D.C. United officially acquire Tubbs, a day with the MLS Cup referees, and more: Friday Freedom Kicks
Happy Friday, and merry (almost) Christmas to those celebrating! I am taking a break from baking just so many cookies to bring you a few Freedom Kicks.
D.C. United acquire defender Garrison Tubbs from Atlanta United (D.C. United)
The kind of headline that has me asking, “Didn’t this already happen?” Reported on Monday, but now it’s official.
“I have to set the tone”: Behind the scenes with the MLS Cup officiating crew (The Athletic)
Really strong piece from The Athletic’s Pablo Maurer on the referees of this year’s MLS Cup final, following them as they prepared for, officiated, and reacted to the game. In the wake of so many recent incidents where refs were threatened or harassed, humanizing them like this feels so important.
Still looking at MLS, here’s an attempt to map out how difficult each team’s schedule is next season. D.C. United is in the harder home games/easier away games quadrant. What do you think of the analysis?
USWNT captain Horan sent off in Lyon UWCL draw at Brann (Pro Soccer Wire)
I have GOT to know what Horan said to earn a straight red. Although it sounds like it may have been a translation misunderstanding.
Man United, Bayern commit to UEFA amid Super League verdict (ESPN)
The specter of a super league rears its ugly head again, but several clubs are saying they will stick with their UEFA-run leagues.
Here’s an interesting chart with data from Sportico on the gap between public perception of a league’s fanbase and actual political ideology.
I found it surprising at first, but I guess it does make sense that sports fans generally skew more conservative. Still, you can use this to pivot awkward political conversations with your relatives this weekend to conversations about sports!
That’s all for now. Share more in the comments, have a nice long weekend, and may you all experience the joy of an early release from work today!
The strength-of-schedule viz would be a decent indicator under normal conditions, but unfortunately the very unusual circumstances surrounding Inter Miami will distort things quite a bit for West teams that face them. Presuming Miami flips their xGD/90, which I would suggest is a reasonable expectation (i.e. going from roughly -0.4 to 0.4), Vancouver (for example) would shift on the X axis from -0.5 to about -0.35, still clearly easiest but not nearly as much of an outlier.
Agreed. TFC just imploded last year–it was a lost season. They, Miami, and Charlotte could also (reasonably) make big improvements.
What a diverse mix of a post Annie. And your willingness to step away from the oven and the Christmas cookies–what sacrifice for us!
I don’t know what to do with that analysis on political perception vs. reality for sports fans. I think there are so many more variables I’d need to know before making sense of it (for instance, did they define fans as “people who follow” vs. “people at events”?).
Agree with your thoughts about humanizing the referees and the Maurer article. When I coached, I always told my teams that the players decided the game, not the refs. That for every mistake a ref would make, the players would make 10 of their own. I wouldn’t tolerate players (or parents) talking back to refs and the only stuff I’d ever say to a ref was when it dealt with player safety.
I hate this Superleague BS. I admire Barcelona so much and my respect for them goes down because of this. They’re pushing this because they think the added income will get them out of the financial mess they’re in. Frankly, I wish the Euro leagues had more equity, more balance.
The schedule difficulty for MLS needs to be taken with more than a grain of salt–MLS teams can change so much from season to season so what was a difficult team last year suddenly sees Vela leave and their two new DPs turn out to be failures. That said, I think it’s a fascinating analysis.
No EPL, no Bundesliga teams will touch superleague. It will fail. It’s as gross as LIV golf.
One would hope, but the money might be too good for them to hold out forever.
Yep, there’s way too much fluctuation in squads, including players pricing themselves out of teams with the salary cap, to know absolutely the strength of clubs this early. For example, Cincy has only been good as an organization for two seasons, and hoping for a third, while Toronto really should have done better on paper last season
Whoops, chose the wrong comment to reply to
Just read the news, about a day late, on the Washington Post website that DC United will be doing some of its preseason training in Saudi Arabia.
I’m not going to support a team run by Jason Levein. Sell the team now.
Even if you take away the moral considerations, which is heavy lifting, that’s a baffling decision. What’s the fucking benefit?
There are benefits. You get to play a range of teams, no risk of tropical storms or humidity or cold weather. That said, it’s Sportwashing–pure and simple. I hate it, absolutely hate it.