Daily news roundups

Recaps & reaction to USA win, Reading knocked out of USOC, Harrisburg in USOC tonight, more

US

Well, I guess the first World Cup warmup match was pretty much what one would expect against a team that was happy to defend. Hopefully, the team will look sharper against Turkey, a much stronger opponent, on Sunday. Nice to see Mix Diskerud and Aron Johannsson score, though.

Jurgen Klinsmann said after the game, “This was exactly what we needed. We needed to grind it out.” He added, “Everyone did fine. They did exactly what we hoped they would do.”

Klinsmann said of the team’s performance, “We’re not concerned at all. We knew it was going to be tricky with the conditions out there. You need to keep the ball on the ground, even then if you hit a high ball, that ball is gone, it goes all over the place…I think the energy was there, the drive was there, the willingness to keep the tempo high, even with two weeks of heavy work in their legs. It’s not looking as fresh as it looks hopefully a couple of weeks down the road because of the work we’re doing.”

Michael Bradley said, “We are exactly where we expected to be. We had a good two weeks here and finish off with a good 90 minutes against a difficult team. Regardless of the result, we feel good about where we are. The reality is that these games are —  you want the results to be right because, obviously, that builds momentum and helps with confidence, but the results are not the most important thing.”

Chris Wondolowski said, “We’re not supposed to be peaking right now, we’re supposed to be peaking down in Brazil. That’s been the coach’s game plan from the start, and I think we’re starting to execute it.”

Much was made of the fact that Diskerud was wearing the No. 10, the number previously worn by Landon Donovan. Diskerud said, “For me, it’s just a number. I feel like I’m just borrowing it. We’ll play together someday, and he’ll get it back.”

MLSsoccer.com has a good piece on Diskerud’s path to the World Cup.

Before news that Clint Dempsey was a late scratch from the lineup as a precautionary measure due to a soreness in his groin, Soccer America published a post on the history of injuries in US World Cup warmup games.

Recaps and reaction from PSP, US Soccer, MLSsoccer.com, ESPN, ASN, Soccer America, Goal.com, SBI, Soccerly,  and The AP.

Player ratings from MLSsoccer.com, ASN, Soccer America, Goal.com, ProSoccerTalk, and ESPN. Also at ProSoccerTalk, a look at whose stock rose.

SI’s Grant Wahl, MLSsoccer.com’s Andrew Wiebe, and ProSoccerTalk’s Richard Farley have three thoughts on the game. Not to be outdone, the Guardian’s Graham Parker has four things from the game.

In USWNT news, Tony Gustavsson has been named assistant coach. Gustavsson, a native of Sweden and formerly an assistant coach at the US team under Pia Sunhage, most recently coached Tyresö FF — home of USWNT players Christen Press, Whitney Engen, Meghan Klingenberg, and the former home of Ali Krieger and Ashlyn Harris — to the UEFA Women’s Champions League final, where the team lost 4-3 to Wolfsburg.

At The Far Post, Seth Sawyers has a good read on why when he watches the USMNT, he must watch alone.

Philadelphia Union

In the latest Inside Doop, Dave Zeitlin asks, “With the Union coming off two straight embarrassing performances heading into Saturday’s game against Chivas USA, can Edu be the guy to steady the ship and avoid having the season fall off a cliff? It’s certainly worth questioning what Edu’s focus will be like now that he’s back in MLS knowing that his dream of playing in a second straight World Cup is dead.” Fair question.

More power rankings. At ProSoccerTalk, the Union drop two-spots to No. 18: “Five goals to New England. Four to the Galaxy. Looks like that win in Kansas City was a pure fluke. This team’s not only back to their pre-Sporting selves, the defense may be worse.”

Unsurprisingly, given Sunday’s abysmal performance, no Union players are in the latest Castrol Index Top 20 Performers list. In the Full Castrol Index, the top five Union players are Andrew Wenger (No. 25), Leo Fernandes (No. 55), Maurice Edu (No. 98), Cristian Maidana (No. 115), and Amobi Okugo (No. 131).

At the Union website, Kerith Gabriel has a good profile piece on Ray Gaddis. John Hackworth says in the article, “He is the model of consistency, which is really important when you are playing at this level. It’s funny that we aren’t talking about Ray as a [preeminent] starter because over the last two years he’s probably one of the most consistent guys we can put on the field…The idea that you had Fabinho and Sheanon, I think Ray  at the moment has played his way into being the most consistent of the three of them.” Yep.

Isportsweb includes the Union in its list of five MLS teams that need reinforcements. The article describes the McInerney trade as “a foolish move” and calls for a veteran center back, saying, “It might be time to give up on former Rookie of the Year, Austin Berry.”

While warning that “this isn’t any kind of scoop, rumor, or even wild speculation,” Toronto FC blog Waking the Red wonders if the team would benefit with the addition of Sebastien Le Toux.

CBS Philly reports on the partnership between the Union and Independence Blue Cross Foundation to back the Healthy Futures program, “a three-year, $3-million effort that touches more than 1,000 fourth graders in the five-county area.” Pedro Ribeiro was at South Philly’s St. Gabriel’s School on Tuesday as part of the program.

Local

Reading United’s Nick Surkamp scored in the 66th minute in Tuesday night’s US Open Cup third round game at Rochester Rhinos only to concede the equalizer one minute later. With the scoreline level at 1-1 after regulation time, the game went into extra time. In the 97th minute, Union Academy alum Darius Madison was given a second yellow card and Reading would play out the rest of the match with ten men. In the 119th minute, Rochester scored the gamewinner off of a deflected ball following a free kick. Match recaps from Rochester Rhinos, TheCup.us, and USL PRO.

Harrisburg City Islanders are in Towson, Md. tonight for their US Open Cup third round tie with PDL club Baltimore Bohemians. Kickoff is at 5:30 pm.

City Islanders head coach Bill Becher said, “The Baltimore team is going to be very good. Last year it was a PDL team [Reading United A.C.] that knocked us out. PDL teams have had great success in this tournament, so we need to go there prepared to play against a good team. Hopefully we can do enough to get the result.”

If Harrisburg wins, they will face the Union at PPL Park on June 17.

Philly soccer legend and National Soccer Hall of Famer Walt Bahr talks to ESPN about defeating England in the 1950 World Cup.

Kensington-born National Soccer Hall of Famer and friend of PSP Len Oliver is included in an article at the Washington Post talking to five DC-area residents about how soccer has been a part of their life.

MLS

Kansas City and New York played to a 1-1 draw on Tuesday night. The result meant no change in the standings, with Kansas City remaining in second place, New York in sixth.

Brazil goalkeeper Julio Cesar says he is better prepared for the World Cup than ever, thanks to his time with Toronto FC.

Describing his time with Toronto as “excellent preparation” for the World Cup, Cesar said of those who would dismiss MLS, “Before you go out criticizing something, [do] a little research. In the United States, of course you talk about NFL and NBA, but the MLS deserves a lot of respect for what they’ve been doing as well.”

Oh, and he also likes the Brazuca.

The Toronto Globe and Mail reports, “Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment – owner of the Leafs, Raptors and Toronto FC – has cancelled plans to include the Toronto Argonauts in its renovation of BMO Field.” No gridiron stripes on the pitch, hooray!

The Miami Herald reports that Miami Commissioner Frank Carollo is concerned City Hall is “getting ahead of any discussions with Beckham and his investors” with the latest stadium location.

Read more here: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2014/05/miami-commissioner-fears-city-hall-is-getting-ahead-of-david-beckham-stadium-talks-before-they-begin.html#storylink=cpy

Elsewhere

FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke says he has no regrets about Brazil hosting the 2014 World Cup:

You cannot regret organizing the World Cup in Brazil because it’s a football country. It’s not been a lot more complicated than South Africa.

It’s a country that is developing, and which has taken on two major challenges in the World Cup and the Olympics, so it needed to develop between 2007 and 2014, organize the World Cup, and have 12 cities which needed more installations than they might have had during that period.

In the end, Brazil is going to show that it has organized the World Cup well, nothing bad will happen during it. Potentially, we’ll even be criticized for having criticised [the organizer’s preparations]. Brazil is Brazil, and is going to bring something positive.

Here’s hoping that saying “nothing bad will happen” won’t come back to haunt him.

Reuters reports, “U.S. sportswear group Nike is banking on its sponsorship of more of the world’s best-known soccer stars than Adidas in its battle to overtake the German firm as the sport’s top-selling brand at its World Cup this summer.”

The Central American Football Union has announced that Sept. 13  final of the 2014 Copa Centroamericana will take place at LA Memorial Coliseum. The winner will get a spot in the 2016 Copa America, which will also take place in the US.

From Colombia Reports, “Supporters of a local Colombian soccer team took to the streets after having been duped into believing that their team had won the national championship…Fans of the Junior Barranquilla soccer team were conned by a false twitter statement that said their team were the victors in last week’s championship due to a technicality.” Hilarious.

6 Comments

  1. scottymac says:

    “In the Full Castrol Index, the top five Union players are Andrew Wenger (No. 25), Leo Fernandes (No. 55), Maurice Edu (No. 98), Cristian Maidana (No. 115), and Amobi Okugo (No. 131).”

    And that is Exhibit 1 why the Castrol Index holds no water. Andrew Wenger #25, Vincent Nogueira #224. Maybe in the pursuit of counting things, they should focus on counting the right things.

  2. $3 million on 1,000 kids? That’s $3,000 per kid! I guess over 3 years, they’re “only” spending $1,000 per year per kid. Holy crap, what a scam.

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