Daily news roundups

Reports say Valdes return to be announced today, the draw in KC, league results, more

Photo: Earl Gardner

Philadelphia Union

Carlos Valdes

It looks like the Carlos Valdes saga is finally coming to an end.

Shortly after 11 am on Sunday, Taylor Twellman tweeted:

At 1 pm, the Union sent out a release saying that Jim Curtin “will make a player announcement” today at noon. The press conference will be live streamed via the Union’s YouTube channel.

Diego Pinzon, associate editor of FutbolMLS, the league’s Spanish language website, tweeted out the following soon after:

The text reads, “Carlos Valdés is already in U.S. More specifically in New York with friends. Coming Soon @ PhilaUnion.” The guy looking at his phone is presumably watching Twitter blow up with Valdes news.

Soon after, Daily News reporter Jake Kaplan tweeted:

Dave Zeitlin posted a story at CSN Philly saying the same. That article was quickly followed by two more at MLSsoccer.com and FutbolMLS.com. These in turn were followed by reports on Valdes’ return to the Union from WinSports (crappy Google translation here), Goal.com (crappy Google translation here), and the Daily News. The WinSports report says Valdes has been in the US since Friday.

Let us hope that in today’s press conference we learn some concrete details about the duration of Valdes’ return. Nobody wants the saga to resume with a new search for a loan after the end of the season.

Draw in KC

The Union came from behind to draw 1-1 in Kansas City on Friday night thanks to a goal from new loaner Brian Brown, who scored less than two minutes after being subbed into the game.

Brown said of his goal, “The first thing that came to my mind was to go to the bench and salute my coach for believing in me and putting me out there when we were down. He had the confidence in me to get something for the team…It’s an awesome feeling. This is what I’ve been working for…I think this is the team for me. All I need to do is train hard and build on this.”

Brian Carroll said, “Things are looking in a good direction. We need to stay together, stay unified as a group and support one another through thick and thin no matter who’s out there. When your number’s called, you need to be ready to step up and get the job done. We were able to pull out a point tonight, and now we’re ready to go back home and get some more points.”

Match reports from PSP, Philadelphia Union, Daily News, Delco Times, Philly Soccer News, Brotherly Game, Zolo Talk, MLSsoccer.com, Sporting Kansas City, Kansas City Star, The Blue Testament, Down The Byline, Soccerly (1), Soccerly (2), ProSoccerTalk, SBI, Stoppage Time Soccer, Soccerway, Goal.com, The Sports Network, and The AP. USA Today has a photo gallery from the game.

Postgame quotes here at PSP.

Brotherly Game has game changing moments from Saturday’s draw.

More Union news

Maurice Edu has been added to the MLS All-Star team roster, along with Bobby Boswell and Sean Franklin, to replace Chad Marshall, Robbie Keane and Omar Gonzalez. On Sunday, it was announced that Dom Dwyer was replacing Jermain Defoe on the roster. More from Philly.com, Delco Times, and CSN Philly.

At Union Tally, Matthew De George examines the “logical disconnect” between the Union drafting Zac MacMath and Andre Blake in the first round and then buying experienced goalkeepers like Rais M’Bolhi.

At the Union website, an article with quotes from M’Bolhi on why he decided to sign with the Union from last week’s press conference.

In the power rankings at ESPN, the Union come in at No. 12: “A playoff run isn’t out of the question.”

Union Academy alum Zack Steffen has been named to the 19 player roster for the US U-23 camp in Nassau, Bahamas, Aug. 3-7. The team will play their Bahamanian counterparts on Aug. 6.

Local

An eighth minute goal from Garret Pettis proved to be enough as Harrisburg City Islanders held off Dayton Dutch Lions for a 1-0 road win on Saturday to move into seventh place in the USL PRO standings. Match reports from USL PRO, Dayton Dutch Lions, and Penn Live.

Inter Milan defeated Roma 2-0 on Saturday in a sparsely attended game at the Linc that had an announced attendance of 12,169. Match reports from PSP, Inquirer, Philly Soccer News,and The AP.

You can donate to support Philadelphia’s team at the Street Soccer USA National Cup, which will take place in San Francisco, Aug. 15-17.

Readers who are coaches may be interested to know that Germantown Academy has several positions open: Upper School Freshmen Team Assistant Coach and Middle School Assistant Coach for the boys’ soccer program, and Upper School JV Assistant Coach for the girls’ program. If interested, email a cover letter and resume to Germantown Academy Director of Athletics Jim Fenerty.

MLS

In the Eastern Conference, first place Kansas City (39 points) drew 1-1 with seventh place Philadelphia (24 points). Second place DC (37 points) lost 1-0 on the road to eighth place Houston (22 points). Third place Toronto (29 points) defeated last place Montreal (14 points) 2-0 on the road. Fourth place New York (28 points) defeated sixth place New England (26 points), 2-1, with Charlie Davies’ goal for the Revolution his first since 2011. Fifth place Columbus (27 points) drew 1-1 with ninth place Chicago (22 points).

In the Western Conference, first place Seattle (38 points) lost 1-0 on the road to eighth place San Jose (23 points). Second place Salt Lake (36 points) defeated fifth place Colorado 1-0 on the road. With the shutout, Nick Rimando is tied with Kevin Hartman as the league’s all-time shutout leader with 112. Third place LA (33 points) defeated seventh place Portland (27 points), 3-1. Fourth place Dallas (33 points) defeated last place Chivas USA (23 points) 1-0 on the road. Sixth place Vancouver had the weekend off.

San Jose’s Steve Lenhart is out 4-6 weeks following knee surgery.

Frank Lampard will go on loan to Manchester City through January before joining New York City FC. Sky Sports reports Lampard has requested not to play against Chelsea, although Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini says Lampard will play against his former club if selected. Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger wonders if the Lampard loan is just a way for Manchester City to get around UEFA’s Financial Fair Play regulations.

“Sources have confirmed” to Goal.com that Jermaine Jones has rejected an offer from Chicago Fire valued at $6 million over two-and-a-half years. Jones refuted the numbers on Twitter and Chicago head coach Frank Yallop says he hasn’t heard anything from Jones about turning down the offer.

On the Ronaldinho front, New York Red Bulls sporting director Andy Roxburgh says Ronaldinho was never a target of the club. “Nobody has ever approached us. We haven’t been approached by anybody mentioning Ronaldinho…as the sporting director of this club, and I can speak also on behalf of my other colleagues in the business, we have not been approached about him. Nobody has offered us Ronaldinho. No one has said ‘How much money?’…I saw his name but I’ve never talked to Ronaldinho or his people or made any offers. And the answer is we wouldn’t be doing it anyway. It’s not a matter of did we or didn’t we? Or who spoke to him or who didn’t speak to him? A great player by the way, fantastic player by the way. He’s not for here.”

In an article looking at the the “promise & peril” of making the move from MLS to Europe from a player’s perspective,  Mechanicsburg native Bobby Warshaw, who currently plays for GAIS in Sweden, writes, “[T]here just isn’t as much incentive to make the jump across to Europe anymore. It’s gotten to the point where the likes of Sporting KC, Seattle, RSL, etc., are as attractive as the European clubs that would consider MLS players.” He continues,

Suddenly, players choosing to stay in MLS doesn’t say as much about the ambitions of the players as it does about the quality of the league…

Maybe the new challenge for American players isn’t to thrive in Europe, but to help make MLS Europe’s equal. Instead of being an export league, why not make it into a destination, truly shooting for the stars. That’d be pretty cool, huh?

At ASN, an analysis of the viewing experience of watching a soccer game at Yankee Stadium, which will be the home of New York City FC until the team finds a location and builds its own stadium.

The owners of the Sacramento Kings are in discussions to buy USL PRO’s Sacramento Republic. The Sacramento Bee reports, “There is no agreement in place yet between the Kings and the Republic, but the Kings owners are interested in the idea of investing in the franchise and elevating it to the level of Major League Soccer.”

While the owners of the Minnesota Vikings believe their new stadium will be a good home for an MLS franchise, another group working to bring an MLS franchise to Minneapolis is backing the construction of a soccer specific stadium that will not be covered and will have real grass.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2014/08/03/6601050/kings-owners-in-talks-to-buy-sacramentos.html#storylink=cpy

NWSL

First place Seattle (50 points) drew 1-1 on the road with second place Kansas City (38 points). Third place Washington (34 points) defeated fifth place Chicago (28 points), 2-1. Fourth place Portland (33 points) defeated eighth place Houston (18 points) 1-0 in a match that set a new league attendance record of 19,123 fans at Providence Park. Sixth place Western New York (27 points) defeated last place Boston (14 points) 4-3 on the road. Seventh place Sky Blue (22 points) had the weekend off.

US

Hershey, Pa.’s Christian Pulisic scored a hat trick in the US U-17 BNT’s 6-0 defeat of China in their opening game at the Copa Mexico de Naciones in Mexico City. Bethlehem’s Kevin Silva was in goal for the shutout.

The US begins play in the U-20 Women’s World Cup on Tuesday against Germany (7 pm, ESPNU). At Soccer America, eight players to look out for in the tournament.

Saturday’s Manchester United-Real Madrid International Champions Cup match, a 3-1 victory for United, set a new attendance record for a soccer game in the US at 109,318. The previous record was 101,799 for the final at the 1984 Olympics between France and Italy (France won). All told, about half a million people attended pro soccer matches in the US and Canada over the weekend. In fact, bolstered by big numbers at the day’s International Champions Cup games (Philadelphia excepted), soccer outdrew baseball on Saturday.

Speaking after a practice before the game, Manchester United manager Louis Van Gall wasn’t pleased with the condition of the temporary grass field. “The pitch is not so good, and that’s a pity. We have fantastic teams, and we have to play on a bad pitch. The ball is not rolling, it’s not bumping as usual.”

Apparently, Spanish soccer publication Marca doctored photos of the packed stadium in Michigan by adding more white to make it look like there was more support for Real Madrid.

Manchester United will face Liverpool in the International Champions Cup final tonight in Miami (8 pm, Fox Sports 1, ESPN Deportes, Fox Sports GO).

The head of La Liga believes the Spanish league can overtake the Premier League’s popularity in the US.

Elsewhere

At SI, Grant Wahl on whether the 2022 World Cup will actually be staged in Qatar.

Gary Lineker says the only way to change the culture of corruption at FIFA is for “clean” countries to boycott the World Cup, though he also admits that will never happen.

Corinne Diacre will become “the first woman to manage a men’s professional team in a competitive match in a major European country” when her club Clermont, which is in France’s second division, plays Brest tonight. Diacre replaced Helena Costa, who quit as manager of the club after saying she was marginalized by male colleagues at the club and that her hiring was a publicity stunt.

The BBC reports, “The Sierra Leone Football Association has suspended all football matches in the country until further notice because of the Ebola outbreak.”

Reuters reports, “Ahed Zaqout, a former Palestinian national team player, has been killed by an Israeli bomb that hit his apartment in Gaza, Palestinian medical officials said on Thursday.” More from Goal.com and The Nation.

8 Comments

  1. Welcome back Carlos!
    What I read is that we need an international spot. So who is getting shipped out for one?

    • We could also buy one from another team. I have no knowledge of what might be done.
      .
      According to a blog post on Big Soccer (the first list I found), these are our INT guys: International Spots (8 Spots)
      1. Andre Blake – Jamaica
      2. Rais M’Bolhi – Algeria
      3. Fabio Alves – Brazil
      4. Cristian Maidana – Argentina
      5. Vincent Nogueira – France
      6. Cristhian Hernandez – Mexico
      7. Brian Brown – Jamaica
      8. Pedro Ribeiro – Brazil
      .
      Since we’ve loaned out Hernandez to Harrisburg for the season, I don’t know if he counts.

      • Bye-bye, Fabinho!

      • So you’re gonna get rid of the only left-footed defender we have on the team?

      • Yep, I’m absolutely getting rid of a guy who now rides the bench unless there’s an injury or suspension. Because that’s all he is right now: a $96,000 bench player who can’t defend well enough to keep his starting spot, nor contribute enough to the offense to make up for his glaring defensive lapses.
        .
        Who else on that list would you rather get rid of?

  2. If they loan Blake are they still on the hook for his Allocation spot, or does that swap to the team he’s loaned to?

  3. Liverpoool – ManU tonight at 8pm (Final of Guinness International Champions Cup). Should be a packed house and interesting Final. First Cup for v.d. Gaal?

  4. Per presser . . . new multi-year deal in place for Carlos. Who-hoo!!

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