This Day in Soccer History: The Goal that Shocked the World

Today is the 65th anniversary of perhaps the biggest goal in US soccer history: an amateur United States team, full of part-time players, defeating the English powerhouse 1-0 in an upset worthy of it's own movie. It is reported that some newspapers though it was a typo and reported the score as 10-0 to England, so reports are hard to find. What is a little easier to find is a video produced by FIFA. It tells the story in a way only it can tell. What is most striking about the game, however, is the belie in the US players that they could do it, because, in Harry Keough's words, "We scared the living hell out of [Spain]."The rest of the world, and the nation, did not.

This day is remembered by Joe Gaetjens's famous goal; however, he was imprisoned by the late Haitian dictator Devalier in 1969 and never seen again. Of all the great goals in US soccer history, this is only comparable to Paul Caliguri's goal against Trinidad to qualify for the 1990 World Cup, to usher in a new modern era for US soccer's success. Because I don't like to dwell on what-ifs, I'm not going to speculate how important Wondolowski's goal could have been if he made it in 2014 in Brazil. However, it would have been nice to have had a World Cup game in Belo Horizonte, because these US players in 2014 would have had a chance to play on holy ground, even if they couldn't play in that very stadium.

Bohs Lose Yet Again

In the same old song and dance now, the Baltimore Bohemians lost to the New York Red Bull U23s 2-1, with every goal coming in the second half. The defense was as porous as Swiss cheese tonight, and despite the referee not doing us any favors, that certainly would not have been worthy of a result otherwise.


The last home game is on July 17th against F.A. Euro. With this result, the Bohs are out of playoff contention mathematically.

The Review of PDL.... and Why the Bohs Need to Leave or Push for Change

The Professional Development League (PDL) is, according to its Twitter bio, it is "The top U23 men's league in North America". It also boasts 64 teams in 4 conferences. Here are the divisions and alignment. Obviously, something is deadly wrong here. The Bohs play in a 10-team division, the highest-numbered division in the entire league. The PDL season lasts from mid-May to mid-July, which is not nearly enough time for an 11-team division to play every team once home and away. So, teams don't play some opponents twice, which is not necessarily a problem, but it does cause the league's legitimacy to be questioned. No team should ever play a game on back-to-back days (exception being condensed tournaments), especially with travel involved. The next-closest PDL division to the Bohs is the Northeast Division, which has 5 teams. That division size may be too small for a 12-week league (estimating for the sake of simplicity), but the average division size is 7-8 teams, which is easily doable. Out of the 10 teams in the Bohs' division, 6 are in NY/NJ.

So, assuming that the LI Rough Riders go to the Northeast Division, here's an appropriate realignment:

Mid-Atlantic Divison:
Bohs
Lehigh Valley
Northern Virginia
DC United U23s
Reading

Tri-State Division:
FA Euro
Jersey Express
New York Red Bull U23s
Ocean City
Westchester


This would ameliorate schedule-makers' efforts to make it so that teams could play each other twice, while still allowing them free weeks to schedule friendlies etc.

If the PDL does not do anything about the ridiculous scheduling efforts, the Bohs need to find a league that will address those concerns. The other concern is that players do not get better simply by playing a half of soccer to determine a game. The league's weather policy needs updating to better reflect MLS rules (after all, it claims to be the "#Path2Pro"). There is no excuse for events such as Saturday night to happen again to the Bohs, so I hope the PDL at least reads this and gives it some consideration as they discuss the future of their league.

Bohs Game Canceled at Halftime Due to Lightning

The Baltimore Bohemians and Jersey Express could not finish their game tonight due to lightning strikes in the Baltimore area. The game was abandoned at halftime 3-1 in favor of Jersey Express, but they could not play on due to a Baltimore City ordinance that prohibits the lights at Bonvegna Field to be on after 10PM due to the field's location in a residential zoning area. The club have not yet announced when the game will be made up [UPDATE: The club have tweeted that this counts as a win for Jersey Express.], but the next scheduled home game is next Saturday. I may not get the time to blog about the game because my cousin's coming up that day to play a baseball doubleheader for his summer team. The defense, as per usual, played poorly, but Ryan Tuck, the captain, was injured so they played someone out-of-position at CB.

Midweek Result: Bohs 2-1 Lehigh

U.S. Open Cup Sweet 16 Preview

After dispatching Manchester City NY last night, the New York Cosmos have learned their fate for the next round of the 102nd edition of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. They will go to Red Bull Arena in Harrison, NJ to face the New York Red Bulls in a rematch of last year's Open Cup clash in which the Cosmos defeated them at Hofstra 3-0. Should they win, they will face the winner of D.C. United and the Philadelphia Union in the quarterfinals.

Meanwhile, another California Classico is scheduled for the Sweet 16 with the winner taking on the winner of the match between the Portland Timbers and Real Salt Lake, with either the Timbers or RSL hosting.

In the completely misnomer "South" region (don't ask), the Columbus Crew will take on Orlando City while the Charlotte Independence, the only USL side left, will take on the Chicago Fire for the right to host the winner of Orlando-Columbus.

Finally, in the other region, the Colorado Rapids will play the Houston Dynamo in Houston for the right to travel to the winner of the Sweet 16 match between FC Dallas and Sporting Kansas City.

Here is the Sweet 16 match schedule: (all times Eastern)

Tuesday, June 30

Orlando City v Columbus Crew -- 7:30 PM
Philadelphia Union v D.C. United -- 7:30 PM
Chicago Fire v Charlotte Independence -- 8:30 PM
Houston Dynamo v Colorado Rapids -- 9:00 PM

Wednesday, July 1

New York Red Bulls v New York Cosmos -- 7:30 PM
Sporting KC v FC Dallas -- 8:30 PM
Real Salt Lake v Portland Timbers -- 10:00 PM
San Jose Earthquakes v LA Galaxy -- 10:30 PM

And Then There Was One -- US Open Cup 4th Round Recap

The Atlanta Silverbacks lost to the New York Red Bulls 3-0 last night with goals coming from Lloyd Sam, Zubar, and Davies. However, all was restored tonight as the New York Cosmos defeated "New York City FC" 2-2 (4-3) after Lucky Mkosana etched his name into Cosmos history by scoring the game-tying goal in extra time to send this into penalties.

Orlando City and Charleston Battery needed penalties to decide their match tonight; however, there is a police investigation forcing Orlando to stay in Charleston for the time being due to a shooting and a bomb threat.

Controversy at Starfire led to the Sounders losing to the Timbers while down to 7 men (1 injury).

Meanwhile, LA Galaxy and PSA Elite, the only amateur team left in the competition, finished 6-1 in the MLS side's favor.

Here are the results of all the 4th Round games:
Tuesday
Philadelphia Union 0-0 (3-1) Rochester Rhinos
New York Red Bulls 3-0 Atlanta Silverbacks
Sporting KC 1-0 St. Louis FC
Chicago Fire 1-0 aet Louisville City FC
FC Dallas 4-1 Oklahoma City Energy
Colorado Rapids 4-1 Colorado Springs Switchbacks
Real Salt Lake 2-1 Seattle Sounders 2
San Jose Earthquakes 2-2 (6-5) Sacramento Republic
Seattle Sounders 1-3 Portland Timbers
Wednesday
Richmond Kickers 1-3 Columbus Crew
Pittsburgh Riverhouds 1-3 aet DC United
New York Cosmos 2-2 (4-3) Manchester City NY
Charleston Battery 4-4 (7-8) Orlando City
New England Revolution 0-1 Charlotte Independence
Houston Dynamo 2-0 Austin Aztex
LA Galaxy 6-1 PSA Elite

Bohs Come Up Short Again; Lose to United 4-3

The Baltimore Bohemians played the DC United U23s tonight and lost 4-3, despite an early goal 50 seconds into the game. Once the game settled down, United had dominance in the midfield with excellent play from Dario Redondo, who dominated the Bohs right back all game long. In the end, however, the entire defense struggled to ind their feet tonight, as Ryan Tuck picked up an unusual yellow card, given how he plays normally for the Bohs and for Loyola. Super sub Shawn Geary picked up a goal on his first touch of the game after coming on during the 2nd half to level the game 3-3. However, United would have the last laugh as they scored in the 73rd minute (estimating; couldn't see the scoreboard and the club didn't announce the minute of the goal). All in all, it is a game that Billy Heavner will want to forget i goal, as he let in a couple soft ones. One was definitely no one's fault, as it went in off 2 deflections: off a defender and off the post and in.

The next home game for the Bohs will be next Saturday against Jersey Express.

Thoughts on US Provisional Gold Cup Roster

First, here is the full roster:

Goalkeepers
Brad Guzan
Bill hamid
Nick Rimando
Will Yarbrough

Defenders
Ventura Alvarado
DaMarcus Beasley [not a typo]
Matt Besler
John Brooks
Timmy Chandler
Brad Evans
Greg Garza
Omar Gonzalez
Michael Orozco
Tim Ream
Brek Shea
DeAndre Yedlin

Midfielders
Kyle Beckerman
Alejandro Bedoya
Michael Bradley
Joe Corona
Brad Davis
Mix Diskerud
Fabian Johnson
Perry Kitchen
Alfredo Morales
Lee Nguyen
Gyassi Zardes
Graham Zusi

Forwards
Juan Agudelo
Jozy Altidore
Clint Dempsey
Alan Gordon
Aron Johannsson
Jordan Morris
Chris Wondolowski


My biggest surprise call-up is Alan Gordon. Despite his lack of call-ups, Klinsmann feels that he has the potential to play in the Gold Cup. Some head-scratching snubs were Eric Lichaj, Bobby Wood, and Sean Johnson. Why is he still calling Nick Rimando up when there are younger goalies that he could be calling up? Overall, this roster is looking decent, but it's not the best US team that could be put out there for the Gold Cup. I understand some of the decisions made to rest some people that I felt deserved a chance, but there are people who, over the body of work, deserve a chance. No offense to RSL fans, but Rimando is old, and there are younger goalies that could benefit from some of these callups better than him.

Defense Costs Bohs in 3-1 Loss to Ocean City (NJ)

The Baltimore Bohemians defense had a really bad night tonight by failing to stop Ryan Manga from putting 2 past the goalkeeper. The game started with a very quick goal for the Bohs... but then it went downhill from there. By the end of the game, it felt like to me that no one wanted to be there. In fact, the goalkeeper told me that he was less than pleased with the effort pu in by his teammates, but the fact remains that he couldn't keep 3 shots out of the net. I think Ocean City had about 5 shots total (from what I could see, at least). The referee was a factor in this game, as the Bohs were on the attack, but he did not call a foul that he called later in the game on the other side in a similar fashion (except it was not nearly as close to the goal). There were really no positives to take from that effort, as the overall play of the Bohs was just terrible.

Next home game: 6/13/2015 v DC United U23s
Midweek result: Bohs 2-1 NY Red Bull U23s (A)