Photo: Daniel Gajdamowicz
Union
The loss against Dallas on Saturday means the Union finished its series of three games against Western Conference teams in eight days with one point gained. Strangely, they remain in second place in the East, one point behind New York (see below).
Peter Nowak on the loss to Dallas: “From this situation we had in the first 20 or 25 minutes, we should be up 3-0…We have to go back to work, not only offensively but also defensively. After that good 25 minutes we slowed up and let them get two easy goals.”
Danny Mwanga on the offense: “I think our chemistry is right. We had a couple of chances early. We just have to finish our chances and we will be OK.”
Faryd Mondragon made two tweets Saturday night:
- “In behalf of my team and specially myself I want to apologize to all our fans for tonight’s disappointing performance in Dallas”
- “We promise to work very hard to give back our fans next Saturday against Chicago what we took away from them tonight, DOOP!!!”
Match reports from the PSP, the Goal.com and The Brotherly Game.
The award for Most Painful Headline of the Weekend goes to “Used little by Philadelphia Union, Jacobson playing big minutes for FC Dallas“.
here.
With the two biggest draws—New York and LA— already in the books, The Brotherly Game notes that average attendance at PPL Park has surpassed the 2010 average and is less than 500 spectators from what would be considered a sell out. This despite the attendance hit that resulted from the horrible weather for the Seattle game.
The Farfan twins are profiled on the Union website.
Congratulations to Ryan Richter, who graduated from La Salle University over the weekend.
The Union reserves will face DC United reserves this afternoon at the club’s practice (208 Ridley Drive, Wallingford, PA) field at 4pm.
Independence/WPS
After a losing a player in the 13th minute to a questionable red card and then going down a goal, the Independence rallied on the road in Atlanta to win 2–1. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, if you are a Philadelphia-area soccer fan, follow this team because they are very, very good.
The bizarre and unseemly ongoing feud between WPS and the owner of magicJack SC continued on Saturday when the league announced further sanctions against the team for breach of contract and inappropriate behavior.
Local
Reading United’s emphatic season beginning is complete with a 4–0 win at home over New Jersey Rangers. United opened the season with a 3–0 win over Brooklyn Knights on the road last week.
Despite being up man for some 25 minutes, the Harrisburg City Islanders recorded a disappointing 1–1 draw against Richmond Kickers.
Former Temple goalkeeper Pat Hannigan has joined Ocean City FC as an assistant player/coach.
MLS
The Union remain just one point behind New York and in second place in the East courtesy of Justin Braun’s hat trick in Chivas USA’s 3–2 win at Energy Drink Arena on Sunday night. New England was the only Eastern Conference team to win over the weekend, 1–0 over Vancouver. After losing to Dallas 1–0 last Wednesday, Toronto drew 2–2 with Chicago. DC United and Colorado drew 1–1 and Houston drew 0–0 with Real Salt Lake. In addition to losses by New York and Philadelphia, Columbus lost 3–0 to San Jose and Kansas City lost 4–1 to LA.
The bar for tifo displays was raised when Seattle hosted Portland on Saturday night.
Chris Savino notes at Goal.com that average player salaries have slightly decreased thanks to the addition of players for the new reserve league. Some 11 percent of players now earn the league minimum of $32,600.
US
Lindsay Tarpley will miss the Women’s World Cup after she tore her right ACL in the USWNT 2–0 win over Japan on Saturday. Amy Rodriguez of the Philadelphia Independence scored the second goal.
Elsewhere
Barcelona midfielder Sergio Busquets has been cleared to play in Saturday’s Champions League final after UEFA finds him not guilty of racially abusing Real Madrid defender Marcelo.
In other Barcelona news, any American wearing the club’s new jersey officially hates the USA.
Ronaldinho’s website was hacked by a supporter of Osama Bin Laden. He’s dead, you know.
The tough season for trophies continued when Ajax goalkeeper Marcus Stekelenburg dropped the league trophy from the team bus following the team’s winning of the league title. This time, at least, it wasn’t run over by the bus.
The picture of Le Toux says it all…depressing lose in dallas…seems that the teams problems are deeper than just a benching Ruiz will fix. Where will we get our offense from? Where did it come from last year? Should we have kept Fred?!?! I was speechless following the Dallas game…we looked great early on…what happened?!
On the first goal we gave up, I noticed that all 4 Union midfielders were chillin on the left side of the field. Hence, why Shea was wide open.
Either Nowak had no intention of having a real right-wind midfielder, or our midfielders don’t know how to play on the wing.
I would not read into the Dallas game very much. Three games in 8 days and something like 9000 miles of traveling is going to effect any team. Then add the fact that one game was at Portland, which I will begrudgingly admit is a fortress, another was against LA and the final one was against Dallas. That is a pretty rough schedule. Let’s hold off on judging the team that played Saturday because I believe they deserve another start together (except for Mapp I think everyone would agree Keon Daniel has earned the right to replace him).