Spirit draw, USMNT lose, and more: Monday Freedom Kicks
Happy Monday everyone. Ugh, my team lost in both the NCAAM and NCAAW Elite 8 yesterday, and I am sad. So, let’s get to the soccer:
Washington Spirit and Denver Summit play to scoreless draw in front of record-breaking crowd (DP)
The Spirit once again is part of the largest crowd in NWSL history, as 63,004 packed Mile High Stadium to watch the Denver Summit take on the Spirit in their first ever home match. It was an all cardio match with not a lot of action. Also, check out Jason’s breakdown of the historic day.
A good USMNT start becomes a disastrous finish in Belgium loss (SSFC)
Ugh, the USMNT didn’t look great in a 5-2 loss to Belgium. They hope to regroup on Tuesday against Portugal (sans CR7).
The jersey matchup in the USMNT-Belgium match was terrible not just for us at home but the players on the field. They also did a hydration break to mimic what we will see in every match of the World Cup, even ones indoors like the match on Saturday.
Colombia 1-3 France: Les Bleus dazzle, show off incredible squad depth (Yahoo!)
Colombia and France played in Landover yesterday before a capacity crowd, and the French got the 3-1 win in an action packed match.
Tudor leaves Spurs after just 44 days in charge (BBC)
Tottenham needs another coach and they now need a prayer to try and avoid relegation.
CAF general secretary resigns amid AFCON final controversy (ESPN)
More CAF drama as the general secretary quits after the AFCON final controversy that saw the confederation strip Senegal of the title and give it to Morocco.
For the 2026 World Cup: DFB to open German House of Soccer in New York (DFB)
This should be cool to visit if you’re in NYC during the World Cup.
FIFA has seen all the bait and switches that have happened with the 2026 World Cup, so naturallly they’re holding confirming the 2031 Women’s World Cup bid for the United States, Mexico, Jamaica, and Costa Rica until they get some guarantees.
What MLS clubs are most likely to enter the Mo Salah sweepstakes? (The Transfer Flow)
Jason once again with the breakdown of MLS teams that might throw try to land Mo Salah when he leaves Liverpool at the end of the season.
Enjoy your Monday, y’all.
I was happy to see Jason include DC in his analysis of where Mo Salah could land in MLS. I would be pretty happy if it happened, but acknowledge that it is a looooooooooooong shot.
Jason is always going to be DC-centric, but he didn’t write anything that I wasn’t already thinking and positing myself. There are some difficult hurdles though. A crappy team isn’t going to be attractive for Mo. The mediocre training facility won’t help. The notoriously poor field conditions. All these would hurt the club in pursuing Salah. Unsure what having to play with an Israeli national team striker would do, but I can’t imagine it would help DCU’s case.
From the club’s side, the upside is also somewhat limited, given the team is playing in a 20k arena. It’s possible they could get another big crowd in Baltimore for Salah’s first home match. I don’t know what it would cost to have another grass pitch prepared for Baltimore, and Salah won’t have Messi’s level of pull, but they could sell it out, or at least get 50-60k, at a much lower price point. But, the financial gain would be limited — for most games, they’d be getting an additional 5-6k at Audi. And he’ll certainly sell a lot of jerseys, for whatever that’s worth. For some players that would be well worth it, but Salah’s going to command a big figure.
However, getting DC sports fans back into the habit of going to soccer, and having a winning team to root for could have big returns long term, especially with the team talking about expanding the stadium and building a roof (please make it retractable — and with some system that doesn’t scrap a grass pitch — as bad as it is now, it seems to me a plastic surface would be worse).
Finally — big tidbit from Jason’s piece: “minority owner Joe Mamo.” I never heard of the guy, but it’s nice to hear from him, to learn more about the ownership. Apparently, the Gas Station Master of DC.
Salah has a deep connection with Egypt and Muslim fans in general, there’s a reason Saudi Arabia was willing to pay a 200 million dollar transfer plus exorbitant salary two seasons ago- and will still take him now. He’s a gem and an idol to a huge swath of people in that region.
I don’t think he wants to live in the nation’s capital of the country that is destabilizing that region and causing immediate and long term death an trauma there.
Over the weekend the US Men’s Eagle 7s came 4th in Sao Paulo stop of the SVNS 2 Series. However, they finish as the top seed of the top 4 teams from SVNS 2 joining the 8 teams from the SVNS series for the World Championship Series that starts April 17-19 with a stop in Hong Kong.
https://www.svns.com/en/news/1043083/sides-locked-in-for-epic-three-event-hsbc-svns-world-championship-series
On Saturday, the 2026 Major League Rugby season opened with a single match seeing Anthem Rugby Carolina host California Legion (merger of RFC LA and San Diego Legion) in Charlotte. Anthem finally got their first win in franchise history 39-26 after going winless in the 2024 and 2025 seasons. Old Glory DC opens their 2026 campaign at Seattle Seawolves Friday night April 4th at 10:30 PM ET.
Thinking about turning this into a Spurs blog. I could post regular news about Spurs, which is really interesting to me. De Zerbi, for example? Not likely to pick up a club that is headed towards relegation — but what if Man City suddenly get hit with a massive points deduction, thereby basically guaranteeing Spurs another year in the top flight?
At least they ditch the manager. The two Robbies thought he should have been sacked weeks ago. It’s not just the results, it’s how they occur……
(sorry, hope Spurs rally)
I may be late on this since the article is several days old, but this says DC’s upcoming pro volleyball team (under DCU’s ownership) has a long-term plan of playing at a climate-controlled Audi Field with a roof. I knew they wanted to get more of the stands covered, but changing the whole thing to a domed stadium seems outlandish to me.
https://www.bizjournals.com/washington/news/2026/03/24/major-league-volleyball-dc-kate-greenberg-levien.html?csrc=6398&link_source=ta_first_comment&taid=69c84f8b9517210001e016e3&utm_campaign=trueAnthemTrendingContent&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=Iwb21leAQ31SFjbGNrBDfUzGV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHpXFqzpvInOgkGLlAik3ApIJsIghglQ5eatJ4WP0gqgJxJhBF-Y4inKMLyx2_aem_vEHUyqa_6CGS4njwqT67ww
This didn’t get much play here, I imagine because of the paywall. Not the first time there’s been reporting on Levien wanting a roof. I’m of 2 minds. Real soccer belongs outdoors. I hate that we’d go to a plastic field, but he’s been talking about that anyway — or at least a hybrid field — and the pitch we have now is notoriously awful.
If they got a waiver from the height limit, they could add a second deck on the west side, and fill in the north side. I don’t know how many seats that would add, but if they could get between 25-30,000, that would put them in another category in terms of the value of top talent they might want to pursue. At $30 a pop that could be an additional $2.5-5 million in POTENTIAL ticket sales, plus concessions and jersey, etc. Maybe the avg ticket price for the higher seats goes to $35, and you’re at $3.5-7 million, over $10 million more a year, with the concession sales. That’s a different economic strata, and makes it worth going after bigger names, to fill those seats. And, of course, the roof would make it easier to SELL tickets for games in November and February.
I mentioned it last Wednesday as something Keefer dug up