The Daily Dirt March 6, 2018: Marching on

Tuesday. If Monday comes around to ruin all your fun, Tuesday is here to let you know that it is time for work. Hope you have a wonderful 16 Ventôse CCXXVI, before you get it started, enjoy the Dirt...

Domestic

The collapse of the NASL has left its former players desperate for new teams. Some are finding a home in the USL, but are in a much worse situation than they were a year ago. It’s easy to mock the NASL and it now seems like the league’s former owners are more interested in recouping their losses, but the players, coaches, and front office personnel are the ones who will suffer the most.

Seattle Sounders homegrown player Handwalla Bwana came to Atlanta as a refugee in 2010 where he first played on a grass pitch. He eventually moved to Seattle and was signed by the Sounders as a homegrown player. His story is pretty incredible as told by Louis Bien of SB Nation.

Atlanta United might have an unclely owner and Minnesota United is owned by a soap magnate, but LAFC has this:

#SueTheCrew

International

Perhaps seeing a kindered spirit in a media organization that serves as a propaganda broadcaster for an authoritarian government, Jose Mourinho has agreed to provide World Cup analysis for RT.

Let’s check in on Arsenal.

In one of the sadder stories to break over the weekend Fiorentina and Italy defender Davide Astori died in his sleep on Sunday. Authorities in Italy are not convinced that he died of natural causes and are investigating his death as a manslaughter.

Goal

In what was a surprisingly entertaining game, Nemanja Matic provided some last minute heroics for Manchester United against Crystal Palace:

Save of the day

Saves are dumb, sure they’re usually spectacular achievements of athleticism when they go right - but the point of soccer is to score goals and saves stop soccer from being fun. Still this is a good one

Chase some pain

Before an injury and laziness set me back some, I was a bit of a wannabe distance runner and the Barkley Marathons have always fascinated and entertained me. Ethan Newberry put together a doc about a runner named Gary Robbins and his attempts to finish the race in Frozen Head State Park. It’s behind a paywall but I really like Ethan’s work and really like the bizarro story about the Barkley.