SoccerWise - Decision Day Recap, MLS Playoff Preview + ATL Fire Head Coach Ronny Deila

Episode Date: October 19, 2025

Decision Day has come and gone and it was a 5 hour high wire across Saturday night. Tom and David jump into the studio early to give you the full rundown and reaction of everything that happened from red cards, to standing swaps, late goals, and injury returns. And now with 90% of the playoff series set they look forward to the best part of the year in MLS. Not to be forgotten the first post season causality has happened as ATL move on from Ronny Deila right as the squad gets on to record.4:10 Ronny Deila Fired By ATL8:40 Chris Armas Combative Press Conference12:20 Reliving Western Conference D-Day Race23:50 San Jose 2025 Review27:30 COL Rapids Offseason Preview30:20 San Diego Win The West In Greatest Expansion Season Ever36:01 Western Conf Playoff Preview38:51 Reliving Eastern Conference D-Day Race42:38 Zaha Red Card Suspension45:00 Messi Dominates Finally In Nashville To Clinch Golden Boot48:00 Philly Warning Signs Heading To Playoffs52:09 Eastern Conference Playoff Preview

We are here for D-Day, David Goss and Tommy Scoops with you here on Soccer-wise, bright and early on St. Scataboo-Day, but we take the time to honor the soccer gods. Tom, we had every team in two-time windows at the same time shoved down our faces last night and we are ready to react to all of it. Do you feel alive? I feel alive. It felt like a normal Saturday night with all the games at once.

Just no random central time games. Yeah, no 8.30 game to like come on for the East Coasters. And it was a little bit earlier, actually, right? 6 o'clock and 9 o'clock on the East Coast start times for all the Eastern and Western Conference games and then NYCFC played Seattle, which is like classic. They're just like, oh, this is a game that's happening. And kind of both teams had nothing to play for Seattle legitimately, although terrible

news for Seattle with Pedro Delaviga going off the field with an injury. And now I'm inside of that all of a sudden, which I did not expect to be starting on. But we have a lot to talk about. It was a huge night in major league soccer, teams that didn't make the playoffs. There's going to be some reckoning for them, including a team that almost won the Wooden Spoon in Atlanta United, who have just let. Ronnie Daila go like five minutes ago before we start recording this show. And we've got a lot else to talk about.

We've got hell is real as a playoff series. We've got two Decision Day rematches, which I think is bizarre. Brutal. So, so unfortunate. So if you extend those series to the full three games, Dallas and Vancouver and what, what am I, oh, Nashville, Miami will play each other four times in a row. So unfortunate, man. Through all of this.

So at least their games were competitive or competitive is not the right word for Nashville, Miami. At least they were meaningful. It wasn't like, oh, we have nothing to play for on D-Day and then we both play each other. But we've got that coming up. We've got wild card games on Wednesday night. So we'll be back on Thursday with reaction to that. Then we will have every single playoff series set. The wild cards, I'm not going to lie.

I don't think I did a very good job setting this up last week. I didn't realize that Portland could fall into a wild card game, even this weekend like it wasn't even on my radar in talking about the western conference standings and i don't really think i considered that orlando was going to fall into an away wild card game crazy like the orlando won more so than anything and i guess maybe this would be a good time to say like i was extremely dismissive of the wild card chase in the western conference because i was like i think maybe one of these teams will pick up a result well to be fair salt lake and colerada got draws uh that was one despite not having petarmusa or logan

Farrington um and santa as they won and santa's they won so all got results my whole preview was my whole like view is like if any one of those 14 wins you can just book them in the playoffs because I doubt the others will right and none of them lost yeah once again uh like revisiting or overrunners pod we are idiots is what we learned once again yesterday um but it's going to be a lot of fun so we'll have those two games Wednesday night we'll have your reaction Thursday and we'll have more preview stuff going into the rest of the playoffs, of course, and we'll be talking about it the entire time as we go through all of this. Reminder, our 50 states of soccer this week is Pennsylvania.

Loaded talent state spread across everything. We'll have Megan Klingenberg on, who is a Pittsburgh native, to talk things, and we're talking to some Philly people to see if we get both sides of the state. Or maybe we just go straight down the middle and we grab Bobby Washaw, center of the state energy, and we see what happens. happens there, but, you know, birds versus Steelers, all that type of stuff. I mentioned it off the top, Tom. I want us to go through D-Day.

I want us to relive some of the big moments and then talk about the playoffs in each conference, but Ronnie Dyla, let go by Atlanta, like a few moments ago. So we're still ingesting it. We're not shocked. We're not surprised, ingesting, taking it in. Digesting, yeah. Well, we took it in first, then we let it. Some indigestion.

Yeah, for me, that is top of the, top of the list right now for sure. Um, I guess my first thought is why it took so long, like, why wait until the end of the season? But this clearly felt like it was coming. Um, some of the quick numbers I threw down here. They won one of their last 18 matches in all major league soccer games. They had the third worst, um, goal difference in major league soccer. And their last win was on August 30th. So almost two months ago before they finished the year.

One win since May 31st. Um, it's not an exaggeration. to say this might be the most disastrous season in M.S. history, given a spend and expectation. Yeah. Atlanta spent more money than any team has in league history over two windows to bring in Alexei Marantuch, Miguel Maron, and Emmanuel Latte-Lat. Marantzuk did not look great last year, but we were thinking Goss theorem. It was pretty quickly evident at the beginning of this season. Oh, like, I don't think that that one worked. Miguel Maron, I was high on it, and I held out hope that maybe he was going to turn the corner.

It's just the fit hasn't looked right. I don't know if that's just because everything's a little awkward with Marantuk and the structure around the team. But early returns on investment are not good. He is, I believe, the third or fourth highest pay player in the league in terms of salary. So that's tough. Manuel Lata Lott, who was the league record signing, around $22 million or so, by the end of the season was benched by Jamal Tiarre.

That's a disaster. You look at the back line. so many signings in and out that didn't work. Brad was on statistically one of the worst keepers in the league this season. And I say that with respect to a legend, but he ended up getting benched by the end of the year. None of the centerbacks were reliable. They have not signed a D-Mid. I don't think since Jeff Lernerowitz retired.

That's actually decent. And I'm just out of loss for words for this team, how we got here. And moving forward, at least ownership didn't high. behind like well we we signed ronnie that's i believe a three-year contract one of the most expensive coaches in a league i don't know we don't want to have to pay his buyout and then also try to hire a new coach so good on them for doing this and while that ambition is nice it's been what six years since they've been good yeah yeah it's been a really long time one of the things that's a little interesting to parse is what you just laid out there we don't some of it we don't know if

it's Daila's fault. Like, they haven't signed a good centerback, defensive midfielder. I think we can say that. I think we can. I think there's enough blame by to go around that it's not only his fault. Right. So then that's the question I think for Atlanta fans is how much better does it get and how quickly because not all of this is Daila and there are clear flaws in the roster and

clear flaws in the talent on the team. And some of them are under contract. Many of them are under contract. some of them are going to be impossible to get off of unless you eat it and if you do you can only eat so much technically unless you keep finding creative ways to like give people free money which might be an option for this team in saying all of that clearly none of it was maximized none of it was at its best and inside the building i think from everything we've heard there was feelings that dial it was not the right guy once they got there from the outside at the beginning i thought it was the right hire he'd won mLS cup he'd built it a team that was cohesive that played together but had star players they had a tough mLS cup run that they were able to go on right they won in portland on the road gave up the lake goal like all this type of stuff um had the european experience had a little um connection to some of the big biggest clubs in europe at times i don't know all of it made sense from the answer yeah when

they made the higher so i don't blame them for it and as you said it's good to see them be quick about it um we could talk about it more at the end of the show one other names to note, sorry. I was going to say, I don't know if this is where you were about to go. I thought you're transitioning away, but keep in mind, Tata Martino. There is legitimate interest there from what I'm understanding, but process is just starting. There's nothing kind of decided to determine, but there's, the smoke is real. Yeah.

No, the next name I was going to mention is Chris Armis is one of the names we are hearing might be under a little bit of pressure, Colorado failing to make the playoffs. and Chris, I think, showing that pressure and his post-game press conference coming after a reporter with the Burgundy Wave, which is one of the few people who covers this team. And I thought it was a low blow, the way he came after them. I thought it was immature the way he came after them.

I think it shows the pressure that he's under. Chris has done, I don't want to say this before, but Chris fixates on media coverage of him and negative media coverage of him. I mean, just pure standings. they were the 21st team in major league soccer right so you have a league in which 18 teams make the playoffs and you were the 21st of them you the coverage will be bad because the team's bad like that's straight up so if you if they cover the team down the middle which is exactly what

they see is what they put out there the coverage will be bad because the team is bad and i think the least of the colorado rapids problems this year was negative coverage from from press so i yeah I would throw that out there. I think that's another name to watch. I thought it wasn't just an annoying thing to see. And this comes in a week in which Laurel Failer wrote an open letter talking about how hard it is to cover MLS and she is completely right. It is so unnecessary how difficult it is to cover major league soccer.

This is a league that is fighting for interest. Everyone should be pushed out there. Players, coaches, executives, owners, if they care about their product being better, should be out there talking about this stuff all the time. and it is unnecessarily covered. Now, I don't. I think we get probably more access than a lot of people because we've been around for a while.

We know people. And I'm saying this not as a personal attack on a lot of PR teams that have worked well with us, but that doesn't change the fact that you need to be helping all coverage to help cover your team. So all of that, a little bit frustrating as we go into decision day,

but let's talk about the soccer. Let's get on the field. I'm sorry, I want to add to the armist saying because I just thought. Tom, you get to yell at people too. Come on Sunday morning, dude like after the game in which they lost to confirm that they missed the playoffs he was asked a question about like something around this it was a completely fair question it was not leaning

in a crazy negative way it was not in bad tone it was not in bad faith armis cut off the reporter as he goes so you guys have missed the playoff he goes oh did we did we miss the playoffs did we did we miss like thanks like i thank you for reminding me of that like what are you doing dude if that's enough to get you upset that's not a high enough threshold there's not a high enough bar um saying that the coverage has been negative um they've finished what seventh last year raise the banner right what do they lose nine one in the first round to a galaxy nine one yeah and then this season they finish 11th and what do you want what do you want you want you want a parade for that like do you want do you want the the media to be like kissing the ring for what like again

I think the criticism and stuff has been fair, and I just think that was just such a small and weird thing to do. And yeah, feeling pressure or whatever, but like, dude, if he doesn't get renewed, it's not the Burgundy Waves fault. It's because of poor results, poor style, and poor decisions.

Also, if you're upset, I would look upward, too. Like, your club sold your best player in the middle of the season to a team in your league, who is worse than you. But then they sign PACs and everything. like they i don't know there's i don't know man i just i just thought that was so weak yeah um let's move into the soccer let's stay in the western conference though let's talk about the experience as we went through it on saturday night um from top to bottom the wild card race was the big thing we

were focused on Seattle was locked in at fifth um austin was locked in at six so not a lot of movement possible for them there was the movement kit possible at the top of the western conference, which came into play. And the wild card race was the big thing that we were looking at with Dallas coming in at 8th, R.SL at 9th, Colorado in 10th and San Jose in 11th, all capable of getting into the wild card game. And as I said, I forgot to note that Portland in 7th was capable of dropping into the wild card game as well.

The night started in the Western Conference quickly out the gate. we've got an RSL goal fast in St. Louis, crazy rain in St. Louis. Jill Sackavits, hilarious coverage, great coverage of it in the rain jacket on the field, breaking it down for all of us. I love a weather report. I've done some in my past, and it is one of my favorite parts of covering games on the road. RSL gets the early goal, so they're sitting pretty, and I think coming into it, that was the big expectation, right? RSL playing St. Louis, even though St. Louis was at home, they were the team that it felt like coming into this weekend. could control their own destiny, probably get a result.

Then the big moment, which is Sammy Sarver, starting up top in place of Logan Farrington and Petar Musa because of their suspensions, draws a doggso red card against Laborda in Vancouver in like the 12th minute. And now it's, you felt it. Like I was on blue sky and the trickle effect of Colorado and San Jose coverage being like, oh, there's a red card in Dallas or for against Vancouver for Dallas. Like, this is what's about to affect the entire rest of the night. It was, I think, a debatable red card.

I think the dog so is debatable and the actual goal scoring chance, whether he's actually the last man, all of that. It's not an impossible call to make. And I do think Thomas Mueller's complaints later on that Lalazabu Baccar probably should have been in the locker room alongside Laborta watching this game. and it should have been 10 v 10 is fair. But that happens. Urigida scores off a corner kick right after to go up 1-0.

And I think the most surprising result coming into the weekend, which was that Dallas wins in Vancouver while Vancouver is going for first place in the West, all of a sudden is on the table top. It's like Vancouver finishing second in the West on the tiebreaker with San Diego because of the other end of that Portland result with San Diego thrashing them and taking care of business, which left Vancouver. vulnerable if they didn't pick up a point and they didn't the red card like you said it was like we're going to be focused on this now like it went from in unlikelyhood because at vancouver is a

really really difficult draw at this stage of the season with how good this team is and then they had a chance and then like you could feel that kind of momentum coming it wasn't without difficulties and going back forth again like I think it's it's fair to be asking about abu barcar as well but like just kind of how that one played out I'm just go go go So the PK on Lala Sabu Bacart, then that's the next play. And Vancouver gets the PK they score. I don't think that's a red card. He had other yellow card offenses after that.

He went into like a studs up tacker on Thomas Mueller. That should have been a second yellow. I'm fine with the PK call. I think it was the right call. And I'm fine with that not being a red card and not being doggso in that moment. But then he should have been sent off later on in the game. But the PK comes because Vancouver are. are so fucking good.

They are down a man at home and I texted you. I texted you when they were down one zero down a man and I was like Vancouver's going to win this game on a 92nd minute corner kick because they played Dallas off the field for the rest of that first half. And Eric Quill said it at halftime. Like

they are playing harder than us. They are covering more ground than us and they have one less player. It is all into my sweater guy. I got the sweater right here actually still. Boom. Yes, for. Sorry. Vote for yes for. And I'm, I'm watching this game and the red card happens and you're like, oh, is this where it, is this where it happens? Like, does it finally dry up here? There's not much to play for for them in that

moment to do guys finally drop their head, all of that. It's like Sebastian Burrhalter's pulling strings. Sabi's attacking people. Ali Admet, 37 stepovers trying to beat guys one V one, Shaq Moore on a string for him, just trying to make things happen. And like, it's not perfect. They were not uber dangerous. They had to take Daniel Rios off. They don't have Brian white right now, but they're in the game the whole time. And it's not just game states that they're chasing. Like this team knows who they are. And it's why with Matias Laborder now being suspended for the playoffs or for the first playoff game at least, I still have confidence in this group. But for Eric Quill's credit, Kaike comes out of the half. They score a gorgeous goal to go

up to one and they're able to hang on. And everyone is scoreboard watching on them because RISL goes to zero up pretty quickly on a bizarre pass that is a 65-yard ball on the ground down the middle of the field that no one from St. Louis is within 15 yards of to make it two zero. So they go up and Colorado and San Jose are forced to scoreboard watch as they go through their games. And it is gosh changing his coach of the year vote to Veris on the chat right now. We can talk about that and we will talk about that coming up. But the way the night started to progress was, okay, everything hinges on Dallas because it was Vancouver most likely probably to get the goals and get the results to jump them, where RSL felt even as they

conceded late that they were in an okay spot. And San Jose goes down one zero to an Owen Wolf deflected goal quickly. And you're thinking, oh, why did we all say San Jose would win when they've never won? That's not what this team does. Colorado goes down one zero early to a sunny goal, which was an epic goal and he's like freaking out in the corner like this guy fucking loves what's going on right now

he's so happy and I have no idea why it matters that much to him but then to Colorado and San Jose's credit they fought back in their games they put at least their destiny back into the pressure on Dallas

and then it all came down to can Dallas hang on in Vancouver to secure a playoff spot and they were able to get over the line just barely again like all these teams at least that they all again the four of them played well or at least fought hard like you said better than what they've showed down the stretch um and again rs l too much but again it was a

microcosm of this whole race of they go up to nil and then to a team that has nothing to play for and then they almost bottle it they almost throw it away and and as you said with the scoreboard watch i thought i thought for sure st louis was going to get a third goal like it just would have like to knock out salt lake after being up to no after showing like the good science most surest thing like oletunji scoring twice when the questions of dp forwards and anybody going to kind of step up around luna and then gozo in the attack all season and you're sitting pretty and then the pk from levin after a retake and my god lovin was like i'm not going to do this little stutter step i'm not going to try to roll i'm not going to try to i'm going to put it right

there save it i dare you and that pk was like okay this game's a little weird um matthew scornheiser in the chat says, which I should have mentioned, is that second RSL goal comes on an advantage played for St. Louis, which they, everyone thought would kill the play. Then St. Louis turned the ball over, but the advantage had already moved on. And then R.S.L. went and counted the other way. And yet still, that ball came through and both Senate backs ran away from the ball. And Roman and Roman Berkey, who we'll talk about in a moment, dropped on his line as well at the same time. So, yes, it was probably bizarre refereeing, but the opportunity for St. Louis to be relevant in the play was still there the whole time. Then they get the PK, so that makes it 2-1 going into the

half. But in the end, you have Colorado able to come from behind. Darren Yapi scores in the 88th minute to push Colorado into finally a spot where, okay, if these two teams make a mistake, we can make it. And then Nikotakiris coming off of U-20 World Cup where he was one of the best players, is allowed to take the free kick and then bangs the broadcast was so good where it was just like no and nico he scored a really good goal from the from a free kick at the u20 world cup but you know you're back with the senior team here it's probably it's going to be jose it's just like and then i was watching multiple screens and i looked away and then i was oh nico securris yeah so good yeah it was an epic moment he's celebrating in the corner everyone's screaming the crowd's going wild

San Jose at PayPal Park has never hosted a playoff game the entire time that building has been open which is absurd and I think it's approaching 10 years now yeah 2015 it opened yeah so 10 seasons so zero home playoff games in that time and this probably wouldn't have been a home playoff game because they probably would have been a 9th seed although they got through whatever but still that just sort of shows where San Jose has been

and I think it shows the energy around the secure school then that ends so the San Jose game ends then the Colorado game ends and they are in the stadium and the San Jose stadium puts on the Vancouver Dallas game on the big screen and they're all

standing around watching it and just waiting and hoping and Vancouver's like throwing everything at the wall they're taking risks, they're taking chances there's a crazy bike kick moment there's a few half chances but it's just wild to watch the pro team sit there

and like us just be watching on TV just like fingers crossed hoping for the moment yeah they're really relatable I appreciate that like that like those are some of my favorite decision day moments over the years where it's at least like the big screen there but usually it seems like crowding around like a laptop on the bench which I think Columbus was watching a phone in their game football air ditch man yeah so uh so that ends up being that Dallas hangs on and RSL hangs on But in all of this, Portland gets throttled by San Diego and Dallas ends up winning, jumping out of the wildcard spot. So they go from a situation where we're wondering, are they going to be in a tiebreak or lost to San Jose and fall out without Farrington and Musa on the road against this team to now San Diego has jumped Vancouver.

Dallas has jumped Portland. And we've got Dallas against Vancouver in a three game playoff series. And this time we're going to have some of the horses, not all of them, with Laborta on the suspension. So that was a really wild turn that occurred in the middle of the night that, as I said, I was unprepared for, didn't exactly expect. And then R.S.L, of course, moving up themselves or locking themselves into their playoff spot. So they will go on the road to Portland and Colorado and San Jose are eliminated. It was a long shot for San Jose to make it, Tom, but we hadn't really done post-mortem stuff on them because of it. it's a huge points jump we talked about this a little in the over under conversation someone asked me

like oh would bruce arena stay if there's a new owner blah blah blah i think the feeling for san jose is it was an improvement let's see if this is a road forward and can we keep improving going into next year yeah i think it was a positive season um again they did come just short of the playoffs but there was enough positives moving forward and they have the dp spot open and i just blindly or blanket trust Bruce Arena to make things happen and improve things. There are questions, of course. Is there enough in the kind of defensive unit

in terms of the individuals rather than, say, the structure? And that's something that should be addressed this off-season, kind of part of the top of the priority list. And then, like, it's a fair question. Like, can you play Joseph and Chichot? Yeah.

What does the defense need to look like to make that make sense? Because they scored goals. They conceded a lot. Six of goals. scored 63 conceded and that's not sustainable to the playoffs like for for all that we've been critical or questioning of the other teams kind of in the mix for the playoffs even real salt lake portland they conceded less than 50 austin 45 dallas at 55 that's still like 18 17 goals less

than san Jose yeah so that needs to be the absolute focus and it needs to be decided hey can we play these two forwards together is this the roster building idea that we want or what's it going to be like if we tell one of them like hey you might not be a full-time starter how's that going to go down and what does it look like there's some good pieces there again like man it sucks to me that christin espinoza again is not going to be in the playoffs yeah he's such a good player man so very consistent and we don't get to watch them or talk about him too much because they haven't played a ton of games of consequence since he's gotten here which is not his fault yeah yeah um i think midfield's a question mark as well

if we think back to a lot of the issues for the revs Bruce sort of had like a midfield set up in New England that pro that very much was one of those where like the underlying numbers were that it wasn't covering enough but the results were there for the most part and basically since Bruce left it all fell apart right it was way too much pressure on one guy was not enough ground coverage that feels the same with San Jose and so that's something they need to tweak and then we have a comment here in the chat Nika 4 says Arena needs to play the young guys Nico deserves more minutes. Medina can't spend another year in MLS Next Pro. There's obviously a team that also loaned out Oscar Verhoving because they didn't see minutes for him. And then San Diego was able to use him to be the best team in the Western

Conference and the greatest expansion team of all time. But what's tough for me about that is Bruce is the one who started playing young guys in New England. And he went out and got Noel Beck, No, for this team, who ended up not being healthy, not being available, and not being a part of the group. So,

I don't know that I look at it and say like arena's not going to play these guys because he has the track record of doing it in this error of major league soccer and I wonder if it was just him trying to find the pulse of the team and wasn't ready to go there so I give him one more year of leniency on that to be like all right next year if these guys are not playing then it's a problem because San Jose should be an elite academy because the Bay Area is an elite soccer region and that should be one of their advantages especially if they're not going to be a team that spends $25 million on center forwards and whatnot and all of that. On Colorado side, I think we talked about it a bit with Chris Armis.

I think it should be frustrating for fans that they sold Georgie Mahalovich inside the league. I think it should be a reality, which is this guy wanted to play an MLS because he still plays an MLS and you were not able to be able to create the deal and your owner is a billionaire who owns like 17 pro sports teams and some of the biggest in the world. That should be a frustration. is a wall this team is going to continue to bump up against and yes you can put the pieces together better and you could put it together more efficiently and you could have it all working better and you could get a better performance Philadelphia just won the shield San Diego

although they spent big on Chuky their top of the West Vancouver set like all the examples are there that they can be competitive but that still to me is the big story of this season and it's one of the big stories about Colorado yeah I would still push back on the Georgia I just think that their hands were kind of tied and the overall point of the ownership and putting in more money like I agree but I will say I would have been coming down

their hands were tied on what? He wanted a bigger contract he went to a different team and got the contract you give him the contract he plays for you sure I'd again what I was told is there wasn't a lot of room in negotiations in terms of like when his mind was made up that he wanted to go to

Toronto and then he didn't play and that was before that deal was done and that was related to the deal and I just think that that would have been a big issue and again it's under four maybe I'm just being too too easy to let them off the hook on that but I still think Paxton Aronson deal getting done I think that that that makes it a lot easier to swallow than if it was like you know signing two players from within MLS on like tan level like you 22 guys like they went out and spent seven million dollars on Paxton or whatever it was so like but the time it takes to bring a man

and the time it takes for him to get up to speed. Like it's a decent reason why they didn't make the playoffs this year because they had to spend all those games where they could have been picking up points. They were out by one point, right? So everything is like, where could you have gotten those points? And one of them would have been just having the best player on your team who, as someone put in the chat, had a brace yesterday against Orlando

to put a little bit of insult injury there on your team and available for it. There are huge question marks around this group. It'll be interesting to see you talked a little bit last week, Hoff Navajo, what his future looks like. Darren Yappy gets the big goal. He looks ready for a role. If that's what happens, where would they then reinvest those funds, maybe different spot on the field, all of that.

So a lot to talk about with Colorado, but let's dig into the teams that we know are going to be into the playoffs. San Diego, as I said, blitzing Portland. Dreyer pummels this team. He scored two goals in three minutes in the second half to stretch the lead. The first one, a little bit of a mistake on a back. pass from DeCosta, well worked by San Diego, and Dreyer puts it away. The second one, this is a dude who's feeling himself.

It, like, slightly bounces up, and it's one of those where it's like, I could hit this perfectly, and it's in a corner, and he hits it perfectly into a corner, and I'm laughing watching this. Like, this guy is on a heater. This is why I said he's an MVP finalist, because he should be. San Diego finishes, greatest expansion season of all time. most wins most points all of that they then finished with the most away wins in mLS history not for an expansion team for any team and this wasn't even a team where it was like oh they don't have a

building so they started nine games in a row so they had to play a lot you know what i mean like this is just they are so locked into their identity and so good at it that they're able to go anywhere and play the same game on under dryer 19 goals 19 assists 30 a goal contribution starting all 34 matches. He's absolutely the obvious number two on my MVP ballot. He absolutely needs to be a finalist, and I'm confident that he will be. He has been the tone setter and a perfect designated player.

He's carried the team, but he's done it in different ways all season whenever they needed him and whatever they needed him to do. Do you need to be an inside forward and score more goals? Yeah. Do you need to be a creative, wide playmaker to kind of create more chances rather than focus on finishing.

Yeah, I can do that. Do you need a false nine? Yeah, I'll do that. It doesn't matter who's kind of coming in. He's got good chemistry with them all Pavarino pretty quickly just because Honor's charge seems to have good chemistry with everybody on this team.

This signing, again, it is insane how much they've gotten from and how quickly they've gotten it. Again, not just the big pyrotechnic games like this where it's like, oh yeah, like he's just going to go ahead and dominate, but how consistent he's been all season. And it's him rather than Chucky that we're looking at when we talk about this team

if they're going to be a serious threat for MLS Cup and of course they're a serious threat for MLS Cup because of this talent and the defense has been good enough which was the big question mark coming into the season and yesterday was a good microcosm of that even though Portland now are slipping into the wildcard game so that's not the same as playing Vancouver or LFC but San Diego are in that inner tier of contenders in the West.

Yeah they absolutely are and that is also because there's a lot of question marks about every team at the top of the West the big one for Vancouver coming out of a day in which they, with a tie, they would have secured top spot in the Western Conference. For the first time in the club's history, it would have been a nice feather in the cap. It would have been a big moment for them.

Obviously, they would have had control of hosting all the way through to MLS Cup and then whatever happens after that. But the big question mark for Vancouver is, Ralph Pryso is going to start at centerback for their opening playoff game. Like that is a question mark for this team, for all that they've endured, for all that they've been able to go through. As I said, how good they are, how fun they are to watch, blah, blah, blah.

That's going to be the big question mark about them. And so that opens the door for San Diego to be the clear favorites in this moment. Man, Snapdragon Stadium is going to be a mess by the end of this year. That was one of my first thoughts about them playing well on the road, probably better surfaces. Yeah, it is, they're going to have two more home games. It's a stadium they share with a college football team and an NWSL team who look like they're on the verge of making the playoffs. Probably won't have a home game, but still a lot to go in there. Chuki Lozano, not a part of the group for this game.

So something to monitor going into the playoffs for them for sure. But I'm all Pellegrino, two goals in this game. He's been the one who stepped up the most in the Alaski opening, looking for another goal score outside of Andres Dreyer. So a big moment for him and could be a nice hot streak that they could ride into the post season. On the Portland side of things, Finn Sermon, unavailable for this game. I think because he slid into the post on his. pubic bone is that the phrase i'm going to use right now so he was uh out with a bruised lower

body injury if you watched it when he was away with new zealand he went sliding in to score a goal legs wide open into the far post not a great moment for anyone watching that one experiencing it or anything else um so that's a big one to monitor for portland but this is now the second straight year where it's just a nose dive into the post season defensively they've gotten much better this year offensively they've gotten much worse and last year they got embarrassed on their home field in an away game against vancouver they were gifted an extra home game in the playoffs they got embarrassed and then they got embarrassed in this game and they're going to have one more shot to try and turn this story around in the wild card um two more regular season games to note here minnesota keep losing

they lose at the la galaxy so a terrible way um to finish the season and then uh Seattle as i said playing game. So the playoffs, we've got San Diego against the wild card winner. That will be Portland RSL, Vancouver versus D. Dallas, as we said, the rematch L.AFC against Austin. Austin won both the games this year between these two teams, but the last game was last week during the international break. It was a late one zero win against the run of play for Austin, but they have those wins under their belt. Then Minnesota versus Seattle, which is an interesting game about two teams that it feels like are both tournament ready teams, but both of them felt apart down the stretch in the regular season. Tom, I think for me, the Vancouver FC Dallas series

is the most exciting one because I liked what I saw with Laborta out and Moosa and Farrington coming back. Like, I think Dallas should have real hopes. But hands down, and I think Vancouver the most fun team to watch. I enjoy the atmosphere. I enjoy, like, I put their game on early to be like, all right, this is the one I'll start with. I'll have 360 on my computer. I'll turn that game off when the other ones become more relevant. And I just couldn't turn it off because they're too fun to watch. Yeah. And again, the best, the best thing you can say about Jess was my coach of the year is that it doesn't matter who's on the field or what they're doing or they're always going to try to maximize. They're always going to be brave. They're

always going to play out of the back and tweak things based on who's on the field. But it's always going to be front foot. It's always going to be fun. And again, courageous, which I love to see like it's getting, you look at this 11. You look at like their injury list. Like obviously, no blackman, no white, no Vesselinovich last night. And they're still doing everything that they can to be the protagonist when they're down to man for the majority of the game. So I agree and that you could look at it with No Laborta in the first game with the red card suspension and all the other injuries.

Who knows what's going to happen with Blackman and White in terms of their availability? I can't, I can't bet it can't bet against it. I just trust that they're going to not just advance, but like have strong performances along the way too rather than just scraping by. Yeah. The reason Vancouver wins this series, no matter who is at centerback, is the quote from Aroquilla halftime, which is they at work to us, they covered more ground than us. Like, if that's the case, even with Musa back in there, Vancouver wins, I think, across three games.

If not, who knows? We don't know the San Diego matchup yet. Portland versus RSL, wild card game, Portland to host it on Wednesday night, Tom. Any big thoughts on which way that goes? No, it's, things are not good for Portland. You laying it out, too, with going back to last year, how they finished the season poorly, and then got smoked in the wildcar game. And then this year,

they did bring up. Their last win was on September 13th. Oh my God. It's been that long. They made a lot of investment in the summer to try to avoid this and to get stronger because of where they felt the team was and how open the West was. Well, the West feels less open now and obviously Portland a backslid, so it wouldn't matter. So it's a very, very disappointing end to the season.

And again, it can get a little worse. Yeah, that stretch is a loss at Houston and Vancouver, a tie to Dallas, a loss at Seattle, and then that loss to San Diego. So all playoff teams for the most proud outside of Houston, and they have not been able to get the results. For RSL, it felt like a positive way to close out the season there. RSL's been in a little bit of better form. It's why we felt some confidence in them. They had two wins and a tie in their last four and a one-zero loss at Seattle to close things out after that weird stretch in the back. to back to back games against L.A.F.C. where Buonga and Son were like, we're putting up numbers

in this one. So that's our big wild card game to come up this week. Let's go to the Eastern Conference. All three teams around the wildcard spot in the Eastern Conference came out the gates and just spit all over themselves. It was newborn baby. I'm throwing up everywhere energy from Columbus, Orlando, and Chicago. Columbus woke up at some point and we're like, oh, we're playing a non-playoff team. We should probably get our wits about us. Orlando did not and Chicago sort of did. Let's start with Orlando. Orlando came in seventh in the east. Maybe they can jump up. Maybe they could outside chance of sneaking into a home playoff game or a home field seed. Probably not, but how high could they get away from having to play some of the

big dogs in the first round on the road against the TFC team that was eliminated? Opening goal from Jonathan Osario that Osirio, like, apologized for going in because there's like no power on the shot. And Gaisei just lays down and lets it go into the corner. And then it was off and running for Toronto FC. And Orlando gets stomped in this game. It's a tough performance from Gaiese. Obviously, the defense is a huge question mark for Orlando because they don't have their best defender in Janssen available. They end up losing four, too, because they get two late goals, a 92nd minute goal from Duncan McGuire.

And, you know, McKelley did like a full appeal to Poppy Paray. last week and was like it should be better like this team has more capable of them and that was not on display in this game chicago go down early they come out with a weird formation change then they're able to tie it then they go down again late then they tie it somehow once again and are able to lock themselves into the home side of the wild card and columbus in nagby's final game are able to come from behind against red bulls they jump them and are able to get through so now we've got Columbus in a hell is real derby outside of the wild card spot after coming in at night and Orlando dropping from seventh to ninth on the final game on the road against TFC, which I think was the

most shocking result in my mind from the night. Yeah, Toronto had scored multiple goals one time since July 3rd, and that was a two-two draw against Chicago. So to put up four, Gilles, they looked really, really bad. No Robin Jansen, which we knew was going to be a big, big miss, but I don't think that the fears were going to be like this. So that's a huge concern. The other side of that is Orlando finished on 53 points. That's 12 more than 9th place in the West. That's actually more than they had last season

when they finished fourth. The east is a buzzsaw. Every point matters. And for them to backslide to 9th, with a plus 12 goal difference on the season, now they go on the road to Chicago, man, I really didn't see that come. And that was definitely the most surprising result of the night for me.

Yeah, the big one that stands. out is three games ago, the one one draw at home against Columbus. And I mean, you could throw the Vancouver one in there, right? They had the lead at home against Vancouver last week, but the white caps are a good team. It's just one of those where, again, you look at Orlando. They haven't won since September. They haven't won in their last five. Like, these are just bad forms to go into a playoff series with. And it feels like for Orlando, they're running out of steam at the worst part of the season where I think the hope was that Prea had with his experiences, like, how can I have us peak at the right time of the season?

And now they will go on the road against Chicago. I love that the Cincinnati fans were streaming the fire game at TQL Stadium, hoping that they got a result so that Columbus would fall back into a playoff game because these two fan bases do not like each other, which is why it's going to be so fun that we're going to have this playoff series coming up over the next two weeks. And it might be the final one for Darlington Nagby, which adds a little bit of juice to all of this.

I want to get into the playoff previews. Two of the other games that we have to mention, though, in this, Charlotte blitzed Philly out the gate. Philly had nothing to play for. I'd say it was a 80% starting lineup from them. A lot of the major pieces in there and a really poor performance defensively from Kai Wagner, which opened things up for Charlotte. And so Charlotte's cruising. They're going to get the four seed. It's simple. Tom, nothing to talk about. Let's move on to the next game, except Wolfred Zaha. Loving the drama a little bit. Swing off the ball at Jesus Bueno. He gets sent off.

I believe it's a second yellow card. So it'll be a one game suspension for the opening game against NYCFC in the next round unless it's elevated by a disciplinary committee because of violence or whatever, which I don't know that it's necessary, but I do think the door is open that it's a possibility. I agree.

Extremely disappointed in Wilford Zah in that moment to now be suspended for round one. Like imagine if this was a knockout, like a single elimination game. like if this was ahead of the next round. Like if he picked up, it's just inexplicable and really, really disappointing

from a guy who has been talking all season that he's a leader of this team and he's direct. And he doesn't mind having a go to his teammates and stuff like this. Well, I hope all of his teammates were having a go to him in the locker room after the game

because that's unacceptable, man. And again, there is room because there are a few games, but with no Pepi-L, it's even more important. And again, that doesn't matter in terms of Zaha should always be feeling the most important.

And if PEPO was available, this wouldn't make this any better. But particularly with that given context, it's just can't happen. And again, from a leader of this team, from the star player of this team, it's extremely disappointing. If they wanted to have a go at him, they'd be on a long list. Because I don't know if you've heard his most foul player in Major League Soccer. I don't know if anyone has mentioned this to you. It was only said about 37 times after this happened yesterday. Dino said it on the post-game press conference.

Yeah, okay, it sucks. I understand the concept there is like, is he being protected enough? I mean, he was not injured in this play. I understand the concept there, but like, that's not really defending yourself. And if that's the case, then Dean Smith needs to be getting thrown out of games, yelling at referees, saying it in post-game press conferences. Like, that's how you try and push that to try and affect that rather than requiring the, like, the moment that happens is not, okay, this was Zaha, he had to do this.

It was, okay, we didn't figure out the right way to handle this and push this even earlier. and then it boiled over in this moment. And now that's going to be a huge reality in their playoff series. The other game, Miami Nashville, I think Doyle said it last week that this was the game he was most excited for the weekend. And I think for fair reason, and it came out hot, Nashville pressing high, trying to create chances. I think they had like 3xG through the opening, like 60 minutes of this game.

And then Messi was like, oh, there's openings and gaps. You guys are going to open up and try and come after us. Messy decides to score a bazillion goals to close out the golden boot race. He also closes out the MVP race because he is now one goal behind or one goal contribution behind Vela for most all time combined in an MLS season. And this team finishes top three. They're one of the top three scoring teams of all time in MLS history. And now they have to play each other.

So the question is, okay, mentally can Nashville bounce back against the exact same opponent in a week is like a bizarre psychological experiment that we're about to do. I agree. And let me just run through a couple numbers with Messi because you saying that he was one goal off the league record should do enough, but it's just so silly. So first of all, leads the league and goals 29, tied for the lead and assist, 19. With the second most goal contributions, the league gets with 48, just one behind that special Carlos Velas season.

He has 10 more goal contributions than who was second this season, which is Andreier. His 48 goal contributions outperform the goal tally of 13 teams in MLS and tied another. Him alone. You were hiked about this yesterday. This was what you were watching for. And let me say this too. So we're talking about the MVP race. Andres Dreyer, he ends up finishing his last seven games, six goals to assist.

That's a really strong finish of the season in an MVP race. Six goals, two assists in seven games. Messi's final seven games, 10 goals, eight assists. 18 goal contributions in his final seven games. It's just like, what do you do? You can do nothing but laugh. I mean, there's moments in this game where he's laying it off for Segovia. He's setting up Iende where it's like he could probably score himself.

Yeah. And Messi did this. You know, he played a ton of minutes this year. Like he is deserving of all of this. It's not insane. But he finishes. Just I wanted to check this. 300 minutes less than Vela in that season.

So he's one goal contribution behind 300 minutes. It's not an insane gap. But it just shows less than I thought. Yeah. I agree, but it also shows that, like, if he had played those extra minutes, right, if he wasn't at Argentina, if he wasn't playing for both teams in the same week, all that type of stuff, there could have been an opening for a little bit more. So now we've got Orlando at Chicago on Wednesday night in a wild card playing game, and then we have our playoff matchups. I would like to propose that Orlando plays Portland in the wild card, and the loser just gets relegated based off what happened last night, but that's not my decision to make. So Philadelphia will play the winner of whoever wins in this wild card game.

I think there are real warning signs for Philly. I think the Quinn Sullivan injury is massive in terms of creativity, in terms of depth, in terms of game breaking play. And I think that's something to watch out for. And as Doyle has written and talked about and come on the show and talked about, they have done incredibly well to win the Shields because they've put the sword to every team they've played. But they've been better against bad teams. and there are less bad teams in the playoffs

except for Chicago and Orlando, who they might be playing in the first round. I just stop. I am so upset with Orlando. I cannot even get over it. I'm pretty upset with Chicago as well, even though they were able to get to the two, too. It was a lazy performance.

It was a disconnected performance. And like, yeah, you're not playing for the playoffs, but you were playing for a buy. You were playing to get into the next round. You were playing to guarantee a home game. All these things that have felt like were not locked into and clearly brian gutierrez is not locked into and that's a problem internally for the team he doesn't get the start so this is really frustrating my guess is i will pick chicago

home and all of the issues orlando is having that they win this wild card game but still philly are heavy favorites against both of them for sure and that doesn't say that everything is fine in Philadelphia. No, I agree. Yeah, the Quinn Sullivan one hurts, as we've said kind of since the injury that like obviously wasn't going to impact their shield race because they had a hand on the shield by the time that happened and then they did close up the job. I don't want to make it sound like this is just like a bonus if they make a playoff run, which is weird because the shield winner should have expectation. But I don't I don't know if I remember a season where the shield winner like if you had to like top your head power rank in both conferences like your

MOS Cup favorites. Yeah. Would it be top three? Like, I don't know. I don't know. And I have a top three. Like, literally. We're all just open.

Well, literally go down the, like, if Vancouver had any centerbacks, they'd be in there. Right. If San Diego had any experience here, they'd be in there. And then you go to the east. And we have a Cincinnati fan who messaged us and was like, everyone gives everyone else leniency. But for some reason, we just quote unquote, can't And it's like, you're, I'm looking at Atlanta numbers today, right, with Ronnie Daila.

And Cincinnati is right in line with Atlanta, like underlying numbers. That's how bad a large stretch of this season has been for them. They're number two in the Eastern Conference. I'm not going to believe in Columbus to make a playoff run just because of the depth that they don't have and that star talent that they don't have. And now we're going through the list. And it's like, yeah, you could convince me any of these teams win because you could convince me the holes on a lot of these teams.

are gaping and scary, which leads to a fascinating playoff setup. And yeah, if you ask me who my top three favorites are, I would tell you, I have no idea. It's just all flat. It is. I guess so then I think that's a fair way to answer it. But kind of my larger point is that it's like a team that I wouldn't be surprised. If like, again, partly because of how good the East is.

And I think that is, like, I'm trying to challenge myself. And like, that's the wrong way to think about it and look at it. because, like, celebrate the shield winner, but also there should be pressure and expectations on their playoff, right? Even without Quinn Sullivan. Like, again, that defensive... I was going back and forth on McConaugh or Glessness

for Defender of the Year. And Andre Blake is going to be on ballots, right? Like, Kai Wagner is probably going to be in the best 11. If not, he'll be getting a lot of votes for it. Like, both Central League and Joevich are going to be in conversations across how many best 11s do you do?

How deep do you go? There are three. Yeah, across all three teams. so yeah like you're going down the list they got like top five players that what's that six seven positions on the field so like there should be a lot of expectations so I don't know if that's just a bad perception by me or if it's like we're going to look back in three weeks or nine months whenever this round ends and be like oh yeah like there was there was question marks yeah and there are about every single team but it's going to be fun to watch these series

Miami Nashville you get the rematch from D-Day and then I just went through it It's like they came in expansion at the same time. Their first ever playoff game was against each other. In 2023, they played an open cup and then they play in the Leaks Cup final. Then in 24, they played in CCC round of 16. So they just, they have been connected very often, even though they have nothing to do with each other. And they're connected once again in this one. And Doyle put out his tiers.

He had Nashville in the top tier of like teams that could win. And understandably, they've won a cup already. They've had a huge improvement in style. They know who they are. They can adapt to other teams, and they've got two of the biggest game breakers in the league. But to get annihilated at home by the team you're about to play in the playoffs is fairly unprecedented, and I don't really know how to handle it. Yeah, it's not ideal.

I still think that they're alive in this series. Like, it's not a foregone conclusion. I would probably have to say, I think pretty easily, particularly after that result, the Miami would be the favor to get through. But I don't know. It depends on if they can limit the gaps for men. to take advantage of and again even if there are no gaps he'll find them uh so there's only so much you can do and then you have to punish Miami the other way and take advantage of their weaknesses like

it sounds silly to say after they just conceded five um but like again i think this team can do it and with again they have the two game breakers themselves so that you're not going to match Miami for firepower but if if it starts to get high scoring they're not they're not dead um it is an unfortunate draw i forgot about the the the con kept champions cup type between these two teams coming to the league at the same time and then have found each other in these competitions so often Nashville losing in that league's cup final for Miami's first trophy the messy summer

it's unfortunate and let's see if Nashville can get over the bogeyman to your point about firepower Nashville had 2.98 expected XG in the game against Miami last night but Miami had 3.75 so we're in for goals which is great for us as neutrals but Nashville are capable of putting up a decent number against this Miami team and the big question will be can they steal one on the road in all of this because reminder these are three game series if you win to you go through ties go straight to pedal tickets so

that's how you get the result in those games as well the big one Cincinnati versus Columbus hell is real since nonce took over Columbus three two and two so it's been fairly even but the big one was 23 conference finals single game elimination Columbus came from behind down to late on to win 3-2 to go to MLS Cup where they went and won it. And these are two teams where this season's been underwhelming. And I think for some reasons, on results for Columbus and for Cincinnati underlying, you win a hell is real Darby in a playoffs. That's like the season for you.

Like this is a godsend to me for Columbus because you can't win a more meaningful playoff series. And I don't think Columbus has the depth without Wessem Abu Ali to go to an MLS Cup this year. But if you can rescue the fact that you're in, not a wildcard team. You've moved up in the standings on the last day and knock off Sinti. That's like the ball game for you to feel good going into the year. And I think for Sinci, it clearly is not matching what they wanted to be this year.

I think the building blocks are there to feel good about Evander and Denkeh going forward. But like, if you slap down your rival, that's a really good way to start a playoff. Yeah, for them to be playing in round one. And again, like, I've been very critical of the best of three scenario. I don't mind the best of three here for these two teams. I think that's going to be, I think all. three of these games if it gets to a third it's going to be a lot of fun and to your point like Columbus aren't going to go into the series against sincy and being like afraid right like they're like

I think they know that they can beat them and for all the points that you set the underlines for sincy um and and the rivalry side of this and the history of it in 23 on the road to Columbus winning at my this cup um I don't know man I think this is going to be fun I really don't have a lean on this one probably sincey but like I'm just really looking forward to watch I think this is the one I'm looking most forward to him across both conferences. One fascinating thing to note, Abino Nobodo made his rate return in the final game of the regular season, which he's a game changer for them. How much you can expect from him right now?

I don't know. So that is something to monitor and something to watch out for in all of this. In one side of things, you could tell me, okay, this is a SINC team that's a little gapy in their backline. There's space for Columbus to create chances. and score goals on the other side. Columbus is an atrocious box defending team and Evander and Denk and Brenner are killers.

And so I don't think Cincinnati needs a lot, which is why I think this one is perfectly split down the middle. And you could call it either way, I will take right now Cincinnati because they're the home team. And I think Evander's quality overall against a team like Columbus that leaves openings will come out on top. But I could see it go both ways. I thought it was really cool that Columbus,

his fans had the goat signs in the sixth minute for Navi, gave him the applause, subbed him off, which they were able to celebrate, which was also really cool because they were able to get the win and be in like a safe spot. And I think we're all very happy to watch Darlington Nagby play as many more soccer games as possible going forward. And then the last playoff series in the East that's set is Charlotte against NYCFC. They each won two zero in the second half of the season against each other. So split this season series. Zaha, of course, is suspended for the one game. So that's a huge factor to note in all of this.

NYCFC, not a ton to play for, losing 2-1 at home against Seattle in City Field, where they're going to play these games. I don't know. We don't have the playoff schedule yet. We won't learn that, I guess, until the wild card round is done. That part I'm unaware of as well. The actual playoffs start on Friday. So the games will start on Friday, but because they're all three games, I think everyone plays between Friday and Sunday, and then it starts to space out going forward, and you get like at least two games a night, depending on how long.

some of the series go for this Charlotte NYCFC one they're both teams that have had crazy hot streaks this season and crazy cold streaks how do you feel about them and how big is the Zaha suspension uh it's massive it's really massive and particularly if NYCFC jump out and and get that first game it's going to be a lot of what ifs and and without him i'm worried about chance creation I'm worried about attacking prowess and and any semblance of consistently being dangerous so it's to be without Zaha in this, I trust NYCFC at the moment over, over Charlotte, particularly without Zaha and Pepi out, right? Like, so I, they need to come back to like, it's, it's not over, obviously, but my mind is already going to like game two. Yeah. Which is just a bad spot

to be. Yeah, I will say, I think one of the things I learned from the Atlanta upset last year against Miami is like riding a hot goalkeeper is big and Kalina is good enough to be that guy. And so So if it's the right game at the right time, aka Game 1, can you make it less opportunities, less chances, can you close it down? Can you get some, can you get Vargas and Toklamati in transition moments? It will be less threatening without Zaha, but can you make it a game state that you want in all of this, a slower, stagier game with some gaps for you to counter into, then you have a chance. And then on the top side for NYCFC, there's not a lot of proven pieces in this in a playoff series or a knockout series. They haven't made open cup runs, they haven't been in CCC, they haven't made Leaks Cup runs. So it's just a huge learning curve for a coach and a team in this one.

And I think we're going to learn a lot about this NYCFC group and where they stand. All right, that's her quick rundown going into the postseason. I'm ecstatic about this. We'll be back on Thursday. We will hit every single series, every single game. We will know the final stuff coming out of the wild card. We'll be talking wildcard as well. We've got Best 11s to talk through.

We've got some postseason awards for us to. put our official names next to and all of that. And we already have news coming around. We've got Roman Berkey, who has re-signed as a designated player. Is that correct? I still am not 100% clear on if he can or can't be bought down, but DP is what I was told. Okay, which is pretty big coming out of a game where you can see the two goals. Also, not a goalkeeping DPs, and there's not a full-time head coach for that team.

So it is interesting to see what they think that means. We will be following the coach openings in Atlanta. Atlanta, a couple other ones, plus L.A.F.C., which I keep forgetting, and I decided to start the Angpasta Gaglu rumors to LafC, the moment he got fired, which is 19 minutes after the game ended for Nottingham Forrest, which is shorter than Ronnie Dylatt lasted after his final game. So he's got that going for him or not in either direction. And of course, we'll just continue to talk about all the soccer as it's going on. A lot of great series, a lot of fun stuff to be excited for and we are excited to be here for all of it so thank you to all of you here in the chat

with us live on a sunday morning thank you to all of you for listening as the playoffs coming up if you know people who care about these games send them our way send us send them our show right review us comment so that people see us and we'd love to talk about mLS and playoffs and soccer and everything else with as many people as humanly possible so thank you once again we'll talk to you all again very very soon You know,