Photo: Courtesy of Philadelphia Union

Philadelphia Union

In the new post Vincent Nogueira era, and without CJ Sapong who was out with an ankle injury, the Union put in a tepid first half display before making a game of things in the second half in Saturday’s game against NYCFC. It was a losing effort.

Apologizing to fans for the Union’s poor performance in Saturday’s loss to NYCFC, Jim Curtin said ‘we didn’t deserve anything today,” adding, “Overall, on the day, as a team, our decision making collectively, we just weren’t ourselves and I just told the group, before the game, what’s gotten us here is strong goalkeeping, team defense, and being good on restarts. I think we get an F for that tonight.”

Curtin took responsibility for his team’s loss: “I didn’t have them ready to play, that’s on me.”

Fortunately, the team does not have long to dwell on their poor performance as they host Chicago Fire on Wednesday.

Recaps and reports at PSP (recap, postgame quotes), Philadelphia Union (recap, notes), Philly.com (recap, report) Delco Times, Philly Soccer News (recap, report), Brotherly Game (recap, analysis), Vavel, MLSsoccer.com (recap, Union, NYCFC), NYCFC, New York Daily News, New York Post, Newsday, Big Apple Soccer, (recap, report, report, report, report), Empire of Soccer, Metro Soccer Nation, ESNY, NY Sports Day, Hudson River Blue, Skyscraper Blues, ESPN, Fox Soccer, Fox Sports, Sports Journal, SBI, The Guardian, The 42, Metro, Playing for 90, and the AP. USA Today has a photo gallery.

With the loss, the Union drop two spots to No. 4 in ESPN’s power rankings: “The Union can be forgiven for an uneven performance in New York, both because of the narrow playing conditions at Yankee Stadium and the sudden loss of Vincent Nogueira.”

MLSsoccer.com on how the Union missed Vincent Nogueira — and CJ Sapong — in the loss to NYCFC. Philly Voice, Union Tally, MLSsoccer.com, Section 215, Pattison Ave, and Philly Sports Nation consider the Union’s options in filling the hole left by Nogueira’s departure.

Section 215 on Roland Alberg’s importance now that Vincent Nogueira is gone. Also at Section 215, on the Union’s resiliency.

The Union Foundation’s Cocktails and Cleats fundraising gala will take place on November 10.

Former Union man Corben Bone is fitting in nicely at FC Cincinnati.

Bethlehem Steel

Bethlehem (17 points, 4-4-5), tenth place in the Eastern Conference took an early lead from a Seku Conneh goal in the 19th minute but had to settle for a 1-1 draw in rainy North Carolina against ninth place Wilmington Hammerheads (17 points, 4-4-5) on Friday. The team resumes its series of road games on Friday against DC United affiliate Richmond Kickers. Recaps of the Wilmington draw at PSP, Bethlehem Steel FC, Unauthorized Bethlehem Steel FC Blog, Philly Soccer News, Brotherly Game, USLsoccer.com, Wilmington Hammerheads, and Star News.

Philadelphia Union Academy

The Union Academy teams are in Texas this week for postseason US Soccer Development Academy play. The Union U-13/14s face Sockers FC of Illinois today in Frisco at 4:30 pm. The U-15/16s face their counterparts from Real Salt Lake on Wednesday at 5 pm, with the U-17/18s facing Connecticut’s Beachside FC the same day at 7:30 pm. More at Philadelphia Union and Brotherly Game.

Harrisburg City Islanders

Eleventh place in the Eastern Conference Harrisburg (13 points, 4-9-1) lost 1-0 on the road from an 82nd minute penalty kick on Saturday to fourth place Charleston Battery (24 points, 7-4-3). City Islanders now begin a two-game home series at FNB Field, hosting FC Montreal on Tuesday at 7 pm, and Charlotte Independence on Friday, also at 7 pm. Recaps of the loss to Charleston at USLsoccer.com, Philly Soccer News, Charleston Battery, The Post and Courier, Dirty South Soccer,

PDL

It was a winning weekend in area PDL action. First place in the Mid-Atlantic Division Reading United (16 points, 5-1-1) defeated fifth place Jersey Express on Saturday, 2-1. Recaps at Reading United and Reading Eagle. Also on Saturday, third place Ocean city Nor’easters (12 points, 4-3-0) defeated sixth place Evergreen FC, 3-1. Recaps at Ocean City Nor’easters and Press of Atlantic City. On Sunday, last place Lehigh Valley United (7 points, 2-5-1) defeated Jersey Express (9 points, 3-5-0), 1-0.

MLS

In the Eastern Conference, first place Philadelphia (23 points, 6-4-5) lost 3-2 on the road to third place NYCFC (21 points, 5-5-6). Second place NYRB (22 points, 7-7-1) defeated Seattle, 2-0. Fourth place Montreal (20 points, 5-4-5) drew 0-0 on the road with ninth place Columbus (15 points, 3-5-6). Fifth place Toronto (19 points, 5-5-4) defeated LAG, 1-0. Sixth place New England (19 points, 4-4-7) defeated Vancouver 2-1 on the road. Seventh place DC (17 points, 4-6-5) drew 0-0 on the road with Houston. Eighth place Orlando (17 points, 3-3-8) drew 2-2 with San Jose, with former Union man Shea Salinas scoring the stoppage time equalizer for the Earthquakes. Last place Chicago (11 points, 2-6-5) lost 2-1 on the road to Colorado.

In the Western Conference, first place Colorado (31 points, 9-2-4) defeated Chicago, 2-1. Second place Dallas (28 points, 8-5-4) lost 2-0 on the road to fourth place Kansas City (6-8-3). At the very least, it should’ve been a 2-1 loss. Third place Salt Lake (24 points, 7-4-3) drew 2-2 with eighth place Portland (20 points, 5-6-5). Fifth place Vancouver lost 2-1 to New England. Sixth place LAG (21 points, 5-3-6) lost 1-0 on the road to Toronto. Seventh place San Jose (21 points, 5-4-6) drew 2-2 on the road to Orlando. Ninth place Seattle (16 points, 5-8-1) lost 2-0 on the road to NYRB. It was Sig Schmid’s 500th MLS game as head coach. Last place Houston (14 points, 3-7-5) drew 0-0 with DC.

Well done, Orlando City,

New York Red Bulls have given head coach Jesse Marsch a contract extension.

Miami Herald reports, “David Beckham hopes to land the parent company of the All Aboard Florida rail and real estate portfolio as his partner in a new soccer stadium in Overtown, with talks under way to have the private equity firm help bankroll the 25,000-seat venue about six city blocks from the planned train depot in downtown Miami.”

NWSL

First place Chicago (18 points, 5-1-3) defeated last place Boston (4 points, 1-7-1), 3-0. Second place Portland (17 points, 4-0-5) defeated fourth place Western New York (15 points, 5-4-0), 2-0. Third place Washington (17 points, 5-1-2) defeated fifth place Orlando (12 points, 4-5-0), 2-0. Sixth place Seattle (12 points, 3-3-3) drew 0-0 with seventh place Sky Blue (10 points, 2-3-4). Eighth place Kansas City (9 points, 2-4-3) defeated ninth place Houston (seven points, 2-5-1), 1-0.

US

The US appealed the cards awarded to Jermaine Jones and Bobby Wood during last week’s quarterfinal win over Ecuador in the Copa America. The appeals were denied.

So, what will the starting US lineup look like with no Jones, Wood, or Alejandro Bedoya, who will also miss the semifinal due to yellow card accumulation? Speculation at ESPN, SI, Washington Post, CBS Houston, and the AP.

Jurgen Klinsmann said of facing Argentina: “We are not scared of them at all. We admire their players. This is now a special moment. I told the players yesterday before we started training, ‘This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity now.’ You got into the semifinal, you made yourself proud but now go for more.”

Michael Bradley said, “We know [Argentina is] a very good team with a lot of very good players, but we don’t want to make this out to be mission impossible. It’s 90 minutes. It’s a semifinal. It’s a chance to get into a final and at the end of the day, whoever’s sharper, whoever has more guys play well, whoever has more guys who can compete at a high level and understand the moment, that’s typically what team is going to have a better chance to win.”

Argentina head coach Gerardo Martino said of the US, “As I always say, any team that gets to this stage in a tournament, like the U.S., they get there because of their own merit. They had a very difficult group, and they even lost the first game, but they recovered. It’s true that for this game they have three suspended players but nevertheless the fact they have got this far and the fact that they are the home team means that they are a rival we have to be very careful with. They’re a top rival, and just like Venezuela they can complicate things for us. We have to try not to offer things up to them. We offered Venezuela a little window of opportunity.”

Yahoo Sports says the US ‘ success in the tournament comes down to confidence. More at Fox Soccer and MLSsoccer.com.

At US Soccer, the story of the rainbow-colored captain’s armband Michael Bradley wore in the quarterfinal win over Ecuador to honor the victims of the mass killing in Orlando. By the way, Grant Wahl tweeted on Friday, “US Soccer spokesperson: We have received no notification of any sanction for Bradley’s rainbow armband, but if there is we’d happily pay it.”

Elsewhere

After the USA-Argentina Copa America Centenario semifinal on Tuesday in Houston, Colombia and Chile will meet in the other semifinal on Wednesday in Chicago. Colombia prevailed in penalty kicks over Peru in Friday’s quarterfinal after a scoreless 90 minutes of play in regulation time. Chile absolutely humiliated Mexico with a 7-0 win on Saturday.

Soccer America has the attendance numbers for all of the Copa America games that have been played so far: “The four Copa Centenario quarterfinal matches averaged 64,062 fans, pushing the tournament average to 44,565 fans a game after 28 games. The lowest crowd for the quarterfinals was 47,332 for USA-Ecuador in Seattle.” The Guardian on how attendance ought to have been higher.

Croatia has been charged by UEFA after fans threw flares and fireworks on the pitch during the team’s Euro 2016 match against Czech Republic on Friday. Vice Sports reports, “A leading Croatian supporters’ group has promised further disruption to Euro 2016, calling for ‘structural changes in the Croatian Football Federation and the departure of leading people within the organisation.'”

Other countries charged by UEFA following unruly fan behavior include Albania, Romania, Hungary, Belgium, and Portugal.