Daily news roundups

Casey: Union will “lay everything on the line,” HCI loses at home, USMNT breaks into FIFA Top 20

Photo: Earl Gardner

Philadelphia Union

Conor Casey tells KYW’s Matt Leon that the Union must win on Saturday. “For sure. It goes without saying. They’re in conference, we’re playing at home. That’s three points that we expect to get and we’re going to lay everything on the line for.”

Casey’s assessment of the season so far? “Where we are right now, we’re probably about where we deserve to be. We have a third of the season left and everything to play for. So we couldn’t really ask for much more headed into the last part of the season.”

The big forward is clearly enjoying his time in Philadelphia. “It’s been really fun. It’s been really, really enjoyable. The energy within the team, within the city, the stadium, has been amazing, the fans there. It’s been better than I really expected, to be honest.”

In his look at what the Union must do realize their playoff hopes—don’t drop points to teams below them such as Chicago or this weekend’s opponent, DC United—Matthew De George notes, “[T]he Union have left their home pitch without a win in seven of their 12 matches there this season, a home record of a 5-3-4 and a consensus that too many of those points have been cheaply surrendered.

The Union return to Red Bull Arena on Aug. 17. You can get tickets and a ride to the game through the Sons of Ben.

Local

Harrisburg City Islanders squandered an early lead from Union loanee Cristhian Hernandez’s 6th minute goal, giving up two goals to the visiting Charlotte Eagles before the end of the first half in Wednesday night’s 2-1 loss at home. The match was delayed for nearly an hour when sever weather made a 79th minute appearance. Match reports from Penn Live and USL PRO.

City Islanders coach Bill Becher said, “We’ve got to be better after we score. We’ve got to be good enough to close that half out and finish the game…Defensively, we’re giving away too many soft goals— especially at home.”

Yanks Abroad talks to Lancaster’s own Russell Canouse, who was recently named captain of Hoffenheim’s U-19 team, where the Union’s Zach Pfeffer is a teammate.

Defenders Brian White (PDA; Flemington, N.J.) and Chris Gomez (PDA; Jamison, Pa.) are among the 64 elite 15- to 17-year-old players invited by US Soccer to participate in the National Combine being held at Nike’s World Headquarters in Portland, Ore. from Aug. 9-13.

Goalkeeper Evangeline Soucie (PDA; Milford, N.J.), defenders Jlon Flippens (FC Delco; Philadelphia, Pa.) and Kaitlin Higgins (PDA, Andreas, Pa.), and midfielder Shea Moyer (FC Revolution; Wyomissing, Pa.) have been invited to the U-15 Girls National Team camp at the U.S. Soccer National Team Training Center at StubHub Center in Carson, Calif. from Aug. 10-17.

The New Jersey Soccer Association will be holding a 100th anniversary banquet on Nov. 3.

MLS

A “league source” tells Big Apple Soccer that New York Red Bulls were offered Clint Dempsey “but the club decided not to pursue him.”

Dempsey completed his first full day of training with the Sounders on Wednesday. No word yet on what he had for breakfast.

At the Guardian, Elliot Turner puts those who think Dempsey’s return is great and those who think it is a mistake into “nativist” and “eurosnob” camps.

At US Soccer Players, Jason Davis looks at expectations of an attendance bump when Clint Dempsey and the Seattle Sounders play away and also suggests that the league still lacks a team that can consistently drive up attendance when on the road.

At ESPN, Jeff Carlisle adds his voice to the chorus expressing concerns about how the league communicates its rules to fans and the media: “[T]he league can still do much better when it comes to making—and perhaps more importantly, explaining—its rules to the public.”

When the 2013 season ends for Obafemi Martins, he will have played 16 consecutive months of soccer including his time with Levante before joining the Seattle Sounders. Martins tells FIFA.com, “I’m trying to adapt. It’s been difficult, but I’ve been able to score some goals already. It’s not easy to play here in MLS, though. They play with intensity and they run a lot…It’s a bit like England. The competition in MLS is strong and they’re physical as well.”

The Houston Dynamo have signed 21-year-old Honduran midfielder Alexander López as a Young Designated Player.

Plans for a downtown Detroit development project that would include a stadium for a hoped for MLS team will be reviewed by the Wayne County Commission next week.

With all of the expansion contenders lining up comes the news that the Pima County Board of Supervisors has allocated $200,000 to help bring ten MLS teams to Tuscon for next year’s preseason training. An additional $80,000 has been earmarked to bring in a team from Mexico “for a competition.” While the Arizona Daily Star reports, “No contracts are in place, so it is unclear which teams will be practicing here,” it is expected that “the deal could inject $3.9 million into the local economy from spending by the teams, players, media and fans.”

CONCACAF Champions League

Montreal Impact defeated San Jose Earthquakes 1-0 in the opening of CONCACAF Champions League group play. In Nicaragua, Kansas City defeated Real Esteli 2-0.

NWSL

Western New York (34 points) move into second place with Wednesday night’s 1-0 win over visiting Seattle (18 points), courtesy of a goal from Delran’s Carli Lloyd. Portland (34 points) drops to third after giving up the lead on the road to fall 2-1 to Boston (27 points), who move into fifth place. Former Philadelphia Independence forward Lianne Sanderson scored the equalizer for the Breakers. Portland’s Alex Morgan left the game in the 13th minute with a knee injury. Last place Washington (10 points) picked up their second win of the season with a 1-0 victory over visiting Chicago (26 points), who fall to sixth place with the loss.

US

The US Gold Cup victory sees the team advance into the top 20 of the latest FIFA’s rankings for the first time in more than two years, moving up three spots from July’s rankings to No. 19. The US is now ranked one spot above Mexico, who remain at No. 20.

At ESPN, Albert Larcada looks at the differences between the FIFA rankings and ESPN’s own Soccer Power Index, which currently has the US at No. 20 and Mexico at No. 17.

The final of the 100th edition of the US Open Cup on Oct. 1 will feature one team that is currently in last place in the Supporters Shield race, and another that is in first place. DC United defeated Chicago Fire 2-0 on the road while Real Salt Lake hosted Portland Timbers and then beat them, 2-1. Have I mentioned lately how I am still ticked off at how embarrassingly poor the Union were against DC in their US Open Cup game back in June? I have? Well, I just wanted to make sure.

The Cup.us has more on the wins from DC and and RSL, with additional info from US Soccer and Soccer America.

The Gothamist talks to Street Soccer USA founder Lawrence Cann. The Street Soccer USA National Cup was held at Times Square in July.

Elsewhere

Gaetano Iannini, who plays for fifth-division Matera, is the first player to be sanctioned under Italian football’s new anti-discrimination rules. Iannini was given a ten-match ban for racially abusing a player in an Italian Cup match on Sunday.

The AP reports, “The Bundesliga plans to start using blood testing this season although it has no indication that doping is a factor in football.”

That Guinness International Champions Cup thing concluded on Wednesday with Real Madrid defeating Chelsea 3-1 for the championship. LA Galaxy lost 2-0 to AC Milan in the third place game.

6 Comments

  1. “Dempsey completed his first full day of training with the Sounders on Wednesday. No word yet on what he had for breakfast.”

    I’m now following this site because of this one line.

  2. I don’t know if this is news, but Union Rumors tweeted a news story that says Gilberto was almost going to LA before he came here. Here is the story (it is in Portuguese so I have no idea what it actually says) http://www.queimadasnews.com.br/2013/07/10/volante-serrinhense-vai-para-o-time-que-david-beckham-jogava/

    • Ed Farnsworth says:

      Thanks for the link, Frank. I saw the tweet myself before posting the roundup and would have included it – any info on this guy, not to mention any reason to get a little excited about him, is certainly newsworthy in my book. Unfortunately, I keep getting a message saying my search engine can’t find the website’s server so I haven’t been able to run the article through Google Translate to see what it says.

    • The steering wheel serrinhense, Gilberto “Juninho de Veo” who played at Atletico / MG, CRB / AL and played the Paulista championship this year by Atletico Sorocaba was hired by the Los Angeles Galaxy in the United States.
      In the recent past, this same team hired England’s David Beckham that was very successful there. Besides him, the American club usually hire big stars of world football and, therefore, for football serrinhense is an honor to have an illustrious son playing in this team.
      At just 24 years old, is still a player who can give a lot of joy to the fans and Brazilian serrinhense working in large teams of Brazil and international.

      You’re welcome.

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