Christian Benteke signs extension, Brooklyn FC opener postponed, and more: Thursday Freedom Kicks
Happy Thursday, everyone. Today will hopefully be a lot cooler than it was yesterday, where we got to 101 degrees, 111 degrees on the heat index, and a feels like temp of 37,422. While I’m sitting on an ice block, here’s some of the news from yesterday.
Breaking: Christian Benteke officially signs contract extension with D.C. United through 2025 (DP)
#20 will be in DC for at least one more season! Benteke’s new deal is for the 2025 season with an option for 2026.
In the USL Super League, Brooklyn FC was set for their debut on Saturday. Unfortunately, field issues have prompted the league to postpone the match.
Nacional defender Izquierdo dies after on-field collapse (Pro Soccer Wire)
Terrible news out of South America as Juan Izquierdo passed away after collapsing on the field during a Copa Libertadores match. Our hearts are with his family and the Nacional community.
Darwin Núñez banned 5 games for Uruguay’s Copa América brawl (ESPN)
Remember that huge brawl in the stands after the Uruguay-Colombia semifinal match at Copa América? Well, CONMEBOL finally lowered some punishments, led by Darwin Núñez receiving a 5 game suspension. Rodrigo Bentancur will miss 4 games for Uruguay, and three-game bans were issued to José María Giménez, Mathías Olivera, and Ronald Araújo.
Lemons and handshakes could be the secret to Mauricio Pochettino’s success should the deal for him to become USMNT head coach be finalized.
5 GIFs from the Spirit’s 4-1 win over Kansas City (DP)
Hey Spirits episode: We can’t stop talking about Spirits vs. Current (DP)
Let’s relive some of the fun from last weekend, as André gives us some of the best GIFs from the match and there’s a new Hey Spirits episode to recap it all!
Speaking of pods, one of my soccer pods, the World of Concacaf is back with another focus on the soccer and history of Nicaragua. It’s a great episode that I think will be interesting to anyone who loves the vibes of Concacaf.
Steph Yang does a deep dive on Michele Kang’s attempts to invest in women’s soccer around the world with the friendlies that brought Arsenal and Chelsea to town.
Takeaways from Loudoun United’s draw with Rhode Island (DP)
Ryan breaks down Loudoun United’s draw with Rhode Island and what the team can do moving forward.
‘Bienvenue!’ – USWNT captain Horan welcomes fellow American Tessmann to Lyon (Pro Soccer Wire)
Tanner Tessmann is headed to Lyon on a permanent transfer, and Lindsey Horan is already rolling out the welcome mat.
Real players will leave pitch over racism – Vinicius Jr (BBC)
Real Madrid players have a plan to leave the pitch if one of them encounters racism during a match this season. I can only hope that they don’t have to execute this plan, but it’s even a shame that they have to develop one.
Stay cool, y’all.
37,422 was in the shade yesterday. Had to be at least 40k in the sunshine.
Benteke has been one of the lone bright spots in an otherwise dour season. He’s really won me over on and off the field. Seems like a great person and great mentor for the younger players. Rooting for him to keep performing for DC
Definitely. I thought it was a big mistake after he was signed and arrived in 2022. He just looked off. But I was the one who was very, very wrong. He had a great season last year, although he was kind of on or off. This season, he’s been fantastic! I’m happy to have him for another year.
I mentioned it in the other thread, but he’s only 13 goals away from tying Christian Gomez for second most goals in club history. He seems like a sure bet to hit that mark. That’s the biggest success by a DP in club history, easily.
You weren’t the only one, I was way off especially on his mobility and durability.
Seated in the West Stands, I had a perfect view of both of Metayer’s 60+ yard sprints. With those long legs, she is really fast. Could be fastest player on the squad.
Last night was the Major League Rugby College Draft. Old Glory had 1 pick in the 1st round, 2 picks in the 2nd round, and 1 pick in the 3rd round.
With a free The Rugby Network Account you can watch the draft here: https://www.therugbynetwork.com/video/851cc63d-1096-4fd5-47f2-08dcc67be787
The draft consisted of 3 rounds of 12 picks each
Old Glory’s picks:
Round 1 12th pick, 12th overall: Raymond Santiago, Position: Flanker, College: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Hometown: Freehold, NJ
Round 2 3rd pick, 15th overall: Aidan Ridgeway, Position: Scrum-half, College: Arkansas State University, Hometown: Johannesburg, South Africa
Round 2 5th pick, 17th overall: Aaron Juma, Position: Flanker, College: Wheeling University, Hometown: Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
Round 3 5th pick, 29th overall: Sebastian Schefermann, Position: Center, College: University of Mary Washington, Hometown: Durban, South Africa
Old Glory has announced a signing for next season: https://oldglorydc.com/old-glory-dc-signs-new-zealand-utility-back-jason-emery/
Apparently Bournemouth has submitted a bid for Matai Akinmboni. It’s under the club’s valuation, although the club often has a history of overvaluing their players.
United doesn’t need to sell and can hold out for a better offer, but I don’t also think it would be a mistake to sell Akinmboni. It’s not a bad thing to show other academy players that DC has been able to move two homegrown players to England this year.
From United’s perspective, their biggest needs are more overall talent and relieving a budget CRUNCH. Their next biggest consideration is that they’ve built their next season around Christian Benteke, so that’s their window to win with him. United actually has some good center backs in the fold. Lucas Bartlett has been extended. Garrison Tubbs is also a promising up and comer. I’m not sure if Christopher McVey is under contract for next season, but he’s very good at progressing the ball out of the back. And Matti Peltola can play CB as well. Now, United’s defense overall hasn’t been very good, and Jason Anderson on the most recent episode of Pitch Pass identified a quality CB that can cover lots of ground and win individual battles as the team’s biggest need. He mentioned that Ally Mackay came from Nashville, who put big resources into Walker Zimmerman. Matai Akinmboni has a ton of potential, but if the team is looking to be more immediately competitive, getting a decent fee (which they keep all of) for him and plowing that into a top quality CB seems like a decent idea.
The team needs some more pieces than just a CB to win, but they’re not all that far away, I don’t think.
Feels to me like a “do right by the player” situation… if Matai is comfortable with it, we shouldn’t stand in the way of a good bid; remembering that he is still a teenager and may or may not prefer to move abroad at this point in time. Almost everything about this team should still be considered negotiable.
For me, the important thing is that the transfer fee is immediately thrown back into the offseason budget. There was no sense of that for the Paredes transfer.
I hope that he’s treated well, that doesn’t mean we don’t negotiate to get some more cash to spend on the squad, and not line Levien’s pockets
Goff reports that David Schnegg has a significant calf injury and is out for several weeks. That’s bad, but then we also remember next week when Herrera is out for international duty. Get ready for Dajo on the right, Santos on the left, unless one of them gets hurt too or picks up a red card in Toronto.
I’m imagining some incredibly unlikely event takes them both out for the Chicago game somehow. Like, the two crash into each other in the Toronto game, one of the gets hurt by it, and the other gets a red card for it somehow because the referee just feels like giving one
The refs give us cards so the players can surprising use them to access the metro….
I say we just have fun with it and play Stroud at RB, KDP at LB, go balls to the walls and lose 8-5.
Nathan Crockford makes his MLS debut at CDM.
Have Miller play center back, Crockford at CDM and have 3 keepers on the field at once. Perfect way to play in a game that shouldn’t happen during the international window.
So yeah no playoff push then
Was Audi Field built on some Left back burial ground? DC has the WORST luck with that position.
I had my theory that it displace a bog witch, and she’s been taking her revenge on our fullbacks ever since.
THE BOG WITCH WILL HAVE HER DUE!
Still not Korb getting hurt at Yankee stadium levels of bad yet…*knocks on wood*
Jesus. I really like a back four, clearly not a good idea now
Just because I want to recognize something good.
Shoutout to Martin Rodriguez who’s making a real habit out of beating an opponent to a ball in the attacking third, poking it to a teammate, and having that lead to a goal. He’s done it now against Cincinnati, Mazatlan, and Dallas. It’s basically his move at this point.
He’s been really good. And it’s easy to feel happy for someone that is coming back from severe injuries, getting back to a level that encouraged us to buy him in the first place. Definitely rooting for him to do well.