Loudoun, Richmond, and NoVa in the USOC, the Most Interesting Person in Soccer, the Return of Quincy Amarikwa, Zlatan, and more: Thursday Freedom Kicks
Happy Thursday everyone! As Talonesque mentioned yesterday US Open Cup season is upon us. Its been fascinating looking through the match ups and seeing all of the teams I’ve never heard of. Its nice to see just how expansive this tournament is. In a similar vein, this week I learned Minnesota has the Minnesota Super Cup, which is a competition between the “pre-professional” clubs in the state. I’m looking forward to checking it out this summer. Now on to the headlines.
2026 US Open Cup Round 1: Loudoun United survives late flurry to avoid road upset (TheCup.US)
Loudoun started their 2026 USOC run with a trip up I-95 to face West Chester United in Wayne, PA and advanced 2-1.
2026 US Open Cup Round 1: Late Goal, tensions lift Richmond Kickers past NoVa FC (TheCup.US)
For their first US Open match of 2026, the Richmond Kickers hosted Segra Field’s other occupants, Northern Virginia FC (formerly DC United U-23 among others). The Kickers won 2-0.
The USOC fascinates me for several reasons. First, you will see retired former players pop up in weird places. Last year Lamar Neagle was leading a team that had several former MLS players on it and was facing off against Sharktopus FC. Then there are the “cupsets” where semi-pro or lower tier teams knock off the professionals. DC United alum, Quincy Amarikwa checked the boxes for both last night.
Loudoun, Richmond, and Valley 559 will return to USOC action in Round 2 which is scheduled for March 31st and April 1st.
neat sh!t: nwsl week 1 edition (beyond the vaudevillian cane)
André looks at the best of NWSL Week 1 for Lucia Di Guglielmo to Savy King and the things in between.
Monterey Bay FC signs forward Riley Bidois (USL)
In Loudoun alumni news, Bidois, a U-23 from New Zealand, switches coasts and and will play in California this year. He had nine goals and two assists in 35 appearances in 2025.
Local restaurateur buying out Westover Taco to launch N. Va.’s first women’s sports bar (ArlNow)
I’m a little surprised that NoVa doesn’t already have a women’s sports bar. The one here in Minneapolis consistently gets great reviews, so I am hoping this one will too.
Denver Summit to Acquire Yazmeen Ryan, Delanie Sheehan From Houston Dash (SI)
One of NWSL’s expansion teams made a huge trade and added additional firepower for their debut season. Denver acquired USWNT wing Yazmeen Ryan and defender Delanie Sheehan in a trade with Houston. Ryan was Houston’s leading scorer in 2025 and has 19 goals in five NWSL seasons and 2 goals in 16 USWNT appearances.
Tullis-Joyce might be the most interesting person in soccer (and probably a whole bunch of other fields as well).
USA’s Weston McKennie to Star in Tubi’s ‘Destination World Cup’ Docuseries (Fox Sports)
McKennie will join Spain’s Marc Cucurella and Wales’ Harry Wilson as subjects of the docuseries which will debut on Tubi on April 30th.
Fox Sports adds Zlatan Ibrahimovic to 2026 World Cup coverage (USA Today)
The man who once said “A World Cup without Zlatan is not worth watching.” will serve as a studio analyst for the tournament. This could result in more classic Ibra quotes. I do wonder how far away Fox will keep him from Alexi Lalas though.
The security funding situation has been settled, but the Boston Host Committee keeps coming up in the news. They have $2 million in their accounts and expect another $30 million from other sources to cover events projected to cost $170 million. Additionally, the committee has released few details of what FanFest will look like in Beantown. More reason to be concerned.
Japan beats South Korea 4-1 to set up Women’s Asian Cup final against Australia (AP)
Japan has been absolutely dominant in the AFC Women’s Asian Cup. The goal South Korea scored in their semifinal match was the first one Japan conceded all tournament. Meanwhile, the Japanese have scored 28 goals through five games. The three game set of friendlies next month between Japan and the USWNT should be really fun.
The UCL quarterfinals are set and some of the biggest teams in the world are facing off. Liverpool face PSG. Bayern will tangle with Real Madrid. Athletico Madrid and and Barcelona faceoff in an all Spanish tilt. Arsenal face Sporting. With any luck the matches will live up to the hype.
Senegal to appeal CAF’s decision to hand AFCON title to Morocco (ESPN)
Did you think the CAF announcement awarding the AFCON title to Morocco ended the drama? It did not. Senegal is appealing yesterday’s decision to void their win and award the tile to Morocco.
The Chicago Stars issue statement regarding the club’s future stadium plans (All For XI)
After running into resistance locally, the Stars are changing their plans and will continue to search for a permanent home.
Seattle Reign finally home after travel challenges (Sounder at Heart)
This sounds like an absolute nightmare. With the league looking to expand and the likelihood for inclement weather increasing, the league and the PA need to address the charter flight limits in the next CBA, if not sooner.
Some of today’s stories seem like downers, so let end on an amusing note.
The Spirit social media team is at it again. Check out the players’ reactions to being invited to Coast the dog’s first birthday party.
What did I miss?
Phallon Tullis-Joyce is one of the most effortlessly adorable human beings on the planet, and I mean that not only in the “aww” sense, but in the actual quality of the ability to adore. She’s completely earnest, deeply thoughtful, while also being unsparing in her rebuke of injustice, prejudice, and abuse of nature.
Claudia Dickey is a remarkable goalkeeper, but I can’t help but root for Phallon.
And I’m unsurprised that the Japan Women’s national team is cleaning up in a regional tournament. The players elite enough to play for that team add up to technical perfection. The US plays them 3 times in April, and though that is going to be mentally fraying for the squad, Emma must know that Japan’s style of collective play is the iokane powder they need to build up an immunity to ASAP.
The Spirit simply get it.
I hope they are paying that social media person well!
On a note about Aaron Herrera, he was seemingly not called in to the Guatemala national team for their friendly against Argentina. Given that he tends to be one of their best players, I would assume the injury he’s been dealing with is legit and he’s not just sitting out from DC because he wants to
Yeah, that does sorta indicate that he’s got something lingering. I was pretty confident this was an exit indicator, but he would show if he was healthy for his national team when called.
Yeah, he tends to get called up pretty much every time, so I’d imagine he is actually hurt. I think its also telling when you look at our injury report, and Herrera, Segal, Karamoko, and Louis are ALL listed as out with the same injury, Lower Leg. Not sure whats going on in training, but whatever it is seems to be contagious
Yeah, according to Donald Wine, Weiler says that Herrera and Louis are out again this week. Silvan Hefti has done a very good job filling in at right back, especially on the defensive side. The second forward position hasn’t really been sparkling this season. Pirani had some decent moments against Philly, but not really since then. So missing the potential of Louis, and the offensive contributions of Herrera will make things tougher against Atlanta. But hopefully Jackson Hopkins has a bit of a bounceback, and Peglow continues to be something of an offensive driver, and Baribo continues to be opportunistic. And heck, Pirani’s last goal was against Atlanta. Cautious optimism!
Once they’re both healthy, I think it would be fun to see Herrera at RM, Louis as the second striker, and then move Hopkins to Servania’s spot (though I will admit Servania has been doing pretty well this year)
Yeah, that would definitely give us a lot more options. I’m kind of surprised that Conner Antley hasn’t gotten any minutes yet, but Hefti has done the trick.
This would also allow us to bring Pirani off the bench, where he has historically done much better than when he’s started.
Factual, but at least last year a lot of his more effective appearances were during matches where the game state was toast, other pieces were pushing for a consolation goal, and the opponent forgot he was out there.
I’d like to see Kijima get some minutes with Peltola centrally, and move Hopkins to second striker. It’s become clear that he’s our best ball carrier at this point, even has the deceptive dribbling ability Pirani never seemed to display (he has the dribbling, but there’s no deception with what he’s doing).
We definitely need Caden Clark and Turner to be actual contributors, gonna be a brutal year if we basically don’t have defensive subs when other teams use 5 of them.
I swear I typed “offensive subs.” Aw, well
Very surprised that there hasn’t been news about other players being loaned out by DCU, but Garrison Tubbs went 90 minutes for Orange County in a 3-0 USOC win. If the lineup diagram on the MLS site is to be believed, he played in central midfield, in front of a 4-man backline.
Good for Garrison to get a clean sheet, but kind of surprising to see him (maybe) playing a midfield role.
Given that his worst quality was his soccer IQ and anticipation, that is odd. But MLS just didn’t seem to be his level, Godspeed to him in USL.
In very CONCACAF news, Nashville eliminated Miami by a 1-1 score.
Darth Inter Messi has been vanquished!
I watched the game on tv and rooted for Nashville.