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Moving up, vote MacMath, more news

Photo: Paul Rudderow

Union

In this week’s power rankings roundup, the Philadelphia Union leap four spots from no. 10 to sixth at MLSsoccer.com. They jump three spots to no. 6 at SBI and at Soccer America. The Union move up two spots to sixth at WV Hooligan. At ESPN, the Union move up two spots to ninth. The best quote award goes to Soccer America: “There’s nothing warm and fuzzy about Coach Peter Nowak, so when seven of his 11 starters—including 16-year-old Zach Pfeffer, who made his league debut—are age 23 and under, and they grind out a 1–0 victory against Eastern leader Columbus, he’s focused on the pragmatic, not the romantic.”

Sure, there is relief that the Union “broke the curse” with Saturday’s win. Freddy Adu says, “We’ve been working so hard. We’ve been unlucky and we made some mistakes. But we kept our head down, kept working hard and today we were rewarded. But I’m not going to say, ‘Hey, since we won, we’re OK.’ We’re going to keep working harder and harder because we want to keep winning.”

Vote Zac MacMath for Save of the Week!

Danny Califf praises Zac MacMath: “For him to come in and put together the kind of performances he’s putting in, and keep his head and play with confidence, and not let anything rattle him, is huge for him. It speaks volumes about the potential that this kid has.”

Zach Pfeffer says of playing with Freddy Adu, “It’s definitely cool playing with him since we have things in common. I’ll just try to learn from him as much as I can.”

Sebastien Le Toux says of Zach Pfeffer, “If he’s playing, it’s because he’s good and he has the quality to be with us.”

Roger Torres gets an honorable mention in MLSsoccer.com’s Best XI for Week 27.

SI’s Steve Davis throws a little love to the Union’s right back. “Sheanon Williams was chalk full of energy and effort in the Union’s critical 1-0 win over Columbus. Right back isn’t exactly a position of need for Jurgen Klinsmann’s national team, but Williams’ bright season at PPL Park might get him into the upcoming January camp.” On behalf of Union fans everywhere, may I say, “Thank you, but what took you so long?”

Local reaction to Saturday’s win from Unholy Union and Union Dues.

The Brotherly Game, noting there are no clear cut guidelines for how players graduate from Generation Adidas, suggests some possible Union graduates and then looks at salary cap figures to suggest possible moves for next year, particularly for when it comes to the protected players list.

More on Harrisburg City Islanders forward Sainey Touray, who registered an assist in the Union reserves 2–1 defeat to Columbus reserves on Sunday, from this Gambian radio site. Apparently his nickname is Ballack.

Local

Rounding up local high school soccer news, the Inquirer has local results, notes and a top ten list for Southeastern PA boys’ as well as local results, notes and the Southeastern PA girls’ top ten. For South Jersey boys’ there are also local results and a top ten list, and South Jersey Girls local results and the top ten, as well. Where are my South Jersey notes, dammit?!?!

MLS

Tonight’s midweek matchups could affect the Eastern Conference standings ahead of the weekend’s games. The Energy Drinks–who just snapped an eight game winless streak of their own and are in fifth place, three point behind the Union—host Real Salt Lake, who are on a four game unbeaten streak, tonight at 8pm. Here’s a look at how the Energy Drinks employed cynical tactics to defeat FC Dallas over the weekend. DC United–in sixth place and five points behind the Union–will also play tonight, hosting Chivas USA at 7:30pm.

In CONCACAF Champions League action, home team Toronto downed Panama’s Tauro 1–0 while Seattle fell to 1–0 to Costa Rica’s Herediano at home.

Tribalfootball.com says MLS is on pace for a record breaking season attendance average.

US

The US drops three spots to no. 31 in the FIFA rankings.

Timothy Chandler tells ESPN, “I’m proud to play for the US national team. I never said anything about [playing for] Germany.”

Stuart Holden started in first game for Bolton since being injured last spring, a 2–0 win over Aston Villa in the League Cup on Tuesday.

U.S. Soccer’s Youth Technical Director Claudio Reyna tells Soccer America that the future of US player development is all about convincing more youth clubs to strive for a style of play conducive to nurturing talent.

Bundesliga Fanatic has part two of their interview with former USMNT player and current USMNT assistant trainer Thomas Dooley. You can read part one here.

Elsewhere

When teams are sanctioned because of fan violence, the result is typically a match played behind closed doors with no spectators. The Turkish Football Federation has come up with a novel alternative. Since men are typically the fault of such violence, why not ban men from such games and allow only women and children under the age of 12 to attend for free? On Tuesday, 41,000 women and children attended a match between Fenerbahce, the first of a two home match penalty ordered in July, against Manisaspor. The match finished as a 1–1 draw.

The Football Pantheon presents the first half of its list of the top 100 players of all time.

One Comment

  1. For possible moves next year – I like letting go of Juan Diego, Miggy and Mapp. Like they laid out, it saves a lot of money and we lose nothing on the field.

    We just really, really need to purchase Torres as soon as possible.

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