Weekly award noms for DC players, remembering Pope Francis’s D.C. United jersey, and more: Tuesday Freedom Kicks
Happy Tuesday, everyone! A winning weekend means we’ve got plenty of weekly awards wins and nominations to peruse this morning. Is it ethical for me to recommend you vote for them? Who cares! I’m going to do it anyway.
Team of the Matchday: Inter Miami remain unbeaten, Charlotte make a statement (MLS)
His brace in New Jersey put João Peglow on Team of the Matchday.
One of those goals — the bicycle kick, naturally — was also nominated for Goal of the Matchday:
USL Championship Goal of the Week – Week 7 (USL Championship)
Also up for Goal of the Week is Loudoun’s Abdellatif Aboukoura with his sixth of the regular season. You can vote for the Golden Boot co-leader at the link above and watch the nominees here:
Finally, Washington Spirit’s Aubrey Kingsbury was nominated for Player of the Week! (Though curiously none of her six saves are candidates for Save of the Week.) Vote for her on X.com and/or Instagram.
How D.C. United got a customized soccer jersey to Pope Francis (Washington Post $)
In honor of Pope Francis, who died yesterday, an old story about how he was presented with a D.C. United jersey upon his 2015 trip to Washington, DC. Hat tip to José Mauricio Umaña for re-sharing this.
Leeds United, Burnley promoted to Premier League as Sheffield United lose (ESPN)
Checking in on things across the pond: the English Championship League season is still ongoing, but points totals mean that Leeds United and Burnley will be promoted to the Premier League.
Girma returns from injury as Barcelona hammers Chelsea in UWCL (Pro Soccer Wire)
On the women’s side, Naomi Girma is back!! Which is good because the USWNT need her. She only played a few minutes at the end of Chelsea’s game, but hopefully her recovery continues well.
Finally, just for some fun: enjoy this complaint filed against U.S. Soccer under the False Claims Act for allegedly not trying to win this year’s She Believes Cup. Those scamps.
Well, that’s “complaint” is ludicrous. Too many lawyers in this world.
While I thought Peglow’s bike was good, I thought the header to himself was a better goal. And, interestingly, the Captiva “prove you’re human” asked me to identify the bikes in the picture and not a single one was of Peglow.
Quinn Sullivan’s goal is currently leading by a wide margin in the voting. I can see why though, a cross is cleared off a recycled corner and he one touches it off his chest straight into a volley shot that finds the net.
I sincerely doubt this plaintiff is represented by anyone but himself.
The team officially announces the recall of Kristian Fletcher. He did well with Forest’s reserves, and he did well with the U-21 USMNT. Hopefully he can provide a jolt for the team. It makes me wonder about Fidel Barajas’s future with DC, since he’s not even making the bench without Fletcher available. I had some good hopes for him, but now maybe I’ll transfer those onto Fletcher.
Also, the transfer window closes tomorrow. Fletcher is likely to be the team’s only “move,” but I’m really hoping they bring in somebody (and I want that somebody to be Julian Gressel).
Can trades still happen from within the league? It’s still possible if so… he’s certainly going to be able to hit a cross better than our other options. He might be lacking the athleticism we seem to be missing though.
Intra MLS trades can happen at any time. Because technically all players just play for a team called “MLS”.
Incorrect. Today’s transfer window deadline applies both to ITCs and trades within MLS.
I’ve been a little disappointed that Barajas and Turner haven’t forced their way into the conversation yet. Stroud is limited as a playmaker and Murrell hasn’t really had much outside of the first couple of games so having a dynamic winger would be nice.
Hopefully one of the younger wingers can break through soon because we desperately need an injection of pace.
Not just with us, but around the league coaches typically know what they’re doing re: keeping young players on the bench (or out of the game day sheet entirely). Both of those guys are probably lacking in something. They had either short or non-existent pre-seasons so it’s only natural that they’re catching up (also, they’re very young).
Diego Luna’s red card rescinded on appeal: https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/real-salt-lake-midfielder-diego-luna-s-red-card-rescinded
Good. I would hate for him to miss any episodes of Andor.
Why would Diego Luna miss any episodes of Andor due to a red card?
It’s a joke about Luna’s physical appearance.
Such a bad red card decision by the CR. Difficult to understand how it happened in the first place, and then not even reversed on VAR.
I was dumbfounded on the non-reversal after VAR.