Freedom Kicks: D.C. United, MLS, USMNT, and soccer links for Wednesday October 8th, 2014

Not much of a news day for D.C. United, so a lot of what follows is from other places.

Training Notes: October 6, 2014 | DCUnited.com
Agility, possession, one- and two-touch play, and a scrimmage featuring goals from Eddie Johnson and David Estrada. I wish the idea of getting your fitness in by doing stuff on the ball had been more well-known when I was a kid.

Big goals from Eastern Conference matchups | DCUnited.com
Here's something fun for those of you who can get away with it: A bunch of DCU goals against the jerks we have to share a conference with.

Universal Dominion | An excerpt from The Angeleno’s Guide to the Galaxy | LAGalaxy.com
George Vecsey is mostly talking about Bruce Arena in general here, but I have one point of contention: The piece treats both the current LA Galaxy team and 90s United as equal candidates to claim being MLS "dynasties." In terms of dominance, however, it's not at all a fair comparison. United won 8 trophies from 1996 to 1999; LA only has 4 in their last four full seasons.

In any case, Arena says neither is a dynasty, so there.

Landon Donovan to play 30 minutes in USMNT farewell match | Stars and Stripes FC
What a weird situation. Prepare for a tidal wave of gifs for whenever Donovan and Klinsmann have to interact on the sideline.

Crew sign Kei Kamara; Eligible to play in 2015 | Massive Report
One more reason for United to make sure to keep improving this offseason, no matter what happens in the next few weeks. The entire 2013 season remains the #1 reason to avoid standing pat. Gregg Berhalter is saying he wants to use Kamara as his main striker rather than the target winger role that saw him become a star in KC, which is a risk in my opinion. Kamara has played centrally before, but he wasn't terribly good at it. It was long enough ago that he might have learned a few things, though.

#NewCrew — The Crew's second chance to make a first impression | Massive Report
More Crew news, because not much else is going on right now. The Crew are moving away from the only logo they've ever had. That's a positive, because the three construction workers don't really look like a sports team logo, or a logo for anything really.

Armchair Analyst: A quick word about the sequence leading to Landon Donovan's record-setting assist | MLSsoccer.com
Matt Doyle takes a look at yet another LA goal that involved stringing together a ton of passes. They make it look so simple.

Colorado Rapids crank up goalkeeping rotation as Pablo Mastroeni starts three GKs in four games | MLSsoccer.com
I like Pablo Mastroeni, and I hope he succeeds, but his player rotation in general has gone from charming quirk to actually hurting his team. Nowhere is that more clear than in goal, where Clint Irwin, Joe Nasco, and Jon Berner have all started a game in the last month. I felt Irwin was being overrated from the moment he broke out, but it's not because he was bad; it's because people were talking national team after about five appearances for him, and he was clearly not strong enough positionally to earn any of that chatter.

However, there's no way that Irwin should be sitting behind Nasco - who is the most erratic MLS keeper in ages - or Berner, a rookie who appears to be merely a run-of-the-mill backup. There are numerous better GKs in the NASL and USL-PRO. Hell, United might have one at training right now in the form of Ryan Taylor. I'm not sure what's going on in Colorado, but it's not conducive to winning soccer or developing all that young talent.

New features and interface for Football Manager 15 announced | SB Nation
So basically our friend Kevin McCauley is saying that the life-crippling wonder drug that is FM went and improved itself. This is dangerous. I probably shouldn't be posting this link. If you'll excuse me, I'll be over here grinding my teeth and nervously scratching.

Reviewing 'United Passions', FIFA's bizarre propaganda film | SB Nation
FIFA made a movie about itself, which of course they did. Andi Thomas watched it and was not impressed, but then pretty much no one other than Sepp Blatter could be impressed by what is apparently a paean to Sepp Blatter.

What logos crave: behind-the-scenes with the logos in Idiocracy | Trivia Happy
An interview with the woman who thought up all the fake logos and reworked trademarks in Idiocracy. This includes a movie poster for the movie-within-a-movie "Ass."

All 10 Halloween movies, in charts and percentages | The Dissolve
Did you know that Paul Rudd was in one of the many movies in the Halloween franchise? Or that said franchise is ten movies long? Both of these things are bewilderingly true. Read up on the weird, wandering path of a movie series that works sort of like The Simpsons (Michael Myers dies every time, but is then back alive in the next movie just because).

Also, if you watch Halloween III, don't get drunk beforehand, because you will be confused.

Alright, with that in mind, go crazy in the comments. Just not Michael Myers crazy, we don't want to have to clean up your homicidal mess.