Bono says goodbye?, MLS salary guide, and more: Friday Freedom Kicks
Happy Friday! By the time you read this, I will be on my way to a lovely beach vacation. This means you will not be hearing from me next week, but I will be back in plenty of time for the Spirit’s final regular season game.
In continuing D.C. United offseason news, Alex Bono posted a farewell message on his Instagram. The Washington Post confirmed that he would be departing and that there should be more announcements coming soon.
I think this is going to be a difficult offseason for D.C. United fans in terms of departures. Hopefully it is similar to Spirit’s 2023 offseason, in which we lost a number of important, fan-favorite players but ended up with a stronger team overall. It’s a long road to get there, though!
Lionel Messi, Inter Miami lead way as MLS salaries rise (ESPN)
MLS’s fall salary guide is now out, and it’s no surprise that Messi and Inter Miami have some of the top salaries. You can check out the full guide here.
Emma Hayes’ USA soccer come to life late on to win international friendly (CBS Sports)
The U.S. had me nervous for a little bit there after Iceland tied things up, but they pulled it off in the end.
U.S. ahead of Europe in women’s soccer funding, Washington Spirit owner says (Axios)
I don’t find Michele Kang’s statement about funds in the U.S. versus Europe to be very surprising. Of more interest is this one: “There are some other structural things that I think Europe has done better than us, which is a lot of the youth academy development. A lot more systematic approach than pay-to-play in America.”
Finalists announced for 2024 MLS year-end awards (D.C. United)
And yes, Christian Benteke does get the recognition he deserves via inclusion on the MVP list.
Lionel Messi is MLS’s best player, but is he the MVP? (Washington Post $)
On a related note, Steve Goff goes over the arguments for and against Messi as MVPs, as well as highlighting other players who should be in contention. (But no, he doesn’t answer the titular question.)
| Teams | When | Where | Watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| DC Power FC vs. Lexington SC | Fri., Oct. 25 at 7:30 p.m. ET | Washington, DC | Peacock |
| Loudoun United FC vs. Charleston Battery | Sat., Oct. 26 at 6 p.m. ET | Mount Pleasant, SC | ESPN+ |
Have a good weekend!
Annie, enjoy your beach vacation! On other matters–Kang is correct that Europe has the edge on the US (specific to the women) in a number of areas. She references youth–absolutely true. The best Euro women’s teams have academies. There are competing cultures–US women are encouraged to compete as athletes and there is some (but a lot less of “you’re a girl, you’re not supposed to sweat” here) while Europe has more of a culture of the game. For most US women, they learned the game playing it in organized settings (youth leagues) and most Euro and South American women will tell you that, like the men, their initial soccer was played informally and on streets–pickup ball. The US is still too dependent on college for most of its talent (for the women–though fortunately that’s changing).
Finally, it would have been “safe” to keep Bono. He’s an MLS vet, a good guy, not expensive, not too old or oft injured. The fact that he’s being released shows that MacKay is taking a ruthless view to the roster. You’re either someone they see as a critical piece of the future or you’re gone. I wish Bono well.
While I’m glad the team is looking to upgrade at GK (something I thought we really needed), it’s surprising that they’ve let him go given how much he seemed to have bought into the team. Would also be a tremendous backup if the hypothetical starter went down.
Agreed on Bono. He was a good – not great – performer for the team, an MLS vet with a winning pedigree, and seemed to be a leader and well-liked by both the players and staff. But he wasn’t one of Mackay and Lesesne’s players, and he didn’t perform to their standards and they want to move in a new way. Let’s hope they find a good replacement or two.
This surprised me. I did not feel this was an urgent upgrade. He is departing with class and will be picked up for sure.
Man, we either mean business or we are bloody insane.
I’m leaning towards the 2nd….because this is the DC area and doing things that make sense isn’t allowed.
I read Goff as coming to the conclusion that Messi deserved the MVP. The argument that I buy is that if he had put up those same numbers over 1,000 more minutes, he’d be a pretty easy call for MVP. Give it to Leo. That’s fine.
Goff’s other article, about Bono, was a little eye-opening in that Bono’s departure was not his idea. He wanted to stick around, but Mackay (and maybe Lesesne) wanted to go in a different direction. That’s fine, and their perogative, but I was thinking about the number of times that Lesesne had praised Bono during the season. It makes me think that other players that Lesesne has praised, like Dajome and Rodriguez, should not feel secure.
Darth Garber has decreed that Messi is MVP. He does provide Darth Garber his paycheck, after all….
End of season roster decisions are out. Of the contract options, only Herrera and Tubbs were kept. Canouse and Pedro Santos are both free agents and could return, but Goff notes its probably not likely. The others let go include:
Alex Bono, Cristian Dájome, Nathan Crockford, Jeremy Garay, Tyler Miller, Christopher McVey, Martin Rodriguez, Hayden Sargis, Luis Zamudio
As of now, there are exactly 0 goalies on the roster. So that should be fun. Overall, I’m sad if we’ve seen the last of Canouse. The others largely make sense, though I am a bit surprised to see McVey go
I was just typing something up where I thought maybe one of those guys would return, but McKay has shown that he’s willing to be ruthless with roster decisions. I’m sure he has a target list to address each of the departures. Hopefully they mesh with the culture Lesesne seems to be instilling. Even if these guys weren’t the right fit, they bought in and I respect all the work they did.
I can understand not wanting to pay Canouse his current salary given what he just went through. Maybe he’d be willing to take a pay cut to come back. Though I’m sure he’ll have at least some interest in the free agency market
I’m positive he can get a good offer around the league. He’s a starting -caliber DM that won’t command a DP spot or salary, is American, and has a superb work rate to go along with historically solid passing stats (even if they aren’t eye-popping offensively). Whoever lands him will be very happy.
I want to bring him back, but I don’t know if we can bring him back at a low enough price point.
Big roster news released by DC:
Bono, Dajome, Crockford, Garay, Miller, McVey, Rodriguez, Santos, Sargis and Zamudio don’t seem to be coming back.
I guess there is a remote possibility that some of these can return, but these guys were all in an Instagram post captioned with “thank you” so it seems like these guys are gone.
If I’m not mistaken, DC does not have a GK on the roster. Mackay is really getting after this whole rebuild.
Bono and McVey puzzle me. Otherwise, no problem here.
I’ll play The Hebrides (Mendelssohn) this evening to give support to Ally. This is an ambitious overhaul indeed.
Roster moves are out. They picked up the options for Aaron Herrera and Garrison Tubbs. Pedro Santos and Russell Canouse are free agents. EVERYBODY else is out.
Bono, out.
Dajome, out.
Crockford, out.
Garay, out.
Miller, out.
McVey, out.
Rodriguez, out.
Sargis, out.
Zamudio, out.
United has 17 players on its roster. Maaaaaaaaaybe Canouse comes back, so that’s 18. They can add up to 12 more, and I’d imagine that there’s a very good chance that Fletcher and Akinmboni are moved on from the team, so we’re rebuilding about 50% of the roster, the remaining 50% that wasn’t moved on last year.
I understand it, and Mackay needs to nail it. He hit on a lot of the MLS players he brought in. He did pretty well with the international signings, although that’s somewhat incomplete.
Right now the team has 0 goalkeepers, 6 defenders, 4 midfielders, and 7 forwards (although Jared Stroud is counted as a forward). We probably won’t be doing as much shopping up top, but goalie, central defense, backup fullbacks, and attacking midfield are the big needs. Buckle up!
Well, the team just put out a “Thank you, Russ.” graphic on Twitter. So, maybe Canouse ain’t returning either.
Dagnabit!
Tom Bogert is reporting that Kevin DeBruyne and San Diego FC have mutual interest. C’mon Kev! Don’t you want to play with a Golden Boot-winning Belgian?
Russel Canouse’s time at DC has also come to an end. I’ve been fine with the previous moves, but this one hurts and is somewhat puzzling. Midfield was outright awful this season. Gotta think Russ helps fix that. Hope he finds another team.
With substantial investments in Enow and Peltola, it’s hard to see how Canouse would fit alongside them. I’m suspicious of the wisdom re: Enow, but given the decisions already on the books, this was pretty much the only expected outcome. 🙁
Neither Enow nor Peltola have shown themselves to be an upgrade to Canouse. I’m hoping a full off-season for Enow and more clarity on his role for Peltola helps them both. Because Hopkins is also waiting in the wings and has shown to be a pretty spicy presence wherever he’s played.
Russ was the last player on the team that had played at RFK. Truly the turning of a page.
His departure cheapens the goal of this season for me somewhat. He’ll find a place, I too struggle to see why it wasn’t here.
Austin has named Nico Estevez as their replacement for Josh Wolff as head coach: https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/austin-fc-name-nico-estevez-head-coach