From grabbing national headlines toacquiring the necessary land for a soccer-specific stadium without much struggle, things have been pretty rosy for Orlando City in their quest to earn an MLS franchise.
That is, until now.
Orlando City's hopes of reaching MLS in the near future suffered big blow on Friday as the Florida House of Representatives did not pass the bill that would have funded part of their proposed soccer-specific stadium.
In a move that will hopefully pay dividends for Sporting Kansas City's young players, MLS announced today the rumored partnership between the league and the US third division, the USL-Pro. As part of the agreement, MLS teams can have partnerships with a USL side and have long term loans for at least four players with the USL side.
AS Roma are a team in mid-season form, and Orlando City found that out the hard way on Wednesday.
Roma defeated the USL Pro club, 5-0, at Barker Family Stadium in Winter Park, Fla. in a friendly on Wednesday afternoon that capped off their brief U.S. winter stop in Central Florida. Erik Lamela scored the winner two minutes into the friendly and added a second in the 13th.
Toronto FC courted Adrian Heath, and apparently even offered him a chance to one day be their head coach, but neither that or a sizable contract offer was enough to draw the Orlando City head coach away from Florida, toward the unstable setup at the current worst team in MLS.
Orlando City announced on Tuesday that Heath was staying put, signing him to a new three-year deal.
It is no secret that MLS wants a second team in the New York area, and the chances of that happening appear more likely than ever. MLS officials publicly discussed proposed plans earlier this week to have a soccer-specific stadium constructed for the 20th team in the league in the New York City borough of Queens in the coming years.
For the second time in three years, the Charleston Battery are the USL Pro champions.
The Battery ended their dream playoff run on by grabbing a 1-0 victory over the Wilmington
Hammerheads in the USL Pro Championship at Blackbaud Stadium on Saturday night, giving Charleston
their second title since 2010 and fourth overall.
Orlando City entered the playoffs as the heavy favorites to claim the USL Pro championship. They
had done so in 2011 and ramsacked through the regular season this year en route to securing
homefield advantage throught the postseason.
The penultimate week of this season's USL Pro action is about to get underway, and only two
teams will be left standing when Friday comes to a close.
The USL Pro semifinals will kick off on Friday night, and the four teams involved will be in
do-or-die situations as only one match is played before determining who punches their ticket to the
final on Sept.
The final weekend of almost every regular season has its share of drama, and the USL Pro's
season finale was no different as two teams snuck into the playoffs while another saw its
postseason hopes vanish.
The Harrisburg City Islanders and the Wilmington Hammerheads booked the final two spots in the
postseason and the Charlotte Eagles fell out of sixth place and the playoff picture by losing on
Sunday.
TAMPA, Fla. – USL PRO announced the league's statistical award winners for the 2012 season on
Monday, honoring a pair of players from regular-season champions Orlando City and another from the
runner-up Rochester Rhinos. Orlando City forward Dennis Chin claimed a pair of awards, winning both
the Goal Scoring and Scoring titles after a standout [.
TAMPA, Fla. – USL PRO announced the league's statistical award winners for the 2012 season on
Monday, honoring a pair of players from regular-season champions Orlando City and another from the
runner-up Rochester Rhinos. Orlando City forward Dennis Chin claimed a pair of awards, winning both
the Goal Scoring and Scoring titles after a standout [.
TAMPA, Fla. – The USL PRO Playoffs field was set on Sunday night, as the Wilmington
Hammerheads and Harrisburg City Islanders claimed the final two playoff places on the final day of
the regular season earlier on Sunday. Sunday's results left Orlando City and the Rochester Rhinos
as the top two teams in USL PRO's [.
TAMPA, Fla. – The USL PRO Playoffs field was set on Sunday night, as the Wilmington
Hammerheads and Harrisburg City Islanders claimed the final two playoff places on the final day of
the regular season earlier on Sunday. Sunday's results left Orlando City and the Rochester Rhinos
as the top two teams in USL PRO's [.
The Wilmington Hammerheads took a giant step towards assuring themselves of being in the
postseason this past weekend, and they did so by grabbing a pair of results against a team that was
expected to beat them.
The Hammerheads went 1-0-1 in their two games in two days against the Charleston Battery, first
grabbing a late 2-2 draw on the road on Friday before picking up a 2-1 win at home on Saturday.
Sporting Kansas City added two more players to their roster today ahead of Saturday's First Kick against the Philadelphia Union at PPL Park. Sporting announced the signings of Mechack Jerome and Christian Duke.
Jerome spent most of the preseason with Kansas City after previously playing for Orlando City last season.
Tomorrow Kansas City plays their second international friendly of the season when they take on
English Premier League side Stoke City at Livestrong Sporting Park. Stoke so far is 1-1 on this
tour of the United States, they opened the tour with a loss to the Columbus Crew 2-1 and defeated
Orlando City 1-0.
If you would ask some of the head honchos at Major League Soccer as to what were two things holding the league back from adding Orlando to the league, they would likely say that money and a stadium.
Well, it appears that folks in Orlando could be getting closer to a MLS dream today as the club has a new investor with some serious deep pockets.
I liked both the result and the look of the team in their defeat of Orlando last night. Yes, it was against non MLS competition. Yes, it is hard to tell anything from those camera angles. The first half suggested a camera location in the tree across the street.
Sure it was hard to keep track of who was clicking at times.
While the Seattle Sounders will not be participating in the most dramatic aspects of the MLS-USL Pro partnership, their currently limited involvement is coming into more focus. For the 2013 season, that means the Sounders Reserves will play Orlando City SC in a home-and-home. Those games will count in the standings of both the MLS Reserve League and the USL Pro.
Recaps of Philadelphia Vs. Montreal game - [Yahoo!] [Philadelphia Inquirer] [Philly Soccer News]
[Philly Soccer Page] [Philadelphiaunion.com] [Brotherlygame.com]
Chances go Begging - Philly Soccer News
If the Philadelphia Union are going to have a legitimate chance of making the playoffs, they are
going to have to do a better job of finishing chances.
"Raaaaar" You coulda' had it all Adrian Heath. You coulda' been a contendah'! Yo' Adrian! Etc. Yes, a subplot of TFC's epic encounter with hometown Orlando City is how different things could be right now if "The Lions" head coach would have accepted the assistant manager's job he was reportedly offered under Paul Mariner back in the fall.
Toronto FC's nightmare 2012 season isn't quite over yet, but they are already working hard to prepare the team for 2013.
Part of that preparation is trying to build a revamped coaching staff, and sources have told SBI that Toronto FC has targeted highly-regarded Orlando City head coach Adrian Heath for a role on that staff.
After what was a forgetful 2012 campaign, the Philadelphia Union hoped to get off to a hot start against Orlando City SC in their preseason opener.
The start was certainly not ideal for the Union, who struggled out of the gate. Despite the Union having much of their expected regular season starters in the starting XI, Orlando City supplied most of the pressure in the first half.
The Disney Pro Soccer Classic has Sporting Kansas City, Toronto FC, Philadelphia Union, Columbus Crew, DC United, Montreal Impact, Orlando City, Tampa Bay Rowdies all participating in the annual preseason tournament. The Union open this year's edition against Orlando, tonight at 6 pm.
Here's a short preview with a little bit of information on both teams prior to tonight's game:
Orlando City Soccer Club Lions: Orlando was a USL PRO semi-finalists last season after it failed in its quest to defend its crown as champion of the league in 2012.
This is where I typically open up with some witty paragraph introducing the article and making a
brief note about the state of the site. Well, I've got nothing, folks. Let's get straight to the
important stuff:
1) Chin to Chicago?
This won't do much to quell those who believe I'm a closet Sporting Kansas City supporter, but
SKC commentator Callum Williams recently tweeted about how Orlando City striker Dennis Chin is
currently on trial with the Fire.
With the USL's PDL regular season just completed and the playoffs underway, here's a look at the
final (unofficial) numbers for the league (as always, additions and corrections are
welcome):
Rk Team G Total Average Median High Low 1 Des Moines Menace 8 27,790 3,474 3,497 3,961 2,929 2
Fresno Fuego #5 15,237 3,047 2,743 4,361 1,723 3 Portland Timbers 8 23,079 2,885 1,444 8,174 349 4
Carolina Dynamo 8 13,620 1,703 1,710 2,741 945 5 Austin Aztex 8 11,157 1,395 1,235 2,507 808 6
Ventura Co.
The Roger Espinoza news continues today as Honduras announced their roster for the upcoming
World Cup qualifiers on September 7th and 11th, both against Cuba. Even though he's suspended for
their first game on the 7th due to his red card in the Olympics again Brazil, Espinoza has been
named to the roster.
For the second time in about a year, the Seattle Sounders have loaned out Michael Tetteh to a
Florida-based lower-division team. This time, he's joining the Ft. Launderdale Strikers of the NASL
as they head into the final stretch of their season. Last year, he played a handful of games for
Orlando City of the USL-Pro.
Edson Buddle, as I expected, was suspended today for his stupid and dangerous tackle at midfield in the 2nd half of Saturday's game against the Crew. He'll miss Saturday's game in San Jose.
The 3rd round draw for the U.S. Open Cup was posted. The Rapdis will face the winner of next week's Ocala Stampede (PDL) - Orlando City (USL) match.
To say that Dom Dwyer has had a stellar start to his loan time at Orlando City may be an understatement. Sporting KC's first round draft pick in the 2012 SuperDraft is off to a flying start in Orlando. Through 8 games for Orlando, Dwyer has scored 10 goals already. That's double the amount of goals as the next highest scorer Joseph Ngwenya (although he's played half as many games as Dwyer has).
In the only story of real importance in MLS this weekend, Columbus Crew midfielder Kirk Urso
died early Sunday morning after being rushed to the hospital. Regardless of the details that may
emerge about the circumstances of Urso's passing, this is real tragedy. The Crew players and staff
share memories of Urso in this piece on the MLS website.
Scouting Caribbean teams can be a challenge. Outside the two that participate within the
American system (Puerto Rico Islanders, Antigua Barracuda FC) the other leagues aren't available on
television and highlights are hard to find. With the upcoming 2012-13 CONCACAF Champions League
opponent being Caledonia AIA the Seattle Sounders are at an advantage because both Ezra Hendrickson
and Kurt Schmid actively scout players from Trinidad & Tobago.
Only one step remains before Geoff Cameron's transfer to Stoke City is done and dusted.
Cameron told the Houston Chronicle that he has agreed to personal terms with the Premier League
side and is joining the club in Orlando, where it is continuing its preseason tour of North America
with a friendly against Orlando City SC on Saturday.
Feuerstein's Fire #110 Tuesday, July 24th 8PM EDT – 5PM PDT Guests: Clifford Alejos discusses
Orlando City SC Top of the USL Pro Table Phil Schoen and discussing the new soccer channel Be In
Sport NASL Segment: Re-Capping the Weekend Games ...
Visit http://www.majorleaguesoccertalk.com for the rest of the story.
