Daily news roundups

Union Academy in Generation adidas play, US falls short twice, MLS to test video reviews, more

Photo: Earl Gardner

Congratulations to PSP’s Eli Pearlman-Storch and his new wife Sarah on their wedding on Saturday. Our heads still hurt from all the fun.

Philadelphia Union

Andre Blake lost to Luis Robles in voting for the Save of the Week last week. Blake received 40.29 percent of the vote, Robles 40.45 percent. You will recall Blake is with the Jamaica national team to face South Korea in a friendly on Tuesday.

Rene Meulensteen is reportedly interested in the head coach position at the Malaysian national team.

Union Academy

In the 2015-2016 Generation adidas Cup fall East regional qualifying tournament in Toronto over the weekend, the Union U-17s defeated Orlando 4-2 on penalty kicks after playing to a scoreless draw in regulation time on Friday. On Saturday, the Union U-17s lost 2-1 to Toronto. The team will play NYRB today at 12:30 pm and you can watch a livestream of the game here. More qualification games will be played in the spring.

The other Union academy teams had the weekend off.

Local

Temple defeated University of Memphis 4-0 on the road on Saturday to record their first shutout in American Athletic Conference play this season. Temple is now 8-3-2 overall, 1-3-0 in AAC play.

In Atlantic 10 play, La Salle defeated St. Bonaventure, 3-0.

In Big East play, Villanova lost 3-2 to DePaul.

Penn fell 2-1 on the road to Columbia in Ivy League play on Saturday.

Drexel was defeated 3-1 on the road by University of North Carolina, Wilmington, in Colonial Athletic Association play, their fourth loss in a row.

St. Joseph’s match at Dayton on Saturday was postponed until Wednesday, October 28. The Dayton website says the postponement was due to “travel issues.”

MLS

Didier Drogba scored his ninth goal in nine games as sixth in the Eastern Conference Montreal (45 points) defeated Colorado 1-0 on the road on Friday. The win eliminated NYCFC from playoff contention, leaving only Orlando to challenge the Impact for the final Eastern Conference playoff spot. Zac MacMath got his first start of the season for the Rapids in the loss.

The league will trial video reviews in “in 10 to 15 non-competitive fixtures at the end of October” with a focus on three areas, “penalty kicks, red cards and the awarding of a goal.”

TSN reports, “Bill Manning, a two-time winner of Major League Soccer’s Executive of the Year award with Real Salt Lake, has been named president of Toronto FC.”

The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports, “In a signal that their bid to land a big league soccer team is serious, the St. Paul City Council, the city’s Port Authority and the Metropolitan Council each will vote Wednesday on an agreement formalizing talks aimed at leasing a vacant site in the Midway for a soccer stadium.” The agreement is expected to pass. More at MinnPost.

US

A dark day, indeed.

The US was defeated 3-2 AET by Mexico in Saturday’s Confederation Cup playoff game. I’ve got nothing good to say about it.

Recaps and reports at PSP, US Soccer, CONCACAFASN, ESPN (recap, report, analysis), MLSsoccer.com (recap, analysis), SIGoal.com, SBI, and the AP.

The LA Times and CBS Sports have three takeaways, SI has three thoughts, US National Soccer Players has four things, The Guardian and Goal.com have four points, Fox Soccer has five points, Soccer America has five takeaways,

Player ratings at ASN, Soccer AmericaMLSsoccer.com, and Goal.com.  Klinsmann scrutiny at ESPNMLSsoccer.com, Soccer America (1, 2), Fox Soccer, SI, ASNProSoccerTalk, Washington PostUSA TodayYahoo Sports, and Reuters,

The AP reviews what a rough year this has been for the USMNT.

And this. That’s a fail, Fox.

Oh yeah, if Saturday night’s loss wasn’t bad enough, the US U-23s lost 2-0 to Honduras in the semifinals of the Olympic qualifying tournament. Now they’ll have to defeat Canada, which lost to Mexico in the other semifinal, in the Third Place game on Tuesday, and defeat Colombia in Rio in the CONCACAF-South America one-game playoff in March.

Recaps and reports at US Soccer, CONCACAFASN, MLSsoccer.com (recapreport, analysis), Fox Soccer, SIGoal.com, SBI, and the AP.  Player ratings at Soccer America.

Roster changes ahead of Tuesday’s USMNT friendly against Costa Rica (6:30 pm: ESPN, WatchESPN, UniMas, Univision Deportes).

On a happier note, Jeff Carlisle reports at ESPN, “The U.S. is inching closer to hosting the 2016 Copa America Centenario, according to a source with knowledge of the negotiations. A final decision expected in the next three weeks.”

Elsewhere

Reuters reports, “Suspended UEFA president Michel Platini lodged an appeal with FIFA against his 90-day ban from the game on Saturday while French soccer’s governing body said it would back him if he went to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).” More on this appeal and the one field by Sepp Blatter at ProSoccerTalk.

The Guardian’s David Conn reports, “The UEFA president, Michel Platini, had no written contract for the 2m Swiss francs (£1.35m) Fifa paid him in 2011, which is the subject of criminal proceedings in Switzerland and a Fifa ethics committee investigation. According to sources with knowledge of the payment, Platini and the Fifa president, Sepp Blatter, are understood to have told investigators the money was paid due to an agreement they made orally when Platini worked as Blatter’s adviser at Fifa, between 1998 and 2002.”

Another Reuters report says, “FIFA is discussing delaying the election for its next president, two sources told Reuters, a move that could give Michel Platini more time to appeal against his ban from the game and then stand to replace departing leader Sepp Blatter.”

Reuters reports, “A FIFA advisory panel is pressing ahead to draft reforms of the scandal-shaken world soccer body despite the suspension of President Sepp Blatter and other senior officials amid corruption investigations, the panel’s head said.”

Blatter’s ex wife, “a former dolphin trainer,” says no one is thinking of all the good things he’s done.

The FIFA ethics committee has suspended Thailand FA president Worawi Makudi for 90 days while an investigation into an apparent breach of ethics is underway.

14 Comments

  1. boy if that isn’t the face that sums up USNTs at the moment and US Soccer in general.

  2. Congrats to Eli!
    .
    A dark day for US soccer indeed. We played like we did 10-15 years ago (sitting back with the hope to counter attack or get a goal on a set play) but at least back then we had speed and intelligence to counter attack and did not leak goals.
    .
    Then I said ages ago that Ramos should be fired as well since he keeps on getting bad results. He has had so many good players available to him, but just does not get them to play optimally.

  3. And this. That’s a fail, Fox.
    .
    I suspect that’s the wrong link? It goes to the SI article about Klinnsy being on the hot seat.

  4. Congratulations to Eli and Sarah!

  5. James Lockerbie says:

    Congratulations to Eli and Sarah! Smart man agreed to a Union Bye week for his wedding ceremony! LOL

  6. Congrats Eli.
    .
    Also on the topic of weddings, I think I saw Sapong in a picture of the Dwyer-Leroux wedding ceremony this past weekend.
    .
    https://twitter.com/hopesolo/status/652629347224825856/photo/1
    .
    Back right?

  7. Old Soccer Coach says:

    We are perhaps learning how important Landon Donovan was.

    • el Pachyderm says:

      I think this is pretty right on.. that said, Landon would be on my list of players I’d be moving on from if I’m looking to build for the future. Hard to argue how the team he looked in his abensce despite qualifying for knock out round of WC.

      • LD was a solid player, but the USMNT couldn’t lean on Donovan and Dempsey to lead the attack any longer.

  8. Fabian now sent home for the Costa Rica game because he “removed himself from the Mexico game due to being tired, not injured” by Jurgen.
    .
    Everyone is questioning Jurgen at this point but if true, I would side with him on this issue. In the 110th minute, everyone is tired. He should want to fight on with his teammates.
    .
    That said, now thin at outside back. Could very well see Shea at LB and Yedlin at RB.

    • Absolutely pathetic from FabJo, who is one of my favorite USMNT players btw. I encourage everyone to take a look at Gary Kleiban’s twitter. Has a nice rant on the issues with the USMNT, MLS, US media, and the reasons why JK is an agent of change for US soccer. This is a minor set-back in hopefully a much more powerful process.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*