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Welcome to The Daily for Friday, August 12th with Simon Borg.
I'm Jason Saghini. Philadelphia has been in soccer news all week
with the debut of Jurgen Klinsmann. The US/Mexico friendly, and now Freddy Adu
signing with the Philadelphia Union. Simon, at this point yesterday, we were talking
about Adu going to Chivas USA. The whole reason is, Chivas USA was at the
top of the allocation rank. They passed on Benny Felhebber previously.
They passed on Freddy Adu reportedly because Jorge, the owner, decided that Adu didn't
fit into the plans, and that maybe he was too high of price tag for the team.
Philadelphia jumped all over it. Philadelphia, they're a championship caliber
team, and maybe all they needed was the one player that can be the face of the team.
Adu, arguably, one of the biggest faces in American soccer after Landon Donovan.
This reunites the 22 year old attacking midfielder with his former coach Peter Novak from DC
United. We'll see what they can do together a 2nd
time around. Even before they signed Adu, Philadelphia
was probably in the marquee matchup for this weekend.
2nd place in the East against 2nd place in the West as they host FC Dallas.
Of course, Brek Shea, a big performance on Wednesday night after a dip-and-play first
time in MLS. Brek Shea and Zach Lloyd both saying in Philadelphia,
both waiting for the team to join them ahead of the match at PPL Park.
This could very well be MLS cup later on in November.
For Philadelphia, after signing Adu, you gotta expect the pressure has ratcheted up just
a little bit more. This is going to be major for them.
Philadelphia is chasing Columbus crew, who is number 1 in the Eastern Conference.
There's really a glut of teams in the Eastern Conference right now.
1 through 6 in the East is separated by only 7 points right now.
The team at the bottom there, DC United, has a really good chance at making a run right
now. It starts with a home game against Vancouver.
Vancouver coming off a big win. 4-2 win at home last week against the Chicago
Fire. The team in this game, the goalkeepers.
There's a decision to be made by interim coach Tom Seohn whether to go with Jay Nally or
Joe Ken. Jay Nally getting the start in that win last
weekend, then for DC United, Bill Hamid who was with the US national team in Philadelphia,
he's going to have to sit out. He received a red card last weekend.
Steve Croonen, who came in with the ball for him, had a little bit of a shakey game against
Toronto FC. It's going to be interesting to see whether
they go with their 3rd string, or whether they have the confidence to bring in veteran
Croonen. Alright, we're going to move to the Western
Conference. The first game of the weekend, 4pm Eastern,
Seattle Sounders hosting Chivas USA at Century Link Field.
Seattle looking to get a couple of players back.
Few players are coming back for them. John Kennedy Hurtado and O'Brien White, they
will see the bench against Chivas USA. The other big name Brad Evans, coming back
maybe for the Champions League game during the midweek.
Seattle, a very strong season, they get to play at home.
Chivas USA puting together very quietly a season led by Nick LaBrocca.
They're going to be a team that nobody is going to want to face in the playoff round.
Speaking of playoffs, there's another team with big playoff implications.
On Sunday night, on Galavision, the Houston Dynamo hosting the Portland Timbers.
There's a subplot here involving the coaches. John Spencer, general manager of the Portland
Timbers, returning to Houston where he served as an assistant coach under Dominick Kinear
for a few years. There's no time for fraternity meetings for
these two teams here because they're going to be competing for a wild card spot here
come the end of the season. Both teams roughly have the same number of
points. For a full slate of games, log onto mlssoccer.com
as always. I wanted to mention that ExtraTime Radio yesterday,
you can get it on iTunes or BuzzSprout. We had Brian Strauss from the Sporting News.
We also had Montreal head coach Jesse March. Brian Strauss telling us the good and the
bad of that game, the 1-1 tie against Mexico. Then Jesse Marsh going into detail about how
he plans to start working on Montreal to prepare them for their first season in MLS next year.
Alright, that's all we have for The Daily. Enjoy the weekend of MLS action.
We'll be back on Monday.