Morning Espresso, 2.6: Columbus needs a striker, US Open Cup 1st round set, Newcastle seeks trophy

La Galaxy America. De KLi in Colombia reportedly pushed very hard to sign Ramirez. There's been some other clubs I believe linked to signing Ramirez in the off season, but he's going to stay in MLS. He's going to go to the Galaxy. So he will be the replacement for Dayan Jovilch who went to Kansas City, who's going to replace now Ramirez and Kucho Ornandez and Columbus because I thought Ramirez would replace Kuco and now he's not. Brianna

McKay and Columbus says. Sources confirmed that it will be up to five hundred thousand dollars in GAM two hundred and fifty thousand guaranteed from the Galaxy to the Crew for Christian Ramirez. Orlando City. They signed a designated player yesterday morning, Marco Pashlich, twenty four year old winger from Croatia.

Designated player Croatian international. He's got five caps. He joins the team through twenty seven with a team option for twenty eight, and he replaces Facundo Dores as the designated player there to go alongside Luis Mouriel and Martin o'heeda. They're going to need more from Murreel in twenty twenty five for sure. I mentioned previously on The Espresso that ben Fico were interested in selling Argentine central midfielder Benjamin Rolheiser. Well Tom Bogert reported that Dallas was one of the

clubs that was interested. They had talks about him, but it didn't progress. Dallas is still looking for designated player number ten. Other MLS clubs have some serious interest in Rollheiser and it's probably going to take around ten million dollars to get that kind of a deal done. First round pairings for the twenty twenty five US Open Cup have been sent thirty two matchups. Pro teams versus amateur teams.

Twenty six teams are making their Open Cup debuts. A few games to watch some of the ones nearby US, but a couple of Darby's as well. Enter Miami CF two, the MLS next pro side, playing Miami United FC. Miami United has been in three straight Open Cups. Now Tulsa Athletic and FC Tulsa. Tulsa Athletic won this derby in twenty twenty three. Ashville City they will host Greenville Triumph. That's going to be a great one. On Tuesday, March eighteenth,

Chattanooga FC hosting Corpus Christy FC. Appalachian FC hosting one Knoxville SC. That'll be a really good one. Little Rock Rangers hosting the Birmingham Legion. South Georgia Tormenta hosting Harbor City FC of the UPSL and the UPSL back to back champions Soda City. They have to go on the road from Columbia, South Carolina to high Point, North Carolina to face the Carolina core That should be a really

fun match. The National Women's Soccer League, the NWSL has agreed to pay a five million dollars restitution fund to compensate current or former players who have suffered from abuse while playing in the league. Now it's not immediately clear

how the funds will be distributed. That process will be worked through, but the settlement it follows extensive investigations that started in twenty twenty one widespread allegations of verbal emotional sexual abuse across multiple NWSL clubs that there was a many head coaches who were dismissed or resigned. The NWSL commissioner at the time resigned, so in addition to financial compensation, the settlement includes a list of requirements for the NWA

to continue protecting players. The league's leadership is required to report to the attorney generals who led this investigation every six months for the next three years, and the report also does acknowledge that the league has already worked to implement safeguards outlined in a previous report. This is a big deal and there could be more fallout from this.

Stay tuned when it comes to the NWSL and this aspect of their safeguarding processes that they have made progress on, but there's still some things from the pass that they have to deal with. The Argentine Premier DIVISIONE match between Goodoy Cruz and Taschers was suspended late yesterday late Tuesday after an assistant referee was struck by an object from the crowd. The main referee picked up something that looked like a thin tube from the field after he called

for medical assistance. The linesman Diego Martin was bleeding from his forehead. The game had been halted for a lengthy review on a var situation. A goal would have put Goodoy Cruise ahead in the thirty seventh a minute. It was disallowed due to an off side call by the video assistant referee. And then this happens. As we've talked about when we get into fan behavior, and we talked about it last time on the Espresso with disgusting messages that were sent to Bunny Shaw of Manchester City. This

should be a lifetime banning thing. I mean, there shouldn't even be a question about it. I believe most stadiums now in Argentina. I'm not one hundred percent sure. I know here, Yes, most stadiums have cameras pretty much all over in terms of the crowd and people doing things like this. Get the guy on camera, get the guy identified or woman could be get it identified and get that person banned for life, no question, no way around it.

It should not be able to attend a match in Argentina if you're going to be throwing things from the crowd and striking referees and anybody who ever thinks about throwing something from the crowd at the field. Don't. Don't. We've seen it happen in Atlanta. We've seen it happen most places. Don't do it. Just don't. You never know what can happen with it. Don't do it. If you do, you should be banned and you shouldn't be back. That's

just flat out. US Soccer Federation has updated its referee abuse Prevention policy after ninety percent of referees reported that abuse has increased over the last five years. Sixty percent of referees chose not to recertify due to harassment and threats. The updated policy it includes stronger sanctions for any form

of physical or non physical abuse towards referees. If you are a player, if you are a coach, if you are an administrator, and you're involved in the game at the youth level the adult level, you might want to go read this so you know where the lines are now, so you can avoid penalties and more importantly, so you can create a better culture around this. Ninety percent of referees reporting that abuse has increased, that doesn't surprise me. That makes me sad. X two percent of referees choosing

not to recertify due to harassment and threats. That's a mind blowing statistic that everybody has to look at and say, how can we change this. I've served on disciplined and protest committees before, with adult and with youth in the State of Georgia, and this was a while back, and

the situations were definitely increasing at that time. But I think the list of sanctions was a little too open ended at that time, and there were two often easier routes to not severely punishing people who had done this, especially on the referee abuse side, the more verbal side. Now it is much more in writing of this is what has to happen to these individuals who do these sorts of things. So I really like the policy for

US Soccer. I think they could have went further, to be honest, but it is a very good start to helping protect referees better and it's something that if we want the game to grow, you got to have the referees in well some other topics today. Damien Downs and Amy might need to know. His first sport was American football. He moved from Texas back to his native Germany and took up the other ball. And now he is starring for f Sign who is trying to get back to

the top flight in the Bundesliga. Twenty year old striker. He had a goal, end and assist in Wednesday's three to German Cup loss to Bayer Leverkusen. Nine goals, five assists twenty one games for the top team in the second division. Right now, he's eligible to be called up by the US men's national team, and the US men's national team has a whole lot of injuries at forward. So just saying you might want to get to know Damien Downs. John Doran is going to get to know

air travel. Reportedly, he is going to travel over five hundred kilometers a day to train with his new club Al Nasser, an eighty minute flight to training every day. He has chosen reportedly to live with his girlfriend in Bahrain. I guess if you have the money, sure that works. Wow. Yesterday's results Clube Leon they take the top spot in League MX two one win over Pachuca Steven Mendoza with the winner in the second half. Monterrey no surprise, they win two nil in Canada against Forge FC in the

Conca CAFF Champions Cup first leg. The upset of the day was in Conca calf Real Estelli in Nicaragua. They defeated De Grace one nil on a late goal from Francisco Gral in the last ten minutes of regulation time. Now they've got to go to Monterrey do it again against De Grace in the second leg. It's not likely, but it'll be a game you'll want to keep an eye on. In that second leg. Newcastle United they took

care of a second leg yesterday. They are into the Carabell Cup Final trying to win their first trophy in fifty six years. Arsenal couldn't get it done. Newcastle had a two nil lead in the first leg. They extended that to win two nil with goals from Jacob Murphy and Anthony And they'll find out who they play today Liverpool and Tottenham. That is the second leg of the Caravell Cup semi final. Tottenham has the one nil lead. Liverpool are unbeaten in fifteen home matches since September, They've

scored at least two goals in each of those. Spurs do have that aggregate lead. They have kept four clean sheets in their last eight games. In all competitions. They have not won at anfield since twenty eleven. They don't have to win. They need to get a draw. At least they do that, they will go through. If they lose one nil, then we see what happens. If they lose by more than that, then no, can Spurs do it.

It would be a very big upset if they can do it, and what a final that would be Newcastle and Tottenham in the Caravello Cup, Liverpool trying to get this done. If an supposed to conglu doesn't get this done, does that change the narrative a little bit? Although I think he's on steadier ground now than he was before. The League's Cup has been a big thing for him. The League Cup has been a big thing for him to help get going. I mixed up my league in

League's cups, their Carabout Cup, the Gummy Bear Cup. You can watch that this afternoon and you can come back tomorrow and have a little more morning espresso presented by Oglethorpe University on the SDH Network. As always, the SDHAM Show starts at nine oh five. John Nelson has Gatchet covered on YouTube, on x, on Facebook, and on Twitch.