SoccerWise - Golden Boot Draft 2026

Episode Date: February 11, 2026

The moment you have all waited for. With Chris Wittingham acting as a proxy for team Tom/Calen, and our former producent folding up his club like Chivas USA the draft is on! Ten rounds plus defenders to finally decide who is the ultimate ball knower.

Going back to Soccer Wise, everyone, for the biggest show of the year. It is going to be monumental, groundbreaking, earth-shattering. I don't have any other phrases that I could butcher that could make Doyle upset. So I'm going to leave it there as we are back and ready for the 2026. MLS Golden Druth Bath right out the gate, firing on all sillarmes. Nailed it. I was like to put that banana. there. Oh my God. Should I put the word podcast in? And in thinking about that, I totally

butchered it. It is going to be in line with what is about to occur over the next hour or plus that we're going to do as we have the most convoluted golden boot draft we have ever had. We have, of course, Matt Doyle, who we have announced as one of my teammates at Kickback recently who is now joining this year. I am technically below you in the org chart. I am, you're my supervisor. So like I, like, I, like, I, like, I. I don't know if you should consider me a teammate. I believe I'm a peon. Yeah, I think that should be considered in your draft picks in terms of helping set me up maybe later on.

Fourth. Yeah. Maybe later on in the draft, throw me a couple oops, maybe a quick assist here there. We'll have to see. If you see grenades, Doyle, you know that you're the one. Jump on those, all right? Just a big hug, okay? The person who is on their Christmas family Zoom,

holding the laptop on the couch and hanging out on their headphones, in the least professional way possible is Andrew Weeby, who of course, have you ever won this? I know I won at the inaugural year. Who won last year? I was internally wondering. It was me.

I won. I won. Was it? Yeah. For sure. Mm-hmm. 100%. Doyle won last year,

but in classic group chat fashion, I am nationalizing all of the previously owned landowners manners, and we are taking away his family rights to Leo Messi. Viva! Revolution! Exactly. And we are moving now to a new draft in which everyone will be available because if anyone doesn't remember, Matt Doyle drafted Lionel Messi the half season before he came, was it? Or was it a full year?

Yeah, then he was a keeper, wasn't he? Yeah. I, too, dispute that result. And I would like to introduce to the group, you know, a possible change to our structure and governance here. I believe that actually Leonel Messi should be excluded. I don't personally know who has the number one overall pick. I'm unaware of that information, but I believe that Leonel Messi should be excluded from all drafting because it kind of just decides it.

Yeah, as I said just a moment ago, this is a revolution, it's a people's revolution. It is one in which I rule as judge and leader. So I'm open to all possible ideas and you can just lodge them and then I'll get back to you after careful consideration. You're the secretary of the Politburo. I got it.

Exactly. And to add to the chaos, in confusion. We have contracted one team and we have added a name to a third team. So we have the Tom and Kalin team, which is being represented in our video by Bogart's proxy. And Chris Whittingham is kind enough to join in place of the new parents in the in the group. So Witty, thanks for being here. Yeah, no problem. Just want to say a long time listener, first time caller, love the show. And I'm really excited to be here and draft on behalf of Tom Bogart, who sadly could not be here. The top line of his golden boot draft Google Doc that he sent me says,

see you in Valhalla for the trophy parade, brother Whitty. So I'm really, really excited to be doing this for him. And also, I'm excited to not draft Petarmusa, because if I listen to this podcast enough, I think you guys all think he's better than Robert Lewandowski. So I'm happy to not have him in my golden boot team. Yeah, that sounds accurate to me, actually. So I'm glad that it's sometimes good to get the feedback. that the show is working and that the conversations we're having are actually landing with propaganda is spread it far and wide, I can tell. I got my FC Dallas jersey sent to me.

Thank you to FC Dallas and I like their jersey, not just because they sent it to me. And get this touch. They put in a handwritten postcard from Bernardo Kumunga from Portugal saying like, looking forward to the season, we're working hard. And then signed by him, let's go, FC Dallas. That's the sort of personal touch that really gets you invested. And already the first malapropism of the podcast because it's Bernard Camungo, not Bernardo Camungo.

Bernardo is his Portuguese cousin. Bernardo Camarro. Yeah, it was from the Algar. Rio Ave, I think. The postcard literally came from the Algarve. And Eric Crackal, I'll be messaging that it's pronounced. Ogarw. Or whatever it is in proper Portuguese.

as I owe him a phone call for about three weeks ago. So we, I think we've settled in pretty cleanly here. It feels like we're right in our sweet spot right now. This is what I had put down as the rules for this year's draft. So I think for starters, did anyone want to do an in-memorium for the Chief House USA of our league, which is team producing to Anders? Poor one out, lost, but I guess not really lamented. Anders kind of embarrassed himself last year.

This is called pro rel folks. This is what happens. You're opening up the table. We will stay silent as we discuss pro ral now. I think a moment is appropriate here for I would never want to speak ill of the dead is what I would say. We Anders with the struggles of the Norwegian national team at the biathlon cross country and skiathlon events has taken himself. out of the public eye for a little while as he works on himself internally

alongside his Norwegian brother and sister and whatever phrase in Norway. You're crushing a day. That I could wake up. I feel pretty good right now. So on this golden boot draft, we have 10 rounds we're going to do

and then an 11th special round in which you are required to pick a defender. Now, I realize in saying this, I think last year we pulled that off the MLS fantasy, which does not exist currently. And so I guess we're kind of in good faith all going to vote on whether or not that person does qualify as a defender. Does that feel right?

Yeah, I think that feels right. How do we feel about wingbacks along the defense of the... I was going to say, I was a little dubious about the part of good faith. Yeah, well, you have to be good faith part of the argument. I think it's easy. We have three other people. If you get a majority, I think it counts as a defender. If you don't, you don't.

Does that feel? This really is the people's revolution. I like that. This is how I rule, Doyle. You should like it. You should actually promote it. Can you write poetry about me? Yeah.

For what it's worth, I do not consider wing backs to be defenders. So bear that mind. The word back is in the title of wing back. And also that comes from British English and they call centerbacks, center halves. So, you know, let's not be too prescriptive with our language here. Does that mean you won't be voting for any center half to be considered a defender? Because there's no back in their name. Move the show along.

So that will be the 11th round. We will do 10 rounds, Snake Draft. It was a randomized order that was picked for the draft. And the last piece we need to decide is what will be the tiebreaker. Now, we've had this conversation in the past. We've talked about non-pedalty goals. We've talked about assists, primary and secondary. I think, and Tom has sent me some messages on the side about this.

And I know this was part of Anders, what he ended up entering as his release clause to close his franchise was the preference for it to be expected goals as the tiebreaker to allow the data to speak as the I cannot, I think was the phrase that Tom used. I think Anders said the way the game's meant to be played. So does that feel like a fair tiebreaker? Kaylin was in for that as well. He really liked that idea. I was in consultancy with Tab Ramos as well, but I just want to suggest that it's head-to-head NCAA NCA 26 record against Tom. So, wow. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't. know witty how you've been doing and you're you know every once in a while i drop it and watch a little tom

football you know coach tom so so far i'm i'm one and one although i did just get a really big win against him in the play i made him play at 11 p.m after the super bowl and he was not happy with the fact he had to stay up i think his wife was less happy that he had to stay up and play and i promptly destroyed him uh so so we might have to have a rubber match if that if it comes down to it that's just good scheduling that you know i i just i see that you run a tight ship your program is really the priorities strong. Yeah, no, I think that's fair. Fair and just. Family and football coach. Okay, on that note, for now, XG is the tiebreaker, and we can begin our train. I feel like as Tom's representative, I have to say that that is ridiculous. It's ridiculous for XG.

He would be on here shouting, you know, games gone mate, utter woke nonsense. He would send the shun-disch meme. I have to register my objection on behalf of Tom. I actually would say you you've not performed properly. Tom would not be sitting here anymore. He would have thrown a pen, stood up and walked away. Not realizing his AirPods remain connected, he would leave and potentially have thrown his phone at the wall and be shocked that it didn't break. So you did about 50% of it.

That's where we'll sit right now. We will come back. Obviously, I will come back with my ruling as I go and read other literature and think about this very deeply. We are ready to start. I'm not going to want a timer on draft picks. If you go too long, I'm looking. from my view at my top left corner,

then I will bring down the hammer at some point, but as for now, I won't need to. I, by the way, at random.org, and I have the screenshot, I have the screenshot, and it's timestamped at the exact moment that it was done, which was 163721 UTC. That's how real this is.

We're on European time zone for this random.org usage. It came out as myself with the number one pick. Andrew Weeby with the number two pick It says Whitty with the number three pick So that will be your entire team name in that And then Doyle Following it up with the number four pick

And then snake back around to Doyle with the first pick And we will go from there Ten rounds beginning And this is going to be glorious You know Messi's going to play 12 games Go to the World Cup and retire after You know he's going to be playing for Newells in August And it's the one year I have him on my team

but I'd be a fool if I didn't take him first. So the number one pick of the 2026 Golden Boot draft at soccer-wise is Leo Messi. This is where you do that moment of silence there for that one. On the edge of our seats. Bleedingly obvious. Yes. What's your over-underer, since I've been doing over-unders for you doing? What's your over-under on messy goals?

By the way, you've gotten some compliments. People like the lines you set. I was really frustrated with my Nashville one. too easy for you and Valer and you know i vow to do better in the future okay um i think i'd probably set it around 23 or 24 like my guess is he just doesn't play as many games his rates probably somewhat similar and he ends up closer to what a normal golden boot winner is in mLS than the astronomical joke numbers at 35 yeah and he i mean he's probably going to be playing as a 10 Agreed.

Like he'll be, well, his assistant members would go on. He might end up, like, it almost feels is more likely

for him to threaten the Valderama assist record, which, you know, was back when second assists were much more liberally handed out than it is

for him to put up like 30 goals. Sasha Kreschon's about to come on this show and complain. I mean, Sasha earned it, in my opinion, he got that 20th one, but Peebe had 26 in a season. So that is like,

that feels like an unbreakable record for us. But you talk about, Number 10. Yeah, I mean, you talk about number 10, though, as if that would change the nature of his goal scoring. I don't think his role on the field is going to necessarily change. I agree, though, with Goss's point about the minutes or the amount that he will play sort of before and after the World Cup, well, it could be the only indicator. If they go on and win the final, which is a very real possibility, is he coming straight back

into the team? You know, what does it look like in and out of league's cup? So I think he played, he played 2,400 minutes last year. you know, maybe you could see a little bit of a drop off, but I would still suggest that he gets to 25 or 26. Okay. I mean, it's front-loaded, right, in terms of the games that matter for Miami,

at least around the Cup, because of CCC. So I can see him, at least in the beginning, I think they'll focus on Concaf. Maybe that means some rest in the league because you went out and reinforced and because Bertrami is here. But I would be more in the line of, like, what you were saying, Woody,

which is like 50 and a half goals plus assist, over under like I don't think that it matters he's going to rake he's going to rake do you rolled your eyes at that you just said he'd get near the assist record no no i said it's more likely of the two that he would get near the assist record you think he won't go over 20 goals with that i think you probably will but i wouldn't i wouldn't stake my life on it i actually think between moving deeper and jordialba retiring i actually do think the way he scores goals and bertrami arriving i think the way he scores goals is going to change and i think the way he's he functions on the field.

He's going to change a little bit. And he'll still probably end up with 45 goal contributions. But goals, I think he'll be down a little bit. All right. Well, with the number. Dave. Bad pick. Yeah.

With the number two pick in the draft, Weeby takes Bertrami. Weevi, you are up. Listen, it probably would be a good pick. I hesitated even saying the name just so I didn't introduce it into people who probably already thinking it. I'm kind of torn here between two guys and they both have pluses, and minuses and it goes back to playing time. And to me, it's kind of a two-horse race

between Bawanga and Sunny. Either one is going to be a big win. The question was Sunny, since he doesn't seem to be playing at all in preseason, it also has the massive responsibility of the World Cup, though less likely to go as far as Argentina, how much does he play? But his goals per 90 numbers are insane. And then Denny's a little bit more of a question

just in the sense of it doesn't look like he'll leave, but what an idiot I would be when Brazil's window closes in March to draft. Bawanga two and then have him transferred out of the league. So just for the sake of safety and for the fact that I just think I think Sunny is going to be a monster and I want to root for him. I want to have him in my squad. I'm going sunny with the second overall pick here. Okay. I we did our LAFC preview and talking with Vince from happy foot, sad foot. My worry on sun is just the emotional come down of coming off a World Cup and being like you know it's his last.

right and he will be the representation of south korea in a region that has a huge south korean population and all the pressure and like the whole experience i worry about like what that first mLS game and that first month looks like after that for him um but that's kind of my only trepidation around him at all there's also going to be a formation switch i think most of his MLS minutes last year came in that 3-4-2-1 playing on the counter for the most part. And Mark Dos Santos has indicated it's going to be a 4-3-3. They're going to get Stephen Eustachio to play at the back point of that 4-33. They're going to be playing a little more possession.

It might not be quite as clean a fit, but it doesn't matter. Sun is still awesome. But is he still the point of the attack in both of those, whether it's the one up top or the center of the three? He is, but it comes down to. how much you trust that midfield, a Mark Dos Santos coached midfield, to be super incisive in hitting the final pass, because you need to do more than just lump it to say, he's not that type of forward, right?

You need to be able to sort of crack open a deep block. And since movement is great, his ball striking is great, obviously his first touch is great. Are the passes to him going to be great? I question that a little bit, but I still think it's the right pick. All right. From a stylistic point of view, how much do they change? How much does L-AFC change with a change of coach?

I was also looking at, I kind of, I sometimes forget the World Cup groups. I think they could easily top that group that they're in with Mexico and maybe get to a round of 16. But I think Brian Gutierrez is balling out from Mexico. Jonathan Perez. Grichila Desmond right back. So, by the way, on the style change, I think we're, all going to trump it up more than it is. I think the style change will be,

they'll be better at breaking down low blocks than that they change who they are as much as we expect. Like, I think that's the shift for them is teams want them to play in possession and they'll be better at it with Oostokio and the team. I don't know that they're going to come out and change so much about the way they choose to, like, their options in the way they choose to set up the game. I completely agree with that. I also just think Mark DeSantos is,

pragmatic as well and he's going to look at his team and say, okay, we might, we might want to be better in that phase of the game that you mentioned Doyle. But if you give us any opportunity to put Bwanga and Sun in the open field, we now have better passers in midfield to release them. We are not going to hesitate to do that. And I just, Sun is so efficient. So I don't look at Sun as a guy that like, he needs volume. He's like, you know, like, we got to get him so many chances. It's like, get this guy three half chances and a good chance a game. historically he outperforms his XG he's one of the few i know that that's why tom would have taken him number three if he was right there i think we should feel free to speak for tom i think kind of like universally if we feel that we know what tom would say we should just say it and attribute it to tom witty what is the direction that you've been given how much like license and latitude do you have so he so no i have i have no input from calen as far as on which is how it normally goes

I got sent to Google Doc, and we had two fairly strong debates this morning about his rankings. But then at the end of it, we shook hands and he said, and he said, I trust you. So I have at least a little bit of latitude. I'm going to try to honor his rankings. Okay. Well, you are now up for the first time ever in your experience as a proxy. Big moment. To Kalinkar, who acts as a proxy for Tom Boger, you are taking the third pick of the first.

first round of the 2026 soccer-wise golden boot draft and it is and with said pick i'm taking denny buonga or as is known on this podcast i knew that was coming dennis bwanga i could have bet money that was coming i'm so glad you're here witty i i'm driving around kansas city frequently and i just i want to just like turn into oncoming traffic every time i hear i'm like oh my god it just end me just end it all i can't wait till weby takes azabijani u attacker and I'll wait for him to say the name coming up in a couple moments. So, by the way, he didn't include notes for every player, but next to Bawanga, Bogart, it said, parenthetically, won't be sold before summer.

I'd be surprised if he is sold in summer, but maybe be careful, question mark. I think that is sort of the overall talking point. I, despite having far less information than Tom Bogart, am a little bit scared of this one. I think it's just sort of a tea leaves thing. If you look at, for example, the fact that. that Miami put in a bid for him. To get the wind horse fingers out, why did they put in a bid for Denny Buonga?

That's not one where you normally go to another championship contenders best player and go, can I take your best player off of you? Why was that offer even made? Why is the offer from Flumenense even made? And I think you've looked at the MLS Players Union release. He's 19th in the league in salary, which is not commensurate with his level of production.

And so I am wondering the degree to which he will make a push to potentially, potentially leave or to potentially get a new contract. But I think for now, he's just such a bankable 20 goal score that you have to take him third. But I am scared of it. Yeah. Because there has to be. I've been wondering about it for a long. If you're LAFC, why don't you extend Denny Bawanga? It's 31. What's the case? Okay. If you could make a massive profit on a 31 year old, that's how most teams around the world operate. But what, The confounding factor, the confound.

I mean, like, they bought him for five. If they sell them for 15, you know, that's your, your 3X in your investment. On a guy who has, will not have future value. Right. This is the peak of his value. Yeah. And the confounding thing about MLS, though, is that zero MLS teams need to sell to survive, right? If this was Ligon, he would already have been sold, right?

If any legal team other than PSG had gotten a 3X office. offer on this player at 31. He is sold. But MLS teams don't need to operate that way. And it's something that it's something that a lot of people have spent a lot of time trying to tease out and figure out what the MLS transfer market actually is. And then you add Miami to it. And it's like, I believe that offer from Miami was legit. I also believe like if I was running Miami, I would absolutely F with every team's best player. I would be like, you know, we want to pay Thomas Mueller $14 million a year. And we're really interested in that.

Just to see how the caps front off has reacts to that. Because like, you know, send the Fox into the henhouse and let them run the vibes. Yeah. So Doyle, can I ask you, though, on that point that you made where our MLS teams

don't have to do that? First off, there is the sort of gam consideration, which is if you make a big sale, we've seen a lot of other teams make big sales in parlay. I mean, I still think Miami is benefiting from the money they made from Diego Gomez. And so I do think that there is an incentive to sell in that respect.

But also, I do think that you have to think about sort of the overall place in the hierarchy. If you're going to keep spending as a league like MLS, at some point, there has to be an underlying business model that justifies that. And so I do think that that is the way in which it operates like the rest of the world, is that I think you have to think about a little bit just for long-term sustainability. There has to be money coming in as long as money is going out, especially the amount of money that they spent on Sun, which they're probably, not going to reclaim. So on the other hand, they're LA, they're in a big market and should be maximizing their championship window because they have one now. It's maximizing championship window.

It's also the Dodgers thing, which is son has, will pay for himself in jerseys and brand and stuff like that. Buonga is not the same, but I would be curious to see the math on if we make X finals and we host X playoff games that are sold out and we are relevant in this many more ways, how much is Buonga worth it? It's not going to be $10 million, but is it close? And I think for L.AFC, you could say we've done really well on all the players we've sold to Club America and Cruz Azul and all this other stuff, where there's probably a little extra money there to go and say, we're close. We can win.

Let's hold on this one because we have shown you that we will sell, you know, the next U-22 initial. We'll sell David Martinez. We will make $6 million on that in a year or two, we promise, because we've already done it. So I agree with you. I think that to me sounds a bit more, though, unfortunately of like a Chicago or Houston, a Colorado where it's like that's their existence versus LAFC who have shown that their market relevant when they're good and being good has value to them. It feels to me like that you're balancing that like that Miami ideal of we don't care. Money is just money. Like we just want trophies we're trying to win. And John Thornton being just a really smart guy who's thinking sustainability and long term. I thought the point you made doing. about GAM and a recent podcast was really, really important for the way that we think about transfers and team building going forward. If you are LAAFC and you can bank whatever it is, a couple million in GAM off of Denny Bawanga, that's money you can sink and improve your team

over the next few years going forward. The other thing with LAPC is who's available in the summer? Like if this is a team that could be sitting there saying, hey, it's fine, we're going to go get Griesman in the summer. So actually like banking a bunch of GAM and combining Sunny and Griseman, that's a pretty winning formula for us. I still am like, but why? Like, Denny is not, you got him for cheap, so your up front outlay was not very much. You don't have to pay him that much. So now you're on the other side?

You said, why wouldn't they sell it? No, they're stuck between. I'm so I'm saying, you're stuck between. Like, which way do you want to go? And then which way does Denny want to go? Because if I was him, I'd want to get paid. Well, that's where. And for as good as Grisman is, it's not a guarantee.

You know that Denny Buonga guaranteed is a producer in MLS. and fits with son and is happy and well if he's happy and fits in the team and all of that okay we are on to our next pick we could do this all day we will do this all day as we go through these picks uh matt doyle you're up for the first time and it's for the first time as a fellow citizen um starting at the level we all started with your public education and we move from here uh it's white boy winter uh gonna go with sam surridge with the fourth pick and Petar Musa with the fifth pick. Kill me. Of course.

I mean, it's just two professional goal scorer number nine's. Surridge won the Golden Boot last year. Do I have that right? Did he win or did he finish second? He won. No. Messy won. Yeah, Messy won. And Surrey and Surrey were tied on 24. This man's out of here. Oh,

we know who's going to score less goals. He's not going to be as effective. He doesn't even know who won the golden boot. That's fair. I don't pay attention to stats. I just know ball. The fact that Serge was already so good last year, and they've added Christian Espinoza, and like that's, he's going to get the playoff of that

and play off of Hany Mukhtar. I think that Nashville's going to evolve a little bit and be a little bit more dangerous with the ball. I think that suits him, and he takes penalties. You know, he won the job as the penalty taker for Nashville last year. He was, for me, a top tier pick along with the three guys you already took. Musa was on the fringe of that top tier. And the fact that he was a really good goal score last year without any real chance creation around him.

And like, please, Dallas go out and buy like a really good number 10 sometime in the next eight days. So Petter Musa could have really good chance creation around him. I don't think 23, 24 goals is out of the question for him. Though I am worried he plays really well, Dallas getting an offer, they can't refuse. Dallas is a team that does sell, right? Dallas is a team that if they did the same math we were talking about with L-AFC and Denny Buwanga, like if they got that math for Petermusa, goodbye, enjoy Europe. But that number is what, 20 million, 22?

So that's a high number that they'd have to get to make it a no-brainer. You buy the San Jose earthquakes tomorrow, and Bruce is like, need a DP forward. Do you just offer $20 million for Petter Moussa? Isn't he perfect up top next to team of earner? I tell Bruce we're using a chunk of that money to build the stadium in Hulet, Long Island, to move the team out of the Godforsaken San Jose suburbs and there. It's walking distance to downtown.

Come on. Downtown what? Downtown, San Jose, California? Oh, God. I don't think it's, I don't think it. Is it walking distance? Yeah, it is. It's all walking distance.

It's a long walk, but it's nowhere to go. It's quite a walk. If you just cross the terminal and all the, you know, where the airplaces are. So the question is, would that not be my first thing is, why don't we go? He's the one guy to go and cash for four. That's what you're saying? Yeah. Yeah.

That's why I've ruined him everywhere. Like, he's the clear guy. He's the clear of Vander now. And this is not him where Vander pushed some of it himself, where he is the best player in in MLS where it makes sense that he would move because there's not a guarantee his team can win if he plays at his peaks. And he's a player who deserves that. And I think you could probably convince him to do it. So he would be the first guy that I'd go and get. I might actually do that with my Golden Boot team and offer the team that has Pan Tamsaumusa a little bit of a deal.

But we are now back around for the first time. So Whitty, we are back to you. We are starting to, you're going to get farther and farther from Tom's guiding hand. And I'm curious how this goes. So this is the one that we had a big argument about this morning because I thought he had this guy way too low. Doyle, you mentioned it. There's a chance that Messi becomes the record breaker for assists. This Miami team, you guys have said, and I agree, is going to be better than it was last year. Hermann Bertrami scored 28 goals in all competitions last year, the best Mexican goal score. They just paid $15 million for him. He's reliable. He is durable. He has a top-level goal score. I can't see a scenario in which Hermann Bertramme does not score at least 20 goals for this Miami

side and I am picking him with our six pick. He has a history of annihilating MLS teams in Conca Cap Champions League play as well. So it's not like he's going to be surprised by anything. He says, no, it's a great pick. You are right to overrule Tom, who, for the record, does not know ball. Shocking that the Miami guy would pull Miami back into the conversation as if we had forgotten for just the half moment. And now we are back to discuss it.

I think one of the good bits that's been going on is my insistence in my own head that Bertrami is physically really tall when he is not. I've talked about it on multiple shows. Another one where I was like, five foot eight, man. Yeah, I was like, what are we doing?

He's not tall? How tall is he? He's 58 or 59. Yeah. No, stop. He's a channel runner. He's always like, and finish her. And there's like on set pieces.

He's a physical presence. Thank you. When you watch the games, because I actually commentated a few monitoring games in the last year. When you watched the games, that was pointed. That was really pointed. Yeah. I cannot.

Five eight is impossible. I literally kept saying, oh, the floor is high because at worst, he's a set piece finisher. He dominates in the air, all this stuff. And then I started getting comments and stuff. Like, what players got us talking about? YouTube on podcast stuff, all this. And I went in and looked and I was like, you know what? I'm just not going to talk about this.

I'm not going to bring it up. I'm not going to correct myself. I'm just going to leave it until this exact moment. Witty, did you get it up? He's 5-8, yeah. I mean, every place he's listed, it's 5-8. That's shocking to me. He does not play like someone who's 5-8.

Thank you. This is all I needed to hear. It's an undeniably great pick. I think if we look back at the end, this is probably the pick, like, even this late to say, like, that might have been the winning pick. Like, I truly think he's going to be a monster. If you think about a Yende in the playoffs,

and then you apply like a more pedigreed, more efficient goal score. that I'm a guy that clearly I think you know, Messi wanted. Like he's not there if Messi doesn't want him. Yeah, this is a great pick, Woody. And I'm very sad to have not taking it myself. I am going to

I'm kind of torn here, but I'm going to go with a guy I just think is going to be in it around the box a ton, get a lot of chances, has been very efficient, plays for a coach who has been known as the Center Forward Whisper in Major League Soccer. It might be a reach to go, Hugh Kuyper's. I'm going

I'm going, Hugo, with my second pick here. I just, I think the chance creation around him might be a little bit questionable to start because Guti is gone, because André Franco is hurt. I just believe that Greg Burhalter finds a way to put his number nine's in prime goal scoring positions consistently. And I think Chicago are going to take a step forward. So I'm going Kuyper's with my pick here. All right.

How worried are you going to be following the Robert Lewandowski report? then for the rest of the season. Because you don't get to swap this. Yeah, I know. The flip side of that is I've heard a lot of... I've heard a lot of Robert Lewandowski rumors over the years, and I don't expect to stop hearing them. So I'm going to be...

I'm feeling okay about it. I'm feeling okay about it. By the way, that's it... He's another guy that if you're an MLS team, and they get Robert Lewandowski, you should be cash-faring for this guy. Yeah, I was actually about to say that. I've asked a round over the past couple.

of weeks and the consensus from people I've talked to is that if Levantowski comes, then the fire will have no shortage of cash for offers within the league to sell Hugo Kuypers. And they'd be incentivized to, right? Like Kuyper's is a great, is a great forward in MLS, but like you're not going to play a 4-4-2. Greg Burhalter's not going to play a 4-4-2 with him and Levindowski atop. He's going to open up the DP slot and do some other work. potential one of the big stories of the summer but we'll see okay i'm up and i hang on yeah okay cool yeah uh just talking with my team back here as someone who works in in unison and um i am going to try not to overthink this so i'm going to go andres dryer and then with my next pick i'm going to go

honey muktar um not either of them are going to be the pure goal score on their team and didn't love watching Andres Dreyer dribble wide open from midfield to the goalie yesterday and then not figure out how to put it past the keeper, although you knew it was going to miss when he turned and waved to whoever it was to come with him for the layoff and they didn't. But I can't imagine it drops that far for him. And so I feel like it guaranteed over 15 goals at least for Andres Dreyer. And then with Honey Mukhtar, as much as Nashville might change, I think the production from Espinosa and Quasum or whoever else, else it is on the other side of creativity, it's going to fall for honey.

Like I think he's going to be higher more consistently. And I think there's going to be a ton of goals for him, even if it's not the PK goals. And he's not going to a World Cup. He's singularly at focus, as we know on Nashville. This is a team that's going to contend potentially for Shield, if not just MLS Cup. He's going to be locked in every week. My guess is he goes over 20 goals this season. So those are my next two picks.

And we would come back around to Weeby with his third pick. So you feel very confident. Before you make it, let me ask, is anybody writing these picks down? Yes. Okay, all right. I thought there's going to be a searing question about Goss's pick. So did I. Well, I feel like on the Nashville preview you did with Valer,

he was very much like going under on 40 and a half. But with Doyle going surrog early and you going honey, it feels to me like, and when he said something on the lines of like, I don't think Nashville would be happy to get goals from elsewhere. I'm like, yeah, if they still. get the same production from their two best players. Like, I just see these two guys, I mean, still the ideal is like they're both in the 20 plus zone or around it.

I think the assumption is Surge drops a couple with Espinosa joining, and they probably both land between 18 and 21, right? I appreciate it as Bogart's proxy, I'm not supposed to reference numbers, but I do find interesting that both Haney and Surridge, despite the fact that Surge finished second in the league in scoring last year underperform their XG, which would suggest that it is still an incredible chance creation mechanism that they have in Nashville. And I can't imagine that change that gets worse. I imagine that gets better with the improvements that they made in the office. I hope that Tom was not holding Theo as he was listening to that. I'm just kidding. I do think of

your Nashville with Christian Espinoza, your goal has to be to get again the most out of these two guys because I just don't think the other goal scoring options are are particularly reliable, including Espinosa, who has been more of a hot and cold goal score in this league, but a constant chance creator. This is me killing time to try to figure out who I'm taking, by the way. Are you ready? Yes, I am. I am going to take Evander.

I think if you're just going to rubber-stamp goals, to me, Avander, and I know we're still looking for it in the postseason, I think Avander is just going to be, again, a regular season monster, and I hope and I pray that he and Kevin Denke have more chemistry, this year than they did last year. And if not, maybe a change comes in the summer. And if a change comes, I guess it could be either of them because there's never a time that it seems like Evander's not flirting with Brazil. But I feel like he's just a rubber stamp 15 to 20 goal score and maybe a 20 plus if he has a productive year and they get a lot of PKs. And just so that we can kind of talk about

these guys in tandem, I'm going to honor Tom's board and pick Kevin Denke next. Shut up. He had Kevin Denkeh on this time. He actually had him higher. He had him sixth ranked on his board. So. You got a love Tom in the preseason. Tom's having his conversations.

He's getting a whole. Oh, it looks so different. Came into camp. Just a totally different person. Love that. So Denkay on 15 goals last season, you would expect him to get better, them to get better.

But we've kind of been saying that about Cincinnati and the quality of their soccer for two years now. At some point, this kind of is who they are. They're a scrappy team that knows how to win one goal games and have star players up top. But I still think that Denke will be that little bit better year over year. I am a little bit worried, though, about the market for him, too. He's another one that I could see going in the summer because he's a proven goal score in Europe.

He's a proven goal score now in MLS. And in the summer window, if someone comes in for him for $20 million as opposed to, you know, whatever Cincinnati paid, I could see him maybe going. But I've got Denke here. I think Tom kind of ruthlessly shot down the Napoli links on social media. That was fun. Physically shot them. It felt like that's the energy that came off those tweets. Dave, I have a question from a listener.

They want to know what South American country Andres Dreyer is from and whether you meant to take. I assume is it Paraguayan? Paraguay and is that Ryder? or didn't need to take Honestrier? For me, it's all the Americas. Uruguay, Patiguay, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador.

Boy, don't text, dude, I tell you what thing, don't text Doyle things that you want to stay private. Also, justice for Suriname right now who didn't get mentioned. And Belize.

I don't think Belize got mentioned. Also, like, 80% of the Caribbean, but yeah, whatever. That's not my problem. Okay. Doyle, are on to you and with the snake function of this draft, you have back-to-back picks. Yeah, I'm going to, I'm going to go with Thomas Mueller for this pick.

I, you know, I am worried about the number of games that the caps are probably going to be playing across all competitions. Now, Thomas Mueller doesn't have to worry about the World Cup midseason, but what if he did? It'd be awesome. What a moment that would be. Someone gets hurt late. He's already here. and like rides to the rescue

and actually kind of nits that German attack together. He was so awesome to watch last year. He's going to score his goals. He's going to take penalties. And he just keeps the level so high. Like they're always going to get chances. So I just think it makes sense to bet on him

even though I am worried about the age and the workload and the travel. And then I'm going, this is kind of a hit in a hope for me because there are so many known and unknown unknowns around this player about Wesum Abu Ali with my next

pick. I'm doing this just like to pain David. I just want to cause you distress. Yes. Did you see the Columbus crew jersey release video? I didn't. They did that thing, that trend where like a partner speaks to the camera and is like

my partner's going to tell you about this like nerd thing they like and you're going to be nice about it. And they did it with Stephen Morair and Wessem Abu Ali. So Marrera's in the camera being like, he's going to tell you about the crew jersey. You're going to be nice about it and you're going to like it. And then Wessam comes up like really shy and he's like, we have new sleeves. They're yellow. And like Stephen Marreras in the back being like, yeah, that's cool. That's cool. And it was so good. And I don't know, those guys are played together for six months. If them the vibes, I'm here. Yeah. All right. I like it.

Yeah, feeling better about that pick. Nice. We are now back to Witty. And Witty, I do have a question because we talked about this on soccer wise last week with Jordan. But in like, of Tom naming his child after either Theo Corbino or Theo Baer or Theo Hernandez or Teo Hernandez or Teo Hernandez are you required to draft them now and if so uh is Theo Bear's Swiss goals coming I'm saving Theo Corbinu for the last round if it comes to that I'm casual pronunciation from Woody just to correct it's also how you correctly it's how you correctly pronounce this last name you don't bring attention you just you know you just just do it.

You just guide in that direction. Okay. So this is, again, another one. And I was, this is, this led to a raging argument between Tom and myself this morning. Why wasn't this a podcast? So I said, you have Thomas Mueller ranked way too low. I said, I, I would have put him, I had him seventh on my board. So I was very mad about this.

And he had, he proffered a wager where he said, I will wager. And I'm, as an MLS employee, we're not allowed to bet on it. So it's just a handshake and some pride. but the wager is Brian White will score more goals than Thomas Mueller. Okay. And so in honor of Tom and in honor of his board and his wishes, I am taking the New Jersey Mario Gomez.

Brian White is my pick in the fourth round of the Golden Boot Draft. This is how it's going to be, how we? I disagree with the logic, but I have to honor Tom. So I strongly consider taking Brian White with one of my last few picks. Let's talk about the fact that you started this, saying white boy summer and then you didn't draft the guy who's name and Brian white has historically been like his guy his like oh yeah you know this is the glitmaster guy you can go get witty is just tearing my heart out i moved on to wasam abu ali now like this is this is where i'm

going this is the direction i've gone in but no white's a great pick because but he had 16 goals in like 1,600 minutes last year yeah he's the opposite of bertha rame and and uh son in that he doesn't really tend to overperform his underlying numbers but he's just a machine at finding those chances. And you put him at the point of an attack with Thomas Mueller and Kenji Cabrera and Emmanuel Sab. Like, he's going to score goals if he plays, man. That's a hell of a drop there.

The Kenji Cabrera being like off the jump. Okay. All right. I enjoyed him too. Awesome. I enjoyed him too. And I am very frustrated. How do you pronounce the name of the centerback who joined Vancouver laid on and unfortunately

got roasted in MLS Cup? I honestly don't know who you're talking about. Is it poop? Is it pop? Is it pop? I can't see. Here, I'll get you some spelling here, but clearly we don't have the, I thought we'd have some expertise on this. But, you know, listen, I like, you just went poop.

Just, just, you know, this is, this is one of those things, though, where because I went to MLS Cup, I, like, it. it's hard sometimes to get the details of to remember what happened in the game Juddrick poop Yeah probably used poop Okay cool Played like it in that game Oh he's out on loan

I can tell on the evidence of the first person To laugh that Weeby is the one with kids Yeah I mean we literally I taught my 5 year old how to spell poop the other day So we're you know This is right in the good parenting Right in the downstream for me

Weeby we are up to you God, you're killing me. You're killing me, Witte. I'm like praying that you will not take the guys that you keep taking. You know, it's this is sort of a, it's a flyer bet, but I really think Ezekiel Ponzi. No, I'm just kidding. You know, some of these guys are attractive, but play on teams that I just cannot trust in any, any way. I'm of the opinion that based off the list that Tom has, this is the point at which the draft falls off into. a different stratosphere. Yeah. Yeah, it does. I just, I had tier ones. My last tier one available was Brian White. There's one name that fascinates me the most, which I cannot wait to see where it feels. I have two. I have two more that are interesting. Okay. I have one. I feel like right now you cannot

take interesting. I feel like right now in the draft, you still need to take guys that you feel strongly. I don't know about that. 15 plus goal score like mark them down. All right. Maybe you got me a Wartino Heda is going to be my pick. I don't... Whoa. I just, I think he's a guy that's going to continue to be really productive for Orlando, and I like what they've done in the offseason. So I'm going to go Martino Heda with my pick.

I just, I think he's 15 goals. Mark it down. Okay. I am the next pick, and I have two back to back. So I don't know if this follows what we be said. There's a little risk in here. I'm going to take Diego Rossi with my first pick. I've taken him pretty much every.

every year. It's like 15 guaranteed. And then I'm going to take Eidon, Toklamati. Ah, interesting. Like it. Someone has to be the goal scorer on that team. I think Zaha's number will come up. I don't know where BL starts and how it all looks 100% of the time. But he scored last year. My assumption is he improves and gets more comfortable.

And I think there's a lot of chance creation for him. I don't think he's going anywhere this year as well. So that was over where I had him listed, but I wanted to take a gamble with one of these two before I have to wait six picks for you two, for you three to come back to me. I had the Charlotte game when it looked clear that Ajumang was going to go. And I think there was a little bit of, is he going to take this on? But then he went on a pretty good scoring run as soon as Ajimang left. The only thing that scares me a little bit is that you look at the run into the season.

He had one goal in their last seven games. And I can see Charlotte looking at the summer window as a chance. to go get some maybe but they didn't do it in the offseason which is where he has the first half of the season to establish that he's the guy and i know tom probably has archie goodwin pretty high on the list for you i mean archie goodwin's been starting over him in preseason yeah he's i like him but my guess will be i just made that i just made your whole house i just wanted you i was like you could see if you could easily there's no one who could possibly have corrected you on that the goss the goss house does like archie goodwin can confirm that's a household

Prevance. Was that one of the messages that I sent? I don't even remember anymore. Weeby says that when my wife says, oh, so-and-so is hot, and then I have to text it to the group. I mean, to be fair, Archie Goodwin is a very good-looking game man, but I digress. As is Edon took a lot. Shout out to Edon. Have that confidence. Come on. Walk with tall shoulders. Maybe you'd look 6-5, 6-6 compared to Bertrami. Weeby, you are up. Considering how much you struggled over the last one, I'm looking forward to the time. Yeah, yeah. This is another one where I'm, I put it in sort of an category, but I feel like I have to do it just in terms of goals.

I would take Eric Chupo Moting. Again, just a guy I think is going to find his way into 15-ish goals for Michael Bradley. But I'm very curious to see what the stylistic change looks like and how it affects, in particular, Forsberg, and then through Forsberg, the chance creation that gets the Chupon Moting. So not a pick that I'm like in love with, but we're just trying to rack up the goals here. I feel pretty safe in saying the stylistic change won't happen more than it will. So just throwing that out there. Whitty, you are up next.

Should I put Theo Baer down on this one or you want to keep holding? No. Okay. So this is one where this is not in a ranking on Tom's list, so it's kind of like make a decision. And I'm kind of in the Ugg versus fun debate. And I do generally prefer a kind of risky pick. I'm going to go for upside and ceiling here and take Timo Werner. That's the one I've been waiting on.

I had no idea where people would land on it. What's the number that you're hoping for? I mean, here's the thing, is that over the last few years in Europe, he has been a disaster from a goal scoring standpoint. It really almost seems like that one season where he hit for, I think it was 28 in the Bundesliga, yeah, that was 1920. That was five years ago. That is a long old time.

The whole COVID battle, think about how much the world has changed since Timo Verner hit that. And he has not hit double digit since. Obviously, that is Chelsea. That's Leipzig. That's Spurs. But at the same time, I think that in MLS in the setup, you imagine that Bruce doesn't just go out and get Timo Verner as, oh, hey, someone called about Timo Verner. What do you think? No, he has an idea of how he's going to use him.

I can see him hitting out in transition. So I am probably looking for like 16 from him. in sort of an ideal scenario. But this is definitely a risk as opposed to other people you could have taken. Yeah. I think the opportunity there is huge. And that was the one as you were doing your, I don't know, one of your rant we recently on this round. I thought that's where you were going to lean.

And this was the one that I was probably most curious about where it would fall for everyone. Doyle, you're pretty high on him, right? We talked about it a little, I think, this week. I am. I don't know why. I mean, like I've seen the numbers too and they're not great. but I just, it feels, it feels like it's going to work. It's just vibes.

I have no idea. I can't really justify it, but I just think it's going to work. Okay. And you are up now. You get two picks back to back. Okay. So when I'm saying players who were interesting, I meant Diego Rossi,

and I was a little bit bummed that you took him. Yes, I made Doyle sad for the second time this week after the Knicks. Somehow we're victorious over the second place. team in the Eastern Conference. Continue. I enjoyed the Knicks game last night. Yeah, so did I. I have two second tier forwards left, but they're from the two worst teams in the league. Prince of Wusu, come on down.

Actually, Tyonio. Ty Baribo. Oh, Ty Barribo. Come on down. I do think that he makes sense in a pressing scheme, and I believe that that's what's happening for DC right now. he's a consistent goal score like even when he goes in a slump it's still like a goal every 200 minutes over the course of two months and then he'll get red hot and he'll score you know six goals and eight games um i feel like anywhere from 12 to 15 seems really reasonable for him and then my next pick i'm going down a tier um and this is this is a hit and a hope um Emmanuel Lathay Lath okay down it one tier. I've been waiting.

It's like when you're in the, you're waiting for your, you're like, where's it going to drop? Can I sneak in and get Latte Laoth late? He was my late round. Maybe everybody forgets about him. Here's Tata. Like the upside is clearly there,

but it could completely flop. I think that's a pretty darn good pick, Doyle. I think he's not a late round pick because he got picked in the sixth round, so you weren't even close on that. Well, I was hoping that you guys would ignore him, but no, Doyle was, of course, right there.

The parenthetical note on Tom's list, is he can't be this bad, right? So I completely understand what you're coming. But like Tata has to make them not just better, but in order of magnitude, better. I guess the only thing that could happen here is there should be a resale market, even if it is at a discount, back to the championship.

Because if you are a proven goal score in that league, people will come back around and say, well, okay, maybe it didn't work out for a MLS, but he's a proven championship goal score. So maybe he gets sold. and Tata gets to center forward that he wants maybe in the summer. But I tend to agree with the idea that there is real rehab coming for the attackers of all stripes for Atlanta. Okay.

We're up to you, Woody. Does that mean Marnich is the next pick? No, I mentioned him earlier. I thought Doyle was going to take him on the bend. I'm taking Dejan Yovalich. And I know because when you mentioned strikers. That was a little other one. When you're strikers that are on bad teams.

I thought it was going to be Prince of Wusu and Dea Yan Yovalich out of it. But the thing is that Yovalich, there was a terrible team last year. He scored 18 goals. And he's automatic from the penalty spot as well. So you imagine he's on penalties again. It's just such a low floor, even for a team that's terrible. Right now, they could get better by the time we get to the summer. His line to me at media marketing was, I said to myself last summer, if I hit double-digit goals, I'm the greatest goal scorer in the world. And I did. That was literally what he said to me. Honestly, it would be a repeat this year because they've not gotten better as yet.

But yeah, Yovalich for me at 18 goals, really impressive. You imagine he's consistent. You imagine he starts. So I'll take him here. Okay. Weeps? My personal nemesis, Chris Whittingham, out here just, you know, sitting. I got on deck circle packed and then all these guys is getting taken.

I think, you know, we talked about different drop-offs and different moments in the draft. I think we've now hit a point where you are truly in a, like, you know, these are swing for the fences guys where it could come up empty. I'm going to go to the guy that I believe strongly for sure, no matter what we'll get 10. And I think I could get a lot this year. I'm going to go Joseph Pencil for the Galaxy. I just, I don't see a lot of guarantees up and down the list from here on now. And I think Paynezel is a guarantee for double digits. So I'm going to go Pencil.

That was another rumor that I'm ruthlessly crushed. on Twitter, I think it was. And then Fab Romano like doubled down on it as well because there's there's this new website that's just like making up transfer rumors. And Tom is incensed by them. He's so angry at it. We're actually really happy for Tom. He's had a child.

He's, you know, changed. His heart has grown. He feels the warmth. He's in the baby bubble right now. And he is just murking. Still angry about aggregation. There are things that will never change about Tom and that is one of them. Okay, I'm going to do something here, which I'm annoyed about already, but I'm going to do it anyway,

which is picking down on teams without having picked the first player off another team. I had the same thought as Weeby, but on a different side. So I'm going to go Gabriel Peck. I think that a decent chunk of the Tommy Klaus production is going to be to get Peck back into transition moments where he kills a guy's soul on that last touch and then it comes inside and scores. So I'm going peck with my first pick here. And now I'm also still off in a little bit in No Man's Land. I'm going to go with.

I probably have too much confidence in this. I also feel like I haven't picked enough center forwards. I'm going to go Christopher Velt. He is my like Goss theorem preseason pick right now. Is he a center forward? He's a left singer. I'm saying I have picked too many of these goal scoring wide guys. Sorry, my headphones are going out.

I just missed the eye. Sure. But everything I saw last year is Buhanga, year one type stuff of like he gets where he wants and he did it not knowing the league. And so now he does if he can just finish them. And I also don't know who's the locked in goal score. Obviously, Cabecito has been released, won't be able to come back. So there's an opening there for them to go out and spend some big money if they want to on a goal score. I still don't think that fully affects him.

I feel like a floor of 12 to 15 goals feels pretty safe with him. which brings us back around. I like to pick. Watching him in person in the playoffs, you could see that he had, he had an ability to separate that you don't see from a lot of guys. And I think Bawanga is a pretty apt comparison

in that sense. Now, there's a difference between starting slow and doing what Bwanga is done, but I'll like that pick for you. And I'm always a sucker for someone who can separate anytime they want. Okay, Weaves, we're back around to you in round seven. I'd like to say,

congrats to us. We actually got through more than half the draft in 55 minutes. So I'm actually pretty impressed. Yeah. You know, I want to take Prince Ousu, but I just don't trust Montreal not to fire sale this thing. Like, I just don't trust him. And maybe it could be within the league. It feels like probably where they could get a decent chunk of change for him. But I just, I don't trust it to happen. So I can't go out on that, on that cliff just yet. The funniest scenario is TFC fails on sergeant and pays for Prince of Wisu to fill that.

That's a funny scenario that can have. It's a believable scenario. Yeah. It's a very believable scenario. I'm going to go, this is going to be a hit in hope. And I have them in week two, I believe. I'm going to be in Salt Lake for Salt Lake Seattle. Oh, yes.

I'm just going to, you know what? I just want some vibes out of here. I'm just going to go a little Morgan Gila Vogi. Let me get a little Morgan Gila Vogi. Just because I like saying his name. And, you know, why not? Why not? I literally wrote R.S.L question mark in my list of, as I put picks together,

of like, am I really going to take someone off this team? Why not? Just going to make it more fun for me. Great. You probably throw it's like, he's going to high ceiling one. He's going to David Sopsy. So I think it's high ceiling. I think that could be an interesting one.

I'm also going one where I just sort of trust the club. I trust their succession planning. I see them a fair bit as well, and I just trust that this team will get some kind of goal scoring. Bruno Damiani. I got back guys. Dang it. Bruno Damiani.

I think with the changes that they have in center forward, he's got to be the guy. There have been plenty of players for Philly that were previously kind of role players and then stepped up into bigger roles and have done it well. So I think he's going to be, you know, he's their record signing or they're, at least it was their record signing. And I can see him stepping up into a role.

Plus, they're away in D.C. in week one. So I just want to see. You have three goals guaranteed. I'm calling that game. So I'm just kind of, I'm sort of hoping to transmit the vibes to him in person.

All right, Doyle, you have back-to-back picks now as we finish out the seventh round and begin the eighth round of 10. And then we'll get to our defender pick. All right. I'm going to finish out the seventh round by taking Tadeo Aende. I don't think he's going to continue.

like he did in last year's playoffs, but he certainly did seem to to break the seal. Is the line 80 and a half goals over or under? Is that literally every MLS record? I think he's a starter, though. And, you know, he's, he has some chemistry with Messi that is impossible to ignore. So there he is. I'm stalling for time.

I kind of want the next pick to be. I will say I had him, I had him up as my next pick, which was the team's going to score a million goals. He's going to play every game, and he will probably play center forward and wide, so therefore, there's a lot there. So I don't think it's a crazy pick. And I was surprised that it got past Whitty as many times as it did. I'm going to stay out wide, and I'm going to pick Phillips Inchernoggle.

I don't think he's going to do as much as he did last year, but clearly a really good player knows how to pick his spots in the box. You know, knows where the goal is. I don't love this. There's a couple of different center forwards that I almost would rather have picked, but one of them might be sold and the other might not be a starter. So, like, I got to go with. I will say, though, I do think the defense of your pick is what Weby mentioned earlier, which is that Gutierrez is out and that André Franco is out.

So in theory, he has more on his shoulders, at least in this first part of the season. So if they're going to get a secondary goal score, it'd kind of have to be him, wouldn't it? Unless it's Bomba. Yeah. But I think it's actually Bomba who's going to be. dropping in deeper and becoming more of a playmaker, right? Like, he's going to pinch in and drop deep and pick up those half spaces and try to play in

Kuyper's and, and Zincere Noggle. And then, of course, Goutman coming up the left. So I don't know. I'm obviously uneasy with it, but that's where we are in the draft. All right. We are up to, we're back to Whitty. I feel like we're at that point in a fantasy draft where you just look at like an NFL fantasy draft.

It's like, am I really going to take 36-year-old key? Keenan Allen. It seems like he could get me like 800 yards and four touchdowns. It's either name you know or tight end you draft every year. Right. Exactly. And this is the one that you guys have been avoiding for two rounds. So I'll just do it. And to be fair to Tom Boger, he included an XG related statistic in defending this pick. Paranthetically, 13G last year, sixth in MLS in non-Penn XG. It's Prince of Wusu. I'm going to be there who takes the, I would say, boring it's a good pick. It's a good pick. And Kaelin will watch over it well because Kailen will be in Montreal as much as possible.

That's actually, this is justice. This is the way that it should have. It's the way the pitch. I'm reading the live Google Doc of the Picks. Your spelling of a wusu is probably about as good as your pronunciation. I know. In other areas. The annoying part is on all the other ones.

It's a Google Doc where this is happening live? What? I had Googled and then pasted all the other names and I just didn't do it yet. And I just didn't do it yet. And I knew the moment you started talking. That's what it's going. Okay. Are we in that?

We're in the eighth round right now? Nine. Yeah. Oh, sorry, eighth. Yes. Eighth. Okay. So I'm just making sure that I, what I got here.

Okay. Can I just, can I just pause it out loud? Like, is Joe Klaus for, he's a D. For sure, the starter. But do I want to go double on the LA Galaxy is the question I ask myself? Probably not. This is going to be one that I'm going to go for fun because I want to own it. And I want to be the guy that's,

defending it and defending him because of a past history I have of the fan base. You know what? Fekundo Torres, come on down, brother. Come on down. I know that you're, I know that you're not, you're not well rated by the underlying numbers, but come on. The game is not totally gone. We're taking a goal score. I don't trust Austin to be a consistently potent chance creation team, but somebody has got to be the one. And Fekundo just seems to have a touch in him in the last. He had 14 his last two seasons. I know different team, different situation. A lot of penalties.

Eighth round, I will take a guy who looks like a double-digit goal score. This is absolutely, like, he could have gone two-round sire, and it would have been fine. Even though I don't like the build that Austin has overall, Faku Torres is going to score 10 to 14 goals, and he's going to be fine. It's just my issue with Austin is like, they need someone who could be the orchestrator of all of it. They still don't have that. So it's more, the criticism of the Faku signing was just like, he's a good player, not necessarily what they needed.

They don't have Amrero is what you're saying. Like, because if you think about what he did in MLS, it was always with that Oscar, like, true orchestrator. But here we go. I would say it's disrespectful to Jane Nelson, but that was the words you guys chose to use. So I'm just going to leave it there. Okay, I'm swinging us back around. I'm going to start with Emil Forsberg. I think similar to the FACU stuff, it feels like a floor of 10.

If there's any addition and quality and attack, maybe he gets a couple easier goals as well, and maybe it bumps up to 15. So I'm going to start with Emil Forsberg. And then my next pick, it's a shot in the dark. I am on actively trying to pick the name on the team. I got a little confidence that the attack will come up around Carlos Heel. I'm not going to pick Heel as the goal score. I'm going to respect my family and be allowed back in the house.

I'm going to pick good Jewish boy and Dor Tugerman as my next pick up top alongside Carlos Hill. I would like to pick Leo Campania. I don't know how many games he'd play. Same, man. I don't know what league he'll play in. I don't know if he'll go to the World Cup. There are so many unknowns, but there's a couple teams that no one's been picked off of where, well, they will score goals. And I actually do think the Ravs have a decent chance at bouncing back up this season.

And so I wanted a little, you know, I just want a little percentage of that, a little taste of that. I like it. Yeah, I like it. And now we're back to you, Weeby. Okay. I'm going to take it to go to my week two match up. And I'm surprised he's lasted this long, to be honest. And he played 750 minutes last year, scored five goals, has a history of being a double-digit goal score. I'm going to take Jordan Morris. Boom.

I just think it's easy money. I don't think that Musovsky is going to have the same year this year that he had last year and he won't have the same opportunities, probably crucially, so I'm going to go J-mo. It's all off health with him, right? Yeah. That's like the whole worry. Yep. Okay.

Whitty, we are back around to you. Yeah, I'm just kind of looking around the board and see if there's like anything that maybe I'm missing, but I don't think so. I don't think there's any shots left to take. I'll just kind of go solid here and go for PEPBL. Ten goals last year. It got hurt in the stretch run. I imagine it will still kind of be the game going through him, even though he's number

10. You're not drafting a high ceiling, but I think I'm getting a lot. low floor here. You'll get at least nine or ten and maybe more. So I'll go for Pepiel here. All right. And to close out the ninth round and start our final round of normal players and then we're into defenders,

we have Matt Doyle. Yeah, this is tough. Because I think this guy might end up getting sold, but I got to do it. Rafah Navarro from the Rapids. I think he's a 12 to 14 goal score if he's here the full year. If he's not, then I'm

lucky to get five or he might be sold in like the next three weeks. The Brazilian. Who else would you take? So if let's say let's take and can I do a Hoff and Avahu on this one or is Whittie going to correct me for trying to correct you and then we're in a loophole? If he goes, like who else? Are you talking about Darren Yappy, Dante. Donovan, Donovan Philippe.

Okay. The best number nine in college soccer last year. Respect. No, I don't know. I thought Darren Yappy looked really good down the stretch last year. I thought he looked really, really good. Started making those hard near-post center-forward runs, which weren't really a part of his game.

I would not be overly concerned if I were a Rapids fan and Navarro got sold tomorrow because I think Darren Yappy is ready. For me, though, if Rapa Navarro gets sold tomorrow, then I'm fucked. So with my final pick, I'm going to pick. Take, Zhao Klaus. I do think that he's going to be a starter and DP for the Galaxy, and I think they'll create some chances.

It probably won't score more than a dozen goals, but it's 10th round, man. Give me those. That's fine. Yeah, for sure. For sure. I was supposed to do this last round, but I've been sent a statement by Tom Bogart,

and it says, Joss Sergeant slash Toronto DP number nine, and if they try not to let you, this is in all caps, by the way. And if they try not to let you, just stick to, Tom told me to, take it up with him. I have no further comment on the matter. So Josh Sargent slash Toronto DP number nine.

So this is where your level of power is being tested, Dave. Like, are you really in charge or not? Well, as always, it's a democracy, right? And I believe in collectivism. And I'm going to start continuing using buzz phrases. What I would say is he's allowed to pick Josh Sergeant. But if it doesn't happen. And I will allow him to pick DP.

number nine if it has to be voted on by a majority that that signing when it happens is actually considered the DP number nine that he was talking about. Because if you remember with Portland, he said it, it was Jonathan Rodriguez who played on the wing and he wanted to claim it. And he continued to say, no, that's not the number nine. And then at the end of the year, he wanted 12 goals from Jonathan Rodriguez to boost his numbers. And that's not how it works. So do we all agree on those terms. I feel like unnamed DP-9 is cheating. Like, I feel like that's, I feel like that's, that's off the board.

He's working with insider information that's not available to the rest of us. I think if he said Josh Sargent, I think if he said Josh Sargent, okay, I could, I could get down with that. Yeah, I'm officially logging a protest. You, you, you pick Josh Sargent or you pick nothing here. don't get, you don't get to, player to be named later. Yeah, yeah.

Okay. I'm sort of in a picklehood because I think I would agree with you guys, but I'm also here on behalf of Tom. So I have to maintain the stance that it should be the DP number nine for Toronto FC, but. I look forward to the moment Tom listens to this and the group chat just turns into a fireball. Yeah, it's going to be a disaster. It's going to be a disaster. But yeah, I'll stick with it.

And I'll let you guys argue the case over weeks to come because... Fair enough. Unless I get to join this group chat where I get to be part of the argument. We can create a golden boot draft. We'll make sure that Producent is not a part of it as obviously, a former owner who's now running his minor league baseball team out of the back of a casino. Okay, so that pick sits where it sits. We'll figure it out later, I guess.

Weeby, your final pick of the draft. So I have two guys, and it's none of it's all that attractive to me, It's sort of just like, oh, this could be fun to follow. One is, listen, Ezekiel Ponzié did score 10 goals last year, and he did not have the attacking support that he has this year in Bogush and Guillermo. So that one is attractive. And then, like, I don't know what the Hamas experiment is going to end up looking like. But Kelvin Yaboa did have nine last year and has hurt a lot.

Maybe he's the one who benefits. So both of these are sort of like shot in the dark options. The question is, who do I trust more? Who do I want to root for more? What do I want to watch more? You know what? I had a delightful conversation with Kelvin Yaboah in the playoffs. We're going Kelvin Yboa, and we're just getting a little bit.

We're getting a little bit to your point, Dave, about just having a little something, something on the line with Minnesota United. Give me Kelvin Yboa to get double digits. That was actually going. Definitely the more fun pick. Definitely the more fun pick. Yes, 100%. That was actually going to be my pick.

And I was going to say, you can always come home. Well, let's see. Ezekiel Ponce is right there for you, bud. He is. So one of the names that I have floating here is Mateo Silvetti. I think he will score a lot of goals. I think he's going to be really special, and he can play across the front three.

But I don't want to be the ninth guy on Miami. And I could be missing something, but no one has taken Marco Poscelage, right? No, that's true. That's true. He had 12 goals last year on 8xG. Some of it is like long-distance shooting stuff, but if they don't get the number nine in,

it's him and Duncan McGuire to finish off chances. So I have belief that my floor there is at least eight to ten goals, which I'll take in the 10th round, and continues pretty much my team of entirely attacking wide players in this Golden Boot draft, which I hope the rest of MLS is following my trend as well. Okay, so we are now into the final round of this draft, which will be a defender. I am going to be, as I always am,

a generous leader. So I'm going to let Doyle start and we'll go in reverse order into this last round, also because I hadn't screwed the finger yet. So I, you know. What is our, what is our honest take on wingbacks?

I'm fine with it. I don't know. The issue is at the end of the year, I don't know how to say, oh, they actually switch formations and they didn't play in it. So the floor is open right now. So I think, I agree.

But I think you probably, it's very rare that, they're going to go up to a winger, like a true winger. If it is in a five and they are playing a wingback, I think we can allow it. But you might not have to get a transfer market and just see where their goals were scored based on formation. Afterwards, after the season?

Yeah. Do you like, do video tracking. The other option is we- Go back and watch every goal and every defender in the league is scored and figure out what positions they were in when they scored it. The other option is we just do- If any group would. We just do majority rules.

And after each pick, the rest of us vote, if we think that person's considered. That sounds perfect. Anthony Marcanic. I knew that was going to be the pick. I knew that's what he was asking for. I don't know why you gave. I don't know why you were kind and gave him that pick.

I just don't. Because I am generous. That was a one season wonder, wasn't it? He's not going to score like that again, right? I don't think it'll be like that, but he clearly just has a nose for the second ball. Even if it's cut in half and he gets four or five, like that's still a winning pick for sure.

It is still more than I think most of us got from our defender's last year. Okay, so that's our first defender pick, and Minnesota comes off the board late with basically the last two picks of the draft, and we are now up to Whitty. I don't know that Tom gave you a list of defenders. No, no, I just had to put together one off off FB refs sorting by last year's goal scores. Unfortunately, Jordi Alba is off the boards, I'll take him off. That's tough. The next highest goal scoring defender then was Matias Laborda, so I guess I'll go with, he scored five last year for Vancouver. So I will go with him just purely based off of last season's numbers. Okay.

Incredible. Incredible hops and timing. Like if you watch this guy, he's just like, he, he's one of the best in the league like tracking the flight of any kind of service. Great pick. We now on to Weeby. Yeah. So it's, I mean, listen, there's no point in like hiding our intent at this point.

Probably a player on the crew could be a good one coming out of wingback. if we think that's how they're going to play. Do we consider Max Arfston a defender? I vote yes. He starts in fullback for the national side, so I would say this. Yeah, I'll be okay with that. Okay. How many leaving is going to score for Middlesbrough, wee?

Well, I mean, if he gets sold, listen, if he gets sold, that means he's probably scoring. I know it's only 15 games to get there. Thank you for helping me with my research that I then forgot about. Which team in the championship that starts with a B is going to sign him? Yeah, 100%. So Walker Zumerman, I feel like is one that jumps up to me.

I just don't know about minutes on him. But Toronto doesn't feel like they have a reliable way to score goals generally. So there's that one. I think Guillermo Biro is another one that could be big here. I'm just going to go, I'm going to go Max Harvesting because this is all bonus anyway and just hope that he has a heater before the World Cup. And I want to root for him. So, yeah, we'll go vibes.

I hope he stinks before the World Cup, but then has a heater at the World Cup. Yeah, listen, to be fair, I would also take that. So I'm not going to feel this. World Cup goals count, don't count. But how do we feel about that? They do not. We should discuss that.

Maybe that should be the tiebreaker. No, God. Expected goals in the World Cup for each team. Why don't we do, why don't we do dribbles completely? Says the guy who has messy. The guy who has messy. Yes, yes, we should count the World Cup. We should do that.

Okay, I Off the top of my head, I do think Walker is an interesting one. I like Echinique I like I like the addition of Brian Ramirez those are two that popped in my head as well And but I'm gonna go I believe in the Energy of Ace Ache Ache bringing back the best of Griffin Dorsey. I think it's the chakra he makes I think it's the vortex that creates the greatest reality for that creates the greatest reality for for him and I'm back on Houston baby I'm all in I probably should have drafted six more Houston players but I finished with Griffin Dorsey do we have any vetoes on any of the defenders

people voted no could you check under your desk real quick just are you barefoot right now I'm not wearing shoes I swear you I'm not wearing shoes right now I'm grounded and I'm ready to I got a got a lot the Houston defender with the highest upside that'd be Felipe Andrade he scored four goals last year so yeah okay witty and your numbers get over Boom. Yes, the highest upside for good times. And that's the part that I'm looking for. Every single goal, Griffin Dorsey scores this year, I am going to be spamming.

It's the best part about this draft, by the way, is it just gives you stakes in something completely random. And it's wonderful. Okay. On that, let me give you the readoffs of your teams, pronounced however I choose, and then you can give your first reaction. Weeby, we have Sonny, Hugo Kuyper's, Evander, Martino Heda, Maxim Chupu, Moting, Painstil, Morgan, what'd we say, Gula Vugi, Fuku, I believe. Faku Torres, Jordan Morris, Kelvin Yaboa, and Max Arfston. That is your 2026.

I feel great about that team. Okay. The combination of Tom Bogart, Kailen Carr, and Chris Whittingham has fused together to create Denny Buonga, Hermann Burturame, Kevin Denkeh. Good job by you. Brian White, Timo Verner, Dejan Yoval. Bruno Damiani, Prince Ousu, Pepi L. An unknown 10th pick that is currently named Josh Sargent,

and if not, will be a Cass ruling that will take 16 to 18 months, and we will come back and retroactively award goals, and Matthias Laborda as the final pick. Whittie, your first time here? How did it feel? It was great. I was really looking forward to this. This is one of my favorite pods of the year to listen to.

So to be able to participate is even better. Now you're in an hour and a half. It's your whole time. Yeah. No, no. Every time I see one of these guys, in person. I'm going to be like, come on. I need you today. Nice. I need Damiani in week one. And to Tom and Kalin, who weren't here, I just want you to know we didn't miss you. And I will be

sending Witty the direct direct invite next year so that we don't have to deal with either. I actually, you know, I think this, that we've, we've landed upon something here with, with Witty. I'll tell you, I'll tell you, if, if I was drafting, Thomas Mooler would be in the team. Thomas Mooloole would be in the team. I think our best case scenario is to have. have all of them come next year and draft as one team and just listen to the just have us bickering for 70% of the episode exactly because you drop the pod where they make the decisions and then like drop it in afterwards I take that one yeah that will be our patreon add on on the backside of it and then Matt doyle you have

sam surge pet armusa thomas muller wessem abu ali tai barribo immanuel latte lath todayo iende philip zinkernagal hafa navajo gow clouse and anthony Marketic. It's a good team. I started out real white bread, but then added some spice as the draft went along. I feel like that's a team with not a lot of floor. Doyle. I feel like you did a good job. Yeah, he has the highest variance. Yeah, yeah. I feel like I feel like you're probably going to get a good good amount at all of them. The run of Baribo, Latte, Loth, Iende, and Zinkernagel into Haff and Navajo of like half these guys may not be on their team. The other half may not start. Some might not score or you've got three 20 goal scores in that.

You ever been like on a hot crap stable? Like that's all I'm hoping for right here. So and finally the winning team is Leo Messi, Andres Dreyer, Honey Mukhtar. It's my team, I get to say it how I want. Diego Rossi, I don't talk Lamari, Gabrielle Peck, Christopher Velt, Emil Forsberg, Dor Tugerman, Marco Possilich, and Griffin Dorsey.

The vibes are high. And I'm excited for this season. All right. Thank you to all of you for joining me. To everyone who made it through this, thank you for listening. We've got some more preview action coming for you. So we have a preview of every single team with a local podcast that we've been doing. Some of the videos are already up on YouTube. The first podcast episodes are out.

We had two on the end of the show on Monday. We had a standalone episode we put out on Tuesday. So we've already hit Austin, Charlotte, Minnesota, I believe Nashville, and San Diego. And those are all out there. We have more coming. and we'll have our predictions coming up as well. So standings, predictions, Best 11s, awards, all that type of stuff. We might have to have some of you back to do all of that.

And I had fun, guys. So thank you for being here. Thank you for joining me. Thank you to all of you for listening. And we'll talk to you again very, very soon.