Ballon d’Or winners announced, Pulisic sets scoring record, and more: Tuesday Freedom Kicks
Morning everyone! My indoor 30+ soccer team is going through our “DCU Era” and got walloped 8-0. On top of that, my Freedom Kicks draft from yesterday didn’t auto save so I’m starting from scratch this morning! Pardon me if I miss any stories, but let’s dive in!
I know for some, the Balon d’Or is considered an overhyped award and just an excuse to hold a gala. That being said, last night Ousmane Dembele was crowned the best player in the world (from August 2024 to July 2025) by French journalists. Below is the full list of winners from last night. Who was overlooked in your opinion? Also the Spirit’s own Sofia Cantore placed as the 24th best female player in the world. Congrats Sofia!
| Ballon d’Or (Best player) | Kopa Trophy (Best u21 player) | Johan Cruyff Trophy (Best coach) | Yashin Award (Best goalie) | Gerd Müller Trophy (top scorer) | Club of the Year | |
| Male | • Ousmane Dembéle (PSG/France) | •Lamine Yamal (Barcelona/France) | • Luis Enrique (Paris Saint-Germain) | •Gianluigi Donnarumma (PSG/Man City/Italy) | •Viktor Gyökeres (Sporting/Arsenal/Sweden) | • PSG (men’s team) |
| Female | • Aitana Bonmatí (Barcelona/Spain) | •Vicky López (Barça/Spain) | • Sarina Wiegman (England) | •Hannah Hampton (Chelsea/England) | • Ewa Pajor (Barcelona/Poland) | • Arsenal (women’s team) |
Christian Pulisic Overtakes USMNT Legend With Latest Milestone (SI)
Christian Pulisic scored a brace over the weekend to pull ahead of USMNT legend Clint Dempsey and reign supreme as the top American goal scorer in Europe with 59 goals in the top 5 European leagues.
Minnesota Lynx’s Cheryl Reeve, Knox, invest in Minnesota Aurora (ESPN)
This would be an interesting addition to the NWSL and I am here for it!
Isobel Goodwin shows London City Lionesses can thrive in WSL after liftoff (The Guardian)
I actually ended up watching this game on Friday afternoon and Michele Kang’s second favorite team ( 😉 ) beat Everton Women 2-1 to secure their first ever WSL win. Congrats Lionesses!
Klich spoke harshly about Messi and Inter Miami. “His father is in charge there.” (Sport PL)
Our former DP (who I believe is still on our payroll despite leaving 9 months ago…) had some less than stellar things to say about Messi and Friends FC: “It was Inter Miami, Leo Messi’s current team. And it was the legendary Argentine that Klich identified as his number one problem. ‘I don’t recommend Miami as long as Messi is there. It’s a disaster; people are leaving, coaches and physiotherapists are leaving. Organizationally, it’s bad. Messi’s dad basically runs the club. Everyone speaks Spanish, and nothing can be done without their consent. The club itself is also 45-50 minutes from Miami,’ Klich said.”
The crash out over DCU’s new CSO below:
Alright, that’s it for me today folks! Feel free to discuss in the comments!
First, kudos to the DP staff for the new look. I’m sure this took a lot of planning and work.
Second, Klich’s comments are just brutal. It’s interesting that he highly recommended Nashville as a place to go (along with NY Red Bulls). I wish he’d had a word of praise (even if faint) about Washington DC as a location (not the club, just a city to be in). Maybe he was being diplomatic–great city, dumpster fire organization–so said nothing.
Third, on the women’s Balon D’Or–it’s so pitiful how poorly thought out it is. Sure, it’s an excuse for a gala. But in the past, scheduling it on dates where the women couldn’t participate. Or the questions asked of Ada Hergerberg. And if you were to look at the list of women for this year’s award, you’d assume that the US women were mostly a lower tier country and league–very few US women on the list (and I believe all of them were in Europe) and the few NWSL players were all foreign (Banda, etc.) who had already developed reps before coming to NWSL.
I expect the women’s Ballon d’Or to be eurocentric but am somehow still surprised this year by just *how* eurocentric.
Yeah. I get that Barcelona is talented (I’m a Barca fan). But this just demonstrates how “shallow” and uninformed most of the selectors are. And that’s sad.
TBH, I’m kinda relieved Klich thinks we’re better run than Miami. I wouldn’t have ranked it that way from the outside looking in.
Not sure if this is a me problem or not, so checking here — are the comments displaying as black font on a black background for anyone else? I’ve tried a few different browsers and it seems to be the same everywhere
Uh. Comment entry seems different(?)
Seems like the new theme broke something. Comments are mostly all in black text on black background. This on firefox but notice the same issue on Chrome as well
I hate Inter Miami too after that last game. Messi is an excellent on field player but the rest of his friends are now too slow for a major league game so they foul too much. Too much grabbing and too much clipping the ankles. The league needs to do something but we know it won’t.
Hi everyone, we are rolling out a new look for the site and are aware there have been some issues with comments. We are working on them and appreciate your patience, but please let us know if you experience any new problems so we can try to address them.
Most recent update seems to have worked! Comments have a white background again, so things are readable.
Thanks all for working on it!
I like the new look. Initially I had a couple of problems (my comment didn’t show, I was asked to register to set up a new account) but the update to the update seems to have corrected everything.
Well, the bluesky posting rant pretty much sums up my view of the DCU brand anymore. It reinforced that my dollars will be spent better elsewhere.
I’m part of the way through the most recent Pitch Pass, the two guys sound so sad *for* DCU. Like, they say it’s so well positioned to be a great team except for all the garbage decisions made since opening the stadium. I want to have some hope that whatever reorganization will put the best people in charge, but it’s so unlikely.
Pablo Maurer reporting that DCU cut their entire scouting department, if the other signs weren’t enough. I guess we’ll know in the coming months if that means we’re getting a new staff in or if it’ll be friends and family of the new executives.
Well, it continues to make my position more and more sound.
They cut the ENTIRE department.
Pablo reporting that DC has cut the entirety of the scouting department, with the goal of re-establishing it under Erkut and Weiler
Somehow Andrew Wiebe didn’t look at the VAR call in Instant Replay yesterday. I mentioned him on X to get his attention, but apparently he didn’t see it.
If London City Lionesses are Michele Kang’s second favorite team, it’s because Lyon is her first favorite.
Because of two broken hips, I’ve put my remains DCU and Spirit tickets on sale game by game. They are literally the best seats in house., especially for the price. For DCU section 126, row 12, seats 23 and 22.
For Spirit same section and row but seats l18 and 17. Distance from player throwing ball into play 60 feet (I.e. pitcher’s mound ty home plate).
If anyone would like to buy either or both as a package, reply to the post. I’m
Sorry to hear about the hips–ugh!
Oof. I’m sorry to hear about the hips Mayor Rusk. I hope you heal quickly.