Hello, District Press readers! Hello, new format!
I made 10 bucks yesterday by canceling my order of Football Manager 2024, and reordering it for a lower price. The first order didn’t even provide tracking in a week’s time, this next happened almost immediately, and unlike the first order from Japan, this one is in Massachusetts. Everything is coming up Talonesque! And also, my bar real low these days.
The 7th Spirit player to earn this award this season, and 6 of the last 11 awards. It’s a testament to the squad assembled, discipline shown, and the incredible dedication to online voting by the fanbase.
Loudoun United’s crappy website continues to not link, but Week 29 in USL also saw Ben Mines win the TOTW award for his performance against Phoenix Rising. Gosh, that Ryan Martin sure knows his stuff! Gotta keep that guy arou- oh, right.
Maybe not news, per se, but this opinion feels like stone fact.
In other “trust us, bro” developments following Levien and Kaplan’s relative media blitz, FO is seemingly being cleared of everyone but Sogut and Weiler. Unclear whether they’ll have new company soon, or if the owners think they’re just that good.
USMNT’s Gio Reyna buys stake in USL Ft. Lauderdale United– ESPN
Gio is still rich despite his age and dishearteningly stalled career.
USMNT midweek viewing guide: Europa League kickoff– Stars and Stripes FC
In case you wanted to follow all the goodies in Europe’s most prestigious secondary tournament.
Alex Morgan aims to match USWNT, NWSL success in the business world– ESPN
Good for her.
Becky Sauerbrunn adds new role to ever-expanding portfolio– Pro Soccer Wire
I’m personally chuffed about this development. I avidly watch The Women’s Game, one of my favorite podcasts, and Becky is a joy as a person who talks on Youtube. Can’t wait to see her new podcast under TWG’s umbrella.
Not all good news in the world of USWNT players, as Nighswonger is no longer making many matchday squad. Good on the Arsenal legend for speaking on this.
FIFA discusses historic 64-team World Cup expansion at Trump Tower meeting– The Athletic
Sigh. I can’t even muster snark for these creeps. However,
Fifa not planning 64-team men’s World Cup despite Infantino’s Trump Tower summit– The Guardian
It seems not everyone at FIFA is on board with the 64 team WC, which would in fact be ludicrous.
United Nations experts ask FIFA, UEFA to suspend Israel as ‘necessary response’ to conflict in Palestine– CBS Sports
Sports and politics often meet. I doubt this actually happens, which is good for the Israeli squad that is playing well, but these are fraught times with a lot of bad actors.
MLS Cup Playoff Superlatives: Most Likely to Win, Disappoint, Surprise– Sports Illustrated
It ain’t us.
Atlanta United unveils new soccer field in McDonough– FOX 5
And finally, exciting news that Atlanta United is opening a new mini-pitch. This is good for the community, and it makes me giggle. Mini-pitch.
That’s all I’ve got! One-up me in the comments, and have a great sporting day!
DCU FO is either going to launch or crash. I have no idea, but this all seems ludicrous.
One positive I’ll take from what looks like a complete mess otherwise is that we’ve gotten ahead of our typical timeline for off-season changes. Sogut working abroad for the foreseeable future kind of negates that advantage, but Weiler is here and will have plenty of time to start on his own initiatives (and he seems to know what he’s doing, at the very least). Obviously we’ve been trash since Lucho/Rooney were around. All of the changes have only added to that pile. I’m forgetting who wrote/said this, but when you’re this bad, the only option is to scrap it all and try again. There’s a sliver of a chance that letting the “smartest guy in the room” build a new FO works.
My personal concern is that Weiler will not be getting any help or push back. That Levien and Kaplan see an opportunity to pay Weiler to do anything and Sogut to be their lap dog.
This offseason determines whether I’m gonna push for Apple TV to be part of my orbit, and right now, it’s looking less than promising. Weiler might be good, but this is not.
Apple TV/MLS has excellent production values. None of the half field with players as tiny dots and invisible ball. Generally focus on player with ball and half dozen around him. Multiple cameras used.
Yup, I do think he’ll be on his own to both get the roster rebuild started and/or push back on the owner’s wacky ideas. Based on the interview I read from him while he was with Servette, I don’t think he’ll have any issue telling them they have no idea what they’re doing if they start pushing random has-beens as signings. It’ll get ugly if Sogut ends up currying favor with them though.
I would tend to agree that Weiler has reasonable soccer chops, but this GM hire is odd (to say the least).
It feels like exactly something this Ownership group would do though.
Totally par for the course…..
Do we think that Weiler, Sogut, and whoever else is in the front office will use the draft picks? I know its months away, but still we’re already eliminated and time to start thinking about player acquisition mechanisms.
Something tells me two guys from Europe probably won’t put much stock in (or even know anything about) college players. Unless there’s like 5ish guys that REALLY stand out above everyone else, I feel like we just trade our pick to Philly (or Orlando) for GAM
We’re looking in line for a top 3 pick, so that would at least theoretically position us for some of the best talent available. Steve Birnbaum for instance came at #2 and Perry Kitchen was #3. These days though, a lot of the top draft picks are international, and hopefully those slots are going to be more valuable to us on players like DPs than projects. Also, even the top picks are going to be spending most of their time at MLS Next PRO. Which is something that we don’t have. (Yes, a partnership or whatever that still hasn’t been announced, but it’s a far cry from developing our own players.)
So, I don’t necessarily think we should trade the pick because we’re in a spot that could actually produce value, but that could also net us a decent deal of GAM if someone like Orlando, Charlotte, or San Diego trade up (Philly famously does NOT use the draft these days). Our GAM piles were a little low, and the one thing we did over the trade window was build them up a little bit by selling off assets we weren’t going to use, like discovery rights and international slots. Maybe that will happen again with a draft pick.
Let’s also remember 2021 when we traded to get the #5 pick, used it on Michael DeShields, and then he played precisely 0 minutes in his DC United career.
Fun fact: Derek Dodson was the #8 pick in that draft, by Orlando. He’s now played more minutes than both DeShields and Kimarni Smith (#4) combined did for DC. You can even toss in Rio Hope-Gund (#19, also Orlando) who was very briefly on the DC United roster. I have his Juneteenth jersey!
At this point, maybe it’s just a scenario where you take the best goalkeeper or center back talent available, depending on evaluation, and just see if they can cut it in training.
Not convinced that college is able to produce sufficient talent in other positions anymore, but goalies and CBs come out of nowhere.
Orlando’s track record with the draft is insane. Part of me wonders if that’s more so “the guy we picked was bad” or “Orlando can pick literally anyone and make them good.” But agreed with your earlier point that most of the top guys these days end up being internationals, which probably isnt a great use of resources for us. Either way, I think we end up just getting rid of our pick. Murrel has worked out ok, but he’s really the most successful draft pick we’ve had in like over a decade. And I don’t blame the lack of a Next Pro team for that either. Plenty of other teams have been able to get use out of their early draft picks immediately on their first team. Though those gems are becoming increasingly more difficult to find.
I think we’re in line for the #2 pick (LA Galaxy have 3 home games left, and none are against top teams), and we could get #1, depending on whether DCU or Montreal manage to win any of their remaining games.
It’s fair to dismiss the value of Superdraft picks, but there’s still good value in the top pick or two. Beyond that, there’s not much (a crapshoot, anyway) While there’s a decent chance that it might mean an international player, that player will have a head start on getting a green card. It’s also likely to be a GA player, which is a I believe is still a freebie as to cap space.
There’s far better value in making a pick at the top of the draft than in trading it for a small amount of GAM.
That said, if we’ve canned our scouting department, I don’t know where that leaves us. Maybe, they’ll have someone they trust when the player combine comes around, but it’s not a given that the top players will even participate.
I could be wrong here (or things could have changed) but I don’t think time in college impacts how quickly you can get a green card. I don’t think that process can start until you’re employed, or something like that. For example, Gressel was drafted by Atlanta in January 2017, after playing 4 years in college. He didn’t get a green card (or at least it wasn’t announced) until May 31, 2019, almost 2.5 years later.
I know this will be fun for many of us to read: Kasper is probably the only person left in the organization that’s ever seen a college soccer game 😂
With two broken hips, I cannot go to Buzzard Point. I’ve been selling a pair of both DCU and Spirit tickets game by game.
They are literally the best seats in the house, especially for the price. For DCU, Section 126, Row 12, Seats 23 & 22.
For Spirit, same section and row, seats 18 & 17. 60 foot distance from sideline (pitcher’s mound to home plate). Under West Stand roof.
If anyone wants to buy remaining tickets as a package, respond to this post with contact info.
I hope you heal quickly Mayor Rusk.
Thanks Will. Will get home Friday but still have long recovery time ahead.
Smart investment by Gio. Good way to guarantee he will still have a club be can play for.
*He can play for
The Fields at RFK will host the first annual DMV Rugby Festival from 17-19 October. It’ll be all ages, 7s, 15s, and OGDC academy (Young Glory). If you have a team and want to register here’s the form:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdpKJs0Zle578L2a2hCLYAkov_JP9NDWEc4LI0jogrzWBWWHg/viewform?fbclid=IwT01FWANBNTNleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHkSildZyqqxxGGRGPABojmMZA1ueLjQmT7G5dl5y-8P5ZGbiYTdUIiKa0LhI_aem_LvCoH9owOiFUlzWe0fvlhQ&pli=1
I think this is awesome for the local rugby scene.
A 64-team World Cup is pretty stupid, but my hot take is that I actually like it more than 48 teams. I hate the messy 48-team format where 3rd-place teams advance. 32 teams was perfect and they never should’ve changed that.