All of us at the PSP hope that all of you, yours and all of your stuff made it through Hurricane Irene safe and sound.

Union

RSL’s Kyle Beckerman will not join the US team for the Costa Rica friendly on Friday but will stay in Salt Lake City for Saturday’s match against the Union.

With the rescheduled New England game meaning the Union will play three games in seven days—Real Salt Lake (A), New England (H) and Portland (H)—Chris Vito writes in the Delco Times that it is time for the Union to get some points.

Independence

It was a valiant effort and, frankly, one that should have ended in victory. “Our team fought back from down, 1-0, and I thought we had countless chances after that,” said Amy Rodriguez. “I had countless chances myself. It makes you want to kick yourself. You can’t get those moments back.” No, you can’t get those chances back. But you can get Paul Riley, the Independence head coach, back. Riley, whose two-year contract is now up, said, “I expect to be back.”

Will the financially struggling WPS be back? WPS league manager Melanie Fitzgerald said after the final, “I’m confident we’re going to have (a league) next year.”

Hopefully, Joanna Lohman and Lieanne Sanderson will be back, too. They’re off to Spain play for Espanyol de Barcelona, Veonica Boquete’s former club.

And then there was the squirrel.

Local

Two days after their friendly with the Union, the Harrisburg City Islanders traveled north to face the Rochester Rhinos in the USL PRO National Division Championship. Despite going down two men in a match that had three red cards and saw Harrisburg coach Bill Becher ejected at the half after he tussled with stadium security, first-half goals by Stephen Basso and David Schofield were enough as the City Islanders held off the Rhinos for a 2–1 win. Harrisburg now travels south to face Orlando City, who defeated Richmond Kickers 3–0 for the American Division Championship, in the USL PRO Championship Final on Saturday, September 3 at 7pm. The match will be on Fox Soccer. The City Islanders’ last national championship appearance was in 2007 when they defeated Richmond Kickers on penalty kicks.

Eric Schoenle, the 6-foot-2 defender from the Philadelphia area who is a junior at West Virginia, makes SI’s Top Ten list of college upperclassmen.

High school soccer is about to start up. Here’s a list of area boys and girls teams to keep an eye on.

MLS

The Union remain if fourth place after Seattle thumped Columbus 6-2, Vancouver edged past Houston 1–0 and Kansas City lost to Dallas 3–2 in stoppage time. With the Union, New York and DC games postponed, Toronto drew 1–1 with San Jose while Chicago defeated Colorado 2–0.

Shea Salinas did the Union a favor by scoring the winner against Houston for the Vancouver victory. The Houston-area native’s last goal? For the Union against Houston back in May of 2010.

Columbus Crew forward Jeff Cunningham became the highest scoring player in MLS history after scoring a penalty kick against Seattle brought his tally to 134.

FC Dallas defender George John isn’t going to Blackburn after all.

Ex-MLSer Freddy Ljungberg is off to Japan.

Elsewhere

Notes from the 2011 Homeless World Cup in Paris. Look for the upcoming photo essay here at the PSP from photographer Nicolae Stoian, now in Paris covering the tournament.

Sepp Blatter shows increasing signs of senility as he continues to blame FIFA’s current corruption woes on England being bad losers—not for recently losing the bid to host the 2018 World Cup, but for losing the FIFA presidency in 1974. Blatter says he will announce a road map for reforming FIFA in October.