Already on the squad are Billy Schuler and Scott Goodwin. On Monday Reading United announced that Alex Dixon and Martin Murphy would be joining the team for the summer.

Dixon, who is from Texas, was an important part of UNC’s back-to-back Final Four runs. Dixon, knows how to score: in 2008 he was the team’s third highest scorer with five goals; in 2009 he had eight goals, making him second to Schuler. Dixon’s young career is already marked by a number of achievements including U.S. U17 Residency Program, four years of inclusion in U.S. Youth National Team Pools, ESP Camp All Star honors in 2006, Region III ODP team duties, and NSCAA and Parade Youth All America nods in 2007.

Murphy, who was born in Glasgow, made twelve appearances for UNC  this year as a freshman, scoring two goals and one assist. Before joining UNC, Murphy played for CASL in North Carolina where he contributed to winning two Region III titles in 2006 and 2008.

Said Reading United general manager Art Auchenbach, “We’re obviously thrilled to have players of the caliber of Alex, Martin, Billy, and Scott joining us for the 2010 PDL season. This speaks volumes to the level this team has grown under the direction of Coach [Brendan] Burke. We hope our ability to attract these top players will be what we need to get our team back into the playoffs and challenge for the PDL Championship.”

Reading United’s season kicks off on May 8 when they host the Hampton Roads Piranhas at Don Thomas Stadium. The opening night is also Youth Soccer Night and all youth soccer players who are members of teams from the Reading Berks Junior Soccer League and who wear their uniform to the match will have free admission.

Allentown’s Jason Yeisley, Lehigh University’s Adam Welch, FC Delco product Kevin Tangney and Villanova University’s Mike Seamon all made the cut at the draft. Yeisley and Welch are former players for the newly dubbed Reading United A.C., the minor league club now affiliated with Philadelphia Union.

Here’s a look at the players, their new teams, and what their prospects are:

Mike Seamon

Mike Seamon, midfielder/forward – Seattle Sounders, 2nd round, pick 27

Seamon is a 6-1 attacker from Rahway, N.J., who recorded five goals and seven assists in 2009 and led Villanova in scoring all four years in college. The Sounders made him their second pick after reaching for forward David Estrada in the first round. Seamon’s ability to play both midfield and forward could help him find the field, because that’s basically the same role Sebastien Le Toux played last season before the Sounders lost him to Philadelphia Union in the expansion draft.

Kevin Tangney

Kevin Tangney, defender – Chivas USA, 3rd round, pick 35

Tangney is a 6-2 defender from Newton, Pa., and former FC Delco player who spent five years at the University of Maryland after an injury wiped out his 2007 season. He captained the Maryland squad and anchored a defense that gave up only 0.83 goals per game in 2009. Chivas coach Martin Vazquez said before the draft that center back was the team’s top need after losing Shavar Thomas to the Union in the expansion draft. Tangney was the only center back the team took, so that may bode well for Tangney.

Jason Yeisley

Jason Yeisley, forward – FC Dallas, 3rd round, pick 38

Yeisley is a 6-1, 200-pound striker from Allentown who scored eight goals and handed out five assists for Penn State on the way to becoming 2009 Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year. He lost two seasons to injury and captained his team, so he’s shown a lot of character. If not for the injury history, he might have warranted a higher pick. Dallas could use some depth at forward, but Yeisley wasn’t the only striker the team drafted – Cal’s Andrew Wiedeman went ahead of him in the second round.

Adam Welch

Adam Welch, defender – New England Revolution, 4th round, pick 54

Welch is a six-foot-tall center back from Bethlehem who was Patriot League Defender of the Year in 2009. He was the only center back taken by New England, so the question is whether he can grab a roster spot on a team that already overhauled its back line last year.

One local player who wasn’t drafted was Temple University and Ocean City Barons product J.T. Noone. He was invited to the MLS scouting combine, so it’s possible he could latch on with a team later or find his way to the USL-NASL.

Have you followed any of these players in college? What do you think their prospects are for sticking with their MLS clubs? Add your comments below.

It belongs in a museum!

A mere fifteen years after their fifth NCAA Men’s soccer title, Virginia lifted the cup again. After a scoreless game, the Cavaliers hit their first three penalty kicks to send the top-seeded Akron Zips home empty-handed.

Akron last appeared in a Men’s soccer final in 1986 when they lost to another ACC opponent, the Duke Blue Devils. They came into the game as the favorites, and lost despite allowing zero goals throughout the entire College Cup tournament.

The game was destined to be a defensive battle, as Virginia had held opponents scoreless in 11 of their last 12 games. The heavy rainfall did nothing to help the offensive play and both teams struggled to create opportunities. The best chance of the game came in the fifth minute when Virginia forward Will Bates hit the post with a header.

Was the Union Interested?

Unfortunately for the Philadelphia Union, many of the best players in this year’s College Cup were underclassmen. Wake Forest junior Corben Bone was a standout in the midfield, and Virginia stud striker Will Bates is only a freshman.

One name you may see bandied about is that of UCLA senior midfielder Kyle Nakazawa. After having his 2008 season cut in half by a back injury, the offensive middie took a huge step forward in 2009, scoring 12 goals and contributing 7 assists. Additionally, his peripheral stats are impressive, with over 50% of his shots being on goal.

The top senior striker on the Union’s radar will be Harvard talisman Andre Akpan. A stocky 6′0″ 190lb sniper, Akpan has 47 goals and 33 assists in his Harvard career, including 12 as a senior. Keep him in mind when the Union make their SuperDraft selections.

They include Penn State striker Jason Yeisley, who’s from Allentown, Lehigh University defender Adam Welch, and J.T. Noone, a a Temple University midfielder who played with the Ocean City Barons team that went so deep into the U.S. Open Cup this year.

The combine will take place in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., on Jan. 8-12, 2010, finishing up two days before the MLS SuperDraft that takes place here in Philadelphia on Jan. 14.

Last year, 42 of the 60 players drafted by MLS teams had attended the 2009 combine, with 10 chosen in the first round, according to MLS. That should give a sense of these players prospects.

Welch was Patriot League defender of the year this year, while Noone is an academic  All-American in addition to his on-field exploits. Yeisley is a guy who tore things up as a freshman, only to lose nearly two full seasons to injuries, and yet he still came back to be an impact player with Penn State.

If you plan to attend the draft in Philadelphia, please let us know, as we plan to follow it and would like to hear as many observations as possible.

Posted via web from The Philly Soccer Page

There wasn’t a lot of fanfare when Bob Reasso resigned as Rutgers University men’s soccer coach Monday. There should have been. 

Reasso took an ordinary soccer program and turned it into a giant of college soccer. Rutgers made three final fours and a national championship game. When the U.S. finally stepped onto the world soccer stage of the 1990s, Rutgers alums Peter Vermes and Alexi Lalas were among those leading the way. Rutgers routinely produced solid professional players. Just last month, former Rutgers player Dilly Duka signed with Major League Soccer’s Generation Adidas, and Philadelphia Union coach Josh Gros is another Rutgers alum.

Rutgers was often a sea of sports misery back in the 90s, but the school’s soccer team gave students something to cheer. Students who normally would have no interest in soccer went to matches. I know, because I was one of them. Back in those days, I was a former three-sport high school athlete focused on basketball, and I’d never consistently played or followed soccer. My friends would drag me out to games at Yurcak Field, and it boggled my mind, because most of them weren’t soccer players. Why would they go? Was it just that we knew some soccer players in our dorms? Then you got to the game and saw more people than you’d ever think you’d see at a routine college soccer match. Even if soccer wasn’t your sport (and it wouldn’t become mine until years later), you knew that you might just see greatness out on the field. 

Reasso was the foundation of all that. 

Posted via web from The Philly Soccer Page

Posted via email from The Philly Soccer Page

Swarthmore, Pennsylvania is approximately 20 miles outside of Philadelphia.  It is a small and unmemorable town.

And yet this is where the best Philadelphia-area soccer team plays.  Swarthmore College is ranked 18th in the latest D-III poll and advanced to the second round of the Division III NCAA tournament after beating Merchant Marine Academy on Saturday. The highest ranked D-I program in the Philadelphia area is the University of Pennsylvania at a lofty #68.  Villanova slides in at #69, barely avoiding the ignominy that comes with septuagenarian status.

Covering Philadelphia’s college soccer scene is like eating dinner at your boss’s house:  The meat is undercooked, the small talk is excruciating, and the dog is convinced he has located a vast untapped vein of Kibbles & Bits somewhere deep within your crotch region.  Yet we have to put a good face on the state of college soccer in Philadelphia because it seems like bad salesmanship to introduce one of this site’s major foci by blasting it to shreds.

Here goes:  _____
I can’t do it.  It’s impossible, like Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson receiving proper punishment for being a childish whiner. Instead let us dwell only on the most negative of negatives; an exorcism by facing our demons head-on, perhaps?

Saint Joseph’s University men’s soccer finished their season on Sunday November 8th with a 0-3 loss to Saint Louis.  The last goal of the game is described on the SJU website:

“Bellomy took a shot from the right side that keeper Andrew D’Ottavi (Petersburg, N.J./Ocean City) got his hands on but the ball wouldn’t roll wide enough.”
I guess when you finish the year 0-17, it’s time to start blaming the ball’s poorly chosen rolling angles.

Saint Joseph’s scored six goals in their seventeen losses.  They never scored more than one goal in a game and lost only four games by a one-goal margin.  I am not listing this statistics mockingly, but rather with amazement.  This is a Division-I NCAA program.  They are allowed to give scholarships and offer a free education in return for representing their institution on the soccer field.  The Atlantic-10 has two teams in the top 25 in the nation (Charlotte and Dayton) and St. Louis is knocking on the door.  This is not a powerhouse conference.

It is clear that from UPenn at #68 to Saint Joseph’s at… well, hopefully they’re at soccer practice, Philadelphia’s college soccer scene has plenty of room to improve.  Coverage will be light until the teams resume play next August, but I can only hope that the bright spotlight Philly Soccer Page plans to cast upon Philadelphia-area schools can be more motivational than derisive.

In other words, please: Give me something to cover!