Thursday Evening Union Freekicks: New Acquisitions Settling In

The past few weeks have seen a whirlwind of roster turnover for the Philadelphia Union. The team has dealt away Andrew Jacobson, released Nick Zimmerman, JT Noone, and Michael Orozco Fiscal, and signed several players, including Carlos Ruiz.

These players are continuing to settle into their niche on the roster. Check out these stories on the Union, MLS, and the soccer world in general:

Ambitious Ruiz Already Fitting In With Union [Kevin Kinkead – philadelphiaunion.com] The Union's newly signed Guatemalan striker has already gotten his first goal in a Philly uniform. He will be depended on to take some of scoring load away from Sebastien Le Toux and Danny Mwanga.

Philadelphia Union Roster Analysis [Judah Levine – philadelphiaunion.com] A wonderful article by Levine detailing what the Union have in their arsenal at each position, including a look at each individual player on the 22-man roster.

Vartughian: Sky's the Limit for Holder [Andy Jasner – philadelphiaunion.com] Thorne Holder signed this week as the Union's third goalkeeper. He will likely see time in the reserves, but could have a role to play if incumbent Faryd Mondragon gets a call for Colombia in the Copa America, as Zac MacMath will also take part in the U-20 World Cup around the same time.

Independence well represented on US national squads [Ed Farnsworth – The Philly Soccer Page] The PSP takes a look at the players on the Philadelphia Independence that are involved with the U.S. women's national team as they gear up for the 2011 Women's World Cup.

Future Focus: FC Delco and The Haverford School's Max Kurtzman [bbonnette – Union Blog @ American Soccer News] The guys from the Union blog at ASN interviews one of the best goalkeeper prospects to come out of FC Delco in a long time. Unfortunately, he's not a Union academy member but he will head off to UPenn in the fall.

The Throw-In: MLS nears its own Rite of Spring [Jonah Freedman – mlssoccer.com] One of the head editors over at MLSsoccer.com suggests that MLS may be moving to a preseason system more like MLB's spring training in the near future.

Bundesliga takes Serie A's Champions League spot [ESPNsoccernet.com] In a development that has seemingly been underreported given its importance, the German Bundesliga has performed well enough in European competitions that it will be awarded 4 spots in the 2012-13 UEFA Champions League. This comes at the expense of the Italian Serie A.