Giraldez expected to leave Spirit for Lyonnes, PSG win UEFA Champions League, and more: Monday Freedom Kicks
Happy Monday. There was a ton of soccer news from the weekend, so I begin with the biggest story in DC and the NWSL:
Washington Spirit to lose coach to French club, will promote assistant (WaPo)
Jona Giraldez will indeed depart the Spirit to take over at OL Lyonnes, most likely when the team enters the break in late June. This really sucks, to be honest. There are a ton of questions that need to be answered by Michele Kang. Having said that, I think Adrian Gonzalez has earned this and the players will rally behind him.
PSG, Doué humiliate Inter Milan in historic UCL blowout (ESPN)
The largest blowout ever in a Champions League final, PSG finally lift the trophy as champions. The beatdown was so bad, only 1 Inter fan met the team at the airport to welcome them home.
USWNT vs. China: Macario, Coffey, Heaps all strike in confident 3-0 win (PSW)
The USWNT looked great in a 3-0 win over China. They will face Jamaica in another friendly tomorrow night.
The Women’s Champions League will be on Paramount+ starting next season, with games also on Golazo and CBS Sports Network. Love this move.
DC United shocked FC Cincinnati, winning 2-1 to be the first road team to get a win at TQL Stadium this season.
Sounds like someone will need to open up the checkbook for a new MLS Next Pro stadium in Baltimore. Can DCU get one established finally?
Takeaways from Loudoun United’s win over Louisville
Loudoun United beat Louisville City 2-1 in the USL Jägermeister Cup to remain perfect in that competition. Also, look who was back at Segra Field!!
DC Power finish out season with exciting 3-3 draw against Lexington SC (DP)
DC Power had the lead at the half, but couldn’t hold on and they bring home a point in their final match of their inaugural season.
Seattle Sounders players demand fair MLS payout for CWC (ESPN)
The Sounders players wore shirts that called for MLS to give them a better payout from their participation in the upcoming Club World Cup. The players’ share is capped at $1 million, no matter how far they advance.
HISTORIC: LAFC secure FIFA Club World Cup spot over Club América (MLS)
LAFC came from behind to force extra time against Club América, and then scored again late in the second half of extra time to clinch the final FIFA Club World Cup spot.
Cruz Azul thrashes Vancouver Whitecaps to win 7th Concacaf club title (ESPN)
Another 5-0 victory in a final. This time, Cruz Azul destroys the Vancouver Whitecaps in the Concacaf Champions Cup final. The list of MLS winners of the competition remains at just 3: DC United, LA Galaxy, and Seattle Sounders.
Enjoy the day!
So Michelle Kang isn’t the owner we thought she was.
Seems there’s a lesson in treating these people as benefactors rather than business people. We clearly shouldn’t.
I’m glad she has invested in women’s soccer and has raised the bar–all of that is good.
The fact that the Spirit has lost some talented staff (Olson–OK, maybe Kang wanted her own person, Mark Krikorian, Dawn Scott) makes me wonder a bit about internal dynamics or working with Kang. Now maybe Giraldez has a new baby realizes “I want my kid to grow up in Europe.” Maybe. Maybe he wasn’t happy here in the States. But this transfer to Lyon strongly implies that the Spirit are 2nd in her priority list.
And we’ll see what happens with Rodman. If she doesn’t return and she ends up going to the promoted club in England or the one in France, then we’ll know where the Spirit stand in her priority list.
Probably DC United’s most complete performance under Troy Lesesne. We outshot Cincy 11-9 and shots on goal 5-4, equal in corners 5-5 though Cincy dominated possession. But 25 fouls and five yellow cards? Holy cow!
I’m betting that Giraldez move is because family was unhappy in USA, but that Kang succeeded in keeping him in her empire at OL Lyoness. And per Forbes her initial $35 million purchase of Spirit is now worth $130 million.
If that’s the reason, they need to say so. DCU lost Rooney (the player) to family issues/homesickness, which we saw play out rather publicly and accepted it. It’s hard to not to see this as Kang moving her premier acquisition to the prestigious European circuit (CL) otherwise. It’ll only be worse if and when she offers big money to Spirit players to play in Lyon as well.
All that said, I’ll repeat that Gonzalez showed very well for himself as our interim coach and I hope things continue smoothly under him full-time. It’ll be weird in the meantime.
Raiding our best players midseason sounds almost Snyderish….but I don’t think Kang would do that midseason at least. Now after the season and playoffs are over I’d say all bets are off.
It does raise a number of concerns about the integrity of the squad going forward. Seems naive to assume this is the end of the process. The Giraldez transfer seems to indicate an urgency in that direction if not a pecking order. If Gonzalez had that full trust, why isn’t he the one getting this opportunity? I think he’s very competent, but this is just wrong.
At this point, I’m basically assuming that if Kang wants it for her Champions League team now, it’s going.
On a side note, Giraldez was already seen apparently as a bit of an antagonist for leaving Barcelona by their organization, and now he’s graduated in their eyes to full blown traitor, going to maybe their biggest CL rival, historically. At this time, I’m not exactly wishing that karmic justice leaves him alone, as a Spirit fan.
Agreed about the squad. I think our best player (in terms of consistent performance and team impact) this season has been Reba Bernal. And Giraldez coveted her–saw her against the USWNT and said “I want that player.” Unless she really wants to stay in the US (lots of Spanish speakers and specifically Mexicans, close travel to home), I think she’s gone after this season. Esme Morgan appears to love it here but also came specifically to get PT and because of Giraldez–I think that if she wins a starting spot consistently with the English women’s team, she’s gone as well. And we’ll see about Rodman.
Gonzalez should be allowed to craft his own squad. He really didn’t have that chance when he came in as interim (and succeeded despite that to his much deserved credit). But the optics will look really really, really bad is you see 2-4 of our best players head to Lyon.
You mean the optics will look much worse than they already do.
I note that Trin’s run in the player’s box at the French Open ended Sunday, as Shelton lost a hard-fought fourth-round match to Alvarez. I know she’s over there rehabbing her back and the team officially has her listed as an Excused Absence, but in light of what continues to be an optics debacle with Jona, an update on Trin’s status would be a good move.
She posted an Instagram video over the weekend where she said she was running for the first time in a while, which is sort of mixed news, I guess. Good she’s progressing; not great that she’s only now running.
Will try to ask for an update from the team soon, though!
Pirani is upgraded from the bench (TOM 16) to the starting XI for Team of the Matchday 17. And Connor Antley makes the bench for TOM 17.
https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/team-of-the-matchday-cuypers-carries-chicago-joveljic-sparks-sporting-kc
Conner Antley’s range of emotions on scoring that goal was one of my favorite reactions I’ve seen in awhile. Possibly my favorite since Donovan Pines scored his (disallowed) first in Minnesota. Making the Team of the Matchday is another nice nod for a guy whose story is really amazing. He also had maybe the most enthusiastic reaction to Pirani’s goal.
I’m not sure if anybody watched the pre-match press conference that Antley participated in, but he expounded on the questions more than anybody else I’ve seen. I’m not sure if that’s southern chattiness, some unfamiliarity with MLS press conferences, or just a willingness to really engage in thoughtful answers, but it was a cool thing. He seems like he’s probably a very good locker room guy, and is also earning his way on the field as well. I pooh-poohed the signing at the time, but this is looking like one they got right.
He and Pirani were terrific catalysts in this one. I got to watch it, finally, last night. One of the best comprehensive efforts by DCU in a very long time.
Gimme more
I commented on a Goff Bluesky post about the game — I was musing about Gavin Turner. When he signed, Goff quoted Ally Mackay saying how they valued Turner, and that they needed to get him 20-25 games. That it would be a process, evaluating whether they need to loan him out.
Obviously, the easy solution would be a Next Pro team — maybe not as easy as loaning him out, but definitely a thing that needs to be created anyway. The sooner, the better. $200M for a stadium that seats 7500 seems excessive — way beyond needs — though I did see a post last month about St. Louis 2 selling 12000 tickets to a match.That really caught my attention because that’s a real crowd, and probably larger than the crowd sizes at multiple DC United matches.
The Baltimore Peninsula site makes a lot of sense to me even if there’s no transit there beyond the Charm City Circulator…for now. And, I imagine there’d be no reason to wait until a new soccer stadium is finished. Under Armour has a stadium on its new HQ and store there. I’m sure they’d love to have DC United 2 there, using their astro-turf track and field facility which is already lined for both types of football.
Perhaps, in 5 years, a 7,500 seat stadium would make sense, but 2,0000, or 5,000 makes sense to me — maybe expandable, with bleachers that could be taken up and down so the facility feels less empty for most games?
In the meantime, DC United could be organizing a team to start play next Spring. By the by, does it make sense for Next Pro to playing Spring to Fall? Would it make more sense to align with school calendars, to start in the Fall, and resume in the Spring? If the MLS team wants to keep players sharp through the summer, just have them train with the varsity — or join summer league teams like Annapplis Blues. Maybe I’m wrong about that…one could argue that the players would play with their school or travel teams in the Fall, and then join the Next Pro team in the new year.
Totally agree with everything you posted.
The Under Armor campus dynamic is intriguing. I wonder how that would shake out with Adidas?
Pirani is up for goal of the matchday for a 2nd matchday in a row losing out Goal of Match Day 17 to Messi.
https://x.com/MLS/status/1929558400720949418
Pirani has been transfer to Miami for $5 GAM.