Philadelphia Union

As the Philadelphia Union prepare for their first-ever playoff game against Houston Dynamo on Sunday, much of the team’s hopes are pinned on the phenomenal form of its French No.  9, Sébastien Le Toux.

Le Toux has contributed 11 goals and nine assists to the Union’s historic push into the postseason, with 10 of those goals coming in the last 12 games. The 27-year-old has played every minute of every Union league game this season.  

Already a legend among the Philadelphia faithful, this quiet, hard-working player was named MLS Player of the Month for September. Depending on the Union’s showing in the playoffs, he will surely be a hot contender for the league’s MVP award.

But in the midst of the build-up and the talk of individual awards, Le Toux’s feet stay firmly on the ground.

“It’s a team sport, not just me,” Le Toux told philadelphiaunion.com. “My teammates have done an amazing job the last month-and-a-half and it’s a credit to them stepping up along with me. It’s much better when your team is doing well. We have a better taste in our mouths because we are in the playoffs for the first time.”

Rewind the clock to a year ago: Philadelphia’s first season in MLS, the Union’s locker room became the American melting pot in microcosm. Polish team manager Peter Nowak had cast his net wide in the global marketplace to blend players from South America, Africa, and Europe with homegrown US talent. As MLS’s newest team struggled to find its collective feet, the quiet, industrious French playmaker was busy writing his name large into Philly sporting history.

Justin Kavanagh followed his progress through that difficult first season and traces the story of Sébastien Le Toux here in the first of four parts.  

7.10.10: PPL Park Chester, PA:

Sébastien Le Toux spreads his palms wide and lifts his shoulders.

Another game is slipping away. Another 90 minutes of dominating play with precious little to show. The Philadelphia Union’s first season in Major League Soccer is descending into a weekly round of déjà vu for the Frenchman and his teammates.

You bust a gut in heat thick as treacle, force an early lead and then someone loses focus, and we’re all back where we began. Trooping back to the locker room, tied up at 1-1. Egalité again.

Danny Mwanga from the Democratic Republic of Congo has shown for the ball. The boy from the heart of Africa controls the long pass out of defense from his captain, the Californian Danny Califf. Shrugging off a San José defender, he shields it long enough for others to join the attack.

Fred, the prosaically named Brazilian, streaks right, screaming for the ball, while wide on the left, the distinctive purple shoes of Sébastien Le Toux blur in an angled sprint timed to beat the Earthquakes’ offside trap.

But Mwanga is a rookie, still learning that what happens off the ball is 90 percent of the game, still learning to play with his head up. The inexperienced forward is caught in several minds—maybe caught between several languages—and finally caught in possession.

The curses sound the same in any language.

The bronzed and shaven Brazilian head turns heavenward. Another lost chance. Another lung-burning run in 95 degrees for nothing. Way out left, the angular, intense-looking Frenchman turns and spreads his palms at the young striker in that questioning gesture of footballers everywhere. He sweeps a hand along the trajectory of the pass that never came. Mwanga acknowledges his mistake, miming apology with hands held up. 

Seven years ago, a lifetime in the game, senior pros back in Lorient, Normandy, would likewise instruct the young Le Toux; but he knows that Mwanga, the modest, soft-spoken African has his ego too, so now he claps the teenager and gives him the thumbs-up. An artful mime of encouragement to lighten another lesson in frustration, in a season that’s been full of them.

Next time, Danny, eh?

In Philadelphia’s first season in MLS, Sébastien Le Toux has become the active ingredient in the glue holding together team manager Peter Nowak’s vision of the Union’s future.

As the Frenchman starts the long run back to his midfield position, the huge container ship MS Livingstone powers under the Commodore Barry Bridge carrying its cargo up the Delaware River. The Philadelphia team has pitched its impressive PPL Park home ground on the renovated waterfront in Chester. It stands beneath the dramatic arch of the bridge that connects Pennsylvania with New Jersey, America’s most densely populated state.

Chester’s rich shipbuilding history went south decades ago, and the boarded up houses downtown tell a familiar American story of urban decay and economic blight. Chester’s population is 78% African-American. The riverside city 20 miles south of Philly has invested heavily in hopes of an economic revival by hosting the Union. There’s a lot more than soccer glory riding on the shoulders’ of the Frenchman and his teammates.

The soccer stadium was opened in May 2010 with a $30 million commitment from the city, and $47 million from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. On July 10^th, halfway through the hottest summer in years, the crowd at PPL Park (capacity 18,500) is a vocal 17,183.

The following day 22 Europeans will contest the World Cup Final in Johannesburg, and once the last flights leave for Spain and Holland, South Africa will start to sweat about state-of-the-art stadiums becoming white elephants. In Chester, Pennsylvania, the future of the global game looks secure. The team is in good hands, too.

A break in the play, and water is thrown to the men in the sweat-soaked, blue-and-gold shirts. Nowak tells Le Toux to keep them focused, let the ball do the work, keep believing in each other.

Nowak knows all about the doubts that creep into teams, however experienced, from his own nomadic career as a player and coach. These players have been together a matter of months; fraternité is not easily coaxed from a ragtag gang of soccer wanderers, thrown together by the forces of 21^st century globalization and hand-picked largely from the MLS draft; so the Pole usually turns to the man with the face of a Norman knight.

Nowak assembled a multinational cast since his appointment in September 2009. It reads like the crew of a Conrad sea novel: two Brazilians, a pair of Columbians, a Congolese teenager, a wily Argentine, a veteran Venezuelan, a Finn, and a hard-as-nails defender forged in Italy’s lower leagues, now returned to his country of birth. In their first season together, the First Mate was Danny Califf, the Californian with the Elvis quiff and sideburns, and arms filled with ink.

A glance through the names of the Union’s 14 homegrown players confirms the mix of ethnicities in America’s soccer stew: Sheanon Williams, Jack McInerney, Kyle Nakazawa, Amobi Okugo, Michael Orozco Fiscal, Nick Zimmerman…

This mish-mash of nationalities will eventually meld, Nowak believes, because soccer is the Esperanto of our technological, entertainment-driven era. Everyone speaks the basics. The differences of styles between Americans, South Americans, and Europeans are merely dialects to be accommodated as the club from the City of Brotherly Love finds its voice.

Few have LeToux’s natural fluency. Of the players at his disposal, the team manager relied on Le Toux to do much of the on-field communication in a difficult debut season in MLS. The Frenchman was asked to play as a twin striker, in midfield, wide on both flanks to pull defenses out of position, and as a playmaker, pulling the strings. He was the one Nowak called aside with instructions to drop back or push forward, to link midfield with attack. The intelligent 26-year old connected the dots. He was the draftsman tasked with sketching out Philly’s Pythagorean diagrams of time and space and movement. When it goes wrong, when synapses misfire, much of the frustration weighs heavily on the Frenchman’s slim shoulders.

He has carried the city’s weighty expectations well, on the field and off. Trim as a welterweight fighter, and with a quiet, unassuming personality, Le Toux distinguished himself in a challenging first season. He lead the team in goal scoring with 14 league strikes, and was in the running for the MLS Most Valuable Player award, despite the team’s failure to make the playoffs. With his air of understated, unrelenting professionalism, the Frenchman was poise personified.

Sébastien Le Toux belongs to soccer’s worldwide network of nomadic professionals, often accused of lacking loyalty. Fans assume a mercenary desire to chase bigger contracts in a short career is the norm. In a grueling first season in Philadelphia, there may have been times when the man from Mont-Saint-Aignan could well have asked himself, “How the hell did I end up here?” But the mark he has made among the Philly fans has been deep and lasting.

Philadelphia demands a lot of its heroes. This is the town where Santa was once snowballed at a ballgame, where even Elvis was greeted with a shower of eggs by a carefully coordinated posse of convent girls. But the man in the purple shoes has won over skeptics by defying the French stereotype of sulking French strikers like Nicolas Anelka.

The Union’s Sons of Ben fan brigade were left with no doubts about Le Toux’s commitment. A banner hung at the River End of PPL Park in the red, white, and blue of the French tricolor:

LE TOUX

LEGIT

TO QUIT 

Quitting is not part of Le Toux’s DNA. He is a man who lives in the moment, who looks forward rather than back. When his time in Philly is up, he will leave a lasting legacy. He certainly will not quit. And he will regret rien.

Part two will follow tomorrow, Friday, Oct. 28. 

At the mere age of 14, Freddy Adu had the whole footballing world licking their lips at the thought of having a true American footballing prospect. 

Fresh-faced Adu had just signed a huge sponsorship deal with sports giants Nike and was allocated as the first pick in the 2004 MLS Superdraft. Having been picked up by 2004 Eastern Conference champs DC United, Adu had American soccer fans and pundits eating off the palm of his small hands. 

Even for American sport, a 14-year-old professional athlete is quite something.

Fast forward seven years, and after a serious lack of playing time in Europe, Adu has begrudgingly returned back to the MLS. 

It is argued that Adu is the perfect example of a young man given too much too young. The Ghanaian-born American proved difficult to manage under DC United’s fiery manager at the time, Peter Nowak. Ironically, it is Nowak’s Philadelphia Union side Adu has just joined on a free transfer. 

The fame got to his head. He dated US singer JoJo and constantly tried courting the interest of European clubs via the media. After complaining about playing time in the States, a 16-year-old Freddy Adu was once given a trial at England giants Manchester United, though no move came to fruition as he had hoped. 

Adu moved to the USA at the age of eight and became an American citizen in 2003. His mother won the Green Card Lottery in his native Ghana, which randomly selected families across the world to give them the necessary visas to come and live in the USA legally. With the promise of the American dream in their minds, Adu’s family moved to Rockville, Maryland.

To say Adu had been left out in the cold in Europe would be somewhat of an understatement. Having made just 11 appearances for Benfica in four years, Adu was sent out on loan to far-flung clubs in Europe in a bid to help him regain his form. 

AS Monaco, Belenenses, Aris and Turkish second division side Caykur Rizespor. Not one of these European misfits saw the talent the US media had prophesied when Adu was a young teenager. 

Adu made history once again on April 3, 2004. In a match for DC United against Californians San Jose Earthquakes, Adu made his first appearance as a second-half substitute. At 14, Adu was the youngest ever player to feature in a professional football match in the States since 1887. 

Two weeks later, the starlet became the youngest ever scorer in US professional soccer. He scored a consolation goal in DC United’s 3-2 loss to rivals New York Metrostars, who are now known as the New York Red Bulls. 

Now, he is back in his former stomping ground in MLS’ Eastern Conference, trying to help Philadelphia Union reach the playoffs for the first time in franchise history. 

And under the stewardship of former manager Nowak—the two had since patched up their differences following their disputes early on in Adu’s career—there is an aura of promise surrounding Adu and his fledgling side, who were formed for the 2010 MLS season.

Adu netted his first goal for the Pennsylvania team in last week’s classic encounter with New England Revolution. The Boston-based outfit were leading Union 4-1 until Adu’s coolly-slotted finish helped his side earn a gutsy 4-4 draw between the traditional eastern sporting rivals. 

One reason behind Adu’s move back to the States is to get reinstated within the US national team reckoning. Left in the international footballing abyss for some time, Adu finally got a taste of international football once again during the summer’s CONCACAF Gold Cup. 

Adu was a shock selection for the stars and stripes’ Gold Cup squad. However, throughout the tournament, Adu did not get a look in. Then, he got his chance. With the USA struggling in the Gold Cup semifinal against minnows Panama, Adu was given his chance to break the 0-0 stalemate as a substitute in the 66th minute. 

Coming on the pitch for a young star in his own right, New York Red Bull’s Juan Agudelo, Adu had 24 minutes to show the world that he was back. A mere 10 minutes later, the midfielder produced an exquisite defense-splitting pass that released USA hero Landon Donovan to create the easy assist for Clint Dempsey, who slid the ball home. The USA then held out for a 1-0 win that helped them progress to their fourth Gold Cup final in a row. 

Bob Bradley is a notoriously hard man to impress. But Adu’s short performance did enough to warrant a start in the USA’s 4-2 defeat to Mexico in the Gold Cup final. 

With Jurgen Klinsmann now at the helm of the USA national team, Adu will be hoping to impress the German. Klinsmann is credited for helping blood a group of young inexperienced German players into the national team for the 2006 World Cup they hosted. Now, Germany has one of the most fearsome national teams in all of world football.

Despite being around for so long, Adu is still only 22. He has serious experience beyond his years and now possesses the hunger to prove that his career is not one of hype and broken promises. 

Let the Freddy Adu story be an example to young American footballers, telling of the dangers of moving to European football too soon. With the standard of soccer in the MLS significantly rising each year, there is really no need to rush nowadays. While Americans have found success in Europe, most don’t. Even Landon Donovan was left in the wilderness in his days as a youngster at Bayer Leverkusen. 

Young MLS talent such as Agudelo, Brek Shea and Teal Bunbury need to take heed in the story of a 14-year-old who let his fame and talent get to his head far too early on in his career. As the old adage says, the grass is not always greener on the other side.

There was a time in professional sports in which the closest fans got to interacting with their favorite teams and players was buying a ticket that allowed them to see without binoculars.  Add in a few newspaper stories, along with a nightly news segment that took a cursory look at the day's action and you've got what it meant to truly follow a team.

Joining those days in the distant past are what sports fans have come to know as the norm: SportsCenter on a loop, unofficial box scores, and 'Meet the Players' events.  In an age where instant gratification still isn't enough for most, social media has taken what it means to be a fan to another level.

And who better to take advantage of cutting-edge technology than a budding franchise needing momentum to build a fan base.

The Philadelphia Union, a second-year side in Major League Soccer, has expertly utilized free social media to revolutionize the way supporters stay informed and interact with players.  Not only have they built an enormous following in just two years, but the team has connected with a city that is normally engrossed in their 'Big Four' sports teams.

By all accounts, the MLS is a growing league, but still needs to build its own brand in order to compete with the NBA and NHL for national attention.  By following the gold standard set by the Union, Major League Soccer could go a long way toward pushing its way into the spotlight.

The social media efforts in Philadelphia begin with an approach nearly every professional sports organization puts to use—the sharing of news, stats, and announcements through sites like Facebook and Twitter.  What sets the Union apart, however, is the depth in which they engage the internet community.

The team starts by syncing the news feed from their website with Twitter and Facebook, allowing for maximum exposure for each story.  Typical activity also includes re-posting statistics and announcements made by those close to the team.  It is at that point that the franchise departs from the usual and blazes a path in building a stronger fan base.

With games often not televised outside of the local market, the Union gives nearly one update per minute of each game on Twitter, opening their matches to anyone with an Internet connection. Facebook updates are provided for major match events to inform any user who has liked their page what is happening in the match.

As if bringing detailed game commentary to smartphones and computers wasn't enough, Philadelphia rewards fans watching the game by linking contests from the broadcasts to social media outlets with trivia questions on air that can be answered for prizes online.

From there, the Union leaves it to their players, and even manager, to connect with the fans on Twitter with an unmatched consistency.  Playing for a city with such a need to be favored by the crowd, many of the players are active in engaging fans in discussions online.  Stars like Sebastian Le Toux, Freddy Adu, Faryd Mondragon, and Carlos Valdes are all constantly hosting contests of their own or asking about the best places to go in the city.

Fans know the team takes pride in its efforts through social media and are more than willing to meet the team halfway.  The Union currently has a following contingent of nearly 20,000 on Twitter and over 80,000 connections on Facebook.

In an age driven by technology, it's a reasonable expectation for professional teams to make use of social media websites.  But mastering it's implementation is a much taller order, and a skill the Philadelphia Union applied in their mission to fill the bleachers at PPL Park with diehard fans.

With several sellout streaks in just their second season, @PhilaUnion are only getting stronger. Postseason bound and armed with an unparalleled marketing strategy, the organization has designed a blueprint for introducing a franchise into even the most crowded market.

Technological trends and capabilities are sure to change in the coming years. When they do, you can be sure to see the Union ahead of the curve, riding the wave to an even larger brand.

Who knows the club side Fredua Koranteng Adu earns his living playing for these days?

About 80 percent of soccer enthusiasts do not know; the remaining 20 percent simply do not care.

The answer is the Philadelphia Union of Major League Soccer.

Adu pitched camp with the MLS outfit via Benfica, AS Monaco and the likes of Belenenses, Aris and Caykur Rizespor. At the age of 22, Adu is a veteran of the European game, having played in Portugal, France, Greece and Turkey. And like all veterans, he is nearing the twilight of his career.

Adu was the quintessence of soccer prodigyhood. In early 2004, the D.C. United selected Adu with the top pick in the MLS draft. His four-year contract made him the highest-paid player in the league—at age 14. That is record may never be broken—at least not in Adu’s lifetime.

This brings to mind a certain 15-year-old son of a factory worker who laced up for the Argentinos Juniors club of Buenos Aires in 1976; and of another 15-year-old who took the field to score for Brazilian club Santos in September 1956.

The similarity between these three greatest soccer prodigies produced in the Americas is glaring—they had enormous potential to raise the world standard of the game (indeed the New York Cosmos brought Pele to the United States to do just that—to raise the image of the sport and make it appealing to NLF-mad Americans). Pele and Diego Maradona have been jointly crowned the greatest players of the game ever—the former by FIFA; the latter by a general consensus of the hardcore fans of the game.

What about Adu? Where does the greatest soccer prodigy from North America stand in the scheme of things vis-à-vis his legendary fellows of the New World further south? Adu’s career seems over at the age of 22. It's about the same age that Maradona was being crowned South American Footballer of the Year en route to captaining La Albiceleste to the world title; then single-handedly leading the little known Napoli to the Scudetto; and then going on to be the most revered soccer icon of his generation; and on and on and on.

Pele was holding aloft his second World Cup title at age 22. Another South American soccer prodigy from the favelas of Brazil by the name Ronaldo was being crowned FIFA World Best Player at the age of 20, en route to winning that same award twice more as well as the Ballon D’Or twice.

What accounts for the dramatic extinguishing of a flame so bright before it even had the chance to flare?

The obvious reason is that the United States is not a soccer nation—any soccer prodigy born there would find himself in a fish out of water situation. Playing with below-average footballers provides hardly enough challenge for one to reach his full potential. Adu should have moved immediately to Europe, not making himself available for the MLS pick. It's as simple as that.

Your mum is obviously not the best person to advise you on your soccer prospects, as the frustrated Adu has come to rue. His mum only had the financial interest of the family she had to provide for as the basis for her rejecting the myriad of offers from European clubs that Adu was inundated with—virtually coercing him to stay put and make himself available for the MLS draft. While this decision made a lot of financial sense, the most popular team sport of the world has been robbed of an outstanding talent who could have raised the game to new heights. Adu has no individual awards to buttress his claim to greatness—he is a pauper among his fellow New World prodigies who at his age could boast cabinetfuls of awards and accolades.

Adu’s predicament is very akin to another soccer prodigy from his country of birth, the West African country of Ghana—one Nii Odartey Lamptey. That’s not just because both were born in the same city—the industrial Tema—but because both were spectacular failures whose flame extinguished just too early.

Lamptey was touted the next big thing in world soccer by Pele himself, after his exploits at the 1991 World Under-17 Championships in which he led Ghana to the title. He also captured the FIFA Best Player Of the tournament Award in a tournament that had the likes of Juan Sebastian Veron and Alessandro del Piero featuring.

While Lamptey would fall prey to unscrupulous soccer agents who bandied him around the world like a slave, in the case of Adu, it is difficult to put the blame on anyone else but his mother. She saw her son as her cash cow and cared nothing about developing his budding talent better; in which instance a move to Europe would have been better.

Adu can only lick his wounds. His is a case of another talent wasted.

There is something to be said about coming full circle, as former teenage soccer prodigy Freddy Adu is about to find out.

Believe it or not, it’s been eight years since Adu signed his first professional soccer contract, so it seems almost like an anomaly that, when Freddy is introduced as the newest member of Major League Soccer’s (MLS) Philadelphia Union this Friday, he will do so at the tender age of 22.

Yes, eight professional contracts, some serious soul-searching and numerous helpings of humble pie later, the prodigy has matured, not only into a man, but also into the player that many thought he could be.

Over the last year or so, Freddy Adu has been given a new lease on his soccer life.

It started when former U.S. National team coach Bob Bradley added Adu to the 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup roster. Freddy repaid the selection by coming off the the bench in the semifinal against Panama and helping set up Clint Dempsey’s winning goal.

Then, in the Gold Cup Final against Mexico on June 25, there were some who said he was the best player on the pitch, despite the national team's 4-2 loss.

Adu’s recent resurgence certainly had caught the attention of several European clubs, but it was believed that he would rejoin the MLS and sign with Chivas USA. Right league, wrong team, because tomorrow he will become Philadelphia Freddy and sign with the Philadelphia Union.

For me, this news is somewhat ironic. You see, recently a good buddy of mine Facebooked me, insisting that the Union needed to go out and get some much-needed offense. I guess the team's nine ties this season had sent him over the edge.

Adu’s signing will not only reunite him with Union head coach Piotr Nowak, who was head coach of D.C. United during Adu’s early MLS days, but will also help fill the void left by striker Carlos Ruiz, who was lost in transfer to Mexican side Veracruz.

Freddy’s addition should not only help lift the productivity of forwards Danny Mwanga and Sebastien Le Toux, but also help the Union in their current battle with the Columbus Crew for first place in the MLS’s Eastern Conference.

By the way, did I mention that Adu was only 22?

All the technical training in the world can’t prepare a club for a goalkeeper who stands in his head, and as a keeper coach nothing pleases me more than to watch a goalie defend his domain.

That was the case tonight (June 22) at PPL Park where visiting netminder Jimmy Neilson helped keep his Sporting Kansas City (SKC) teammates from being blown out by the Philadelphia Union. The Union actually peppered Neilson with 19 shots, seven of which were on frame.

Nielsen came up big in the 27th minute when Philadelphia striker Jack McInerney fired from close-range and again two minutes later when he dove to his right to knock away a well-taken free kick from striker Carlos Ruiz.

The Union kept pressing after the break, nearly breaking the deadlock in the 72nd minute when a cross from Le Toux found Ruiz, who headed it off the crossbar. 

Five minutes later, Justin Mapp fired from point-blank range, but once again Nielsen was up to the task.

Obviously, if you are a Union fan you would expect your club to beat the last place team in the Eastern Conference and not settle for 0-0 draw.

Well, there is something you should know about SKC. At the moment, they are playing some of the best soccer in MLS, extending their unbeaten streak to six games and doing so by outscoring their last six opponents 11-2, including a 5-0 win over the New England Revolution and a 4-1 victory against the league’s second overall best team, FC Dallas.

Oh and did I mention tonight’s result was SKC’s fourth straight shutout?

A 0-0 draw is not all bad, especially when you consider the one point earned by Philly helps to keep the Union tied for first place with New York Red Bulls atop the MLS Eastern Conference standings.

The tie also helped Philadelphia extend their home unbeaten streak to nine matches.

Philadelphia’s play in their defensive third of the field was also pretty impressive, allowing SKC just seven shots, only one of which was on goal. Remember, Sporting Kansas City came into the game having scored 11 goals in their last six games, so the fact that the Union were able to emerge from this game with their fifth shutout of the season and that all valuable one point, is a good thing.

Philadelphia returns to action 8:00pm Saturday at PPL Park against Chivas USA.