SoccerWise - LAFC Club World Cup Hopes, USOC Round Of 32 Preview & MLS Top Takeaways

Episode Date: May 6, 2025

Tommy Scoops is back with a vengeance ready to dive into all the biggest MLS talk like Mikal Bridges defending a last second shot. Gass and Tom dig into LAFC's Club World Cup hopes being brought back, your big questions from the MLS weekend, and of course an incredible upcoming round of USOC with some big Cupset potential.11:20 LAFC Club World Cup Play In Chance26:30 MLS Weekend Takeaways26:50 Austin FC Offensive Struggles31:15 Philly Center Mid Strength35:20 Revs Formation Change Success40:00 Top Homegrown Breakthroughs So Far In 202547:35 Vanney & LAG Struggles55:25 USOC Round Of 32 Preview1:05:48 Ice Cream Shop On KDB, Mueller & Some Homegrown Signings Soccerwise Live 2pm ET Every Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday on Youtube/Twitch/Twitter

What is up everybody? Welcome back to SoccerWise. Tommy Scoops. David Goss with you on the brightest of days. The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, bing-bong baby. It's three right there. It is three. The hands on fire. Of course, this is a show about Major League Soccer. It's a show about US Open Cup. It's a show about, I guess, Kevin De Bruyne for the nine millionth time. But first and foremost, it's a show about the warriors at the gates, keeping all of us safe from the evil demons on the other side. I'm talking about Mikhail Bridges and Oji Ananovi. Justice has been served for at least one day. I've said to Doyle, our good friend, and I'll give him credit, he tried to fight the good

fight and try to troll us it was like Fabio Cannavaro and Gigi Buffon at the 2006 World Cup levels of stopping every attempted bit I was I said I was like I don't care if we if the Knicks end up losing for one to five games a series I was like I promise you I'm going to be insufferable for that one the fact that it's game one, watch out. Can't tell us anything. Can't tell us anything until this series is over in any direction.

I've just been walking around like the three fingers, just like Brunson. Oh my goodness. One of my dearest friends is getting married this week. Here in Miami, by coincidence, his fiance is from Miami area, and I went to college with him. He's Massachusetts, born and bred,

Celtics are his everything, as well as many of the people he invited to the wedding. And I told you earlier today, I think there's a decent chance I get uninvited to this wedding. I do not care. I want him to have all the happiness in the world. I am so excited for him and his fiance.

But you better believe that McHale Bridges on this day, in this house, he is a god. That man is a hero and we don't say bad things. Goss, Goss, can we do a little role playing here? I want to set the scene for you. When your friend is at the altar in a beautiful moment and the officiant says, does anybody in the crowd, anything that they want to say, speak now forever, hold your peace, what are you going to say? I think I would probably stand up and say, is this true love or is it like Jason Tatum

where it's only when it's going well and only when it's easy, does it matter to you? And otherwise you drop your shoulders, you don't care, and you let OG dunk it on your dome. Is that what we're talking about? Because if that's what we're talking about, that's not true love, you know what I mean? That's not what marriage is made of. As two experts in the field, that's not how it goes. So yeah, I think I'm working on it.

I'm workshopping it a little bit. I cannot wait to see his entire family again all people Massachusetts born and bred The wedding obviously coming up this weekend if Nick's win game two. Oh my god there. I'm not even showing I shouldn't show it's disrespectful Not even wearing the tux forget Miami's gonna be white linen pants and a shirt that's buttoned down to here I'm showing up in a Luttrell's Ruel jersey wearing starberries and And that's gonna be the whole thing for me. So bing-bong, baby

Bing-bong to all of you out there for anyone who listens to show, you know, the Knicks are a die-hard So obviously this is not a basketball podcast But if the Knicks sweep the Celtics, I guarantee this I I will have Doyle come on and we will release on Soccer Wise an NBA themed podcast episode because he has been asking to do it for a year. And if the Knicks sweep the Celtics, that I will do. I don't wanna do a basketball podcast because I just wanna stand in front of my TV

and just scream dumb things. Like we always- What do you think my podcast is gonna be? Missoula out? Tatum out? If you don't cut Chris stops for Zingas today because of the cancer he is in your locker room then I don't understand what you're doing you don't want to win you don't care formally my large adult son Chris that's where they shut up formally but very formerly on that one not relevant anymore it is as I said a glorious day for us. It's also a glorious day for LAFC fans,

because for no reason really, all of a sudden, they have a door and an opening to playing in the Club World Cup and making somewhere between $9 and $15 million, or however much they can generate for themselves through performances. We're going to talk about that coming up. As I said, US Open Cup. I'm ecstatic. I think this is my favorite round now that MLS tried to ruin it of the competition.

You have 32 teams, 16 games. You have 16 MLS teams that are entering the phase all playing against a different division team, whether it's Division 2 or Division 3, so we don't have any MLS against MLS matchups at this round. There is, because it's regionalized, a ton of in-state rivalries, a ton of regional rivalries, like a lot that I think is the reason

I love this competition and I cannot wait to watch it alongside everything else that's going on this week. So we're gonna talk about that as well. You, of course, are always busy breaking more news, even when there's no news to be broken, so we will going to talk about that as well. You of course are always busy breaking more news, even when there's no news to be broken. So we will dig into all of that. And then we are workshopping a segment of how we're going to name what our weekend takeaways are. I'm trying to throw out like a takeout category because we've already got the

ice cream counter. So we're all food based and some form of takeaways in saying that I would like to throw out a request to everyone. One, if you have a good name or segment idea, feel free to throw it to us. Two, I attempted to make salsa yesterday. Have you ever made homemade salsa? No, I have not.

So I like read a bunch of recipes and they're like, oh, it's super easy. And then I did it and it wasn't physically hard. It just, it kind of tastes like marinara sauce. So if anyone has any advice of like a straightforward way to make somewhat simple salsa at home, I roasted tomatoes, red onions, jalapenos and garlic. Then I emerged and blended it and then I added cumin, they told me a little bit of sugar, salt and pepper and lime juice. Yeah. Exactly. So if anyone has any advice on how to make a good salsa and I enjoyed it and my wife was like does it taste a bit like marinara? It's like well yeah

it's like roasted tomatoes like technically it could be Turkish food like all of this is working off the same piece. I was going to say, you make your own hummus, right, or no? I do not regularly. It is more work than ordering from all of the very good places, which happen to be very close to me. I have made it, and I actually will not lie, I've made it pretty well, but it's a lot of work. Yeah, I agree.

And this is somebody who, again, as listeners of the show know, bought a house a couple weeks ago. Not living in it yet So it has been just non-stop work on the house never and going back Always going to CBS So like I've eaten in my car more than I want to admit or even think about Let alone go to the grocery store to even make basic meals So like I'm so far away from having any idea of making salsa. That's like a free time activity that just isn't happening.

I'm like, on the way here, I have leaving Lowe's. Yeah, no big deal. It's a blue collar guy going to the home store. In sandals, I think that they- Just talking washers and screws and jacks and wrenches. And then I was like, oh crap. Like the New York Knicks blue collar in the trenches Being like oh crap

I should probably eat before we do the show and then so I'm just having a wah-wah sub in my car as I'm driving home Mikael Bridges and Jalen Brunson would approve of the wah-wah sub So you've got that on your never say who you know, I'm because I'm not uneducated You are in a weird world right you sit between New York and New York so I'm moving 15 minutes south of where I grew up and we're getting closer to bird country there I'd say that much it that's where it's more split than like where I am it's like firmly giant jets and like it really is that much of a different if I went 30 minutes south

I think the majority would be would be birds John Panessa says in the chat don't cook the salsa I think that's probably the right problem is my blender wasn't big enough and I have to use an immersion blender and I thought you Could only use it with cooked food. So maybe that's maybe that's something that I should learn everyone's in It's no losses it's just learning. Yeah no obviously we're I'm working on myself every single day. God's working on all of us and I'm working on myself. Always always challenged never bored with Andrew Weeby quotes. That's Weeby. What did Weeby do this week? He played he played chess against your village. Yeah, you know that so ah So we did a great feature with day on your which it was really well set. It was really well produced really well

The questions the conversation is great leading up to this we were saying day on is gonna roll you in this I Reached out to day on and I said Humiliate him and they are left and said you know he's probably been practicing for this but don't worry i got and then just casually uh... we'd be like all i don't know what happened you know you know we had to cut it up in different ways for you know that the the broadcasting and

honors was on team we need and i was on team you know it's and not that you'll with every new yorkers government needed a handicap and where the handicap was set. I haven't heard anything from Anders Which leads me to believe I won easily and he's the only one who can check the tape. So Whoo a little bit of a quick side flex of like I reached out to MLS Cup goal scorer and designated player day on Yovlitsch to let him know how I felt about the world and what he should do. So he decided I think to show up for that game Maybe a little bit more than the actual game

Historic victory for sporting Kansas City the first team in MLS history to win a game without taking a single shot Shot in general. I had my weekend recap yesterday Talked about the wackiness at the top of the NWSL league. The top four teams all failed to win, three lost, two did so at home. So I talked all about that and then dug in sort of at the bottom of MLS, which we will get to in a moment. We have a few really good questions from our Discord, which you can get access to by subscribing to our Patreon. it gets you access to our discord as well as to our depth charts And we have we're working on a couple of things right now like some gear that will get you some bonus stuff, too

As well, and we love being in there with everyone. It was fun this weekend I can't wait for open cup so many people around the region Canada US and around the world who are going to games all over the place, which is a really cool part of it. If you are in there, you can potentially meet up with people. I know people mad at the Des Moines Menace game for the first time as well, so a lot going on and so get involved and get in there. But as you can see if you're watching on YouTube on our bottom line, let's talk a little LAFC. So we know, not know, but now we officially know that the Court of

Arbitration in Sport has denied Club León and Pachuca's appeal to attempt to appear in the FIFA Club World Cup. They are both teams that qualified via CONCACAF. They are owned by the same owner and you are not allowed to play as two clubs under the same ownership group in a FIFA competition. Club León was appealing that. They lost that appeal. In doing so, they were now pulled out of the Club World Cup. There was an opening spot created that Aloha Helense had also appealed to the Court of

Arbitration and Sport as the opportunity to fill that. Aloha Helense was the one who flag the the conflict between the ownership groups of Leon and Pachuca and they were like they Was like good point LFC Club America you're in What? poor Aloha Wednesday man. Yeah That wouldn't shock me by the way of like being like oh you found this discrepancy we have to deal with now Yeah, yeah, okay, we'll go deal with it. And it will not end well for you. And don't ever bring that up again. Is how it probably feels like it went down. So, Olive Helense, as you said, we're denied the

opportunity to get in. And we have now invented the first ever Club World Cup single game playoff match for a cocky calf representation at the 2025 Club World Cup. One thing is this game will occur at the same time that an LAFC MLS game was supposed to occur. So on May 31st at BMO Stadium in LA, LAFC will face off against Club America for a chance to play in the Club World Cup. Tom, you were the one to break this news at Give Me Sport in which you put in effectively a $10 million match as the winner will get a guaranteed

entry fee of $9.55 million plus an additional $2 million per group stage win and round by round prize money if they were able to get results in a group that they will replace Leonin which is alongside Chelsea, Flamengo and Tunis. Yeah, it's a big game and it's going to be happening in LA and so myself and Ben Jacobs broke this news and as we were kind of reporting it out, Ben was kind of like, I wonder, you know, he said something to the effect of an LAFC home game and like, yeah, it's at their stadium and it is a home game except what do you think this stadium tilt is going to be for Club America?

Because that's going to be a hot ticket for a lot of Club America fans in that area. Well I've said this a lot. It is unfortunate that CONCACAF refuses to take games outside of, for the most part, the US because it's the easiest operation for them and it makes the most money. But I actually don't think there is a more fair situation than having a either Mexican national team or many of the Liga Max clubs playing against an American, Canadian, MLS team,

whatever the situation is in the right market. Like Mexico playing in LA against the US is as close to a quote unquote neutral situation as you can get. The American team doesn't have to travel, doesn't have to go to altitude, doesn't have to worry about the Columbus crew runs or whatever else can happen in that situation. And the Mexican team gets to play in front of their crowd. So I think my guess is what? The 3252 will be packed. Oh yeah, for sure, for sure. I actually would say a 50-50 split would be my expectation

I'm that would honestly be impressive by LFC and again like that is not any Sort of joke or anything about the LFC fans that is more about the clue of America fans will be doing anything They can to get into this game and it's gonna be cool But like you said the 32-52 that's gonna be sacrosanct And if even again if it is a 50-50 split in the stadium I think that's gonna be really strong for LFC because for those who don't know like these Mexican Liga Mekis Giants when they're in like LA or Dallas or Houston or Pretty much anywhere in the country to be good argue Club America is the biggest team in the US

I think we can probably go find those numbers and we probably should let's talk about this Yeah, as it gets closer, but yeah, that's a that's a real argument that yeah And and so in the chat st. Witt has asked why is it LAFC. This is FIFA rationale. I'm not saying what's right, wrong, or indifferent. I'm just saying what the facts are. Don't shoot the messenger. Because this, I keep it anyway. LAFC were picked because they finished as the runners up to Club León in the 2023 CONCACAF Champions League final League Final and Club America are the top of the coefficients rankings in the four-year cycle qualification.

Whatever, right? It doesn't hurt that it's LAFC and Club America, right? I think that we can both say that. Who's getting... Who makes the money off this? Who's getting the gate? Like, what's happening? Yeah, the logistics, all of that.

That was something that we were told still needs to be figured out. But again, we've reported that it's happening on May 31st in Los Angeles LAFC will obviously move the game that was that day. They might have to move they they're supposed to play a midweek game three days Prior. Yeah, they might play they play the Rapids on May 31st. I think every MLS team plays That game for so who was so they might also that I don't know like that is something that I've heard so sporting Casey LFC was supposed to host sporting Casey on May 28th and then host Colorado on May 31 Obviously the Colorado game is getting moved and then maybe the other one Um any and for people who look right like if I'm a fan of the crew if I'm a fan of the galaxy of fun fan

Whoever like I'm saying hey, why why wouldn't it be us in in the idea of like if they're just chasing revenue Why wouldn't FIFA have kicked out Pachuca instead of Club León? Like, James Rodriguez tips the scale there or is that something that's silly for me to say, Gus? I wouldn't say either has an outsized impact. I just figured, because that's how I viewed those two teams, but James, I thought would be something that FIFA Yeah, I mean the group is called Pachuca group. I think and I So I assume Pachuca they consider their bigger team and their dominant team

I think Pachuca is a better team. So I think there's that as well of like you're gonna have to put one of these in there It's also like the whole thing is built on the picture academy in selling players all that you want them in that situation so i guess it my point being i think that you go are the big brothers and let club leona the little bit and then so that using this restaurant and we'll never know it like but theoretically if it was the two of that dot kicked out it would be the crew playing in this game because the crew lost a few but it's l a f c lost lost to León in that the way that León qualified for this tournament

So that is the rationale from FIFA. Could you imagine if crew got this spot and added like 10 million dollars to the 20 that they just got for Cucho or whatever it was? Up to 16 Yeah, like 12 plus 4 Pretty nice. That's a pretty good chunk of change and the crew fans are already mad in the chat, which I respect. This is why I'm trying to be so careful about I'm not co-signing or I'm not disagreeing with them. I'm just trying to lay out that stuff. And then Club America are because they're the top coefficient rankings over the four years of qualifying, which is hilarious because it's four years of qualifying that no one knew was happening over the course of the four

years when was this announced you know i i mean we we had rumors about it for so long yeah we had rumors about it and we thought it would happen i don't know when it was officially announced but if you look at it like champions league winners that are in this how did salzberg going back to years i don't get it yeah i don't remember what was that one. It was because of their Europa League play I think because they're coefficient I think inside of UEFA, which doesn't distinctly separate the different competitions. Whatever it is, that will be the match. So it's a big one. Like the money is big, the opportunity is big. For LAFC it's weird because if they qualify, they will then get pushed onto the East Coast

where Seattle and Miami will host. Although Miami I think is hosting at Hard Rock. So they're not like really hosting, but they're a home team. LAFC sort of would become this road MLS team in this US based competition. But again, you want the exposure, you want the opportunity, you want the money, all of those things. And you get this great other event which is you get to play Club America at home. Honestly, almost more, not more juice for this game, but like, there are two things

can be true. We can push back on just the hypocrisy or any negative word you want to put in here. I'm going to watch this game and I'm going to I'm going to enjoy it. And look, FIFA possibly will get to put up billboards selling tickets to the Club World Cup with Nathan or Daz's face on it. And I think that's going to move the needle. I think it will. This is a shout out to Happyfoot, Sadfoot for saying all of the billboards that they put your roots face on,

they are going to Photoshop Nathanroiddazz on for everyone. The people have spoken. This is the game from the crass roots all the way up. Ryan Hollingshead the face of the club world cup as well. That's why you don't need James because you've got the American James who is Ryan Hollingshead. For anyone who's not paying attention the league MX is heading into the Ligia so it was about two weeks it took to get the play in teams finalized Club America enters as the number two seed right now They are playing against pachuka actually in this opening two-legged affair

To head into the quarterfinals or this is the quarterfinals I never remember how many teams and games equal the numbers and until you to the semifinals. And then it's very obvious to me. Club America is looking to win this for a fourth straight time. And that it has been a dominant phase for them at a time where it felt like it wasn't going to happen. If you go back three or four years, it had felt like Monterey and Tigress had eclipsed Club America and that Club America would always be competitive because they are Mexico City and they're a giant and the history

But that they were not going to be one of these modern clubs that was bringing in younger players from around the world and then also Pushing younger local players and being able to be competitive. They were going to be payday at the end of your career What can you make work? They have a very young team right now up the spine Zendejas is a huge piece of that. Brian Rodriguez is a huge piece of that. Fidalgo was brought over from Spain, similar to Sergio Canales in Monterey and a similar trend that we've seen of sort of in-prime La Liga players coming over

to sort of be the centerpiece of these teams. It's a good team. It is a good team. It's a team that can beat you in a number of different ways. Players with experience in the region Experience playing in the United States, you know, Brian Rodriguez will literally be playing against his former club So there's a lot of connection points there Also weird one. I guess this is the day before the Concord calf champions cup final or two days

Oh, it is the same weekend. It is which or two days before. Oh it is. It's the same weekend. It is. Which is a bizarre. I have a wedding. Nate just threw in on the chat that they should just play this year's CCC final early and get Vancouver in there. You wouldn't even have to play it early. It literally takes one day apart. But actually I'm fairly certain that whoever wins the CONCAC champions cup final this year qualifies for the next World Cup. In seven years. I think so. I don't know. When Sebastian Borlanser is at Real Madrid, hopefully they can loan him back to Vancouver

for a month. They will play the next club World Cup probably at East Timor as that World Cup is spread across Uruguay, Paraguay, Portugal, Morocco, and Spain just to make sure everyone feels involved and connected to it. For LAFC, we are not a hundred percent sure about this, which seems to be a running trend. Everything we've said so far, other than the date of the game. Yeah. The two clubs that have qualified from MLS for the Club World Cup, Seattle and Inter Miami, they have officially, we know, been awarded the opportunity of $750,000 in general allocation

money additional and the ability to pull forward $1.25 million in GAM as well that has to be paid back over the next two years. And Seattle and Miami didn't know that when the transfer window opened, but it seemed like they knew it by the time it closed. We think LAFC will have the opportunity as well. And as of now, there's no window for them to use any of that before the Club World Cup. I've said this in a Discord, but just to reiterate, I don't know if the, the, the FIFA is allowing a mini special transfer window to happen before the club world cup for clubs

across the world to bring in players or add players, register them or whatever. They give that option to every federation that has teams in the club world cup. I asked MLS, MLS only asked US Soccer. I asked US Soccer, US Soccer soccer said trying to get you an answer three days later the answer was i don't know last week or a few days ago i reached out again he said so is there any answer and i was told that department was on vacation and i don't know if that means one person or 17 maybe it's group vacation whatever it is the answer is still i don't know to a yes or no answer question that needs to be answered.

The window would be June 1st to June 10th and we don't have a definitive answer. You feel better? Yeah. Until I find something else I get mad about. We have had that question in the chat a couple times in the Discord, so Tom has expressed the work he has done to try and get to the bottom of this and clearly it is not going to make a ton of sense. We've got questions if the Canadian teams would then get openings, which is a different FA and also doesn't have a team going to the Club World Cup and how

it would affect the other MLS teams and all that stuff as well. So it's an interesting situation as we say it'll be entertaining. It's a big game and for LAFC it is a huge opportunity for I mean Chelsea, Flamengo. Like I know Flamengo fans down here in Miami. They're going to travel in force for this game Chelsea are one of the biggest clubs in the United States and Obviously as a nerd I'm stoked about Tunis in this competition because I love to know I can't believe it. You listed them third there well, that's the way the I

Was choosing my words lane three media the writers that give me sports put it in their article. I assume that's a Ben Jacobs special, but I'm not sure. I'll leave my comments below in the article so that they know how I feel. And on that note, let's move into the weekend that was. A wild weekend in Major League Soccer. We've got some really good questions from you in the mail bag about a range of different topics. You better believe the LA Galaxy managerial position is one of them. LAFC's managerial position could be one of them as well. But I think we wanted to take some time here.

I do the highlights in the recap every weekend on Mondays. But then when we get to Tuesday, we still wanna talk about the weekend, but we're not gonna recap every game that happened three days ago. So we're gonna try and do some big takeaways, anything we wanna talk about, anything that popped out to us. Tom, I'm gonna let you get started.

I like the MLS takeout here. I think that works. Like again, in the chat, in the Discord, when you guys listen to this, any better thoughts or ideas, let us know, but we're the on the food through line here with the ice cream shop later Get to a little dinner first a little takeout for me a big picture Takeout is Austin FC's 30 million dollar front line. It's officially time to worry I know that that's not an earth-shattering

Opinion or analysis because I'm usually you know Give enough rope give enough leeway for a new coach for new players The fit and we knew the fit was gonna be a little bit awkward We're again 11 games in now. I test is pretty bad There's a lot of time like Bucari has been either benched or rotated wherever word you want to use Uzuni has not looked like a good fit in a position. He's never played before or hasn't played regularly He was a center forward second forward and sometimes he had played on the right wing previously now They have them as like this inside forward on the left

So it was always gonna take a little bit of time and it hasn't looked good. They have seven goals scored in 11 games Their XG is the 22nd in MOS. So that's the bottom third That's a lot of money to spend for a bottom third XG. Their XG is like 14. So they're underperforming their expected goals by seven. That is the worst in MOS. There's one other team that's like negative six, and then it's not really close other than that.

XG can, it'll flatten out, or in theory, could flatten out, should flatten out, as a longer, bigger sample size comes. So there could be positive regression. I went to the individuals to see what it looks like Brandon Vasquez has like 5xg with two goals I think I think I trust Brandon Vasquez enough that I think he'll regress to the mean there yeah for me it's more worrying that Uzuni only has 3.3 expected goals like that's that's a 12 million dollar forward.

And like, again, I'm not putting this all on him, because again, he's playing in a different position. He's playing on the wing. Like, he needs to be getting in more dangerous positions more often, whether that's his movement, whether that's the patterns of play from Nico Estevez, or whether it's a lack of creativity in the midfield. Whatever it is, Uzzuni needs to be getting more.

And then Usman Bukhari supposed to be the chance creator. He's got 0.8 expected assists in 745 minutes. That's less than one. It's not good enough for 7 million dollars signing Who is the creative outlet to two goal scorers that you have in the attack? So the plan was he is the creative hub plus, you know, the system is the creator, right? But your 7 million dollar DP has to be doing more so again the three of them neither none of them are getting off scott-free here for me but I'm officially very very worried yeah I think all of that makes a ton of sense I would assume Austin fans are in that conversation with you I think there was

a lot of hope early on that this group was going to be a little different and as you said just the pure investment felt like something on a different level but it always felt like a little bit of a weird mix and I think you're hoping that maybe midfield like the pieces in midfield can make it all work but that is 30 million dollars here and two million dollars here and hoping that the $2 million can fix the $30 million feels a little bit harsh. I think the Minnesota results was a little tough because you give up the soft goal from Stuvr and then you're behind against a team that's super comfortable with it, but you should have been ahead.

That's the nature of these games is with the attack you have and with the possession you have at home against a team like that You should have been up 1-0 at that point just because of game states and the way you're playing and then if that's the case You have confidence that you can score another and you can overcome it and this is a team right now that can't really overcome falling behind in fluky ways and There's not like a ton of answers in the group, which I think is really, really difficult for people to watch because the expectation was it would be different than the last few years.

And it feels like then everything starts to tighten up for this team. So I think that's an interesting one. It's definitely one to monitor. The Western Conference, the whole thing is insane. Yeah, like they were in second a week ago. They had a very good start to the season too. Even though they've won one of their last five, they've picked up enough points

while they've been struggling to attack that this gives them a more leeway because this would be a five or one fire if they didn't pick up some of the wins they did earlier in this season. But because they've given themselves at least enough of a cushion, and again, the Western Conference is so in flux right now,

and I don't know what the exact numbers are but the in inner conference play Eastern Conference is dominating the West right now. Yeah the I'm gonna go to the East by the way for my first takeaway which I have mentioned on this show but I love the Philadelphia Union Central Midfield. I talked about Danly Jean-Jacques a little bit yesterday and how he played. You already know I have Jovan Lukic, best 11 all star, whatever stock that I picked up week one. Yeah. Indy Vasilev has fit in with all of it.

Quinn Sullivan, we're talking national team, and I think it's fair to talk about it, but especially those central two and the ability for both of them to play both ways. Like, obviously, Jean-Jacques is a little bit more of the defensive player, But especially those central two and the ability for both of them to play both ways like obviously Jean joc is a is a little bit more of the defensive player But he's able to beat players on the dribble and to open up space He takes space when it's given to him, which I love when he wins it back It's a quick one two Maybe with a defender to face forward and then he'll take the space and eat it up and then he knows how to play those dangerous

balls in we didn't know that Jose Martinez was going to be one of the best players in the league when they signed him. And he wasn't signed at a number and a profile to do so. I have a ton of trust in this front office and now this coaching staff to put together players, to help players perform at their best in those positions. And they're the type of players I enjoy watching at those positions.

And I think these two are in line with exactly what they've done in the past and even if you know Gluwinovich is injured and maybe it's not as strong at center back as you'd like and I I still feel Andre Blake has not is not playing at the level that he has played at when this team has contended as one of the two or three best in MLS year after year, there is still so much defensive work done in that midfield that they can remain at a high level. So they knocked off Montreal this weekend. They didn't have most of the ball. They never really will. They don't need it. But they never really looked in trouble. And Montreal, I went on

a rant yesterday about how Montreal Galaxy combined is basically the worst start in MLS history to have two teams at that level So it's a nice place to go and play but this Philadelphia groups really impressive and I think they to me are the center of a lot of it I agree These two players the ones that you talked about John Lee John jock and Dan Lee John jock sorry, and and Yovon Lukic these two players typify what the Union want to be and This pairing has been extremely strong. And if you want to take the box of those two, Vasilev now for Gosdawg and, you know, Quincellvain.

It's one of my favorite midfield quartets, if we're allowed to say that, in the league. And they all have a common through line of they're relentless, they're going to press really well. But each of them have different strengths in the ball, or like different nuances. So while there's a collective, you know, you're going to get the box-crashing runs from Vasilev. And you're going to have a little bit deeper from Lukic. And like you said, Janžak is going to be the deepest player.

But then, like the goal that Vasilev finished off, that started with Danly Jean-Jacques playing multiple wall passes Taking up probably what 70 yards between him just carrying the ball and those wall passes You know Quinn Sullivan. I think he has the most Technical quality out of those four players So they each offer something a little bit different while still fitting within the collective So the way that that's all been put together is really great And also Quinn Sullivan's grandfather coached at Villanova

Obviously, McHale bridges Joan Brunson and Josh Hart went to Villanova. So just thank you the tie Thank you. I can't believe I didn't think of it until just now right there for me and I didn't and that's why that's why we Make a great team. Um, and while we're saying so many nice things about Philly, I'm just gonna annoy people Would it be too soon for an offer to come in for Dan Lee Jean-Jacques this summer? Would it shock you with this Philadelphia Union team? I don't know. No nothing would shock me clearly. So don't buy a Dan Lee Jean-Jacques jersey yet or if you do know that it's gonna might age poorly. Well they'll have their number because they have their number on everyone the same way the Rapids have their number on everyone like if you meet it but I do think there was a clear flip of the roster into this group for

at least a little bit to see how it all looks and I wouldn't expect that they're moving on from these pieces so quickly. Let's stay in the Eastern Conference though because you wanted to talk as we should about the New England Revolution. Yes, the New England Revolution. So I want to preface this by saying I think we've hammered Caleb Porter and what happened last year and what was happening at the beginning of this year. Really hard. The criticism was totally fair. I don't think we went overboard. I don't think anything was personal or out of context or mean-spirited or anything stupid like that. That being said, what he's done with this change of system has made so much

sense for this team and it is working out so well. I really, really like this New England Revolution 3-4-1-2. Because it frees up Carlos Hill, your best and most important player, just be a classic number 10, free roll, just what we need for him to use to create goals and assists. And like he's scoring more, again a lot of it has been dead balls or whatever. In MLS, a model works is if you have a special number 10, build the game around that player. Put runners around them. Put bodyguards in the midfield. Yousuf is really, really good.

I've been saying that since last summer. That was a nice building block that they got ahead of the winter. The partnership with Pulsar, I think, is good. A life fine goal has been so, so, so good. You don't expect that. Would be unfair to expect anything like this from a U-22 initiative wingback who comes in. It wasn't early in preseason, I'll say that much.

How quickly he's adapted and how good he looks so far. And Peyton Miller, of course, is awesome. The defensive structure that this system gives the team team and it's gotten more out of Campana and Gunago playing close to each other feeling more connected it's just all made sense and this isn't like there's like the Wilford-Nancy three four two one where we're like blown away by all the tactical nuances and all what is Stephen Moreira doing oh my god Max Orfson he's you know it's wing back to wing back it's center back center back to center back Whatever, right? This isn't that but that's okay. That doesn't make it any less impressive because the simple answer

Can be the the best answer the obvious right answer, right? Like just because it's it's more of like a simplistic look of hey These are the defined roles the 10 is gonna be the 10 the the DMS are gonna be the DMS and and Ko, what we need from you is the score goals. We don't need you to do the Kucho role, we need you to score goals. If he tried to over complicate this, I would be shredding him if it wasn't working, right? So I do want to say coaches don't need to go out of their way to show you how smart they are with like, oh, this wrinkle, that wrinkle. Brian Schmetzer, I think, is the best example of this. People like getting like knocked him a little bit on like oh good He doesn't do anything crazy. Oh, you know no, dude

He puts his best players in the best spots to succeed and then they succeed that is great. Yeah Yeah It's interesting in the context of he didn't have his players now. He does but now he's playing a system That's not his system, which is a funny way for all of this to end. But I agree with you. I think they brought in a lot of pieces that fit this. We've talked about Youssef.

I think Fulfana and Sebaeus are real hits. I think they're good enough to play in a back four. I don't think they're overexposed in that, but I think it brings more support to central midfield if they play in the setup they're in I think it puts Gunnago in the right spot I think a lot of this hinges on the fact that Campagna is now healthy like if he's not healthy I don't know that you have enough finishers to make the wingbacks dangerous enough Also, you think you'd want to have to on John sir Brandon by in this group, but fine. Whatever paid to pay Miller's brother

Yeah, well, he's gonna come up in just a moment because we have a question about homegrowns on the show Do you worry you at all? Who the results have been against the way they've come Over the four or five games, so so it's atlanta. I think one zero. It's charlotte on the road, but games. So it's Atlanta, I think, one zero, it's Charlotte on the road, but 0.37 XG for the revs in that game. TFC now in this one, which obviously that's a team that's struggling, I think NYCFC thrown in there as well. Yeah, so that is fair. I guess that that's a good clarification that I'm not saying that the best team in the league but

He was like about to get fired if results didn't change and he changed Yeah, they didn't score an actual goal for like five games. They didn't score from the run of play Yeah, that's all fair. They probably will sit somewhere in that 7 to 11 range in the Eastern Conference and That's an improvement a last year as well as improvement on the start of this year so I think that's totally fair and I think if Campanhas fully fit and healthy like it's a fun attack. Carlos heal flaring out to the wings finding space underneath as you said these wingbacks are the fun part of watching this and they've got finishers that they can serve the ball into inside in front of both of them.

Let's dig into that question. It's MLSBox2Box in the Discord who said, with Chris Cups and Xavier Goso, amazing soccer name by the way, debuting in the starting line- I don't even know which one you're talking about because Goso and Cups are both great names- Yeah, but I agree, man. That's just so good. And playing well along with and then lists out a group of young players Luca Bambino, Johnny Shore, Jacob Bartlett, Harbour Miller, Frankie Westfield, Alex Freeman, Tate Johnson, Bolleroo all continuing

to play big roles. Who's your favorite breakthrough homegrown so far? What are you hearing around the league about these kids? For starters on that list, unfortunately, some of them are not homegrown. So Bolleroo, Tate Johnson, draft pick as we've talked about, Tampa Bay rowdy player, went to UNC for a year and then drafted by Vancouver and then Bo LaRue was a draft pick as well, played in MLS Next Pro and then signed to a first team contract. Bo LaRue is going to be in convos as one of the best signings in MLS. He's going to be, I don't know if

you can win most improved if it's your first year. He's going to be, I don't know if you can win most improved if it's your first year. No I don't think you can. All of the things are that Boleru is a legitimate solid to game-changing piece in what has now been a pretty good team. He's an awesome addition. The rest of these are all home groans. I've got like 87 home groans that I could roll through but Tom who do you have any specific names that stand out to you as the best so far? I again I like all these I'm gonna take Peyton Miller out of this conversation because we were talking about this last year and if we're just yeah this is a

tough one where when does someone break out? If we're gonna quibble over the breakout like I think it was last and and that's just making it easier for me to we just talked about it to pick somebody else it's Alexander Freeman for me, for Orlando City. He's been excellent for Oscar Preja. And look, the goals are great, right? Like it's nice to add goals, but it's not, like I'm not picking this because he scored a few goals, because at the end of the day, it's a fullback.

Like those are bonuses, but like you don't get on the field because he scored a few times. Like he's in the, like his underlying numbers are all excellent, but you know, getting forward, like progressive passes received, touches in the like his underlying numbers or oral excellent But you know getting forward like progressive passes received touches in the attacking penalty area shot creating actions, you know expected assists So he's not just scoring goals. He's creating chances Ariel's won clearances like We knew how athletic he and like what the tools could be and he's put it together with

Intelligence and technical quality within this system And it's been a really really good fit and this is a modern fullback This is a guy who we should be talking about of what is gonna be the number of him getting sold for one day Because this is the modern profile that so many clubs are looking for in Europe and Orlando Oscar Brea gave him They Orlando developed them pray. I gave him the chance to win a spot. He won a spot He has looked like he's really good again goes. Oh cups these guys uh johnny sure has been one of my favorites to watch darren yappi i'm not including in a breakout conversation but um like maybe you could maybe if that's where you're gonna go are you we shared a doc where i have i thought that was part of the question you wrote it in

part of the question no those are my answers clearly you don't accept don't so johnny sure is somebody that i really, really like too. I'm saying that it's not, that I really love Freeman, but it's the other guys too. I'm sorry for spoiling it. No, you're good. I'm really Darren Yabby. No, Alex Freeman's awesome.

I think I've talked about him a bit on this show. He was one of those players that I saw very young in the academy, and this potential existed at that time. And so everyone's kind of been waiting for it. And I think the club gets a ton of credit young in the academy and this potential existed at that time. And so everyone's kind of been waiting for it. And I think the club gets a ton of credit for the way they've managed him into the MLS next pro scene, not pushing too much on him too quickly, getting him introduced to the

first team, not pushing too much. This is a club that's been starving for homegrown production so that they can save money on the cap to fill in some other roster spots. They've had to spend so much money on the fullback centerbacks backup D-Mids of the world that it's made I think the roster pinch a little bit more than it should. And I don't know that they've been able to bring in the performers across the roster that they need. And so to get homegrown production finally, and this sort of feels like the start

of what Oscar and Muzi have tried to build, which is something more similar to what they had in Dallas. I think this is the start. I think Guski's ready. I think Karabala we already have seen be able to play at an MLS level. There's a couple of centerbacks in the group we're hoping for.

We could talk about Tommy Williams every day. But Freeman was, is there George Bellow, right? The like first big breakthrough. I think fullback's a position that makes it possible to do. I agree. But he has game changing attributes that are world class elite. Like his size, his athleticism,

and his skill from that position. And as long as he could figure out how he can fit into the game and the speed of it and all of that he was always going to be really good and I think it's awesome to see it happen at such a high level and I will be curious now like how long do they hang on if an offer comes because this is going to help them win here and now but at the same time this could also be your first big sale to start to build this process out. And that's the balance. Every team has to make, you took Peyton Miller off the board. I think that's fair.

We should just always talk about Peyton Miller and we get a chance, but I think that's a fair one. Let me ask you about this one. Brooklyn Reigns. Is that an acceptable one? Yeah. Yeah. I guess it's just because we've talked about him for so long that maybe it didn't feel like it on first first But like he is doing more He's one that we've been waiting to break out. Maybe is the better term. He's played 333 minutes so far this year last year. He played 413 the whole season

Yeah, cuz early on he was gonna play a lot and he struggled. Yeah, he wasn't very good and they took him out of the team He's been awesome this year He does a lot of like the quick connective passing that I love to see he's been able to help arter Defensively in central midfield. I think he's got a similar soccer brain to jack mclinne. So they sort of link up now It's how does he stay in the group with the lenders of the world and all of these players coming in And you start to get pushed a little bit more open cup would be a nice spot for them. They go on the road to Phoenix, which I think is going to be a really fun game this week. Uh, and I think he could be a difference maker,

but he's been really good so far this season. Johnny Shore, it has not been easy for him. You're an 18 year old, 17 year old, trying to play central midfield in a team that doesn't have a ton of support in central midfield, but I think he's been really good. I think Nolan Norris has to be mentioned outside of this weekend. He's been really good at left back, filling in for Marco Farfod.

I like his ball possession out of full back, so I think he can step inside and play a little and stretch the field wide. And I had Darren Yappie down, because again, we've been waiting on Darren Yappie. He has scored goals before, and therefore it feels like he's been around this is the most confident he's looked this is the most functional he's looked in this team and I think he's been really impressive so far this year and all of that is behind of course

Frankie Westfield who's a hero in this household and what he's capable of doing that's not every player that's broken through, but that's a decent chunk of them. I think this is a good year so far for players to get opportunities at this side of the roster. Seattle has pushed a few players through. San Jose is clearly making a statement. San Diego, you mentioned Luca Bombino, who's gotten minutes and Isaidi's gotten minutes, who's going to come up as well later. So it feels like right now overall clubs are doing a decent job at trying to promote the young players that they believe in to get opportunities like into the first team. Let's go to our next question here,

which I love from Greg Guardiola, who says, okay, I thought of a more constructive mail back question than asking when Vanni out for the hundredth time. In your guys opinion how much of this is on Vanny? Obviously we're missing Ricky Pooj and had a lot of turnover. Do you think Vanny should be getting better from this group of players? I'll take my answer off air which of course is how you get your question in by acting like anything sports talk radio. Kevin Wallace had a different question in the chat. Shout out to Kevin who covers FC Cincinnati and we had on the show to preview them who said who gets a new manager first LA Galaxy or LA FC which

I thought was a fantastic question and Grey Ghost asked if we think the Galaxy will make the playoffs everyone said no easy answer and he responded I agree I just want to hear Goss and Tom trade arguments about how it could happen. So what do you want me to do that? Do you want me to go 1, 2, 3? Where do I go here? I think we can ignore half of them because I think most people know that they're joke questions.

The Galaxy will not make the playoffs. My guess would be LAFC has a new coach before Greg Vanney or before the LA Galaxy. Although I guess that goes back into number one. But I think that's the big question. In the pressure and all of this, how much of this is on Greg Vanney and how much sort of then the responsibility falls around him? Yeah, so it's always somewhere in the middle. Like, look, the results driven business, the head coach has to take the results on the

chin and we can talk about individual mistakes, we can talk about injuries, talk about whatever, right? This team still has too much talent to be winless this team has too much talent to be doing what they're doing at this stage of the season it's so I think a lot of that is on the manager while holding space for I feel for no pooch obviously um what what exactly is Greg Vanny supposed to do when Zonka makes a couple mistakes? Right? Like, hey, John McCarthy saved the ball instead of don't save the ball? Right? Like, I understand that there are things that are out of his control.

But at the end of the day, the head coach takes the accountability and the responsibility. Because this is a team that, let's see, Paintsill and I know Paintsill's missed time, Peck. Those two players around 20 million, Sonabria around 5 million, so that's 25 million if he's right there, Yamane was like 2, that's 27 million you look at, you come to the center backs of the Julian Ode, I forget exactly what he was, I forget if it was like 3 or 5 million, there's a lot of money, a lot of talent in this team. It is not a first place team without Pooch and everything else

that's happened. We understand that. But they should not be this far gone and we should not be talking on May 6th. It isn't even a discussion are they gonna make the playoffs. It's May 6th in Major League Soccer. Like that is not good enough. Yeah it's one of them the tough things as well with the new setup of they're not an open cup So they don't have that to play for they got knocked out of concave champions cup So they don't have that to play for obviously they can't contend for a shield. So you're pretty much out of the trophy conversation right now

You then go back into what we've talked about over and over on the show Which is is there an idea of how you're building longer term? And if there is, are there stylistic options that aren't available to Greg Vanni because you don't want to step away from who you are, big picture in this three or four year span where you think you can contend for multiple trophies to sneak some results. And if that's the case, is that why you're struggling right now because you're not doing other things like you're not you're not playing more direct off Christian Ramirez you're not changing your shape a little bit to be

able to have more play now I mean look at what we're talking about with the refs you could if Gabrielle Peck can't beat anyone out wide 1v1 because there's too much pressure on him you could go to up top and shift as well as take some pressure off your center backs maybe by having three of them out there and if you do that can you get more wide balls into the box and is that a way to create chances or at least change something against your opponents for them to not be able to fully anticipate or is big picture the club saying well we don't want to do that because then we don't want to have

to relearn what we're great at whenever Ricky Pooch comes back and we're ready to put this all together. And I think that's where you have to try and figure out where the pressure falls on Greg Vaney and where it doesn't. I think you should have, I felt that it was clear that it was going to be a struggle this year. This is obviously different. It's approaching historic levels and I don't know how much you can sustain the pressure externally on the group. We have someone in the chat says Red Bull has the opportunity to beat Galaxy so bad that they fire Vanny as retribution for MLS Cup. I doubt it. Which makes it interesting as I rattled off their

schedule. It's a bit of a meat grinder for them. It's an MLS cup rematch on the road They've got El Trafico and Cali Classico coming up. They've got San Diego coming up as well So they're big games with high intensity I think that's probably a good thing for this team to like make it feel big like it did last year But the sporting Kansas City Performance and result the Portland performance and result, they get more demoralizing every week in a different way. I think if you're asking where it falls, I think with all the numbers you said, I would

say 40% of it falls on the roster built. So much of it was built around this one piece in Rikki Pooj and he is unavailable and you know he's gonna be unavailable and they couldn't replace him, that I don't know how you can say that that chunk of it falls on the coach. Then outside of that, you get... Tweek, tweak, tweak, not change.

Maybe. They're dead last in direct attacks, they're dead last in direct attacks are dead last at attack speed and they're second to last in XG per shot but you have signed slow centerbacks because you dominate possession and you won't give up goals so if you change those things are you putting Maya Yoshida and Zanka in a better position to succeed are you putting Mickey Yamane in a better position to succeed if by the time he's able to invert and cut in and get involved and get in possession that you've lost the ball? And I think that's where the

roster build I think is pretty tough with they won last year the only way I think this group really can win at a high level. But yes you could steal points here and there if you change things. And I think that's where it's hard to figure out what will fall on him and what won't. My guess will be LAFC will find a new coach before them because they've got the opportunity to do it. And I don't think either of us think

they'll make the playoffs. Last one here from Brogan, he says, I have to be in Florida for work this week and I think I'm gonna venture down to Miami on Thursday. What should I do and where should I eat? Go to the beach. I Would say go to Hollywood go to Lata. It's one of my favorite places get fish from the ocean Well, yes

But I I just named a place on the water that you could go to go to Gramps getaway if you end up in the like Down Miami area, which is one of the best bars in all of Miami and has great food and Both of those places are on the water. I don't understand Living in a place like this and not always eating where you can see water in your sight line I don't understand that at all. Someone said get some ceviche. Yeah, obviously, there's fantastic Latin food You go to a little Havana as well. There's some really good spots around I am trying to think off the top my head of names that I like and I'm not getting there very quickly and

There is really doya if you want something fancy Really good Middle Eastern food Turkish food that type of stuff as well where there's a ton of Don't let's talk about this week. Let's talk about this week. We've got US Open Cup, 16 games, all MLS for Slowed Division. On Paramount Plus, which is a place that you also work, so we're promoting it. Good reminder, good idea. I didn't think that that was gonna stop you in your tracks. I thought it was just gonna be a little background noise

and you were gonna kill me. I only heard the plus at first, and I was like, what does he mean? I think there's a golazo show around with both days. Yeah 12 us oh us l championship teams to us l league ones and one MLS next pro team We've got a Cascadia Cup between Tacoma Defiance and the Portland Timbers the classic matchup between those two teams Of course Tacoma is Seattle's MLS next Pro affiliate.

Seattle not in this competition, so Tacoma playing. And Tacoma's hosting at Starfire. So you get the full US Open Cup history inside of all of that. We've got some really cool matchups. So let me start you here. We have four intra, right? Intra's inside.

There you go. Inter's between. There you go. What? Yes, go on. Oh, I thought you sent me something. We have four intra-state rivalries in this game. I can say rivalry, although maybe they're not technically. We have Austin against El Paso in Texas. We have San Jose against Sacramento in California. We have Tampa against Orlando in Florida. We have Tennessee, Chattanooga

Red Wolves against Nashville. Sorry, we have five. And North Carolina against Charlotte FC. Power rank for me there. What are you most excited about? What's your number one right there? Oh, I think that last one. I like the all Tennessee matchup. Hopefully that'll be good. The North Carolina Charlotte FC, I mean short FC and NC FC that I want to see what the lineups look like and like that that was fun for the the first, Carolina match But I think I like those two and that's where I'm at. Where do you go guys? I like that. There's the legacy of getting railhawked with North Carolina FC

Even though they've changed their names and it should come back. I am pretty stoked about Austin El Paso. I think that's like a really cool setup where you have now all of these pro teams, like Dallas USL just announced their new club coming into Garland. We have talked about potential more USL teams around the Texas area. San Antonio's had a really good start to the year.

I like the idea of like more teams in Texas playing each other. Austin struggling right now, but this is a place where can you get yourself right and get a victory in one like this. And then the Florida one, Tampa 50th year redoing, you know, a ton of their stuff we had their president on this show going into the new Allang stadium that they've redone post hurricane. It's a team that expects to win things and expects to win trophies. They beat Naples in the last round. Now you play against an Orlando club that, open cup you know, means something to them and has a history.

And I think that one's up there as well. But I do think North Carolina has the potential to be one of the most special ones. The game that I'm most excited about, I think, for the whole tie, is Rhode Island hosting the New England Revolution. Tidewater Landing Stadium opening this weekend. 10,500 sold out in Pawtucket on the river. If you go watch the highlights,

0-0 tie against San Antonio, you can see the water in the background from the broadcast position, which is like, thank you. The views should always be on broadcast. First of all, the crowd should the broadcast position, which is like, thank you. The views should always be on broadcast. First of all, the crowd should be on broadcast, which is one of the hardest parts about lower division soccer is normally the camera positions are on top of the stands because it's already a built raised area. Therefore, you don't see any of the fans at a game. Not only do you get to see fans, but you get to see the view, the ambiance similar to what Pittsburgh's put together,

but with more fans on the other side. It's awesome. I talked yesterday, Zachary Harreville, former Rebs player, Conno Smith, former Rebs player, Rhode Island made it to the final in their first year. So to host now, your second game in a five day span out for a new building and to do it against the Rebs is like a dream scenario and the revs can't ship anything like this. I don't we just had a combo we're like they're not an MLS cup contender this is a trophy opportunity for a front office group and coaching staff that has been under pressure very recently and I think they are deep enough in the way their academy's

been built out to be able to contend across two competitions and the way that they went out and signed players in the offseason. So I think this is one they should take seriously and be competitive. I can't wait to watch it go down. I have complaints because San Antonio, the top team of the Western Conference, they went to Oakland Coliseum. We helped preview that game with the Oakland Roots for this record crowd in the opening game, and then they go to Tidewater Landing. Just don't put good teams in these scenarios. Like you can't predict everything, but you could assume San Antonio would be competitive. No offense.

Go out there, get some cannon fodder and put it in an opening stadium game. That's the way it should be for every single league. If someone is opening a stadium, new club, whatever, do not try and make it a high profile matchup because the high profile is the event. Like the thing is happening. It's exciting. San Diego's playing their first game ever at home. That's already a big deal. You don't need to add now they got St. Louis, which I think was probably sort of what that was. need to add now they got St. Louis, which I think was probably sort of what that was. But like, that should be conscious for everyone who's organizing schedules and I want that to be said. I have nothing else to add.

You said it all and it'd be a disservice for me to say anything. Chicago Detroit's a fun one as well. I mentioned the Cascadia one, which is a weird one. And then Phoenix Austin. Pamodaka has been rolling with Phoenix. Oh, and another one here. I didn't know this, so I just learned this today. Charleston Battery head to DC United.

They faced off in the 1999 US Open Cup, not the final, even though Charleston has made the final in the fully pro era, MLS era, whatever. After the game, DC players were so upset that they went into the locker room and they broke a bunch of stuff because Charleston came from behind and won an extra time. They tied and then they won an extra time,

including breaking a coffee pot. And so the fans came together after that and deemed it the coffee pot cup. There is a coffee pot, which kind of looks like to me, like when you go to a big event and they have those coffee makers, that's what a coffee pot is. It's not like a kettle that sits on the stove.

It's like the giant industrial ones. And every time they face off, the winner puts their name on it and they have this thing called the Coffee Pop Cup that I had literally never heard of. Obviously Nick Murray's already in the chat posting about it. Cause Nick Murray's finally known about it

for the 17 years that this has occurred. But I didn't realize this. They played of course in the 2008 Open Cup Final, which is a cool one. And then obviously Charleston's one of the teams that hosts a pre-season tourney. So DC has gone down there a ton for that as well. Literally had never heard of this.

Me neither, that's incredible. And thank you to Nick for being in the chat to help us out too. Thank you for educating me there. And yeah, what I would add is Charleston are one of the best USL championship teams. This is for MLS fans who are going to look at this round, I would probably say if you go to like the, oh, that guy, that guy, that guy. Charleston I think has the most that guys. And they're a really good team.

And they just added Michael Edwards on loan from Colorado Rapids, signed Diego Rubio. They have Jackson Conway who's not even playing that much because of- Cal Jennings. Cal Jennings and Rubio is in a crush are in the front line like you kind of go on I believe Aaron Malloy is on that team like there's so many just like oh I know that dude I know that dude I know that dude so this is like this is gonna be like a legitimately strong test for DC on the road for a team that obviously DC has been doing a little bit better

lately but struggle during the season it's also the club that sold Fidel Barajas recently they've had had success selling players into MLS and overseas. So you're looking at a team that's built with some good young pieces, as well as, as you said, a ton of veterans. Nick Murray with the good reminder, which I actually forgot. Troy Lassane's a Charleston native and started his coaching career with the Charleston Battery

before going over to New Mexico United where Zach Prince was his assistant and Zach Prince eventually took over after he left. So a ton of ties there with that matchup and two of the historic clubs like for DC United you're talking for MLS originals at the early days the most successful Charleston. I think they say they're the longest running continuous first division or longest running continuous professional soccer team in the US because from a league through USL's all the different names and now into the USL championship one of the big teams and as you said super talented

group this year that's capable of winning Louisville obviously one of the Giants hosting Minnesota that's a fun little matchup as well. Louisville, a team that can contend. We say Danny Cruz's name every time a coaching opening happens. These are these dumb moments. I say this all the time. People who have these positions to make decisions are stupider than you think. Like, yeah, maybe Danny Cruz knocking off an MLS team or two does actually solidify his opportunity to get a chance. So that's another one that's fun, as well as two teams that don't have a ton of regional rivalry.

So to be able to play a club in the group and then Union Omaha, who have been giant killers in a very short time, they face off against the St. Louis team that needs wins, but also could be susceptible. And I think that's a convenient trip. I think Omaha is closer to Kansas City if I recall this. I think both of them are like a drive. Basically what I've been told is Omaha people are either cards or

Royals fans. I can't remember that right now and it's like you can go to a game and then get back. I'm a huge Omaha fan. I love Omaha and also shout out to the Owls, fellow Owls out there as well. You broke a little news, so let's get into it. We already talked about the Club World Cup and all of that, which you can read about on Give Me Sport, in which Tunis is obviously shafted, as you'd expect. You had a couple updates on some of the big names we've been talking about for a while. Yeah, so look, I know I'm going to get asked plenty of times about Kevin De Bruyne, Paul Pogba, Thomas Muller. These are three big, big stories to watch heading to the summer.

For me, it's varying degrees of likelihood. So let's start with the most likely, Kevin De Bruyne. Kevin De Bruyne, Chicago Fire, or pole position would probably be a good way to describe it. They have the rights now as well. Coming off of Formula One weekend. I wish I planned that. Again, this was already art had previously been most some elements of this already reported by our guy Paul Tenorio of the athletic To build on that to confirm that yesterday are in pole position as myself and Ben Jacobs have been reporting since February He want like MLS over Saudi MLS over Saudi MLS over Saudi Maybe life-changing money changes that but we've been getting that message this whole time

So in Chicago or the MLS team that would be leading it. I've heard some Optimism from people around the Chicago fire. There is no decision yet from De Bruyne He wants to make a decision within the next few weeks for one to see If there's clarity on if you can play at the Club World Cup. I don't know any of what I'm about to say for certain. This is just my assumption. If you're the Chicago Fire, you probably say no to that because this contract doesn't extend through that. The way that that would have happened, I

think, is if he signed for NYCFC, then it's all within City Football Group. Let him play. But we don't know. That's something that he kind of wants clarity on for the future. And and like on a human side You have to know if you're playing the club or not So that you know your final home premier league game is your final game for Manchester City I think all those things like look that's not that's not gonna supersede whether he's ready or not to make a decision But I know that's something he wants to have that clarity So for Kevin Ibroina Chicago Fire and I was told that they do have discovery now because and this is why San Diego didn't hold squat on his rights

because Miami had them. M. West said, well, you can offer him like 800,000. They can offer him whatever the hell they want. We're not letting this be a situation where any team who's not realistically going to sign this player or at least cannot put up the funds that other teams can we're not gonna let you kind of hold on to these rights and that wasn't suggesting that Miami or San Diego or anybody else was going to but M. West was stepping in ahead of time right the reason this is different than the Markle Roy situation

where Charlotte got 400,000 in allocation money he took significantly less to sign with the LA Galaxy than what Charlotte had already offered yeah and Charlotte were pissed. So they'd done their job. And Charlotte were pissed because they felt that the Galaxy kind of you know went around them. So that's that's why these two situations differ and again that's why San Diego like it's not like they were giving away free allocation money. So that's where that is with the bright-up. Thomas Mueller. I will just say I think so if if he plays for Man City his last ever game depending on how things go could be against all IE

At the Mercedes-Benz, which is as romantic as you can go out as a longtime Manchester City player I don't think he'd be playing in the club workup at all if if he can't extend the contract Okay, I'm just saying if it happens man. That's the thing you drew about as a kid Changing money, by the way, I think he's made 150 million euro pounds in his career. Some Google thing said his net worth is $80 million. So curious what that number would be. Look, you never have enough money is what these things come down to. So that's Debrayna.

Quote quote Tom. No. Paul Pogba. Nothing new since we talked on the show where again I don't know how realistic this is. I know it's not advanced but you know weird things can happen or decisions get made. You know nothing new on that front but Thomas Mueller he's been connected continues to be connected with LFC by German outlets or German reports. Sources are a little bit dubious. I know that there's been at least preliminary talks and I don't know if that's driven just because there's a club partnership between LAFC and Bayern. The idea that something is advanced, a couple people said, you know, I don't know

about that. So that's just kind of where that is. Again, I've previously reported that Cincinnati made a run to sign him and he rejected it. So I don't know what those finances were. I don't know what where his mindset is. We'll see how this evolves. I think it'd be cool if he came. But the sporting fit for him with LFC not snug because of the way they play and they don't play with a 10 where he could be a second forward or something. So it's all it doesn't totally pass the sniff test at the moment. But that again that doesn't mean it won't happen

It's just that you know kind of pumping the brakes on that one a little bit Okay, and then the other stuff that you've sort of been talking about the last week, which is obviously fascinating for all of us Is a ton around the Academy ranks. So we mentioned we talked about the Philadelphia Union. We talked home groans Diego Rocio who was one of their star pieces alongside Kevin Sullivan in this u-17 group that's been super successful Neil Pierre who just picked up an injury has pushed into the first team from this group Anissa Edie was traded from this group into San Diego because it didn't feel like there was a pathway for him and now Rocio Signing with RSL at the real monarchs level for now and leaving Rocio signing with RSL at the Real Monarchs level for

now and leaving the Philadelphia Academy. Correct. Real Salt Lake acquired the homegrown rights to Diego Rocio and they've signed him to a professional contract. That deal starts with the second team for the rest of this year and then in January turns into a first team homegrown deal. Philly had offered him a second team deal that did not have a homegrown guarantee and he turned that down. For Philly it just comes down to you can't sign everybody. You don't have enough room for everybody to play even if you did have room to sign everybody. So let's start with Rocio's side. Rocio is a dual national. He's played for both the United States and Mexico at the youth level. He's most recently been with Mexico. So I'm

referring to him as a Mexican youth international. He's a very talented player He won player of the tournament at last year's GA Cup that team that had Neil Pierre and Kevin Sullivan and a bunch of dudes Who are either already pro or also gonna be pro. He is a very very talented player. There's just isn't room Riel Salt Lake Were aggressive and wanting to bring him in and you know I know that some other MLS clubs have called and some teams in Mexico have been interested. But it's Real Salt Lake that laid out a path and kind of got the deal done. So that's exciting.

What is tangentially related to this is that Philadelphia Union signed Malik Jakubovic to a pro deal that starts with the second team and goes into the first team. Goss, you're gonna be able to speak to it better than me. But the people I spoke with at the club, look, they really like Saidi. They do really like Diego Rocio.

But if they had to pick one of them, it was Jakubovic. It was like, this is our priority. And that is nothing against the other two players. This is how highly that they rate this player. And if there's no room in the team, they don't want to block Saidi. They don't want to block Rocio just so they you know, they can keep them within the organization. There is no realistic playing time for these players. And Jakubovic is 15, Eddie Davis is 18,

he's in the first team. So if, like when Jakubovic is ready for first team minutes, they don't want to have two other Academy guys to try to split those minutes, that won't be very much. So that's kind of how all of this is connected and Goss kind of give us a breakdown of Jakubovic Jakubovic is like a centerfold not like he's a true center forward Tall for his age and so we'll see where he grows into

But not just like pure target center forward drop in unbelievable feet able to create his own shot in like really creative ways You know drops in Cruyff skies opens up the game and then can finish as well. I Would say he's the best center forward prospect I've seen in the last five whatever years Pepe was the top of that list for a while Pepe more of a pure finisher Yakupovich probably more complete game but what you just said is absolutely, right, which is He's the prospect, Kevin Sullivan's gonna take a ton of names. I think Neil Pierre's national team potential. He's the prospect. And if you're trying to figure out the pathway at that position,

it starts with how do you get him through his career pathway into your first team? And everyone else you figure out around that. And for Philly, they end up in a situation where they'll get money for Anis Saidi and Diego Rocio to play at a first team level. It just won't be with them and that's just the nature of it sometimes. Yeah, I agree. And it's a good problem to have and it's just another sign of how good the Union Academy is producing and they're going to get some allocation money now. There's going to be bonuses, there's going to be a sell on so I think it works for everybody and I always love when teams don't block players. players elsewhere in the ice cream shop is Lucas Harrington, Australia Youth International Center back Colorado Rapids have signed him. He'll join in 2026.

I've talked to people who like people like there was a ton of top European clubs from the top five or six leagues that were interested. The player wanted to play first team soccer and he knew that that was the pathway in Colorado was better. And again, I think that that is a really important theme that that can continue for major league soccer and I think that's smart for the player rather than playing U23 for somebody getting loaned out like come to Colorado Colorado so yeah like that and lastly Orlando City have elevated Ricardo Marrera to sporting director in CSO while Luis Muzi has been promoted to special advisor to ownership So that's one to watch going into the summer again it'll be Ricardo Marrera calling the shots he's somebody who's been interviewed for

a lot of other CSO jobs. He ended up staying in Orlando and now he'll be running the show. Yep exciting stuff for Orlando things are on the right track you want to be able to keep them there it's been a question mark coming up because as well Oscar Preja all their question mark coming up because, as well, Oscar Preja, all their contracts were coming up at the end of this year, but the success has been strong, so now they're able to restructure things and put them together. Well, we'll be back tomorrow to talk NWSL. We'll be back on Thursday to recap everything we see in US Open Cup.

We'll talk about the Knicks 2-0 lead over the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Semifinals, and of course, we're getting ready to preview the weekend So thank you to all of you for joining a lot of fun in the chat Thank you for the mailbags to everyone in the discord. We enjoy being in there so much Thank you to all of you for listening wherever you do it and we'll talk to you again very very soon You