Photo: Daniel Gajdamowicz

Philadelphia Union

Sebastien Le Toux has been named to the Team of the Week at MLSsoccer.com, with Andrew Wenger receiving an honorable mention. Same at Goal.com.

Wenger’s first tally is up for Goal of the Week, which you can vote for here.

Power rankings! At Soccer America, the Union drop two spots to No. 11 despite Sunday’s win. I suppose that’s what happens when the standings are so tight and everyone else around you also wins their weekend games.

At the Union website, Kerith Gabriel has a good read on five Union players and staff who have won the US Open Cup, Jim Curtin (Chicago Fire, 2003 and 2006), Chris Albright (LA Galaxy, 2005), Sebastien Le Toux (Seattle Sounders, 2009), Fred (DC United, 2008), and Ethan White (DC United, 2013). Jim Curtin says in the piece, “You don’t want to be on the losing end of one of those, it’s a horrible feeling. To sit out here and watch [Open Cup officials] hand out the medals [to the winners] and you get your second place medal, it’s tough. I told this [Union team that] we don’t want any parts of that, especially in front of our hometown fans.”

The always informative Daily Doop returned last week and Monday’s edition notes highlights Jim Curtin’s postgame comments on Andrew Wenger’s outstanding performance on Sunday as well as what Maurice Edu and Amobi Okugo might be doing during this week of rest.

A look at some of the numbers from Sunday’s game at the Union website notes Sebastien Le Toux, who has  a club high 11 goals so far this season in league play, has scored seven goals in the last nine league games. It would be tough to bet against him surpassing his career high 14 goals in 2010.

More on Sunday’s win over San Jose from Zolo Talk and Stoppage Time Soccer. At MLSsoccer.com, more on Rais Mbolhi’s first start with the Union.

Apparently there was a Sixer at Sunday’s game.

Stoppage Time Soccer says the interim tag should be removed from Jim Curtin’s title.

Local

A lawsuit has been filed in Philadelphia’s US District court against Downingtown High School East, girls soccer coach Craig Reed, and Total Soccer, the training facility where Reed once worked. The suit says during a scrimmage in 2012, a now 16 year old girl was sent back into the game after colliding with another player while going for a header resulting in traumatic brain injury that caused her to miss most of her freshman year and still causes her “headaches, fatigue, anxiety, and other symptoms.”

Lehigh Valley United has purchased a 40,000-square-foot warehouse and office building and plans to convert it into an indoor soccer facility by November that will feature five playing fields. Two of the fields will be able to be merged into a larger field with the removal of a divider and the other three playing areas will be futsal courts.

Harrisburg City Islanders goalkeeper David Flynn, who made his first professional appearance when starting goalkeeper Nick Noble was red carded in the 33rd minute when the City Islanders were down 1-0 in Saturday’s 2-2 draw with Rochester Rhinos, talks to Penn Live.

Brotherly Game has a report from Philadelphia Fury’s season opening 6-5 loss to AC Crusaders. Look for our photo essay later today.

Also at Brotherly Game, a report on the Charity Building Bridges 3 v 3 tournament to benefit Kensington and Camden Youth Soccer clubs.

MLS

Bruce Arena is the source of some of the best quotes in MLS, and a recent interview with the Washington Post continues the tradition. Asked to explain what went on with the “forces within the league” that prevented the Galaxy from signing Sacha Kljestan, Arena said, “Because they are children and there have to be adults in the process, and we didn’t have enough of them. I think we are back into the old days in the league when the rules are somewhat arbitrary. Hopefully we will get that straightened out in the offseason.”

Arena was then asked if he’s ever heard of a blind draw like the one that saw Jermaine Jones go to New England. “Never heard of it,” Arena said. “They could have made life easier for everyone by making it public, I guess. That [mechanism] would be like the NBA draft lottery being a blind draw. We have seen a lot of blind draws in U.S. soccer over the years with the Open Cup. They have made it more transparent, but there are still a lot of clouds there.” He continued,

It’s troubling for everyone. Everyone is involved in the process. There is no finger-pointing at any particular person because ownership is involved in all of this stuff. They allow it and they participate. This is all attributed to ownership; it’s not attributed to the commissioner or the people in that [New York] office. It may not be fully supported by ownership, but there is a participation level by ownership that says: ‘This is the way we want to do things.’

At ESPN, Jeff Carlisle says the Jones deal underscores the need for more transparency in the league.

New York host El Salvador’s CD FAS in CONCACAF Champions League play tonight (8 pm: Fox Sports 2, Univision Deportes, Fox Soccer 2Go, Fox Sports GO).

Fresh on the heels of signing Jermaine Jones, New England Revolution have signed 23-year-old former Dutch youth international forward Geoffrey Castillion.

US

From the Department of I Know What You’re Getting for Christmas, Harper Collins will release Tim Howard’s memoir on Dec. 9.

At Goal.com, Jon Arnold uses Howard’s recent announcement that he will be taking a break from international play until September of 2015 as the starting point for an article questioning the frequency of the Gold Cup.

Elsewhere

Official: Balotelli to Liverpool.

Crazy: Ángel di María to Manchester United for £59.7 million. That’s $98,944,989. So far, United have spent £130.7 million — $216.6 million– in the summer transfer window, which closes on Sept. 1.

The AP reports, “The Algerian football club JS Kabylie have been banned from using their stadium pending investigations after one of their players was hit on the head and killed by an object thrown by fans.”