Daily news roundups / Featured

Union tops CR U-20s, USA! USA!, Ghana v Chile at PPL, more

Photo: Courtesy of  Federacion Costarricense de Futbol

Philadelphia Union

The Union topped the Costa Rica U-20 squad 3–0 with goals from Chandler Hoffman, Roger Torres and Antoine Hoppenot. A report on the Costa Rica Football Federation website says that in the second half “Philadelphia changed the whole team.” A brief report on Costa Rica football website Everardo Herrera is the source of the grainy video below.

JP Dellacamera has storylines for 2012.

Freddy Adu is the guest on the Soccer Matters podcast from Houston.

The Offside says this could be Freddy Adu’s breakout season. Or maybe not.

The club has released its U-18, U-16, and U-14 Academy player pools for the first time.

Speaking of Academy players, here’s more on FC Delco and Union Academy defender Shane Campbell, who is now at Penn State after graduating from Dallastown high school in December. Campbell played in two Reserve League games in 2011, starting against Columbus Crew and Toronto FC. He joins Union Academy teammates Christian Kaschak and Kelton Cheney, as well as Matt Mayewski, who played for Union affiliate PDA at Penn State ahead of the start of the spring soccer season.

The Philadelphia Union Fan Fest will be held at Chickie’s & Pete’s PLAY2 (1526 Packer Avenue) from 7:00-8:30pm on Wednesday, March 14. Union season ticket holders will have exclusive access from 6:30-7:00pm. Attendance at last year’s Fan Fest exceed the capacity of the Stadium club at PPL Park.

Ghana v Chile at PPL

Tickets are still available for tonight’s Ghana v Chile friendly at PPL Park. You can buy them at the ticket office or online. Kickoff is at 7pm. And yes, as far as we know, Alexis Sanchez is in the house.

Here’s a preview of the game from the Ghana FA and here’s a preview from the Chile FA. The Chilean report calls PPL Park “a beautiful sports stadium.”

Ghana internationals and brothers Andre and Jordan Ayew, both of whom play for Olympique Marseille, have withdrawn from the Ghana squad ahead of tonight’s friendly against Chile. Ghana are already without injured captain John Mensah and forward Asamoah Gyan. This leaves Ghana with 16 players on the roster for tonight’s game.

AFP reports, “Ghana coach Goran Stevanovic cannot afford a third consecutive loss, after the defeat by Zambia and then a loss to Mali in the Cup of Nations third place play-off, as he battles to keep his job.”

Of course, that’s if Stevanovic can get into the country in time for the game. A report on Monday said, “The Ghana Football Association can confirm that Mr. Goran Stevanovic, head coach of the Black Stars and two other players; Emmanuel Baffour and Richard Mpong are yet to secure U.S. traveling visas.” The report said assistant coach, Kwesi Appiah is “taking charge of the team until Stevanovic joins the group.”

The Chicago Fire report that Patrick Nyarko has joined the Ghana squad as a late addition to replace Baffou and Mpong. He will join his Chicago teammate Dominic Oduro up top.

Here’s video from the Union of Ghana’s pregame press conference on Tuesday with defender John Paintsil (Leicester City), assistant coach Akwasi Appiah, and midfielder Kwadwo Asamoah (Udinese).

And here’s the Chile pregame press conference with defender José Rojas (Universidad de Chile), goalkeeper Claudio Bravo (Real Sociedad,) head coach Claudio Borghi. If you speak Spanish let us know what they are saying.

MLS

Vancouver has signed yet another striker, Maltese international Etienne Barbara. Barbara joins the Whitecaps from the Carolina Railhawks,  the team led by Vancouver coach Martin Rennie last season.

Vancouver goalkeeper Joe Cannon attributes his team’s positive outlook to recent veteran acquisitions South Korean fullback Young-Pyo Lee and Sebastien Le Toux. “Sebastien, I can’t say enough about him. He’s been so great and now we have everyone working and it’s fantastic.” Insert string of expletives here.

Columbus Crew blog Massive Report looks at the blackout policy of MLS Live, the league’s streaming device formerly known as MLS Match Day Live. Basically, if you subscribe to MLS Live because you don’t have cable and expect to be able to see your local team play at home or in a game that is nationally televised, you are screwed. Maybe they shortened the name because they’ve restricted the viewing possibilities?

The Express says Robbie Keane has no interest in returning to the Premiership on a permanent basis.

In the Disney Pro Soccer Classic, Orlando City goalkeeper Sean Kelley received a red card in the 5th minute after a collision at the top of the box and went on to lose 4–0 to FC Dallas. Against the Union in the friendly at the Citrus Bowl two Saturdays ago, the Orlando keeper received a yellow for bringing down Danny Mwanga.

Arturo Marquez Jr., a 14-year-old pre-Academy player for San Jose Earthquakes, has died from wounds sustained from a drive-by shooting on Friday night.

Women’s Pro Soccer

Dan Borislow tells Potomac Soccer Wire that he is not the reason WPS closed up shop for 2012:

I gave them an option to effectively suspend me for a year and I would have settled. I gave them many different alternatives, and most of them were good. I am not the reason for today’s action…The compromise was a deal that was read into the record. There wasn’t going to be any more litigation. I don’t get it. They seemed very happy with the deal…Them closing up shop and fighting me should not be in the same sentence. They had different reasons. They had a deal with me and there was not to be anymore litigation. I thought it was a solid deal. The fans get to see the very best players in the world and I didn’t have to live in their world.

Sounders Women goalkeeper Hope Solo will play her alma mater, University of Washington, in an exhibition game on May 4. The game has been rescheduled to accommodate USWNT players such as Solo, Sydney Leroux and Alex Morgan.

Philadelphia Independence midfielder Jen Buczkowski is keeping busy by lending her support to a local soccer club in her native Illinois.

The Maryland Capitols are WPSL’s newest team. Their CEO and head coach is David Jones, who was involved in the founding of the WPSL’s Philadelphia Pirates, who later played as the Philadelphia Liberty.

US

It’s a big day for US Soccer. At noon, the USWNT opens up Algarve Cup play in Portugal against Denmark (US Soccer.com’s Match Tracker). At 2:45pm, the USMNT faces Italy in Genoa (2:45pm, ESPN2, ESPN3). At 10pm, Freddy Adu, Jack McInerney, Amobi Okugo and the rest of the US U-23 team hosts Mexico’s U-23 team at FC Dallas Stadium (10pm, Telefutura – Note: This game was originally scheduled to air on Univision).

Previews and scouting reports for the Italy v USA match from:

Stadio Luigi Ferraris, the site of today's Italy v USA match. Very nice.

Jurgen Klinsmann has bad memories of Italy. “It’s true that I’ve never won against Italy. I’ve lost in both matches as coach and that makes you understand that to beat the Azzurri you need to give more than 100 percent.”

The AP profiles Clint Dempsey because, you know, he’s freaking awesome. SI gets aboard the Dempsey love train, too.

Goal.com says injuries have presented Brek Shea with an opportunity to impress after past indifferent international form with the senior squad.

Here’s the skinny on the USWNT as they start play in the Algarve Cup, courtesy of US Soccer.

US Soccer does the same for the U-23 team.

Here’s video of the id2 National Selection team’s recent 3–1 win over Barcelona (start around the 4:00 mark). Elijah Rice of Chicago Magic scored a hat trick in the game. Comprised of boys born in 1998, the team also won against Espanyol and lost to Cornella and Atletico Madrid.

Elsewhere

Tottenham midfielder Scott Parker has been named captain of England ahead of this afternoon’s England v Netherlands match (3pm, FSC).

With this afternoon’s game in mind, the Huffington Post remembers England’s Euro 96 squad.

The German Football Federation has condemned the actions of a group of hooligans who gave Nazi salutes to an Israeli player at a Kaiserslautern practice on Sunday.

3 Comments

  1. Sorry to be that guy, but John Paintsil is a defender…*runs out of the room*

  2. Global Dope Far this product

Leave a Reply to Ben Tracy Cancel

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*