Photo: Paul Rudderow
Philadelphia Union
Jim Curtin named MLS Coach of the Year.
Two former players and coaches at the University of Delaware are scouting nationally for the Philadelphia Union Academy.
MLS
The league will charter flights for players on international duty to sidestep quarantine.
Ken Griffey Jr. joined Seattle Sounders ownership group.
Houston unveiled a rebrand. Wonder if the Detroit Tigers will take the Dynamo to court for copyright infringement.
Sporting Kansas City’s Roger Espinoza hopes to bring relief to hurricane-ravaged Honduras.
U.S. Soccer
Then USWNT released its 23-player roster for the November 27 visit to the Netherlands.
Look who’s coming to camp! 🙌
Roster details ≫ https://t.co/QKLerS5Pm5 pic.twitter.com/9K68rCPg7S
— U.S. Women's National Soccer Team (@USWNT) November 17, 2020
Sports Illustrated ponders how bright the USMNT’s future can be.
Around the globe
Spain hammered Germany, 6-0, to reach the Nations League final four.
FIFA to trial semi-automated offside tech for VAR.
Wrexham’s director on what brought actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney to the debt-ridden club.
Amy Carnell, former GM of Seattle Sounders Women and the Reign, alleges she was sexually abused by her youth coach as a young player.
Highlight of the day
Reminder: It is legal to start a soccer team in the United States without using "FC" anywhere in the name. No one will fine or jail you.
— Jason Anderson (@JasonDCsoccer) May 17, 2017
Following up the Jeff Carlisle report about the league using charter flights to return players from international duty, maintain controlled environments therefore, and avoid quarantines, here is the URL for the follow-up story on the MLS website.
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https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2020/11/17/charter-plan-allow-mls-players-november-international-duty-be-available-playoffs.
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Remember links don’t work in comments.
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Note that there is no promise to get everyone. There are no mentions of Philadelphia, Jamiro Monteiro or Olivier Mbaizo.
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Five players involved in the playoffs played on day four of the group stage of qualifications for the African Cup of Nations during the just finished November Fifa international match window. Kai Kamara of Minnesota United played in Freetown, Sierra Leone in West Africa. Roman Metanire of Madagascar played in Toamasina, Madagascar. Victor Wanyama played in the Comoros Islands in the Mozambique Channel between Mozambique and Madagascar. Olivier Mbaizo of Philadelphia played in Maputo, Mozambique. And Jamiro Monteiro played in Kigali, Rwanda.
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It is conceivable that a charter flight could collect the three players from Madagascar, the Comoros, and Mozambique, then from Rwanda, and then from Sierra Leone.
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Four of the five involved are starters for their sides.
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The bulk of the internationals facing quarantines between themselves and the playoffs are from central and South America.
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It will be interesting to see how thorough MLS are.
Why should they bother to worry about the African players? Philadelphia, Montreal, and Minnesota are not marquee teams. As far as the league is concerned it’s no big deal if they lose players.
This would be fascinating if they could pull this off. $300,000 in flights split 4 ways isn’t that terrible.
oops. Sorry. Metanire starts for Minnesota. Wanyama starts for Montreal.
Sorry. I forgot to say that Metanire starts for Minnesota and Wanyama starts for Montreal.
McKenzie won the players’ vote but finished second in the other two categories and finished second in defender of the year voting. That means that the Union have won the players’ vote in all 4 awards so far (Goalkeeper, Coach, Young Player, and Defender). Although Blake probably won’t win the players’ vote for MVP, it’s still pretty impressive.
Walker Zimmerman really had an incredible year, so finishing ahead of him in the players vote is very impressive.
Similar to Brendan Aaronson finishing ahead of Diego Rossi in both players and club votes for best young player (alas, the media went for the LA guy).
i read on social that our coaching staff under Jim will depart after the season.
Oka Nikolov and Pat Noonan will move on, with Pat getting an MLS head coaching gig
I’m happy for Wrexham but having watched that video twice, I’m pretty sure Rob McElhenney does not know what the word “Association” means in this context…