Copa America at the Linc
The Copa America Centenario games at the Linc begin tonight with Uruguay-Venezuela (7:30 pm: FS1, Fox Soccer 2Go, Fox Sports Go, UniMás, Univision, UDN). On Saturday, the US faces Paraguay, with Chile-Panama on Tuesday, June 14.
Philadelphia Business Journal reports the three games are expected to draw 75,000 visitors to the city and to “generate an economic impact of $41 million for the region.” More on the tournament at CBS Philly.
Uruguay head coach Oscar Tabarez said of the availability of Luis Suarez, who is recovering from a hamstring injury, for tonight’s game, “He still hasn’t finished his rehab. And until that happens he won’t be used on the team.” MLSsoccer.com and Metro have previews of the game.
At Union Tally, a review of key players to watch in the Philly games. Section 215 has previews for the games.
Philadelphia Union
Andre Blake and Jamaica face Mexico tonight in Copa America play at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena (10 pm: FS1, Fox Soccer 2Go, Fox Sports Go, Univision, UDN). At Brotherly Game, a preview from Eugene Rupinski.
Vote Keegan Rosenberry for the MLS All-Star game!
At Philly Voice, Kevin Kinkead concludes the two-part series of ten reasons the Union are so much better this year.
At the Union website, Marisa Pilla compares Chris Pontius’ numbers over the first 14 DC United games in 2012, his career-best season, with his numbers through the first 14 games with the Union. They are better now.
Philly Soccer News has more from Matt Jones on his first start with the Union.
At Brotherly Game, Matt Ralph looks at what the picks in the 2016 SuperDraft have done around the league: “To date, three of the six Union draft picks have logged more first team minutes than any combination of draft picks on every other MLS team.”
CBS 3’s Pat Gallen takes some penalty kicks with Keegan Rosenberry and Ken Tribbett. He mostly misses.
Bethlehem Steel FC
Bethlehem begin a four-game road swing on Friday when they face Charlotte Independence (7 pm, YouTube). Brotherly Game has a preview.
Philadelphia Union Academy
The draw for the 2015-16 US Soccer Development Academy playoffs, which will take place in Frisco June 20-26, was held on Wednesday.
The Union Academy U-15/16s, who finished third place in the championship tournament last year and are ranked at No. 12 in the playoff pool, were drawn into Group A along with Vancouver Whitecaps (No. 3), Real Salt Lake (No. 5 in the wild card pool), and Miami’s Kendall Soccer Coalition (No. 10 in the wild card pool).
The U-17/18s, who failed to advance from group play last year and are ranked at No. 8 in the playoff pool, were drawn into Group G along with defending champions Chicago Fire (No. 2 in the wild card pool), as well as Connecticut’s Beachside SC (No. 21 in the playoff pool), and Kendall Soccer Coalition (No. 13 in the playoff pool).
Play begins on June 22 for the U-15/16s and U-17/18s. Play begins for the U-13/14s on June 20. For more on the playoffs, click here. At Brotherly Game, Matt Ralph has more on Wednesday’s draw.
Harrisburg City Islanders
At the Harrisburg City Islanders website, a preview of tonight’s road game against NYRB II (7 pm, YouTube). Once a Metro also has a preview. NYRB announced on Wednesday it had loaned Gonzalo Veron and Shaun Wright-Phillips to NYRB II for the game.
Local
Ocean City Nor’easters, third in the Mid Atlantic division of the PDL’s Eastern Conference, were defeated 1-0 on the road by fourth place NYRB U-23s on Wednesday night. Last place Lehigh Valley United was defeated 2-0 at home by sixth place Jersey Express.
The La Salle men’s team has released its 2016 schedule.
Norristown native and former New York Mets and Los Angeles Dodgers catcher Mike Piazza has announced has has reached an agreement in principal to buy a majority share in Italian third division side AC Reggiana 1919. More at ESPN.
MLS
Colorado Rapids defender Bobby Burling has undergone surgery on his right knee and is expected to be out for 5 weeks.
Atlanta United have signed 15-year-old midfielder Andrew Carleton as its first Homegrown Player. Top Drawer Soccer notes Carleton, A US YNT standout, is currently the No. 1 ranked player in the 2018 Boys IMG Academy Top 150.
The Oklahoman reports the future of NASL-side Rayo OKC is in doubt following the relegation of its parent club, Rayo Vallecano, from La Liga. Rayo OKC minority owner Sean Jones says the club, which made its debut three months ago, could search for new investors: “Regardless of what happens with Rayo Vallecano. We’ll figure that out. We’ll go forward. This is a long-term commitment.”
US
At the Washington Post, Steven Goff on how the USMNT’s 4-0 win over Costa Rica will mean nothing if the team does not get a result against Paraguay at the Linc on Saturday.
ASN on how Jurgen Klinsmann switching to a 4-3-3 for the match against Costa Rica “produced some of the most aesthetically pleasing soccer of the Klinsmann era to date.” Will we see a similar lineup on Saturday? Klinsmann said, “Our hope was to build a more fluid style by keeping the guys connected, the same starting XI. That luxury we never really get for World Cup qualifiers, or at other times of the year—we’re always missing guys. We always have to improvise and fix things up.”
The Guardian praises Clint Dempsey’s performance in Tuesday’s big win.
At FourFourTwo, Graham Parker on the how Klinsmann’s dual role as head coach and technical director results in conflicting objectives:
Appointment to the dual role gave him the strongest possible mandate for change on all fronts, and the new man duly went about his job with characteristic zeal. But it also made him vulnerable to immediate results with the team at any given moment — or, paradoxically, vulnerable to complaints that he wasn’t vulnerable enough. The latter has been the soundtrack of the past two years…
Klinsmann’s bifocal perspective, shaped by his twin roles, looks like a leader’s sense of the big picture when results are going well, and a tone-deaf response to disaster when they aren’t. The technical director’s commitment to giving a chance to as many prospects as possible is laudable, the head coach’s ability to get them to know where their fellow strangers are going to pop up on the field, less so.
USA Today and For the Win on various questions surrounding Jurgen Klinsmann.
Hope Solo’s legal troubles continue. KING5 reports,
Hope Solo, the U.S. Women’s National Team’s star goalkeeper, has lost her latest bid to have domestic violence charges against her thrown out.
The case was thrown out of municipal court on procedural grounds, but prosecutors appealed, and the charges were revived last October.
Solo sought a discretionary review to get the charges thrown out again, but the state appeals court denied that Tuesday. Solo can still appeal the ruling to the Washington state Supreme Court.
More at Fox Soccer, Oregon Live, Seattle PI, Seattle Times, KATU, KGMI, and from the AP.
The U-23 WNT drew 1-1 with England on Wednesday in its final game at the Nordic Tournament which, thanks to goal difference, was enough to claim the tournament championship.
Elsewhere
Adidas is apologizing after misspelling Colombia in advertisements featuring the team in new jerseys for the Copa America tournament.
The ads, which showed Colombian players in the home white jerseys, were pulled by Adidas after social media widely ridiculed the company for spelling the country “Columbia.”
The French Interior Ministry has released an app ahead of the start of Euro 2016 on Friday to alert users to terrorist attacks.
Reuters reports, “Banned UEFA president Michel Platini will be allowed to attend matches at the European soccer Championship providing he does not do it in any official role, the European governing body’s acting general secretary said on Wednesday.” More from the AP.
No Suarez. I guess 58 or so games and a summer spent already playing in a Copa last year was just enough to fatigue the hammy. I’d be okay with a slower than usual rehab myself TBH… course would never say that publicly.
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B.U.M.M.E.R — I was looking more forward to watching him live than Team USA on Saturday. Pretty much the reason I bought a venue pass.
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What is with all the mistakes … wrong anthems, something else i can’t remember that was head scratching, ADIDAS misspelling a country. Aren’t there fact checkers and editors and oversight committees anymore. Holy smokes.
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The Ecuador Peru game was crazy. Hope to see something similar tonight….
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Regarding the Copa mistakes, I’m reminded of a quote from the great John Wooden, “Be quick, but don’t hurry.” This quote is even more relevant in today’s world where people seem to be moving faster than they are capable of and also more distracted than ever.
well said.
Oh, please add spell checkers! I write a perfectly grammatical English language conditional sentence that begins with “Were” because to use anything else logically contradicts the point that you in the realm of the hypothetical, and it replaces my correct syntax with an error thqt would have brought down ridicule in my seventh grade English class more than fifty years ago!
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Mrs. Cherryholmes! arise! come back! Grab my spell-checker by the ear and haul it out into the hall to wait for the Principal to come by!
ironic…spell check rant with typos and punctuation errors… “correct syntax with an error that would”…”Arise”…”Come back!”…just nitpicking…love you OSC
Yup. Well done. Criticisms accepted.
Wow. Did you ever see something different, el P. OMG!
BTW…awesome article on Zlatan today… espnfc.
About to start reading it now.
http://espn.go.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/16043768/the-world-according-zlatan
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You gotta love Ibra.
Indeed. Credit to the writer but credit to the illustrator as well.
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You know the illustrator is helping capture the imagination of the football world… all one has to do is reference 8by8mag… which is an excellent read but also magical in its visual ability to make you think of these players as modern day superheroes… and villains.
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Just look at the covers for an introduction.
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Pogba recent issue
Messi last issue
Pirlo before
Rooney I believe before that.
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the Messi and Pogba cover are tack-umd to my little boys wall next to the head of his bed. Howler is another really good mag with cool illustrations.
Glad a team that doesn’t even exist yet can sign a homegrown player but Rosenberry doesn’t count for us…
Anyone else hoping Carleton adopts the Carlton (Fresh Prince of Bel Air) dance as his trademark celebration after scoring? Hopefully no goals against the U though.