Photo: Daniel Gajdamowicz

Philadelphia Union

The Union will host Seattle Sounders in the 2014 US Open Cup final on Sept. 16 at PPL Park.

On Wednesday, Seattle crushed visiting Chicago Fire 6-0 in the semifinal, a day after the Union defeated FC Dallas in Frisco on penalty kicks after being tied 1-1 after extra time. For Seattle, it will be their fifth Open Cup final appearance in six years, winning the tournament three times from 2009-2011, before losing the 2012 final to Kansas City, who defeated the Union in the semifinals that year. Sebastien Le Toux was with the Sounders in 2009, scoring three goals in the tournament, which placed him on the tournament’s top goalscorer list with six other players. Among them was his Sounders teammate Stephen King, who hails from Medford, NJ.

Tickets for the final go on sale today.

More reports on the Union’s win over Dallas at Stoppage Time Soccer, Playing for 90, Vavel, and The Examiner.

In a look at Zac MacMath’s big performance in the US Open Cup win at Delco Times, Jim Curtin, who won the Cup twice as a player with Chicago, describes what he told his players before the Dallas game.

Just to enjoy it… I said before the game, whether you’re a young player or an old player, you’ll never know when you’re going to have an opportunity like this to play in the semifinal. It can happen where five, 10 years go by and you don’t get an opportunity to do it. Embrace it, grab a hold of it, and he really did that. He stepped up and came up huge in the PKs.

Hours after securing the biggest win in the history of the club, the Union flew down to Houston on Wednesday to prepare for Friday’s game against the Dynamo (9 pm, NBCSN). The game will be the culmination of an arduous week that began with Saturday’s win over Montreal and by its conclusion will include, in addition to three games in seven days, nearly 3,000 miles of air travel.

Jim Curtin told reporters after Tuesday’s game in Dallas that the team was planning on flying in reinforcements for the Houston game. At Union Tally, Matthew DeGeorge looks at how the Union’s option’s are much better for this game then the last time the Union played on the road against the Dynamo in 2013.

One reinforcement who won’t be flying in is Corben Bone, who has been loaned to Wilmington Hammerheads for the remainder of the season. Wilmington is currently in 10th place in the USL PRO standings, although they have played between two and five fewer games than the teams above them.

Our Union-Dynamo preview will be up later today. In the meanwhile, here’s a video preview from the Dynamo as well as a print preview from Orange in the Oven. Also, Brotherly Game has three questions for fellow SB Nation blog Dynamo Theory.

Remember when, during Saturday’s win over Montreal, Impact midfielder Calum Mallace, who was warming up behind the endline on the Chester End, entered the field of play during a brief kerfuffle between Danny Cruz and Matteo Ferrari? Well, the league disciplinary committee have suspended him one game for do so.

Carlos Valdes’ last loan club, San Lorenzo, has won the Copa Libertadores.

Union Academy

Union Academy midfielder Sean WIlson (West Chester) has been called up by the US U-18 BNT for the 21st International Tournament of Vaclav Jezek in the Czech Republic, Aug. 14-24.

Union Academy defenders Andrew Aprahamian (Malvern), Mark McKenzie (Bear, Del.), and Matthew Real (Drexel Hill) have been called up for the US U-15 BNT training camp in Carson, Calif., Aug. 16-24.

Local

After defeating first place Orlando on Saturday, Harrisburg City Islanders will be in Florida for a re-match this weekend. Head coach Bill Becher said of the prospect, “They don’t lose at home. They’re playing a team that just beat them. We’ll have to be at our best.”

On Monday, Philadelphia Fury announced the signing of former Union goalkeeper Thorne Holder. Brotherly Game has more on the signing.

The Fury begin play in the inaugural ASL season on Aug. 20 against AC Crusaders, who have the same owner, before playing their first home game at Washington Township High School against Icon FC on Aug. 30.

MLS

Seattle Sounders and US national team defender DeAndre Yedlin has signed with Tottenham Hotspur. A press release on the Sounders website says Yedlin will stay with Seattle for “the remainder of the 2014 season before joining Spurs in either January or June of 2015.”

Tottenham is of course the former home of USMNT head coach Jurgen Klinsmann. Yedlin says in an interview on the Tottenham website, “I talked to him a lot about this move and he really supports it.” 

The league disciplinary committee has suspended Eddie Johnson two games for violent conduct.

San Jose have loaned goalkeeper David Bingham to Strommen IF of the Norwegian First Division until the end of the season.

Real Salt Lake plan to field a USL PRO team in 2015.

Forbes looks at the DP rule.

A city council review of the plan to bring an MLS franchise to Las Vegas has been postponed. The Las Vegas Sun notes, the “delay comes after the city and stadium developers called off three previous meetings with the public or casino operators.”

NWSL

Fourth place Chicago (34 points) defeated last place Boston (17 points) 2-0 on Wednesday night. Chicago will clinch a playoff berth if they defeat Western New York on Saturday. Also on Wednesday night, Sixth place Sky Blue (28 points) defeated seventh place Western New York (27 points) 3-2 on the road.

US

The US drops three spots to No. 18 in the latest FIFA rankings. Mexico moved up one spot to No. 17 and Costa Rica moved up one spot to No. 15.

More on Seattle’s US Open Cup semifinal win from Seattle Sounders, US Soccer, TheCup.us, Seattle Times, Soccer America, Goal.com, ProSoccerTalk, SBI, Sounder at Heart, Hot Time in Old Town, and The AP.

Time has picked up on the efforts by leading women soccer players over the use of artificial turf in the 2015 Women’s World Cup.

Elsewhere

The Guardian reports, “The court of arbitration for sport (CAS) has upheld Luis Suárez’s ban for biting the Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini but the Barcelona striker has been cleared to train again.”

The Football Supporters Federation has organized a march on the headquarters of the Premier League and Football League in England for today to demand that the governing bodies do something about escalating ticket prices. 

The Guardian reports, “The chief executive of the Bundesliga, Christian Seifert, says there would be “a huge shitstorm” if clubs such as Bayern Munich were to start charging as much for tickets as Premier League sides.” The report continues, “Seifert said German clubs voluntarily sacrifice extra ticket revenue in order to preserve the bonds with their community, the jubilant atmosphere in stadiums and, ultimately, the continued growth of the game in their country.”

Reuters reports, “The World Players’ Union FIFPro has questioned whether newly-elected Carlo Tavecchio is suitable to lead the Italian football federation (FIGC) after his allegedly racist comments about African players.”