Daily news roundups

Marfan, Valdes honored. Nowak=Reid? Summer plans.

Photo: Paul Rudderow

Big thanks to the Philadelphia Union players, coaches and fans who attended Tuesday night’s Team Dinner event for a wonderful time. Great people doing great things.

Philadelphia Union

Michael Farfan and Carlos Valdes were named to MLSsoccer.com’s Team of the Week.

Zac MacMath is No. 9 on the Castrol Weekly Top 20 Performers.

Marfan says of the run that led to Freddy Adu’s goal last Saturday, “I was left with a one-vs.-one situation and just figured I’d take a run at him. I just kind of zig-zagged and was hoping to find a way to get a cross in. Fortunately, it worked out.” He says of the Union midfield, “With the package we have. I think we’re really able to create a good possession game.”

Kerith Gabriel reports, “The Eagles and Union are planning to announce a major soccer event that will return to Lincoln Financial Field this summer. What’s unsure is if the contest will be part of the annual World Football Challenge set to return to the United States in July.” The league announced on Tuesday the return of the summer tournament.

Gabriel also reports that Peter Nowak will not appeal his one game suspension for entering the field of play during the fracas that followed Gabriel Farfan’s red card tackle.

John Smallwood recounts a series of disconnects between Peter Nowak—from offseason moves, to player selection, to perceptions of arrogance—and the fans that has resulted in boos at PPL Park. Concluding the honeymoon is over, Smallwood compares Nowak to Andy Reid and says, “At some point, if things don’t change quickly, ‘it’s still early’ will look as if it is too late,” before adding, “Results, not promises, are what matter.”

our own post about how Zac and the D are getting it done.

The Union come in at No. 15 in MLSsoccer.com’s power rankings. At SBI, they move up to No. 13. Where does ProSoccerTalk have them? At No. 14, of course.

JP Dellacamera looks at some of the standouts from Saturday’s win.

He’s big, he’s orange, nothing rhymes with…Wait a sec, that isn’t Zac MacMath!

Local

Bensalem’s Ryan Richter, formerly with the Union and now with Charleston Battery, has been named USL PRO Player of the Week. Harrisburg City Islanders Andrew Welker and Tom Brandt, who played at Penn and was a 2012 Supplemental Draft pick for the Union, were named to the USL PRO Team of the Week.  Also from the City Islanders, Bilal Duckett, and JT Noone, who played for Temple before his time with the Union in 2010, received honorable mentions.

Upper 90 has some cool pictures and video of some of the Islander mentioned above.

Ocean City Nor’Easters have signed three standout players from Lafayette College, defender Julian Plummer and midfileders Alec Golini and Blake Fink.

MLS

The San Jose injury list could prove helpful for the Union on Saturday.

Asked about the importance of being in first place in the West, San Jose GK Jon Busch replied, “What’s the date today? It’s April. We want to be at the top of the table in October. It’s great to get off to a good start, but the season’s 34 games, and this was game seven. … There’s a lot of season still to be played.”

Don Garber explains the league’s intention to be recognized as one of the best in the world in the next ten years. “That doesn’t mean we’re going to be as good as the Premier League…It means there are four or five leagues around the world that are respected on the quality side of being the best, and we believe in 10 years we should be able to create that.”

Aron Winter says that 0–6–0 Toronto FC will make the playoffs.

The league’s Disciplinary Committee announced on Tuesday the retroactive suspension of FC Dallas forward Blas Pérez for elbowing Jordan Harvey over the weekend.

Women’s Soccer

Soccer Nation takes a look at preparations for the start of the WPSL Elite League season. Says WPSL Commissioner Jerry Zanelli, “With the addition of the pro WPS teams [Western New York Flash, Boston Breakers], the WPSL Elite League has become the preeminent women’s soccer league in America.”

If New York Fury, coached by former Independence gaffer Paul Riley, achieve the kind of success in the Elite League that the Independence did in its two seasons in WPS, the fact that their roster bears as many as ten players who either had played in previous seasons with the former WPS club or were about to join it before the 2012 WPS season was canceled may have something to do with it.

Because so many Independence players are on the Fury, Riley figures it’s only natural that they’ll carry on the Philly rivalry with former WPS teams WNY Flash and Boston Breakers.

US

The USWNT will open up Olympic tournament play against France. Merde!

Elsewhere

Bayern Munich travel to Real Madrid today for their Champions League semifinal second leg with a 2–1 lead (2:30pm, FX). Yesterday, Chelsea (pictured at left) defeated Barcelona 3–1 to advance to the final.

Chelsea will play in the final without the services of Branislav Ivanovic, Raul Meireles and Ramires (yellow card accumulation) and John Terry (sheer bloody idiotic lunacy).

Terry says of his red card, “I’m not that type of player to intentionally hurt anyone. I’ve raised my knee, which I maybe shouldn’t have done in hindsight, but hopefully people who know me as a person, as a player… I’m not that type of player.” Good one, John, good one.

 

14 Comments

  1. I hate Don Garber so much. I will admit he has turned the league into something good, but man I hate when he turns on his American Exceptionalism jets. I mean, good god, he really expects the MLS to be something in 10 years that took these other leagues generations to become?
    I hate it when Americans think that way. We are secondary in soccer guys, get over it. We can’t even call to talk about soccer on our sports talk radio without getting laughed at, yet our commissioner wants to count us among the EPL or La Liga in 10 years? How about we worry about soccer earning some respect nationally first?! How about we get a few MLS highlights on ESPN first? How about ESPN shows a single soccer highlight without the anchor audible snickering while delivering it?
    It blows my mind. It’s like just because we are America and we are so used to being the best in everything we expect to just walk right into the cool kids club. 10 years ago we weren’t even sure if this league is survive, now in 10 years we’ll be a top 5 league?
    I’ll quit while I’m ahead but Garber needs to back up a bit. He was the right guy to get us to this point but I’m not sure he is the right guy to take us past it.

    • Good post James, I agree.

      We have made strides in the PAST 10 years, but to count us among those leagues will take a lot longer then another 10

    • don garber is a terrific commissioner. the fact that he came to the supporters summit last year sent a great message. man knows what he is doing. these quotes are just rhetoric. he knows the truth.

    • It’s good to have goals, plus take a look at demographics. Not entirely unreasonable to think MLS will be playing at the big kids table and be considerably more mainstream in the USA in 10 years.

    • Didn’t the EPL start in 92? That’s just 5 years before MLS I think.

  2. Great time at Tir Na Nog yesterday. We had circa 80 Chelsea and 4 Barcelona fans. After Torres scored that goal (that made the ESPN Highlight at no. 3, I believe) the place went nuts. People took off their shirts, stood on the tables and chairs and beer was spilled all over. So if you are a Chelsea supporter and were elsewhere then make a point to be at TNN next time!
    What is interesting is that Chelsea had made the finals now twice; both times with interim managers!!!! Hope they will briing the Cup to Philly in July!

    • I was torn between Fado and TNN, although finally it didn’t matter cause I couldn’t get out of work. Gonna regret that for a while. Go Blues!

      • Fado for a Blues game?! TNN is our house. Find us on Facebook: ‘Chelsea Supporters Club: Philly Blues’ and look for our Philly Blues banner in the stadium (the only white one).

  3. BTW the orange guy might not be Zac, but he still made the save!!! hahaha

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