Daily news roundups

Amobi mic’d up, more Union props, Green commits to Red, White, & Blue, more news

Photo: Paul Rudderow

Philadelphia Union

The Union has released a cool video to start this season’s Mic’d Up series featuring Amobi Okugo in the Portland game. I love this sort of thing.

At MLSsoccer.com, Dave Zeitlin has more on Okugo’s unexpected captaincy in Saturday’s game.

More power rankings! At MLSsoccer.com, the Union move up to No. 4. The blurb on the Union says, “Strong feeling among the Politburo that this is a playoff team.” At ProSoccerTalk, the Union move up four spots to No. 3.

Maurice Edu, Leo Fernandes, and Zac MacMath have been named to ProSoccerTalk’s Team of the Week. Ray Gaddis received an honorable mention.

Edu was also named to SBI’s Team of the Week. Gaddis, Okugo, and Sebastien Le Toux received honorable mentions.

SBI has named MacMath’s first half save on Diego Fagundez in Saturday’s win against New England its Save of the Week. You can do the same in the fan vote at MLSsoccer.com.

If you missed last night’s season debut of the The 90th Minute radio show, click here for a download.

MLS has released more details on this year’s Generation adidas Cup, which will be hosted by FC Dallas, April 14-20. The Union Academy U-17 team will face their counterparts from FC Dalls, San Jose Earthquakes, and Chivas de Guadalajara in the group stage of the “international tier” of the tournament.

Local

Holding midfielder Jason Pelletier has re-signed with Harrisburg City Islanders.

The preseason scrimmage scheduled to take place at Millersville University tonight between Harrisburg and St. Francis University has been cancelled. It seems St. Francis doesn’t have enough players who can travel to make up a complete side.

At a team banquet on Monday, several Temple men’s soccer players received awards. Receiving the Irv Canter Captains Award were Ryan Bradbury and Nolan Hemmer. Hemmer was also named the Most Valuable Defensive Player and received the Academic Award. Vaughn Spurrier was named the Most Valuable Offensive Player. Sharing the Dr. William P. Leaness Most Inspirational Award were Sawyer Hemmer and Sam Heller.

Registration is open for U-8 through U-15 teams for West-Mont United’s 11th annual Battle at Hill Top tournament. The girls tournament weekend will take place Aug. 16-17, with the boys tournament on Aug. 23-24.

MLS

And then there were two. LA Galaxy were knocked out of the quarterfinals of the CONCACAF Champions League on Tuesday night with a 4-2 loss to Tijuana. The Galaxy had won the first leg at home, 1-0. San Jose, who drew 1-1 with Toluca in the first leg, are on the road tonight (8 pm, Fox Sports 2, Univision Deportes), as are Kansas City, who face Cruz Azul after winning the home leg 1-0 (10 pm, Fox Sports 2, Galavision).

A reminder that the MLS Insider documentary series has returned and can be seen on KickTV’s YouTube channel.

Sporting Kansas City will host Manchester City on July 23 as part of a so-called “Summer in the Soccer Capital” series of events. It’s a good get but soccer capital? Please.

The Guardian looks at Orlando City’s path to MLS under the guidance of Adrian Heath.

The NASL’s San Antonio Scorpions have signed former designated player Eric Hassli.

Let me ask you a question: If the Major Indoor Soccer League was suspended or dissolved, would you notice? I didn’t either. Reaction from MISL owners, one of whom refers to MISL owners the USL as an “AMWAY pyramid system,” from The Blue Testament.

US

It began with a report from Grant Wahl at SI that Bayern Munich had given permission for Julian Green to train with the US ahead of the upcoming friendly against Mexico. Unsurprisingly, Twitter went gaga over the possible implications of the news, with Taylor Twellman tweeting that an announcement would soon be coming from US Soccer that Green had committed to the US.

Soon after, Jurgen Klinsmann tweeted that he was “thrilled” Green had chosen the US. Soon after that, US Soccer announced that the German-American midfielder had committed to the US and applied for a one-time change of association to FIFA. Green said in the announcement,

Obviously this was a big decision, and I spent a long time discussing it with my family. I was born in Florida and my father still lives there, so I have deep roots in the U.S. I’m very proud to be representing the United States.”

A big part of the decision was the experience I had in Frankfurt. All the players were super nice and welcomed me from the beginning. Clint Dempsey gave me a jersey with my name on it, and the way they supported me gave me a lot of belief. The coaches have shown a lot of trust in me, and now I hope to do everything I can to earn a spot on the World Cup roster.

Klinsmann said of Green last week before the announcement, “This is a player who has tremendous potential going forward. I think there’s a strong chance to see him rather sooner than later and there’s also a chance for him to break even into this World Cup roster.”

More on the big news from SI, ESPN, Soccer America, ASN, ProSoccerTalk, and Goal.com.

The US Soccer Development Academy has announced a change in format for 2013-14 Academy postseason, moving to a playoff format that will include a knockout round, semifinals and final for the U-15/16 and U-17/18 age groups. The semifinal and final round will be held July 17 and 19 at the National Training Center in Carson, Calif.

Elsewhere

Chelsea defeated Galatasary, and Real Madrid defeated Schalke, to advance to the quarterfinals of the UEFA Champions League. Manchester United hosts Olympiakos (Fox Sports 1, Fox Deportes, Fox Soccer 2Go), and Borussia Dortmund hosts Zenit St. Petersburg (Fox Sports 2, Fox Soccer Plus, Fox Soccer 2Go), today at 3:45 pm.

The Guardian reports, “Brazil’s sports minister has promised highly expensive flights and hotel rooms will come down in price before the World Cup and says street protests will be ‘very small’ compared with those that gripped the Confederations Cup last year.” Aldo Rebelo also said all 12 World Cup stadiums will be ready in time for the June tournament.

Well known crook Jack Warner, the disgraced former head of CONCACAF, calls a report by The Telegraph on Monday that he and members of his family received payments of more than $2 million from a Qatari media company controlled by Mohamed Bin Hammam, the disgraced former head of the Asian Football Confederation, after Qatar was awarded the hosting rights for the 2022 World Cup, as part of a “witch hunt” against Qatar. Referring to himself in the third person in the style of the delusional megalomaniac, Warner said, “I have no interest in joining in the foolishness that is now passing as news on Qatar and Jack Warner.”

FIFA has refused to comment on the latest report, saying in a statement, “In principle, any evidence of potential wrongdoing can be submitted to the investigatory chamber of the independent Ethics Committee of FIFA for further investigation.”

Soccer America says of statements from the Qatari organizing committee for the 2022 World Cup distancing itself from the latest allegations, “The Qatar 2022 statement doesn’t deny that corruption might have taken place. It only states that the bid committee didn’t do it and whatever might have been done wasn’t in violation of FIFA’s bidding rules in place at the time.”

At the Guardian, Marina Hyde and Owen Gibson have suitably entertaining reads on the latest in the long trail of ridiculousness surrounding the 2022 World Cup.

At ESPN, Raphael Honigstein has an interesting article on the different perceptions on diving.

10 Comments

  1. Great to hear Okugo be vocal. Plus, he says the same things to MacMath that we yell at the games or at the TV:

    1) “Zack be sure, be sure”

    2) “Hey Zack you gotta be louder”

  2. Amobi is clearly a natural leader. I’ve heard BC on one of these things, and Amobi seems better suited to be captain, frankly.

  3. It’s weird that they didn’t include Amobi’s audio after the goal in Portland. I sure it was kid-friendly language.

  4. I can’t believe NBCSN didn’t pick up MLS Insider again. That show was the best thing they had going to bring in casual viewers. Short-sighted.

    • It that true?! Agree that that show was ace! Learned a lot about different players and their teams’ Supporters.

  5. OneManWolfpack says:

    So not to beat a dead horse, but did Qatar just admit to bribing FIFA officials in a “legal” way? That whole thing is so infuriating.
    .
    Okugo = Captain. Period.

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