Photo: Paul Rudderow
Note: PSP is looking for a volunteer to write our Thursday news roundups. If interested, please email dwalsh@phillysoccerpage.com.
Philadelphia Union
The path to the playoffs!
The MLS’s 24 under 24 shows the Union’s weakness in player development.
The Union set a franchise record for home wins in a season.
Medunjanin became the first player since Maidana to hit double digit assists for the U.
Yaro is a product of the academy – the Right to Dream Academy.
Local
Harrisburg City finished their season strong.
Bethlehem 2018 season tickets are on sale.
Local high school rankings.
MLS
The top 5 MLS GMs in 2017.
Minnesota won a wild game against Atlanta.
Alex Morgan and some Orlando City players had some problems at Epcot.
Around the globe
The stage is set for Panama’s revenge.
The U.S. has no long term direction.
Germany was fined due to their fans chanting Nazi slogans.
Can’t fit enough seats into your stadium? Why not put them outside the stadium!
Many in the soccer world are fearful of the effect of head injuries to players.
“The Union set a franchise record for home wins in a season.”
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The only other MLS teams that haven’t hit 10 home wins in any season are Vancouver (also at 9 this year with 1 remaining), Orlando, and Minnesota. Our home record is 13th best this season out of 22 teams. Let me reiterate that last point…our FRANCHISE RECORD for wins (and points, tied with 2011) at home is good for 13th in the league this season. That’s…not good.
That’s so Union.
Yea, I’m not sure it was a great idea for the organization to post an article touting its achievement…and ‘steady’ improvement in home record (snicker)…in a year where many long-time fans have lost interest due to their inability to compete. Sounded like: “Hey fans, we know you think we don’t know what we’re doing, or that we don’t want to spend money, or that our owner’s not that interested…or…or…something else bad…but we were actually better than ever at home this year. You should be happy!”
Fwiw, Toronto might be having the best season ever, but they only won 10 or more games OVERALL 4 times in the previous 10 seasons. In fact our home record this year alone – 9-4-3 – earned more points than 3 of their entire seasons. This shouldn’t make you feel good since that team was awful for so long, but it does provide a blueprint for how to dig a team out of the gutter, right the ship and find success in MLS.
Blueprint: Toronto payroll $22 million. Union payroll $6 million. That’s a lotta cheese.
That’s not that much cheese.
Yeah it’s not a tough blueprint. It starts with spending money, something that Sugarman doesn’t seem remotely interested in doing.
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Keep in mind that rumors are popping up that we’ll have $2 million dollars in salary to work with in the offseason. He need to spend 8x or 9x more than that to approach Toronto’s “blueprint”.
It’s worth noting that Toronto was pretty useless and perpetually awful from stem to stern before they got their shit together. That doesn’t mean Philadelphia will do the same, but it shows it can. And yes, the biggest reason for the team’s success is spending big on important pieces — Altidore, Bradley and Giovinco. They’ve done the other things well, too, but the DP signings put them over the top.
The big difference is that even in their formative years, TFC always splashed the cash. Albeit they did it very poorly by overpaying mid-to-lower level European players, but still, they’ve always spent.
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The Union – not so much.
Yup. Gotta spend.
Toronto’s major problem was the FO getting in the way. The switch flipped when Tim Bezbatchenko took over and finally got everyone rowing in the same direction.
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In all honesty, I was really hoping that Ernie Stewart was going to be our focusing lens to right the ship. I will give him this off-season to prove he’s capable. He will have good resources to build with, a solid knowledge of the team, he should be acclimatized to the ways of MLS, and a decent player base to build from.
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It took Gregg Berhalter two years to get the Crew to MLS Cup. They didn’t spend Toronto money, they didn’t have 3 DP’s, they just put out a solid product with bunch of MLS guys.
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The main difference – a coach with a vision. Ernie, please go get a coach with a vision.
Earnie Stewart addressed that (that being a comparison to Toronto) at a recent Q & A with STHs.
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he said Toronto went out and got the difference makers — Bradley, Altidore, Giovinco — and then built the foundation around them.
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He said the Union’s approach is building the foundation first, and waiting to find the difference makers until it is in place.
That’s great, but the reason that Toronto has gotten so many good players to come there is because they had those difference makers there. Important players like Vazquez, Moor, Mavinga, Hasler, Cheyrou, Cooper, Irwin, Beitashour, etc. all signed up or resigned there because TFC had those three stars already. It’s exciting for role and squad players to play with a club that is willing to commit to being the best. Who wouldn’t want to go and play with those three to have a chance to win a lot of trophies?
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It’s convenient for Earnie to frame things this way for the Union, but it feels like another rationalization for not spending to bring in top players to compete with the big clubs in the East. And that’s not going to excite the fanbase at all.
Putting stands outside the stadium?? An idea so crazy, I’m surprised NASL didn’t try it first…