Union
The Union has become well-known for its innovative use of social networking tools. The latest bit of cleverness is this: when their Facebook page gets 92,012 likes, they will unveil the new designs for the first and second kit. You can ‘like’ the Union by clicking here. As of this writing, there are only 6,500 ‘likes’ to go.
No Union players made the MLS Best XI list.
In the voting among SBI’s editorial staff for their MLS Best XI list, Sebastien Le Toux made the second team. Faryd Mondragon, Carlos Valdes and Sheanon Williams made the third team.
Kerith Gabriel interprets some Peter Nowak quotes from Wednesday’s end of the season press conference.
While Marc Narducci’s “Some suggestions for Union manager Peter Nowak” article in today’s Inquirer doesn’t contain any suggestions you haven’t already thought about, it does contain this interesting piece of information: “Nowak said he asked all his players in preseason to give him a starting 11, and he said the suggestions would be confidential. Of 28 entries, no two were the same.”
Kevin Kinkead has some season stats on the Union. It isn’t analysis but there are some interesting numbers. Perhaps the most telling one is this: “opposing teams averaged a mere 3.05 shots on goal this season, an all-time league record.”
Michael Farfan reflects on his season. A finalist for the Rookie of the Year award that went to CJ Sapong, Marfan was the only player in the voting for the top five who was not drafted in the first round.
Philadelphia Union Head of Scouting & Player Development Diego Gutierrez participated in Nothing But Nets’ Five-Year Anniversary Summit as a panelist. The United Nations Foundation-sponsored Nothing But Nets campaign is a global grass-roots program designed to save children from malaria. Gutierrez has served as a national spokesman since 2007.
The photo illustrating a report on the UK edition of Reuters about Manchester United goalkeeper Tomasz Kuszczak’s denial that he said he is a “slave” of the club is from the friendly with the Union in 2010.
MLS
Commissioner Don Garber has confirmed that, despite the addition of Montreal to the league in 2012, the schedule will remain at 34 games and will be unbalanced.
“It’s simple math: 389 games would almost be impossible for us to execute with the other competitions we’re required to play, the weather issues we have … the challenges in a handful of markets, the FIFA dates…All the thing we have to do differently in the United States from a competitive standpoint, just the travel impact that exists in our country…The more games we add, the more travel for our players and reduces the quality of our play…I know fans want things a certain way because they watch the Premier League, but we have certain facts of life in the United States that we have to live through.”
Garber also expressed concern about the future of DC United and said David Beckham has “delivered on all aspects” during his five years in MLS.
LA’s resident jerk Chad Barrett dislocated his ankle in training on Thursday and will miss the MLS Cup Final.
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger talks Brek Shea and US soccer. He says the future of the game lies in the US and in Asia.
Former Columbus Crew, Montreal Impact and USMNT U-23 player David Testo has announced he is gay. More on the story here.
Coincidentally, here’s a look at Phillip Anschutz, owner of AEG, the group that owns Houston Dynamo and LA Galaxy (among other sport teams) and whose name is on the MLS Cup. In addition to being a major funder of MLS, Anschutz also likes to fund anti gay and anti-evolution organizations.
Local
La Salle defeated Temple 2–0 in the Atlantic 10 championship tournament to advance to the today’s semifinal against No. 2 ranked George Washington.
Seven members of the Penn women’s team were named to the All-Ivy team.
The Moorestown girls’ soccer team defeated Lower Cape May 3–0 in Thursday’s South Jersey Group 3 final.
Haddonfield’s girls’ team posted their 20th shutout of the season with a 3–0 win over Middle Township in the South Jersey Group 2 final.
Kerith Gabriel shares an inspirational email he received written by the father of Mark Casasanto, a team captain at Roman Catholic who suffered a scary injury during a recent game.
US
MLSsoccer.com preview’s today’s USMNT friendly in France (ESPN2, 3pm).
The US will host CONCACAF’s 2012 Men’s Olympic qualifying tournament from March 22 to April 2 at Nashville’s LP Field, the Home Depot Center and Livestrong Park.
The New York Times looks at all of those German-born players on the USMNT.
Fabian Johnson gets a profile at SI.
Jurgen Klinsmann explains his vision for the USMNT to Sporting News.
PSP’s preview of the USMNT match against France.
Klinsmann is still waiting for the goals to be scored.
Here’s a look at the last time the US played France, way back in 1979. France won 3–0.
Elsewhere
Former Brazil star Romario, who was elected to that county’s parliament last year, has pledged to amp up his investigation into to alleged irregularities involving FIFA and the Brazilian football federation president, Ricardo Teixeira.
Pele is concerned about the delays in Brazil’s preparations for the 2014 World Cup.
Pele also says Lionel Messi isn’t a great player. “I think a ‘great’ player is defined by their performances at the World Cup. For example, watch Lionel Messi play for Barcelona. He is very good. Exceptional. But for Argentina, he’s completely different. Compare him to Zinedine Zidane. He won the World Cup and was at the top for 15 years. He was a more complete player than Messi.”
A competition to determine which football grounds in England has the worst toilet facilities has been hit with a vote-rigging scandal.
Here’s a look at seven of the strangest, yet beautiful, stadiums in the world. Perfect for a coffee break.
Footy on the Telly™
Friday, November 11
Bosnia v Portugal 2 p.m. ESPN Deportes
Cambridge v Wrexham 2:30pm Fox Soccer
France v USA 3pm ESPN2, Univision
Turkey v Croatia 4pm ESPN Deportes
Connecticut v Louisville (Big East semifinal) 5pm CBS Sports Network
Ukraine v Germany 7pm ESPN Deportes
St. John’s v Villanova (Big East semifinal) 7:30pm CBS Sports Network
Mexico v Serbia 9pm Univision
Saturday, November 12
Newport v Shrewsbury 7:30am Fox Soccer Plus
Wales v Norway 10am ESPN Deportes
Alfreton v Carlisle 10amFox Soccer
Swindon v Huddersfield 10amFox Soccer Plus
England v Spain 12pm Fox Soccer, Fox Deportes
Estonia v Ireland 12pm ESPN Deportes
Czech Republic v Montenegro 2pm ESPN Deportes
Fluminense v America MG 4pm GolTV
Netherland v Switzerland 5pm ESPN Deportes
Once Caldas v America de Cali 6pm GolTV
Poland v Italy 7pm ESPN Deportes
Sunday, November 13
Brisbane v Wellington 1am Fox Soccer
Halifax v Charlton 7:30am Fox Soccer Plus
Morecambe v Sheffield Wednesday 10am Fox Soccer
ACC final 12pm ESPNU
Big East final 12pm CBS Sports Network
Coritiba v Flamengo 2pm GolTV
Antigua v Haiti 6pm GolTV)
Suriname v El Salvador 10pm GolTV
Monday, November 14
Brazil v Egypt 12pm ESPN Deportes
According to his tweet, Okugo got an assist:
After a few days together in a training-camp setting in Germany, the U.S. Under-23 national team got to take to the playing field on Friday and turned in a positive result.
Tony Taylor scored the go-ahead goal, while Terrance Boyd and Dilly Duka also got on the board as the U.S. U-23s topped a reserve side from German club VfL Bochum, 3-1, in a scrimmage.
Sean Johnson got the start in goal for the United States; Sheanon Williams, Ethan White, Royal-Dominique Fennell and Zarek Valentin started in defense; Joe Corona, Amobi Okugo, Mixx Diskerud and Greg Garza started in the midfield, and Juan Agudelo and Boyd began the match up top, according to U.S. Soccer.
Pele is on crack. He just is scared Messi will become the greatest to ever do it.
Messi is the best offensive player to play the game ever…its been a joy watching him play!!!
Every time Pele opens his mouth he tarnishes his legacy a little bit.
fully agree with this statement
This is why I’m a Union fan but cannot bring myself to watch anything else in the joke known as MLS. Why would they take the worst aspects of American sports and integrate those into the league?
I look forward to us playing DC United a whole bunch of times! But don’t worry Don Garber, you’ll get all those NFL fans to switch to MLS just as soon as you remodel yourself on them completely!
thats not what this is about. league has to limit travel costs. this isn’t england where the games are around the corner. if the league wants to succeed it needs to make money (and thus limit costs).
If they’re in such financial straits that adding an extra cross country trip (something college basketball teams are capable of doing) is a big problem, then let’s just throw in the towel on professional soccer in the US.
League is still young, you gotta look long term. Everything the league has done has led to where it is now. Growing steadily, positively and its outlook and direction is on track. Our country is huge and the possibilities are vast…two conferences, four conferences are possible, twenty team conferences…everything the league has done has led to where it is. Have faith in the decision maker. I do.
decision makers…not just garber, he is just the face of the decisions…remember that
I have no faith in the MLS to be anything other than the same warmed over garbage all the other American leagues are (or turned into, in the case of baseball post-Selig).
The league setup is the sort of terrible dreck that makes the NBA so utterly boring. The best team gets forgotten once some team that’s hot for three weeks wins an inane tournament that let’s in so many teams the regular season is mostly meaningless? Made up rivalries (the RAPTORS are in town?! OMG!!!) that are either already boring or are currently interesting but get destroyed by being run over and over and over? MLS fever, catch it!
If you enjoy that stuff, that’s fine. I don’t. There’s 36 MLS matches I’ll watch because they involve my favorite team. The rest of the time, I’ll pass.
Although, I should say, having two conferences (one western and one eastern, I guess) with a balanced schedule and their winners playing each other for the championship would be exciting. I just don’t have faith it would happen.
“Nowak said he asked all his players in preseason to give him a starting 11, and he said the suggestions would be confidential. Of 28 entries, no two were the same.”
so who picked the starting 11 that worked best this year? we should be able to find out as nowak tried them all.