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Photo: Courtesy of Philadelphia Union

Union

Peter Nowak on Thursday night’s win: “It was a massive step forward toward the playoffs.”

Match reports from the Philly Soccer Page, the Union website, the Daily News, the Inquirer, CSN Philly, the Washington Post, Soccer News, the AP, Black and Red United, MLS Talk.

Unholy Union does a double with a post match reaction and a preview of Sunday’s Chivas USA game all rolled into one.

The Brotherly Game has an “immediate reaction” to the game and reports that Mayor Nutter was in the River End to bang the drum when Sebastien Le Toux scored his first goal.

While Peter Nowak joked with reporters that Sebastien Le Toux’s turnaround came because “He joined the Twitter,” Veljko Paunovic says the Frenchman “broke the mental barrier,” while Danny Califf said “I think it was a confidence thing.”

United coach Ben Olsen, who said, “Overall, we probably deserved to come out on the short end” after committing “very, very school boy mistakes,” also said of Sebastien Le Toux, “Le Toux is a handful. He poses so many problems with the way he runs and holds the line. He causes problems for a lot of defenders and it showed tonight.” Le Toux has scored nine goals in the last eight games and currently has ten goals on the season

Amobi Okugo explains further why Le Toux is such a handful. “It’s just his movement off the ball. It’s hard to keep track of a player that’s constantly moving and putting himself in defenders’ blind spots. It’s good for him that he’s starting to score now. It’s just his movement off the ball, consistent effort, and the balls being played in to him.

What does Sheanon Williams think of Michael Farfan? “Mike is just sick. He’s a great player. And every time we have him on the field, I’m excited. He can do pretty much everything.”

Brian Carroll adds, “He’s an electrifying player. Sometimes you see guys pull off tricks and it’s not really effective. But I think his tricks are. He’s very skillful and it’s great to see.”

Marfan said of his goal, “I made a little run, played a little wall pass and had space in front of me, so I just took it and I took the shot.”

Marfan wanted to make up for his defensive errors that resulted in the two United goals. “Obviously, you don’t like to make mistakes like that in the back. I was trying my hardest to help the team as I hurt them.” He added, “It feels good [to score after I made a couple of mistakes in the back and gave them two goals basically. I’ve got to do a better job there.”

Nowak said of the mood in the locker room at the half, “There was no frustration in the locker room. We had a lot of chances in the first half to be in the lead. The boys believed in the very beginning that they were going to win this game and the came out with intensity from the very beginning.”

Zac MacMath didn’t let the two goals he allowed keep him down, saying, “The guys in front of me have such great confidence in me and I appreciate that,” He added, “The team handled it really well. We came into the locker room and knew we were better than them, we knew we were playing better than them. We had a lot more than they did and we came out in the second half, stayed with it and got a great goal.”

Marc Narducci talks to MacMath’s dad, whose roots are in Philly.

United President Kevin Payne moaned after the match about Dwayne De Rosario not being protected by the ref . “He’s the best player in the league and he doesn’t get protected. He gets kicked every game, every time the ball is played to his feet and plays it forward, he gets fouled. It was several times tonight and he gets knocked out of the game. The same thing happened in Seattle. It’s pretty obvious what teams are doing; it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. The whole premise going into the season was [the league was] going to protect those guys, and it’s not happening.”

To his credit, De Rosario said, “It’s to be expected, but I don’t think there’s anything malicious in it.”

Local

Ocean City Nor’easters have announced that Tim Oswald has replaced Neil Holloway as head coach. Holloway will continue as general manager.

Drexel women’s team forward Jenna Lindsay has been named one of the top 20 players to watch by TopDrawersoccer.com.

The Inquirer rounds up boys’ and girls’ results for Southeastern PA and South Jersey.

US

The 22-player pool for the upcoming friendlies with Honduras and Ecuador have been released. Michael Orozco-Fiscal makes the list again.

There’s a Q & A with Jurgen Klinsmann over at USsoccer.com.

Elsewhere

Manchester United goalkeeper David de Gea has been warned for eating a doughnut in a shop and then attempting to leave without paying for it. Expect the Spaniard, who makes £70,000-a-week, to be showered with doughnut when United play City.

Footy on the Telly™

Friday, September 30
North Carolina v Duke (NCAA men) 7pm Fox Soccer
Notre Dame v Connecticut (NCAA women) 7:30pm ESPNU
Jaguares v Atlas 9pm ESPN Deportes

Saturday, October 1
Everton v Liverpool 7:30am ESPN2, ESPN Deportes
Hoffenheim v Bayern Munich 9:30am GolTV
Manchester United v Norwich 10am Fox Soccer
Blackburn v Manchester City 10am Fox Soccer Plus
Wolves v Newcastle 12pm Fox Soccer
Villarreal v Zaragoza 12pm GolTV
Roma v Atalanta 12pm Fox Soccer Plus
Hertha Berlin v Cologne 12:30pm ESPN Deportes
Valencia v Granada 2pm GolTV
Sunderland v West Brom 2pm Fox Soccer Plus
Inter Milan v Napoli 2:30pm Fox Soccer
Houston v Chicago 4pm Telefutura
Aston Villa v Wigan 5pm Fox Soccer
Pumas v America 5pm Telemundo
Fluminense v Santos 5pm GolTV
Leeds v Portsmouth 6pm Fox Soccer Plus
Morelia v Tecos 6pm Fox Deportes, Azteca America
Medellin v Nacional 7:15pm GolTV
Toronto v New York 7:30pm Fox Soccer
New England v Seattle 7:30pm Direct Kick
Santos Laguna v Cruz Azul 8pm. Telefutura
Chivas v Queretaro 8pm Telemundo
Colorado v Dallas 9pm Direct Kick
Irapuato v Necaxa 9:15pm GolTV Premiere
San Luis v Puebla 9:30pm Galavision
Atlante v Pachuca 10pm Telefutura
Los Angeles v Real Salt Lake 10:30pm Direct Kick
San Jose v Kansas City 10:30pm Direct Kick

Sunday, October 2
Novara v Catania 6:30am Fox Soccer Plus
Bolton v Chelsea 8:30am Fox Soccer Plus
Fiorentina v Lazio 9am Fox Soccer
Real Betis v Levante 10am ESPN Deportes
Fulham v QPR 10:30am Fox Soccer Plus
Tottenham v Arsenal 11am Fox Soccer (replay at 4:30pm on main Fox channel)
Hamburg v Schalke 11:30pm GolTV
Atletico Madrid v Sevilla 12pm ESPN Deportes
Swansea-Stoke 12:30pm Fox Soccer Plus
Gijon v Barcelona 2pm GolTV
Juventus v AC Milan 2:30pm Fox Soccer
PSG v Lyon 3pm Fox Soccer Plus
South Carolina v Vanderbilt (NCAA women) 3pm ESPNU
Columbus v D.C. United 4pm Direct Kick
Espanyol v Real Madrid 4pm ESPN2, ESPN Deportes
Vasco da Gama v Corinthians 4pm GolTV Premiere
Vancouver v Portland 4:30pm Direct Kick
Chivas USA v Philadelphia 8pm TCN

12 Comments

  1. I think PSP needs to be a little more ‘immediate’ with your postings.

    • Mike Servedio says:

      I had to wait for Marfan to get out of the shower! Only not to get any good quotes anyway! I’m still working on the whole “writing the match report while the game is happening thing.”

  2. Ed Farnsworth says:

    Ha! Them sounds like bearfighting words! After all, Daniel’s photo essay was up at 10:43pm and Mike’s match report was up at 2:31am. Round of applause for guys who gotta work in the morning!

  3. Yes Marfan got burned on DeRosario’s header, but why on earth was he marking him in the first place?!?! Shouldn’t a defender be marking the oppositions most dangerous player?

  4. Paunovic was posted at the front of the six specifically to clear out that short post corner. I don’t care who is on de Rosario, if he gets to run at a corner, you can expect the worst and only hope for something else. If you are going to zone a guy at the short post, he has to beat a runner to that ball.

  5. Does anyone know why Okugo came out at the half? I hear he wasn’t hurt, so were we just worried that too many dangerous crossfield balls to Sheanomenon would give away our secret “holy crap, we can play offense” plan that we are saving for the playoffs?

    • Eli and I were discussing the subs and player ratings on the way out. We brought up the idea that they are capping Okugo’s minutes as per cap hit rules, but that is complete assumption. He played a strong game and the swap made no sense to anyone, especially since Carroll was unimpressive.

      • I think the concept was just that we wanted to get more men up field and thus it was a wide man for a defensive midfielder. In the end, it worked so I’m not necessarily complaining but I was so impressed by Amobi’s ability to spread it around. Kid is a player.

  6. I like how Kevin Payne complains about refs not protecting star players while not mentioning that his man hockey-checked Le Toux just because he knew he wasn’t fast enough to stay in front of Seba.

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