Daily news roundups

US downed, Union face Chicago in USOC semis, soccer operations director search update, more

US

Gonna be a lot of empty seats at the sold-out Linc on Sunday.

On Wednesday evening, 76th ranked Jamaica defeated 33rd ranked US tin the semis to advance to Sunday’s final. The last time the US lost at home to a Caribbean country? A 1-0 defeat on May 11, 1969 against Haiti in a World Cup qualifier in San Diego.

Klinsmann said after the Wednesday’s loss, “We lost this game with two set pieces that we conceded. It’s as simple as that. We had enough chances to put three, four, five in there. We didn’t do that, and that’s why at the end of the day we lost it. That’s unfortunate, but it’s reality. Congratulations to Jamaica being in the final, and we have to swallow that pill.” Gulp.

Michael Bradley said, “It’s very disappointing, very frustrating. But again, we have no divine right to be in the final. We certainly didn’t think that. We knew from the get-go that this was going to be an extremely difficult tournament. It was. And we’ll continue to move ourselves forward, to push, to improve.”

So, how’s Klinsmann’s job security? Just fine. But, as reports at ESPN, Washington PostUSA Today, Yahoo Sports, ASNGoal.com, DeadspinProSoccerTalk suggest, questions are being asked about decisions he’s made and their part in the loss, and what all of this means going forward.

Having won the last Gold Cup, the US now must defeat the winner of Sunday’s final in a one-game playoff on Friday, October 9 to qualify for the Confederations Cup. Expect Tim Howard to be back with the team by then. And don’t forget, World Cup qualification for the US begins in November.

Jamaica’s opponent in the final will be Mexico after a semifinal win over Panama that will live in infamy for years to come (nice job, Mark Geiger, although there is plenty of blame to go around from players and team officials to the cretins in the stands, too). Can we just pull an Australia and leave CONCACAF and join UEFA or something?

Recaps and reports on the US loss at PSP, US Soccer, CONCACAF, Jamaican Football FederationFox Sports, CBS Sports, SINew York Times, Washington PostLos Angeles Times, Wall Street JournalUSA Today, Jamaica GleanerJamaica Observer, The Guardian, MLSsoccer.comYahoo Sports, ASNProSoccerTalk, Goal.com, SBIAmerican Soccer AnalysisReuters, and the AP. Quote sheet at US Soccer.

Player ratings at New York Times, ESPNMLSsoccer.com, Soccer AmericaASNProSoccerTalk, and World Soccer Talk,

CBS Sports and Soccer America have three takeaways. SI has three quick thoughts, as well as five points.

Philadelphia Union

The Union will host Chicago Fire on Tuesday, August 11 at 7:30 pm in the semifinals of the US Open Cup after Chicago defeated Orlando City, 3-1, on Wednesday night.

At Delco Times, Matthew De George reports the Union have “fallen short of landing its most significant target to date for the director of soccer operations position,” Rodolfo Borrell, who was hired to be global technical director for Manchester City in March, 2014. De George writes, “Though one of many candidates, Borrell is the individual with whom the Union have held the most advanced negotiations thus far.”

Nick Sakiewicz tells De George of the ongoing search for a director of soccer operations, “There’s no timeframe for this. It’s just when we find the right guy to help build this thing right, we find the right guy. In the meantime, we have a plan. Jim has a plan, (Academy director) Tommy (Wilson) has a plan, and we’re moving that forward.”

More on Tuesday’s big US Open Cup win from Philadelphia MagazineThe 700 LevelCapital New York, MLSsoccer.com,

At MLSsoccer.com, more on the Union’s reported interest in Swiss international Tranquillo Barnetta. You can see the original Swiss report referenced in the article, which also reports interest in Barnetta from Leicester and Real Betis, here (crappy Google translation here). Nothing will happen anyway until Mbolhi’s gone, don’t you think? Although there is this:

Andre Blake tells Brotherly Game he wants to compete for the Union’s starting goalkeeper position.

Brotherly Game on the need to solve the Union’s “tactical identity crisis,” and the dilemma of supporting a team whose front office has “continually made poor decisions.”

The Union move up four spots to No. 13 in ProSoccerTalk’s power rankings.

Local

CBS Philly has more on Carli Lloyd’s homecoming, which on Wednesday included a stop at Evesham township gym, her training facility since 2003.

Lloyd also appeared on CSN’s Breakfast on Broad.

MLS

Chicago Fire head coach Frank Yallop said on Wednesday night the club expects to know whether Didier Drogba will sign with the club “in the next 48 hours.”

FC Dallas have acquired Argentine midfielder Ezequiel Cirigliano on loan from River Plate.

David Beckham’s Miami MLS franchise ownership group, Miami Beckham United, has submitted a formal letter of intent to Miami mayor Tomas Regalado to build a “world-class” soccer specific stadium next to Marlin Park. More from Miami Herald, Miami New TimesNBC Miami, CBS MiamiLocal 10, WSVN, and ESPN.

Miami Herald reports Miami city commissioner Frank Carollo, “whose district includes the city-owned land where Beckham’s team is now looking to build a stadium for a Miami MLS franchise, says he’s concerned that the project would also require purchasing a private apartment complex and displacing residents. More disconcerting, he says, is that those residents are now learning through the media that they might have to find a new home.”

Meanwhile, as Washington Post reports on progress being made in the construction of the NFL stadium that will be the home to the Atlanta Falcons as well as new MLS franchise Atlanta United, which will begin play in 2017, an opinion piece at Minneapolis Tribune says city officials better hurry if they don’t want to loose out on Minnesota United building a stadium in that city rather than St. Paul, My San Antonio says that region needs to get focused if it hopes to land a MLS franchise, and Charlotte Business Journal reports local sports executives believe Charlotte has a “pretty realistic” shot at landing a franchise of its own.

Elsewhere

Reuters reports, “Wilfried Lemke, the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Sport for Development and Peace, said Blatter had made ‘very bad mistakes’ by not controlling ‘where money went and what people did,’ but it was wrong to portray him as ‘the baddest guy in the world.'” Lemke explains,

I am totally convinced that he is not corrupt, but if you read the papers all around the world and you would ask people around the world, they would say ‘Oh, this is the most corrupt man in the world,’ and this is definitely not correct.

What I say, he has his responsibility and he has also now finally to resign, if I would be him or if he would have asked me before, I would (have) say, “You should have gone some years before.”

Like, totally convinced?

Olga Kuzkova, a 21-year-old supporter of CSKA Moscow who was the club’s entry into the Miss Russia Premier League competition where she won “Miss Charming”? Yeah, she’s a Nazi. Charming, indeed. More at the Washington Post.

15 Comments

  1. World Cup in Russia is gonna be fun.

  2. i’m still steaming over that loss. how on earth can you start that cb pairing in the knockouts

  3. It is very challenging for me to understand how after almost 6 years this club is still without soccer specific leadership.
    .
    ‘There’s no timeframe on this.’ Come on mr sakiewicz…. did you hitch everything on Peter Nowak? I guess you just figured he was the soccer brains.
    .
    How can it be we are still without a sporting director in light of Peter losing his mind nearly 3 years ago- Over 1,000 days.
    .
    ‘Jim has a plan.’ ‘Tommy has a plan.’
    .
    I imagine you have a plan. Mr sugarman likely has a plan. Mr. Graham has a plan. Any other people we can think of that likely has a plan for the Union.
    .
    I have a plan….. skewed skewer skewer until this is right.
    .

    • I look forward to Nikky Sak on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial giving his “I Have a Plan” speech.

    • I thought that by now it was pretty clear the only plan Sak ever had was to ride Nowak to glory. Once that fell apart, he had no backup plan in place and it’s been a disaster ever since.

    • Atomic Spartan says:

      Yep, we have a plan alright. Apparently, having a DSO in time for the off season is not in anybody’s plan. Time is short FO. Plan + Urgency + Accountability = Performance. Soooo… we have a PLAN!!!

  4. Andy Muenz says:

    He did it! Despite Jamaica upsetting the US and the NYRB backups beating Chelsea, Mark Geiger is the biggest name in soccer today.

    • OneManWolfpack says:

      Couldn’t agree more. What an embarassement that was. He is truly a disgrace. First Costa Rica got CONCACAF’d, then Panama. Awful… just awful.
      .
      On the plus side, I successfully sold my tickets for Sunday! Yippee 🙁

  5. Clearly the MLS is to blame for the US loss. GD Guzan, Brooks, Alvarado, Johnson, Bedoya and Johannsson should be ashamed to ply their trade in such an inferior league! Oh wait . . .
    .
    What was up with Brad Evans at the end of the game? Did Bedoya steal his deoderant or something? He seemed to intentionally ignore him for about 20 minutes before Bedoya got subbed off.
    .
    Good to see the US revert to old faithful cross and pray there for the last 20 . . . makes the US Women’s “Abby and a prayer” in their first games look almost reasonable.
    .
    I wonder if Jozy Altidore was sitting at home doing a drawn out Dr. Evil laugh after the final whistle.

  6. Great outing to the Red Bulls – Chelsea Match yesterday! Discovered a great bar (Bello’s) next to the Newark train station. Got there early but the bar filled up nicely with Chelsea supporters (and some others) from near and far. Watched the USA match (with an enthusiastic crowd) and then walked to Red Bull stadium. Both games were disappointing but everything else was ace.
    .
    Check out Bello’s next time you head to Red Bull stadium!

  7. WHAP needs to be a new chant, maybe at each substitution.

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