Washington Spirit lose, DC United win again, and more: Monday Freedom Kicks
Happy Monday, everyone. I’m on my way back from Seattle after a fun weekend there for some soccer, football, and a…Zedd concert? Anyway, here’s some of the news from the weekend:
Washington Spirit lose 2-0 to Orlando Pride as injuries continue to mount (DP)
The Washington Spirit lose again, as Orlando earns the NWSL Shield. However, the biggest loss might be Andi Sullivan, who was injured late and had to be carted off. Really hoping for the best for her, but jeez I hate how the injury bug has hit this team of late.
D.C. United tops New England, sits on the cusp of a playoff berth (WaPo)
Another important win for the Black-and-Red, this time up in New England. They’re still holding onto a playoff spot and control their own destiny.
Match Recap | HFD vs. LDN (LUFC)
Loudoun United wins up in Hartford 2-0, and they continue to hold the 8th and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
Injuries force several changes to USMNT roster (SSFC)
More injuries mount for the USMNT, as Tanner Tessmann, Brandon Vazquez, and Alex Zendejas replace Folarin Balogun, Johnny Cardoso, and Tim Weah on the roster for friendlies this coming weekend against Panama and Mexico.
“Ineligible” Champions (Protagonist Soccer)
More on the Maryland Bobcats’ wild exclusion from the NISA playoffs, including what the Bobcats are saying NISA did to get them out of the way in favor of other teams.
Louisville City FC claims first USL Championship Players’ Shield in club history (USL-C)
Louisville City is the USL Championship shield winners, as they easily clinch homefield advantage throughout the playoffs.
FIFA is hoping that the women’s tournament at the Olympics can be expanded to 16 teams to match the men’s tournament. They are also proposing the addition of futsal and beach soccer at the Olympics within the association football discipline. That would be really cool to see.
Rooney’s ‘passion’ spilled over for red card (BBC)
Wayne Rooney received a red card in Plymouth Argyle’s 2-1 win over Blackburn this past weekend for excessive dissent to the referee.
Let’s have a good week, y’all!
Pochettino could really use a strong win against Panama to start right. Talk about three replacements to the squad that won’t help that effort. Balogun, Weah, and Cardoso are also pretty big pieces to lose
Given how physical Panama is, I think Vazquez is a good addition. I think there is also something that Pochettino is doing–deliberately calling in players (Zendajas, Vazquez, Steffen) who were on the “discard” pile with Berhalter. This has the impact of sending the message to everyone in the possible pool that no positions are guaranteed and even people who thought “that’s it, my chance is over” now have to feel like maybe, just maybe, they could be in the WC in the US.
I certainly don’t view any of those replacements as potential World Cup contributors, seems to be more about lack of true depth in the pool.
I wouldn’t rule out Steffen. But I think the larger issue is for the past year, the current squad of mostly regulars has acted as if they were entitled. And by calling in some people who had been written off, by saying “I’m rethinking who’s on the squad” we’re less likely to see embarrassments like that Colombia match where the team was just going through the motions.
Berhalter was a deficient coach for the modern game, and him making a second stint was always going to lead to stagnation. I’m pretty sure the players will be motivated to perform for a new coach, especially since it’s crunch time.
Steffen has ridden the notoriety of a single MLS playoff PK shootout his entire career. He’s not actually that good, at this point I’d rather start Schulte than him. The rest are not going to challenge any of the top three in any given position. They’re filler.
Tough one for the Spirit. As arguably dominant as they’ve been, the Pride have had their number. Trin’s injury doesn’t help, but interested to see how Giraldez approaches another potential matchup in the playoffs.
It wasn’t just Trin injured. In fact, the “out” section of the injured list read more like a wish list for the opposition. And the season ending injuries now include some pretty big spine pieces
So who else is surprised that we’re currently in a playoff spot with 1 game got go?
I’ve accepted the fact that a loss in the last game of the season might kill our wild playoff hopes with Young Frankenstein’s quiet dignity and grace.
I had mostly written off DC United’s 2024 hopes until I was surprised by the win in Nashville last Wednesday. I’m glad I was wrong!
Josh Wolff is out in Austin: https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/austin-fc-part-ways-with-josh-wolff
A branch falls from the Ben Olsen Coaching Tree.
I’m reminded of how Troy Lesesne guided the Red Bulls to a strong finish last season, and secured the playoffs by the skin of their teeth. Perhaps this is just kind of his thing?
Had the thought Saturday morning that if DC managed to win that night, and got other results to go their way, maybe I’d finally make the trek up to Audi Field to see them play Charlotte. I haven’t been to a game since 2013 (one of the few wins they got that season, weirdly enough) and haven’t even been to Audi yet. Every game went about as well as it could have gone, so I checked on tickets and hotels and whatnot, and…yeah, gonna punt that idea until next season. Tickets are only available via resellers and essentially every hotel is wildly overpriced that weekend for some reason (Commanders home game, maybe?)
I know we’re all fans, but I’d personally be WAY too anxious and superstitious to make that my first Buzzard Point game. There’s too much jinx and despair potential I wouldn’t want to cause/experience in person to make that my first time there
Don’t worry, if we make the playoffs and win the play in game then you can come up for the home game then against Inter Miami. They were pretty poor in the league last year so tickets should be reasonable.
Messi is involved at that point so tickets will be stupid expensive due to the Messi effect.
Are the playoffs home and away? Otherwise, I don’t understand how the play-in winner would get a home match against #1 Miami.
Round 1 is a best of 3 series.
https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/audi-2024-mls-cup-playoffs-schedule-information
Yeah, we all have to refamiliarize ourselves with the playoff formats (potentially). It hasn’t really been relevant for awhile.
For real. I haven’t seriously thought about playoff formats in forever
Any update on Sullivan?
https://prosoccerwire.usatoday.com/story/sports/nwsl/2024/10/07/sullivan-injury-washington-spirit-star-stretchered-off-vs-orlando/75554842007/
I would expect it will be a couple days before we hear anything. We will definitely share when we do, though.
MLS End of year award nominees: https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/mls-announces-nominees-for-2024-year-end-awards
DCU nominees
Landon Donovan MVP: Christian Benteke
Sigi Schmid MLS Coach of the Year: Troy Lesene
MLS Newcomer of the Year: Matti Peltola
MLS Young Player of the Year: KDP
MLS Defender of the Year: Lucas Bartlett, Aaron Herrera
MLS Goalkeeper of the Year: Alex Bono
Audi Goal Drive Progress Impact Award: Pedro Santos
Check out my post on Annie’s report on Spirit vs Orlando. (I haven’t learned how to repaste a comment on one thread to another thread. Instructions, anyone?)
Can we please talk about Benteke’s 25 goals in all comps? This of course won’t happen because of a few fellas in Miami, but there is a case to be made for Benteke winning MVP if DC sneaks into the playoffs. First appearance in years, dragged there by the golden boot winner. We all already know who’s winning, but I don’t think it’s as crazy as I would’ve thought back in March.
If they gave it to Benteke, they’d have to admit two things. 1) Messi doesn’t play consistently enough to have the worthy numbers for it, and 2) a striker who wasn’t good enough in the EPL years ago is outplaying him. So, nope, it won’t happen.
I wouldn’t go as far as to say Benteke was outplaying Messi. Benteke is great but I wouldn’t even say Benteke is out playing Cucho. Messi and Cucho are creators in a way Benteke can’t be and that’s fine, that is not who he is as a player. BUT, I would say that Messi does NOT deserve the League’s MVP title this season simply because he has missed a ton of games. Messi has 17 goals and 15 assists having played 11 games less than Benteke. Had he not missed those games I would venture to say that he would have more goals and assists. I think we all know that. In all fairness, and because Columbus is so consistently solid, having played more tournaments than any other MLS side this season, the MVP should go to Cucho. He can be an @ss sometimes but he’s a game changing player and as we all know, he can win games on his own.