Spirit draw, DCU lose again, and more: Monday Freedom Kicks
Happy Monday, y’all. We get started with the local teams and how they performed on the weekend:
Washington Spirit draw Gotham FC 0-0 in frustrating match
Frustrating doesn’t quite grasp it. That match definitely feels like 2 points we threw away.
DC United went up to New England and they caught another loss. They are now last in the East and technically have their hands around the wooden spoon.
Takeaways from Loudoun’s 0-0 draw at Rhode Island
Loudoun didn’t lose, but their struggle to win continues.
Crystal Palace beat Liverpool on penalties to win Community Shield (ESPN)
Palace add their second ever trophy just a couple months after their first, winning the Community Shield on penalties.
USA Soccercast, Episode 159: Ranking the 10 best USMNT wins of all time (SSFC)
A fun episode for y’all if you didn’t listen already where I rank the best USMNT wins of all time!
Robinson to miss start of Premier League season with injury (PSW)
Jedi’s still recovering from his surgery, so he will miss the start of the season for Fulham.
Electric debut! Son Heung-Min makes instant impact for LAFC (MLS)
Son made his LAFC debut and was able to draw a penalty for the team. He already seems like a great fit for the club.
Have a good week, y’all.
Anyone else convinced this is the worst DCU team in history? By extension, that would make them the worst team in league history. Even putting aside point totals, the 2013 team knew how to play soccer, they just weren’t skilled enough to do it well (and still got our last trophy). This team looks like they’ve never been coached.
That plus they hust couldn’t stop Own Goal from scoring, which this year’s team can for the most part…its just they can’t stop anyone else….
Certainly the most directionless
Entirely rudderless.
Yeah. There was always a new stadium to look forward to, or a new GM, or academy players. Now, our GM did a good job of clearing out players, but brought in not a lot to get excited about. We have a new coach (maybe) coming in, and have the ability to bring in possibly three new DPs next year. But do we trust the GM to nail all those signings? And the academy should be a strength, but without an MLS Next PRO team, we just can’t develop young players. So far, total radio silence on that.
There’s zero ambition. The defense was a sieve early last year, so they brought in a guy who was mediocre in Austria. Benteke didn’t have any help in attack, so they brought in a Brazilian who had struggled to make much impact in Poland. The goaltending was underwhelming, so they brought in a youth international from So. Korea, and a back-up let go by NYC.
Meanwhile they let go of MLS vets with at least some talent (Santos, Dajome, McVey, Bono).
The idea that this team would take big strides forward? Delusional.
Delusion is correct.
My goalie was better by far than this guy from Korea (I don’t mean to insult him, it just like WTF was our FO thinking?)
We obviously jettisoned better players and went with crapola.
I cannot understand where the aussie went to, because he was much better at Hearts.
Spain women’s coach Montse Tomé out after Euro 2025 final loss against England http://espn.com/app
That seems strange to me. Unless they’re confident a better coach is out there, losing in penalties in the final of a major tournament (mostly cuz your best player got hers saved) as a reason to terminate is more than a bit harsh
Tome was an assistant to the prior regime (Vilda) and she supported the head coach. Bonmati and others were never high on her. Tactically she’s not strong. None of the team leaders wanted her as the head coach. But she was viewed as improvement (marginally) from Vilda. You can find multiple public comments from Bonmati in the last year or so saying that nothing has changed. And that’s not just a criticism of the Spanish FA, it includes Tome. Frankly, I’m surprised she lasted this long.
Bermudez (the new Spanish boss) was the head coach of the U-23s. I don’t know much about her and certainly don’t know how she’s regarded by the women on the NT.
Ok. Definitely didn’t know that background, frankly kind of embarrassing for FOX’s coverage they never addressed it during the entire tournament- I watched a lot of talking, and it never came up
Firing the coach of a #1 ranked team in the world is baffling. Internal feud?
The players have had major issues with their coaches for years now. She was an assistant to Vilda, who had his hand in enough drama even through a successful WC run.
Yeah, but would the Spanish FA really fire a coach for that? Wasn’t it their president who non consensually kissed a player, and didn’t they circle the wagons around him till the heat got too bad?
If I hear the players didn’t want her, that’s one thing. Till then, I’m assuming the Euros final was the reason
Tome is one of the people who spoke out publicly supporting Rubiales (the guy who forced the kiss on Hermoso). She testified for the defense in the Rubiales trial. And Tome’s contract had expired so she wasn’t fired, the FA just decided to move on. And for the FA, the finals loss was probably a big deal. But yes, the players didn’t want her. Here is Bonmati talking about how nothing is different under Tome from when Vilda was the head coach as well as the Spanish league: https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/68840033
Bingo!
No. The players never wanted her–she was an assistant under Jorge Vilda. She wasn’t tactically astute. Team leaders publicly said that things hadn’t changed with the appointment of Tome. Her contract expired and they opted not to renew it.
Popcorn and Spanish women’s soccer. Perfect together.
https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/son-heung-min-s-debut-austin-fc-s-next-step-more-from-matchday-28
This hurts that it’s true:
Playing DC at home is a gimme? Pssh, as if playing DC in DC isn’t a gimme too
Yeah, you tell em, Sweetbuck! We’re way more likely to collapse at home!
Sigh
Maybe not of general interest, but Everton got a massive boost to their efforts to succeed in the EPL with a Jack Grealish loan. He became an automaton and then a malfunctioning automaton under Pep at Man City, but i bet a lot of the creativity, vision, and skill he had before could he awakened. Excited to see him play this season, as my EPL club continues to rebuild its reputation. The fact good players are wary of signing there, despite the huge potential for a turnaround, seems the only reason this club is tethered
Does anybody think that the famous Lionel Messi will play at Audi Field on August 23?
No
0% chance he starts. Maybe a second-half sub, if it cools off a little
Not sure what this means:
We can’t even get that right. Because the Galaxy got destroyed by Sounders, we have 3 more points than LAG, but we have played one more game. If the Gals would win that game-in-hand, they would pass DCU on all the tiebreakers.
It was written before the Galaxy match on Sunday night, so technically it did (and still does) apply haha
One of the things that is so dispiriting about this season for DCU is that it’s not that a key cog (like say…Chris Rolfe) had concussion problems. Or tore a knee. This club has been relatively healthy. We’re just really bad. And what we’re “really bad” at is pretty much the same as last year.
We have been bad since Losada.
I decided to go sit on the Miami bench in a Messi jersey just to get the crowd at fever pitch.