Washington Spirit sign Casey Krueger, D.C. United finally hire Troy Lesesne, and more: Thursday Freedom Kicks
Happy Thursday everyone. I’m on the way to Detroit because it’s NFL playoff weekend and I’m hoping against hope that I can land a Lions ticket as I make my return to my hometown. Of course, the Lions-Rams game is already the most expensive ticket in NFL playoff opening round history, so lucky me I guess. So, here’s some of the news from yesterday:
Washington Spirit sign defender Casey Krueger (DP)
Krueger is coming to DC!! The Spirit sign the USWNT defender, and I’m really excited about that.
D.C. United Name Troy Lesesne as Head Coach (DCU)
D.C. United finally has their coach, and it’s a 3 year deal for Troy Lesesne (pronounced Le-SAYNE). We’ll see what he can do for the Black-and-Red.
Real Madrid beat Atletico Madrid to reach Supercopa final (ESPN)
This was a thriller of a match, with Real Madrid finally scoring 2 goals in the 2nd period of extra time to win the Spanish Supercopa semifinal.
Gotham FC hires Pierre Soubrier, the husband of Crystal Dunn, to a consultant role with the team. Lot of people have thoughts about this one…what are yours?
The 100 best female footballers in the world 2023 – Nos 100-41 (The Guardian)
Trinity Rodman is listed at 50th on this list, so feel free to throw this entire list in the trash.
Real Madrid eyeing summer move for Bayern’s Davies (ESPN)
Alphonso Davies could be leaving Bayern Munich for the Bernabeu this summer. I would love this move.
Afcon 2023 favourites: Opta predict who will win tournament in Ivory Coast (BBC)
Africa Cup of Nations begins this weekend, and Opta is predicting it’s Senegal’s to lose. Everyone should be making plans to watch the most underrated tournament on the planet.
Gooooooooooo Lions!!
Wow–posted so early! Good luck scoring a ticket in Detroit. I’m happy for Detroit fans that they have a team worth celebrating–I had an office mate in grad school who was from Detroit and he called them the “Detroit Kittens.”
I too am glad they signed Krueger–this was overdue.
My feelings about Pierre Soubrier are not positive. He’s got a track record of abuse when it comes to substances. Hiring his as a “consultant” is was way to get Dunn to sign with the team (“We’ll hire your husband too!”) in a manner that skates around an official affiliation. That stinks.
And good luck to the Lesesne family in finding a house in the area and fits their school district needs.
Ditto on Soubrier. I haven’t found the full report, but apparently the team doctor initially allowed him access to the drug, only to later tell him not to administer it. A major screw-up on their part, but him continuing to have access to it (and using it against explicit advice not to) is unforgivable. Hence why he’s not involved in training work for the looks of it.
DW2, My dad and I hit up RFK in the 60s with Detroit vs Skins. Santa showed. Dad emigrated to Port Huron before WW2 and loved the very, well, the Lions. Victory or Death! Growling for you. Hit em hard Deeeeeeetroit!
Bry
Just finished listening to Lesesne’s first interview with the club on YouTube and here are my main takeaways:
1. First off, Claudia Pagan asked some great questions that allowed Lesesne to really open up about himself and how he’s approaching this position
2. Lesesne is very aware of the fact that he may not be a “flashy” or “prototypical” hire, but…(see 3)
3. He’s very confident. And he’s confident because everywhere he’s gone he’s had some form of success. He was the first coach at New Mexico and brought them to the playoffs along with the quarterfinals of the open cup. Not to mention how he turned around the Red Bulls.
4. He’s committed to this club and trying to bring everyone together, including the fans. This would be a breath of fresh air. Rooney was the flashy hire that was supposed to bring DC back, but honestly, he never seemed excited to be here and although DC had a better season, on paper, their performances and play were arguable worse than the previous season.
5. He didn’t over promise. I think Lesesne and Mckay understand that this entire club won’t be turned around in one season, but at least Lesesne has a track record of getting players to play as a team under a common philosophy. That alone would be a big step and would certainly set the groundwork for later success.
I’m perhaps overly optimistic, but I’ve always been that type of fan. For me, missing the playoffs this season would suck, but if DC misses by a pint or two, but look like they are improving every game then I’ll take it. It’s hard to expect more given that the season starts in 6 weeks and this team still has plenty of holes to fill.
Fabulous post! (because this old codger agrees with you)
Ground work is better than flash work.
I expect them not to make the playoffs, maybe even grab the Spoon. This season is an extended preseason. Dumpster Diving Dave and the carousel of coachs – all with different styles — left the roster old and bloated with overpriced, mismatched and underperforming talent. This is a complete rebuild. Remember, Dajome, Rodriguez, Benteke and Klich come off the books on December 31st. There will be cap space and 2 new DP lots come January 2025. 2025 is the season to judge Mackay and Lesesne. This year will be a write off from day one.
I think it’s going to require a train wreck to end up with the Spoon. And by train wreck, I mean they lose their 2 DPs (either to injury or transfer), no-one scores goals. Or all of the GKs look terrible and are sieves.
The “aging” roster you talked about–2 of the oldest players (Benteke and Klich) are probably our two best players and didn’t show signs of slowing down last year. Both did a lot of hard work (Benteke–fighting for balls and position, Klich running for the ball and defending). Santos is the one player still on the roster from last year where age had clearly caught up with him. I think most of the underperforming talent (or talent that was overvalued) is now gone Rodriguez, Dahome–they “might” be the exceptions.
Agreed about Benteke and Klich. They’re pros, seem to have a great attitude on the field, and still look like great players.
My reservations about the coming season have less to do with them and Lesesne than that it seems like we’re going to be conservative with the roster this year. He’s actually significantly more experienced than anyone we’ve hired in the last decade+ when it comes to coaching. But it’s going to take a lot of buy-in and “good enough” guys for us to avoid getting stomped by the likes of Columbus, Philadelphia, Miami and even Nashville. It’ll be hard to judge Lesesne’s trajectory with a suboar roster.
As long as there seems to be a plan then I’ll be happy. Losada, for all his faults, was exciting because he had a clear plan for what he wanted the team to do. Rooney came in like he was going to set the team up in a new possession based lineup, then….he brought the wrong players in and quickly reverted to pretty stolid play.
“This year will be a write off from day one.”
That’s fine and well for management, perhaps…if they still get paychecks. It’s not great for Season ticket-holders who got hit with a big 20% increase in cost to attend a full season of “write-off” matches. We don’t get to write it off, or write-down.
Attitude wise, he seems very similar to Ben Olsen. He doesn’t have the attachment to the club (but people in New Mexico and New York seem to love him, so I think that attachment will happen quickly), but he does have much more of a coaching background. And he doesn’t have the baggage of having to be the connection to the glory days while owners are not focusing money on payroll.
I’m feeling good about Lesesne will do, for his part. He seems to have confidence in the kids, which is also good. He’s never really handled much in the way of a “big name” player before, but Christian Benteke and Mateusz Klich seem pretty easygoing. If we ever do bring in a Messi-type, or another Wayne Rooney, we’ll have to see how he’ll handle that. But coaching seems to be pretty good.
We’ll have to see what ownership and Mackay will do in terms of bringing in players and staff to rebuild the squad in their image. Judging from the few interviews, it seems like they know it will be a process and have a bit of a plan in place (active, creative play). Will ownership stick with them (probably yes, given how long they stuck with Olsen, Ashton, Kasper, et al; so long as they don’t start spouting off slurs or mentally destroying the players) and give them the resources to see out the plan (also probably a yes, since ownership seems okay with spending, and most of what they’re looking to build doesn’t seem super expensive)? I’ll be fascinated to see what they can put together in terms of a scouting and analytics department.
If it’s good beer, then I’ll enjoy the quaff. Missing the playoffs is neither here nor there, as it’s been a long time since DCU were even really competitive in the playoffs.Hopefully they can put together a competitive team for the first time in a decade.
Rooney 1.0 was a very competitive team. They could have beaten everyone.
(granted, one year out of a decade…)
Former DC defender James Riley was named coach of Ballard FC. If you haven’t seen their crest, it’s pretty fantastic!