Pirani Trade Details, Spirit Weekly Awards, Carter Interview, Fun in Sports?, and more: Thursday Freedom Kicks
Happy Thursday. Yesterday was the first day in the last 26 with no World Cup match. How’s everyone doing? Any withdrawal out there? Thankfully it was a fairly busy day on the news side. Let’s get to it.
Yesterday, DC United dealt Gabriel Pirani to San Diego, ending the Brazilian midfielder’s time in the District. Last night, more information broke on the terms of the deal.
Not a bad bit business from the Doctor. I will have to admit, I am surprised by how much of the roster he has managed to overhaul this quickly.
NWSL announced their weekly awards yesterday and unsurprisingly two Spirit players were among the recipients.
Trinity Rodman won the Player of the Week award following her brace against Houston.
Leicy Santos won the Assist of the Week for her stellar pass to set up Rodman’s opening goal.
Haley Carter Will Never Play It Safe (Marie Claire)
With her background and experiences, Haley Carter has to be one of the most interesting people in sports. Noor Ibrahim from Marie Claire sat down with Carter, discussing, amongst other items: how all the pieces of her diverse background fit together, building a champion in Orlando, why she joined Michele Kang and the Spirit, lessons learned from evacuating over 100 people from Kabul in 2021, and who she leans on for support. Overall, great perspective.
Speaking of Michele Kang..
Despite the rumors of possibly signing with Boston or Gotham, Putellas chose London City and the WSL because they “offered higher-quality opponents and a better overall environment” than NWSL. Reading between the lines on some of the statements from the sources quoted, one can almost see Kang sending a signal to Jessica Berman, the league, and the other NWSL owners than comes just short of the “I want her to know it was me” level of subtlety.
Michele Kang’s been getting some heat for her approach to growing women’s soccer. At least she backs up what she says with money and action. Other situations are not as lucky.
Spokane players have started signing with other teams, but the whole situation had to have been difficult.
From Hart to Seedorf to Kewell: standout pundits of the 2026 World Cup (The Guardian)
With all the focus on Fox’s number one panel featuring Thierry Henry, Zlatan, and Alexi Lalas, some of the other pundits have gotten lost in the noise. I haven’t seen much of Seedorf, but his name has come up in multiple places as being excellent. I definitely agree on Dempsey. Unlike some of the others, he doesn’t try to be contrarian or say things for their shock. He doesn’t mince words but is ultimately fair and honest in his analysis.
On the other end of the spectrum…..
No….. just no. Its like he didn’t watch any of the US games.
Former D.C. United goalkeeper Bill Hamid talks about the future of the sport (NPR)
The DC United legend went on NPR to discuss the USMNT, the impact of the red card reversal, and the future of soccer in the US. Maybe Alexi should take some notes from Bill.
Let’s admit it: The United States is never going to win a men’s World Cup (The Athletic)
This article struck a nerve with me. Not the part about never winning a World Cup. That may never happen. I’m fine with it. There are a lot of good soccer nations that haven’t won a World Cup yet. Its not easy to do. What annoyed me was this, “So let’s just admit, once and for all, that professional soccer will never rise to the level of the four titan leagues in this country. America is not a soccer nation, nor are we a global threat in this game. Please, stop pretending that we will ever be.” I take issue with two points. First, I would argue the US is very much a soccer nation. Going back three years ago, MLS was the #9 league in the world for attendance. Americans were among the top 5 travelers to the Qatar for the 2022 World Cup. In addition to MLS, we have leagues like USL, USL 2, and NPSL. All of those facts seem to suggest we are in fact a soccer nation. As for being a soccer power, our top flight is only 30 years old. We’re competing against countries with much older, much more developed soccer pyramids. I wouldn’t let one difficult loss influence projections of where we could go as a nation in the sport.
FIFA rejects France’s appeal of Michael Olise’s yellow card (ESPN)
One of the side effects of Fifa’s decision to overturn Balogun’s red card is it has blown the lid off of Pandora’s box and given teams more leverage to ask for reviews and reversals on calls that negatively impacted them or to question the integrity of match officials and the game its self.
Its a novel concept, ensuring sports are fun for kids. Very much seems like an approach we in the US should get back to.
I’ll end with this.
If you need a quick mental break, give this a shot. (Note: It worked as of this morning when I tried it.)
What did I miss?
That return on Pirani is certainly more than I was expecting. Going into the window, I figured we’d get some offer from a Brazilian team and we could maybe convert some of that fee into GAM. Getting maybe up to $1M GAM straight up from San Diego, though, is a great haul for a guy that Weiler publicly said wouldn’t be part of the team any more.
I feel like I like Pirani probably more than most of the fan base, and think he can do well under the right circumstances, but this is absolutely a great exchange, regardless of what he goes on to do (or not do) for SD
We will probably add Pirani to the list of players who did well after leaving DCU. McVey is in San Diego for example. Best of Luck.
Being a playmaker who doesn’t disrupt defenses on the ball is a little like a CB who is bad at judging a long ball’s aerial trajectory.
He was able to execute optimal plays- if there was a clear through ball, he could make it, if there’s a shot, he was starting to take them, though it took a LONG time to get there
But you don’t pay someone of his profile for a play a quality DM executes in those field position opportunities.
You pay them to change the field of play with the unexpected
He never, ever could. Touch and close control mean little when the defense knows exactly where you want to and will go with it.
San Diego I don’t expect will find this a good signing, but, GAM comes and goes.
I just think he was really miscast as a playmaker. As you say, that’s not something he can do. He has a good ability to hit a shot from 16-20 yards out with pretty good placement. And usually he was able to do that best as a substitute in the last 20 minutes.
That’s a real skill! He ended up with 14 goals in MLS for DC. That’s the same as Yamil Asad and John Harkes, although Asad had more than double the assists that Pirani had and Harkes had nearly quadruple the assists.
Pirani was usually being asked to be the second best attacking option on the team after Benteke (with whom he never really developed much of a partnership). He’s suited to being like the fourth best attacking option. He’s mostly a luxury weapon, and DC didn’t have space for that. Do San Diego? Don’t care, not our problem anymore.
Getting a fee, and possibly getting his whole salary off the books (Bogert doesn’t mention anything about DC keeping some of the salary) is a very good look for Sogut. Weiler had done pretty much everything he could (that Pirani already hadn’t) to destroy the player’s value, and just getting him off the roster was the key, a la Herrera. Getting this kind of return is very good in that lens.
And now the task is to actually get a player that can be our second or third best attacking option.
He wasn’t suited to the role, but what other position is his body type suited to?
The only thing I disagree with here is calling Pirani a playmaker, and that’s more to do with his jersey number than anything. He might very well succeed (whatever that looks like) in SD because they are already have a system in place and have shown they’ll handle you if you’re a cancer.
Great deal by Sogut even if he does turn into a star, because it simply was never going to happen here.
He’s not a second striker or winger, either
He survived multiple coaches. I suspect they thought he might have some skills, but he never worked out. So not a playmaker, not a winger, not a striker. Maybe that is the problem with his value. Herrera was moved to wing hoping he could work out there. Pirani never was the right person.
I think he confused a lot of people
Probably assumed he was a bit timid, adjusting, maybe just needed the right players adjacent, etc. Surely he’s not a gone through the Brazilian youth setup with 0 juking talent, it’s gonna emerge, surely.
Can’t believe San Diego came in at this point with those resources, but, no take backsies.
Now that we’ve sent him to San Diego he will score for San Diego against DCU.
I mean, Marc Burch very nearly did against Olsen, so that’s a low bar to clear
Pulisic, bone bruise and microfracture sustained during his shot where a Belgian player’s leg was in the arch of his swing. This is becoming a thing, btw.
Cherundolo to coach U23 through the Olympics.
The discourse around the USMNT is absolutely toxic right now. Actually, it’s that way around USA Men’s Hockey and USA Baseball right now too.
Thankfully, the USWNT and other teams don’t have that issue nearly as badly.
Damage is immense, but the life cycle of the bullshit is coming to a sharp end. The clicks are moving on.
Although, there have been some barbs from some former USWNT players that might not be great for the sibling relationship, and might have more staying power.
Most have kept their heads.
DC makes the Pirani move official. $350k 2026 GAM guaranteed, up to $650k GAM (does not specify a year) if performance incentives are met, AND they retain a sell-on clause if San Diego were to transfer him in the future.
It sure sounds like all of his salary is off our books. Pretty incredible work.