Daily news roundups

“Gutted” — Reaction & reports from Union’s draw at RSL, OC’s Tweneboa named PDL POTW, more news

All of us at PSP wish you and yours a happy and safe Fourth of July.

Philadelphia Union

Just when you start to allow yourself to believe—bam!—the Union give away points again.

For the third straight game, the Union played up a man for a good chunk of the match. For the second consecutive game, the Union gave up a 97th minute equalizer.

Talk about your punch in the gut.

John Hackworth said after the game, “The locker room is gutted right now…I’m losing a lot of hair. I’m aging like crazy. We’ve just got to improve. This is the second time in a row we’ve lost points at the very, very end of the game. There have been a couple of silly mistakes on our part. We just need to learn.”

Hackworth elaborated, “We should have done a better job of closing out the game at 2-1, particularly up a man. It’s something we’ll have to work on.”

Hackworth continued, “If you would have told me coming into this game I would have had a point, I would have said, ‘I’ll take it.’ But the way it went down, we’re disappointed. Two times in five days is hard to swallow.”

What did Hackworth think of the penalty call? “I thought it was a foul. Ray [Gaddis] got pushed in the back which is clearly why he was going forward and his arms were flailing. I can’t do anything about that. It’s our responsibility to do better.”

Danny Cruz said, “I feel that we deserved more than the one point but that means the ball bounced the wrong way and they got that penalty at the end. This atmosphere was phenomenal, it’s a tough place to play, at altitude as well. It was a well fought game against a great team. We are not happy with the draw by any means but if you ask people ‘if you drew at Salt Lake, how would you feel?’ most people would say pretty good.”

Match reports and recaps from PSP, PSP’s postgame quote sheet.

Real Salt Lake isn’t pleased with some of the referee’s decisions. Get in the back of the line.

In a post at the Union Tally blog, Matthew De George writes,

If the Union somehow miss the playoffs, the image of Sebastien Le Toux firing a ball into the hands of Josh Saunders should be on the cover of the season highlight tape. No moment would encapsulate the season quite so well…You can easily point to 10 points (two draws against Toronto and blown leads to Seattle, Dallas and Salt Lake) that could well doom the fate of this season. Add those points to the equation, and the Union are running away with the Eastern Conference. Running away with it. They’d better hope they start to figure things out before they get back into the Eastern opposition-heavy finish to the season.

At Delco Times, De George (writing before the RSL draw) looks back on the Union’s first half of the season. While noting “the scary part about the Union is that they’ve climbed to within striking distance of the East’s summit despite frittering away key points along the way,” De George concludes, “The Union are what they are, specifically a playoff team, maybe even one with room to improve as they had into the season’s stretch drive. At some point, and you get the impression that it’s sooner rather than later, the Union will be seen as being as good as their point total suggests.”

If you play FIFA 13, you can vote for the selection of a Union forward for the All-Star game by scoring as many goals as possible with Sebastien Le Toux and Jack McInerney between now and July 10 at 12 pm ET. For more details on this novel “1 Goal = 1 Vote” election mechanism, click here. No, I don’t know why Conor Casey isn’t eligible.

ASN taps Jack McInerney as one of seven US players with something to prove at the Gold Cup. “What does he need to do? Score.”

At Patriot-Times, Michael Bullock profiles Sheanon Williams’ path from Harrisburg to the Union. Williams said after the draw with Dallas, “We’ll be better for experiences like this,” wise words that are equally true after Wednesday night’s draw with RSL.

At Grantland, Graham Parker has a late report on the woeful US Open Cup game against DC. That ought to cheer you up. Not.

The Sons of Ben have released tryout information for the team that will face the Union front office in the 2013 River Cup on Oct. 6. Registration is $30 and you must be a Sons of Ben member as of July 3, 2013 to be eligible to tryout.

Local

Ocean City’s Frank Tweneboa has been named 5-0 thumping of Central Jersey Spartans, Player of the Week almost seems inadequate. Receiving honorable mentions were the Nor’easters Ken Tribbett and Tapiwa Machingueta, and Reading United’s Mario Pinto and Dante Marini.

Ocean City host New Jersey Rangers tonight with a 6 pm kickoff at Carey Stadium. You’ll be able to watch fireworks after the game.

Harrisburg City Islanders have signed former Lampeter-Strasburg High School and York College Antonio Bua. The winger played 26 minutes in the recent friendly against the Union.

MLS

In Wednesday’s Eastern Conference games, first place Montreal (30 points) fought back with two second half goals to secure a 3-3 draw on the road in against ninth place Toronto (13 points). Philadelphia (27 points) remains in third place after giving up the lead late to draw 2-2 on the road with Real Salt Lake. Fourth place Kansas City (27 points) also blew the lead to draw 1-1 with Vancouver. Chicago (21 points) moves into sixth place after defeating San Jose, 3-2. Last place DC (9 points) fell 2-0 in Seattle.

In tonight’s games, second place New York (28 points) is on the road in Colorado while eighth place Columbus (20 points) is in LA.

Mike Magee has been named Player of the Month.

This in from the Department of Ha Ha, New York and Juninho have mutually agreed to part ways. At ESPN, Jeff Carlisle ponders what went wrong.

DC United have acquired former US youth international Jared Jeffrey, who has been in Germany with the Mainz reserve team for three seasons, in the Waiver Draft. There was a Waiver Draft yesterday? Who knew?

As you’ve seen from this week’s roundups, a battle could be brewing in Oklahoma City between new USL PRO and NASL franchises.

NWSL

Washington Spirit earned a 1-1 draw with an 87th minute penalty kick. Boston Breakers came from behind to draw 1-1 with Seattle Reign.

FC Kansas City midfielder Lauren Cheney has been named NWSL Player of the Month. Despite missing two games while she was away with the USWNT, Cheney scored six times in five games in June to become the league’s leading goalscorer with eight goals.

US

Jurgen Klinsmann has named DaMarcus Beasley captain of the US Gold Cup team.

The team has a Gold Cup warmup game in San Diego on Friday against Guatemala (11pm, NBCSN, NBC Sports Live Extra).

The US has moved up sis spots to No. 22 in the latest FIFA rankings. Mexico drops three spots to No. 20.

At Fox Soccer, Leander Schaelleackens looks at US Soccer’s efforts to improve their scouting of young talent.

On Herculez Gomez’s path to the national team.

Twenty-five years ago today, FIFA named the US host of the 1994 World Cup. The president of the US Soccer Federation at the time was Werner Fricker of local club United German Hungarians.

Elsewhere

The Super Classico “friendly” between Club America and Chivas de Guadalajara in Las Vegas at Sam Boyd Stadium on Wednesday night was marred by widespread violence inside and outside the stadium. Trouble began an hour before kickoff when hundreds of Club America supporters attacked a bus carrying Chivas supporters with bottles and rocks. After the ensuing melee involving an estimated 400 people went on for five minutes, some 120 police officers responded to restore order. Soon after, another fight broke out at one of the stadium entrances that left six people injured. Inside the stadium, a scrap on the field that saw four players ejected. By the end of the game, fans in the stands were throwing projectiles at each other and onto the pitch. After the final whistle, fans then stormed the pitch. Oh yeah, Chivas won 1-0.

Looks like that Messi and Friends exhibition game will be played in Chicago on Saturday after all. More from SBI.

Ryan Giggs has been named a player-coach at Manchester United.

 

8 Comments

  1. In case anyone wants to feel MORE depressed, give us those 4 points back we threw away, we’d be in first place.

  2. Who would have thought Chicago would become a contender so fast? Adding 2 quality players and a division where nobody wants to run away with the lead. BOOM there you are.

  3. On a positive note, Thor tossing the RSL players around in the corner late in the game was pretty hilarious.

    • He’s awesome. HE looked like a giant out there compared to the RSL players. If he even has a hint of skill he’ll be a great rotation player for us.

  4. Before we all start throwing a pity party about the missed points, let us not forget about an equal number of earlier games in which we gained some undeserved points in the dying moments via young wizard Jack. Take those points away and we’re out of playoff contention. All the sudden our undefeated streak that includes NY, Dallas, and RSL doesn’t look so bad, does it? Cap it off with a result in Houston and I’m dancin!

  5. I can’t believe I’m saying this but I’m willing to stand by this coach, for the remainder of this season. See where we end up before calling for his job (not that that means anything).

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