Daily news roundups

Wahl tweets Jack Mac makes Gold Cup roster, Casey named to TOTW, more

Photo: Daniel Gajdamowicz

Philadelphia Union

SI’s Grant Wahl tweeted on Tuesday evening that Jack McInerney will be included on the USMNT Gold Cup squad.

Jonathan Tannenwald reports that, following Wahl’s tweet, the call-up was “later confirmed separately by Philly.com.”

US Soccer is expected to officially release its Gold Cup roster on Thursday (the deadline for submitting rosters to CONCACAF is midnight) although the announcement could be pushed back until Friday.

McInerney said after the win over New York that, should he be named to the USMNT roster, he would be available for Saturday’s game against Dallas before leaving for the US camp. Players are to report to the US camp in California on July 1 with a warmup game against Guatemala in San Diego scheduled for July 5. The US begins play in Group C against Belize in Portland on Tuesday, July 9 (11pm: Fox Soccer, UniMas).

Dave Murphy considers how Union fans might react to a McInerney call-up. On the one hand, it’s easy to be happy for the young striker. On the other hand, it’s easy to be concerned about what his potentially month-long absence will mean for the team. In the end, Murphy says, a true championship contender must rise above such obstacles.

Dave Zeitlin looks at the very effective partnership that continues to develop between Sheanon Williams and Sebastien Le Toux who together have combined for 11 assists.

Conor Casey has been named to MLSsoccer.com’s Team of the Week. Sebastien Le Toux received an honorable mention.

Casey is very appreciative of the support he’s received from Union fans since arriving at the club. “It’s been a great year for me personally in terms of crowd atmosphere here. And that’s kind of given me a second life, so to speak…I was received very warmly here in terms of everything. The atmosphere was night and day from where I came from. It’s really just a good boost and a great move for me in my career.”

In the latest Castrol Weekly Top 20, Conor Casey comes in at No. 2 with Jack McInerney at No. 10. In the Full Castrol Index, the top 5 Union players are McInerney (2), Casey (15), Sebastien Le Toux (44), Amobi Okugo (61), and Zac MacMath (120).

Goody, goody, yum, yum, more power rankings: The Union move up three spots to No. 8 at SBI. At ProSoccerTalk, the Union are at No. 7 while Goal.com has them at No. 6.

Local

Reading United are on the road tonight to face Westchester Flames.

Reading United midfielder Fatai Alashe, who trained with the Union on Tuesday, will leave on Thursday for Europe for a three-week training stint that will include stops in England with Derby County, in the Netherlands with AC Cambuur, and in Sweden with an as yet unnamed club.

Harrisburg City Islanders failed to land any players on the USL PRO Team of the Week after they squandered the lead last Friday to lose 4-3 at home to Pittsburgh but goalscorer and Union loanee Jimmy McLaughlin, along with fellow goalscorer Tom Mellor, received honorable mentions.

At The Patriot-Times, Michael Bullock reports that Harrisburg have been preparing for the final game of their five-game home stand by focusing on defense.

Upper 90’s Derek Meluzio has a Q&A with City Islanders goalkeeper Brian Sylvestre.

In the opening games of U-17/18 group play at the US Development Academy playoffs in Frisco, PA Classics defeated Houston Dynamo 2-0 and drew 0-0 with Chicago Fire in Group 1. In Group 2,  PDA drew 1-1 with IMG Academy and 2-2 with Seattle Sounders. In the U-15/16 age group, PDA defeated Texas Rush 3-0. FC Delco fell 2-0 to Real Salt Lake AZ while PA Classics took a 4-0 thumping from New York Red Bulls.

MLS

Bruce Arena says that impending Gold Cup call-ups—along with recent call-ups for World Cup qualifiers—once again underscore the problems associated with MLS’ failure to follow FIFA’s international calendar.

That’s what this league is. This is the way the league operates. When you can’t be in sync with an international calendar, that’s the reality of things. We’ve been well aware of [the Gold Cup] before the year started. It’s crazy. It skews the competition in the league, but it is what it is. What are you going to do?

I think the whole thing is foolish, to be honest with you, coming off the players disappearing for a month with the World Cup qualifying as well. It’s a major problem we have with scheduling in the league, and it damages the competition. We have to find other ways to fit the schedule in where teams are not impacted due to the FIFA calendar.

It appears Mexican international Giovani dos Santos has rejected overtures from LA Galaxy to lure him from Spain.

Tim Cahill says he will is considering going on loan to the Premiership or elsewhere in Europe during the MLS offseason to stay in shape for the 2014 World Cup.

Tonight, Orlando City will look to become only the third third division side to defeat an MLS team in the quarterfinals of the US Open Cup. In 1997, San Francisco Bay Seals defeated San Jose Clash in the quarterfinals while Richmond Kickers defeated Sporting Kansas City in 2011.

Do people gamble on MLS? Grant Wahl found someone in England who does.

NWSL

Now with Portland Thorns, former Philadelphia Independence goalkeeper Karina LeBlanc has been voted NWSL Player of the Week.

US

While SI’s Grant Wahl tweeted that Jack McInerney had made the Gold Cup roster, he did not include this information in his report at SI.com that Landon Donovan had made the roster.

Soccer America has six questions about the soon to be released Gold Cup roster.

USMNT midfielder Danny Williams has signed with Reading FC in England. Williams joins the Royals from Hoffenheim.

Elsewhere

Some 100,000 protestors are expected before Brazil plays Uruguay in Belo Horizonte at Mineirao Stadium in today’s Confederations Cup semifinal (2:30pm: ESPN, ESPN3, Univision).

At the Guardian, Marina Hyde on how Sepp Blatter unwittingly sparked Brazil’s Arab Spring.

At ESPN, John Brewin looks at FIFA’s disconnect from the real world.

Reuters reports, “Brazilian anger against the cost of staging the World Cup could undermine the argument that host countries benefit from sporting mega-events as they become too big for most countries to handle.”

UEFA have banned Fenerbahce from next season’s Champions League and Besiktas from the Europa League after being found guilty of match fixing. Fenerbahce’s ban extends over the next three seasons of whichever European competitions the club may qualify for.

 

12 Comments

  1. As much as I’m going to hate not seeing him out there for the U, I can’t wait for Jack to be in the USMNT jersey.
    .
    This should be a huge learning and growth experience for Jack. My only fear is that he doesn’t get to play at all.

  2. Regarding Arena’s comments about how World & Gold Cup distort the MLS regular season, why can’t the Gold Cup switch to a four year cycle and hold it every four years instead of every two? Just hold it in the summer in the year after the World Cup as there’s no WC qualifiers then.

    That doesn’t eliminate these scheduling conflicts, but at least it lessens them to a degree.

    • $$$$$
      .
      They’d hold it every year if they could.

    • I have a harder time with Bruce Arena, of all people, complaining about the schedule. He is, after all, fairly deeply involved with a league that has managed to benefit from that schedule with the partial years obtained from several marquee players (e.g., Donovan, Beckham). The split seasons that they played were enough to allow the league to get attention for themselves, and in the long run potentially make MLS a more likely place for quality players to consider. Is it ideal? Of course not. But it is not appreciably different than the teams in the upper leagues in other nations facing time off during their schedule to permit the national team dates. Teams here lose players for a period of time, teams there lose momentum or allow their opponents to heal and rest. Stuff happens.

      • Really apples to oranges.

        In recent WC qualifying, the Galaxy, SKC, Houston, Seattle were without multiple starters for 3-4 league matches each. Aside from the African Nations Cup which takes place in Jan, that doesn’t happen in any other league in the world right now. His complaint is a valid one.

  3. Welcome back, Ed

  4. Very very interesting article about Brazil here:
    http://espnfc.com/blog/_/name/relegationzone/id/1066/confederations-tumult-obscures-brazils-passion?cc=5901

    See the following happening: next year they will only have 10-12 games in Brazil and the rest in the USA. Many I know you wanted to go to Brazil are now thinking of not going…

Leave a Reply to George H Cancel

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

*