With the soccer tournaments winding down in London, and the US women marching on with grace and style to what could be a gold medal, it’s hard not to feel a sense of frustration that the men did not qualify. Especially with the build-up that this US team had, with such talents as Fabian Johnson, Danny Williams, Joe Corona, Brek Shea and Terrance Boyd. The Olympics would also be a chance for the Union to show off some of their youth products with Sheannon Williams, Freddy Adu, Zach MacMath, Jack McInerney, Amobi Okugo and maybe even a Farfan or two being considered for the team. With the way the Farfan’s have been playing it’s not out of the realm of possibilities that they coul have gotten a call up. The Olympics would have been a great showcase for the Union to show off some talent and for the youngsters to gain experience. Even for the Farfans, Williams and MacMath who likely wouldn’t have started, the international stage would have given them a great chance to grow as players.
So to really think about it, I along with many Union fans were excited about potentially seeing some Union players represent the US. I got what I wished for, in the sense that I am now watching players who were not getting alot of minutes, just not for the US. Do not get me wrong, as a Union fan and a US fan I would love nothing more then to see Union players contribute to the national team at any level. But for now its in the best interest of the club that the US missed the Olympics. It is crazy how the world works. This is not the ideal scenario. The season has been a dissapointment. The ideal scenario would have included Nowak keeping Le Toux, Mwanga, Califf et al. and putting together a winning season. Ideally the Union would be in contention for the top spot and the some Union players would be thriving in the olympics. Ideally we would have our cake and eat it too, but we dont.
In short, the Olympic woes of the men’s national soccer team benefits the Union and keeps a slim sliver of playoff hope alive. To quench your US soccer thirst, watch the women they are playing amazing football right now as usual.
On July 25th thousands of MLS fans will file into PPL park to watch as the MLS All Stars take on Chelsea FC. For Union fans, it was questionable if they would be able to watch one of their own play against the London giant but this question was answered on Sunday as the Commissioner’s two picks for the All Star team were release. Don Garber choose two defenders: Ramiro Corrales of the San Jose Earthquakes and our very own Carlos Valdes.
Valdes is coming of an amazing game against the Montreal Impact where he not only put in a stellar defensive performance but also went on to score the winning goal in extra time off a Sheanon Williams long throw. As of now it is still unknown if the Philadelphia Union captain will be starting as he will have to beat out other talented defenders like New York’s Heath Pearce and Whitecap’s Jay DeMerit.
I believe there is a good possibility of Valdes getting on the starting eleven for the MLS All Stars. He is a talented center back with the ability to communicate well and also hold good positions. He has been extremely consistent all season and has come up huge when called upon by the Union. If put on the pitch, Carlos Valdez will be tested against players like Fernando Torres and newly signed Eden Hazard.
and I can’t say its a bad idea. While it’s always awesome to be able to attend Gold Cup matches which are invariably played somewhere within driving distance, it doesn’t really make sense to always have them in the states. Every Gold Cup has been played in the US, including two they shared with Mexico. The next Gold Cup will be in the US, but after that CONCACAF has not decided.
Obviously there are factors that keep it here, namely money and the relatively broad audience in the US. It’s not like we’ve had a drastic home-field advantage in all of these Gold Cup games. They are regularly better attended by fans of nations less than a tenth of our size. It does make sense to have the tournament in the US regularly, but permanently is a different thing.
Also there aren’t many other countries in CONCACAF that could handle a tournament of this size. The best thing CONCACAF and Jeff Webb could do to fix this is to circulate the tournament between regions rather than individuals countries. Antigua nor Barbuda could handle hosting the Gold Cup, but the entire Carribean could surely figure out a way to do it. The same goes (likely even better) for Central America. Games split throughout these regions and cycled through top stadiums in each of these countries is a totally viable solution. Mexico and the US would each be able to host entirely unaided of course, and Canada could likely do the same. The Gold Cup shouldn’t be here every year. As much as I love being able to attend, and despite how much more money the US will generally bring in, it really shouldn’t. Maybe this is a sign that the Sepp Blatter appointed Webb has more on his mind than money, unlike Jack Warner.
In the same interview Webb suggested moving the HQ of CONCACAF to Miami, a good idea which he has suggested before (its much more centrally located for everyone involved exscept Canada), although there are a few issues with getting it done. Primarily the number of votes that countries other than the US have.
The Head Quarters is, by rule, to be in the hometown of the General Secretary. As Chuck Blazer resigned as the GenSec in January and Ted Howard has been filling the role on an interim basis, the HQ stayed in Blazers hometown of New York. New Gen Sec Enrique Sanz is Colombian born but has lived in Miami for 13 years. According to CONCACAF rules I believe this means that the HQ will moved to Miami. Sanz was unanimously voted into his new position.
Webb also suggested holding a Women’s Gold Cup, again the right thing to do and a great way to take better advantage of the off year in the women’s calendar, but its unclear how practical this might be. It’s great to see that Webb is not running to the quick money, but to what is inherently good for the game, but Women’s tournaments around the world are notorious cash-holes. I would love to see a Women’s Gold Cup, don’t get me wrong. It would be great for the game in the US and likely an easy trophy to add, but it’ll be interesting to see where the money comes from.
After reading of the relationship between the Colin Clark issue and MLS relationship with the Boy Scouts on Dunord.blogspot.com, I began thinking more about it.
For those who don’t know Colin Clark was given a 3 game suspension and required to attend sensitivity training for calling a ball-boy at the Houston Seattle game this past week a faggot. A very serious punishment WAS laid down, and a fitting one. An adult who is representing the league should not be yelling epithets at children. A mature adult shouldn’t be using epithets such as these as an unabashed attack on anyone. A mature adult should not be encouraging this kind of behavior and as a league MLS made a big statement support of these points. They went much farther than when Kobe Bryant was merely fined, although fined a lot, for yelling the same kinds of things at a referee.
On the other hand, while making a e about these issue, MLS still has a standing, and recently announced, relationship with the Boy Scouts of America. While the Boy Scouts are almost ubiquitous in some areas, they’re statements sound fairly similar to Colin Clarks to a lot of people. It’s a noteworthy issue that people aren’t quite recognizing, in part because people aren’t aware of the extent of the issues with the Boy Scouts.
If MLS wants to be involved with the community, which is a great thing to do, they could look to other groups with less controversial issues behind their curtain. The Girl Scouts, The Boys and Girls Club, and Big Brother, Big Sister are a few examples, who as far as I know, serve very similar functions and don’t have any issues with discrimination.
After lsoing Faryd Mondragon and Sebastien Le Toux, two of the teams most recognizable and beloved members, a lot of people are wondering what the team has planned for the future, both short term and long. Of course Seba and Faryd were two of the oldest players on the roster and both took up valuable starting spots. It seems to me that the Union might be considering entering a team into the Olympics. Roster rules require that a team enter 23 players, which we might not quite make, and allow only 3 players over the age of 23. Taking a look at the Union’s roster, it becomes a serious consideration.
A quick look at our players under 23.They already have 17 available
M/F Adu 22
M Michael Farfan 23
M/D Gabe Farfan 23
D Gaddis 22
F Hoffmann 21
M Jordan 21
M Khalfan 23
GK MacMath 20
F Martinez 21
F McInerney 19
M McLaughlin 18
F Mwanga 20
M Nakazawa 23
M Okugo 20
M Pfeffer 17
M Torres 20
D Williams 21
So ten mids, two and a half (Garfan) defenders, and five and a half forwards(Adu) and a single goalie. If we bring down Callif, Valdes and Poriforo Lopez to fill in the backline we’ll have an entire starting lineup. Fill two spots for the keepers behind MacMath with underage players and we’re only one spot from being Olympic eligible. Maybe sign Christian Hernandez? And then sucede from the Union! Sucede and Suceed. The new Union slogan!
Preston Zimmerman is a 23 year old American playing with 3rd division German club SV Darmstadt 98. He also hates that Jurgen Klinsmann has used dual nationals. Based on a few tweets he put up it seems that he believes only “real americans”desere to play for the USA. It’s really not even worth mentioning, but it got me all hyped up so I figured I’d post it.
“I thought it would be cool getting Klinsmann as US National team coach, but I think it’s actually worse than when Bradley was coach….
“Requirements to get on US National team under Klinsmann: Be a fake American, be born outside the US, have one US distant relative
“I see the team is calling in guys who are really germans who know they’ve got no chance of playing for germany so they’ll settle with the US
“Thats embarrassing when a good friend of mine says he met one of the guys @ the airport & he couldnt reply back in English as US Natl player
“I try my hardest not to tweet US soccer stuff but there are some stuff out there that drive me crazy
“Don’t mistake any of my tweets for jealousy, I never expect to be called in or involved with anything and it doesn’t hurt my feelings
“I would just like to see true, real Americans who would live and die for this country representing our country
“But when the olympic team holds mini-camps in Germany with all ‘european players’ then something is wrong
“The kids in college are just as good, if not better, than some of the kids from the reserve teams getting invited to camp
“But the college kids don’t speak German and they don’t have ties outside the US so they don’t qualify for the US under Klinsmann
“Am I the only one here who thinks this or are there others? People have to speak up when they don’t like what’s going on
“If Klinsmann was winning and very successful with his approach then my words would carry no weight, but I don’t see any success
“squeaking out 1-0 wins against CONCACAF villages isn’t success…..
“People can bash me for whatever reason, but I hate seeing my country’s national team being misused and disrespected
“I know plenty of guys who are in the MLS and know what it’s like to play for their country who deserve a look for the US team
“I hope the US team wins and dominates just as much as anybody else because it’s my country and I want my country to be #1 and dominate
“Don’t want anybody to take my tweets negatively or as criticism to make somebody look bad, I just have passion and interest in the US team”
Just to note a few things, Tim Howard is Hungarian, Bocanegra’s Mexican, Onyewu’s Nigerian, Spector’s German, Klejstan is Bosnian, Edu’s Nigerian,Jozy’s Haitian, Stu Holden is Scottish,Landon’s Canadian and the list goes on and on. Global soccer is all about dual nationals, and if anyone should be able to understand that it should be the USA. They had these same arguments in Europe years ago and it was nothing but pure racism. We don’t need to go down that path.
Hating Giusseppi Rossi because he is arguably the best American player ever, and would fill is different from hating all dual-nationals.
Complaining about Neven Subotoc because he left the USa over a somewhat petty fight with Thomas Rongen is different.
Calling a military father a distant relative is a moronic stretch.And saying that only those willing to fight and die for the USA should be able to play really sounds pretty dumb when you recognize the military lineage.
Most importantly though, here’s a quote from Danny Williams on USsoccer.com. Think about it the next time anyone tries to say who is and isn’t an American. Their all citizens, they’re all eligible.
ussoccer.com: Have you watched U.S. National Team games in the past?
DW: “Not many because they don’t show that many games in Germany, but I always watch in the World Cup. I will never forget the game against Germany in the 2002 World Cup in the quarterfinal. This was the time that I started loving the USA. I watched the game, and normally I would support Germany. After the U.S. lost that match, I started crying. My dad asked what was going on. I didn’t know what to say, but I wanted the U.S. to win.”
Most of the news this week is about the upcoming games, Union and USMNT. In case you somehow missed it the Union home-opener is this weekend against Vancouver and the USMNT is taking on Argentina on Saturday (and Paraguay next week.)
For starters here is a video put together by USSoccer of past games against Argentina, including goals from names like Wynalda, Lalas and Johnson, and big saves by Keller Of course there’s the same from Messi, Riquelme and Crespo.
And of course Tim Howard’s absolutely dominating performance against Argentina in the Meadowlands in 2008.
For starters a few links on US players you might not know too much about who got called up for this game
Marcus Hahnemann
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/mar/23/marcus-hahnemann-wolves-pilot
Timothy Chandler
http://www.yanks-abroad.com/get.php?mode=content&id=7549
Chandler and fellow German-American David Yelldell
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/double_deutsche_duo_of_timmy_chandler_david_yelldell_fitting_in_on_us_national_soccer_team/2011/03/24/ABr5z2QB_story.html?wprss=rss_sports
A few articles on other players you may know a bit more about, or just other things related to the USMNT-Argentina game in any way.
Jay Demerit on the game and a few other things, along with an article on Lionel Messi
http://espn.go.com/sports/soccer/blog/_/name/young_mark/id/6254169/the-chance-stop-messi
Brad Guzan, who won’t be playing at all for the US this summer
http://www.dailysoccerfix.com/2011/3/24/2069728/brad-guzan-not-available-for-summers-gold-cup-not-in-u-s-camp
A look at how Bob Bradley makes these selections
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/25/sports/soccer/25vecsey.html?_r=2
Tim Howard talks about the 2008 game he played against Argentina in Jersey (highlights up top)
http://www.soccerbyives.net/soccer_by_ives/2011/03/howard-turning-focus-to-gold-cup-while-preparing-for-familiar-friendly-foe.html
Maurice Edu: The Last Action Hero
http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/sport/editor-s-picks/i-was-set-to-be-last-action-hero-before-maurice-edu-snatched-glory-1.1087319
Jozy’s from Jersey in case you forgot
http://www.yanks-abroad.com/get.php?mode=content&id=7551
http://www.nj.com/soccer-news/index.ssf/2011/03/tossed_around_europe_jozy_alti.html
The go-to Soccer By Ives piece (and comments) on who should start
http://www.soccerbyives.net/soccer_by_ives/2011/03/who-will-the-usmnt-start-vs-argentina.html
A little eye into Cary Camp
http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/03/25/1079783/us-mens-team-ends-cary-stay-gets.html
A look at German-American soccer players, in light of Yelldell and Chandler
http://www.socceramerica.com/article/41714/usas-german-american-pipeline.html
And a look at the Union Vancouver Game,
Nowak says the lineup is still changing
http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/soccer/118560839.html
A “keys to the game” style preview of the game. I think these things are almost worthless but I know someone will want to read it.
http://www.goal.com/en-us/news/1110/major-league-soccer/2011/03/24/2409700/head-to-head-preview-philadelphia-union-vs-vancouver
Valdes is eager to please
http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/118635839.html
A little bit of DOOP-troversy the Union have trademarked the word DOOP and its causing quite a scare around the supporter base. They’re very anxious to see how it turns out and what it means in practice.
http://www.brotherlygame.com/2011/3/24/2069616/philadelphia-union-trademark-doop-sons-of-ben
http://unioncityblue.com/?p=747
Video of Chad Ochocinco’s practice with Sporting Kansas Cityhttp://www.nfl.com/videos/cincinnati-bengals/09000d5d81eea388/Kickin-it-with-Ochocinco
Hey sorry this is a little late, my power’s been out most of the day so I couldn’t get online, but here’s a list of articles I recommend reading to hold you over to Monday. Of course tomorrow’s the first Doop of the season so I’m sure you’ll find something to keep you busy till my next post. I decided that I’m going to try to do a Monday write up for all the weekend games. I know I’d said before that I’d try to get one during the weekend, if we can get a playoff game I’ll promise you a live post or something along those lines but until then this is the best you’ll get. Anyway here’s your links..
Reading United Head Coach Brendan Burke will coach the Union reserve team. He’ll continue to coach Reading
http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=295553
How Jay DeMerit got to Vancouver
http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/faces-first-kick-jay-demerit
US Soccer is taking input on a new motto. You’ve got till 12pm on the 23rd to submit your ideas.
http://inside.nike.com/blogs/nikesoccer/2011/03/18/create-the-new-usmnt-motto
Bin Hammam is running, for real
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/mar/18/mohamed-bin-hammam-fifa-president
USWNT “How I Make Myself”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8u84kXsK5WY&feature=player_embedded
A different kind of look at Juan Agudelo’s call-up and the state of the US youth programs.
http://sports.yahoo.com/soccer/news?slug=goal-enroutejuanagudeloscallupto
Spain to play USMNT at Gillete in June?
http://www.sbnation.com/soccer/2011/3/18/2058462/spain-usmnt-usa-friendly-gillette-stadium
The driver in Charlie Davies infamous car accident is headed to jail
http://espn.go.com/sports/soccer/news/_/id/6232286/driver-charlie-davies-crash-gets-2-years-prison
His court statement
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/soccer-insider/post/charlie-davies-court-statement/2011/03/18/ABQLAdq_blog.html
A bit of information on recent USMNT call-up David Yelldell
http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/usmnt-call-catches-yelldell-surprise
Keon Daniel, Gabriel Farfan and Levi Houapeu are no longer just trialists. All three signed.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/03/18/2122362/union-sign-trio-on-eve-of-season.html
Putting this up again because it’s a good cause, Stache-Bash on March 26th. The Union gave it their full support from players to front office, and you should do so to.
http://www.philadelphiaunion.com/news/2011/03/stache-bash-continues-charitable-history-sons-ben
All matches in Japan were cancelled due to the Tsunami and Earthquake. Obviously there are bigger things going on there.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/soccer/03/11/j.league/index.html
What if the Gold Cup winners advanced to the Copa America? Obviously this would give the US better competition, but it would also require admitting how bad CONCAF is.
http://totalsoccershow.com/blog/gold-cup-copa-america/
On Zach Pfeffers upside
http://www.sbnation.com/soccer/2011/3/8/2037066/mls-2011-preview-zach-pfeffer-is-definitely-young-but-dont-let-that
German-American Right Back Timothy Chandler playing well for FC Nurnberg wants to play for the US so should Bradley call him up for a game to lock him in?
http://totalsoccershow.com/blog/gold-cup-copa-america/
Michael Platini and Jack Warner’s importance for Sepp Blatter and Mohamed Bin Hammam
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/mar/11/michel-platini-jack-warner-fifa-presidency
Gooch speaks (Also he’s playing Left Back for Twente, obviously not a long term solution, but putting him out there might be better than whatever else we’ve got.)
http://www.ussoccer.com/News/Mens-National-Team/2011/03/QA-with-Onyewu.aspx
One of the many reasons that if the Cosmos want in no one else will keep them out
http://www.dailysoccerfix.com/2011/3/10/2042155/mls-expansion-san-antonio-phoenix-new-york-miami-atlanta
A piece projecting the USMNT squad that’ll play in the Gold Cup
http://www.soccerbyives.net/soccer_by_ives/2011/03/projecting-lineups-for-the-upcoming-usmnt-friendlies.html
I’ve said before how much I hate putting these types of soccer-hating-hating posts up, but this one was good and Union specific so I put it up. Also for its suggestion of following The Free Beer Movement (links on the sidebar I believe, if not it should be) the only real answer to any of these arguments.
http://phillyuniontalk.com/03-09-2011/the-passion-of-the-union-fan/
A piece on Diego Chavarri a Queens-born winger playing in Peru’s first league, he’s turning up his play and wants to play for the US if given a look.
http://www.yanks-abroad.com/get.php?mode=content&id=7481
bpmangan
mattsant16
Pat
