Jack McInerney is the future face of the Union. (Kevin Kinkead for WVHooligan)

By John Parker

In this (hopefully) sixteen part series, I will look at each of MLS team and discern their “future face of the franchise.” This isn’t necessarily a query into the player with the most potential on a squad, but rather a question of how a player or personality is situated to become the most visible and/or marketable person within an organization.

In other words, it’d be much more fun if Alexi Lalas was still around…but alas, we’re stuck with personnel with talent.

To start off, we’ll look at the Philadelphia Union. Continue Reading…

Amobi Okugo could be a big time player for the Union. (Kevin Kinkead for WVHooligan)

In this expansion era in Major League Soccer we’ve seen the good and the bad on how to bring a new club into the league. The bad is obviously just about everyone but Seattle. Most clubs stumbled in their first year due to either poor management from the start or bad player choices.

With a new kid on the block it is worth looking into see how the Philadelphia Union are looking right now as they head into their first season. Coming in a year after the Seattle Sounders FC set the MLS world on fire, Piotr Nowak and company have a lot of work to do but so far their efforts have been pretty good.

The Union hasn’t dipping into any big foreign signings just yet but with the transfer window still open there is still time for a couple big signings. Also, don’t be shocked if they do end up with one of those Americans that are rumored to return to the States this winter too.

For this look at the Union I’ll go position by position to see where they need some help before the season starts. (note, I am aware there are other reports like this out there, I’ve had this one in the icebox for a week now. I was merely waiting for a rainy day to release it!) Continue Reading…

Chester Stadium currently under construction. (Photo via Philadelphia Union)

Editor’s Note: Geoff Reid appears on WVHooligan each week. Today he is back to discuss something that is very close to home, the soon to be expansion Philadelphia Union. Geoff lives just 15 minutes away from the new club. Feel free to leave Geoff your thoughts below.

With just under six months before Major League Soccer�s newest club takes the field in Seattle in the 2010 opener, I thought it be good to give an update on where my local club are in preparation. It doesn�t seem like that long ago, we had the official announcement on February 28th, 2008 in Chester, Pennsylvania. While I haven�t been down in the area all that long, I always had concerns about MLS putting a team in the Delaware Valley. At the time, I thought St. Louis would have been a much more viable option, however, since that point I can safely say I�ve jumped on the bandwagon.

The club�s owners right from the start seemed like they were up against it: economic downturn, trying to sell the idea of re-building a historic, but rundown city by having a team and stadium as it�s crown jewel in a complete redevelopment of the area to the local government and promising to be a success all at the same time. Needless to say they accomplished that first part.

The ownership also had to field questions regarding if they still had enough cash to pull everything off with one of them losing a big chunk of money a year ago when the stock market dropped. The rumors of FC Barcelona even coming in and taking a stake was discussed but nothing came about after the Catalans decided to pull out of the Miami bid. There was also talk of the Montreal Impact coming in 2010 and pushing Philadelphia back to 2011. The panic button could have easily been pushed, but the ownership has stuck to their guns and currently the only news coming out of the club is good news. Sure there has been hurdles to jump over since the planning officially began on February 28, 2008, but careful brainstorming in all aspects while making small tweaks to the big overall picture has shown the group knows exactly what they are doing.
Continue Reading…

New Philadelphia Union manager Peter Nowak is already looking for players to form his club for next season. Apparently he has some big time say in who can and can’t be signed to his club according to Jack Bell over at the New York Times.

With his first signing for the expansion side, Nowak may sign former Colorado Rapids keeper Bouna Coundoul.

Nowak is expected to have control of player personnel decisions in Philadelphia and his first signing could be a goalkeeper, Bouna Coundoul, a native of Senegal who played his high school ball in New York. Coundoul played last season for Colorado in M.L.S. and has also played for his national team. He is currently a free agent who has been training with clubs in Finland.

While I was never the biggest fan of Coundoul, maybe Nowak could get a little more out of him than Fernando Clavjio ever did.

Sounds like Philadelphia Union are set to announce their first head coach very soon. According to sources for SBI, the expansion club will name Peter Nowak as its first head coach at a press conference tomorrow.

Honestly this is a win-win coaching move for Philly. They get a coach with loads of experience and knowledge of what it takes to win it all in Major League Soccer. A lot of people believe his time with the national team over the last couple years has really helped him out with developing younger players.

I also like the hire because it gives Nowak and the Union plenty of time to begin working on a roster right away instead of waiting around until November. They can now spend most of the summer looking for talent to come either home to the US from overseas or scout out an important designated player to market the club behind.

I know some DC fans will hate this move and begin to hate this new club even more but to me its a great move.

What do you all make of Nowak leading the Union?

This will sort of go down like the Dallas coaching search from earlier in the year. Only difference will be the owners of the LA Galaxy are probably a bit clueless about who exactly they want to bring in to coach their club, and FC Dallas knew who they wanted from day one (or five years ago depending on how you look at it).

Lots of names will float out there and with 11 games left on the menu for the Galaxy I am beginning to wonder if the Galaxy will just hold on to interim coach Cobi Jones for the rest of the year. Would it really work out to bring in a coach this late in the year to take over? I think the smart answer is no. But with the way AEG wants to bring in the money I have a feeling they may push hard for a quick change here in the coming week. Even Jones has said he has the club for the next game and that’s all he’s been told about the timetable here.

Though if they do the smart thing and give Jones the time for the rest of the year, that will allow themselves to get the coach they all want for this club.

SO who exactly will be on that short list of coaches that the Galaxy could be looking at here? Continue Reading…