Philadelphia Union
Some notes from Jim Curtin’s press conference — including who will replace Kai Wagner and Cory Burke’s future.
MLS
MLS clubs go 1 for 4 in the Leagues Cup as RSL fall to Tigres and Houston lose a heartbreaker in penalties to Club America.
But we’ll always have this goal from the ageless Demarcus Beasley:
American soccer is DaMarcus Beasley scoring a goal and then his teammates trolling a crowd rooting against them in their own stadium while getting things thrown at them pic.twitter.com/T3eaC8xszT
— Ryan Rosenblatt (@RyanRosenblatt) July 25, 2019
Zlatan gets a slap on the wrist for his violent elbow in last weekend’s El Trafico derby game.
Inside the VAR process. Eeek.
MLS transfer business is changing.
As the Union’s Matt Freese and a few other players withdrew this week, five new players were added to the MLS Homegrown roster ahead of All-Star Week.
U.S. Soccer
The United States’ World Cup-winning squad’s victory tour will stop at the Linc later this summer.
So Fabian is given a red card and suspended for 2 games for landing on a player who attempted to slide tackle him from behind, but Zlatan gets no foul or suspension for breaking someone’s face with his elbow (2nd time this year he’s elbowed someone in the face). Complete garbage.
i know people say this every time it happens but the refereeing and disciplinary bodies are absolutely terrible when it comes to evenhanded and just regulation. its tiresome and disheartening when big stars get preferential treatment when it comes to run of the mill fouls but this is next level. its embarrassing and totally unacceptable
The thing is I get that refs are people and things happen fast and it’s a different ref for each game. But the disciplinary committee has none of those excuses and someone seem to do an even worse job.
I was more upset with Fabián getting two games than Zlatan getting off. I think a defender challenging an offensive player leaving him nowhere to land isn’t worthy of a red card, let alone a second game.
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I don’t know what to say about Zlatan but the defender in the Chicago game jumped on top of Kacper Przybylko back twice and wasn’t whistled for a foul. I look at it as you can’t have it both ways and it shouldn’t be the offensive players responsibility to protect the defender behind him. Both players jumped and both players raised their arms but kept their elbows below their shoulders. The difference is Zlatan is 6’5″ and his elbow made contact with El-Munir’s head who is only 5’9″. If you watch the replay, El-Munir would have elbowed Zlatan in his ribs if he didn’t get hit.
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I think the problem is defenders being able to run up to an offensive player and push them from behind or leap onto to them to win a ball. I can’t understand how the league is protecting a player who is initiating the contract to an opponent that can’t see him very well.
Zlatan so clearly lined up the defender and gave him a shot of elbow. That’s gotta be at least a one-game ban. If one of our guys, say Przbylko, had done the exact same thing, he’d probably be suspended for a month. Not a good look from the league. You have to do better than this. Looks very much that Zlatan is bigger than the league. As it stands, that’s clearly the case.
Yup. Funny I knew this would be the case days ago…MLS LOL
The mere fact that he eyed him up before going in with his elbow warrants a ban – let alone the actual damage that he caused to the dude’s skull!!!
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It’s not like this was a case of them both jumping up for a ball either. Zlatan was charging in with a decent head of steam. I can not see any way that DisCo could legitimately say that there was no intent or danger caused by his actions.
Looking at it in slow motion gives this illusion. He was a few yards from him when he looked and the defender also jumped. You’re giving him to much credit that he could predict that his head would be at his elbow when the ball went over both their heads. The ref didn’t even give a yellow watching it in real time.
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Some how a tackle from behind is looked at as dangerous but a defender jumping into or onto an offensive player from behind isn’t?
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I could make the case Zlatan turned to look where the defender was to push the ball pass him and try to run into the space where he played the ball. I’ve seen Fafa do this a few times. Let’s face it, if the defender doesn’t jump and holds his ground, he would still be in position to defend and both players would be much safer. Do you think if the defender who jumped on Kacper was whistled for a foul that there would have been a second time, maybe even a yellow card? I’m jumping every time if I can get away with that.
John, I don’t think Zlatan intentionally elbowed his man in the face. But I do think he threw the elbow intentionally — a reckless and dangerous action that warrants a red. ESPNFC’s player panel thought he should get a multi-game ban. I’m not sure about that, but I think the case against a red is pretty hard to argue.
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I think the over the top climbs should be a foul, too. If the man being used as a stepladder falls, he’d get the call. Why leave it up that? It just seems very inconsistent.
no surprise Burke is gone for the year. playing it safe with Miro is fine by me. we’ll likely drop from first in Aug but still be fighting. i’ll take a healthy engine late in the season as a trade-off.
+1
Has there ever been a determination as to who dropped the ball with this Burke situation?? Player? His Agent? Club? I know this really opened the door for Kasper, but I would have loved to see the problems a tandem of both of them would have created for other teams.
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Different rules apply to LA and NY. Period. If anyone really thought that Zlatan was going to get punished, you haven’t been paying attention.
Well I believe it was determined that almost half of the active American voting populace dropped the ball in 2016. So here we are..
the impression i got from people who report on the union on twitter is that it was burke’s mistake (though obviously no one could say definitively)
Hard to believe that with all their internationals on the roster, the U don’t keep an immigration attorney on retainer
As a league you would think MLS would have a complete division that deals with internationals and making sure that all paperwork is taken care of.
Curtin on Burke: ” I have intrigue to see what he would look like with Kacper, Fafa, Andrew and see the dynamic those four bring.”
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So Santos has played his way out of the gameday 18?
I remember reading that and thinking, “I feel like there’s one more…”