Photo: Earl Gardner
Philadelphia Union
The Union face Chicago at Talen this evening for their U.S. Open Cup semi-final match.
This won’t be the Union’s first Open Cup semifinal appearance – not by a long shot. Here’s a look back at their past semis.
Local
In addition to being named PSP’s Player of the Week for his two-assist standout performance against Richmond Kickers, Olivier Mbaizo was named to the USL Team of the Week.
Speaking of Steel, Bethlehem also has a match this evening against Charlotte Independence.
ICYMI: Week 1 winners and losers from the Philadelphia Unity Cup. Match results here.
MLS
D.C. United have new ownership, including American stakeholders in Swansea City.
Columbus Crew have received an offer from Blackburn for Wil Trapp.
Around the globe
An American billionaire and owner of the Denver Nuggets and Los Angeles Rams bought the majority stake of Arsenal.
Twitter chatter that Minn. United are interested in Jones but Union are not looking to deal.
That would have been great before they dealt Ramirez (who I’m not sure will have a great role in a very crowded group of LAFC attackers).
Honestly, seeing as Medunjanin was resigned and bedoya is going nowhere, I don’t think I’d have a problem with this. I’d like Jones to stay but the team doesn’t seem to value him.
So the Union are set to hire a Sporting Director from RB Salzburg according to a story at The Athletic. Ernst Tanner is his name. I wonder about the wisdom of going with another director whose focus has been in Europe. Best value or MLS seems to really be South America. Just wondering out loud at this point. …
There is a lot of unearthed talent in Eastern Europe and in the youth systems. If everyone else is focusing on South America, it’s not bad to be among the minority trying to mine Europe.
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But like you, I’m just wondering out loud.
There were a lot of guesses that it would be Ali Curtis. Looks like we all picked the wrong Red Bulls guy:
https://www.redbullsalzburg.at/en/fc-red-bull-salzburg/news/saison_2016_17/ernst-tanner-this-is-where-we-want-to-be.html
Ughh! We need someone who can build a roster within MLS, and knows how to wheel and deal in this league.
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I honestly would have been fine with Ali Curtis. He knows how to work the league and still get foreign talent.
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As far as I’m concerned Albright is no where close to mastering MLS roster dynamics, and bringing in someone from outside is going to be worthless without that.
Resume looks good. One major worry is getting familiar with all the ridiculous MLS player acquisition mechanisms. A lot of that will likely fall on Albright.
We’re trying to be Red Bull without signing any DP’s of quality. Meh
For all those people who want Curtin gone, I don’t think this hiring points to that direction.
I like the idea of the hiring. I would’ve been happier with Curtis, but it just shows this team is not spending any real money anytime soon. Which obviously SUCKS. I mean Tanner seems to have a pedigree and connections, so that’s solid, but an experienced MLS guy would’ve been better. Sugarman isn’t spending any money anyway, so whatever. Stay the course till he sells, I guess.
Maybe he’s not being brought in to find players. He’s an established youth director for a European selling team. Maybe he’s being brought in to sell the homegrown……
You win the idea contest today.