Spirit sign Nankya, new D.C. United jerseys, and more: Friday Freedom Kicks
Happy Friday, and happy Valentine’s Day, friends! I hope you all have some nice things planned for this long weekend AND are getting excited about the fact that we’re just over a week away from the return of local soccer.
Washington Spirit signs Ugandan defender Shadia Nankya (Washington Spirit)
The Spirit have suddenly gone from two center backs on the roster to four! Much better for my peace of mind. Rumors still abound that they have Rebeca Bernal, a Mexican National Team defender, in their sights as well, which means we could see another loan-out. Stay tuned!
D.C. United releases 2025-2026 Soul kit (The District Press)
Read for Donald’s thoughts on D.C. United’s new kits. They’re not the most exciting, appearance-wise, but it’s a cool idea. You can watch the intro video below:
Loudoun United Football Club announce re-signing of defender Cole Turner on a one-year contract through the 2025 season with an option for 2026 (Loudoun United)
Cole Turner has been with the club since 2023, but injuries have sidelined him for much of the past two years.
Move over, Major League Soccer. A rival top flight men’s league is coming to the U.S. (The Athletic $)
I’m seeing a lot of references to Soccer Warz with this move by USL to create a Division 1 league, but are they really going to compete with MLS? Or will this be more like the USL Super League to NWSL? Either way, this article indicates that much of their interest in taking this step is to implement a promotion-relegation system.
Steven Birnbaum speaks on DC Power FC and new sporting director role (The District Press)
Donald Wine sat down with Steve Birnbaum this week to talk about his new gig with DC Power FC. He also got an update on Birnbaum’s health that includes a hip replacement the day after his retirement! Thankfully, it seems like he’s doing better now.
2025 MLS season previews: D.C. United, CF Montreal (American Soccer Analysis)
A preview of D.C. United’s upcoming season that looks at stats of players both returning and new, plus the Benteke of it all.
How a goalkeeper from South Korea landed with D.C. United (Washington Post $)
Steve Goff profiles Kim Joon Hong and D.C. United’s decision to sign him.
Opta Power Rankings: Who Are the Best Football Teams in the World? (The Analyst)
Finally, this isn’t exactly new, but it’s updated regularly, and the District Press crew had a lot of fun with it yesterday. Thought it could make for some fun Friday conversation.
Have a good weekend, and share your own Kicks in the comments!
Can someone help me out with the “soul kit”? I get the concept, and like it in theory, but how do those color swatches in the armpits / sides connect to the DC go-go scene? I’m not a go-go expert, but I’ve seen all of the classic bands (Soul Searches, Trouble Funk, EU, RE, etc.), was in DC in the 90s/00s, and I feel like I’m missing something about the design. Why not something from the day-glo poster designs? Or some Cool Disco Dan tags?
This doesn’t relate to Soul at all, but now I want to see a Borf tag on a future DC jersey.
You think they’d have a Seoul jersey for our goalkeeping rotation…..
Tags would be really cool — but if they don’t want to directly include a tag, why not stylize the jersey sponsors and maybe add a team name, all in grafitti style?? That is a jersey I would buy!!
I don’t know about the concept but I don’t think our Away jersey is as bad as some people make it to be. It is much better than Austin’s green nightmare or Miami’s pink nightmare. St. Louis? Not great. Real Salt Lake? Reminds me of the funky 90s kits and not in a great way. Minnesota United? Nah. LAFC. Boring. Chicago. That one is definitely more about the sponsor than the team. Colorado Rapids? Yeah, no. Charlotte FC, another boring one. Honestly, there are only like three teams with good looking Jerseys: Columbus, New England, and the Sounders. Though I like FC Dallas simple, clean design.
My biggest gripe with the Opta Power Rankings is Washington Spirit being a full 5 places lower than Gotham FC after beating them 3 out of 3 times last year. Something’s off
I get that competition is great in business and sport, but trying to create another top tier men’s league seems cannibalistic for American soccer. MLS is by no means a good collaborator, but I can’t see a world where this actually works for the USL. These competing parties trying to monopolize American soccer is borderline embarrassing. USSF needs to get this sorted out.
I don’t know how big a deal it is honestly. I don’t even know if USL will continue with the plan if this country ends up facing difficult times as the weight of our poor decisions falls upon us. But that’s enough gloom and doom from me for now…
The growth of the women’s game, weirdly enough, is what makes me think they could have a shot at success There are a lot of untapped markets that MLS is not going after or has straight up turned down. Overtime, there will perhaps be a merger. But I don’t think it’ll harm the growth of the game.
But can those untapped markets support a DI team and will those markets support a team with no history that suddenly becomes a DII team.
Problem with a USL top division is relegation. Teams will just start to fold when they’re relegated. Happens time and time again.
It’ll most likely wind up like the DI Women’s league the USL runs. It exists but it’s really D1.5.
Huge disrespect to Wolverhampton Wanderers, trailing Leeds United….and Columbus Crew. The Crew ranking is a joke, but especially glaring in that they’re immediately above Girona, a team which is in 8th place in La Liga, and while they only one won UEFA Champions League match, they gave a pretty good account of themselves in all but one game, against PSV. Imagine the Crew losing to Arsenal, Milan and Liverpool by only one goal? They would struggle to manage that against the top teams in Mexico.
There will come a day when MLS teams are legit in the top 200 teams, but in the top 100? GTFO
Even the top 100 will come but not for a long while
I don’t think it’s that cut and dry. There are effective teams all over the world that could do damage to ones with structural problems and low morale from stronger leagues, even if their squads are relatively rich.
That said, I think power rankings across leagues without some tournament context meaningless. A team with a strong, dynamic squad in a lower league would lose a lot of their mojo if they were blown away regularly by much more lethal ones in more competitive league.
So, in short, I think Columbus could do some damage against misfiring clubs in the top five leagues, however few, but ranking them when they don’t play? Pointless.
Some combo Loudoun/Spirit news: Drew Skundrich and Andi Sullivan announced that they are expecting a child
Oh, wow! Congratulations to the pair!
Also, sounds like she’s definitely unavailable for at least 11 months
That’s great news for Drew and Andi. I expect that we won’t see Andi suit up for Spirit in 2025.
Baby’s due in July, so this might not delay her return much more than we expected from her ACL injury last October.
The first 1/3 to 1/2 of the season is going to be odd, especially out west. With the exception of Seattle and possibly LAG, there have been a **ton** of late transfers and trades. Even the teams that made good additions, like Dallas, will need time to gel. SKC finallllllyyyyyy have shaken up their roster and I could see them being competitive again while the other teams sort things out.
I think we’ll see a lot of lopsided games in the East. We’ll be the victims of Atlanta, Miami and Cincinnati’s high-priced additions, and perhaps Charlotte’s stability and defensive discipline. Chicago’s not a joke anymore, on paper. It’s going to be rough but entertaining in some respects.
You never know how a season will go until you play it. The Commies were expected to end up basically next to last and improve their previous season by 1 or 2 games max. Instead they ended their season with a loss in the NFC Championship game against the team that ended up winning it all. You never really know.
That is true…but talent usually wins out. The mystery is that we don’t always predict where that talent is correctly. So it can be fun to watch the unexpected even if I’m rather pessimistic about DC
Per Goff: 3 sources have indicated to him that DC is close to signing Gavin Turner to a Homegrown Deal
Old Glory play Miami Sharks today at 5 to kick off the MLR season. The game is televised regionally on Monumental Network and streamed on ESPN+. The team owners sat down with The Guardian ahead of the game today.
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/feb/15/major-league-rugby-mlr-old-glory-dc-espn?CMP=share_btn_url
I saw someone wearing some Old Glory gear at the Columbia Mall yesterday, and thought of you.
Encouraging final preseason result. DCU regulars beat Houston 3-1 with goals from Benteke, Pirani and Kalimantan ( if I have names spelled correctly).
That’s Kijima. Don’t know why spell check did that.
I thought it was spelled Bentucky?
Thanks for the update!