Photo: Daniel Gajdamowicz

Philadelphia Union

Match reports from PSP, the Union website, The Inquirer, The Daily News, The Mercury, The Times Herald, CSN Philly, PennLive.com, Washington Post, CBS DC, the 700 Level, SBI, Black and Red United, Goal.com, the AP, the Sports Network, and Union City Blue.

Despite the loss, the message after the game was positive. John Hackworth said, “I thought the guys played fantastic. If we play that way every week, we’re going to win a lot of games.”

The issue, as it has been for sometime, was finishing. Freddy Adu said, “We’ve just got to finish the chances. It’ll come and the floodgates will open…We’re not out of it yet. In this league, anything can happen. If we play like this today, we’ll give ourselves a chance every game.”

Sheanon Williams added, “There’s new energy in the locker room and we’re ready to move forward. We know we have a lot of potential in this locker room. We can definitely get results. You could see it tonight. Even though we didn’t get three points, we sent a message to everyone else that we can play.”

Zac MacMath joined Hackworth in praising the energy the fans brought to PPL Park. “I think this is one of the best atmospheres that I’ve had at this park. The fans were there and the players were there. We’ve just got to do better to get the win.”

So, that foul that was called on Carlos Valdes?

• John Hackworth: “I thought it was a great tackle. I thought there was a little bit of simulation in the play.”
• Brian Carroll: “Honestly, I think that Carlos just hit (the ball) way out in front of himself, and (Pontius) just fell over.”
• Amobi Okugo: “I thought he got the ball, but it’s a tough situation.”
• Chris Pontius: “No, he got a piece of me on it. But I think he got the ball first. But he did get a piece of me on it.”

DC United coach Ben Olsen said of the Union, “I thought we grinded one out tonight. They were good. Give them a lot of credit. I thought their energy was good, I thought their soccer was better on the night…But at the end of the day it’s about winning games.”

ProSoccerTalk says the Union “didn’t look bad at all.”

According to a tweet from the Goalkeeper, Kai Herdling is headed back to Germany. No harm, no foul, really.

Here’s a roundup of quotes from John Hackworth’s press conference after Saturday’s loss. Or you can look at PSP’s video on the right sidebar of this page. I found it pleasantly inspirational.

Could Peter Nowak end up as the new manager of Poland’s national team? (His last name is translated as “Smith” in this Polish-language report.)

Local

Late goals from Yann Ekra and Lucky Mkosana gave Harrisburg City Islanders the comeback 2–1 victory over Rochester Rhinos on Friday night. The win leaves Harrisburg in sixth place in the league standings ahead of a series of road games.

Reading United fell 2–0 to Jersey Express on Sunday, bringing the number of games in-a-row-they have been shutout by their rival to three. Look for our match report later this morning.

MLS

In the Eastern Conference DC’s 1–0 win over the Union keeps them in first place, while the Union remain in ninth place. Kansas City moves into second place with a 2–0 win over last place Toronto. New York drops to third place after losing 3–1 to fourth place Chicago. Columbus is in fifth place after drawing 0–0 with seventh place New England. Houston moves into sixth place with a 2–1 win over Dallas. Eighth place Montreal opened their newly renovated stadium with a 4–1 win over Seattle.

Sebastien Le Toux scored an 80th minute goal to put ten-men Vancouver over Colorado, 1–0.

Danny Mwanga went the full 90 with one shot on goal in the Timbers 1–0 loss to LA.

Goal.com breaks down the weekend’s action.

Soccer America is all for MLS repeating the two-week break next year when the Hexagonal round of World Cup qualifiers comes around.

Women’s Soccer

Philadelphia Fever played Western New York Flash to a 0–0 draw on Sunday evening.

Paul Riley’s Women’s Professional Supergroup defeated DC United Women 1–0 on Friday. Riley singled out Sinead Farrelly for praise in the win, saying the Havertown native “showed why she should be on a plane to London. She ran the game from start to finish.”

US

After defeating Sweden 3–1 on Saturday in the Volvo Invitational (read our match report, which includes video highlights), the USWNT topped Japan 4–1 this morning. The USWMT are next in action against Canada on June 30 before Olympic play begins against France on July 25.

The Goalkeeper looks back to the US win over Mexico, ten years ago on Sunday, in the 2002 World Cup.

Elsewhere

In Today’s Group C action at Euro 2012, it is Croatia vs Spain (ESPN) and Italy vs Ireland (ESPN2), both at 2:45pm.

Croatia coach Slaven Bilic wants UEFA to crack down hard on supporters from his country who have engaged in racist chants and displayed racist and neo-Nazi banners. The AP reports, “Bilic said that ‘as a Croatian, as a parent, as a sportsman and as a person who comes from a modern, open-minded and tolerant state,’ he wanted authorities to do all they can to ‘stop this kind of supporter forever.'”

After first being fined $150,000 after its fans attacked stadium staff in the opening game agaisnt the Czech Republic, Russia has been fined an additional $37,800 for the conduct of its fans during the match against Poland. Neither fine should be much of a problem given that the Russian federation received $13.3 million for participating in the Euros.

England becomes the seventh of the 16 participating countries at the Euro to be investigated by UEFA after some of its fans tried to invade the pitch following the team’s win over Sweden.

The Italian FA has announced its punishments for the latest match fixing scandal.