It was not to be, was it? Too many surreally bad things happened to Liverpool in Kiev. Surely some curse was at work here making sure that Liverpool and its fans would have to bear yet another burden of tragedy and gloom.

Some assumptions are necessary here, before I get to my main point. Assumption No. 1: that, a few weeks back, a new president of U.S. Soccer was elected.

The oddities that surround VAR decisions continue to baffle. Last Wednesday's decision to nix Atlanta's early goal against Kansas City, for example.