Photo: Rob Simmons
Philadelphia Union
Good news: Jamiro Monteiro is back training with the club.
Jim Curtin isn’t pointing fingers amidst team’s defensive struggles.
MLS
MLS All-Stars fell 3-0 to Atletico Madrid. So they’re better than Real Madrid?
The league uses the break as a sort of conference among stakeholders. Here’s what came out of it:
- New expansion updates from commissioner Don Garber (with St. Louis looking set to be the next expansion franchise).
- Why isn’t Sacramento’s bid finalized yet?
- The players union is keeping the possibility of a strike open
USL
Some good reading ahead of the Flint City Bucks versus Reading USL2 final. How a traffic cop keeps saving the Bucks.
U.S. Soccer
Who will replace Jill Ellis as skipper of the #1 team in the world?
Christian Pulisic looked very at home in Chelsea’s friendly versus Jesse Marsch’s Red Bull Salzburg squad. He picked up two goals and drew a penalty in the 4-1 win.
The Jill Ellis link takes you to the traffic cop article.
still
Fixed! Thanks for the heads-up.
there were some good articles in my feed on Ellis replacement with the GM position coming first: Kate Markgraf is leader for that position and after the tom sermanni hire not working out, they’re looking for a woman candidate though three men and only one woman are in the running.
https://www.starsandstripesfc.com/uswnt-news/2019/7/31/20748926/kate-markgraf-usa-uswnt-gm-general-manager
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here’s the frontrunner list:
https://twitter.com/grantwahl/status/1156625787229020161?s=21
Just get to 32 teams already. 4 divisions with 8 teams.
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Northeast = PHI, NYRB, NYFC, NE, MON, TOR, CLB & DC
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Southeast = CIN, ATL, ORL, CHI, MIAMI, NASHVILLE, St Louis, Charlotte (or Raleigh)
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Midwest = KC, MIN, SLC, COL, DAL, HOU, AUSTIN & Phoenix
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West = VAN, SEA, POR, SJ, LAG, LAFC, Sacramento & San Diego
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Basically leaves Detroit, Cleveland, one of the Carolina teams, Las Vegas on the outside looking in…
I like the alignment, though I’m not sure putting purely from a “what’s in a name” perspective, I can’t imagine putting Chicago into a division named “southeast.”
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You could move DC into the SE and then put Chicago into the NE, but that (of course) would split up the DC – NYRB rivalry. (And, yeah, the DC – Philly one too.)
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Like I said, overall I like it. Play teams in your division 3 times; play teams in the “other” division of your conference twice each. That’s a total of 37 matches. Not a bad schedule – though I doubt MLS wouldn’t want no games between “east” and “west.”
LOL – yeah, we can workshop the divisional names, maybe “Central”.
I get it and from an American Soccer game in the pocket of the NFL I understand but this is killing me to read.
England has nearly perfected it, but it doesn’t quite work here- at least not yet
Or… Go to 40, add Detroit, Cleveland, Raleigh/Charlotte, Las Vegas, San Antonio, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, and lets say New Orleans.
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MLS1 and MLS2 and go super aggressive on Pro/Rel between the two each year with maybe 8-10 teams switching.
Don’t forget to mention that Steel plays Hartford at 5pm tonight at Talen!
Never mind, Steel forgot they were supposed to be playing.