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SBI Friday Rewind: Altidore moving off injured list; MLS returns; Solo moving past arrest; and more

Jozy Altidore

Photo by ISIPhotos.com

By CAITLIN MURRAY

As they enter the do-or-die World Cup knockout round, the U.S. Men’s National Team will need every weapon in their arsenal — and Jozy Altidore is a powerful one. After pulling his hamstring in the opening half of the U.S.’s World Cup campaign, it looks like Altidore could take the field again in Brazil. Coach Jurgen Klinsmann said Altidore is making progress and he’s optimistic for a return against Belgium, SBI’s Franco Panizo reported from Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Major League Soccer is back in full swing after a break for the World Cup and Tim Cahill, having just returned from Brazil a day earlier, is already back in an MLS state of mind. The Socceroos striker helped his New York Red Bulls nab a late equalizer against Toronto FC at home. Meanwhile, Sporting Kansas City fended off the Portland Timbers to move into a tie for first in the Eastern Conference.

And Hope Solo is set to return to the pitch after a week of uncertainty due to her recent arrest for alleged assault. After Solo issued a public apology for the episode, her club, Seattle Reign FC, said she would be available for this weekend’s National Women’s Soccer League fixtures — but hinted Solo may face later reprimand if found to be at fault in the incident.

Here is a rundown of all the stories featured on SBI today:

U.S. MEN’S NATIONAL TEAM
Klinsmann optimistic about Altidore’s chances of playing vs. Belgium

Jones suffers broken nose, Altidore continuing to make progress

Gonzalez overcomes early hiccup, nerves to help USMNT reach next round

MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER:
Wright-Phillips late equalizer saves Red Bulls in home draw vs. TFC

Olum’s goal the difference as Sporting KC knocks off Timbers

MLS Week 16: A Look Ahead

NATIONAL WOMEN’S SOCCER LEAGUE:
Solo issues public apology for arrest; club talks consequences as Solo set to return

NWSL Week 12: A Look Ahead

EUROPEAN SOCCER:
Report: Boyd agrees to personal terms with Red Bull Leipzig

Friday Kickoff: Chiellini calls Suarez ban too harsh; Aguero ruled out; and more

 

Comments

  1. Klinsi said after the Germany game that we need to create more chances, and we’ll “need to improve on that”, or something to the effect. Will be interesting to see what sort of changes he makes. IMO, we need to take the game to Belgium. The tropical weather in Salvador plays to our strengths, as we’re used to it by now. These northern/central Europeans do not play so well in it.

    Where’s the creativity going to come from? What does everyone think will happen? One thing I’ve considered is to slot A Bacon in for Ale B. Here you are sacrificing Ale’s defensive work rate and adding some creativity, movement and finishing in the final 3rd. Ale is also tired. Looking back on that stoppage time chance he had against DE, he should’ve blasted that near post and upper 90, but was too tired and also doesn’t have the killer instinct in the box (probably more fatigue to be fair). Bacon will be fresh. Zusi stays on right, and we don’t sacrifice the quality midfield play we’ve had from the JJ, Becks and MB90 triumvirate.

    Either way, we have to take the game to Belgium. They are untested, and their weak point in my eyes is their defensive play in the midfield. Let’s get Beasley and Fab Jo forward and see some tricky movement from Bacon and Deuce!

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  2. If Altidore plays again in less than two months he will re-injure his hamstring. So, stop the delusion of him playing again in the WC. If he plays Klinsmann will just have lost a sub at the start of the game.

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    • You may be right, but it is possible he only had a slight pull, we really don’t know the extent of his injury. If he does play the it would be safe to say it was only a slight pull

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  3. I have seen plenty of commercials for MLS during the WC, especially given they are on rival networks now engaged in a battle for soccer tv rights in the future. It’s filthy lucre, nothing else. If you were ESPN, would you want nbc sports getting plugs. No I think not.
    A number of the commercial in the NY market have been during local ad time inserts.

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  4. Time for Keane to stop fooling around in the box and score already. I can’t handle a loss to San Jose right after limping out of the Open Cup. Go Galaxy!

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  5. He won’t play unless USA is loosing like 3 to 0 which is possible.
    I just would like to see creativity from USA, Bradley has done nothing and bekerman is the same as Bradley.
    Dempsey likes to 2 way pass and he has nobody. Diskerud has creativity and green is a secret weapon. USAs backline has a lot of potential but kilnsi needs to make up his mind, then you have Fabian and chandler who have better soccer.
    But I repeat, if they wanna park the bus and play boring and make USA proud, then do it.
    By the way, why doesn’t MLS take advantage of these crazy World Cup hype in the US, I don’t see any MLS marketing.
    Make it happen MLS, grow now than never and capture the rookie fan.
    Look at all those fans in chicago, LA, all over the US.

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    • Gotta say, I’m having some concerns too at how MLS is integrating into the experience for the non-soccer fan. MLS is (once again) looking as though the did not come up with a really comprehensive and consistent strategy for how to connect the momentum of a strong US World Cup performance to its brand in a way that non-sports fans and casual observers are likely to internalize. They are not invisible, but it’s choppy and hard to interpret when it should actually be very easy to sell– they have plenty to brag about and plenty of fingerprints on this US team — they need for people to look at this US World Cup performance and the surging popularity they are seeing for soccer in media, and draw a clear connection to MLS, both as a driver of this advancement and as a beneficiary. They should say to themselves that the time has come to re-evaluate perceptins of MLS as a joke league doomed to failure. It’s difficult to do when the interests of all the broadcast partners are not necessarily aligned, and one could even say that Ian Darke’s emergence as the voice of U.S. Soccer has not necessarily helped here. I like Darke and don’t want him to go anywhere, but having an English voice over a soccer game does lend to the feeling that many still have that “soccer is something they do better elsewhere”. I don’t necessarily have a solution to this (Can you imagine those group stage US games with Gus Johnson calling?) .

      But the probablem is far bigger. Their TV strategy is a complete mess. Totally awful and the numbers show it. How is it even possible do such an excellent job with the competitive product and the in-game fan experience, while failing so miserably here? The US team has delieved what they needed. Already done. Maybe I’m wrong and this will become clear in the coming months. I hope so. If not, I really don’t want to hear the argument about the World Cup being the biggest driver of growth for MLS. Which, in a way, is a good thing I suppose. Gotta ditch the training wheels sometime.

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      • Ali,

        You have a point.

        For all of JK’s perceived negativity towards MLS, with such a MLS heavy team he has given them a lot of priceless exposure on the World’s biggest stage.

        I don’t know what kind of relationship MLS has with ESPN but it seems like a waste that the broadcasts and the media in general are not doing more to point out how MLS influence in this Cup has grown since the last World Cup.

      • Ali, can you be specific? Both in how you feel their tv strategy is a complete mess, awful, and specifically what you would suggest? Thanks.

      • Sure Derek. Forgive me if I recycle some old language in the space below but the core problem is that MLS has signed away the rights to a variety of partners without a thesis or consistent expectation. As an example, NBC/MLS did a poor job delivering on what should have been a slam dunk strategy– bridge the EPL games to an MLS 12:30 start game. Every week. Twice. This rarely happened at all. Even the WNBA managed to use this strategy successfully– unsurprisingly their TV ratings are higher than MLS in spite of far lower attendances and a total lack of enthusiasm from the young-middle age male demographic that drives most sports programming. Ugly loss for MLS.

        What’s worse is the probem they have created for themselves at the local level. Other than a limited option for ESPN to do a “Game of the Wee”, local rights have been allocated to the clubs to sell as they see fit, which has yielded shoddy production value, low awareness of the MLS brand as a whole, and may lead to much worse when contracts these franchises have signed with networks like TWC turn out to be wildly overvalued, crushing the value of franchises who had foolishly bet on them. Probably the league will have a hard time changing this.

        A weird strategic mis-step. What I see as the problem is MLS is still preaching to its best and most loyal fans at a time when even those fans would like to see MLS move up into the mainstream media more. Seatte-Portland is now must-see TV (NBC did ok with this actally)… perhaps the best single selling tool MLS has in convincing non-fans to revisit the product. Gotta sell that harder. Give us a studio show worth watching on matchdays. Look legit. It’s possible now.

        Better solution is CONCACAF Network but nobody seems to be buying that idea. I will quit work tomorrow to work on this 25 hours a day if someobody with wherewithal ever materializes.

  6. I think it gives something for Belgium to plan for but would be surprised to see him play. Maybe a 20 minute sub if we need something? I’d like to see us win without him and get a few more days rest, but sure would be nice to see Dempsey behind altidore and Bradley and jones holding Down the two DM positions again. Love what Beckerman has done but this would be our strongest set up.

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    • I was thinking if he’s deemed good-to-go, better to Start him. That way if he goes down, he can be replaced. Couldn’t do that if he were the 3rd sub at minute 60. Man I’d love to add that hold up ability.

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