D.C. United sign Peltola, Washington Spirit rebrand update, and more: Tuesday Freedom Kicks
It’s Tuesday! At least it’s the last one in January, in many ways the longest month of the year.
D.C. United makes first international move, acquiring Finland’s Matti Peltola (Washington Post)
Peltola will be classified as a “young designated player” and will be joining the Black-and-Red in Saudi Arabia for preseason training.
We’re still waiting on a formal announcement from the team, though, which explains why he wasn’t included on this 2024 Squad Numbers announcement.
Meet the draft picks: Croix Bethune, Hal Hershfelt, Kate Wiesner (Hey Spirits)
For the first episode of our 2-part series, the Hey Spirits crew talked to Washington Spirit draft picks Croix Bethune, Hal Hershfelt, and Kate Wiesner about draft night, their careers so far, and more! Expect part 2 later this week.
In other Spirit news:
Manchester United anger after tribunal ends their run in Women’s League Cup (The Guardian)
A bit of drama in the English game: Aston Villa had one of their wins reversed yesterday for fielding an ineligible player. This put them in second place in their group, while their higher goal differential pushed Manchester United out of the quarterfinals as another second-place finisher.
Michele Kang’s London City Lionesses are also in the quarterfinals, where they’ll face Arsenal.
Inter Miami preseason struggles continue with loss at Al Hilal (Pro Soccer Wire)
At least one of the MLS teams doing preseason in Saudi Arabia is struggling. Inter Miami have 2 losses and a draw so far. Relatedly, D.C. United’s first game is at 11 a.m. today against the Sudan National Team. I’m curious to see how much they report out about it.
That’s all I’ve got for now. Share any other Freedom Kicks you find in the comments!
J Sam Jones sees a possibility of playoffs for DCU but not very likely. He predicts we’ll end up on 45 points: https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/your-monday-kickoff-which-eastern-conference-teams-break-into-the-2024-playoffs
I think you misunderstood. He’s saying there’s a world…where they are in the Western Conf and get 45 points and get into the playoffs.
In this wrold, none of htose things are likely to happen.
FIFA has begun visiting potential hosts for the 2027 Women’s World Cup: https://theathletic.com/5237883/2024/01/30/womens-world-cup-2027-uswnt-bid-fifa/
First of all–keep up the good work Annie! Always eager to read DP posts as we ramp up for a new season.
Second, I’ve already made my feelings clear about the yellow for the Spirit. Not a fan. I get it–it’s her team, she can do what she wants. I think Kang has big ambition for women’s soccer. But I have yet to conclude that her decisions are informed and wise ones–I think the book is still out on that one.
The Sudanese men’s NT is 128th in the world. That puts them in and around other teams like: Malaysia, Sierra Leone, and Cyprus. I don’t think they’re in-season and in-form so it should be a crazy match. I think the ones against Saudi teams are likely to be butt-kickings (they’ll be in-form and we won’t be).
And I’m not a big fan of any podcasts. But I think I’m going to have to start making an except for “Hey Spirits” because this most recent one sounds very enticing.
“No one looks good in yellow…”
-Katherine Hepburn
Agree with your trepidation on Kang’s decisions so far. Especially with this recent roster shuffling, we’re probably going to have to wait at least a year to know if it was a good call. Interim manager for several months before the actual coach comes in, lots of youngsters, probably some departures at the end of the year.
Thank you!
No, thank YOU. And to the rest of the DP team.
We have a starting lineup for the match at least:
Bono, Birnbaum, Akinmboni, Herrera, Santos, Trialist 1, Garay, Klich, Stroud, Fletcher, Murrell
Based off of that, it seems like a 3-5-2. I’m not a huge fan of playing three at the back with the current roster, I think we’re too untested at CB for it to hold up, but hopefully Lesesne can make it work.
I was thinking it was a back four of Herrera-Birnbaum-Akinmboni-Santos. That way, “Trialist 1” would likely either be Matti Peltola or Brandon Parrish.
If it is a back three, then “Trialist 1” is probably Graham Jones.
I also read it as a 4-back which honestly scares me because this team has no wingers. This roster has been built for a 3-back since Losada was in charge.
I think we’re fine on wingers. Dajome, Rodriguez, KDP, Fletcher, and even Pirani can all play out wide.
We’ve got options with attacking wingers, but none of those guys are suited for being the outside players in a 3-5-2. That’s for really good two-way players like Gressel.
I guessed 3-5-2 because they normally do the lineups left to right so starting with Birnbaum seems like it would be three at the back.
But the way they put out the second half lineup makes me doubt that (unless Garay is being transitioned to CB). So 4-3-3 is probably more likely.
Not sure who scored, but we’re up 3-0 at halftime. For a lineup that didn’t include Benteke or Ku-DiPietro, that’s nice to see. I think the Sudanese national team is perhaps not the stiffest competition, but three goals are three goals.
Finishes as 6-0.
Goals by Herrera, Fletcher, Murrell, Dajome (2), and Trialist 2. It seemed like Trialist 2 was lined up pretty high, and the only non-roster players we’ve heard of in camp were Brandon Parrish, Graham Jones, and Matti Peltola, and they all seemed to be playing further back. Another person? Or one of them more advanced?
Either way, nice to see us putting the ball in the net. I’m hoping that Fletcher has a breakout year. I’m not necessarily counting on Dajome for a lot of finished product, but if he can chip in like five goals, that would be pretty massive. And good for Murrell to show that he can score with the pros.
Nice to see Murrell get his first goal for DCU and for Fletcher to continue scoring after his stint in UK.
I’d guess that Parrish was Trialist 2.
Griffin Yow liked Dajome’s performance so much that he too has scored twice for Westerlo. And they’re only 19 minutes in.
Or perhaps he saw Kevin Paredes score on the weekend, and figured that anything one DC academy product could do, another could do better.
It was announced today that the US Women’s Eagles XVs will have their first home test match since 2021 this spring. As they host the first leg of the annual Pacific Four series (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the US).
The schedule for the Pacific Four:
27 April: Canada at USA
11 May: USA at New Zealand, Canada at Australia
17 May: USA at Australia
19 May: Canada at New Zealand
25 May: New Zealand at Australia
The women will be gearing up for the WXV Division 2 Tournament later this year where the US will be aiming for a top 3 finish and promotion to WXV Division 1 for the 2025 series.
https://www.goffrugbyreport.com/news/usa-women-host-game-wxv-schedule-announced
From the team’s Facebook they won 6-0 over the Sudanese National Team with goals from Aaron Herrera, Kristen Fletcher, Jacob Murrell, 2 from Christian Dájome, and a goal from Trialist #2.
OGDC have announced their roster for the 2024 season. I pulled this from the Facebook.
Props: Kevin Brou, Jack Iscaro, Calixto Martinez, Tyler Rowland, Joe Wrafter
Hookers: Facundo Gattas, KoiKoi Nelligan, Martin Vaca
Locks: Ignacio Dotti, Rob Harley, Tevita Naqali, Charlie Overton
Back Row: Lautaro Bavaro, Cory Daniel, Brady Daneil, Jameson Fa’anana-Schultz, Collin Grosse, Niko Jones, Dacoda Worth
Scrum Half: Connor Buckley, Ethan McVeigh, Danny Tusitala
Fly Half: Gradyn Bowd, Jason Robertson, Mike Weir
Centers: Tommaso Boni, John Powers, William Talataina
Back 3: Mike “Chicken” Dabulas, Damien Hoyland, Perry Humphreys, Axel Muller, John Rizzo, Ishmail Shabazz
I’m pretty sure that Danny Tusitala (has played every single OGDC MLR game in the club’s short history), Jason Robertson (back after spending last season in France, excellent kicking game), Mike Dabulas, Jack Iscaro, Jameson Fa’anana-Schultz will all be in the starting XV week in week out if they are good to go.