My local professional footy side has been in the news lately, and it's not a good thing.
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| Defender Robby Dambrot's father was LeBron James' high school hoops coach |
Veteran soccer journo Pablo Maurer published a piece in The Athletic with the following inauspicious headline: Bad turf, cold showers, wash your own kit: life at the top of US minor league soccer. The article detailed a litany of indignities faced by Loudoun United's players, ranging from an unfinished stadium (truly an embarrassment for the club and my county, and a legacy of D.C. United's penury and lack of leadership) to substandard investment in staff (players have to wash their own kits, as the team let its equipment manager go and didn't replace him) to indifferent and unengaged ownership.
The club just signed an agreement with Virginia Revolution, a deep-pocketed local youth club, which should inject some cash and at least stabilize things. Except that the rumors that followed the announcement suggested that Ryan Martin, the only coach in club history, would soon be sacked. Well-liked General Manager Oliver Gage was let go immediately. Half of the club's non-soccer staff have left the organization in the past six weeks. It's pretty bleak.
In the midst of all this fuckery, the team is off to a flier, with the best record in the entire division, the most goals scored, and the best goal differential. It's reminiscent of something. Said a member of the team, “We have one common enemy. Ownership. In my words? It’s ‘f— the owners.’ All we have is us, at this point. And who knows how long we have left together. A lot of us will be gone. Unless we keep winning.”
Vamos Loudoun! Up the Ponies!
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wrexham earn a third consecutive promotion with a win in either of their final two matches. wild.
ReplyDeleteWe need to go to a Leicester v. Wrexham tilt next season.
ReplyDeleteThis is a lousy story, robbie, but I very much appreciate the tying it to Taylor, Hayes, Vaughn, Cerrano, Dorn, Harris, and, of course, Marls’ fave Lou Brown.
ReplyDeletehusky gameday. we go out of district to play a long-time rival. teams should be pretty evenly matched, though i may sub more liberally than usual to rest the starters for thursday's top of the table clash.
ReplyDeleteDo the huskies have to wash their own unis?
ReplyDeleteindeed, they do. i wash the pinnies, though. and we're fully staffed, have a plethora of cones, and more high-quality balls than we know what to do with. we're a real organization up in this motherfucker.
ReplyDeleteJeffe, what is a plethora?
ReplyDeleteyour huskies kept up their recent pattern of playing ambivalently in the first half before turning it on in the second. down 1-0 at the break, gave up a soft goal on a ball spilled by our keeper, then fought back to get one with two minutes left. couldn't equalize, fell 2-1. got a lot of reserves into the game, so not terribly upset with the result.
ReplyDeleteSlow week at GTB
ReplyDeletei'll spice it up by mentioning that gtb dennis' brother was the assistant coach of the squad the huskies played last night. bogtbd, if you will.
ReplyDeletewho's got filler?
ReplyDelete