photo by Eric Bolte/USA Today Sports

By FRANCO PANIZO

Didier Drogba can still draw a crowd. Look no further than Montreal for proof.

The Montreal Impact announced on Wednesday that their Saturday home game vs. the Philadelphia Union is sold-out. The match at Stade Saputo, which is expected to mark Drogba’s Impact debut, is expected to draw a crowd of 20,801.

“We are very pleased to announce this first sold-out match since our (CONCACAF) Champions League final,” Impact executive vice-president Richard Legendre said. “Fans who might not have the chance to be at the stadium on Saturday will still have five more games they can attend until the end of the season.”

Drogba, 37, signed with Montreal as a Designated Player in late July. He was welcomed to the city with much fanfare and has been training in recent weeks to regain match fitness and sharpness.

The Impact are hoping that Drogba can help them reach the postseason. The club currently sits in the sixth and final playoff spot out in the Eastern Conference.

Here are more notes from around MLS:

UNION BECOME LATEST TO LAUNCH USL TEAM

You can now add the Philadelphia Union to the list of MLS clubs with its own USL outfit.

The Union announced on Wednesday that it will have a team in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania that will begin playing in USL during 2016. The third division side does not yet have a name, as Philadelphia plans to allow fans to vote on that as well as a crest and team colors at a later date.

The USL club will play its home games at Goodman Stadium at Lehigh University. The venue can sit 16,000 fans.

“This is another landmark day in the short history of the Philadelphia Union,” Union CEO and operating partner Nick Sakiewicz said in a statement. “This was a decision that we carefully studied and analyzed all possible options. In the end, we’ve chosen an extraordinarily great soccer community in the Lehigh Valley that is underserved for professional soccer.”

The Union’s lower division team will become the 27th active member of the USL, and the ninth that is operated by an MLS franchise. The 11 others, as of now, have affiliations in USL per an MLS mandate.

“By adding a USL team we ensure that our players will compete at the highest level under MLS,” said Sakiewicz. “It’s of the utmost importance that at every level of the Union organization we challenge our players with competition in the top professional environments.”

SACRAMENTO REPUBLIC CHOOSE ARCHITECT FOR MLS STADIUM

Sacramento Republic FC may not be in MLS’s immediate expansion plans, but that is not stopping the USL club from moving ahead with its efforts to make the jump someday.

Republic FC has hired an architect for the proposed downtown soccer-specific stadium that it wants. HNTB Corp. – which was involved in the design of the San Francisco 49ers’ Levi’s Stadium – was selected Wednesday in Sacramento’s latest move to convince MLS that it is ready to be given an expansion franchise in the first division.

MLS announced a couple of years ago that it planned to move to 24 teams by the end of the decade. The league will soon have 22 teams after the introductions of Los Angeles FC and Atlanta United FC in 2017, and it is planning to fill the final two spots with teams in Minnesota and Miami.

MLS commissioner Don Garber has, however, said that the league is looking into when it could potentially expand beyond two dozen clubs.

TORONTO FC LOANS TWO PLAYERS TO USL CLUB

Chris Konopka and Nick Hagglund are heading down to USL.

Toronto FC announced on Wednesday that it has loaned Konopka and Hagglund to Toronto FC II. Konopka has started 11 matches in goal for the MLS club this season while centerback Hagglund has gotten the nod in eight of the 12 appearances he has made in his second year as a professional.

MLS DISCIPLINARY COMMITTEE HANDS OUT WEEK 24 PUNISHMENTS

Every club in MLS is surely familiar with the wrath of the MLS Disciplinary Committee by now, but Orlando City got a reminder anyway.

The league announced on Tuesday night that Orlando midfielder Darwin Ceren has been suspended for a game and fined an undisclosed amount for violent conduct in this past weekend’s 4-0 loss to the Seattle Sounders. Ceren was punished for outstretching his arm and making contact with Erik Friberg on a play away from the ball in the 61st minute.

Blas Perez was also punished, as the MLS Disciplinary Committee fined the FC Dallas striker for embellishing at hour-mark of the club’s 2-1 loss to the LA Galaxy.

Toronto FC and the New York Red Bulls also found themselves in hot water. Both clubs were deemed to have violated the Mass Confrontation Policy in the ninth minute of the Red Bulls’ 3-0 win this past Saturday.

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Think the sell-out crowd will help push Drogba and Montreal to victory over the Union? What should the Union’s USL team be called? Think Sacramento should be allowed entry into MLS now?

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