DC United win in Coffee Pot Cup, Champions League final set, and more: Thursday Freedom Kicks
Happy Thursday, y’all. Lot of news the last couple of days, so let’s jump right into it!
DC United defeat Charleston Battery in US Open Cup extra time affair (DP)
It took extra time, but the Coffee Pot Cup remains in DC as the Black-and-Red beat the Battery 2-0.
Hakimi seals PSG’s Champions League final spot as bold Arsenal fall short (The Guardian)
The UEFA Champions League final is set: Inter Milan vs. PSG.
Congrats to Mal and Dansby Swanson, as they are expecting a child!
LAFC and Club América to compete in playoff for final Club World Cup spot (SBN)
The final Club World Cup spot will be determined on May 31st as LAFC will play Club América in a playoff to replace León.
Could Jamie Vardy be coming to DC United? It certainly won’t be the San Diego Wave, as this article alleges is possible.
…yeah, I got nothing but anger at this.
DC Power FC releases 2025-26 schedule (DP)
DC Power is looking to next season, and their full schedule has been released.
Iconic Maracanã among eight venues for 2027 Women’s World Cup (ESPN)
We have host venues for the 2027 Women’s World Cup! They are: Belo Horizonte (Mineirao Stadium), Brasilia (National Stadium), Fortaleza (Castelao Arena), Porto Alegre (Beira-Rio Stadium), Recife (Pernambuco Arena), Salvador (Fonte Nova Arena) and Sao Paulo (Itaquera Arena).
MLS Fantasy Focus: Cult of Chucky (DP)
Get your fantasy teams set before the weekend using Rick’s guidance!
Michele Kang interview: On the NWSL, Spirit, Lyon and transforming women’s soccer (ESPN)
A deep dive on Michele Kang’s ambitions with all her teams, as well as potentially another one that will be added soon.
Loudoun United FC’s Ryan Martin voted USL Championship Coach of the Month for April (USL)
Ryan Martin has had a great week! Congrats to the coach on being named April coach of the month.
Ski champ Mikaela Shiffrin to join Denver NWSL ownership group (ESPN)
Mikaela Shiffrin hass been added to Denver NWSL’s ownership, which is pretty cool.
Have a good one!
Back from Buenos Aires and an updated all-time Buzzard Points list:
Buzzard Points (home goals): Benteke 25; Ashley Hatch 23; Rooney 20; Acosta, O Kamara 13; Trinity Rodman 12
Talons (home assists): Rooney, Gressel 14; Acosta, Rodman 11; Benteke, Hatch 8
Matthew Doyle still has DCU in his bottom “Rebuilding a Foundation” tier even if its at the top of that tier.
https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/mls-tiers-revisited-ranking-all-30-teams
I was looking at what our roster situation looks like for 2026. It’s… not ideal.
We’re already at 28 players, and with basically no GAM. Half of those players are already under contract for 2026 or beyond.
These have options for 2026: Benteke, Pirani, Herrera, Antley, Dodson, Leal, Fletcher, Hopkins, Kijima, Tubbs, Zouhir.
Out of contract in 2025, no option: Barraza, MacNaughton
Loan ends in June, 2025: Barajas
I think that Herrera, Antley, Dodson, Kijima, and Tubbs will likely have their options picked up. Leal showed well in the Open Cup and may turn out to be useful down the stretch, but his option is for $1 million and he’s often hurt. There’s no way he should have his option picked up. Fletcher might have his option picked up so that United can get a transfer fee, but it sure seems like he wants to get out of here. I like what I’ve seen from Zouhir, and would be happy to have his option picked up, but it’s also probably not a great loss if it’s not. Sad to say, but the same is probably true when it comes to Hopkins.
Barraza has played well, and is making a decent case for a new contract. But will the team want to hand things over to Joon, and find another backup? We’ll have to see how the rest of the season goes. Likewise with MacNaughton. He’s been okay, but is it necessary to keep him? We’ll see. It will help if he ever does get his green card.
I’ve wondered if the team’s plan is to use one of the U-22 slots on Barajas. Given how often he struggles to even get onto the gameday roster, the more likely thing is that he goes back to Mexico at the end of his loan.
The big questions are Pirani and Benteke. Pirani really hasn’t shown any growth this season. He’s definitely not a playmaker. He hasn’t been a scoring threat this year, and only barely was one last year. U-22 slots have a spotty record of success across MLS, but we’d be using our three on a guy who lost the starting goalkeeper role to Luis Barraza, a guy that seems best as a sub, and maybe Fidel Barajas. Can we do better? I think turning down Pirani’s option (or selling him this summer) is going to be the way to go.
As for Benteke, it’s hard to justify turning down his option. The guy keeps scoring, and soon the only person to score more goals for DC United will be some guy named Jaime Moreno. He has a skill set that’s unique in MLS. However, that does tend to focus our entire offense through him. Mateusz Klich will come off our books next year, so we’ll have the option to bring in another DP then, and possibly a second if we haven’t signed Paul Pogba. We could do a clean sweep with three new DPs next year, re-making our entire playing approach. However, new signings – even at the DP level – are never a guarantee to work out. Benteke definitely has worked in MLS, and seems to want to be here. It’s hard to turn that down. But we could supplement all that with two more DPs (one of whom might be Paul Pogba), and another U-22 or two. That’s some good potential topline talent to be injecting, but it will require improvement from a lot of our current young guys to actually make this a good team.
tl;dr
I was just surprised at how few automatic open slots we’d be seeing for next year. We’re going to be largely locked in with this cast of players, with just the opportunity to add a couple high end players.
Of course I did this on the day that MLS has updated their roster standings. Basically, everything still stands, but Lukas MacNaughton no longer counts as an international player (presumably he got his green card) and the club has about $500,000+ more GAM. Still not a lot, but a little better.
Yeah, I do wonder where that extra $500k in GAM came from, unless something had just not cleared before the last list came out. Was also interesting to see how many vacant international roster spots are still floating around the league. That at least allows for the possibility of DC bringing in 2 international players in the summer if they want to trade for another spot. If they don’t trade for one though, and they do want to fill the empty DP and U22 (as unlikely as that would seem), I wonder which of a domestic/green card DP or U22 would be easier to get
That was one reason I thought that Barajas might be a U-22 signing. He wouldn’t require an international slot. That extra GAM might have come from either the sale of Ku-DiPietro or Akinmboni. People ridicule the press releases when one of these rules process things go through, but they’re preferable to opacity.
Yeah that would make some sense if he can actually prove himself in the next month or so. I guess some potential domestic DPs that come to mind are Alex Zendejas and the Sonora brothers, though I’m sure there are more US players floating around in Mexico and South America
I think we end up transferring some of the international guys if they can’t win a starting spot over our former trialists. More complicated than the guys we can let walk, but an option that the team *should* keep open. We’re likely to take a small loss on transfer fees, and save on wages/budget/roster slots.
Think there’s a case for checking the market for interest in a Benteke transfer. For me, keeping him is a little more borderline of a decision than for others. He’s obviously been a stalwart, but, besides his age, if we’re committing to a rebuild, I do wonder if we could create a more fluid, more cohesive attack with three new DPs. You can never predict when the wheels fall off a really elite talent, I just think there’s a valid argument the other way when we’re not competing that much even with him as a golden boot contender.
Agreed. But it comes down to how much we trust our front office to 1) attract players that 2) can produce 3) in MLS, and 4) work together.
Translation: We viable, and we trying here?
Basically, if the organization is fine maintaining these levels (not making the playoffs) and would rather do a scientific experiment with longevity of Benteke’s legs, might as well cancel future seasons.
I’m not all too worried about Benteke’s legs, since speed is not necessarily his thing anyway (though by no means is he a slowpoke). He’s still going to be aerially dominant and helpful for years, though he’s going to be taking a lot of hits. When the salary and goal contributions don’t line up anymore is when things get tricky.
Wednesday night USOC results:
https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/us-open-cup-philadelphia-minnesota-austin-orlando-among-10-mls-teams-to-advance
Tuesday night USOC results:
https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/us-open-cup-charlotte-dc-nashville-red-bulls-portland-advance
Apparently DCU is rated as 36th most valuable club by Sportico at $725 million in value with $84 million in 2023-2024 revenue. The Black and Red join 18 other MLS clubs in the top 50 with LAFC being the first MLS club to cross over the $1 billion threshold at $1.28 billion. There are a total of 5 MLS clubs in the top 20.
https://www.sportico.com/feature/soccer-teams-football-club-ranking-list-1234721408/
https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/sportico-mls-home-to-19-of-top-50-most-valuable-soccer-clubs-in-world
Suck it, Red Bulls!
What a relief about Mal Swanson, that was on the back burner of my mind, but the pan was getting ruined. Glad she was likely doing due diligence this whole time, and is only now ready to announce. Two baby espressos, coming right up! ☺️
https://www.world.rugby/news/999708/pacific-nations-cup-2025-set-to-deliver-high-stakes-action-with-direct-qualification-path-to-mens-rugby-world-cup-2027
Later this year the US Men Eagle XVs will be taking a shot at their primary route of qualifying for the 2027 Rugby World Cup in Australia this August and September in the Pacific Nations Cup. It was announced yesterday that the US will host the finals of the Pacific Nations Cup for the first time. The semi-final round and fifth-place playoff will be played at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, home of the Colorado Rapids, on Sunday September 14th. Then the Final and Third-Place match will be played at America First Field, home of Real Salt Lake, on Saturday September 20th.
In pool play the US will face Canada in Calgary on 22 August. Then they will face Japan on September 5th in Sacramento, CA. To qualify for the Semi-final they must either win the pool or be the runner up in the pool.
The US must finish as one of the top 3 teams outside of Japan and Fiji who auto qualified as part of the top 12 of the last Rugby World Cup. The team left out will advance to the South America/Pacific playoff match with the winner of that match qualifying. The loser will advance to the final 4 team Repechage tournament at a neutral venue. That final repechage tournament is where the US failed to qualify when Portugal tied the final match 16-16 in the waning moments to advance to their first ever Rugby World Cup on points differential.
Would y’all consider Saturday’s game at Toronto as a must win game?
If it was at home, and if we weren’t coming off of an extra-time mid-week game, 100%. With it being at Toronto, and with the Open Cup game in consideration (along with the list of injuries currently), I think I’d settle for a “must not lose” instead of a “must win.”