SoccerWise - 2025 MLS Season Preview CLB, MIA, POR & TFC

Episode Date: February 19, 2025

We have waited as long as we can to preview some of the biggest names in MLS. Not all these teams are down with their offseason builds, or unfortunately some have but it is time to dig in. First Ben (upper90 Club) joins from CLB to talk post Cucho reality in Ohio. Then Franco (MIA Total Futbol) joins to set the stage for Messi and friends in 2025. Next Jeremy (Cascadia FC) stops by to talk about David Da Costa and needed defensive improvements in Portland. And finally Michael (Toronto Till I Die) checks in from north of the border to try and find a silver lining for year one under Robin Fraser.1:15:43 Columbus w/Ben Upper90 Club Podcast38:20 Miami w/Franco Miami Total Futbol1:17:00 Portland w/Jeremy Cascadia FC1:56:25 Toronto w/Michael Toronto Till I Die Soccerwise Live 2pm ET Every Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday on Youtube/Twitch/Twitter

Music David Goss, Tom Boulder here at Soccer Wise for another season preview episode. We have put out, I think we've put out five, maybe we've put out six already. It's hard to remember with the amount of teams in this league. We have 23 individual team previews that have already been recorded and been published, whether via podcast, you can go to those episodes, timestamps in the description or on our YouTube page as individual videos. They are all out there.

Thank you to everyone so far for joining us. It's been really, really fun. And we've got four more coming up here today. So we've got Columbus, Miami, Portland, and Toronto FC. These are, as you'd expect, all teams that we thought would continue to make moves, still need to make moves. So we were waiting.

Seems like we've hit our limit. We've waited as long as we possibly can. The season is beginning, Tom. And now it's time to dig into it. So for everyone out there, if you are listening, if you wanna get to a specific team, jump into the description. The timestamp will be in there

when we start with each of them. And should we start digging into it? Let's get in, let's get in. It is time to dig into the Columbus crew, or as much of it as we have. We're gonna be talking with Ben from Upper 90 Club in just a moment. Tom, we delayed on this one because Cucho is out and we are waiting for that

replacement. We do not have that replacement and that is going to be a big storyline. The question though then stands, what should the expectations be? How much can Wilfred Nance and this group maintain without a number nine or as long as it takes? Yeah, it's a really difficult question because I do believe that they're going to sign a DP9. And I wouldn't be surprised if they signed a DP10, whether that's in the summer or if they can get something done now.

But it doesn't get any easier the longer you go past the January window. The first couple of weeks is you look at LAFC, they're going to sign Cengiz Under on loan. Well, that happened because he's not going to be playing at Fenerbahce and he was allowed to go. But there's not a ton of opportunities like that where if you're getting players from teams the vast majority of them are not key players for the team.

So the pool is going to get thinner and thinner and the further away from that window you go teams can say, look, we can't replace the player. You have to wait till the summer. So I don't envy the situation Columbus crews in, but I think we both have enough trust for their infrastructure, for the front office, for Wilfred Nansay that doesn't matter who's on the field, they're going to play the same way. Whether it's Jason Russelro up top or Kucho Hernandez, whether it's, you know, if Darlington Nagby could take a time machine to be 28 or to be his current age, right?

Sean Zawatsky instead of Aiden Morris. They're still going to be the Columbus Crew. So I keep going back and forth. Like if this was a blind test, looking at this roster, I might have them below the playoff line. Or they'd definitely be, I'd be having more thoughts. But it's Columbus and I just have so much blind trust that, oh yeah, they'll sign a DP9. And guess what?

Wilford Nance is gonna show a side of his game that we've never seen before and they're gonna be really good again. So it's somewhere between there. And it may not be a side of Wilford Nance's game we've never seen before and they're gonna be really good again so it's somewhere between there. And it may not be a side that of Wilford Nantze's game we've never seen before it might just be it turns out he can do it with everything like that I think to me is the open mark question mark right now is like can Wilford Nantze get us to play his style at high level and can it cover our flaws and that I think is going to be what's fascinating to watch they're definitely still

high on the watchability rankings because the style will be there and because of the intrigue and interest and because of Columbus. Talked about a little bit with Ben coming up. At the time we were there for All-Star last year. The walk to that stadium, the atmosphere around it now, the fact that they own two soccer specific stadiums in Columbus with Monfray still operating as the Crew to stadium like it is a really cool soccer market You feel it through the television, but you definitely feel it in person Yeah, it's beautiful. It's you know getting to be there obviously all-star

Palsy comparison MLS Cup that that evening when they beat LFC that place was jumping that city was jumping other than being in ubers and Hearing about Ohio State transfer portal recruitment other than that. It was all Columbus crew all the time. It was really cool. I have a lot of love for this city. We've enjoyed our time there for sure. Yeah, it is one that I always enjoy going to. I hope to go back. It has been the center of the soccer universe for a little while here in North America. It might continue to be. It's been fascinating to watch the crew happen this offseason in parallel to FC Cincinnati because the two have been sort of the Mark setters in Major League Soccer and they've both been through this churn and yet I think there's confidence in both of them that they have the not just the wherewithal to do it and the skills

But also the commitment financially and as a club to continue to try and progress and reach that next step. So it's going to be fascinating to watch this season. Let's go into our conversation now with Ben all about the Columbus group. Well it has been the center of the Major League Soccer world for the last two years. Columbus, Ohio it hosted MLS Cup, it hosted the All-Star Game, it hosted a Leagues Cup final and everything else in between until the New York Red Bulls knocked them off and upset fashion in the playoffs and we're here to talk about the crew and we're gonna do it with Ben of Upper 90 Club

podcast. You should listen to that show if you don't already for all of your crew coverage. Ben, thanks for joining me. Hey, thanks for having me. I was waiting patiently by the phone because I knew you guys were doing the calls and I was like I wonder if he's gonna choose us and he did and I was like, yes I was waiting patiently as well to see if we'd know you know like who were the good players on Columbus and what this team was made of and Seems like my call never came so that I pushed yours through Yeah, I think let's just talk movies and music because I don't think anything happened in Columbus So it's not nothing at all.

As usual, we will dig through our transfer wrap up and our off season, which as we said has been eventful. We will dig into our Doyalism as well and then potentially we'll have our over underline for manager Weeby. It is going to happen live as he is busy, I don't know, raising kids and having a family and all those other things. Been there. As he goes along and listen, he was committed.

At least I didn't make him write haikus. I would like that to be out there. It could be a lot worse for him right now, but it has been an interesting off season. The big thing being Kucha Hernandez is now gone, sold to Real Betis. I watched the clip of him hitting a Robona this weekend already on that squad. Let's just talk about Cucho for a second, because there are players and signings and

all of that that are outside, I think, what a normal sports experience is. I have been to Columbus with you, hanging out, walking around, seeing the fans, interacting with fans. There is a lot of Cucho stuff. It was not in the end a long time period. But what does Cucho mean to Columbus and sort of what right now do you feel like his legacy is? Yeah, there's been a lot of chatter about that.

I think it goes without saying that he is the best player to put on a Columbus crew uniform. I don't think that's debatable. It took him a little while to get going. We always forget that he was there when Lucas El Ryan was here. He did not take off until he was asked to step up because just like what happened to Cucho, we lost Lucas overnight. So it was ever since that happened that was kind of the turning point right after I believe it was leagues cup in 2023 but it we knew it was gonna happen come on we knew it was gonna happen we didn't know it would happen like seven seconds before Deadline Day and honestly I'm not entirely sure the front office was ready for that yet based on I don't know

everything that hasn't happened. I actually think there was a quote from Issa tall who said the new GM of Columbus who said we knew what happened we thought it would be in a year but the real betis offer was too good both for the team and for Cucho I think that's the big thing it feels like coming out of this is the acknowledgement as you said of like this is gonna happen it probably has something to do with Columbia and the World Cup. It probably has a lot to do as well,

just with his career aspirations and the flow of his career. But he didn't seem really happy. He was really invested. And I think that was the glimmer of hope was, maybe this is a guy who wants this to be the rest of his life or the core of his prime. Right, I agree. And that's the same thing with Cristian Ramirez.

That's the same thing we see with a lot of the players currently under Wilfred Nancy, is that they want to stay here, they feel appreciated, they love the city, and everything is roses. But two weeks ago we lost both of them, so maybe not? And what is life? But yeah, as you can tell Our crew supporters are a little bit still in shock over

Over just like an up and up and go, you know, like we got hit with save You know the the crew almost got taken, you know, our players get taken, you know, it's like it's it's you know We should be ready for this We are obviously digging through an offseason where we're experiencing the Evander stuff and Lucho Acosta stuff and all that stuff. I understand Cucho is different. Is there any animosity from fans to him right now? No, no, no, no, and that's the beauty that I see through all this or the silver lining is that, you know, Acosta wasn't happy with Sensi. I don't know if anybody knew that, but he said it. Like, again, one second after the game, he's like, I'm out, peace.

Vandor is notorious for being, you know, hotheaded and then like skipping around. Cucho was the same way. And if we remember, and for the listeners who don't follow the crew, he got put on timeout after a game in Charlotte for an attitude problem. He came back unplayableplayable like completely different attitude

Whatever was said whatever happened at the club behind closed doors and the thing is like no one knows we never knew he came back and Like I said, he was unplayable. He was phenomenal. So the culture at the club is something that why is people want to play here, you know, this this is something where people want to stay and is people want to play here. You know, this is something where people want to stay. And, you know, that's why I think when I'm looking at like the Acostas and the Evanders and all these other people leaving, even Swadresky over at Charlotte,

these great players are leaving and people are upset. But we, as a fan base, are, you know, we still support them. Like everybody I know went out and got ESPN Plus to watch Real Betis in their first game, home game, watching Cucho. Oh, I know. Well and got ESPN plus to watch Real Betis in their first game home game Oh, I know well, I mean full disclosure My dude in green is disgusting and I don't support that at all. But he did hit a Robono I actually watched the entire game He tried a scissor kick and almost took off a guy's head and he tried an outside the footkeeper. I mean

He's still Cucho yeah and watching him play made me very sad that we're not gonna see that you know that intensity this season and he doesn't get to put on a crew jersey again it's just yeah it's rough we did our watchability rankings and Columbus has been at the top of that for a long time. That is a lot of Wilfred Nance. It's a lot of the, you know, lower.com field, the atmosphere, the environment, but it's also a lot Cucho.

And like, if Messi didn't play in this league, Cucho was the best player in Major League Soccer. He was a floor raiser and a ceiling raiser, both like he carried Columbus at times when the team wasn't great. And then he elevated Columbus to championship levels and incredible outputs you mentioned When he stepped up and I think that was part of Lucas Arian being let go was like the offer was really big But what they did was they reshifted the team where Rossi was a second front runner to Cucho and they built the team around Cucho

And he went from like a contributing winger or playing out wide ish to the best all-around attacking force in Major League Soccer that hadn't won a Ballon d'Or or won a World Cup and I think it's gonna be really unfortunate not to get to see him Let me ask you this one before we run through the rest of these moves When I was in Columbus last year with all of you, you could feel what had happened, which was the crew were saved and the crew were not just back, I think elevated to a different level.

Downtown Stadium, brand new facility, championship. It felt like there was this energy around the club that was unprecedented for a lot of MLS originals, unprecedented, I think for soccer teams in North America. Is there any worry with Cucho out the door that that goes away or is that stuff permanent? Well, luckily the front office and the business probably got all their season.

I mean, I believe the season is probably sold out and they got that money already. So it's gonna be sold out whether you like it or not. You know, it depends kind of who you talk to with Nancy being in control that's kind of the that style of play is what you go yeah to see you know and in like like I said Kucha was on the team for a while before he became the Kucha that we know and you know he was like I said like you said he was playing out wide but then Nancy gave him the ability to be that complete number nine,

which is like a hybrid number nine and 10, kind of go find the game. And it opened him up. But he's also done that to a lot of the players that are currently still on the team, which we'll get here in a second, but it's a bummer. Cucho is definitely, I think your question is more like,

is Cucho like what people go and see like messy and I don't think that's the case necessarily in Columbus because we have turned into a soccer town. Yeah. Well, we always were a soccer town I found out the hard way, but this is just further proof that like We're still gonna show up. Yeah It is for anyone who hasn't been if you're listening and you're not a crew fan. It's one of the most MLS experiences Not only now the downtown stadium, although I'd still enjoyed I tell gates out at Mafra and Getting getting my shoes dirty and all of that with it

But there is a real soccer energy to the city There are banners and stickers in every window on every car like you walk around Columbus if you go for a game Especially a big one and you feel like it matters and then this now experience of walking To lower comm and like you pass under whatever that one overpass thing is Cool. Yeah, it is it feels something special. And so I highly recommend for everyone to go Other people who won't be there this year Christian Ramirez will not be a part of this. He was traded to LA Galaxy Christian Ramirez will not be a part of this. He was traded to LA Galaxy. Two U-22 spots were opened up on the roster

with Alexandru Matan leaving at the end of the season and then Henestrosa being sold back to Columbia. Thank you Henestrosa for giving me some credibility when I was down there on vacation while you were scoring goals and I was like, oh yeah, MLS, you know MLS? Yeah, that's me. We're related.

And Yaya Boa let go as well. On the incoming sides There is not a ton yet Lassie Lappalainen is the biggest addition a lot of the other work that's been done has been Extensions Patrick Schulte signed an extension Stanislav Lopskis has been upgraded to a homegrown. So now he would be available to play in goal You're welcome Sean Sean Zwatsky. And Evan Bush re-signed, and potentially Timothee Chalamet added to the whole thing as well

as he was sporting his Columbus gear over in Germany, was it? It was. Do we know why? No, he has that French connection. I know that much I Honestly, you know someone like him. Do you think he picks out his own clothes for those pressers? I'll give you a hint The answer is no he's not like us. So no he is not although he is Friends with Alex Muehl. He grew up with him in New York, right?

Right about a few weeks ago, so I'd hope he looked at it and said no I'm a Nashville guy, but maybe he's not that far into it or any of that as well. Either way, Timothy, we'll see you at one of the games. I know he's a Knicks fan, so we've got that locked in, but maybe you can add Columbus as well. What have you made of the overall off season outside of just Cucho? It's interesting. We've had a hard time with our pod dealing with this offseason with the lack of moves. You know, if it's not broke don't fix it, I feel like is what we kind of did and the issue with that is I don't

know what's better. Signing a bunch of players and having them take a month or two to vet in and then playing a whole season or just rolling with what you have and You know guys that already know what is expected of them Yeah and then just playing MLS is weird because it not every game matters in Like EPL world and like, you know the European League so like for us I look at this like well You know, we lost Cucho, which is a massive loss, you know, but we did win when he wasn't there and he was hurt.

You know, Rossi did step up and score those goals, especially. And I think it was Kankakaf. He was like leading Golden Boot. And it's like, well, that came out of nowhere. And it's like, well, yeah, it's this is the next man mentality from Nancy, which is like, we lose this player who's going to step up. So that's kind of exciting for us in the season to see like who's gonna step up. Like who's gonna be the next Cucho, is it Rossi?

I don't really think so based on player profile, but like AZ and Russell Rowe, while they struggled at the beginning, we, you know, now they've had an entire off season. Maybe it could be them? Yeah. You know, and as far as the off season goes, I think obviously Cucho was a surprise. It was a surprise to everybody. maybe it could be them. Yeah. And as far as the offseason goes,

obviously Cucho was a surprise. It was a surprise to everybody. I think it was a surprise to the front office. We have a short list of people. I'm glad we didn't panic sign. I didn't want to sign a really good starting striker from Estonia or somebody that, what's the point? We have a bunch of people that we currently have.

Let's not panic sign. And I think Issa came out yesterday during the season ticket. Remember, a group where they could ask him questions, kind of figure out what's going on. And he said very bluntly, I don't want to sign somebody and just throw them money. I want them to want to come to the club.

And if that's not the conversation we're having, we're not interested. And I mean that sounds good. I'm sure that's not a hundred percent. That's obviously about money. I'm not a crazy person. But again, you know, I don't want to sign Neymar just to be like, hey man, I got like 30 million. Like, let's do this. It's like, no, I want to get somebody who fits and get, you know, get Nancy in. Let's talk about who fits the mold. Let's get this total soccer player so it works. And like I said before, this is not like the EPL.

So we have grace in the beginning of the season. And I think while a lot of people are trying to get their footing, a la like Chicago, our first game on paper, they look great. They did great. In fact, a lot of teams did. I think what the MLS soul or how it was like 250 million like fourth most money spent this window cool people are spending money and they're bringing in some great players but you know we can win without Cucho like we have no other players that started you know it you know it's it's there it's there so like

if we're not coming out swinging we may may, you know, I don't see supporter shield, but I'm also not seeing us just fall on our face because we're missing one player. Yeah. But I think it felt like when Cucho got sold, supporter shield probably went out the window. Cocky of champions Cup probably went out the window. Right. And if that's the reality, and that's just the reality because of how Hard it is to get players to come in and hit the ground running and be that next piece right at the level that Cucho is

Otherwise, I agree with you which is nothing else really changed and why get drastic and say alright Let's bring in these four half measures to try and replace Cucho and there's been some work done in advance. AZ Jackson was already brought in. That's an option to be able to step in to some of these minutes that you're losing probably from Mataan. Lassie Lappalainen I think is not a bad piece to say now Max Arvsten can be moved around a bit or Lappalainen can and there's obviously been flexibility that's been built into this roster from the beginning. The other big thing is Wolfram Nansik doesn't really want to play a million players. He likes to move pieces around but he likes to move it around on the beginning. The other big thing is, well, Fernanze doesn't really want to play a million players.

He likes to move pieces around, but he likes to move it around on the field. He wants 16 locked in pieces. So if you go out and sign three Tam level players or whatever mid-level starters, potentially, because you're worried about the number nine position, you might end up on the back end in August with, well, Fernanze having three guys sitting on the bench who are never a part of things.

It really is about that one big piece that you're trying to replace Cucho with, which takes us to the number nine DP conversation, which is the big conversation that's happening. The one report we're getting right now as of recording is Flaco Lopez, a 24-year-old Argentine center forward at Palmaras, originally from Lanús, has never really locked down a starting spot, but has scored goals when he's been in the team. And it's a pretty tough team to get into with all the success they've had. Is this what you'd expect as the profile of the replacement for Cucho? That's the thing that I keep struggling with. I think we struggle with as a fan base is that you know we got to replace Kucho. Yeah cool. No one

plays like Kucho. No one played last year like Kucho. So you know do you want somebody who plays like him because you're not gonna find him and you're not gonna like it just doesn't exist. So like you know what what fits the system what fits Nazi system and it's like well he needs to be a total footballer which is like you know he can play a nine and a ten he's gonna buy into the system he's going to not only like he's gonna run 90 minutes he is going to come back and defend sometimes he is going to work with the other two up top and there needs to be that chemistry so you know

when you're looking I was like bringing like Holland or somebody like I don't think Ben Teke comes in and does well in this system. I mean he's phenomenal but it like if you're looking at player profile you know when he looks at defense like a defensive player he's like oh cool I have a center back he was what a midfielder he'll play he'll play fullback now and you're like what what's happening okay cool I mean anybody can play whatever I wouldn't be surprised if Max Arstin goes up top and has a pretty decent season. He's just signed like we have five

goalkeepers on the field. You know what he might throw Zlotsky back in goal. We don't care. That's the beauty. That's what makes us so watchable is that we're going to play this style of soccer. And it is going to be crazy. Like we don't know. I don't know what's going to happen. But you know, I think the non panic signing is signing is a good sign. It's not comforting, but it's a good sign when you look at the future,

especially with this being Ease's first big move after Bez left. Yeah. We all know Bez, like we all loved Bez. True, Columbus, grew up in Columbus, like we loved him, I'm really glad he moved on. Hopefully, you know, we're making smart decisions moving forward. So. Yeah, Tim Bezbuchenko, as you said, president and sporting director of the club moved on

last year. We actually had him on this show kind of soon after he did. So you can go back and find that interview if you're interested, working under one of the global football initiative groups that are multiple teams. Dark Knight being the name, Bournemouth being the big team, although he was very excited about the club in New Zealand that they were operating. So that was a big conversation. I think they were launching that week when we first talked. So you got to try and win whatever you can as someone in that position for the crew because they were very good last year. They were playing Crack Gaff Champions Cup.

As we know, they actually have a first round bye. They are waiting to see the winner of the previous round to then get into the competition and then Leagues Cup again potentially going for a repeat. Maybe not exactly the way they seem to set up, but that is a big one. We normally talk here about any other things that stand out We mentioned Issa Tal is the new general manager Sort of running things as the head person for the first time worked under Tim Bezbuchenko both in Columbus and Toronto Already and so one of the ones that I think we had named all the time when you said who's next when other clubs are

Looking to fill GM roles and then Wilford Nance, of course the head coach You would assume his role will grow even more now, as there is that little bit more of a power vacuum towards the top. And he is one of the favorites. I think Ben, you, I think you would know that all people in Columbus are pretty spoiled to be around him. Yeah, we won the lottery. We, Bez saw that a mile away. He saw what could happen, you know, when he was the assistant coach at galaxy, you know, how people talked about him when he moved to Montreal. And then, um, yeah, we just offered him, you know, the front office did a really good job of offer him like, Hey, here's the team running how you want to run it.

Like we won't be like the, whoever the Montreal guy is that stepped in and was like in the locker room, like, what about this? It's like, no, dude, you run it how you want and he was extremely successful and that kind of mentality across the board is what Columbus has been doing which is why everybody's so happy. It will be interesting if we do fall. I'm really like what are the vibes then man like are we super cool is everybody like I still love being here it's like maybe, but we'll see. That's, you know, I've been around long enough where I'm like,

I was here when we sucked. Like people weren't stoked and like Columbus isn't that great. It's not Florida, gosh. You look on here, by the way. Frustrating. It's snowing up here. I do not because I got crazy lights on, but it rained today. So you can feel a little bit better Yeah, there was a little bit of rain today

I remember the Varsity her years as well many many down years in between and yeah, I think it is interesting to say What is the phrase impossible is, you know nothing? I mean me yeah mean when you're in ninth place and on a four-game losing streak And how does it all work and it's gonna be a big part of this year I think for Wilford on say is it's gonna be a little different How does he sort of manage that experience because over the last three four years? It has been up up up all in one direction And of course the loss against Red Bulls was sort of the start of that a little bit unexpected

Let's go to our Doyle ism now and then we'll jump off the back of that and we'll talk a little more. It's just hard to imagine the crew won't take a step backwards in 2025. The biggest part of that is just talent. They sold Aiden Morris in the middle of last year and they never really replaced him. I mean, they replaced him from within with Sean Zawoski who's good but he's not Eden Morris's level they sold Kucha Hernandez a couple weeks ago they haven't replaced him yet and they also traded Christian Ramirez as well that's their best defensive midfielder and half their goals and look I have a lot

of faith in Wilfrid Nancy to get the absolute best out of guys down the roster on the fringe of the rotation, bring forward a player like Jason Russell road, Dylan Shambos get him some money. And I think they have plans to do that. But they haven't done it yet. And then whenever that new player or players get here, one of them supposed to be Flaco Lopez, which would be a great purchase. It's not likely that they're instantly going to slot into the lineup and be just as good as what Cucho was. So I think there's bound to be some slippage, but this is also bound to be a team that is competing for trophies by the middle or end of the season. I wouldn't want to face them in leagues cup or obviously in the MLS cup playoffs.

I think this is a team that will go into those tournaments with the intention of winning it. And given how much I love the way they play and given the pedigree that they have, even without Cucho and Ramirez and Aiden Morris, if they do win one or both, wouldn't shock me at all. Right. So I think level headed there from Doyle,

similar to sort of the tone we were setting. Is that the expectation that it sort of hits the ground middle of the year and is there still the expectation that this is a team that has to compete for a trophy this year? The hope is always MLS Cup. I mean you get stars for MLS Cup. You don't get stars for leagues Cup that we just made up We don't get stars for concrete. We don't get like a little cool cup That's on the back of our shorts or something like that. You know what I mean? So the reality is knowing Nancy

He will play to win all the games dim the brakes and he will sacrifice Regular season for those games, which we didn't love last season I'm not gonna lie to you like going really, you know, if you could be like hey going getting second and concha calf and winning Leagues Cup Would you trade that for MLS Cup I'd be like duh yeah but we like went hard on those and we played like three games a week for 20 weeks or something bananas like we were so tired of podcasting I was like I don't even want to be here anymore you know what I mean like it was ridiculous so you know he's gonna go for it I wish you wouldn't and but it kind of it is what it is you know and I think gonna go for it. I wish he wouldn't. But it kind of, it is what it is, you know.

And I think, I don't know, we didn't get to the point where he said like the over-under. You guys said it was 53.5, over-under. And at first I was really angry because you guys all said under. And I almost sent you a really mean text. But I withheld. I took a deep breath. And I looked at the standings from last year. And 54 points was eighth or ninth in the league and fourth in the east.

And I was like, you know what? That's actually a pretty good take. And I'd be happy with that, because you know you just got to get hot towards the end of the season, which is what we did when we won MLS Cup two years ago. So if we can come out of the next transfer window with that, with a couple signings that boost morale and get everything going and we don't drown in the first part of the season, I think we'll be okay.

I would like to say that I would like to like say, sorry, a ton of respect for having that thought process and that taking that breath. My social media manager would love for everyone to scream the moment that we say something that they hate. Do it on social media. You're going to do it via text. I do appreciate that one breath to not be coming down on top of us because when you do a show where you drop it over under on all 30 teams guess how many teams are? Mad at you pretty much 30 of them even if you go over somehow

People get mad about why you're over and what you're doing and all of those things and it is fun All together as Doyle mentioned a lot of talent out the door But there are some interesting pieces in here as well. We talked about Izzy Jackson We haven't really mentioned Jason Russell Rowe who we think is gonna step into a big role Dylan Shambost as well Who was brought in as a Tam player last year and then right similar to Kucho his first year like given a half year To sort of sit and get comfortable and then probably expected more Who are you really keyed in on for this year for there to be some success through the regular season? in on for this year for there to be some success through the regular season? Shambow's a good shout. So check it out. We brought him into play in the

top three. He eventually got slotted back into kind of an eight, an advanced eight position and he was nasty. Like he has got the vision to do that. He's not good enough to be a ten, but we don't need a ten in this system and he's pretty good at defense. He covers a lot of that. He's a box to box kind of deal. But when we go up, he has that vision. So I'm excited to see what his role is. Honestly, with Jason Russell-Roe, he was on the team last year full time.

He didn't really get to play because he did struggle. It'll be interesting to see if he can step up. AZ has always been rumored to be kind of a you know, kind of a hothead, you know, when I read all the St. Louis stuff when he left and he's just like, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But if Nazi is able to, you know, quell that and he can work up top, he could be a firecracker. Those are the big ones. It'll be interesting to see where Max plays Arpston. And we didn't really see Dwan Jones do anything crazy. And that guy is a baller, right? Like, listen, I've been sold on Dwan Jones do anything crazy. And that guy is a baller, right?

Like listen, I've been sold on Dwan Jones for seven years. No one else has been. So this is the last chance. If it doesn't happen under Wilfred Nance, it's never going to happen. It didn't happen last year, but it does feel like there are more minutes in that midfield now this year. Aiden Morris being gone. But also, as you mentioned, Shambos being in there last year, he will play that little

bit higher this year from a starting position. So there will be minutes in that deeper midfield spot if a Zawadzki has to play center back or I would say Darlington Nugby misses any minutes, but let's be real, that's never going to happen. It has never happened before. He's not real. Yeah. And it will never happen again. He is Darlington Nugby. We're we were not even gonna mention him like that's what it's like right he's the Ohio native he's quiet he does his job he does his job as well if not better than anyone in Major League Soccer and he's one of the reasons I

think that the floor won't fall out of this thing is because he is just a pressure sponge and whatever it is that Wilford Nance wants to do which is maybe making some pieces as if there are new pieces this year, play out of tight spaces that they're not comfortable with or they're not fully cohesive with. Nagby will clean up a lot of the mistakes by being able to play out of pressure

and save transition moments from going the other way. I also think he's reached that leadership role in this league where he's gonna be the one to try and help all the new pieces. If there are new pieces, come in and settle in this league. He's got good experience doing it across MLS, but especially now in Columbus over the last few years. So this takes us to our over underline from Andrew Weeby, which has been

delivered to us while making, I believe it is celery, carrot, and something else in the soup, sausage, wild rice and carrot soup. That's made up. So this is coming in a little bit spicy and hot. That is not, that does not sound like an appealing meal. He gave us goals scored for Columbus. So the question is the attack post Cucho. He sets the line at 60.5.

Last year, Columbus scored 72 goals. Of course they were an incredible attack. And the question is, are they a great attack or under? And under obviously being a big drop, but dropping into normal territory. So last year under that number would have put them potentially still above Orlando as top four in the Eastern Conference. The West a little bit more dangerous offensively. Colorado finished fifth in goal scoring at 61 goals. So you can go under this line, still be a good attack, but it will be a huge drop from last year. So the question is what will be the impact I think of the loss of Cucho and whoever they bring in. What do you make of the line and where do you fall?

All right check it out. So here's what people are missing when you know Cucho is taking the headlines for obviously obvious reasons. So if we be said we're around what do you say 60 61 62 we were the third-best defense in the league we only gave up 40 goals. There was one team below us at 39 and one team at 37 so we're very close. So I mean if you look at that and we're posting around 62 goals, and we gave up 40, we're still at a plus 22 goal differential. And you guys are going to be going on the pod going, this team is amazing. And I'm like, yeah, dog, that's how we roll. Like, so we every and I keep hearing pundits always say, well, yeah, they play this attacking style, but they give up a lot of goals. And it's like, do we though?

Yes, we don't. And you keep forgetting that. Did we lose any defenders? No. Did we lose any midfielders? No. Still the same squad. Yeah, they get older. But I mean, they're like wine back there. They get better with age.

The defense, it's more of a wisdom thing. You don't got to be super fast. I mean, Camacho, I think he's 49 going on 70. But he's still going to still gonna ball and the other thing that's great is we have like you said we signed five keepers we might play two goalies. You know I've been saying those goalies since day one I think that's the play. But can you say in French if you can't say in French then it's not gonna be accepted. Ah we we. There you go. Like I said I don't know where the goals are

gonna come from And if they do come around 60, yeah, we see a drop-off But if we stay solid play the way we are we're still gonna do okay The I think it's interesting what you said Which is you could go under this line and still have the second best goal differential in the Eastern Conference and one of the best In Major League Soccer all of that goes down to the fully cohesive style the reason they play one of the best in Major League Soccer. All of that goes down to the fully cohesive style. The reason they play out of the back, the reason they do all these things

that old school announcers will be like, ah, I think it's a bit dangerous. Not sure this is the right idea is because it creates the game states that allow them to be that successful. So when you do that, you pull another team out of their shape because they don't know if they want to pressure there

or not, that allows space space there is a lot of Things my point being in which Kucho here or not Wilford Nancy is gonna play the same style because it is what makes them successful from front to back It is not just made to score goals I also think that style allows players to reach confident spots more often and so my guess is They're still gonna come in really close to this line even without Cucho. I'm actually going to go over. I'm going to say that enough pieces step up that they are close and if they're able to

nail the signing and replacement of Cucho and that player can sort of hit the ground running. Your hope is they get it's on this window. I think Tom said this stat which is two thirds of the season will be played before the summer transfer window opens So on a regular season point of view you want to get the deal done to have that player be available Even if they're not in the building week one two three four You want them to be available to train from the start of the season? But I'm still gonna go over on this line

Either way Columbus is still must watch this season. If you've never been to a game, you should go. If you follow the team and you somehow don't already already know upper 90 club podcast is your spot. If you don't and you're looking to have some fun and listening to some good soccer pods, especially with someone who actively said they hate doing it and they don't want to be there, make sure to tune in as the season goes along. And Ben, I'll throw on my basketball jersey and we'll do this again soon.

That's what I do, yeah, let's do it. Hola, mi ama David Gas y Tom Boger. Aqui Soccerwise. We are talking Miami. Welcome to my hometown baby, the 305 and it's time to talk Inter Miami. I almost said Miami FC on the back end of all of that that I was so focused on. It is one of the huge clubs. We didn't know when things would end and where they'd be and so kind of put this one off to see where things stood going into the season. There's a lot of chaos around the club. There's a lot of chaos on the field. There's also some beauty. They set the points record last year.

Tom, I just I struggle to conceptualize this team like inside of Major League Soccer just in general and I'm going gonna try and enjoy it this year. I just really wanna sit around, watch some high level soccer, watch Messi at his best, and just kind of try not to be stressed about the whole thing, and just try and take what we can, because we don't know how long it'll be there. Were you stressed last year? I just feel like people always wanna find a way to yell about them, and therefore if you watch them,

you have to find a way to either defend a point or yell about them. And I think in general, we have not hit them as much on our show as everything else that covers Major League Soccer, because most of those literally just cover Inter Miami. So we're trying to fill in some of the gaps. I'm trying to enjoy them as a soccer team and Messi as a soccer player and less as a goat and an entity. I think that's a fair way to look at it. Just, I know our jobs as media, as podcasts, content creators, we have to find the next point to argue that is what content is,

but I always push back for myself as well, and I'm glad that you're doing this too. Just enjoy the game. Just enjoy greatness when you see it. Messi doing really well doesn't have to be a negative referendum on MOS. Like any of these like Euro snobs or anything else, like just enjoy the greatness, enjoy this game.

So I'm there with you. With this team, it's, there's so much fun to watch. They easily topped my watchability rankings and I don't know if it was quite as easy for you, but they topped yours as well. This team for both its incredible attacking beauty, its star power on and off the field, everything that comes with Miami, but also their defensive shortcomings. This team can be had. Look at Atlanta United in the playoffs last year, the biggest upset in MOS Cup playoffs history. They can be had.

So we're gonna see greatness, but it's not gonna be overwhelming greatness. This isn't like Celtic in the Scottish Premier League where it's like are they going to win the title? Yes. By how many points is the only question. So Miami are chasing M. West Cup this year. We'll see if they're going to chase the supporters.

If Messi's playing a ton, they'll be in the mix. I didn't make them my shield pick, but I would not be surprised in any way whatsoever. But what they're going to make a run at is CONCACAF Champions Cup. They're going to make a run for M. West Cup and and they're gonna do what they can in the club World Cup The club World Cup to me is like so fascinating and obviously you've got all Halle in Miami opening game Like just write David Gostown Major League Soccer team against Muhammad Abu Trey this former club Champions of Africa like when I was in Cairo, I tried everything I could to get a ticket to the game I got a little uncomfortable when I went into the online form to register as a fan and they asked my blood type that

Kind of freaked me out and it turned out that they don't really let people in the stadium still so I was never gonna get a Ticket to that game but like that is what I was born for. I'm excited for that I still don't fully know what the Club World Cup is. That's exciting to me And I think it's gonna be really fun as someone who's so focused on all of this. We just started CONCACF Champions Cup. I'm still MLS for CCL, even though it's not CCL anymore, and no one in MLS cares about other MLS teams,

which is the way it should be. You should be fans of your club, not of this league. I still am though, so I'm gonna be MLS for CWC, because it was just born to be said, for that club World Cup. So it's going to be wild. And as you said, it's going to be fun to watch them play.

There are some fun pieces in this group as well. You've got the Ben Ha Kramaskis, you've got the David Ruiz, the Noah Allen's, like that's my bread and butter. And they're still a part of this group because the reality of this is it's still an MLS roster. So you still have all the little pieces of MLS veterans, of international superstars who are making 7,000 times more than the other players on the roster, a few international veterans, young players, draft picks.

It is an assorted roster. It really is a Major League Soccer to its core. It's just done on a plus 10 or times 10 level with Messi and all of that. I've said this a million times I've not lived here very long like it's everywhere You just you can't walk down the street without seeing someone in a pink shirt or someone with a pink You know keychain or hat or their car or all of that a lot of its messy stuff

But a lot of its team generic and I would be interested to see because I don't know Miami very well Like what it looks like when a sport seems good. I'd be interested to see though, if they go on a run, like if they go on another league's cup run or an MLS cup run, where it's sustained. I think Champions League's probably a little tough or Concaff Champions Cup is tough because it's so spread out.

Like how the momentum builds and how the city builds around it. Because last year, the Atlanta playoffs, I went to go watch it at an Inter Miami bar. And it was on. But the World Series had started that day. And then all of a sudden, they lost. And it was like, done.

You never really got that build and that vibe. So I'd be curious to see what it looks like this year if they're able to get there. Hopefully, you'll come down for a game. We'll go over together. It is a gorgeous drive into the middle of nowhere, an absolutely isolated stadium which is the dream. That is how it should be built and set up. But for more on

this team let's go to someone who's got their finger on the pulse a little bit more than us. Someone I've known for a while. My buddy Franco Piniezo from Miami Total Football. So let's go to that segment right now. My hometown of Miami, you heard it here. David Goss, Miami local now, ready for my first year as an inter-Miami person. As Franco is showing, I am currently somewhat sunburned. Spent a little time on Hollywood Beach on Saturday or Sunday. I just wanted to be known, the lighting is the issue. I do not look this sunburn. The rest of me is quite tan. I've done a pretty good job. But I'm here with Franco Piniezo, one of my favorites. We've known each other for a long time. You can

listen to him on Miami Total Football podcast covering all things inter Miami. Franco, first time doing it here though. Thanks for joining me. No problem, brother. You're tanner than me. So that speaks to the level of greatness that you're doing here in South Florida I am committed to the cause if I'm not outside every day. I feel like I'm wasting time I am definitely the outlier I keep asking people where they go to the beach and they look at me like I'm crazy Because apparently no one here goes to the beach and I'm the only one out there trying to trying to sizzle I go to the beach often, but I haven't I haven't gone since it's been winter here. I haven't gone but it's it's about that time

It's about that time to pick it up. Actually, my buddy just told me today. Let's go to the beach this weekend So I'll be tan soon. I'll be tan soon. Perfect. We'll get there eventually or Other option is we could drive to Kansas City and hang out in negative 6 degree weather and watch a soccer game. How's that feel? Well, yeah, it depends if the soccer game gets played or not played, it gets postponed, but yes, we could do that. Absolutely. I like the snow. I haven't seen it since I left. So the Northeast, which has been almost five years now. So yeah, it'd be nice to see snow again. Not in Kansas City at that temperature. For everyone listening, we are recording this before the Champions League, or CONCAC champions cup, sorry, game has been actually played. It was supposed to be played tonight.

It is not. And we are going to dig into all things Inter Miami here as we get ready for the season. So we're going to run through what was, I guess, not even that hectic a transfer for Inter Miami, all things considered we will talk About what competition they will play in we've got our dualism coming up And then we've got our over underline set by Andrew we be sort of a question about

Who else outside of the big stars is gonna have a big year? Before we dig in to the players coming in and out the the off field stuff may be even bigger for Inter Miami. Changes at the top, CSO all the way down. Chris Henderson has now left the club. They have retransitioned a few people. And a new head coach, Tata Martino, out the door in a huff after the upset to Atlanta United, replaced by, shockingly, a friend of Messi, Javier Mascherano.

What have you made of the experience of watching this, of Tata leaving, of the changes inside the club, and now what Mascherano brings as a coach coming in? I mean, I'm already in like, Messi fandom prison apparently, so. But, I mean, it's clear that the star player, and obviously with the level he has, the brand that he has obviously

arguably the best player of all time that Inter Miami is doing everything it can to make him happy and to include him in the big picture the bigger picture not only for this season probably for next season as well so that does out a buddy of Lionel Messi is in, Javier Mascherano. Lionel Messi's quoted at one point, godfather in football and soccer, is now the head of the sporting side on the decision making end, whatever title you want to give him, which he's never, he hasn't formally been announced by the way, it's just known,

but it hasn't been actually announced. Funny enough. He's got his returning friends, Luis Suarez, Sergio Busquets, Jordi Alba. A lot of Argentines in this team, a lot of young Argentines in this team. It's very clear that it's all going in the Lionel Messi direction, whether for better or for worse, whatever your take is on it. That is the reality. That's the landscape of Inter Miami this day and age so we'll see how it works you know how much

influence does he have in the decisions seems like a significant amount is he making roster decisions I mean I wouldn't go that far but clearly there's there's a big influence like we've seen in other sports with with big names, right? Yeah with the messy stuff, you know when the when the news first dropped about Sporting director changes and his influence here like that doesn't sound good But they set the points record last year. You have to imagine he's been pretty involved already It does feel like he Probably is good enough and still at his peak of powers enough in this league that if he's happy and playing at his highest level,

it covers up a lot of the cracks in not maybe the most efficient roster management and all these other things. I think the club probably is worse off for it once he leaves. Because there's not a lot of future planning. It doesn't seem like anyone really cares about that though right now It's I mean, it's true like right and that's the question. I've I've asked, you know longer term, you know

How does this impacting so short term right? They're gonna be competitive. He's here. He's gonna put butts in seats it should be a good team even with a rookie head coach but Longer term, you know, what does this mean? But in Miami, I guess we'll cross that bridge when they get there right now, it's full steam ahead on the Lionel Messi train. Let's talk about the off season that was.

Diego Gomez sold even before it started for a massive amount of money over to England. And then some other big moves happening, especially to open up some roster spots. So Facundo Fares sold back to South America, Emerson Rodriguez transferred to Europe. Leo Campagna traded for a massive amount of allocation money inside of MLS to the New England Revolution.

And then a list of players let sort of walk out the door because of their lack of performance or whatever it was. Christophe Rojas, Valencia frayer all left Negri taken in the expansion draft and then CJ dos Santos traded to San Diego could be the starter for San Diego this season and it was then full Replacements for all of those players to wingos two wingers added and today Oh, I end a brought on loan from South of Vigo and to Lascaux to go via brought in from Portugal Defense boosted with Gonzalo Lujan brought in from San Lorenzo and maxi falcone from Cola Cola

and then the goalkeeper room really improved in this offseason or at least tried to in Oscar Ustari and MLS legend Rocco Rios Novos I think he was open cup legend maybe, and then the hometown hero, Fafa Picou, coming in as a free agent as well, sort of returning home for him. So Diego Gomez, the big name out, a lot of the other pieces going out, Leo Campana as well,

feel more like it was just a waiting game to get them to the end of their contracts. What do you make of the transfer window so far in the way this club's gone about their work? Yeah, I mean they've addressed an area that they needed to improve which is the defense right that was Inter Miami's Achilles heel last year. That being said with how MLS works with the budget, how money is invested into rosters, I mean it's on the attacking side right so the level of defenders, the quality of the defenders have been brought in, might be an upgrade over what they had last year,

but let's not make any mistake about it. It's not like they are getting the Leo Nelmesi and Luis Suarez equivalent on the defensive side. So the defense is always going to give up goals. It's going to happen. The idea is that that defense takes a step up from what last year's defense was. We've seen some organization, we've seen some compact lines under Javier Macedano, a bit of a different identity. But we've also seen in moments when they've high pressed or when they've committed a turnover, that they get hit in transition very quickly. And just like last year, they don't have the legs to get back into shape quick enough, and they get carved open and give up good chances if not goal

So we've seen that in preseason its early days Sure, the team will continue to fine-tune things as you know, they just got Lujan into into playing games Maximiliano Falcón whose nickname is peluca, which is the complete opposite of you and look I mean this wig But he's got a big throw He's expected to be a big upgrade at center back He just got in he actually just got cleared this week with his visa So I mean there's still pieces in place. They should get better as a group with a little more time But again, I don't expect the defense to be lights out

Yeah, based on what we've seen and just based on the roster construction Yeah, I mean last year they set the points record and the defense was at times shambolic and what we saw in the playoffs was pretty bad and so the bar is low right if any of these pieces can help them take a half step forward. That's crazy to be David's gossip. I call you gossip. I call you David. Because they set the points record, right?

And the defense has to have played well enough to get that points record. And they did play well. When Messi left for Copa América in 2024, then he got the injury in the final and missed like two, three months, Inter Miami's identity changed. Instead of being this attack-minded team

that was like, okay, I'm okay with, if you score three, I'm scoring five. They became a little bit tighter at the back, a little bit more stingy. They weren't perfect by any means. They still had their individual breakdowns, but they were better defensively. And then when Messi came back into the picture

once he recovered from his injury, then it was like Tata Martino had a tough time figuring out which identity to go with. He couldn't find that balance. And I think that's where Inter-Miami lost its way last year, and which led to, on top of Brighton's not having a hell of a series, and that Atlanta United playing inspired,

that's what led to Inter-Miami's early exit. So this year, with a new head coach, the idea is to hopefully be better defensively as a unit But again last year's defense while they had their breakdowns and again, it's the Achilles heel. It wasn't Terrible just had moments where it broke down which again is gonna happen this year. It's not like they have you know Sergio Ramos and his prime and You know Philly Blum in his prime back there right so it right? So it's just as what it is. It's just the way M.O.S. works.

Yeah, it is. I think it's, can you take away that big fatal errors that I think Avi Laz was a huge culprit of last year and not just in the playoffs with the cramp and the fake cramp or whatever happened in going down? I think there was a lot of moments where he was exposed, but a lot of those moments were playing out of the back and turnovers and then trying to recover.

So can you either cut out the possession mistakes so that you're not recovering or can you manage those moments of chaos just a little bit cleaner? And maybe if he has a more confident partner, maybe that does it. I think there are question marks across all of this. Do you think there's a challenge at the goalkeeper spot?

Drake Callender, what, was a goalkeeper of the year finalist two years ago, three years ago? Do you think he's under pressure? I absolutely think Drake Callender's under pressure. He started preseason with the US Men's National Team. We actually interviewed him with the US Men's National Team but at Inter Miami's training facility because the US Men's National Team was training here in South Florida at Inter Miami's practice facilities.

I asked him, and it was a common theme throughout the offseason, that Inter Miami was linked and rumored to be interested in all these foreign goalkeepers. I asked him straightforward if he paid any attention to it, what he makes of that, and he pretty much said he was ready for anything That was like the biggest Takeaway that I had from his response which to me shows insight into a player that knows maybe He's not necessarily the profile of goalkeeper that they're looking for because look no mistake about it that he's talented There's no mistake that he can be a game saving game winning goalkeeper He has shown that in Major League Soccer.

But it's about consistency, about consistency. And last year, he probably took a step, he regressed from where he was in 2023 when he was a big, big performer for them over the course of the season, massive in helping them win the Leagues Cup that year, the first trophy in the organization's history. Last year, he just wasn't as consistent. He wasn't as good.

You know, there's the game, I think it's against the New England Revolution late in the year, where he has that terrible blunder where the ball goes in between his arms and then his legs and into the back of the net. And those types of mistakes, maybe not to that level, but he did have a lot of individual mistakes. And I do think that Mascherano and just the overall sporting side want a goalkeeper who is more consistent and who is better with the ball at his feet. Dre Calender has progressed in that regard since he first got here, 100%. But he's still not that comfortable with the ball at his feet.

It's still not his forte. Inter-Miami's clearly wanted to bring a goalkeeper that can help initiate attacking sequences from the back, be it with a short pass, be it on the ball, and then picking out a diagonal ball, going the other way. Whatever the case is, Drake calendar is not that. So because of that, I think they've been looking for it to upgrade the position. They did not find a goalkeeper this transfer window, at least not as of right now, that

is better than Drake calendar. But going back to Drake calendar this preseason, he's missed the entirety of it due to an injury picked up on us men's national team duty. Oscar Ustad has been the returning from last year returning veteran who assigned mid to late last year. Argentine has connections to Messi. I don't think he was viewed as the number one option when connections to Messi. I don't think he was viewed as the number one option when you know the plan for this offseason for the season began but because of circumstance right now I think he is the number one. He's played the majority of preseason. Drake calendar has been back in training but didn't play in any game in preseason so we don't even know where he's at if he's a hundred percent so I

think we study he's gonna be the starting guy for at least the the first few weeks of the season Yeah, it looked okay against Orlando in the friendly They played in in Tampa Bay to close out preseason now They had into Conca calf champions cup against sporting Kansas City as we talked about They are one of two teams in Major League Soccer that will play in three cup competitions MLS created this whole thing so there'd be a limit of two. And then they have two teams playing in the Club World Cup. And that is one Seattle Sounders and the other one is Inter Miami.

So Miami playing CONCAC champions Cup now. They will be in leagues Cup as a playoff team, supporter shield winner from last year. And then they will play in the Club World Cup. They got in because they figured out a way to get them in. What do you make of what that will be? Like this is unprecedented. We've only seen one MLS team play in a club world cup. It was the Sounders. They went to Morocco or Algeria. I think it was lost in one game, whatever it was. Now Miami will host a group stage here in this new competition. Like how much focus do you think this takes for Inter Miami?

What does this experience sort of look like? I think it's going to be a big deal, man. I think it's going to be a big deal for the team internationally. It's a little non-messy competing, not only internationally in this region, but against teams from all over the globe. You know, it's an expanded club World Cup. It's on US soil a year before the expanded national team World Cup. So there's going to be a lot of eyeballs, at least initially, to see what this is all about. And obviously, Messi is a big driving force behind the marketing of the tournament. So for Inter Miami, it's going to be a big deal.

I know that their goal is to get out of the group. That's what they want to achieve from a sporting aspect. Because again, from the business side, they're going to draw a lot of attention. Whether it's eyeballs in the stadium or at home, on TV, on the computer, on the internet, whatever the case is, they're going to draw eyeballs, they're going to make their money. But on the sporting side, it's getting out of the group, which I think is possible I wouldn't say it's completely out of the realm of possibility It's it's gonna be a tough challenge, but it's doable. It is doable. It is a reachable milestone a reachable goal

It is more doable than Seattle. We did the Seattle preview and we sort of joked about it. Like what is this? They're playing PSG at Let it go Madrid and Botafogo and on the flip side into Miami face off against Al Halee from Egypt As well as against Porto and Palmaras Al Halle is the team that knocked Seattle out of it last time They have been the biggest team in Africa. They have consistently won the African Champions League and been in Club World Cups in the past But again, as you said, this is new. This is different. We don't know what it is Porto and then Palmeiras I don't really have to explain with those two you have to be better than one of those teams To get out of the group. It is a like 32 team World Cup style

So it stopped two teams in the group that get out The games are at Hard Rock, which I think is interesting as well. Like Miami's kind of the host but it's not at their stadium It's at the NFL Stadium cuz they want to sell tickets and want to have as big a stadium as possible The whole thing is fascinating. As you said, I think it's a big deal I think it's gonna feel big the opening match is inter Miami. Ah, Lee of the first ever Expanded Club World Cup. This is why the masses bought the team The opening match is Inter Miami, Ahali of the first ever expanded club world cup. This is why the Mazas bought the team. This is why they brought Lionel Messi in.

They want to be at the center of all of this. And it's going to be a big moment for Miami. And it's just going to be really fascinating just to see it go down. A win, a draw, a win, a draw and a loss can get you through. A win, a loss and a draw can get you through. If other results go your way, a win, four points. So if you can open with a win against Ali and

Porto is second Palmer us is third if you can Somehow get a result against Porto or keep it close You at least set yourself up to know what you need to do in the final game, which whoo Never last team against Porto in a competitive competition. We just just never seen it before. And I'm fascinated to see. Let's listen to Doyle here for a moment and then we'll jump off the back of that. The underlying numbers for Inter Miami last year

are screaming at me that this team is going to regress. You remember a few years ago, that Austin team that did really well. And we were all saying like, this team is punching above their weight and it's gonna come crashing back down to earth and then it did. Or you remember the following year, it was St. Louis

who had that incredible expansion season. We were saying to them, the house of cards, it's gonna fall apart. And then last year it did. Miami overperformed their own numbers by a greater margin than either of those two teams did. So it should come crashing down to earth, but this team has Lionel Messi and three of his best friends. And this team has so much more talent than either those Austin or St. Louis teams. And that includes guys from the Academy, guys from the draft, guys that they've brought in from South

America primarily as well. So I tend to think that they're going to find a way to make it work. And when I say tend to think, like I'm literally picking them to win the supporter shield and I'm picking them to win MLS cup as well. And I'm picking Messi to become the first ever back to back MVP. And I'm picking him to become the first ever back to back MVP and I'm picking him to win the golden boot. And like part of that is just like, I can't bring myself to pick against Messi,

but part of that is just that collective of talent. Like they're two or three deep everywhere. It's not just the high end guys. They have, I think the deepest roster that I've ever seen in MLS. And so if they can fix that Achilles heel, which is midfield turnovers and inability to stop the ball in transition, if they can fix that Achilles heel which midfield turnovers and inability to stop the ball in transition if they can fix that and to be clear that should be fixable this team's gonna win a lot of games and probably more than one trophy and honestly I'd be surprised if they could

So Doyle sold not sure if you know this from the second half of that. I don't know which side he's on. He said they're going to regress, but then he said they're going to win MLS CUB. So I'm not clear on what the stance is there. He has said this before, and it's one of the debates, which is Messi's an outlier. So if the stats say that they shouldn't be this good, they're good, because Messi is Messi, and Suarez is Suarez, and all of that. I think one of the questions is, does it all stay together?

It feels more positive that there's no international competition this year, right? There's no Copa America for him to go to. You said it last year, there were kind of three different teams, first half of the year, middle half, and then end. Obviously the MVP thing is another thing, because that's voting, so that's popularity and name.

And I'm sure Messi's gonna get votes years after he leaves the league from some of the people who follow it but what do you make of the idea of sort of the door is open for them to regress and yet the ability for them to still probably win a supporter shield? So I agree with Doyle on the idea that they should to doil on the idea that they should regress, because last year they were the team that set the points record, right? So it's a high bar, it's a high barometer to match up to, to meet over a course of a long regular season,

which includes the Konggap Champions Cup, it includes the Club World Cup, it includes the Leagues Cup. I mean, it requires a lot. And you also have to have some good fortune with available players, injuries, things like that. That all comes into play. And last year they, by and large, held up pretty well in those departments. A repeat of that? I mean, it could happen, but it's tough to see, like maybe one starter doesn't get, you know, picks up an injury that rules them out for a couple months. I agree that the most probable thing is that they regress, that they're not maybe

the top team in the regular season. Now that being said, I guess I'm gonna do the same thing here but Messi should be around more this year, right? There's not as many international duties for him. He's not gonna be gone like you said for a full month like he was last year for the Copa America. So he should be available more which maybe helps them win games more frequently than maybe they did last year during the certain stretches. All that said, if I had to put money on it, I mean, they could very well win MLS Cup, finishing in a lesser place in the regular season standing. So does that mean they regressed?

I mean, if you're looking at it from a regular season standpoint, I say that they'll probably dip a little bit, although they should still be very, very competitive given the things we just discussed. They are a deep team, absolutely. This question is the defense. Diego Gomez, who did a lot of the defensive work and a lot of getting stuck in and battling in that midfield, how do you replace that? It's a different head coach who's learned MLS, Tata Martino knew MLS. It wasn't like he was being exposed to new things. He knew what MLS was about.

We know how foreign coaches historically do in this league. There are some foreign coaches that have done very well, but by and large there is a growing period. There is growing pains. You're cutting your teeth. You figure things out. You're not used to the travel All the different things to come with the lead So that's my long way of saying I do think that they regressed but they will still be very very competitive and absolutely

I do think if they can stay healthy that they will be a contender for MLS Cup But of course, there's questions about my shit. I know's ability the defense Health, etc It does feel I think I agree with both of you Like it does feel like just the points record is an absurd number to hit although I Said that throughout last year that I didn't think they'd continued it You know to put together performances and then they started games and deficits and they still found ways to get back

The depth part I think is interesting like Julian Gressel is still here I think Fafa Pico is a really nice pickup Robert Taylor is not a starter like even in that friendly against Orlando It's a friendly but you're like, oh these you know Fafa Pico started two playoff games or three playoff games for Vancouver Last year and now he's an option off the bench and a depth piece. It also feels like some of these other pieces whether it's the David Ruiz and Ben Haas who are young or the Avi lezzes have another year of doing this Under their belt of being in the messy spotlight of being a starter every day of dealing with MLS Whatever it is and it feels like enough of that has come back that there's enough And it feels like enough of that has come back that there's enough

Nuance there or noose that they can figure out how to sort of manage some of the harder moments of the year And still get results so I would lean with you which is I don't think they set the points record I have not picked them to win the shield, but I think they'll be in there But I think there's a pretty good chance. They win one trophy this year and To me that's not a regression. Okay. I was gonna say does that mean they regressed? No, I think if they win one trophy this year and compete across all the other fronts I don't think that's a regression even though I'm not the one running the team saying this is what I pay If they win Leagues Cup does that mean the same as winning MLS Cup? No Leagues Cup. I think is the worst-case one Does that mean the same as winning MLS Cup? No, league scupp I think is the worst case one.

I think if they win CONCACAF, if they do anything at club, if they win MLS Cup, I think you're ecstatic, right? League scupp's probably the worst case, but I think still you'll take the what? What was it the first year? Five game run, like the whole energy, the excitement, everything around it. You'd assume they get to host more games this time

because they're coming off the shield win So they would be a host option every step of the way through which I think makes it even more positive as well last thing I want to talk about here, which we be sort of asked us for our over-under is the third goal scorer for Miami will they score over six and a half goals and then who will it be? So last year It was Leo Campagna with eight goals. He obviously will not be here anymore So the question is will there be a third or fourth piece to this attack?

Who and then who will it be? Two of the big ones which I mentioned coming in on the transfer market side today Oh, I end a and to Lascaux to go via I think what I end they had the goal against Orlando in the last game would be the high expectations, but I mentioned some other experience pieces as well. So how do you think the rest of this attack forms outside of Suarez and messy? I think that I was going to score some goals, man. I do think he's going to come in on that right side of the midfield on the wing on the flank and score some

goals. He showed it in preseason. He can be a threat, maybe more of a direct player than Diego Gomez. Not a like for like comparison at all. Diego Gomez was even playing on the left side. So not like for like at all. But I do think that what they want from him is to be more direct on that right side, get in behind, make runs, challenge the defenders, try to get him behind the score goals. And he did do that in preseason on a couple of occasions. So it's a good start for him. So I would expect him to be involved. I think he's got the quality to do so. The question mark on the other side is Telasco Segovia, who we've seen, we caught our first glimpse of him in that match against Orlando City From my vantage point and everything I've heard

uber talented youngster Very crafty with the ball in his feet has personality You know that that swagger that some of the young kids have from South America wouldn't win with the ball at their feet Tactically, it'll be a little bit different from him. Not necessarily getting in behind It's a little bit more tucking in to be kind of a hybrid, central midfielder, left winger, to allow Jordi Alba to make those runs in from his left back spot,

which probably suits Segovia better. Segovia is more of a central player than outside player. Will he score some goals? I mean, he's got the talent to do so, but will he adjust to the league, the challenges, the travel, adjusting his life away from the field in a new country, and all those things come into play. Is he a goal-scoring threat or is he more of a creative guy? I think he could be the fourth guy. I think he could be the next man up after Thaddeo Allende based off the roster today, but we'll see.

I don't think they're done making moves, man. You know, Mascherano said this week that, you know, they're probably, they're not as deep as they would like to be, and there's probably still some moves to be made. I mean, they're definitely right now thin, as of today, at strikers. Behind Luis Suarez, there's no natural number nine behind him.

That's the big hole and then you start to talk about Fafa playing in there, Robert Taylor is a false line, otherwise besides that they do feel deeper to me than past years. That's also they didn't go on the same preseason tour and they don't come out of it with so many injuries. The farhouse injury I think a lot of that sort of set you off before the season started of being like I'm not really sure what I'm looking at we're like where Dondo is here locked in Puskets is ready to go like so it does feel like there's more options in some of those spots but center forward is a little bit thin and then if you start to really lose pieces on the wing it could get thin somewhat quickly.

I still think Fafa is going to be an option with this team because what you said with Segovia I think 100% you know like he's going to come inside he's going to connect a little bit but at some point if you decide either we're we need someone else who defends better from the front there's my thumbs up or Fafa can be another goal scorer and a finisher off of the stuff Messi and Alba create. I think he's an option Looks very direct and and one-footed but clearly elite at that That's what gets you to a lot Liga and even if it doesn't get you into the team and we saw against Orlando like He's gonna put his head down and strike it from the right side of the box anytime he gets put through and Messi is gonna do that quite often.

So I'm gonna say it does go over this. And my guess is that both Fafa and Allende are over seven goals on this season. And I think probably everyone else sits below that line for the most part over the course of this year. This team is going to score goals. 100%. That's not my fear is like enough guys will score goals. I think one of the biggest things we haven't really talked about,

we've kind of brushed over it, is this the central midfield spot. This year Mascherano has made it clear he does not plan to put Busquets in the center back, which is what we saw from Tata Martino last year, in part due to a lack of center back options. This year, the idea is to keep Busquets in that midfield, but how does that keep you from a defensive standpoint? Right? Like Busquets doesn't have the legs to get back.

So Federico Redondo has been the guy that's been mostly partnered with him, but I don't think he's an out and out bulldog in there, a ball winner. You know, you thought that pit bull ter terrier That's gonna have range and get overly involved and get stuck in Yanuk Brite's more of that guy But do they trust the an egg bright with the ball at his feet enough to start him? I think that is a big big question mark Because if they're looking to get into shape and when they're trying to retreat and get you know, they're being attacked in transition How do those two central midfielders hold up? Yeah? Because that's a big part of it, right? How the spine does.

Yeah. Yeah, that protection for the center backs would solve a lot of the problems I talked about with Avilas. I think we've seen flashes from Janek Bright, and I think there's a ceiling to his game, but it might be what you need. I'd love to see David Ruiz get a little more run

and opportunity if he can stay healthy and have a good stretch, but it feels like a lot of it will fall in Redondo just because that's how MLS rosters are. You don't get to spend a lot of money so when you spend it on people they're probably gonna get into the team and I think there's a reason he's on this squad for many different reasons and he will probably get his opportunity. Whatever it is we're gonna continue to talk about it continue to watch it all, and of course, you should follow Franco and the whole crew

at Miami Total Football as you guys cover it as well. It is a experience in Major League Soccer, Inter Miami for sure, and you are all the ones that I have been able to tap into and follow as well, and I will see you very soon somewhere, and I will be inter Miami pink Yeah, man, we gotta see each other actually in person Go to the beach how about that exactly we'll do the next one from the beach just talking MLS and whatever sicko stuff

We can think of thank you very much. Soccer Wise with David Goss and Tom Bogard. Welcome to all our wise asses out there ready to hear a preview of the Portland Timbers. For so long it was straightforward. Timbers, you're talking MLS cup expectations you're talking about some of the big names in the league you're talking about some of the staples of the league Diego Valeri Diego Chara Liam Ridgewell all these pieces you knew would be there year after year and come back and have success and we are into a different era now for this club year two under Phil Neville the Evander drama was a lot of this year and Tom,

we pushed this one off because we were waiting for the moves to finish. But I also pushed this one off because it's one of the teams that I feel least sure about right now going into the season. And like I'm saying, that is unusual for the Portland Timbers. Yeah, I agree. I guess I'd push back a little to say that they have transitioned through eras before. They passed the torch from Diego Valerio to Sebastian Blanco when Valerio was still on the team before he left for Lanus and eventually retired. So they've tweaked again. It's not a lot of the same pieces.

Guess what? Diego Chara is still here. I'm just assuming he's going to play till he's 48. I love that dude. I hope that he never retires. But this is definitely a new era because Evander was supposed to take the torch from Sebastian Blanco and he did. And then things went sideways between his camp and the front office and the club.

And now he's in Cincinnati. And David da Costa is in as the DP10, but he can play in the wing, he can play a little bit deeper. They're going to be different, there is no like for like replacement for Evander, nothing realistic to say, hey go have 34 goal contributions and be an MVP finalist. That's not fair to David DeCosta. He will be a different player. I don't think he'll score the same number of goals, but he can do the same creativity

and they believe he's going to do more off the ball and give them more flexibility against the ball. This team, I'm not worried about them putting up goals even without a van der. I think that there's enough in this attack, both in terms of goal scorers and chance creators that what they need to fix is their defensive unit. And if they think that that can start with the DP number 10, if that's the kind of guy that sets the tone, like a Nico Lodero, that dude never stopped running for Seattle. In addition to how he attacked off the ball, he was just incredible.

And if you see your DP working that hard, if you're the left back, if you're the center mid, if you're a homegrown, man, you're running too. So there's the pathway to that. It's going to be really difficult without a Vander, but I'm not worried about this team's attack. My only questions are in defense. It is a team that will obviously always have the advantage of home field. And that's, you know, that's set up that atmosphere, although it did not work for them in the playoffs. That's like, Tommy kind of goes under the radar, I think, because it was so early in the postseason, it was so bizarre in that Vancouver couldn't host

and all of that. But that's like an all time performance to lose like that in a home playoff game is one of those that potentially sticks with you for a while. No, for sure. And I guess like the drama around Evander has helped like that's been the talking point all season. If this was stable, if he was staying with the club if there was no headlines off the field for that this is probably what we'd be talking about more yeah it was a complete complete disaster huge disappointment and the wheels just completely fell off how do they fix that what do they do moving forward like again that's obviously not a result that's gonna happen all the time but in

a playoff game that's gonna be remembered and they're gonna have to deal with that until they get back to the playoffs. If they make the playoffs this year, if they make the wild card game this year, we'll be talking about it the whole time that it's time for them to get it right or get it back and those fears are going to be there. So again that's why I'm more worried about the defense than losing a Vander because like there's a lot of the same group that's back they've added Joao Ortiz they've added Jim Refore and like Finn Sermin is somebody that they have a lot of hopes in but again like a lot of the same pieces are back and I individually I like a lot of them so I think it's more on Phil Neville and the coaching staff to tweak the game model tweak the the system to be a little bit

more responsible defensively and maybe cut out some of the turnovers that lead to defensive transition moments. This is a team that I would like to see in the cash for space conversation for the Atencio's and Cudi Pietros of the world and I get that they've hit really well on their U22s so maybe not at that level but basically saying if you're not gonna produce Academy players why not go buy homegrowns from other teams that have an excess of it and the numbers on those cashers may Not be very high but it might be able a way for you to fill in the back end of your roster a little bit more and

Change things a little bit if you don't want to go huge and sign a DP from another team and they've done Well to go outside the league and sign the big name players Jonathan Rodriguez Evander and I think to Costa as well Sarta all fit in line with what you want to do It goes without saying anyone out there who's not a Portland fan listening if you've never been it's a must In Major League Soccer to attend even when I stay in East Portland and you come back across the river I'll bike or take a scooter over the river. It's just you so fit bro. The whole thing's amazing Well, I was already committed to that joke and then you said scooter and I went damn it This doesn't fit but I already got it loaded up that I'm gonna stop your you're very nice lyrically

And I'm gonna get the joke in anyway But the whole like oh European set up stadium inside the city all that type of stuff like Portland is the real real Yeah It's not even an NFL stadium inside of it like you are in city And you turn to your right and the stadium is sort of dug down into the ground. So it sits right there. The streetcar runs right past it.

There are, you know, bars and restaurants all around it. You see green everywhere. Thorns games as well, like in the lead atmosphere, maybe the best in NWSL. So it is a must attend for anyone. I was there for the 2021 MLS cup and it was like a noon kickoff and it was raining and foggy and it was just bands for sitting inside Timbers Army and when you're able to access the stadium. And then just this like glow inside the building was epic. And then of course, Felipe Mora's goal was absolutely wild.

They didn't end up winning. So it'd be cool to experience Portland Timbers victory inside of Portland. But either way, it's one of the must experiences in Major League Soccer. And if they are competitive this year, hopefully we make our way out there. But either way, if you want to follow things both in Portland and across Cascadia, Cascadia FC is your spot to do it. Jeremy, the Portland writer on the ground, joins us right now for our segment about this team. All right. Well, we have rolled through the dominoes so far.

We've talked FC Cincinnati now that the moves have been made. We've talked FC Dallas, but we had yet to preview the Portland Timbers as we were waiting for all of this to finish and finally come back around to what is one of the big clubs in the league, but sits in a very odd place right now. To do so, we've got someone on the ground. We've got Jeremy here from Cascadia FC on Substack. Read all of his work. Follow him on Blue Sky. Follow him on social media as well for all of your Timbers coverage. And Jeremy, it's been a long off season, I would imagine.

It has been a long off season. And for many of us, we're still in disbelief that the first game of the season is five days away. But amazingly no conca calf competition. So it could be today. Actually, if you don't have snow and potentially for some of these teams, it is right around the corner. Clearly did not all go exactly as planned, starting with a Vander deciding that he didn't want to play in Portland anymore at the end of last season. Let's start there, then we'll run through the rest of our transfer window. We will get into our Doyalism and get his words on the squad that we will bounce off of, and then we've got Andrew Weeby's over-under as well to finish on. Take me through your experience covering this at Evander story, watching the ebbs and flows of it, and then sort of the waiting game at the end.

Well, for me, the Evander story begins when he first showed up at the start of 2023. And there were already questions mostly from the fans about how well is he actually going to commit to being here? And whether or not we're going to see that kind of effort and commitment on the field. In 2023, however, because of various different reasons, it's his first season in the league, someone has recently made a theory about the players who might take a year to settle and how year two is their real breakout., in year one, it very much was a settling year for him. And it was made even tougher by the firing of head coach Giovanni Savarese in August and then finishing the season with an interim. But while interim Miles Joseph was in charge, Evander actually began to play some of his best soccer of the season. It wasn't enough to get the Timbers in the playoffs, but you could see throughout the

progression of the season, he's getting better, he's getting more comfortable, and a lot of us were excited for year two. And then year two, before the season even starts, there's already rumors flying around about how, oh, Flamengo might be coming in for him and other smoke surrounding that. Nothing did happen. He started the season with the team, missed the first two games due to injury, and then in his first game of 2024 scores what I would consider the Timbers 2024 goal of the season, a long long shot that was entirely speculative but wasn't speculative at all because he knew he could score it and he beat NYCFC 2-1 at Yankee Stadium. So I feel like that was the introduction to what ended up being a historic year for him.

And throughout all of this, all of the games, all the months passing by, most of us in Portland were saying, why isn't he getting as much respect for MVP consideration as he continued to be towards the top of the list in combined goal contributions. And then in late August, around, it was late August, early September, a guitar offer came in. And this happened around the same time that the Timbers were desperately trying to sign him to a contract extension. And this is where it gets really complicated because the terms of the extension, what I've been told, were very fair. It's what I've been told, what has also been reported. But the real disagreement came over a release clause.

Now Evander did not sign that contract extension and from what I've heard from various people within the club is that it took a lot out of him and he kind of started to quiet quit in a way as the season went on and especially towards that final stretch towards the playoffs and then everyone knows what happened after the Vancouver game and For us at least most of the fans It was a really big surprise to see him come out so publicly right after that and it was our first indication that there was something wrong we assumed when we saw the reports of the

Of the contract extension that it was only a matter of time before it got done Especially at the figures that we've been hearing will have been a really healthy pay raise So to hear that there was this much discontent and this much Outrage on both sides. it really was a bit shocking. And then having it drag on, the will he come back, will he not come back for the entire rest of the offseason, knowing that in his words, he most desired to move to Brazil, we were just keeping our eyes out, or any Brazil offers going to come in, none did. And the team that came in, Cincinnati, offered what I would say is a pretty fair price. And at that point, you

want guys who are going to be on the team, as Max Crippot said, at the beginning of January. And he left. And immediately after that, Davi da Costa comes in. So, while you're looking back at the full two years that he's been here, you can't deny that he's arguably one of the most talented players I've to play for this club. I think he holds the best singular season by a player in Timbers MLS history. I'd put him above what Diego Valeri did in 2017. But at the same time, if he doesn't want to be here, the right move is to move him on. And he had enough value after that season that the front office decided we can absolutely sell him now and we can bring in a player who is more interested in the project

that we're building. There's a lot of fascinating twists and turns to this. The biggest one being all of a sudden Major League Soccer institutes a new rule that didn't exist for the ability for a player like this to stay in the league. Like there just would never be a conversation in the past of it could come back to haunt you or even that you have to follow and watch them every day right. I was just on a show with someone and we looked up Shakiri's numbers. He's killing it in Switzerland. Doesn't really matter to the Chicago Fire. Like it doesn't fully affect them and it's Eastern Conference. It's not 100% like for like but Vendor will continue to be a part of this fear that the Portland Timbers operate in which never in the past would have been the case.

And so that then becomes this whole wild piece at the end of this that we've just never really experienced before. And as you said it it has been this two year span. I tell this story all the time of watching that Galaxy game where he puts up the hat trick and I thought he wasn't celebrating because he was like just so done with the Galaxy being so bad against him. And it turned out he was unhappy, like you said, quiet quitting. Like that was his quiet quitting, by the way, was still being the best player on the field and still putting up crazy numbers.

But it clearly hurt the team. And you see the implosion against Vancouver Whitecaps at the end, and the hope has to be that the sum of the parts and the happier locker room and all those things can make up for what you're losing and take you a step further, because even last year, it wasn't the finish that the Portland Timbers expect. The Timbers fans expect that the club expects and as you said the replacement has been Davi da Costa

to come in. A Portuguese attacking player coming in from Ligue 1. The unfortunate part of the timeline of this whole thing is he's the only one who needs to get a visa and so they are probably the Portland Timbers behind the other two clubs in Cincinnati and Dallas and getting him ready, getting him on the field, getting him to be a cohesive part of this team. But so far from what you've heard and what you've seen, what is the Costa? What's the expectations around him and what will he be for the Portland Timbers? I immediately have sympathy for this guy, and it's because

he's immediately going to be compared to the guy that came before him and the guy who came before him just had the best single individual season in Timbers MLS history. But this is where I've asked to temper the expectations a little bit. His impact might not be felt fully in the goal involvements that the Timbers are losing out on But I think based on the tape that I've watched and I've watched a lot of his tape over the past month When it became clear that this is who the Timbers are going to get He is going to offer different dimensions to this team than Evander did Now I think he's going to make them more dangerous on the counter attack. I think he's gonna

make them more dangerous when they're trying to defend from the front. And I think that he's just going to add more pace, more dynamism, and he really likes through balls. He's a very, very good passer, specifically getting those balls forward. He's a player who will receive the ball in the middle of the pitch, and he's immediately going to look straight up the field and wonder, who can I move this onto? And sometimes under Evander, he'd stay, he'd take a couple of touches, wait for the team to catch up to him. But now when you have players like Jonathan Rodriguez, who's a very good free runner, you have Antony,

you have Ariel Lasseter, who I think is actually going to play a bigger role than a lot of people expect this year. When you have a player like that, who can just immediately turn a ball from a ball into his feet into an immediate counter attack, that's going to be really exciting. But the question is, once again, how quickly is he going to be able to gel? How quickly is he going to get on the same page as his teammates? It took Evander about a year to do that. And that was Evander who'd had experience moving from club to club throughout his career.

This is Davi Da Costa's second ever team that he's played for. He moved to France when he was nine years old and now he's about to move to an entirely different country 15 years later and He's he's not gonna be living in the same city He's not gonna have the same surroundings so just getting him well adjusted on the field and off the field is gonna be really really important and Based on what I've heard from the team. They are Doing their best to make sure

he not only gets adapted quickly, but they're doing it correctly as well. They're not trying to rush him. Yeah, Evander was in a easier spot in that he had moved from Brazil to Norway or Denmark, whatever it was. So moving to Portland was another experience for him. And as you said, it's a huge jump.

What you talked about in terms of the style of player he is makes a lot of sense. You can't replace Evander. So what you have to do now is to try and tweak the whole thing to make it fit a little bit better. Having a player in that position who maybe can help you control the game more rather than score goals makes a lot of sense.

Being able to cover more ground ground being more dangerous in transition and then the one advantage that Tocosta has that Evander didn't was Jonathan Rodriguez is already established and he showed last year that he can be the best player on the field for a winning team in games but I think one of the fascinating things with Evander is you talked about the MVP consideration and was it there or wasn't. It's a team that finished ninth in the Eastern, in the Western Conference and he put up those numbers.

So there was somewhat of a disconnect between the way he plays and the overall performance of a full team. It's not fully his fault. Soccer's a large game, but in MLS you have, because of DPs and roster sizes and all of that, you have outsized responsibility as a designated player. It'll be interesting to see how DaCosta as a younger player is able to fit into that role, but also do so alongside some pretty big names. And Jonathan Rodriguez, Felipe Amor, Kevin Kelsey now, Santi Moreno, Anthony, like there's a lot of options with this team. There's a lot to like

and DeCosta is going to be must watch I think early in the season to see what he's like and how he's fitting in and what his experience is. He's not the only piece coming in. You mentioned Ariel Lasseter as a free agent. A guy Phil Neville's already coached. We've seen him play as a wingback. We've seen him play as a fullback and as a winger. I agree with you I think he could be a really nice piece for this squad Joe our Ortiz the other big pickup in central midfield from independent Independiente de Valle and in his prime Ecuadorian international and then Kelvin Kelsey the u22 The u22 pickup from Shakhtar Dinesq who we saw a little bit last year with FC Cincinnati. What do you make of this window overall and what this club was trying to do and whether

or not they accomplished it? This might be my favorite Timbers transfer window in recent memory. And the reason why isn't because of who they brought in. It's what profile those players offer. And every player that they brought brought in you can point to one thing that the team struggled with last year and you can say this player is going to help with that. Let's start with Joe Aerts because he he's one of my guys this year. He is someone who I think is going to massively improve this

team because he's 28 years old and based on all the highlight tape I've watched of him he's rapid he runs from corner to corner box to box just covering ground and trying to win the ball that that's my favorite genre of player because I've been spoiled by watching Diego Chara for 15 years now so I think that the addition of Ortiz will lessen the pressure on Chara as he enters year number 39, which is still insane to me that he is 39 years old and he's still going to play significant minutes and that he's kept himself in such good shape to be able to handle the rigors of an MLS season that keeps expanding and getting tougher and

tougher. So Ortiz's addition is huge. Getting him on a TAM deal is also really good for the team's salary cap because you could make the argument that getting a designated player at that role would be very important. But bringing him over on a contract that isn't going to take up such a necessary roster spot in such a huge roster spot is really good business by the club. Kelsey is the most intriguing one to me from not what he's gonna do this year, but what they're expecting for him in the future. He signed a very long contract when he

when he arrived and he's also a profile the Timbers were desperately missing last year. And that is just a big guy up top who can win aerial duels and also Can gain chemistry and has a record of playing in this league and being able to score some goals Because last year as a 19 year old he scored six goals That's pretty impressive for a 19 year old who came over without a preseason now. He's been here he's had a full preseason with the team,

and I'm really interested to see not how he starts out, but how he finishes the year. I really like the addition of him, and it fills another need that the Timbers have. One player who you did not mention is Himer Fori, and he might be the guy who I'm the most excited about because he's 6'2 and he plays left back and he can win a lot of balls in the air. The Timbers, I don't think I need to remind you of this, they conceded 12 set piece goals last year which was tied for the galaxy for the most in the league and he's going to be a huge addition to help with that area of defending which I think is the most important thing they need to fix heading into this year. But he's also very good at getting forward.

He can deliver really good crosses from the left side. And he provides competition for Claudio Bravo, who hasn't had that level of competition since he became a Timber in 2021. So even though it's a lot of what you'd call depth signings, none of these players are going to be expected to start right away, but they will have the opportunity to make their way into the starting 11. And if they're good enough to start in, if they're good enough to make that starting 11, they should be able to perform well on the pitch. Yeah, all of it makes a lot of sense. It feels like a lot of holes,

as you said, being filled. It feels like optionality, the ability for Phil Neville to maybe change things as they go Really all we saw last year was the Kamal Miller move to left back and that was kind of it because there wasn't really depth To make a lot of changes in these other positions It also feels big on the Kelsey signing and it's one of the things me and Tom debated where he was higher on this signing Than I am and I think if you're making the argument you're making, which is for the next five years, he could be a good player, that's great. I don't know what he is this year,

but the idea is you're probably not gonna get another full Felipe Mora healthy year. It just hasn't been his track record. So having Kelsey as an option or having Ariel Lassiter and being able to play Jonathan Rodriguez in there, it gives you a few different options. Didn't feel like they had last year. And part of that is because the other

Side of this transfer window outside of a Vander they haven't really lost True contributor Eric Williamson was treated to Charlotte has still dealt with those injuries We're hoping he can get his career started there But that's not a loss from 2024 for the Portland Timbers and the other names I have down here Marvin Luria, Mason Toy, Tega Iba Coba, none of them were really contributors to this team last year and so you have outside of Evander no other losses and you've brought in four or five impact pieces maybe two or three starters it feels like a really good offseason for this team they will play in Leagues Cup and US Open Cup this season so that is the two competitions cup competitions for Portland the max

Of course that MLS teams can play in let's go to our dualism right now, and then we'll chat off the back of that The bullish case for the Timbers in 2025 is that they actually should have been better in 2024 they they did a good job of limiting the quality of opposing chances. They just said kind of disastrous goalkeeping. And those guys, Maxime Crapeau in particular should be better in 2025. So you can see real improvement right there from a team that gave up almost 60 goals and of course, got crushed five dick in the playoffs. Like

that was just an absolute no show from everyone on that team and that leads to the bearish case for the Timbers is that by the end of last season we'll call it the team spirit was not good and in large part that's because Vander who was the best player on the team, was just like catastrophically unhappy with everything about the Timbers, but most especially the front office. Now Evander is gone, replaced by Portuguese attacker David da Costa. And it's just hard to imagine David da Costa will be as good as Evander was. Like Evander was incredible last year, MVP caliber, 15 goals and 15 assists.

It is just going to be really, really hard to replace that with one guy. And then the other aspect of it is that Evander, Jonathan Rodriguez and Felipe Mora, the three DPs together, combined for something like 70 goal contributions. And like that was bar in and away the best in the league that carried the team, the three DPs. One of those guys is gone.

One of those guys has hurt. And the third of those guys is old. And there just hasn't been enough brought in to make up for that. So I've leaned slightly towards the bearish case for this team. It's hard to imagine they'll be much better than last year. I think it's a little bit likely they'll be a little bit worse,

like not totally out of the picture, 30 points or something, but 50 does seem like a bit of a stretch. Doyle talked to himself back and forth over that line in both directions, ended up under the line, ended up, I think, a little bit against what the potential is this season. I think talked about some of the concerns we mentioned. Let's talk defensively.

Like that has been the huge Achilles heel for this team. Basically, it's why Gio ended up getting fired because the strengths of their teams, even with Valer and Blanco and all of that, were defensive spine when they made MLS Cup runs and deep playoff runs and they have not been able to find that again. What do you make of what this team can be this year? Well, the defense, I like his point about the goalkeeping because Maxime Kripot was brought in to be the number one, James Pantamis performed pretty well in his limited starts and ended the season as the

number one. But that also goes to the whole overarching theme of the defense, which is consistency. And specifically consistency in player selection. Now the Timbers probably had the deepest center back group in MLS last year. They were five deep and then they lost Larry Smabiala and then they brought in Finn Sermin to replace him and throughout the 37 games they played across MLS and League's Cup they started 20 different back lines with goalkeeper pairings. So that's 20 different over 37 games. The unit that had the most starts in that was five and it wasn't even on paper their best defensive unit of Claudio Bravo, Kamal Miller, Dario Zuparic, Juan David

Mosquera, and Kropo Engel. So I think the number one thing they have to focus on this year is establishing that first choice center back pairing, figuring out who the first choice defenders are going to be outside of that, that includes the goalkeeper. There is a strong case for James Pantemis, but it's still Maxime Crippaud's job, as far as I'm concerned. Even though Crippaud, his post shot expected goal differential was among the worst in the league, while Pantemis was in the positive,

I think it's very interesting that Pantemis was actually better at keeping the shots out, even though I think Crepeau exemplifies more of what Neville wants his goalkeepers to do. And the other parts of the defense that really need to be improved are specifically set pieces, which I've already touched on. I think they're woefully out of position on defensive transitions They turn the tent they tend to turn the ball over high up the field With their full backs really high up and all of a sudden it's an onrush at two center backs

Who have to make quick decisions as to who they're going to cover and usually that's gonna leave one player open and then the final one is shots from distance because For some reason they're very good at protecting the box. They aren't very good at challenging opposition shots from defense. And I think they can improve on all three of those and they can establish consistency there. I think this team's ceiling gets raised significantly. However, I'm not expecting that kind of drastic improvement over one off season. I'm expecting the set pieces to be a lot better next year. The defensive transition, that's going to come with more

with more minutes for the midfielders and more consistency and then the shots from distance. Sometimes you just allow a banger goal every once in a while it happens. This is MLS where great goals come weekly but I think the most important thing is finding that consistency and being able to defend set pieces and I think that will raise their ceiling more than Evander if he had stayed or Dacosta putting up a season Equivalent to what Evander did last year. Yeah it's there's a lot of reasons behind all of this. And I think it's, you laid it out perfectly in all of that.

I think one of my concerns is that deep center back pool. I'm not sure that there are two that I would love to be starters in Major League Soccer. I think there's one in Kamal Miller and I think there's four that are legitimately depth pieces on an MLS roster. I'm not sure that's a second great starter and I think that maybe limits some of what this team can do and I know I know people in Portland are very high on Finn Sermin and what he can be. It feels like a lot of responsibility for a young centerback but but if he's good enough, great. I think for me, I've seen Zuparic enough where I'm not going to say that's a starting MLS Cup center back.

And especially when you look at a club that had Luis Mabiala and had Liam Ridgewell and has had these players in that position in big moments where you know what that ceiling can be and what that responsibility is but it feels like a lot of the other stuff as you said can be cleaned up the set piece obvious Jawa Ortiz hope being helps clean up some of the defensive transition stuff the ground coverage stuff and I think part of Dacosta being a more consistent possession player rather than a flare piece centrally like a Vander, is you can hopefully anticipate turnovers more often. You can be in better positions

when the ball gets turned over. Every coaching staff calls it different, whether it's offensive marking or passive defending, whatever it is, it's the positioning you take up while you're in possession in anticipation of losing the ball. It takes a second to adjust into those spots. And I think Portland was one of those teams

where you had so much 1v1 talent that people weren't really in those positions. Or Juan Mascara and Claudio Brava, they don't really care about those positions. It's not really their focus when they're on the field. So all of it, I think you're right, could take a step forward. And if that's the case,

even if you have that drop in the attack, you're probably somewhat similar to where you finished last year. One thing before I take us to our over-under which is I think the turf at Providence Park leads to bangers. This is just like pure speculation it just feels like we've seen so many absurd long strikes and I've called games for it and like open cup all the way through to MLS so So I'm throwing that theory out there. I would love for Portland to do the research themselves because they own the stadium and then they could tell us whether or not that's true.

But Andrew Weebies over under for us goes into this point, which is Portland's place in the Western conference standings at nine and a half over or under last year, they finished in ninth. That is the final playing spot for the playoffs. And then had a what was it a motocross race or something? So they ended up getting to host and losing by a lot of goals at home So nine and a half under means they're out of the playoffs over means they're in Do you think this team is as good or better than they were last year? And what do you make of this line? I think rather than getting better at scoring goals this year, they didn't need to do that

and a natural regression was probably going to happen even if Evander had stayed. So I think what they did with the offseason in their transfer business, they raised the floor of this team a bit. They added more competition at crucial positions and also in preseason Phil Neville has been experimenting with a back three. It's been a little bit of a mixed bag so far but it's something that he is willing to try and a lot of people, myself included, feel that the players on this roster would suit a system with three center backs and two wing backs and whatever combination of forwards you want. There's a lot of players on this

team that can thrive in multiple different systems not just the 4-2-3-1. So I'm gonna take the over on that. I think they will find a way to make it into the playoffs because Providence Park is a very tough place to play and I'm betting on that defensive solidity to come back. Because I believe with three center backs, that's better for set pieces. It's better for the team being able to defend transitions with an extra man back there. And I'm also just more bought in on Da Costa improving this team out of possession with a bunch of players who I think are willing to defend from the front like Felipe Mora and especially Santiago Moreno.

Despite putting up double digit assists last year, Moreno's defensive work was the thing that stood out to me more than anything. He is not afraid to get stuck in there and try and win the ball back. And some of those high turnovers that he forced ended up allowing Evander to pad his stats by getting more goals in assists. So if the team can be more bought in to defending not just with their defense and defending with their whole team and if DaCosta is able to come in and Provide something that draws players to him similar to the way that a Vander does which will open up space for the other attackers I think they will be able to climb above ninth place

When I predicted the West I put them in sixth. I previously had them in Ninth, but I was looking I didn't realize Houston and lost Mikael which caused me to reshuffle the entire West again and it came out to sixth and I Felt pretty confident with that because this team even if they start slow, which they're very very prone to do They do have three home games in their first five games So that's a really good launching point for them to potentially take some momentum into May and June. I really think that with the defense improved, maybe they don't score as many goals,

but they win a lot more games by a score of two to one instead of four to two, which is better for the team. Yeah I came into this show probably going under this you have talked me back through it which shows how unsolid all of my thoughts are at this point of the season MLS preseason is one of the scariest moments in my life every single year do I trust the grainy stream that I just watched, the Coachella game that cut out every 30 seconds that I just watched, or not? I think there are a lot of questions with this group. I am going to look at last year and choose to believe that the tank in form, right, the last four, five games of the year, no wins, four ties for this team. You talk about clearly what was going on behind the scenes with Evander,

what was going on with this team. You take that away and the form they were on the rest of the year puts them above this line. I think you're right that they're deeper. I think they're more athletic. I think they're a little bit younger. I think they're more versatile. I still have questions overall defensively, but we're talking about seventh or eighth in the Western

Conference. Those are still bad defensive teams. Overall when you talk about Major League Soccer they're just potentially less bad than they were last year and so I think I'm sold on a lot of what you said. I still have no idea what my standings look like but I'm gonna go under with this one as well and that they are in the playoffs this year, whatever it is make sure to follow Jeremy for coverage of this team It's going to be fascinating to watch as the Costa gets settled in another year under Phil Neville And of course, it's always eventful around Portland when you get into this soccer time of season I appreciate you taking the time to join me and let's do this again soon. Yeah, I agree and also one last note

It is their 50th anniversary season for the club being founded in 1975 And if I was to say for one personal goal, I would have for this team this year win the US Open Cup They have never done it they are one of the stronger teams in the competition and I think that if Phil Neville the stronger teams in the competition. And I think that if Phil Neville dedicates a significant amount of effort to winning that competition, they will be able to do it. And being able to do that in your number 50 would be fantastic. Yeah, it'll be wild.

There's a few NASL teams, I think, that are hitting that number. I know the Tip Bay Rowdies are there as well. It would be awesome to see it played at Providence Park it would be the perfect atmosphere for a US Open Cup big match whether it's a semi-final or a final and as you said for anyone who doesn't remember none of the teams in the US Open Cup from an MLS point of view because there's only 16 of them were playoff teams from last year except for two or three so the Portland Timbers come in as

one of those few and they come in as one of the early favorites in that competition if you choose to take it seriously there's some real potential to make a deep run so that would be really fun to watch I hope it's the case either way we'll continue to talk about it here at Sackervise you can follow Jeremy for all your coverage and thanks for listening. I've been doing unique intros for places, other countries, different accents, different languages. So I'm going to go full Toronto Canadian here and say, hello. This is David Goss and Tom Bogert at Soccer Wiseise it is time for us to talk about Toronto FC here the six baby and

it is a another probably tough year that we are heading into Tom to me Toronto FC are one of the seminal moments in MLS history and I know as you go back through it and and we're gonna do more of this at SoccerWise you talk about Sort of these benchmarks DC United at the beginning Chicago fire coming into this league I think Philadelphia Union's entrance into the league right ahead and then Seattle that's considered like MLS 2.0 or 3.0 whichever one you want to go with and then there's a whole you know set of expansion and SKC's rebrand into their new stadium But to me Javinco and the MLS Cup runs and the atmospheres in Toronto and the setup and all of that that to me is one of those Big benchmark moments and it was a big one for my life because it was the first time I was really in a market

That was fully committed to Major League Soccer and the team was super relevant and it was a big deal and it felt like oh Okay, this league has made it and established themselves and they were there for a while They were there for five or six years since they've taken the step back It has just continued to go downhill I think Tom that's one of the frustrating things for me from the outside watching this is like, you know the potential And you want it to be there Yeah, and after the Giovinco era, they got caught trying short-term fixes, little band-aids on structural issues.

And there was a drain in the front office of a lot of really good executives that started with Tim Besbachenko that left. And I could name probably seven other people off the top of my head. We'll just leave it at that. And beyond- You could name three CSOs right now, right?

And Issa Tal and Corey Ray in Major League Soccer Yeah, who came out of that and I believe in Portland Jackson Dodd is I think the number two to net grab a voice So anyway, you look like Lou Tim bez bachenko who's now running like five teams Including a Premier League club and again, so all these all these people were in the front office and then it became let's look on transfer market who's the free agents that are coming up who does my son like in FIFA all these things and that's what led them to where they are today like the amount of coaches they've cycled through since Greg Vanni left. Greg Vanni wanted more control he wasn't giving it so he went

to Galaxy where he got the control and everything else. Well Greg Vanni just won MLS Cup with the LA Galaxy. The front office thankfully has been remade. This is being led by GM Jason Hernandez, and he's putting together his own staff that is supposed to tackle this. Anytime that he's done media opportunities, he's stressed we can't take shortcuts

or we're gonna end up in the same spot. They needed to take their lumps. Last season was supposed to be the start of a new era, but the head coach was hired by the predecessor in the front office and then there was a drone scandal and now that head coach left so Robin Frazier's in his head coach adjacent like I think that if they give these this coach and this front office time and a little bit of leeway that it might suck for one more year and Then you could kind of put the expectations and pressures on again I'm not dooming them to definitely be one of the worst teams in the league, but

just looking at it right now, that's where most people have them. But what matters most is that they don't go, oh crap, we should fix it right now. Who can we sign to a long term contract, short-sighted, that's going to mess up the progress. So what they've done is rebuilt their assets, whether it's allocation money letting some contracts so they tried really hard to get out of lorenzo and senior but lorenzo and senior turned on multiple offers and that would have included a buyout that would get would have given him most of his money and senior still on the team bernadesky was reborn last year long may continue and we'll see which hair he

shows up with on day one i'm i'm i'm very curious to see that more so than anything else but this this team, again, it might suck. It might be difficult. It might be hard, but they are on the right path. Well, we already went through the second Matrix movie, I think, with Bernadesi's hair. So we're just on the third one. If you want to go watch that movie, you can get your free view of what he's up to. No spoilers. No spoilers for his hair. Yeah, no spoilers. It is, yeah, it's tough to reset things. I think the Robin Fraser appointment is interesting, right?

It's an ode to the success, but for a guy who then left and has worked outside of Toronto in Major League Soccer, had up and down success, has ideas, and so it feels like, okay, can this be the continuation of what it should have been in 2020? Like 2020 or 2021, when you post Greg Vanny, post Jovinko, post

Josey and Bradley should have just taken that next step into your future. This feels like it kind of could be that with a gap in between. And I think fans would be okay with that if it finally starts and moves forward. We've seen the fans sort of leave the stadium like there is, I think a real worry for this club and they're about to expand it because they are going to be one of the hosts for the 2026 World Cup and they're going to add 10,000 seats or whatever it is to the stadium and those conversations were about doing it permanently because Toronto was going to be this game changer in Major League Soccer and they have

the ability, right? It's an international city. It's a place that people from all around the world are happy to come live because they can feel comfortable. They can find connection like Givinko had never left Italy before. Now he's trying to talk himself into short term TFC contracts on the back end of his deal because he's happy in that place. And I think that's the potential. It doesn't just have to be Italian, by the way. Like, let's throw that out there. You don't just have to do the same playbook, but it's what Toronto Raptors have tried to do with the

international contingent of players they've signed in the past and the stars that they've sort of leaned towards and I think the potential should exist there as well and I'm hoping because I absolutely love going to Toronto flying in a Billy Bishop walking over under the river getting into the city like that is one of my favorite things to do in the world when this stadium is bumping it is special when this team is good. It is special. And look at the Canadian men's national team.

It is all Toronto natives who didn't play for TFC. The talent is there, the potential is there, and we're hoping that it all comes on board. So let's go to our conversation now with Michael Singh of Toronto Till I Die, who covers the team a little bit closer than us. Alright, well I've already given my Billy Bishop spiel, so there's nothing else Toronto that I need to talk about besides TFC, so therefore we have to chat with an expert. Michael Singh in market,

one of the hosts of Toronto Till I Die podcast. If you don't listen, you should. It has been a lot of the die part for Toronto FC fans over the last few years. We will talk about all of it in just a moment, but Michael nice to see you again. Yeah, good to see you as well man. Happy to hop on here and chat some TFC. The excitement unbridled is what some would say. Seasons around the corner, you're not

feeling it? It doesn't feel like 2019 or 2017? Not at all. I mean look, we'll get into a little bit more but like the biggest thing for this offseason was supposed to be a turning of the page for Toronto FC, a new era. You know, let's put the past behind us, let's move forward and it really feels a lot of the same. There hasn't been enough change for Toronto of Sea fans in my opinion, so it's tough to get optimistic but I'm sure TFC fans will show up and then try to try to get their best smile right but right down by Billy Bishop as You mentioned yeah, and it's a great atmosphere It's a great spot to watch a game when the weather is okay

So might take a couple weeks for that as well as we do on all of these we will go through our transfer Offseason update we'll talk about some of the big storylines. We'll have our Doyalism as well coming up on the great Sage's thoughts on the team, which we will react to. And then we've got our over underline to finish with from Andrew Weeby. For transfer updates, it was an odd window. The page has not turned the way you said. So let's start off the field because maybe the biggest storyline that actually happened is the change in head coach after the CSO change and all the change in the front office over the last year. John Herman stepped away. We don't know 100% why it feels slightly connected to the drone scandal that occurred

with the Canadian women's national team that he used to be in charge of which is being investigated currently so he stepped away and in replacement is I guess you could say one of your own in Robin Frazier he's not a Toronto native but he was a big part of the Greg Vanni Toronto years he is someone who himself connects very heavily with the city of Toronto what do you make of what this sort of move has been like and how the club sort of went through this? Yeah, I think the last part you hit on was very important was that Robin Frazier was a big part

of that 2017 Toronto FC team. The people that were part of that run, and even in the years leading up to that 2017 MLS Cup, were people who built an affinity with Toronto FC. And playing for Toronto FC, putting that crest on your jersey, it meant something. And over the last several years, it's lost that. It's lost that. I mean, the buzzword is culture.

People always say, former TFC president Bill Manning used to say it all the time, Toronto FC lost its culture. We got to get it back. Well, insert Robin Frazier, a guy who knows Toronto FC. And I think the biggest part for this move was, you know, it made sense in a lot of different ways. It's Toronto FC's fifth different head coach since Greg Vanny departed the club ahead of the 2021 season. You know, if you count in terms as well, it's been a lot of turnover from a coaching staff perspective and you know, one of it is, okay, yes, they're looking for more stability in that position moving forward, but also, I mean, it's, it's not cheap to go fire Bob Bradley, you know, one of the

winning coaches in MLS history, and then have to, you know, we don't know what the financial implications are of John Herdman, but his one year tenure here at Toronto is no longer. And if TFC are, you know, still paying some of that again, it's, it, it costs money for that to happen. So enter Robin Frazier who you know checks a box and the fact that he loves Toronto is you know built from the cut from the same cloth as Greg Vanning who was the last coach to have

serious success at Toronto FC and financially you know it's not the most expensive move as well. So he's a guy who can come in and hopefully provide some of that stability while you're not spending too much on them. Yeah, there's a lot. As you said, there's a lot of parts of this that make a ton of sense. His connection, I just still remember we interviewed him I think heading into the bubble in 2020 as head coach of the Colorado Rapids. And I think I asked him, what do you think you're gonna do when you're not having games? And he's like, I'll just hang out with my Toronto buddies.

And it's like, you're a head coach of a different team? Maybe that should be the first answer. And so he has still been connected. And I have, I'm sure you have seen him in Toronto when he's been off a ton of time. He loves the city, he loves what it means. And I think he was a big part of the belief that the club could be something bigger.

And we talked about it in the segment coming into this, like to me, that 2015 through run, Toronto represented something, Toronto FC represented something that I wasn't 100% sure was possible, like being market relevant, being a borderline, global club in an MLS structure. And I think Robin Fraser,

the belief that that was possible and seeing it happen, bringing that back feels really important from the outside, but also went and worked at a different MLS club. So isn't just following what has happened in Toronto the last six years, like he's got other ideas that he has brought from other markets and sort of other projects to bring back in.

It feels like to be both an MLS aware club, but also have that global sort of appeal or global desire. Yeah, 100%. The ambition is there from Robin Fraser. And the other thing I'll mention is, you know, Toronto FC have, they're gonna be a different Toronto FC in the sense that they used to spend a lot of money on some older players, used to spend a lot of money on some

older players, used to invest in you know roster ready players, whereas a lot of the time some of the talent that came through their own backyard would slip through the cracks because they were focused on building an MLS ready team. Some of the players that I've spoken to, some of the young players on Toronto FC and who are no longer with Toronto FC, have all pointed to Robin Fraser just unprompted about someone who has helped them in their career and someone who has helped their development. And I think that part is really crucial is that I think Toronto FC are going to pay more attention now in the ilk of maybe a different version of Dallas or a different version of Philadelphia, a

team that tries to accomplish both success on the field but also off the field in terms of development. And I think Robin Frazier's role in that is going to be very crucial as a guy who's worked with a lot of young kids, can develop kids, but also a guy's proven he can also do it in MLS and find success with the first team. It is music to the ears of a lot of Toronto fans if that's true. For anyone who doesn't know, I used to host a podcast called The Football Pod with Sean

Kay and Devang Desai, who both used to work at Toronto FC and who are texting me consistently saying why isn't this young player playing? How good is this young player? And the answer a lot of times is just Toronto. Like the U13 to U17 level, they're as good if not better than everyone else. And you look at the Canadian men's national team and the players in Toronto are as good, if not better than everyone else.

But it has not worked at the first team level. That's that last piece. And as you said, Robin, very connected. I don't think it's, you know, to be ignored that in the Mark Anthony K trade, Ralph Preseaux was a part of the return. Like he still had the idea of these young players I had seen in the Toronto setup that I have belief in

and it didn't work out, but at least there was still that idea from him from the outside of like, I believe in the young talent in this market and I think they can make it through. And that would be great if that's the case going forward because there's no reason it shouldn't be and they shouldn't be in a conversation with some of the clubs you just mentioned who have done it in North America. Before we finish here and go into the signings, John Herdman. What's the deal with that? What is

John Herdman's now TFC legacy? What's going on? What should we be following? He you know, I'll say this, it was, it actually was a very significant blow, I think, for Toronto seed to lose john Herman, you know, say what you want about him now, based on the fact that you know, he got caught up in this spying scandal, drone gate, whatever it is you want to call it. He was starting to build something at Toronto, obviously. And he got the, in my opinion, the most out of a roster that was subpar. And while things fizzled down, fills it out down the stretch, I still think that there was a foundation that was

being laid under John Herman. Now, enter Robin Fred, you got to start from scratch again. And not only do you lose a quality coach in John Herman, not only do you lose a quality culture builder in John Herman, you know, you have to now replace, you have to start a different ideology. You have to start a different way of playing, way of thinking, different roster to go with now Toronto Sea's new philosophy. So in that part, I think it's a huge loss for Toronto Sea.

In terms of what's going on with John Herman, to be honest, I do not know. You know, CSA has said they're going to handle it internally, meaning they're privately going to handle the matter. Is he going to get in trouble? Is he not? Is there going to be some kind of penalty baron? We don't know. Whether or not CSA choose to make that public, I guess that's up to them. But as far as we know, he is no longer

involved at the club and obviously no longer involved in football right now in Canada. It was a bizarre circumstance. It's one of the craziest stories I think I've ever covered. And then the fact that the women then went on with all the points deduction to make it out of the group and like everything else that happened has been absolutely absurd. Uh, we interviewed Casey Stoney on this show who has replaced that priestman who replaced John Herdman and all of that.

Uh, and I think more excitement there on the Canadian side. Uh, and you can go back and listen to that interview, but let's continue on here with Toronto FC. And so the off season, the hope was that the outbound would be big It was in the middle. They declined the options on a number of players Prince being a big one of them Shane O'Neil Amy Mabika, Servania Greg Ranjit Singh all not major contributors But around the team and probably the start of what needs to be filling

out some players. They brought in Thiago Andrade to sell him, which does actually feel TFC-esque. That's like finding a Marc Delgado in a dispersal draft. That's like just playing the margins and picking up a couple extra thousand dollars here or there. But the big one is the inability to get Lorenzo Insigne off the books. Tom has reported that they have brought him multiple offers that he declined in which he would get a lot of his contract in a payout and then the opportunity to go play in Italy or Spain or Turkey or whatever that is. He has turned that down. He is on the books as we have in our charts all the way through the 2028 season at 15.4 million dollars

and it didn't work so he is still there Michael and it is uh it probably is worst case scenario to have tried to push him out and not successfully gotten him there. Okay so the the 2028 is news to me. Oh maybe I have maybe I'm reading wrong. I think it's 2020 the halfway through 2026. So it's a year and a half. Ah, which is an option year. That would make sense. Yeah. And they have the option to extend it for an extra six months in the summer. But still, like it's probably won't happen. Throwing it out there probably won't happen. No's my guess. Throwing it out there, probably won't happen.

No, but it's going to linger over this team like a dark cloud. It's going to be a Sega. And the reality is when you see teams like, you know, an Atlanta United, you see teams like even like Philadelphia, or you see teams like Austin, who are Cincinnati, Portland, name it. they're spending millions of dollars in transfer fees to bring in young players, to bring in designated players. The bar has risen in Major League Soccer.

Toronto FC is, they're spending like those clubs. And the reason why they're still spending like those clubs is because they're paying Lorenzo and Signe still. So it's not like TFC aren't spending as much as those clubs. When you see all those exciting transfers, it's just that they've already spent it. And I'm confident again, there'll be a top three, top four, top five spending team in Major League Soccer because they still have Lorenzo and Signe and his astronomical contract on the books. So it's, it's really hamstrung the team and that's the big reason why, you know, the way that

this roster is constructed, it's tough to imagine unless everything goes right for this team and everything goes right that went wrong last year. It's tough to imagine this team being anywhere close to a contender because they're built on the back of Lorenzo Insigne, who we don't even know if he's going to be playing this season. We don't even know what's going on there. So it's tough. It's tough to imagine anything positive coming from this. So reading it from the outside, you know the phrase is

You know a partial buyout and then the ability to go play for another team Each MLS team is allowed two full buyouts And if you do that the player doesn't really get to say yes or no you have to pay the full contract and then they Walk away Should fans be asking why that's not happening or it wouldn't even matter because if they did that they wouldn't go spend the money So having him around is the same as not I think that's that's the gist of it. It's like, okay, you can pay the Whatever 20th remaining 23 24 million dollars on the contract which again from Financially, you got to wait if that's even worth it for toronto fc to the fork up all of that money

Um, and then you would have to go spend that, spend an additional $10 million or whatever it is to go bring in another designated player. So then you're asking for a 30 plus million dollar investment from Toronto FC. And let me remind you, this is a club who over the past five years has invested tens and tens of million dollars with no return. So why should now a board in MLSC be trusting Toronto FC to go spend that additional $10 million correctly? It's been kind of their crutch for the last three, four years is, you know, you've spent this money, we want results, the results aren't coming,

we're not gonna give you more money. With Keith Pelley coming in, who is the new CEO of MLSC, it seems that he's found a way to be a little bit more willing to spend, but to what extent, I guess is the big question. Can you talk a little about his role, sort of, and how it connects to TFC? Because it feels like, at least from the outside,

what I've seen is at least some quotes and comments. It felt like MLSC almost forgot. Bill Manning ran Toronto FC, and that was off here, and it was successful, and that made sense. And then when it wasn't, it wasn't really maybe as connected to the rest of it. Can you talk about maybe the change there, and what now Toronto FC looks like inside of the MLSC family?

Sure. Listen like as a lot of people know or may not know MLSC is one of the biggest sporting entities in the world and they own some of the biggest most valuable teams in the world whether that that be the Toronto Maple Leafs or the Toronto Raptors. Toronto Sea fall pretty far down that pecking order, especially when you consider where they are in the market of Toronto as well. You factor in the Blue Jays there. There's a new WNBA team coming to Toronto. There's a lot to compete with in the city of Toronto. So while it has been a very valuable investment for MLSC, it's just not been a huge priority. And maybe that's a little bit unfair because MLSC is still spending a ton of money. They're on the top spenders in Major League Soccer every single year. However, you know, it seems like there could have been a little bit more, uh,

soccer experts at the top is the best way I'd say. And, and, you know, enter, enter Keith Pelly and Keith Pelly is a guy who, you know, owns a club or is a partial owner of a club overseas. He's a guy who, um, has a bit of a soccer background himself. And while his job is going to be enormous as MLSC CEO, meaning he's tasked with helping the Toronto Maple Leafs get to that next level in the Stanley Cup playoffs or turning around the Raptors,

he's been very much present so far at Toronto FC. So there is a bit of hope that with an owner or CEO, at least of the company that owns Toronto FC, if they see the value in this investment, because I believe that Toronto FC has the potential to be a market setting club in Major League Soccer, right? They're sure, you know, look at Messi and Inter Miami. Before really Messi and Inter Miami, it was Toronto Sea that was pushing boundaries, right? In the same way that LA Galaxy did.

So I think Toronto Sea still has the potential to get back there. They just kind of have to hit that reset button. And I think Keith Pelley sees the value in that. Even as you say, right, even where it's sat and what's happening, you mentioned Lorenzo Antigone's astronomical contract just for context for people. Messi, what we have reported is that his guaranteed compensation is $20 million. We have probably no idea how much money Messi is getting for his deal.

That's fine. And for a bunch of these deals that are on the high, high end, it's a little bit harder because there's triggers and there's probably other stuff outside of contract that's involved. But Lorenzo Insigne's guaranteed compensation is $15.4 million. That is double anyone else in Major League Soccer. So everyone else we're talking about, and that will probably change this year with Latte Loth and Denke and Evander's New Deal and all of that, but still we are talking about and that will probably change this year with Latte Loth and Denke and Evander's New Deal and all of that. But still we are talking about players being paid around six to eight million dollars to

be the biggest names on their team, Insigne being double that and then Bernadeschi being inside of that. So like the spending is out there with the best in the league, with the biggest in the league. It's just been done poorly and so now you're stuck into this spot that Means it's sort of been thin on the players coming in We finally got a center forward move in Ola Brindle sin Coming on loan from FC midget lend a little bit of time with the national team

But a player who's still sort of looking to find his feet as a permanent starter. And then the other one, which I just learned that I've been saying wrong for years now, is Theo, I think it's Corbinu. I've been saying Corbinu. I watched a video where he said it himself, and then he said, everyone just calls me Theo, and you're like, I can't really do that, but maybe one day, and he's on loan from Granada,

and I think there's some excitement with that one of the type of Toronto player that should be around this team. And then one of D-Row's kids has signed as a homegrown goalkeeper. And then there's some few a few rumors still out there around this team. Michael, what do you make of the work they've done so far? And then we can talk about Zayn Manoulis a little. Yeah, for sure. Work they've done so far. I mean, Theo Corporenew is a fantastic sign. I think Jason Hernandez, who by the way, I believe is super widely respected in Major League Soccer. I think he is very forward thinking and innovative when it comes to these signings. And if you look at the

last year and a half since he's taken charge, there haven't been really a lot of misses when it comes to Toronto FC's signing. I think they're in good hands, they're moving forward. In Theo Corbin, what they do is they loan with a purchase option. They get a hungry Canadian international, or a Canadian national who has been ousted from the national team, and I'm sure he has aspirations of cracking you know that roster again. A guy who I've spoken to like I said a lot of young kids I always ask about you know Giacchino Marsalretti and how highly touted he was I always ask you know is he the best kid that you guys have seen growing up? Presumably it's always been Theo Corpagnu because he used to he came through the Toronto Sea Academy

before heading overseas. I think he is going to be one of the surprises in Major League Soccer this season. I think he the talent is is there. I think he has a potential to be a game changer and I think he has been kind of overshadowed just from not being a part of the national team and not getting consistent minutes at very high level clubs. But the talent I think is there and he's going to get ample opportunity, especially with Lorenzo Insigne sitting out. In terms of Ulla, which is kind of what I like to call him. Damn, that's a good idea.

Nobody heard of this guy before it was reported. And I don't really know what to make of it. The one thing I can tell people is, you know, he's more of a well-rounded number nine, doesn't do one thing particularly great, but does a lot of, you know, things well. They need, they need a number nine for years. They need a number nine for years. Is he the answer? We'll, I guess we'll see once see once the season starts. But if that's it, I mean, nowhere near enough. Like I said, the roster turnover hasn't been enough for fans to feel like this is a new era and page turning. Doesn't feel like a fresh roster.

It feels like a continuation of last year with the new head coach, which is not enough, but I say that in, you know, it's February 19th while we're recording this, a lot can change in the next week or two. It's changed already. If we had done this last week when I've done some of these other teams, it would have been basically zero signings. It would have just been Corbin. So it's already changed pretty quickly. I love that you keyed in on him and what he can bring because I may have told this story on the show, but I was at the media marketing tour and Jonathan Osorio came in and sat on the dais

and looked kind of defeated and like asking questions about the season and what's going on and the team. And then it was right when Tom had first reported Theo and his potential addition. And I brought it up and said it like, you know, sort of, you don't have to confirm anything, but like in abstract, what would it be like? And his face lit up.

I'm like, that's the type of player Toronto should be bringing in. That's the type of player I want to play with. And that's a guy, like you said, who watched him come through the academy and then has played with him at the national team. So he knows what it takes to play in this league. He knows what he's capable of. And I think there should be excitement about what he can bring. And then you start to say like,

if Bernadeschi is healthy and plays and gives you something like, now that's two wingers, that is now an outlet to at least play through. And that's sort of a strength for this team. And then the other moves we sort of waiting on to see. Talk me through for a moment, Zane, Manlous or whatever it is, who's an Arsenal U21, and

the idea right now we think is coming on loan, just the idea of it's a very odd addition in Major League Soccer. We haven't really seen moves like this. And a center back position that, yeah, needs top end talent, but does have some level of depth, it feels like if that's what he's being brought in for. Yeah, I mean, right away, the first thing that came to mind was Nixon Gomez. And he's a player that played for Sheffield's U-21s. Again, a player who was struggling to break through with that team.

And he came over last year and joined Toronto. Very cheap wages. Um, he was one of, if not their best center back last season. I think the quality of Toronto's back line, um, it allows for a lot of opportunities for these young players to come over and to get consistent minutes and to be, you know, surprises at time. I don't think, I don't know what the gap is between a Premier League two player and a major league soccer, you know, especially with defenders. Defenders are so tough to judge.

What I'll say is I don't think I've ever seen a young Toronto FC Academy product yet break through as a defender in Major League Soccer. So why not go out and, yeah, listen, Arsenal's not the worst place to poach Academy players from. Why not go out and poach their captain? And I think, yeah, sure, you attach the name Arsenal to it, it gets fans excited. Temper expectations a little bit, it probably has a lot of, you know, developing still to do, it's probably pretty raw. At the same time, you know, sometimes that works in Major League Soccer.

So it's, it's, it's, I think it's exciting. Especially when you consider he's, he's 21. And who knows what can happen the next two, three years. One of the things that popped in my head too, this came across and I don't know anything about this I just made it up is Robin Fraser was coach of Colorado Rapids who are owned by the same Sporting group Cronkite as Arsenal I do wonder if he's had the chance to see him maybe in trainings or behind closed doors in which he has more knowledge About this player and as you said, what's the jump? How does a player like this fit all of that?

And if it's on loan, it may not even be a permanent thing. It might just be a shot in the dark at trying to get some cheap talent in the door and make your team a little bit deeper and a little bit more competitive. Let's go to our Doyalism now and then we'll jump off the back of that. TFC have made some late additions to their roster, a Norwegian center forward, a young English center back and that's kind of fun. But if you look at the thing as a whole. This looks much more about getting themselves set up for 2026 and beyond just about everybody comes off the books after this year except Federico

Bernadeschi Jonathan Osorio. I think Richie Laurrea as well. And that's just about it. Like everyone else who's under contract through 2026 is on a minimum salary. And it's kind of the end point of a disastrous four or five year stretch for this team. And there's no bigger symbol of that than Lorenzo Insinia, who, you know, as per Tom's reporting, Toronto tried to move heaven and earth to get this guy off the roster this year and he just decided he didn't want to. He's just going to collect a paycheck and it seems unlikely he'll spend more than 1500 minutes playing soccer.

Very good work if you can get it. But the dude is just a karma sink, right? It just ruins the vibes and it doesn't lead to good soccer and there's not enough talent elsewhere to make up for that. So I picked this team to win, quote unquote, win the wooden spoon in preseason. Even with these late moves, I haven't seen anything suggest that I'm going to be too far off in that prediction. So good luck to Robin Frazier and good luck,

TFC fans trying to endure the season ahead. It's always happy fun time with Matt Doyle, as we know. It's hard to avoid. I'm actually going to mix this with our over underline from Andrew Weeby which is 33 and a half points for the season. The question being then are we buying what Doyle's saying? Doyle is saying a wooden spoon. Last year the wooden spoon was a deep deep hole. San Jose finished on 21 points. Second to last in the West was Kansas City on 31. In the East, Chicago finished at the bottom with 30, New England on 31, and then Nashville was on 36,

right behind Toronto FC, who finished on 37 points. So do you think, like Doyle said, this team takes a step back from last year, at least for now, and do you think that that's at the bottom of the league? Yeah, there was a lot of points left on the table last year. I'll say do I think they take a step back? They're probably around the same the same spot that they were last season Lawrence on city barely played with Toronto Sea last year

So I don't really factor him as being much of a loss. He probably won them three six points that the season but I think that can be probably made up by having a proper number nine can probably be made up by having the Okorbanu which we talked about. You know for me I'm probably I'm always a glass half full kind of guy so these things always kill me but I would take the over but probably slightly is where I'm leaning a glass half full kind of guy. So these things always kill me, but I would take the over Probably slightly is where I'm where I'm leaning right now. So yeah 34 35 points But it's gonna be close. Yeah, it's gonna be close It is it's tough that the lines even here and as Doyle said the hope is that this is the last year of the case

I'm on one side of me says the talent's not there, it's a bit of an unknown, I don't know how much you know you'll get throughout the season if Insigne is around and Bernadette is committed or not committed and what's going on. The other side of things is Robin Fraser, part of the reason he's no longer in Colorado is he really wanted to play a heavy possession style that was you know open and expansive and what we have seen from at a minimum Wilford Nansay is like soccer players want to play in that and so you look at a group of players who have struggled I think over the last few years and I think they're going to

enjoy being a part of this. There are growing pains in all of that and there is a talent ceiling on the full group. There's obviously elite talent but overall on the full group here and they're gonna bump up against that But I think it's gonna be slightly over as well close to what it was last year because I think in the dog-daves of the summer they're gonna go out there and they're gonna ball and they're gonna play and kids are gonna play with confidence and There are gonna be teams who are less focused and less locked in You're also gonna your hope would be similar to last year with Herdman Steal some early points because teams don't know what you look like yet and what to expect. So if that all sort of

rolls together they're probably in a similar situation. I think for TFC fans if it was fun to watch even if it wasn't successful with the contracts coming off the books that probably be a pretty positive year. The other thing to note, which I forgot to add already, is for Toronto this year, only Canadian Championship Cup competition. They did not qualify for Leagues Cup or CONCACF Champions Cup. They drew Montreal in the first round, which is bizarre.

And I know on the Montreal side of things, they were pretty excited about it. And Vancouver is on the other side of the bracket. So it would only be a meeting in the final with the defending champion. That could be an avenue as well to have a little success and try and reboot some stuff. You would play the winner of Forge and Halifax in the next round if you're able to get by Montreal. That's probably something that Toronto will focus on but maybe that's a positive. Maybe getting

results in something like that and going on a run sort of boost the team Into the regular season either way we are here at soccer wise for all of your therapy needs or anything else Toronto FC fans We want Toronto to succeed. We love the team. We love the market We love the fan base and hopefully Michael will do this again next year and it'll be happy go lucky again And we'll be talking about the next big superstar and all the great things that are gonna happen in Canada. I can't wait. I can't wait. I'm looking ahead for a year, a year and a half. I can't wait. you