DC Power Home Opener, Loudoun Upheaval, USMNT Roster Intrigue, and More: Wednesday Freedom Kicks
Greetings, readers! Donald was kind enough to post a video that explained how to post links properly. Gone are the days of me not having that knowledge, and while I will lightly mourn my Freedom Kicks having that slightly unrefined je ne sais quoi, I’m not going back. Anyway, on to the news!
DC Power Football Club prepares for home opener- FOX 5 Washington
Buzzard Point (generically Audi Field, or Rowdy Audi if you follow the other local women’s team) will soon host DC Power FC’s home opener, this Saturday at 7, and a local news channel did a segment.
OK, now we got to get to the upheaval at Loudoun United.
Loudoun United FC Appoints Niko Eckart as General Manager- Loudoun United website
Loudoun United Football Club appoints Karl Sharman as President- Loudoun United website
OK, big changes following one on top of the other. You may ask, what happened to Ryan Martin, who ostensibly had stewarded the club well, and raised standards and expectations after the club detached from United? Well….
Seems the new owners want their own people. Surely Martin will be snapped up by somebody soon, gotta feel for the guy at least till he finds a new home.
Yunus Musah has big plans for USMNT, Milan in World Cup year– ESPN
Musah explains why he didn’t go to the Gold Cup, but is bullish about his club and USMNT future. About that…
USMNT roster omissions might hamper World Cup preparations- ESPN
So, Musah, McKennie, Cardoso, Balogun, Turner, Steffen, Antonee Robinson, and Reyna are all absent from the friendly roster recently released.
Meltdown in USMNT fandom in 3, 2, I’m just kidding, no countdown needed. I will say, lot of players I don’t think have the stuff made the roster, instead.
Newcastle sign USWNT’s Morgan Gautrat on loan from Orlando- ESPN
A lot of movement has recently happened in terms of European based players moving to NWSL, but there’s still at least one transfer in the opposite direction. Best of luck, Morgan!
Trump Flaunts Solid Gold World Cup Trophy He Begged to Keep- Daily Beast
Welp…
FIFA is interested in bribes, authoritarian deals, and obedience. Apparently they’re not digging the lack of that last one from India’s Supreme Court. Anyway, moving on…
Power Rankings: Philadelphia Union regain Supporters’ Shield lead- MLS
We’re still in 30th, but the list does note that we might have dented Miami’s Supporter’s Shield chances. Justice for Jackson!
And finally:
Man City Primed as doubts emerge over Real Madrid Stars’ Future- Yahoo Sports
Trent Alexander-Arnold, apparently, isn’t in Madrid’s starting plans with experienced (and massively trophied) Carvajal coming back. I will say, always thought TAA going to Madrid was more a luxury than a practicality, as he’s known as a brilliant, lyrical passer, when Madrid need their defensive water carriers for balance. Liverpool would never have let them go to Man City. About that…
That’s all I got! One up me in the comments, and have a great sporting day!
https://www.macworld.com/article/2879592/it-looks-like-its-game-over-for-apple-tv-sports-good.html
Didn’t include this, cuz I’ll believe it when I see it, but there’s a chance Apple and MLS might not be a forever match, didn’t want to deprive the discussion even if it’s not exactly hard news.
I wouldn’t be surprised at all if MLS and Apple split after let’s say, the 2027 season. It seems to me that they’ll want to ride Messi and the WC highs until he retires/interest dwindles. Beyond that, although the product is quite good, they’re facing a lot of challenges. People are cutting back on spending thanks to all the incompetent/psycho rich douchebags running everything into the ground, it’s already hard to convince “football” people in this country that good soccer exists outside of the PL and Barca/Madrid, and I would suspect Apple TV+ has a smaller reach than their streaming rivals. So, fewer people accidentally stumbling into MLS.
But I’m sure it’s not just MLS! I think even the European leagues will suffer from the hubris of the rich and powerful.
Power to the people!
Yeah, there is too much information streaming everywhere at too much of an accelerating cost. There is almost no time for recovery with all the FIFA money grab going on. I like Apple TV+ for picture quality; but for outreach, I think it is limited. Yeah, the Messi/World Cup timeclock is the rate limiting step for the current arrangement. I concur.
Of course, I may be wrong.
There was also a promise of a lot of supplementary content, and that’s kind of only been half-delivered. Some of the teams do a much better job than others. And it seems to have been pared back from season to season.
Also, I haven’t been able to log in to Apple TV on my laptop for like two months now. It works on my phone, but my laptop is hooked up to a nice big screen. This is a bummer.
Maybe you can project your phone on to the tv with airplay or something like it?
What operating system is your laptop? I had a nasty time trying to redeem my subscription earlier this year on anything Android (Chrome OS, my phone). Finally managed to do it on my PC, but I had to download the official app.
I remember reading something about teams being responsible for their own supplementary content production. We, of course, have next to nothing since Pagan moved on.
Its almost like the ownership just views the team as a real estate deal and nothing else…
“Almost if”? I think you meant to say “Definitely”
While I’ll fully agree DC is slacking in this department, the content has REALLY fallen off for most teams over the past 2 seasons. Based on what Ive seen from other teams, both the team and Apple seem at least partially to blame
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain…..
-Darth Garber
I’ve had a similar experience. Does anybody know if there is a customer support service that could be helpful?
I had a week or two this month when Apple TV wouldn’t load on my TV. I kept intending to reach out to the manufacturer, and then all of a sudden it was working
This is a very interesting (provocative/predictive?) article. Thanks for posting, T!
“ Like many MLB and NBA fans, the only reason I keep my cable TV subscription is to watch local games whenever I want.”
This is the fundamental dilemma facing sports leagues, but on the other hand, I think it presents opportunities, too, for real growth. The question is whether MLS remains a pyramid scheme with owners looking to cash out, or… whether there’s interest in building the product and reaching the many soccer fans who out there who aren’t going to pay $100 for MLS, or even another $80 if they already have Apple TV.
So many still get cable (or even on air broadcasts) can tune into Liga MX and the Premier League each week during their season, and even the occasional La Liga or Bundesliga match. If your cable package has CBS Sports Network, there’s also Champions League. And, your package might bring you African tournaments, Ligue Une and South American football too.
MLS can make a dent, I think, and appeal to them, That’s where the Messi thing plays in. If there were channels that showed local games, but also national game with Messi or Son Heung-Min. MLS could convert new fans for the league…and that content ought to be compelling enough to get respectable fees, even if there are huge holes on the map there. Maybe the opening could be with one of the networks? I’m guessing the technology is there, for example, for a CBS Sports Network to carve up their feed into more regional feeds, and the broadcast network could also show premium teams.
It would be less than what a streaming service would be willing to pay for exclusivity, but it would reach a lot more people and most importantly lift up the local teams.
Putting MLS on Apple has definitely limited access. I’ll speak personally and then my assumptions about the public as a whole. I’m trying to limit the streaming services that I sign up for (for a variety of reasons–we don’t watch much TV, trying to limit monthly fees) and this isn’t just recent. I don’t use Adobe Photoshop because I refuse to pay a monthly fee to “rent” it. So that’s my weird, exceptional rationale.
Nationally, I think many MLS fans are only fans of their team. Oh yeah, there are some diehard nuts who will watch damn near any MLS game that’s available. But paying $99 to watch a few games with your local team–most fans will go “meh.” And there aren’t enough Messi fanatics who sign up for this streaming service just to see Messi.
My personal take: there is much to admire about the MLS-Apple marriage. But at a time when Messi should have drawn a lot of curious eyeballs to MLS viewing, I bet the numbers show it’s been very limited. I hate NWSL TV coverage which gets spread around 3-4 different outlets (so thank you Annie and the rest of the DP team for posting “viewing information” for upcoming games of all sorts). So it’s nice that 98% of all MLS games are on the same platform with a lot of consistency in format, approach, data, resources. It’s just that MLS is being a pioneer of sorts–not going to streaming in addition to network TV but making streaming your entire package. Maybe in 10 years when you have an established national audience that would make sense. But now? League officials are going to look back on this 10 years from now and consider it a missed opportunity.
in 10 years they may see a disaster
This Kazakh team beating Celtic to qualify for the Champions League group stage is pretty astounding. Shoutout to their 21 year old back up keeper who was the star of the show. https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/live/ce93m7rrzzvt
How about Rangers getting mauled by Brugge?
I’ll be up Sunday for Auld Firm, but both teams are limping in…….(7AM kickoff CBS Sports, I believe)