SoccerWise - Caps Get CONCACAF'd, LA-MIA Clash, USOC 2nd Round Absurdity & MLS Transfers

Episode Date: April 3, 2025

The sweet warm embrace of a Liga MX side's last minute goal to devastate an MLS opponent. It is a too familiar feeling Tom & David are here to go back through an electric night of CCC (CCL) action in the quarterfinals. Not to be outdone for drama the second round of the USOC had Cupsets, PK shootouts, and red cards galore. And of course the guys talk about the latest transfers in TOR & COL and preview the big weekend coming up.6:51 Whitecaps Get CONCACAF’d21:15 Clash of Titans LAFC vs Miami34:25 LAG Trying To Right The Ship vs Tigres38:55 USOC 2nd Round Wildness Chattanooga, Portland, El Farolito & More49:20 TFC Sign New Center Mid52:00 Rapids Sign Young Star Bryce Jamison From Orange County54:30 Milan Iloski Joining San Diego From Sibling Club58:00 Ernst Tanner On Philly’s Hot Start From Backheeled Soccerwise Live 2pm ET Every Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday on Youtube/Twitch/Twitter

You're testing all my editing skills by just slurping that last cup of coffee right before I hit the record button. So for anyone who ended up hearing that, this Tommy scoops on the other side of the mic right now. He's ready to go. Ready to rock. Tom, we got a big Thursday show coming up right here. We got a lot of US Open Cup to talk about,

which I'm stoked about. We've got a lot of, we've got a lot of CCC stuff. And we have, of course, Three to the Dome to God, Carmelo Anthony put into the Hall of Fame what a 24 hours it has been for soccer wise I appreciate on top of everything when you talk about elite performances, right? Like being up for the moment the fact that Carmelo Anthony's inductions Hall of Fame was a potential wedge moment for Matt Doyle to try and make us feel bad about our fandom that was Michael Jordan flu game right there And neither of us took the bait

So in our group chat the mellow hall of fame news comes out and cuz Doyle knows that somebody's going to be happy He wanted to find a way to make somebody unhappy Immediately and he goes he sent in like a tweet of like the Knicks can ruin anybody. It's also always Someone with six followers from the deep internet and you're like who is this person? Yeah and I figured he was just gonna go anti-Melo and I was like I'm not gonna do this today. Like what's the point? Like nice try. You're only doing this to try to bother me or bother us. But so instead I think he knew that so he tried to pivot and just make it a Knicks thing and see if he could get both of us to either argue with Each other or argue about the Knicks and I was like dude now first ballot Hall of Famer get out of here You can't tell me anything. I Was in the building game two after Hurricane Sandy when he saved a ball from going out from an out-of-bounds

Ran back and hit a three. That's dedication. Mellow cares more than you do. That's what we do hit a three. That's dedication. Mello cares more than you do. That's what we do. He's a winner, bro. He's a winner. Born winner. Who never won anything except for obviously three gold medals and an NCAA championship, which I at the time was required to be a fan as a kid in the tri-state area. I was told on all the taxi cab signs that Syracuse was my team because they were New York's team and I didn't know better enough at the time. So I was a I think it was a Kim Warwick and Carmelo Anthony fan for that championship

So go orange go mellow big show as I said a lot for us to talk about I will say for most people who are about to listen Think about 60% of our pre meeting was just us naming people around the soccer sphere and saying, that's a dude. That guy's a dude. You're going to get a lot of that today. That's the show you're about to get. Between CONCACAF and US Open Cup happening simultaneously, it was the chaos of chaos that

could occur all across the entire sport. I woke up this morning, I opened up my computer to start doing the rundown and get to some work. I had four YouTube streams of you so pink up games that I didn't know were still open running in the background and they all just Restarted themselves at the same time with full audio and it was definitely an experience because that's what it was I had like three screens going yesterday and I still wasn't watching half of what I wanted to watch. It was a wild one but it's been fun. I totally agree.

What a night that was last night with all the Open Cup action and the night before and Champions Cup to end the night there. There was just a whole lot going on. I think O'Shea Nation did all of the games yesterday, like all of them. He started in Chattanooga, found himself in Vancouver, and then was, while finishing the Vancouver game, was doing Miami L.A.F.C. You cannot convince me otherwise.

That's my guy. So watch out when you're talking nation, watch out, because that's one of my guys. He is legendary, CONCACAF referee. He's like the only one they allow to referee. Basically any team involved with a Mexican American or Canadian side hence we see him five million times whenever there's a CONCACAF competition we have some MLS talk coming up you've

got a couple transfer scoops out there if you've missed it somehow over the course of this week we've already discussed in length Peter Vermeese being let go from sporting Kansas City in the future for SKC after that We did that I did a little Monday. We talked about it heavily on Tuesday. We also talked about RSL Utah Royals and Real Monarchs potential sale from the Blitzer group to the Miller family I appreciate I think it's box the box MLS in our discord who followed up with a ton of research and Said that they believe a lot of people believe the driving force behind Some of this is that the Miller family is working to bring an MLB team into downtown

Salt Lake City and inside the parcel of land that they would be awarded for this there would be space for a new soccer Stadium that is some of the push of why you want to go out and bring The Utah soccer teams into this. I complained about this with Jordan Angeley on yesterday's show, which you should go listen to if you haven't yet. We did all your NWSL breakdown. We talked to US women's national team how Tiana Davidson's injury affects the center back pool and everything else you should expect to see against Brazil. The fact that it's Rial Salt Lake in Utah Royals, so it's not the same geography. It's not the same name is

Such chaos to try and describe so they needed an overarching name of like a Utah soccer Holdings Corporation Inc of Capitalism or something like that. I You said it all you covered it there I was I didn't think that we were gonna get into the etymology of this of the Utah Royals and Real Salt Lake but here we are and I'm happy for it. Yeah so that you can if you want any of that coverage go back and listen to that we've got some big stuff coming up next week as well we're gonna do an interview with the Tempeh Rowdies it is their 50th season of

soccer they have their home opener finally coming up because of the hurricane last year got delayed and all that stuff so we're gonna do an interview there for that coverage we'll have more US Open Cup more concaved Champions Cup and everything else in between the US Open Cup draw is should be occurring live in the middle of this show so as we get there if it happens and we understand what's going on I will say it if not it'll be like when I did the Club world cup thing and didn't understand all of Wednesday's complaints

and just talked out of the side of my mouth and then everyone correct me, especially in the live chat. So we appreciate everyone in the live chat already. Real Monarch's name, Utah Monarch's name for the major league baseball team. That's a solid shout. Pull that Real Monarchs energy in as well as some Negro league baseball history. So a lot of cool stuff going on in that. Let's start with Conka calf

Whoo, it felt good man. It felt good to be back in the warm embrace of getting Conka calf all over again Vancouver white caps as I said bizarre 630 local start time Not a lot of fans in the building right at the beginning. Whitecaps come out on fire. Electric from Jesper Sorensen's Whitecaps. It's Sorensen ball all over again. We've become used to it. The midfield three of Ralph Preseau, Sebastian Burrhalter, and Jason Agando is elite.

It's elite. This is what the game is built on, Tom. We all saw this coming. Everyone knew it. It's why. This is what the game is built on, Tom. We all saw this coming. Everyone knew it. It's why everyone was high on their stock. Their Ralph Briestown stock is through the roof, and it's all delivering right now. Yeah, they were like Pumas. That looks like what normally Liga Mecchi teams do to MLS teams at this stage of the tournament, where they're just dominant, couldn't get close, like the possession sequences, and then they'd lose the ball and counter press really quickly Pumas again

I know that they're not the best league of mekki's team right now But they're still a solid team a big team with history and stuff the Vancouver Whitecaps were playing them off the pitch Disappointed probably to get to halftime without scoring they get the goal on the corner kick Brian White There's a classic New Jersey Mario Gomez finish. And I dared to dream. I dared to believe and hope that nothing, nothing bad would happen. I did these Vancouver white cops are different. This is going to be different. It's Pumas. It's not Monterey. It's not T-Rex, club America. But an old friend, Coco Kersky, it came up with the equalizer late, late. I know that I shouldn't have hope realistically looking at the history of this competition and how many times looking at think

We think it's great. We think that oh this looks good But but inevitably it ends with a loss or again a Koko Kelsky 87 minute equalizer I still feel really good about the white caps going to Mexico Yes, I think there's nothing you walk away from this game with saying that the White Caps can't get a result. And having conceded the away goal sucks. Obviously 0-0 would be a train wreck. Otherwise, any result, you're going through it extra time or you're going through.

And there's nothing that we've seen from Vancouver so far in this competition that makes you feel like that's impossible. So I think that's completely fair. Coco was very clearly going to be the one to score. He looked like the best player on the field. He is clearly the best player on this Pumas team. And that's frustrating in its own side because you're like, well, if MLS spent more money, Coco just wouldn't be on this team.

Vancouver wins this game. And now they're probably going to move on to the next round. But the pure confidence that this Vancouver team plays with and what we already saw in the previous round, like that's not going to go away. And so I have the belief they're going to go to Pumas. They're going to try and play through pressure. They're going to try and play higher up the field, which is a massive problem for MLS teams that when they go away to Mexico because they sit too deep, any mistake leads to a goal. And it feels like they have enough finishing quality

across the team to be able to get goals, to be able to bring Jaden Nelson. And I've liked what I've seen from Sabi so far. Emmanuel Sabi brought in as one of these sort of flyer additions, been in Europe for a while, has dealt with injuries, was rumored or you know on the edge of the national team when he was healthy very rarely. He's looked good when he's come off the bench. So you have the ability to bring him and Nelson into the game off the bench because you have created this depth that you've been able to tap into.

Ocampo continues to be dominant down the right side. Vite looked awesome once again, dropping in to play through balls into the channels. Obviously, Daniel Rios is an elite CONCACAF Champions League striker, as I have said over and over again. I think your confidence is fair. It will obviously blow up in our faces the more confident we feel and the better it gets as it literally Just did yesterday, but I'm ready to get hurt again I'm I'm here

I'm out on the market ready to get the only thing that I have to push back on on everything your analysis and everything brought Up when you say Coco Kersky was the best player on the field because he looks like that. No, no, no, no Sebastian burr halter was the best player on the field. No. Yeah, I'm talking for the C I'm talking he was the best one looking for a cup set on that Pumas team Sebastian burr halter ball legitimately a very good one now legitimately a very good player and It's a bonus and like such a great value of his set piece delivery Like again, it sounds like I'm starting this as a bit to just say Greg Berhalter's son, but like Sebastian Berhalter is legitimately a good MLS player, a starting caliber central

midfielder. The Whitecaps, I don't even remember how they signed him. I forget if he came through, like whatever it was, like the whole thing was like- They brought him on loan originally. From where? Right? He came on loan from Austin, no he was sent to Austin on loan origin. From where? Right? He came on loan from Austin. No, he was sent to Austin on loan probably.

Whatever it was, like you take away the name. So he went from Columbus to Austin on loan and then he came to Vancouver for 50,000 allocation money, which with a potential 50,000 in conditions. Look, take away the name. This is just an excellent scouting and development That the white cap showed by identifying Burrell just saying like oh we think that this guy is a legit M West player get him for next to nothing

He didn't work at a couple or like he didn't break through at a couple places And again now he's legitimately a starter and like JC Nagando somebody from the draft T Johnson somebody from the draft T Johnson was a guy who I get temporary I don'touties. I don't do a ton of draft stuff just because of the nature of where the league is right now, but a few of the people I talk to, I'll be like, hey, who are some of the guys you like that know better than me? And the consensus was of the people I talk to and trust,

hey, Tate Johnson, I think he has the potential to be a legitimate MLS player. He's not gonna play at all this year. He's gonna be with the second team. He's gonna need minutes, but he's gonna I like we really think that he has potential and for him to be giving these minutes already It's so very impressive and again like you take a step back and you just look at this lineup You said the midfield trio Oh Campo has been very good for this team Tristan Blackman was one of the guys who like I think we've liked for a long time, but it was a hey

He's a really specific role. It's that right-sided center back or left-sided center back in a back three He's not quite a fullback, but he's not quite a center back in a back two well That was wrong too because he's playing as a center back in a back to right like yeah there's just up and down the field of both scouting and Development that this success is that this team has had and that's where they are right now And you kind of like look at the team of like all the rotation we've done like if they were losing these games We would be criticizing the manager of like hey man, like put your best 11 out there And they're still getting results in MLS play and in champions. It's just you can't say enough good things

It's not even I think if they were struggling and we would have more so than just on you just for sorensen It would be on the front office because we would have said there's not enough talent to compete across all these competitions. And that's the part that I think is most shocking is that they've been able to build in this depth. I think there's clear acknowledgement of what they're looking for. A lot of the players you named are really high level possession players. And I think you look at a Sebastian Berhalter and it was like starring the Columbus Academy.

When he went to Austin on loan, it made sense. Obviously, Josh Wolf knows him, but also like Josh Wolf's system made sense to fit Burlter because the fear was he couldn't cover enough ground to play in an open enough game. And so you needed to play in a setup that the possession runs through his feet.

Now he's in Vancouver in a spot where that fits. Tate Johnson played, Nick Murray will kill me if I don't say this, so, played with the Tempe Routies as a academy player, played a ton of first team minutes before he went to college. And Vancouver, they are not always the furthest along when it comes to academy development. So they value things like that, which is like,

who are players that can supplement our Academy that we think can be pro players out of this group so that we don't need to go back in so they're not always looking for like who's the best number nine Who's the best number ten who's the best center back? It's like who do we think has the most pro potential here to just give us any minutes to supplement what we're building as well And then they make the moves for the Ali Ahmed's of the world which they've been able to hit on and Ralph Prese I mean I'd given up. Even for you to give up like that is. Robin Frazier traded for him because he knew him from Toronto that was his next chance that was his last chance and it didn't work out.

It didn't work out for him on a Colorado team that was not really putting up high level results and he still couldn't get on the field. So to then go to Vancouver and be able to resuscitate his career here is absolutely incredible and to do it and again I think a player who fits the system. High level possession player, comfortable under pressure on the ball, maybe not always making the best decisions when the field is opened up. Vancouver is able to mitigate that with the way they play. Yeah, and so the way they play, that's where I wanted to go from here because I didn't

know exactly what to expect from Jesper Sorensen coming to this team. And hey, are they going to play similarly to what Vanni Sartini did? They did make the playoffs. They were good. We wanted them to be better. But hey, for me, I didn't have a great take on like, all right, this is how they get there. This is my stance. And I was like, I like, I think that they should be playing more high energy,

be playing in transition a little bit more, but would that totally work? I don't know. Here are some like the biggest changes year over year. So last year they had 47% possession. Now that's up to like 56%. In MLS, it doesn't count as Conqueror of Champions Cup games.

Like it's early, these things can change, but they are going to be a possession based team. field field tilt is fourth in MLS this year long pass share is among The lowest they've taken the most shots in MLS play per game And surprisingly the like direct attacks and attack speed are middling to like the bottom half. So that's what they're doing now Oh and the bigger one Passes per defensive action. That is my favorite metric to just see how active a team is, not just in pressing. You could set a mid block and then still be like really hard to defend against. So they're fifth there. And I really,

really liked that because last year they were second to last. The only team that allowed more passes before defensive action was short FC and Montreal and Nashville. And those were the company they were keeping. and this year they bumped that up Significantly again the the possession is up essentially ten points the field tilt is is way up as well I'm pulling it up from right now last year. They were 21st and field tilt this year They're for right and the numbers are gonna and they're fourth so far small Exactly while still playing cocky have champions Cup in between. And like this is like again whether they're fourth or second or eighth right like these are like the stylistic differences. They're still going to be top half.

And so we've seen their identity now it's a possession based team that plays the ball short that wants to defend more actively and quicker and counter press rather than dropping off and trying to fresh make teams that way. So I think that everything that he's done has been really positive. And again, the best part about this is how quickly it's taken shape. It usually doesn't happen this quickly, let alone for a team that is playing midweek and having all the games that they have and all the rotations they have to do and missing some of their key players, but like particularly Ryan Gault, it's been very, very,

Anthony Hudson called Concav Champions League like a weird preseason thing that threw off their year and Vancouver are weaponizing it to be even better in MLS and continue to make this run and they have, we've said it, they have the potential to go to the final here. That is realistic. They looked good enough in this game, the result was fine enough for them to go to Pumas and get a result and then LA FC and Inter Miami, they should not be scared of those teams. It is also another example of me saying that 80% of MLS teams are cowards and should play this way and should try and play this way. Let me ask you this because we've got a Ernst Tanner quote coming up in the show.

Who's having a worse month? Jim Curt or a Vanny Sartini Vanny neither Resent the yeah, it's a reserve is a premise but but yeah, probably that because There really wasn't any change Owned the lost to an Armstrong ownership once is trying to sell Your only and Ryan Gall got hurt. So those are the three big changes and and the teams as much and Yeah, they're absolutely incredible and like they played this Dog shit game this weekend in Toronto in terrible weather in

memory already But like even that doesn't even change a ton of that statistical stuff of like, oh, yeah No that drops them really out of all of this. That's how good they've been all season. F Wayne Farrar has former Vancouver Whitecaps player, manager for Vancouver. Do you know the story about him in Columbia last year? So I don't even know. I guess it doesn't matter.

It's the Colombian league. He was banned from the sidelines in Colombian by the Colombian league for like a year or something for what they said was inciting a riot from the fans Then it like went through all these processes of like well actually this stadiums municipal owned So they don't have the right to ban him and this one's legal and in club owned and whatever now he's the manager of Pumas and he was Very active on the sideline throughout this game performance. It was a good performance. It was it was on the sideline throughout this game. Good performance. It was a good performance. It was a strong sideline performance for him. There was, there was, there's an alternate scenario

where he's a manager in MLS right now. And like I do think his future ends up as a manager in MLS. I know that that's something that he wants to do. And he was an assistant, I believe at NYCFC, if I remember off the top of my head. Regardless, this is a guy who I think we're going to see in MLS one day. And him ending up here as Pumas. It's a big job and it was good to see him on the sidelines.

Just a nice familiar face. He was NYCFC's assistant, Tarani Daila, for anyone who doesn't already know that. So he played in MLS to finish his career and then he ended up as an assistant. He went and played in Scandinavia and I think that was the connection, Tarani Daila, right after he played in Vancouver. I think he played at Valorenga to close his career and obviously Celtic player World Cup player all that type of stuff so yeah I think that's a pretty good expectation and not a bad game to show for them Vancouver got their goal

off the scrappy corner kick play Jane Nelson getting involved then trying to get the card drawn trying to go full conca-calf on it. Obviously Richie Luray needs to give him a little bit of direction still. But that's why Richie's the goat and everyone else is just trying to catch up. It was so much fun to watch this game. As I said, opening 15 minutes on Vancouver pushed the game. It was electric. I cannot wait to see the second leg for them. It wasn't the only good game, though.

The L.A. of C. to see the second leg for them. It wasn't the only good game though. The LAFC Inter-Miami game was like must watch stuff to close out the night. LAFC ends up winning 1-0. There's some controversy as well. But this was one of those games. And there are a few of them that I have in my memory bank of MLS games where we're like, this is higher level stuff. And it's not something that's won or lost because

of weak links. It's because of strengths and it's what we've waited for because of the way these teams match up and it fully delivered in this first game because I don't know Steph Curry was in the building or something like that. Yeah. So like I was talking to somebody at LSC before the game and they felt quite like confident just of like, hey, we know when we play our best, we're really, really good. And particularly stylistically, they match up with Miami.

Miami wants to have the ball and beat you with possession. LFC are content, they're happy to let you have the ball and then we're going to try to kill you in transition. So, Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, they're not exactly pressing monsters at this stage of their careers. So, the idea is if they're so high up the field and then you're defending all that space essentially with eight eight outfield players That LAFC could find Julia if they played well But even again like people at the club understand like hey man If this is one of those days where Messi just plays a blinder just has a master class and like We can do everything we want and and like you said got to your point of strengths coming through like hey

There's nothing we can do everything we want and like you said, that's your point of strengths coming through, like hey, there's nothing we can do. But it played out as kind of LAFC would hope for in the most realistic scenario. One nil, they are out possessed 60-40 as they would have wanted to be. They out shoot Miami, they out touch Miami in the penalty areas, which I think is more telling stat than just shots. And that's how it played out during the game. This was how LAFC wanted to play. This is how Miami wanted to play.

LAFC took their chance. We'll get into the controversy in a second. And also not adequate goalkeeping on that. That shouldn't be a goal. But LAFC, I think, were the correct winner based on how they played on this night. Yeah, most of the game was played in the middle third and so there was not a ton of big chances both ways.

Even the goal doesn't go down as a big chance because of where it struck from and the way it's hit. And I think for LAFC, like you said, there were so many moments where they had so many bodies around Messi and there's a lot of athleticism in this LAFC team and so you're able to take a risk and still recover when there's a lot of athleticism in this LAFC team. And so you're able to like take a risk and still recover when there's help. And so you see moments where an Aaron Long or a Tillman

or a Hollingshead is like chasing and able to chase and chase and chase and eventually clean plays up. But like if Messi's that at half set, you know, better or like cleaner in a cutback or a curled shot or a pass or whatever, it opens you up and there's nothing you can do about it. I thought Segovia struggled as much as we've seen him struggle.

I think right now he is in my starting 11 for Inter Miami. I think he's better than Allende and we haven't seen some of these other young pieces that have now come over. So I would say he is in my mind, that third attacking player. I just didn't think it was his best game. Like I think he struggled to come inside and find enough space where he's really dangerous

to hit those cut balls through the channels, especially for Suarez's runs. And so you saw, I think also for Inter Miami, the acknowledgement of the transition. And so maybe a little bit less from the fullbacks to push in to play and a little bit less from the full backs to push in to play and a little bit less willingness to completely isolate their center backs

and so that took a little bit of the danger away of the possession. I would say it's still 50-50 going into the second leg. Like LAFC did the job, they didn't concede at home, but into Miami are not gonna be worried about being down a goal because of the capability they have offensively Let's get into some of the big moments of this game

Before we do that. I just I don't know if you've looked at any of your messages We be is currently live texting us updates from our last show Giving us point-by-point his reactions to what we're saying about Kansas City and stuff We be when you hear this maybe Sunday Thank you. We'll get back to this soon. But the biggest controversy from this game is the Nathan Ordaz situation. I don't know how in any world with VAR he did not get sent off. I don't understand how you go to the monitor and watch somebody as he kicks him too, but open palm, shoved like,

I can't call it a punch, I can't quite call it a slap. Let the guys play I hate that you're positioning me as the dork of like well actually look at the rules That's a fucking red card, and it's not close He's turning in a natural motion has the right to his running space Falcone is right on top of him so the initial contact is because he's surprised how close Falcone is and he's trying to get his arms out to start running. You pump your arms and you run. Yeah, you run like this.

Then the second hit to the face is because he's reacting as he falls back and your arms go out and Falcone's face happens to be there. That's the call. That's so obviously a red card. And I will add, by the way, I don't know because there's a lot of highlight packages that are done by robots Which is stupid and frustrating to me to begin with the the conker cap highlights that they put out were awful Like the or dad like cuz I was rewatching him this morning the or dad's goal The replay goes back to like a touch before the goal. It's like oh sick I wonder how he got the ball just magically in his position and shot

And guess what they scrubbed the what should have been a red card. Again, a pivotal talking point from this game was not in... So if you're on the East Coast and didn't watch that game and just was like, let me go check the highlights, you have no idea what we're talking about right now. Fox Sports clipped it and put it on social media. So if you haven't seen it, go look at it. That is a clear red card. And they went to the monitor and still O'Shea nation said you try to question Michael get out of here. He probably gave it He probably gave a card to the to the VAR person. How dare you bring me over to the monitor? I saw it and you you know how to or das knew that he was that he was guilty

He gave a thumbs up when he got the yellow card that he was like, oh sweet. All right, I agree with that Are you kidding me? He came over with the yellow card and Ordaz was like great. Come on bring it here Yeah Let me first of all, clearly the AI aggregator is Oceane nation hive so shout out to my my soldiers in arms Let me give you just a little live stuff from the from the chat here Christopher said sideshow Bob was all over him Falcone was the aggressor there Tom's big wrong Alejandro says that was not a red Falcone was trying to win an Oscar

Lowell Thompson not a red card Falcone just played it up. Terrible is barely brushed his chin Falcone grabs his nose Alexander says Falcone is already on his way down before the contact. Let's go down before the contact. Let's go! Democracy lives! The other thing we were doing when we were doing the pregame as we were getting ready for this was we both just go, Felcone is a dude. That guy's a dude. He's got heavy dude energy. There was a moment in the Philly game, I don't remember who it was with, where he was like grabbing an attacker and messing with him and then they both looked at each other and they smiled and they hugged each other and then continued doing it. And it was like, you can't be mad at him for too long.

He is OK. I'm stoked it wasn't a red card because I do actually think there is some like he's in his face. It's an awkward moment. Yeah, Nathan Ordaz probably shouldn't do that. And the fact that he ends up scoring the only goal in this game is not a great moment for CONCACAF for this to just be seared into their minds and in their memory.

And Inter Miami has every reason to be upset and frustrated about this because that one is a red card 51% of the time or 49% of the time, whatever it is, there was a heavy shot that it was gonna be called a red card. Falcone though is clearly an upgrade at center back to everything they've had Lujan as well There is so much more quality across that back line which allows the Jordy Alba's of the world to play more freely Yannick Bright had another good game

I thought as well alongside Busquets who starry had this moment where he came like 25 yards off his line and headed a ball away Under pressure like he looked like a center back stepping in to head a ball away And then what you think he should have done better on the goal? Yeah, when a rolling shot gets by you from 24 yards out little bounce probably Yeah, if it takes a couple skips like you're like skipping rocks like in the pond and the river I don't know outdoors guy no big deal if it looks like that and it's dribbling towards the goal again I really like how Nathan Ordaz played in this game beyond the goal I thought he was very dangerous elevated himself to dude status punch a guy in the face stay on the field clap the rep then score the goal you already had

dude status for us so it was cool to see there was a bit of a conundrum Obobis is injured he's clearly first choice over Jerud Jerud is just getting back from injury. He was an unused sub on the bench. I don't even think that's a talking point. Like, you're going to bring him up when you're bring him in when you're up one nil in this kind of game state for like what he's shown so far too. Like that was the correct decision to leave him on the bench. And again, with Ordaz, his movement, his fluidity, his pressing, what everything he gave you outside of the goal Which was obviously the most important part. I thought he was was very good and fit very well in this game

I forget was it was it hit we're talking about Falcone as well He cleared a ball off the line. I completely in blank on who shot it. Yeah, like so that that goes something that This could have been worse mark Delgado on the shot. I can't remember who shot it. Yeah. Like so that goes something that this could have been worse. Mark Delgado on the shot. I can't remember who shot it but yeah it was. But that was another down on very important full hockey. A very important moment in this game in this series to keep it out of one goal deficit. And even I think the more important point was LFC keep clean sheet because away goals are still the tiebreaker in this competition and going to Miami knowing if you get one that you know a 2-1 loss gets you through. Tilman it was with the shot by the way so thank you for the

correction. The game states now in game two match up exactly what LAFC wants. You talked about talking to the LAFC club and like their thought process of how this plays out. It's not that it's gonna be drastically different than any Inter Miami game, but Inter Miami has to play that way now. There's no world in which they can go into the second leg, let's say they're up to one and be like, all right, we're gonna rotate some of the pieces and we're gonna play a little bit behind the ball,

or we're gonna keep our possession a little safer. It's like, Inter Miami is gonna go out, they're gonna push numbers forward, they're gonna try and attack. I think for LAFCFC your hope would be that Whether it's finding Buonga in the final third or Buonga's individual ability in the open field Has to be a little bit better He had a number of chances in this where he tried to take a player 1v1 in open space

That we have seen him be successful at in the past where he could not get by this game whether it was The touch whether it was the direction whether it was the body positioning of the defender And then I felt like he started to pass off a little bit quicker To try and get into the final third and get the ball back and LAFC was not Focusing to get it back to him in that final third so they progressed play and then it it'd be like, Buonga would come in field and Ordaz would play it to Hollingshead coming in from the left back spot. It's like, no, give it back to Buonga and let him be the threat because these are the games

he's gonna feast on. I don't see a world that LAFC gets through and Buonga doesn't score in the second leg. Just the way it's gonna play out and what he has, how he has elevated individually in some of the biggest moments, there are not a lot of other guys who are stepping up to those moments I thought David Martina has been a little bit Underwhelming so far this year was a player that was just really excited to see and he hasn't gotten his full chances Undear coming in has hurt that I thought under was pretty good

But he more drops in and wants to like play over the top for Boulanga And that's where you need that Dennis Boulanga goal if you're gonna get through Yeah, I think so, but but I think that like LAFC how many times in a big game have they gotten it on a set piece, right? Like so I don't think it's it's as binary as that of like well Boulanga doesn't score then they have no chance like yeah He's gonna be very very important But they have other ways to get goals and then like you said with David Martinez is Unpredictability in transition if he starts if he comes on the game like you can Find a goal there Chang has under like we're still waiting to see the best from him And I think we're going to though the clock is ticking on him because he's almost definitely not gonna be here through after the summer

So usually we give players time and we should but it's like oh well the shelf life on Chang has under it Elliot's your Gauss theorem on a five-month limited loan is on shangha's under an Elliott's a gas theorem on a five-month limited loan is six weeks also can I just say you've got people misspelling Falcons name in the chat because you keep on saying Falcone like you even got me to say now people are spelling with an idiot dude no one knows what's the truth like what really is the truth didn't earth did did Falcone throw his face into Nathan Ortiz's hand is that a red card for throwing faces people are asking questions are not really have a head

it's all i can't unanswered text from we be i have my phone is there and any chat is immediately it's a special child of just the three of us this isn't this isn't part of the stock it created it to get ready to create he created another one That's good to know

The other MLS team to play Tuesday night, they like Galaxy zero zero draw against tgress at home Obviously not the worst result against a dangerous tgress team Payne still got the start which was huge. I think yes this galaxy team. I thought they played at least it felt a little bit more cutting and less continuous possession side to side. And I thought Peck looked a little bit better because of that in this game as well. But obviously they're up against it now.

Like you're going to Tigres, you need a result. There are very few teams in the world that have ever gone there and gotten a result. The Galaxy are not really set up for it. Yoshida ends up coming off I haven't seen an update on his injury but that's obviously huge he's your captain and one of your stabilizers along the back line so it feels like it's against I'm not saying it's impossible but it feels like it's against the galaxy overall I think you come out of this week saying like

things have looked better but you are not clearly back to what you were hoping no and and it's gonna take a little bit of time like my entire analysis of this team like not worrying about the early start of the season is like hey when Payne stills back and and you kind of get a little bit of a rhythm like again even not waiting until Ricky Pooch like that's another level but i think this team will be fine once and again, you saw it. I think in the first half what the difference that paint so makes it's not gonna be like Even if that had already happened, I would not be picking them to go to t-grace and get a result right like the way that you Spin this though is the depository where you try to keep the momentum or you try to keep optimism and you're the longer Hey, like we clean sheet so we have we can get if we get in a way goal it makes it difficult for them I need they're very

unlikely I would say to get through just because how good the T-Grace team is this galaxy team being in flux if you can get maybe closer to 90 minutes for paint so that might be a little bit too much to ask but he was able to go 45 in this one so that gives you a chance because then you have a peck and paint so as kind of wild cards that hey even if you're getting outplayed even if T Grace is dominating the ball which I'm gonna expect them to do you still have these two special special individual talents that hey maybe you can get one in transition and maybe T Grace is missing some chances and maybe this

maybe that but the entire analysis the entire game plan the entire hope is if this if that if that it's just a bit you know Occam's razor shaves that right off and T grace would be very very favored to get through so the galaxy play Saturday at 430 at Salt Lake and then they're at T grace next Tuesday so it's not like the easiest of schedule I guess in theory you get a little altitude training in Salt Lake for you as you go there, but that's not exactly what you'd want to see.

And then again, Wednesday, we've got Inter Miami hosting LAFC, that's the early game at 8 p.m. And then Pumas hosting Vancouver, that's the late game. Cruisesuit Club America was 0-0 in that first leg as well. That's the other quarterfinal setup So the way it will work is the winner of the Vancouver Pumas the Wednesday games will play each other So if Vancouver is able to get through you will have an all MLS semifinal on one side of things in CCC and then on the other side you will guarantee either Cruises will a Club America

Into the semifinal and then if Tgress knocks off Galaxy, it's an all-league mech semifinal. If not, you would have the LA Galaxy facing off against two of the giants from Mexico City. Either way, this is fun. This is like one of the reasons, as a neutral from the outside, you wanted the Galaxy to be good for such a long time. They basically have no CONCACAF history. There was the one time David Beckhamham played Cholos and otherwise the galaxy had been bad so often that they just never qualified for this. And you have like this incredible crossover. I think Club America claimed that they had 19 million global fans and like half of them were in Southern California. This came out with the whole like, they're going to play LAFC in this one game thing.

Where would it be played? What would it mean? that stuff and it's like you want these games remember Colorado played Club America at? Whatever it's called now. I can't remember Yeah last year in Leakes Cup and it was like an epic atmosphere So it would be really cool to see that be the matchup either way I think it's gonna be really really fun in the sec set of second legs let's go over to US Open Cup where I believe the draw is happening live right now, but I'm not really sure. And let's talk a little bit of flags.

You ready to talk flags? No, not that flag. By the way, I love all the college basketball people being like, it's the best Final Four ever. It's the best teams we've ever seen. It's like, oh, do you like really good college basketball teams? I got a product for you, buddy. And it's called the NBA.

Yeah. We had some games that we were really looking forward to and almost all of them delivered in US Open Cup, starting with the Chattanooga Derby, Chattanooga Red Wolves of USL League One against what is now Chattanooga FC of MLS Next Pro. The story for anyone who doesn't remember or know, Chattanooga FC came on the scene as an NPSL squad,

I think originally they were semi-pro, fully fan run and funded, and they were blowing out attendances back in 2015 and 16 and 17, 10, 15,000 fans a game for the few games they would have every year. It was like one of the great first big stories of, okay, you can build a club your own outside of the $500 million structure

of like buying into an MLS team or even a full USL championship team. My understanding is the way it went down was then USL asked if they wanted to join the professional ranks. The vote from the community owners was no. And then one of the owners who was a successful businessman took the rights and then went and started a new Chattanooga team. And they called them the Chattanooga Red Wolves. So now you have two teams in Chattanooga. And eventually now, I hope I'm saying Chattanooga correctly like the way locals do, but I feel it's feeling like it's getting worse and worse as this thing goes along.

Now Chattanooga FC eventually elevated themselves from semi-pro into fully pro, playing as one of the few independent teams in MLS Next Pro, because they can't join USL because there's already this Chattanooga Red Wolves team which took this spot that everyone kind of said we're not ready for and don't want. That is the setting for these two teams to face off in this US Open Cup second round. It was 12,000 fans on a Wednesday night. Like you don't get that anywhere in the world pretty much just because it's hard to get out to games. There's so much going on in people's lives. It's the fourth largest crowd in Chattanooga FC history.

It is the second largest crowd for US Open Cup second round match behind FC Cincinnati at Nippert Stadium back in 2017 against AFC Cleveland. That was the magnitude of this game. And I couldn't really tell because of the camera angle, but it seemed like there was a section of Chattanooga Red Wolves supporters

below the camera on the left side of the field and then it was just blue everywhere else. Eventually this game at 1-1 goes to PKs. Everyone runs behind the goal, which is like the best part of the US Open Cup. It was the same in Portland as well. I love it. And the Red Wolves end up sneaking out with a penalty kick victory, I don't know, 5-3 or whatever it was, 4-3 in the end. And so heartbreak for Chattanooga FC. Then after that, I'd already turned off because I had 97 other screens going on. One of the Chattanooga Red Wolves player tried to plant a Red Wol's flag at midfield and Chad Newgavc was like as If buddy get off my field that causes a fight not a full-on brawl just pushing and pulling and all of that

I'm really quickly. I'm really quickly on the flag plant. Yeah, I think a lot of his teammates were like Couple half-hearted chubs of like yeah, I have to defend you but like what are we doing? Come on, dude. A couple half-hearted chubs of like yeah, I have to defend you but look what are we doing? The one person on chat nook I've seen I couldn't see who it was because there's no Jersey out. It was just a bib Yeah Committed to the cause knew what was going on fully locked in and was not gonna give up and was not gonna get back down And it was but it this game was awesome Like it had so much energy to it and that's how it felt a lot of these yeah like this is the point of this competition You had cup set potential because you had more pro teams come in

So you had some amateur teams in some huge moments lower division versus higher division like this was a really good US Open Cup week I totally agree I'm gonna bring it back to the flag-planning thing cuz like dude you saw a video of Ohio State first Michigan And you thought it was dope like can we just like find it find a new angle find a new bit Hopefully you don't get pepper sprayed the next time it's just like one of those things that goes like I'm gonna play a flag And it's like the other teams are like what like we can't let you do that, but like it Seems half-hard it seems performative and Yeah, I don't know.

I think I think I'm over that pretty quickly already. But yeah, it was like Portland hearts of pines. Like that was an awesome, awesome atmosphere game ending everything else that came with it. El Farolito. Few things get me juice more than like somebody on the sideline having a burrito. Like Fabian Rankle was at that game. And he put up a picture on Instagram of just like during the game, she's having a burrito like Fabian rankle was at that game

and he put up a picture on instagram of just like during the games having a burrito i was like oh that's sick i'm really jealous of that that's pretty cool um just like little things like that and the story behind them like the joke's like yeah it's a burrito store it's a burrito shop that are progressing again second year in a row that they are the amateur team that is the furthest progressing and that's a thing that is tracked by u.s soccer you get a little bonus money for being the the amateur team that that goes the longest. So that was all really cool We're gonna get into I'm feeling a moin. They got $50,000 that's good money, man

Yeah, it was last year was 25 a lot of breathe already doubled. There's there's been a lot Yeah, you could get a lot of burritos. There's been a lot more money into the competition We got to wrap this up so I can go get food Yeah, watch out lot of burritos. There's been a lot of money put into the competition. We got to wrap this up so I can go get food. Watch out Chipotle in New Jersey because you've got a Tom Boger hurdling your way. And then yeah, like Uny, Uny, Omar and Des Moines, like that it was sad to see our guy Bradley Ray Phillips substituted early in the first half. I'm assuming that was a muscle injury rather than I'm tired. I don't want to be here. So I hope I hope that Brad's all good. Sasha question substituted either at halftime or early in the second half.

And then gets a red card from the bench. I know Sasha's my guy. So I'm going to sound like a homer here. And then I don't even care if I do. Watching the grainy video of what I've seen, I still haven't talked to Sasha about it cuz I figured he got a hundred Texts, but he didn't do much I did seemed like the other guy was the instigator and then the ref did the thing where he goes I don't know man. Both you guys are off So I'm just saying justice for Sasha question, and I hope that I hope that he's sitting there thinking I don't want my

Retirement open cup run to end like this. I need to come out of retirement again next year, but then he would miss Here's the issue miss the first round. Yeah He suspended now. Yeah, or so the other side of that is legacy of you know How Clint Dempsey was on like the list of suspended players for like 15 years after he retired? Maybe that's he might still be maybe that's Sasha's like legacy You just leave that one block Blanco was still like two or three years ago We're talking like oh nine, 10, that he would have played in it,

got his red card, then got a suspension. I don't remember what it was for. Clint M.C.'s obviously for tearing up the notebook. And then when those 14, 15 game suspensions happen, the teams don't play that often in this. So if you lose after two games, that rolls over to the next year, and it has to come out in the match report,

because clearly you cannot assume Anyone's done when it comes to us open cup Like if you've got people who are suspended if Peter Vermeese is still suspended from 1998 for playing in the US Open Cup He got to assume these people have the potential to come back and play because of what we've seen from Des Moines Tommy Thompson and Moise Hernandez added to the crew, was stoked about that, shout out to Tommy. I believe we be still on the Tommy hype train, thinking he might be the homegrown breakthrough for the San Jose earthquake, so when he hears that,

he can enjoy that as well. The thing I didn't understand, so the Portland game, epic, unreal, Portland versus Hartford, so a little New England love, although it takes like 12 hours to get between two of them. You have a Hartford team that has struggled at times early in their USL championship time. So this is not like a great game for them to lose.

And you have Portland now, as we said, they debuted in US Open Cup. They played in Naples in USL League One. I think it was their first game. It was like massive away crowd. They lost. Now they come back home. I didn't turn the game on until it was already dark out.

So when they showed the highlights at the end of regulation and you could see the high school all around it, like you couldn't see that at night. At night it was like kind of epic because you're like, it's a great crowd. It's lit up like yeah, the football field not ideal. Then they show from the early moments and you're like, oh look, there's where you do the the shot put and like there's the buses and all of that stuff. And you're like, this is a hilarious setup. I don't know why the ref made the fans weren't allowed to be behind the goal directly. I don't know. And I don't get that because there are stands behind goals. So it was like something about them being

at the fence line. I don't know what it was. So then they had to have the coach come down and wave everyone wide so that they could get spread out. But you ended up zero zero into extra time. Red card for Portland. Hartford scores and then Portland equalizes down a man and then wins it in the shootout. And like I love a celebration in a moment like this where you don't know what to do with yourself. And the guy who shot I can't remember who it was like runs to the left side then runs to the right side then runs to the goalie it was like I got to celebrate with everyone at the same time it was awesome to watch had like 87 screens going on as you said El Farrilito they make the money they beat Monterey Bay who are number two in the

USL Championship Western Conference like this is a real victory for El Farrilito to go on the road so the draws happening right now as I said what my understanding is that so now you've got the rest of the USL Championship teams entering at this stage and then the MLS teams entering at the following stage the top eight USL Championship teams entering at this stage are all dedicated as hosts for this round and then the bottom eight all will have to travel to whoever they draw from the teams coming in. So you already have a little bit of a setup

of like who's gonna be where. So the Charlestons, the Sacramento's, the Louisville's of the world will all host. Guaranteed traveling like Pittsburgh, Phoenix, Rhode Island, all these other teams who finished lower in the standings last year, but high enough to qualify into this round because you had teams like Miami FC enter two rounds ago

and then a bunch of other teams enter this round from the USL Championship. Why I'm saying all this, I have zero idea, but I knew it and it was in my head and now you all know it and that's where we go from here. Let's jump into a little MLS and I'm gonna go watch the draw live while you talk. Tom, you've got a couple scoops for us.

The ice cream shop is open. Do I have I have my graphic hang on? Let's go off Look at us back in the bill. Yeah, so this is this has usually been the cadence again Maybe this is just anecdotal and I don't have any data to run through to back it up, but from my Experience it's usually teams are still crushing signings and trying to get them done in February and then March is like a low Where teams are just like all right? We just got over the line right before opening day around opening day guys are coming in and then we get to like the beginning Of April and the teams that have five six games that are like oh crap like we need to do something now

And then maybe the the trade market opens up. I'm still expecting the trade market to come through So I think that was part of the timing where a couple of signings happened. First, Toronto FC have signed Swiss midfielder Maxime Dominguez on loan from Vasco da Gama. He is a technical creative attacking midfielder. Before he went to Brazil, he was in Portugal and his last two seasons in Portugal, he had 10 plus goal contributions in each of those seasons. So this is a guy that they want to get more goals and assists out of the midfield. And he's somebody who they think they can.

He was able to leave Vasco because I think there was a coaching change. Playing time didn't come exactly how we hoped after the coaching change. And he wants to go somewhere where he can play. So that's how this one happening. They feel he's motivated and hopefully he could be a long-term fit.

But it's a loan to begin with. And Toronto gets in just another piece. And the most important part for this Toronto team right now is Adding dudes and pieces that feel long-term ish or potentially could be long-term Yeah, they just need to be able to like have some control of games and then turn that control into some level of danger and All of that doesn't exist right now central midfield is a clear place for them to try and upgrade but so is center forward. Theo Corbino was the big piece they added has not played the last two games got one start I think this whole season. Well, Brighildens was the big addition.

Fine! How'd that go? I'm not disagreeing with you, I'm just saying. None of it has gone really well. TFC heads to Miami Sunday night. That's the Sunday night soccer game So you can watch we be I don't know where another cowboy hat or something I'm just gonna continue with that joke until it doesn't happen. He's gonna find an armadillo In Miami, I don't well, I guess it's I guess it'll probably are you gonna hang out with me when he's in your city skin? Oh, I didn't realize that I hadn't put two and two together. I don't know. We'll see We'll see if he checks in some people don't check in you never know. Wow They don't ask you for permission before coming to Miami. That's exactly. I don't have to I don't have to sign off

First you text uncle Luke and then you text David glass Luther Campbell I Don't know what's happening Other move Colorado making another set Colorado rap is finalizing a deal for I'm a big fan of the show. Grow up. Okay. Other move, Colorado making another signing. Yeah, Colorado Rapids finalizing a deal for US Youth International Winger, Bryce Jamison from Orange County. Jamison traveled to Denver this week to do his medical and complete the deal.

He'll remain on loan with Orange County for the rest of the season and then join the Rapids for preseason ahead of the 2026 season. This is a 19 year old. He's got a lot of talent. He's already got, I think, like 70 appearances for Orange County in his young career. He came through the Barca Academy. I believe he spent some time with Atlanta. But this is a guy who was at the U17 World Cup. He's had talent. There have been teams in MLS in Europe that have been interested. I know that the Rapids have been a long time admirer of him. Even dating back to last season. They were they were looking into maybe bringing them in for the beginning of 25 but now the deal gets done and Orange County is one of the teams in USL that are the leaders in developing players and selling them Colby Henry came through there and Ronaldo Demieux, Brian, Brian Kaleo, and then Milan Aloski who signed with San Diego this week.

Boom and now we're full circle. This is clearly a committed part of Colorado's plan which is to spend some money which they think will recoup in value as it goes along. They've done it for players a little bit older like the Teddy Cudi Pietros of the world, like the Austin Trusties of the world which worked out even if you talk I mean, Georgie Mihailovich is a different conversation, but like, this is a clear motive for them. I think for Orange County, we had Dan Rootstein, the president of the club on this show in December talking about what they want to be and what they want to build. They consistently talk about sell ons. They know that not everyone's come in Orange County to drop $20 million, but they think

these players have the quality. And so they think that they give them a good platform, and their goal is to sell them into the right situation for them to then continue on. That's how the club makes the big number. Colorado are a committed selling club. They are committed to playing young players, and they're committed to selling. And so this connection makes a lot of sense, and it's one that I wouldn't be shocked if we see more going forward.

Cause Colorado, as much as they're committed to this whole process, are not the highest spending academy team. They would argue they're not in the best soccer atmosphere, which is weird to me, cause half the women's national team is from Denver. So like, it feels like people play soccer in this area and we've seen Sam Vines is in all this.

Like we've seen good talent come out of there, but this is another way to try and supplement some of the work you're doing and so it makes a lot of sense and as you said, there's a player with a really high pedigree already that a lot of people are a fan of and that takes us into San Diego, which is the other move you just mentioned. Yeah, Milan Ołoski, he comes in from FC North Shillan, which is obviously part of the ownership group, the right to dream the Mansour group that are there getting him on loan because they need a forward right now with a couple injuries They've had only Valacari playing as a false 9 Milan Olauski his numbers with Orange County were crazy

It was like 40 goals and 15 assists or something to that effect over two seasons he absolutely crushed it there went to Northland Playing time hasn't been easy to come by but this is an MLS level player and I think this is a good signing and I'm excited for Alasky to get another chance at MLS. He came through Real Salt Lake, he was again like he killed it for the Monarchs, wasn't getting opportunities with the first team. It was one of those where it's like alright he's too good for our second team but I don't know if we can totally rely him on the first team yet. So then he went to Orange County and then to Europe and now back with San Diego and

they know him, obviously, being in the group. He'll know the style, he'll know kind of just generally speaking, shouldn't be too difficult for him to adapt and get hit to ground running and being able to play. And if he performs well early, he's going to get a lot of minutes. So I'm excited to see how this goes for Milan Aloski if you had Asked me. I actually when he signed with Northland, I just assumed that this was gonna happen and I forgot that it never happened Like I remember when he signed with Northland it was like, oh, he's basically signing But then I have a team yet

So they have this team and then I didn't actually notice that he never actually came over to play on the team. And so now it's happening and it makes a ton of sense. As you said, he was one of the guys pushing through. Lower Divisions UCLA as well was really, really impressive. And I think San Diego has shown that if you fit their style, you can be successful. Similar to what we talked about with Vancouver and we talked about with Columbus of like,

their style is able to accentuate the good parts of these players games San Diego play Seattle on Saturday night Which is an interesting matchup in this one. Obviously Seattle struggling a little bit. They bring Kent in They're hoping that helps stabilize them a tough one this weekend already for Seattle the previous weekend San Diego coming off the high of the LAFC win, but like hurting and This gives you one more reinforcement, but they're still behind the eight ball weekend San Diego coming off the high of the LAFC win but like hurting and this gives you one more reinforcement but they're still behind the 8 ball I think it'll be interesting to see if Chuky Lozano gets a start and if he does is that an option as a false 9 is that one of the ways you want to use him does

that take him out of position and hurt your team even more I'm not sure I don't know what the answers are for that but the San Diego teams must watch right now. And I think this is another really cool matchup where first four weeks there were people in the world saying like, oh, play someone good. It's like they played LAFC. Now they play Seattle. There isn't really much else you can do in the Western Conference right now outside of like playing in Minnesota to prove that you are very, very good. And so this is another big game for them. I totally agree. And yeah, just on those little things, like like I'd rather have even if you have to play a false nine I'd still rather Chuki if he's able to start playing the wing because he gives you the verticality

And then you have like again I thought only about Valakari was very good on the weekend and the way that he kind of combined and made the game You know didn't clutter space because usually like the way that a false nine goes wrong is when you're nine and you're 10 or, you know, maybe an inverted winger, then they're all in the same spot and it gets too clamped. And I thought that they did a good job at moving the ball and keep changing out the spaces. Yeah. Some other big games this weekend. We have we have Philadelphia versus Orlando. Joe Larry, the legend at Backheel did an interview

with Ernst and Tanner. Please go read it. Which we both felt very entertaining. So go read that at Backheel. And you should subscribe to Backheel as I do. And then you get all the emails and you get to read all these great articles. John Morrissey again, crushes it.

Had a US Open Cup recap that you can go read. There's power rankings, everything else in there. You threw a couple of quotes in the show rundown. articles, John Morrissey again crushes it, had a US Open Cup recap that you can go read, there's power rankings, everything else in there. You threw a couple of quotes in the show rundown. Do you want to do a narrative reading? Yeah. So Joe Lowry did this as a Q&A, so there was pretty unfiltered Ernst Tanner in his own words and for those who don't know a ton about Ernst Tanner as a person, as an interviewee,

if you ask him a good question, he's going to be honest. He's at the stage of his life, his career where he just, like that's how he does it. So if you ask a good question and Joe asks a lot of good questions, you're going to get some good answers. So he, the biggest one that's going to come out of this is him discussing the change to part ways with Jim Curtin and then bringing Bradley Cardinal. And on Jim Curtin, quote, we made the change and it turned out to be the right thing. People see it now. Now we have to go and work.

So six games into the season, it's yes, this club legend that we fired and in a very, very unparalleled decision taking a victory lap. That might be a little bit difficult to, you know, this could be a very funny quote in a month if things aren't going well. But again, he is very committed and very confident in what they're doing. The other one on this too, that some of it feels a little unfair, but I'll just read it quote like He he wanted to take back the quote for a second

He a lot of a lot of the tenor of this was hey We were kind of getting stale and then when you have the same person evaluating players, right? Like this is good to refresh and for everybody and so quote You see that some of the players who are not really ready to get a different evaluation What never happened is that McConaughey would have played and now everybody can see is a good player I don't think that Frankie Westfield would have gotten that chance type Are you bow was neglected for roughly ten months because there were other players here These are just examples, but we needed to make a change to freshen the situation up. I'll quickly say that

McConaughey,'t even remember exactly when they signed him, but you had Glesnis and you had Elliott. So that makes sense there. And Damian Lowe, which could be the frustration. And Frankie Westfield was not in the first team last year. And this guy, Julian Carranza played for Philadelphia for some of those 10 months at Tiber Evo and Michaela also played for for Philadelphia but I think you know it's fair to take his victory lap now like there was huge question marks about the roster construction he made the decision that the roster was good enough and that

it was the direction and and feel under Jim Kern and he says in this interview like sometimes after a little while, you need a change. Things don't feel as fresh anymore. Things get stale, players get used to it, whatever it is. We've said a million times on this show, you can't fire every player. So when things like that happen, the coach is gonna be the casualty,

is what we're seeing in sporting Kansas City right now, because you're hoping that you can restart things where from your point of view, you think you've brought the talent in that can cover a lot of these positions. He's been pretty honest about they got a little lucky in the first game, played well in the second game, fortunate matchup, and then they were rolling from there. Obviously we saw them lose to Inter Miami and I think you saw a little bit of the lack of true attacking third elite quality that can get you over the hump in matches like that. But they were right there. Even if it ends to zero, they were

right there with Inter Miami. And so I think the feeling that they're back should be there inside this Philadelphia group. And I think they're in center scoring a couple points over here on the East Coast with just calling West Coast people. So Joe asked a question, but it was pretty much just like, hey, what built-in advantages do you have for your academy? Like, again, the methodology is great, the infrastructure is great, right? But do you have any built-in advantages being in this region of the town that you gave it a pull from?

Quote, I'm hearing people even in our environment saying that people from the West Coast are too soft. There might be something to that. Philadelphia is a tough but honest community. Things are a little bit more direct, a little less friendly. People are very realistic. They deal with everyday life. They deal with difficulties. They obviously have the ability to overcome adversity. West Coast, soft. Spoken like a true Philly man. Ernst Tanner, born and bred. He's a septa guy through and through, and he wanted to stand up for his people.

Makes no sense, one, because Philadelphia Union just recruit from all over. So a quarter of the players come from the West Coast and wherever else, but I'm never going to disrespect it as an East Coast there. It's more of a vibe than where you're from, right? Like, Sasha Clashad, I like to joke too about, like, particularly when he was with the Red Bulls,

he had that bite to him. He's a Southern California kid, but then he spent a year at Seton Hall University in New Jersey, and then he was with the Red Bulls, and so I claimed that as like, oh yeah, it's a Jersey guy. So it's more of a vibe than exactly where you're from. Got it. It's an R, or, R.

If you say R, like a Long Island person. What's up,'m just us. I'm just a long islander in all of that We do have the comments from the chat of Bradley Cornell's first job started pretty well, too And didn't end as well, which is a very good point and Philly started well in 2024 as well And then it sort of fell off. Although as we said a million times Philadelphia's underlying numbers were like the least lucky team of all time, which so maybe some of that is just the energy and vibe around the group because it had gotten stale. And if you take that away, then I would assume at a minimum, this team is good enough to make the playoffs.

They're probably in a position where they will be a guaranteed playoff team this year, not a playing team. And you're competing for a home playoff game, which is a pretty big jump from last year. And I think would be acceptable to most people around Philadelphia to say like, all right, this is the start of a newer build. This is where we stand right now.

That would be a pretty good start to all of that. So another big weekend, they face off against Orlando. Obviously they played in the first game of the season. So it's weird to see them play already once again. That game was crazy wide open. I would expect something similar. Orlando's attack is humming right now. Pasalic looks awesome alongside Ojeda. Ojeda's doing the things he does at his best and Luis Mario looks good and so it's really hard to decide where you're going to put resources along the back line, who you're going to double in. Pasalic comes inside, Muriel spins off the last center back, Ojeda's alongside him, and

you've got to decide where are you going to step, where are you trying to close down, and they're able to kill you from a lot of those different positions, but they are a mess at center back. So that means goals, which is going to be the one of the games that I am definitely tuned in for this weekend. Yeah, I'm completely there. And one other note on Orlando, it occurred to me this week that head coach Oscar Breyha, sporting director Louise Moosey, and technical

director Ricardo Marrera are once again out of contract after this season with no option for 26. So that's going to be something to watch because I'll tell you if those three hit the market, there would be plenty of offers. I don't think or know if they'd be a package. I'm just saying I think that they would be in hot commodities. And when we're talking about Montreal and Kansas City, and there's gonna be more teams that fire the coaches, maybe there's gonna be front office changes as well. That's something to watch because, what was it, two years ago,

they all kind of aligned their deals when they were hitting the situation. So I think that's a curious one. So schedule for this weekend for anyone waiting for their MLS setup. You've got Charlotte Nashville as the 2.30 230 game on Saturday that's a game I'm really excited about I've liked this Nashville team they bumped up against it against FC Cincinnati we're not able to break through Hany needs goals Charlotte also

a team that have oscillated between great and good this year Salt Lake RSL or sorry RSL LA Galaxy as I, is that 430 game on Saturday. Those are the standalones. Then you get into the full slate of Saturday night games, just lone one late night game. That's at San Diego, Seattle game. So a lot of games in the central time zone, Vancouver hosting Colorado in there as well.

And then on Sunday, three separate matches. So NYCFC hosting Minnesota at Yankee Stadium at 3 p.m. Then San Jose hosting DC and it closes out with Miami against Toronto and then we'll be back here on soccer eyes I'll have your weekend recap show for you No, NWSL this weekend, but it will be of course coverage of the US women's national team friendly in the gold medal rematch against Brazil Which is gonna be happening at SoFi and then the second game at PayPal Park. We're gonna have an interview with the Tampa A Rowdies next week that we're looking forward to. We will have of course your US Open Cup

coverage. We got the draw as well so a lot of exciting games in there so it's gonna be a lot of fun. So thank you to all of you for joining us live today. Thank you to all of you for listening via podcast. Once again you can get into our Patreon, get your access to our Discord. You can rate us and review us anywhere you listen to help other people find the show. We'll talk to you all again very, very soon.