2011 Regular Season Report

Didn't exactly race to the finish line in league play, but still got a lot accomplished.

SuperLiga
We coasted through this competition, winning all 5 games by a combined score of 10-0. Michael Chidi Alozi bagged a brace in the final, a 2-0 win over Colorado Rapids. Alozi also had the only goal in the first minute of another revenge match against Chivas.

US Open Cup
We finally brought this trophy home in our third attempt. A 2-1 win against Chicago and a 3-1 extra time victory over Austin Aztex setup an epic clash against Seattle Sounders FC. Michael Chidi Alozi and Roger Levesque of Seattle traded goals until a 90th minute strike from Michael Adeyinka put the lid on a 3-2 Union victory.

MLS
We really struggled toward the end of the year, even losing twice. Our second half record was 7-6-2, a far cry from the 12-3-0 record of the first half. A lot of that can be attributed to the fact we were putting emphasis on other competitions like SuperLiga and the Champions League, but we were able to thanks to how well we played early in the year. Our final record of 19-9-2 was good enough to win the supporters shield by 14 points over Eastern Conference winner Toronto FC.

Our opponent in the Western Conference Semifinal will be D.C. United. Should we advance, we will play the winner Real Salt Lake (#2) and San Jose Earthquakes (#3). The Eastern Conference semifinal sees Toronto FC (#1) paired with New York Red Bulls (#4), who are now managed by USA legend Brian McBride. The other tie is Chicago Fire (#2) vs. Kansas City Wizards (#3).

CONCACAF Champions League
For the second year in a row, we took maximum points from our group. Herediano (CRC) surprisingly took second place in the group over Puebla (MEX) and Victoria (HON).

We opened play with a 2-0 win at home against Victoria. We were aided in that match by an own goal by Rony Pineda, and Ciro finally scored the killer goal in the 84th minute. Alzoi scored two first half goals and we withstood a charge late to hold on to a 2-1 win at Herediano. We ended the first half of a group play with a dramatic 87th minute winner by Ciro at Puebla to put us comfortable atop the group.

At Victoria, we found ourselves level at 1 despite having dominated the match. Dax McCarty came on as a sub and helped ensure the victory we deserved with a goal in the 87th. Herediano offered little resistance in our return match. Goals by Alozi, Bobby Boswell, Michael Adeyinka, and Ciro (2) gave us a 5-0 win. Puebla came to Philly needing all 3 points to advance, but Alozi, Feham Bouazza, and Ciro removed any hope they had of continental glory and they went out with a 3-0 defeat.

Algeria
Since my last update on Algeria, we have qualified for the 2012 African Cup of Nations. After struggling away to Sudan in a 2-1 win, we fared much better at home in a 3-0 win. We used the next 3 friendlies to cap-tie a few players, as well as bring in a couple of naturalized French players into the fold. First was a 1-1 draw against Cameroon Achille Emana stole the victory we deserved with an equalizer in the 4th minute of stoppage time. Rafik Djebbour scored a hat trick in a 3-2 win over Morocco, and Abdelaziz Touati converted a penalty for the only goal in a win over Albania.

After the friendlies, it was time to get down to business against our chief rivals for qualification, Sierra Leone. We only managed a draw at home last year, so we needed to win this game. Sofiane Feghouli scored in the first minute, and that was all we needed for a 1-0 win and a ticket to Gabon for the Cup of Nations.

We would go on to beat Venezuela 2-1 in a friendly, and Lesotho 5-0 in our final qualifier. Later, we will play Canada to wrap up the 2011 calendar.