USMNT Make News with Win, Spirit Achieve, FIFA Ticket Shenanigans, and More: Wednesday Freedom Kicks
I haven’t gotten to see the USMNT win that I recorded, no spoilers! That’s for me to do researching for today’s Freedom Kicks. Sigh. Anyway, on to the news!
The greatest team to ever play at RFK Stadium– WAPO
It’s a brief letter to the editor, but a nice correction to a previous article that didn’t talk a ton about United’s incredible legacy they built in that stadium.
The Spirit bagged some weekly awards, including Leicy Santos for a heat guided assist.
A few links refused to “connect,” but worth mentioning anyway.
Mackenna Morris has signed for her new club, Racing Louisville, till 2028 following her trade away from Washington Spirit. We wish her well.
Loudoun United Football Club’s Hugo Fauroux, Florian Valot, and Ben Mines awarded USL Championship Team of the Week Honors for Week 27 win over El Paso Locomotive. Good for them, it looks like Ryan Martin is getting the most out of them, and the owners can’t have that.
USWNT star Alyssa Thompson’s move to Chelsea from Angel City: What it means– ESPN
Bit of a dive into the Alyssa Thompson Chelsea transfer. As we all suspected, Alyssa asked Emma, and Emma obviously didn’t say no.
Everything you need to know about how to buy 2026 FIFA World Cup tickets– CNN
That’s an awful lot of “random,” FIFA. Are you sure you didn’t mean “Ransom?” Cuz I’m guessing there’s a way to get tickets that doesn’t involve waiting and hoping for what I’m sure is completely fair and arbitrary process by the most corrupt sporting body out there.
USMNT rolls to 2-0 win over Japan, breaking streak of top-25 losses under Mauricio Pochettino– Yahoo Sports
Sharing this article mainly for the correct framing in the title. The USMNT defeated a Japan that rotated their entire starting 11 from the side that tied Mexico a few days earlier.
Pulisic rates 9/10 as Japan win gets USMNT back on track- ESPN
ESPN glazes the entire team.
MLS gives Luis Suárez 3-game ban for spitting incident– ESPN
In case you missed it (bet you didn’t), Luis Suarez was (rather lightly) punished with a game suspension in MLS for his spitting transgression in the Leagues Cup Final. Busquests and Aviles, who Leagues Cup recognized as other Miami perpetrators who deserved suspensions, are free to go in MLS play. Don’t worry, MLS whataboutism is going strong with whatever the heck Lenhart is punished for, cuz it’s not clear, and MLS doesn’t want it to be.
Transfer rumors, news: Man City to rival Liverpool for Guéhi– ESPN
The Summer window transfer window just closed, which logically means it’s time for January transfer rumors to dominate the news.
That’s all I’ve got! One-up me in the comments and have a great sporting day!
How it feels to do a Freedom Kicks, and no one shows 😢
https://youtu.be/u8bIz_vHI3c?si=4jmv0ZpsD9KP4PrL
Try writing an article about the Spirit! 😄😭
We must be lonely, side by side. It’s the perfect way to hide
Be not lonely. You delighted me with the word “glaze”……
Glad to see Zendejas do well in the US game last night. He’s been on my list of players I wish DC would go out and sign for a while now, though I doubt they ever will. He does seem to check most of the boxes though (winger/attacking mid fielder; can score; American, so no international slot needed; and a “reasonable” target, given that he’s been linked to an MLS move before)
That would make sense and doing things that make sense are not allowed in the DC Metro area.
I texted MacKay, but he always responds in Gaelic….
I’m happy they got the win, big ol’ asterisk that Japan played an entire squad of backup players to start. Not that they’re bad players, but quality and familiarity weren’t really there.
I think Ream was underrated in the formation, was getting into the midfield and doing good stuff. I normally do not prefer a back three, but if it takes a 5-2-3 to get us going, fuck it
On the quality issue, I saw at least one pundit make the claim that the US wished it had the talent that Japan was starting in it’s rotated squad last night.. I admittedly don’t know much about the Japanese team, so I’m not sure the reliability. Of that claim.
The US goes through very short pundit cycles where we are either worse than San Marino or we have the talent to beat France. We’re somewhere in the middle. People are talking about this result as if we both had the talent advantage and Japan’s B team is equivalent to our A team. It’s complete nonsense all across the board.
I think we saw a lot of good and some of the same continued worries. Pulisic clearly wants to be closer to goal than he starts in a 4-3-3. Zendejas is able to be dynamic in Pochettino’s setup. Balogun is a legit scoring threat and seems to partner quite well with Pulisic. Arfsten is very dangerous on the wing. There’s more but those were my main new takeaways.
The bad …Arfsten will probably get smoked by a slightly better winger. Freeman still seems kind of raw with the WC so close. I’m still not sure our DM is good enough even though the Roldan/Adams tandem felt safer. It might be what we’re stuck with though. We’ll see what the next set of friendlies indicates about Pochettino’s judgement of his candidates.
Agree on Arfsten. He is great on offense but very poor on defense.
I’d agree with this generally. At this point, I’m ok with the US doing a double pivot only midfield if it means we’re less ponderous and more direct, and, as I said before, Ream showed he can jump into the midfield at times for numbers effectively.
I do sorta wonder if it’s remotely possible to include Musah or McKennie in that double pivot, but we’ll cross that bridge next window
That’s definitely a concern. McKennie for sure has the engine, I just really don’t know if Poch can get him to be mindful of his space. I think Musah might lose out on a spot because de la Torre has played cleaner (and plays the full 90 regularly in the US) and there are a million CM options. Changing to 3 at the back is going to have a lot of knock-on effects with available spots on the field.
Aviles (head lock) and Busquets (punching opponent in jaw/face) ought to have been suspended a game or two each as well as the suspension given to Suarez.
Agreed. I also want to know what Lenhart said that merited more of a punishment.that a punch and headlock. Is it out there and I just missed it? Is it just that he said something what hurt Suarez’s feelings? Did he say something offensive? Is it just he shouldn’t have been accredited and therefore shouldn’t have been in the field?
I’d guess it was the latter – shouldn’t have been there and he went in to throw hands. It’s probably why Seattle got dinged. If they want to keep him on the sidelines I’m guessing they’ll have to make him a proper assistant coach or something.
I mean if that is it, how hard is it to say that? This opaqueness just leaves MLS open to the perception that they had to find someway to even it out and this is all they could land on.
^^This