What is actually wrong with the Philadelphia Union

"Come on you boys in blue, come on you boys in blue. Philly is blue and, Philly is blue gold. Woah woah woah...."

There is something simplistically beautiful about Philadelphia and it's love for sports. Regardless of whether you're talking about the Eagles, the Sixers, the Flyers, the Phillies, or even the the Union, the crowd expects 150% of effort and heart all the time. That is one of the reasons why Weapon X, and his human counterpart, Brian Dawkins might be the most beloved sports figure in the history of this town. I don't argue that some players of the Union don't work hard, it's clearly visible that guys like Fernando Aristeguita leave absolutely nothing to the imagination, the guy has dropped into the midfield and played defense multiple times over the last two games because of red cards(something strikers very rarely do voluntarily).

This team lacks something very big: a sense of direction, an identity, a guy who will rally the troops and exhaust himself in the process. For 13 great years, the Philadelphia Eagles looked to Brian Dawkins to be that guy; and for the soccer counterpart of the city, that guy must now be Maurice Edu. That is his job as captain. Leading by example as he has said is all well and good, but when times are tough (and believe me four games in with 2 ugly ties and 2 uglier loses, times are tough) the players look to a guy to rally around; a guy who believes that they are a part of the club, that it is his club, the guys on the field are his men, and that he is representing his city. It is absolutely ridiculous to go through like the game on Sunday, and see eleven players in such disarray. After giving up the goal in the first half, M'bolhi started playing the blame game with his CBs (instruct your guys where to go/what to do. Rais had disgust painted all over his face. Look at Tim Howard, no matter how bad his defense has played, he never looks at his teammates in disgust, he yells at them with thorough intensity, but never with disgust.) M'bolhi, you are a leader of men, which means that you have to be one yourself. This means that you have to hold yourself accountable more than anything else;also, stop being a baby, talk to the media. Edu, its your job to hold others accountable if players don't do so themselves, it's uncomfortable, but it's your job. Get it done. You also have to hold guys such as Pfeffer and Fred accountable, if they can't control their actions then should not be in the sport(yeah I get that Pfeffer was in his first game as a starter, but that does not mean that he can forget that his actions made the job of his teammates so much harder.)

In addition to holding your players accountable during the week an on gamedays, it your job as captain to hold the refs accountable. If a bad call(or a no call) happens, it your job(and your job only) to get in the ref's face, in the most appropriate manner, and let him know that he messed up. It is stupid to have guys constantly complaining to the ref about calls(looking at you Le Toux and Aristeguieta). The reason why Steven Gerrard, at least to me, will go down as one of the greatest captains in the history of sport is that he believes that he is Liverpool Football Club and Liverpool Football Club is him and embodies that more than almost any other athlete can. He holds his men to highest standard of professionalism and respect, and that is why he is such a good captain. If Maurice can nail down the role of a captain, you can bet your week's paycheck that the Union turn things around.

MLS CBA

Well before I began following MLS, I knew of the stigma that follows MLS around the world. (Insert every Euro-Snob comment about retirement league, shitty players, and other all ignorant remarks here). Ever since the 2014 World Cup, I have been bleeding Philadelphia Union Blue & Gold, and I would have it no other way. At the moment, the Union might be the most exciting sports team in the Philadelphia sports market. Think about, Flyers are mediocre(I'm hoping they make the playoffs), Phillies are tanking but refuse to acknowledge it, Sixers are tanking and they embrace it, and the Eagles are operating within the CIA-like confines Chip Kelly's office. The season is right around the corner, and the current management along with the efforts of John Hackworth have finally sorted through the mess of Pthe aftermath of Peter Nowak. But, there is big IF to me being able to use my tickets for the Union home opener, and that is the an agreement of a new CBA.

From what I have gathered so far, fans usually side with owners and league officials when it comes to the CBA and possible strikes. However, MLS fans are definitely siding with the Players Union for this CBA. Now before I argue my point, let me play devil's advocate. The owners of MLS have endured quite a lot in the league's 20 year history ranging from near bankruptcy to dissolving of the league. In addition, they pay for the constant upkeep of the team, academy, and coaches and a whole bunch of other stuff, so asking them to splurge on players is not very realistic.

Now, I will go take a shower and prove to you why everything I said in the last two sentences of the previous paragraph, to quote Jeremy Clarkson "is all horrible rubbish." Since the last CBA, the disparity between the DP(Designated Players - players whose salary is only partially accounted for on the salary cap) players and the non-DP players has increased drastically. The greatest example of this is the difference between the average salary of a player, which is about $250k, and the median salary salary of a player, which is about $90k, The vast difference between the two number states the salary numbers are very top heavy. The minimum annual salary for an MLS player is $35k, which is only $12k higher than the poverty line. That means that they make just less than $3,000 per month. In some of the more expensive markets such as NYC, LA, Philadelphia, Chicago, etc. rent itself can be about $1,000. This is my biggest point of argument for the new CBA. The players need to be compensated well for their efforts. I know that the MLS is no the NFL where the minimum salary is $400k, but an increase in the minimum wage will increase the quality on the field, the quality of life of the players, and will draw more kids to choose soccer should the trend continue. I also believe the salary cap needs to be raised, this again will help with the overall growth of the league in general; also, when MLS clubs compete in the CONCACAF Champions League, it is very hard to compete with teams from Central America that don't face such monetary challenges.

I'm not going to talk much about free agency because I don't know how it would work, I do support it though. I realize that the players should get an option to play where they want, atleast to some extent like players in all other leagues do. I do want to talk about how hypocritical the league is about spending money. On one side, it brings multi-million dollar DPs such as Giovinco, Gerrard, Lampard, Villa, and Kaka, but when it comes to paying the majority of the players a proper wage, they cry poor. That is an argument that is no longer valid with the new TV deals($75 million/year with ESPN, Fox Sports, and UniMas in the US & SkySports in the UK), $10 million/year deal with Heineken, and expansion fees(the one-time payment that each team must make to MLS to join the league) are exceeding $100 million. Also, without going too much into it, pure singe entity is stupid.

LeSean McCoy traded to Buffalo

First Reaction: WHAT THE FUCK?!?!?! You don't just go around trading your best player for a guy that did not play last year for what my friend Connor called a "season destroying knee injury." Just in terms of tit-for-tat this has to be one of the worst trades in the history of the NFL. LeSean McCoy has established himself as the best RB in league for the last six years, especially consider Adrian Peterson is not in the league at the moment. I'm not going to focus too much on the what Eagles can and cannot do in the draft and free agency in the post, it will purely be based on what this trade is and what it means for the state of our Philadelphia Eagles.

Analysis: Since well before Chip Kelly arrived in Philadelphia, dating all the way back to the Eagles run to the NFC Championship game vs. Arizona, we have been praying for a non-mediocre defense. And this may well be beginning of the assembly of that. Think about, one of the few positions that we can say that the Eagles are good at is RB(don't get me wrong, I'm truly gutted that I won't get to see Shady make Antrel Rolle look plain stupid two games every year). We traded a position that we were good with to fill a need. We can't go around complaining that we can't play defense and begin mutiny should the Eagles make a move(I know, I suggested that earlier, I'm sorry I take that back.) Am I saying that Kiko Alonso is going to come in and be next Ray Lewis and dominate at the Linc? No, but this move has potential. Let's not write it off quite yet. Give it until Week 10 before we stamp the evaluation of this trade.

Now this second bit, is a bit hard to describe. It is no doubt that the Eagles have been more Duck-ish since Chip Kelly came to Philadelphia, and what I mean by that is that he has kept a lot of players that played for him in Eugene, ex. Casey Matthews, Josh Huff, and Kiko Alonso. I don't know how I feel about this necessarily because this means Chip Kelly will take players that he likes over the best option available. On a side note, this is kind of how I feel about Jurgen Klinsmann keeping Jermaine Jones around by making him play CB. I don't like that because I'm afraid that we're going to give up players in the future that could have been better for the Eagles overall, but were not selected because Chip did not like them for whatever reason.