Daily news roundups

US opens Gold Cup play tonight, Curtin on Union injury status, WWC final sets new TV record, more

USA v Honduras in Gold Cup opener

The US faces Honduras in their Group A opener tonight at 9:30 pm as they look to defend their Gold Cup title (Fox Sports 1, UniMás, Univision Deportes, Fox Sports Go, Fox Soccer 2Go, SiriusXM FC).

PSP’s preview is here. Other previews of both this game and the tournament as a whole abound: US Soccer, Fox Sports (1, 2), ESPNASN, Goal.com (1, 2), ProSoccerTalkSI, and The Guardian all get in on the act. Soccer America has a scouting report, and American Soccer Analysis has previews of the US and Honduran teams.

Philadelphia Union

Jim Curtin tells CBS Philly’s Kevin Kinkead that things are looking up on the injury front. “Everybody now is healthy and pushing each other in the right way. We’re trying to be smart still with Mike Lahoud and Sebastien Le Toux, just monitoring them and talking to them, but they got through training well and I’m happy with where everybody is at. We have a deep bench now and some tough decisions to make.”

Curtin described Fernando Aristeguieta’s recovery as “good,” adding, “He worked out on the side and I’ll get more information (after training). I talked to him before training and he was running around and cutting on his own. He looks like himself, says he still has a bit of discomfort with certain movements, but I think he’ll be available for the weekend.” We’ll learn more at Wednesday’s press conference.

Reaction to comments we linked to Monday morning from Nick Sakiewicz to Allentown Morning Call that the team is looking to launch a USL team at Brotherly Game and Philly Sports Network.

At the Union website, Kyle Basedow on the promise of Eric Ayuk.

In Soccer America’s power rankings, the Union remain at No. 14. “It has no midweek league games for the rest of the season, so if it falls short of the playoffs, the schedule can’t be blamed.”

On the road again…

Local

At the Daily News, praise for Carli Lloyd. Philly.com on her newly enormous celebrity. The Inquirer on the surprise visit to Sunday’s final from some of her friends from home. The Inquirer on her high school’s pride in her stunning performance.

CBS Philly on the inspiration Lloyd provides to local athletes.

Lloyd’s former neighbor in Delran owes her some Slurpees.

Heather Mitts will be hosting the new Soccer Superstar reality miniseries that premieres on Wednesday at 9 pm on Nicktoons.

The soccer program at George Washington Carver High School for Engineering and Science has four teams but only one goal. A teacher at the school has started a GoFundMe campaign to raise money to buy a new goal, which should cost $630. If you can donate, you’ll be helping a very worthy cause.

MLS

NYCFC announced the signing of Andrea Pirlo as their third DP on Monday. The announcement says, “Pirlo joins the Club on July 21 and will be available for selection immediately following that.”

A source tells Goal.com that Pirlo will not be loaned to Manchester City.

Orlando City have announced they will not appeal the red card that was issued to Kaka over the weekend.

US

Sunday’s US World Cup victory was the most watched broadcast of a soccer game in US history, with a combined average of 26.7 million (25.4 million in English on Fox, the most watched English-language broadcast of a soccer game ever in the US, and 1.27 million in Spanish on Telemundo) and peaking at 30.9 million . The previous record was the 2014 World Cup final between Germany and Argentina, which had a combined average of 26.5 million. The Fox broadcast of the game bested the numbers of the deciding games of the NBA and NHL finals, and had the highest ratings of any US broadcast since the NCAA basketball tournament final.

The team was presented with newly updated three-star jerseys on Monday.

Boston.com talks to Kelly Farrell, the instantly famous US fan otherwise known as Eagle Lady, Eagle Woman, or, best of all Sheagle. Farrell said of her Eagle head costume, “I got it about a month before we left for Vancouver. We knew we were front row, so we wanted something big. I think we achieved that… Although, I’ll assume that the people sitting behind me weren’t the biggest fans of their obstructed view.”

The USWNT will be doing a ten-city victory tour later this summer and the Inquirer says Delran should be one of those stops.

Manhattan borough president Gale Brewer has written an open letter asking New York City mayor Bill de Blasio to give the team a ticker-tape parade in Manhattan. A de Blasio’s spokesperson tells Time: “The Mayor’s Office congratulates the U.S. Women’s World Cup Championship team on its tremendous achievement, and is currently exploring logistics and talking with the team and other partners about a possible ticker-tape parade.” If the parade happens, it would be the first for a women’s sports team.

Fortune notes that Nike, a sponsor of the US team but not of the Women’s World Cup, was the winningest brand on social media on Sunday. The article includes this interesting line: Carli Lloyd “was 200% more seen on social media on Sunday than all 30 MLB teams combined.”

The 700 Level says Sunday’s win was a win for all of us.

Elsewhere

Harold Mayne-Nicholls, the former head of the Chilean FA and man in charge of the inspection teams for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bids, has been banned from all football related activities for seven years by FIFA’s ethics committee. In it’s announcement, the ethics committee gave no reason for the ban. The AP reports, “In the technical report, Mayne-Nicholls flagged eventual winners Russia and Qatar as presenting the most risk to FIFA as potential host nations.”

The Guardian’s Owen Gibson notes Mayne-Nicolls was one of five officials “whom cases were opened in the wake of the publication of a controversial summary of Michael Garcia’s report into World Cup bidding.” Gibson explains Mayne-Nicolls “was being investigated over an email exchange with the head of Qatar’s Aspire Academy. During the bidding process, Mayne-Nicholls asked if his sons might be able to train there at his expense and also inquired about opportunities for his brother-in-law, a tennis coach. Nothing came of the exchange and yet now Mayne-Nicholls has been banned for seven years…Mayne-Nicholls was incredulous that he was being investigated given that he was critical of Qatar’s suitability in his final report and that nothing came of the exchanges with Aspire.”

While the 2015 Women’s World Cup set a new record for total attendance at 1,353,506, the average attendance of 26,029 was the lowest in 12 years. Without the additional games that came from the expansion of the field of teams from 16 in 2011 to 24 in 2015, and FIFA counting doubleheaders as separate games, the total and average attendance would no doubt be lower still.

12 Comments

  1. Was watching a replay of the 2011 Gold Cup Final. It’s almost unfathomable that Freddy Adu actually started that match for the US (with an assist on the first goal) and is now looking for a new club again. Amazing.

    • Not to kick a dead horse, but if you ever met him or knew someone who worked with him you would understand. He makes Barry Bonds seem modest.

  2. In other news Freddy Adu signs with Lehigh Valley Sonic.

  3. How am I supposed to explain to my family why I have to watch Nicktoons.

  4. Andy Muenz says:

    I was travelling and missed the game Sunday night but had taped it and watched it last night. Did anyone notice that Japan took a play out of the Union’s playbook and tried simultaneous throw-ins? Of course Wenger and Fabhino would have gotten a higher score from the judges for better synchronicity 🙂

    • Yes, I totally noticed that! I wondered if anyone on this site would comment, since several PSPers said they thought that was the most pathetic thing they’d ever seen on a soccer pitch.

  5. Andy Muenz says:

    If anyone from PSP is attending tomorrow’s press conference, I would like to know if there are any plans to appeal Sapong’s red card from the Open Cup game?

  6. The Sheagle… now that’s some good nick-naming right there!! Haha
    .
    Also, I just want to say how amazing it is that so much soccer is available on TV. It’s really a golden age for us Americans.

  7. Austin Zigler says:

    That article by Kyle Basedow could use some work. I give it a C+.

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