Hi, well I was at the beach, chasing the kids around and getting sunburnt, such as it is. Also brought the bad weather home, so sorry about that!
Recaps of D.C. United’s 5-3(?!!?) loss to the New York Red Bulls by us and WaPo. I mean Wayne Rooney can talk about officiating all he wants, but officiating didn’t give up five goals, you know?
Megan Rapinoe retires a winner as the USA tops South Africa 2-0 (SSFC): Fare the well Pinoe.
2024 NWSL Free Agency: What is it and how will it affect the Washington Spirit? (us): Annie dives into things a bit.
Anyway, I don’t have much else left, so I’ll be curled up in the fetal position at my desk.
Gotta love MLS’s transparency. The league ahs terminated Montreal midfielder Matoko Miljevic’s contract.
The League’s coverage: https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/mls-terminates-matko-miljevic-s-contract-with-cf-montreal
ESPN FC’s coverage with more detail: https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/38432011/mls-boots-montreal-miljevic-amid-fake-name-punch-claims
In a nutshell Miljevic violated the standard player agreement.
i don’t know how he could have been so dumb. All the major leagues have that clause.
I think we tend to forget this fact because of the age range of most pro soccer players, but 22 year olds are a mess
It would seem there was no better day to have coincidentally upgraded to the east seats than last Saturday. The wind and rain were laterally moving west (and south) so my wife and I were only saturated on the walk to the stadium (the walk back wasn’t too bad). We were indeed saturated though; our not-as-waterproof-as-we-thought coats are still drying to this day. The real champs were in the exposed sections of the stadium.
Nevertheless, as a final match for my attendance this year, I’m still pretty sour about it. While I already formally did not renew my season ticket, I had wavered and thought “Maybe… I’ll give it another look”. That game was the nail in the coffin to convince me otherwise. I feel worse for my wife: 5 matches attended this year – no wins. Heck, trade some of those away wins for home wins, and I might still reconsider. Alas, D.C. United is one of the worst performers in the league when playing at home this year.
Miraculously, our playoff hopes are not dashed, because apparently most in the eastern conference in the playoff hunt don’t want to win games. I’m not holding my breath though. May this offseason be filled with more action and hope for the future than this season provided.
I still feel deep down that a fully-available D.C. United is actually a pretty decent squad, with room for growth thanks to an open DP slot and Morrison no longer on the books. There’s something inherently wrong though with how easily the team concedes goals (a problem I thought mitigated over September until this most recent game).
According to Adam Jahn (?), DC is the absolute worst performer at home over this season and last season.
I have one more year on contract, and I am free to leave.
I was saving my upgrade for the last game to go from the West stands to East. The weather was inconstant. I even took off my DCU poncho (which I first used this month after owning it for a year or two) during the first half (I did have a DCU rain jacket underneath). I placed it on the seat next to me (higher up than my usual seats because a dad and his kid were sitting in my seats). I absentmindedly left the poncho there when my friend and I went for food at halftime, When we came back, most of the seats in the row were now filled with poncho-wearing fans, and I couldn’t say who was then wearing my poncho — but someone was.
Playoffs? Right now, I expect we’ll rapidly slide down the table, ending up ahead of possibly only Toronto. At least, we’ll have a high draft pick, if the Superdraft still exists come January.
I reviewed the critical referee decisions for the Saturday game and they were shambolic. How can MLS continue to underperform other leagues by not calling obvious fouls and not recognizing a pattern of persistent fouling?
The PK corrected was clearly outside the penalty area. How could the referee not see it? In isolation, this is forgivable. The next PK for tripping on Canouse was such a light touch that it should not have been called. The player then took 3 steps and did the trick of tripping himself with the trailing leg going into the calf of his other leg. The elbow to the face should have been a straight red. He cocked the elbow and swing in a very short motion. The same defensive player then bowled over the DCU player in the corner and not even a foul was called. This should have been his second yellow and red card.
This is not to defend how DC United played as the goals were soft for the most part (including the soft penalty!). However, to get a referee that allows the Red Bulls to have their way in terms of continuous fouling was a clear failure on the part of the referee team. To have VAR sit on their thumbs when a player is knocked out also seems equally incomprehensive.
I haven’t seen the replays yet, but the PK calls weren’t good, and I remain gobsmacked that there was no VAR call for the alleged trip.
I had no view of the elbow, but the shove of Dajome at the end line was an easy call. It was not just a very forceful hip check — sometimes refs let that go — as Dajome had passed the defender whose attempted hip check hit Dajome in the back instead. Hard to believe that the AR, who was right there, didn’t put his flag up, and I assume that the ref was taking his cue from the AR. That non-call was such a contrast to a play less than a minute later when DCU defender barely made contact from behind with a Red Bulls attacker as they waited for the kick to come down.
OTOH that non-call was not unlike the non-call when Benteke bowled over a defender, before drawing a PK himself, which seemed to me to be a make-up call for the penalty kick they’d awarded not long before.
There are always bad calls in a match, but they did mostly seem to go against us.
I saw a thing that United was interested in a 21 year old Bolivian right back, who apparently already has a green card. Ok, sounds fine.
Turns out he has played four matches in his career. Three league, one cup appearance. That’s it.
Right back hasn’t been too bad, with Najar and Ruan both bringing some good contributions to offense, and being not too bad on defense. Jacob Greene is the third string. Maybe this Bolivian guy is to fill out an MLS Next Pro team, which… is that even happening?
Seems remiss if no one does a post about Rapinoe, here’s what I got.
She was an incredible talent for a long, long time. For her communities, absolute icon. The fact that she ever became a controversial figure within this country says a lot more about the state of the nation in this millennium than herself. She had to blaze a trail for equality and understanding, and got a lot of it done while taking shit slinging from the absolute worst humans. Don’t think anyone comes out of that the same, and yet was never truly diminished.
Have a good one, Pinoe. The young ones are glad you were.
The Sounders have released their brand update: https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/seattle-sounders-unveil-brand-evolution-before-50th-anniversary-in-2024
So how many games before we’re eliminated or will it wait till decision week? I don’t see us winning out the remaining games.
I think it’s decision week. The teams that could move ahead of us aren’t on a positive run–either they’re on the road or in a rut. And I think we’ll lose out because they have games in-hand.
Or, collect decent points with what’s left and make it hard on them.