Daily news roundups

Union tops Reading, USMNT faces Germany today, Steffen PK save in US win at U-20 World Cup, FIFA news

Philadelphia Union

The Union defeated Reading United 1-0 on Tuesday night in the teams’ annual friendly. The Union’s goal was scored by — wait for it — Andrew Wenger.

At Union Tally, Matthew De George has some informative observations from the game. Notably, Steven Vitoria saw his first match minutes since April 25, partnering with Richie Marquez, and Eric Bird played his first minutes of the season in a Union kit (he’s played some minutes with Harrisburg).

Additional recaps at Philadelphia UnionPhilly.com, and Brotherly Game.

At Delco Times, Matthew De George profile’s Reading United’s Brett Campbell, the Union Academy alum who was once coached by Jim Curtin.

At CBS Philly, Kevin Kinkaid looks at the league standings, how the league’s ridiculous schedule results in great disparities of games-in-hand, and how points-per-game is one way to find some realistic understanding of where teams actually stand. Doing so, the Union drop from 16th place to 19th. He concludes,

So yes, the Union is still in the playoff race, and maybe we should thank the new MLS postseason rules for keeping this season interesting. Otherwise, it’s probably irresponsible to talk about current position or mention the playoff line at all.

Right now, the points-per-game number is the only thing that matters.

Brian Sylvester is up for MLSsoccer.com’s Save of the Week.

At the Union’s Behind the Crest blog, Chris Winkler looks at some offensive stats and notes CJ Sapong is now third in the league for goals per minute played.

Fernando Aristeguieta is listed with a “left fibula contusion” in the latest injury report from the league.

Sheanon Williams on losing the starting right back spot, and then regaining it: “It was a little frustrating at first but as soon as I kind of thought about it by myself, I just figured that I would go out there and do the best job at left back that I could. Unfortunately Ray Gaddis got hurt so it pushed me back over to right back and now I’m in a spot where I feel more comfortable and hopefully the team will start to continue to get things moving in the right direction…For me personally, I think that I can play even better.”

At CBS Philly, Matt Leon interviews Zach Pfeffer.

At CBS Philly, Kevin Kinkead presents another insightful video analysis of key plays in last week’s win over Columbus and loss to NYCFC.

The Sports Quotient looks at some positional markers in the Columbus and NYCFC games.

Power Rankings: At SI, the Union actually move up one spot to No. 16 despite showing “its maddening inconsistency again” in Saturday’s loss to NYCFC. At ESPN, they remain at No. 18: “Progress in Chester is tough to judge, but losing to the league’s worst team at home has to sting.” Yep. At SBI, the “Jekyll and Hyde” Union are at No. 19: “Confusing week for the Union, who just can’t seem to turn that corner and right the ship fully.” Yep, again. At MLSsoccer.com, the Union drop to last place: “Midweek was nice, but there’s no way to sugar-coat what happened on Saturday. That was an utter catastrophe.” Yep, yet again.

On Monday, John McCarthy visited with 7-year-old Cameron McCarthy (no relation) at duPont Hospital in Delaware to show his support as she begins a nine-month course treatment for cancer. Not only did he make a new friend, he got a very nice new haircut from Cameron while he was there. Reports from Philadelphia Union, Fox 29, The 700 Level, and Brotherly Game, which has good background on the story.

At the FIFA website, an article about Peter Nowak coaching the Antigua and Barbuda national team. Nowak says in the article, “People have the wrong idea about me.” Goalkeeper Molvin James says, “[H]e’s actually a pretty relaxed guy. He comes right up to us to tell us what he wants – he doesn’t shout in front of everyone and try to embarrass us. We listen to what he says.”

MLS

More on the DC United stadium deal at Washington Business Journal, MLSsoccer.com, and Reuters.

Charlotte Business Journal on hopes to bring an MLS franchise to North Carolina. More at WFAE.

US

Germany vs. USMNT

The US will look to follow up last Friday’s historic win with another victory when they face World Champions Germany today (2:45: Fox Sports 1, UniMas, Univision Deportes).

Jurgen Klinsmann said of today’s game, “We want to make another step forward in terms of experience, in terms of measuring ourself. They know they will face another top team, but we will try to take the game to Germany, as well. We want to take some risks and score some goals here.”

Germany head coach Joachim Loew isn’t taking the US lightly.

Previews at PSP, US Soccer, MLssoccer.com, Fox SportsESPN, SIGoal.com, ProSoccerTalk,

Klinsmann said on Tuesday that Julian Green will not be called up for the US Gold Cup squad so he can have a break, and focus on his club situation with Bayern Munich after a difficult season on loan to Hamburg.

U-20 World Cup

The US advances to the quarterfinals of the U-20 World Cup after defeating Colombia 1-0 earlier today in New Zealand. After making a series of critical saves, local lad Zack Steffen then saved a penalty kick after Rubio Rubin scored what proved to be the game-winning goal. Recaps from US Soccer, FIFA, ASN (recap, analysis), Soccer America (recap, player ratings), SIGoal.com, ProSoccerTalk, SBI,

The US will face Serbia in the quarterfinals on Sunday (12:30 am: Fox Sports 1, Fox Sports Go and NBC Universo).

USA at the Women’s World Cup

Speaking to the New York Times, former US head coach Pia Sundhage, now the head coach of her native country Sweden’s team —  the US’s opponent on Friday — admits she has little interest in developing young players, which comes as no surprise. She also says she told Abby Wambach she would not be a starter if she remained coach of the US: “I said that to Abby. I told her: ‘If I stayed, you would be a sub. The best sub ever. But a sub.’ There was no question about that in my mind.” Nor should it be a question in anyone else’s mind but, there you go.

At Philly.com, Jonathan Tannenwald notes,

The United States’ World Cup-opening 3-1 win over Australia drew a combined audience of over 3.5 million viewers on Fox Sports 1 and NBC Universo, according to Nielsen data published Tuesday afternoon. That easily beat the previous record for any Women’s World Cup group stage game: 2.457 million for the historic U.S.-Denmark contest at Giants Stadium that opened the American run in 1999.

Fox Sports 1’s coverage Monday night attracted 3.3 million viewers, a 208 percent increase over ESPN’s viewership for the Americans’ opening game of the 2011 World Cup.

Awful Announcing critiques Fox’s coverage of the USA-Australia game, among other things.

At the Guardian, Les Carpenter has an excellent oral history on the US and the 1990 World Cup. Team coach Bob Gansler recalls in the article, “When we qualified for the World Cup, our federation president, Werner Fricker, put up his Philadelphia construction company as collateral to have a loan that got us some more money.” Fricker, a former US national team player himself, was long associated with United German Hungarians.

Elsewhere

The Press Association reports, “A decision on the date for the election of Sepp Blatter’s successor as FIFA president will be taken next month with 16 December looking a possible option. FIFA said an extraordinary meeting of its executive committee will take place in July when the date for a congress to hold the presidential election will be set.” More at the BBC.

Saying it would be “nonsense” to proceed given the on-going corruption scandal, FIFA secretary general Jérôme Valcke has announced the bidding process to select the host for the 2026 World Cup has been postponed.

Valcke also said of the $10 million dollar payment that has been the subject of ongoing scrutiny, “It was not Fifa’s money, it was a request from official South African authorities and SAFA. As long as it is in line with rules we do it. I don’t understand what’s the problem and why I am such a target in this question. You [the media] have decided that after Blatter I am the head to be cut, fine, but don’t say it is because of this $10m.”

Reuters reports, “Businessman Alejandro Burzaco, one of three Argentines wanted by U.S. prosecutors in the FIFA bribery investigation, surrendered voluntarily to police in northern Italy on Tuesday, police said.”

The Guardian reports the British government “has confirmed that the Serious Fraud Office is actively reviewing material related to US action against the FIFA officials accused of corruption, bribery and racketeering in British overseas territories including the Cayman Islands.”

Speaking of the Cayman Islands, the Guardian reports, “The governing body of the Cayman Islands has voted to pull advertising from one of the territory’s leading newspapers over its reporting of the FIFA scandal.” Disgraced former CONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb was also formerly president of the Cayman Islands Football Association.

At ESPN, Jeff Carlisle on how CONCACAF needs to clean up its act.

The Guardian’s Owen Gibson presents a manifesto “to drag football out of the Sepp Blatter era.”

Also at the Guardian, Marina Hyde asks, which FIFA conspiracy theory do you buy into?

The Hollywood Reporter rounds up how the FIFA scandal is being handled by the media around the world. Interesting read.

John Oliver. Thank you. Just thank you.

12 Comments

  1. Who knows maybe Andrew has some belief now. A goal is a goal.

  2. Congrats to the U-20’s….keep it rolling!

  3. John Oliver is fantastic. His multiple FIFA reports have been amazing. Well done. Watch them all if you haven’t. They’re on YouTube.
    .
    Really wish the U 20 games weren’t in the middle of the night, but so be it. Hope they keep it going.

  4. That Nowak article is fantastic. Here’s my favorite part:

    “Nowak’s voice turns soft. “I admire the hell out of these guys,” he said of the local lads who train before and after work, or a long day of school. “They don’t have much to eat, but they never complain. ‘Let’s keep going’ they say at the end of training. It’s tough life, but they push through with a smile.”

    I have expected him to add “not like those girly men in MLS who are always asking for water…”

  5. OneManWolfpack says:

    So, I guess we own International Soccer now? I mean, with the FIFA thing and the wins over the Netherlands and now a win over a solid B German squad, in Germany… we are kings right? HAHA! Sign Bobby Wood!! He is currently unattached after all…

    • I think it was a thank you win to the U.S. DoJ. The B Germans are exponentially better than us as evidenced by first half and we just brought down the FIFA Big Bad Wolf. A win is a win though.
      .
      I just need the Timmy Chandler experiment to end. Please.

  6. You know…… Pretty hard to argue with beating Italy in Italy, the Dutch in Holland then the Germans in Germany.
    .
    I doff my cap. I doff my cap.

    • OneManWolfpack says:

      You sir are hard to please. Agreed that it meant WAY more to us than it did to them, but it’s nice to see that the Euro teams can no longer coast against us. I will say if Mueller was out there it may have been a little different. He’s a star. Anyway, I agree with Chandler he has to to go. And whoever paired with Brooks in the first half – Alvarez I think – was terrible too.

      • Yeah that’s why I posted this above comment….cause I am cynical to a fault sometimes. I catch myself.
        .
        I am hopeful for our national teams… We are moving in the right direction as evidenced by U20’s who played a well controlled toe to toe game against the Colombians today with some players that show real legitimate quality… Rubin, Zalelem, Hyndman, Arriola…and obviously Zack Steffen.

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