Daily news roundups / Featured

Gomez going? What Le Toux wants, 5-step plan, 2013 playoffs “not far fetched,” more

Photo: Barb Colligon

All of us at PSP hope that all of you were able to safely weather Hurricane Sandy.

Philadelphia Union

At the Goalkeeper, Jonathan Tannenwald reports that when asked about his future with the club, Gabriel Gomez said, “I do not know about my future with this team, but I do not think I will continue. I have option years [in my contract] but I do not know if the team will take them. I am waiting for a meeting [with the coaching staff] this week to see what will happen in my future.”

The Gomez quote comes from the end of a longer piece about what the future might hold for Sebastien Le Toux. The fan favorite, who mentioned that his agent is former Union teammate Stefani Miglioranzi, said, “Of course Philadelphia is one of the teams I like the most. It’s not a secret for anybody. So I’m just going to see what happens. I’m at the end of my contract so I can decide where I want to be, not like this year where I was going right and left and not playing for a team where I had decided to be.”

Danny Cruz said after Saturday’s home finale loss at the hands of New York, “The fans have every right to have a sour taste. But I think they’re just as happy for the season to be over, as far as now it’s that much closer to the beginning of next year.”

Cruz said it is not far fetched to believe the Union can be playoff contenders in 2013, provided they work hard and “take care of business in the offseason.”

At the Inside Doop, Dave Zeitlin has a five-step plan to get the Union back on the right track: Some trusted hires to take the load off of the very small coaching staff; sign a proven, high-profile goalscorer; settle the Adu situation; ensure that the young core of the team stays together; shed high wage players with mixed to poor performance records such as Gabriel Gomez and Porfirio Lopez while also being open to the possibility of trade offers.

The Union finished with 36 points in 2012, a 12 point drop from 2011’s 48 points and the biggest decline in total points in the Eastern Conference. They finished with 31 points in 2010, a season that had four fewer games on the schedule.

Saturday’s Union game on NBC drew an overnight rating of 0.3. While this was a drop from the 0.4 ratings the first two MLS games broadcast on the network earlier in the season had received, it was the same rating that ESPN’s broadcast of Sunday morning’s Everton v Liverpool Merseyside derby received.

Local

The La Salle women’s team, undefeated in conference play for the second straight season, are the A-10 top seed and will face eighth-seeded Charlotte on Thursday at at Rhode Island’s URI Soccer Complex.

I missed this last week, but Reading United’s Jose Gomez, now playing for Creighton, was named Missouri Valley Conference’s Offensive Player of the Week for the second week in a row.

MLS

MLS broke the 6 million mark for attendance for the first time in league history in 2012 with some 6,074,729 tickets being sold, up from 5,468,030 in 2011. The league also enjoyed its highest ever average attendance at 18,807. The Union’s attendance average dropped to 18,053 down from 18,259 in 2012.

British telecommunication company BT has announced it will televise live MLS games beginning in 2013. ESPN previously had the rights in Britain.

New York’s Kenny Cooper, who scored two goals against the Union on Saturday, has been named MLS Player of the Week. Red Bulls manager Hans Backe said of Cooper’s second goal, “I was surprised when he scored the second one. It looked like, I would say, a mistake from the goalie. Normally, you can’t score from that angle.”

Are the 2012 San Jose Earthquakes the greatest Supporters Shield winners in league history?

The referee assignments for Wednesday and Thursday’s single elimination games have been announced.

US

The American soccer history community, and the sport at large, suffered a great loss when the historian David Wangerin passed away last summer. Before his death, he submitted this article to the new American soccer magazine Howler in which he provides an overview of the kind of history that is laying undiscovered in a warehouse in North Carolina, temporary home of the largely uncatalogued collection of the US Soccer Hall of Fame since it closed in 2010.

Elsewhere

NBC Chairman Mark Lazarus talks to SI’s Richard Deitsch about the network’s purchase of the broadcasting rights to the EPL in the US and what fans can expect. “It will not be unlike the Olympics where you saw programming on CNBC, Bravo, USA or MSNBC,” Lazarus explained. “We are working to make it a consistent schedule so fans know exactly where to find games. But the Premier League fan will be able to get to every game live.” Deitsch reports “Lazarus predicted viewers might see up to 18-20 games on NBC during the season, which would be a significant increase from Fox’s over-the-air broadcasts.”

The Goalkeeper has more on the deal from NBC Sports president of programming Jon Miller.

In more broadcasting right’s news, Univision has announced a ten-year deal with CONCACAF for the rights to the Spanish- and Portuguese- language broadcasts of the Gold Cup as well as the CONCACAF Champions League, the CONCACAF Men’s Under 17 and 20 tourneys, the CONCACAF Women’s Under 17 and 20 tourneys, and the CONCACAF Futsal Championship. Matches will be broadcast on Univision, TeleFutura, Galavision and Univision Deportes Network, as well as online and mobile platforms. Fox currently holds the English-language rights to the Gold Cup and the CONCACAF Champions League.

After sending of a player before the half, a ref in Uruguay’s Apertura sent off 16 more players when a fight broke out between players after the final whistle in the 3–3 draw between Wanderers and Juventud.

 

8 Comments

  1. Well, of course le Toux wants to come back here. This is the only team in MLS where he can crack the Starting XI.

  2. Don’t disagree. The time for Le Toux has passed. We need better strikers for the fourth season of this club. The Union is no longer an expansion franchise and can’t use that as an excuse.

    • I would absolutely bring Le Toux back. He’s not a target forward, but putting him in the mix with the attacking four can’t hurt. As it stands now, I think the lineup would be the Farfans and Cruz/Keon with JackMac in front. That’s not going to work. He would be a nice option to pair with McInerney in some formation (just behind him, in a 4-3-3, etc.) Obviously it would be great to bring in a DP who can score (Grafite?), but I’m not sure we have the money.

  3. I think Le Toux needs to learn about MLS rules…if he doesn’t re-sign with NYRB doesn’t he go into the re-allocation draft? I am sure someone would pick him up.

  4. Wait. According to Le Toux Nowak sent him to Bolton and it wasn’t even a tryout. Never heard that one before.

    What a dick.

  5. Low ratings for Saturday’s game doesn’t mean much considering that when I tried to watch the game on tape, the majority of the first half was preempted by a Chris Christie news conference (which probably meant it was preempted in the markets for both teams).

  6. Its a shame all that history is just sitting there going to waste. One thing I’ve seen quite a few people harp on American Soccer about is our lack of history. The sport is this country doesn’t lack history, just not to many people know about it. With the hundredth year anniversary coming up, it’d be cool to see some of that history brought to life and used to promote the USSF and the Open Cup.

Leave a Reply

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

*