D.C. United injuries ahead of trip to Columbus, Spirit sign Biegalski, and more: Freedom Kicks for 5/7/2021

Good morning! I am extremely hungry, so I’m gonna try to move quickly through today’s round of Freedom Kicks...which means I’ll get bogged down talking about something from 1997. Anyway we’re one day away from D.C. United returning to action, there’s NWSL expansion news, and the Washington Spirit made an addition to their roster, so there’s plenty of current events to talk about as well.

It’s Friday, United is playing Saturday, and that means we have a thread of notes from Thursday’s pre-game press conference:

You’ll notice that I couched this with “appear,” because Hernán Losada’s answer could be taken to just mean Paul Arriola and Bill Hamid, or it could be taken to mean all four players mentioned above. Hoping it’s the former, but expecting the latter.

The latest Filibuster is out, where we talked about some performances (good and bad) last week, and then focused on tomorrow afternoon’s trip to Columbus for one last dance at Historic Crew Stadium:

D.C. United is in ‘survival of the fittest’ mode. For some, that’s been a struggle. | Washington Post
More on the injury situation from Steven Goff, including the prospect of Ola Kamara possibly being in uniform tomorrow.

We also have coffee shop news:

Congratulations to the Starbucks in the Safeway down here, and to the Philz Coffee on Tingey St. I guess, because these are the places that were most likely to lose some of my business (just due to convenience) if there were a coffee shop at Audi Field.

Washington Spirit sign defender Camryn Biegalski | Black and Red United
The Spirit had ten players who have NWSL experience as defenders on their roster, but with the Olympics potentially taking four or five of them away for a big portion of the year, it’s a good thing Camryn Biegalski showed well in training while on a temporary National Team Replacement contract.

Trinity Rodman: Can NBA icon’s record-breaking daughter become a USWNT star? | Goal.com
Spoiler: if those of us in the NWSL Media Association were having to vote for a Challenge Cup Best XI (I think it might be more limited than that), Trinity Rodman would be on my ballot without even having to sweat it much.

Alright, let’s move on to cool kits for a good cause:

Cool, eye-catching shirt to help the people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines...what’s not to like?

NWSL expected to approve Sacramento expansion group move to San Diego: Sources | The Athletic
Sounds like the NWSL is going to let Ron Burkle, who previously made news for not meeting any obligations about his expansion bid in Sacramento, to relocate said bid to San Diego and play at a small and old stadium without a clear commitment to building or moving to a better facility. I get the idea of interest in San Diego, but the devil is in the details with expansion teams.

And with that, it’s breakfast time. Enjoy your Friday!