12:30 P.M. EST: There you have it, Rais M'Bohli the new starting goalkeeper for the Philadelphia Union. This concludes our coverage of the Philadelphia Union's major announcement, thank you for reading.
12:29 P.M. EST: Sakiewicz: I want to thank everybody for coming, we know a transition across the Atlantic is tough one but we're going to help you and our wife. Thank you, Rais.
12:27 P.M. EST: M'Bohli: I know one player, a French defender from Kansas City, but he don't know I'm here yet. He [Collin] is a really good friend.
12:26 P.M. EST: M'Bohli: He [Nick] showed me what he was trying to build and the spirit of the club, I was looking for this, stability, and a really good project.
12:25 P.M. EST: M'Bohli: I love what I saw already, me and my wife are really looking forward to come and live here.
12:25 P.M. EST: Curtin: Just because you're putting goalkeepers and defenders on your team doesn't mean you're building a defensive team. We want to build out the back.
12:24 P.M. EST: Curtin: When the right forward comes around, we'll get him. We do need speed, speed stretches the field, opens spaces. But we're happy with the amount of goals we're scoring.
12:23 P.M. EST: Curtin: He's [Blake] played in two Open Cup games, he's played well but he can improve. He's upset but he's a professional, he wants to play. These are the highs and lows for young goalkeeper. Obviously we've put an emphasis on the back, not conceding goals. This club doesn't need a froward right now.
12:22 P.M. EST: Curtin: We aquired assets, those are good assets like Nick said, Andre was the consensus best player there. You can't break down most of the drafts until three years later, it's not a perfect science. You don't know when these guys are gonna break, when their moment comes, but Andre was the best asset in the draft at the time, he still has a bright future.
12:19 P.M. EST: Nick: Andre was by far the uncontestable number one draft pick. We're in the business of collecting very good players.
12:19 P.M. EST: M'Bohli: It's the biggest competition ever for a footballer player, it was a great experience. I've grown as a man and goalkeeper in these two World Cups.
12:17 P.M. EST: M'Bohli: Experience [is my biggest strength], right now I can say experience.
12:16 P.M. EST: M'Bohli: I didn't really have a chance to stay in the clubs and prove what I can do, in all those countries I didn't feel good. I've been watching the MLS in the past and I think a lot of clubs in Europe don't have these facilities.
12:15 P.M. EST: Curtin: There's a million different possibilities to help them develop.
12:14 P.M. EST: Curtin: This move will help us make a run in the playoffs. To add this piece is a huge one. The object is to not have them [MacMath and Blake] sit for several years, a plan is in the works now, whether it's loaning them out in the league. Young goalkeepers need experience.
12:12 P.M. EST: Curtin: I had a good talk with Zac, he's a great professional. This is a move both Zac and Andre can learn from.
12:11 P.M. EST: Curtin: He's our starter.
12:10 P.M. EST: M'Bohli: I want to thank Nick and the club, since I met Nick my decision was already made, he has a vision. I made my decision really easy.
12:08 P.M. EST: Curtin: World class goalkeepers don't grown on trees on I'm very glad he's decided to join Philadelphia.
12:06 P.M. EST: Nick: Now we've got three of the best goalkeepers in Major League Soccer
12:06 P.M. EST: Nick: We've got a couple of great young goalkeepers in our roster and we've just added an incredible veteran keeper.
12:05 P.M. EST: Nick: I want to thank Chris Ablright and Hugo Varela
12:04 P.M. EST: Nick Sakiewicz We're very happy you've made the decision to come to Philadelphia
12:04 P.M. EST: There appears to be a delay in the broadcast of the press conference on the Philadelphia Union's website.
12:01 P.M. EST: The press conference is starting!
12:01 P.M. EST: While often a problem due to the August to May schedules maintained by European leagues, M'Bohli's participate in the African Cup of Nations from January to February of next year would not affect Philadelphia thanks to the March to December schedule of MLS and the MLS playoffs.
11:57 A.M. EST: At 6 ft 3 in M'Bohli is a full three inches taller than starting goalkeeper Zac MacMath and gives the added reassurance on setpieces that Philadelphia have lacked at times this season, although MacMath's decision making on set pieces has improved dramatically since last season.
11:53 A.M. EST: To put things into perspective, M'Bohli's performance against Germany becomes even more impressed with the knowledge that he and other teammates put in that performance while fasting during the month of Ramadan.
11:49 A.M. EST: M'Bohli also had the option to represent the Democratic Republic of Congo where his father hails from.
11:47 A.M. EST: His appearances for the Algerian national team come in light of the fact that he was born in Paris and represented the French U17 and U18 sides, eventually choosing to represent of the country of his mother's birth.
11:45 A.M. EST: Despite his country's loss to Germany in their first ever knockout stage match at the World Cup, M'Bohli had a total of 11 saves as helped push the game into overtime. M'Bolhi earned man of the match honors despite the loss.
11:42 A.M. EST: In contrast M'Bohli's fee of $300,000 seems cheap in comparison despite his excellent recent performances for country, however age, demand, and the financial situation of CSKA Sofia were likely to have played a role in the amount of the fee.
11:40A.M. EST: As dicussed before with M'Bohli's likely arrival MacMath may be set to leave, not having ruled out moving abroad. With recent Sporting Kansas City duo Kei Kamara and Uri Rosell and fetching transfer fees in excess of $1 million and $2.1 million there doesn't appear to be a reason that Philadelphia couldn't get a similar fee for MacMath by moving him abroad and may seek to do so.
11:33 A.M. EST: M'Bohli's arrival could mean that University of Maryland goalkeeper Zak Steffen, a player who is regarded as future US Men's National Team caliber decides not to sign a home grown player contract as he is expected to enter the league next year, but rather enter himself into the MLS Draft.
11:20 A.M. EST: Speculation remains as to where MacMath will go if he does wind up leaving the club, with a host of MLS clubs interested in the young American goalkeeper including the likes of New England, Houston, Montreal, Portland, and Toronto. The option remains, however for Philadelphia to sell MacMath internationally one which could gathered them a larger transfer fee as opposed to a straight player swap but would mean MLS taking a portion of the transfer fee.
The discussion among Philadelphia fans and others around the league remains one of skeptisicism as it's widely acknowledged that the areas Philadelphia need to improve in are center back, left back, and striker so M'Bohli's transfer may come as a shock to many.Despite plenty of questions over the transfer of M'Bohli, he does appear to be an upgrade to an already stacked Philadelphia Union goalkeeping department, and adds some experience and wisdom to the set of young but talented goalkeepers, no matter what occurs post transfer the likelihood is that his transfer may benefit the goalkeepers around him even if they aren't getting playing time. It's also rumored that interm manager Jim Curtin had little to no involvement in the transfer.
11:15 A.M. EST: Approaching today's lunchtime press conference, Philadelphia Union fans are patiently waiting for some big news. The Union recently tweeted that they plan on making a major announcement today at noon. This is of course expected to be the announcement of Algerian international goalkeeper, Raïs M'Bolhi. M'Bolhi, an Algerian international since 2010 has spent his career as somewhat of a nomad, drifting from club to club throughout the years, he has however spent the majority of his time in Bulgaria based CSKA Sofia in three different spells since 2010 where he's expected to join the Union from on a three year contract for a fee of $300,000.
Twenty-eight year old M'Bolhi makes the transfer on the back of a series of highly impressive performances as he helped his country reach the the round of sixteen for the first time ever, finishing surprise runners-up in their group behind Belgium. Given Philadelphia's wealth of goalkeeping talent, the transfer places a large degree of doubt over the future of starting goalkeeper Zac MacMath despite his excellent performances this season. M'Bohli is widely expected to become the starting goalkeeper, mentoring understudy Andre Blake, with MacMath being moved on as his transfer value is at it's highest in years.