SoccerWise - 2025 MLS Season Previews Revs, Nashville, VAN & MIN

Episode Date: February 14, 2025

The 2025 MLS Season draws nearer and it is time for Soccerwise's next batch of season previews. To start Seth Macomber of the Blazing Musket joins to dig into all FOURTEEN offseason transfers for the Revs. Then David chats with two of the best out of the music city in Ben Wright & Valair Shabilla to discuss BJ Callaghan's first full season. After that Michael McColl checks in from north of the border to give a temperature check on all things Vancouver Whitecaps. Last but not least Zarek Valentin steps off the field in Minnesota to talk through expectations for the Loons in 2025.1:03 Revs W/Seth  Blazing Musket33:43 Nashville w/Ben & Valair  Six One Five Soccer1:08:52 Vancouver w/Michael AFTN1:42:27 Minnesota w/Zarek Sound Of The Loons  Soccerwise Live 2pm ET Every Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday on Youtube/Twitch/Twitter

Hey everybody, welcome in to Soccer Wise. David Goss here. We're going to get into our first intro and preview in just a moment. If you're a Rebs, Nashville, Vancouver, or Minnesota fan who's new, maybe looking for their MLS content heading into the new season. Welcome. I hope you enjoy your time here at SoccerWise. I hope you come back. Subscribe, get involved. We stream live two to three times a week talking MLS and NWSL as well as the national teams, lower division soccer and everything else in between. Of course you can go hit your timestamps. Myself and Tom will intro every single team and then either me and Tom and a guest or just a couple guests from a local podcast are going to talk about every single team as we head into the season and

we're still doing a ton of other season preview content on our live shows and on our weekly shows. So enjoy this one and let's get into it. David Goss and Tom, Senor Scoops Bogart on Soccer Wise. It's our season preview still Tom. I don't know if you've heard there are 30 teams in Major League Soccer now. We've got a lot to cover. We've got a lot to talk about. I don't know that anyone has made as many moves as the New England Revolution. We've got Seth McComber coming up in a moment who you should follow on all social medias. The Blazing Musket does as well a job covering soccer

in New England. As anyone, after we finished this preview, we talked hearts of pine in Portland, we talked Vermont Green, we talked Rhode Island. There's so much soccer going on in New England now. But Seth said it, 14 moves and 13 returning players, Tom. They flipped this roster. First of all, Seth's a legend. Go listen to him. Go read his stuff. Everything in that

market. They do an excellent job. And with this team, like Seth said, it's easy to see from the outside. You just look at all the transactions, right? I was joking with somebody at the club who said, yeah, man, we were the other expansion team this winter of how much that we overturned our roster. Like you said, 14 new in, that overtakes the amount of players that they're returning. The good news is some of those players that are coming back include the former MLS MVP in Carlisle Hill, a club record signing in Luca Langone, and DP in Thomas Chancla, who was very successful in his first days before he suffered tornice.

Yeah. So those three being joined up top by Leo Campana and Ignatius Canago is going to be an incredibly fun attack. The defense is going to be completely reworked. Credit and awful sporting director, head coach, Caleb Porter. This is their team. There is no doubt about that right now. And I'm very curious to see how it's all going to come together in 2025. Yeah. There's a lot to watch for because of all those moves. And as the person who made the theorem of how long it takes to fit into this league, there's some worries about how many pieces can hit at once and what they need to come together.

I think one of the underrated ones and maybe even underrated by us is just, I think Leo Campana is ready to be a starting center forward in MLS. And it's one of those two things can be true at the same time, which is Miami got a pretty good deal for him to get that much gam, but the revs did too. Because they generated the gam with the sale of Esmer Barak Taravich, it was worth every penny, I think, to go out and get him.

I couldn't agree more. So all these deals, you need to have the context in. This was a league record gam transfer. It's 2.5 million upfront with another 750,000 in potential add-ons that's a steep fee but this is a really good player so first of all I always I always say it good players cost money yeah it's unfortunate but particularly with goals if you want a good center forward you don't have to go cheap Leo Campana I love this move for the revs another reason why I love it so much is

basically free on the acquisition cost because of, as you said, Esmere was sold to PSV. They got all that allocation money and just immediately turned it into Campana. So it's not like they took out of a budget that they were already planning with for 2025. It's not as if they had to pull money forward. They sold Esmere and just took that money and gave it to Campana. I guess it was kind of a little bit back and forth. And that's how I'm reporting out both

of these deals. How I knew for sure that Esmir Barak Taravich was done, not just close, was when New England traded for Leo Campano. I was like, all right, they don't give away that game if they don't know it's absolutely about to come in. So that is excellent work by the front office. And this is modern MLS. You sell a player like that and bang, you get a new starting center forward with the

funds. The flip on the roster, and we'll get to Seth now in just a moment, last thing before we go, it's the reality of a new sporting setup takes time. So it took Curtin Alpho, the new sporting director, and Caleb Porter, the new coach, a year, two years, sort of, to get the roster into a place

where they could flip so many players because contracts had run up and of course Bruce Arena going to San Jose meant you could trade 15 players over there as well to follow him on a scale of one to 10 10 being the most how much pressure is on this group in 2025 um the way that these go is the coach gets pressured first so i'm putting it out of nine or 10 for Caleb Porter. Oh wow. It was an abomination last year.

And Caleb Porter was kind of the first to say it. He was very self-critical of the job that they did, of the roster, everything else. And he was saying, look, we're gonna make changes. We're gonna make changes. We're gonna make changes. Changes are in, and there should be some leeway, particularly early in the season.

Look, not only is it a ton of new signings, it's a complete new defense, like down the season. Look, not only is it a ton of new signings, it's a complete new like defense, like down the spine. Mamadou Fofana and Brian Caballos. It's not easy for even if it was just one of them to come in with an M.Y.S. experience player. These are two new signs. I think that they look like excellent players, but it might take them a little while to learn each other and to learn this league.

And if your center back pairing is struggling, that's going to be really, really difficult for the Rebs, and that'll just be harking you back to 2024. So early on in the season pressure, like you should give them a little bit of a leeway, but if it's May and their bottom of the table, I'm going to be calling people asking questions about what's going on there. What's the future? So that's what I think for Caleb Porter. He's, he's used to pressure, nothing new for him. And I'm certain he welcomes it. I'm certain that he would rather be this way because now he has the team that he wants in place. And now it's about betting on yourself and going to make it work. This is normally the year he wins MLS cup. So it's

a pretty good spot for Caleb Porter to be in 2020 and what 2015. So that's the expectations. Of course not. But it's going to be a big job for him. It's going to be a big one for this team. They are going to be, I think one of the teams definitely early in the season that I'm tuning into to see what does this look like? What are the aspects of these players that I like and don't like? But someone who's got a clear eye on things is Seth McComber, who's always locked in. So let's go to our conversation with Seth right now. Well everybody, we continue on with our season previews here at SoccerWise. And now we are talking the New England Revolution, the Rebs, baby.

And who else to talk about it with than Seth Maycomer. You know him from the Blazing Musket. It is the only place to follow all your New England soccer news, especially the New England Revolution. Seth, thanks for joining us. David, so glad to be here. I didn't shave today so I could fit the vibe a little bit. If you gave me a week I could have had a Tom Bogart mustache. Didn't quite have that amount of time, maybe next year, but definitely

appreciate being part of the show. Yeah, you've got 12 months now so you've got you've got a timeline to work on it. I need to shave so I'm glad you specifically brought that up because it reminds me what I need to do. I believe Pringles has a new ad campaign about flying mustaches. I'm working as an agent for Tom Boga to try and get him a sponsorship for his mustache. In all of that I saw the commercial and immediately thought of him. We've got a lot to talk about. We have, we're about to name 900 soccer players as we go through our transfer updates which is what we like to do to reset on these conversations. Uh,

we will listen to our Doyle isms from our, our great philosophical leader, Matt Doyle. We've got our over underlines from Andrew Weeby to sort of help us contextualize some of what needs to go down for this season or doesn't. You ready to hear the names of a lot of players who used to play for San Jose or currently now play for San Jose or currently now play for San Jose? Bring it on.

I'll let you speak for the next two minutes and I'll be quiet over here. So on the transfer side, I wanted to start with the inbounds here because for some teams the outbounds are more important or a bigger story. This one you could argue it both ways I think, but I think for fans the more exciting part is what's come in the door. It started with Leo Campagna, it started with the massive trade in allocation money for one of the best young forwards in the league. It was followed with the loan for Ignacio Escanago who was brought on loan at the center forward position as well. Two starting centerbacks the hope is and Mamadou

Fofana and Brian Ceayos, a U22 initiative center back in Eli Feingold and then I can just start rattling off MLS veterans. Jackson Yule brought in as a free agent probably the biggest name of this whole group but Wyatt Omburg, Maxi Aruti, Alex Bono, Luis Diaz, Tanner Beeson it is literally the who's whose of MLS Bingo for some of these names. It all goes in together, which is last year wasn't good enough and the assumption that that wasn't Caleb Porter's team. And so an attempt to rebuild those things, Seth, as these have come across your desk,

as you have covered this over and over, what have you made of just the sheer magnitude of the moves that have been made? Yeah, David Caleb Porter talked about this a few times and basically what he said was last year we had good players They just weren't the right players and now this is a rebuild where he started to bring in players that he believes are going To fit his style of play and when you look at these there's 14 new to the New England Revolution. There's 13 players that are remaining from last year. So there are more new names than there are returning players from last year. And I think when you look at this, if you want to be exciting, and this is the time of the year you are excited and you're optimistic, then you think about the profiles of people that are brought in. The average age of this

roster right now is 24.9 years old. Six players are 30 or older. Alex Bono, Oli Ozaz, Ivesic, Matt Polster, Carlos Hill, Andrew Farrell, and Maxia Ruti. And of all the new players brought in, they're all 27 or younger except for Ruti, Bono, and Olensberg. And a lot of those players are expected to be backup type of roles. So this is a team that hypothetically is going to grow together, be younger, be more athletic and fit the profile that Kayla Porter wants. Building out of the back, pressing at times, having those types of moments. It is really interesting that wholesale change of it felt like as they moved into win now

mode around the supporter shield, they went for veterans and veterans and veterans, especially at the center back position and in central midfield. And now the reset on that to get younger, to get more athletic, but also a bit more of an unknown. And the question I think will be, with wholesale changes in a league

that's hard to adjust to, how many can hit at one time? And how much support is there for those players? Of course, the center of all of it will make life a lot easier for a lot of these new pieces but a lot of question marks across this whole thing let's talk about the out bounds now and the reason there was space for 14 players to come in is the 14 players who left the biggest of bitch of which is probably Giacomo Veroni, traded for basically nothing to Montreal to take him off their hands as a designated player.

Esmer Barak Taravich was sold to PSV Eidenhoven. Really good work for the club and now we know sort of allowing that Leo Campagna deal to get done. And then the veterans, Dave Romney, Mark Anthony Kaye, Ian Harkes and Earl Edwards Jr. are all now San Jose Earthquakes following Bruce Arena across the country and a number of players who options weren't picked up. Barrera, Arriaga, Nacho Heal, Nick Lima, Tommy Mack, Jonathan Mensah, Bobby Wood, Tim Parker.

All of these were pieces that they were hoping would take them over the top over the last three years. If a Bobby Wood could hit form, if a Jonathan Mensah could elevate his game. It basically didn't work with any of them. Barrero's more down to injury than pure quality. And so now you see a chance where you're rolling the dice once again, but it is just a lot of churn and a lot of movement for a roster. Yeah, absolutely.

But I think the idea is that they have a vision now and they're building into that vision. And when you look at someone like Esmir Baruterovic, there's a path there that can be replicated in the future. So McIntosh is a player that probably is not going to play this year, but he just signed a first team contract with the New England Revolution. That's someone that came into the academy from California.

So he spent one year with the Academy, one year with Revs2, now has a first team contract, but he's going to get minutes probably with Revs2. Hypothetically, the goal is that he follows a similar path as Esmir or maybe Peyton Miller as being another example of that residency program. So that's an example of that type of thing. The other thing I want to bring up here is that when Curnofo was hired, the question was why was he brought in as a sporting director? And one thing that was mentioned was that he did good work with the Academy, which we just talked about, but also the

scouting department in bringing in players that were then sold on or did very well with the team. You think about last year, and the bright spots last year were Youssef and Langone that came in towards the end of the year. That's a scouting situation. They brought those guys in. So if you're thinking about getting rid of some of those individuals, you have to do that

if you're going to bring in new guys to try to fit that system. And so Giacomo Veroni, he had some time here, but you move on from him, and now you create roster flexibility, everyone's favorite term in Major League Soccer. They can go with the 3-DP, 3-U22 model, or the 2-DP, 4-U22 model, and get that extra game.

And with Gennago coming in, this is a guy who scored in League One, maybe he ends up being the third DP. That's a possibility that it happens, according to Caleb Porter, and that'd be good for the revs. If it doesn't happen, it's a six-month loan and they can move on to them. This is something very similar that we saw last

year with the Colorado Rapids or maybe it was the year before but they brought in a player from from France. He was there for six months. Doesn't work out. You can move on. So I think that there's still some wiggle room inside of this roster but last year they were up against the cap. They had to be bold. They had to make some moves and this is what they last year they were up against the cap. They had to be bold, they had to make some moves, and this is what they chose to do. I love the conversation around the pipeline because I've mentioned it a couple times on my shows.

This was a club that I would ignore when I went to youth development stuff just because there was no point in watching the revs. It was just a really good youth team from New England and it has quickly become one of the best youth setups in the entire country. A lot of that goes to scouting and recruitment, which is where you always have to start

because you kind of have to pick the talent you can to reestablish yourself to then convince the talent in the area or the talent you should be getting, that it's worthwhile to be a part of what you're doing. Peyton Miller's obviously the huge excitement for this year. Santiago Suarez has already been sent on loan in the USL. I think he's gonna be really special.

I think there's a couple centerbacks in this pool that could be really special. And it can then now fund your first team. That's the reality in Major League Soccer at this point is you can fund moves off and Esmer Barak Taravich. Atesan Buchanan, which obviously was a different style of setup, but sets you up in a way to be able to use those funds on your first team.

And that was an entire portion of the setup of the club that the revs just couldn't activate for years and years. And now that gives them more flexibility as you talked about, and they're able to make some of these moves because of the allocation money they've collected. It's a huge part of what we're seeing Atlanta do off the back of the Caleb Wiley sale and it is a big hope I think for a lot of the people in the revs front office to be able to be one of those clubs that can Consistently use this fun now to be able to tap into to increase the quality on the first team level

For competitions the revs are only playing in the US Open Cup. We got sort of the layout from Major League Soccer as non-playoff team from last year. Didn't qualify for CONCGAP, didn't qualify for League's Cup. I don't think Caleb Porter's too upset about that. US Open Cup is winnable. It's single elimination. You get to play hopefully some fun New England teams with Hearts of Pine now coming in, Rhode Island with the year they had last year. Obviously a bunch of other teams sort of coming

into the fold and setting up, but also like it's a winnable cup and you don't have to stretch yourself across two competitions as we have seen with CONCACAF setups over the last few years for the revs where they probably didn't have a chance to win it and sort of just accelerate your preseason For no reason something to note not making the postseason last year if they were to miss the postseason

It would be the first time back-to-back misses in the postseason since the 2017 2018 season So basically since Bruce arena has arrived in New England. It has been Fairly consistent and that's the threat for Kayla Porter is if it's bad back-to-back years Serena has arrived in New England, it has been fairly consistent. And that's the threat for Kayla Porter is if it's bad back to back years, the pressure starts to turn up on this front office and on this coaching staff. Let's dig in here with our, uh, our Doyalism on the New England Revolution. And then we'll jump off the back of that. The revs are just entirely new team. If you look at them compared to 12 months ago, they have four new starting defenders.

They have a new starting goalkeeper. They have a new ball winning D-Mid. They have at least one, possibly two new wingers and they have a new center forward. Like the only written in pen starters who were there a year ago are Carlos Heal and Matt Polster. And so it's tough to predict this because we've seen teams do this type of overhaul and it really works.

And we've seen teams do this type of overhaul and they still end up kind of in the toilet. And the other factor here is look, Caleb Porter has two MLS Cups, but he's also been a head coach in MLS for 10 years. He's only made the playoffs four times and only once in his past five years as head coach in MLS for 10 years. He's only made the playoffs four times and only once in his past five years as head coach and it was in that very weird COVID shortened 2020 season.

But there's not a lot of equity in terms of belief in the foundation and the consistency and the continuity and the ability to grow from within. It just has to be like, we made 12 new signings in the past 12 months and we need nine of them to hit. And that's like, you're walking on the nice edge. The margins are really, really small when that's how you go about things. So Doyle sort of agreeing with us about the pure magnitude of moves and what's necessary.

What do you make of the confidence that you're hearing inside the group that these are the right moves, that it will come together fast enough? Yeah, I think that that obviously again, this is a positive time of year, the optimistic time of year. There is some consistency with the team.

I know that Doyle mentioned the idea that Ivesic would not be the starting goalkeeper. I do expect him to be the starting goalkeeper. I thought last year he did pretty well in goal. But when you look at the magnitude of shots that he was facing, there were 12 games when the opposition had at least seven shots on target. And so there was some sort of disconnect that was happening in the game plan or the players or they weren't the right players for the game plan. So I think like him being back. I know that Kayla Porter mentioned that Brandon By has been looking really good during preseason. Part of that has to

do with him being a year removed now from his ACL injury. Part of it also has to do with the fact that he has Feingold who is now pushing him. He's a U-22 player coming in. There's a little bit of competition there so he knows he has to raise his level as a 29 year old.old. Carlos Hill, you know, Carlos Hill, we talked about him and he's a perennial MVP candidate. Even last year with his down year, he still ranked, tied with third for key passes on this team, on the league. So he's a really good piece. You have to put those other pieces around him. What I'm really interested in is what kind of formation do we see from this team? Because so far in preseason, what we've seen really is Yule and Polster controlling that middle and Yousef actually playing a

little bit more of an advanced role. Now part of that has to do with Choncoli not being here. He's not expected back until April. Part of that has to be with Gunago just got down to Florida very recently and he's expected to maybe play on the wing, although he is also a holdup striker. I think that would be a really interesting wrinkle because you get two MLS guys in there that are going to work hard and hold things in there. You're also going to have Youssef and if you look back at Youssef and how he played, he was an engine for his appearances. And you look at that Miami game, and you don't wanna talk about every part of that

Miami game if you're a Rebs fan, but if you think about those two first goals, Yusef. Yusef wins the ball, he gets the ball forward. Yusef finds a pass, he gets that key moment. I think Yusef is gonna be really, really good whether he's playing as a center midfielder or is he playing a little bit more advanced role. He has two goals so far in preseason.

And David, I'm not sure how much you take sock into preseason. I think there's a lot of people that love to hype up preseason. But I am going to talk a little bit about it and say that last year the Rebs went winless during preseason. This year they have two wins, two 1-0 wins against Austin and St. Louis and they have a 3-3 tie against Houston in a 120-minute game. And again, I'm not going to take too much out of that, but there seems to be a little bit better. Yeah, I mean, last year when they only scored three goals over the course of preseason and

they were getting beat by the Red Bulls 3-0, 2-0 against Cincinnati, 3-1 against Orlando, it just wasn't really clicking for whatever reason. So, I think the vibes are a little bit better. And I know you mentioned this idea about missing the playoffs and historically whatever else. Guys, let's be optimistic. Let's talk about how the last three MLS Cup winners missed the playoffs the previous year.

Come on, let's see what happens. But I think you guys are totally right. You and Dorian were totally right. This is a bold thing that happened. Lots of transitions. They're banking on their ability to attract some of those MLS guys and then also use that scouting network

to bring in two new center backs. I don't know what this team's gonna look like in the end. I'm excited to start watching them actually play live. The formation's interesting because you have Campania and Ganago, so you could play them as two forwards. We don't see a ton of teams play that way, but we've seen teams be successful.

It goes back a bit to what we saw for the revs under Bruce Arena when they had Adam Buksa still, and when they were able to have a forward that could stretch the field and a forward that could come underneath, and Carlos Heal sort of finding his space wherever he's gonna find his space. The idea with Yousef playing a little higher up the

field is he can protect everything that Carlos Heal doesn't want to do and I was really impressed by him last year as you talked about towards the end of the year. I love those moves that you make in the summer knowing that player is really going to be settled the next year but you get that six months for them to understand the league, the speed of play, the team, the environment, all those types of things. And I think he should be on the list of known quantities coming back along with the pollster, along with Carlos Hiel. Like, I think you should talk about the revs, what you can trust in as him being

a part of that. But if Sean Kalei does come back, is Langone giving you enough to be a starter? If he is, do you want to keep two wingers out there? All of those questions are good questions. If players are playing well and there's not enough spots, like that's ideal. And it's better than what it's been. But it does still create fluidity in a negative way of just if you don't know who you are, how many decisions do you want to keep making?

And I think the hope is after the six month loan, you have a clearer idea about what the attack looks like. Let's talk about Leo Campania for a second because he hasn't been a consistent starter for two years because he ended up on the biggest sideshow in Major League Soccer. Not a bad one. One that won the Sportive Shield and set the points record and took that away from the Rebs. and set the points record and took that away from the revs. But before that, he was sort of the one shining example of positivity for Inter Miami for a little while.

He is big, he's athletic, he's mobile, he's got a clean touch. He seems to, as a center forward, work for the team, is what we saw in Miami when he was creating for other players. And I think that's what kept him connected to the group even as Luis Suarez came in and he lost his starting spot.

How excited are you to see him on the revs? Yeah, I mean, talking to Caleb Porter, he talked about the idea that Campana is more of a true number nine than what they had with Veroni. And so he comes in and fits the game model a little bit better. 24 years old, he's hungry, he wants to play. He said the reason why he wanted to come to New England

is because he's searching for playing time. And he wants to get into the national team. And so this is someone who knows the league, someone who has done it in the league, maybe not as high of numbers as you hope that you'd get from a starting striker, but the goal is that you're giving him an opportunity and you can meet the guy. That he is the guy when he comes into this team. That he's not backing up someone. And I think

the nice thing with Kampana is that he used to be a designated player, but on this roster he's not a designated player. So yes, you give up a lot of resources to get him, but one you get those resources back with the sale of Esmir, but it also allows you to think about, well, if we do add another designated player, where would that be? Because our number nine position should be all set. Or if we want to bring in more U22s, where could it be? And if it doesn't end up really working with Kampana, then you have an option come the summer of like, what else can we want to bring in to try to get this attack

going? I do think it is positive that in the last preseason game he did find the back of the net. You mentioned the idea that he is very good in terms of like working off the ball. That's an important part of Kayla Porter's system, like pressing, putting guys in certain areas. So I think that, you know, on paper it looks like it could be a really good fit for this team. I think looking back at the last pre-season game, one thing that I saw that is a play that the Rebs will probably want to replicate is getting Langone a little bit wider,

taking on guys with his pace, and then playing that low cross on the ground. When I looked back at Caleb Porter and how he played with the Columbus crew, you saw that, those high percentage chances of balls on the ground from wide areas. And last year, it just didn't really come off. Last year was a lot of balls in behind

where Veroni would try to find success that way. Well, maybe the Rebs can play a little bit different style, maybe even get some more crosses in the air that Leo Campana can attack. So I think there is positives to Leo Campana coming to this team. Yeah, I think it should be exciting. One thing I like to point out as well

for anyone trying to process sort of like that fee, as you mentioned, the non-DP part is, okay, you're paying a little extra, maybe an allocation money to acquire him, but you save that roster designation. He also has a US passport. So that's, I always tell people like take 175,000 off the allocation money in the trade

because you don't have to go get an international roster spot. And especially for a club right now, like the Rebs, who are making all of these moves and a lot of these moves are international players coming into the league that has value probably outside of what it just stands for from a pure number point of view. And so I think that should be added as well.

He is, I think he's going to be really special for this group. I think he's going to be really fun to watch and I'm really excited to see him get that playing time because when he was playing for Miami, he was in the Ecuador national team conversation. I was able to go see him at Red Bull Arena, play and start for Ecuador in a full international friendly.

Like that's how good he can be when he gets those opportunities. He just kind of got stuck in a once in a lifetime situation down at Inter Miami. Let's go to the other side of the field. Let's talk a little defense here and let's go to our line from Andrew Wiebe. So Andrew Wiebe likes to set these for us

to sort of give us some context of what we're talking about or maybe take some risks for the season. And his, for the New England Revolution was goals against. So he said the line for over-under is at 58.5. Last year the Rebs conceded 74 goals. It was I believe the second worst in Major League Soccer. It was the worst in the Eastern Conference. They had the worst goal differential in the Eastern Conference as well. Well 58.5 that line, so 59 goals against. Only two teams made the playoffs last year over that

number. The Rapids gave up 60 goals and Montreal gave up 64 and you can debate whether or not Montreal made the playoffs. They made a play-in which they then lost. That's probably a debate we'll have another day. So the question here is will this be a playoff level defense that they have put together off the back of these new signings? The two biggest being Mamadou Fofana and Brian Sabayos Will this be a playoff level defense that they have put together off the back of these new signings, the two biggest being Mamadou Fofana and Brian Sabayos, the two centerbacks? Yeah, I'm gonna be optimistic, let's say yes,

that they will be a better defensive team this year and they'll hit that mark. What they talked about in the media right now is they're saying that these players fit the profile. They're a little bit more athletic. Fofana, I believe, is 27. Sabayos is 23. So they're able to take control of the ball,

win aerial duels. And I think the issue last year when you saw Arriaga is that he was really good with the ball at his feet and carrying the ball forward. And you could see that it actually added a lot to the New England Revolution attack. That because he can beat that first attacker that's coming at him,

it actually opened up a lot of the field. The issue is that anytime he was going, yeah, anytime he was trying to face his own goal, he couldn't catch up. And he didn't have the pace to do that. So I think that you get a little bit more athletic and you get some guys that are more ball carrying center backs. The hope is that it all works out

I asked both players why they came to the New England Revolution and what they talked about is subhiles talked about how he was in Ukraine and that was not a great situation in terms of the war happening and that This offer came up and he loved the idea of coming to a young team and working with Kayla Porter and you know Having this project in the United States. And Fofano mentioned that actually people at the New England Revolution, he mentioned Kurt Anafo and Remy Roy, who is the technical director,

had actually been watching him since he was with FC Metz. And they called him and they said, you know what, now is the time to make this jump to come over. So again, when we think about the idea of this organization having a little bit of a plan and a vision and having tabs on people, it seems like they're bringing in some of these individuals. That's not spur of the moment. This is not Michael Mancian

randomly showing up in the summer or Claude Dielna randomly showing up in the summer. So the goal is that this team is a little bit better in terms of the defense. But again, I have yet to see any games. I am, like you, I'm probably watching all the clips online and trying to be like, yeah, look, that guy's gonna have a great season this year. Look at the one tackle that he made in the highlight reel. So we're gonna have to see how it all fits in.

But again, the profiles seem like they're the right profiles at this point. Yeah, you've got two players that have played in physical leagues, so that should be a comfortable adjustment. We have seen players of a similar profile. I think of Awuusium last year.

I think of some of the pieces Inter Miami have brought in that have been able to adjust fairly quickly. I wouldn't be shocked if we saw Andrew Farrell out there a couple times with a different partner in one of these two to sort of bring that veteran experience and settle things. That is where I also wonder when you use Youssef early on if it's a three-man midfield does that protect your backline a little bit as they settle into things? Jackson Yule is not someone who's gonna cover a ton of ground and win the ball a lot and so I

think my excitement this year was to see Polster and Youssef together and Poulster have support for the first time ever. Now you take that away if you put Yule in there, but if you add Yousef as the third center mid, it is probably a cleaner way to just keep things settled in front of these two centerbacks as they settle into the league. It's fairly unprecedented to just have two no MLS veterans, no stability centerbacks come in to Major League Soccer. And yet the floor from last year is so low that the space for improvement is pretty high. And you have to think just from a pure will point of view. Last year, after that little run in the summer,

a couple undefeated games, and it sort of fell off a cliff. It felt like there was some giving up. And so I'm gonna take the under on this as well. I'm going to say you probably cut 10, 11 goals off just being competitive this year and caring enough. And then the cohesion front to back, the ability to counter press a little bit higher. So to play a little bit further from your goal more often,

I think helps you. And I think a lot of these pieces work together. So I'm going to take the over as well. For the two of us, that means we think a lot of these pieces work together. So I'm gonna take the over as well for the two of us That means we think it's a playoff level defense if the attack comes along as well Then it's a playoff level team and that's what we're gonna be watching for but it's gonna be a great season a lot of excitement Shiny new toys are always fun for sports fans and that we always love You can follow the blazing musket for all your coverage. Shout out to the revolution recap podcast as well. I know you were on there previewing

the season. I did see a preview of all the New England teams as well in the USL atmosphere. I absolutely love to see that as a Vermont Green fan. I am stoked for the season to come. I might have to come back up to the New England area just to like get some fresh air in my lungs every once in a while. Seth, appreciate you taking the time. David, anytime. We are talking about the Nashville SC under BJ Callahan trying to rewrite the script a little bit and turn themselves into maybe a different style of team

in Major League Soccer. They are hoping, based off last year, a more successful team. We had a conversation with two of the best in Nashville at 615 Soccer in Valer and Ben. Valer working on pharmaceutical soccer, Ben one of the best writers covering Major League Soccer just across the board, the whole league,

as well as Nashville. Specifically, Tom Zumman, you know very well. I sat down with them to chat about this team and about this club. But before we get into that one, a move was made after we had this conversation. We already knew that they had tapped in to their Scandinavian markets to bring in some attacking pieces. Tom, they've now increased that since we've last recorded. Yeah, National Seer finalizing the deal to sign Ahmad Qassem, Swedish youth international attacker,

very versatile player. He can play on either wing. He could play as a 10 or a false knight if needed. I don't think that they'll need that for this team, but that just shows his versatility. He could play on either flank, which is gonna be very, very useful for BJ Callahan and his team

as they try to find out the most optimal attacking combinations. And if you could plug and play this player Kasem around kind of the front line and see exactly what works, how he can come on these other players. And just for rotational purposes, it's a long season. You need to have players with versatility. It also goes into the conversation around the 4-2-2-2 or the 4-3-3. It seems like the two pieces they've brought in are players who are comfortable centrally, but are natural attacking wide players.

And so it gives them the flexibility to be able to move into and out of that formation as BJ Callahan still tries to figure out what this team is. And I think for Nashville fans, it should be exciting. Like that next progression, can you be a possession team? Can you change, can you affect the way teams choose to play? Rather than being reactive, can you be a possession team? Can you change, can you affect the way teams choose to play? Rather than being reactive, can you be proactive and sort of set the tone in a lot of games?

They haven't been a club that's done that, and they can be. This is a team, when you look even at Walker Zimmerman, being signed as a DP center back, I think I went through it. They had three of the 15, 16 highest paid players in major league soccercer so it's like we talk about small market but this is a club that has spent and I think their expectation should be that they are a competitive playoff team year in and year out and probably pushing for a home game. For sure this team kind of hit their peak before like the cycle came to the end last year.

Caused Gary Smith's job. There was a lot of familiarity within the group. They've done they did phenomenally in their expansion year and the years beyond to be sustainable to be really good to be consistent. Again they weren't the most exciting team to watch but they don't really care if they were picking up results. That's why Gary Smith lost the job because well you were really boring to watch and you weren't winning. That's a combination that does not last very long. They're changing under BJ Callahan.

It did not get all that much better under him results wise. They were trying to be more expansive. They were figuring it out along the way. A full preseason for BJ Callahan is going to be good for this group and trying to again be more expansive, get Hany Mukhtar back to firing where he was which is interesting because he was putting up a ton of numbers. He was one of the best players in the league MVP all that extremely consistently in a team that was always playing against the ball He was an absolute killer in transition

and then he just fell off a cliff and Walker Zimmerman got injured and when He won honey mook star was an MVP level player and Walker Zimmerman was a defender of the year caliber player The margins became super thin and this team dropped. I don't think that they need to be MVP defender of the year to get back to that level. That's the idea with the coaching change and the style change, but they have to both be really, really good or this team will not be good. We did. Callahan is a fascinating story just to go from Villanova soccer where he was to into the USSF pool and slowly work your way up

into being eventually an interim head coach of the US men's national team which immediately puts you on the list for interviews for MLS head coaching jobs like there are not that many names in this sphere we do it on this show all the time who would you hire what would you do and like it is not that easy to find someone perfectly qualified, especially because Many coaches in MLS There's not really a stratosphere if you have a job that you like and you do well You're not gonna leave and so BJ Callahan is a fascinating story Valera and Ben sort of talk about it

They are excited about his personality and what how open he's been and and what he can sort of mean to the club I would love to go to Nashville. I've only been one time. I went for a playoff game. Nashville won. They beat Orlando right during COVID, I believe. So you're welcome, Nashville fans. You should welcome me back with open arms. And I would love the opportunity to eat some hot chicken and hang out in Nashville.

So I'm hoping for a good season for Nashville SC and maybe we get to see another final there at Geodes Park. That was the peak at Geodes Park so far, was that League Cup final. That building should be bouncing. That should be one of the best atmospheres in Major League Soccer. And so the hope is this year,

if they can consistently put together performances, they can get that done. So another big signing made, but let's now go to our conversation with Ben and Valer. Our pre-season previews continue here at SoccerWise. And we've got a big one here. We've got a great group of guests, Sands, Tom Bogert. So an even better situation for us to put together

one of the best shows of the year. We're talking, Nashville SC. And we are doing so with Ben and Valer of 615 Soccer, a newly launched website covering all things soccer in Nashville and the Pharmaceutical Soccer Show podcast that you can get of course anywhere you get your podcasts. Thank you to both of you for joining us. Thanks for having us.

Yeah, really excited. Valer, you had me on your show a week ago. So you're like on the verge of being sick of me. I think that my wife tells me like I'm right on the edge of where people really get frustrated. But I had a ton of fun. It was a great show. I think you told me we would do 30 minutes and we did like an hour and five. So I told you 30 minutes here.

So we'll see what happens on the back end of this. Ben, you're part of the launch of the new website. Tell everyone a little bit about it if anyone hasn't been there yet. Yeah. So I mean, it's a it's a new kind of soccer specific website that we started trying to give high-level coverage of soccer in Nashville. Myself and Valer and then Chris Ivy kind of headed it up and we have a really really cool team of people working with us and I think it's just it's been really exciting to see

just how interested the Nashville community is in soccer and kind of the support that we've already gotten. I think it's far exceeded our expectations going into it. So yeah, it's been really exciting and we're excited for the first kind of year doing this on our own. And for anyone who wasn't listening to our show, I think it was a week ago, Chris Ivy put together the best list of what happened with the 2025 MLS roster rules. We plugged that on our show.

We basically just read the article and then we pretended to talk about it. Like we knew what was going on. So it's not just Nashville. If you like MLS, if you like soccer in this country, you should be following 615 soccer. You should be listening to the pharmaceutical soccer show as well. But we are here to talk Nashville. We haven't really done it a lot on SoccerWise since we launched last summer. There hasn't been a ton of conversation outside of the appointment of BJ

Callahan. So let's go through the transfers a little bit as to get started and then we will dig into some of the big storylines. We've got our Doyalism coming up a little bit later and we've got our line set by Andrew Weeby as well that we will get to. When you start with transfers and it's not normally a category that's a big part of the conversation around Nashville, you have some big names coming in. Edward Taxtheth being brought in, Andy Nahar, Jason Palacios, and then the big trade in the middle of the offseason in which MLS Cup MVP Gaston Brueggemann was brought into the fold in place of Sean Davis, who is one of many big names going out. One of the originals that this club has

been built on Annabel Godoy was let go as was Drew Yearwood, Randall Leal, Brian Anungana. And then that Sean Davis trade was the start of a pretty big trade window in which one of the most expensive fullbacks in league history, Shaq Moore, was traded as well as former starter Lucas McNaughton. So a lot to go on, a lot going in and out. Then get us started here and just the reactions to some of the big names, the staples this club was built on being let go. Yeah. I mean, in a lot of ways, it kind of felt like an extension of last year when Dax McCarty was let go. I think he was probably the first big name original

that kind of left the club. I think Godoy is probably right behind him just in terms of popularity and importance to the club for their first five years. But really, I think the overarching themes were, A, trying to get better with the ball, which Callahan obviously comes in and wants to do as a guy who came kind of from the Bertholder coaching

tree. I think they're trying to get younger too. That might get muddied a little bit with some of the free agents they've signed who are kind of early thirties, but it's really just trying to get added improvements with the ball, get a little bit younger and probably add some flexibility going into what is probably going to be, I think, a two-winter window rebuild. I don't think they're done yet, and I think the team probably isn't gonna be complete, if you can even call it that,

until probably next year. And they have to make a lot of harder decisions. Also, like I know you mentioned Randall Yall and Brian Nunga. Both of those are also originals. They were both there since 2020. So it was a continuation of that. And then the other thing I'll mention just really quick while talking about transfers that Patrick Yazbak came in halfway through last year and that's kind of part of this

core more so than anything beforehand. What is the emotional reaction though, Valera, for a club that hasn't moved a lot of these pieces around to have four or five Originals and really the last connection to it outside of a walker Zimmerman and Joe Willis to finally move on and see this offseason So I'll say this for people in Nashville They know that the og og is Taylor Washington who has been with the club since the first year of USL So he's been with this is his eighth year with the club since the first year of USL. So he's been with, this is his eighth year with the club after the two USL seasons and five MLS seasons.

And now they're entering six MLS season, which is pretty crazy to say, but he is still contracted with the club. He's still playing with the club. And, you know, as far as fan favorites, he's like the top name that no one outside of Nashville like think about, but he is, he is like a

pretty big figure within the Nashville SC and the national soccer community as a whole. Great guy by the way as well. So it kind of adds to the whole thing. But I think you saw a little bit last year when Walker, sorry, when Dax McCarty ended up leaving the club, I think what added a little bit of salt to the wound is that he ended up signing for Atlanta, which is, you know, right down the road, a team that is quote unquote rival, however many rivals Nashville has these days. But I think what ends up happening here is that justification just wasn't there. Because what we heard from the Nashville Seaside is that he's getting a little too old and

the squad has kind of moved away from that and they want something else well last year it seems like they really needed what the hex McCarty they seemed like they really needed somebody in midfield who can play a diagonal pass that will get somebody you know one-on-one with with a defender and anybody who watched naturalist he was like we really need a midfielder that that can does do that and know, Dax McCarty was in Atlanta. Dealing messy in the playoffs.

I was going to say. He had an incredible last year. Unimportant stuff. Yeah. So I think that started with him. And then going into now, you're talking about Anubal Gadoy and Anunga and Lial. I think people are starting to understand these moves a little bit more just because the team was bad last year. I think when you talk about when when Dax McCarty left the team was about to play their first ever Concapped Champions Cup. The team was on a trajectory that was different from now. Finishing 13th, missing the playoffs. People are more accepting of change when that happens.

Ben, you mentioned BJ Callahan. He's not a new coach but he got appointed late in the summer last year. It didn't feel like we learned a ton from the outside at least just because he had to put together the rosters and the lineups he had to put together based off what was available. Give people sort of an inside look as you've been covering him what he's like as a person what he's like around the club. Yeah I mean so first of all just personally he is super outgoing, super friendly. I think he kind of gets the media side of the game and so he's been he's been just super open with the media very always willing to talk very willing to kind of help us out however he can so that that's been kind of nice to see. On the field I, just even from talking to people before he was officially hired, everybody I talked to said he is like the hardest worker they've ever seen around the game.

And one of the most detail oriented guys they've ever seen. And I think from talking to him, that completely adds up. He has a very, very clear style of how he wants to play. He goes into a ton of detail to make sure that everybody is on the same page. wants to play. He goes into a ton of detail to make sure that everybody is on the same page. But I think he also tries to get everybody understanding his system to the to a very kind of granular level so that they can kind of not even have to think about it. He's wanting to install it. So it's almost second nature, so that they're not having to think about where to play a pass, because they have done it so many times that they they know how to stylistically I think he wants to be. I mean, everybody says they want to be a possession based team and to play a pass because they have done it so many times that they, they know how to, um, stylistically, I think he wants to be, I mean, everybody says they want to be a possession based team and to be a pressing team. And I think there are some kind of coaching platitudes that go on there, but from watching him, they do play with the ball and they do press.

Um, I don't know exactly how married he's going to be to any particular shape, but I think kind of across all of those, they're going to play with the ball. They're going to try to break teams down with possession, but they're also going to press to any particular shape, but I think kind of across all of those they're going to play with the ball They're gonna try to break teams down with possession But they're also going to press pretty hard without the ball and I think you're gonna see a lot of their chances come Just from forcing turnovers close to goal He he's still in the honeymoon phase So it's still the dry January of the year as we get past the Super Bowl and then all the workouts and the plans and the health Food and all those ideas start to go out the window. So we're still probably a little bit away from that one. Update for everyone as we like to do here

with all of the 1000 cup competitions people can play in Nashville will only be in the US Open Cup, not being a playoff team last year didn't qualify for leagues cup, not a part of CONCACAF Champions Cup and obviously cannot play in Canada. But Valera that actually gives an opening an opportunity which we talked about when I was on your show of it's a one cup that you can focus on and you're only a few wins away from like a really big game potentially in your own building. Yeah, I think you look at what five games total to win to win a cup, the first cup in franchise history too. I think BJ Callahan and everybody in the club will be circling that as something to look forward to.

I think when you look at how Champions Cup affected Nashville last year, they ended up only playing four games, but traveling to the Dominican Republic, traveling back and then playing Miami twice in March, that early in the season, it was already like a full blown blown like dramatic thing that was happening. Nashville goes up 2-0, come back Miami 2-2 at home. All that stuff happens and it didn't just affect the season from a physical standpoint, but it also affected it from a narrative standpoint, because already you were out of a cup competition that was supposed to be like the most exciting thing, right? It's the first time you're in Champions Cup. You're already out before April

So you're looking at a very different situation and then you're losing in the league and that leads to Gary Smith dismissal and all that so I Think if the US Open Cup is the opposite of that where if you get a couple wins in the early rounds You'll probably play in a USL team or the lower team on the very first round and then you might play in a MLS team with a possibility of hosting them. You get those two wins, you find yourself in the quarterfinals, you already have something to point at. Nothing else, I was listening to you guys maybe a couple weeks ago talking about SKC and making that cup final and what that did for their season

where it was like in any other situation that season will be over. It's done. They had nothing to play for. But because they had that cup final to look forward to, it kind of kept it alive and kept the fans engaged a little bit more. And I think that's what this can serve for Nashville. So even if they make it to the semifinal lose, let's say, or make it to the quarterfinals and lose, quarterfin finals is a little hard, but I think with the amount of MLS teams participating, it's a really, really good opportunity for Nashville to see to go out there and actually, you know, I think, I think there'll be one of the favorites going into it just based on the teams out there. You know what I mean? And I think, I think they haven't ever entered any competition

where they are the favorites. Let's just say it's a fun one for Nashville too, because you talked about rivals down the road Atlanta whether or not it is and isn't. There are some more localized teams from lower divisions that in Nashville can play where they're not going to get the opportunity other times you talk about a Chattanooga you bring in I see the Louisville scarf behind Ben in this one if you're watching the video I don't think it switch is in the US Open Cup this year but they could try so there's a lot of the Louisville scarf behind Ben in this one if you're watching via video. I don't think Ipswich is in the US Open Cup this year, but they could try. So there's a lot of more localized clubs

that you get the opportunity to play. Let's go to our Doyalism now and then we'll sort of jump off the back of that. I just feel like Nashville are in some trouble. They went out this off season and they got Gaston Brugman to be their number six and I think they wanted to play a 4-3-3 and he would sort of fill the gap left by Dax Picardy that they struggled with last year just in terms of ball progression getting the ball into good spots so that players like Hani Mukhtar could actually make stuff happen and I understood the thought process behind that but we've already seen in preseason they they've gone away from the 4 3 3 and into that 4 2 2 2, which doesn't really fit Brugman, even though it fits honey. And then the other thing is that they didn't really upgrade either of the wide midfield or wing spots, if you want to call them wingers.

wide midfield or wing spots, if you want to call them wingers, they don't really have a third heat in attack. And so it's all coming back down to Hany and Sam Surridge again. And we just saw last year, it's not working anymore. And the back line, like, okay, Walker Zimmerman's back, but he's also sort of staring at his mid thirts at this point and we saw last year that he's not as durable as he was. Jack Maher has never become or has yet to become the kind of guy that we hoped. Pullbacks are a little bit in flux, goalkeepers a little bit old. I mean there have been some pieces added but this was a team handcuffed by the roster build at the end of last season and it still feels like they're handcuffed heading into this season. So if there's gonna be progress, maybe Johnny Perez? He's a dynamic 1v1 player and they've never really had that but he's also never really looked like a

full-time starter at the MOS level. I mean, I don't know, it's it's hard to find something to get too excited about with this national team. Doyle bringing us in on a high you have to absolutely love it as he goes through every single layer of the team. So we'll dig back through what he said. Let's start here, Ben, would you mentioned BJ Callahan, maybe not married to one system Doyle touched early on the formation, the setup, how it all looks? What do you make so far of what you've seen, what you've heard and, and how this would all fit together?

Yeah, so that was gonna be the one kind of sticking point I had with what Doyle said, I don't think they ever built this roster with one specific shape in mind. Like I said, I think they want to be flexible. I think we're going to see them use a couple of different looks. Um, I also think that in this four, two, two, two, or whatever they've been using during preseason, um, I definitely understand kind of the concern about Brugeman getting maybe a bit overrun in midfield without the ball.

I think the counter to that is that you have on the wings, they have Alex Muehl and Edward Taxeth who just cover almost inhuman amounts of ground. Um, and so it's not like he's going to be left isolated when, when they're without the ball. Um, but yeah, I think, I think what Doyle said is probably the kind of the worst case scenario. I think there is a best case scenario that's significantly higher than that. And I imagine they're going to be somewhere kind of in between those two.

And I will add on the, on the Brugman stuff, he's only higher than that. And I imagine they're going to be somewhere kind of in between those two. And I will add on the on the Brugman stuff. He's only contracted to the 2025. And that trade came in with a Sean Davis going the other way. So if Brugman is just replacing the Davis minute, which he only played like what 30 minutes with BJ Callahan, I don't know, maybe I'm exaggerating, but it was like, it was not a lot, trust me. And he started two games under Callahan. Yeah. So so you're looking at somebody to come in at that level, to where that position, what we've seen from preseason now, I don't know if that's the plan going forward, but Brian Acosta seems to be taking that role as the starter there. Again, we don't know. Brian Acosta, we've seen him in MLS before, not necessarily impressed in MLS, but my point

is that if you know, if you just think of Brugman as replacement to Sean Davis, rather than some sort of a big improvement piece, then you are really upgrading there based on what Nashville needs. And you brought, you talked about Yazbek before we went into our dualism, who you think will be a big part of that midfield as well. Yeah, I think he's going to be taking over, you know, a starting spot right next to Brian Acosta and or Brugman probably in that sort of deeper to of the midfield and then in front of him like Ben said, it's taxed at and Muiyo most likely. And when you look

at taxed at and he asked back the differentiator between the two of them is that I know they both came from significant leagues but Takseth is more forward-facing and but both of them covered pretty much the same amount of ground which is crazy to think for somebody who's playing as a quote-unquote winger. Now obviously Takseth is more of a central player anyway so he's going to tuck in a little bit more and I think what we saw is that a little bit of an interchangeable at times when needed, Jasbek can be the more forward facing one. But at most, I think from what we've seen of him so far is that he will be more deeper. And what he's capable of is not only going fighting, fighting and getting the ball, which Nashville midfielders have been able to do for this whole time is that once he gets the ball he knows how to move it to the

right piece and that as easy as it sounds I know it sounds easy but Sean Davis, Brian Nenunga and other midfielders really struggled with that piece last season and every season for Nashville SC. Anytime there wasn't a Dax McCarty and even Annabelle Godoy struggled with it sometimes but pretty much Dax McCarty was the only midfielder who can move it from deep positions to a really dangerous position within one pass or maybe two passes at most. We a lot to talk about with this Nashville team I know Ben you've been saying BJ sort of has higher expectations for Brugman maybe then Acosta. Brugman. Maybe then Acosta

Brugman has struggled with injuries the last few years. That's part of that like galaxy getting off him So it's good to have the depth in that position and we know when healthy and at his peak He can be very very good as we saw Whether he's a part of this or not because I think MLS cut maybe a little bit of an outlier how dangerous he was offensively Doyle talked about that third weapon Having honey moot or having Sam Surge. Do you feel like that is as glaring an issue as he brought up? Yes, if they don't address it over the course of the season. I think there are two maybe caveats to that. The first is Tyler Boyd, who toured his ACL last summer and is going

to be back and healthy and it's still a pretty big part of their plans. Obviously he's, I think 30, 31 coming back from an ACL isn't a given, but assuming he can come back to like 80% of his prior level, he should be a pretty important piece for them. I think they're optimistically he'll be kind of back in training in late March. I think that the timeline that they're hoping for is that he can actually like start games and play 90 minutes sometime in June to July. Um, so that's one piece they also have, they, they have you 22 spots to work

with and an international roster spot open and they've been linked. I mean, Tom has linked them to, um, Valera, you're going to have to help me with the pronunciation from, uh, from Scandinavia. I think they've been linked with two or three wingers from Scandinavia and it feels like there is smoke. There is fire to that smoke. I don't think it's just hearsay. I think they're looking at someone pretty significantly. I don't know if they bring them in before the season starts, but I would be shocked

if they go throughout the summer without adding a pretty big piece there. And if they can stay relevant for the first couple months of the season, I mean, anything can happen. But yeah, it's a big gift. Yeah, it is. It's a big position. Valera, I was on your show, I talked about Johnny Russell was right after he sort of said I want to come back to MLS.

And then we were texting about Ted Cudi Pietro right after that move happened of that would have been one that could have made sense for Nashville to use your U-22 initiative spots with players who you've already seen in this league succeed. I would expect Nashville would be in a bunch of those conversations, especially right as the season comes to a start and you start to get into some roster pinches for some teams like we're waiting on the Lucho Evander stuff as of recording this and a bunch of other news that could drop but You do start to see as you get into roster freeze dates teams that haven't organized things the way they'd like or not everything

That's gone in the right direction Nashville could be a comfortable landing spot of we can get quality at a cheaper price or maybe we can even rent out those spots For players that we think could have the quality to perform for us Let's finish off here with a conversation about one of the biggest names, but then I think the biggest aspect of this scene, which is the strength has been the back line. It's been the defense.

Doyle somehow got Walker Zermann into his mid thirties, which I oppose vehemently, like don't add years to anyone as someone who is approaching that and was celebrating a friend's birthday this weekend and was like, I'm close to dying. So I think we should all take advantage of every year we can still claim Andrew we be set our line for Walker Zimmerman starts in Major League Soccer

So this is MLS only at 22 and a half I know some of the thinking was on injuries and I think some of the thinking there is probably on Gold Cup as well with Walker Being a part of Pochettino's winter window and being around the national team for whatever games they're going to be playing over the course of this year. Valera, what's your thoughts on on that line and where would you fall? Yeah, I think I think the reason why the line is lowered than what we expected is probably because Walker's been participating in the Olympics last year. And I think that's something that is missing from this point.

And I don't see him taking part in every single USMNT camp. I do see a chance for him to be in the gold cup, but even that is really up in the air. If this was Berhalter still, I'd probably say 100% the gold cup. But with Pochettino, we still don't know. The only camp Pochettino has called him to is the January camp, which would be wild for Walker to not be called up to that honestly so I think it makes sense and it's possible that he goes to Gold Cup but even with that in terms of his health he did have a couple injury issues the last couple years but overall I wouldn't put him in the injury prone area right I think he's capable of putting in a lot of performances and I

think 22 and a half I would smash the over on that honestly just from what I've seen, just from what I know and I think for Walker specifically he's gonna come into this. He's the face of this franchise and there's no way around it. I know Hani Mukhtar won MVP. Overall people in Nashville know Walker Zimmerman, and not just soccer people, just people in Nashville. He's the captain of the club. He's the face of the franchise. Probably the only DP center back in MLS. I don't know. Teenage Hedebi is not anymore, right? I don't know where else he's left. But they don't usually give that sort of money to centerbacks in MLS and especially not American

ones. So I think when you look at what Walker has provided for Nashville and what Nashville has provided for Walker, he's going to be really motivated to come into the season with something to prove. And I think the 22 and a half, barring a crazy injury, I think I really can see him going maybe closer to the 30 mark with Nashville. Ben, before I let you go, let me give people some context. I probably could have done this. So Walker did start 22 games last year, but of 25 appearances. So it's not like we're

in a situation where if he's healthy or available, he doesn't start. He has not started less than 22 games since he got to LAFC in 2018, but he's been right around that line most years. Not one of those years includes a COVID year where he started all 22 games he played in and then peaked with 28 starts in 2022. So like Valera said, international, a big part of that injury prone probably isn't the term you'd use, but availability has not always been there. Where do you fall on this line and where do you fall on the rest of the defense around it and whether he is or isn't available every single game?

How strong this can be? Yeah, so funnily enough, like literal minutes before we started recording, I was talking to Doyle about this and told him. I came to terms with my own mortality when he referred to Zimmerman as an old centerback because he's like three months older than me so Getting up an age So no would not be excited about you in a preseason prediction just warning you just in case you get stuck. Yeah

But look so Zimmerman he had Achilles surgery last winter offseason and like I talked to him before the season He's like hey I'm finally like this is the first time in a year Plus that I've actually felt healthy came back looked great. And then he had kind of a freak knee-to-knee collision In a game against Miami early in the season and that required another surgery and that's other than the Olympics That's really what kept him out in a lot last year And so like Valera said, I don't think those are really repeatable concerns and honestly, I think if he does get called up to the gold cup,

it's because he would have had to be playing out of his mind for the first half of the season. And I think Nashville would take that happily. So I think Zimmerman is probably the defender I'm least concerned about at all this year. I think he'll be around. He's also out of contract this year too. So kind of added pressure on him to, to perform and either stay in Nashville

or earn himself a contract somewhere else. I think the rest of the defense is kind of up in the air. Um, right back, it looks like it's going to be Andy Nahar and Julian Gaines kind of competing for the starting spot slash sharing starting minutes. I think Dan Leavitt is probably the lockdown at left back and you know what you're going to get from him, but he's also 33 And I don't think they really have a real challenger behind him So I I'm not so concerned about that

I just I think you kind of know what you're getting and there's not a ton of upside down the left I don't really know who is going to start next to Zimmerman consistently Jack Maher, I think we always think he has a high ceiling, but it never, he certainly has not hit his ceiling to date. And I worry that he's never going to. And like, if he's kind of just a mid-level MLS starting center back for the rest of his career, that's fine. But I think we thought he might have like potential fringe national team type caliber potential and we haven't seen that yet. Behind him it's Jason Palacios who I, to be honest, I didn't even know who he was before Nashville signed him. They're pretty high on him. I mean, knowing them, I don't think they would have burned an international roster spot on a center back if they didn't think he could at least challenge for starting minutes. And then Josh Bauer, who has been playing right back a lot in preseason because of injuries.

But I think he's probably the third guy on the depth chart. So I think that whoever partners Zimmerman will probably change a good bit early in the season while Callahan tries to figure out who his starter is. But they have depth there, and I don't think either of those three guys are net negatives in any way. And so I think if Zimmerman stays healthy, I think he's the type of guy who kind of elevates everybody around him. And so if you get 30 games from Zimmerman this year, I would wager that this defense is pretty solid. And just to something you said, Goss, earlier about Nashville being known for that defensive stability as the team for defensive stability, I really think they're moving away from that in this Nashville SC 2.0.

I think that, I mean, they're not gonna just like not defend, but what we saw last year was a pretty rough go for the defensive core. And it did improve this year a little bit, Andy Nahar, Palacios maybe, but they didn't spend their resources there. And I think that tells you that this team is moving towards the midfield and the forward lines more so than the defensive line, which has been where they always reinforced every single preseason. Right? So I think, I think you're going to

see a team that's a little bit more focused on pressing and having the ball rather than a team that's more sitting back and waiting for the opponent to do something. I'm excited to see Walker Zermin in that setup because what you know helped elevate him into the player that we talked just talked Jack Maher potentially could be was playing at LAFC in an open game where he showed his ability to cover over the top to close down space to win a ton of 1v1 battles and it's been a different role at times in Nashville. I think one, he's also been really well suited to of being sort of that dominant piece inside of a set block.

But I think he still has that skill set. I think that's why Greg Burhalter kept calling him in and liked what he was able to bring when the team got pulled a little bit higher and was able to be more aggressive, his ability to defend 1v1 at that center back position. I'm going to go over on this as well. I agree with sort of what you both said about his injury concerns not being injury prone

and constant. And even if the gold cup does happen, I think he'll still get over that number. I also think there's a difference for a team that's just out of it. For a team that's contending for a playoff spot and you're the DP captain center back, you want to be out there on the field and you can fight for it. You've got that relationship with BJ Calhan as well. So I have high expectations for the year he's going to have. And I think I have higher expectations than what Matt Doyle said about the season that's coming for Nashville. We're doing our watchability rankings coming up myself and Tom. I think Valera, as you talked

about, they won't defend ever a single time So they'll be high on the list. We'll take the 10-9 games And even if it's not that I think they're going to be much more fun to watch than they've been the last few years No matter what the place to follow it 615 soccer and pharmaceutical soccer as well get involved join The coverage is fantastic. As I said MLS coverage on top of just Nashville coverage. So if you like this league and you like cover and you like following it and you want to do it as well as you can, it's a good resource for you.

And hopefully we'll have you guys on at some point over the course of the year if things are going moderately well. Sounds good. Thanks for having us on. This is a lot of fun. Yeah, thanks, David. Nice seeing you again. Next week, same time. Absolutely. Put in the calendar Vancouver Whitecaps going into what is a massive year Potential ownership change a potential stadium change a new coach a lot to talk about for what is one of the most stable a new coach, a lot to talk about for what is one of the most stable rosters in Major League Soccer. Tom, three months ago we thought this wasn't really gonna be a conversation. It was just, can everyone get a half percent better? Can

it all be a little more cohesive? And that's all been thrown up in the air. Yes, Stuart Armstrong left for Sheffield Wednesday. I feel like it came out of nowhere because he had just gotten here late last year and it seemed to be that was a foundation to build on. But Stuart Armstrong came to the club and said hey I want to go back to England if this opportunity presents itself. It was workable for all parties so Vancouver didn't want to hold him hostage. Let him go to Sheffield Wednesday but that throws a bit of a wrinkle into the Vancouver Whitecaps attack.

They've brought in some new players. They've gotten younger. Stuart Armstrong was post prime or late prime depending on how you view it. So there's some younger attackers and and we thought that this was a team with with minimal flexibility and then they sent out a DP so that they opened up some books a little bit. It is I'm putting this out in the world it is one of the few MOS markets I've never been to it's one of the few MOS stadiums I've never been to the least deal for BC plays for Vancouver expires this year and they are attempting to sell the team

We don't know where that ownership group will be we talked about it a lot with Michael McCall of AFTN I'm one of the best longest running podcast covering the Vancouver Whitecaps and soccer in Canada. They Jesse Marsh on Recently they do an awesome job covering the sport So I highly recommend following them and we'll talk with Michael in a moment They do an awesome job covering the sport. So I highly recommend following them and we'll talk with Michael in a moment. We talked a little bit about the concerns and worries about finding a, you know, ownership group that wants to be in Vancouver, that has the money to be in Vancouver, especially as things change both politically and economically for running a sports team there.

And then with the stadium lease coming up. So I have to try and get out there this year. I'm putting it out into the world lightly I have to get to a Vancouver Whitecaps game at some point because the city looks absolutely gorgeous and the atmosphere bounces I say it over and over again when this team's good when they're competitive when Ryan Galtz running downhill when there's space for Ali Ahmed like this team is fun it feels fun to watch from afar and I want to go do it in person I couldn't agree more.

And again, Vancouver is a city I haven't been to either. It looks beautiful. Everybody I talk to that either lives in Vancouver or has visited Vancouver. Nothing but positive things to say. So gosh, you and me both, it's a little bit difficult to get all the way up into that corner of our continent, but it is well worth it and I need to make it happen. No excuses. That's on me.

Yeah, we're going to take the, I think we'll take the dog sled down from Alaska. Obed Vargas was telling me don't sleep on players from Alaska. So I'm learning a lot about that region now. Let's go into our conversation though with Michael about this team and about what 2025 is for the Vancouver Whitecaps. Well, I think you all know this is going to be one of my personal favorite segments. You know I love to talk about the Vancouver Whitecaps. It's one of the few MLS markets I've never been to, one of the few MLS stadiums games I've never been to and I might be against the clock. We'll talk about it coming up here. Michael McCall with us from AFTN has been covering the Whitecaps for

years. It's one of the best sources for coverage of the sport out of Canada, as well as in the Vancouver area. So if you're listening on Soccer Wise here, you can go find them anywhere you find your podcasts or go to the website. And if you're listening there, welcome to Soccer Wise and and we are live twice a week and we talk MLS and NWSL as much as humanly possible. And Michael, this is going to be a fascinating conversation because there's some great, there's some weird, there's some scary. It is all across the map in this Vancouver Whitecaps off season. Yeah, it's not been an acquired off season. I think turbulent is the maybe the best word to describe it. I mean, if you're covering the team like we are, it's been interesting and fun, but then just nothing to talk about.

I mean, we've got a three hour podcast every week, so we've not been struggling for content. It is maybe also not what we expected. It felt like coming out of last year, the strength of Vancouver was going to be stability. And that stability has been questioned on the field more than we expected. And then for sure, off the field, alluding to the fact that the ownership has announced that they're beginning the process of attempting to sell the club. The lease on BC place ends in 2025 as well. So there is the potential that the team could play somewhere else in Vancouver, there's a potential that unfortunately the team may not play in Vancouver. That's taking

up a lot of the oxygen. We want to talk about on the field because there is some really interesting stuff to talk about with this club on the field. But Michael, just give me an idea of sort of the reaction, what you're seeing, what you're hearing, what the feeling is in the fan base of, of what's going on and what could come. An air of uncertainty is basically what surrounds this team, both on the pitch as well as off it just now. But I mean off it, the club being up for sale, everyone knows what nearly happened with Columbus. Longtime fans remember what happened with San Jose. I'm an AFC Wimbledon fan and I have that in the back of my mind as well. It came as a shock. I think a lot of people thought that Greg Kerfoot, who's the majority owner, might put the team up for sale after the World Cup.

He's at an age now that he's maybe thinking of retiring and he's wanting to just have family planning, estate planning, and that's basically what this is for. But we were always told that Jeff Mallet, who is the second biggest owner involved with Yahoo, part owner of football teams in Europe and San Francisco Giants, he's always come out and said, no, I'm here long term, this is for my family. So this came as a shock. It was announced as well when a bunch of the players were over at Ryan Gold's wedding. So I'm pretty sure that was an interesting talking point at the wedding reception. But I've spoken to a few players and they try and not think about it. They all feel it is

a weird situation. From a fan point of view, I've been here since 2007. So this was before my time. But Vancouver Grizzlies getting moved in the NBA, that has been thrown up so many times on social media and the local media and that's always at the back of everyone's mind as well. What makes it tougher is the loony is falling against the US dollar. They're looking for 450 to 500 million American for it. I don't know anyone locally that has that kind of money. I don't know why somebody would want to spend that money to keep the team in Vancouver, if I'm being brutally honest.

When you've got markets in the US that probably are on the outside looking in at the next expansion markets. Phoenix, Detroit, makes total sense to me that they come in and say, well, we want this club and we move it. I would hate it. It makes business sense, football sense it doesn't. I think MLS though would rather have the expansion fees and the money. Yeah.

The pyramid scheme doesn't fall down. The owners need this and it's running out. So if you mentioned Vegas, MLS are going to want Vegas as an expansion team. They want the big bucks to come in. Right. The $700 million expansion fee. So it's the other markets that I think we have to be worried about. There's rumors Ryan Reynolds might be interested. I think that's more wishful thinking than anything else. I mean, he bought

Rex about what, 20 million or something. You can get promoted in five, six years to the Prem. You can't do much in MLS. So I don't see that. There's not a lot of local businessmen that's got that kind of money. So all up in the air. There's not even any rumors of anyone that's interested. So that's a dark cloud that hangs over it. You mentioned BC Place. I mean, we've been told they'll renew the lease. They kind of have to. There's nowhere else to play in Vancouver. There are rumors that there could be a new stadium that could be built. We've got a race course here, so they could build a stadium there. That's been rumored from pre-COVID times and it all came to nothing.

Apparently the mayor's pushing for that now. And if that gets approved, it could be tied in with keeping the team here. Yeah, that'd be great news. Obviously, we talk about it on this show all the time. When there's competitive games, BC plays balances. It is a fun game, fun place to watch a game from someone from the outside. And to me, that goes back to me beginning watching MLS.

I always tell this story that the first two weeks of MLS, the streaming package or the MLS direct kick was always free. And so I'd go to bars and the late game would be Vancouver. And I can vividly remember just watching games at BC Place and thinking it was the coolest place as Darren Maddox tore things up and beating TFC on opening days and all those types of things. And it has history. Like it is one of the few clubs in Major League Soccer that has extensive history as you go back in To the nasl days. I think a hope for me externally is a world cup hosted in canada a canadian men's national team

Being more successful a cpl growing that at some point There's someone who can guide this a little bit and say we need this to build the sport and What kevin blue has done has been incredible at csa It's not really his responsibility, but feels like there are more adults in the room who potentially can help sort of bring this to what would be a correct finish and a correct ending. Unfortunately, that's all stuff we have to talk about. Then we talk about the team and there's also still turbulence and chaos. Normally we do the transfer thing first.

There are some transfers with this team. They are odd But the biggest story even on the soccer side is non soccer because it's Vanny Sartini Being let go at the end of the season and being replaced now by Jesper Sorensen a Danish coach most recently at Brownby The Vanny Sartini stuff as we've kind of sorted to deal with it As we've kind of sorted to deal with it, you understand he is a wild, erratic character. The club had at moments wild, erratic runs where you thought they had figured it out and they hadn't. The big conversation was like the roster is stable, so how are they going to get better?

And felt like the feeling internally was, well, we'll get a different coach with different tactics. The roster has no longer remained stable off of that. But Vane Sartini seems like maybe the biggest name in soccer in Canada or in Vancouver and for him to be gone is just this massive gap to be left for the team. From looking in from outside, I get why everyone was quite puzzled by the sacking. I mean, I think it's a pretty even split here in Vancouver. Was it the right decision? Was it not?

It's a ballsy move by Axel Schuster, because whoever comes in, if they do not perform better than what Vanni did, it's tough on Jesper Sorensen. Axel Schuster will get a lot of questions. The general feeling at the end of last year though was, and I think when Vani posed this question himself in post-gay or post-season availability, right away you're like, he's posing that question, that's not the sensible thing to do. Has he taken the team as far as he can? Does it need a new voice in there? So when the coach is saying that, Axel Schuster spent two weeks, he says, mulling over that and came to the same conclusion. I'll be honest, I love Vani. I had

a great relationship with Vani. I think it was the right decision. Yeah. But they had to get the right replacement. And we don't know yet if Jesper Sørensen will be that. And the reason it was the right decision was they should have been top four easy last West, arguably top two. They had a six week spell where they stunk the place out. All season they were terrible at home and nobody knows why. On the road, amazing. And nobody quite knows why either. So the feeling was that they underperformed, they should have done so much better. And when you're not getting stuff out of the team, I mean you saw that Portland game. That's what that team was capable

of. They pushed LAFC all the way, the playoffs. That's what that team was capable of. So you need someone that can get that week in week out. They've brought in Jesper Sorensen personality wise, polar opposites from Van Nessar team. He's not going to be talking about God, he's not going to be talking about cats, Batman and Robin, socialism, painters and all these things that Vanny would just go wandering off talking about just with no inkling of why, just he wanted to get it out there. He's a thoughtful guy, great experience, like Brand Brondé's a good team. Yeah. Almost took them to the Danish Championship, under-21 Danish head coach, big grinding coming through Danish teams, played in Denmark, but has only played and coached in Denmark. So MLS, as we

know, intricacies galore, different atmospheres, environments, the travel. It's a big learning curve for him. He seems very open to it. It's a tough start to the season though as well. And you don't get off to a good start, the fans are immediately on your back. And it could be a very interesting year. Let's talk about the transfers because that's made it harder. Stuart Armstrong brought in his designated player last year to run alongside Ryan Gould, the working man's MVP, the hero of the people at the number 10, the Scottish Messi and all those things in between was supposed to have this partner. And you talk about that Portland game, I think it was a goal into assists for Stuart Armstrong

in that game only ended up playing six matches for the Vancouver Whitecaps before asking to be sold back to England which he was in this offseason to Sheffield Wednesday. I believe it was in the end. The other departures, Fafa, Pico, Ryan Raposo, and then Diabier-Coscaisado that never really landed. Pico, a really good season last year overall, probably as good as you'd expect from him, but still a borderline piece of the roster. Ryan Raposo has consistently found some good moments, but never become a starter for this team.

So the Stuart Armstrong is the big story. And that was, again, you talk about turbulence, a bit of a shock, Michael. Like we thought it was going to be, oh, this was done in 2024 for 2025. And then all of a sudden, for not the first time, a big time player is asking to leave Vancouver. Yeah.

And we joked about it on our podcast when we're doing our predictions for the year. And I said, oh, Stuart Armstrong is going to ask for a transfer because his family's not going to settle. And I, I, because I was like, I don't even put that out there, just get fans upset. It had always been at the back of my mind because what a lot of folk will not know is Stewart Armstrong turned down coming to the Whitecaps before he signed for the Whitecaps. They asked him to come, Axel went and met with him in France where he was on holiday, Stuart said, I've just had a newborn baby, my wife and all this support mechanism is back in England, no it's not for me. No other deals came his way, then he took

the deal here. Now as soon as you hear that he's got a newborn baby and all the family's gonna be in the UK, we've been here before in Vancouver and I was like yeah, I can see issues ahead if the wife doesn't sell. But the wife came over, apparently they loved it here, everything was great, but he's always wanted to play back in the Premier League in England. Why he picked Sheffield Wednesday and not Sheffield United, I don't know, but he decided to go with the chance to get into the Premier League and I believe he's only signed with him to the end of the season, so if they don't make it to the Premier League he'll try and be with another team that might get into the Premier League. Now he was offered a deal by Southampton and he could have been in the Premier League,

but it wasn't what he was looking for. So he was looking for more, nothing came, it's a huge loss. But we never really got to see what the real Stuart Armstrong is. Like I've known him as a player for years from watching him with Celtic in the Prem Scotland. Quality talent. Him and Ryan Gould go way back to Dundee United days and they linked up beautifully that Portland game, that front four with Pico, absolutely flying and you're like, oh, this is going to be so good next year. Fafapico, we knew was likely to go because he's got family in Miami. Almost weekly, he flew down to Miami, even just for the day, to go and see them. And there was other sort of personal stuff with his family as well that I won't go into.

So he wanted to be closer to them. Now, you can't get much closer than where he landed. So we knew he was probably gonna go. And it's a lot of goals and assists to lose. Stuart Armstrong, it's a lot of potential goals and assists to lose. And that's giant void now that you're looking to fill. The one name brought in so far is Jaden Nelson, which is an interesting move. I have been a fan of his game for a while. Toronto kind of punted on him at some point, sort of acknowledging that they were not the place he was going to reach his peak.

And so they sold him to Europe in an idea of almost the 20% sell on we get from him for at another club is going to be better than what we can turn him into. But he had converted from a winger into a central midfielder in his time in Toronto. And you saw maybe a future there not similar to Pedro Vite in style, but in terms of that transition of play. And I love when Jaden Nelson has bodies around him and he's able to play in and out of tight spaces really quickly. He's got great feet. And then when he can get out into the open field, he can be exciting. It's a good move and it felt like it was just a can we add a half percent here and there to this roster? It's not a replacement for Stuart Armstrong. And that's where you're in a little

bit of trouble. There's also one more rumor as we record this at another potential young domestically player, although not young anymore. Emmanuel Sabi could be on his way to Vancouver as well. Matthew Hoppe was training with the club. So they are trying to work at the margins, which in theory is fine Michael, if you're bringing back the whole team, but you've lost the designated player and so you're no longer in a work at the margins situation. What do you make of the window overall? I mean it's been disappointing and I was talking to someone at the Whitecaps, I said the roster is looking quite grim and they were like no it's not and it's like oh it's looking very

grim right now but there's more pieces on their way is what we've been told. Now Nelson for me is the like-for-like replacement for Valf Pico and what maybe 12 years younger I think he is. Lit it up at Rosenberg, eight goals, eight assists, wanted to move to a higher league, went to Bundesliga II, struggled with Ulm and we spoke to him a couple of weeks ago on our podcast and he readily admitted it wasn't for him, it was a wrong move, he didn't say oh he didn't like it there and you didn't see the best Jaden Nelson. So he's come back with a fire under him to show what he can do with 2026 World Cup on the horizon. That's really his motivating factor here So that I like

We've seen him pre-season. He's already got a goal He's gonna be a player I think that if he can get in the box You're gonna see goals and assists from him and I think it's to be an exciting addition. It looks like Jesper Sonsen probably most of the time is going to go 4-3-3 so it's going to bring wingers into play that Vani Sartini did not like wingers. Which was interesting then that he signed Vaffa Pico to begin with and then there was issues last year with Vaffa not getting play in time but I remember the Whitecaps do a Christmas media dinner. So we're speaking to Vanny one year now,

we're trying to get him to sign Lewis Morgan from New York Red Bulls. And he's like, well, you know, what's wrong with that? I was like, well, it's like I hate wingers. So I think we're going to see wingers now with Vancouver. And Sabi is obviously another winger. He can play through the middle as well. I'm not sold on that one. The rumours are they're paying a million euro transfer fee for him. I don't even necessarily see him as a starter, but if you're paying a million euros, I guess he's a starter.

Hasn't done great with Le Havre. I don't know too much about him. I know that he got one cap for the US. I'm glad we didn't sign Hoppe, I've got to say, because another striker in Vancouver that can't score is the last thing that we kind of need just now. We've had so many of them in the last 12 years. Now, for me, the big gap is, as you say so many of them in the last 12 years. Now for me the big gap is as you say replacing Stuart Armstrong in the centre of the park. But JJ

Adams at the province newspaper here spoke to Axel Schuster on last Friday and that doesn't seem to be what is on the cards as the replacement. They're looking more in the attack as opposed to in the midfield. And it doesn't sound like they're looking more in the attack, as opposed to in the midfield. And it doesn't sound like they're going to use the designated player spot. And they're going to go down the under 22 initiative route. It is concern. Yeah, it has been an interesting roster build. As I said, some of these moves are interesting of like if you're going to take a flyer, if you don't have, you know, if you're trying to take a flyer if you don't have you know if you're trying to take risks here or there the problem is you do have to get better and you do have to replace some pieces. Let's go to our our Matt Doyle ism for a moment and then we'll jump off the back of that.

The cats man I guess last year's playoffs where they won five nil at Portland and then played great, but ultimately came up a little short against LAFC. I guess that was a high point because they added Stuart Armstrong as that third DP in the summer and didn't look like it was going to work out. But then he got healthy down the stretch and into the playoffs and he gave them that extra level that allowed them to go toe to toe with LAFC in a way that they hadn't been able to go toe to toe with them or any of the top teams in the region over the past couple years. And so I was excited to see them build on that and head into 2025. But Armstrong is gone.

Fafa Picot, who was a big part of last year's success, he's gone. And Vani Sartini is gone. They decided to change the coach after the three most successful years by far of their MLS existence. So I don't really understand any of that in any real way. And then, you know, there's not been much investment to speak of in this off season. So it's just back to sort of hoping that Brian White and Ryan Gould can be awesome and hoping that Ali Ahmed and Pedro Vite can somehow find another level. I'm not sure what formation they're going to be playing, though we saw in preseason, it's probably going to be a four, three, two, one Christmas

tree. I don't hate that, but I'm not sure that it gets the best out of anyone other than Gald. I don't know. This shouldn't be a bad team, but if you look at how the rest of the West has conducted business this offseason, it's hard to see them taking a step forward and building on that positive momentum that they found in October and November. And as someone who

really liked watching that team play, I'm really disappointed by that. So the words there of Mr. Matt Doyle, mimicking a lot, I think, of what you had already said and sort of some of the question marks on the roster. Talked a little about that formation. You mentioned 433, something similar and setting up that way. Let me start with this, which though is, the question mark on all of this

is that the strength last year, fourth best defense you could say in the Western Conference, that back, whatever you wanna call it say in the Western Conference, that back, whatever you want to call it, five, six, seven, eight, like the defense goalkeeper in through that base at midfield, that's all returning. So there is this platform of success that has existed. And the question, and I think Doyle put it well there, is has the rest of the West sort of jump 12 Vancouver even with that strength has has remained the same Yeah, that is For me the big aspect of this and we see a lot that the other teams in the West improve and the Whitecaps

Either don't or just very small increase in improvements And I think that is the big thing you look at at San Jose, what they've done, and they're not going to be bottom next year, or this year. If they are, I'll be stunned by that. So they've got longer to, or they've got a bigger distance to kind of go from bottom into the playoffs. And yeah, they need to make these big pieces, but the Whitecaps don't have far to fall to be out of the playoff spots and I think that's the the key thing here. I don't see this as a playoff squad, I don't see us having a playoff start in 11 if everyone was healthy and could play the whole game. It's too early to tell, I think there is a chance there's a DP comes in in the summer again. We haven't had a good

history of summer DPs coming here. Actually, we haven't had a good history of DPs in general. As much as I'd like more Scottish players here, I think we kind of need to steer away from them. Now, it's not been the most successful outside of Ryan Gould. Pedro Vite was mentioned there and I think I have been disappointed that he hasn't grown as much as I hoped he would. So this is a huge year for him. He also wants to feature more for the national team. And as Kubis as well, you speak about that back defence, back seven or whatever, Kubis is key to that. I mean, Kubis was injured or suspended last year. You saw it really affected the team.

There's been talk that he wants to move on to a bigger team as well to try and solidify his place with Paraguay for the the World Cup, lose him and that midfield is in big big trouble the midfield for me needs a couple of pieces coming in yeah it doesn't look like that is happening the pieces that we have here in the midfield I don't see being strong enough to handle what the rest of the West has out there yeah Pedro Vite is one where he came in and it felt like he was an attacking, you know, young piece and I think he's found his way in a bit more of a, you know, central midfield

ball progressor. I think he hits a really good through ball from deep, but is not this, you know, elite MLS attacking 10 and chance creator and goal scorer. And I don't know who if that is who he is, right? At this point, it feels like what he's become, he's good at. I don't know if he can elevate his game. And that's that next step.

That would be the question mark is, okay, he's gotten on the field, speed of play, physicality. He's reached the level there. Can he step forward and become one of these pieces because you are looking at this team and you're asking who can elevate from last year? Who can get better? I do think Ali Ahmed is one of these pieces because you are looking at this team and you're asking who can elevate from last year who can get better. I do think Ali Ahmed is one of them just because he hasn't really played one position a ton at the pro level that long and so it feels like every week he plays he can be one who can continue to improve and get better. Nelson the same. We have our owner over unders that

Andrew Weeby gives us every single time and this is sort of his question and it's on Brian White. He set the line for MLS goals at 14 and a half goals. Brian White scored 15 goals in MLS the last two years. I think it was 12 the year he got traded to Vancouver before that. So not a full season. So basically his rate has been 15 a season and we'd be asking here does he maintain that? Does he go higher or is this the year maybe that he falls off? One thing to think about is he also might be around the national team for the gold cup which could affect how much time he plays for Vancouver on top of this. What do you make of that line and and where do you sort of fall? make of that line and and where do you sort of fall? Have we had clarification yet if the tariffs come in do Canadian goals have an extra 25% put on them and does Brian White count as a Canadian? Without that I say under. It is over my that's over my pay grade 100%. I think I think under the 15

or under the 14 and a half he's punched above above his weight these two career seasons in a row. I mean, if he has three, fair credit to the lad. I think a lot depends, like if Nelson can get flying and send those balls in, if Sabi can send the balls in from the wing as well, if he has that connection with Ryan Gould, it's very possible he has to be able to finish better. He had a couple of bad misses in the playoffs that really cost a lot of dear. That is why he's with Vancouver, that's why he's an MLS and he's not over in Europe. He's not that clinical finisher. But I go with the under I think 12 to 14. And I take that right now. Yeah. He's lived there for most of his time. As you said, he has his runs of games where

he's confident and finishing and taking aggressive shots. That's one of the big things with Brian White is sometimes he forgets he's a center forward and he wants to help set his teammates up and he wants to work hard for the team. Like all things you appreciate, but unfortunately to be the mentality of a striker, sometimes you can't be that person. And Brian White has always sort of floated in between the two. And so far, eventually he's found his way back to that 15 goals with Vancouver, which puts you into really nice conversation, right? We're talking 19 goals have been golden boot winners in MLS

have been MVPs in major league soccer at 20 goals. Like you're starting in that conversation. Hence getting called into the national team on the border of things around January camps. I think he can do it again, because I think he puts himself in dangerous places. He has a few abilities, one being his ability to win 50-50s, whether it's aerial, whether it's on the ground, like he will throw his body in the way for a ball and try and get

on the end of things. The question becomes service though. He doesn't create his own chances. And as you said with Jaden Nelson, that's the real question mark for this team. When we've looked at Vancouver the last few years good defensively Borderline good if not great at times Finishing it's that chance creation and that one ability to make something special happen

Especially against a set defense that hasn't been there now We don't have Stuart Armstrong to be that answer So the question is if there's one there and if it will be able to come together. Well, I Guess we're gonna sit around and I'll wait and see this year was not the preview. I expect it I think if you had asked six weeks ago seven weeks ago, what Vancouver would look like? I think we were all kind of like ah, this will be the most boring one It's the same team again Everything's the same and a lot is but the parts that are different feel absolutely massive.

And we use the term turbulent a lot in this conversation and it continues to be, but either way, you should follow that AFTN, that is the place for all of your Canadian soccer coverage, as well as your Vancouver coverage, Whitecaps, CPL as well, NSL coming into the market this year. So a lot of exciting stuff going on with the game north of the border,

but especially in the Pacific Northwest. And you should definitely tune in to follow along. Michael, I appreciate you taking the time and hopefully we'll have you back for some fun convos throughout the year. Yeah, hopefully it's been a heart-breaking week. It's Minnesota United time in our 2025 season previews. We've been doing them with local podcast hosts around the major league soccer sphere. We love the ability, the opportunity to connect with people who love the same thing we do,

who are passionate about what they do and bring what we believe is vital coverage to this sport and to this league. This one's a little bit different. Maybe not as much a newsy podcast host, but has the credentials anyway. Zarek Valentin recently retired, very recently retired, Minnesota United player now doing the official podcast for Minnesota United as well as working a little bit with the coaching staff. He has been around the league for a while. Montreal Impact at the time, MLS Cups with the Portland Timbers, Houston Dynamo, and then finishing in Minnesota. He is a true MLS life for Tom and I think it's just fun to see him stay in the league and be connected to things.

I couldn't agree more. Zerrick Valance is an absolute legend. Love that dude. life for Tom and I think it's just fun to see him stay in the league and be connected to things. I couldn't agree more. Zerrick Valance is an absolute legend. Love that dude. He's one of those guys that like you see him, you just get happy. Like it's a visceral reaction. There's so much joy that he exudes. He's a fun dude.

He's a laughs all that stuff. It's funny to see him as as a coach, right? Like he telling us a story is joke around uh... but like a couple of like come on boys like you can't you always almost like you can see the super serious guy but you know you can because he's a serious professional athlete and had a wonderful career and is very serious about coaching but he's one of those days that you see in the smile and you left and you want to be around so i

think that's one of the highest on the side i was lucky enough to basically work with him at MLS Cup. I believe it was 2021 when the Timbers hosted and he was obviously playing. They were knocked out and he wanted to try his hand a little bit at broadcasting. To walk around Providence Park in Portland with Zarik Valentin is to feel like a celebrity. Like it was absolutely insane. It's just every person had a nice thing to say, wanted to talk to him, had a connection to it. Wasn't like, oh, like I'm such a big fan.

It was like he remembered everyone. He remembered meeting them in the past. It is what you hope for. And these are the people you want to stay around the league. Like he is someone who should be. And he talks about in the show, he speaks Spanish fluently, he knows a little French from his time in Montreal. So he's working as a translator for players, many of who are coming to this league for the first time.

That's the type of ambassador you want in a situation like that to be like, if you are committed to this, this is what it could be for you. Exactly. And again, he spoke about it a little bit too where he understands the opportunity and the respect that he's getting from Eric Ramsey that it's not typical for a player to go immediately to the coaching staff. It happens. It's not unprecedented.

But more often than not, they go to the academy staff or they go maybe to the front office at some sort of lower level role rather than first team coaching staff. That is a big responsibility. One one he doesn't take lightly, but from the outside, it just shows you all the nice things we're saying about Zerrick Vountain. I'm sure that's nice for him to hear. What matters more is a guy like Eric Ramsey's, no, I want you on my staff, where he has the respect of his peers. So I think that that, again, you don't need to say any words. You just look at those actions. You look at the people who gravitate towards this guy, and that's where it is. look at those actions you look at you know the people who gravitate towards this guy and that's where it is. He was also one of the players who wore one of

the t-shirts when the Timbers fans were protesting over the use of the iron front flag and like there are just very few players who are that aware of what's going on around them off the field and you know when I talked to him about it covering it he was like very good about I care about this I want to promote this but also like I understand that I'm not stepping in front of the fans I'm trying to be an ally to them and so I think he's been a really special part of this league I love Minnesota I spent a lot of time there a few years back when they hosted

an open cup semi-final they hosted the All-Star game I got to of time there a few years back when they hosted an open cup semi-final. They hosted the All-Star game. I got to go out there a couple different times. I always have some great meals. I always get to hang out with some great people. We get to go to Blackheart, which we love to do. And shout out to Wes, who is in the Discord all the time, making my life more difficult and making fun of me. And now I'm a part-time Minnesota Aurora.

Part-time I guess, part owner? Oh, you're an owner. You're an owner. Scented. Not a part-time because I'm full-time part-owner. So I got to get out to Minnesota once again this year, but it's always one of the best. And Tom, they've punched maybe you could say above their weight in Major League Soccer, but from the start where they were being sort of a cheaper team that struggled

and all of that, they've reestablished themselves and they're consistently a team that has made the efforts to contend towards the top of MLS. And I think this is a group that can be really good in the Western Conference. So let's go to our interview now, or our conversation now with Zach Valentin. We continue on with our season previews here at Soccerwise,

hitting all 30 teams as we get ready for the 2025 MLS season. David Goss and Tommy Scoops with you as usual. And this time we're going north. We are talking loons and we've got a special person with us for this. You are probably the most athletic podcast host that we have talked to so far. That is a compliment, I swear, Zarek Valentin of Sounds of the Loon podcast. There you go, brought to you by Line of Health. Shout out Line of Health. Yeah, it's a really low bar for someone

who just got surgery, I'll tell you that much. Does a Line of Health promise all of us medical massages after this? Listen, I'll put in the new contract. Just for you to know. That's all I wanna hear. It is a big one for you, Zarek. Medical massages after this listen, I'll put in the I'll put in the new contract That's all I want to hear it is a big one for you. Zarek you just retired and you are entering now into a Transitional part of your life is a term that we're gonna choose to use the next phase of your career

And you're all over the map now Yeah, I mean it's been first off a blessing for myself my family We've been so happy in Minnesota once from the second we got there and you know working with Coach Ramsey and Collin and Sherry Here they were able to kind of figure out you know carve my own path to Allow me to experience a lot of different things starting with some of the assistant coaching with the first team I got some initials right here, which is pretty cool No, do it hosting the podcast that we have. I've had a few guests.

I'd love to have you guys on our podcast. And just a little bit of everything. So it's been a lot of fun these first few weeks in the preseason, getting to see things from behind the curtain now, as opposed to being a player. You're just working on training sessions being like, I actually think there needs to be more running in that session.

Well, the funny thing was I actually, I did a passing drill the other day and you know Coach Ramsey gave me enough leeway to design the passing drill. I set up two, set it up, got the boys out there and I brought them in and I didn't think he'd hear this but he called me out after I brought them in and I said hey guys this is my first piece of responsibility let's not F this up but obviously I said this, I said the rule when I said so. We're going to do two bouts of this with Let's not F this up. But obviously I said this, I said the real one, I said so. We're gonna do two bouts of this with Bron-Nos in between.

Let's make this look all right. Because if not, might not get much responsibility after this. You're just pulling on the hard strings. But Zach, that's gonna wear out. You gotta earn respect. You have to own that. Oh yeah, trust me.

I've been getting there. Like I said, I think, you know, at the end of last year, I got, I picked up an injury during international break. So I had about three months, literally from September, October, November, throughout playoffs where I was actually kind of doing this already, but I didn't have an official black top.

So I was helping out doing some of the translation stuff. And like now I actually have weight, right? And then luckily coach Ramsey will give me some assignments to where it has weights and kudos to the guys. There's been no pushback. Obviously there's a little good banter and stuff like that, but it's been really great to just step in and look at things and try to be a resource

to some of the younger players and be a confidant, right? I really value the relationship I have with the players and obviously want to always just put them and just help them succeed in any way possible. And now I have a little bit of you know first hand you know conversation with the you know coach Ramsey and some of the other assistant coaches so I can bring stuff up and you know players really comfortable so it's been a really fun transition I'm just excited to you know keep going and obviously you know

get back into the season where the games really matter. It is the it's that time of year where we're pretending players aren't on the field and players aren't at practice and all these other things there get to see it from our point Of view, I'm sure it's frustrating from the player side But it is maybe even more frustrating from the outside, but we did get some transfer news in for Minnesota United So we're gonna run through that we're gonna hit our Doyle isms as we always do We sit at the foot of the master our sage Matthew Doyle and then we'll bounce off that and we've got our over-under line From our bookie

in New Jersey, Andrew Weeby, who sets it for us. I don't bet, let's put it out there. 100%, I 100% understand that, but you could understand how someone from New Jersey would have really good ideas about something like that. Hypothetically. Hypothetically, and maybe eventually one day he'll go play running back for the Philadelphia Eagles

and then go birds We can go from there Had to get that one in before we got too far for anyone not watching on video We post all these on YouTube Zarek holding up his birds out there go birds Yeah, oh, yeah, you want to give me the floor for the I thought I was gonna get the automatic go birds back I thought if someone said go birds everyone just said go bird. Yeah, it's just kind of like a high Around Philadelphia these days. No, it's been Super Bowl. I cried multiple times. I just, for me, it's weird because I get so detached from MLS fans

because, you know, this is our job, right? You've been in and around it. But now I see it from the other way because my birds just won and, you know, feeling the emotion and it gives you a different level of respect for the fans. And I've been so fortunate to have some incredible fan bases that I played from and now being in Minnesota, it's just really cool to kind of see it all come to fruition and hopefully be on the other end to help deliver a championship. Were you in Coachella trying to climb light poles and do whatever else that the Eagles

fans are doing back in Philly? Yeah. Yeah. I also value my new job for the time being. As much as my inclination is to go out and just cause havoc, I value paycheck a little bit more than I do sliding down some poles like I'm a fireman. Zarek's just sitting in his room,

just knocks over one piece of plastic and is like, I did it, go for it. I did it, it's causing some chaos. We've got some big transfer stories around this Minnesota team. For a lot of it, Tom, it's causing some chaos. We've got we've got some big transfer stories around this Minnesota team for a lot of it Tom It's the going out a lot of the work for them coming in was done early last year And and so we saw those players on the field Some huge names leaving the team Zach Valentin being the biggest one obviously

For this they brought in a lot of players in the summer They are continuing to remake this team under Khalid Al-Ahmad and head coach Eric Ramsey So it was more about moving players out as the contracts were going on So they had a lot of departures chief among them as you said Zarek, but Timu Pukki, Ethan Bristow Those were some of the names that departed Franco Fragupani who had been here for a little while in came Nicholas Romero Hoi-Yon Jung and Owen Jean as kind of the three key additions to this team. But, Goss, as you kind of teased last year, the summer window was the big window for this team and bringing in Calvin Yaboa and several other key players.

Yeah, and it's something that I've sort of pushed on this show. We've talked about it already in the first few weeks this year. Excuse me. And, Zarrick, we talked about it last year. Talking about an English Super Bowl. Yeah, go birds. We talked about it last year, the work done early like Major League Soccer. One of the issues is the window is being in different spots, summers and winters and for a lot of teams, they'll use the summer window to tool up for the next year. And it feels like that's what Minnesota has done in this offseason has been a lot about

stability. Talk to us a little bit about Eric Ramsey because you in theory played for him for a little bit. In theory? That was disrespectful. Eric, if you walk off, I don't blame you. Oh man. I'll walk off with you. I'm just saying you mentioned you were already coaching at the end of last year before the season. Yeah, pretty much. I think I might've played a collective seven minutes under Coach Ramsey in like two games.

Just call in the closer, get the vet out there, cagey step in, get an injury, and I was saying, get organized set pieces. Yeah, Coach Ramsey has been great. He's been an incredible addition. You could see his knowledge from the get-go. He processes information great. He delivers a very clear idea, and also something I'm learning from my end,

he delegates a lot of tasks really well within Dennis Lawrence and Cameron Knowles. And obviously Cameron really got the club off to a good start last season, kind of establishing a good foundation and Coach Ramsey building upon that. But again, I'd say the biggest thing is really getting everyone to buy into the system in which we play that is, you know Obviously a tight compact system really tough to break down. That's not always the easiest to sell to players But you know, it is easy to sell is winning. So That was a big thing for us. And again, we're excited about some of the new guys coming in They've already you know touched ground here in Palm Springs

It's just a matter of trying to get them to acclimate as quickly as possible and being someone who is Multilingual, I've already had conversations with Romero, I'm gonna sit down with him. I sat down with Ho Young and his agent through a translator to try to get some of these concepts passed over as quickly as possible. But yeah, Coach Randy's done a great job

at least of getting everyone to buy into who we are and then go out there and execute it as best as possible. You've been around this league for a while. You've seen a lot of different styles, both on the field as well as man management and all those types of things. How do you think this team sort of settles into its place in the hierarchy of MLS and where it all stands in 2025?

It's tough to say. I think the thing that comes with success is expectations, right? So now as a fan, you watch it and you go, okay, well this is the level that we have, let's try to sustain this as much as possible. And I would say first and foremost, defense wins championships.

I was fortunate enough to go to an MLS Cup in 2018 with the Timbers, and we prided ourselves on our mid-block and being able to defend for periods of time, and I think for me, that's the foundation to a really good, successful team. If you can't defend well in a mid block, and I've been on teams that can do it well,

and I've been on teams that can't do it well, if you can't do it well, you're going to basically get exposed. So I think trying to get those moments right and really having that strong foundation and kind of that go to, this is the norm. This is the retraction for us. And then going out and then sprinkling in some special players up top that can create moments

and pull rabbits out of hats is a cherry on top of that. Now it's just, again, now it's not a surprise. We can't catch teams by surprise with the way we're gonna play. So it's a matter of, again, understanding that people are gonna have, you know, maybe a target out for us a little bit more than they did last year,

and then trying to live up to those expectations we created for ourselves. Tom, before we get into our Doyalism, what do you make of the window so far and just the build of this Minnesota roster? I really, really like it. So this team, it has a really strong collective. They are deep at a lot of places,

and just as windows have gone by, since Khalid Al-Amad took over as sporting director, this is absolutely his team, his staff's team, the coaching staff, all of this. There aren't a lot of players that are left over that they didn't purposefully keep or extend or continue to put within this group. So with, like Zarek was saying,

the compactness and how they're defending, they need a special type of person for that. There are no passengers in this group. There are a lot of piano carriers. There are plenty of piano players in this team, but everybody to a man is going to do the work. And that was, again, something that Caledel Mata said or something Eric Ramsey has told me as well.

And I think that not only do they have that structure, that foundation, they have the depth to tweak things around. We talked about it on a recent episode of Soccer Wise that they played with two center forwards in their preseason game. And that's going to be a look that they could go. Robin Ludd can play as a 10, he can play as an 8. Joaquin Pereira, I think we're going to see a lot more from him this year. It's almost like it was Kelvin Yaboa's success was a little bit unfair to Joaquin Pereira because it was Yaboa was unbelievably good so quickly. And then it was like, oh, why isn't Pereira? And then in meanwhile,

everybody takes takes most players Sorry take some time to adapt to this league to adapt to the game We always give them some leeway, but when Pereira and Yoboa came in at the same time It's like well one of them is an absolute star already. What about Pereira? I think we're gonna see a lot more from Pereira this year, so they didn't need to do much They added a couple pieces central defense. I think was their biggest need. We'll see what happens with Sasani Dotson He requested a trade. I love him in this team. It's unfortunate that they couldn't come to terms.

Both sides, we'll see what happens there, but at least Owen Jean and Hou Yong Jung come in to add to that central midfield group. Yeah, there's a lot of members of this team who are really excited to watch that Zarek I'm gonna ask you about. But for now, I'm gonna pretend I don't see you and ask Tom, did you see Hasani Dotson at preseason?

Where do you expect or what do you expect happens here and we were recording this on February 11th? So maybe it is already happening. I don't know. I don't know. So yes, he was there and again I'll you know, you can put your phones on there I don't want to put you in a bad spot for you I'm gonna listen to it But my understanding is is that when he's with the group they still love him like like this was a thing between His camp and it was a new contract thing like that. That's with the group, they still love him. Like this was a thing between his camp and it was a new contract thing.

Like that's where it all started. So as long as he's here, it seems to me that he's going to play, but there are several teams calling. There are several teams that want him. They have not agreed to terms with anybody yet. There are teams pushing. So maybe this resolves itself and he's no longer part of the team.

But I think if he's here, he's gonna be selected. Let's go into our Doyleism and then we can bounce off the back of that. Yeah, I'm pretty high on the loons, I think, based upon what we saw the second half of last season, really after the transfer window in the summer. They were just a different team. The high end talent they had between Kelvin Yaboa and Robin Ludd and then the super underrated Joseph Rosales at left wing back.

Of course, balanced by Boggy Longwani on the right wing is playing sort of like a half wing back, half a winger. It was awesome. It worked. It was a lot of fun. They were crushing teams and they looked great in the playoffs too, right up until they ran up against that buzzsaw

in the Galaxy attack. And that kind of exposed the big weakness in this side, which is central midfield. Like they have some functional players there, but they didn't have the high end talent to match the best teams in the league. And so they've tried to, I guess, address that this winter by going out and getting Owen Genet and then Jung Ho-Yong. And I can't claim to know anything about these players other than their highlight reels and their transfer market page. They might be great.

If they're great, if they are legit, then this is a team that's like a fun Dark Horse candidate. But if they're just guys, which they're just like, exactly what they had last year, except with different names, then I think last year, the second half of last season is the ceiling for this team. It doesn't mean it can't be fun. You know, they could do some things playing out of the back too, but they have to have

gotten those two signings right if they're going to be a contender of any sort. Guys who do a similar job with a different name is what people say when they sign me up and they think I'm Doyle. And then I show up to do a preview and they're trying to talk to me about stuff that Matt Doyle would know. Let's start with the high end talents, Eric, that he talked about.

Let's start with our favorite here at Soccerwise. Joseph Rosales, he was our underrated best 11 must. You've played the position yourself. What do you see from him? What does he like to watch? Joe's awesome. Joe's been my guy here. And it's been really fun to see his transformation.

And I think part of that's confidence. I think part of it's the system. It's a little bit of everything, but first and foremost, Joe's ceiling is crazy high in terms of the amount of work rate he has, in terms of his delivery, his service, making decisions. It's just the biggest thing for me now and the challenge that we're with him and now is, hey Joe, we got to do it again.

It's all great and fine and Danny to have one great season. We went out there, had a lot of assists. You know, he's with his national team, starting game in, game out. But let's continue to push that bar. Let's push ourselves as much as we can and try to get that much better because if we want to get a new contract boom we got a new deal we succeeded in that sense if we want to potentially go and take steps further in our career whether that's home or abroad we have to

continue to push and get better so I'm excited to see him progress he's challenging himself internally and again for me the sky's the limit for Joe in terms of what he wants to accomplish and hopefully I can help him whatever way that is we are in danger of losing him on the underrated best 11 because he's going to get rated and he deserves it and it's going to be a really fun year to watch him put in service for these attackers. Now let's talk about Kelvin Yoboa. He came into the league last year and a couple PKs early and sort of flashes in the pan and

then all of a sudden it clicked and we had started this show and I'm saying I think this guy we're talking about a future MVP candidate and we saw it in the postseason as well. A young player coming into this league, you've been around some of the best. What have you seen from how he settled and what he can be? First and foremost, I think like Tom was saying, we have a different look, maybe we pair him with Taney,

we've seen that a little bit, maybe Sung Bin, but I think in general, first and foremost, I think that strikes me about, about Kelvin is just his, his work rate. Guy is a, the guy's a nerd. He's a junkie in terms of just football and the best way possible. Um, watching clips, you know, challenging me, he he's come in and, and pushed the standard from day one, which has been great, right? To have someone come in that basically says,

hey, let's get it going. And you're either with me or I'm gonna drag you with me at times. So it's been great to see that day in and day out at training and then you obviously see some of the more polished versions in games. So again, for Calvin, it's a matter of, again, just not having that be a little blip in time, right?

Seeing how much you can do it again now that people might say, hey, we gotta look out for this guy, right? Now when you look at the scouting report, his name might be on the top of that list. So how can you function there? How can you create that little bit of space? How can you find that quality?

So again, for Kelvin, you know, he almost has to be pulled back a little bit. We did finishing today, again, he wanted to sit out there. He would have sat out there till this meeting, had I let him, but again, for him it's just a continuation of that and basically trying to work with the Rosaleses and say, hey, maybe we can look at this, maybe we can do with that.

So I'm super excited for Kelvin and Joe this year, amongst other things. I'm excited about our whole team. But again, with those guys, the sky's the limit. It's just a matter of, again, now doing it when all the eyes are on you. Now doing it and showing up when it matters most. Tom, that's what Doyle was sort of saying, right?

We like what we saw last year. You lose to the MLS Cup champions on the road after upsetting a team in the first round. That's a good year one. That is what you'd hope for. It's that next step that can be a little bit of a challenge and it's gonna fall on some of these high end talent players that they've gone out and gotten.

Yoboa fits the profile. Some of these other ones have been middle in terms of what you go out and spend at a player at these positions, whether it's DP or high-level Tam, and that's the question mark I think it feels like of what's going to hit for this Minnesota squad. Yeah, the way that this team raises its ceiling is more about the collective. Of course, I do think that they have a couple really, really top-end players. Yaboa, Lud, what I'm expecting from Joaquin Prera, again, the wing backs, all of this. So this team is always going to be based off the collective and they're

going to beat you by hat. And like, maybe they won't have the best three players on the field, but they certainly won't have the three worst. Like it is going to be a full team effort. I do, I don't think that the ceiling is lowered if Joaquin Pereira isn't a great, great player. Like you were saying, Gosling, for me, we've seen this type of team kind of succeed, particularly in the regular season of MLS. I'm not ruling out the playoffs, but this is a team that is built to be really difficult to beat and is going to pick up a lot of points and be really, really consistent. And then when you get to those knockout round type games, whether that's the playoffs or whether that's cup competitions, Kelvin Uboa, I think on his day has a chance

to rival, right? Last year is too soon. I don't put any stock in that playoff loss because them making the playoffs at all, like was an incredible feat for a team that started the season with a second interim coach and a sporting director. Interim to the interim. And a sporting director that started in January, I think, or mid-January. Everything that they had done was set up for this team is going to take some lumps this year,

but it's going to be worth it in the long term, because we think we got the right people. And if we have to wait, so be it. Well, they jump-started it by how quickly they did last year. They're not going to sneak up on anybody this year. But I just think that the foundation is so solid the floor is so high whether like I wouldn't call them You know support shield favorites or M. West come favorites or anything like that But I think this is a seriously very good team and one that has a really high floor. Yeah, we talked about it Earlier a few weeks ago. You were sort of saying like, you know

It's that time of year where you think everyone's gonna be in the playoffs and we started debating teams. I think you brought up with the Sounders saying, who else will contend at the top of the West? And I brought up Minnesota quickly because I think it's a high floor. I think there's a lot of continuity and there should be a lot of excitement.

We're gonna talk about the attack and I think a large reason for that in a moment. But first I want to ask you, Zarek, about Jefferson Diaz, the last one who came in kind of under the radar last year at a position that Minnesota has tried to fill over the last few years. If you haven't read it, go to Backheel. Joe Larry did a really cool piece,

breaking down Jefferson Diaz's game and kind of focusing on him. And his background as a center forward, now playing center back, was something that he keyed on, and I think we saw of him a pure natural soccer player at that center back position. Yeah, definitely. I credit to, again, uh, to the staff and everyone bringing players in. I've worked really closely with Joaquin and, and, and Jeff and Joe, because they

don't speak any English, so I have to go in and I'm literally back there like a goalkeeper translating all the meetings to make sure that they can get all the stuff cognitively. And then on the pitch again, coach Ramsey is talking to the collective group and I'm sitting there, you know, really forwarding some of the messages. So credit to those guys for getting the information, processing it and then going out and executing. But Jeff is someone who is an incredible, incredible detailed person in terms of wanting to learn, wanting to get better, so humble, super, I would say,

just hungry to go out there and perform and do well. And it's been great to kind of see him adapt because MLS is weird, man. MLS is a league where you can see guys come in and for six months they might not adapt and do really well. The next thing you know, oh, next year, okay, cool. They kind of, you know, they have these moments where they have these aha, where it's like,

oh, I know what I'm doing now. So it takes time. I think Jeff settled in great. I think Kelvin settled in great. I'm excited to see Joaquin continue to settle in. It'll be interesting to see, you know, with Romero here a lot of bringing in some of these players now that at competition, which is extremely exciting.

But as I said, it's not always fun to say as a extremely exciting but as I said it's not always fun to say as a player but as a coach I love saying it but like you know competition breeds the best out of bringing out players which is great I didn't like competition as a player you know I had less of a time potentially playing but you know I'm extremely excited to see Jeff continue to take steps forward and just continue to refine and polish his game. I think he has another high ceiling. It's just a matter of, again, reaching those consistency levels

in terms of being on the ball, getting in his defensive shape. Also, again, with these guys, I'm challenging them to learn English. We gotta learn, you gotta learn up, step, right, left, drop. These are things in which that's how he can take his game to the next level, right? He's looking at Michael Box, so hey, man on, left, right, step, drop. These are things in which that's how he can take his game to the next level, right? He's looking at Michael Bach, so hey, man on,

left, right, step, cover. Those types of things are the way he can go from having a good season to a really good season, and it's just some small details that we have to continue to get right. You should use the term for like that aha moment. We call it the Gauss theorem. It takes a little while.

You should tell every coach that, so that then coaches are saying that. I'm working on a little bit of vocabulary that I'm trying to grow in Major League Soccer. The other one is cash for arcades. We'll talk about that after we get done with this. Don't worry about it. Let me finish here with our line.

Nothing on the line here in reality. So it is not nothing wrong. It's just for fun. I'm just throwing that out there as a disclaimer before we get there. Andrew Weeby. You're making it more suspect than with the more that you lay it out. I'm just saying.

Andrew Weeby set the line and this time it was for five different five plus goal scorers. So five and a half, five plus goal scorers on the roster. Last year there was six. I think it goes to last year, it really was by committee until the end of the year

when Yoboa took over. And a lot of the returning pieces that scored five plus goals are in this team once again. So you have a ton of options, Bongi, Tani for currently Asani Dotson, Sang Bin as well, Lud, Kelvin, Yoboa. And now you bring Pereira into this for a full season as well Tom. So five and a half Players on this roster scoring five plus goals. Where do you fall over under and hold on?

And the fact that they had six last year and one of them wasn't team up. Okay is just crazy Is it so you had five or four? Well, I'm just going from MLS. So he had four in MLS play. Maybe he had some in Leagues. Yeah. And this, by the way, is for only MLS competition. So for me, I'm going to lean under just because I think Kelvin Yaboua is going to be the guy. And I think by it was more by committee, particularly the beginning of the season, that it wasn't just that there was a lot of really good players around these attackers, because I think that there are. I just think that Kelvin Yaboa is going to get all the penalties. He's going to get a lot of the touches in the box that having six players score five or more goals is pretty difficult.

And I think this year it's going to be revolving more around Yaboa so that even say the attacking midfielders, they're going to get more assists than goals. Yeah. Okay. So you're going under on the five and a half players. Yabois so that even say the attacking midfielders they're gonna get more siss than goals. Yeah Okay, so you're going under on the five and a half players Zach do you want to get involved? I'm going over Okay, I think our strength is in the collective right you know I think if you look around Successful teams in this league there. There's a little bit of a formula in terms of what that is but The group is stronger than certain individuals. We've seen some really really really special players. I've played against them. I've had good days and bad days against them but for

our group I would say the collective is stronger than an individual and I believe we can go out there and have a lot of guys contribute this year. I'm not gonna say who my over would be but but again, I know that one thing is success is contagious and it makes you want it even more, right? And you get so close and you love it. And we had a bitter end to the season last year, so I think that we're going to hopefully go out there and I believe in my guys and I'm always going to back my guys. Not a boy.

Any coach would, but as someone who's been in the locker room and been in the trenches with them through good and bad moments, I'll take the over. I'm going to follow Zarek mainly because it feels like a safe thing to do, considering he played with the team and is now coaching the team. But I will say this, Tom,

I don't disagree with what you're saying. I have harped on since watching Kelvin Yerboa fit in, that I think he will be an elite chance creator as well when he drops in. And so the goals that Bange scored last year, I think a lot of those will still be there. Sangbin will take some of those as well. And then you have the ability now

to start two forwards up top. So I look at this group from last year, and I think all of them are gonna score five plus goals that did. And the question is, can you replace one of them if you have to? If Hasani Dotson moves on and I think some of the ads you've made to this team or Pereira playing a full year, it'll be there.

I think it's a good line though from Weedon. It is an excellent line. It's a tough line. It's a tough line. It is a tough line. He has done a really good job in this offseason. Now it's an interesting line because normally he picks X star player. Normally it's Wilbenteke score 24.5 or more or less. That wasn't the story last year from Minnesota

and yet they still finished so high because of that collective that you talked about, Zarek. And I think we're excited to see that in year two and we're excited to see year two for Eric Ramsey and every other piece in here. So we appreciate you taking the time to join us. You can go back out and make people run around for a little bit more under the sun. Go birds. And we'll see you next time on your podcast. Yeah. Thank you gentlemen so much for having me. I appreciate it. Tom, it was great seeing you out here for a little bit. Again, I look forward to having you guys in the Sound of Loon podcast brought to you by Lion Health. Got to get that in there. But yeah, so thanks a lot for having me guys and I'm looking forward to chatting to you. All right, we'll talk soon.