Photo: Paul Rudderow
Philadelphia Union
The Union re-DOOP Herbers, Ilsinho and Fabinho.
The Union’s preseason starts in Clearwater on Jan. 30.
Puff piece on Andre Blake, but with the quote: “I have always wanted to play in Europe, ever since I was younger.” Can’t believe he’s 27.
Local
Don Norton, Jr., men’s soccer assistant coach at Rutgers, has written an article, “Diversity in Attack…Attacking from the Flanks”, which will appear in the September/October issue of the Soccer Journal.
Reading United alumni & Bucks County native Jimmy Ockford signed with the San Jose Earthquakes.
MLS
Nashville wins an expansion spot.
RSL acquire Brooks Lennon from Liverpool on a permanent basis.
Graham Zusi is top right back/wingback in MLS positional rankings.
Nice to see the Union kick off this clip of 2017’s best long-range goals, but, of course, David Villa embarrassing Andre Blake is in there.
U.S. Soccer
Sophia Smith is the 2017 Female Young Player of the Year.
United Soccer Coaches announces National Players of the Year.
Julie Ertz named U.S. Soccer top female player of 2017.
Around the Globe
Bristol City crush Manchester United.
Swansea sacked their manager. Word on the street is Bob Bradley chuckled while Mike Sorber gave Bradley a pedicure.
Miscellaneous
Some football books to ask Santa for.
Oh look the Union signed….oh.
not hyped? We signed a 26 year old striker with 13 goals in 2 years at our USL club…… and…. he takes up an intl slot!!!!!!
YAAAAAAAAAAA BOOOOOOYYYYYYY!
Condolences to the author on Bristol City’s conquest of your side yesterday. Beware of City clubs…..
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Bob Bradley clearly was not the problem at Swansea. How that club expected Clement to do anything after selling Sigurdsson and Llorente is beyond me as well. I’ve heard talk of Pulis to take over. What a joke. And they’ll go down while cross country rivals Cardiff look likely to be promoted. One of the few fanbases that have it worse than us.
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I’m not paying attention to MLS until our club actually does something. Apparently they’ve taken the rest of the year off (resigning Herbers, Ilson and Fabinho doesn’t count).
Hopefully they resigned at dramatically lower salaries. Even then… keeping the core of last year’s 8th place team feels “so Union.”
Resigning a bunch of players at a lower salary from a team that finished eight points out of the last play-off spot is rather uninspiring. Certainly not worth plastering videos all over social media about it.
Wait, you’re not grateful and overly excited? They have a Christmas video you can watch. Maybe that will help.
“We’re Back, Baby.”
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Union Marketing Department.
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I swear it is an alternate universe… where GULLIBLE is an honorable quality of team citizenship.
Take out alternate and team, and you have the current state of affairs in our country. Trend? Me thinks so.
To the defense of the marketing team, they’re probably ecstatic to have ANY news to share. Their job seems to consist of somehow convincing the fan base that the team is relevant & worth our time (in a sports market that’s back on the rise) with almost no real positive news – or really any news to share or spin. So I think from their point of view that news is just more of a “oh good, we have something to share.”
True, that’s a fair point.
With all the free money floating around the Union signing some steady MLS level talent can be taken, with a good amount of unearned optimism, as a good thing. It looks like we are filling in holes for cheap. or cheaper than they were before. Leaving a fair amount of cash for a couple of larger signings.
Maybe.
Hopefully.
Eh I dunno.
You gave effort.
What happens if ES leaves in a year to get out of this ridiculous situation? Where will we be then? What happens when we are worse this year and the young players still don’t play? Its incredibly worrying that we all just continue to wait and no one pressures the team. If I were the team, having no pressure may be even more worrying, when no one cares enough to even ask anymore, what happens to the team?
Who exactly is supposed to pressure the team? The two-three guys that are actually paid to cover the team, or the volunteers from PSP? Or are you talking about the fans? Which, if people are still willing to renew their tickets because they like drinking in parking lots and atmospheres, are hindering any chance of change in ownership’s position on spending. So really, where will this pressure you speak of come from?
Time to pull out the coffins again to shake things up. Seemingly that’s the only thing that worked.
Who’s in the coffin? Sugarman? The team itself? Tickets? If people march and still go into the stadium, Sugarman wins anyway.
The general ethos of the Front Office belongs in the coffin – this may end with many bodies.
I honestly don’t know the answer, which is kind of depressing. Do we just resign ourselves to there never being change?
Unfortunately yes, I think, Great One. It’s either hope they fold, or hope Sugarman sells sooner rather then later. How many times do we have to hear “We will never spend like the LA’s and NYC’s”, before we actually believe it? I believe. So the only choice now is to not give him the ability to suck money from your pockets without giving a decent product in return. Or we can hope and pray we get a Leicester like season. Not holding my breath for that one.
I guess we can also hope the academy/BSFC has a “golden” generation, or E.S. has the luck of the Irish, and is able to find bargain players who play above their pay-grade. We did have two of those in Nogs and Barnetta, but they left. They also weren’t his signings. His track record is not that great so far either. Haris, maybe, is the closet he gets. It’s purgatory.
btw JackMac is back….
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on the boards for the re-entry draft. As is Sheanon Williams and Amobi Okugo.
What ever happened to Sylvestre?
Or Danny Cruz?
UnionGoal
Good job today John. Thank you for posting Thursday roundup.
UnionGoal
I keep hearing this player checks most of our boxes. What are the boxes?:
1. Willing to work for league minimum. √
2. Will drink Schlitz on team bus? √
3. Stated in initial interview “yes I Love Chester”. √
4. Also stated “Yes I Love everyone’s Wife”. √
5. Has fear of flying, will ride a bus anywhere. √
6. Has earned the right to wear the BIMBO logo. √
7. Willing to share a team smart car with 4 other players. √
Keep checking those boxes Jay Earnie Jim
Team has made the layoff every year but one. Maybe that’s the sucksess they strive for.