Chicago Red Stars rebrand, MLS considers fall-spring schedule, and more: Thursday Freedom Kicks
Happy Thursday, everyone. The USWNT play tonight in Austin, and of course we will have a match thread later for that. Until the gold medalists take the field, here’s the news from yesterday:
Chicago Red Stars will go by Chicago Stars FC starting next season. They revealed their new name and crest and the streets do. not. like. it.
The Spirit better be studying the reactions to the Red Stars rebrand and Bos Nation FC and understand that they gotta knock their expected rebrand out of the park.
MLS is considering changing to a fall-spring calendar after the 2026 World Cup (The Athletic)
Major League Soccer is considering a move to a fall-spring schedule to try and compete with fewer other sports in more favorable weather and align with European transfer windows. Still looking to see how they combat playing any match above Orlando in December or February.
D.C. United to reject third bid from Bournemouth for USYNT defender (GiveMeSport)
Matai Akinmboni has been highly coveted by Bournemouth all season long, and it appears that DC United has rejected a third approach to sign the young defender. We will have to see what the Black-and-Red’s plans are for Akinmboni this offseason.
LaLiga target Barcelona-Atlético Madrid Miami match (ESPN)
LaLiga is once again trying to put a league match in Miami, this time Barca-Atleti in December. I’m once again asking them not to do that.
Cushing a candidate for Arsenal head coach job (BBC)
Nick Cushing is a prime candidate to leave NYCFC at the end of the season to take over as Arsenal WFC’s head coach. He has experience coaching in the WSL, but this would be an eye-opening hire for many reasons.
Enjoy the day, y’all.
I’ve thought about the Akinmboni situation, and I’m of the opinion United should demand no less than 2 million but, more importantly, a 17-20% sell on clause. If Bournemouth sell him on for any decent fee later, we’d get a nice windfall. He’s probably worth 3 million straight up, but it’s a decent gamble to see if he pans out.
I think Bournemouth are being silly not just buying him out for 3 million, that’s a typical and reasonable fee for a 17 year old prospect that they’d be interested in. This seems to indicate they’re real cheapskates, or they don’t think Mackay understands the market
I do not like that Chicago Stars rebrand….
Something that stands out to me in The Athletic article:
I’ve always thought that doing only intra-conference games would eventually be the way to go, but not with only 30 teams and not with divisions. Trying to make divisions out of 2 15 team conferences is going to get messy quickly. I’d assume we’d have 3 divisions of 5 teams within each conference (to keep 15 in each conference). With how clumped together some of the teams are, and how spread out others are, you’re going to end up with some pretty weird divisions. The West in particular is really hard to divide up in any way that makes geographical sense
I read it as having no conferences and just divisions – I’d bet three 10 team divisions. You’ll still end up with weird structures, but that’s how I read ‘divisions instead of conferences.’ But, like a lot of the rest of the article it’s self contradictory, since it talks about intra-conference right after that. The winter break discussion talks both about a 5-6 week break and starting it in mid-December and coming back in February. The math there doesn’t work. Which, among other things, is definitely turning the comment section into the soccer version of that old meme of the bodybuilding forum arguing about how many days were in a week.
Yeah, the whole thing is a mess. I don’t put that on the Athletic either, as I’m sure that’s how it was told to them. To me, if MLS can eventually expand to 36 teams (which I feel is entirely possible), then you just end up with 2 18-team conferences. Play twice against every team in your conference each year, with no inter-conference games, for a total of 34 games, equal to what we have now. The only time you see someone from the opposite conference would be in MLS cup and other competitions. You’d inevitably have to have an east and west version of the supporter’s shield, but honestly that’s probably something they should already do since we only see the other conference like 4 times a year anyway as it currently stands
Agreed. I could see a lot of the West grumbling about not getting a chance to see the Barcelona contingent come to town, but your setup makes more logistical sense
Is making sense allowed?
Yeah, that could definitely be the case, but the LA teams, and the Galaxy in particular, are also fully capable on signing players of similar magnitude, so I think there would be an ebb and flow of each conference complaining about not being able to play against the star from the other
I’d be fine with 3 conferences of 10 but I’m also pretty interested in 5 divisions of 6. In 34 games, you would be able to play your division twice and the rest of the league once.
I’m not a fan of the prospect of switching the calendar, but in particular I question their reasoning as it pertains to conflicts with other sports. Right now, the season more-or-less follows the seasons of MLB and NASCAR, and we end up with the MLS playoffs currently competing against MLB and NASCAR playoffs, early-to-mid season NFL and college football, and the start of NHL and NBA. If we swap the calendar to fall to spring, you start the MLS season in direct competition with the start of the NFL and college football seasons (which in itself seems like a bad idea) and 1 month in will be competing with MLB playoffs, and the start of NHL and NBA. Breaking over mid-December to early February would have you skip over a good chunk of NFL playoffs, but coming back in early February sees you starting your season back up on top of the Super Bowl and the Daytona 500 (which occur on back-to-back weekends and are two of the most watched sporting events in the US each year). Then, the playoffs would overlap with the NBA and NHL playoffs. If anything, it seems like switching would give you MORE competition for viewing time, not less.
There is also the issue of weather, but that’s been well noted at this point. No one wants to go sit at a random mid-season MLS game at 8pm in February at any stadium north of like Georgia
Vancouver destroyed Portland 5-0 last night in the Western Conference playoff.
Alex Bono just posted on Instagram that he’s not returning to DC. That’s a surprise, even though our defense was really bad. He was 20 games away from being the fourth most games played by a DC goalkeeper, behind only Nick Rimando, Troy Perkins, and Bill Hamid.
Best of luck to him, and thanks for the service!
The time of Nate Crockford draws nearer.
I don’t think this is going to come as a shock to anyone but it’s data that confirms the “eye test.” The Athletic had alternative MLS awards including the worst xG performers (players who should have scored more often given the xG of their shots). Teddy KDP was 3rd, Murrell was 6th, and Stroud was 7th (the “winner” was Dante Vanzeir with NYRB).
If anyone is interested here’s the article: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5862012/2024/10/23/the-athletics-2024-alternative-mls-awards-expected-goals-performers-long-throws-and-more/
That’s wild. I’m not really surprised by Murrell being so high but I didn’t think KDP and Stroud had missed that many chances.
I think all three still have a role on this team, but we really need some stiff competition for them.
The MLSPA just released their Fall salary guide. Some notables for DC:
Boris Enow’s base salary was $585,895.00, and David Schnegg’s was $400,000.00. Not bad for both of them being below the senior roster max, though I’m not sure if those numbers will go up when they’re here for a full season.
Given the recent Bono news, his salary was $200,000. I won’t argue that he was the greatest goalie while here, but he was certainly solid for his price point.
Badji is making $89,716.00, the senior roster minimum. So is Bartlett, which still blows my mind that he is that cheap (though I am assuming that number will go up next year)
This is actually pretty good news, to my mind. I was expecting Enow and Schnegg (and Badji, honestly) to be higher. Basically expecting Schnegg to take over Jeahze’s salary, and Enow to take over Birnbaum’s. Yeah, the numbers will probably go up next year, but these seem like numbers that I can live with.
I don’t think we’re going to get another starting goalie on $200,000, and hopefully Bono is moving on to a situation that will work well for him.
Agreed. I’m hoping we can get a good, starting level goalie for somewhere between what Bono and Miller were making, and am just hoping that Zamudio can be a good backup when needed. Asking for Bono’s level at his salary going forward isn’t gonna happen.
I missed it initially, but KDP’s salary also essentially doubled after his new contract, so good for him
Yeah. But Ku is definitely under the gun to start producing more now. He can do that, but… he has to. Same with Pirani.
Just randomly scrolling through the MLSPA numbers, and Maarten Paes is making $325,000. That’s a pretty solid keeper for not too much more money. And if you add the same amount to Tyler Miller’s number, you get Kristijan Kahlina’s salary amount. So, the ability to get a good keeper with a little bit of spending wouldn’t be too hard.
Ok, hear me out though…Dayne St. Clair. He’ll be a free agent (unless he’s already been re-signed, which I have no idea), and his current salary is $460k
Well, we already got one goalkeeper from Minnesota. I wouldn’t mind going after him, but I also have a hard time believing that Minnesota lets him go. He also gets called up to the Canadian National Team really regularly, so we’d need a good backup, and it’s probably not Luis Zamudio.
Listening to Greg Roche talking to Pablo Maurer on Pitch Pass, and Pablo talks about how when Lucho wanted to come back to MLS from Liga MX, he called up DC and said he wanted to come back. DC, obviously, passed and he wound up at Cincinnati and the rest is history. I know a lot of people here have made their peace (and laid plenty of blame at Lucho’s feet), but for me that still hurts.
Wow. That’s certainly a wrinkle.
Look, we don’t know what bridge burning Lucho did when he was frustrated that season. But I will say, if this is true, it affects how I view the situation, and the club.
Also a really good story that Pablo shares of going to visit Kevin Payne a couple years ago, and asked about changing the very initial crest the team had. The critique was it looked a little too fashy/Nazi Germany, so Kevin and another team employee went to someone at the Holocaust Museum to ask if that was the case. And the Holocaust Museum employee told them to get out because they had actual work to do, but as they were leaving said, “Yes, it absolutely is!”
I really loved the second logo, because of how the feathers on the wing symbolized the three areas of the DMV, and making them horizontal mirrored the three stripes on the chest of the jersey. And of course they added a star around the soccer ball to commemorate winning the very first MLS Cup. Back for the days when logos meant something!
Benteke made the short list of nominees for MVP, along with Messi, Suarez, Cucho, and Evander. He’s not going to win, but congratulations to him!
Oh, something that very nearly escaped my notice- USWNT play Iceland today at 7:30, for those interested. I may watch it live or on record, will have to see
I’m gonna record it.