DC United draw, Spirit lose, and more: Monday Freedom Kicks
Happy Monday, everyone. It was a triple home match weekend for the DC local teams, so we begin with the 2 at Audi Field…
D.C. United recover to stun Nashville SC in 2-2 draw (GLS)
A huge comeback by the Black-and-Red to draw Nashville, the top team in the league. They are back on the field this week for the DMV Derby friendly against Loudoun United.
Washington Spirit can’t solve San Diego Wave in 1-0 home loss (GLS)
The Spirit had a sluggish match in the torrential downpour. A mistake cost them as San Diego gets the 1-0 win.
Loudoun United got the lone win of the weekend from the DC-area teams, beating Hartford Athletic 2-0.
Pressure on Gianni Infantino increases as Uefa members prepare to oppose re-election (The Guardian)
The walls are starting to close in on Infantino’s FIFA presidency, as more and more federations publicly pull their confidence in the man who tried to sell off the World Cup to a bunch of shady investors.
MLS owners set to vote on next commissioner on Monday (The Athletic)
Will it be LAFC co-owner Larry Berg or former Fox executive and Seattle Sounders minority investor David Nathanson that is picked to take over as MLS commissioner after Don Garber calls it quits? The vote will come today.
Lionel Messi returns after World Cup but Miami held by Columbus (ESPN)
Messi is back on the field for Inter Miami, just in time for them to compete in the vaunted Leagues Cup. Yay.
That’s it for today.
Long rumored DC target Ian Subiabre looks to be headed to Tigres on loan instead of here
“Long rumored?”
There’s been rumors of DC being after him for a few weeks at this point. All reports made it seem like he wanted to come here but the transfer number was the sticking point
Disappointing, although I had some pretty serious questions that DC would know what to do with him if he came here.
There is so much corruption in FIFA, I wonder if it’s indeed possible for the head of FIFA to ever be honest. That said Infantino needs to go.
Woah…The Rapids are reportedly about to make one of the biggest transfer deals in MLS history. They are reportedly sending Australian Lucas Herrington to Hull City for $17 million + $6 million in additional add-ons, 15% sell-on clause. The deal isn’t completely done yet, but that’s wild.
https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/lewandowski-captivates-chicago-evander-makes-history-more-from-matchday-19
Buried in this article is the fact that apparently the Rapids bought out Brisbane Roar’s 20% sell-on clause for $400k form the initial $1 million to bring Herrington to Colorado from Brisbane back in January. That’s a tidy bit of business buying a player for a $1 million and then selling him for between $17 and $23 million 6 months later.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7487229/2026/08/03/mls-commissioner-vote-messi-return-lewandowski-goals/
The Spirit winning streak ends. I hope its a wake up call. They have the talent, just need to play like they’re behind for the full 90 minutes and not when they are actually behind.
DCU showing the right mentality by coming from behind.
Gonzalez has been very good at team vibes and cohesion- they all seem to love the environment
But, it’s time to find some real efficiencies across the field, especially in possession.
Cantore is working her socks off at the false nine role, but if your forward is fully gassed 60 minutes in and you’ve not really generated much offensively, that speaks to a lack of efficiency in how you’re utilizing personnel.
There are many games where I look at the lineups, us and the opposition, and it’s a gulf in quality. And yet, we’re eeking through those games 1-0 off way too much churn and exhaustion.
It’s not one player, Gonzalez needs to make it function better. Which is a crazy thing to say when you’re this high in the standings, but Lordy, the team needs to not be out of fumes for the postseason. This dearth of ease in play is a good way to tank late.
Its funny, Spirit is a very good team, but its the small tweaks that change a 1-0 win to a 0-1 loss. I think defensively the team has not been as sharp as they could be and that has to improve to make a deep run into the playoffs. They are not reacting quick enough and not marking as they should. And that is the question, why are they only winning by one goal? Overly reliant on Trinity? They don’t have to be.
The Utah game revealed that you can be effective in the league without a ton of star power but a deep understanding of how you as a unit succeed and what the objective is.
Thing is, the team that showed that wasn’t us.
Narumi is one of their star players, and she’s not as good as our midfielders, which is why she moved on from DC.
A win is a win, but we need to configure something a lot more effective than this.
Then, I think, you are 100% right. The coach has to do a better job if they want to win the NWSL Championship.
Eh I would take this result with a grain of salt. They played in pretty wet and slippery conditions at the tail end of a 3 game week with the game in the middle requiring them to nearly fly across the country. Oh and a tons of absences. I think they’ll appreciate the week of rest and do well on Saturday night!
Lots to unpack in this article from The Athletic: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7488445/2026/08/03/gianni-infantino-fifa-support-fa/
Poch is back as USMNT coach through 2030 World Cup.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7480204/2026/08/03/mauricio-pochettino-usmnt-coach-return-2030-contract/
The squad competing at the CONCACAF u20 tournament, Segares is doing a sterling job coaching, but for anyone who has watched USYNT teams in the past, this is a LOT better. Virtually everyone showing a high level of technicality and soccer understanding.
I think some young stars will pop pretty quickly this cycle, and the floor for how we perform is about to rise significantly.
Poch is probably really irked by the dearth of promising coaching spots in Europe still available.
We’ll see if he makes it to the end, but there are new toys coming up to keep him happy (which is incredibly important to him).
Some nastiness over the weekend in the 2-2 draw between the Revs and Impact…I mean CF Montreal.
https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/international/artc-targeted-by-chants-of-death-to-israel-dor-turgeman-responds-with-a-goal
https://www.foxnews.com/outkick-sports/israeli-mls-striker-dor-turgeman-responds-alleged-death-israel-chants-montreal-scoring-goal
Israeli forward Dor Turgeman started for the Revs. Throughout the match apparently “Death to Israel” and “Free Palestine” chants were heard throughout the match. Then when Turgeman scored he went to the crowd and held open his arms and beer bottles were thrown at him from the stands. Additionally the Montreal goalkeeper, Sebastain Breza, came over and pushed Turgeman to the ground starting an altercation between the teams for which the goalie received a yellow. Both MLS and CF Montreal are reviewing the allegations of discriminatory and hateful chants directed at Turgeman.
CF Montreal issued a statement yesterday: https://x.com/cfmontreal/status/2083988358372438223?s=20. Its in Quebecois but apparently translates as:
I brought this up for a couple of reasons. First not a great look for Montreal and the league. Second our next game on the 15th is at Montreal and Baribo may receive similar treatment.
I just caught up on the DCU match day thread and I am just as confused as everyone about the line up. I understand there are a bunch of new players and there is going to be some experimenting to find the right starters, but I don’t get some of the choices. I am guessing he is going to take several games to figure this out. With so much change it may take several games for players to understand each other.
My only thought is that maybe Peltola picked up some kind of minor injury over the break, and he’s just not quite ready to go 90. But even if that is the case, I feel like I’d still rather have him start and come off if he needs to.
The lack of transparency and the incredible ease of avoiding leaks if you’re in the FO really sucks for fans here.
It would be one thing if there were rumored interests in Europe for a Peltola transfer, but there hasn’t been a whiff of that.
I haven’t detected any physical impairment in the games since the return. He was excellent in the last comeback.
I can’t help but think there’s some unspoken tension between the player and the club/Weiler, and sans Goff full time on this beat, there’s no real ability to penetrate that circumstance with sunlight.
I like Peltola and think he is great. The only thing I can think of is Coach thinks he has some better attacking mids and uses Peltola to switch to defense and protecting the end game. It doesn’t fit the profile of this last game, but it is the only thing that makes sense to me.
The Louis assist after being pulled to the ground was awesome!
This could make some sense, but Weiler has also brought him on in the last 3 games when we’ve needed goals
Servania played well in the games leading into the break. I would guess Weiler likes that he is a tidier on the ball than Peltola…seems to play more in control. Peltola is much more of a risk-taker, and while he’s scored a couple of goals, he’s actually not a great shooter. Servania is more likely to make the goalie work.
That said, Weiler looks to Stroud and Peltola late when he needs some guys with huge hustle and abandon. There were lots of complaints afterwards online about starting Servania, and were blaming him for the deficit. He was guilty of the handball, but blaming him for either goal seems harsh. I get why Weiler might prefer Servania, but maybe it’s time to give Peltola another shot, to play with Dozell.
I don’t think Weiler has options other than Stroud for substitutes in that position.
I’m sure there’s some tension, but it’s probably a result of Weiler moving Peltola to a sub role, not the other way around. Weiler just wouldn’t play him if there was a real problem. I’ve missed some of the press conferences, has anyone asked him directly?
Baribo makes the bench for MLS’s Team of the Match Day:
https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/team-of-the-matchday-lewandowski-shines-evander-joins-mls-elite
It’s a really good sign for us that Baribo has been consistently on the score sheet rather than just clumped up in a few games. I’m recalling some Union fans being okay with selling him to us because he ended last year with significantly fewer goals from May onwards compared to the first 3 months of the season.
Also, his abrasive reactions to his own teammates are at least smoothed over by him being an effective player. It won’t be nice if he stops contributing.
LAFC Co-Owner Larry Berg will be the new MLS Commissioner following Don Garber. Incoming LAFC dynasty for the next 20 years
People are going to have a lot to say about Don Garber, but shepherding MLS for this long, bringing it to where it is from where it was, is pretty incredible. That said, I’m proud that the one time I met him in person, at the 2018 SuperDraft, I was able to tell him to his face that the Crew should stay in Columbus (and defend the “I Miss RFK” shirt I was wearing to him).
Garber’s time in charge hasn’t been perfect (which you can’t ever expect from a sports league commissioner anyway), but overall he did well. Without him, we legitimately could have lost the league. He also largely seems like an ok person, unlike most soccer executives, even if some of his decisions could be head-scratching at times.
The fact that Berg used to be at Apollo Global Management, a private equity firm, does not give me the warm and fuzzies…
My Facebook memories has reminded me that today is the anniversary of the 3rd and final regular season win of the 2013 season.