Monday Freedom Kicks: Cut down to Size

I'm going to guess that 16.2k at the game Saturday may be an inflated number, but it still looked like a nice crowd on TV, y'all did well.

Recaps of D.C. United's 2-0 win over the Portland Timbers from us (with more from us here), MLS (with more from them here) and the Washington Post. Stumptown Footy covers things from the Rose City.

DC United honor MLS veteran Davy Arnaud in emotional retirement tribute | MLSsoccer.com: I hope that Davy sticks around on the staff if he chooses to. More important, I hope he's feeling a lot better health wise.

Inter Milan 2-0 Celtic: Victory in Inter’s final friendly - The Offside Inter Milan: In partner club news, Inter beat Celtic FC in the ICC because that's still going on. I forget where I saw the number, but apparently Celtic got as much money from this as they did from winning the Scottish title last year, so I can see why they took that one. in Frank De Boer's first game as new Inter manager, goals from Eder and Antonio Candreva lifted the Nerazzuri to a win.

Five things we learned from Swansea City's 1-0 win over Burnley as Fernando Llorente offers great hope - Wales Online: In more partner club news, it took a late goal from recent permanent signing Leroy Fer as Swansea City beat Burnley to kick off their first Premier League campaign under owners Jason Levien and Steve Kaplan.

These images of abandoned Olympic venues are haunting · Great Job, Internet! · The A.V. Club: It's never (or never should be) a surprise to see that these large structures built for the Olympics or World Cup lay dormant for years, maybe decades later, but the pics from various locales is downright depressing.

I don't mean to end things on a down note, it just happened that way. Happy Monday!