Photo Credit: Paul Rudderow
Union
Marcus Epps was picked up by the Red Bulls in the MLS Waiver draft. He’s basically dead to us now.
Zach and Julie Ertz are the first of a few possible new kit tag designers, including Bonedaddy’s Tattoo, the Sons of Ben, Freeway and The Wonder Years. Fans can vote for their favorite tags, here.
Something good came out of the 2018 season, I guess?
We were one of @MLS‘s top trending teams of 2018 on @Google – thank you for making this season a memorable one!https://t.co/XTnztjV8p3 | #YearInSearch | #DOOP pic.twitter.com/v2frn5JK9u
— Philadelphia Union (@PhilaUnion) December 12, 2018
MLS
Keep up with all of the trades with the MLS Trade Tracker.
Here’s the list of players eligible for 2018 Re-entry Draft Stage 1. There are three Union players: Richie Marquez (option decline), John McCarthy (out of contract) and Josh Yaro (option decline).
And here’s the list of the initial 60 players invited to the 2019 MLS Combine.
Former Whitecap, Alphonso Davies named Canadian Player of the Year for 2018.
Miguel Almiron, who just won the MLS Cup with Atlanta, might be heading over to Newcastle United reportedly.
Why Zack Steffen’s record-breaking move to Man City is taking place in July.
USL
USL Championship announced its conference alignments for the 2019 season, now with 36 teams in two conferences.
New Mexico United signed Santi Moar.
After one season with the Steel, Drew Skundrich has signed with Sacramento Republic FC.
US
Gregg Berhalter lays out his tactical vision for USMNT.
Bill Simmons discusses the many issues of youth soccer in the US and what the MLS is and is not doing well.
World
Learn about the #WomenInFootball who are changing the game around the globe. Although real change is “generations” away.
How the mighty are falling. After four Chelsea fans were suspended for racially abusing Raheem Sterling a few days ago, the club is now condemning fans for singing an anti-semetic chant at the match in Budapest against Vidi last night. Also, Chelsea and Vidi tied, 2-2.
Aston Villa suspends long-time youth development coach, Kevin MacDonald from coaching after new bullying claims surfaced.
Mexico City rivals Club America and Cruz Azul to play for the Apertura title for the fourth time in Liga MX’s history.
Who in the sweet sixteen of UEFA Champions League has the most to prove in the knockout rounds?
Wake up, scroll to see the Union have done nothing. Eat lunch, nothing. Get home from work, see a social media post about something unrelated to winning soccer games. Lie in bed, sweet nothings. Wake up, watch a teaser about tattoos or kits or something unrelated to winning soccer games. Eat lunch, nothing. Get home from work, see nothing. Lie in bed, ingest a rumor. Wake up, ingest more rumor. Lunchtime, expel false rumor form psyche. Evening, nothing. Bed, nothing. Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing more. The Union is death and darkness, inevitable, cold and empty.
Bad timing for this post lololol
This comment didn’t hold up well this morning. Ha!
and then a light….
https://twitter.com/PhilaUnion/status/1073570805080969216?s=20
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Did anyone else notice the name on the back of the jersey?
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Looks to me like the top of letters “ANTO” and the club has been linked to Sergi Santos…
Union acquire Sergio Santos.
https://www.philadelphiaunion.com/post/2018/12/14/philadelphia-union-sign-forward-sergio-santos
lemme get this straight…. 36 teams in USL. 20 teams in MLS.
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that’s 56 teams spread over the country that counted easily be built into a strong 3 tier pyramid… never mind the number of clubs below these levels … in what is becoming USL II and USL III or the hundreds upon hundreds of clubs in different leagues…
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and we actually sit here debating whether an open pyramid of promotion and relegation could work.
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oh hey there’s another ownership group buying a top tier team in Barclays.
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oh hey here comes another european academy to New York, DC, Philly, Florida, AZ, etc etc etc…to mine players because the pool is rich and the culture is embedding.
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for fucks sake.
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If you believe any other narrative besides- this is first and foremost about forced scarcity…it is a challenge to take you seriously.
At the time of the official announcement of USL D3, now rechristened as USL League One, I think, a USL bigwig — jake Edwards by memory — quietly said, but said in so many words that pro-rel may be a possibility within USL’s two divisions a few years down the road.
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To me, soccer on tv must become something that attracts serious advertising money, serious enough to dwarf the importance of the turnstile gate. Were that to apply, namely MLS’s advantage of stadium size being negated, then pro-rel between USL and MLS might start to be possible.
One (and maybe the only) difference/challenge that holds water for me is geography. If all levels of a pyramid were national, any team below the top tier wouldn’t have the funds to fly 1,000 or 2,000 miles for their farther matches. Even if the lower tiers were somehow set up to be more regional (perhaps a severely unbalanced schedule), a team rising to MLS would still struggle in the same way.
I’d expect small infusions of cash as a club has success and gains sponsors, but I’m thinking it won’t be enough to cover travel costs.
There are currently 23 teams with 3 on the way (Cinci, Miami and Nashville) making it 26. That’s 62 teams. Plenty for three solid divisions. Not to mention the wonders it would do for schedule balance.
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I know franchise owners sweat their investments, but I have to think introducing pro/rel would add a lot of interest in the sport in the country. It would be wholly unique for a US sporting league.
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What I’d most like to see is the commissioner stop dismissing pro/rel as some sort of fantasy and work on a plan to introduce it down the road. Only chance I see of that ever happening is if FIFA decides to force the issue. Also, not terribly likely.
I’m with you on the desire for pro//rel, but the reality is our soccer system didn’t grow organically over a century plus.
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There is no getting around the fact that the facility/infrastructure gap between MLS and even the top tier of USL is huge. With the exception of the teams expanding into MLS now, USL team facilities fall abysmally short of MLS appropriate. And that’s just not going to get bridged unless a whole lotta millionaires get bored, start buying up USL teams, and spending all the cash required to expand training/health/stadium facilities. (Keep in mind, there’s a whole lotta community/gov’t stuff that’s gotta be navigated there too)
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This is the unfortunate result of just dropping a league from the sky onto the national landscape. The twenty years since is just a drop in the evolutionary bucket.
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Now, *I* think there is a possibility that MAYBE…When MLS gets to 28-30 teams, we see a 2 or 3 tier system within the MLS structure (But then I wake up and I’ve drooled all over myself…It’s a mess).
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I also thought I read somewhere that USL will be pro/rel between their tiers at some point. If that is so, and it captures the imagination of the more mainstream American fans, things could get interesting. Maybe that could apply some pressure for the same in MLS (but probably not between he two unless the “gap” gets addressed). But even this is a bit of a pipe dream, because in order to get ANY fans excited you need the exposure of TV at the USL level so people can see and follow it, and that’s just not realistic.
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I’d love it so very much, but I don’t think it’s happening in the rather abbreviated time I have left.
This.
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If people want pro/rel they need to go out and start recruiting millionaires. There is a monetary threshold that must be crossed before we are anywhere near being able to have teams swap leagues.
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Just because we have 60+ teams doesn’t mean they all would be able to handle a move up to the next level.
Am I the only one who is completely, utterly, and totally nonplussed about this “back tag” thing….
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“10 years strong” – show me an awesome, “gotta buy this” kit. Something totally awesome. Custom back tags? not at all interesting.
After having made myself look silly this morning, I welcome Santos. I welcome the not-done-yet comments even more. Good Friday to you all.