Daily news roundups

Team and Player of the Week honors, Union Academy call ups, more news

Photo: Courtesy of Philadelphia Union

Philadelphia Union

The Union have been named Goal.com’s MLS Team of the Week.

Andre Blake, Fabinho, and Chris Pontius have been named to the MLS Team of the Week at Bleacher Report, HITC, and SBI. Blake and Pontius made the Team of the Week at MLSsoccer.com and Pro Soccer Talk, where Pontius shares Player of the Week honors with Dom Dwyer. At SI, Blake is the Defensive Player of the Week. At Brotherly Game, Pontius is the MVP for Week Two.

Power rankings! At Soccer America, the Union jump 11 spots to come in at No. 9. At ESPN, the Union climb three spots to come in at No. 15. At SI, the Union go from No. 20 in Week One to No. 16. At SB Nation, it’s a two-spot move up to No. 16.

At Philly Voice, Kevin Kinkead on how there is no goalkeeper controversy for the Union this year.

Corey Furlan of the Sons of Ben participated in a panel on supporter culture in MLS at South By Southwest last week.

Philadelphia Union Academy

Current Union academy player Auston Trusty, and academy alum Sebastian Elney (now at Maryland), have been called up for the US U-20 MNT ahead of the Dallas Cup. The team will face CF Monterrey Rayados, Fulham, and Hoffenheim in group play beginning on March 20.

Local

Forward Danny DiPrima is back with Harrisburg City Islanders for a third season.

At the USL site, a profile on Harrisburg defender Dante Leverock.

Also at the USL site, a preview of the City Islanders.

MLS

Portland has acquired Darren Mattocks from Vancouver in exchange for general allocation money, targeted allocation money, and an international roster spot for the 2017 season. “As part of the trade, Whitecaps FC will receive a percentage of any future transfer proceeds if the player is transferred out of the league.”

Portland has also signed forward Fanendo Adi to a contract extension using Targeted Allocation Money.

From the Seattle Sounders website: “Former U.S. international striker Herculez Gomez trained with the Seattle Sounders on Monday, but there is no indication from the club how long the World Cup veteran will stay in camp or if he is close to signing a contract.”

The headline at Washington Business Journal: “Zoning commissioner’s first take on D.C. United stadium: ‘This reminds me of a prison’.”

NWSL

Preseason rosters have been announced ahead of the NWSL’s fourth season. Very interesting read from The Oregonian about the league’s use of amatuer players.

US

US Soccer announced on Monday that individual tickets for the Copa America Centenario group stage, quarterfinal, semifinal and Third Place matches will go on sale to the general public on Tuesday, March 22 at 1 pm.

Colombia has announced its roster for the Olympic qualification series against the US U-23 MNT. The US plays Colombia on the road on March 25 (6 pm: FS1, Univision) and then in Frisco on March 29 (9:30 pm: ESPN2).

Hope Solo after the USWNT victory over Germany to win the inaugural SheBelieves Cup: “You have the number one ranked team against the number two ranked team, and 13,000 fans at the game, it’s not good enough. We have to do better marketing, we have to do a better job, because we could have sold out stadiums (in) any city that we’re playing in in America.” Yeah, Florida losers. Talen Energy Stadium is sold out for the USWNT match against Colombia on April 10 and they’re ranked No. 25.

Hmmm. England’s new jersey for the Euros from Nike looks familiarly terrible.

Elsewhere

From PA Sport: “Galatasaray have confirmed the father of their Turkey international Umut Bulut was killed in the terrorist bombing in Ankara on Sunday.”

22 Comments

  1. Zizouisgod says:

    Interesting trade with Mattocks garnering GAM and TAM along with an international spot next season as well as Vancouver getting a percentage of future transfer fees out of MLS. That was a high price for a rival to pay unless the GAM and TAM dollars are nominal.

    • It does seem like highway robbery. It would be interesting to see the GAM/TAM numbers. If only MLS didn’t classify every piece of information as TOP SECRET, we might learn something.

      • If only…
        .
        cue the skipping needle on a record… gotta dime you can lend for support.

      • Will you accept morale support? The dime wouldn’t get you very far anyway. Couldn’t even make a phone call.

      • Old Soccer Coach says:

        Thought the dime was to put on top of the stylus to get you through the skip!

      • young uns’ these days…

      • Man I did not think about it in that way. We had a record player growing up. We just didn’t use it all that much I guess. I think the preferred vehicle was the 8-track. Billy Joel’s “Stranger” comes to mind. By the time I really got into music it was all cassettes by that point. Mick’s comment totally went over my head.

  2. I think at various times over the years we have had the amount of talent on the team as we do now… we just never had the keeper to compliment it. Blake, by simply making the saves he is supposed to, and occasionally making the ones he is not, keeps the team in any game. And by doing that instills confidence all around…
    .
    How many times have the U over the years been in games, or at least close, and have had that killer goal go in against us… alot of times a weak/stupid goal… That just kills you.
    .
    Even in the lose to Dallas, Blake kept us in the game long enough to at least try to get our act together, make adjustments, etc (but in the case of Dallas.. we did not..)
    .
    Anyway.. looking forward to less soul-sucking stupid-ass WTF type gifts given to the opposition this year.

    • I agree about Blake, total stud who will by himself get us points we may not deserve which is something we have never had. That said, we were missing our 3 best field players. No other Union team would be able to deal with that as well as we did this weekend in my opinion.

      • azog d'filer says:

        I don’t think we have EVER had this level of talent across the board. But that also has a lot to do with the general improvement in quality across MLS.

  3. Maybe someone should let the people posting “teams of the week” Tha fabinho wasn’t even our best outside back on the day. That or every commenter on this site and Adam are wrong.

    • I think we tend to see more of the negative then positive with Fabinho.

      • Yeah, don’t forget about the benefits he’s provided to NASA’s sun rocket program 🙂

      • Old Soccer Coach says:

        And the entertainment value to PSP!

      • Fair point. When I play as the union in fifa, I tend to yell “sun rockets in flight” right before an I’ll fated charge up the wing now.

    • Lucky Striker says:

      2/3 of the accolades well deserved. Progress, which is the best that could be said for the other…….

    • Old Soccer Coach says:

      Decades in the past when I was a kid, the offensive center for Yale made All-American when he did not even make first team all Ivy League.
      .
      Think about it.

    • He was the best outside back on the day if personally Rosenberry got beat so many times to the inside of the field he nearly gave the game to Columbus. He is just lucky Blake bailed him out.

      • Once Cedrick mbwati entered the game, we saw him struggle yes. Same can be said of fabinho in the first 30 minutes with afful, but he settled in. I just appreciated the offensive contributions, not to mention it was rosenberry who put in a tackle on higuain to start the move on the second goal

    • That’s Great! Someone thinks Fabi is good. ES should trade him now while he has some value again. Stick Gaddis in there until you find a better left back.

  4. How great is it to see this young man develop right in front of our eyes! He will be the Union MVP for the season no doubt! I may have to get a Blake Jersey!

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