Daily news roundups

“It’s close”: Curtin on Valdes, PPL Park to host Women’s WC qualification final, Ribeiro scores 2, more

Photo: Paul Rudderow

Sports Business Daily is reporting that the semifinal, third place, and final games of the CONCACAF qualification tournament for the 2015 Women’s World Cup will take place at PPL Park. The first round games will take place at Chicago’s Toyota Park, Kansas City’s Sporting Park, and at RFK. Philly.com’s Jonathan Tannenwald tweeted that the games at PPL Park will take place on Oct. 24 and 26.

Philadelphia Union

Carlos Valdes

Jim Curtin gave an update on Carlos Valdes on Wednesday:

It’s more of the same…It’s close. The second he’s on a plane here, I’ll let you guys now. We don’t have anything new or concrete right now…

We want him…It’s likely to get done. But until you sign all the paperwork and he’s physically here, that’s all that matters. And he’s not here right now.

More on Curtin’s comments from Delco Times.

Given how things turned out with San Lorenzo, is it any wonder that Valdes’ agent Ricardo Pachon told WinSports, “We will take precautions before doing business in Argentina in the future.”

By the way, San Lorenzo demolished Bolivian side Bolivar 5-0 (crappy Google translation here) in the first leg of the Copa Libertadores semifinal on Wednesday evening.

More Union news

Jim Curtin told reporters on Wednesday that fans can expect two 45 minute shifts of Union XIs against Crystal Palace on Friday. Unfortunately, neither will include Zach Pfeffer, who, ahead of next week’s MLS Homegrown Game, is recovering from a groin strain picked up while on national team duty with the US U-20s last week.

At Union Tally, Matthew De George projects what those two different lineups might be.

Since the 4-1 loss to LA Galaxy before the World Cup break, the Union have a 7-1-3 record in all competitions, scoring 25 goals, including six three-goal outings. At the Union website, you can place your vote for the best of those goals from five selections.

Brotherly Game looks at the stats for ten reasons why the Union offense is the hottest in the league.

Philly Soccer News on Sebastien Le Toux’s recent fine form.

Brotherly Game has the good, the bad, and the ugly from the Union’s games against New York and Chicago.

Ahead of Aston Villa’s current American tour, the Birmingham Mail recalls when Villa played the Union at PPL Park.

This just in from the Department of Whatev, 101 Great Goals notes an announcement on Serbian club FK Jagodina’s website (crappy Google translation here) that the club is interested in signing Freddy Adu. Goal.com reports “sources close to Adu” say he will sign with the club on Friday. According to the Goal.com report, Adu received “a multitude of offers” from clubs in Cyprus, Sweden, and India after recent trials with Blackpool, Stabaek and AZ Alkmaar resulted in nothing. Jagodina would be the tenth of the multitude of clubs Adu has played on since turning pro in 2004. More from MLSsoccer.com.

Local

Taking a 2-0 lead after 23 minutes of play with goals from Matt Bahner and Pedro Ribeiro (listed as a midfielder in the boxscore for the game), Harrisburg City Islanders gave up 3 unanswered goals in an seven minute span to the visiting Oklahoma City Energy before Ribeiro found the 84th minute leveler for a 3-3 draw. Ribeiro’s two tallies were his first goals as a professional. Match reports from Penn Live and USL PRO.

Liverpool FC Foundation, in conjunction with the Camden school district and Camden Youth Soccer Club, will host a youth soccer clinic on July 28 at Camden High School Athletic Field. Click here for registration information.

MLS

In Wednesday night’s lone league game, San Jose trounced Chicago, 5-1, with former Union man Shea Salinas scoring the first goal, which was also his first of the season. A Chicago win would have seen the Fire level on points with the Union with two games in hand — thanks, San Jose!

Real Salt Lake hosts Montreal tonight at 10 pm (MLS Live, MLS Direct Kick).

The trouncing bug was catching when it came to the evening’s summer friendlies between MLS teams and teams from Manchester, with LA being hammered 7-0 by Manchester United in front of 86,432 spectators at the Rose Bowl, and Kansas City getting a 4-1 thumping from Manchester City. Toronto lost by the much more respectable scoreline of 3-2 to Tottenham, Dallas lost 2-0 to Aston Villa, and Columbus drew 2-2 with Crystal Palace. In Wednesday’s summer friendly not involving an MLS side, a 90th minute goal saw Roma defeat Liverpool, 1-0, at a sold-out Fenway Park.

17-year-old US national team target Gedion Zelalem has been included in Arsenal’s roster for Saturday’s friendly against New York Red Bulls (5 pm, ESPN2).

DaMarcus Beasley to Houston? Yes, that is correct! On Wednesday, Houston signed Beasley to a DP contract after trading Warren Creavalle to Toronto for the top allocation spot.

Amid reports that the Frank Lampard to NYC FC deal has been completed — the club is set to announce a “major new signing” today at 10:30 am —  The Daily Mail notes a New York Daily News report from Monday reminding readers of an incident on September 12, 2001 in which “Lampard and three team mates allegedly stripped, swore and vomited in front of US tourists stranded at Heathrow after flights were grounded following the attacks by terrorists on the World Trade Center.”

Is Jay DeMerit about to announce his retirement?

A report by Brazilian sports marketing firm Pluri Consulting (click here for link to original report in Portuguese, crappy Google translation here) says MLS is third in the world’s leagues in terms of rate of occupation with stadiums averaging 90.7 percent of capacity (Bundesliga is No. 1 at 97.7 percent, Premier League No. 2 at 97.5 percent). In terms of average attendance, MLS is ninth in the world at 18,743, the third highest among non European countries (Mexico averages 22,939 (50 percent of capacity), Argentina averages 20,599 (55 percent of capacity).

NWSL

Fourth place Washington (28 points) hosted third place Portland (30 points) to a 1-1 draw on Wednesday.

US

As expected, officials from Sporting Kansas City and local government announced on Wednesday the plan to build a $75 million US Soccer National Training and Coaching Development Center in Kansas City. More from MLSsoccer.com, Soccer America, SBI, Kansas City Star, and Wyandotte Daily.

The AP reports, “Movie theaters around the U.S. will show live English soccer games on their big screens on Saturday mornings.”

Elsewhere

Reuters reports, “The Dutch soccer association (KNVB) wants to postpone discussion over participation in the next World Cup in Russia as an angry country on Wednesday mourned victims of the Malaysian airliner shot down over Ukraine by Russian-backed separatists on a flight from Amsterdam last week.”

Reuters also reports, “Several senior politicians in German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling conservative party raised the possibility on Wednesday of stripping Russia of its right to host the 2018 World Cup after the downing of a passenger plane over Ukraine.”

A friendly between Lille and Maccabi Haifa in Bischofshofen, Austria was abandoned in the 85th minute after pro-Palestinian protestors invaded the pitch. The Jerusalem Post reports,

Punches and profanities were exchanged between the handful of youngsters, who waved Palestinian and Turkish flags throughout the match, and the Haifa players, who were mainly stunned by the scenes.

The security stewards on hand were slow to react, but ultimately the situation calmed down, with several of the protesters being escorted out of the stadium and the Haifa players leaving the pitch unscathed.

Maccabi released a statement after the incident that said, “This club believes in co-existence, tolerance and is against violence. We denounce the violence that was used against us. This didn’t happen because of sport or football, it happened because we are a team which represents Israel.” More on the story from The BBC, The Guardian, The Daily Mail, SI, and ProSoccerTalk.

Brazilian midfielder Fred, one of six South American players who refused to return with Shakhtar Donetsk from a friendly in France last weekend, has reported to the team’s training camp.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport has reportedly agreed to hear the appeal on the Luis Suarez biting ban.

La Liga joins Serie A in adopting the use of vanishing spray to mark the distance between a wall and a free kick.

19 Comments

  1. we NEED to see Jimmy and Riberio up here and playing before the end of the year

    • this is entirely speculation on my part but i get the feeling that the union has committed to having mclaughlin and marquez in harrisburg for the entirety of their season

      • old soccer coach says:

        the senior side in any sports organization should respect the efforts of their junior sides to maximize their competitive success. If the Union need City Islander loanees to fill out a roster for a friendly, so be it. But taking important players away from a game in a playoff chase just flesh out the bench would create ill will. Jimmy and Richie have no immediate, obvious replacements on the HCI roster, especially Richie who has played every minute I’ve managed to watch on you tube. Incidentally Ribeiro played as the striker in a 4-2-3-1 until he tied it in the 84th, when he dropped to DCM for the last 9 (6+3).

      • yeah i think the points you make are right. i’m not dogging on the decision if that is actually what they decided to do

  2. kingkowboys says:

    The Valdes situation is an agonizing grind. Get it done, and put us out of our misery.
    .
    Awesome to hear Ribeiro get a brace and first goals as a pro. Not so awesome to hear about Pfeffer.
    .
    Freddy Adu…just lol. I think he needs to be ignored. It gets depressing hearing about his odyssey to find a club.

  3. i don’t know how many people here watched the harrisburg game last night but it was worth watching if for no other reason than seeing ribiero hug hoppenot after his first goal. the height difference made me think i was watching a circus sideshow hahaha

    • Who looked good?

      • ribiero looked good because he scored twice but it is kind of hard to judge who is playing well in lower league games because the way everyone moves is so disorganized and the camera broadcasting the game is set up at a bad angle

      • I watched the first half- a very entertaining 5 goals- and have to agree about the camera work. They get a little too close-up happy, makes it hard to watch everybody. Also had to laugh with the height difference and Ribiero. A couple times it was like watching elementary school kids play and the one really big kid with the early growth spurt has 3 or 4 little guys nipping at his ankles while he holds them off and dribbles the ball.

      • old soccer coach says:

        the midfield was shredded defensively by runners from the OKC midfield. Nielsen’s three subs in the 24th changed the game. Becher has been playing two attacking center mids (Ekra and Barill) at DCM and it showed in that 7 minute stretch. Against other teams the pairing has worked well, winning balls and maintaining possession. Picking up runners defensively is clearly an opportunity for future growth!

  4. The Black Hand says:

    Bummer about Demerit. He was a class player.

  5. Awesome analyzation piece on the Union offense, very thorough but easy to look through.
    .
    Great to see Ribeiro stepping up.
    .
    The Manchester games are a perfect follow up to the piece written here yesterday. It just makes MLS look awful.

    • There was an interesting comment thread over at MLSsoccer.com a couple days ago. It was after the article talking about Sunderland and Fulham being interested in Besler. Now I love MLS, but there were people in there claiming Besler shouldn’t go to either club as SKC was more talented than both. I think they were saying SKC would perform better in the EPL than either. A few results like last night should bring them back to earth. I’m sorry I forgot about that LA game last night, would have loved to see Bruce Arena’s perpetual sour-face.

  6. The Valdes saga is getting annoying. MLS teams are signing DP’s and USMNT players left and right, and we can’t even get our own guy back from loan. It’s almost getting to the point of embarrassing.

    • OneManWolfpack says:

      Excellent point on the MLS and Valdes vs MLS and USMNT players. I love MLS, but chalk this up to another reason this league is looked at like a joke.
      .
      Very upset we won’t get to see Pfeffer tomorrow, but it is what it is.

      • I really don’t want Pfeffer rushed to playing with the big boys. See what happened to young Charles Renken.

      • Except he isn’t playing with Harrisburg either…So he isnt getting experience other than training with the first team and youth international games.

      • old soccer coach says:

        He was physically dominated against Vancouver (?) by Nigel Reo-Coker in the first 45 and was subbed off. He’s still a teenager. He was not an imposing physical specimen when he signed and that has not changed.

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