Some Soccer News for Jul 20, 2016

It's Day 202 of 2016.


Jason Kreis has been hired as the new head coach of Orlando City.

• The people of Orlando seem pretty damn excited to have Kreis coming on board to run the team. By Alicia DelGallo of the Orlando Sentinel.

• Why in the world would Jason Kreis take the job as head coach at Orlando City, one of the leading contenders for Titanic of the Year. (New award I just made up.) The ownership that came on board to take the lower division club into MLS has been shipping people out the door left and right for a year and a half now - both field staff and business staff alike.

• Someone else sees the "imperfect" situation ahead. By Jeff Carlisle of ESPNFC.

dN

Speaking of head coaches, Jurgen Klinsmann remains in charge of the USMNT as Sam Allardyce is hired to lead England.

dN

Minnesota United plays a friendly against English Premier League team Bournemouth tonight. Kick off is 7:00pm CT at the National Sports Center Stadium in Blaine MN. I am pretty sure there is no broadcast or online stream of the game.

dN

US Open Cup Quarterfinals:

• 5 of the 8 teams (Chic, LA, Sea, Dall and NER)  in the Qfinals have won the tournament in the past.

• Fort Lauderdale is the only non-MLS team left standing.

• 3 MLS teams (Chic, Sea and Hous) are performing poorly in league play this season.

• 3 MLS teams (LA, Dal and Phil) are having very strong seasons in league play.

• All 4 games will be streamed online. You can find info about all four games and links to the streams right here.

Matches
-Wed Jul 20
New England Revolution v Philadelphia Union
Chicago Fire v Fort Lauderdale Strikers
Houston Dynamo v Dallas
LA Galaxy v Seattle Sounders

dN

DC United has decided that Fabian Espindola is just not working for them any more and has been sold to Vancouver Whitecaps.

dN

Peter Papas, one of the TV commentators for Philadelphia Union games has pleaded guilty in a scheme to turn prescription drugs into cash. Or something like that. Its complicated. But he's guilty. And he took about half a million bucks. From the Associated Press via NorthJersey.com.

dN

Why did the Fort Lauderdale Strikers leave their long time home stadium, Lockhart? By Michelle Kaufman of the Miami Herald.

• The new home, Central Broward Stadium, is very close to old one, just 7 miles apart.

• But make no mistake, their latest stadium is far from ideal as it was built for cricket, and will be kinda nasty for soccer. See it here.

• One of the big pluses is that the team will be able to house their club offices and practice facilities at CBS.

dN

Copa Libertadores Finals:
-Wed Jul 20
Independiente del Valle (ECU) v Atletico Nacional (COL)
-Wed Jul 27
Atletico Nacional (COL) v Independiente del Valle (ECU)

dN

CONCACAF Champions League group stage starts in just 2 weeks!

dN

The English Premier League is supposedly going to get serious about punishing players for abusing referees this season. By the Press Association via the Guardian.

• I will believe it when I see it in action on a regular basis.

• It took the NBA 2 years to really crack down against referee abuse when they instituted a similar policy. In the case of the NBA it has really worked. You just don't see the insane histrionics that used to go on happening at all any more, and the game is much better for it.

The Bird Is The Word