USWNT loses to Japan, DC United acquire Fidel Barajas, and more: Thursday Freedom Kicks
Happy Thursday…or at least I think it’s Thursday. I stayed up late watching the WNT last night so it’s a day ending in -y. Lemme grab my coffee and leave you with the news…
Last night, SheBelieves Cup concluded in San Diego, and Japan defeated the USWNT 2-1 to claim their first regulation win over the United States in 13 years.
D.C. United Signs Forward Fidel Barajas from Chivas Guadalajara (DCU)
DC United officially gets the 18-year-old forward on loan for four months, with an option to extend for the rest of the season.
Loudoun United introduced their new home kit yesterday, and it’s got Fulham vibes.
MLS Fantasy Focus: Rossi-colored Glasses (DP)
Rick breaks down the fantasy winners from Week 1 and gives you some options on who to pick up this week on your team.
Hey Spirits episode: Motherhood, athlete autonomy, and winning gold with Casey Krueger (DP)
You should always listen to Hey Spirits when a new episode drops, but this one broke some news as Casey Krueger informed everyone that it appears her time with the USWNT may be over.
JJ Watt says he’ll really play for Bengals if Burnley GK continues insane streak (PSW)
In December, JJ Watt made a bet with Burnley goalkeeper James Trafford that if Trafford didn’t allow a goal the rest of the season, Watt would come out of retirement to play for the Cincinnati Bengals (Trafford’s favorite NFL team). Well, Trafford has a 12-match clean sheet streak going, and JJ’s thinking he might need to start figuring out his comeback workout routine.
And finally, sounds like today is the day that NWSL jerseys will officially be released! I may already have the new Spirit jacket in my possession and looking forward to grabbing a jersey. And for those of you who are thinking you may wait…we might be cooking up something in our Stimulus store as well, so stay tuned!
I actually did fall asleep. My nap before strategy didn’t pay off. However, I had the USWNT vs Japan game on record, so I watched till the very early first by Japan, then decided to fast forward to see the goals. I partially did so cuz I thought there was the potential for a Japan slaughter, but to the US’s credit, it was a competitive game. In the end, this unfamiliar squad missing some big talismans was not the equal to Japan, who are more than worthy winners of this tournament.
USA coaching is correct. This is the time to develop young and potentials against tough opposition. Credit to Japan, but credit to our overall development. I don’t miss Vlatko, in other words.
Yeah, I think this was a worthy exercise. There’s the development, the kicking of the tires, and the competitive match with clearly a very talented and in form team. Some bars for achievement are meant to be high, not passing this test is not a real failure.
Man, I miss seeing clean sheets.
MLS releases roster compliance summary. Which is the first time in I don’t know how long that we can actually say with some certainty where DCU (or any other club) stands on intl slots, DP arrangements, etc.
MLS released updated Roster Designations, which can be found here:
https://mlssoccer.app.box.com/s/84t29b7ao8ggrfhp3vzky5h00f2qhbfu
Nothing super surprising on the DC front, but a few notes:
They are doing the 3 DP, 3 U22 model (they can change this mid-season if they want to, I believe)
Zouhir is not listed as International, strangely
TAM players are: Enow, Herrera, Peglow, Peltola, Rowles, Schnegg
Kim and Pirani are the U22s
There are only 2 players on the roster who’s contracts end this year with no options years: MacNaughton and Barraza
Apparently Zouhir doesn’t count as an international because he came through an MLS academy (Montreal’s). Seems like a weird carve out, but whatever.
But yeah, DC already has 14 players under contract for 2026 with another 10 options available. Conceivably, there could be a LOT of continuity going into next year. If they were to sign Barajas after his loan, or make a DP signing in the summer or whatever, that continuity gets that much stronger. Continuity is a good thing, but if the team isn’t that great to begin with, one kind of wonders how wise that continuity is. So, let’s hope that Schnegg, Enow, Peltola, Peglow, etc. are all worth keeping around.
It’s definitely an underwhelming roster and I hope we’re not repeating the same mistakes we made in the Rooney era.
Tom Bogert reported that he’s expecting MLS to release details on GAM eventually. We could learn what the team has in reserve to do some real building. That would be interesting.
Really hoping our defense gels as the season goes by…2-4 TAM players in either the backline or DM with the kinds of goals we leak is inexcusable. All international slots too, along with our GK (who is at least young and has a lot of upside).
Goff is reporting that DC is still 2/4/$2million, per Ally Mackay. Which is fair, because unless they’re sitting on a signing now and just waiting for Lukas MacNaughton’s green card to come through, they can use that extra GAM (which is apparently disbursed as $1 million in the first half of the season, and $1 million in the second). When the summer window opens, they can switch to a 3/3 and forfeit that second $1 million.
Now, the team had a decent amount of GAM to start the offseason, and got a touch over $2 million more by selling Ku-DiPietro and Akinmboni. They spent $700,000 on Peglow, $400,000 on Kijima, a bit on Farr, Barraza, and MacNaughton, and undisclosed amounts on Kim and Rowles. They probably have something like $2-2.5 million left, before factoring in the extra GAM that their roster construction opens up. Their TAM players are Enow, Herrera, Rowles, Peltola, Schnegg, and Peglow. I don’t think any of them are on contracts like a Martin Rodriguez or Cristian Dajome. They’re probably maxing out at $800,000 each, and most are probably lower than that. I think we have a lot of low salaries on our other non-TAM players, so none of them are probably needing to be bought down much below the maximum salary cap hit. It’s maybe a max of $1 million for that.
So that still leaves us with $2-2.5 million. We might switch to a 3/3 in the summer with another DP signing. Maybe picking up Barajas’s option for the full year will make him the third U-22. Maybe adding the DP will require some more GAM be spent to buy down some roster hits. But GAM can also be rolled over now, so I think they’re probably trying to bank as much as they can this year to go really impactful on roster construction next year, which is internally when they’ve said they believe they can be competitive. I noted earlier that a lot of the roster is potentially locked in for next year, but some options could be declined.
All of this is fairly dizzying.
There could also be a summer GAM infusion if Nottingham Forest buys Kristian Fletcher. I’m not sure what the number would be, but I am guessing it would be lower than Akinmboni’s number.
Apparently, Jack McGlynn had wasn’t well informed that he was being traded to the Dynamo.
https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/jack-mcglynn-enters-houston-dynamo-spotlight-after-shock-trade
I think this is generally the case throughout sports. Or at least American men’s sports. The NWSL is starting to push back by requiring player consent for trades.
The Spirit’s new kits remind me a bit of Brasil’s uniforms. Maybe unintentional, but the team at least has a fair amount of flare and attitude to match their overall good results.
A fun little comparison between DC draft picks.
Julian Buscher: 27 games, 1 goal, 4 assists.
Jacob Murrell: 28 games, 1 goal, 4 assists.
That’s a blast from the past! And not a flattering comparison either. But I do think Murrell will have a better season statistically this year.
I think it’d be an interesting exercise to look at all of DC’s draft picks over the years to see how much production we’ve gotten. Also look at the round and compare which round that DCU has managed to hit the best on.
I’ve already put off work today to make a chart of which teams Benteke has scored or assisted against, and which number of each that was for him (good news, he has 5 goal contributions in his career against Chicago!), so I probably can’t do this today. But I reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaallllllllllllllllyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy want to.
We had an amazing run 10-15 years ago where like 6-7 of the guys we chose ended up playing 100+ games for us. After that… it’s basically been Chris Odoi-Atsem, and maybe Jacob Murrell will pan out.
Might be better to make a range of picks instead of doing it by round exactly since the league has expanded so rapidly. DC had the 21st overall pick in 2009 and in 2020. The 2009 pick was a mid second round pick, while 2020 was a later first round, even though they’re the same pick overall