Spirit lose, DC United draw, and more: Monday Freedom Kicks
Happy Monday y’all. We’re gonna get a taste of summer this week, so make sure you got your AC functioning. Here’s what happened over the weekend:
Washington Spirit lose tight, tactical match against San Diego Wave, 1-2 (DP)
The Spirit saw their win streak end with a loss to San Diego. They now get ready for a trip to Mexico for the Concacaf W Champions Cup in search of a trophy.
Late João Peglow goal helps DC United draw St. Louis City (DP)
DC United saw former homegrown Chris Durkin come back to Audi Field and get a goal. João Peglow equalized late and a potential Louis Munteanu game-winner was nullified due to offside in a 1-1 draw.
Wayne Rooney may require surgery after saving Jordan Pickford shot (ESPN)
Wayne Rooney was on a BBC show trying to stop shots from Jordan Pickford. Well, he got hurt enough that he might need surgery to fix it.
‘We share same ambition’ – Alonso named Chelsea’s third boss in year (BBC)
Xabi Alonso is the new Chelsea head coach, which is an interesting pairing.
Bruno Fernandes equals assist record as Manchester United hold off battling Forest (The Guardian)
Bruno Fernandes got his 20th assist of the season, and now has a week left to break the season assist record in the Premier League.
Columbus Crew part ways with head coach Henrik Rydström (MLS)
The Columbus Crew have fired their head coach after their start to the season. I wonder if we see more changes during the World Cup break.
Field for 2026 Gainbridge Super League Playoffs Set (USL)
Lexington SC completed their worst-to-first climb to capture the Players’ Shield on the last day of the regular season. They will have the 1 seed in the Gainbridge Super League playoffs and take on 4 seed Dallas Trinity this weekend. 2 seed Sporting Jacksonville will host 3 seed Carolina Ascent in the other playoff match.
Finally, the moment we’ve all been waiting for: the official World Cup song has been released. Not the wack Jelly Roll one…SHAKIRA SHAKIRA!! Burna Boy jumps on the track as well and…THIS is World Cup music! Let this get your Monday started.
OGDC won a tight match with the New England Free Jacks 24-23 last night at George Mason Stadium in Fairfax, VA. With 3 games (2 of those at home) to go, OGDC sits in the last playoff spot. They are only 3 pts (a win is 4 pts) clear of 5th place New England and 6th place Anthem, but currently have better point differentials (first tie breaker) than both.
I think the state of the Crew right now just reaffirm how good of a coach Wilfried Nancy is. His teams were outstanding and they played beautiful soccer.
They were going to struggle this year with or without Nancy, given the players they’ve lost and failed to adequately replace. Defense and midfield needed upgrades, along with someone better than Gazdag (who, to be fair, no one thought would be as bad as he has been). Losing their excellent DP striker also stinks. Tall should be in thin ice even if he has been unlucky. He hired Rydström and supposedly went through this whole careful process to find him. How would he not have seen that he’s not going to play anywhere close to the type of soccer the team was used to? Especially considering that Courtois was available and got added to the staff.
Cool article in The Athletic today looking at some of the biggest upsets at the World Cup.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7281945/2026/05/18/greatest-world-cup-upsets-usa-england-italy-france-senegal-argentina-cameroon-saudi-arabia/
How about S. Korea 0 Spain 0 in quarterfinals won by S. Korea on penalty kicks.
FC Dallas’s Peter Musa makes Croatia’s World Cup squad: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7288229/2026/05/18/croatia-world-cup-squad-2026/
In addition to the manager change in Columbus, Austin just fired both their coach and sporting director
Davy Arnaud takes the interim reins also.
The Ben Olsen coaching tree, flourishing in Texas.
Peglow makes the bench on MLS’s Team of the Matchday this week.