SoccerWise - Club World Cup What Is Going To Happen? USMNT Reaction + Timbers DP Search

Episode Date: June 12, 2025

Jeff Rueter joins to break down all the wild and wacky news across our soccer world. 3:40 Michael Bradley Takes Over New York Red Bulls II7:45 Christian Pulisic’s Interview18:45 USMNT Two Game Reactions25:30 Will Anyone Watch The Club World Cup?30:30 MLS CWC Matchup Previews47:40 Timbers Forced To Look For Designated Player53:45 Minnesota & San Diego Challenging For The West   Soccerwise Live 2pm ET Every Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday on Youtube/Twitch/Twitter

You are now officially rocking with the best, David Goss and Tommy Scoops with you for another Soccer Wise Live here on Thursday afternoon. Anywhere you get your podcast whenever you want. But if you are watching, you see an extra backwards hat on screen, the athletic zone, Jeff Rooter, who is coming to save us. There was the potential to show was going to be 30 minutes of me reading Jeff's articles about previewing the club world's cup live. And instead Jeff's going to do it himself.

Yeah. I'm just, I've just got them all in front of me. We're going to do like a dry, like a shipyard documentation of everything I've written got them all in front of me. We're gonna do like a dry like a shipyard Documentation of everything I've written so far here the here the now have the presentation It is we don't know what this tournament is gonna be. It's gonna be a weird one It's a weird week in soccer time as we got together to be like, oh, let's prepare We recorded a little video that's gonna come out in a bit Previously, which is it is the one one year anniversary of the launch of soccer wise. So thank you to everyone who watches and listens. Jeff, thank you for all the work you've put in.

Did you see Jeff? Did he just cut his heart? My one appearance in my one live show after a US game. It's kept us alive. That was the super sub performances we needed at those times. No, I was brought in in the 93rd ice the game. That's what no Absolutely not that this was an 85th minute. Let's see if we can get an extra set piece and get him in the box No, we gave you eight more minutes That was more hurtful than if you just said yeah good to be honest I've never really been in a professional locker room unlike you who's clearly an athlete really been in a professional locker room unlike you who's clearly an athlete. Got some sand and topsoil dropped off.

I'm a honer over, no big deal. Just a blue collar guy who gets my shovel and my wheelbarrow. The guy drops it off and he goes, are you an athlete? You play baseball? You look like an athlete. I was like, I'm going to stop it. Who me? Little old me?

No chance. No, I'd say more. We do have Tom's pictures in his Darcy's Tavern baseball jerseys where... With like viper shades. Like, I look... He looked... Did you paint? Do you paint your cheeks? I paint all of it? No, OK. He... His dream is to be a washed out 1962 Dodgers minor league baseball player.

Middle reliever. Middle reliever. Yeah. And he's as close as he's ever been right now. And he's no further. So we have a lot to talk about on this show. We're going to get into the Club World Cup. Three MLS teams and three different groups are going to kick off. And then we're going to cook on our favorite players from Ulsan and Auckland City and Ahali and everywhere else in between. We've got some transfers. There's a ringer that's been brought in by LAFC. This is classic youth soccer of like, oh, we're going to this tournament. Why don't you come join us? Like, see if you like it. See if you're part of the crew. So they've done that. We have some MLS news to get into.

We'll probably talk about the schedule a lot because that's something that everyone really enjoys and has never been discussed We have a weekend of games coming up. So besides the club World Cup teams There's a Thursday night game NYCFC plays Atlantic's why not we won't talk about that because that's coming up pretty soon There's a Friday night game the Portland Timbers play We've got some news around them to talk about the first time and then there's a bunch of other games as well And we will touch on the US men's national team. If anyone's heard of them, they will be playing soccer as well right now, which we will discuss. But first, Tom, do you have anything to open the show

up with for us? I got some breaking news for you, David Goss. Are you ready? Yeah, let me steal myself. New York Red Bulls 2 are hiring US National Team legend Michael Bradley to be the club's head coach. This is the first head coaching job in Michael Bradley's coaching career, which is nice, a little poetic. This is where he started his playing career back when they were the Metro Stars. And now he starts his head coaching career with Red Bulls 2. Red Bull Global have already begun integrating him, and they see him as a really top young coaching talent that they want to have in their

System and help him develop and grow Wow Interesting I mean some some poetry there too where Bob Bradley gives Jesse Marsh his kind of entry point into it Michael begins with some assistant roles under Bob wish tobeck and then also, you know a guest spot with Canada this month like Yeah, you're building the tree it I don't know, does that still count as the Bob Bradley tree or are we onto the Jesse Marsh tree at this point? Well, Michael Bradley, I feel, kind of has to go to the Bob Bradley tree. Right. A family tree, coaching tree. But you can always, you can go all the way back up and you're just going to get to Bruce

Arena no matter how high you go. There you go. But so, yeah, like Jeff, that's a good point too. What I was told at the end of Michael's playing career was that, I forget if Jesse was still at Le end of Michael's playing career was that I forget if Jesse was still at Leeds or not at this point, if he was deciding on his next job. So many people I talked to was like, wherever Jesse goes, Michael was going to be his assist. That is going to be his first coaching job. And then there was a little bit of a delay with Jesse getting the job. Like Jesse thought he was getting the national team job. It's not new

news. People talked about it. He thought he was getting the US national team job. So I very safely assumed that's where Michael was going to go, that didn't happen. And then Bob Bradley kind of out of nowhere took the Staback job again, and Michael went and was an assistant for him. And then like you said, Jeff, he's been working with Canada under Jesse Marsh,

this international window. And like, I'm glad that they two got to work together because when Jesse was playing, Michael was going to training sessions when he was out there for 14, 15 15, those Chicago teams of incredible lore. And you look around, there's just, I don't know, like 12 coaches from those teams. So he's had a good educational soccer upbringing. Bob coached, obviously, the Metro stars at the time for a very short amount of time and

coached Princeton forever, which I think is he considers himself New Jersey soccer, Manny Shell shite from Seton Hall and everything else. So I think there's some poetic connection there. And I will say for Michael and Jesse to bring one of the most American attributes to Canada, which is inventing a tournament, winning it immediately and claiming yourself Canadian shield winners while making the trophy a cup, not a shield. God bless the United States of America. So congratulations to the Canadian national team. It was a cool setup for them. Ukraine and Ivory Coast, two tough teams. Like this is what Canada hasn't done enough of and they set it up in a way in which then they didn't have to play New Zealand, which is also pretty smart of like, yeah, they'll come, but like we're not going to spend time

playing them. That's not a part of what we do, but you guys can. You guys should do that. And they won, they were victorious. So Jesse Marsh riding into the gold cup on a high, and Michael Bradley taking over. So the dominoes here that no one cares about, but I'm gonna say is, Ibi Sevich stepped away as an assistant manager.

Ibrahim Sakaya, who's been around the Red Bulls, sorry, for almost his entire life. He was a Salzburg player, came the Red Bulls. Sorry for almost his entire life He was a Salzburg player came to Red Bulls as a player has coached now He moves in as an assistant and that's where the opening comes for Michael Bradley and it's seems like a pretty big push in MLS next Pro as we see, you know other really young coaches coming off the field stepping on But I think a chance to get people into your pipeline and into your system It's interesting because I wouldn't call what Bob did Red Bull soccer. So it'll be fascinating to see where Michael falls on that spectrum and how he connects to all of it.

But it's definitely gonna make Red Bulls 2 more mentioned than it did yesterday or any other time since Tom Starlow carried the crest alongside Brian White around, you know, playing in front of Jared Stroud. With David Goss and the Mike. To the best of days, man. I would love those offside of MSU Soccer Park interviews. I was gonna say, I'm not playing a state university. With Michael Bradley, that would have been a vibe. So I am jealous of whoever gets the opportunity to do that.

That takes us into our national team conversation now, where the current captain of the USMNT, I think it was, he is, right, Christian Pulisic is the captain of the national team? Well, I don't know, Tim Reams worn the armband more under Pulisic has, so that's always been a weird thing to me. At the World Cup, it was like four captains,

and it was like, you'll watch some of the things where everybody wears the armband. The blame for this falls on Jimmy Conrad, because Jimmy Conrad opened up the interview that he Charlie Davies and Tony Meola all friends of the show did with Christian Pulisic a few minutes Ago a few hours ago really today Where in which he got an opportunity sort of respond to a lot of the comments that have been coming his way of not playing This summer obviously we talked a bit about Landon's comments on the show on Tuesday I would be excited to never talk about it again in my life and yet here we are once again Tom Yeah, I'll just read out the quotes and Jeff you go take it in whatever direction you want

But here are some of the biggest ones and then first of all actually shout out to CBS Sports Golazo to Miola to Conrad to Davies That was good And they they got Christian to speak, and they didn't just toss softballs. They did push him on a few things, which again, I think that that was really good. So some of the biggest quotes to come out of this,

quote, to question my commitment, especially towards the national team, in my opinion, that is way out of line. Another quote, I didn't think it would become what it has become when asked about this level of controversy and Probably the biggest one is that he's Christian Christian says quote I did want to be part of at least the two friendlies, but they said no

I had to make to make the best decision for myself and in the long run for my team and in so many words There is no injury. This was a physical and mental break He didn't want to potentially play eight more games and then roll right into AC Milan preseason, which will then at the end of this European season, will roll right into the World Cup. So Pulisic wanted that break and he wanted to play these two friendlies, but that was it.

And for me, like I would have said no, I think about Spocatina too, but Jeff, any of those quotes, which way do you wanna go? Yeah, I think think that the you know Just the general I wanted to be there for the friendlies is very interesting Oh my because it's just like you start training next week like it later in the interview He says with Milan. I'm ready to start in a couple of days

It's just like so you wouldn't have had any break. So why did you want the friendlies? You wanted to play against Turkey in Switzerland? You didn't want to play against, you know, European nations Whatever guys that you come up against this area. You didn't want to play against, you know, your group draw. That's just, it's just very totally wrong because I'm seeing a lot of reactions to this. And here's my thought. You come off the season, he can't skip the friendlies and go to the gold cup. That's not an option, right? Yeah. So this is the only one. They're two high level games. They're close together. You come into camp, you play them and then you leave. To me that part isn't as crazy. And if Pochettino's saying, well, I want the whole group together, then that goal is to win the gold cup. Because having the whole

group together is like, Christian Ballista is going to be on the world cup roster. So if your goal is to build the best national team, like having him for some time seems more valuable than none. And that part I think is a little fascinating in like the decision-making above him that it played out that way. Yeah and we got a little more insight into how those decisions are made from Polisic in this interview where he also talks about how he had exactly one phone call with Pochettino after the season where they talked about do you want to be on this tournament he's like no but I'll do the friendlies and like now we want one team click hang up.

And also says like, you know, I've had a lot of coaches in my short career. You know, the sport goes, I've learned throughout this time, every coach is different. I've had coaches who have communicated with me daily, who want to talk and get things off their brain, talk to the players, experience that with the national team too. He's not that type of guy. Basically he's a quiet guy. I'm a quiet, quiet guy.

Neither of us are going to reach out to each other. We need kind of a third party to bring us together, you know, introvert behavior, that type of guy. Basically, he's a quiet guy. I'm a quiet guy. Neither of us are going to reach out to each other. We need kind of a third party to bring us together, you know, introvert behavior, that sort of thing. So I don't know. I don't love how that feels though going into this when Pachatino is still trying to figure out so much about his squad and so much about his lineup about how he's going to get this team ready. If he's not regularly talking to his star players, like that seems

kind of like the most important part of the job between windows of an international manager is scouting and staying in touch with your core. I would agree with that. Um, this aligns with what I've heard. I would have been surprised if Pules think of Bochettino talked a whole lot. When I've heard they're not super close. Um, haven't heard a ton of positives in that relationship, again, and that can be fine. I don't want to get this aggregated

or make it sound out of context. They're not super close and I think I'll just leave it at that without further reporting. I'm looking forward to Paul Tenorio breaking it open and doing a real job on that one. But that's where I'll leave it for now. S2O The capital J's to start working later on in the day after the amateurs like us have already talked about everything and made stuff up. That was some of the big quotes in there. Can I just say one more quote?

The one where he came off the worst and the most tone deaf was, oh my, they were like, what's it been like to watch these games? He goes, of course it's been tough. I wish I could have been there to help the team No, that was your choice. And again, like fair enough if that's like again I'm not even talking about the matter of the choice, but you can't ask to sit out and then go oh my god I'm dying to be there. I wish I could be there

Dude, you could snap your fingers and make that happen. Like why why like why are you saying it like that, man? Like that's what you got a dancer on that question a little better I didn't love how that sounded cuz it's gonna like I want to be there only on my terms yeah it's like when you tell a buddy like hey I'm sorry I can't make your party this week and then you find out that he was actually proposing that night and afterwards like oh I'm sorry I wasn't there that's crazy it's like nah man you could have been there if I had known it was gonna be a big deal I would have made the effort to come I wasn't gonna make the effort otherwise

Right exactly. You got to give me the full rundown before I commit to plans. It's 20-25, baby I'll look out for the Google Doc just to see what we're gonna be doing our exactly I could figure out where to show up. Yeah, it's a tough spot to be in I mean, I don't think that this is his favorite part of being a professional athlete And I don't think he would even like pretend right? He likes to play Yeah, doesn't love to talk about it doesn't really engage with media a ton He chose to do this interview. There was no and make a documentary show about himself So I think he's kind of been kind of made it sound like actually he asked for the interview

He was like this is why I wanted to do this and he was was like, not to defend myself, but to just give some context. It's like, oh, yeah. And it's a fascinating thing. I thought it was interesting. He talked, you know, they asked a couple of times about, what do you think about the former national team players? And he's like, you know, I looked up to a lot of these people. I still do.

I think that's tough. That's where on Tuesday, our show, what I said was like, I just I think it's kind of sad what Landon's doing Because I think he could hold a special place and I think you kind of hear that of like This is a player who came up Like I said as fans we defended Landon and fought for like his space And so to I think you could tell they're a little hurtful that it becomes a public comment and not a private comment Conversation and it's one of those where you're like, yeah, we're going to come on and yell stuff because

we're not going to talk to these people. If Linden thinks this is a problem, I would bet money Linden can find a way to get in a conversation with Christian Pulisic one on one text message, whatever it is. So I think that you could hear a little bit of that. And I think you could hear a little bit of the disconnect that's happening all across things, which is four losses in a row. A first time trailing 4-0 against Switzerland at halftime in 40 years. The last coach to lose three in a row was Jürgen Klinsman in 2015 and the last to lose

four in a row was in 1986, a coach I've never heard of before. So we're into glad I was into a different territory. We we came on after the Turkey game and talked about some of the issues. I celebrated Max Harveston, which did not look great after Tuesday night. And what ended up happening? It's not your fault. Thank you. Thank you, Robin Williams, for all. Hey, happening. It's not your fault.

Thank you. Thank you, Robin Williams for all. Jeff, what did you make of sort of what you saw and what happened over the two games? Yeah, I think it's all tied together, actually. Like there's just there's there's no. They look less prepared for the 2026 World Cup than they looked at the exact end of the 2022 World Cup, like entirely. Like I think if you had played, if you just hit fast forward four years and just had the exact same roster and just dropped them onto home soil, they would have been better prepared than they are right now.

And part of that is a credit to Greg Burhalter. I have to say who, yes, it looks like his message had gone stale in 2024. Yes. It looked like they needed a fresh voice. I think getting someone who had never worked in international soccer before was a huge mistake. I said it at the time I wrote about it at the athletic. I still maintain. I think this was not the right time to bring in someone who's never done this job before, but they have. And so now you get to a point where you look and it's disjointed and players look like they've never played together before because they haven't. You have a coach who's bringing in players who. players who, assuming that you have 40 players in decent health, would not be considered for a World Cup squad who are playing in the last competitive window, feasibly, of this

cycle. You have communication issues, you have players who look incredibly unconfident, you have a lot of players who are used to being kind of cogs and machines of positional play models who aren't used to trying to take over games themselves, and I don't think that you can remove this, by the way, from all the off-field stuff, because right now you've got very public spats, the likes of which we haven't really seen a ton of aside from, you know, Raina Berhalter, 2023. Like, usually these things are kind of sorted out behind closed doors with this program. And part of it is granted, like, podcast has really blown up

over the last few years, right? And like, I'm a proponent of it. This is very navel gaze-y of me. I told David being on SoccerWise was one of the highlights of my career. So we're just going to say that that's canon now. Once a week, I hop on the Total Soccer Show, and I talk MLS every Tuesday. I love podcasting. But if your way to have these conversations is podcasts and not meetings, if it's social media stories on Instagram, like,

how can you possibly say this team is cohesive? Like it just like the whole thing looks like an absolute mess. And frankly, it's embarrassing, I would say that in a year this team is going to be ready to host a World Cup. And tell your dad to stop doing social media. Every player on this team, tell your dad to stop. It's never, there's nothing good that's ever gonna come out of it. Unless it's like the wholesome, like, so proud of my son, here's a picture of me and him. Yeah.

And here's our family. Stay out of it, man, right. Don't, don't like, like, again, those, again, and like, you get one wholesome tweet, you get the relevant local sports team tweet, and that's your limit on the week. Exactly.

You know, we couldn't imagine being a father like Weeby, and just all the passion and emotion and love that comes through it. So I understand the anger. Totally. Totally. But have that with your friends. Have a group chat, man. With your family.

Yeah, that's a private thing. Yeah, group chats are healthy. Nice. Right? Like, come on. But I think it's interesting that you talk about it like, you know, the depth of the player pool and how deep you can go in a year or year and a half,

whatever time you have, to have swapped nine players out, I think it was, from the Turkey game to the Switzerland game. You just don't have that option right now, even if you want it. One of the things that highlights this now is the US is doing what a team does going into a World Cup, which is organize friendlies against really good teams because you have to be challenged and you're not in qualifying. What just happened is what we've seen in the past in terms of the lineups and things that were put together going into 2009 and 2013. But those friendlies were not against Switzerland

and Turkey. And so I think the whole thing got highlighted on Tuesday night because you're kind of doing three different things at the same time. And the Swiss players were like, okay, cool. Like, awesome. We're playing against a rotated team that doesn't really know each other and they're going to play super narrow and give us a bunch of space and not really pressure us, like then this is what we're going to do where normally that game's like against Granada or against Finland or whatever it ends up being and it probably ends up being a 1-1-2-2 game. And do you learn, and to be fair, like if I'm playing Devil's Advocate here, do you learn more from that 2-2 against

Finland than you could after a 4-0 against Switzerland? Pochettino probably learned more about how he needs to calibrate his team shape in terms of allowing those spaces in terms of usable width versus dead space, whatever. Because again, this is something to go back to 2022, right? Like when you think about USA versus England, right? The whole thing was about the wide spaces and about shifting the thing off balance so England didn't know how to move forward.

There are good ways that you can do that. It doesn't look like he's doing any of them. And it also just, again, goes back to club managers are used to having more curation ability with their job. They're used to being able to work with these guys every day to get in their ear and say, hey, you need to be more selfless with this. You need to make this off ball run and whatever. And then it'll pay off one out of 50 times. You'll get the ball, but the other 49, you'll create

space for someone else. Right. He can't do that. He can't do that right now. And it just looks like a team that has less identity than it used to. It looks like a team that has less cohesion. And frankly, it is also a team that has less depth than it did four years ago, seemingly. Like it's just years ago, seemingly. It's just, yeah, I don't know. It's worrying. I don't think it's necessarily like, you can't go back and re-litigate hirings and changes and all that sort of stuff.

Really, it's not productive. But it's hard to see how this window is setting them up better for 2026 in total. It will be fascinating to see what the group looks like on Sunday against Shinya and Tobago to open up Gold Cup because even with the halftime subs and so you start to see people, it will be interesting to see who Pochettino came out of Tuesday saying, okay, I trust this character, whether it was comments made in the locker room, whether it was effort, whether it was ability to sort of like play through it. And then other players who sort of struggled through that whole moment. And my guess is, like you said, like that outside

of the tactical stuff they learned, that's what they're going to take from this game is going to be like, who could we trust with their backs against the wall? And you've got a year left. I talked to someone yesterday, which is fascinating, and they were saying like, remember that England, like Greg Brault, they're spending three years saying we're gonna change the way the world perceives American soccer and change the way we play, and then you get into the biggest games and it's 4-4-2

and close the game down. I don't know if Puchatino has the time to even build the other thing. Over-promising a little bit. A little bit. So like, why not just lean into the thing immediately and accept the fact that like, okay, it's not gonna be perfect.

You've got a home world cup, you're gonna have the crowd behind you. You're gonna have the atmosphere behind you. As we have learned from a ton of research, you're gonna get the referees on your side, cause that's like a large part of home field advantage we have learned is referees are affected by the atmospheres. You have all of that,

can you close the margins down on the game? And like, it may not be the event you expected nine years ago when you bid for the thing or 15 years ago when you bid for the thing, but it may be your best case scenario at this point. We're going to learn a bit at the gold cup. Not sure. I don't know the last time we had a what will we learn? Good better. I think that it is going to affect the way things are done going forward based off the results So whether you is max arson gonna be on the World Cup squad like that. That's kind of this is my point It's just like what are we gonna learn with what like the the Gold Cup roster? Will there be two players who start the opening game at the people at the World Cup?

Sorry the goal like yeah, if Rudy Camacho is willing to take the dual switch You can really set up a back line around Max Arfstead Obviously Mo Farcey wouldn't because he would never but you could start to piece it together You know and potentially have something that you can lean on now it is it's going to be, obviously something we're going to be talking about a lot. It is right now a fascinating story, I guess you could say, a depressing story,

I guess you could say. Choose the word. I would say my Canadian chats are having one experience separate from my USMNT chats. Maybe we'll have to have Jesse Marshall on at some point to talk about all of this and see what we can learn from it. But let's move to much rosier and more positive and straightforward things to discuss. And let's talk about the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup, the first ever 32-team Club World Cup. It's coming to the United States. It's across mainly the East Coast a Little dabble into what I would call the Midwest and other people wouldn't I'm sure Jeff has a ton to say about that

But we have this tournament coming up in the opener is on Saturday So Miami is opening against Al Halle here in Miami at Hard Rock Stadium Al Halli here in Miami at Hard Rock Stadium. Move over Tyree Kill because these are the superstars of Al Halli ready to take the field and take over. Although Shakira most recently sold out Hard Rock. I think back to back nights. Record attendances. Shakira bigger than Club World Cup. I think we have always said that. Although J Balvin is going to be involved with the Club World Cup. So we've got that going for us It is a group in group a so there's three MLS teams playing in group a group B and group D 32 team tournament so that goes all the way to G. Is that the right letters H?

Okay, cool. I'm gonna stick with that goes through H H H Miami plays against Alali They play FC Porto, of course from Portugal and they play Palmaras in their final game. They will play their second game in Atlanta against Porto, even though they're kind of a home team in this whole thing. Jeff, you love the Club World Cup. It's all you talk about. I wanted to have you on to not talk about it, and you were like, no, I have to talk about this.

That's slander. Let's go big picture here before we dig into it. What do you make of like what this whole thing is gonna be and what's going on? I think that this is like a grand experiment by FIFA to see how infallible they can be with their business decisions in their organization and like I think that the like that sort of like FIFA just makes choices and we all have to live with it has been cracked a little bit among certain soccer fans. I think it simply is like they're split with EA Sports where it was just like, okay, you're gonna try to make your own video game when you know nothing about programming because you're FIFA, right?

And so then that kind of starts to show like a different sort of recognition of its place within the landscape, right? And you get to this club world cup and it's bloated. I think we can say, I don't think that there's a viable reason that you have Juventus and Salzburg here as the eighth and ninth best non winners of the champions league from Europe. Like that's just a farce to say nothing of giving inter-miami a path in from the supporter shield to say nothing

Knows their supporters show truthers deep in the Zurich offices. Everyone's been talking about that for years Yeah, they're big Matt Doyle has been working on that for a while Could you imagine if we were sending the LA Galaxy in this state though? I wish we were. I wish we were, honestly, because that's the entertainment factor of it all, right? And like now, look, you've got the situation here where they will play these two games. And on the one hand, you see LAFC after the playoff against Club Amedica really celebrating, looking like this was like something that they had really aspired to get into. And then they joined the Seattle Sounders in protesting the payment structure for players as negotiated in the last CBA when talks were held well before this tournament was ever

concocted in its true and current form. So it's a mess from a lot of different angles just domestically to say nothing about ongoing protests in a lot of host cities due to ICE raids, to say nothing about fan safety in the face of those ICE raids. And that they're working security for some reason? Why? No idea. We have no idea. Fans have to bring papers to define their legal status to a soccer game? Yeah. In the United States of America and there's just so much going on.

That's like just an addendum on our conversation. Yeah, I got a... we were just in a meeting talking about like what to do with the athletics writers and editors and we were told to write in Sharpie before we go to games like the the SOS hotline for journalists if we're detained right like that's what we're in for hype get excited guys this is Johnny's dream and it's not a good look to see Johnny be the one who has to be banging the drum you know he's spent a lot look to see Johnny be the one who has to be banging the drum. You know, he has spent a lot of time going to these cities

and parading this around. And it's frankly pretty sad to watch in like a The Office cringe comedy sort of way, where it's just like, this guy really wants to make this a thing, and he's really putting his all into it. What I will say, though, is I think that it'll be easier to just watch soccer once the game start because I think that you will get into like, Oh, Benfica and Boca

juniors. Oh, that's sweet. Like when else will they play a meaningful game? That's really cool. Right? Like there are some matchups, Seattle Sounders and Botafogo. I'm really excited to see how that one comes together. Right. Um, so there are games that I think will be interesting, but I don't think that being entertained Even like side swipes that sort of widespread cynicism and skepticism about this tournament existing at all We talked about the protests from the players on Tuesday The games coming up in two days, we don't have an update, right?

No, cool. Well, that's Tom. Yeah There's nothing on mine and again do this is even a microcosm of what we were just saying we Genuinely brought Jeff on to talk about right? And then like we we derailed it like it's because it's hard to talk about it And again Jeff like I completely agree with you like I have my critiques. I have my Uncomfortable feelings about this sort of it But like you said like when the ball starts rolling like I'm not I'm not gonna be hypocrite and pretend like I'm not I'm gonna Be watching the games Robble like probably right like yeah, so like there is it's not all bad

It's far from good, but it's not all bad Right right and and that's basically the the only path where this can be a success is if the games are good, if it's safe and you don't have like off-field things, even like the Copa America final, right? Like last year, if you don't have an incident like that or you don't have an iced attention raid, all these sorts of things, that's good. That's a success. That's all you can really hope for. Something to build off of.

I mean, if you set the bar there, there's a chance we could get a victory out of this one. Let's try and talk about the games for a moment or not. That's also fine. I don't really care either way. So I mentioned it. We have questions in the chat and most of them are like, what should be goals for these teams?

Sure. So Miami's in group A with Alali, Porto and Palmaras. Seattle's in group B with Botafogo, Atletico Madrid and the European champions right now PSG. And then LAFC because of this play in game have been inserted into group D against Chelsea. So they'll play Chelsea in Atlanta. They'll play Esperanza to Tunis in Nashville. And then they will finish with Flamengo in Orlando, I believe at Camping World Stadium, which will be 68,000 Flamengo fans

and 75 LAFC family members in the crowd for that one. So do you have an overall feeling as you've been doing this and you're doing this with journalists from all around the world who kind of Aren't coming this from this at an MLS angle. Is there any interest from them in the MLS teams? Is there any belief that like some of these have a shot or that there should be expectations? There's interest in Leon O'Nancy. I've heard of him Which will not be a surprise to people who subscribe to the athletic or have seen it from outside No, I think that there's a...

There's... The Seattle Sounders are unfortunately being treated as the just happy to be there, the plucky sort of like you're from the host nation. I think it's not an insignificant factor that they will play at home. So they will be resting in home beds. They will be training at their own venue. The Sounders had nothing to do with ticket sales. I want to start with this. You're going to start to hear especially Sunday with the Botafogo match a lot about how empty Lumen Field looks and about them closing sections moving fans from the 300 level so that they get in front of the TV cameras so it looks like it's a fuller stadium all that sort of stuff right. It's going to be

one of the first games maybe along with Inter Miami against Al Ali, that are going to look like, why did they book these venues? And that's the question ultimately, is why did FIFA push teams that operate these out of operating ticket sales and these sort of things, activating their list serves, all this store stuff? And two, why did you put these in NFL stadiums when this is a new tournament and you could have sold out MLS venues and would have looked really cool to have these in like genuinely world-class stadiums that seat between 18 and 25 30,000 people they didn't do that that's not there out they went and that's the lesson that they'll probably

learn from this tournament as well but the Sounders look very much like a plucky underdog here and and they were handed a really really tough draw so I I don't think it's unrealistic to think that third is probably the highest that they might finish in that group They've also then since then been decimated by injuries. So I do think they reached out to a few um Contractors in the new jersey area and asked them if they'd seen any athletes in the area that could be available I think that's where tom's recruiting was coming in earlier today was like you an athlete because they're looking for center backs and center forwards out to Seattle

And that's entirely fair It's to an extent right like that. That's kind of where they're at at this point like It's still an MLS squad entering this sort of competition Yeah, you've got LAFC, you know, obviously bringing in DeRosen as a kind of ringer from Club America Which feels like I wonder if that was pre-agreed to each team was like we have one player that we're gonna take from your team If we win like that like a really cool. I Would have loved that meeting like the draft of drafts the all-star team at the end of the season Right. Yeah, like who is Club America asking for from LAFC? I would love to think it would have been Giroud

I'm trying to think of the funniest name and I know you're jay-z's cooking cozy No, I would have been Giroud because this is like you spend some money on this player But they're not a full-time player for you. And what's the inverse of that for LAFC is Olivia Giroud? Yeah, that's a good point. Actually. Yeah, I still won't give up on this on this take. I still think he's oh, that's fine I don't care about that. I mean, maybe it would have helped he would have gotten, you know Three games in a club world's coupling for Club America Right. Yeah, just to shake off the rest. I mean like it'll be I think that they'll have a tough time of it I think Miami is the team that does have the best draw

but I don't think pulmonary is just gonna like I I still think it's a very good group for them, right, but I don't think Palmirosh is just gonna, like, I still think it's a very tough group for them, right? So, um, I would, if I had to guess, I'm gonna say zero teams will advance from the group in MLS. Um, I think that you could see one or two finish third and give a good go of it and be competitive, like in contention until the final day. And then that third game kind of eliminates them. Um, and I think that that's fine. The, I think LFC has the best chance. Yeah. Sure.

Yeah. No, I think Miami has the best chance. Yeah. Sure? Yeah. No, I think Miami has the best chance. Miami has two home games. I think it's neck and neck. In that. True. I just think that LAFC set up better. But home, it's in Miami.

It's not a... What? Like, will they wake up in the morning and they're like, oh, we don't get to go to the Chase Stadium locker room? Well, it's just little things like the grass is different. They don't know the bounce of it. They don't know all these sorts of things. The atmosphere isn't going to be as pink, right?

Like just all these sorts of things where I think it actually does matter that they're playing in an NFL stadium. Okay. For me, like, Miami have a hard time defending in any real way against MLS team. I think Paul Maris is going to rip them to shreds against them. Yeah, I think that's fair. I think with LAFC in Miami, the question is going to be how wedded are they to playing their most famous players?

Because if you are going to have LAFC play Giroud for 75 minutes, they look worse when he starts. If you have Jordi Alba starting at left back for Miami, they look a lot worse defensively when he starts. And if you've got to play them for for marketing considerations to get people to watch your games or the cases and it hampers your ability to compete like It seems like if there's ever a tournament where that trade-off is gonna be made. It's probably the 20-25 Jeff Jeff sounds like a burner account that blames MLS and Sunil Galati and Don Garber for when the national team does bet. If they didn't have the ghost of Johan Cruyff calling up MLS players every single game,

this team could be competitive. I don't think that's a problem for LAFC, just the way they've operated over the last year or two. Like, it doesn't seem like it. I think the problem for them is how do you manage the games? Like what's the group against Chelsea acknowledging that the odds are you're getting a result against Esperanza game two and how do you manage who actually is your best 11 in that group and how you use them in the context also of like you didn't

plan for this. So in the like load management across the season and like it's not insane that okay they've added three games they're not playing MLS games now like whatever but like I think that part will be a little bit more complicated for them. Although I do, to your point, agree that like, and I don't know who made this point, so I just said your point. Yeah, that's cool.

That they are set. We'll take it, we'll take it. We co-billined a lot of things together. Yeah, we did. They are set up to play against the ball. They are a knockout team. Like, this is where they're at their best. And I think they've shown that they will

put everything into anything that they are participating in, right? Leagues Cup, ConcaCaf Champions Cup, US Open Cup. Like they have pushed really far in all of these because for all of the, like, which ones do we value? It feels like LAFC, the two days before and into a game, locks in, plays their way, knows how to set things up, and like has match winners that they can sort of lean on.

Where then the flip side though is Miami has probably a winnable game in there as well. You'd assume plus a little bit more home field advantage, and maybe a little bit of like shock factor, where like LAFC no one's gonna be intimidated, stepping on the field against them. Maybe you get a little bit of that from Inter Miami But I think it's very little but that could work for LAFC, right?

Especially if you have done it longer and he'll be fired up for it He'll be ready to go and he doesn't have Carlos Vela to try to share passes to in transition So that's gonna make it look a little uh, let me ask this before they should have signed vela This should have honestly they should have yeah ceremonial first kick Diana Ross. I can't believe I didn't have this take a month ago. Where am I? Tom, explain to me a little bit this move. Like, they're brought in... You're going to ask me to explain to you. No, they brought in on loan a player, but it only goes up until the transfer window? Yeah, so the loan for Javairo Dirosin from Club America is through July 24th.

July 24th is when the primary transfer window opens for MLS. And a bit of housekeeping, he's listed as a designated player, which is taking the spot from Cengiz Under, who is recalled by Fenerbahce. I'm sure the discussion's between both. His loan was supposed to end June 30th. And like a week ago, when it didn't know if his signing was gonna get done or not, they were like, you know... As far as we know, he's here until June 30th. So he goes back early, that opens the spot for Dürrösen. He's somebody that the team likes and you look at his profile, he's played for Feyenoord, he's played for Herksey Berlin, he's played for a couple places.

He got one cap with the Dutch national team. He's 26. Club America signed him for $5 million. Like this is the kind of profile that we would have been super excited about coming to MLS with his age range and some of that pedigree. So I don't know exactly where this is going to end with, but like if he comes and kills it, why wouldn't they try to keep him? I know it's a super tight window for this poor guy to come in and be like playing for

a DP contract in a month and two of the games and the three games we'll get is at the Club World Cup. But this is a guy that they get to add some talent and it's again just like the Chega Zundar deal it's there is no risk in this. Worst case scenario is he doesn't give you anything. Well that would have been the same as not signing a DP and they still have all the flexibility. They will add a DP this summer maybe Maybe it's still Rosen, but maybe not. His profile looks like it'll also fit with Buanga, which is necessary, right? And I think that they've had wingers who look a little bit contending for touches, especially in transition, that didn't quite work. But he is a good progressive carrier. He's good at passing in the final third, and he's

he's better at distributing in the box or near the box than he is at taking his own shots. And so I think generally that could be complimentary where, again, I think it could really unlock Buanga and I wouldn't be surprised if at the end of the group stage it's Buanga who's the best performing MLS player even including that. Yeah, I think he's made for this. I think they're gonna be set up for that to happen. I think, like you said, he's gonna be fired up to say, like, yeah, I can take a Chelsea player one on one in transition. Like I believe I can do that against anyone. And he's not wrong at high speed. He can do that. Can he do it consistently in a Premier League season? I don't know. That's not the question here.

And I think that's going to be fascinating to watch. And that's sort of like that this whole thing. I think the whole thing is like what does Monterey against River Plate look like what does you know Ulsan against a European team it's just the biggest thing going for this right now is that there's this unknown that we've all debated in group chats and at bars and sitting around playing video games and watching games for 20 years, 30 years, 50 years, 70 years, whoever you are, that's like the one thing that is interesting about this that could pop out. Do we have a specific game in all of that outside of the MLS teams that we are like

circling and that we're locked in for? From the day of the draw, I've been really looking forward to Benfica Boca juniors And then the last six months happened and I am even more excited about that game because they are Compatibly flawed like Benfica just looked really Out of ideas in the final third as they progressed in Europe in the knockouts and then you know, Portugal is always a different story for them, but They really did struggle continentally figure out what they wanted to do when on healthy Maria wasn't pulling the strings And this is his last tournament

This is his end off before he goes back to Rosario Central for to end his career Probably like you know his boyhood club really doesn't want to coach in tell me to There's still time give it a year give it a year do the Suarez approach spend a year in South America and then go So you know there could be some lovely moments there in South America and then go so you know there could be some lovely moments there Boca juniors their defense is you know they struggle a lot but also their attack in transition can be pretty lethal they have a couple of really good string pullers you know Cavani still get some good areas even if he's a bit slower to get there and yeah Benfica's

defense is very good and they can play a pretty aggressive high line depending on the matchups So there could be that season my yeah for 89th minute That's been like a really funny part to me By the way is a lot of these clubs especially from Europe like finding like a 17 year old American in their Academy just to be Like here. Oh promotional photos. Yeah. Yeah, we've got Coopers coming up soon He'll help you up in a minute to take the photos. Yeah, it's just it's wonderful. But yeah, that's the game for me. Like, Benfica Boca Juniors is exactly what you're talking about.

Like, how good is Argentina compared to Portugal? And though some of those games are fun because as much as we have the summer friendlies now, we haven't seen like River and Boca don't come a ton. These Brazilian teams will come to Florida for a week in January and exactly get them all grabbed some blue jeans, play a friendly in Orlando and then go back. But to me, those are the ones that are like fascinating. I think group E, Inter, Milan, Monterey, River Plate and Ouro Reds. Monterey is great group. This is one of those moments where I've been telling people for 15 years, like, Liga Mexico

is a great league and you should watch it and it's worthwhile and the level is really high and so it will be fascinating to watch them. You haven't had Mexican teams in Copa Libertadores since 2013 when Tigres went to the final against River Plate. So it's kind of like a nice little bookend to that and every year we rumor that it's gonna happen again and then I think just to watch like Fluminense against Dortmund where it's like in soccer there's at noon at MetLife Stadium. I know. The timing of some of these kick-offs is just like... One of my friends was like yo do you want to go? And I was like I don't know like what's going on? He's like yeah we'd

have to leave at like 9. I was like I'm not tailgating for ten hours. It was not the games at 12 I think what it feels it remember what MLS what are you talking about? It's nine a.m. June window I think right where they're playing in Florida and Jews. Oh my god. Yeah, dude, the Jose Martinez Yeah, it's like that but the difference is MLS needed to play those games in that time to fear a tournament in there There's no reason for that Oh there is I read it on crowds gonna be electric The whole reasoning is on the athletic every group there's time kickoff and it's an ET and BST because obviously all of us operate in Greenwich Mean Time and that's the whole world revolves. Yes, we do around

12 million person country or whatever it is. So that's that's the reason that's the reason for it. And that's why it has there for countries. That's why it has to happen that way. But like in the whole conversation of soccer is a best player on the field, wins tactics, win weak link game. I think people are going to learn a lot about the fact that there aren't a lot of weak links in the teams coming, especially from Brazil. And that's a really high level to start at where it's then it's like, what form are we

in at our point of the season versus you being exhausted and who do we bring and how much does it mean to us? And the physicality I think is the part I'm most excited about because we have said this a couple of times, people have this image of Brazil as Joga Bonita and that any person you meet who ever plays there is like, no, it is the most physical league on the planet and I wanna see all of that happen in person. Yeah. Amen.

Amen. Those are teams I'm looking forward to. We will continue to cover this at soccer wise or not. I don't really know. I'm running. Yeah, I don't really, we didn't really have a plan around this. I don't really know exactly when all the games are.

I mean, obviously... We just go vibes, man. Yeah. Obviously, I know when Inter Miami is playing. I guess with the noon kickoffs, we'll just be going live. Maybe we'll do some watch-alongs. Maybe that will be the vibes for the Club World Cup. The one place I would...

The one game I would love to be at, which I won't be at because I didn't plan any of this, is Chelsea Flamengo in Philadelphia. I think I love soccer. We talked about this, Tom, before the show last week. The link is an awesome place to go watch sports. There's public transportation. There's tailgating space around. There's a bar on the premises. The sight lines are okay for soccer. The feel makes it feel big. I think Flamengo is going to be one of those that's going to have 40,000 fans at their games because they don't come that often and their fan base The feel makes it feel big. I think Flamengo is gonna be one of those that's gonna have 40,000 fans at their games because they don't come that often and their fan base is huge and they have big populations in the US plus I think Chelsea sells decently as well

So I think that's gonna be one that's really really fun And if I had planned any part of my life earlier than two days in advance Potentially, I would have found a way to be there. That's not how I roll I wonder if there will be a protest of indignant Pennsylvanians about how they treated Christian politics. I hope they do. I hope they protest Chelsea. That's what I want. Jeff putting it out in the world so anyone can think of it. Inciting violence. For the first time ever. We're going to talk about MLS for a little bit here. Meaningless violence. We have a full slate of games this week except for the fact that three teams are playing

in Club World Cup so they cannot play anyone else. We have a Thursday night game as I said, NYCFC Atlanta. Portland plays San Jose. That is 1030 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday night so a nice little way to start your weekend. Tom you broke some news around the Portland Timbers. A tough one with Jonathan Rodriguez who's been unavailable most of year, has come back and now it sounds like might be back out. Yeah, Jonathan Rodriguez is almost definitely out for the season.

The only reason I have to say almost is that if the player, the surgery is planned, if he decides, I don't think this is the right course for me, then they'll have to readjust. But like it's like 99.9% that he's out for the rest of the season. And if he does get surgery, they will put them on the season ending injury list and that will open it, open up a DP spot. And their plan is to then sign another attacking DP. They're looking at, or maybe not necessarily attacking, but they're definitely looking to add to this group. They're looking at the first half of the season, which was very strong for them in a wide open Western conference and a team that, if you remember the first week, Santino Moreno wasn't playing,

David DeCosta wasn't playing, it was like Kevin Kelsie and Felipe Moro, the only two attacking players they had fit and available to play. And so this is a team that got a little bit of a late start. They think that they've been solid, and they think that there's upside and that they have as good a chance as anybody with the right moves this summer that they can move up the Western Conference. They would like to add a center back as well. So Portland Timbers are going to be one of the teams I'm watching in the summer transfer window, which again opens on July 4th. They're talking to the contractors in New Jersey as well about potential athletes in

the area. Let me ask this though, if they are going to make a move, you assume it's a tacking player? I'd assume it's a winger. Do you think that's, that was my whole question. Because Jonathan Rodriguez was signed as a winger and he's played very well there. It is not his natural position. It's something they made work, but not necessarily. Yeah.

So you're saying you trust Felipe Mora and Kevin Kelsey? Yeah. Okay, interesting. For the two of them to have all of the minutes that's coming forward. Because the flip side is you say you trust Santi Moreno and Anthony. I would agree, yeah, but like,

listen man, Anthony's been shredding it. There seems to be rumors about Santi Moreno every six months. So I think part of that is the plan. And like, while it is statistically true that without Jonah and obviously without Evander, that they've lost, I think, 60% of their goals, something in that region from last year, this team, it wasn't like for like replacements and it won't be a like for like replacement for Jonathan Rodriguez. Like David Acosta, it's a very good player.

He's not what Evander is. He does more kind of against the ball. He makes them less predictable. And Evander is an MVP candidate. This is not a critique of Evander at all. It's just that, yes, this team is losing a lot of goals from last year, but they are playing completely differently. And this is something that could work for this group, and it has worked this season.

Finn Sermon's been really good in defense. Again, they want to add another center back. This is a team that is just not at all like what they were left. Jeff. Would you be the same boat? I'm telling you man one of these years Lucas Milano is gonna break out My amyfc. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, he's back in the states. It's crazy. He thought that they were playing in the club world cup So he signed there He'll be at pitbull stadium the other day waiting to kick off Full kit ready holding his cleats. Yeah, I think, look, the Western Conference still just has a lot of space to walk into at the top of the table. You've got three teams that I think

have pretty clearly established themselves in that upper echelon right now. You've got Vancouver, yes, a little bit of a skid, yes, the team's to start to figure out how to play against them. But like, you know, once they get their guts back and once they, you know, are able to kind of get back on track and focus on their competitions, I still think they're gonna be the favorite to win the Western Conference. Certainly in the regular season.

Minnesota United, San Diego, they play each other for the first time this weekend. I think that'll be really telling Minnesota at home. So they will see a lot of possession, which is gonna suit San Diego. But also then if they give too much of it and they advance their line too far, that also suits Minnesota. So that'll be a lot of possession, which is going to suit San Diego. But also then if they give too much of it and they advanced their line too far, that also suits Minnesota.

So that'll be a really interesting little chess match, like a couple of really good matches, but when you look at Portland, like there is still a lot of space in this conference right now to walk into. And I, you know, I, I think that, you know, I've had my, my, my sort of skepticism about their, their, their high level potential. I mean, Tom mentioned it, you know, you take a Vander off of the team and then just sort of that, that game breaker, that sort of skepticism about their high level potential. I mean, Tom mentioned it, you take a Vander off of a team and then just sort of that game breaker, that sort of player who can just like,

you know, take a one-one. Also noted off of a team that finished eighth last year. Yeah, yeah, which, no, exactly, but then that's where you look and you say, okay, is the squad around him gonna be better? And I think that they've improved the squad, but I do agree that they've kind of weakened the headliner on the squad.

And so, if they can bring in a winger who is gonna be less predictable, someone who can make a, like a Gabriel Peck 2024 impact, or whatever the case may be, I think that that's gonna obviously help any team, right? But I think especially for a team like Portland, I think that that could help them get past, like LAFC in Seattle and some of these other teams

that are sort of in the upper middle right now of the table, and we all feel like they've been underperforming, and once they get to the outside of the club, World Cup will kind of flip the switch, and then they'll of in the upper middle right now of the table and we all feel like they've been underperforming and once they get to the club world cup we'll kind of flip the switch and then they'll get in the top four places but it's still very much there for Portland. I think I agree with both of you of like I would go for that wide attacking player to take some more to have a spark different than David DeCosta because that's not I think year one naturally he's not going to change the game for you as often but I wonder if the easier move to say like we're only going to have them for you know 15 games

12 games whatever it ends up being because you know I think it's an eight on I think it's an eight game opening round of the playoffs now so it'll be the last eight games in that I think if that's what you're gonna do I don't know if it's center forwards easier the other thing is and it's in the chat about a different team, but like, Yaku Maki is rumored. Like, do you just start higher up with a move like this by bringing a guy like that in and say, well, we have, you know, we're, we get a little bit better at center forward. We think we're already dangerous at the wide places. A player like that makes Santi Moreno better, makes David de Costa better,

and is that the improvement for you? But I think in general, it may all make sense for Portland and they really haven't had Rodriguez this year. So like all of this is kind of going to be a bonus. It's like 150 minutes. Yeah, it's all going to be a bonus on what it's been this season. But we've also on the flip side seen like Under where it's like, maybe it's not so easy to just like throw a player in and have them be super effective and be influential immediately. Yeah.

Unfortunately for them, they couldn't get a guest player spot for the Club World Cup. You kind of went over it there. Jeff, are you going to be in the Minnesota game? I will be in Seattle actually. Of course, you got to be at the big games and the big NFL stadiums because it's all you want to talk about. It's even on the bottom line right now, even though we moved on because You told me that it's all you wanted to talk about What do you make of Minnesota right now? What do you make of San Diego and like how those two teams look in general?

And then going on Yeah, I think that you know with San Diego they've and then going up against each other. Yeah. I think that with San Diego, I've been really impressed. Usually with an expansion team, it's a lack of depth. And at this point of the season, as you get close to midway, you start to see that. And then the wheels start to fall off

with one injury or one suspension or whatever the case may be. You have to make one rotation for a Wednesday, and suddenly the whole thing falls apart. And they haven't been immune to bad performances, but they have been very good at snapping out of them and not turning them into a tailspin, which is usually an issue with expansion teams. So I still think that, you know, they've got a very stable game model. They've got Anders Dreyer performing at an MVP level. They've got Chuky Lozano

looking much more switched on since probably about the start of April. So like they've got the players who can decide games for them, which will be really helpful in the playoffs. Minnesota right now, I don't. So it's interesting because right now their model is very, we're going to go over you or we're going to go around you, but we know we can't go through you because they do not have those sorts of midfielders. They have string pollers who can break lines. They have, if Robin Lude plays withdrawn, he can do that. They've been playing in Lude plays withdrawn, he can do that. They've been playing in more advanced, which I think is smart because he is, um,

at the end of the day, still one of the club, the club's best first touch finisher outside of the strikers that they have. Uh, so it's good to get another player like that who can open that up when Yabova and Olufse are marked adequately. Um, you know, Joaquin Pereira has looked a lot better. I think that expectation sort of, sort of shifted now for him to rec recalibrate to actually accept the kind of player he is, which is that he is much more of that, you know, actual like deeper in midfield wants to get on the ball earlier and then, you know, play that pass rather than being Emmanuel Reynoso where

he is going to only be on the ball and then play every pass. Um, so I think that that helps their game model a lot, but you see it in the possession. You see that they don't have that player who can be that epicenter right now and they don't have that defensive midfielder who can Stop teams on the break in the middle which held them back last year in the playoffs against the galaxy So if they can get that midfielder this window I think that they genuinely vault into the like if not tier one tier one be of MLS Cup contenders Because they have the attackers they have the defensive identity Dane Sinclair has looked switched on more than past years he's looked really really really good this year Michael Boxall is ageless at this

point one of the best center backs in the league this year so they've got an 18 shield veteran but not winner Michael Boxall that's right that's right Jesse Marsh winning an unbalanced shield yeah Yeah, I'll never hear it. Yeah, no chance. Yeah. But no, it's, you know, I think for Minnesota, this is probably the best they've looked as a whole week to week to week since they moved to Major League Soccer. The question now is, do they have that sort of element of surprise or do they have that sort of player who can wrestle control of big

games like they had in 2020 with Reynoso and Kevin Molino working off the side? It is. It's going to be a fun one. There are some big ones this weekend. Columbus, Vancouver and Chicago, Nashville, of course, it's an international break. So like half the players on these teams aren't there, which is the most MLS thing is like to take two of the fun teams that play great soccer and then they play each other in like the worst possible moment. Tom, I know you wanted to do, I think it was about 20 minutes on RSL DC United and then you wanted to do schedule change stuff. Was that what you had said?

You're talking about the Freddie I do Nick Romando trade, right? Yeah. Tom has a full breakdown for us to go. Lobbing Scorcher says Tom needs to go to Seattle with Jeff or he's not a real grinder. I agree. Shout out to Noah or Ari, whoever is in there. You should follow Lobbings Scorchers. You should follow Sounder at Heart because they're going to be covering all of what's going on out there as well as the athletic, which I believe is connected to a paper of record, but I can't

remember which one right now, which is where Jeff works. Jeff, thank you for joining us. Thanks for being here. Your first full SoccerWise debut going into what is a big summer of soccer headline by Jeff's appearance on SoccerWise. Exactly, yeah, no, this is what it was all built into and we're only in early June. Thanks for having me, guys. Tom.

You're the man, Jeff. I don't have anything to say to you. Okay. That's okay. We've said too many of these things. Happy one year anniversary. Yeah, happy one year anniversary to you as well. We had our NWSL show come out a little bit earlier today with Jordan Angeley as well as talking a little bit about our top moments of the year. And of course, we'll continue to cover all these teams, all these games and everything else going forward.

So thank you to all of you for watching live. Thank you to all of you for listening. And we'll talk to you again very very soon.