Daily news roundups

News roundup: Union lose, BSFC lose, Marquez and McCarthy injured, and more

Photo: Mikey Reeves

Philadelphia Union

The Union lost PSPthe Union, CSNPhilly, BrotherlyGame, Section215, and PattisonAve.

Jack Elliot delivered solid play after being called on to play the second half.

Post-game quotes from both teams.

John McCarthy suffered a concussion this week in training.

Local

A number of Union players were in the PSP and BrotherlyGame.

Bethlehem’s Yosef Samuel has been called into camp with the U.S. U-20s. He will train with the team in London from April 3-10, in advance of the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup, which begins next month.

MLS

All the scores from this weekend’s action.

Minnesota gave up two goals but still got their first win of the season against now league-worst Real Salt Lake.

Schweinsteiger made an instant impact, scoring in Chicago’s draw this weekend.

Minnesota sent some attackers to Colorado, bringing in MLS vets Sam Cronin and Marc Burch in an attempt to patch up their D.

Toronto lost Clint Irwin for 4-5 weeks.

San Diego Footy McFooty Face!

Around the globe

16-year-old Sophia Smith was called up to USWNT camp.

The USMNT will host Trinidad in Colorado for their hex matchup in June.

Celtic continues to be the big fish in a small pond, clinching the Scottish Premiership title with 8 games still to play.

PSG beat Monaco to take the French League Cup, although Monaco still hold 3 points on them in the Ligue 1 title race.

Highlight of the day

This incredible overhead finish by Aviles Hurtado in Liga MX for Club Tijuana.

33 Comments

  1. Joel Pterosaur says:

    Pretty nice finish in that highlight, though Valeri’s volley last night was pretty good too.

    Can we just transfer the Union to the USL so we might at least be hopeful of a win by the end of the season?

    Apparently McCarthy shouldn’t bother with the helmet.

  2. Friday night MLS: two 0-0 game. How exciting was that!
    .
    Schalke Mascot in the Schalke-Dortmund game gave the ref a red card: was brilliant http://www.foxsports.com/soccer/story/schalke-mascot-red-card-dortmund-revierderby-felix-zwayer-video-040117
    .
    Minnesota won a game before us. Who would have thought! Everybody is talking about RSL being the worst team in the league but they have 2 points, just like us. Seems we have not improved since August 2016; we may have but other teams improved a lot more. Take a look at Houston. Why don’t we have a FO that can turn around a team like that?!

  3. I’m not sure how even the most optimistic among us can discount how ineffective the manager, strategy and players have been.

  4. My thinking on this team has done a 180 over the last month or two… I’m a fan of Jim Curtin. Every bit of evidence I have suggests he’s a super guy. Honest, full of integrity, dedicated, hard-working. But now I think he’s the main reason this team has failed to perform in its first month of play.

    I’ve long felt managers don’t make a huge difference, but there are a lot of examples out there in the league that demonstrate otherwise — Schmetzer in Seattle. Cabrera in Houston (who deserves credit for getting a real player out of Cubo)…. Curtin needs to move this team 180 degrees in April, or It’s time to find a replacement. Team needs an experienced manager who can get this team some results. I think 7 – 9 points in the next three games is absolutely necessary. Anything less than 6 is abject failure.

    • Those are nice things you said about Curtin. For the most part I agree. But where in that was anything about being a good manager? Where is there any evidence he has made someone a better player? Where has he really improved this team?

      • Name the players Earnie has brought in that have been good. it’s very small so far. I am definitely willing to give this team another month before I really starting killing them, but so far has not been good. I think something no one is talking about much is that Rosenberry has been awful this year. His offensive abilities last year were really impactful at the begining of the season. This year it seems like every time he gets forward it’s a pass directly to the other team. It really seems like having 3 starters called up to that January USMNT camp has hurt the cohesion of the team.

      • Yeah, I mentioned Rosenberry in the game report thread. He’s been making big mistakes, particularly in passing. But he’s not alone.

        I am not convinced this roster however is nearly as bad as the last four results. I think it needs better management. I really expect better from the players we currently have.

      • That sounds like a big problem… since Curtin wants the team to develop USMNT talent…

      • Is it the players brought in, or the manager that doesn’t know how to use said players? Are you more willing to bet on a manager in his first job with only MLS experience? OR Are you willing to be on an international with national team experience with a proven track record of turning a franchise around and making them profitable again? Let’s just say I’m not betting on Curtin.

      • I agree that Earnie has a longer leash than Curtin because of history (not because he was a national team player), but if we are being honest, he;s been bad too. I am still very hopeful that the team will still gel as there has been a lot of turnover on the squad and things are always a little goofy in the beinning of a MLS season.

      • A. I’m not saying E.S. is perfect. And my point about his C.V. is that he’s got varied experience in a large pond vs. the local guy in a goldfish bowl. I’ll take the odds that there’s a greater chance this is more a Curtin problem than an E.S. one.

      • I’m not disagreeing, more stating I guess that there’s probably blame to go around. I mean Earnie’s also stuck working with a crap budget (at least for DPs) and also with the dead weight that Edu has been recently.

      • So I guess we are saying almost the same things just shaded a bit different. The Edu thing doesn’t bother me as much, except for the wasted salary, because of D.J.. I love watching the kid play. And I’m glad we found he can, sooner than later. This makes Edu expendable for me, though I doubt the Union feel the same.

      • That’s the point, All4U. Curtin is up against his expiration date. I’m setting it for May 1. Get results or you’re done.

        When you’re a third-year manager of a middling squad, you need to shape the tactics to fit that squad and the situation. He never does. I know he admires Peter Vermes’ dedication to a single system, but Curtin isn’t Peter Vermes. Bedoya at the 10 has been a bust so far. This team’s roster is crying out for a 4-4-2, if you want to keep Bedoya in the middle. Otherwise, he needs to be on a wing.

      • IMO a 4-3-3 would work too.

      • Well I guess my point is I’m not willing to wait for something that won’t happen. As much as I don’t like Adrian Heath as a manager, after Minnesota’s last loss, he realized/admitted he needed to do something differently. He did. They won. Curtin doesn’t/won’t change, and the team is where it is. CurtinOut.

      • Can’t argue with that.

      • I agree in general, although I think formation doesn’t matter as much as players you send out. It seems more you are saying that Pontius should not be starting than anything else, because he’s the one going to the bench in a 4-4-2 I would think.

  5. I’ll eat my hat if this team gets 6 points in the next 3 games. And no, I won’t be buying the hat at the Union store. Love the players, overmatched though they may be. The Coach and Sporting Director are in over their heads. Unlike some on this site I can’t really blame the owner. Teams with less total payroll than the Union have success in MLS. Sugarman brought Earnie in, and I’m sure is paying him a pretty penny. No wins since August is on Curtin and Stewart. The academy may be great but if those kids sense the big team is run incompetently they’ll go elsewhere when it comes time to sign a pro contract.

    • el Pachyderm says:

      where are they going to go? MLS owns their contract.
      .
      You are aware the player has just about zero leverage.

  6. McCarthy had another concussion? Please retire, son, while you can still function.

  7. John P. O'Donnell Jr says:

    Well at least we won’t have to worry about peaking to early.

  8. pragmatist says:

    I’m going to skip the team review and focus on John McCarthy for a second. By all accounts, he is a fantastic guy, and he has been a wonderful ambassador for this club. Considering he was wearing a helmet due to previous head injuries, I truly hope everyone involved takes their time in getting him evaluated correctly and that he is able to move forward in a healthy manner. Maybe playing the game isn’t in his future. Maybe the club can keep him on as an ambassador of sorts.
    .
    Get well, John.

  9. OneManWolfpack says:

    Curtin is the problem. He is a fantastic person – honest, real, and by all accounts a pretty smart guy. He has a top level coaching license – so why can’t he use any of these and take an honest look at this team… make some changes… and try something other than the same stuff every week?!?
    .
    For me, he has one month to turn it around. 4 games in April – 12 points available. In reality we need at least 9, but 6 is an absolute must. Anything less, he needs to go. There are managers available. Find one. I’m all in for one more month… then I’m gonna lose it.
    .
    And as a Mayfair guy myself, I wish McCarthy the best and hope for a speedy recovery.

  10. I have never been convinced that managers make that much of a positive difference. I think most of the time, their main role is to not screw things up. So I was willing to give Curtin the benefit of the doubt, since the players clearly liked to play for him, and the discontinuity from frequent managerial changes takes its own separate toll on a club. I have never been a member of the “fire Curtin” club, and it took me long time to file for membership in the “fire Hackworth” club too. (I was early in the “fire Nowak” club, since he was clearly nuts.)

    But at this point, Curtin’s a** in on the line, even in my estimation . This group of players, with this much talent, should be doing a lot better than this. That’s especially true with Derrick Jones playing far better than anyone thought he would. Simpson has been largely invisible; Medunjanin, Ilson, and Bedoya have been unable to harness their talents in constructive ways; and Pontius and Rosenberry seem to have clearly regressed.

    Perhaps the most disheartening thing of all has been the unwillingness — or inability — to ever try anything new. New tactics, new players, new substitution patters, new formations, new ideas. We do what we do every game, game in and game out, and if it doesn’t work, oh well. That’s fine if you get results. It’s not fine when you don’t.

    I am certainly willing to give him the upcoming homestand to see if he can right the ship, as starting with 3 of 4 on the road is tough, especially with a whole bunch of new players still gelling. It is likely not a coincidence that we’ve played one stellar half of soccer this season, and it was at home. But I agree with Pete above that if things aren’t markedly better by early May, we need a new manager. In fact, even then his job shouldn’t be entirely secure, because we can’t compete in this league with pathetic road performances like these for the rest of the year.

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