Photo: Daniel Studio
Philadelphia Union
Apparently, Brazilian striker Sergio Santos, currently with Audax Italiano, is about to sign with the Union. Joe Tansey also tweeted about it.
Oka Nikolov returns to Union as their goalkeeper coach.
Borek Dockal was on Czech TV and pretty much admitted that Sparta Prague will be his next club.
With tongue firmly in cheek: Six reasons why Bayern Munich’s Arjen Robben should join the Philadelphia Union.
New episode up of It’s Always Soccer in Philadelphia.
Local
USL named Reading United as franchise of the year.
Atlantic City FC and Jackson Lions FC announced an alliance.
Players from some local schools made the Google Cloud Academic All-America NCAA Division III Women’s soccer teams.
MLS
Alan Kelly will ref the MLS Cup this Saturday night.
NYCFC hired its new CEO from the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers.
U.S. Soccer
Gregg Berhalter was finally named USMNT coach yesterday. Read about it at Pro Soccer, Philly.com, Sports Illustrated, and Washington Post. Replay of the press conference here. And Berhalter took out a full-page ad in the Columbus Dispatch, thanking Columbus. Class.
https://twitter.com/BrianSciaretta/status/1070030818687492096
Indoor Soccer
Dwayne De Rosario on playing pro indoor soccer at age 40.
Indoor workouts that youth soccer players can do anywhere.
Around the globe
Taylor Twellman will be a head coach for the first Allstate Cup in Orlando next summer.
Ada Hegerberg won the Ballon d’Or. Then a French DJ asked if she knew how to twerk.
The Guardian revealed numbers 41 to 100 of its 100 best female footballers in the world 2018. They’ll post the top 10 on Friday.
Jurgen Klopp has accepted a charge of misconduct for running on to the pitch after Liverpool’s 96th-minute winner against Everton at Anfield.
Man City beat Watford, 2-1, giving them a five-point cushion at the top of the EPL table. Also, they could be banned from the Champions League next season over alleged deceptions of UEFA’s financial rules.
Highlight of the day
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1JeiRpxBnQ
Can’t Sergi Santos just create the Union a DP level striker?
I’m all in on this Sergio Santos story. Exactly the sort of player we should be going for. Not necessarily a DP sort, but talented, young and can score goals.
–
The guy who asked Hegerberg if she could twerk… what on Earth was he thinking?
I will take just about anyone on this club. So the idea of a 24 year old Brazilian striker is just fine with me.
SECOND.
I watched Sergio Santos highlights on YouTube and he plays with pace and mostly on the left side to center. Good with the ball at his feet and hold up play as well. Pairing him with Fafa up top makes sense and fits into the plan Ernest kind of left out there. Right now he plays in Chile and said he wants to sign with the Union because officials from the team came to meet him personally and America looks like a good place to play. Signing a player before the preseason is underway? Well Ernest, that would be a Merry Christmas!
Meanwhile, Ernie announcing the coach we all knew it was going to be and missing out on three good friendlies.
I had some time and dug into the comment section of the first tweets about this (via G-translate) and picked up two things: 1) Some believe this to be coming more from his agent then the player, and 2) sounds like he is about one year away from having been in Chile long enough to gain citizenship and was previously on record saying he wanted to do so to play internationally.