Spirit Extend Win Streak in Utah, DCU Announces Nono Signing, FIFA Cross the Line, and More: Thursday Freedom Kicks
What a Thursday! What makes it a great Thursday? Your readership, of course. Let’s top that laudable support with a comment on the plethora of stories and interest pieces available today for perusal.
On to the news!
Rodman hot streak continues as Washington Spirit battle past Utah Royals: Match report– Green Line Soccer
Jason Anderson provides a match report for The Spirit’s third win on the trot, and an impressive 6th victory in 7 matches that has vaulted them to the top of the table. And a lot of that is due to Rodman’s ability to deliver goals.
A view of that fateful game winner.
The goal that the Spirit managed in their previous 1-0 win is good enough to linger on for careful study, as well.
2026 NWSL Good Behavior Reduction Check-in– Spotrac
The Spirit are also one of the nicer teams in the league this year, if card accumulation is any indication. Which it is! I say that it is. The ability to maintain your cool and avoid violent actions is essential, and I will fight anyone who says otherwise at at time or place of… wait, calm down.
D.C. United Signs Japanese Midfielder/Defender Kimito Nono from Kashima Antlers– DC United
The move that has been long presaged was finally announced yesterday on the official DCU webpage. So, hooray for new signings! Let’s see if a few more materialize before the window closes, given the sudden green card proliferation for current squad members.
AFCON offers a window into what The Spirit can expect once the tournament ends, when the newest signings bed in with their new club.
Did you know Malta has a soccer league? Now you do. Wishing the DCU alum the best.
Worth clicking through to the actual farewell video. Sebastian has some real character, and is not just a disciplined midfield presence.
The US has advanced out of the group stage of the CONCACAF U-20 Men’s Championship with a game to spare following back-to-back 3-0 victories. Four of those six goals have been converted penalty kicks, but don’t let that sully their play, because they are getting in the box and have the skill to be hacked down instead of properly tackled.
For those interested in seeing their third group match against Cuba, that kickoff is tomorrow at 10 PM Eastern on FS1.
Now, to something that makes me hopeful, but will likely disappoint:
Concacaf Statement Regarding the Proposed FIFA Forward Enterprise– CONCACAF
AFC president doubles down on FIFA, calling World Cup plan ‘unacceptable’– Al Jazeera
That is three of the six regional confederations that comprise FIFA publicly condemning the latest plan to sell stakes in The World Cup, effectively giving private investors some governing control. For his part, embattled FIFA President, Gianni Infantino, has approached the controversy with a carrot and stick approach, but that has not mollified the considerable opposition thus far.
Editorial license: FIFA as an organization is, in my opinion, beyond saving. The global soccer federations should know when enough is enough, and finally detach from the organization and create their own umbrella. There would be legal fights and lot of acrimony, but, outside of branding, don’t think FIFA would have a leg to stand on. It would require a ton of effort and consensus building, but sometimes, the difficult is necessary. You can run a global soccer tournament without them, word association is not essentiality.
That said, I expect to be bitterly disappointed when this window of public outcry likely closes without real movment in this direction.
Finally, a devastating story for seventeen families with children involved in Alexandria soccer. A local soccer coach is under criminal investigation for raising tens of thousands from families who trusted him, all for a soccer experience in Italy that did not exist. The woman interviewed above is the wife of Jason Taylor. Jason is the incredibly generous professional photographer who provides his work to this blog, and is a valued member of the team. We wish Jason and his family the best as they navigate this fraught and personally devastating situation.
That’s all I’ve got. One-up me in the comments, and have a great sporting day.
The Spirit defense looks shaky. I know they got a shut out but they had some luck on their side.
DCU apparently interested in David Doudera.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DbUhkaAKGJ9/
FIFA will back-peddle. If they don’t, leave and reorganize. Notice the COMEBOL is yet to act, probably with the righteous optimistic hope the Argentina can bag one more corrupt Cup.
That three regions joined the outrage this quickly is a good sign.
I don’t think Argentina are in cahoots like that. Think it’s more likely that CONMEBOL, Oceania, and Africa are more financially dependent on FIFA than the others.
They’d likely need assurances from whatever the new thing would be if this takes off, which it has not yet.
Fascinating thought experiment going on — what’s the source of the corruption, and how to combat it, and is beating corruption the point, or is it a fight over the spoils?
The member confederations, and their member countries picked Infantino, and Blatter before him. They sold out their votes to Russia and Qatar to give them hosting privileges, so it’s wild that UEFA seem to be coalescing around a Qatari official as a challenger to Infantino.
The question about reform vs revolution — working inside, or cutting bait and going to do your own thing is a constant theme and conversation in my world. I was a Bernie bro, and have been involved for over a decade in insurgency politics, but always from the inside, to the point that I was just re-elected to the Dems County Central Committee. Whereas people I worked with find the Democratic Party irredeemable and insist on trying to develop some 3rd Party to overthrow the “duopoly.”
I don’t see a viable alternative, though I freely speak to my frustrations and disappointments. Weirdly, i’ve turned against the idea of open primaries, wanting to preserve control of the primaries for people willing to register as Democrats, even as I continue to be let down by the Party, and people at all levels trying to protect their fiefdoms. I take solace when I see small steps towards progress, and hope because it seems the movement is gaining strength and support.
Is there a way to do international soccer — which seems to be a wonderful thing that must be maintained — but without the corruption that seems endemic in FIFA? Is there a way to rescue FIFA itself?
I’d argue the point of FIFA has been established.
Global soccer is not FIFA.
I’d argue that FIFA’s murkiness allows the shirking of responsibility, cuz there’s always something to point to. These federations actually making their own decisions, there still wouldn’t be a ton of democratic process for communities, but public pressure would be felt more strongly, and the buck couldn’t be passed to the same degree.
There’s a movement out there to abandon FIFA to be started, and those clinging to them would be exposed if it gained enough velocity
You’ll forgive me for bypassing the two party discussion on here, despite having an elaborate theory on that case.
Of course, and I wasn’t trying to kick-start that discussion, Just providing some other context for such conversations about trying to wholesale replace existing organizational frameworks. The groups rebelling against Infantino may or may not have supported him at the start, but they’re organizing now to keep block this delusional autocrat seeking more power and wealth than he has available to him now.
The question being is whether that can be best accomplished by internal revolt or by trying to bring down the house themselves and building something out of the ashes..
Testing
Very testing.
Nah, my more elaborate comment failed to post several times. So I was simply testing if I could post at all. Then I got distracted by the real world.
Don’t we all!
Didn’t Dr. Sogut say our new homegrown signing could even be on the bench for the weekend? Not, uh, not a lot of time left to announce a signing, if so.
So, having conferred with Keefer, academy players can appear in regular season games- they still have a sort of contract with the club
In essence, this player could play before the senior contract goes into effect
That’s pretty swell. I always thought they had to be on the 2nd team (i.e our missing Next Pro) roster to get the call up.
I knew vaguely this is a thing in the EPL, but that usually only became apparent when an injury plague necessitated it
But, as we know, MLS is its own thing
I think the implication is that they will be announcing a new signing, and not just a brief call-up
Nobody is saying that there won’t be a homegrown signing.
It’s just that whoever they’re planning on promoting could make the bench without a deal fully completed.
Which would explain the comments and the disconnect on the timeline, makes the claim he will make the bench a plausible statement
I thought that–prior to the weather break–the Spirit struggled to handle the Utah high press. That said, a depleted squad, playing at altitude, several hours later because of the time zone, on tired legs before the game ever began–kudos to the Spirit.