DC Power win, Spirit and DC United draw, and more: Monday Freedom Kicks
Happy Monday, everyone. It was a busy weekend with soccer and the start of the NCAA Tournaments, so my TV got a workout this weekend. Let’s check in on some of the news from the weekend:
DC Power was on the road this weekend against Spokane Zephyr and they got the 2-0 victory! They’re back at Audi Field this Thursday against Tampa Bay Sun.
Check out the goals from the match, with Alyssa Walker getting the first:
Dasia Torbert added the second for DC Power:
As an aside, I offered a take on DC Power’s jerseys…what say you all?
Washington Spirit fight through deficit to tie Racing Louisville 2-2 (DP)
The Spirit overcame a howler and a defensive breakdown to draw Racing Louisville on the road. Sofia Cantore scores nothing but bangers, and shoutout Leicy Santos for the equalizer! Annie gives us the report on the match. Also, here’s the goat Jason Anderson’s match report as well.
D.C. United, Atlanta United battle to scoreless draw: Match report (Green Line Soccer)
No recap from me due to me pulling quadruple duty this weekend, but Jason’s got you covered on the snoozefest that was DC United’s scoreless draw in Atlanta. All of us who watched that match have earned our dessert for the week. And, follow Jason’s work on his new site as well!
Loudoun United was at home this weekend against Miami FC. It was a scoreless draw out at Segra Field as well.
LaLiga reveals throwback kits teams will wear for retro matchday (ESPN)
LaLiga’s doing a cool thing in a few weeks, as they are having one weekend where everyone is wearing throwback-inpired jerseys. 17 of the 20 teams have revealed what they will wear, with only Getafe, Rayo Vallecano, and Real Madrid having yet to announce their kits.
O’Reilly the hero as Man City beat Arsenal to win EFL Cup (BBC)
Man City took out Arsenal to win the Carabao Cup. Two goals by Nico O’Reilly within 5 minutes of each other proved to be the difference.
Real Madrid get crucial derby win to maintain gap to Barcelona (ESPN)
Real Madrid wins a wild Madrid derby to keep within striking distance of Barca.
Antoine Griezmann flying to Orlando to complete summer MLS transfer (The Athletic)
And that Madrid derby will reportedly be the last for the French midfielder, as he is about to head to Orlando this summer.
Probably never thought this crossover would occur, but it certainly did.
Let’s have a good week, y’all.
Antoine Griezmann tried to deny his connection with Orlando, but in the end couldn’t deny it.
Once a skunk hair, always a skunk hair
Shame, though, cuz if Griezmann is DCU’s second striker, we’re immediately Eastern conference semifinalists, I’m convinced
That is a fact. We’ll just wait for our Romanian Messi to arrive on the pitch…
(joking, I am rooting for him to do well)
I feel like he’d at the very least be an upgrade over Pirani.
An upgrade on early-season Pirani at least. Late season with no hope of playoffs Pirani is actually pretty good
Pirani still needs to prove he’s able to affect play in cases where he’s actually got attention on him- he scored som bangers out of nowhere last season, but it did seem like the “nowhere” part was key to that happening.
He absolutely had a good chance when Peltola somehow ball carried through a sandwich of players in his way to lay it off to him, but the trend continued
The great Chappell Roan vs Brazilian football fans war has begun! Who will win?!
If MLS did a retro jersey match day, DCU would have some solid options.
Yeah, I don’t want to wade into the online media wars about it, but sounds like Roan’s security were a bit too zealous, while Roan’s typical media defiance and urge to back those close to her is not serving her particularly well.
I want this to blow over, cuz it’s incredibly dumb.
Because it’s incredibly dumb, it probably won’t blow over.
Sigh, yeah.
Seems like the latest generation of rising adults remember this stuff and immediately shrug at real world events. I guess they figure the planet is dying, and the world is corrupt, and instead of feeling urgency, they’re anxious to hit up an otherwise ok celebrity if they ever expose their belly to scandal.
Its still early, but now that we’re 5 games in, how do we feel about DC’s chances this season? The Eastern Conference is shaping up to be really weird, so it seems like we might be able to capitalize on that a bit, and maybe we can finish a little higher than expected going into the season. Nashville and NYC seem like they’re actually good, and Miami is also good, but seems more vulnerable this year compared to last. Orlando and Philly are both really bad, and Columbus is also really struggling (and Montreal is still Montreal). Outside of that, the middle of the table really seems like its up for grabs.
The opportunity is there to solidify our mid-table standing. We just shouldn’t expect the first part of the season to be particularly exciting. Weiler has done a great job instituting a sound defensive structure, so we *shouldn’t* get slapped around so often anymore. The lack of killers on the offensive side of things is what’s going to limit us in the meantime.
Even if Pirani and Louis are roughly equivalent to the level Pirani is showing now, I think our starting lineup is maybe good enough to compete for the lower spots, depending on how many dysfunctional/demoralized teams there end up being by that point in the East.
But our lack of true depth just about anywhere other than CB (and perhaps RB, if Herrera comes back) means that our starters are going to get ground down into the red zone sooner rather than later, and it will be hard to maintain consistent momentum.
That doesn’t mean the squad hasn’t taken a clear step away from “Benteke and Bartlett better ball out of their minds” dynamic, but pieces are needed to be truly relevant.
Friggin love what Peltola is doing, though
Peltola has been very very solid.
Have they really changed? Only the Union have scored fewer goals. DC United is tied with 2 other teams at 4 goals, and six teams are at 5 goals, which means the other teams have at least 2 more goals, and in most cases, more than that. DCU are firmly in the bottom third in terms of goals scored — but that’s generous. Barring some radical transformation, they’ll probably be in the bottom 10% of teams.
Granted, they nearly won this game late, with Servania narrowly missing what might have been a Goal of the Week nominee…but they didn’t.
It’s frustrating when teams like Orlando, even after they jettison their coach, are still able to announce a signing like Griezmann. DCU either have no ambition, or no capability of landing better talent. The former is fixable, but the latter?
This is where I am at also. They were hoping for scoring help from Louis and and Baribo, but I don’t think that is going to happen so this leaves us where we were last year. Baribo still isn’t getting service that he needs to score. As pointed out, the defense has been better so far. We are back to Benny ball.
I just mean solid pieces you can build on, which is still an important part of a salary capped team (the league clearly doesn’t hold Miami to this standard).
I would definitely like two more real DPs. Baribo is serviceable enough to be one, I think. Louis Munteanu I have expressed my doubts about, think we could have signed at least his equivalent from the talented internationals in the draft no one wanted to waste that spot on. But if we got two more DPs that really stood out and tweaked our bench, yeah, we could be relevant.
And we weren’t in that state last year, so, yes, progress.
As I said, I think our depth means we’re not there this year, but with DPs and another offseason, we could be in striking distance.
That said, Levien and Kaplan would have to go there
One good change is that we’re seeming to get fewer yellow cards as a team, which should lead to fewer starters out on accumulation. But yes, that does lead to players getting ground down, and Weiler hasn’t shown a desire to do much in the way of early subbing this season, so far.
Yeah, Weiler’s clearly good at having the shape out of possession be consistent and well drilled, and on top of the massively decreased need to do desperate tackles, has probably instructed a “stay on your feet” mentality that helps a lot with the yellow card counter.
But I also think Hefti and Kurokawa are immediately huge to our backline, both able to stand up to the moments where a ball has to be win in doable, but critical situations
Forgot to put this in the Kicks, but Hudson River Blue is reportedly shutting down this week. We hate whenever independent media has to make that decision, and the HRB folks were always supportive of us as we got started. We’ll miss their coverage of everything NY/NJ soccer.
https://x.com/mark_radigan/status/2035347154739294476?s=20
That sucks. Maybe they’ll be reborn as East River Blue, when NYCFC complete the move to Queens next year?
Or maybe Flushing Bay Blue?
Not soccer related. But an interesting article from The Athletic on how former Nats pitcher Max Scherzer rehabbed his thumb by playing piano.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7138069/2026/03/23/max-scherzer-blue-jays-piano-thumb-injury/