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MLS Philadelphia introduces new name and colors

PhillyNameAnnouncement (ISIphotos.com) 

                                                                       Photo by ISIphotos.com

Philadelphia soccer fans enjoyed another milestone day on Monday as the 2010 MLS expansion team revealed its nickname and colors at a ceremony at City Hall. The Philadelphia Union won't take the field for another 10 months, but the celebration of their arrival is well under way.

Here is the logo for those of you who missed it last week:

Philadelphia Union  

Now that the name and colors have been decided, it's time to start thinking about a head coach. Philadelphia president Nick Sakiewicz said months ago that he wanted to have a head coach in place during the first half of 2009. Should we still expect a hiring that soon? Who would you like to see hired?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Paul Mariner, hands down. The fact that he has been passed over so many times is a joke! He has experience at every level of U.S. Soccer, having coached kids 3-35……I have not seen a Coach in the U.S. with more experience at both the Amateur and Professional Level. He knows the American Soccer mentality better than anyone! He’s paid his dues!

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  2. @Harraby Harry –

    Thankfully public broadcasting showed Dr. Who on TV when I was a kid. It was one of the only shows my parents would let us watch. Even went to the Dr. Who museum in Wales a few years back. (Also have and Peter Davidson autographed Dr. Who book). but back to soccer.,,,

    I think it is important to note that we all (regardless of where we live) love the beautiful game. I have season tickets to my hometown club (Minnesota Thunder) that only had 3,000 fans for the home opener. The soccer is not “world class”, but I really don’t care. I’m just happy I have a local team to support!

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  3. Good night, loser of the American Revolutionary War which then gave us our independence and set the stage for the birth of the world’s most prosperous and powerful nation.

    But history aside (which is completely irrelevant to soccer, by the way, and, besides that, the US and England were and are allies, so it’s really stupid), you Brits are the ones who are getting tiresome. All you do is criticize us for not having a “proper football league and proper football fans”, and then when we try to have one, you criticize us even more. I don’t get it. I use dto respect and admire English fans and teams, but now I am just getting sick of you all. LEAVE US ALONE!!! WE DON’T CARE WHAT YOU THINK OF US!! Just because we want to do things OUR way does not mean that you can criticize us; who says that YOUR way is better? Did God Himself come down from Heaven and tell the world that everything England does is right?

    F*ck off, you bloody wankers.

    As for your political criticism: I can’t argue with that. America is more corrupt than ever.

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  4. Actually, JTD, you should be thanking me that England fought Germany from May of 1939 till Dec 1941 on its own, more or less, while the US sat with its hands folded, not commiting to the war effort until it was attacked. If it weren’t for us holding off Germany, you would have been open to attack and not prepared. You also would have been the last world power that wasn’t facist or Communist, making for many tough years ahead. The Cold war would have been a LOT colder.

    Please learn your history.

    Btw, what is DC United “united” against? Good taste? Liking girls? Low Crime rates? Functional Government?

    You Yanks are tiresome.

    I am going to take the “apples and pears” up to the “wooden hills of bedfordshire” and watch an old Dr. Who DVD.

    Good night, colonists.

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  5. @Harraby Harry –

    C’mon, dude…you can’t expect football culture for a country that hasn’t even had 3 decades of soccer (none of it consecutive, mind you). Just seems a bit ridiculous to ridicule a brand new team as to how it doesn’t have history.

    And you are right, the EPL is run by the tv companies, not corporate masters. And of course I suppose that all of your clubs are owned by the supporters, right?

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  6. P.S.- God Bless America, and to Hell with the queen! What does she even do, other than drink tea and enjoy the success of her great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparents?

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  7. @Harry-

    Maybe if MLS wanted to be a photocopy of the EPL, people would actually be offended by what you are saying.

    You “smart Englishmen” should be smart enough to realize that not everyone looks at your league as a model of perfection. Yes, it is a great league, but it doesn’t mean that all other clubs in the world should be exactly like it. I apologize if you don’t like our badges, but you need to get over yourself. You can’t make a “traditional” badge when you are starting a team in 2009. There has to be some sort of attraction to younger and more casual fans of soccer (not calling it football, because that’s not what we do here!).

    Maybe we would be “laughed out of Goodison Park”, but at least we know how to market to our own fans.

    By the way, I don’t mean “we” as Philly Union- I’m a DC United supporter, but I have to stick up for a team that will likely soon become a rival when some arrogant Brit comes on here and degrades the tremendous strides MLS has made in its 14 years of existence.

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  8. Thomas 513 – The EPL is not run by Corporate masters. We Englishmen are smart enough to make them pay fortunes to advertise on shite team’s shirts & then we revel in the momey. We are the richest league in the world! We eat vinegar with our fish & chips & beat up strangers just because the support a different team. You Americans just don’t have a proper footy culture!

    Prince Charles!

    The Falkland Island!

    The Buzzcocks!

    God Save the Queen!

    Everton!

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  9. @ harry:

    Clearly, there are no corporate masters in the Barclays Premier League or the Coca-cola football league.

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  10. Not a huge fan of the name, i like the colors.

    As for a Coach i would see if Sven will pimp himself out for it.

    No concerns of them winning any time soon, Phili teams love to suffer.

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  11. Even though there will remain some references to labor unions in the local Philly media in regards to the club’s name, the club FO have noticeably distanced themselves from connecting the name with the labor movement. Despite an initial reference to labor in the name voting poll, all explanations dealing with the logo and name at the press conference and now on the club’s official website only cite connections with Philly’s role in history as pertaining to this nation’s founding.

    The FO is wise to market the brand in this fashion because any connection to labor unions would likely alienate a number of people (which I have observed talking with a number of people in regards to this name and I assume the club were made aware of).

    Journalists and supporters club leaders do not speak for the club. Union, as it would seem now, relates to history and not labor in the minds of the club.

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  12. PLEASE! You call that a team logo! I’m an Everton Man! Where I come from, they’d laugh you out of Goodison park without even a meat pie! You Yanks! You have no real footy culture!

    I like your logo! Trying to act independtly while part of the Nike Corportae Overload’s Power Structure! Where I come from footy is organic, We have CLUBS, not Corporate masters!

    Fish and Chips!

    Meat pies!

    Mott the Hoople!

    Slade!

    Hip Hip Cheerio

    God Save the Queen!

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  13. sons of ben = not-so-bright mouth breathing fatsos… micheal, spot on. that has been my experience every time i interact with them. finally had to move on and accept that i’m rooting against philly because their main supporters are primadonna doofuses who act like turds.

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  14. Great, another Euro ripoff name.

    The “Union” will play near the “United”. I hope Vancouver chooses the name “Unitards” or “Unicycles”.

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  15. Anyone who is referring to Chester as “suburban” has obviously never been there…

    Yes, it’s outside of Philadelphia, but Chester is no Frisco or Sandy.

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  16. Afshin Ghotbi, the current head coach of the Iran national team, and Dave Sarachan should be the leading 2 candidates for head coach.

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  17. I would have preferred a brighter yellow instead of gold. Toss a rattle on the rattlesnake and you got a good logo. As far as UNION goes I think it’s too close to UNITED but the other options weren’t too attractive to me either so whatever.

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  18. I like the colors, badge and name personally. I also really just love Philadelphia in general, its my second favorite city, next to NYC. I’m excited to see them play and will definitely be going to RBNY-Philly games, and probably even out to Philly too. awesome stuff.

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  19. crap name, crap log, crap badge. These guys in Philly blow. have fun with Nick, I cant wait to piss all over your stadium. I love how they are immediately talking about how the badge and colors is all about building the brand. These jerks couldn’t care less about the team or the fans its all about the money to them. And that stadium is in the boon docks, compared to down town and the rest of the stadiums. They should have fought harder to get the stadium by the link, and the wachovia center.

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  20. “The US league’s 16th team has a nickname similar to D.C. United and is likely to have a spirited rivalry with the club from the nation’s capital as well as nearby New York Red Bulls.”

    Yeah! A prefabricated rivalry! Can’t wait to hear JP Dellacamera beat this one to the ground.

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  21. @ Hopper. Word. The suburban model has failed. Which teams have done the best? DC, Toronto, Seattle. The three teams that play in actual cities. Look at the Boston Breakers in WPS, they play in the city and are doing quite well compared to the rest of the league.

    Philly Union. Great name and logo. If only they played in Philly. False advertising.

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  22. michael, why fight the truth?

    PU = HILARIOUS!

    But let’s get to the real question: whose injury will be the first celebrated by classless Philly fans? Someone from Dallas, perhaps?

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  23. For those wondering about the transit line, the Septa R2 train from Philadelphia to Wilmington stops at Highland Ave. in Chester which is about half a mile from where the stadium will be.

    Now, as it stands currently, that’s not a very pleasant walk. It remains to be seen how, if at all, public transit from the city is handled (more and later trains on match days? shuttle buses from station? fixing roads and walkways on route to stadium?) But, there IS in fact a station close by, so there is something to work with.

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  24. How long will it take for Union fans to start booing their team? Is setting the over/under at 40′ of their first match too generous? Given Philadelphia’s history of supporting their teams, that probably is too generous, but I want to give the soccer fans credit for being a tad more cultivated than the Philly gen pop. Besides, if they’re planning on drawing fans from DE and South Jersey (good luck), they might not be as bad as those from Philly itself.

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