Happy Friday, everyone! I don’t have much for you today (why is Thursday such a slow news day?), but let’s get started.
San Diego awarded 30th MLS team, will debut in 2025 (ESPN)
MLS has now made it official that San Diego will be getting an expansion team, owned by Egyptian billionaire Mohamed Mansour among others. The new team will share Snapdragon Stadium with the San Diego Wave and SDSU football team.
Angel City owner Julie Uhrman fined by NWSL after confronting referees (Pro Soccer Wire)
Angel City was and is upset about the handball call that led to Washington Spirit’s win last Saturday. Regardless of where you fall on that controversy (I think it probably wasn’t a handball, but I’m interested to see PRO’s Inside Video Review video this week), approaching the ref after a game is a big no-no. This isn’t exactly unheard of for Angel City, who’ve developed a reputation for earning fines after the league levied two against them before even playing their first game.
Hey Spirits! episode: Superstitious PB&J (w/Marissa Sheva) (The District Press)
Continuing on our quest to interview every Spirit player possible, we talked to Marissa Sheva this week about her insane first pro goal, the Spirit’s current system, and her path to the Republic of Ireland National Team. The goal, for reference:
Spirit head coach Mark Parsons also sat down for an interview with Craig Hoffman this week. They talked about Parsons’ career, changes at the Spirit, and more.
World Cup 2026 logo will tell you what year the tournament is in (Pro Soccer Wire)
We shared the logo for the 2026 World Cup with you yesterday, but I thought I would also share this round-up of people clowning on it.
Just the three soccer teams on our chart this weekend. Here they are:
| Teams | When | Where | Watch |
| Washington Spirit vs. Orlando Pride | Sat., May 20 at 7 p.m. ET | Exploria Stadium | Paramount+, NBC Sports Washington |
| Loudoun United FC vs. Hartford Athletic | Sat., May 20 at 7 p.m. ET | Trinity Health Stadium | ESPN+ |
| D.C. United vs. LA Galaxy | Sat., May 20 at 7:30 p.m. ET | Audi Field | Apple TV |
That’s all I’ve got for you today. I am looking forward to a lot of fun stuff this weekend, including going to my first Washington Mystics game tonight. Anyone else have anything interesting planned?
Anything interesting you ask? Work has be headed to San Diego for a week.
Hmmmm, Annie, the weekend…
Tonight: Chef’s pairings with Davis Bynum wines at my CC. Yum.
Saturday: DC Bayern Club, at Bronson’s, at noon. Watch recording of Georgetown vs UVA lacrosse (also a noon start), while babysitting girlfriend’s cat. The cat is cool. Head to Buzzard Point for a BEATDOWN of the Galaxy. Our uniforms represent a monstrous black hole, sucking the entire life out of the galaxy. No light, no hope, no LA.
Sunday: Saying good bye to a beloved sport-dive hangout, Thirsty Bernie, in Arlington. Ample free parking, family-friendly customers and staff, decent food, multiple TVs for sports, no frills, St. Bernard mascot….I will miss her. Last day open reportedly is Thursday the 25th. Like Summers, I have many sporting memories there. The greatest was game 5 Caps Stanley Cup win over Vegas. Packed to capacity, pure pandemonium. A very honorable mention was World Cup 2022, USA vs England match. Lots of youthful locals that played soccer for O’Connell, Yorktown, and Washington-Liberty (Lee, in my day), who impressed me with their knowledge of the game and absolute dedication to the Yanks on the pitch. It was special, and they treated me like a respected relic….
Please remember to support your family-owned local establishments. Otherwise, you’ll likely get a franchise….or a vacancy…..
See you all Saturday night at Buzzard Point
Also, one other point to make: when DCU won against Montreal, Orlando, the league talking heads responded with “yeah but…” and pointed out we’d be going on the road and facing some elite teams (like Nashville, Cincinnati, Philly) and that would be the real test (hint: we wouldn’t match up against those 3). And instead, we’ve been a tough team to play against, we’ve either been the better team in all 3 matches OR we’ve had moments where we looked good, we’re playing more cohesively. I’m not saying we’re an MLS Cup favorite at this point. Only that people who were slighting us pointed to this run of the schedule that would show how beating up on weak teams didn’t mean we were good. And instead, DCU has shown well.
Well said, and I concur.
This is all true, though I do worry how our fortunes change when O’Brien departs. He’s a great partner for Canouse and then some, knows how to carry the ball and has a damn good feel for the ball. I’m afraid our defensive cover and connectivity go way down when he leaves for good.
Hopefully they’re working on a replacement for the summer transfer window. (Or Ravel is still on the books anyway…)
They won’t acknowledge that DC United is a competitive team even when they make the MLS Cup. To them, being a jobber team is just DC United’s place in the universe, no accounting for context. They didn’t bother to pay attention to any of the off-season singings, didn’t bother to pay attention to any public comments from Coach Rooney about being tough to play against, didn’t bother to notice that DC United was plainly robbed against Columbus, didn’t bother to acknowledge that it took a once a year wacky corner kick for Cincinnati to score at home, didn’t acknowledge that it took a friggin blatant handball for Nashville to score against a short handed DC United, and they haven’t acknowledged that DC United just bossed a really good Philadelphia team on the road as was unlucky to come away with a road draw.
Meanwhile, they keep blathering in about how the Red Bulls is actually one of the best teams despite the fact that other teams have straight up figured out that fouling-ass press (see Ben Olsen’s Houston rope-a-doping them to a road point) and that NYC will be top of the conference any day now despite the fact they aren’t even competitive on a real soccer field.
If they want to miss some really good quality soccer coming out of DC United right now, F em. That’s on them.
So it turns out, according to MLS website, Philly is our derby rival…
“After Rivalry Week’s Wednesday action featured only one derby match (a 0-0 draw between Philadelphia and D.C. United), Matchday 14 rachets the intensity back up with nine battles for regional supremacy.”
OGDC drew with bottom of the Eastern Conference Toronto Arrows last night up north. The draw moves OGDC into 2nd place for the round now. They are 10 points behind New England, 1 point ahead of New York, 6 points ahead of Atlanta, 7 points ahead of NOLA, and 19 points ahead of Toronto. Atlanta plays Dallas, New England plays NOLA, and New York is on a bye this weekend. With New York on a bye and Atlanta and NOLA at most being able to add 5 standings points (4 pts for the win + 1 for scoring 4 or more tries) OGDC can’t be passed.