Photo: Paul Rudderow
Philadelphia Union
The less said about the PSP, MLS, CSNPhilly, and BrotherlyGame.
Post-game quotes. There were no highlights.
Zach Steffen was eager to show the Union what they missed out on, but the Union did not give him the opportunity.
Local
Bethlehem’s streak came to an end in a 3-2 loss at Richmond. Aaron Jones had a nice goal. Starting lineup.
Jason Plumhoff returned to Harrisburg, where he led the team in goals in 2015.
MLS
A recap of this week’s MLS action.
San Jose signed Swiss CB Francois Affolter.
Vancouver signed New Zealand international keeper Stefan Marinovic.
Kei Kamara is looking for a trade. Think the Revs have any interest in Simpson, Ilsinho, or Alberg?
The Union weren’t the only team struggling to find positives this weekend.
Mike Petke went ranting.
What if David Beckham never came to the MLS?
Around the globe
The USMNT beat Costa Rica 2-0 in their Gold Cup semifinal. Clint Dempsey, super-sub, was the difference maker, assisting on the first goal and scoring the second to tie Landon Donovan’s USMNT scoring record. More from SSFC.
Andre Blake earned Man of the Match honors in Jamaica’s 1-0 win over Mexico (highlights in link). Blake’s pure shot-stopping ability is completely off-the-charts. He made a few stupendous saves, while his counterpart allowed a very saveable goal. Forget “distribution issues” – the only issue Union fans should be worried about with Blake is how much longer he’ll be in MLS.
The US will meet Jamaica in San Francisco on Wednesday at 9:30 PM EST.
Bruce Arena was key in convincing Jesse Gonzalez to stick with the Stars and Stripes.
The two El Salvadoran biters have received suspensions.
A look back at a cheaper time on the transfer market.
Highlight of the day
Christian Eriksen with an inch-perfect strike from distance.
Great win for Jamaica. Team owes Blake whatever the man wants.
–
Kei Kamara in Philly is intriguing, but there’s no way Curtin could manage an ego that big. It’s kind of amazing how he fell off. From a golden boot contender two seasons ago to a bench warmer.
–
Summer transfer window is open until Aug. 9. I’m not going to be paying a ton of attention to this team unless it gives me a reason by making a significant addition and change. If not, I’ll settle into the Premiere League in a month and try to cleanse my palate of this lousy season.
I wouldn’t want to have Kamara on my team while he’s on the downward slope of his career.
Yeah, Kamara caught lightning in a bottle with the Crew in 2015. Everything lined up perfectly for him – it’s a shame he couldn’t see how good he had it…
.
Yeah, I don’t want him on the Union. Berhalter got the most out of him because he had a plan. I don’t see this coaching staff being able to put together an approach to use Kai any better than what they’ve done for Simpson.
I would take Kamara in a minute. He could play on the wing in addition to being perfectly excellent as a lone striker up top. He and CJ have been teammates at KC.
I love that Petke rant! So refreshing compared to the button-downed repetitive Union FO presentation. If Blake is sold Sugarman will pocket the $. There’s no incentive for him to spend it bc ticket sales have always been good enough to keep Talen almost filled. Unless and until we all grow so disgusted that the announced “attendance” is less than 16,000, there’s no motivation in the MLS single-entity structure to offer a better product. If we had a 20,000 seat stadium then there would be some incentive to improve the team: an increase in 3,000 ticket sales = $150,000 per game = 2.5 million $ additional revenue per season. But if Sugarman is guaranteed to get 16,000-17,000 ticket sales per match which he has consistently because Philly is a big city and there’s a lot of soccer players and fans, then there’s no incentive to improve team. I’m not renewing our season tickets for this reason. There’s no incentive for Sugarman to spend proceeds of Blake sale…
I have a gut feeling — no evidence — that Union ticket agents might be facing their first real challenge this season. There’s almost — no there is nothing promising right now about this squad. Sure there are some nice, young players, but no reason whatsoever to believe they’ll be put to service for a team that’s going to achieve anything. Maybe if we had a fight to avoid relegation, there’d be a reason to watch. Not right now. There’s a lot of MLS season left and our team has pretty much punched out and gone home.
They’ll make a couple midlevel signings of Europeans or Brazilians nobody has ever heard of and sell them as the future and people will eat it up as always.
I read Adam’s comment as “medieval signings” and LOL’ed.
Cszack4, so did I. Medieval, midlevel, same thing.
Actually, guys, the medieval period of history is anything but just midlevel if you consider the world as a whole. The cutting edge action is just not in Europe.
.
China has the Tang and Song dynasties and it the cutting edge of human culture and civilization.
.
Islam is intellectually vibrant, not having closed the “gates of Ijtihad” yet and a close second behind the Chinese.
.
A system of Supra-continental trade and communication emerges for about a century after the Mongol conquests and does not end until the Black Death and the collapse of the Mongol unity sets the species back some. The disease itself illustrates that unity because it originates from China and spreads to West Europe.
I thought only the Union could put me to sleep like that, but thanks Tim! 😉
Clint Dempsey & Mike Petke – President & Vice President in 2020. That’s a powerful combination.
+1
The Petke rant was the best. When he showed the picture of Gooch getting choked, he had me. If his players didn’t want to kill for him before, they sure do now. Man I wish he was the Union’s coach.
Same here. He was actually available… We could easily have had him while he was doing his radio show on SiriusXM. Instead they stuck with Curtin…
Anybody that has ever had a printer issue will enjoy the Petke video.
Agreed!
Can’t see how New England wouldn’t want Alberg as long as they just watch the highlights of their game at Talen on July 2.
Alberg could be interesting on a team with a real distributor and a sound defense. He has that killer instinct that no one else on this team has.
Killer. Closer. Rare in US raised player…. please see Keegan Rosenberry.
Much I really don’t want Alberg on our squad… he might be a real asset to a team that plays with a 2- or 3-man front line.
being a philadelphia union fan is an enervating experience.
That’s a good one. We may have to work that into a banner if things start to get much worse…
Does anyone know what Blake’s contract situation is? I thought this is the last year of his deal. If it is, he’s already in the last 6 months of his deal and can sign pre-contracts with Euro teams.
.
It’d be really demoralizing if the Union don’t at least get a transfer fee for him this summer or this offseason… That isn’t on Blake at all and I wish him well no matter what happens in his career. Just would be extremely disappointed in this front office if he leaves for nothing.