Photo courtesy of Philadelphia Union

Union

Some tweets:

Tim Cahill: “Wow that was Hot out there, Philly crowd were awesomeand it was a tough game. Great to be back in the Blue kit.#thankstotheEFCfans”

Phil Neville: “I’d love to play an MLS team in october/november when we r fit cause every year the standard keeps getting better and the stadiums r nice!”

Faryd Mondragon: “OMG what a future we have with this youngsters!!! Great game! Great experience for the young guys! Great Party from the fans! DOOP!!!”

Christian Hernandez on his goal: “It felt like a dream. I was running and it felt like I was floating.”

John Hackworth on the game: “We played some good soccer and got a lot of young guys on the field in a fantastic environment. The right way to really develop some players and give them some minutes that will be huge as they progress through their careers. We wanted to see our team play well against that quality of opponent. It’s great to finally put one away when we feel like we deserved one.”

Match reports on Wednesday night’s Union win over Everton from the PSP, the Brotherly Game, the Union website, the Daily News, the Inquirer, CSN Philly,  CBS Philly, SBI, Goal.com,

On July 8, we linked to the post on the Union’s website that announced Christian Hernandez had been named US Soccer’s U-17/18 Development Academy Player of the Year. Hernandez plays for Player Development Academy. FC Delco’s Jimmy McLaughlin, who came on in the 78th minute, was named to the Development Academy East Conference Starting XI along with PDA defender Matt Jeffrey.

What a memorable night for the Union youngsters: MacMath, Holder, Richter, Pfeffer, Hernandez, McLaughlin—did they not all shine?

Talk about shining, how about Roger Torres? “I feel this is an opportunity for me and I tried to do everything I could do.” He also said, “This is an opportunity for me to do a good job and show Peter that I can play 90 minutes. I think I can do a better job than I did tonight…I just want to be ready to do my best whenever the coaches need me.”

Everton were impressed by the Union and its fans. “I think an American tour taking on MLS is the best preseason tour you can go on,” said Phil Neville. “Each summer MLS has improved. I’ve been coming here for seven or eight years now, and the guys now feel they can play against a European team. They didn’t seem to feel that way back then.Having played in Salt Lake twice, New York, Houston, and other cities, I felt like Philadelphia was more like a European atmosphere than any other city. Tonight’s fans and the game were more about the football.”

Jack McCafferty at the Delco Times somehow manages to be insulting about the Union and praise them at the same time.

The Union academy squad were defeated 2–0 by the Everton U-18 team.

Carlos Ruiz, Carlos Valdes and Sheanon Williams are named to the SBI Best XI for Week 18. Sebastien Le Toux scores an honorable mention.

Voice of America profiles Danny Mwanga.

Local

Delran’s Carli Lloyd talks about the USWNT loss in the Women’s World Cup final.

Phillyburbs.com profiles the BuxMont Torch, “a premier men’s and women’s club playing its home games at Souderton Area High School.”

MLS

While the Union were beating Everton, The Energy Drinks were losing 4–1 to Colorado and Columbus were losing 1–0 to LA.

In international friendly news,  Seattle was humiliated by Manchester United, losing 7—0, Kansas City and Newcastle played to a scoreless draw, Bolton topped Houston 2–0, West Brom came from behind defeat Portland 3–2 and Ronaldo’s hat trick gave Real Madrid the 3–0 win over Chivas de Guadalajara.

Steve Davis weighs in on the ridiculousness that is the All-Star ballot/selection/snub BS.

WPS

Tasha Kai, Joanna Lohman, Lianne Sanderson and Val Henderson were all on hand at PPL Park to watch the Union play Everton. None of them would have been pleased to hear the WNY Flash beat magicJack 3–1 to pull within one point of the league-leading Independence with a game in hand. They would have been pleased to hear that more than 15,000 were on hand for the game.

Slate wonders if Hope Solo could play in MLS.

Jon Stewart recreates the USWNT goal against Brazil.

Elsewhere

FIFA says young players are being trafficked by gambling syndicates.

Mohamed bin Hammam vows to clear his name when he appears before the FIFA ethics committee on Friday.

Paraguay topped Venezuela 5–3 on penalty kicks and will face Uruguay in the Copa America final. The win was marred by a mass brawl after the match.