Hi there, sorry for missing last Monday, I was watching the USL League One final between North Carolina FC and Charlotte. Nice little Derby (the Dogwood I’m told) for a cup, and a nice back and forth for 120 minutes that went to kicks, and the hosts NCFC won. Weird to be around such optimism for a local club, let me tell you!
Gotham FC claims first-ever NWSL Championship in wild 2-1 win over OL Reign (PSW): Hey, look at that, go Ali Krieger! WaPo with more.
Luciano Acosta isn’t the only former D.C. United midfielder from a South American country to find success following an unsuccessful stint at Atlas, as Edison Flores scored what was ultimately the winning goal for Universitario as they won the Peruvian Liga for the first time in a decade:
Mattar M’Boge discusses the US, Gambian Football, and other topics (Alkamba Times): If there is one soccer blog you read today that links to a Gambian site interviewing a D.C. United Academy coach, make it this one.
Anyway, hope there’s some sort of news to chat about sometime!
The young men of the u17 World Cup squad notched a win in their opener of the tournament, defeating what to my eye at least was a very good South Korean side 3-1 in a pulsating game. “So what, it’s not indicative of senior play” I hear you cry, but truly, I was very impressed by what I saw. This was a good display of passing ability and soccer IQ all around, standing in sharp contrast to what I witnessed in a very poor semifinal from our U-20 group. Granted, they did make it to a semifinal against eventual winners Uruguay, but Lordy, the complete lack of soccer IQ from anyone not named Cade Cowell and Kevin Parades was shocking. Anyway, the u17’s can likely clinch advancement against Burkina Faso before tangling with France, all these games are generously there to be recorded at obscenely early hours on FS1!
What a wild ending to the NWSL Final. And as soon as Repinoe came off, I was thinking “achilles tendon” as the likely culprit.
On Saturday the US Men’s Eagles took care of Brazil in dominating fashion 48-3. Spain defeated Canada in the next game of the Vila International Rugby Tournament. So the US will play Spain on Saturday in the championship match.
Columbus has moved on and is facing Orlando in the playoffs. I kind of feel like if DC was choosing Mackay from Nashville as their GM, there would have been some news following Nashville’s playoff exit. So perhaps it’s down to Tall of Columbus or Moreira of Orlando.
Or they could be waiting till after the MLS Cup Final…you know to let us all stew so more.
While DC continues to make no moves whatsoever, Chicago decides to keep their excellent and successful GM (/s), while RB decides to fire their relatively successful interim coach. But the latter team at least seems to have a player from their more important European team coming in.
I’m not thrilled about how slowly the GM saga has gone for, but at least we’re not making all the wrong moves…that is, until free agency comes and we don’t have a coach or GM.
As I typed this out, RB also let go of Hamlet, which is bad for us if he’s the one responsible for their cheap roster decisions. I’m not sure why he would deliberately do that and continue to be employed for so long, though.