The Good, The Bad and The Ugly: Matchday 7

The good news is that here at The Brotherly Game, we aren't implementing any new security features that people can unjustly get mad at! The bad news is, well, it's still the same staff of writers. Sorry guys. Let's get into it!

The Good: ANDREEEEE

Real talk, the Union number one keeper is probably one of the best goalies in the league right now. I'll double down on my stance and say he might be the best goalie the Union have ever had. Was he out of position for the second goal in Seattle? Yes, yes he was. Has he done something impressive in every game this season including saving us two points against Orlando City? Yes. Not to mention he notched seven saves against a potent Seattle offense. This week he's up for save of the week (again) for his fantastic perry to keep the Sounders lead at one right at the half. Go vote so he can finally win one of these awards here.
Elsewhere, Josh Yaro made his MLS debut after Ken Tribbett was ruled out injured. The former Georgetown Hoya and #2 overall pick in last year's draft was pretty good, having about as good as a night as you could hope for given that he's 19. Playing on the road against Seattle was a tall order, and he did well to show some of what the Bethlehem Steel FC faithful have seen all season so far.

The Bad: Discipline

Feisty European players are something we are kind of accustomed to. When he came over to the Union one of the bullet points on former ADO Den Haag captain Roland Alberg was that he could be a bit temperamental. Not to say Alberg can't pick up cards here and there, and it seems as if the MLS and PRO are starting to find a decent balance of showing red compared to the goofy stuff at the beginning of the season. However, the red cards the Union have seen this season have deeply impacted games. Creavalle was sent off against Chicago in a game the Union could have and probably should have one. Alberg got sent off 18 minutes before some Jordan Morris kid put the ball in the back of the net and gave Seattle a 2-0 lead. Alberg has been great at disrupting all season, and he seems to have skirted some more discipline for his uh, dispersal of the Dutch sign for peace to the Sounders fans while he was making his exit. I think he's been pretty good for us this season, and hopefully his game off won't be a huge deal this Saturday against Manchester New York City.

The Ugly: Panic at the DisCo! (?)

No, sadly I have not converted all of my efforts to writing about Brendan Urie's band. Further adding to your disappointment, I'm going to talk about DC United. This is just goofy. Broken by Pablo Maurer, DC United's head coach has been suspended one game and fined 500$ (What's that? A disclosed fee in MLS? I'm shocked) for the heinous crime of...
Removing a second ball from the field of play during a match.

So to recap - hearing Ben Olsen to be suspended 1 gm for entering the field against #TFC. To get a loose ball? #DCU pic.twitter.com/3uNqCSTLKN

— Pablo Maurer (@MLSist) April 20, 2016

Yep. That's two games less than Nigel De Jong got for almost destroying Darlington Nagbe. However, before we go insane over how crazy this all is, which it is. Here's a prior incident with an SKC assistant getting a match ban for the heinous act of...
Kicking a ball back to a goalie so he could get his goal kick off faster.

So, it's weird, and probably not worth a suspension, but at least there's some consistency. Definitely doesn't make DisCo look any better, and they have been having some trouble with that lately.

What can we learn from this? Well, as long as the league doesn't implement new security standards so that the third largest attended professional sports competitions in the country are safer we should hide MLS standard soccer balls in our backpacks and throw them at Patrick Vieira. Because throwing things has never ended poorly.

See you next week after we house Nursing Home City for our annual bingo afternoon at Talen Energy Stadium.