Photo: Earl Gardner
Philadelphia Union
Source: the Union are trying to get players.
The MLS SuperDraft in Philly is a month away. Here’s what it looked like last time the Union hosted. Aww, baby Dre!
Local
Medford, New Jersey youth club Real Jersey FC’s U12 team is competing among the likes of Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, and Roma at the Prospects Cup.
MLS
MLS clubs fared pretty well in the CONCACAF Champions League draw.
Portland Timbers officially sign Giovanni Savarese as their new manager.
To avoid a spate of home games late in the season, D.C. United will be unable to play all their home games at the new Audi Field.
NYCFC are set to sign 20-year-old Paraguayan midfielder Jesus Medina.
In a victory for MLS expansion in Nashville, a judge dismissed the pending stadium lawsuit.
LA Galaxy acquire the rights to San Jose’s David Bingham to shore up their recently atrocious goalkeeping.
NWSL
How Salt Lake’s NWSL team came to fruition in just two weeks.
U.S. Soccer
No, Laurent Blanc wasn’t offered the USMNT manager job.
30 players who should be at the January camp. Both Bedoya and Sapong are included.
So it looks like Nashville is all but a done deal: http://amp.si.com/soccer/2017/12/19/nashville-mls-expansion-team
Sacramento has to be the favorite for the second franchise. Though I’m surprised Cincy has to wait longer. I guess it’s all about stadium deals….
My conspiracy theory is because they can’t movie Columbus due to legal challenges by the state. They are going to blame Columbus for Cincinnati not joining.
Why doesn’t MLS just put the pedal to the metal and expand out to 34-36 teams, then split itself into 2 “leagues” and add at least some element of pro/rel?
Just do home & home scheduling (32-34 game season) to determine champ of each league, just like everyone else does it. Bottom/Top 5 swap next season. Maybe put some sort of financial penalty in place for finishing bottom 3 that doubles each consecutive year you finish there in league #2.
Have an MLS Cup tournament that includes all 34/36 teams that starts just after the US Open Cup finals.
That is the plan I suspect but making that happen immediately would be insane.
Can you imagine the chaos the expansion drafts alone would cause?
This is a good idea but rather than pro/rel split it geographically to cut down on travel
Sieve! – OK, so in my fantasy world, MLS gives a decent franchise fee discount to the 8-10 expansion squads in exchange for no draft rights to currently rostered players and direct placement into League #2.
Kyle – I get the geographic split and reduced travel costs, but ultimately the league benefits when fans can see all the “good” players/teams come into town at least once a year.
Interesting. I’ve actually been playing with a 42 team league. I know that’s a lot, but there are tons of markets that could support a club.
At any rate, I’d look at it as two seasons. One short regionally-based set of groups of 6, the second divided into 3 “leagues” mls 1 2 3.
Top two of the seven regional groups go to 1, middle two go to mls 2 and bottom two go to mls 3.
That’s 36 games and you can fit in a 16 team playoff. 1-off tournament style.
Playoffs consist of 8 from mls 1, 6 from mls 2 and 2 teams from mls 3.
Granted, the two finalists play 4 more, but 40 isn’t an obscene amount, is it?
For me, it puts a strong element of pro-rel, but it only lasts one season.
I just don’t think our country is made for a european style pro/rel, when most of those countries only have a handful of “major” markets.
But incent the teams with revenues from mls 1 2 and 3, and I think you’d have a similar effect.
Wow, how sad is it that our off-season rumor so far is a news flash that the Union are, in fact, trying to get players. And this is noteworthy because a large segment of the fan-base (myself included) weren’t even sure the Union were actually looking for players.
It’s incredibly sad and pathetic. It is even more pathetic that our best coaches in Nikolov and Sorber left and there is 0 plan to replace them at the moment. If you check the phillyunionnation instagram you will see Sorber’s son, a u17 academy player for the Union, is always speaking out against how idiotic the Union are. The academy players even hate the direction the team is heading!
From stalking a 23 year old on twitter and psychoanalyzing his ramblings to declare he is “weak” and joyfully getting him suspended to now stalking a 16 year old on instagram. Creep much?
UnionGoal
I have no idea what 23 year old i psycoanalyzed on twitter but UnionGoal must be delusionally mistaking me for the wrong person. The 16 year old you are referring to replied to my comment on phillyunionnation and agreed, idk how that constitutes stalking.
Why are the Philadelphia Union U12 not represented at Prospect Cup?
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it’s a 3 hour flight south. No passport needed.
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teams from Los Angeles, Argentina, Rome, England, Italy, multiple MLS Academy teams, some younger than this one…..have boarded airplanes at this time of Christmas to represent their youth players against the best. SHOWCASING players.
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USDA clubs like Weston, Sockers and somehow even, Real NJ a Philadelphia Union Youth Affiliate….. are represented and yet no Union U12.
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Cash issue to finance trip?
Hiding?
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What gives Earnie?
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This is exactly the cultural issues I would expect you to be addressing here. This is an enormous issue.
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No representation from a Union player at U17 World Cup. None at U20 World Cup…. Not playing in arguably the BIGGEST soccer tournament in the world at age group a mere 3 hours away.
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Tell you what… I bet I know why they aren’t there.
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Guess what… I’m paying attention. These questions deserve an answer.
I’m intrigued to hear a rationale for this…
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On one level I’m curious if it’s a financial issue not allocating resources to it maybe because an enormously expensive trip to Middle East was taken recently I believe.
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On another level I’m curious if some of the Academy folk even knew it was occurring which speaks to the culture.
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One on level maybe they are hiding.
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Then there is the obvious elephant in the room, what incentive is there to showcase the two or three superlative players in the pool… I have an idea of them right now.
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Course maybe Union Youth Affiliate, Real FC just stood in on behalf of the actual professional academy…
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Anybody find it curious if you look up the Los Angeles Galaxy Tourney in March 2018, Union U12 not listed on that one either.
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This is me…. acting as the reporter needed to get the scoop.
Son on the u12 and you are bitter not going south or California in wintertime?
And when you say “expensive middle east trip” that could mean a uae sponsor/partner or else sugarman is smuggling nuclear weapons to Iran for a number 10. You want report scoops or be like the Danny devito character in LA confidential.
Either way fun to hear you rant.
Thanks El p and happy holidays.
UnionGoal
Games aren’t important for player development, practice learning skill with the ball, creativity, building futsal courts…
Why aren’t we in a tournament playing games?
MAKE UP MY MIND! \_(•~•)_/
Passive aggressive?
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Or is its own thread, passive avoidance?
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Poor rebuttal El p. Come on…he called you out on your past contradicting opinions so clarify why your seemingly sudden change of pace complaining about NOT playing tournaments.
No need to be insulted…take opportunity to clarify. Usually you have a reason why you switch horses midstream.
Thanks.
UnionGoal