Philadelphia born Jeremiah White is looking to come back to North America, but it won't be with his hometown team. 

White, a former American international, was invited to join the Montreal Impact's evaluation camp, joining 24 other players for a six day tryout with MLS' next team. The versatile attacking midfielder joins fellow American, and Orlando City Lions star, Jamie Watson in the camp.

White has played in only 15 games since leaving AGF Aarhus, a Danish First League club. The 28-year-old was unable to settle with either Al-Ettifaq, of Iraq, or GKS Bełchatów, of Poland. Six teams in six professional seasons have led to White being a free agent since January 2011, when he left GKS.

The Philadelphia Union had White in their 2011 MLS preseason camp and appeared to be set to sign the local soccer product, but the two sides could not come to an agreement on the terms of his contract. 

Continue reading this post »

Carlos Ruiz has a fractured ankle that may require surgery, according to reports out of Mexico. The former Philadelphia Union striker's prognosis is about four weeks, per a website that follows the trials and tribulations of Guatemalan National Team players.

Ruiz was set to join Guatemala in 2014 World Cup Qualifying play, as it begins its push to make a World Cup for the first time ever. Instead the forward will await a final decision on how long the injury will keep him off of the field for both club (Tiburones Rojos de Veracruz, a second division team in Mexico) and country.

The leading scorer in Guatemalan National Team history joined Veracruz after spending six months in Philadelphia, where the 31-year-old still technically leads the Union in goals with six in MLS play. His first goal for the Red Sharks came on August 20, just over two weeks after Ruiz joined the team.

Former Philadelphia Union fan favorite Fred (full name Helbert Frederico Carreiro da Silva or just Fred da Silva)
 officially made his way back to Australia on Wednesday.

da Silva returns to a country where he first made his name, internationally, in professional soccer, scoring four times in 17 games for Melbourne Victory. That form grabbed the attention of MLS' DC United, who signed Fred to a contract in 2007 and were rewarded with 11 goals over 72 games between 2007 and 2009. A stint with the Union followed a SuperDraft day trade between United and Philadelphia. The Brazilian quickly became a fan favorite in his new city, only to leave at the end of the season and make another appearance at United.

A release clause in his 2011 DC contract allowed Fred to leave if an international team had interested and Melbourne Heart signed the creative midfielder. Heart are the rivals of Fred's former team, Victory, putting Fred in a precarious situation with the same fans who years ago chanted his name with supporter love.

"I am a little bit scared, but they have to know we are professionals," Fred said told Australia's Herald Sun.

"Everyone changes teams and hopefully they understand what happened. When we step on the field it's a job and we have to do the best to try to win and get three points."

The 32-year-old is due to make 200,000 AUD ($210,140) this season, the third time he will play in the A-League in his career.

The Brotherly Game spoke with Jordan Harvey today about his trade to the Vancouver Whitecaps. This is a portion of the 20 minutes interview - the audio includes all of the questions sent to @brotherlygame on Twitter - that Harvey gave us. For the full audio of the interview (MP3 form), click here.

One moment he was packing to go to San Jose, the next moment he was getting ready for Colorado. Jordan Harvey's week, season and career changed with a trade to the Vancouver Whitecaps, sent to Canada by the Philadelphia Union in exchange for allocation money.

Union fans spent a large portion of Thursday trying to understand the transfer, flooding Facebook and Twitter with bewilderment. They weren't the only ones confused about the swap - Harvey himself wasn't expecting it.

"I've been playing all season and the last game I played 90 minutes," Harvey told the Brotherly Game. "It came out of the blue for not only me, but for the team as well and from what I've heard it was for the coaching staff. "I think Vancouver came in with an offer and it was one of those offers that they couldn't pass up."

The trade comes at an odd time for the Union, who at the halfway point of the 2011 MLS season have given up only 16 goals. Harvey, Sheanon Williams, Danny Califf and Carlos Valdes had formed a partnership, in front of goalkeeper Faryd Mondragon, that was statistically the third best backline in the league.

Last year the Union were one of the worst defensive teams in MLS making their current defensive form all the more impressive. The back five seems to have the chemistry that the 2010 version lacked, which made the move even more puzzling for Harvey.

"I think [chemistry] makes a world of difference. Like you said, last year it was kind of in and out, different switches and some big mistakes," Harvey said. "Bringing in a guy like Mondragon and Valdes, and like what you said, just having some consistency - I have been preaching that since day one." 

"Having some consistency and eventually things will turn out in your favor. Obviously the guys that they brought in are very talented so that helped as well and the chemistry was there. Because of those reasons it shocked me a bit. They have a great team and one player doesn't make the team."

Continue reading this post »

Ahead of a call with (now) former Philadelphia Union left back Jordan Harvey, the Brotherly Game was able to talk to Vancouver Whitecaps head coach Tom Soehn.

tBG: What interested you enough about Harvey to acquire him, despite already having a starting left back in Alain Rochat?

Soehn: We're in dire need of MLS experienced guys. He's played a lot of games over the last couple of years. He gives us the flexibility of moving Rochat centrally in a spot we feel he's very valuable. So Jordan will obviously fill a need for us.

tBG: While MLS doesn't release the specifics of allocation money amounts, can you give a description of what was sent in return for Harvey? Small, average, etc?

Soehn: I think it's what you can expect for an experienced player with his abilities. We're excited to get him. I think he's a quality guy. He's has the experience we're looking for in the back. What we want to do is get deeper as a team and defensive stronger and I think he can do exactly that.

tBG: For Union fans, this trade seemed out of the blue. Had discussions been going on for some time or was this trade a sudden occurrence?

Soehn: I think teams are always looking to make changes. I'm not going to divulge the entire story behind it, but we've had interest in him and the timing worked out for us right now.

Continue reading this post »

With the news of the Ft. Lauderdale Strikers bringing in former Philadelphia Union starters, midfielder Eduardo Coudet, and defenders Cristian Arrieta and Toni Stahl, is the news that the Carolina Railhawks have signed Brad Knighton and Nick Zimmerman.

The Railhawks were rumored to have used Knighton in a preseason game and now it appears that they were true. The 25-year-old goalkeeper joins the Railhawks coming off of a tour of duty with the Union that included two clean sheets and an 1.10 goals against average. Knighton originally came to the Union through the 2009 Expansion Draft, when the Union took him from the New England Revolution.

Zimmerman joins his former Union teammate in Carolina after only playing in 8 games, and starting one, in 2010 with Philadelphia. The midfielder/forward managed 159 minutes from a season with the Union that began, like Knighton, with the 2009 Expansion Draft (Zimmerman was selected from the New York Red Bulls).

Both players were named on the Railhawks' official NASL roster today.

The Ft. Lauderdale Strikers continue to pick up former Philadelphia Union players, as the Florida team has signed midfielder Toni Stahl and defender Cristian Arrieta.

Stahl was the Union's selection in the second round of the 2010 MLS SuperDraft. Taken 17th overall, the Finnish player failed in impress head coach Piotr Nowak. USMNT up-and-coming defender Tim Ream was taken by the New York Red Bulls only a pick later. In his only MLS game, Stahl received a red card in the first 19 minutes of the match. He did not make another appearance for the team in anything but the US Open Cup. 

Brought in to take over at right back, Arrieta never cemented his starting role. When Nowak replaced Arrieta with Michael Orozco-Fiscal midseason, it was the end for the former Puerto Rico Islanders star. The addition of Sheanon Williams clinched the departure of Arrieta, who looked distant during the preseason, prior to his release.

Stahl and Arrieta join former teammate Eduardo Coudet, and former Union trialist Aaron Wheeler, in Ft. Lauderdale. Coudet was let go, like Arrieta, during the preseason after being seen as a surplus to Nowak's 'requirements.' Wheeler spent time training with the team during the preseason but ended up with the Strikers.

In the past couple of weeks I've had the opportunity to interview a few former Philadelphia Union players and talk to various people in the soccer world. It's been a blast. My first profile, on former Union goalkeeper Chris Seitz, had a very warm reception and I appreciated the feedback I received on the piece.

Unfortunately I've run across the problem of working out how to keep daily coverage, school and writing those profiles consistent. It's midterms time and though I'd love to get back onto writing the profiles, I don't have the time currently. That's not to say I won't have any soon but I feel it's prudent to let you loyal readers know what is going on with the Alumni Reports.

As for Taylor Twellman, I'll most likely have a story about our chat up later this week. Union fans are going to really like him pairing up with JP Dellacamera.