Happy Monday, y’all. It was a nice weekend with friends and some beautiful weather…plus, we ended Daylight Saving and now we’re getting 5pm sunsets. So, which you figure out how to deal with less sunlight, here’s some stories from the weekend.
Washington Spirit defeat NC Courage to win second place in league
Ashley Hatch’s goal secured the win for the Spirit and the 2 seed in the playoffs. They will host Bay FC on Sunday!
DC Power FC hosted Carolina Ascent on Sunday, and despite a solid effort, they fell 1-0.
New York Red Bulls defy odds to deny Columbus Crew repeat: “The season is not over” (MLS)
Ugh, our archrivals are still playing soccer. They come back to beat the Crew at home to sweep the defending champions right out of the playoffs.
Dynamo star Herrera loses mind, gets red card for spitting at referee (PSW)
Hector Herrera spit at a referee in their playoff match against Seattle, which they eventually lost on penalties. He got a red card and will probably be sitting for a few games next season after they review the incident.
Wrexham dumped out of FA Cup with loss to Harrogate Town (ESPN)
Wrexham are out of the FA Cup after losing to Harrogate Town 1-0. They will now focus on League One, where they currently are 3rd in the standings.
Trinidad and Tobago names ex-Man Utd star Yorke head coach (PSW)
Dwight Yorke, the former Trinidadian international, will now coach his national team. Should be interesting for the team as they continue with a state of transition.
Enjoy the week, y’all.
Congrats to the Spirit. And it’s a shame Columbus got bounced–love how they play. And I’m sorry to see Herrera lose it and Houston lose–they also play attractive soccer and there will always be a soft spot in my heart of Benny and whatever team he’s coaching.
My hope is that the Dynamo are liking what they are seeing from Benny and will keep him on for a few more years
Really, really dumb by Herrera and he knows it. Houston has played amazing despite some serious roster issues (like a heavily underperforming DP, not that we know about that in our illustrious history). They’re built on some hard-working and previously discarded talent that’s bought in, but (again, as we know) those kind of teams can only get so far. Wondering if Onstad has the nerve to do what MacKay has been doing here.
Austin signed former DCU player Brendan Hines-Ike to an extension: https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/austin-fc-sign-brendan-hines-ike-to-contract-extension
Josh Sargent is out for 8 weeks with a groin injury that requires surgery.
https://prosoccerwire.usatoday.com/story/sports/usmnt/2024/11/04/sargent-injury-usmnt-striker-groin-surgery/76046378007/
Sargent is barely on the depth chart going forward. He got his chance in the last window, did virtually nothing with it, and is just too. Friggin. Fragile. He’s the type of player you like the age and profile of in a video game, until you see the red 1 in the injury prone stat.
Coverage of the San Diego Wave losing the last match of the season as a home game and the game moved to Louisville.
https://prosoccerwire.usatoday.com/story/sports/nwsl/2024/11/01/nwsl-san-diego-wave-snapdragon-racing-louisville/75996774007/
SDSU has to do something about that pitch. It’s unplayable for gridiron football let alone soccer. And it’ll be worse next year when SDFC becomes the 4th full time tenant.
Its also unplayable for rugby. The Legion made it to the semifinal round in the MLR playoffs for the Western Conference where they lost to Seattle 30-28. They were playing into mid-July.
The November international window for rugby is about to open. The Men’s Eagles will play 3 matches. They travel to Portugal, who knocked the US out of the last spot in the 2023 Men’s Rugby World Cup after a 16-16 draw on points differential, on Nov 9th on FloRugby (yes that FloSports). Then they will face Tonga in France on RugbyPassTV (free account) on Nov 16. They wrap up the year taking on Spain, who are preparing for 2027 Rugby World Cup qualifying, on Nov 23 and that game is streamed on FloRugby. Last November was the last time the US faced Spain in Men’s 15s and won 42-14.
Old Glory players Jack Iscaro (Prop), Cory Daniel (Flanker), Jamason Fa’anana-Schultz (No.8), and Ethan McVeigh are on the traveling squad for this series of games. OGDC’s Collin Grosse (Flanker) and Connor Buckley (Scrumhalf) are listed as Reserves. Former Italian international and now US international Tommaso Boni (Center) is listed as injured/unavailable.
Unexpected analysis of GAM balance of trade across the league since the beginning of 2022. His graph isn’t easy to parse, starting with the presentation of a net inflow of $ as a negative value (i.e. DC gained ~$900k in GAM over the period in question), and who the hell knows if he’s actually found every GAM transaction; but it’s an interesting piece of data research.
From 30,000 feet, our overall net inflow is effectively the result of selling Arriola ($2M in GAM to us) and then wasting $750k of that bringing in Brad Smith. The remaining moves of note (selling Gressel and Moreno, buying Dajome, Herrera, and D Williams), plus roster adjustment churn, then yields the remaining $300-400k of net GAM loss (after tallying the $1.25M gain from Arriola minus Smith).
h/t Jason