Photo: Earl Gardner
Philadelphia Union
The Union host Real Salt Lake on Sunday at 7 pm (CSN, MLS Live, Direct Kick). Time to get back to those winning ways.
Some good news for the Union: The Salt Lake Tribune reports RSL coach Jeff Cassar says Yura Movsisyan has been ruled out for Sunday’s game as the Designated Player continues to recover from a hip flexor strain. Jordan Allen is also questionable for the game after leaving Wednesday night’s All-Star Game with a hamstring tightness. More at RSL.
Previews at PSP, Philadelphia Union, Brotherly Game, MLSsoccer.com, Real Salt Lake, and 4UtahKTVX.
Andre Blake and Keegan Rosenberry both started and played 45 minutes in Thursday’s All-Star Game, which was won by Arsenal, 2-1. Rosenberry had 31 touches — the most of any MLS player in the first half and second most on the MLS squad for the game — with two tackles while completing 88.2 percent of his passes, and Blake made a spectacular save on a shot from Mohamed El-neny after some apparent miscommunication between him and Laurent Ciman led to the foul that gave Arsenal their opening goal from the penalty spot in the 11th minute. Most importantly, neither player was injured in the game. I stopped watching after Blake and Rosenberry left the game but I will say this: Without a doubt, the atmosphere at PPL Park when the Union hosted the All Stars in the win over Chelsea in 2012 was way, way better than last night.
Rosenberry said after the game, “It was awesome. It was everything I thought it would be.” Said Blake, This week was great. It is something I will cherish in the long run.”
Before Thursday night’s game, CJ Sapong was one of four players named an inactive All Star, along with David Ousted, Nick Rimando, and Diego Valeri. It’s a CBA thing (the ASG roster must have 32 players on it) but still a nice recognition for the Union man.
At the Union website, Marisa Pilla on Rosenberry’s path to the All-Star Game.
Blake and Rosenberry made SBI’s “merit-based All-Star XI”: “the fans got it right in voting in Keegan Rosenberry…[Blake] is more than justified as a selection. ”
At CSN Philly, Dave Zeitlin has more on Derrick Jones being signed as a Homegrown Player.
At Philly Soccer News, more from Jim Curtin’s weekly press conference on Wednesday about Maurice Edu’s progress as he works to return from the stress fracture that has kept him out all season.
Bethlehem Steel FC
Bethlehem hosts Toronto FC II on Sunday (4 pm, YouTube). Bethlehem lost 3-2 when the teams met in Toronto on July 6. Preview at Bethlehem Steel.
Auston Trusty is with the US U-19 MNT at the COTIF Tournament in Spain. He went the full 90 in the team’s 2-0 loss to Venezuela on July 26, and also in the 1-0 win against Mauritania on Thursday. The team faces Spain today and finishes group play against Bahrain on Monday.
City Islanders
The City Islanders host Rochester Rhinos tonight at FNB Field in Harrisburg at 7 pm (YouTube) in the first game of a two-game homestand that concludes on Tuesday when they host New York Red Bulls II. Previews of tonight’s game at City Islanders, Rochester Rhinos, and USLsoccer.com.
City Islanders head coach Bill Becher and Rhinos head coach Bob Lilley used to be teammates, first with Hershey Impact (1990-1991) and then with Harrisburg Heat (1992-1997).
PDL
Eastern Conference champions Ocean City Nor’easters host Western Conference champions Calgary Foothills FC on Saturday in the semifinals of the PDL championship. Kickoff is at 5 pm. Preview at Ocean City Nor’easters.
Ocean City’s Chevaughn Walsh and Nathan Regis, both of whom are former PSP Player of the Week winners, have been named to the PDL All-Eastern Conference Team. Also named to the team was Reading United’s Paul Marie. More at Ocean City Nor’easters.
Local
At the US Youth Soccer national championships in Frisco, the Lehigh Valley United have won Group B to advance to the U-18 championship semifinals with a massive 8-0 win on Thursday over Ohio’s OP Green. Evan Vare scored a first half hat trick in the opening 32 minutes before adding another goal in the second half. A total of five goals were scored by LVU in the second half, with Steven Garber and Tyler Madeira each scoring a brace to join Vare on the score sheet. Vare goes into the semifinals as the leading scorer among all U-18 players in the championships with 6 goals.
You can watch a livestream of LVU against Santa Barbara SC in the semifinals on Saturday at the ungodly hour of 7:30 am. The final will be streamed on Sunday at 9 am.
The New Jersey Rush U-13 team lost 4-1 to Cincinnati United Premier their final group game. Amanda Attanasi scored the lone goal for the Rush after the team, which had lost its first two games, was already down 4-0.
The Lower Merion SC Sabertooth Rats U-15 team lost their final group game, a 2-1 defeat to Virginia’s MacLean Green. Evan Tracy halved the score for the Rats, who were also unable to win a group game, with a goal in stoppage time.
In a preview of U-19 final, FC Florida — who have three former Union Academy players on their team, Mo Conde, Zach Perez, and John Schroeder — lost 3-1 to FC Golden State. The teams play again for the McGuire Cup on Saturday at 8 pm. The game will be streamed.
The La Salle men’s team has announced Rob Irvine as its new head coach. Irvine was previously an assistant at UPenn for eight seasons (2006-14). The announcement has some glowing remarks about Irvine from Zack Steffen and John Hackworth, as well as Rudy Fuller and Duke Lacroix.
Brice McInroy (M: Penn Fusion, Mechanicsburg, Penn.) and Rebecca Jarrett (F: World Class; Washington Township, N.J.) have been called up for the US U-16 GNT camp in San Diego, July 31-Aug. 7.
MLS
From the league website before last night’s All-Star Game:
The league officially confirmed that Colorado Rapids midfielder Jermaine Jones (undisclosed injury), Sporting Kansas City defender Matt Besler (left MCL strain) and Portland Timbers defender Liam Ridgewell (calf strain) will all miss Thursday’s All-Star Game against Arsenal due to injury.
All three players, none of whom played for their respective clubs last weekend, will be held out of their teams’ next matches due to a league rule that bars All-Stars from playing in their next league game if they can’t participate in the All-Star Game.
Rules, rules, rules
Fox Sports ranks the top 5 All-Star Game formats.
Landon Donovan was impressed by the quality of the players he coached on the Homegrown team that was defeated on Wednesday by the Mexico U-20 team.
Portland has signed former Union man Chris Konopka, current home of fellow former Union men Jack McInerney and Amobi Okugo.
Seattle has signed midfielder Alvaro Fernandez. The Uruguayan international previously played for Seattle in 2010-12.
Don Garber on league expansion after Atlanta United begins play in 2017: “We’ve got two more teams after that. LAFC are going to break ground on their stadium in two weeks and we hope to still get something done in Miami, but then we’ll have four more teams [after that]. I can’t tell you when that’s going to be, we’re going to be careful and we’re going to make sure that we manage the technical aspects of expansion, but there’s a lot of interest, probably a dozen cities for those last four spots.”
San Antonio Business Journal reports that while San Antonio is still in consideration for a MLS franchise, the field for the few remaining franchise spots has gotten more crowded lately, with Cincinnati in particular getting a lot of notice.
Reuters reports, “Major League Soccer in North America is fast-tracking plans to use video reviews to aid referee decisions, commissioner Don Garber said on Thursday.”
US
Pro Soccer Talk has rankings of the teams competing in the men’s and women’s Olympic soccer tournament.
At FourFourTwo, a list of the top 25 players in USWNT history.
At SI: “U.S. men’s rising generation faces vital seasons in time of transition”.
Pulisic! Pulisic! Pulisic! Pulisic!
Brad Guzan has signed with newly promoted Premier League side Middlesbrough.
Hull Daily Mail reports, “Bob Bradley remains among the favourites this morning to become the next Hull City manager, despite the Mail understanding no contact has been made between the Tigers and his current club.”
Elsewhere
The BBC reports, “FIFA secretary-general Fatma Samoura says the years she spent working in war zones for the United Nations have prepared her for her new job.”
The AP reports, “Colombia’s celebration of victory in the South American club soccer championship has ended in violence, with three fans killed in a night of boisterous revelry. Authorities say they registered more than 600 street fights after Medellin’s Atletico Nacional defeated Ecuador’s Independiente del Valle 1-0 in Wednesday night’s Copa Libertadores final.”
Neymar to those who think he’s been spending too much time in the offseason partying:
I think you have to start by looking at what I do on the pitch. The moment I am off the field it’s my personal time.
I like to go out and have fun with my friends. I have family too so why can’t I go out to clubs? I can and I will. I am well aware what my duties are the next day. I am going to keep going out and I don’t see anything wrong with that.
Imagine you’re 24 years old, earning what I earn and having all that I have. Wouldn’t you be the same as me?
From Goal.com: “Brazilian striker Wendell Lira has quit football six months after winning the Puskas Award in order to start a new career as a FIFA video-game player.”
Checkout the latest Footy on the Telly for listings of live soccer on TV, online, and on satellite radio for the upcoming week.
I call the all star game a gimmick and it is… made all the more truthful because in not playing in said game you are then suspended for the next league game which speaks to the mockery the league is.
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MLS is concerned with MLS. What an outright farce.
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The league is a gimmick and its precious all star game is one more gimmick too.
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Any wonder why so many pay it no mind?
No, You’re a gimmick Elephant Man. Good Grief, it’s an All Star! What do you expect? Of all the sports, only baseball has a somewhat meaningful all star game. Take a deep breath. Chill.
Wait, let me reevaluate for a moment Jackson B……. Nope.
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If your grounded because your unfit for the game and use that time to recover for your teams push through the summer but are suspended because you couldn’t then play in all star game it tells me the all star game is given more weight than it should.
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Sorry sir…. GIMMICK.
BTW… Jackson, it’s the Elephant.
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As in the Elephant in the room.
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No need to name call, eh sir?
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If you hung out here more often you would find this place is not Philly.com.
Everybody run….the fun police are here.
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Sure John – trying to keep name calling out of it…..Sue me…
You should give up on MLS…I think it’s slowly killing you. I have a buddy who wants to lose about 50 lbs. So he does extreme stuff for two weeks and losses 10-12 lbs.. a few weeks later back to square one. He just can’t get it takes a lot of steady work and you’re not gone skip steps and just get there. Sue you? No way….you’re my ying
Of course it’s a gimmick. MLS is one big giant gimmick–regular season, playoffs, every single game. Sports is athletic entertainment, nothing more, nothing less.
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I think what you mean is that the All-Star game is a gimmick that you (and many players) don’t care for and that interferes with your preferred gimmick. Nothing wrong with that view, but I try to enjoy it all because that’s the point of the games, regardless of format.
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Now you sir are no gimmick. I don’t know what Mr. B is talking about.
Which is why they should eliminate the all-star game, especially for players like Blake who didn’t get a Copa break.
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The sport already has more significant all-star recognition called national teams which are much more significant than last night.
Huh. I think MLB game is pretty damn meaningless, to be honest? A tie because both teams ran out of players? So the answer was to name more people to each team? And then, “this one counts” by tying home field advantage to it?
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Sorry, MLB is very rarely a paragon to be held up as something one should strive to achieve. And I say that as a baseball fan…
I get the point of the rule, but there really ought to be some flexibility to it. A simple medical review should be enough to determine if a player can’t go on Thursday but could go on Sunday.
100% at the minimum.
Of course, the all-star game shouldn’t be on a Thursday night, either. Ideally, it would be on a weekend, so non-all-stars get a break, and even those on the team get downtime both before and after without affecting their performance in their next match.
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Of course, the MLS schedule is such a clusterf… that will never happen.
Stop with the common sense. Garber & MLS cannot fathom a world where logic goes unpunished.
Agreed and the scenario I would argue with is “what happens if the All Star game is Thursday and a player catches the flu or a stomach bug on Monday-Wednesday. Does he still have to play to ensure that he is allowed to play on the weekend should he recover in time?”
it is unequivocally the most MLS rule in MLS. If elected to the game you must play or face suspension – even if you are injured. Not because you refused to play. Because you have an actual injury. Absolutely pathetic. Just another opportunity to demonstrate to the casual fan “how far MLS has come…” Would love to see the contract between SUM & MLS. How much at the gate do the opposing teams get for the exhibition?
Bradley coaching in the Premiership would be ground breaking. Also, well earned given his resume, country of origin be damned.
On Neymar, yes sir!
I saw the Neymar quote yesterday.
I have spent 24 hours trying to do what he said. I have been trying to imagine that I earn what he earns and that I have all that he has.
I have literally (literally as in literally not literally as in figuratively) failed. I literally cannot imagine that.
To be fair, Neymar probably could not imagine living my life either. It’s that boring.
You Do You Neymar.
I Also tuned out when the half ended. The rules for playing before or after are just silly. The Union should be very proud of how Blake and Rosenberry preformed. It was great to see them get the full half. The game is gimmicky…and has poor timing in the schedule. But it is an honor for the players. So it’s not that bad… I guess
My two cents re: the all-star game, with which I don’t usually bother.
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In 2012 I paid the money for tickets so my wife would have the experience, and so I could see Beckham live and in person.
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For me, I cannot sense the deftness and precision of a pass from television. I can infer it by analyzing its result. But I do not feel its quality as it is struck as I can sometimes do when it is live.
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Beckham never played here for the Galaxy. Never.
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Don Garber needs to be forced to listen to Dr. J explaining professionalism as playing the worst team in the league in the fifth game of a stretch of six back-to-back and remembering that some where in the stands there was a kid for whom this was his first game ever, or only game that season, who had scraped and saved to make it possible, and that he owed that kid to not disappoint him, to give him a full professional effort even though a pantomime would suffice against the opponent.
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I could feel the quality of Beckham’s passes that night in Philly, as I could those Ronaldinho and all the others at the opening event on the virgin pitch at the Linc all those years ago when Diego Forlan was a kid with Man U.
It was the place to be that night if you were a soccer fan in Philly, the place to be.
I’m certain I saw Beckham play here.. Creaking up & down the sidelines and the place full of women trying get a photo.
Scored on a beauty of a corner kick at the river end too.
I knew I wasnt imagining things!
https://phillysoccerpage.net/2010/10/07/good-luck-beckham-more-news/