The Brotherly Game is hosting a live question and answer session with its readers at 12:45 pm today (about an hour from now). Instead of utilizing Cover It Live's feed like in the past, we'll be hosting the question and answer session below in the comments section.

To register for SB Nation and to post on the Brotherly Game, click "sign up" and register an account. Once activated, through your email account, come back onto the Brotherly Game and click on any article. Scroll down to the comments section and click the box to register membership on the Brotherly Game.

Once you have down all of the above, you'll be able to interact with me and other members of the Brotherly Game's staff and readership in this question and answer session, and any article posted afterward (also fanposts and fanshots).

Topics that will be discussed:

• the Christ Albright signing
• trade of Sebastien Le Toux
• Lionard Pajoy and the depth at forward
• the Olympics
• anything else you the readers want answered

I don't think I exaggerate when I say that people were surprised by the Le Toux trade to Vancouver.

People understood why Le Toux might want to move to EPL club Bolton and many supported the decision even if they were sad about the possibility of losing our favorite Frenchman (I will post more thoughts on it in my second part of evaluating the Union off-season when the dust finally settles).

I won't go into all the sordid details that have emerged about the trade the circumstances surrounding it, I may never really address what Le Toux said to the press and what the Union said. It turns the entire thing into a "he said/they said" argument and frankly, I'm not a lawyer.

No, this article is not about that, more this article is about Piotr Nowak and the upcoming year.

I get why Nowak and Company moved Le Toux, I understand the business side of the game. However, what I cannot and will not do is ignore Piotr Nowak's role in this, his vision for the team, and the possible consequences of that vision.

First of all, I'm totally in support of the Union's vision of building up a team of young talent that will dominate MLS for years. Nowak himself said "To build a club, it’s all about the future."

Fair enough.

However, if I may I want to step aside for a moment and tell you all a bit of a story.

Continue reading this post »

Last month, the Brotherly Game brought news of the first ever official shirt based upon the blog itself. Live Breathe Futbol's design was popular among our readership and Union fans in general, but the purchasing process was inconvenient.

Due to this situation, we at the Brotherly Game reworked the ordering system and now provide a service through our own 'store.' We now accept both Paypal and Credit Card purchases, which should fix the problems that people have had previously when trying to buy the shirt.

The link to the store is found here (click the hyperlinked text to be taken to the store in a new tab).

On a different note, the Brotherly Game is proud, and happy, to introduce its first ever scarf, designed by Kreider Designs (see above). Shaun Kreider, of Kreider Designs, and I have worked for months on putting together a design that properly represents this blog, while also being enticing to our readers.

The scarf will be priced at $25, but anyone purchasing it and at least one of our official shirts will get $5 off of the item, making a shirt+scarf package $40 instead of $45 overall (all packages with size 2XL or above will be $2 more, as are the shirts in those sizes). You can find the package in its own category, alongside Shirts and Scarves, in our site store.

As of right now, all purchases are preorders. We need to sell enough of each item to make the prints make sense monetarily, but the package deal is available to anyone that is part of the first shirt printing.

Thank you for your readership and patronage, we are nothing without your support.

-Scott Kessler and the Brotherly Game staff

Sebastien Le Toux and Kyle Nakazawa were seen as the two major free kick takers on the Philadelphia Union through the team's first two seasons of existence.

For Le Toux it was because of his massive number of free kicks, coupled with a perceived high failure rate on them. Nakazawa's status as a free kick taker came from a mystique that he developed among the Union's fan base from great technique. One was hated when he took free kicks, the other beloved for his.

However, perception is not always reality.

The much maligned Le Toux took 29 free kick opportunities in 2011 and was able to shoot three on target and find three teammates on what Opta considers "chip free kicks." The striker's free kick on target percentage (the total number of free kick shots on target and chip free kicks that connect with teammates divided by the overall number of free kicks taken) was 20.6 percent last year.

It may be surprising for some reading to learn that 20.6 percent was top three on the team last year, in terms of free kick on target percentage. Only Carlos Ruiz at 75 percent (three on target, including a goal, out of four opportunities) and Roger Torres at 33.3 percent (completed three chipped free kicks out of nine overall opportunities) had better FKOTP numbers than Le Toux last year.

Nakazawa, on the other hand, had 15 opportunities, in 1,208 minutes played, and was successful on only two of them, only an 13.3 FKOTP. The midfielder's free kick troubles included only one of his 11 dead spot long balls reaching a teammate.

As a team, the Union had a FKOTP of 19 percent, or 16 successful free kicks out of 84 overall opportunities during the 2011 MLS regular season.

Continue reading this post »

7 games, three wins, four draws and eight goals allowed. These were rookie Philadelphia Union goalkeeper Zac MacMath's numbers after filling in for an injured Faryd Mondragon late in the 2011 season.

That resume is pretty impressive for a twenty year old rookie backup goalkeeper whose only playing time before Faryd Mondragon's injury was a second half start in a friendly against EPL squad, Everton.

While it may be too early to say that MacMath is great or call him the future of football in the United States, this kid has more than proven that he is ready to be a starting goalkeeper in this league. With Faryd Mondragon seemingly on his way back to his native Colombia, MacMath's day could come as soon as March 12th when the Union open up the season in Portland.

MacMath isn't just any other young up and comer. A former University of Maryland standout, MacMath was the starter for the Terps in all three seasons he played, winning a handful of individual college awards. It is obvious the Union know he has talent; he was the teams first round draft pick in 2011, going fifth overall.

This is also a Generation Adidas player who has already racked up a combined 29 USMNT appearances for the U-17 and U-20 squads.

MacMath also has the smarts to be a top keeper in MLS. You don't become good by sitting on the bench and watching. You shadow the best to become the best. You ask them questions and you train with them every day.

Having already traveled to Everton twice (once while at Maryland) to train under USMNT star goalkeeper Tim Howard, MacMath has a strong edge over other young keepers in the league right now. Potentially going into the 2012 season as the Union's starting keeper, it doesn't hurt that he has been the backup to a guy in Faryd Mondragon who has over twenty years of experience in net.

Continue reading this post »

As the Brotherly Game reported on Twitter Saturday night, it appears that Philadelphia will be the host of the 2012 MLS All Star Game.

Philadelphia Union executive Rick Jacobs told a crowd of fans at the Sons of Ben Help Kick Hunger event that there would be an announcement at 11 am at City Hall with MLS there as well. While Jacobs wouldn't reveal the intent of the announcement, the Brotherly Game speculated that it would be the long rumored hosting of the 2012 MLS All Star Game.

This morning, Brian Straus of the Sporting News, took to speculation as well, noting that it appeared that Philadelphia had secured the All Star Game due to MLS commissioner Don Garber, Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter, Chester mayor John Linder and Union CEO, President and Managing Partner Nick Sakiewicz all being a part of the announcement tomorrow.

A league source informed the Brotherly Game that Sporting Kansas City representatives appeared to be "pissed off" last week at news sent to them by MLS. Kansas City was the other finalist for this year's All Star Game, according to the same source.

When approached to declare this blog as an ally for basic human rights, it was not a question of whether or not I would support the cause, but rather when I had the time to give the occasion a proper write up.

The ability to utilize one's inherent and unique version of humanity is something that the Brotherly Game strongly supports. When it comes to sports, players are thrown under microscopes and their true selves are hardly ever allowed to be exposed without heavy criticism or repricusions.

Coming out as something considered against the mainstream imagine of what a person is supposed to be has an extra element of difficulty for an athlete. Media, fans and perhaps even their own teammates put undue pressure upon players to hide their real identities.

This whole situation culminates with campaigns to help soften the stigma of actions such as "coming out" publicly, which is what Gay4Soccer has begun through its "Soccer Allies" program. It's unfortunate that grassroots campaigns such as Gay4Soccer are necessary, but while they continue to be so, the Brotherly Game will throw its name behind their goals.

As our friends at the Union Dues have already done, we officially place ourselves behind a right in a world with so many wrongs.

We're a Soccer Ally.

As Scott Kessler wrote recently, Freddy Adu made comments about what an "honor" it was to be around La Liga players with the Spanish Club he was training with.

I mean, who wouldn't feel humbled and honored to be in the same training ground as Lionel Messi? What? He's not training with Messi? Well...okay, but Cristiano Ronaldo, man that guy is an amazing player, his style is out of this wor- huh? Not training with Ronaldo either? Right...maybe he's training with Javi Martínez? No?

Hit. Head. On. Keyboard.

Okay, just who in the hell is he training with that he would feel so humbled and honored to be in the field with?

Lass? Koke? Raúl Bravo? Míchel? Raúl Tamudo?

Did any of those names above ring a bell (maybe just Koke, who left the Houston Dynamo almost as quickly as he came in 2011)? Who the hell are these people? What club exactly is Freddy Adu training with?

Rayo Vallecano.

What did I know about them? Well, nothing until I did some research for this article and what I found made me very, very angry at Freddy Adu.

First of all lets get something out of the way, I GET why Adu would want to play in La Liga. Its one of the top leagues in the world, it has produced some of history's most well known soccer players and is currently the league that 2011 FIFA Ballon d'Or winner Lionel Messi calls home. Adu wants to prove that he belongs in Europe and that he can play with the big boys. People say that Americans should strive to "play in the best leagues" I understand that.

However, what annoys me is that he essentially backhanded Philadelphia and it's fans in the article. In case you don't want to read the article fully, I'll quote some of it here after the jump.

Continue reading this post »