DC United, their offical charity, DC Scores & the offical supporters group, Sreaming Eagles have come together in this effort to spread their shared passion for enriching the communities in the district in a cohesive fashion. The team and supporters will join in creating an active, open and lively supporters culture in and out of their new home of Audi Field.
In putting their team together for the coming season, NCFC have added 2 more pieces to the puzzle with back line player Carson and forward Donovan. Nsebge arrives out of Rainbow FC Bamenda as Ewolo arrives from the 3rd div. in Croatia from MFK Vyskov, both wil take an internatinal spot. These two young players will add skill and depth to the roster and have travelled similar paths via Rainbow and AS Fortuana in the pro leagues of Cameroon. Rainbow has a history of getting younger players to the states with USL and MLS taking advanatge of this link.
Now i must admit that after spending a good deal of time with Technical Director Fernando Clavijo last moth in Philadelphia at the United Soccer Coaches Convention and not catching wind of this I am saddened but it is a great thing. Monday it was announced that the two FC's have come together in a partnership affording players the opportunities in their professional academies to have a pathway to the beautiful game in the US and Germany.
NC Courage announces that Samanth Mewis, Lynn WIlliams, Long Islander Crystal Dunn, Abby Dahlkemper,Allysha Chapman & Sabrina D'Angelo will be their Federation Players for the coming season, their training camp headed by Long Island soccer figure Paul Riley open Monday. This announcement by their league NWSL are including these players amongst the 34 players 23 American and 11 Canadian.
A bit dated but I was out of town on the 8th when this came out. The United Bid Committee, Headed by former USSF Pres., Sunil Gulati, an economics professor at Columbia has come up with this heady figure. The 5 billion is expected to boil down to a 3-4 billion after removing public costs with single host locales having $480 million positive. The job total for this time span is hoped to be 40,000 and over 1 billion in worker pay as per this study by The Boston Consulting Group. The first time it will be at 48 teams this the largest soprting event on the planet set these high numbers.
Coached by Long Island soccer legend, Paul Riley, Crystal Dunn from Rockville Centre joins teammates Lynn Williams and Abby Dahlkempre as Samantha Mewis who played every game of 2017 sits this camp out with a short term knee injury. The SheBelieves Cup will be played locally at Red Bull Arena and features Germany at #2, England #3 with St John's product Rachel Daly & #6 France all travelling to #1 USA for this tourney.
Picked up on the 16th, Chris played 20 minutes v Phila last night. The 22 year old defender has a one year deal with a 2 year option. The 12th overall selection in the 2017 MLS Superdraft was with DC last year getting his first minutes as a stoppage time sub v ATL in a 3-1 win April 30. Playing 482 minutes over 9 games starting 5 of them, this outside back achived a 72.7% win pct on his tackles, to go with 23 clearances and 70% or aerial duels won. Geting full games during both wins in the 2017 Lamar US Open Cup helped with his confidence.
In beating their rivals to the north, United played all of the new singees of their offseason including Asad who we covered previously, making his first appearance along with Defender Oniel Fisher. In saving his second straight penalty, the pair began back on Oct. 22 v Red Bulls and we were at the game, the last played in RFK won by NYRB. Mattocks found the net for the seond time this pre seasona and Acosta his first time as Stieber gained his first assist. This win is an improvement over the 2017 record of 1-2-0 the DC had with Phila. and are now 8-9-4 overall.
This game of the week on opening day is of course shown on Lifetime at 3:30 p.m. the NWSL Shield winners take on the NWSL title winners at home. Courage coach and Long Island soccer great, Paul Riley commented on the rivalry, both tremendous ownership groups and that the fans will be treated to up to 18 international soccer players.
SKC picked up the money as they traded an internainal spot off and now have filled all 7 such positions. Starting his 10th year as head coach Peter Vermes assisted by our friend Zorin Savic is often mentioned as the USMNT Head Coach will open 2018 with NYCFC at Childrens Mercy Park March 4.
