DC United lose, England wins Euros, and more: Monday Freedom Kicks
Happy Monday, y’all. There was a lot of soccer on this weekend, so let’s get into it.
D.C. United delivers another dud to chants of ‘Sell the team!’ at Audi Field (WaPo)
Another DC United loss, as this time Austin FC comes to town and leaves with the 4-2 victory. Of note, this recap from Steven Goff marks his final match covering the soccer beat for the Washington Post.
Legacy Night loss shows DC United’s legacy needs serious repair (DP)
Instead of our own recap, I took the time to explain how the club’s tradition and legacy is in serious need of reconstruction.
England retain European title with dramatic win over Spain (BBC)
England comes back in the 2nd half to force extra time and then defeats Spain on penalties to claim its second straight Women’s European title.
Nigeria was D-E-A-D in the water at halftime of the WAFCON Final, down 2-0. They storm back to win 3-2 over hosts Morocco and be crowned as African champions for the 10th time.
Landon Donovan speaks on USMNT, 2026 World Cup (SSFC)
I had Landon Donovan on the USA Soccercast to discuss youth development in this country, the USMNT, and the upcoming World Cup. Give it a listen to start the day!
Takeaways from Loudoun’s (backdoor) advancing in Cup play (DP)
Loudoun United advances in Jägermeister Cup action…Ryan tells us how they did it.
The 10 best and 10 worst designated players in MLS history (ESPN)
A list of the best and worst DPs in MLS history. No DC United players make either list.
Enjoy the week, y’all.
With Goff’s future up in the air, I want to thank you, Donald and Sarah (and the rest of the DP team), for keeping up with coverage of DCU, as painful as that might be in the team’s current state. Your coverage is greatly appreciated, especially having lost Pablo, Jason (at least full-time) and now Goff as DC beat reporters in recent years.
I’d like to second that.
Fun fact: There were Spirit players on both of this weekend’s tournament-winning teams! Esme Morgan for England and (loaned-out) Deborah Abiodun for the Super Falcons!
I am sad as my long time favorite MLS team is a disaster and gets no coverage in its media market while my adopted MLS team (I moved to Philadelphia last year for family reasons) is very visible and respected.
DC United has the great facility in a central location. The Union also has a great facility but it’s not centrally located and hard to get to for people on the north and northeastern side of the region. Buzzard Point has has excellent transit service on the Green Line while the regional rail line that serves Subaru Park has too little service on weekends to be viable to go to a soccer game.
Yet you see people in Union t-shirts and jackets everywhere. People will talk about the Union. The Union are regarded as another pro team rather than an also-ran.
I don’t have time to get into solutions other than new ownership. Just pointing out how sad it is and how adopting another team due to moving away and still wanting my live pro soccer fix just makes the situation with my #1 team that much sadder.
To be honest, even if DCU were to go an entire season without a win, I could never ever adopt another team in the league. Then again I was part of a fandom that endured Snyder for two decades and karma has seemingly paid us back! But yes DCU is at its worst right now, even worst than any of the previous poor seasons because those sorry teams, at least for me, still had a connection with the glory days in Ben Olsen. This DCU team lacks even that and everyone is correct in acknowledging that things won’t really change until we get new owners.
I hate writing bitter posts, but it is the only emotion I have anymore for this storied and ruined franchise. So many unforced errors. I will be investing my money elsewhere.
A very good time for a Cavan to go to Philly, I have to say.
I sat with the road DC United fans back in April. I knew what the result of the game was going to be with talent discrepancy in the rosters. Nobody held it against me. They even listened when I told them not to gloat as the Union had just beat a minor league team at home even though the Union coach was out coached by Coach Lesense.
I’m ok with adopting the Union as my #2. I never had any problems with them and the fanbase is nice and cool. They’ve accepted me. Philadelphians have a chip in their shoulder about New York and New Yorkers, but like Maryland and Marylanders. They view us Marylanders as their nice neighbor and New York as their annoying neighbor who just won’t stop talking about itself.
I do watch most DC United games on Apple TV as will continue to do so as long as the service is available. I have kept my DC United jerseys and will not throw them away until I wear them out.
I just hate this season. It’s become Snyder levels of bad minus outright the abuse in the office especially to female staff. But the on field stuff is Snyder bad; be the reason for having an incomplete roster, sell talent that has gas left in the tank and has a renaissance later, then fire the coach for not winning with a roster that no coach could win with. And on and on. I was hoping for a plan or a build but firing Lesense was where I just accepted that this is just how it is.
It’s not that Lesense was some world class coach. He’s a solid pro but we don’t know his ceiling because he didn’t have a roster than has the athleticism to compete at the major league level. It’s just that there was no plan and then they fired the coach. Just like Snyder did over and over. (Again I’m only comparing on field results. Snyder’s office had lots of toxicity, abuse, and sexism where there is no evidence for any of that in the DCU office)
I want to say that the Union had a notoriously shitty ownership situation for the first half of their existence to date. Sugarman and Sakiewicz were bad. The latter left and perhaps the former got lucky with his hires since. Stewart was kind of an obvious ambitious hire but didn’t stay long. I don’t think anyone had Jim Curtin marked as a long-term success. I’m not sure who to give credit to for their academy, but ultimately its ability to constantly feed solid players into the first XI (and then sell them) is the reason they are a good team. You don’t need to make many good decisions as an owner to make your team successful – just invest well and get *something* right. Other things can follow.
All that to say, if Levien stays put and gets *something* right, it can get the ball rolling. There’s no guarantee the next owner will do anything well either, they’ll have the same set of issues to address, and could end up being a dictatorship known for starting wars all over the world.
This is where Im at/my fear. Could new owners help? Sure. They could also move the team (Columbus/Austin), completely change the identity of the team (the Spirit), or be just as inept as the current group while halting any progress that they may actually be making (like trying to start the MLS Next Pro team). There’s also the risk that the team gets sold to some sort of big soccer team conglomerate similar to CFG or Red Bull where it essentially becomes a feeder team to some random European team, or to a big oil group that comes with tons of money but its own moral dilemmas (remember pre-season in Saudi last year? That connection already exists)
You’re totally right. The Union aren’t perfect by any stretch. They do have a vision of how they want to operate. They want their academy to be the backbone of the talent stream. They’ve put the resources in and managed it in a way to make it viable. The owner is cheap and they stupidly downgraded coaches from Curtin to Carnell. They sell talented guys too early because they are cheap.
I’m not trying to make this is us vs. them. Just pointing out how I feel about DC United
I completely understand! I was the one making the connection and the only issue I have with Philly is how easily they kick our teeth in every year. Which is really more of an issue with DC…
It saddens me to say, I will not be viewing another game this season. I’ve decided to let my Apple connection lapse for now. I’m heartened to hear that chants for new owners were heard loudly at the stadium, it’s finally gotten to that point, which arguably should have come sooner. Anyway, it’s here now, and I hope the owners do feel some urgency to sell. I have zero faith in who they would sell to, and it could be I wouldn’t be able to buy in if the takeover is one far enough down the unethical continuum. I’m here, and will keep an eye out, check in with results, but it seems like even watching the highlights would not give me much of my team, both literally and figuratively.
Anyway, weren’t the Women’s Euros great?
The tournament was an total success.
I ended up losing interest in it as we got towards the end. Just as a sort of “oh boy, these two teams again” sort of thing. Had fun with the earlier rounds though
Naw, I thought it was great throughout. Programs are catching up, a lot of them needed this experience just to grow
They are progressing overall. Very good for the game.
Joao Peglow has matched his career scoring high for a single club. Yay?
yay
ESPNFC Power Rankings keeps us at the bottom: https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/45841297/mls-power-rankings-fc-cincinnati-after-draw-vs-lionel-messi-less-inter-miami
News is out that once again that the US Men’s Eagles will play Georgia on Nov 15 as part of the November international rugby window.
https://www.americasrugbynews.com/2025/07/21/usa-eagles-to-caucasus-mountains-in-november/
The US Women Eagle 15s are on their way to England for the Women’s Rugby World Cup. There are 4 groups with 4 teams each with the top 2 advancing to the knock out rounds.
Pool A:
England => World Ranking #1Australia => World Ranking #8USA => World Ranking #10Samoa => World Ranking #15
Pool B:
Canada => World Ranking #2Scotland => World Ranking #7Wales => World Ranking #9Fiji => World Ranking #14
Pool C:
New Zealand => World Ranking #3Ireland => World Ranking #5Japan => World Ranking #11Spain => World Ranking #13
Pool D:
France => World Ranking #4Italy => World Ranking #6South Africa => World Ranking #12Brazil => World Ranking #25
Pool play schedule for the US (broadcast details are still TBD though CBS Sports and Paramount+ hold the rights in the US)
England vs USA on 22 August 2:30 PM ETUSA vs Australia on 30 August 2:30 PM ETUSA vs Samoa on 6 September 8:30 AM ET
The US Women have played in every Women’s Rugby World Cup and have the following finishes:
Wales 1991 ChampionScotland 1994 Runner UpNetherlands 1998 Runner UpSpain 2002 5thCanada 2006 5thEngland 2010 5thFrance 2014 6thIreland 2017 4thNew Zealand 2021 7thEngland 2025 QualifiedAustralia 2029 N/AUSA 2033 Qualified as Host
They have never not advanced out of their pool at the Women’s Rugby World Cup. For the US to advance out of the pool this time around. They are going to need to beat Australia who they are 6W-0D-3L all time against. They lost to Australia 27-19 back in May and beat them in May of last year 32-25. They beat Samoa the one time they’ve played in 2023. They’ve only ever beat England the first time they played at Wales 1991 and have lost the 20 games since then.
…..
…
This is Edison Flores erasure.
Also, if we count Young DPs, there was the ‘great’ Rafael.
I did a quick online search to try to look up list of DCU DPs, and I found this archival gem, analyzing the history of DCU’s DP signings, penned almost exactly a decade ago by some idiot savant/prodigy.
https://www.blackandredunited.com/f/2015/8/20/9184071/dc-uniteds-checkered-dp-history-with-statistics
As I noted in the comments to Donald’s excellent, but heart-breaking take on this franchise, DC United will likely have a shot next month at almost locking in the bottom place in the Eastern Conference and having a shot at the the Wooden Spoon and first pick in the MLS SuperDraft.
The last time DC United had and actually used the first pick was 2004, when Freddy Adu was the choice — and I might add that 2004 was the last of DC United’s MLS Cup titles. Coincidence?
After the 2010 last-place finish, DC United was pushed back to the 3rd choice, as expansion sides Vancouver and Portland were awarded the first 2 picks in the 2011 draft. After the miserable 2013 Wooden Spoon campaign, DC United swapped picks with Wooden Spoon runner-up, Philadelphia Union, so the Union could snag Andre Blake. With Bill Hamid already in the fold, DCU were happy to settle for Steve Birnbaum at #2. Philly definitely got the better of that deal.
The big match is in Montreal on Aug. 16th. If Montreal beat DCU, they will probably put some real distance in the struggle to climb out of the cellar. With DC United unlikely to win ANY of its remaining matches, that should lock up the Eastern Conference spoon. While St. Louis and LA Galaxy are still trailing DCU’s lofty 19-point total, both of those teams have a game in hand. The Galaxy in particular are playing better of late, and have more opportunities to pick up points than DCU have. With several home games, and road games with weaker sides, St. Louis could also pass DC United in the standings.