USMNT win on penalties, DC United lose and more: Monday Freedom Kicks
Happy Monday y’all. What a weekend of soccer. There was a ton of it, so let’s get right into it.
USMNT edges past Costa Rica on penalties in Gold Cup quarterfinals (SSFC)
The USMNT are through to the semifinals of the Gold Cup after Matt Freese stops 3 shots in a penalty shootout. They still needed an extra round, and Damion Downs converted to set up a date with Guatemala, who took out Canada on penalties. Mexico and Honduras will make up the other semifinal.
DC United loses 1-0 to Nashville SC in return from break (DP)
Sam Surridge’s penalty in the 18th minute was the difference as the Black-and-Red drop their 3rd straight.
USWNT gets another 4-0 win in second Ireland friendly (SSFC)
Another 4-0 victory for the USWNT in a match where Tara McKeown and Croix Bethune both got the start.
Loudoun United drew the Charlotte Independence in the USL Jägermeister Cup, but they win the penalty shootout to gain the extra point in the competition.
Mauricio Pochettino denies reports he interviewed for Brentford job (SSFC)
Poch was linked to the Brentford head coaching job that was just filled. However, he denies that he was ever contacted by the English club. It made for a crazy day of the soccer rumor mill as the USMNT prepared for their match against Costa Rica.
PSG played Inter Miami in the Club World Cup. It went how you’d expect. (PSW)
Inter Miami gets throttled against PSG and the last MLS team in the Club World Cup heads home.
Chelsea transfers: £60m deal agreed for João Pedro (ESPN)
Chelsea will not stop spending money, as João Pedro will head to Stamford Bridge for £60 million.
Delays cause Chelsea boss Maresca to question U.S. as Club World Cup host (PSW)
Chelsea is also upset at the weather during the Club World Cup and how lightning delays work. Do not sacrifice safety just because a couple of teams feel inconvenienced.
Enjoy the last day of Pride Month, everyone!
On Saturday afternoon in Pawtucket, RI the New England Free Jacks became the first US Pro Sports Team to 3-pete since the LA Lakers in 2000-2002. They defeated the Houston SaberCats 28-22. New England jumped out to a 10-0 lead and never looked back though Houston kept it close. The dagger happened late in the 2nd half as Houston went up a man due to a yellow card about 5 meters out and only down by 4. Houston had had New England under sustained pressure for some time and it looked like they were about to punch it in and take the lead for the first time with a try and conversion. A 2nd scrum penalty was called against New England and as the scrum had already occurred twice Houston was forced to go for the corner as they couldn’t elect to scrummage again. Houston turned it over in the breakdown off the lineout and New England went streaming down the field. Despite being down a man, some quick ball allowed New England to swing wide around the flank and dot down for a try. The try was converted to take the lead 28-17 with about 15 mins remaining. Houston would try and try to score and they would with about 1 min left, but then failed to convert the try to leave the score at 28-22. They would push up to about midfield before turning the ball over in extra time and New England would put the ball into touch to win.
So no US or Canadian based side should ever look to have Maresca as a coach if he would even consider a job on this side of the Atlantic.
Hey Donald, small correction — Loudoun played the Charlotte Independence, not the Battery
Whoops, my bad! I corrected that.
No worries! That set of tweets from the official account we’re pretty vague, so I get the confusion
I’m starting to admire Malik Tillman and Diego Luna.
But I don’t think there’s a single player that played for the USWNT Sunday that I like less than those two.
The USWNT is soooo much fun. And it’s not just that they’re superior to, admittedly, less developed, supported, and funded women’s programs. They’re just gems of characters from across the country, and it shows on the field, and makes for great content off it. Hayes is doing a masterful job, and it’s allowing these women to bloom. Let’s enjoy this era while we can, as we tolerate the USMNT and endure DC United, it’s nice to have lovable greatness.
Paul Pogba has signed with Monaco. So much for our owner’s interest in him.
If our owners are interested in anything its their own pocket books.
Not since Richard Harris as Marcus Aurelius in Gladiator after the battle to conquer Germany was won has there been a more full body sigh of relief from an individual.
It’s me. I’m the sigher.
I am not entertained.
Just curious, what aspect are you not entertained by? If it’s United, I totally get it, but thought I’d ask
Yeah, not entertained by United. And I was just picking up on your Gladiator reference (your Kicks are absolutely doing the job, for what it’s worth).
While signing Pogba almost certainly would have been a mistake, it would have been something new. And the potentential existed for him to do something neat every once in awhile.
United just has nothing these days. They are bad, but boring. There was a note from Goff awhile back that they were looking at 5-6 DP candidates for the summer window. There hasn’t been any follow up since then, and there’s real question if Mackay can 1) identify a truly impactful player; and 2) close the deal on getting them here. Signing a true DP has been the one thing he hasn’t really had a chance to do yet, and every other aspect of his GM tenure has led to this roster. Which is pretty lousy.
Appreciated, and I get what you’re saying.
And maybe you have a point that Pogba would have at least made us something worth looking at occasionally, but there would also be the possibility that we’d go from a dying club to a full on dead one before Pogba’s contract ran out.
With the MLS salary info dropping, and seeing that DC has the sixth-lowest spend in the league, coupled with them keeping an extra DP slot open (thus not having at least $1 million extra in discretionary GAM to spend) and then missing out on the guy they were keeping it open for, and also having an extra U-22 slot to use but not filling, I’m pretty comfortable in resurrecting the “owners are cheap” trope.
“Owners are cheap” is certainly the North Star that this ship is sinking under, but for once, I’m glad their cheapness likely overcame their ignorance. Paul Pogba was their idea of a bandaid, but I think it’s more a rag used by a tuberculosis patient to catch the cough. I legitimately think that’s how toxic a checked out Pogba would have been for our team, especially since you know the deal would have been long and eye watering. Also, the rest of the players would have deeply resented it
Nice post! LOL
Pogba was never going to sign here, if a French team was interested. No matter how much money they might have wanted to spend.
Btw, looks like our very own Aaron Herrera scored his PK in the shootout upset of Guatemala at the expense of Canada. Way to go, man!
I was glad to see him do well, but Guatemala winning probably means DC has to go another game without him. Given he’s probably the second most important player on the team…not great!
I don’t begrudge him a meaningful soccer experience for his nation, cuz lord knows, this United season ain’t one
Guatemala in the Gold Cup is probably the best chance a DC player has for winning a trophy this year (yes, I’m aware we’re still alive in the Open Cup).
I don’t see us getting past Nashville on Wednesday.
Glad the guys were able to gut out a win against CR – Los Ticos were well coached and relentless. Lot of concerns about the spine of the team as we get closer and closer to the WC though – Adams is not playing at the same level as he has in the past, and has been injury prone, so we really need a reliable option at the 6. Ream I worry will get skinned at some point, all the accolades about his passing aside, he’s lost a step and opponents *will* exploit it.
Freese has been earning his keep. I think he could’ve done better on the rebound before the 2nd goal, but hard to criticize him too much after saving his team in the shootout.
Another fun thing I thought I’d mention, Sam Mewis had Heather O’Reilly on her podcast to talk about the last Ireland friendly as a recap, and in the Q&A section, they got onto the subject of players that need caps.
They brought up Hal Hershfelt, and Heather asked Sam is she could curse, and Sam did the responsible media thing of saying no. O’Reilly took a beat to find the alternative, and said “I wouldn’t want to mess with Hal.” Sam was in deep agreement. I just found it neat that two battling USWNT legends collectively shuddered at the thought of pissing off Hal!
Btw, it looks like Michelle Kang is getting even more control in the Lyon club model by way of another billionaire fucking up with the men’s team, which is currently relegated pending appeal.
The full explanation of this complex and financially tawdry tale is found here, in this long explanation video:
https://youtu.be/j6XX7lxv2TY?si=17BtZ65unymKCVUo
Yeah its certainly interesting. I shared this The Athletic (paywall) link late on Friday about the Lyon relegation. https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6447717/2025/06/24/lyon-relegation-ligue-2/