Philadelphia Union
The Union announced yesterday that David Pettican is the team’s youth general manager. In a past life, he played for Southampton. The newly created role probably has less to do with the academy than working with local youth clubs in the Delaware Valley.
Remember that time that the Union got $175K in General Allocation Money (GAM) from New York City FC? Looks like the Union made out on that deal, since NYCFC are going into 2019 minus two international roster spots.
Local
Regarding the Union’s David Pettican news, Philadelphia Lone Star F.C. stated, “We just hope he will be able to improve relations with other ‘little-known’ youth teams in underserved communities.”
Who’s down for some indoor soccer? Harrisburg Heat‘s home opener is this Saturday.
Four players from the University of Pennsylvania women’s soccer team were named All-East Region by United Soccer Coaches — a program record. And Saint Joseph University’s senior defender Paige Bergman made the All-East Region Third Team.
MLS
FiveThirtyEight gives Atlanta a 66% chance of winning the MLS Cup. Is that the same FiveThirtyEight that miscalled the 2016 presidential election?
If you’re like me and need pretty pictures on different scenarios for Thursday’s matches: NYvsATL & SKCvsPOR.
How West Chester’s Jeff Larentowicz became Atlanta United’s not-so-secret playoff weapon.
To paraphrase the Karl Hendricks Trio, break out your hankies for this one: Andrew Wenger‘s contract with Houston has expired.
MLS rosters at the moment.
Joe Tansey examines the alleged deal of Zack Steffen heading to Manchester City.
USL
USL players have formed a union, which the league recognizes.
U.S. Soccer
Lynden Gooch is on a roll, with three goals in four matches at Sunderland.
A coach in the Vancouver Whitecaps’ regional academy system made the following observation, then deleted the tweet. Fortunately, Charles Boehm kept a copy:
— Charles Boehm (@cboehm) November 28, 2018
Around the globe
It’s official! Oscar Pareja is Club Tijuana’s new manager. Apparently, he’s looking to bring along three FC Dallas players.
Manchester United beat Young Boys, 1-0, thanks to Marouane Fellaini’s injury-time goal. ManU slide into the last 16 of the Champions League.
AEK Athens’ Champions League defeat to Ajax in the Greek capital was marred by violent scenes before kick-off.
Borussia Dortmund bus attacker got 14 years for attempted murder.
From the Absurdity Of Real Life department, an amateur Irish club faked the death of a player to get a game postponed.
The 2018 Copa Libertadores final and the ineptness of the the South American confederation.
USL players creating a union is a game changer for me. It makes me wonder how academy players can still compete in a pro league with a collective bargaining agreement and if those players will have to move down to USL league 1? If that was to happen, I think this is just another reason to believe the Union might start a second USL team and with the connections in Wilmington with the Sixers….
Very interesting article from Kevin Kinkead over at Crossing Broad regarding possible Union moves coming up. Interesting stuff – https://www.crossingbroad.com/2018/11/a-mysterious-union-source-with-accurate-information.html
Getting rid of Sapong and Medunjanin and bringing in a top tier striker would make me very happy.
Thanks for the link
Can you imagine Curtin managing Balotelli? I know the name was just used as an example, but the thought makes me smile.
“like Balotelli” – probably the most expensive of the lot, is not “likely” as I see it. Aron Johannsson is out of contract. He seems more along the lines of the Union’s price range.
I usually go to page 3-5 for any hopes I might have for a union signing https://www.transfermarkt.com/statistik/endendevertraege?sort=marktwert.desc
Balotelli on the Union? They’d pay for half of one leg. I know it’s just a “like” statement, but he’s the most valuable CF coming out of contract.
Go to page 3. Aron Johannsson is more along the lines of the Union budget https://www.transfermarkt.com/transfers/endendevertraege/statistik/2019/plus/0/galerie/0?ausrichtung=Sturm&spielerposition_id=14&altersklasse=alle&land_id=0&yt0=Show
I feel like johannsson is injured all the time
https://www.crossingbroad.com/2018/11/a-mysterious-union-source-with-accurate-information.html
The 3-5-2 depicted in that link is still missing a playmaker, unless Haris is that person, which I don’t see. Jones is primarily defensive as is Bedoya, except Bedoya knows how to make smart runs and occasionally score. He clearly is not a 10, it was tried already. Maybe Aaronson if he is ready instead of Haris? And where does that leave use for Ilsinho?
Ilsinho gets left out in a 3-5-2 unless he’s on as a late sub for Fafa or the other striker.
Darron Mattocks is now available – we could have the Jamaican National Team forward front line.
as I recall, FiveThirtyEight was literally the only site that described the 2016 presidential election as too close to call, right up to the end of the campaign, and they took quite a lot of heat for daring to challenge the notion that a Clinton victory was inevitable
Exactly this meme that they got the election wrong is so frustrating. It just shows people don’t understand probability. Although in reality we probably never will have enough election results to know if they are any good.