San Diego FC hires Mikey Varas, Alex Morgan aims for ownership, and more: Thursday Freedom Kicks
Happy Thursday. I’m in the air to Detroit today to be with some soccer friends for a remembrance walk this weekend in honor of one of my heros. Martin Huschka lived a full live in his 7 years on this planet, and his fight of an ultra rare brain disease was the most tenacious I’ve ever known. We are gathering to walk for Angela’s Hospice, who took care of Martin for the majority of his life. If you’re so inclined, you can make a donation here in honor of #TeamMartin.
Mikey Varas hired as coach of MLS expansion team San Diego FC (ESPN)
Mikey Varas will be the first head coach in San Diego FC history, and will now shift his attention to building a roster.
Ex-USWNT star Morgan hints at owning soccer team ‘in coming months’ (PSW)
Alex Morgan is hoping to jump into NWSL ownership very soon, and she apparently has some opportunities that she can consider.
Hey Spirits episode: Three goals, Esme’s debut, and Makenna Morris on her new contract (DP)
Another excellent Hey Spirits episode is out if you haven’t listened already!
Lionel Messi, Luis Suárez top 25 most popular MLS jerseys (MLS)
Christian Benteke, the Golden Boot leader, is 19th in the most popular jerseys list.
Former England striker Andy Carroll joins 4th-tier Bordeaux (ESPN)
Bordeaux has fallen on tough times, but Andy Carroll is joining the club to help turn things around.
Pulisic bowled over by CBS crew’s energy in bizarre post-game interview (PSW)
If you watched the interview, you could tell something was off about it. Just some clashing energy between Pulisic and the award-winning CBS crew.
Have a great weekend, everyone.
Man, three games does not a season make, but seeing Bordeaux without a win yet after such a damning demotion must be exhaustingly nerve-racking.
*proceeds to “enjoy” D.C. United’s perennial flirtation with the bottom of the league without a care in the world for relegation*
MLS had an almost full slate of games last night but DC had the night off. United falls below the playoff line for now as Philadelphia won 5-1 away at NYC.
DC could still realistically finish anywhere between 8th place (host play-in game vs 9th place) and last place in 15th. I boldly predict we will outpace at least Chicago or New England to avoid the wooden spoon.
Vamos United!
Maybe not playing yesterday will give us fresher legs this weekend.
https://www.mlssoccer.com/standings/2024/conference#season=2024&live=true
I think that San Jose can technically catch us on points if they win all the rest of our games, but we seem in pretty good shape to avoid the wooden spoon.
Philly somehow has a worse home record than us this season. I think we can beat them considering they’ll be on short rest against our high energy system. It’ll be harder if Blake is healthy, but not impossible.
Their young goalie had a pretty good night last night, but I’d still feel pretty good about sending Benteke up against him.
Also, we did have Subaru Park as a home field for our Leagues Cup match against Santos Laguna. So… good news?
Past couple of years (dare I say the last decade?), I feel like DC has been unable to capitalize on competitive advantages like being up a player (not so much this year), having fresher legs, or playing against a team missing key players. I hope to be wrong, but Philly is allowed to play as thuggish as they’d like against us, and I believe we’re missing Bartlett this weekend?
The u-20 USWNT was knocked out of the tournament by North Korea. Look, we know that NK is an incredibly oppressive regime run by a truly despicable tyrant, but give these young and incredibly effective and skilled footballers some love. It sounds like they’ve been the best team in the tournament, and despite the regime, shows what happens when a nation invests in women’s sports at the youth level.
Additionally, Japan is the other nation to make the final. So, again, an example of supporting young women through to this level.
Japan has been really good about supporting their sports teams.
Not taking away from their performances, but there is probably a lot of carrot and stick in their participation in the team, performance on the team, and in training.
There is always a threat for not performing for these regimes, whether it’s NK or Hussein’s Iraq back in the day. Doesn’t take away from their play and their very real joy in success
I heard announcer say that North Korea had its squad together for THREE MONTHS to practice. All other countries had two weeks. Reminiscent of Soviet national hockey team in Cold War days when the team was full-time Red Army squad.
NK: Can anyone prove that they were in the correct age bracket? How PEDs?
I just don’t trust that regime, but I certainly hope it was on the up and up. They certainly look well-fed enough compared to the general population there.
https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/41326001/jay-emmanuel-thomas-arrested-alleged-600k-drug-smuggling
A sad day for Major League Rugby. From the Major League Rugby Facebook:
We lost Toronto, New York, Austin, and LA prior to the 2024 season then Atlanta got moved to LA. Dallas was a solid team this past year and made it to the Western Conference Finals this past season. Austin and LA were owned by the same guy and due to some issues the League found in those franchises the league shuttered them. Toronto’s owner passed away and they couldn’t find someone else to buy the team. And New York shuttered due to a lack of local fan support and was no longer financially sustainable.