Daily news roundups

Valdes says “hours, days” before MLS return, more news

Photo: Earl Gardner

Philadelphia Union

The Union are on the road to face Chicago on Saturday (8:30 pm, CSN). Check out our match preview. Here’s another from Brotherly Game.

So, the Carlos Valdes saga seems to be moving quickly toward a resolution, and it looks like Union fans have reason to remain, like interim head coach Jim Curtin, cautiously optimistic. Here’s why, courtesy of a series of tweets from Juan Arango, a journalist who writes for Soccerly, BBC, and the Daily Telegraph:

  • Arango tweeted that a San Lorenzo club official said on Argentine radio station La Red AM910, “San Lorenzo will announce that Valdés’ contract will be rescinded due to “violation of contract terms.” The AP (crappy Google translation) is also reporting that Valdes’ days at San Lorenzo are done.
  • Arango then tweeted that Valdes’ agent Ricardo Pachon said, “The future of Carlos Valdés is in MLS.” The agent added, “Philadelphia have made an official request asking Valdés to report to the club.
  • Arango tweeted that Valdes said, “When the payments weren’t coming in, (MLS) were asking me to come back,” adding, “Ever since I left, (Union) have always given me the chance to return.”
  • Valdes expressed his gratitude to the Union for allowing him to go on loan.
  • Valdes said, “It should be a question of hours, days when I head back to MLS,” adding, “I will start training against (sic) next week.”

Hopefully, the Union will be able to make some kind of official comment soon.

The back story to all of this recent movement centers around Valdes not being paid by San Lorenzo for six months. San Lorenzo’s decision to rescind Valdes’ loan contract reportedly came (crappy Google translation) after Valdes reminded San Lorenzo vice president Marcelo Tinelli, who was going on something of a snarky rant on Twitter about the central defender’s failure to return from the Word Cup to train with the club, that he hadn’t been paid in months. ( One source saying that San Lorenzo paid $200,000 to MLS over two installments for Valdes’ salary.) Below are some South American sources on the still developing news.

 At the Inquirer, Tim McManus says three moves made by Jim Curtin have been key to the Union’s recent resurgence: Moving Maurice Edu to center back, starting Ethan White at center back, and letting Conor Casey roam free.

Austin Berry on his season thus far, one in which a series of fluky injuries have kept him out of the starting lineup for weeks at a time:

It’s been hard to get into a rhythm with the team. I mean, the guys are great, but it’s one thing to get along with them in the locker room, it’s another thing to know how they’re playing on the field. Every time I get back it seems like I’m out again, and I kind of lose some steps. So it’s been disappointing from that standpoint…

If you talk to a good number of people who have been in the league, stuff happens like this. Sometimes you just have one year where everything you seem to do gets an injury or you get sick or there’s something like that.

Berry hopes he’ll get the nod this weekend against Chicago, his former team.

 Matthew De George writes about how the shifting Union back line. Ethan White says,

I think the way we’ve gone about training, no matter who we put in there will do well,” White said. “I feel like we’re always a unit. You can put any pairing back there to do well, and as far as confidence, I think we believe we can beat any team. We had a rough start, but we’re putting it together. We’re scoring goals, now we just have to keep them out.

At Philly.com, Jonathan Tannenwald reports that Zach Pfeffer will be added to the roster for the MLS Homegrown Game that will be played during the All-Star week in Portland. You can watch Pfeffer, along with Union Academy product Zack Steffen and Lancaster-native and Pfeffer’s teamate at Hoffenheim Russel Canouse tonight when the US U-20 team faces Australia in their final game at the NTC Invitational (10 pm, USsoccer.com). Pfeffer has 2 goals and an assist from the first two games in the tournament.

More on Fred scoring his first MLS goal since 2010.

More on why Freddy Adu should play for the New York Cosmos.

Local

Ocean Township’s Taylor Racioppi, and Penn State’s Rosemary Chandler and Brittany Basinger, have been named to USWNT U-20 World Cup roster. The tournament will take place in Canada in Edmonton, Montreal, Moncton and Toronto, Aug. 5-24.

Harrisburg City Islanders host Wilmington Hammerheads tonight at 7 pm (NSCAA TV, YouTube).

Reading United, who host New Jersey LUSO Parma in their final home game of the season on Saturday, official postseason roster. The 7 pm match will be preceded at 1 pm by the Fourth Annual “Hometown Heroes” charity game.

Ocean City Nor’easters host Baltimore Bohemians on Saturday night at 7 pm.

The Temple women’s team have announced Keith Cappo as new assistant coach.

MLS

Apparently, despite all the reports of interest from European clubs, Matt Besler would prefer to remain with Sporting Kansas City.
In case you missed it, former Union center back Jeff Parke has been out of action with DC for a month with “a foot ailment” that could see him miss several more months of play.

Two neighborhood hearings will take place next week in Washington for citizen input into the proposed DC stadium plan.

US

Jozy Altidore talks to Sunderland Echo about the hamstring injury that ended his World Cup.

I would say the first couple of days (after the injury) were the biggest disappointment in my life as a professional.

It was incredibly difficult.

I’d done the injury before in 2011, so realizing how it felt, I instantly knew it would be very difficult for me to come back (at the tournament).

I was just miserable. I’ve never felt so low as a player.

At SI, Alejandro Bedoya recounts how the “I Believe” chant was embraced by fans at FC Nantes. Great story.

Elsewhere

UEFA has announced that it will prevent Russian and Ukrainian clubs from playing each other in European competition “until further notice.” Also, Israeli clubs will not be allowed to host matches in European competition while fighting continues between Israel and Hamas.

The Central American Football Union has released details of the 2014 Copa Centroamericana, which will be played in the US, Sept. 3-13. Games will be played at RFK, the Cotton Bowl, BBVA Compass Stadium, and Memorial Coliseum.

Apparently, noting that there are very few trophies to be won in the NBA (is there more than one?), NBA commissioner Adam Silver is looking to European soccer tournaments such as the FA Cup for “other opportunities in the league to create excitement.”

Remembering the launch 20 years ago of adidas Predators.

11 Comments

  1. Eli Pearlman-Storch says:

    At what point do we stop proposing the US as an alternate site for the 2022 World Cup and instead offer our services to host in 2018?

  2. it’s funny that like a month or a month and a half ago we were scrambling for centerback cover. now we know ethan white is pretty good and could have been playing all season, edu will play centerback if asked, austin berry is no longer injured, and valdes is coming back (not to mention marquez playing pretty well in harrisburg by all accounts). we went from having like one and half centerbacks to anywhere between four and six (depending on if you count okugo and edu)

  3. If these reports about Valdes are all true, I think we must play Berry/White at CB on Saturday. The future of the team this year should be with some form of Edu, Nogs, Okugo and Maidana in Midfield. Maidana will most like the out a little while, so use this time to get the other 3 used to playing together. I know, especially with the current more defensive posture we’ve been using (fairly successfully actually), that Edu will probably stay at CB, but to me it’s a waste. Right now the Wenger/Cruz position has been the least productive (mostly). Replace that spot. It’s exciting to think of Nogs and Maidana roaming in creative roles with Edu and Okugo cleaning up everything behind them.

    • I’m not pushing Edu out of CB until Valdes is here, if at all. I completely get the point of them potentially being the 4 most talented players on the roster, but I don’t think there’s enough room in midfield for Nogueira, Maidana, Edu, and Okugo. All are best suited to play centrally. An Edu Valdes pairing sounds great to me, with White as the 3rd CB.

      • I agree. Someone else mentioned how excited they were for a Okugo-Noguiera-Maidana midfield. With a “spine” of McMath, Edu-Valdez, Okugo-Noguiera-Maidana, and Casey-LeToux, that has to be a playoff team in the East. Gaddis-Williams at FB. Wings up in the air but there are options. Just have to get Maidana healthy, and get Valdes back quickly, and make sure Edu would be happy at CB. OK, some IFs there but that would be a quality starting side.

      • Great One says:

        I’m actually starting to soften my stance. Bc edu has looked so solid at CB. Also him and Carlos should theoretically dominate

      • John Ling says:

        I had visions of this combo dancing in my head a bit last night. I have to think opposing forwards would not look forward to that matchup.

  4. Read all the Spanish articles in regarding Valdes, and he is definitely OUT of San Lorenzo. At this point, it just seems like a matter of time before he is back at PPL park.

  5. Heartburn says:

    I vote for keeping Edu on the back line with Valdes. They WOULD dominate. No doubt about it!

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