Photo: Paul Rudderow
Philadelphia Union
Jack Elliott and Jim Curtin were named to MLS’ Team of the Week.
Adam Cann breaks down Elliott’s first goal and the play that led to the preceding corner.
ICYMI: Bobby Warshaw’s interview with new Union Sporting Director Ernst Tanner is a must listen. Segment starts just before 49:00 in the episode.
Local
Bethlehem Steel fall out of the USL’s weekly power rankings following their 2-1 loss to Pittsburgh.
MLS
Wayne Rooney’s epic play on Sunday night is drawing comparisons to Zlatan’s wicked game-winning goal in his debut.
C.J. Sapong isn’t the only player in MLS experiencing a massive fall in goal-scoring form (and a terrible difference in xG vs. reality). So why can’t Miguel Almiron finish his chances?
Toronto FC continues to shoot themselves in the foot.
What you may have missed in Week 24.
More on Austin’s city council’s decision to delay the MLS stadium ruling.
U.S. Soccer
The USWNT’s elimination from the U-20 World Cup is part of a worrying trend for the women’s youth program.
As a new generation breaks through for the USMNT, these are the players to watch plying their trade overseas.
World
If you have ESPN+, you can now watch the Eredivisie, A-League, and Chinese Super League in addition to MLS.
Week 1 Premier League power rankings.
Highlight of the Day
Joel Embiid tries (and fails) to pull off a bicycle kick while playing pickup footy in Cameroon.
For those of you who follow along on twitter and/or read These Football Times… Jim @catenacciari Hart died yesterday. He offered a cryptic tweet two days or so ago saying ‘life was encroaching on his passions’ and that he was forced to withdraw from Twitter until things were a bit better, then an announcement was made yesterday he died.
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I’m pretty sad to hear. I’ve followed Jim for about 5 years, have had many engagements online and am certain his contribution to long form football journalism and his standards of excellence are unrivaled in the field.
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Bummer.
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in happier news, that Joel Embiid at 7’2″ has such good feet with a ball and the audacity to even try a bicycle kick is shear brilliance.
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CULTURE.
BSFC Captain James Chambers’ brother and sister were visiting several weeks ago and attended a Bethlehem practice when I was there.
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They were having a kickabout at one point the same way kids would automatically have a catch when I was a kid.
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CULTURE, with a respectful bow to the mighty elephant!
I missed most of the discussion on SiriusXM this morning but at one point they talked about ESPN+, TNT, etc. Now you have to sign up with all these if you want to see all the Champions League and EPL games. TNT seems to be $80/yr so if you add it all up you have to pay up to $750 extra for games that were ‘free’ couple years ago on cable or DirecTV. Is all nicely summarized here:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/10/sports/how-to-watch-premier-league.html
As a future positive person and a long-time cord cutter, I’m a bit dismayed by how the carving up of rights for different sports packages is creating a system that seems to be heading towards a place far worse than our old all-inclusive cable packages. Or, more accurate than “worse,” way more expensive. I’m not a fan of these channels all creating their own exclusive streaming channels. Losing access to some of the Champions League matches is the worst. That might have been the most entertaining competition I’ve watched in a long time. Bleacher Report Live? FFS.
the future is legal marijuana but if you want to watch soccer for free you will have to break the law
another moment of brilliance…. well done.
This is good…. Though, I don’t want to watch for free. Just want to watch for a reasonable price.
Too bad I have to pass a drug screening for work…after reading through just some of that article I needed a blunt!
Thank you, Steve Whisler to the link about Austin City Council meeting.