Frei’s red card rescinded, Heilferty out for the season, and more: Wednesday Freedom Kicks
Some day, I’ll remember that I don’t have the outdoor landscaping tan of my teenage years well over a decade ago, so when I plan to spend an entire day being baked inside a sunny NASCAR track, I should wear sunscreen. That day was not Sunday. I am quite red now. Furthermore, my feet and hip joints yelled at me for walking about 9 miles that day after getting them accustomed to years of a sedentary lifestyle. All this pain remains worth it, however, for I not only finally saw (in passing on pit road) my all-time favorite athlete in Jeff Gordon, I managed to steal a quick fist bump. This is a high I shall ride the rest of my life.
To the kicks!
Seattle Sounders: Stefan Frei eligible after red card rescinded (MLS): Well… what do you think? Was it red card worthy last weekend?
Columbus Crew chase Concacaf history, Messi goes supernova & more from MLS (MLS): Buried in the weeds of this one is that Stroud (and sort of all of D.C.’s new teammates) are the current “Under the Radar” picks for the Eastern Conference.
NWSL Weekend Take-Off: KC Current, Orlando Pride change it up in big wins (Pro Soccer Wire): The Spirit’s loss is no reason to shut your eyes to the goings-on of the rest of the league! You can just be like me and selectively forget to read the part about the Orlando-Washington match.
Washington Spirit’s Anna Heilferty tears ACL (The DP): Season-ending injuries are a reminder that life is cruel and unfair… I wish Heilferty a speedy recovery.
Power Rankings: Real Salt Lake keep climbing, Seattle Sounders continue slide (MLS): D.C. cracks the top 20 again in this week’s arbitrary rankings.
Loudoun United are making sure no one else has to suffer the fate I suffered on Sunday….
I’ll end this with another one of D.C. United’s fun episodes of From the Pitch. Send your kicks to the comments below!
Really cool of Loudoun to do that. Cancer aside (and it’s a real concern, it’s good to keep your skin healthy. Hopefully they stayed filled.
From what I read on Reddit re: Frei’s card, DOGSO isn’t itself an automatic red anymore? Though it’s still up to the referees to judge if the foul itself warrants a card.
I don’t have any particular feelings about the red being changed to a yellow. I’m just glad it stayed as a PK and a man advantage on Saturday.
You mean: Hopefully they don’t stay full….meaning, used by the fans…
;^)
That is a really good move. I applaud Loudoun for that.
Maybe the league will rescind a bunch of our BS yellows distributed by putrid ref Gonzalez? I think the card was fine, but I don’t mind a review. maybe they felt it was double jeopardy or something. He clearly fouled him, and he was clearly the last man.
If it was Messi……(?)
If it were Messi they would have suspended Frei and turned him into the authorities for attempted murder of there sweet sweet cash cow.
Darth Garber appreciates your loyal compliance
Philly lost to the Sounders last night. I think we saw that the Sounders are plenty dangerous, but had a lot of bad luck surrounding them. Well, they managed to put three goals past Andre Blake last night. Philly still got two of their own, including one by Daniel Gazdag that made him the franchise scoring leader (Christian Benteke needs to score 110 more goals to be DC’s franchise scoring leader). Gazdag did go the full 90, but Julian Carranza didn’t play, and Uhre was subbed out. Philly will still be playing on short rest, on the road, and now riding a two game losing streak. Can we make it three?
Serves me right for trying to go by the lineups graphic on the league website during the game. Carranza did play. Andre Blake didn’t.
On the one hand, Philly might be upset and that may not be the best thing for us. On the other hand, while I too was frustrated by our performance in the second half of Saturday’s game, my frustration was tempered by the fact that I understood that Seattle is a decent/good team regardless of their current record. We have improved but we are rebuilding a team, Seattle has added a few pieces and like almost everyone else is still trying to jell the old with the new but, let’s be honest, they are still a better team than we are. And so are like 12 other teams in the league. That is just our reality. We can compete with everyone but we are not at the stage where we can win without struggling. I’m really hoping that DCU can get rid off Jeahze in the next coming weeks so they can go and try to get another Teddy like type of player, because at this point, I think the best way to guarantee positive results for this current team, is to simply score as many of our chances as possible. We are not good at retaining possession for long periods of time and we are not a good enough defense to shut teams out, so chance creation (which we do ok with) and scoring is our only chance.
A grim, but agreeable post. I do think we have improved and the games are much more enjoyable than the emotionless pile we saw the past few years. I think the off-season moves were effective and sensible. The coaching seems sensible and credible. So, if we can get the refs to seemingly like us, rather than dealing cards to us like we are drunks at the table in Vegas….maybe we’ll keep getting stuck in there for the summer transfer window.
Of those two weaknesses (possession or defense), we can address defending far more easily/effectively without completely rolling over the roster (which we’ve sort of already done). Birnbaum may not be as athletic as the other guys, but he’s been in an old-school Bennyball system and should know how to keep the guys focused on defense. Being able to survive a siege could pair well with “score more goals” since a lot of our chances have come from our excellent crossing into the box from the wings.
One more positive on Birbaum’s return is that he has a very good ability of winning headers in attack, meaning he’s a good target for corners or dead balls because he is decent at directing balls into the net or often times simply extending the play by redirecting a ball to someone else. He could pair well with Benteke in that sense.
Yup. Even if defenses are keying on Benteke, he’s still been very good at winning corners. Birnbaum gives them someone else they have to think about. McVey, Bartlett, and Peltola are all quite tall as well, and I’ve been disappointed that they haven’t been more involved on corner kicks.
That’s terrible news about Heilferty.
As for Frei, I still think it’s a red and a PK. The only way I rationalize the “no red” is if they conclude that Stroud could not have reached the ball–that he had played it out of bounds. Frei was the last man back, the goal was open. And I know it looks silly to fine someone for not leaving the field when you end up removing the red card. But it’s a separate issue–do you follow the referee’s instructions or don’t you?
Agree with you….MLS seems to have their faves….
If it was Messi…..(?)
Congrats, Kerry, on seeing and fist-bumping Jeff! I’ll be in Charlotte for a week for the 600 and am hoping to be able to meet him at Hendrick’s fan day (in the off chance I get selected, at least)
Best of luck! Safe to assume you’ll see the Hall of Fame while you’re there? That place is too cool to skip!
Definitely! We’re going to try to get to as many of the shops as we can, along with the HOF and some other stuff. We’re definitely going to the Cup race, but might end up going to the Xfinity or Truck races too depending on how things go. I went to the 600 once back in 2010, and visited some of the shops years before that (one of the ones I remember the most as a kid was going to the MB2 shop, weirdly enough, if that gives you a sense of timing lol), but my fiancé has never experienced either, so it should be a fun time!
It’s not clear to me from the announcement that Frei even has a yellow, when all was said and done.
Seemed arguable either way between a red or a yellow. I guess the rescinding is OK, but is that the job of the panel, to finely re-adjudicate borderline calls?
Luis Zamudio has been officially loaned to the Colorado Springs Switchbacks. With three players (Garay, Sargis, Zamudio) out on loan, that leaves 24 players for the DC first team roster. Except one of those players is Russell Canouse, who’s out for several months (if not the whole season). One of those players is Nathan Crockford, our third round draft pick and now third string goalie. And one of those players is Mohanad Jeahze, who is firmly on the outs with Troy Lesesne. So that leaves 21 players available to fill out any given gameday roster of 20, and that’s counting players coming back from long-term injury like Tyler Miller, Steve Birnbaum, and Garrison Tubbs, as well as players like Conner Antley and Ted Ku-DiPietro who are currently out injured.