SoccerWise - $700 Million Sale + Superteam Creations & Loaded Ice Cream Shop

Episode Date: January 20, 2026

An active weekend once again includes who else but Inter Miami. Tom & David chat about HOW good this MIA team can become if Bertarame comes on board. They of course talk about the new majority owner of SKC who says they will spend to win. And the "Ice Cream Shop" is LOADED with Facu Torres approaching Austin, Houston adding Bogusz, and of course Josh Sargent's update.

Rockalizes back, baby. David Goss and Tom Scoops in the biggest season of the year. Ice cream shop season. Back with you once again. Special episode on Thursday, Tom. We had our media marketing interviews because I was in Houston, Texas for the O'Reilly Auto Parts, National Regional Convention, Managers Convention, as I tend to do. Sitting in between Kicks Brooks and Jay Leno signing autographs.

and we couldn't figure out a time to record live. So we weren't able to put out a live show. But I've come back to you, Tom. I told Jay Leno, Brady Quinn, Jim Rome, all those people, LeVar Arrington, that my boy, Tom, is back, back on the East Coast and I got to go see him. So when you were saying that you were going to the Auto Parts mid-level manager convention, whatever. Don't disrespect my people.

Don't be offensive. I thought it was just a joke until you sent me a picture. I just have to, why? I think why should just cover everything. I mean, the main reason why is because I'm obviously the face of oil changes around America. I think when people think oil changes, they think about me. So therefore, they needed me to come. It turns out that I have voiced Andrew Fisano's in the live chat right now doing the O'OOOReilly Auto Parts song.

turns out I'm the voice of one of their radio ads and they wanted me to come as part of their yeah as part of their um at this convention in which they bring celebrities to do meet and greets and signings and so they needed to add another one to the list met some cool Portland timbers fans met some cool Seattle sounders fans um some st louis fans an olympiaco's fan who lives in st louis who isn't a st louis fan which i respect shout out to that uh and a couple people for for my great state of Florida as well. What was the lines like particularly between Jay Leno and Brady Quinn? Did you, did you and he converse with those other guys? Me and Jay didn't have a ton of time to talk. He probably had about 4 to 5,000 people in line for him. You should have been like, hey, who are you? And hi, I'm nice to meet you.

Like, you should have big dog to him. I kept telling people who came to see me. I kept being like a bunch came up. And then they were like, who are you? Why are you here? Then they asked for my autograph, which is hilarious. and then I'd say, just tell them I'm the famous guys in next to Jay Leno.

And they all love that. So that was a go-to-line-off. Me and Kicks Brooks are friends. Shout out to Kicks. He's probably listening right now. Back in Nashville, super friendly, super nice. So now I'm a Brooks and Dunn diehard fan

as I'm learning about country music all at the same time. And then towards the end, I was like, this is slightly unprofessional, but there was no one in line. And I was like, my in-law, are huge commanders fans because they live in

Maryland. LeVar Arrington's three booths over. So I go get in line and I ask him for an autograph and he was so nice but I will tell you this he definitely thinks I'm a regional manager of an O'Reilly Auto Park.

That's a guarantee. I don't know for anybody who's watched tires on Netflix that's all I'm thinking about it is that like you just being part of that in the mix there just a bunch of I could stay here for the entire episode. We could not talk MLS once and I'd be fine.

Hey, I got to talk MLS at this thing, which I didn't expect to happen. So I was really, really inspired by that. And everyone else wanted to know who's going to win the World Cup and what else is going to happen. But thank you to everyone who came up and said hi to me. Thank you everyone who took a picture. If you were there and you took a picture with me, feel free to send it to me on Blue Sky. And I will. If they can find your name.

Yeah, I will be hyped. harsh very harsh I did learn my style a little bit more because I listen to Jay Leno where it's like you ask people where they're from you ask them a question then you ask them who do I sign it to because people want you to sign things

for other people which you don't realize before it happens the issue was and now I know everyone else made sure that they had thin tip sharpies there I was rocking a full fat marker I already have by the end I already have a dead

person's signature and like my handwriting is already insane and to add to that uh trying to sign these things like specific inside the little cards that they gave me thank god it wasn't my headshot uh was you should have provided your own i they asked for a headshot from me which i thought was just for a credential that's what normally people do and then when they said in an email like yeah and so your headshots and you'll take photos and i was like oh no is that what i wouldn't have sent that one if that Are they printing out 500 of these? A mugshot? Give away.

Well, it was like a dumb face one because I like my dumb face ones. And then it turned out they didn't print it. Thank God. That would have been even worse. But thank you to Westwood One and O'Reilly Auto Parts for having me. It was a great time.

Always a blast. I did get to see the outside of the Houston Dynamo Houston Dash Stadium. The house that Kaylin car built. Dominic Caneer's old stomping grounds. And I felt the energy. your torture chamber. I felt the energy of Mateus Bogush.

I will say this, actually, the airport in Houston, stacked World Cup stuff. Everything is a World Cup ad. Coca-Cola, Mickelope, whatever. Everything's a World Cup ad. I think their feeling is they're going to be a hub for flying for World Cups because there was a lot of signs like, are you going to Toronto and Chiva and Guadalajara? That's funny. And whatever, like, this is your hub for the World Cup, which I thought was an okay

attempt to try and establish that. I don't know if it's true. and we'll get to Mateo Spoguch in a little bit because it sounds like he's heading to Texas. We'll talk about Fekundo Torres. Didn't think that was a name that was going to be coming back up into my life in a little bit as well. We'll talk Josh Sargent.

We have a lot to talk about. John Harbaugh? The New York Football Giants? Not Sean McDermott? How are you going to let Sean McDermott walk out of that building now? Well, he never got in the building. Get him in the building. Listen, John Harbaugh in his initial statement,

and called them the New York football giants. I was already 100% in, but now I'm like a thousand percent in. Are you kidding me? We haven't talked about the one time I got stuck into the like WFAN, Mike Francesa wormhole when the neighbors wanted to wear a number that had been retired. And it was like the Flarity family from 1943. You know John Harborough never would allow that.

Never. That's not happening in his house at all. Okay, and we're going to talk about it into Miami, by the way. I don't know if you've heard, but they're signing players because they're trying to add to their team. I don't know if you've noticed at all. No. They're also trying to trade for players inside of Major League Soccer. Cash first.

Don't know if you've heard that at all. So we'll talk about that too. But first, I want to have a serious conversation. R.S. acquired, high performance coach, Dave Tenney for $100,000 in general allocation money from Atlanta United over the course. over the course of this weekend. Dave Tenney, a person that I've not interacted with personally, but I know a lot of people really respect around MLS. There's not a knock on Dave Tenney at all.

But if assistant coaches are going for 100K, the question has to be asked. How much are we worth in general allocation money? Not Tam. I'm not talking about cash for. What do you think we fetch in Gam? What is the lowest denomination of Gam figures? I don't know.

I don't think I've ever seen anything, below 50, have you? And you're leaving it out with it, with there's a K on the end of that 50. Yeah, there has to be a $100 game bill, just like 100,000. You think Todd Durbin's walking around with small bills in the back pocket for gam?

Didn't realize. We can be the face of the $100 bill. We could be the face. Someone print a 25 gam bill and put my face on it. I'll send you my headshot. I've already got it available and I'm already ready to go.

You can put one of those for me. You obviously would be worth a lot more. You've got a lot of insider knowledge. You're all of a sudden ready to just plug and play. Tommy Scoops in the building for one of these teams. So if anyone has any ideas of how much we would be worth, Frank Dolan says bag of balls and some big league chew, depending on the flavor because green apple actually falls apart really,

really fast with big league chew. So you got to get the proper flavors. on that one. I'd be open to that. I think that's like an NASL trade. That's like old school San Antonio Scorpions trading hotel rooms. On Haldi Maria, he left whatever youth academy was at before he went to Rosario Central. I think it was just like a small like town team.

The transaction literally included a new bag of balls, like officially written had to have been passed along from Rosario Central to whatever his first youth club was. So it's a real thing. There's precedent. I mean, it's like $125 a ball if you're getting the good ones. Well, well, would that have been 20, 25 years ago? Okay. They were still...

Just for inflation. This is actually an economics podcast now, so that's what we're talking about. By God, is that Bobby Warshaws music? All right. By the way, we have our soccer wiser, our second one on the calendar and you will be a part of it. And it's going to be a lot of fun. I'm going to be as dumb as possible. Oh, gosh.

You're going to get kicked off. Arias Silva says we'd be worth more than Josh Wolf in a trade, which we don't have that down in the notes. Joshua's been hired as assistant coach for Minnesota United. That feels like a bad thing to do. That feels to me from the outside as unstableizing the ground already around a head coach, but I'm not the expert.

I don't know this for a fact, and I probably shouldn't know we were going to this direction. For Houston Dynamo, one year of Josh Wolf as an assistant coach, Gavin Wolfe. one of his sons, his youngest, I believe his youngest son, is in the academy. Stud. A one year, a one year deal of Josh, whatever they paid him, infinitely worth it.

The transfer fee for Gavin Wolf alone, uh, worth it. You could say the same for Atlanta, right? Didn't he just live in Atlanta? I don't even think he worked for Atlanta United. And they got Tyler Wolf. They're from there. Yes, but he was living in Columbus. They were in the Columbus Academy.

Then I think the time he was off waiting for all. to play. They were in Atlanta. Whatever it was. Yeah, I agreed with you. That's a huge, huge move by Houston Dynamo. Really smart move. I agreed with you while you spent five minutes disagree. Yeah, really smart move from them. Okay, let's dig into this story off the top, and then we'll get into the player moves, which is Sporting Kansas City.

The majority of the team has been sold to Peter Malick. By the way, don't know anything about this. So everything I say wrong, I agree and believe. So feel free to just send us those messages or put them in the comments. or anything else you want to do. He has acquired 80% in total of the team at a valuation of $700 million. He's a Kansas City native.

He was already a minority owner at 10% of the team. He's also a minority owner of the Royals. If they've got any left field options, feel free to send those our way to the New York Vets. But he takes over majority ownership from the ILGs who have been the majority owner since 2007. Now, the ILEGs will remain managing partners for now and the representative on the board of governors, which my understanding is normally the rule is you have to be at least 35% ownership to be representative on the board of governors. There have been exceptions in the past for LAAFC.

I think there was no one above that threshold for a time. So there was a rotation. This obviously also kind of mimics what we saw with the Dallas Mavericks where Mark Cuban sold the team, remained the governor. Then I think he got fired so he went to want a college football championship instead. but like that weird move. But obviously the Illigs have done a lot for this team. They took over the Kansas City Wizards who played at the time Arrowhead Stadium. Don't know what it's going to be called.

Don't know what it's going to end up as in front of sparse crowds. And they turned it into one of the first soccer-specific stadiums of the next error of Major League Soccer. They turned it into sporting Kansas City. They turned it into U.S. Open Cup victories, MLS Cup victories, MLS All-Star Games as a and one of the examples of the clubs in the league, maybe not over the last two, three years, but over the last 15 years, one of the best ownership groups in Major League Soccer.

So I think there's a lot of thanks that have to be given on that side, but it has felt over the last three years, like they've bumped up against their limits in modern Major League Soccer in terms of spending, resources, and vision. And it sounds like their new ownership group will have a different idea. and this is the quote from Sam McDowell's piece in the Casey Star who does an awesome job covering this team. He said to him, quote, from Peter Malook,

I would really say 99.5% of the metric I'm going to care about is winning and 0.5 will be everything else. The best way to accomplish that, what you're going to see next season is a big, big financial commitment, he said to do whatever it takes to build upon what we're building upon this season. So a pretty big moment in the history of sporting Kansas City here. A few things that come to mind. One, really good for MLS that the valuation that this club was the stake was sold for.

Yeah. Is more than the Forbes valuation, which I think there's been a lot of pushback when those numbers come out. Oh, it's just fake money. It's a fake number. Like what, it doesn't really matter unless something's actually sold for that. So for the league itself, for this to be the valuation is very strong. More importantly, you touched on it about the E-LIG's ownership. how they transform this team from 07

and again Peter Vermeis being integral to everything but the ownership that partnership extremely strong yes they've struggled the last few years I would say there were three defining teams four defining teams sorry of the 2010s the LA Galaxy particularly at the beginning Toronto FC at the end Seattle Sounders in there and sporting Kansas City

those were the four defining teams and please correct me if there's anything else that's coming to the top of your mind mind, that, this is an awesome ownership group. That was an awesome era. Everything that they've built, they modernized the club, they helped push everything forward. That stadium was ahead of its time and it still stands up through the test of time. You did say, maybe they've hit the ceiling on what their ownership is or what their

capabilities are as MLS goes into whatever era we think we're in now. They recognize that. They sold to someone who says that they're putting in a lot of money and I want to go to their next. But they also get to stay on as part as minority owners. And I think that's important for everybody because it's difficult. Like it's fun to own a team. It's fun to like people call you back.

You are, you get these seats, you're at the games, all this stuff. And sometimes I think that's the hesitancy for people selling and thinking obviously like, I can turn it around, I can turn around. They still get to be part of it, but they don't have to write the big checks. And they don't get to be, you know, if this team doesn't spend more, well, nobody's going to blame them anymore, right? So I think it's positive for all involved. Now third, the quote coming out and I'm going to take this at face value,

because just generally not do things. Otherwise right now. Yeah, and I just think it's not a fun way to live to just be super cynical and like, again, within reason. But this is the easy part. The first press conference, the first interview. Our investment's going to go way, way up. Well, this team was one of the lower spending teams in league.

So way, way up in relative to what Kansas City was the last five, six years, or way way up when we're talking about the big boys, Atlanta, Toronto, Miami. L-AFC, L.A. Galaxy, Portland, like, you know, insert whatever the big, big spending teams are. That remains to be seen. And it's very easy to do this press conference now. And I hope that he's completely going to follow through. And he's not just taking the victory lap of this first press conference.

I think back to Real Salt Lake did this. Where our spending's going to go way up. Well, when you're 30th and spend, going to 28th, it makes it way up, right? Houston, we'll talk about them more, but I think before this offseason, they're like, Ezeko Ponce was a major investment. Hector Herrera, his contract the first time he used here was a major investment.

They didn't cash in on those promises of big, big spend until like this winter, right? So I think that's the only caution I'd throw at this while saying like, let's take him at his word and I'm excited for the future of Sporting Kansas City. Yeah, and this is a club where the bones are there. They have one of the best training grounds in the country. They have one of the best states.

in the country. So for an ownership group coming in, spending really is on field and front office. Like you don't have to build the physical resources that Chicago infrastructure. Chicago has to build the stadium. They have to build the training ground. Now, Joe Montuayto clearly doesn't care. But when he says we're going to increase spending, you don't know what that means across all of that because it is correct to say you're increasing spending if you're adding in those ways. Sporting Kansas City doesn't need that. And clearly the quote is, the focus on the field. And I think they've been a fairly model club for a long time in terms of their ability

to punch above their weight and contend. But that sort of hit its line. And now if they can move into the next era of Major League Soccer, there's still a lot to love with this, which is there's a great fan base. It is a home field advantage if you are competitive. And you're going to win a lot of games. But you have to get more than on low. own secondary DP and free agent European centerback in the building to be able to do that.

And the hope is this is a part of that and this is the case. And as you said in the valuation, so I think R.S.L was sold on a $600 million valuation last year. And that was to the family that had owned the Utah Jazz. So a local family, clearly the Blitzer group didn't want to be as involved with a team that was so far away from them as expected. but those are similar market sizes. Kansas City is a little bit bigger. So to have that valuation pushed at 700 million and be out there,

as you mentioned, is good for the league. It shows the momentum that's still around it. So for all of the negatives that I think a lot of us find, and there are a lot of them with the way the league has run itself, with the way the league has set itself up, with the way the league is maybe not taking advantage of the moment coming with the World Cup, it does show that some people somewhere who have a lot of money still see the growth potential there and still see the opportunity,

and that's what we see here with Sporting Kansas City. Okay, for more coverage, go read that Casey Star article worth of time as well. A number of people covering in the Casey area as well that are worth going to check out. But we're going to move on to the field a little bit more, although Jorge Moss is the one breaking half these stories himself on Miami after you do so, talking just in interviews about how Tayao, I didn't say that one is going to be coming back to the team as you talked about. He has been made official.

And then over the course of the last few days, the reports have come in through yourself that they have their big DP target at center forward to help fill in for the space that Louis Suarez maybe would have been filling. Not Louis Suarez. He wasn't a DP. Just on the field. into into Miami are nearing a deal to sign jermon bertrami from cf motorei for a fee of around $15 million which is his release clause at last time i checked there was optimism slash expectation this would get done but there was just a couple little final contractual details between bertrami and both clubs and more so bertrami and monterey that nobody's expecting to hold this up this is a

player who has been on the radars of ms clubs in the past you might remember his name even if you don't watch Monterey and the Champions of the United League of Meckes, Portland Timbers in March of 2024 triggered this $15 million release clause. He's an Argentine-born. He got to Mexico, I believe, in 2019. And in 2024, he was very close to getting citizenship, and it was, if you stay here, you'll get citizenship, and you'll be in the Mexican national team. So that Portland deal didn't happen. It came close, but that was one of the key factors. A few months later, FC Cincinnati in August triggered that release clause. He had not yet made his debut for the Mexican a national team before I was told, despite personal terms being agreed, a flight being set,

and he was supposed to book a board a plane the next day, and he and his family decided we want to say we're going to decline this. I'm sure Monterey gave him financial incentive to do so, but now, third time's a charm. It looks like Hermann Bertrami is very close to coming to Miami. He'll be the club's third DP alongside Lino Messi and Rodrigo de Paul. It is an outstanding offseason for Miami that will get into the larger points later. I'm surprised that they're signing a natural center forward, given how great that they were with Messi is the false nine.

But Bertrami can play wide. And that gives other options for Silvetti and Iande, and they're going to play a ton of games. They're going to need a lot of different looks. So while I'm a little bit surprised that it's a natural center forward, and I assume that this means if and when this deal gets done, their best 11 is Messi at a 10 with Sovetti and Iynde wide and Bertrami up top. But it could be Messi as the right winger,

Iende on the left, and Bertrami through the center. They have different preferences. mutations and this team is going to be really, really good. I wasn't shocked when this came out. One, because I think you want to have the versatility of being able to move Messi around and do what you want with him. Two, because I think bringing I Jala into the team, you have more ground coverage to be able to provide the platform for Messi.

And three, this was a position that doesn't exist on the roster, really. Like, if you were to say who, if you want to use a true natural center forward, who's going to play louis swarez is one of them clearly messy and suarez on the field at the same time it's not super successful for this team and then it is though i think that's i'm sorry to like i i understand your larger point but like they were more successful with messy as the false line between the wingers but they were plenty good when it's messy and swaros but i'm sorry continue well they're easier to play against though like all all their faults but it doesn't make them unsuccessful fair but the biggest point is they have taken all of their weak spots and

check them off. Right? They've gone up the line and said goalkeeper, check. Defensive cover for Rodrigo DePaul. Check. Center back depth, center back quality. Check. And I think the only thing left is a natural center forward to play in front of Messi,

if that's what we choose to do or instead of. Not instead of in that when Messi's gone. And I don't think they had that on the roster fully as much as we talked about Luis Suarez can fill there at times and whatnot. The other thing. thing is, this is a team that has focused on trophies and tried to go win them. And I think the next one is Concaf. And Bertrami has a ton of experience winning that trophy, success in the region. He also has, of course, played in South America if whatever comes up for next Club World

Cup or whatever fake trophy they invent and whatever Copa Libertadores invite, they try and fashion, whatever it is. So I think if you're saying, okay, what's the next step? Bertrami fits into that. And fits into the model they've created, which is probably higher floor signings and maybe lower ceilings in terms of Aizjala instead of a Sergio Bousquet. Even Regulon, I think, instead of Alba is more solid, but that's different because that's messy's friends and all of that. So that's where I think it makes sense in all of those ways. I think you're talking as well about a high-level soccer player, like who can, as you

said, change positions because he can link up, he can connect. Iende will go over the top. Slvetti will come inside. like all of these guys are going to move and flow, but the numbers are crazy. I mean, 19 goals last season for Monterey or over the course of the last season and now this start. 22 goals, the one before.

16, the one before, 11 the one before. 17 at Athletico San Luis. That's the one that really like launched it into the bigger sphere. And doing it at Monterey, a big club around other big clubs with high pressure. This feel, I mean, it's what we said when he was going to sign with Cincinnati. this feels like as solid a signing as you can make in major league soccer yeah when Portland and cincet I like I thought those were great great like while I'm saying I was a little

bit surprised that it was a center like I guess more surprised than you um this is any team signing would be an awesome signing and I want to add that it's not just that he's been at monster for so long and you know you that's it's really hard to be successful there because that's a club where they try to replace you literally every single transfer window Brandon Vasquez came and went. Other players have come and went. This team has Anthony Marciale. This team has Sergio Canales.

This team had Sergio Ramos. Like, Hayes was Corona. This is a team that even if you're doing well, they're going to try to replace you. That's not easy. I think this is an excellent player. He does more against the ball, obviously than Swaraz Messi or anybody at that age.

So he's going to fit in well there. He's a full Mexican international. He has six caps. He's played in five of their last six games. The overwhelming expectations that he's going to be part of Mexico's squad at the World Cup. This is just a sensible, awesome signing.

This isn't the name brand of Namar. This isn't the name brand of insert any one of the hundreds of players that Miami get linked with every single year. But this is, like, there is no, there is no, like zero risk signing, right? Maybe that was about it. This is as low as a risk you can get given the team he's entering, what he's done in League Mekies, and like you said, it was a very good point. They want to win the Concaf Champions Cup.

They've made that clear, particularly since winning M. Less Cup. Gosh, they've already signed Dane St. Clair, reigning Mless goalkeeper the year. Mikael, one of, we've had in Best 11 when he was in Houston when we came here. David Ajala, a player that we think is good. There are, the ramifications of this potential deal is that they go 3DPs through U-22. They currently have four U-22s. That's not going to be an issue. either Thomas Avelace or Tulasco-Sco-Scovio leave.

I'm assuming that they'd rather be Auvres, but Segovia is going to have more value within and outside of the league. They have until the Friday before the season opens to become roster compliant. That's not, this isn't going to be an issue because, again, it's either, like, ovules hasn't been good. There's good, there will be a take of him within MLS or abroad, or even if it's a loan. So you don't even need, like, people talk about buyouts. None of these players are getting bought out.

They still have enough value. Yeah. So there's that. the bigger point, I feel very comfortable saying it right now. This team is better than 2025, and I don't think that it's that close. I agree with you fully. Like they found waste of paper over cracks, and now they've put stalwarts in those spots, and they've all, they all fit, they all fit the exact thing that they built last year,

that they were barely able to keep afloat, and now they filled in all those roles with players who have shown experience of doing them on the ovules and Segovia side of things. The assumption would be the Avales would be like the Hulian Karanzah move of someone's like, we'll take him for kind of nothing. We'll give you a little bit of gam because you need it. And we'll take him on because it's a shot in the dark for us. And why wouldn't we? On the flip side, if I'm in MLS and I need an attacker,

I'm going to have conversations about Segovia because I think that guy's a full-time starter for most teams. Yeah. I don't think he's your starting 10. I mean, R.S. and some teams like that, you'd kill to have him just for the talent. But I think if you look at what Santi Moreno has done in this league, I think if you look from a different type of player, but a similar impact of like what Oloski is supposed to be, like, I think he could be your third or fourth attacker on a good team. Easily. And have a really good year, whether it says one of two tens, coming off the wing, whatever it is.

So I would assume, as you said, they'll figure that out. They don't have to cut them. but I would hope there's a little bit of a bidding war for Segovia in the league because some good teams I think could have him add and become really, really good good. But it's been, as you said, a really good offseason so far. To add on to this, they've signed a homegrown and Daniel Pinter that they're really high on. Very talented kid. And they believe that he's going to get a chance to get to, he'll have the chance of preseason to win minutes. Even if it's like way down the rotation, but like they're going to play a ton of games.

They're going to need as many guys. And they've played Ian Frank. They've played Noah Allen. They played David Ruiz. And of course, they played Ben Ha. And then they were able to flip Benha for some money and make the team a little bit stronger that way. And then the connections with Tristan Blackman reports all across the place. We talked about it already on the last show.

Miss report coming out that he had already been agreed and that he was going to be brought in. And then that connected over to Vancouver in which he had to come into Vancouver and start preseason, which maybe was a little bit delayed. Yeah, Tristan Blackman, it, I want to be, and so Miami made a bid of $3 million cash for Tristan Blackman. Vancouver say, we haven't negotiated. We are not going to negotiate. We want, like, but they were also very clear to be like, this isn't like, like, hey, Miami made an offer. And like, they've been super respectful. They made a fair offer.

The direct quote from Axel Schuster, Clipsiso, was, he was asked. you know, hey, do you expect Tristan Blackman to be here, start playing for the team opening day? He said, yes, absolutely. If we had a different idea, we would not, we would have negotiated with Miami. They sent us an offer. We never negotiated. With all respect, this isn't something where it's us versus Miami. They put together a fair offer.

They behaved professionally and did not pressure us. He was trying to speak, because I think a lot of people have either played Miami for Tristan Blackman not showing up on day one of preseason. That's more about the contract talks with Vancouver. And he shows up on day 10. so the holdout ended after a day but contrary to any of the vague things

that have come out he was supposed to be there on day one of preseason and he was fined by the way counts for not being there like it's a very very short holdout but it was a one day holdout he is with the team the team are in Europe right now Spain for preseason preparations

talks are still ongoing about a new contract the latest I heard is nothing nothing's quite there yet we'll see how that one evolves but Vancouver have been very, very clear on the record of like he's not going anywhere. Yeah. So he's got two years. He's got two years left on his contract. He's got another option next year.

So they're not as up against the wall as they are with Sebastian Burrhalter as they were with Jay Nelson and Ali Admond and all of that. So there's a little bit of space there. And obviously this is a desire from Inter Miami more so than an interest from Vancouver. Right. It does show though, one, the focus from Inter Miami to continue to improve. the focus on players who have experience in the MLS realm as well as the region and that rather than the Namars of the world and whatnot as that those being the players that they're trying

to bring in the other is and we have said this now for three straight weeks so I'll say it again uh inter Miami are pushing all the levers they can to be a quote unquote MLS super team there is not a limit on cash first so they went out and spent one is probably too much money for David Ajaala on an expiring contract. They don't care. So that's what they did. Yes. The cash.

That's a great point. Is they can go out and get Tristan Blackman. And the cash for is different than going out and trying to sign a player who's external to the league. So my guess is if this doesn't happen, someone else in Major League Soccer is getting a $3 million offer for a centerback at some point. I don't know. is all to say they still have Noah Allen and what, Lujan and Maxi Falcone.

Like they don't need a second centerback. Mikael, I think to me, was the big ad. But they're clearly focused on improving every single position, which is much depth as they can. So really quickly, that point on Ajal, I don't remember if we made it on the show previously. If there was another $2 million offer from somebody else within the league, like Portland would have accepted that too. But a lot of teams that were interested. a lot of teams that were interested were like, and this,

this is more normal is, hey, like, this is contingent on us agreeing a new contract with them because we're not spending $2 million on a player who's going to leave in a year. Miami didn't make any such requirement. They didn't say,

hey, we'll only do this deal if we can get a contract. They're like, screw it, like, let's try. And I think it got to your point. Like,

that's the discretionary money. And for people, again, this is a team that has been caught cheating in the past with Blazman Tweety, different front offices, all of that, right?

Different areas. Yes. Bert Tarame, David Ajala, these moves very, very easily explained. The ones to be like, because I don't want to dismiss any of the concerns, right? Like, I get why. The questions are there. And Iende is the one to be a little skeptical of, just because we don't know what the fee was, and for him to not be a DP. So he was on a $1 million salary last year on loan. We don't know what, we'll find out what the new deal is. And the transfer fee has to be amortized over the contract length. And that leaves like if it's a five-year contract, then like a $5 million fee.

And that's possible. But that's the one in terms of like being frustrated or questioning. Like again, Bertrami Ajala are very, very easily. And Mikhail on a loan, those things are very easily explained. And the way they have tried to weaponize you, 22 initiatives and cash first is those are the avenues that are open for discretionary spending and DPs, obviously, for MLS teams. Like those are the ways you do it. Otherwise, it's a salary cap league and everything else is stuck and you can only generate

the cash that you make. Now, obviously, Diego Gomez was a huge hit out the gate, but like, they went and got redondo in a way that like, not every MLS team would have done. And they didn't, knowing that they would have the value. Avules as well. And then obviously there's the advantage of Mateo Salvetti wants to play with Messi. like that may be an option that's open to you although i will say some of the signings we're going to talk about some of the the rumors and options and whatnot there is some profile of players

especially from south america that feels a little bit new um i'm thinking specifically of this orlando city uh move for igor and you know the captain of brazil's u20s coming out of flamengo like that move to major league soccer is maybe something we haven't exactly seen in the past let's dig into the ice cream shop though let's start with just sergeant because the potential is he will be one of the highest transfers in MLS history, and now he plays for a reserve team. So Josh Sargent is pushing for this move to Toronto FC, as we've been reporting. He is currently training with the U-21s because he wasn't going to play with the first team,

and obviously the club want to come out and show that, you know, they're in control and disciplining, whatever. The manager keeps saying things like, you know, he's not for sale, that's it. And then in the same breath says, like, you know, and it has to make financial sense for us. So which is it? He's not for sale or you need a better bid? Because sources I speak to when it comes down to it, just assume this is posturing for more money from Toronto

and also more time slash deniability when they're going to another team and looking for a replacement. There's a relegation release clause in John Starchant's contract that I believe he would be able to leave for free if they get relegated, if not a significant discount from the $18 million bid on the table. So Toronto and people around Josh Sargent would contend You guys aren't in control of this because of that

That's a huge that's a massive risk The North side is North are saying They are currently in the relegated They are in one of the three relegation spots I believe they're one point behind safety And the other team has a game in hand on them Regardless their contention is we're better now Under our new manager we're not gonna get we're not gonna get relegated

Like we'll take that risk kind of thing I think what this just ends with And again maybe this is me putting too much into like logic and these are usually how these things play out. The transfer sagas is the move eventually happens. The bid probably goes up. Again, none of this is definite. If I had to guess, I assume that's where this ends because teams rarely keep the really

unhappy player. And particularly for a guy like Josh Sargent who he didn't kick up a fuss when the Cincinnati bid came in and they asked for an unreasonable amount of money. He didn't kick up a fuss when they got relegated. He's been a really good service. and soldier to this club. He's never, like, this is the only time that something has been, like if you're Norwich fan to feel negative about Josh Sargent.

So the hope was that Norch were going to be more collaborative. And that's been a disappointment, obviously. Everybody has to do what's best for themselves, the player, the club, all that. There's a solution that makes sense for everybody here. And I'd hope that all the parties find it. And it really just hinges on Norch. One of the things I was thinking about reading one of the 14 articles you wrote at the athletic about Josh Sargent and where he could end up and how this is going,

alongside Paul Tenorio, the great writer of the American Soccer sphere, and go by the messy effect. You can buy it on pre-sale. Shout out to Paul is the fact that MLS's window is so late. I wonder if Norwich just tests their luck for a little. And it's like, okay, it's March and you guys still suck. you want to lose him for nothing, you know, because with the way the MLS window is set up, because this is the big window and the season will start on February 20th,

but there's still more time to add people. Like, if that's the scenario that occurs, which is every week that Norwich is still in a relegation spot is the closer they get to losing him for nothing. And at some point, is that where the financial decision gets pushed on them rather than Toronto jumping up a little bit? Toronto might turn around though and say, well, we want him. for the start of the season. We want him for preseason. We want him here. So we're willing to go, three, five, six million dollars more, whatever it is. It's just a lot of money. It is a lot of

money to go out and spend. It's not my money, so I don't care. And it's discretionary spending. So it doesn't affect anything from a salary cap point of view. It's just as you talk about the offer is denied for Cincinnati. As you talk about the offer that was accepted from Germany, like, I think Norwich is expecting to get that number again. Yeah, but things change the same way that they could raise their price because he won championship team of the season or he got in championship team of the season. Like, these things are all fluid, man. Like the price yesterday isn't always the price today.

And there are, like, these factors are real. And every day this goes on, he gets closer to the end of his contract. And that makes the value go down too. So it's, I don't know, it's been disappointing to see. I got to get, I'm certain that. nobody wanted it to play out this way and here we are and hopefully logic wins out hopefully

like and again when the manager is coming out and saying you know hey he's not to say all this they are actively talking to Toronto about new deal and what am I like the conversations are active like these this has been going on since early December

from what I've been told and there's the thought that I mean now now is different because he's not playing with the first team but there was a thought in December that I think Noritz are just trying to string this long to get as many games out of, like, have him here for as long as they can before selling. And well, here we are. Now he's not playing and you're still paying him. He's one of the highest paid players in the team.

And I don't know, like I feel like they can't be that far off on the valuations. But again, we'll see. There have been sillier stories in the past that maybe logic doesn't win out or maybe that compromise doesn't happen. But I'm going to choose to be optimistic. And I will say, Toronto haven't moved on to other targets. is about all I can say there. So Toronto are still locked in on Josh Sargent and are still optimistic, I suppose, that it gets done.

And again, I think that that would just make sense for all parties, Norwich included, because this is going to be a significant sale. And again, if they wait until this, if this ends with, let's say, trying to move on to another target and Josh Sargent plays with the U-21 for the next three months, four months,

guess what? You're not getting $18 million in the summer. The bids are going down. They're not going up. The other thing is the flip side of what I said is they can't reuse the money if they wait until the MLS window and try and keep him and whatever. Right. They could reuse the money if they do it quickly and try and improve themselves for this year. Either way, it sounds like Felipe Clement, the manager and sort of his comments.

He sounds right in line to coach the New York Knicks. If he wants to throw players under the bus and make them feel uncomfortable and unhappy to be there, we've got a spot on 34th Street for you. No, we don't. Come and join us. let's talk about some of the moves that feel like they are going to happen. Let's start with the one that we haven't mentioned before, which is Faku Torres and Austin. The number you put out there, $9.5 million, potentially, a guy who left Orlando for Palmeras a year ago for $14 million. Up to $14 million.

And obviously would be the replacement for Usman Bukari's DP spot in this roster. And one that has, you know, I think, sparked a few debates and conversations around the sphere, but I think Dom won and a sign from this club that they're going to continue to at least invest in trying to improve this team. Yeah, Austin FCR signing for Gunda Torres. I'm told the deal is done pending visas,

so this is happening. I like this edition by Austin. I know that not everybody is the, like, I think it just depends on what you're looking for in a player. What am I looking for, Tom? Well, the expected assist is what you're looking for. I was always a big defender of his. I thought he was awesome for Orlando City.

They won the U.S. Open Cup. They were a serious playoff team as him as the best player. And Austin FC, I really like the signing. And also, it's relative to Usman Bukari. This is a huge advantage. This is a huge upgrade. This is a player that he scored 20 goals at all competitions. in 2024 his last season in M-LS with Orlando.

This is Uruguay International. He played, he was, he, he had goals and assists for Palmaris. He wasn't a regular starter. Palmaris is, what, the biggest club in, in this hemisphere? Would you say that? Like, are they the best club in this hemisphere right now? Palmeris and Flamengo between the two. Like, going there and not becoming a 90-minute player for every single game,

that's nothing to be ashamed of, right? Like, this, I just really like the signing. I think the floor is much higher than going elsewhere. This is just straight up a good player for a good fee. And I think he's going to fit well with Braden-Vasquez. It's still going to be awkward with Mirto-Zuni. But just because of Vasquez plus Uzziuni and the positional overlaps and all of that, all I'm like taking this silo-load, Figuendo Torres is a good player.

He's an M-West proven player. And 9.5 million is certainly not an overpay. Okay, so the, my initial reaction, one I saw Joe Lowry at least put out there on blue sky. It sounds like from the chat, Doyle may have, haven't really watched his or I haven't seen. I don't really follow that guy. So I don't really know who that is. My reaction is, Fekundo Torres was never the central attacking point of a team. He is not a pace setter and a game breaker.

and his best moments for Orlando were as a goal score. And one of the issues with Usman Bukari and Uzuni is they didn't really fit together. And this doesn't feel like a clear fix for that because Fekundo Torres' top moments in Orlando were coming in off the right side and finishing with his left foot. And guess who's in that space? Brandon Vasquez and Mirto Azuni. And what you're looking for is someone to get out wide and get balls into them or to pull the strings behind them. And Fekundo Torres is neither of those players. So he's good. He will be better

than Nuzman Bukari. All of that is fair. Is it worth finally getting out of this deal and spending $9.5 million to just say, well, we got a little bit better. Guess what? Jaden Nelson is going to be better than Usman Bukari. Like, that isn't the bar enough. And what felt like went wrong was they went out and they got deals. They felt like were good deals over the three DPs they signed in the last year and a half and didn't have a plan for how it all fit together. And that's part of the frustration here. Now, I will say having Jaden Nelson makes them better. Yes. I think Owen Wolf and Danny Pereira have taken steps forward and John Galaher resigning. I think that little core, they're ready to provide a little bit more for goal scores in front of them. And obviously

having Brandon Vasquez Healthy, who we ran his interview last week. His hope is to be on the field in April. They're not going to rush it. He feels like in May, and he feels like there's a decent connection between him and Uzuni and the players around him. But this doesn't feel like an attacking three that is elite. And you have spent two quick math from you. I want to say $35 million.

And 33, thereabouts. Yeah. So you're a better team than last year. are you a $33 million expenditure worthwhile team? I'm not sure. And with the Fekundo Torres stuff, it's not like, oh, well, we don't know who he'll be. He played in this league.

It's like we saw it in this league. You're saying that as a negative. Well, one of the ceilings on Orlando was he wasn't good enough to be the best player on an MLS Cup team. We have different valuations of these things. Okay, so first of all, talking about chance creation, Jaden Nelson will go to the left.

he was in the 88th percentile in expected assist last year. So there's a new chance creator within the team. Love it. And so that will play opposite Fekundo. Fugundo Torres, he's an inverted right winger. He pinches into that half space and the fullback flies forward.

You're talking about Mikkel Tassel, you're talking about John Gallagher, whoever plays that right back is going to be important in the attack. Like you said, Owen Wolf and Danny Pereira have leveled up. You're all right there. I want to, I'm going to pin you down.

Okay. This has been a common refrain. Yes. What was the last team that we talked about that you said this team isn't enough to be MLS Cup with these $30 million with the players? What is your bar for good enough to be MLS Cup? My bar for good enough to be MLS Cup. Because I think you from sitting in my chair. Yeah.

It's Miami and L.A.F.C. Not Cincinnati because you, we've talked about that in the past because, and then that, those are two MVP caliber player and a, and a best. best 11, like a potential to be in Kevin Danke, leading goals, quarter league. So Miami and L.EFC, that's all I got right now. And at Vancouver, if everything else is, if we were talking about Vancouver, even in the middle of last year, of without Ryan Gould, of a front three that was Brian White,

this was before Mueller, whatever they called Vite, and the wingers they had, you would say this isn't, this isn't an amount. 100%. 100% Vancouver and San Diego have reset the way I should discuss what MLS Cup contenders look like, as well as the way you build them. But they won because they clearly had the two best coaches in the league. They won because they developed players and put them into situations that worked for them as a fit. And they ended up in a situation where they never had the worst player on the field.

and all of their players played in a way in which they believed that they would go out and win, and I think a lot of them overperform. I would not say that about a team Nico Essevez has coached an MLS. I would not say that about Austin. And so when I look at this Austin team, the spine does not look elite, and the attacking talent does not look elite. So what is the thing that they lean on and say, we have a, we contend in any playoff series because we're the best at this.

let's take a look through the Western Conference. Are they going to have the best player on the field in playoff series, you know, in theory based off what we saw last year, not against San Diego, not against L.A.FC. I don't know what the L.A. Galaxy are. Seattle, I don't know, Portland. I would say based off what we've seen, Veldon might be the best player on the field in a matchup with them.

So, again, I think they're better than they were last year. If this is the team you're locking yourself into, I don't know that they get that much better. And I feel like they've locked themselves into 4th through 6th in the West. And yeah, also I made the playoffs twice in their existence. I don't know, like I know that there are also NFC fans to the chat. I think that they would sign up for that right now. Which I, yeah, okay.

I think that's fair. I would say, okay, so $10 million. I was just looking around. trying to figure out where it sits and like give me context because I can't remember things off the top of my head. I guess he sits into the group that's that's in that area. I don't know. Credit to Orlando, by the way.

I think they sold him at his beak clearly. And they get another 15% off this deal as well. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's, I'm trying to do the inbound transfers here. Yeah. Like I can't get a functional list. Gabriel Peck was 10 million.

I know that like, so he struggled last year. He was awesome the year before. Like 11 million, that's Pazuelo to Toronto. That's our Uho to Atlanta. Rodolfo Bizarro to Miami was 12. Like Hugo Kuyper's was 12.

Zuni was 12. Chuky Luzano was 12. Brenner was 13. Moran Chuk was 13. And then obviously there are more that are 10 or below or 9 and a half or below. But like Al-Polito was 10. Yeah. There are a lot of moves where it's like one MLS team is bad at what they do.

So we should just. justify that it makes other MLS teams good at what they do. Also fair. Also fair. But Avander came in at a similar number. That feels like a good comp. Avander is the best player on the field in 90% of MLS games. Fukuno Torres has very rarely been the best player.

Now, he may be better than he was. That's one thing that Lucho Acosta was better when he came back to Cincinnati. And when he left for D.C. United. He is not the only player. Chirangos sort of looked that way. Other players have been that way. I think that's a fair thing to say, which is we feel like he went down to Palmeras.

He played in one of, as you said, in a training environment and in games with the best team in the region, and he's going to come back and be ready to kill it. But I would say I'd rather pay this for Mateus Bogus than for Fekundo Torres. In saying that, I don't think Mateus Bogus is the best player on an MLS Cup team. And that's sort of where you've landed back

where Azuni doesn't look that player. And I think it's really tough to ask Brandon Vasquez to be that guy before next playoffs, which we need to do, we need to do a list of, we nail you down to a number of, the exact number of players who can be the best player on an MLS Cup winning team that are currently an MLS. I'm happy to make that list for everyone. Let's, let's move to, son, done. Let's move to, let's move to Bogush, though.

So a big move for Austin and then the big move for Houston. We've talked about it a little bit. they're continuing to do work as well. Tom, pretty big offseason for the dynamo. Huge, huge off season. So they're finalizing a deal to sign with Taze Bogush from Cruz Azul. I'm told the fee is $6 million up front plus $4 million in add-ons plus a 30% sell-on. So they're getting them for $6 million in the door.

And usually when these cases happen, if they would sign up to spend $10 million if it meant all the add-ons are going to hit because I'm sure it's some combination of personal and team success. So that would be great if it ends up being that. So he comes in, he can play, centrally, he can play wide. It gives Ben Olson plenty of options. Ezeko Ponce, the current club record signing, center forward. They bring in a DP winger, Guillermo this winter. They bring in a defensive midfielder in Augustin Bouzat, as well as a centerback, Lucas Halter.

They're not done. I believe that they're trying to lock down one more Tam signing. They've already got Hector Herrera back in. They're still very, very big on Lawrence and Ali. They believe that he's going to play a big role for this team this year. Andre Linger, who came in last year as like a, placeholder DP, like he's a tan player now, there is no starting spot for that player.

And I don't know, we'll find out how many minutes, but just over the last 12 months, the way that they've remade this group, the team is significantly better now than it was a year ago. And this was coming off of their best season in recent memory when, you know, Alberto Carasquia left, Mikhail left, some other guys,

and they didn't replace them quick enough. Right now, they've got these replacements in, And then Bogush, he's not there for day one of preseason, but it won't be far after. Like, he'll have a month before their first game. And all of these guys, and that was very important after what happened last year. So this team, I'm really excited to see what it's going to look like in action because you can play Jack McLean as an 8. You can play Jack McClain as a 10 with Bogus wide. You can play Anali and Guillermo together with Bogush as the 10.

You can do a lot of different things with this team. And I'm curious to see what, you know, again, somebody like Bogus is. in a possession-based system, it's really, really good for L-AFC in his final season. That's a transition system. We know he can play it, and we know that he'll add that sort of like dynamism, particularly if he's coming centrally rather than from the wing,

just because wingers and fullbacks are supposed to be faster. What will he look like in a possession-based team? What will he look like playing off of Jack McGlynn playing diagonals to Guillermo or Bogus or Anali and all of this? Will we see the full value of his eco-Ponsei? Because if we don't, this year, like this season, with all these guys around him, there are no more excuses.

this is going to be a very, very interesting team. One of the teams I'm most interested in seeing early in the season because I think that there's so many variations of how this can go. Yeah. I think it's a clear acknowledgement. One, they're using the money that they got from those Cocoa Mikhail moves that they couldn't use at the time, which they had loaded up on. And two, understanding the environment, which is we need to have depth.

Like, we need to have options. We need to have flexibility. We talk all offseason about starting 11s, and then you get into the season. And on the opener, four guys are injured. And they're playing, you're playing a homegrown, an MLS next pro guy that you didn't expect to be a part of your team. And then international tournaments happen.

And league's cup happens and open cup happens and World Cups happen and all that. And like, it's hard to get your best 11. So to put yourself in a place where you have options and you have depth for Houston is massive. There's a bit of unknown in all of this. Like you still need best performance from guys like Ponce, who have been here, but not had this type of support, Jack McGlynn, whatnot, but you've put all of them in a better situation.

And then Nick Markaneck as well, I saw connected to this team. That went official today. He broke a record for single season goals in the USL championship for Charleston Battery. He went to the second division in Spain, hasn't played a ton. Now he's coming back. And he's on a supplemental roster spot, which is, I think, a key detail here in that, I think that he'll be a useful player for the team. Yeah.

But if he's not, it does. doesn't cause you anything. Yeah. This is a guy who I, I mean, his brother's made an impact in Minnesota. He had a better career coming into last year than his brother had. He was a top goal score, as you said, in USL. And again, depth, options can play out wide, can come inside, can move someone else inside if you want to.

It's just a deeper, more talented team for this Houston group than they had all of last year. I would say again, you're talking four to six probably in the Western Conference in that Austin territory with them. But that's just year one of being together. And the hope would be then you can build on that and maybe get even better. And maybe I'm wrong, which is some of these new guys or Ponce are able to activate a different side of themselves. And that is something that can really elevate you to the next side.

Let's talk about Orlando. We mentioned getting 15% off the Fikundo Torres deal. So more money coming into them. Luis Muriel has gone official sold to junior. We mentioned that last week as a team officially. thank him and now it looks like they're working on a U-22 initiative signing, Tom, to really fortify the starting lineup. Yeah, the Orlando City are in advanced talks to sign Brazilian Youth International Iago

from Flamengo. He was the captain for Brazil's U-20 team at the U-20 World Cup. This is a big talent. Nothing is totally agreed yet or being finalized. I'm sure that there are other teams looking at Iago. I'm sure that's probably why it came out in Brazil. Just, hey, last chance if anybody wants a different deal. but this would be a U22 initiative signing for Orlando.

They have been in the market for U22 centerback and they're getting close here on Iago and like you said earlier in the show this is the captain of Brazil's U-20s. Like that's serious. Like this player hasn't gone to MLS in the past. It was like when Brenner went to Cincinnati the player with that pedigree doesn't go to MLS usually

and like this is this kind of signing is exactly what the U-22 initiative exists. And I think Orlando are using the U-22 initiative. initiative really, really interesting. This will be their third player from Brazil this winter, if they were able to get it done. They signed forward Tiago from Bahia for a deal worth an initial 4 million. They brought in Luis Ottavio, a defensive midfielder, I believe from Internationale. And then maybe I'll go here.

This has been a really fun window for Orlando, and they still have the open DP spot with Luis Moriel leaving that they are planning to fill. And I think that they're going to roll back and just be a very competitive team this year. And this is another team like MLA, it's a boring analysis that we could talk about for any number of teams that I think, again, Miami, Nashville probably. And then in the West it's like L.EFC, maybe Seattle, maybe Vancouver. And then it's just like there are a lot of teams in either conference

that could pretty much finish third through 10th. I don't see 10th being the floor for Orlando. I think that they're a bit higher. But like this is a team that maybe they finish third. Or like this is a lot to like within this group. This is a huge signing to me. you said, this is the purpose for the U-22 initiative. This was money that would have been a DP contract, and you should never sign an

unproven centerback as a DP. But I've had conversations with many people in Brazil who are like, why wouldn't an MLS team come and get, you know, this 18-year-old or 19-year-old centerback who Everton wants for $10 million? And it's like, because there's no mechanism to sign that player and not have to rely on them. This now, if he comes in and plays, he's playing alongside a guy in Rob, Robin Jansen, who can be the leader along the backline, similar to what Melonda experienced

in Charlotte, and he can get minutes because he's started four professional soccer games at a senior level. But clearly there is huge potential there, and this is what I want to see this used for, because the other side of this is, it's a different position profile. Like, a lot of MLS teams have used U22 on center forwards and wingers. That's what they also use DP and Tam money on. And it doesn't fill the roster more. it ends up a lot of these guys don't play and then get moved on or flip to Montreal or whatever it is pretty much.

So I think this is a really smart way to use this. I don't think any of us are shocked that Ricardo Morera has gone for three Brazilian U-22 initially. They're really talented kids too. Yeah. That's where his bread and butter sits. And these are the type of players that while there's so much data out there about everyone, if you're talking about guys who have not played a ton of senior games and haven't played them in leagues that perfectly compared to yours, you're going to go and lean back on your resources, your contacts, and what you know.

And I think this was a club that was doing so mainly in Colombia for the last three years and now has shifted a bit and moved towards Brazil. And I think this is really, really interesting. I think it's a profile that I'd like to see other MLS teams follow as well. I think we can make Orlando better today, but I think it definitely makes them better going forward, which is the point of using these things. It's one of a ton of young centerbacks in U-22 initiative players signing. Tom Griffin, Yao, just won official.

It did indeed. Minnesota just made a signing as well. But we've got a list of a couple of these to knock off before we get out of here. What do you want to start with? I want to talk a little bit about St. Louis. So St. Louis are signing Mamadu and Bakay Fall from Barcelona's B team. Yes, the Mamadu fall that exploded with LASC and then went to Europe. He's coming back.

I love this signing. by St. Louis. There was a number of M-Less teams that were seriously interested in this player and they were, St. Louis were able to get them. And there's already been some jokes. We need a nickname for the potential

Mamadu and Bakei Fall slash, why am I blanking on the other falls? Fallu-Fallu-Fall. We need a nickname for Fallu-Fallu-Fal plus Mamadu-Fal. Have you found one that you like? Not nothing yet.

So I'm certain, we have some St. Louis, a lot of St. Louis fans. So I saw in a comment, in a comment, Fall guys, not a bad one. So that was the name of the movie. But that makes it sound bad. Okay.

One, someone just leaned straight into autumn. They were like the atuminals. Or someone called... That's too complicated. And then someone tried to lean into like pumpkin spice latte style because it's like fall. What do you do? You go pumpkin spice. That's...

I'm enjoying all of it, Tom. Don't take this away from me. I'm enjoying the brain story. This is my injury movie moment. But the, you know, going the odds, like the nickname can't be it's got to be some sort defensive reference like like Niagara play at Niagara Falls

yeah I had a I had a youth coach who loved the speech of the bigger they are the harder they fall type thing as we would always be the underdogs yeah so maybe that's the nickname for that the bigger they're in the way they falls Joe like jokes about the next James aside

this is this is an awesome signing because we already know how good he has been in an MLS I doubt that he's gotten worse I think that he'll fit really well with however Yohan Dama wants to play, whether it's possession or not, I think that they need athletic profile centerbacks who can defend in space, and he's going to help on set pieces, of course. But those two players, like, you can be super aggressive how high up the pitch you go

because of the ability to cover ground and it looks like it's maybe it won't work out perfectly in that if you're leaving your centerbacks isolated all the time. If they play a back three, I think that's going to be super interesting for these two players, plus whoever else they put next to them. I just think that there's a lot to like here. And this is a kid who wants to go back to Europe. Like he could have went to the Middle East from what I was told, but he wanted to go somewhere with the like, hey, I need to continue developing.

I need to keep going back to first team soccer. And then in however many years or whatever happens, the right opportunity comes again, I'll move, move on again. And St. Louis are aligned with that. And they know that part of the reason they're getting him is that like, hey, in a few years, if the right opportunity comes along, you'll go. And they're going to make a lot of money if that's the case. and having these two players like again these are two highly valued highly rated young players playing next to each other in central defense

like their starts of the offseason was very slow it is really picked up with edelman and now with with mamadou and bachay fall i like it this doesn't mean anything specifically it just i think you you can read between the lines on the signings that have been made which is when we talk about wilfr anse i think sometimes we forget to about how high they press and counter pressing and how high you're going to play. It reads fully with these additions of front foot trying to play aggressive. I mean, that's Daniel Olin's bread and butter, but it's also especially Mamadoufahl. Like his best skill set was his ability to enforce himself on the game. He was shaky at times when forced to defend into a block and be a little bit more organized.

Obviously, he was super young when he started in Major League Soccer for that position. and so your hope is he's developed a little bit. But I think that just as one trigger that came to my mind as you watch these moves happen of, while this team will try and probably do different things with the ball and try and create in different ways, they are going to try and play it 110 miles per hour. And they are going to try and enforce themselves on the game, which is going to be, I think, really cool for St. Louis fans. From Bangalaw for the chat, Fallout.

Yeah. It's a good name. It's not a bad name. Fallout, boys. Yes. Uh, Tom loving that one. I think St. Louis fans starting to get excited as it feels like from what we heard,

uh, there was a little trepidation that things weren't happening. Um, so now, as you said, moves start to come. That's a big, uh, young centerback as we talked about with Iago as well.

Some other U22 initiatives. LAFC working on, Amin Boudry, uh, uh, Swedish U21 International Center mid from Geis, six goals to assist in 24, appearances in Sweden. Starter for the U21 national

team seems to play a little bit from what I've seen both ways. Can add a nice element to this L-AFC team and they again go outside the box on a U-22 signing. Yeah, so when they brought an Andrew moron last summer on loan, the idea was that he was going to...

Oh, you're the moron. That he was going to be the ball progressor. If you guys are just listening to this, Goss was so proud of himself on that. Nailed it. So they brought him meant to be like the ball progressor, the like the creative spark maybe in the midfield that

that maybe they were lacking a little bit. And like Tim Tillman and Chuanier, like they do, they add to the attack, but more about like box crashing and industrial rather than say creativity. Which we thought Frankie Amaya would do a little bit of as well. No, he was supposed to be a six man. Like, um, one's a six. But this of this is the mold of the type of play. He's, he's somebody that if he has a secondary position, it's winger. It's not six. So this guy is not a six. This is a super talented youngsteros talking to somebody for a scout who I trust.

And they're like, man, this kid's good. Like that's a good signing by LASC. I'm excited to see it in action. And I'm assuming that this means that they're going to be two DPs for U-22s, which means just son and Bwanga, which stops any further spying. Again, that's nothing definitive. But if I had to, if I had to assume slash make a calculated, educated guess, I think that's which way they're going.

So that's L-EFC. The L.A. Galaxy are also working on U-2. 22 initiative, somebody we've already heard of, they were finalizing a deal to keep Matias Nassimento on loan from Bodefogo. I'm told this has been done for some time, but doing things with Botafogo, nothing is ever on time. So it's another loan with another purchase option or obligation. I don't know those exact details, but bottom line is barring a freak out from Bodefogo that Nassimeto is back with the galaxy. Another name we already know, Javier Dyl Rosen, who played for LAFC

bravely for four and a half weeks in his career. Just like a club legend for the club world cup short term signing that he was never actually appeared in club world cup laid a little in MLS, that's it.

He's the club world cup signing the 10th up here in the club world cup. Right? I don't think he appeared in the three games. You don't even remember. But he was the short term edition from Club America at the time. He's a free agent now.

And it sounds like Portland Timbers. are looking at making him their next signing. Would he be a DP? I don't believe so. Okay. I don't believe so. Part of our history, someone in the chat asked like LAMC.

I was trying to search for what the part of our history. Yeah, so Doros in Portland, like him. Again, I don't know this for a fact if they do sign him, but I don't think it'd be a DP. He's a free agent now.

Club America, the day that I reported that they were in talks to sign him, earlier that day, Club America like agreed to a mutual termination. Obviously these things are all connected, but we'll see where he goes next. And I wouldn't mind it as a zombie. I think that we didn't get to see a ton of like I liked his flashes.

And it's it's, you know, he had good flashes for Club America, but it was never, he didn't play a ton or like consistently. Obviously didn't very much for LFC because he wasn't there for that long. He did score against Portland in one of those games. But yeah, I think that would be an interesting signing in Portland still hope to sign a DP. People are really, really, really.

interested about Nascuento going to the LA Galaxy in Seattle's having his discovery rights, I think? Wouldn't, why would they have his discovery rights if he was already there? I have no idea. But there's a lot of questions about that one. So we're going to research that one. We'll get back to you on the next show about it. We see all of your questions.

We understand the angst around the potential discovery rights and super jazz fix. There was another one while we're going on questions that are not to make. part of the story. I'm told New England just gave up the Bogush discovery rights a while ago because they needed to add other players that they were trying to sign. So I don't think that they're going to get money, but I guess we'll see when the deal goes official, if I'm going to

be wrong about that. Is it be too? Doing the that's a good, that's my timing. And then the next thing in the chat, I'm not uttering a word about Hamas Rodriguez. Okay. The Michael Scott I declare discovery rights. Like I declare bankruptcy. That's good. It's great. I've been on a little bit

office free watch over the the last few flights that I still fall asleep to that most nights it's yeah that in it's that in a nine nine psych nice in its prime in its peak um always good my wife watches even worse shows than that to fall asleep too so i have to watch even worse shows than those also psych legendary great show great show great show uh there's a few more here uh i think i'll rattle through them if you have any thoughts feel free to hit them um sporting kansas city finally making a move it sounds like so calvin harris has been signed and then a player from Peru, Cesar Inga,

23-year-old winger slash fullback in Universitario right now, has broken in, played a little bit with Peru and their last few friendlies. I saw they played Russia in a friendly. That's a vibe. And he was on the field.

For that one, Charlotte FC has acquired David Schnegg from D.C. United. Don't know what you saw from him on the field that made you interested. Okay. There you go. My assumption is...

But worried that he got waived by D.C. United. So I don't... There you go. Mitya Illanich loaned out by NYCFC back to Europe. This sounded from the outside like a lifestyle thing of like he wanted to go. And what I don't have it in front of me. What club that he ended up going to?

A club I've never heard of before. I think in the Czech Republic. When he was starting before Tavon Gray took that spot back. Yeah. They rejected offers from like, I forget if it was hellish forona. It was like a bottom seriat. And I like I spoke to somebody at the club and they were like, yo, like, it was I think in preseason when they're at Coachella and it's just like no like this kid's like talking him up like rightfully so and like you know like part of the reason why we rejected it's one week we believe in him and need him but also we think that the officer is going to get more in the future and he's somebody who it just kind of stalled out at NYCC but it's a talented player which is why I think this is a lifestyle thing of like going here at this time it just feels like he probably asked out and they said okay and this was the best they could do mariso gonzalez a left winger that just officially

signed with Minnesota United from Deportes Tolima. R.S.L. I have officially added Lucas Engel. I think we talked about this when it came through. I like this ad. I don't think he's like a game changing left wingback, but I liked him as a third centerback. And I think that's what they'll play. Yeah. And so listen, if you're playing Philip Quentin in last minute, it's probably not a bad move for your team. Brian, Brian Romierre is officially joining FC Cincinnati. Another move that I've liked. I think he'll fit into that left wing back spot fairly comfortably. And congratulations to Oliver Laras, starting center mid for the U.S. men's national team at the 2026 World Cup because he is the latest

off the trash heap move for Vancouver Whitecaps, which you know then means he's going to hit on a crazy level this year. I've already been an Ali Laraz fan. So I like the signing. This was a big day for me. This may have made my week on this one. I do. I do like to sign. I know that he was looking more for like playing time than finances from what I'm told in terms of his decisions on where he was going to go. So he clearly has been told that he's going to have a chance to play and win some roles. Win a role with this theme, obviously that they're going to have a lot of competitions. Sebastian Burr-Halter, while we're talking about the Vancouver White Cups, no deal for him is yet set. Again, I'm pretty disappointed in Vancouver that Burr-Alter and Blackman, I'm just surprised that this isn't taken care of by the start of pre-season.

season. But obviously we haven't heard much about the Burrell situation and maybe like maybe he's fine because he's out of contract in 12 months, whereas Blackman is in contract for longer. So probably felt more urgent about getting a new deal. But yeah, that's still something that's ongoing with both of those players. And speaking of Seattle, because it's Seattle international roster spot selling season, which is always right around this time where it turns out. Them in Nashville. Yeah, Seattle signs all their domestic players or they sign players for such a long time that they're able to get them green cards so they can start to farm a couple of these out. We do get an answer from the chat itself which said the galaxy acquired Naskimento's

discovery rights from Seattle Sounders for 50,000 in 2025 in GAMP. L.A. will send Seattle 150 in GAM if the galaxy exercised the permanent transfer. This is now becoming a second loan. They are doing all of this to bypass that 150,000. I'm certain that's why and why they don't want to put $7 million on the table if they're not committed. Yeah. And I think both a phone is part of this. There is a scheme going on and someone needs to get to the bottom of it. It'll take a capital J journalist to get to the bottom of that one.

So I look forward to Kaelin Carr reporting on this one coming up over the next few weeks and getting to it. But that's it for our show. A fun one. We have a lot more to talk about as the moves continue to roll on. We love doing this live and chatting with all of you. if you are not already a member of our Discord, join our Patreon. That's how you get access. We love being in there as well with all of you and pulling out some of the comments,

some of the questions in there, as well as if you leave them on YouTube. Or if you want to rate and review our podcast, especially on Apple, and leave anything in there, I will pull it out and bring it into the show as well. We've got another show lined up for this week. For us to chat a little bit, we also will be doing an NWSL show tomorrow coming up with Jordan, Angelie. So thank you to all of you for listening. Thank you to all of you who are here alive. Thank you, of course, to you. Tommy Scoops. And we will talk to you again very, very soon.