Union

Peter Nowak spoke at a press conference shortly after the conclusion of the Re-Entry Draft, the prime message being have faith, we’re building for the long term. Here are some notable quotables:

• “We have a certain number of players we’re looking at right now…if there’s someone interesting who is going to fulfill our requirements in the salary cap, the money we have at our disposal, then we are going to be interested, but we don’t want to tie our hands up right now on December 15th.”
• “We still have a long transfer window to make the best selections possible…We believe that we have time to find the right guys for our team, and make sure they are the right guys we really want and they are going to help our team.”
• “We’re going to make this roster better…Of course the strategy for the combine and SuperDraft is we’ll see what’s available for us, what we can make work for us, but (we will) also pursue a lot of overseas players to make our roster better.”
• “A Designated Player was never not an option…It was always something on our mind and we’re looking and proceeding with many options. (We’re looking for) the right guys with the right price. It’s easy to throw money out the window.”
• “The most important thing is we want to structure a team where every position has two guys, and good guys…the competition makes the team better. We’re going to assemble the team this way. We’re going to make the necessary acquisitions to make this team better.”
• “We need to look at this asking what our future is going to be. We need to get guys who will fulfill roles today but also in three years. Some day Peter Nowak and all these guys aren’t going to be there, but the team will need to be there in place and structured the right way so that we’re not going to go every single year needing $100,000 here or $100,000 there, allocation money, and needing to sell players. That’s not going to happen at the Philadelphia Union—this is the way we are going to do business.”

Nowak also had this to say about LA acquiring Juan Pablo Angel: “I’m wondering, you’ve got three big guns in L.A. right now, how are you going to accommodate three players [currently collecting] over $1 million salary each? Are the rest of the players going to be on peanuts? I don’t think this is the way to do the [roster] structuring. It’s not my business, but I’m looking at my books and looking at everybody’s books and I’m scratching my head as to how it’s going to happen…It’s not just about quality, but you also have to be realistic with your expectations.”

I have this to say about LA acquiring Juan Pablo Angel: There goes my career as a starter of rumors.

Chris Seitz was a Sounder for all of a few hours after being taken by Seattle in yesterday’s Re-Entry Draft second stage before being traded to Dallas for a fourth round pick in the amateur draft. Check out our piece that questions why it is that the Union didn’t at least trade their pick, the third overall, for something.

Seitz may not yet have the stuff to be a reliable starting keeper but he certainly has a lot of class, as this tweet to Union fans makes clear: “I’d like to thank the fans in Philly for sticking by me and cheering me on. Its been an honor to play for such intelligent and faithful fans.” Best of luck to you, Seitzy!

MLS

Here are some local reactions to some of the drafts made yesterday:

• LA acquires Juan Pablo Angel.
• Chicago acquires Cory Gibbs.
• Colorado acquires Tyrone Marshall.
• Columbus acquires Jeff Cunningham.
• DC acquires Josh Wolff.

LA trades the rights to Luke Sassano to Sporting Kansas City in exchange for Frankie Hejduk. In the same article, Bruce Arena says he expects Landon Donovan to “to be playing for the Galaxy from January until November next year.”

Edson Buddle is on trial with Birmingham City.

In even more Galaxy news, Tottenham are reported to be making a move for David Beckham.

The Timbers sign four players from their 2010 USSF-2 squad.

The league has approved a plan for supporters groups in the Cascadia Derby Triangle—Portland, Seattle, Vancouver—to purchase up to 500 tickets for away matches against their Pacific Northwest rivals. I suspect that 500 tickets are nowhere close to meeting the existing demand. This post suggests that Portland and Vancouver supported making 1000 tickets available but Seattle wanted only 500 to be available. Aside from the fact that PPL Park is the only stadium that would present difficulties because it actually sells out of tickets, why aren’t supporters groups in the I-95 Derby Triangle—New York, Philadelphia, Washington DC—demanding the similar consideration?

US

The New York Times has a Q&A with Chuck Blazer. Among many interesting tidbits, there’s this on the 2022 vote: “This talk about legacy. Do you want to go where you can have the best World Cup possible? Then the best answer is England and the U.S. But somewhere along the line, the legacy feature got interjected. To some extent, it’s not fair, just to be looking at opening up new areas. It’s not just about justification of how people voted. If we started out with the philosophy of looking to new areas of growth and development that fine. But it changed during the process.” In other words, somewhere during the game, the goal posts were shifted.

Arsenal’s North American scout believes Jozy Altidore and Freddy Adu still have bright futures ahead of them. I wonder how Jozy feels about being lumped together with Freddy?

The U-20 USMNT squad that will play a friendly with Canada today is loaded with local connections. In addition to the Union’s Amobi Okugo and Jack McInerney, defender Eric Schoenle (West Virginia) is from Yardley, while defender Zarek Valentin (Akron), also a defender, is from Lancaster.

Elsewhere

After defeating the Asian champions and South Korean side Seongnam Ilhwa 3–0 in the Club World Cup on Wednesday, Inter will now face African champions—and tournament underdogs—Congolese side TP Mazembe. TP Mazembe’s keeper says, “We are not scared of Samuel Eto’o and Diego Milito. Samuel is a symbol of the African continent, but he is a player like the others. We pray to God to give us strength and courage.”

Grant Wahl takes a closer look at TP Mazembe’s road to the Club World Cup final.

The mind games have begun ahead of Sunday’s Manchester United v Chelsea match up with Sir Alex Ferguson saying Chelsea have only themselves to blame for their drop in form.

Facing a relegation battle, Birmingham City have canceled Christmas.

Celtic warns fans to sit down or Parkhead could be shut down.

Investors from Qatar are reportedly interested in buying Newcastle United.