La Liga game in Miami protests, dissecting the Spirit loss, and more: Tuesday Freedom Kicks
Morning everyone! I scored yesterday in my 30 plus soccer league! It was a simple tap in but for a defender, that ain’t nothing!
Anyways, here’s your Tuesday Freedom Kicks:
Annie and Ella break down the most recent Spirit game! I, for one, agree about the stutter step penalty being an unfair advantage for players like Marta.
Day 2 protests by La Liga players against game in Miami still censored on TV (AP)
Interesting to see how opposed many of these players are to the game overseas. It may be early, but I’m starting to think that this game in Miami may become a one off event…
Four players from the U-20 World Cup who have a USMNT future (SSFC)
Cremaschi won the Golden Boot at the tournament with 5 goals. Considering he’s playing his trade in Italy and he’s already got a few caps for the US, I can see him being incorporated in the next World Cup cycle (maybe even sooner 👀)
2025/26 Concacaf W Champions Cup Semifinals Matchups Confirmed (Concacaf)
The Spirit will play Pachuca Feminil on the W Champs Cup semifinal on May 21st. The knockout stages will all be held at a yet to be announced centralized location. Last year, the knockouts were all in Monterrey, Mexico.
Federal employees affected by the shutdown can get free tickets to Loudoun United’s final home game of the season.
Washington Spirit’s Gift Monday snubbed again by Nigeria, for Super Falcons’ WAFCON qualifiers (ESPN)
What will it take for Gift Monday to be called up by Nigeria again?
Rodman has not been formally replaced on the USWNT squad who will now head into the friendlies against Portugal with 25 players.
A tribute to a USWNT icon, whose contributions were felt both on and off the field, from André Carlisle.
DCU player, Gabriel Pirani, had a few things to say in this interview (gotta bust out the translator for this one). Mainly he noted what an honor it was to share a field with Messi and Benteke (a sentence no one had uttered before in history).
Two things to note from the article: according to FIFA, it is the only eligible bid for the 2031 World Cup and should therefore be confirmed in the next year or so. And, it is going to be expanded to include 48 National teams.
What is the greatest individual performance in sport? (NYT$)
In the wake of Shohei Ohtani’s historic performance that led the Dodgers to the World Series, this article compares his achievement with the exploits of many other players including soccer stars Messi, Mbappe, and Marta. In your opinion, who has had the greatest individual soccer performance in history? Discuss in the comments!
Finally, I love when two of my interests, climate action and soccer, intersect! Very interesting podcast from The Women’s Game about how climate change is affecting our favorite sport which includes both challenges and solutions to it.
Just a reminder to take an extra long lunch break today to watch some Champions League games 😉
In the realm of the soccer/climate discussion, as someone with a PhD in Atmospheric Science, I think one of the more funny/interesting things to me is the fact we use Wet Bulb Temperature when deciding if we need hydration breaks. I remember learning about it in grad school and at the time not really seeing a realistic use for it outside of being an intermediate step in calculating things like condensation layers, so its always funny to have seen it come back and be something I hear about frequently now
They use wet bulb temperature during the summer to determine outdoor activity levels at MCB Quantico in regards to training and other evolutions taking place outdoors.
Might be a controversial take, but for me the greatest sporting performance was in the 1982 intramural football semifinal between my Freshman hall and DKE. Trailing by a TD on the final play, we ran Hail Mary pass play meant to isolate and target our 2 best athletes, but as the ball went up I broke my pattern and ran in their direction. When the defender punched the ball away, I was right there to corral and cradle it, and race past everyone for the tying score. We won in OT. Alas, there is no video, so it’s a dark horse moment in the debate, but it’s right up there with the “Lewis Neal” moment, and maybe George Springer’s HR last night.
Re: the Concacaf W Champions Cup knock-out rounds
It could be very fun to do a Mexico trip to watch these, but I’m guessing this year’s site will be in a different country to mix things up.
It would be so cool for Audi to host the knockouts. Wonder if Kang can sway it so that we host…
I would love Audi, but I bet they lean into somewhere further west and have it somewhere like KC, Dallas, or Denver.
I think it’s very likely to be in one of the hometowns of the participating teams so they can maximize ticket sales. If they want to switch from Mexico to the US, that would mean either here or Gotham. Scheduling at Audi in May can be very tough with everything else going on at the stadium, but hopefully they can make it happen!
Given how hard and how long the organizers have fought to have this game in Miami, I would be shocked if the don’t return unless attendance just isn’t worth it.
FIFA, UEFA, and others seem to see the Us as this untapped ATM. Probably won’t stop until shown otherwise.
Well, I was very wrong here.
https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/46672202/laliga-barcelona-villarreal-game-miami-usa-cancel
Barcelona probably isn’t wrong about a missed opportunity to make the kinds of inroads in the US that the Premier League has enjoyed over the couple of decades.
But, for fans back in Spain, these ventures must feel really dubious. I am always surprised at how NFL teams and their fanbases have not experienced more friction with hte NFL bringing so many games abroad, I guess with an additional 17th game in the schedule, it’s less concerning, but surely some teams are giving up an 8th home game, especially with some teams staying in Europe for 2 games. If that’s happpening, are the teams giving their season ticketholders a break.
That podcast was great
It’s amazing to see the havoc that a 1.3 degrees C. increase in global temperatures in the past 150 years can cause!
just wait for the havoc the next 1.3 degrees C increase will cause in coming years and decades.
Or maybe we’ll see global cooling again. Mother Nature can be very fickle!