Goodbye to Anna Heilferty, $110M for NWSL expansion to Denver, and more: Friday Freedom Kicks
Happy Friday, everyone! It was a bit of a slow news day, but I’m sure things will be picking up as people get back into the swing of things post-holiday.
Denver group secures NWSL team at $110M expansion fee (Sportico)
The jump in NWSL expansion fees is really pretty shocking. In 2022, Utah Royals paid about $2 million to enter the league! Regardless, Denver will be the 16th team in the NWSL, expected to begin in 2026.
Now that 2025 has begun, Washington Spirit officially said goodbye to the players whose contracts have expired. Anna Heilferty’s in particular inspired a wave of tribute posts from the online WoSo community. A sampling:
Also in Spirit departure news: Dawn Scott, Vice President of Performance, Medical and Innovation, announced that her contract has expired as well. This is a big surprise, as Michele Kang has talked about putting more resources into studying women’s athletics and health, and Scott is one of the very best in that field and seemed to have a vision very much aligned with Kang’s.
Wayne Rooney’s Plymouth exit: Sinking morale, off-field criticism – and regret (The Athletic $)
The Athletic has some more details on Wayne Rooney’s time at Plymouth. Interesting read, but it mainly made me feel sad.
Philadelphia Union name Bradley Carnell head coach (MLS)
Despite his rocky 2024 season at St. Louis City SC, Carnell has been hired to replace longtime Philadelphia Union coach Jim Curtin.
Have a good weekend!
Ryan Keefer found a report out of Scotland this morning (not Poland, oddly enough), that indicates that DC have signed a new Center Back. Kye Rowles, who currently plays for Hearts of Midlothian. He’s Australian, and plays for the Australian National Team. I’ve seen some mixed feelings from the Scottish fans about the move, but it seems like the most consistent one Ive seen is that he’s a solid player, but didn’t really fit the style of play that exists in the Scottish league. On paper he seems like a decent pick up though, so I guess we’ll see. The report said that transfer fee was 600k Pounds (~$744k), so I’d imagine he’d be a TAM player
For what FC 25 ratings are worth he’s a 71: https://www.ea.com/games/ea-sports-fc/ratings/player-ratings/kye-rowles/233931
TransferMarkt had him at a 1M Euros and he moved to Heart of Midlothian from Central Coast Mariners (A-League men) for 600k Euros on July 1 2022: https://www.transfermarkt.us/kye-rowles/profil/spieler/399990
He’s got 24 caps for the Aussie National Team and has 1 goal.
I’m choosing to put a bit more weight in his caps with Australia over playing in Scotland given how funky the league is. In any case, he’s an experienced (left-footed?!) CB in his prime – fits the profile of our biggest need. I hope he likes risky defensive tactics (and is good at dealing with them).
Agreed, I think that’s what stood out to me too. My only concern is that if we end up with any games during international windows, we could be without both him and MacNoughton. We’d be left with Bartlett and Tubbs, which is fine, but essentially no one else to account for any injuries, other than Peltola who is probably needed further up the field.
MacNaughton has one cap with Canada, over 2 years ago. I don’t think we have to be very concerned he won’t be available, so long as he’s healthy.
We will have to do a little shuffling when Rowles is called up, but having an experienced reserve like Bartlett will be useful. My guess is DCU may still be looking for another, probably from within MLS, though Dotson may have the flexibility to sub there. Tubbs will need more seasoning. Maybe one of the 2 CBs they drafted will pan out. A team really needs at least 6 CBs, especially if they might play a formation with 3 CBs
As for Peltola, we have to see what else develops. He may be a starter for DCU as a DM, alongside Enow, but they have limited options in reserve. Hopkins is the only reserve on the roster I can see in that role, and not even convinced he’s ideal there. They may have a move in mind there. I think that’s got to be the priority right now in building out the roster. If they do get a quality DM, maybe Peltola would be a first or second option to sub in central defense.
I’ve been assuming that Bartlett and Rowles will be the starters, with MacNaughton and Tubbs as backups (assuming a back 4). If we’re going the 3 CB route, we’re gonna need a LOT more center backs than what we’ve got now. I also think a back 3 sacrifices strengths we have elsewhere, namely in the midfield. Assuming a back 4 and Benteke up top, that leaves room for 5 midfielders. I think you can make an argument for Peltola, Enow, Pirani, KDP, Stroud, and Peglow to be starters. We’re already sitting one of them regardless, but a move to a 3 CB formation makes 2 of them sit.
Does adding MacNaughton to Bartlett and Rowles outweigh taking one of the midfielders off? Based on last year, Id argue no. The team tended to be better in a back 4 than back 3. But maybe that changes this year. I guess we’ll have to see
Conner Antley played at CB once or twice last year. I’d still love for them to bring in one more really kickass CB, but I’d imagine this is mostly it for the year. Maybe we’ll sign our third round draft pick
FWIW my Hearts fan buddy thinks he is a quality player.
Don’t forget that Peltola keeps getting callups for Finland.
Ah yes, good point. He can’t fill in if he is also not here
Not that EAFC ratings should be taken as gospel (some are REALLY weird), but 71 would put him in line with Birnbaum from a few years ago. If he can be that level, I think that would be solid
Yeah, he seems fine. I was really wanting a truly standout CB who could be among the best in MLS, but MacNaughton and Rowles seem like they’re “pretty good.” Which is pretty good. We’ll see how they gel, how good a full year of Schnegg on the left is, how good Enow will be as the defensive midfielder, how good Kim Joon Hong will be at GK.
Rowles does seem to be pretty good aerially, and when you combine that with Lucas Bartlett and Christian Benteke, DC should be in good shape for winning duels.
Listening to a Hearts fan breaking this down, he says that Rowles is a great one on one defender when the ball is on the ground. He did say that his biggest weakness was struggling with the physicality of the Scottish Premier League. Given that MLS is a very physical league as well, that’s concerning. This guy thinks he’ll do well in MLS, but who knows how much he actually knows about this league.
They might not even need TAM? That transfer fee will be spread over the length of his contract, which at least for now runs into 2028. $774k over 3.5 years. That’s a salary cap hit of just over $215k per yr…plus whatever his wages will be.
Goff also reporting it — appended to his piece about Matai Akinmboni transfer to Bournemouth. There’s also a note there about Matai’s younger brother, Mikel, who was there for the announcement and is training with Man City for a week. Looking at his clips with DCU U15s, Mikel is clearly physically head over shoulders (literally) compared with his peers. Tall, strong for his age, playing in defense, showing poise, along with real vision and anticipation, both in defending and with his distribution. As he moves up in age, hopefully DC United will have a framework for him to get the regular playing time here that Matai wasn’t getting.
For some reason I think that Mikel Akinmboni hasn’t been signed for DC United yet. I could be wrong though.
WOW! I really didn’t imagine that Dawn Scott would be leaving. I doubt that represents any lessening of Michele Kang’s commitment to building a women-oriented soccer health and conditioning regime. I’d speculate that there was some friction with Kang.
On the “officially” departing Spirit players, it will be interesting to see whom the team adds. I find it surprising they haven’t made much of a catch in the college talent market so far. Or you the youth/HS level either.
Obviously it’s difficult to predict how a coach will operate from one team to another because they (the coach) can evolve. But it seems that the Union (with Carnell) should continue to be a high-energy level coach. Also, it seems to me that the PU rationale for dumping Curtin (he wouldn’t play the youth) is weak cheese given the hiring of Carnell.
That’s “interesting” about Scott–I don’t know what that means. I’m interested to find out more details.
And it will be interesting to see what kind of player Kye Rowles is.
Carnell is probably going in with the understanding that he will have no option but to play the youth. Curtin and even some of his players have been pleading for that last x-factor reinforcement to come in for years, but it really looks like it ain’t happening now.
Unlikely to happen this year or even anytime soon, but I so desperately want to kick both the Union and the RB’s teeth in at long last. We’ve gotten the short end of the stick from refs doing exactly what they do for too long, things have to go back to the average eventually.
It’s definitely cool for NWSL to have all this energy around expansion. I hope the talent is there to sustain so many more clubs — that the on-field product remains entertaining and skillful.
I’m not worried about the talent. First, I think you’re seeing NWSl poach oversees clubs much more. Second, the women’s game (college and below) continues to get better and better.