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Reading & Harrisburg in USOC, Union news & more

Photo: Glenn Riegel, Courtesy of Reading United AC

US Open Cup

Second round action of the 99th US Open Cup kicks off locally with Harrisburg City Islanders hosting Long Island Rough Riders at Skyline Sports Complex tonight at 7pm. Long Island defeated Lehigh Valley’s FC Sonic 2-0 last week in the first round. Harrisburg and Long Island last met two years ago in the tournament, with the City Islanders winning 1–0. If Harrisburg prevails tonight, they will host New England Revolution in the third round. More on tonight’s match here.

Reading United, who defeated New York Greek American Atlas 2–1 in the the first round, travel to South Carolina to face Charleston Battery. The last time the Battery lost to a lower division team in the tournament was in 2005. The winner will face the New York Red Bulls next Tuesday.

Pennsylvania is also represented in the second round by Pittsburgh Riverhounds, who face Michigan Bucks, the team that knocked Jersey Shore Boca out of the first round.

The Philadelphia Union will face the winner of tonight’s match between Rochester Rhinos and Brooklyn Italian Americans at PPL Park next Tuesday. It’ll be the first time the Union has hosted a USOC match and tickets are on sale here.

Philadelphia Union

Looking ahead to this weekend’s match against 0–9–0 Toronto, the Inside Doop says if the Union lose “there will be even more reason for concern that this season has gone awry,” and continues, “The question is just how much panic will there be for Union fans and officials if Toronto earns their first win of the year against them?”

Union Tally says, “If ever there was a time for the Union to need a winnable game on its schedule, this is it.”

The Union will be without Porfirio Lopez against Toronto. The left back will be on international duty with Costa Rica and unavailable for the Union until June 16 against DC United.

PennLive.com congratulates Chase Harrison on his debut with the Union. The post includes video of Harrison playing for and against Harrisburg City Islanders.

In power rankings, the Union are 9th in the Eastern Conference at the Mercury News. They remain 18th in the league at Soccer America. At Goal.com and SI, they drop one spot to No. 18. At ESPN, it’s a two spot drop to 18th.

Philly Union Talk recaps the draw in Dallas.

If you missed Monday night’s debut of the 90th Minute radio show on 610WIP, it is supposed to be on the CBS Philly website for download as a podcast but doesn’t appear to be up as of this writing.

Union TV announcer JP Dellacamera won’t be calling this weekend’s game in Toronto after being called up by NBC Sports. Regular MLS announcers Arlo White and Kyle Martino are covering the USA v Scotland friendly so the network needed help with the weekend’s league games. “Rob Weingarten, who spent five years as the play-by-play voice for the now-defunct Tampa Bay Mutiny, will stand in for Dellcamera. He will be joined by regular color analyst Bob Rigby.”

Observing the recent proposal to tax ticket sales and parking at PPL Park, the Philly Post blog wonders why the newly launched Philadelphia Union Foundation has camps for kids in Malvern, Bryn Mawr, Fort Washington, Plymouth Meeting, Wayne and Bryn Athyn but not in Chester. “Business leaders and elite school administrators can—and should—be doing more to help their communities,” writes Kevin Cirili. “But prep schools and businesses have an obligation to offer opportunities to struggling minorities. Plus, investing in the community builds a stronger environment for businesses and schools.”

Cirili concludes, “I’m not saying Chester kids deserve a free ride to a Union summer camp on the Main Line. Actually, I think it’d be better to ship the Main Line kids into Chester for a week.”

Local

Our Lady of Mercy Academy in Newfield, NJ is mourning the death of Philip Caporale, the coach of the school’s soccer team, who died in an automobile accident on Sunday.

We’re looking to update our list of pickup games in the Philly area. If you have a moment, enter your favorite pickup game information in the comment section of this post.

MLS

Danny Califf was named to ProSoccerTalk’s Best XI for Week 11.

He’s also so honored at SI: “Califf was an absolute rock in his Chivas USA debut, playing as inspired at center back as he has all season and showing no lingering effects from any supposed injuries that kept him out of the Union lineup over the last few weeks.”

While Soccer America’s Ridge Mahoney is pleased to see refs standing firm in handing out second yellow cards, he hopes “MLS officials aren’t reverting to the days when waves of cautions handed out for diving, and too many bang-bang incidents in the goalmouth resulted either in a penalty kick or a card for diving. In a contact sport, there’s going to be contact, and sometimes the best call is no call.”

US

The Shin Guardian has a primer about Scotland, the USMNT opponent on Saturday.

With the final additions to the USMNT’s 27-player training roster over the weekend, the New York Times looks at the winners and losers.

Fox Soccer has notes from the camp in Florida.

Kenny Cooper wasn’t called up and hopes he’ll get another chance in the future.

Brek Shea says he respects the decision not to include him in the camp.

ProSoccerTalk isn’t surprised that Eric Lichaj wasn’t called up.

Landon Donovan discusses playing for Everton and Clint Dempsey in this interview at FIFA.com. He admits that not persevering in Europe earlier in his career “was a little bit of a cop-out” and says “a little part of me regrets that I didn’t stick it out and didn’t try to do that early on.”

Alex Morgan comes in at No. 66 on Maxim’s Hot 100, “the definitive list of the world’s most beautiful women,” narrowly beating out Stephen Colbert at No. 69.

There may be hope if you are solo.

Elsewhere

The BBC reports that Didier Drogba has confirmed he is leaving Chelsea and “has been linked with a move to Chinese club Shanghai Shenhua.”

Jose Mourinho has signed a new contract that will keep him at Real Madrid through 2016.

Phil Schoen has left GolTV to join Al Jazeera to work on their two soccer networks beIN Sport 1 and beIN Sport 2, scheduled to launch on August 1 and the new homes of La Liga, Serie A, Ligue Un, and Copa America in the US.

According to the Brand Finance report on the most valuable football clubs in Europe, top ranked Manchester United’s brand value increased by 29 percent to $853m (£543m) during the last season. Five of the top ten clubs play in the Premiership.

Here’s the skinny on the “Tango 12” ball from adidas that will be used in the upcoming Euro’s.

FIFA will announce today the officials on the new anti-corruption ethics and audit committees.

FIFA will announce this week the appointment of the first woman to the executive committee in the organization’s history.

Also, Cayman Islands banker Jeffrey Webb will be elected the head of CONCACAF.

11 Comments

  1. DarthLos117 says:

    We couldn’t possibly lose to TFC? Could we?

  2. If we lose to Toronto I can’t see how Nowak keeps his job. Hell if we tie them that might be the final straw.

  3. James "4-3-3" Forever says:

    Wow so one of the co-hosts for The 90th Minute is the Unions VP of comunications? LOL What a propaganda piece that show will be.
    I listened to it for a few minutes on my phone (since the show was on 610WIP AM – not 94WIP FM – and wasn’t streamed online anywhere) and all they were doing was praising the Dallas tie as gutsy and tough.

    • i was able to stream it on itunes successfully. just a note.

    • I listened and it was a total fluff piece. They kept falling back on catch phrases like “getting better” and “coming together”. I’m sure things seemed quite optimistic to any listeners who haven’t seen any games. For those of us who have seen the U play this year, the emperor has no clothes.

      • Well, yea. Isn’t the Union actually paying for the radio time? Its one big commercial.

  4. This hurt a little bit: He’s also so honored at SI: “Califf was an absolute rock in his Chivas USA debut, playing as inspired at center back as he has all season and showing no lingering effects from any supposed injuries that kept him out of the Union lineup over the last few weeks.”

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