Trin’s Future Looms, Lesesne Adjacent News, World Cup Schedule Announced, and More: Tuesday Freedom Kicks
I’m a fan of winter. It’s my favorite season, especially in this area, given the options. But I’ve definitely reached a serious stage of this seasonal relationship. At some point, though, if you want your chosen season to be themselves, you need to accept who and what they are when they let their hair down.
Anyway, on to the news!
NWSL said it would fight for Trinity Rodman. It’s only fighting with itself– The Athletic
If you’re looking for DC United developments, I’d argue there hasn’t really been any since Benteke said goodbye on Instagram, and his current and former United teammates paid homage and offered their support.
Whether readers would like it to be the case or not, The Washington Spirit are the regional soccer team struggling with titanic drama over the departure of a global icon of the game, and the NWSL, even with its growing pains and regressive thinking on the impact of Trin’s potential departure, is the league with the most potential.
Greenville Triumph announces hiring of new general manager– 7News Spartanburg
If you were wondering what Lesesne is up to, keep wondering, cuz this news involves his former right hand man at United, Zach Prince, who has taken over a major front office role in USL for the South Carolina based franchise.
Pulisic has more than found his stride in Serie A, is one of the bona fide stars performing in that country.
How the 2026 World Cup already killed the ‘group of death’– ESPN
The article explores whether the tournament expansion and the group stage tweak allow for a group of death to be truly what it was. All I’ll really say is that, for Haiti, there’s a group of death.
USMNT’s Mauricio Pochettino Makes Bold Premier League Pledge– Sports Illustrated
Poch has moved on from talking to the press about his desire to return to the top flight of England as a top manager, and has progressed to full campaigning and openly fantasizing about winning the whole shebang. That’s nice, now focus, you weirdo.
The US coach is calling upon the USMNT to relive the experience of The Miracle on Ice team at next year’s World Cup.
I mean, that’s a bit more centered on the job for him, but still sorta strange to hear about that galvanizing American sports legend from the Argentine coach.
I’m glad Sargent is returning to form, but saying he’s legitimately in contention for even a World Cup invite seems like a stretch. Pepi, Balogun, and Wright all seem a bar he will not clear, especially given his atrocious production rate when he has played for the USMNT of late.
2026 World Cup schedule: FIFA reveals match times, locations– ESPN
As previously reported, all USMNT Group D matches will be played on the West Coast. Here’s the larger breakdown for next summer’s tournament.
Fifa to use cooling breaks at every World Cup 2026 game, regardless of weather– The Guardian
FIFA have been paid, I mean, decided, to mandate cooling breaks 22 minutes into each half at the World Cup next summer, regardless of conditions. If you don’t think those are gonna be commercials, you don’t know FIFA.
David Beckham relishes becoming first MLS Cup winner as both player and owner– The Athletic
It’s truly full circle for David Beckham and MLS. He’s gone from being the figure that greatly expanded the signing potential and notoriety of the once financially tottering league, to the figure that is ruining it but unbalancing it deeply with his ownership moves.
Salah-less Liverpool plays Inter in Champions League. Barcelona, Bayern, Chelsea all in action– FOX
The Salah story isn’t going away, though surely the player himself will soon to Saudi Arabia. There’s plenty of action today and tomorrow in the preeminent club tournament. Read about it here.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/picture/2025/dec/09/david-squires-on-mohamed-salah-liverpool– The Guardian
In case you missed what the Salah saga is, here’s analysis of the incendiary rift between the Egyptian legend and Liverpool coach, Arne Slot.
That’s all I’ve got! One-up me in the comments, and have a great sporting day!
I might be a little cynical and maybe a bit jealous. The Beckham story really doesn’t generate much awe from me. It feels like MLS has bent over backwards for him as an owner and a player to pave the way for this.
For sure. I do think the DP rule and Beckham’s presence from a media perspective was pretty significant net benefit for the league- he was also still competitive when he joined even in Europe, and his ethic in training and matches was always there.
He was always a problematic figure within the league- the story of him not picking up the cheque at a team restaurant experience early in his Galaxy career is insane. And he showed he is very much for sale for such groups as the Saudi Royal family with some really cringe and inexcusable reality content.
Now, Miami FC are destabilizing and undermining everything.
I’m very pissed at Berman and how she’s handled the Trin contract situation.
Totally agree with you about the striker room for the USMNT. With the remaining friendlies, you want to work on chemistry and get the guys you know are going to start, a chance to build confidence. Yeah, they’re friendlies but it helps Pepi, Haji Wright, and Balo all can score a goal or two with the NT prior to the WC. At best, I see Sargent invited to a camp if one or more of the above is unavailable and then getting game time only if a player is injured or needs to be subbed and there’s Sargent on the bench. That ship has sailed.
It’s just the pundits sounding off about the striker pool at this point. Even if Pepi got hurt again (please don’t), I’d rather put Pulisic or Weah up top than keep the auditions going.
On the Berman thing, and this applies to Garber as well, I think it’s maybe time to have a serious discussion about what the soccer league commissioners should be about at this stage of development of the game in the US.
The role as owner fluffer and appeaser and opponent of salary progression for players seems a vestigial leftover from an irrelevant era. Soccer interest is everywhere, fans would want to see a product that is excellent. It’s a smart investment for the rich, we’re not trying to keep vital patrons from jumping ship.
Time for there to be a different leadership structure for the heads of these leagues than “Player rights antagonist and billionaire stooge.”
While the true “group of death” may be harder to come by now, I find myself liking the groups in the expanded world cup more. It feels like this will allow for the best teams to get through to the knockout stage, largely independent on what group they get drawn into. The groups generally feel more fair this time around, where before I feel like they could be (and often were) really unbalanced (with both group of deaths and also cakewalk groups).
Spain and Belgium have shockingly easy paths.
I expect England can and should win all their group matches, but they’re gonna be physically sore afterward. Pretty sure British fans are gonna be shocked when they see how athletic and dogged Panamanian soccer players can be
That group is the one I find the most interesting. I know Ghana isn’t the same team as the one that was the US boogeyman for a while, but they can probably still make life unpleasant for the English.
Ghana, by most accounts, are quite fortunate to make the tournament based on their lack of cohesion and wildly inconsistent performances.
That said, sometimes those messes can make you lose your sharpness and punish you with a random couple sequences.
There’s certainly still the possibility of getting groups that are easier or harder than others, that will always be the case. But when you look at the groups from the 2022 world cup, Group B, which the US was in, had all 4 teams come from the top 25 in world rankings. Compare that to Group A, where the Netherlands were top 10, Senegal were around 20th, and then you had Qatar and Ecuador that were both ranked around 50th. With how the groups are this year, I feel like there’s the implication that the best teams are the most likely to advance out of their groups, which results in us having higher quality knockout rounds, or you get the feel good story of an underdog out performing them. It’ll never be perfect, but this feels a little more balanced than before, at least to me
Yeah, I don’t hate it at the moment, and it could play out well.
Unless there’s some serious Cinderella action though, 32 teams will be something we remember fondly and sadly.
The Spain and Belgium groups should be pretty ho hum, is all
Tom Bogert has a good rundown of the top free agents available in MLS at the Athletic. Obviously, with how we performed last season, we need help at every position on the field, particularly with Benteke leaving. A number of these free agents would be good fits for DC (although the players might not see it that way). Really, the team needs to land at least one of the players on that list, and hopefully two.
Was a bit disheartening to see him say that Zimmerman might be off to Dallas or Toronto, he could have been really helpful here. Maybe we still have a shot at Dayne though
Is it speculation or what he’s heard through the grapevine? It’ll be very disappointing if it comes through that we made no effort to get him. But that’ll be ok if we manage to pry someone like Haak away from an inter conference rival.
I google DC United on the News setting at least once a week. We’re getting to DC Power sized gaps between publication dates for any news articles.
For a team that is clearly in need of many, many pieces and should be urgently acquiring what it needs for a new identity under Weiler, no bueno.
I’ve even been keeping tabs on CFR Cluj to see if there’s been any movement with Munteanu. I got excited over the weekend, because it looked like they had kept him off of the roster for their game…until I realized Google just had him lining up at Left Back for some reason. So, nothing there still either.
I’d be very happy with Haak, but there’s a lot of speculation about European interest.
Zimmerman would be a help for sure, but I won’t be too sad if we miss out on him. He’s older, coming off a season with injury problems, and will be coming on a near-DP salary. I wouldn’t be too sad to see us go abroad to fill that spot, with another Kye-Rowles-level-or-better signing. I’ve also been kind of enchanted by what San Diego got with their #1 signing in the SuperDraft and thinking, “Why can’t us?”
We *should* be paying some random college coach to brief us on who’s the best player available. I don’t get the sense we’re doing that, nor that there’s anyone paying attention…
I really think Dave Kasper is in charge now.
I know that he’s just a dude who’s past it, and not some sinister presence or megalomaniac. We pretty much don’t know his personality or character, for the most part.
But I did have the thought reading this that, if Kasper went homicidal and killed Weiler, Sogut, and any other figures that might remain in the building, Levien and Kaplan wouldn’t know about the crime scene without a cleaning service employee’s intervention days later.
The elite burrito in the AV Lounge?
Alphonso Davies is a very late sub for Bayern Munich in the CL 262 days after being sidelined.
Speaking of Balogun and Pepi….
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLL!