Photo: Barb Colligon
Philadelphia Union
Kevin Kinkead has a scouting report on New England and notes that they have scored just four goals in five September games. Kinkead was a guest on the Philly Soccer Show podcast with co-hosts Greg Orlandini of KYW NewsRadio and PSP’s Eli Pearlman-Storch that was taped last night and will be available later this morning.
PSP’s preview will be posted later this morning. In the meanwhile, check out our quick reference for stats and highlights from all of the Union’s previous games against New England.
Just who will start between the posts for New England is unclear. You can see New England manager Jay Heaps preview Saturday’s game here.
In Thursday’s Union Daily, Kerith Gabriel confirms that Sheanon Williams will be suspended for Saturday’s game against New England due to yellow card accumulation. He also says that the injury to Danny Cruz’ right big toe is being called a sprain by the team’s technical staff pending further evaluation and tests.
Goal.com previews Saturday’s game. They predict a Union win.
The Guardian previews the weekend’s upcoming games. Writing of the game against New England, the Brotherly Game’s Scott Kessler predicts a 2–2 draw while the New England previewer predicts “the eleven traveling Rev fans in Philly will be disappointed with a 2-0 loss.”
Brian Carroll’s run of playoff appearances ended at nine years after the Union were eliminated from playoff contention by Carroll’s former team, Columbus Crew. Carroll says of not making the playoffs, “Well, it’s weird. And disappointing. But you have to be a professional and you have to finish out the season strong. I see decent signs in our play pointing toward finishing the season strong to put us on the right track to be more successful and get back on that playoff track next season.”
Marc Narducci writes that saying Peter Nowak’s presence at Toyota Park was the reason for the team’s performance in the win doesn’t credit a team that has put in strong showings over the past three games. “Knowing the culture of the team and the intense competition just to get on the field, nobody should be surprised that the Union haven’t thrown in the proverbial towel. Players are competing for their job for next season…This season hasn’t had a good feel to it, but at least a strong ending in the final four games could give some hope that the road back to MLS respectability may not be as long as originally perceived.”
Jack McInerney said after Wednesday’s win, “For the rest of the season, our goal is to get better. We’ve gone to Los Angeles and beat them, we’ve gone to Kansas City and smashed them at home. We know we can play with the best teams, it’s just that we need a consistent performance every week.”
AmericanSoccerNow.com, the new US soccer website, ranks the top 100 US players and Freddy Adu comes in at No. 56, Jack McInerney at no. 67, Sheanon Williams at No. 78, Amobi Okugo at No. 97. A separate post on the top ten players who just missed the cut has Michael Farfan at No. 101, Gabriel Farfan at No. 106. “Bragging rights in the Farfan family go to Michael, who bested his twin brother by five spots. If that doesn’t get Gabriel fired up, nothing will.”
US U-20 head coach Tab Ramos says of Union academy goalkeeper Zackary Steffen, who received his first U-20 callup for the up coming Marbella Cup tournament, “Zack is really one of those guys where, at this point, he’s at a very good level. He’s a ’95 and, even though the main concern is qualifying for the World Cup, we also want to be looking at what’s coming down the road and what the core of the next cycle is going to be. To me, it looks like Zack Steffen is going to be one of those guys and we want to start bringing him along when we can. For qualifiers, we will have three goalkeepers, so there’s a good chance he’ll be one of the keepers in that group.”
Looking at the recent release of updated salary information from the MLS Players Union, Jonathan Tannenwald notes the Union come in at No. 15 in terms of total salary (first place in the East Kansas City comes in at No. 17, first place in the West San Jose comes in at No. 18). Freddy Adu is at No. 21 of the Top 25 Highest paid players list. Raymon Gaddis is the only player on the Union roster making the league minimum of $33,750. Give that man a raise!
Prost Amerika also takes a look at the just released players salary information.
Union Dues reviews Wednesday night’s win.
Nick Sakiewicz is a finalist for the Distinguished Leadership award given by SmartCEO.com.
The Southeastern Pennsylvania Soccer Hall of Fame will be collecting coats for its annual Coats for Chester campaign at the remaining Union home games at PPL Park. For more collection locations throughout the area, look here.
Local
Joanna Lohman, the former Philadelphia Independence midfielder, will be at University of Pennsylvania on Oct. 11 to participate in the relaunch of GO! Athletes, the first national network for LGBT high-school, college and former student athletes.
Here’s an update on how Ocean City Nor’easters players are doing with their college teams.
MLS
The league disciplinary committee has handed Chicago Fire’s Guillermo Franco an additional one-game ban for the red card he received for the scything tackle on Brian Carroll in Wednesday’s game.
Jeff Carlisle wonders if the league is tilting its roster rules too far in favor of foreign players.
Chris Wondolowski has been voted MLSsoccer.com’s Player of the Month.
San Jose Earthquakes are exploring stadium options in the Bay Area on the possibility that they will reach the MLS Cup final.
Thierry Henry has been wearing a black and red striped captains armband recently to pay homage to the Red Bulls origins as the MetroStars.
Are Red Bulls looking to Scotland to replace Hans Backe?
Capital New York reveals that MLS has hired SHoP Architects, the firm that designed the Barclays Center, the new home of the Nets in downtown Brooklyn, to produce preliminary renderings of the proposed soccer stadium in Queens.
The Queens Chronicle has more on local opposition to the proposed stadium.
US Soccer Players examines why MLS isn’t like Europe.
David Downs, the commissioner of the NASL, will step down before the start of the 2013 season.
US
Jurgen Klinsmann talks about the USMNT’s approach to the upcoming World Cup qualifiers.
Two additional dates have been announced for the USWNT Fan Tribute Tour. The team will play Ireland on Nov. 28 at Portland’s Jeld Weld Field and Dec. 1 in Glendale, Arizona.
Young USMNT prospect Junior Flores has signed with Borussia Dortmund.
Elsewhere
Ahead of Sunday’s El Clasico (1:50pm, beIN Sport, beIN Sport en Español), Si has been running a series of articles on Barcelona, including an interview with Xavi, an all-time Best XI, a profile of club president Sandro Rosell, and a look at their youth academy.
Check out our live soccer listings on TV and online for the upcoming week.
The FA has released its written reasons for the guilty verdict of John Terry on racism charges. They found his defense “improbable, implausible and contrived.”
The report also questioned Ashley Cole’s evidence in support of Terry, leading Cole to tweet, “Hahahahaa, well done #fa I lied did I, #BUNCHOFTWATS.”
EPL Talk wonders why some soccer fans dislike Fox Soccer.
The money for players is crazy. The majority of players making <100k? That's terrible. Ridiculous. That's League 2 salary. The MLS will never become what it wants if that stays the same.
And Carlisle arguing about foreign player rules? What about the asinine American player rules? A lottery for returning Americans!? An allocation order!?
The more I read about the MLS the more it reminds me of politics. So much talk, so much of it completely separate from the real problems. The MLS can throw 10 million a year at old players all it wants, it will never grow the way it wants to if it doesn't address the real problems with the league and soccer in America overall.
Lets not get over exited. We’re so use to spoiled athletes making huge amounts of money that we forget that these guys don’t deserve it.
What MLS players make on average is a bit low. But lets not start thinking that the European guys are not overpaid.
The only issue I have with Fox Soccer is that they now have studio American commentators with the Europa Cup matches. Half the time they do not see who has the ball and the other half they talk rubbish.
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Was quite interesting yesterday: first I watched the (DVR’ed) latest Liverpool BEIN episode and then I watched Liverpool getting crushed by Udinese (and at home!). Love the Liverpool BEIN episodes but not sure that it is helping their results.
I’ll donate a coat if someone can promise me that it will go to Raymon Gaddis. I’ll even leave a twenty dollar bill in the pocket to help him pay for gas home.
Getting ready for Revs, Union players in USA top 100, more news pig http://www.japan-guide.com/