Photo: Earl Gardner
Note: PSP is looking for a volunteer to write our news roundups. If interested, please email dwalsh@phillysoccerpage.com.
Philadelphia Union
Brian Carroll has announced his retirement from professional soccer.
Despite season-long speculation to the contrary, Roland Alberg reportedly wants to stay in Philadelphia after this season.
Local
Bethlehem Steel FC are set to kick off their first playoff appearance tomorrow against Louisville City. The Steel will be hosting a watch party.
Nine union players will be on the roster for the Steel.
After an oddly vague tweet regarding the matter, the Union allegedly plan to keep the Steel in Bethlehem.
MLS
Goalkeeper Bill Hamid will not stay with D.C. United after this season. His next move remains to be determined.
USA
Landon Donovan is considering running to replace Sunil Gulati as president of U.S. Soccer.
Meanwhile, reports are circulating that both Sam Allardyce and Laurent Blanc are interested in replacing Bruce Arena as coach of the USMNT.
After such a horrific upset at the USMNT senior level, the U-17s are giving fans something to look forward to.
Around the globe
Christian Pulisic is second only to Kylian Mbappe in most-valuable U-20 players.
FA has found former England Women’s National Team manager Mark Sampson guilty of racially abusing his players.
Champions League action.
Highlight of the day
Brian Carroll just retired.
Best of luck to a class act.
Definitely. Best to BC. Great dude.
Congrats to Brian Carroll. He’s a class act. Too bad he’s going out on a team like this. Best of luck in the future and I hope he stays involved in the game in some capacity.
…and I’m not sure I want Alberg to stay. We get our monies worth for the player but not for the man.
it’s time for a PSP poll…
Not a fan of Alberg. His goals per game are surprisingly high, but there are too many other things missing from his game.
He’s the definition of a super sub. But in a salary cap league he can’t be making what he makes. I’d keep him, but he’s gotta take a big cut. Which I doubt will happen, so… thanks Roland! Best of luck!
PLEASE NO!!!
I want only a presidential candidate with a clear and workable platform to move this country towards an open pyramid…. other than that, one is no different than the other. If you cannot articulate the plan, then you are no different than the SLEW of youth coaches earning a paycheck unable to articulate precisely what their coaching philosophy is. If you ain’t got a personal coaching philosophy you ain’t got SHIT. If the US Soccer candidate cannot stand behind promotion relegation than he’s a “manchurian candidate,” as eloquently posited on Twitter yesterday. Every other band aid is but a mere patch for a symptom of the problem. We need a clear path to fix the syndrome… and there is only one way forward.
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Hell, my personal coaching philosophy is about 500 words. The elevator pitch is beautiful though. Maybe I should run for US Soccer president.
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Here’s the concern…. Martino runs, Landon runs, Eric Wynalda runs, they split votes… Sunil wins…. WE ALL LOSE AGAIN.
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— guys like Landon and Kyle need to get behind Wynalda. Full stop he is EXACTLY what US Soccer needs right now.
el P, I’m no fan of Wynalda, at all. I honestly get the impression he’s a moron (I haven’t heard one insightful comment from him). Granted my impression is almost entirely based on his FOX soccer work, so I could/may be missing something. So can you explain why you think he’s better than the others? Is there an article somewhere or something you read, to make you believe in him. I’d really like to see what I may be missing and why my impression may be so off. Thanks.
For me, I agree with El P.in that there shouldn’t be a split ticket challenger to the status quo. Wynalda wants change. Wants Pro/Rel (like Martino does). I think he tends to be more of a loud mouth than a moron, and personality wise, I’d prefer Martino to Wynalda, but the key is not to split the reform vote.
Ok maybe Wynalda isn’t a moron, more talking slow and looking contemplative in order to appear sage like in some manner. I don’t get his “sage like” qualities. I get not wanting to split the ticket. I’d also had preferred Martino, and still do. Still don’t see the appeal for Wynalda, which is why I asked.
ALL4U….I follow him on twitter. I listen to him on Sirius. I think generally he holds no quarter with his tongue. I think he is a national soccer hero who has seen both the international and national version of this game up close. I think he has demonstrated at multiple times by taking rag tag type players on the outside of the system and showed what is possible tilling an enormous swath of the footy first population that is completely marginalized in the country.
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I think he speaks his mind and when people tend to do that, many are rubbed the wrong way. They become uncomfortable. US Soccer needs a heavy heavy dose of uncomfortable right now. It is literally the sodium bicarbonate buffer to the over arching arrogance we are reading about at so many turns.
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If a person who speaks his mind, devoid of any regard for what people think can be elected president of the United States, then let’s see what happens if one is elected President of US Soccer.
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As for Martino, he is part of the mainstream soccer media and I do not trust his ability to lead the needed agenda.
Thanks el P! I have no problem with Wynalda speaking his mind bluntly. Again, most of my impression comes from seeing him on Fox Soccer, and I understand that’s probably not the best place to get an impression of him. But if the best he has to offer is his opinions and not caring what others think, that’s not really a reason for me to be excited. I’m not sure what you are talking about when you say “I think he has demonstrated at multiple times by taking rag tag type players on the outside of the system and showed what is possible…”, but that kind of thing does get me excited, and wanting a better understanding of what you mean. I also am in total agreement with what you say above about having a plan and a personal coaching philosophy.
So you’ve left me with more to think on about Wynalda, though by no means am I convinced. Thanks for taking the time.
Open pyramid is not necessary (although would be welcome) to reset this thing. Now play-to-play, youth payments, youth development all basically need a complete tear down and start over. We need to be producing world class 15 year olds at a rate unmatched by any other country. After that they will spread out to European Leagues and MLS to finish their development, but the issues aren’t on the pro side but rather the youth side. There is no reason we can’t do what Iceland has done times a thousand.
I appreciate the response and my rebuttal follows as this, one more time.
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——- 24 MLS first teams with arbitrarily 150 players = 3,600 potential World Class players being developed. That’s Three Thousand players in a country with 5,000,000 registered players.
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—— then we have 9,000 other US Soccer clubs unable AND with zero incentive to currently produce first team players. Arbitrarily, lets assume 1/3 of those 9,000 US Soccer clubs would be interested in producing Top Flight Talent while logical and rightfully the rest are local little beds of seedling players or in other word recreation centered.
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______ 3,333 US Soccer clubs with first team aspirations and roughly 150 players in their academy = 500,000 youth players on a first team track to be World Class. That is Half a Million players.
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I leave it to you guys to do the math:: 3,600 players versus 500,000. Its inarguable. Anybody who argues otherwise, is myopic on the topic because the numbers in this Numbers Age are irrefutable.
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If we are discussing pure youth development as the metric to creating World Class players, we absolutely need an open pyramid. End of story.
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—— plenty of people can and will make strong arguments we are — or are not—- ready for pro/rel and I listen and chose unlike many to be respectful… but as far as producing World Class talent in a RUTHLESSLY competitive WORLD market where the NFL and MLB really do not compete, there is ZERO chance a closed system can and will do this with any regularity.
I think open pyramid helps because it’s the best way to attract investment dollars and spur competition. you can’t wave a magic wand and make the pay-to-play system go away. You can pump money into it, but everywhere else, that system is funded in large part by clubs doing the normal business of football.
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It’s like that story in The Howler after the ’14 world cup that contrasted the experiences of Dempsey and Jermaine Jones. Jones started training with a club for free when he was a middle schooler, because clubs in Germany had incentives to invest in players that they might later (a) sell or (b) inject into their own player pool. Clubs need to pick up the cost of academies, and an open system will make it a business model that actually pays out.
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It’s so funny to me that in this country, where we don’t even have socialized medicine, that we have a welfare system of tax incentives and monopoly protections for pro sports. It just hurts my head to think about it.
Pete, it’s called capitalism and getting people to vote against their own interests. Basic fundamentals of the American political system. The principles this country was built on.
Too true, All4U. Too true.
Opening the pyramid does nothing to make USL clubs want to develop players any more though. All you say is that we need more professional clubs. And I agree with that but I still disagree that opening the pyramid is the silver bullet to change that. Really the problem in my view isn’t the top, it’s the middle. We suck at general development at the age of like 9-13 and everything flows from that. I think the biggest problem is crap coaches and kids just not playing enough overall.
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I mean most countries only have 3 full professional leagues and then it’s just semi-pro. I mean once you get into the 3rd league you’re not not producing world class players at any sort of rate.
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The open pyramid promotes investment. Once the pyramid is open, sky’s the limit for every club in the states. Instead of $200 million franchise fees to MLS, a prospective owner can decide to sink that money into an existing club and invest with the possibility of getting promoted to the top flight.
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One engine that helps drive club revenues is academies and selling players. So instead of having to artificially fund academies from USSF, we let clubs do the business of football.
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This also addresses player development for US players in a number of ways. You say we suck at 9-13, but our real gap appears to be 17-21. We do great in U17 group. But fall off after. Because as players in every other country go and play in academies and smaller clubs, our guys go to college to play and train at 50% the level of everyone else. We’re making some progress, but an open pyrmaid would mean funding would take care of itself. It’s the same in every other country.
Pete. Well represented.
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A, I urge you to reread my rebuttal post with Pete’s rebuttal to your post and realize everything people argue for and about is just one symptom of an overall syndrome.
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Symptoms and Syndrome. A collection of symptoms becomes a syndrome. The syndrome is the underlying dis-ease process. Fixing any one symptom does nothing to cure the patient. Its managing care. It’s western allopathy.
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The disease is called ~ Closed Pyramiditis.
I just don’t think the funding is there to really create this. It sounds great on paper and I honestly do agree with the vast majority of points and would personally love to see an open system. But just because we say the investment is there doesn’t mean it actually is. We have had basically every league other than MLS come in and fail badly. Now maybe the time is finally right but maybe not.
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And I do agree that the college game needs to not be a viable option for most people who are turning pro. Sure it should still exist as we clearly can get useful players out of it and things just click later for some players, but that should be the fall back not the norm.
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I think the biggest thing is that really player salaries are killing all of this. Based on salaries USL should be division 3 and MLS should be division 2. We shouldn’t have division 1 players making MLS minimum because then there is limited interest there for kids to stick with it.
A., There are consortiums of investors circling English teams looking for a place to stash investment dollars. Ricardo Silva’s big multi billion bid for MLS rights was half a stunt but it wasn’t stupid. TV rights for a league in this country are enormously valuable. We may not be a top 10 league any time soon, but with an open pyramid, I can see it being a top 20 league pretty easily. It’s already in that ballpark in terms of avg player value. What I’m sure of is that you can’t fly with training wheels on. And MLS is in the business of selling training wheels.
I’m not arguing against a open pyramid, I’m arguing that just opening the pyramid does literally nothing to change the issues in the country. And that a stable league has done more and will continue to do more than a league like NASL and all the league before it that just fold after a couple of years. Yes we need to shift, but it’s not a silver bullet.
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I also think we are already a top 20 league and probably pushing top 10 soon. Depends on the metric I guess but the league makes money and is decent quality. As the salaries rise so will the quality even more. We are decades away from the top tier leagues, but we aren’t too far off that next tier either.
I get what you’re saying. I know you’re not arguing against an open pyramid, but I’m saying an open pyramid IS the way to fix many other issues. I used to think — not too long ago — that there were other things we could do in the U.S. to make progress without upsetting the MLS apple cart, but now really see that MLS apple cart as the problem. As El P. said, we have closed pyramiditis. It’s the root of the issue.
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My contention is that we don’t need the training wheels of “stability.” First NASL failed more than a generation ago. Current NASL’s issues can largely be attributed to not being able to compete with MLS, which has made sure it circled the wagons around the top flight. We need to open the pyramid and get rid of single-entity ownership. If you don’t do that, you can talk about getting rid of pay-to-play improving the national coaching system til your blue in the face. It won’t happen. How do you pay for all of these academies and coaches? You need natural, independent local clubs doing the business of football. Same as in every other place on earth. Economics are still economics in the U.S. This isn’t the Upsidedown.
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Also, I’m not trying to come off as an asshole. Hope I’m not. Just enjoying the conversation.
No hard feeling here. Liking the conversation. I will say that I fully admit that I could be wrong about Pro/rel really opening everything up and really being the thing that forces everything into place. I guess I’m really just afraid of another failed league forcing the country to start all over again if we rush things too much. But maybe we are ready. I hope so.
I don’t care who runs US Soccer, as long as these two conditions are met: it’s not Gulati and the person has a clear and concise plan to join the rest of the world and do things the right way. If not, then like El P said… any other person is just a “Manchurian candidate”
I wanted Sunil to retire after this loss. But I’m not sure that any of the names popping up are suited- this is mostly an organizational job. Bruce Arena turns out to be a bad hire, Klinsman too- but most of us were on board on the front of those hires.
Not suggesting, just inquiring – but would you take Bruce Arena as president? Or maybe director/general manager type of person to oversee the program? He was great with the Galaxy in that role, albeit this is not a club team.
I think Bruce Arena has ruined his own brand for US Soccer for a lifetime. I want someone with organizational credentials.
I won’t spend one more minute discussing the Philadelphia Union first team… all else though is open season.
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the continuing effort to bring fresh info though leads to this lovely piece of work today.
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http://343coaching.com/podcast/soccer-by-3four3/finally-episode-youth-soccer-coaching-player-development-pete-stuart/
Anyone following the NISA development and their goal to begin a counter-league to MLS?
It honestly probably a good plan, but money talks and they got nothing compared to MLS unfortunately.
Fwiw, a 5,000-seat soccer stadium in the Lehigh Valley with natural grass and lights wouldn’t be the worst thing ever. I even wouldn’t hate the Union playing early-round open cup games up there for those fans, much like the Revs, D.C. and other teams do. Bare minimum of 5,000, still unlikely to sell out but also a nice venue for college and high school games, plus the Union can control the schedule and amenities and such.
Plus it’s one more local venue Radiohead could play in.
5,000 seats, 5,000+ more on the field, great intimate outdoor venue for a concert, and depends on the relation to the mountain could have a great acoustics. It’d become the premier outdoor (and lit) sporting venue in the area that is NOT a baseball field.
SaveTheCrew.com #savethecrew
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We need your help. If you believe in the fans of MLS, and what MLS means to the fans, help us show this greedy ‘Mergers & Acquistions Specialist’ Anthony Precourt that he has no place in MLS.
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Ways to help
Show your solidarity this Sunday by wearing yellow to the game
Bring signs denouncing Precourt (and Garber who is entirely complicit)
At minute 10 (Crew was the first of the original 10 teams in MLS) begin a Columbus Crew chant – i.g. clap,clap,clap COLUMBUS
Anything else that you can do that would show the league that this is not the way to do things in MLS!
Or just vote for Eric Wynalda for president…. as his announcement is imminent.
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may not help this particular symptomology, amputation likely regardless, but it would help future endeavors.
In other news, not gonna lie. I’d like to think I helped play a small part in Rosenberry suspension from my sunday rant.
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Showing me there is a spine cause the shit he was Tweeting is plain immature and wrong. Tells you EVERYTHING you need to know. He actually thinks its Jim Curtin’s fault.
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#mentality.
Immature? Harmless really. He’s fallen into the Pit of Nowak – come to the Union, put together a string of appearances, then disappear off the face of the Earth.
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I understand your point, he probably shouldn’t go public with thoughts, especially 90 minutes before kick-off, but he played every single minute last year and now he can’t find the field again. It really points to the systemic issues with Union management that young players come here and don’t get playing time to improve or develop. Overlooking the tweet itself and assuming everything was handled properly, we can both agree that there’s definitely an issue with the development of [especially younger] players, correct?
Yeah, KR should know better to post that kind of stuff. However, it’s pretty obvious he’s frustrated. Hell – I’m frustrated watching Curtin coach. I can’t imagine playing for him.
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Union can play up this youth bullshit all they want. This organization is career kryptonite.
Fair, however, actually I saw a player regress when on the field this season and when forced to solve the issue was unable to meet the criteria… regardless of the CB pairing. As is typical standard american homerism this was called a sophomore slump… which is nothing but an excuse.
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I saw a player while an offensive contributor was a complete liability on the field defensively both last season and in his starts this season. The City Islanders made him look juvenile in an Open Cup game early on this season when the manager gave him a CLEAR opportunity to prove his mettle.
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I think it is FAR likelier Jim has poked and prodded the ‘star’ RB Who Clearly Enjoys his Own Smell and the Idea of Being a Professional maybe a bit more than the grunt get down and dirty tasks day in day out required to excel or meet the demands of the sport.
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In other words, SOFT ….
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….and while I have been on record for years, Jim Curtin is not the dude for the sidelines, I commend him for his fortitude regarding the RB and am now quite likely to think, as well, Derrick Jones just isn’t ‘getting it’ sufficiently.
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Being a pro is every minute of everyday. That’s why it is called professional and that is why less that 1/1000 th of aspiring players cut it.
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Once again these are the last words the first team garner from me this year. I’m committed to be done discussing that —– yet again sad sack display of unwatchable frenetic Route 1 soccer gone wrong.
You do realize (and this is no defense of the Union or the coach) that this literally happens to every team all over the world almost every year right?
The sophomore slump is real, BUT it comes from a lack of work ethic. Take, for example, Carson Wentz, who does not appear to be going through one. The league doesn’t know you as a rookie, but your 2nd year they do, and they can figure you out, so if you coast on a successful rookie season you will almost certainly fail in the 2nd year – Keegan’s problem. No argument there. I agree with your assessment of Keegan, and even the way he acted. My point is simply that the Union have done NO favors to youth and have failed in the development category, and Jim Curtin has underachieved at best and has not been held accountable. This whole season has been a train wreck, and this seems a little nit-picky for me given the repeated failures of the organization over the last 8 years. But we are in agreement with Keegan’s performance and the handling of his actions.
was really hoping to catch Rosenberry subbed on in the 90′ Sunday
How could he stop them from moving? He could do the same thing and just get promoted in Austin.
If you really want to cry and look at the reason there is giant sized generational hole in the USMNT, look at this – the roster from 2012 Olympic qualifying – the team that gave up the extra time goal to tie el salvador (were they the team that didn’t even have a set of fully matching kits) and miss the Olympics. Some of these dudes you might not even remember…. (and, yes, the Union had MULTIPLE players on this squad)
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GOALKEEPERS (2): Bill Hamid, Sean Johnson
DEFENDERS (6): Perry Kitchen, Ike Opara, Kofi Sarkodie, Zarek Valentin, Jorge Villafana, Sheanon Williams
MIDFIELDERS (6): Freddy Adu, Joe Corona, Mix Diskerud, Jared Jeffrey, Amobi Okugo, Michael Stephens
FORWARDS (6): Juan Agudelo, Terrence Boyd, Teal Bunbury , Joe Gyau, Brek Shea, Tony Taylor
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I would say that the performance of the current US U23 and U17 teams shows that US Soccer is actually starting to improve what it is doing on the youth ranks….
Love it, that u23 team is truly corny to what we could put together now.
This. This is exactly how I explained what happened this cycle. Why were we playing and relying on so many holdovers from 2014? Because there was no one behind them pushing them.
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And your point about the success the youth squads is the hope I have for 2022 and 2026.