USWNT captains issue Korbin Albert statement, U.S. Open Cup results, and more: Thursday Freedom Kicks
Happy Thursday, everyone. I am headed down to Atlanta for SheBelieves Cup this evening, and pretty excited about the trip! We start there:
Morgan and Horan make statement on ‘extremely sad’ Albert controversy (Pro Soccer Wire)
Alex Morgan and Lindsey Horan issued a statement before the USWNT presser yesterday in which they lamented the controversy surrounding Korbin Albert. They did say the conversations that the team has held will remain internal.
There was a lot more chalk in yesterday’s U.S. Open Cup results, with teams like Vermont Green, Apotheos, and the Des Moines Menace losing to either USL League One teams or MLS Next Pro teams.
Luis Rubiales arrested in corruption investigation (BBC)
Luis Rubiales is under arrest as the corruption investigation has yielded at least enough to detain him.
RFEF hands two-game ban to racially abused GK for response (ESPN)
Sestao River’s fans dish out racial abuse at Rayo Majadahonda’s goalkeeper Cheikh Sarr, Sarr confronts them, and he’s sent off with a red card and now must sit for 2 more games. The match was abandoned as Rayo decided to not continue the match, and RFEF considered it a forfeit, giving the points to Sestao. In addition, Rayo was docked 3 more points and received a fine as punishment, while Sestao has a closed door ban for 2 matches for the racism.
Spain, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!
If Inter Miami wants to be superpower, beating Monterrey is a start (Pro Soccer Wire)
Inter Miami lost to Monterrey in the first leg of the Concacaf Nations League quarterfinals at home, but they need to win if they want to be considered a force in the region.
Spurs ‘in talks with investors’, says Daniel Levy after £86.8m loss (The Guardian)
Tottenham is the latest EPL team that needs a cash boost after they took a huge financial loss. They are in talks with potential investors.
Trinity Rodman: Back on the wing, better than ever (WoSo Report)
It’s a nice deep dive on Trinity Rodman and how successful she has been with her return to the wing.
That’s it for now. Hopefully we finally get some sun today!
This is just wild. The New York Rangers vs New Jersey Devils game last night started out with a 10 on 10 brawl 2 seconds into the game. It led to 4 players from each team being ejected.
https://theathletic.com/5389814/2024/04/03/rangers-devils-brawl-ejections/
https://apnews.com/article/rangers-devils-brawl-22e720cebcde0b7578d3458a2f29267a
Noted: Goons were actually signed prior to the game to lay this one on
Who needs laws when you have hockey justice?
I cannot help but think that whoever decided Albert needed to be at She Believes, the next immediate roster, is making a mistake. This isn’t about a total ban on her forever, but the situation has not cooled. A (rather unimportant?) tournament off would have been wiser than this.
I especially don’t know what the coaching staff’s message to the die hard supporters of the LGBTQ+ variety is supposed to be. “She apologized for mocking your very being and supporting the idea that your most beloved icon was injured by God, so now cheer for her?” I do not see this going well.
I think that would have been more likely if the criticism had broken out before the roster was announced. US Soccer might have the backbone to leave someone off a roster for this, but not to remove them.
Ah, my perception of the timing of this was off, it seems- I guess Albert’s inclusion wasn’t much of a headline or an issue when it was first announced.
Old Glory DC have agreed to send Niko Jones on loan to the Moana Pasifika of Super Rugby Pacific in Auckland, NZ. Jones is set to start for Moana on Saturday against the Chiefs at 2:05 AM EDT. The source is OGDC’s Facebook.
The EPL is finally starting to collapse financially. I wish I could feel sorry for them but they have had years to reign in the oil barons that were making the league financially unsustainable. It’s a bigger version of the old NASL now. The teams will all start to get in financial trouble as they are all now required to spend beyond anyone except an oil sheik’s means to keep up with the likes of Manchester City. Financial Fair Play was not a solution, it simply cements the financial inequality.
They need to collapse and restart as a fully professional league with no pro-rel, a union, a CBA, and a salary cap. The current system of having an amateur league with professionalism grafted on is not working for anyone except those who have so much money they don’t care about losing it.
Its not going to happen. Pro-rel is too ingrained in their football/soccer culture. Hell Germany has pro-rel in their baseball leagues.
I’d add that it is completely dead on arrival to suggest that any one group of clubs is going to be a permanent premier league. The dream and incentive of the entire pyramid is to make it to the top league, even for a season.
If only leagues could enter into some sort of agreement to only spend a certain amount each year. Almost like you’re capping how much you can spend each year. Idk sounds too complicated. I doubt any other soccer league does that.
Several amateur sides have advanced in the current round of the US Open Cup: https://thecup.us/2024/04/03/2024-us-open-cup-round-2-review-two-amateur-sides-advance-on-tuesday-with-10-more-games-on-wednesday/
Spain produces great players and magnificent ball but boy do they have issues as leagues (men’s and women’s) and with their women’s NT (look at Aitana Bonmati’s latest comments about how “nothing has changed.”).
I missed the chat yesterday about the proposed NE Revs stadium. I see 2 DMV local notes of interest. First, is the stadium is to be built on the site of a decommissioned power plant. Note that Audi Field got there first. Second, is the location, next to the Encore development and big box retail stores including an outlet for MD Cong. David Trone’s Total Wine & Liquor.
On the current roster, the players have scored a total of 56 career goals for DC United.
Christian Benteke – 19
Steven Birnbaum – 13
Ted Ku-DiPietro – 6
Russell Canouse – 5
Mateusz Klich – 5
Pedro Santos – 2
Cristian Dajome – 2
Kristian Fletcher – 2
Gabriel Pirani – 1
Jared Stroud – 1
Over 57% of all goals scored for DC on the active roster are by Benteke and Birnbaum. Nearly a third of those goals come from players that haven’t played a match this year. This could be one reason why our xG is so high compared to actual goals scored.
I think we’ll see some more scoring contributors before too long, but my goodness, that is sobering.
I think you left off our #2 all-time scorer for the team: Owen Goal. Just because he’s been shutout this season doesn’t mean you should just casually dismiss his contributions over the years. Some Wooden Spoon seasons, he was the bright light at the end of the tunnel!
Ditto this comment. Many seasons Owen Goal has been a stud.
I think it’s exactly a third — 18 of 56 goals, but that’s wildly misleading. Birnbaum’s 13 goals are over 11 years, and Canouse’s 5 are over 7 seasons. In other words over a 34 game season we might hope for a grand total of 2 goals from those two players — one each.
Are XG are so much higher than our actually goals because our guys are
crappyinconsistent finishers — Benteke being the most glaring case because he’s squandered a bunch of those XG opportunities. TKDP has been off his form perhaps, but it’s early and he hasn’t had many chances. But, Dajome, Pirani, aren’t great scorers, and Santos is rarely in a position to get off a good shot. As much as I criticize him, he’s easily our best ball-striker.Stroud has shown he can hit it, but he’s very inconsistent, both in terms of his shooting and his crossing. Klich was sharper last year, so that’s a little bit of an issue — but he and Herrera have a pair of assists, so I can’t be too down on them. Benteke should have done better on a few chances, but to be fair to him. some of the crosses sent his way were difficult to steer or generate power on.
If anything, the team’s results feel a little kind compared to the lack of attacking quality. If we miss players we’ve had in the lineup in recent years, there’s Arriola, Gressel, Pines, Taxi, and to a lesser extent Durkin, who hit 3 times last year. Scoring isn’t easy, and can be fickle, but I think we don’t have the pieces to do a lot better.
The good news is I think we have the structure finally to build towards much better. Maybe even a team which more talented players want to join.