Photo: Daniel Gajdamowicz

Will Juan Pablo Angel be joining the Union?

Speculation began to gain momentum when Faryd Mondragon, a close friend of Angel, tweeted, “What a dream come true will be to have my “brother” Juan Pablo Angel to play for the Philadelphia Union, he will fit perfectly in our Team!!” Several tweets from others noted that translation discrepancies meant that the “will be” in the message could better be translated as “would be,” as a later tweet from Mondragon—”Its just a personal wish, just saying, you never know!!! DOOP!!!”—seemed to clarify. Mandragon noted the Twitter buzz when he later tweeted, “Come on @JUANPABLOANGEL come on ‘brother’ join us in Philly the Union fans are exploding the twitter of excitement with the idea of ur arrival.” Finally, Mondragon tweeted late Sunday evening, “Go to sleep everyone maybe Tuesday or Wednesday we will now yes or no #hoping is a YES DOOP!!!”, which only served to keep the on going speculation alive.

In the meanwhile, SBI was tweeting, “For those asking, Juan Pablo Angel’s time w/ the LA Galaxy is done. At this point it will boil down to whether he goes to Philly or retires,” followed soon after by, “Sense I get is JPA is trying 2 force a move 2 Philly, but Union only interested in a deal where they get him basically 4 free. Up to LA now.” All of which was fueled by the news that Angel wasn’t at LA’s Sunday training session and that the Galaxy and Tottenham had agreed on a transfer fee for Robbie Keane.

Meanwhile, just to keep things interesting, new rumors arose overnight after this report from German-language site fussballtransfers.com said that Michael Thurk, the 35-year-old striker who helped Bundesliga side FC Augsberg to promotion last season, was linked to the Union. (You can read a crappy translation here.) On to what we know….

Union

Here’s a roundup of match reports for Saturday’s 2–2 draw with Dallas: Philadelphia Inquirer,   the Mercury, MLSsoccer.com (from a Union perspective), SBI, Sporting News, CSNPhilly, Brotherly Game, Philly Soccer News, PennLive.com, LA Times, Philly Union Talk, Goal.com.

Here’s what was being said in Texas: Dallas Morning News, Star-Telegram, MLSsoccer.com (from a Dallas perspective), Big D Soccer, 3rd Degree.

How did Freddy do? Peter Nowak said, “We gave him a start; it was important for us not to push the envelope too much. You can see he still needs the game fitness. I think he understood the concept of the 60 minutes he played. He is going to get more dangerous if he is going to move from place to place. We have to figure out the tactical part, we have to see where he fits in our system. For the first time, it was good to have him [on the field].”

The Union’s newest player said of his time on the pitch, “It was good. You’ve got to get the first one out of the way, I’m just glad we didn’t lose the game.” He explained, “When you have one training session with the team before you play, it’s hard. But I’ve got to get on the same page obviously and we have to move on from this. We’ve got a great team, man. Once we all get on the same page, I think we’re going to be very difficult to beat.” He also added, “I was honored to be put in the lineup and I’m happy I could contribute. I wish we could have won, but I felt good. I’m looking forward to fitting in here. I think we have a whole lot of talent on this club. I think we’re going to score some goals, and I just want to be part of a winning club.”

What was Danny Califf’s take? “I think he’s still trying to find his feet and place on the team. There were flashes of him that were really good and really encouraging. But I think it’s tough to judge him on one training and one game. I think he was really excited and he really wanted to make an impression. It’s tough sometimes to play when you feel like you have to do something extraordinary.”

It was good to see Le Toux score again, even if he has yet to do so from open play. Said Le Toux, “It’s great, I’m happy I scored those two goals. They were PKs, but I don’t really care, it was important for me. We came back today, and it was a huge point. We didn’t play very well, but after two little mistakes we had to come back twice and we did it.” Most of us may not like the idea of Le Toux taking corner kicks but he’s money from the pk spot.

Sheanon Williams said, “Goals have been hard to come by and we got two tonight because we were staying after it. We got some calls in our favor and Seba took advantage on the PKs. We’ll take them however they come.” How did he feel about the match overall? “Definitely, I think we’re pleased. We’re not leaving saying we’re thrilled with the one point, but we’re happy to get it and take a positive from the match”—which seems to me to sum things up nicely.

Sometimes you just don’t know who is sitting around you when you make a comment, as one writer learned when a friend made a disparaging comparison to Chris Seitz.

Independence

An Amy Rodriguez goal cut the lead in half but the Independence a fell 2–1 to magicJack on the road in their final regular season game to finish second in the league. They will now face the winner of Wednesday’s magicJack v Boston Breakers first round playoff on Saturday at PPL Park (tickets available here) for a spot in the WPS Championship Final on August 27. Audio and video clips from the game from the Equalizer and match reports from the Palm Beach Post and Fort Lauderdale’s Sun-Sentinel.

Here’s a profile on Independence goalkeeper Nicole Barnhart.

Local

Penn’s Thomas Brandt has been named a CollegeSoccerNews.com preseason All-American.

MLS

The Union remain in second place in the Eastern Conference, three points behind first place Columbus, who defeated eighth place New England 3–1. Houston is in third after defeating Portland 2–1 while fourth place New York drew 2–2 with ninth place Chicago at home. DC United moved into fifth place with a  4–0 stomping of Vancouver while sixth place had the weekend off. Toronto moved into seventh place with a 1–0 win over RSL.

Elsewhere

Cesc Fabregas has finally been transferred from Arsenal to Barcelona. Thank the gods that is over with.