Photo: Paul Rudderow

Philadelphia Union

The Union’s combine at YSC Sports begins today and will conclude on Wednesday.

At MLSsoccer.com, more on efforts to re-sign Conor Casey to a new deal. Jim Curtin tells Dave Zeitlin, “There’s no contract in place right now. But we spoke on the phone and he wants to be in Philadelphia. I’m a loyal guy and I’m loyal to someone that wants to be here. We’ll have to restructure the contract. But he’s a guy that pulled himself out because he only wants to play for Philadelphia.”

Curtin added, “He’s still a veteran guy that contributes goals. At every part of his career, he’s scored goals.” However, “We can’t lean on him for 34 games. That’s been our mistake the past two seasons, where we lean too heavily and rely too hard on him and don’t have enough other people contributing. I think he’s a guy that can contribute and get goals; we just need to bring in a guy to alleviate some of that burden. And we’re going to.”

Rais Mbolhi has been named to the Algerian national team squad that will play in next month’s Africa Cup of Nations tournament in Equatorial Guinea, Jan. 17-Feb. 8.

In case you missed it, the Union’s preseason will be taking place in Clearwater, Florida in 2015.

An editorial from Eugene Rupinski at Brotherly Game says it is unfair to compare the Union to other Philadelphia sports teams when complaining about the team’s missteps. Further, the team shouldn’t be compared to other MLS teams that have longer histories within and without the league, or that have deeper pockets, or are in markets that have more “prestige.” The editorial concludes, “Let’s be patient. Imagine how sweet it’ll be having gone through all of the growing pains and lifting a trophy before any of the other teams do.”

At the Union website, a roundup of what the Philadelphia Union Foundation has been working on over the past month.

The Summer Select program has a new Main Line location. It’s only open to U-9 and U-10 girls.

Local

Delaware forward Guillermo Delgado has been named to the NSCAA/Continental Tire NCAA Men’s Division I All-America third team.

On Sunday, Vereinigung Erzgebirge won its third-straight Eastern PA Amateur Cup championship, defeating Phoenix, 3-1. With the win, VE advances to the first round of the Region I US Amateur Cup, which is scheduled to take place on April 12.

MLS

Orlando City have signed 19-year-old Honduran national team Striker Bryan Róchez as a Designated Player. More on the signing at Orlando Sentinel.

Thierry Henry has officially announced his retirement as a player. He’ll begin working as a pundit for Sky Sports next year.

It’s official: New York Red Bulls sporting director Andy Roxburgh will not be returning to the club in 2015.

Looks like Real Salt Lake general manager Garth Lagerwey will be replacing Adrian Hanauer at Seattle. More from Salt Lake Tribune.

New England have re-signed former Union goalkeeper Brad Knighton.

New England defender AJ Soares to Serie A sided Hellas Verona?

At Brotherly Game, Jared Young on what MLS will look like in 2020 if it is to achieve its goal of being one of the world’s top leagues.

MLS hopefuls Sacramento Republic are confident they’ll be able to fill the up to 3,500 seats that are being added to their current stadium. The additions will bring capacity of Bonney Field up to 10,500 to 11,500 seats, depending on the final number of seats added.

US

DaMarcus Beasley, the only US player to appear in four World Cups, announced on Instagram his retirement from the national team. It was a good run:

Soccer America considers who’s available to replace Beasley at left back.

Speaking last week after the draw with China in the first game the International Tournament of Brasilia, Lauren Holiday said of the result, “I don’t think it’s concerning at all. Every team has to have a break and we just came off a six-week break. We’re coming together and playing quality opponents. I think playing when you’re not 100% fit and still getting back to things is character building and defining as a team. I don’t think we had a good game at all. I don’t think that we played well at all. But it’s about how we bounce back now.” The team bounced back with a 3-2 loss to Brazil. The US closes out the tournament on Wednesday against Argentina.

Elsewhere

Michael Garcia has lost his appeal against the summary findings of the investigation he led into corruption in the bidding for the hosting rights to the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. The appeals committee said the summary report, which Garcia said contained “numerous materially incomplete and erroneous representations of the facts and conclusions,” does not “constitute a decision and as such is neither legally binding nor appealable.” Here’s FIFA’s statement.

FIFA has also dismissed complaints from two whistleblowers that confidentiality agreements were breached when they were named in the summary report on Garcia’s investigation. FIFA disciplinary panel chairman Claudio Sulser ruled there “were no grounds to justify the opening of disciplinary proceedings” because the whistleblowers “had gone public with their own media activities long before” the release of the summary report. Sulser said Garcia concurred that the complaints “were without merit.” Here’s FIFA’s statement.

The Press Association reports, “FIFA’s technical report of the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bids may have been compromised by the head of the inspection team putting pressure on one of the bidding countries by asking for personal favours, according to the ethics committee investigation.” Harold Mayne-Nicholls, the former Chile FA president who led the inspection team, has said he is considering running against Sepp Blatter for the FIFApresidency.

According to the Guardian, Manchester City learned it had no chance of signing Neymar because “the Brazilian believed specially tailored boots were required for muddy English pitches.”