Daily news roundups

Adu in Brazil, getting ready for Pumas, must win for USA, more news

Photo: Courtesy of Bahia

Philadelphia Union

In case you missed it, we posted an article last night with extensive quotes from Freddy Adu from his arrival in Salvador, home of Bahia. Adu told reporters, ““I am very excited about the possibility of playing for Bahia. This league is the league that I think personally fits my style of play. I always try to base my game on the Brazilian style and to get a chance to be here, it would be amazing.”

Adu will be undergoing a physical with the club today ahead of the proposed deal that would also bring Kleberson to the Union.

More from A Tarde (translation), Terceiro Tempo (translation), and Band.com (translation).

At the Inquirer, Marc Narducci writes that Bakary Soumare’s request for a transfer “is far from a crisis.”

Justice! The league disciplinary committee has fined New England’s Juan Toja “for embellishment intended to deceive the referee,” a bit of theatrics that resulted in Amobi Okugo receiving a yellow card. The league’s decision means Okugo’s yellow card is no more.

John Hackworth admits he doesn’t understand why Jeff Parke wasn’t called up to the USMNT for the qualifiers against Costa Rica and Mexico. “I think I’m biased right now because I think Jeff has been so good for us. But when I read the things about the national team and some of the questions they have at center back, certainly with a very biased opinion, I think Jeff should be included in some of those conversations.”

Parke isn’t bothered by not getting called up. “I’m not worried about it and not really thinking about it too much. It’s always good to get called in, so that would be a plus. But I’m more focused right now on playing here and getting this team to winning ways and doing good things here.”

With so much attention on the Adu and Soumare news, not to mention this weekend’s World Cup qualifiers, the Union’s early in the season friendly with Pumas is easy to overlook. John Hackworth expects a competitive match and one that will offer opportunities for players on the Union roster who haven’t seen playing time.

They’re a good team. They’ve always been a good team and historically they’re a very good team in Mexico. It’s an honor and a privilege to play against them here at PPL. We’ll treat this the way we’ve treated all our other internationals. We’ll try to win the game but yet our focus is on providing some opportunities improving on things we need to work on…

The opportunity is to try and stay in the same rhythm, give a bunch of guys an opportunity who haven’t had the chance to get on the field get a chance to shine. It’s a chance to see what they’re doing as I keep talking about is good competition, and we’ll see that on Saturday.

Kevin Kinkead has a scouting report on Pumas. Union Dues has a preview.

JP Dellacamera looks at surprising starts not just from the Union but from around the league.

Local

Union Dues drops in on a Harrisburg City Islanders practice. Coach Bill Becher says he knows which Union players will be on loan to the City Islanders but won’t share that until it is official. Becher says he expects the Harrisburg roster to be announced around the weekend of April 5.

MLS

At Goal.com, Kyle McCarthy forecasts the weekend’s MLS games.

Landon Donovan is expected to return to LA Galaxy next week and will join the team on their trip to the White House.

The league has announced scheduling changes for LA Galaxy and Seattle sounders on the weekend of April 6-7 to accommodate their participation in the CONCACAF Champions League.

Kevin Hartman has joined New York Red Bulls.

Midfielder Ramon Nunez returns to FC Dallas, who also have signed Homegrown goalkeeper Jesse Gonzalez.

Toronto FC’s English winger Hogan Ephraim says he’s impressed with MLS. When will this kind of story cease to be written?

US

The USMNT hosts Costa Rica tonight in a World Cup qualifier, where they will hope to overcome their torpid loss to Honduras in the first match of the Hexagonal (9:45pm: ESPN, UniMas).

Previews from The Washington Post, Sporting News, SI, ASN, ProSoccerTalk, Soccer America, Shin Guardian, American Outlaws, Union Dues.

Jurgen Klinsmann told reporters on Thursday that he isn’t bothered by the Sporting News report from earlier this week and that the team is focused on getting their qualifying campaign back on the right track. Klinsmann said, “We can’t wait to play the game because it’s been a couple of long weeks since the game in Honduras, and always when you have a negative result, you want to fix that as soon as possible with a positive result.”

Geoff Cameron says inexperience among the US backline isn’t a problem. “Everybody can say that we’re inexperienced but everybody knows how to play…You’ve got to start somewhere. You get your games in, and I think we’re all pretty confident that we can get the job done. It’s just a matter of performing Friday.”

Costa Rica’s Álvaro Saborío brushes off injury concerns and says he’s good to go against the US.

MLSsoccer.com has a look at three memorable past qualifiers between the US and Costa Rica.

US Soccer announced the hosting sites of the final four home World Cup qualifiers on Thursday: Seattle, Salt Lake City, Columbus and Kansas City. Here’s a look at the USMNT’s history at each venue.

It’ll be temporary grass and an attendance cap for the Seattle qualifier, the city’s first in 40 years.

The announcement included confirmation of USA v Germany at RFK on June 2. The USWNT will face Canada for the first time since their epic match at last year’s Summer Olympics the same day in Toronto.

Elsewhere

The Guardian previews ten important qualifiers taking place this weekend.

The 2015 Women’s World Cup final in Canada will take place on the plastic pitch of Vancouver’s BC Place. How stupid is that? As stupid as the fact that most of the tournament will be played on turf.

FIFA made $89 million in profit from $1.16 billion in income in 2012.

Sepp Blatter promises that changes will be made to how World Cup hosting votes take place.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has joined soccer players and officials in calling for an end to bigotry in the world’s game.

World Cup organizers in Brazil have enlisted the help of the United Nations.

Bloomberg Businessweek takes a look at Ante Sapina, “European Soccer’s Master of Match-Fixing.”

The New York Times’ Jack Bell lists his favorite soccer apps.

10 Comments

  1. Hartman to NYRB hurts. He should be on our bench. I am ok with the MacMath project, but it’d be better if Hartman was part of it.
    And I am really worried about USMNT in this week’s matches.
    Too negative to start the weekend.

  2. my first thought when I saw the replay on the big screen at PPL was “damn I hope the league overturns that yellow” – I’m very happy for Amobi and frankly I don’t blame the ref because he was in a good position, it’s just that he couldn’t see the deception

    • Are we sure that Amobi’s card was rescinded? Both the league and team websites still show him with one yellow card.

  3. Andy Muenz says:

    Less than 30 seconds into the Columbia-Bolivia game, the Union were mentioned by the announcers as still owning the rights to Valdes and hoping to get him back at the end of the year (or at least the fans are hoping).

  4. I was curious if you ever thought of changing the page layout of your website?
    Its very well written; I love what youve got to
    say. But maybe you could a little more in the way of content so people could connect with
    it better. Youve got an awful lot of text for only having one or
    two pictures. Maybe you could space it out better?

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