USWNT win, DC United draw, and more: Monday Freedom Kicks
Happy Monday, y’all. It was a nice weekend for me, highlighted by myself, Talonesque, Dennis, Annie, and André taking in some USWNT action together on Friday night! Fun times were had. We start with that match:
USWNT close out Japan series with statement win in Colorado (SSFC)
The USWNT ended their series with Japan in a big way, throttling the Nadeshiko.
D.C. United, Philadelphia Union scrap their way to 0-0 draw (Green Line Soccer)
DC United got the scoreless draw against Philly on the road. They will continue up I-95 for this season’s first installment of the Atlantic Cup on Wednesday.
Loudoun United also had a scoreless draw on the road on Saturday, as they bring a point home from Hartford.
Most NWSL players currently oppose potential calendar switch (ESPN)
Most players are saying the same thing we are: switching the NWSL to a fall-spring calendar is going to create havoc in those late fall/winter months.
Concacaf W Championship field set: Mexico, Jamaica, Haiti among winners who secure place (USA Today)
Firstly, shoutout to my friend Jon Arnold for his new gig over at USA Today! The Concacaf W Championship field is set: United States, Canada, Mexico, Jamaica, Haiti, Costa Rica, Panama, and El Salvador. The tournament will take place in the November-December international window.
Are Man City now title favourites after win over Arsenal? (BBC)
Manchester City beat Arsenal at home, and if they win their game in hand on Wednesday, they will take over the Premier League lead with 5 matches to go. Will they do it, or will Arsenal find a way?
USMNT’s Florian Balogun scores in 8th straight game for Monaco (ESPN)
Balo is BALLIN right now. He’s scored in 8 straight matches for Monaco, and hopefully he keeps in hot form.
Real Sociedad lift Copa del Rey after Marrero shootout heroics sink Atlético (The Guardian)
Pellegrino Matarazzo becomes the first American coach to win a major trophy in a top 5 European league when Real Sociedad beat Atlético Madrid to win the Copa del Rey. I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again: Matarazzo deserves some serious consideration to be the next USMNT head coach whenever the job opens up.
That’s it…let’s have a good week!
Markovic looked a little shaky defensively against Knoxville, but did score a goal. And then as a defensive midfielder, was one of the top performers against Philadelphia. It seems like he needs to be on the field going forward, and taking Brandon Servania’s spot is not a bad idea.
The El Salvador WNT is sneakily decent. Brenda Ceren (brother of Darwin Ceren who plays for the men’s side) is pretty good. I could see them qualifying for 2027 (largely dependent on who they come up against in the quarterfinals).
If Arsenal lose out on all four trophies this season (which in my opinion looks likely considering how defeated all the players look), this will be a historic bottling.
It’s fully on Arteta.
He set up his team this season to be far more mindful in possession of what their shape would be out of possession if it turned over. They often kept their games as turgid as possible for both teams, got a set piece goal, and then pounced once the other team was forced to open up to chase the result.
Now it’s deeply flat footed, and any occurrence of soccer on the field can fuck up their game plan, and they do not attempt to go through the gears, even momentarily, to correct the imbalance.
In short, Arteta’s reaction to every setback is to lean into timidity and miserly negation of risk when that is the absolute opposite direction for an actual solution.
He managed to convince arguably the highest median level of talent and quality squad in the world to believe his Arsenal project was headed there, and that they would be the missing piece. It’s an exemplary squad building accomplishment.
He did all that only to prove he’s not capable nor worthy of them.
Congrats to Balo–this is great news for the USMNT and the WC. Now, wrap in up in bubble wrap and keep him safe.
Also, so it looks like Pirani has worn out any trust Weiler has in him. I would expect him to be sold in the summer transfer window. In the meantime, maybe that means more minutes for Caden Clark?
I would imagine there’s another round of roster chopping and stitching together after the world cup. Pirani is not getting us anything, I’d imagine whoever wants him can negotiate with him and we can loan him out for free once they figure out a price. I hope we don’t pay a fortune for some no-name who has one decent moment in a game. I’m still delusional about getting Zendejas to get some creativity in here.
There are only 4 new players on the starting 11 from last year: Baribo, Helfti, Kurokawa, and Johnson. The defense is better, but nothing else has changed. Can the defense compete against the top MLS teams? I don’t know. Still not scoring, just like last year. There hasn’t been enough to change the team. There is still rebuilding to do. That’s on the field. Where is Sogut? I have to guess, Kasper is running the club. Who is scouting for us to find the next upgrades? They should know they need to upgrade the roster even more. Everyone knows that. Will the front office make good moves during the next window? Louis was a wasted DP slot. They need to do better than that. This is a front office problem, too.
Tom Bogert has a few paragraphs on DCU in his article put out today.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7211367/2026/04/20/usmnt-world-cup-roldan-luna-ream-mls-san-jose-miami/
Basically saying both Atlanta United and DCU are “united through their despair”. Even though the black and red are faring better than ATL we don’t have much to show for the roster turnover this past off season.
I don’t know that there’s nothing to show for it, necessarily. Last year through 8 games, DC was at 1-4-3 (W-L-D), with 11 goals scored and 18 goals allowed for a GD of -7. This year we’re 2-4-2 with 4 goals scored and 9 allowed for a GD of -5. Last year we definitely scored more, but absolutely leaked goals defensively, and we’ve sort of gone the other direction this year with being good defensively, but struggling to score. This year we’ve really only had 1 game that was decidedly BAD and that was the game against Dallas. Last year at this time, we had already lost 4-1 to Orlando and 6-1 to San Jose (who has a worse defense than us). The 1 win at this point last year was also against SKC, who was also absolutely terrible last year.
That figure Bogert cites — 11 signings this winter – that leaves off Avilez who signed in October, but it is still a ridiculously exaggerated number. 2 of the ‘signings’ are draft picks, and 3 are goalies (one of which is a homegrown signing). And one signing is Gabe Segal who is out with a long-term injury and was at best a depth piece who would’ve rarely made the 18. I’m not necessarily enamored with Weiler and Sogut — the players they have brought in that were expected to contribute have not been brilliant (Hefti is limited, Kurokawa isn’t precise, Nealis is a spare part and played like it, and neither of the DPs were worth the investment, but Louis is especially weak) — but there’s a lot more turnover needed. I guess we’ll have to judge this new crew on the summer. If they can’t make strong changes, they won’t merit another year.
Meanwhile, I’m incredibly jealous of what San Jose is doing, I think I was pretty much a unicorn here after 2024 in wanting the team to go hard to recruit Bruce Arena, notwithstanding the unproven complaint against him. I don’t know if Arena would have agreed to return here given the poor track record of the owners. Ah well. I understand the desire to want to uncover the next great manager. The Nationals may have done that with Butera. Weiler was already a known quantity. Decent with less ambitious teams, but not wildly successful. Perfect for DC United.
Another story in the Athletic that I saw linked below Bogert’s piece — Jonathan Klinsmann suffered a spinal fracture apparently in his neck during a game this weekend.
Yeah I linked the Klinsmann piece below. He apparently fractured the first cervical vertebra in a collision with an opposing player in 2nd half stoppage time of a 2-0 loss.
We are winless in 4 games…Austin hasn’t won since they beat us on Mar 1, so winless in 6.
Jonathan Klinsmann got stretchered off in 2nd half stoppage time of Cesena’s Serie B match at Palermo after colliding with an opposing player over the weekend. He fractured the first cervical vertebra.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7212128/2026/04/20/jonathan-klinsmann-neck-injury/