World Cup roster announcements begin, VAR controversy in Scotland, and more: Friday Freedom Kicks
It’s Friday! We have another day or two of cool weather before it becomes WAY TOO HOT next week, so I recommend getting out to enjoy it if you can. I will be investigating ways to have a refreshing beverage out of doors, though it may have to wait until tomorrow. Tonight, I will be pacing around for hours, waiting for the 10 p.m. Spirit game to start. The West Coast is out of control.
France World Cup squad: Camavinga, Kolo Muani miss out (ESPN)
World Cup rosters are starting to come out! New Zealand’s squad has been announced as well. I was going to say “already,” but I guess at less than a month out, it’s about time for these announcements to begin. Is this excitement I feel beginning to replace ambivalence?
Shakira, Madonna and BTS will not be paid for World Cup final half-time show (The Athletic $)
Nope, never mind. My concerns are back. I had forgotten we were jamming a Super Bowl-style halftime show into this thing.
Inflatable nearly double the size of actual Lionel Messi launches at Lowe’s (USA Today)
This summer’s hottest lawn decor is… a 10-foot tall inflatable Leo Messi. My goodness.
Dudinha and Claudia Martínez are revelations for top NWSL sides (The IX Sports)
Claudia Martinez has really started to impress for the Spirit, especially after public statements by the team that she should be considered more of a long-term project than an instant star. Here’s a look at her in comparison with San Diego Wave’s Dudinha. You’ll see that I also chose these two to highlight in my match preview for tonight’s game.
Hold the Line: Amber Wisner’s Last Walk to the Cotton Bowl (3rd Degree)
A retrospective on Spirit alumna Amber Wisner’s career before what could be her final match this Saturday.
Celtic penalty debacle shows why Scottish football must get rid of video assistant referees (The Guardian)
I’ve seen a few people making this argument: that VAR has decreased the quality of the game in Scotland because it’s poorly implemented and… makes fans sad when goals get called back? That may not be the fairest interpretation, but I fail to see why the answer isn’t to invest more in referee recruitment and training to improve the system, rather than eliminating it.
Save the Caps meeting was ‘very positive,’ may lead to stadium deal (The Province)
No details yet, but I like the optimism!
Picking best XIs for the USL Championship, League One (Backheeled $)
Some recognition for the best in the USL Championship and League One.
Finally, the match schedule for this weekend. We’re a little light on soccer, particularly at home, but D.C. United will get a chance to redeem themselves from Wednesday’s loss.
| Teams | When | Where | Watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Washington Spirit vs. SD Wave | Fri., May 15 at 10 p.m. | San Diego, CA | Victory+ |
| DC Defenders vs. Louisville Kings | Sat., May 16 at 12 p.m. | Louisville, KY | ABC |
| D.C. United vs. St. Louis City | Sat., May 16 at 7:30 p.m. | Washington, DC | AppleTV |
| Old Glory DC vs. NE Free Jacks | Sun., May 17 at 7 p.m. | Fairfax, VA | ESPN+ |
Well I’ll be downtown Saturday night but not at Buzzards Point, so I’ll have to watch a replay when I get home.
Same! I’ll be having a nice dinner in Union Market. But will try to catch highlights later
Courtesy of my wife’s boss I’ll be having dinner at the Cosmos Club as part of the Explorer’s Club and hearing a talk. Last time I got invited I got to hear a cool talk by a guy who had been a vet for 12 of the Iditarod Sled Dog Races. I’ve also gotten to hear talks by the Director of the Natural History Museum and by the Director of the Air and Space Museum.
The VAR call was pitiful and reeks of corruption. Hearts were the legit winners of SPL until a 96th minute VAR driven PK (not a whistle from the ref, rather a call from the booth) kept precious Celtic in contention. Now, Hearts gets the joy of travelling to Celtic tomorrow to decide who wins the crown. Hearts are up by one point and have a decisive goal differential. 7:30 AM EST kickoff.
The Auld Firm wouldn’t have it any other way. Shambolic.
I feel like as long as a league (or tournament) has a consistent and clear implementation of VAR, it works well. Its when you’re inconsistent with it that it becomes a problem. If your goal is “clear an obvious” then 50/50s stand as called and any rulings shouldn’t take much time to review. If its “get the correct call” like in the World Cup final, then it will take much longer, but at the trade off of trying to get every call correct. I feel like most leagues that struggle with VAR (looking at you, Premier League) are just actively bad at it. If a referee has to look at the screen for 5 minutes to then just get a call incorrect anyway, that’s not a VAR problem, that’s a referee and utilization problem.
I think there just needs to be a complete recalibration of the mindset behind it.
“Clear and obvious” or anything worded similarly is dumb and not reflective of human perception. A ref thinks he saw something and real time, then those in the VAR room have to look, not for what happened, but subjectivity. If they think it’s not objectively wrong, they have to keep it, and that’s an impossibly silly bar to clear when they simply have the benefit of replay technology and time reversal to see it better than the ref in the field.
Even then, they have to do the humiliation ritual of sending the ref to the monitor to explain what they’re thinking. And this doesn’t even take into account human bias and personal ideas of things related to infractions.
How it should be recalibrated: The VAR and the refs are viewed as collaborative to get the best call possible, and the VAR calls down if they think this is into the territory of the question. That would allow the refs and VAR crew to confer more quickly, and ascertain how to proceed. All the while the conversation happens, the tech is being used to view it, and if it appears that there’s nothing hugely conclusive, nix the process and continue.
The “clear and obvious” wording strikes me as the most British 🙄 ever. The idea that the referee should always be the one who is responsible for the major calls unless objectively wrong does not play out in practice. And the idea that “well, it should be obvious” is the most former player turned color commentator bullshit imaginable.
So, make it collaborative, and make it easy to nix if unnecessary instead of exhaustive, especially when the play continues for several seconds after the event
I guess what comes to mind for me with the “clear and obvious” distinction is that there have been a lot of times in MLS games where the AR will call something on or off sides when it isnt, or the ref calls or doesn’t call something a hand ball. They get called over to the monitor, they look at it for 5-10 seconds and can see immediately that whatever the call was was incorrect and they make the correction. The ref doesnt always have the best line of sight to things like handballs, so things like that can be both very cut-and-dry and also missable from the perspective of the referee. And I think those situations are where VAR excels.
For things like tournament finals, yes, absolutely take the time to make sure calls are correct, regardless of the time it takes.
I’m not sure that what you said relates to my argument.
I’m suggesting we make it collaborative and that it takes less time. Right now it’s a contentious tennis match where the ball stays in the VAR court forever and then goes into the center ref court forever all because of that “clear and obvious is the only time VAR can make a thing” bs. The center refs are already pausing plays to make sure VAR can hastily scroll through footage, it’s ridiculous.
If we want to make sure that calls are more consistent and accurate, then have a tie breaker of a rules expert just in case. Hell, a lot of times they’re available to broadcast teams, it’s pretty absurd.
Confer, don’t make it about ego, acknowledge that you talk through stuff with the help of the tech.
Even the “only send the ref to the monitor in cases of desperate need” idea is silly, because then the VAR has to spend forever determining whether it’s desperate need in a high pressure situation. Just send the ref
To the monitor to look with them a bit more often, and it can be talked about instead of two endless checks back to back
Andrew Dallas? Any relation to Hugh Dallas who blew the German hand ball on the goal line in 2002 vs USA in the World Cup final 8????
Andrew Dallas was the VAR “interventionist” in this matter. Unbelievable.
And as you are probably aware, Hugh was the ref in ‘that’ old firm title decider where he got his head split open by a coin from the crowd and generally presided over chaos.
Absolutely inappropriate under every circumstance to assault a ref. Hugh was a decent enough ref, he just didn’t the handball on the goal line in 2002 USA v Germany. I hold no ill will over that.
Oh no doubt, definitely no reason for what happened to him at that game. There was a reason they had him ref those games, and that he got called to the WC, but man, seemed to be chaos every time he reffed – perhaps a bit of chicken v. egg there.
Also, I agree with you that Hearts should be celebrating this weekend, not having to win away.
It gets worse. On the Celtic throw in, the player hurling the ball had his left foot over the line and into the playing field. Illegal throw in….
Surprised the VAR didn’t pick that up too….
“didn’t see the handball”
I did not realize Dudinha was so young! Battle of the South American phenomes tonight. Her behind the back cut for that goal against ACFC was really something.
Nothing here about the latest iteration of “Spygate?”
The match known as the “Richest Game” in football (for promotion to the EPL) is on hold because Southampton appears to have had a spy with a camera hiding behind the one tree by the road passing the Middlesborough training grounds.
I missed the kicks yesterday, and surprised by the lack of discussion about the roster analysis piece linked there. I was trying to surmise how much GAM or cap space DCU might have left. The projection there was that the team is using $10.4M of cap space. The general rule of thumb (based on Google AI answer) is about $9.7MM — ($6.425M + $3.280M in GAM). So, DCU must’ve had more to use. Per MLS in Feb at roster compliance date, DCU still had a fair amount of GAM, with $2.138M. Some, or maybe all of this could be rolled over (not sure if that’s just a one-year thing, and whether DCU has some GAM they must use this year — presumably, if so, the accountants would have used that first).
Anyway, they’re looking to move Pirani and Herrera. That would free up 1.003M cap space to use…this year. They will have at least those two roster slots to fill, and that cap space (along with a U22 slot — a $200k cap hit — or potentially a DP slot — $803k cap hit — and, if they can move Kim Joon Hong then maybe a U22 and a DP slot, which would neatly fill the cap space freed up with Pirani and Herrera).
This is a team that needs both more quality in the starting lineup, and better depth. I like Hopkins but don’t think he brings enough to fill a starting spot in a contending team. Will Dozell and Peltola provide enough creativity in the center of the pitch? Or, should they use one as a 6 and try to find a more gifted central attacking midfielder? I think the latter. I don’t think Peltola is well-suited to the more attacking role he’s playing now. Pirani failed, but Peltola isn’t the answer either.
OTOH, I think we could do with an upgrade in our CBs, and if we lose Herrera, maybe we need more depth at fullback, too. So, I guess I’m happy with Baribo, Munteanu, Peglow, Hefti and Kurokawa, and I see a role for either Peltola or Dozell. Everything else is up for grabs.
I will note, all signs indicate that Kim is not currently occupying a U22 spot for us. We should be able to sign another U22 independent of him. The issue would come in the offseason, were he to come back from his loan and stay here.
And we certainly need some more full-back depth regardless of what happens with Herrera. We essentially have 4 total full-backs on the team right now, not counting Markovic. Kurokawa seemingly has infinite stamina, but if he ever gets hurt or anything we’re pretty well screwed at LB.
If we’re able to use Kim’s U22 slot, then we could have 2 to use in the summer. I referenced the full season charge, but really we’re looking at half that. Moving Pirani should free up the cap space for one, in addition to the U22 slot. Filling both slots would require all of $100,000 in GAM to make the cap math work.
That would still leave the team with just over $2M in GAM, if they are determined to save it for 2027. With a season and half to plan for, having extra GAM makes sense, but I hope they don’t look at 2026 as a lost cause. And moving Herrera, who is getting max salary, opens up the cap space for a DP. The team could get a lot better in the summer, if the will is there.
I think we could upgrade left and right midfield if we want to create more attacking menace.
I don’t disagree, but Peglow ain’t bad by MLS standards. I think if we had better distribution from the other midfielders, and more menace down the right, Peglow would be much more effective. Still, if we’re able to upgrade such that Peglow is a depth piece, that would be awesome.
Sam Coffey is out of the June USWNT camp after undergoing “minor” kneed surgery.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7282468/2026/05/15/sam-coffey-uswnt-manchester-city-knee-injury-update/