tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71791191517926208332024-03-13T00:02:12.252-04:00Union TallyA Philadelphia Union blog hosted by Christopher A. Vito and Matthew De GeorgeChristopherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17095427354530529519noreply@blogger.comBlogger551125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7179119151792620833.post-5510684385640852412018-04-07T18:21:00.000-04:002018-04-07T18:21:00.452-04:00Union-San Jose: Lineups and prematch observations<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>UNION (4-2-3-1) </b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Blake </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Rosenberry-Elliott-Trusty-Real </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Medunjanin-Bedoya </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Picault-Dockal-Accam </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Sapong </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Bench</b><i>: McCarthy, Gaddis, McKenzie, Creavalle, Burke, Fontana, Ilsinho</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>San Jose Earthquakes (4-4-2) </b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Tarbell </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Lima-Quintana-Cummings-Qwiberg </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Eriksson-Godoy-Jungwirth-Qazaishvili </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Wondolowski-Hoesen </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Bench</b><i>: Bersano, Affolter, Salinas, Hyka, Alashe, Thompson, Amarikwa </i></div>
<br />
- No surprise given the performances of <b>Fabian Herbers </b>the last three games that <b>Fafa Picault </b>returns from suspension and zooms straight into the starting lineup. <b>Jim Curtin </b>talked a lot this week about the Union’s desire to get Picault’s vertical and horizontal field stretching onto the field. Without any game action in the last month, he might be a little short on sharpness and game-fitness, but he’ll be a spark that hopefully ignites the technical powder kegs that are the scuffling <b>Borek Dockal </b>and <b>David Accam.</b> <br /><br />- The Delco Destroyer backline gets its first chance to play in front of home fans, with <b>Matt Real </b>granted another start at left back next to <b>Auston Trusty. </b>The Drexel Hill native Real faired alright in last week’s 3-0 loss in Colorado, and a game on home turf should afford him the chance to get forward more and show what he can do on that natural left foot that Curtin so prizes. A little chemistry between Real and Accam on the left flank wouldn’t go underappreciated either. <br /><br />- No surprises tactically from the Earthquakes, a team that has finally made a change in its fourth game, a little tweak at left back with <b>Joel Qwiberg </b>in for former Union man <b>Shea Salinas. </b>The Quakes generated plenty of chances in last week’s 2-1 loss to New York City FC but couldn’t only solve a stellar <b>Sean Johnson </b>once in net. The big key here is how to handle <b>Valeri Qazaishvili, </b>Georgian code name Vako. With <b>Danny Hoesen </b>and <b>Chris Wondolowski </b>occupying the center backs and the lack of a true holding midfielder, how the Union’s defense communicates and hands off the in-cutting runs of Vako from the wing will be vital to quell his threat. Vako did score against the Union last year at Avaya Stadium. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09303199103982707190noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7179119151792620833.post-35238916255732196542018-03-17T13:18:00.000-04:002018-03-17T13:18:11.087-04:00Union-Crew: Lineups and prematch observations<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>UNION (4-2-3-1) </b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Blake </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Rosenberry-Elliott-Trusty-Fabinho </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Bedoya-Medunjanin </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Herbers-Dockal-Accam </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Sapong </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Bench</b><i>: McCarthy, Marquez, Gaddis, Jones, Fontana, Burke, Simpson<br /> </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Crew (4-2-3-1) </b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Steffen </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Afful-Mensah-Abubakar-Valenzuela </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Artur-Trapp </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Martinez-Higuain-Santos </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Zardes </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Bench</b><i>: Kempin, Williams, Abu, Argudo, Clark, Jimenez, Hansen </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.delcotimes.com/sports/20180316/crew-challenge-could-offer-clarity-for-unions-self-assessment-effort" target="_blank">Preview </a></div>
<br />
- The <b>Borek Dockal </b>era starts today from the start. I’d suspected that <b>Jim Curtin </b>might name <b>Anthony Fontana </b>as a starter again this week after his strong debut, but it’s not so. Fontana starts on the bench and Dockal, who probably isn’t 90 minutes fit, goes from the start. <br /><br />- No other changes from the Union, which is to be expected. Same bench, too, save for <b>Eric Ayuk </b>out to accommodate Dockal’s arrival. <br /><br />- The unbeaten Crew also name an unchanged side. Look for the challenge posed by <b>Gyasi Zardes </b>getting physical with <b>Auston Trusty </b>and company and the service into the starting forward. The Union also have to do a good job reducing the time and space given to <b>Wil Trapp </b>and <b>Artur </b>in the middle of the field. <br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09303199103982707190noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7179119151792620833.post-75082391482750287092018-02-01T16:08:00.004-05:002018-02-01T16:08:55.693-05:00The topsy-turvy 10: Where the search for the Union's biggest roster need stands<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DEVwD5P1gwo/WTrSwUxAWqI/AAAAAAAAHhE/VUH9i_G1Ol47rCpfnpDm7-_8IewE7hBGQCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/AP_16290784023070.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DEVwD5P1gwo/WTrSwUxAWqI/AAAAAAAAHhE/VUH9i_G1Ol47rCpfnpDm7-_8IewE7hBGQCPcBGAYYCw/s400/AP_16290784023070.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jim Curtin: Looking out for a new No. 10?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Union manager <b>Jim Curtin </b>sounded definitive on several points Thursday in a conference call from the Union’s training base in Clearwater, Fla. The only issue was that those points seemed to be moderately in opposition to each other, befitting the bumpy process of roster building. <br />
<br />
Here’s Curtin’s response to two questions regarding the No. 10 position, which has long been tabbed as an area to upgrade. The first was a query about whether the praise that Curtin has lavished on <b>Anthony Fontana </b>at all changes the priorities in the transfer market: <br />
<blockquote>
<i>No. We’re still actively looking but at the same time we know that we have some young guys that are capable. This offseason has shown just by the actions of it that there is more of a commitment to youth. Our roster is significantly younger. I think that is also seen on the field in terms of the intensity of training, the amount of ground guys are covering. The No. 10 position specifically, we’re happy with the work Ilsinho has done there with Adam Najem and also Anthony Fontana. Fontana can play the 10, can also play the 8 and has gotten some reps at both. These games will tell us a lot. It hasn’t changed. We haven’t stopped searching, that is not the case at all. Every team right now is looking to make little tweaks and upgrades, but we know in the back of our mind we do have capable guys there. We are going to lean heavily on playing young guys this season. </i></blockquote>
Later, a question was posed as to whether Curtin’s preference is to have said reinforcement in sooner rather than later, and the response included more equivocating: <br />
<blockquote>
<i>I’m confident in the group that we have right now. I think the addition of David Accam makes us different. I think some guys have another year under their belt. Obviously the quicker you can get the entire group together is better, but we know that this isn’t our final roster quite yet. We still have some flexibility in terms of some roster spots. We still have the ability to sign a young player or two to the supplemental side of the roster. We’re not the complete group that you’re going to see quite yet on March 3. Whether it happens this window or next window, it still remains to be seen. But at the same time, we like our group that we have, the training sessions have been good. We’ll get our first test against Red Bull to see what it looks like. </i></blockquote>
OK, I hate to be the guy who dissects this within an inch of its life, reading between the lines. But this isn’t a normal situation. The lack of a No. 10 was <i>the </i><a href="http://uniontally.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-imperfect-10-unions-struggles-lead.html" target="_blank">defining struggle of the Union’s 2017 failures</a>. It has been highlighted since last fall as the issue. And to not add a playmaker in the offseason will not only be a missed opportunity after the astute acquisition of <b>David Accam, </b>but will leave the club open to all manner of anger from a fan base starved of success and excitement. <br />
<br />
So here’s how I read the tea leaves: <br />
<br />
- <b>The Union will bring in new players. </b>Curtin said elsewhere Thursday that they’ll have a couple of names in training to be released Friday, young players they’ve tracked but no household names. I don’t know that another Homegrown is on the horizon, but the roster has room for young players to stash. <br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
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- <b>Anthony Fontana will see significant minutes this year. </b>Curtin was effusive in his praise of the 18-year-old Homegrown. “I would say Fontana has impressed the staff that has already been here previous,” he said. “And I’ll use Pat Noonan as a guy who comes in with new ideas and no real opinions on anybody, but Anthony has stood out to Pat. Kind of reaffirms what the staff that has previously been here has seen from him this preseason.” Those are good things. <br />
<br />
- <b>Adam Najem might, too. </b>Curtin had plenty of praise for the second-year pro. That and the reassertion that the Union will play young players casts doubt on an addition of a high-profile No. 10. <br />
<br />
- <b>David Accam will make the Union different. </b>This is not the dinner bell for new formation predictions (though I assume I’ll have something like that in the coming weeks). I think you could see the Union playing in different ways because of the speed and verticality of Accam and <b>Fafa Picault. </b>To tie that into the No. 10 position, it could deemphasize the creative aspect of that spot, where maybe a hybrid 8/10 like Najem or Fontana fits better. <br />
<br />
- <b>The Ilsinho seduction isn’t over. </b>The player “with another year under his belt,” yeah I’d read that as the Brazilian. <br />
<br />
- <b>Curtin is always going to back his guys. </b>That’s not to say he’s doing it disingenuously by any means, but Curtin is a players’ manager who’ll always go to bat for his guys. In this case, he’s got reason to believe in the talent he has. Whether that stands up to the scrutiny of 34 games remains to be seen. <br />
<br />
- <b>“This isn’t our final roster quite yet.” </b>OK, that’s clear. Then a new No. 10 is coming soon? <br />
<br />
- “<b>Whether it happens this window or next window, it still remains to be seen.” </b>Oh, nevermind. <br />
<br />
- <b>“We like our group that we have.”</b> (insert Xs over eyes emoji)<br />
<br />
The Union aren’t often a team that has declared, ‘we are going to do
X,’ and then quickly and predictably did that. There have been some
obvious departures in the personnel acquisition department, most often
when the need is so glaring (i.e. a striker last year, or an attacking
midfielder before 2016 when <b>Roland Alberg </b>and Ilsinho were added). I
think the No. 10 now falls in the latter category, but it appears that’s
up for debate. <br />
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09303199103982707190noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7179119151792620833.post-87937281722479849442018-01-25T17:17:00.000-05:002018-01-25T17:17:25.147-05:00Double bubble: Training notes from Day 3<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pzW_0GMLF2E/V40KINSNNCI/AAAAAAAAA7M/9UW7x7T2aZAeJQC-1yGCuMFKyLD6zfw6ACPcBGAYYCw/s1600/22496687.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1236" data-original-width="1600" height="247" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pzW_0GMLF2E/V40KINSNNCI/AAAAAAAAA7M/9UW7x7T2aZAeJQC-1yGCuMFKyLD6zfw6ACPcBGAYYCw/s320/22496687.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ilsinho at Union trianing: Always a good time.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The Union wrapped up the last of three days at the Bubble over Dunning-Cohen Champions Field on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania (I will not missing typing out that lengthy title) Thursday. <br /><br />The club will have at least three more days on the field at the Power Training Complex, the Saturday session of which will be open to the public, before jetting off to the first phase of their Floridian training camp next Tuesday. <br /><br />Thursday’s session involved a lot of attacking drills, particularly from the wings, and finished with some full-field 11-v-11 scrimmaging. Here are some belated highlights. <br /><br />- First up: Attendance report. <b>Haris Medunjanin </b>has headed off to Bosnia and Herzegovina camp in southern California. <b>CJ Sapong </b>is still away with the U.S., as those two prepare to possibly meet in a friendly next week. <b>Fafa Picault </b>(personal reasons) has yet to report to camp, and <b>Andre Blake </b>was excused from training for the same. That left 28 bodies, with <b>Tomas Romero </b>as the third goalie plus the voluminous Steel roster of <b>James Chambers, Olivier Mbaizo, Brandon Allen </b>and <b>Santi Moar. <br /></b>- The first group of 11-v-11 lined up thusly: <br /><br />Team 1:<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>McCarthy <br />Rosenberry-Yaro-Trusty-Fabinho <br />Creavalle-Bedoya <br />Epps-Najem-Accam <br />Burke</i></div>
<br />
Team 2:<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>McGuire <br />Gaddis-Elliott-Marquez-Real <br />D.Jones-Fontana </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Herbers-Ilsinho-Ayuk </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Simpson </i></div>
<br />
From that group, the center back pairings are interesting (<b>Mark McKenzie </b>rotated in for Marquez for the second round of games), restoring a certain right-left symmetry that <b>Jim Curtin </b>harped on in 2016 but relented on in 2017. It also raises eyebrows that <b>Anthony Fontana </b>is being deployed in a more withdrawn role, but I’d write that off as fewer central players sans Medunjanin. <b>David Accam </b>on the left with <b>Fabinho </b>is an attacking axis, though <b>Matt Real </b>seems to naturally gravitate higher up the pitch, which is promising. <br />
<a name='more'></a><br />- Another product of drills appears to be an insistence on <b>Adam Najem’s </b>movement. He seems to have been floating out wide more during drills, particularly to the right, in an effort to create space and escape a central holding midfielder (in this case, <b>Warren Creavalle </b>and his penchant for hoovering up loose passes). I confess that I don’t watch Najem at Steel much, but it seems that development of that dimension of his game is worth monitoring. <br /><br />- <b>Jay Simpson </b>scored in full-field drills (I talked to him after; more on that this weekend). <b>Corey Burke </b>scored a couple of times in the attacking drills, and he’s physically imposing. His finishing in front of goal was sharp, and he had a couple instances where he bodied up <b>Jack Elliott </b>or other defenders and held his own physically via a strong, 6-1 frame.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
- Special recognition to <b>Ilsinho</b>, who at one point as a drill was being blown dead just innocently tipped a hard cross into the box in a perfect looping trajectory that nestled into the corner of the goal sublimely. That kind of skill is what so beguiles with a player of Ilsinho's caliber. <b>John McCarthy, </b>in goal at the moment, was less a fan, shall we say.<br />
<br />
<br />
- Another goal in 11-v-11 drills came off the head of <b>Josh Yaro, </b>into his own goal off a cross stung in by I believe <b>Fabian Herbers. </b>Yaro was put in two similar situations in other passages during that drill and did better with them, shepherding them out for corner kicks. <br /><br />- In continuing my personal grooming beat, <b>Richie Marquez </b>got a haircut, his locks notably shorn down. Perhaps all my questions about being a veteran got to him. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09303199103982707190noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7179119151792620833.post-87672501895836495062018-01-23T15:15:00.003-05:002018-01-23T15:15:30.723-05:00Under the Bubble: Notes from Day 1 of Union training<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iewGcAS5sKg/WmeXnBuFDVI/AAAAAAAALYQ/lVMz2gmk4f82abIiGOKUEkz3-VZJLXcpwCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20180123_113416.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1440" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iewGcAS5sKg/WmeXnBuFDVI/AAAAAAAALYQ/lVMz2gmk4f82abIiGOKUEkz3-VZJLXcpwCLcBGAs/s400/IMG_20180123_113416.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Day 1 under the Bubble at Penn for the Union. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The Union congregated under the bubble at Penn Tuesday, beneath intermittent sunshine and deluging rain, for their first official day of training camp. A few takeaways from a pretty slow opening day. <br />
<br />
- Everyone was present and accounted for save for <b>Fafa Picault </b>(family reasons) and <b>CJ Sapong </b>(U.S. national team). <b>Haris Medunjanin </b>is training with the Union for most of January before heading to join Bosnia and Herzegovina. <br />
<br />
- Among the Bethlehem Steel faces present were <b>James Chambers </b>as the obligatory veteran midfield presence, <b>Santi Moar, </b>Cameroonian defender <b>Olivier Mbaizo </b>and <b>Brandon Allen. </b>Expect more Steel participation toward the end of the week as they get going. Those four players certainly shined, with Allen scoring a couple of goals and looking decent as the presumptive fourth forward on the organizational depth chart. <br />
<br />
- To the chagrin of "name that trialist" enthusiasts like myself, nothing to report on that front. Perhaps as the week proceeds and more academy kids and Steel trialists join, there will be more names. But with the influx of Homegrowns, the Union lack open spots and the general organizational chaos of years past that made trialists dropping in a viable option of player recruitment. <br />
<br />
- There are plenty of opportunities for strikers to get some play in the absence of Sapong in the early weeks of training camp, and players seemed to be taking advantage. <b>Jay Simpson </b>looked sharp, scoring a couple of times in 9-v-9 drills. <b>Corey Burke </b>netted a couple of goals and looked physical in the middle. And Allen impressed, his physicality at 6-1, 190 pounds certainly up to the level of MLS. <br />
<br />
- There’s not a ton that can be gleaned form 9-v-9 drills since they weren’t full field will full tactics. Saw a lot of new signing <b>David Accam </b>and <b>Fabian Herbers </b>generally in the neutral jersey to work for both teams. Herbers looked pretty sharp, not the extent that he has in the past (he’s a great practice player) but pretty good. <br />
<br />
- It’s no secret that distribution on <b>Auston Trusty’s </b>left foot is a big piece of the skillset the Union staff is trying to grow with him. He hit a handful of long balls from his left center back-type spot to the opposite wing that were inch-perfect. That ability to hold down the left side bodes well for the Homegrown’s prospects of playing (more on that later this week). <br />
<br />
- In Union grooming news: <br />
<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
Big news from training: Eric Ayuk and Derrick Jones have added blond streaks to their hair.</div>
— Matthew De George (@sportsdoctormd) <a href="https://twitter.com/sportsdoctormd/status/955845239603974146?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 23, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<br />
Also <b>Richie Marquez, </b>now the defensive elder statesman, tells the <i>Daily Times </i>exclusively that his trimmed beard is merely the starting point for the year’s growth. While he was out in the humid climes of California in the winter, he had to trim it back a little. Heard it here first. <br />
<br />
- <b>John McCarthy </b>looked sharp facing shots. <b>Jake McGuire </b>did as well, except for saving one shot from <b>Anthony Fontana </b>with his face. Fontana looked ready and able to shoot early, which is a plus from him. And I liked what I saw from <b>Warren Creavalle, </b>who is not to be overlooked in the midfield reckoning this year, sharp on the ball and intercepting passes in the middle of the field. <br />
<br />
- Not present were any of the three SuperDrafted rookies – <b>Mike Catalano, Aidan Apodaca </b>and <b>Matt Danilack </b>– selected in the third and fourth rounds Sunday. They’ll likely work into the group with Steel first and potentially with the Union toward the end of the week or early next week. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09303199103982707190noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7179119151792620833.post-32014405303440048042018-01-19T13:45:00.002-05:002018-01-19T13:47:21.768-05:00Union acquire David Accam from Chicago<b>PHILADELPHIA >> </b>Lacking a pick in the first two rounds of the MLS SuperDraft, Friday shaped up as a quiet day for the Philadelphia Union. But the club has made a splash outside the drafting realm. <br />
<br />
The Union acquired Ghanian winger <b>David Accam </b>from the Chicago Fire for $1.2 million ($300k in general allocation money and $900k in targeted allocation money).<br />
<br />
Accam, 27, has 33 goals in 78 games over the last three seasons with the Fire, but increasingly has looked the odd man out as the club has stocked up on attacking talent. He scored a career-high 14 goals and eight assists in 30 games last season. <br />
<br />
The details, first reported by ESPN FC’s Paul Tenorio, indicated the sum of allocation money sent to Chicago to be in excess of $1 million.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
Chicago Fire has traded winger David Accam to the Philadelphia Union for more than $1 million in GAM/TAM, per multiple sources with knowledge of the move. Story to come on <a href="https://twitter.com/ESPNFC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ESPNFC</a>.</div>
— Paul Tenorio (@PaulTenorio) <a href="https://twitter.com/PaulTenorio/status/954417121164963840?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 19, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<br />
Accam occupied a Designated Player spot last year for the Fire, with a guaranteed salary of around $820,000. The Union have two DP spots open, with only Alejandro Bedoya in that capacity on the roster. <br />
<br />
The speedy midfielder has been capped 10 times by the Ghanaian national team. <br />
<br />
The Union have made it known that they are looking for impact players, particularly in attack, to replace <b>Chris Pontius </b>and <b>Roland Alberg. </b>There’s no incumbent starter on the wing opposite Fafa Picault, and Accam would seem a ready-made insertion to that void. With Accam having proven his ability in MLS and game-breaking speed, he’s a lower-risk acquisition than someone from outside the league. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09303199103982707190noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7179119151792620833.post-62692652577655357102017-11-01T17:26:00.005-04:002017-11-01T17:26:57.910-04:00Meet the Media: Curtin and Stewart's end of year press conference <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-l-ldH2LJfQc/Wfo8BmFHjVI/AAAAAAAAJso/P91itNxVPdgk72E5Xom4hjuWBovD77PvwCLcBGAs/s1600/WordItOut-word-cloud-2550726.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="634" data-original-width="1024" height="247" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-l-ldH2LJfQc/Wfo8BmFHjVI/AAAAAAAAJso/P91itNxVPdgk72E5Xom4hjuWBovD77PvwCLcBGAs/s400/WordItOut-word-cloud-2550726.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Earnie Stewart's word cloud, if you're into that kind of thing.</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Transcript in full. Earnie Stewart first, then Jim Curtin. <br />
<br />
<b>EARNIE STEWART </b><br />
<b>Opening statement: </b><br />
Obviously starting the 2017 season, one of the main points was building our roster and making that foundation stronger as we have started in 2016. For the most part, I can say that the building of the foundation was more from the bottom and from the side, (<b>Tranquillo</b>) <b>Barnetta </b>leaving and bringing <b>Haris Medunjanin </b>in, and not being of the possibility to sprinkle in from the top yet. From that part I think the roster that we had for 2017 was a roster that was better than it was in 2016. Obviously when we look at the season and the start of the season, I think that kind of determines how people look upon a team, as the Philadelphia Union, going into those first eight games of the season and not coming out with a win is a difficult period for each and every one of us in the organization, but I truly believe that that part is something that was – when you talk about progress and where we were last year in 2016 when we got off to a great start, where everything was new and when toward the end of the season it became a little bit more difficult to handle the stress situations that were there – the beginning of this year was totally different in that regard because we were in a stress situation right away and if I see how the technical staff and the team responded after that, after those first eight games, everyone counted us dead and out at that moment. There was asking for change; In my view, it was the worst thing that could happen at that moment, I believe I made a couple of statements about that, that I don’t believe in that. And I think the system-based approach that we have and that we had put in place in 2016 actually shows how important that is in this 2017 season. We came back from being down and out. A lot of words went on in our locker room area. I think the group responded, the technical staff responded to what we set out to do and stress situations are never easy. It comes down to having players do the things that we feel is important and once we knew that, you can see that we can get results at the same time. Obviously still disappointing because in everything you want to win, you want to become MLS champions and that is more maybe ambitions than a realistic goal, but I do feel that you have to set the bar as high as possible because if you just set it as making playoff or anything like that, sometimes you see you make playoffs and you go out. I do believe in setting the bar high and will do that for the 2018 season, just as well because I believe that’s very important in getting the best out of everybody. <br />
<br />
The end of the season I would say when you look back and everything, the same amount of points from 2015 where we had a goal differential of minus-13 to 2016 when we had a goal differential of minus-3 to 2017 where we had a plus-goal differential of three. So when we talk about progress and what we’re trying to do in a system-based approach that we have and making sure people get chances and can show themselves, I think that part has shown throughout this year. I don’t think there were too many games that we were in where we were blown out at any moment. I can pretty much say that three or four games, five minutes before time we weren’t in a position to get anything from the game. But other than that, our coaching staff has done an excellent job in making sure that we were in a position to get results. Obviously disappointing from the fact that in the end, 1) we did not make playoffs, and 2) that we did not, even though we were in the position, we never really capitalized, especially in the away games to make sure that we could make the next step and take those points because that’s where the difference lies and that’s where we have to make sure that we’re a lot better towards the 2018 season. When I look at our home games for the most part, you can be very satisfied with the amount of points that we got there. Beginning of the season I think we played a couple of games where I think maybe we should’ve gotten more and maybe there were games towards the end or in the middle there where maybe it should’ve been less, but it is what it is. That’s real simple. That’s the way we look at things. That’s the way we view things and we’ve got to get better, especially on the road and that’s something that we’re going to do in the offseason, make sure we evaluate the offseason as much as possible and what we haven’t done because evaluation doesn’t only start here but it starts a little bit earlier but where we’ve done that and made sure in those away games we can get those points to make the playoffs in the next season. <br />
<br />
Having said that, building to the 2018 roster, obviously one important part of that is the head coach, so I’m very pleased and proud to announce that <b>Jim Curtin </b>will be the head coach in 2018 and we’ll make sure that we keep going in the same direction that we have been going in. I think he’s a big part of this foundation that we’ve laid down. Once again, when we talk about progress, I think the system-based approach and the stability of good organization, continuity is very, very important and I think that has shown in this season and in a time where everybody thought we were down and out, we were at one point we were in a position once again to get back into the playoffs, and that is a great credit to Jim and his coaching staff, so very pleased with that, very pleased that he will be back. <br />
<br />
Those sound real simple, but when you look back at the progress we have made and the players, there will probably best questions about that, what is the progress of a player? But I also look at my head coach the same way, and I think he has progressed in a great manner, and once again I’m very pleased that he’ll be part of this 2018 season and that we can build on the continuity that we have and look forward to the 2018 season. <br />
<br />
<b>On possibly underestimating the pace of improvement in the Eastern Conference?</b><br />
<a name='more'></a><b></b><br />
We are who we are and we do what we do. And we can look at the other sides in our Eastern Conference and see what others do, but that doesn’t mean that we can do that. I don’t think it’s a question of underestimating anything, but you look at yourself and how you can better yourselves, and that’s the most important thing. To look at the neighbor where the grass is greener at times I don’t think is the way to go. You look at what we’re able to do as a professional organization, and I think it’s been great in 2016, 2017, what we’ve set out to do and obviously disappointing not to make the playoffs, but yes I do agree with you when you see how fast the Eastern Conference has gone and seen in this season what the teams, what they’ve put out on the field, that says something. But I don’t think that has anything to do with underestimating because that would say that if we would’ve overestimated or anything like that, we would’ve done things different. I don’t think that’s the case. <br />
<br />
<b>On Roland Alberg and CSKA Sofia? </b><br />
In the offseason, because I remember we talked about <b>Andre Blake, </b>and I can still and will say there were no offers for Andre Blake. That doesn’t mean that there was no interest for him, but not that we were aware of. There were two players on our club that there was interest for: <b>Oguchi Onyewu </b>and <b>Roland Alberg </b>with CSKA Sofia. In the conversations I did have with the agent, it never really materialized that there was going to be a substantial transfer fee, so we would’ve maybe looked at that option. It wasn’t something that was there. <br />
<br />
<b>On changes to the coaching staff? </b><br />
For the most part, everybody is going to be staying but <b>Oka Nikolov </b>will be leaving us at the end of the season. <br />
<br />
<b>On rumors of Mike Sorber's departure?</b> <br />
I’m not aware of that, so up till now, we’re talking to Jim and we were talking about his coaching staff, so we see how we’ll fill that out. But Mike hasn’t come to us to say that he’s going, so up to today, the rest of the coaching staff will stay. But soccer is soccer. <br />
<br />
<b>On the No. 10 position in 2017 and moving forward? </b><br />
First and foremost you look in your backyard, and if you can’t find it in your backyard, you find it somewhere else. That’s the way we do business here, so without saying where we’re going to search or whatever that is, or if it’s going to be that position because I don’t believe it’s only one position. It’s as simple as that. I don’t believe one person is going to make all the difference in the world. Will it be better? Yeah, for sure, but at the same time, when we look at the No. 10 role and what we expect, we see from Tranquillo Barnetta, who was a great signing that they’ve done in the past and who had a great work rate when we had the ball and when we don’t have the ball, which all of a sudden comes to a lot of touches on the ball, is a very important part. You see that throughout MLS when you see <b>Sacha Kljestan </b>and the amount of touches he has on the ball, and once you have your creative person on the ball as much as possible, I think that’s fantastic. When it comes to that position, that’s something that we search for. On the other hand, I can say that <b>Ilsinho </b>has shown for the most part in this season for certain periods of time – not always perfect – but that he’s progressing in that direction. So having said that, first look in the backyard and then we’ll see what we can do in that regard. <br />
<br />
<b>On Ilsinho coming back? </b><br />
I think there are more players on our roster, obviously you guys have seen the decisions that we’ve made – when I say ‘recent week,’ that’s kind of stupid because that’s not when we started thinking about it; that’s been a lot longer that we think about things – but at the same time, you’ve seen the roster moves that we’ve made, and there are certain players on that roster that we have not picked up an option that we are still interested in, and I dare say that Ilsinho is one of those players. <br />
<br />
<b>On Chris Pontius' status?</b> <br />
We made a decision on that, that Chris Pontius will not be coming back. Chris Pontius will be a free agent. <br />
<br />
<b>On the two Dutch players whose options were declined, Roland Alberg and Giliano Wijnaldum?</b> <br />
I think Roland has had a very good role within the Philadelphia Union. When you look at Roland Alberg and his biggest quality, anything that gets close to the 18-yard-box, everything gets on target. Even though he’s a midfielder, I want to say he’s one of the best scorers that we have out there. I’d say his role was very good. When we talk about possession and we talk about touches on the ball and having that, that’s something that we knew we did want to add that special part of Roland to the group, but now that we’re transitioning and trying to go a little further in, we came to the conclusion that the (salary) number that he was at, it wasn’t the right fit or the option number that was there. Then it becomes a game of, who has the opportunity, and he has the opportunity now to go to CSKA Sofia and that he kind of had in the summer that we weren’t willing to think of. And now he’s going to be making that step. I think his role has been good in the last two years. <br />
<br />
Giliano, especially for the money that he was on on our roster, he got to a level that he took the job over from <b>Fabinho </b>and lost it again. That’s something that’s always been in Giliano’s career path, I almost want to say. He’s a very talented kid, he’s very athletic, he pretty much has everything, but to stay consistent is something that he needs to do. That’s the part that we did not see in this season, that consistency that was there. Some discussions that Jim and I had with him in the beginning of the season, ‘that’s what we want to see from you day in and day out,’ not only because I realize that for a lot of players, it’s all about output in games, but for us as a technical staff, it goes way further than that. It’s day in, day out on the training field, too, and yes in the weekend, you guys get to see a certain player and you guys come more frequently than others so you see that constantly, and that’s what we look for, consistency in players. And that part, I have to say, for the number that we had in his contract, for the option year, it was not enough, so. I’d say Roland was a very good fit for the time that he was here for what we expected of him, and Giliano for a short period of time was here, but in the end he also had some, I almost want to say family issues, missing his kids and so it was a good time to part ways. <br />
<br />
<b>On Fabinho's future? </b><br />
Before I say every single name, Fabi is … left backs and left-center backs are like dinosaurs; you don’t see too many of them. And I don’t reference to his age – we already spoke of that. To have a good left back and I still consider Fabi as a left back in the league that we have this rating system of ours where he still rates very high. I think that answers the question. <br />
<br />
<b>On Fabinho’s off-field future? </b><br />
I think Fabi is part of this family, apart from what we can do because everything has its constraints in what we can do. To make those promises now is a little bit too early, I think it’s too early in his career to do that. But at the same time I do think that when it comes to a person that belongs to that club, he’s one of those players. <br />
<br />
<b>On Fabian Herbers' future? </b><br />
Yeah. We still believe in Fabian Herbers. It’s always a difficult discussion to have with players where you decline the options, and for those here, he had a GA status the last two years and once we had taken the option, the GA status was gone so he had to come on to our roster. So it had more to do with the roster itself and the number, but we are still high on Fabian Herbers. We’re looking forward to him being part of the 2018 team. <br />
<br />
<b>On Keegan Rosenberry's season and development at large? </b><br />
Development, especially for young kids, development goes like this (up and down) and once you get to the age of Haris and Alejandro Bedoya, you get this more linear, you get continuity, you get players that can weather storms by themselves. And for young players, that goes up and down. I dare say that every player developed this season, except the output wasn’t always the same on Saturday or Sunday. That’s something totally different. It’s like riding a bike: You ride your bike every single day; after you’ve done that a couple of weeks, you’re not going to fall anymore. Development never stops, and our players are out there every single day and sometimes twice a day, so they do develop themselves, except the output at times can be totally different, and that all has to do with where are you as a team? And how does that go? And I believe that at the beginning of the season in those eight games, it showed that we were a young team. And young teams need help, and the help that we tried to give them is consistency, consistency of what we ask of them. Not to tell CJ to go out and score three goals a game, but to tell him what we do when we don’t have the ball, where does he go to, and when we do have the ball, where does he show for it, and making sure that everybody does that. Except soccer in the end is about decision-making, and decision-making you do under stress. Once we start making the right decisions, because stress makes you do sometimes stupid things, sometimes things that you can’t place and trying to get them back to what we want, that consistency, is something great.<br />
<br />
We just got off this, we had a guy who does a lot of mental training in stress situations, and he actually showed a clip of Victor Valdes where, and it’s the best example of everything. Victor Valdes is playing in front of 100.000 people away against Real Madrid, the first ball he gets back, as Barcelona does, they try to build out of the back and he makes a huge mistake, and Real Madrid scores within a couple of minutes. The second ball that he gets played back after three/four minutes, he does the exact same thing. And that is class. That is the difference between top players and very young players that are not there yet and trying to reach that because Victor Valdes time after time did the exact same thing, and it went right every time so they ended up winning the game. But it starts there, and I think that’s one of those examples of what the difference is between the top players and players that are still young and still trying to do the same thing, or not doing the same thing constantly. Decision-making under stress becomes different, and then the reaction of players at that moment kind of says everything at that time and in the beginning of the season, we had problems with that. You could see that we were very young and guys did not have the consistency. They were scared at times, which is normal, which is totally normal, and that’s why I think it’s a great credit, because we haven’t mentioned him yet and I will mention him, <b>Jack Elliott </b>is one of those young players when you talk about here he came from and what he’s done, but what I like a lot in Jack and not only Jack is that he’s very consistent in what he does, and hopefully he can continue that but also Jack is still young. He’s going to also get into some moments and Jim experienced that in the one game before the end where he didn’t have his best game, but he bounced back from that against Orlando, just like that, within a week. When we talk about development, I truly believe that every player has developed himself, some in different ways than others, but when you’re on the practice field every single day, you keep developing, only sometimes that output is a little different. <br />
<br />
<b>On Stewarth's trust in the foundation? </b><br />
You evaluate your players every single day. You evaluate your coaching staff every single day. And once you have young players, you know that development, you don’t un-develop. You keep developing except that the development stops somewhere, and that’s what you try to get to every single day. Are there parts in the development of these players that you look at and you think, ‘oh we’ve really got to do something about that,’ and does that have a different roof? Yeah, that happens every single day. I’d say for the most part, a lot of clubs – and I think Toronto is maybe a good example – where they first brought in all kids of DPs and built a foundation around that. That’s a way to do that. We try to do it the other way around. We try to make sure there’s a foundation and we try to sprinkle some other players in to make sure that we would become better every single day and evaluation is every single year. And once they reach certain heights that we think they can’t go any further than that or it’s not enough for us, we’ll make those decisions. But up to now, I’d have to say – and I think the best way to put it is actually when you look at the Bethlehem Steel and what they have accomplished this season, and that has a lot to do with those players, when we talk about the bottom half of our roster and trying to go double deep everywhere, and having these players play on the weekend. Last year we had difficulties winning games with the Bethlehem Steel, did not make the playoffs (not that that’s holy)/ But at the same time, it’s important because you want to win games. This season I’d say was very good, so those young players that come through the Academy but also those players, the <b>Marcus Epps </b>of this world, the Jack Elliotts of this world, the <b>Jake McGuires </b>of this world, the <b>Auston Trustys, </b>that play those games there and play valuable minutes, show that if you keep constantly pushing the needle every single day in practice that they can get better, and that has relay, really shown with the Bethlehem Steel. That part of the roster is strong; that’s the foundation and that’s what you’ve got to keep building on, those young players in practice every single day getting better and better and making the choices for our head coach more difficult every time. That’s what development is about and that’s what pushing the needle is about. <br />
<br />
<b>On the Union's offseason spending power?</b><br />
There’s set total of what we can work with, so that has nothing to do with any of the rumors of what’s going around in MLS about what’s going to happen with TAM or anything like that and in the end, it’s the best way to spend money. That’s the way that (owner) <b>Jay </b>(<b>Sugarman</b>) looks at it, that’s the way that we look at it. What mechanism we can use at what moment, we’ll have to take a look at that when it becomes available to us, or not. We look at the mechanisms and what is the best way to improve ourselves. That is still an ongoing process as we speak right now, but that process is going well. <br />
<br />
<b>On how many funds will be available to be spent?</b><br />
<br />
We have those conversations, and I have to say that our ownership group with Jay leading that has been good, but we’ve also chosen a path that we have as a club, that we started at least since I’ve been here two years ago. That’s our pathway. That’s who we are, that’s who we want to be, and the most important part is we’ve got to come to grips with that. It’s who we are, and I think a lot of times, this is, can you spend like the Torontos? No, we can’t. It’s as simple as that. So we have to do it in a different, way, and I think we’ve found that way. Those discussions are going on and Jay’s been good in that. When you look around at what we have at the club and the facilities we have, and we’re still building because a lot of times it’s only seen in players spending, but this is such a young club that there’s so much that needs to be built, so apart form only looking at … you can bring in the best player you want. If you don’t have the infrastructure, it’s not going to work. I’m pretty sure about that, and time has proven that as well. So making sure we’re good in all aspects, and players is a part of that. So that’s the case, but when you look at least the last two years and what was spent and the job Jim has done, I think it’s been great. It’s been an amazing job. And now we’re looking forward to doing more than we’ve done in the past and that’s very exciting for us. And not going overboard, because we are who we are, and we’ll go forward from here with the same attitude and the same ideology as we have in the past. <br />
<br />
<b>On Eric Ayuk? </b><br />
<br />
It’s real easy when our players are here and you can have a conversation. We haven’t had a conversation with him since the season ended, so I’d like to do that first. <br />
<br />
<b>On left center backs?</b> <br />
<br />
That is true. When you look in the market in the world how many left center backs are right-footed, it’s amazing so see. There’s even right-footed left backs these days where it used to be that it was always a left-footed center back and a left-footed left back. But when we look at Auston Trusty and the way that he’s developed himself with the Bethlehem Steel and playing those valuable minutes with them, he’s been excellent. Except defending is also – as Jim sits here and he knows that a lot better than I do – defending and goalkeeping is like fine wine; it takes time to get there and get those experiences under your belt, and obviously we hope that that goes very quickly for Auston. But at the same time, we want to make sure that there’s a competition going on. One, we will look in the backyard and we have something in our backyard and we’re very pleased with that because we have, as I started with, we have kind of like a dinosaur, who’s left-footed, who’s tall, who can jump planes out of the air and who is developing himself and is doing really well. But we do want to get competition because competition makes sure and that’s what we set out to do at the Philadelphia Union is make sure at every position that we’re two-deep and they’re competing against each other and making sure everybody gets better at that time. That is something that we will be on the lookout for in this offseason. <br />
<br />
<br />
<b>JIM CURTIN </b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Reaction to continuing as the manager for another year?</b><br />
I’m grateful obviously but at the same time, I think back to the support that I got in the hardest time. I think that’s when you learn the most about people, and Earnie backed me in the hardest time of my young coaching career. That was the beginning of this season when we lost games. There’s very few people that you can trust, and Earnie is a guy that I trust, that I believe in. It’s advice from my parents when I was young: Love many, trust few. Again, that showed a real believe in me and what I was about, saw more than just results, saw a team that stuck together and continued to fight, so I’m very grateful for the opportunity obviously. The focus now is on 2018. Both Earnie and I want to win more than anybody. We understand that there can be frustration from the fans and there can be noise from the outside, but I will be loyal to him forever because he showed belief in my in a tough time and I believe that’s when you learn the most about people, and Earnie’s a real leader in that regard. Again I’m grateful and I’m still very confident in the roster that we have, the players that we have, the flexibility that now we have that Earnie and <b>Chris </b>(<b>Albright</b>) have done a great job in presenting, and now the work starts on a new year. Things can change fast in MLS. There can be highs and lows, even week-to-week – you look at these playoffs; there’s no better example than that. We know that we can achieve big things here. Again, I’m not going to do any promising or talk out of turn, but I believe in the group that we have and that starts first and foremost with being grateful for Earnie’s backing. <br />
<br />
<b>On Keegan Rosenberry's season and future? </b><br />
<br />
A very good young player that we strongly believe in. Every player goes through highs and lows, peaks and valleys in their development. Again, if you think to when he was selected, obviously the Homegrown issue comes up, but at the same time, we were maybe crazy for doing so from the public perception, and then he went on to a very quick rise: All-Star in his first year, playoff team, U.S. national team player. So a really high high. This year there was the feeling of a low low for him. So again, we have full confidence that he can bounce back quickly. If he as great as the guaranteed, penciled-in, right back starting national team player? Maybe not. But he’s also not defined by just how this year went. So again a developing young player that is a very, very strong right back, an important position because we like to attack with our outside backs. But when you talk about development, there’s on-the-field development, there’s off-the-field development, there’s handling success, there’s handling the down times. These are all part of growth, and to now write him off and say that his development has stopped is silly, because now if he bounces back and we’re a playoff team next year and he’s starting again and is an All-Star, did we all of a sudden redevelop him? I don’t think that’s the case either. We can talk about different things, and who develops players and who gets the most credit. I’m still a believer that mom and dad develop kids first and foremost, and he’s a good kid who I still think learned a lot this year. We believe in him. He has all the tools, all the assets on the field to be a good player, and we’ll pull that out of him. I know he’s going to attack this offseason with a chip on his shoulder, come back ready to go. We have great competition there with <b>Ray Gaddis</b>. <br />
<br />
<b>On development of young guys? </b><br />
<br />
If you went through every individual guy, it would take a while. But I could go through with <b>Derrick </b>(<b>Jones</b>): Again people will look negatively on his season, and that’s not the case. The kid first of all played in the U-20 World Cup where he wasn’t a starter, worked his way into the starting lineup in the competition and dominated some of the games in that competition and had a pretty successful World Cup. He then came with us and wound up starting at the beginning of the year and was one of the better players on the field for us. We see Derrick every day in training; he’s getting better and better. It’s not his fault, and I can take a poll of the audience here, that he doesn’t start quite yet over Alejandro Bedoya, who plays for the United States, and Haris Medunjanin, who plays for Bosnia. That’s not on Derrick. We still see the positives day in and day out. <b>Auston Trusty, </b>same thing. People will say, ‘oh he didn’t play enough this year for the first team.’ His trajectory right now is going perfectly. We love the 34 games he got in USL, showing that he can be a dominant center back, a left-footed dominant center back. Will he now look at the roster moves and see, yeah maybe a little bit now has been cleared for a Trusty, for a Derrick just by evaluating our current roster. There’s young players that are going to be coming and going to be pushing. We believe strongly in the job that has been done at our academy. It’s a real positive. <br />
<br />
<b>Josh </b>(<b>Yaro</b>) specifically, people will point to a red card or a mistake or a technical mistake or a penalty kick or an own goal or a missed trap and see just that moment. The kid was injured this year. Again, no one wants to talk about the fact that he missed the first four and a half months of the season. Injury is a hard time to develop. It’s a lonely time to develop, and you’re by yourself. We can do our best as a staff and try to make everyone feel involved, but when you’re hurt, it is brutal. You’re alone, you’re isolated and dealing with the mental side of that is something that he had to do this year. He got opportunities to get back in. He played some very good games, but had key moments where there was a technical mistake. Can those be fixed? Absolutely. Josh is a kid who’s hard on himself. We talk a lot with him about having, as a defender, a shorter-term memory and forgetting the last play and getting on with it. A hard year for him, but a year where he still learned and again a kid that we’re not going to write off because of a couple of bad moments and again no one looks at the injury part of the year that was lost. Herbers was hurt a lot, too. Again, these are young guys. We recognize that the season was not perfect and didn’t go that way, but look up the spine of the team, the experience that we have and with Andre, with Bedoya and Haris, with Sapong, that’s a strong, exciting group that with a couple of pieces sprinkled in, we can rise quickly, and we believe that. And it will be the young guys that drive the roster, as well. <br />
<br />
<b>On Oguchi Onyewu: </b><br />
A guy that we brought in for his experience to pass on messages to our younger guys, a player that came into a new environment, had been off for several years and stepped in and gave us everything. It’s a hard conversation at the end of the year, but he did everything that Earnie and I could’ve asked of him. He gave good minutes, was a big part of a lot of our wins this year. Again, it’s a difficult decision in sports, but one where we gave him an opportunity, he did a good job for us. At the end of the year, we had a hard decision that we had to make, and for the club with the depth that we have at that position, but we decided to move on from him. It’s hard, but at the same time, we wish him success going forward, and we thank him for his contributions to our team.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09303199103982707190noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7179119151792620833.post-34057301130916261902017-11-01T16:49:00.001-04:002017-11-01T17:28:53.963-04:00Let me sum up: Postseason assessments from Union brass<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LY7vuJhadQY/Vqq9YYYbHGI/AAAAAAAAAvg/Dxc99duZnKw343uIadIahJoMkt6l-6qRwCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/stewart.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="320" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LY7vuJhadQY/Vqq9YYYbHGI/AAAAAAAAAvg/Dxc99duZnKw343uIadIahJoMkt6l-6qRwCPcBGAYYCw/s400/stewart.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Union sporting director Earnie Stewart had plenty to say <br />Wednesday in evaluating players for 2017 and beyond. <br />(DFM file)</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>Earnie Stewart </b>and <b>Jim Curtin </b>spoke for 45 minutes Wednesday afternoon at Talen Energy Stadium. The discussion got very big-picture and very granular at times. There’s plenty to parse out of the many informative digressions, and I’ll post a full transcript later (after I recover from the transcription). <br />
<br />
But first, let’s hit the high notes, rapid-fire, player by player to offer the postseason assessment from Curtin and/or Stewart. So here goes: <br />
<br />
- First, <b>Roland Alberg, </b>who Tuesday was introduced by CSKA Sofia. Here’s Stewart: “In the conversations I did have with the agent, it never really materialized that there was going to be a substantial transfer fee, so we would’ve maybe looked at that option. It wasn’t something that was there.” <br />
<br />
Stewart had more praise for the Dutchman: “When you look at Roland Alberg and his biggest quality, anything that gets close to the 18-yard-box, everything gets on target. Even though he’s a midfielder, I want to say he’s one of the best scorers that we have out there. I’d say his role was very good. When we talk about possession and we talk about touches on the ball and having that, that’s something that we knew we did want to add that special part of Roland to the group, but now that we’re transitioning and trying to go a little further in, we came to the conclusion that the (salary) number that he was at, it wasn’t the right fit or the option number that was there.” <br />
<br />
- <b>Andre Blake, </b>via Stewart: “In the offseason, because I remember we talked about Andre Blake, and I can still and will say there were no offers for Andre Blake. That doesn’t mean that there was no interest for him, but not that we were aware of.”<br />
<br />
- Here's Curtin on <b>Keegan Rosenberry</b>: "A very good young player that we strongly believe in. Every player goes
through highs and lows, peaks and valleys in their development. Again,
if you think to when he was selected, obviously the Homegrown issue
comes up, but at the same time, we were maybe crazy for doing so from
the public perception, and then he went on to a very quick rise:
All-Star in his first year, playoff team, U.S. national team player. So a
really high high. This year there was the feeling of a low low for him.
So again, we have full confidence that he can bounce back quickly. If
he as great as the guaranteed, penciled-in, right back starting national
team player? Maybe not. But he’s also not defined by just how this year
went. So again a developing young player that is a very, very strong
right back, an important position because we like to attack with our
outside backs. But when you talk about development, there’s on-the-field
development, there’s off-the-field development, there’s handling
success, there’s handling the down times. These are all part of growth,
and to now write him off and say that his development has stopped is
silly, because now if he bounces back and we’re a playoff team next year
and he’s starting again and is an All-Star, did we all of a sudden
redevelop him? I don’t think that’s the case either. ... We
believe in him. He has all the tools, all the assets on the field to be a
good player, and we’ll pull that out of him. I know he’s going to
attack this offseason with a chip on his shoulder, come back ready to
go."<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
- Let’s hand the mic to Curtin for appraising <b>Derrick Jones: </b>“People will look negatively on his season, and that’s not the case. The kid first of all played in the U-20 World Cup where he wasn’t a starter, worked his way into the starting lineup in the competition and dominated some of the games in that competition and had a pretty successful World Cup. He then came with us and wound up starting at the beginning of the year and was one of the better players on the field for us. We see Derrick every day in training; he’s getting better and better. It’s not his fault that he doesn’t start quite yet over <b>Alejandro Bedoya, </b>who plays for the United States, and <b>Haris Medunjanin, </b>who plays for Bosnia. That’s not on Derrick. We still see the positives day in and day out.” <br />
<br />
- And on <b>Auston Trusty </b>(bit of a head-scratcher here): “People will say, ‘oh he didn’t play enough this year for the first team.’ His trajectory right now is going perfectly. We love the 34 games he got in USL, showing that he can be a dominant center back, a left-footed dominant center back. Will he now look at the roster moves and see, yeah maybe a little bit now has been cleared for a Trusty, for a Derrick just by evaluating our current roster.”<br />
<br />
- On leaving the door open for <b>Ilsinho, </b>whose option was among
eight declined. Stewart again: “There are certain players on that
roster that we have not picked up an option that we are still interested
in, and I dare say that Ilsinho is one of those players.” <br />
<br />
- While we’re in Brazil, what about <b>Fabinho? </b>From
Stewart: “Left backs and left-center backs are like dinosaurs; you
don’t see too many of them. And I don’t reference to his age – we
already spoke of that. To have a good left back – and I still consider
Fabi as a left back in the league that we have this rating system of
ours where he still rates very high. I think that answers the question.”
<br />
<br />
- For me, <b>Fabian Herbers </b>was the puzzler in
the options pack. Part of it is his graduation from Generation Adidas,
meaning the Union want a friendly salary now that he’s hitting their
cap. Here’s what Stewart said: “We still believe in Fabian Herbers. It’s
always a difficult discussion to have with players where you decline
the options, and for those here, he had a GA status the last two years
and once we had taken the option, the GA status was gone so he had to
come on to our roster. So it had more to do with the roster itself and
the number, but we are still high on Fabian Herbers. We’re looking
forward to him being part of the 2018 team.” <br />
<br />
<br />
- On <b>Josh Yaro, </b>from Curtin: “People will point to a red card or a technical mistake or a penalty kick or an own goal or a missed trap and see just that moment. The kid was injured this year. Again, no one wants to talk about the fact that he missed the first four and a half months of the season. Injury is a hard time to develop. It’s a lonely time to develop, and you’re by yourself. We can do our best as a staff and try to make everyone feel involved, but when you’re hurt, it is brutal. You’re alone, you’re isolated and dealing with the mental side of that is something that he had to do this year. He got opportunities to get back in. He played some very good games, but had key moments where there was a technical mistake. Can those be fixed? Absolutely.” <br />
<br />
- Curtin on <b>Oguchi Onyewu, </b>whom the former defender seems sad to see leave: “A guy that we brought in for his experience to pass on messages to our younger guys, a player that came into a new environment, had been off for several years and stepped in and gave us everything. It’s a hard conversation at the end of the year, but he did everything that Earnie and I could’ve asked of him. He gave good minutes, was a big part of a lot of our wins this year. … It’s hard, but at the same time, we wish him success going forward, and we thank him for his contributions to our team.” <br />
<br />
- No need for a quote here: <b>Chris Pontius </b>won’t be coming back. He’s a free agent after two (mostly successful) seasons. <br />
<br />
- <b>Giliano Wijnaldum </b>also won’t be back. Here’s why, from Stewart (read between the lines if you please): “Giliano, especially for the money that he was on on our roster, he got to a level that he took the job over from Fabinho and lost it again. That’s something that’s always been in Giliano’s career path, I almost want to say. He’s a very talented kid, he’s very athletic, he pretty much has everything, but to stay consistent is something that he needs to do. That’s the part that we did not see in this season, that consistency that was there. Some discussions that Jim and I had with him in the beginning of the season, ‘that’s what we want to see from you day in and day out,’ not only because I realize that for a lot of players, it’s all about output in games, but for us as a technical staff, it goes way further than that. It’s day in, day out on the training field, too.” <br />
<br />
- Nothing much on <b>Eric Ayuk </b>(remember him?) from Stewart: “It’s real easy when our players are here and you can have a conversation. We haven’t had a conversation with him since the season ended, so I’d like to do that first.” <br />
<br />
- On rumors of <b>Mike Sorber’s </b>departure, from Stewart: “I’m not aware of that, so up till now, we’re talking to Jim and we were talking about his coaching staff, so we see how we’ll fill that out. But Mike hasn’t come to us to say that he’s going, so up to today, the rest of the coaching staff will stay.” <b>Oka Nikolov</b>, however, is the latest to disembark the Union goalkeeping coach carousel. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09303199103982707190noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7179119151792620833.post-47312514590562930622017-10-26T17:32:00.000-04:002017-10-26T17:34:27.408-04:00Center of at-ten-tion: The past and future of the Union's creative problems<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-P6aKLZP5EFk/WfJUDm7UqGI/AAAAAAAAJns/GQh12LIXnT4ONJpvRVk2R05Hcz2yUD5WACLcBGAs/s1600/Ilsinho%2Bfirst%2Bgoal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-P6aKLZP5EFk/WfJUDm7UqGI/AAAAAAAAJns/GQh12LIXnT4ONJpvRVk2R05Hcz2yUD5WACLcBGAs/s400/Ilsinho%2Bfirst%2Bgoal.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>What does the future hold for Ilsinho and his fellow No. 10 Roland Alberg? <br />A decisive offseason beckons. (DFM/Mikey Reeves)</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
It’s been about, /looks at watch/, eight minutes since a query about the Union’s 10 position has been voiced. Feels like a good time to rehash it. <br />
<br />
Plainly, this was the Union’s deficiency this season. The Union’s 4-2-3-1 system, that manager <b>Jim Curtin</b> scarcely deviated from (and when he did change, <a href="http://uniontally.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-times-they-are-changin-what-unions.html" target="_blank">insisted he hadn’t changed</a>), is predicated on a link between central midfield strength to the lone forward via that No. 10 in the center of the midfield triumvirate. That player is responsible for so much chance creation. <br />
<br />
With that need , the Union <a href="http://www.delcotimes.com/sports/20170712/degeorge-unions-transfer-window-wish-list-should-put-quality-ahead-of-quantity" target="_blank">failed to adequately arm themselves</a>. They entered the season with only <b>Roland Alberg </b>at the position, and he showed up to training camp playing fitness catch-up. The No. 10 shortcomings forced <b>Alejandro Bedoya</b> to be shoe-horned into the job, <a href="http://bit.ly/2nFhf9R" target="_blank">leading to tension and an eight-game winless streak</a> to start the season. The club <a href="http://www.delcotimes.com/sports/20170813/unions-building-mantra-falls-flat-in-another-lost-season" target="_blank">failed to reinforce the weakness in the summer window</a> despite vetting <a href="http://www.delcotimes.com/article/DC/20170809/SPORTS/170809690" target="_blank">several</a> <a href="https://www.brotherlygame.com/2017/6/27/15880552/jim-curtin-elias-aguilar-not-a-fit-for-the-philadelphia-union" target="_blank">candidates</a>. The story of the Union’s 2017 failures is the story of its No. 10 position. <br />
<br />
The bright side is that <a href="http://bit.ly/2gAOfij" target="_blank">this deficiency is known</a>. Curtin has repeatedly said that the Union need to add difference-makers, and it’s not hard to read between those lines. The two primary occupants of the role, <b>Ilsinho </b>and Alberg, are on the final year of two-year contracts with team options. So let’s state the chases, looking back and forward. <br />
<br />
<b>Dressed to ‘impress’ </b><br />
<br />
Curtin turned heads with this haughty statement after last Sunday’s 6-1 slapping of Orlando City, which featured two goals and an assist by Ilsinho: <br />
<blockquote>
<i>“The one thing that was talked about a lot this year was the number 10 spot and I guarantee if you take Ilsinho and Roland’s production in that spot, in hindsight now when you look back on it, it's going to be pretty darn impressive in terms of the numbers they put up, goals and assists. Having to remember now, probably six to seven games (Bedoya) played at the 10 as well, there was an Adam Najem game at the 10, so if you just separate all that and you look at those two on their production, it's a lot better than I think we all gave them credit for.” </i></blockquote>
So how “darn impressive” is it? Well, sort of, I suppose. <br />
<br />
Bedoya played the first five games, then Sept. 23 and Sept. 27 as the 10, the latter two in a modified 4-1-4-1, notching one assist. Alberg played exclusively at the 10 this season, scoring seven goals and one assist. Ilsinho scored two goals in a run from May 13 to July 6, then a goal and two assists in a stretch of five starts in seven games from early August to mid-September. Ilsinho played the final three games of the season at the No. 10, tallying two goals and two assists. (You’ll note that for the purposes of this discussion, I’m omitting Ilsinho’s scoring from the wing.) <b>Adam Najem</b> started once, played five times, recorded no stats. <br />
<br />
The grand total from the 10 spot: 12 goals and six assists, 18 total goals influenced. <br />
<br />
<b>Around the league </b><br />
<br />
First thing’s first: There is almost no team in MLS with as strict an adherence to the 4-2-3-1 as the Union. The only exception may be Atlanta United, and if I was a coach with <b>Miguel Almiron </b>playing between <b>Yamil Asad </b>and <b>Hector Villalba, </b>you’d bet I’d keep going back to that high-scoring well. <br />
<br />
Atlanta is the easiest comparison, thanks in large part to Almiron being out there almost unflinchingly until his recent hamstring injury. He posted nine goals and 14 assists, while his deputy, <b>Julian Gressel, </b>compiled two and two in his absence in September and October. That’s 11 goals and 16 assists, 27 total goals influenced. <br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
That Atlanta paradigm introduces the quandary of causation. Does <b>Tata Martino </b>play a 4-2-3-1 because he has Almiron, or does he have Almiron because he plays a 4-2-3-1? The tactical flexibility elsewhere in the league would seem to hint at the former cause, but the Union have approached it from the latter, selecting a formation then plugging in players as they can even if they’ve miscalculated how they’d fit. <br />
<br />
Elsewhere in MLS, that pattern holds, formations being built around an elite playmaker. <b>Sacha Kljestan </b>had an off year for the Red Bulls, yet still had two goals and 17 assists, a hand in 19 goals. Portland plays 4-2-3-1 in part to turn 31-year-old former winger <b>Diego Valeri </b>centrally; this year, it’s translated into 21 goals, 11 assists and what should be an MVP trophy. <br />
<br />
Other teams have adapted on the fly to 4-2-3-1. Since <b>Blerim Dzemaili’s</b> arrival in Montreal, he’s compiled seven goals and 10 assists in 22 games (<a href="http://www.delcotimes.com/article/DC/20170813/SPORTS/170819890" target="_blank">as the Union found out</a>). <b>Albert Rusnak </b>(seven goals, 14 assists) has flourished once <b>Mike Petke </b>changed formations in Salt Lake. Ditty <b>Yordy Reyna </b>(six and four) and <b>Nicholas Mezquida </b>(two and one) in the half-season Vancouver has used 4-2-3-1. <br />
<br />
Then again, if Curtin’s comment is meant to compare the combined production of Alberg and Ilsinho with other teams’ primary playmakers, then we can enter the likes of Toronto’s <b>Victor Vazquez </b>(eight goals, 16 assists) into the conversation. That doesn’t help the Union’s case. <br />
<br />
So – even without <a href="http://uniontally.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-imperfect-10-unions-struggles-lead.html" target="_blank">reprising the discussion of fungiblity</a> in playmakers or entering salary into the discussion – we can assert that the Union’s playmaking corps is on the low end of the scale for MLS. <br />
<br />
<b>Into the crystal ball </b><br />
<br />
This is a decision that might already be made by time <b>Earnie Stewart</b> addresses the media for break-up day next Wednesday, if reports are to be believed. But we’ll ponder anyway. <br />
<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
Dutch midfielder (ex ADO Den Haag and Philadelphia Union) Roland Alberg will play for CSKA-Sofia from January.</div>
— Teodor Borisov (@teoborisov) <a href="https://twitter.com/teoborisov/status/923285945658552320?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 25, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<br />
Ilsinho has played in 52 MLS games (38 starts). He’s got a total of eight goals and seven assists. More than half of that production (four goals, four assists) have come in the last three months. Ilsinho has gone the full 90 minutes five times in his Union career, three coming since August including his last two outings. The 32-year-old, who can play multiple positions, hit the cap at $470,000 this year and made a salary of $518,333. <br />
<br />
Alberg has also played 52 Union games (22 starts), with 16 goals and four assists. His goals/90 rate is 0.711. (If he made 30 starts, that would translate to 21 goals.) On four occasions, Alberg has gutted out the full 90, and only once this year. At 27, Alberg made $394,000 last year with a cap hit of $345,000. <br />
<br />
Ilsinho is older, more expensive and less productive (though more flexible tactically and with the caveat the he was learning the No. 10 role on the fly). Alberg is younger, cheaper and more explosive in the goalscoring department, plus he could be sold back to Europe at some point. <br />
<br />
To their credit, both players have expressed a desire to stay. That’s what Alberg told MLSSoccer.com in the face of transfer rumors, and Ilsinho told us the same Sunday in light of his recent surge. <br />
<br />
“I am very happy here, I tried to help and I did my best,” Ilsinho said. “Sometimes things go your way and sometimes no but this is soccer, hopefully next year is different.” <br />
<br />
“Ilsinho raised his game, for sure, towards the end of the year and yeah, we're happy for him but again, the challenge is always to do it for the 90 minutes, to do it on the road,” Curtin said. “His performance in Chicago where he was on the ball a lot more even in the loss, the 3-2 loss, was still a step forward. As small as that might seem to everybody, I think he shows he has incredible talent and you all have seen that for years. It's clear that he has raised his level and it's good to get goals at the end of the day.” <br />
<br />
<b>An attacking wrinkle </b><br />
<br />
One consideration of roles for next year that is pertinent: The Union, to take a step forward, need to add a top-line, no-doubt, weekly starter at the 10, a DP or TAM-level signing. That fact isn’t lost on anyone. <br />
<br />
That means that if Alberg or Ilsinho were to return, it would be in a diminished role. And the idea of retaining Ilsinho as a change of pace off the bench isn’t borne out in the numbers. In 14 substitute appearances, Ilsinho has just one assist (plus a helper in the playoff loss to Toronto last year). He has just two shots on target. He’s used to settling into games from the start, and if the Union were to add impact midfielders (plural) as they should, the starts just aren’t there for a player who appears to need them. <br />
<br />
Alberg, by contrast, has no problem hopping into a game with the single-minded focus of get the ball, shoot, score. He’s made 30 substitute appearances with the Union, scoring six times and adding two assists. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09303199103982707190noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7179119151792620833.post-54219959072761104912017-10-25T12:01:00.004-04:002017-10-25T12:01:54.659-04:00Pay no attention to the numbers behind the Curtin, a league-wide assessmentSince there’s so much to discuss on the Union’s 2017 season, I decided to outsource my brainstorming for the postseason wrap-ups. Most of the ideas I have are just ones that’ve rattled around my head for months to the point of familiarity where I can’t tell good or bad. <br />
<br />
So <a href="http://bit.ly/2gAOfij" target="_blank">after my column Monday</a>, I got this response from Andy B on Twitter that I thought warranted more than 140 characters: <br />
<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
Serious question: Is there another MLS manager with a worse record over the last 3 years?</div>
— AndyB (@TheRealBergs) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheRealBergs/status/922914143320940544?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 24, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><br />
<br />
First, we have to establish <b>Jim Curtin’s </b>record. He’s been in charge for 120 MLS games since taking over in June 2014 when <b>John Hackworth</b> was fired. That’s the 25th-longest streak with a single club in MLS history for a manager and seventh-longest active streak. <br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZYts2TGOAVQ/WfC1MMhtYeI/AAAAAAAAJmw/OCWyPgvwPEgeGJrAM9SDGnQcZNfc__LvgCLcBGAs/s1600/Jim%2BCurtin%2Bearly%2Bfirst%2Bhalf%2B.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1068" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZYts2TGOAVQ/WfC1MMhtYeI/AAAAAAAAJmw/OCWyPgvwPEgeGJrAM9SDGnQcZNfc__LvgCLcBGAs/s400/Jim%2BCurtin%2Bearly%2Bfirst%2Bhalf%2B.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Compared to his peers, Jim Curtin's yield of points <br />has been underwhelming in recent years. (DFM file)</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
In those games, Curtin has a 39-50-31 record. His teams have collected 148 points, an average of 1.23 per game, and made the playoffs once. <br />
<br />
In all competitions, Curtin is 47-52-37, factoring in four Open Cups (remember, shootout results count as draws whether teams advance or not) and one playoff game. <br />
<br />
Good news: Curtin’s 1.23 PPG is the highest in franchise history, ahead of Hackworth (1.22) and <b>Peter Nowak </b>(1.16) in short tenures. <br />
<br />
Bad news: There isn’t a long-term comp league wide with a PPG so low. Coaches with that low of a points-per-game average tend to be shown the door sooner. <br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
I found only one coach who completed two full seasons since the start of 2014 with a lower PPG. That would be <b>Pablo Mastroeni, </b>hired before the 2014 season. In 124 games, Mastroeni went 38-51-35 with the Rapids, a yield of 149 points of 1.20 PPG and one playoff appearance. Mastroeni <a href="http://www.denverpost.com/2017/08/15/pablo-mastroeni-fired-rapids-coach/" target="_blank">was fired 22 games into the season Aug. 15</a>. <br />
<br />
Three other coaches fired this year had better records than Curtin. <b>Dominic Kinnear, </b><a href="http://www.espnfc.com/san-jose-earthquakes/story/3148486/san-jose-earthquakes-fire-dominic-kinnear-as-coach-and-appoint-chris-leitch" target="_blank">axed by San Jose June 25</a>, was 27-31-27 over 85 games, good for 114 points and 1.34 PPG. He was replaced by <b>Chris Leitch, </b>who moved the Earthquakes dramatically into the playoffs for the first time since 2013. <br />
<br />
<b>Jay Heaps </b>was paroled <a href="https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2017/09/19/new-england-revolution-fire-head-coach-jay-heaps" target="_blank">from the New England debacle Sept. 19</a>, 29 games into a disappointing season. Heaps had been at the helm since 2012, but in his last four seasons, he posted a 1.39 PPG with two playoff appearances, including a trip to the MLS Cup final in 2014. <b>Jeff Cassar</b>, <a href="https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2017/03/20/real-salt-lake-fire-coach-jeff-cassar" target="_blank">sacrificed way back in March</a> just three games into the season, had a 1.51 PPG in 105 games for Real Salt Lake, twice booking playoff berths. And Montreal’s <b>Mauro Biello </b>was <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/sports/soccer/mls/impact-fire-mauro-biello-1.4367515" target="_blank">let go just this week</a> after two-plus seasons with the Impact. In 79 games, Biello’s PPG stood at 1.35, twice steering the Impact to the playoffs. (Even if you exclude the <b>Didier Drogba-</b>fueled run of seven wins in 11 matches during Biello’s interim stint in 2015, his PPG the last two seasons of 1.24 still exceeds Curtin’s.) <br />
<br />
It’s no rosier elsewhere. Think D.C. United has had a rough go of it? Well, yes, but since 2014, <b>Ben Olsen </b>has made three playoff appearances with a PPG of 1.38. Last year was tough for <b>Gregg Berhalter </b>in Columbus, right? Again correct, but he’s made the playoffs in his other three years in charge, including hosting an MLS Cup final, with a 1.43 PPG. I needn’t expound on the fact that figures for contemporaries like <b>Caleb Porter </b>(1.55, two playoffs qualifications and an MLS Cup) and <b>Oscar Pareja </b>(1.62, plus a Supporters’ Shield and a U.S. Open Cup) are higher. <br />
<br />
Even <b>Veljko Paunovic, </b>who inherited a mess last year in Chicago, is higher at 1.26. And <b>Jason Kreis, </b>who in 117 games that includes his 2013 campaign with Real Salt Lake, has managed 1.29 PPG in fragments of his last four seasons of employ, albeit around two firings and another very hot seat in Orlando City. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09303199103982707190noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7179119151792620833.post-1863157586549477912017-10-24T15:26:00.000-04:002017-10-25T11:48:21.651-04:00On the outside: Assessing the Union's 2017 fullback performance<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nCK_uGYzahI/WfCyEc0QYlI/AAAAAAAAJmk/A1SKI2O325k_u37trQ2DUbyK4KdU_kRJACLcBGAs/s1600/Giliano%2BWijnaldum%2BNE_%2BWarren%2BCreavalle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nCK_uGYzahI/WfCyEc0QYlI/AAAAAAAAJmk/A1SKI2O325k_u37trQ2DUbyK4KdU_kRJACLcBGAs/s400/Giliano%2BWijnaldum%2BNE_%2BWarren%2BCreavalle.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The fullback contingent, including left back Giliano Wijnaldum, <br />presented a mixed bag for the Union this season. (DFM/Mikey Reeves)</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The Philadelphia Union’s deployment of fullbacks this season was consistent, in that only four players manned the role, hewing to the two-deep philosophy. The results they yielded, as befits the larger narrative, was decidedly mixed. <br />
<br />
Let’s not bury the whopper of a stat that involves the one person everyone wants to discuss from this quartet. Here’s the Union record broken down by the starter at right back: <br />
<br />
<b>Ray Gaddis, </b>23 starts, 10-9-4 <br />
<b>Keegan Rosenberry, </b>11 starts, 1-5-5 <br />
<br />
We can take that further, since Rosenberry played every minute of the 2016 season, which means he was intimately familiar with the late-season collapse that resulted in eight winless games to end the season, including a 90-minute playoff cameo. That means the Union have won just one of Rosenberry’s last 19 starts, a record of 1-11-7. <br />
<br />
There’s some bad fortune that factors in to Rosenberry’s predicament – 16 of those 19 starts occurred when the Union as a team were sliding into the abyss. But the coincidence is pretty startling. And oddly, it doesn’t bear out in the left back comparison this season. <br />
<br />
<b>Fabinho, </b>21 starts, 6-10-5 <br />
<b>Giliano Wijnaldum, </b>13 starts, 5-4-4 <br />
<br />
Again, neither’s record is gleaming. But both went up and down with the Union’s fortunes this season, while Rosenberry’s descent seemed to be one-way. <br />
<br />
<b>Going to goal </b><br />
<br />
Consistency in the lineup was one thing; production was an entirely different proposition, and one didn’t translate to the other. All the rhetoric about fullbacks jumping into the attack and the shorthand scouting reports of “watch those fullbacks getting forward” is bunk, according to the numbers. <br />
<br />
Union fullbacks contributed a grand total of five assists and no goals. Fabinho led the way with two helpers, one a secondary in the finale. The other three added one each. <br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
That certainly doesn’t capture the group’s full attacking utility. <a href="https://www.whoscored.com/Regions/233/Tournaments/85/Seasons/6620/Stages/15593/PlayerStatistics/USA-Major-League-Soccer-2017" target="_blank">Per WhoScored.com</a>, Wijnaldum completed 0.8 key passes per 90 minutes, 20th in MLS among defenders. Fabinho is 24th at 0.7 per 90. Rosenberry ranks in the 70s at 0.4 per game. Gaddis is outside the top 100, well behind many center backs. <br />
<br />
Even so, the concrete production lags behind that of past years. In 2016, the fullbacks accounted for 11 goals, with Fabinho notching six assists and Rosenberry pairing two goals with two assists in his All-Star campaign. The 2015 season saw seven goals involving fullbacks, led by a goal and three helpers from Fabinho. Behind <b>Sheanon Williams’ </b>three goals and four assists in 2014, the Union got 11 goals involving outside backs in 2014. And that total was even higher in 2013 at 13, thanks to Williams’ two goals and eight assists. <br />
<br />
<b>Stay or go? </b><br />
<br />
This game will be played a lot in the coming days with higher stakes than what the fullback contingent presents. There’s upward pressure within the system to factor into the equation. Second-round SuperDraft pick <b>Aaron Jones </b>had a promising season at Bethlehem. <b>Matt Real </b>has been regarded as the left back of the future, while Academy product <b>Mark McKenzie’s </b>lack of size at 5-foot-11 could made him an outside back at the MLS level once he’s done with Wake Forest. <br />
<br />
Fabinho’s contract is up at the end of the year. He’ll turn 33 in March, but at $167,000 in salary and five years of MLS experience, the Union could do worse than holding on to him for a 20-game reserve role. <br />
<br />
Wijnaldum, manager <b>Jim Curtin </b><a href="http://uniontally.blogspot.com/2017/10/tweets-contracts-and-steel-rounding-up.html" target="_blank">said last week</a>, hasn’t done enough to own the job full-time, to his dismay. If <b>Roland Alberg</b>, the other Dutchman in the locker room, were to leave this offseason (that’s another post), Wijnaldum would lose part of his familiarity and support system. If <a href="https://twitter.com/Kevin_Kinkead/status/922554317877506048" target="_blank">reports that he’s already unsettled</a> are to be believed, then Fabinho is an important insurance policy. <br />
<br />
Gaddis signed a <a href="https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2014/09/10/philadelphia-union-re-sign-defender-ray-gaddis-multi-year-deal" target="_blank">multi-year extension</a> after the 2014 season that he’s three years into. That likely leaves a club option. Gaddis isn’t the dynamic right back the Union should look for (that they hope Rosenberry will be). He probably won’t ever be. But you know what you’re going to get with Gaddis, not to mention his exemplary ambassadorship off the field. Like Fabinho, he’s a hedge against Rosenberry disappointing. <br />
<br />
Which brings us to the Ronks-born elephant in the room. The rapport between club and player appears frosty, given Rosenberry’s <a href="http://www.delcotimes.com/sports/20171019/tweet-earns-keegan-rosenberry-suspension-for-union-finale" target="_blank">social media-inspired suspension</a> and his previous inability to get on the field for long stretches. It’s too early to punt on the Rosenberry project, unless that club is given an offer it can’t refuse to do so. He’s had one excellent season and one rough season; conventional wisdom would say it’s worth another year at least to figure out which is the norm and which the aberration. <br />
<br />
Heading into an offseason that features an expansion draft, Rosenberry certainly isn’t untouchable in the horse-trading that the Union could engage, but he also shouldn’t be short-sold. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09303199103982707190noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7179119151792620833.post-34257610339996865792017-10-23T15:46:00.002-04:002017-10-23T15:46:16.211-04:00A rough road: 2017 by the numbers<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YLzbFYC1li0/We5G4JDiHUI/AAAAAAAAJkU/xMxM4oap8KcVstK5UO4Ry9xvyMsJF-86wCLcBGAs/s1600/Ilsinho%2Bfirst%2Bgoal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YLzbFYC1li0/We5G4JDiHUI/AAAAAAAAJkU/xMxM4oap8KcVstK5UO4Ry9xvyMsJF-86wCLcBGAs/s400/Ilsinho%2Bfirst%2Bgoal.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>(DFM/Mikey Reeves)</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
A lot is going to be made in the coming weeks about the future of the Philadelphia Union and where the club goes from a disappointing 2017. But first it’s worth taking a step back and getting a broad and dispassionate view of what transpired. <br /><br />We have a 34-game sample on which to assess the team’s strengths and weaknesses, something the Union will do in the weeks and months leading up to December’s offseason frenzy. I’ll be looking more in depth into certain personnel groupings in the coming weeks. But for now, let’s get the overview and work from there. <br /><br /><b>The Individuals </b><br /><br />- Sunday’s <a href="http://www.delcotimes.com/sports/20171022/union-score-six-in-season-finale-rout-of-orlando-city" target="_blank">6-1 pantsing of Orlando City</a> provided the perspective for the individual accolades. <b>CJ Sapong </b>scored twice, his third multi-goal game of the season, to take his total to 16 and supplant <b>Sebastien Le Toux </b>for the single-season franchise record. <b>Haris Medunjanin’s </b>assist was No. 12, tied for second-most in a Union campaign. Those two numbers indicate the kind of top-line players the Union have found in too short of supply. <br /><br />- Thirteen Union players scored MLS goals this season. That’s the same number as each of the last two seasons. Five more picked up assists without scoring. <br /><br />- We can break that down by positional grouping. The forwards accounted for 17 goals and five assists (all but one goal via Sapong). The midfield was the nexus of creativity, contributing 29 goals and 35 assists. The backline had a hand in just nine goals (three goals, six assists). The Union benefitted from one own goal. <br /><br />- The Union’s lack of activity in the summer was widely (and rightly) panned, but the winter signings have paid off (<b>Jay Simpson </b>notwithstanding). <b>Fafa Picault </b>was second on the team with seven goals and three assists. Medunjanin scored twice to go with the aforementioned 12 assists. In all, new arrivals accounted for 14 goals and 18 assists. <br /><br />- Let’s talk draft picks: <b>Marcus Epps </b>and <b>Jack Elliott </b>played 3,300 minutes this season. That’s the second most for a Union SuperDraft class, trailing only <a href="http://uniontally.blogspot.com/2016/07/rosenberry-rookies-seting-records-for.html" target="_blank">the 2016 cohort of three first-rounders</a>. It’s more minutes than the 2010 class of three first-rounders. <br /><br />- Can we quantify luck? The Union conceded six penalties, <a href="https://matchcenter.mlssoccer.com/matchcenter/2017-06-24-philadelphia-union-vs-dc-united/details/video/108260" target="_blank">one of which was saved</a> by <b>Andre Blake. </b>The Union drew seven penalties, converting five. The Union had four opponents sent off (two in the same game). The Union were shown two red cards on the year – <b>Derrick Jones</b> <a href="https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2017/06/18/red-card-derrick-jones-studs-challenge-leads-ejection" target="_blank">against the Red Bulls</a> and <b>Josh Yaro </b><a href="https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2017/08/26/red-card-josh-yaro-hauls-down-josef-martinez-breakaway" target="_blank">against Atlanta</a>. The three instances of VAR use in Union games benefitted the Union, wiping out goals against <a href="https://matchcenter.mlssoccer.com/matchcenter/2017-09-27-atlanta-united-fc-vs-philadelphia-union/details/video/136078" target="_blank">Atlanta</a> and <a href="https://matchcenter.mlssoccer.com/matchcenter/2017-08-05-philadelphia-union-vs-fc-dallas/details/video/113308" target="_blank">Dallas</a> and nullifying a red card and penalty <a href="https://matchcenter.mlssoccer.com/matchcenter/2017-09-09-minnesota-united-fc-vs-philadelphia-union/details/video/133572" target="_blank">against Minnesota</a>. <br /><br /><b>The Team </b><br />
<a name='more'></a><br />- Much has been made of the Union’s road failures, and it’s worth revisiting. The Union went 1-10-6 on the road. That’s the fewest number of wins away from home in the eight seasons, tied for the second-most losses and the nine points earned away are the second-fewest (trailing the seven via a 2-12-1 record in the expansion year, which featured two fewer road games). <br /><br />- The pernicious reality is that the road scuffles accompanied the Union’s best home performance of their eight seasons. The 10 wins are two more than they garnered last year, the previous high-water mark. They dropped 18 points at home, the fewest in franchise history. So often, it was the Union’s inability to consistently gain points at home that torpedoed playoff hopes; this year it’s the inverse. That’s so Union? <br /><br />- Another installment in that frustration: Five of the Union’s 11 wins came against playoff teams. A sixth came against FC Dallas, which finished level on points with San Jose but lost out on the sixth and final Western Conference playoff spot on the wins tiebreaker. Six of the Union’s nine draws came against playoff qualifiers. <br /><br />- Nineteen of the Union’s 34 games came against playoff qualifiers, including eight of the last 10. In those 19 games, the Union were 5-8-6. In 15 contests against non-playoff teams, the Union were 6-6-3. <br /><br />- The Union finished on 42 points for the third time in four seasons. Not the consistency you want. <br /><br />- The 47 goals allowed are the fewest since 2013. The 50 goals scored are third-most all-time, two shy of last year’s franchise-best total. <br /><br />- The Union finished with a positive goal differential for just the second time in franchise history, the other time being 2011. <br /><br />- The Union lost the possession battle in 29 of 34 outings, per MLSSoccer.com’s numbers. The last time they enjoyed the majority of possession was July 26 against Columbus. The Union were 3-1-1 in games where they held a lion’s share of possession and 8-13-8 when they didn’t. For the season, the Union held only 45.6 percent possession per MLS’s numbers. <a href="https://www.whoscored.com/Regions/233/Tournaments/85/Seasons/6620/Stages/14550/TeamStatistics/USA-Major-League-Soccer-2017" target="_blank">WhoScored.com’s figure</a> is slightly higher at 46.9 percent, which places the Union 17th out of 22 teams. <br /><br />- The Union completed passes at a higher rate than their opponent in just eight of 34 games. The last time was Aug. 12 vs. Montreal. They were 4-4-0 in those games. A cumulative 76.5 percent completion rate, per WhoScored.com, places the Union 17th in MLS. <br /><br />- The Union were outshot, 425-386, an average of just over a shot per game. The margin is slightly narrower in shots on target, a 174-146 disadvantage. <br /><br />- Here’s a category the Union are good at: Duels won. The Union won 51.7 percent of duels this season, which certainly is in the top half of the league. <br />
<br />
- Let's get to something really important: The Union finished <a href="https://soccerstadiumdigest.com/2017-mls-attendance/" target="_blank">18th out of 22 clubs in attendance</a>, drawing an average of 16,812 to their 17 home games. The team one spot behind them, Columbus, is holding its city hostage with a threat to move to Austin. Just saying.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09303199103982707190noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7179119151792620833.post-30065970726134190542017-10-22T15:26:00.004-04:002017-10-22T15:28:12.394-04:00Union-Orlando City: And so it ends...<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>UNION (4-2-3-1) </b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Blake Gaddis-Elliott-Marquez-Fabinho Medunjanin-Bedoya <br />Picault-Ilsinho-Epps </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Sapong </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Bench</b><i>: McCarthy, Onyewu, Wijnaldum, Carroll, Simpson, Alberg, Pontius </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Orlando City (4-3-3) </b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Edwards </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Sutter-Hines-Pereira-PC </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Laryea-Powers-Yotun </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Rivas-Dwyer-Barnes </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Bench</b><i>: Fenlason, Toia, Redding, Barry, Carrasco, Nocerino, DaSilva </i></div>
<br />
- It’s the same thing over and over again with slight variation. This week’s wrinkle is <b>Marcus Epps </b>on the wing. Same backline, same central midfield pairing. <br />
<br />
- Here’s a nuance: <b>Brian Carroll </b>is on the bench. He’ll be <a href="http://www.delcotimes.com/article/DC/20171019/SPORTS/171019578" target="_blank">retiring today after 15 years</a>. <br />
<br />
- The interest level in this game from Orlando City is minimal at best. <b>Kaka, </b>who isn’t retiring from soccer but just from the three-year mess that is the lions, said his goodbyes. <b>Cyle Larin, </b>who appears to have one foot in Europe, isn’t traveling either. Even <b>Joe Bendik, </b>who has played all 33 games this season, is sitting thanks to a concussion in favor of <b>Earl Edwards. </b>So yeah, same mess of ill-fitting pieces. is interesting, maybe. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09303199103982707190noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7179119151792620833.post-56934243900283462002017-10-19T15:07:00.002-04:002017-10-19T15:07:27.269-04:00Tweets, contracts and Steel: Rounding up the Union's last weekly press conference<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2WGTKpOaK6g/Vaf6Z1RksVI/AAAAAAAAAh8/2N8vgwPy6vwBzgd_PTSkYl51Jql1Es3GwCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/AP_288581220658.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="341" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2WGTKpOaK6g/Vaf6Z1RksVI/AAAAAAAAAh8/2N8vgwPy6vwBzgd_PTSkYl51Jql1Es3GwCPcBGAYYCw/s400/AP_288581220658.jpg" width="266" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">No more "No Mo" questions. (DFM file)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
A lot of things happened at Union training Thursday, a lot more than you’d expect before a finale between eliminated teams that carries little meaning.<b> Brian Carroll’</b>s <a href="http://bit.ly/2x9bmaw" target="_blank">retirement after 15 seasons </a>deserves a share of the headlines, as does stunning news of <b>Keegan Rosenberry’s </b><a href="http://www.delcotimes.com/sports/20171019/tweet-earns-keegan-rosenberry-suspension-for-union-finale" target="_blank">tweet-inspired suspension</a> for Sunday’s game against Orlando City.<br />
<br />
That’s all to say that many of the lesser items won’t see the light of day in Friday’s Delco Times. So let’s round them up. <br />
<br />
- First place for brevity goes to <b>Jim Curtin. </b>Two weeks ago, a report surfaced from <a href="https://www.msgnetworks.com/videos/felipe-has-been-red-bulls-model-of-consistency/" target="_blank">Metro NY’s Kristian Dyer</a> that <b>Ilsinho’s </b>contract included a vesting option triggered when the Brazilian hit the 75 percent threshold for appearances (which he has). Curtin’s response: “It doesn’t exist. … False.” Previous reporting indicated that Ilsinho is out of contract at the end of the season but a club option exists.<br />
<br />
- Big day for tweets: Curtin had little to say about a <a href="https://twitter.com/BrianStraus/status/920476828334039041" target="_blank">tweet by Sports Illustrated’s Brian Straus</a> earlier this week, in light of the reports about Columbus Crew shipping to Austin, about changes in USL for next year that could include the shuttering of Bethlehem Steel. The club released a vague statement via Twitter this week. Curtin added nothing to that: “The statement that was released is as much as I know.” <br />
<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
Below is a statement from the Philadelphia Union in response to last night’s USL rumors. <a href="https://t.co/malG3KqeBb">pic.twitter.com/malG3KqeBb</a></div>
— Bethlehem Steel FC (@BSteelFC) <a href="https://twitter.com/BSteelFC/status/920671367632220161?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 18, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><br />
<br />
- Oh yeah, soccer. That Union are playing some Sunday. Carroll will be on the field, Curtin said. But more time Thursday was devoted to who won’t be. That includes long-term injury problems to <b>Fabian Herbers </b>(spots hernia) and <b>Maurice Edu </b>(leg/quad). “No one will be coming back in that I hoped,” Curtin said. “Herbers has been much longer that I anticipated. … <b>Warren Creavalle</b> is a possibility. … Maurice, obviously out.” <br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
- Also not taking part, most of the young players that have toiled with Bethlehem Steel this year, with Curtin’s preference clear to have the young players contest a playoff game Friday night in Louisville rather than an all-but-meaningless MLS game in Chester. Here’s Curtin’s answer in full. <br />
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<blockquote>
<i>“We’ve waited with certain guys that have now played a ton of minutes with the Steel and earned this playoff game. Developmental wise, what’s best for them? Is it to play in a meaningless game against Orlando, a game without consequence, or a game that they’ve fought all year to claw and fight their way into the playoffs? I think it’s best for a lot of the guys that were there a lot of the season to have the opportunity to win a playoff game on the road. Playoff games on the road are different; the intensity is higher. For a few guys – and you’ll see as the roster comes out – they’ll be on the field fighting Friday night. <b>Brendan </b>(<b>Burke</b>) has done an incredible job arranging that team because the thing people don’t realize with an affiliate like that where training every day is difficult, how many guys am I going to have? If we steal one away, we can be a real pain in the butt for Brendan each and every day with the selection of his roster. When a late injury happens on a Friday for us and we pull guys back or send guys down, he has to adjust on the fly to that. So that is really challenging. It’s a testament to our academy as well that we’ve played a ton of young academy kids in that game, and they’ll all get a really big opportunity on Friday night in a playoff atmosphere against a really good team to show that their season and their body of work shows that they’re going to be ready for the first team.” </i></blockquote>
Specifically on names most often clamored for, Homegrowns <b>Auston Trusty </b>and <b>Derrick Jones, </b>Curtin said: “While people want to see them on this field for 90 minutes, <b>Earnie </b>(<b>Stewart</b>) and I feel their trajectory is exactly on schedule and exactly on point to move forward and then affect the first team this year. But this game for them is really important for their development and I think they can get a result and learn from it.” <br />
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- An interesting point of debate has been brought up on the left back front with <b>Fabinho </b>and <b>Giliano Wijnaldum, </b>where each player has had long runs of play. Fabinho started 14 of the first 16 games of the season while the Dutchman settled into a new league. Then Wijnaldum started 12 of 13. Since, Fabinho has started five straight and appears poised to make it six Sunday. Curtin: <br />
<blockquote>
<i>“(Wijnaldum) had a good run of games. If you go back to even the stretch where we had a little winning streak early in the year, he was a part of that, had some good performances. I would say put Giliano in the category of, he never played a bad game but never grabbed a hold of it and didn’t let it go. There were some games where he came out with little different injuries and different things like that that he’s battled, so it just hasn’t been a consistent run of games. I could never really say he had a glaring error or a big drop off, but still wanted more in terms of grabbing a hold of the position. A young player that has talent and has ability and you see if every day in training and has a high ceiling, but how do we challenge to squeeze even more out of him?” </i></blockquote>
Fabinho’s contract is up at the end of the season, and Curtin was non-committal on any futures for either player beyond the standard “discussions have started.”Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09303199103982707190noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7179119151792620833.post-44921239955168773652017-10-19T12:08:00.001-04:002017-10-19T13:56:53.826-04:00Brian Carroll retires after 15 seasons<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>Brian Carroll’s </b>career has become synonymous with longevity in MLS. Thursday, the Union legend called time on that career. <br />
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The 36-year-old midfield announced his retirement Thursday, after 15 pro seasons that saw the slight but cerebral midfielder assemble a resume surpassed by few in MLS history. <br />
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Carroll has been with the Union since 2011, the longest tenured member of the club. He ranks second in club history in games played (165) and first in both starts (156) and minutes (13,819). Carroll hasn’t played this season, the first time he’s been limited to fewer than 21 games in a season since his rookie campaign, when he didn’t see the field with D.C. United. <br />
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In 15 seasons with the Union, D.C. and Columbus, Carroll is tied for fourth in games played in MLS history among field players at 370 (he can be passed by Seattle’s <b>Chad Marshall</b> Sunday). Carroll is sixth among field players in starts with 345, one behind Toronto’s <b>Drew Moor. </b>Add in goalies, and Carroll is tied for sixth in games and eighth in starts. <br />
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He’s also sixth among MLS players in all-time minutes played at 30,776. Staggeringly, Carroll has never been red carded in his MLS career despite playing so frequently in a combative position in the center of the park. He holds the honor of the most career minutes in MLS without a red card. (Second is <b>Landon Donovan </b>at 28,898, but the long-time Galaxy forward has 119 yellow cards to Carroll’s comparatively paltry 57.) <br />
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Carroll has nine MLS goals to his name to go with 17 assists. In seven Union seasons, Carroll scored five times (including a career-high two goals in 2013) to go with three assists. <br />
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Carroll made the playoffs nine straight seasons from 2003-2011, the latter with the Union, then contributed 23 starts to the Union’s 2016 playoff berth. Carroll started 20 career MLS playoff games, winning MLS Cup in 2004 with D.C. (and assisting on <b>Alecko Eskandarian’s </b>opening goal in the final) and in 2008 with the Crew. Carroll lifted the Supporters’ Shield four straight years from 2006-09. <br />
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Carroll, a second-round draft pick (11th overall) of D.C. in the 2003 SuperDraft out of Wake Forest, was capped eight times by the U.S. national team from 2005-10. <br />
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Carroll and two of his brothers – Jeff and Pat – played in MLS, the only set of three brothers to play in MLS, per the league’s Facts and Record Book. Brian and Jeff were teammates for two seasons in D.C. <br />
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Carroll was capped eight times by the U.S. from 2005-10. He won MLS Cup in 2004 with D.C. United and 2008 with Columbus and was a four-time winner of the Supporters Shield from 2006-09. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09303199103982707190noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7179119151792620833.post-53394275265717534982017-10-09T15:27:00.001-04:002017-10-09T15:27:12.898-04:00And so it ends: The elimination of the consistently mediocre UnionMost of the Philadelphia Union players were scattered across the country on a weekend off or away on international duty overseas when the club’s playoff hopes officially died Saturday. <br /><br />That occurred 100 miles to the north, as the New York Red Bulls topped Vancouver, 3-0, to seal the sixth and final playoff berth in MLS’s Eastern Conference with two weeks of the season left. The Red Bulls, on 46 points, are untouchably ahead of the Union and three other teams stuck on 39, which consigns the Union (10-13-9) to a sixth playoff-free season in eight years. <br /><br />Consolations are few and far between in a season that, after last year’s (probably ahead-of-schedule) playoff berth, can only be read as a disappointment. The Union cannot set the franchise record for losses in a season, which was once a question; more bizarrely, wins in consecutive games – at playoff-bound Chicago, then at home in the finale to Orlando – can tie the franchise mark for most wins in a season. <br /><br />Regardless of what transpires, the Union for the seventh straight season will finish with between 10 and 12 wins over a 34-game schedule, a mind-numbing level of mediocrity.<br />
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<br />With a win and a draw in the next two games, the Union would actually finish with their third-most productive season ever, even surpassing last year’s playoff season. Or to be more realistic, should the Union lose at Chicago and win at home against a similarly eliminated Orlando City side, they would match their record from last season to the game – 11-14-9 for 42 points. <br /><br />Here’s where perception counts, both descriptive and prescriptive. The 2016 campaign – which featured that rarity of rarities, a first-place Union side, for multiple weeks and had the Union in playoff position nearly wire-to-wire – felt like a playoff campaign, even if it was dimmed by the slide to the finish line. This season, in which the Union never occupied a playoff position, feels like much more of a failure. Separate eight- and six-game winless streak exacerbate that feeling. At the end, though, they look exactly the same in the standings, a damnation by low standards. <br /><br />The gulf in perception from 2016 to 2017 hits at a key debate that many anticipated. The Union – with the additions of <b>Giliano Wijnaldum, Haris Medunjanin, Jay Simpson, Fafa Picault </b>and a full preseason for <b>Alejandro Bedoya </b>– improved over last year in absolute terms, with more talent from one to 18 on the bench and one to 29 on the roster. The evidence is in the point total: Against a better and deeper East, the Union could yield the same number of points as last year. <br /><br />But the question entering the season wasn’t, did the Union improve? It was, did the Union grow sufficiently to keep pace with a more competitive Eastern Conference? Did the club take a big enough step forward from scraping into the sixth and final spot last year to lay a convincing claim to a playoff berth this year? <br /><br />The answer to that is a resounding no, echoed with two weeks still left to play. The lack of recognition of soccer’s version of the <a href="https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/why-proficiency-versus-growth-debate-matters-assessing-school-performance" target="_blank">proficiency-vs.-growth debate</a> is yet another example of MLS 1.0 thinking (or whatever version the consensus says is outdated) on the Union’s part. And looking ahead, if the Union end up with an identical record as last season, the club’s higher-ups can’t be entombed by the same old lines of thinking, that this result somehow reflects satisfactory improvement. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09303199103982707190noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7179119151792620833.post-66327055051615207302017-10-02T15:09:00.000-04:002017-10-02T15:09:57.713-04:00A developing problem? What the latest 24 Under 24 indicates for the Union<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jHzms86wOU4/WdKOwT76fJI/AAAAAAAAJPg/pv-Z6qf6K4gTrOCxsJXaBFdOThOdJMpXgCLcBGAs/s1600/Unions%2BJack%2BElliot%2B%2528%25233%2529%2Bvs%2BMontreal%2527s%2BPatrice%2BBernier%2B%2528%25238%2529%2Bearly%2Bon%2Bin%2Bthe%2B2nd%2Bhalf%2B.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jHzms86wOU4/WdKOwT76fJI/AAAAAAAAJPg/pv-Z6qf6K4gTrOCxsJXaBFdOThOdJMpXgCLcBGAs/s400/Unions%2BJack%2BElliot%2B%2528%25233%2529%2Bvs%2BMontreal%2527s%2BPatrice%2BBernier%2B%2528%25238%2529%2Bearly%2Bon%2Bin%2Bthe%2B2nd%2Bhalf%2B.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Union's Jack Elliott was likely the highest rated of the club's candidates <br />for MLS' 24 Under 24 series. (DFM/Mikey Reeves)</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
MLS last week released its “<a href="https://www.mlssoccer.com/series/24-under-24/2017" target="_blank">24 Under 24</a>”, a ranking of the top players in the league under the age of 24, graded on a rubric of ability and upside by members of the media and MLS staff. In short, it’s the kind of list that a team trumpeting youth development should have a presence on. <br />
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And the Union are … absent, for the second time in three years. Their representative last year, <b>Keegan Rosenberry </b>at No. 6, didn’t <a href="https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2017/09/24/24-under-24-back-stay-tuned-mlssoccer-com-full-coverage" target="_blank">make the shortlist despite being eligible</a>; only <b>Jack Elliott </b>and <b>Derrick Jones </b>were in consideration but didn’t make the cut (rightly, in my opinion). <br />
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The Union traditionally have had a presence on the list, topping out with four players chosen in 2011. As you can see, that has rarely been a guarantor of anything. <br />
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<a href="https://www.mlssoccer.com/series/24-under-24/2010" target="_blank">2010</a>: Danny Mwanga 5, Jack McInerney 22, Roger Torres 23 <br />
<a href="https://www.mlssoccer.com/series/24-under-24/2011" target="_blank">2011</a>: Freddy Adu 6, Danny Mwanga 9, Roger Torres 22, Jack McInerney 23 <br />
<a href="https://www.mlssoccer.com/series/24-under-24/2012" target="_blank">2012</a>: Sheanon Williams 18, Freddy Adu 19 <br />
<a href="https://www.mlssoccer.com/series/24-under-24/2013" target="_blank">2013</a>: Jack McInerney 4, Amobi Okugo 8 <br />
<a href="https://www.mlssoccer.com/series/24-under-24/2014" target="_blank">2014</a>: Amobi Okugo 13 <br />
<a href="https://www.mlssoccer.com/series/24-under-24/2015" target="_blank">2015</a>: NONE <br />
<a href="https://www.mlssoccer.com/series/24-under-24/2016" target="_blank">2016</a>: Keegan Rosenberry 6 <br />
2017: NONE <br />
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Let’s put aside for a moment the evaluation of why players across multiple Union epochs haven’t sustained their developmental trajectories. <a href="http://bit.ly/2wXNNAN" target="_blank">That’s been written about before</a>. And let’s also acknowledge that the list isn’t a perfect science, inasmuch as predicting the vicissitudes of 18-to-23-year-olds (or in this case, players young as 15), is a perilous endeavor. There’s certainly a bias toward recent performances over the short-term coloring long-term outlooks – see Rosenberry last year, or <b>Kellyn Acosta </b>this year. But I digress. <br />
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We could break it down by club, as is popular. That will find three inclusions each for Atlanta United, FC Dallas, New York City FC and Real Salt Lake – two teams that would be labeled as “big market”. Only one of those clubs (Dallas) landed multiple Homegrown players on the team and can rightly be said to have “developed” more than one player on the list. <br />
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It’s more purposeful to break the list down based on acquisition method: <br />
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<a href="https://www.mlssoccer.com/glossary/homegrown-player" target="_blank">Homegrowns</a> (9): K.Acosta, Davies, Morris, Adams, Palmer-Brown, Glad, Tabla, Gonzalez, Fagundez <br />
<a href="https://www.mlssoccer.com/glossary/designated-player" target="_blank">Designated Players</a> (7): Almiron, Arriola, Villalba, Elis, Gruezo, Rusnak, Savarino <br />
SuperDraft picks (4): Harrison, Larin, Roldan, Manneh <br />
Other (4): Herrera, Asad, L.Acosta, Matarrita<br />
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Less than half of the players on the list are academy products. Only eight are American internationals (pending if the question is ever asked of Uruguayan by birth <b>Diego Fagundez</b>). <br />
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There are nearly as many Homegrown players as there are designated players. You can essentially put <b>Luciano Acosta </b>in that category, since he pulls down a DP salary paid down with allocation money. The take-home lesson here for the Union: Even in this department, sometimes you have to spend. <br />
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It’s perhaps reassuring that four of the top 24 are draft picks; <b>Cristian Roldan, </b>who is enjoying a moment in the sun (that I think might be exaggerating how high his ceiling really is), fell to the Sounders at 16 in 2015. <br />
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But where I want to focus attention is in the last category of three players – <b>Yamil Asad, Yangel Herrera </b>and <b>Ronald Matarrita. </b>Herrera is not a replicable example, the Venezuelan 19-year-old on loan from NYCFC parent club Manchester City. But the others are. Asad, who has been maybe the fourth-best attacker on Atlanta but certainly has more than recouped his investment, is on loan from Velez Sarsfield this season; He’s produced six goals and 12 assists for the salary the Union are paying to <b>Ray Gaddis. </b>Luciano Acosta is in a similar boat, having spent a season on loan from Boca Juniors before D.C. United sealed a permanent transfer. This is the method the Union once used – first with <b>Maurice Edu, </b>then <b>Fernando Aristeguieta </b>– and that has shown benefits when deployed properly. <br />
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Then there’s Matarrita, who despite injuries has starred for NYC and the Costa Rica national team. He was transferred in from Alajulense and is being paid $175k this year (Union analogue: <b>Fabinho</b>). Matarrita has benefitted City on the field and he’s likely to yield a transfer fee when he decides to move on. <br />
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Even with the others in the DP category – <b>Miguel Almiron, Albert Rusnak, Hector Villalba </b>and <b>Carlos Gruezo </b>in particular – the next-level thinking that’s absent with the Union is evident. I’d venture to guess that for not a single one of those four players, MLS will be neither his last nor his best league in which he plays. Yes, these guys cost money up front. But they reap a return – first on the field, then on the balance sheet when another club comes in and pays to acquire them. <br />
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In the history of the Union, examples of players moving on to greener pastures are few and far between. For evidence, see the above list of former 24-under-24 honorees. (In no particular order, their current employers: Retired, MLS bench, Colombian second division (?), MLS bench, MLS bench, unemployed, and wherever Rosenberry can be said to be now.) I can’t think of an example of a player who left the Union in better shape than he arrived in terms of his next league (maybe <b>Gabriel Gomez</b>?). <br />
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That’s what we talk about when we bandy about terms like “<a href="https://twitter.com/sportsdoctormd/status/913208727838355457" target="_blank">MLS (blank).0</a>.” Whatever version the Union are on, it’s an outdated operating system, and this shows the degree to which that’s the case. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09303199103982707190noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7179119151792620833.post-19004023836890462232017-10-01T12:18:00.000-04:002017-10-01T13:02:36.992-04:00Union-Sounders: Lineups and prematch notes<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Union (4-2-3-1) </b></div>
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<i>Blake </i></div>
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<i>Gaddis-Marquez-Elliott-Fabinho </i></div>
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<i>Bedoya-Medunjanin </i></div>
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<i>Epps-Ilsinho-Picault </i></div>
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<i>Sapong </i></div>
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<b>Bench: </b><i>McCarthy, Onyewu, Wijnaldum, D.Jones, Simpson, Alberg</i></div>
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<b>Sounders (4-2-3-1) </b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Frei </i></div>
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<i>Leerdam-Marshall-Alfar-Nouhou </i></div>
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<i>Svensson-Delem </i></div>
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<i>Jones-Roldan-Lodeiro </i></div>
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<i>Bruin </i></div>
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<b>Bench: </b><i>Miller, Fisher, Wingo, Shipp, Kovar, Neagle, Dempsey </i></div>
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- UPDATE: <b>Chris Pontius </b>misses out with an abdominal injury after originally introduced in the starting lineup. <b>Marcus Epps </b>is in on the win. Union go with 17 in the lineup. <br />
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- Two changes for the Union enforced by injury. Out go <b>Warren Creavalle </b>and <b>Keegan Rosenberry; </b>in come <b>Ray Gaddis </b>and <b>Ilsinho, </b>the latter playing the 10. That makes it closer to the customary 4-2-3-1 formation that the Union so often favor. <br />
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- <b>Derrick Jones </b>is back on the bench. It’s just his second time in the 18 since July 6.<br />
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- No <b>Clint Dempsey </b>for the Sounders from the start today, which puts the more bruising <b>Will Bruin </b>up top to battle with the Union defense. Watch for the interchange between <b>Nicholas Lodeiro </b>and <b>Cristian Roldan: </b>Roldan nominally starts centrally, but he and Lodeiro should move positions plenty, making a lot of work for the backline and <b>Haris Medunjanin </b>to track. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09303199103982707190noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7179119151792620833.post-75586063996625705352017-09-25T14:50:00.001-04:002017-09-25T14:50:12.979-04:00The times they are a changin? What the Union's formation swap means going forward<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KMjLgj6pLCs/WclPeCn7qQI/AAAAAAAAJIc/PW-UXaJv2qUDhGfGKripzok1oV7L2b-qgCLcBGAs/s1600/Alejandro%2BBedoya%2Btaking%2Bthe%2Bball%2Binto%2Bthe%2Bbox%2Bduring%2Bthe%2Bfirst%2Bhalf%252C%2BChicago%2B%25232%2BMatt%2BPolster%2Band%2B%25234%2BJohan%2BKappelhof.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KMjLgj6pLCs/WclPeCn7qQI/AAAAAAAAJIc/PW-UXaJv2qUDhGfGKripzok1oV7L2b-qgCLcBGAs/s400/Alejandro%2BBedoya%2Btaking%2Bthe%2Bball%2Binto%2Bthe%2Bbox%2Bduring%2Bthe%2Bfirst%2Bhalf%252C%2BChicago%2B%25232%2BMatt%2BPolster%2Band%2B%25234%2BJohan%2BKappelhof.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Alejandro Bedoya, right, delivered a sterling performance Saturday <br />in a reconfigured midfielder that yielded a 3-1 Union win over Chicago. <br />(Mikey Reeves/DFM)</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b class="tr_bq">Jim Curtin </b>heard you, dear citizens of Twitter, and decided to change his formation as a result. <br />
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OK, no, that wasn’t the reason that Curtin flipped the Union from the 4-2-3-1 into what is more of a 4-1-4-1 Saturday, a move that certainly contributed to a <a href="http://www.delcotimes.com/sports/20170923/pontius-drought-ends-with-start-of-streak-in-union-win-over-chicago" target="_blank">3-1 win over the Chicago Fire</a>. To what degree is debatable. Curtin pushed the right tactical button by clamping down on the central midfield space afforded to <b>Dax McCarty </b>in a Fire side deprived of <b>Juninho </b>and <b>Bastian Schweinsteiger. </b>But the efficacy of <a href="http://www.delcotimes.com/sports/20170925/formation-flip-helps-union-change-outcome-vs-fire" target="_blank">Saturday’s switch has limits</a>, and no one was more cognizant of that than Curtin, who cheekily faced up to a question about the formation change with a response that deserves to be published in full: <br />
<blockquote>
<i>“Yeah you know, people get caught up in the graphics and how they get put out and as soon as I saw the graphic get put out that I figured that you would probably come with that as the first question. To be honest, it's still a 4-2-3-1, you know, just because it's written that way on a schematic that comes out, it's the difference between a yard or two in either direction. If you look, go back and watch the tape, as we will as well, by design we still always had someone next to Warren, so it is still the 4-2-3-1. The best thing about the formation is there can be fluidity in it. Warren is a guy who is a ball winner. We thought, matchup-wise, he's obviously been in good form and what Chicago likes to do, we thought that it was important to invert the triangle a little bit in some moments to get pressure to Dax McCarty, who for me is the engine of that team. So, yes, on paper it looks a little different. The running of five, six yards a little more forward from Alejandro defensively and from Haris is a little bit of a change, but still the same formation, the same idea, same principles that the guys, as you saw, when they execute them, are pretty dangerous and tough to play against.” </i></blockquote>
It’s been two and a half years since Curtin has done anything even remotely as different as this in his formation, so the temptation could be to read too much into it. So let’s assess what this move does, and what it doesn’t do moving forward for the Union. <br />
<br />
<b>- It does … minimize a weakness and maximize a strength.</b> We can argue until we’re blue in the face whether <b>Ilsinho </b>and/or <b>Roland Alberg </b>has been given too many opportunities this season. There’s no rationale I’ll allow for saying that <b>Warren Creavalle </b>should be starting fewer than 10 MLS games. He’s just a better player than that, and his failure to find the field regularly lands squarely on the lack of attacking creativity in the other five members of the midfield/forward six. In this regard, it’s a smart move by Curtin given the constraints of his roster. <br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
- <b>It does not … ease questions about Derrick Jones. </b>Can Jones be the No. 6 behind <b>Haris Medunjanin </b>and <b>Alejandro Bedoya</b>? I would tend to think not given the demands of positional awareness it requires, which isn’t yet a strong point for the youthful Jones. The roles filled by Bedoya/Medunjanin likely suit Jones more, perhaps even more than a traditional No. 8 in the 4-2-3-1, but as Bedoya and Medunjanin showed, Saturday, their claim to minutes is solid.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
Armchair Analyst: Folks don't really appreciate Alejandro Bedoya like they should. But he does a lot of little stuff very, very right <a href="https://t.co/Tq9Z1QPdcZ">pic.twitter.com/Tq9Z1QPdcZ</a></div>
— Matthew Doyle (@MattDoyle76) <a href="https://twitter.com/MattDoyle76/status/911783374045429760">September 24, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><br />
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<b>- It does … further the case for Alberg and Ilsinho leaving. </b>Both have contracts up at the end of the season and present opportunities for the Union to upgrade the squad. If you look at the three big expiring deals – Alberg, Ilsinho and <b>Chris Pontius </b>– and think of keeping one, I’d say opting for Pontius is a no-brainer. <br />
<br />
<b>- It does not … mean the Union are no longer a 4-2-3-1 team and are now a 4-1-4-1 team.</b> Even if we overlook the negligibility of the difference between the formations, there’s more at stake here. <b>Earnie Stewart </b>comes from the Dutch school of club management. Players in the Union system from the age of 12 will be taught the same formational principles on up. That won’t change on the basis of one game. By and large, players will be inculcated in a system that prizes the distinct roles of the 4-2-3-1: Center forwards who can play alone up top, wingers who can invert, sixes, eights, tens. Plus to adhere to that is to remain in the trap of tactical intransigence that doesn't necessarily serve any club's best interests. But … <br />
<br />
<b>- It does mean … the Union might be more apt to adjust in the future. </b>There’s that “fluidity” Curtin alludes to. Curtin has displayed rigidity in formations; he’s expressed concern about throwing new concepts at players used to doing things one way. It helps that this change comes with a rhyme and reason. This isn’t <b>Peter Nowak </b>waking up one day and deciding <b>Gabe Farfan </b>looks like a left back or seeing what a three-at-the-back formation plays like. This is variation on a theme, but the core principles that undergird that don’t change. Maybe this move and the reward that accompanied it just loosens the strictures a little so, so that the Union remains a 4-2-3-1 squad that doesn’t feel trapped by the dogma of it. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09303199103982707190noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7179119151792620833.post-59445782092977227562017-09-17T12:15:00.001-04:002017-09-17T12:15:38.751-04:00Union-Red Bulls: Lineups and prematch notes<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>UNION (4-2-3-1) </b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Blake </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Rosenberry-Elliott-Marquez-Fabinho </i></div>
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<i>Medunjanin-Bedoya </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Pontius-Ilsinho-Epps </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Sapong </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Bench</b><i>: McCarthy, Gaddis, Yaro, Creavalle, Alberg, Simpson, Davies </i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>New York Red Bulls (3-1-3-3) </b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Robles </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Zizzo-Perrinelle-Murrillo </i></div>
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<i>Felipe </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Lade- Davis-Etienne </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Keita-Veron-Muyl </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Bench</b><i>: Meara, Long, Escobar, Duka, Adams, Wright-Phillips, Kljestan </i></div>
<br />
- It’s four changes this week for the Union as they travel to Red Bull Arena. <b>Richie Marquez </b>starts for the first time in MLS since April 29 thanks to <b>Oguchi Onyewu’s </b>suspension and a <b>Josh Yaro </b>knee injury that leaves him on the bench. <b>Fabinho </b>is in for <b>Giliano Wijnaldum, </b>who has started 12 of the last 13 MLS matches. <b>Alejandro Bedoya </b>returns from suspension, and <b>Marcus Epps </b>is in at the wing for <b>Fafa Picault, </b>who misses out with an illness. <br /><br />- Beyond the changes, it’s more of the same for the Union. <b>Ilsinho </b>gets the nod at the No. 10 for the fifth time in seven games, preferred to <b>Roland Alberg. </b>It’s an attack-minded bench with Alberg, <b>Jay Simpson </b>and <b>Charlie Davies </b>included. <br /><br />- The Red Bulls opt for rest for some of their top guys, but it’s still a daunting lineup three days in advance of the U.S. Open Cup final Wednesday with Sporting Kansas City. <b>Bradley Wright-Phillips </b>and <b>Sacha Kljestan </b>start on the bench. But <b>Felipe </b>is out there, as are the likes of <b>Sean Davis </b>and <b>Alex Muyl </b>and the omnipresent <b>Luis Robles</b>, with <b>Gonzalo Veron </b>the danger man up top. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09303199103982707190noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7179119151792620833.post-37301715403499002112017-09-11T14:33:00.001-04:002017-09-11T14:33:39.414-04:00A career year: Digging into CJ Sapong's successful 2017<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-02dO7RUI1o0/WbbWIfJnYZI/AAAAAAAAI8Y/J6MCoPcotD4kSzrfVEVJ1gALW5Jr_nnagCLcBGAs/s1600/AP_17208072936666.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1068" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-02dO7RUI1o0/WbbWIfJnYZI/AAAAAAAAI8Y/J6MCoPcotD4kSzrfVEVJ1gALW5Jr_nnagCLcBGAs/s400/AP_17208072936666.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>This hasn't been the season the Union wanted. <br />But none of the blame goes to CJ Sapong. (AP)</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
In certain corners of Union Twitter, there persists a notion that blame for the team’s devolution to non-playoff status this season owes to a failure to address concerns at the striker position. Some would argue that the factor constraining the Union is the lack of a star up top; for further evidence, look at how the Union endeavored and failed to fill that hole via <b>Jay Simpson </b>last offseason. <br /><br />That stance – that somehow <b>CJ Sapong </b>is the deficiency holding this team back – is completely ludicrous. And quietly, while Sapong has been chronically underestimated, he’s compiled one of the best seasons ever by a Union player. <br /><br />It’s September and Sapong is tied with Jozy Altidore for the MLS lead in goals by an American player at 13. Sapong has played more games than <b>Jozy Altidore, </b>but has fired fewer shots in that time. I’d argue that Sapong is more central to the Union’s attack than Altidore is to Toronto’s, in part due to the absence of a central playmaker (of <a href="https://www.wakingthered.com/toronto-fc/2017/7/25/16023656/toronto-fc-mvp-2017-season-michael-bradley-sebastian-giovinco-jozy-altidore-victor-vazquez-mls" target="_blank">which TFC possesses two</a>). Both have 10 goals from open play and three from the penalty spot, though Sapong is 3-for-3 on penalties while Altidore has missed a pair. Sapong has also drawn two penalties for others to take. <br /><br />Sapong has five assists, a high number for the kind of target forward Sapong is usually typecast as. All five are primary assists. His assist and goal totals are both career highs. <br /><br />There’s no disputing how monumental those achievements are given Sapong’s history. But where does he fall in Union history and in MLS this season? <br /><br /><b>Lucky No. 20 </b><br /><br />In eight MLS seasons, the Union have had 20 players account for more than 10 combined goals and assists in a season, a group that includes <b>Haris Medunjanin </b>(two goals and eight assists this season). <br /><br />The cut for the elite seasons falls at 19, which culls the fraternity to five. <br /><br />Sebastien Le Toux, 2010 14 goals, 11 assists (25) <br />Chris Pontius, 2016 12 goals, 6 assists, 3 PKs drawn (21) <br />Sebastien Le Toux, 2011 11 goals, 9 assists (20) <br /><b>CJ Sapong, 2017 13 goals, 5 assists, 2 PKs drawn (20) </b><br />Sebastien Le Toux, 2014 12 goals, 7 assists (19) <br /><br />(Note: Penalties drawn aren’t easily recovered, so they’re not included in Le Toux’s numbers. Chances are he would’ve taken those PKs anyway; in Pontius’ and Sapong’s case, <a href="http://www.delcotimes.com/article/DC/20170726/SPORTS/170729699" target="_blank">the PKs were taken by others</a>.) <br /><br />That list is a long way of getting to a concise point: Sapong is having one of the most statistically productive seasons the club has ever had. <br /><br /><b>18 and over only please </b><br /><br />Across MLS, Sapong is one of 14 players this season whose goals and assists sum to 18 or greater. It’s the kind of company an attacking player aspires to keep: <a name='more'></a><br />David Villa, New York City FC 19 goals, 9 assists <br />Diego Valeri, Portland 17 goals, 9 assists <br />Lee Nguyen, New England 9 goals, 14 assists <br />David Accam, Chicago 14 goals, 7 assists <br />Victor Vazquez, Toronto 6 goals, 15 assists <br />Nemanja Nikolic, Chicago 17 goals, 3 assists <br />Sebastian Giovinco, Toronto 15 goals, 4 assists <br />Ignacio Piatti, Montreal, 15 goals, 4 assists <br />Romain Alessandrini, Los Angeles 9 goals, 10 assists <br />Miguel Almiron, Atlanta 8 goals, 11 assists <br />Ola Kamara, Columbus 15 goals, 3 assists <br /><b>CJ Sapong, UNION 13 goals, 5 assists </b><br />Jozy Altidore, Toronto 13 goals, 5 assists <br />Justin Meram, Columbus 11 goals, 7 assists <br /><br />Sapong isn’t regarded as an elite chance-finisher, but <a href="http://www.delcotimes.com/article/DC/20170805/SPORTS/170809839" target="_blank">the numbers indicate differently</a>. His goalscoring rate on total shots (13 on 49 shots, 26.5 percent) is higher than anyone with 13 or more goals in MLS, and his hit rate per shots on goal (13 goals on 27 SOG, 48.1 percent) is higher than “elite” scorers like <b>David Villa, Nemanja Nikolic, Ola Kamara, David Accam and Sebastian Giovinco</b>. <br /><br />Since the start of the 2015 season, Sapong has 29 MLS goals, despite the Union twice bringing in underwhelming striking options in an effort supplant him as the starter. Only 13 players have score more in that span (in order): Villa, <b>Bradley Wright-Phillips, </b>Giovinco, <b>Kei Kamara, Cyle Larin, Fanendo Adi, Ignacio Piatti, Chris Wondolowski, </b>Altidore, <b>Diego Valeri, Dom Dwyer, </b>Accam, Ola Kamara, <b>Robbie Keane. </b>Sapong is one behind Keane and tied with <b>Clint Dempsey, </b>who has 29 goals since the start of the 2015 season. (Dempsey has 15 assists to Sapong’s 11; Deuce has played fewer minutes, 5,028 to Sapong’s 6,695). <br /><br />If those numbers don’t sway you, let’s get qualitative. Sapong has put up a career year as a player <a href="https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2017/07/02/cj-sapong-and-his-hold-play-analysts-den?autoplay=true" target="_blank">who makes those around him better</a>. He’s instinctively deferential, and his defensive pressure and hold-up play are central to the team’s structure. <br /><br />Here’s the upshot: If you have a team where Sapong is going to play 89.8 percent of the minutes at forward as he has in 2016 and hinge its success on Sapong scoring 20-plus goals, that’s a design flaw. Sapong has been everything this season <a href="http://www.delcotimes.com/article/DC/20170422/SPORTS/170429904" target="_blank">that the club could realistically hope for him to be</a>. If the expectations were any higher, that’s a failure up the chain of command for which Sapong isn’t culpable. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09303199103982707190noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7179119151792620833.post-26252201139206183502017-09-06T16:15:00.002-04:002017-09-06T16:15:32.471-04:00Down the stretch they come: Seven goals for the Union's last seven games<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-88w3GVb8iQk/WbBVt3WYROI/AAAAAAAAI4k/4bAIaMzl1yQClAj8XYw1ywyScidV3aq-gCLcBGAs/s1600/Unions%2BKeegan%2BRosenberry.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1068" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-88w3GVb8iQk/WbBVt3WYROI/AAAAAAAAI4k/4bAIaMzl1yQClAj8XYw1ywyScidV3aq-gCLcBGAs/s400/Unions%2BKeegan%2BRosenberry.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Union's 2017 season is likely lost. So why not give minutes <br />to young players like Keegan Rosenberry? (DFM/Mikey Reeves)</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
If you’re of the sort that trusts probability, the Union’s chances of making the 2017 MLS Cup playoffs are essentially nil. That means to salvage merit from a lost season, the sixth of eight in Union existence in which they’ve fallen at the manageable hurdle of playoff qualification, the goals must shift. (Even tanking for the sake of a draft pick is off the table, as you’ll recall.) <br />
<br />
The remaining seven games of 2017 should be aimed at granular accomplishments. Time to take a page out of the Phillies’ book of perpetual rebuilding: The Union need to know who is worth keeping and who isn’t. The best way to glean that info is to let players take their lumps and, for better or worse, evaluate how they emerge on the other side.<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
SPI's <a href="https://twitter.com/MLS">@MLS</a> playoff projections after the weekend. <a href="https://twitter.com/ColumbusCrewSC">@ColumbusCrewSC</a> up 22 points with the win and Montreal's loss. <a href="https://t.co/KqFHjJXNkg">https://t.co/KqFHjJXNkg</a> <a href="https://t.co/QOrFqP60nD">pic.twitter.com/QOrFqP60nD</a></div>
— Paul Carr (@PCarrESPN) <a href="https://twitter.com/PCarrESPN/status/902531536804831233">August 29, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<br />
Let’s consider seven objectives, which care little how many of the 21 points on offer the Union reap. <br />
<br />
<b>Play. Your. Kids.</b> <b>Josh Yaro </b>has <a href="https://twitter.com/sportsdoctormd/status/899126627145326592" target="_blank">struggled this year</a>. <b>Keegan Rosenberry </b>has been up and down. But the Union are better off knowing if their rookie successes were outliers or the norm. Given the peaks and valleys, <b>Jim Curtin </b>and the organization need to know where the mean for each player rests. Yaro won’t travel to Minnesota in <a href="https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2017/08/26/red-card-josh-yaro-hauls-down-josef-martinez-breakaway" target="_blank">observance of his red card</a>. He should play the last six games. We know well what <b>Ray Gaddis </b>brings at right back, and it’s unlikely to differ in the next seven games from his previous 138. (Not a value judgement, just an observation on plasticity.) What Rosenberry brings requires space to be sussed out. <br />
<br />
<b>Two starts for Adam Najem. </b>That’s at a minimum. I doubt <b>Roland Alberg </b>is in the Union’s plans beyond this season. I don’t know if <b>Ilsinho </b>is. I would hope the organization recognizes and will act on the glaring need for a No. 10. But ascertaining what it has Najem, in terms of starting potential or merely carving a positional niche, is vital. <br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
<b>Give Auston Trusty his debut.</b> The verb in that sentence would give Curtin pause. He doesn’t like to “give” players everything. Curtin has mentioned roughly 578 times in his tenure that spots in the lineup are earned in training. Not that that methodology doesn’t work – because things this season haven’t worked for a variety of reasons – but it could use to be relaxed. <b>Oguchi Onyewu </b>was played well and should have a role next season. But how much more does Curtin really need to see him? <b>Jack Elliott </b>has been excellent, a rookie of the year candidate who should get a few more games with Yaro, the ostensible pairing of the future. But at some point, Trusty needs a taste of MLS, even just to whet his appetite so he can better prepare himself. <br />
<br />
<b>Get Jay Simpson and Chris Pontius off the schneid.</b> This won’t be popular, but the Union need to know if these two are to be counted on next year. Simpson has been paid $508k for 429 minutes. He started strong but hasn’t played because of <b>CJ Sapong’s</b> career year. If winning games is no longer the singular aim, then the pressure to deploy Sapong to improve the chance of victory is relieved somewhat. Simpson’s deal will keep him in Philly next year. Pontius’ contract status is uncertain, and he’s scuffled, with no goals and six assists in 24 games; his last assist came in mid-May. Both players could use a positive note to close the season. <br />
<br />
<b>Salvage something for Fabian Herbers. </b>Remember him? One of the most productive SuperDrafted rookie assist-men in league history? Herbers hasn’t started since May 20, an adductor strain morphing into a sports hernia in a rehab stint with Steel. He has a goal and two assists, and avoiding a 10-month layoff by the start of next season would seem to be beneficial. <br />
<br />
<b>Two starts for Maurice Edu. </b>It’s fraught to say that the Union owe Edu anything; they have, after all, paid him $1.5 million since his last MLS appearances. But behind the scenes, Edu has been an important part of the last two teams –as a voice in the locker room, a mentor for younger players and a cog in the U.S. national team recruiting apparatus that has helped legitimize the club. His future likely lies elsewhere, and he’s champing at the bit to prove to the other 21 (soon to be 22) MLS clubs that he’s fit. Offering a showcase – even if in absolute terms <b>Haris Medunjanin </b>has had a better week of training – would seem a just denouement for everyone involved. <br />
<br />
<b>Know what you know. </b>Elliott will be in the mix for a starting role next year; that’s unlikely to change in the final seven matches. Ditto <b>Alejandro Bedoya, </b>Medunjanin, Sapong and a handful of others. If a selection question is anything near a coin flip, Curtin should err on the side of the unknown. (The lone exception may be Elliott’s chase of ROY recognition.) And – here’s a crazy idea – if there’s nothing left to lose in October, maybe tinker? See what a 3-5-2 with <b>Giliano Wijnaldum </b>and Rosenberry as wingbacks plays like. See how a two-forward scheme works. If the spirit of experimentation is understood, then the potential reward far outweighs the risk. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09303199103982707190noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7179119151792620833.post-73797239038872340832017-08-31T15:25:00.001-04:002017-08-31T15:25:06.559-04:00The Union's 2017 fade in two theories<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Sc_OseCJ7VA/WahhZCiS3_I/AAAAAAAAIz8/wiU_DMJSsJATentAIUmsDFU0F0OtwT2SQCLcBGAs/s1600/Giliano%2BWijnaldum%2Bwalking%2Binto%2Bposition%2Bdown%2Bthe%2Bfield%2Bas%2Bthe%2BSons%2BOf%2BBen%2Blook%2Bon%2Bduring%2Bthe%2Bgames%2B2nd%2Bhalf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Sc_OseCJ7VA/WahhZCiS3_I/AAAAAAAAIz8/wiU_DMJSsJATentAIUmsDFU0F0OtwT2SQCLcBGAs/s400/Giliano%2BWijnaldum%2Bwalking%2Binto%2Bposition%2Bdown%2Bthe%2Bfield%2Bas%2Bthe%2BSons%2BOf%2BBen%2Blook%2Bon%2Bduring%2Bthe%2Bgames%2B2nd%2Bhalf.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Putting the shortcomings of the 2017 Union into context, <br />it's a complex task. (DFM/Mikey Reeves)</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Often the conversation surrounding the Philadelphia Union, particularly among members of the media contingent striving to make sense of the how and why of another playoff-free season, devolves into a declaration of, ‘they’re just not good enough.’ <br />
<br />
The standings can tell you that, for sure, but that’s unsatisfactory for the scientific part of my brain. And particularly given the last week, where the Union have squandered four points in stoppage time to resolve the mystery of if there’s a last gasp of intrigue remaining, the questions seem more salient. <br />
<br />
So if I may, I’ll offer two explanations, one qualitative, one quantitative. <br />
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<b>The “too much effort” explanation </b><br />
<br />
This issue reared its ugly head way back <a href="http://www.delcotimes.com/article/DC/20170409/SPORTS/170409692" target="_blank">in April when Portland came to town</a>: The talent gulf between the Union and most opponents is vast. In terms of pure talent to start the season, I would’ve pegged the Union between eight- and 10th-best in the Eastern Conference. After the summer shopping, and the Union’s lack thereof, drop them a spot or two. <br />
<br />
When you’re always at a collective disadvantage, you’re always playing catchup. Since <b>John Hackworth </b>was in charge, the prevailing mantra has always been that the Union can play with anyone. And that’s true, though in a parity-driven league, every MLS team is designed to be able to compete with anyone. <br />
<br />
But when you expound so much effort trying to work back to level talent terms, you get these coin-flip games. The Union spend so much energy trying to stay within a goal of Montreal two weeks ago, then a pin prick pops the balloon and <a href="http://www.delcotimes.com/article/DC/20170813/SPORTS/170819890" target="_blank">the release is a 3-0 loss</a>. They work so hard against San Jose, then the late penalty kick deflates them. The talent gulf deprives them of ever starting at a position of power, which magnifies mistakes and lumps pressure on a young core. <br />
<br />
Manager <b>Jim Curtin</b> is correct in saying that the Toronto loss last week is one of the few times they’ve been outclassed. But the Union are so often edged by small margins in a system of discreet point yields that it’s unsustainable over the span of a season. It doesn’t matter that their performance in San Jose was objectively worthy of two points; they get one or three, and the late mistake decided that. <br />
<br />
That entails an inescapable conclusion that Curtin now owns but <a href="http://bit.ly/2gXFstJ" target="_blank">that has been obvious since March</a>. <br />
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“I think we do recognize that a difference maker is something we need to add and increase,” Curtin said Wednesday in his off-week press conference. “We have a good group that creates enough chances in most games. We have to finish chances and do a good job of preventing them at the end of games.” <br />
<br />
That game of catchup in the squad – of important depth ballast without that big over-the-top player – is mirrored in the way the results happen. <br />
<br />
<b>“Just not good enough” in numbers</b> <br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
Here’s a cleaner, numerical explanation: <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HzW3lB-PxD0/Wahh1-okSiI/AAAAAAAAI0A/sqebb1cYybQcl6X9U089Kr7HIJ74go42wCLcBGAs/s1600/StatChart.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="559" data-original-width="573" height="390" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HzW3lB-PxD0/Wahh1-okSiI/AAAAAAAAI0A/sqebb1cYybQcl6X9U089Kr7HIJ74go42wCLcBGAs/s400/StatChart.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Stats compiled from MLSsoccer.com/OptaStats</i></td></tr>
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These numbers are collected from MLS boxscores as provided by Opta Stats. Specifically, look at the shaded boxes for passing information. <br />
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The Union have played 27 games. They’ve won the possession battle just five times. In eight, they’ve completed passes at a higher accuracy than the opponent. There’s three games in which they bested opponents in both categories – the 2-1 loss to D.C. United April 1, the 2-1 win over Colorado May 20 (the Rapids <a href="https://www.brotherlygame.com/2017/5/20/15670946/both-caleb-calvert-and-conor-casey-were-just-ejected" target="_blank">were down to 10 men</a>), and the 3-0 win over Columbus July 26 (the Crew <a href="http://www.delcotimes.com/article/DC/20170726/SPORTS/170729699" target="_blank">finished with nine</a>). <br />
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Here come the caveats: Possession is an imperfect metric of soccer competence. (See: <a href="http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11662/10129927/manchester-united-have-the-highest-average-possession-in-the-premier-league" target="_blank">City, Leicester in 2016</a>.) You can control the ball and do nothing with it. You can string together passes in the defensive half at a high rate and, well, who cares? It’s possible to claim 30 percent possession and win; the Union were three minutes and one fluky <b>Tyrone Mears </b>goal from that last week (31.6 percent, a season-low).<br />
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<div class="fluid-width-video-wrapper">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="480" src="https://www.mlssoccer.com/iframe-video?ooyala_id=YzY3JmYzE6zN7nx6J6qHxs_pDU8naegb&partner_code=hqaGoyOm_N1INKlDhoB8jUC2dvxW&player_id=cd7519e78d844853aed072fb93f70ba3" width="640"></iframe></div>
But generally speaking, if you don’t have the ball and you don’t excel in connecting passes, that’s not a good thing. <br />
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Let’s zoom out for the macro view. <a href="https://www.whoscored.com/Regions/233/Tournaments/85/Seasons/6620/Stages/14550/TeamStatistics/USA-Major-League-Soccer-2017" target="_blank">Per WhoScored.com</a>, the Union are 17th in MLS with 47.2 percent possession this year. They rank 19th in MLS in passing success (76.0). (For what it’s worth, the Opta numbers sum to a slightly lower possession figure at 46.1; I’m unsure of methodology differences.) <br />
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These metrics guarantee nothing. The Red Bulls, for instance, are 20th in MLS in pass completion. But like the aforementioned Leicester City, <b>Jesse Marsch </b><a href="http://www.espnfc.com/club/new-york-red-bulls/190/blog/post/3162061/new-york-red-bulls-jesse-marsch-sticking-to-his-ideals-in-mls" target="_blank">predicates success on high pressure</a> that turns opponents over in dangerous areas, requiring fewer passes to create scoring chances. Add <b>Sacha Kljestan, </b>an elite MLS playmaker, and the Red Bulls make the most from relatively few passes. <br />
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But by and large, the ability to keep the ball and connect passes correlates with success. Of the pass success rankings, the first team in the hierarchy not in playoff standing is Minnesota United, the Union’s next opponent, in 10th. On possession, only two teams outside of playoff positioning are among the 12 earning 50 percent or greater. <br />
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Let’s posit two polar opposites: Minnesota has a decent amount of possession (50.4), which would seem to be good. But given their error-prone defense, most of it is when they’re chasing games, which doesn’t lead to wins. The Red Bulls, at the other end of the spectrum, have a strategy that supplants the centrality of possession to success. <br />
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The Union, over the long-term, haven’t shown the ability to have either, a conversation which ventures toward the ephemeral commodity of “identity”. They won the possession battle in 17 of 34 regular season games, Curtin redoubling his “we want to be a team that possesses the ball” mantra. They were 4-9-4 in those games. <br />
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There’s no magic bullet here, no secret threshold that triggers an automatic win if you hit them. That’s just now how soccer works. But what the Union are doing in this area, it’s not working either. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09303199103982707190noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7179119151792620833.post-54946953524833102172017-08-26T18:27:00.000-04:002017-08-26T18:27:38.447-04:00Union-Atlanta United: Lineups and prematch observations<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>UNION (4-2-3-1) </b></div>
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<i>Blake </i></div>
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<i>Rosenberry-Yaro-Elliott-Wijnaldum </i></div>
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<i>Bedoya-Medunjanin </i></div>
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<i>Picault-Alberg-Pontius </i></div>
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<i>Sapong </i></div>
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<b>Bench</b><i>: McCarthy, Marquez, Gaddis, Creavalle, Epps, Ilsinho, Simpson</i></div>
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<b>Atlanta (4-2-3-1) </b></div>
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<i>Guzan </i></div>
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<i>Walkes-Parkhurst-Gonzalez Pirez-Garza </i></div>
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<i>Larentowicz-McCann </i></div>
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<i>Villalba-Almiron-Asad </i></div>
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<i>Martinez </i></div>
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<b>Bench</b><i>: Reynish, Mears, Kratz, Ambrose, Gressel, Vazquez, Peterson </i></div>
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- It’s three changes on the backline for the Union today, with <b>Jack Elliott </b>the lone holdover. <b>Josh Yaro </b>is in for <b>Oguchi Onyewu</b>, which makes sense given the matchup and the Wednesday-Saturday turnaround. <b>Keegan Rosenberry </b>makes his <a href="http://uniontally.blogspot.com/2017/08/after-extended-bench-stint-rosenberry.html" target="_blank">first start since April 14</a>. This is this most squad rotation I can recall from <b>Jim Curtin, </b>particularly at the back. Sticking with his preferred guys in the past hasn’t worked, so let’s see how this does. <br /><br />- It’s the full complement for Atlanta in its first meeting with the Union, making only one change in central midfield with <b>Chris McCann </b>in central midfield. Other than that, the front four of <b>Miguel Almiron, Yamil Asad, Josef Martinez </b>and <b>Hector Villalba </b>up top. Atlanta is coming off a tough 1-0 loss to D.C. Wednesday, so they could be hungry for a result with a glut of home games upcoming. <br /><br />- The matchup at the back for the Union is logical, but will be testing. Yaro makes sense as the guy today for his speed. But increasingly, his positional awareness seems lacking. And he’ll be tested by a passel of MLS’s most dynamic attackers today from Atlanta. How Yaro prevents the backline from being torn and distorted by the motion of Almiron and Villalba is going to be vital in the Union’s quest to get a home result. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09303199103982707190noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7179119151792620833.post-57883669292024835552017-08-24T15:21:00.002-04:002017-08-24T15:22:13.417-04:00What a difference a year makes: The perpetual slide of the Philadelphia Union<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uho5L42y0Dc/WZ8nBGDeKzI/AAAAAAAAIsY/BzDhWrN2skYf-vRFKGQ5GBJyIh6CJcaewCLcBGAs/s1600/AP_17225097200801.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1065" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uho5L42y0Dc/WZ8nBGDeKzI/AAAAAAAAIsY/BzDhWrN2skYf-vRFKGQ5GBJyIh6CJcaewCLcBGAs/s400/AP_17225097200801.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>For John McCarthy and the Union, the last year hasn't been great. (AP)</i></td></tr>
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On this weekend a year ago, the Philadelphia Union was flying high. They had just handled Sporting Kansas City, <a href="http://www.delcotimes.com/sports/20160827/albergs-patience-paying-off-on-the-pitch-for-union" target="_blank">2-0 at home</a>. With a record of 11-9-7, their 40 points were situated third in the Eastern Conference, three points from leaders Toronto and soaring over the red line for playoff qualification. <br />
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The question had ceased to be if the Union would end a playoff drought or even if they would break the franchise record for points in a season; needing just eight points from seven games, the Union would certainly blast through the 48 points they tallied in 2011 with even mediocre form. <br />
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Then the roof caved in. Seven winless to end 2016. Ninety minutes being comprehensively outclassed in Toronto on a Wednesday night in a gone-before-you-knew-it playoff berth. Then eight winless to start 2017 at so great a disadvantage that now, officially, has been deemed insurmountable. <br />
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For all the oddities of the MLS calendar, the schedule makers offer the Union symmetry. Saturday’s visit from Atlanta United marks the 34th regular-season game since that night 364 days ago against SKC. <br />
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Through all the ups and downs, what has this 33-game snapshot of Union existence shown? In short, it’s not good. <br />
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In that 33-game stretch of regular season, starting with the Sept. 3 loss at Chicago, the Union are 8-17-8. That includes the 0-5-2 stretch to end 2016 and the 8-12-6 mark they’ve stumbled to this year. <br />
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That’s 32 points in 33 games. There’s no result the Union can achieve Saturday against Atlanta to avoid falling short of the franchise’s lowest tally for a season, set in 2012 at 36. <br />
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A win Saturday is required to avoid falling short of the season-low set in the expansion year, when the club played four fewer matches. A loss Saturday would equal the franchise record of 18 set in 2012, which remains in play for the Union this year. (<b>N.B.</b>: I’m comparing this stretch to full calendar seasons, from the Union and other clubs, via MLS' <a href="https://www.mlssoccer.com/media-resources/mls-fact-and-record-book" target="_blank">Fact and Record Book</a>. Even I’m not that much of a masochist to parse each team’s worst 34-game stretch across seasons, even if the info was complete enough.) <br />
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The Union in the last 33 games have a points per game average of 0.97. The sub-1 realm is where the truly terrible MLS campaigns reside. How bad? Well, bad enough that no Union team has ever been there before – the 2012 team came closest at 1.06 over a calendar season – and the Union <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia_Union#Year-by-year" target="_blank">have had some atrocious seasons</a>. <br />
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The league-wide comparison doesn’t flatter either. Since 2000, when MLS scrapped penalty-kick shootouts, only 26 teams have posted a PPG of less than 1 in a calendar year, 14 in 34-game seasons. The group isn’t illustrious: <br />
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- Four were expansion seasons: Real Salt Lake and Chivas USA in 2005, Toronto in 2007 and Vancouver in 2011. <br />
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- Four were by Toronto, long a basement dweller. <br />
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- Five were by Chivas USA, which no longer exists. <br />
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- Adding the 2001 Tampa Bay Mutiny, which posted the second-worst PPG season ever trailing only D.C. United in 2013, six are by defunct clubs. <br />
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Despite cutting across seasons, the Union’s 33 games are fairly representative of a balanced schedule. Saturday’s Atlanta game will make 17 home and 17 away contests. The Union played Portland twice in this sample with no games against Seattle; the Red Bulls and Montreal each featured four times. <br />
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Take this information and draw whatever conclusions you will. It’s obviously hard to paint this as anything but a step back for a franchise that made the playoffs last year. It’s also more enduring than an easily dismissed cold streak. And for a club very <a href="http://bit.ly/2wXNNAN" target="_blank">fond of talking about building</a>, this prolonged ineptitude seems contrary to that message. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09303199103982707190noreply@blogger.com0