Daily news roundups

News roundup: Union win, Steel lose, and MLS expands

Photo credit: Paul Rudderow

Philadelphia Union

The Union win over Montreal felt surprisingly safe, despite the fact that this is the first time they’ve beaten the Impact in Philadelphia.

Local, Quebecois, en français, and national coverage.

Evan Bush did not think the playing surface was up to standards.

MLS’s Matt Doyle on how the Union won.

Still no word on Andre Blake.

A great bio piece on Mark McKenzie.

The first ever Union-Steel doubleheader didn’t work out well for Bethlehem, they lost to the Indy Eleven 3-0.

MLS

Expansion will continue to at least thirty teams. Obviously this is big news for existing MLS bids like St. Louis and Sacramento, but it’s also generated interest in cities like Charlotte and Las Vegas. Louisville on the other hand will not be pursuing MLS.

Zlatan thinks the officiating in MLS isn’t fair.

No one knows if Thierry Henry is going to be the next Red Bulls coach, but everyone is talking about it. Everyone.

On April 20th, Diego Valeri reached a personal record of sixty nine goals and sixty nine assists in MLS. Nice.

The league is finally fixing it’s solidarity payments rule, bringing the US in line with the rest of the world.

MLS has the second-best growth rate for attendance. That’s pretty good, right?

The Revs logged a shot on goal!

Jozy Altidore was real angry that a certain trainer left Toronto. But the problem has since been resolved.

Antonio Valencia to MLS?

The Sounders U17 win the Generation adidas Cup.

NWSL

The Chicago Red Stars have signed a deal to get their games on their local NBC Sports network.

Then the Red Stars had a shootout 4-4 draw with the Portland Thorns.

Sky Blue’s sorrows continue with a 0-1 loss to the Houston Dash.

The Orlando Pride drew with the Seattle Reign, leaving both teams winless on the season so far.

And the Utah Royals won their opener against Washington Spirit.

US Soccer

Gio Reyna signed with Borussia Dortmund.

It appears Ricardo Pepi is favoring the American side of his dual-national eligibility.

ESPN interviewed Gregg Berhalter about Christian Pulisic, the Gold Cup, and CONCACAF.

Speaking of Pulisic, he’s back to match fitness.

World

Cristiano Ronaldo is the first player ever to win the English, Spanish, and Italian leagues.

Mo Salah wants to see his people doing better.

Mental note: there are two Frankfurts. [Google Translate]

How Sergio Ramos sees himself. [Google Translate]

4 Comments

  1. John O'Donnell Jr says:

    So Sacramento and Saint Louis are pretty much a done deal leaving just one more team to reach thirty. Training fees and solidarity payments are now being honored with talks of doing it domestically ongoing. MLS and USL signing and playing teenagers at a unprecedented pace in U.S. soccer’s history I believe. USL about to negotiate a CBA with a player’s union separate from MLSPA. Stadiums, training facilities and academies being built in both leagues.
    .
    I still remember Nick Sak stating “It’s very important for folks to understand that we’re only going into our 19th season as a league. The league is losing money because there has been massive investment in stadium and front office infrastructure, in practice facilities, in academies. The league is still in its formative stages and not fully mature. Ownership is still building the pillars that this league will stand on for decades to come. Ultimately, that investment will pay off”.
    .
    It seems USL unlike NASL is following this blueprint. Even as teams move up to MLS they’ve expanded with a third and fourth division creating more opportunities for players. Hopefully they’ll come to some sort of agreement with the domestic compensation for training fees and solidarity payments. The next CBA for MLS and the fist CBA for USL will be quite interesting to watch to say the least.
    .
    I always believed revenue and stability is the most important thing that had to be established for soccer to take hold in America. Nothing hurt the support more than leagues coming and going with no real plan. I know many don’t like the plan but the growth since 2014 when Nick was quoted to me is remarkable.

    • I do agree that what the league has done so far is pretty impressive. At the end of the day, they’ve built a pretty successful league that is light years ahead of where it was even 6 or 7 years ago.

      I am, however, concerned that the league is in danger of getting in its own way, growing for the sake of growing (and those $200 million expansion fees) and that the thing to do now is to create an “exit” strategy plan that will break up the single-entity structure, expand club spending limits so the top division can begin to really compete against Liga MX clubs and also to eventually open the pyramid, which I still think will benefit investment in lower divisions and make play better across the board.

      Doesn’t have to happen tomorrow, but I’d like to see the conversation begin

    • el Pachyderm says:

      well reasoned… to you both.
      .
      now if only $200,000,000 could be used a bit differently.

  2. Andy Muenz says:

    Slight correction to the first paragraph. It’s the first time since 2014 they’ve beaten the Impact in Philly (or Chester).

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