IFAB set to approve blue cards, OL sale to Kang complete, and more: Friday Freedom Kicks
The weekend approaches yet again. I have a lot of grocery shopping and baking/cooking to do with both Unnamed Sports Events and Valentine’s Day in the next week. Maybe I can put some soccer on in the background?
Blue card trial to be introduced in soccer: here’s what to know about 10-minute sin bins (CBS Sports)
I don’t know about blue as the color. Seems too friendly. I’m very interested to see the trials, though.
Michele Kang Is The New Owner Of Olympique Lyonnais Féminin (Forbes)
After nine months in limbo, Kang has officially become the owner of OL’s women’s team. Here’s her interview about the acquisition (questions in French but Kang’s answers in English):
She also spoke about her plans for the team at a press conference yesterday. One of the most interesting pieces of information: a game between OL and Washington Spirit is in the works, with Kang saying, “It’s a matter of when, not if.”
Loudoun United hits preseason with older faces, new energy (The District Press)
With the USL Championship season just a few weeks away, Ryan Keefer spoke with Loudoun United players and coaches about changes to the team and what to expect this year. (Click after 10 a.m.)
Perhaps of interest to fans of EA FC and Washington Spirit:
Messi causes international incident by not playing in soccer game (Pro Soccer Wire)
I would encourage the governments of China and Hong Kong to chill out.
Baltimore Blast announce first outdoor indoor soccer game (MASL)
The Blast Spring Classic will be held in Towson, MD, on Saturday, March 23. I have seen some speculation about whether they’re actually first to play an indoor soccer match outside.
If you’re interested in watching some big sports events this weekend, you know, other than gridiron football, both the Africa Cup of Nations and AFC Asian Cup have finals this weekend. Jordan face defending champions Qatar tomorrow at 10 a.m. on Paramount+, while Nigeria and the Ivory Coast play Sunday at 3 p.m. on Fubo.
We’ll close things out with a micced-up Mateusz Klich. Have a good weekend!
The link to the article with Keefer having talked to players and staff at Loudoun United FC is currently a 404 Not Found Error.
I guess it’s not publishing until 10 a.m. Updated!
Klichousery needs to become a real word. And it will be interesting to see how teams react to the Blue Card–if it results in delaying tactics for 10 minutes until you get back to full strength or what. Last of all, congrats to Kang on sealing the deal for OL.
I just want more content like that Klichousery video. Let me see the personalities of these players so that they may be endeared to the fans.
Lucas Bartlett was coming off like a pretty entertaining character, and willing encourager of Klich. There’s a lot of new faces this year, and it’s good to get to know them.
I did see that they shared a picture of Luke Jenkinson, who’s still here as the Director of Sports Performance. I thought he would have left with Rooney and the rest of the staff.
United is losing 2-0 at halftime of their final Saudi preseason game. Outside of shellacking the Sudanese national team, there haven’t been a lot of impressive performances. Taking much away from preseason is a fool’s errand, but let’s just all brace ourselves for potentially not a great year.
I don’t think anyone should read the tea leaves too heavily about preseason. Remember toward the end of Jaime Moreno’s career, he couldn’t stop scoring in preseason, then got basically zero goals that actual campaign?
Yeah, 2010 at the Carolina Challenge Cup. I just always like to see us winning 6-0, whatever the context. Besides not meaning much, I do feel bad that this was under a cloud of sports washing. We have a bunch of really young players on this team, including a number of first time professionals. The chance to go abroad and experience a totally new country is a really cool opportunity, especially at that age. And they might not care, but it does carry that taint.
Frankly, I figured we’d do much worse against the Saudi teams–they’re in mid-season form and we’re not. My ability to judge DCU’s preseason is limited by the lack of info (no criticism of the DP). It would be nice to win every one of our preseason matches 6-0. But my real questions have to do with stuff like: do our key players seem sharp and in-form? Who among the youngsters appears ready to step up and play a larger role? Does the system that Lesesne is imposing seem a good fit for the personnel or do we appear to have major holes (as in “we’d be real good at this zonal press if only we had X and Y”)?
IFAB is backtracking on Blue Cards: https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/39491592/ifab-referee-postpones-blue-card-sin-bin-trial-sources
I’ve argued for a ‘sin bin’ penalty box in soccer for years. Not sure what details are with blue card. Is it going to be less than full yellow card caution or more than one (a caution + time in the bin)?
My argument has been that a yellow card is both too punitive for some infractions for which it is used, and also not enough of a deterrent for others. Playing shorthanded for a few minutes isn’t a huge deal usually but at least it offers some consequence to the team. 10 minutes is a lot — starts to look like a major penalty in hockey (5 minutes).
Which would hurt a team more? Player playing on a yellow for a while (and eventually facing suspension for accumulation) or playing shorthanded for 5 or 10 minutes? I see reason to have gradations of penalty minutes, as in hockey.
I suggest having 4 levels. Blue = time in bin for fouls don’t rise to yellow; Orange = yellow + bin.
It would also be in line with ROY G BIV, but in reverse. Blue, Yellow, Orange, Red.
Sin bin is a term from Rugby. In Rugby you get sent to the sin bin for 10 minutes (1/4 of a half (40 mins)) if you get a yellow card. While you’re sent off if you get a red and your team is now down a man for the rest of the match. It does act like a power play/ power play kill in hockey. There were times last year were OGDC punished a team who had a player get a yellow, but there were also times when they couldn’t score with the man advantage. The true was also the same for when OGDC had players in the sin bin. What really sucks is when you have multiple players in the sin bin at the same time. By the way in Rugby, the sin bin time carries over between halves.
OK — I mean, the idea of penalty box originated in hockey — but the term already has a meaning in soccer. Anyway, there’s no reason for soccer to emulate the rugby version. The idea of a blue card would be something different than a yellow card.
Good luck getting officials of this Chinese government to “chill” on just about anything that ruffles their sense of dominance.
In the race to post this news, looks like I win… Goff saying that USMNT is coming to FedEx Field to play Colombia on June 8th,
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2024/02/09/usmnt-colombia-fedex-field/
The lineup is likely to be strong for such a game, but geez, it had to be FedEx… I’ve never been, but I have always heard it’s not worth it to go there
If you don’t mind a little walk to the Metro, it’s not terrible. Driving there is godawful, or at least leaving is. And the stadium itself is no great experience.
First, traffic flow is abysmal. Second, the stadium is big and….well, it’s big. And that’s pretty much it. I was never impressed with the concessions. The 4 times I’ve been there (all different seats in different locations) the view sucked. And usually the turf is substandard–and that’s for American Gridiron Football!.
Indoor soccer outdoors could be a fun lark, but not in a football stadium, unless they’re going to roll up a bunch of bleachers to surround the playing area. If you’re sitting way away from the field, what’s the point?
I was watching a video of all of St. Louis’s goals last year, and Jared Stroud really had a knack for being pesky in the box, either being there to interrupt passes or receive deflected balls and then put a shot on goal, or to serve in some dangerous crosses from outside the box. I think last year was undoubtedly a career year for him, and St. Louis had a really offensive minded team, but having someone that’s scrappy on the field and can push to goal is a pretty underrated weapon to have.
It’s been talked about having him as the right wingback in a five back system, but I wonder if he shouldn’t be up higher. And I wonder if we might actually be using a four back system instead. I guess we’ll see, but I sometimes forget Stroud is on the team, and I think he could become a really substantial part of how we play.
https://theathletic.com/5263900/2024/02/09/usl-super-league-division-sanction/
NWSL may have some competition. The USL Super League is a professional league and received Division 1 sanctioning from US Soccer.
This is going to be interesting to watch…