USWNT win, DC United loses, and more: Monday Freedom Kicks
It’s Monday, and I’m still in a huge funk because of basketball. While I spend one last day in San Antonio, here’s some short FKs from the weekend.
April 2025 USWNT Friendlies: USA 2-0 Brazil – taking home a solid win (SSFC)
We got a Trinity Rodman goal! The USWNT take out Brazil 2-0 at SoFi Stadium. They’re back on the field at PayPal Park tomorrow night.
Speaking of PayPal Park, DC United was there yesterday to face San Jose in the 29th anniversary of the league’s first ever match back in 1996, which was between DC United and the San Jose Clash. This was an absolute bloodbath:
Takeaways from Loudoun United’s shutout of Hartford
Loudoun United gets another W against Hartford. Through 5 matches, they are top of the USL Championship table.
Norwegian club win CAS case over ‘UEFA mafia’ banners and chants (ESPN)
A Norwegian club sued UEFA after being fined for chants against the confederation. The Court of Arbitration for Sport sided with the club, essentially saying they were free to speak out against the confederation.
TUDN to sue Pachuca for spiking U.S. broadcast of Club America match (PSW)
TUDN wants to sue Pachuca after they didn’t allow their match against Club America to be broadcast in the United States due to a tiff they’re having with Fox Sports. Club America means instant ratings success, so you can see why TUDN would be furious.
Enjoy the day, y’all.
The View from Buenos Aires
Yesterday’s absolute collapse between DC United and San Jose 1-6 was too depressing to comment upon. Luckily, I’ve transferred my primary local loyalty to Washington Spirit. More of Commentariat should do same for your mental health.
Mine is with Old Glory DC! Though I will cheer for the Spirit. Honestly watching United games has come to feel like just going through the motions.
It is depressing that, as a 96er, that I feel relief that we have only one home game this month. It just seems like a chore anymore. We can grasp the wooden spoon better than Charleton Heston could grasp a rifle. Absolutely appalling soccer.
Last night was the first time in my 23 years of being a DC United fan that I did not finish the game. I don’t want coach Lesense punished for this. We have had multiple coaches come and go since 2020 and there are always holes in the roster. There are now six seasons of evidence with one common theme. Whether it was Bennyball, NONSTOP MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE, methodical possession, or a thoughtful more balance press, the problem has consistently been roster construction.
Whoever is in the GM seat will get some talent here and there but it’ll never be a core they can keep together and grow. They’ll get veterans who often still have a lot of quality, even multiple seasons’ worth of quality but there will still be holes around them and not enough depth. It’s like the owners are allergic to spending TAM. The whole point of TAM was to address the drop off in quality that used to happen around slot 7 or 8 on each roster. Now that drop doesn’t really happen until slot 13 or so for most teams. But not DC United. That drop is still at 7 or 8, except this year where is at about 5 or 6 because of this failure of an off-season.
I want ownership to sell the team. This failure of an off-season is on them. They don’t even have a competent defensive center mid, a position that’s usually among the easiest to find a player who is at least functional and doesn’t hurt you. It’s clear that it’s because of a lack of resources given to the technical staff.
I have been patient and wanting to be reasonable since 2020 when that initial stadium opening roster push faded out. The last three games have been enough. That home draw against a very threadbare Montreal team was a huge warning. This game was it. The team just doesn’t have enough talent and that won’t fully change under this ownership group.
I hope that Coach Lesense gets another chance in the major league because this season isn’t on him.
I’m really not feeling like doing the digging myself, but I don’t think there’s another team in the league that has had as many blowout loses, and as high a margin in those loses, as DC United since 2020. A bit or light research says we conceded 4+ goals 8 times from 2020 to 2023. As you’ve identified, there is at this point no correlation between who’s on the field or who’s on the sidelines. We have no organizational philosophy other than spend poorly and don’t overspend.
Thank you for checking into this. I’ve been wondering it myself.
Its almost like Kaplan, Levien, and co are treating the team like a short term real estate deal rather than a long term investment.
We conceded 4 or more goals 5 times last season and twice already this season, just to add on to the above numbers because I’ve got little waiting time at work.
Out of curiosity I just looked it up, and from 2020 through 2024, Toronto had 18 games where they conceded at least 4 goals. One of those was the 7-1 game that DC beat Toronto. Without looking it up, San Jose up until this year was also pretty bad defensively, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the blowout number is higher for them too
Thanks for checking other teams – particularly since we know those two have been in the basement with us all along. SJ seems on their way out at least until Arena calls it quits.
Of course Bruce is a good coach and now has a bunch of talented guys work with. If there’s anyone that will teach a naive young coach a lesson about stupid flaws on their team, it’s going to be him.
I looked up both San Jose and Montreal, two teams that stood out to me as ones that probably ranked highly in this stat. From 2020 through 2024, the number of games those two had 4 goals scored against them:
San Jose: 20, 15 of which were in 2024 and 2020
Montreal: 16, very few in the Nancy era
There are probably a couple of other teams that are in that ballpark too. That to say, while DC certainly isn’t great, and not allowing 4 goals or more would sure be appreciated, their numbers here aren’t necessarily anomalous within the league over the last 5 years
The View from Buenos Aires 2:
This post may be split into several because it will be long.
Changing football sports, in rugby Argentina Seven-a-side are #1 and Argentina XV are #6 in the world. In futbol #1 sure, but rugby? How can such be the case?
The classic adage “Soccer is a gentleman’s game played by ruffians and rugby is a ruffian’s game played by gentlemen” is never truer than in Argentina.
Because of British investment (particularly in railroads) in late XIX and early XX century, both soccer and rugby grew up here in the British tradition.
Though every Argentine male loves soccer, ruffians (lower class) play soccer; gentlemen (upper middle class) play rugby. (The very wealthy, of course, play polo.)
Let me illustrate with my own Argentine family. My two nephews and two nieces were raised in an apartment in downtown Barrio Norte, the most prestigious neighborhood in Buenos Aires. Though governmental elementary and secondary schools were within two blocks, my nieces went to private school several blocks away, and my nephews attended Cardinal Newman school in suburban San Isidro, a 30-minute commute by highway north of Barrio Norte, run by Irish Brothers. They grew up playing for Cardinal Newman school rugby teams.
The View from Buenos Aires 3:
In the mid-1980s, my brother-in-law Lalo and a number of other Cardinal Newman parents and graduates decided to establish a “country.” They bought about 200 acres of raw land in Benavidez, a town about an hour’s drive by highway north of Barrio Norte. The idea was to build weekend houses and sports facilities (golf course, tennis courts, rugby fields) as as respite from busy city life.
Newman Club is now a gated community about two-three times its original size. It has about 450 homes and in “Newman Joven”, its latest expansion, have added 200 luxurious apartment split among eight five story buildings. Over the decades, about 60% of the homes are now occupied year-round.
Club Newman now has eight full-sized rugby fields with viewing stands and a clubhouse located around the field where Newman Primera plays. (In another recent extension, they have added five soccer fields.
One can only have a home in Club Newman if one had current students or is a graduate of Cardinal Newman School. And its Primera Division club is composed exclusively of current students or relatively recent graduates (I. E. Last 10-15 years).
And that defines Argentina’s Primera Division of rugby — private schools/clubs like Cardinal Newman, Club Atletico San Isidro, San Isidro Club, Belgrano, Club Universitario de Buenos Aires, etc.
The View from Buenos Aires 4:
So rugby is overwhelmingly an upper middle class sport in Argentina. For decades Argentina has dominated international competitions at the junior level with so many quality rugby player produced by this system.
However, Argentina lagged at the senior XV level because they were true amateurs going up against virtual professionals in New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, England, France, etc. (Much like the Soviet ice hockey team of old, who were all supposedly Soviet Army members but in reality full time ice hockey players.)
However, in recent decades, rugby union has gone professional and many Argentine senior players are professionals abroad or play for the Jaguars, Buenos Aires’s professional team. And so Argentina’s national Pumas sevens and Pumad fifteens have climbed up the international rankings.
Pumas 7s secured the 2024-2025 Men’s HSBC 7s series title with their podium finish over the weekend at the Singapore 7s.
https://www.americasrugbynews.com/2025/04/06/argentina-claim-podium-finish-at-singapore-7s/
Attention now turns to the Los Angeles 7s May 3-4. With the US men currently bottom of the table on just 12 pts they will be in the relegation tournament with Kenya (9th place on 36 pts), Uruguay (10th place on 27 pts), and Ireland (23 pts) from the HSBC 7s series. Joining them in the relegation battle will be the top 4 from the Challenger 7s series: Canada (tied for 1st place on 34 pts), Germany (tied for 1st place on 34 pts), Portugal (3rd place on 32 pts), and Chile (4th place on 28 pts). The US men managed to just stay up in the HSBC 7s series in last years pro/rel tournament with the top 4 of the Challenger 7s. I think the US men are going to be the Challenger 7s series next season. They just haven’t been the same since Mike Friday stepped down after Paris 2024.
The USA women on the other hand are just fine as they sit 6th on the women’s side and will be competing in the Grand Final at the LA 7s on 3-4 May.
Two things can be true. The owners can be terrible and negligent and need to sell, and Lesesne can be a coach who needs to be removed. In fact, the apparent lack of buzz concerning his position should tell you all you need to know about the former.
A coach is ultimately responsible for making the team perform effectively, and these results have shown that we can lose when we’re actually performing close to our ceiling, and our floor isn’t in sight. We’ve been so pitiful when we transition to off the ball that every counter by the opposition has a high chance of success, certainly higher than what we’re generating when we push them into their own third.
This squad might be thin, but remember that we’re still doing 1 game a week, and most are available. This is horrid. That’s a culture problem, but doesn’t mean we should continue to underperform under Lesesne.
Lesesne: good coach*, poor manager. Unfortunately.
* I do still think he is a very good coach for some aspects of the game… he talks a lot about our approach with the ball in his pressers b/c that’s what he’s good at and likes to think about. And the players have kept a positive mentality for him. But the inability to adapt, either to opposition tactics or to the limitations of the roster… yeesh.
I really don’t know what this is supposed to mean. His job, as I said, is to make the squad he had perform effectively. I don’t see what pressers have to do with anything.
I’m agreeing with you. If I strip out the extra words: he has some good points as a coach of the game. Those good points are, it is becoming clear, nowhere near enough to overcome the deficiencies.
Ah
I don’t know if I even agree with this sentiment that he’s a good game thinker. Good tacticians ditch those that aren’t working or at least make the tweaks necessary to make it more viable. Maybe it’s just the year we’re living in where teams like Man City or RB Leipzig are doing much worse with their high pressing and are being found out, but the game I’m convinced has moved on, and Lesesne hasn’t.
Do we think that Ove tieing then breaking Gretzky’s record, the Nats winning 2/3 off Arizona, Spirit winning, Loudoun winning, and Old Glory winning used the weekend’s good juju up for DC area sports teams?
Let’s not mention the fact that DCU doesn’t look like playing like a unit, but rather a team of individuals.
Maybe Russell Canouse on speed dial?
I don’t know if he’d come back.
Men’s Rugby World Cup:
2027 Australia
2031 USA
2035 ?
https://www.americasrugbynews.com/2025/04/07/declared-and-potential-bidders-for-rugby-world-cup-2035/
Declared and potential bidders: Italy (wants 2035 or 2039), Spain (considering), Japan (declared, Japan 2019 was the most economically successful RWC to date), Gulf (Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and UAE considering joint bid), England (not declared), Argentina (potential, pulled out of 2023 (figured they wouldn’t get enough votes vs France) and pulled out of 2027 in favor of SANZAAR partner Australia), South Africa (most successful team in RWC with 4 titles and potential)
I figured the stats were bad…but damn…
https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/what-we-learned-columbus-remain-elite-jack-mcglynn-ignites-houston
It is really quite depressing.
At the beginning of the season Mackay said he believes in youth meaning DC United could do more than other teams while playing small ball. I wonder what he is thinking now of his young team and young manager. He had a near blank slate in the offseason and the team is worse this year than last year. Soccer is such a well scouted world market these days that there are rarely any sleepers left.
Lesesne is bright and articulate and impresses me as a wonderful person. He is probably a good field coach and may be a good head coach in the future.
However, all his talk about culture and values (translation high press which is kind of an odd way to express culture and not something that DCU ever excelled at) makes him look a predictable to opposing teams. They can game plan him out of the park as was done by Bruce Arena. Meanwhile he sticks to his tactics and even says after a loss (not this one) that it was their best game ever.
So, Lesesne has to go and the sooner the better.
We’re probably the easiest team to plan for in the league once the fatigue of pressing every week sets in. Everyone can play against us with complete confidence that they can score a goal if they need to (or even if they want to).