Spirit’s Disappointing Draw, Loudoun’s First Week, Champions League Results, Latest AFCON Drama, and more: Thursday Freedom Kicks
Happy Thursday everyone. I’ve had a crew doing some work on my place the last few days, so I had an opportunity to watch some of the midday UEFA Women’s Champions League matches, which I don’t normally get. Yesterday’s matches were more enjoyable than Tuesdays. My one key takeaway from the games was Linda Caicedo needs to come play in NWSL. Raise the cap to make it happen. Someone make it so. Now on to the headlines.
Washington Spirit throw victory away in 1-1 draw with Utah Royals: Match report (Green Line Soccer)
If I were to describe last’s night’s Spirit match with a movie title, it would be The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. The Good: Rebeca Bernal scored her first NWSL goal and Sofia Cantore continues to be dangerous from distance. The Bad: In what is starting to become a trend, the Spirit were unable to convert on some pretty good chances. The Ugly: The play that the Spirit conceded the equalizer on was a bit ugly, as the ball was turned over in a moment of miscommunication as they attempted to play out of the back. Check out Jason’s instant recap.
Looking at attendance for last nights match, I was originally going to say, “Not bad attendance for a midweek match in March.” Looking at it deeper, not only did the Spirit nearly out draw Gotham, Seattle, and Chicago combined, but they out drew UEFA Women’s Champions League matches featuring some big names (Bayern/ManU – 7,513 , Barcelona/Real Madrid – 4,203). If there was any debate over which team DC belongs to, it should be settled now.
D.C. United Forward Gabriel Segal Undergoes Ankle Surgery (DC United)
Unfortunate for the local product who has yet to see the field for DC United. Recovery time for this surgery is normally 3-5 months.
Takeaways from Loudoun United’s first week of 2026 (DP)
Loudoun’s season is fairly young but Ryan looks at what we can glean from what has transpired so far.
USL Team of the Week — Week 3 (Loudoun United)
Loudoun’s Adam Beaudry made the USL team of the week bench after making 10 saves in Loudoun’s 0-0 draw with Miami FC.
Four players from DCU and Loudoun have a chance to play international matches for their countries starting today. Check out the schedule here.
FIFA World Cup qualifying intercontinental playoff: Bracket, schedule, what to know (USA Today)
The intercontential playoff, which will determine the two at large spots in this year’s World Cup, start tonight in Mexico. Bolivia will face Suriname at 6pm and New Caledonia will face Jamaica at 11pm. The winners of those matches will face Congo and Iraq next week for the final two tournament spots.
Goff takes a look at how Freeman and Agyemang have quickly taken the USMNT opportunities Mauricio Pochettino has provided and run with them not only into the final camp before the World Cup but into opportunities in Europe.
Man who posted racist messages about England’s Jess Carter on TikTok avoids jail (The Guardian)
Its good to see officials taking the online behavior of fans seriously. No person, let alone player, should have to put up with comments like these.
Tangentially, today I learned the National Police Chiefs’ Council in the United Kingdom operates a team called the United Kingdom Football Policing Unit, which draws personnel from across UK policing, to ‘reduce incidents of football related anti-social behaviour, violence and disorder involving UK supporters’. That can’t be an easy role to fill, especially these days.
Women’s Champions League quarter-final first-leg report: Real Madrid 2-6 Barcelona (UEFA)
Barcelona were merciless. Linda Caicedo is the only reason Real Madrid is as close as they are. She was a force in this match.
This was a fun one to watch. Bayern would score and then shortly there after ManU would find away to counter. The second leg will be interesting to watch.
Sources: Inter Miami, LA Galaxy, Al Ittihad eye Casemiro (ESPN)
Pretty sure I saw a near identical list as potential suitors for Mo Salah.
Senegal to present AFCON trophy at Paris friendly despite having title stripped (The Athletic $)
If you though the AFCON controversy was settled, you were wrong. Senegal just decided to take it up a notch.
What did I miss?
It was kind of easy to take Kingsbury’s excellence for granted. MacIver has had a lot of good moments so far in this young season. But I also have her down for 2 goals she’s primarily responsible for so far.
We have a 5th DCU player called up for international duty now: Kye Rowles has been called into the Australia National Team for the upcoming window
I am not sure, but I thought my ink print of WashPost (be nice to the boomer) had Bolivia and Suriname at 6PM. I do not remember the Jamaica time, but if it is at New Caledonia, 11PM would make sense there. Based on time zones an 11PM start time for the Dutch Colonial juggernaut and High Plains Bolivians would be criminal, unless they are playing elsewhere.
Hey, I could be totally wrong. Sorry if I am.
Bolivia-Suriname is at 6pm ET (4pm local) in Monterrey. New Caledonia-Jamaica is at 11pm ET (9pm local) in Guadalajara.
Today is the last day of the transfer window. United is pretty full up on their roster, but does have a U-22 slot to play with. The team is looking better, but certainly could use some help. I look at Houston picking up Sam Vines, and thinking that he would have been a good backup for Keisuke Kurokawa, who doesn’t really have a natural backup on the roster (although he apparently might play every minute of the season).
That is to say, I’m not really expecting a big swing today (although it’s possible we could be shopping Aaron Herrera), but getting another piece would certainly be welcome.
Independent of what the MLS Roster Breakdown says, I do believe we are still capable of signing 2 U22s, even though Joon/Kim is still listed as occupying a spot. Charlotte, Miami, and Orlando (I think) all have more than their allotted amount of U22s listed, and each of them has at least 1 U22 out on loan. I think its just a quirk of how the breakdown lists it in regards to loans.
We might just be bumping into the limits of the actual roster size though if we signed two. I believe that we’ve got 30 players on the roster, and three of them are currently on loan (Joon, Aman, Tubbs). Karamoko seems like another player that would be a prime candidate for a loan. Either way, we’re pretty full, and potentially keeping one spot open for a DP in the next window.
Signing Jackson Hopkins to an extension as a U22 player also seems like a decent use of at least one of those slots.
Too many guys who would never even make the gameday roster. Karamoko should be loaned. I’m guessing Avilez is too young to be a viable loan product, though maybe Loudoun is possible?
Turner has made the roster and even seen the pitch, but if there’s a prospect of bringing in someone more ready, Turner should get loaned. He’d certainly benefit by the playing time. I don’t know if there’s interest in Farr or even Leveille, but loaning one of those guys would make sense.
And, I’d give serious thought to putting Segal on the injured list, at least to the next window, if that’s a thing. That would open up a slot. But I don’t know that we need to? Make some of the other moves and we’re sitting at 24 or 25. Room to grow.
Other teams are making or looking at big moves for the summer. DCU should be, too — or, at least be open to it, if the right player is there, and especially if DCU are still in contention this summer.
My source is as sketchy as they come (reddit), but someone commented saying that if the team taking on a loaned player doesn’t cover their salary, we’d be on the hook for the roster spot. It sounds ridiculous and comes from a rando, but we’ve been through the experience last year with Klich.
Yeah, that is certainly possible. My only point is that other teams are shown the same way we are, so we don’t actually know for sure what the situation actually is without knowing the exact numbers. I’d like to think we did enough to open up the space, but as you said theres not guarantee there.
The odd thing here too is, I wonder which of Kim’s salaries is the one that actually matters. He hits the cap at like ~$250k, the U22 number, but makes more than that. I wonder if the South Korean team needs to cover the $250k or his full amount