Daily news roundups

News roundup: Union vs. Atlanta, six MLS matches in 24+ hours, the case of Barcelona and the illegally-purchased liver

Photo: John Osborn

World Cup

On Tuesday:

Next matches are tomorrow:

  • Uruguay vs. France, 10 AM, FS1
  • Brazil vs. Belgium, 2 PM, FS1

And Saturday:

  • Sweden vs. England, 10 AM, FOX
  • Russia vs. Croatia, 2 PM, FOX

Without World Cup rights, ESPN is drawing an assist from Legos and Crayola.

A Guardian writer thinks there are too many on-field theatrics.

Philadelphia Union

Philly.com talked to Medunjanin about the next match against Atlanta. It’s actually airing on 6ABC instead of PHL17.

MLS announced ref assignments. Here’s who will be in Chester on Saturday night:

  • REF: Ismail Elfath
  • AR1: Kathryn Nesbitt
  • AR2: Apolinar Mariscal
  • 4TH: Rubiel Vazquez
  • VAR: Caleb Mendez

Matt Doyle and Bobby Warshaw declared the good and bad of each MLS team at midseason. Here’s what Doyle had to say about the Union:

GOOD: Having a system and trusting it. The Union have made refinements (especially on the attacking side of the ball) and have become a hard out, with a quality win over the Red Bulls in U.S. Open Cup play – as well as a puncher’s chance at a playoff spot.

BAD: Finishing. C.J. Sapong and David Accam have both endured season-long nightmares in front of goal. Either of those guys finish their looks at even a below-average rate, and they’ve probably got 5 or 6 more points, and a big jump up the standings.

Local

Reading United A.C. battled to a scoreless draw against New York Red Bulls Academy U-23 on Tuesday night.

Junior Lone Star and West Chester United clinched playoff berths.

On Saturday night, Atlantic City F.C. had a friendly with Virginia amateur club Motorik F.C. The result? 1-1.

MLS

Tuesday night, Los Angeles F.C. and Houston Dynamo drew, 2-2. And last night, there were five (!) matches:

  • Minnesota United F.C. 4-3 Toronto F.C.
  • F.C. Dallas 3-2 Atlanta United F.C.
  • Colorado Rapids 1-2 Seattle Sounders F.C.
  • Real Salt Lake 4-2 Sporting Kansas City
  • LA Galaxy 2-2 D.C. United

F.C. Dallas sold Mauro Diaz to a club in the United Arab Emirates. I guess there’s no better way to prep for the Middle East heat than with those Texas summers.

David Beckham is eyeing a golf course for his MLS stadium.

Around the globe

From the “Real Life Is Stranger Than Fiction” department: Barcelona have denied reports that the club’s former president illegally purchased a liver for Eric Abidal.

Real Madrid are considering an offer of about 100 million euros ($116,913,900.00) from Juventus for Ronaldo.

14 Comments

  1. Andy Muenz says:

    Good to see Atlanta playing last night in a hot city and now has to travel to Philly on short rest. Even better to see Stoica is not behind the whistle.

    • When asked during ESPN’s yearly anonymous questions about MLS, one player, when asked “Who’s your toughest opponent?”, replied “Ismail Elfah”. Honestly just another Stoica.

      • Elfath oversaw the Open Cup game against the Cosmos a few years back….which was a debacle. Saturday is going to be filled with wildly inconsistent calls, as well as bad calls.

  2. Seems someone at the Guardian agrees with me.

  3. I think the best idea in that Guardian piece is to make confrontation with the ref an automatic yellow for any player not wearing the armband. You’re only allowed to talk to a ref if he or she initiates it. You get in a circle around the official and I don’t care if half the team gets sent off.

    • There are so many ways to decrease the on-field theatrics yet no soccer league does any of them.

    • John O'Donnell Jr says:

      This +1

      You can also add yellow cards for players in the box before a penalty kick and the goalie not on the line getting ready. Bedoya set the precedent as far as I’m concerned for it this season, now it shouldn’t be up to debate the rest of the season.

  4. I think the exchange is off by a couple decimals, 100mil euro is quite a bit more than $1.17mil.

  5. The England – Columbia game at Fado was something else! Packed with about as many rooting for England as for Columbia. What a great unforgettable atmosphere!

  6. John Ling says:

    I’m not much of a fan about public subsidies for stadiums. That said, based on the info in the article the proposed Beckham deal for the golf course looks like a good deal for Miami. Most such deals seem to limit or outright exempt the stadium from various taxes, and this one doesn’t. So it increases the city’s tax base. It also comes with a guaranteed minimum lease payment of $3.5 million per year, but with Beckham likely paying more (based on fair-market assessments). And lastly, Beckham pays (over a 20 year period) to turn the “unused” part of the golf course into a public park.
    .
    Now, I’ll toss out the “full disclosure” statement that I also almost always find golf courses to be a ridiculous waste of space. So I have no doubt that personal bias plays into my assessment that it’s a “good” deal for Miami.
    .
    Anybody read the article and come away with the impression that this would be a bad deal for Miami?

    • John O'Donnell Jr says:

      It’s amazing that they probably won’t get this through because of politics.
      Anybody believe that NYCFC is ever going to build a stadium in New York proper?

    • reasonable takeaway and you summarize it well.
      it’s a best case scenario for the market that has been burned badly with the Marlins park.
      i realize these stadium deals are a case-by-case basis but they should be taxed and leased fairly.

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