Good morning. It is Derby Day. Does that mean horses? No. Well, maybe it does. Maybe the English don’t say Derby Day. Maybe they just call the game a derby. The derby? For some, yes, I’m sure. But man, there are a lot of derbies in soccer. There’s even a team named Derby! There are a lot of everythings in soccer.
There are many things to tell you all. First, this:
The Sens Got Their Ice Back
We start, as usual these days, with the Ottawa Senators. Don’t worry. We’ll come back to the Burnley. This week, the Senators did three things:
First, they signed Nick Cousins. They didn’t actually do this first, but this is the thing that will affect the hockey itself the most. What is Nick Cousins? I think he’s a pest. But in a good way. If he was on any other team, it’d be a bad way, but since he’s on the Sens, it’s good.
Second, they put the ice back into the Canadian Tire Centre, which is not a tire centre but rather a hockey rink. Very confusing. Less confusing if you’re Canadian, I think. If you’re Canadian, you know what Canadian Tire is. What was a hockey rink doing without its ice? Good question. Very good question. Here’s a video of them reconstructing it.
Third, I do not know exactly why, because I did not watch the entirety of Jake Sanderson’s episode of Breakaway (presented by Dell), but Jake Sanderson takes liver shots? It is exactly what you’re thinking. If you’re thinking of a piece of frozen liver with salt and maple syrup. If you’re thinking of something else? Like an injection? It is not what you’re thinking.
Burnley Got Beat (Twice!)
Ok, the Burnleys.
They lost.
Two times.
It was kind of bad.
Neither loss—a road defeat in league play to Sunderland, a road defeat to Wolverhampton in the League Cup—is all that big a deal. As much as we’d like to see Burnley make all Burnley opponents visit Detroit, that isn’t going to happen. What was more concerning, from each game:
Against Sunderland, Burnley couldn’t get anything going on the offensive end of the field.
Against Wolverhampton, Burnley couldn’t get anything going on the offensive end of the field and also a lot of guys got hurt. That one was bad. The first goal in Cup games is to not get hurt. The second is to not play badly. The third is to not lose. Burnley did not achieve any of their three goals.
Joe Worrall’s injury was the most concerning, but he’s back in the starting eleven today. So I guess maybe Burnley did achieve the first goal.
Make New Friends (and Send the Old Back to Brazil)
New Clarets:
- Hannibal Mejbri, from Manchester United. 21 years old. Tunisian, born in Paris. Goes by Hannibal more than Mejbri. Midfielder. Four-year contract.
- Jaidon Anthony, from Bournemouth. 24 years old. Londoner. Winger. In on loan, but get this: There’s an option to buy.
- Jeremy Sarmiento, from Brighton. 22 years old. Ecuadorian, born in Madrid. Forward. Season-long loan. No option to buy, at least from what Burnley’s telling us.
- Josh Laurent, from Stoke City. 29 years old. Londoner. Midfielder. Two or three-year deal.
- Zian Flemming, from Millwall. 26 years old. Dutch. Midfielder. Loan.
Former Clarets:
- Dara O’Shea, gone to Ipswich Town.
- Vitinho, back to Brazil to play with Botafogo. (I think that translates to boot fire.)
- Ameen Al-Dakhil, off to VfB Stuttgart.
- Zeki Amdouni, away to Benfica.
- Luke McNally, now a member of Bristol City.
- Wout Weghorst, departed for Ajax. Permanently. Wout, the pleasure was ours. (I’m kidding, guys. The pleasure was no one’s.)
Also, Burnley signed Oluwaseun Adewumi from Floridsdorfer (I guess that’s in Austria) but the guys upstairs are loaning him over to Dundee, which I forgot until now is Burnley’s new Scottish strategic partner club. Electric partnership. And, of course, strategic.
I think that’s all of them. Burnley tried to get Morgan Whittaker from Plymouth Argyle, and others tried to get Josh Brownhill and Luca Koleosho from Burnley, but all those parties stayed put, and the transfer window is now closed.
Kind of a lot, especially with Berge and Odobert and Zaroury and Bastien and Muric already out the door. But such is life with the Burnleys. We didn’t sign up for anything different.
Blackburn Comes to Turf Moor
The details:
- Burnley vs. Blackburn Rovers
- Saturday, 7:30 AM EDT
- CBS Sports Network
What to expect? Probably this. Blackburn’s one point ahead of Burnley in the standings, but it’s early, and everything in reality is temporary. Blackburn just also lost in the League Cup, but they lost to Blackpool, which is much sillier and less inspiring than losing to Wolverhampton.
Also, there will be an increased police presence.
Here’s the lineup.
The Women Keep Winning
Two more wins for the women’s side. Beat Stourbridge last weekend. Beat Fylde in an FA NWL Cup match this week. Tomorrow, they play at Stoke City. Trying to take first place away from Rugby Borough.
Meanwhile, in Austin
Austin FC beat Nashville, and while we at the Inferno remain out on Austin FC and also out on the MLS as a whole, we will not change those stances if the Verde beat Vancouver tonight at Q2 Stadium. We strive for consistency in our belief systems.
