Supporter Groups Oppose HIP, More Macario Rumors, Enow Out, Why the British Play Their Festive Fixtures, and more: Christmas Freedom Kicks
Happy Thursday everyone. Talonesque is a hard act to follow after yesterday’s Freedom Kicks. Unfortunately, I can’t match that level of creativity. Despite it being a week where many people are off work and spending time with family, news from across the soccer world continues to come in at a rapid pace. Let’s get to it.
More HIP Reactions
Following Tuesday’s High Impact Player rule announcement by NWSL, it was immediately slammed by the Player’s Association which indicated it would take action to “enforce the rights of the players”.
Yesterday, a third party with a vested interest in the situation weighed in; fans groups from across the league. In a coordinated effort, independent supporters groups, including the Rose Room Collective, the Spirit Squadron, and 202 Unique, issued a uniform statement announcing their opposition to the HIP rule, supporting the players and calling for fans to take a series of actions to demonstrate their opposition to the league. Actions include blocking NWSL on social media, not purchasing merchandise from the NWSL store, and contacting teams and the league to indicate their opposition to the rule.
The ability of the supporter groups from across the country to organize and develop a unified response on short notice during what for many is a holiday week is quite impressive.
Who exactly is eligible for HIP money? (The Equalizer)
The Equalizer went through the cumbersome task of figuring out just who would qualify under the byzantine HIP requirements and came up with a list of 102 players. Croix Bethune, Sofia Cantore, Casey Krueger, Tara McKeown, and Trinity Rodman are eligible for a HIP rule contract. With five players qualifying under the HIP rule, the Spirit have the third most eligible players in NWSL after Kansas City (7) and Gotham (6). The full list of eligible players and those who didn’t qualify is fascinating and worth a read.
Speaking of eligible players, it appears one of of the suitors referenced in yesterday is Bay FC. If HIP remains in place in the long run, will any of the 102 eligible players actually break ranks with the NWSLPA and accept such a deal. Macario may present one of the first test cases for solidarity among the players should her interest in playing NWSL be legitimate.
Though unconfirmed at this point, Erkut Sogut may have given a large portion of the D.C. United fan base an early Christmas present as the roster remodel continues on.
Richards shares encouraging injury update after scary incident (Pro Soccer Wire)
It appears USMNT fans can breathe a sigh of relief after what looked like a bad injury. According to Crystal Palace coach Oliver Glasner, Richards “got a knock on his foot and had to be stitched, but it doesn’t look so bad.”
Concacaf’s 2025: A year in review (FIFA)
Richards was among the breakout stars on the men’s side FIFA listed for the year. Check out highlights of all the things you forgot from the year in Concacaf and maybe even some you don’t want to remember.
Carlos Coronel poised to spurn Orlando City for São Paulo: Sources (The Athletic $)
This is a weird one with Coronel ghosting Orlando City after completing his medical. D.C United is lucky he didn’t seem to be interested in coming to the DMV. The Black and Red could have been in a big bind had it happened to here.
Why football at Christmas is a very British tradition (BBC)
England’s “Festive Fixtures” are an oddity among most European Leagues. The BBC dusted off and updated this history of why there are games on Boxing Day and New Year’s. The history behind the fixtures provides an interesting view of how sports, holidays, and the living environment have evolved over the last century or so.
I’ll end with this.
Rating 2025’s Christmas sweaters from top soccer teams (ESPN)
Some of these sweaters are quite creative and good looking. In particular, I like the Celtic and St Pauli sweaters. If I rooted those teams I might try to get one. Others, however, I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy or RBNY fans.
What did I miss?
For those of you who celebrate, Merry Christmas! For those of you who don’t, I hope you have a wonderful Thursday full of friends and family. I’ll see you all in the new year!
And a happy holidays to you!
The Coronel thing is weird. I’m guessing it has WC/NT issues (play in South America so your coach can see you more often rather than in MLS). Glad that Richards is about stitches rather than ligament repair.
Finally, I don’t know how this HIP deal will play out long-term. But I think what will happen short-term is the following: the Player’s Association stand will make it impossible for Rodman to sign. NWSL won’t be able to come up with any kind of resolution in the next 30 days. She’ll get a good offer from Chelsea (or some other club) and will sign there.
I’ve said from the git-go that the HIP details are just looney: using a list generated by Euro journalists. Or going by marketing data (which will be biased towards white players and those who have long careers rather than top performers–for instance, I bet Alex Morgan right now has a higher Q rating than Thompson or Macario). But the concept of HIP (let’s have some criteria for players that a team can break the cap on, otherwise teams will spend it just to avoid losing a player even if they aren’t worth it–kind of spurious but I can see that argument) has some rationale. But it was idiotically planned and then sprung on the Player’s Association without any involvement. Stupid.
Also, I could be dead wrong but people putting out these lists (120 players who qualify under HIP standards) I think are inaccurate. I think those are players that meet SOME of the criteria. I think HIP is set up so it’s very easy for the approval committee to deny a player by saying “well, yes, you do have sufficient NT minutes but you weren’t in the NWSL Best XI.”
The biggest problem with HIP is that it’s not negotiated so it’s not in the CBA at all. That is why the NWSLPA is against it. It’s basically a union busting tactic.
Also I really think if someone offers a deal it’ll be London City or Lyon to Rodman.
I get the argument about “Union Busting” but it isn’t. However, the Union wants to have major involvement in all decisions (especially pay) even if it means unilaterally increasing pay above the cap level. And that attitude is likely to cost us Rodman. Because it means there won’t be quick resolution to this issue.
Sogut ridding us of Enow this early in the offseason is real “And now for my next trick” stuff
We definitely would need an excellent DP signing to make the offense tick, but out of nowhere, this offseason is getting in gear
It does strike me as odd that all this is coming after the Superdraft, save for the Baribo move, which makes me wonder if they really wanted to see how things looked after that process
Which, if true, would be pretty wild
I dunno, people kept saying there wasn’t any news around DC, but we got linked to a Romanian striker, a Dutch fullback, I saw one mention of an Egyptian midfielder, and we may actually be closing in on a Japanese fullback. That’s a pretty fair amount of stuff. The team has been much busier in reality than I would have expected. They’ve strengthened much of the spine (or addition via subtraction in the case of Enow), and have strongly hinted that plans for at least a second DP acquisition are well underway. There’s also rumors that a team in Brazil (Sao Paulo, I think, where Carlos Coronel is off to) is interested in Gabriel Pirani (who just filmed a Christmas message on behalf of the team).
All of which is to say is that plenty is happening, and plenty more is going to happen. I don’t think any of the timeline has been noteworthy, other than in past years it sure seemed like the team waited longer to really get going. This front office just seems to play things fairly close to the vest, at least domestically. When we hear of signings like Baribo, and especially Nealis and Johnson, the actual signings are usually just a few days after we hear the rumors. None of the international rumors have yet to materialize, but we’ll see how that goes.
I mean, sure, I know these things take time, but it was scarily silent for a while. There were no reports or news stories, and even the DP writers’ slack I’m now a part of couldn’t dig up many tweets or
rumors.
So, things have picked up.
BTW, I think Boris Enow was definitely ineffective and a liability, but in a very unusual way.
He had ball carrying ability, he was capable of passing with quality technique, and he was quite mobile. Added together, these qualities usually add up a valuable player.
But he was dumb as a box of rocks with his decision making. He was rarely in the right position for the rest defense, and even his mobility only accomplished a chance at a desperate tackle that often was card worthy. His passing angles and timing were usually ill advised, and led to turnovers. When he carried the ball, it was often directly into traffic with 0 plan. He was a dreadful partner easy to bypass, no matter who was doing what.
So, see ya.
I’m glad that Coronel did not end up coming here. Had he decided to ghost us at the last second, I think the perception of it would have been a lot more negative towards dc than it currently is for Orlando, even if it was entirely a player decision. Though it does suck for Orlando being left in this position after most of the best FA goalies are already off the board
Yup, we dodged a major bullet. Orlando will probably have to use additional resources to bring in someone else’s backup keeper and hope they have a starter. We’ve got Johnson on reasonable contract (as far as length goes).
If Orlando should happen to be interested in a promising South Korean prospect on a U-22 deal, well…
Will the players on HIP contracts be known as HIPsters?
Merry Christmas everyone!
The HIP rule should be applied fairly. The HIP rule should give each team a chance to find a player that they can pay high dollars for vs having a few teams with players that meet specific criteria. It is kind of messed up.
Lots of DCU moves, but really only Sean Johnson is an impact. Other moves are not upgrades. Baribo is really replacing Benteke. Is Nealis an upgrade? Not sure. Will the drafted players have an impact? I don’t know. It seems Petola is the Defensive Mid after moving Enow. What are they looking for in the off season signings? I am happy they signed Johnson so he can get time in with his defense in preseason. Will Bartlett be back? A lot of moving parts so its hard to say how it will turn out. I think they will be signing players to the end of the transfer window and I think that will go into the start of the season.
The purpose of the HIP rule is two fold:
1) It’s to give the owners and especially the owners who don’t want to spend a get of media jail free card by giving the owners that do want to spend an outlet to do so without forcing them to spend.
2) To break the NWLSPA by creating a contract structure outside of the agreed CBA.
Had they just let Rodman sign the agreed deal which was CBA complaint, but would put pressure on the other owners to raise their spending, this wouldn’t be an issue so here we are.
This is the first I’m hearing of a path for the Spirit that was CBA-compliant. Just needed to let Rodman sign an agreed deal?
The union will have to get used to the idea that there will be far greater stratification in salaries. It’s the nature of the beast. Fans want and help create stars, and the enterprise is entirely dependent on keeping fans happy. Those players who will have more opportunities abroad will have more leverage. The salary structure must adjust to the new realities, where the US league is no longer the only real option and may not even be the most desirable one.
It doesn’t have to break the NWLSPA. Basically, every men’s league union has agreed to such systems. Initially, it was labor that was pushing for free agency. Execs adjusted to that, and eventually systems emerged to hopefully maintain some semblance of competitiveness on the field, and some semblance of economic sanity off it.
They need to raise the salary cap. That’s what is actually right in this scenario, based on the numbers and the potential boom this league could achieve with better support from the owners.
A number of them simply don’t want to reveal how little they truly want to invest. This is just cover for them. There’s no sanity to that, just chicken shit greed that mars the player’s lifestyles, healths, and future financial security.
So, no to all that. Raise the salary cap, and if if an owner doesn’t want to match the others, let them be known as a low ambition penny pincher who doesn’t want to put on a show in an insanely affordable player market.
Yeah, if I’m not mistaken the NWSLPA’s grievance is premised on the original rejected deal was cap compliant.