It’s Wednesday, folks! We’re in the midst of our first real heat wave of the year, and it’s going to get worse at the week goes on, so do what you need to do to stay cool! To the kicks!
D.C. United, dealing with MLS probe and roster issues, turns to Leagues Cup (Washington Post): D.C. United at last have their turn at the Leagues Cup as they head up to Montreal to face the club of feet. Montreal took 2 points (you read that right) in their Leagues Cup match against Pumas where they beat Pumas 4-2 in PKs. This will not be an easy matchup, and it is made more difficult by some roster shuffling do to injuries and The Incident.
D.C. United’s Taxi Fountas investigated after racial slur allegation: What we know (The Athletic): The Incident appears to have taken place during and after the match against New England, further solidifying that match as the (so far?) lowest point of the year for the team. Furthermore, United seem to have been shopping Taxi around even prior to The Incident.
USWNT vs. Netherlands: Three keys for USA in Women’s World Cup final rematch; favorites look for consistency (CBS Sports): If the United States can take 3 points against the Netherlands, they’ll be sitting high and mighty at 6 points in the group. This match will likely prove more difficult than Vietnam, however.
Graham Hansen critical of Riise as Norway’s World Cup hopes fade (Pro Soccer Wire): For every success story in the World Cup, there’s a story of frustration. This tournament is not going the way Norway expected.
Washington Spirit to host three watch parties for World Cup group stage games (The DP): Reminder that there are two watch parties today!
Hey, that picture above looks pretty dang fun. You know what else is fun? *Puts on Mel Brooks mask* Merchandising! Namely, Washington Spirit merchandising.
Annapolis Blues fall, 4-0, to West Chester United in NPSL East Region semifinal (Capital Gazette): Alas, the Blues fall to West Chester United means the final (near to the) DMV team has been eliminated from the NPSL playoffs.
A championship soccer season in Annapolis started with a silly chant. (The Baltimore Banner): The season was, if I may be so bold, an unmitigated success. In their inaugural season, they won their conference season and post-season, broke some records along the way, and made a hell of a chant in the process. “Old Bay… Old Bay, Old Bay, Old Bay.”
That’s all the kicks this morning. Get kicking in the comments to keep it going!
DC shopping Taxi is telling. Maybe it’s as simple as the coaching staff figured they could get better production out of that DP spot somewhere else on the field or maybe they saw something. All speculation of course, but that’s surprising.
I can’t imagine DC gets anything in return for Fountas, and I hope he never plays again. Am I a bad fan for wanting some time off from watching this dumpster fire?
The truly disappointing things here are the absolute lack of any presence of the public faces of DCU during this mess. Rooney is “ill” and skips the presser leaving Shuttleworth to face the music. Radio silence from the muppet Levien and ditto from Dumpster Diving Dave. Guys, you fired a trainer you hired for making a racist gesture and one of your DPs is undergoing his second investigation in a year for making racist remarks to another player and your only response publicly is to do a Friday at 11:30 PM news dump about both situations. This is Snyderesque and you all should suffer the same fate — grab you bag of cash and leave town ASAP.
All very well said. Shopping Taxi may also be at Taxi’s request, maybe due to last year’s gig with Miami and possible continued friction from the fall out. Who knows? Frankly, who cares? Time to find Taxi a new garage. I heard Bundesliga is floating Uber for the right price. We need some kind of Lyft, afterall….
It is reprehensible to make Shuttleworth the talking piece on this, even if there was nothing to be added on to his remarks due to MLS regulations. The FO should have made a statement. Even if it was: “We have nothing further that we can add, due to league rules.”
This doesn’t save the club’s bacon, but they did release statements solely on the DC website…buried a bit. So yea they might as well have not said anything honestly.
Oh I wasn’t going for bacon, I was going for one lowly undercooked grit. Didn’t get it.
One nice thing about Season Pass is that you can rewatch entire matches. Just going back and looking at the Taxi-Robertha incident in the New England game. At 66:35, United was making a counter into the New England half, but had turned the ball over. The Black and Red were trying to lock the Revs in and win it back. The ball goes out towards the sideline, and Taxi moves to pressure the ball. He checks his back shoulder and notices a Revolution player coming centrally, and he motions (and I think verbally alerts) Nigel Robertha about it. Robertha is on the far side. He is walking. He’s not really marking anyone, but could be playing to prevent a big switch.
Anyway, the ball gets played to the Revs player that Taxi had noticed. Robertha is a good ten yards away from that player and at least twice that distance from Taxi. Robertha comes toward the player, but is not applying strong pressure. The ball is played to the opposite touchline, and Taxi is clearly frustrated.
At 66:44, he gestures at Robertha and says something. Robertha stops dead in his tracks and starts approaching Taxi with purpose. There are no other United players between them, but Revolution player (and former Terp!) Josh Bolma is right there between them. Bolma had just checked on to the field a couple minutes earlier, making his MLS debut. Bolma (who is from Ghana) doesn’t appear to react to anything that is happening. As Robertha goes past him towards Taxi, he does check back over his shoulder, but that could just be related to field awareness, seeing where this potential defender (Robertha) is going now that he’s behind him.
By 66:52 (about 8 seconds worth of drama), Robertha and Taxi are separating and going about their business. Clearly, Taxi said something to make Robertha stop and immediately address it. And it evidently caused enough anger to carry over into the postgame locker room.
Excellent job on your part. Thanks for the review and the post. A great example of why I check in to the DP multiple times per day.
I guess crabs are no longer in season….
Old Bay, Old Bay-Old Bay-Old Bay, Old Bay, Old Bay…..
Still great run, greater logo…
Season Pass also has a 10 minute video about Mateusz Klich, about how he likes graffiti and unique fashion style. He seems to be fitting in with DC culture pretty well, although they do show him playing with his dog right next to Arlington Cemetery. It’s not a view that often gets showcased, the parks along the GW Parkway.
Worth checking out.
Ryan Keefer has shared a couple of things on Twitter today in relation to DC transfers:
The player that DC was apparently looking into that played in South Africa, Karim Kimvuidi, has apparently signed for the Orlando Pirates, which was noted as the other team trying to sign him.
More recently, there are now reports that José Fajardo, a Panamanian center-forward who currently plays in Peru, has now signed for DC. This is apparently following reports previously that he was going to the US to sign for “an unnamed MLS team”
I don’t have any idea how credible either of these reports are, but at least we’re getting something?
The highlight video I watched of Kimvuidi wasn’t very impressive. The fee I saw attached to him was pretty significant, so perhaps since he’s young, he projects well? At this point though, losing out on him doesn’t seem like a tragedy. I am glad they’re scouting Africa a bit. I think that Rooney had said that was something he wanted to do.
Fajardo seems like a bit of a target forward, a big body that definitely occupies that central space. If we’re structuring our play around having someone like Benteke to focus on, he doesn’t seem like a bad backup. He’s about to turn 30, so our love of older players continues. But having him and fellow Panamanian Eric Davis coming into the squad together would probably be beneficial for both those guys. Seems like an upgrade on Hurtado, at least.
The team just shared some pictures of the team walking around Montreal, as they normally do on game day. But, there’s someone in the shots that I can’t seem to place. Can’t tell if I’m just pulling a blank on who this is, if its some sort of staff person, or a new player. Anyone have any ideas?
Looks like Jacob Greene.
Changing hair styles is like creating a whole new identity in sports.
And apparently it’s wildly popular to go bleach blond from time to time.
Anyone know if there’s a deeper meaning to that, or if they just think it looks good?
Do you… not… want to look like Spike from Buffy?
I’d rather look like Buffy.
I die my hair gray…..sigh…..
I did some digging in the roster on the DC website and think its Greene too now. I feel like every time I see him his hair is drastically different, so I didn’t notice it was him at first lol
Yeah, he just got a haircut.
I don’t know what I was expecting, but the complete absence of a response from my club over the current scenario is no bueno. In this scenario, you want someone high, high up in authority to give a big old “nope,” and have a volcanic reaction to change things for the better. This is playing possum shit.
The club is probably thinking they can get away with it because there’s an MLS probe going on, but at this point, Fountas’ conduct is damage done, and the whole organization clearly needs a revamp- in short, they don’t need to wait for some MLS probe to have a fucking, significant response.
You’re absolutely right, but this is a franchise that has tolerated Dumpster Diving Dave’s absolute mediocrity as a talent evaluator for almost 20 years, so accountability for this club is just a word under “a” in the dictionary.
It’s just disturbing to me that this low point isn’t a kick up the backside to action… it truly makes me wonder if this is a kick to a dead franchise, instead. This indicates more than just a lack of accountability, but a complete lack of care, maybe even viability. It should have been immediate.
But they painted a Black Lives Matter message on the field a few years ago.
We had Bill Hamid and Earl Edwards, Jr., two board members of the Black Players for Change on the team. We had Chris Odoi-Atsem who was quite involved.
We still have plenty of Black players. We need to still have that commitment.
Right.
“There is no place for racism, homophobia, misogyny, or discrimination of any kind in our sport and world and D.C. United do not tolerate any acts of this nature,” the statement said.
That’s what they said when they fired their trainer. The photo was taken a few days earlier, I became aware of it on social media I think just earlier that day, or the day before at the most. But mostly, it seemed like swift action, and a clear declaration of principles.
And yet, this issue from July 15 has persisted. They are probably using the excuse of the MLS investigation, but I don’t think they need an investigation to act on this.
My assumption: D.C. United want to kick Fountas to the curb, but they’re hoping MLS does it for them. If they fire Fountas now, they may be liable for any contract legalities. If MLS rescinds the contract for them, United is free. Making a statement prior to the conclusion of the investigation opens up a can of worms that is probably just easier to keep closed right now.
Still just an assumption.
I’m not even looking for a direct statement on the situation with Fountas. I’m looking for some sign this club is going to rebound off the bottom of the ocean with clear objectives and a resolve to not be this anymore, the not accept this clear Bullshit status. Outlets that have never mentioned the club in their history are now doing so because of this mess, and there’s no response but play dead? In that case, are we even playing?
Edit: I think legally, it’s probably a smart thing to not discuss the matter, but it’s not like a lot of changes outside of it don’t need to be made. Does anyone actually believe that getting rid of Fountas is mission accomplished for an appropriate house cleaning?
I don’t know why you are surprised. In my view, this is the same ownership that hid behind the good standing of one Ben Olsen for many years. The FO has always been lacking but before they had Ben who cared enough for the team to put himself out there and take blame, Rooney doesn’t have the same ties to the organization that Ben did, so they can no longer rely on having a shield, so they cower.
It’s not a surprise, but it is frightening to see what a chasm of leadership they are, it’s deeper than I thought or feared.
I’m always amused that Mason never turned my student email off and I’d forwarded it to my gmail. I still get DCU student rush ticket ads. They are offering $20 ticket to college students for this weekend’s Leagues Cup game.
That is the second-least deserved win DC United have had in Montreal, and that’s really saying something since the top one on the list is one of the least deserved wins by any team anywhere.
I mean, credit to the defense which made desperate stops, and Bono who came up with a big save, but this match should have been 3-0 to Montreal, if not worse for DCU.
Maybe the soccer gods making up for the 4-0 drubbing.
Erik Hurtado is a match-winner, I’ve always said it.
Legend.
Epic
I don’t know if that’s really a fair assessment. DC had the better XG numbers for most, if not all, of the game. We were hanging on by a thread at the end, sure, but just as Montreal could have scored, DC could have also scored more. Ruan barely missed a shot, and Benteke could’ve reasonably had 2. An argument can be made that Montreal probably deserved to score and probably deserved a point, but DC wasnt that bad, and were perfectly fine for large stretches of the game. I mean, we spent 10 years hanging on for dear life any time we had a lead under Ben
xG applies only to shots, not situations that should’ve led to shots. Montreal player standing two feet away from the goal line lets the ball go through his legs. Is that figured into xGs? All those crosses intercepted by sliding defenders? Even still, Williams cleared a ball off the line, and Bono’s save were probably 80% chances. Other missed chances — while Benteke missed a sitter late on, that opportunity existed only because Montreal was pressing for tying goal. And Hopkins fell down just before the end of the game — would have been a breakaway for the Impact, but Hopkins got a very generous call.
There are different ways of calculating xG, some that take into account more than just shots. Like crosses that just barely miss a player’s head — that can count as a chance, just as blasting the ball 40 feet over the goal or way wide can. And as far as things like crosses getting blocked by sliding defenders…isn’t that exactly what defenders are supposed to do? We’ve had tons of games (on both sides of the ball) where the attacking team just repeatedly blasts crosses into the box and the either get blocked or only get weak shots off, just like we saw tonight. Sometimes they break through and it works, but tonight it didn’t. Id argue that DC definitely had the better game up until like the 70-80 minute mark. Team clearly got tired and we started to bunker. It happens. But we even still had our chances after that with Benteke and Hopkins. I feel like most of the arguments you could use to say that Montreal deserved to win tonight could also be applied to DC. We ended up with the mistake/lucky bounce going in our favor, just as Montreal could have.
Meh. Who scored the winning goal? A DC United player. Who prevented Montreal shots from going in? DC United players. Were we gifted a non deserving penalty and won the game due to that? Nope. Was it not the pressing by one DC United player that led to the Montreal mistake that turned the ball over which resulted in the lone goal? Did the ball just bounced off Hurtado unintendedly and into the net? Nope, Hurtado actually hustled and scored a good goal. Did United players not put in the effort and simply won by sheer luck? No one who watched the game could claim that. Defense is part of the game is it not?
No one is claiming DC United was excellent or even good and Montreal could have scored on us and tied it and even win but they didn’t because our team actually worked hard to prevent them from scoring. They put in the work, I don’t see how one could claim that they didn’t deserve it. Hell, after the last twelve days they probably had post the Revs game and all the distracting circus, I am actually pleased that they acted as professionals and put heart into it.
Am I right that Alex Bono has only given up one goal this year?
And am I right that I saw a headline that DC had clinched advancement to the knockout stages of the tournament?
If so, a might goal indeed by Hurtado. Thank you Montreal for that headed backpass!
A nice tournament showing could do wonders for the team, although other actions need to be taken. At the very least, I’m very pleased that Alex Bono gets at least one extra game to show his stuff.
You would be correct. The rules of this tournament are convoluted, but the way the math works out, DC is at the very worst one of the second place finishers that qualify.