The storyline heading into Chicago is whether Soumare will finally get to play. MLS salary info released. Power ranking roundup. Cruz's performance earning honors.
Quotes from John Hackworth's weekly presser. US Open Cup 1st round ties announced. Hernandez scores but City Islanders drop first game. Timbers make a wish come true. More.
Philadelphia Union took a nose dive off the ugly tree Sunday and hit every branch on the way down. This and more insightful analysis on the Union's win in Dan's weekly column, inspired by yo' mama.
PSP's Eastern Conference preview looks at each club and how the Union match up against them. In the end, PSP picks Michael Farfan and the Union to finish ... well, click on to read more.
Union fall 2-0 to DC United, De Rosario and Pajoy the villains. Hack says team more balanced. More season previews. Preseason wraps from around the league. Brazilian drones. More news.
The Union's preseason picture clearer with release of Disney Pro Soccer Classic schedule. ESPN tips PPL Park to host WC qualifier. Rafa Marquez leaves NYRB. More news.
Sheanon Williams on multiple team of the week lists. Amobi Okugo: midfielder, defender, blogger. Nowak to be at Oct. 3 Chicago game against Union. Women's pro league talks, Everton honors Hillsborough 96. More.
CHESTER, Pa. -- For more than 80 minutes, the first-ever meeting between the Philadelphia Union
and the Montreal Impact left something to be desired. But in the last 15 minutes, that all
changed.
Philadelphia took the lead in the 82nd minute when Lionard Pajoy pounced on a loose ball in the
box, only for Montreal to answer moments later when the Union fell asleep on a corner kick and
conceded an own goal.
The Union were bullied by Sporting Kansas City and the Montreal Impact will have noticed. Can
Philly adjust their open style of play as opponents look to beat them up?
Union play seventh game in 21 days on Saturday. Hackworth proud of his players. Cosmos are back,
again. Blatter knew of payments. Terry found not guilty. More news
It's official, Kai Herdling will return to Germany after the Union decline to extend his
loan.
After noting the huge ovation John Hackworth received when his name was announced before last
Saturday's match against DC United, Dave Zeitlin's Inside Doop says that the Union's new coach has
some difficult line-up decisions ahead of him when it comes to who starts up top and in the
midfield.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Here's the next in our series of fan posts, courtesy of Union fan and PSP
reader Chris Straub-Wallace. (He wrote this prior to the Mwanga trade.)
When one of my beloved Philly teams begins to struggle, like most fans, I try to pinpoint where
the problem is or when things went wrong.
Canadians...a polite, hockey-loving folk who seem to be the perfect neighbors. But take a look beneath the Canadian surface (which requires digging through snow and ice) and you'll see the Great White North is a powder-keg of madness that could explode at any minute!
A COACH! A COACH! The Goats officially have a coach to well coach them (and feed the goat). Jose Luis Sanchez Sola is the new coach at Chivas. He has been coaching in Liga MX for the past six years but is now ready to coach in a league that needs a 'more appealing style' of soccer.
It turns out Justin Mapp is sticking with the Montreal Impact.
Mapp agreed to a new deal with the Impact on Wednesday, and as a result he is no longer available for Phase Two of the MLS Re-Entry Draft on Friday. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but it is likely that the 28-year-old winger is making less than the $210,000 he earned this past season.
Sanna Nyassi has proven himself to be capable of individual moments of brilliance in past
seasons, and Wednesday night he did it again.Â
Nyassi got onto the end of a Justin Mapp cross and unleashed a ferocious first-time volley
inside the near post to break a tie in the 67th minute and give the Montreal Impact a 2-1 win over
the New England Revolution at Stade Saputo.
The road woes continued for the Revs tonight as they fell 2-1 to the Montreal Impact, dropping
them back down into 7th place in the Eastern Conference standings. The Revolution's record now
stands at 6-9-4, while their road record reflects a disappointing 1-7-1.
The match tonight saw the return of Ryan Guy to the lineup, who went the full 90 minutes, and
also saw Darrius Barnes stepping into the role usually occupied by Stephen McCarthy, who is
recovering from concussive-like symptoms after taking a knock against Toronto FC last Saturday.
The Montreal Impact left it until late, but Patrice Bernier converted an 89th-minute penalty
kick that completed a comeback for the expansion team.
Bernier scored from the spot in the final moments of the Impact's match with the Columbus Crew,
completing a rally that began with Zarek Valentin's first career goal to take a 2-1 win at Stade
Saputo on Sunday.
Last night in Montreal wasn't the prettiest game that KC has ever played, on the other hand it
wasn't the worst one either. KC played poorly in the first half, performed better in the second
half, and for the first time in what seems like a long while, KC got some close calls to actually
go their way as referee Sorin Stoica gave KC two PKs for fouls in the box by the Impact.
This article titled "MLS: Five things we learned in week 14″ was written by Graham Parker and
Joe Prince-Wright, for guardian.co.uk on Monday 18th June 2012 13.00 UTC
Saputo is home sweet home for Montreal Impact
What a start for Montreal, at their new (old) home of Saputo Stadium. After a series of games at
the city's Olympic Stadium, where the broken Quebec attendance records helped deflect attention
from the awkward sight lines and truly terrible artificial pitch, the Impact finally played an MLS
game at their refurbished Saputo Stadium and returned home with gusto.
As far as stadium openers go, the Montreal Impact could not have asked for a much better
spectacle.
The Impact opened the recently renovated Stade Saputo with a 4-1 romp of the Seattle Sounders on
Saturday night. Patrice Bernier led the way for the Impact with a three-assist performance.
This will not be a fun one to break down, but maybe it will be educational. The Seattle Sounders
have certainly turned in some less-than-glorious performances over the years, but this may well be
the worst. The team looked sluggish from the outset, didn't seem to find the game until they were
already trailing and only came alive after going down 3-0.
One could blame poor refereeing. Or a lack of effort. Or that the Seattle Sounders played
without passion. That would be passing off the blame. It wasn't in Seattle's head, or referee Mark
Geiger's. Seattle was out played. Poor passing out from the backline compounded by poor passing in
the middle.
Saturday's match in Quebec will be the opener of Stade Saputo's MLS era. The Montreal Impact are
in many ways similar to the Sounders, not just because of the players, but the number of
connections they maintained to their USL & A-League past. They haven't been awful this year. The
3-7-3 record this year isn't in the horrid levels that most expansion teams experience.
Peter Lowery in action for the Chicago Fire (Photo via Getty Images)
After a seemingly prolific youth career and bountiful collegiate accolades, I found myself vying for a roster spot on a very good Chicago Fire team. With midfielders like Justin Mapp, Chris Rolfe, Cuauhtemoc Blanco, Logan Pause, John Thorrington, Patrick Nyarko, Steve King and other hungry young pro's all vying for starting roles, it was always going to be difficult to succeed in Chicago.
Week 18 in MLS was marked by some virtuoso attacking performances, and that much is reflected on
SBI's Best XI.
Hat-trick hero Alvaro Saborio and two-goal scorer Robbie Keane did the heavy lifting in weekend
wins for Real Salt Lake and the Los Angeles Galaxy, respectively, while the Philadelphia Union
continue their ascent from the bottom of the Eastern Conference and were carried to a pair of wins
by Freddy Adu and Michael Farfan.
The Re-Entry Draft list has been updated for Stage 1, which will take place Friday, December 7, at 3:00 p.m. EST.
Here's your updated list - 11 players are off the original list we posted yesterday.
The following players have been removed: Gonzalo Segares (re-signed by Chicago), Rodney Wallace (re-signed by Portland), Josh Gardner (traded from Montreal to SKC), Tony Tchani (Columbus), Justin Mapp (Montreal), Kyle Nakazawa (Los Angeles), Brian Perk (Los Angeles), Marvell Wynne (Colorado), Steve Purdy (Portland), O'Brian White (Seattle), and Stephen King (D.
Greetings all in SB Nation, and welcome to Poetry Corner Kicks. In this space, you'll get a
rather unique take on the events of the previous Union game.
A recap done in poetry might sound a bit strange, but for a Union fan who happens to enjoy
poetry, these are not the strangest of bedfellows.
After every match this season, the staff here at The Bent Musket will be putting together player
ratings. Ratings are on a 1-10 scale, with 5 representing a thoroughly average performance, and 6 a
decent/capable showing. The final ratings will be averages of individual ratings from Steve Stoehr,
Matty Jollie, and Abram Chamberlain.
Prior to the 2012 campaign, the Philadelphia Union had only lost 4 matches at home. It is early
June, and the team ranks last in virtually every offensive category with a disappointing home
record of 1-3-1. Eastern Conference teams are 31-15-12 at home this year (8 losses occurred at PPL
Park or Toronto FC's BMO Field) and Western Conference teams are 31-20-12 at home (9 losses at the
Home Depot Center).
Revolution left back Chris Tierney is going to be counted upon to thwart Chicago's quick-strike
counterattack. (Photo: Chris Aduama/aduama.com)
Five years and 27 days. That's how long it's been since the Revolution have won a regular season
game against the Fire.
Although it's easy to recall the days of Steve Ralston and Taylor Twellman battling Justin Mapp
and Cuauhtemoc Blanco, let's not forget one sobering stat: in their last 10 against the Revolution,
the Fire own a 7-0-3 record.
