Spirit draw, Crystal Palace win first ever trophy, and more: Monday Freedom Kicks
Happy Monday, everyone. Just one more week until Memorial Day. And a continued call for anyone who might be interested in helping us with Freedom Kicks! We have one we’re in the process of onboarding, so if you’re interested, please email us at blackandredunited@gmail.com!
Washington Spirit draw Utah Royals 3-3 (DP)
That was a wild one on Saturday night. We saw Hal Hershfelt return to the field and Casey Krueger was a gamechanger off the bench.
An incredible effort a Crystal Palace gets the first trophy in the history of their club as they upset Man City to claim the FA Cup.
DC United went to Nashville over the weekend, and they had another scoreless draw.
Loudoun United was on the road against Bill Hamid and Miami FC. Miami wins it 2-1.
Real Madrid confirm Dean Huijsen signing from Bournemouth (ESPN)
Dean Huijsen is headed to Real Madrid, and he could be there in time to be with the squad when the Club World Cup starts next month.
Julie Foudy reportedly leaving ESPN after 20 years (Awful Announcing)
Julie Foudy is set to leave the Worldwide Leader after 20 years calling soccer and other sports for the network.
Report: United States could partner with New Zealand, Fiji to co-host 2038 World Cup (SSFC)
This would be wild…a trans-Pacific World Cup? Get your sleep and your frequent flyer miles ready.
The FIFA Congress this past week was absolute cinema apparently. Here’s an inside look at all that happened.
Kickin’ It with Washington Spirit’s Rebeca Bernal (AFXI)
Rebeca Bernal sat down for an interview with All For XI…check it out!
Let’s get the week started well!
https://www.givemesport.com/us-soccer-mls-approves-pre-club-world-cup-transfer-window-sources/#threads
So the MLS teams involved in the club world cup: Seattle Sounders, Inter Miami, and potentially LAFC will get a bonus 10 day transfer window before the MLS secondary transfer window.
As I mentioned in the previous thread. Darth Garber’s ability to find new ways to enrich his pet projects is astonishing.
And its FIFA-enabled
The Power of Darth Garber continues to reverberate across the soccer galaxy…..
It’s hard to even summon up sarcasm for this level of cynicism from the league. You can’t have a structure that shackles most teams to a system of parity, and then do this.
Darth Garber has noticed your post. Be careful, my friend……
(Here come the bonus DP slots for “internationally recognized teams”….)
I kind of get why the league is doing this. They don’t want any of the MLS teams to get awfully embarrassed in such a big stage. But having watched Miami’s game last night, I’m not sure that one or two players could fix them in such short time. For all the annoyance I have for DCU lately, I at least don’t have to often question their commitment and fight. We have the players we have and they do the best they can with the abilities they have. Miami has WAY better players and often times as of late, don’t play any better than we do. When watching DCU games, I often wonder how frustrated Benteke gets during games . . . I would imagine Messi’s frustration triples that of Benteke’s.
To this, I say: If you want teams to compete well in international tournaments, strengthen the league overall, and you will have strong competitors at the top. Giving privileges to three clubs and always expecting them to have that fighting mentality is nonsense, that’s not what special treatment and privilege does to any organization.
I don’t disagree but you do realize that the league has been playing favorites since the very beginning, right? I mean, first and for many years it was the Galaxy, then Seattle for a bit, then Atlanta, LAFC and now and even more so Miami. Honestly, a lot of fans that came into the league in the mid 2000s don’t realize how every single rule was bent to benefit the Galaxy over and over and over again. The Miami thing is not surprising and I don’t think it will change until the league gets a new commissioner with new vision.
The Beckham contract was hilarious. Toss in Keane and company…
That was the beginning of our decline….
I do have to say though, that Garber and company can create loopholes to help the darlings of the league but more often than not, the teams that end up winning are not the ones constructed like Miami, but rather the teams that are constructed smartly, like Columbus. So our decline, has a lot more to do with the current owners than with whatever Garber is doing. When we were Kings in the league, we simply were the best constructed team and it showed because we dominated year after year, even in the years when we didn’t win the Championship, we still won the table. We don’t need superstars to win, I simply want players like Moreno, Gomito, Olsen, Llamosa, Pope, Etche. Incredibly solid and reliable players that play well together but our owners don’t seem to get that.
I agree with you, I was speaking in a temporal fashion. After nelson’s boys, we drifted off….
That they’ve been doing it all along doesn’t mean it’s right, or even in the league’s best interests. Not sure why you’re even making this case.
I’m not making any case, I’m simply stating that this isn’t new and is likely not going to change soon. All of us know that it isn’t right, original DCU fanbase used to pull our hairs in desperation whenever the league would pull all the stops to help the Galaxy. I suppose that I no longer get super aggravated, I simply shrug because my aggravation won’t make Garber change his ways, especially if one Leo Messi is still playing in the league. And I suppose that if the majority of owners were against this, Garber would change directions.
You therapist has you well centered. (Joking)
Yeah, I too expect Darth Garber to pull another absurd rabbit out of his abuse box. I wait like a child on Christmas Day to see the truly spectacular….
This is why I find MLS absurd.
A number of DC alums – Chris McVey, Ian Harkes, and Julian Gressel – scored last week, and Ted Ku-DiPietro and Derrick Williams came quite close.
Thankfully we’re all stocked up on goal-scoring on our current squad!
But we are growing and cultivating young talent…..
I was going to post about this.
I can’t necessarily blame them based on last year’s eye test for keeping Bartlett and letting McVey go, but it was big mistake. Harkes should’ve gotten more opportunities. No worse than Durkin. Perhaps better. And don’t get me started on Gressel. At least we have Jared Stroud, so…
I talked with Ian at the beginning of the season. He felt his time in Scotland was time well spent (Dundee United). I think Bartlett is decent and perhaps in a bit of a funk. I didn’t really want to see McVey go, if even for depth. Rowles has played below his ceiling, this especially form my Hearts friends, and I hope to see some improvement there. He does get the captain’s armband, so something must be going right.
Stroud is a worker, no doubt. Gressel, well, wasn’t that special…..
The problem with a lot of the guys we see succeed elsewhere is that they are not suited to do what’s being asked of them at that moment. Blame coaching, the system or play style, whatever. It will always happen even if we become a winning team. It’s great that they have found a place/taken a journey to improve as players. Sad that we couldn’t uncover it ourselves, but every team has coulda-woulda-shoulda stories.
The problem for us is when we fail to improve upon or even replace those guys. And doubly so when the replacements eat up gobs of resources when we could’ve just paid the previous guy a decent wage.
Last paragraph, gospel….
Yesterday afternoon Old Glory DC went to Charlotte and came home with a 41-19 victory over Anthem Rugby Carolina (aka Anthem RC). That’s their 3rd win in a row and the first 3 game win streak in Old Glory DC history! The win moves them into 2nd place in the east for now though Chicago in 3rd and only 2 pts behind has a game in hand. The next game is this Saturday when they journey to Ft Quincy (aka Veterans Memorial Stadium in Quincy, MA) to take on 1st place New England Free Jacks who they beat 28-14 back on March 22.
I watched a chunk of that. Nice win!!!!
I haven’t been able to watch much of DCU the last couple months but I was able to watch the first 60 minutes this week.
The good:
The meh:
The bad:
Overall not the worst performance I’ve seen from DCU in recent years, but that’s not a glowing endorsement. Hopefully this is just Lesesne trying to steady the ship and he can get the team to be more competitive soon. I just don’t really see it happening even when Pirani/Benteke are healthy, the center of our midfield is just too weak right now. Maybe Hopkins can step up or Stroud could move centrally, but I think it’s more likely we need a new signing.
p.s. I would actually like to see Herrara tried at RM with Antley behind him. Get one of our most technical players higher up the pitch.
Over the weekend, the US Women Eagles XVs went down under and lost round 2 of the Pacific 4 27-19 to Australia. They finish the Pacific 4 series when they face the Ferns of New Zealand on Friday night in Auckland, NZ.
https://eagles.rugby/news/wallaroos-edge-out-usa-despite-hope-rogers-hattrick-heroics-2025517
Unfortunately, in the 79th minute one of the best American players Alev Kelter saw a straight permanent red for a vicious and unnecessary stomp on the head of Australia’s Georgie Friedrichs on TMO review. Kelter, a 3 time Olympian and bronze medalist, faces a judicial hearing and quite probably a lengthy suspension. In rugby union, a permanent red is different from a regular red in that the player is permanently removed from the game and the team is not allowed to make a sub and come back to even strength after the 20 minute red card penalty.
https://www.cbc.ca/sports/rugby/rugby-player-alev-kelter-head-stomp-1.7538279
https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/45212792/angel-city-savy-king-released-hospital-thanks-fans
https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/45239837/sporting-kansas-city-israel-gadi-kinda-dies-aged-31
The US Women’s Eagle XVs for the first time ever will be on professional contracts with USA Rugby at the Women’s Rugby World Cup this fall. There are a total of 38 women on contract with US Rugby. USA Rugby worked with the USA Rugby Players Association on the fine details of how the contracts will work.
https://www.rugbypass.com/news/landmark-first-usa-rugby-contracts-awarded-ahead-of-rwc-2025/