Loudoun Plays Tonight, Cardoso to Atleti, USWNT vs. Ireland preview, and More: Wednesday Freedom Kicks
Well, folks, it happened. I played pickleball last night for about three hours, came back sore but content, picked up some food, caught up on the news, went to bed, rose with the proverbial rooster crow, and… remembered finally that I have a duty to y’all. As I’m a contributor, hope this final product and be reviewed and published ASAP, but it’s my bad for not doing it earlier. Anyway, Freedom Kicks!
Watch, Loudoun, you may, with ESPN+. Sadly, don’t have it myself.
Wow, this is a big time transfer for a player that is, shall we say, Jekyll and Hyde for Club vs. Country. He’s been less than stellar for the US given opportunities, but clearly is valued very highly.
Pulisic has definitely been hugely clutch and important for AC Milan of late, but Musah is on the market. Would I hate having him as a DP for DC United? No I wouldn’t. Versatile both on the wing and centrally, and though his final product has often been lacking, his ball progression abilities are stellar.
Sort of self explanatory, but hugely important moment for the domestic players on the squad this sumer for the USWNT.
The USWNT plays tomorrow against a tough Irish squad. Knock on wood that they don’t savage our stars the way Swanson was before the last World Cup. Thursday, June 26th at 9:00 p.m. Eastern. Viewing options include TBS, truTV, Universo, Max, Peacock, and FUBO TV!
Good for Morgan. 13 is maybe a pretty easy number to retire, but still, love to see it.
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/cp3l121dnx4o
If we must, we must with this tournament. The FIFA Club World Cup is down to 16. I don’t know if I’m even gonna knock on wood that these stars don’t suffer injuries for too much play this season. Not because I don’t want it to happen, but think it’s so likely as to be beyond superstition.
Speaking of Club World Cup, a Pachuca player might have crossed the line with Rudiger, the famous German CB. If true, gross, gross, gross.
And finally, you prop up a team as a league, and this can happen. Shudder.
That’s all I’ve got. Share any more links you find relevant in the comments, and have a great sporting day!
I thought you were apologizing for playing pickleball 😅 you’re forgiven.
The Canada – El Salvador game was certainly something. Really stupid behavior from La Selecta – they absolutely could’ve frustrated the Canadians without resorting to stupid elbows, late tackles, nasty fouls and whatever the technical staff member did to get sent off at half time. I’m speaking as someone of Salvadoran descent…these are auditions as much as they are competitive games. Play hard but fair, score a miracle goal, you could get a big move to any team that’s watching and likes what they see. No one is looking at 2 first-half reds and thinking “I really need this guy.”
Yeah, I’ll admit, I forgot to really look up relevant Gold Cup news. I’m pretty apathetic about it, though I’ll try to catch the US games.
And don’t forget the kick that hit and broke the spider-camera in half. Can’t say Ive ever seen that happen before
Steve Goff is reporting that Fidel Barajas will indeed be returning to Chivas with DC declining to extend his loan. I don’t care to look up the price, but I remember that it was a really high price tag to extend the loan (or make a permanent transfer). Chivas paid $4 million to RSL for Barajas, so that makes sense that they’d like to recoup something.
Barajas clearly didn’t show much to Troy during his time here, and it sounds like the team basically took him just to take him. I do think that Barajas has talent, and is also a young American player (despite his switch to Mexico). It’s a shame to let someone like that walk, and I wondered for a little while if DC might not use one of its open U-22 slots to pick up Barajas’s option as a U-22 player.
If we had had an MLS Next PRO team that he could play on and develop, that might have made a bit more sense. But we don’t. We need players that are ready to contribute now, or are very close to making the jump to being a contributor. We have a hard time developing young players these days, and just aren’t the place for Barajas to be. If he couldn’t get playing time on a team with VERY little creativity in its midfield, then that either speaks poorly of him or the coach. Or both.
But it just kind of seems like a waste. Barajas leaving opens up a roster slot, but not an international slot, or very much in the way of salary. Just kind of a guy that didn’t play much who now won’t play at all, and doesn’t really help very much in the freeing up of resources to actually improve the club.
Yes, but you can experience the ultimate game day experience upgrading to the AV Club!
While I agree that it would be nice to have an MLS Next team to develop guys, it seems like Goff has indicated that even if DC did have one, that Barajas wouldn’t have even gone there. It seemed like from the get-go that they had 0 intention to keep him, unless he really blew them away I guess.
Also, if DC gets someone on loan, are they even allowed to then “loan” him to an MLS Next team (assuming they had one)? Can you loan out a player that you received on loan, even if its within the same ownership group?
A waste of his and the coaching staff’s time. I have serious doubts that he was brought in because he fit the “game model” or whatever in the same way that Kim is supposed to. It was really just a lotto ticket because he had a reputation in MLS circles.
I am not sure how Troy Lesesne has survived so far this June.
More disappointment Saturday?
Lesesne has the qualities the owners value. He’ll put his nose to the grindstone with a squad that was never going to be good enough, will not point at them, and will hold himself and his work accountable for the team.
Troy I think is not a great coach, but IMO you gotta start with the owners with any legitimate criticism of this club.
Maybe Troy would be a better coach if he had more talent to work with?
I’m actually pretty certain he would have several underperforming but talent-rich teams humming. Or at least scoring enough goals to be entertaining. The 7-1 type of scorelines we see several times every season across multiple coaching staffs and sporting departments are a reflection of the ownership’s misplaced priorities moreso than those coaches and players.
Being in the quarterfinals of the Open Cup is pretty much the reason.
I’m completely unconvinced that the Open Cup has anything to do with Lesesne’s continued tenure. Why on earth would the owners care about it?
They don’t really care about how the team is doing. As someone who searches for news stories once a week on the team, I’ve never once seen them mentioned as being involved recently. That includes “Troy on the hot seat as owners monitor” or anything of the sort.
Troy might have a lot of dedication and enough competence to make a more talented squad hum, as Sunspot says, but I’m saying the quality that the owners value more than that is his apparent willingness to put himself through hell while they check out. Which is why it doesn’t make a lot of sense to stop staring at the real problem, just cuz the usual math is “team bad, fire coach.”
Their are MLS regular season games tonight. So if you’re playing MLS fantasy don’t forget to update your teams.
Interesting tidbit, some minor roster moves announced by The Spirit, but the one I wanted to focus on is the fact that Chloe Ricketts had her option declined. She’s on the books for this season, but can enter free agency next season.
I personally love the idea of Ricketts and her development, but the reality hasn’t been great. 32 appearances, one goal, one assist. There’s no doubting her foot skill, but I think you can question her ability to stay on the ball physically- you need a great center of gravity if you’re that size.
Maybe the Spirit negotiate a bit in the offseason, more likely she moves on, but hope she has a real career after this season.
Loudoun allowed Own Goal to score 3 times after they got a red card in 1st half stoppage time and loss 4-1…they’d been tied 1-1 before the red card and own goals.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6447717/2025/06/24/lyon-relegation-ligue-2/