D.C. United captaincy options, Lindsey Horan interview, and more: Friday Freedom Kicks
Happy Friday! I have a lot of meetings to get through today, but after that, I am looking forward to a nice relaxing weekend.
To start, Donald shared this in the comments yesterday, but in case you missed it:
In commemoration of Black History Month, Loudoun United are putting a spotlight on Black-owned businesses in Loudoun County. The series started yesterday with an article about Robyn James, founder of Birdie Everything, which makes golf equipment.
Lindsey Horan, USWNT captain, just wants to talk soccer (The Athletic)
Horan on the state of the USWNT team and how they can improve, her game, and more. Some interesting stuff in here, but also some pretty odd takes, including criticism of NWSL teams for taking fun Starting XI before games when they should be focused on being “professional.”
D.C. United Acquired Swedish Defender Christopher McVey from Inter Miami CF in Exchange for a 2024 International Slot (D.C. United)
Yesterday’s trade news confirmed.
Sheffield United manager Wilder blasts referee for eating a sandwich (Pro Soccer Wire)
Sharing because this is so silly. Just imagine the disrespect of eating a sandwich in the presence of a Premier League manager.
Natasha Cloud leaves Mystics to sign with Mercury as WNBA free agency opens (Washington Post)
In more general sports news, it continues to be a rough off-season for DC’s women’s sports fans. For Mystics fans in particular, this one hurts. Worse because this quote makes it clear it wasn’t her decision to leave:
“Especially when you’ve been in one place your entire career, it makes it that much harder. But the decision wasn’t necessarily mine. So finding the next home for me was really important.”
Natasha Cloud
Sports is a tough business.
On Cloud, I think the issue there is getting cap room to either keep some of the existing talent (cough-Elena Della Donne-cough) or pursue some new talent because standing pat won’t cut it the the WNBA this year.
I respect Horan. But I’ve always found her to be a bit of an odd bird so to speak. I think her comments about fans of the USWNT and NWSL are somewhat true–they’re often not very sophisticated. They root for the home team and home players but may lack tactical nuance or an understanding of the game around the world (I’m speaking just generally of course). Sophia Smith has torn up the NWSL. But she’s really a striker, not a winger. How would she do on the top teams with her size? I think she’d need to play in a specific system to be successful. Morgan was worshipped by US fans for so long–but really hasn’t been strong internationally for a couple of years now. But yeah, I think her perspective on stuff is a bit off in a lot of cases. I admire her competitiveness. But I’m not actually sure she’s a great captain.
To your last point, we saw that during the game against the Dutch – Julie Hertz steps up and tells her to calm TF down and score a goal. Sure enough, it happens. Sucks for us that Ertz has stepped aside.
Bingo!
I read an ESPN account of Horan’s rant. Potty-mouthed and frankly mean-spirited. She is entitled to her opinions, of course, but she can be a heck of a lot nicer to the USWNT fanbase. Stay in France.
Eating a sandwich? No wonder the manager lost it. He should have been eating a proper Sheffield pie with local cutlery…..
I forgot to post this yesterday. The US Men’s Eagles XVs have a new head coach who will also be the GM for the Men’s team Scott Lawrence.
https://eagles.rugby/news/scott-lawrence-officially-appointed-head-coach-and-general-manager-of-usa-rugby-mens-xvs-202421
Interesting things happening around the league: https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/your-friday-kickoff-fc-dallas-show-they-mean-business-with-musa-signing
For instance, Charlotte cut 2 DPs yesterday. And chaos happened with the loan of 23 year old US international Duncan McGuire from Orlando to Blackburn Rovers with an option to buy.
If anyone wants a good laugh please go check the comments of the Peltola announcement. The shear blind confidence that so many of these people have is hilarious. I was cracking up.
Nice article by Goff about Peltola. Evidently he was working out in Ashburn with DCU staff a week before the team went off to Saudi Arabia. So this is someone that DCU has kicked the tires on, gotten a feel for his personality, seen him up close and personal on a field. And he debuts for the second preseason match.
DC announced Matti Peltola’s signing today. Jason Anderson confirmed that Peltola was taking up the team’s final international slot.
The biggest boon to signing a Young DP is that a team can also sign two extra U-22 players. Since our team is so young already, might as well go all in on really talented youth. It might be a struggle this year, but could really pay off in 2025 and/or 2026. That’s been the plan I’ve been touting all offseason. But… no more international slots. Sure, we can trade for one or two, but we also just traded one away to get Chris McVey. If we had plans to use it… maybe we wouldn’t have traded it.
U-22 players can be American. Chris Durkin was a U-22 player. Might we go after Griffin Yow? Kevin Paredes?!? Someone else?
Well, the other thing a Young DP is good for is hitting the cap at a low price. United has cleared out a lot of players, but they still have big earners like Birnbaum, Rodriguez, and the full amount of Cristian Dajome on the books. Maybe they like a Young DP to make room for fitting all those other salaries in, and they might not have the resources to go after some other big names, despite what we hear about “the team spends money now.” Still, having sold their soul to Saudi Arabia, it would be great if they used the preseason savings to go out and buy more good players.
Anyway, welcome Matti! You’re here for four years, so let’s hope you ball out!
With that contract, I bet we’re hoping he gets attention from Europe again after good game time here. Or he’s in line to fully replace Canouse later on (not that I’m advocating for that at all). Either way, we paid just to kick the tires on him and then some more just to offer him a contract so they clearly see something in him.
I think he will be good. I think his salary is also likely to be in the zone where he could be bought down if there was another DP the team wanted to bring in. Similar to how Victor Palsson was bought down to bring in Klich.
My general feeling about DP’s is, if it doesn’t make your attack more turbo, it’s likely a bad idea. You can find valuable defensive grit without paying DP money for marginal gains in that area. I honestly cannot think of a single defensive minded DP in MLS history that was part of a team that did much.
So basically, he might be a fine DM, but if he’s not a boost going forward, maybe won’t have the impact we need.
He is making less than a “senior” designated player, so it’s kind of ok. Overall I do agree though – he has to make the team more goal dangerous regardless of his nominal position. We already have someone in Klich who, while clearly a fantastic midfielder, is not an out-and-out attacker. The less expensive guys are being counted on to score.
I’d say Joao Paulo, but that’s about it. I think Diego Chara was a DP at some point too.
Well, technically Lubos Kubik wasn’t a DP. Just a really expensive player for the Fire. But he had a huge impact.
As for Matti Peltola, one of the comments from either MacKay or Lesesne (can’t remember which one) was that he’s got excellent passing range. So when we see pressure, instead of passing it back to the GK who boots it downfield, instead we exploit some of the gaps created by high pressure.
This was stated. If so, that would be a huge plus, and a new wrinkle.
So, I saw the full interview of Lesesne that included questions from Ryan and Jason (which is pretty cool). One thing I gleaned is, at least for now, very cagey about press questions, this man is not about enicement, titillation, or discussing what is happening in the club in any specific way. However, I did note that he said something about “many, many things needing to be reset,” which is a good indication that he knows this organization is in a place he needs to personally help us out of, and quickly.
One of the things that people have kind of missed I think in the discussion about Lesesne is folks have talked about “is he in over his head?” and “not one full season in MLS has a head coach”–all true. But for as young as he is, he has a tremendous amount of experience as a head coach. And in USL, you’re not just a head coach, you have a lot of balls in the air. Now as the season progresses, I may agree with his approach, I may disagree with his approach. But is point about “many, many things need to be reset” is something someone who has a lot of experience establishing a team or running a team that is organized would say. Makes feel good about the decision to hire him.
I don’t really care how he is in front of press as long as DC are winning games. I’m sure he’ll grow into the position.
It’s also what someone says to lower expectations. Look at all of our past presidents….it’s the previous guy’s fault. :^)
DCU earns a draw (1-1) with al-Wehda of Mecca. They’re smack dab in the middle of the Saudi league so that’s not a bad result (particularly after Inter-Miami’s 6-0 smackdown). I know, not identical situations and competition. But they’re in the middle of their season, we’re still learning to play together. I see this as a mostly positive result.
Santos with the goal, via a free kick.