Photo: Paul Rudderow
Philadelphia Union
David Accam will officially be introduced at a press conference today at 2:00 p.m.
The release notes that the Union are spending the first week of preseason in Philly at Penn and Talen.
Chris Pontius officially signs with LA Galaxy after two seasons in Chester.
Jonathan Tannenwald confirms that this is indeed the new Union home kit. For the first time, the center gold stripe will be abandoned for off-color hoops.
Former Union and Orlando City forward Pedro Ribeiro sings with inaugural USL side Fresno FC.
Bethlehem Steel
That Union centerback rumor? Actually it was Bethlehem Steel on the prowl. The USL affiliate signed 20-year-old Cameroon international Olivier Mbaizo. Mbaizo and Eric Ayuk were teammates on the Cameroon U20 squad.
Major League Soccer
Preseason camps open across the league.
Portland Timbers ink U.S. youth international Eryk Williamson from D.C. United.
Montreal added a DP to the roster. Accomplished 25-year-old Algerian international Saphir Taider joins the Impact from Bologna in Serie A.
Patrick Viera thinks NYCFC is ready to challenge Toronto’s hegemony.
U.S. Soccer
In a revolting indictment of the U.S. Soccer Federation, Herculez Gomez reports that no one visited Monterrey midfielder (and now Mexican international) Jonathon Gonzalez. And then they lied about it.
He goes way more in depth on the Max & Herc radio show, and also gets into it with Bob Bradley. Good stuff!
A comprehensive look at the USSF presidential election.
U.S. and Schalke 04 midfielder Weston McKennie has been sidelined six weeks with a partial MCL tear.
Highlight of the Day
Herc Gomez had a busy day. His prank of Giovanni Dos Santos was especially solid.
I think the new jersey is the best 3rd jersey we had since the Bethlehem Steel kit. But damn the center strip was our look and now its been “as our tradition’d”
I like the new jersey. Can definitely do without the center stripe.
Agreed. I won’t miss the center stripe at all, and the sponsor logo looks much better on this jersey.
To quote from another comment –
“I just want a kit that when you turn on the game, immediately you know it’s the Union”
.
This is the definition of ‘Identity’. The center stripe was The Union. It’s a shame they went boilerplate this year.
I rate kit color/look/design about as high as a chief tattoo artist. When Man U can wear blue, why would you really care? Soccer is the sport least dependent on kit design IMO.
All4U…
.
You mean The Blue Devils…eh, uh, wha…
.
Could be a lot worse. Some PL third kits are atrocious. Liverpool have these orange ones that are god awful. Spurs had these flesh colored ones a year ago that may have been the worst design ever.
I don’t know about Spurs being the worst; Barcelona had that baby vomit kit a few years back. I had read somebody saying that that shouldn’t have been their thirtieth kit, let alone third.
Pretty frustrating how poorly the US has been performing lately, and that no changes will be made. The USSF and MLS are making too much money. If anyone else but Kathy Carter wins I would be absolutely stunned. This isn’t an election like most others remember, the votes are held by those already in power for the most part. Every single other group with cotes would need to band together behind a single candidate, which won’t happen.
.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Hercules Gomez ‘has been busy’ indeed— outside this levity.
.
…pretty much doing the heavy lifting for the US Soccer media.
.
this thing we used to revere, called journalism.
.
if anybody follows him on Twitter, likely you know more about his work then the average NFLMLS fan-bot.
U.S. soccer media is a shockingly small group. You could find a larger contingent of soccer journalists at their desks in the offices of the Guardian on any given Sunday. The sport has no priority for U.S news outlets.
–
And the media outfits in the U.S. that cover the sport probably spend more money covering foreign leagues than MLS. And that’s a dollars and cents decision based on what their audience wants to consume. SI has Grant Wahl and Brian Strauss. Both have done good work and have broken important stories. It’s shocking that the best “scoops” from ESPN and Fox have really come not from reporters but from former pros are are closer to analysts than journalists.
–
Good on Gomez — a former pro, not a journalist — for pursuing this Gonzalez story.