Union

The only thing Union supporter’s are thinking about is who will be on the protected list, due to be submitted to the league at 2pm today. Is this piece on Kyle Nakazawa another message from the Union about who will be protected?

A brief trade window opens today from 9am until 1pm. The league will release the list of players available in the Expansion Draft at 5pm. We’ll keep you posted about news that affects the Union as it becomes available. If you haven’t read it already, you might take a look at our expansion draft preview and our piece on what will be happening in the next few days ahead of Wednesday’s draft.

The Union website has the full Expansion Draft rules.

Independence

Are you a “self-motivated, positive individual with a strong work ethic”? The Independence is looking for a new Outreach Manager.

Local

No. 2 seed Maryland knocked Penn out of the NCAA Men’s Soccer Championship on Sunday with a commanding 4–0 win.

Penn State advance to the next round of the tournament thanks to Sunday’s 4–1 win over Old Dominion.

Someone has organized a campaign through Facebook to get Comcast to make Fox Soccer Channel available in HD in the Philadelphia market. Personally, I would prefer that Comcast first make Fox Soccer Plus available but you can sign the petition here.

Philadelphia Sports Zone, the proposed soccer complex to be built in the Northeast that is supported by AC Milan, will partner with the South Eastern Pennsylvania Soccer Hall of Fame.

Archbishop Wood had both its boys and its girls teams in state championship finals over the weekend. On Saturday, the boys lost 1–0 to Hampton in the PIAA Class AA final. On Sunday, the girls lost 1–0 to Peters Township in the PIAA Class AAA final.

MLS

Steve Davis says the scrappy nature of play in the MLS Cup Final played right into Colorado’s strengths.

Don Garber announced a whole slew of changes to the playoff system before Sunday’s MLS Cup final. Among them was increasing the playoff pool from eight teams to ten, which means that more than half of the teams in the league will be in the playoffs. Will this only serve to further further devalue the regular season? You be the judge.

But perhaps the most intriguing announcement was that the league is investigating ending summer play to bring MLS into alignment with the international schedule.

It was also announced that the league is close to announcing a new policy on ticket sales for away fans, which is currently officially limited to 150.

US

The Senate passed a bill supporting the US 2022 World Cup bid on Friday, two days after the House did the same. FIFA had earlier in the week called the US bid a “medium legal risk” because of the lack of government support.

MLS donated $2 million to the US bid committee on Friday.

Elsewhere

Reason 327 for why FIFA’s leadership sucks: FIFA vice president Chung Mong-joon thinks the recent suspensions of two executive committee members found guilty of soliciting bribes was too harsh.

Scottish referees have voted to strike next weekend “in response to increased criticism and scrutiny, which they believe are threatening their safety.”