Daily news roundups

MacMath-M’Bolhi speculation, H-burg’s Bauque called up by Mozambique, Reading’s Bono named to All-Conference XI, more

Photo: Daniel Gajdamowicz

Philadelphia Union

No new reports on either Rais M’Bolhi or Carlos Valdes.

Kevin Kinkead did tweet on Monday, “I’m hearing that Rais M’Bolhi to Philadelphia is close to being done. Zac MacMath more likely to be moved than Andre Blake.”

Taking Kinkead’s tweet as a starting point (and M’Bolhi’s arrival as a given), Vavel speculates about who the Union might receive in return for a MacMath trade.

At Fansided, a series of Kinkead tweets provide the spine of a post about what trade value MacMath might have.

Brotherly Game looks at the stats to try to determine if Zac MacMath has improved this year.

At the Delco Times, Matthew De George considers what the Union’s options might be at center back if Maurice Edu has moved permanently back to the midfield. De George also considers what the impact of Brian Brown might be.

US Soccer announced on Monday that the US Open Cup semifinal match between Seattle Sounders and Chicago Fire on Aug. 13 will be streamed on its website as its “Game of the Round.” Why the Dallas-Union game on Aug 12 isn’t also being streamed on the federation site is beyond comprehension given that it’s the semifinal round and therefore consists of two games. It remains to be seen if Dallas will have a stream of the game.

At Zolo Talk, a speculation piece on what the Union season might have looked like if John Hackworth was fired before the start of the season. The look at what could’ve been is followed by another post with some thoughts on what needs to be done.

At the Union website, Danny Cruz talks about playing in front of his father in the Colorado game two weeks ago, the first time that his father, a soldier who has been deployed overseas, was able to see Cruz play at PPL Park.

An opinion piece at Brotherly Game calls for an end to the pretense that “I’m Looking Over a Four-Leaf  Clover” an anthem at Union games. I would venture to say that, unless you’re an original SoB, sit in the River End, were at PPL Park during the short-lived (and almost universally ignored) attempts to prompt fans elsewhere in the stadium to sing the song at the 20:10, or looked at the SoB or Union Wikipedia pages, you might not even know that the song is supposed to be an anthem.

Despite not playing a league game last weekend, the Union move up one spot to No. 13 in the power rankings at Soccer America.

In case you’re curious, Crystal Palace wrapped up their US tour with a 3-0 defeat of Richmond Kickers.

Local

Harrisburg City Islanders forward, and former Union trialist, Clesio Bauque has been called up by Mozambique for an African Cup of Nations qualifier against Tanzania.

At Penn Live, Michael Bullock looks at Harrisburg City Islanders dwindling playoff chances — ” it’s getting to the point where it’s win or else” — with the team currently tied for 11th place with nine games left in the regular season.

On Wednesday, Harrisburg hosts LA Galaxy II (7 pm, YouTube), who have won their last three games.

PDL announced its All-Conference best XIs on Monday and Reading United goalkeeper Alex Bono has been named to the East Conference team. Former Ocean City Nor’easters defender Ken Tribbett, who played this season with Michigan Bucks, was named to the Central Conference team.

Philadelphia Fury have announced the signing of Emmanuel Gómez, the Gambian defender who formerly played for Toronto FC before an ACL injury effectively ended his MLS career.

Pete Pososki has been promoted to top assistant coach of UPenn’s men’s team.

Registration is open for the second annual 3v3 Building Bridges charity tournament in support of the Camden Youth Soccer Club that will take place on Aug. 17 at Camden High School Athletic Field. The top four teams will be eligible to compete in the Challenge Sports 3v3 National Championships at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, July 30–Aug. 2, 2015.

MLS

In a rare Monday night game, LA Galaxy was in Seattle and defeated the first place Sounders (38 points), 3-0. All of the goals happened in the first 36 minutes of the game, with Landon Donovan bagging the second goal and assisting on the other two. The win sees LA (30 points) jump three spots in the Western Conference standings to third place. For Seattle, it was their first loss at home since March.

It was a busy Monday for the Red Bulls. First, the team announced that Connor Lade has been loaned to New York Cosmos. Later, the club announced the signing of French defender Damien Perrinelle.

Ronaldinho is available and an “as yet unidentified MLS side” is reportedly among those interested in signing him.

Citylab.com has an interesting look at the part changes in the structure of local government have played in the emergence of Kansas City, Kansas as “The Unlikely New Soccer Capital of the United States.”

Alexi Lalas posted the following quote from Don Garber regarding Miami expansion:

Miami remains a top priority for us. But we are mindful of the challenges we had in the past and must have the right ownership group and stadium location.  David has been working to secure additional partners, all if approved, would be terrific MLS owners. David and his partners have not yet been able to secure a site that we believe provides the proper access and iconic presence that will help ensure success. We remain focused on a downtown Miami location, and we will not expand to Miami unless we have a downtown site for the stadium.

Two things come to mind. First, efforts to entice Beckham to plant a new stadium in one of the towns or counties surrounding Miami would seem to be fruitless. Second, one wonders if the league would say “we will not expand to New York unless we have a downtown site for the stadium.”

US

Julian Green says, “I just want to try my best with the national team. I’m happy to be a part of this team. Of course, I want to be the future of the US men’s national team. But it’s all about me. I have to score goals and be good on the field…I think it’s very important to give the young guys a chance to play. I think we did a good job – me or DeAndre Yedlin or John Anthony Brooks. We have a lot of young, good players, and I’m looking forward to playing with them.”

More on Green from Reuters.

At ASN, Blake Thomsen has three thoughts on Gideon Zelalem: he’s not ready to help Arsenal or the USMNT yet; he may be ready to help both “in 12-36 months”; who knows which country he’ll choose to play for.

The CONCACAF qualifiers for the 2015 Women’s World Cup — including the semifinals, third place, and championship games at PPL Park — will all be played on grass. The 45 of the 52 games at 2015 Women’s World Cup, hosted by Canada, will be played on artificial turf. Megan Rapinoe is not pleased:

I think it’s absolutely absurd that we’re playing on turf and it’s really a slap in the face to women’s football by FIFA and just a show of disrespect. I understand for the league not every team is going to be able to have a grass surface, but I think FIFA made $2 billion on the World Cup.

Maybe you’re not having a thousand times more injuries, but there’s an aspect to the purity of the game and the quality of the game that is played on grass that is different on turf. They can say what they want, but it’s all bullshit to me.

Exactly.

Elsewhere

The Guardian reports, “Migrant workers who built luxury offices used by Qatar’s 2022 football World Cup organizers have told the Guardian they have not been paid for more than a year and are now working illegally from cockroach-infested lodgings.” More on the story from The Guardian and SI.

Following the Guardian’s report, FIFA executive committee member Jim Boyce said,

If the supreme committee is now using offices built by these people they should immediately take steps with the Qatar government to make sure they are properly paid for the work they have done.

If they are serious and accept there has been a problem and they are going to ensure that labor rights are maintained on any work done in conjunction with the World Cup, then the supreme committee has to ensure this is carried out.

Reuters reports, “A Spanish court will push ahead with prosecuting the Barcelona forward Lionel Messi for alleged tax evasion despite a recommendation from the public prosecutor the charges be dismissed.”

Zlatan being Zlatan:

14 Comments

  1. What will it take for FIFA to realize that Qatar just isn’t ready for show time? Their prepared statements clearly aren’t helping anyone or lighting a fire under the Qatar World Cup organizers.

    • It’s all a hoax and an abomination. As Kurt Vile sings, ‘yeah it’s just another day in the shame chamber.’

      • +1 for Kurrrrt

      • OneManWolfpack says:

        Love me some Kurt Vile… nice reference!
        .
        The US Open Cup and MLS embarrass themselves once again. How do you stream one game and not the other?! Unbelievable.
        .
        FIFA is just forcing this Qatar World Cup and it’s disgraceful that nothing real is being don’t about it. Story after story of atrocities, and corruption, but there’s no signs of actual change. Wow.
        .
        I truly don’t understand the M’Bolhi thing, but if Zac gets us a real LB or a true striker (I prefer a real LB) then I can live with the deal.

  2. As of this writing 53% of those voting on the. Brotherly Game article say to ditch singing Four Leaf Clover. I must admit I am among them.

    • OneManWolfpack says:

      I agree. The SOBs and Union have done nothing to really promote it as a stadium / fan wide thing.

    • I hate 4 leaf clover.
      It is really forced and distracting from the game experience.

      • Not to mention that only a quarter of the SOBs sing it, along with all the other songs. The outer edges of TRE are really pretty weak. Kind of a shame because if they all joined in, it could be pretty outstanding.

  3. The Vavel article linked above, which tries to analyze who/what we might trade MacMath for, reads like they just picked players at random. There’s maybe two or three players on their list who would fill a need, and all of them are in demand with their club. They thought of Toronto’s starting left back Justin Morrow, but not Houston’s soon-to-be-back-up left back Corey Ashe? And he’s the most obvious target. We really, really need a starting-quality left back.
    .
    Obviously our defensive line isn’t our only problem, but I think fixing our most glaring flaw will diminish the problems we have elsewhere on the pitch. Trade MacMath and Berry for Ashe and some allocation money, bring in M’Bolhi and Valdes. Sounds like a recipe for success. I like where Curtin/Sak are headed. All they need to do now is execute.

    • John Ling says:

      They would likely have to make another move, just for salary cap purposes. As I recall, they were pretty tight agains the cap as it is; adding just Valdes’ salary would push them over – not even taking into consideration Valdes+M’Bolhi. One move to make to clear space would be to send Brian Carroll to NE for allocation money and/or a draft pick. I don’t know if Carroll+Macmath would clear enough salary cap space, though.

      • I don’t think clearing Carroll and MacMath would be enough, either. But we could clear MacMath, Berry, Carroll, Hoppenot, and Fabinho (assuming we get Ashe or a different starting-quality left back, and somehow hold on to whoever of Gaddis/Williams will be subject to the expansion draft). That would clear over half a million in cap space. Additionally, we could clear either Cruz or Wenger, which would free up to $242 k alone (Wenger’s salary). We’re very deep at the attacking midfield positions, we just haven’t seen all our options on the field yet (Ribeiro, Bone, Pfeffer, McLaughlin). I think the problem making personnel decisions going forward is that the trades very much depend on the formation the coach wants to play, and we don’t even know who the coach will be, let alone how he’ll want to form the team.

  4. James Lockerbie says:

    I have a new song to suggest to S.o.B

    This is my Union, this is my song
    Praising my family all day long
    This is my Union, this is my song
    Praising my family all day long

    Perfect possession, perfect in flight
    Visions of glory now burst to my sight
    Union ascending, fight till the end
    Echoes of family, the River defend

    This is my Union, this is my song
    Praising my family all day long
    This is my Union, this is my song
    Praising my family all day long

    put to the right music and starting it with the s.o.b section it might work. words provided by Neilbd

    • James Lockerbie says:

      We need a song that connects to the team,stadium a player or even a fan or group of fans that’s the only way a song can be accepted by the entire stadium. the above attempt was made shortly after the passing of Eric Shertz trying to reflect on his statement of “being with Family” while at the games

  5. Nice song, revisions to simplify:

    This is my Union, this is my song
    Being with family all day long
    Perfect possession, perfect in flight
    Visions of glory burst to my sight
    Union ascending, Philly defend
    Fighting to win at the River End
    This is my Union, this is my song
    Being with family all day long.

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