Daily news roundups

“Two points dropped”: recaps and reaction to Union draw with DC, BSFC draws with Charlotte, league results, more

Photo: Courtesy of Philadelphia Union

Philadelphia Union

Tranquillo Barnetta’s wonderful free kick to equalize just before the end of the first half, and Chris Pontius’ go-ahead goal against his former team in the second half, were squandered when the Union conceded the equalizer in the 94th minute on Saturday.

As Jim Curtin began his postgame press conference, “Start with the obvious: Two points dropped on the road.”

He continued, “At the end of every MLS game, it gets a little hectic and crazy, and people throw bodies forward and DC did that, and we didn’t handle it well. This is what we are right now. We’re still learning to win on the road.”

Where the Union are on the table is now fifth place in the Eastern Conference, five points ahead of this weekend’s road opponent, New England Revolution. Curtin said in DC, “We work so hard to get to that point in the game just doing all the little things right, and closing it out would be very rewarding, but now we have to go to New England and try to do the same things, get all three points.”

One big question heading into Saturday’s game will be the extent of the injury that saw Brian Carroll leave the game. Curtin said after the DC game, “I think Brian Carroll had what seems like it might be something that maybe keeps him out a bit, so we’ll evaluate that.”

Recaps and reports at PSP (recap, postgame) Philadelphia Union (recap, report, fact check), Philly.com (recap, report), Delco TimesPhilly Voice, Philly Soccer News (recap, report), Brotherly Game (recap, analysis), Pattison Ave, Prost AmerikaVavel,  MLSsoccer.com (recap, Union, DC) DC United (recap, post-match facts), Washington Post, Black and Red United (recap, report), Goal.com (Pontius, Kemp), SBI, Pro Soccer TalkMLS Multiplex, and the APUSA Today has a photo gallery from the game.

Pontius = class.

Vote Tranquillo Barnetta for Goal of the Week.

More response to the Union’s summer transfer window moves. ASN says, “The Philadelphia Union is the most compelling team in MLS at the moment thanks to several significant moves made ahead of Wednesday’s transfer deadline.”

Bleacher Report says the Union’s recent acquisitions “should set [them] up for a charge at the top seed in the Eastern Conference as long as Bedoya and Davies fit into the roles they’re supposed to in Jim Curtin’s lineup,” adding “As long as the proper chemistry is built between the additions and they earn results on the road, the Union should build up enough momentum to be considered true players in the race for MLS Cup.”

At MLSsoccer.com, the Union’s summer transfer moves are ranked the best of the window. The Union won the summer transfer window at US Soccer Players, one that otherwise “was mostly a bust.” Empire of Soccer gives the Union the Ambition Award for their transfer window moves Even SB Nation NYCFC blog Hudson River Blue is impressed by the Union’s moves.

Apparently, Columbus tried to land Bedoya.

At MLSsoccer.com, Andrew Wiebe on where he thinks Bedoya will play on the field.

Playing for 90 includes Andre Blake on a list of five potential breakout MLS players (warning: slideshow). American Soccer Analysis on why Andre Blake shouldn’t win goalkeeper of the year.

Sebastien Le Toux said of the transfer to Colorado:

It’s a good trade for me and I’m very happy to be here. They have the expectations of a first-place team and I’m hoping to be a part of that. I think I’m a team player and I’ve proved throughout my career that I can score goals and make assists. I can attack and defend; I’m not lazy. If I need to play different positions, I will…

I spoke with Pablo and he’s very confident in me. In Colorado they play the same style so I can be used in a few positions. Right now I’ll probably play as a winger on the right or on the left. I think the most important thing is to work well with my teammates and make sure I’m ready to play with this team.

Le Toux also said,

It’s a bit sad at first. ’ve played twice there and for six years. I grew with the fan base over there. It’s a great city and I will always come back. It’s my second hometown outside of France probably. I know I will always be welcome in Philadelphia.

Morer at Colorado Springs Gazette and ESPN.

Philly Voice ranks Le Toux’s top ten goals for the Union. Philly Sports Network says farewell to Le Toux with a video.

Maurice Edu and CJ Sapong, hanging with fashion models Hailey Clauson and Sigrun Eva Jonsdottir.

Bethlehem Steel

A goal from Seku Conneh in the 22nd minute gave Bethlehem a 1-0 lead over Charlotte Independence, who repled with two second half goals of their own before Ryan Richter equalized in the 88th minute in Sunday’s 2-2 home draw. The draw was a disappointing end to Bethlehem’s six-game homestand, from which they went 2-2-2 to finish with 8 points. With only eight games left in the season, the team, in ninth place in the Eastern Conference(26 points, 6-8-8) is now on the road for four straight games to face Pittsburgh Riverhounds, FC Montreal, Louisville City FC, and City Islanders before returning home to face NYRB II on Sunday, September 4 at 3 pm.

Recaps and reports at PSP, Bethlehem Steel, Allentown Morning Call, Unauthorized Bethlehem Steel FC BlogPhilly Soccer NewsUSLsoccer.com, and Charlotte Independence.

PDL

Ocean City’s Chevaughn Walsh has been named the PDL’s MVP for the 2016 season.

Philadelphia Union Academy

At Brotherly Game, Matt Ralph recaps the Union Academy U-16’s 5-2 loss to Santos Laguna at the LIGA BBVA Bancover International Tournament in Mexico City on Saturday. The team lost its first game to LAG, 1-0, and its second to Pumas, 2-0, and faces San Jose Earthquakes today.

Former Union Academy forward Sebastian Elney started and went 72 minutes in the US U-20 MNT’s 2-0 win over New York Cosmos on August 3. Union Academy forward Yosef Samuel entered the game in the 69th minute, as was FC Delco defender Chad Poarch. The team faced NYRB II on Sunday but I haven’t seen a result yet. ASN has more background on the U-20 camp, which is leading up to the qualifiers in February for the U-20 World Cup.

MLS

In the Eastern Conference, first place NYCFC (37 points, 10-7-7) drew 0-0 on the road with San Jose. Second place Toronto (36 points, 10-7-6) thumped sixth place New England (26 points, 6-9-8), 4-1, with Sebastian Giovinco scoring a hat trick. Third place NYRB (33 points, 9-9-6) gave up a two-goal road lead to draw 2-2 with LAG. Fourth place Montreal (33 points, 8-5-9) defeated Houston, 1-0. Fifth place Philadelphia (31 points, 8-8-7) came from behind on the road only to give up a 94th minute equalizer and finished 2-2 with eighth place DC (24 points, 5-8-9). Seventh place Orlando (26 points, 5-6-11) gave up an early lead to fall 3-1 at home to Seattle. Ninth place Columbus (19 points, 3-8-10) had the weekend off. Last place Chicago (18 points, 4-11-6) fell 3-1 on the road to Salt Lake.

In the Western Conference, first place Dallas (44 points, 13-6-5) had the weekend off. Second place Colorado (41 points, 11-3-8) defeated seventh place Vancouver (30 points, 8-10-6), 2-0, with Sebastien Le Toux entering the game as a sub to play 16 second half minutes for the Rapids. Third place Salt Lake (37 points, 10-7-7) defeated Chicago, 3-1. With the result, Nick Rimando became MLS’ all-time leader in goalkeeper victories at 181, of which 115 have been with RSL, the most for a goalkeeper at one team. Fourth place LAG (37 points, 9-3-10) came from behind with two goals in the final ten minutes to draw 2-2 with NYRB. Fifth place Kansas City (34 points, 10-11-4) lost 3-0 on the road to sixth place Portland (32 points, 8-8-8) in a game that saw both teams down to ten men within the first 40 minutes of play. Eighth place San Jose (28 points, 6-6-10) drew 0-0 at home with NYCFC. Ninth place Seattle (24 points, 7-12-3) came from behind to defeat Orlando 3-1 with a Clint Dempsey hat trick. Last place Houston (20 points, 4-10-8) lost 1-0 on the road to Montreal.

Sigi Schmid wouldn’t mind coach LAFC.

The Montreal Gazette notes “all three of Canada’s MLS teams are drawing more fans than the CFL teams in their cities.”

Shoe change?

Crain’s Detroit Business reports, “Major League Soccer’s disclosure last week that it could nearly double its expansion fee to around $200 million hasn’t dampened the interest of Tom Gores and Dan Gilbert in owning a team in Detroit.”

NASL side Jacksonville Armada has fired Tony Meola after only 18 games as head coach.

US

Carli Lloyd became the first USWNT player to score multiple goals at three different Olympic tournaments in Saturday’s 1-0 win over France. Hope Solo also earned her 200th cap with the team, so becoming the only international goalkeeper to reach that mark. THe US concludes group play on Wednesday against Colombia at 6 pm.

Recaps and reports at US Soccer, Rio 2016New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The GuardianSIESPNWFox Soccer, CBS Sports, MLSsoccer.com, Soccer America (recap, player ratings), ASN, Goal.comStars and Stripes FC, UPI, AFP, Reuters, and the AP.

Philadelphia Magazine on Carli Lloyd’s rise to Rio.

The “Zika” chants directed toward Hope Solo may be most audible, but The Los Angeles Times notes the Brazilian version of the anti-gay slur widely heard throughout Spanish-speaking Latin America was spewed out of the stands late in last Wednesday’s USWNT game and also in the Australia-Canada WNTs game: “Brazilian journalists said it was the first time they knew of the slur being used at a women’s game in their country.”

Elsewhere

Oh, Brazil.

34 Comments

  1. el Pachyderm says:

    The brazilians have become just another footballing nation.
    .
    Blessed with unique individual footballing prowess and style but playing a game of which the world has caught up to and surpassed tactically- time for the brazilians to evolve~ otherwise …. they will just live off their own mythology.
    .
    Euripides.
    .
    It’s been a whole week since I said it so here goes… Boy do I wish US Soccer wasn’t getting in its own way. We could be great.

  2. Alejandro Bedoya introductory press conference at 9:30 am Tuesday morning. Originally announced for 12:30pm before being corrected.

  3. Lot more fun watching the Olympic soccer than the MLS. Some great skills and hustle are being displayed. Here is a nice article about the Nigerian team:
    http://www.si.com/olympics/2016/08/08/nigeria-mens-soccer-plane-travel-rio-william-ekong
    .
    DirecTV were showing all the games on channels 600 and 601.

    • That match between Brazil and Iraq was pretty crazy even though it ended nils. The Iraqi’s were giving the Brazilians the treatment! Germany/South Korea was a good one too……..especially if your a fan of the North London Darby!

      • Did not see the Germany/SK one but the Algeria/Argentina game was something else as well; Argentina was lucky to walk away with a win. The game also had tons of drama and excitement.

  4. The Union should try and retain Barnetta.
    He is our captain out there and an obvious spark even when the team is playing poorly.

    • before scoring, his dissent at the poor play of the team, which the Union retweeted during the match, was a fire starter. if he fits in to the system they envision, keep him.

  5. Who cares that we “win the summer transfer window” as we are dropping like a stone in the standings. Bedoya and Davies aren’t going to fix the issues we have with inexperience, injuries, calm under pressure, and no LB.
    .
    I put the two points on Curtin and his subs. If as Curtin says, “the end of every MLS game gets hectic and crazy,” then why do you put Restrepo in (he have virtually ZERO MLS experience … we miss Letoux already.) Glad we have the GAM.
    .
    Bleacher Report is absurd to claim that Bedoya and Davies are going to help us make a charge for the top seed. No way no how.
    .
    6th seed is what we will be fighting for the rest of the way.
    .

    • How is adding 2 veterans in Bedoya and Davies not going to help with your issues of calm under pressure and experience? I think everyone is underplaying how good Bedoya could potentially be for us. Him and Barnetta running around the middle will be amazing. Hope it gels fast though, that’s my only concern.

      • I agree Bedoya will definitely help with the calm under pressure … and I also believe he is going to be a HUGE improvement for the team, but after watching their recent run of form, I am just finding it hard to swallow all this praise “for the window.”
        .
        Trust me, I hope I am wrong, I’d love to see them step in and get us back on track right away. Maybe if this was announced on day one of the window, but time is running out on the season.

      • Well I agree that we should always be skeptical about new transfers as a lot of time they don’t work out great. But the press always has to pick a winner, and really MLS did nothing overall so we kinda won by default I guess.

    • subs: i said that in the match report thread. i don’t care so much about Restrepo’s lack of MLS experience. i question him being the time-killer sub, knowing what his role is, aware of the heightened pressure, and able to deal with it. playing along with the first team, anyone not in the starting 11 should be capable of filling this role.

      playoffs: i do see a fight for the 5th or 6th rather than regaining a top three spot. we have weeks, not months, to put together something resembling composure and cohesion.

    • I was thinking the same thing about that statement JC made about the end of MLS matches………that’s a weak excuse. It’s your job to prepare your squad to kill off matches…….if they are prepared, you can make it a little less hectic!

  6. pragmatist says:

    I’ll go a bit against the grain…
    .
    I’m not looking at this season to win the Cup. Yes, that would be fantastic. But I am trying to see what ES is putting together. Right now, we’re dealing with a young backline that is having the issues that young players have. We have coupled that with injuries that have hampered progress.
    .
    Before this season even started, I was looking at the 2017 season as the target. This season has been a fun ride (for the most part), but that target hasn’t changed.
    .
    I’m sure many people will disagree with me about this year, but it’s a matter of establishing a style (work in progress, but clearly defined), growing our young players (plenty gaining experience), and establishing talented veterans who are difference-makers (keep Barnetta or replace him with a like player in the offseason, and that’s completely true).
    .
    So far, Earnie has delivered on his promise. It would be great to have a parade this year, but it’s a little premature, and a little greedy. I’m happy with the progress, and the definite change in character from past iterations of this team.
    .
    Felt the need for a calm, optimistic post, in contrast to the negativity I’ve been seeing in so many places.

    • I will give you that with Yaro and Rosenberry….they are rookies. What 22? Isn’t Tribbett 24? A 24 year old “rookie” should be kept on a very short leash!

      • While I mostly agree, I have a feeling Yaro’s shoulder is worse than they let on. And Anderson is not good enough. They really have no other option at this point.

      • No, not this year they don’t have any real options…….

      • Yeah. I agree with the idea though. CB is probably a bigger need than we tend to think this offseason (not necessarily starter). Especially because Yaro didn’t get the full season to learn/adjust.

    • I’m not sure any serious followers of the Union expect the team to win a cup this season, so yeah, I agree with your assessment (other than that I’m not sure it’s “against the grain”). Given the strong start, I think the expectation is that this team at least reaches the playoff tournament and wins or at least looks good in the first leg. I think the negativity comes (1) from the frustration of dropping games that were winnable and (2) from getting a little too close for comfort to the old familiar late season flop. I’m not sure I’ve recovered from that October 2014 loss to Columbus yet. We’re bracing ourselves for the worst, because it’s what we’re familiar with.

    • Zizouisgod says:

      Thanks for the perspective as there has been a ton of negativity here lately.

      I was looking at the MLS standings and saw some interesting numbers:

      13 of the 20 MLS teams have two or fewer wins on the road in 2016. There are some really good teams on this list (NYRB, MTL, Union, Colorado, SKC and PDX).

      There are five teams that have no wins on the road this season (SJ, PDX, Houston, Columbus and Chicago). Somebody tweeted a stat that Chicago hasn’t won on the road since mid 2014, noted road warriors, Chivas USA had a road win more recently.

      There have been 228 matches this year in MLS. 16% of them have been won by the road side while 52% have been won by the home team.

      Doesn’t excuse the Union from dropping two points on Sat, but this just reiterates to me how hard it is to win on the road in this league.

      • It’s like The African Nations Qualifiers trying to get to the World Cup……..no one gets a result away……ever!

      • Interesting stats. Thanks for the research. I wonder if travel plays the biggest role or something else.

      • That’s some interesting perspective right there. I wouldn’t have guessed that home-field advantage was quite that important in MLS.

  7. The last month or so has not been the best, obviously. A pretty big positive is the fact the ownership spent money, both real and the MLS play version. This means that they are listening to ES. I can’t overstate how big a positive that is.
    .
    My big worry continues to be Curtin. He’s a great guy, who certainly seems to cultivate an excellent locker room atmosphere, and his honesty is pretty refreshing. However, I’m just not convinced that he has what it takes to be that next level manager. These last handful of games is a sign that he’s not there. My hope is that he can grow into that, but I’m not sure he has the tactical acumen to be great. Maybe with an excellent assistant he would be perfect as a manager. Right now I am underwhelmed.

    • I’m curious: How many readers of PSP think Curtin coaches with little to no influence from Stewart? I have a feeling that Curtin is free to coach as he wants, but that a lot of his tactical decisions are premeditated in talks with his technical staff and Stewart. I think most of what you’re looking for in a coach is that he can successfully motivate his players to play. When they make mistakes and lose, it’s on the players. But if the players quit on the coach or show signs that he can’t motivate them anymore, that’s when you make a change. I think Curtin has this team playing for him despite a mostly poor month.

      • I agree. I think we put too much “tactics” on the manager. While it definitely plays a role I think it is greatly overstated.

      • Zizouisgod says:

        I think that Stewart and Curtin are on the same page on what the team is trying to achieve. If Stewart didn’t think that Curtin was the right guy or those initial conversations between the two had not gone well, Curtin would have been long gone by now.

      • Here’s my take Zizou, and I really have nothing to base this on except intuition and empathy. With ES coming into town…..it would have been HUGE balls to sack the local boy…..could have pissed off half the fanbase…….not a good way to start your tenure. My guess is he’s giving him a year to evaluate him…..then he either pulls the trigger….or keeps him. I think Jim had to be on the same page with him for the sake of his job!

      • I would guess that ES has a big impact on overall tactical themes and maybe game to game tactics, such as Herbers starting, but that Curtin is the one who is maneuvering and calling the shots mid-game.

      • I think JC has full control of matches…….ES oversees personnel, tactics, philosophy…….who would want the job otherwise? It’s not the technical director’s job to manage matches.

  8. I also am looking forward to Adam’s assessment of 1. the Herber’s selection 2. Herber’s play in the role and 3. why no Roland in this game.

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