Daily news roundups / Featured

Round-up: USA quotes, video and Union reports from all over

A lot of weekend stories on PSP. In case you missed them: We interviewed Jordan Harvey, asked for your thoughts on the Union tie, gave our mid-season grades, and tried to figure out exactly what allocation money is good for.

USA USA USA

101greatgoals.com has a ton of great links to highlights from the USA’s incredible win over Brazil in the Women’s World Cup quarterfinals. Like, oh my god I threw my phone in the 700 Club’s trash can I was so out-of-control-excited when Wambach scored.

The general reaction from the press is similar to 1999. If you didn’t just fall for soccer, you never will. Thoughts from USA Today, NBC, and ESPN.

The WNT blog has a photo of the design on the inside of the women’s jersey crest. It’s pretty cool. They also have a series of photos from the match and post-game.

Post-game quotes: Wambach: “I’m really proud of Megan [Rapinoe] for putting in what was maybe the most beautiful left-footed cross she’s ever put in in her life, and it just went over the keeper’s hands, over the defender, and I was there to finish.”

Pia Sundhage: “We play under pressure. We like that, we embrace that.”

Wambach, not at all uber-confident right now: “We have two big games coming up, and I just feel like I could fly.”

And finally: The Nike “Pressure Makes Us” commercial focusing on Abby Wambach. The first interviewee is Megan Rapinoe, who says, “Abby Wambach, just completely dominant. You put anything up there and she’s going to get it and put it in the back of the net.” Chiiills!

Union

Match reports from Goal.com, DelCo Times, the Union homepage, Unholy Union, the Inky, Philly Sports Daily, Soccer By Ives, and the AP (via ESPN).

Kerith Gabriel says what everyone is thinking: Jonathan Spector has to be on the Union’s radar.

Jonathan Tannenwald has some good quotes from Peter Nowak about the Jordan Harvey trade. Nowak says that the deal was too good to turn down and that he thinks Gabe Farfan’s “defensive bite” makes him a more natural replacement for Harvey than Marfan or Keon Daniel. This interview is the first time I’ve seen “minutes leader” turned into “leadership role.”

Union CEO Nick Sakiewicz has a fascinating story to tell. Definitely check it out.

So that’s three straight links to Philly.com writers. All of them groovy. Now we arrive at Marc Narducci’s column. Whether it’s the totally random use of the phrase, “Either way…” (preceded by no “ways” from which to choose) or the baffling “It says here…” sentences that offer no clear indication of what document is being discussed (it may be simply assumed that the reader is performing a mind-meld with Mr. Narducci, thus making the “here” some electrically-fizzling area of the writer’s prefrontal cortex), there is about as much coherence to this column as there is in a Ruiz-Le Toux partnership. And once our head stops spinning, we notice that the article has factual errors like a reference to the Union’s 1-1 tie with Kansas City (both teams must have been awarded one goal for good behavior?)

But we can thank Narducci for this priceless quote from Peter Nowak: “If you don’t see what [Carlos Ruiz] brings to the table, then it’s not fair.” Rest assured that all future game analyses on PSP will include an obligatory, “If you don’t see ________, then it’s not fair.” And feel free to add your own in the comments.

MLS

101greatgoals also has brief notes and highlights from all the weekend’s MLS matchups. It really is one of the very best soccer sites on the entire internet.

Vancouver coach Tom Soehn said of Jordan Harvey, ““For Jordan, coming in and adapting as fast as he did shows the experience he has,” Soehn said. “Defensively, he was sound, and he got in the attack like we asked him. I thought he had a good, solid performance, especially as he’s only been with us for a day.” Good, solid, sound… get used to using those adjectives when describing your new left back, Mr. Soehn.
The Vancouver Sun game reports notes that Harvey was involved in the buildup to the Whitecaps goal.
Marc Weber of The Province has an interview with Harvey, who talks about his future with Vancouver and his time in Philly.
No Union players in the MLS First XI, the list of players that fans voted as tops in the league.
Independence

Independence match reports from the DelCo Times and Philly Soccer News.

Saturday’s win gave the team a firm grip on first place in WPS.

International

The whistleblower who accused the Qatar World Cup bid of corruption has withdrawn her statements. Thus far no reason has been given for why she decided to claim that bribes were handed out. Not that it matters. Nothing to see here, move along now, move along.

 

 

One Comment

  1. What a great week of soccer and that during the summer! First the epic U17 Germany-Mexico WC semi-final (see some of the goals here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/08/julio-gomez-goal-mexico-u-17-world-cup-final_n_893073.html) and then the Women’s game!

    Was also incredible that the U17 WC final was played yesterday in front of 100,000 wild Mexicans!! The game was so so. I hear that the Brazil – Germany third place game was much more exciting with Germany winning 4-3.

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