The Washington Post eliminates sports section as part of wider layoffs– The Athletic
I don’t normally start this section with a link, but there it is. Washington Post Jeff Bezos has decided to engage in massive cost cutting and layoffs at the (once) historic newspaper. This is upsetting well outside the bounds of sports, but, remarkably, the cuts touch upon the local sports coverage deeply. How deeply? The sports section in the (once) laudable publication will be a thing of the past.
Unacceptable.
On to the rest.
Trinity Rodman adds soccer maturity alongside being a superstar celebrity in USWNT return– CBS
Trin is awesome, and she’s staying in DC. Enjoy an article about this happy period in this still remarkably young phenom’s career.
How European glory is motivating Esme Morgan towards success with Washington Spirit– One Football
Spirit CB Esme Morgan gets a bit of a spotlight in this article.
Donald covers the former DCU CB’s work this offseason for the other DC based women’s team.
Nashville Soccer Club Extends the Contract of Defender Andy Najar – Nashville SC
Another former DCU player (this one one of our few academy successes) is still kicking. For another East Coast club. Sigh.
Mackay has moved to St. Louis to take over as assistant sporting director. Sadder but wiser, no doubt- I hope he gets more cash to play with at his new club.
Is Kang expanding her empire into Spain? And will she now have 4 clubs in the top ten spending women’s teams on earth, instead of 3 in the top 6? Seems likely.
Colorado’s newest pro sports stadium is being shipped from China– NBC 9 News
And the newest NWSL expansion team is gonna need that stadium, because:
Gotta admit, that’s pretty amazing. Should be an incredible atmosphere as the club takes the field in NWSL for the first time.
Are the Whitecaps about to die? Vancouver sound alarm bells amid difficult sale process– The Guardian
No bueno. Perhaps Don Garber could kick into gear to address the situation and expedite a solution. Unfortunately, staring into Beckham’s dazzling eyes and figuring out how Miami can buy another global talent takes up a lot of his time. But that’s fair, the NY Cosmos are the heart of the league, and everything should be built on their success. Wait, what era are we in?
Minnesota in talks with Colombia star James Rodríguez – source– ESPN
The state of Minnesota could use a win. Signing James Rodriguez would be a pretty big pull for the MLS club that plays there.
The 34 year old offensive midfielder is a talent, no question. However, the Colombian has two apparent settings- incandescent, and invisible. Which James The Loons would get remains to be seen.
USWNT and Bay FC Goalkeeper Jordan Silkowitz: “[I] actually wanted to quit soccer a year ago.”– SB Nation
Being a young goalkeeper looking for chances to prove yourself can be tough. Not playing a single NWSL game in two full seasons sounds awful. Nowadays, the Fairfax, VA native has found her place, and is starting to impress.
Venues chosen for 2028 Olympic soccer tournaments– Stars and Stripes FC
Donald has written up an article about the upcoming LA Olympic Games and where the soccer will transpire. Take a look!
Infantino ‘infantile’ for wanting to lift Russia ban– BBC
The Ukrainian Sports Minister has some scathing words for FIFA President Infantino’s desire to lift the international ban on Russia. The BBC authors made a headline. It’s worth remembering that doing war crimes for a long time does not normalize that behavior, Gianni.
Tillman and McKennie are two in-form and intriguing pieces for Poch to consider this summer.
The stars can’t help but pay tribute to the legend, the one and only Crystal Dunn, for her longevity, commitment, class, and character.
Which brings us to someone without much class or character these days:
Cristiano Ronaldo: Potential Destinations As Al Nassr Frustration Reaches Breaking Point– Sports Illustrated
CR7 (who, let us remember, is turning 41 tomorrow) is apparently furious at the Saudi Pro League for not investing enough into his club to make it competitive with 4 of it’s rivals, which all are funded by the same national source. He’s eager to move on, as 500K per day plus 110K for every goal and 55k for every assist playing for his current club is just a slight too much to bear.
Let’s find out which club in MLS or Europe can secure the privilege of his future meltdown over his lack of perspective on the nature of time. If no club bites, that would be awesome, but someone’s stupid, I’m sure.
That’s all I’ve got! One-up me in the comments, and have a great sporting day!
Apologies for the late posting- sorta stupid morning, and had to eat something when I got back from it
Really sad news about the Washington Post. It’s been an important part of daily life for me since I arrived to go to American University in 1993…reading that paper made me feel connected to a city that I was just starting to learn and embrace. The sports section was a huge part of that. Just…sad. Not really profound, and there are more serious things than this particular newspaper, and it’s been coming…I know, but, man…it’s just sad.
This isn’t something we should accept.
We can’t reinstitute the journalists at the Washington Post, but we can find ways to make sure independent journalism survives, even if most of it is online.
These people are giving us no reason not to fight, no incentive for compliance. One step at a time, we gotta start moving the line well past the point these elites are gonna be comfortable with.
The time for waiting for them to do something good has passed.
Bezos could easily have funded and maintained the legitimacy of the Washington Post, and it would have gotten him a lot of goodwill and respectability. These people clearly believe they don’t even have to court public favor anymore.
If that’s the case, we have no reason not to take back what they’ve been grasping.
Yeah. Reading the free Metro version of the Post was what first put DC United really on my radar. A veritable who’s who of the soccer journalists in this country have come through the Post, and of course Steve Goff was incredible. Being able to become a subscriber was one of the times that I felt “grown up.” I finally just canceled my subscription about a month ago, which was itself very sad. But what’s been done to the Post – as both a prominent global news source and a local paper – is really unforgiveable.
Nice to have a fellow AU alum in the comments!
Once an eagle…
Always an eagle.
Hoya envy (snark).
/s
My sister is an Eagle….
This is just terrible news (about the Post). Speaking purely from a sports perspective, that means some big events (ie: the Post has a team at the Super Bowl and another at the Winter Games) will get coverage. Otherwise, we’ll just see AP articles and photos with no local angle.
This means that independent bloggers and podcasts are that much more important. And no, they’re not a replacement. And from a soccer perspective, it makes the DP that much more critical. The DP is absolutely the source for DC soccer coverage.
Losing the sports staff is really depressing. I’ve enjoyed local coverage of sports as long as I could read.
I would like another midfielder, please. A DP would be spectacular. We need some good news.
Trust me, if one had been rumored in the 24 hours before 10 AM today, I’d be gleefully anticipating the discussion traffic.
I saw the preseason roster and they are stacked on midfielders. Are they DP level? No, but looking at it, they have bodies. I would not count the home grown players as contributors except for Hopkins. Will improvements in attack and defense help? It could. My concern is whether the foreign signings will adapt to MLS or be a dud. Here is the roster for perspective.
Goalkeepers (4): Sean Johnson, Jordan Farr, Alex Bono, Grant Leveille*
Defenders (9): Lucas Bartlett, Keisuke Kurokawa, Conner Antley, Sean Nealis, Kye Rowles, Garrison Tubbs, Aaron Herrera, Nikola Markovic, Silvan Hefti
Midfielders (11): João Peglow, Matti Peltola, Jared Stroud, Gabriel Pirani (U22), Richie Aman, Brandon Servania, Jackson Hopkins (HGP), Caden Clark, Oscar Avilez (HGP), Gavin Turner (HGP), Hosei Kijima
Forwards (5): Tai Baribo (DP), Louis Munteanu (DP), Jacob Murrell, Gabe Segal, Hakim Karamoko
*Academy player
Do we actually know what position Avilez plays? In the original press release about his signing, DC noted him as a “Forward.” Not that I think he’s playing at all this year (outside of maybe Open Cup), just hard to keep track of him
Yeah, there are numbers there (although Turner and Avilez seem like strong candidates to get loaned out). I’m mostly concerned that we only have Matti Peltola and Brandon Servania as defensive midfielders, and Peltola gets called up into the Finnish national team pretty regularly. I can maybe believe that they’re planning to see some improvement out of Hopkins and Pirani and a reversion to the mean of Stroud. They obviously saw something in Caden Clark to bring him in. I’m personally unreasonably bullish on Richie Aman.
But still, that’s relying on Rene Weiler and his staff to be able to get some BIG leaps forward from their young guys, which is something DC coaches haven’t really been able to do for a decade. I would also say that the midfield was our weakest part of our very weak team last year, and all we’ve really done is ship out Boris Enow, Rida Zouhir, and Randall Leal, and bring in Oscar Avilez and Richie Aman. There’s been some real addressing of the other parts of the team, but if your midfield can’t connect everything, then it doesn’t really matter.
We also spent pretty lavishly on strikers, but on players that are dependent on service to get their goals. Our chance creation was terrible last year. Again, I’m bullish on Aman, and I think Clark and Stroud will look better this year, but who are you relying on for service? Pirani? Kurokawa? Herrera, maybe.
I don’t know if it adds up to true competitiveness, but Kijima is gonna be a bigger figure than some expect, I’m pretty sure
He was actually pretty great centrally in a more two way role, we literally just needed someone who could pass and carry the ball further forward desperately.
He’s not ideal as a winger, and probably doesn’t have the quality to be an AM full time, but he can be a factor in the midfield if chemistry develops. He’s best for buildup play, and he’s got the grit out of possession to be, well, certainly better than Enow.
People that don’t rate him are going to this season. I’m pretty confident about that.
The young guys taking big leaps has been sparse, but not totally nothing lately. Paredes and KDP both had breakout years recently that got them transfers away from the team (even though we probably should have kept Ted). Hopkins I think really took a step forward last year too, especially under Weiler. I think its reasonable to assume we could get even more out of him this year, and I think Weiler will rely on him a lot. Still need more than that, obviously, but there’s been some at least.
The defensive mid situation is definitely not ideal. Because Peltola is likely to be out for international games (early and late in the season?), someone is going to have to play out of their comfort zone for a couple of games the way things stand. Perhaps there’s a late veteran FA signing in the works to plug leaks.
It’s nice to see those USWNT players, including Spirit players, acknowledge Crystal Dunn’s retirement, because the Spirit certainly never did as far as I know!