Spirit win in Cascadia, DC United draw, and more: Monday Freedom Kicks
Happy Monday. I hope all the mothers out there had a terrific Mother’s Day yesterday and felt the love. A nice present was the first team up:
Washington Spirit nab 1-0 road win from Seattle Reign (DP)
The Child strikes again. Her late goal was the difference in the Spirit’s 1-0 win against Seattle. Also check out Jason’s match report at Green Line Soccer.
DC United had a early 2-0 lead off Munteanu and Bartlett goals. But a Silvan Hefti red card changed things, and Nashville was eventually able to draw level and split the points.
DC Power was eliminated from the Gainbridge Super League playoffs before their final match kicked off against Spokane Zephyr on Saturday, and they drop their season finale by a 1-0 score.
Rashford scores as Barcelona beat Real to seal title (BBC)
After a wild week of drama in Real Madrid’s locker room, Barca win El Clásico at home 2-0 to claim the LaLiga title.
VAR offers up Arsenal’s title-deciding moment for digital mess generation (The Guardian)
The EPL title could have been decided on a crucial VAR call that gave Arsenal 3 points in a close win against West Ham. It also could have helped keep Spurs up while West Ham could be relegated.
Cesc Fabregas’ Como secure spot in European football with win over Verona (ESPN)
Cesc Fabregas and Como have clinched a spot in one of the European competitions next season, and they still have a shot at Champions League ball as well.
Finally, the Annapolis Blues have a cool friendly coming next month as they take on Santos Laguna! If you’re looking for some soccer during the big soccer tournament, this is an option!
Enjoy the day, y’all.
Old Glory fell 30-25 to the only MLR original remaining Seattle Seawolves yesterday afternoon. The first half was definitely affected by the rain as there were a lot of ball handling errors by both teams. But on the back of an early penalty goal and 2 tries late in the half including one right on 40 minutes (end of the half) Old Glory went in to half up 15-6.
Then coming out of the half, Seattle came to life and had retaken the lead 18-15 before the hydration break. Right before the hydration break, there was a referee initiated review on a high tackle and then in the ruck following. On review a Seattle player saw a yellow and was sent to the sin bin for 10 mins for a high tackle with a high degree of danger, but that was mitigated to a yellow by most of the force going into the chest of the Old Glory player. But also on review, Old Glory captain Rob Harely saw a red card for coming into the ruck and on the clear out his shoulder went into the head of one of the tackling Seattle Seawolves players with a high degree of danger and no mitigation. So Seattle was down to 14 for the next 10 mins, while given that it was after the 60′ mark the 20 mins down for the red card for Rob Harely would see Old Glory down a man for the rest of the game. Then more ill-discipline struck as Old Glory saw another player get a yellow card and be sent to the sin bin at the 64 min mark. So for the next 6 mins it would 14 on 13 then 15 on 13 for another 4 mins before being 15 on 14 for the rest of the match. And Seattle made use of their man advantage and scored two more tries with one conversion to take the lead 30-15 with about 8 mins to play. Old Glory refused to go quietly into the night and made an attempt at a come back with a penalty goal from Jason Robertson and then a converted try putting the score at 30-25 with 3 mins to play in a one score game. Seattle committed a penalty and Robertson put the ensuring free kick into touch deep in Seattle’s half. That resulted in an Old Glory line out about 15 meters out with 2 mins to play and a chance to steal a win or a draw at the death. Unfortunately, the lineout wasn’t thrown straight resulting in a Seattle controlled scrum. Seattle got the ball out of the scrum and put it into touch after the 80 minute mark ending the game.
While Old Glory got a losing bonus point for losing by less than 7, this leaves them in 5th place on 11 pts and out of the playoff spots. With 4 games to go, the standings are:
Crucially, 3 out of Old Glory’s 4 remaining games are home games. They need to finish in the in top 4 to make the playoffs. They host the defending 3-pete champion New England Free Jacks on Sunday at 7 PM.
In his weekly round-up column, Doyle admits that he’s starting to come around on DC and that they’re probably better than he gave them credit for to start the year. Also likes what he’s been seeing out of Munteanu, but notes that its still not looking like the $7M price tag. Either way, good to finally start getting some credit from the MLS pundits.
Louis has a lot of time to justify the price tag. It might be a hard climb, just because it’s a lot of money, but if he stays hot…
He’s already gotten off to a better start than Flores. It’s worth noting even if the bar is an inch or two off the floor.
I’m not expecting much more from him in terms of build up play, creativity, press resistance, or athleticism.
I would still want those things from a second striker, but if he can contribute regular goals, it does help offset that, and it’s good not to have feel like he has to be offloaded ASAP at this point.
He scored an excellent header in this game, and I hope he can continue to contribute, though this current strike rate was pretty fortunate before this last game, and definitely not something to count on continuing at such a clip.
The difference in defensive contribution between him and Baribo when he subbed in against Nashville was really stark.
But yeah, as long as he scores goals, we’ll call it okay.
I don’t buy the framing that Baribo didn’t defend as well.
We put him on that we could get the ball to him out of the bunker for him to hold up and we could reset. The team failed to ever get him those opportunities for them, it was just a mess. IMO, completely unrelated to the sub.
No, I meant that Baribo did a very good job against the ball. Louis seemed very ineffective in a defensive posture, at least to my eye.
Ah, gotcha
If DC United can get even a hair’s breadth from league protagonist status, that sort of reputational boost would this season a success, full stop.
At this point, refs, the league, and broadcasters have favorites on an inarguably apparent scale, we want to be in that club.
Honestly the fact that conversations are even being had at this point discussing whether or not DC is actually the 5th best team in the East is just so much further ahead than I think any of us were expecting going into the season.
I’m mainly talking about narratives, though obviously conference standings matter, as well.
Thing is, there are teams like Atlanta that are viewed favorably and that there’s an urge to consider dark horses if they even barely manage to scrape into the playoffs. Even when DCU has earned more points in a season, Atlanta are viewed as a team that is gonna bust out with the right moves- away from teams like us and Chicago.
Heck, Toronto is a team that many involved with the league would love to boost, certainly more than us.
Point being, a shift in identity is vital, and if we can achieve it, we’re the ones playing on a tilted fusball table a bit more. I’d prefer if things were more balanced, but if the league has jumped the shark on parity and equality, let’s be privileged
To wit, both Madrigal and Najar were named to Team of the Matchday and nobody from DC made the list. Sure, Madrigal and Najar both played very well, and I don’t think their inclusion is really improper. But they played to tie in their home stadium against a 10-man DC. DC by contrast managed to score twice on Nashville, who had only allowed six goals all year. That was against a full-strength defense, including Najar. They were the first MLS team to not lose in Geodis Park all year.
So, do Nashville really deserve to have two players in the Team of the Matchday? DC’s performances were more of a team effort, so them not having anyone included is understandable, but if they were the top team in the East and Nashville was fifth, maybe you’d be seeing a different narrative around that outcome.
If Johnson’s performance was as strong as he started throughout, he would have made it into this list. But, then, we also would have won, and maybe even kept a clean sheet with ten men if he did.
If Hefti hadn’t gotten ejected, he might have deserved a TOM mention.
The USL has a leadership shakeup ahead of going to pro/rel.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7270510/2026/05/11/usl-leadership-transition-papadakis-mcdonough-premier-promotion-relegation/