Photo: Earl Gardner
Philadelphia Union
There’s plenty to like about Philadelphia’s defense.
The Union move up to #7 in Soccer America’s power rankings.
Jack Elliott goes 2-for-2 and makes MLS Team of the Week again.
MLS
A rundown of all MLS action, including a lot of VAR controversy.
More on VAR working and not working here.
What you may have missed this weekend.
19 MLS players were called up to World Cup-bound squads this weekend.
Be on the lookout for PSP’s own MLS recap later today.
NWSL
After a tumultuous offseason, NWSL is ready to kickoff 2018.
Vavel has a solid preview on all the teams here.
USL
Your Week 1 USL power rankings sees Bethlehem Steel jump up the board.
The league set another attendance record on opening weekend.
U.S. Soccer
Diving into the USMNT roster versus Paraguay.
Kekutah Manneh has been added to the roster. (Note: He’s only earned one appearance sine leaving Columbus for Pachuca.)
I like how the Union are #7 in the power rankings, where they proceed to dump all over Dockal. Odd to have only negatives to say about a team so high.
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Barroom topics are always fun, since power rankings mean nothing to performance.
Publications have constantly played up the question marks for the Union while giving all other teams the benefit of the doubt. It’s very strange.
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While it’s insanely early to know how the season will play out, I though Orlando was supposed to destroy the league this year…
What have the Union ever done to warrant respect? Seriously. They have only made the playoffs twice and lost. They have no high priced recognizable talent save maybe Bedoya and his name isn’t going to bowl anyone over. They don’t have a world class coach. The owner is one of the cheapest in the league. Anytime they have showed promise in the past they’ve just ended up disappointing. Most of us here have said we are at the show me stage, or wait and see. Why would the national media be any different?
I’m not saying they deserve respect. But a lot of other teams don’t either. I’m just saying there was a narrative of the Union having a terrible offseason and that they would be terrible this year and literally every other team they looked on the bright side.
What All4U said.
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I really hope the Union provided us with some fun games to watch this year – the opener was a good start – but when Ernie Stewart literally states that we won’t be having a MLS Cup team for years to come, it puts a damper on things.
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I like the way the back is coming together; and I hope that Dockal finds his place so we can start activating Accam, CJ and whoever will be on the right.
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I will say, watching Trusty get up into the attack against the Crew was entertaining, if not necessarily wise.
The Union are like the Cleveland Browns of MLS. They’ve done things so badly for so long, even when there’s something positive to talk about, why would you? They are bound to disappoint.