Baribo voted Player of the Matchday, USWNT announce games in Brazil, and more: Friday Freedom Kicks
Happy Friday! We are looking at some true April weather this weekend, and I am just hoping the storms in the forecast don’t cause a problem at any of our three home games. I know, I know. I probably shouldn’t have mentioned it for fear of a jinx, but Audi Field is a pretty miserable place to wait out a storm in my experience. I wouldn’t mind some storms the rest of the weekend, though. What a good excuse to stay in and watch a movie!
USWNT to face Brazil in pair of June road friendlies (Stars and Stripes FC)
Continuing their preparation for World Cup 2027, the US Women will travel to Brazil this summer to get a feel for conditions in the host country, while also measuring themselves against the hosts.
D.C. United Forward Tai Baribo Voted MLS Player of the Matchday Presented by Michelob ULTRA for Matchday 9 (D.C. United)
A hat trick in one of Wednesday’s wildest matches made Tai Baribo an easy pick for Player of the Matchday. Seems pretty fair to me! He also made Team of the Matchday:
In Columbus NWSL votes, two abstained. One won’t say why (Columbus Dispatch $)
The rush to approve a funding deal for Columbus’s NWSL team continues to look shady. It’s certainly not the way I’d have liked the city to get a team.
Loudoun United FC Announces Addition of USL Academy Team (Loudoun United)
Loudoun United keeps expanding! They already had a USL W team and have now announced a USL Academy Team. The U-20 squad will be recruited from around the region and will compete in the Chesapeake Division.
Work in progress: analyzing Washington Spirit’s first five games of 2026 (The District Press)
Tooting my own horn here, but I took at look at the (incredibly small sample size of) statistics from the Spirit’s first games, tried to diagnose their finishing problems, and recommended a couple of changes to improve results in the next batch.
Donovan or Dempsey? New USMNT retrospectives lend more fuel to a long-running debate (The Guardian)
While I’m not really clear on what the “debate” is, this was an interesting look at the contrasts between Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey, who both have retrospectives out now.
Italy rejects ‘shameful’ idea to replace Iran at World Cup (ESPN)
Good! This suggestion was, frankly, disgusting.
World Cup fans warned of US immigration risks (USA Today)
I wish I could feel more excited for this World Cup. I’d love to be planning trips and watch parties and spend the summer unreservedly rooting for the USMNT. Between our worsening relationships with the rest of the world and out-of-control pricing, it is really hard to do that right now.
For some Friday… friendliness, after my brief period of despair, I enjoyed these pictures of Trinity Rodman and Lucas Bartlett trading jerseys.
MLS suspends Inter Miami midfielder Yannick Bright additional match (MLS)
According to The Burgundy Wave on Bluesky, the match official reported that Bright said THE racial slur during last Saturday’s game against the Colorado Rapids, so a longer suspension was well-deserved.
Seven USL Championship clubs who should make the most of the Prinx Tires USL Cup (USL Championship)
Loudoun United plays their first match in the USL Cup this weekend, and this article proposes that the team — still winless in the regular season — could focus energies here to find some success in 2026.
Finally, your match schedule for the weekend. Looking at the late-April-to-early-May match schedule, I am suddenly concerned about the pitch at Audi Field. Eight games in about two weeks starting from Wednesday! Best of luck to the grounds crew!
| Teams | When | Where | Watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Washington Spirit vs. KC Current | Fri., Apr. 24 at 8 p.m. | Washington, DC | Prime |
| DC Defenders vs. Birmingham Stallions | Fri., Apr. 24 at 8 p.m. | Birmingham, AL | Fox |
| Loudoun United vs. Charleston Battery | Sat., Apr. 25 at 6 p.m. | Leesburg, VA | ESPN+ |
| D.C. United vs. Orlando City | Sat., Apr. 25 at 7:30 p.m. | Washington, DC | Apple TV |
| Old Glory DC vs. CA Legion | Sun., Apr. 26 at 7 p.m. | Fairfax, VA | ESPN+ |
Have a good weekend!
If anyone is interested, the US Women take on Canada tonight in their final game of the Pacific 4 series in Chicago. They lost to New Zealand 48-15 2 weeks ago. Then last week in a match that saw a 2 hour delay due to thunderstorms beat Australia 33-12 in a match that dragged late into the night. The game tonight is at 8:30 PM ET on Paramount+. They got spanked by Canada last summer in their final warmup match for the Women’s Rugby World Cup, so they are looking for revenge. USA vs Canada in both men’s and women’s and 15s and 7s is the top rivalry for the US in rugby.
There are a few reasons why I just bought a ticket for the Spirit game tonight, but one of them is definitely Prime.
Tom Bogert comes out of nowhere with DCU transfer news:
“D.C. United has agreed to terms to sign midfielder Andre Dozzell this summer on a free transfer when his Portsmouth contract expires.”
Based on his profile, sounds like Weiler is done with Servania as a starter, as well.
Defensive midfielder from the Championship, 26. On paper, promising. Probably TAM, but we’ll see.
Not having a transfer fee certainly helps, but given hes been playing in the Championship and how much those guys are overpaid, I would imagine TAM as well.
Championship clubs are pretty uniform in their desire to either get good enough players in that they can build toward the promised land of the EPL, or desperate to avoid the precipitous drop of finances that relegation into the lower leagues would mean.
That said, I don’t think until we can make any “overpayment” judgments until we see his Portsmouth salary, what DCU will pay him, and how much quality he brings.
That said, hope he’s got more talent than Victor Pálsson of the Rooney era, a player whose salary return was so abysmal that it took me a few minutes to google what his name was again.
Seems to be a 26 (soon to be 27) year old Defensive Midfielder. My guess is that this is supposed to be the Servania upgrade
Yeah. Just doing some quick YouTube and Wikipedia searches, and I’m not convinced that he’s an upgrade necessarily. But the team does need depth in that position, and it doesn’t look like he’d be a DP, so fine.
DMs are usually not highlight reel players, TBF. If he’s in the right spots and moves it along well, that would appear as nothing happening and someone else succeeding, respectively.
He’s probably pretty good, just a question of contract and adjusting to the league.
Mercifully, the Championship is pretty physical, fast paced, and a bit chaotic past the top teams, so MLS shouldn’t be a stretch
Like, the only comment on Tom’s post is “Did they find him on LinkedIn?” and I’m like, “…that’s not out of the question.”
Most of the reaction Ive seen to it on BlueSky has been negative as well. Doyle is certainly not a fan of it (though he doesn’t like Championship players coming here as a whole). But as you said, we need depth there regardless. Though hopefully someone taking up an international spot, and maybe TAM, will be better than just depth
Will also note the Portsmouth fans seem upset he’s leaving, so that’s something at least
According to Wikipedia, he has an American grandfather. I have no idea if that’s enough to get qualified as a domestic player.
I saw the same. Not sure if that can make him a domestic player on day 1, but maybe it will at least speed up a Green Card since he’s already connected through his grandfather
Some people had also speculated that perhaps Rowles was in the process of getting a green card. Hopefully that happens, regardless of Dozzell’s status.
Hopefully someone with passing range. I think we could get something for Servania from a team that wants to play more conservatively with possession. Getting someone to just sit back with Peltola isn’t going to help if we can just play Markovic anyway.
Given how Rowles is a pretty easy bar to clear for opposing attackers in frenetic games, Markovic being able to slot back ain’t worth nothing
Goff has now independently confirmed this as well, so looks to be a done deal
He’s English, so do we have an international roster spot open for him to land in at the opening of the summer transfer window?
We should. We are in theory on 7/8 spots filled at the moment. The league’s roster breakdown still has Kim/Joon listed as taking up a spot (which would make it 8/8), but I think that’s just a quirk of how their list is displayed. Its also possible that one of our guys gets a green card soon (Peltola, Rowles, and Peglow all seem like possibilities) to open up more.
Fun fact! Jacob Murrell has now entered the top 10 of career games played by a striker for DC United. He’s tied with Conor Doyle(!) for 10th, at 56 games played.
Wild
More surprising is that more than 20% of those were starts — one start shy of 25% actually
He got a pretty good run of games while Benteke was out last year, but never really capitalized on that opportunity.
If you remember last July, Liverpool player and Portugal International Diogo Jotoa and his brother Andrew Silva were killed in a car crash. A Spanish court has just ruled that there is no criminal liability over the car crash.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6475993/2026/04/24/diogo-jota-andre-silva-car-crash/