Daily news roundups

News roundup: Bethlehem Steel friendlies, Stewart rejected Dutch, more

Photo: Earl Gardner

Philadelphia Union

The Union got a Wednesday contest going on.

Apparently, the Dutch governing soccer body wanted Earnie Stewart as technical director, but he turned them down.

Local

The Southeastern Pennsylvania Soccer Hall of Fame Museum is looking for memorabilia.

MLS

MLS transaction tracker:

  • Sporting KC landed Derby County’s Johnny Russell,
  • Red Bulls signed German midfielder Marc Rzatkowski, and
  • Atlanta’s bench now includes MLS vet Sal Zizzo.

LAFC and YouTube TV form broadcast and jersey partnership, but it could cost fans $35 a month.

Could Larin’s move to Turkey open an MLS can of worms?

So the Red Bulls played the Revolution yesterday, but it was closed to the public and wasn’t streamed because of the Revs. Too early to predict that the Revs will finish last in the East?

Vancouver’s jersey sponsor, Bell, had a pretty cool campaign yesterday: watch their video or tweet/retweet and they gave 5¢ to mental health initiatives.

MLS finally gave D.C. United permission to play it’s home opener at the Maryland SoccerPlex, a 5,200-seater.

Regarding David Beckham’s Miami team: behind every soccer celebrity, there’s an underappreciated business partner.

USL

Bethlehem Steel announced preseason friendlies.

Jay Heaps will lead Birmingham’s expansion club.

Rule change this year includes a fourth substitute in the playoffs.

U.S. Soccer

Bruce Arena made decisions that cost us going to the World Cup,” said Geoff Cameron.

Hope Solo filed a 38-page complaint against U.S. Soccer.

List of U.S. soccer teams that have gone out of business in the past five years.

Miami FC will begin 2018 with a team in the NPSL.

Around the globe

After receiving a racist letter, an Idaho youth soccer coach fought back.

Russia warns that locusts could destroy World Cup fields.

West Ham suspend executive after racist claim.

Run-down of transfer window for Europe.

Justice Department escalates inquiry on global sports corruption.

14 Comments

  1. Pete Mazzaccaro says:

    “Win it Wednesday’s” SMH. Union. If you fellas need an editor to help you with apostrophes, I’m here.

    Stewart declining the offer to be technical director for the Netherlands is a big story. I’d love to hear his rationale for staying put. Sure gives him more leverage with Union. I wonder if he’s eyeing the same job with the USSF…. Intrigue.

    Cyle Larin’s situation is a warning shot to MLS. Time to take off the training wheels and break up this single entity farce. Time to do business like the rest of the world.

    • Stewart made a big deal when he came here about wanting to build something from the ground up, see it through, and change the direction of a team and eventually US Soccer as a whole.

      He is clearly a guy who commits to a long term plan and believes in it.

      And since then he has basically been a preacher with how closely his sticks to his vision.

      Honestly I’m surprised people are surprised he decline the Dutch.

    • The Dutch national team is honestly a mess. When you couple that with the fact that the soccer culture there tends to lead to a lot of second-guessing of the people in charge (even though Cryuff is dead, there are tons of opinionated critics in Holland), I think it was probably a very easy decision for Stewart to make.

      • Pete Mazzaccaro says:

        Stewart seems like a pretty ambitious guy to me. I get that the Dutch national team is a bit of a shambles right now and that the Union are a club on which he can really leave his mark. My suspicion is that he must be thinking, though, of doing the same for the US. As U.S. technical director he’d have the same opportunity to make his own mark, but at a significantly greater level than the Union.

      • Agreed, but technical director of a federation is a much different job than sporting director of a club. From what I’ve seen of Stewart’s personality, I would think that he would prefer the sporting director role much more. He’s pretty analytical and is not one that easily interacts with large groups of people which is what he would be doing as a technical director of a federation.

      • Pete Mazzaccaro says:

        Good points. I’m sure not in a hurry to get rid of him.

  2. For anyone who wants to get MLS Live, it’s currently $7.99 for the year. I’m not shilling or anything, but that’s a pretty damn good price for the service.
    .
    It’s a temporary price, so I just wanted to point it out to anyone looking to sign up.

    • Interesting. Any idea how long that price is going to last?

    • Apparently there are unstated restrictions.

      • I had an account from last year. I cancelled that one and then just used a different email address for this year and signed up without a problem.
        .
        JL, I have no idea how long it will last.

    • Just fyi, I emailed them because I already subscribe and wanted to see if that price was available for current subscribers, and it turns out that the $7.99 price is not for the 2018 season, just for access to the current database, which is the 2017 season. The 2018 season will be available closer to the start of games. Which is to say, if you sign up now at $7.99, expect to pay again in a month or two.

      Which isn’t too warn anyone away from MLS Live. MLS Live rocks and I love it dearly. Just don’t be fooled into thinking you can get what would be an extraordinary deal.

      • Damn.
        .
        I signed up. But I check last year and I only paid $14.99 for last year’s package, so I don’t think I’ll get hit that hard for renewing for 2018.
        .
        But thanks for the info and clarification.

      • Ah…that would make sense.

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