Daily news roundups

Califf named to Best XI. Power rankings. Twitter fun. More.

 Photo: Earl Gardner

Philadelphia Union

Danny Califf says of the hype leading into Saturday’s game, “I think there was a lot of hoopla leading up to the game but once the game got underway, Union fans were cheering for the Union.”

Califf, in the starting lineup after a two game layoff, was named to Goal.com’s Best XI for Week Four.

Goal.com credits Zac MacMath for his part in ensuring Vancouver was kept scoreless.

Power rankings: The Union remain at No. 18 at Sporting News while at SI they remain at No. 17.. At Goal.com, they move from No. 19 to No. 17. At ESPN, the move is from 19th to 18th.

ESPN notes how Peter Nowak and Peter Vermes have switched seats in terms of how their teams have started the 2012 season compared to 2011.

“Today, Vermes is 4-0-0 and looking unbeatable while the Union is 0-3-1 and lacking all pop, crackle and fizz. The difference? Vermes has had an amazingly steady hand. His lineup has been virtually unchanged all season, and is almost unchanged from last season too. His squad has adopted his system, developed great chemistry and evolved as a group.

“Nowak has cycled players in and out through his revolving door, shipping off star forward Sebastien Le Toux and continually tinkered with lineups and tactics.

“Nowak and Vermes have demonstrated that slow and steady wins the race.”

The headline blares “Williams given OK to make runs.” What does the Sheanomenon say in the article? “I don’t think the coaching staff has ever limited my runs or how much I get forward; they encourage it.” C’mon, Chris, you’re better than that.

CSN Philly’s The Inside Doop names Keon Daniel its Player of the Week.

After two home games, the Union rank eighth in the league in announced attendance (“Attendance figures, provided by MLS, reflect tickets sold and distributed”) with an average of 18,132. The average for the 2011 season was 18,259.

In Twitter fun, there was this exchange on Monday between Sheanon Williams and Jordan Harvey about Gabriel Farfan:

The Brotherly Game has a match recap on Saturday’s game as well as a roundup of assorted Union-related numbers.

Local

West Chester United were eliminated from US Open Cup qualification after being defeated by Aegean Hawks 3–1 on Sunday.

West Coast Radio profiles Harrisburg City Islanders and former Gambia youth international striker Sainey Touray.

MLS

Goal.com observes that Sebastien Le Toux—and the Vancouver Whitecaps—going scoreless is becoming a trend.

You might think it’s a little early in the season—or a little early in the Union’s bye week—but the Goalkeeper offers some All-Star roster guessing.

Women’s Soccer

Current USWNT and former Independence midfielder Lori Lindsey has signed with Western New York Flash. The Flash also signed Spanish international Adrianna.

Former Independence assistant coach Staci Wilson is now an assistant coach at Florida Atlantic University.

US

The USWNT defeated Brazil 3–0 today in the Kirin Challenge Cup tournament in Japan. Former Philadelphia Independence forward Amy Rodriguez was among the goalscorers, as was Delran-native Carli Lloyd.

Some moron thinks that the best way to promote soccer in the US would be to move a Premiership club to New York. Save reading this piece of garbage for when you are in need of a good laugh.

Elsewhere

The head of the international players union FIFPro, Theo van Seggelen, says, “In certain countries in eastern Europe, clubs are buying their position in their competition. They know in advance who will be one, two, three, four and five etc. They deal with each other. I heard it from the players. It happens in Serbia, it happens in Croatia, and other countries.”

Comments made by Bob Bradley to the BBC about who may have been behind the violence after the game in Port Said have resulted in a controversy.

SI has a “meditation on the scourge of diving.”

In today’s Champion’s League action, Barcelona hosts AC Milan (2:30pm, FSC) and Bayern Munich hosts Marseille (2:30pm, Fox Soccer Plus, Fox Soccer 2Go; replay on FSC at 5pm).

6 Comments

  1. That Premiership to NYC article gave me a case of the angries.

    Schaelackylacka got it right. Vermes also dealt with starting the first 10+ matches on the road before that prairie spaceship opened.

    As much as you could say we miss LeToux or Mondy, the retirement of Paunovic is the piece that I think hurts most. The linkage is broken from midfield to the strikers. Maybe Adu can slot in and make that role happen, if so, then we may right this ship.

    • Sorry. Irony think that linkage was ever there.

    • The Black Hand says:

      The loss of Mapp in midfield has hurt us immensely. Even though he was born with one foot, he knew his positioning and distributed the ball well to the striking players.

  2. Thank god people are starting to notice and take note of Nowaks lineup decisions and tactical choices.
    I still maintain we have talent on this team and overall I am happy with our players. Right now what is hurting us is Nowak and his lack of vision and hopefully more journalists realize that too.

    • The Black Hand says:

      Our players are making poor decisions on the pitch. Nowak is not helping us with his “experimenting”, but the players have to shoulder their share of the blame. In all honesty, none of them have truly looked good…and that’s sad. Could blame Nowak for lack of preparation, but many of the gaffs involve basic fundamentals, that players at this level SHOULD understand and be able to implement with ease. Our entire club needs to take a good hard look in the mirror. Hopefully, this time off will be used to get back to the basics of football and go from there. Luckily, the East has looked pretty bad as a whole. A couple of favorable results and we are right back in it.

  3. Dan Walsh says:

    Hey, in Chris Vito’s defense, newspaper reporters rarely write the headlines. Can’t tell you how many times I’ve wanted to wring a bad copy editor’s neck for a bad headline (and, conversely, how much you thank them for saving your bacon for catching a writing mishap rushed on deadline).

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