Daily news roundups

News roundup: Jim Curtin on Supporters’ Shield, Phoenix Rising give up hosting rights, Nashville win, more

Photo: PSP archives

Philadelphia Union

“I thought it was a joke,” said Jim Curtin about the Supporters’ Shield cancellation.

Fontana is the best finisher in MLS so far this year, says the league’s website.

The Union Academy adds a USYNT midfielder from San Diego.

The Inquirer looks at key players in the win over New England.

Local

A year in the Middle East helped a senior midfielder’s game at Washington Township.

MLS

Jhonder Cádiz scored his first MLS goal as Nashville blanked Dallas, 3-0.

Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez feels much closer to retirement than trophies right now with the Galaxy.

USL

Phoenix Rising FC relinquished hosting rights for the USL championship because of that homophobic slur.

Around the globe

UEFA warned of the damage that would be caused to soccer by the potential creation of a European super league of the continent’s elite clubs, potentially usurping its existing Champions League.

Marcus Rashford outdid Neymar and Kylian Mbappe with ManU’s 2-1 win over PSG.

The absurdity of Mesut Özil’s exile.

9 Comments

  1. Old Soccer Coach says:

    UEFA does not want its current share of Champions League revenue to diminish. The clubs that create the revenue want more of it. Golly geez whiz. What a bunch of surprises.

    • Scott of Nazareth says:

      It definitely feels like a money grab, and TBH maybe its ultimately for the best to let them take their ball and leave.
      .
      Literally let them all go. No more playing in the Premier, La Liga, Serie A or Bundesliga, no more Champions League or Europa League.
      .
      Let them enjoy their clique of 16-20 super teams and see how long term success works out for them after a couple seasons where only one team can lift one trophy.
      .
      When you form a league comprised of all New York Yankees type teams, some of them will have to play the role of the Pittsburgh Pirates…

  2. I think it might be reasonable to think Fontana is overperforming a bit, the difference between that xG and goals scored is huge. But at the same time, he has also shown he has an incredible ability to generate a powerful strike without much space or time. His most recent goal against New England showed great creativity and quick thinking as well. He’s definitely the real deal.

    The flip side of this is that you look at an xG like that, remember how many recent goals Fontana has scored, and it seems the Union really aren’t really creating a lot of good chances this year. Something to keep in mind when considering the struggles of their strikers.

    • John O'Donnell Jr says:

      The team is tied for fourth in the league in assist and third in goals scored. Only teams from the West are ahead of them. Orlando who they are tied with in assist, is the only team in the East in the stats. They are second in goal differential behind Seattle by one goal with two more games played.
      .
      Seven teams in the East have given up less than twenty goals, while only Seattle in the West is in that category playing one or two games less than every team in the East.
      .
      They’re creating chances and Fontana is probably their most natural goal scorer. Here is a crazy stat for Fontana, 15 shots 12 shots on goal. Most of the top goal scorers are just above 50%.
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      If I was a money ball guy, he would be playing striker as he has zero assist and find the net with his shots.
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      Finally for the refs hate us crowd, the Union are the only team in the league that hasn’t attempted a PK.

      • To add to that, Columbus (one less game) is the only team to have given up fewer goals than the Union. Toronto, Nashville (one less game), and Seattle (two fewer games) are all tied with the Union for second in goals against. The other two teams that have scored more than the Union (they are actually 4th in goals scored), Portland and LAFC, have each given up at least 30 goals.
        .
        Regarding the lack of PK’s, the refs probably decided it wasn’t worth the effort to award the Union any more tries after they saw what Santos did with the one against Portland in the MLS is back tournament.

      • I’m not sure what you’re trying to say, the Union are massively outperforming based on a xG model and it isn’t just Fontana.

        The Union have scored 33 goals this season and only given up 17. However, an expected goals model would have us at 23.9 goals scored and 23.4 surrendered, much more mediocre totals. There are a lot of ways to interpret this, but regardless of how you choose to do so, it seems readily apparent that the Union are scoring despite poor chance creation.

    • Fontana has really nice composure on the ball. The fact that he is popping in those chips over the keeper is a testament to that. He’s also doing a good job of picking his spots – something I wish Santos would do a little more of sometimes.

    • I can’t count how many times the ball is at the feet of Aaronson or Przybyklo and they either a) fail to pull the trigger or b) send in a dribbler that is far too easy to deal with. Give Fontana credit for just being a dynamite finisher who knows before he even receives the ball where the keeper is and has mapped out the trajectory of his shot attempt.

      That’s not to disparage Aaronson or Przybylko… Both are doing a lot of work to build up play… Przybylko arguably too much, particularly when the team is running in the 4-2-3-1 formation. It is silly to complain when the team is doing so well. The thing that bothers me is that I’d like to see Przbylko doing more of the goal-scoring and give me the sense that we’re not relying on Fontana’s magical form at the moment.

  3. John O'Donnell Jr says:

    The team is tied for fourth in the league in assist and third in goals scored. Only teams from the West are ahead of them. Orlando who they are tied with in assist, is the only team in the East in the stats. They are second in goal differential behind Seattle by one goal with two more games played.
    .
    Seven teams in the East have given up less than twenty goals, while only Seattle in the West is in that category playing one or two games less than every team in the East.
    .
    They’re creating chances and Fontana is probably their most natural goal scorer. Here is a crazy stat for Fontana, 15 shots 12 shots on goal. Most of the top goal scorers are just above 50%.
    .
    If I was a money ball guy, he would be playing striker as he has zero assist and finds the net with his shots.
    .
    Finally for the refs hate us crowd, the Union are the only team in the league that hasn’t attempted a PK.

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