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MLS is Back, NWSL, and USL: Freedom Kicks for 18 June 2020

Soccer slowly ramps up

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Xavi Dussaq / Courtesy of D.C. United

Good morning, everyone. I hope all the fathers out there are preparing for a relaxing Father’s Day weekend. Mine will be fairly stereotypical and likely involve grilling meats and safely seeing some family members, with rain hopefully holding off.

To the links:

Ben Olsen Q&A: ‘The intensity is back, the consuming nature of my job is back’ – The Athletic

Pablo Maurer talks to Ben Olsen about soccer ramping back up, players speaking their minds about the MLS is Back Tournament, and joining Instagram.

To be expected, it is good to hear that Federico Higuain will be an option for the team in Florida. When everything shut down, we were still concerned about the lack of options up top for Ben Olsen’s team, and so Higuain could play a number of different roles when games resume.

MLS is Back notebook: Complications between the tournament’s broadcasters – The Athletic

ESPN and Fox are working through their difference about producing and broadcasting the games in Florida, as they will all be using ESPN’s feed, cameras, and crews.

NWSL Beginnings: Creating ‘Spirit’ and rethinking the look – Equalizer Soccer

The Washington Spirit’s logo got a refresh before the team even played its first game. Personally, I like what they ended up with.

Las Vegas Lights and Eric Wynalda part ways after one season in charge

In news that surprises few, Eric Wynalda has parted ways with yet another soccer team. The reasons for his dismissal are not known, but reading through some of the statements it is possible that it had something to do with training when the team wasn’t supposed to. We shall see what team next tries Wynalda as a coach.

USL Championship, players reach tentative deal to resume season with no pay cuts – The Athletic

More and more leagues are reaching deals to restart play with no pay cuts, which is good since players at the NWSL and USL Championship level likely aren’t getting paid a lot to begin with.

NWSL in talks with ownership group to add Los Angeles expansion team – The Athletic

An LA team has always been the dream for the NWSL, and hopefully they can find a good ownership group to make that a reality.

That’s all I have today; what’s up?