SoccerWise - Charlie Boehm on ConcaCAPS Heading To The Final, What Does It Mean For Miami & Weekend Preview

Episode Date: May 1, 2025

The Vancouver Whitecaps are heading to their first ever Concacaf Final and David has dubbed them then ConcaCaps. Soccer journo Charlie Boehm joins David to talk all about how The Caps have made this incredible run, Sebastian Berhalter's USMNT bid and what went wrong for Miami on the other side. Then they dig into some expected high scoring matches on the slate this weekend in the league. 2:30 Vancouver's Run12:10 Sebastian Berhalter's USMNT Potential;25:30 What This Means For Vancouver And Canadian Soccer39:00 What Went Wrong For Miami1:00:00 Weekend Preview1:06:20 Dejan Jovelic Bowl In SKC vs LAG Soccerwise Live 2pm ET Every Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday on Youtube/Twitch/Twitter

The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, and we are headed to a CONCAC champions final. And I finally, at the last moment of this run, just thought of CONCAC caps as the Vancouver Whitecaps are victorious in the semi final and they are moving to their first ever final and to talk all about it one of my favorites one of the best you know him as one of the best journalists in the entire American soccer sphere mr. Charlie Bum. Wow then the the soccer wise music is finally playing for me this is a big moment guys big moment. I'm glad it gets you pumped.

Is that your UEFA Champions League walkout song? Oh, for sure. That's the MLS anthem coming out of the tunnel. Hans Zimmer actually worked on it for a little while with us, but we just didn't like the direction he was going. It felt too small. We wanted something bigger, something that felt grander. Yeah, yeah.

Well, you and I are both terminally online, so we would have to rock with the goth version, right? Whenever that went viral among the sickos. A hundred percent. Great moment. Shout out to Pablo Mauer, one of the best as well out there, announcing he is a free agent as of now. Hopefully not for long. Shouldn't be for long. So if you're looking for anyone to write the most interesting soccer story you could possibly read, go hit him up and find him but charlie I was Terminally online over the last few days for this vancouver game as were you I was reading everything you were posting And I was like, let's talk to charlie. We have to talk about this. Uh, we'll talk about some big picture mls stories

Uh later on as we get into the show writing some incredible pieces over at mlssoccer.com and other platforms and anywhere you should follow Charlie on Blue Sky if you don't already. But we have both been around for a little while. We have seen some runs. We have seen some almosts. We have seen a lot of teams try and be different. We have seen teams try different, you know, team building styles. The Vancouver Whitecaps went to Miami, four leg two in all of this. And quite honestly, I just had to Google the score because I couldn't even remember the exact score line. It was 3-1 in the second

leg. So that makes it 5-1 across the two legs. They are headed to their first final. We don't know who they're playing yet. We don't know where it's going to play gonna play be played which is something we will discuss in the chaos that is conca calf Which is the beauty of it all but in everything you've seen What do you make of what's happened over the last few weeks months for this Vancouver team and most especially last night? It's just amazing and it's a great example of the the beauty of our game, you know, there's always Something that can surprise you, even when you think you've been watching more CCLs or CCCs, catching more of the fever than you could have imagined. You think you've seen it all. And then an MLS team, and MLS teams have made runs

to the final like this. MLS teams have've made sort of Cinderella runs, right? I think maybe the best comparison we can make if there is one is the 2015 Montreal Impact, now CF Montreal team, that was kind of like Ignacio Piedi and a prayer kind of. Like they were just, the context was different. We'll get into that. But like for it to come out of nowhere the way it has is just incredible. And we'll also delve more to this I think but I have to start by emphasizing unlike Almost everybody especially the team that actually got over the the mountaintop and won in 2022 the Seattle Sounders Who were absolutely cratered by the CCC C run, right? I mean they were

You know, it was worth it I think they their fans and most of us who know the landscape would say it was worth it, but they had their long playoff streak. They'd always made the playoffs in their MLS existence and that ended later that year because there was so much of a hangover, so many devastating injuries. Like the strictly physiological demands that you're putting on the bodies and brains of these players to get up to a high level of fitness and sharpness so early in the season and then to try and maintain that is so tough, much less when you talk about thousands upon thousands of air miles.

For the caps, it's even more so. The caps always top out. Generally speaking, I haven't seen the latest numbers, but almost every season, you know, the Y caps log the most travel miles just in a typical league schedule because they're up at the corner of the continent. And so they've made two trips to Mexico already. They've made a trip to Costa Rica. They made a trip as far as you can go and still be in North America to South Florida, right? And they are tops in the supporter shield table. They are the best team in MLS as they do this, this CONCACAF run. I mean, that's just incredible. And you talk about Nacho Piatti in

that 2015 Montreal team, which was a blast and was so much fun. When they cut to Ryan Gould yesterday on the sideline celebrating one of the goals, we, I hadn't forgotten about him because we've mentioned him. We talked to actual Schuster about his health. Jasper Sorensen's given quotes. But when I watch the team, I don't think of him. How rare is that for an MLS team where it's not, oh, wow, yep, that's the hole the DP is leaving. The way these contracts and the salary caps are structured, the DPs are supposed to be 18% of your output because they're 30% of your expenditure, whatever it ends up being. And for some teams, it's even different, you know, Messi's obviously

200% of what it is and what you're spending on. And so that part as well, on top of all of what you just said, is so incredible. And they have gone down. This isn't just, oh, they've gotten early goals, They've gotten fortunate goals. They're good on set pieces and then they can see how games right. They were up against it yesterday. I think the most I've seen that opening 25 minutes was the most but it was the same when they went to Monterey. They had their moments at Pumas.

They lost that Costa Rica to start this whole run at the beginning of all this against the Soprisa team with Kendall Watson at center forward who was ready to give them the business and show them what they're missing. So it has not been straightforward and simple on top of all the challenges that it always has. And the way they've handled all of that, I think, is what has brought a lot of fans I know in our discord, obviously Inter Miami have set themselves up as a bit of the giant and people like underdogs. But I think Vancouver has pulled people to their side with the way they've gone about

this and the way they play the game. I've often joked on Blue Sky that Inter Miami are the telenovela of maybe not just MLS but North American soccer since the messy era began because they don't do things the easy way necessarily. And they like the great triumph of them winning the supporter shield last year wasn't so much that they did it. You would say, oh, well, you have Messi. No, they did it without almost half the season without Messi. And he was incredible in the minutes that he did play, but they found a way to build a collective around the superstars that did it. And even like what Javier Mastrano

said in his Match Day minus one press conference this week, yes, we're under pressure, but we have nothing to lose. We have everything to win. And it's going to be so much more epic when we come back. The pressure of a situation like this is what you live for as a player and as a coach. And said some stirring stuff and linked back to the great Barcelona remontada of 2017. And it was all like, oh, great. Thank you for writing the piece for me. I was going to say he made sure everyone had the highlight package pulled for 2017.

Pretty good as far as a set of quotes to work with. And now we have this dashing stranger from British Columbia that rolls in and just steals the screen. I mean, it's like a Ryan Reynolds, you know, star turn here or something like it's crazy that this team with such a collective ethos with their highest paid, most accomplished, most renowned and who they acknowledge is the lynchpin, at least up until this run in Ryan Gould being sidelined. I mean, it's just amazing.

And it looks like I'm hoping we get another plot twist in that the gray part of the night for the Whitecaps was Sebastian Baerhalter, again, out of nowhere, right? A name you know, but not a career you know, right? Coming out of nowhere, a former $50,000 in allocation money, bargain basement pickup for the Vancouver Whitecaps. Who suddenly- We gotta go find the physical allocation money somewhere and put it on a board in the Hall of Fame.

This was what was traded for Sebastian Barreau. Yeah, I mean, Axel Schuster, the Whitecaps CEO, or president and sporting director, has gotta find some way to for an ego wall item for that transaction, because it's credible. He among many who have just found a new level under Jesper Sorensen who just got here, he barely even knows what all these acronyms are, right? And he's just bossing it.

But Bearhalter picked up a yellow card last night, which in a really fleeting moment, there actually was a period, as you mentioned, the opening was tough and then they were really looked desperate to get to halftime. They were against the ropes as the first half played out. And for the first time, they seemed to, on this run, at least maybe since Costa Rica, they lost their composure. The Whitecaps have been so incredibly poised and they were feeling it. The early goal, I think being a soft goal where Takaoka maybe will later acknowledge

he could have done better on the Jordi Alba chance at the near post. So you're feeling a little shaken and it's wet, it's humid, the pitch is fast. There were a couple of dumb fouls. Edie Ocampo, who's been incredible as a, I think he's still, he's 21 as a do everything right back, commits a really rash challenge on a player. He's much faster than at the edge of the box in Luis Suarez to give Messi one of several dangerous set pieces around the area. And I was sort of thinking, all right, they finally, there's finally a bell tolling here for the area. And I was sort of thinking, all right, they finally, there's finally a bell tolling here for the Cinderella. And that's when Bearhalter picked up the yellow card that spends him for the final, which is just brutal because if, and you can correct

me on this, but I believe that the commentary team said that Conca have wiped the cards after the previous round, but they have not done so for this case. A lot of tournaments will wipe them at the semi-final stage so that a yellow card like this doesn't remove a key protagonist from the final. However, we got here by choice or by chance in the CONCACAF Mundo, the breakout star and the maybe most critical player in this run is going to be sidelined, which is just awful. But with the final not being for another month, and we heard what I think last week maybe that Gauld was days away from resuming full training.

So I'm hoping that we'll hear Ryan Gauld's music on the eve of the final and we'll have him replacing Bear Halter because that's probably the best case scenario at this point for if you if you want to try and replicate what what said Barralter has done. Although I will tell you I have been researching JC Nagando's eligibility for Canadian nationality because he has been again a part of this whole everyone has elevated their game everyone has stepped up everyone has played in a different way. You talk about those 20, 25 minutes and Miami comes out to get the early goal. They put Vancouver under pressure. Vancouver created two or three chances in that, but they were not Vancouver chances. One was a slip by Falcone that Brian White's able to take advantage of breaking into the box. And I was worried for one reason because

it didn't feel like the Vancouver team we've come to know over this year. And for the other reason, as I think Stu and John talked about pretty consistently on the broadcast of, you have to take out into Miami when you get the chance because they don't stay on the ropes. And LAFC will tell you that and literally every team in Major League Soccer that plays them in the league will tell you that. And Vancouver were able to find their feet once again. And as you said, Sebastian Burrhalter, a huge part of that. Let's have the convo right now. Is he a US national team player? Well, I'm going to start with my preferred personal agenda here, which is that if what I'm hearing out of British Columbia is correct and he's been his time in Vancouver, which has now been

several years, has been logging him time towards residency. I think we got to get him a Canadian passport. This is going to be my agenda. I know he's probably going to laugh at me if I can actually bring this up to the player, but I want Seb Berhalter to play for Jesse Marsh's Les Rouge Canadian national team. That's my personal agenda here. And you're going to tell me there's going to be immigration lawyers in the mentions. I get it. But I still like we got to push this on a slightly more realistic note. Yes. I mean, of course, like,

listen, I say this all the time in the national team context. What you do at the club level is what opens the door, right? We're not saying he's going to be a starter. We're not even we don't know if this is a game day player. He deserves the chance to be in the environment. And I think Pochettino has shown that that's somewhat analogous to his approach pretty eminently right now, you know, like with the way he's handled Luna, the way he's dived into January camp, right? Which we thought maybe someone with a European perspective would think, what is this?

Why do I have to do this? That was certainly Juergen Klinsman's vibe on the January camp. But Pochettino wants to build the pool. He wants to shake things up. He wants hunger and a lack of security or complacency among every level of his squad and player pool. And listen, this is not just about MLS. He's been arguably the best two-way midfielder in MLS, but Seber Halter has also been an elite player on the continent. So respect it. He's doing this against top players at top Mexican clubs as well.

Yup. Yeah, you can't say, well, I don't know if he can perform at a gold cup level when he's performed in CONCACAF for the last five months at the level he's done it. So I agree with you. I think he deserves the opportunity. I think he's an interesting player because his possession quality is so high. And I think he drives the game forward, not as a true creator all the time, but he understands how to get into the attacking third. He clearly understands the runs to make on the end of things.

His finishing has been unbelievable over the last few weeks. I mean, the goal this weekend is absurd. That's the highest level you can finish at. And so I think he adds things that's missing. Also, you can't watch all of this and not want that grit. You can't watch this and say this guy has found ways to stick to his game and play his game in tough atmospheres on the road at altitude in humidity against tough opponents with the game against him or with the game for him. Right? He talked yesterday after the game about the banner

in the first leg with the Whitecaps fans put up. You allowed us to dream again, sold out BC place right for a club and we had Axel Schuster on the show two weeks ago. They're being sold. They have a stadium announcement that is mainly just to say like we want to stay here. Like there is so much going against this. And I think one of the things we see the US struggle with is the pressure of positivity even of like, oh, we're supposed to win. The crowd is here for

us. Everything is set up well for us. And Sebastian Berhalter has handled all of that at a high level this year and has played at an incredible level and should be up for golden ball in this tournament as well. And I think if we pan out a little bit further even, there was a lot of skies falling, panic or something approaching it, the last window with just the stakes of that tournament relative, whatever you think of Concordia Nations League as a concept,

this has become the gathering for the A-teams of the Concacaf elite. The finals weekend is big, right? There's just not that many data points at a high level competition with your A-squad and they biffed it, right? So then if you stop and go, okay, you still have more than a year until this tournament on home soil, think about the teams of the past that, you know, of all national teams in the world that have had great tournaments after dodgy qualification cycles or lead ups, right? I think the all-time example is that Danish team of whenever that was, 88 or 92, that

didn't even qualify, failed to qualify, only gets to back in at the last minute because I think it was Serbia or Yugoslavia lost their slot or something relating to geopolitics and they go on and just have this incredible run. There's other teams, some of the US teams that had great runs at the World Cup didn't necessarily show that in qualifying. Start to think about what the trajectory of this team reaching expectations or exceeding them next summer, it's going to be a late run type of situation.

It's going to be finding momentum quickly, getting something to gel, creating a little bit of magic. So, okay, so what does that look like in terms of how you actually build the squad and like, think of the energy, the dynamism in every context on the pitch, off the pitch, in the conversations that you get from someone with a story like Seb Berhalter, just coming in and shaking things up. I mean, Diego Luna has already done that in the first couple of months of this year.

You want, I think you want to multiply that if you're Pach. Yeah, Berhalter has a little bit now of the, I went out and figured out my career, which I think is a responsibility and a maturity that we're not seeing for everyone. I think that's part of this conversation right now of like pathway and what it leads to and all that type of stuff. He came up through Columbus where I will tell you he was a star like he was and

it was at a time when Columbus's Academy was not in a good place. He was like a hope for them that he and Tyler Wolf would be these home groans and obviously Greg Burlter and Josh Wolf coaching the team. So it was like kind of just a fortunate situation. Goes on loan to Austin because he's struggling to get first few minutes. It doesn't work out. Comes back, can't play, gets sent to Vancouver.

And I remind everyone last year, I think in the playoffs, he was playing right wing back for this Vancouver team. So he was doing enough to get on the field, but not in a central position, not in a position to create the game. And he was doing enough to get on the field, but not in a central position, not in a position to create the game. And he was pretty much out there to serve deep crosses to Brian White. And like his service was good enough that he struggled at that position. Like I think he struggled with belonging speed and he's not a right back. So that's pretty understandable. And you think about all these players, Tyler Wolf, a good example, like Tyler

Wolf's an MLS player. It's hard to find your feet, it's hard to be a great professional. And I think with Sebastian Brault, or most of us just thought like, okay, he'll be on rosters, right, he'll move teams. As his career goes along, he'll become a veteran presence. And he'll get pulled into young teams or teams that are hoping they're about to get over the line and fill in some minutes at the center mid position at the six at the eight, whatever it is.

And so for him to sort of understand that the next level existed and obviously the combination of playing under Jesper Sorensen is a huge part of that with the way they play, the possession they play with. And it's funny then when you look over at what Greg has built in his career and obviously what Sebastian was raised in and what he wanted to accomplish. It is awesome to watch. He's not the only one. Ali Admed, unbelievable in this game as he has been for what two plus years now. He is one of the best wide players. Sabi gets the start for like the second time in a row, but it had been Jaden Nelson's spot. And again,

Esper Sorensen pushing the right buttons, finding the right pieces. And I think you could go across the board man for man, including that Brian White finish. That is like top level stuff to be able to finish across your body with the momentum going the other way and to do it so delicately that it's able to find that far post, it was unbelievable to watch. Clinical, clinical.

I mean, and again, I think I could imagine there's striker positional coaches out there who will use the film of that goal as a learning resource because just the elite understanding of space in the box, finding separation. I mean, he's just a classic, you know, pushes the two center backs, occupies the attention of both center backs, looks like he's going to split them, slams on the brakes and finds

himself in a little five yard pocket right at the penalty spot and knows exactly what to do. Clinical finish, tucks inside the far post. I mean, just amazing. And it was a run from Bearhalter, seeing the space, interpreting it, moving into it. You know, I think the, we have, because, yeah, it's a complicated conversation, but like there's a lot of coaches sons and, and, and I think it, there's probably a few examples of coaches daughters too. And we'll probably see a lot

more of those going forward as the development picture evolves on the women's side. But it's so hard to have a proper useful conversation about coaches' kids because someone like Bear Halter is almost a corollary or maybe the mirror image of a GeoReina type situation where these guys and girls have come up in 24-7, like ball is life, I call them, environments. But they also are inevitably connecting at some point to the network of their parents, of their parents' professional life. And so it can be very hard to tell where those lines begin and end. And obviously we see with GeoGate how messy it can really get, right? In worst case scenario.

And I urge everybody to go read Jeff Ruder's profile. And he had a 1v1 with Sebastian Berhalter this week, or maybe it was last week and it ran this week. But really got him talking a little bit about being Greg's kid and how that manifested itself. One positive way was during the lockdown and COVID, he went to Chicago and lived at home and was doing small-sided workouts

with Greg Burlter every day for months during a pandemic. That's a special opportunity. There were a lot of little environments like that that a lot of pros carved out, but that specific one, that's not nepotism, That's just like being in that culture and your family and having that advantage. I mean, Christian Pulisic is also a coach's kid, right? And that's one of the things, to me, it's a foundational element in why he's a special player. And so, Bearhalter had to leave and I think in the long term, we see it, he's still not that old,

right? I think he's 23. And he had a journey because he turned pro early and was an academy kid, but he did leave home. He got out from under Greg's shadow, had to show it on his own, had to grind and go relatively far, right? As far as you can go in this continent from what he was familiar with. And I think there's a lesson in there for every player and for maybe all of us even in life. I didn't know this. I just Googled to make sure Smashing Baralter was 23. It says he was born in London. So take away your Canada move. Is he the future of the English central midfield?

I didn't know. I don't know if he's eligible or not. Yeah, they don't have birthright citizenship. I don't, if I'm remembering correctly. So we'll see if he got the pay for it. Again, the immigration lawyers in the In the chat will need to weigh in Shout out to my on zilberstein who said just got home from Miami

Can't sleep even though I couldn't sleep on the plane seeing that soccer rises live is the best thing that could have happened Shout out to the Vancouver fans and the white caps as a club who clearly were able to get it I think they brought a decent chunk of Academy players as well for this experience. You saw the team run to the corner to celebrate with the fans. It felt like a major part of the stadium. It was a really cool atmosphere, I think overall,

and that was a really cool element of all of this. We're gonna get to Miami, I think, in a second, because it's a huge part of this story, but I am at this point just like rolling through players Pedro Vitae Megan Jordi Alba the end of the game. He's a special player again. He's I loved what actual Schuster said on our show when we talked about it if you haven't listened to it He he said like we gave him a plan The plan was not you'll play tomorrow, right?

The plan was development and his agent came to him and said, you're not playing. What do you want to do? And he's like, no, no, I'm fine. Like this is the plan. It's going according to plan. I think that's really cool. There's a ton of trust there. Um, he's a special player. He has special qualities. The question was, can he do the like last 3% to get on the field? He started doing that as a deeper midfielder and proved like, okay, I'm mature enough to be out there. And now you get to see the the field. He started doing that as a deeper midfielder and proved like okay I'm mature enough to be out there and now you get to see the fun

stuff and it's all come together it's all combined without him playing this way I don't think they can do it without Gull because he's the DP like the way he's played I think in large segments of this run and it's not only him everyone has as we've rattled off Oh compo has been incredible for halter Kubas all of that, but I think he's like that, you know, two three percent Quality on the top has been a difference maker and that album moment. I think was just pretty Indicative of everything all together that goes on we talked this about this a little bit on Tuesday But we didn't know what would happen of what it would mean to the two clubs So what do you sort of as you sit here looking at a Vancouver going into a final?

Maybe hosting a final which we can discuss as well What it means to this group to the fans to this club overall right now Yeah, it's it's amazing to me because they're they are changing in real time It's amazing to me because they are changing in real time, everyone's internally and externally, everyone's perception of what's possible in Vancouver for the Vancouver Whitecaps, I think even for soccer in Canada. The MLS Canada relationship has always been

a little bit complicated and occasionally even fraught. Can I just throw this in there? I understand it's not apples to oranges because one Canadian team gets in every time. But there are now in the modern era, seven MLS teams that will play in a CCC final, CCL final, whatever you want to call it. Four of the 27 available American-based teams, that doesn't include teams that have folded

but San Diego hasn't had a chance, whatever. And now all three Canadian sites, TFC in 2018, Montreal in 2015, and now Vancouver. That is pretty incredible. Even though you get a shot every year, you still get you get five American teams that get in every year and they don't all make it. It is like kind of absurd that that is possible. And like you said, this moment for Canada. Sorry. No, it's okay. It's a really important part of the conversation because that is over performance. Yes, they have, you could argue that the Canadian Championship is an easier path in, but it's

actually not all that different. I would argue that the lift is comparable to the Open Cup and plenty of teams have chosen not to prioritize the Open Cup. Plenty of MLS teams south of the border have chosen not to prioritize Conca Champions. I mean, we have the infamous Colorado Rapids run of, oh gosh, I'm going to blank now. I'm going to say 2017, 2018. Yeah, maybe it was against Toronto. So like so it was maybe part of Toronto's 2018 run. Anthony Hudson, the new coach of the Rapids saying this is a preseason for us and just punting it right. And that actually may have been the Toronto's first first round

opponent in 18. Yeah, I think it was. But like and back when there was a group stage and you started in the fall and finished in the spring, it was like a lot of you know, coaches saw it as a hindrance to the playoff push. So it taps into the wider, I think, conversation about soccer in Canada being a little distinct. It's not the same, right? It's not the 51st state. Sorry, guys. It is a different context. There was so much fatalism, I think, that I detected in and around Vancouver and maybe Canada in general when the YCAP sale, going up for sale was announced, especially with the context of the NBA's Grizzlies, right? And they're not the only ones. This happened in the NHL too. This perception in Canada, I think, is not necessarily why they understood

in the US that even a mediocre market in the US will be more lucrative and more attractive for a US-based professional sports entity because of the exchange rate, because of how media markets work. I don't want to get too far into the inside baseball here because the Apple deal is a little different now, but in general, when you're looking at the broadcast environment in the United States, like sort of Canadian teams, you could argue maybe Toronto, but in general, like the border sort of limits the economic viability or caps it of those of those teams in Canada, especially the small market.

So there was I mean, people were in my DMs, you know, when we talk about the white caps, like, oh, I mean, they're headed for Indiana, like they're going to Indianapolis. And it's like, okay, I get it. That's the flavor of the month in terms of the MLS expansion conversation and a city that wants to build a stadium and stuff. But let's pan back for a second here. Indianapolis is not on the level of Vancouver as a world city, right? And part of the interesting thing about the sale is, you know, they are not one of the wealthier ownership groups.

If some days, if even a moderately more well-heeled ownership group comes in to replace them, like you could make, you could absolutely do with Vancouver what Toronto and Maple Leaf Sports Entertainment have done with Toronto and taking a big market and acting like it and acting like a big club in a big city. They do consider the Whitecaps, they consider the city, the quality of life, the natural beauty, the cultural diversity to be part of their recruiting pitch. They haven't spent a ton of money up to now, although there's been a steady increase. And when you look at the wages that Gald is on, when you look at what Stuart Armstrong was on in the brief time, we haven't even mentioned this.

They brought what was supposed to be the final piece last summer at the end of the transfer window, like the DP that was going to push them over the top after always seeming like a little short on elite talent, right? He leaves ahead of schedule, bolts back to England. They don't actually replace him and they're levels ahead of what they were even in those promising final months of 2024. So anyway, it's fascinating to me because I think in almost in a comparable way to what's happened in Columbus where you had this supposedly troubled franchise in a small market is now a model club, right? Because a different perspective arrived.

I mean, who knows, man? I hope that's the outcome in Vancouver. Yep. Axel said, I didn't want this to be a wasted season. I think it not being has potential. I said it on Tuesday, went on a whole rant about the movie Major League and all of that. We don't know how things work. I will say in being around this world and being around people you think are big deal

decision makers, the world is a dumber place than I realized. And people who have a lot of money or make big decisions are not as intelligent as I realized. And these flash in the pan moments might actually matter. This might be some billionaires walking through the airport and saw the game and everyone standing around watching it and asked what it was and in six months they owned the team or something like that and that's how it could go down or it could be that they see everyone showing up to BC place for a CONCACAF final because the potential does still exist that Vancouver could host this game.

So what they did was CONCACAF created a standings for the final six games of this competition, which is basically erasing the first round for all the teams going into the final. And there's a table with results out of that for who will host this one game final. Reminder that they moved last year to the one game potentially home host final. And so the two legs go into this one final and you have to pick a host from it. Last year was Pachuca, the Columbus fans yesterday already making the jokes about laxatives

and all the other stuff because of what happened to them. They feel that they were food poisoned or whatever Going into the final and struggled to get the results against Pachuca in which actually thought you saw a lot of the good soccer so with the 3-1 win for Vancouver they moved from the bottom obviously past inter Miami But they put themselves in the potential to actually host the final so I believe a draw of any sort between Cruisers Ull and Club Ameri- Cruisers Ull and Tigres sorry tonight would see Vancouver host the final. A win for either team and they're done

because they would be behind on pure points but the draw because of their goal differential with the 3-1 win in the last round would give them the opportunity. I say that though with a caveat, which is apparently it's written in the rules that CONCACAF reserves the right to grant the hosting rights to the club with the highest standings or to whatever place they see fit, I believe, is somewhere in the language as well. So on top of all of this, the potential exists that like, this game could be played in Kingston, Jamaica, if that's what Cockacaf decides. I love that idea. Gus, let's make that happen.

The office. It's another long trip for Vancouver. No, I think you nailed it there from what I understand, reading the rule books, talking to people. I was actually surprised to hear relatively strong confirmation from trustworthy sources that this is the deal, a draw tonight and the final is at BC Place in Vancouver. I instinctively immediately sort of pushed back because CONCACAF has left themselves this rather large loophole that they can actually put it where they want.

And I guess we should probably, this is a good time to talk about that change in general. I think it was last year was the first year they went to a single leg final. I'm baffled, I've still baffled as to why this is happening. I think that this is sort of comparable to an MLS shifted from a neutral site MLS cup final to the higher of the two, higher seeded of the two teams hosting. I think you want to have, if you can't do the Super Bowl, right? Everybody would love to be able to do a Super Bowl type extravaganza at a neutral site and have everything sorted out ahead of schedule and be able to plan around it.

But that's predicated on institutionally strong demand for your product in terms of filling the stadium and broadcasting and so forth. So I think CONCCAF wants to have the Champions League final like they do in Europe where this is a spectacle and you can have it anywhere and you know that it's going to matter. But I guess that they're not quite confident enough in neutral site ticket sales and juice and in general, the buzz that you want for an event like that. So they're going to keep doing this sort of hybrid seating system. To me, it's sort of the worst of both worlds.

I guess, again, if you look at life as a telenovela, then maybe it's a fun plot twist, right? I mean, if it comes down to like that, those one or two more goals last night, padding their aggregate lead on messy's Miami is what gets them to hosting rights. I mean, that's incredible. I guess you could argue that it's merit based because it's fundamentally based on your results and your goal scoring output and stuff. But let's call a spade a spade on this one.

Vancouver played Supriza in the opening round and Cruz Azul played Real Hope and won 7-0. It's true. Right. So if that's the difference of what ends up happening, I think that is a little bit rough. And you could go a little deeper and say coefficients, right? Success over a long period of time, the way you qualify matters in some of this. Like, you know, if you're a champion, you get potentially a buyer, you get a different team.

I guess the reason it has to be the six games is because of the buy. Oh, sorry. So that game doesn't count. Yeah. Yeah, that was my mistake. My bad. You start to see the thought process, right?

Or at least we're making reasonable assumptions. But you say worst of both worlds because you can't have the neutral side as you said. It just won't be the event you want. So then you get the full advantage to one team. Stretch it across two legs. Make it home and away. If you're going to put it in someone's building,

I think you have to make it two legs if that's the way you've played this whole thing out. But that's just me too. Yeah. Me too. I think there's an old school element when you think back to some of these, again, we talk about these great MLS runs, right? Real Salt Lake, Monterey was an incredible final and the two-legged nature of it was part of that, right? Just like the chess match and the psychology of holding serve at home and every moment mattering and every aspect of… Beckerman got suspended for the second game in the first leg.

That was a huge storyline for a week. And the fact that even a positive result, I mean, this is another conventional wisdom that the Y-Caps are sort of overturning. They've not gotten, they've not made it exactly a fortress, right? I mean, it was the, turns out the two nil in Vancouver in leg one of this fixture was massive, but they had, they left themselves so much to do. I mean, there's that familiar sinking feeling for MLS teams at the end of the first leg when they're as so often as a case, they're hosting the first leg and you're thinking all we get is a draw here and now we have to go to two miles high, right?

We have to go to Mexico City or we have to go to Leon or usually high altitude for boating, imposing trips far from home. And that's just typically been a house of horrors for MLS teams. And again, they keep getting these positive results, but for sure, there's just typically been a house of horrors for MLS teams. And again, they've they keep getting these positive results. But for sure, you know, it's there's just too much. There's just too much randomness built into 90 minutes as opposed to 180, I think. Yeah. Let's move to Inter Miami here, because that's a huge part of this story as well.

I shout out to Christopher in the chat who says from an Inter Miami fan, congrats to Vancouver on playing an incredible series. Heronhead says Vancouver played a great game, but Javier Mascherano has some serious issues to take care of. He's not playing his best 11 and it's very apparent. And then someone, egg says Miami shitting the bed repeatedly is what I live for until the line will run. This has been tied now back to the playoff series from last year So there as the best team in MLS history Upset in their first round against Atlanta last year and then you swing forward to this a trophy. They've said they want to win Messy went on turf and played the full game up in Vancouver they sat their regulars on the weekend to help them be fresh for this game

and they fall at this final hurdle in the semi-finals. I think it ends up being the same scoreline as it was against Monterey last year when they kind of got worked at this level as well. The feeling was it might be a little different with the familiarity of playing inside of MLS, although against a Vancouver team that hadn't really played much before. What has been your reactions to Inter Miami, to the loss, the performance in a big stage, in a knockout competition like this? Yes. Things can change so quickly in this game with brutal speed. So going into this series, as we were getting ready, it's been a long week, but we're only going back to last Thursday, right? The first leg happened. Miami had not lost a match, right?

And now they've suddenly lost three in a row. All hell is breaking loose among their fan base. Everyone's raging. All the old doubts about Mascherano's experience, his checkered results with the Argentine youth national teams, the doubts about his experience and his preparedness for this level of job are now flooding back. I mean, just this raging torrent of doubt and criticism to the point that I really wondered, wow, is this a big enough fracaso that they would actually just can him right now? I don't think so because I don't think this ownership group is that short-termist. And I think there's so much emotional relationship capital invested in this friend of Messi running

the show. And I think he gets the season unless they really go into an abject tailspin. But you know, from being, from not having lost a game yet over months to now having so much of a storm swirling above them, I mean, it's really remarkable. But it is, there's a lot of new protagonists, right? Mascherano now instead of Tata, but a lot of the same questions are back. This team defends poorly. It's truly a double-edged sword because the top-heavy nature of the squad and the 11 with

Messi and Suarez typically and so much attacking power inevitably sort of leads to, has so far at least inevitably led to these open games. It seemed like Mascherano had gotten a handle on the collective performance, collective organization, dictating the tempo of a match both with and without the ball, just having a little bit more discipline, right? They consistently won last year and won a supporter shield with ability to live in chaotic environments and survive, oftentimes being let off the hook. They can't keep getting away with this. Meme has been the story of the messy era. And now suddenly it turns

out high level competitions, high leverage moments, you can't actually keep getting away with it. It was Vancouver getting away with things, but always having a shape and a collective identity to fall back on. And Messi was a little bit off it, right? He created some really good looks last night and was generally just missing the target. He fired a few inches or feet wide of a post and I was just thinking he's bailed them out a lot, the belief that they know they're never out of a game with him and you saw them continue to go forward even when all hope seemed lost. You have that with the goat on your team, but he cannot paper over every crack.

And there was the messy dependency discourse happened a lot during Barcelona's down moments when he was there and I think we're going to be back on that again now. Yeah, there is there's the whole messy side of things and what he needs to do and what he can do. There's roster building questions around a lot of this. As I read in the chat, there's lineup questions. I think Yannick Bright's one that comes to mind in this game with the way Redondo's played and what he's given you. Ian Frey, another name I think that comes to mind for a lot of people. We have fire in the chat right now about Fafa Pico getting zero minutes. I think that's the nature of having a little bit of Vancouver-Miami crossover right now in his career.

But you do have these moments where it's like, if Redondo didn't cost this much and Yannick Bright didn't get paid this much, who would be starting? And I thought, I think the hope was Javier Mastrana was above a lot of that because he's Javier Mastrana. What does he care? And I don't know if he is or isn't because I can very rarely see a situation where he's in training and he's like, Federico Redondo is one of the best, like one of the 11 best players on this team. He deserves to be on the field. The way he affects the game and the performances you get out of that, that I think is the harder part to find. I thought Frey was really good on the weekend.

I think he's been good in multiple positions. And that's another spot. The league is built to try and keep some level of parity. And inside of that, you have Miami's ability to spend whatever they want on their DPs and then try and work along the margins in other spots. You could say there's not enough space to spend, but at the same time, the money they've spent has been bad. They have not been able to find centerbacks, and they haven't been able to find centerbacks

in the same profile that other MLS teams are out there looking for centerbacks. And so it's not like, oh, we overspent in all these places to build this super team and we couldn't do anything about it and we had to play Ryan Saylor, you know, 2300 minutes this year. They've gone out and they've signed the Falcons of the world, Toto Aviles as a U22 has been a train wreck of assigning now in two positions, playing a little center

mid for them this weekend. Centerback has been this center mid for them. This weekend, center back has been this huge hole for them now over two years. And I think some people take a little bit of a cut to play with Messi and come. But it feels like in that pool of whoever that is, either they're not picking the right profiles or they're not putting them in the right positions. And you talk about how fast things change. Like I complimented Mascherano coming out of Columbus being like, oh, he figured out how to win games for Miami when they're not ball dominant and dangerous and super, you know, goal creative and all of that.

Like they found this other playbook and then it feels like it all went out the window going into the Vancouver series in which they overexpose themselves. They opened themselves up and then they were punished this time because the Vancouver Whitecaps were doing what Atlanta did last year, which is like putting that extra two, three percent in on top of all of that. And Machirano used the phrase concentration game on Tuesday, match day minus one. And they had Maxi Falcone was the player speaking to the media next to him in the press conference and he was supposed to be the guy, right?

They've cycled through a few of these guys who they can't spend a designated player spot on a center back. Most MLS teams don't, right? This is one of the sort of pressure points within MLS of squad building is, you know, short of having a sort of unicorn like what Walker Zimmerman type profile, you have to find value. And they've consistently looked to South America to try and find those value players who can perform at high levels, who can fit into everything.

They knew going in, they were open about the fact that their defense would be on an island at times with Vancouver's strength and transition, with the risks they were going to have to take to overcome a two-nil aggregate advantage for the Whitecaps. It was so clear. It was so explicit that so much was on Falcon's shoulders and the guys around him. Alba was cheating. The first goal comes from him. I mean, the first goal comes from him. And again, I want to emphasize these are small margin in situations. These are big games being decided in certain moments. The Miami goal comes from Alba ranging forward. And the one change in Vancouver's 11 was Sabi coming in for Rios on that attacking right

wing spot. And it looked like there was a mix up where Sabi didn't, and I don't want to try and speculate as to what their defensive shape was for that specific instance for Vancouver. But he's well behind the play jogging, watching as there's an overload created against Ocampo on the right corner.

And it was like, oh man, that could be the moment, right? Because that's the perfect situation for Miami. They get the early goal. So much sort of the Vancouver poison belief will be shaken by that. And then it was, and again, we talked earlier about them being on the ropes, going into halftime. What a, I mean, the game change,

like the game was won in the five minutes after the break. The two teams come out in vastly different mental states, it appears. I know it may be simplistic to point to the coaches on that, but something happened. More got done in the Voight-Kapps locker room because they went for the juggler in that moment and Miami was simply not prepared. And at the end of the day, that does have to rest, I think, on the coach. But also in this case, this is a committee, right? This is an extremely talented veteran core that leads and is the figurehead of this group,

and I think there has to be some level of responsibility for them as well. I don't know how to put into context calling a team a failure that set the points record last year. Like, I just don't really know what to do with it, where we are supposed to sit here and try and figure out why they can't get results in knockout games

and talk about the issues. And you think of in the telenovela conversation, like maybe that's an atmosphere that's too hard for a lot of players to deal with. And Javier Mascherano saying like, I don't tell boost gets things cause he's a better defensive midfielder than I am. Maybe that works but doesn't work in an environment where other players do need more guidance or see him not talking to that player and they struggle with it

or Busquets is giving different directions maybe to Redondo and Janek Bright and all of that. I I don't know any of this for sure but then I struggle with the fact like what can we say when they did the thing last year? And I think we could have Doyle jump in on a supporter shield truth or situation on his Captain America shield or whatever. But like I think that is also what's tough about all of this is for this now to combat, you know, cup competitions, you could throw Champions League Champions Cup from last year and as well. is for this now, two Cup competitions. You could throw Champions League, Champions Cup

from last year and as well. They obviously won Leagues Cup when Messi arrived. Maybe it's the difference between flow of a season and intensity of a knockout, but I also just find it really hard to contextualize what we've seen so far in the Messi time period. And you can't separate Miami's on the field decision-making and performances and outcomes

from the whole complicated backstory, right? I mean, literally there's being, there are books being written about this project and it is, we always laugh right at the overuse of the word project in world soccer, but like this is absolutely a project and has so many different levels. And the fact that who's left, right? Who got shipped out of Miami and who stayed? Moshrano did not hesitate to bench Julian Gressel and being black hole, right?

He was absolutely... I don't even know if he was at what games he even dressed for, if any, this season. Macharoon had made it so clear that he had made a decision that Julian Gressel, who's one of your experienced veteran MLS guys, MLS knowers, had nothing to offer his group, despite being on somewhere around a million dollars in salary and all that. And so he eventually gets shipped out to Minnesota. Robert Taylor, who was again, one of those key cogs, role players, one level below the surface, someone who is a force, Messi is multiplying the force of those around him,

right? And bringing out the best and in turn the role players help them cover up for the aging legs and so forth. I mean, Yannick Bright is the reason that Sergio Busquets often, when he looks like the Busquets of old, it's because he's got a dog next to him who just works for him. You and H dog.

A phantom dog, right? They're the phantoms, right? Am I remembering that right? I have no idea. I could picture it, but I couldn't think of it. I'm probably blowing that. But anyway, so like, yeah, and I was talking about that the other night. I mean, that Yannick Bright being second to Redondo, okay, like we can talk about Pedigree.

I like Redondo as a player. I think he's bringing a lot to the table, but that's a fine line sort of decision that he made in both legs. I don't think it worked out for him, right? And again, Robert Taylor turns out to be the one that has the most value as they're looking to improve their cap situation and all the budgeting side of things. So he's the one that gets shipped out. Well, maybe think about who doesn't have perceived value around the rest of MLS.

I think that's a really notable part of this. They're such an outlier in some ways, but they're living and dying by that because they've had to put their eggs in a basket like Maxie Falcon. It's tough, man. The guy's only been here a few months and there's always a big learning curve with MLS and North America in general, right? Those are the decisions they made and they've gotten burned. I will say, and I think Doyle has earned the right to brag a little bit on some of

those predictions because I thought this was going to be the opposite. And I think a lot of other people who follow the league felt that this team was going to be a little too old maybe or not quite balanced enough to be a shield contender. But in these one-off moments or these two-off moments like a CCL series or a playoff series, surely in that environment with the clutch performers that you have in that squad, they can cover up deficiencies for 90 minutes at a time or 360 minutes for a time or whatever. That's why everything going the way it has in them not being a tournament team is still gobsmacked me. Yeah. There's so much weird stuff in all of this.

And you go through the names of the people you said and it's like, I said when they came in, Messi and friends, like, oh, well, you need to have some MLS experience in there. And that's where you get the Gressels and the Tailors of the World and all of that. But Alba and Busquets and Messi are MLS experience now. They've been around for two years so they don't really need that anymore and that's where it's interesting where I think the offseason made sense. Let's get younger. Segovia, Allende, Speed, Obondo, it made a lot of sense to do that and all of those players have struggled in these big moments. I mean Toto Aviles is like the obviously biggest example and of course

Last year in the playoffs going down with the cramp in the middle of the play and that leads to the goal and all of that I think I end a struggled yesterday was put in two really good situations He's out there to be a finisher did not do that. I think Segovia floats in and out of the games I've said it a million times on this show. I think he looks worse with Messi because they fill similar areas. The idea though to bring them in and be like, okay, we'll be fresher over the course of the year is funny because you expect to have Messi more this year, right? You don't have a Copa America. You're hoping he doesn't get hurt. You know he's not going to leave for that. And you now have had him settled in a little bit longer. It's almost like they're doing this in reverse. This is the group you would have thought you would put together last year, then you would

have got a bit more veteran to get over the line this year. But I guess it doesn't really matter because the veterans struggled against Atlanta last year as well. So and and again, I don't know how much of this falls on the drama that goes around. Thoughts on Martino quit like 15 hours after they played their final game against Atlanta that cannot have been a Stable environment going into that game And as you said, Javier Mascherano first time head coach first time in this region It's a few months in it's a tough order to try and win a semi-final in a big moment in saying that Yes, for Sorenson just did the exact same thing and you could argue with

less resources, but also was able to turn a team around and change things. And Vancouver is headed to a CONCACAF Champions Cup final. We will learn who the host will be, as I said, and the opponent, either Cruz Azul or Tigres. I think both of them, clubs for both of us growing up in this region that are Gigantes, Tigres later on in life but now it's over a decade of them established as the biggest spender and the biggest team and Cruises Azul not as successful in finals as they'd like to be but overall one of the biggest teams in the region. I think they're expecting 40 plus thousand fans at their game. Either way this is going to be one of those runs you in the region. I think they're expecting 40 plus thousand fans at their

game. Either way, this is going to be one of those runs you look back on if Vancouver finishes off of like, I say it with Toronto in 2018 because I think that's the best example of like, they beat all the bosses. You go to Monterey, you knock off Pumas who just went to a final, you knock off Messi and friends in Miami. And whether they go to Mexico or host I mean Tigress is a huge one because I remember the Brexey years of like Vancouver against Tgress Jean-Yac against Brexey Those are the two stars that you would have put on a graphic going into those games and it feels very different Going into the situation right now one of the things to note as we move now into a little bit of league play is...

I do want to catch you on one thing, Dave, also. Because I know that there'll be pettents that will catch us on this. One small advantage Vancouver had in that Monterey series, that game, that second leg was not at BBVA. That was at... They had to move it for a concert. It was a concert? It was something...

I think so, yeah. Something where you see like... It was a very Vancouver situation. The team that had their, it's probably karmically due for the team that lost a home CCC game to a garden show at their stadium. Not that long ago. So they earned it, right?

But it was at Santos Stadium in Torreón, Estadio Corona rather than, so it's still a tough place to go. Maybe you could argue that fine margins, but undoubtedly we know how much they had to do. And I love, I just also want to say too, juicy plot lines no matter who gets through tonight because Tigres are just full of characters. They've broken so many MLS hearts, but tons of MLS ties over with Cruz Azul. They are led by an MLS cult hero, Enchente Sanchez, which is, I love this little detail

that a former Houston Dynamo and Colorado Rapid is running the show there and he's got an LAFC alum that he's got in his attack. And there might even be one or two other threads that I'm missing, but it's great to see that. Gakumakis? Yes, exactly. The cross-pollination of Liga Mekis and MLS is entertaining. If this ends up being the final, I will go on multiple rants. When Vicente Sanchez came to MLS, he was like 37 and he basically was a closer for the Colorado

Rapids Whether they were if they were up or down a goal one goal if they were within the one goal margin He would play the last like 17 minutes and I think he scored a bike kick like it was all it was like get penalties He was like, okay fine I'll do this for one more one or two more years and it was awesome And it was also one of those ones where I was like I've watched this guy before now he plays an MLS What is this and I felt the same way when I saw him on the sideline for Cruises all because he just got the job In the middle of the season. We were like, I know that person We used to go to school together, right?

And he went to Houston To finish his career, but also start his coaching tenure under Wilmer Cabrera and they even did the same thing He came out of retirement, I think he was like 40 or 41 or something, and did the same thing in USL for Rio Grande Valley, where Cabrera was a coach. And so, I mean, Wilmer Cabrera, who I believe is, he still is El Paso, I think, but the last I saw him,

he was in El Paso locomotive. I mean, talk that talk that talk Wilmer because you You you your tutelage has led Chente Sanchez to to the the Concacaf mountaintop. So that's pretty good He is in El Paso Shout out to Wilmer who coached me when I was a little kid for like 13 seconds You've got to be kidding on Long Island. Shout out to Long Island where I am Right now so Vancouver going into this weekend now I said this when we sort of talked about the run they've been on they have had no games canceled because of

Concacaf competition. This is something MLS had done in the past as the league sort of pushed I think a little bit more holistically to try and get a team over the line. It happened for RSL It happened for TFC, Montreal, I think Seattle as well in 2022. That has not been the case. So Vancouver, they've played the full allotment of games. Miami had played one less game because of the international break.

Miami hosts the New York Red Bulls this weekend. Vancouver hosts RSL this weekend as they can try to continue their run. I think I've heard rumors that maybe one of the games leading into the final might be moved as a chance to sort of give them some extra rest. I don't know any details around it. I'm sure we'll learn pretty soon.

But these two teams now go back into MLS play for Vancouver. It's been historically successful in Miami now. Like this is the thing to play for. The focus has to be shield at this point. Yeah. And the you're right that so there will be at least one match moved because Vancouver are currently scheduled to play a league match at home against Portland on May 31st, which is the day before the CCC final.

So we'll see that that'll get moved. Boy, it'll be so much fun if Oh, right. Because the game moves to a weekend for the single game again another another Quirk, right? Like why not? so yeah, so the part this is part of the the proverbial legendary infamous Conquer champions hangover, right? It's not just that you have to juggle two competitions so early in the season. And we haven't even gotten into the fact that if the Euro schedule truthers want to really

push their season calendar shift over the line, you got to use Conquer Champions. Like imagine if these teams like, I think Miami could figure this all out by the fall and be an absolute wagon in the playoffs. And I'd much rather see that team competing at continental level, but we don't have that right now. Maybe someday we will. But anyway, so now this team that just got its heart ripped out on live television in front of their home fans are now swirling in controversy and criticism, have to deal

with the New York Red Bulls a few days later, and they're gonna have these young guys pressing them while they're still sore from last night. And that's just, that's hard for anyone. Even the elite players in this league have struggled with that. The grind resumes immediately, and there's no pity. And May is a busy month for a lot of the MLS teams in terms of stacking up some games,

some midweeks are coming in. And that's a challenge. So I think both teams are going to have to rotate heavily. Vancouver are, I think it's going to be, my guess is one of two extremes. Either they kind of limp along and just let the kids get experience and see what happens and maybe get beat or drop points to Salt Lake. Or as we saw after the last round, they came out and out of nowhere, they absolutely demolished Austin FC 5-1 at BC Place.

It was just like, this is crazy. They're still sore from an incredible achievement in Mexico at altitude and they did that. Momentum is a powerful, bewitching thing in soccer and I could see it going either way there. You want on paper, you want to be playing these teams in this moment, right? This is the best chance Salt Lake is going to have to ambush the Whitecaps at their place. This is a great chance for the Red Bulls to steal a point, maybe even three off of this kind of reeling Miami side.

But for the Y-Caps, I mean the way they're feeling, and I guess you can construct a situation in which Messi and whoever else are pissed off and take it out on the Red Bulls, right? But again, that's a lift and I think we'll learn a lot about their culture in the locker room based on the kind of performance. If they do pull out a performance like that, I think it'll learn a lot about their culture in the locker room based on the kind of performance if they do pull out A performance like that. I think it's it'll say a lot of positive things about About the group and Mascher on his leadership And it felt like they had last week. They're up 3-1 against Dallas at home

So they've kind of put themselves in that position when they've been in these. Oh, this is a game We're looking past or we're not really sure but obviously the emotional toil I think on this one a little bit different For the weekend some really good games the biggest one being San Jose, Portland Two of the three top scoring teams in the league going up against each other they defend very little as a group and This one has the potential to be like a weird four three game Which I think both of them can't really control. So it's what you'd expect at this point.

Yeah, I love this game. I think this is the neutrals pick. If you if you're a chaos merchant, especially we got a 10 30 p.m. Eastern kickoff. It's out in San Jose. Maybe the Goonies energy, right? You have a Portland Timbers team that's been fun to watch entertaining at times, but also super open, really ragged. I think Phil Neville wants them to be a sturdy, stout, tough to beat defensive unit.

It's just not happening for him. So he's just got to ride the lightning and that's great for us neutrals. So I think that's one to tune in for. I mean, the quakes, I hope this keeps up. I mean, this is not necessarily Bruce Arena's brand, right? I think he'd like to stay to the ship and just tighten everything up. But he's working with what he's got. And right now he's got a ton of veteran attackers who want to show out. And let's hope he get a 5-4. I think hyping it now means we'll get a scoreless

draw, but that still seems very unlikely to me. It would be nice as well if a lot of the new pieces we saw move out the deadline become available to Juan Jones for San Jose, Omir Fernandez for Portland. We mentioned RSL. They got a huge win at San Diego last weekend. I think Luna has continued to elevate his game. That was a big part of it. San Diego right now struggling with some direct play, whether it's over the top or just down the middle

and getting counterpressed and making some mistakes. But you would like to see a gotta get into the team for this RSL team and Johnny Russell, which is like this. I think it's going to be Vicente Sanchez like of can you get the 17 minutes for Russell that gets you that steals you what one to four points over the course of the rest of this season Which would be huge for this team And I think that's sort of what they're looking for the whole weekend ends with the big Sunday game Kansas City hosting LA Galaxy it has now

You know Rotates around day on Yovlitch of course one of the first cash furs and MLS history One MLS Cup for the galaxy last year comes to KC. KC have found their feet under carries of Agnan. I don't know that they're impressive and the LA Galaxy are in a tailspit. And every week we did the show on Tuesday and Tom wants to talk a little about the chaos that is the LA Galaxy. But this now becomes like a must win for both of them to close out the weekend, Charlie.

Yeah, these are the two teams propping up the foot of the Western Conference. Standings Galaxy did win in CCC before that run came to an end, but they are still winless in the league, which is still incredible. It's May and they haven't won a league game. So just dire. So sort of a failure cascade there, I think, in terms of a collection of small cuts ending up being pretty devastating. So maybe at the start of the season, this wasn't what the executives would have hoped for the showcase matchup of the weekend on primetime Sunday night soccer, but that doesn't mean it won't be a fun game. And again, that's the charm of MLS, right? There's a great storyline here with Jovalic, who I talked to earlier this week. Just a real character, like a young guy, but a lot of personality and an interesting example

of kind of a child of MLS in some ways, right? This is a Serbian international. He was an elite prospect. He was at Eintracht Frankfurt as a teenager. Didn't quite shake out from there. Comes to Galaxy. Did everything he said he wanted to do. Becomes a Galaxy legend, scores the game-winning goal in MLS Cup final, and then immediately has to get shipped out because he's aged out of the U22 initiative. They've just spent millions upon millions of dollars on

their three designated players, not only in salaries but in transfer fees. And so he's got to go, right? Their best offer to him was not worthy of his value, much less the fact that he'd just taken them to a title. So he didn't want to, I don't think you could say, but like impressive statement by Sporting Kansas City to get that deal done in the face of interest from Tigris, who day on reminded me that his countryman was in charge of Tigris at the time. It would have been a Panovich-Joglick link up, which would have been wild.

And now he's the guy in Kansas City. He gets the contract that he wants. He is one of their designated players, but the guy who recruited him in the face of the club gets fired within weeks of his arrival, which with Peter Vermeese's long, long reign finally coming to an end, which was somehow both stunning and unsurprising, right? Because it had been almost 20 years, but they have been energized. They're two and two since Kari Zvagdun took over on an interim basis. They are becoming kind of a neutrals pick, maybe one to circle because they leak goals

but they score goals. When Jovovich is in elite number nine, he has some interesting players around him. You can see the link up. The chemistry is starting to build with Shopee, with Monte Garcia. So I think KC may end up being a fun team as long as they kind of keep throttling up. I think you and I are both suckers for these open, high-scoring, high-conceding kind of outfits. And so I'm hoping that the Galaxy maybe will feel inspired and finally get going.

At this point, the Galaxy are kind of a kids project, right? It's Peck and Paintsle and some kids that are trying to help them out and Christian Ramirez. So I do think it's got to click at some point. I don't think that Greg Vanni's seed is all that hot considering in light of how woeful the results have been. Everything's kind of in treading water mode until Rikipoosh gets back, which is a long time still, right, which I'm sure their fans are not loving that. But you can understand, right, that there's been some some credit has been accrued last year.

And I think it would have to get even worse for that credit to run out. It's hard to watch at times. Peck just doesn't look like himself. And it's very clear to me at least, that a lot of his success was because of the spaces he got into which was a lot of 1v1 play and a lot of transition because of the Attention that Ricky Puj drew and day on Yovlitch think Yovlitch has some cache and the way he played I think Affected back lines a little different maybe than what Christian Ramirez has done I think since because he hasn't been a part

of the galaxy and there's not really the like, oh, this is how he will hurt us. And Payne still being out was a huge part of this. But you see the cracks in all of this. The question marks last year in the playoffs of like defensively, are they good enough? And that shines a little brighter when you're not putting up four or five goals. As you said, Casey are becoming one of the top on the list of the watch teams. Manu Garcia is awesome. He's awesome in a way in which he works so hard for a 10. And any player like that, like I have time for, there's quality, there's finishing quality from him. There's that last pass quality, but he also is like throwing in tackles. He's covering a ton of ground. And I think that's helping shore up some of what's always been Casey's issue, which is

their defensive spine. And they've not had, you know, when Eric Tommy's played in that role and whatnot, I think they've been too easy to play against. It's also helped because they've now pressed a little higher, but you can only do that if the personnel is capable of it. And I think he adds to some of that. And so you're seeing a Daniel Shalloughly get into the right spots and all of that and I think there's I Wouldn't say a light at the end of the tunnel for SKC, but it has at least steady them into they are a competent team two teams left in Major League Soccer to yet to win a game Montreal and The LA Galaxy so both of them trying to overturn that this weekend

I think Montreal has I had it up in front of me and now I have it. They host Philadelphia, which is not an easy one. Montreal played yesterday. I think they won Canadian championship shootout against the Toronto FC, which I watched for like 40 minutes. Yeah. They won three two and a penalty kick shootout after a two two game. Giacomo Veroni. That's what I popped in my head. Giacomo Veroni with the final goal in the game has not played in MLS yet. They traded for him. He was already injured. And so now they're able to get them out there. I also just realized

I left the CONCACAPS up the entire show and I'm happy about it. I'm not going to be sad about that because I think they've earned it. It has been an awesome run to watch go down. Charlie, I think for some people listening, maybe they're like, Oh, it feels like you've done a lot about this, but MLS teams don't do this very often. And I think we've tried to hammer that home. It's also been super entertaining and super fun to watch and super fun to follow. So if you want to follow Charlie on Blue Sky, He is writing a ton of incredible pieces about them, about all of MLS and just talking about it all the time online. So Charlie, I appreciate

you taking the time to join us here. Hey, I'm so glad I got the call up, you know? Yeah, I'll tell Tom that he can, you know, he can go on vacation, do whatever he needs to do. He's going to transfer room, international trips, right? Like we got you, Tom. We got you. Yeah, yeah. You go to Antarctica, do what you have to do. We'll be here us the Vancouver Whitecaps and everyone else So thank you to all of you for listening. Thank you to everyone in the chat Congrats to the caps fans who just landed off the plane

Thanks to the inter Miami fans for being here and talking with us and we'll talk to all of you again very very soon.