Loudoun Player Plaudits, NWSL’s New Streaming Partner, Lots of Cup Schedules, and More: Thursday Freedom Kicks
Happy Thursday everyone. Over the weekend I was in Denver for a family event and ended up making a quick side trip down to Colorado Springs to visit the US Olympic and Paralympic Museum. USOPM has some interesting ties to US Soccer, particularly the inclusion of artifacts from the USWNT’s 1996 Gold Medal team and the inclusion of that whole team as members of their Hall of Fame. Overall, if you get a chance to check out the museum, I highly recommend it.
Loudoun played a 0-0 draw over the weekend and Pacifique Niyongabire was named to the USL Team of the Week along with another player with DMV ties. Seems awfully familiar doesn’t it? The Loudoun defender received USL accolades for the second week in a row, but was named among the starters this time. Joining him among the starting 11 is former teammate Arquímides Ordóñez.
Niyongabire isni the only Loudoun player receiving acknowledgement for their performance over the weekend, Abdellatif Aboukoura, who created five chances and had three shots, also received plaudits from USL media.
Annie, André, and Ella are back with a new podcast to talk about the Spirit, their team building, and attacking plan in the wake of their 1-0 defeat to Orlando.
After three straight losse,s the Spirit drop out of the top three, but only as far as fourth,
NWSL, Roku expand partnership (The Equalizer)
Following NWSL’s opt out of the deal with Victory+, the league has a new deal with Roku to stream eight Sunday night matches this season and 25 in 2027. This week’s Spirit match against Bay will be the first streamed under this new deal. Roku is free and available through a variety of methods.
No players from the Spirit make either the over or underperforming list, but it is an interesting list and Croix Bethune does make an appearance.
The full field for this year’s men’s Champions League is set after Bodø/Glimt, LASK, AEK Athens, Viking FK, Fenerbahçe and Slovan Bratislava grabbed the last seven available spots. All 36 teams have been broken into pots ahead of the draw today at noon. It will be streamed on Paramount+ and CBS Sports Golazo.
Carabao Cup 3rd round draw: Liverpool face Spurs, Man United get Brighton (ESPN)
The English FA announced the 3rd round draws for the Carabao Cup, which feature 5 all Premier League matchups. The highlight of the round will be Liverpool vs Spurs.
SCHEDULE CONFIRMED FOR 2027 LAMAR HUNT U.S. OPEN CUP FIRST QUALIFYING ROUND (US Soccer)
This year’s US Open Cup isn’t settled yet, but qualifying for next year has already gotten under way. Team’s all around the country learned their opening round opponents yesterday. There are several local DMV first round clashes set for next month.
Its been a rough few days so I’ll end on something fun. What’s more fun than Spirit players impersonating their teammates?
What did I miss?
How do we think the calendar flip will impact MLS teams in the US Open Cup (USOC)?…if the league even lets teams compete in USOC….
I would imagine the USOC schedule changes to try and accommodate having the MLS teams in there, but like you said, it’s a question of whether MLS even tries to let its teams compete.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7537519/2026/08/25/dutch-football-fireworks-feyenoord-cambuur/
Fans for Feyenoord who were away at Cambuur at the weekend in the Eredivise lit flares and fireworks at the match over the weekend. One of the flares ended up on the field before it went off and almost hit Feyenoord’s goalie. Additionally flares and other pyrotechnics ended up in the stands resulting in Cambuur fans with burns, hearing damage, and eye injuries.
Kind of reminds me of the last Atlantic Cup match at RFK where Red Bull fans lit flares and dropped them down and ended up down in the area behind the goals where kids were playing.
A pox upon Red Bull forever regarding the reckless disregard for our kids. Absolutely reprehensible.
I figured that Sanchez was overperforming her xG but she is significantly above it. How sustainable is that though? The only players I can think of off the top of my head who consistently over many season overperformed their xG are Heung Min Son and Lionel Messi. Can’t think of any players on the womens side but I am curious…
A little less than a week left in the window, and there’s been a lot of moves by other teams. DC has certainly not stood still, but… they need more talent. They’ve got two empty international slots, an available U22 slot, a senior roster spot (I think). They need more talent, according to Rene Weiler and everybody else watching the team. But even if they aren’t going to get more talent, they need to be selling off their international slots to get a bit more GAM for next year.
I do still expect to see at least one more move made in this window, but it’s frustrating to see the other teams bringing in players that DC could have had. Will they pan out or would they have been a fit for the club? Who knows, but the clock is ticking.
They might not be making GAM moves depending on what’s being discussed amongst the owners about the future financial landscape of the league.