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“Not happy-go-lucky”: Recaps and reaction from RSL draw, more news

Photo: Michael Long

Philadelphia Union

John Hackworth said after Friday’s dreary draw with Real Salt Lake, “You guys can tell I’m frustrated, right? I’m not happy-go-lucky, sitting up here smiling, am I? Yeah, it is frustrating. For us to get a shutout and not score at home, it’s disappointing…Write what you want about us not getting the points, but look at the standings. We’re the team that’s supposed to be getting our butt whooped by one of the top teams in the league, and it doesn’t happen.”

Hackworth also said, “When you play a team the caliber of Real Salt Lake, you have to finish the chances that you create and unfortunately we didn’t do that tonight…Possession doesn’t get you any points. It doesn’t put the balls in the back of the net.”

Jack McInerney said of the Union’s missed chances, “There’s no excuse, some of those chances need to go in the back of the net. But it’s part of the game and we need to make the most of what we get.

Zac MacMath said, “I think if we keep playing like we did against D.C. United and here tonight, points will come. We have to clean a few things up, but we’ve done some really good things and we have gotten points in two straight. It’s a matter of time before points will come if we keep getting better and learning.”

Friday’s game was the third for RSL in six days. Manager Jason Kreis said after the game, “It was a difficult task for us. I’m not displeased with the result.”

Kyle Beckerman said, “We knew they were gonna be a desperate team, because they’re trying to get into the playoffs. We would’ve like to get a win but we’ll take a draw.”

Goal.com said of Friday’s game, “It wasn’t the worst MLS match of the season…but it was close.”

More match reports and recaps from PSP, MLSsoccer.com, the Inquirer, CSN Philly, Delco Times, NJ.com, delawareonline.com, RealSaltLake.com, The Salt Lake Tribune, Deseret News, KSL.com, SBI, Philly Soccer News, RSLSoccerTalk, ProSoccerTalk, The Sports Network, SB Nation, Soccerway.com, The AP, GantDaily.com,

Here’s a quote sheet from the game.

Were the Union playing a 4–2–3–1 or were they still playing 4–3–3? Hackworth said it was still 4–3–3.

Union games have been getting chippy of late. Hackworth said after the RSL game, “I don’t think right now. the Philadelphia Union are getting the respect we deserve.”

Speaking of the incident that led to a yellow card for Michael Farfan, who will thus be suspended for Wednesday’s game against Columbus for yellow card accumulation, Hackworth said, “If you look at the last two games, is it our fault? Because I actually think our guys showed class and showed expert experience in not getting caught up in that stuff. I don’t even think it was remotely our fault. I think Michael Farfan should be given a lot of credit for being an attacking player in this league and I don’t think he gets any of it…If [Javier] Morales, who I think is absolutely one of the best players in the league, can get that respect, Michael Farfan deserves it too.”

More from Marfan here.

Freddy Adu said of his non-starting role in Friday’s game, “[M]y role changed today where he wanted to bring me in the game to make a difference. When I went in, I just tried to do that and I created a couple chances. Whatever. It is what it is. I thought we had more chances than them, but – at the end of the day – the game ended 0-0. I thought we could’ve – I mean, we wanted to get three points from this game. But one point, it’s not bad, but it’s not the greatest result.”

Adu told the Daily News before Friday’s game, “Consistency is something that for me comes with being out there all the time, and for me I feel like it’s coming, slowly but surely.”

Adu also said he expected to be playing more of a central midfield role when he signed with the team. “I was told essentially that I was going to be given the keys to the car and in my opinion that really hasn’t been the case. When I came, I thought I was going to have more of a central role with the team, and I’ve been playing on the [outside midfield] ever since I’ve came here. I don’t mind it, it’s just not what I was told.”

Moving to legal happenings, the Union have filed a motion to have the Peter Nowak lawsuit dismissed. The Union’s lawyer argues that Nowak’s employment contract stipulates that any disputes about termination should be handled through arbitration, not in court.

Union academy defender Bryce Cregan (PA Classics; Dallastown, Pa.), has been selected for US Soccer’s prestigious Bradenton Residency Program.

The Brotherly Game rounds up stats ahead of Friday’s game to compare the Union under the first 11 games with Nowak and the 11 games under Hackworth.

The Union Front Office defeated the Sons of Ben 2–0 in the second annual River Cup. Look for PSP’s report on the game later today.

Local

While the City Islanders’ Brian Ombiji opened the scoring in the 15th minute, two late first half goals from Charleston Battery, including one from local lad Tony Donatelli, proved to be enough to eliminate Harrisburg from the USL PRO playoffs, 2–1.

Battery head coach Mike Anhaeuser said of Donatelli, “That’s the guy you want taking the shot in that situation. Tony has been our best finisher the last month of the season.”

Harrisburg head coach Bill Becher said, “It was disappointing. There was a lot of talent on the team; this was a very good team. But we should have finished higher than what we did. We finished in a tie for fifth place, but we gave some games away or we could have finished second. And that gives us a bye for this week and we’re home for the semis. It was there for the taking … we just didn’t get that done.”

Charleston’s The Post and Courier has a photo essay of the game.

Look for a roundup of area college men’s soccer later this morning. In women’s soccer, La Salle kicked of their home season with a 2–0 win over Iona for their second win of the season. La Salle are currently on a 21 game regular season unbeaten streak. Saint Joseph’s are also unbeaten after two games, first topping Binghampton 3–0 on Friday and then defeating Villanova 2–1 on Sunday. On Friday, Villanova lost 2–1 to Drexel after double overtime.

MLS

In Eastern Conference action, Kansas City stays in first place after drawing 1–1 with second place New York. Third place Houston had to settle for a point after giving up a late goal for a 1–1 draw with last place Toronto. Fourth place Chicago had the weekend off. Sixth place Montreal is within a point of fifth place DC United, who they defeated 3–0 for their fifth win in a row.

SI looks at five trends as the MLS season starts to wind down.

OregonLive.com reports that Portland Timbers have offered Caleb Porter the head coaching job currently being held on an interim basis by Timbers general manager Gavin Wilkinson. Porter is currently head coach of University of Akron and led the USMNT U-23 team that failed to qualify for the London Olympics. Seventh place Columbus did the eight place Union a favor by defeating ninth place New England 4–3, although the Union now trail the Crew by nine points. The Timbers got their first win after seven winless games under Wilkinson on Sunday.

Freddy Montero got his first hat trick for the Sounders in their 6–2 win over Chivas USA.

San Jose will break ground for their new stadium on Oct. 21. The Earthquakes plan to move into the stadium at the start of the 2014 season.

Sporting Kansas City will retain the name of Livestrong for its stadium despite Lance Armstrong being stripped of his seven Tour de France championships for doping.

Vancouver’s Dane Richards is heading to Burnley after the MLS Season is over. Goal.com says the move adds some context to the recent trade that saw Sebastien Le Toux head to New York in exchange for Richards.

Freddie Ljungberg, formerly of Seattle Sounders and Chicago Fire, among others, has announced his retirement.

US

The US will advance to the quarterfinals of the U-20 Women’s World Cup despite dropping their final group game 3–0 to defending champions Germany earlier today.

Jochen Lösch, the president of international business for Traffic Sports Marketing, the company that negotiated the broadcasting rights deal for World Cup qualifiers with beIN Sport, tells the New York Times,

“We negotiated with M.L.S. and SUM on behalf of ESPN, maybe the problem lies there. I don’t know if they understand the value of U.S. soccer…I’m a little surprised to hear people moaning about beIN. Everyone should be happy because they want to build a real football channel. No channel in the U.S. thinks they have to pay money for U.S. games. They seem to think there is not a big appeal. If now they are complaining, maybe they underestimated the value. I think everyone should be happy beIN is taking over. It’s good for U.S. football…The North American audience should be happy that beIN entered the marketplace. Finally, someone gives the performances of the national teams in the Concacaf region the value they deserve, especially the performances of Team USA.”

Could Clint Dempsey end up at, gasp, Sunderland?

Michael Bradley had an assist in his debut for Roma.

Geoff Cameron went the full 90 in his debut for Stoke City, where he will soon be joined by Maurice Edu.

Elsewhere

Kuwait national team coach Goran Tufegdzic is in critical condition after being shot by a neighbor in his native Serbia following a land dispute.

9 Comments

  1. memememememe says:

    mike farfan plays dirty and out of control at times and he derserves most of his cards….

    • Eli Pearlman-Storch says:

      well that certainly seems like an over simplification. Wingert crushed him with a nasty scissor tackle and then stood on top of him. He shouldn’t have lashed out, but that hardly makes him a dirty player. How about calling out Kyle Beckerman for his dozen fouls?

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

    I hope the team doesn’t go overboard with this season and start to dismantle the team, ala Nowak starting Year 2. Obviously we need veteran presence, obviously we need more proven/refined players at certain positions. But this notion of building a team through homegrown youth is important.
    I would hate to see us throw that away and make personnel mistakes, ala Ruiz. I don’t want to turn into the team that runs to overpriced old men as the solution to everything.
    I think it’s a bad precedent for the MLS to set and I don’t want my team involved in it.

  3. If Hack is shed of the “interim” tag, then I think we’ll see him really start to put his mark on this roster; he’s already started doing so by removing Gutierrez/Eskandarian, swapping Pajoy for Cruz, and pretty much reducing the playing time of all the “Nowak guys” sans Carroll. I’m afraid that after this season we’ll be in the same situation we were at the start of this one, a good portion (half?) the roster all new guys who need time to gel with one another – not that we needed to be then, but we might need to be soon.

  4. The Union don’t actually need an overhaul just more size and finishing. Right now the team is too one dimensional. McInereny,Cruz and Hoppenaut,for example are fast can run and pressure the ball, but they are not consistant finishers. Occasionally the team can score late and win a game. Not every team can be caught flat as in the 4-0 SKC win. Most teams will defend and counter the smaller Union and wait for a stretch pass or set piece to score. All that effort for 90 minutes yet a few set pieces and they’re screwed. McInereny is so easily boxed out by taller stronger defenders. Jack needs to tandem with a bigger stronger player who is a good header,can score and can draw defenders away from him. As for Michael Farfan he is the one usually instigating things. Now he’s got a bad rep and is being watched. If anything he’ll be the one getting the card(s)at the expense of the team. He needs to grow up. That goes for Gabriel too! Unfortunately Hackworth has to babysit while trying to manage.

  5. Dempsey really blew it! He should be playing for Fulham (just like Dembele) until he gets a new contract. Also, Fulham (with Dembele) look a lot better than Sunderland and, if Dembele stays, Dempsey would be better off staying at Fulham.
    /
    Cracking EPL games this weekend! Defenses still have issues resulting in lots of goals! Our forwards should try to learn a thing or 2 from those forwards. v. Persie’s goal was a beauty.

    • Dembele wants to leave as well (his agent said Real Madrid offered for him). Difference is he has more time on his contract. Dempsey can do what he feels best. Who knows what Fulham promised him at the end of last year. He has one year left, so Fulham either sells him now or gets nothing next year. Dempsey has shown loyalty to Fulham for years. He had to fight every year (I mean time) a manager was fired/quit for playing time. Scored some of the clubs most importent goals. So, instead of throwing him under the bus, allow him to leave with dignity. The same professionalism he showed Fulham football club throughout his time at the club.

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  7. pamelawardtx says:

    Interesting

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