Loudoun United all square in Pittsburgh, baby Sulli arrives, and more: Tuesday Freedom Kicks
Goooood morning! Capped off a birthday weekend by returning to the pitch for a new season of 30+ indoor soccer. Let’s get to your Tuesday Freedom Kicks:
Mines nets late equalizer to help Loudoun United secure a point at Pittsburgh (Loudoun Times)
Loudoun United continues to do well this season staying in 3rd place with 4 more points than next placed North Carolina FC.
Spirit star Sullivan announces birth of daughter (Pro Soccer Wire)
Mommy? Mamacita? (sorry for the Love Island joke). Our very own Andi Sullivan is now a mother! Congrats Captain!
Euro 2025: Attendance record broken in group stage (ESPN)
I’ve been keeping up with the Euro 2025 action (Forza Sofia Cantore and Italia!) and it’s a joy to see the tournament so well attended. The eye popping stat to me is that 22 of 24 group stage games were sold out!
USMNT to face Ecuador, Australia in October friendlies (Stars and Stripes FC)
Confirmed friendlies to take place in Texas and Colorado. The number of games for the USMNT will start to dwindle as we are only 331 days away from World Cup kickoff!
American Outlaws and U.S. Soccer Partner to Make Match Tickets More Accessible for Fans (AO)
Speaking of the national team, looks like friendlies leading up to the World Cup will be made affordable. After seeing half empty stadiums during the CWC and the Gold Cup (often due to exorbitant ticket pricing), this will hopefully mean we will see more fans filling up the stands in the future.
Report: LAFC leading the race for Reyna (Pro Soccer Wire)
Look, he’s probably going to LAFC, but DCU has a Designated Player spot, we need firepower up top as well, and Reyna needs the minutes to ensure he’s on the World Cup squad. A man can dream right?!
This Vermont Soccer Team Plays for the Planet (NYT)
An article from a few weeks ago that blends my personal interests with my professional one!
That’s all from me folks! Stay cool in steamy DC today!
Ain’t no way that the DCU ownership makes a play for Reyna. Besides would the new coach even want him on the team? Can we get Klich back from Atlanta? he made the midfield tick over with better attacking opportunities through the middle last season than our current midfield setup does.
I agree it’s unlikely. However, were it to happen, based upon the common read of the reported new coach, Weiler’s relationship with the Reynas could be messy, incendiary, and kind of fun to watch.
Reyna simply doesn’t have the health profile you’d like for a pillar of your team
Family drama aside, this is the biggest problem with him. Coaches can’t count on him if he’s just hurt every few games.
There’s been a lot of talk just kind of assuming that we’re getting a DP in this window (and yes, we need one!). I haven’t seen any rumors of who that might be, other than an attacker, and that it won’t be Paul Pogba. I feel like if they do find an American (not Reyna), that would be a bonus. I’m not sure that we have any available international slots right now. But perhaps we do something like move Peltola.
Crew just made what looks like a terrific U22 signing: a Ligue 2 player with the magnificent name of Hugo Picard. His sizzle reel is positively sizzling. Incredible acceleration, good ball control even at speed, the ability to finish, and also to deliver an incisive pass when a teammate makes a run off his own. His goal creation rate of 25% per 90 in Ligue 2 could translate to something spectacular in MLS, especially on a team that’s been starved for consistent goal production beyond Rossi.
It doesn’t have to be a DP, but the real question for me — and I feel the same about the Nationals — is why any good player with options would come to DC?
FWIW, I’d be fine with moving Peltola. He’s slow, a little awkward, turns the ball over too much and isn’t a great defender. Not awful, especially for MLS, but pedestrian. But, again, the question is what would the team do with that spot? We don’t need players like Enow or Peltola. We need higher levels, but maybe that’s the best we can get?
That’s yet another reason why it’s really beneficial to be able to develop your own talent from within.
And yet, DC.
I’m not necessarily dissing the DMV. While I know it won’t have the allure to foreign players of the LA or NY metro areas, other teams do a much better job of getting solid int’l players. I mean, c’mon? How is Columbus more attractive abroad than DC? The answer is it’s a quality organization that wins. Good players will want to compete for trophies. Maybe they’re not at the level to win them in France, but then they look for that opportunity here.
DCU have to start being competitive, before they can make the move to the top levels in MLS. Benteke could’ve been this club’s version of Jayson Werth, a free agent the team wildly overpaid, to lay the foundation to bring in other talent around him. And eventually, getting championship-caliber players, like Max Scherzer. Instead, they’ve wasted the moment. Having good homegrown talent would be a good start — it’s worked for the Philly Union, and the Crew.
Yeah, I meant “And yet, DCU,” rather than “And yet, DMV.”
LAFC would be a great place for Reyna to land. The rare MLS side that has a dynamic, creative attack, not unlike Dortmund, which would really help Reyna get back into the game. DCU would be incredibly stultifying for him, unless they majorly upgrade the other attacking positions.
I haven’t watched lately, but Cherundolo got a lot of flak in the last year for his conservative tactics. Are they playing more on the front foot now?
The Euro women’s tourney has been a fun dvr setting for me. It is a nicely run gig. The teams are continuing to improve. Switzerland is gorgeous.
It’s been a good tournament, but I’m especially looking forward to the semis
From the Vermont Green article:
I own a Vermont Green jersey. I recognize I’m exactly the target market, but I feel we can all do so much better. I’m the guy who takes his compost to the receptacle outside Mom’s Organic Market when I go to the gym in that shopping center. And then I get really irked at the state of the trash can on the other side of the sidewalk, by the parking spaces — lots of compostable paper products, and also lots of plastic and aluminum drink containers, Even compostable plastic cups from the Shouk restaurant next door. All this, when MOM’s has these (admittedly poorly marked) bins for compost and mixed recycling about 6 feet away.
And with respect to DC United and Audi Field, I get irked when I see drink containers tossed into the “landfill” bins instead of the blue recycling bins — but I’m also miffed at the team, which doesn’t have ANY compost bins. They have them at the much larger Nationals Park, even with its multiple levels. 81 home dates. Can’t DC United manage this for one game every 2 weeks with all the trash an one one level, in less than two dozen receptacles? It would take 15-20 mins tops to get that trash out of the bins and out of the stadium.
DCU is lucky not be in a bin altogether……
Just listening to Kevin Flanagan talk in his pre-match press conference, and… man, I miss Troy Lesesne. Flanagan is bringing just no energy to this, and not saying much of anything at all, other than the team has traveled a lot and offering up a bunch of excuses.
Well, in fairness, he’s just team-sitting, he’s subbing. Have you met many substitute teachers who bring energy to the classroom? Back when I was at school, a sub would simply show up and let us watch a movie. Honestly, if they were going to grab anyone from the organization to do the temporary job, they should have appointed Marco.
“often due to exorbitant ticket pricing”
Amen, brother. I know the GC was CONCACAF, and the CWC was FIFA, but the pricing this summer was built on the past decade-15 years of USSF squeezing and squeezing for every dollar.
FIFA and USSF love to make a lot of the attendance record from WC’94. And they/we should be proud. But part of the secret sauce for that was very, very affordable tickets, especially in the upper decks.