Daily news roundups

Do the Union have Rosenberry’s rights? Lloyd FIFA Women’s Player of the Year finalist, Crew-Timbers MLS Cup final, more

Photo: Keegan Rosenberry with Reading United in 2013. Photo by Paul Rudderow

Philadelphia Union

At Philly.com, Jonathan Tannenwald on the youth movement at FC Dallas: “It is a model that the Union should follow.”

Which sort of leads into this:

https://twitter.com/SoccerInsider/status/671078015292579842?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Rosenberry, the Ronks, Pa. native now in his final year of college, has trained with the Union in the past, played for Reading United, and also played for the Union reserves and the Union Academy before the founding of the current academy system that is based around the YSC Academy (read his bio here). On Sunday, he scored the equalizer for Georgetown against Boston College in the NCAA Division I quarterfinals but later missed his penalty kick attempt after extra time and Georgetown lost 1-1 (5-4 APK). More on Rosenberry at Brotherly Game.

Also at Brotherly Game, a review of CJ Sapong’s season,

Colorado Rapids SB Nation blog Burgundy Wave reviews Zac MacMath’s season on loan with the club. With only three starts in league play on the year, MacMath gets a C-: “MacMath looked OK at times and quite shaky at others and much of it had to do with not getting consistent playing time.”

Former Union trialist Wilson Palacios to inaugural NASL side Miami FC?

Read US Soccer has some ideas on what the Union need to do to turn things around (WARNING: Post consists of slideshow).

The Philadelphia Union Foundation’s Holiday Auction is underway and will run through Monday, Dec. 7. Click here for the items available in the auction, including “the letter ‘P’ from the PPL Park Stadium Scoreboard.” Hmmm. So, what’s it gonna be, Talen Energy Park or Talen Energy Field?

Local

Carli Lloyd is one of three finalists for FIFA’s Women’s Player of the Year. Lloyd’s long-distance goal against Japan was one of the final ten nominees for the Puskás Award for Goal of the Year but did not make the cut for the final three.

CB East student Amer Ahmed writes at the Intelligencer that the state title recently won by the school’s boys soccer team should give hope to suffering Philly sports fans: “If a high school team can win a state championship for the very first time, anything is possible.”

Dundee midfielder Paul McGowan, who was with Celtic when they played the Union in 2010 (and lost — good times, good times, even with the flare nonsense), hopes the Celtic-Dundee match in SPFL play that has been talked about happens.

MLS

It’s Columbus Crew hosting Portland Timbers in the 2015 MLS Cup on Sunday, Dec. 6 (4 pm: ESPN, Watch ESPN, UniMás).

On Sunday, Portland, enjoying a 3-1 lead after the first leg of the Western Conference final at home, withstood a fightback from FC Dallas on Sunday, drawing 2-2 to advance to the final, winning the series 5-3 on the aggregate. Entering the game in the 89th minute, Portland’s Lucas Melano twisted the knife in Dallas with an entertainingly ridiculous goal in the 95th minute. More on the game at ESPN and SI.

In the Eastern Conference, a bevy of squandered chances to kill the game seemed poised to haunt Columbus, who won the first leg at home 2-0, when NYRB scored in the 93rd minute. In the 95th minute, Bradley Wright-Phillips’ header trickled off the post, though, while the flag wasn’t raised, replays showed him to be clearly offside, and NYRB’s 1-0 win was not enough. How many years and no cups is that now? More on the game at ESPN and SI.

SI has an early preview of Sunday’s final.

The New York Times has a profile piece on Portland’s Darlington Nagbe.

The league’s Best XI for 2015 was announced on Sunday. Unsurprisingly, none of them play on the Union.

Those rumors of a Bradley Wright-Phillips loan to Bournemouth? He doesn’t know anything about them.

At Philly.com, Jonathan Tannenwald has a transcript of remarks made by CEO Ferran Soriano of City Football Group, owners of NYCFC, at BlazerCon.

An interesting read at Vice Sports on the socialist and anarchist background of the early members of the Empire Supporters Club. Says one early member, “I think for the most part the thing that everybody could agree on was to make MetroStars and the supporters section unfriendly to racists and fascists.”

NBC Miami reports,

International soccer star David Beckham has given up on the approval process to build a major league soccer stadium near Marlins Park, sources tell NBC 6.

Miami City Commissioner Francis Suarez confirmed to NBC 6 that the Beckham stadium deal has been taken off the city commission agenda for Tuesday.

The proposed plan would need to be on Tuesday’s agenda in order to make the December 10th deadline to get on the March ballot.

You will recall Beckham United partner Tim Leiweke mentioned in an interview with CNBC last week, “I think we have found a site. It’s probably different than what people think we’re doing, but we’re going to know in the next several days.”

US 

Jill Ellis is on the shortlist for FIFA’s Women’s Coach of the Year.

Former Union man Carlos Ruiz may not be able to play for Guatemala when the team faces the US in two World Cup qualifiers in March. Ruiz received a six-month ban from the Guatemala FA for verbally abusing a referee in a league match last week. Ruiz is appealing the ban.

This:

The BBC on the rise of viewership in the US of Premier League. Premier League executive chairman Richard Scudamore says,

Already the audiences here are averaging what you’d get in UK for a Sky or BT game. Of course, it’s a bigger country. But in terms of unique adults, we had about 32 million Americans watch a game last season, compared with 14-15 million in the UK. So our audiences are big and growing. The day more people will be watching live here than in the UK will happen.

Elsewhere

Reuters reports, “Russian sports clubs will be banned from signing Turkish players during the upcoming winter break, Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said on Sunday.” Sounds like a clear case of political interference in footballing matters, just the sort of thing for which FIFA bans countries from international competition.

Sky Sports reports, “UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino says he would reform FIFA from his first day in the job if he is elected president.” Infantino says, “Reforms need to be not only agreed but they need to be implemented as well.”

FIFA has announced the nominees for this year’s men’s Ballon d’Or: Lionel Messi, Neymar, and Cristiano Ronaldo. Never heard of them.

Good for you, Mr. Vardy.

21 Comments

  1. I made it through the slideshow. Ditch Brian Carroll is a bit harsh – rumors of his demise proved untrue this past season. He was a pretty solid contributor. Yes, he should be the 2nd or 3rd option at that spot if retained, but I respect the hell out of what he’s given this team over the last few years. I certainly agree with the other slides – more Ayuk, Blake locked in as #1, and a DP level signing (should be of the goal scoring threat variety).

    • That story really came across as written by someone who might have caught one Union game this season. Poorly done in my opinion.

      • Agreed. Three recommendations were pretty obvious. The other perhaps a bit ignorant. “ditching” Carroll won’t have a dramatic impact on this club one way or the other. He’s a nice veteran presence, but won’t be the reason we fail or succeed.

      • Are you saying you weren’t impressed by such incisive commentary as get a DP?
        It might as well have said “Find the Golden Fleece.”

      • Mo Edu and the Unionauts. Sounds like a good Ray Harryhausen movie. I assume they’d have lots of issues but overcome them to get within inches of grasping the golden fleece. Then they’d lose to it in penalty kicks.

      • +1 to both you an sieve!, reading this gave me a real good chuckle.

      • the stop motion players’ jerky movements wouldn’t help.

  2. Can anybody offer insights on the Rosenberry situation? The Brotherly Game article that was linked covered the basics, but left things open with a vague “MLS being MLS” comment as to why the Union might not have his rights.

    • I’m not entirely sure, but probably something to do with either 1. playing time at youth levels or 2. the Union waived their rights to him at some point. I’m more doubtful on the latter, but still a possible scenario

  3. The Realist Brian says:

    Way to go CB East!
    .
    As for the Rosenberry deal, Philadelphia gets penalized for having zero infrastructure and loses players because there wasn’t an “Academy” while other teams like Portland, Orlando, Seattle all get their in because they had teams. This policy FUCKING SUCKS and I believe has killed the Union for the last 5 years. Like having to trade for Wenger, who should have been a homegrown. If the league had any decency and wanted competitive balance, they should let the Union sign the kid. That is if he wants to sign with the Union.

  4. Boy don’t I wish I had Amer Ahmed’s youthful hope…. uhhh Amer…. as The Dude says, The Royal ‘We’– suck so much here in Philadelphia.
    .
    In other news…. maybe David Beckham should think about a Football X7 stadium as seen built by Phineas and Ferb…. where the only way to break Ferb’s emu curse is for a boy wearing a sunday bonnet to sing the note e flat over high c.
    .

  5. Regardless of whether the Union have Rosenberry’s HGP rights, he has to actually *want* to sign the HGP contract with the Union for that to happen, he is free to enter the draft otherwise. I think we need some more context to his comments, cause at first glance it doesn’t exactly sound like he’s too bummed out about having to go through the draft…

    • Agreed.
      .
      When you are the worst or 2nd worst team in the whole league… chances are, rolling the dice seems a logical choice. May wind up in Seattle or KC play with Giovinco in Toronto.
      .
      I’m sure Keegan Rosenberry doesn’t know Earnie Stewart and his plans from a by line in those things people used to read daily to get information. What were they called.

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