Daily news roundups

Union bits and other news

Photo: Paul Rudderow

Philadelphia Union

Brotherly Game rates the few Union transfer rumors that have recently been floating around the interweb.

Continuing with the speculation theme, SBI and Top Drawer Soccer have mock drafts. SBI has the Union selecting Wake Forrest central midfielder Jack Harrison with the third pick of the first round, and Stanford left back Brandon Vincent with the No. 6 pick. TDS has the Union selecting Vincent with the third pick, and Akron midfielder Richie Laryea with the sixth pick. Both mock drafts have Joshua Yaro as the No. 1 pick in the 2016 SuperDraft in Baltimore, which is a little more than two weeks away.

The Sebastian Giovinco goal against the Union in May, and Cristian Maidana’s goal against New England in April, are part of the prelude to the Top Five Free Kicks of 2015 at MLSsoccer.com.

Contemporary Services Corporation has announced it will continue to provide security at the Union’s home grounds. Perhaps someone should tell “the world leader in crowd management and event security” the grounds are no longer named PPL Park.

Local

US Youth Soccer National League U-18 Blue Division play at ESPN Wide World of Sports in Orlando concluded on Tuesday with first place Lehigh Valley United 97 (5-0-2) conceding a stoppage time equalizer to draw 1-1 with second place Arlington Impact Red (4-1-2).

U-17 Red Division play concluded with fourth place Penn Fusion 98 (2-2-3) losing 1-0 to second place Loudoun 98 Red (4-0-3).

National League play resumes in March in Las Vegas.

MLS

Player moves:

RDS reports (crappy Google translation here) it is very unlikely Didier Drogba will return to Montreal Impact and that the club is searching for a player to replace him.

Bruce Arena says he expects Gyasi Zardes will be with the Galaxy in 2016.

An editorial at Pioneer Press says the best site for soccer won when St. Paul beat out Minneapolis as the location for Minnesota United’s new stadium.

The News & Observer has little on the MLS aspirations of the NASL’s Carolina RailHawks. Could they be realized in a downtown stadium in Raleigh?

At Brotherly Game, if MLS teams were NFL teams.

US

Potomac Soccer Wire reports US Soccer will launch a girls’ development academy in 2017.

The Armchair Analyst on how 2015 was a year of “discontent & regression” for the USMNT. ESPN says it was a year to forget.

Soccer America on how 2015 was the Year of Women in soccer.

Elsewhere

ESPN has invited the five FIFA presidential candidates to a televised debate. Jerome Champagne tells Sporting Intelligence he has accepted ESPN’s invitation to participate in the debate, which he says would take place on January 29 in London. More at Reuters.

The Swiss Federal Office of Justice has delivered to US authorities “an initial package of evidence” related to their investigation into FIFA corruption. “Consisting of bank documents, the evidence will be used in criminal proceedings against high-ranking FIFA officials. It relates to bank accounts allegedly used for bribes connected with the grant of marketing rights to soccer tournaments in Latin America and the USA.” Reuters notes, “The FOJ also said it had frozen around $80 million in assets in 13 bank accounts following a U.S. request for legal assistance.”

Reuters reports, “Banned UEFA president Michel Platini could face further investigation from FIFA’s ethics committee after attending an awards ceremony and conference in Dubai despite being barred from ‘all football activity.'” Platini attended the Globe Soccer Awards, which were sponsored by the Dubai Sports Council, on Dec. 27. More at ESPN.

Platini says “there has been an entire plot” against him.

Vice Sports visits Sepp Blatter’s hometown in Switzerland.

Also at Vice Sports, a fascinating read on match fixing in the semiprofessional Canadian Soccer League. The history of such illegal activity in the league is not new.

On the invention of the penalty kick: “The introduction of the penalty brought derision from amateur players, who detested the implication that any player would commit a deliberate or ‘professional’ foul. Great Corinthian CB Cry wrote, ‘It is a standing insult to sportsmen to have to play under a rule which assumes that the players intend to trip, hack and push their opponents, and behave like cads of the most unscrupulous kidney.'”

6 Comments

  1. “Cads of the most unscrupulous kidney” is a terrific late-entry for insult of the year!

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