Photo: Earl Gardner
Philadelphia Union
Three Union players are up for end-of-the-season awards:
Keegan Rosenberry: Rookie of the Year and Fair Play Award
Andre Blake: Goalkeeper of the Year
Chris Pontius: Comeback Player of the Year
The Fair Play award will be announced on Friday, Nov. 4, the Rookie of the Year award on Thursday, Nov. 10, the Comeback Player of the Year Award on Wednesday, Nov. 16, and the Goalkeeper of the Year award on Thursday, Nov. 16. Click here for a full list of the nominees. More on the award finalists announcements at Philly.com, CSN Philly, Brotherly Game (announcement, Rosenberry), and Fox Soccer,
Blake has advanced to the second round of the fan vote for Save of the Year and, as of this writing, is currently behind Houston’s Joe Willis with only 39 percent of the vote after advancing past DC’s Bill Hamid in the first round.
With the news that Andre Blake has graduated from Generation adidas status, Kevin Kinkead writes at Philly Voice that it is time for the Union to sell the All-Star goalkeeper. Section 215 says the same.
At Union Tally, Matthew De George offers his picks for whom the Union should and should not protect in the Expansion draft and his reasoning behind his decisions.
At Brotherly Game, a roundtable on where Alejandro Bedoya will fit in next season.
At Philly.com, Marc Narducci reviews the Union’s 2016 season.
At the Union website, Marisa Pilla reviews the Union’s cancer awareness initiatives over the past two months.
Philadelphia Union Academy
Union Academy defender Rayshaun McGann has been called up by John Hackworth for the US U-17 MNT training camp in Jamaica, Oct. 30-Nov. 9, ahead of participation in the 2016 Nike International Friendlies in Lakewood Ranch, Florida, which kickoff on Nov. 30, where the team will face Brazil, Portugal, and Turkey. Also called up is former Union Academy goalkeeper C.J. Joaquim Dos Santos, who is now with the Benfica Academy in Portugal, and Millville, Pa.’s Tonny Temple, a forward who is with IMG Academy.
At US Soccer, a look at the importance of last weekend’s USSDA East Regional Showcase in North Carolina. You will recall from Monday’s roundup that the Union Academy U-13s went 1-1-1 in their showcase games, while the U-14s went 2-1-0.
Local
In the latest NSCAA/USA Today high school boys soccer rankings, Conestoga (Berwyn, Pa.) remains at No. 2, Salesianum School (Wilmington, Del.) moves up one spot to No. 6, Lower Dauphin (Hummelstown, Pa.) remains at No. 9, and West Chester Henderson (West Chester, Pa.) enters at No. 25. Pennington School (Pennington, N.J.) also received votes.
In the girls soccer rankings, Neshaminy (Langhorne, Pa.) moves up four spots to No. 17, and Parkland (Allentown, Pa.) enters at No. 23.
NBC10 reports, “Delaware’s Supreme Court is hearing an appeal from one of two gang members convicted of murder in a 2012 soccer tournament shooting in Wilmington that left three people dead.”
MLS
Sebastian Giovinco was not among the finalists for leage MVP (Sacha Kljestan, David Villa, and Bradley Wright-Phillips are the finalists). Pro Soccer Talk asays the ommission is “almost unforgiveable,” MLSsoccer.com says it may be the “biggest snub” in league history. More snubs at Goal.com.
At SI, Grant Wahl reports David Villa will not be retroactively punished for kicking out at a player in last Sunday’s Eastern Conference semifinal first leg loss to Toronto. The disciplinary committee reportedly unanimously agreed the offense was red card worthy but, because referee Silviu Petrescu made no call, the panel would also have to unanimously agree the offense was “egregious or reckless” enough to warrant a retroactive suspension, and the panel did not. The Toronto Sun’s Kurtis Larson is, predictably, not pleased.
At ESPN, Noah Davis considers whether aging Designated Players are worth the money: “the DP conundrum comes down to production and return on investment.”
Orlando City has announced a partnership with Brazilian Serie A side Clube Atlético Paranaense. “As part of the affiliation, Paranaense will visit Orlando City for a friendly match in 2017. Orlando City will also play a friendly in Curitiba during the 2018 preseason. Additional details of the friendly matches will be released when available.” Orlando City has existing partnerships with Benfica and Stoke City.
At SI, Grant Wahl has this update on David Beckham’s Miami MLS franchise: “even though MLS says officially that Beckham’s Miami team could start play in 2018, a source in Beckham’s camp says it would be much smarter to start in 2019.”
US
US Soccer has announced details of the coverage of next week’s USA-MExico World Cup qualifier at FS1 and UDN.
FourFourTwo looks back at the history of Dos a Cero.
Jill Ellis is among the nominees for The Best FIFA Women’s Coach 2016.
Elsewhere
From ESPN: “FIFA has ruled that Bolivia must forfeit their World Cup qualifying matches against Chile and Peru after being found guilty of fielding an ineligible player…the forfeited results will improve Chile’s qualification hopes and hit Argentina’s.” More at Fox Soccer.
Curtin accomplished another of his goals this year, not winning the team Fair Play award. Would love to see Keegan win the individual once he gets screwed out of ROY.
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Tim Howard being on the goalkeeper list is a joke. He gave up almost 50% more goals than MacMath in the exact same number of minutes.
I think he just edged out Tony Meola.
Hard to see how Pontius misses out on C.P.Y.
How in the hell did this joke of a league not have Giovinco among the MVP finalists?!?! He had what most people said was the best MLS regular season of all time. I mean we all know the league directs pretty much every aspect of everything to the way they want it, but Giovinco was flat out dominant this year. What an embarrassment.