SoccerWise - 2025 MLS Season Preview Austin, DC, STL & Charlotte

Episode Date: February 16, 2025

We are at the midway point of Soccerwise's team by team previews for the 2025 MLS Season. Tom & David are lucky enough to be joined by another set of local hosts. First they run the rule over the record breaking transfer window for the Verde in Austin with Landon Cotham (Moontower Soccer). Then David chats about what 2025 should be for DC United with Gregory Roche (Pitch Pass Podcast). Not to be forgotten St Louis City SC has had a quiet offseason because they did so much work last summer. Justin & Jake (Ball Watching Podcast) join the show to talk through how Olaf Melberg can put the pieces together. Last but definitely not least Charlotte looks on the verge of their best season in club history Jorge (TopBin90) joins to break it all down.1:36 Austin FC w/Landon of Moontower Soccer32:44 DC United w/Gregory of Pitch Pass Podcast1:14:26 STL City SC w/Jake & Justin Ball Watching Podcast1:48:44 Charlotte FC w/Jorge Gonzales Soccerwise Live 2pm ET Every Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday on Youtube/Twitch/Twitter

Hello there to my Austin DC, Charlotte St. Louis fans or anyone else who is here listening to Soccer Wise. I am David Goss. If you are new, welcome to the show. We cover MLS, NWSL and everything else soccer in North America as much as we possibly can. Four to five shows a week via podcast, two to three live shows on YouTube and other platforms as well.

Just trying to cover the game the way we believe it should be done here in this region and for you, the fans. So if you don't already subscribe to us, you can follow us anywhere you get your podcast anywhere on social media at Soccerwise HQ as well as on YouTube and if you want to get super involved you can pay to join our Patreon and get you access to our Discord where we are chatting with a couple hundred fans across all the different MLS NWSL fan bases as well as our depth charts,

which we've just revamped and put out. That gives you all of the depth charts across the teams, as well as salary cap tables to tell you where your team sits, what players making what, which players are holding international roster spots, U22 spots, DPs, homegrowns, and everything else under the sun.

So enjoy the episode, timestamps, if you wanna go to specific teams are under the sun. So enjoy the episode, timestamps if you wanna go to specific teams are in the description. If not, each episode is put out as an individual standalone segment on YouTube, or you can listen to the podcast right here. So enjoy everyone. We are going down to Texas to talk Austin FC,

a team that had a wholesale set of changes this year, and they're gonna be host of the All-Star Game, Tom. You told me we're going. Whether I want to or not, we will be in Austin, Texas. Nothing better in terms of weather than Boston at the end of July for a couple white guys like us. So get ready to learn ClimaCool shirts, buddy.

Get ready to learn probably sweat towels, but we're gonna be happy no matter what to be there. So I can't wait. And a quick note on Austin, we've said this about some other cities. Seattle is the first one that comes to mind. Atlanta is another one that their fans are kind of spoiled with local coverage. Austin FC is absolutely in that upper echelon of that conversation for fans that are pleasantly spoiled by all of the coverage options. For Austin, it was difficult to only have one podcast on. We could have chosen several ones. It was no disrespect to any of the other wonderful podcasts out there,

like our guy Phil West wasn't a part of this. So if you're an Austin fan, appreciate it because this is not the norm across the league. No, I believe they have so many podcasts that I was invited to help the guests fill in on a fantasy draft that had five other Austin FC podcasts in it. So to have the optionality, yeah you are very lucky. We are all fortunate to have those members of this league. I can't wait to get down to Austin. I don't do any of the things you say. I just wear black so you hope that people can't see the sweat as much as possible. I don't care if it makes me hotter. Last time I was in Austin though

during the summer I went and did a river float have you ever done a river float I Have it but I need every piece of photo that you have of this trip Dude river floats were made for you So you sit in the water all the time and you just bring coolers and you literally just float and drink But you're oh, yeah, you move with a little bit sometimes which is great It is I did was the first time I'd ever done it And it's like become my passion. I haven't done it since Committed I am to my passions, but I'm so in I'm like, well, that's not true

I did a small one in Pennsylvania one time that was less official, but also it was in a pool Kind of pretty much. It was at a creek. I would it, but there was a cool and when we were in Austin It was so official we brought like a tray of sandwiches and we got our own tube for the sandwiches So they lived there the whole time that brings We got into the hundreds on the amount of beers and and seltzer's that I put there because you got to take care of People you got to make sure people's they hydrated. So maybe if we're able to get our timing right, we can work on- I'm bringing my bathing suit. I'm bringing my bathing suit.

If I have to do this alone at 9 p.m. at night, I will. Okay. I think floating down rivers once the sun's down is a really good idea, so I think you should stay committed to that cause. By myself, by myself. We did eventually choose, and we had to choose one Austin FC podcast. We went with

Moon Tower Soccer. They have been very kind to us so far in our time at SoccerWise and we are excited to have landed on to talk about this team and this club and what everything can be in 2025 for Austin FC. Let's go to Texas. Let's talk a little Austin FC. It is supposed to be a very big year under Rodolfo Barel and the new rebuild for this Austin FC site. It's also, I believe, the host of the All-Star game. So maybe we will be there at some point this year. We love to spend some time with our local hosts. Landon here, Moon Tower Soccer. I've been a guest on your show, so now I get you to come in the opposite direction. Anyone listening to Soccer Wise, go check out the

show. They do an awesome job covering all things Major League Soccer to come in the opposite direction anyone listening to soccer wise go check out the show They do an awesome job covering all things major league soccer and soccer in the country on top of Austin Which is gonna be one of the fascinating teams this year. So Landon. Thanks for joining us Yeah, glad to be here guys It is Tom one of the teams that you have spent some time talking about over the last six to eight months They broke their transfer record last summer then they broke their transfer record this offseason then they broke their transfer record this offseason So if I'm right on time, I believe they're about to break their transfer record in the next few minutes But for what we have right now, we like to do our transfers in or outs then we'll play our Doyal isms

We'll talk about these team this team a little bit and then we'll get to our over-under from Andrew Weeby who is slacking a little bit and I actually think the line is less New Jersey this time and less Connecticut slash Pennsylvania than it has been in the past but we'll see how we fall on that one. This is a good one to talk about when you start with transfers Tom. This has been a team, it's been central to your life. Exactly, it's been very very very busy for us. And I see this winter. First of all, they dismissed head coach Josh Wolf.

Moved very quickly to hire Nico Estevez. And then they went into the market and brought in two new huge DPs. Just like you said, two new club record signings. They had a club record departure again. It's a it's a young club, but all of these are serious fees. Sebastian Dvusey leaves for ten million dollars to River Plate Brandon Vasquez comes in for ten million dollars from sea of Monterey and Mirzo Ozzoni comes in for just north of twelve million dollars from

Granada in Spain, so it's been super super busy Those are the three biggest moves that they made I can't wait to see the remade attack, but oh yeah They had some more additions they over made over did redid the midfield Sorry with Ilya Sanchez B Bissard Sabovitch, and Nicholas Dubrarski. The, those three players could be three new starters, but I think Danny Pereira is still gonna be playing a big, big part.

So Alex Ring is gone, Ethan Finley, Matt Hedges, Joanne Valencia, all of those are gone. Jossie's Artis are gone. But again, it has been a huge transformation for Austin FC this winter. It is Len I think something maybe people would say was overdue. It's really the first time we've seen like a big Flip of the roster for this club, especially an offseason like this

It is normally one of the teams that it's one piece here or there since expansion, but not all together What's been sort of your reaction to watching this happen and what's sort of been the fan base as you know moves and moves have come out? Yeah whenever Burel came in I guess it was in the summer of 2023. I mean we were excited about his pedigree, his contacts, but he'd never done this particular job right and so we were curious to see what's going to happen. He wasn't able to make a ton of moves early on because of Austin had a lot of bad contracts that were just kind of impossible to get off of. And so he kind of had to use the spots as they came. And finally, last summer, we got some decent some decently big moves. And then this winter's

just been crazy. Lots of insinuation from folks in national media and then also just things I've heard around town here in Austin that this ownership group is kind of cheap and they're not going to spend in every part of the organization. And so I was thinking like, okay, maybe we're not going to get any of these big guys. Maybe Burrell can do it on the cheap and bring in smart contracts like Gil army beeru Mikhail desler swastika are all really cheap players for the quality that they bring It's like okay. Maybe that's gonna be the way forward then we sell to you see get way more money than anybody thought we were going to and

Bring in Vasquez at that point. I'm like, okay, that's just a straight swap So they overspent there because they had the juicy money At that point, I'm like, okay, that's just a straight swap So they overspent there because they had the juicy money Then the the Sunni thing comes in is like, okay, where where did all this come from? So we've been we've been as surprised as you guys have been But talking about the like the guys going out Alex ring Finley hedges Zardas. These are all the kind of guys that you might say Okay on field production wise,

these guys are probably not worth the money they're making. But they're great locker room guys, good guys to have around the team. I think you can afford to have one or two of those on the team. You can't have eight of those guys on the team. And that's what Austin has been pretty much its entire existence. And at some point you got to go out you got to spend the money You got to bring in a madman who just wants to score goals and it seems like that's what they're trying to do now There's obviously from the expansion build right? You're trying to build a culture fast So that it kind of makes sense over indexing on that. It's been harder to then readjust I'm curious though from an emotional point of view Alex ring

on that it's been harder to then readjust. I'm curious though from an emotional point of view. Alex Ring, first one of first DPs, captain, all those things. Trucy as well, right? That dream season, they were the face of the team. What's it like to watch players like that go? And obviously it's changed because of the way they performed and whatever, but what was it like to sort of see those two huge pieces walk out the door and know that that first sort of error, that first act is done now? It's really mixed. And I think a lot of our listeners will be hearing this question and knowing that I'm the wrong person to ask because on the fan spectrum of folks who are there for the emotions, for the vibes, to like go to church on Saturday night at the stadium, those types of folks who are there for the for the emotions for the vibes to like go to

church on on Saturday night at the stadium those types of folks are really sad to see guys like Alex Ring especially go the like MLS sickos who read the collective bargaining agreement for fun all I can see when I look at Alex Ring and Jossie Zardes is their salary cap hit. And so like salute them for their service to the club. Really appreciate, Alex String especially, man. That first season, he was the only guy every week that I was like, I feel like he did a good job. And I didn't say that about many people that year.

And he got cowboy boots, right? He like loves Texas. Oh, his little girls were always dressed in boots and hats after the games and stuff like that. So, yeah, I mean, I salute the guy. Grateful for what he did for the club, but also I can't help but watch the dollar signs walk out the door and that contract ended. Yeah. So you mentioned some of the other ones,ley hedges Valencia bought out Zardas So made the effort to clear out a lot of spots Tom. You talked about the coach It is one of the big storylines Josh Wolf let go and then very quickly Nico Estevez brought in which We were on when that happened

I think we were on when you broke the news and we got a ton of reaction from Austin fans who are like Why are we taking a Dallas coach? Why are we sort of going retread? Like what's the point of this? What have you made sort of since he started to step in and talk to people around the league about what he can be? So, sorry, that's to me. Did I just step on land in my bed? I don't know, someone talk. So, so for me, I think both talking to anyone.

So for me, I think both things are true. One, and the more important part for me, I think Nico Estevez deserved another chance in MLS. I've been pushing back at the idea of retread all offseason. Again, look at Ben Olson. You go on looking up and down the league at a bunch of really good coaches who, for one reason or another, it either didn't work out or it didn't work out well enough in their first stop.

And guess what? 98% of coaches get fired or let go in some way. This is just the nature of the business So if you don't want to coach that's never been if you want to coach has never been fired You don't have many people to choose from unless you do a first time at coach over and over and over again Which doesn't always lead to success. So that that's true. I think that Neuqua has deserved another job I also very much understand the fans' concern of, well, this is also a former Greg Burrhalter assistant. This is also a guy from a Texas team whose problems were

the possession felt a little slow or the attack wasn't really living up to its potential. When things went wrong for Josh Wolfe and Austin outside of 2022, that was the biggest issue. That and defensive transition. Nico Estevez's issues in Dallas were a little bit different because just, let's just be honest that the back line did not have a lot of talent. So Nico kind of wanted to play more expensive and then getting in job

saving mode, he had to be more pragmatic. So I understand why Austin fans would be like, isn't this just Josh Wolf 2.0? And there are similarities there, but there's going to be a lot of differences. It's on Nico to win over the fans. It's on Nico to get the most out of this attack. Again you have 30 million dollars worth of attacking talent give or take between Uzuni, Brandon Vasquez, and Usman Bukhari to try to figure it out. I think that this defensive unit is better, particularly like Brad Stuber in goals, one of the best keepers in the league. The centerbacks, I wouldn't call them elite but I think that they're better than what Dallas had under Nico Estevez. So it's a big task. I totally understand why

fans would have some consternation, but Nico Estevez deserved another chance and he has to prove that. Whenever my co-host got tipped off to the Estevez hiring before that kind of started getting out and he told me about it, I was like pretty surprised at the time. Yeah. Um, knew that the fan reaction was going to be negative when it came out. Um, the club has very much been on a charm offensive since the firing of Josh Wolf. They knew that he never really did much to endear himself to the fans as, as a person, let alone results on the field. But as a person, they threw a seven is in

front of fans immediately. As soon as he got here. They've been doing that with players, they've been very much trying to open up the club a little bit, a club that was very tight lipped and kind of closed off under the the Raina Wolf era. And so I think all of that has been really, really positive. And I think we'll buy avez time with the fans. Like it, I don't know. I'm kind of of the opinion, like maybe that shouldn't matter as much, but it will.

And that's the truth. Going back to Tom's point of Estevez deserving of the chance. I think a lot of folks here just see his time at Dallas, his time under Burrhalter. And those have stigmas to them for various reasons in this country and in this city. But if you look back at his background before that, he coached the Valencia first team when he was in his 20s for a few games. He coached their second team.

He was a key member of the coaching staff of their whole academy system that produced a lot of really good talent. And so if you look at that, that part of his pedigree and then the fact that he also knows the league, is familiar with MLS, is Spanish, so kind of on the same wavelength as far as what he believes player development and tactical strategy should look like with Burel and then they've brought in a bunch of Spanish coaches as well. I think there's a lot to like here. The proof will be in the pudding. We'll see what it looks like when it comes out on the field but I

think Estevez does deserve a chance and I think that fans have come around to that opinion as well but if he starts losing games when the season starts that might turn south pretty quick. The obvious part that once the news came out was like, right, he has a background in a soccer ideology similar to Burrell, but he has MLS experience. And there aren't really a lot of people that fit that. So I think our assumption was Burrell was just gonna tap into his history and just pull someone into the US

who hadn't really worked here before. Names you wouldn't believe right. This is the thing he said over and over. He set himself up for failure with that one. Yeah, I'm not gonna be quoted on that one. That's not my fault. I didn't say that. But then like it ends up making sense right in the end. And yeah, so maybe you set yourself up poorly. Obviously, the connection and baggage to Josh Wolf is not easy. Luigi Gonzales probably thrown in there somewhere as well as a former Texas national team assistant all of that stuff but I do think you're looking at someone in SWS who has his own clear soccer ideas and that was part of why

Greg Baralter brought him in was to bring other ideas and sort of challenge him and he has done a really good job at the Academy ranks which is something that I would hope Austin would be invested in and like they need to take the next step of connecting that youth setup to the first team because they are one of those expansion teams where they sort of built the two separately which is totally fine now you're into the next step of trying to sort of make that leap and I think Estevez can be a part of that and we have seen coaches learn a lot it feels like from one job not going well, and coming out of that to then moving on to the next one. And the hope is that's the case with, based upon how big they bet on that front line. I mean, they spent almost $25 million on Myrto Azuni

and Brandon Vasquez combined. You add in Omar Bukhari, who they had spent $7 million on in the summer window. That's $30 million worth of attacking talent on that front line. And I love that kind of ambition, but I look at the midfield and I'm not exactly sure where the service is going to come from. They went out and they got Basard Sabovic who, you know, was, has a

decent resume, but he's not a creator. I think they're going to push Danny Pereira up into a free eight role. And I like him in that role, but it's a risk to have a guy who's been primarily kind of a demon or double pivot guy to be your primary feeder of what's supposed to be such a high powered offense. And then, of course, they're one of the few teams left that plays with two overlapping fullbacks. You're gonna see a lot of guys are just like bombing from Endline to end line in theory not necessarily in practice

Because the head coach Nico Estevez, he didn't have his Dallas team playing like that He had one of the fullbacks tucking in and one of the other, you know, the other fullback pushing forward It was more balanced in the sort of three, two, two, three possession shape that we see most managers around the world go for. So there's like a lot of questions. There is unquestionably also much more talent in Austin. I kind of threw up my hands and picked up the finish

middle of the pack in the Western Conference. And given their recent history, given their entire history, that would be a pretty good outcome. I Love how it's threw up my hands To finish there a lot there from Doyle. Let's let's go across the field though Let's start in Central midfield like Lane and what's your expectation of how this sets up and what the responsibilities? Are for the roles because right now I think Tom in our depth chart We've got a Lea Sanchez in there as a starter alongside Savvich and Pereira. Yeah first of all a nice tight 15 seconds there by by Matthew Doyle on the Austin

FC lines. That's why he threw up his hands he just kept talking. So Ilya Sanchez I think he's gonna be starting six when Austin played st. Louis in their preseason game he was starting it was essentially their their strongest 11 outside of Uzuni because he's physically not there yet or physically wasn't there at least as of Saturday when I watched him play so that's what I think that the trio is gonna be I don't have exactly the same worries of chance creation for this team I understand where do is coming from but they get so much from their their wing backs or full backs

getting forward. And I think that Usman Bukhari, he's going to be the chief creator. A lot of teams in MLS use via a number 10, and that makes it a little bit more unpredictable which sides you're going to go on. But the way that this team is set up, it's for Mirto Uzuni to play as an inside forward off the left wing. Biro is coming up on the overlap, and a lot of play would make sense going down the right through Bukari and then you have

Uzuni Hopefully getting a chance to kind of post up on on fullbacks on the back post you have Brandon Vasquez causing all the havoc He's going to so I still think that the chief creator is gonna be Usman Bucari and The wing backs are going to do a lot in the attack that I don't really care that they don't have a natural number 10 in the midfield because I think that was part of their issues in the past They couldn't they couldn't handle defensive. Part of that was one of the technically midfielders was a second forward of Sebastian Trivici. And that works in 2022 and the way that you set it up. But if you're getting all of the creation from your wings, then you can play like

three eights or a six and eight and a half and an eight in that midfield. Yeah, that's my take too. watching the St. Louis preseason game. The Coachella games were the first time we actually got to see what Estevez was doing with this team. And yeah, I think you're right about the starting 11 as far as that midfield goes. I think Sanchez, it's his spot to lose at the six. Sabovic is in town now and training with the team. So once he's ready to go,

I expect him to walk into the starting lineup. That third spot, I think it's, I think Owen Wolfe and Danny Pereira are both gonna get a lot of time there. I would expect Danny Pereira to be the starter, but I think Wolfe will get a lot of time too. And yeah, talking about the fullbacks, I think these two fullbacks in Destler and Biru offer

some pretty interesting options as far as how you can use them. In the St. Louis and Galaxy games the other day, they were often floating one of the fullbacks into midfield, a la like Zinchenko was doing at Manchester City in Arsenal, and then as the ball would rotate around, he'd make an internal run and run to the inside, which Dessler is kind of like a fullback, more in the model of like a central midfielder as opposed to a winger. And then Biru is just like a really clean on the ball, really creative player. And so I think getting him up the middle and into central spaces is almost more valuable

than that straight up traditional fullback overlap. And I think they're going to try to use both of those guys a lot in the buildup and then in that attacking shape, have at least one of them in the mix trying to get guys into space. Yeah, it seems to fit with Sves likes, right? Having ability to rotate positions a little because then in this situation, what you're talking about, if a Dessler does go a little bit wider, but you know he's a clean possession player,

Bucari can come inside and he can find the game where he wants to and know that he's not gonna get caught out in a transition the other way because Dessler's a safe option and when he's in possession you assume he's gonna be able to hold the ball and keep the game rotating. You brought up Owen Wolfe and Danny Pereira. To me they are two of the most fascinating players in MLS this season. I think Pereira's ceiling is super high. We are reaching the point in his career where it's what are you and

like what are you going to be great at? Like I was at the USA Venezuela game and I was the only one who was like only watching Danny Pereira and of course Patrick I was a month. Shout out to the Like and Pereira sat so deep in that game and I think part of that was like it's chaos You've never played with these players before they don't know what they're doing But like he was sitting on top of the center backs and then when I see him in his best moments in MLS what they're doing but like he was sitting on top of the center backs and then when I see him in his best moments in MLS he's dribbling through the lines and he's creating chances because of his ability to beat guys 1v1 in a central area which very few players can consistently do.

What is his pure position is going to be the question mark still and then how effective can he be in the things he has to do because if he is the highest central midfielder he's going to have to play some final balls he is going to have to hit some killer passes around the edge of the 18 or if it's Owen Wolfe I think Owen Wolfe has gotten on the field and for much as people want to complain about his connection Josh Wolfe and any of that he's a good player he deserves to be on the field in MLS but it was because he was really solid he was not elite at anything so if he ends up being that great

He's someone who can hang around a midfield if he's going to be a national team player or whatever comes forward It's what can you do elite and so I think there's a lot of interesting question marks, but let's hit the front line Let's talk about expectations Andrew. We'd be set our over underline I'm gonna use this just to start this conversation because it makes sense on what we're talking about He set the over under line for the team on goals, which I think means we're really talking about this front three. He set it at 56 and a half goals in MLS this season.

Last year, Austin finished last in the Western Conference with 39, and I'm sure you don't want to think about that, so I'll bring it up again. Austin was the lowest scoring team in the Western Conference. 56 and a half would have again. Austin was the lowest scoring team in the Western Conference. 56 and a half would have put them like 11th or 12th in the league. So right outside the top three,

it would also put them basically six or seventh in the West, which puts you from a goal scoring point of view in a playoff conversation. What do you make of that line, Landon? What do you make of the potential of this front three? Yeah, I'll take the over on that one. I think we did our over under prediction show this last week.

And I think I picked Austin to score 57 goals this year. Oh, right on the line. Mine. So you're going to ask for a push. That'd be incredible if you said 56. So, yeah, I mean, I don't have any doubt about the quality of these front three guys. They've shown over the last several years that they can produce. I still am a little concerned about,

I think Doyle brought it up in his clip, about not having that one chance creator. And, like, you can, you don't have to have one guy do it all like you can be successful without the one guy doing it all but you do have to have the collective do it and I still just don't know can this particular collective create enough chances for these guys to score that many goals because I think if you get them in in the spaces to score they will do it and so yeah I I'll take the over for that reason.

I'm on the over as well, because again, not only do I think that their plan A will be fine, they have a plan B now, because of the brute force that Brandon Vasquez can bring to this team. I think that that's gonna help a lot on set pieces. And also the other side, like the plan C, the planh is who's my book cries pace. So it's not just hey if you sit deep and we can't break you down We're screwed. That's what happened last year That's what happened in 23 in 22 like they were killing teams against juicy over before in this XG by lot

There was a lot of really good players in that attack in that team Now again, they have other ways to score that isn't just a 15-pass sequence. Everything goes perfect on the training ground into the game. That's exactly how we drew it up. They're going to get some goals because Brandon Vasquez is just going to bully somebody. They're going to get some goals because Usman Bukhari is just going to run by somebody who's like, I got you, and then he's gone. So for me, around that number is probably where they fall. If you set that a little higher to be a a top seven goal-scoring team in the league then I don't know but I think to be in the top 12 which is around where over 56 and a

half would be I'm taking over. Another thing Mitching about how Estevez wants to play from what he said to to the media and then what we've seen in these two preseason games he looks like like he's going to want to play more in transition, play more vertically at times. And that is where I actually feel quite good about this team with the speed of Bucari and then the transition ability of guys like Uzuni and Vasquez. And then like Sabovic and Sanchez, they may not be that lock picking number 10, but they can hit that pass. Like they can turn quickly and play that pass and defeat.

And so those are the moments where I actually feel quite good about that. And I think that's something that Esavez can take advantage of. This, one of my things that I've really enjoyed watching at Cincinnati with Brandon Vasquez was his ability to sort of float between, I have to be the highest player in scoring goals so I can drop in and create depending on who his partners

were. So I'm gonna throw another number out here. So in Cincinnati he finished his last year he had four assists, his second last year he had eight assists, the year before he had three assists. If I put the line for assists for Brandon Vazquez, it's six and a half. This year, are you taking over or under? So for me, I really love Vazquez's game. I think he's unselfish for a center forward. And if he's playing with a strike partner, if they do spend more time playing out of the 3-5-2 where Bucari's underneath Uzuni and Vazquez,

I think that's an easy over. If they're spending most of the year in a 4-3-3, which I'm expecting them to, but again, things change, then I think I have to go a little bit under just because, like, he'll be at the end of everything. In a strike partnership, like when he was with Brenner, he would drop off sometimes and Brenner would run in behind. So that can still happen with Uzuni.

I just think that, again, in a 4-3-3, he's gonna have less of those opportunities to show how unselfish he is. Again, be great and hold up and everything else but a sit like prime assist locations I think it'd be more on the other end. Myron? Yeah I agree with that I'll take the under but I do think he could get close to it or even potentially get over because of Uzuni and like Uzuni regardless of if he's starting as a second striker on the wing the guy's gonna get in the box and try to score goals like that's where he's gonna end

up more times than not whenever he gets the opportunity to and I think just for that reason and how prolific he scored in Spain the last few years like a ball is at some point is gonna bounce off of Vasquez and Uzzoni is gonna score it. I'm gonna take the over on both by the way I never said on Weebies. I'm gonna take the over on assist. I think even if it's a 4-3-3 I think he's gonna drop in and get the ball to his feet and create space that he's able to play Bucari and Ouzouni into and I think that's gonna be a huge facet of this team and I think early on I think he's going to take a lot of the role

because he is the DP now, he has been in MLS. I think if things don't land quickly, perfectly, I think he's gonna start to drop in and be like, let's play through me. I can get us through this as things start to settle. I know what it takes to carry us in moments like this. And I think he's now being sort of Labeled and played, you know paid to be that player and so I think he'll do that and I think overall

I think the attack will hit enough over the course of the year that they get there But they're gonna be one of the teams to watch we're gonna do our watchability rankings coming up in MLS I think we're gonna have them pretty high because you talk about 30 plus million dollars spent in an attack in Major League Soccer Like that's Atlanta stuff that's inter-miami stuff and as you said Lennon we didn't know that Austin would be one of these teams and so what's cool is it's not oh this team is doing it again it's a new you know member to the party at the top of MLS in terms of spending and and what we could see this year so we are looking forward to it we are looking forward to getting

down to Austin at some point. It's one of the best. It's an all star game, we'll see you there. Yeah, it's gonna be fun. I'll drag you, Gus. I think, yeah. If you don't think you're going, I'm dragging you.

Well, it'll be, I think I'll need relief from the heat at some point. So if I can get to Austin in late July and early August, then I can really just relax and hang out, you know? And that's my plan. My mustache is gonna burn off. It's gonna send the air we'll find out that times is actually made of wax because

But for anyone who doesn't already moon tower soccer You can listen to it if you're listening here on soccer wise and anywhere else if you're new to soccer wise We stream live about MLS twice a week, NWSL as well, covering the national teams four to five shows a week talking about all things soccer. So welcome and come back again. So Landon, thanks for joining us. Yeah, thanks for having me. Tom Goss and David Bogert at SoccerWise talking DC United. Yes, I got you, Tom. We are doing 30 season previews for all 30 teams at MLS. I have started most of them the same.

I wanted to see if I could get Tom on that one. And I did. What do you like better? Do you like Tom Goss or do you like David Bogart? Oh, I like them both and I think that was smart because that could have been a trap if I just nodded my head along like Absent-mindedly and like you'd been like, oh you haven't listened to anything. I've said this entire time. So good one I was on my toes. I was ready. I don't know which of those I prefer. I like them both Yeah, I think we could just go Goss scoops in the end I like that personality. I, I think we could just go got scoops in the end.

I like that. I like that. I'll create this Frankenstein monster of sock-a-takes, mustaches. Sounds like Mediterranean food. Yeah, exactly. We'll just have a full sandwich with mots, prosciutes, all that. We'll throw the hummus on top and then we'll just see how it all fits together and we'll see how it all works.

We've got our DC United preview coming up in a moment with Gregory Roach of Pitch Pass does a great job covering DC United very passionate about the lower levels of things youth ranks all that type of stuff stuff. I'm passionate about as well. So we had a really fun Conversation that time you weren't there to join us for because this is a team They're not in your your sphere right now. Like they're not doing much. It has been an odd off season for DC United. Yeah, odd is probably a good way to put it. That seems to fit DC United just in general, kind of when in doubt. I do like what Ali Mekai in this front office is doing.

They want to be younger. They want to be a transition, pressing, energetic based team with Christian Metaki up top. So that's how they differentiate themselves from the other high pressing transition teams that are in MOS because they have a singular force of nature that is unlike anything else we've seen in this league. Again, my favorite stat in MOS last year was Christian Bentake's aerial dominance and how far ahead of literally everybody else he was in aerial tools one. He was ahead of several teams on their own,

like completely on his own. He is a wonderful player and just talking about his forehead undersells his excellent technique, his excellent intelligence. This is one of my favorite players to watch. And even if you don't love the style, even if you don't, even if they don't kind of climb up the table, so they're not super relevant in terms of like the trophy chases I'm always gonna watch the scene because god damn it. I love watching Christian Medeke He was at media marketing and he did confirm Dom Baji story that he brought some players to Miami to celebrate his golden boot Anyone on DC that wanted to then the Miami like media got super excited. They're like, where'd you go? What'd you do? Techies like do not ask me those questions

Specifically what I do in Miami, you know, like guy knows that guy that's a guy who's been in World Cups I know is the highest level. He knows the elite setup. I'm hopeful for this year for DC United I think I said in the show like if you come out of 25 knowing that there's a clear plan going forward That's probably best-case scenario but when you go back and this is a show here at Soccerizer Recover MLS and WSL equally you go back and you look at what Washington Spirit playoff games looked like last year sold out at a field absolutely bumping that has to be the goal for this club you have to get there DC is one of the great soccer markets both for players and fans in the world with

you know the international setup inside the city and people coming from all different backgrounds that love the game and celebrate it in different ways and we've seen that in the supporters culture for DC United right to have such a like South American style supporters culture but also have sprinklings in from Western Europe and Eastern Europe and West Africa and all the different areas that love the game. Like DC should be one of the great spots. And so the hope is we are very early on on that road. And I talked about it with Gregory as well.

Well let's go now to our nation's capital of course. And we are going to be talking about one of the originals, one of the big names in Major League Soccer, DC United, although it hasn't felt the same maybe over the last few years. And we've got our local expert here in Gregory Roach, host of the Pitch Pass podcast. You can find it anywhere you get your podcast if you're listening here on Soccerwise. If the other way around, welcome to Soccerwise. We stream live twice a week covering MLS. We cover NWSL as well, all your Washington spirit coverage, if that is what you are looking for.

And Gregory, first time together, but I'm excited to do it. David, I'm a big fan, man. And as somebody who really is, embraces the youth and the academy culture of the sport, I just really appreciate all the work you do. And if people don't know, like if you watch the Apple broadcast of all the youth tournaments that they play, GA Cup, the playoffs, David is usually the

guy doing the calls. So I really appreciate all the work you've done with the youth of the United States. I appreciate that as well. My friend would like me to add, in Canada, I literally got a text 10 minutes ago saying, can you tell me about this U-15 TFC player a little more? So it is, it's everywhere that I can find it, but I appreciate that as well. It is something that I have brought up over and over again with DC United because it should be a strength of DC.

We're gonna get into that as we get into the show because it's something I've been hopeful about as we've had new changes in management over the last few years of trying to key in on that. DMV is one of if not the soccer hotbeds in North America as it should be. And it's been really fun to watch the talent in that area. Unfortunately, I've watched the talent on a lot of other Academy teams and on a lot

of other professional teams as the years have gone along. What we like to do here is we start with our transfer update to get everyone sort of an idea of what's been going on for the last few weeks, last months. Then we will dig into our Matt Doyle-ism. He has recorded his sage words, which are sometimes fun and sometimes a bit of a downer. And you can guess, I think, which way it's going to go today, but we'll see how much truth we find in it. And then we will finish with our line, our over underline that is set by Mr. Andrew Wiebe, who has taken on the soul of a New Jersey bookie as he lives in Northern New Jersey

over the last few years. Let's start on the transfers and Gregory, it's always one, where do we set it? What's the big story, in or out? And I think for me, it felt for DC United, this off season, it was the out bounds. It was a lot of big contracts and some of them, many of them, good to see them finally come to their end

and leave. Some of those names Alex Bono, Dahomey, Martin Rodriguez, Pedro Santos, Chris McVee, and then a few surprising moves I think as well. The big one being Matty Click, the designated player traded to Atlanta but still holding a DP spot on the DC roster. And then the bombshell last week that Ted Kudipiecho would be sold inside the league, one of the first I'm trying to call Cades, maybe cash first, for over a million dollars inside of Major League Soccer to the Colorado Rapids off the back of Matayak and Bomi being sold to Bournemouth earlier this year. What have you made of this window? What sort of have been the experience watching each piece of news come out as DC has gone on this offseason? There's always a but with DC United and that's the case and I

think you hit the nail right on the head. It is the outbound transfers are the story of this offseason. We knew going into last season that Troy and Ali, Troy Lassane, head coach, Ali, Ali, Mekhi, the GM, they were going to have a big job to do to kind of tear down all of the bad contracts that they had acquired when they took these positions. They said, give us this year, which was last year, and then we'll start the rebuild in this offseason. They were very quick to do it. And that was kind of fun and exciting as a DC United fan. We usually, they wait till the actual last possible second.

They got a lot of their business done in December. And as you said, got rid of a lot of those contracts that weren't necessarily bad players, but were bad contracts. And that was exciting. And we saw that as fans of, OK, now it's starting. And then it kind of stopped. And then, as you mentioned, the Matty Click deal

was the one that kind of made the tail kind of turn, where the supporters went from, this is really cool. We're breaking it all down. We're going to add all these pieces. We've got money now to spend. And then that Click deal comes through. And I don't know if you want to get into it now but it's a very strange deal and it's one that doesn't make a lot of sense and it's one that leaves ultimately a

sour taste in the mouths of DC United supporters because he's off the roster the DP slot is still DC United's and for all intents and purposes they're paying two million dollars of his 2..2 million contract for him to play for Atlanta. And that's really where it kind of, I don't want to say it went badly, but that's where it kind of soured as far as the excitement for the season came. Yeah, I think when you normally see a deal like this in Major League Soccer, there is the opposite version, which is we're going to let someone rent our DP spot for them Aka what Atlanta could have done if they had brought him in on a DP deal

It's something that we've sort of are seeing Montreal do with the New England Revolution or you look at things and say That we this personality is one that we can't have around the club no matter what we have to get them out That wasn't the feeling from what I've heard and even talking to the Atlanta people now they said he's very quiet you know he sounds like he wants to go back to Poland eventually but he's gonna play out his contract it just I guess that's the confusion around some of this is it didn't feel like a drastic need. And so to send him to an Eastern Conference rival to give them a good deal felt very extra on top of just saying, yeah, we have to play out this deal one more year.

The rebuild doesn't fully start until it's over. And this is always with DC United. Yes, you could say all that. You could also say if you're Troy and Ali, you know what? We wanna go with players that we are brought in. We want young players, young legs. It's a very high energy system that Troy wants to play. Maybe a 35-year-old isn't the best fit for that.

Okay, great. We want to establish a locker room presence. Click was a really good locker room presence, but he is a veteran locker room presence. Maybe they just thought to themselves, we want to establish a new kind of presence and a new kind of culture. The other side of the coin is they had a second buyout that they could have used. They used the first buyout. And if you're not a DC United fan, you're going to scratch your head over

a lot of this conversation, but they had to buy out Steve Birnbaum's contract. Even though Steve Birnbaum retired mid season. And as I've said in many of my podcasts on pitch pass, this is the only American Bernbaums contract, even though Steve Bernbaum retired mid season. And as I've said in many of my podcast on pitch pass, this is the only American sport where I feel like usually when somebody has to retire, an insurance company flies in and goes, we'll pay the rest of that deal. That didn't happen in MLS. So they had to buy out Steve Bernbaum even though he retired.

They had I believe he's now been hired as a coach is my understanding with the technical director of DC Power, which is the other women's league in the United States. The only city that has two teams, one in NWSL and one in this USL team, is DC. And DC United owns DC Power. So he still works for the club. Again, it's always complicated with DC United.

Really, at the end of the day, the owner didn't sign off on buying out Clicks contract, and this is what Allie decided was the best way to get out from under it and also to reestablish the culture to jettison a player, pay most of their contract, and carry the DP slot all year. So DC, in essence, will be playing with the two DP for U22 system, but only one DP in Christian Benteke, with the 2 DP for U22 system but only one DP and Christian Benteke because the other DP slot for this year will be filled with click and I guess the last piece of it as you said

There's always more is you just would have thought a guy who's got 50 caps for Poland played with his career There would be someone overseas where you'd say we'll carry the contract Will you let him play for you for whatever it is if it's a half year you refigured out in the summer to send him to an Eastern Conference opponent and you could argue how much of an opponent it is with what we think the standings will end up being over the course of year that's the part that's just really odd on top of it of like yeah you want to reset the midfield you want the young guys to have a chance we'll talk about those young guys I think that's part of the excitement

around this club you want to have new to have a chance. We'll talk about those young guys. I think that's part of the excitement around this club. You want to have new leaders step in and it's going to be hard to do it with a guy of that veteran experience in there. All of that is fine, but to end up by the deal ending up being, hey, Chris Henderson, hey Garth Hoggerway, you guys are about to spend a historic amount of transfer money. Also, would you like a free DP? Has been very puzzling. I think it is something that's actually going to hurt other fans more than DC fans.

I think Orlando fans and Miami fans and Cincinnati fans might be more pissed about this than DC United fans end up being. Let's talk about the incoming though. Before we get into our Doyalisms, the big change has been the goalkeeper room. It is going to be a new starting goalkeeper. I mentioned Bono being on the way out. Luis Barraza was brought in inside of Major League Soccer and then Kim Joon-Hong was brought in a young South Korean goalkeeper.

We've rarely seen goalkeeper signings at this age internationally in Major League Soccer, but it's one they have clearly been committed to for a while. We heard about this one as the whole offseason went along. That is part of the rebuild in the back. Kyle Rolls brought in, got his first start I believe last week in preseason. 26 year old Australian center back coming from hearts in Scotland. A few MLS vets, Randall Leal and Lucas McNaughton who could we could see in that center back role as well. And then a bit of an unknown in a Brazilian attacker attacker Joao Paglo

brought in from Poland 23 years old to play across the attacking front three whatever it ends up being. And then the last name I'll throw in here is David Schnegg who we saw come last year be injured play leagues cup get injured, we only ended up making two MLS appearances. The expectation was though he would be the starting left wing back. So that's your pieces brought in. Gregory, what do you make of especially this goalkeeper move? I really so this will be the theme as far as all of the incoming players. It's exciting on paper until you then look at what the rest of the league did and you go, oh, yeah, okay.

Like Kojima is probably going to be, and I think that was Doyle's breakout candidate for DC United was Kojima who they got from St. Louis, who fits this system perfectly. But you just don't know because he hasn't done it anywhere, let alone in MLS. I think with Jun, the South Korean goalkeeper, it's exciting. He's got caps for the national team at a very young age. He's come in, his English is actually pretty good. He did a kind of walk and talk on their Instagram

in English, which was like, wow, this guy just got here and he's already picked up enough language to be comfortable doing this in English. He seems like an exciting player, we just don't know. And you could say that about Kojima, you could say that about Peglo, you could say that about a lot of the guys that they brought in, is this all feels like it could be great, but it also feels like it's a lot of what-ifs and if this hits then. And for a team that needed a lot of juice going into the season, that's not creating it.

It created the juice in December. And then we started seeing what everybody else was bringing in. And you're like, yeah, okay, our juice doesn't feel as cold as that juice. That is the some is from concentrating. Some is fresh squeeze and the fresh squeeze stuff with the pulp is what you really want to be spending money on. Refreshing and that this isn't refreshing. Although here's what I will say David.

The difference between past regimes and this regime, they got their work done early. You look at how they, and you use June as the example and I'll use him as the example as well. They eyeballed him, they recruited him, they went and got him, and they got him signed early. This wasn't a case of, wait, Wayne Rooney wants Ravel Morrison, sign him to a million dollar contract. It doesn't feel like just throwing slop against a wall and hoping it sticks. This feels like a, we wanted Kojima, we wanted June, we wanted Paglo, and they went through the proper steps, and you can find, like, just them getting their visas to be able to come in and practice immediately just shows the difference between past regimes and this regimes that these are the these are the players they wanted whether they're good or not we're gonna

have to see but these are the players they wanted and they got them and they all fit the same timeline it's not for 2025 they are young pieces pieces that you're hoping to develop. If you are looking at things and saying the rebuild is a two year rebuild at a minimum and we are already a step behind because we're paying a DP to not play for our club, get young players, especially in positions like center back and goalkeeper and that get them minutes, get them experience, give them opportunities. And then in central midfield as well with the pieces they've brought in, the long-term contracts that a Patola and an Enau are on. Let's talk about the coach before we jump into Doyle's comments.

As a reminder, only US Open Cup for DC United. They didn't qualify for playoffs, so no Concordia Champions Cup and no Leagues Cup because of that, which I have done a couple of these on some teams that are in that scenario. And you start to look at it and say, whoa, that's like a real chance.

That's four or five wins away from a semi-final, from a potential CONCACF Champions Cup, from potentially hosting a final for a club that didn't make the playoffs last year. Like that is something they have to take seriously. DC has not done that well over the last 10 years as we've seen it break up. Here's what I'll say to that, David, as well though.

For a team that wants to play a high energy style, those lack of games, those lack of tournaments could be an advantage where they will have fresher legs than say Miami's 30-somethings come August. Now, whether that will mean anything as far as the talent deficit is concerned, probably not, but it is something to look out for that this team won't be overstuffed

with matches this season. Let's talk about the style. Let's talk about Troy Lassane. Not his first year, but it was his first year last year as a full-time head coach. He is, I think, one of, if not the biggest stories with this club, maybe outside of Christian Benteke. The style is important, the cohesion,

the individual improvement. Like, if this team is going to contend this year, it's going to be because it all clicked under Troy Lassane. What have you made of him as a manager, as a person, as a personality so far? What's the feeling around DC United fans? Benteke's the star, absolutely. Ali, Makai, Troy Lassane,

they're the ones that I hope that fans are betting on because they're the ones that are going to be establishing the culture. And I think that's the best thing you could say about Troy Lassane for year one was everybody bought into the culture. And the guys who didn't and maybe weren't on big salaries are no longer with the club. So this is Troy Lassane's team. And by that, I mean, yes, he is the coach, but these are all people who have bought in on the style of play that he wants. Now, the question is, we didn't

really get a really crystal clear idea of what Troy Lassane's style of play is in 2023, because of all the things we said, the contracts that he didn't bring in, the players that he didn't have, the talents that he, the way that he wanted to play, these guys weren't suited for. So that'll be the thing that I'm looking forward to this year and I'll keep an eye on is what are his preferred tactics? How does he prefer to play? Yes, we know it's high energy.

Yes, we know it's pressing, but what are the nuances that this coach is going to bring in that's going to separate them from say, classic Red Bull soccer or the way the Union are gonna play. That's what we'll be looking at and that'll be one of the most important things for United not just for this year but for moving forward for this club. It feels like this year has to finish with an excitement that Troy LeSane has a finger on the pulse of what this group can be and how it can step forward and if that's the case that could be a good year for DC United. Let's go to our Doyleism now and listen,

and then we'll talk a little bit about it off the backend. I think if we were to poll folks around the league right now, DC United would stand a pretty good chance of being the wooden spoon favorites. There's just not a lot of obvious plus starters in this group. Christian Penteke off top is one, very obviously. The other one is Aaron Herrera at right wing back.

That's assuming they play the three, four, two, one. But other than that, David Schnegg, is he gonna hit? Boris Ano? Are he and Matty Peltola or maybe Jose Kojima? Is that going to be a particularly good central midfield? Jerich Stroud and Gabriel Pirani as your attacking midfielders? This does not look like a team that of talent with a lot of holes. Now they did go out and add some, you know, some depth, I guess, and maybe even a couple of starters on the back line at center back.

Kajima does have some stuff in terms of his pressing, like he's really good in changing phases of play, which creates turnovers. And we all know that that's part of what Troy Lusane wants from his team. I mean, it's the biggest thing that he wants from his team. But it's just it looks to me like it's going to be a massive talent gap every single week. And that's not a great recipe for success in any league. All right. DC fans, take a breath. Let's relax for a moment.

This is our lives, David. We don't need to take a breath. This is our lives. Let's start to dig in. The big question he brings up is that talent gap. And you mentioned it. Will energy, style, will focus be able to overcome that talent gap?

Now, we have seen this style work for teams, right? We've seen Philadelphia for years and sometimes they did have the talent and other times they didn't overcome some of those gaps. Red Bulls have leaned on this. It worked for St. Louis two years ago and you see a lot of those pieces now being brought in in the Strouds and Kojima's as well.

Very rarely does that team have a golden boot winner on their roster as well. So there is that real option of there are games that DC United will have the best player on the field. That's not something you say about a team that you think is threatening to be a wooden spoon. I think that's some of the dichotomy you have to deal with a little bit

with this DC United roster. I think, and I really, like it hurt me to hear Doyle speak that way because unlike You know a lot of local fans who think the national writers hate their team no matter what the sport I always feel like historically Doyle has been a little more bullish on DC United than they probably deserved So the fact that even mr. Bullish is like, yeah, I'm not really sure it makes me nervous But here's here's what I'll say. I don't agree with him that they are wooden spoon candidates. Maybe they're side eyeing the wooden spoon.

But I just think that the style of play and then you look at other teams, thinking about Nashville, Philly is going to be way off. I just don't think that they're going to be at the very bottom. Do I think they'll be middle bottom? Yes, I do. But I don't think they're going to be middle at the bottom because of number one, the culture, and number two, the fact that they're bought in. And yes, the talent deficit will probably prevent them from being a playoff team.

But I don't think it will allow them to bottom out to that point. I just think that they're going to will their way to enough wins to not be in that wooden spoon conversation. And then as you said, Ben Tekke, if he has a 15 goal season, that's going to cover up a lot of the cracks that would show with a team without a Ben Tekke. Yeah, it's one of those players, one where the service will come because you're going to get set pieces, you're going to get corned, all those things. So for a team that maybe you're gonna get set pieces You're gonna get corned all those things So for a team that maybe can struggle in chance creation, he will still get his looks and get his chances

I agree with you on the wooden spoon side of normally the team that ends up winning that is one where the where the floor fell out on them unexpectedly and Everyone looks around in July and August and is like I'm not really here anymore. I don't need this right It doesn't feel the case with DC one because I think they're going in with a little bit clear eyes and two You've got a lot of players who have a huge chance Correct players that don't get to start or aren't guaranteed minutes And I think Troy was saying with his background in Charleston and New Mexico and what I saw with the Red Bulls a little bit

Closer as I covered Red Bulls to is I think he's someone that can connect to those types of players and say like I Believe in you. And that is, you know, that's what a player like a Jared Stroud spends their whole career looking for us for a coach to turn to them and say that. And the gap in talent is not that large in Major League Soccer where that doesn't matter. And so if you are cohesive, and I think that's the other piece of this whole thing, year two, a lot of these pieces playing together, I think the goalkeeper conversation is one in which now these players talent styles fits

for DC United. Luis Barraza for all the difficulties he had at times at NYCFC is one of the best goalkeepers with his feet in Major League Soccer and he wants to play off his line. He wants to be connected to the back line and you assume that's the same bringing in an international goalkeeper to fit this system. So now as it starts to become more cohesive as well as pieces can start to anticipate what's happening because they've been around it for a year in, you know, the Lucas Bartlett's of the world, in the Aaron Herrera's of the world, the Matty Patolas, can everything, if it's all on the right page, work quickly? And I think that's the hope is that that can sort of overcome some of

that talent deficit. and then you have some talent that is good enough in the players. He talked about Aaron Herrera, arguably the best at his position in Major League Soccer and Benteke as well. And I'm going to say this, I've said it on my podcast, Pitch Pass, and for me, the glimpses that I saw of David Schnegg last year, I am expecting a left-sided Aaron Herrera. So if you're high on Aaron Herrera as an outside back, I think you're gonna get the same thing on the left side.

They're very similar player profiles. They run all day, they have really good height for their positions, they like to get up into the attack. So I think if you have now somebody on the other side of the pitch that's doing the same thing as Aaron Herrera. And you know, the thing about Christian Benteke is he needs service. And I think this style, this pressing style, you're going to get turnovers in like the middle of the pitch, and then you're going to get a little bit of a break the other way. And that's when Benteke can shine. And he doesn't have to like chance create. I think

this pressing system will create those chances. And I think the other point which I really love that you made was there is everybody is either other than Benteke either in their prime or young and entering their prime. They've got a lot to play for no matter what this team does and they've got a lot of lot to put themselves in the shop window for and I think while they didn't bring any even B plus level starters in in theory, I think they have a lot of B minus players, including their subs. So I think like I don't think they brought in like high level starters, but I think they brought in a lot of guys who are on that borderline of starter and reserve.

So if that first wave, whoever gets the first crack at the midfield doesn't show the guys behind them. It's not a big drop off from them to the next person, which I think makes their floor kind of more solid than a than a usual crappy team, not a high ceiling. But I think the floor is pretty solid. Yeah, very often Major League Soccer is a weak link game who has the worst player on the field who makes the biggest mistake that doesn't feel like this DC team, even though probably two through eight on a lot of games might not be a DC player as well. Let's talk about one that we kind of glossed over

because there's so much weird stuff going on with DC United, which is, you mentioned players entering their prime. Teddy Cudi Pietro is one of those players. He was given a big contract as a U22 initiative player. It's rare for an American or a domestic player to be brought back into a roster at one of those designations, but it's one of the reasons it was created,

to keep players like that, maybe when they're looking at a European move and then sold inside the league. I wanna talk about young players inside DC after this, but what do you make of this move and the idea behind it for the club? It's a very DC United move. They did something that was outside the box,

signed an American player to U22 contract. The reason they did it, maybe at the time, they didn't wanna pay an international player to come in. Who knows what the reason is, but they did it. And that's really great. And if that's what it was, you'd go, kudos to DC United. And then they promptly trade them six months later to Colorado for, again, not an insignificant amount,

1.25 million and then a percentage of transfer. This was a good deal in the abstract. Now, this was a kid who paid his dues, who was not thought of as one of the stars of the academy, who just kept grinding, went to USL when the Loudon United partnership was in place, proved himself there, had to work his way on the roster. So it's a really great local kid story that as you said at the beginning, DC needs those local kid stories to kind of keep those local kids

hungry to play for DC. I don't know if this was something that he asked for or the club looked at, but if you want to just analyze it from a soccer point of view they had multiple guys at that position they had lay out as a backup they are putting a lot of chips on Pirani this was a situation where they were dealing from a position of depth and this was the most marketable asset that they had of these these guys who are gonna play underneath of Ben Techie if Colorado is gonna come along give you a million plus. I said on on blue sky, we United sold Mattia Cambone for the same amount of money to Bournemouth that Colorado paid for Cudi Pietro. Did you say the Accomboni deal was bad? You did not.

Now if Coup comes out and and balls out on Colorado, it's going to look bad. But the one thing is he didn't have a good year last year. He has been prone to these little niggling injuries where you don't see him for four to six weeks and then he comes back and then he plays well and he has all that swag and that sauce on the field. And you're like, I love this guy. And then he misses another three games. So it was a situation of how good he was. It really still at the end of the day was a little underwhelming as far as output is concerned. Yeah, there are a lot of twists and turns to this.

One being this was a bigger deal than you would have thought they would get. If you were to have if we were to have sat down in December and say, let's just say Ted Cudi Pietro gets sold this offseason. How much do you think it's for? I don't think there's a European team coming in to sign Ted Cudi Pietro at his age, 23 years old, so not like entering prime in European years and the year he's had and the career he's had so far. And so the assumption though on the U-22 deal for me was, so he's going to play his career on this deal, he's going to be around and he's going to be, if he is starter

level player, that's probably not a bad way to use that contract I think you get into a spot with the Colorado deal comes along where you say well actually Now this could be a significant move for us and you keep sell on so he goes he plays well He gets moved. Maybe this becomes a two three million dollar move down the road That's more than you would expect from Ted Kuti Pietro. So I like in like you said in abstract on paper all of that makes sense but where you sit right now you don't have high level starters in the team and you're not exciting your fan base it's felt a little aggressive to make this move for the club and it kind of comes out of nowhere unless he's pushing and asking for it,

which would be odd off the back of signing the deal and saying, I'm going to be here and you guys have shown this trust in me. So here's the elephant in the room. They asked us last year, this is a project, be patient. We have a lot of bad contracts, we need to get through this season, we're gonna clear those out

and then we're gonna start the process. That happened. What this says, what the click deal says, We need to get through this season. We're gonna clear those out and then we're gonna start the process that happened What this says what the click deal says? what the lack of bringing another DP because of the click deal says is We need you to still be patient right and that's the hard part DC fans DC United the club has been fumbling the ball for the past 15 years I like that you start the intro one of the most storied franchises because that's what everybody says about DC United the club has been fumbling the ball for the past 15 years I like that you start the intro one of the most storied franchises because that's what everybody says about DC United one of the most Storied franchise because there's nothing to say about this post 2012

Let's say and that's even being generous. So they fumbled the ball for many many years last year. They didn't say we're fumbling They just said we're punting on this year. Okay, we'll give you another year as supporters. You're coming in again saying hey You know what? We're out the punt kind of punt on this year. Okay, we'll give you another year as supporters. You're coming in again saying, hey, you know what, we're gonna have to punt, kind of punt on this year as well. That's a tough pill for DC United fans to swallow. And that's what makes this, that's the cloud hanging over this entire conversation is I could be excited about this team, except I've got all this baggage from the last 20 years of being a DC United fan that I'm carrying with me into this season. And what I'm hearing from the club again is we got it this time and while I do believe that Troy and Ali have it I've been burned too many times from this club. Yeah I think that's a fair feeling and I think coming off the click deal

This deal following it makes it hard because it's like okay fine an older player moved out We have a new future whatever and then the younger player gets moved out and you're starting to grasp. But the reality of it is they look at things and say, we need that $1.5 million to rebuild this roster and we're going to be better off. And I think it's fair, as you talked about his injury history to say, maybe we don't think that deal will be there in a year. I would argue that the number would have been close, right? If he plays in Major League Soccer this year, anywhere near what we think he is, my guess would be if you put him on the market for a cash transfer trade, whatever it was,

that you're probably gonna get $800,000 next year from an MLS team that's looking to fill one of those spots and probably the Colorado Rapids, quite honestly with the way they've built themselves. But I digress there. Let's hit this before we hit our over underline. Is there any young pieces that you are excited about? I know you did a special on the Academy players that have gone to preseason and I think Travis Clark was on that one One of the best covering the youth ranks

Is there pieces that do get you excited or ones that you're hoping to see a couple minutes of this year? No And and the sad thing is you said it at the top. This is a talent rich area. I would say 90% of the clubs in MLS would kill to have this kind of talent in, in their backyard. And they haven't shown that they have a clear pipeline from those, those talented kids to the first team. And, you know, I don't want to get too in the weeds, but they don't have an MLS Next

Pro team. They're the only American team, MLS team, that doesn't have an MLS Next Pro team, which means a lot of the kids that could be getting minutes against kind of pro-ish players aren't getting those minutes. So you have players like Gavin Turner, who just got back from overseas, trialing with Crystal Palace, trialed with West Ham in the fall, just turned 18 years old.

One of the bright stars of the academy and American soccer when he's healthy, still not signed because he's forced to play on the U18 team because there's no next step from U18 to the first team. So I would love to tell you that there are guys that I think will get minutes, but the reality of the situation is I don't know who they're going to sign and I don't know how the players that they sign are going to get minutes to work their way into the first team.

There are a lot of players. I could give you a whole, I could give you six guys who I think could do a job on DC United this year. I don't think they will because I don't see a pathway for them to get minutes. And not because of the talent. Right. The pipeline is really the big question mark for most of these clubs. It's why the Galaxy were aggressive about building the two team for the first time, even though they've handled it somewhat poorly. It's what's been one of the successes for Philly, New York and Dallas is their ability to push a lot of young players into those two teams, get them into the system, get them understanding the physicality and the speed of play. I do value loans to USL teams because

I think there's a life experience in that, but those are supposed to come when it's necessary for those pieces. That should not be the only way to function. And it's one of the reasons I think you see players walk away or even in a Christian Fletcher situation, not want to sign, finally sign, and then find a way to sort of get to another club that has a structure where they can move into a reserve team and get minutes and challenge themselves. I think that's the problem too is,

Griffin Yow is another one. They sold him for $500,000, which was nothing. And he's balled out when he's not been injured. So I guess my point is they have a sell-on fee for him. So if Westerloo decides to move on from him, they're going to get money from that. The McTiack and Boney thing, the Christian Fletcher, he seems to be doing well right now for Nottingham Forest. They'll pay money for him.

The Cudi Pietro. You can't say that they're not getting money from their academy. They're not maximizing. Right. They're basically leasing out those years and that opportunity with those players to clubs who have the structure. It's something we've kind of seen Toronto do as well. And those are two teams we're talking about in this spoon conversation, which is never

good. I would like to throw a shout out in there for Garrison Tub tubs Who's a player that I've loved at the Academy ranks? But obviously because of the lack of the two team you're talking about him and Jacob mural who are both players that are Through college or into college that are gonna get maybe opportunities because they're further along Because you don't have that gap in the middle. Let's finish here with our line. I think Merle Specifically is is somebody to keep an eye on. Jackson Hopkins would be another one, but he can't not be injured.

Tubbs might not get a lot of minutes based on the way the centerbacks they brought in. But Merle did a job last year. Merle was very lively when he came in and he was up for the transition from Georgetown to MLS. And I think if you're looking for a young player to kind of pop that's not a name name, that would be the guy. So good shot on Merle. And I assume for you're looking for a young player to kind of pop that's not a name name That would be the guy so good shot on Merle and I assume for DC fans

They know Georgetown. I think plays the best soccer in college soccer So it is one of the best places to come out of also go watch a game if you're in the area As well, let's finish on our line here. We could put Georgetown in this line We'll see if they finish higher or lower Andrew we be set it as DC United 39 and a half points in Major League Soccer this year over or under. So the context, last year DC finished on 40 points exactly. It was tied with Atlanta United for 9th and then 10th which was the play-in spot and the final spot in the playoffs.

So that is the line that he's setting up. Basically are they better or worse than they finished last year? The rest of the context is no team has made the playoffs in MLS since 2020, below 39 points. 2020, of course, the COVID season. So weird setup, weird points, all of that. So the question kind of here, is this a DC team that will contend for the playoffs or not?

What do you make of the line and where do you fall? Well, this is why I don't gamble because I always go, oh yeah, easy. And then I see the line and I go thirty nine and a half. That's exactly where I So, yeah, I would say thirty nine and a half is a really good number good job Weeby and I Gotta take here's the thing. I'm gonna take the over on the points, but not by much like maybe 41 But I'm gonna take the under on the position because I don't I think some teams got ahead of them and maybe a team or two I'm thinking Philly specifically might fall below them But a couple of teams that like Atlanta is not if Atlanta is there

Competing with United again a lot of things went wrong So I think at the end of the day they're gonna finish a little lower in the standings, but I think they're gonna have maybe a higher point, but only by a point and a half. Yeah, I'm kind of in line with you. I think they will be where they were last year. I think they will be competitive, but the Rebs have made 14 moves.

That was a team that was below them. Nashville feels like they've solidified maybe. It's really DC and Toronto towards the bottom of the East for me that are obvious, but I think this is a DC team, as I said, that I think will work hard. They will be coherent. They will try through an MLS season, which is a long season that some teams don't.

And so I think we will see in the end that it's a DC team that continues to contend and compete like they did last year, wherever that falls in the standings not 100% sure. So we're both going over slightly and we'll see where we fall. You know what? Here's what I feel very comfortable saying. I think DC United will be playing meaningful games to them in September. Which is a win.

That's where I feel. That's where I feel. That's where I feel. The points, the standings, I just think that they're going to have something to play for sometime in September. Yeah. As long as that E doesn't go next to the name too early. I think it's a positive season. As long as you come out of this year feeling like there is an idea and a platform into the following season. That's what DC is looking for right now. If you want to follow it and you don't already, go listen to the Pitch Pass podcast.

You can get Gregory there all the time. And if you are new, welcome to Soccer Wise. We are covering MLS as well as NWSL basically five days a week. We are doing 30 season previews to get started because this league continues to grow and grow. Gregory, thanks for doing this. Appreciate the time. David, awesome. Thank you for having me. We are moving to the Midwest in our season previews to talk about St. Louis City SC.

We had on the two hosts of Ball Watching to talk about all things going on in St. Louis and not off season because their off season was in July of 2024 and June of 2024. They got most of their work done in the summer and Tom, I don't know, have you ever heard of a country named Germany? They have. They have. Get ready to learn two boonists thinking buddy. Jokes aside, I absolutely love those additions of Marcel Haro Cedric Toy shirt hot Yanis horn think that one it was a super low

key one because he doesn't do things like spectacularly but he's just kind of always intelligent in the right spot really clean technique so as you said they had their offseason in the summer they brought in a lot of very good players I think if the transfer window opened if they had an extra six games I think that they would have had a real run to the playoffs The people at st. Louis tell you if we had two or three more games We absolutely would have made the playoffs that that was their confidence level I cannot wait to see what it looks like over a full season. I can't wait to get back to st

Louis I spent a lot of time there in my youth. I have not been since it's been an MLS team It is elite Vietnamese food. So you already have me sold. You know, you're getting, I've never had like Bosnian food. So I got to get in there and get me a little bit of like fresh grilled kebabs and some big breads and all that type of stuff. But St. Louis is a party. St. Louis is a fun time. The team has hit, right? The atmosphere in the stadium is elite. The connection to, I think the community, what this team can be in MLS is a really, really cool spot. And now it's about putting it together on the

field, but they're going to have this unique setup, which is their preseason was all of last season. So they should hit the ground running, except they'll do so with a new manager. Olaf Melberg through the door. The picture of him with all the other managers at Media Marketing was elite because he didn't have his arms around anyone else and everyone was so excited to be pictured next to Olaf Milbert. I'll tell you man, so I'm trying to get info about this guy. Just, you know, hey, how's it been going? What's preseason like? And they talk about him on the field, obviously

very good coach, everything else smart, tactically trying to get his all of this stuff. And then I'm like, all right, so like, has he been kind of, you you know, hey Swedish. I said, okay that that's just a factual statement Go, you know, he's a little standoffish. You know, man a few words, you know, he's Swedish I was like, is that a thing for Swedes? I wasn't aware But that we'll see maybe maybe Apple TV can get some good sound bites out of them before the games after the games Whatever it is So I'm excited to hopefully learn about a new personality or maybe he'll be guarded and that will be his personality Who knows he's one of those interesting coaches where you know so much about him as a player

But so little as a coach and so he's not an unknown and yet he's an unknown And that will be really interesting to watch clear connection for you know the soccer he wants to play with Lutz Fanon Steele who is the Real soccer mind behind this club. And some clubs have their sporting directors a little more disconnected to what you see on the field. Clearly Lutz Fanenstiel very involved. And so Olaf Melberg now will get the opportunity

to roll it out there on the field. The expectations will be high for him, mainly because Bradley Cardinal won the West as an expansion coach and was out a few months later. And so that means that this team believes they should be pushing at a high level in the Western Conference. So let's go to our breakdown now for a little bit more on St. Louis. Well, we've talked to Tom enough.

Let's talk to some people who care about things and know what's going on on the field. And we're talking St. Louis City, SD. I don't know how to say it in German, but I will learn probably over the course of this year from some of the new signings, Jake and Justin here from the Ball watching podcast, one of the many strong podcasts covering St. Louis. We were spoiled for choice, but we were really glad to be doing this all together. Uh, how's everyone doing?

Lovely, David. We're pumped to be on the show. When I texted Justin about this opportunity, we were pumped to be on the show. When I texted Jussma this opportunity, we were like, who in their right minds would bite off the work effort of getting with all the teams, all the different hosts locally, and getting the full preview series together? Clearly you guys are, but we're glad to be a part of it

and to contribute in our own way. Yeah, it's always good to know who the idiot in the room is, because normally it means it's not you. And so congratulations to both of you. St. Louis, obviously, incredible soccer market, right? We knew that. We've known that for 50 years, 70 years, whatever you want to call it.

There's been a lot of iterations of professional teams. St. Louis City SC hit the ground running year one, unbelievable atmosphere, unbelievable stadium, and unbelievable performance on the field shifted a little bit in year two. Give me an idea Justin of just what the experience was like last year of what the energy in the in St. Louis was still around this team. It's something that it's it's been unmatched in my opinion. I think you guys have seen that for anybody that tunes in on Apple and you could see just the way that the fans are still showing out in the sellouts that we have. Yes the team took, I wouldn't even call it a dip, we kind of nosedived a little bit going into

our second season after winning the West in our first season, but it's not something that the fans were like oh now we're done, like it was an exciting first year, get it out of the way. We were extremely spoiled, yes we'll be the first ones to say that we were not expecting that kind of success in the first year We were definitely not expecting that kind of a downturn in the second year But the fans were still showing out Matt C. Beck and team do an incredible job of the actual atmosphere at the game The show the lights the cards everything that they do. So it makes it a fun time and kind of revives that area st. Louis Yeah, it was definitely one of those where I think you look at teams and year

one, it's always exciting, right? It's a new toy. It's a new game, all that stuff. And then it was good. And so then you're, there's that little worry of what happens when it's not. And it felt like last year the fans stayed with it and it felt like there was still a good atmosphere and still a good experience around this team. And then things got a little better in the summer.

We like to do our transfer sort of update. Then we'll get into our Doyalisms where our Sage, our legend will give us his ideas of what he thinks is gonna happen with this team. And then Andrew Weeby brings us back down at the end with his over underline and ruining all of our days. And for the transfer update, this is an odd one because like I said, most of it was done last year.

And so this is a St. Louis team where when you talk about them, you talk about potential because it's still a little unknown just how it all fits together and how these players will look over a full MLS season. But only two big names brought in in the transfer window, Timo Baumgartel, 28 year old German center back from Schalke and Konrad Vallem brought in as a 24 year old We don't know the exact position but good soccer player overall From Prague and those are the two ads Jake to what was a lot of movement last year overall What do you make of the work Lutz van den Seel has done? Yeah, you know, it's gonna be hard to put my

consensus sort of, you know, letter grade on this transfer window for us until we get to see the product on the field. I think he did a lot of his homework early, right, in the summer like you mentioned and, you know, when things were, whether you would call it a nose dive, you would call it a drop off for us, we hit that panic button for lack of a better term and we definitely went out into the market, got aggressive, got in some in some proven talent you know in their prime of their athletic window and so I judged him for that and we saw that output you know towards the end of last season it was great a much better turn for us this yeah

this this transfer window it's been I think a little bit some folks might call it disappointing because you said hey you improved now you need to take us over the line can you get aggressive like you need to take us over the line. Can you get aggressive like you were and make sure we for sure hit the ground running this year versus banking on it in terms of our ending last season. So I think it's been very conservative, but I think intentionally so. And I'm actually on the board on the side of being okay with what we've done because we filled some more depth in the center back side, which is good.

We had a lot of injuries there last year and Baumgartel, probably high floor, probably not with what we've done because we filled some more depth in the center back side, which is good. We had a lot of injuries there last year. And Baumgartel, probably high floor, probably not as high of a ceiling, but a guy that you kind of know what you're getting from and you don't expect to call on too much with who we have in front of him. On the Volum or Wallum side,

I think a lot more upside with him in terms of his playing experience. He's still pretty young. He has some time to develop and he's coming in at a time where our formations and our tactics are all really flexible. I feel like in some of the preseason matches we've seen under coach Olaf Melberg. So we'll see on him but central midfield left midfield right midfield sounds like

he can kind of play the wings. He can play inside. He's very very tidy footwork from what we've seen in the small sample size so far but I'm optimistic and I think he's the most exciting so far but I do expect us to be probably pretty active this summer if I'm not incorrect from how we've seen Lutz operate in the past. Let's go back to last summer. Obviously we're all going to we love talking about defenders here at Soccer Wise but let's talk about the attackers. Justin we saw Marcel Hartle and Cedric Teutert come in. Hartle, maybe the big one. What did you see from them so far

and what have they sort of been like around that St. Louis atmosphere? It was incredible because I think my favorite stat, which is, I mean, favorite to say, it's hard for me to say as a City fan, but we were the only team in the MLS to not have at least a goal scorer score six goals. We had three guys with five and then Houston was the

only team that had six. Every other team had at least one person with seven goals. We had three with five. So you can see the kind of the spread out there. The most insane part about that though is that ToyShirt had five goals in the time period that he had. So that's time tied for the team lead in ten games played. If you look at every other guy in the MLS, I'm going straight into the stats on this one David, if you look at every guy in the MLS that scored five goals in the season, he was number 11 in goal contribution per minute in the MLS. Just in that small sample size we had there. Then he also had four assists that was tied for second in the team lead. So a goal contribution every 81 minutes. Big pickup by him. Another massive pickup was Hartell with three goals, seven assists.

Seven assists led our team by far with three more assists than anybody else in the season. He had an average goal contribution of 85 or 85 minutes for every goal contribution and then Simon Becher's one that we haven't really talked about a lot. St. Louis born and raised. Don't worry I was gonna get the SLU guy up there don't worry. I'm just saying I was on the team at SLU I don't even know if I can really say I played that often but Big Simon Betcher fan four goals for us tied for second most on the team in that small span as well So when you look at those three guys that we brought in the summer transfer window 26% of our goal content or our goal output goal scored came from those guys in the last 10 games of the season

Where we finished four three and three we only had eight wins in the entire season But when these guys came in they literally got they doubled our win total in that small span so I think that's why we weren't as concerned with the winter transfer window because we worked so hard in that summer transfer window and I do think that it's really hopefully knock on wood gonna start to mesh to kickoff season this year. Yeah a lot of those numbers are high-level playoff teams promising stuff and it just came down to games.

I will make you feel bad for this one thing. We did our over-under for Minnesota. The over-under was five and a half players to score five goals or more, because last year they had six. So that gives you that comparison. They did not have an Uber score. I think Bongi was their leader with 11, but they had six players over that line where St. Louis struggled. So that shows you the gap between finishing sixth, fifth or sixth in the Western Conference and finishing

outside the playoff spots. And that's what St. Louis is trying to overcome this year. And it feels like for the most part, a lot of it has been set up very well. On the out bounds for this team, Thorson, probably the big one. I think sort of an acknowledgement, it didn't work out and you move on especially with the new attacking pieces brought in. Kajima sent to DC United to fit probably that system right behind Jared Stroud just as we have seen in the past as DC tries to follow the St. Louis model and Pedro as well sent out on loan. But the big name Jake you mentioned was Olaf Melburg that maybe is the winter for this team he is one of I think the most exciting ads to Major League Soccer there's a lot of unknown

that's why it is a very good-looking head coach that people are very excited about as well what have you made of him so far and sort of what he will be like as a coach? I love it. No, if he can coach as well as he looks we're gonna be in business here. But no, he's one of, I think the verdict's still out. Obviously we're in preseason, we've never seen him, you know, coach here before and we'll give him time. I think this club specifically will be patient with him. I think they have more term and focus with this hiring given, you know, he's still young age, doesn't have a ton of experience from the coaching side, but what he lacks there, I feel like he makes up in terms of his prowess in his playing career, playing with huge clubs and huge personalities

and players, you know, at Uwe, at Aston Villa, at Villa Real, Olympiacos, just to name a few, he knows what it's like to be in a big club atmosphere and he's a defender by trade as well and I hear that and I love it because defense has been, to me at least last season, was definitely a weakness for us. Some of that came down to injury and lack of continuity with who you lined up in your back four, but I also just think there were gaps and there was definitely not enough of a focus on that for me and I think he will bring that for us.

He's already brought at least a semblance of some pretty big change by rolling out a back three in all of our preseason matches so far. So if that tells you anything, he's not taking long to start tinkering and start adjusting. And I think if that can translate to more stability, especially when the ball comes to transitions or turnovers for us in the offensive third, we were just, I mean, the amount of goals or at least opportunities we conceded off of the back of a transition

or just it was absurd. I mean, LAFC ran rampant on us. We could do nothing and they're the team that just do that the best, right, in terms of the direct style. But that is something I think we needed some huge improvement on. I think he will do well to shore us up there. And I think part of that will come

with probably a formation change, give you a little more stability in the back, adding some dynamic wing backs into the mix that can kind of do both. So I'm excited about what he'll bring. I think it's still, again, the verdict's still out. I wanna see it. I haven't seen it a ton from his coaching resume,

but I'm hoping that he can be a good kind of piece in this puzzle of St. Louis City and really fit us. A very young coach. Justin, you talked about the numbers to end last year, though, was anyone here surprised that Hack didn't get the job or that it wasn't Hackworth? I think, not overly surprised. I think it's one where I do think

that he showed a lot of faith there. And I think the biggest thing, honestly, David, wasn't even on the field. It was off the field. There was a locker room issue that we had with Bradley Cardnell, and I think Hack kind of fixed that. You could see that in the players. They wanted to play with him.

They played for him before, previously with City 2, and kind of when they came over. He's always been there, and I think he did an incredible job. I'm not gonna lie David, I wouldn't be surprised if he ultimately gets plucked at some point this season for another head coaching job when eventually one of these MLS teams starts tanking throughout the season. So I do think that he did well there. I'm not overly surprised, I'm just glad that we didn't go with, there were

some other rumors about picking up like a USL coach or things like that. Like if we were gonna go that direction, there's no reason why we couldn't have just stuck with hack So I'm extremely happy that we got Olaf But I think hack is a great guy and a great guy that can ultimately will be a the head manager head coach of a club One day. I just don't think that it was immediate fit there You know that Lutz always has his hand in the in the cookie jar overseas So I think it's one where he's always doing those looks and this is a guy that he ultimately liked the most. You talk about getting plucked away.

There are reports, rumors, I'll call them rumors because I don't think they're from Tom about Roman Burkey. He constantly gets brought up, it feels like, when European X team needs another goalkeeper and needs to fill the spot late and all of that. Is there any worries around him for either of you? So we actually were recording David when that news initially broke and I think it was Tom that at least I had seen the tweet about you know confirming there was some links there and we were

definitely worried. I'm a goalie by my background and I realize you know firsthand the value of having the league's best goalie in our opinion here especially in year one with how exceptional he was. Year two not as much You know firsthand the value of having the league's best goalie in our opinion here Especially in year one with how exceptional he was year two not as much but man He was getting thrashed with the opportunity. So I'll look past that for a second here and just indulge I mean to the idea of him leaving Rattles me to my core. We would be a totally different team from a both I'd say leadership perspective as well as just his play in that You cannot replace that I'd be looking for a fee

I know he's within the last year of his deal And I would want that fee to be pretty large for me to even begin to think about it And I don't know what teams him to throw that but the long and short of it is that Lutz was throwing the same question David in a press conference and totally squashed it. That he will be city this whole year. There is no ifs and or buts about it. It doesn't matter who comes calling. And he said there was no urgency in the resigning. And I want to make sure that I get what he's saying. But if you're going to, I think, continue here and if Roman is interested in staying here, I do think you need to extend him and extend him very soon so you don't offer some

overseas. You don't see temptations from some of your contenders in MLS that want to really shore that final position up and give yourself that leg up and back so I worry a little bit not about Copenhagen who I believe was the link there but I do think this will this could be a storyline if we if we can't lock him up. Yeah I it's fair. I would say normally I'm of the opinion of like, do you be active if someone's coming towards the end of a contract, like get the move done early so it doesn't run out on you. A 35 year old goalkeeper, I think is a little bit different

of like, if he's going, if your best case scenario is he starts this full year and he walks away and you don't get anything, it doesn't kill me if this year's a good year and so I think the way the roster is set up you can be competitive this year and if you get an offer in the summer and you're like this is the best chance we're gonna get I don't know that you need to jump at it because of this very unique situation the other being 35 years old he chose to come to the US he chose to play here

you'd think that there was after playing life stuff that went into that. If he is of the opinion that this is where he wants to be, then it's where he wants to be. And if it's not, then he's probably going to go back to finish his career. And like, you can't really control that with the contract that you choose or don't. It is a unique situation, I think, in Major League Soccer, because it's very rare for us to be able to say that. Normally, you say, you got to get something so you can flip it into the next player.

And that's sort of the whole game in building all of this. Let's go into Doyle's thoughts and then we'll jump off the back of that. St. Louis's big swings for 2025 came in the summer of 2024. Honestly, I think they hit it out of the park with the acquisitions of Marcel Hartel and Cedric Teutcher, the two German attackers, and then add Simon Becher as well, who they got on the cheap.

He was, I thought, really, really good up top. He's probably not going to score 15 goals, but he's active and he pulls opposing defenders around a little bit and he's really good pressing forward. And that's kind of what St. Louis needed. They weren't able to be effective pressing from the front, defending from the front last year. So they became a much better team down the stretch. And I kind of think that's what we're gonna see

from this group in 2025. Minimal additions in this winter, the left back Conrad Wallen, well, left wing back, I think, but also can play some central midfield. And then the veteran German center back Timo Baumgartel, it's going to shift, I think, into a 3-4-2-1. I'm not entirely convinced that that's going to last. I thought they were just so good in the 4231 once Toy Chur and Hartle arrived that they at least have that in their back pocket.

But Olaf Melberg, the 3421 is what he had, the new head coach, that's what he's preferred throughout his entire career. And they have a lot of centerbacks now. So like the writing is very much on the wall and it is what we've seen a lot from them in preseason as well. I'm bullish on it. I think the attack works.

I think getting, if they do get another centerback out there, like in theory that will help them be a little bit more solid defensively, which they struggled with the entirety of their existence. I'm still not convinced about their deep central midfield. Um, you know, Chris Durkin, I think is just a guy and Edward Leuven, um, he's not going to make up for anyone else's defensive shortcomings, we'll put it that way. So like, there's a little bit of weakness there, but there's also a lot more skill

on the field than there used to be. And this feels like the first time going into a season that I have actual expectations for St. Louis City. First time. Okay. Thanks, Matt Doyle. A lot there. A lot to take in. Let's start with the formation stuff, Justin. Jake talked about it a little bit with Olaf. What do you make of the potential move? Where do you think this team sort of settles in? Yeah, I've kind of appreciated the best thing about Olaf being in so far as he's not scared

to kind of rock the boat. And I think because that is something that Matt mentioned that we really did kind of focus on. And not perfect, but did it very well, the 4-2-3-1. And I think it's a little bit scary to think about us switching to a three-center back with some wingers that are getting up and back. I do think that the way that the team has kind of shifted in the center back positions with Kessler, Nilsson, you throw Kyle Hebert in there, you've got Baumgartel, and then you'll have Wallum and Totlen as

the wing backs. I think that makes a lot more sense, but I think you have this on later as well, David, is that like, we have a a lot of attackers So by then adding a back five you're taking one of those guys off the field when you look at guys that Klaus, Bat-shirt, Toy-shirt, Partell, Celia, Pompeo, Rasmus, Alump, Thomas, Solstruck, Inna, and Abasilev It's hard for those guys not to get consistent minutes because obviously it's a confidence level thing with them, right? If you're if you're not if you don't have the confidence you're not taking guys on So we are gonna go to that five in the back and you're losing an additional spot for those guys that we're already kind of having abundance. It's harder for me to wrap my head around But I'm excited to see how it's gonna play out this the beginning of the season

It does feel like a clean fit for Horn I thought Horn was a little awkward as a true left back when he came in it didn't seem like a natural fit for him He's played a lot of center back in his career and he was a bit more stay at home Which is fine if you're creating balance It does feel like a clean fit for him to play at that left center back We have seen in MLS if you can get one of those wide center backs stepping into the attack in Possession in some in those inside channels You can start to create a little bit of chaos and maybe it makes life easier

For a Durkin and a Loving to create chances if that center back can help sort of push numbers around in midfield and rotate things and then you can start to see Loven getting to the edge of that final third where we saw year one he can hit that killer pass right he is dangerous Jake when he gets in zone 14. Oh absolutely I think the best version of Loven is the one where he can get up the field and have a little more freedom and And not have to fit some of the job description qualities of a six per se Because that we've seen him play six. We've seen him play an eight. We've seen him play a ten

We had the the fortune of sitting down with him And I think the eight is his most enjoyed position and just getting some freedom and he does have some great vision and sometimes I think you can see him force it a little bit sometimes too but he's also got some of the final product in his locker I mean the guy his ball striking ability is exceptional both in you know in the direct free kicks and direct free kicks but also just you know in open play as well so I always love a version of him where he is able to get forward I do worry about the cover and behind him we missed Chris Durkin last season when he had the injury towards the end and after that you look at maybe a

guy like Blum who is now on loan as well down in South Africa and we thought he would be our destroyer in midfield when we got him in season one. But now gone, I think we've got very thin depth behind Durkin in terms of who's that kind of holding man. And maybe they rely on a little bit less with having three center backs. Maybe that's part of why you're seeing this. But David, the only thing I want to mention too about a formation wise that I've seen just in preseason is we lacked any sense of width last year, especially with our missing of Celio Pompeo for most of the season.

And Rasmus Alnach could say the same thing for. So maybe this back three into back five with your wing backs is a ploy or at least a way to use more of the field and to be able to run the channels and generate more opportunities, you know, on both sides versus channeling so much down the middle, which I feel like we were bogged down by a little bit last year. So I'm encouraged to see some of that in some of the preseason play. But again, we'll see if it actually works on the field. I do hope that we are flexible in some of these games and the adaptations can be there that was not something you could say much about last year even when under

Hackworth I would say obviously all being Bill Ekins here I'm just adopting myself in shout out Larry Hughes and all the legends of the past we've talked Simon Becher but we did not mention Klaus Klaus was like the whole story year one right it was the gift goals early on, but his ability as a big player to be so smooth in transition, to use his bursts of speed to create openings. 10 goals his first year, only five in his last year.

And we spent 20 minutes talking about Simon Becher and the other attacking pieces. What should the expectations be for Klaus this year? I mean Jake and I have kind of thrown a number out there I think we said for people for him to be our number one striker going again into the season after this upcoming season what goals kind of output would we say and the overwhelming majority said people what he needs to be in double digits again I think it's it is a piece where if you're gonna be a DP for this squad you need to be able to put the ball away I do think

that he does a lot off the ball. Obviously he's taking runners with him. He's a very physical forward so he's a guy that can hold the ball up while while taking runners away letting other people slot in or slot them in as he's holding the ball up himself. However I just got to see some goals this season. I think we have a couple guys that can do that role that he's describing but you ultimately got to finish and give us some more goals this season. So I agree we've talked about better It's more of the exciting guys we brought in and class has kind of been that mainstay

But now he's got to get back up to full speed and just be able to finish and stay healthy That's also been a problem for his yeah I was shocked 1900 minutes last year up from 1300 his first year I would have guessed it would have been the other way around and I know he had the injuries year one midway through the season but I would not have expected that he had a 600 more minutes played last year and then half the goals if you got 2,000 minutes from him this year I think with the attacking pieces in there 11 12 goals is an easy expectation and that's gonna be shifted a bit because better is a better backup option than what you had at least going into last year, although a dinner and put up some really good moments as well and numbers initially.

And then obviously Joe Akini, if you go. Louis over under for the 2025 MLS season, points per game at 1.5 per game. So last year, this team was way under that early on, but they finished in their last 10 games on a 1.5 point per game pace, which as Doyle said, if they had a few more games, probably would have made the playoffs Let me give everyone the context around this before you guys answer

So last year NYCFC finished fifth in the East on exactly 1.5 points per game Minnesota finished sixth in the West on 1.5. 3 is about a 50-point pace and 2023 st. Louis was 1.65 for 56 points and of course first place in the Western Conference. So the question is if what we saw at the end of last year is sustainable and real for the full year? Whoever wants to go first you can let it shoot. Oh man yeah so I'll go ahead and give my response to that first. I'm gonna go ahead and say over on the points per game, of course I'm gonna say over, but I

and here's my reasoning is I don't think we are a squeeze into the playoffs team via the wild-card avenue and if that's what we're aiming for I think that's you know not the case for me. We've invested a lot already in this team just of recently. I know it wasn't this window, the're aiming for, I think that's not the case for me. We've invested a lot already in this team. Just recently, I know it wasn't this window, the past one, and I think you have to be aiming for more, especially given the age profiles of some of those top talents that we do have. There's not going to be too much left. So I think that veteran experience, going out and getting proven quality talent will

pay off in points. And I see us more of probably know probably on the the the lower end of the away spots in the in the playoff picture and and we'll see how it translates but I think you've got to be aiming for more this season and in terms of not just aiming to make the playoffs but make some waves establish yourselves and be a really hard team to beat we were way too easy to beat last year way too open in the open field on transitions and those are things you can shut down when you are you know tinkering mid-game if you have to or you do bring a new formation

and we're gonna have goals. Goals were so hard to come by for us last year. Think about the the goal-scoring talent that we had and that translated in the back half of the season, back third of the season I guess for us and I expect us to pick up maybe it's not the same pace as it was towards the half of the season, back third of the season, I guess for us, and I expect us to pick up, maybe it's not the same pace as it was towards the end of last season because things were going really well, of course. But I think over the course of the season, with heavy legs, we have a little bit lighter of a cup fixture kind of schedule I'd say this year compared to some of our peers. I'm expecting better things and I think progress is mandatory given what we saw last year. you cannot spend the first half of the season just just you know dwelling in the

bottom half of the table so I expect a better start this season and probably more of an even keeled kind of flow. Just because I didn't mention it at the top the lone cup competition right now is US Open Cup. For St. Louis other teams are in two you've got the Seattles of the world and Miami who are in three. So like you said, less fixture congestion. Also, I think we're all thinking the romance of like a good US Open Cup run in St. Louis.

While we are talking about what the future of this historic tournament is, for the city that's been like the heartbeat of soccer in America for such a long time and the hundred plus years of US Open Cup, it would be pretty awesome to see maybe a semi or a final at City Park at the end of all of this. Justin, where do you fall on this line?

I'm pretty similar to Jake. I'm just gonna, I'm gonna say our realistic ceiling, obviously the ceiling can be first. I think realistic ceiling is fourth place. And that would then get us sneaking into that home field advantage in the playoffs. I'm gonna say our realistic floor is seventh place So now would be making the making the playoffs not inside of the wild card

But somewhere in that middle which would then obviously if you mentioned that 57 points out of Seattle last year in fourth place 50 in Colorado. I'm gonna give us a good 53 54 points this season. So Ultimately, I would like to be going into The last couple games of the season fighting for that fourth spot fourth or fifth spot kind of Teetering back and forth. That's ultimately what my prediction is and my goal for this team I will say as you guys brought it up already US Open Cup I think the first time that we had this as a team we were just like hey, we're new in MLS We didn't take it that serious. We were more focused on the actual regular cheese

And I think that's how you should play it But now that we've had our legs that are us and shown, wow, we can really compete here, we're not gonna be just leggy from the amount of matches that we have. I think we're really gonna drive for the US Open Cup as well. And my goal there is to get to the semi-final at a minimum. That's one where you look at these teams,

we are one of the better teams in that grouping of teams as well. And then you bring in MLS Next Pro, there's no reason why we can't get there. And also without being in the leagues cup and having these other fixtures we should be fine from a fitness perspective and a health perspective so overall I'm saying at least semi-final for the US Open Cup and I'm pushing for that fourth spot but I'm gonna predict that we're gonna land in

the fifth spot of the West. Yeah I would say Minnesota, Charlotte, St. Louis probably the favorites in that Open Cup as of now based off last year and what they did in MLS. I think I agree with you in that grouping right inside that play-in bordering into a guaranteed playoff spot or just above that play-in for this time. This is a time of year where I feel I end up leaning towards stability more and while st. Louis wasn't the whole year We're seeing a lot of what worked last year come back And so it feels like it's what worked with a few more tweaks adding a center back adding a wing back But the big unknown is the coaching and that's the part where I think if if it was John Hackworth and not saying it should be

Then it would to me be like, yep 1.5. That sort of makes sense Then it would to me be like, yep, 1.5, that sort of makes sense. You know, lock it in for a 6.7 and I think the the window then becomes a little bit bigger just not knowing how Olaf Melberg settles in into MLS. What he understands about his opponents, how he sort of manages the travel and all this stuff, all of the cliche things where we talk about when it comes to Major League Soccer, let alone the weather, and all of a sudden that affecting the way your style can play and how high pressing can you play and all

of that types of things. But I'm still going to hold and say that I'm going to go over on this line. I think that it's going to be right there around that fourth and fifth spot competitively because I think from day one, it's a team that's going to have the depth to compete, match in and match out, while other teams were a week out from the season, are still moving DPs around and figuring out where they stand and we'll be making big moves

in the summer as well, that I think will affect their ability to be consistent. Well, I think we're going to be looking at a consistent piece in St. Louis and hopefully one that will make it out there to go watch a game at some point as well if you don't already Make sure to tune in and follow ball watching or listen to ball watching as you're a podcast covering all things st Louis shout out to all of our Billikins and let's do this again soon Thank you. David Goss, Tom Scoops and Sir Minty here at Soccer Wise. We are talking Charlotte FC for the 2025 MLS season. It has been an electric start to their time in MLS. The crowd atmosphere

year one then it started to come together on the field after that and now the biggest expectations this year Tom and Sir Minty he's right there holding the gun telling you to say it. He's right there in my heart always that's what it is so I So I can't believe this is a big miss for me that I didn't go grab my Sir Minty button up that I have. Yes, that's a real thing that I have. Cause I missed, I think that they did it for a giveaway at a game. And obviously one fell off the truck for me.

You know what I'm saying? You will be in the building, right? You are excited. You're going to get down to Charlotte? Home opener, I can't wait. Charlotte is such a fun city, man. I was there for their inaugural home game. It was incredible.

This is a super fun atmosphere when they get big games and this is going to be a big game. It'll be the home debut for Wilfred Zaha, the team that had their best finish ever in 2024. They've returned all of the good parts about that team from last year. And oh, guess what? They get to Ed Wilfred Zaha. Patrick Ajumang, they don't have to worry about, they didn't buy another DP forward to block him. He's going to be the starting center forward. Leela Bada gets a full off season to really settle in and hit the ground running in year two. That's again, two of those three players were there last year.

And Pep Biel, the fourth year who came late and he's back with a full preseason. Three of those four players were here. And in each of those cases, you could say why this is going to be like a fresh start for all three, whether it's just more playing time or a full preseason or again, Wilfred Zaha is going to take up a lot of focus for defensive units. And these three players, I think are going to benefit a lot. I was also at Charlotte's first ever game. went for fun on my own I sat in the upper deck I don't remember a ton of it in a positive way it was a really nice

to remember on the field. It was really really fun I do remember was it Efra's goal? right yeah Efra had a banger they lost but my takeaway walking away from that wasn't oh man Charlotte lost it was like oh my god That was so much fun No, you walk from that little stone cobblestone street that has the big soccer bar on it you walk to the stadium You've got the city in the background Then you come out of the stadium and they've got papooses and tacos and all that stuff going on It was like my elite experience I have really enjoyed watching this team from afar since then if you're watching on video

You can see my thumbs up as a part of that. I've enjoyed watching it from afar. This feels like a big year, right? This is the jump. It is, okay, fine. Things were unstable over the first few years. You've got big name returning coach, like you just talked about, big name returning players.

You've got an identity. You've got a spine. Can you get to that next level? Atlanta has re-upped things. You know Miami are going to be good. Nashville feels like they're coming back into the flow. There are a lot of teams around you that you will have meaningful games against. Can you show that you can be in the conversation towards the top? Patrick Ajamon, of course, the best player in the league.

So that is huge expectations for him. And you forgot Eric Williamson Another friend of the show, even though he doesn't know we exist We are excited to cheer for him. We excited to root for him this year and hope that he gets back to things So we were lucky enough to chat with top in 90 and do a little preview with them. So let's go to that right now All right. Well, you know the vibe Ctl it is one of these stories of 2025 we cannot wait to see this season get kicked off for Charlotte FC and there's no

one better to talk about it with than Jorge Gonzales top in 90. You guys are everywhere covering Charlotte soccer and soccer in general we're excited to be together and welcome on. David thank you so much for having us on. I'm excited to be here as well you know we're in the be together and welcome on. David, thank you so much for having us on. I'm excited to be here as well. We're in the Queen City and we got a king of MLS like yourself on, so I'm excited about that. Oh, wow. Too much compliments.

It might break the internet. We might end up losing each other for service at some point with so much compliments, but I appreciate that. I'm excited. We did my MLS Today show a long time ago together when things were not as rosy at times for Charlotte FC. It's a different year. Just give me a feel of the vibes in the market going into the beginning of the season. Nice. I think out of all the years that Charlotte's been in existence, this is the most exciting one

in terms of the potential of what the club can do. One of the things that Charlotte has been notorious for the last 18 months is not being able to get a star quality player here, and we've got that in Wilfred Zaha. I think you compare going into last season versus this season, It's kind of night and day. Svodursky went out the last day of the European transfer window. We had one DP and Enzo Coppedi starting off the season who's not even here anymore. And this year we're starting off with Pet Biel who came back. We're starting off with Wilfred Zaha as our big signing. Liel Abada will have a preseason under him as well. So, I mean, it's exciting. Patrick Ajumon is becoming a star, right?

So it's a very exciting time for all of Charlotte FC fans. It is wild that this is just the fourth season in Charlotte FC history. It feels like there's been 36 different seasons in those three seasons. You went from a first time head coach to firing that coach. You talk about DPs going in and coming out. I mean, Carol Swiderski has made more moves by himself over the last three years than some teams make in a full transfer window. Going on loan, coming back, going on loan, coming back, and finally transferred out. And yet, like you you said there is not maybe more excitement than this off season

Year one it was about the the club the fans the atmosphere like that was built that was put in place Year two it was up and down where it thought it was gonna go in the right direction And then year three it felt like the rebuild began under Dino Smith And now we're getting all the way into it You did the transfer update for us that we like to do at the beginning of each show. Wilfred Zaha brought in on loan. Pep BL brought back but not as a DP this time. And then one of my personal favorites, Eric Williamson, who I absolutely love watching when he's at his peak, when he's healthy,

when he's fit out on the field. Let's talk about each of these moves individually because they are so big. Let's start with Zaha. You said it, it has been this chase for unnamed superstar winger, unnamed superstar creator. What was it like when Zaha finally got over the line? I think it was exciting once we saw the pictures of him, Charlotte FC official. Because we kind of had this with Calvin saying six months ago where

it felt like everything was done but it wasn't truly done until Charlotte actually posts about it. Right? So when we saw those pictures everybody kind of had like a little sigh of relief like, okay, it's done. Right? And then second is just the excitement, the level of excitement because what Charlotte has been missing ever since its beginnings, right, is kind

of a talisman player that can put this team on their back and when we're in tight situations or it's a nil-nil can create some sort of magic and that's what we're expecting Zaha to be for Charlotte FC. We've already have a good squad built but now we need a player of that caliber to be a difference-maker and that's what we of that caliber to be a difference maker and that's what we think Zaha can be for this team. And to be fair to him, he did that at Crystal Palace. Right? And so his last two moves weren't the greatest, right? In Leon and in Galatasaray. But one of the things that reassured me that this was a good move

was Dean actually spent time with him and had dinner with him before he signed him to try to make sure that that mentality was there coming into this squad. So that made me feel safe about this move and also excited. And the other thing I think for me from the outside that makes me feel more comfortable about it is the other moves and the fact that while he you're looking for that talisman, Pep Biel was on a DP contract last year, and now he comes back as not one. So you are basically going into this season with, however you consider Pasha Gagshaman, four or five DP level players on this roster,

which means Zaha can get the time to settle in and find his space in this group. 100%. And I like that you mentioned Eric Williamson, because I don't think that's a player that a lot of Charlotte FG fans Know of have heard of as much right and I think he's perfect for what we're trying to accomplish here You know kind of have a box-to-box a a ball progress or right?

So that's something that I think he will fit perfectly into Dean system Yeah, we haven't seen Williamson healthy for a while when he is he was borderline national team. He's a game breaker in that midfield position. He can dribble by his players. He can open up the game with his passing. He is a by low sell high right now, right? They didn't give up much to get him, but his potential is absolutely massive. Let's talk about the outs before we move on with this team. The big one, Carol Swiderski finally transferred out from this team. A few other players who have been around for a while, Junior Erso, Jalen Lindsay, Hamadi Diop finally taken in the expansion draft, and Unanan. But I want to ask about Swiderski, like what will his legacy be

in the end as the first DP and you know scored the first goal, had some big moments, but then had this muddled three year experience. Yeah, I think his legacy is dependent on who you ask at Charlotte, right? I feel like the fan base is 50-50 on him. There's the camp that believed, I mean, he had over 40 goal contributions in 75, 76 games. So he was productive enough, right?

I just don't ever think he had, you know, a partner that can, you know, actually be able to feed him more balls or be able to be that other guy with him. And so there she was never that number number one guy, right? And so I think him expressing his desire to leave the Europe and actually getting that move and then coming back left a little bit of a sour taste and a lot of the fans mouth and You know because of that I think his legacy is

When you talk to some Charlotte fans He is remembered as a Charlotte legend for coming into this club some others think he did. Okay while he's here So I think it's a 50-50. Yeah, that makes sense and it sort of goes I think without everyone you talk with I'm someone who who has said what you sort Of mentioned of he was brought in for the wrong role He's a finisher and he was brought in and all of a sudden there was no creator So he was asked to be a creator and then he was asked to be more maybe than he was and so he sort of tapped Out and never really got the full opportunity to I think be the player he Should have been

But I can understand for fans you look at someone and say well you gave up on us and you sort of tried to push Your way out and I think his legacy will probably shift as time goes on and maybe becomes a little less run Maybe if this team starts to win and it all hits then it'll be a little bit fonder as someone who was in those Lean years before it all gets together. For this club, two cup competitions this year. So US Open Cup for Charlotte, as well as Leagues Cup, which we now have the schedule for. They are the 18 seed.

I have zero idea what that means. They will host Juarez, Chivas, and Monterey, which are some massive clubs at the bank. This is kind of going to be a fun little run for a week and a half in the summer. It will. I mean, we obviously benefit from all those games being at Bank of America, right? So that's a plus. But we saw it last year with Cruiser Zul, right?

I mean, these teams are not easy teams, right? Especially like when you're looking at a team like Monterrey who typically spends a lot. They just got Sergio Ramos coming in. So obviously I feel like that's more of a PR move, but that's for another conversation. But I do like the teams that we're against. So I think Charlotte can hold its own, plus having that upside of being at the bank. So anytime we play at home,

I think this team has a chance with anybody. And I like that you touched on it a little bit. One thing that we know has been consistent and will continue to be consistent is this fan base. Second highest attendance in the league, we average over 30,000 people. And when it's rocking It is rocking and it can be a good 12th man for Charlotte FC. Yeah, it is going to be a lot of fun

I think we have seen Charlotte of see I think has helped establish not that it wasn't there that Charlotte's a soccer market But I think Charlotte FC being a touchpoint has brought in a lot of these Copa America games and European friendlies and all of that and they consistently have huge crowds. Monterey is one of those teams. Chivas is the biggest name you could argue out of Mexico. So I would assume those those stadiums are going to be filled for those games. I think it's going to be bouncing.

I think it's going to be a lot of fun but I think it's completely reasonable to believe that if Charlotte puts their best 11 out there and is healthy that they can contend with some of those teams and then because of the Leaks Cup now, it doesn't even matter because then you go into a standings versus the other MLS teams who played the other teams. That stuff is all the chaos in there and we'll dig into that more as we get a little bit closer. Let's get Doyle's thoughts on this team and then we'll talk about what we think this season could be. Yes, Charlotte went big on one move this off season

in getting Wilfred Zaha, which is the type of move that you wanna see a team who's close actually go out and make. It was really ambitious. And he obviously fits the game model of Dean Smith. Zaha has been one of the most dynamic players in the open field for the past dozen years or so. And there's no reason to think that that won't translate at a high level to MLS immediately.

The big question, well, two big questions with this team, are they going to trust Pat Ajiman to be the number nine from the jump and throughout the whole season? I think they will. It seems like Zorin Cronetta, the CSO, has a lot of belief in Big Pat. I certainly do as well. The other one is, are they going to play Pep Biel centrally as a number 10 in a 4-2-3-1, or are they going to shunt him out wide to be sort of a playmaking inverted winger and just get another piano carrier into that central midfield because that's what we saw from Dean Smith last year. Even when they got Pepiel in midseason, he tried him as a 10, like two games, and he was like, no, we want to have more field coverage and ball winning in central midfield. So it was Ashley Westwood deep, and then you have

two guys who were just running around, Bradannico and sort of a rotation at the other position running around trying to stop transition moments, trying to create turnovers so that Charlotte could get out in transition moments. The reason I think it's important for them to figure out how to play BL centrally is because that allows them to be dangerous in multiple phases of play. The real ceiling on this team is that they're to be dangerous in multiple phases of play. The real ceiling on this team is that they're really

only good in transition so far. If they can get a true 10 out there who could help turn possession and, you know, final third sort of attacking movements into penetration, chances and goals. This is a team that can do some damage and maybe even win a trophy. So big words there from Doyle, big expectations and question marks.

He focused obviously on Pep Biel, sort of his setup, sort of as a way to look at how this group is set up. What do you make of that and what's sort of your expectations? Yeah, I think he hit it on the money with Pep Biel right um I I personally think that we'll see him more in that 10 role this season versus out wide simply because both Ashley Westwood and Dean Smith in their press conferences mentioned that one of the things that they want to work on a lot this season is holding more possession right so most of the season when we were doing well most of those games we weren't

holding a lot of possession and like Doy said, there's a lot of us attacking in transition. Right? So I think him being able to be that key guy in the midfield is going to be important for us and also important for him because let's not forget his contract is that loan option is done until August. So we still have more of an MLS season after that. So he's playing again for a longer extension here at Charlotte. Yeah, I think it makes a lot of sense to start the year and say like, can we be this team? Can we have all these attacking pieces on the field? Then if you find that's not the case, then you scale back from there. And I think if that's the case, there's also a conversation,

which is, has Leo Labada won the spot spot and then is it a rotation across the front three and that goes back into Patrick Ajamann who's gonna get the chance first at the center forward position but some of these other players then are gonna be come false nine options if it doesn't work out my expectation is it'll work out I'm a big fan of mr. Patrick Ashman. Let's talk about him for a second. What have you seen from him as he's grown? Obviously, he blew up in the national spotlight with the national team goals,

but we've seen him for Crown Legacy. We've seen him for Charlotte FC, Open Cups, Leagues Cup, and in MLS. It's been growing and growing. What's been your experience sort of watching it? Yeah, honestly, it's been exciting, at least covering the team. Seeing somebody go from

a draft pick now to making a US men's national team camp. I think for what Patrick Ajiman is, his potential, there's still more to see from him. I mean, let's not forget he beat out not one, but two DP9s at Charlotte FC. He beat out Enzo Coppetti and he beat out Carol Sordurski. Right? And also one of the things that we saw him progress in his game last year was one his decision-making and two his ability to create his own chances. Right? So in a less talented squad last year he was able to get double-digit goals, right? So this season with you know

double-digit goals right so this season with you know Pet Biel with Abado with Zaha with Williamson there's more opportunities for Pat to stack up those goals right so I'm really excited to see what he can do for us this season right and you know I really loved his comments right after the second game with the US men's national team where he kind of has that hunger now to be back. So he's coming into Charlotte very motivated, arguably the best squad Charlotte's ever put together and he's going to be the leading nine. So now he just has to walk into that, right?

Has to be able to deliver that 15, 20 goals this season. Tom said that he's talked to him briefly, I think out at Coachella at the pre-season. And when he brought up Zaha, he sort of asked the question of like, what do you make of Wilfred Zaha? Thinking he was asking like, how excited are you to be around him

and play with him and talk to him. And immediately his answer was like, yeah, he'll open up space for me. Like knowing exactly what he can be on the field, not being overawed by a Premier League veteran and national team players, someone who's played in an AFKON final, like all those big things,

not to be overawed by that. And that's one of the things I love about what this player is and what Patrick Ajamann's like. And I think the expectation should be very high. We're gonna talk Zaha specifically when we get to Weebies over under, but I wanna talk about the team because Doyle finished and brought up a trophy. Last year

Charlotte finished fifth in the Eastern Conference. The feeling of confidence at this point of in preseason I think you know gives you a little like what we expect more. They are returning the fifth most minutes from last year as well so there's continuity, there's a big addition, there's a lot of confidence, there's a huge fan base. What should the expectations be this year? I think the expectations, they've already set them for themselves as well, is finishing off the MLS season

in a top four position, right? So that's first and foremost. I think they felt that going out against Orlando last minute in those penalty shootouts as well, that there were one point behind them and they felt like if that game was at the bank it could have been a totally different thing. I think there's a high chance of potentially making a final in a tournament like the US

Open Cup where there's a limited amount of MLS teams and I think only two or three teams finished higher than Charlotte FC last season during regular MLS season. Right? So there's opportunities and so I think that's the expectation. One, because Dean has solidified this team, right? The number one concern last year was the amount of goals that we were conceding. Last year we finished second behind Seattle and goals conceded. So that's great, right? So that's great. So it's improving in possession and I think it's the ceiling of a Zaha and the ceiling of a Patrick Ajamon or even a Leo Labada that could really determine if Charlotte can crack

into a top three this season. I'm saying that more because seeing moves like Columbus where they just lost their most important asset in Guccio, right? You know, obviously, Cincy has some things going on with Acosta going, but they're getting a Vander who's not as good, even better, right? So I think Charlotte has an opportunity to break that ceiling. And I think a top four finish wouldn't be out of this realm. And I think finishing top three is a potential. Yeah, I think the top four finish wouldn't be out of this realm. And I think finishing top three is a potential. Yeah, I think the top four conversation is a good one of, they should be a tick better than they were last year.

As you said, it's kind of chaotic in the teams that have dropped below, but maybe other teams that have jumped above. And while Charlotte hasn't stayed consistent, we're talking about Wilfred Zaha coming in. They've taken a step as well. I think it's gonna take a little time to see how big of a step.

And I think across the three cup competitions, it's fair to say, you know, can you push for a final in one the open cup is one that I've talked about around a couple other teams Nashville brought it up as like is that one we could compete in? I think this Charlotte team has the depth to do it because we are talking about multiple attacking pieces that can't all start. I like the idea that Tim Ream is going to start probably at left back, but can be a center back. So you've got multiple options in those spots and Williamson as well,

maybe not a starter. So as though, you know, you look at four or five players who can step in for an open cup game. And then all of a sudden you're two wins in and you're in a quarterfinal and you now start to take it very seriously and say, what can we do? And Charlotte has a fun one because there are so many local clubs that you can get a Charlotte independence or get a game against another North Carolina team.

And I think that gives it a little bit more edge that allows them to focus for it, as well as the success they've had with Crown Legacy and the depth of the club, even with the new club not having the academy fully fleshed out yet going into this year. Let's dig into our line here because it's going to affect a lot of, I think, how we see this year going. And Andrew Weeby sets it for Wilfred Zaha.

This is goals plus assists in MLS competitions only. And he put the line at 21 and a half and the over under there. So what do you make of this line and where do you fall? Yeah, I'm right there with him actually. Right? You know, because I don't think we're going to see a Wilfred Zaha that's just going to blow the league into another level, but I think he's going to come in and contribute. Right? And so that's the most important thing. I think if he's able to have that 20-plus GA, right?

And so I think he's right on the money with that as well. So I think it may take a couple of games for Zaha to get comfortable, but once he's in his groove, I think he could be that player for us. And there's other things that I guess we don't see that make me believe that he will have a good season. One, I think one of the things that Zoran and other people in the club have mentioned is that they knew that this player, that there was somebody there

that just needed somewhere to be comfortable and feel like himself again. And Charlotte does a great job of every time a new player comes in, they kind of incorporate them into that family aspect of what Charlotte FC wants to be. So I think that for Zaha is going to be very important. And I think expecting him to have 20 goals and assists in a season is right on the money, especially for this first season. I think I like what you said there about sort of the environment for him because one what we've heard from him is like

He just wants to enjoy the game again. He wants to get an opportunity He will get that having a coach in Dean Smith who comes from the same background gives you you know His best years you've mentioned were Crystal Palace Dean Smith not at Crystal Palace But in a very similar setup in the Premier League Knows how to what the expectation should be how to handle a player like that and then you have a multicultural team worth people who are from similar backgrounds in that he can fit into there is responsibility on his shoulders Which I think is a good thing for him to feel that but also like I said that support for him I think this line is good. I'm gonna go slightly under I think 10 and 10 would be a phenomenal year

And I wouldn't be surprised if that's where he ends up and like you're stoked that he had you know, he was able to fit in and be comfortable and Contribute to the team both as a goal scorer as well as a creator But maybe not have as many consistent games year one where he's able to put up numbers like that So I'm gonna go slightly under on that number But I still think it can be a really good year for him and for the club. And I hope to be around at some point.

I absolutely love Charlotte games. They are must watch on television. They must attend if you can get into the area. Me and Tom talked about it. I know Tom's gonna get down there for sure. Jorge, enjoy it. Enjoy Pep Boss and everything else that's going on and let's stay in touch.

For sure, David, thanks so much. I mean, Tom's coming. You and Tom are very, very liked and respected and loved in Charlotte fan base, man. So anytime we get to see you guys here, when you get a chance, make sure you come out. So thanks again for taking the time. you