DCU Previews, USMNT Striker Battle Heats Up, and more: Tuesday Freedom Kicks
Morning footy folks of DC! Not much to report on my end except my indoor 30+ team got our butts kicked last night and I am over winter!
Onto the news!
DC United 2026 Season Preview (MLS)
The previews are all starting to come out this week in the lead up to the opening weekend. This one does not have DCU fairing much better this season despite the off season moves.
Ranking the 30 MLS Cup winners: How does Messi’s Inter Miami stack up? ($NYT)
Don’t forget that we appear on this list four times! Slight spoiler alert; one of our teams makes into the top 3. Which DCU MLS Cup winning squad should be the highest ranked in your opinion? Discuss below!
Haji Wright delivers timely hat trick amid USMNT World Cup roster scrutiny (Yahoo! Sports)
Florian Balogun? Ricardo Pepi? Haji Wright? The strikers are making their final cases for who should be the starter on June 12th vs Paraguay. Wright delivered this weekend with three goals in a high pressure match that propelled his Coventry City to the top of the Championship.
Americans Abroad Five: Patrick Agyemang soars, other USMNT strikers falter (USA Today)
Another name that’s in the conversation is Patrick Agyemang. He did not appear in any friendlies last Fall for the USMNT, but scoring 4 goals in his last 6 games for Derby County can only help his chances.
I went to the UK’s first women’s sports bar and it was packed (The Telegraph)
The rise of the women’s sports bar over the last few years has really intrigued me. Bring it back to local sports, I know that there are some bars in the city that will gladly put on an NWSL game, but I would love it if there was a dedicated bar for women’s sports inside the District.
Continuing the theme of women’s sports, here is a bit of profile of how they are trying to raise the profile of the game in the WSL. I do think the Spirit should be a case study because we have gone from ~3,000 fans at the Maryland Sportsplex to 20k+ sell outs at Audi Field in just the space of a few seasons. What has been the biggest factor for attendance growth for the Spirit?
What Matt Doyle Leaving MLSSoccer.com Says about MLS and Soccer Media (Burgundy Wave)
It really does feel like MLS is being run by a private equity firm (and I mean that in the worst way possible)
Leah Williamson, Hannah Hampton return to England squad for March qualifiers ($NYT)
Esme Morgan gets the call up for England for games against Ukraine and Iceland for World Cup qualifying.
To end today, some cool Spirit merch dropped! As a member of the Rose Room Collective myself, it is cool to see the Spirit really embrace all parts and identities of the city!
Bummer about your 30+ team result–I can identify with that (when I was a member of an over 30 team, now it would have to be a 60+ team I’m afraid).
Glad to see Esme getting call-ups. She came to the Spirit originally because her NT coach told her getting coached by Giraldez would be good and getting PT would be good for her NT career.
No worries! I got a good run in. It’s also we’re a bunch of high school friends so it gives us good quality time together!
Yes, Esme’s move across the pond has certainly worked in her favor! She is a favorite here.
Proper football is to be enjoyed. I hope you had fun with your friends. God knows, when I run with our collective carcasses in Scotland, it is total bliss. Total.
Is it just me or does it almost seem like USL launching a first division starting to look more like a shark smelling blood in the water?
If you mean USL finding a weakness or vulnerability that MLS has, no. I do think it’s a gamble that can either propel them into success or it might bite them in the behind. IMO, I think this eventually results in a merger but that’s just me.
The good thing is, there teams already have following and great fanbases. I think their 1st division does well the first year. That first year will make or break it.
There are lots of areas where they have opportunities to immediately win over jaded MLS fans, but there are so many question marks in the endeavor too. Is there enough money to build professional teams and pay the players? Can they get better reach than MLS currently has (i.e just about 0 beyond Messi and Apple TV)? Will they allow their fanbase to grow organically and not muzzle their positive activism? Will they charge $35 for a soda and chicken nuggets?
MLS is corrupt. I am feeling better and better of not ponying my hard earned money into this shite….
Miami, Uber Alles! Miami, Uber Alles!
Its just depressing that there isn’t a mention of The Atlantic Cup in this ESPN FC article on the quiet death of MLS Rivalry Week.
https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/47942997/no-more-rivalry-week-here-why-mls-changed-2026-calendar
Honestly I never really thought Rivalry Week was all that good of an idea. Like, I know that DC/NYRB, SEA/POR, LAG/LAFC, etc. are going to be some of the most hotly contested and contentious games. If they’re all on at the same time, you’re really limiting people being able to watch them. If anything, the Sunday Night Soccer game should really just be something like a Weekly Rivalry Game that gets highlighted.
If it makes money, Darth Garber will commit to it.
What remains of the MLS league website writing staff has DCU picked to finish 14th in the Eastern Conference:
https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/expert-predictions-2026-mls-eastern-conference-western-conference-standings
I didn’t know we even had 14 teams……let alone 15…..
Let the embarrassment begin…..
And not even a few sentences of why we are at 14th. No analysis offered. Although, I don’t disagree. 🙁
The Athletic (NYT) ranks all 30 MLS cup winning teams.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7037962/2026/02/16/mls-cup-all-time-champions-30-teams-ranking/
DCU’s rankings:
Their bottom ranked team is the 2010 Colorado Rapids. Their best team is the 2017 Toronto FC.
Watching Thierry Henry and Micah Richards with great, righteous indignation at what happened in Lisbon tonight to Vinicius, Jr. — and what has happened to many black players through the years. And Thierry unhappy that he feels he has to check himself, to be politically correct to keep his own job. It’s about football. It’s about…Paramount, too. I don’t want to make it about politics, but, man. Ellison has already done that. So much has to change across the world, and I want to live to see that happen.
Interesting poll results for 2026 jersey rankings over on Matt Doyle’s website.
https://bzzlghtyr.github.io/full-kit-ranker/results.html
Doyle has us at #29 in his first power rankings of the season.
https://tacticsfreezone.ghost.io/my-first-power-rankings-vote-of-the-2026-mls-season/