3252 suspended, 2024 MLS Match Ball revealed, and more: Thursday Freedom Kicks
Happy Thursday, everyone. We’re getting close to the weekend. Who do you have in MLS Cup, the Crew or LAFC? Before you discuss in the comments, let’s discuss some of the news:
MLS Statement on Los Angeles Football Club (MLS)
LAFC’s 3252 has had their away privileges suspended for MLS Cup and are indefinitely suspended for the entire 2024 season, and LAFC was fined $100K after the supporters set up enough pyro to light up the entire city of LA last weekend at the Western Conference final match. You mess around, you find out.
2024 MLS Match Ball unveiled (MLS)
The MLS Match Ball for next year has been introduced. Thoughts?
The Coachella Valley Invitational schedule is out, and D.C. United will not participate this year. Where will the Black-and-Red do their preseason? It’s probably too much to dream that we can resume the Coffee Pot Cup, eh?
Tim Howard voted into National Soccer Hall of Fame (SSFC)
This happened over the weekend, but congrats to Tim Howard for being a first ballot Hall of Famer!
Inter Miami finalizing Luis Suarez signing on one-year deal (The Athletic)
Looks like Luis Suarez is headed to Fort Lauderdale to play with his friend Messi.
Christine Sinclair closes international chapter as Canada’s storied pioneer (The Guardian)
Christine Sinclair said goodbye to the game on Tuesday night. A tribute to the most prolific goalscorer of all time.
Finally, as we sign off, if you’re not doing anything at lunch on Friday, I’ll be leading a session with the Society for American Soccer History!!
Enjoy the day, y’all.
Re: Sinclair: Hell of a career. She deserves thanks and applause for such a great run in the sport.
As for the new soccer ball, it’s an Adidas pro quality soccer ball. Looks are meh but nobody cares as long as the players can make it do what they want to do with it and it’s safe when fully inflated.
I like the colors. I mostly just want to see it being picked out of our opponent’s net a bunch.
Re: LAFC setting off fireworks – If any other team’s supporters did that, the league would demand a few empty arena games and a much larger fine. $100k and restricted privileges is weak sauce for violating league rules and probably violating California state law.
(Sees Suarez is going to Miami)
Messi, Busquets, Alba, and Suarez you say? Sounds like MLS is gonna have to gestate some New Rules!
No, cuz it’s Messi’s the league will just say “they’re good, just ignore OUR OWN WEBSITE that says that are, in fact, violating league rules.”
Remember when they signed Busquets and literally everyone said they already had 3 DPs and the leagues own mouthpiece, Weibe, came out to say “it’s too confusing to explain but they’re fine. No one really updates the league website”
Not sure if you can tell, but this stuff instantly makes my blood boil. Infuriating.
I mean, it’s possible that Miami is just Messi’s private fiefdom run on whatever superstars he can attract, but I’m willing to bet that the other clubs. wouldn’t let Miami getting unlimited DP’s slide. I think we’re headed for some new rules
Well Miami is a league darling so they get to bend and twist rules and have new rules made for them. Let’s be honest in this league you have the league darlings, then you have everyone else, then you have D.C. United.
Yeah, no doubt there are clubs they bend over backwards for, but there should still be an ability within the rules to play on the same field, even if DC is unable to attract 4 Barca stars, we should be allowed to use the same mechanism to strengthen our squad
Honestly, this has been rampant since 2.0 when the Galaxy got every break in the business. Now it’s Miami time. The league is BS at the top, total BS.
I always told myself I would go down to Charleston to see a preseason matchup between us and the Battery. I never did make it down while we were going there seemingly every year, and now I’ve never seen Blackbaud Stadium. Alas.
My wife and I went once and it was a blast. The stadium was a bit far from downtown.
In Major League Rugby News, I mentioned late yesterday that New York Ironworkers have folded at least for the 2024 season. The MLR CEO has released a statement and mentioned that they are working on player disbursement.
https://www.goffrugbyreport.com/news/mlr-update-ceo-speaks-player-options-explored
Goff is reporting that United is finalizing the hiring of Caleb Shreve as an Assistant GM. He had been the head of analytics at Orlando (at least we got somebody from Orlando!), and before that was a data analyst at Nashville, which is likely where Mackay knows him from.
I can’t remember the last time we had an assistant GM. Mackay had expressed a desire to incorporate analytics, so that’s a promising step.
Goff further reports that United will be hiring Clarens Cheridieu as the director of player personnel. I’m not quite sure what that role entails, but Cheridieu has been the assistant GM at Loudoun and before that had worked with DC’s academy clubs, including recruiting players for the academy. So, it’s good to have someone with some previous background with the club and the area, and who has pretty strong connections to the academy.
I know the messaging has largely been around the need to hire a manager, but the front office also needs to be filled out… well, basically everything needs to be filled out. And these seem, on their face, to be decent hires.
It is essential to press on all fronts, simultaneously and with vigor.
-Napoleon
Goff reporting that DC is currently planning to trade Durkin to St Louis for Stroud, Barlett and 300k GAM
It’s so hard to hit 100 MLS appearances for one team. Chris Durkin was sitting on 96 and in a pretty peak position to hit that century mark. But now Steve Goff is reporting that he’s being traded to St. Louis.
Always a shame to see a homegrown move on. He had returned here as a U-22 initiative signing, and I’m not quite sure how he is removed from that designation. But it might have been one that we needed for Gabriel Pirani. (If we sign a Young DP [or perhaps a DP that can be bought down below the DP threshold with allocation money], we can sign up to three U-22 players.)
I gotta say, I don’t get this move. He was our Scott McTominay last season, and you let go of those players at your peril.
Durkin and Asad were both the “throw them anywhere on the field and they’ll at least kinda work” players, and now it looks like we wont have either of them. Gonna need a new Swiss Army Knife player
Comparing him to Asad is actually pretty unfair to Durkin, IMO. Asad was useless in several outings, Durkin’s impact fluctuated, but his effort was always top drawer. I think he’s a good piece to have in a way that Asad was not anymore. I also don’t think he was a Swiss Army knife, as I said, midfield shuttler, either not particularly adept or simply unwilling to develop as a deep lying defender. He didn’t have the body nor the skill set to be a playmaker permanently in this league, but, again, McTominay is sometimes irreplaceable on a squad with much better talents, and Durkin reminds me of the same
I can completely agree that his best position was as an 8 (generally), but I feel like for large parts of this season, he was playing outside back, winger, forward a few times, more or less whatever was needed since Klich and Canouse generally had the midfield covered. Much in the same way Asad was used. I won’t argue that Durkin was better than Asad overall this year, but I do think there’s a strength (and a need) for players that can be put anywhere on the field and be ok at least. Durkin and Asad filled this most recently (and Najar to a degree) and we had players like DeLeon and Jeffrey before that filled the same role. They all had their best/preferred positions, but at one point or another, they all ended up being used as a “play where its needed” player
To elaborate, pretty much an unbalanced midfield shuttler who nonetheless came up with some big goals and moments going forward, and a homegrown who is motivated by playing for the badge. Sending him off somewhere else means we’ve just got an opponent who will likely punish us, instead
He was valuable, but always seemed to leave you wanting more. It felt like he was improving.
Stroud and Bartlett both made under $90,000 last year and Durkin made over $425,000. Stroud is 27 and Bartlett is 26 (Durkin will turn 24 before next season). Stroud will likely be something close to a replacement for Durkin in the midfield, and turned into something of a scoring threat last year with five goals. That’s what Durkin has in his entire time with DC. Stroud is a former Red Bulls player, and Nashville loved picking up former Red Bull midfielders.
Bartlett is 26 and is a 6’3″ center back. He was a backup there for St. Louis. We need more depth at center back, so… there’s some. Will he be meant to take the place of Donovan Pines? Time will tell.
The biggest thing might just be in getting the payroll flexibility.
I’ll be interested to look into the trade, currently respecting the walkout at WAPO today. If we’re trading someone capable of big moments for two meh squad players, I’d be disappointed.
Without knowing what kind of coach Mackay is going for, the trade kind of makes sense. Durkin has a knack for the occasional spectacular goal, and as SweetBuck mentioned, he *can play in a bunch of positions almost adequately. But he’s behind pretty much everyone else because of one thing or another. I can see him flourishing in a team that takes advantage of his late runs. For us, we need both better technique (which Klich has) and better disruption (which Can use covers) than he can usually provide in relief. I truly wish him the best of luck though. He always played hard even during the awful 2022 campaign.
Don’t get me wrong, don’t really want him to be a foundational player, but I think you need one of his type in the squad
I agree. Even Barcelona has had someone in Sergi Roberto to line up all over the place when needed. I think the next utility player will surface either through the current roster or in some sort of trade.
Everton are headed to win against Newcastle that will take them out of the relegation zone, despite an early season 10 point deduction. The Everton owners are scum, the fans and the club are worthy.
The Premiership is scum also for dropping the hammer on Everton, a middle tier club while slow walking Man City’s much more egregious violations. Financial Fair Play is a joke. The only way to fiscal sustainability is with a players’ union and and salary cap.
MLS tries to copy EPL and creates Miami
I’m super bummed to see Durkin go. I think it’s a gamble to send him off because he’s so versatile and I have my doubts over Klich/Canouse making it a full season healthy next year. It also would have been nice to see what he could do given a full season as a CM. Hopefully Stroud is a half decent replacement but it’s, imo, a huge gamble to send away Durkin without input from the new coach.
Klich had absolutely no injury issues last year. He played basically every minute that he wasn’t red-carded for. He is, of course, getting older, and freak injuries can happen to anyone, but he’s about as good a bet to stay healthy as there is. Canouse is always going to miss some time with injuries, but he actually played the most games and minutes of his career last year.
United still has a lot of empty spots on its roster. I wouldn’t be surprised to see another CDM signed, and if MLS does decide to go with 4 DPs, I also wouldn’t be surprised if one of those DPs is a CDM (or CB, which we also addressed with Bartlett).