Philadelphia Union
Derrick Jones is cleared to play for the U20 US team in the upcoming world cup. He will get to win competitive games this year!
The Union should win. John Smallwood summarizes the frustrating current state of the Union.
Earnie Stewart is not going to make big changes. Stewart believes the talent is there, and current results belie the ability of the team.
A good feature on Union broadcasters J.P. Dellacamera and Tommy Smyth.
Major League Soccer
Dom Dwyer scored twice to give SKC the 2-0 win against the Red Bulls. Sacha Kljestan, Bradley Wright-Phillips, and Daniel Royer came off the bench to play between 25-35 minutes each, and Tyler Adams was rested.
Sebastien Giovinco proved it’s worth spending multi-millions on a player, scoring two for Toronto, as Orlando’s multi-million dollar man could only score one in response. Philadelphians might muse that our multimillion dollar players have scored zero goals this season (because they don’t exist).
Local
West Chester United has released their upcoming season schedule and is offering discount tickets to adults and free tickets to children wearing soccer shirts under the EPYSA banner.
CASL is looking for players.
Ocean City Noreasters are offering free season tickets to all coaches.
Reading United added a couple of prospects.
READING, PA (May 3, 2017) – Reading United A.C. continues to build it’s 2017 roster and today announced the return of two exciting, young offensive prospects. Kutztown Area High School star Pierre Reedy and Elizabethtown College sensation Gilbert Waso will return to United for the 2017 Premier Development League campaign.
US Soccer
John Hackworth continues to steer the U17 team to success as the boys posted a 3-0 win against Honduras. Josh Sargent shows he earned his stripes (or armband) with a brace. With the result, the boys need only one more result to qualify for the U17 World Cup.
USSF has 100 million to burn. Some Union fans (me) have ideas, but it looks like the money will go to a national training center, not bringing Messi to the Union.
Champions League
Juventus beat Monaco 2-0.
Talk of being between two minds…
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… I’ll tell you all a truth.
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I can’t figure whether I admire the shit out of Stalwart Earnie Stewart Sporting Director …
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… or if I’m terrified of him.
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Admire.
Bro has probably the best international GMing resume of any American ever.
I thought this was telling as well.
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https://twitter.com/Kevin_Kinkead/status/859832993732599813
This actually gave me confidence, for some reason. It made me feel like this is far from his final plan, and most of these players will be gone soon. Players like Simpson came in on a one year deal right? So he’s probably gone.
This tells me ES is playing the long game AND setting us up for that. All these short term deals and expriing contracts means probably no one currently on the roster over the age of 25 is part of our long term plans.
This has to be the hope. NYRB have 9 players from Academy on the team… as Jim points out in the MatchPreview.
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If in three years Union are a team made up almost entirely of Academy products with well spent money (which we hope ES is able to figure out though recent experience leans us to be concerned) and this team is 12 points better than they are now, like NYRB then I can be a pretty happy fan. Produce them, use them, move them on for the next crop of kids to play…
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I kid you not I’d love to follow an AJAX model… hell the oldest person in their starting lineup almost every game day is 23…the rest are 18, 19, 20, 21. This is so freaking cool.
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So cool. One could argue becoming a pipeline is just as cool as watching a team win a Cup with a bunch of mercenaries that mean nothin to the fan base.
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ALL this to say one really important thing…. this cannot occur by playing United Kingdom Route 1 soccer.
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Can’t be. The game is way to sophisticated for that as an answer now… can’t have target strikers trying to flick headers and the ball bypassing the midfield the whole game… can’t have aerial cross after aerial cross… whereas crosses on the ground behind a defense are a different story altogether….. otherwise, its tragically flawed…. and at this point I am unconvinced there is a different Methodology.
Selling those players on is all fine and good as long as they can match them with 4-3-2-1 teams, cause ya know, it’s too hard for them to learn another formation.
Two takes from the interesting (scary? depressing?) exchange between Kevin Kinkead and Earnie Stewart:
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1) the sporting director believes that there’s “chaos” in the heads of his players, and that they are having so much trouble learning the current system that it would be foolish for the club to try something different
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2) there has been some consideration, at least by the sporting director, of having Jay Simpson in the 10 role
I can’t wrap my head around the comments that some of the players on this team can’t handle different tactical schemes…. I mean, this isn’t a U-10 team, right??
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Simpson at the 10 might be the worst idea I’ve ever heard for this team.
Maybe we like to bring in really dumb players?
I think it’s because Curtin cannot teach it to them. All the more reason to let him go. Right?
Why?
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No evidence either way.
Like James, this gave me some confidence that wasn’t there. Aside from James’ thoughts about long-term plans, what I take from this exchange is basically that “formation vs tactics” is essentially a semantics game for Earnie. His example of putting Sapong and Simpson on the field together, while still calling it a 4-2-3-1, drives that idea home to me. It sounds like for Earnie, the only point of really talking about “formation” is to get everybody on the same page as far as defensive responsibilities.
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Another thing this tells me is that maybe Earnie is way more flexible about those semantics arguments, while Jim would seem to be a bit more rigid. I’m just reading between the lines on that one, though, again given the Sapong/Simpson example.
If they were to do Simpson and Sapong at 9 & 10, they would imitate what Burke has done at Lehigh with C. Burke and Conneh.
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That parallel would put Sapong at the 10 and Simpson at the 9.
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It would greatly change Bedoya’s responsibilities, because Sapong would have the freedom to roam widely.
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It does nothing about Medunjanin’s defensive woes.
Haha. Definitely. Guy sometimes strikes me as having the personality of The Night King. That which is dead may never die. ( a bit of a mixed metaphor, but his demeanor during interviews reminds me of these things)
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And then in those replies to Kinkead, he’s like the bad guy at the end of a classic kung fu film speaking in koans. “A team that changes to win will never change.” “He who seeks to learn tactics will learn he has never learned.” “The greatest formation is no formation…..”
Goals, or no goals, the path to enlightenment does not change
I feel like I’m in Bizzaro world. I can’t believe what my eyes are reading. That MLS article with Stewart just floors me. It makes want to have nothing to do with this team.
Right. Not a good look.
Well looking at his comments to KK and the MLS article, most of the fans basically have to hope that he is lying, right? He can’t possibly believe what he is saying.
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Someone needs to ask him the breaking point. If we still haven’t won in another month, if we’re in last place still in September even, will that allow for change?
Earnie, Shmernie, Regression to the mean will mean that the Union wins any day now.
trust the process
You made me taste bile. Thanks for that.
trust the process. begrudgingly (at the moment) I think this is correct.
I’ve been on board with the plan Sam Hinkie basically laid out for the Sixers from day one, for a big reason. He laid out the plan. Hinkie was always clear: to win in the NBA you need at least one, and preferably two, superstars. And the best way to get a superstar is to get very high draft picks. And not just your own shot at the lottery, either; as long as winning isn’t the plan, assets should be “sold” for more ping pong balls, in the hopes of winning the superstar jackpot.
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That’s how we ended up with Saric. That’s why we get the Lakers pick if they fall out of the top 3. That’s why we can swap places with the Kings if they win the superstar jackpot. I have no doubt in my mind the Sixers are a team on the rise. They’re in the playoffs next year; they’re making noise in the playoffs in 2019.
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Compare that to the Union. We can guess at what their plan is, but do we really know? Without knowing, it’s really hard to, well, trust the process.
We do know the plan.
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This team intends on being built with Academy products versed in the culture and system of the Union Way- with pieces brought from outside.
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This is the Vision.
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This is the Plan..
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Still trying to get a handle on the Philosophy…
It’s to build through the academy. But if you sign a Jim Thome for a lot of money you block the path of a Ryan Howard. The core players on this team still have to learn how to win. A 10 million dollar striker isn’t winning the cup for this team.
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Ernie has been with the team just over a year and just last year at this time many were gushing in Ernie we trust.
You’d think someone on the team would throw the fans a bone. Even just a little bit right? Please? Not just tell us how everything’s fine, nothing to see here.
If I have a team with more talent and depth than the team from the previous year, then I should have a better record. That is not what I’ve been watching.
Does this team have more talent and depth than last year?
That’s what Earnie Stewart said.
The man in charge seems to think so…
Sure, but that’s press conference speak. I think our depth is probably better, but is our starting 11 better? I doubt it.
Oh I don’t agree with this sentiment at all. Sure they have more depth. Depth of mediocre players instead of players that shouldn’t be in the league.
You forgot to mention that Ajax beat Lyon 4-1 with style, moving the ball around like in the old days. And the average team’s age was 20.45! The problem with Union’s academy is that it is too Scottish/English. They should have hired some Dutch (ex. Ajax) coaches!
Guido. I have this fear in places I NEVER allow myself to look too deeply into.
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I’ve watched the Academy teams pretty closely, at points it falls into Route 1 dump and chase…. often though, it is thoughtful, ball on the carpet footy – so I have to be honest in my skepticism. I’m okay with playing over the top- there is value in it at times against tactically and technically superior teams….that said, the game needs to be played on the ground- inside out – outside in – then through.
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There is a Scottish influence for sure at the administrative level in Mr. Wilson and Mr. Munro, but there is a Dutch one in the Sporting Director and more and more, a Spanish one is being intermingled in spots too which is important. I hope beyond hope for more presence from the latter as we move along the age continuum. My hopes are in about 5 years, the academy is being run in a continental European manner and not the UK version as it has been established.
Interesting.
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Forgive an old history teacher.
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What came to mind is the reality of United States of America foreign trade immediately after the revolution and especially after the adoption of the constitution and the revival of that trade under Hamiltion’s assumption of the states’ debts.
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90% of that trade was with Great Britain.
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Known legal system, old contacts from before the war, common language.
Two of those three apply to Richie Graham recruiting for the academy staff.
I imagine there is a good bit of truth to your comment and trust your scope of understanding history.
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All I know is we needed the French to win the American Revolution and I’m counting on that here too at some point along the way.
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Trust the Process? F THAT. If you are going to make me “Trust the Process” then tell me that. Have the balls to tell me. Last year, you make the playoffs for the first time in quite a few years and then the following season we have to sit through this shit and the narrative becomes, oh, this is just a work in progress… No. This is writing the story to fit the reality of what’s going on. None of ES’s moves have worked. There is no plan to bring in anyone who can score goals with some sort of consistency, and our current manager (of almost 3 years) cannot teach professional soccer players their role in a system that has been the system for a few years now. BULL. SHIT. I’m not smart enough to have all the answers but I’d start with getting a manager who can do his freakin’ job and spending some damn loot on a goal scorer. Because in case you forgot… we have ZERO WINS and it’s almost Mother’s Day.
Let alone any panache at all.
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The team is a walking billboard of Philly Blue Collar, which incidentally is a fallacy in the 21st Century.
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Last players to have any swagger in this city were Ruiz and yes, thats right baby. ROGER.
And roger was worth very little as a soccer player in Major League Soccer.
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Slow, weak, and no defensive positional discipline.
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The panache you crave must be accompanied by athleticism, discipline and defense. Barca has that.
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Barca also has a backline that can distribute the ball in any fashion offensively.
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The Union do not and are not likely to in the foreseeable future.
Roger had some panache. Currently making a nice little living, I hope, in Colombia.
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amazing to think he’s only 25…which means he was only about 20 when he was here. Defense could have been taught. Strength accumulated in his ManBody. Slow of foot maybe, but quick in the mind.
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a whirling derevish… little looping balls on angle. loved it. Totally capable of getting the ball behind a defense. He was just a kid.