Photo: Nicolae Stoian
Union
It was 80 minutes of crap followed by ten minutes of some of the greatest excitement I’ve ever experienced at PPL Park. At the Daily News and Inquirer, however, two columnists seemed to think the story of last night wasn’t the game but the absence of David Beckham. At the Daily News, John Smallwood wastes your time with the 1,057 article ever written about how Beckham hasn’t delivered as the “Face of MLS.” Yawn. At the Inquirer, the pathetic provocateur John Gonzalez uses the absence of Beckham to demonstrate once again how lamely boring and utterly irrelevant he is. “Five or six area soccer fans,” “The L.A. Galaxy played the Union/Bimbos on Wednesday,” “soccer/football/futbol/ foot-to-ball”—yes, Gonzo, you are a dolt.
Meanwhile, the Inquirer’s Bob Ford gives evidence that he actually watched last night’s game in an entertaining piece that is worth reading if only because he refers to Beckham as “the gaudy L.A. Galaxy hood ornament.”
Said Danny Mwanga of his goal, “You need to get that first one out of the way, and now I can focus on trying to get more goals to help the team.”
“Tonight was kind of throwing [in] the kitchen sink,” said Jack McInerney, “but it worked, and we got a result.”
Faryd Mondragon played the last 20+ minutes of the game hurt after suffering a groin strain in the 72nd minute. Hackworth praised Mondragon for playing hurt. “By him staying in the game it allowed us to bring in Jack [McInerney] into the game. You can’t say enough about what he did.” Hackworth said Mondragon would be evaluated today and is questionable for Saturday’s match against Dallas.
Hackworth elaborated, “I told our trainer that if he went out there, he had to tell him that he had to stay in the game, somehow, someway he’s got to stay in this game. We have another attacker that we have to bring on, we have to get one back here. To Faryd’s credit, he really said that ‘I’m not going to be close to 100%, but my team needs me at this point.'”
This match report notes that the Union did not have a shot on goal until the 73rd minute.
More match reports from Philly Soccer News, The Brotherly Game and The Express Times.
The Goalkeeper shares his thoughts on last night’s game.
Goal.com says the Union could use “a more mobile striker than Ruiz to facilitate play centrally.” Tell us about it.
Local
Harrisburg City Islanders forward Jose Angulo has been named to the USL-PRO Team of the Week.
MLS
Toronto lost to Dallas 1–0. Vancouver and San Jose drew 1–1.
Marcos Mondaini was given a three game suspension on top of the one game suspension from the red card he was shown for the ankle breaking challenge on Javier Morales. This piece argues the suspension was not enough.
WPS
magicJack have been deducted a point for repeated violations of league policy. They also no longer have a head coach.
Long Island Fury plan to compete in WPS as the New York Fury in 2013.
WPS attendance is struggling. This piece wonders if USWNT players will have a league to return to after the Women’s World Cup.
Elsewhere
The European Union will make reforming FIFA a “key priority.”
Kenny Dalglish has signed a three year contract to manage Liverpool.
Celtic manager Neil Lennon was attacked by a fan during a game against Hearts on Wednesday night. On Thursday morning, police were called to Parkhead, Celtic’s home ground, to investigate a suspicious package addressed to Lennon. The package was found to contain a bullet.
Once again Mondragon proves how much he deserves to be the leader of the team. As for the sports writers, I find it incredibly sad that people who are paid to report on sports in Philadelphia can’t support a professional Philly team. Being pissed at McNabb for choking during the SB is one thing – we all get pissed *at* our teams – but those writers’ comments are just distasteful, regardless of whether or not you like the game.
I don’t read the “sports news” articles much, but do they put down the Philly Soul, Wings, Kixx (if they are still around) as much as soccer?
It’s funny how the teams with the most recent championships get less respect than chokeartist major sports teams.*
*note- comment based on frustration towards the writers, not condemning the other sports in the city that i do watch and love.
Goal.com … preaching to the choir.
Gonzo just tries to get a rise out of people. I found it ironic that he wrote a piece where its directly implied that nobody cares about soccer/Beckham when there are not one, but two front page articles, one of which was on the very topic of Beckham not being there from Bob Ford. There’s really no need to even link him anymore. And we wonder why the newspaper industry is failing?
The soccer haters are fantastic. The Union, while not having the widespread fan base of the other 4 major sports, have found a great niche market here, constantly sell out PPL Park, and draw good TV ratings. They are here to stay and will continue to grow as a fabric of the community. They need to deal.