The Union were punished with laps for their poor effort last night by Coach Nowak. (Photo courtesy Emily Pease/American Soccer News)
After last night’s ugly and frankly depressing loss to the New York Red Bulls, most are wondering about the extent of Sebastien Le Toux’s injury that resulted from a late tackle by Andrew Boyens. (See video of the injury blow.) Peter Nowak said after the game, “He probably has an MCL sprain, but this is probable and we have to run the tests tomorrow to see what the verdict is going to be. I can’t tell you right now, it’s too early. He feels some pain, we’ll see how the swelling is going to come.” More details should be known later today.
Want to know more about what an MCL injury is? Look here.
Nowak made the team run after last night’s ugly loss. “I just won’t tolerate half (effort from players) and if you don’t enjoy playing on the field you will enjoy running, and if you don’t run during the game you could run after the game. That’s how it is and that is how it’s going to be.”
Here’s a roundup of match reports:
- Philadelphia Union
- American Soccer News (1)
- American Soccer News (2)
- MLS.com
- Philadelphia Inquirer
- Philadelphia Daily News
- Philadelphia Examiner
- The Delco Times
- New York Daily News
- MLS Talk
- The Cup.US
Lori Lindsey is on the ball. (Photo courtesy Philadelphia Independence)
Philadelphia Independence midfielder Lori Lindsey is the WPS Player of the Week. A review of footage from Sunday’s win over the Washington Freedom showed that Lindsey assisted on each of the team’s three goals, setting a new league record for the number of assists in a single game. Lindsey has assisted on every Independence goal scored this season.
Barcelona “fans” attack Jose Mourinho after press conference.
Franck Ribery will miss the Champions League final after being handed a three match suspension by UEFA. Ribery had been shown a straight red card following a reckless tackle on Lyon’s Lisandro Lopez in the first leg of the semifinals last week. Bayern Munich advanced to the finals after beating Lyon 3-0 in the second leg on Tuesday.
Barcelona will host Inter in the second leg game of their semifinal match up. Inter won the first game at home 3-1. FSC will have live coverage beginning at 2 p.m. with a pregame show.
Whoah. Doesn’t Nowak’s tactic smack of Phil Brown’s last year when he blew the team out on the pitch at Eastlands? Jonathan Wilson wrote a great article in the Guardian recently discussing the thin line between eccentric genius and desperate tactics. He cited Roy Hodgson getting everyone off the bus for an impromptu training session during a traffic jam in Germany and pitted it against Phil Brown’s ill-fated hairdryer job at City.
I was thinking the same thing too – ballsy but with huge backfire potential. Apparently the team even had a practice before heading up to Harrison.
I don’t know. Thinking back to high school, there were times when that kind of discipline was something I enjoyed. It was about reaching higher, and after playing poorly, it’s good to be made to push for better.
You may be right Josh. The team effort in the first half was very disappointing and Nowak making the team do laps I think is something the fans can support after such a disappointing display. I bet today’s practice won’t be a favorite memory for the team.
On offense, who replaces Le Toux if he can’t go? Too early for Manager Peter Nowak to tip his hand. Danny Mwanga or Jack McInerney would be two good guesses, if Nowak sticks with a 4-4-2. Another option would be to go with a lone striker.
The best player at the moment to replace Le Toux and give LA Galaxy a real challenge is Danny Mwanga. This is the opportunity to see if he can really deliver by playing his normal position, not a position that he is not confortable with as he played before.
I also believe that the time for Danny Mwanga has finnally arrived for him to shine, by playing his natural and normal striker position.
PS: The best formation for the Union and to help the goalkeeper a little would be 4 player close to Zeitz the Goalkepper and 3 players on the middle and 3 players on the offense 4-3-3 this is what the union really need an extra player placing pressure on the opposite team. The key for the Union to win is to constantly keep the pressure with this formation 4-3-3 and keep their cool and avoid red cards. This is NOT a game to be passive you have to constantly be attacking and creating pressure, specially with a young and energetic team like the Union.
Indeed Jorge this formation of 4-3-3 is a great formation due to the ability of young players with a lot of energy to keep the pressure and constantly moving forward with more attacking players in the forwards position.
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The defenders consist of four members, hence the 4 in the 4-3-3. There will be a left and a right fullback, a sweeper and a stopper. These four players stand in front of the goalie in a diamond shape with the fullbacks on their respective sides, with the sweeper in between them but approximately 5 yards behind, and the stopper 10 yards ahead of the sweeper. At the simplest level, the fullbacks are responsible for defending their side of the field and clearing the ball if necessary. At higher levels of play, they can also act offensively by running up and down the sidelines looking for crosses and other ways that they can impact an offensive attack. The sweeper plays a crucial role within the defense. He hangs back and runs the defense by either backing up the fullbacks, clearing the ball or sending the ball to the forwards. The stopper’s role is important yet simple. She attempts to keep the opposing team from advancing past her post.
Step 3: Assign three players to be midfielders:
Step 4: Assign three players to be forwards: a left, a right and a center. Despite the belief that these players are strictly goal scorers, the best forwards set up players like the fullbacks and the midfielders when the opportunity presents itself. The outside forwards should look for goals, but depending on the angle they need to be able to recognize whether or not centering is the best course of action or if their adept dribbling skills should be utilized to open up another alternative. The center forward is the most dynamic position and this player should be the most accurate shooter on goal.
I had seen the Philadelphia Union on Youtube and they have a great young team full of Stamina and energy. I also agree if they minimize their mistakes and play with a formation 4-3-3 this will help them to become a more agressive team creating a lot of attacking possibilities. This Union team excel when they have the ball and create attacking chances, but they can not become too passive and give the momentum to the opposite team. Whenever you have a young team full of energy the best way to play football is by constantly attacking and placing pressure to the opposite team until they crack their defense.