Daily news roundups / Featured

UNC NCAA champs, Re-Entry Draft pt. 2, Indies sign Chalupny, more news

Featured image courtesy of UNC/Jeffrey A. Camarati

NCAA College Cup

University of North Carolina defeated UNC Charlotte 1–0 on Sunday to win the College Cup. Ben Spea’s goal was a cracker.

Soccer America’s Paul Gardner has an interesting take on the final.

Philadelphia Union

UNC’s win prompted a funny Twitter exchange that began with a tweet from UNC product Sheanon Williams:

Williams: “Want to congratulate @UNCmenssoccer. On winning there second national championship…something I wish I had done when I was there”

Gabrial Farfan: “@sheanonwilliams u graduated high school??”

Jordan Harvey: “@sheanonwilliams You were only there two seconds”

Williams: “@JordanCHarvey damn hater…still got to the finals”

Williams: “@Gfarfan88 got farther then you b”

Harvey: “@sheanonwilliams haha joking bro. Just bitter my Bruins lost. Congrats!”

Ahead of today’s Stage 2 of the Re-Entry Draft, SBI reports the field of available players lacks stars but is dominated by veteran role players. The report says Stefani Miglioranzi “could still have a couple good years left but is more likely to be a dependable veteran coming off the bench.”

More on the USMNT U-23 training camp that opens on Thursday. The Union will have five players at the camp, the most of any MLS team.

The Union announced on Friday that they will pay a pre-season friendly with USL-side Orlando City. You may recall that the Union lost 1–0 to Orlando last pre-season in a game that saw Carlos Valdes receive a red card in the 17th minute.

“How is Peter Nowak going to shoehorn all that attacking talent into Philadelphia’s 2012 lineup?” wonders MLSsoccer.com. “Playing time up top already looks like a prized commodity in ‘12 – a good problem for Nowak to have.”

The Goalkeeper has extended quotes from last week’s Union press conference with Peter Nowak.

Philadelphia Independence

Former USWNT midfielder Lori Chalupny will sign with the Philadelphia Independence. Chalupny spent last season with Atlanta Beat. Magnusdottir and Boquete.

The Independence concluded its two-day player combine on Friday. Select players will be invited to participate with a second combine on Jan. 26 and 27 that will include players from WPS, W-League, WPSL, and college seniors.

MLS

The Bond Buyer looks at how backing the building of Red Bull Arena has resulted in the city of Harrison having its bond rating drop eight notches from A1 to Ba3.

Goal.com looks around the world for “potential hotbeds of transfer activity.”

The LA Times completely misses the ball with a piece entitled, “Premier Soccer League in US is English.”

Local

Sunday’s scheduled Pennsylvania Cup final between West Chester United and Salone FC was postponed due to delay with a failed protest. (This news is from Twitter so just what the delay or the failed protest was all about is still unclear.)

La Salle’s Kelsey Haycook and Renee Washington were named to the NCAA Women’s All-American second team.

Temple’s Tyler Witmer and Cody Calafiore were named to the National Soccer Coaches Association of America Men’s Division I All-Mid-Atlantic second team.

St. Joseph’s Mo Hawkins was named to the NSCAA Women’s Divisions I All-Mid-Atlantic First Team, becoming the first player from the school to be so honored.

Lehigh Valley’s The Morning Call has announced its All-Area Boys Soccer Team.

US

More on the effects of heading from the viewpoint of youth soccer.

Elsewhere

Jonathan Wilson explains how Barcelona defeated Real Madrid on Saturday.

The Footy Blog asks are Napoli’s players are being targeted by criminals.

5 Comments

  1. What a great soccer weekend!!! Started with those semis on ESPNU; fabulous goals and terrible penalty takers by those who got kicked out. Then unranked Charlotte makes it to the final and plays their heart out last ten minutes (probably some of the best ten minutes of hustle I have ever seen). They hit the post and all kind of body limbs but were unable to find the net… Pretty amazing that Ben Spea won the Championship last year with Akron and this year with UNC!!! Any local kids on the 4 semi-finalists?

    Then on Saturday v. Persie probably had the goal of the year that will be shown for decades; what a strike it was! He is on his way to score the most goals ever in a calender year in the EPL (think the record is held by Shearer at 38).

    Then the Barcelona – Madrid game….

    Wow…

  2. How come soccer players have the freedom to move between colleges without sitting out a year? Isn’t that a formula for good players moving around a la the Miami Heat of the NBA? Can Speas move again to another team with a shot at a title next year?

    Gardner’s SoccerAmerica article ignores the fact that Charlotte scored in all of their games leading up to the College Cup. While using a local freshman as the primary striker. Also, negative soccer usually involves sitting back and absorbing pressure. Charlotte’s all-out pressure defense is what Barcelona uses to get possession back so quickly and often.

    US Soccer’s trademark is hustle. A team like Charlotte that uses organized hustle can do a lot against teams like UNC who collect All-Americans like pogs. And that’s why the final was fun to watch.

    • Think you can move only once. Heard about a player moving from Cincinnati to Temple and then back to Cincinnatti only to find out that he had to sit out a year back in Cincinnati.

      Charlotte’s (English) coach won the Div2 Championship with some other school and was very interesting to listen to at half-time. Won’t be the last time we hear of him!

  3. Philadelphia Union
    @PhilaUnion Philadelphia Union
    Union sign Jimmy McLaughlin as second Homegrown Player – bit.ly/taGVUY #DOOP

    Great news that we could sign him up!!! He really looked good in those friendlies.

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