Daily news roundups / Featured

Torres to have surgery, more news

Photo: Paul Rudderow

Look for our match preview of Saturday’s game against Columbus and a Philly Soccer Show podcast interview with Crew coach Robert Warzycha later this morning.

Philadelphia Union

Kerith Gabriel tweeted on Thursday that Roger Torres is “to undergo surgery Friday on the MCL in his left knee.”

Peter Nowak says time is on the Union’s side. “Time is always working for you and not against you in our league. Anything can change from week to week and as soon as you go on a wave you start getting more and more confident and those things start working together.”

Nowak was the guest on the latest Extra Time Radio podcast. On the pod he discusses being selected to coach the MLS All-Stars as well as the vibe on the team and why he briefly quit Twitter. You can listen to the pod below.
[haiku url=”http://www.buzzsprout.com/episodes/converted/46045.mp3″]

Marc Narducci says Freddy Adu could be the difference maker due to his ability to break defenders down one-on-one. Adu says, “That is exactly what I will try to do. We’re a good team and keep the ball pretty well, but when we are closer to the goal, we are going to need people to break people down, break the defense down and take people on.” Adu also said, “This team did pay a lot of money to get me here and, obviously, I need to get out there and help the team get wins.”

Kerith Gabriel wonders if Danny Califf’s hamstring strain is the result of overcompensating from his knee injury, which he speculates may not have been as totally healed. Or, he could have picked up the strained hammy from bearfighting.

Kevin Kinkead looks at Keon Daniel and Gabriel Farfan’s impressive form.

Goal.com previews Saturday’s match. Elsewhere, they predict the Union will win.

At Unholy Union, Dan predicts the Union will win 2–0 while Nick sees a 1–1 draw.

Union Dues also predicts a 1–1 draw.

The jersey that will be worn by the MLS All-Stars will be unveiled at halftime during Saturday’s game against Columbus.

PPL Park comes in at No. 6 in this ranking of MLS stadiums based on the atmosphere created by fans.

Columbus Watch

The Crew’s Kirk Urso says, “I know (Philadelphia) is having a rough time right now, but they’re a good team. They move the ball well. Right now, they’re not getting the results, but they’re going to be hungry and we’ve got to make sure we have the same hunger. It’s not going to be an easy game.”

Milovan Mirosevic says of the Union, “Maybe they will be a little bit desperate about winning some points. That could be very useful for us.”

Crew coach Robert Warzycha says, “There’s going to be 20,000 people cheering for (the Union) and I’m sure they will do everything they can to win the game, especially having the record that they have.”

The Crew website has some stat comparisons between the two teams.

Local

Lancaster, PA.-natives, childhood pals, and Montreal Impact teammates Zarek Valentin and Andrew Wenger are profiled. Their domestic life makes them sound much like the Odd Couple.

The Dauphin County-based Soccer Shots company, recently named the best child fitness franchise in the country by Entrepreneur Magazine, is profiled.

La Salle’s women’s team has announced the addition of eight incoming freshman to the squad, which returns to play on August 17 against West Virginia after the most successful season in the program’s history.

Conestoga Valley from Lancaster, Pa., and Conrad Weiser from Robesonia, Pa., come in at No. 5 and No. 16 respectively on the NSCAA High School girls soccer spring national rankings.

MLS

Chelsea’s Frank Lampard is looking forward to the All-Star Game.  “The games against the American team, the MLS in particularly, they are always very fresh in them wanting to prove [themselves] against you. That’s why for us in the preseason it is a big game. I remember we played against them a few years and lost 1-0, so we’d like to turn that around.”

Sporting News looks at the league’s new retrospective action policy.

In a visit to the Raleigh, NC, to discuss the prospects of a possible Triangle-based MLS team, league president Mark Abbott said that, beyond adding a second team in New York, expansion plans are unknown. “We haven’t determined what the timetable for expansion will be. In the United States and Canada, there’s the capacity to have more than 20 teams, but how we do that has not been determined yet.” Abbott described the visit as “an opportunity to learn more about this community and what’s happening here in soccer.”

The San Francisco Chronicle says MLS needs the motivation of relegation. Good luck with that.

That story from Soccer America about the 4–3–3 that we linked to earlier in the week keeps spawning more stories.

Women’s Soccer

Melanie Fitzgerald, the former Manager of League Operations at WPS, has joined Western New York Flash as their Strategy & Operations Director. Is anyone actually employed by WPS anymore?

Espanyol, the Barcelona team that is now the home of former Philadelphia Independence midfielders Joanna Lohman and Lianne Sanderson, defeated San Gabriel 4–1 on Sunday.

US

SI wants to get “a good bar-room debate” going with this piece on the greatest seasons by Americans in Europe.

Elsewhere

Describing Pele’s assertion that Neymar is better than Messi as “stupid,” Diego Maradonna says, “Maybe Neymar is the best player of the world, but only if we clarify that Messi is from another planet.”

Want to know the live soccer listings for the upcoming week? Click here.

8 Comments

  1. DarthLos117 says:

    When I think Adu, I think thread the needle not one on one skills or speed…have I missed an aspect of his game? All this focus on Adu is misdirected…we need M. Farfan to take peeps on and shoot.

    • Agreed. Adu loses posession much too easily. I can’t recall him breaking anyone down the way Marfan can. Adu’s talent is deftly putting the ball into open space and leading the striker so he doesn’t need to break stride on his way to the goal. Unfortunately, he hasn’t demonstrated this talent often enough.

      • The Black Hand says:

        Would be nice to have Marfan taking on outside backs and penetrating to the middle. Coupled with Freddy Adu sending strikers in with intelligent passing from the middle. Too bad, we will double up on defensive mids and hang Freddy out to dry on the flank.

      • DarthLos117 says:

        not necessarily…4-2-3-1 could work with Adu in the center of the park…

      • The Black Hand says:

        We haven’t looked to good with a lone striker up front. We tried this form in Portland and struggled. Who’s up front? Pajoy has shown to not perform well as lone striker. Maybe Martinez. I think we ate better suited to have two up high.

      • DarthLos117 says:

        We havent looked good all year in any formation. If nowak is dead set on 2 defensive mids our best option is starting a 4-2-3-1 (not a 4-4-2) and sticking with it so that our players can get used to each other, tactics and positional awareness. If nowak wants to start one defensive mid than 4-4-2 could work…nowak needs to find a consistent lineup and consistent tactics…finally my post was meant to point out to you that Adu could work in the middle of the park with two defensive mids in a 4-2-3-1, thats it

  2. Fantastic blog article.Really looking forward to read more. Want more.

Leave a Reply to Celia Musselman Cancel

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*