Interview with Adrián González, USWNT Fall Friendlies Announced, and more: Tuesday Freedom Kicks
Happy Tuesday everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend! I caught the Euro 2025 Final at Dacha Navy Yard on Sunday and despite the pouring rain, it was a fun experience! Anyways here are your Tuesday Freedom Kicks:
Hey Spirits had a great interview with newly appoint coach of the Washington Spirit, Adrián González. In this episode they talk his pre-Spirit history, coaching philosophy, plans for the team, where to find good Spanish food in DC, and more. Give it a listen!
USWNT announces October friendlies (SSFC)
The USWNT will play a total of three games this October. The first one will take place in Philly against Portugal and will honor Alex Morgan, the recently retired USWNT legend. The second game will be in East Hartford, Connecticut to honor Alyssa Naeher, who retired from national team duty earlier this year. The final game will take place in Kansas City against a yet to be named opponent.
DC United’s groundskeeper brings ‘the turf world’ to Audi Field (WTOP)
A pretty in depth write up on DCU’s (sorta) new director of grounds, Blaise Restifo. I must admit, the field has been holding up decently despite hosting 26 games over 98 days across four home teams at Audi Field. Good work Blaise!
True love at the official Spirit Euro 2025 Final watch party?! But also the Director of OMB?!
Colombia ganó en los penales y jugará la final de la CONMEBOL Copa América Femenina 2025 (CONMEBOL)
Colombia beat Argentina 5 to 4 on penalties after regulation ended 0-0. The Washington Spirit’s Leicy Santos played all 90 minutes, but did not take a penalty in the shootout. Colombia will play the winner of Brazil/Uruguay in the final on Saturday at 5 PM.
Ethiopia national team names replacements after visa issues hit U.S. trip (Panafrica Football)
Ethiopia may not have all the players that they want when they play DC United in a friendly this Saturday…
That’s all I’ve got for you today folks!
https://www.whoscored.com/regions/233/tournaments/85/seasons/10568/stages/24001/teamstatistics/usa-major-league-soccer-2025
Damn its depressing looking at Who Scored for DCU Stats….
Zero goals from counterattacks is telling. We’ve been missing speed in pretty much every position since Arriola left (admittedly Dajome was fast last year).
Not that he would really help with counter attacks, but Pines was ridiculously fast. come to think of it, he is available still…
Sign him as our backup striker to Benteke?
It would limit defensive gaffes…
(kidding, I like Pines)
Perhaps just catching up but 2 newsy items I found the other day about DCU youth — One was the loan of Gavin Turner to Chattanooga. Not sure if that loan was even reported here, but I thought I’d not that he seems to be doing well. A goal and an assist in his first start vs Philly union II, and a regular starter since.
The other was paywalled piece in the Capital Gazette — haven’t read, but the piece seemed to promise that Baltimore Armour and DC United Academy goalkeeper Zach Cielewich will be moving to DC United. That seems unlikely for a back-up keeper at Annapolis, but if anyone has access to the full story, maybe they could elaborate on the report.
Turner’s loan was noted, first in the comments and in the following FKs. We’ve even shown one of his golazos for them
Cool. I missed it, obviously.
I don’t mind the idea of signing an academy goalkeeper (Bill Hamid worked out pretty well!), but right now we have Jordan Farr signed through 2026 and Kim Joon Hong signed for longer than that. Luis Barraza is out of contract at the end of this year. I think he’s done well, but my gut instinct is that Rene Weiler would rather sign a good proven starter (in my fantasies, it’s a Roman Burki type) rather than re-sign Barraza. Barraza has done well, and I would think that he’d have earned a new deal, but since two goalie spots are already locked up, and this is an area that could take a leap forward in performance, I don’t see him coming back.
And for those reasons, I don’t see us signing an academy keeper either. Maybe if we get the MLS Next PRO team finally up and running we would sign him and loan him there, or do the Gavin Turner thing where we loan him out to some other team.
I’m actually in favor of having your 3rd GK be a prospect who, yes, needs seasoning eventually, but for now will benefit from training with pros and learning the ingredients for being one themselves. If they’re promising, sometimes they even become the #2, maybe even get a shot at starting.
It’s also one of the few ways to get talent to sign for that role, and you want ability stem to stern in a good roster
Has there been any news of potential summer transfers? Seems every MLS article I read or podcast I hear mentions every other team picking up players, except for DCU who seem to be content with losing to the other Wooden Spoon contenders. I know pro/rel isn’t realistic, but was thinking that at least when you bounce back up to the top league, there’s an excitement to draw in new players. When you’re dead weight in MLS, it’s a tough ask to pull in players that have other options.
We may not see them due to the coach just coming in, and the futility of trying to rush for players to salvage the season. He may also want to kick the tires thoroughly on the players before cutting or keeping them.
So if we keep swapping out managers, we will never have to get anybody. Genius!
He’ll obviously have an offseason. He’d have to be a crazy toxic person to not last till March, historically so
Apparently Vancouver is going after Thomas Müller
https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/45855038/vancouver-whitecaps-close-thomas-muller-deal
Chris Durkin got a dogso red over the weekend.