Good morning! I’m back in my hometown of Detroit for the NFL Draft this week, and I gotta tell you…it feels great to be back home. Here’s the news from yesterday as we await the picks for tonight:
USWNT to play Olympic send-off match in Washington, DC (SSFC)
The USWNT are coming back home to play at Audi Field! Tickets are available to the general public on Friday, but hope to see you there as we fill the place!
Xavi agrees to remain Barcelona coach in dramatic U-turn (ESPN)
Xavi and Barcelona caught 2 huge Ls last week, and his response is to reverse course and say he’s staying at the club. GLWT.
Columbus Crew snatch lead in Concacaf Champions Cup semis vs. Monterrey (MLS)
Columbus Crew got the 2-1 victory over Monterrey and hope they can hold it in the return leg.
Tevez released from hospital after chest pains (BBC)
Peace to Carlos Tevez and best wishes on a speedy recovery.
Can San Diego FC pull off their plan to be the Ajax of North America? (The Guardian)
A deep dive on how San Diego FC hopes to channel their inner Ajax to take over MLS when they enter the league next season.
Kansas City Current fire medical chief for reported relationship with player (Pro Soccer Wire)
Let’s be clear: if you work for a team, do. not. have. relations. with. players. PERIOD.
Finally, a reminder to all that if you’re looking for some U.S gear ahead of Copa América and the Olympics, I got you covered!
Enjoy your Thursday!
Oh, thank Buddha it was something like this
The relief at hearing this was real, now I’m a little frustrated by the radio silence on something so mundane. Like, thank goodness it is such a necessary, simple, and non-threatening thing to solve, and he’ll be back, which is great- I just Really was worked up about how bad it must be at this point. He’s easily one of my favorite DC players in recent memory.
Yeah, hopefully the next two surgeries go well and Russ is quickly on his road to recovery. It looks like his contract is up at the end of the year, so hopefully he either a) shows enough to get a new deal, or b) is able to suit up so the fans can give him a proper farewell. He needs to play six more games to catch Eddie Pope and enter the top 15 all-time games played by a United player
Ulcerative colitis is NOT mundane. (It was definitely on my mind regarding this, along with other nasty things, and I can understand the need/desire for privacy as things were going downhill symptom-wise.)
I am amazed that he was playing at such a high level under medical management. It would seem that the surgical option had to be done, and generally it is curative and internal plumbing can all be re-hooked up down the line. As ulcerative colitis (and it’s very wicked step-sister Crohn’s Disease) are generally auto-immune in nature, other things may emerge down the line, like arthritis etc. I sure hope this ends his suffering. Russell Canouse is one tough dude, and if anyone can play through it, then get surgery, and recover to play at a high level, it is him.
In the WashPost article on this today, Goff (?) noted a guy at Aberdeen (Scotland) who plays with Crohn’s, which is terrific. Crohn’s is your whole GI track from mouth to exit, and can go transmural (meaning perforation!). Surgeries may not be curative. Ulcerative colitis does not go transmural, and “only” involves the large intestine. Surgery is typically curative, so to speak. Medical advances have curbed the need for surgery in many people, but these are serious illnesses.
Again, medical privacy is a right, with occasional needs for transparency (not the case here). I am glad Russell is feeling better, and shared his story to raise awareness.
Jetzt geht’s Russell, spiel mehr!!!
You’re probably right that this was an ongoing and deteriorating situation that only recently could be announced. My personal anxiety about it was that there was never anything said about it, which made me worry about a favorite player who could be going through something a lot worse medically, or worse, that there was some personal issue compounding the matter that the club didn’t want to talk about. Medical privacy is important, and I avoided speculation on the topic of his absence. I’m not claiming it as a virtue, I’m frustrated that it was something like this, and they didn’t hint we could chill.
I agree, we, as a pile of supporters, are 100% behind Russell Canouse.
Dedication is a two way street, he certainly gives it, and so do we.
Thanks for the insight. Devon McTavish was another player that played through Crohn’s Disease (https://www.dcunited.com/news/devons-open-letter-fans), so hopefully he and Russell have been in touch.
I did not know that. I cannot imagine how tough it would be to play dealing with either of the IBD (inflammatory bowel disease) conditions.
I can’t imagine that they have not been in touch. Fortunately, many pharmaceutical advances have emerged since I was leaving med school. Still, these are tough, tough, illnesses.
I am glad that Russell Canouse was able to get a diagnosis and a way forward to recovery. I am ok with not hearing about why he was out due to respect for his medical privacy. He has the right to say something publicly on his terms.
I wish him a speedy recovery and can’t wait to watch him play soccer again.
Well said! (and less verbiage than my “blog” above)
Some cool news, at least from my perspective.
It was just announced yesterday that 8 new teams are joining MLS Next (NOT MLS Next Pro, mind you). One of them is Keystone FC, in central Pennsylvania. They just announced they’ll be working in partnership with DC United and their academy to give opportunities to these kids.
The cool part for me is that my good friend’s kid plays for Keystone FC, and he’s been tapped as a “futures” player for their U15 MLS Next team. And, where he lives in PA happens to be juuuuuuuuuuust inside the radius for a DC United homegrown. So if everything goes well, who knows what we might see!
I’m also pretty pleased to be poaching some talent from what could otherwise reasonably be considered Union territory.
We’ve all been critical of DCU for a variety of reasons over different regimes. But I’m going to name two examples where the silence about a player let to rumors and it was really just the club feeling “this is not a playing issue, it’s personal, and it’s the player’s story to share or not share.” One instance was Santino Quaranta with the birth of his first child (and rumors started running around it was drug-related so ‘Tino told Goff to say he was at the birth of his child. This case with Canouse is another.
The club could have released more details. When they say it’s not sports-related, we all start having fears about drugs, gambling, arrests for personal matters like violence. That’s unfortunate. But the club is absolutely right to respect the privacy of the player and let the player decide when to share their story.
In the meantime, I wish the best to Canouse, a quick and full recovery so he’s even better than before. One of my favorite players (although, frankly, a bunch of guys are stepping up right now to earn a lot of respect and accolades from me). Get well Russell! We miss you, and we need you. But most of all, we all want you healthy and whole.
In fairness, for Canouse at least, I believe DC specifically said it was a “Non-sports-related injury‘, not an absence or anything else. So with that wording, I know personally I was thinking more along the lines of cancer or something similar (in the lines with a debilitating sickness or injury). If they had said he had been excused from team activities without any other info, I think that would have been more problematic, but it was handled well this time around at least
Perfectly stated. It was pretty clear to me it was a medical issue and my thoughts ranged from oncologic to auto-immune processes, less so other zebras in the herd of horses. I think DCU, Russell and Goff handled this just fine.
The dude is tough, and I am pulling for a full recovery and some destroyer midfield play, if possible.