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24/25 Match Week 28 Recap

24/25 Match Week 28 Recap

Friendlies, CL & Compact/Cozy

nick lochner
March 11, 2025

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USMNT announced 2 friendly matches to help prepare for the World Cup. 2 good European opponents coming to the US - Hartford and Nashville.

USMNT Update

In Today’s CleanSheet:

Headlines 📌
Current Situation📈📉
Hot Topic 🔥🔥🔥- Part 4 - Geography
Off Island 🏝️ - Europe
Best Bets 💰

Headlines 📌

CS Match of the Week. Forest 1-0 City. Who knows if Forest can take this to the finish line and secure a top 4 finish and Champions League spot for next season, but it got a little easier with a win over Goliath Man City. The win puts the Trees in third - 2 points ahead of Chelsea and 4 points ahead of City for the fourth spot. Could this come down to the final match day when Chelsea hosts Forest? Let’s hope so.
- Forest 1-0. Hudson-Odoi at 83’.
- Sound Up. Link
- Final Whistle. Link
- Reaction. From Lowe, Earle and Howard.
Europe Round of 16 Match 2. Check out Off Island🌴🌴 for what’s coming up this week in the CL, EL and ECL.
8 And Counting. Everton have now gone 8 in a row without losing. David Moyes is making a difference.
We See You Frank Lampard. Lampard, the former Chelsea great, is managing Coventry City. The Sky Blues have won 9 of their last 10 in the Championship (level 2) and have catapulted themselves into promotion contention. First time ever Coventry has won 9 in 10 in league competition. Frank doing his best Klopp impersonation.
Stoppage Time celebrations are the best.
- 90+7’. Coventry City and Frank Lampard.
- 90+8’. BHA with the call and the PK winner.
6 Clubs. Champions League is very much up for grabs as 6 clubs sit just 7 points behind 4th place as we hit the final 10 matches.

Pressure, Pushing Down On Me, Pressing down on You. The lyrics from David Bowie’s Under Pressure describes Arsenal’s Manager Mikel Arteta’s week.
The guy’s team is coming off a 7 goal CL road trip to PSV. They then Drew at Old Trafford to go 14 games unbeaten - the longest streak under Arteta at Arsenal.
Arsenal have had significant injuries this season, particularly at striker.
YET - the Gunners dropped more points to Liverpool - and this was his post-game presser - Arteta was HOT.

And, this, for the guy who has the FIFTH most wins all time in the PL in his first 200 matches.

FIFTH

Current Situation 📈📉

NOTE: Green Up Arrow means a club jumped UP 2 positions in the table or moved into a European spot. Red Down Arrow means a club moved DOWN 2 positions or more in the table for fell out of a European spot.

Great weekend for Forest as they separate themselves from City.
How is Chelsea in fourth when all I hear from Chelsea fans is how bad they are.
Which tells you how bad it’s going for Man United and Spurs.
BHA has quietly made a nice run back into solid Europe contention. Palace too.
The bottom 3 show no signs of making a push to challenge Wolves to avoid relegation.

Race for the top goal scorer, the Golden Boot, see’s Salah with a commanding lead, but Haaland can score in spurts.

CleanSheets Counter & Goal Tracker

MW28 Clean Sheets

Forest, Palace, Villa, Chelsea, Newcastle.
Forest and Liverpool each have 12 CSs to lead the PL.

MW28 Total Goals

Second fewest goals in a Match Week with MW18 seeing just 17 goals.
Goals are down 101 from this point last season.

Hot Topic 🔥🔥🔥

Tips & Observations - Attending English Soccer Matches

Over the next several newsletters CS will highlight some things to consider if you are heading to England and want to take in a match. For those that have been there and want to send me your thoughts - just reply to this email!

Last CS we covered:

Today:

Part 4 - Geography

Compact. Best way to describe England is “compact”. A good US State comparison is Alabama or Louisiana in terms of size at roughly 50,000 miles², but the feel is much tighter.

Why compact?

In the cities the housing is on top of each other. Big back yards are really not a thing. “Gardens” can be small. Side by sides are a thing - very similar to what you might see in the cities on the east coast, like Boston, NY, etc.
Roads are tight. As an American it can be challenging driving on the “other side” of the road - the left side. In addition, the car’s steering wheel is on the opposite side of the car compared to the US. But what is probably the most challenging is how narrow the roads are (aside from the M’s - Interstate’s). Add to that the round abouts and the fact people park on these narrow streets with half the car up on the sidewalk and it can feel like you have very NO space to drive down the street with oncoming traffic.
Going to a pub or a building that’s a little older - ceilings are low.
Traffic. Many places have “bad” traffic. Just like many US cities, the bigger cities in England have lots and lots of traffic. If you are sticking to just London, you don’t need a car. Train is the way to go. But if you are heading out to the countryside, I would recommend a car. There are GREAT rental options for a day or weeks.

Speaking of driving, distances are very manageable - some examples.

Manchester to Liverpool - less than 1 hour.
Manchester to Birmingham - little over an hour.
Birmingham to Liverpool - little over an hour.
Manchester to London - 4-5 hours.
London to Newcastle - 5-6 hours.

But - Expect slow going in London.

Heathrow Airport in London is on the far west side of the city and will take 1 hour to get to city center by train or car.
Want to get from city center to Tottenham for a match, plan on an hour drive to North London.
Basically, if you are in the center of London expect at least 1-2 hours to get out of the city in any direction depending on time of day.

Yes, London is a great place to visit, as are many of the other cities across England, but hitting the countryside in England is a great option. Could be the coast down by Dover or over to Plymouth. Could be the midlands all the way up to Burnley or Blackburn. Or, up to the North for Newcastle and the National Parks. Great small towns along the way, lots of green, space and coziness.