Spirit sell out semifinal, DC Power lose, and more: Thursday Freedom Kicks
Happy Thursday, y’all. Women’s soccer dominated the headlines yesterday, so let’s begin where we rightfully should!
Washington Spirit Semifinal at Audi Field Sells Out in 72 Hours After Quarterfinal Win (Spirit)
SELLOUT! It’s gonna be a fun atmosphere once again at Audi Field on Saturday. Can’t wait to watch the Spirit go for it!
Turnovers lead to Grabias hat trick in 3-0 DC Power loss (DP)
DC Power lost last night at Audi Field to Brooklyn FC behind a Luana Grabias hat trick.
ESPN FC Women’s Rank: Top 50 soccer players of 2024 (ESPN)
Our very own Trinity Rodman lands at #8 on this list. The top 3: Aitana Bonmatí, Naomi Girma, and Barbra Banda.
Virginia’s Dream Team Dressing for the Big Occasion (USSF)
The Virginia Dream get the laser focus on U.S. Soccer’s site, which is cool to see.
Taylor Twellman could be in some trouble after an apparent altercation with a member of Apple TV’s production crew during an Inter Miami match.
Real Madrid World opens first-of-kind theme park in Dubai (ESPN)
Real Madrid has opened a theme park in Dubai, which includes the world’s tallest flying chairs ride and the Middle East’s first wooden roller coaster.
Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami to be among top seeds in Club World Cup (The Times)
This is just hilarious at this point. No way should Inter Miami be a seeded team in the Club World Cup, but it looks like they may be.
Last thought from me: seems like a lot of people are migrating to Bluesky or Threads and saying goodbye to Twitter (I don’t call it X). Do you think The District Press should go to one or the other? Or both? Let us know!
Bluesky.
Looking forward to the Spirit game Saturday. Sounds like it will be a great atmosphere.
That Infantino/FIFA thirsty grasp with Miami for the CWC is the gift that keeps on giving.
I’ve seen the huge wave of people to Bluesky, but it so far has been limited to woso people for the most part. I’ve seen some teams start posting more on Threads because they have IG accounts, and other sports have largely stayed on Twitter or moved to Threads. It will be interesting to see which one wins the Social Media Warz or if they all just become Taco Bell.
Quiero Taco Bell
Viva Gorditas!
I hope the DP stays as is for those of us that do not utilize mass social media.
My two cents.
Oh, any moves would not be replacing the website or comments section. It’s about how we continue to grow the village!
My guess is both survive but have different user bases and audiences. The no politics / no war moderation of Threads seems to have dampened a lot of moment it had in favor of BlueSky.
The era of a single Microblogging site to rule them all likely isn’t coming back.
I think one of the arguments for Bluesky over Threads is the ability to see updates/posts in chronological order, as opposed to however the algorithm feels like showing them to you. I feel like that tends to help when you follow anything sports related, as updates during games (or even like press conferences) come through in order, as opposed to being mixed around with everything else.
Inter Miami invited to the United Nations for International Humanitarian Award
Atlanta United has been docked 50% of salary cap limit for one decade due to “irregularities in the corrupted match vs Inter Miami….”
Darth Garber is pleased
I have gone over to BlueSky. I still have my Twitter account, but I’m making a really conscientious effort to be mostly on BlueSky.
I still haven’t found content beyond the politics and newsy stuff — few teams and leagues are posting content there, and even the bigger media is also missing from Bluesky. I imagine there will be some hesitation about angering Musk while those organizations are so dependent on Twitter/X.
Without looking too deeply into it, Bluesky seems to not be (directly?) connected to a blatantly tyrannical, money-grubbing capitalist looking to spread their cult. Threads is under Meta.
The George Mason University Men’s soccer team fell in the conference tournament semifinal 2-1 to Saint Louis University. GMU was the 1 seed with a 13-4-1 overall record and a 6-1-1 conference record while Saint Louis was the 6 seed at 8-3-8 overall and 4-1-3 in conference record. Mason also had 3 votes in the top 25 voting placing them just outside the top 25 in the most recent poll on Nov 3rd.
https://gomason.com/news/2024/11/13/mens-soccer-patriots-fall-to-no-6-saint-louis-in-atlantic-10-semifinals.aspx
GMU Men’s Soccer Head Coach Rich Costanzo was named the A-10 Coach of the Year for Men’s Soccer. Additionally, 6 players earned All-Conference honors.
https://gomason.com/news/2024/11/13/mens-soccer-costanzo-named-atlantic-10-coach-of-the-year-six-patriots-earn-all-conference-honors.aspx
Also in the world of college soccer, UMBC lost in overtime to Vermont in the American East conference semis. UMBC had lead the majority of the game before Vermont tied it late and then scored again in OT. One of the saves by UMBC’s goalie even made Sports Center’s top 10
https://www.americasrugbynews.com/2024/11/13/five-mlr-veterans-set-to-achieve-domestic-status-in-2025/
Old Glory Lock Tevita Naqali has achieved domestic status having played exclusively in MLR since signing.
Naqali has been with OGDC since 2020 which though pandemic shortened was the first season with regular MLR games for Old Glory. Tevita is not USA Eagles qualified as he remains registered with the Fiji Rugby Union. He would need to either be registered solely with USA Rugby Union for 60 months or complete 10 years of cumulative residence in the US to be eligible to play for the Eagles.
Absolutely get off Twitter/X. Everyone should boycott Elon Musk products. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem possible with Space X and Starlink, but Twitter/X and Tesla are fair targets.
I’m indifferent with regard to Bluesky, etc.
I’m crossing my fingers that sports media gets TF off Twitter, if only so the subreddits I follow aren’t 80% “journalist” tweets.
So, I know Will Nelson thought the USMNT game tonight against Jamaica was only on Peacock, but I believe that is only the Spanish language option as per usual.
The game can be found on TNT and Max, as well, in case anyone is wondering
and truTV as well!
https://www.starsandstripesfc.com/usmnt-friendly/2024/11/14/24295506/usa-usmnt-jamaica-2024-concacaf-nations-league-time-tv-schedule-streaming-lineups-match-thread
I’m going to probably miss watching the Spirit game. I have a celebration of life service I will be at for a long time friend down in Harrisonburg, VA. She passed away from a sudden heart attack last week. The service is at 10 and its a little over 2 hours each way.