Sports

William Derry

Staff Writer

Image Courtesy of philadelphiaunion.com

What’s the outlook for the Philadelphia Union? To answer this question, we need to go back to last October.

On October 2, the Union played against the Chicago Fire. The Union came into this game with a (9-10-11, 38 points) record, which was good enough to remain in the playoff race, but remained two points behind the Columbus Crew and Toronto FC, for the fifth and final Eastern Conference playoff spot.

The Fire, entered the game with a (5-8-16, 31 points) record. Chicago was coming off of a tough loss against the Houston Dynamo, where they found themselves on the wrong side of a 2-0 result.

The match between the Fire and Union was scoreless until the 88th minute, when former Union midfielder Amobi Okugo scored the opening goal with a shot from inside the eighteen yard box, with his left foot, to give the Union a 1-0 lead.

The result of the game was all but certain with the Union up a goal on the Fire with only two minutes left in regular time, plus three minutes of extra time. The night took a turn for the worse when Union Goalkeeper Rais M’Bolhi received a back pass from Union defender Maurice Edu, and kicked it right to striker Robert Earnshaw, who then, chipped it over the goalkeeper to end the match in a 1-1 draw.

So, why was this game so important? For one thing, it destroyed any hope of making the playoffs in 2014. But more crucially, it showed the Union’s inability to close out games. All the Union had to do was, not allow the Fire to score with five minutes left in the game, but they were not even able to do that.

Now the question is, what are the Union going to do about this weakness?

Second year manager Jim Curtain has brought in reinforcements for the 2015 campaign by adding new center back Steven Vitória, who was acquired from S.L. Benfica, which plays in “Primera Liga” in Portugal, on a season long loan. Maurice Edu, was permanently transferred to the Union from Stoke City, who play in the Barclays Premier League, after playing the previous season on loan. Vitória, will most likely replace Edu in the starting eleven, so that the defensive midfielder can play in his natural position.

The Union have desperately needed a starting striker, who can play against top MLS (Major League Soccer) defenders so, to solve this outstanding problem, they brought in C. J. Sapong, who played for Sporting Kansas City last year but saw his time on the field diminish because of Dom Dwyer’s breakout year, where he found the back of the net twenty-two times in thirty-three appearances.

The Union did not stop there. While the team trained in Clearwater, Florida for the upcoming season, Venezuelan striker Fernando Aristeguieta was acquired on a season long loan from FC Nantes, a soccer club from France.

Hopefully, these transactions will help the Union make the playoffs for the second time in franchise history, which is in it’s sixth season.                       

Benjamin Simon

Staff Writer

As the regular season ends, the NBA will announce their annual awards for the most valuable player, top rookie, best defensive player, most improved, and sixth man and coach of the year. Here are my predictions on who will win these honors:

MVP- Stephen Curry

There are multiple candidates for this award, but I think Steph Curry is the “most valuable player”. He is averaging nearly 24 points, 8 assists, and 2 steals. Not only that, but he is shooting 48% from the field, despite attempting 17 shots per game. Wow. Curry is a prolific scorer and maybe the best shooter ever. On the defensive end, Steph isn’t anything special, but he doesn’t to be with Klay Thompson beside him. Curry is only asked to score, and he does just that. The “splash brother” has led the Warriors to 48 wins and only 12 losses.

Rookie- Nerlens Noel

The Sixer center has been fantastic as of late. He has consistently and gradually improved every game. During the first half of the season, I would have given this award to Andrew Wiggins, but not anymore. Noel’s constant and impressive improvement has convinced me that he is the best rookie in the league. During November, Noel averaged, 7.6 points, 5.9 rebounds, 1 block, and 1.8 steals. Throughout February and March, He has averaged nearly 11 points, 9 rebounds, 2.5 steals, and 2 blocks. All these statistics exemplify how he has improved over the past couple months, and why he should be the rookie of the year. I feel as though the only person close to challenging the Sixers’ center right now is Andrew Wiggins. When I look at the Canadian native, I also see some of his numbers skyrocketing as of late. Since the all-star break he has averaged 20 points. But he hasn’t done much else. His rebounds have decreased to 3.9 per game and his assists have stayed stagnant at 2. If the rookie of the year battle went merely off of points, Wiggins would definitely win. But it doesn’t.

Coach of the Year- Frank Vogel

What? How do you propose that a team with only 28 wins and a sub .500 win percentage can take this award? That’s probably what you’re asking yourself right now. But I want you to notice how much the Pacers have improved. This team had an 11 game streak where they only won two games. That terribly tainted their record throughout much of January. But since then, the team has won 12 out of their last 15 games. I also hope you look at how well they have performed for not having their star player, Paul George. This team is built around George, so when he fell injured during the summer, the Pacers were written off. Frank Vogel didn’t buy that and rallied his team to the opportunity to compete in the playoffs. Not many coaches could make the turnaround he did.

Most Improved- Hassan Whiteside

Half a year ago, Whiteside was in China putting up monster numbers. The 7 foot center out of Marshall, who was drafted in the early second round by the Sacramento Kings, played only 1 game in his first season in the NBA. In the following year, he played just 18 games. And everyone thought that was the last we would see Whiteside. But two years later, he’s back in the NBA, nearly averaging a double double with 11 points and 9.8 rebounds. He has made a fantastic impact around the rim with 2.4 blocks per game. Whiteside has found away to be a significant force in the NBA, despite his prior spotty play.

 Defensive Player- Klay Thompson

Throughout the offseason, the Warriors were bombarded with trade requests for their starting shooting guard, Klay Thompson. They declined and declined. They got great offer after great offer. But they declined and declined. Why? Not because he averaged 18 points. Not because he shot 41% from three. They kept him because he is an elite defender. Thompson is relied upon to cover the other team’s strongest guards, allowing teammate Stephen Curry to save his energy so he can be effective on the offensive end. Even legendary college coach Mike Krzyzewski noticed. During the summer, when the USA national team was practicing, Krzyzewski said, “Everyone had talked about his offense, but he has been consistently excellent on the defensive end. The fact that he’s tall, he’s been able to play defense on the one, two, and three. He’s become our most versatile defender.” Thompson is also 6’7, with a wingspan of 6’9. Therefore he is able to stay in front and often contain the other teams strongest players. If he weren’t so good on the defensive end, he wouldn’t be sitting in a Warriors uniform today.

 Sixth Man- Louis Williams

After his worst year since his first two seasons entering the league, Lou Williams looked like he might be on the decline. Williams averaged a mere 10 points and only played in 60 games during the 2013-14 reason with the Atlanta Hawks. But he rebounded this year, signing a contract with the Toronto Raptors, propelling himself to a career high 15 points per outing in just 25 minutes. Although he has shot the ball worse than in years past, Lou Will has been a super consistent scoring force off the bench. The former Sixer has been fantastic through his first games during March, averaging 17 points, shooting 43%, and adding 4 assists. I don’t see any reason why he slows down, because Lou plays in stretches. Look for him to finish out the last 20 games strong and clinch this award.

Benjamin Simon

Staff Writer

When I first heard the news I was sitting in math class. I had just finished a grueling and stressful quiz. I opened my phone and checked the updates. At the top sat an update from ESPN. “Breaking:” it read, “Little League Baseball strips US title from Chicago area team for using players outside of geographic area.”

I sat there for second and grappled with the news. It wasn’t long before I had to leave class. As I maneuvered through the hallways, I saw a friend, and we briefly talked about it, but for no more than a couple minutes. After that, it was pushed out of my thoughts.

I went through two more classes of work and a period of lunch. Next, I climbed on the trolley and subway, finding myself at the Philadelphia Inquirer for my internship. When I walked into the gigantic room of journalists, I went directly to the desk of my mentor, Mr. John Quinn.

“Did you hear?” He asked me.

“About the Jackie Robinson Little League team?”

“Yeah. Are you guys happy?” He questioned. By “you guys,” he was referring to my connection with the Little League World Series participant, the Taney Dragons. My brother, Eli Simon, had been a part of the team

“Happy?” I asked. Happy? This triggered many thoughts. Honestly, at the time, I hadn’t done much research. I knew the outlining information. The United States Little League champion, Jackie Robinson West Little League, would have their title taken. They had supposedly extended their boundaries against rules to bring in star players. Other than that, I was quite ignorant of the situation.

But I did know I wasn’t happy. Yeah I guess Taney was now technically the second best little league team in the nation, but was I happy?  They had still lost to Chicago. They still didn’t win. Regardless of the fact of where the players lived, the team had beat every team fair and square. They were just a bunch of 12 and 13 year olds playing baseball.

Thinking about it more made me slightly sick. These coaches and officials had used these kids to get what they wanted. Now, for the majority of their life, they won’t be able to say with pride, “Yes, I played for Jackie Robinson West Little League in the 2014 Little League World Series.” Now, that saying will have negative connotations, instead of the positive ones it should have. Now those kids will be known as “the cheaters from Chicago”, not “the baseball players from Chicago.” Now, a moment of happiness and success has been tainted. And its not their fault. Its the adults’ fault whom knowingly tip toed around the rules and carried a group of kids with them.

After Mr. Quinn sent me back to my computer to type this piece, I did more research. For 45 minutes, I read articles, listened to reactions, and grasped a better sense of the predicament.

Unfortunate? Yeah, I guess.

Deserved? Yeah, I guess.

Extreme? For sure.

The team did cheat. The organization. Even the district. They slid past the rules and knowingly invited players to the team who did not live in their boundary. So should the kids get to keep their banner?

I don’t think there is any doubt that the kids should get to keep their wins and championship. They played hard and they fought to deserve every last win that they had during the summer. I think that there are other ways to punish the team. Ban the coach. Suspend the organization. But at least let the kids keep the title they played for: champions.

The whole investigation reminds me of the  Reggie Bush scandal that began nearly 8 years ago. The superstar running back at the University of Southern California reportedly received many gifts from an agent, which was against the rules. Wins were vacated and Bush was pressured to give back his Heisman trophy he had won years before. I always felt strongly that Bush should not have had to give the award back. Regardless of the fact that he had been given many presents, he had earned and worked for every last yard he ran or caught that year. And it wasn’t like he was enhancing his performance via drugs. He was just playing football. That trophy is given to the best player in the country, and Bush was the most successful.

The fact is that Jackie Robinson West did cheat–but not during the game itself. The kids still scored all of those runs. They still struck out all of those batters. And they still stole all of those bases. People can ask themselves “what if”, but the bottom line is JRW was the champion team. They were and are the best little league team in America.

William Derry

Staff Writer 

 Image Courtesy of talkChelsea.net

On January 31, 2015, the two teams atop the Barclays Premier League (BPL) standings table met at Stamford Bridge, in Fulham, England. Chelsea has been at the top of the League table for most of the season, but if Manchester City were to win this clash between the respective clubs, the three points that they would receive from winning, would put them within four points of the league leaders.

Chelsea had an abundance of confidence coming into this game, after beating Liverpool four days before in a Capital One Cup semi final fixture. Chelsea took a big blow to their starting eleven in that game with star striker Diego Costa being thrown out  because of his altercation with Emre Can, in which Costa stomped on the hand of the versatile midfielder. That led to Costa missing the game against Man City. Cesc Fabregas, also missed the game because of a hamstring injury.

Man City was unable to showcase their new striker, Wilfried Bony, who they transferred for in the Winter transfer market for a large transfer fee of 25 million pounds, which is a little bit more than 38 million US dollars, in this competition because of his participation in the Africa Cup of Nations for his national team, Cote d’Ivoire or simply the Ivory Coast. His new teammate on Man City, Yaya Touré is also on national team duty and will miss this game.

Loic Remy, opened the scoring for Chelsea with a volley from midfielder Eden Hazard, who crossed the ball into the six yard in the 41st-minute for the score. Man City, trying to get a goal before the half, hurried down the field and leveled the game with a goal from attacking midfielder David Silva, to bring the game to a tie before the half.

The 1-1 draw would remain the same, after the final whistle was blown in the second half of the game.

The average soccer fan in America should care about the outcome of a game in England because of the quality of soccer in England. The BPL is one of the most competitive sports leagues in the world and no result is guaranteed week to week. Some of the hero’s from the 2014 FIFA World Cup run in Brazil play in this league, such as 2014 World Cup standout Tim Howard, backup goalkeeper Brad Guzan and Geoff Cameron. American’s have the opportunity to see their national team players, play club soccer.

Chelsea is on top of league but Man City still has a chance. Although Chelsea and Man City have fourteen league games remaining and nine of the fourteen games are against teams in the bottom half of the league table, Man City has tied with Chelsea during both matches played this season. Chelsea still has the lead over Man City in goal differential, if the two were to end the season in a tie. Bony will make his anticipated debut for Man City in the coming weeks, along with Touré returning to the starting eleven. Costa will return to Chelsea’s lineup as soon as his three game suspension is over with, for now Chelsea has lead but will it last?