Photo: Nate Szwerdszarf
Philadelphia Union
The Union continue to keep their slim playoff hopes alive. All the playoff projections are here. The Union are now up to a whole one percent!
Haris Medunjanin hopes to boost Bosnia & Herzegovina’s World Cup chances.
Andre Blake made the league’s Team of the Week.
Local
Union Academy grads Matt Real of Bethlehem Steel and Mark McKenzie (currently attending Wake Forest) earned call-ups to the upcoming U.S. U-18 camp in Spain.
Major League Soccer
Nashville looks set to become the next MLS expansion franchise. The city’s mayor is looking for public funding.
NYCFC’s Jack Harrison has been called up to England’s U-21 squad.
The Union are inexplicably up to 13th in ESPN’s latest power rankings.
A recap of all the weekend action, including Toronto’s clinch of the Supporter’s Shield.
Another story about how Real Salt Lake’s commitment to youth is already paying off.
NWSL
NWSL wrapped up league play this weekend! Three highlights from each match.
Week 22 video recap from ESPN.
Sky Blue FC striker Sam Kerr won the Golden Boot with a record-breaking 17 goals.
U.S. Soccer
The Yanks have opened camp in Orlando.
Five thoughts on the USMNT roster.
How the U.S. can clinch a top-3 spot in the Hex.
Four times the U.S. has survived must-win qualifiers.
Nick Taitague, the other young American at Schalke you may not know
You say they are “inexplicably” up to 13th in ESPN’s rankings, but they did just beat two highly-ranked teams, and pretty convincingly in each case. They seem to be two different teams: on the road they are creampuffs who can’t get the ball in the net, but at home the Union can beat anyone. Hell, we should’ve had a victory at home against Toronto early this year if not for a couple of bad breaks.
As Twellman said during the NY game the Union have talent, just no difference makers. The last 2 home games they played very well, and I thought for sure Seattle was gonna tie it up late but they held strong and actually scored to clinch it. Can’t say that a lot. Too little too late but hopefully they can carry it into next season.
The problem the Union have with ‘difference makers’ is that they either cost a lot of money or don’t really make much of a difference. Besides, while a ‘difference maker’ would maybe elevate us into the neighborhood of 4th-6th place in the Eastern Conference, there is a rapidly-widening gap between 4th-6th place and being a legitimate contender for winning silverware.
You can find difference makers for 1 million/year or less, or maybe slightly more.
Plenty of sub 1 million players are top tier talents in this league.
And that price point HAS been shown to be within our budget based on Bedoya, Edu, Ilson, Alberg.
Yeah our team really is not that bad and should be a playoff squad. But we continue to sit back on the road. Until we get a coach that brings in a different mindset, things won’t change. It’s almost night and day, comparing home and away. 9 home wins. And 1 road win in 16 tries. There’s something significantly wrong with that disparity. Sorry but for me it’s more coaching and less the players.
A detail about the photo accompanying the article.
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It was taken at YSC Academy on the recreation of National Signing day that was done for McKenzie and Real because they were going to miss the school-wide one, because — wait for it — they would be away called up to the USMNT U-18s.
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The photo has served the same purpose twice.