Philadelphia Union
Costa Rican international Elías Aguilar is training with Philadelphia Union. He is a 25-year-old left-footed attacking midfielder who often plays the No. 10 role but can also play wide left. Reports from the Delaware County Times, Brotherly Game, and various Costa Rican outlets in Spanish. Credit to Delco Times reporter Matt DeGeorge, who appears to have had the scoop.
PSP’s Jim O’Leary breaks down what we know about Aguilar in a piece that will be posted later this morning.
There’s a new podcast up from the guys at It’s Always Soccer in Philadelphia.
MLS
Some results around MLS:
- Minnesota won 3-2 over Portland, meaning the Union are now once again tied for the least points in MLS in the standings.
- D.C. United knocked off Atlanta 2-1. They seem to have their number.
- Colorado lost to the Galaxy 3-1.
- Toronto and Montreal drew 1-1 in a Canadian Championship match. Here is a bit on their rivalry.
- A last minute goal from Orlando resulted in a 1-1 draw with Seattle.
NYC FC signed their first Academy player, calling up James Sands from AAA Columbus. (Oh, sorry, Yankee Stadium confused for a moment.)
U.S.
An interesting piece on Bruce Arena’s supposed disdain for tactics and the actual tactical work behind that.
SI with a piece on the National Soccer Hall of Fame’s apparent disdain for club soccer in the U.S. (Lots of disdain in today’s links.)
Around the globe
Mexico’s 2-1 win over New Zealand in the Confederations Cup closed with a massive brawl by the players.
Portugal knocked off Russia 1-0, who appear ready to exit the tourney.
Another Real Madrid player guilty of tax fraud in Spain, this time the since-departed Angel di Maria.
FourFourTwo is ranking the top 50 football managers in the world. So far, nobody from the U.S., because apparently nobody outside America counts David Wagner as American (but he’s on the list!), but coaches from Ecuador and Israel are in there.
China’s U20 team may compete in Germany’s fourth tier next season. Yes, you read that correctly.
Look, I love ES. I am full steam ahead on the ES bandwagon. I fully believe he will deliver us from evil.
But we can’t fix our #10 problem with some unknown trialist. Some holes need to be filled with proven quality. You can’t money ball EVERY position on the field.
Look if you know who the number 10 is already we can’t afford him. He already plays for his national team so I am more than willing to give him a shot.
He really doesn’t play for his National Team. Hasn’t been called up in years and his most important contribution was coming on as a late sub once in a Gold Cup game.
Sieve’s major point, that if we semi-serious American fans have heard of someone the Union are unlikely to pay the requisite money for him, stands.
.
The front office has made that point clear several times, although not phrasing it quite as bluntly.
Name recognition is overrated and is a simple “answer” to the problem to why we suck.
semi-serious American did NOT hear of elias or loderie or BWP or nikolic or yamil asad (current assit leader) or so on and so forth.
i am all for criticizing this team and spewing hate but this talking point is tired and irrelevant.
There is no bandwagon. Alberg, Simpson, and Ilsinho? They’re worth less now than when the Union acquired them. That’s not moneyball. That’s poor management. Honestly, just the fact that we’re looking at a Central American midfielder is refreshing.
OF course there is a bandwagon. ES was successful in a very good league in Europe creating a good team when he had much less cash to spend than most other teams in the league.
He has more pedigree in his left pinkie than anyone else attached to this god forsaken organization.
Just because he hasn’t Jesus’d this team up in 1.5 years, and missed on a couple of signings, doesn’t mean we get to act like haughty know it alls who want to go back to the days of Nick Sak.
As you can tell I’m tired of the attitude towards ES. He is the best thing to happen to this team since Nick handed over his credit card to Garber.
Good point: Gabriel Jesus would be awesome for us
Counterpoint: He has 0 pedigree in MLS. The MLS is a very different league for many different reasons. He’s been a bad GM. Plain and simple. He’s brought in players for too much money who are also terrible fits in our system. If it wasn’t for Blake and Sapong, both players who were here before Stewart and one of whom Stewart actively tried to replace, this would be a USL quality team.
.
Make ES prove his worth, don’t celebrate him just because he had success somewhere else.
I agree has no no pedigree in MLS, but I would definitely be willing to let a guy like this learn it.
Also, don’t ignore his good singings. Jones and Trusty. Medunajin, Bedoya. Fafa looks good. Onyewu was a catch. He drafted Elliot.
James, I was all for Stewart. Pretty much still am. But I’m with Adam, that Stewart has made some decent mistakes. I’m still willing to give him time, but fully expect him to improve his hits, and reduce his misses. But he does deserve some blame. He has to be accountable for his mistakes.
Jury’s still out on Simpson, and do not discount the impact his presence may well have had on Sapong. C. J.’s value has gone up and Simpson’s mere presence has contributed to that.
.
Alberg’s value has to have dropped because he cannot break an MLS starting lineup.
.
Ilsinho’s has risen because he was without a club for several months, and we have gotten him back into soccer-playing condition, but he will discounted year by year for age.
Thank you re: simpson. I thought that to myself silently this whole season. Surely it can’t be coincidence that CJ stepped up his game once we brought in competition for him (and legitimate competition too, since Simpson started this season as the starter).
Adam the first IX would be a doggone good USL team, championship contender, simply on pace of play alone, let alone quality.
.
The youngsters in the second IX did well for themselves Tuesday night. Eight of them started, two were on the bench.
.
Medunjanin, Yaro and Elliott do things with long service that do not happen in the eastern conference of the USL. I qualify it to the east because I do not follow the west at all.
.
Incidentally, coach Burke said yesterday in his conference call that he gave the two Union loanees on the bench Tuesday night the choice whether to make the trip, because they knew they were only injury insurance. Trusty and Aaron Jones chose to go. Tells you something about belief and morale and unity in the organization. Burke gave full credit for that attitude to Earnie and big Jim, but he is old-school when it comes to self-promotion. He’s part of it, too, say I.
Ok stay on ES bandwagon. Blind faith and allegiance. Sounds good. Curtin is an awesome coach too! Rosenberry’s a national team regular! Herbers is a super striker! Losses don’t count, but 4 game winning streak does. Yeah, you’re right: in some alternate reality, ES is the best thing that ever happened to this team. Definitely not acquiring LeToux, or Nogueira, or starting the Academy. All those things, including the development of Jones and Trusty, happened before ES. So let’s discount them because ES came from Europe.
Or singing a goalkeeper who played in that little tournament, when goalkeeper was one of the strongest positions on the team. Or signing a D-mid for $700k+ while skimping on a striker. Or ruining home growns, letting a psycho coach torture your players or send away your captain and best CB, which btw have they even replaced yet? Yup, great times, great times.
So did anyone pay taxes while playing in Spain?
.
On the ES thing… I am willing to give him 3 seasons (maybe 4 tops). If the Union, our FIRST team is not better, he shouldn’t be GM anymore. That is not say he cannot provide value to the organization. I liken it to Hackworth in that he is clearly a good coach, just not at the MLS level. For me, maybe ES is good at identifying talent, or maybe he’s good at developing youth – I don’t know… but maybe he isn’t cut out for other aspects of the GM position. In the history of our club he clearly has the most pedigree and is the most accomplished man to hold the position – let’s not do the “Philly thing” and run him out of town too early.