Photo by Paul Rudderow
Philadelphia Union
I went away to the middle of New York state with no cell phone reception and came home excited to watch the Union play one of the worst teams in the East. What I may have forgotten is that the Union is also down there. The replay was as disappointing for me as I imagine the original play was for you.
This piece of analysis looks at shot quantity vs quality and focuses on the Union and Diego Valeri, who does not play for the Union. The conclusion may be familiar to fans of the blue and gold, but the route to it is emphatically logical.
One idea to increase shots hurtling around the rumor mill is sign Nico Martinez. It’s fun to watch youtube highlight videos from agents but will those Australian moments translate? Maybe.
The Delaware County Times looks at Jim’s Curtin’s response when asked about the 2016 draft group. Jim Curtin says that playing time is earned in practice. Yes, folks, we’re talking about practice.
Local Soccer
Looks like local coaches will have national opportunities a few times in the next few years, with the United Soccer Coaching convention back in 2018, 2023, 26, and 30.
Edison High School is looking for donations for their soccer program, specifically cleats and shin guards. Contact Coach Josh Bower at jbower@philasd.org.
U. S. Soccer
In MLS action the all stars lost on PKs to Real Madrid because whoever won that game was the champion of that game, and that is considered really important by someone, but I don’t know who.
Good news for MLS comes in the form of a 700 million dollar deal with Adidas. Will every team have more soccer money next year? The possibilities are exciting.
FC Cinncinati is into the US Open Cup semifinals after narrowly finishing off Miami FC 1-0. Djiby Fall provided the USL side their one goal. Will the team repeat the heroic run of the Steeple Sinderby Wanderers?
The Shot Quality vs Quantity piece is interesting. If the 6.8% (2015/2016) vs 28% unassisted (2017) ratio is a result the lack of a #10. Can on extrapolate that to overall lack of offense? Would a competent #10 mean 5%, 10%, 20% more offense? At 10% you now have a pretty competent offense to go with a solid defense.
It’s probably overr all, as Pontius is so far removed from what he was too last year.
watched the FC Cincinnati match.next up for them is NYRB. they’ve a solid chance going to final. good for USL.
https://medium.com/@dens/on-enabling-change-in-the-us-soccer-pyramid-bottom-up-and-top-down-f14059f80f0
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Read, friends.
He loses some credibility with the article when he doesn’t acknowledge that MLS can’t even negotiate right now when he mentions the 4 Billion.
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That he doesn’t even talk about how you resolve the fact that people paid 100+ million that people paid to get into MLS. Need to have MLS teams bought out plus parachute payments.
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Unwinding the MLS ownership of players contracts. Should be fun. I’d be curious what the players union would vote.
Did anyone see this tweet (https://twitter.com/jeffrueter/status/892765333387452416) and/or see any more reporting on this? I only saw it mentioned once that MLS is considering adding $2MM per team more in TAM for next season.
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This combined with the $117MM per year for MLS from Adidas really bodes well for future investment in overall player pool. Hopefully, Union do something productive with those additional funds.