Daily news roundups

DC previews, adjustments, helmets, USA notes, and more

Photo: Michael Long

Philadelphia Union

PSP’s preview of Saturday’s game against DC will be up latter in the morning. In the meanwhile, check out our quick reference to get up to speed on the Union’s series history against DC, and these previews from PhiladelphiaUnion.com, Delco Times, Delaware Online, Brotherly Game, and MLSsoccer.com. Also at the Brotherly Game, a look at DC United from Black and Red United.

At the Union website, Kevin Kinkead considers the options available to the Union to replace the suspended Fabinho and Sheanon Williams. John Hackworth said at Wednesday’s press conference, “It depends truly on what we do with our backline. You don’t want to be too conservative. We’re on a good streak. We feel like we’re continuing to play well and the last thing we want is to go out there and change our tactics. We have a gameplan going into D.C. United based on what they’re good at and what we’re good at and what they’re not doing so well, and same with us. We’re going to try to stick with that and maximize what we think we have out of our roster and go in there and play our game.”

More on the challenges posed by the two suspensions from CSN Philly.

What does John Hackworth expect from Ben Olsen and DC? “I know Ben, and Ben is a competitor, That’s evident in the way he played the game and the way he coaches the game. There’s no question in my mind that he’s going to have his guys ready to play. I know that they’ll try to win the game.”

What does Brian Carroll expect from DC? “I expect it to never be easy and I expect it to be one of their stronger teams. They go out and win the Open Cup then throw a mixed team, then bring in some more of their studs towards the end of the game against Chicago…I expect it to be a tough game no matter who they have in there, but I would expect a stronger team.”

Amobi Okugo says of Carroll, who will be playing his 300th MLS game when the Union face DC United on Saturday, “We call him the iron man. The amount of running he does game in and game out is amazing. He’s one of the more underrated players in the league, but he doesn’t really care. He just goes about his business and that’s why he’s lasted longer than some other guys.”

What does Carroll think of Saturday’s career milestone? “It is definitely cool and I like the accomplishment…but it is more about the points and trying to make the next stage of the season at this point.” He added, “I think if we can achieve that goal, it will be good. But there are so many teams in the mix right now. We are going to try and go out and get everything we can from every game.”

Looking at the paltry production from the Union midfield this season — seven goals and five assists — and the reliance on long balls, US Soccer Players’ Tony Lapore says, “And one wonders why Philadelphia’s strikers have been streaky this season.” He continues, “This is a reflection, not of the players, but in how they’re used. Maybe John Hackworth’s system works and keeps his midfielders on the field. Ok, but if Philadelphia’s ambition is more than the play-in game, the Union has to get its talented strikers the ball in better positions.”

Kleberson’s game-winning goal came in a distant third place at 8.1 percent of the votes behind the stunning side volley from Vancouver’s Camilo, which got 70.6 percent of the ballots cast for Goal of the Week.

Congratulations to Kenny Hanson, who has been named interim president of the Sons of Ben.

Join Michael Lahoud and special guest Oka Nikolov at the Bowling with Mike and Friends charity event at North Bowl on Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013 from 12 to 4 pm. Click here for registration information for the event in support of Schools for Salone.

The Union will be hosting a Path to PPL Park Soccer Education Forum at PPL Park on Wednesday, Oct. 23 from 6-8 pm. Union assistant coach Jim Curtin and defender Chris Albright will be special guests. It’s a free event but registration is required.

The South Jersey Times talks to Cumberland Regional High School’s Tyler Skye about his time with the Union Academy, to which he hopes to return after the conclusion of the high school season.

the Beyond Soccer Summit that took place at PPL Park on Sept. 8 meant to one participant, Senda Athletics founder Santiago Halty.

There’s no indication of how many people voted, but in a poll by WIP’s Angelo Cataldi & the Morning Team asking if the Union should be considered among the top pro sports in Philly along with The Eagles, Phillies, Flyers, and 76ers, the yeas edged out the nays by 52 percent to 48 percent.

Here’s Philly.com cartoonist Rob Tornoe’s take on the longest tenured coach in Philly pro sports “controversy”:

Hackworth cartoonHaha. Ha. Ha. It’s funny because the whole point of the controversy is that the local sports media is largely ignorant of soccer and doesn’t adequately cover the Union. So why would Flyers shirt guy know who John Hackworth is? Get it?

Local

Havertown native and former Philadelphia Independence midfielder Sinead Farrelly scored an assist in Cypriot club Apollon Limassol’s 2-1 loss to Austrian club SV Neulengbach in UEFA Women’s Champions League play. Also starting for Apollon were fellow former Independence players Joanna Lohman and Lianne Sanderson. That’s a whole lot of awesome on one team.

PPL Park hosts a doubleheader tonight featuring the Widener men’s and women’s teams. At 5 pm, the women face Lycoming, with the men doing the same at 7:30 pm. [Editor’s note: After this roundup was published, Widener announced that the games had been moved back on campus to Leslie C. Quick Jr. Stadium. Starting times remain the same.]

The La Salle men’s team opens Atlantic 10 play this weekend, hosting Duquesne tonight at 7 pm and then St. Bonaventure on Sunday at 1 pm.

The Drexel women’s team hosts Northeastern tonight, which happens to be Alumni Night, at 7 pm.

The Temple men’s team hosts South Florida on Saturday at 3 pm.

The Penn women’s team is on the road this weekend to Columbia and Navy. On Saturday, the men’s team is also at Columbia.

Princeton schools to require this helmet

Princeton school district soccer players will be required to wear a helmet like this. Photo: Courtesy of HRP Products, Inc.

The Times of Trenton reported on Thursday that the Princeton school district will become the first school district in New Jersey to require soccer players — and girls lacrosse and field hockey players — to wear protective headgear. The report says the requirement will begin with sixth graders and and be put progressively in place “until students in sixth through 12th grades are all wearing headgear during those sports.”

In the latest NSCAA high school boys’ soccer rankings, Wilmington’s Salesianum School moves up three spots to No. 5, Mechanicsburg’s Cumberland Valley moves up four spots to No. 17, and Philadelphia’s Father Judge is at No. 25. In the girls’ soccer rankings, Cumberland Valley moves up two spots to No. 7, Langhorne’s Neshaminy High School moves up four spots to No. 13, and Medford’s Lenape High School comes in at No. 21.

TopDrawer Soccer.com has photos from last weekend’s TDS combine in Philadelphia for players hoping to play in college.

MLS

MLS Executive Vice President of Competition, Technical and Game Operations, Nelson Rodriguez tells a Montreal newspaper that the Impact were wrongly denied penalty kicks against Vancouver and Houston.

A “Winning Goal Coalition” has been formed in DC by opponents to DC mayor Vincent C. Gray’s plan for the city to pay for half of the cost of DC United’s proposed new stadium.

US

Previews for tonight’s qualifier against Jamaica (6 pm; ESPN, UniMás, Univision Deportes, Watch ESPN, SiriusXM FC) from PSP, Soccer America, MLSsoccer.com, Pro Soccer Talk, and Goal.com. At the New York Times, Sam Borden has a look at how the US got to where they are in the qualification campaign.

Brad Davis, Clarence Goodson and Chris Wondolowski have been added to the USMNT roster for the final two qualifiers. The announcement from US soccer notes, “Wondolowski replaces Eddie Johnson, who suffered a left groin strain during Wednesday’s training session.”

Regarding the request from the LA Galaxy that Landon Donovan be released from the USMNT after tonight’s game against Jamaica — and so miss the final qualifier on Tuesday away to Panama — so that he can be available for the Galaxy’s match against Montreal on Wednesday, Donovan said, “We haven’t spoken about it. My expectation is that I go to Panama unless I hear otherwise. We’ll see what happens. I understand very clearly that every opportunity here is a good chance. If I’m here, great. And if I go back, great…The reality is that for all of us it’s another audition. At this point in the game, you can’t really take steps backwards if you want to be on the World Cup roster. I think we all see it that way.”

Sacha Kljestan knows what he’ll do if he gets the opportunity to feature in either qualifier. “I’ve certainly been waiting for a chance, I hope one comes and when it comes I’m going to grab it by the throat and not let go.”

The injury to Omar Gonzalez could be an opportunity for Geoff Cameron to state his case to play at center back, where Klinsmann says he is best suited, rather than right back.

At MLSsoccer.com, Simon Borg writes, “The Donovan tug-of-war will test Klinsmann’s leadership abilities, his diplomatic skills, his personnel management style and his standing as the leading figure in U.S. Soccer. All at the same time.”

Will Jurgen Klinsmann use the final qualifiers as an opportunity to experiment with his lineup? Klinsmann said, “I think we have a pretty good picture to understand where the players are at right now, and we have a very good idea of how we want to plan things toward Brazil. But still we use the FIFA fixture dates to the full extent, and that’s why it’s also crucial to have the best group here and constantly working on certain elements to get better. So there’s a way to go, but I don’t see a lot of surprises.”

At ESPN, Jeff Carlisle says the Klinsmann’s success is built on the work of his predecessors. “This isn’t to say that Klinsmann hasn’t had an impact. No doubt he has, but what’s occurred is more evolution than revolution.”

In a Q&A at SI with Grant Wahl, Klinsmann confirms he wants to stay with the USMNT after the World Cup. He also says that a pre-World Cup friendly with England is in the works.

At Grantland, Noah Davis predicts which players will make the 23-player roster for the US at the 2014 World Cup.

Sunil Gulati has called for the tightening up of the eligibility rules for youth internationals. “Players who were born overseas to US parentage have every right to play for the United States,” said Gulati. “By the same token we have players born and raised in the United States who play for other countries. I have no problem with that but the one thing that does need to change is the notion that you can play for one country in a world youth championship and then change later. It’s a rule that got passed (by FIFA) a few years ago…If you are committed to a country and have played for them in a world championship, you should be bound to that country. The thought that we have players playing in 20-odd friendlies, under-17 and under-20 and then can switch, that doesn’t make sense to me.” I wonder what Aron Johannson thinks?

A groovy interactive graphic at the BBC shows that US players make up 1.7 percent of the rosters in the BPL, making the US the 12th out of 61 countries with players in the league. In the Championship, the US is 10th out of 51 countries at 1.1 percent.

Elsewhere

Check out the latest Footy on the Telly for listings of the week’s upcoming live games on TV and online.

The first phase of the ticket application process for the 2014 World Cup ended on Thursday with the US second only to host country Brazil in ticket requests. FIFA says more than six million requests for tickets were received and that a lottery will be held to allocate available tickets. Fans will have the opportunity to by tickets during two more sales periods with FIFA expecting some 3.3 million tickets to be available.

The Guardian reports, “UEFA is considering a radical overhaul of international football that would see national teams playing a new Nations League competition.” The move would see international friendlies replaced by a “Nations League” competition starting in 2018.

In more UEFA news, the president of Galatasaray believes that the Champions League will be replaced by a new European super league by 2018. Unal Aysal says, “The system has to be put in place, either by UEFA or by the clubs themselves. Then we will decide if a breakaway will be necessity or not.”

FIFA confirms that German company GoalControl will be the goal-line technology provider at the 2013 Club World Cup and 2014 World Cup.

ESPN reports, “Four Real Madrid fans have been fined 3,000 euros each after displaying Nazi symbols in the 1-0 Madrid derby defeat to Atletico.”

10 Comments

  1. Is it selfish of me that I kind of want trolling windowlickers like Angelo Cataldi and Howard Eskin as far away from the Union and Soccer as possible?

    • I would love to hear WIP and 97.5 start mentioning the Union scores in their updates. That’s, I think, the first step.
      .
      The trolls – and you mentioned the two biggest – are getting old and are close to retirement age. I can’t believe there is any rational Philly sports fan who listens to those two dimwits for their intelligent commentary. They’re listening just for the train wreck aspect.

      • Therein lies the problem “Rational Philly Sports fan.” No people listen to them I think the entire narrative of Donovan Mcnabb’s has been shaped by these schmucks.
        And as far as trolls go there are always more trolls.

      • Indeed. I probably give people who listen to Cataldi too much credit.
        .
        That said, it’s highly amusing to me that voters in Cataldi’s own poll favored considering the Union a “top pro sport” in Philly. I bet his eyes started to bleed when he saw that… Maybe it’ll be bad enough to drive him off the air…

      • KYW Newsradio mentions scores, covers games, interviews players and produces the KYW Philly Soccer Show.

      • well yea Greg… if you were going to mention the obvious.

  2. “Looking at the paltry production from the Union midfield this season — seven goals and five assists — and the reliance on long balls …”
    .
    Not that I want to get into having to defend the Union’s midfield again, but these numbers can’t be right. Le Toux has spent most of the season playing midfield, so how can they only have 5 assists? My only hunch would be that because Le Toux is listed on the roster as a F that they didn’t count his numbers.

    • Ed Farnsworth says:

      Good point John. Perhaps the author meant assists from open play?

      • That’s a possibility too. But seems like that would be a pain in the ass to figure out.
        .
        Looking at the Union’s roster (http://www.philadelphiaunion.com/players/L) they have Le Toux listed as a forward. So I’m going to stick with my original guess – they went through the roster and took all the players who are listed as midfield and added up their stats. Since Seba lists as “F” for position, they ignored his stats.
        .
        Even with his numbers added in, though, it doesn’t change the fact that the midfield has been under-productive this year.

  3. Just an update on the Widener-Lycoming games. According to Widener’s athletic website, they will be played on campus not at PPL Park due to the rain.

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