Kaplan and Levin to sell Swansea City, Morris wins Rookie of the Month, and more: Friday Freedom Kicks
Happy Friday! Well, it’s been a pretty long week, and I’m looking forward to getting out of the house this weekend to do some activities I enjoy. Like hopefully watching Washington Spirit win their first playoff game since 2021!
Swansea City lead investors agree to sell stake in Championship club (The Athletic $)
Steve Kaplan and Jason Levien will be selling their stake in Swansea City for what this article describes as “a vast drop on the initial investment.” The team was relegated from the Premier League in 2018 and has not been able to regain promotion since then.
Washington Spirit forward Makenna Morris named NWSL Rookie of the Month, Presented by Ally (Washington Spirit)
Makenna Morris, who grew up in Germantown, MD, made three starts, scored three goals, and assisted one goal in the four matches in October and November. Her win means Washington Spirit players won five of seven ROTM awards this year. It’s a really special rookie class.
This video of four-time winner Croix Bethune breaking the news to Morris was pretty cute.
Jim Curtin out as Philadelphia Union head coach: Sources (GiveMeSport)
Rough to go from Coach of the Year to unemployed in two years. And I don’t expect this will help the Union much.
NWSL playoff preview: Strengths, weaknesses, and X-factors for all eight teams (Pro Soccer Wire)
The first NWSL playoff game is tonight. Prepare for the quarterfinals with Jason Anderson’s analysis of the remaining teams.
Red card for competition breaches in labour markets globally (Sidley)
For the legally-minded among us, the European Union’s highest court has ruled that some FIFA rules about player movement violate EU laws on competition. In particular, the court took issue with requiring players to compensate their former teams when they end a contract early. I don’t see this impacting MLS any time soon, but I’m curious how it will impact player movement in and around Europe.
San Diego makes Byars NWSL’s 1st NCAA signing since end of draft (ESPN)
With the new CBA announced but still officially MIA, we weren’t sure we’d actually seen our final NWSL draft. This signing of University of Texas forward Trinity Byars confirms it.
SSFC Spotlight: Cole Campbell breaks through with Borussia Dortmund (SSFC)
The 18-year-old has previously appeared for the U.S. U-19s and has now played in four matches for Dortmund.
Just one match this weekend, and it’s Washington Spirit’s quarterfinal match!
| Teams | When | Where | Watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Washington Spirit vs. Bay FC | Sun., Nov. 10 at 12:30 p.m. ET | Washington, DC | ABC |
First, Goff’s Soccer Insider page on the Post is still “Page Not Found.” I wonder what the heck is going on there. Even if Goff were phasing out, there are still plenty of other people at the Post who cover soccer. Weird.
Second, congrats to Morris. Yes, it is indeed an amazing rookie class. Now the Spirit need to start looking at who to sign from college and youth ball right now.
Third, Curtin’s a fine coach. And I bet he delivered an ultimatum to management: “we aren’t going to be better until we start spending more on talent.” Blake more or less said that earlier. They’ve got a fabulous academy system but boy do they not support their First Team.
Goff is still writing articles for the Post (he did one on Bruce Arena going to San Jose) so I would think the Page Not Found error might just be a server issue or something similar
On the Post, I’d guess that is part of their general movement away from having bookmarkable pages for specific subjects. They did a restructuring of their weather pages that did away with a page a lot of folks bookmarked to get the daily forecast, and they aren’t phasing out the weather. It looks to me (and I’m by no means an SEO expert or web designer or marketing person) like they are trying to force people to get to a higher level page rather than linking specifically to one subject.
To get to the United/Spirit coverage for WaPo: https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/soccer/
As usual, Jason Anderson’s assessment of the eight playoff squads’ chances is outstanding. He places a great deal of weight on whether Trinity Rodman will be 100% or not.
Since nobody else is posted this, I guess it’s up to me. Unprecedentedly outrages finish to tournament game last night between Stanford and Notre Dame. Trailing 2-1, Notre Dame was awarded an indirect free kick in the final seconds because of time wasting by Stanford. They scored. That was followed by this remarkable goal shot from beyond the midfield strike with one second left.
https://x.com/stanfordmsoccer/status/1854383175180419133?s=46&t=MzqxyiFLS_dpe6CyEI0b8Q
….
Inter Messi…I mean Miami is out courtesy of Atlanta winning 3-2 in Miami in the 3rd leg.