Happy Thursday, everyone. We’re having a hot snap today before the fall weather moves back in for the weekend, so while you soak up the sun rays, here’s some of the news:
Snapdragon Stadium to host first ever W Gold Cup Final (SSFC)
The W Gold Cup Final will be in San Diego at Snapdragon Stadium, which has received a ton of big women’s soccer matches lately.
Seattle Sounders in advanced talks to buy NWSL’s OL Reign (Sportico)
Huge news as the Seattle Sounders appear to be in the driver’s seat to buy OL Reign. We bringing this back?
Charlotte FC part ways with head coach Christian Lattanzio (MLS)
Charlotte FC thinks they’re Barcelona or something, firing their 2nd coach in as many seasons they have existed.
Barcelona back Xavi amid calls for manager change (ESPN)
Speaking of Barca, not even they are firing coaches right now, despite them losing to Shakhtar Donetsk in Champions League and losing El Clásico at home as well.
MLS suspends Philadelphia Union’s Kai Wagner 3 games after racial slur allegation (The Athletic)
Kai Wagner is out for 3 games after he admitted to using a racial slur against Bobby Wood. He claims Wood said something about his family, but that’s no excuse for racism. Ever.
Phil Neville: Portland Timbers boss wants to meet MLS club’s fans after criticism (BBC)
Portland has hired Phil Neville, and he wants to meet with Timbers Army after they (and the rest of the world) criticized his hiring.
Enjoy the day, everyone. Bring back the hoodie weather, please.
I can’t stop commenting on the Neville hiring, it’s just excruciating not to say how dumb this is. Miami were one of the most listless, disjointed teams under him I’ve seen in MLS, and financial investment was not the issue. They friggin had to fine the team for having too many DP’s, and they were STILL garbage. That you’re still subpar while cutting corners and cheating, that takes a level of dysfunction and ineptitude I honestly don’t think even United has managed in their history of coaching hires. And Portland want to hand him the keys after that? Oy vey
Neville better hope his meeting with The Portland fan group doesn’t have a Roman Senate vibe, if you know what I’m saying
In his interview with Charles Boehm, he was basically saying he couldn’t be sexist because he has a sister. They’re gonna love that.
Just looked up what he tweeted, mamma Mia, that’s some Mad Men shit
“Roman senate vibe”–well played. Et tu Brutus?
Neville was unimpressive as the coach of the 3 Lionesses–they had success despite him. Beckham and Co. hired him at Miami for all the wrong reasons. They did get better as they got “poorer” but he’s definitely a poor hire.
Apparently Montreal just fired Hernan Losada. He actually lasted longer in DC. I suspect that’s probably the end of his coaching adventures in MLS. When you have two separate teams of players totally turn on you, and you’ve never made the playoffs, it’s not good.
Losada was a charming interview and looked to be a motivational figure, I think he had a lot of us fooled. It will be interesting to hear what reports and rumors come out of Montreal, but I’m expecting some control freak behavior and unreasonable demands. It may be time to change our collective griping about Kasper ousting him, not that Kasper wasn’t doing a bit of scape goating for his own sake, but losing Losada increasingly looks like a good call.
The one thing you can’t say about Losada is he doesn’t care, and it may be that we were so starved for someone in power to give a shit (other than Olsen, who a lot of us felt had done all he could) that it became a welcoming environment for someone to whip us into shape. Losada I think doesn’t know anything but the whip, and pro athletes need more
Disagree with your statement, I doubt he did anything but missing the playoffs.
He’s definitely got that control freak behavior, but we are talking about another team with a terrible FO. I mean that was the 10th coach in 13 years.
We have reports from United players, you know. Might be worth exhuming those, if you missed them before.
He also hasn’t ever had much in the way of DPs on any of his teams. I still think he’s done in MLS.
Spot on. Saputo gonna Saputo. This is just normal in Montreal. What would have been shocking is if Losada go a multiyear extension.
Firing Losada wasn’t a bad move.
The hiring process for the coach in the first place was largely a shambles, even though a lot of people thought it ended well with Losada’s hiring. Was due diligence really done, though?
And then, the front office had the reports of Seitz and others, and yet brought him back for 2021, only to fire him when those stories were on the verge of being public. In the mean time, having Losada back for 2021 caused Paul Arriola to demand a trade. I think you can give Kasper a good deal of blame for the process that brought him in, and then dragging the feet on firing him, choosing Losada over Arriola (and Seitz), and then losing both anyway.
But firing Losada wasn’t a bad move.
Yeah, I could see all of that. Sounds like Kasper didn’t make a move until results started to turn, that much is true. I want him fired and a whole new team in the FO at this point, just pointing out that Losada is not a long term boon to anyone, at least in this league.
I was curious to see what would happen when he was away from DC. It ended up being almost exactly like what happened when he was here. So, there’s a pattern.
I am relieved they came to their senses. It went exactly as I said it would, good record in the middle of the season then run out of gas. You can’t run a system that deliberately exposes the back line to being isolated and expect it to be sustainable for a whole season. You can’t take too much risk in your middle and back third and expect your players being able to outsprint the other team for 90 minutes for 8 months to make up for the excess risk.
We will also probably hear about the same abusive crap where he fines players for eating a potato chip in a facebook photo from when they were in elementary school.
There are too many coaches out there to put up with a guy who shortens careers and loses in doing so.
You can totally do that in Belgium where there are just fewer games, but even there he left Beerschot on a 8 game losing streak.
And where the weather is cooler as well. Playing Maximum Overdrive!! during August on the road in Miami. Or Houston. That’s just not workable.
It seemed like he tried to run out all the guys he thought would push back early in the season. Obviously it didn’t amount to success, and the post-mortem interviews/meetings probably didn’t give the head honcho any indication that things would improve.
Still, Saputo fires even the good guys. So Losada walked into a bad situation no matter what.
I could be that Losada had an unreasonable set of demands that a club spend that aren’t feasible in the MLS due to the salary cap and rules. I can see him hitting a brick wall with a lot of MLS front offices.
He also probably never acquired the Olsen ability to keep a locker room on his side at all times.
Regarding Losada, I have no inside info. Maybe this was just Saputo getting tired and rearranging everything. Or wanting a big name affiliated with an Italian club. Maybe this was Losada making demands that the club wasn’t willing to meet. Maybe this was more of the talent on the team saying “it’s him or me–you choose–cuz I’m not signing/re-signing if this guy is retained as coach.”
Also, I think Losada’s dismissal here in DC was a little more nuanced than it was just Kasper who brought him in and Kasper who fired him. Levien is the one who passed on Noonan and Pineda. Levien is the one who decided to bring him (Losada) in for an IV. My understanding is that Lucy Ruston and Losada were at odds, especially at the end. Losada wasn’t taking her input on analytics and they didn’t see eye-to-eye on talent and then Kasper got involved.
I have no problem with the decision to hire Losada. It was a choice by a low budget team to find a way to compete against bigger cap teams. And damn Losada sounded good and really connected with the fans. And with some work on the rough edges (the micro-control of diets, being a tad more flexible, having a little more organization on the back end) he might become a really good coach in the future. But we found his system isn’t sustainable and if Plan A (high press like mad) doesn’t work there is no Plan B other than “try and stop the jail break!” And his man management was terrible.
One thing worth keeping an eye on is the Nations League games against T&T, particularly for us United fanatics, cuz Pulisic and Weah are both left off the roster injured. The only likely wing players are the two Aaronsons, Zendejas, and some kid named Kevin Parades. Our boy seems destined for minutes in meaningful competition, other than Brenden I actually think he has the most current ability. These games are crucial to our quest to reach Copa America, so big things happpening, people!
US Men’s Eagles (XVs rugby) take on Brazil tomorrow morning at 10 AM ET in Spain as part of the Vila International Cup. Old Glory DC’s Jack Iscaro (local product) has been named in the Starting XV for tomorrow’s Test Match. You can watch the game on RugbyPass TV (https://rugbypass.tv/home). Accounts for RugbyPass Tv are free.
If they win they will play the winner of Spain vs Canada on the 18th or if they lose they will play the loser of the Spain vs Canada match.