Daily news roundups

Power rankings slide, best place to work, Brazilian heat, more news

Photo: Paul Rudderow

Philadelphia Union

The Union could only watch as they fell to seventh place in the Eastern Conference and 15th overall during this past weekend’s bye as New England moved ahead of them in the conference standings and Columbus drew within one point. The bad news was reflected in the latest power rankings. At ESPN, the Union plummet three spots to No. 16. At Soccer America, it’s a one spot drop to No. 13. SI demotes them two spots to No. 12, which is also where ProSoccerTalk has them.

In this post on the recent school supplies drive is a reminder that the annual SEPA Soccer Hall of Fame coat drive will be continuing at the final two regular season home games, Oct. 5 against Toronto and Oct. 26 against Kansas City.

The Sons of Ben have bus and/or game ticket packages available for the Union game in DC on Oct. 12.

The Union has been named one of the best places to work in Pennsylvania. Insert Nowak joke here.

Independence Blue Cross has partnered with the Phillies, Flyers, 76ers, and Union to create team-specific content for the new Home Team IBX website. On the Union page there are several video clips, including Brian Carroll talking about Union fans and Antoine Hoppenot on whether he is faster than Ray Gaddis, Q&As with several players, and more. Who knew Keon Daniel was such a big Tom & Jerry fan?

What’s this, PPL Park in Us Weekly?

Local

The Villanova men’s team hosts Penn today at 4 pm.

MLS

In CONCACAF Champions League play, Montreal hosts Heredia tonight at 8 pm (Fox Soccer 2Go). Montreal lost the first leg in Guatemala, 1-0.

Steve Lenhart was voted MLSsoccer.com’s Player of the Week after he scored both goals in San Jose’s 2-1 road win over RSL on Saturday.

The Houston Chronicle reports that Brian Ching will announce his retirement today.

The Brotherly Game wonders if MLS should adopt a four division format to accommodate expanding to 24 teams.

US

At the Washington Post, Steven Goff reports that efforts to convince GolTV to stream next Tuesday’s US Open Cup final, or allow US Soccer to stream the game, have failed. GolTV, in the second year of a three-year contract to broadcast the Open Cup final, is no longer as widely available as it once was after being displaced from the channel lineup of many cable and satellite providers by beIN Sports.

You will recall the reported interest in Luis Gil from the Mexican soccer federation. Gil says, “I’ve heard it before when I was younger. I haven’t heard directly from them. It’s always been around but I just hope that one day I hope I can play for the U.S. I grew up wanting to play for U.S. Soccer.”

The US beach soccer team won it’s final group game at the Beach Soccer World Cup, defeating the UAE 6-4. The US finished third in Group A with the win, it’s only of the tournament.

Elsewhere

FIFPro secretary general Theo van Seggelen says all of the talk about Qatar 2022 is overshadowing health concerns for the World Cup in Brazil in 2014. “I spoke to the Italian and Spanish players after the [Confederations Cup] semi-final and they said it was impossible to play extra time in that heat, and that was a late afternoon kickoff. We have to realize that it’s not just the quality of the game that is affected, but the players’ health could be damaged.”

UEFA has announced that six Eastern European clubs that are participating in the 2013/14 UEFA club competitions have had their prize money temporarily withheld pending further investigation after failing to provide financial information in compliance with UEFA Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play Regulations. An additional 25 clubs have been asked to provide further information.

Reuters reports, “The Israeli and Palestinian Football Associations will each appoint a liaison officer to facilitate the movement of players in and out of the Palestinian territories, world soccer’s governing body FIFA said on Monday.”

4 Comments

  1. Brazil is too hot in the winter!?!
    The average temperatures are 75-80 pretty much across the entire country.

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