Spirit vs. United Vibes Check, Champions Cup Hammering, Loudoun Tournament Eyeing, and More: Wednesday Freedom Kicks
A lot is happening in the DMV, but, mercifully for those that like it a bit cooler, the heat is dissipating! For those that will mourn the sluggish mugginess and greet the gross humidity with a gleeful salute, I have little sympathy. You had your shot.
Anyway, on to the soccer news!
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2025/aug/20/washington-spirit-dc-united-mls-nwsl
The first thing I saw in my search for DC United news was something the club posted on their website parsing “Legacy” (no thanks). This is a much more appropriate framing for what’s happening at Buzzard Point (generically Audi Field) these days. In essence, the article points out that The Spirit are decidedly doing better on vibes than the ’96er, and it’s not an accident.
Speaking of which, The Spirit started out their Champions Cup group stage with a say-what-now?!?! Sounds like DC did in fact rise up last night!
Loudoun FC advance to the quarterfinals of the Jagermeister Cup, which will presumably be played in whatever country the players unexpectedly wake up in. Get it, cuz Jagermeister?
https://www.uslchampionship.com/news_article/show/1344405
Loudoun United player, Arquimedes Ordonez, is en fuego for his new side. Awesome.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GyuH29pXwAAVSxS?format=jpg&name=large
Briefly back to United, there’s a shirt giveaway at the gate to commemorate the United/Miami matchup. Yay.
Interesting that Gio might have an exit strategy from Dortmund, hope it works out.
Situation with a player suing FIFA and the Belgian League for 76 million over a long running dispute. FIFA assuredly will counter that they’re too busy bribing clubs to kill their players the summer before the season prior to the World Cup. Oh, and then trying to get 65,000 volunteers in the US instead of paying anyone for said World Cup.
https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/mls-transfers-which-clubs-need-to-make-moves-deadline-summer-2025
They mention us! The mention us! Proof this club exists!
https://www.si.com/soccer/la-galaxy-making-most-leagues-cup-dismal-season
Possibility that LA Galaxy might be 2013 US Open Cupping their way through the Leagues Cup in their own abysmal season. Hope not.
Finishing off with two stadium tidbits, one with the Riverhounds and one with Bay FC.
Tripling capacity, you say???
https://www.si.com/soccer/how-bay-fc-planned-historic-nwsl-match-oracle-park-giants
Bay FC want to smash the NWSL single game attendance record by taking over a larger venue, namely SF Giants’ Oracle Park. Let’s hope it goes better than RFK’s housing of both DC United and the Nationals, in terms of field quality…
Bonus FK. Apparently the above Diarra lawsuit made FIFA change their laws, and this gives Alexander Isak the opportunity to control his fate as he spurns Newcastle for Liverpool. Read it here.
That’s all I’ve got folks! One-up me in the comments, and have a great sporting day!
Whoops, missed one my colleagues flagged. Fun article about Trin’s time at a Wimbledon Five a Side game in rehab recently.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6546866/2025/08/19/trinity-rodman-wimbledon-injury-return/
It would be the most DCU thing if Saturday’s game turned into “I came to see Messi, but all I got was this lousy tshirt.”
As Judi Dench once opined in Chronicles of Riddick: “The odds are good.”
Sorry, I’m so jaded I’m quoting weird movies.
Hey Chronicles of Riddick is awesome.
Teehee, I’m quoting it, I’m in the positive camp.
You have exceeded your awesome snark capacity today! :^)
Me gusta!!!!!
Man, that guardian article is damning. Sadly accurate. It is amazing how numb I am to DC Untied anymore. I look forward to Saturday but absolutely know 1) Messi won’t play and 2) I will be asked to upgrade to the ultimate fan experience in the AV club (and sacrifice my midfield club seats for them to resell). Hard pass on the latter, hopeful to be wrong for the former.
Its okay every game I keep forgetting DC United is capable of scoring. I’m always surprised when we score.
It’s bold, if somewhat admirably self-aware, for the team to give away a shirt that features “MIA” prominently next to “DCU.” Sums up the season pretty well.
Quick update from Tom Bogert on Clark this morning:
“Caden Clark arrives in D.C. ahead of D.C. United move, I’m told. Clark didn’t ask to leave MTL & was focused on Europe for next move but René Weiler wanted Clark. and D.C. got the trade done. There was a German club interested but offer/approach never made. Could be back in Jan”
So, with this, it sounds like Wieler saw something he liked in Clark and wanted him, which I guess is a good sign. Glad the team was willing to go out and get someone he wanted. Though its not great to hear that he may only be here for like 8 games if he ends up going to Germany
Honestly, Clark would be wise to have a real breakout year in MLS to up his value in the market for a move. Maybe Weiler can convince him of that.
Agree, he would probably toil away in second divisions for a few years if he went directly to Europe. Here, he’s got a relatively successful European coach who also knows the front office side of things. It could work out pretty well for him (if he has the stuff and becomes something of a star player).
Yeah, for sure. Market value is always a continuum, but what they pay for you is also how much they’re likely to invest in you. Hamid couldn’t get off the bench in Norway when he’s an incredible starter, whereas players like Mbappe literally have club presidents threatening coaches if their bad form means they don’t play.
(I believe Hamid was in Denmark.)
Oh, right, thanks
Doesn’t really alter the dynamic nor my point, though
Actually, Mitjlland (sp?) had a game in Norway, and Hamid did not get off the bench. You are right, as always.
Got you covered! :^)
Thanks for the always entertaining DP!
With Pablo’s contributions at The Guardian, they arguable already have better coverage of DCU than the Washington Post. After reading the vibes article, I went to check the sports page and their DC Sports TV listing features a photo of Messi and Suarez and there is no coverage of last night’s Spirit game.
Jesus
This season has even made the annual “cake or death” exercise on the roster a chore. Herrera would be a lock for cake if not for his free fall in play since returning from the Gold Cup. Some of my thoughts, I guess:
Death: Enow, Zouhir, McNaughton, Leal, Dodson, Badji; I’d be happy to never see Enow, Zouhir or Badji suit up for us again. The other three just don’t offer anything another player without the malaise of this season wouldn’t also offer.
Cake?: Hopkins, Servania, Schnegg, Tubbs, Turner, Peglow, Herrera, Rowles; pretty much all with the major caveat that we need to bring in competition for every spot on the field. Servania, for example, I think has been fairly tidy on the ball but doesn’t have much vision and is not the gritty DM our backline seems to have been desperate for in the last several seasons. He’s safe and I think would be a great spot starter if hypothetical upgrade is unavailable for a few games. Our full backs and most CBs have been the victim of terrible coaching and the dark cloud hanging out around this team. I hope we don’t have a Rowles/Tubbs starting tandem, because it probably won’t work any better next year, though either one will likely look much better next to a real CB1.
Everyone else…I kind of take or leave. Benteke is such a cool player with no real support around him. We’ve seen Pirani get stifled now that teams know he’s our only danger other than Benteke. Stroud and Kijima were brought in for energy drink soccer, which is probably on its way out. Farr is the only goalie I wouldn’t say has a crippling flaw, and only because he hasn’t had the pleasure of playing.
Here’s what the scenario looks like in terms of actual contracts.
Under contract for 2026 and beyond (each of these players also have at least one option year, but the date in parens is when their main contract expires):
Kim Joon Hong (2027)
Boris Enow (2027)
Joao Peglow (2027)
Matti Peltola (2027)
Kye Rowles (2026)
David Schnegg (2026)
Dominique Badji (2026)
Lucas Bartlett (2027)
Brandon Servania (2026)
Jared Stroud (2026)
Jordan Farr (2026)
Hakim Karamoko (2027)
Jacob Murrell (2026)
Gavin Turner (2027)
Contract expires in 2025, but has an option for next year:
Christian Benteke
Gabriel Pirani
Aaron Herrera
Conner Antley
Derek Dodson
Randall Leal
Kristian Fletcher
Jackson Hopkins
Hosei Kijima
Garrison Tubbs
Rida Zouhir
Caden Clark
Contract expires in 2025:
Luis Barraza
Lukas MacNaughton
So, a lot of our underperformers are already under contract for next year. I’ve said that I hope management uses both buyouts to clear room, but honestly most of the players that I’d rather see bought out are signed through 2027, and that seems a lot for ownership to swallow. Badji would be at the top of the list for a buyout in terms of productivity, but he’s cheap and domestic, so it wouldn’t really free that much in terms of assets. Jared Stroud would be next, but I still think he’s got use, so I wouldn’t be too sad to see him return as a bench option. Third choice would be Jacob Murrell. He’s basically in the same boat as Badji, except that he could conceivably improve. He just never grabbed his chance when he had it this year.
Sadly, most of the folks with options for next year have been some of our “top” performers. When the season goes so badly, you can’t really be sad if they say good-bye to anyone, but Benteke, Herrera, Antley, and Kijima have all pretty much earned the right to be back next year, and so has Pirani provided his like the fourth attacking option at most. Clark is presumbably going to be around next year unless he truly hates it here, or a German team is really excited to get him. Dodson, Hopkins, and Tubbs are all decently useful, cheap, and domestic. You could get rid of them, but it also is fine to have them as depth. Leal should definitely be gone, since we’d owe him $1 million next year, and I suspect Kristian Fletcher wants out the door. Zouhir should probably be gone.
Luis Barraza has been fine, with both of our other goalkeepers under contract for next year and an upgrade likely needed anyway, I think he’s gone. MacNaughton has an injury history, but has been okay. He’s making $120,000 this year and if he stays at that, I’m fine with him coming back.
Basically, unless Ally Mackay gets really ruthless with his options, it’s hard to see a ton of change happening to the squad. And all of those options (except for Fletcher and Hopkins) are from contracts that Mackay offered in the first place. All of this is to say that there is a TON riding on whatever DP players Mackay and Weiler bring in.
Thanks for the contract info, it’s not something I was willing to look up, largely because it would burst my bubble about how long we’ll have to hold these guys for. Enow is honestly looking like one of the worst contracts we’ve ever handed out (and there are some great contenders). And we still have to hope he just gets better under a new staff unless Mackay finds a way to loan him out.
Really want to give this post a like, those that do are stronger than I am. I cannot bring myself to like the fact that Enow is signed till 2027
Or Kim the keeper……
deer in the headlights kind of player….
The end of this season will mark the second full campaign Mackay has lead the team through. Is it too soon to ask if he should be involved in trying to right this ship?
I fear our club is in no position to let him go, even if it were the right move. It’s right to question his caretaking abilities, but he’s basically the nanny and the only person who feeds the proverbial children at this point.
It’s crazy how bad we need new owners.
He gets a chance at signing some DP players this window. That’s the one thing he’s never really gotten a chance to do yet. He gave Benteke an extended deal, which turned out to be a good move, but he wasn’t the one who brought Benteke here originally. He signed Matti Peltola as a Young DP, but that was basically done as an accounting move. Peltola has been just… okay. And he traded away another DP that he didn’t sign, Mateusz Klich, but still managed to keep him as a DP on the ledger anyway. The team has missed a central chance creator SORELY this year, which Klich did decently well. He also provided good service on free kicks. He didn’t really perform well with Atlanta though, so perhaps not having him on the team really wasn’t that big of an issue, but looking at the whole thing as dropping a DP and being prevented from signing another one in that particular slot (or even viewing it as a swap of Klich for Leal), it looks like a big fat bad move.
So…
Mackay can add at least two DPs before 2026, and possibly 3 if they decide to move on from Benteke. It’s his chance to swing big. He was with Nashville when they signed players like Hany Mukhtar and Walker Zimmerman, but who knows how involved he was with identifying and landing them? And Nashville had some big DP misses as well. While he’s been in DC, it sure seems like ownership pressured him to move away from a 2 DP-4 U-22 – $2 million GAM model to a 3 DP-3U-22 model so that they could try to get Paul Pogba. DC United owner (who doesn’t appear on the Ownership page of the website) Eyob Joe Mamo said a month ago that the strategy was to go after older Premier League players.
If United signs three DPs that all hit, it would go a long way to making the team better. Presumably better offense would take some of the load off the defense (or they could try to bring in a DP defender or goalkeeper), and might elevate players like Peglow and Pirani. Troy Lesesne had said that the goal this year was the playoffs and that next year they’d be expecting to challenge for a trophy. Safe to say that won’t happen, but the question is really how confident do you feel that a) Mackay will identify three players that b) fit Weiler’s system, c) want to come play in an occupied city for the worst team in the league, who d) will be on wages acceptable to ownership, and e) mesh with the team, each other, MLS, and the country? You can reference United’s overall track record with DP signings if you wish.
New worry unlocked: we sign several DPs, who drag us to the playoff line but we fall on our face on decision day. The following year, we lose one or two role players and don’t replace them adequately, leaving us in exactly the same position, but with a huge salary bill. Contributors are let go and replaced with cheaper and less talented options. We become one of the worst teams in the league again.
Oh wait, that’s not new, that’s exactly what we’ve done for 6 years.
Wake me up in 2030.
Messi is out. Injury.