clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Freedom Kicks: D.C. United, MLS, and CCL links for Wednesday October 22, 2014

Face goals, soccer tennis, metaphors, and banned tifo. Just another Wednesday, basically.

By Jason Anderson
Screen capture

As per usual, I have failed to come up with an adequate intro.

Recap round-up!

- Ours, in case you came here directly from Twitter or Google rather than going through the front door
- Pablo Maurer for MLSsoccer.com
- USSoccerPlayers.com covered both United and Portland, who were more on the womp-womp end of things

CONCACAF Champions League: DC United pleased with reaction of young players to tough game in Panama | MLSsoccer.com
Pablo also got some quotes from stand-in head coach Chad Ashton.

United's home game in the Eastern Conference semifinals has been locked in:

Training Notes: October 21, 2014 | DCUnited.com
Chris Pontius and Steve Birnbaum are United's new defending soccer tennis champions. It's worth noting that Ben Olsen and Enzo Concina apparently won more than one game during this tournament. Perhaps more importantly, the last man off the training field? Perry Kitchen. Kid's going places.

And finally, the District Ultras were a visible presence in the stands at Estadio Rommel Fernandez last night:

Portland Timbers Fall Apart in Honduras; Lose 3-1 to CD Olimpia | Stumptown Footy
You know all those good feelings you have about the CCL? Well, over in Portland, things went slightly differently. Olimpia scored twice in the opening five minutes - one of which was a nonsensical no-look shot by Romell Quioto that was hooked over his shoulder before looping over PTFC GK Jake Gleeson - to take charge of the group on the third tiebreaker. Portland got their own fortunate goal and nosed back in front only to concede again about 80 seconds later. No team in MLS is more watchable than these Timbers, but in this case neutrals are entertained by the bad defending and drama just as much as the good attacking play.

Open Thread: Klinsmann, Garber, Washington and Beijing | ussoccerplayer.com
Charles Boehm makes an apt comparison - or two apt comparisons, really - after pondering the Garber vs. Klinsmann war of words

Scouting top prospects ahead of January's MLS SuperDraft | OrlandoSentinel.com
Paul Tenorio, who used to cover United when Goff was on vacation, now works the Orlando City beat and is already taking a thorough look at prospects. The draft, believe it or not, is only like 3 months away.

Open letter to the Philadelphia Front Office and Sons of Ben Members | SonsOfBen.com
The Sons of Ben had anti-ownership tifo taken down in Philly's last game of the season. This is their side of the story.

Guatemala’s woes reveal gaping disparities in treatment of women’s programs | Soccerwire.com
Chris Teale underlines the differences between the USWNT and Guatemala's women's side, which due to a lack of funding and available players ended up trying to qualify for Canada 2015 with several members of their u20s and even u17s playing major roles.

It's well after 1am, so I'm just going to stop now and hand the controls over to you guys.

More From Black And Red United