Friday Freedom Kicks: USWNT roster full of Spirit players, Altidore to Revs?, and more

Spirit news, MLS moves, and a possible Wazza tribute from Minnesota

Well, I was seconds from going to bed, and said out loud “Oh no, Freedom Kicks!” so here we are. D.C. United, after the news onslaught, has slowed down, though the team resumes training out in Leesburg this morning after getting back from Florida, and before they head off to California. However, most of our news today is about the Washington Spirit, so let’s get to it:

Six Washington Spirit players on USWNT 2022 SheBelieves Cup roster | Black and Red United
Six Spirit players are on the USWNT roster for SheBelieves Cup, and a seventh (Trinity Rodman) will be training with the team. That’s over 25% of the roster, which is wild. It’s good to be the champs! That camp runs starting next Thursday, and if my understanding of the Spirit’s camp schedule is correct, the players will meet back up with Washington down in Florida.

Speaking of Spirit preseason, we’ll have more on that very soon, because training is open to media today, so I’ll be braving the Beltway to find out how things are going.

Black History Month: Call her Trinity | Stars and Stripes FC
And speaking of Rodman, our own Donald Wine II has his annual Black History Month series going at Stars and Stripes, and she’s the topic today.

Speaking of speaking of preseason (I promise I’m not gonna say “speaking of” any more in this post), the Spirit are at The St. James because it’s inside and the weather outside is straight trash:

Charlotte FC Signs Expansion Draft Picks Anton Walkes and Joseph Mora to New Contracts | CharlotteFootballClub.com
In ex-DCU news, Joseph Mora has signed a contract with Charlotte FC. The expansion side selected him in the expansion draft, gifting United $50,000 in GAM, but still had to reach contract terms, which they did. Look for him in their starting 11 in…wow it’s only 22 days away.

Report: Jozy Altidore poised to join New England Revolution | Waking the Red
This one makes some kind of sense, as Bruce Arena loves a proven MLS winner almost as much as he loves getting the best out of his most expensive 2-3 players. Toronto has said they want to not carry Altidore as a DP this year, so them shipping him out also makes sense.

But still, think about this: Altidore, with his injury history, playing half of his games this year on possibly the worst surface in MLS. It could work, especially since the Revs appear to need an Adam Buksa insurance plan due to interest from Europe in the Polish striker, but it’s also a situation where if you told me Altidore finished 2022 with 700 minutes played, I wouldn’t be surprised.

Last thing, and we stay in MLS for this one:

Emmanuel Reynoso must be a Wayne Rooney fan, because that’s a “Rooney vs. Orlando” kind of goal to score on the Lions.

That’s my entire set of links and tweets. Enjoy the very early part of the morning, when it’s not cold, before we go right back into winter again.