USMNT lose, Benteke and Herrera are All-Stars, and more: Tuesday Freedom Kicks
Happy Tuesday! It was a bit of a rough day yesterday, but hopefully today will be better.
Three thoughts as USMNT crashes out of Copa America with Uruguay loss (Pro Soccer Wire)
There are lots of articles on this game, and here is one. Personally, you’ll never convince me that goal was onside, but the USMNT weren’t creating chances anyway.
2024 MLS All-Star Team Roster (MLS)
The All-Star roster was announced yesterday, including Aaron Herrara’s first-time inclusion and Christian Benteke’s second in a row!
Loudoun United isn’t going away, and what else we learned in the USL Championship this weekend (USL Championship)
After their win this weekend, Loudoun United could be on the brink of something bigger.
Now for our weekly superlatives, Pedro Santos has been nominated for Goal of the Matchday:
Wild that Kingsbury is nominated for Save of the Week for the same game in which her mistake allowed the opponent to score. (Vote for your fave, but know that in the NWSL goal-line clearances always beat actual saves.)
Washington Spirit’s Gabby Carle Named as Olympic Alternate for Team Canada (Washington Spirit)
Happy for Gabby to be going to Paris, although I think she deserved a full roster spot.
| Teams | When | Where | Watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Loudoun United FC vs. Hartford Athletic | Wed., July 2 at 7:30 p.m. ET | Leesburg, VA | ESPN+ |
Finally, D.C. United filmed the moment in which Christian Benteke and Aaron Herrera found out they’d be named All-Stars for all of us to watch. I think it’s very cute.
The officiating isn’t the reason the US is out of Copa America, but it was atrocious and head scratching last night.
Not to mention incredibly dangerous to the health of the players- three injury subs, two for the US
It wasn’t really all that different than it usually is during Conmebol qualifiers, to be honest. Another problem was that the US in trying to be physical from the start, ran into perhaps the most physical of teams in South America. Going hard on tackles, bodying off people, kicking, that has always been part of the game in Uruguay, they do that against Argentina and Brazil too. And refs in Conmebol usually just let it go. That is one of the reasons why some people think Conmebol teams are almost always able to get out of the group stage during World Cups and go beyond. They survive the qualifiers and so are battle tested.
I get all that. But the referee in this match just did a poor job–lots of non calls and inconsistency. Again, that’s not why the US lost. But that was a poor job of officiating.
I thought I would have a lot of things to say, but really, all I have is this: Our ceiling isn’t high enough under Berhalter, our floor embarrassing. I felt last night was about as good as this team will function under him. Time to move on.
Well put. You and I often disagree on a lot of stuff. But you’re spot-on here. I think Berhalter advanced the US and took a more long-term perspective (focusing on using ball movement and possession to unbalance the opposition). But I think he’s taken this team as far as he can take them. And the Colombia friendly was a disaster–to your point about the floor.
Thanks for the acknowledgment. The press seems also to have generally come to this conclusion, as well.
Ryan Keefer shared a report on Twitter out of Italy that DC is being linked with a player from Atalanta, Aleksei Miranchuk. Based on what I’ve seen, he seems to be an attacking midfielder/forward, and is 28. I’d imagine if they do end up signing him, he’d have to be a DP. The thing that sticks out to me though is that he’s Russian. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, but he seems to actively play for the Russian national team (which plays in Russia, obviously) and I don’t know how that interaction would work with the sanctions and restrictions that are currently in place, or if it would impact things at all. I know teams can’t easily sign Russian players on Russian teams currently, but I haven’t seen much about Russian nationals that play for teams outside of Russia
That’s a bold move because of the political climate and especially us being the nation’s capital and all… again, nothing inherently wrong with a player’s nationality, but any sort of financial tie-ins with his prior arrival in Atalanta could be troublesome for us to deal with.
Bemusingly, if you go to FBRef and sort Serie A players (23-24 season) by the site’s aggregate expected points metric (“npxG + xAG”) on a per minute basis, Miranchuk immediately bubbles to the top of the list. He has spent 4 years in Italy consistently producing and just as consistently failing to secure a full-time starting job. I don’t pay close attention to Serie A, so I have no insight as to what combination of injury, personality, stiff competition, and/or luck have resulted in his rather unusual profile. It’s a good sort of player to be looking at in the abstract, but the narrative will be important here.
FBRef has him as earning in the $2.5-3M range, so yeah, DP has to be the expectation.
If the long-reported changes of detaching U-22s from DPs goes through officially, then I’d imagine that Peltola could be reclassified as a U-22 and giving Miranchuk the then-open DP slot wouldn’t be an issue. I have no idea what the fit would be like from a soccer perspective, and the Russian nationality is indeed worth a second look (although as everyone has said, not necessarily indicative of anything). From his numbers, he seems to do pretty well in racking up assists. I’m not sure if they’d come from the wing or the center of the park, but either way would be welcome.
The club has to make sure he’s not another Jeahze, but his profile is sure promising. I’ve heard of him, might have seen him play at times, couldn’t pick him out of a lineup, but his skills I think we could rely on. Again, make sure he’s not toxic
Tom Bogert has now come in to say that there is nothing behind these rumors and DC is NOT attempting to sign him
Thanks for letting us know, but poop
I did reply to him to ask if he had any idea how signing a Russian National Team player would work (if its even allowed), as I am genuinely curious to know if this move would have even been allowed, but no response yet
I’m not sure why I bother with the US national teams anymore. Not because I’m disappointed that they’re out (I am), but because the circus that happens any time they get a bad result. Just shit takes left and right. I should know better than to read online “discussion.”
Quite frankly, it’s the same with any national team unless they’re running hot.
Eh the discussion around the Rugby teams isn’t bad normally. Except for when the men failed to qualify for the last Men’s Rugby World Cup (France 2023) when they drew Portugal 16-16 in the final game of the final qualifying tourney in Novemeber 2022. Portugal went through on points differential. It was also the first time Portugal had ever qualified. It was the first time the US hadn’t qualified since 1995 and only the 2nd time the US hadn’t qualified for it. Qualifying for Australia 2027 is part of why World Rugby and US Rugby stepped in to create and found Anthem in Major League Rugby this season. The US hosts 2031 Men’s and 2033 Women’s.
That being said, in order to watch the US Men’s and Women’s 15s you have to have a FloRugby subscription for like 95% of their games…I so want to go to the Scotland game at Buzzard Point on the 12th, but I have to work out the logistics.
Oh I meant specifically soccer. I’m glad it’s not so annoying with rugby.
I do appreciate this blog as a haven from most of the noise- I stopped with Stars and Stripes FC, for example, because they literally were gleeful when Arriola got injured during that one winning Gold Cup campaign.
Not all fans are like this, but there are a lot of dedicated commenters who have taken on all the toxicity of British fandom and the complete arrogance of manifest destiny. It’s a radioactive combination in some spaces.
England’s fans are another weird animal… actively wanting their team to lose just to get rid of the manager that’s likely on his way out anyway. I don’t think they knew what to do after that last game.
I am very happy for Herrera and Chris. Both have excelled this year.
One YouTuber I respect for their integrity is saying Berhalter was shouting that Bolivia and Panama were tied, and we should try to hold the result—- directly before that free kick.
Fuck Gregg
Yep, there’s a photo of him signaling 1-1 to the players on the field. And Uruguay scored less than 5 minutes later.
Cringe-worthy
Tomorrow is the 3rd…not the 2nd for the LU game. Also DCU plays tomorrow night at home against Cincy.
So, a range of comments on a range of topics.
Classy comments by Herrera and Benteke.
The Spirit are going to be missing a bunch of players for the Olympics. With Carle called up as an alternate for Canada–have France announced their roster? I assume Santos will be with Colombia.
I haven’t been able to find anything official about their Olympics roster, but some French players are already training in camp, and I don’t expect either of the Spirit’s players to get called up.
Doesn’t seem like Colombia has announced their roster yet, but I agree Santos will likely be on it.
The US U-20 Men’s Rugby began pool play today in the U20 Trophy (2nd tier) today 8n Scotland and survived a 2nd half come back attempt from the debutant Dutch winning 44-33 after having led 41-12 at half. The US lost all 3 pool games in the 2023 edition. They play Uruguay on July 7th and then finish pool play against Kenya on the 12th. Uruguay comfortably beat Kenya in the other pool B game. Pool A saw 2 1 sided dominations yesterday with Japan crushing Hong Kong 105-20 and Scotland beating Samoa 123-15.
https://www.world.rugby/news/941145/world-rugby-u20-trophy-day-one-wrap
BJ Callaghan is officially Nashville’s next manager. Possibly a good move if he can get them to play with the same hustle he got the US men to display during his brief tenure. Or the club environment doesn’t work out for him.
New report from Tom Bogert:
“D.C. United working to sign Cameroon midfielder Boris Enow from Maccabi Netanya.
TBD if it gets done. Would be a TAM signing. Potential key addition. Enow, 24, a ball-winning central midfielder. Played in Porto youth system and has now made more than 100 apps in Israel”
Can’t say CM was one of the positions I thought they’d go after this window, at least not for a big signing. DC definitely needs depth there, but signing more high-end guys seems like there will be a log-jam
I strongly suspect any logjam at any position would be very temporary. If Mackay lets Klich walk, or moves on from Canouse, presto, the problem disappears over the winter. Broadly, we are too thin everywhere to be turning down the best player we can get our hands on at any position save right back.
Whether Enow is the best player we can get for central midfield, I have no idea. * shrugs *
My reading of this was that, long term, Lesesne envisions a three back system and wants Peltola to be one of the CBs. Enow would likely be an upgrade on Jackson Hopkins, and Russell Canouse is probably on his way out.
We’ll see if this signing happens first, though.
I actually doubt a three back is his ideal system. We started with a 4-2-3-1, and I think it’s a strong possibility that’s closer to his ideal.
Agreed. I think part of the reason a 3-back is used now is because there aren’t any healthy true Left Backs on the roster at this point (I guess Pedro Santos kinda counts). I’d assume we’ll go back to a 4 back system when Schnegg comes in a few weeks
I agree with this. No reason to go strong for Schnegg without a plan to go back to a four back system.
We’re so thin, we can afford to sign someone at any position other than GK and it would be a plus. As for the thought of “do we really need a CM?”–maybe the idea is Klich moves up to become the A-mid that Pirani has never shown he is right now.
Agreed about the four in the back being his preferred system. However, I think either a 4-3-3 or a 4-1-4-1 is more likely than a 4-2-3-1. Lesesne doesn’t seem to really value having a number ten in the midfield compared to ball winners/shuttlers. I think if he did then we would have seen KDP playing more centrally but him and Stroud have been playing wider.
Yeah, not really disagreeing. It’s possible that Pirani’s complete inability to have an impact as a starter in that central role forced him to rethink the structure.