Brooks Lennon on Trial with United, Spirit Sign Umpteenth Defender, Reptile Shows, and More: Wednesday Freedom Kicks
Let’s just say, glad to be here, and glad my car is out of the shop. The car that I unexpectedly had to relinquish midday Friday.
On to the news!
This got some play in the comments just yesterday, but Goff is reporting that Brooks Lennon, the seasoned MLS right sided defender, is on trial with DC United- which does mean the salary he made last season could be potentially negotiated downward. We’ll see.
The Spirit are stock piling defenders. The math of various roster restrictions and spots isn’t mathing, so outside observers are curious how this game of musical chairs plays out.
FC Cincinnati sign Kristian Fletcher– FC Cincinnati
DCU academy product, Kristian Fletcher, has signed for FC Cincinnati in the coming season. We’re all rooting for his success, I’m sure, despite the fact that any significant growth in competency will have United fans rending their garments at our development process.
Real Salt Lake Kicks Off 2026 Preseason– RSL
You may be curious why this is included, but if you scroll through the recent staff hiring section, you’ll see Keefer found the one place the internet mentions Frederic Brillant’s new position.
Above is proof of life for DC Power.
The fallout has only deepened as Norwich supporters and affiliates gather their fury at Josh Sargent for his behavior. Telling your manager that you won’t play in the FA Cup over TEXT?! That’s cold.
Reminder that sometimes, a healthy dose of delusion propels your career as a professional athlete forward. Not that McGlynn is any less talented than some of the MLS players that have integrated themselves of late, but they have integrated themselves. Cuz, you know, they were available.
Man City sign USWNT’s Sam Coffey from Portland Thorns– ESPN
The USWNT midfield grand admiral is headed to England and out of the NWSL. No doubt NWSL Commissioner, Berman, is disassociating, cuz these sort of losses mark her a failure.
Chicago Stars expect USWNT forward Mallory Swanson to return in 2026– USA Today
What should have been good, if somewhat expected, news for Chicago fans in NWSL was instantly dampened when this also happened:
San Diego Wave signs Brazil star Ludmila from Chicago Stars– ESPN
For those who don’t follow much NWSL, it cannot be overstated how much Chicago fans clung to Ludmila’s incredible run of scoring form toward the end of last season to revivify their interest and enthusiasm for going to games. Stars management might consider this a lucrative deal, but virtually no one believes this ownership group will invest heavily in a replacement. The owner in particular has demonstrated an extreme lack of ambition, and this move isn’t beating the allegations.
Trump’s foreign policy and what it might mean for the World Cup– BBC
Journalists and indeed the public expect inaction from FIFA. A tournament without international incident? Not so much.
Bobby Cannavale missed Rose Byrne’s Globes win ‘doing God’s work’ at reptile expo– USA Today
Finally, a bit of a strange story from outside the soccer world. Rose Byrne is a phenomenal film talent that is finally getting recognition in the form of a Golden Globe for her performance in “If I Had Legs, I Would Kick You.” I saw the film, she was incredible as a pathologically terrible mother and person in the wrong profession- though labeling the film as a comedy or musical is astonishingly inaccurate.
Anyway, her husband was absent from the ceremony as she lifted the trophy, and the reason goes to prove, celebrities are way weirder than us.
That’s all I’ve got! One-up me in the comments, and have a great sporting day!
I’m of two minds in the Coffey to Man City news. I’m happy for her and hope she has a spectacular time there. On the other hand, it’s an indictment of NWSL and the league’s devotion to parity, lower costs, and their misunderstanding of marketability. They could be building one of the most popular leagues in the world, but their shortsightedness is going to kneecap the league’s development.
Not just kneecap it, it might take it out behind the shed and put one behind the left ear.
Not just players, but owners and investors.
If you repeatedly tell the people like Kang or the people who run Angel City that ambition, growth mindset, and rewarded investment is not what we do here, and in fact actively discourage and, as you say, knee cap it… you’re just left with the people who didn’t give a fuck. Not about the franchises, not about the sport, certainly not about the fans.
The contingent that influenced Berman to make her main concern the tamping down of the salary cap are a negligent death cult.
https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/47607667/police-chief-apologises-ai-error-helped-form-maccabi-tel-aviv-fan-ban-decision
Apparently AI was used in the banning of Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from the match at Aston Villa back in November.
Yikes. Unfortunately this will become more and more common going forward. It’s part of the reason the Bundesliga fans fought so hard against some of the rules proposed for fans in Germany last year.
At some point, you gotta think citizens from all over will influence their elected officials not to send a staggering amount of their community resources and tax dollars to a technology that both takes jobs and prevents people from having their resumes seen in first place- to say nothing of this above bullshit.
But I expect we’ll have to wait patiently for the LLM bubble to crash the global economy before we can pry control away from the tech CEOs who are high on their own supply+ketamine.
Jason Anderson shared a post on Bluesky that lists countries that will be impacted by visa processes being frozen later this month. Its presented in the context of 15 of the countries being a part of the World Cup, but Jason notes that it could very much have a knock-on effect for teams trying to sign players from those countries. Some of the big ones that stood out to me that MLS teams tend to pull from are:
Brazil, Colombia, Ghana, Guatemala, Jamaica, Kosovo (included for Korenica), and Uruguay, among many others.
It’s truly sad that the fans can’t expect an easy travel and welcoming experience, but I don’t think I’d advise anyone to make that trip for their own wellbeing.
There are gonna be groups of people partying, celebrating, drinking, and expressing their national and sporting pride in major cities across the US, and that’s gonna attract the goons like blood to some malnourished, soulless sharks
My guess is at least one team will be denied visa to enter the country.
https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/47599690/nwslpa-says-rodman-rule-violates-cba-files-grievance
Good. It would have been smarter to negotiate a higher salary cap, but they had to create a way to pay Rodman in the short term.
Not sure what “good” is referring to. At this rate, it’s going to be a legal battle that outlasts the Spirit’s realistic ability to retain Rodman.
The news story is about the PA not letting it go into effect.
The goal was to somehow keep Rodman but not open the other teams up to having to pay their players more.
And the deal the Spirit and Rodman signed was CBA complaint, the fact it was rejected by the league is the major issue.
Houston Dynamo are having the best offseason, this week.
Inter Miami, tbf, have been doing yeoman’s work, too. Nashville gets honorary honors for the best MLS free-agent signing.
Houston’s a bit of a wait and see…HH will be a good presence, but more of a role player at his age. I worry they will have trouble getting the Brazilian players their work visas if things are as shitty as they seem to be. Beyond that, there seem to be a fair number of Santos fans who are okay with Guilhereme leaving. At least Olsen is getting some experienced, successful guys to work with though.