Photo: Rob Simmons
Philadelphia Union
The Union will face the Red Bulls in the U.S. Open Cup Round of 16…again. The game will be played Saturday, Jun. 16 @ 7pm. If Philadelphia win, they’ll host the winner of Orlando City SC and D.C. United.
PSP’s Peter Andrews asks how Earnie Stewart fits in his National Team job.
More on Stewart’s departure from Joe Tansey, Dave Zeitlin and Matthew De George.
Alejandro Bedoya’s suspension was upheld. He’ll be out against Toronto tonight. Speaking of red cards, sounds like Haris Medunjanin might be out longer than a game.
I’m calling out my editors on this one. We have “For Pete’s Sake” for Peter Andrews and “A View from Afar” for Dan Walsh, but we couldn’t think of a clever title for Adam Cann’s tactical pieces? The Union went and upstaged us. You can read our former contributor’s tactical preview of the Toronto FC match at “Cann’s Corner.”
U.S. soccer
And then there were 1️⃣6️⃣. The #USOC2018 bracket is set. ⚽🏆🇺🇸👊 pic.twitter.com/iD7gnvjW3p
— U.S. Open Cup (@opencup) June 7, 2018
The NWSL and ESPN partner for a TV deal.
Sour grapes? Hope Solo won’t back the North American World Cup bid.
MLS
Sounds like the Sounders (get it?) are signing a DP striker.
New York City FC’s Venezuelan midfielder Yangel Herrera will miss the remainder of the season after suffering an ankle injury.
Is Nashville-Cincy MLS’s next big thing?
Around the globe
Major corruption in African soccer. A World Cup-bound referee was filmed accepting a bribe. Ghana’s FIFA council member, and the vice president of the Confederation of African, was caught in a separate sting operation.
In the aftermath, the Ghanaian Football Association will be dissolved and risks being banned from future World Cups.
Ahead of the World Cup, how many national anthems will you recognize. Here’s a little quiz to test and explore your knowledge.
HIghlight of the day
How about MLS’ Goal of the Week?
Pulled this puppy over because its too much fun to leave wither on the vine.
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John O’Donnell Jr June 7, 2018 at 1:36 pm
How well will Ernie do is anybody’s guess as this is a new position and nobody knows how it will translate to the program yet. At least he understands where the program is and how the process differs from other countries. My prediction is half the U.S. soccer community will hate his first coaching hire.
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UnionGoal June 7, 2018 at 9:33 pm
Only half? You’re an optimist.
I only met the man once, at the Union academy open house. Coincidentally that was a watch party for the usmnt game…I remember his facial expressions as he watched with his son. It was similar to Pulisic’s when team eliminated a year later.
Whether or not he does a good job, his commitment and passion are there. I only know of Sunil, Arena, and Klinnsmann from media so I can’t say for sure, but I’m convinced Mr. Stewart felt that loss and subsequent disqualification more deeply than the other 3 combined.
I look forward to him to righting the ship and proving El P very wrong.
UnionGoal
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el Pachyderm June 8, 2018 at 9:54 am
Everything for me is hoisting that trophy. Its the only thing that matters from my seat, because it becomes the clearest indicator of the domestic games growth culturally and individually.
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I’m also realistic.
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The players on World Cup winning teams are ALL world class. We have 1……and in fairness to the young man, he’s not even world class yet.
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Did you see the list of 20 French players that haven’t even made the roster for the national team of France? Leroy Sane, arguably one of the best wingers in the world didn’t make his country’s roster. Mauro Icardi, arguably one of the most lethal strikers in the world didn’t even make his country’s roster.
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World Class players left OFF rosters. My original response was to the poster, Guido writing we are close. We aren’t.
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Prove me wrong, Earnie. Develop world class talent and I will be proven wrong if all the pieces are then made to fit….. Until then quite simply, NOT GOOD ENOUGH- not even close.
I basically agree, but just out of curiosity, what’s the (your) determination of a world class player?
I’ll use someone else’s words gladly for this.
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http://blog.3four3.com/2011/06/08/clint-dempsey-is-world-class-soccer-player/
Thanks for that link. good read. Might be able to shortcut that “test” and ask if you could see the player making the Brazil or Germany roster….
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Though I have to say, even if I were in charge of Brazil and could put Dempsey on my team, I would. My favorite US Men’s player ever. Just his attitude alone….
__I am also realistic—El p
What happened to being a dreamer? We watch sports for the dreamers not the realists. A realist laughs at a young Jimmy Rollins who states in 2007 the Phillies are the team to watch. A realist counts on the vardy party ending long before Leicester city tops the table. A realist bets against the eagles last September and doubles down when wentz goes out.
A realist in 1990 emphatically states a black woman can’t play tennis or a black man wear the green jacket.
The realist can go to hell.
It’s called the BEAUTIFUL game. El p, read oscar Wilde’s introduction to picture of Dorian Gray.
In meantime…I’m going to bet on Earnie, Pulisic, Sargent,Palmer-Brown, Steffen and world cup in 2022!!
Dreamy UnionGoal
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In other news, I’ve been on the record for giving Hope Solo a tough time in the past for perceived Han Solo type behavior-
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-no longer. In my opinion since declaring for the Presidency, she’s become a lightening rod duly and necessarily. Shedding light into dark places. Some could call it leadership in the absence of leadership.
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Sour Grapes? Not from my place on the plains.
i approve of her stance and she’s proven she doesn’t give two f-s about who she flames along the way. it’s refreshing.
I don’t have a lot of patience for a bomb thrower with no practical solutions and no thought to true alternatives. Please lose the bid because we don’t have pro/rel? So by losing the bid we are more likely to get pro/rel? Yeah right. Equal pay for women soccer players? Losing the bid is going to right that wrong? Not. As for the alternative for the 2026 bid, Morocco. If they win are they going to become the shining beacon of football federation transparency. Will there be equality of Moroccan women’s football while wearing a burka. All the money to build those stadiums is going to end up in the right places? I think her actions are the definition of sour grapes as losing the bid will make none of the issues she brings up get resolved.
Correct, Jack. Meanwhile securing the bid deepens the coffers and further insulates the power elite…. pretty much a mirror image of life in america.
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But hey, we can always lay down our arms and stop arguing debating and fighting for our individual perceptions of right and wrong. I mean, we can always argue a mother fighting a cause who lost her kid to a drunk driver is filled with sour grapes.
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Bomb thrower? I agree with El P. She corrected her “quote” and she didn’t bash America, just the USSF, which is a ridiculous organization I ignored until they decided to foul up youth soccer.
She pointed out her experiences that despite rising to fame the path was more difficult than it is for other American sports and she wants to change that for the upcoming generations. Nothing wrong with that.
So let her keep tossing those Molotovs!!
UnionGoal
Nick – was there supposed to be a link on Haris’ extended suspension?
count me in the minority that “Cann’s Corner” sounds hokey. if he truly is their good luck charm, i don’t care what her calls it. “Cann’s Cornucopia of Collected Categorization.”
Love that final phrase. we Amateurs have to be allowed a little word-play fun every once in a while.
There was, but I couldn’t find the quote from Curtin’s presser. I figured I’d leave it in just to pass on the news.
I was thinking about something related to the referees. I checked Wikipedia and noticed that Stoica is 42 years old. Toledo, who is doing tonight’s game, is 48. Given the amount of running that a ref has to do during a game, does it make sense to use guys that are that old? Seems to me like a younger ref might not have been as far out of position as Stoica was on the PK call.
You can run fine at that age to ref a game if you are in shape. He was also away from the play because it was such a horrendous turnover he had to be upfield to position himself for where the ball was likely going. The fact that he was so far away and didn’t go to VAR is an absolute disgrace.
Why not just have two referees? Make each responsible for half of the field
I remember the uproar it caused in hockey. Now it’s just normal. I think it could work, but there would be a lot of kinks to iron out – just like there was in hockey, actually.
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And as somebody who turns 48 later this year, I agree with A. It’s not out of the question for somebody that age to be in shape enough to do the running needed. (Not me, though. I’d be gasping and doubled over in less than 5 minutes; probably less than 2 minutes if I’m being honest with myself.) The answer is probably some sort of fitness test as a requirement from PRO to work games.
Why not two center refs? Simple answer. Money.
FWIW: I’m 48 & I can no longer run cuz it makes my knees ache afterwards. Of course, all that cross-country & track I ran in high school and college might have something to do with it.
I must have missed something about the Medunjanin entry above. MLS has only listed his red card suspension, and makes no reference to anything else that I can see. Is there more news out there on it?
Nothing official yet.
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Seemed like from Curtin’s presser they are expecting games to be added in the next few days. As wrong as the ref may be, you can’t go off like Haris did and not expect the league to brush it off. I’m guessing he will be suspended for 3 games.
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I would also expect a fine to be coming Curtin’s way for his comments after the game and from this week’s presser.
Thanks. I agree about the ref issue, having been one, but it was not clear about Medunjanin’s punishment actually coming down yet. I am sure that, over time, I was wrong at least once, but a full on reenactment of the Boston Tea Party wan’t necessary from Haris; all of us, including Stoica, understood that he was disagreeing with the call.