D.C. United builds its organization, Phillippe Coutinho leaves & more: Freedom Kicks for 1/8/17

This weather sucks. And I don’t mean weather specifically, just the reaction to it, which is to stay inside. And having a 1-year old I get that reaction. When said 1-year old is teething however, less so.

2018 Strength of Schedule Rankings: Who has the toughest schedule? (MLS): Hot on the heels of Adam’s piece on D.C. United’s games not to miss, we see they’ll have a tough one on top of the schedule. And in terms of travel, this is at least encouraging:

Northeast joins DC United as Swansea remain in flux (Training Ground Guru): This was announced Thursday by the team, but I’m including this for a couple of reasons:

1. Dan Altman (of North Yard Analytics) is apparently doing consulting for D.C. and Swansea City. Altman seems to be a well-respected guy in the Analytics field, and whatever his role is with D.C. is intriguing.
2. Northeast gave an in-depth interview when he was heading Swans department that is worth checking out to see his rep and process.

People will bemoan the fact that DC doesn’t show any ambition (as is those folks’ choice), though it should be noted that the organizational infrastructure needed just as much, if not more, attention since it would be existing over a longer timespan. In between things like this and the site in Loudoun, this is wholly encouraging.

Coutinho finalizes Barca move (Liverpool Offside): Since things were quiet, Barcelona came in and finally got Phillippe Coutinho from Liverpool over the weekend for a crap ton of cash. More from TLO folks here.

Local is better when it comes to MLS ownership (Massive Report): Yes, yes it is.

Solo calls out Sunil Gulati and Dan Flynn (Stars and Stripes FC): We’re going to need televised debates on this election soon, and I’m not kidding.

Finally, here’s a black & white and silent recut of 8 minutes of Christopher Nolan’s recent film Dunkirk. Spoilers if you missed history class that day I guess?