Daily news roundups

Union v NE previews, Edu wants to doop, SoBs will go marching in, more news

Photo: Daniel Gajdamowicz

Philadelphia Union

Finally, it is here.

On Saturday, the Union host New England Revolution in the 2014 home opener at PPL Park (4 pm: CSN, Univision Deportes, and MLS Live. Click here to purchase tickets.).

Match previews from PSP, Philadelphia Inquirer, Daily News, Burlington County Times, Delaware Online, Brotherly Game, David Murphy’s Union Blog, New England Soccer Today, Soccerly, and Rant Sports.

Who’s excited for the game? Maurice Edu is. “Since I signed I’ve been looking forward to the home opener and now it is here and this whole week we have been preparing for this. I’m excited to get out there in front of the fans, score some goals and hear that ‘Doop’ song. It should be a good time.”

Is Edu worried about Portland’s late equalizer in last Saturday’s season opener? Not particularly. Edu said of the goal, “It’s a minor thing. It’s just a mental lapse. I think the bigger picture is we did a lot of positive things and going forward we need to just focus on continuing to do those things and clean up the small, minor errors we made in that game.” He continued,

You’re not going to win every game. Every call is not going to go your way. There are going to be some bad days. But it’s about how you react to those things, how you overcome those things and what your response is in those situations. So I think it’s important we stick together as a team. If we stay confident throughout the course of the season, I really believe we can achieve something special here.

John Hackworth said of the Portland goal, “We need to rectify the situation so we don’t get burned by it again. There are simple parts of it that have nothing to do with soccer and have to do with staying tuned and managing a game right — knowing your role if you’re coming off the bench and knowing where you’re supposed to be on any kind of restart situation. I hope our guys are motivated to try and correct that.”

Aside from correcting the mental lapses that led to the Portland equalizer, does the Union have to do anything different to ensure a positive result against New England? Jack McInerney doesn’t think so. “I think if we come out with the same game plan, we can have similar results. Overall we defended pretty well and attacked very well too, so hopefully we will see that turn into a two- or three-goal victory on Saturday.”

You will recall from our interview with Sons of Ben president Kenny Hanson that the supporters group has many things planned for the new season. One of those is returning to the tradition of marching into PPL Park en mass. On Saturday, they’ll be gathering at 3:15 pm at the top of Lot B sidewalk to march in to PPL Park for tomorrow’s home opener. Click here for more details.

In a Q&A at the Union website, Zac MacMath talks about the lessons learned from the 2013 season and his goals for 2014. In addition to wanting to raise last seasons 12 shutouts total to 15 and wanting to be in the top three for goals against average, MacMath says, “But mainly, I want to make sure that I am more vocal and making sure that we don’t give up goals late especially ones that will cost us points. It’s really my job to keep our team in these games and I feel confident that this year I’ll make a difference.”

The 90th Minute radio show on CBS Sports Radio 610 returns on Tuesday, March 18 at 7 pm. This season, the show will be co-hosted by Carl Cherkin and Kevin Kinkead. For the first seven weeks of the season the show will be broadcast from Chickie’s and Pete’s in Drexel Hill before moving onto other C&P locations. If you’re not around a radio, the show will also be streamed via CBSPhilly.com or the Radio.com app for iPhone or Android.

At the Union website, Kevin Kinkead reports from Wednesday night’s Philadelphia Union Foundation Cocktails & Cleats event. Philly.com has a slideshow of photos from the event.

At Brotherly Game, Barry Evans presents his top five Union home game moments.

Zolo Times has an omnibus post reviewing the Portland game and previewing the home opener. The post also has a mini rant on “the offering of points before a game.”

Local

Registration is open for the 2014 Starfinder Cup tournament.

MLS

The league disciplinary committee has fined DC United’s Luis Silva for simulation in last week’s loss to Columbus.

Bloomberg View’s Kavitha A. Davidson writes the news that LA Galaxy shirt sponsor Herbalife is being investigated by the Federal Trade Commission “should have MLS executives scrambling to do damage control,” adding, “This isn’t just any soccer club caught up in a potential fiscal fiasco — this is the face of the league.”

At Soccer America, Paul Gardner looks at replacement referee Alan Kelly, who was carrying the whistle in the Seattle-Kansas City season opener. It appears that Kelly, who came from Ireland to work for the Professional Referee Organization as a trainer, is looking to earn one of the the handful of FIFA-sanctioned referee spots in the US. Gardner writes, “To say that Kelly was placed in a tricky situation is putting it mildly. By choosing loyalty to PRO, his new employer, he finds himself labeled, accurately I think, a scab by the PSRA. That doesn’t sound like anything designed to bolster his PRO role as a guiding influence for future American referees.”

SiriusXM FC will be offering live nationwide radio coverage of MLS games this season beginning with the Seattle vs. Toronto game on Saturday.

Speaking of Seattle, the league website has an oral history of sorts of Clint Dempsey’s life.

Speaking of Toronto, ESPN’s Doug McIntyre says, after a $100 million offseason spending spree, the living up to expectations part begins now.

There are a lot of Union and local connections in this look back at DC United’s last MLS Cup squad.

At Goal.com, Seth Vertelney looks at the media training the league provides for its players.

USL PRO have announced an ownership and name change for its Phoenix franchise. Previously known as Phoenix FC, the team will now play as Arizona United SC.

US

In the latest FIFA rankings, the USMNT drops one place to No. 14. The top five — Spain, Germany, Argentina, Portugal, Colombia — remain unchanged, as does World Cup Brazil’s ninth place ranking. Mexico moves up one spot to No. 20.

ASN recaps the USWNT’s “disastrous” seventh place finish at the Algarve Cup.

The Barcelona-Manchester City game on Tuesday was the most watched soccer game in the short history of Fox Sports 1.

Elsewhere

Uli Hoeness has resigned as president and chairman of Bayern Munich after being convicted for tax evasion and says he will not appeal his three-and-a-half year sentence. Reuters reports, “Adidas boss Herbert Hainer will become the new president and business chairman” of the club. The report notes, adidas “owns an 8.3 percent stake in the club and has provided its kits for over 50 years.”

Eric Cantona has been arrested for assault in London.

Want to know how much the 2014 World Cup ball will swerve? Read this, its got graphs and everything.

5 Comments

  1. “so hopefully we will see that turn into a two- or three-goal victory on Saturday”

    Amen Jack. I’m so excited about the potential for the team this season but the thing that keeps me up at night is wondering where the goals will come from. If we can’t do better than the 1 goal or nothing results from last year then all the off season acquisitions will be for naught. I can’t wait for 4pm tomorrow. I plan to have no voice left on Sunday.

    COME ON THE U!!!!!

  2. Just wanted to say to my fellow readers, I’ve been a big fan of the site since its inception, reading nearly every post. However, only this season did I begin listening to the podcasts. I didn’t know what I was missing, and if you’re like me and just kinda breezed past those in the past, I’d recommend giving them a listen. Great way to pass the time on commutes and learn about personnel deployment and tactics. The guests/players are really good about it, too.

  3. Not since the first game ever have I been so excited for a home game!!!!! Regardless of how all this plays out, a big thank you to the team for making great moves this offseason. Watching that Portland game was like a re-awakening for the brand and I for one am grateful they look to play the game the way we’ve hoped for so long! Philadelphia!!!!!!!

  4. The Black Hand says:

    The “brazuca” being used for the WC is pretty wild. Checked it out today. It’s dimpled. Should be interesting to see this thing bend, come Cup time.

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