The vibes are not great.
DC United dropped back-to-back games — a 3-0 home loss to New England Revolution and a 3-1 loss at Charlotte FC — and the national media has loaded up both barrels. Jon and Ted are here to cut through the noise, give the full context, and ask the questions that matter: what went wrong, who’s responsible, and what happens next?
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Before We Get Into It
Jon spent the weekend at the Richmond Kickers game — solo, in the supporters section, exactly as advertised. The River City Red Army unveiled a banner that said “farts of pine” instead of “hearts of pine” and he loved every second of it. Go check out the Kickers. Ted, meanwhile, bought LAFC tickets right after the TFC win when the vibes were good. The vibes have since shifted considerably.
DC United 0-3 New England Revolution
The same defensive breakdown. Three times. From the same player.
That is the New England game in a sentence. Jon and Ted are careful not to pile on in the way the national media has — DC have been annoyingly fine for much of the year and the press has been waiting for a reason to unload. But the frustration is warranted. The team was beaten three times on an identical look, which is the kind of thing that drives you insane when you’ve seen it happen before and it never gets fixed.
Jack Harrison — signed by New England for one million dollars — had two assists and completely torched DC’s left side. He is every bit worth the money. The fact that DC, a team desperately short on chance creation, could have had him and didn’t is a conversation worth having.
Kye Rowles was out injured. His absence was felt immediately and completely. Tracking runners just stops happening without him. Every time he’s been missing this year, the results have followed.
Hosei Kijima was arguably DC’s best player — an expected goals on target of 0.82, a moment where he drove into the box and forced a good save. In a rough week, he was the standout.
Keisuke Kurokawa is trending downward. He has played almost every single minute of every game this season and it is starting to show. He needs to sit down for a little bit. He can’t.
DC United 1-3 Charlotte FC
Louis Munteanu scored a well-taken goal — Matti Peltola’s ball to João Peglow, who laid it off, and Munteanu finished it low and hard on turf. DC were up one nil and then almost immediately fell apart. The one-nothing lead has become DC’s most dangerous scoreline.
Charlotte woke up, got back level almost instantly, and then pulled away in the second half. Three games in a week with almost no rotation had caught up with the squad by that point — several key players were dead on their feet and it showed. Andre Dozzell and Matti Peltola both went ninety again. Keisuke Kurokawa went ninety again. The bench was thin and the legs were gone.
Tai Baribo was rested for this game — notably, the one time a good player has been given a game off all season. Jon’s point: if you’re not going to win all three, strategically preserve your talent for the games that are winnable. Renée Weiler did not do that.
Sean Nealis has not looked strong. He signed a new contract and is here through next year. That is a conversation for the offseason.
Nikola Markovic continues to watch midfielders be shoehorned into center back ahead of him. The fans are asking why. Jon and Ted are asking why.
“Maybe They Ask Too Much”
Renée Weiler’s post-game press conference after the New England loss included this: “I have to remind them that maybe they ask, maybe too much.” And: “maybe they should be more patient and more objective.”
Jon’s response is measured but clear: this fan base has been extraordinarily patient. The expectation to at least put up a fight against a New England Revolution side — Jack Harrison aside — is not unreasonable. The team had the roster for it. And pointing that frustration back at the fans after that performance was the wrong call.
Ted’s take: Weiler hasn’t been here long enough to know what this fan base has been through. The message is understandable from his perspective, but the delivery landed badly.
Does Weiler have the rope to survive a playoff miss? Jon thinks yes — he’s doing exactly what ownership hired him to do, he’s been plain and honest throughout, and the financial commitment hasn’t been so large that the ramifications need to be instant. Ted hopes so — firing him and the front office now means starting the cycle all over again, and that helps nobody.
Weiler is contracted through the 2027 season. What that means for the sprint season format is an open question.
The Transfer Window
The summer window closes one day after the European window — a long-standing MLS complaint that finally gets addressed this year. That extra day matters. There may be a player out there waiting to see if European options fall through before committing to DC.
Nathan Ordaz is a player Jon and Ted want to see get more minutes. He has an assist, no goals, and has barely started. Jon’s theory: this may be a player identified by the front office and sold to ownership rather than a player Renée Weiler actually wanted — which would explain the lack of utilization. If he doesn’t get an uptick in minutes heading into the end of the season, it starts to look like a Caden Clark situation all over again.
Jacob Murrell Heads to Falkirk
Jacob Murrell is on his way to Falkirk in Scotland, with a transfer fee involved. Jon and Ted wish him well — he’s probably a good player in two or three years, and DC couldn’t afford to wait. The bigger picture: without an MLS Next Pro affiliate, there was nowhere to develop him. He came in from Georgetown with tools, was deployed in multiple positions by multiple coaches, and never had a real chance to figure out what he was. That’s the postmortem.
The New MLS 20-Team Playoff Format
MLS has floated a new playoff format: 20 teams in, with a tiered bracket structure. Top eight teams get a bye and a second-chance bracket if they lose. Middle seeds have to win two games to reach the quarterfinals. Bottom seeds (16-20) have to win three. After the quarterfinals, it’s a standard eight-four-two.
Jon and Ted break down the logic: keeping more teams alive into the winter window gives ownership a reason to spend. It keeps gate receipts up when teams might otherwise be playing out the string. And the top seeds get rewarded with a safety net, which addresses one of the biggest criticisms of single-elimination — that the supporters’ shield winners kept getting knocked out in the first round.
The criticism: they’re changing the format again. The hope: if they stick with this for ten or fifteen years, it works. The wildcard: relegation would be the perfect companion piece to letting twenty teams in. You tried, we gave you every chance, and you couldn’t do it.
Somehow DC will still finish a point out. Probably.
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Vamos. 🔴⚫