Daily news roundups / Featured

Tweets, That call, Quotes, Looking forward, more morning news

Photo: Courtesy of Philadelphia Union

It didn’t end the way we wanted, but, oh, what a season. As Adam Cann wrote in our match report for Thurday night’s loss in Houston, “After ten months, the Union ended their season where it began. In their wake they leave every reasonable expectation, and in the city they represent they will find nothing but love. ”

The Tweets

Jack McInerney: “You know you have the best fans when they don’t care if you win they just want you to give it all for 90 min. Thank you guys”

Veljko Paunovic: “You dont know how much i appreciate your support, and how proud I feel being the part of this great family, that is Union…thank You 4ever”

Amobi Okugo: “Thank you fans for your loyal support all season …back to Philly”

Zac MacMath: “Thanks to all the @PhilaUnion fans for their support this year! Incredible first season as a pro! More to come Im sure for the blue and gold”

Mayor Michael Nutter: “Congratulations @PhilaUnion on a fantastic season. Already looking forward to next year! #DOOP

That call

Peter Nowak:

What I was upset about is there was no real injury time in the first half because the game was very fluid. So how is this possible when the foul is two minutes and thirty seconds after regular time? It’s… we need to be a little bit smarter with those sort of decisions…We’ve been talking for 36 weeks now about officiating and I think we’re not going to be like Einstein and discover something we don’t know…Referee is giving a free kick after regular time and the free kick shouldn’t happen because it wasn’t a foul…You gotta figure out that the guy is going down and he’s going down because they wanna have a free kick. So if you’re the referee and you should be neutral and seeing things and feeling things that you’re supposed to recognize that it wasn’t a foul in the first place, the time is over, let the team go back to the locker room and then enjoy the 15 minutes break.

Danny Califf: “I didn’t even see the foul. I was turned and shouting at somebody and I didn’t actually see what happened. I went up and asked the ref what was going on. Because it’s pretty silly for him to call a foul like that on a throw-in.”

Carlos Valdes: “Normal contact. Contact is present in the game, it’s so physical. I can’t say anything else.”

Union

Match reports from Philly Soccer Page, the Daily News, the Inquirer, Delco Times, the Union website, MLSsoccer.com, SBI, Goal.com, Soccer America, Brotherly Game, AP, Reuters, Kansas City Star.

Carlos Valdes said of the goal, “We were confused sometimes. We had a clear idea that we wanted to use a zone to handle balls from the flanks but sometimes these plays escape you, because they’re smart players that start from the back where no one sees them in order to beat the zone. That defined the game and the qualification for them.”

Nowak said after the game, “During this game, we weren’t the worse team. Houston didn’t overcome us with something we didn’t know. They didn’t come with anything that showed they were a better team. I think in both games we played better.”

Nowak also said,

“We predicted with 10 wins that we would be in the playoffs. We predicted that 10 wins would be the goal that we would feel very good about this season. We won 11. We finished in the final eight in MLS, which is quite an accomplishment for such a young group…I think there are a lot of things to be proud of, especially for the group. I told them in the locker room that maybe it wasn’t our year. Things need to be corrected, and we have a whole preseason to do it.”

Continuing on the what will happen in the offseason, Nowak said, “We will have a very hard look at what we have and what we need. We try to do the same kind of acquisitions we did last year which is gonna help us to move forward. Not just being in the top 8 of MLS but a bit higher. That’s the goal for the next year.”

Califf said after the game, “Tonight’s for reflection and disappointment. Each one of us here put so much into the season and all our efforts and everything… I’m not ready to do anything aside from think about what happened tonight and take the next few days and reflect and… it’s probably going to be a solid week before I have any idea about what’s going to go on next year.”

MLS

On the bright side, LA eliminated New York from the playoffs with a 2–1 win, 3–1 on aggregate.

Kansas City will host Houston in the Eastern Conference final on Sunday at 5:30pm (Fox Soccer) followed by LA hosting Real Salt Lake in the Western Conference final at 9pm (ESPN).

The league added two days to Rafa Marquez’ red card suspension. Even this Energy Drinks blog is pleased his suspension was increased.

Brek Shea will be training with Arsenal after the USMNT friendlies against France and Slovenia on November 11 and 15.

The Goalkeeper looks at some of the changes that may be taking place in the league next season.

The New York Cosmos, working to become the 20th MLS franchise, have announced that there has been a buyout of the club. No details yet of who the buyer(s) may be, but speculation points to the Saudi-based Sela Sport sports marketing and sponsorship consultancy group.

Local

La Salle’s women’s team earned three awards in the Atlantic 10. Paul Royal was named Coach of the Year, Melissa Sanger was named Defensive Player of the Year, and Kelsey Haycook was named Rookie of the Year. Mo Hawkins of St. Joseph’s was named Midfielder of the Year.

Archbishop Wood’s became the first girls’ team to win three consecutive Catholic League titles with a 3–2 win over Little Flower.

US

Jurgen Klinsmann has announced his 22 player roster for the upcoming friendlies against France and Slovenia. Michael Orozco Fiscal is on the roster.

6 Comments

  1. I hate it when players and coaches make comments like the above as if the fans are uneducated viewers. Hey Valdes! that was a foul. You shoulda known better and kept your cool and arm down. Hey Nowak! Your wrong! Houston played better than the Union over both legs!

  2. I hope Nowak attends some coach classes this offseason, because honestly we need that just as much as a real LB and any other personnel moves. Honestly, I am very happy with this group as it stands (besides the LB) and I think with a consistent lineup and a consistent formation – and with that, a consistent identity, we will be fine.

  3. Wait a minute, Pauno started last night!? Oh my god, I literally forgot. I don’t mean to be mean because pretty much everyone we played was invisible, but man he was really nowhere to be seen. Atleast I can think back to the game and remember a pass or two by Jack Mac and that shot by Mwanga. Pauno? nothing.

  4. Some good news though : New York Red Bulls forward Juan Agudelo and Philadelphia Union forward Jack McInerney, midfielder Amobi Okugo and right back Sheanon Williams will all join the U.S. U-23 camp in Germany that is set to begin on Monday, raising the number of players in that camp up to 35.

  5. At a minimum, they need to triple Williams salary.

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