Put on your boots, because we’re about to wade into a mess
The race for the MLS playoffs is promising that Decision Day will be as bonkers as it ever has been.
The final day of the regular season is less than a month away, with 28 of the league’s 29 teams set for two breathless rounds of simultaneous kickoffs, one for each conference (sorry D.C. United, you’re just going to have to follow along at home).
There’s an old MLS truism that a team just needs to stay in touch until late August or so, and that if said team can start to heat up around Labor Day, you’re looking at a major threat coming from what on paper is a low playoff seed. Plenty of teams with multiple MLS Cups in their trophy case have at least one season where they followed this plan to a tee.
However, in 2023 it’s not so much about getting hot at the right time as simply ending up next to an empty seat during a poorly-played game of musical chairs. Seven teams have clinched their playoff berths already, and two more are simply abysmal.
That leaves 20 teams vying for 11 postseason spots in what is an extraordinarily forgiving set-up. The problem is that almost none of this group seems able to get a solid hold on their invite to the big dance.
Put on your boots, because we’re about to wade into a mess:
D.C. United and forward Taxi Fountas have mutually agreed to terminate his contract, effective immediately. Fountas was placed on administrative leave by MLS on July 21 following what the league determined were credible allegations that he used prohibited and discriminatory language against another player.
There is no place for racism, homophobia, misogyny, or discrimination of any kind in our sport and world and D.C. United do not tolerate any acts of this nature.
In a statement of its own, MLS said: “Major League Soccer and its clubs are committed to eradicating racism from the game.”
For D.C. United and Fountas, there was no path forward after Robertha’s accusations, which were the second time in less than a year that the Greece international was accused of using a racial slur.
In the aftermath of Robertha’s accusations, several D.C. United supporters groups had called for the club to part ways with Fountas.
Fountas has been D.C. United’s best attacking player since joining as a Designated Player midway through the 2022 season. In 38 career MLS games, Fountas has scored 18 goals and added four assists.
Fountas is alleged to have used a racial slur against Robertha
Major League Soccer confirmed D.C. United forward Nigel Robertha has been reinstated after he was placed on paid administrative leave Friday along with teammate Taxi Fountas.
The league confirmed Fountas remains on leave after an incident in which he reportedly directed a racial slur at Robertha.
The Athletic first reported that Fountas was alleged to have used a racial slur towards Robertha, who is Black. The Washington Postconfirmed that report and added that Robertha responded by hitting Fountas with a foam roller.
On Friday, D.C. United said in a statement that the club reported the incident to MLS, which opened an investigation into the matter.
“The players will be unavailable for team activities during the pendency of that review,” DCU said. “Placement on paid administrative leave is not a disciplinary measure.”
On Monday, DCU supporters group Buzzard Point Social called for the “immediate dismissal” of Fountas from the team, as well as 19 minutes of silence to open Saturday’s Leagues Cup match against Pumas in support of Robertha, who wears the No. 19.
Two other supporters groups, 202 Unique and Rose Room Collective, have also called on D.C. United to cut ties with Fountas.
The gesture was made in a staff photo taken during an MLS All-Star Game training session
D.C. United has fired an athletic trainer for a discriminatory hand gesture, the club said on Friday night.
The club did not name the trainer but The Washington Post reported that the person fired was Reade Whitney, the team’s head athletic trainer
In a staff photo taken during an MLS All-Star Game training session, Whitney was pictured giving the “OK” gesture, which the Anti-Defamation League says has been used as a symbol of white supremacy since it arose as an internet hoax in 2017.
“D.C. United have terminated the employment of the club’s athletic trainer effective immediately,” a club statement read.
“This termination is the result of an internal review following the discovery of a discriminatory hand gesture made by the individual that surfaced in a photograph published across social media platforms on July 20, 2023.
“There is no place for racism, homophobia, misogyny, or discrimination of any kind in our sport and world and D.C. United do not tolerate any acts of this nature.”
The Real Salt Lake midfielder scored an unreal goal on the road against D.C. United, firing a 68-yard effort — that is, at least a full yard inside RSL’s half — to open the scoring just before halftime.
This has been a brewing storyline for United this season. Wayne Rooney’s tactical approach has involved bringing Miller up very high in possession. The idea is simple: Miller’s comfort on the ball allows United to create an overload elsewhere in possession, and attacking overloads are more dangerous than being even-numbers.
Rooney has been clear about the risks all season, noting to reporters more than once that eventually United might pay the price on a goal somewhere along the way. From a big-picture perspective, the gains would outweigh the long odds of someone actually scoring from midfield.
Last weekend at Atlanta, Miller paid the price for the aggression baked into his role in a different way. His attempt to cut Giorgios Giakoumakis off on an angled ball saw the Greek striker win the race, sliding home a finish into an empty net.
This time? With all due respect to Giakoumakis, Ruiz’s goal was something from another realm.
The sequence leading to the goal couldn’t have been less threatening. United was playing with a higher line despite going down a man in the 26th minute after captain Steven Birnbaum was given a red card.
RSL was stuck slowly building in possession against United’s 4-4-1 formation when Andrew Brody passed backwards to Ruiz, who had dipped back into some space away from the home team’s midfield.
Ruiz had tried and failed from around 40 yards out earlier, but with no one closing him down, he decided to up the ante with a shot that couldn’t have been placed better. His effort arced into the upper corner of the south goal at Audi Field, tantalizingly out of Miller’s reach.
After the match, Ruiz told reporters that scoring a goal like that was “my dream.”
“I talked to Pablo, so I know this keeper plays more [outside] the area. When I touched [the ball], I looked,” explained Ruiz, noting that he had an inkling that such a goal was possible on the night. “I’m very happy. I’m very happy for the goals, for these three points.”
RSL head coach Pablo Mastroeni compared the strike to one Marco Etcheverry scored for United (ironically enough against the Miami Fusion, featuring Mastroeni as a player in 1999. That goal went on to win MLS Goal of the Year.
“Pablo has a wand for a left foot,” said Mastroeni. “It’s an amazing football play, man. Super happy for Pablo… the angle in which he put it in, the distance from which he shot it, the execution was top class.”
United manager Wayne Rooney — who knows a thing or two about long-range goals — may not have been happy to lose, but couldn’t deny it was a magnificent strike.
“It’s a great strike,” said Rooney. “Sometimes you have to appreciate good goals, and it’s an incredible strike by the lad.”
Donovan Pines settled the issue before the season was even halfway over, scoring a goal of unfathomable brilliance for D.C. United, who had otherwise struggled to break down 10-man Inter Miami.
In fact, Pines’ goal is sure to draw the attention of the folks at FIFA who determine who wins the Puskás Award for the best goal in global soccer. No one in MLS is going to come even close to matching this absolute wondergoal.
The piece of wizardry came from an innocent-enough situation: Mateusz Klich’s corner found Steven Birnbaum at the back post, and the United captain headed the ball back across goal towards Pines. From there…what can we even say? It’s a masterpiece.
#VamosUnited find their way in front after a scramble at the goal line.
Benteke’s bicycle kick stunner has to be seen to be believed
Bicycles are popular in the District of Columbia, and Christian Benteke just wanted to do his part.
The D.C. United striker scored what is surely an MLS goal of the season contender, producing a bicycle kick against Charlotte FC in United’s 3-0 win Saturday night.
In a tense game of relatively few genuine chances, United’s biggest name — who in 2023 has looked more accustomed to life in MLS than in 2022 — made sure the Black-and-Red picked up a fourth straight win in all competitions.
United held a 1-0 lead and hadn’t given Charlotte much of anything after a loose opening 25 minutes or so, but some wasted chances (none more glaring than Taxi Fountas sending a sitter wide in the 70th minute) left the game up for grabs.
However, on a recycled set piece, the longtime Belgium target man produced one of the best goals in Audi Field’s short history. It started with Andy Najar swinging the ball back into the box, picking out Derrick Williams.
The Irish center back’s attempt to float a header towards Benteke didn’t quite work out, as Harrison Afful got to the ball first, but the veteran’s header away ended up being an unintentionally perfect set for Benteke to spike the ball past Charlotte goalkeeper George Marks.
“It was a pretty cool goal,” Benteke told reporters with incredible understatement after the match. “I was just hoping to have a good contact with the ball and hit the target.”
Benteke kept the jokes rolling when asked if he gave any thought to letting the ball fall for Donovan Pines or Ted Ku-DiPietro, who were both lurking.
“There was no way! There was no way I was going to let them shoot,” laughed Benteke. “I knew I wanted to do, and thank God it went through somehow.”
Watch Benteke’s incredible bicycle kick goal
OMG Christian Benteke bicycle kick. 😱🚲 #VamosUnited
The left back was arrested over the weekend on allegations of assault
Major League Soccer has suspended D.C. United defender Mohanad Jeahze after he was arrested in Sweden, the league announced on Monday.
The Washington Post reported that Jeahze was arrested in Stockholm on Saturday on two counts of assault.
Following the news of Jeahze’s arrest, MLS and D.C. United both announced he would be suspended indefinitely pending an investigation by MLS and Swedish authorities.
United said the defender was in his native Sweden on an approved leave as he worked to rehab a quad injury.
Jeahze signed a three-year contract with United in the offseason from Swedish club Hammarby IF. Prior to his move to MLS, Jeahze had spent his entire pro career in Sweden.
The 26-year-old has slotted in as United’s starting left back in 2023, starting five of the six games for which he’s been available.
After playing for Sweden’s youth national teams, Jeahze switched to Iraq and made his senior debut in November 2021. He has been capped four times with Iraq.
Late deadline day paperwork left O’Brien in limbo until a move to MLS materialized
Lewis O’Brien is not supposed to be in the outskirts of Leesburg, Virginia, speaking to a reporter a day before jetting off to Florida.
The plan was for the 24-year-old, at this point in April, to be winding up a a day after training, preparing for a critical Championship clash between Blackburn Rovers and Preston North End.
Instead, a bizarre set of circumstances involving the transfer deadline, squad registration, a series of appeals, and a desire to get games has ended with O’Brien joining D.C. United for an unusual (for MLS at least) short-term loan that runs through July 16. The away day coach trip featuring an inevitable traffic jam has been replaced by a flight to places like Montréal and Orlando.
Speaking to Pro Soccer Wire, O’Brien said the whole experience has been “strange,” but repeatedly circled back to one main point: “I’m now at D.C. happy, playing football again, so that’s all that really mattered in the end.”
O’Brien’s had an eventful year or so. Off the field, he got engaged in December. On it, he was thriving, playing nearly every minute for Huddersfield in the 2021-22 Championship season and earning a transfer to the Premier League. Nottingham Forest, who beat Huddersfield in the promotion playoffs, paid a reported $12.3 million in a summer transfer for both O’Brien and Harry Toffolo.
Despite Forest’s massive influx of new players, O’Brien started the first five games of their season, and scored his first-ever Premier League goal in September.
However, Forest’s battle to stay up has seen manager Steve Cooper cycle through his options, and after a reported illness, O’Brien saw his minutes drying up.
“I was never going into this club thinking I’m gonna play every game, right? It doesn’t work like that. You’ve got to work for it,” said O’Brien. “At that moment in time, for me to carry on pushing and carry on my career, to come back and help Nottingham Forest — hopefully in the Premier League at the end of the season — the best option for me was to go out and play football.”
O’Brien said that he and Forest agreed that a loan was the best solution. Heading into the last days of the winter transfer window, he said that Cooper and club staff were regularly in touch.
(Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)
“We were always agreeing on what was going to happen, and [they told me], ‘keep your phone close, just in case,'” recalled O’Brien.
That eventually turned into a call summoning O’Brien on deadline day. A loan move to Blackburn was close enough that with the deadline looming at 11:00 p.m., he had to get up to his prospective new club for a medical.
“I was there at [Blackburn’s] training ground,” said O’Brien. “I think on all sides — Forest, Blackburn, my side — we’d all assumed that it was done.”
An English Football League chronology of events produced during the appeals process said that O’Brien’s medical took place around roughly 9:00 p.m., and he said he stuck around until the transfer window closed, unsure of what was to come.
“Because of the time — it was, I think 11 o’clock, by the time everything had finished up, which is actually the deadline of the actual transfer window — they just said ‘Everything will get sorted, we’ll contact you in the morning.’ So I drove home not really knowing what’s going on…it was kind of all up in the air.”
That’s putting it lightly. The EFL eventually concluded that relevant paperwork from Blackburn didn’t arrive until 11:28 p.m., meaning they had missed the deadline and could not register him as a new player. Forest, meanwhile, had to register their own 25-player list to the Premier League, and on the assumption that O’Brien’s loan would have no issues, submitted a roster without him.
O’Brien suddenly went from seeking more playing time, to needing to find a club that could put him on the field at all.
With little else to do, O’Brien said he spent a couple of days at home waiting to hear whether the issue could be sorted out. Blackburn sent word that they were launching an appeal, but while that process played out O’Brien was stuck. He rejoined Forest for training, but that was about all he could do.
“It was tough. It was really tough,” O’Brien said when thinking back to a February spent in limbo. “It was strange. I had to go into training every day and work my hardest to stay fit… for me to come in every day and train, but still not know if I was going to be available to play for Blackburn, it was a strange feeling.”
Weeks went by, and while Blackburn kept up their appeals, every new one filed meant a longer wait and more uncertainty.
“I just wanted every day to just get the answer. It wasn’t even if the answer was a yeah, I just wanted to know that it was a solid answer, because I think there was something like three appeals within the month,” said O’Brien. That wait dragged on until March 1, when Blackburn issued a club statement conceding that the matter was done: O’Brien’s move was off.
Rooney key to O’Brien’s move
While that clarity may have taken one burden off O’Brien’s shoulders, it left a new one: where does an English player go to get quality playing time once European windows have closed?
According to O’Brien, Forest was prepared for just this sort of problem, and sent him a list of leagues where the window remained open. It wasn’t long before O’Brien found himself focusing on an MLS move as a once-in-a-lifetime sort of opening.
“I’m never gonna get the opportunity to come out here at my age and play football in MLS,” explained O’Brien. “I mean, it was a no-brainer for me.”
Once O’Brien placed MLS atop his list and started hearing back about clubs being interested, what put United ahead of the rest was not exactly a surprise.
“When you look at it, it’s kind of obvious,” said O’Brien with a chuckle. “I’m never gonna get a chance for one of the best midfielders-slash-strikers in history of England to coach me as a football player. If I can’t get better when he’s coaching me, I don’t think I ever will. So it was a no-brainer to come with Wayne Rooney being the manager, he’s only going to improve me.”
Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
O’Brien didn’t know exactly what life would be like in MLS, but said he’s been “pleasantly surprised” with things at both United and on a league level. The system Rooney is playing is familiar, and according to O’Brien the standard of play is equivalent to what he’s experienced in the Championship. Speaking to reporters at Audi Field just minutes after his first taste of the league, O’Brien called a 2-0 loss to the Columbus Crew “probably one of the toughest [games] that I’ll have all season.”
O’Brien argued that English perceptions of MLS are down to the time difference preventing more people from staying up to actually see the league on a regular basis.
“Week-in, week-out, it’s not Premier League standard. You’re not just gonna go to another league that’s gonna be as good as that,” said O’Brien. “The quality of the league is a lot better than what English people think, because they don’t get to watch it. It’s late and no one’s gonna stay up till [12:30, 1:30] to watch.”
The quality that saw Forest giving him immediate starts in the Premier League has been obvious in MLS, where O’Brien has hit the ground running in the heart of United’s midfield. He notched his first goal over the weekend as D.C. broke a six-game winless skid with a 1-0 win at CF Montréal. It’s early days, but he has already drawn praise from fans looking for something to get excited about following a miserable 2022 season.
Off the field, there have been pluses and minuses. The urgency to get back on the field meant that once his move to D.C. materialized, things happened so quickly that he didn’t have time to consider what comes with a trans-Atlantic move.
“When you’re back in England, all that you can think about is ‘I’ve got to go play football, I’ve got to go play football. No matter where, I’ve got to go play football,'” said O’Brien. “Then when you get here, you realize that you’ve just left everything back home. I’ve left my fiancée back home, I’ve left my family, my dogs, everything. I just got up and left in one day, because it was like, ‘Here’s your flight. You can go now, you’re gonna come over.’ So once you sit down and you’ve had a couple of days, you kind of think, ‘actually I’ve just up and left pretty quick.'”
He misses his dogs Teddy and Nellie, and admitted “the days can be long” once training is over. However, his parents have already visited — O’Brien took them to the White House for what he called a “once-in-a-lifetime experience” — and he said his fiancée was due to arrive on Wednesday.
In the meantime, life in the States has its appeal. O’Brien made sure to go to some Washington Wizards games before their season ended, and he’s enjoying a block of sunny spring days in the region. In a truly rare take on life around the Capital Beltway, he’s even a fan of driving the region.
While O’Brien didn’t close the door to a permanent switch, it seems like an extended stay in the District is unlikely. For one thing, United would have to meet a purchase clause in their loan that in all likelihood would approach eight figures. That kind of fee would make O’Brien a Designated Player, and United has already maxed out its DP allotment with Christian Benteke, Taxi Fountas, and Mateusz Klich.
There’s also the fact that Forest seems to value O’Brien’s prospects at the Premier League level. The man himself said that the entire loan idea, whether to Blackburn, United, or anywhere else, was broached with Forest’s long-term interests in mind.
“For me to progress and to help the club in the long run — because I’m still there for another three years — it’d be best for me to go out on loan, play some football, and come back,” he explained. “I’m just going to take the days as they come and the weeks as they come. Whatever happens in July, happens in July and hopefully I’ll be a better footballer for coming out here.”
When it comes to transfers, every player says they want to just focus on their soccer. After an odyssey to even get back on the field, there are few that mean it more than O’Brien does.
“Sometimes, having all the talent in the world is not enough”
Freddy Adu has admitted his retirement is coming “sometime soon” as he reflected on some of his past mistakes during an interview with ex-teammate Charlie Davies.
Adu’s most recent professional minutes came in 2018 with USL side Las Vegas Lights, and though he signed with Swedish third-tier outfit Österlen FF in 2020, he would not play a minute for the club.
The onetime prodigy appeared on CBS Sports Golazo Network’s “Morning Footy” show on Friday, and spoke candidly with Davies about some of the poor decisions he made early in his career.
The 33-year-old said as a teenager, he was able to get into bars with his older friends, which went on to eventually impact his performance on the field.
“I was enjoying all that stuff. Rather than focusing on the little things like getting the rest you need, your diet, getting some stretching in, just taking care of your body, I didn’t do enough of that,” he said. “You can get away with it a little bit when you’re younger, but as you get older, those are bad habits.”
Adu was considered a future superstar when he signed with D.C. United at age 14. But nearly 20 years later, he admitted that talent alone wasn’t enough for him to ultimately reach his full potential.
“Sometimes, having all the talent in the world is not enough,” Adu said. “You have to work your butt off to maximize that talent. And guys that aren’t as talented as you, if they work their a—s off, they’re going to surpass you. And it happened in my case.”
Davies would later ask Adu about his playing future and whether he was ready to announce his retirement.
“Sometime soon,” Adu replied. “I’m technically, technically not retired yet.”
Watch the full Adu interview below
🗣 "I was able to get into places where a teenager wasn’t supposed to be getting into…"
