Daily news roundups / Featured

West Chester Utd tops UGH in Eastern PA final, more news

All of us at PSP wish you and yours a very happy and safe Christmas.

Philadelphia Union

A few weeks ago, Union midfielder Danny Cruz tweeted word that his father would soon be deployed to Afghanistan, his fifth tour including Desert Shield/Desert Storm, Operation Iraqi Freedom, and two previous tours in Afghanistan. At ESPN, Jeff Carlisle talks to Cruz and his father, Sgt. 1st Class Alejo Cruz, Jr., about what this means to their family as well as the support Cruz has received from his fans.

In at No. 10 on MLSsoccer.com’s list of the Top Stories of the Year is Peter “Feelings are not in my job description” Nowak’s sabotaging of the Union.

The Orlando Sentinel reports on the $1 million earmark that is backing the “Soccer Spring Training” program which, along with the other teams participating in the Walt Disney World Pro Soccer Classic, is helping to subsidize the Union’s preseason training program in Deltona. Each team receives a $30,000 upfront fee for participating. The Sentinel reports, “What’s more, the public funds are subsidizing the sale of vacation packages to soccer fans. Each team is entitled to payments based on a sliding scale that ranges from $50 to $125 for each package sold. A team can ultimately earn as much as $75,000 in such payments, provided it sells enough vacations.”

all of which took place in the span of 11 days?

The Examiner reviews the 2012 Union season.

Local

West Chester United defeated United German Hungarians 2–1 to repeat as Eastern PA champions in Saturday’s final. They now advance to the USASA Region I Finals in the spring to continue their quest to qualify for the US Open Cup.

We missed but, back in November, Walt Bahr, the Philly soccer legend and National Soccer Hall of Famer who was captain of the US 1950 World Cup team that defeated England (I know, Ed McIlvenny was captain on the day), was inducted into the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame. My only question is what took them so long?

Philly Soccer News has a top 10 list of Philadelphia soccer stories that so far has the vitality of the area’s youth soccer scene at No. 10 and hosting the area’s big year at the college level at No. 9.

In at No. 9 on the New England Soccer News list of the top Revolution stories of the year is their extra time melt down against Harrisburg City Islanders in the US Open Cup. You will recall that Harrisburg also knocked out New York Red Bulls. Good times. Yeah, good times.

MLS

Marcus Tracy was born in Chestnut Hill but grew up in Newtown, Conn., site of the recent horrific mass shooting. Tracy, who was on vacation there with his family when the shooting took place, talks to Soccer Insider about his reaction to the terrible event and about the music video he and some childhood friends made in tribute to those who were slain.

Colorado have dealt Omar Cummings to Houston for midfielder Nathan Sturgis and allocation money.

Speaking of Colorado, Davide Chiumiento’s assist on Sebastien Le Toux’s goal for Vancouver against the Rapids made MLSsoccer.com’s short list for Assist of the Year. Some other French guy won.

Dax McCarty is MLSsoccer.com’s Underrated Player of the Year.

The LA Times looks at the league’s successes and failings over the past year and the challenges that lie ahead.

USA Today examines the the context of ongoing rumors about efforts by the league to entice Kaka stateside.

SBI has version 2.0 of their mock draft, if that’s your kind of thing. They’ve got Ryan Finley going to Houston and Eric Schoenle going to San Jose.

NWSL

Seattle Reign have hired Arsenal Ladies manager Laura Harvey as their new head coach. Harvey led Arsenal to three consecutive league titles, two Continental Cups and one FA Women’s Cup.

The Portland Thorns have already received more than 2,000 season ticket deposits.

SBI has an update on NWSL happenings.

US

Jonathan Tannenwald tells the story of how Delran’s Carli Lloyd, who finished third in the Daily News Sportsperson of the Year Award voting, persevered through being dropped from the USWNT starting roster to scoring the gamewinner for Olympic gold.

ASN has a discussion about whether or not 2012 was a successful year for the USMNT.

The Guardian looks back on how the USMNT, the USWNT, and MLS fared in 2012.

Soccer America rounds up how Americans abroad did in Europe over the weekend.

Word came out on Friday that Oguchi Onyewu’s Malaga has been barred from European club tournaments for one year for violation of Financial Fair Play rules. Malaga, which drew Porto in Thursday’s Champions League draw for the round of will be banned from the next European tournament it qualifies for.

Elsewhere

The Guardian has an interactive list of the top 100 players in the world.

A youth coach in Florida was ejected from a game for speaking to some of his players in Spanish.

 

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