Kim Joon Hong permanently transferred, World Cup player guide and more: Friday Freedom Kicks
Happy Friday! The weather is heating up, we have a USMNT and USWNT double-header tomorrow, and my knock-off US jersey to wear for it is coming today. Truly, the Summer of Soccer is upon us.
D.C. United Agrees to Terms with Suwon Samsung Bluewings FC for the Permanent Transfer of Goalkeeper Kim Joon Hong (D.C United)
Loaned at the beginning of this season, Kim Joon Hong will be leaving D.C. United permanently. It does seem like he’s been more successful with his new team, where he’s had clean sheets in six of 12 matches.
The keen-eyed Ryan Keefer also noticed news of Jordan Farr being loaned between D.C. and Loudoun United, but all references to that have been removed from both of their websites. We’ll be keeping an eye on that.
In our final bit of D.C. United news before moving onto the WORLD CUP, former homegrown player Collin Martin has announced his retirement from soccer:
World Cup 2026: guide to all 1,248 players (The Guardian)
What an undertaking! The Guardian has prepared bios for every player on every team in this World Cup. You’d better start studying now.
The 2026 World Cup will be part of a sports-filled summer (SSFC)
Donald put together a comprehensive spreadsheet of all the sporting events taking place in host cities during the World Cup. Helpful if you’re planning a trip!
What is Infantino’s legacy as FIFA president: reformer, or ringleader? (ESPN)
A look at Gianni Infantino’s 10 years as president of FIFA.
Diverse. Complicated. United. This is what it is to be a USMNT soccer fan (The Athletic $)
The Athletic is doing a series on the fandom of each of the World Cup teams, and here takes a deep-dive in to the USMNT fandom they’ve dubbed “diverse, complicated, and united.” Unfortunately, they’re also reporting that the lack of designated fan spaces at this Cup could make the gameday atmosphere less focused.
For some Friday fun, the Spirit players predicted who they think will win the World Cup:
Finally, here’s your schedule of events for the weekend. As mentioned, we have games for both the U.S. Men and Women tomorrow, while Loudoun United faces the Richmond Kickers.
| Teams | When | Where | Watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| USMNT vs. Germany | Sat., Jun. 6 at 2:30 p.m. | Chicago, IL | TNT |
| Old Glory DC vs. Anthem RC | Sat., Jun. 6 at 4 p.m. | Fairfax, VA | ESPN+ |
| USWNT vs. Brazil | Sat., Jun. 6 at 5:30 p.m. | Sao Paulo, Brazil | TNT |
| Loudoun United vs. Richmond Kickers | Sat., Jun. 6 at 6 p.m. | Leesburg, VA | ESPN+ |
| DC Defenders vs. Orlando Storm | Sun., Jun. 7 at 3 p.m. | Daytona Beach, FL | ABC |
Tomorrow is the final regular season game for Old Glory DC. They must win to have a shot at the final playoff berth. Both New England and DC sit on 17 pts in the standings. New England is in 4th on the 2nd tiebreaker of point differential as both teams are even on the number of wins, which is the first tie breaker. New England has a point differential of -59 while Old Glory sits at -66. DC plays Anthem the last place team tomorrow. They’ve never lost to Anthem and Anthem only won their first 2 games in their 3 seasons of existence earlier this season. DC won the first fixture between the 2 teams in April. New England plays the undefeated Chicago Hounds on Sunday.
I really wanted Kim to work out. Very rare to see a Korean player in MLS and with the large Korean population in the area, it would’ve been fun to see the community rally around him. Alas, it never quite panned out because he came during a dumpster fire of a season. Best of luck back in Korea!
I mean was last season a dumpster fire yes. And I guess I’d say its worse than 2013 since we won the Open Cup that season. What are everyone’s thoughts as to which is the most dumpster fire of a season in DCU history? For me its either last year or 2013.
2010
Last year, or 2022. You could see the stress breaking the team before Losada got canned, and we looked like we’d never played a match together once his glass cannon of a system got ripped out. Last year was just depressing. A profound lack of talent, boring, wasted DP slot, horrible transfers in and out, and one of the only guys who could feed Benteke gave up.
You are kind. He got paid and was a deer in the headlights. Agree entirely, however, that the squad did very little to help him hedge his bets. Mobilizing our Korean community would have been delightful, but alas. As with all people, I wish him well. This was an an embarrassing move by the front office.
To your last point, yeah. Absolutely the dumbest kind of transfer a team anywhere can make, and we even said we specifically scouted for him! He’ll be fine, it sucks for our reputation more than anything, because it *would* make sense to bring in a Korean player, but someone with experience.
Interesting read about the pitch prep for the World Cup.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7317716/2026/06/05/world-cup-pitches-shakira-halftime-show/
Congratulations to Collin Martin on a long career! Double congratulations to him on being able to openly live his life. It’s been a little disheartening that we haven’t seen more players follow his and Robbie Rogers’s examples. Hopefully the day will be soon that external and internal factors stop keeping people from being their true selves, but it definitely seems like the environment is backsliding these days.
I don’t know about backsliding, but the ones that did come out certainly hasn’t led to an avalanche. Statistically, the vastness of the professional soccer player pool, the numbers aren’t credible.
At this point, seems likely that a) it might not end your career in some places, but it doesn’t help, and career advancement is hugely important financially to them and time limited. And B) I think the players in the sticks with this, if they could talk to us, would say “you’ve got no idea, man.”
Basically, it’s possible that any rise in cultural acceptance will not keep pace with the money incentives of not having that identity expressed openly.
I also saw a clip of a female hockey player being interviewed, and asked on a podcast why female athletes engage with such messy relationships with teammates
The player didn’t push back on the messiness description, said that it’s pretty much down to the hours, proximity, and tiredness factor of being a pro athlete- you’re not hitting the dating scene as much when you’ve been performing and pushing yourself in training all day.
These men are not finding the same locker room environment, so it’s likely something they carry home and back like an unused pair of shorts stuffed in a sports bag
In essence, if you can’t practice it during your work life as an athlete, it’s not something to even explore, let alone champion individually. You might not even have a long term partner, given the circumstances
Jordan Farr’s loan to Loudoun is official now.
Congrats. He gets an opportunity to play without having to pull up roots again
Police in Toronto have made the “largest known” seizure of fake soccer jerseys and other counterfit World Cup merchandise in Canadian history.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7324907/2026/06/01/toronto-fake-soccer-jersey-raid-world-cup/
The sad thing about modern products and even commercial communication is, enshittification and cost cutting often means there’s little actual qualitative difference between the real and fake stuff.
I have to wonder how many late roster changes there will be due to injury? For instance, will Chris Richards stay on the USMNT roster? “Paging Tanner Tessman, paging Tanner Tessman, please pick up the red courtesy phone.”