Photo: Courtesy of Reading United

Philadelphia Union

First half goals from Aaron Wheeler and Antoine Hoppenot saw the Union defeat PDL affiliate Reading United on a rainy Friday evening in the team’s annual friendly. Chris Albright and Jimmy McLaughlin had the assists.

John Hackworth said, “This relationship with Reading is much more important than [getting the win]. They have a great program here. Some of the best college kids in the country come here every summer. I think it’s a great opportunity to get some of our guys that haven’t seen a lot of time this year a chance to play, and that’s what I tried to express to the players, that this is a huge opportunity.”

Match reports from Philadelphia Union.com, Reading United, Reading Eagle, The Patriot News, and WFMZ TV 69 (with video).

Union captain Brian Carroll had this to say of Sebastien Le Toux, whose wing play against Columbus was so marvelously effective. “He’s the ultimate team player. He does what he needs to help the team. He’s finding a way to get results both individually and for the team with his style of play. And it’s been great to see…He’s putting balls in dangerous spots, he’s whipping them in hard, he’s picking out people. He’s really been tremendous. And hopefully that continues.”

Le Toux, who made it clear at the beginning of the season that he would prefer to play as a forward and now leads the league in assists, said of being the provider, “Maybe it’s better for me to give crosses to them. It’s working right now and hopefully it continues.” Agreed.

Brotherly Game has a tactical breakdown of last Wednesday’s win over Columbus. And another.

JP Dellacamera looks ahead to the second half of the season. On the issue of possible summer signings, the voice of the Union says, “An overhaul is not needed to make the playoffs—just a little tweaking.”

Local

Three goals from Kevin Harbottle in the last 15 minutes of the game saw Harrisburg City Islanders lose 1-3 at home to Colorado Rapids reserves on Saturday, ending a three-game winning streak. Union loanee Greg Jordan, who did not play in Friday’s Union friendly against Reading, started and played 88 minutes. Cristhian Hernandez and Jimmy McLaughlin were late substitutes. Former Union forward Danny Mwanga was with Colorado.

Former Union man Morgan Langley scored the lone Harrisburg goal. It was his birthday.

Harrisburg head coach Bill Becher said, “I thought we were sloppy in the first half and I think we were kind of fortunate to be in the lead. Scored a good goal, but I just thought we gave the ball away too easily…It was funny. We were better in the second half and we ended up giving them goals and losing the game. That’s the way it goes sometimes.”

More on the game from The Sentinel. Upper 90 has video highlights from the game.

It was more late goals Reading United’s wild win over FA Euro-New York Magic on Sunday night. A tussle in the 49th minute saw both sides reduced to 10 men. In the 60th minute, Union academy player Darius Madison put United ahead 1-0 before Larry Ndjock scored two more for the home team in the span of 5 minutes. Reading would then concede a goal in the 89th minute and another in stoppage time before the final whistle ended the match with a 3-2 scoreline.

The two goals were the first allowed by Reading in league play in 2013, a span of 449 minutes. Reading Eagle reports a message on the chalkboard in the United locker room after the game read, “Massive lapses in concentration will cost you a title.”

Ocean City Nor’easters had an easier time of it with their 3-1 win over Baltimore Bohemians.

First place Reading hosts second place Ocean City on Saturday, June 15 at 7pm in what is sure to be a cracking game.

Reading United captain Steve Neumann is headed west to train with Portland Timbers.

Taylor Racioppi (PDA Clash; Ocean Township, N.J.) has been called up for the USWNT U-17 camp.

MLS

In Eastern Conference play, sixth place New England (20 points) drew 0-0 with last place DC United (six points). Eighth place Chicago (12 points) drew 2-2 with Portland.

Some 53,679 fans were on hand in Seattle to watch the Sounders defeat Vancouver 3-2 on Saturday. ProSoccerTalk wonders if such crowds will become the norm.

San Jose Earthquakes announced on Friday that the club and head coach Frank Yallop “have mutually agreed to part ways.” Assistant coach Mark Watson has been named interim head coach.

At San Jose Mercury News, Elliot Almond has three articles related to the state of officiating in MLS. One describes growing frustration with the disciplinary committee among players and clubs, another is a Q&A with Nelson Rodriguez, the head of the disciplinary committee, and another is an interview with Peter Walton, head of the Professional Referees Organization.

After the Florida legislature failed to vote on funding for a proposed new stadium, Orlando SC and Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer have come up with a plan for ” a stadium that’s scaled back but still plush enough to help Orlando’s minor-league soccer team become the next Major League Soccer expansion franchise.”

NWSL

On Saturday, first place Sky Blue FC was defeated 3-0 by third place Western New York Flash. There was more officiating controversy on Sunday when a goal from Sydney Leroux was disallowed as fifth place Boston Breakers lost 1-0 to sixth place Chicago Red Stars. In the second game on Sunday, fourth place FC Kansas City defeated last place Seattle, 1-0.

US

Match reports and recaps from ESPN, MLSsoccer.com, ASN, Washington Post, New York Times, Yahoo! Sports, ProSoccerTalk, SBI, Goal.com, USA Today, Reuters, and The AP.

Player ratings from ESPN, SI, MLSsoccer.com, SBI and Goal.com.

At Soccer America, Paul Gardner writes of Friday’s game, “So, another shapeless, luke-warm performance from Jurgen Klinsmann’s team. Of course he’ll take it, three points on the road, in Jamaica where points have always been hard to come by.”

ASN has an informative tactical breakdown of the win.

Brad Evans has gone from being someone left off of the US roster to hero. Jurgen Klinsmann said, “I think he’s growing into his role, he understands that it’s there for him to grab. And you’ve just got to let him play his role, let him make mistakes, let him make his game. Find your game, find understanding with the center backs, with the midfield in front of him, in this case Graham Zusi…The moment was there for him now, and he’s in. He’s in. You’ve just got to give him a compliment for that.” More on Evans here.

At ESPN, Jeff Carlisle on the Omar Gonzalez-Matt Besler partnership in central defense.

Attention now turns to Tuesday’s qualifier against Panama in Seattle and, after that, to Honduras next week in Salt Lake. Tim Howard said, “We definitely looked at this trip as a nine-point trip We got the three in Jamaica. It’ll be important for us to get all three here because we’ve said all along we can create separation in these three games and hopefully that will be the case.”

Klinsmann said, “We are ready. We obviously need to confirm what we built now in the last couple of games, and we want to get three points on Tuesday night badly. It’s a must-win. Every home game is a must-win. We know that.”

The US will be missing several key players with Graham Zusi out due to yellow card accumulation and Jermaine Jones with concussion-like symptoms, while Danny Williams has returned to Germany for fitness reasons. Klinsmann said on Saturday, “We’re good with the squad we have. There’s no need to bring in more players as of today. Even if we don’t dress 23, we’re covered everywhere.”

At SI, Grant Wahl says, “Graham Zusi is making it awfully tough for Landon Donovan to return the starting lineup.”

Could Eddie Johnson fill in for Zusi on Tuesday?

FC Dallas forward Blas Perez will be unavailable for Panama with gastroenteritis.

ASN has a scouting report.

A natural surface has been laid over top of the artificial surface at CenturyLink Field for Tuesday’s qualifier. Former Union goalkeeper played on it in Vancouver’s loss on Saturday to Seattle and said, ‘Not to make excuses, but the field was ridiculously terrible. It’s heavy, it’s bumpy, the turfs coming up, and it’s just a weird surface to play on. Anytime you put grass on top of turf you are going to get something like that.”

The Seattle Times looks at what’s changed since the last time the USMNT played in Seattle, way back on Oct. 20, 1976 in a 2-0 win over Canada.

Apparently, US Soccer failed to formalize rules governing the status of players on loan to USL PRO teams from MLS teams in the US Open Cup. The New York Times explores.

Elsewhere

Supporters of Fenerbache, Galatasaray and Besiktas have joined together to call for the resignation of Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoga.