SoccerWise - Code Red In LA, Code Pink In MIN + Midweek Preview

Episode Date: May 13, 2025

Huge show this week as we unpack a weekend of dramatic highs and lows across MLS. The LA Galaxy hit new lows in their shocking MLS Cup rematch loss, while Minnesota reached new (if inelegant) heights. Tom and David react to the other David’s social media posts following the Galaxy’s defeat, share their biggest MLS takeaways from the weekend, and wrap up with a preview of the upcoming midweek action.4:30 MLS Cup Rematch Slaughter & What Do The LA Galaxy Do25:24 Revenge For NYRB29:30 MIN Social Media vs David Beckham42:00 MLS Teams/Fans Transferring Old Clubs History44:55 FC Dallas Falling Flat47:30 Stunning PHI vs CLB Matchup51:20 FCC Attacking Locking In & Adding Kei Kamala58:00 MLS Midweek Preview Soccerwise Live 2pm ET Every Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday on Youtube/Twitch/Twitter

What is up everybody? Welcome back to Soccer Wise. David Goss and Tommy Scoops with you for another big episode. A ton to talk about from an action pack weekend in Major League Soccer. We've got midweek games on tap. We are on the verge of I guess every week. I don't even know if it's called that anymore. But a bunch of teams playing each other. We've got social media coverage to pull in here. We'll get to our Instagram reporter Kailin Carr on the ground at some point in this whole thing. Tom, how's it going with you? It's going good. Things are going things are moving. I Am just going from thing to thing to thing until we get to 730 p.m. In the New York

Nixon for Knicks in five. They said it couldn't be done. They said you didn't want it It has been one of the most eventful up-and-down experiences This last week I said to my wife yesterday, as it came out of halftime, I was like, this is the worst, most are gonna hate me in the next hour and a half of my life. I have a, and if this ruins it, then I apologize,

but I've got a specific crouch position that I take. Power stance. In a specific area, because standing didn't work but sitting obviously you can't be sitting know it to be providing energy to be moving so i get into this like not full triple not full defensive slide position but i will say i went for a run before and afterwards i was like i probably don't need to run on game days because you know i'm locked in you know i'm with the squad bench. That's right there 3 1 3 You just walking over to your wife trying to do the bench mob celebrations and like hold holding her back like give her like

Intricate handshakes and I'm fine. So she's like leave me alone, dude Have you seen the timothy chalamet of like clatter every stands up clapping and then he goes over and like kisses Kylie agenda Yeah, and that's kind of what mine is. It's like my wife just like does work and like plans trips and does whatever, but it's been working. So I'm like, okay, fine. She's like, when would you want to fly out on like October 12, 2026?

I'm like, we are down to right now in the fourth quarter. And she goes, yeah, but it's been working. And I was like, okay, fine. That sounds like a partner who knows you and loves you. She understood it and she said, she played it right as we're up in Atlanta. For sure. She also watched me go through it this weekend. I told everyone I had a friend's wedding

who a ton of Celtics fans and everything like that. And I think I watched the game on a phone on a beach next to people in Marcus Smart jerseys. That's how deep cut this was. So my gift for the wedding was of course game three. That was my gift and I would like my thank you note to specifically say that I was magnanimous in my willingness to give up the sweep for that.

But now we are back to business and we're back on the roll. And this is probably approaching the end of this show because if we get a Knicks in the NBA finals, I think both of us are gonna end up at the bottom of either the East or the Hudson River. And that will be it. And soccer wise will have ended, I think in a glorious way unless Jordan chooses to come on herself.

I hope that she does in our memory. And I remember just the final show to send us off after all of it. It was a blast for us last night and it was a great weekend of MLS action. I kind of had to do the catch up version and it was a lot of fun games, a lot of high scoring games. We sort of went through the games we were looking forward to going into the weekend and a lot of them delivered not in the way I would have expected. We talked for a little while about Orlando and the revs and their defensive play 3-3 in that game, different sort of moments like that. One of the huge ones we touched on was Minnesota against Miami. That

clash of styles, we saw that play out and we'll talk about that in a moment. And some of the other Davids out there in the soccer atmosphere trying to take my name and do something with it when everyone knows I am the preeminent David in North American soccer. But let's start of course with the MLS Cup rematch. Do we have a nickname for it? I don't know. Do you have anything that comes to your mind? No red cup seems like a weird thing.

Oh yeah. You go down a bad, a bad road there. Rematch matched up. Yeah. I don't got anything. I don't think Red Bull fans will care. 7-0 in the MLS Cup rematch against the LA Galaxy. A Galaxy team, of course, that is now the remaining last un- or, winless team in Major League Soccer

after Montreal got a victory, 1-0 on the road against NYCFC. So an eventful time in New York for the no-win teams this weekend. It is the largest, I said this yesterday on the recap show, it is the largest rematch deficit in MLS history. Oh hold on. Do you realize that this is the largest, tied for the largest margin of victory in league history? Yeah. Full stop. You realize this has happened once before? Yes, yes, I actually, I looked it up at the other five teams that have lost.

One of them was also a reigning champion. Yeah, it was the Chicago Fire, right? I think it was Chicago Fire in 2001 or 2002. KC Wizards, they were a part of that game in some way. But regardless, yeah, yeah, because Kansas City won in 2000. That's just shocking to me that this has happened more than once. Like that to me is completely bizarre. It is, it absolutely is.

It is the largest defeat in LA Galaxy club history. As you said, it ties the largest in Major League Soccer They are currently Lasting goals conceded in MLS. They are second to last in goal scored And of course this comes off the back of losing a game without conceding a shot to sporting Kansas City Which has just never happened before Anywhere that anyone has ever called anything soccer or football or football or whatever else you want to call it.

I have some quotes here from Greg Vanny off the back of this game. Quote, this is a horrible night we've had on rare occasion throughout the course of the season. You have an absolute shitter and tonight we did. That was bleeped out. So I'm guessing on the language there and I'm hoping I filled it in correctly. If not, you can help me out there if you know other curses with SH ending in E-Hawk. Tonight we adapted the shape and tried to do something a little bit different because we're

missing such critical players. I think adapting against a team as aggressive as Red Bulls created uncertainties for us right away. I think that made us reactive and we made mistakes. We were shit and that's the end of that. Other games of the season where we play well we either just made mistakes that hurt us or didn't capitalize on moments. The margins can be thin. They were thin tonight. They of course were missing all three designated players. Ricky Pooj we know out for the season, Payne Sill and Peck unavailable for this one. That is part of what Greg Vanni was talking about, Tom. It is weekly that we have in the mailbag in Discord.

Talk about Greg Vanni, talk about the LA Galaxy. We've done it a lot of weeks and yet we can't avoid it on this one as this is rock bottom, it feels like. That's the thing that's such the quandary with the way the season is going. There has been a new rock bottom multiple times. You thought rock bottom was losing a game to a team that did not take a shot, not a shot on target,

it's a shot at all. That- Like a bad team kind of? One that already fired their coach and- Yeah. that's a pretty fair rock bottom. And then the next week to then lose seven nothing to the Red Bulls, a team that has not been very good this year. Just kind of straight up.

I mean, they haven't been terrible, but it's not like it was oh my god, here comes Cincy or Miami or Columbus or Vancouver. So that's really disappointing. The vanity quote that I like to get, like, I appreciate his candor. I don't know what else you can really do after losing to like, imagine if he came on and was like, you know what, actually we weren't that bad today. Um, so thankfully he didn't do that. But him being like, you know, yeah, usually the margins are thin, yet they weren't

thin tonight, like just the disgust like seeping through him. Yet they weren't thin tonight. Like, just the disgust like seeping through him. It's wild to me that all of the outcomes that have led to this, it's like the attack, the midfield, the defense goalkeeper, everything is conspired for all this happen. Like this team is not as bad as they've shown, but every worst case scenario outcome essentially

has manifested in reality. So before we kind of dive into that, here's what I know on Greg Vaney in situation with him and his future. It's contracted up at the end of the season. In the winter, Vaney front office ownership, everybody confident was gonna get done, wanted to get done. It was just about finding the right number of fair valuation. Obviously Vanny coming off of winning MLS Cup and the history and the resume that he has Wanted to be from what I was told the highest-paid coach in the league Talks had centered. I guess around that there was no agreements reached

but again, it got to a point as the season started and even when losses were coming where Ownership is you know know let's get it done no matter what whatever it takes right and losses have kept coming the talks are still going and it got to the point where they were really really close nothing got signed and that is where it still stands as i was told and as you can imagine um being 12 games winless, setting the record for longest winless streak to start the season, they're not exactly having, you know, oh my god, we need to get this done tomorrow. So things have for sure slowed. I'd imagine the asking price on both sides, the negotiating stances, have to be changing at this point after how bad the season started again.

That's not to suggest that Greg Vanni is solely to blame. There are a lot of different reasons to blame, but just the reality of right after you win MLS Cup you asked to be the highest paid coach in the league. And now right now I'm sure if the negotiations are active it's the galaxy saying well actually maybe let's lower that that figure. So I don't I'm not saying that Vanny won't continue as the manager of this team. It's just it wasn't as much it's not a foregone conclusion like it was a month ago. It's awkward to have that timing with all of the question marks that you'll have this season to try and figure out what your future looks like together and to not already be locked in It feels very weird and one everyone's asking what's the future? What's the you know, what's the present like?

You don't have that much contract to pay out if you do walk away or you could say this season's already awash Like let's just finish it up and then move on and as said, it changes negotiating power for both sides. I would assume that if Greg Vanni somehow wasn't the coach of the LA Galaxy next year, it wouldn't be very hard for him to find a job in Major League Soccer. Like I think he will still be highly valued by a number of clubs, including clubs that have openings.

With the success he's had, we have someone in the chat saying, Vanni's only, you know, his Galaxy teams have only been good for one year. I think that's fair. I think the obvious next step with that would be yeah, he can't be sporting director, like he could only be coach. And that was part of what was wrong.

I think in the first half of this, besides the people he was working with or working for weren't very good at what they were doing, and the club wasn't really modernized and fully established. There are there's reason to have question. I think that's completely fair. I think if you want to say that Wilford Nantes created this fake illusion that there are coaches in MLS who can do something with anything and you don't put Greg Vanny in that bucket That's fine because I think most coaches aren't in that bucket and now Greg Vanny The proof is in the pudding which is when he's able to get the right squads put together with the players They likes to use and there's a decent level of spending in there He puts together MLS Cup winning teams and sometimes when it doesn't come together, right?

It comes together terribly and it all falls apart and you finish at the bottom of the table, you miss multiple playoffs in a row. And so I think there are some coaches we would talk about and say like, the floor is high with them. Like you're never really going to fall apart if you have Pat Noonan as your head coach. I think a lot of people would have said that about Jim Curtin. Maybe they don't feel that way anymore about Jim. I'm not sure where that stands now. And so that's part of what's happening here, which would be if I'm negotiating with Greg Vanni, yeah, that takes a little bit off of how much I'm willing to pay because I don't think you are standalone the best at this in this space. And so I'm not going to pay you as number one in comparison to your peers

because you don't stand there. That's all at a minimum. And that's only saying if you do wanna continue with him which I think is a real question now that the galaxy are having. Yeah, again, I do wanna start with, I think Greg Vanny is a very, very good coach. I think that, again, they could go winless this season

and they won the title last year, right? Like you can't take that away and that's the most important. So I don't want this to sound either flippant or disrespectful or overly suggestive. But yeah, it's a topic now and not to do revisionist history or anything. At the end of 23, it was almost a surprise that he came back as a coach, that they didn't go in a different direction than. And I know that a slow start wouldn't, he wouldn't have had a long leash for that. And obviously as history happened, they completely overdid the team. I think he earned the chance to be the manager of a team with DPs that weren't Douglas Costa and Chicharito.

So it was awesome to watch that team last year. And Greg Vanny is at the center of that, right? He built the tactical foundation around Ricky Pooch. And that was amazing. And the team made a ton of sense. And they were really, really good. It wasn't just a playoff run. They had level on points with LAFC in the Western. They were really good the the whole season so that's where I'm at but like it's to the point for me like I don't again I don't solely blame him and I don't totally know what he's supposed to do about like Zonka making a bad mistake or Gabrielle Peck just all of a sudden being average and not great but he could

change the tactics this weekend. He tried. It didn't go well. But I don't know what to make of it totally. And like you said, I do think it's a question on if he comes back or not. But that's part of the speculation rather than me giving information on this one. Yeah. I think the biggest reason in my mind that you would say he's no longer a part of this is Just like fresh starty stuff. Yeah, like Greg Vanny One MLS Cup with Toronto FC and one MLS Cup with LA Galaxy across you could argue two different errors They're not that far apart, but with two different styles

So it's not like he's tactically so dogmatic that he can't put together teams in different ways. Like those TFC teams did not play the same style of, I mean, formationally, they didn't play the same, but the same style of possession or the same style of game as ALA Galaxy did. And what the Galaxy were able to do last year, I think, as you look at this year, should be held in even higher regard, which is we thought there were questions defensively. Now you see them without the greatest possession player in the league and you see all of the issues that exist on individual ability, 1v1 defending, spacing, like just pure talent level across the back six.

So all of those questions, I think, go to show how impressive it was what they built last year. You now have that scale that you're compared against. We have someone in the chat sort of talking about the offseason moves not hitting. Will Kuntz, the general manager of the team who's been on this show, has done a couple interviews over the last seven days about the struggles that they've had, which we have talked about many times on this show of the inability in Major League Soccer to sort of add to a roster. When you win, all the bonuses come due,

it is really hard to keep teams together. That was our big complaint coming into the season, which is MLS is not a league that rewards winning. It's harder to build your rosters when you win. That's one of the reasons we see the struggles in CONca calf champions conca champions, whatever you want to call it It's probably going to be an issue for Seattle into Miami when they enter the Club World Cup this year Because that's where the scale gets reset, which is like when Monterey and Tigress do well They don't scale back and they don't have to cut players

Will Kuntz went into specifics about Dejan Jovovich. We already know, graduating off of U22, you can't keep him. Mark Delgado, they were not gonna be able to afford him. So they got what they could for him. I think they did pretty well in a number of those deals. They were kind of forced to get rid of Jalen Neal because he was the only asset they had. So there's a lot going on in all of this.

And I think just to purely say the moves haven't hit, I have said this many times, I think a lot of these moves were not to be good in April of 2025. They were to try and keep the window open for as long as possible, acknowledging that Ricky Puig is not going to be either back at all this year

or available to start the year. And I think that's where you see, you go out and get under 22 initiative center forwards and center mids who can take the time to get comfortable. So they're ready to hit their peak next year. In saying all of that, being the worst start team in MLS history still has its own problems on that side.

And I think there's at some point you reach a like unacceptable, you should be able to get a result here or there, even if you trip over backwards into it like Sporting Against the City did against the LA Galaxy. And I think that's where you have to try and figure out as a club where you sit in between. They are I think third to last right now in expected goals. So it's not like they're missing chances. And it's not purely like there's one individual mistake. As a collective, this is a team that is underperforming game in and game out, and they are being punished for it

on top of that, which doesn't always happen, but it should happen if that's what you put out there. And I think that's all of the things that this club's gonna have to consider. Yeah, and so kind of what I was wanting to get into off the top of this of just like, all of the worst case-ish scenarios across the like, different groups of this team have all happened. Yeah. Starting with the attack, right? The first point of why they are gonna be fine without Ricky Boots,

not great, but they're going to be fine is Paints own peck and an attack built around them. It doesn't matter to us. You kind of put there Well paint so miss the first what was it six or eight weeks of the season? Gabriel pecks just just not been good enough This year he's in the 27th percentile among attacking mids and wingers in shock rating actions actions 27th that is significantly below average. 39th percentile and non-pen expected goals, expected assists. That's nowhere near good enough.

Like he needs to be, he's a $10 million player. This is the guy that we were talking about for, oh, is he gonna go to Atletico Madrid? Where's he gonna go? And it just hasn't been good enough. I know it's difficult, I know it's, you know, but it's, so again, right? You have those two guys, okay,

well, if they're not doing great, we have Marco Royce. That was, and Wilkins talked about this on his interview with the Coolians. You should go check it out. It was very good. He goes, look, we knew that we pushed our chips in last year, like particularly signing Marco Royce. We weren't surprised that we had cappage use this winter, but our mantra was we're close. We need to do everything we can to try to win the title this year because windows don't last forever as you can see right now Marco Royce has been a non-factor. He's dealing with a knee injury, but truth be told he doesn't look good enough in any of the minutes He's been on the field since debuting and he's been hampered by injury Well that that was part of the risk in signing him. So that hasn't worked out and then you go, okay

What about the midfield even without Ricky pooch, you know you you nerds were talking to me about oh well you know whatever he doesn't do like he can your player Diego Fugunez can do 80% of what he does in possession and he'll give you a 50% more in defense well that hasn't worked out either Lucas Sanabria five million dollar signing not been good enough I think I didn't know he's 21 and maybe too much to expect immediately to save everything but hasn't been good enough okay what about the defense the defense looks good in the MLS Cup run Cup run like that's what made them from a really good team to a championship level team. Well Yoshida's taken lost half a step, Zonka's been a disaster and the biggest kind of qualm I have with Vani is the way he's handled the goalkeepers. Mikovic was told he was the starter.

He was actually expected to be last year, but it was a competition and John McCarthy won it. Mikovic was told he was a starter and they've gone back and forth and both goalies have been very bad. Like Mikovic is to blame for his own performances as well. But between the two goalkeepers and in and out and not being good enough, like you go on through that,

it's like, all right, well, plan A is our wingers are gonna be awesome. Well, they haven't been awesome. All right, plan B is Marco Royce is gonna give you 80% of Ricky Pooch. Okay, he's been a non-factor What about the midfield? Okay, if we lose everything else What if the defense just stays really good Garces and Yoshida and it hasn't and so when all of those things fail You don't just get a bad team. You get a historically bad run. Yeah

Yep, there's a lot going into all of this I would say. So we have a comment in the chat from Andrew Johnson, which is a good one, which is like the crew stayed relevant in 24, which is a really good point. Well, Kucho Hernandez wasn't out for the season. No, he wasn't. The other thing is two things happened for the LA Galaxy. One, they probably won earlier than they expected.

And so I think if you look at Columbus from 2000 on, sorry, 2020 on, that's the better comp, which is Tim Bezbuchenko got to a club that had been somewhat missed. Well, actually not somewhat. Andrew Precourt had like actively run them poorly, major league style, and then built a winner and it's hard because you don't have the structure in place to build off of that and the

structure in place means academy players that are ready to step through or two players that are ready to step through to give you cap hit relief players that you know you're going to sell but also having replacements already lined up and already ready to move, right? That's then what ends up happening with Zehraian and Diego Rossi and all of that. The crew, when they won in 23, they had spent four years building that. So that's one. And then the other is, and this is the galaxy's fault, they went all in. Will Coons used that exact line, right? To get Marco Royce, to make some of the signings, some of the veterans they brought in, to use international roster spots on a Mickey Yamane,

to use U22s on Julien, those types of moves, those are all in moves. I'm curious what most people would say if they'd want their team to do this. Like, would you think, and I'm asking you, I'm asking our fans, I'm curious, and feel free to message us live or afterwards, would you want your team to go all in

and mortgage their future to win one time? Like, is this worth it for the flip side? As someone who roots for teams that never win anything, I would say probably. I mean, Toronto Raptors fans are still celebrating their championship, Kwhy Leonard hasn't played there in six years, right? Like, I don't know how often you care.

So that was a decision the galaxy made and it was unfortunate it paid off. Cause could you imagine if they had lost? Imagine if they hadn't won MLS Cup last year, if the injuries still happened to Ricky and they were in the exact same cap situation, that would be brutal on a completely different level. But that's the decision they made last year.

And if you think the job is to win trophies be brutal on a completely different level. But that's the decision they made last year. And if you think the job is to win trophies, and especially for I think for the galaxy specifically to win that trophy, like MLS Cup, that's the thing they're synonymous with, then they'd probably take it. And I think a lot of people would agree with that. And then this is the situation you end up on the flip side. But a lot of really good points made in the chat. I appreciate everyone being in there. Real quick guys, we don't need to do this every week. Is there any way that you could talk yourself into? Well, if they win a couple of times in a row, then they're only nine points away from the playoff line. We're talking MLS playoffs. I think they potentially have a shot if they want to at the NIT and if they can get to

the NIT and win a couple of big non-conference games then maybe they can get us the committee. Well they have one against Philly on Wednesday so that's a big non-conference. That they've got a shot to get in. On the end of all of this by the way, you said it, for the Red Bulls it's been a little up and down to start this year. This is a special moment, I think, for the club. And the reference back to the Red Wedding, I think, is just like a positive for this club to be able to say, like, we've done stuff like this before.

We've had this legacy. There are question marks about people being in that building and about people caring about that building and about people caring about that team way too often. I think Mark, who we had on to talk about this team coming into the season, he's boasting every week. There are no major media sources covering this team in MLS Cup rematch. There's no one there there and yet the crowd was pretty filled. The building, I think, was jumping and you got the reward for it in front of your team. And you saw a lot of the positives. This is still a team that's built around Emile Forsberg. Like they what they did

in this offseason did not alleviate that, right? Last year, the dip in the middle of the year was because of his injury. Shupa Motang is a better player than Dante Van Zier. But in swapping those two players out for each other and not really reinforcing on top of that, they're not much better. But when Emile Forsberg is healthy and ready to play and fit and the rest of it then can be built around it, it is awesome to watch. It like that's where the rub on this team for now. Whatever. What's it three months

into the season and plus last year. So for 15 months or whatever you want to call it, when Emil Forsberg is available, he's very good. And when he's very good, this team is good at the very least good going into the season. I thought that they could be great

and they still can be. It's a very long season. But before this game, things weren't feeling great for the New York Red Bulls in this season because they hadn't taken the step forward that we had hoped that they were going to. They don't have enough verticality when Lewis Morgan is not playing. That's why, like, I think SoFo has been quite good. Yeah. But like he jumps off the screen because it's like is that a Red Bull attack ish player running Straight line very fast forward like that's great, right?

So they need to get that balance better and that's like man. I just hope that they go out and use this their DP this summer And and look team overner would be a super ambitious I did be I think it'd be a really really good signing But even if it's not somebody you're spending ten million dollars on and again, even if it's the Red Bull to Red Bull Which how much are you really spending? Um, if, if it's a $3 million sign, $5 million signing, like somebody who's not 17 and a half years old, that's going to come to the second team first. Like if they sign a vertical,

attacking piece as a DP and get it right, this team could be back in MLS Cup. And I know the East is a gauntlet. And I even if get even with Timo Werner, I wouldn't put them as like the favorite it still be Cincy, Columbus and Miami free. But like, they'd be right there. disrespect right off the top. Like, and again, it's all in theory, we'd have to see it. But like, they have what it takes to be a title winning team. And I hope that they go for it because Emil Forsberg won't be here forever And he won't be in this form forever

five wins so far this year seventh in the East none of them are back-to-back wins. And I think that's like what this team is right now It's one game on one game off. I think part of that is the thin nature of the attack you mentioned Lewis Morgan like that's a massive loss for them. You will have losses throughout the season. This is not a roster that is capable of fully overcoming losses like that, like we just said. And I think the hope was the Julian Halls and the Serge Gomez of the world would be

able to fill some large extent of that. I think that's great. I think that's fine. Carballo coming back, but maybe not being a full DP if you finally add that third DP. That's great as well, but not all of that has happened as fast as you would hope. And yet for the Red Bulls, they get another nickname me thing. We got a red star thing because galaxies and there are red stars and they destroy galaxies or something like that. I think we're in Star Trek territory at this point and we're not exactly in my expertise. My other expertise though is on people named David, which I actually gave a speech in high

school about people named David. So I was pretty proud of that one as well as... What was the premise? What was the... I think it was a speech writing class. You had to make up speeches. The greatest speech I ever gave was on the history of the sandwich. I can go find it for you If you're really curious, it has a great history. Do not give that away for free

Yeah, no, that's that's my go-to man. That's that's that's in the vault. That's the retirement plan right there Is the David Goss high school history of the sandwich speech that I'm so proud of so there are other people Long time Dave from Rockaway. History of the sandwich. Boom. I got you. I'm ready to go. There are other people named David and unfortunately sometimes they like to make us as a community

maybe look good, maybe look bad. It depends on which way you go. I know when most people in their everyday are like, did you hear what David said? Did you hear what David did? Everyone thinks you're talking about me. But in this scenario you are not So we talked about the Minnesota United Miami game is one of the ones we were most excited about Minnesota towards the top of the Western Conference They have this very distinct style aka they don't use the soccer ball and they continue to win and they do it at a really high level. This was going to be their big test. Could they do it against one of the best? What would this clash of styles look like? Well, it looked

pretty good for Minnesota United. They did it without Kelvin Yobo in the starting lineup because of the results against Austin the previous week. Eric Ramsey decided to keep the same group together. They end up winning four to one against Miami, which is the worst deficit in Messi's Miami error. It is now four of the last five all comps losing for this into Miami team. Obviously, a huge result for this Minnesota United team, as we said, to establish them towards the top. I thought Pereira was awesome in this game.

I thought there was a lot of really good performance for Minnesota. We could talk about all of that in a second. Afterwards, Minnesota United on their social media account posted a picture of the Inter Miami players, I think, walking back after conceding a goal. And in it, they tagged it as Pink Phony Club. Phony being, you know.

The advertising board read, no better supporters. That's amazing. At the exact same time? That's so great. The Pink Phony Club, of course, referenced the Chapel Roan and the Pink Pony Club, which I will now, under my breath, be singing from here

through the rest of the show so I apologize for that. I cannot help it and I'll just keep on dancing in the Pink Pony Club like that's just what I'll do down in West Hollywood. Oh, another LA Galaxy reference. There you go. After that, David Beckham, so not David Goss. This is David Beckham. We knew it when it was an Instagram comment that it wasn't you.

Yeah, exactly. I'm more of a blue sky person myself. Commented and said, show a little respect. Be elegant in triumph. I laugh because of many reasons. The biggest one being as someone who's from Long Island coming out of the depths of a New York Knicks victory. Elegance and the thing people are doing have no relation to each other in any way. After that, the Minnesota United account posted a banner that was in the crowd that read, History over Hype, Culture over Cash. The words hype and cash were highlighted in pink. Another reference to Inter Miami who wear pink.

And David Beckham, again, to be clear, not David Goss, David Beckham commented and said, respect over everything. We got flooded in the mailbag asking us what we think about this. I think everyone's been flooded everywhere about what's been going on. Tom, takeaways.

The question in the mailbag literally is, do you like this and is this okay? On which side, Minnesota or Petco? I think it was on Minnesota side, yeah. Look man, like team social media accounts are for the team and the team's fans, right? Whether I do or don't and like I don't mind it, but whether I do or don't doesn't matter. It's more like as long as they're not doing anything insane. Um, the only because I'm sure that David Beckham is not going to come out, um, on top in this

discussion. The only thing that I will say in his defense, it's like, I think that was like the fifth anti-Inter Miami post, which again, they won, they get to do it. It's good banter. My favorite one, we haven't mentioned yet, it was the stick figure of the person with a Yankees hat, a Miami Jersey, Lakers shorts, and like,

I don't know, like a Duke something. It was just like a tough weekend for this guy. I thought it's funny, man. Like, dude, it's sports, man. Like, let's not take it too seriously. And again, the Minnesota United social team is really good. I find myself routinely laughing at what they do. And like, my normal rules of engagement is I don't care who you are. I don't care how rich or poor, how successful or unsuccessful, how you know kind or whatever. If the rules of engagement are set, someone comes at you, that's fine. You can get it too. Right? So in one hand, I want to say I don't blame Beckham and I'd like that to be true where people

could just be like, all right cool they came at him he came at them and we're all good. But the reality is my man do you have somebody in the room with you maybe seeing you starting to type on Instagram and be like hey yeah what are you doing? What do you have to gain? And this is so hypocritical because even if somebody was in the room with me and telling me not to do it, I'd be screaming, F you, I'm going to do it. So in one way, I can relate to that. But I just I don't see what what was to be gained there. Would Minnesota United have deleted the post?

You're right. I'm sorry. I've had an epiphany. I just don't know what was going to be accomplished there. I do love the idea of us doing a recap episode about this in like a year where it's like, former social media admins being like, that just wasn't who I was. Like, I just didn't wanna be that person. I woke up, I looked, I saw the mirror,

and I spell every day, fighting to be more elegant in my childhood. I was writing respect on the mirror. Yeah, you're right. I. That would be- I was writing respect on the mirror. Yeah, right. I just didn't know who I was looking back from the other side. That would be the best way for this to end. New mockumentary idea, write it down.

It's also like classic thing where like, you know, Beckham would be like, oh, I'm from the East End and whatever. And it's like, right. And fans after the games, when they win, they're like super polite and like excited for the other team also come on it's social media who cares and it was pretty good like pink phony club is funny they wear pink chaperone it's like relevant right now i'm i appreciate it i very mindful very demure is what we got in the chat.

Off the back of this one, I said yesterday, I was like, I looked up David Beckham's net worth and those aren't always super accurate. So give or take a couple. I think you got better things to do than be on social media. I think it shows a little bit of the stress around Inter Miami right now. And like maybe you are feeling a little buyer's remorse

on a Frederico Redondo or a Lujan or a WineGat. And maybe that's part of the issue of what's going on. And Mascherano came out and said, afterwards I think many of the goals we've conceded which are 14 in the last five games have to do with inattention and individual errors rather than a collective approach to defending. So I don't know if that's a lack of preparation or just a lack of individual skill and ability.

Either way doesn't feel like things are going well. You've been knocked out of one competition, you're starting to fall behind in a second competition and you're sitting in a space now where the giant list of trophies that were available to you are slowly being knocked off. So Matt, that Mascheron a quote doesn't sound great, particularly like you losers can't do what I'm telling you to do. I'm so I'm sorry. I couldn't make you do what I told you to do.

That's what that read like. But he had another quote that I think would be the biggest worrying sign to take away if you if you wanted to take grandiose analysis. He was like, we know how Minnesota want to play. We know what they're very good at, what they're good at. And there was no surprise. He used the word inattention a couple times. And I think he like, I don't have to quote up in front of me, but one of the lines was literally like that. That is what is worrying. That we knew what they wanted to do and we just didn't do anything to stop it, right?

Like a couple goals off set pieces and Minnesota sat deep, really difficult to defend against, sprung in transition. Miami obviously aren't gonna change the way they play, nor should they, but a lot of other teams in MLS have really frustrated Minnesota because they know what they wanna do and they try to counter it. And then again, maybe you can find ways in your game model.

So there's two ways to look at it is if one, is this a huge warning sign structural issues like need to patch this ASAP or the season's going to kind of go start to go sideways? Or is it just a bad couple of weeks in a nine-month season and I think it's more that Than big big issues again doesn't mean that there's nothing to worry about not doesn't mean that there's nothing to fine-tune or fix but I think Vancouver very very good and I think Minnesota are really good and There's a different way that this game goes if Miami get to fend a long throw That maybe Minnesota doesn't get him out or when it was 2-1 Miami had several chances and then just another bad mistake led to a 3-1 and that kind of broke it and that

was that so I think that to go back to Greg Vanney the margins are thin here but I think it's more about a bad few weeks than oh my god like this team stinks because they have a game in hand on everybody else in the East if they win that they're one point behind first place in East yeah yeah there's I mean there's every reason to believe they can save this obviously the four or five what to our Champions League to take and one was a not just a rotate completely yeah right the Dallas game but I'm just saying even in the supporter shield race it's like two of those four losses have nothing to do

with that competition and where you stand. No Luis Suarez for this game, which was a huge factor. So they basically played a false nine. I think it was a mistake to not have Allende on the field. I've said this many times. Everyone else sort of plays the same note. And you talk about teams that have been able to identify issues with Minnesota and have struggled less against them. Miami just tried to play through Minnesota when there was zero space between their lines and with no one that can stretch the field or even attempts to start to re-change a little bit of the geography. It was super basic. Then IND comes off the bench at halftime. It looks a little bit more dangerous, a little bit better. But even in all of that, as you said, Miami incapable of stopping the things Minnesota does dangerously. I highlight Pereira because I thought the transition moments through him

were super dangerous. He's starting to beat people 1v1 a little more. He's starting to sense the space a little quicker. It was slow through his feet for the first eight months that he has been around Minnesota. Now you're starting to see the quality with him and just the lone center forward and Tani in this one changes the shape a little bit more as well. Although I would assume your boa is back in this team fairly soon. And that's like a luxury for Eric Ramsey to try and figure out how all of this fits together and how to put it all together. Let me ask you this question. And I don't know. I assume this has to do with this history line. Up the loons in the chat says, is it fair for Minnesota United to claim the history that came from the kickers,

strikers, thunder and stars? I think yes, but curious for an outsider's POV. Because like if you're saying history, these two teams started a year or two apart, three years apart, right? In that essence, essence Minnesota I think many Minnesota fans would say it's the NASL years all the way through at a minimum the modern and ASL years and a league in USL one and all of that playing I think they played in the Metro Dome for a few years then they played up in Blaine or you can go back even further do you have any take on this yeah I think that there are like st Louis didn't have an MLS team until two years ago three years ago and that's got some of the best history in this country

For soccer like that was the birthplace of like the famous national team win over England in 1950 or whatever it was right like so Just because it didn't happen in MLS doesn't mean you throw it away. If I'm a Miami fan, I'd be like, alright Well, if you guys count that we had the Miami Fusion like of the Strikers, you can take whichever one you want here or whatever. Right. So it kind of goes back and forth. Yes, you count it as you should count it. Just because it didn't happen in M. West by doesn't mean it doesn't exist. So that's what I said. Does it become more complicated in a city where you have like two New York's and two L.A.'s of like who gets that history? Because when Red Bulls were,

when from Metro starts to Red Bulls, I was at that first game and they brought Pele and Beckenbauer and Carlos Alberto out and like connected it to the Cosmos. And then I think the Cosmos restarted themselves like three years after that. And that went away pretty quickly. And obviously NYCFC doesn't claim like, does that affect it? Cause you're saying sort of city culture, right?

This the culture and the history of the sport in the city But you could potentially in that disconnected from one club or disconnected from clubs in general Yeah, I think it's more of a loose term not a scientific one, right? Like yeah, so you're not throwing stars on the wall for championships that were won by those teams But if you are fans you are repping that history as well. Yeah, I think that's probably the right call throwing stars on the wall for championships that were won by those teams. But if you are fans, you are repping that history as well. Yeah, I think that's probably the right call. And that's probably what I would go.

I'm curious what someone maybe in a bit more of a royal position would say. So if David Beckham would like to come on the show and chat with a fellow David about this, we are open to it and we are all ears. Let's talk about our MLS takeouts, our takeaway packages that we take from the weekend that are in the fridge that on Tuesdays We are ready to reheat and get them going I will say I did eat some reheated shawarma just recently and it was so good Sometimes leftovers are better. Like let's just be real We have a little bit similar you think so?

be real. We have a little bit similar. You think so? Like, yeah, leftovers are better. There's never a time where you're like, actually kind of like this more on the second heat up. No. Really? No. Do you prefer cold pizza? What? Do you do cold pizza ever? I warm it up. And I love leftover pizza. But it's blasphemous to be like, no, this is better than it coming out of the oven in the pizzeria. It coming out of my microwave. But sometimes it's what you want. Like sometimes it hits a different mood. Sadness? Wow, that's seven slices of pizza. Here comes another one.

I had seven yesterday, so I didn't finish the pie, but now I'm still going to eat the eight. No, no, no. Usually it's, I had an earliest dinner so that I can re-eat more slices of pizza before I go to sleep and like, I'm not even hungry. I just want this. Yeah. Do you have anything you want to start on? Uh, yeah.

Look, dude, I'm gonna have a positive one too, so, because I feel like we're just hating right now just talking about Miami and Galaxy Strongman, but dude, I fucking, I fell for it for Dev-C Dallas. Again, that's three years in a row that I like I nobody the takeaway is I'm an idiot it's not even an anti Dallas thing this is a like fool me once situation like dude the two last two years in an Equestria I was like bro this team makes so much sense on paper and then by midseason last year I was like I'm never doing this again I'm never falling for this again and then this preseason I was like dude, there's your cousin Peter Musa

I don't care who else you put on the field. I'm it and It just hasn't been that they are I just had the XG numbers. They're 20 second league and expected goals So it's just like just like they were last year 27th percent possession which with Lucho Costa you should probably want to have that more 27th percent possession with Lucho Costa, you should probably want to have that more. 27th percent, not percent, 27th in field tilt, so one of the worst. The game is being dictated by other teams. 22nd in direct attacks despite having Liao Chu and Anderson Julio and Lucho Costa. And not having possession.

19th in passes per defensive action. So they don't get pressure on the ball and try to win the ball. They don't want to have the ball all the time. And then when they have it, they're not going direct. It's just, I can't believe I fell for it again. And on top of that, but it is not on the field. If you tell me that in a couple of weeks, scored a few goals, I'll be right back. I'll be right back here. I've been sucked in most of the time with them too, because there, scored a few goals, I'll be right back. I'll be right back here. I've been sucked in most of the time with them too because there's been a few games where they've looked good,

like there's been purposeful possession and there's a ton of grittiness with all of this and like that'll suck me in, right? And so the results they've gotten on the days where they've not been as good but they've still been able to work through and get a result. You're like, okay, like this team is there. But if you can't elevate that to we're up a player at home for 30 plus minutes, and we can't create a single goal to take a

victory over a team that's also limping through this moment, then we probably have to give up on you. I picked Betts Armusa to win the the golden boot I actually don't feel terrible about that because he's been pretty good when he was healthy. Exactly, but I will clearly lose that one In the end of this season or maybe even earlier than that and I like a bunch of the pieces like you said I like Urakire. I like Kaikei. We like Lucho. We like Musa There's a lot to like in all of this but not all of it I like Uruk Gide, I like Kaike, we like Lucho, we like Musa. There's a lot to like in all of this, but not all of it clearly is fitting together. How many weeks am I allowed to do the Philadelphia Central midfield?

Until you run out of midfielders to talk about. Okay. Keep going. Because boom, baby. Again, the Columbus-Philly game was everything we could have asked for. Both of these teams played full throttle, foot on the gas. Again, the Columbus-Philly game was everything we could have asked for. Both of these teams played full throttle, foot on the gas. You saw the limitations in what Columbus can do defensively against a group like Philadelphia.

You saw the limitations of what Philadelphia can do to close out leads against a possession team like Columbus. You saw an open game. You saw individual talent. You saw team structure. Obviously, I think not having Andre Blake's a bit of a hole right now for Philadelphia, You saw an open game. You saw individual talent. You saw team structure Obviously, I think not having Andre Blake's a bit of a hole right now for Philadelphia Even though they trust their young players, but Quinn Sullivan was good. Indy Vasilev was fantastic in this one, but my guys Danly and

Jovich that is my squad right now in central midfield They covering a ton of ground so the wide guys can go out wide and create chances from the channels They're able to keep things clean defensively and then they went it back and they get into the attack Dan Lee with what should have been An assist in this one ends up being secondary weird assist to Mr. Frankie Westfield put in one in the corner. That's what you love to see. Frankie, I told you if you're going to strike it like that, you got to put it in the corner. It was an unbelievable goal. And then shout out to Columbus, right? Heart of a champion. Like this is the team they've been for two plus years. They come back with the Arveston gold and they

come back with the Zawadzi goal. We're talking about three home groans or two home groans in the next pro signing, getting goals in this one. We're talking about like two clubs that have built really special things and they, I think for Philadelphia, they clearly leave the weekend to me being in that upper echelon conversation. And Columbus right now, I would say outside of Vancouver, the class of the league. I would agree one minor note I want to say I stopped correcting you on Arfsten's name you just decided it was Arfsteen and I was like this is not a battle I'm gonna fight. I was just trying to check maybe he wants to come to Rosh Hashanah services this year I'm not sure. But you said it correctly there and it was

beautiful and that just you know we do positive reinforcement here. Yeah no like the Philly Columbus like this was one of the games to look forward to last weekend. And again, not, you don't want to just, again, one game sample sizes for XG is not, is not a good rule of thumb, but when it's a pattern of just like going back again, this cost Jim curtain his job. I mean, maybe earth center still would have made a change regardless, but like they were not just a playoff team, a very good team with Andre Blake.

And they were a disaster with anybody but Andre Blake and goal. And yesterday, the crew were outshot. Their XG was only point nine and Philly deserved to win that game. They played a Philly game. They created the chances. They scored their goals and they weren't able to hold on to the lead with, again, the late goal that equalized. Like, you know, Philly took two leads and twice Columbus called back and again those things happened and It's just a larger worry where

Again, if Andre Blake's not playing his team It's probably the biggest drop-off outside of Daniel in San Jose just given what has happened Whatever he's not been in that team over the last 15 months. I Given what has happened whenever he's not been in that team over the last 15 months I am confirming right now with people in the chat and seeing but I think there's like a hundred percent chance that I said Lukajowicz instead of Jovan Lukic once again I think I do that every single time probably didn't even clock it. I cannot for the life of me Get that name, which is the ultimate sign of respect respect I would say for the play and what they do

Tom what's next for you? After you said it in the chat, Connor Brown just goes yeah 100% like I wasn't gonna say anything but and then another one since he played Austin this weekend since he wins 2-1 and it was a story of two teams who spent huge money this winter. Both of them spent upwards of 30 million dollars. One of them it is working perfectly. The other one we have questions after question and of how it fits and how it's gonna work. So I thought that was a nice little poetic tie for these two teams that otherwise don't really have you know strong connection right. It's not like a rivalry where you don't have the same

connection. So for me drawing the through line between well one team spent thirty million dollars or twenty million dollars rather to get a Vander and Kevin Denke and all season we're all like hell yeah, this looks perfect from the opening whistle of game one and Austin's have spent over the last two windows the thirty million dollars and Bucari Uzuni and Vasquez and it hasn't been good enough yet. It hasn't fit. It's still waiting to click They're still working out the kinks and we saw that in this game Vasquez did score in a penalty But since he get the game because of their two players were special particularly Vander with the golden assist. I Wouldn't say it's worked perfectly for Cincinnati

I mean, it's a little so I cuz I mean you're the site you're right But because I think that they have another they have another tier. Yeah. With that attack. So that's a good that's a good point. Which is the only reason I say that is because I did say in my last takeout that I think Columbus are the class right now outside of Vancouver. And I mean that.

And we're going to learn on Saturday. I'm stoked about the Hell is Real this weekend. Like it's been really good for two plus years because of the defined styles and what these two teams mean, the proximity, all of it. And this is another one where I think we're going to sort of learn where they stand. And I think Cincinnati, if it all hits perfectly, they could be the top. But right now, I think Columbus is playing in a way closer to their peak, which is probably a little lower than Cincinnati's because of the loss of Cucho and the way they've replaced him and having filled all of that.

Where Cincinnati right now, I think is below their ceiling, which is pretty close still to where Columbus sits. So this is going to be really, really fun coming up this weekend. We have a couple of rivalry games. I think we have El Trafico. I think we've got New York. I think we have El Clasico del Sol as well, a name that no one has adopted besides me. And I will die on that hill, especially now as a native.

We also say you're a local guy. So you're like set tone. Yeah, that's what I get to do now. Shout out to Don Alvelo and Zwe Well, who got a goal in this one for Cincinnati He it's been like a really good year plus and it's been a perfect example of you're a winning team You need homegrown to step in but they gave him shots in conquer conquer champions early on when Guys were still getting signed guys were holding out not just this year last year and like that got him blooded in the first team That they've used them across Leakes Cup and like all these different things to bring this player along where every time I see him in a

Fully pro game like first division game I think he looks up to speed and he's so fluid and he moves so cleanly on the ball and now it's just about You know physicality and tactical understanding and all of that But this guy's got a pretty bright future and I think that's pretty exciting for Cincinnati. Speaking of though that future there's going to be a new member of the attack for FC Cincinnati Tom he does it once again. Kai Kamara is back! Kai Kamara signed with FC Cincinnati that I broke it like Friday when official yesterday. Kai was

in training speaking to local media just makes me happy my heart my heart is warm when I see Kai Kamara actively in an MLS uniform um there was it was funny somebody texted me like oh you know like don't forget that um Cincinnati did select him in the expansion draft and traded him and I was like brother I one that's that's folklore in MLS that that that expansion draft was awful them. And I was like, brother, one, that's folklore in MLS, that expansion draft was awful. And thankfully, I could help that team, but I think it probably worked out better for me.

But also, every Cincinnati fan reminded me in the mentions and I thought that was beautiful. They were very happy for a homecoming for Club Legend that was there for 15 minutes. And I think that's really nice. And I think he's gonna be really helpful. So they get him on a supplemental roster spot, which is an absolute no-brainer.

There were other MOS teams. He used to have some talks with them. Riel Salt Lake, this goes back earlier in the season. I'm sure they weren't the only two. I think the Galaxy at least had talks. I don't think, obviously they didn't have a single dollar to spare on their salary cap. recap. So yeah, but Kai Kamara going to Cincy chance to win something with this team and he gives them an error a singular aerial threat that they don't have in this group. So it gives Pat Noonan another option. I don't think that this is gonna block Dado Valenzuela or anything. I think it's just going to be additive and from the people I talked to at Cincy, they were excited about him in the locker room him even with Denke. It's not like Denke needs somebody in the locker

room with him. He's not a young player, but but like they think that that'll be a really good fit, too He has proven over the last few years one the athleticism physicality is also there And I think his creative ability like we saw it for LAFC. We saw for Montreal dropping in creating for players around him I think that goes into he could be part of a two-forward setup game creating for players around him. I think that goes into he could be part of a two forward setup very simply and help that other forward and not just get on the end of things himself. I think Sergio Santos has been a let down as that backup forward and Corey Barrett as well for since almost the entire time. I felt like Santos, the low key thought might be a breakout player for them as they moved along and like post, um, wow, Brazilian center

forward whose name I cannot even remember that they sold Brenner, post Brenner. Like that was when they made the Santos move to sort of like pre get ready for stuff like that, or Vasquez. And that's not been the case at all. And so Kai Kamara brings a different element. Uh, he, I don't know what the routine is, but you know he's gonna be ready to play game one. He can't. It is absurd. Captain Sierra Leone against Egypt in March.

It is wild, man. Yeah, it is wild. And I think last one we wanted to hit, which we didn't hit in depth, but congratulations to CF Montreal. You guys won a soccer game, which is exactly the thing you were created to do and that is everyone's assigned responsibility and under Marco Donadale now it is the first time

it has happened on the season. It was tied for the worst start in MLS history, but luckily for them, the LA Galaxy are heads down focused on the future on the horizon. And so Montreal went and beat NYCFC, NYCFC without Keaton Parks, which Pascal Jensen talked about specifically and like the struggles they have without him. And I think there are pieces of this Montreal team that I've liked.

It hasn't all come together. Giacomo Veroni is clearly a big ad for them being healthy and the only DP on the roster and he's hit pretty quickly when he's been there. We have midweek games this week in MLS and then we go to this rivalry weekend for Thursday's show. Let me know. Do you want us to dig into one or two specific games?

Do you want us to power rank all the rivalries in Major League Soccer? We could do a full Andrew Weeby like 97 rivalry list and like talk about the one time these two players fought in 2012 and when there was like quote unquote a rivalry you know we could do full Trillium Cup history like let me know what you want and let me know what you need. We do have one big one though midweek which is St. Louis against Kansas City. This has been one now for the last year where both teams are struggling and so I think it means even more because it's this bragging rights for two teams that may not have anything else to brag about. At the end of this season

Kansas City a 1-0 loss to a Portland team that struggles defensively that sort of shows you this attack is at no shots against the Galaxy team that struggles defensively but stealing the win and St. Louis on the flip side where they got some goals in open cup play But it has not really been there in MLS over the course of the season these two teams played Six weeks ago five weeks ago, which I think takes away from it a little bit That was a two nothing win by Kansas City. But yeah, that'll be a good one on Wednesday I'm looking forward to that and Seattle LAFC. So again, we're talking about rivalry week more traditionally this weekend where there'll be El Clasico and Cascadia and everything else. I do like that this,

like on Wednesday night, LAFC Seattle. Like that's been a recent rivalry, more of circumstance than something traditional. And then I think that that one's going to have staying power as well. So I think that's a's gonna let have let us staying power as well So I think that's a nice little way to set up the weekend, but for the LAFC going Vancouver on Sunday Seattle midweek and then Galaxy this weekend just again, I know the galaxy have been a doormat but Just the idea of those three big big games for this team. It's Taxing in in May and MLS and it's nice to have games of consequence It's our first full midweek because open Cup you don't have every team playing,

Conker Champions you don't have every team playing. So that is something to watch out for as well. I would expect to see a lot of rotated lineups because these teams have, I think what they'd call quote unquote bigger games coming up on the weekend. It's a chance for us to nerd out on some players that we don't see as often. So there's all these different things to watch out for. I think you named the big games. I would throw in, I mentioned yesterday on the recap, San Jose against Miami.

It's gonna be fun. Number one, number three on goals per game because Miami has played less goals. In the league, of course Miami traveling straight from Minnesota out to San Jose. So it's a long trip for them, but like San Jose doesn't know how to close things down. So my expectation would be there'll be a million goals in this one. San Jose lead the league in expected goals and are slightly second in expected goals

against now that LA Galaxy gave up seven goals. The thing of beauty baby. Bruce at his best. Just no direction, pure vibes going forward and they're really fun to watch. And then two more under the radar ones that I'm going to be watching. Nashville against Red Bulls. Nashville I thought were very good against Charlotte. I think they've been very good for large stretches of the season. I think Hony, it's the best he's looked in a couple years. Serge has scored some goals. I mean, the honey goal this weekend was unbelievable. And in a huge moment when they had just conceded against the Charlotte team,

and then Charlotte will play against Orlando. And Orlando, I said it, like we asked a lot of questions going into this Rebs game. Oh, Hada, unbelievable. Two goals in like 20 minutes. One, just a screamer off the underside of the crossbar. But they let the Rebs in. PKs, free kicks,

corner kicks, all of those things. I think you saw for this Orlando team, some of the struggles defending in wide areas and that leading to a ton of service that they were struggling to deal with. Obviously the revs playing to up top with Kanago and Campano make that really obvious, but Charlotte have Patrick Ajamong, and Leelabata comes in off the wing. And so I think they could cause similar problems if they choose to. And Charlotte, I don't know, man.

Every week it's a different experience and a different vibe. I don't know about a lot of the spacing that we see in big moments between the back line. And some of that's like, comfort of Jaquille Marshall Ruddy defending Tim Ream maybe comfort in stepping into gaps and leaving space behind him Some of that I think is the cover that does or doesn't come from central midfield in front of them

and I think a lot of that comes from a lack of possession and like Fluid possession that hangs on to the game and allows you to dictate where and when it's played So I think overall it's a fun midweek of games. We'll be back on Thursday afternoon to break it all down for you and then start to preview some of those weekend games as well. As usual, I appreciate all of you for listening. Thank you to all of you for the kind words about the show we did yesterday. It was not an easy one and it's something we're going to continue, I think, unfortunately, to have to talk about on this show.

But I appreciate everyone who felt seen by it or felt like it was worthwhile. And I hope we're able to do more to help as well going forward. So thank you once again to everyone in the chat. Thank you to all of you for listening. Thank you to you, Tom. We'll talk to you all again very very soon.