MLS playoffs roll on, D.C. homegrown update & more: Monday Freedom Kicks
Hello again. Well the virus that my oldest got is now predictably working its way through our house, first to our youngest, now to this guy, which resulted in us cancelling some Thanksgiving plans. More turkey and stuffing for us I guess.
Ally Mackay And Jason Levien: D.C. United’s Agents Of Change? (Forbes): Ian with an interesting and maybe optimistic take?
Dynamo sink Sporting Kansas City to advance to Western Conference final (Bayou City Soccer): Good for Ben Olsen, who goes to the Western Conference Final. Over in the East, Columbus and Cincinnati reprise their derby for that Final.
In current homegrown happenings, Matai Akinmboni works with Villarreal:
In former homegrown happenings, Griffin Yow does it again:
And well, that’s pretty much it for me, gonna down some Vitamin C or some such stuff.
I’m very happy for Ben. And Houston are almost always fun to watch. And Houston are, again, a superb example of the point that it’s critical to have the GM and coach on the same page. Not just: the GM chooses the coach. But the GM and coach have a similar perspective and approach.
And it’s good to see Matai getting some serious time in professional environments. We need to see him take some big steps up this year. We might lose Pines. We’ve lost Williams. Birnbaum finds it more difficult to make it through an entire season, and Hines-Ike has had some major injury issues since arriving. To me, he’s now a backup–a guy you can’t count on to start, is physically overmatched by bigger forwards, but is a good teammate, very savvy, and if you manage his minutes he’ll be really critical depth.
And hurray for Yow–glad to see him succeeding!
Now, let’s re-sign Pines, get a coach, and start making FA decisions.
Nice to see DC homegrowns doing well. Akinmboni getting some time with Villarreal, Fletcher tearing it up with Swansea’s U-21s, Yow starting to find his form. Ian Harkes had a great career with Dundee and has done pretty well (particularly against DC) with New England. Moses Nyeman had his contract option declined by RSL, but they’re negotiating to keep him. Collin Martin finished out a good career with the San Diego Loyal. I kind of doubt he’d make the jump the San Diego FC team, but it would be a cool connection.
Hopefully we see some homegrowns really contributing to DC next season. Teddy KDP and Pines did well last year, and hopefully will reprise that. I think Fletcher is ready to take a big step, and I’d love to see some extra from Akinmboni, Hopkins, and Greene. Might Jeremy Garay even make an appearance?
Uh, that’s Dundee United…..
Dundee FC is, however, right around the corner….
;^)
You know, seeing a Ben Olsen (with Steve Clark and Brad Smith) vs Lucho (and Junior Moreno) MLS final would be really weird from a DC perspective, but I’m kinda here for it.
And if not those two, then Columbus and Gressel will be in MLS Cup.
Lucho Acosta has (deservedly) won the MVP award. Ben Olsen’s into the Conference Finals. I hope the top brass at DC United are taking a good long look inwards.
We are becoming the deadskins….people leave and go on to championships…..we are now infected with Snydervirus…..there is no cure…..
But really with the Lucho Acosta situation, how much more could they have done? They offered him a contract which he chose not to sign then got upset over the PSG situation which was never going to happen for him either way. If they wanted Lucho in Europe, he would be there already, just like Miggy is. Lucho quit on DCU before DCU quit on him. The manner in which he left, it was more on him than DCU. Lucho also didn’t do too well in Mexico, did he? The difference now is that he’s more mature and perhaps he has quell his tendency to be his own worst enemy.
I agree completely with this analysis.
Second that. He was pretty much toxic when he left. Happy for his results these days, but it suffice to say he had some growing up to do.
Pretty much. I can’t help but think that spite against his experience with DC and PSG is driving him forward, but if he thinks he’d be a starter for PSG if not for us, he’s an idjit.
Well said. I actually think that Lucho learned a lot with Atlas and came back as a much more mentally string and consistent player.
I’m super happy to see Yow doing well. His development really stalled under Losada, mainly because he couldn’t make the switch to wingback. But he always had this drive to actually try things so he was fun to watch. I wish he had been around for Rooney because I think he could have fit Rooney’s schemes better, but there’s a chance Rooney had input into selling him.
Nobody thrives under Losada, especially as a wingback.
That is because his system asks everyone, but especially the wingbacks to cover more ground over a whole season than is possible with the laws of physics and biomechanics. His system takes too much risk with no plan B in case the other team figures it out. It then asks the players to just run more to make up for the gaps caused by all the risk. Keep in mind that the players are already at nonstop maximum overdrive.
The HSBC Sevens series for the USA Eagle Sevens Men and Women are about to start up for the US. The men finished 10th in the top tier while the women finished 4th. The men and women start with the Dubai Sevens on Saturday. The men play in Pool C against Fiji, Great Britain, and France. While the Women are also in their respective Pool C with Spain, Canada, and France.
Mens: https://eagles.rugby/news/ben-pinkelman-named-captain-as-usa-mens-sevens-kick-off-202324-hsbc-svns-in-dubai-and-cape-town-20231124
Womens: https://eagles.rugby/news/usa-womens-sevens-prepare-for-hsbc-dubai-svns-to-kick-off-season-with-sights-set-on-paris-2024-lead-up-campaign-20231124
The Toronto Arrows have folded and will not compete in Major League Rugby next season.
https://www.majorleague.rugby/news/toronto-arrows-to-not-compete-in-2024-mlr-season/
I’m having trouble finding a recap or stat box, but it looks like Kristian Fletcher had a hat trick for the Swansea U-21s, giving him 13 goals in his time there.
Tom Bogert says it’s 11 goals. Either way, still phenomenal.
Pablo just posted a new interview with Ally Mackay and Levien on the Athletic. I found it pretty informative. Mackay seems to be saying the right things for now. I’m cautiously optimistic of his tenure being a good one
I was pretty set back by what Jason Levien had to say, to be honest.
“I found him through Google!”
“Dave Kasper still has a very active role to play in this organization.”
(Ally Mackay talks about wanting to bring in data and analytics like Nashville had.)
“We had someone we wanted to grow into Dave’s role [whose whole thing was data and analytics], but it wasn’t a good fit.”
Some mumbly talk when it comes to what kind of financial investment there will be in the club going forward.
No talk of the MLS Next Pro club that doesn’t exist yet.
Maybe I’m a pessimist, a worrywart, or just a hater, but I didn’t feel very good after reading that interview.
Yeah, some of Levien’s quotes were a bit off, but I thought what Ally said was at least good for the most part. And I actually took Levien’s Google comment as sort of a good thing. I guess it kind of told me that he was actually putting in the time trying to find people that would be good for the role. And once he found Ally and liked what he saw on the player relations side of things, he talked to people that knew and worked with him to learn more about him. To me, at least, that shows some initiative on Levien’s part to find someone he liked and actually seek them out for the position rather than just putting out the proverbial “help wanted” sign and waiting for random people to apply.
Ally is from Lewis/Harris in the Outer Hebrides. Maybe Harris tweed warm-ups are on the horizon?
To address the concerns with the MLSNext Pro Team, Jason just dropped this:
https://prosoccerwire.usatoday.com/2023/11/28/dc-united-mls-next-pro-baltimore-jason-levien-ally-mackay/
Yeah, just saw that. Very good news!