Washington Spirit dominate, NWSLPA announces historic CBA, and more: Monday Freedom Kicks
Happy Monday, everyone. It was a great day yesterday at Audi Field, so we start there with a huge victory.
Complete Washington Spirit wins big against KC Current to move to 2nd in league (DP)
The Spirit dominate the KC Current 4-1, and they’re now 2nd in the league! It was such a fun match, with goals from Paige Metayer, Ouleye Sarr, Trinity Rodman, and Leicy Santos.
NWSLPA Announces New CBA, Players Secure Freedom Over Their Careers (NWSLPA)
The NWSLPA and the league agreed to a new collective bargaining agreement, which is historic in several ways, including the elimination of the NWSL Draft and player consent being required for any trade. It’s a monumental achievement for the players!
It was a wild night on Saturday at Audi Field, as Paul Arriola returned to town with FC Dallas. It was a 4-3 loss for the Black-and-Red, leaving them in last place in the Eastern Conference.
The other match at Audi Field yesterday was Arsenal vs. Chelsea. Chelsea won 1-0 behind a Sandy Baltimore goal.
Hugs go out to Crystal Dunn, who has opened up about some of the mental struggles she has had recently and how she has continued to push on.
Last night was the Leagues Cup Final, and Columbus beat LAFC 3-1 to win it. Columbus is on a roll.
Thibaut Courtois has declared that he will not play for Belgium anymore as long as Domenico Tedesco is the coach. Belgium may be at a crossroads as their golden generation comes to an end.
Lionel Messi to return before end of MLS season (The Athletic)
Looks like Inter Miami will have #10 back before the end of the regular season to help them into the playoffs.
Enjoy the day!
Several folks pointed this out on Saturday, and someone had the numbers to back it up, but how the hell did DC get so much worse since those first 5 games or so? They went from organized and pragmatic at times to just chasing the ball zero other thoughts. The immaturity for a team with varying levels of experience is surprising and disappointing.
I like what Klich has brought to this team, but I hope this is his last season. I fear his overall attitude has leaked into the rest of the team. Reactive, and emotional. The biggest thing this team needs is consistency, in my opinion. Consistent lineups, tactics, leadership, etc. DC has dealt with so many injuries and outright dumb suspensions that there is no way the team can build. Once again DC are agonizingly close to the playoffs, but I am quite confident in saying that DC won’t make it, which is sad with so many games left.
What I am hearing is DCU is being like basically every DC sports team to an extant?
We have refs that hand out cards like real estate agents….it’s incredible….
At this point, it’s something that DC has to learn to just deal with. I think the team has built a reputation for one that fouls hard and often, and back talks the officials. They need to shirk that if they want things to change. Refs are biased, it’s no secret. Complaining just hasn’t gotten DC anywhere. If anything it made it worse during Rooney’s tenure.
Lesesne at least acknowledged that he messed up the first half. And Bono definitely was not happy with the stupid individual mistakes. The team knows the issues, but this late in the season it’s hard to fix them. We’ve rolled over so many players through injury, suspension or reintroduction after getting frozen out that there’s no chemistry even though the guys are pretty good at taking the ball up the field and attacking. Positioning and organization without the ball isn’t what we should be starting from ground zero on, but that’s what the team turnover (and possibly coaching) have left us with.
Not to say I’m against Lesesne already or anything, but he’s clearly focused more on the front half of the field than the back, maybe by necessity.
I am a bit more critical of Lesesne in this one than some others. He had weeks to prepare for this game and, in Goff’s words, put a hot mess soccerwise on the field.
Enow was a clear downgrade from Peltola, and that proved to be the case in the second half. Enow was aggressive, which the coach liked, but he put himself out of position early and often. The red card solidified DC United’s position as the highest fouling team in MLS.
Badji was a non-factor. WhoScored ranked both of these players in the bottom of the barrel.
Klich also was okay but did not contribute much to the defense. Rodriguez outplayed him once he got into the game. Perhaps he is stewing over his contract. At his age, it is unlikely the contract will be renewed, but perhaps DCU will pick up the option.
Dajome is not a left-back so it is not his fault that he underperformed.
Once these players were subbed out, DCU became a better team defensively.
So as Goff said, it was an exciting game to watch, but a hot mess socerwise.
So I am putting this one on the coach. He came out with a very aggressive lineup and got burned.
Based on a recent Twitter post from Loudoun United, it appears they are either going to debut a third kit or they’re going to change their color scheme. The post is a video of the current logo on a cyan background, then the details/color of the current logo fade away
Laser-like Buzzard Points from Metayer, Sarr, Rodman and Santos sink (former) #2 Kansas City 4-1. The tally to date:
Buzzard Points (home goals): Sarr (5); Bethune (4); Rodman (3); Hatch (pk), Hershfelt, Krueger, Metayer, Santos, Sullivan (pk)
Talones (home assists): Bethune (5); Krueger, Rodman (2); Carle, Hatch, Metayer, McKeown, Santos, Sarr
Taloncitos (drew home pk): Bethune (2); Rodman
Shambolic defending squanders Buzzard Points by Benteke, Schnegg, Stroud v Dallas 3-4. The tally to date:
Buzzard Points (home goals): Benteke (8, incl. 2 pks); Dajome (3); Klich (incl. pk), Pirani, Stroud (2); Bartlett, Ku-DiPietro, McVey, Murrell, Rodriguez, Santos, Schnegg
Talones (home assists): Benteke, Santos (3); Herrera, Klich, Ku-DiPietro, Rodriguez, Stroud (2); Akinmboni, Antley, Birnbaum
Taloncitos (drew home pk): Benteke, Stroud, Stubbs
An interesting affect of the World Rugby changes to Residency Requirements (Regulation 8) on College Rugby in the US and the MLR draft later this week. Its in terms of how the “residency clock” works now.
https://www.goffrugbyreport.com/news/world-rugby-regulation-change-affecting-mlr-draft-plans
So the issue is with players being registered with the National Governing Bodies (NGBs). Specifically USA Rugby and National Collegiate Rugby (NCR). Not every player who plays for NCR teams registers with USA Rugby.
Basically MLR teams are only have so many international slots. So the questions is how much time do the international players in the draft have on their residence clocks. If a player has been registered the whole 4 years then they only have 1 year left on the residency clock before they count as a domestic player.