Conner Antley out for the year, Loudoun reacquire Akinmboni, and more: Wednesday Freedom Kicks
Happy United Day! At least, I hope it will be happy. I’m ever a skeptic when my favorite teams play their rivals. Today, D.C. United will face off against the New York Red Bulls. May the Atlantic Cup return to the District at the end of the year (assuming a physical incarnation still exists…).
D.C. United’s Conner Antley will miss rest of MLS season with ACL injury (Washington Post): Bad news for a defense still trying to stabilize and find its form. Antley had impressed in the eye-test this season.
Loudoun United FC Sign D.C. United Defender Matai Akinmboni on Loan (Loudoun United): Loudoun may continue freeing itself from its D.C. shackles, but maintaining a relationship with the big brother next door is a good way to keep up some good loans.
Shaped by Service: How Growing Up in Military Families Impacted Croix Bethune & Hal Hershfelt (Washington Spirit): Moving around as a professional athlete can indeed resemble the constant journeying experienced by military families.
Power Rankings: FC Cincinnati get Hell is Real bragging rights (MLS): The arbitrarily-ranked 12th place team sure has one insane aerial threat: “Per FBref, Benteke has won 135 aerial duels this season. The next closest player, Toronto FC defender Kevin Long, has won 54. Benteke is one of one in MLS history.”
Milan approach Gallardo after Al Ittihad split (Football Italia): D.C. United’s legendary first designated player may be on the move to coach a small soccer team from an obscure Italian town called Milan.
The Premier League has only one weekend left, and for those in favor of a certain sky blue team hoisting the trophy yet again, the odds are looking good. After Manchester City’s victory over Tottenham, they only have West Ham to face in Manchester, while their title rivals Arsenal will welcome Everton to North London.
With that, go and enjoy the rest of your Wednesday!
Just a reminder that with Antley done for the year and Akinmboni on loan, United has a pool of 21 players from which to select their game day roster.
One of those 21 is third string goalkeeper Nate Crockford.
One of those 21 is Mohanad Jeahze, whom Troy Lesesne just seems to wish would not exist.
I hesitate to include Martin Rodriguez in this, because Lesesne does use him for some spot minutes, but he’s there. As is Steve Birnbaum, who’s only recently back from knee surgery.
This team could use some reinforcements, is what I’m saying.
I wish Akinmboni had gotten PT. But at least two things we can say about Lesesne. First, he’s willing to not just play youth but play them in prominent roles with major minutes. Exhibit A: Jackson Hopkins. And second, if he doesn’t feel you’re a fit, you won’t leave the bench. Exhibit B: Mo Jeahdze. So let’s see if Akinmboni gets a lot of minutes at LU and impresses Lesesne enough to change perceptions.
And yes, we absolutely, positively, definitely, without a doubt need a few more bodies. Even if there “last 5 minutes of the game to replace a totally gassed Herrera” kind of sub (meaning–this is a guy we absolutely do not want to take off the field but sometimes you’ve got no choice) kind of subs.
And kudos to Antley. Who hurt his knee in the last 10 minutes and knew DCU had no more subs left so he kept hobbling so the team had 10.5 players instead of just 10.
Last of all, Canouse had made it sounds like maybe, possibly, perhaps his season wasn’t over. But the last Goff article indicated he’s got 2 more surgeries coming up and he’s done for the season.
Oh, and btw, I too just pushed the “Post Comment” button without proving I am not a robot and the post went up. (smile). But not a second time with this post (frown).
We *should* be set for some substantial changes over the summer (probably not DP-esque). Getting Jeahze and Rodriguez off the roster in favor of even MLS journeymen that Lesesne will play regularly is essential. I don’t see ownership backing any big moves with the international tournament inflation.
Testing before a long post.
I’ve compiled an all-time list of Buzzard Points, Talones, and Taloncitos for both DCU and Spirit. I’ll list top ten, including full names for Spirit players (since many Commentariat seem determined not to follow the DMV’s best squad).
Buzzard Points (home goals): Rooney (20); Benteke (16); Ashley Hatch (15); Acosta & Ola Kamara (13); Fountas (10); Arriola (9); Ku-DiPetro (5); and six tied with 4, including Trinity Rodman.
May Benteke catch (or surpass!) Rooney tonight.
Continuing: Talones (home assists): Rooney & Gressell (14); Acosta (11); Asad, Trinity Rodman, Benteke & Klich (6); Jara, Moreno & Ashley Hatch (5).
Taloncitos (drew home penalty kick): Croix Bethune & Najar (2).
At Spirit’s first ever match at Buzzard Point — a 2-1 victory over Orlando Pride on August 24, 2019 — 19,871 attended. (I was there.) All-time Spirit attendance record and probably one of the top ten crowds at Buzzard Point.
Guess there’s no match thread, here’s a familiar lineup to those that watched the Atlanta win
The 2024 Tyler Miller Award for Pointless Goalkeeper positioning goes to Alex Bono.
Well. That’s on me. Just turned on the game and the metro stars score right away.
Poor understanding of where Benteke was going to lay it off and then Bartlett/McVey/Bono turned off for just long enough for the long chip.
I disagree. 40 yard lob into net is another damn miracle shot. Otherwise, pretty even match.
I’m with David on this one. He wasn’t that far off his line in the end, that dip on that lashed lob was wicked
Rewatching it, I think it’s a risk of the system. Bartlett sends the long ball and we don’t win the knock down so he’s deeper than the rest of the line. McVey is stepping high to try and win the ball back instead of staying with his mark. Bono was a little off his line because he’s being forced to come intercept a lot of through balls due to our high line.
Still, McVey should definitely be winning that ball (he is 6″ taller than Manoel) and as a whole we are not watching the line after those long balls. Stepping to pressure at times is good, but you can’t just leave a man in space unless you’re certain he’s offside.
Well we are getting outplayed here to start the 2nd half.
I don’t see us pulling 3 back the way this game is going.
Then we pull one back on the corner kick
Had a bit of a day, so I passed out at halftime, and had trouble waking up for the three second half goals, even though I heard them, missed about half to 65 minutes.
That said, from what I’ve seen in my lucidity, we’re doing a poor job of finding a passing game through a compact 4-4-2 in the center. Our 3-5-2 really hasn’t found the fast combinations outside to in very often.
Still, one goal, and this could be a game again.
We can’t break down the Red Bulls really since they switched to a 5 back.
Even in the first half, though, we did a lot of passing into clogged central passing lanes, almost out of habit. I fear that Atlanta was poor preparation for this opposition, and despite coming close to scoring a second, it’s been very disjointed
And as always we’ve left ourselves wide open on the counter.
And the header off the crossbar just shows our luck tonight. I’m also not confident in beating Miami on Saturday or even tying them, so this double game week will be a 2 loss week.
Redbulls prove that getting turnovers high up the pitch can be paired with composed finishing. That’s a fourth, headlines will say rout, but this was a complete failure to overcome a dense central system.
Yeah, having seen the goals I missed, I’m afraid the Redbulls actually understood how to get those high turnovers and find the time and space through them to finish, and we just haven’t done that playing with similar values. Ah well, moving on.
Overall it felt to me like we just didn’t match their intensity (which you could say of the last decade of the Atlantic Cup). One thing they’ve been really good at, and both Lesesne and Losada’s high energy systems have struggled with, is being able to go into tackles hard while not giving away too many fouls. A lot of that is on scouting/recruiting so let’s hope we can find a couple players like that.
I personally think this was the game to rest Benteke, and maybe even have tried KDP as a false 9, but Lesesne is using all of his subs at least so hopefully we can bring it on the weekend.
_________ is fucking useless.
a) Gabriel Pirani
b) Martin Rodriguez
c) Pedro Santos on defense
Sigh.
I hate losing to the fucking Red Bulls. I hate that we’ve given up 9 goals in their last two visits here. I hate that we don’t have a reliable home field advantage.
At least we didn’t get shut out.
When was the last time we had a fortress at home? It was back in the RFK days.
The first season of Rooney the player. Quite a run.
I actually saw something different than you from Pirani. He had several good passes that did not quiet connect, because the players he was passing to either mistimed their runs or didn’t make the correct move. Both Benteke and Teddy did not take advantage of some nice passing by Pirani. Benteke more understandably, because he is not that quick on his feet and his long legs are sometimes a hindrance. Teddy because he just didn’t read what Pirani wanted to do, Pirani’s instincts on the pass were the correct ones, at least from my view on section 210, Teddy simply made the wrong move. I know most of the DCU fandom, at least the ones who post online, don’t think much of Pirani but I still have hopes for him, because he is young and because there’s talent there. At least I wish him the best. As for Rodriguez, he doesn’t play much, hard to get a rhythm when you don’t play often.