2020 Olympics likely to be postponed, US Soccer names new CEO, & more: Freedom Kicks for 3/24/2020

Good morning everyone. I know a big chunk of our audience is now stuck at home due to various business locations being closed for the time being, but while we’re here, a huge shout out to everyone whose job requires them to be taking a risk with coronavirus by going out into the world on a daily basis. Hope you’re all doing well, both in terms of avoiding viruses and from the mental health angle.

How Julian Gressel is acclimating to DC United with the 2020 MLS season on pause | MLSsoccer.com
This piece mentions Julian Gressel’s apartment. It was this time a month ago when he was telling media at training that he was just getting a chance to actually move up here, and was waiting for the day after D.C. United’s opener to explore the city for the first time.

It feels like that media scrum happened roughly 8 months ago.

Here’s Eddie Pope talking about playing alongside Marco Etcheverry:

Washington Spirit cuts short Florida training camp | Washington Post
The Washington Spirit were due to stay in Florida for a couple more days, but they can’t conduct formal training, so they’ve opted to come back up early. The NWSL’s training moratorium runs through April 5.

U.S. Soccer names Will Wilson as CEO and secretary general | Washington Post
Took a long time, but here we go. Will Wilson’s recent history makes it a little odd that it took this long to find him, but having more people who speak Spanish at Soccer House is (to at least some degree) helpful.

2020 Tokyo Olympics likely to be postponed due to coronavirus pandemic | SB Nation
Yeah, sounds about right! Holding an Olympiad right now would be completely bonkers.

A wild proposal for salvaging the NWSL season | All for XI
It’s probably going to take this kind of idea when it comes time to get soccer going again, because we’re probably still a long way out from even being able to have closed-door matches.

Turkey’s Sound of Silence: Tyler Boyd, Playing Amid Pandemic and Istanbul’s Fan-Less Derby | Sports Illustrated
The Turkish league was one of the very last to stop playing, and in the meantime, Tyler Boyd played a huge game in an empty stadium. Pretty interesting piece from a player whose circumstances are very different from the rest of the USMNT pool.

Armchair Analyst: My five favorite USMNT games of the past 35 years | MLSsoccer.com
Let’s talk about the first game on this list: USA 4-0 Mexico, at RFK Stadium in 1995. A handful of my club teammates and I were at the game, and one brought a U.S. flag. We agreed on the long walk up to the 400 level (we were sitting on the bench-side corner on the north end) that we’d run a full lap around the upper deck waving the flag after every American goal.

Thanks to the Post, Soccer America, and Soccer Jr., we knew enough to know that this probably meant one lap, tops. So you can imagine the surprise of having to run that lap in the 3rd minute...and then again...and then again (this third lap started literally as we were walking up the steps to return to our seats after the second lap). And then, in the second half, one more time.

I still find myself having no strong feeling towards today’s USMNT, but that’s not to say I don’t have a ton of good memories running up into sometime in 2016.

Wish we had more news for you, but there’s just not a lot going on in the world of soccer. Stay safe and healthy folks!