Photo: Rob Simmons
Philadelphia Union
I’d say the Union’s loss to Atlanta was predictable, despite so many of us not predicting it.
Local, Atlanta, and national coverage.
Calen Carr and Bobby Warshaw break down what Atlanta did right, and by extension what Philly did wrong, on the only goal to come from open play.
Local
Reading United continued their unbeaten streak to thirteen games, and locked in first place in USL’s Mid-Atlantic Division. Unfortunately it came at the expense of the Ocean City Nor’easters, who scored two in the action-packed 4-2 game.
In the other all-local matchup this weekend, Bethlehem Steel FC lost to Penn FC 2-3.
MLS
Over 8,000 Ohioans have pledged to buy season tickets next year, assuming the Crew are still around. #SaveTheCrew
Josef Martinez scores a lot of goals, but he’s no Josef Martinez.
DC United is getting a new owner?
Chris Armas has been named Red Bull’s new coach, since Jesse Marsch is away being Leipzig’s assistant coach.
Seriously though, how is Toronto this bad?
The Miami MLS bid has released some renderings of their proposed conversion of a city-owned golf course into a 110 acre “world class soccer village and technology hub”. Whatever that means.
Speaking of Miami, somebody re-filed some trademark applications that might be relevant.
US Soccer
Bobby Wood is going on loan with an option to by to Hannover 96.
Tim Ream signed up for two more years at Fulham.
World Cup
Friday:
France beat Uruguay 2-0, sending Les Blues through to the semifinals.
This time it was Belgium that was rolling, getting past Brazil on a Fernandinho OG and De Bruyne strike.
Saturday:
England cruised past Sweden, 2-0.
Tournament hosts Russia once again punched above their weight, only losing to Croatia on penalties.
Is there any real way any fans or media members can put any real pressure on Curtin to do something about CJ? Burke is no stud, but the difference between him and CJ right now is massive. Obviously a real striker is needed, but that will never happen. At this point they need someone beside CJ just to be competitive. He’s doing nothing for the team anymore, give him a break for his own mental health.
It’s hard to identify what pressure can and would work. The Union FO is getting real pressure from the fan base. It’s social media accounts are a wasteland of disgruntled and angry fan reactions. Earnie Stewart was even heckled at his local appearance on the travelling Men in Blazers show in Philly last week. They’re hearing it. They know a lot of people aren’t happy. But they either (a) don’t care or (b) are unable to do a thing about it. I don’t know which blend of those two is really in play.
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It’s interesting to consider pressure in the context of the collapse of defending champs Toronto. They simply can’t be bothered to win a match. What is it about MLS where a team can beat all comers and then hit rock bottom? Is it lack of pressure? Parity?
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For both Philly and Toronto, one can argue there really are no consequences. Now, I’m sure everyone on both teams really wants to win. The reality is, they don’t have to.
Yeah I guess you’re right, no one has to win. But we’ve seen here how that makes support dwindle over time.
A Maurinho Chelsea team comes to mind as wining and crashing out the next year. A Conte Chelsea team also comes to mind. MLS doesn’t have a monopoly on wining a title and stinking the next year.
This absolutely applies to Toronto, and Seattle before them. It even applies to WC w/last winners crashing out in group stages 4 out of last 5 WC.
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Union, not so much.
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As most leagues around the world, this is really a competition among owners (or in MLS’s case Investor/Operators). Right now there is no downside for an owner who doesn’t put money into their team. They still make their money. We need more owners with passion for the game. Sugarman isn’t that guy.
I get the sense that the FO upped CJ’s contract and now they don’t want to eat crow and their “proven” striker. It’s frustrating but I think that’s what’s up.
A good theory except for the fact that they’re paying Simpson as much to not even make the 18 some days. And our big acquisition, Accam, is riding pine every match Only thing that rescues this squad is a coaching change. Someone who could come in, look at it with a fresh pair of eyes, and I don’t know, try some new formations and tactics. Nearly everyone whose ever typed words at PSP has said they’d prefer CJ in a dual striker pair. 4-4-2 or 3-5-2 or whatever. This team is gonna Curtin until it gets a new manager.
At this point I prefer CJ out of the 18. He doesn’t care and doesn’t touch the ball. Honestly you could pull a fan out of the stands and get as much production out of them. We are basically playing with 10 men out there.
I disagree that Burke was any better than CJ on Saturday. Burke was offsides a couple of times. CJ was able to control the ball on multiple occasions and setup shot opportunities. Yes, we expect goals from CJ, but it seemed no one on the team could shoot straight.
Not sure I agree. Sure Burke wasn’t great, but CJ is completely invisible in a much larger stretch of time, when we weren’t playing from behind.
Curtin has been here for 5 seasons. He hasn’t improved nor have the majority of players under his watch. He’s used one formation throughout his tenure, regardless if it makes the most sense. He’s at 1.22 PPG and dropping.
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I guess what I’m trying to say is… Ownership does not care. They’re content with the below-average team because their goal is’t to win, rather to hold-out long enough to sell the team at a nice profit.
I’m in section 114 and in the first half, Fafa made a screaming run down the left side then cut to the middle and laid… LAID the ball as CJ’s feet, and I swear, the look on CJ’s face was, “What?! Me? What do you want me to do with it?”, before the chance was quickly squandered… Fafa reacted accordingly…
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And I agree, Burke is no savior, but he runs and he creates chances, that he usually messes up.. but.. he doesn’t mess up once or twice and he sometimes scores… I feel like we spot opposing teams a striker for 60 min a game…
Anybody go to Men in Blazer show on Friday? How was it?
What a travesty!!! Mueller should be investigating crooked FIFA for allowing greatest nation in the world to lose to Cro8cha. WC is broken!
Dude… you win for “Cro8cha”. Bravo!
The Miami MLS bid has released some renderings of their proposed conversion of a city-owned golf course into a 110 acre “world class soccer village and technology hub”. Whatever that means.
It means it won’t be Chester. “\_(•_•,)_/”
I actually lived in Miami for a few years. While this new proposed location isn’t quite the same, there are significant similarities between it and Chester. Miami Springs is culturally “not Miami”, and deep in the heart of Miami’s worst traffic. It isn’t reliably served by public transportation (though nowhere in Miami is), and there’s not exactly a ton in the area to do before or after games.
Furthermore, they’re trying to drop a stadium into a highly residential area. I obviously don’t know how those homeowners will feel about their property no longer being on a golf course, but I can’t imagine they’ll be happy about it.
Reading the stories about it,there seems to be a rail line three blocks away. Forty million in taxes a year is also quite a large chunk of change.
How they rebooted Belgium:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-professor-who-helped-make-belgium-soccer-a-world-power-1531154100?mod=hp_listc_pos3
for the non-WSJ subscribers, any chance you can summarize or highlight the article?
key issues:
– kids started to practice much more (just like musicians who want to become pros). They crafted proposals with how much and when the various schools and training academies should practice. No details on how much each day/week.
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– They completely reformatted youth soccer games. Doing this meant abandoning soccer orthodoxy. They believed playing five-a-side, then seven-a-side, then nine-a-side, before the formal 11-on-11 games, wasn’t developing their players properly. Instead, they decided to limit the structure to only four-a-side and then eight-a-side. That way, players could learn the four-person diamond formation tactics, then double that with eight before moving on to the real thing.
fascinating. thanks for sharing.
US soccer needs this same overhaul.
couldn’t get down to Chester Sat. tried watching the match at home. was stuck trying to problem solve during first half. apparently game was blacked out if you’re a streaming cable subscriber even though it was on channel 6. the current TV deal sucks more than CSN last year.
Considering all you need is digital rabbit ears to watch whether it’s on 17 or 6, I think this is probably the best deal they have done to this point.
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Invest in a digital antennae.