Yesterday was super eventful for the world. For me, it meant picking through folders and files on an old hard drive, manually changing permissions so I could access them, and then checking for redundant files within the folders. It was the computer equivalent of watching paint dry, and I’m only hoping a good night’s sleep restores my numb brain’s ability to feel.
And now that I’m done moaning about it, let’s talk about some things and some stuff:
There weren’t any major D.C. United stories published yesterday, but at least there was one small kernel of good news:
D.C. United's Ben Olsen says Bill Hamid coming home first and most likely traveling to Minnesota for Saturday's match #dcu
— Steven Goff (@SoccerInsider) July 27, 2017
Norton Introduces Bill To Add 50 More Years To D.C.'s RFK Stadium Campus Lease | DCist
Eleanor Holmes Norton is pushing to extend the District’s lease of the land RFK Stadium sits on to 2088. This comes after Mayor Muriel Bowser asked for a straight-up transfer of the land or a 100 year extension back in March.
USA falls to Australia 1-0 in Tournament of Nations opener | Stars and Stripes FC
This was a pretty underwhelming performance from the USWNT, who have now been shut out three of the last four times they’ve faced the kind of opponent they’ll be up against in the World Cup knockout stages. Worse, there was an air of being disengaged once a modest opening push for a goal didn’t pan out, and the 442 formation was executed in the old-school fashion (forwards both high, wingers always staying wide) that caused teams to abandon it for the most part. Australia is a good team that didn’t even have to be particularly good to get this win.
For the Washington Spirit’s Mallory Pugh, a couple of nice flashes couldn’t overcome the team’s inability to spread the ball wide for her. A 33rd minute fall appeared to leave her with a knee injury, but she returned and played until the 59th minute without any signs of a long-term issue.
Bob Bradley is back in the MLS to become Los Angeles Football Club's first coach | Los Angeles Times
LAFC head coach Bob Bradley. Well, they’ll do better than Minnesota has done in their expansion season.
LAFC’s hiring of Bob Bradley straddles line between MLS, global soccer | Angels on Parade
An even-handed look at the long, winding path Bradley has taken to end up (back) in LA.
Galaxy turn to Sigi Schmid after firing coach Curt Onalfo | Los Angeles Times
It was a busy day for Kevin Baxter at the LA Times. Just as LA’s second team went back to the most successful coach Chivas USA (LA’s prior second team) ever had, the LA Galaxy are going back to Sigi Schmid, a man they once fired when in first place, to turn around their mess of a season.
Lesson here: Do not appoint Curt Onalfo as your head coach.
What formation will Sigi Schmid utilize for the LA Galaxy? | LAG Confidential
You know who’s missing from this lineup? Jermaine Jones. Realistically, the folks that built this year’s Galaxy roster - which is truly a train wreck of just signing players without any coherent concept of what they’ll do when they arrive - deserved the ax just as much as Onalfo.
LA Galaxy officially sign Jonathan dos Santos | LAG Confidential
Yes, more LA soccer stuff. And speaking of the above “sign them up and figure it out later” approach, a team that doesn’t necessarily need a defensive midfielder as their first improvement just spent $5 million on one.
Brain trauma scientists turn their attention to soccer | Wired
This story mentions United, but as you can probably guess from the headline, it’s not a positive note.
SF Deltas CEO Challenge to Fans | Medium.com/sfdeltas
Warning: this is full of the sort of tech industry talk that we have to endure far too often these days. “Synergies” appears, but thankfully no direct mention of “bootstrapping.” Anyway, apparently their solution to poor attendance is asking fans to bring more people with them.
I’m here. | ManaShim.wordpress.com
Portland Thorns FC attacking midfielder Mana Shim, in her own words, talks about being diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Hopefully, as Shim herself states as one of her goals for talking about it, this reduces the stigma around admitting mental health issues.
That’ll do it for me. Get outside and enjoy the morning, because we’re about to spend about 36 hours being drenched in rain.