Benteke bids DC adieu, USWNT sweep Italy, and more: Tuesday Freedom Kicks
Morning folks on this cold and wintry day in Washington. For many of us, it is the first snowfall of the season. I am lucky that I did not have to brave the elements this morning, but I do have to go downtown in the afternoon. I am making the most of it though and headed to the DC Metro Holiday Pop Up Shop (I’m a sucker for public transit).
Anyways, let’s jump into the soccer news!
Benteke leaves the Black and Red after 100 appearances and 49 goals across all competitions.
How will he be remembered? As a captain who put the team on his back.
USWNT puts bow on 2026 with easy win over Italy (ESPN)
The USWNT end the year with two wins against Italy where they did not get scored on. Kate Wiesner got the start at left back and Croix Bethune came on for Lily Yohannes in the second half. Sofia Cantore played for the opposition. They finish the year with 12 wins, 0 draws, and 3 losses.
The 100 best female footballers in the world 2025 – Nos 100-71(The Guardian)
Both Leicy Santos (#95) and Gift Monday (#97) crack the top 100! Also Springfield local and rising USWNT star, Lily Yohannes, comes in at #80.
We take a look at the most pressing challenges the Spirit needs to address this offseason. What do the Spirit need do to make that final push towards silverware after coming agonizingly close over the past two seasons? Discuss in the comments below!
European football: ‘utterly outrageous’ fireworks cause Ajax abandonment (The Guardian)
Is it terrible for your lungs? Absolutely. Does it look cool? Absolutely.
Sometimes I wish we had relegation in the US just for moments like this…
Purists be damned: why title-deciding playoffs make soccer sing (The Guardian)
…on the flipside, I do enjoy the playoff system in the US. Is it the most fair? Eh. Is it entertaining? Damn straight. Should the footballing world at large incorporate playoffs into their leagues? Sound off in the comments!
2025 NWSL Year in Review: Biggest Moments, Breakout Stars & Defining Storylines (JWS)
A nice month-by-month recap of the NWSL in 2025. Man the script writers sure packed it in for this season!
Report: CONMEBOL, Concacaf discussing option of USA hosting 2028 Copa América (SSFC)
To date, the US is the only non-CONMEBOL country to host the Copa America which they did in 2016 and in 2024. In theory, Messi will still be playing in Miami as he has a contract until the end of 2028 so we could see him end his time in the US with a bang.
After capturing the MLS Next Gen Pro Cup with Red Bull NY/NJ II, it looks like Bradley did enough to capture the attention of the top brass.
Alright that’s it from me folks! Also, I’ll be out of the country for most of December and some of my kind colleagues will take over my Tuesday Freedom Kicks spot for a few weeks. Hopefully, I’ll have some fun travel (and possibly footy related) stories to share! Enjoy your Tuesday!
I’ve never been a big follower of European soccer (I’ll watch games if they’re on and keep tabs on different leagues, but don’t really root for anyone), so this is from more of an outside perspective. But I find it funny that it seems like the more Euro-centric fans are huge fans of the Champions League and World Cup, both playoff-style knockout tournaments, but are completely appalled at the idea of that being applied to a league.
I was going to post something similar. League Cup competitions are just about everywhere in the world. That’s why I like the Supporter’s Shield having some weight, ironically as does the FA Cup championship.
That’s a great point. National cups/league cups are also knockout/playoff formats. So for English teams, the FA Cup, the EFL Cup, the UEFA Champions Cup, along with the World Cup and Club World Cup, are ALL playoff style competitions. The ONLY one that isn’t is the league itself. Playoffs are the standard when you really think about it.
The thing that I prefer about the non-playoff structure of the European domestic leagues is that regular season success really means something. That consistency, that dominance, that ability to grind out tough away matches.
Playoffs are fun, but MLs has long struggled to make the regular season anything more than establishing playoff contention, and as entertaining as the playoffs can be, that’s sad when such a hefty percentage of teams make it.
That said, if Thomas Muller decides to psychologically scar the Barcelona elders and their hubristic squad built on financial cheating and league favoritism, it’s obviously the best thing ever.
I am ordering a Mueller jersey.
I hope Vancouver buries their corrupt buttskies. The favoritism shown by the league towards Miami is laughable in its obvious presentation.
I bought a couple Metro scarves last year. One for my Metro stop when I used to live in the District, and one for Audi Field.
Loudoun just announced that they’re creating a “Loudoun United 2” that will be playing in the USL League 2 Chesapeake Division starting next year.
Why can Loudoun get its act together, except for letting Ryan Martin go, but Levien and Co can’t?
Beat me to it! DC can get a team going at *any* point and move it wherever they make a space for it later…there can’t be some obscure law preventing this? I’m willing to concede Loudoun had to go the way it did because of changing league rules. How everyone else can have a youth team going in the time since while we loan our guys a week at a time to random teams hundreds of miles away is another story.
Playoffs are good for drama — though blowouts do happen, there’s usually some good drama, perhaps even last minute stuff. Walk-off home-runs, last-second shots. But for all that, I don’t know that any playoff game could have ever generated the drama with Manchester United waiting on a Crystal Palace win, or then a draw, only to see City pull out the title with 2 goals in stoppage time.
I’d love for the Copa to be in the US again–maybe I can get tickets to that since my dreams of getting WC tickets seem to be vanishing.
I’m glad to see the NWSL get a little more love with the list of players by the Guardian. But it’s still heavily Euro-centric. No Rosamonde Kouasi? No Tara McKeown? Cat Macario seems pretty low on the list and Esther seems a bit too high to me.
And Christian Benteke–what a great signing he was. It was so mind-blowing to see how dominant he was. I wish we could have had him surrounded by some decent talent.