Spirit and DC Power win, DC United draw, and more: Monday Freedom Kicks
Happy Monday. I was down in Richmond this weekend to catch the latest installment of one of the coolest rivalries in all of soccer: the Henny Derby. It was a fun time, despite the Kickers losing to Forward Madison. I did get back to town in time for Hello Kitty Day at the Spirit match. I got my bucket hat, and we start with that match:
Paige Metayer’s first half goal was the difference as the Spirit are back in the win column. With the win, they hit the 40 point mark, a notable mark for the club.
DC Power FC hold on for massive win over Lexington SC (DP)
DC Power get another road victory, this time against the defending champions. They return home to Audi Field this Friday.
D.C. United, LAFC go toe-to-toe in 0-0 draw: Match report (Green Line Soccer)
It was a stalemate at Audi Field on Saturday, as the Black-and-Red get a draw against LAFC. They hope to get another result next weekend.
Loudoun United was the only of the local teams to lose over the weekend, falling on the road to El Paso.
What to expect from 20-year-old Algerian midfielder, Mélissa Bethi (DP)
Bethi made her debut with the Spirit yesterday and played quite well. André gives us the details on her game and what she can bring to the Spirit.
Manchester United finalising deal to sign Rebeca Bernal from Washington Spirit (The Cutback)
Kind of a shocker here: Bernal was listed on the injury report as an excused absence, and it seems it’s so she can secure a transfer to Manchester United. Looks like this is getting across the finish line.
The Washington Spirit’s Guide to D.C. (Washington City Paper)
One thing you learn from this: the Spirit love their sushi.
Lionel Messi scores 4 goals as Inter Miami net 7 in record win (ESPN)
Messi scored 4 of Miami’s 7 goals over the weekend. Maybe stop #10, y’all.
Here’s more on the US Soccer takeover of US Youth Soccer and the ramifications for player development in this country.
Everton eye Folarin Balogun amid Iliman Ndiaye links with Tottenham (ESPN)
Could Balo head to Everton before the transfer window closes on Tuesday? It’s going to be a hectic start to the week as teams try to get their transfers across the finish line.
USA Soccercast, Episode 198: What could a joint UEFA-Concacaf Nations League look like? (SSFC)
I hypothesize what a joint UEFA-Concacaf Nations League would look like. We wouldn’t get as many islands, but we would get some tough matches.
No country for old men: Premier League grind is why managers are getting younger (The Guardian)
The EPL has chased some the older managers away because of the grueling demands.
Enjoy the day.
Reports came out over the weekend from Tom Bogert that the Red Bulls were in the process of acquiring Caden Clark. He provided an update this morning that NY has now pulled out of the deal at the last second. DC is looking at other destinations for him now
That’s a bummer for both United and Clark. I can’t imagine that United was demanding too high of a price, so it was likely just Red Bull’s evaluation of the player or their own club situation that canceled things.
I don’t know if Clark would have succeeded again with RBNY, but it was likely the best possible landing spot for him in MLS and the site of his greatest club success. Hopefully United can find another place for him and he can try and get his career back on track.
I’m sure there’s a club in Scotland or Belgium that would take a young(ish) American on a free/peanuts transfer. Some guy up at their FO was probably like “why are we giving anything up when we have [random academy player] with his exact profile lined up anyway?”
I do wonder how far Clark can fall
Cuz clearly he doesn’t get that checking out at DCU and being this unused is not a plus for transfer interest to anywhere, especially somewhere he’d actually feel like trying
Not sure how true this is, but there was a comment on Reddit that indicated that Clark has “a terrible attitude in training” and that he has “led the team in fines” (presumably team-issued fines related to training). So I guess there might be a bit more going on in the background here
Must be a gem.
I put this in the match thread on Saturday, but it also sounds like there was some sort of fan meeting with Sogut before the game. He apparently said that the team is still looking at brining in potentially 2 more players, but didn’t seem to give much detail other than a backup LB and someone else.I guess we’ll see if they get anything done by Wednesday
Not much time left. I am hoping for an attacking mid and a right wing.
Keisuke Kurokawa is going to faint with relief if they can get another LB.
The club is sitting on assets. One open U22 slot (perhaps a second if they are able to move Clark anywhere), two international slots. They need to do SOMETHING with those. I have been saying for awhile that they need to fill that U22 slot, and I’m hoping there was a backup plan after missing out on Ian Subiabre. With the international slots, if they’re not going to bring in players, they need to sell them to other teams to get some GAM to bank for next year.
My guess is they are going to use the international slots, but are trying to find the right players.
That’s 100% fine with me. I just don’t want them to go unused. If we’re not going to bring in players, then we need to sell those slots to a team that will.
The problem is what would we get for those international slots. We don’t know if GAM/TAM/MLS Monopoly money is going away with the potential financial changes that are coming. So maybe the team is holding fire on selling due to uncertaintiy?
It also looks like Rebeca Bernal may be moving to Manchester United, too.
Mentioned above but yeah unfortunately it makes sense to a degree. With several players able to play defensive mid and Morgan and Rudd basically locks for CB, she’s gotta move on for playing time. Bummer because I got the Spirit in Bloom kit with her name on the back just a few weeks ago.
I hate to see her go. Separate from her play (which I thought was good), I thought she also brought some leadership and assertiveness to the squad that was valuable. Well, ManU is getting a good one.
DCU has dropped out of the playoff spots to 11th. They are tied on 25 pts with Orlando and Toronto. Orlando is currently sitting in 9th because they have 7 wins compared to DCU and Toronto’s 5 wins. Then Toronto is in 10th as they match our record but have a better goal differential at -6 as opposed to DCU’s -8. Those heavy defeats and lost leads that led to draws are looming large right now.
This is part of the fun of being a DCU fan. 🙂
Apparently Borussia Mönchengladbach has told USMNT player Joe Scally to find a new club despite having 1 year left on his current contract. With Nono and Kurokawa we don’t have room for him really at DCU. Besides I think he’d probably prefer to stay in Europe rather than come back to MLS.
https://www.si.com/soccer/usmnt-world-cup-star-career-dilemma-transfer
He’s only a few months removed from the World Cup, which he even got to start in (albeit when we threw in the towel to preserve players against Turkiye with advancement secured).
He’s not coming back to MLS till he’s out of the depth chart
Could happen, given the crop of exciting players coming through, but won’t be till late in the cycle with a string of callup snubs, if then.
It’s quite possible that, in the modern game, MLS is the most approximate place for his talent level, but Scally’s mentality and international hopes, there’s no indication they aren’t fully engaged right now.
Apparently USL’s Paul Mcdonough came out with something about USL’s pro-rel.
So here’s the actual interview with Paul Mcdonough on the Unfiltered Soccer Podcast with Landon Donovan & Tim Howard.
Team of the Matchday: Nashville’s Brian Schwake beat out LAFC’s Hugo Lloris for the starting XI goalie. Apparently Schwake had 6 saves in the 4-0 win over Cincy. Compared to Lloris’s 3 saves.
DCU had 1.5 xG (0 Goals/3 SOG/15 shots) vs LAFC’s 1.2 xG (0 Goals/1 SOG/17 shots).
Nashville had 2.7 xG (4 Goals/7 SOG/19 shots) vs Cincy’s 1.7 xG (0 Goals/8 SOG/14 shots).
https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/team-of-the-matchday-messi-makes-magic-cavan-crafts-history