Photo: Rob Simmons
Philadelphia Union
Philadelphia Union drew cellar-dwellers Colorado Rapids 1-1 at home.
Alejandro Bedoya had a succinct summary of the game:
Alejandro Bedoya: “You ain’t gonna win shit if you can’t finish.”#DOOP
— Joe Tansey (@JTansey90) May 30, 2019
Watch PSP’s postgame show live from Chester here.
MLS
A busy night of midweek action:
LA Galaxy shut out Sporting Kansas City 2-0 in Kansas.
A crazy back-and-forth draw ended 3-3 between D.C. United and Chicago Fire.
No Wonderwall here: Atlanta go on the road and wallop Minnesota United 3-0.
Montreal takes care of Real Salt Lake 2-1.
A nice tactical roundup of all Wednesday night’s games, including some interesting thoughts on the Union.
MLS and Liga MX officially announced this summer’s eight-team single-elimination League’s Cup between the two North American top tiers.
New England is playing catch-up to the rest of MLS.
U.S. Open Cup
It was an even busier night in the 3rd round of U.S. Open Cup action — the one before MLS squads get involved.
Here’s a terrific rundown of all of last night’s games. There were some fun ones!
The big result was NPSL club Orange County SC taking down Las Vegas Lights in a crazy match 5-3:
That ol’ Cup Magic. 😍🍊🏆 #Cupset
Few gave @NPSLSoccer amateurs @ocfcsoccer a chance against @USLChampionship pros @lvlightsfc, but that didn’t stop the part-timers as they roared to a 5-3 win & a date with an @MLS team in the Fourth Round.
📺 Highlights | #USOC2019 pic.twitter.com/ttVEGfrRUy
— U.S. Open Cup (@opencup) May 30, 2019
Note: That match also saw USMNT legends Paul Caligiuri and Eric Wynalda face off in the technical area.
U.S. Soccer
You can now play Women’s World Cup mode on FIFA!
The U.S. Women’s National Team know another world cup victory will help their fight for equal pay.
Alex Morgan: Striker, captain, and… author.
Ali Krieger heads to her third world cup.
This:
‘Why Are You Still Sleeping On U.S. Women’s Soccer?’ Asks Sports Website’s First Article About Women’s Soccer In Four Years https://t.co/xgGe9N0lAn pic.twitter.com/gzh39gHz48
— The Onion (@TheOnion) May 29, 2019
World
Chelsea *finally* put themselves on the map with a 4-1 victory over Arsenal in the Europa League Final.
Looking for a place to watch the Champion’s League Final? Watch it with the Philadelphia Football Collective in Center City. (Full disclosure: I am part of the group.)
Hey, anyone, where’s the best place to watch the CL Final in D.C.?
That Maxi Urruti miss is epic (link in the MLS/Doyle piece linked above).
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Still feeling positive about the Union despite all the banana peels they’ve slipped on in the last couple weeks. They’re playing better than I ever thought I’d see a Union squad play. And they’ve still been really unlucky in the final third. If they keep at it, and work on connecting better, the goals will come.
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I’d like to see them get better on defense. Whenever they’re pressed on a counter (or a quick throw in) they lose their heads. It’s panic time. Last night’s equalizer from Colorado was the sort of thing you’d see in a U-12 game. Every defender closed in on the ball, Wagner left his mark, the goal scorer wide open. They need to transition off the attack much better.
When you’re consistently that “unlucky” in the final third, maybe your problem isn’t actually bad luck.
This game has such thin margins. If Przybylko’s shot goes in, we’re not having a conversation about poor shooting boots. We might focus a bit more on the shakiness of the backline. Don’t get me wrong. There was definitely some incompetence involved last night. But I think we’ve still not seen the attacking talent on this team realized in full yet.
That Liga MX / MLS mid season tournament thing is just dumb
I don’t mind the concept, and like the fact that its the opposite of CCL in terms of mid season vs pre season, but yeah, whats the deal with plucking 4 random teams from MLS?
Couldn’t they have done something like the 3rd & 4th place finishers in each conference or base it off of early season performance?
According to MLS, “while sporting criteria will determine participants for both leagues in future editions of Leagues Cup, for the inaugural 2019 edition, the four Liga MX clubs were selected based on results in recent competitions, while the four MLS club participants were invited to compete. All participating clubs have won domestic titles”. I imagine the MLS clubs were also initially chosen because they are in areas with large Mexican populations which might help with attendance. But it will be interesting to see what “sporting criteria” MLS uses in the future…
Agree with Pete – watching the last few games has certainly been frustrating to say the least and 2 out of 9 points over a 3 game home stand could very well end up haunting playoff scenarios come fall – BUT, I’m cautiously optimistic for the future in terms of the sheer number of quality players on the roster. Again the recent results have been awful, and “being snake bit” is a concerning trend that could snowball, but if nothing else, they are entertaining to watch.
Union are at DC United in their first Open Cup game so likely no repeat run like last year.
I’m actually ok with this. To have a chance to make noise in the MLS playoffs for the first time EVER… I would forgo a deep Open Cup run