Daily news roundups

Maidana, Casey in TOW, power rankings, USA in Brazil, Blatter calls corruption claims racist, more

Photo: Paul Rudderow

Philadelphia Union

Cristian Maidana was named to MLSsoccer.com’s Team of the Week, with Conor Casey receiving an honorable mention. At Goal.com, both Maidana and Casey were named tot the Team of the Week.

Casey said of his recent hot streak in the scoring column, “I’ve still got a couple of years left. And I’ll keep trying to show it on the field.” With Maidana pumping in that quality service, we all hope that shouldn’t be a problem.

Power rankings! At Soccer America, the Union come in at No. 15. ESPN has them at No. 18.

In the latest Inside Doop, Dave Zeitlin notes, with Carlos Valdes reaching his goal of making the Colombia World Cup team, “it will be interesting to see if the Argentine club San Lorenzo turns the loan for Valdes into a purchase. Or given the Union’s center back issues, perhaps Hackworth will try to get Valdes back in Philly after the World Cup.”

This just in from the Department of Get the F’ Outta Here,

It’s regeneration time for the Union (and, truth be told, for many of the team’s fans).

Brotherly Game has its state heroes (Casey and Maidana) andstat zero (Pfeffer) from Saturday’s game and notes the Union defense has hit an all-time low with the worst defensive output for five games in franchise history at 2.6 goals allowed.

Here are some player ratings for the Whitecaps after Saturday’s game from Eighty Six Forever and Away From The Numbers.

Reuters reports, “PPL Corp and Riverstone Holdings LLC said on Monday they would combine their merchant power generation businesses into a new stand-alone, publicly traded independent power producer.” The new company will be called Talen Energy Corp. Does this mean that PPL Park will be getting a new name?

Local

At the Union website, the start of a series on area connections to the World Cup begins with the coach of the 1930 US World Cup team, Robert Millar. Settling in Philadelphia after immigrating from Scotland, Millar played for Tacony, Bethlehem Steel FC, and Philadelphia Hibernian.

The Villanova men’s team has released its 2014 schedule.

MLS

No Kaka for Orlando?

Looks like the Minnesota Vikings are pairing up with Relevant Sports to pursue a MLS franchise.

While the New York Red Bulls-New York Cosmos US Open Cup match on Saturday will be available via livestream on the US Soccer website, you’ll also be able to watch it One World Sports. NASLLive.com will be showing two other US Open Cup matches involving MLS and NASL teams on Saturday.

US

The US team had its first training session in Brazil after landing early Monday morning. Tim Howard said after arriving in Sao Paulo, “It’s beautiful. Everyone’s happy to be here and unpack our bags. It’s like Christmas morning.” Speaking of Christmas, here’s more on the Christmas tree.

US Soccer has more on the team’s arrival and first training session, including photo’s. So does SI. At the AP, an interesting read that includes a description of how, even with a police escort, the short trip from the team’s hotel to the training facility can take a while.

Jurgen Klinsmann remained in Florida to watch Ghana, the USA’s first opponent in the group stage, destroy South Korea, 4-0. Soccer America says the game has given Klinsmann plenty to think about.

Howard said, “Every training session we do now is going to be geared toward [Ghana], even tonight in the little bit we do. That’s the cool thing about getting down here. It’s all business now. We’re focused on how we’re going to beat Ghana.”

The Guardian talks to Matt Besler.

News flash: “Juergen Klinsmann has a stake in both U.S. and German World Cup teams.”

News flash: Despite being a special adviser to the US team, former German national team player and coach Berti Vogts admits he’s still rooting for Germany. Give us our money back!

While some folks still seem to be displeased at the notion of dual nationals playing for the US, at Pacific Standard, Aaron Gordon writes about how the US military has shaped American soccer. “One could say with only the wryest of smiles that the Soviet blockade of Berlin was the most important event in U.S. soccer history.”

At the Seattle Times, Larry Stone on why the US no longer needs the World Cup for “validation.” Stone writes, “The difference now is that when the World Cup hype fades, soccer will remain what it was before the tournament: A formidable presence in America.”

At Al Jazeera, Graham Parker looks at why so many teams used the US for pre-World Cup training and how the US can host a major tournament like the World Cup on “very short notice.”

Ad Age notes the rise in soccer related advertising revenue in the US, a rise of 43 percent since the lat World Cup. Also up, TV viewership and some “serious brand loyalty.”

National Soccer Hall of Famer Jack Hynes, who passed away last August at the age of 92, has had a street named after him in Staten Island.

Elsewhere

All the concerns about corruption in the voting for the hosting rights to the 2022 World Cup. Well, according to Sepp Blatter, they’re racist. “We have seen what the British press has published. I don’t know what the reasoning is behind this but we must maintain unity…Once again there is a sort of storm against FIFA relating to the Qatar World Cup. Sadly there’s a great deal of discrimination and racism and this hurts me. It really makes me sad.” More from the BBC.

Police fired teargas at striking transit workers protested in Sao Paulo on Monday

From the Guardian, “Franz Beckenbauer faces the prospect of being fined for failing to assist the investigation into alleged corruption at FIFA.”

You will recall that the Cameroon team refused to board its plane to Brazil until an agreement was reached in a dispute over bonuses. Goal.com reports, “The Cameroon Football Federation (CFF) has confirmed it had to take out a private loan to meet players’ World Cup bonus demands.”

USA Today has six ways for soccer novices to sound smart when watching the World Cup.

Finally, a World Cup song I can get behind!

 

6 Comments

  1. Sepp Blatter is so demonstrably, brazenly evil it is almost admirable. You have to wonder if he preplans the shit that comes out of his mouth or if he just makes it up as he goes along and he has to sit back and in amazement as he listens to what bullshit comes out of his own mouth.

  2. I only clicked on the usatoday story to hateread it but it’s actually kind of funny

  3. It is obvious that FIFA does not care at all about the average soccer/football/futbol fan and only cares about making money for its most seniot executives. Awarding the World Cup to Qatar has to be both their boldest and most idiotic ploy yet. The second most idiotic thing is that vanity project of a movie about the executive “heroes” at FIFA.

Leave a Reply to Osager Cancel

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*