Daily news roundups

Late reaction to RSL draw, Hack on Fabinho, OC moves into first, USMNT Gold Cup warmup, more.

Photo: Earl Gardner

Philadelphia Union

The Union face Houston away on Saturday (9 pm, TCN, MLS Live). Our quick reference will get you up to speed with the two team’s past encounters and our match preview will get you ready for the game. Union Dues also has a preview.

No, I’m still not over the Union giving away two points in stoppage time for the second game in a row despite having a man advantage for the third game in a row either.

Conor Casey, who it must be said played a phenomenal game on Wednesday, said, “It’s a little tough to swallow. But at the same time, we have to realize that we’re playing against very good teams and are in it, in some cases winning, in the late stages.” Thanks for trying to make us feel better, but, as they say, horseshoes and hand grenades and all that.

Dave Zeitlin put it rather well:

You could probably go a whole season without seeing a team give up a goal seven minutes into stoppage time while playing up a man.

You could probably go your whole life without seeing it twice.

Or you could be a Philadelphia Union fan.

Ugh.

At the Inquirer, Marc Narducci writes, “The Union are in decent shape, but they would have much more breathing room if they didn’t suffer late-game collapses that they hope won’t cost them when the Eastern Conference playoff teams are determined.” Yep.

Union Dues reviews the Union’s record in games in which red cards have been awarded this season.

More match reports and recaps from Delco Times, ESPN 700, SBI, and Zolo Times.

Dave Zeitlin has quotes from John Hackworth on the addition of Fabio Alves, who Zeitlin notes “trialed with the Union before signing.” To begin, Hackworth made it clear that the left back job belongs to Ray Gaddis. “It’s still Ray’s job. We asked him to play on his unnatural side but I think he’s done a fantastic job. Ray epitomizes a lot of the things the staff asks of our players. And he has improved dramatically. If you said a year ago that Ray Gaddis would be a starting left back and play as well as he’s had, there probably would have been some people that would have questioned that.”

Hackworth explained further, “We needed some defensive cover and depth. Clearly, we didn’t have a true left back on our roster after the loss of Gabe [Farfan]. Don Anding has been kind of an understudy for us there all year but he needs more time to develop. Adding some depth to our defense, but very specifically having a true left back on our roster—a true left back with a lot of experience—that’s what we were kind of looking for.”

Local

Ocean City Nor’easters celebrated the Fourth of July with a 2-0 win over New Jersey Rangers. Timothy Mulgrew scored from a free kick in the 4th minute and Sean McLaws closed the scoring in the 52nd minute. Ocean City plays the Rangers again at home on Sunday with a 7 pm kickoff. The Press of Atlantic City has a match report.

The win puts Ocean City level with Reading United, who host Baltimore Bohemians on Sunday at 5 pm, at 22 points with a game in hand at the top of the Mid Atlantic Division standings.

Harrisburg City Islanders, in second place in USL PRO and two points behind Orlando City, are on the road this weekend to face tenth place Wilmington Hammerheads (7:30 pm, USL Live).

At The Patriot-Times, Michael Bullock checks in with Mechanicsburg’s Bobby Warshaw, who was at PPL Park last weekend with FC Dallas.

MLS

As if Wednesday night’s collapse didn’t hurt enough already, in Eastern Conference play on the Fourth, second place New York (28 points, one more than the Union) lost 2-0 to Colorado on Thursday. Eighth place Columbus (20 points) also lost 2-1 to LA, thanks two late Robbie Keane penalty kicks in the 85th and 92nd minute. If the Union hadn’t dropped points against Dallas and Real Salt Lake, they would now be in first place and one point clear of Montreal.

NWSL

Sixth place Chicago Red Stars (15 points) defeated fourth place Western New York Flash (22 points) 1-0 on Thursday.

US

The USMNT play Guatemala tonight in a warmup game before they start Gold Cup play on Tuesday (11 pm, NBCSN, UniMás, NBC Sports Live Extra). Check out our preview.

Jurgen Klinsman said of Guatemala, “They will make it very tight, they will have all the numbers behind the ball, and we have to find ways to break them down. I think they can give us a good test for what we can expect in the Gold Cup. That’s the reason why we asked them to play the friendly. It’s going to be tricky.”

Soccer America, noting that Klinsmann “says the starting lineup he puts out against the Chapines should be the lineup he opens with against Belize in its Gold Cup opener on Tuesday, so Friday’s friendly presents some huge opportunities,” wonders, “Does Jack McInerney, the top young striker in MLS, get a shot up front?”

In their positional rankings of US forwards and midfielders, Soccer America ranks Jack McInerney behind Clint Dempsey, Landon Donovan, and Chris Wondolowski in the second forward spot. “McInerney ain’t a kid any more; he turns 21 next month and with four pro seasons and 22 goals, he’s getting this test at a good time.”

MLSsoccer.com previews Group C, which in addition to the US includes Belize, Cuba, and Costa Rica.

The US begins Gold Cup group play against Belize, who Klinsmann said deserves respect. “If you look at Belize, you know that Belize is not the big name that you want to hear, you would rather hear Brazil or Argentina. But Belize, the way they played in qualification, we watched all their games, will give us a lot of issues as well. They had remarkable results against Honduras, against Guatemala, against nations that we normally face, and that’s why they’re in the tournament. That’s what we want to prepare for, and we’ll start that [in the friendly against Guatemala].”

Elsewhere

For listings of the upcoming week’s live games on TV and online, check out the latest Footy on the Telly.

Some 15 minutes after Cameroon learned they moved to the top of their World Cup qualification group after their loss against Togo had been overturned because Togo had fielded an ineligible player, FIFA announced that Cameroon was provisionally banned from international competition because of government interference in the country’s football federation. The provisional ban allows the federation fails to revise its statutes and hold new elections in order to be allowed to again compete in international competitions. The AP reports, “If that does not happen by Sept. 6, then Cameroon will not be able to play their final World Cup qualifier against Libya and could be expelled from the qualification process for next year’s tournament in Brazil.”

Senior vice-president of FIFA Julio Grondona says the organization wants the 2030 World Cup to be jointly hosted by Argentina and Uruguay, the two countries that met in the final of the first World Cup 1930, which was hosted by Uruguay. Uruguay won.

The AP reports, “Lionel Messi’s Argentina will face Mario Balotelli’s Italy next month in an exhibition game dedicated to Pope Francis.”

A soccer player in Minnesota has been arrested for allegedly threatening to stab a coach with a foot-long net stake after being told he was off the team for trying to fight another player the week before.

 

5 Comments

  1. Thanks for the Union Dues info about red card play; I had thought that a red card was less than helpful to the Union. It certainly seemed like a mixed blessing. Now, if there was a way to determine what the Union’s record is in matches that go beyond the 95th minute…or a goals against total in extra time…

  2. “Clearly, we didn’t have a true left back on our roster after the loss of Gabe [Farfan].”

    hack realizes gabe wasn’t a true left back right?

  3. His other comment on Anding “kind of an understudy”. Is he or isn’t he ? Remember he played striker last 2 yrs at Northeastern, so this is a whole new position to learn. He has played both defender/midfield at Harrisburg and his only appearance with 1st team was at midfield. So, in reality Gaddis has no back-up

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