Photo: Paul Rudderow
Philadelphia Union
Part two of Matt De George’s piece on Talen Energy Stadium’s impact on Chester. (Part one here.)
ESF Dream Camp Foundation was named Charity of the Match by the Union for their match against New England. ESF Dream Camp Foundation is a comprehensive non-profit serving Philadelphia youth, grades 1-12.
Local
Penn FC signed Romuald Peiser, a former NASL goalkeeper and product of PSG’s youth system.
ICYMI: Junior Lone Star FC appointed Thomas George as their first team assistant coach. George was the U-19 head coach who helped develop several of the Stars’ most prominent alumni including Derrick Jones.
MLS
The city of Columbus and Ohio’s Attorney General filed a lawsuit against Columbus Crew SC and MLS to try to keep the team in Columbus. #SaveTheCrew.
MLS Power Rankings. Not too Union-friendly.
MLS continues to have its best CONCACAF Champions League run yet, as Red Bulls beat Tijuana 2-0.
Around the globe
Champions League Action: Real Madrid advance, beating a Neymar-less PSG, and Liverpool drew against Porto to advance to the quarterfinals for the first time in nine years.
The North American joint World Cup bid has hit some trouble, and Gulati is out again, this time as chairman of the board.
How does an RSL draw get them a #6 spot? MLS.com is horrific, saying the Union will finish 11th in the East and now 17 out of 23 in week 1?! The only people that know anything about the game are the ex professionals working on mls.com, I’m assured no one else has a clue. I understand the win was against a 9 man New England team but the 2nd red had already came when the Union were up 2-0. Give them SOME credit, the win wasn’t handed.
Scroll down to the Fred Zilla write-up in the comments section.
That is about the only on-point thing on MLS Soccer Soccer dot coms weekly Power Ranking article…
Because like any good little cartel (I mean, league), they push the teams they want to push. The Union can start 5-0-0 and they’ll still be behind Atlanta, Toronto, Seattle, LA, etc. It is what it is. Don’t pay attention to it. Read PSP instead!!
Oh, I read PSP
Looking at rankings now is pretty useless to me as teams still haven’t settled their rosters. Who knows what this team will look like with Borek Dockal running this team? Will the kids improve? Will Sapong and Accam gel into a dangerous pair improving on last year’s numbers? I would imagine sometime around the beginning of May we’ll have a real idea of what teams are.
agree. they are purely exercises in…in in in- i don’t know what.
.
look at that, we agree again.
For as bad a system as it has, there’s a reason college football doesn’t start their real rankings until part way through the season.
Are there any Sons of Ben plans to #SaveTheCrew when they come to town next game?
The SOB should sit with the Columbus fans. There are always plenty of seats over there!!!!
that sound you hear, the low distant wail of an elephant succumbed to surrender by a deep winter snowstorm on the cusp of the very spring meant to march the plains upon.
.
if I could see Phil, I’d kick that groundhog in the icicle.
I am fine with the Unions spot in the rankings.
New England were terrible. We didn’t finish out chances and we didn’t put the game away until we were up by 2 men.
Next game we will be better.
Hopefully.
Left work at noon. Soaked and cold…started reading PSP to warm up. We are having thunder snow in south Jersey! Glad to be home! And although I’m generally againt cruelty…kicking that stupid groundhogs icicle would be gratifying!!
That they still have no varsity soccer at Chester HS is as joke. Typical Union…
A couple of thoughts on Chester HS soccer. It was putting the cart before the horse to assume you would field a HS team with nothing in the pipeline. So having to start in grade school and work up is the right way to go. I suspect that there is a fair amount of institutional inertia at the school if there was not internal champion for HS soccer. The Union (struggling with their own growing pains/turmoil/FO shakeups/revolving doors) probably didn’t have a champion to follow through with the school over all these years. It’s all good to have pronouncements but unless there is a person assigned to make it happen, it ain’t going to happen. And if that person at the Union and doesn’t know what levers to pull, buttons to push to even help a SD, nothing gets done.