New RFK could include Spirit, Donaldson fired, and more: May Day Freedom Kicks
Happy May Day. Play that NSYNC loud. I went to see Sinners late last night (AMAZING movie!) so these are gonna be short:
Commanders’ new stadium plans include opportunities for women’s soccer (The Athletic)
The Spirit could see themselves playing some games as well as having a training facility on the site of the proposed new Commanders stadium.
Chicago Stars fire head coach Lorne Donaldson (PSW)
No real explanation for this that makes sense other than taking the fall for results, but Lorne Donaldson was let go as Chicago’s head coach. I could see NWSL Denver blowing up his phone this morning…
HISTORIC! Vancouver Whitecaps reach Champions Cup final over Inter Miami (MLS)
Vancouver is on a tremendous tear right now, as they destroy Inter Miami to reach the Concacaf Champions Cup Final.
Barça, Inter, Yamal deliver perfect Champions League night (ESPN)
What a WILD Champions League match yesterday. How does next week even match it?
MLS Fantasy Focus: Hacksaw Surridge (DP)
Rick gets us right on the fantasy teams in time for the weekend.
Enjoy the day.
re: the new RFK and Spirit playing games there, I wonder if the situation would end up that Audi Field/DCU ownership might sell a stake in Audi Field to Spirit ownership to entice the Spirit to stay 100% at Audi? Or perhaps some sort of pooled revenue share? I’m just speculating.
It has been fun to watch Vancouver’s run. By the way, CONCACAF’s rule for the location of the champions cup final seems about the most CONCACAF thing CONCACAF ever CONCACAF’d.
a) There is a ranking system based on performance in the tournament; highest ranked finalist gets to host.
b) Unless CONCACAF decides to put it…wherever they want.
(I’m not making this up)
One of the nice things about Season Pass on Apple is that you can check out every team’s stuff, so I’ve been trying to check in on our opponents. The Rapids put together a great video about the game day experience, following three sets of fans around from beginning to end. It was very well produced, and dammit it was earnest. Folks just enjoying the Rapids, and (in those three games) the Rapids paying them back. One kid talked about how his favorite players were fullbacks, and that Sam Vines was his favorite player. A team rep gave him a swag bag because he and his dad were new fans that year, and it included a jersey and a pen to get player autographs, and sure enough he got Vines to sign. And then Vines scored a goal.
It was tremendous stuff, and we don’t see anything like it from DC. I’m not gonna be sad if Colorado wins by 10. (Well, I’ll probably be sad, but I won’t feel like it’s undeserved.)
I went out to a Rapids game back in 2018, and took the bus with the Centennial 38 supporters from downtown to the stadium. They were all incredibly friendly. The Rapids were doing pretty poorly in 2018, and they lost against Salt Lake that day. On the bus ride back, I was feeling down about who knows what, but everybody else was still singing and carousing and having a good time, even though the team had looked terrible. One or two of the fans took the time to check in on me to see if I was doing okay.
Hard to hate the Rapids.
We’ve gotten crap all it seems since Claudia Pagan left.
They’ve done a bit with some short reels, and have put out a couple of nicely shot and produced look backs at the first couple games of the season and the Red Bulls game. But those were all hype and looking cool. We have a lot of new players on the club. It would be great if we could get to know them better. We also have a lot of people feeling disaffected from the club, so it would be cool to see what’s great about supporting the team.
But yeah, I’m not sure who all they’ve hired, but they definitely haven’t gotten a public facing person like Claudia yet. For as much as we moan about roster construction, that position has nothing to do with the soccer side of things. It just looks more like a complete organizational lack of care.
The Barca Inter Milan game was sick. Definitely find a way to see if you missed it. Likely archived on Paramount+.
Amazing game, and Barca were the better team on the day, but still feel Inter was kinda screwed by the way offside rule is being officiated. Does it have to be like being pregnant (no such thing as “just a little pregnant)? Inter lost a fabulous goal because the goal scorer toes were deemed to be beyond the next last defender’s kneecap. Don’t even know how the AR put his flag up on that play, but maybe it appeared to be a lot more offside than it truly was.
I jusy got an email saying DCU has put in new padded seats in the C section. About time. they were mauled by idiots who insist on walking on seats to change ailses.
Progress?
I was in the club for the Spirit match last night and noticed nothing different with my seat cushion. So YMMV
American Soccer Analytics takes a look at our Swiss cheese of a defense and our woeful attack along with the rest of the East.
https://www.americansocceranalysis.com/home/2025/4/30/what-where-goals-come-from-says-about-your-team-after-mls-2025-week-10-eastern-conference-edition
In that post its pointed out that we have a 16.99 xG Against with a 22 actual against.
type of play | xG Against | G Against
basic pass | 3.44 | 6
set piece pass | 3.42 | 6
individual play | 2.96 | 3
set piece kick | 1.73 | 2
progressive pass | 5.44 | 5
Apparently, Inter Miami forgot to have “O, Canada” played during the pregame ceremony last night.
https://mlsmultiplex.com/o-canada-anthem-absent-from-inter-miami-concacaf-pregame-ceremonies-01jt4m81vxqy