, every once in a while the old man— I have a lot of data stored, so— okay, I'm not saying that I was— that I was even remotely close, but it would be funny if that happened. I could be— I could hearken back to that.

I mean, I think it's going to happen at this point, so, uh, I guess we'll see. But you might have predicted the championship, which, uh, outside— is that on paper? I think you wrote it down. Yeah. Okay.

I still write things down on paper, audience, and will continue to do so.

Um, yeah, because that's— our notes are always handwritten, to be fair. Yeah, that's true. Well, that's the journalist in you. There's something about scribing my notes that helps me, A, say what I want to say. And I've never been somebody to type on a phone or speak into a phone.

Um, I don't know, maybe it would be easier if I did that, but Anyhow, uh, so there you have it with Formula 1. Can someone make it interesting in the championship battle? I, I do think Lando Norris will have something to say before this is all said and done, uh, but otherwise I think we're, we're good on that front.

Okay, so as we transition into the world of Premier League soccer, uh, Both Scottish and European. Uh, just this quick update here, bottom of the 6th, Boston and New York are tied 3-3. New York has 2 runners on base with 2 outs, if anyone cares. And by the time you hear this, you probably will not. I, I thought you're going full bore, like, into You were just gonna do commentary on the baseball game for a sec.

Well, I thought about this today. If we have an extended absence like we did, should we not pull up the highlight reels like that are 10 minutes long and then we can make commentary on what happens? I suppose we could. Would that be hard for the audience to— I don't know, maybe we could We could beta test it, see what happens. Dry run that and see.

But I guess— I mean, because I'm not sure if we can pull— can you pull the audio from YouTube or you're probably not allowed to do that?

It's probably a gray area and I don't know what would the audio accomplish.

Nothing. Maybe nothing. I don't know. Idea. I'll write it down.

Uh, it could be something that we should consider, even if it's been a few, a few days since the match. If we do those extended highlights, then we could, you know, kick through it that way. But all right, well, we'll give it a shot, see what happens.

So battling off a sneeze.

There we go. Since the last time we've recorded, of course there's been a lot of soccer going on in, in the world. The Premier League has marched on. We have finally had, uh, the first kind of real shake-up in the title race. Uh, it kind of seemed like Liverpool were potentially on, on cruise control, uh, to start this season.

5 wins out of their first 5 matches, but they've suddenly sort of hit a bit of a rough patch, uh, their first sort of hiccups, which in a 10-month season is, is always likely to happen. Um, this one was just sort of in dramatic fashion, but it kind of brings me to the, the first kind of real talking point here.

It doesn't— it probably hasn't— I know it hasn't been said on this show. We just don't have the time to go in depth. We would have to record every day, basically. Um, but national, and I suppose with this world media, is just starting to really lock into this Crystal Palace team. Um, Crystal Palace, for those who are maybe not in the know, uh, have been around for 130-odd years.

They have won one trophy in their history compared to Liverpool Etc. Are they older team? I don't know. Oh, I'm just saying, maybe they're all roughly the same age. Okay, so all right, that's inconsequential.

Uh, but the point being, the point is they have one trophy in their cabinet in 130-whatever years. That came last season, that came in May with the FA Cup victory against Man City, they have not lost a game in 18 attempts. So what you are witnessing, listener, is the greatest run Crystal Palace has ever been on as a club in 130 years. And in this season Liverpool was also unbeaten. Yeah.

But that, that pales in comparison to what you just said. So I will dovetail that on that comment by saying there was something happening with this team during this match.

Could this be a team on an absolute terror in this league. I— did you not feel the same way, that the energy for 90% of this match was in Crystal Palace's pocket? And they— I mean, the first 12 minutes of this match was a shooting gallery. They went nuts. So yeah, I mean, I think Crystal Palace right now are obviously in a great patch of form, uh, even, you know, as I said, as a club even.

And Selhurst Park is, on the worst day, still a hard place to get a win. Uh, the fans are always very loud. It's compact ground. The fans are right on top of you. It's, it's a hard place to play.

And, um, you couple that with the Crystal Palace team that remarkably look very dangerous in the attack Uh, quite often. Um, and they get this one going early with the goal from Ismaila Sarr. But, um, I, I'm just struggling to even believe how well they've started this. They basically did nothing in the transfer window over the summer except sell. So they are sort of trying— they're playing with a lot of, uh, What do I want to say?

That what I— from what I saw in the first half of this match, this team reminds me of another team that plays well when the guys are all on the same page. Yeah, I know, the Cleveland Guardians. Yeah, we— it's, it's crazy. I mean, they really did shoot quite a bit in this first half of this match. And thank, thank, not thankfully, but Liverpool's keeper did a fine job for the most part.

Yeah. You know, the second half of this match, I all, there was a lot of V, we had a lot of VAR in the second half of this match. A lot of VAR across the Prem this past weekend. And sourly, commentated on by the folks that cover these matches. Here's what I'm going to say about that, and I know you're going to agree with me because we've had this argument before.

There are certain aspects of replay and sending shit somewhere to look at that ruin the real-time aspect of a game, whether it be baseball, basketball, football, soccer.

When an umpire makes a call or a strike or whatever, yeah, there was a time where that was it. Good, better, indifferent. I understand we're in a different world. We could have never even had the resolution to see half this shit. Back in the day.

Yeah. The problem with the Premier League and the Scottish Premier League is they're 30 years behind.

I mean, if you think about, you could look it up when the first replay happened. I'm sure it was at least 30 years ago. They, these guys act like the decisions are always taking too long. And why isn't the guy on the field you know, more adept, inept, whatever the word is, at making the decision. Adept.

At least that's what I'm thinking, you know, what I'm hearing on the broadcast. A couple things, couple points. Scotland is definitely behind because what they did was implement VAR when they didn't have the investment to actually implement it properly. So you watch a Scottish Premiership game, it's a 3-camera setup. Uh, you watch a Premier League game, it's a 30-camera setup.

So already it's apples to oranges. Uh, secondly, replay doesn't really work in soccer because the rules of soccer, what is deemed to be a foul or not, is much, much, much, much more subjective than what is a ball or a strike, for example.

What is a tackle that is dangerous? What is a tackle that prohibits a player from continuing to move? None of these have a real cut-and-dry answer, and I think that's why so often when you go to VAR, you're dissecting 1 second of play until you— it looks meaningless, and then just kind of guess, hoping what you made was the right call. And that is why I don't think VAR really works in soccer. I don't think video replay really is a— as a— is a net positive for the game as, say, replay in baseball or something like that.

Well, and the other The other thing that we need to remember is, and I don't remember which match it was, but there was, it might've been the Newcastle Arsenal match where there was supposed contact between the goalkeeper and another player. And the angle from one way looked like, oh, that's a complete foul. And then when they swung the angle around, it was clear the guy took a dive. Yeah. And they played it over and over and over again.

And that's a— I wouldn't say it's a difference because a base runner can manipulate his hand or, or his feet in some fashion, I guess, or But yeah, I mean, in that case, that's what, that's how these guys are trained to, I'm learning that that's how these guys are trained to play is if there's, if there's any instance of close contact, even if there is no contact, sell it, sell the contact. And I think in that case, not to go back up to the other game, but in that case, I think that was a, that was a good call from VAR. Yeah. They got it right in the Arsenal match. Took them forever, but they did get it right.

So I guess I— you, you want correctness at the end of the day, even if it takes forever, right? Um, yeah, I mean, so much of what soccer has become— and not to sound like an old head, but of course soccer, generally speaking, was a much more physical game back in the day, much less technical, whereas now it's kind of flipped. But I, I I put most of that on the officiating. The officiate— players adapt to how games are officiated. So if at some point there was a time where there, there was a shift in the way that soccer was officiated, and what you can't do as an official is call a match one way for so many minutes I.e., letting there be contact, letting there be aggressive tackles.

And then all of a sudden, you've— it seems like there's been a few matches where the switch gets flipped and what was legal 4 minutes ago all of a sudden is not. Obviously, I come at— with more experience on the soccer side on this show. And, and I will say that I, I've followed with a magnifying glass the game for about 7 years now, and it's been the same the entire time. Officiating will shift on a dime in any game for inexplicable reasons. Nine times out of ten, officiating in soccer is kind of like jazz because you never know how it's gonna go.

Michael Scott jazz or da da da da da da da da. Yeah, but truly, in in the the hilarity of of that analogy, there. Lies a truth that soccer officiating very rarely makes sense.

And that is kind of the beauty of it and kind of sometimes not. Yeah. And I think that's well said to somebody who's only 3 years into watching these matches, and I feel the same. It just— I'm starting to understand. You know, when I first— the first season that we did this podcast and the first few matches I watched, my content or my comments constantly were, why is— why is that guy doing that?

Why— why did the guy tap his shoulder and he's flopping around like the guy bull rushed him. Yeah, well, now, you know, after watching it for this long, I get what the, what the point of contact is. And you're trying to sell the fact that the guy shouldn't have stepped on your fucking foot. Soccer is very fluid. It's a very complex game.

It's very hard to understand even now. You even, even now, I, I still really have to hone in on the match to get any sort of real takeaways from it. Um, and that, it, that will always be the case for officiating. And you'll come to learn that the Premier League is officiated one way, Serie A is officiated another way. Scotland is— who fucking knows?

Scotland is whatever the hell they feel like on any given day. But to get back into this Crystal Palace game. Yeah. So I felt, well, obviously the whole first half Crystal Palace had just domination as far as, as far as shots, shots for sure. Well-defended shots.

And there was a lot of good defense by Liverpool in the first half.

It was a real shooting match between both teams. I mean, Liverpool had their fair share of shots also in this match. We really didn't, I really didn't have anything else until late in the second half where Liverpool scores a goal, 1-1 tie, VAR for a handball, which ends up being negative. And then I had no, no idea. No, I had no clue that this team was going to come back as late as they did and score that very late goal, nearly offside, but not offside.

Crystal Palace in the 98th minute. Yes. The very final minute of play takes the victory. And now we have a table where we are right there, Liverpool and Arsenal, uh, with 5 wins for Liverpool. Arsenal has 4 wins with both 6 matches played.

And then who's in 3rd place? Crystal Palace. Crystal Palace. I think that's, that could possibly be the evolving story for at least me in this podcast is Where will Crystal Palace end up this year? And shall I follow said team?

You're new to my co-host team for the year. Last year, Zip Switch. Year before, I think you were on the Spurs train. So I like an underdog. Yeah.

Crystal Palace, big credit to Eddie Nketiah for that match-winning goal. Eddie Nketiah, an Arsenal reject. Isn't that interesting? An Arsenal struggle to score goals.

Goals. And, uh, Mr. Nketiah comes up big for Crystal Palace. On the Liverpool side, this is, uh, I think a concerning trend. They leave games late. They leave games incredibly late to do, uh, to collect points all throughout the season.

Uh, they were up 2-0 against Bournemouth in the first week, conceded 2 goals, and then scored 2 goals very late to win. They got a 90th +10 match winner against Newcastle week 2, I believe. Um, now you have this where— reminder, while it is of course crazy that Crystal Palace get the match winner in the 97th. Up until the 86th minute, it was 1-0 Palace. So Liverpool had 4 minutes left to find an equalizer, which they did in Federico Chiesa, who I think needs to play more for them.

Um, they leave games late, and on one hand, and what a lot of the media will say is, well, it's a mark of a champion that they can win games late because it doesn't always go to plan. It's also a mark of a team that if they can't— if they cannot actually start a match well, then eventually you run into a team that will make you pay for it, like Crystal Palace. Um, like in the Champions League this week, Galatasaray, who beat Liverpool 1-0, and Liverpool, you know, didn't have that late magic. So I think eventually that does and will play a factor on the title race. So Crystal Palace gets that one done 2-1.

Yeah, I, I do think they're probably the most interesting story in league right now, sitting 3rd on 12 points.

Um, when you think about what you just said, the fact that Liverpool makes this a match in the 87th minute, all is lost. And then with it, we had the stoppage that was pretty long for this one, but for them to come back and, and get that winning goal in 10-plus, uh, minutes of overtime, that makes— listen, that's what I want to watch every week. Yeah, I know I'm never going to get it, but this, this match for me was ideal. Yeah, football. The thing is, like, my— usually my thought process for picking matches, I usually pick them before they happen for us to cover, is, you know, like that, that big box office clash, which 5 times out of 10 is really good, the other 5 times isn't because it's 2 good teams going at it.

A lot of times, especially in the Premier League, it's the games you don't really expect to be that good that end up being really good. So Like, luckily the way it worked out this week was, um, you hadn't had the opportunity to watch any of them live, so I already knew what happened in each. So I kind of just cherry-picked the ones I thought were really interesting. Um, and, and we really got spoiled this weekend, um, with the late winners. Uh, Arsenal have their own heroic comeback.

Um, they are hard to watch though, despite their good form. A PK early in this match in the 14th minute. Um, that, that was that contact that we talked about, and it ends up being no contact. And it was very clear, there was one really good camera angle where the guy just took a A huge flop. Yeah.

No foul.

Pope was a very good defender in this game and saved a ton of goals.

34th minute, Newcastle gets a set piece goal. Tonali to— oh, you're not going to get this one, but I want to hear you try.

Woltemata. Oh, son of a bitch. Thought you were gonna butcher it. Nope. Nick.

I know W is V in German. I thought the, the end would get you more than the W. Yeah, well, Nick, that Woltemata. Yes. This guy has had an insane rise. And I didn't realize this, but I passed through the living room on Saturday or Sunday whenever this match was actually on.

Sunday, I think. Yeah. And I, I didn't realize he was the lanky ragamuffin. Yeah, yeah. I was watching this game live, so yeah, you, you saw something.

He is— he has no weight. His legs look like 2 sticks. He's 6'6, 6'6, which is really fucking tall. I mean, that's tall anywhere, but that's super tall for soccer. Yeah, this kid is— he— and he is a kid, I mean, I can actually say that.

Uh, I think he's 21 or 22. He has had the most insane rise I've seen in a while. Um, super hyped, a lot of hype surrounding him. German, he's 23. He's just— he's a striker.

I mean, so here's his story.

3 years ago was playing in the, uh, second tier of Germany, uh, as a young lad, uh, 10 goals, 3 assists. He then goes to Werder Bremen in the top division of the Bundesliga, uh, the season after. So this is 2 seasons ago. He appears 30 times, only scores 2 goals. Then last year with, uh, Stuttgart, has 17 goals in 33 appearances, which is a, you know, pretty damn good return still.

I mean, okay, that's, that's good, that's, that's a really good season. But, um, he then tears it up, figuratively speaking, in the, uh, UEFA Euro U21 competition with Germany this year, back in the summer, like scoring goals constantly. Constantly, constantly. So he— Newcastle buy him for £90 million. £90 million.

His market value, uh, which take it with a grain of salt, uh, his market value is £39 million as we speak. Is that— are you talking about what he earns? That is, um, it— a market value is It's subjective based on the publication, but it's basically how expensive, how much they're worth based off of their statistics. So what do you suppose on, on an acquisition like that, that he is paid a year or a contract? They, they don't talk about that shit at all.

Probably a couple million. I mean, in American football, that's like When you're watching the broadcast, that's a lauded figure is, oh, well, this quarterback got a $17 million whatever or whatever. They don't talk about that shit. €8 million a year. That's a lot.

It's a lot for soccer. Yeah. But his rise has just been, I didn't know. I genuinely— would you say meteoric? Sure, yeah.

I mean, I didn't know who he was until like June. Uh, I'm not like a Bundesliga expert, so maybe that's why, but I didn't know who he was, and now he's banging in goals for, for Newcastle with his ragamuffin appearance. Um, and he's on my fantasy team. I suppose that was that commentator's choice of words because I've seen hair of all kind Yeah, I really didn't. I don't think his appearance is ragamuffin.

Yeah, it was just, it came out. So funny. Yeah. Plus 7 stoppage to the half.

Getting a bit physical in the second half by the 84th.

Now we're starting to see the cards apply.

Newcastle, I felt, really charged back.

Um, there was a Marin header off a set piece to 1-1. Um, then the yellow cards start flying, and then, not to take the match quickly to the end, but let's face it, the corner kick, there was a header, uh, to Gabriel, goal, 2-1. I, I really, I was rooting a bit for Newcastle in this one. They played more expansive football, which isn't surprising. Arsenal, for as, as good of, uh, attacking quality that they have— let's go through some names— Victor Gilchrist, unproven, but Leandro Trossard, Eberechi Eze, Bukayo Saka— these are all huge names attacking-wise.

Declan Rice, um, they Mikel Arteta intentionally sets them up to be very stingy defensively, to very often try to attack on the break, and they score so many of their goals on set pieces. They are set piece merchants per se, um, and that is what killed Newcastle because both their goals were from set pieces. Uh, Mourinho first and then Gabriel at the end. Um, well, there's nothing wrong— there's not anything wrong with that in my opinion when you can capitalize on— and let's face it, these set pieces aren't easy. They're not easy to score on.

But if you have strong guys there that— and they usually end up being a header of some kind. Rarely do At least I won't say rarely. I have not witnessed a lot of set-piece goals off the foot. It's rare. Yeah.

Um, but you kind of, you kind of, and you kind of nailed it with your first point. They're hard to score. So even if you're really good at them, you're only scoring off a set piece maybe once every 10 tries. So to be good at it and have a stat hanging out there where they're good at set-piece goals, that's going to be tough to beat because there, there's more opportunities by set-piece than just by regular goal. You don't want to be too reliant on set-piece goals though because they're hard to score and teams can, teams can play in a way which Newcastle didn't where they can kind of sit back and let you have a ton of the ball and not give away a bunch of fouls, um, which then kind of disrupts your game plan, or not give away a ton of corners.

Arsenal are really, for me, kind of toeing the line of how successful they can be playing such kind of negative soccer. I, I think they, they need to be more expansive. That's all the champions of recent years have played in the Premier League, and Liverpool are still the team to beat even though they lost. And they play a lot more expansive soccer, they score a ton of goals. Um, I don't think Arsenal's gonna be able to kind of nickel and dime their way to a title, like win 1-0 here, draw here, 2 late set-piece goals to win here.

Like, that's not gonna work, I don't think so. I'm not going to say they're, they're lucky to win this, but I just— that is not a sustainable track to win games. I think Newcastle, maybe, you know, you have to defend set pieces better, but maybe can feel a little hard done by by not, uh, at least getting a point from this one.

Agreed, and fair enough. I just— I was kind of rooting for Newcastle to win, um, Obviously that's what I do. Um, but Arsenal, uh, I think both these teams are going to appear a lot in our broadcast this year. Yeah, potentially just because of the way they play. And going back to the other match, um, this Crystal Palace team, and maybe you've probably glommed on to some shit that didn't pay off at the end of the day, but I— they just so much energy in this match.

Yeah. Uh, they've— I've always kind of had a soft spot for them and I think they're, they're kind of a well-run club. Uh, but really, you know, they're always kind of punching above their weight, but they're really punching above their weight right now. So we'll see how long they can hold on. Talking about another team that's punching above their weight, uh, we're not going to do any in-depth analysis of them, but Sunderland are in 5th.

Newly promoted Sunderland have 11 points through 6 matches. That's insane. That's impressive. Maybe we'll have to— if they— they probably— they probably don't broad— do they broadcast, uh, matches with teams like them if they're— well, yeah, I mean, we, we have access to every Premier League game. Okay.

But like, if you're asking is it on cable, probably No, not that often. But, um, yeah, so ask people in the UK, it's actually harder to watch the Premier League there than it is here. So I don't know, um, I don't know how often Sunderland's getting on TV there, but, um, they continue to play very well. The bottom 3 is Burnley, West Ham, and Wolves. Wolves get a point.

Uh, against, um, against Spurs, but 1 point out of 6 matches is not good. So top 5 reads Liverpool, Arsenal, Crystal Palace, Tottenham, Sunderland, and then if you want to extend it to 6, Bournemouth. That is an interesting, shall we say, top 6. So there you have it. Okay.

Well, uh, what, what premonitions do we have for the next podcast? Where are we going in the world of Premier League football? So we will definitely, um, spend time in Scotland next time around. We've got Hearts and Hibs going at it for the Edinburgh Derby.

Uh, I know we didn't spend any time on it today. Um, but Hearts are actually in first right now, 2 points ahead of Celtic. Celtic drew nil-nil with Hibernian over the weekend, uh, so Hearts have, uh, sole possession of first place. So we'll see how long that continues. Traditionally, uh, a non-old firm team that starts well tends to flame out, but who knows.

And then, um, in the world of the Premier League, your sort of box office match is Chelsea-Liverpool. But I've kind of been burnt by picking just the 2 big clubs going at it recently. So I don't know, maybe pull something out of the wool hat. Maybe I'll— yeah, maybe I'll just randomly draw a match and just see what happens because I like to talk about other teams. Sure, let's do that.

All right, we'll pick a number through, uh, 1 through 10. 6. 6. Uh, Everton versus— I'll never guess— Crystal Palace. All right, well, we'll take it because I said number 6.

Uh, we'll try that again next week and see if I can get like some kind of weird match. All right, so that'll be next time around. And then of course, uh, F1 in Singapore. Oh, one last little tidbit. Did you see who is getting an IndyCar test drive?

I did. Big, big motorsports last name. Oh, Schumacher. Yeah. I knew I saw that.

I knew it. All right. Well, hey, that would be awesome. Let's see, uh, Mick Schumacher to test for RLL at IMS. That's October 13th.

Fucking Rahal? Yeah. Well, I hope he doesn't split cars in half like he did in F1. A lot of tests going on today.

Uh, Meyer Schenk tested, uh, here we go, Kokunoshin Ota, Japanese driver from Super Formula in Japan. Hi. Apparently he's he's uh that was bad. Apparently he's um ask Bailey. That's how they hi.

No, I don't I don't I don't think so. I don't think that's how it works. All right. Apparently Sato's protégé. So nice.

Shall see. Neil's coolant. I'm just reading off people that are testing. Niels Kuhlen to test with Chip Ganassi at Mid-Ohio. He, uh, uh, it's an IndyNext driver.

We had a bunch of IndyNext guys testing too. But, uh, yeah, Schumacher, kind of the— of course with the last name, but, um, maybe he gets a ride next year. I don't know, that'd be great. Mick Schumacher, quote, it is not a secret that I'm a big fan of single-seater racing. I don't Also, this first IndyCar test will be an experience to treasure.

Yeah, he's gonna get in that car and go, this is, um, very cursory, very, very different. Yeah, it's hard to split an IndyCar in half. But yeah, Logan Sargeant did an IndyCar test last year and we never heard anything more. Yeah, so well, that's, that's good news though. Yeah, so there you have it.

He deserves to be somewhere in the motor racing world due to his heritage. Yeah, he was in, uh, WEC World Endurance Championship last year with Alpine. Probably still is. I think the season's still going.

Alpine. I don't think their WEC program is really much to write home about either. It's all right. But, uh, yeah, so there you have it. All right.

So that's got to be well over an hour. Hour and almost 2 minutes. Ooh, bonus.

All right, let's, uh, get, get going if you're ready. Yep. Little MSB.

For executive producer Richard Tanaka, this has been Tackling the Chicane, Studio 2520, copyright 2025. We'll see you next time. Go Guards!

This old town been home long as I remember.