Daily news roundups

Meet the team event, 90th Minute returns, more fallout from Dallas loss, Minneapolis expansion announcement, more

Photo: Paul Rudderow. The Meet the Team event last year at Dave and Buster’s.

Philadelphia Union

The postponed Meet the Team event takes place tonight at Dave and Buster’s beginning at 7 pm.

Fans can arrive early for return of The 90th Minute Radio Show, co-hosted by Carl Cherkin and Peter Papas, which is back for a fourth season and will be broadcast live on 610AM-WTEL, as well as via a live stream on the Union website, at 5:30 pm from D&B’s. After tonight, it will be broadcast weekly on Tuesdays at 5:30 pm from various Chickie’s and Pete’s locations. Today’s guests will be Jim Curtin, Chris Albright, Maurice Edu, Fernando Aristeguieta and Steven Vitoria.

The fallout from Saturday’s loss continues First the doom:

At MLSsoccer.com, Matthew Doyle says “The balance is off in Philly’s midfield,” adding, “I still think they’re a playoff team, by the way. But I thought that last year, too.”

The Guardian on Saturday’s loss:

Philadelphia had held their own in the early stages, with a five man attack at times as they swarmed forward, but were never the same after Zach Pfeffer’s elbow crashed into Diaz on a late tackle, earning him a straight red card. It was a stupid decision by Pfeffer, and from there, against a side of Dallas’s quality and workrate, the exercise was largely one of damage limitation.

World Soccer Talk’s roundup of things learned from last weekend’s games says, “It’s not a good scene at PPL Park early in 2015, and that’s not exactly a surprise.”

When Jim Curtin was made the interim manager and given more than half a season to audition for the full-time job, the chances were always decent that he would get it, which wasn’t necessarily the best thing for the Union.

Curtin is a Philly native, a stand-up guy, and someone with years of MLS experience. He’s clearly not, however, any sort of transcendent soccer mind, and with the Union’s roster and front-office insistence on behaving like a small-market team, that’s what the Union really needed.

It’s going to be tough for Philadelphia to make the playoffs. They struggle to score goals against good defense, don’t have a ton of team speed, and need absolute tactical cohesion and direction in order to succeed. It’s a huge job facing Curtin – and it could get ugly again for the Union.

And now for some hopefulness:

At Delco Times, Matthew De George describes,

Here’s the good news for the Union: No one else in the East is setting the world on fire. Their two points through three games have them seventh in the conference, one outside a playoff spot.

No team in the East has more than one win…The Union are one of only four teams to have multiple non-losses on the season, and no team has two wins in the East…

The Union’s three games have also come against Western Conference opposition, allowing them to work out the kinks before they get into the six-point, intraconference affairs…

The results come with an understandably small sample size, but even looking at the process means that the Union aren’t in dire straits. They’ve had their issues, but so have other clubs.

More power rankings? If we must. At SI, it’s a two-spot drop to No. 15. At Soccer America, the Union drop three spots to No. 19. In ProSoccerTalk’s first rankings of the season, the Union debut at No. 18.

That Ryan Hollingshead goal against the Union on Saturday is up for Goal of the Week.

Local

Reading AC 20 ann logoHarrisburg City Islanders have signed midfielder — and La Salle University and Reading United alum — Jason Plumoff.

Speaking of Reading United, the PDL side has released its 20th anniversary logo, which was designed by Charlie Wedemeyer. Reading’s season kicks off on the road on May 16 against new PDL side Lehigh Valley United.

MLS

The league has announced that MLS commissioner Don Garber and Bill McGuire, the owner of NASL side Minnesota United, will “make an important announcement on the future of soccer in Minnesota” Wednesday at noon, one that is widely expected to announce Minneapolis as the next expansion city. The announcement will be live streamed on the league website. More from SINorthern PitchMinneapolis Star Tribune, Pioneer Press, Minneapolis/St. Paul Business JournalCBS Minnesota, KTSP, MPR News,      the Guardian,

Northern Pitch looks at what is known so far about Minnesota United’s bid and stadium plans, while MinnPost looks at how a soccer-specific stadium could get built in Minnesota. Minnesota United supporters group Dark Clouds president Jim Oliver talks to MLSGB about what a MLS franchise will mean.

An column at Minneapolis Star Tribune says Minnesota Senate Majority leader Tom Bakk’s opposition to the Minnesota United bid, which he has said will receive no state funding, is really about Bakk being in the pocket of the Minnesota Vikings, who backed a rival bid for a MLS franchise:

Bakk has done a fine job making this sound as if he’s protecting the taxpayers, but the folks he’s really been trying to protect are the real estate developers from New Jersey. They own the Vikings and soon will have an almost-free (when you subtract NFL money, naming rights and seat licenses from their investment) palace that will instantly make their franchise worth four times more than $600 million that they paid for it.

An 18,000-seat soccer stadium would be the best deal the public has received in the arena/stadium orgy of this century, but Bakk is more interested in taking care of his Purple pals than finishing off the re-development of that once-blighted area of Minnesota’s most-vital city.

Looks like Minnesota United may face some litigation from the City of Woodbury over “a termination agreement on a public/private partnership that involved construction of a 5,600-square-foot addition to the Bielenberg Sports Center.” The sports center was to be Minnesota United’s official practice facility.

Empire of Soccer on how the NASL’s decentralized strategy is backfiring: “The problem for the league is that it cannot celebrate Minnesota United’s success without admitting that success in the NASL means joining MLS. Not only would that present the idea of inferiority to prospective owners, it would also be incongruent with the visions of some of its clubs.”

David Beckham has been sighted in Miami!

New York Business Journal on how, in the battle for fans, NYCFC has the momentum over NYRB.

Empire of Soccer on the apparently underwhelming protests against the led by the Empire Supporters’ Club at the start of the Red Bulls’ home opener on Sunday.

US

Look for our preview of Wednesday’s USMNT friendly in Denmark later this morning. In the meanwhile, Soccer America has three storylines ahead of the game, World Soccer Talk has a preview, and ProSoccerTalk has some lineup speculation.

American Soccer Analysis looks at the USMNTs ELO ratings.

The US Paralympic National Team defeated No. 4 ranked Netherlands 1-0 in their opening game at the Footie 7 – Povoa 2015 tournament in Portugal.

Elsewhere

The AP reports, “FIFA President Sepp Blatter hit out at unnamed lawmakers for wanting boycotts of the 2018 World Cup in Russia and the 2022 event in Qatar. ‘Football should be united, sport should be united when it comes to boycotts,’ Blatter said at the UEFA congress on Tuesday. Boycotts have never had any results.'”

ESPN reports, “FIFA is ‘more influential’ than any religion or any country in the world, according to the governing body’s president Sepp Blatter.” Blatter said:

We reach 1.6 billion people. FIFA is more influential than any country in the world or any religion through the positive emotions football triggers. We move masses. And we want to make use of this to create more peace, equality and health in this world.

Blatter also said his belief in God, as well as his belief in himself, and a new girlfriend are why he has so much energy at the age of 79.

Business Wire reports,

National plaintiffs law firm Hagens Berman filed a response to a motion to dismiss from the Fèdèration Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) in a class-action lawsuit on behalf of several current and former soccer players against soccer’s worldwide governing body and affiliated youth soccer organizations in the United States who claim they had no duty to protect soccer players against concussions. The opposition to FIFA’s motion states that FIFA has “no basis to dismiss” claims and argues that FIFA and other defendants neglected to protect soccer players by failing to enact and enforce best practices for concussion management.

The Guardian reports, “The UEFA president Michel Platini has warned of the dangers of a rising tide of nationalism across Europe and a return to the hooliganism of the 1980s inside football stadiums.” More from Reuters and Sky Sports.

Also at the Guardian, “UEFA has confirmed big increases in the prize money and solidarity payments to be shared between clubs across Europe after broadcasting and sponsorship deals for its club competitions rose by almost a third.”

It’ll be more difficult for non-EU players to secure work permits to play in the Premier League after May 1.

26 Comments

  1. I agree 100% with world soccer talk’s assessment of the Jim Curtin situation. It sucks because he is a really likable guy. I’m just not sold on him being the best choice the Union could have made.

    • funny, after dealing with Hack and now Jim…….I’m starting to miss Nowak! I know, I can’t believe I’m going there…….but he seemed to have his head around this much more than the other two…….IMHO.

      • The Black Hand says:

        +1

      • Nowak was a complete lunatic who made head-scratching decisions with regularity, abused the players, and was getting kickbacks for signing Latin losers. Just no no no no no.

      • like I said……he seemed to have his mind wrapped around this better than the others………….hehehehe :)!

    • I don’t think the book is done on Curtin just yet. I agree with the assessment that the team needs a soccer mind. I’m not sure Curtin is more than a motivator. But I don’t think we know yet what we have in Curtin. It’s too early to say for certain what we have in Curtin (hey that rhymes!).

      (The Philly sports fan in me is almost certain that if the Union fire Curtin, he’ll go off and win MLS cup with another team — a la Larry Brown, Terry Francona, etc., so on.)

      • James Lockerbie says:

        Plus 1 and Ombi Okugo wins the MLS Cup with Orlando! not saying that he would be the soul reason. Just that he would be just another player to leave philly and go to a winning team

  2. Sepp Blatter says, “We’re bigger than Jesus.”

  3. this is just the mind wondering with two OMIds out and Williams out:
    3-5-2:
    Vitoria Edu White
    Wenger Lahoud Fred Nogs Gaddis

    Letoux Nando

    Thoughts?

    • I like your thought process in regards to playing a 3-5-2, except in that system you need to have very disciplined Wing-backs…….Wenger and Gaddis are not disciplined at all, and Curtin is already out of his depth as it is when he tries to manage his side playing a 4-4-2 as we saw in game 1.

      I think playing a 3-5-2 or a 3-4-3 could benefit the Union, but besides Nogs and Chaco, the rest of the players cannot pass the ball and are so erraticon the ball that all passing continuity is lost and good teams would easily get in behind and punish our 3 CBs in that system.

      I like the idea on paper, but until we get a real honest Manager and some better wingers the Union are SCREWED

      • Gaddis and Fabinho would have to be the wingbacks in a 3-4-1-2 set up:
        White, Edu, Vitoria; Gaddis, Lahoud, Nogs, Fabinho; Fred; Wenger, Nando

        Bench – Marquez, Le Toux, BC, Ayuk, Lee, McCarthy, Casey

    • I’ll most likely take flak for even mentioning this but 3-5-2 actually plays more toward Fabinho’s strengths more then any other formation.
      .
      He is very aggressive going forward, tends to stay more to the outside and looks to send crosses in with his dominate left foot. He plays more like a wingback then a true fullback and you can provide him extra cover defensively with the 3rd centerback.
      .
      ……………Rais…………..
      …..White…Vitoria…Edu…….
      Gaddis..Lahoud..Nogueira..Fabinho
      ………….Fred…………….
      …….Nando…….Wenger……..
      .
      Wenger over Le Toux because he has been (slightly) in better form to start the season. Edu has a decent left foot and would be the best cover for Fabinho. White’s distribution is too poor to play the center in a 3-man backline and could get help defensively from a recovering Gaddis.

      • Funny, I’ll agree that this plays into Fabs wheelhouse more than anything……..but I worry about him never getting back to make it a 5 back..and the opposition just playing in behind him down the left channel the whole match….

      • I’m a fan of the 3-5-2, even if it’s set up as a 5-3-2, as your lineup would be. Especially considering our cb weakness, I think it confirms a bit more of a mentality that the cbs need to stay back on clog the box.

        I’m not sold on Wenger up top, though.

      • Yup……you can call it a 5-3-2……the wings are box to box like in a 4 back…….except we make it 5. MLS clubs haven’t seen it in awhile……….could make things uncomfortable for the opposition…….

      • Like Van Gal’s…….

    • Can we make the back line Vitoria Edu Marquez? If so I’m all for it.

      • Considering the psychological need of gaining 3 points this week, personally, I would go with a plan to protect a known weak point then have no idea what I was going to get.

  4. Atomic Spartan says:

    IT…COULD…WORK!!!
    – Dr. Frederick Frankenstein, upon reading his grandfather’s notes

  5. This talk of being 2 points out of the 7th playoff spot is like a shard of wood under the nailbed.
    .
    Good Grief.

  6. The NFL is MLS big daddy. The NFL is MLS big daddy.

  7. It’s best that I don’t Meet the Team.
    .
    Jimmy Rollins is right, it gets a bit hot around here and I am a rolling simmer.

    • Former Season Ticket Holder Greg says:

      Agreed. Something I enjoyed going to, poisoned by this past week amd the inevitable road ahead

  8. Let me ask all of you one question posed multiple different ways.
    .
    If we don’t come away with points this weekend is it four alarm fire time? Does being without a result get chalked up to, “oh, well there have been some injuries and then there were the bad calls?” Is it early and is that enough to warrant ineptitude?
    .
    If after four games they are still sitting on 2 points and the rhythm and flow is all disjointed and dissonant is the FO getting a bit concerned? Is a win necessary? Does a tie cut it?
    .
    Is this a good question posed multiple different ways….
    .
    ….cause it all keeps coming back to the same thing and that is the big big question.
    .
    What are they doing?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*