USL playoffs set, new World Cup lottery opens, and more: Tuesday Freedom Kicks
Morning folks! The Football Manager 26 beta came out last week and I’ve slowly been getting into the game. My goal is to win the NWSL Shield/Cup double with the Washington Spirit! Anyone else been playing?
Here’s your Tuesday Freedom Kicks:
Loudoun United falls to North Carolina FC, 1-0 (DC News Now)
Loudoun fell 1-0 in their final regular season game.
Field for 2025 USL Championship Playoffs presented by Terminix Set (USL)
In a rare twist of fate, Loudoun will have the chance to get immediate revenge with a semifinal berth on the line as they play the very same North Caroline FC this coming Saturday in the USL Championship quarterfinals (this time in North Carolina).
FIFA adds 1M World Cup tickets for sale, slots for host countries (ESPN)
Of note, this next round of ticket sales includes a time slot only for those living in the US, Mexico, or Canada.
New York Red Bulls coach Schwarz out amid leadership shakeup (ESPN)
The Red Bulls are making some changes after a disappointing season. Schwarz is not the only casualty this week as Colorado Rapids coach, Chris Armas, is also out.
Before there was “Welcome to Wrexham“, there was “Sunderland ‘Til I Die” (which was basically a reverse Wrexham). Oh how far they’ve come reaching the lofty heights of 4th in the Premier League. Is the Champions League on the cards next season for the Black Cats? Whomst has the better Cinderella story? Discuss in the comments below!
A Welsh rivalry but is Wrexham v Cardiff a derby? (BBC)
Speaking of Wrexham, they play today in quite possibly the biggest intercity derby since well, Sunday. This is the first competitive match between the two Welsh sides in 20 years and it’ll be exciting to see who comes out on top. Gadewch i ni fynd!
USMNT weekend review: Depth concerns grow as Mauricio Pochettino’s injury list gets longer (Yahoo Sports)
Our old pal (and former WaPo sports reporter) Steve Goff is back and covering some of the USMNT players.
Inside Messi’s Miami renewal: A deal never in doubt – and one firmly about legacy (NYT$)
A few interesting things here, but mainly it seems like Messi wants to make a lasting impact on soccer in America. This very much feels like the end of chapter 1 of ‘Messi in America’. Miami will certainly look different next season with Alba and Busquets retired and a brand new stadium. What will chapter 2 look like?
Offseason Guides: D.C. United, Atlanta circle the drain
A post mortem for DCU. But you know what’s really gross? New Managing Director of Operations, Erkut Sogut, announced the signing of 15-year-old DCU academy product, Oscar Avilez, via a post on LinkedIn. (Should’ve titled his post “What I learned about B2B sales by buying a 15 year old soccer player!”)
Anyways that’s all I’ve got for you today folks!
I’ve never been a big follower of the EPL (or European soccer as a whole, really). but Sunderland has always been the EPL team I’ve wanted to see succeed. Mostly because I actually grew up in Sunderland (Maryland), so that connection was always fun. Cool to see them finally get back to the premier league and doing well
Sunderland Til I Die is also a really great show.
Fun tidbit: DCU had a light relationship with Sunderland. I remember eating Sunderland meat pies in the “club section” at RFK. Yum.
I am glad to see them thriving. Newcastle v Sunderland is never a bad hot mess.
Oh yeah, I remember that.
I imagine three scenarios for Sogut’s tenure with DCU:
1) an unmitigated disaster. He never shows up in the area, doesn’t hire any scouts, and we end up violating multiple league rules because he doesn’t know what he’s doing. We remain the least talented team in the league.
2) pretty much the same as the last 7 or so years. Sign some capable (but expensive) players, fall short of the playoffs, have to raze half the roster because of budget, and collapse the following year after jettisoning quitely necessary players.
3) he’s actually a genius and we comfortably make the playoffs off some random affordable players and Weiler’s coaching. He leaves afterwards to take up a job in Austria and takes the coaching staff and scouting team he hired with him.
I think you covered most possibilities, and these are astute ideas.
I add that the logo used on the “Tradition” jersey is entirely agnostic of location. I would not be surprised if a move is in the works, and MLS will toss us expansion rights for some new moneybags.
I thought Doyle’s take on DCU was spot-on. Organizationally we’re a disaster and other than some people (like Wynalda) claiming that Sokut is a genius, I have no reason to believe he can put together a functioning organization that will support the coach and players. I have zero confidence in our ownership, especially after the IV where they promised announcements real soon about MLS Next-Pro. We’re not going to outspend most teams in MLS so we’ve got to get better at developing talent.
This is why I am investing my hard-earned money elsewhere. Matt Doyle has a very sober look at this, and I tend to agree with most of the points. I will continue to support them with occasional attendance, AppleTV subscription and what ever hits the skids that suits me.
I don’t want to tell others what to do with their money, but we have been entirely taken for granted, if not lied to in multiple instances over time. I don’t see that changing.
Ryan Reynolds? Want another club to have fun with? Please say yes.
Yeah, the best possible explanation for Levien is that he’s incompetent. Anything more than that is pretty dark.
I’ll go with incompetent and incapable of grasping the situation at hand (repeatedly)
I was curious what Sogut could bring to the table for DCU given we have no track record to look at. Thankfully he is a prolific author. In addition to his fiction series, he has a couple of cash grabby becoming a soccer agent/using analytics books out there. I ended up reading most of Cracking the Data: From the sidelines to the Screens, which he is a coauthor for.
The central ideas he highlights are:
– Developing a single organizational philosophy that undergirds the academy approach, scouting, recruitment, and play. He argues anyone not 100% on board should be dismissed.
– Using analytics to compliment and augment analytics and vice versa.
– On the GM role he highlights two approaches. In the first the GM serves as the deal maker while a deputy serving as head of recruitment drives talent acquisition. For smaller clubs, the GM serves as both.
If this is truly his philosophy and he is effective at it, this could be beneficial for DCU. However, would the owners actually give him the resources to do this? Additionally, with the GM role, which of the two approaches does he take? Ideally, given his agent experience, I think him serving as the deal maker while someone else drives recruitment could work. However given DCU’s resources and the constant reference to smartest person in the room, I think that he is going to fill both roles.
While I am mostly not sanguine about next year there is a small part of me that thinks this is crazy enough to work.
Because this is business we’re talking, I’m sincerely not sure if “analytics to compliment and augment analytics” is a typo or something from the book.
Sorry. Was trying to type fast in the dentist waiting room. Should have been traditional scouting.
fear of the drill will do that to any sane person.
I am waiting to see who they are keeping and who they are trading in the winter window. How much will they blow up the team and how good are the players they bring in? Even after I see that, I am not confident another rebuild will be successful, again.
Whether successful or not, they must rebuild after this dismal year. I hope they are up to the task and only time will tell.
One saving grace is that in MLS (with the roster rules currently in place as they are), no matter how bad you are, you’re never very far off from being able to be competitive. Now, that still requires you to get at least SOME signings right, but bounce-backs (and on the other end, complete and utter collapses) year-to-year are at least doable. The Galaxy essentially went from worst to first to worst again over the course of 3 seasons. Not saying that’ll happen here, but we know its possible. As long as we start to see some amount of improvement next year (maybe a fringe playoff team), that’ll at least be a good sign.