Daily news roundups

It’s NYRB for Union in next round of USOC, it’s Japan for US in WWC final, new name for PPL Park, more

Photo: Paul Rudderow

Philadelphia Union

The backdrop used for Union press conferences changed at the beginning of June, and new signage is up at PPL Park, so it comes as no surprise that, next season, PPL Park will have a new name. Indeed, we wondered if a new name might be in the works more than a year ago following a Reuters report.

On Wednesday, The Inquirer reported Talen Energy, the spinoff from PPL Corp., now holds the naming rights to the stadium, courtesy of the $20 million, ten-year deal that was inked in 2010. The report says, “No word yet on the stadium’s exact new name.” How about Talen Green? Energy companies love the word green and it has a nice old-timey, if a little British, ring to it. Maybe the inevitable Soylent Green jokes would be a bit much. Talen Field? Talen Park? It’s gonna have “Energy” in the name, isn’t it? Sigh.

The Union will face New York Red Bulls on the road in the next round of the US Open Cup after the Red Bulls thumped New York Cosmos 4-1 on Wednesday in the conclusion of Round of 16 play. The lone Cosmos goal came from former Harrisburg City Islander forward — and Union trialist — Lucky Mkosana, assisted by Union loanee Leo Fernandes.

We mentioned in Wednesday’s roundup that the date for the Union’s Open Cup quarterfinal match if New York won, originally scheduled for July 23, the day after they host Chelsea in a friendly, had been changed on the US Soccer website to July 15, the day after the Union host new Premier League side Bournemouth in a friendly. We also said you could count on the Union fighting to have that date changed and it seems they have because now the quarterfinal date is listed on the US Soccer site as TBD. Stay tuned.

In the event, if the Union defeat Red Bulls on the road in the quarterfinals, they’ll host the winner of Chicago-Orlando in the semifinals. Here’s a roundup of last night’s Round of 16 results.

At CBS Philly, Kevin Kinkead looks at how Jim Curtin’s decision to take Wenger off for Fabinho, and use Maidana as a false 9, when the team was down a player and down a goal, paid off in Tuesday’s heroic US Open Cup win over DC. More on Curtin’s tactics from Matthew De George at Delco Times.

More reports and recaps from Tuesday night’s win at The 700 Level, Vavel, Philly Sports NetworkSons of Penn, and DCist.

here at PSP), has a thoughtful piece about the Union’s ongoing leadership and public relations problems: “Every league has well-run clubs that win, year after year. Every league has teams that can’t get out of their own way, lose out on the money front, and fail to meet to the basic measure of mediocrity. That’s not the biggest shame of it all. That distinction belongs to teams who make the basic mistake of turning passionate fans into disillusioned malcontents by their own choices.”

The Union’s Behind the Crest blog has a midseason review.

Local

Reckless Challenge has a midseason review for Harrisburg City Islanders.

Lehigh Valley United Sonic have been having a tough first season in the PDL filled with some heavy losses. On Wednesday night they were the team piling on the goals, defeating Westchester Flames 7-0 on the back of hat tricks from Alec Neumann and Doyle Tuvesson, who also had three assists.

MLS

Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez to Orlando? Shame he’s reportedly out of Mexico’s Gold Cup squad after breaking a collarbone in last night’s 0-0 draw with Honduras in a friendly. Real shame.

Abou Diaby to FC Dallas?

Frank Lampard has started training with NYCFC.

MLS President and Deputy Commissioner Mark Abbott says, with efforts in Minneapolis to reach a stadium deal at a standstill, and the July 1 deadline for a deal now expired, the league will visit with St. Paul city officials about the possibility of building a stadium in that city for the Minnesota United franchise. More at Minneapolis Star TribunePioneer PressMPR News, Minneapolis/St. Paul Business JournalCBS MinnesotaKARE 11, and KSTP.

Abbott said unless progress is made soon in both Minnesota and Miami, “we’re going to have to make a decision about what other markets are out there.”

US

USA v Japan

So, it’ll be a rematch of the 2011 Women’s World Cup between the US and Japan on Sunday (7 pm: Fox, Telemundo, Fox Soccer 2Go, NBC Deportes En Vivo) after the Japanese defeated England 2-1 courtesy of a stoppage time own-goal in Wednesday’s semifinal.

Abby Wambach said of Sunday’s matchup, “In order to be the best team in the world at the World Cup, you have to beat the best teams. We just beat the number one team in the world in Germany, and now we face Japan, another team that we have so much respect for. They have an amazing team and they’re the reigning World Cup champions, so I think it’s going to be a fantastic final.”

Sadly, Landon Donovan claims his tweet about the importance of having a veteran like Wambach on a World Cup squad even if she is not starting was not meant to be a dig at Jurgen Klinsmann. Donovan said, “I wish I was bright enough to do that. It would actually be pretty funny.”

At ESPNW, Jeff Carlisle has six storylines going into Sunday’s game.

By the way, the USA-Germany match averaged 8.4 million viewers on Fox, peaking at 12.1 million. That makes it the most viewed World Cup semifinal ever in the US, men’s or women’s.

After being the subject of much doubt in the leadup to the semifinal win over Germany, there are plenty of articles appearing saying that Jill Ellis has proven the critics wrong (see, for example, here and here). Me thinks we should wait until after Sunday’s final before coming to any conclusions.

The Inquirer on how Delran’s Carli Lloyd is inspiring local players. Heck, she’s a new national heroLloyd said after the win over Germany, “We didn’t come here just to make the final. We came here to win it, so we’re going to go after it.” More on Lloyd at Philly.com and the Inquirer.

USA Today says we shouldn’t compare the current US team to the one that won the 1999 Women’s World Cup. This is, of course, true. It is equally true that the team will have to win Sunday’s final to get out of the shadow of the 1999 team.

The morning after the US defeated Germany to advance to the Women’s World Cup final the price of tickets to the game on the secondary market went up by more than 50 percent. No doubt the increase is even larger now.

Unsurprisingly, tickets for the USWNT friendly against Costa Rica in Chattanooga on Aug. 19 sold out within hours of going on sale on Tuesday.

USMNT

Ahead of Friday’s friendly against Guatemala (7:30 pm: Fox Sports 1, UniMás, Univision Deportes, Fox Sports Go, Univision Deportes En Vivo), Jurgen Klinsmann has named Michael Bradley as captain of the US squad for the Gold Cup so that Clint Dempsey, following his US Open Cup antics suspension, can “focus on what he’s all about.” Klinsmann explained, “Clint is about scoring goals. We need Clint Dempsey badly with the National Team. We need him in a good spirit. What happened was a mistake, but it was the first red card in his career and a lot of people went at him. I think the best thing for everyone right now is to let him concentrate really on playing and doing what he does best. It’s his performance on the field. It’s his delivery for the U.S. National Team, and he has always delivered.”

Elsewhere

The Swiss Federal Office of Justice has announced the US has formally submitted a request to extradite the seven FIFA officials arrested in Zurich on May 27 before the FIFA congress in Zurich to elect a new president. These include FIFA vice president Jeffrey Webb, the former president of CONCACAF; Eugenio Figueredo, formerly FIFA vice president, CONMEBOL president, and Uruguay FA president; Costa Rican FA president Eduardo Li; Venezuela FA president Rafael Esquivel; former Brazilian FA president Jose Maria Marin (who is also on the FIFA committee organizing the soccer tournament for the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro next year);  FIFA development officer Julio Rocha, who is from Nicaragua; and Costas Takkas, a UK citizen who works for Webb. More from the AP and The Guardian.

25 Comments

  1. Great One says:

    Sorry the Union can’t change the signage ln the stadium until they’re able to unload a contract. They will get to it sometime in the near future.

  2. The Realist Brian says:

    IT’S PEOPLE. TALEN GREEN IS PEOPLE!
    .
    Who’s up for a trip to New Jersey?

    • John Ling says:

      I was thinking the same thing. Would be pretty awesome to have more Blue and Gold than red&white in the stands…

  3. Great One says:

    I get the starting point with Miami’s franchise, but I really don’t get the Minnesota decision. Is it just location? Did they offer the league more money? I thought the whole point was to expand into places with stadiums or agreements already in place. The daily articles are tedious and make the league look stupid. Although I guess they don’t care.

  4. The haves and the have nots of MLS… So nice to know we are a have not. How are we to compete…. Wait the business plan is about mediocre. I continue to forget that one indelible undeniable fact.
    .
    Sucks Balls. So nice to here Lampard is training though.
    .
    I’m unsure which is worse… Wanting to be great and choking or wanting to be fair to midling and not even achieving that goal. Further entraining the Philadelphia pathos/neurosis is that hardest part of what is happening with this club. You could have been great.
    .
    And lastly…. Thank you to Jason Davis.

  5. Andy Muenz says:

    The Union should really push to either keep the US Open Cup on the original date or move it to PPL Park. After all, the schedule was published months ago so the Red Bull were just stupid when they scheduled their game against Chelsea.

  6. Chicharito is out of the Gold Cup. I’m not sure this is good news for US fans. I have tickets to the final and I was looking forward to maybe watching him play, good or bad. Lately not so good. That allegedly “B” team from Mexico (maybe a mixture of A and B squads) looked dangerous, in spurts, at the Copa America. They drew with Chile. Does anyone here think the USA could play Chile, in Chile, to a 3-3 draw?

  7. Man if Abou Diaby can stay healthy (insert laugh track here) he could probably be one of the best players in this league. I’d take him on the Union in a second if it was a low-risk incentive laden deal. Such a shame his career has been ruined by injuries all stemming from one horror tackle like 6 years ago. Good luck to him wherever he goes.

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