Daily news roundups / Featured

Valdes TOW honors, River Cup, La Salle women top NSCAA Mid-Atlantic poll, more news

Photo: Earl Gardner

Philadelphia Union

Carlos Valdes has been named to MLSSoccer.com’s Team of the Week. Freddy Adu received an honorable mention.

Brian Carroll comes in at No. 14 on the Castrol Weekly Top 20. The top five Union players on the full Castrol Index currently are Jack McInerney (No. 36), Zac MacMath (No. 75), Gabriel Gomez (No. 77), Carlos Valdes (No. 102) and Brian Carroll (No. 116).

Danny Cruz describes his feelings about playing against DC United only days after being traded to the Union. He also says of featuring so quickly in the Union starting XI, “I don’t feel out of my element. But there are a few things I have to get used to because a 4-3-3 is a lot different than a 4-4-2.”

More on Sunday’s Second Annual River Cup, which will feature players from the Union front office vs. a Sons of Ben Team. The Union reports Claude Giroux and Scott Hartnell from the Philadelphia Flyers and Philadelphia Phillies Senior Vice President and General Manager Ruben Amaro Jr. will be among those in attendance. The match has a 6pm kickoff and only costs $10, with proceeds going to the Philadelphia Union Foundation.

In case you missed it, here’s a link to last night’s The 90th Minute radio show, which featured talk of the River Cup as well as Chandler Hoffman and Keon Daniel.

More power rankings: ProSoccerTalk and Sporting News have the Union at No. 15. At MLSSoccer.com, the Union stay at No. 16. SB Nation has them at No. 17. WV Hooligan drops the Union one spot to No. 14.

Union Dues reviews Sunday’s draw in DC.

Michael Lahoud will appear at the Delaware County Literacy Council’s open house in celebration of International Literacy Day on Sept. 12.

Local

The first NSCAA Mid-Atlantic poll for women’s soccer is out and La Salle tops the list. University of Pennsylvania comes in at No. 10. Jourdan McVicker was named a Atlantic 10 Conference Women’s Soccer Co-Player of the Week after scoring the winning goal against in the 2-1 win over West Virginia last weekend.

Harrisburg City Islanders goalkeeper Nick Noble–who finished the regular season with nine shutouts, including a 1–0 win over LA Blues on Sunday that clinched his team a playoff spot—has been named the USL PRO Player of the Week. Joining him on the Team of the Week roster is City Islanders forward Lucky Mkosana and local lad Corey Hertzog, on loan from New York Red Bulls to Wilmington Hammerheads. Harrisburg’s Yann Ekra and Bilal Duckett received honorable mentions.

Mkosana is profiled by Zimbabwean website NewsDay while Hertzog talks about how well his loan has paid off with MLSsoccer.com.

MLS

Real Salt Lake defeated Panamanian champions Tauro FC 2–0 on Tuesday night in CONCACAF Champions League play.

Four Eastern Conference teams feature in League play tonight, with Columbus hosting Toronto and DC hosting Chicago. In CONCACAF Champions League play, Houston travels to CD FAS in El Salvador.

Coverage of Sunday’s match between DC United and the Union included a great deal of footage several United players going at one another as the game descended into chaos brought on by Mark Geiger’s questionable decision making. DC manager Ben Olsen told reporters at a press conference on Tuesday,

“That just can’t happen on camera. You want to come into the locker room and throw someone against the wall if they screwed up? That’s part of this. That’s emotional professional sports, but I can’t have it on the field in the camera’s eyes.

“Believe it or not, it happens more than you think, and most of it happens behind closed doors within our family. That’s normal. It just can’t happen on the field.”

Simon Borg rounds up the weekend’s calls:

As was not the case a few weeks ago while Union fans awaited a decision on the Nelson Rivas headbutt of Antoine Hoppenot, the Disciplinary Committee has come to quick decisions about three incidents that received addition sanctions on Tuesday for Vancouver’s Gershon Koffie, Montreal’s Hassoun Camara and San Jose’s Victor Bernardez.

Noting that not all completed passes are the same, the Central Winger argues for studying secondary pass completion rates.

In between swoons from a case of the vapors, The Washington Times manages to call for the end of “F-word chanting at referees” in an article illustrated with a photo that looks to be from the year 2000. “When I was kid I remember fans getting upset with referees,” recalls the author, presumably while fanning himself with his pocket kerchief. “Yes, we heard the occasional bad language and curse, and the odd song about referees needing to wear glasses sung to the tune ‘Oh My Darling, Clementine.'” Those were the days.

Women’s Soccer

At Grantland, Noah Davies recounts the problems facing the development of a sustainable women’s pro league in the US. With US Soccer slow to focus on youth development, no professional league could soon have grave consequences for the USWNT, described as “a team in decline.”

Alex Morgan has signed a deal with Simon & Schuster to write a three-book series aimed at middle-school girls. The first book should be out next summer.

US

The US faces China in the U-20 Women’s World Cup in Japan on Thursday (5:50am: ESPNU, ESPN3).

Sporting News talks to Jozy Altidore, who is off to a blazing start in the Netherlands with AZ Alkmaar , scoring four goals in two games. Altidore says, “To tell a guy who’s 19 or 20 that he’s washed up, it’s laughable. And you hear some of those things from people and you learn to just say to yourself, ‘There’s nothing you can do about it. All you can do is what you can control. You can control how you focus your energy.’ “I’ve been dealing with a lot of people telling me what I can and can’t do for the longest time. It’s no problem for me now because it comes with the territory.”

At ESPN, Jeff Carlisle has five things to keep in mind following the USMNT win over Mexico.

Here’s some groovy field level footage from last week’s historic win:

More from Philly Union Talk on the USMNT under Jurgen Klinsmann.

Elsewhere

Here are the listings for toady’s live games for your TV and computer:

2:30pm – Chelsea vs Reading – ESPN2, ESPN Deportes, ESPN3
2:30pm – SC Braga vs Udinese Calcio – FSC
2:30pm – AEL Limassol FC vs RSC Anderlecht – Fox Soccer Plus
2:45pm – Málaga vs Panathinaikos – Fox Deportes
6:30pm – Boca Juniors vs Independiente – Fox Deportes
7:30pm – Columbus Crew v Toronto FC – MLS Live
7:30pm – DC United vs Chicago Fire – Direct Kick, MLS Live
8:00pm – Caledonia AIA vs Marathon – Fox Soccer 2Go
9:00pm – U. De Chile vs Santos – Fox Deportes
10:00pm – CD FAS vs Houston Dynamo – FSC
10:00pm – Alajuelense vs Tigres UANL – Fox Soccer 2Go

 

 

3 Comments

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

    To tell a guy who’s 19 or 20 that he’s washed up, it’s laughable.
    Heh, I wonder how many Union players this applies to as well <_<

  2. Ed Farnsworth says:

    I certainly heard plenty of people talk about Danny Mwanga that way when he was still with the team.

  3. Congratulations, Explorers!

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