Yep. http://www.dcunited.com/news/2015/06/markus-halsti-called-up-to-finnish-national-team I presume he'll miss the Open Cup game. Good luck to him with Finland. Now I have a reason to care about another team in Europe. I wonder if he'll have to leave before saturday's game vs. Toronto. One would think so. Definitely play him on Wednesday then so Arnaud can rest.
UEFA 2016 Qualifying - Sat 13 June 2015 - Finland vs Hungary in Helsinki I think its probable that Halsti is here for June 03 and 06 vs Chicago and Toronto. Unlikely that he could be back here for Pittsburg on the 16th.
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/...ickets-On-Sale-Wednesday/stories/201506030087 They expect to sell out the game within a week.
He's suspended I think. Two yellows in loss to Rhinos last year. Pretty sure that carries over. http://www.unitedmania.com/dc-faces-an-old-friend-in-us-open-cup-12345 Oh, forgot to mention, the game is on the web a couple places tomorrow night too. USSoccer's site and maybe DCUnited and the USL's site too. Youtube channels I do believe.
Hey, I updated this article just now. I used some facts from a couple different websites without checking them. Some didn't seem right after thinking about them a bit. So yep, checked then had to go back and fix up some numbers. Just wanted you to know in case you' read it already. (Yeah I know, what was I thinking? Nobody reads my stuff )
The Pittsburgh perspective. http://dkonpittsburghsports.com/2015/06/17/riverhounds/ I love the Open Cup.
Apparently Seattle lose at "home" to Portland 3-1 AET, down to 7 men on 11 by the final whistle. Dempsey threw a tantrum and got sent off for ripping up the refs notebook. Seattle fans throwing shit on the pitch. classy lads
It's all show. From the beginning they've set out to make their rivalry the best. Unrelated, let's try to keep the comments for today's match in the thread above, and leave this thread for all other generalized USOC commentary. Thanks.
http://www.ussoccer.com/stories/2015/06/16/11/48/150616-usoc-fifth-round-draw-and-bracket Random draw for the Round of 16 will take place on Thursday. First teams will be divided into four groups based on geography, then random draws within each group. Next round will occur on Tues, June 30 or Wed, July 01. DC United plays at Toronto on Sat, June 27 and on Fri, July 03 in Seattle. Neither of these teams are in the USOC. Toronto is Canadian, and Seattle just lost to Portland in the 4th round.
I'd buy those post cards! Even if Eric was selling them. They look so pretty. And the draw for next round is trickier than maybe has been mentioned. Geographically divided into four, four team groups, yes, but first team drawn into any group has to have asked for home field for both fifth round and quarterfinals, or they will be booted into being the second team slot. Same with Second team selected, they have to have applied for a home match, or they will be booted to third team or worse. Breakdown is only teams who asked to host 5th and Quarterfinal matches can be first seed. Only a team asking for the fifth round can be second seed, teams losing out on above or not wanting to host at all will be slotted into 3rd and 4th seeds in each quarterfinal group. Teams will be slotted in based on their willingness to host games. Interesting to see what happens with DC. Payne always wanted DC to host and have home field advantage, but the new owner group is stingy and hasn't seen it that way. We used to always have home field advantage, now, not so much.
DC has to go to Philly and then if they advance play in NY (either Red Bull or Cosmos). If they advance to semi-finals, they would host a team from the South though. The draw was pretty cool and I like they take out the old "evaluating the bids" to determine home team. Takes all the back door dealing out of it, but then again that hurts DC. And DC did get the worst draw possible for them, although their group is fairly easy, likely the easiest.
Wow. Just checked the schedule an this could hurt. DC now starts a stretch of 5 games in 13 days with the NE game this weekend. Sunday NE Wednesday at Fire Saturday at TFC Tues-Wed at Philly Open Cup match Friday at Seattle Oof. Also if we do host the semifinal Aug 11-12, there's a conflict with an MLS game at NYCFC on the 13th.
I bet we basically see Ben cut the roster in half and send one group on the road trip and one group to Philadelphia.
Yup, that draw did us no good. however, it is only a 2-hour bus trip on a very relaxing bus. United has to put their energy into the first two games of this (holy shit, another brutal stretch of games) stretch and come out with no less than 4 points from those two games and 6-9 points overall from the MLS games. Honestly, it will be a reserve squad going north to Philly. I just don't see any other way around it.