Daily news roundups

Union bits, league news, US wins, more

Photo: Daniel Studio

Philadelphia Union

In lieu of concrete information about transfer targets to strengthen the Union attack, speculation and rumor fill the void. On Saturday, Union Rumors tweeted Dutch club ADO Den Haag’s Roland Alberg was “linked’ to the Union, but provided no link to the link. Soon after, Brotherly Game published a post based on the first Union Rumors tweet and another that UR tweet that described the financial crisis at ADO Den Haag and that Alberg was part of the youth system at AZ when Earnie Stewart was there, but otherwise contained no link to additional sources. Soon after that, ADO Den Haag fan sites, linking to the Brotherly Game report (whether in the original or in its reposting at aggregator website Philadelphia Sun Times) began reporting Alberg was linked to the Union. Just about the only solid piece of information available comes from soccernews.nl (crappy Google translation here) which, while making no mention of the Union, notes that Alberg’s contract with ADO Den Haag is up this summer. Long story short, perhaps there is something to the Alberg rumor. Right now, verifiable reports to back up the rumor have not yet emerged.

At MLSsoccer.com, Dave Zeitlin on Maurice Edu’s return to the midfield.

SBI has a profile piece on Andre Blake.

PSP’s Daniel Gajdamowicz did a Q&A with Blake at last week’s Media Day:

At Brotherly Game, Jared Young has a profile piece on Richie Marquez.

Polidorojunior.com.br has a report on Anderson Conceição joining the Union (crappy Google translation here).

At CSN Philly, Dave Zeitlin has five takeaways from the Union’s first week of preseason training.

At the Union website, Chris Winkler notes the ten Academy players who participated in the first week of preseason training: Anthony Fontana, Mark McKenzie, Matthew Real, Auston Trusty, Alex Soto, Lamine Conte, Manny Perez, Josue Monge, Joseph DeZart, and Andrew Verdi. Said Jim Curtin, “The young men from the academy have been excellent. They have come in with mindset of not just being happy to be here, but rather to make an impact on each session. It’s exciting to see.”

Brotherly Game has notes from last week’s Media Day.

James McFadden, whose short-term loan to Motherwell expired on Sunday, was an unused substitute in Motherwell’s 2-2 road draw with Dundee on Saturday. Looks like Motherwell will look to extend McFadden’s contract.

Nice read at the Union website on Chester-resident Dwayne Briscoe, who started working at Talen Energy Stadium as a cleaner and is now turf coordinator.

A dumb post at MLSsoccer.com that re-imagines every MLS team as a beer has the Union as “Saison Hands” from Ardmore’s Tired Hands Brewing Company. (The dumbness is no reflection on Tired Hands.)

Bethlehem Steel

At the Irish Mirror, new Bethlehem Steel midfielder James Chambers, who joins the team from Irish side St. Patrick’s Athletic, talks about his decision to come to the US. “They’re a brand new club and it’s a new squad being put together. It’s exciting. We’ll all be living in the same apartment block which will help with bonding.”

Chambers admits the chance to get a look from the Union was part of the attraction but admits, “They probably won’t be jumping through hoops for a 28, soon-to-be 29, year-old midfielder! But it would be silly not to have that ambition in the back of your mind. I’m not going over just to make up the numbers. You have to have that desire.”

He adds, “The money is better than here in Ireland and the contracts are 52-weeks, so I can finally say I’m a full-time footballer!”

Soccer barely figures in a recent Allentown Morning Call/Muhlenberg College poll of the favorite sport of fans in the Lehigh Valley.

Local

Hershey, Pa.’s Christian Pulisic made his debut with the senior Borrusia Dortmund team in Saturday’s 2-0 win over Ingolstadt, entering the game in the 68th minute. The Dortmund website site notes he’s “the youngest player to do so this season at 17 years, four months and two days old.” Jurgen Klinsmann said of Pulisic’s debut, “This is big, there’s no doubt about it.”

Here are highlights from Pulisic’s debut:

More on the Pennsylvania Classic’s product at MLSsoccer.com and Soccer America.

The Inquirer has a profile piece on Carli Lloyd, who made an appearance at the Philadelphia Auto Show over the weekend.

Former City Islander Andrew Ribeiro has signed with Orlando City B.

MLS

Player moves:

Preseason games:

  • NYRB’s first team defeated Jacksonville Armada 5-2.  The second team lost 1-0 to Montverde Academy.
  • Kansas City defeated FC Tucson 4-0.
  • RSL defeated San Diego State University 1-0.
  • DC lost 1-0 to IF Elfsborg.
  • The Galaxy defeated Armenian side FC Shirak, 2-1.

At MLSsoccer.com, former Union man Zach Pfeffer on his new start at Colorado.

News-Press checks in with hometown lad and former Union man Andrew Jacobson.

NYCFC sporting director Claudio Reyna says his team will not make any homegrown signings before 2018.

Told he will not get a new contract, John Terry says he will be leaving Chelsea at the end of the season: “I couldn’t play for another Premier League club. It will be elsewhere for sure. I don’t know where and I leave that to the people in charge. It certainly won’t be in the Premier League.” There’s a lot of time between now and May so a new offer from Chelsea could be coming. In the meanwhile, let the John Terry to MLS speculation begin!

The Telegraph reports former former Brazil international Adriano has signed with NPSL side Miami United “with a view to using the move as a springboard to Major League Soccer, club president Roberto Sacca revealed.” Sacca says Adriano has already lost 18 lbs., adding of the Brazilian’s MLS aspirations, “He wants to go there. He is still young, he is only 33 and if he plays at 25 per cent of how he was, he can play in MLS with his blind eyes.”

Neymar would like to play in the US one day.

New primary jersey for Vancouver. New secondary jersey for Portland.

Who stabbed Marco Pappa? He can’t remember. More at Seattle TimesDenver Post, CBS Denver, and TMZ Sports.

US

The USMNT started 2016 with a 3-2 comeback win over Iceland on Sunday. Former Union man Michael Orozco scored the second goal. Match reports and more at PSP, US Soccer, MLSsoccer.com (report, recap, analysis), Soccer AmericaSI, ESPN, Goal.com (recap, analysis), Fox SoccerYahoo Sports, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Guardian (recap, analysis), US National Soccer Players, Pro Soccer TalkVavel, and the AP.

Player ratings at Soccer AmericaMLSsoccer.com, ESPNGoal.com, Pro Soccer Talk,

Former USWNT head coach Anson Dorrance has been named this year’s winner of the Werner Fricker Builder Award. More on Dorrance here.

Elsewhere

From PA Sport, “FIFA faces the ‘dire reality’ of running out of money in two years if its current financial predicament continues, one of the candidates for the presidential election has claimed. Sheikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa, the president of Asian football and a FIFA vice-president, said even FIFA’s huge reserves of £1billion could be emptied if income from sponsorship and TV does not increase.”

Reuters reports, “Nearly $1 million in funds from soccer’s global governing body FIFA may have gone missing from Guatemala’s soccer federation last year, according to sources and an internal audit seen by Reuters.”

From the AP: “FIFA presidential candidate Tokyo Sexwale will meet with senior South African Football Association officials on Tuesday for an ‘update’ amid reports that the millionaire businessman’s home federation is frustrated over his lackluster campaign.”

From Reuters: “Real Madrid are poised to sign a record 10-year kit sponsorship deal with Adidas worth 140 million euros (106.8 million pounds) a season, Spanish newspaper Marca reported on Friday.” That’s $152,782,740.

Pep Guardiola will be Manchester City’s head coach beginning with the 2016-17 season.

5-year-old Murtaza Ahmadi has been identified as the boy pictured wearing a makeshift Lionel Messi Argentina jersey in a photo that recently went viral. Work is reportedly underway for Messi to meet the boy, who lives in “the southern region of Afghanistan.”

27 Comments

  1. So nothing huh?

  2. Why do all the other teams get cool jerseys?

    • Exactly. I really hope the leak of the back of the “new” jersey is just BS. I know it’s just a jersey, but come on… the club is starting fresh… gimme something new and good. Not the same blue, and gold, with some yellow.

  3. el Pachyderm says:

    “He wants to go there. He is still young, he is only 33 and if he plays at 25 per cent of how he was, he can play in MLS with his blind eyes.”
    .
    Sterling. That is the only word I can think of.
    .
    When you watch Pulisic you see the quickness and the speed of thought required to play at the highest levels… in stark relief to our still lumberjacking ways. Don’t worry about the hype train people…. he will continue to develop its okay to develop a crush already. Whatever you do…. just enjoy watching.

  4. I’m glad we’re in agreement on the idiocy of the Clubs-As-Beer article. Nice try, MLS…but you missed the mark horribly

  5. Old Soccer Coach says:

    Repeating a comment posted on the PSP post earlier this morning about the Iceland game, …
    .
    Might someone at PSP look into how the roster relationships between MLS first teams and their wholly owned USL “second teams” work?.
    .
    The Roster regulations summary on the MLS website makes it clear that to play in an MLS non-preseason game you have to be rostered with the first team. [Concrete example: Ken Tribett cannot be center back depth for the Union in an emergency because he is rostered with BSFC; some type of roster move would have to be made.].
    .
    What is not clear to me, from either the MLS document or the USL Media Guide USL Rules segment pertaining to rosters [the only USL roster regulations I’ve been able to find so far], are the circumstances under which a player rostered on the first team may play for the second team. I have found nothing concerning the general case that I’ll label developmental game experience or the more specific case of injury rehabilitation.
    .
    The 2015 USL season involved several wholly owned USL clubs as second teams for MLS first teams. There must be examples of both cases. Where are the rules that cover them?
    .
    The only term I have seen so far is “loan”. But the MLS summary does not spell out how loans between MLS and USL work; the only detail provided concerns loans within MLS.
    .
    Why am I curious? We saw Pedro Ribiero and Richie Marquez experience two different types of “loans” to Harrisburg in 2014; Ribiero, somewhat of a yoyo and Marquez, a one way full season.
    .
    Do those two options continue? are they regulated by the league or are they at the complete discretion of each individual club? etc., etc.

    • Old Soccer Coach says:

      I want to know to inform my speculatiion about what’s going to happen to Yaro, Rosenberry, Herbers, and probably Washington.

  6. Atomic Spartan says:

    So Alberg looks pretty good in the highlights reel, but is he really worth our last international slot?

    • el Pachyderm says:

      If the sporting director says so.

      • +1. And he’s 25 years old. And he plays several positions. I’m thinking he might combine well with Sapong up top, while also being nice insurance for both Barnetta and Pontius.

      • Agree but We would still need to get another striker (with a green card) even if we get Alberg

      • Yeah I don’t know much about him, except what I saw, but he is young and would fill a need. If Stewart is familiar with him already, that’s just an added bonus.

  7. el Pachyderm says:

    I admit to having not a hair on my head that cares about ManCity FC but I would be remiss to not say at least He will not ply his genius in the Theater of Dreams.
    .
    United is reeling as so often happens when a dynasty crumbles….
    .
    ….”My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings, look on my works ye mighty and despair. Nothing beside remains round the decay of that colossal wreck. Boundless and bare….”

    • when you say colossal wreck are you talking about davy arnaud?

      • Unsure the reference you refer to with Arnaud…mine is the wreck of Manchester United after the king Sir Alex retired.
        .
        I’m glad they don’t just get a free pass with a Pep signing and likely escalation to the top of table again… United fans need to feel this mortality in the gut for just a bit longer IMO.
        .
        Pep would have been too easy a fix.

      • haha it looks like i read your united as dc united rather than manchester united

  8. The microbrew article is kinda dumb, but it’s awesome that the chose a Tired Hands brew. I live in Ardmore, and I feel blessed that the best brewery in the area is right in my ‘hood. The proprietor is a mad brewing genius.

  9. Really nice story on Dwayne Briscoe. I know we’re a long way from the original vision of the Union’s stadium being a centerpiece of lots of new development in the area, but cool to see a local Chester resident finding success as part of the Union staff.

  10. Love the part of the Marquez article talking about how Chivas USA watched him play and said he “wasn’t MLS material.” Jokes on you Chivas USA–look who actually turned out not be MLS material! 🙂

  11. This is for my fellow FIFA gamers:
    .
    The latest roster update added the new Union signings/draft picks with some interesting results.
    .
    Conceição is a 72 overall with a 74 potential. Solid in the air with a 79 strength and a 82 heading accuracy.
    .
    Pontius is a 67 overall with a 67 potential. Nothing really stands out about him, just all around pretty balanced for a midfielder.
    .
    Restrepo is a 68 overall with a 69 potential. He is almost as fast as Ayuk but is slightly worse at finishing.
    .
    .
    Now the signed draft picks (this is where it gets interesting):
    .
    Herbers is a 60 with a 67 potential. He has good speed and stamina. His passing stats are a lot lower then I would have guessed with only a 42 short passing, 38 long passing, and 31 crossing.
    .
    Washington is terrible and listed as a centerback, not a left back. He is only a 51 overall with a 57 potential.
    .
    Rosenberry is slightly worse then I would have expected, 57 overall with a 65 potential. Most glaring is only a 54 agility. It seems like he could grow to be just as good as Gaddis in attack but not a good defensively, there is really no competition in game.
    .
    Finally, Yaro is 60 overall with a 72 potential and an absolute physical freak in the game. He is the only centerback in the entire game with an 82 speed and 87 acceleration or higher. He also has a 79 agility, 71 balance, 89 jumping, and 77 stamina. His defensive numbers are decent to start too and coupled with the ground he can cover, he is a beast in game (at least for the MLS/Championship level of competition).
    .
    .
    Now for the painful part:
    .
    Brandon Vincent is a 64 overall with a 75 potential. The only MLS LB with a better potential is Kemar Lawrence and Vincent will pretty much be better then Fabinho in every stat in a season or two depending on if you train him.

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