DC United and DC Power draw, USWNT win, and more: Monday Freedom Kicks
Happy Monday, everyone. I worked all weekend and have been on the clock for essentially the last 2.5 weeks straight. While I pour coffee directly into my eyeballs, here’s the news from the weekend:
D.C. United draws 2-2 in home opener against Toronto FC (DP)
DC United opened up the 2025 season with a 2-2 draw against Toronto FC at Audi Field. It was a draw that felt like points lost.
DC Power fights to 3-3 draw against Carolina Ascent (DP)
DC Power opened the spring portion of their schedule with a 3-3 draw on the road to Carolina Ascent. They were able to score some goals, but ultimately turnovers and mistakes cost them the victory.
USWNT vs. Australia: Shaw, Hutton stand out in SheBelieves Cup win (PSW)
The USWNT got another win in the SheBelieves Cup, this time beating Australia 2-1. They finish out the tournament against Japan on Wednesday with the trophy going to the winner.
MLS is Back: Meet your 2025 DC United team (DP)
There are a ton of new faces on this season’s DC United roster. Check out who is on this team…and it sounds like one more might be joining the ranks:
History! Anders Dreyer scores brace for San Diego FC (MLS)
Of all the MLS matches this weekend, the biggest shocker was the last match of the weekend. San Diego FC, in their first ever match, take down the defending champions LA Galaxy on the road. Also, the opening weekend set a record for most goals scored.
Tottenham are asking not to be called Tottenham (The Athletic)
Tottenham said “that’s not my name.” Welp, the rest of the world said:
Where MLS’s Apple TV+ docuseries ‘Onside’ gets it right – and what’s missing (The Athletic)
Did anyone watch Onside over the weekend? I haven’t yet, but will likely check it out.
Finally, sending some love to Tony Meola. He suffered a heart attack on Thursday but seems to be okay. He celebrated his 56th birthday on Friday, and lemme tell you…fewer people are more genuinely nice than Tony. Hoping for a speedy and full recovery for the USMNT legend.
We’re tied for 5th place in the East!
….with 4 to 6 other teams
Vamos United!
My thoughts after letting that game marinade a bit:
-DC is industrious but not the most creative
-Defense wasn’t the best
-Midfield is being asked to do ALOT
-I totally forgot DC’s best wingers didn’t participate (Peglow & Stroud)
-It’s only 1 game. But mixed first impressions.
Two goals without much creativity isn’t so bad …it just probably won’t happen against a good defense. I expect some adjustments.
I agree. One thing I couldn’t understand all game was in possession, Schnegg would bomb up the field and just stay there like a left winger, Rowles would slide left, creating a back 3 and Kijima would just kind of sit somewhere in between. DC had very little options on that left flank going forward and got ripped apart on that side in defense. That is easy to fix and would solve a lot of the defensive frailties, in my opinion.
This is the DC metro area, are we allowed to do things that make sense?
A message from the owners of Old Glory DC ahead of the home opener this Saturday at the Maryland Soccerplex.
https://oldglorydc.com/message-from-the-owners-5/
Interesting analysis from Marc Machado over on Substack.
https://mbmachado.substack.com/p/in-year-two-under-troy-lesesne-dc?r=4nsnw&triedRedirect=true
Matt Doyle’s pass of the week was by Toronto:
https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/lafc-find-their-a-game-houston-s-depth-concern-more-from-matchday-1
Opening weekend TIFOs from around the league:
https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/mls-is-back-fans-deliver-incredible-tifos-on-opening-weekend-2025
So, a few things before I get to DC United. Bernardeschi is a very dynamic DP, Osorio and Laryea are competitors who know how to be effective even when they’re not doing much soccer, and the ref was baffling.
But, we should have won this game handily.
And if Lesesne doesn’t or cannot fix the following problem, I don’t want him to be our coach.
Pressing is all well and good, but it can’t be everyone on everybody, and there has to be a shape, a rest defense when the ball turns over.
A disciplined side seamlessly transitions to an out of possession shape when the ball turns over, and even if this is in midfield, there should be multiple players behind the ball, preferably the four defenders and a midfielder. Instead, if felt like, if anything, the instinct was to press further forward on everybody, and it didn’t fucking work. You should have a line of pressing players, and those behind waiting to pounce from an assured distance if the ball still progresses. If you press someone who doesn’t have the ball, you’re just setting yourself up to be bypassed with any sort of decent ball.
Enow, Servania, and Pirani were incredibly woeful out of possession. Leal coming in for Pirani added some tenacity and IQ, but Toronto could run into space and our final third anytime we didn’t have the ball.
Again, Lesesne needs to prove that this is not his system, or I want him gone, cuz it’s stupid.
For those who watched on TV – were Pirani and Kijima just easily dispossessed or were they fouled several times without any calls? I was at the stadium, trying not to think about how cold it was, but from my point of view, both players were fouled often, more so after Toronto players realized that they could just bodied them, push them as often as they wanted to and no foul would be called. The ref was insane, honestly, the foul on Benteke as he was going for goal should have been carded, even if he allowed no free kick alleging he had given us advantage. Instead he calls a penalty in their favor for a very soft, barely there foul with zero intent.
From my perspective, a little of both. The ref wasn’t calling much in the first half (when Pirani was mostly playing). There were definitely times where Pirani just got muscled off of the ball cleanly (not sure if he is that easily moved or if he was trying to draw fouls on purpose) and there were sometimes that it probably should have been a foul. I think overall Toronto got more calls going their way.
Will also note that while the penalty that was awarded was a bit soft, the potential penalty that got checked like 30 seconds into the game probably should have actually been a penalty. With that in mind, I think the 2-2 draw was fair for both teams, because Toronto was going to get a penalty one way or another
ESPNFC Power rankings have DCU At #28 and TFC at #27
https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/43996491/mls-power-rankings-inter-miami-snatch-point-san-diego-stun-la-galaxy
Boris Enow makes MLS Team of the Matchday for week 1.
https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/team-of-the-matchday-who-shined-brightest-on-mls-is-back-weekend-2025
That seems curious. He was good defending, and he did score a goal, but it seemed his passes found TFC players at least as often as DCU players.
I didn’t see Enow was good at defending. He was constantly getting beat and was out of position.