Loudoun United hire Birnbaum, Spirit to play at Oracle Park, and more: Thursday Freedom Kicks
Happy Thursday, y’all. Got a few stories for you from the past couple of days:
Loudoun United Football Club appoint Steven Birnbaum as General Manager (LUFC)
Our man Steven Birnbaum will be the GM of Loudoun United. And if you’re thinking, “didn’t he just take over as DC Power sporting director,” our very own Ryan has the info on that:
Washington Spirit to Play Bay FC at Iconic Oracle Park in San Francisco (Spirit)
August 23rd, the Spirit will face Bay FC at the San Francisco Giants’ home. I want one of our players to score and then celebrate by punting the ball into McCovey Cove.
Pochettino only wants ‘right characters’ at Gold Cup (PSW)
Poch says he wants the guys with the right mindset to go after it at the Gold Cup this summer.
Ex-USMNT coach Arena: Pochettino doesn’t understand U.S. ‘culture’ (ESPN)
Speaking of Poch, Bruce Arena went on Landon Donovan and Tim Howard’s podcast to say that hiring Pochettino was a mistake. He said some very coded words, including describing the players as “animals” and essentially saying only an American is suited to lead the team.
MLS Fantasy Focus: As a man sows, so Salloi (DP)
Rick catches us up on the latest insight for your MLS fantasy teams.
How one U.S. host city is preparing for the 2026 World Cup (The Athletic)
An inside look at how Atlanta is preparing to host eight matches next summer for the World Cup.
Enjoy the day!
Re: Birbaum being in charge of two dysfunctional organizations at once and not committed to the future of either…the only good thing I can really say about it is at least he’s being transparent? It’s a horrible look otherwise. I wouldn’t have expected him to be the boss for Loudoun going forward as Virginia Revolution makes changes anyway. And for the owners, it continues to indicate that there’s no long-term planning (perhaps moreso with the Power and DC United in general).
Yeah. My understanding is that neither the Power nor Loudoun have substantial fanbases, but if I was a fan of either of them, I would feel incredibly incensed right now. Heck, as a DC United fan, I feel like they’re to blame in large part for putting Steve in this position.
Also, my understanding is that he’s working with DC and the Power because of his existing contract with United. But didn’t the team exercise one of its buyouts on him? Is that just cap-related jargon, and they have to reimburse the league for that money but then also still pay out the contract to the player?
Any buyout is just for salary cap purposes and the team still has to pay the player out his remaining money. I dunno if DCU did a buyout on him, but we’ve seen some guys who retire with years remaining on their deal move into a front office role to satisfy that contract.
It was reported that DC bought out Birnbaum’s contract for 2025, which was why they couldn’t buy out Klich. (And then they chose to trade Klich, preventing them from being able to buy out his contract when a second buyout was approved, even though it was also reported that all front offices knew that change was coming.)
My assumption was that when a buyout occurs, the player gets his remaining money, but in a lump sum. Good for Birnbaum, and if he wanted to remain employed, he could have sought a new deal with United to do scouting or become a GM or whatever. It also seems very confounding that when a player retires, his contract would still be a concern for the next season’s salary cap. I get that retirement doesn’t preclude being paid, but why that money would have an effect on the active player salary cap for a season in which that player won’t be active… this season just continues to be the one where I’ve finally lost all understanding of MLS mechanisms.
MLS mechanisms = Inter Miami gets what Inter Miami wants
Great job again, DW II!
Major League Rugby has announced that this year’s MLR Shield Championship Game will be hosted at a neutral site (not really if the New England Free Jacks make it again). That site is the newly constructed Centreville Bank Stadium in Pawtucket, RI home of USL Championship team Rhode Island FC. Last year’s final in San Diego was played in front of a record 12,085 people as the New England Free Jacks repeated as MLR champs defeating the Seattle Seawolves 20-11.
https://www.majorleague.rugby/news/mlrchamp2025/
Well, the transfer window has closed. A number of teams made moves at the deadline, including Julian Gressel evidently completing the United trifecta by having played for Atlanta, DC, and now going to Minnesota.
Speaking of DC, their only move at the end was bringing Kristian Fletcher back from his loan to Nottingham. It’s not nothing, but… this team needs help. They switched from a 2 DP-4 U22 lineup plan with the ability to add $2 million in GAM (or $1 million and then switch to the 3 DP-3 U22 plan in the summer). Instead, they switched to the the 3 DP-3 U22 model before the season, deprived themselves of the ability to add additional GAM, didn’t fill their complement of DPs, and didn’t fill their complement of U22s. I understand that there might be better players and better options available in the summer, but there will also be a lot less of the season then, and the win over Red Bulls notwithstanding, this team needs help NOW. Explain how this isn’t just colossal mismanagement of the roster. I can understand trying your hardest to compete and just whiffing on some player signings, but this seems like a lot of avenues that could have been used to compete were just purposely discarded in the first place.
Now that Gressel has left Miami, a certain Belgian has a place to land.
Don’t think it’s going happen? You doubt the power of Darth Garber.
We’re going to get new roster rules out of the blue right before the summer transfer window opens.
The Belgian clause….
Darth Garber is prepared to move MLS to a whole new level….
The View from Buenos Aires
I watched River Plate v Independiente del Valle (Ecuador) on ESPN in the Copa Libertadores last night. Down 0-2 (and being thoroughly outplayed) at halftime, River came back to tie 2-2, including the tying goal by Sebastian Driussi, formerly of Austin FC. All goals were scored by Argentines as Claudio Spinelli scored a brace for IDV in the first half. IDV has four Argentines on the roster — Spinelli, their starting keeper and two defenders.
Just underscores that Argentina has 1,800 players playing abroad (more than any other nation), including 35 this season in MLS (also more than any other country). That’s what happens when a nation goes through an almost century long economic decline.
The (mis)management of DC United’s roster is mind boggling from the distance. I’m glad that I can ignore it from the distance.
Bruce shot out salvos at Ponch and then walked them back. Bruce always said it’s the players who make things happen, but now it is coaching?
Two words: Trinidad Tobago (ponder that Bruce)
Ponch sees what we all see: lack of commitment and guts for representing on our USMNT.
US teams should be coached by US coaches? Snapshot: USWNT.
Drop the mike……
Three words: Trinidad & Tobago
It is used both ways, Caribbean slang without”, but the official use does use the “and”
https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/44806673/nwsl-2025-mvp-tracker-best-players-alyssa-thompson-uswnt-cascarino-debinha-gonzalez
2 Washington Spirit players are on ESPNFC’s NWSL MVP tracker: Rebecca Bernal in 11th and Ashley Hatch in 7th.