Steven Birnbaum says goodbye, Spirit win, and more: Monday Freedom Kicks
Happy Monday, everyone. I spent the entire weekend on the softball diamond, playing 10 games in 2 days. I’m still tired, but there was some soccer news from this weekend to catch up on:
First, DC United played Celtic in a friendly at Audi Field. The final score: not awesome.
But that wasn’t the main character of that match. It was Steven Birnbaum getting his on-field send-off from D.C. United. He got the armband and subbed off immediately after kickoff so he could get the standing ovation he absolutely deserves.
Our captain. Club legend. Forever Black-and-Red. Thank you, Steven.
The Washington Spirit began the Summer Cup up in Philly with a match against Chivas. They got the victory, 2-1 to the good!
Cowell makes it three in a row with banger in Chivas victory (Pro Soccer Wire)
Cade Cowell is heating up for Chivas, scoring for the 3rd match in a row. Glad he’s faring well for one of Mexico’s biggest clubs.
Tyler Adams to miss start of Bournemouth season due to back surgery (SSFC)
Sad news as Tyler Adams will miss the start of the season for Bournemouth after undergoing back surgery. Really hope he can be back to 100% and pain free soon.
Ex-USWNT star Rapinoe on Albert: ‘I hope that she’s doing the work’ (Pro Soccer Wire)
Megan Rapinoe spoke on the USWNT and hopes that Korbin Albert is really doing the work to atone for her homophobic and transphobic social media activity, and for liking other tweets that made fun of Megan Rapinoe’s injury she suffered in her final pro match.
The United States must prepare now to host a secure 2026 World Cup (SSFC)
The World Cup is two years away, and despite the security issues from the 2024 Copa América final not being the fault of World Cup organizers, I opine that they must learn from those mistakes anyway to ensure the tournament in two years is as safe and secure as possible for fans.
Enjoy the week!
Good start for the Spirit. I’ve gotta say though, those two-tone yellow uni’s–ugh! I know the owner’s favorite color is yellow but still, not wild about how they look (the black ones though–they work).
Glad to see Steven B. honored in this fashion. I know the score line was bad. For anyone who was there, I’d be interested in any critiques of players. The brief review I read made Zamudio sound good (before he left with an injury). I also wonder about Hopkins or Akinboni. Or our new club signings–how did they look?
Fletcher apparently also got hurt during the game. We can’t even catch a break during a friendly…
Zamudio made a bunch of really nice saves. Hard to know for sure since it’s a friendly, but he definitely has the shot-stopping tools to be really good.
Fletcher made basically one hard cut and came out. Looks like they were hoping to test out his ankle and it didn’t pass. He barely played more than Birnbaum.
Schnegg made a few nice passes, etc., but playing with mostly backups, in a friendly that we got beat easily in, it was tough for him to do anything that would be all that promising.
Similar with Badji – hard to say how he’s going to fit in given the circumstances. But he’s a guy who exists. At the very least he’s another option, which we’ve been short of recently.
Hopkins and Akimboni played ok. For Akimboni, it’s difficult to say he did really well when we gave up 4 goals and probably could have given up more. Hopkins played and didn’t seem to be limited from his injury.
All in all, I’m not sure I’d make any real assertions based on the game, but we had a good time and honored Birnbaum, so, for a friendly, it was decent enough.
OGDC lost 33-29 to the New England Free Jacks in the Major League Rugby Eastern Conference Semifinal this past Saturday afternoon. OGDC’s discipline issues cost them as they set the Free Jacks with several straight on penalty kick goals. If OGDC hadn’t missed one conversion the score would’ve been tighter at 33-31.
For my own sanity, it’s nice to see the (most of the) rest of MLS catch up to D.C. United in the Games Played column.
United sits 1 point above Chicago and 3 points above last-place New England (who still has two games in hand). Nevertheless, the team is also 2 points out of a 9th place playoff.
Really, 8th-15th are all really close – 8th place with 1.15 ppg, and 15th place with 1.0 ppg.
(San Jose, I see you still below 2013’s United season, though with one more game won.)
I concur pretty much with Scotian42 assessment. I arrived at Buzzard Point late and missed the lineup introductions so I found myself watching several strangers running around. I identified only McVey and Peltola as first stringers.
I was impressed by number 23, who seemed to have speed, skills and smarts. Turned out he is Badji.
Also, impressed with Zamudio, who made some great reaction saves.
I only identified David Schnegg in the second half when he started playing in front of the West Stand. Good size (6’1”) but no real opportunity to shine. I’m confident that he’ll be our left back in a four man back line.
I was struck by how quickly and relentlessly Celtic counter attacked. They never seemed to pass the ball backward when winning a ball.
But a nice evening despite the score. Wonderful to see Steve Birnbaum properly honored.
Interesting read from The Athletic ($ wall) concerning tactical changes that have happened since the change to the goal kick law.
The change:
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5596295/2024/07/21/how-goal-kick-law-changed-football/
American Bill Foley owner of Bournemouth in the EPL is against holding EPL games on this side of the pond.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5650315/2024/07/22/premier-league-games-us-foley-bournemouth/
Apparently Atlanta have transferred homegrown Caleb Wiley to Chelsea for $11 mil. Wiley is going to be loaned from Chelsea to Strasbourg in Ligue 1.
https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/atlanta-united-transfer-caleb-wiley-to-chelsea
Chelsea got fleeced? Shocker.
Boris Enow confirmed as signed.
https://www.dcunited.com/news/d-c-united-sign-cameroonian-midfielder-boris-enow-from-maccabi-netanya