SoccerWise - Columbus Collapse, Shield Race, Son-Bouanga & The Best MLS Duos + US U20 Roster Reaction

Episode Date: September 22, 2025

David has returned to Tom just in time for Columbus to set their season on fire and the shield race to flip again. They dig into the future of eliminated SKC's in their official season obit. On the back of Bounaga & Son's historic hat trick run they debate the best duos in MLS. There is a US u20 roster to get excited about & questions again surround DC United.7:30 Shield Recap After A Wild Week18:15 What Is Wrong In Columbus28:25 Eastern Conference Final Playoff Spot Battle30:45 Minnesota Injury Concerns34:02 Son-Bounaga & MLS’s Top Tier Duos44:02 What Does SKC’s Offseason Look Like After Official Elimination47:10 DC United Hiring The Smartest Hardworking Man In Global Football51:30 US u20 Roster Thoughts Heading Into World Cup

Boom. Soccer wise is back, baby. David Goss and Tommy Scoops. Once again, the dynamic duo are back in the building ready for an epic show talking all things soccer in North America. You miss me on the last. last one, Tom. You went a full time, and you never go full time is what people say. You went with Tom Hindle, one of the greats, one of the up-and-coming grades, and you were the captain of the show. How did the responsibility feel? I didn't love it. I like being able to just be in a position

to annoy you and have you drive things and you do a lot of that great prep work and everything else. We have a joke to those listening that just, God's asking me just simple, basic questions. just really difficult and I make it really hard so he just for those who have seen Gladiator too Pedro Pascout

like the scene of him just putting his knee in the dirt in the Gladiator arena and just rubbing dirt through his hands that's what God does every time that he needs to ask me what time can I record or something just basic I would like this

to be known to the community I wanted that to be Russell Crowe Gladiator original and I couldn't find the right a good picture of it So I ended up with the Pedro Pascal Gladiator 2, which I obviously saw in theaters, but I would rather have gone with Gladiator 1, which is arguably the greatest movie of all time. You know, Maximus, Desimus, Meridius, General of the Army of the North,

father of a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife, who will have his vengeance of this life, or the next. But that is the experience every time I talk to you, Tom. Did you get this moment where you were like, I will turn this car around if you do not stop fighting in the backseat between Kian and Tom? No, because I'd be so hypocritical of me There was a really funny moment where I used the phrase field tilt And the show just grounded to a halt

Because he called me woke And said that I was ruining soccer And then he made like points That referred to like XG and like other things like that So yeah, I thought that was fair I thought that I deserved all of that And you know, as if I didn't have enough appreciation for you It always grows in those moments

But Gus, how was the weekend? What can you say? And congratulations, once again to Charlie Fiction. Yeah, Charlie Fiction, one of our soccer-wise dads, getting married this weekend, a marriage that I do not, I do not accept, by the way.

I want that to be placed out there at the beginning. There was never a moment to say, I object, so didn't get the opportunity to. So I'm saying it once again, but I'm so happy for him and his partner, two of my good friends. We were up in Sonoma for the wedding, so a little bit of wine was tasted here and there.

Some hikes were done. went on a hike and you know right like you you disconnect perfect opportunity just like relax i went on a hike with bobby warsha and maddoh and it's just like i pull up and i get out and i just hear yeah so who would be the top five people you'd hire to run in your molest even and you're like okay we're in it now i thought i thought you were going to say that bobby was like you know one of those sleds we just have weights on the back it's just you and doyle and he's It's just, no, if you asked Bobby, would be like, did we go on a hike?

Like, was it really a hike? Is that what you call it? You know what? Actually, I would call that a walk. For me, my resting heart rate never got above 92. Yeah, I never got over 95, so therefore it's not a big day for me. But it was hilarious and it was a great time. It's always fun.

Honestly, if we had recorded that and put it out, probably would have been the best episode we've done all a year. So it's something to hold out for. We actually, I talked to him about it. We're going to do, I think maybe during the international break, a cool episode with Bobby because we have talked about it a couple of times off air about putting together like our dream building a roster building a team understanding all of that clearly my voice is going a little bit for you you can hear the wedding there that's the red eye I'm calling it the red eye I'm not taking wedding credit for that one but it was really really fun it was a great time and congratulations once again to Charlie we played soccer on Friday yes I'm not going to lie he messed up splitting the teams a little So our team, which I was on, one, like six to three or something like that. Well done.

Congratulations. And we got soccer-wise soccer jerseys, too, that he had made. So I'll, I have to send you a photo. Yeah, it's legendary. That's incredible. Maybe I'll send you down Megan's jersey. You can have one, too, because I doubt she'll ever wear it again. Before we dig into the show, quick shenotovad, to everyone else who's celebrating.

We will have our show coming out. We have kickback committee coming tomorrow. It's going to be a great episode. We have Brianna Pinto back in as one of our hosts, doing her second show as a full-time host with us. Wednesday, myself and Jordan Angelie, will be back. We will be talking all things, NWSL. Congratulations to the Kansas City Current for clinching their shield

and being on pace still to set the record. So we're going to dig into everything going on in NWSL. And then Thursday, of course, we will be back to help get you ready for the weekend and all of that. but if you're celebrating have a good time i don't know hope it's meaningful hope you have some apples hope you have some honey and i will be splitting my days but i am looking forward to it as well on this show we've got a loaded show we've got to talk about the shield race we have to talk about columbus i it is scary the way this happened so fast and one of the must uh hit topics we will talk about the east race in general right below them for the final playoff spot uh dennis buanga

and young son young men i don't know if you've heard young son yeah they're pretty good at soccer they have now set the record for the what straight hat tricks by players on one team in games in a row so we're going to talk about the best duos in mLS it was a struggle we have dc united hiring their new chief soccer officer who uh i think was in our reddit pages recently just in the comments hanging out and now he's going to get to be in charge of a team And we've got a U-S. U-20 roster that will be joining into the U-20 World Cup. Odd timing on the U-20 World Cup. It is in Chile, I believe, so at least it's in our time zone.

Yeah. So that's pretty fun. So the U.S. starts with New Caledonia from the, I guess, Pacific Oceania region. That's their first game. They have France in the second game. And then we have a full kickback rivalry game because they play Keon's Bafana Bafana in the final groups. game. That is a week from Sunday. So we're going to talk about the roster a little

today. We won't hit the games as much because they're kind of going to be happening as we record next week. And then next, the following Monday, after the group stage, we're going to dig into everything we saw and talk about this group. It is, I will say right now, I don't think that this is the one that has the next Pulisic, but I think there's a lot of talent on this team. I think there are a lot of players who are going to be good professionals and probably solid national team prospects and that's not a bad way to go into a tournament like this as long as the team can get cohesive pretty quickly. So we will talk about all of that coming up. Let's start with the shield Tom because, you know, I got the phone out. First of all, I'm on a different

time zone. So NYCFC Charlotte kicked off at 10 a.m. or 9 a.m., which was a whole vibe and experience. And then from there, it felt like the rest of the day was chaos on Saturday. Philly somehow were able to recover themselves, probably helped that they played New England. So they won 1-0 to stay at the top of the Shield race. The team's right behind them. San Diego lost a little ground with a 1-1 draw at Atlanta. Charlotte finally had their historic winning streak broken in that opening game against NYCFC. And then Cincinnati got the win, Tom.

And it was, you know, not a full flip of everything because Philly maintained, but it feels like every show it's like these are the teams we have to talk about and that changes every single time yeah and for me the way i see it is that there are four teams that are firmly realistically in the mix that's philadelphia on 60 points Cincinnati 58 San Diego 57 those three teams have played the same number of games that is within three points uh San Diego not finding a way to get the winner at Atlanta that's going to hurt um going in they they both have three games left the fourth team that is technically controlled their own destiny is the Vancouver White Cops. They have 55 points. So they are five points behind

Philly, but they have two games in hand. The issue is finding enough players for starting 11 at this point with with all the injuries that they've dealt with. And they're still picking up points. Brian White's back to training. So that's good news for Vancouver. But obviously fixture congestion is going to be an issue playing through the international break to close out this season. But they win all their games. They win the shield. And they are, I think, team to watch there. I don't know if you'd call them the favorites, Goss. I would talk about this for four and a half minutes,

but every week we say something and that's a good favor by the next week. So those are the four that are realistically in contention. And just because of the games remaining, we have to say Miami's name in this conversation, though. They're on 52 points. So they're eight points behind Philly, but they have six games remaining in MLS this season. The top three in the Shield race have three.

Miami have six. Yeah. Wednesday night is NYCFC hosting Miami at City Field. Let's go Mets. You hurt me more than anything in the entire world, the New York goddamn Mets. And the White Caps hosting Portland in a Cascadia game, which could decide the shield for both these teams. Because you're at the point where they both control their own destiny. If they drop three points, I think it's over. I think for Vancouver having the Canadian championship it's like you're going to start allocating resources

and my guess would be the Vancouver Whitecaps are like we want to make a playoff run like we have never done that that has I'm not saying overwinning the shield but like if you get into a point where it's like well we don't control our own destiny in the shield like where we what are we trying to do I think like gearing up to be like at your best place entering the playoffs

in terms of playing healthy players and pushing their minutes and all of that. The next week, Vancouver plays Portland on Wednesday and they play Seattle on Saturday. That goes into a midweek Canadian championship. And then at Orlando in the international break while they're already struggling and going across the country. So to your point, you said that you don't know,

yes, they should and I think will be prioritized and get right for the playoffs because it's not been the same situation in the past. it's not like that they've been in the shield race before, but they've had momentum going towards the playoffs, whether it's mid-season or the end of season a few years in a row, and then they just keep running into L.EFC and losing. Or, again, before that they got to the Concapped Champions Cup final this year, the previous was they just kept getting T-Grace in a round of 32 for whatever reason. So they got through the Concapt Champions Cup going. They're getting to the final, an incredible memorable run. And now, like, while the shield would be nice,

what's most important is that they're not stretching Brian White, Thomas Mueller, and and whoever else that they have left in terms of their air quote, best 11 to the brink by playing them 90 minutes or 70 minutes in every one of these games. If they're in control of their destiny on the shield, that's priority number one. That's why I think this week is the most critical because if they lose control of that destiny, that's where I shift my priorities away. But if they win the shield this year, that's it, right? Like that's, it's the greatest, it's already greatest season in Vancouver history. they went to the CCL final again just going to keep calling at that they're going to go to canadian championship final they've been good all year like all they signed thomas me all that stuff's already there but that's where i think the focus goes for them and then on the flip side for miami this means a little bit less because like messy decides when messy plays they're going to play everyone else as much as they have to to close out the season and because of the games in hand the range with miami is still like we need a home game like we need to be the home seed Like, that's how far their stuff is where Vancouver, it feels a little bit less like they're going to fall out of the top four.

And I, great, you beat DC United. Congratulations. I'm still not in. This was part of our height conversation. I was told, like, Miami's just going to win the Shield, right? Like, everyone knows that. I'm less convinced on that side of things. Well, definitely not on the Shield. Like, I just doubt, again, they have the six games in the next just under a month.

Yeah. That's too much. That's a lot. like the likelihood that they run through this. This game against NYCFC is really, really hard, really quickly. Like, they just beat, sure with it. NYCFC since that they signed Nico Fernandez, six wins and a loss. The loss was inexplicably to D.C.

They've mostly played really good teams. NYCFC's record against playoff teams versus non-playoff teams is much better. Like, so they're, like, that's a, like, Miami should not be favorites in this game. Yeah. If NYC wins this game. They will be four points behind Philadelphia on equals game play. They will jump. Oh, they have a game in hand too, yeah.

Yeah, they will jump, because this is their game in hand, though. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, and they will jump, they would jump to fourth in the entire shield race. They would jump to third in the Eastern Conference. Yeah. I think it's probably too far for them to get all the way past all these teams, but, like, puts them in a conversation for a home seat and all of that. They've been playing really good soccer, but as you said,

they have this weird thing where they play great against great teams and bad against bad teams. Not to keep on doing schedule talk because it gets monotonous and boring. But one more for the consideration. NYCFC after playing Miami, they play Philly in the second or last game and season. So that, again, if you're chasing that team, that's a good way to ensure that you pick up three points and they pick up zero. So maybe not totally dead yet, but yeah, this is not something I saw coming a month ago.

One of the teams we haven't mentioned kind of at all is Cincinnati, who held serve with a 3-2 win against the L.A. Galaxy, not in the prettiest way. They went up a man late. They were able to get the goal from Brenner to seal things, even though they gave up a goal right after that. To Mauricio Cuevas, it feels like they've studied themselves a little bit, though, over the last two weeks, and, like, I counted them out of this, and I think I was wrong about that, and now they're back in.

Yeah, again, at L.A., that helps with your goal-scoring woes, but home to Nashville at L.A. They've scored five goals over these last two games. Before that, they had been shut out in four of their last five games, and they had had multi-goals one time since mid-July. So any game in which they see the ball at the back of the net a few times, I think, is important. And the one team we haven't really talked about here is so Charlotte lost the record playoff or record win streak.

Incredible run, fall at the hands of NYCFC. where do you stand on what we saw from them and sort of who they are going forward? So what was very important on this run other than obviously just picking up a ton of points and being on a historic run, they answered a lot of questions about this group that we all had, and I think that they had themselves.

So first of all, is he Dontoecomati good enough to be a starting center forward for a serious playoff contending team? Like somebody who's challenging for trophies, absolutely 100% yes. Kind of tangentially related to that. The attacking spaces and sequences around Wilfred Zaha, where is it best for Zaha and Pepi L and Toklamadi

and who's the wingback? Like, what is the structures? Do you play a 10? Do you play BL in the wings? I think that they figured that out as well with how effective Brant Bronico has been as pressing 10, 8 and a half, whatever you want to call it,

and then that really frees Zaha and Pepi L to only be attackers. Obviously, you can play Kerwin Vargas and put Biel in the middle. So they have that optionality, which I think is good. And then same thing with the back line, like juggling, okay, does a ream play left back? Privits dropped out of the starting 11, and I think that they've really settled on something that works. And those were their biggest questions, you know, facing when they started this run, kind of in the summer, like pretty much going to a round when Ajamong was sold. I know he was gone for international duty at the Gold Cup before that happened.

But throughout that time, like they had last dropped points July 3rd. And along that run, they've put together this. the ceiling of this team that I think a lot of us thought that they had in them and was getting less and less hopeful that they were ever going to reach and they did it over the last couple months. I would like to state. So there's always one non-starting centerback in MLS that I'm like someone, I call it the Kamal Miller player.

Someone should trade for this player because they're a starter. Andrew Privitz, that guy. They got better when Andrew Pivit stopped playing centerback because Tim Ream stopped playing left back. And like Tim Rhym's a more expensive player. He's more experienced. He's going to start. That's fine.

But, like, Andrew Privet is a starting centerback in Major League Soccer and might be a really good one. And I'm, I wonder if it's just Melanda gets sold. Yes. Back in. Okay, fine. But listen, if I'm Andrew Privat, I'm going in, I'm saying, send me somewhere where I'm the guy then. If I'm not the guy here and I want that Andrew Privet energy. Listen, I think he goes full of Jimmy Butler if it was me.

That's what I would do. Just winning games, winning games with Crown Legacy players and training. You can't win without me. Frank Dolan in the chat, one of our favorites, is like, you've talked about the Shield a lot. Who do you think finish this top four? Frank, we don't know who's going to finish one. We can predict four spots at.

And this is what's absolutely amazing. Yeah. And this, what? No, I'm saying, yeah, that leads us to the next part of this conversation, the Columbus piece. Which is the Columbus crew were like, outside Chance Shield, they'll be top four and had one bad week, is what you could call it,

including half of a game. that they won 5-4 and they have dropped to 8th place in the Eastern Conference. There is enough of a gap that it feels pretty safe that they're away from 9th and we'll talk about the final playoff spot. But the connection from Columbus on 50 points in 8th up to Charlotte on 53 in 3rd is absolutely nuts. Nashville dunked on Orlando City. Then Orlando comes back and beats Nashville.

NYCFC Miami will see. this week. But Columbus is this huge story. They are now, I wrote it down one, two, and three since League's Cup, and they returned back into league play. The one win is the five goal first African's Atlanta that somehow went from the greatest 37 minutes of any Columbus fan's life to the worst game of their life, where Diego Rossi lives off with a hamstring injury that is going to keep him out basically

for the whole regular season and maybe the postseason. and then they gave up four goals to, like, lose all momentum, and they are now down to eighth in the Eastern Conference. What do you make of this Columbus group? We just keep assuming it's going to click. I think that Wilfr-Nancy plays a small squad. Is that part of the reason why they're really selling down here? Listen, in their last nine games, they've won twice.

Home to D.C. at Atlanta. In this run of play, they've had three games against Toronto and New England. They have not won one of those. They have another game against the Red Bulls. They have not won that. This run should have been where they climb up the table, and they've slipped into eighth. Maybe we're going to look at this as a deserving team in the wild card game,

which sounds crazy to say. But the jumbled nature of the season conference, one of Columbus, National Orlando, maybe Miami, and it looks like kind of NYCFC and Charlott played the way out of it. But one of those six teams is in the playing game. Whoever it is is going to be wildly overqualified, again, unless Columbus really keeps stumbling to the end of the season. But it's not a spot that I thought that we'd see this team.

And I don't think anybody did. Adding West Sam Abu Ali this summer, adding Daniel Gosdog in April. They started the season really well. And I think that's why we assume it was like, oh, wow, like they're going to add two DP spots. They didn't have their second loss until the end of May. It was like 14 games into the season. And they've gotten worse as the put, like Abu Ali has scored in a few games in a row. He came off with an injury.

Like you said, Diego Rossi is injured. It's pretty inexplicable for this team that I think we have so much expectation and respect for that, again, before John Zawatsky became, oh, he's really, really good. It was like, oh, Wilfr-Nanzi just throws Sean Zawatsky out there, he becomes awesome. Aidan Morris goes from a really talented player to, like, bang, one of the best midfielders in MLS before he got sold. And Max Orffston goes from San Jose's next pro team or whatever it was at the time to one of the best wingbacks in the league. And then you kind of go on down the list, and it's like, oh, if you're halfway good, Wilfranati is going to get the best out of you. And so it kind of doesn't matter as long as they have 18 good players or competent players

that they're just going to pick up a lot of points. And it hasn't. Scherichael has not been good. He's a mistake leading to a goal in human form. And I think that's been really difficult. So the back line has slipped. And then the attack just isn't explosive enough. Does Gossack have a goal from open play?

If that, like I know he scored for the penalty spot. That hasn't worked out like we thought it did. I thought it was going to be seamless. So I think it's a lot of, maybe small would be too dismissive, but it feels like a lot of small problems all at the same time. Yeah, it's death by a million cuts. It feels like the cardinal sin of the whole thing is that they like having thin rosters.

Like Wilfrid Nancy likes having a thin, fluid roster. And rather than have true backups at every position, he wants the Sean Swatkes and the Stephen Marreras and guys that will play two or three spots and they've had a lot of injuries and it hasn't matched up in which it's not a lot of games, but like, L.A. Mabu Ali is as advertised. He's fox in the box. He's clean. If they had him for May and June when they were crushing teams on XG, but couldn't finish, it'd be great. Now, Diego Rossi's out. So there's less space. There's less opportunities that are being created. And so now you're in a situation where he's not getting, I mean, he scored this weekend again. He

scored against Atlanta but like you're not getting 15 chances for him to put away and that was when you needed him then and now you've got daniel gas dog is the number one chance creator around him and that's not what he's good at and it's not what he's capable of and so it feels like a little bit of a missed situation there but in general if you're going to have a thinner team like this is what's going to happen i think it's probably if you assume over a four year span you're going to have this down year because it's just really hard to maintain at a high level and what you sort of rattled off and went through there was like but we had belief that will for nancy would just you know create water out of rocks and just keep finding things and keep finding things and it's like

okay we found a bit of a limitation there one of the things we miscalculated a bit was like he turns good players to great ones so he'll turn daniel gosdog into an elite one yeah and that's probably just not who he is and losing kucho who was the bigger the larger than life piece of all of this has led to life being a little bit tougher for guys like that if kucho was on this team gosdog would have 11 goals right now because the chances would just be there that aren't going to be created otherwise and goszdog is not going to be a part of your buildup and he is not dangerous in the final third and connecting play and making it faster and making it quicker or making defenders out of the play 1v1, all the things that you need an elite TP to do for you.

He's not that guy. We thought it made sense because they lost Cucho late of like, all right, just get known talent in and make it work. But I don't think he's the right fit for this style. And you're not getting the bang for your buck maybe that you want in all of that. And then you've had these injuries. And so you're missing pieces and, you know, they haven't been able to, I think, help as many of the new acquisitions. like a recard and all of that settle in because a lot's being asked to them very very quickly i will say my first reaction when i looked at the standings was like you know how pissed i'd be if

i was a higher seed and i got columbus for two games in the first round because none of us are going to go even if they don't win another game the rest of this season i don't think any of us are going into playoff series being like this a dead team right it's will for nonse they're going to play their soccer and like I would rather play them in a one game than a three game I think I think over the course of the series stuff starts to fall and I know they lost the red bulls last year but like there's gonna be no pressure on that going into whatever postseason series it is and in saying all of this like they could win a game this weekend and jump up to fourth it's crazy it's third third to eight is separated by three points and again granted Orlando has one game in hand and

NYCC and then Miami has the other handful but like It really is. Like, we have to reassess this every weekend. Yes, correct. Someone asked in the chat, what is God's not good at? He is a good late arriving finisher. And he is a good finisher in transition. And that is not like 100% of the game model for this,

for this Columbus team. And so we are not seeing the best of him because it's not a perfect fit for him. He is also like an opportunistic goal score. And that's not a, it's repeatable. but it's not something that you build a team around, and it's not something that you lock into. Yeah, or it's repeatable in the sense that he can get goals in those way, but it's not in, like, the training ground, okay,

the deflender flicks the ball this way and you're in the right position because, like, it's not like a build out where you'd say, okay, the winger tucks in, the wing back goes, we play it in the phone, who plays it to the 10, who plays it a winger, who cuts it back. And then the centerback loses it into the ground and now gosthog scraps are out. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, like, like, I think that was the perfect way to put it in which, like,

that is a skill. And that is a genuine thing that he is good at, and that's something that that's not going to just, you know, oh, he got really lucky one season, and then he's going to get unlucky the next season, reverts the mean. It'll fluctuate a little bit, but that baseline is there because of his intelligence and his movement.

But again, it's not something that's part of the game model. And this team, more than I think any in the league, the only, like, other than 24 Galaxy, maybe, like this team is on script. Everything, you know, while they leave a lot of room for individualism, a lot of the sequences, how they want to do, where they want to get the ball, where they want to score goals from, how they want to get there, that's all plugged in, whereas in Philly it was, we want to press,

and then we figure it out from there, like go crazy, right? Like we have our structure, we have our triggers, we have where we want to start, but when you get the ball in the final third, it could be in zone 14, it could be by the corner flag, it could be a midfield, and then we go from there, whereas Columbus is like the ideal will for non-say goal starts on a goal kick, he rolls up to a centerback, 28 passes later, one wing back crosses the other, and it's tap it. That's not God's dog strength.

No. And Columbus is looking for someone to get hot right now and someone to rely on for the stretch. We had a question in the chat about Chicago, and that was the next thing we want to talk about. So it's perfect here because Chicago is the one knocking on the door, and these two teams will face off head to head. So Columbus sits in eighth right now on 50 points with 31 games played in the Eastern Conference. reminder nine teams make the playoffs in each conference eight and nine are the wild card game which is like a play in game to become the eight seed and go and play the one seed Chicago currently sit five points behind with one game in hand and they face off head to head this weekend and then the New York Red Bulls are right now the last team out two points behind the Chicago fire but they have played 31 games so Chicago has a game in hand on the two teams around them Red Bulls are hoping for a Columbus win this weekend to give them an opportunity to catch up.

And Chicago had a 3-0 win over Minnesota United this weekend. Minnesota, of course, coming off the back of the Open Cup frustration, heartbreak, whatever phrase you want to use. And Chicago was able to take care of business against them after losing the home game the weekend before against NYCFC. And it has been sort of a team that's been up and down from the Chicago group. they are in the driver's seat to make the playoffs and they could control their own destiny

to pass Columbus and move up in the standings. Do you have a lot of belief in this Chicago group? Belief There's a tough face to use for a team of the night. I mean, being genuine, I believe that they're going to hang on to that they're not going to collapse and hang on to the final spot.

That's not a guaranteed, super crazy thing. You know, in the middle of the pack an MLS. You know better than anybody. It's, you know, throw your hands up, who knows? Like, right. They could come to, they could leap, Columbus and finish an eighth somehow. Yeah.

Or they could, like, I don't think that they're going to fall apart, but that's on the table, right? So I believe that they're going to hang on to this spot. Do I believe that they're going to win a wildcard game? I don't. Weird things happens in one game samples. But, like, I believe in them a small amount. The obviously, the other team would be Nashville right now,

who are also tied with Columbus on 50 points, same amount of games played. The obvious outlier there for Nashville is they have an open cup final. to account for it. So they play Houston, then they've got the Open Cup final midweek, then they play Montreal, and they finish with Inter Miami after the international break. Chicago has Columbus this weekend.

Then they face Interm Miami, which is their game in hand next week. And then they finish with Toronto and New England on Decision Day. So it's an easier close. I think for Chicago, obviously this week is the whole ball game. Like if they can probably get any result off Columbus and beat Inter Miami, If they get four points across those two games, they have a shot at this. If not, then they're fighting for ninth place against New York Red Bull team that just knocked off Montreal. Before we get there, for Minnesota, this is a tough week.

I think Minnesota, Philadelphia, have had two of the toughest weeks I've ever seen in this league from a high, high to a low, low. For Minnesota, they lose the Open Cup semifinal in extra time at home against Austin. they lose Kelvin Yaboa now to an injury that sounds like it's for the full season and potentially Carlos Harvey as well. That is on, in light of Tanyola O'Shea being sold to Villarreal and no longer being a part of this team. And this goes from a Minnesota team that I think we all felt were MLS Cup finalists contenders, very plainly, to now huge question marks about what the rest of the season looks like.

I would agree. They need to regroup and come back strong over these last few games, get a little momentum getting into the playoffs. Like, they're still one of the best teams in the Western Conference. Everything that we've said about them in a positive light all remains. And they're going to be dangerous in the playoffs. But that looked a lot better after they beat San Diego. And then since then losing the Open Cup semi and then losing,

getting completely just walked off the pitch at home against Chicago. It's tough. In light of Yoboa being out and Tandy being sold, it seems like Bangi Languane is going to get a ton of the run at center forward. He plays with energy. He always changes a game. I thought he looked fine against Austin of like being a factor on every cross, every ball over the top. And I think at this point you're asking for him to just create space for the guys underneath.

Like can you be a big enough factor that Ludd and Pereira find their space to change the game? because he's not going to be an elite center forward right now. Like he's not going to switch from playing a year and a half as a wingback to being an elite center forward. Minnesota finishes with Colorado sporting Kansas City and LA Galaxy. So in terms of finishing top four, it's probably safe for them. But this was a team I very much thought was going to be a heavy favorite to win the Western Conference when we got to playoff time.

I have to see what it looks like a little bit longer with Bongi there with the way this team plays. Carlos Harvey's a huge loss the way he steps into midfield and like feels comfortable in possession for a backline that not everyone feels that way. So it's a lot for Minnesota now off the back of what looked like it was going to be the best night in the club's history. And now all of a sudden a week later, you're talking about what is the future of this season. Red Bull's got a two zero win over Minnesota or Montreal, Shupa Boating and Tim Parker with the goals. We got Red Bull fans in the chat, Tom. There's no way this season ends good enough For, they went to MLS Cup last year.

We thought it was going to be better. It's not. They could still make the postseason. Yeah. And anything could happen there. But like, this team should have been fighting for top four, not trying, clawing for their lives in the playoffs. Chopal Moteng has been good. That's been the most positive.

Like, hack has not been good. The team just feels stale. There's a lot of, I don't know, again, at that open DEP spot, when the chase for Timo Verner, hey, maybe something positive happens in the winter, but it's looking really bad. right now. Let's take that to talk about our next thing because we went through and did our weeby thing and put together a list. And it is a list of the best duos in Major League Soccer because Denny Bulanga and Sanyung Min, as I mentioned, have set the record for continuous hat tricks for one team in an MLS set of regular season games. That is not dependent on it just being two players,

but it happens to be two players with LAAFC. One of them has been one of the three or four best players in this league since he basically entered it in Denny Buonga. And the other is the biggest signing in MLS history, who everyone was hoping would hit pretty fast, and it has been the case. Now, some of this is a little RSL tinted. They played RSL twice in a week, and that's not a knock on RSL fully. It's just a knock on RSL. I just want that to be out there, but you still got to score goals and you still have

to finish. And there were question marks when Sun joined, how does it fit? where does he play and I think for both of us the big answer was it doesn't really matter positionally it's that this team wants to play in transition they want guys that can go direct create chances and score for each other along that front three wherever you stand and that has been the case so far Tom and it's been pretty electric yeah let's just say one there was one of the people who didn't have any questions about whether this was going to work or not together that that was me I'd like I don't I don't you I was no no

No. I got him back. He's back. I was never the anti-sun guy. I wasn't saying anti, but I was just... I will say this. I questioned to Vander to Cincinnati a lot, and I was 100% wrong about it.

I got a list. I could go through my list if you want me to. I was like, son is good. He plays quick. He plays fast. He can play direct. This will work. That's where I was.

My general point there was that I didn't remember exactly what your take was, but I wanted to make it clear that I dismissed and rejected out of hand, and he would, like, oh, is he going to play, like, oh, they both like to play left wing, and, you know, they're great. They have combined to score every single one of LASC's last 14 goals over the last five matches. Bwang has eight, son has six. Here are some numbers that I dug up since Sun's debut on August 9th or whenever that was. LFC are top five in MLS in goals, their first, expected goals, fourth, chances created fourth. In the season until Sun debuted, L-AFC were 12th and goals, 10th and expected goals, 20th and chances.

This is a team reborn and attack remade. There's been some other summer signings, but obviously it comes down to Sun and Buonga's relationship. Bwanga, before Sun joined, he had around 1,800 minutes, he had 14 non-penity goals plus assists. since he joined, he's got the most goals in MLS with 9, and that's best in MLS by 3. The person who's tied for second is son with 6. Bwang is second in MLS in expected goals, and son is second in chances created since his debut. This is an elite attack. These are two elite players.

The only, again, I will reject any worries that this wasn't going to work. something that I guess that you could have asked is how will they be combining together like what will it be like a my turn your turn type of feel no it is not the way that these two are combining occupying similar spaces and the the most wholesome co-celebrations i think i've seen in a long time with these two guys so for me goss like this is a i know it's early days for these do i think this is the best duo and em less for me so we did something different than what's going on in the chat, which I appreciate, which is a deuce and obam mention, and then you just mentioned celebrations and wholesome, and I thought of Joseph and Almerone.

We're going to come back and do an all-time MLS duos. This is current, what we put together. I like that idea, though. So send us who you think are the best duos in MLS history, Landon Beckham. Like, there's a lot that we can go into. This is what we did was current. and Buonga and Son and Honeymoogdar and Sam Surge

I think are a clear gap you could put Chuki and Andres Dreyer in there I don't I think Dreyer has carried so much of that and some of that's health that I would say that that's your top tier in MLS because we're talking about duos

I don't know that Avander and Dengay are a duo I don't know that they connect and affect the game together in a way where you're like those two and then everyone else is kind of like following it up you know Portland, Seattle like those are by committee

even though you have great players or two great players at times. I don't know that I would say like yeah, that team is built around these two. I would say Blanga and Son and Honey and Surridge and then I would allow Chuky and Dreyer in that conversation. I think that's the elite tier

including Ricky Pooch and Gabriel Peck I think would be the guy that you'd pick on the galaxy where Paints or works don't forget him that is still i think that those top four oheda and passelich i think to your point of like ah is it kind of within a second again they're both wonderful wonderful players but not quite the like boulongasan honey surge kind of thing right now so i think those are the top four and then like you said a van der denkai really really good feels more individualistic particularly

on avander's side which again it's great this works for cincis particularly in the last couple games that's all good that that's not a knock but i just think that they would be in it's here below like Alonzo Martinez and Nico Fernandez early days again but man Fernandez is good though I that Nico Fernandez Tiberibo pairing next year is gonna be the big one that you know no but I thought Lanzo Martinez he's so very good I'm happy that NYCFC were able to go out and sign somebody who wasn't a U21 player which what I'm told is what they wanted to do and it's worked out well that they got Nico Fernandez right but again

Again, I don't love he just puts Nico on a shirt and clearly has told the broadcast team to just call him Nico. I don't like that. Do you like it better than Sunny or less than Sunny? Sun Jungman is one of the global icons in soccer. I think he's allowed to do that. Oh, so it's an earned opportunity. It's not just based off the name.

Yeah, a little bit of both, but yes. All right. I respect the game. I respect the people. I don't know if you mentioned I put down Kipers and Zinkernagel. Bomba in there as well. you know obviously none of it's as threatening but because Kuyper's really does rely on service to finish but also can drop back and link up a bit like I think there's real potential for that

to be similar at least to Hanian surge of like these are the guys that drive this team forward and I think Chicago would love to have another big piece that you know is part of that attack that we would say in a duo with all of this and then Emil Forsberg and Chopinoteng were the other one that popped up, which is they're a great duo. They're probably the only part of that attack that I like. And so maybe that's helps them stand out even more. Honestly, it's not their fault that they're,

if they missed the playoffs. The chat did fill us in on one incredible duo that I can't believe we missed. Thank you, Hootsky, uh, Marshall Hartel and Brandon McSorily, of course. What a weekend. Absolutely. I don't even know where to go with that. Denny Buonga and Sun though

clearly I think the standout right now I want now to do this historic one because I'm thinking Josie Jivenko someone put in Lindenkin Yeah You could think Diro and Brian Ching

Or some of the other partners Diro had at his peaks At Teverry Moreno back in the day Yeah there's some awesome ones that we could go into So I think we'll do that coming up So send us any of the names have you can hit us up on blue sky anytime if you're not already part of our discord subscribe to your patreon get you access to a discord it also gives charlie fiction a little bit

of work to do uh in his post wedding recovery time um you can always comment on the youtube uh i always dig into those and look at them i love when someone comes in and it's like why don't you talk about this person for 15 minutes who we did talk about those are normally my favorite comments so i appreciate those and they always uh make my day as well let's uh hit a couple other topics before we get out of here. Real quick, the New England Revolution, we're officially eliminated from MLS playoffs in 2025. We talked about them a little bit last week because they fired Caleb Porter, so we're probably not going to dig into that one that much on this. The only thing I want to say is I was speaking to a couple people around the league and separate

conversations about, like, it depends on, obviously I and the beholder stuff, but like, I know that you hit it. We've hit it on the last few shows. all of these contracts are multi-years or most of these contracts. So if you don't like, you know, Fofana or Chbios or Kampana or Yule or whoever, like, it's really hard to turn this team over because they just did it last year. Yeah, yeah, the coach interview needs to be, I can get more out of this roster. And here's a clear way I'm going to do it. Not, I would advise, not a coach saying, these aren't my players,

because I've heard that one before. Didn't quite work. No. It didn't work for you. And then the next year saying, now these are my. players. That one probably won't do as well. For Sporting Kansas City, they were officially eliminated from playoffs

contention. This will now be three of four seasons with no playoffs. And the year they did make it, they made it as an eight seed. They then beat St. Louis and upset, and then they were able to move on. But that gives you four years in which they finished eighth or lower in the conference. And they

have two job openings to fill, because they fired Peter Vermeis earlier this year, the longest tenured coach in Major League Soccer, who held both roles as chief soccer officer and head coach but really quickly my understanding is that they're at the final stage of a CSO uh process i don't know and the CSO will then be in charge of the coaching hire yeah okay that's the big question and and what would make this attractive is that ownership from what i've been told and and i think you could see this just as the end product of

Peter Vermeis, for better or worse, he had the control, and I think that's really good for an ownership group, particularly at the end they were given with this winter, like they put up more money than they had in the past two sign players, and the owner's saying, CSO, I trust you, here's some money, and I'm not going to met all kind of thing, it is good. So I've been told by, like, front office types around the league of saying, like, oh, that is attractive. Like, obviously, the trading facility, the stadium is really, really top, but, like, the relationship with the owner. Yeah.

Yeah, like it's it's it's something that is a positive in this search. Yeah. They have not broken numbers in terms of transfer stuff, but I think your point stands of like you will get to run your project and you can run it on the tracks that you set out. And it feels like they will be convinced to spend money. Like some teams, you can't convince the owner. And some teams the owner loves to spend money but also likes to be a part of it,

which can get chaotic. this one does feel like there is opportunity. And like we've said this, I mean, look, San Jose went and spent a little bit of money this year. Like, it feels like there are some owners where it's like, yeah, if you present it correctly and you can convince them, they will do it. Sporting Kansas City now, the interesting part is like, oh, the floor was high, like there was this core, blah, blah, all that's gone. Like, you are fully rebuilding with this group. You have to build from homegrown players through Tam players, like you have to build a spine. I mean, there is very little you are taking over with this team that you believe in.

And the frustrating part of the CSO interviews now heading into coach's interviews, like, well, you're no longer ahead. Like, you are, whatever coach takes over is not coming in early in the off season. They are not getting to do a ton of work on who the players are and what they have now and what they need. Like, you're kind of going to be doing it on the fly, which feels like an own goal in unenforced error because you fired Peter Vermease such a long time ago. And we did hear in the interviews, which I haven't heard any follow-up of like, Gary Zavagnin was going to be given an opportunity.

So that is a factor that will fall into whoever becomes CSO of where they fall. If it was me, I'd hire Corey Ray, because I think he's the best at what he does. And he's available now because he no longer works in Montreal. And he puts together good soccer teams that win things. But I don't have a billion dollars, so I don't get to run an MLS team. So no one ever asks me what I want to do with that one. We could talk more, SKC, if anyone has questions or stuff they want us to talk about going forward. We are going to talk about DC United, but we're probably going to do a little bit of less of that right now because they hired a new CSO,

and that's going to be the case for a really long time with, how do I say? Erkinzilginzeg. Now taking over. He is the smartest guy in football we've been around and hardest working. Would he consider it? Would it be possible? and that's how the discussion started. Was the quote from Charlie Boehm's article?

Yeah, DC owner Steve Kaplan spoke with Charlie Bowman. I'm going to read that again for Impact. If you were walking your dog, doing dishes, just maybe zoned out, that's fine, I get it. DC United's owner about somebody who's never worked for a club before, sometimes it's the best opportunity staring at right at you and you don't see it. It's like we had the same idea at the same time.

It's like, and again, for emphasis, it's like, this is maybe the smartest guy. in football we've been around and hardest working would he consider it that what what like again man like i i feel like i'm being churlish and pessimistic about this and and i'm trying to push back on it because that's not fair to this guy you shouldn't go into this assuming that things are but like you just set the bar at this is the smartest and hardest working man in soccer he's not working from the facility. He lives in America. He's working remote to start out. That's the hardest working person. You've set the bar at the hardest working and smartest person in the

world of soccer. Gus, if they win three MLS cups, is that good enough? Because the hardest working and smartest man in football should probably win five. Look, what an assonite thing to say? What are you doing? What is going on? Listen, they got sold. They got sold the bill of goods. and they are loving it right now. Why is it? Even if you believe that? Why would you say that? God.

He was part of the consulting group that helped them run the search, correct? Yeah, yeah. He helped be a consultant to hire the head coach. The head coach wanted him to be the GM. And all of a sudden, guess what? I did my consulting and I looked far and wide, and the person who needed to run the team, I was staring at him right in the mirror.

Dude, this has Juergen Cleansman written all over. He did this with her to Berlin. He took over as an advisor, and then he goes, you know who you guys should hire? Me. And then he got fired 50 days later. It's got big life coach energy of like, you should go do this business stuff. Then all of a sudden it's like, my shirt put now is in charge of all financial decisions for this Fortune 500 company. Dude, again, man, like, I'm trying to give a better for the doubt.

They're making it so hard. I hope we get dunked on, by the way, aka like, I hope this works out. Great. I'd love DC United to be good. I think DECN H should be a good MLS team. This really doesn't feel like the way to go about it. There is, I believe, a decent chunk of literature about him because he's a writer. Is that correct?

He's put together a couple novels of his own. He had seven books. Yeah. That's pretty hard working. Seven books are a lot of books. That's a good point. How many books have you wrote in front? Yeah.

Yeah, exactly. So he's both out here being the smartest guy in football and writing seven novels. The novels, I believe, are about a super agent inside. soccer who basically is like Liam Neeson's character and Taken is my understanding. I haven't dove that far into it, correct? Okay, I'm pretty sure that's true. We might have a book club episode coming up.

I'll tell you, I don't want to spoil who's, I don't know if they're planning to write something about it. A friend of ours who works in media is reading the book right now, and I'm getting random screenshots. Yeah. So I hope that there's something to come out of that. Tom, you throw that on the Audible while you're doing your push-up routine every morning? What? It's about 350. It takes you about 12 minutes.

We'll get through that book pretty quickly. I love Hootsky in the chat. This sounds like something Pablo Tori will find it out in a couple of years as he investigates. It's good stuff. I will say it kept my group chats flowing this weekend. So thank you to D.C. United for a little bit of that. We've talked D.C. as they got eliminated and fired people and everything else. Let's close out on this. We've got a U20 World Cup around the corner. The U20 World Cup kicking off in Chile. this weekend the U.S. is in a group, as I mentioned, at the top of the show with New Caledonia, France, and South Africa. We got the roster officially released. I have a list of players that I don't think should be on the roster, and I've got a list of players I'm very excited about to watch.

Tom, what do you want to start with? The U.S. choice, gosh, you don't want to came off the red eye. Here's my thing about the players who shouldn't be there. They're all great players who should be on the roster. If I am worried about the development as a professional of Reed Baker Whiting and Luca Bombino, do I want them playing in Shield deciding fully professional soccer games in front of between 25,000 and 50,000 fans? Or do I want them playing New Caledona in a U-20 World Cup group stage game? I love the national teams.

I love the youth World Cup. I'm going to watch it. I'm going to watch everything. I'm going to talk about it. I'm going to overanalyze it because it's great. For the people who need it, there are these moments where it feels like we haven't moved on from Project 40 and U-17 residency stuff.

And I get it. I would love to see the U.S. be a finalist in a legitimate FIFA tournament. I would love to see the U.S. on the men's side win something. But this isn't going to win you a World Cup by having players who are legitimate week in and week out, professional soccer starters as teenagers. We talked about some names, and I think you were right.

Peyton Miller, they're eliminated. He should be sold to a European team for a bunch of money. This is not a bad spot for him to be, and he's going to be a leader on the team in a way he's not. But some of these guys, I still don't understand, pulling them out of their club teams in huge moments of the season when they're playing for them to come. Other players that haven't broken through, great opportunity, all of that.

Fine. But even a Frankie Westfield, where you're saying, Philly's limping over the line, can they win the shield? I want him in training with those guys every year. I do too. I want him being pushed to the potential of saying the season hinges on your shoulder.

This is an opportunity than being there. And that has nothing to do with like, I feel bad for the clubs a little bit on this one. San Diego's missing two legitimate pieces in a shield run to a U-20 World Cup. Yeah. Again, Westfield and Bombino were the two that that stuck out the most to me

and the unfortunate part of this is this is the first time and at least recent memory. I didn't go back and check all of them, but this tournament normally happens in May. I'd be fine with Luca Bambino, Frankie Westfield, missing time in May. Again, depending, again, case-by-case situation,

all of that. But this is the end of the season for MLS players. Yeah. That's tough. You look at some of the other players on the roster. I just pull it up.

Like, again, Peyton Miller, somebody that I'm excited for at the tournament, as a left. He's listed as a follower because this team has more quality defenders than they do. attackers, that's something. Benga Kromoski is on loan to Parma, and he got released for this. Don't think that that bodes super well for his first team prospects. And, like, he's a guy. He's played a handful of times for the senior team. Like, this is one where it's like, oh, man, like.

Yeah. He does have the potential to be a star for this team. I have said many times. I think Ben Ha can play at a real. really high level. I think he's a rum doiter. I think he's like this weird floating goal score. I don't think he's a playmaking high percentage passing center mid. So he's got to fall in the right place at the right team. The guys I'm excited about to lead this and one of them is one of the guys who shouldn't be on this team is Xavier Gozo. Like what you've done this year,

be the best player on the field. Like whether it's right mid, whether he plays a little bit as a center forward, whatever it ends up being. Like this can be a tournament where it's like you take over that you're the story and he's good enough to do it and I think if he does that he goes from soccer-wise putting him and kickback putting him

as level up guy and like we're talking about him to now Tom's reporting on $5, $8, $10 million in the offseason for him and RSLR team that obviously would take advantage the guy I'm most excited to see

because I'm a huge fan is Taha I love his game I love the way he plays I want him to take over I want him to dominate this tournament yeah I like those again already talked about Peyton Hill Campo

I'm expecting, again, a big role for him, a big tournament. Josh Weinder, I was hoping that he was going to be more on the brink of minutes with the Benfica first team. That is not an easy thing to do. Hopefully he can use this and keep going. He's extremely talented. I think he has the biggest ceiling kind of that backline. We've talked about Bombino. He'll be in Europe at some point in the next 24 months.

Diego Coaching, I think there's a really good spot for him, too. Again, is a guy with B-team, their second team, so he's getting time with them or, you know, he's with Barcelona. he gets to be hope or maybe he'll be the starter here whichever one of this is a really talented goalkeeper room with Cochin Boudry and Durant Ferry like this that makes sense for these three players to be here kind of in that in that context but again so coaching Josh Winder

Cole Campo Zavier Gozo again Luca Bambino I think those are five that I'm excited about yeah and there's a lot of as I said I think a lot of these guys could be good players I think a lot of these guys could be around the national team I don't think the next Tyler or Pulisic is in this group specifically. Peyton Miller would be my number one pick if you pushed me on that of like the next Alex Freeman, right?

The next guy who could be at Joe Scali, whatever it is, partially that's position and partially that's because I think he's really, really good. But otherwise, I'm excited to watch this team play. So as I said, the games are a little odd for us. We'll have coverage of it. We'll mention it in each of our shows. And we will do a big review of the group stage. and hopefully a preview of the knockout rounds.

I don't want to guarantee anything anymore when we get into these international tournaments and the way things fall. All right. Thank you all of you for being here. We love the energy in the chat. As always, this is why we love to do this live. For anyone listening via podcast, send this to a friend,

like it, subscribe, comment. That's how other people find us. And we are excited for the stretch run of this season. Like every weekend, the insanity is exactly what we want. We love being in the Discord with everyone talking about. it. As I said, going to a friend's wedding and us wearing soccer-wise jerseys and like taking soccer-wise pictures and all that. Like, this is our lives. And we love that it's all of your lives as well. And we love everyone that's there with us on this journey. And we have

a ton of fun doing all of this. So we'll be back again with a bunch of shows coming up all week. We've got the newsletter as well that you can subscribe to. So we never leave you too lonely. And we'll talk to you all again very, very soon. Thank you.