Spirit Advance to W Champions Cup Final, Scotland Calls MacIver, Loudoun USL W Adds Another Local, NWSL’s Hair-Pulling Era, and more: Thursday Freedom Kicks
Happy Thursday everyone. For those of you who stayed up for the Spirit After Dark and made it to the end, I hope you are up, semi-functional, and have a double of whatever your morning drink of choice is. For me, I know its going to be at least one extra cup of coffee for me today. Who am I joking….. probably 2-3 cups extra. Worth it though. On to the news.
THE SPIRIT ARE PLAYING FOR A CONTINENTAL TITLE ON SATURDAY!!!! Now that the important part is out of the way. It wasn’t easy and at times Pachuca had some really good opportunities they couldn’t capitalize on. Sandy MacIver came up big when the Spirit needed her and Claudia Martinez continues her rapid ascent to stardom. Check out Jason’s recap for all the details.
Gotham dumped from Champions Cup as Berger stretchered off (ESPN)
Tough night for the Bats. They fall to the recently crowned Liga MX Femenil Clausura champions Club América 4-1 and fail to defend their Concacaf W Champions Cup title. Making matters worse, goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger was transported to the hospital after being stretchered off at the end of the first half.
Washington Spirit Goalkeeper Sandy MacIver Called Up to Scotland Women’s National Team (NWSL)
Speaking of Sandy, yesterday was pretty good day for here. Scotland called in the Spirit keeper in for a pair World Cup qualifying matches against Israel in Hungary in June.
Spokane Zephyr FC Update (Gainbridge Super League)
Donald mentioned on Bluesky on Tuesday the rumor that Spokane was shutting down. GSL made the news official last night. Spokane missed this years playoffs by just one point, but was in a difficult position logistically as the only team on the west coast, with no team closer than Dallas, and the rest of the league in the east. As for the GSL, the league is down to eight teams.
Loudoun United FC Sign Goalkeeper Hannah Wilt to USL W Team (Loudoun United)
Loudoun continues to recruit players with DMV ties for their inaugural USL W season. Wilt played for Maryland United FC ECNL U-18 Girls and Calvert Soccer Association at the club level. At the collegiate level she tended goal for for Shepard University before transferring to USC Upstate.
Uefa vows to take hard line on multi-club ownership in Women’s Champions League (The Guardian)
Despite finding work arounds for team’s on the Men’s side, Uefa has made preventing teams with common owners from taking part in the same competition. Though not alone, Spirit owner Michele Kang could be impacted due to her ownership of London City and OL. Is this a good policy or will it stifle growth of women’s soccer in Europe? We’ll see.
Three words: Why are we seeing more hair-pulling and is this NWSL’s ‘red-card era’? (The Athletic $)
Like most phenomena, the answer may be complicated. Take a look a great discussion of the different factors potentially impacting the increase in hair-pulling fouls.
Liverpool’s Potential Mohamed Salah Successor Faces Man Utd, Chelsea ‘Interest’ (SI)
Its clear Liverpool need an overhaul regardless of if they keep Slot in the technical area or not. Mo Salah is irreplaceable and finding someone to fill his role will be difficult especially with Premier League rivals who may be more apt to spend big money to acquire players than the Reds are under FSG.
I’ve grumble a lot about elements related to this World Cup, but there is some good news. There are some host cities that are doing what they can to make the experience one that everyone, not only the wealthy or those willing to mortgage their homes, can attend. One of the cities leading the charge is just a short drive, bus, train ride away from the DMV; Philadelphia. On a related note, Atlanta is another. I have to give Arthur Blank credit. The affordable concession pricing at Mercedes Benz Stadium is definitely worth lauding and should be replicated elsewhere.
I’ll end with this…
Yesterday was Trinity Rodman’s 24th birthday. You can see how the Spirit and Jose celebrated after the match on the field. Happy Birthday Trinity.
What did I miss?
I can’t wait to see what new rule MLS invents to let Miami sign Casemiro, given that Miami currently have no open DP spots and essentially no more GAM either (the estimate I’ve seen has them at 17k GAM). Surely they’re not just going to force Miami to actually have to sell players to other teams in the league, right?
Congrats to the Spirit!
Broken rib does not sound fun. How did it happen?
Go Spirit! Club America next.