Photo Credit: Earl Gardner
Philadelphia Union
Nice little piece about Anthony Fontana from his hometown paper.
Saturday’s game sold out, prompting the Union to make standing room only tickets available for the match. Hopefully this teaches the front office the value of a star player.
And if ticket sales aren’t reason enough, a winning team might be. Despite leading at the half the Union lost 1-3.
Local, LA, and national coverage.
Allegedly the Union are looking to sign Anthony Ribelin from Rennes in Ligue 1. Or should we say Championnat National (third tier), since that’s where he’s actually played this year?
Local
Reading United beat Red Bulls II, securing the USL Eastern Conference Championship.
Bethlehem Steel FC and Penn FC had byes this week, so moving on!
MLS
Justin Meram could be heading back to Columbus. Or maybe Cincinnati. Either way, it’s Ohio. #SaveTheCrew
The LAFC USOC Eligibility debacle is settled.
Now that that’s settled, the Semifinal Draw will take some time today.
Everyone is friends again down in the nation’s capital.
NYCFC alumni Jack Harrison started for Manchester City in a preseason friendly against Dortmund.
Good to see other Sounders stepping up to continue Clint Dempsey’s legacy.
Full details of the MLS Miami stadium plan that’s going before Dade County voters this fall.
Alphonso Davies didn’t play in Vancouver’s loss to Seattle, keeping the Canadian in mint condition for his pending sale to Bayern.
The Premier League wants Miguel Almiron, and they’re not afraid to pay for him.
FC Dallas have sold homegrown Kellyn Acosta to the Colorado Rapids.
NWSL/WPSL
Ali Krieger played her 100th match as Orlando Pride drew Seattle Reign 1-1.
Seattle Sounders Women have won the 2018 WPSL Championship, becoming the first team named “Sounders” to win a league that’s currently operating.
FC Barcelona Femeni will be coming to the States for the first time later this month, and they will be playing a game against WPSL’s SoCal FC.
US Soccer
Confession: I only mentioned Jack Harrison up above because I was already planning on mentioning Pulisic drawing a penalty for BVB.
Speaking of Pulisic, he had a nice chat with the Charlotte Observer before beating Liverpool 3-1 in North Carolina.
Jaelene Hinkle’s USWNT call up continues to be controversial.
Is Paris Saint-Germain the best place for Tim Weah?
World
The Welsh goalkeeper Danny Ward’s move to Leicester isn’t the sort of thing that would usually be talked about here, but the seven-figure check heading to fifth-tier Wrexham AFC as a result of a sell-on clause in the deal they made with Liverpool in 2012 is fascinating.
Hopefully this is the beginning of the end for summers full of meaningless European friendly tours.
If you think the Revs have it bad playing in Foxborough, there’s a team in Ireland sharing a stadium with stock car racing. Also, they have stock car racing in Ireland?
No no no no no to the free 3 tier French winger.
GET US A STRIKER. Pay for it if needed. Please.
100% YES – our current wingers probably have WAY more assists on the season with a striker who can finish.
Was at the Liverpool/Dortmund game.
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Nice stadium and was a fun atmosphere. Very pro-Liverpool crowd, probably like 70-80% of the 50,000+ in attendance. They even played YNWA over the PA in the stadium at kickoff and the Red supporters finished it off singing in unison. There was a huge roar when Klopp came out to watch warm ups. Interestingly, he spend almost all of the time he was out there watching a Dortmund rondo and other drills from afar. Queue speculation of a desired transfer…
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Liverpool was on the front foot most of the first half. Dortmund had Phillips playing as a lone striker and, to my eye, it wasn’t working. He would drift wide or into the midfield and so there was no one for the Liverpool CBs to even worry about. Fabinho looked good for Liverpool, even dropped into CB after Matip went off with injury until the sub could be made. It was a pretty humid day and almost 90 so not sure if it was just cramp for Matip or something more severe like a pull.
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Game changed a bit for Dortmund when Pulisic and Isak came on (and notably van Dijk, who was dominant in the first half, came off). Isak stayed higher upfield keeping defenders busy and Pulisic became the outlet that was missing in the first half in the space underneath. Pulisic drew then converted the penalty, scores from the run of play, and then puts a shot on frame leading to a goal off the save. Not a bad day for the 19yr old.
arguably the coolest thing was Pulisic telling Goetze to go sit down when he tried to take the PK. As more than one person I follow on Twitter mentioned, there is not one other american player with a set of balls that big ….save, Duece.
next we’ll here how soccer still isn’t quite growing in America once the ICC withdraws.
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only so much fun can be had watching a second rate team play a meaningless game in ‘merica, just ask any number of Philadelphia Union fans.
I mean figure skating draws millions during major events too (the olympics). So I still don’t buy this “random people are willing to splurge on a single game watching some of the best teams in the world, so clearly they would also watch/spend money on a average league forever too!”
Are you suggesting that the ICC has the same prestige as the Olympics?
No im just comparing 1 once in a while competition with prestige and name recognition to another.
Kinda harsh to call those ICC clubs “second rate”.
When you take away the players who went to the world cup and add to the mix that they are not in mid-season form, yes, most of them are second rate.
I was being hyperbolic, in a kinda catatonic hyper osmotic law of diffusion way.
Not interested in supporting the ICC to watch mostly bench and unfit players. Rather save the money for the WC in Quatar.