Philadelphia Union

The Goalkeeper has a transcript of Wednesday's press conference with Peter Nowak. Among the highlights:

On Pajoy: "He's a guy who brings not only character but also a mentality to the game. He's very physical, and very fast as well. He can change the game, because he's a different option.

Neil W. Blackmon Caleb Porter's U-23 side, the January camp edition, fell 4-0 to the Klinsmann Camp Cupcake edition of the USMNT this weekend, and while conceding four goals to the senior side may cause some alarm among those anxiously monitoring this group's progress, it's the lack of goals that was somewhat surprising to those [.

Photo: Nicolae Stoian

Philadelphia Union

Jack McInerney scored in the US U-23 team's 1–1 draw with the USMNT. McInerney, Amobi Okugo, and Freddy Adu started the first half. Zac MacMath and Sheanon Williams started the second half.

John Hackworth says of Tom Brandt, the Union's first pick in the Supplemental Draft, "We wanted to get a quality player in the back and we feel like we did that with Tom Brandt.

Adu had some moments.The U.S. Men's National Team opened up 2012 with some very interesting talking points. Certain call ups, certain omissions, scrimmages and of course the obvious questions that accompany such things. First up would be the scrimmage between the full team and the Under 23's.
The senior squad paid a lesson to the U23 Olympic team with a 4-0 dismantling of their younger brothers.

The roster for the U.S. U-23 team that will train from Jan. 8-18 at the Home Depot Center was released this afternoon by U.S. Soccer. Head coach Caleb Porter named 22 players for a training camp that will take place in two locations. Carson, California and San Jose, Costa Rica. The team will travel to [.

Connor Walsh Caleb Porter has just wrapped up the second of what will be four U-23 training camps ahead of 2012 Olympics Qualifying which begins for the United States this coming March. The teams' first camp, this past November, was held in Duisberg, Germany and due to Porter's commitment to the University of Akron, the [.

Jon Levy You'll have to forgive all of us here at The Yanks Are Coming for getting into a more-than-healthy amount of self-referencing in the coming months. We're coming up on the blog's fourth birthday this summer, TYAC having been created in the wake of a very talented 2008 Olympic soccer team's early and unexpected exit from the Beijing [.

Photo: Paul Rudderow

Philadelphia Union

Ives Galarcep reports at Fox Soccer that Freddy Adu is heading to with Spanish side Rayo Vallecano for a two-week training stint. The report notes, "Rayo Vallecano is also a club that had been in talks with Adu about signing him last summer before Adu settled on a return to MLS.

Philadelphia Union

Tweet from Freddy Adu: "Happy Holidays to everyone. Love the holiday season."

In Goal.com's survey of the Eastern Conference there is this review of the the Union's 2011 season in a sentence: "Another season of incremental growth for a young squad still in need of a couple of pieces to compete for MLS Cup.

Philadelphia Union

Kerith Gabriel reports that the Philadelphia Union will announce a "blockbuster deal" with Panamanian international Gabriel Gomez. Gabriel says that Gomez is the "the same box-to-box defender/midfielder that was a beast in Panama's 2-0 win over the United States in the group stage of this summer's Gold Cup.

Photo: Daniel Gajdamowicz

Philadelphia Union

The "2011 in Review" articles for the Philadelphia Union are now up on the MLS website. One provides decent insight, the other, not so much. In the Q & A cobbled together from the last press conference of the season, in addition to relating that Freddy Adu was at "60 percent" for much of the end of the season due to a back injury and the need for defensive additions and competition within the various positions on the field, Peter Nowak discusses the mindset the team needs to win a championship:

"I told you guys at the press conferences we've had all year long that we believe in what we're building, we believe what is the culture around the team.

By Puck Ladies and Gents, welcome back into the Happy Hour. This week has been a series of disappointments for Puck and company. Both Manchester teams uneventfully crashed out of the UEFA Champions League, and Charlie Weis is leaving the Sunshine State to coach the woeful Kansas Jayhawks. Needless to say, many alcoholic libations are [.

Philadelphia Union

John Hackworth explains what the Union is looking for going into the 2012 season. "When you're retooling, you have to make sure you're managing the roster and the salary cap. We're not necessarily trying to get younger; we're trying to get better. And we're going to look at every avenue do that.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Union

Faryd Mondragon said, "If we play the way we know how to play, we can beat anyone."

Sebastien Le Toux on Houston: "We know we can beat them."

And, as Marc Narducci reports, Danny Califf knows it can be done. Califf was on the LA Galaxy team that, in the 2003, beat San Jose 2–0 in the first leg, was up 2–0 in the second half, and lost 2–5 in extra time.

Thirty-one players were called in for the combined U-20/U-23 training camp in Duisburg, Germany, from Nov. 7-16.

GOALKEEPERS David Bingham (San Jose Earthquakes; Pleasanton, Calif.), Cody Cropper (Ipswich Town; Athens, Ga.), Sean Johnson (Chicago Fire, Lilburn, Ga.

Photo courtesy of MLSsoccer.com

The call

Peter Nowak: "Did you guys see the replay [of the free kick goal that was ruled offside] or not yet? I saw it, the frame. The ball is off Séba's foot already by two or three yards...All I can say is that we live in a country where you can criticize everybody, including the President and the federal government.

Caleb Porter will now lead the U-23 National team. (Photo via Akron Athletic Department)

A bit of news we heard about yesterday over on Twitter. University of Akron head coach Caleb Porter has been officially named the US U-23 head coach more importantly the Olympics head coach for the US.

Much has been made of the record breaking selection of seven players from the University of Akron in the first round of the MLS SuperDraft.

Rightly so. After all, five of them were among the first eight picks in the draft.

That coach Caleb Porter and his staff have gotten it right when it comes to player development is only underscored when you recall that five of this year's Generation adidas class of nine also played at Akron.

It's Akron Coach Caleb Porter's world, we just live in it: Five of the first eight selections were from the NCAA champion Zips, and two more went in the second round. (Goff)

So was the FO's failure to land him last year due more to something they did (or didn't do) or to his desire to stick with his program (or the college ranks in general)?

Next time you find yourself in Ohio searching for the best soccer action the Buckeye State has to offer, skip Crew Stadium and drive the 121 miles northeast to Lee Jackson Field, where the Akron Zips are fast becoming the pride of American college soccer. Following up his side's heart-breaking penalty shoot-out loss in the 2009 national championship to Wake Forest, Coach Caleb Porter led this year's edition of the Zips to the promised land, knocking off number one seeded Louisville 1-0 to claim this year's crown, the first D1 national championship in the school's history.