Photo: Paul Rudderow
Philadelphia Union
Jeff Parke doesn’t want to rush his return from the hamstring pull that saw him exit Saturday’s game against Seattle in the first half. “I’ve been around long enough to realize if you fight back just to play one game, you can get hurt in that one game and you’re out for three. What’s the point of coming back fast when you could have sat out just one?”
Will Soumare fill in for him while he recovers? Parke said, “That’s a possibility for sure. There’s nobody else that can really fill those shoes right now.”
Chicago appear to be preparing to face Soumare. Chris Rolfe said, “I don’t know where he is right now fitness wise and how he’s doing but he’s a classy player, if he comes in the game he’s going to give them all that he has and be a tough opponent.”
Kevin Kinkead looks back on the series history between the Union and Chicago.
More power rankings? ProSoccerTalk has the Union at No. 12. SBI actually bumps the team up two spots to No. 9.
Danny Cruz has been named to the MLSsoccer.com Team of the Week for Week 10.
JP Dellacamara recounts the highs and lows of Saturday’s “agonizingly frustrating” draw with Seattle.
Union Dues considers the Cruz conundrum.
Saturday’s debut of the 50/50 raffle was a great success with a total jackpot of $17,230. A press release from the club says, “The earnings were split evenly between the Philadelphia Union Foundation and randomly-selected winner Aleksey Gorshenin of Lansdale, Pa., who was attending his first Union game at PPL Park.”
Local
Harrisburg will face the winner of Reading United vs. Lehigh Valley Sonic in the second round of the US Open Cup on Tuesday, May 21. This will be the first time the City Islanders have opened Cup play on the road in six years. They have defeated Reading twice previously in the Open Cup, in 2009 and 2011.
In related US Open Cup news, FC Hasental and Georgia Revolution both won their preliminary round games on Tuesday night to advance into the first round, which kicks off next Tuesday. ProSoccerTalk considers the prospects of lower division teams playing deep into the tournament.
Harrisburg City Islanders goalkeeper Nick Noble was named to the USL PRO Team of the Week. Morgan Langley and Greg Jordan received honorable mentions.
Legislation is afoot to allow 50/50 drawings at minor league games in Pennsylvania.
MLS
Every Eastern Conference team except for the Union, Chicago, and Columbus have games this evening. You can watch DC United vs. Houston at MLSLive.com for free.
Former Union forward Chandler Hoffman scored and played the full 90 in LA Galaxy’s 4-3 win over LA Blues in USL PRO play on Tuesday.
Chivas USA have traded Juan Agudelo to New England Revolution for allocation money. Soccer America wonders if this is a case of will the third club be the charm. More on the trade from Kyle McCarthy at Goal.com.
ProSoccerTalk list Chicago Fire, Colorado Rapids, and DC United as three teams loaded with bad salary deals.
New Zealand international Jeremy Brockie is on loan to Toronto through August when he will return to Wellington Phoenix in the A-League.
Mix Diskerud says he wanted to join Portland Timbers and play for Caleb Porter but MLS rules governing US internationals entering the league got in the way.
I, for sure, much more wanted to belong to a team and a city than to be ‘owned’ by a league. Especially when the league puts so many restrictions on what kind of non-economic agreements the club and the player can make…
As far as I’m concerned—I think the MLS policies of today are tailored to a little older players who accept to limit themselves to end their careers in the US/Canada and MLS.
In related news, Norwegian news outlets are reporting that Diskerud has turned down entreaties to play for the Norwegian U-21s. If he ends up playing for the US senior team in the Gold Cup, the dual citizen will be cap-tied to the US.
The Chicago Tribune reports, “Fire owner Andrew Hauptman and top executive Javier Leon met with Robbie Rogers on Tuesday in Los Angeles as part of an effort to convince him to play in Chicago.
Houston Dynamo will not punish the Brickwall supporters group for a pair of homophobic tweets that were sent out during Sunday’s game against LA. Dynamo president Chris Canetti says it will be up to the supporters group “to identify the individual who posted on the group’s official Twitter feed, remove the person from the group and ban that person from Dynamo games.” For background on this story click here and here.
Kansas City Star says, “Sporting is a microcosm of what Major League Soccer wants to be.”
In Orlando City expansion news, while the team works to find a plan B after the Florida legislature tabled a stadium subsidy bill, Orlando mayor Budd Dyer says there will be no “cut-rate” stadium like the one under construction in San Jose, which is being built for $50 million less than the proposed stadium in Orlando. “We want to do a decent-quality stadium, not a cut-rate stadium. We started building quality buildings here, with the Amway Center and the performing-arts center. San Jose is kind of like a high-school stadium.”
Dyer also says blame the Miami Marlins for the lack of action on the subsidies bill. “The Marlins’ baseball stadium deal and their behavior in the aftermath of that deal left the vast majority of fans and politicians in South Florida with a bad taste in their mouths.”
MLS in Oklahoma City? So says one crystal ball.
US
Jozy Altidore says AZ Alkmaar will not release him for national team duty until five days before June’s qualifier against Jamaica on June 7. That means he’ll miss the May training camp and the friendlies against Belgium and Germany.
Timothy Chandler is out 3-4 weeks with a knee injury and is unlikely to participate in the June round of World Cup qualifiers.
Brad Guzan has been named Aston Villa’s Player of the Year by both his teammates and the club’s supporters.
ESPN talks to Bruce Arena about the progress of women’s soccer.
Here’s a one-on-one with Alex Morgan. Take note: that “Baby Horse” nickname is no longer used by her teammates.
Pioneering US soccer broadcaster Mario Machado passed away over the weekend.
Elsewhere
Sir Alex Ferguson has announced he will retire as manager of Manchester United at the end of this season. He will continue with United as director and an ambassador for the club.
Click here for the official statement from Ferguson on his retirement.
Speculation now turns to who will be his replacement.While Jonathan Wilson writes that there are two candidates, David Moyes and Jose Mourinho, ESPN says Moyes is “the odds-on favorite” with Mourinho having “virtually no chance” to take over. The Times and Goal.com say that Moyes is the man. Whoever it is, The Guardian says Ferguson’s successor faces an impossible job.
More on Ferguson’s history here and here as well as discussion and speculation about what happens next here and here.
While FIFA is still concerned about the progress of stadium construction in Brazil, record breaking attendance is expected at the upcoming Confederations Cup.
“That’s a possibility for sure,” Parke said. “There’s nobody else that can really fill those shoes right now.”
Take that Chris Albright!
Considering that Albright has never really played centerback in MLS for any real period, I don’t think that he would take any offense to that.
The interesting thing is what happens if Soumare plays great on Sat, then what does Hackworth do when Parke is fully fit?
He would regulate Okugo to the bench.
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Soumare regularly starting does not automatically lead to Okugo taking Carroll’s place.
Only because Hack is an idiot and doesnt realize Okugo is now a better DMid than Carrol.
Assume that you meant “relegate”.
Apresheight da spelle cheque slash grahamer cheque 🙂
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U axed questionne? Wat’s yuare thawats?
That would be madness…IF it were anyone other than Hackworth. I could see him taking his best all around player, and seating him with the rest of his ‘million dollar’ bench.
It’s shame that it takes an injury to one of our best players for the coach to try out a player/formation with said player that he really should have tried out before hand. Whether or not Soumare can play great, he has enough of a pedigree and is paid enough that he certainly deserved a chance to earn a spot.
It’s the coaches job to find the best place on the field for everyone, and Hack has failed at that so far. Right now his biggest problem is his blind spot for Carrol.
I think his blind spots for Gaddis on his wrong foot and that Daniel can play CAM effectively and that Cruz should start and that a DP can’t break into that midfield and that Zac is a starter are all right up there with the Carrol one.
Sadly, I don’t think it is the injury to Parke, that is the reason we MIGHT see Soumare. I think it is our busy week. Hackworth knows he can’t go with Albright, for both matches…at least I hope he knows that. Had there been only one game, I don’t think we would see Soumare. It wouldn’t surprise me to see Albright vs CHI.
Hackworth’s shortcomings are a plenty!
Albright doesn’t even train anymore. Soumare will play.
Something tells me that Albright’s level of training has very little to do with the unfolding of this scenario.
I saw that Jorge Gonzalez is the lead official for DC-Houston tonight so he must have not gotten a bad review from last week. Or there are just too many matches this week that they can’t afford to sit him down.
FoxSoccer Goals On Sunday showed highlights of the game and the guys ripped him apart for the missed handball.
Thanks SAF for all you have done for the sport = living legend
I hate his club, but have to give it up to him. Great manager, that will be missed. I heard Moyes might take over. I still think “the special one” gets the job, with Christiano soon to follow…Damn United!
Not the Special One; does not fit in the Club. He is a fixer and nothing needs to be fixed there. Mistakes if Moyes is chosen since he has won zippo; big risk to pick him. I would chose the Dortmund Manager. He is young and could stay there another 26 yrs and he has done amazing stuff with Dortmund during his 3 yrs there.
I would like to see Klopp, but I think he is happy at Dortmund. Moyes I think would be a mistake, and I’m not sure how I feel about the special one (full disclosure I root for united)
Brad Guzan’s awards have to be the two highest honors a player can receive. Props to him.