Photo: YSC Academy
Philadelphia Union
Jim Curtin held his weekly conference call (Transcript at BrotherlyGame and takeaways on the Union site) and he admitted that the starting lineup is not set: “I think he’s (Derrick Jones) working to the starting spot. We haven’t decided that. We have used Roland (Alberg) and Warren (Creavalle) there. Good opportunity for Jonesy to get an opportunity and it wasn’t his best game, wasn’t his worst game, it’s somewhere in the middle. He belongs in the league and is making it hard for us to pick. He’s in the discussion for sure.”
TheUnion signed SuperDraft pick Aaron Jones. Earnie Stewart: “Aaron has impressed throughout his time with us in preseason camp, displaying quickness, his ability in passing and on free kicks, and his aggressive one-on-one defending. We look forward to bringing him aboard officially and tracking his development at the rightback position over the years to come.” Given his position, it is likely that Jones will be spending his time this year in Bethlehem.
Happy Birthday to Fafa Picault! His present? A bone spur in his big toe. He joins Creavalle (groin) and Pontius (hamstring and rib) on the trainer’s table. Kinkead also recaps the Montreal game there as well.
Kinkead also followed up his tweet from the other day with a full piece on why the Union should consider the 3-5-2.
The Union have announced a series of events leading up to the home opener.
The Union also announced their new “Union Juniors Pre-Academy” as the club finds ways to enhance its academy.
Local
Harrisburg City Islanders signed former LA Galaxy II CB Lee Nishanian.
MLS
Seattle Sounders revealed their new alternate jersey.
New York City FC signed 2014 1st round pick defender Ben Sweat.
Kyle Beckerman is dealing with a knee injury and may miss opening day.
Around the globe
All four SheBelieves Cup rosters have been announced.
The USWNT is set to take on Norway in the Scandinavian nation in June.
9 of the 55 women named to FIFPro’s best XI shortlist play for the USWNT, the most of any nation.
The 2017 CONCACAF Beach Soccer Championship is ongoing. Catch up on all the action.
Claudio Ranieri, 2015-16 Premier League winning manager, has been sacked by Leicester City. How fast things turn. Official statement here.
The second legs of this week’s Europa League matchups have finished, and click here to see the results. The Round of 16 draw will be announced Friday.
Highlight of the day
Jannik Vestergaard…well…maybe this should be lowlight of the day.
Huge news on the Union Youth front.
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Vision.
Philosophy.
Plan.
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Said it yesterday. Worth repeating today. All other news is secondary.
I am waiting for the Union Pre-Pre Juniors Academy. Missing the boat with the 5-6 years olds.
and next a union singles website; matching potential parents of future academy prospects.
This is as SoB mandate i believe.
The academy growth is really nice. I hope it keeps growing too. They have all the ages covered now it seems to me. Next step is to continue to grow the size of the pool.
…Meanwhile Marcus Hayes writes an article today about how the Colangelo’s are doing a fine job (which maybe they are I’m uncertain TBH) and its okay, in the absence of Joel Embiid and trading Nerlens Noel to go on a healthy losing streak AGAIN so as to further enhance their draft lottery chances.
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I abhor it. Parity is one thing. Being rewarded for purposely and pleasingly sucking is something else all together and IMO (again obviously) the US professional sports model in more and more cases is becoming a near caricature of itself.
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From 7 years old up to first team…a franchise’s success or failure will now reside squarely in its ability to have Vision, institute a Plan, centered around a Philosophy. The ramifications of this model, which not incidentally again, Union is on the forefront of in light of current US Soccer policy IMO is the most intelligent way to go forward.
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Bring on Solidarity and Training Compensation.
As you can see from my byline, I normally do NBA writing. Marcus Hayes is a fool and whatever he writes, you can safely assume the opposite. Jerry and Bryan Colangelo are worse than Sak, Hack, and Nowak. That being said, the NBA’s reward structure is all kinds of screwed up – if you’re not one of the top 4 or 5 teams in the league, you should try to lose. The problem is simply too many teams, not enough talent to sustain them. But contracting = losing money, and we can’t have that now can we.
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That’s one problem MLS really doesn’t need to worry about – there will always be more talent to import.
It is a nice evolution of their current Union Juniors program. Adding the games to the program. If only for girls as well.
My daughter loves the current Union Juniors program and the level of play at practice. She was commenting the other day how the players know the run to make. So when she makes the pass they end up where she put it. On her club team there a couple who do it but not at all.
“program for boys in the U8, U9, U10, and U11 age groups (birth years 2007-2010).”
Holy wow does that make me feel old.
Columbus has 30 players on its roster. Atlanta has 29. Vancouver has 29. Philadelphia now has 29.
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Strongly suggestive that there has been, as Jonathan Tannenwald tweeted several days ago, an adjustment to roster size, an expansion.
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If it is connected to having homegrown players on the first team and accommodating more of them, the impact on the salary cap would be non-existent because home grown players are not on the senior roster, as I understand it. they are on the very back end, slots 25-28 in the 2016 rules. Slots 25-31 for 2017 one is prompted to guess logically.
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last thought for the day on an esoteric subject, a complete no-evidence guess. Adam Najem’s home grown rights were acquired so he could be signed, but he wanted more money than a home-grown is allowed to receive to be classified as such, so he is not a home grown player.
Interesting. I wish someone would ask about Najem’s homegrown status so we could find out for sure.
He is not a homegrown.
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There is nothing in the roster rules that “homegrown rights” can be traded and he has never been listed as a such on the Union roster either at their site or the MLS’s site.
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I believe it was just poor wording on the press release.
It has been reported by multiple sources (tannewald and kinkead) that the homegrown rights were traded. It has also happened in the past. So the rules don’t say it can or can’t happen, but it has, so unless the rules have changed I see no reason why it couldn’t happen again. Although this is MLS rules so it depends on the day I guess.
I stand corrected.
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http://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2012/12/04/homegrown-player-rights-next-trade-chip-mls
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Doesn’t make much sense…MLS
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He should be listed as a HG on the official roster then if that is the case but is not?
Two questions.
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1 – what is the deal with our third string keeper? I’ve heard nothing on this front.
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2. Home growns have a limit on their salary? Does that mean Morris is not considered home grown?
That FIOvBMG games was crazy. BMG was down 2-0 (3-0 on aggragate) and I was driving home during the second half, got home and BOOM it was 2-4 BMG. Crazy. It was weird watching a game televised there, I was in Italy in October and went to an Fiorentina game. It cracked me up that they have the away supporters physically separated from everyone else (with actual walls). Stadium is pretty old though.
Aaron Jones is not listed as an international player despite being from England so I guess he has a green card.