Esme Morgan to Washington rumors, CANMNT roster, and more: Tuesday Freedom Kicks
Well, it’s Tuesday. I imagine most of you are back to work today after the holiday weekend, but hopefully you’re feeling refreshed and ready for the shortened week! I don’t have a ton of soccer news to share from Memorial Day, but let’s see what comes up.
Lauletta: Team-by-team grades at the FIFA break (The Equalizer)
The Equalizer handed out grades for the first (almost) half of the NWSL season, and Washington is the only team to earn an A-plus. Given some of their struggles (and the fact that two other teams are still undefeated), I might have put the Spirit more of an A/A-minus.
On a related note, their defense might be getting some help soon, if rumors are to be believed:
Takeaways from Loudoun United’s Jekyll (USL) and Hyde (Open Cup) week (The DP)
In case you missed it yesterday, Ryan Keefer gave us a tactical breakdown Loudoun United’s play lately, through both highs and lows.
USL Championship Power Rankings – Week 12 (USL Championship)
Loudoun’s performance against Orange County this weekend has them surging in the league power rankings.
Whomst is new USWNT midfielder Hal Hershfelt and what does she do (BTVC)
Some of you may have been as surprised as we were by Spirit rookie Hal Hershfelt’s first call-up to the National Team, but her skills are no joke, as Andre Carlisle details in this article.
MLS’s experimental rule changes are saving time, but causing a stir with Messi (The Athletic)
Setting aside the (annoying) Messi angle in the lede and headline, I thought this was an interesting discussion of the benefits and drawbacks of new MLS time rules.
Spanish court: FIFA, UEFA must halt Super League opposition (ESPN)
Not sure how much impact this ruling will have on the possible creation of a Super League, but FIFA and UEFA have been ordered to cease anticompetitive behavior and reverse past such behavior.
Women’s football boss Michele Kang: ‘I want the next generation to compete on an equal playing field’ (Financial Times)
Probably the biggest piece of news from this interview with Spirit owner Michele Kang is that she’s completed the sale of Cognosante, the healthcare tech company where she made much of her fortune, freeing her up to focus on her women’s soccer empire full-time.
CANMNT roster unveiled ahead of key European friendlies (Canada Soccer)
A fair number of MLS players on here.
That’s all I have for now. Hope the week treats you well!
Tim Weah has joined the ownership group for Brooklyn FC. BKFC’s womens team will play in the USL Super League while the mens team will move to the USL Championship for the 2025 season. https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5523550/2024/05/28/usmnt-tim-weah-brooklyn-fc-ownership-group?source=user-shared-article
Angel Di Maria is reportedly planning to join Messi at Inter Miami. How? Roster rules “magic.”
It’d be a shame if they had to move Robert Taylor to fit in Di Maria, and another team with a Finnish (sometimes) midfielder scooped him up.
The rules are quite clear. Miami gets good players till they win MLS cup, that’s just like, science or whatever
/looks at DC’s roster of 20 available players
Oh, and Peltola just got called up to the Finnish national team. Which, hooray for him! But DC’s luck when it comes to players on international duty has never been that good.
Are you suggesting that the rules will change if/when Miami wins an MLS Cup? Really?
If they don’t a new darling team will be found when Messi retires….
Darth Garber is watching….
Yeah, I doubt a Spanish Court is what allows the Super League to become a thing. Lack of jurisdiction, and bias about Barcelona and Real Madrid
Oh, and I’ll just say, excited for The Spirit finally getting their coach, it seems.
Sadly, Barcelona’s last club match of the season is not until June 16, so I don’t think we’ll be seeing him stateside until after that.
Oh, wow, I certainly assumed the Champions League final would be the last game of the season
With McVey out for weeks and Peltola joining Finland for friendlies, do we have anyone outside Bartlett, Birbaum and Tubbs to play in the backline?
Not that its a great solution, but I think Herrera has some experience playing as a CB, so he could probably fill in if needed
Yeah, there was a lot of talk before the season began about having Herrera play the Najar role in a three man backline. Obviously, he’s been very effective in the role that he is playing, but it’s a look that the team could toss out. But not having Antley means there’s no immediate replacement for a right wingback. It could maybe be Stroud, but he’s not easily replaced either. Maybe Hopkins starts playing in Stroud’s role, and Peltola comes back into the midfield? Either that or Ku-DiPietro, Fletcher, or Murrell.
Man, this team is shorthanded.
Terrible luck.
Yikes, that’s a big hit. McVey has been great on the backline, and really instrumental at getting some offensive moves started from the back, well before his goal against Chicago.
Finland’s games are on June 4 and June 7, while United doesn’t have any games between June 1 and June 15, so Peltola shouldn’t miss any time with the club (assuming he stays healthy on international duty). Bartlett, Birnbaum, and Peltola is still a pretty good back 3. Tubbs is definitely still learning, but at least has been getting some appearances.
United can recall either Matai Akinmboni or Hayden Sargis at any time from their loans. They did this with Sargis once already, and then just kept him on the bench. I don’t know if they might opt to do that again because they see more potential in Akinmboni long term for the club, and want him to keep getting developmental minutes with Loudoun. At any rate, it’s a tough situation, and adds just one more item to the shopping list for the summer window.
Tyler Miller, sweeper
keeper.I am kind of wondering if we’ll make the switch back to Miller at some point. Bono has done about an equally good job as Miller, if not slightly better, but Miller was just so good at connecting with Benteke from the very back. Might we try that out again?
I kind of doubt Lesesne will rock the horse like that. Bono does not have anywhere close to the kind of distribution as Miller, but the guys seem to enjoy his steadiness as a shot-stopper. Maybe the summer tournament is an opportunity for him to get some game time post-Rooney.
Yeah, I’m assuming that Miller will play in Leagues Cup. Unless he goes really outside the box and plays Nathan Crockford.
Despite fresh air this year, years of mind-numbing flogging of the fanbase has clearly trained you to think outside the box!
What happened with the 2023 USL Pro/Rel vote that never happened. Interesting discussion in the comments.
(The Athletic: $ wall)
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5525864/2024/05/29/soccer-usl-promotion-relegation-vote?source=user-shared-article
I genuinely hope that MLS never actually adopts promotion and relegation. I think USL has a chance to maybe make it work if its structured correctly, but I can never see it being successful or helpful for MLS. I think if anything MLS is closer to having 2 divisions (as in east and west, not MLS1 and MLS2) that are large enough to be their own individual “leagues” that would only play teams within their own divisions (36 teams total, 18 in each division, you play every other team in your division twice for 34 total games, the same we have now). The MLS Cup final would be where the two champions from the two divisions finally meet (outside of things like CONCACAF, Open, and Leagues Cups)
No thread again, but here’s the lineup
Sorry, here
Super harsh yellow on Hopkins only 90 seconds in.
Hopkins picks up a (deserved) yellow card in the 2nd minute. He’s got to be VERY careful, because the only other DM we have is having to fill in for Christopher McVey now.
He then draws a yellow on Piette
Piette immediately gets a yellow too, but that one seemed like a pretty reasonable challenge to me!
Not deserved in the replay, in my view. There was a brief tussle, but the Montreal player got separation before what looked like a very unintentional heel clip
He missed the initial ball, then was pretty deliberately trying to impede Duke’s progress. I’m fine with the yellow.
Our only other DM is turning the ball over in his own half and pretty much gifting Montreal a lead.
Damn we give up a goal on a hospital ball from Peltola that Montreal pounces on and is off to the races.
Dang. Lassiter’s son scores on us.
1-0 Montreal
Seems this game already might be a futile exercise in getting our players more tired and deeper in the red zone. I don’t want the players to give up just 1-0 down, but there’s a part of me that wishes someone could just say “you win,” and preserve some future legs
Birnbaum saves our bacon. 3 back is not working tonight so far.
Seems like Montreal are not worried about speed in behind, and can press forward pretty confidently.
So how many goals are we giving up tonight?
So far, we’ve held Montreal to 1. How embarrassing for them!
Benteke levels us, taking advantage of an injured Montreal player with a nice delicate chip.
In scoring, Benteke then landed on the injured player to add further injury to injury.
Great finish from Benteke, definition of a controversial goal
Like I always say, Ruan is one cross, one assist- wait a minute
(The joke being Ruan got in a lot of those spots for us last season, and was maybe 1 for 11. Bad luck).
He was good for one good cross a game. Sadly, Montreal took advantage of it. Props to him for passing it to himself first, though.
Pretty classic Ruan assist there. And once again, a goal sequence comes down our left side.
Holy balls, we are bad.
Think we’re closer to exhausted, really
Thankfully our next game isn’t until… this weekend.
To be more precise, Peltola is having a howler.
Yeah, he has less reason to fail tonight
Like, find me the player out there right now, maybe other than Peltola, who could use some leave from duty
Looks like the wall failed pretty bad there, even with the misdirection
These commentators cannot tell Benteke from Dajomes. He’s the one scoring and a head taller, hacks
3-2
Benteke with his fourth multigoal game of the year.
A shame that he’ll likely have come and gone eventually without being involved in a truly meaningful season, despite his achievements and labors. He may be remembered as a Hamid like legend
8 minutes of “maybe I’ll invite some injury” time
Maybe Peltola will pick up a second yellow time.
Well, Peltola is a total disaster tonight. Double yellow
I guess we can be grateful it’s not a straight red so we don’t miss out on him for three, but mama Mia, did our depth not need this
Everyone needs to be careful tonight with how Elfath is dealing cards tonight.
The xG model must be crap. Montreal have 0.81 in the first half, when they had some pretty wide open chances, including a point blank header
Elfath better remember how tightly he’s been issuing yellows tonight.
The most impactful ones, the ones to Peltola, I really can’t disagree with. There have been some pretty dubious other ones, for sure, but P was just sloppy and unmoored this half
I give Dajome a lot of marks for effort, none for clean defensive talent
Or offensive talent, really. But energy, yes. Lots of it, and a willingness to play wherever. Except on Saturday because I think he’ll miss that due to yellow card accumulation. Get ready for Tubbs and Santos on the left, with no subs.
I think saying he has no offensive talent is a little harsh, but he doesn’t have a ton of strengths, and they don’t align into a player profile worth much, much less his salary.
Oof.
4-2 Montreal
This is a Ruan Revenge Game.
Or, as we’ve sorta alluded to above, a really bad matchup on that wing with him and Dajome. Ruan is having his way.
It’s not just against Dajome. He was roasting Peltola too.
It’s also a game where we keep turning the ball over and don’t get back fast enough.
I find the argument that everyone is pretty tired to be pretty compelling. The bad news is that we play again on Saturday against a pretty good Toronto team, and we’ll be down to 14 outfield players available. But after that, a two week break!
I know there’s some irony to saying this when we’re two goals and a man down in the 80th minute, but this could, in fact, get ugly.
It’s already ugly what’s worse than ugly?
What’s the German word for “we have no bench, and the starting lineup is a damaged puzzle?”
I know that Montreal have a two goal lead, and are trying to see the game out with minimal fuss against a few fresh legs, but this reminds me a little of the scene in Aladdin where the monkey holds all the guards at bay with a sword before the chief says “you idiots, we all have swords!” As in, they should realize they’re a man up.
So many bad passes tonight.
That second half was about as much fun as cirrhosis of the liver.
I really don’t know what’s worse long term, making some desperation purchases that perpetuate a bad roster problem, or risking the few functional players we have with nasty injuries. It’s a choose your poison situation
Maybe recall some players from loan and just roll with them as warm bodies?
Strangely, we might actually have less depth going forward as in defense, despite the injuries, and we have literally none centrally that loan returns would address. Like, could we start Sargis at CM? It’s possible, but it’s also possible to walk into the ocean, and neither sounds appealing
Jeremy Garay, step forward and prove your worth!
The fact he isn’t on the bench already shows his worth, or lack thereof, pretty clearly
But, having said that, I’d rather lose a game starting Garay than lose Klich to an ACL later