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D.C. United news, Washington Spirit at Audi Field, and more: Freedom Kicks for 8/24/2018

More on Wayne Rooney’s acclimation to United, while Anthony Precourt remains garbage

Anya Button

Running late, so let’s just get right into it:

Among D.C. United players, a new team-building drill: Spanish lessons | Washington Post
This seems like a pretty good idea for any soccer team in the U.S.

For Bill Hamid, DC United feel “completely different” – that’s a good thing | MLSsoccer.com
Bill Hamid thinks D.C. United’s evolution during his time away has left them closer to even footing with the Red Bulls.

Speaking of United’s goalkeepers, it looks like David Ousted is going to be out for a while:

How Wayne Rooney Won Over His Doubters in 20 Seconds | New York Times
Among other things here, we learn that Wayne Rooney’s first impression with his teammates was a detailed introductory speech about winning.

Rose Lavelle’s comeback tour includes first women’s soccer match at Audi Field | Washington Post
Rose Lavelle says she’s still building her fitness after so many months of being unable to play for the Washington Spirit or the USWNT. After Wednesday night’s game, interim coach Tom Torres said that they’re hoping she can play 75 minutes tomorrow night.

Three Spirit players named to U.S. U-23 WNT roster for Nordic Tournament | WashingtonSpirit.com
Mallory Eubanks, Ashley Hatch, and Andi Sullivan will join the U.S. u23s for a tournament that takes place during the next international window, which starts on August 29th. That makes 6 Spirit players who will be away on international duty next weekend, when the Spirit finish their season with a home game against Sky Blue FC. On Wednesday, they dressed 17 players, so hopefully their injury list is about to get shorter.

A familiar name popped up among the goalscorers in college soccer yesterday:

PSV unveils terrible name, colors and logo for potential Austin team | Massive Report
Dumb jerkface Anthony Precourt has unveiled the dumb jerkface logo for Austin FC, which is the laziest shrug of a name he possibly could have come up with. Nothing like talking about “roots” when you’re uprooting a team with real history to move to a city that has said “No thank you!” to multiple pro soccer teams.

Where You Stop Your Story: Chicago Fire 1, Columbus Crew 1, MLS Game Recap | Hot Time in Old Town
Crew SC manage a tie at the Fire in a sluggish Thursday game | Massive Report
Staying with the Crew, their road game last night against the Chicago Fire was attended by maybe 4,000 actual human beings. That’s partially down to the egregiously stupid start time of 6pm on a weeknight in the distant suburbs of a major city, and partially down to another dumb jerkface owner who has been doing his level best to chase away each and every remaining Chicago fan.

Anyway they played to a tie.

Dynamo, FC Dallas exchange late goals for a 1-1 draw | Dynamo Theory
FC Dallas gives up late goal to draw Houston Dynamo 1-1 | Big D Soccer
The Houston Dynamo showed that there’s still a little fight in them despite their season looking like a pretty substantial disappointment, coming back to tie FC Dallas despite going behind in the 83rd minute.

NWSL expansion could see teams added in USL cities | WRAL SportsFan
It’s not a bad idea for the NWSL to look at the model they’ve got in North Carolina and ponder whether it could be replicated anywhere else.

The Great Chinese Art Heist | GQ
I’m not inclined to side with a quasi-totalitarian government or an extremely powerful company that makes missles, but on the very narrow topic of them bringing Chinese cultural artifacts back to China from the countries that looted them over a century ago? Happy hunting.

OK, that’s all I’ve got. See you folks tomorrow at the Spirit’s game against the Portland Thorns! Attendance is compulsory for continued use of this site.