Daily news roundups

Hernandez, Jordan, McLaughlin loaned to HCI, Pumas reports, Adu update, Costa Rica wants qualifier replayed, more

Photo: Paul Rudderow

Philadelphia Union

The Union announced on Monday that Cristhian Hernandez, Greg Jordan, and Jimmy McLaughlin will go on loan to Harrisburg City Islanders.

John Hackworth said in the announcement, “Cristhian, Greg and Jimmy are young players with a lot of potential, but the reality is that they need game experience at this point in their careers. This opportunity allows them to develop that game experience at a professional level while contributing to the success of our USL PRO affiliate, Harrisburg City Islanders.”

The loaned players can be recalled at anytime by the Union, who still have the option to loan one more player to their USL PRO affiliate.

Looking at the news from a City Islanders perspective, Derek Meluzio sees it as “the ideal loan situation for Harrisburg.”

With Saturday’s 1-0 win over Pumas, the Union move to 5-1-0 against international opposition at PPL Park.

John Hackworth said, “It’s a major point of pride. It’s the last thing we said in the locker room before we went out today. We wanna try to make sure that we use this home field advantage. We had to establish it. Obviously we didn’t do that on opening day, but we built some momentum going that way. This is a tough place to play and I think we showed that.”

That toughness saw a “friendly” with a total of 30 fouls, six yellow cards, and a couple of shoving matches. Hackworth said, “I think anytime you play a rival from Mexico you are going to have some natural heated moments and certainly you saw that. There is a lot of pride on both teams and in both countries for that matter; you know those things are going to happen, you just hope they never get out of control.”

Jimmy McLaughlin and Michael Farfan admire one fan's new Jarfan jersey. Photo: Earl Gardner

Jimmy McLaughlin and Michael Farfan admire one fan’s new Jarfan jersey. Photo: Earl Gardner

Michael Farfan said of his goal (may there be many more), “It was a great ball in from Wheeler, all I really had to do was pick my spot.”

John Hackworth jokingly said of Wheeler, “I think he is already a cult hero because of all the balls he won in the air. He probably won more balls in the air than we did all of last season. It was great for him.”

While he may not yet be a “cult hero,” make no mistake, Wheeler is a fan favorite in the making. Wheeler said, “I just do whatever I can to help the team, run around, bang with guys. I’ll do that and I’ll do whatever coach asks me. To be honest, I was just scared of him yelling at me for not running.

Match reports from PSP, philadelphiaunion.com, CSN Philly, DelcoTimes, and Philly Soccer News.

Keon Daniel went 88 minutes in Trinidad & Tobago’s scoreless draw with Belize on Saturday. The match report from the T&T Football Federation website says, “Daniel and Joevin Jones connected well on the left for T&T and caused their opponents some problems particularly in the opening half.”

Bakary Soumare was not on the gameday roster for Mali’s 2-1 win over Rwanda on Sunday.

Carlos Valdes scored the second goal in Colombia’s 5-0 thumping of Bolivia.

Zach Pfeffer is back with Hoffenheim after spending ten days with the US U-18 team. The team lost to France, and then drew and lost with Romania.

Union Dues looks at John Hackworth and sees red flags.

Freddy Adu

SBI reports that sources have confirmed that Freddy Adu signed a deal with Bahia on Friday night.

The nature of the deal remains unclear. Before the reported signing, several reports from Brazil seemed to suggest that the deal was a loan until the end of 2013, which is reiterated in this report from Samba Football and this from ESPN. The SBI report, which describes how much money the Union would save in 2014 because of the transfer, implies that the deal is for two years.

At ESPN, James Young has an interesting read on Bahia’s place in Brazil’s football landscape. It says of the Adu move, “In many ways it might be a perfect fit, for there is no footballing region in the world that fails to fulfill its potential like the Brazilian northeast.”

A column at ecbahia.com says of the Adu deal, “Bahia won’t pay for the salary of the player alone. There is a company that is a majority owner of the athlete’s pass (rights) that is going to deal with the majority of it.” Is that third party the Union? MLS? Someone else? (Crappy Google translation of the article here.)

A column at correio24horas.com describes how Bahia can benefit in terms of marketing the team in the US thanks to the Adu deal. (Crappy Google translation here.)

Local

Harrisburg played to a 2-2 draw with Navy on Sunday. Former Union signing Damani Richards started the game at left back for the Islanders but left after the half with an injury.

Former Union man and local lad Ryan Richter is now with Toronto FC.

Former Junior Lone Star FC forward Anthony Allison is trialling with with Sweden’s First Division side Umea FC.

MLS

In the Eastern Conference standings, the Union are now in fourth place after a bye week. Montreal remain in first place with a 1-0 win over ninth place New York. Columbus moves into second place with a 2-1 road win over sixth place DC. Houston move into third place with a 2-1 come-from-behind win over Vancouver. Kansas City is in fifth place following a 0-0 draw with seventh place New England. Toronto, who also had a bye week, are in eighth place. Chicago are in last place following a 4-1 loss at home to Chivas USA.

Keep Calm and Don’t Panic seem to be the watchwords at Seattle and New York. Seattle is off to their worst start in franchise history with just one point from three games. New York is winless and with two points after four games. ““If this is any other league in the world, it’s maybe a little worrisome,” says New York captain Dax McCarty. “It’s a long season, try to make the playoffs, 30 more games to make it right.”

Former Union goalkeeper Chris Seitz started his first game for Dallas since May 12, 2012, recording his second career shutout in the 2-0 win over Salt Lake.

At Goal.com, Kyle McCarthy looks back on the weekend’s action. The Guardian does the same.

US

Match reports on the USMNT’s 1-0 World Cup qualification win over Costa Rica from PSP, SI, Sporting News, SBI, MLSsoccer.com, Soccer America, Goal.com, ProSoccerTalkDenver Post (1), Denver Post (2), Washington Post, New York Times, New York Daily News, The Guardian, The AP, Time, MLS Talk, SB Nation, plus this postgame quote sheet.

Player ratings from PSP, ESPN, SI, ASN, Goal.com, plus the Castrol Index.

USA snow shovel

USMNT players signed one of the snow shovels from Friday’s World Cup qualifier win over Costa Rica.

Costa Rica filed a protest with FIFA on Sunday calling for Friday’s World Cup qualifier to be replayed. Costa Rican Football Federation Treasurer Rolando Villalobos said in a statement, “What happened the night of Friday the 22nd … has no precedents, since it not only went against the sporting spectacle, but also against the physical integrity of the officials and players.”

US Soccer has not commented on the protest.

FIFA says it will “analyze the content” of Costa Rica’s protest and that the “next steps will be determined in due course.”

At MLSsoccer.com, Chris Bianchi writes that sympathy among the press corps for Costa Rica evaporated as soon as reporters entered their locker room. “Post-game, the Costa Ricans seemed to take the approach of an upset child: Kick, yell and scream louder, and maybe somebody will respond. Their reaction was so uniform, from the players to head coach Jorge Luis Pinto to federation president Eduardo Li, that it almost seemed rehearsed. Scripted. Pre-determined.”

More on player reactions to the conditions from ASN.

While admitting he is biased, John Hackworth said of Friday’s qualifier, “[P]laying on snow in Denver is way better than playing on their version of astroturf in Saprissa, absolutely 100 percent. So I don’t think [Costa Rica] had anything to complain about.”

At Sporting News, Brian Straus looks at how Jurgen Klinsmann led the US through a turbulent week to victory. At ESPN, Roger Bennett says the team displayed much-needed unity.

So if Jurgen Klinsmann isn’t the problem, is the problem his assistant, Martin Vasquez?

Believe it or not, tactics remain a factor even during a blizzard. ASN analyzes the tactics that gave the US the win.

At SI, Grant Wahl highlights the strong play of DaMarcus Beasley in his first start for the US in three years.

Jermaine Jones will be unavailable for Tuesday night’s qualifier with Mexico after suffering an ankle injury in Friday’s game.

Looking ahead to Tuesday’s qualifier in Mexico, local media spied on the USMNT’s closed practice from a nearby rooftop.

Soccer America has some backstory on Mexico, who allowed Honduras to come from 2-0 to finish with a draw. Goal.com looks at possible starters for Mexico.

9 Comments

  1. Are there any good teams in the MLS at the moment? The entire league seems to mired in the bad kind of parity with really mushy games. Not thr great kind of parity with really ultra competitive fun games.

    • Montreal has all 12 points from its first 4 games and a +4 goal difference. It’s early but that squad looks like the real deal.

      I generally agree with you though, lots of slop early on.

      • 4-0-0 is impressive, but a +4 goal differential is not. It means that they win by one goal rather than burying teams. Reminds me of another 2nd year team two years ago that had a strong start and made it into the playoffs with a bunch of 1 goal wins (and a couple of big wins at Toronto and New England).

      • The Black Hand says:

        +4 through 4 games is pretty good. Montreal’s Italian transfers have given the team a very good back line and they’re strikers are as good as any in the league. The difference between the Impact and the Union is: Ownership. The Impact have committed ownership focused on bringing a quality club to Montreal. Two years in and already unable to see us in their rearview.

    • Montreal looks good, but they play very conservatively. Typical Italian team. They play good defense, take their time on offense, and wait for you to make a mistake.

      Houston looked good Saturday against Vancouver, even though they were missing Davis and Boniek Garcia. Definitely a good team.

      The DC United-Columbus game Saturday was terrific, just a highlight reel for goalkeepers, but each is a middle-of-the-pack team, no more. (DCU has a weak back line. Columbus has a mediocre midfield.)

      I think there are good teams, but some (Seattle, San Jose, KC) have been hurt by injuries, international duty, and slow adjustments to newcomers. (And yeah, you can guess how I spent the weekend — watching too much soccer.)

  2. Check out the comments below Bennett’s ESPN article! Incredible stuff from guys who were in the sold out stadium in the snow!!!

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