Chris Richards wins US Soccer Award, Rodman Rule Drama Continues, and more: Thursday Freedom Kicks
Happy Thursday everyone! I got called in last minute to fill in for Thursday Freedom Kicks so you get a double dose of me this week!
Let’s dive in!
Chris Richards named 2025 U.S. Soccer Male Player of the Year (SSFC)
Chris Richards had a great 2025 and it allowed him to win the U.S. Soccer Male Player of the Year Award. The Crystal Palace defender becomes the first center back to win the award since Maryland native, Oguchi Onyewu, won it in 2006.
NWSLPA says ‘Rodman rule’ violates CBA, files grievance (ESPN)
I’m not going to pretend to be a lawyer and act like I am 100% understanding all of the twists and turns with this disagreement.
What I do know is that the longer this drags on, the more star players the league will lose to higher salaries in Europe such as Sam Coffey moving to Man City which Talonesque mentioned in their FKs yesterday…
Sam Coffey’s Man City move is another blow for a hamstrung NWSL (The Guardian)
…speaking of Coffey, her move to England means that over half of the 2024 Olympic gold winning squad play in Europe. This is a pretty stark contrast to the 2015 and 2019 World Cup winning teams that were completely made up of NWSL players.
Looks like Netflix is working on movie that tells the tale of the 99’ers. The cultural impact of that team continues to live on!
Analyzing the CanWNT players who have (so far) joined new NWSL clubs in 2026 (One Soccer)
If you want an analysis of the Spirit’s newest Canadian defender, Élisabeth Tsé, scroll to the bottom of the article.
2026 World Cup opener, final among most coveted matches, per FIFA (USA Today)
FIFA claims that over 500 million ticket requests were made in phase 3 of the ticket lottery. Honestly I’m a bit surprised to see Colombia vs Portugal as the most match with the most ticket requests. But I guess I shouldn’t be as both are soccer mad countries.
Arbeloa starts Real Madrid tenure with disastrous Copa del Rey defeat at Albacete (The Guardian)
If you’re a Real Madrid fan, this week just went from bad to worse.
Morocco beat Nigeria 4-2 on penalties to secure their spot in the final on Sunday. Funny enough, this is a repeat of the women’s AFCON final held back in July which Nigeria won and the team included current Spirt member, Deb Abiodun (she rejoined the Spirit in August after being out on loan).
That’s it from me folks! See you in the comments!
David Schnegg has found his new home. He got picked up by Charlotte off of waivers. He should do well there, and Im glad to see him not go to Philly (I really thought they would get him to replace Wagner). Will have to see how much of his salary Charlotte picked up to know if DC will just eat the rest or buy him out
Yeah, best of luck to Schnegg. I think he should do well in Charlotte, and kind of weirdly is our second left back to go there after Joseph Mora. I have to assume the plan is for a buyout here.
Agreed, would assume he and Badji will be the buy-outs this year. Would definitely be strange (though not out of the realm of possibility) if they got waived and we just willingly ate their contracts for no reason
I am kind of surprised we didn’t keep him. I thought he was decent enough, and certainly as depth. Ah, but what do I know…?
Maybe it points to us actually having a 3rd DP in the works? There still needs to be room in the budget for the maximum charge. They can eat whatever portion Charlotte leaves on the table and have some room on the roster.
Obviously Charlotte agrees with you
New wrinkle to this that I didnt know: Jason Anderson says that because Charlotte picked him off of waivers, they actually have to take his full salary. Did not know it worked like that. I guess if he doesnt get selected, and then signs wherever, that’s when the partial salary thing comes into play
And…Im not sure that its actually true. Per the MLS Roster Rules:
If a player with a guaranteed contract is waived, any interested MLS club will have 48 hours from the notice of Waivers to claim the player by notifying the League of the intention to claim the player and the amount of the player’s Salary Budget Charge they wish to assume. The player will be awarded based on a number of factors, including but not limited to, Waiver Order and which club is willing to absorb a Salary Budget Charge that is meaningfully higher than other clubs and at least $15,000 higher than Senior Minimum Salary.
Why would it be a buy-out? First, if Charlotte claimed him off waivers, they’re on the hook for his salary. If they claimed him in the second round of waivers, then the salary is up for negotiation.
And as for Badji, was his salary guaranteed? If not, there’s no need for a buy-out.
I wish him the best there.
Speaking of waiver claims, looks like LAFC picked up Tyler Boyd. That would have seemed like a pretty decent veteran piece for us, and I think it’s a smart move by LAFC.
It’s always suprising to me how the top teams are able to bring in valuable depth pieces like Boyd, and then…there’s DC United
It’s possible that United submitted a waiver bid, but LAFC submitted a higher bid.
It’s fun to watch other teams around the league make completely unprofessional mistakes. San Jose apparently forgot/failed to extend Espinoza’s contract, letting him hit free agency and leave. Media folks are blaming their former GM (including Doyle, who calls him one of the worst FO personnel in terms of communication). It has shades of “our fax machine broke just before midnight that’s why we were late!”
Check out the WashPost for the initial renderings of the new stadium on the old RFK site.
I like it! A nice nod to the old girl.
I hope they are smart enough to make it soccer adaptable.
Yeah, people are saying the Pringle shape looks like the old Capital Center, but RFK also had some swoopy bits around the upper bowl. And the columns are a cool touch to sort of tie things in with DC, but there’s a hint of this current administration’s obsession with neo-classical architecture that might be poking through, which sort of taints it a little bit.
The new stadium will in fact look absolutely nothing like that. Go back to the initial renderings of Audi Field. Stadium initial renderings are always pie in the sky that get cut back by the time the engineers and accountants get a hold of it.
Also they’re always surrounded by trees and buildings and those never come until much, much later if at all as they need that space for parking.
I’ve seen nothing so far about the playing surface, or surfaces.
My wife is a NY Mets fan, and she let me know that they just made what is probably the most MLS-like trade possible in the MLB. They traded a pitcher to Cleveland for “International Signing Bonus Pool Space,” something she’s never even heard of in the MLB. Glad the other sports leagues are finally catching up to MLS’s superior way of doing transactions
In, MLB, so teams can’t go in to the Dominican Republican and just outbid everyone else for the belts talent, you have a cap on International Signing Bonuses. That’s what this is. Just like in MLB, you have a pool of money to spend on your draft picks–and if you spend a lot on your first rounder than you have to play hardball with your other picks.