Whitecaps to remain in Vancouver, NWSL cap exception takes shape, World Cup prices rise again, and more: Friday Freedom Kicks
Happy Friday! I am back in DC and wondering whether we will be getting a real snowfall this weekend to make up for my missing last week. I am also avidly watching the ongoing saga of Trinity Rodman’s contract and wishing they would just resolve it already so I can get on with my offseason tradition of worrying about unexpected trades instead.
BREAKING: Vancouver Whitecaps announce plans for new stadium (Yahoo! Sports)
It appears the Whitecaps will be staying in Vancouver! They’ve struck a deal with the city to build a new stadium (though details are scant at this point).
Sources: NWSL ‘star’ salaries would be tied to player profiles (ESPN)
Another day, another development in the Trinity Rodman contract saga. The NWSL Board of Commissioners has voted on a new rule to allow star players to be paid higher amounts with a smaller hit on the salary cap. Rules for who is considered a star and what amount of money can be spent seem unnecessarily complicated to me, when you consider that the league has the option of just raising the damn cap, but what do I know about sports ownership?
DWC and House Democrats urge National Women’s Soccer League to uphold Collective Bargaining Agreement (DWC)
Before the vote, Democratic congress members got involved in the dispute over Rodman’s rejected contract, just adding to what a bad look this whole thing is for the league.
World Cup prices rise again after draw; what each match costs to attend (The Athletic $)
Very cool to have a World Cup in that no one will be able to afford to attend.
U.S. could deny entry to Iran players for World Cup (Pro Soccer Wire)
Things also continue to look terrible on the international relations front!
USL Championship Announces Competition Format for 2026 Season (USL Championship)
A “schedule footprint,” as the NWSL would call it. Two new expansion teams will join Loudoun United in the Eastern Conference, and they will play ” 24 or 25 games against in-conference opposition, and 5 or 6 games against Western Conference opposition….”
The USL-C has also started to roll out next year’s schedule with home opener announcements.
World Cup champion Spain widens lead over No. 2 United States in FIFA women’s rankings (AP News)
Maybe I’m wrong on this, but I don’t remember people focusing on the number of points between teams in FIFA rankings before. Regardless, I think it will remain difficult for the US to gain ground while the UEFA teams are playing so many competitions among themselves, limiting US opportunities to play other top teams.
Finally, the match schedule for the weekend. The Gainbridge Super League marches on, although the current forecast is for it to be 35 degrees in Lexington at kick-off time.
| Teams | When | Where | Watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| DC Power FC vs. Lexington SC | Sat., Dec. 13 at 2 p.m. | Lexington, KY | Peacock |
DC United Transfer News! DC is in the process of acquiring Tai Baribo from Philly. Would be a cash transfer for $4M, and he would be a DP. That tells me Benteke is officially not coming back. As far as forwards in the league go, Baribo doesn’t seem like a bad option, though I guess we’ll see if he can maintain his form from last year.
Philly fans seem quite upset about this, so I guess that bodes well for us
Since his salary was never over a million, one has to wonder about this. Heck, at least it’s movement……
Yeah, I guess we’re both giving him a pay bump (which he wanted, and arguably deserved), and we also have to factor in the transfer fee. I’d imagine he’ll be just above the DP threshold, but maybe we could buy him down after a couple years.
Matt Doyle notes that this has been “an open secret since June.” Not sure if that relates to Baribo wanting a new contract from Philly, or if DC has been trying to sign him for that long. Also notes this is a good move for DC, but that they need to keep adding more (which, yeah, I think we all agree with that)
June was before Mackay left.
Maybe he wanted to sign Baribo, but Levien was still holding out for Pogba?
That seems possible
Yeah, I like this. I’d been thinking that we should be targeting either Baribo or Mikael Uhre. Giving him a DP salary is… probably fine. It’s a little along the lines of giving a DP deal to Mateusz Klich. Neither is going to singlehandedly win you games like a Cucho Hernandez or something like that, but they should produce. In his two years actually playing for the team, Klich very nearly wound up in the top 10 career assist leaders in United history. Baribo has been the top scorer for Philly the last two years in a row.
Baribo is familiar with MLS, only 27, and doesn’t take up an international slot. He can get in the box and score bunches, but sometimes those goals come in spurts. He had 16 goals last year, but something like 7 of those were scored in the first three games. He’s also going to need players around him to feed him the ball, but DC needed to bring those types of players in regardless.
I also like that DC has been making use of the cash transfer program. I don’t necessarily know that we’re getting good value, but 1) the team likely has to overpay to get players to come here, and 2) the cash comes from the owners, rather than allocation money.
I think that United only has five international slots used right now (Joon, Rowles, Peglow, Peltola, Enow), and Peltola and/or Enow could theoretically be close to getting a green card. So that’s at least three international slots that can be used for two more DPs, and some kind of other squad signing.
Yeah, this seems like a solid move. Not groundbreaking, but good as long as he can keep producing. But as you said, he’s got some familiarity with the league (and the Eastern conference), and the Philly and DC climates are also pretty similar, so that won’t be a huge change either. As long as we did this for cash so that we can use our xAM on other guys, I think this is good. Even beyond Klich, Arriola was also a very solid just above DP threshold player. Not everyone needs to be (or is going to be) superstars making $5M a year
To be clear, I would also like one of those superstars, too. Like a Carles Gil or Diego Valeri type for the midfield. Or a Bouanga for the wing.
Oh for sure, same here. Just unreasonable for most teams (cough Miami cough) to have 3 of those. Put a superstar winger on the field with Baribo, and we might have something.
Darth Garber just called me. He is rerouting Baribo to Miami. DC United will be compensated with GAM.
GAM? Or a bag of soccer balls?
Positive take: we aren’t making a young player in terrible form our new DP striker?!
Negative take: comments on reddit suggested he wasn’t very involved in possession, though he was still good at pressing. Getting Benteke the ball was already a challenge, so the problem of who makes the final pass remains.
We’re getting someone who won’t be a superstar but is a proven performer in MLS, has adjusted to the league, and Weiler has seen and coached against. Given how often someone new to MLS takes a year to adjust (or never adjusts), I think this is a sensible deal.
I also do wonder if this means that the Louis Munteanu deal is off. The sides reportedly were far off on salary and transfer values. I like what I saw of Munteanu, but Baribo seems like more of a sure thing, and cheaper to boot.
The club needs more help than just Baribo. They should be looking for more talent including Munteanu. Imagine what could have been with Baribo and Benteke playing at the end of the season.
Munteanu just seems to play a pretty similar position to Baribo. I believe I saw it said that Munteanu can also play out wide, but I think his preferred position is CF. They could probably make a lineup with both players work, but my own preference would be to look for a CAM and a RW with our remaining DP slots.
As far as Baribo v. Munteanu breaks down, I think they’re pretty similar in style. Munteanu I believe is a little taller and maybe a little faster, and might have more of a long range shot. He’s also young, but DC’s ability to nurture young players and develop them is pretty bad. Baribo is in the prime of his career and has success in MLS, plus he doesn’t take an international slot and he costs less.
Adding talent anywhere and everywhere is a fine goal, but if it’s a choice between just Baribo or just Munteanu, I’m not upset that DC went this way.
I just went through and watched all of Baribo’s goals from last year (thanks, Apple’s Season Pass!), and my takeaway is that we could definitely use Kai Wagner. Baribo got a lot of goals from crosses, many specifically from Wagner. Some of the crosses were low, but Baribo did also get a very high number of headed goals too.
When they weren’t crosses, Baribo was fitting in quite well with Philly’s brand of making chaos, forcing turnovers, and having lots of numbers in the attacking box. Baribo is kind of a master at nabbing the ball in the scrum and finishing with one quick touch.
Schnegg and Herrera are decent at crossing in, but moving into a more high press, numbers forward style would bring us back to some of the early days of Troy Lesesne.
I’m now wondering what a Thai Burrito would taste like…
Given how I understand the NWSL “Rodman Rule” (officially “High Impact Player”) that’s been approved, instead of making this easy, it complicates things. The “High Impact Player” concept requires you to qualify in part by “player profile.” This includes criteria like: appearing on the Ballon D’or list, number of USWNT caps, how often you’ve made the NWSL Best XI. It also includes things like “commercial profile” and third party rankings of players.
This is bullshit. It reads like a list of hoops you have to jump through that the owners came up with to mollify teams that don’t want to spend bucks and make it hard to qualify as a “HIP”. It would probably make it impossible to sign Aitana Bonmati or Alexia Putellas or Patri Guijarro (because they won’t have USWNT minutes, aren’t very visible in the US market and have never made a NWSL Best XI).
Even a DP rule would have been better! This is so needlessly complicated
Agreed!
Did they get the do things that make no sense bug from DC?