SoccerWise - Live From MLS All-Star

Episode Date: July 23, 2024

The Soccerwise team has descended on Columbus, Ohio, to bring you a special live show recording in honor of MLS All-Star Week. To celebrate, Tom and Gass welcome Columbus Crew striker, Christian Ramirez, on to the show to discuss his time in MLS (from Minnesota to LA and Columbus) and give him the chance to charm the live audience with tales from the road. Tom even sneaks in a few scoops before Gass asks the live crowd to answer surprisingly hard trivia questions. Be sure to catch Soccerwise live on YouTube and Twitch at 2pm ET every Tuesday (with Gass and Tom), Wednesday (with Gass and Jordan), and Thursday (with Gass and Tom).Soccerwise Live 2pm ET Every Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday on Youtube/Twitch/Twitter

What's up everybody? Welcome to the only ever live SoccerWise show of all time. I mixed this song myself so you know it's well DJed and well played. I am David Goss. If you don't know us, I don't know how you ended up here, but I really appreciate you being here, and I hope you will listen to us for the rest of your life. This is Tom. We are SoccerWise. We are two-thirds.

Jordan Angeli not with us. Shout-out to the legend of Columbus, though, Jordan Angeli, right? I forget when there's a live crowd that you can yell stuff, and they'll cheer, and it's like the best feeling. Is this what your life is like? Yeah, a little bit. And this is the fourth host of SoccerWise. Full time.

He does the show twice a week. Christian Ramirez. You guys know him. Christian Ramirez, everyone. So, Tom, this is our first ever live show. Thank you to Landgrant for hosting us. Thank you for having us here. And shout out to Nordeka for being a co-host with us.

Shout out Nordeka. I was told I could say both. I was officially told I could say both. Is this a bit? No, I was told I could say both. Is that not true? Christian, you're our expert. Good first question to our guests. You're going to walk away. I'm putting Christian in a tough spot.

If you see behind us and you don't know, we are SoccerWise. We are a soccer podcast. We focus on North American soccer, mainly MLS and NWSL, as well as the national teams. We do four shows a week, three of them live on YouTube and Twitch, 2 p.m. Eastern time. There are QR codes. If you scan the QR codes, you can find all our info. You can go to our Patreon, which means you can give us money, which is sick for you. I'd prefer if you didn't, but if you choose to, that's okay.

And you can find our podcast, our show, our channels, all of those things. We are here because it is MLS All-Star Week. How excited are we for that? You don't have to fake it. We don't work at the league. It doesn't matter to us. We just need an excuse to come to a city and drink. And it was the perfect excuse in the end. Tom, how you feeling?

I feel pretty good. I feel sorry for the Cornhole League. I'm sorry for interrupting your Monday night. But you're going to get us instead of music. Which some would say is preferred. Not many. Not many. We're basically dead and co. Tom went to a dead and co show last night. He almost missed today's show because he had to go to the dead and co show. So that's what we're dealing with right now. And we have a couple of topics. We have some stuff we want to talk about. But Christian was nice enough to not know we show up on time. You showed up

early. I tried. So you're going to do our chat with us we were going to open the show by talking about it is somewhat the midway point of the season the supporter shield race in MLS there are a few teams left alive in it there are a few teams competing for it so we're going to talk about who we think is going to win the supporter shield

are you ready for that Convo? ready there are some teams that people are naming FC Cincinnati is one of them. Thank you. All of that feels accurate. That feels historical. Journalists, capital J journalists right here.

Tom will report it, and we'll get into his scoops in a little bit later. We have LAFC. You guys can't boo something you've already killed, but okay, fine. We've got the LA Galaxy. No one really cares, right? Oh, we've got a Galaxy fan. Shout out to that. Oh, maybe that's why.

We have, what's the other team we have? We have a team called Inter Miami. Have you heard of them? Have we heard of them? Inter Miami? Yes, no? And then we've got Columbus. What about Columbus? So my opening question for Tom, which I'll now switch to you, Christian, is do you think the Columbus crew will win Sporter's Shield by 10 points, 20 points, or 30 points this season? I don't think it matters the points. I think we gave ourselves a shot with the congested schedule

making it to the finals of CONCACAF. So we're alive and that's where we wanted to be. So we got Christian in player code immediately. We've got him in post game press conference. His PR guy, the crew's PR guy is somewhere over here. I've lost where

Rob is. He likes that answer. Rob right now is going like, yes, yes, just like we practiced, yes. So we'll warm him up. We'll loosen him up. So that was a good barometer. Don't we have the most home games left? You're the one reporting. Sounds like you know the answer to that question.

Sounds like you're pretty confident about it. We've got some more questions for you as well. Tom, do you want to give it a take? I dare you to say another team. I dare you to say another team right now. It's got to be the crew. Like you said, with all the momentum that they've got going on, this incredible team, the play style, the fact

that they're this close after having CONCACAF Champions Cup during the season, that kills teams. And here they are on the brink of being in first around points per game. So yeah, it's got to be them. They're the best team in the league. Have you guys ever had more fun watching a team than this crew team right now? Yeah, you are all spoiled.

So congratulations and enjoy it for as long as you can. It's been pretty special. It's been pretty awesome. We did on the show, what, two weeks ago, we talked about the run, right, all the goals and all the games and putting up five goals every single game. Christian, when you're in that zone, when you're in that place, do you notice it? Was there a moment where someone comes in the locker room and they're like,

you know who scored like 20 goals this week? Yeah, you notice it. It just, I don't know. Even like the game in L.A. when it was 0-0, we just felt like it'll come. It'll come. And then it just spiraled into that. Yeah, so it's a special zone to get into we just need to get back into that because obviously this week sort of crushed us a little bit with the travel

um felt like we were zombies all week traveling from west coast to all the way to atlanta so uh yeah we're recharging you that's why we brought you the land perfect everyone buy land grant beer it'll recharge christian so buy as much beer as you possibly can and get involved, and then Christian will be super excited about that. We obviously have to talk about your best friend, Cucho. You guys are boys. Is it just two Colombians hanging out? It's like an older brother and little brother.

Does he like to call you older brother, or was that a sunning moment right there? No, he calls me that. Sometimes it's the other way around. But, yeah, it's a good relationship that we have. And we feed off of each other. And I think he looks to me at times when he's about to burst and looks for me to calm him down and tell him everything's going to be all right.

But, yeah, he's special. And it looks for me to calm him down and tell him everything's going to be all right. But, yeah, he's special. And obviously that's why he's where he's at right now. And that's why he's having the season again that he's having. And he's fully bought in. So it's fun to see it day in and day out. The relationship is so pure and it's so obvious to see even from the outside, just the way that you guys interact with each other. It seems like it happened pretty quickly.

How does those connections get started so fast and so pure? And how do you kind of know, like, within days of just a couple training sessions, a couple minutes in a locker room, being like, oh, yeah, like me and that guy, we're going to be boys? I don't know. It just materialized, really. In reality, it's just the trust that he saw in me

and that I saw in him. I wasn't after him for Cucho, per se. I was more after him to build a relationship, to get to know him, and to help push him to the limits that this club thought he could get to and thinks he could get to. And I think I've done that, and our track record speaks for itself. Does anyone have any favorite Cucho moments so far that anyone thinks of? Chugging the beer. Chugging the beer?

Yeah, everyone does that. Multiple people said that. That was great. What was the beer? Was it Miller Lite? It has to be Miller Lite, right? Christian's like, I'm not going to speak here. I don't know.

I think it was at Cincinnati. Okay. Right? Do you always chug a beer if you beat Cincinnati? Is that the rule? If they give you one for free. If they give you one for free. That makes sense.

Good point. He caught a beer that was chugged from the stage. Yeah. Wow. That's new who level stuff. That's historic. Do you have a favorite Cucho moment besides chugging a beer? You could say the same if you want.

Oh, yeah. He's trying to figure out what are the private moments. Yeah, it's like, wait a minute, I can't say that. I got to move everything. Yeah, the Diego celebration, that, I can't believe that that's taken off the way it has. Have you seen that? They're calling him, yeah. Yeah, he had been bugging him since Diego signed, like, hey, he walks like he's, like, a dinosaur.

And then he notices when he, like, jogs, it's the same thing. And it just picked up in New England. It was the first time that he celebrated like that and then did a dance after that game in the locker room, and it just says, we're in L.A. Is everyone a fan of it? Yeah, Diego's good okay with it now. At first, it took a little convincing.

Diego's the littlest brother in this relationship. Give us that story. It sounds like there was him being like, I don't really like that. Yeah, Diego's like, no, we can't do that in public. And it just happened, that goal celebration. And now we were warming up in L.A. And we turned to our right. And people are like, hey, Christian Cucho, look, I got Diego.

And we look, and he's got like an inflatable dinosaur. No. No way. And, yeah, so now we had to take a picture with it. And it's out there. Halloween this year better be a full team of dinosaurs. Let's get – everyone in the crowd needs to be in one too i need this to be full jurassic park then going forward uh we had done what's cucho's cheat meal but i don't know that we have to out cucho on that

do you have a team we had nice no but so when he was uh when he was on timeout this year, we were watching the national game at my house. And then we got caught at the zoo because I was injured. So we got caught at the zoo. This is like with animals, like the real zoo. Yeah, we were at the real zoo. Not a dinosaur joke. And then we went to my house afterwards to watch the game. And he was like, let's order food.

And I was like, what do you want? He said, I don't know, something I've never eaten. So we did a tour of Chick-fil-A, Taco Bell. There was barbecue food. There was just, like, food that he had never experienced. And he loves Taco Bell, I guess. Way to go. Yeah.

I think that's a bad thing. So his timeout was probably over, and then he still needed one more game to keep recovering from all the meals. Yeah, so it was the first game of his timeout, and then, yeah, so it worked out. The guy in charge of all of it, Wilfred Nance, did you know that Impossible was an opinion before you met him, or did you just find out? No, I had heard that he is uh special okay uh in the way he does things um and when i had my first conversation with him it was just like isa passed over the phone to him and he spoke to me for a couple minutes and he's like i'll pass it back to isa and that was it so um so there was

less running through the walls from that. You were not as hyped. No, I was just like, that's all I'm getting. And, yeah. I might not play much. Yeah, so that was my first conversation with him. And then, yeah, he's been special ever since. And it's been awesome to be a part of.

Once you got in front of him in person, how long did it take to understand like what's going on what he's like and and how it changed it seems to change people that play under him yeah i think me and tom need like a non-say week just to get in shape no i just like i think it's the he just lets you be yourself he gives you a blueprint of what he expects, and these are his principles. And then within that, he gives you some freedom to express yourself. And he doesn't crush you when you're making mistakes. He's got this whole thing where it's like,

I won't start the same team next week just because we won. I won't switch it just because we lost. I won't start you next game because you scored, which is like opposite of every coach that i've ever come on man no there was a moment this year where i scored and then he benched me the next game and i came on uh the next game i started i scored and benched me again i was like well what's going on um but it's just he just takes every game for what it's what it's worth and then moves on to the next one. So his man management, the motivating, like that's through MLS Cup.

A lot of stories came out about what he was doing, a conference championship, MLS Cup. What is your favorite or your best kind of Wilfred Nancy motivating the team, instilling that belief? Like what, when he went to great lengths, what was your kind of favorite? I don't even think it was great lengths it was before Club America um we had just been told that Lucas wasn't going to be around anymore that he was gone um and that was two hours before the game and before he put up the lineup he goes if anybody can't play in this game tonight and hides tonight they can't play for me and everybody's like looking around like uh what and then that happened against club america that i'm i feel simple i think that i

wouldn't have played it was simple but everybody looked everybody looked around was like all right well nothing to lose so because club america had just done to st lou, I think it was at 5-1 or something. So, yeah, and then we went and did what we did. So it was fun. I think at that moment he realized, okay, we got something special. Now I think we all now know Wilfred Nance, his motivation has limits. The limits seem to be potentially the runs in Mexico. Can you tell us about Pachuca a little bit now that we're all just hanging out? The nightmare that was Pachuca? Yeah. And maybe what you don't eat anymore. Yeah. No, so it started,

I've seen people talk about, okay, you shouldn't drink the water. You shouldn't have done, brush your teeth with sink water. We didn't. It wasn't a communal around one sink? Everyone brushing with the same toothbrush? It was water bottles that apparently we took and stuff. Yeah, we all were sick. One by one. Before the game, this wraps it up for you guys.

Before the game, there was about six stalls. Yikes. We're in the locker room about an hour before the game. Every stall that whole hour was never open. It was a rotation of

Because you got to flow within the formation. There's a structure but he lets you use creativity. That was the pinnacle of it. The two days leading up it was like it sucked because obviously we did everything to prepare for that game. And it was just one by one. Like Diego was night one and woke up the next morning and was telling us.

And me and Kooch were like, well, we're good. Like we feel fine. Sucks to be you. It must have been what you ate. And then a couple hours later, now we're down. And then just one by one. Yeah. Have you ever seen anything like that in a team?

No. Like, was everyone like, let's just play and get it over with? Yeah. I mean, I think there came a point where we were like, does somebody say something to the media? Because we didn't want it to come out as an excuse afterwards. And I don't think we fully treated it as an excuse. I mean, you almost won the game.

You were toe-to-toe through a ton of that, or whatever body part you want to use for that. So that was, I think, our biggest thing. We were like, we don't want it to come out as an excuse, so maybe we should tell somebody beforehand. But in the end, it was like, maybe it's just part of the story that the legacy that'll be fun afterwards to talk about yeah uh which clearly it wasn't but what an experience what an experience so you guys are hinted at it do we think that there

was a little subterfuge going on there what do we think no comment move on i think kucho hinted at it pretty well yeah i don't know he chose not to look at you that time and calm down yeah he i think he said something in the press afterwards and um but it's pretty weird that we were the only ones yeah uh yeah because our family stayed at the other hotel, and they were fine. So, I don't know. Sorry, spin zone, nice at Pachuca, whatever happened, to leave the families out of it. Have you looked at the League's Cup bracket ever? Yeah, we can.

You know? Yeah. Who told you first? Because I looked that up, and I was like, I'm the only one. Does everyone else know this? So, you guys are all locked in. Yeah. Who told you first? Because I looked that up and I was like, I'm the only one. Does everyone else know this? So you guys are all locked in. Yeah. Tough.

I thought I was going to drop a bomb and be like. No, but what can happen? Oh, it's actually funny of you to ask. So clearly you guys want them, right? That'd be fun. Yeah. In your building? It would be, yeah, I think it'd be pretty fun.

Any goal celebrations cooked up for something like that? What does that look like? Yeah. In your building? It would be, yeah, I think it would be pretty fun. Any goal celebrations cooked up for something like that? What does that look like? It could be... Yeah, you should do a big Taco Bell order. I tried to prep Kucha's stomach with Taco Bell. Clearly didn't work. Okay, well, a lot to be excited about there.

A lot going on. Does anyone have any favorite Christian Ramirez moments that we should know about? My man in the yellow jersey put his hand up. He put his hand up before he was ready. I get it. I was one of those too. Yeah, Ravi, what? Hell is real. Hell is real. That was a fun one.

How quickly did it take you to find that? So you've moved a couple times. Tell me, like, when you move, how do you figure out a new team, a new city, and how quickly does it take to pick up stuff like rivalries and animosity and all that stuff? The rivalries, the guys already had told me, and I was like, ah, it can't be bigger than, like, the LAFC versus Galaxy, like, that sort of stuff.

But within the city, you feel it. And then, obviously, you're driving down there, and you see the big sign and everything. So, yeah, it was cool. And to see their stadium uh embrace it the way they did and then when we came back here um after losing there that first time and come back here and then i think we won 3-0 uh it was yeah it made it feel like okay yeah it is something very similar um you've played in a couple places, including in Aberdeen, which Tom had like 17 questions about.

Did you learn the language? Would you like to ask your questions now? No, my daughter had an accent when we were coming back. Because one of my teammates, Johnny Hayes, had a daughter similar age, and they would hang out almost every day. And so, yeah, she came back. She had a little accent um i had words here and there that i'd get caught saying but uh yeah give me a couple of unless

unless that they're cursing speak to us in scottish no i don't have it anymore i don't scrub that out you've uh you've played in minnesota for a ton of time and now here are you a midwesterner? I guess so, yeah. Yeah? Yeah. Can we get a shout-out for the Midwesterner? Yeah. Shout-out, Midwest.

It's home now, though, for you, right? Yeah, no, for sure. I go back to Cali, and I can't stand how hectic life is. You guys won. Congratulations. Yeah, the pace of life here is nice. Your dad is, it seems like, besides everyone here, your biggest fan. Is he a Midwesterner?

Is he fully in? He's in and out. He comes in for the games, and then he's out. He's waiting to retire so he can live with me eventually. That's his claim. He goes, I need to retire so I can come live with you and help raise the kids. Or just watch the games.

He's just living life. He's like a little kid enjoying it. What's it like when he's at games? Because you guys, I mean, we saw in L.A. as well, like the whole family. I was surprised he didn't get kicked out of the stadium. He jumped over the barrier. He jumped over the barrier and then he just told the guy,

sorry, that's my son. Don't try this if anybody out here. You got to at least look reasonably like Christian. Yeah, and then Steven picked up Zara, and then they threw Nova down from the stand. Yeah, it was pretty cool. You will go into that game, and you and Diego, obviously, former players there.

What's the conversation or what's the thought like when you play a former team? It was Diego's first time there. I was actually a little surprised that they didn't, like, acknowledge it a little bit because of what he did there. Golden rule player? Yeah, I think that one hurt him a little bit. But then, yeah, that's why he didn't celebrate obviously because it's special ties to that club for me it was like the first time competitively being um a rival that could win there yeah last two times first time was with houston yeah when we went back after i got traded and then they

clinched supporter shield that day on the team that i felt I should have been on nice I did take a picture with the shield with them but uh but that's in the private collection you don't have that out but yeah I mean it felt it felt uh really good to score two goals there finally after being traded that from them yeah that that that leads into where I was going to go next then, and now I think I know the answer is you've moved around a few times in your career. Has there been any, I guess, bad types of trades? Has another team handled it poorly?

Tom has to break news on trades. I hope that you've never found out through me. I didn't, actually. Like Julian did with – Julian Gressle did with DC. Oh, really? No, I haven't um the grim reaper tom the lafc one was was interesting because i knew there was like teams calling but uh that deadline day i finished training and i'm about to head out i was like oh good see you guys tomorrow and then hey they want to see upstairs. And I'm like, oh, okay. Bring your playbook.

Yeah, so. And then Houston was never a team that was even mentioned when there was rumors about it to my agent. And so that was a bit shocking of destination. But then Houston obviously was a spiral of transition for the club at that moment. Minnesota, when I got traded to L.A., my agent kept that one for me because of it being L.A., it being home. And I actually found out when I was at Ethan Finley's house at a team barbecue. I was like, Manny Lagos is calling me.

That was strange. Oh, what's up, dude? I answered it. He's like, hey, are you somewhere private? I was like, not really. I'm in front of the entire team. But, yeah. And then I told those LA, so it was really mixed emotions.

But, yeah, those are the two ways I found out. Go back. So, again, coming home to come to LA, but, like, Minnesota was a home for you. Like, was it brewing for a while that a move might happen? Or did that really – because I know how much you love that club. No, that one happened pretty fast. They signed Angelo Rodriguez. That worked out well.

Yeah. Famous last words. So they signed Angelo Rodriguez. I think my last two goals for Minnesota were against LAFC. And then we played Seattle at home, and I didn't make it off the bench, and Angelo started. And for some reason, as I was walking into the locker room, I just stayed by myself in the stadium and just looked around.

I was like, this might be the last one. And for some reason, I just felt it. And, yeah, I got felt it. And yeah, I got traded. Sad. It was a sad moment for sure. And again, my entire career is built off transfer news and stuff like this and we talk about

it on the show all the time. It's great content. All the fans, we all love it, but the human aspect of this, I think it's lost too often. Yeah. Do you know that everybody goes into locker rooms around this time and refreshes? Tom's feed? Tom's about to go into a spiral.

If there's a rumor that comes out, everybody goes to Tom's page next to see if it's true. He goes, oh, no, it's not. We'll wait for Tom. If you don't want to be in a cesspool of social media, but you still want to be in the know,

if you sign up for our Patreon, in our Discord, we have a feed that's just Tom's tweets, so you don't have to see anyone else. You only see official news. If I don't see Christian Ramirez on the Patreon this week, I'm going to say that this was not worth it. That would be a bad thing. Hold on.

No, no, no no he's already donated he shouldn't have that's fair yeah tell diego to do it tell him to get on we'll get tom tweeting in spanish as well uh but everyone's comfortable everyone's not going anywhere everyone's happy um this transition yeah well we brought up the shield but this team like you went on mls cup what is a conversation like that after obviously conca cap done this year like is it every trophy is it trying to figure out what the year looks like like how do you guys talk about this yeah i mean the post game talk in atlanta was pretty simple it was don't take for granted what we've done to get to this point um we were do a game

like this uh now let's refresh and focus on Leagues Cup and give Leagues Cup everything we have and try and win that. And then after that, we'll focus on the last 12 games. A little vacation before too. Yeah, after this Villa game, we'll have a few days off, which will be nice. So if you beat Villa, you make Europa League and then you come back in. Is that the goal? Maybe. I don't know, Tom. You got the Newcastle jersey. This is a random Newcastle jersey. We're just going to let that sit.

So cool. Shout out to Saturday's football. Ah, nice. Yeah, so I was telling Tom earlier, we had a jersey day a few games back, home game, and my buddy works for and he sent he sent me this one but it was late in the mail, so I Detoured to Ronaldo Jersey and then you came brought it today I was like I might as well wear tonight a land-grant. What a great time to do it saved it for the bigger

Yeah, yeah on that who's best dressed on the team Depends which direction you want to go in okay let's talk tell me what direction let's break this down rudy camacho is can put on anything okay like like if he just won't go down any and he just looks cool yeah he can go the gm route okay and put on a suit and tie yeah or he can go the oversized fit um Kucho's got his own lane. What is that lane? Describe that lane. Whatever he wants to put on, he can try and put together.

Were you just going to break news? Christian's worried about Tom. Tom is a snake in the reeds right now. Yeah, and then you got Darlington, who's ultra professional, and he's got his five outfits that he's going to wear. Does he have those sponsored yet? I don't know. I just saw Wilford has a sponsor for Game Day Fits.

Does he? Yeah, I saw that they posted that. Is it Armani? Is it the turtleneck? It's all nice. No. Who is it? Rob?

No one? They made our suits. Pursuit. Pursuit. I was about to say, wow, it is Armani. This is a good sponsorship because every fan knew it. Pursuit. So let's go. It was worth it. Nice. On that note,

I think we should probably let you go. We're going to do a little trivia and we're going to have Tom break some news. But we promise you, it's nothing about anyone you know. Break it. Do you want to be a part of the breaking news? No, no, no. Don't put him on the spot, or he'll have to say yes whether he wants to or not. Can we get a shout-out here for Christian Ramirez?

Christian is our first-ever guest on SoccerWise. He's our first-ever live guest because this is our first-ever show. I keep thinking you're saying Soccer Wives. He's our first ever live guest because it's our first ever show. I keep thinking you're saying Soccer Wives. Yeah. It was one of the issues when we came up with the name. The other ones were, all names are stupid. It took me a really long time to get around that. Do you know what our logo is on the left?

Yeah. This was part of the problem. It's an owl. Yeah. Christian's like, I can't deal with this problem It's an owl. Yeah, it's like You know the key about logos is they need to be explained that's Usually like when people come on podcast this game, it's like oh, what do you want to promote? And like cuz you're just a really good player a really good dude You kind of like I don't know how to wink

I want to promote something for you other than to just say, keep watching him and keep supporting him, keep celebrating him. Isa, pick up my option. There you go. Future coach of the Columbus crew, current star, goal scorer, Christian Ramirez. Thank you. Appreciate it. What a legend. So Christian's still here, though. He wants you to Appreciate it. What a legend.

So Christian's still here, though. He wants you to break news. So we have a segment called the Ice Cream Shop. If anyone hasn't listened to SoccerWise, Tommy Scoops over here, as Christian has said, is the one who will ruin everyone's life by breaking news about what's going on with them. So we call it his scoops. We call it our ice cream shop.

We do it twice a week, as long as you've still got the juice flowing and you still got it. And it's all in our Discord as well, as I mentioned. So you can subscribe to our Patreon. There are QR codes up. Or you can listen to our show. Anywhere you get your podcasts, search this word.

It's an S, not an F. So there's no one getting married. There's no wives, as Christian cleanly laid out. I'm gonna have to change the name now It's gonna be in my head another rebrand the whole time very MLS. We need to rebrand again So Tom's gonna break a little news and then we're gonna do some trivia for all of you So everyone get thinking about an historic crew moments the trivia we have there's gam and Sam and MLS We have BAM beer allocation money Andrew we be invention there that he's got Tam and MLS. We have BAM. Beer allocation money. Shout out Andrew Weeby. That was an Andrew Weeby invention

there. He's just got content. We're not paying any rights back for that because classic MLS, we don't acknowledge. Yeah, fair. That's true. Weeby's a subscriber, so he has to do that as well. So, let's jump into this real quick and then we'll get into our trivia.

Let's start with the fact that Caleb Wiley's going to Chelsea. Yeah, that deal's done. That was announced today or yesterday. Oh, time is a flat circle here. He went to Chelsea for $11 million transfer fee. Huge, huge deal from Atlanta. The plan is still to go to Strasburg on loan. That wasn't part of the announcement,

but that has been the plan the entire time from when Chelsea started talking to Atlanta, started talking to Caleb Wiley that they view him in Strasburg to continue developing and then maybe get into the first team. For Patrick Vieira? Not anymore. Patrick Vieira quit.

He did. Does he have a new job lined up? The national team job is open. That's, I mean, a lot of people have deduced that. Maybe he'll be in the mix. Patrick Vieira for USMNT. Do we get any excitement there? I see a big thumbs down over there.

What about Wilfred Nance for USMNT? do we get any excitement there? I see a big thumbs down over there. What about Wilfred Nance for USMNT? Club over country? I love that. I love this. We're at the crew supporter bar, of course. I love this. This is development. This is when we talk about youth development in the future of the game,

that right there. Hate the national team, love your club. I don't really have anywhere to go from there. That was kind of my whole rant. Let's do one more here. You've got a trade rumor? What do we have? You have a trade rumor, I think, that you put up.

A rumor? Sorry. You have a report about a trade. That's a personal problem of mine. Yeah, the Portland Timbers are acquiring mason toy from cf montreal and that deal uh i don't believe it's been announced unless it's been announced when we're on stage um it's uh roll the dice for portland to get a talented player as you know insurance up top like their attack has been very very good montreal are going to

hold some of his salary cap hits so portland view it as more of, you know, low risk, high reward. And Montreal continue to clear the decks as they are going into a new phase, a new evolution and trying to continue to overwork that roster. I don't know if Montreal knows what they're doing right now. Mason Toy is a guy's favorite. He's no Patrick Ajamong, but he's up there on the list as one of the best. We have to do two more here because we have two of the best nicknames in MLS history coming into the room. So a player was signed today on loan for a year for FC Dallas.

I didn't even write the team name down. Is it FC Dallas? His name's Manuel Show Cafumana. Just straight up show. He just put it in his name. His full name is Manuel Luis da Silva show kafumana so you're sitting there thinking that's a really cool name and then DC signs who Boris the blade that's what we're gonna get that sort of Boris

the blade you know all right who thinks the best nickname is the blade what about the show I think the show deserves deserves more if this was baseball i would give you that okay force the blade beats that 100 okay well i'm team show on this one um but i guess i'm the only one uh thank you to charlie fiction here for passing us thanks that some beers uh and that's about it on our scoops one of us yeah well i, well, I'm pacing myself. I have one more. So Diego Gomez, Brighton are closing in on a deal with Into Miami to sign Diego Gomez. The deal, there's an offer that's around $14.5, $15 million U.S., up to $18 million. Nothing's done there yet, but everybody's confident it's going to get done.

I think Miami are just hoping that he'll have a big performance at the Olympics. Maybe that price could go up. But again, it would have a loan back or whatever it is, either agreed for the winter to go through or a loan back. So Diego Gomez would stay with Inter-Miami. So he's playing out the year. That's yeah, that's the discussions with Brett. Yeah, I think that makes sense. Inter-Miami are dropping players left and right. I if I was it's right. I think that's a's a phenomenal deal. And I know that they are hoping to get a little bit more, but including the loan back in that, I think I would sign that right now. What would you do with $14 million?

I would not sign Diego Gomez. I'd probably buy a house and a car, but I would not sign Diego Gomez. I was going to say, an executive from another Premier League club reached out to me, saying, hey, what do you think about this? I was like, hey, he's super talented. I'm curious to see, an executive from another Premier League club reached out to me. He's like, hey, what do you think about this? I was like, he's super talented. I'm curious to see what Brighton's playing on for him. And before I – I don't even have an opinion because I was like, Brighton have one of the best transfer records in England?

Yeah. Who am I to be like, oh, I don't know if that was right. Nice. You are – you're Tom, as Christian said. You're the one everyone's going to on their feet. All right. You mentioned the olympics u.s olympics starts on wednesday yeah right the men's team plays france in the opening game of

the olympics of all olympics for the paris olympics on wednesday and then the women's team plays zambia on thursday any juice for it i'm excited that'll be a nice little pregame for the all-star game there you go no one we know everyone here hates the U.S. National Team, so we're fine. You don't need to cheer or not cheer. Don't even... Schulte. I was going to say, we didn't get Aiden Morris. He's not through. Do you think he's going to start? He's not on the team. I think he should. I don't know if he's going to or not.

I would lean that I think he's going to, but I think he should. But here's the problem. If he plays, then he'll play more on the National Team and you don't want him to. You have to keep him with the crew, right? There's some contract talks coming up for Patrick Schulte, so maybe it would be better for him to be on the bench with you guys, maybe a little cheaper.

That's a good one. I don't think I've talked much about that. Yeah, there is discussions between Schulte and the club. He wants to stay, the club wants to stay. They are not close, the last I heard, in terms of contract talks. It's early. We'll see what happens. But that's something to put on your mind. So Tom's going to ruin your

night after all of this. He'll talk about the end of the rain and everything coming. But the crew are obviously already through to the next round of the League's Cup, rolling in the League and doing a fantastic job. Also have a great history. So we're going to do a little trivia here.

We've got our BAM tickets, our beer allocation money. We haven't yet, in classic MLS fashion, set the roster rules around these. So what we're going to do is we're going to give them to you, and then we're going to decide in a matter of time what they're worth and how you can use them and who you can use them on. By the time you go up to the bar, the rules might have changed. Like, oh, red ticket? No more. There's a decent chance by the end of this, they're not even for beer.

It's just a whole different thing. Does anyone feel brave and would like to come up and try and answer some questions? They are historical in nature. I saw the first hand come up. We got one in the middle. Let's go.

You want to come up? We've got four, I middle. Let's go. You want to come up? All right. We've got four, I think, three? Three. Okay, cool. Good math. Wonderful. Yeah, thanks.

Thanks, Charlie. All right. So you guys can stand there. I didn't really have a plan, so I'm just going to make this up as I fly. I feel weird being out here. Yeah, okay. I don't even play. Yeah.

We have three questions. They are technically listed as easy, medium, and hard. Whoever knows, raise your hand first. We go to you. You answer it. You get some beer allocation money for that. You can trade it out for a cash injection if necessary, but you can only use it between April 5th and March 7th,

and in that direction, And in that direction. So whatever that means. Let's start with this. We're going to start Historic Crew Stadium. Who scored the first goal at the opening of Historic Crew Stadium? See, you should have raised your hand before and come up. I can give some clues as well. He is a great Columbus goal scorer.

Nope. Nope. So we have McBride and Mazenoff, no. Nothing to lose here. Stern, John, also a no. So all three of you got it. Hold on. This is easy?

This was an easy question. This is what SoccerWise's dad said was easy. Yeah. So we're in trouble. Someone in the crowd knows it, but come on, let's get another guest. You guys can all guess again. A great Columbus goal scorer. One of the many scored. No. All right. It was Jeff Cunningham. Well, we just saved beer allocation money because no one gets it. We'll figure that out later. Well, this is only going to get worse now. What color is the Columbus crew?

Columbus's first goal at lower.com field was scored by Gyasi Zardes. That wasn't even the question. But his goal leveled the score. What New England wingback scored the game's opening goal? Very close. No. He plays in Italy now. He's Canadian. He's Canadian. Buchanan. very close no he plays in italy now canadian buchanan let's go the first bam ticket in soccer we're not giving all these away by the way that's we got a very fat one thank you it? So this is not our fault.

Chance it with me. Not their fault. Not their fault. On April 13, 1996, at Ohio Stadium, Brian McBride tallied. This is an insane thing to even say. This is ridiculous. Brian McBride tallied the first goal ever scored by a crew player, but it was not the first goal awarded to the franchise.

What D.C. United player scored an own goal for the opening goal own goal to for the opening goal no but i love that you even tried like oh my god if you knew that i would have lost it i know that i'm gonna open this up yeah nobody look on your phones but if somebody actually knows it in the crowd also if you do look on your phone good luck because tom will come at you charging at you he literally said to me when we were coming over, he's like, if someone looks at their phone, I'm going to lose it. I honestly can't give you a clue because I don't know who this is. He

only played indoor soccer. Yeah. No. It's a great name. His name is Thor Lee. Shout out for Thor Lee. Excellent name. And shout out to all of you. All three of you are going to get a ticket

because you guys were great. Do I get two? Yeah. But again, I love that. But again, if you use both of those together, then you have to use discretionary money to buy the rest of the beer.

So just keep the rules in front of you. We have some all-star questions as well. Does anyone feel good on all-stars? then you have to use discretionary money to buy the rest of the beer. Yeah, so just keep the rules in front of you. You get one and a half. Yeah. We have some all-star questions as well. Does anyone feel good on all-stars? We're not getting one. These are a little bit older than you, so I'm a little bit worried. These might be easier. All right, let's go.

Come on, be brave. They all got a beer ticket if you lose, you're a winner. Here we go. There you go, Eli. All right. All right, welcome. Can we go. All right. All right. Welcome. Can we get a cheer for them?

Okay. So if you have not heard, this week is the MLS All-Star Game in Columbus. Yeah. It's a wild moment. It is the third MLS All-Star Game in Columbus. Can you name the years of the first two? All right. 2005. Love right. 2005.

Love that. Bang. 2002? No. 2005, that's the last we're going to do. We got 2000 as well. Thank you. Well done.

Okay. So in 2000, oh, yeah, give him a beer ticket. In 2000, it was an East versus West game. The East won 9-4. Name anyone that scored a goal in that game and you win this was 2000 no but that was a good guess what you know you guys are all giving good guesses I will give you a clue the East one had nine goals so I'd start there and maybe with a Columbus player I'm your Marino scored a goal there you go all right Brian McBride was the one I

McBride and Dante Washington also scored goals in that game and then in 2005 the MLS all-stars yeah right that's what they're called yeah they beat Fulham four to one can you name anyone who scored in that game one of them is an Apple TV broadcaster and the the other one's already been said tonight. No. Sasha wasn't playing in 2005. He looks good for his age. You never know.

All right, we're going beer over here. Taylor Twelman was the answer. Good job. Jeff Cunningham was the other one. And Ronnie O'Brien scored a goal. If anyone's ever heard of him, you guys can also run up and grab a beer ticket. All of you get tickets. Can you distribute

those for me? Thank you. Alright, everybody. Can we get another round of applause for our crowd? We good? Okay, so thank you all for coming out. Have a great week uh we are so excited to be a part of this um we both love soccer we as well as jordan love connecting with people who care about it in this region as well i think tom said it the best when we started this show which was sports

are not serious but i think we all care about teams, and we can cover them in a way that feels like it's right and feels like it's serious. So we hope you are enjoying our show. If you just stumbled in and have never heard of us, we are SoccerWise at S at the end. I am going to have to keep reminding Christian that for the rest of my life. You can scan the QR codes. If not, search SoccerWise HQ on any social media. We stream live Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday at 2 p.m. Eastern time. Otherwise, you can listen to us as a podcast whenever you want.

Don't listen to tomorrow's show because it will be this. So unless you want to experience all of this again, and Christian told some good stories, you can do that. And we'll be back on Wednesday with our U.S. Women's National Team Olympic preview, full Olympic preview, MWSL talk, and then our all-star reaction. And then we're going to be through League's Cup the whole time, which we hope we'll be back in Columbus for the final of as we go forward. So thank you all for coming out.

Shout-out to Nordecca for helping build this up. Shout-out to Landgrant. This is an absurd setup. This is the most professional I've ever felt in my entire life. Shout-out to Bobby and Charlie. Shout-out to you, Jordan. Shout-out to you, David Goss. Shout out to everybody here.

I don't know about Goss. I assume he'll be the same, but if people want to hang out until this place closes, just... We are going to be here. You guys showing up and hanging out

means the world to us. I'll stay as long as anybody wants to. So feel free, or if you want to say, I don't want to listen to your talk anymore, I would agree with you there.

So we'll be here. Thank you for coming out. Have a great night, everyone.