Should’ve flown out of Vancouver last night after early kickoff.
Instead, we wake up at 4:45 am, spend all day in airports (connect in Toronto) & on airplanes w/ no legroom cross country, and just finally landed back in Philly.
What a great recovery day. #MLStravel pic.twitter.com/iiyU81wVf0— Alejandro Bedoya (@AleBedoya17) April 28, 2019
Photo: Paul Rudderow
Philadelphia Union
Jim Curtin talks a lot about “depth”. A deeper roster is starting to pay off.
Happy birthday to the skipper! Alejandro Bedoya turned 32 on Monday.
Any Avenger’s fans out there? You might wanna grab Wednesday’s match poster (no spoilers).
Yes, the Union play again tomorrow night. Wednesday night kicks off a busy May at Talen.
#SavesByDre or Mr.Freeze? Vote for April’s save of the month here.
Several academy teams faced Loudon United this past weekend. Academy matches will be played before the Union’s May 4th match.
MLS
Good news for cord cutters, MLS games can be seen on Twitter through 2022.
Matt Doyle has Week 9 recapped here. Was it a good road point for the Union? Bobby Warshaw says it was great.
The three constants in life: death, taxes and complaining about referees.
Montreal goalkeeper Evan Bush is the MLS Player of the Week. Don’t think the Sons of Ben agree with that.
Illsinho wasn’t on the field Saturday, but Jamiro Monterio did his best impression.
World
Southampton secured Premier League safety with a draw. Now Cardiff City and Brighton hope to claim the last spot.
Are Dortmund’s Bundesliga title hopes dead?
Virgil Van Dijk is the English Male Player of the Year, while Vivianne Miedema won the Women’s Player of the Year.
I’m not even going to try to explain what happened in the Leeds United v. Aston Villa match.
Terrific story on Philly.com today about Union efforts (and the lack thereof) to connect with diverse Latino populations in the Del. Valley. philly.com/news/marco-fabian-mexico-philadelphia-union-latina-hispanic-soccer-fans-20190430.html (left off the html so my post doesn’t get stuck in admin purgatory). It’s a really well reported story. Writer, Jesenia De Moya Correa, deserves a lot of credit.
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Big takeaway, too, is the dwindling annual game attendance. Story has a nice chart that shows a peak of 310,000 in 2011. It fell every year except 2016 and was at a low of 280,000 last season. And that report probably is far higher than the actual (2018 works out to about 16,500 per match, which the eye test says is a bit high).
Attendance is a significant issue. John O’D argues winning matters over other factors and soccer still isn’t important here and the sons of sons of daughters of the revolution of first generation MLS families will carry the way.
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Frankly, I think it’s hogwash.
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Said winning and high profile players.
Example: Mario Balotelli certainly made the needle move when the rumor of coming to the Union flooded the internet.
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If…When MLS can develop players that move the needle for the USMNT past the final eight or along comes a phenom that delivers and is sold to Europe for a gazillion dollars
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My thought is conversion therapy is never going to work with “real soccer fans” by instituting promotion and relegation.
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The only way pro/rel happens is when MLS makes more revenue from it than it thinks it would lose. Otherwise the conversation I think is nothing but balderdash.
Union will be in 1st place on goal difference with a victory Wednesday. We have a real opportunity here in May with 5 of 6 at home. This is a huge month on the field, but the team can make a connection off the field with repetitive, good performances. And maybe we can lift the attendance for this year.
Some fun facts on the depth of this year’s roster:
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1) 24 of 26 players on the roster have made an appearance (the two that have not yet are Fabinho and Real).
2) 20 of the 26 have started at least one match (Jones, Fontana, McKenzie, and Santos have only sub appearances.
3) Three players (Bedoya, Medunjanin, and Elliott) have played every minute so far this season.
4) Four players (the three above plus Gaddis) have started all 9 games thus far.
5) Eight different players have scored a goal (Accam, Bedoya, Burke, Fabian, Aaronson, Ilsinho, Monteiro, and Przybylko)
i like point 5. great to see the scoring isn’t the burden — fairly or unfairly — of just the target forwards. there’s been more quality and less scrappiness in the team’s past. but i need these guys to consistently produce. i.e. just because Accam had one great match doesn’t relieve the pressure.
Point 3— all 3 should have rested for Vancouver game. Injuries happen at this work rate. Look at Blake.
UnionGoal
i thought the teams had a limited charter flight option. if so, why didn’t they use it for return from Vancouver for a Wed match?
Yep, teams are allowed 4 charters. (What a stupid fucking rule that is!) I’m curious why the team didn’t use one of them for this – it seems like a tailor-made spot: west coast game with a mid-week game afterward.
All of that is worked out at the start of the season, so they didn’t plan on using one for this game (though I don’t know why not). Then they ran into red tape with the league when they tried to get one coming back. There absolutely need to be occasions – like this one – where the league just lets them do it in extraneous circumstances.
Rejection of charter home, horrendous calls by refs, and twice an extra game suspension added last minute, little notice.
Who did Jim Curtin piss off?
Surely someone at PSP wondering same thing?
McKenzie and u20 world cup issue?
UnionGoal
GoT fans, Lokomotiv Moscow (a team i follow) has you covered: https://twitter.com/official433/status/1122592082399567872/video/1
Think about this…. just let it set for a few minutes.
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Virgil Van Dijk was not beaten off the dribble ONE time this season.
He has been amazing this season. The most important player in Liverpool’s title run. His ability to read the opposition’s play before it happens, to cut off passing lanes and just be in the right place at the right time all the time has been so fun to watch. It’s great that he’s getting his due. If Liverpool were able to contrive a Champion’s League win, I’d give him the Ballon d’Or.
Bedoya’s post is EXACTLY what I was talking about in my 4/29 reply to DW who railed against accepting a 1 pt result as OK. The travel in this league is ridiculous just for the l=miles/time along, but add on these teams don’t have the charter flights and planes of any other major sport (or even major college teams) in this country, and there’s why a 1 pt West coast result is “ok”.
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That’s a crappy “recovery” day flight and now they have a Wed. home game. Set expectations accordingly, and don’t blame Curtin or the players, they’re not the ones holding the purse strings.
Solid content here.
Sure hope everyone is healthy. Would like to see Ale and Haris get a rest.
Follow up link regarding that trip back from BC.
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https://www.prosoccerusa.com/mls/philadelphia-union/alejandro-bedoya-on-lack-of-charter-flights-its-not-a-philly-issue-its-a-league-issue/