Photo: Earl Gardner
Philadelphia Union
Nothing like chasing that slice of Bimbo bread with a snifter or two of Captain Morgan.
Bethlehem Steel hosts New York Red Bulls II tonight at 7:30. Its on ESPN+ too.
Over at the MLS website, Monteiro and Wagner made “The top 10 surprise performers of the MLS first half of 2019“.
The Inquirer says, “Something isn’t right with Sergio Santos.”
CBS Philly did a little piece on the Union.
WHYY wonders if Chester is better 10 years later with the Union in town.
Matt DeGeorge is all about Matt Real. Sounds like first name favoritism.
New episode up of the It’s Always Soccer in Philadelphia podcast.
Speaking of podcasts, the Philly Soccer Show is recording live next Saturday, the 20th, on South Street.
Local
A Union Academy grad signed with Denmark’s FC Helsingør, which is in the second division. 19-year-old Jeremy Rafanello spent a season at Penn State after scoring 43 goals in two seasons in the U.S. Development Academy.
MLS
Chicago Fire to pay $65.5 million to leave Bridgeview, Ill. It’s like the mafia, but legal.
Atlanta’s Frank de Boer calls Pity Martínez loan report “ridiculous.”
Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper will meet MLS officials next week about bringing an expansion team to Charlotte, NC.
One of LAFC’s gazillion owners, Jason Sugarman, charged with stealing $43 million in client funds. I don’t believe he’s related to the Union’s Jay Sugarman.
Source tells me that #MLS are working on having all of the commentators in-house under next TV deal. Lots of advantages and disadvantages to this. @kkfla737 and I will discuss in more detail on Thursday's World Soccer Talk Pod.
— World Soccer Talk (@worldsoccertalk) July 9, 2019
NWSL
Austin FC’s Anthony Precourt has spoken with the NWSL about an Austin franchise.
U.S. Soccer
Manchester City have loaned U.S. men’s goalkeeper Zack Steffen to Fortuna Dusseldorf for the 2019-20 season.
Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia has introduced a bill to enforce equal pay for U.S. national teams.
Fact check: Are U.S. women’s soccer players really earning less than men?
SB Nation published a guide for following your USWNT favorites in the NWSL.
This. Is. Happening | 🏆 | #USOC2019 pic.twitter.com/ffGbYU0svU
— U.S. Open Cup (@opencup) July 9, 2019
Around the globe
Refugee women find relief in Greek soccer.
Almost half of the UK population watched some part of the Women’s World Cup on the BBC.
Highlight of the day
25,000 fans in Gothenburg, Sweden welcomed home the women’s team:
WOW THANK YOU SWEDEN!!!! pic.twitter.com/INXsKO0mIc
— Kosovare Asllani (@KosovareAsllani) July 8, 2019
**PodcastWarz**
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In addition to the Philly Soccer Show, Always Sunny is also doing a live podcast on the 20th at the new Larimer Brewery across from Talen before the game.
oops – ‘Always Soccer’
Santos has still only played 513 minutes, less than half the amount of time Przybylko has had. Picault has the same number of goals with more than 1200 minutes of game time…. I think the man needs a bit more consistent place on the squad. He can’t possibly do any worse than Picault right now (not that I think either is playing badly).
Agreed it is still early for Santos and we know it may take a full season to adjust to a new league/country/language.
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That said, he may be a casualty of Tanner not expecting to have as much possession as they have had this season. I remember a statement he made to such effect and Santos seems to be at his best running into space. With the team having the majority of possession in most games, the opponent is organized behind the ball and there is not as much space for him to run into.
Remember that Przybylko arrived late last summer/early last fall, just before the transfer window closed. He had been in camp as a trialist and they got the deal done just as the MLS window closed but after the USL — now USLC — window closed so he got now appearances with Bethlehem. So he has been with the organization for nearly a full year.
Hope they start handing out free Captain Morgan after games!
Where was this sponsorship from like 2012-2016… those free drinks would’ve come in handy!!
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(PS – I fully realize they were not allowed to contract with liquor brands until very recently)
“MLS are working on having all commentators in-house under next TV deal”
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This would be a great improvement over the current each club has their own broadcast team system, some good reasons off the top of my head:
1) no more homer broadcasts, good things happening to both teams will be treated as exciting. No more being stuck with the opposition broadcast through ESPN+ actively rooting against your team.
2) commentators in the stadium on every broadcast. No more JP and Tommy in the studio pretending they’re in Montreal. Also, no more Tommy and JP needing to guess who was just subbed on for the Union because the opposition broadcast didn’t show it up close (see point 1).
3) improved quality of commentators. By cutting out presumably half of the broadcast teams, we should be left with only the good ones. Minnesota United’s broadcast team was really good when they did the Loons-Union game, I’d like to see them stay.
Question: When they say in-house, do they mean they would have a handful of commentators who would do all the games for the league? Is that even logistically possible?
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Or they would allow (which I guess means “pay for”) the teams to send their own announcers on the road and therefore be present at every game?
This was my question, OMW. I’m not clear which one they mean.
I’m assuming it means MLS will be employing a handful of commentators and sending them to each match.
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That could be a bit of wishful thinking. On the other end of the spectrum they could keep a handful of commentators in their office and broadcast all the games remotely from there.
As someone who is not a fan of the J.P. and Tommy team, I really don’t like that idea at all. We, here in the Philly are have been extremely blessed to have the commentators we have had. Almost literally too many to count. To give up even the chance of finding the Union’s version of Harry Kalas or Gene Hart, and hand the reigns to MLS stooges, is not a prospect I find inviting. Why you would is beyond me. You want MLS hands turning your local broadcast into cookie cutter crap you can see no matter what state you are in? No thank you. Nah not appealing .
I can certainly understand not being a fan of Tommy Smythe, but how can you not be a fan of J.P.?? The man is easily one of America’s best soccer play-by-play broadcasters. Easily. He’s probably the best in MLS, for starters.
Everything about Wooten appears hopeful for Saturday. There is an expectation. The complication that held up Monteiro will not be present because Wooten is an American citizen.
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But for those who count the chicken after the egg shell is shattered and a cluck has been recorded, as of 2:36 pm Weds 7/10, the Roster drop down on the MLS website menu bar has not yet updated from July 2nd, and does not list Wooten on the Union’s roster.
I’m sure MLS will come up with something that makes this more difficult than it should be. We aren’t in LA or NY after all…
I laughed, then I cried…
In house, usually means all in the same building. A master control center where the broadcast teams call two to four matches over a weekend. In that scenario, only a locally contracted sideline reporter would be in the stadium, if that.