D.C. United will take on a One Knoxville SC side that won the USL League One double in 2025, but who will be short at least two players due to suspension. A quick one on what today's U.S. Open Cup draw meant for DCU, and full draw results for the round of 32:

D.C. United's attempt to build a new soccer stadium in Baltimore, Maryland, hits a snag after the project did not receive any state funding. Read more at @wtopnews.bsky.social:

Look I'm just saying, Audi Crooks to Maryland. I'm going to say this until it works.

D.C. United will take on a One Knoxville SC side that won the USL League One double in 2025, but who will be short at least two players due to suspension. A quick one on what today's U.S. Open Cup draw meant for DCU, and full draw results for the round of 32:

US Open Cup draw incoming momentarily. DCU in the Jeff Agoos group* with the Columbus Crew, Richmond Kickers, and One Knoxville. *There's no group stage, each group of 4 locks in your round of 32 opponent as well as the two teams you could play in the round of 16.

Shocking news out of the JFA just now with Nils Nielsen set to step down as head coach of Nadeshiko Japan following the end of his contract. Wild decision considering that they just won Japan's third Women's Asian Cup. Successor TBD just one year out from the 2027 Women's World Cup in Brazil.

Back on the @thetransferflow.bsky.social podcast at exactly the right time to talk about the last of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers. Discussed Italy's third-consecutive failure to qualify, Iraq's incredible achievement and much more: www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-e0...

Absolutely nuts to me that this happened near the 4th official, the near-side AR, in a game with VAR and it was just like...ah well

Alyssa Thompson clearly picked up by field mics saying "she pulled my hair!"

Chelsea will be able to tell themselves that they were unlucky because of the Buurman shot off the post and this van Domselaar save, which is just going to further aggravate Chelsea fans who saw the other 165 minutes of this UWCL tie

Getting real end-of-days vibes from VW using an absolutely lifeless pop-rock cover of "Little Boxes" to position their dumb ugly SUV (in a gross shade of green, too) as the way rich parents can stand out from the other rich parents

Arsenal warned for timewasting 90 seconds in, UWCL fever through the roof

Making sense of Jamaica's failure to make the 2026 World Cup and what it says about the health of men's soccer in Concacaf as a whole. open.substack.com/pub/getconca...

Iraq are the last team to qualify for the 2026 World Cup! What a journey it's been for them to secure just their second appearance at the biggest stage after debuting in 1986, and it's back in Mexico where they've confirmed their return with a 2-1 win over Bolivia. #IRQBOL #Footy-Live

Somehow we don't have a 7th red card as a midfield clothesline on a counter with the Charleston goalkeeper forward, that leaves Christopher Jaime a bloody mess, only gets a yellow card and the full-time whistle

6 red cards in 5 as a very strange DOGSO decision (initially a yellow, ref then waves off the yellow to change it to a red despite the DOGSO requirements seemingly not met) goes against Asheville City. 10v9 there as they go to penalties

Culture Crave sucks: aftermath.site/culture-crave-...

Make that 5 in 5 as Charleston Battery (now down to 10) nears extra time at Charlotte Independence

The red card deluge in US club soccer continues: there have been at least 4 red cards across the 5 Open Cup games going on right now

My deep analysis of USMNT-Portugal is that these kits with the silver font/badge are suffering from the same "these are for cops" problem San Diego FC has

My position on this matter can be summed up with the current @americansocceranalysis.com xGD table

Looking forward to UEFA proposing a 64-team men's World Cup format in which all 16 new spots are given to UEFA teams only for Italy to crash out against San Marino

So many "I'm too tired to think" decisions from 🇧🇦, on all phases. You don't get to snap the pasta like this

Happy International Transgender Day of Visibility! We're everywhere and we're cool. Here's the trans pride flag 🏳️‍⚧️ on a mid-90s Pentium running DOS.

Boston Legacy head coach Filipa Patão’s comments on NWSL officiating after Saturday’s game:

Hi! Another source request: are you an NWSL fan who has had accessibility issues at games due to strobes/light shows? Please get in touch: DM or email frankie at britnidlc dot com

Job Alert! This is an Assistant Director of Football role in women's football, reporting directly to me. The skill set is diverse, including tactical knowledge, player eval, negotiation, and strong people skills. Women especially encouraged to apply. jobsinfootball.com/job/123612/a...

We need to have standards

Shoutout to the folks who brought the Trans People belong in sports 🏳️‍⚧️ banner to the Denver Summit FC game, thought it looked awesome 💕 on Live Linear TV 📺

The latest at Green Line Soccer: 🥲 The long road taken to 63,004 fans at an NWSL game 📦 Why the move to a box midfield? 😤 MacIver recovers from rough week Deep thoughts from a milestone game that was a lot of Football and very little Soccer:

Big crowd, lots of threatening to threaten, but very little in the way of actual chances for the Spirit, who now have 3 draws from 4 matches to start 2026. Your Green Line Soccer gamer is live:

The latest at Green Line Soccer: 🥲 The long road taken to 63,004 fans at an NWSL game 📦 Why the move to a box midfield? 😤 MacIver recovers from rough week Deep thoughts from a milestone game that was a lot of Football and very little Soccer:

The B in Mel B stands for "banger"

Denver Summit FC: 0 (1.23 xG) vs Washington Spirit: 0 (0.36 xG) #DENvWAS | #Summit | #ThatsTheSpirit | #NWSL | 🤖⚽

Really trying not to reach for the simple explanation but the KC Current in 2024 & 2025 looked so sure of what to do in all phases. There was clarity all over the field. In 2026? They look confused, & it's leading to individual mistakes.

A couple of these quality chances were set piece headers from inside the 6. Denver went for Tall when assembling their roster, & it showed on dead balls. First time in a while I've felt like the Spirit were in damage limitation mode on set pieces.

Audio difficulties & a large press contingent in Denver, so I'm not sure if those of us on the Zoom will get questions in or not. Adrián González said Trinity Rodman was subbed due to fatigue at the end of a long week. "Her 90 minutes are not a normal 90 minutes."

Big crowd, lots of threatening to threaten, but very little in the way of actual chances for the Spirit, who now have 3 draws from 4 matches to start 2026. Your Green Line Soccer gamer is live:

Morgan & now Tara the Explorer getting on the ball in open play within 25 yds of goal. You see the risk going the other way with Brazier (though she was very clearly offside). It's an all-or-nothing choice, but Spirit front 3's movement is lacking. Still a wall of green shirts to deal with.

Spirit stepping their lines up incredibly high right now, which speaks to the "we gotta win one" feel right now. Draw vs. Utah left the group pretty clearly frustrated, & the chances haven't been there even as they've controlled the 2nd half.

Tsé & Martínez about to come on, which tells me that Monday probably has 15 minutes max in her after being sick this week.

This is a real "haven't worked on attacking movements" situation. González has brought up the intl. window busting up the preseason & lack of training time with midweek games so early. This is probably what got cut as a result.

Lucia Di Guglielmo somehow willing herself to continue sliding and sliding and sliding to keep Yazmeen Ryan from turning that into anything. Still, Summit's best looks (until this Flint rocket) are coming from Ryan's combinations. Di Guglielmo not having an easy day at the office.

Pretty obvious from the Spirit with the Kouassi-for-Abiodun sub. 4231 is back, Kouassi on the right, Rodman on the left. On Wednesday González said that Abiodun was on a 60-minute cap, so on short rest I figure they were always thinking she'd have to sub off here as well.

xG: 0.4 - 0.1 xG per Shot: 0.18 - 0.04 Quality Chances*: 1 - 0 Yaz Ryan chance in 23' is all either side has mustered for attacking quality thus far.

Summit-Spirit 1st half had very little in it. Pressing structures have been effective, but beyond that both teams look like they played 180 this week. Spirit threatening with balls over the top, but that's most of their ball progression. 4222 means Rodman/Cantore have to do it all from there.

Heavy legs from midweek, narrow pitch, first warmer-weather (it's 80 & sunny) game, and they're at elevation. Spirit box midfield surely a response to all of that, & those factors are probably why this game isn't quite at an NWSL tempo.

Best I can tell, the home stadiums of all 8 teams in 2013 had a total capacity of 63,582. Very likely that more people are at Summit vs. Spirit today.

You can see how this tilts into nearly a diamond, with Santos wanting to push on and Hershfelt tending to drop off. Group is going to have to play off of Santos, who'll have the freedom to also step up to the right & make this a 433.