SoccerWise - 2025 MLS Season Previews SKC, RSL, SEA & LAFC

Episode Date: February 9, 2025

Episode two of our 2025 MLS season previews is live! Continuing to focus on the CCC participant sides Tom & David are joined by some more amazing podcast hosts to dig into it all.  Drew VanderPluug of the KC based Home & Away Podcast joins to breakdown a transformational SKC offseason. Then Hayden & Mattey join from the Royal Riot to wax poetic about Diego Luna. After that we have a loaded segment with 3 guests out of Seattle Ari & Noah of the Lobbing Scorchers Podcast & Jeremiah of Nos Audietis talking FIFA media meals. And last but defiantly not least Vince & Travis bring the serious & the hilarious to talk all things LAFC. 2:26 SKC w/Drew Home & Away Podcast35:55 RSL w/ Hayden & Mattey Royal Riot Podcast1:07:26 SEA w/ Ari & Noah Lobbing Scorchers & Jeremiah Nos Audietis1:38:57 LAFC w/ Vince & Travis  Happy Foot Sad Foot Podcast Soccerwise Live 2pm ET Every Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday on Youtube/Twitch/Twitter

Hey everybody, welcome back to Soccer Wise. David Gass here of course. You're going to hear all from Tommy Scoops and a number of big guests in just a moment. I wanted to set this episode up first to give you an idea of what we are working on. And hopefully you will start to see more episodes come out. We are starting to put out our 2025 MLS season previews. What we decided to do, what we wanted to do was to connect with the people who know these teams best in the local markets and to do some crossover episodes. So the goal is to preview each team with a local host, podcast host,

reporter, whatever it ends up being in every single market in Major League Soccer. We will put them out as podcasts where they are mixed together so we don't flood your feed but they are available as standalone episodes on YouTube if you want to find it there easier to share or whatever it is and I will put the timestamps in every single episode description so that you can if you want to you can fast forward to your team you can skip to a team that you're super interested in if not I think you'll enjoy a lot of them we've got some commentary from Matt Doyle in every single episode. We have A over underline from Andrew Weeby in every single episode and then we've got our hosts We have talked a lot here at soccer wise of trying to help build up the soccer community around North America

And so this is our opportunity to help platform some people and maybe introduce them to some new folks and maybe some new people will find us as well and You want to become a part of this soccer wise community as we have said over and over the discord is our favorite place Just to chat soccer with people like-minded people people who care about the things we care about as well as across social media in the YouTube comments on the live shows on Instagram in the comments as well. We look at all of it and we're really enjoying so far the support, the engagement, and a lot of the funny lines that everyone else is throwing in there. So enjoy all of this, myself and Tom,

with some intros for every single one, and then we get into the show about 20 to 30 minutes about each team depending on what we had to talk about and how many guests we had on. David Goss, Tommy Scoops here at Soccer Wise. It is time to talk sporting Kansas City. We did so in our season preview here with the Home and Away podcast host Drew. If you are a member of our Patreon in our Discord, he's very active in there.

He is one of the best and so we were really excited to do this show with him. Love the way he sees the game, love the way he analyzes things, love his show. He put you to shame a little bit with his wood paneling in his background. And so I was appreciative of that. I love a little Kansas City history and historic house, but it was a huge week.

It's a huge off season for sporting Kansas City. And you know, I was there for the NWSL championship. The KC Kern, they built a new building, they sold it out every single game, one of the best teams in the league. I'm there and you're like right this is a soccer city and you see the sporting Kansas City still you see the store downtown, you see the murals and you're reminded the Matt Beasley's, the Graham Seuss, he's like this is a market that bounces for soccer when it's good. It hasn't been there in a little while and this is sort of my first feeling from the outside of like, okay This could come back

Yeah one of the lines I use in our preview was that like they never graduated from like MLS 2.0 to wherever the hell we are now and I think this offseason was the first time where both of us like okay Like they're they're there. They understand that you can't only build through the draft. You can do that. Like that is a way to improve your team. But the the dynastic type run that they had over the decade or at the very least just a lot of success and always being really good.

That was built largely through the draft. That was built when they were still the KC Wizards. Like that's how early some of those draft picks went through. It was an incredible run. It's something to look back on proud. But the league has changed and around it this team was a little bit slow to change. And this offseason has been a big serious MLS 4.0 or whatever era win. That is what this offseason has been.

They were the team that had the first Kade, Ram, whatever we want to call it, the cash trade market. Day on Jovovich coming in, they go get the starting center forward, a 20 goal scorer from the reigning MLS Cup Champions, they go get a DP number 10 from abroad, they go get another winger from that same club, Aris Thessaloniki, and here we are. They're bringing new players to the team, they're spending more money than they have before, and I think that's all positive news,ost, because if this team is good, as you say, the fans are there.

It is a beautiful, wonderful atmosphere. When this team is good, they have consistently shown that it's been a good atmosphere, even when this team is bad, which is always a great sign of how strong the support is and how loyal the support is. So I hope that those fans are rewarded in 2025. Yeah, you could argue it is the most successful MLS original market that was able, obviously through the rebrand and the stadium build,

to like create sustainability of market relevance and a fan base. DC the original, but then has struggled to maintain it as you talk about 1.0, 2.0, 3.0. KC has been the most successful, but now you always have to evolve. you always have to sort of rebuild and This is an opportunity for them to do it I think it's it should be exciting for the fan base

I do wonder how much Andrew Weeby's at fault for the drop in form over the last few years I don't really have anything to put towards that but I'd'd like that quote to be on record, that David Goss wonders if sporting KC's struggles are related to Andrew Weeby. Just asking questions. Hey, I'm just asking a question. And if it gets pulled out of context, that's not on me. Like if someone pulls that out and puts that out there, like that has nothing to do with me.

So yeah, it's just questions that are being put out there. Capital J journalism, independent journalism, like that's just what we do, and so there's nothing we can do about it. Spotlight, you know? like it's just the squad. But we have talked Casey a bunch now on the show and it finally feels a little different even though we are still holding our, you know, we don't trust Joaquin Fernandez or any of these moves.

We've still got some of our jokes in our back pocket, but hopefully the future is bright for this Kansas City team I hope they are able to host some big games and we get back out there NWSL championship was amazing if you didn't listen to our our postgame shows around it I just kept saying I've never had a bad time in Kansas City So I'm always a fan and I would love to be there once again for a big game Coincidentally Andrew Weeby wasn't there while you were there, correct? Yeah, good point. Just asking questions, are those two facts related? I don't know.

100%, and I've never seen Marco Posilic and Andrew Weeby in the same room at the same time too. So there's a lot of questions that need to be asked. We'll get to all of them, but first let's dig in a little bit more on Sporting Kansas City with Drew. We've got some big teams to still talk about in our season previews and one of the one that's had the biggest offseason, yes I said it, one of the biggest off seasons is Sporting Kansas

City Peter Vermeese squad once again and we are going to talk all about it with Drew Vanderplug here from the Home and Away podcast, one of the best covering Sporting Kansas City week in and week out giving you all the tactical analysis that you need and one of the members of Away podcast, one of the best covering Sporting Kansas City, Week In and Week Out, giving you all the tactical analysis that you need. And one of the members of our Discord, and one of the members of our community that we're so excited to have the opportunity to chat with. Drew, thanks for joining us.

Thanks, Gus. I'm happy to be here and happy to hopefully provide a little insight on Sporting Kansas City and what we can look forward to this season. We stream our show live twice a week on YouTube so you can watch us there. We're also posting all our season previews there as well. If you go there, you would know that Tom has recently moved into a basement with some stylish wood paneling, 1970s probably. Drew, you are smacking him down with this 1890s level wood paneling.

Yeah, it's a wonderful thing living in a 100 year old house in Kansas City. It's got a lot of vibes for sure. Listen, we love history. Peter Vermes has been around for a while. We love our wizards. We love our history here on this show. If you're listening for the first time, you can come join us, Soccerwise HQ, on all your socials, Soccerwise Anywhere. You get your podcasts. If you're listening for the first time you can come join us soccer wise HQ on all your social soccer wise anywhere

You get your podcast if you are listening on soccer wise go listen to the home and away podcast Especially as we start to figure out what this team looks like Tom We start all these conversations with our transfer update for some teams. There's not much in or out For some teams there's a little bit or a lot Kansas City It's been a few years since this has been a long conversation But Tom there is a lot to talk about I put the out first because I think that's a huge part of this conversation But both ways have been eye-popping for sporting Kansas City Yeah, it's been a super busy offseason for sporting Kansas City

They finally did kind of a remodeling of this team that I think has been a couple years overdue The first domino to fall was maybe not the first one, but the biggest one, Alan Pulido. He is left and he is back to Chivas. Johnny Russell, the club legend, also left as did Tim Melia, Andrea Fontus. Those are some big departures. These are key key players from this team over the last few years. And incoming, they've brought in Dejan Jovilic's the first internal cash transfer to be announced in Major League Soccer Decade to get the first one in the door day on yo, which four million dollars plus a big new contract

They outbid t-grace. That is some pretty fun news and then shortly thereafter. They officially acquired DP number 10 Manu Garcia and Russian winger shoppie Suleymanov both from our our East Thessaloniki. Gosh, how's my pronunciation there? Oh, not quite as good as you but not so bad. I think it was so bad. And I'll leave that the one last addition to you. Well, you thought it was over you thinking DPS big names European pedigree but you forgot about the maracas mason toy signs up for sporting Kansas City. We are going to listen to Doyle's comments and thoughts on the team. We call them our Doyleisms.

We sit at the foot of the stage and we listen to the great mysteries inside of his head. We also have Andrew Reaby set lines for us that we'll finish with on this episode for each team. The line for Mason Toy on goals this year is 19 and a half. So everyone's taking the over. I already know that. So we're not gonna like talk about it,

but that's where it sits. Drew, we just went through a lot. We went through a changing of the guard going out. We went through maybe something we didn't think was possible, which is a sale of Allen, Allen Pulido, and then all the big moves coming in. What have you made of this off season? What's the experience been like of all of a sudden now KC fans have to follow Tom on social media.

Yeah. I mean, I think that's been the biggest thing. It's been the longest time since Sporting Kansas City has ever been in a position where Tom is giving useful reporting on what they're doing. I mean, honestly, when you look at just Jovalich and Manu Garcia, that's reportedly around $9 million worth of transfers they haven't done that since Pulido since Pulido and Garikinda and so it's been four years since they've paid a transfer fee really over a million

dollars for anyone so it's it's nice to see that investment and that intent and that ambition from the club I think you know there's still a lot of work left to be done. And I think even Mike Burns and Peter Vermeese would agree with you in the fact that there's more work to be done. But this is the start, I think, and a good foundation for a process of a rebuild that was candidly quite necessary. There's been times where we've talked about how this all fits tactically and what these players are. But I think the big excitement for us at soccer ice has just been getting younger and hopefully being healthy and like being able to rely on Pieces game in and game out which hasn't been the case for a very long time

I've made the joke a couple times brought it up Doug very long time with sporting can see because Peter Vermeese is the Longest tenured coach in Major League Soccer. And therefore, even though rosters have changed and players have changed, there is still continuity through it all. And so it's hard to say everything has completely changed. I'm curious your thoughts before we dig in on this specific roster,

about where we stand with Peter Vermeese right now and sort of what he represents to the fan base and what he still represents as a figure in Major League Soccer. Yeah, I mean, I think you don't last as long as he has while being garbage at your job, right? It's obvious that he is a quality coach and I think probably gets overlooked a little bit in the league as far as his tactical chops a little bit because it's not new, because it's sort of something we're familiar with.

We don't have a whole lot of new takes on what he's doing, but he has been a very good coach that has gotten a lot out of fairly menial investment in the past that has been kind of a hallmark of his time in Kansas City. And I think this is an opportunity for him with this rebuild, with this increased investment, for him to show that when he's given a little bit of money, I mean, they're not spending like Atlanta or Austin are, but when he's given some investment, what he can do with that talent.

And additionally, how he can evolve this team a little bit. I think you noted very accurately that the team had gotten pretty old. And as a result was running a tactical system that was fairly, I don't wanna call it boring, but it was certainly not very dynamic. It was a lot of sideways passing, a lot of ball control. Positional play has been a key component of his tactical system, probably since 2017, really. And so they have a format by which they sort of

pass the ball into the goal I think you've seen in the last couple years like since Opta has been tracking it four of the ten longest passing sequences leading to a goal in league history have come from sporting Kansas City so it it has been a little less dynamic in style. And I think what we're seeing with this shift, not just an investment, but also age of personnel is an opportunity for them to be a little bit more aggressive going vertically towards goal. We're hearing a lot of that from Vermeese

in his commentary over the off season about their willingness to try to attack goal more directly. And I think you're going to start seeing a little bit more of that activity that was maybe more of a hallmark of the early Vermeer's teams with the pressure and the counter pressure and creating turnovers

and being more aggressive towards goal. We talk about tactics being converted to what your talent is based off skill sets. We don't often talk about it based off age, but athleticism, all of that. That does make sense. It does all go into it. We have down for the competition,

teams are playing in sporting Kansas City thanks to the US Open Cup final that they made are in CONCACAF Champions Cup, which is a little bit of a surprise based off the year they had. That is the only competition they are in from a cup point of view, which is probably a positive. It allows you to focus on major league soccer

You'd of course want to be an open cup and I think we've talked about on this show a little bit I think Peter Vermeese did very well last year as did the whole club in Pushing the fact that open cup is important and now we see 16 MLS club Siemens instead of eight this year And hopefully we see 27 next year and or 37 whichever you know whatever expansion does between now and then for this league. Let's jump into Doyle's thoughts and then we'll go from there. Yeah, we've been waiting for this transfer window for a couple years for sporting Kansas City where they parted ways with really the last of their old guard and Johnny Russell

and Tamilia and they fully committed to a new era, bringing in Manu Garcia, number 10, Spanish number 10, and then a Russian winger, Suleymanov, both from Aris in the Greek top flight, and then going out and being, breaking new ground. The first team to use the internal cash transfer system in MLS to acquire Dejan Jovalic who was so great for the Galaxy last year. So that's two new DP attackers and one TAM level winger. This team's got a lot more talent it feels like than last year and that's good because this team was not good last year. I still have massive questions at DMID. I have still I still have massive questions along that back line. I'm not convinced that any of the goalkeepers on the roster are actually better than Melia even though Melia is

pushing 40. This still feels like the first 10, 12 games. Every single time out, we're going to learn something from this team, including just tactically, how much are they gonna look like the Peter Vermeese teams of 10 to 15 years ago? Really the glory days of sporting Kansas City when they were a vicious high pressing team

that won the ball back quicker than anybody in MLS, held on to it a ton, and were always in the mix to win open cup MLS Cup, came close on the shield a few times. It hasn't been like that this decade. The last five years, this team has not been among the highest-pressing teams in the league. So I'm looking forward to seeing these new pieces. I'm looking forward to seeing potentially a new tactical approach and the variance in Like you could tell me this is a 35-point team. I would believe you you could tell me this was a 55-point team I would believe you it's all up in the air for sporting this year Alright a lot there. Let's start at the back

Well Tom that I Usually see the optimism. I'm not suggesting that the ceiling isn't crazy high, but I don't know if I see the 55 point total without another kind of defensive addition. Even in the most optimistic of scenarios though, I don't like, I don't love being pessimistic on these. I think that was a little bit too far by Mr. Doyle, who nobody really confuses with some crazy optimist. Do you think there will be defensive additions?

Do you think there will be goalkeeper changes? Do you think we have the roster set? I think that there's going to be so I know that they're working again depending on when this gets published. Maybe this will sound stupid based on you know either it's happening or not but I know that they bid for US born Swiss youth international center back Brian Ocho. I think that's the kind of signing like a U-22 center back or somebody who won't hit the cap at an expensive number again whether that's a veteran on a very small

contract or U-22 player so I think this is generally what they've got but maybe there's more surprises in store. Drew do you like Pulse Camp as a starting goalkeeper right now? I think it's time for Pulse Camp to be the starting goalkeeper. I don't know that it's necessarily. I think if you look at their underlyings over the last couple of years versus Melia, it's kind of a little bit better in some ways and a little bit worse in other ways. And I think, you know, you're kind of as far as wins added by a goalkeeper, you're probably in the margins between the two of them.

And it's time at 23 almost 24 years old for Pulse Camp to have the opportunity to show whether he is that goalkeeper or not. This is really the last year of his current deal where they have to keep him on the roster. So I think this is an opportunity for them to evaluate whether he's the guy or not and whether they need to really be aggressive about bringing someone else in. I think for this season, to Tom's point, the ceiling is not MLS Cup, right? The ceiling is maybe a home playoff game. So if that is what you're looking at from a planning perspective, it's okay to see what you have in the goalkeeping room right now. And so from that perspective, I think it's time for Pulse Camp to to to see if that if he can be that player

so you're saying somewhere sort of between year one of a rebuild in year two is the feeling for this year of You've brought in a lot of new pieces prove that it's worthwhile and then prove that you can build something bigger coming off of this And and that's what the front office has been pretty clear about. Byrne said this at the end of last year. They've been saying it's a three window rebuild. That's really what they've been focused on. This is the first of those three windows. And so we're seeing the foundation being built with a couple of your marquee DPs.

And I think over time, you're gonna see some of those other things addressed. From the back line perspective, I totally agree with Doyle. I think that they need improvements on the back line. But if you look at contextually where they were from a rebuilding the roster perspective, the majority of the personnel and the salary that they were able to move on from the off season was on the attacking half of the field. So that would be the place where they would focus on reinforcements currently.

Whereas the whole back line effectively is out of contract at the end of 2025, including Raduja. So all of those players are out of contract at the end of this season, which would make a lot more sense from a roster building perspective for them to focus at that point in time on those improvements. Yeah, Raduja, who you said better than me, has been like the main part of every, I've talked to a bunch of people this week about supporting Kansas City, and everyone brings him up pretty quickly of like,

well, I don't know that he's good enough at that position. I think where I net out is, it's not his job totally. Like it can't fall on one person's shoulders. And I think for too long, that's been a conversation around sporting Kansas City is, like who's gonna protect the back line. It's like, well, it would be nice to have centerbacks who can step in and win the ball earlier and be

connected to midfield. It would also be nice to have another midfield player who also is trying to help you win the ball or a tactical idea of when to counter press and when to drop in and as we talk about them getting younger and ground coverage and you know, Doyle said a change of pace and you mentioned Drew going back maybe pre 2017 to some of the other tactical ideas. That feels like the fix. The fix feels like all of it coming forward and if everyone can take a half step in those positions I think it's really big. We talked about it on soccer wise. I think Danny Rosero

is the best center back they've signed in a long time and if he can be healthy that's a huge part of this I'm curious what Volodare is. Drew I've covered him a little bit SKC too like this was the point U22 center back signing was for in two or three years it's been now two or three years. Yeah I think that with Volodare you're I was surprised to see them pick up his option. I'm going to be really honest. He played a lot of minutes last year and he was at sometimes fine and sometimes pretty bad.

So I was surprised by that one. I think the one thing you guys are overlooking mainly because he barely played last year is they did sign a center back last summer in Joaquin Fernandez, who is a mid-TAM level center back, which is typically where you're expecting a starting center back to be. If you look at any of the other rosters in the league with good center backs, they're kind of at that mid-TAM level. He came in kind of unfit and so barely played last year. He played like 105 minutes.

The team was pretty poor by the time he finally made it to fitness. So I think that there's something to be learned from that player as well as to what the quality of their primary centerback pairing is. But you're right. Rosero needs to stay healthy. And if Fernandez can be a real player, I think that that's an unknown that a lot of people have as to whether they can improve that quality. I think the last thing I'll add for you with Radia, which I totally agree with, whether they can improve that quality. I think the last thing I'll add for you with Raudia, which I totally agree with

Elia Sanchez was derided in Kansas City for not being able to cover a transition events goes to LAFC and becomes one of the best sixes in the league again. Made the right choice. I just, I'm with you a little bit. Like you've got to, you've got to, some of this is tactical set up and you maximizing your players effectively I would like it to be known that we did not overlook walking Fernandez I chose to not talk about it So I didn't make jokes about how he is the 37th Tam center back signings signed midseason who didn't play for Sporting Kansas

City in a row because it's been frustrating I was gonna say if you put font us his name on the back of his shirt how many people would notice Or or the eight a bit taller than font us. There we go Let's talk about day on your village Tom because this is the huge spend for them It is the first gate so it changes a little bit for people that aren't paying attention This is he's the first player to ever be purchased Inside of major league soccer for straight cash not for game not for allocation money outside of the salary cap sporting Kansas City went out and paid the LA Galaxy four million dollars to sign him and then he's graduating off his u22

Contract because of his age so they're giving him a new contract, which is a large investment as well This is an MLS Cup winning center forward But he was also at best, the fourth best attacker on the LA Galaxy because they were the best attack, one of the best in major league soccer history. What is the expectation? How surprised were you maybe

that it was sporting Kansas City? And what do you think about for him for this year? Yeah, pleasantly surprised, right? Like, because this team just haven't used transfer fees and put big contracts very much at all. Like, they had been a little bit slower than other teams to get to the new era, and they did that by kind of finally acquiescing this,

and say, okay, we'll go, you know, Alan Pulido and Gotti Kinda, like you were saying before, Drew. And then it's pretty much been it. Like, they spent a fee, it was around a million, maybe less than a million for Eric Tommy, a couple of the u-22s Which I thought was good But like this was a team still transitioning from like MLS 2.0 to MLS 4.5 or like whatever stage right now

Like they've been slow So this offseason I think has been very good like you look at a guy like Manuel Garcia But the biggest one here is the on your village so you say that like he's kind of easily the fourth best player in the galaxy attack and like that is technically true, but I think that that undersells Dejan Jovovich because we've talked about it on the show and you can look at, well, this was what he was before Gabriel Peck and Joseph Painsil came. And again, I think all these things are technically true and it's not unfair to bring up. I don't know that he'll be exactly what he was last year because again the supporting cast around him the system everything else was great I have all the confidence in the world that he's gonna be much more productive than when the galaxy were missing the playoffs because again like the structure around him is so much better and again like I do believe a

lot of Manu Garcia because of his profile because of he's just a pure chance creator. That's what he is and Even if they didn't sign him, I'd still be telling you, I think Dejan Jovovich is going to be much better than some of those like bad Galaxy years because like I can't say enough how bad Douglas Kosova was and how difficult and just unreliable, unable to play him with Cheech with a Chicharito. These these are things that like he didn't have a chance to succeed. So even if he's in like even the galaxy have been like when Alan played us on the field he scores goals and Willie got us on the field he scores goals this team creates chances for their center forward even without a ton

of quality around him so again no the players around him aren't Ricky Pooch Joseph Peso and Gabriel Peck but I still think that this is an extremely high floor signing and I absolutely love it. One of the craziest numbers that I've ever seen in Major League Soccer was in 2022, Dejan Jovovich had 11 goals in 980 minutes because he was basically a full-time supersub, only started seven games. Last year, 15 goals, six assists for him,

still only 1900 minutes because of some injuries, because of some rotation and all of that Andrew we be has set the line for us at 15 and a half goals for day on yoval. It's true What do you think about this? Are you over under? I'm an eternal optimist. I'm gonna hit the over on this one. I totally agree with Tom I even nerded out and did some why scout scouting on Manu Garcia. This guy is hell. Yeah, this guy is good He's really good and he's a player that that sporting has not had since Benny Philhaber it is this is gonna be this is I'm irrationally excited for for Garcia and I think he loves to hit a through ball and Jovalich loves to get on the

end of a through ball I just I'm gonna hit the over on that one. Yeah, I think I agree with you. I think Jovalich in those spaces is as good a finisher as anyone in Major League Soccer when he's put into those spaces. But he also makes very good runs in the box for pullbacks. So you have the ability where if it's coming from the wing, he's still gonna be an effective finisher.

If it's coming down the middle or in transition moments, he can still be dangerous. I do think we talk a lot about force multipliers. I do think Mano Garcia's effect on Eric Tommy is gonna be really big as well, so that Eric Tommy can be a secondary or third playmaker. And now you're talking about one of the best in that position in Major League Soccer,

when he's healthy and when he can be a part of the group. So I'm pretty excited about all of that. I questioned the signing when it happened because I do think in the grand scheme of things, Willy Agada is a good deal and if the team can get better and is going to spend big, where would I do it and how would it be done? But I don't question the value for Dejan Jovalic and I don't question that he can continue to get better because we've seen him get better in this league he is still a very young player and now that he has an expanded role I think he can grow into

it so I'm gonna go over on the 15 and a half as well Tom yeah over a lot of confidence here let's let's now push it to Manu Garcia Drew you'll start because you're the one who is digging deep into the tape mines for this one. Weeby set his goal plus assist line only in Major League Soccer at 19 and a half and his comp was Carlos Heal who put up 24 his first year in MLS. That's a stout one. over 20 goal contributions. That would be Amazing. I I think he's gonna have a ton of assists. I don't know about the goals So I'm gonna go under on this one just because I do think he's gonna be double-digit assists I don't know if he's gonna have the goals talk to us a little bit about what you saw on tape

About him and what has you most excited? Just his he's the ball comes off his feet so fast, man. Like if you see, first of all, his press resistance is extremely good. He's extremely technical on the ball and can half turn out of stuff really quickly, but just the ball comes off his feet so fast. He also plays players into space a lot.

And I think this is something that sporting has really struggled to do for several years years which is play wingers into the space behind and Daniel Shallowey is very effective on those types of runs and it sounds like maybe Eric Tommy is gonna be on the right wing in a lot of these circumstances that is a that is a key trait of his is carrying the ball forward and it just I saw a lot of that Suleymanov as well likes a likes a run off the back line So these are these are players that where he can really kind of play that ball into space quickly and create problems for scrambling defenses

And that's where I really think that a lot of the chance creation is gonna come from Maybe not as much primary assists all the time, but more creating overloads Yeah, Tom, I know you're you heard an over under you heard a line and you wanted to jump through the screen to get it out but I want to hear what you had to say because I'm glad that was that was significantly better than what I was gonna say. Well, I would say the first half of it is what we saw from Gaudi Kinda but the ability to then quickly get it off your foot into the attack in dangerous moments that was a lot of the lack of his play. He was cleaning in

pressure, he was an outlet, he was a safety valve, but there was not that threat on the other side of it. And as you said, since Benny Fahlhauer, that's what this club has been missing. And it feels like that was the move. Tom, do you have belief in how it hits year one? So like, again, it seems contradictory that I agree with Drew here as well. Again, I really really like this signing but the goals plus assists being at 20 that's a stretch because I just don't see the path to getting the goals and then like you're talking is he gonna have 17 assists or something like that's an unfair mark to kind of set but like I just think that he's gonna be a pure chance creator hey maybe if he gets PKs this is different but like his role is to set up Dan

Jovovich first and foremost. But Daniel Shalley is a goal scoring winger. I don't know enough about Shapi Suleymanov. So maybe Drew, if you have a wide scout on him to be curious here. And I think Eric Tommy, he does a lot of things well. I don't he's more of a guy who I could see being like the late arrival in the box to finish rather than Mandel Garcia. All that is to say, I really like the signing.

I don't think he gets above 20 goal contributions just because I don't think the goals will be there unless he's taking penalties Yeah, I mean if you want to talk shoppy real quick he just really quick yes Russian Johnny Russell is the best way I could say it like he looks like Johnny Russell he he's not he's not as gifted in chance Creation but as far as that sort of inverted onto his left dribble towards the top corner and taking on fullbacks That is his vibe 100% and he has a rocket of a left foot. Those two things are very Johnny Russell-esque. That part is off the Y-Scout onto the techno techno beat highlight reel that I watched.

I think the hard part for me with this is if Jake Davis has 93 assists, someone has to score those goals and so Manu Garcia is probably gonna fall On the end of some of that because he is the best playmaker in the history of MLS and I'm so excited He's gonna play right back Drew. No, I think he's gonna play central midfield Kyrie Shelton, I think is gonna be the right back I know that this seems gonna concede 77 Tom's gonna show up to open tryouts to see if he can make the right back Did you all watch Kyrie shut down Denny's Blanga in the open cup final? Don't don't speak too soon on him, okay?

But I mean I do think the team is pretty comfortable comfortable with the Shelton playing right back a lot Yeah, then what do you see the midfield trio has it? I think day one It's probably Manu Jake Davis and Rado Davis and Radoya. I would expect that but the young player to watch for me outside of Davis, obviously everybody knows Jake, Jacob Bartlett, the other Jacob. New homegrown signing, played a year at Notre Dame. He is basically the backup six. So I think there's some opportunity that you're going to see Bartlett play a little bit and comes from a great soccer family. Probably the realest homegrown sporting Kansas city player since Matt Beasler, to be completely

honest. And it's kind of funny. They both played for Notre Dame as well, but, um, he, his family has been STM's forever. He's been going to games, ball, ball kid, all that kind of stuff. His brother Lucas obviously plays for DC United. That's just a good soccer family. And I think that there's potential for him this year to get some playing time.

I also wonder if Shelton is the starting right back where the space then is for similar to Jake Davis. Can you get Bartlett on the field in moments at that position where it's a little bit safer, there's a little less responsibility or at center back and then you sort of grow in confidence and slide into midfield when you need to. As we said, only one cup competition, so that changes things a little bit. On the Manu Garcia line, I'll finish this up here.

I'm going to go over. I think there's a level of excitement for me with this group, with him. I went from like questioning Dejan Joval I think to being like SKC for MLS Cup and there was not a lot of time in between. So that clearly shows how my mind works and how poorly I registered all of this. But I think it's going to be a fun season. It feels like the excitement is back. It feels like a stadium that has been one of the staples of best environments, guaranteed

experience like even from home must watch is coming back. And so I think that's a large part of the excitement for this season in MLS. If you want to follow it, you should go to the home and away podcast where Drew's breaking it all down and you can come here to soccer wise. We're going to cover it as much as we can as the season rolls along. Drew, thanks for taking the time to join us. Thanks guys. Happy to do it. David Goss, Tommy Scoops here on Soccer Wise and we are talking RSL. They changed the name of the stadium, but I don't care. Here at the riot, the battle has begun. We're here for RSL.

It is one of my favorite things in Major League Soccer. It's one of my favorite atmospheres. I've probably only been two times maybe, but you got the mountain in the background. You've got the fresh air in your lungs. It is, I think, one of the most market relevant teams in major league soccer. You see stickers, you see flags, you see jerseys and scarves everywhere around Salt Lake when this team is on and they have the new ownership. It sort of slipped for

a little bit. It feels like they are back, but going into a year of uncertainty. Yeah, it's definitely a little bit of a transition, while also the expectations should be high, because there's a lot of quality in this team. And you kind of go back to their relevance in the market and how beautiful the stadium and the area around it is, just because Utah's a beautiful place. But particularly for guys coming abroad, and even Americans who will joke East Coast, West Coast

bias about, oh, Utah, whatever, the easy jokes to make. There are so many players who come to this team or they take their visit and go, oh my god, this is gorgeous, I love it here. Demir Krylock is one that comes to mind. He was like, yeah, honestly, I didn't know what to expect. It was a new place, I didn't know much about it. And he goes, I love it here.

All the guys who come here just love it, hiking, outdoors, the community, everything else. So that's always a good one. And I'm sure the people of Utah are very proud when they you know they can change misconceived notions of what it was gonna be like and I think that there's no stronger example than Riel Salt Lake because of how many people are coming from abroad because that's the nature of a soccer roster. Yeah the training facility I think might be the best in Major League Soccer they have the indoor

outdoor fields they have the USL Stadium there and now the MLS Next Pro Stadium there. Sitting right on the edge of the mountains like I can't imagine a better place to go to work every day. And then you have that atmosphere and like you know, if you play well fans will come and the fans come and they're loud and they're rowdy and there's a full culture that's been built there. And so I think it's one of those places where it feels meaningful to succeed. And when that happens, you get that connection and you get the Tony Beltrons of the world

who stay for their entire lives after that. And he's in the front office now. Yeah, it's not uncommon. Kyle Beckerman has stayed in the state as well. These are people who are not from Utah who probably, if they didn't go play there, would have never had a connection to the state, but they to be there and it's fully understandable it's one of my favorites to go to I had the best breakfast sandwich of my entire life in Salt Lake City last year when I was driving through on the way out I believe

to California and we're doing 30 season previews here at soccer wise can I commit us to going on a trip to all 30 markets or do I have to have some limit? I would love to be able to go everywhere. Maybe not in this calendar year for all 30 stops, but I would like to hit all 30 stadiums with you, David. We should go to RSL. It is as fun as there is, I think, of an MLS game. So we're going to find a way to get there. Maybe for some big moment, maybe if they make it to a CCC final because they are in the competition and they've got the opportunity.

We chatted with Hayden and Maddie from the Royal Riot podcast. I love this show because they cover as a platform both MLS and NWSL like we do here at Soccerwise. Also because I think they're really well grounded. When you listen to this show, it is one of the local market podcasts that has an understanding of the bigger league around it. And it's not just, why are we not getting every call? Why are we not winning everything? But also from someone from the outside, you get the passion, you get the energy,

you get the frustrations, you get the excitement. It is going to be a weird start to the year, but yet RSL always has a way of like holding the fort even when you think it's gonna be a down year It's a playoff team even when you think things are gonna drop they don't and then the potential maybe to grow things even bigger than it's Ever been before under new ownership. So let's go now to our season preview with the Royal Riot All right Well, we continue on with our season previews here soccer wise Partnering with some of the best podcasts in Major League Soccer. And we are Talking RSL. It means that we are joined by Hayden and Maddie

of the Royal Riot podcast. You can get their show, of course, on their feed if you're listening to it right now. If you're listening to ours, go search the Royal Riot podcast. For anyone listening on the Royal Riot, welcome to Soccer Wise. You can search Soccer Wise anywhere and come on the show as well. Guys, how you doing? Doing fantastic. Thanks for having us.

Crushing it. Happy to be in a room with legends. There are a lot of legends and they're all in a basement right now. Hayden and Tom carrying that mantle for us. Tom is of course the king of it here at Soccer Wise. We have a couple of legends coming up in the show. Matt Doyle recorded his Doylisms is what I am calling them.

They are the great thinkings of a great philosophical leader of our space in Major League Soccer. We also have our lines that we're gonna finish on, our expectations that we're gonna try and predict at the end of this segment that we got from a Juan Andrew Wiebe because he said he had no haikus left in his soul. And so he went with the over under line. Most American thing you can do is to move from poetry to a betting line at this point in time. Let's start with a little transfer update and then we'll start talking about these teams led by Doyle.

Tom, you like transfers, you're pretty big on them yourself. Sure. RSL had a big one. You actually broke this news live on our show and it made me fall over and almost break my computer. The biggest story is Chichu Orongo being traded for originally an RSL record transfer and traded for $1.4

million in general allocation money across two seasons in the international roster spot and it's part of what has been pretty big exodus from this RSL team so far this off season. Yeah, that's going to be a difficult one to replace. Obviously that was the big, big news. Elsewhere, Matty Crooks is gone, Gavin Beavers, a young rising talented goalkeeper who sold to Brunby in Denmark. Anderson Julio has left for FC Dallas and that had been most of those that happened before any income he's came.

So the team was in flux for a little bit but they moved throughout the winter. They've so far added Elias Manuel from the New York Red Bulls. Rafa Cabral from Brazil, a good new starting goalkeeper which is why Gavin Bieber was allowed to leave, Sam Junkwa from Dallas, and then you have Kobe Henry on loan from Reams, Mason Staduar, and Arieth Peele. A lot of names to learn in all of that for RSL faithful. Hayden, give me an idea sort of of what the off season experience has been like for you and the RSL fan base. Way busier than I think a lot of RSL fans thought it would be in a lot different direction.

I think if anybody thought that we were going to have outgoing players, it would be Beavers as one, but then Diego Luna. So I think a lot of RSL fans can be happy that we're keeping Diego Luna throughout these this winter transfer window. But Chicha Orongo, I think that you could kind of start to sense it. At least I feel like people kind of could I know it caught a lot of people around the league off guard. But I think that a lot of people that were kind of pretty in tune with RSL around very end of December beginning of January since there was something going on there.

So that it hurts to lose a guy that scored 17 goals last season and we've replaced him with a committee and we've heard the press conferences and that's what they plan to replace that with and we'll see if it works. You know I think that there's a couple guys that Tom that you said that I'm pretty excited about. Manuel being one of the bigger ones 23 years old eight eight goals last year I know that he was originally viewed as the Julio replacement now I think he's viewed as a little bit more than that so overall we're replacing nine two starters last year so returning nine and a lot of goals that we need to replace. Maddie one of the things we love to do on this

show we've got our depth charts we've got our everything sort of labeled out is to go through who the DPs and U-22s are and right now, RSL only has one on the books. Would you expect another big signing to come in? So before I spoke to the front office today, I would have said no, because usually RSL historically has done their big signings in the summer, not in the winter. Look at last summer, we got Gonçalves, Marchuk, and Lachlan-Brook.

I would think that in the summer, they would be looking to replace Chicho. Now what I'm hearing today, not to take Bogert's feet, is that they're looking to intra league to replace that striker and it's... They're doing the gam cash asset dance trying to get somebody in before the window closes. Tom, would you expect to see another name? Yeah, so my understanding had been they would prefer to do it now. They didn't rule out the possibility of the summer, so I think that they were just kind of edging it and not trying to over-promise.

Again, maybe it so doesn't happen, but I do know that they are being active in trying to bring in another center forward and look within the league, I think is a strong option if you could find kind of the right player and such with the different mechanisms to bring in a player. And again, they just got 1.4 million game for Chichol Rango So they have a little bit of a boost there

but again if they wanted to make somebody a DP they could use the cash transfer system which doesn't take away any of their allocation money, so they have options and I'm very curious to see where this goes and when this happens I think more so because I think you can get by for more than stretches with say Elias Manuel and and the attack by committee as Maddie was saying but or and Hayden was saying as I probably but the transfer window opens 24 games in the season the summer transfer window so I don't know if you want to rely on that for 24 games. It is an early start to the season for RSL as we found out a

week or so ago Every team can play in up to two competitions in the regional in cup in cup competitions And so for RSL because of the quality of the season they had last year Cupcaf Champions Cup is one of them. It kicks off the week before The MLS season it is a matchup against Haradiano With a chance to play the LA Galaxy in the next round who got a first round behind Galaxy team of course that will be without Ricky Puze without Dejan Jovilic we know now it is not the worst matchup Herodiano a tough one in the first round but the opportunity there is

a big one for this RSL squad so that's something to look out for as well. Let's go into our Doyalism and that'll give us a little bit of a jumping off point for a little bit more of this conversation. Man, I really don't think this was the plan for RSL because we all remember in June of last year, they were at or near the top of the Western Conference. They had an MVP candidate in Chichararrango.

They had a best 11 candidate in Andres Gomez. Both those guys are gone. And now really quickly, this has become Diego Luna's team. And I kind of love that because I love Diego Luna and I want to see him hit another level. And I think he does have another level in him, maybe even like a best 11 caliber number 10. But we haven't seen this kind of pressure on a domestic attacker. Honestly, in 20 years, the last time we saw this was when it was Landon Donovan's San Jose earthquakes team. And like, that's, that's quite a lot to buy up right there for any American kid, even, you know, even one

as talented as Diego Luna, but it's his team now. The pieces around him, the wingers, whether it's Marschuk or Brooke, whether Luna's playing as a number 10 or, or Gonzales is going to play on the left and Luna or Luna plays on the left and Gonzales plays as sort of an attacking number 10. All that's kind of up in the air. And so is the number nine position because they traded Chicho They have a DP slot open. They should have a lot of money to go in and address that I know in Brooklyn coffee shops. They're kind of cheering for Elias Manuel to get a shot at being the starter It's all it's all up in the air. One thing we know though, is that they will play hard

under Pablo Mastroeni, but it's a less talented team than it was at this time last year. All right, we hear the great words of Matt Doyle there, talking a lot about some of the stuff we mentioned. One of the big names he mentioned is Diego Luna, and that is going to be a large part of the conversation. Matty, you were shaking your head yes and no throughout that time with Doyle talking.

What is your reaction to his Diego Luna pressure, excitement, questions, whatever you'd call it that came out from Doyle? So I've been watching Luna since IMG Academy back when I lived in Florida. Absolutely been waiting for him to get a shot at the 10. It feels like my entire life and I'm sorry to say after the phone call earlier today, I'm going to have to keep waiting because that is definitely going to be Goncalves at the 10.

Luna is going to be on the left. Right now he's not playing physically. He's okay, but he had that broken nose with the men's national team. So they're not risking him at all. Right now they've got Lachlan Brooks out there on the left. That is going to be heartbreaking for Dorel, I think. And for a lot of us, Tom Luna is, you know, the expectation is that he could be a breakout star with this group. And he could be a breakout star, as Dorel said, like for all American attacking players, the role he could play and the quality that he has. What do you make of what this season could be for him and the pressure on his shoulders?

Yeah, I look like again, there will be several different outlets for creativity, for goals, for everything else. But at the end of the day, for me, the attacking burden is going to fall on Diego Luna, which is maybe a little bit unfair to him given they brought in a designated player and Diego Gonzalez. And maybe he does take that but for me like speaking to people and just looking at this right like this is Diego Luna's team like that's how they're being framed that's how I think that I know Diego looks at it that way and like not in a selfish way but this is a confident kid

this is a responsible kid this is a mature kid he wants this he loves the limelight he loves the pressure so I'm very much looking forward to it. I guess the only worry would be if he does too well like Andres Gomez did and then an offer that comes in the summer that you can't refuse and then again that's a good problem to have but again it would be a problem and it's difficult to balance that the one end of for the team like this winter not going to happen in terms of an outbound transfer after everything else that happened. It just is what it is.

It would still be really tough for RSL to sanction a sale in the summer, but that would also be tough on Diego Luna if the right opportunity presents itself. We're getting ahead of ourselves. I can't wait to see him for at least the first two thirds of the season. Tom, why are you doing this to us?

Why are you trying to break our hearts already? This was an Andres Gomes, Soccerwise was founded as an Andres Gomes show. That was the purpose of Soccerwise. This was an undress. Go. Sucker was a found as an undress. Gomez chef. That was the purpose of stock and almost immediately we, we collapsed. We rebuilt ourselves as Diego Luna, Patrick Oshima show. And you've spent the whole week trying to ruin all of that for us. I was going to say I reported that there were multiple offers for Ajibang from the championships up. So I'm sorry for the kiss of death there.

And recently Pachatino just calling up January camp people and then sending him away. Hayden, you've gotten to watch Diego Luna up close both as a player and a person. What's sort of the interaction with the fan base? What does he sort of represent to RSL? I'm not the only one who says this. He is my favorite RSL player of all time. Bar-R. Bar-R.

Wow. We have a Mount Rushmore. Yeah. He is my top RSL player of all time. Wow. We have a Mount Rushmore. He is my top RSL player of all time. Now he won't ever break the top five RSL players simply because he won't be here long enough. But he is my favorite player to ever put on the jersey. The way that he works, like Utah as you guys know is a blue collar. If the players come in, put in work, we're going to love them even if they're not that great. There's a lot of players that are just, they work hard, but they're not the most talented,

and we still love them. Diego Luna is exactly like that, except he's fantastic. You're saying that to the three of us. These are three people who absolutely understand that I'm gonna work hard, but I might not be the best. So you are hitting the right audience with that one. Exactly, and Diego Luna, I mean not be the best so yeah You were hitting the right audience with that one exactly and Diego Luna

I mean who the who the hell works at a coffee shop while on a first Because he's worried that he's not a good communicator he's been on Royal Riot three times and every single time he talks about how He wants to get better with Pablo how he wants to get better with his teammate and how he wants to get better with Pablo, how he wants to get better with his teammate and how he wants to be a leader. I think that he has hit all three of those points. Our first time that we had him on the pod was before he started getting any starts.

It was right after the U-20 Olympic qualification. And that was, so two, almost two years ago now, was the first time we had him on. He wasn't playing at all and we asked him about it. We said, hey, you're not getting minutes. We want you to get minutes. What's going on? He had nothing for us.

He said all he needs to do is just work hard and practice. And then as soon as he started getting minutes, breakout player ended the season with, I think, eight goals in half a season that year. So, is I mean Tom yeah you're breaking our hearts already saying you know let's wait until summer we know but we're not gonna accept it until it happens. I was saying Matty so like we're talking about all the things that Diego Luna does what have you noticed the biggest change I guess under Pablo Messerani and being at this club from again a super talented

Super creative super unique individualistic player who also works for a team. What has how has he changed under Pablo Messerani? Two main things number one is defense He wasn't getting the minutes at first because he was he was I don't want to say Jack McGlinn ish or Gio Reina ish In his attention to defense but felt like since he could beat everybody at USL with speed and guile, that would work at MLS. And it took a while for Pablo to get through to him, you need to play defense here if you want to play. And I think what he finally said was,

hey, you want to go to Europe, right? Do you think when you get there, some European coach is going to say, oh, let me build my team around this 20 year old American or are you going to need to fit into their system? And he said he saw the light go on in Diego's eyes and Diego bought into the system. He is a defensive asset because he knows that by playing defense and getting the

ball back, it's going to create opportunity for him. So, he's still very attack-minded but he understands the role that defense has to play. But he's also become an incredibly well-rounded and Tom you said a mature man and I'm not calling him a boy anymore. He went to he started going through some issues and went to a mental health counselor and you saw it last year in Chicago. He had been on a bit of a dip where like he just the ball wasn't going in for him and he actually Pablo took him out of the starting lineup to kind of remove the pressure. RSL went on the road to Chicago and he scored the fourth goal and the relief on his face and the tears on his face as he ran

over to Pablo to hug him and that's when the season really took off for him. But when you talk about a mature person, the last time the three of us were together was at that pre-party for MLS Cup, at the studio where they shot all those breaking aways for MLS. Every one of those guys came over to me when they found out that there was an RSL guy in the room

and told me how much they loved working with Luna, how incredible Luna was. They told me things about him that I didn't know. And then they would all, you could see them all like three minutes into their gushing about Luna say, oh yeah, we like Chicho too. Then they would go back like, oh yeah, we had another RSL guy go back to telling me like how much they enjoyed working with everybody, but Luna Luna what an incredible person and if you remember when he got left off the Olympic roster a lot of talking heads were pretty brutal to him

possibly none more so than Hercules Gomez who called him selfish hurt that he that he didn't go because he had hurt feelings called him all sorts of names cast all sorts of aspersions. Guess whose podcast Luna went on last week Erks, I mean this guy bears no grudges He sees through the matrix and he is just such a well-rounded likable kid You can't help but want him to succeed and I just know he's going to he's one of the stories of the year I think for everyone who likes this league. Coming out of the January camp, I think he's gonna be one of the stories

of the national team and the stuff Tom does. Unfortunately, he's gonna be one of those stories as well. I think I can keep him away from it as much as we can. But let's talk about this team overall, because we've talked about the attack a lot. With Chichele gone, that's a huge question mark. The question mark is not defensively though. The numbers were there defensively last year. I think in my mind, Justin Gladys come back to the player that I thought he

would be and maybe he's not the man you starter that some people talked about, although maybe that's a good thing the way many of you plays right now. But he is a top level MLS center back. You bring in a new starting goalkeeper as well. Hayden, what's the expectation for this team? What is this strength defensively for this group? And I guess the question is how high can it take it over the course of the season? Yeah, so Matty's the goalkeeper expert. So Matty, correct me if I'm wrong, but switching between goalkeepers 15 times last season doesn't help a defensive line have any chemistry. And I think we saw a lot of mistakes that were really dumb.

So I think Brian Vera, Glad, Katranis is one of the most underrated players in this league. You don't talk about him. And that's a great thing in my opinion when you're not talking about a left back. Like that's not a super attack minded left back because he's not making very many mistakes. And then we got the right back where there's a competition going on. You got Brown, you got PQ, you got our new signing Kobe. Kobe Henry could perform along that back line. So I think the defense will be much more improved this season, especially with, again, it's

just another year of Vera and Glad getting those minutes together. Vera, I think, is a very easy to dislike player for a lot of people because he's had his moments, but Vera and Glad, I think, are becoming one of the better partnerships in the league. And just to add here, Riel-Salt Lake were fifth in MLS in expected goals against last season. And as you said, their biggest weakness was goalkeeping. And that's particularly the one that upsets the XG, its special center forwards and bad goalkeeping.

If they have indeed fixed their goalkeeper spot with Cabral, which I believe that they have, they'll at least improve. If he is even league average, I think that that saves you a handful of goals just right there. How do you want to weigh in on the goalkeeping expert of having a good starting goalkeeper being a positive? I mean, I've always said since I mean, since Romando left, what I've wanted is a goalie who's going to make the saves he's supposed to make.

And then a goalie who will sometimes make saves that he shouldn't make. And unfortunately, I don't know that we've we've consistently seen that goalie who will sometimes make saves that he shouldn't make and unfortunately, I don't know that we've we've consistently seen that goalie who's going to save the ones he should make taking nothing away from McMath last year. If you want to watch a Superman in goal, go back and watch our last two games against Minnesota. McMath absolutely stood on his head, but from what I'm hearing, Cabral's a significant upgrade as far as playing the

ball with his feet, which is... Brazilian, has to be. You know, Brazilian, but also McMath, you know, like me as old, like that I just made at my age. We didn't learn how to play with the ball at our feet. Their coach didn't wanna see that. And guys like me are the reason that the coach didn't wanna see that.

I was height, width, and distance. I don't care who's open. I will say, I think credit to RSL for the way they've handled Beavers. And I think they gave him opportunities where they believed he could fill it. And it went up and down. So to handle it this way now,

to send him to a good landing spot while bringing in a veteran to win now, it's the right way a club should operate. And so I think there's credit there. I'm hopeful about some of the other homegrowns that have been signed. RSL has a tendency to throw seven press releases in a row at you and be like,

yeah, homegrowns are great and then move on. I do think that NGOV obviously a big one of them, but I do think there's some really interesting names that can be involved with this group and hopefully get opportunities this year or start to push into the first team. I think Real Monarchs are one of the teams that are in US Open Cup as well.

Yeah. So there's some minutes to get there on top of all of the games that RSL is going to be playing across CONCACAF, League's Cup, and then MLS competition as well. This brings us to our final piece here. Our final prediction. Andrew Weavey has sent us some lines and predictions as well. We've got two for RSL. They are both attack-minded because we just talked about RSL could defensively looking to be great defensively. So all anyone wants to talk about

is the other side of the field and what could happen there. He starts with this one. Nine and a half is the line over under for Eliasel goals this season in MLS play. Tom, I'll start with you because I can see you already getting a little scratch on the side as you hear the over unders. What do you make of that line? I'm sad to say I got to go under. I love Elias Manoel. I just think that they're going to bring in another center forward and the minutes will

be difficult to come by if that other center forward is working out. Like Mano Manuel will fight to Be in a lot of I'm sure that he's gonna play a ton of games But I think more of them will come off the bench so have to go under Maddie. I Have to go under for the same reason. I think he's he's gonna be a great player, but I think he's gonna be more like our Julio where he's gonna be coming off the bench from what I'm hearing in camp if the season started tomorrow It would be Forster Arreago Starting at the nine who's a guy that we got from the reentry draft from Nashville

Yeah, and they say he's just a big physically imposing number nine that we haven't seen in a long long time He sees the game and he combines real well like they're sharing a wavelength he and Diogo Gonzalez, but also that he can put in a headed cross. So, I'm, if it starts tomorrow, it's him. So, I got to go with him getting the nine. He is literally the Ghanaian Brian White. So, which makes him the Ghanaian New Jersey Mario Gomez, which is one step removed from being a Wundus League starter. So there's a lot to be excited about.

Or a Red Bull head of sport. Yeah, true. Maybe they'll be able to pick up a trade there as well. A Duke grad himself, that's why I said it. And then I spent most of his time with Huntsville, a little bit with Nashville, over the course of his young MLS career for Ayago Hayden. We've got two unders. Are you riding with the group? Yeah, I am I do think under on this one

Like everyone said he's not the starter on this team. I think he's gonna get a little bit more minutes maybe than Predicted but I think that they want this guy off the bench. I think they want Julio 2.0 Yeah Predicted but I think that they want this guy off the bench. I think they want Julio 2.0 Yeah I'm gonna go with all of you as well and go under I think We became in hot thinking this is the starter from day one and that's the question mark And I think everyone here sort of come into the same lot area that it's not let's do this one though Maddie I want to start with you because of what you talked about as we came out at the beginning about the number 10 opportunity Who will have more goals plus assists combined in this season?

Gonçalves or Luna Luna Luna's gonna Luna broke out last year this year. He's gonna turn the league on his head I I'm predicting a lot more goals from him. I put his number at 13 and honestly, I'd take the over Okay, third that is that is a nice little let me set myself up with with a layup on the 13 13 would not be where that Line is said I agree firmly that it's Diego Luna again the word. I'm more worried about plus assists remind. Yeah, man Oh, I'm just doing goals. I'm holy shit. I'm saying he's 13 goals, brother. Wow. All right. I take back my joke He's definitely gonna be over 20 for combined. I see him as a double double threat. I don't know if it'll be exactly 10 goals and 10 plus assists, but the goal contributions I'd definitely put north of 20.

So I'm with that. Hayden, is there any Goncalves excitement? Yeah, this is actually my hot take. I think Goncalves is is going to be I think he's going to beat out Luna on that one This is my biggest one where I say if RSL is going to be a top four to five team it all rests on Diogo and Dominic Dominic I think is going to be a player that we do not keep past the summer So you guys I think start talking about him now. I think he's going to be a player that we do not keep past the summer. So you guys, I think start talking about him now. I think he's going to absolutely pop off.

He's gone. I think he's going to go crazy and I'm taking Diogo over Diego for goals plus assists. I'm just going to jump in Hayden. I'm so glad that you brought up Marchute because I was going to say before we close that this is a player that I'm remiss for not having spoken about yet in this podcast in this preview. I think he's going to say before we close that this is a player that I'm remiss for not having spoken about yet in this podcast in this preview. I think he's going to be phenomenal.

He debuted with the Polish national team after the RSO. Yeah. And he was somebody that it was like, yeah, he'll be, you know, again, like Gomez, you know, who knows like how he'll be exactly immediately. You know how hard it is for a player to come in mid season and like particularly a player as young as him. The whole conversation was Goncalves everything about him He seems like he could come in immediately in the summer and hit it wasn't him. He needed more time

It was Dominic Marchuk. So I'm very glad you brought him up Hayden because I think he's an excellent player We've talked about on our show a bunch Marchuk. He's a straight line runner and therefore at a minimum He's always affecting the game because he's physical. He's athletic. He's working hard. But now I think this year we're gonna see some of the quality. And when he stops going at one speed and starts to pull people in and beat players and all of that, I think he can be really special. I'm gonna go with Luna on this one as well,

just because I can't go away from my guy Diego Luna. This was a blast. Thank you all for getting together to do this. We gotta do it again. I cannot wait for the season. Hayden, give us a pitch on Royal Riot before we get out of here. Yeah, Royal Riot. Anywhere you want to get your RSO news, your Royals news, we are the

only Royals podcast that exists. Actually, that's not true. There is one other one. They just don't post as much anymore. But we are the only other one that goes weekly. So make sure to give us a look for Royals content and RSL content. And we at SoccerWise are the same. We cover MLS and NWSL. So if you are looking for a place that covers both leagues like Royal Riot does, we do the same. So we love having other people that are operating like us. We have live shows every single week, a couple times a week, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,

and we're doing a bunch of other content as well, as well as our season previews. So if you're listening on Royal Rack, come check us out. If you're listening on Soccer Wise, and you wanna learn more about RSL or the Utah Royals, go the other way. All right, thank you guys for joining us once again. Peace out.

["Soccer Wives"] We are talking Seattle Sounders in our season preview. We have a loaded preview for this one. We've had one guest for a lot of these. Sometimes we have two. This time we've got three. The co-host of Lobbing Scorchers, we've got Ari and Noah, and then we have Jeremiah Oshan as well. All of them are across the Sounder at Heart family, but if you wanna listen to the podcast specifically,

it's Lobbing Scorchers and Nos Audietes, or however I choose to mispronounce it at whatever time. We are at some of the best platforms covering Major League Soccer overall, and of course covering their team. Seattle is lucky, right? Seattle is a major team feeling in a major market. It is one of the behemoths of Major League Soccer and we'll talk about it in this show, Tom, but they're gonna do something again historic. They are the only teams ever playing a Club World Cup.

Now they're going to host a group stage of a Club World Cup against three of the biggest teams on the planet. And like, I can't imagine a better club for it to happen for MLS people than this. Yeah, this is going to be the first team in this competition that actually qualified on on sporting merit for this this award and not kind of backdoor on the FIFA stuff. Yeah, Seattle Sounders historic club in this league. What they do on the field is obviously one of the best of all time, the runs that they've had since the day that they got into this league. But off the field, I think, is really what makes them special,

is that fan support and that connection between this club and the city. And, Goss, like you said, the fans are lucky of this team, and it's earned because they pay for it, they have the appetite, they tell their local papers, they show their bloggers and fans that like, hey, we'll consume all of this stuff because we're a rabid fan base. So shout out to the fans for that. But like they are a lucky fan base

given all of these really, really incredible options for local coverage of this team. And gosh, it makes our jobs easier because these people are incredible. And again, like they're on the ground every single day, essentially a training and we get to pick their brains about their team. These people are incredible and again, like they're on the ground every single day, essentially a training and we get to pick their brains about their team. It is one of the must atmospheres.

If you are not a Seattle fan and you've never been, you got to get to this stadium. You have to get to the city. It's my dream of downtown stadium. You can walk to the games. Obviously the march is pretty special, but like, it doesn't matter what angle you come from, you're able to sort of be in the city, then go to the game, then come back into the city. Club World Cup's going to be pretty special.

The CCL final there, I think for me, was the peak of my experience around Major League Soccer. It was something I could very easily root for, and just the pure, like, excitement and energy And we've talked about it a million times. We went out for extra time. We hosted an event the night before and just walk into the stadium and having people yell like we're finally going to win a CCL at us was just one of the best things I've ever been a part of. So I'm working on a plan for a, for soccer wise to be on the ground for club world's cup.

Cause I got to go up to the central district and get my Ethiopian food. Maybe we'll go do a little hike Tom. We'll start to get the 2025 grind going. We'll sweat out all the booze and then we'll go to a game and watch Diego Simeone on the sideline trying to find a way to underlap on Alex Roldan when he's just getting roasted by one of the great right backs in El Salvador history. You're not ready for this PSG. You don't want this heat, Botafogo. It is going to be such a crazy experience watching Jordan at Media Marketing talk about this and just be like, it's cool, man. Like it's going to be fun. Like it's just such

a weird, like there's no expectations and yet it's Seattle so there's some but the expectations are that there are no expectations and it's just this weird like I think they're gonna have fun and play loose and like that's kind of dangerous because this is a good team. You never fight a man with nothing to lose that's all that's what I always say and that's the Seattle Sounders 2025 club world cup preview and that's all I got. That's all you need. We did get a little breaking news after the interview or after this preview. Sounders are gonna have some flexibility to pull some gam forward and some additional allocation money to build out this roster. This is normally something you assume the teams had been notified even though it hadn't come out publicly.

So you assume Craig Weibel has been operating under this assumption and we're now just understanding where maybe some of the confidence came to make a Jesus Ferreira, Paul Arreola trade. Yeah, but they did that sustainably. We were talking about sustainable energy, all these good things. He traded international roster slots

to get Jesus Ferreira and Paul Arreola. It's incredible. Usually that was the Nashville move. Nashville would sell six of their international slots and then come back with a new starter with that extra money or just keeping the team together. So well done to Craig Weibel in the front office. Yeah. It'll be interesting to see if they try and make any other bigger splash going forward. Most of the DP spots are held. Yeah. So it seems kind of hard.

And like the way the contract, same thing that Jordan Morris wasn't a a DP last year He hit bonuses that made him a DP for this year Like that could possibly happen in the future with hazes for error or whatever the built-in contract is like it won't be maxed him forever So they're at a they're out of excess with the designated player spot So we'll see how they move all of those around as they can I? Know in our discord Marcus Rashford's been in there a ton asking about game and sort of like super curious about it So maybe there's a loan that could be done where you bring an international player in on game And they are that teams able to then go and build a castle out of game and do something with it Either way, we had a good time talking about this one. Let's go now to our preview

Let's continue on here in our season previews and let's talk about one of the big ones Let's continue on here in our season previews. And let's talk about one of the big ones. One of the biggest teams in Major League Soccer, the all-capital Seattle Sounders. We have a big preview here. A number of guests. We've got Jeremiah, we've got Ari, and we've got Noah. You know them all from either Lobbing Scorchers,

who are all in their one box right now, because they, I assume, are not allowed to record separately or nos ariete, which I pronounced incorrectly as I always do from Jeremiah side as well. You look shocked. That was great. I don't appreciate the Ohio state reference, but I'm so excited to be here. I think I could tell you we just helped record an RSL preview that a lot of people would consider Seattle Sounders maybe the Ohio State of Major League Soccer. So the West is in the Big Ten.

In their words. Yeah, exactly. In their words. But now it does go sea to shining sea these days. On a serious note, Seattle Sounders fans are absolutely blessed with all the content and local independent content. There's a lot to choose from and not all teams have this. So Seattle Sounders fans that are listening to this, you guys have spoiled for choice here. Absolutely.

And if you're listening on the SoccerWise feed, go check out both these shows. You can check out Sounder at heart as well for a ton of written content, both on the MLS and NWSL side, which is huge for all of us. And if you're listening on any other feed, welcome to SoccerWise. Just search SoccerWise and you can find us anywhere you want. We like to start these things with a transfer update, where things stand right now. Tom, it has been, what I wrote in the rundown is the big story is the super January camp USMNT squad that Craig Weibel is putting together. Did you enjoy that? Yeah, I did. And I was a little disappointed because I was going to go with this is the greatest gold cup roster of all time that the Seattle Sounders have put together. So

as we're alluding to, no chance right... The Vietnam has no chance right now. No, that's a chance. So this offseason, the big additions were Jesus Ferreira and re-signing Albert Rusnak and Jaupala were big, and of course, Paul Arreola came from Dallas, and Kim Keehee, out of nowhere, he's back in the Seattle Sounders to add to the best defense in MLS

in 2024. So, I don't know, I'm just going to say lobbing scorches here and someone can choose to talk. What was the reaction as you heard the like, maybe Seattle will trade for another FC Dallas starter? Um, well, I

think Noah and I, when we heard first heard about the Jesus Ferreira links, I think both of us were very intrigued by that immediately. I mean, just when you think about his pedigree, whatever you want to say about his US men's national team profile, I mean, this is a best 11 attacker from two years ago. It's a guy who's got an 18-goal season on his resume. And it's one of those situations which we pointed this out a lot.

But if you had a player of this pedigree and resume coming from outside the league, the way it would get talked about is way different and it would be way different. If you had a player of this pedigree and resume coming from outside the league, the way it would get talked about is way different and would be way different. And I think I think most people know that. So that move in itself, the biggest storyline of this offseason was could Craig Weibel improve this offense? This team scored 51 goals last year. That's not enough goals. They've got CONCACAF Champions Cup. They've got Club World Cup this year. It was very important to bolster this attack. I didn't think the

bolstering would come from within the league like this. But now that- Just have to see Dallas. Yeah. I'm definitely very high on that move. When we were grading the Seattle's offseason a couple shows ago, I said that move in itself gets an A. And I think even Paul Arreola, I was thinking about this today, I think he is a better MLS player

than is being talked about. He's being talked about like it's kind of a replacement level throw in of this off season. I think it's pretty clear that he's been a plus MLS player throughout his career. So I think, I guess that's a long way of saying that we liked the FC Dallas pilgrimage. And I know a lot of people are referring it to the 20 as the 2019 Gold Cup squad derisively, but no, I hear that. And I think 2019 Gold Cup squad that might actually

play an MLS. It might. And you know, think about it, the Sounders are about to go and play their own gold cup, which is Cockicaf Champions League and Leeds Cup and whatnot. So it's like, who else would you want other than the guy who can score on various Caribbean nations at will? Pirate of the Caribbean, it is Johnny Depp himself in Jesus Ferreira. Let me ask you this question, Jeremiah. In the names going out and Raul Rui Diaz being the biggest one obviously a legend at Seattle a big DP Leo Chu and in some of the trades to Dallas and Nathan leaving as well were replaced by Kim Ki-hee which is a legendary Seattle moment like in its own right but Rui Diaz is now Rui Diaz and Nico Lodero

have left and the replacements being a Paul Harriol and a Jesus Ferrer inside the league, is there frustration at the level of replacement or is there more excitement that from maybe a few stars, the money has been spread out across a couple of key pieces? You know, I think it depends on where you go looking for the answers. If you just go to Reddit or are browsing social media, I think you'll see a lot of understandable

underwhelmness, if that's a term, where people had sort of built up the idea that they were going to go out and sign a big DP. They didn't do that. They didn't go outside the league and make a big splashy signing. I think there is some understandable frustration or disappointment over not getting that. But if you look at it in itself, I think you'll find a lot of satisfaction over what they were able to do within the league. I think generally, we did a survey on Sounder at Heart that got something like 1,500 responses. It it's a pretty good sample size. And generally speaking, people seem pretty excited about this year.

They seem pretty satisfied with the off-season. Even Craig Weibel, who has gotten a lot of stick from a very vocal contingent, he even graded out pretty well according to the respondents of this survey. Again, it's 1,500 people, pretty significant sample sizes, even if it is mostly sounder heart readers. So I think it's a mixed bag, but I think mostly people get what's happening here. Arreola is the lesser of the two signings from a name perspective, but like Noah and Ari said, this is a guy who was a dp not i think he was a dp last year he was and he didn't have a bad season he just is sort of

for what you're getting from him maybe he's not producing quite at the level but this is a guy who was a contender for best 11 two seasons ago he was you know he was an all-star uh everyone loves him in the locker room you know everyone at at Dallas is talking about what a great guy this guy, how great he is. He came to Seattle, and he said every right thing he could possibly say. Sorry, sorry, Jeremiah. Just to add to this that we haven't said it yet,

he's hitting the cap at like $600,000 or somewhere in that ballpark. That changes the math on all of this. Paul Ariel as a DP, as a Max tam like I was good with it in Dallas. But moving forward, like if Seattle made this deal and he was also max tam, it'd be really difficult because you really have to find the money for this. Getting him at this number is a phenomenal sign. And for areas like they managed to get for error on tam as well,

which I think is great for now, for now. It is a long term contract and a notebook out right now. So something weird is great for now. For now. It is a long term contract extension. And a notebook out right now, so something weird's about to happen. I don't know if he's doing math about all these contracts or something. I think we also talked about, with Jeremiah on one of our streams recently, how we looked at Paul Ariel's old contract.

I mean, the Sounders effectively fleeced Dallas on both of these trades. I mean, this is like insanely good business. You know people want to talk trash on Craig Weibel all day which you know what fine some of it's valid that's cool that's his job is to take the heat sometimes but if you look at it from a peer business perspective who wouldn't take this deal like either of those deals like that he he kicked ass with this. Yeah this is rather than having the Miguel Almey Rones of the world or whatever. I mean,

I'm not even going to go into Messi because that's a whole other thing or Cuchos. There are like borderline five DPs on this team and that's the advantage over having one or two, three great ones. Let's go to our designated player, Matt Doyle. Let's sit at the feet of the great philosopher of Major League Soccer and let's see what he has to say. Dallas team that was making bad trades. Look, Ferreira is essentially a DP in this league. I think if you got someone of his profile out of like the Colombian league, it would cost you $7, $8 million. So the fact that Seattle were able to get him just for gam and get him on a sub DP deal, that is just masterful. And if you look at the Sounders now, they have the deepest team in the league. Like I have no

questions about their ability to compete at across multiple competition competitions at a high level. The only question I have, and I think it's a question that everybody will have is, do they have the match winners? Do they have the guys who in the semi finals or final will be able to make make that special play find that special moment and get this team back into the winner circle in 2022 and 2019 it was Rolary Diaz and Nico Ladero and none of the guys on the roster now have been quite at that level. Ferreira or Abel Rusnak or Jordan Morris. Or I think the big hope is that Pedro de la Vega, year two can be a real Gauss theorem guy, if he is. When Sounders are walking out at 2025 with at least a little bit more silverware.

Man, groupthink is a beautiful thing. We were all able to get together and have the exact same ideas. Jeremiah, give me your Pedro De La Vega hype. Where do you sit for him right now? I'm pretty excited. You know, it was funny. Someone, maybe it was his agent, I don't know,

put together a highlight reel of his time with the Sounders last year. And if you cut it right, it's like glorious. You know, he made a ton of really good runs. He made, you know, you can, point being, you can cut this, you put some techno music behind it, and you can make Pedro De La Vega in a relatively short time look like he balled out last year with the Sounders. Now, we all know that isn't quite what happened. The final ball wasn't there for whatever reason. He struggled to get on the field for health reasons he you know we can go down a litany of of things

but i i i think it was illustrated in the sense that he does have some real potential and i think we've also seen increases now again these are pre-season games these are against uh... not exactly elite level european opponents but he's got a couple goals he's got got an assist, he looks like he has gotten into considerably better shape than he was ever in last year.

He has this real young Patrick Swayze vibe to him, which I am absolutely digging. And I'm really hyped about him because this is a player who I don't think most people are coming into the season with very high expectations, and I would not at all be surprised if he goes for eight goals eight assists or you know even better than that. Jeremiah a couple a couple quick follow-ups that I want to go to you one you said techno music was there actually techno music in the background? Two I think there was yeah. Two was also be a Serbian League signing. It was dubstep adjacent I have to say. okay what was there was the caption Pedro de la Vega was a Problem was that because that seems like that would fit there and then three

Well, did you say eight goals eight assists like we again we've all been super positive So I'm trying to poke the holes here. That's it That's a pretty kid glove friendly line to set for a player who was bought for $7 million. And last one was the Patrick Swayze reference because he was a ghost last year and just never trained for three days in a row. That's a good line. I felt good about that when you were saying, I almost had to write that down. Oh, the notebook is out.

That was good. I agree. Eight Goals Eight Assists is a little kid glubby for expectations. But I think if you put in eight goals, eight assists, I think most people would be, if not, over the moon about it. And it obviously depends on how he gets it and how it looks. But that's real production.

And on a team that is as deep as this one, I would think that's, if he's the fourth leading scorer at that, which I don't think is crazy to consider, you'd be thrilled with it. I agree, I agree. And it's all additive as well, just because of, like, again, even last year, like, I'm sure you guys would hear the same stuff of, you know, hey, you know, even when they were working on that deal, it was like, hey, even if we don't sign him, we think we're really good. And so it'd be great that we would rather have him. We think he's an excellent player, but the baseline here, and so they've even gotten

better and their floor has gotten even higher over this offseason that Pedro de la Vega is additive. No, I don't know. Yeah, eight and eight might seem like it's setting the bar low, but think about this. Last year he had one and one. The goal was a penalty kick and the assist was literally a play where he was standing in the box and the cross came in and hit him in the face and deflected right to the guy who scored the goal. So when

you think about it through that lens, eight and eight, like I would be thrilled with that. And like you guys said, that's, I think that's about the baseline for all they need from him with the pieces around him theoretically. So for me, you just really, you really need to see him take a pronounced step forward this year. That's the X factor, I think for this team's whole ceiling. And I will say he has, he has looked actively good so far in preseason for whatever that's worth. I, you know, I know it's exhibition games and all that, but the goal, the one that he scored two goals and he has the nicest assist that anyone on the team has had in any of their preseason games so far.

So I think that's reason for cautious optimism. When he, when he wins the ball in door this year, after winning the club world cup, that trivia fact about what was his first goal and his first assist for Seattle Sounders is going to hit so hard at a soccer wise live trivia event. I just want you to know that. Everyone, store it in the back of your brains as you go along. Let me ask you about this though. It's just on the dubstep highlight reel.

Yeah. You probably had to lead it and it's probably the drop every time as you hit it. Club World Cup, June 15th to 23rd. Botafalgo Atletico Madrid PSG. Noah, what's the expectations? What is this? I am so excited to see what the media meal is in the press box. That's kind of where I'm at at this point.

I'm excited to see what the fanfare of FIFA is and enjoy my time in the spotlight, rack up some videos and some views. And honestly, I'm going to be honest with you, I think the Sounders are feeling the same way. Like, what are you gonna do? This is a group of death. How are you supposed to get out of this? Yeah, I think my expectation, Club World Cup, you just got to not embarrass yourself and set the league back like a decade. As long as you

do that, I view it as mission accomplished. Like, I'm not that concerned about them making a run at winning it. But it would be funny if they win more than Miami. That'd be tight. That's kind of where I'm like, that'd be sick. That's where I'm going for. Honestly one win, again, I'm making fun of myself now for kid gloves. One win in this group stage would be phenomenal. Even if they don't advance.

Undeniably. Yeah. Honestly. Undeniably. Yeah. Honestly, like so. I actually would, maybe this is a hot take, but I actually think I would rather be in the Sounders position where they have a group of death than in Miami's situation where I think the random observer is going to look at that and go, oh, they should get out of this group. But it's actually a pretty tough group and it's not really that much easier than the Sounders group and I think there's more opportunity for them to sort of embarrass

themselves a little bit. The Sounders aren't going to embarrass themselves. If they could get killed by PSG and Atletico and people are still going to go like, whatever, those are the two of the best teams in the world. What are you going to do? Yeah. And the fact that everyone in the press box is going to be eating roast duck and tapas as you go better be games You cannot come in off the top rope after enjoying something like that

In that game for a club or for conca calf It's Antigua in the first round a chance to most likely play Cruz Azul after that Sounders will be one of the teams playing in both conca calf and Leaks Cup and Club World Cup So just for everyone who read the release that said MLS teams can only play in two cup competitions That did not apply to Seattle Sounders and Inter Miami, which I didn't realize until I was getting ready for this show Well actually said to North American Cup. Oh wow. He made a point carving out Yeah, they were they were kind of careful with it. I have to admit. NASL's lawyers over here in jail. Making sure that we uh. This

is my lawyer dog I'm going to jail. No that one's sorry David that's that's a little bit of a younger guy meme I'm not sure if you if you get. It missed all of us don't worry don't worry don't worry Gus. Let uh let me go with you know, the real soul of the young people in Major League Soccer Andrew Weeby He set his line for us on Jesus for era gold plus assists and MLS competitions only 21 and a half for the 2025 MLS season are you want to get us started? What do you go over under? I mean, I obviously want to say over I might I might say under just because I feel like it's going to be a pretty spread the wealth type attack. I don't know if there's going to be one guy who carries the stat sheet to that much of

a degree. I think Rusnak is a guy who I could see pushing over 20 goal contributions again, just because he's the centralized focal point of the offense. I don't know if like Ferrera with the rotation and how the wealth is gonna be spread I don't know if he gets over that That's a tough. That's a good year and not get over that though That's also he's been living in Jersey long enough. He can set a line. Yeah, I mean, you know, that's yeah man My new bookie just dropped I'm gonna go under as well. I don't think that it's gonna be a bad season for him and he's looked insane and preseason

I love the way he plays in the positioning with him and Jordan and Pedro It already seems like they have some some good chemistry together. So Maybe just barely under just barely under but I'm going safe Tom I'm gonna go over but the same concerns about like Like what if he's playing Champions League games and they rotate them out for regular season, you lose X amount of games. Like I just think that this team is going to put up more goals than last year. And with secondary assists in MLS counting, like I have to assume he's just fair is going to be involved in a bunch of these.

I don't think he'll take penalties, right? Like, but if he gets penalties and I feel even better about this, but I don't think he will. Jeremey? Well, I guess I'll go with Tom, just because that's a little bit more fun in this particular case. But I do think it's interesting that at 21 and a half, that's more than Morris had goals and assists last year, and last year was a pretty good season for Jordan Morris. So I think it's a fair, I just make the point that's a reasonably high bar, but I'm going to have some fun. Let's go over. I think that he's perfectly capable of having an

equal season to what he had in 2022 when he was absolutely on fire. And he's surrounded by a much better team now than he's ever had in Dallas. He's going to have so much more support. I think that there's going to be a lot less pressure on him from the outside. It's a really ideal situation, I think, for him in a lot of ways. So let's go over and maybe even clear it by a few goals. Last year he was injured a bunch on a bad team. He had 11. The year before he had 18.

And then his big year two team, he had 11. The year before he had 18. And then his big year, two years ago, he had 24. I'm gonna go over as well. And my take is that it's gonna be more assists than goals. I think he's one of those people where he's like, when you watch like, oh, USA basketball gets together and Steph Curry's like, I'm not gonna shoot. I'm just gonna see if I can set people up. Like, feels like Jesus is gonna see it pretty quickly

and be like, this is fun. Playing Jordan into space and like playing off of Pedro de la Vega and creating space for Rusnak. And we haven't talked yet, but we had Obed Vargas on this show and he was like, I wanna score more goals. I wanna be more dangerous and feels like the team set up for stuff like that. So I think Jesus is gonna enjoy being the setup guy,

but I think combined it's gonna go over. setup guy. But I think combined, it's going to go over. Doyle finished his Doyleism with like, there should be silverware. What should the expectation be this year for fans? Jeremiah, let's start with you. And like what if 2025 goes well, what did it look like? You know, it's the easy answers to say they were competitive in every tournament they played in. I think to really call it a successful season, they have to win a trophy.

They have to. I think the Sounders are at a point where it's impossible to call a season really successful. You can say it wasn't an awful season. You can say it was an okay season. But this is a team that defines itself, success, success for itself by trophies in the cabinet. And, you know, I think that means contending for the supporter shield. It means contending for League's Cup. It means contending for Champions League.

And it definitely means contending for MLS Cup. And between one of those four trophies, I think they have to feel like they, they should win-win. Noah, if you had to pick one, what would be your guess of which one it is this year? Everyone has been hating on me for this take, but I've been known to give some terrible takes, so maybe they're right.

I feel like CCC, again, is a team. I know that this sounds insane. Everyone's like, they have the hardest path. Blah, blah, blah. You're wrong. I'm right. That's what I'm going to say. Honestly, but you're wrong. I'm right. That's what I'm gonna say like honestly If they can get past one two rounds the momentum the schmetzer isms

They're just that the depth of this team the shithouse erie that they've already been through a lot of these players have already played in one Champions League, I don't know. I'm feeling it. I'm feeling it. So it starts with Antigua from Guatemala And then it would be the winner of Cruzezuel Real Hope and I don't know if it's pronounced that way. It's from Haiti. Real Hope? Hell yeah. Hell yeah.

I got Real Hope we're going to beat them. And then most likely it's the winner of Achivas Club America. So this is going to be the Obed Vargas FU tournament where he says, oh, 10 millions too much, blah, blah, blah. Give me 20. Give me 20. Cruisers or are going to put a bit in immediately after the game. 100%.

It would reverse any questions around. And I don't think there's a lot around 21, but it's like, you know, the teams that have made it to CCL finals or tried to win in MLS history before had played at a T grass, at a Club America at some point. Seattle didn't. If you turn around and you beat Cruz Azul and you beat Club America just to make it to a semi-final, I think there'd be zero questions left.

So I like that take. I'm on board with it as well. Can I just interject really quickly? You're gonna fight. I've heard this on the chair times before about how the Sounders did not have a very hard path to 20 I knew it when God started saying that I fucking knew it. They beat the reigning MLS Cup champion They and by the way didn't have to play these games on the road. They beat the MLS Cup champion I don't watch MLS who?

Exactly, they beat Leon who Leon won the title the next year these games on the road. They beat the MLS Cup champion. I don't watch MLS. Who won? Exactly. They beat Leon, who Leon won the title the next year. They won champions league the next year, and somehow beating Leon doesn't count. And so I don't really know what people wanted. They beat, OK, Pumas was not what they once were, but Pumas beat Cruz Azul to get to the final. This was not an easy path.

And I think, actually, someone put together sort of like an ELO ranking of the teams that they beat. And it was as tough as anyone's ever played. Also, they didn't lose in Mexico. I just want you all to take this context. Tom has moved 10 times in 10 years. That's the grind. When Tom moves, he moves upstairs both ways through glass. That's how you

have to win a Conker Cap competition to make it worth everything. Okay, if you are listening here on Soccer Wise, make sure to go and check out both these shows. Check out Sounder at Heart as well for all your written content around... You can find them both there by the way. Like they're all under one roof so it's okay. No no no, only Ari and Noah are actually under one roof. Yeah. If you're on my page the bills for this house, but we are together under one roof.

And if you go and listen enough, maybe we could split it out into two separate rooms. Here we go. One day going forward. If you're listening on these platforms, come find us at SoccerWise. We are live talking about MLS at least twice a week on YouTube. Comes out at a podcast. We cover NWSL as well for all your Seattle Rain coverage and we cover a million other things around soccer.

Tom really likes to talk to refs, so we'll do that every once in a while when we get the opportunity. All right. Thank you to all of you for joining us and let's do it again soon. Sounds good. Thanks, guys. Thank you. It is time to talk LA FC in our season previews. We were lucky enough to do this with Happy Foot, Sad Foot. LAFC pod, we had Vince and Travis on the show for this one.

A super fun conversation about this team, both from the serious and non-serious point of view, which I always enjoy and which is very much part of what we do here. At SoccerWise, it's a fascinating team, Tom. It is a team with high expectations. Again, it is a team capable of winning every competition that they play in and yet a team with a bunch of unknowns at the same time Coming out of last year through this offseason

Nobody loves a transfer window more than LAFC whether they're good bad or indifferent Nobody loves a transfer window more than LAFC. They have player valuations. They stick to it. They have targets They have deals that they want to make all the time and that was no different this offseason they moved around a bunch of pieces we're gonna get deeper into that in the preview so I won't spoil anything here but again LAFC are never short of interesting storylines or things to discuss. It's a different reality for LAFC I think some of the shine came off last year even though they made such deep runs maybe with the way some of the shine came off last year, even though they made such deep runs, maybe with the way some of the

finals went and also LA Galaxy one MLS Cup. So now for the first time since LAFC has existed, they are not top dog in the city. I think they're better off. I think all of us are better off for it, right to have that rivalry is going to create more energy. I'll traffic code is going to be I think the most anticipated L traffic code since the first one now as it comes down because you're looking at a Galaxy team that's going to come in with a new star on the crest

and you're looking at an LAFC team that thinks they can win it and should think that they can win it. They're going to play across a ton of competitions. You talk about how much they love a transfer window. They have generated outside of Atlanta more allocation money than anyone because they continue to flip players and they I've talked to some front offices who are like we have to get to a spot where we have some fluid money that we can move

and LAFC are sort of the ones that always get quoted when you sort of discuss that next stage for a lot of MLS teams of what they're trying to build. And so LAFC has put themselves into a position of power and they have to show it this year. I think it's gonna be a cohesive group. I think 3252 is gonna jump once again. And like, it felt like there was a lull at times last year. And the hope is, even if it's not beautiful soccer

in the way we discuss it, it's gonna be high speed. It's gonna be fun. It should be energetic and electric. I hope so. And I'm also hoping for and banking on Olivier Giroud revenge season. You guys wrote him off last season. You guys made a lot of jokes. I think Olivier Giroud is fully back for 2025. And that's all I'll say on that. Yeah. The French connection out in California is very strong. It might get even stronger as the year goes along. So let's get into our season preview now. Well we got to start at the top of the Western Conference we got to get into some of the big names in Major League Soccer we

are ready to preview LAFC here at Soccer Wise and on the Happy Foot Sad Foot LAFC podcast feed David Goss, Tom Bogert with Travis Helwig and Vince LaRosa here for anyone listening on our feed They are the best place and one of the funniest places to hear Content around LAFC and all your coverage of the game if you are listening there and you're new soccer wise we cover MLS and NWSL Multiple times a week live shows Podcasts four or five a week. So we got some soccer content if you're into that, whenever you need it. But Travis Vince, thanks for joining us.

Thanks so much for having us. I just want to say off the bat, it means a lot. And I heard some of the stuff that Tom did behind the scenes to kill extra time. And I just want to say I'm disgusted by it, but I understand I appreciate the business acckerman to like really go after the other big ones so just wanted to say I'm frankly repulsed by it but it's an honor to be with such a ruthless and cunning businessman as you Tom. Nice to meet you David. David's a real powerbinder of that he kneecaps people. I'm just the face of it.

If people didn't already put it together Travis is probably going to be the more comedic of our duo, but I am going to throw him all major tactics questions as well. I'm actually not really here. I'm just here to kind of check this out. I'm just like an ombudsman. I'm just, you know, looking over your guys' shoulders. A fact checker. We were told that you were actually going to be doing the tactics board over your shoulder

as Travis explained each phase of the game all 11 buildouts Potentially Steve Turandolo is capable of putting together. Yes, but I will only go by what Travis says first I'm not making any pieces until he tells me who who is Steve Turandolo The hard part about that answer is there are so many jokes from group chats that I could pull out to answer that and I don't know what's acceptable and what's not. So I will say Las Vegas lights is the only answer that I can give on that one. Oh, the kiddie pools. We've got our Doyalisms locked and loaded and ready to go where we sit at the foot of the great master and we hear his wisdom and then we Jump off from there. But before we get into it, let's do a transfer update Tom Name all of the players. LFC has sold and what's going on?

busy ins and outs there is nothing more that LFC like then a transfer window John Thornton Neil McGinnis cooking because They just get bored and they just want to do a bunch of deals. So let's start without Bajong Darbo went to Bayern Munich. I don't know if he made a first team appearance. We're going all the way to the Bajong Darbo. I'm just saying that was a Bayern Munich transfer. I feel like I got to say that.

Some of the key. He started the alphabetical order. The key departures include Jesus Murillo, Kai Kamara, Ile Sanchez, Tomas Angel, Omar Campos, Matty Bogus and and still Carlos Vela, who is not back. In terms of signings, we have Aaron Longstead, but Jeremy Abobacy, Odin Thiago Holm, Igor Jesus, Mark Delgado, Nkosi Tafare, Yaya Boa, and re-signing Marlon, which didn't seem like it was definitely going to happen, so that I think counts as this news part. So a pretty much brand new team, brand new midfield, I can say that for sure. And they're keeping that DP spot open for Antoine

Greisman and Ten million dollars in the pocket with Matty Bogus and another floor on campus. Thank you Chris Azul Vince Just give me an idea of as you have your alert set on every single thing that Tom posts This offseason what's been sort of the heart rate as you've seen these come through. I this off season, what's been sort of the heart rate as you've seen these come through? I, well, I would just want to say this, as someone that follows LAFC and a lot of LAFC fans, like we do this every year, guys,

and I can't keep going through this with you. I'm actually totally fine. My heart rate's been the same while everyone had their standard, oh, it looks like Travis and Vince might end up playing for LAFC, which is so funny. You knew this was gonna happen. I mean, maybe Tom can speak to this more, but like every year, LAFC fans are like, there's no rumors.

We must not. We must suck. We're going to suck. And then every year they turn the team over completely. I mean, I think that this year is interesting because it feels a lot like the offseason going into 2022, which of course they won MLS Cup, when John Thornton thought, you know, maybe we can still bring in some young guys,

but also I need some guys that actually understand the league and are pretty good in the league. And that seems to be what the MO was. So for me, I was like, oh, this is, not only is it exciting with some of the young guys and the way they're reworking the engine room of the team, as a lot of people like to say for the midfield, but the fact that they were like, yeah, it doesn't work with just guys that have no clue

what the geography of MLS is and what it's like to play here. Looking at this team, the biggest kind of year over year change I think is that midfield. And as a Liverpool fan, there was the joke several years ago when around Brexit was happening. Whenever they would play the most boring James Milner, Fabinho and Jordan Henderson, just like defensive minded type players in midfield, the fans would be like, oh, we're starting the Brexit midfield today rather than some exciting attacking players. So I think that's a little bit what LAFC have done this off season in that it's Mark Delgado, it's Igor Jesus and Timothy Tillman and then Outer Edward Atuasa, Elias Sanchez, Lewis O'Brien. It's a little bit more of a ballplayer but he

was physical and then obviously Matty Bogus would play further up the field. So Travis how do you feel about car crash soccer? You know I'm gonna ignore that question and just continue the conversation. No but wait, Tom's a Liverpool fan I don't know if you've heard it Connecting everything to Liverpool at any moment possible Here's what I'll say I am excited about this new midfield genuinely, I think we're more dynamic now We can run a lot more than we could There's fans that are upset about these players and there there's fans that are saying like we should have signed Bigger names as if they knew who Maddie Bogus and Kiki Olivera were a year ago

Like we always find these sort of people that we've never heard of and bring them into the league and then try to sell them For more money Kiki Olivera actually is somebody that I'm curious what you guys think is that someone who's sticking around this year I my gut says he's gone, right? I Was assuming that but doesn't the Mexican transfer window close or I were recording this on on a Monday evening I think so European transfer windows closed today which was really good scheduling by us gots for me to be doing 17 shows on deadline day because I'm just ask who who scheduled this with you. It was Tom I think it was Tom that I'm glad that I said us and I did this because I have an idea that's what I said cuz I take I take accountability for my actions. I'm a good team guy. We win as a team

We lose as a team. Um, that's why I bring you in because you're my partner Anyway back to Kiko Alvarez that I would have assumed he'd be gone by now And I don't know what else is open. Like I don't remember the Mexican transfer window off the top of head I don't think it's totally closed But that seemed to be the obvious landing spot if he was going to go and hasn't gone yet. Yeah. It seems like there's still room for him to be with this group, whether it's through the summer or not. We've all talked about David Martinez a ton on our show. I don't

know that you're getting 32 games at the level you need it from David Martinez right now. So if it's just, okay, half season and then Antoine Griezmann, then maybe that's enough. If not, and the room is there, I wouldn't be shocked to see Olivera stay. We have seen it for LAFC in the past, right? We all thought a player would move at this exact moment and then it took six months more, it took 12 months more. They go on loan, they come back and then they figure it out

and Eddie Atuasa will probably come back in a year or so and prove that for the third time. Let me ask you this question, because this is sort of a convo that we've had outside of the LAFC world, and I'm curious if there's a different thought. Travis, I'll start with you. LA is, you know, a city with a huge,

specifically, Liga MX presence. It's a club that's gonna play in Cockicaf Champions Cup. It's a club that's gonna play in Leagues Cup once again. Is It's a club that's going to play in Leakes Cup once again. Is selling to a Cruze Azul, a player like Maddie Bogusch, bother people more so than another club? Like, is there any feeling of that's competition? I would say people were not happy about the landing spot. But once we saw the number, I think it was hard to argue with it.

Right. I think there was an initial reaction of like One it feels lateral to us. I don't think LAFC is that much worse than some of the top tier League of mechs teams, but Maddie has never gotten a payout And so I would never blame the guy for wanting more money And then once you saw what we were able to flip him for like under a million dollars to nine million plus dollars I think it's probably our biggest flip in team history You can't really get upset with the front office for doing it Yes, I would say people were not happy about the landing spot

You imagine a guy like Maddie Boguz to go on and do something cool in Europe But for the price, I can't argue with it at least I think you might do something cool in Lee In concrete champions Cup by the way, but cruises rules You know, he's got a hurt Gomez in him of like I'm just gonna score a hat-trick in every concrete game Just to make sure everyone remembers. I'm the best player in the world Let's go into our Doyle ism real quick and then we can Then we could you know bounce off of the great words of the master LA FC in one way I really like their off season because I think

they achieved clarity like they are fully committed to Steve Turandolo's version of how the game should be played. It's very clearly going to be a 5 2 3 and counter attack in on the other hand I kind of don't like their off season because I think they're a better team when they play a 433 and try to have at least a little bit more of the ball in terms of personnel though like John Thornton is so good at this getting guys like Jeremy of Obesey, Mark Delgado and Kosi Tafari, Yahya Baal getting those guys from within the league. These are the types of moves that set up that 2022 team that won the double and then going outside the league to try to address some of the other holes and keeping that DP slot open for Antoine Griezmann. So this will still be one of the best teams in the league by mid-season,

maybe even the best team in the league. I'm just not sure they're going to be all that much fun to watch. even the best team in the league. I'm just not sure they're gonna be all that much fun to watch. Vince, you said you've heard yourself. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. It was good that we finally got Doyle to face the mic at the moment that he dropped that to close it out too as he floated around. Vince, you said you were sort of used to these off seasons. What do you make of what Doyle said? I don't agree with the premise right up front that they're gonna play five to three

To Doyle's point about them being boring fair, okay It has you have the you have it as a three four three five two three in on your board in the background That's true because the last game that I broke down which they lost I had to put that together because that's the way they played I think look, it's fair that they can be boring because Steve Trundle is the ultimate pragmatist and We saw them go into this and I know that dwells made big Big of this they go into that crew game at home They get blown out that was when they were playing in a moment in which they were playing a 433

They had a lot of the ball. They were doing something they get blown out and then from there Something that doesn't get mentioned is Timmy Tillman's out for a long period of time So the midfield starts to fall apart when you're when you're Steve Trundle and you're like, okay Let's still play 433. But wait Eric Duane. Yes is gonna be my starter in that spot. Maybe we can't do that So he says okay I gotta remove that piece and then they go on a run and so Steve Trundle goes I like keeping my job because winning games keeps jobs So why don't we just roll with this and I think he just got comfortable with it

The players got used to it, but I don't necessarily think that he's so Tied to a system especially when you look at Iger Jesus who I think only really plays in a single pivot in the way that he plays I think a lot of the principles will still be the same, counter-attacking football, but it's about control really more than anything for him. And so I think he's now got a midfield that's very rangy, that the pieces fit together a lot better. No, they're not going to be a lot of sexy passes, but they're going to track down the ball. They're going to get it back to the feet of the forwards and they're going to try to dominate games that way. I think they're going to try to tilt the field a little bit more although they won't be super intricate with the ball. Do you think today if they put out their best 11 that Nkosi Tafari,

Aaron Long and Marlon are all starters? Remember that Marlon is on a six-month contract with a team option and he's only here because he failed a medical. I think that was a brilliant genius move by John Thornton to be like when I saw when I want him to be resigned, I thought he's a good player. I don't know much more about the injury history other than what he you know what he failed the medical for um but when I thought about it I was like he's gonna want a big number after we saw a salary and then we see six months with a team option everyone was like oh what does that mean it means you can get out of it and at the time that the summer transfer windows opened but it looks like John went ahead and just said hey if I can get N'Kosi and get the guy that probably is already a good replacement now why wait um and so you know, I wouldn't be surprised if Marlon's not on the team, especially if he's not playing a lot.

I think N'Kosi's probably ahead of him on the depth chart, and if he isn't already, he will be. And then, yeah, you just say, hey, sorry, dude, but you know what, the window's open, so you can go anywhere you want. I think it works out for both sides really well. I talked to N'Kosi Tafari, his work of year, he said his dad was a chef in New York City. I think his mom worked in the arts. He wants to be an actor when he retires,

but he also might do modeling. He's gonna crush LA, and it's gonna be an easy fit for him. Tom, talk to us a little bit about Anton Griezmann. Like, is that the whole ball game? Is that the only name I Doubt it's the only name because again John Thornton Neil McGinnis this the scouting staff I know that they're looking at a lot, but I know that he's the plan a that's what they're still working towards They they hope that they're gonna be able to do it in the summer and we'll just kind of see how that one goes

But the attack right now with Denny Blango Olivier Giroud like however many minutes were in roughly 20 And we haven't mentioned either of those players, I feel remiss that we haven't. And I think that I was going to say that would be a little bit of indictment of how Giroud played last year, but then I was like, oh wait, we haven't talked about Belonga either, so I don't think that quite fits. It's just us hiring ability to organize this show. The people want to hear about Marlon. If you fail a physical, you get to start the show you go from top to top

Then we get to the most athletic athletes Failing a physical that must be hard on the ego. Like sorry your body sucks Yeah, I can't imagine I cannot imagine anything like that like if the doctor was pass fail that's brutal Taking a lot of hells. Travis, if it is or it isn't Griezmann, like what's the expectations for this team right now, this year, having that DP spot open, but coming off another successful year last year?

I mean, if Griezmann doesn't come, people are going to riot, right? I think it's been a year and a half of us hearing it. Like we've heard about, we heard about Griezmann before Gerud was a twinkle in our eye, right? Like that was the name last summer or last winter. So I feel like if,

if Antoine does not come in the summer, it will be really hard on an ego of a team. This is our first year going into a season where we ended the year worse than the Galaxy. So the fan base is already in a weird place where we've never had to be, since we've come into the league, we have not had to think about ourselves

as not as good as the other LA team. So if we fail to sign the star player that we all have our hopes on, I do think the fans are gonna riot a little bit. What's the expectation? Win MLS Cup. I feel like if you're in LA, we have high expectations. LA sports fans are insufferable. If we're not winning, we demand the head of everyone on the team because they're always good because people want to come here because it's a nice place to live, unlike Seattle. There's something to think about when you talk to the Seattle people if you would ever want to live in a town as miserable as that.

But yeah I think honestly if we don't get Antoine it will be considered a failure. And I'm curious where Carlos Vela fits in with that as well because I know how close they are. But purely for vanity reasons. Yes. So like I have to point that out It's like yeah, well, it's LA and it's it's LAFC fans and I love you guys and I know you love me, too But LAFC fans like I was confident it's so it's so interesting to hear them You know when someone like Giroud shows up and he doesn't do well for like a game or two and he's like No, like why do we have to be like the galaxy and get aging? Old players that are from Europe We should be getting players that nobody knows their names and then we get a player that nobody knows their names and they go

Who the fuck is this guy? Yeah, and so like I think to Travis's point the goal is MLS Cup regardless of where their Griezmann comes And I think LFC has a very good team and leaving that spot open means that they have the possibility to be an even better Team, but does it have to be Griezmann? I mean, yeah, again, like I said, from a vanity standpoint, it does. But from an actual team building standpoint, I'm not so sure. I think it also depends on if he goes to a different MLS team or stays put. If he goes to the crew, I don't think BMO will be there.

Yeah, which speaks to the vanity again, like We don't really care so much about him, which is like, he's either ours or nobody's. Yes. It feels a little like Galaxy five years ago, six years ago being like, oh, is Lataan, is Lataan gonna come? And LAFC are in the process of winning games and playing good soccer,

and the Galaxy got obsessed with this thing. Vince, what was the reaction in sort of the atmosphere around MLS Cup last year? The fact that we weren't there and the fact that it was happening in LA Travis Travis literally left the city of Los Angeles because there was a lot going on we I didn't need to be there I will say that's one thing about LA. There's always a lot going on So we just try to pretend like nothing else was going on. And quickly, what an incredible run by the Galaxy.

Just an incredible run by the Galaxy, beating the best teams in the league, they had to face LAFC, really awful, awful performance from LAFC on that one. Then they had to take out the crew, oh that was a tough one for the Galaxy, and then to beat Messi in the finals, oof, really incredible, incredible playoffoff run by the galaxy very deserved best team in the league for sure You know in like Minnesota United 2024 you don't put that up in the lore Oh the the dominant the dominant Red Bull New York in the finals Who could have who could face Vanzier the man with the name of a Pokemon? Let's let's close on this and this is going to say something smart and I did

that I'm sorry. No probably not. I love the Pokemon. By the way if you're thinking about subscribing to our show just know that there is a lot of Pokemon content so that might get us some more people than all of our soccer analysis combined. We need to get into that too. The other thing people should know if you don't know Happy Foot, Sad Foot, and you're listening via the Soccerwise channels, if you want good gear about MLS, you should go to their website. The Ilié Makes the Smart Choice t-shirt

might be my favorite thing that's happened all year, and it's like February 1st, so it's been a really long year already. There is also a t-shirt with a picture of a certain Olivier Giroud's thighs that say, I love Olivier. And the eye in the middle is the thigh, which takes us, that's transition for a host right there, to Andrew Weeby's line of the show.

It is Olivier Giroud goals. He puts it at 12 and a half for the 2025 MLS season. Only MLS. Yeah. Okay. Well, he actually didn't say that, but I assume so, cause all the other MLS. Yeah, okay Well, I don't over say that but I assume so cuz all the other ones were yeah I'm going over I think I know I'm being stubborn But I also do actually think I'm right and I'm not just holding on to refuse to take the L

I thought that he was the most ready-made addition into a team in the summer transfer window because was the most ready-made addition into a team in the summer transfer window because when the deal with the deal was obviously done before the Columbus Cruz all announced that was when the club were playing a 4-3-3 with like Matty Bogus has a false 9 and it was so obvious okay he goes there bogus is on the wing or bogus plays as an eight and you're playing possession based all of that and drew fits that perfectly and then they got thrashed by the crew and for the rest of the season played counterattacking Five two three, which doesn't fit him in any way

So I'm still refusing to take the L but I still think that he is too good There are two players around him are too good for him to not work out and I think Trundle Oh even after signing Jeremy Bozzi, I think Toronto is gonna give him every opportunity Who wants to go next? I'm very optimistic about Giroud. He was still one of the top scorers in Liga and Mac, wait, Liga. There he is. He was still one of the top scorers in Serie A when he left. The and like, you know, maybe he picked up a knock, which maybe maybe he didn't fit with

our team last year, but our midfield is better. There's no way a player that was this good last spring could score no goals for another year. It's just impossible. So I'm going to go over. I really do think we are we're going to build a team that knows how to pass to him. It would be insane to not do that. And if I'm wrong, well, I won't be held accountable. It's fine. Fins? I'm gonna go over also, but I will say, the line is very good,

because I was thinking 13 or 14 goals. So it's very close. Weeby moves to New Jersey, he can set a line. Yeah, 12 and a half is very solid. Yeah, for all the points that Travis and Tom made, and I watched him all that last season and I just kept thinking, and then also watch, I mean, Tristan Blackman especially,

teams just beat him up, and I think that he definitely had some kind of knock. I remember in that Columbus game, he went down and he was holding his ankle There's been a couple times he was his ankle and we would see slow-mo replays and be like there's no chance He's gonna go back in the game. This is a European guy. He doesn't care that much. He's like, no, I'm staying in I'm like, but maybe you shouldn't so I just feel like there was some something else holding him back But the bigger thing is play style

Absolutely. LAC has to cater to to this man at least in some fashion. Or else it's going to be pretty, I would say, way way below if they continue to play in a counter-attacking fashion. There's that famous interview I think it was in Russia at the end of the 2018 World Cup where Olivier Giroud said, and now I just have to win the Leagues Cup and my career is complete. He was trying to get himself over the line. I will throw this out there. I'm going to go over as well. He was 37 years old last year and my rough math, as quick as I could do it, he played roughly 3,800 minutes of professional soccer from the start of AC Milan's season through LAFC season. That is absurd.

And so on top of all the injuries or anything, this is his first off season in a year and a half. So just for him to like rest and get settled on top of getting used to the league, getting used to his teammates, all of that and potential French teammate coming in at some point this season. Big expectations once again for LAFC,

big expectations for Olivier Giroud. For anyone who's listening on Soccer Wise here, give them a little pitch for Happy Foot, Sad Foot. We like to say that we will not be the smartest LAFC podcast you could listen to, but we will definitely be the dumbest. So if you want to enjoy some LAFC content, we have people from the Galaxy universe that listen. We have Seattle fans that listen now. It's a very stupid, interesting place. And after every game, we do a live stream. So if you want to come to the YouTube, it's youtube.com slash at happy foot, sad foot. We love when people troll us. We love to make as many enemies as friends. And soccercerWise, thank you for existing.

You're all very smart and you teach us about the teams that we don't want to watch. All right. Well, if anyone's listening and too happy, foot sad, foot feed and wants to come join us, you can follow us on any of your social SoccerWise HQ. You can listen to the podcast, MLS and NWSL coverage pretty heavily throughout the week. So any Angel City fans or other NWSL fans or US and Canadian Women's National Team fans, you can listen there.

And we have live shows as well throughout the week on Tuesdays and Thursdays covering MLS whenever Tom's not on a different TV network. He likes to come on and talk with me as well. But thank you once again to YouTube for joining us. Thank you to everyone for listening. We'll talk to you all again very, very soon. Thank you.