Photo: Daniel Gajdamowicz
Editor’s note: Soon after today’s roundup was posted, Philadelphia Daily News reporter Jake Kaplan tweeted that Keon Daniel has been released by the Union.
Some @PhilaUnion news: The club has released midfielder Keon Daniel, according to a source with knowledge of the move.
— Jake Kaplan (@jakemkaplan) April 8, 2014
Shortly after that, the Union confirmed that Daniel’s contract had been terminated by mutual consent.
Philadelphia Union
In the latest Inside Doop, Dave Zeitlin wonders — with Aaron Wheeler starting over a healthy Austin Berry in Chicago, and Wheeler’s stoppage time foul likely to have cost the Union the game where it not for Zac MacMath’s massive penalty kick saves — if John Hackworth has been overly cautious in getting injured players back into the starting lineup.
Zac MacMath’s point rescuing double-save on Mike Magee’s stoppage time penalty kick is up for MLSsoccer.com’s Save of the Week. Vote away!
SBI has named MacMath’s save its Save of the Week.
Power rankings! At ESPN, the Union remain at No. 10. At Soccer America, they remain at No. 9. At SI, the Union drop one spot to No. 7.
The Stoke City FC website notes Maurice Edu’s first goal for the Union.
At Brotherly Game, Barry Evans has five game changing moments from Saturday’s draw.
Also Brotherly Game, Jared Young has a statistical look at how the Union fared last season at defending set pieces compared to the admittedly small data set that is this season’s numbers.
Zolo Times on the McInerney trade and the draw in Chicago.
Local
On Sunday, West Chester United fell 3-1 to Maryland Bays in the USASA Region I Open Cup quarterfinals after going on top 1-0 eight minutes after the the opening kickoff courtesy of a 25-yard curling effort from winger Justin McCall.
Hershey, Pa.’s Christian Pulisic (PA Classics) scored a hat trick in the US U-17 MNT ‘s 4-1 victory over their Bosnia and Herzegovina counterparts in Sarajevo on Sunday to claim the 2014 Josip Katalinski International Tournament title. The tournament championship is the team’s third in four months after winning the Nike International Friendlies in Florida last December and the Aegean Cup title in Turkey last January. More on the win from Soccer America and SBI.
MLS
Clint Dempsey was voted Player of of the Week by the North American Soccer Reporters after his hat trick in Seattle’s 4-4 draw with Portland.
Toronto currently sits atop the allocation order for returning players to MLS. Asked if the club would be interested in Brek Shea should he opt to return to the league, Toronto FC general manager Tim Bezbatchenko said, “Yeah, 100 percent. I mean, Brek Shea is a dynamic U.S. international. I think you’d take any of these guys seriously.”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has a poll on what the MLS franchise reported by Philly.com to be announced on April 16, should be called.
NWSL
Philadelphia Independence favorite Veronica Bouquete, the 2011 WPS Player of the Year, has been acquired by Portland Thorns via a trade with Western New York Flash. The Thorns are now coached by former Philadelphia Independence head coach Paul Riley. Also on the Thorns roster is former Independence midfielder Sinead Farrelly, who hails from Havertown.
US
US Soccer president Sunil Gulati spoke to reporters on Monday about the reason behind the shock firing of USWNT head coach Tom Sermanni.
It’s probably three or four things. One of those is the evaluation of where the team is going. Two is, talking with people in and around the team. And whenever we have changes or possible changes or directional changes, we talk to players, we talk to staff, we talk to people who have observed the team and we rely on our own assessment. Third, the results at the Algarve Cup weren’t what we hoped for. The standards for this team are very high. That doesn’t mean one loss or even two losses would necessitate or push us toward a change
Gulati said a player revolt was not behind the firing. “This isn’t a group of players coming to seek us out and saying there’s something wrong…This wasn’t a collective group of players coming to us and saying we have to make a change. Absolutely not.”
Gulati seemed to imply that one issue was Sermanni’s laid-back coaching style as compared to that of his predecessor, Pia Sunhage. “Tom does have a unique style and Pia’s is very different. The demand from all of us in the Women’s program and the women’s team fits well with certain styles and not so well with other styles…It’s important the collective buy into the direction and how you are moving forward and we had some concerns there.”
Gulati said that the process of hiring a new coach is ongoing. “Over the next days and perhaps weeks, we will decide on who is going to take the national team on a long-term basis, on a permanent basis.”
He said further, “If we have a chance between two equal candidates, my preference is to go with a a female. The same is true with an American coach….So is it (male or female) a consideration? The answer is yes.”
In case you’re wondering, CONCACAF’s qualification tournament for the 2015 Women’s World Cup will take place, as it did in 2010, Oct 16-26 in Cancun and Playa del Carmen, Mexico.
More on Gulati’s remarks from SBI, The Equalizer, Soccer America, ASN, ProSoccerTalk, SI, Goal.com, and Philly Soccer News.
Meanwhile, in Australia, the women’s national team players have revolted against Hesterine de Reus, who replaced Sermanni when he came to the US team. Football Federation Australia head David Gallop says Sermanni’s firing is coincidental and has no bearing on de Reus’ future with the Austrialian team.
Jozy Altidore has been dropped to Sunderland’s reserve team. Hopefully he has an escape clause in his contract for when Sunderland are relegated.
Elsewhere
Check out the latest Footy on the Telly for listings of today’s Champions League quarterfinal second-leg games.
The AP reports, “Infrastructure experts say that Brazil has run out of time to meet its promise to fully expand and renovate airports that will serve hundreds of thousands of fans pouring into the country for the World Cup that starts in just two months.”
Paul Irvine, who runs a travel agency in Rio de Janeiro, tells Reuters, “People coming to Brazil are going to be shocked, especially Americans, by the how bad the airports are. There won’t be any catastrophic issues…but they will be chaotic and ugly as heck.”
Pennarellodesign.com has a gallery of photos of legendary footballers that have been transformed to resemble old album covers as part of its LPFC project. Very, very cool.
Is it bad that I’m happy about Keon?
Probably for the best for all parties concerned. For all we know he asked to leave. Hopefully this frees up money and roster space for another striker.
I agree, would you prefer a striker though or a real rw? With Casey and Wenger and only one playing at a time I’d rather have the wing
frees up money and an international roster spot and it was pretty clear he wasnt going to play; i’d say that is something to be happy about
The international roster spot would be more important because wasn’t Keon’s contract guaranteed for this season anyways? If so, no money was freed up.
I assume “terminated by mutual consent” means no more $$ for Keon. The Union were not free to terminate his contract without his consent if his contract was guaranteed.
Is that a MLS rule? A team in other leagues can terminate a contract at any time guaranteed money or not. I take the mutual consent statement to just mean there is no animosity surrounding it just that both know its time to move on.
Whoa! The Timbers signed a lady?
Can we get ATL to call their team The Confederacy? I eagerly await Sheanon’s March.
Who writes ZoloTimes? I’d never heard of this blog until today and for the life of me don’t see a single name on there. Is it Anonymous? hmm.
We need a striker! Jozy Altidore needs out of Sunderland! What are we waiting for? Let’s go get him. Maybe we can lose Hackworth in Heathrow and get a real actual live coach!