D.C. United sign Schnegg and Badji, USMNT coach speculation, and more: Friday Freedom Kicks
Happy Friday! I hope you all had a lovely Independence Day and those of us who are back to work today can have a productive day before the weekend. Since yesterday was a holiday, there’s not a ton of news, but we’ll see what we can do.
D.C. United sign Austria defender David Schnegg from SK Stum Graz (D.C. United)
D.C. United sign forward Dominique Badji as a free agent (D.C. United)
The Black-and-Red chose the 4th of July to announce some newly-signed talent. Hopefully, they’ll add the depth and talent the team needs to end their losing streak.
Spirit head coach Jonatan Giráldez set to make sideline debut this weekend (Washington Spirit)
The original plan was to keep interim head coach Adrián González in charge on game day until the Olympics break, but I’m thinking last week’s loss changed some things.
Ten mostly realistic candidates to replace Berhalter if USMNT boss is ousted (Pro Soccer Wire)
No news on this yet, but people are already speculating.
Mbappé may idolise Ronaldo but he could end his Euros career (ESPN)
Portugal and France face today in the quarterfinals of what Ronaldo has said will be his last Euros. I will be rooting for France, but the framing of this article still feels a bit harsh.
If you’re planning activities for next weekend, we were asked to share some information about the Copa Tysons, a day of soccer and Euro Championship watch party. Here’s a message from one of the organizers:
“Players, fans and afficionados of the “beautiful game” are invited to join the Tysons Community Alliance for a wonderful day celebrating the game of soccer on Sunday, July 14, from 11 a.m. until 7 p.m. on the Plaza at Tysons Corner Center. Open to the public and FREE of charge, festivities begin with a family friendly soccer festival and cap off the day with a watch party for the prestigious Euro Cup Championship match, starting at 3 p.m. Hope you can join us.”
Finally, here’s our schedule of local games for the weekend. Quarterfinals for the Euros and Copa America are also ongoing, so there should be plenty to watch while you get your work done today. Have fun!
| Teams | When | Where | Watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alexandria Reds vs. Alexandria Rough Diamonds | Sat., July 6 at 5:30 p.m. ET | Alexandria, VA | – |
| VB City FC vs. DMV Elite | Sat., July 6 at 7 p.m. ET | Norfolk, VA | – |
| Annapolis Blues vs. Grove Soccer United | Sat., July 6 at 7 p.m. ET | Annapolis, MD | – |
| D.C. United vs. Orlando City | Sat., July 6 at 7:30 p.m. ET | Orlando, FL | Apple TV |
| Washington Spirit vs. Bay FC | Sat., July 6 at 10 p.m. ET | San Jose, CA | MNMT2, NWSL+ |
I’m looking forward to seeing what Schnegg and Badji can do. I’m glad that Badji is still a domestic player, and maybe Schnegg can be what we thought Jeahze was going to be. I’ll be interested what their wages are. Hopefully we’re not looking at Robertha levels, let alone Ravel (or Martin Rodriguez) levels. An ideal scenario for me would have been Badji just being signed for this season with an option for next, but that realistically wouldn’t have made much sense for the player. I think he will be a fine complementary player, and offers a bit of a different style from Benteke or Murrell. And while I’d like Murrell (and Fletcher and Ku-DiPietro) to continue progressing, none of them have really seized their opportunities, so there’s an opening for Badji to bang in some goals.
More importantly though, I think that Mackay NEEDS to bring in two more U-22 players this window. That’s what signing Peltola as a Young DP enables the team to do, and while Schnegg and Badji are good roster reinforcements (and I expect Schnegg to be a starter), they only raise the overall quality of the roster so much. United is in last place in the East. They need to be adding some real potential.
Obviously, none of us were in the discussions, but it seems to me that Badji could’ve been enticed with a guarantee for next year and an option beyond that. Hopefully, it’s not a very big commitment on wage, but I’m guessing it will be around Robertha levels, though it would be reasonable at 1/2 or even 1/3 of that.
I don’t know if this has been discussed elsewhere, but it looks like the Broccoli Festival is at Audi Field this year instead of Lot 8 at the end of the month. Wonder if the field is going to handle that well, though it looks like DC United doesn’t have a home game until 24 August and the Spirit until 18 Aug.
The team is extracting a lot of value out of the stadium, but it’s all disastrous for the field conditions. There was mention on one the UEFA European Championship broadcasts about players being really displeased with field conditions in Frankfurt, which have been bad since hosting 2 NFL matches last year. Some fields seem to handle that better, but it can be a huge issue.
Right now, the condition of the pitch at Audi Field looks worse than I’ve ever seen it. When they played lacrosse there, there was a bad section down the middle, but it seems now that the whole pitch is in miserable condition, with dirt flying up every time someone runs.
Weren’t the Defenders supposed to replace it? Like, they’re contractually obligated to? When is that happening?
The team does have home matches still this month. The worst date will be the match next Saturday against Nashville, one day after a USA rugby match. I shudder to try to imagine what the DCU game will look like.
I don’t necessarily begrudge the owners trying to recoup some of their investment now — maybe the cash flow is needed to service the debt. But, I wish they would prioritize the soccer team. I imagine that recruitment will continue to be a problem, and the field condition will be part of the consideration for players considering MLS.
I’m pretty sure the field deterioration is also greatly exacerbated by the fact they can’t dig too deeply on the site because of the weird “toxic waste site” thing. The best fields in the world have several feet of stuff going on beneath, we just have a surface
It’s not toxic waste but the fact the main power line for SW DC runs right under the pitch. The team knew about it when building but decided not to pay to have Pepco reroute it.
I think they’re both true- I remember at the site in general, digging too deep was forbidden due to the soil issue, but I don’t doubt you
I do want to give some credit to the team for being able to score two goals in each of the games without Benteke. They’ve hurt themselves in some silly ways (Dajome getting a red, Tyler Miller clearing a ball directly into Kelsy), but they showed plenty of fight. Being as depleted as they were, they could have easily given up. They never did, and were creating some new attacking patterns, but just bumped up on the limits of their abilities. But I didn’t feel despondent after those last two performances.
I agree fully with this sentiment.
I really struggle to understand how talent-laden teams like LA Galaxy and LAFC with multiple big-time DPs and renowned internationals like Lloris in other slots, and really solid MLS veterans providing depth, like Fagundez and Kamara — and yet they are bringing in superstars this summer — like Giroud and Reus — and DC United are signing a guy who went from Serie C to the Austrian Bundesliga, along with a career MLS bench piece like Badjii, all the while claiming they don’t have the budget room for more. Did MLS take away all our cap money because we have no NextPro team?
I’d love to see someone break down the spending – I feel the same way. We have about the same number of players making above the DP threshold as the LAs (at which point the rest of their salaries don’t matter, to some degree). And we have fewer guys on the roster.
This team is somehow still employing Dave Kasper.
Welp, I judged Marsch based on his Leeds coaching, and didn’t like what I saw. But watching how he’s mustering his Canada side on relatively short notice, it’s clear he’s more canny and level headed than I thought, and a sight deal better than Berhalter at getting something out of a team.
The federation could have gotten him for Berhalter’s salary. They could have gotten Curtin or Nancy. I think it’s too late for that. They need to make a splash. We’re not just in need of competence, we need a game changing figure. This is no longer about replacing Berhalter, but altering the entire paradigm.
I’m not sure if we could get Nancy (I’m sure he’s being well-compensated), but he’s demonstrated a remarkable ability to build a culture of success and accountability. Curtin seems like a realistic hire that also has shown he can get a lot from relatively little.