Pochettino rumored to take USMNT job, Real Madrid win UEFA Super Cup, and more: Thursday Freedom Kicks
Yesterday had some soccer news from start to finish, and I do mean the very end of the day. We start there with the news that tried to break down the internet late last night.
Rumor: Mauricio Pochettino agrees on deal to become next USMNT head coach (SSFC)
Could Poch be the next USMNT coach? Signs are starting to point to yes.
A trophy, a goal and ‘no limit’ – Madrid’s Mbappe era begins (BBC)
Real Madrid won the UEFA Super Cup over Atalanta, 2-0. Kylian Mbappé scored his first goal for the club and says there’s no limit to what the team can accomplish this season.
Chicago Fire mutually part ways with Xherdan Shaqiri (MLS)
Shaqiri is leaving MLS. The Fire mutually terminated his contract, and it’s unclear what’s next for the Swiss midfielder.
DC Power FC plays their inaugural match this weekend on the road. Yesterday, they signed another player to build their roster.
We are still looking out for the team’s new jerseys, which have yet to appear publicly.
Source: LA Galaxy sign ex-Dortmund, Germany star Marco Reus (ESPN)
Marco Reus may be headed to the LA Galaxy, which has been long rumored. The LA clubs are doing battle for the best European signing during this transfer window.
Hey Spirits: Olympic Spirits, pink braids, and the Frenchness of it all (DP)
We got a new Hey Spirits episode out, so check it out as they debrief the Olympics and what’s next for the team!
The Chicago Red Stars will get to have their home in September after all, as Riot Fest, which was slated to be at SeatGeek Stadium has been moved.
Lamine Yamal’s father stabbed near Barcelona (ESPN)
Terrible situation as Lamine Yamal’s father was stabbed and is in serious but stable condition. Wishing him the best for a full recovery.
Orlando Pride slam ‘unacceptable’ Zambia treatment of Chanda after injury (Pro Soccer Wire)
Grace Chanda is out for the season after suffering a ruptured quad tendon, and the Orlando Pride are incensed that Zambia brought her to the Olympics while injured and played her, which forced the tendon to tear.
Enjoy the day, y’all.
Pochettino wasn’t my first choice but I have no idea if others like Renard or Ralf Ragnick who were my top choices were open to discussions. Certainly Pochettino is a good option. He has a good track record developing young talent. He really emphasizes a high press and an athletic team that works (and I think that will fit well with our team, especially playing at home). He speaks English well (which is a big factor in building American enthusiasm around the WC). He’s significantly better than Berhalter at subs and mid-game changes in tactics. The big concern I’d have is this: how well do Pulisic and Pochettino work together?
As someone who primarily only follows MLS and only casually watches other international leagues, I had no idea who Pochettino was until I looked him up last night after the news broke. My first thoughts after seeing his previous jobs were similar to your last concern in:
1: “Wait, hasn’t Chelsea been…not good over the past few years?”
and
2: “Wasn’t Pulisic at Chelsea while he was coaching there…and didn’t the coach just not like (or at least not play) Pullisic?”
I’m not going to pretend that I know a ton about the guy or his tactics, but from more of a casual or outsider prospective the move seems odd at best. Most fans seem happy about the move though, so I’m assuming it is a decent hire in the end
Pulisic was long gone by the time Poch showed up.
Ah, that makes sense then!
Hold on, I could be wrong about the timeline, that Pulisic was outgoing while Poch was incoming, but Christian was definitely looking for a new situation after all those players were signed in the Boehly era with Potter.
Pochettino took over on 1 July 2023 and Pulisic completed his transfer on July 13, 2023. There was technically overlap, but the transfer process started in like May, so I doubt they had any interaction.
Thanks for clarifying that.
Chelsea has been a dumpster fire since Todd Boehly took over. I’m not sure any coach can succeed there.
I could say a lot about the Pochettino hire, but I find it boils down to this- his most successful stint was getting Spurs to play well without winning a single trophy with them, tournament or league. Don’t get me wrong, getting Spurs to the Champions League final is impressive. But if the goal was to get a master at navigating a team across the finish line, that’s precisely what Poch hasn’t done. He also was sort of a slow burn in terms of steady improvement before the stagnation at Spurs.
I don’t really care what he did with PSG in one year, and I don’t like the vibes from Chelsea last season.
Poch seems aimed at mollifying the euro snob fans moreso than doing what we need- make us a tournament contender in an abbreviated window.
I don’t know that mollifying the Eurosnob was the primary aim. I think his previous working relationship with Matt Crocker was probably a huge part of it, and the fact that he’s been pretty successful and was willing to take the role.
Hopefully it works out.
I don’t think it’s about Eurosnobs as much as it is that Crocker feels he has a very good sense of Pochettino, having been at Southhampton with him and then knowing the English leagues well and having contacts there.
I’m not as worried about the “he hasn’t won any trophies.” What coaches have won trophies in Europe in a big league or Euro competition that are also available to the US? And realistically, we’re not going to win the 2026 WC.
I don’t know if Pochettino is a great hire. He didn’t make it work with Pulisic (and yes, most of that was before he got there but still–he was coach in Pulisic’s last year at Chelsea). And I think there is a decent chance that 6 months from now someone may poach him from us (a rich club team needing a winter replacement. And he may decide he wants to coach a club (with 1-2 games every week), not a NT. So there are definitely risks to hiring him.
Realistically, no coach was going to make it likely that we would win the tournament, but hiring someone who has never successfully navigated a tournament to the cup- and it’s worth remembering how many trophies per year are available in the EPL- I just am not particularly enthused by this move. He also has no experience with international play outside of club competition, so he’ll be adjusting for a period of time, when we have less than two years.
He’s got a habit of not winning the big games, and, as I’ve said, is not a noted tournament manager. So, fine that Crocker knows him, but I only see this as an appeasement and cover for the fanbase. In that, if the US doesn’t do particularly well, they can point to Poch and say they did their bit. I for one think this appointment would have more prestige than sense
All good points. And I also want to point out I was wrong about Pochettino coaching Pulisic his last season at Chelsea. Now, Pochettino may have wanted Pulisic to leave or made no effort to change his mind. But he wasn’t the guy who sat him all the time or only used him as a sub.
I’m not sure getting Spurs to win a trophy is something that even God could pull off. That team is somehow cursed.
The summer transfer window has officially closed. I always like the flurry of activity at the end, and inevitably there’s some deals that were worked out by the deadline but only get announced afterwards. I also think back to how fun it was in 2017 when we got the firehose news of acquisitions. Bruno Miranda. Zoltan Stieber. Russell Canouse. Paul Arriola!
So deadline day seems to have been a bit of a bust from a DC perspective this year. But honestly, I give a ton of credit to the front office for addressing their needs early in the window. David Schnegg and Boris Enow could be starters for the next couple years, and Dominique Badji is a good complementary piece. Given how bad our cap situation was, Schnegg seems to have taken Jeahze’s space, Enow seems to have taken Birnbaum’s space (and thank you Gabriel Pirani for getting a green card!), and the only real outlay was for Badji, and even that was defrayed by the team bringing in $125,000 in GAM for the discovery rights to Henry Wingo and the MLS rights to Lewis O’Brien.
All of this was done pretty early on in the window, so each of the players has gotten a chance to get game action with the rest of the players. In terms of setting up for a stretch run, that’s about the best way to do it.
The only other way the team could have gotten someone would have been to move one of the existing players on. Martin Rodriguez and Cristian Dajome have the highest salaries, and while I fully expect the club to part ways with them this offseason, they’ve actually started to become much more integrated in the attack recently. I think the team can get better bang for the buck next year, but finishing out this first year of the Mackay-Lesesne team makeover, I’m happy to roll with two attackers that know the team and are finding their form, particularly given the absence of any other prominent playmaker.
Tyler Miller was probably the guy most likely to have been moved then. He’s been a healthy drop from the lineups recently, and it takes a lot to get out of Lesesne’s doghouse. He’s on a high salary, and while the goalkeepers behind him are much less accomplished, DC does at least have three other goalkeepers on the current roster. It might be that they tried to move him, and there just wasn’t a market. He’s another guy that I expect to see gone at the end of the year.
I share a similar sentiment in that going into the window I was thinking Rodriguez was going to get moved one way or another, and after Miller disappeared off the bench that he was also on his way out. Now, I think Rodriguez has shown enough of a spark to stick around to at least the end of this year, though I am a bit surprised Miller is still here given how quickly he fell off the depth chart. Rodriguez is probably auditioning at this point, either to stay with the team or do well enough to land somewhere else. Part of me thinks, with how involved Dajome has been this year, that he’ll be back next year regardless. Lesesne seems to really value his contribution to the team. Though that may change if he gets some more money to play with
Yeah, Dajome is definitely a favorite of Lesesne, has a great willingness to play anywhere (should be noted that we went through this transfer window without picking up any kind of backup for Aaron Herrera), and has recently started to show a better scoring touch. With Badji available, Dajome might come off the bench more often which could make his energy against tired defenders even more potent.
All that said, he’s making nearly $1 million in guaranteed compensation, and takes up an international slot. He’ll be 31 next season. To me, I’d want him to take a 50% pay cut to come back, but that doesn’t seem like something he’d want to accept (rightly so). Ally Mackay has shown he’s plenty willing to clear players off the roster that he didn’t sign. He may negotiate with Dajome, but I’m hoping that he’s looking at the resources used for this player and seeing how they can be deployed for a more effective player.
Same deal with Rodriguez.
DC Power about to show up to their first game with the plain white DCU 2020 jerseys (aka the Hanes tshirts).
Re: Poch…interesting, probably good hire. I don’t understand how people can be so down on the choice. The guy was placing top 3, top 4 against the likes of Guardiola, Klopp, and Conte. Even at this last stint at Chelsea he made considerable progress from the beginning of his stint until he got canned. Tuchel is the only guy who’s both available and has a better pedigree. Now he doesn’t have to worry about Chelsea and PSG’s insane owners/presidents, and has pretty much a set pool of players to form a team. Perhaps there are some dual nationals that would jump in at the chance to work with him too.
Interesting element to this Pochettino story. ESPN is reporting that–assuming the USSF Board approves–Pochettino can’t actually sign until Chelsea pays him some money he’s owed. If this drags out, then it delays when he actually starts. Additionally, there is apparently some negotiation about whether or not he moves to the US or stays in Europe. I know we’ve got a lot of players in Europe. But I don’t like this idea of the NT coach (with no experience in the US) not being based the US. Especially since almost all of our matches between now and the end of the WC will be IN the US (so he needs to get a feel for the tactical considerations of particular stadiums, the practice considerations). Almost every friendly we play, countries will want to come to the US and check out the stadiums, practice fields, hotel arrangements and prep for the WC. But our coach would be located in England or France?
If we had a single stadium where all the teams and players were within a hour of sure, but I think even moving to the US being in Atlanta isn’t any closer than being in New York, Los Angeles or London. As most of the top talent is playing in Europe now it makes sense as they’re only active what 6-8 weeks a year tops as the US squad.
It’s kind of a bad look. There’s a good chance that none of our formerly top-choice keepers are posting regularly in Europe. So seeing who’s playing well in MLS is important.
United is announcing a friendly against Asante Kotoko SC of Ghana on October 12. That’s in the middle of a two week break between the penultimate and the final game of the season. So, it could actually be a good opportunity to keep the team sharp for a game that could be vital towards securing a playoff spot.
The graphic the team is using features a player that is no longer on the team for Asante Kotoko, and Boris Enow, who is well-known and deeply loved by the United fanbase (and happens to be from Cameroon). But most importantly, the crest of Asante Kotoko SC features a porcupine. That is tremendous!
Playoffs? Playoffs?
It’s in the dead week between the last two games of the season. If anything using the game to get some minutes is probably wise. They had planned something similar for last year, but washed out early so the game was meaningless and coached by Brilliant who was the only coaching staff member left after Rooney left for Birmingham.
I think DCU probably have some sort of agreement with the Ghanaian League, or at least a deal with Ghanaian Tourism authority which facilitates matches versus the winer of a local tourney to come and play DC United
https://www.theafricandream.net/dc-united-partners-ghana-tourism-and-soccer-bodies-for-capital-city-africa-cup/
That’s in addition to, or maybe to be replaced by a deal that Goff reported earlier this year between DC United and the Ethiopian football federation.
It would be awesome if DC United got some up and coming African talent, but so far it seems like an underwhelming cash grab that falls on DC United season ticket-holders.
They’ve signed Badji and Enow in this window, so perhaps they’re starting to focus on African soccer players.
Of course, neither of them were playing in Africa, and Badji has spent considerable time in the US and MLS, but hey.
All in all, this sort of seems like a “what’s the harm” game. Unless somebody gets hurt (knocking furiously on wood), it helps keep the players game ready, possibly gives some minutes to the Sargises and Garays of the world (maybe a Nathan Crockford sighting!), and helps grow our relationship with a good African soccer country, and maybe even puts a gem or two on our radar.
And they have a sick porcupine crest.
The Porcupine Warriors!
7 Old Glory players have been called into the Rugby XVs MNT camp for the Pacific Nations Cup that starts at the end of the month.
Travelling Roster:
Jack Iscaro (Prop)
Cory Daniel (Flanker)
Jamason Fa’anana-Schultz (No 8)
Ethan McVeigh (Scrumhalf)
Tommaso Boni (Center)
Non-Travelling Reserves
Collin Grosse
Connor Buckley
All 7 have seen at least 1 cap for the Eagles. Ethan McVeigh got his 1st cap at Buzzard Point last month in the loss to Scotland.
https://eagles.rugby/news/rising-talent-get-their-shot-as-usa-mens-eagles-player-pool-announced-for-pacific-nations-cup-2024815
The Pacific Nations Cup has just become vital to the US’s chances of qualifying for the 2027 Men’s Rugby World Cup, which is the last one before the US hosts the RWC in 2031. The 2027 Men’s RWC will be the first one to feature an expanded 24 team field. 12 Teams have already qualified by finishing top 3 in their pool at the Rugby World Cup in France last fall. In order to qualify the US must be one of the top 3 teams in the Pacific Nations Cup (minus Japan and Fiji who have already qualified). Its time for the Eagles to get it done.
https://eagles.rugby/news/pacific-nations-cup-confirmed-as-rugby-world-cup-qualification-process-for-mens-eagles-2024815
The US faces Japan and Canada in the group stage of the Pacific Nations Cup. They first face Canada at the StubHub Center in LA on August 31 at 9 PM EDT, where Canada will be on 5 days rest after playing Japan at BC Place in Vancouver on the 25th. They will then face Japan in at 6:05 AM EDT Kumagaya Rugby Stadium in Saitama, Japan on Sept 6th.