Last night was one of those “combine some leftovers into a viable meal” kind of nights. First, I ate two small-ish slices of pepperoni and cherry pepper pizza. Then, I made an ad hoc spicy orzo thing with feta that was probably going to go bad over the weekend. Then, later, I was still hungry, so I made some spicy seafood ramen that I impulse-bought while looking for different spicy food products for an unrelated pot of chili that I’m making tomorrow.
In other words, I just pounded spicy food and carbs all night, for no good reason, ahead of what will be several days of eating very spicy chili. My guts have usually been able to tolerate a lot, but for whatever reason, I’m going for broke right now.
Filibuster sails into D.C. United’s offseason | Black and Red United
We renamed a ferry (it’s for the better, trust us), looked at D.C. United’s roster for today’s probably-not-streamed friendly against Bermuda for clues about the future, and began sorting through the roster.
Zlatan, Rooney, and MLS’s pesky relevance quandary | US Soccer Players
This is why it wouldn’t entirely surprise me to see United at least pursue another big international name in Wayne Rooney’s age range. There are arguments about sustainability here, both in terms of building a team that can spend years together vying for titles and in terms of whether it’s a short-term boost or not in terms of the business side, but that jolt is awfully appealing to club executives all over MLS for a reason.
Washington Spirit Is Splitting Its Home Games Between D.C., Md., And Va. | DCist
The Washington Spirit are working on plans to celebrate their history at the Plex.
Speaking of the Spirit, Sam Staab went the full 90 as her loan to the W-League’s Western Sydney Wanderers officially got started in the wee hours yesterday night:
Sam Staab went the full 90 for Western Sydney, who won the opening game of the W-League season 2-1 #CatchTheSpirit https://t.co/IsWFnM4fTt
— Jason Anderson (@chestrockwell14) November 14, 2019
The other Spirit loanees (Aubrey Bledsoe is with Sydney FC again, while Crystal Thomas will play for Perth Glory) get started on Sunday. Games are on ESPN+, which you probably already have, but if not, subscribe via this link and help your friends at B&RU get a little extra dough.
USA vs. Canada, CONCACAF Nations League group stage: What to watch for | Stars and Stripes FC
Who’s ready to get mad tonight! The United States tries to prove that they aren’t the train wreck they were in Toronto, where they lost to Canada. Another game like that would mean a hugely embarrassing failure to even make the Nations League semifinals.
Thierry Henry named head coach of the Montreal Impact | ImpactMontreal.com
Shout out to the Montreal Impact, who out of the clear blue sky announced this early yesterday morning (seriously, what team drops their biggest news in years at 8am?). I personally want to go on record as predicting that they will finish in 8th in the East next year. Henry’s previous time as a head coach saw him last half a season at AS Monaco, who were in the relegation zone with a 4W-5D-11L record.
Let’s also not forget his most notable moment in MLS:
I will never pass up an opportunity to bring this moment up. This is my solemn promise to you, readers of Black and Red United dot com. This Roy Miller free kick should be in every art gallery in the world.
Anyway it sounds like Montreal really put in the work in sorting out whether to hire Henry by, uh, not interviewing anyone else and just saying yes when he called them:
Montreal Impact President Kevin Gilmore just now on TSN 690 says that Thierry Henry reached out to them about the open coaching job. Henry was the only coach they interviewed.
— Jason Le Miere (@JasonLeMiere) November 14, 2019
The Impact are never not the Impact.
Expansion Draft details for Inter Miami, Nashville SC set as they enter in 2020 | MLSsoccer.com
While strategizing an expansion draft approach has always been one of our more fun and hotly debated posts over the years, United doesn’t even have to be bothered this time. When FC Cincinnati took Darren Mattocks last year, the Black-and-Red were exempted from this round of expansion teams burglarizing the rest of the league.
In any case, protected lists come out tomorrow, which gives us at least some idea of the players teams regard as expendable.
Reports: LA Galaxy targeting PSG’s Edinson Cavani as Zlatan replacement | MLSsoccer.com
On one hand, whenever a non-US/Canada outlet brings up a transfer rumor that involves one MLS club bidding against another, you should be extremely skeptical. And when it’s the Italian press, as is the case with this rumor, you should be skeptical of even the most trustworthy outlets.
On the other hand, Edinson Cavani makes some sense for the LA Galaxy, who are probably never going to go back to trying to be a west coast FC Dallas (remember how they appointed Curt Onalfo their head coach?) after losing primacy in Los Angeles.
What’s It Like to Support the World’s Worst International Football Teams? | Bleacher Report
This is extremely my kind of thing.
Those are all the links I managed to find before getting distracted by Youtube, so I’ll call it quits now. After work I’m heading over to Ludwig Field for tonight’s Big Ten semifinal between the Maryland Terrapins and the lowly (#1 seeded) Indiana Hoosiers. It’s going to be a delightful 40 degrees!
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