Union Represented in All Star Game

Amazing news for Union fans came out of the MLS headquarters yesterday as it was announced that Michael Farfan would be joining teammate Carlos Valdes and the rest of the MLS All Stars as they battle European giant Chelsea FC tonight. Despite only scoring one goal so far this season, Farfan has been a force in the midfield by pushing forward and opening up defenders to create scoring opportunities.  Michael Farfan, or Marfan as he is know by the Union loyal to distinguish him from his twin brother Gabe,  was added to the game day roster after Chelsea requested the number of subs allowed in the All Star game to be increased from 6 to 10.  Although already being located in Philadelphia may have helped the choice to include him in the roster, this is not the only reason he was picked for the squad. In spite of him only being a second year pro, Marfan has been consistently one of the best players on the field for the Union this season especially as of late. It is extremely unlikely that Michael will get a start but with 10 subs it is very likely he will come on as a second half sub. Marfan is no beginner when it comes to scoring on experienced foreign teams. Last summer he scored the only Union goal in a 2-1 lost against Spanish side Real Madrid. Farfan’s beautiful chip shows the potential he has and backs up Ben Olsen’s and John Hackworth’s decision to bring him onto the All Star squad.

Check out the Michael Farfans goal against Real Madrid here.
The MLS All Star game kicks off at 8:30 PM from PPL Park in Chester, PA. The game will also be broadcasted live on ESPN 2.

Montreal at Union Preview

Montreal Impact at Philadelphia Union
Saturday, July 14, 2012 – 7:30 p.m. ET
PPL Park | Chester, Pennsylvania

The Union take on the Montreal Impact tonight in Chester. Many expected this to be the first MLS game for Italian Centerback Allesandro Nesta but he has not traveled with the team and will not be playing. The only recently signed international defender who will likely play tonight is Swiss Dennis Iapichino. M Felipe  and captain M Davy Arnaud will both return from one game suspensions for Yellow Card Accumulation, although F Sanna Nyassi will miss the game for the same reason. They also just traded Justin Braun to RSL and Tyson Wahl to Colorado.

Unavailable (Montreal) : Out: D Matteo Ferrari, D Nelson Rivas, D Alessandro Nesta, F Bernardo Corradi,  F Andrew Wenger, F Sanna Nyassi (Yellow Card Susp.).

Unavailable (Union): F Hoffman, M Michael Farfan (right groin strain), M Cristhian Hernandez (left ankle sprain), Doubtful: D Bakary Soumare, Probable: GK Z MacMath

Ray Gaddis & Carlos Valdes were on previous injury lists for this game, but have been removed. Soumare has also been slowly moving towards becoming available. While it is unlikely he makes today’s roster, he looks to be coming in soon.

This game is not unlike the last the Union played. Toronto has gotten much press for the changes that new coach Aron Winter has made to turn around the team since midseason. Montreal hasn’t yet seen the “impact” on the field from many of the changes they have made, losing three of their last four games, but the changes have been much more recent. There are high expectations on many of the names that Montreal has already brought in during the current transfer window. They’ve got a record that is far below their current talent level and have changed from a 4-4-2 to a 4-5-1 and began to reap the results with a win at home against Columbus.

Also of note…

-Zarek Valentin and Andrew Wenger are both players with experience for  US youth international teams and were both born and raised in Lancaster, PA.

-Former Zolos Shavar Thomas and Justin Mapp are also a part of the team. Thomas may be forced into substantial playing time due to injury and Mapp has been a regular for the team.

-Carlos Valdes and Collen Warner are both one yellow card from receiving a one-match suspension.

-The Impact lead the league in PK’s, both offensively and defensively. They have also committed the most fouls, been called offsides the most times and received the most yellow cards.

Expected Starting Lineups

SKC:

Ricketts; Brovsky, Thomas, Camara, Valentin; Warner, Bernier, Mapp, Felipe, Arnaud; Di Vaio

PHI:

MacMath; G. Farfan, Valdes, Okugo, Williams; Daniel, Carroll, Gomez; Adu, McInerney, Pajoy

The game will be shown on CSN.

USOC:SKC at Union Preview

 Sporting Kansas City at Philadelphia Union
Wednesday, July 11, 2012 – 7:30 p.m. ET
PPL Park | Chester, Pennsylvania

The Philadelphia Union are one step closer to having a bigger trophy case than NYRB. Two rounds from their first trophy they have a rematch against a team they absolutely dominated the last time they played. Despite the big difference on the score-sheet the Union can’t, and surely won’t, take Kansas City lightly. Kansas City hasn’t gone this far in the Open Cup since 2004 when the Kansas City Wizards took home the trophy.

Of course despite the Union’s recent success and arguably the best week of soccer in the clubs history, Sporting Kansas City is still one of the top five teams in the league (along with RSL, DC, San Jose and NYRB in my book). While we may have had a few players on many people’s “Team of The Week”, Kansas City has 3 on the team of the season, the most of any club this season. Those three players are Graham Zusi, Aurelien Collin and Jimmy Nielsen. Of course Antoine Hoppenot beat both Collin and Nielsen in spectacular fashion in the last match-up, so who knows how things will go this time around. Surely SKC will be more prepared for the Union team.

Also of note…

-Sporting KC has never won a game at PPL Park. They’ve had a single trip in the Union’s first three years.

-SKC has only scored six goals in the run-of-play in their last five matches. The Union have scored 12, from a wide range of players over the same stretch (Pajoy, Gomez, McInerney, Adu, and Hoppenot each have multiple goals. Michael Farfan and Daniel have the other two).

Expected Starting Lineups

Both teams have been pretty consistent line-up–wise, so while there could be a change or two this game because its midweek, both teams are in the midst of a tought scheduling stretch, both 11′s are pretty much a lock.

SKC:

Nielsen;  Myers, Besler, Sinovic, Collin; Nagamura, Espinoza, Peterson; Zusi, Sapong, Kamara

PHI

MacMath; Williams, Okugo, Valdes, G. Farfan; Gomez, Carroll, M. Farfan; Adu, McInerney, Pajoy

The game will be shown online-only, either streamed on the Union’s website (not yet posted) or Sporting’s Youtube Channel. Tickets are also still available on the Union site. Be there if you can. A game like this is always more fun live.

MLS All-Stars May Be Coming To PPL Park

Update: Source says he assumed PPL, but really only saw that it was going to be in Philly. It could very easily be at the Linc or PPl.

I have a few connections who work down at PPl and may have accidentally overheard their bosses super-secret text messages. They don’t usually do this kind of thing, but they happened to fall upon a pretty useful piece of information today. Apparently PPL was chosen to host the game. That’s all I’ve got but here is the informaiton I recieved with a bit of spelling corrections so I won’t put it in quotes.

PPL got the All Star Game but you didn’t hear it from me. I did some illegal stuff to get that info.

It just got passed  95% done deal from MLS.

august first is the date.
Looks like we’ve got something else to look forward to this summer in Philadelphia. It had been reported that Philadelphia, Montreal, Kansas City and Vancouver were the favorites to host the match. They chose us.

16 Years, No Cups! 60% Posession, No Points!

Image via Wikipedia

In the words of Sports Illustrated’s Avi Creditor

“There’s a beast in the East, and it’s not New York. The Philadelphia Union doesn’t seem to care about all of the talk about the New York Red Bulls’ vaunted attack and sound distribution from the back. It’s looking down on its Eastern Conference rivals from atop the standings after a gritty win at an electric PPL Park.

The Red Bulls had their chances, with Juan Agudelo hitting the woodwork twice and countless other opportunities for the team to get on the board. The Red Bulls also had a sizable edge in possession. But a failure to convert chances is always the downfall of any team, and Tim Ream’s horrid mistake from the back was all the Union needed to pad its lead atop the East.

Ream, lauded for his distribution — and rightfully so — in the United States’ recent friendly with Paraguay, was hardly under pressure when he passed directly to Danny Mwanga and gave the Union a two-on-one breakaway in the attacking third. Mwanga slotted the ball to Roger Torres, who coolly beat Bouna Coundoul to set off a celebration along the banks of the Delaware River.

Over the course of the full 90 minutes, the Union may have been outplayed, but all that matters in the end is the scoreboard. And in more ways than one, that scoreboard reads Philadelphia 1, New York 0.

The rematch on Oct. 20, the last game of the regular season, should be riveting.”

Obviously considering the expectations going in to the season the Red Bull should be in the hunt for a top seed, and considering the current position of the Union, I wouldn’t be surprised to see them up there as well (especially if they sort out the offense which we expected so much from).

Hans Backe apparently threw a fit after the game saying he saw “only one team on the pitch” in reference to the fact that the Union played a relatively defensive game. Of course the Union knew that Henry and Agudelo were a large part of NY’s game and decided to actively take them away. They did so successfully and Backe didn’t like it. Nowak’s response? “You can complete a thousand passes but if you don’t score it doesn’t matter.”"What’s difference between winning 1-0 and 5-0?” he continued, “You getting 6 points for that?”

The Union again looked much better in the second half; a trend through the beginning of the season. Although they allowed the Red Bull to dominate possesion in the first half the second half was much more even and (although I’m definitely a little biased) I though the Union did look the better team. If nothing else I think it continues to show that teh Union don’t exactly have things sorted out offensively. Some combination of Ruiz, Le Toux, Mwanga and Torres need to be up top but it seems that only three of them will fit. Ruiz has played well, but not necessarily well enough to start. I championed the idea of giving him a little time to see where he fits in, and I still believe that he deserves that, but he should be in to top shape by now and comfortable enough with the players around him to get started pretty soon. If he continues to look out of place through the next two or three games I wouldn’t be surprised to see Torres take his spot on the field. Torres looked good up top, and the team looked better  around him. As good as the Union have looked defensively this year, with the key additions of Valdes and Modragon, we expected much more from them offensively. If they can get that sorted out I would expect big things from this team. The current stretch of games is one of the rougher ones for the team, with the Galaxy, Red Bull, Sounders, and Real Salt Lake but if they can make it through and get at least 5 or 6 points from those 4 games it will be considered a successful stretch and they will deserve to be as high on the table as they are currently. Also the fans at the game sounded great, and we have yet to lose a game at PPL this year. With an atmosphere like that I fully expect that trend to continue.

 

>> http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/avi_creditor/04/10/mls.snaps/index.html#ixzz1JA8h3rSq

Okugo, MacMath Called To U-20 Championships

Philadelphia Union Midfielder Amobi Okugo, and rookie Goalkeeper Zac MacMath were both called up to play with the USMNT U-20 team for the 2011 CONCACAF U-20 Championship in Guatemala from March 28 to April 10. Okugo and MacMath will be with the national team and therefore not be able to play in the Union’s home opener against Vancouver or in an April 2 match at the LA Galaxy and an April 9 game against the NY Red Bulls at PPL Park. They also will be out for the Union’s April 7 U.S. Open Cup game against D.C. United on at the Maryland SoccerPlex.

The link goes to a Philadelphia Union facebook page video of MacMath and Okugo talking about the tournament and how it affects the Union.
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=647025423718&oid=89209317187&comments

Union At DC United April 6

In another step  for a series of announcements about one game, it seems we have finally put all the pieces together (except the exact location, it seems DC may not want to have the match at RFK and may look into a smaller location, along with the time of the match of course UPDATE: nevermind match time is 7:30.UPDATE 2:thanks to reader DiscoStu we have found out that the match will be held at the Soccerplex in Germantown, MD.) The Union’s first US Open Cup qualifier game will be against DC United and will take place in the DC area on April 6. This will make for a pretty exciting start to the season. After starting the season against Houston, and facing newcomers Vancouver in the home opener, we will be treated to a seven day span where the U will take on the Galaxy in LA, DC United in DC and the Red Bull at PPL Park. This week is followed  by facing Seattle Sounders at home and going away to 2009 MLS Champions Real Salt Lake. It might be a rough start to the season for such a young team, but it should also be a very exciting one.

Apparently Someone Else Decided To Go To A Hockey Game

Image by Håkan Dahlström via Flickr

Presumably this only happened after they saw the Union do it. As they said “The Sons of Ben supporters group for the Philadelphia Union tried this a few days ago to great success, so it should be fun.” Apparently a Colorado Rapids supporters group known as the Bulldog Supporters Group (can’t imagine what a Bulldog would be doing in the Rapids) is setting up a group to attend an Avalanche game. Congrat’s SoB’s you started a trend. I wonder how long it is until the Sons Of Ben are given more credited than Bettman’s rule changes for bringing the excitement back to hockey.

http://www.milehighhockey.com/2011/2/28/2019989/interested-in-seeing-some-actual-atmosphere-at-the-pepsi-center-then

Tom Veit Moves To WWE

Image via Wikipedia

Former Philadelphia Union president Tom Veit has moved on from soccer to work in wrestling instead. He left the Union about four months ago although he had since come back and worked with the team. His new job apparently includes ”ticket sales, event marketing and booking.”

Although anything about the WWE is always good for a few laughs, there is a legitimate point to be made in Veit moving on. Veit was the main person in discussion with Villanova about playing football at PPL Park after a potential conference change. Does this mean that that is less likely to happen? Had discussions stopped enough that it was not necessary for Veit to be involved. Or are they simply going on without him? Of course the most likely part is that Veit himself didn’t need to be the integral cog and could be replaced if necessary, discussions between the Union Villanova probably won’t hinge on Veit’s involvement.

Some New Union Links

Christian Arietta was waived today
>>http://www.philadelphiaunion.com/news/2011/02/union-waive-defender-cristian-arrieta

One more take on the GQ-UK article (I might have to give up on letting this get on here anymore.)

http://www.thedenimkit.com/2011/02/08/sons-of-ben-dressed-down-by-gq-how-much-of-it-was-deserved/

J.T. Noone is continuing to adapt in the Union Preseason

>>http://www.philadelphiaunion.com/news/2011/02/noone-continuing-adapt-union-preseason

Philly Soccer Page is doing a piece on the none SoB supporter groups in PPL Park

>>http://www.phillysoccerpage.net/2011/02/07/the-other-supporters-groups/

Here’s the first on the TammanySaints

>>http://www.phillysoccerpage.net/2011/02/08/the-other-supporters-groups-the-tammany-saints/