Photo: Earl Gardner
Philadelphia Union
Pour one out for Gooch. Longtime USMNT and short-term Philadelphia Union defender Oguchi Onyewu retires from professional soccer with a very lovely Instagram video (featuring John Legend and his famous stare down, of course) recalling his career.
More on the big man here. If he hadn’t been hampered by injuries, I don’t think it’s crazy to say that Onyewu would have been considered one of, if not the, greatest U.S. defenders of all time.
Union Academy signee Brendan Aaronson’s contract with the big club is a dream come true for the Medford native. More on the “wow moment” the first time Aaronson practiced with the senior squad.
Free agent acquisition Kacper Przybylko talks first impressions in Philadelphia. The striker is eager to get back into action with a club.
An early look from the league at the Union’s midweek transcontinental haul to face Seattle.
Local
Philadelphia native and former Union prospect CJ Dos Santos inked a contract extension with top club Benfica in Portugal.
MLS
Tomorrow’s Campeones Cup between Toronto FC and Tigres is another chance to stoke the MLS v. Liga MX rivalry. After a rough year for Toronto, though, it may be more about cementing their legacy as one of MLS’ greatest squads.
David Beckham is apparently trying to nab Messi for Inter Miami’s inaugural season. Zlatan says, “Come on, Leo!” [Ed.’s note: Does the fact that TMZ is reporting on MLS mean we’ve made it?]
After being waived by MLS, Roman Gall is killing it in Sweden and on his way to a USMNT call-up.
NWSL
North Carolina Courage meet Chicago Red Stars tonight in the NWSL semifinal. ICYMI, the match was moved to Portland due to Hurricane Florence. The winner will take on Portland Thorns in the championship.
U.S. Soccer
A look at how young Yanks abroad fared over the weekend. Jonathon Amon is certainly one to watch.
Here’s to Gooch, probably my all time favorite USMNT player. Still remember the game in DC against Costa Rica when he went down and never fully came back. Was very thankful we got to see him for a full year here in Philly.
Interesting to see a Sporting Director sign a player to finish the season for the Union. Now what is the chance he sees the field? For all those people ready to concede the game to Seattle, I can’t imagine a better game with an opportunity to get him on the field.
It’s hard to believe that Jay Simpson stated the first game of his Union career with a goal, got injured, and has basically never been heard from again.
Somebody needs to put a list together of the highest paid player’s in Union history. I’m pretty sure that there are more Simpson’s than Badoya’s. Even this year with Dockal being a homerun, David Accam and CJ Sapong (who got a big raise) keep the curse of higher salaried players for the Union underperforming.
Our big salary players are cheap and that’s why they stink. We get them because whatever team is paying them doesn’t want to anymore so we get them on a free transfer and then hide their bloated salary in the MLS paid portion of the salary cap. Hopefully this is starting to change because it doesn’t work and is unfair to the players whop don’t stink.
There is a team option for 2019 so it is more of a “show me for next season” contract. With an international spot open after the Ayuk deal, Przybylko could be signed without trouble. I believe Simpson’s contract is done at the end of the season and so if he shows enough this season, he will be the 3rd striker for next year. Based on the limited stuff I’ve seen about Przybylko, he already seems a much better fit as a lone striker then Simpson.
On something called “Sound Cloud” if you add Philadelphia Union to your search terms, there is a transcript of Jim Curtin’s press event Monday.
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In it he mentions that Przybylko played a half in a Bethlehem closed scrimmage against NYCFC (at NYCFC judging by a photo on Twitter posted by the Steel’s Santi Moar) and set up 2 goals.
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you now know as much about the event as I do. 😉