Daily news roundups

Curtin “still fighting” to have interim tag dropped, Union notes, more calls for release of FIFA ethics report

Photo: Paul Rudderow

Philadelphia Union

Jim Curtin denied reports that the interim tag had been removed from his job description in Wednesday’s weekly press conference. “I’m still the interim manager. I’d say more so than in any other city, in Philadelphia, respect isn’t given, it’s earned. I get that part, I agree with that part, and I’m still fighting to have the interim tag dropped.” Stay tuned.

At the Delco Times, Matthew De George writes of how Curtin handled reports about his job title, “The irony in the delivery was almost as corporeal as the false-for-now rumor it sought to quash: Here was Curtin, shooting down rumors that he’d been given the full-time job for which he’d been auditioning the past three months, with the kind of poise and assertiveness that makes him the ideal candidate.”

Sheanon Williams said of Curtin, “Jim has been a huge reason that we’re in a place where we can actually make the playoffs. I think he’s done a great job. And I know that everybody in the locker room is hoping he gets [the manager job] in the long-term.”

Ray Gaddis said, “Coach Curtin is a strong coach in the sense that he tries to make you better as a player. He believes in you. He’s tough on you but as a player you respect him because you know he has your best interest at heart. He has a tough attitude and I think that rubs off on the players. I guess it’s cliché to say he’s Philly tough. But I definitely think it’s trickling down to the players.”

Other highlights from Curtin’s presser:

  • Ethan White, who he believes deserves more respect, continues to recover from the hamstring injury that saw him leave the Houston game early. Curtin said he was “cautiously optimistic” that White would be available for selection for this Saturday’s game in DC.
  • The rest of the team is healthy.
  • Curtin affirmed his belief in Amobi Okugo and that he sees him as a midfielder rather than as a center back.

Curtin said of the challenges ahead for the team after drawing the last two league games,

We’re a no BS type team, we are what our record says we are; that’s kind of what we’ve kind of believed in and that’s what we’re about. We know going down the stretch in these last games we have to protect home field, obviously, but we’re going to have to go somewhere difficult and steal points. Obviously, the Columbus series looks big too, but the focus is on DC on the road. It’s going to a brutal, tough game, but we’ll be ready to go.

Curtin also said he’s done with talking about the US Open Cup final loss. “It’s a fine line though in MLS [between] a week like last week looking perfect versus we’re all disappointed. There’s no more moral victories for us, though. That Seattle game, I feel like that should be the last I talk about it. This club should be done with moral victories. Now it’s time to win a trophy.”

More on the press conference from MLSsoccer.comDelco TimesCSN Philly, and SBI.

Looking ahead to Union’s schedule, the Colombian national team will play two games at Red Bull Arena during the October international break, facing El Salvador on Oct. 10, and Canada on Oct. 14. Assuming Carlos Valdes is called up, that means he’ll miss the critical home game against Columbus on Oct. 11, although he should be available for the home game against Kansas City on Oct. 18. Rais Mbolhi has African Cup of Nations qualifiers with Algeria on Oct. 11 and Oct. 15 against Malawi and so will presumably miss both the Columbus and Kansas City games. Jamaica is in Nigata, Japan on Oct. 10   to face the Japan in a friendly, which would mean the Union will have only one rostered goalkeeper for the Columbus game assuming Andre Blake is called up. Sierra Leone faces Cameroon on Oct. 10 and Oct. 15 in African Cup qualifiers, which means that Michael Lahoud is likely to be unavailable for the Columbus and Kansas City games.

If you haven’t seen it yet, the latest Mic’d Up video with Maurice Edu against New York Red Bulls is well worth a few minutes of your time:

Playing for 90 begins a Throwback Thursday column with a look at the Union and the 2010 SuperDraft.

This just in from the Department of You Never Know What Will Turn Up in Your News Feed, if you like Legos and the Union, someone is making Union “Snake & Shield” Lego Mosaics…made of nearly 400 new and used Lego plates.” The listing notes, “Free local delivery w/in 30 minutes of Philadelphia.”

Local

At the USL PRO website, a look at Harrisburg’s remarkable turnaround from a 2-6-2 start over the first ten games of the season to a place in the championship final.

The latest rankings from the Inquirer for Southeastern Pennsylvania boys and girls high school teams are out.

At the Inquirer, Kate Harman has a profile piece on Neshaminy High School senior forward Kenny Hermann.

At The 91st Minute, Will Parchman picks the best players from each state in the US. From Delaware, he gives Salesianum product and captain of the the 2013 NCAA champion Notre Dame Andrew O’Malley the nod. From New Jersey, it’s Claudio Reyna. From Pennsylvania, the one and only Walt Bahr, who he also calls the best player on the 1950 US World Cup team. Parchman notes, “Former Scotland standout Tommy Muirhead once said of Bahr that he was good enough to play for any first division team in the UK.”

The Intelligencer has a piece on Randy Garber, a 1971 graduate of Abington High School who went on to play for in the NASL, MISL, and for the USMNT. Garber is about to be inducted into the Montgomery County chapter of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame.

MLS

In league play, Dallas handed Seattle its second loss since winning the US Open Cup final, defeating the Sounders 3-1. David Texiera scored a brace for Dallas.

In CONCACAF Champions League play, DC defeated Panama’s Tauro FC 2-0 and will now advance to the knockout round. Second half sub Eddie Johnson, playing his first game in three weeks,scored the second goal. In El Salvador, New York drew 0-0 with CD Fas. With the draw, New York is eliminated from advancing out of group play. Hilarious.

Now back with Toronto after time in England recuperating from an injury, Jermain Defoe said of speculation that he was headed back to the Premier League, “The QPR thing, that’s out of my control. If a club comes in for a player, then as a player, you just sort of like sit back and you let the club deal with it. It’s not my fault that a club comes in. But nothing happened anyway and in my heart, I didn’t think anything was going to happen anyway. In my heart, I couldn’t really see me getting sold to another football club. It didn’t make any sense.”

The “Expansion Priority Draft” was conducted on Wednesday and, among other things, Orlando won first pick in the Expansion Draft, NYCFC the first spot in the Allocation Ranking.

NYCFC head coach Jason Kreis says there’s no truth to rumors suggesting that Frank Lampard’s loan to Manchester City will be extended.

Brotherly Game parses Don Garber’s recent comments on the league’s single entity structure.

ProSoccerTalk looks at where the league stands in terms of its stadiums, and how things have changed over the past five years.

At Complex, Maurice Peebles on why success in the CONCACAF Champions League is important for the continued growth of soccer in the US.

US

Hope Solo issued a statement on her Facebook page on Tuesday evening in which she maintained her innocence against the misdemeanor domestic assault charges she is facing. She also expressed her solidarity with other female celebrities who, like herself, had had nude photos hacked. More from The Equalizer, Goal.com, ProSoccerTalk, and the Washington Post.

At SI, Grant Wahl on Bob Bradley and how he’s doing in Norway.

ASN talks to Oliver Luck, the former NFL player and Houston Dynamo player who is now the athletic director at West Virginia, about changing the college soccer season schedule.

With the release of FIFA 15,  Soccerly looks at the FIFA video game franchise and its effect on the growth of soccer in the US.

Elsewhere

US Soccer president Sunil Gulati and FIFA ethics investigator Michael Garcia have both released statements calling on FIFA to make public Garcia’s report into allegations of corruption in the leadup to the vote for the hosting rights for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

Gulati said, “If we’re going to truly support the idea of transparency and change within FIFA, it has to be made public in the truest meaning of the word. That doesn’t mean only to the executive committee. It has to be more.”

Recognizing that Hans-Joachim Eckert, chairman of the adjudicatory chamber of FIFA’s independent ethics committee, has taken a restricted view of just who will see the contents of the report, Garcia said, “I believe it is now necessary for the FIFA Executive Committee to authorize the appropriate publication of the Report on the Inquiry into the 2018/2022 FIFA World Cup Bidding Process. Publication would be consistent with statements made by a number of Executive Committee members, with the view recently expressed by Independent Governance Committee Chair Mark Pieth, and with the goals of the reform process.”

Reuters reports, “FIFA presidential candidate Jerome Champagne has joined the calls for the report into the turbulent bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to be made public.”

Also from Reuters, “Thirteen Estonian-based players and two from Slovakia, already suspended by their own respective federations for match-manipulation, have had their bans extended worldwide, soccer’s governing body FIFA said on Thursday.”

Asamoah Gyan has issued a statement saying he did not sacrifice a friend “spiritually to enhance his career.” More on the story from The Guardian.

The AP reports, “A soccer ball kicked into the crowd at a Las Vegas concert has bounced back to Rod Stewart in the form of a lawsuit by a Southern California man who says he has lingering injuries after his nose was broken.” Stewart tells TMZ that the litigant should have had his eye on the ball.

9 Comments

  1. Making Curtin our coach would be a mistake.

  2. love Rod Stewart…F that guy Rod is right he had it coming

  3. Who backs up Zac in the biggest match at home? Still we do have the best in MLS collection of unavailable GKs.

  4. Could you imagine a starting midfield of Frank Lampard and Xavi Hernandez in NYCFC- and then have them dealing the ball to David Villa. Is any of that stuff still in line to happen?

  5. “FIFA presidential candidate Jerome Champagne..” he’s going to have some stiff competition from Edouard Richguy and Yves Privatjet.

  6. “We’re a no BS team.” I completely agree. Also FO has that covered.

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