Photo: Andrew Zwarych/Philadelphia Union
Philadelphia Union
If you missed it, the Union will face Sporting Kansas City Thursday night.
The Sons of Ben are selling items to help fight COVID-19.
If you needed a refresher of the Brenden Aaronson transfer rumors.
MLS
An early Union vs SKC preview found here.
Is Chris Muller a USMNT candidate? Oscar Pareja seems to think so.
San Jose keeps rolling. They beat Real Salt Lake 5-2.
While LAFC passed Seattle with ease 4-1.
World
CONCACAF has released the new World Cup qualifying format.
What is going on in the second division in Spain?
Dejan Lovern is no longer with Liverpool, heading to Russia instead.
I feel like the hex was a more favorable format for the U.S. I imagine those other 3 teams will be Canada, Panama, and Trinidad or something similar. So you’re looking at:
Mexico, have fun with that
Costa Rica, likely the new #2 in Concacaf til USA gets their act together
Honduras, never a pushover
Jamaica, improving every year
Panama, hasn’t changed since they outperformed Team Arena in 2017
Canada, having possibly the best player on the continent by 2021
Trinidad, who slowed the growth of soccer in this country by 4 years
No excuses. They should qualify EASILY every single cycle.
They should, it’s one of the easiest continents. But given this team’s shaky recent history, more games equals more time for arrogance, indifference, and laziness to creep in.
The new format for the final round puts 14 matches per club into five international windows.
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That seems to suggest 3 matches in four of the windows, not two as before. (Three per window is apparently how FIFA is accommodating UEFA’s needs leading up to its big tournament.)
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Were the surmise of three matches per window borne out in fact, that would mean more squad rotation and a longer window.
I have the feeling there will be more than 5 international windows. Given that the World Cup isn’t until November and we are dealing with worldwide delays, my guess is that qualifying will spill over into 2022.
Wonder how we’d be affected by WC Qualifying. Blake would be with Jamaica for certainty. McKenzie and Aaronson are becoming big names. Glesnes and Martinez might get call ups. Would Monteiro choose Cape Verde? Creavalle on Guyana? Oravec maybe? I mean imagine losing Martinez, Oravec, and Creavalle. Can we get Haris on a loan? Lol
I have to say it.
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I’ve watched large portions of almost every game- save the second half of the late ones and the defending in this league is deplorable. DE.PLORABLE.
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How is it you can make it to the highest level of soccer in this country, be an outside back and not be aware of what’s going on over your shoulder on the far post. How can defenders allow players to get goal side on them.
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Newsflash, THE CROSS is a thing in this league and the only way many of the teams can manufacture goals…. yet here’s multiple professional soccer players totally unaware of the space in front of them and certainly immediately behind them.
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Its stunning and maddening.
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People in this town give Ray Gaddis shit because he doesn’t break ankles and win 1v1 in the attacking end and and and… well guess what. He doesn’t let this stuff happen. Because he’s an excellent defender. Time and again this event he has stepped up to win a ball, stepped in or covered the interior RCB or marked out the outside attacking player on the far post.
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Wish we could put gifs in the comments, but we can’t. So you’ll just have to picture Michael Scott pounding the table and yelling “THANK YOU!”. Wagner and Gaddis struggle offensively at times but they’re lockdown defenders more often than not.
Slow. Freaking. Clap.