Photo: Earl Gardner
Philadelphia Union
The Union’s U15s absolutely demolished their New England and Orlando counterparts by a combined 13-0 mark in GA friendlies. They also drew 1-1 with Atlanta.
College
The NCAA will start providing rankings of top teams, beginning this week. It’s an interesting lead-up to this year’s College Cup, the final of which will be held at Talen Energy Stadium in Chester.
MLS
Kaka will not return to Orlando next year after all, ending a tenure that has seen him struggle this year at age 35 but still leaves him as the big name player that helped make people take the club seriously.
Houston knocked off Sporting Kansas City 2-1.
USA
The talk has started about who should replace Bruce Arena as U.S. national team manager.
There’s also this piece about entitlement in U.S. soccer circles.
The U.S. is not, however, entitled to good center backs, as ESPN notes that was a source of many problems.
Here’s a suggestion on what to do with that anger about the U.S. missing the World Cup.
SI.com dissects what went wrong for the USMNT.
Also, Sunil Gulati must go, Grant Wahl says. So say we all.
And … more on the mess, from the Inquirer.
The New York Times looks at the economic impact of the U.S. absence from the World Cup.
Christian Pulisic isn’t the only big name who will miss the World Cup. Then again, those other guys from slightly smaller countries, like Wales.
Around the globe
Here’s a pretty cool story about a Kurdish team in Sweden that is threatening to reach the country’s top division.
Serie A is fun again. Let’s not get out of hand here though. The stadiums are still hulking wrecks.
Switzerland has initiated a bribery case against Paris St. Germain’s Qatari president, related to his home country’s successful World Cup bid.
Highlight of the day
Landon Donovan’s interview with Dan Patrick about the U.S. missing the World Cup. Or maybe it’s a lowlight among other lowlights.
The fact Arena has not felt the need to immediately step down is the #1 symptom of all our problems.
Arena and Gulati should have both resigned immediately after that game. I’ll also add that Curtin should be fired right after the Union’s last game this year. Failure should not be accepted or tolerated. We (the US Soccer community) should hold our managers, coaches, and presidents to the highest standards of excellence, and if they don’t meet those standards then they should be removed. I applaud Grant Wahl, the American Outlaws and numerous other commentators for demanding that Gulati resign. Keep up the pressure! Demand change!
Bigger problem is the US Soccer has not said anything and has recently changed the President election criteria so the Gulati can serve another term!
US Soccer and MLS are about making and raising money. Winning is second. We have been good enough to coast through CONCACAF and now our domestic league is actually making the competition in our confederation better. We have to step up and not accept failure and change the way we do things. This is our chance to change the program for the better. We have to seize this. After Qatar we could very well have a seriously good team playing on home soil. Or we can just take the automatic qualification, walk through the gimmie group stage, and lose in the Round of 16. But hey, we have a $100 million surplus in US Soccer, right?
I’m OK with Arena still being there, but only because we knew he was a placeholder from the start. Somebody needs to coach the November games, after all. Who cares if it’s Arena or somebody else with the interim tag?
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What does have to happen, though, is for Gulati to resign, immediately. He’ll be selecting the next coach, and the fact that he may not even hold his position beyond next year’s election makes it unacceptable that he’ll have such a large voice in choosing the coach.
There really isn’t enough national pressure on US Soccer to do much. Lose like this in any real footballing nation and there’ll be an angry mob in the streets to meet you. In the US it’s not even front page of the sports section news (though I haven’t checked the front page of my local sports sections, so maybe I’m wrong. Just an educated guess).
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The true test is really just that. If there’s no pressure for Arena or Gulati to dismiss themselves swiftly, there’s not a lot of hope that things will change on any level. More so than whether there’s a pay-to-play system in our youth academies, the smug complacency of the folks in charge of the game is why we’re not heading forward as a football nation. We just don’t care.
It was front and center on espn main page for a day. Granted in other countries it would have stayed there for a week, but still.
Doesn’t rate as a topic of conversation at my workplace. I had one, “Hey, you like soccer, what happened to the US team and the world cup?”
Unity Cup has issued this weekend’s schedule and a Bracket Challenge. See: http://unitycup.phila.gov/unity-cup-bracket-challenge/
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These are great games. Try to come to some of them.
Union should strongly consider sitting Haris Medunjanin for the next two games. (Actually, they should have offered him the opportunity to spend some time in Bosnia if he wanted to.) He played about 150 minutes over the international break and hasn’t had any real time off in about 15 months. Now that the Union are out, no reason to try to kill him.
That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard!
– Curtin, probably
Honestly the only reason for Medunjanin, Alberg, Ilsinho, and Pontius to even play another second this year is as a sub or if they want the young guys playing for the Steel playoff run.
Medunjanin is for a different reason, though. I think most of us would prefer to see him back next year whereas many would be fine with the others leaving (personally, I have no problem with Pontius coming back, depending on Herbers’ health).