Photo: Courtesy Greg Carroccio/Philadelphia Union
Philadelphia Union
Check out PSP’s match report from Wednesday night’s 1-0 loss to Aston Villa.
More match reports from the Union website, MLSsoccer.com, the Daily News, this rather bizarre piece from the Inquirer, Delco Times, CSN Philly, Phanatic Magazine, Goal.com, and the AP.
Here are reports from the Birmingham Mail, as well as this, this, and this from the Aston Villa website. More reaction from Aston Villa, including the obligatory “the crowd was great” (it was) and “MLS is underrated” (it is) comments on the Union website.
After noting that the average age of last night’s Union starting line up was 21.5 years, Union Tally rates how the Union youngsters that started did and concludes (correctly I think) that Antoine Hoppenot was the only player who really showed he is ready to earn a start, let alone playing time, in a regular season game. All of which should come as no surprise for, if you exclude the players who have seen regular season starts from the first XI—from MacMath in goal, the backline, and Gomez—the average age of the attacking portion of the lineup was 19.2 years. As would reasonably be expected, what we saw were moments and short passages of good play from the youngsters, but nothing really sustained. All in all, it was surely a good experience for them. Heck, I had a good time watching the kids despite the scoreline.
One thing that was clear from the game was that Roger Torres appears no where near where he needs to be to start seeing some serious time on the pitch. Said Hackworth, “Look, I love Roger Torres. I’ve loved him since the day he got here. But I just don’t think he’s ready physically or mentally to play the kind of soccer we’re trying to play. He’s a fantastic, technical player, but he has to understand when to make decisions on the field. Those decisions turn out to be everything in professional soccer. He’s got so many great qualities, but we still have to push him along, for sure.”
Hackworth praised the play of Josue Martinez, “He’s a 22-year-old trying to adapt to a new country and new culture, but he’s getting it. For him to play that way and have that awareness, it’s fantastic. He didn’t do anything but move up the ladder tonight.”
Antoine Hoppenot said of the end of the Union’s undefeated streak in international club friendlies at PPL Park, “We knew [about the streak] and we really wanted to win this game. We were pushing everyone up late, trying to get the equalizer or even two goals. We definitely wanted to win this and wanted to keep the PPL Park undefeated streak.”
Greg Jordan, Jimmy McLaughlin and Raymon Gaddis share what they learned from the game.
Speaking of Jordan and McLaughlin, the pair will go on loan to Harrisburg City Islanders for the remainder of the USL PRO season.
Looking at league play, Unholy Union wonders where the Union go from here.
Local
It was announced on Wednesday that Carolina Dynamo will host the PDL Eastern Conference Championships. The first semifinal match kicks off at 4pm and features Ottawa Fury vs. No. 1 seed Ocean City Nor’easters. Reading United then faces Carolina Dynamo at 7pm. The Eastern Conference Championship game is set for 6pm on Sunday.
Check out PSP’s match report from Reading’s dramatic extra time playoff winner over Jersey Express on Tuesday night. More on the win here.
After scoring first, Harrisburg City Islanders fell 2-1 on the road to Dayton Dutch Lions on Wednesday night (more on the loss here). Currently fifth place in the league, on Friday they are on the road against tenth place Pittsburgh Riverhounds.
Harrisburg’s Jason Pelletier was named to the USL PRO Team of the Week. Adrian LeRoy received an honorable mention.
MLS
In Wednesday’s Eastern Conference games, New York moved into second place with a 1-0 win over now fifth place Chicago thanks to a Thierry Henry wonder goal. Houston moved into fourth place after knocking off first place Kansas City, 2-1. Montreal bounced back from their weekend loss to the Union to move into sixth place with a 2-1 win over New England, who are now in seventh place. Toronto increased their winning streak to three and move to within a point of the Union with a 2-1 win over Colorado. A Union win at New York on Saturday just became that much more important.
Chelsea topped Seattle 4-2 in the first game of their North American tour. Some 53,309 were in attendance.
The Dallas Observer has an entertainingly informative profile on Brek Shea.
New Vancouver signing Kenny Miller has wanted to play in MLS for a while.
Fan allegiances will be tested when Toronto FC hosts Liverpool.
Women’s Soccer
Following the lead of an article posted at Fake Sigi last week, the Equalizer goes on to emphasize that the nest women’s pro league must be better adept at offering, among other things, more effective digital content.
US
The title of this article from Scotland’s Daily Record should be enough warning: “US soccer babes pitch up in Glasgow for Olympic football ties at Hampden.” Beginning with a look at the security preparations surrounding the USWNT in Glasgow, the article proceeds to the number of condoms that will be distributed to Olympic athletes and officials before repeating various quotes about all of the sex that goes on between athletes at the games.
Sporting News profiles Megan Rapinoe.
The Shin Guardian looks at that endangered species, the Fulhamerican.
Elsewhere
While not declaring his innocence, the Court of Arbitration for Sport has rescinded FIFA’s lifetime ban on Mohamed bin Hammam for lack of evidence because FIFA’s investigation into allegations of bribery “Was not complete or comprehensive enough.” Bin Hammam was suspended earlier this week by the Asian Football Confederation after a forensic audit determined there “was evidence of gifts and bribery during his period as AFC president.”
Do you think the MLS will ever change its rules so that teams own players instead of the leagues?
I don’t foresee that happening any time soon. Teams that are individually run will cannibalize themselves with bidding on players. It’ll create a system like what exists in Major League Baseball, where the Yankees are perrenial contenders and the Kansas City Royals… have a ballpark with water fountains in the outfield and that’s about it. The league wants all of its member teams to have a chance to win MLS Cup in any given season, so for that reason, they’ll keep the single-entity system they currently employ.
I don’t see it happening either. They won’t do it for legal reasons. It will put them in peril of facing antitrust lawsuits because it would open the single entity status to questions.
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