Wednesday Freedom Kicks: A trio of matchups, another MLS coach gone, and World Cup qualifying continues

Hey folks! An actual official Freedom Kicks for you this Wednesday! It’s now June, which means I can no longer complain about the heat. As a reminder, D.C. United is officially off until June 18. Unofficially, we’ll have the opportunity to watch underground soccer the Capital Cup at Buzzard Point, and that starts tonight! To the kicks!

D.C. United vs. C.D. Águila: As noted above, the Capital Cup exhibition tournament begins tonight, with D.C. United matching up against C.D. Águila at 7:30 PM ET. May this tournament be an opportunity for D.C. United to reexamine their form so that they will be better prepared when they return to league play later this month.

USA vs. Morocco: If for some reason you don’t want to watch our beloved local team play a friendly, you could instead watch our beloved national team play a friendly. The USMNT faces off against fellow 2022 World Cup participant and dominant CAF powerhouse Morocco, also at 7:30 PM ET.

Washington Spirit vs. Chicago Red Stars: If for some reason you don’t want to watch our beloved local team play a friendly, or our beloved national team play a friendly, you could instead watch our other beloved local team play an actual competitive match. The Washington Spirit continue their plethora of scheduled matches (for which they have no reprieve in sight) tonight against the Chicago Red Stars in Leesburg. You can watch it on Paramount+, at... you guessed it... 7:30 PM ET.

Charlotte FC part ways with head coach Miguel Angel Ramirez: Hernán Losada and Matias Almeyda have company on Not-Winners Island as Charlotte FC voted their head coach out of the tribe in a move that may actually be more controversial than Losada’s departure. Ramirez was having a pretty decent expansion year with Charlotte if you ask me, but their front office did not ask me, so he’s out.

For Ukraine, World Cup qualifying is chance to make a difference as war rages back home: A reminder that some places in this world don’t have the luxury of casually watching soccer as we do. For Ukraine, their national team has a shot to give their citizens a much-needed distraction from war with their World Cup qualifying match against Scotland. The winner of this match plays Wales for the final spot in Group B, a group that also includes the US. My heart will be pulling for Ukraine, but my brain does not want the US to go up against that international ram of support. I also think Gareth Bale could 2014-Cristiano-Ronaldo the US in the World Cup, so my overthinking brain will be rooting for a Scotland sweep this week for the World Cup position.

It was an extremely busy Sunday in motorsports with the Formula 1 race at Monaco dramatically offering exciting racing in changing weather conditions, the Indy 500 dramatically ending in a 2-lap shootout after freezing the field due to Jimmie Johnson’s wreck, and the Coke 600 dramatically living up to the hype while being the longest race in NASCAR history (thanks to the overtime, it was 619.5 miles). That’s a lot of drama.

As NASCAR is closest to me, it warms my heart to know that the race was perceived as one of the most exciting races in recent memory. Sometimes the crashes get in the way of good racing. This race instead saw spectacular crashes with good racing. It’s a testament to how good of a product they’re putting on the track when a lot of fans leave the weekend raving about the racing instead of the insane amount of wrecks. That’s not to say the wrecks were ignored. Check out this stat:

And in sportcar news, BMW looks primed to join the ever-growing field of LMDh cars. This is the fastest class of prototype race cars that will debut in 2023, uniquely in both WEC and IMSA.

On a more personal note, thank you all for your support when I was pushing out those Fanposts. Your positive reinforcement gave me the courage to reach out to our mighty Black & Red United leaders to offer my services. Now you get to be pestered with sprinkles dollops of motorsports news in your Freedom Kicks.

That’s all I’ve got for you today! Get kicking in the comments!