USWNT preview, Spirit keeper returns from loan, and more: Tuesday Freedom Kicks
Morning DC Footy Folk! I am in great spirits (pun intended) today because my indoor soccer team had our biggest win of the season so far and I scored two goals! It’s all coming up Milhouse!
Anyways, let’s dive into the news!
Washington Spirit Recalls Goalkeeper Sara Wojdelko from Loan (Washington Spirit)
Wojo is back from her very brief loan to Audi Field roommates, DC Power FC. She played one match for Power FC before getting an injury.
Inside Washington Spirit’s plan to deliver profitability within three years (SportsPro)
I love these deep dives into the business side of things. Spirit CEO, Kim Stone, has an ambitious plan and it involves more corporate partnerships and creative ones at that.
USWNT vs. Japan April friendlies preview match two: Once more with feeling (SSFC)
I did not watch the first friendly on Saturday, but I am looking forward to tuning in for this one! I think many USWNT team fans are hoping for a bit more youth in this line up.
Things are starting to click for some of the USMNT players. Having two of the potentially three strikers in the squad in good form bodes well for the World Cup.
Not sure what exactly this partnership entails but I love that the focus is on collaborating with independent soccer media organizations!
The Bundesliga team has decided to create their own award in response to FIFA’s “Peace Prize” (read a bit about their politics on Wikipedia and it will make sense why they created their own version of the awrd) and it seems like it could not have gone to a better person! Wes Burdine is a co-owner of the Minnesota Aurora, a team in the USL W, and over the last year he has raised thousands of dollars to help immigrants affected by the ICE raids in his city. Congrats, Wes!
Unequal game: Levy paid more last season than entire Spurs women’s team and staff (The Guardian)
Daniel Levy, the former executive chair of Tottenham, was paid £5.76m last year which was more than all 64 players and staff at the club’s women’s team combined. A reminder that this is a club that is in very real danger of being relegated from the Premier League.
How La Liga went ‘back to the future’ for a retro matchday — with plans for a sequel ($The Athletic)
I thought this was a cool “gimmick” from La Liga this past weekend. I would love to see an MLS match day with retro kits (though admittedly some of the teams are still too new to have a retro kit).
A very cool goal from the Moroccan league this past weekend that I think everyone should see.
A reminder that tonight the USWNT plays their second of three games against Japan in addition to some Champions League quarterfinal second leg games. For those of us on the East coast, it’s going to be a late night!
| Teams | When | Where | Watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| USWNT vs. Japan | Tue., Apr. 14 at 10:00 p.m. | Seattle, WA | TNT, etc. |
US losing Matt Crocker to Saudi Arabia with immediate effect. I’m sure the money is good. Mixed bag with him…getting Emma Hayes has been great for the women. Rehiring Berhalter, only to fire him a year(?) later and spend a *lot* on Pochettino is still not looking super good.
Yeah, honestly, good riddance.
Glad Emma is here, but it’s not really a secret she felt she had done her stint with Chelsea, and relished the prospect of claiming the USWNT job, especially after Vlatko’s tenure ended so bitterly- immensely talented and strong program needing a refresh from a disappointing leadership failure? That’s the friggin dream.
The Berhalter thing made me want to roast Gregg and Crocker on a spit after the Copa America bullshit. And no, it wasn’t just one petulant mistake by Weah. That one moment where shifting game states were in effect, the US hadn’t accomplished a win against a strong contender on the world stage and had to get one against Uruguay to advance, and Gregg distracts them by shouting about the scoreline in another game? A scoreline that didn’t even hold? What a weak minded, characterless dweeb.
I can certainly see why the Saudis want Crocker. He’s done such great things at Southampton and the USSF.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.foxsports.com/stories/soccer/u-s-soccer-sporting-director-matt-crocker-saudi-arabia-2026-world-cup
US Soccer Sporting Director Matt Crocker supposedly leaving early ahead of the World Cup for a job with the Saudis.
Per Bogert, Miami has fired their head coach. Given they’re 3-1-3…seems like a choice.
Hasn’t hit the mainstream news yet, but if it does, will certainly include it tomorrow.
Bogert is no Fabrizio, but gonna hold off till it’s a bit more established
Miami has made it official now. They claim that it was a coach’s decision. Will be interested to see what Bogert digs up to know if that’s actually the case or not.
That’s the downside for Inter Miami of being so universally hailed as the only reason for the MLS season.
Levien and Kaplan have made DCU so irrelevant, that they can be opaque as they want about their neglect and mismanagement without journalistic scrutiny. Miami? They’ll be giving Beckham a proctology exam.
Yeah it looks like everything so far is pointing to it being the coach’s choice. Guess we’ll just have to wait to see what his reasoning was
I have a hard time believing it was entirely his choice, just because I have a hard time believing everything Miami does is as clean as it looks. Maybe they’re all going to coach the Argentina men’s national team after the world cup, or got a big bag of money from SA like Crocker.
He cited “personal reasons”
If this turns out to be true, maybe Sr. Messi was a factor in this decision?
Not sure that Messi would go against Masche.
Yes, seems unlikely, except that the departure of Masche at this time is a surprise, to me at least. Something maybe is happening behind the scenes that we are not aware of?
Congrats to you, Dennis. Glad someone here achieved.
I’ve been working on a better democracy bill for years in Maryland (not perfect — really a quarter-measure — not even a half-measure — but still better). Last night, for the first time, the House passed it, and that turned into a defeat. Because they could have passed the Senate bill, and it would be on the way to the Governor for his signature, but instead they passed their identical version of the Senate bill, sending the House bill to the Senate to pass (yes, this is a bizarro parliamentary process), and the Senate never got to it before session ended at midnight. All of which is to day, I’m very bitter today.
So, thank you for sharing that video of that incredible goal by El Jabali. I don’t understand why anyone would attempt a rabona shot like that, but damn if he didn’t pull it off, even if he needed a lucky deflection to score.
I think the USMNT should run out a lineup with Darryl Dike, Pulisic, Reyna, Quinn Sullivan, Carter-Vickers, Dest, Adams, Jordan Morris, Miles Robinson and Antonee Robinson.
They’ve all been pre-injured. Gotta be better than risking a healthy player during the World Cup.
Though I think Gregg was a lunatic for publicly going after Gio at some sort of leadership lecture, and bringing him to the last World Cup with no intention of playing him and in fact telling him he wouldn’t was roster waste and poor management, Gio remains one of those players you could lose at any time in any stage of form. He doesn’t endure hard tackles that he draws well, and his hamstrings are basically jelly. Despite prodigious talent, no club coach wants to give him any sort of foundational responsibility.
I can’t fault his efforts in a US shirt of late, but he feels like one of those weapons you like to use in a video game that you know is designed to break in the worst moment and leave you scrounging
I’d put money on him getting courted by LAG to replace Puig, this or next season. No, they aren’t the same player, but just based on how LA evaluates players. It could end up being a decent move for him. Though MLS is physically rough, he won’t have the pressure to come back prematurely from every bad sprain and strain.
Don’t know that he has that in the Bundesliga now. Even when healthy and available, they’re not desperate to get him minutes. Think he’s just one of those players with a ceiling you can barely see for its height, and if he ever started playing to it consistently, the money Gladbach spent would be paid back many times over. But, since that window where he had a terrific run of games feeding Haaland at Dortmund as a teen, he’s not rewarded any club figure that took that bet. And, though he’s incredibly talented with the ball, evidence suggests he’s not got the availability capacity that you need to make it as a pro athlete.