SoccerWise - Mailbag/Weekend Recap Edition

Episode Date: July 1, 2024

On this week's Mailbag Episode of Soccerwise, Gass responds to a big batch of Patreon subscriber questions with an unbridled enthusiasm that only he could muster! From Copa America reactions (OH CANADA!) to midseason referendums on teams in MLS and the NWSL, Gass covers it all. He's even asked to confront his "hatred" of the Maritime Messi, Jacob Everett Shaffelburg, and he picks three of his all-time favorite Dairon Asprilla moments (and maybe names a roster designation after Mr. October.)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). 2:30 Canada Copa America Reaction15:12 Mailbag Respect For Maritime Messi18:54 Which Shield/Golden Boot Race Is Better MLS vs NWSL + The Potential History In Both28:24 Carlos Tehran's Future With The Chicago Fire31:20 Dairon Asprilla Love36:21 Legacy Contracts In MLS?41:19 Luca Orellano Star Arrival46:05 Fantasy East v West Conference Ultimate Face Off54:04 DC United's Promising Future Soccerwise Live 2pm ET Every Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday on Youtube/Twitch/Twitter

Hey everybody, welcome back to SoccerWise. I'm David Goss. I'm here for your weekend recap. As you know, every single week I do this show Sunday night, Monday morning to sort of give you your weekend recap and digest a little bit of NWSL and MLS action all together before our big shows all week. You know the schedule by now. Tom Bogert, 2 p.m. Eastern time, live on YouTube and Twitch on Tuesday. We have Jordan Angeli talking NWSL on Wednesday, and then Tom again on Thursday. Now this week of course it's a holiday week here in the United States so we've got things a little bit different. Tom will be here with me on Monday night to do a live USMNT postgame reaction show which should be thoroughly depressing so we'll go through it together. We'll be back on Tuesday live. Jordan Angeli is out so we're going to have Lori Lindsay join us on

Wednesday to fill in to talk all things NWSL. We will then be off on Thursday and Friday, and then I will come back next week with your weekend recap show. Now this show, as we like to do, is built by you. If you are a Patreon subscriber, you get to put things into our Discord mailbag, and that becomes the rundown for this show. And it was a loaded mailbag this weekend. I had to do a lot of math. I hate math. So I hope you enjoy this show. This is for all of you. We believe here at Soccer Eyes to give you the best coverage of North American soccer every single week. The expectation that the Canadian women's Olympic roster will be announced later today on Canada Day. So happy Canada Day to all of you celebrating for that.

We'll break that down on Wednesday. We did the U.S. Women's Olympic roster last week as basically a live reaction show with Jordan Angeli. So if you want to hear that, go back to last Wednesday's show. Me and Tom have been talking Copa America, Weston McKinney to FC Cincinnati, the huge injury news in New England and Cincinnati, Tiago Almada's potential transfer that feels pretty done now all week long. So you can go back and listen to all those episodes. This is where you get all the talk, all things soccer wise. We're talking those things here at SoccerWise. So let's start to dig in here.

For weekend thoughts, let's start with Canada. What a moment. Qualifying for the knockout rounds of the Copa America in their first ever appearance. It is everything Canada was hoping for in bringing Jesse Marsan. And it was tough. You get Chile in a must-win game for Chile down in Orlando. The atmosphere was on point. It was one of the best that I've heard here at Copa America.

You saw Canada fans, but you saw a ton of Chile fans. So this is not an easy moment. This is not an easy game. And my man Richie Larea steps up once again. He is the penalty merchant merchant he is the red card merchant he does it to another person in another country in another confederation there is no getting away from the power that is Richie Larea now it's not just trolling it's not just CONCACAF he's aggressive he puts defenders on their heels he He makes life hard, but he also understands the moment. He understands how to get under opponent's skin without losing his own mentality of what he has to accomplish in the game.

He draws the second yellow card early. That sets up Canada in a tie and move on situation. You'd love to see them put it away at 1-0. You would love to see them score a goal at some point over the course of that game. It felt like Jonathan David had chances. Obviously, Tanny put one in the back of the net, slightly offside. It felt like they created a number of chances or half chances in this game to get the breakthrough. But as Sean Kay, who was on this show to review the Peru game, which is the reason Canada was in this position anyway,

was their victory in their second match, said to me, it's tournament soccer. You don't play the abstract, you play the opponent. Canada's job was to tie this game 0-0 and get into the next round of Copa America. That's exactly what they did. And that is exactly what Canada has always failed to do. When you go back and look at the two big losses to Honduras to try and get into the hex of World Cup qualifying.

When you go back to 07 and you look at Canada, quote unquote, men's soccer, that has been one of the huge gaps, was not being able to get over the line in moments where it wasn't pretty soccer that was required. It was understanding the moment and the necessity for your team. So they get over that line, huge accomplishment for this team. They've now won CONCACAF World Cup qualifying as a group. They've now qualified into the Copa America knockout rounds. They, of course, played fantastic in Gold Cup two years ago in that semifinal,

probably had done enough to beat Mexico, ends up getting a little bit wonky. But that's a learning experience, right? You talk about that performance, that game. I think of one specific player, Stephenustachio who in that game against Mexico was elite in possession he did everything he is great at and when you talk about this Canada midfield and the question was does Ismael Kone come out does Jonathan Osorio come in how do you reshift this midfield with the way they've performed I think one of the things we always say or at least I do is is, well, it's a

little light with Steven Eustachio in there because he's not a ball winner. He doesn't cover a ton of ground. He is a possession player. That was not the case on Saturday night. He was a pit bull in that game. He was everywhere, winning tackles, aggressive. He was not staring and turning and pointing at the ref and asking for calls. He was the one going and getting the ball back. He was the one recovering for this team. He was a monster in that game. And you go back and if you didn't watch it in stoppage time of this game, Chile, it's either a corner kick or a long throw, throwing numbers forward, trying to get that chance. It pops into the box off a header and Eakio chests it back to maxine crepo one of the most ridiculous plays i've ever seen it shows his combination of quality as well as his metal in a game like this it was unbelievable

and he was unbelievable in this game osorio stepped in i thought he did a really good job i'd like to see Kone back in there for the reason Sean mentioned last week of like, that's your future. Build on that right now. But you get Venezuela in a knockout round of the Copa America. This is a really, really good Venezuela team.

Undefeated in the group stage. Three wins. Knocking off Ecuador, but up a player for most of that game. Knocking off Mexico deservedly on that PK. And then knocking off Jamaica in the third group stage game. I have to admit, didn't watch any of that game focusing on the Mexico Ecuador game because that one was a winner moves on or a tie moves on for Ecuador in the end. But this is a Venezuela team that has a ton of quality up top. It has a ton of options in central midfield that control the game.

Young hell Herrera, formerly of NYC FC, a fantastic player, some really special pieces and Christian Casares and Jose Martinez, Darwin Machis on one wing, Jefferson Soteldo, who Canadian fans will know well from his failed time at TFC as well. A lot going into this Venezuela team.

They feel like a team of destiny right now in that this is arguably their best Copa America performance ever. They're going to want to continue that. They are probably one of these teams looking at the new World Cup qualifying format and saying, why not us? And this is a great moment for the sport. We've seen it bubbling up in Venezuela for the last 10 years of you've seen the players leaving the country at younger and younger ages because

other league other leagues other teams have seen the quality there and said okay the setup isn't at a high level the league isn't at the highest level the facilities are not at the highest level but the talent is there so if we go get that talent and bring it at a younger age, we can develop those players. And for Venezuela, it's worked out perfectly. U-20 World Cup champions, U-17 World Cup finalists, and now doing it at the senior level as a group. That's exactly what they've been waiting for. And that's exactly what this country was hoping for. It is not easy for this Canada team, but you are not going to get a better opportunity than playing Venezuela in the United States for a chance at a Copa America semifinals. And I'll just put this out there. We're going to talk about it plenty as it comes,

but you face off against an Argentina and you don't really know what to expect. You do it a second time in a two week span, if it is Argentina that gets through, it's a little different. And so I wouldn't count Canada out yet, but obviously you have to go through Venezuela first, and that is going to be a tough one. So congratulations to Canada. Two quick thoughts on the weekend, and then I will jump into our massive mailbag. For starters, Washington, North Carolina, just an unbelievable game in NWSL. Two different styles, two teams that play it at a high level. And to watch Washington pass, or sorry, to watch North Carolina pass through and around

Washington's press was unbelievable. They were able to cut off Washington's attack by never turning it over in dangerous areas. And that's where you talk about possession can be more than just creating goals, can be more than just passing. It's what, of course, Pep Guardiola lives on, which is using your possession to be in the areas of the field that you want to be in, where if you lose the ball, you are in safe areas. And you never saw Bethune, you never saw Rodman get on the run, get into dangerous areas. And then you saw for Washington, it started to get a little bit plotting when they were in possession and North Carolina put numbers behind the run. Get into dangerous areas. And then you saw for Washington, it started to get a little bit plodding when they were in possession. And North Carolina put numbers behind the ball.

So a huge win, I think, for North Carolina to try and get into the conversation of what could be the top elite teams in the league. I think Vlatko Ananofsky said last week that it was a group of five at the top of this league when asked about the race between him and Orlando. He looped it all the way into the Portland Thorns. The Thorns struggle again, drawing on the road to Utah, being thoroughly outplayed, except for the performance from Sophia Smith as an individual. And then, of course, Utah fires Amy Rodriguez after that, which we will get into later this week. North Carolina is sitting right behind them. To me, North Carolina should be in that conversation. They should be part of that

field of these are the teams that have clear ideas of how they can win a championship. Of course, North Carolina is still looking for a finisher and a goal scorer at the top of all of it. Let's talk the comeback in Vancouver. Vancouver goes down 2-0 at home. Brian White, hat trick. And if you haven't seen the second goal, go and watch it. He's running past the defender. The ball gets put across the back of his body and he flicks it with his heel, picking his foot up behind him. It gets flicked over his own head, over the keeper and rolls in. It is not exactly on purpose, but you talk about the things that makes Brian White great.

You talk about Miroslav White. You talk about Brian Drogba up in Vancouver. He does things very well, a lot of them, and he does them all at a high speed. He can finish at a high speed. He can head at a high speed. He can win challenges at a high speed, and he does it consistently. And that's what makes him such a fantastic player. That's what makes him a player that you wish that the New York Red Bulls still had. And that's what makes him, I think, really huge part of this

Vancouver team. They've been saying all season the goals will come with him. He's had some down stretches. He's had some stretches that have been a little bit of a struggle, but he gets a huge performance here against St. Louis. He scores a classic Brian White goal, going up and winning a header on a 50-50 challenge on that far post. But again, it's a moment that happens a little bit at speed. And so for this Vancouver team, they go down 2-0 really early, the first goal off a deflected goal at home. And then they go down 2-0 and they're able to fight back.

If you haven't seen it, go watch this Brian White goal. It's a pressing moment, which is exactly what Vancouver wants to create chances. He presses in a two with Levante Johnson, who is one of their young players they paid money for to get him from at the time York United or York nine now York United in the Canadian Premier League, which is one of those things really only Vancouver has done

in trying to find players everywhere because they know they're not going to spend on that high end. And the finish is just absolutely ridiculous the ball is behind Brian White he has passed the play and he finds a way to get a touch on it he does it just enough soft enough to keep it under the crossbar which is the maybe the hardest part there and hard enough to get it over the goalkeepers to a huge moment for him and for Vancouver last one here I said two huge prove it games this weekend one for the Revs against Columbus. Two for Colorado against LAFC. Neither proved it.

So neither did not impress. Over the course of the weekend, the Revs lose 5-1. Colorado loses 4-0. I have to say, I didn't think Colorado was that far off of LAFC. I think the scoreline is a little bit more unflattering. I still have Colorado in that top five for conversation in the Western Conference, but this was a tough game for them. LAFC left all three options forward. So anytime they were pressured, if they felt like they had to,

they could play long and then they could attack with numbers there without getting broken. It's one of those games where Cole Bassett struggled a little bit. Georgie Mihailovic struggled a little bit. The midfieldailovic struggled a little bit. The midfield got bypassed and they couldn't find the game. And that's something Chris Armas is going to have to figure out. Which is, if you are a high pressing team and the game is going to be played in the air and direct. But your best players are in your central midfield and your number 10 position. How do you find them in the game at all times?

So that's going to be tough for the Rapids. You look at this LAFC team, look at the performance, if you haven't watched it and you want to, of Kai Kamara this weekend, and think about what Olivia Giroud's going to do for this team. It was consistently Kamara dropping in either to pull center backs or to play into his feet and then create for Bogush and Buanga out wide for them to attack with pace or fill in the space they occupy that he was supposed to occupy or had occupied that is what Giroud is great at and

then Giroud gets in the box and is a goal scorer probably not as fast as Kai Kamara so a little bit of a different look but same ideas and Giroud of, has done it at an elite level over the course of the last few years. Still in the France team. Still a starter for Milan. This team is going to eat when he gets on the field. So let's dig in to our mailbag. Let's start with Spencer who said, I've noticed you haven't exactly been a big Jacob Schaffelberg believer,

but I've given him some credit recently. What MLS or national team player have you done the biggest 180 on, from negative to positive in your analyst career? Andrew Weavey follows in. I don't know who this person Andrew Weavey is and says, yes, Dave, please address your Lord Schaff haterdom. So I'm going to focus on the Schaffelberg part. Jacob Schaffelberg has been awesome. Got the start for Canada over the course of the weekend.

Not sure that he returns there. Maybe he's more effective off the bench. I thought Tayshaun Buchanan finally woke up in his performance off the bench and maybe finds a way to get himself back into the starting lineup going forward. That's a whole other conversation. So with Schaffelberg, I went back 2021. 31 chances created over the course of the MLS season. 2023, full year. This year, of course, not a full season yet.

42 chances created. so that's how big a gap there is in his performances jacob schaffelberg is elite in the things he is great at he's elite at attacking players 1v1 he's elite at creating opportunities in the box for himself and his teammates the things he doesn't do he literally does not. He is in the one percentile on multiple things, including passes completed and offensive, a bunch of defensive metrics as well. He is a weapon. If I ran a team, I want him on my team. Like he is a piece that you can use, but he only works in specific situations. He only works if you can point him in the right direction at the right time and unleash him. He is not an every game player in an everyday moment. He has been fantastic for Nashville. And

there are other players on Nashville that I've done a 180 on. If you're asking that question, Alex Muel being one of them who have been really good for this Nashville team that I didn't expect them to have these types of MLS careers. Schaffelberg is one of them. But the way he plays, he throws the mullet in there. It feels like he's a bit of a meme sometimes, and it feels like he knows it and doesn't mind it. But shout out to the Maritime Messi. He has been awesome.

I hope he stays a part of the Canadian national team setup. It seems like he's a really positive piece of this group, and I'm just hoping to appease my Nova Scotians, as I'd like to go to Halifax Wanderers or maybe a Halifax Tides debut match over the course of the next year because those atmospheres look unreal. Halifax looks like a really cool place to go. And Nova Scotia sounds really fun. So shout out to the Maritime Messi. I'm sorry for all of whatever I've said. Another mea culpa from me early on in this show's history. Let's go to Blue Penguin

on fire in the Discord. And of course, if you don't subscribe to the Patreon, you can do so as well. Soccer-wise on Patreon, we've got three different levels that you can subscribe to. The second and third levels

get you access to the Discord as well as to some other stuff. Our NWSL depth charts, along with our. Women's National Team depth charts, fully published, available to everyone. We are still now testing and working on our MLS depth charts. So we are still combining what myself and Tom have in our notes along with what's available and out there, trying to figure out how we want to build in contract structure and all these other things. But that will be available as well. One of the many bonuses that comes with being a part of the Patreon and of course the Discord. It was the perfect place this weekend where we had national team, NWSL, MLS going on in all corners. Just chatting with people throughout the weekend about all the games was really, really fun. So I appreciate everyone that's in there. And if you're not, come and join us. We've got a listener, an Atlanta United fan in Uzbekistan. So if that person can join in, then you can do so too.

Let's go to Blue Penguin here, though, who says, we've been blessed with an embarrassment of riches this season, and there is no wrong answer. But which Shield race has you more juice approaching the long international and Leagueagues Cup break? MLS with Miami, Cincinnati, LAFC, and the LA Galaxy? Or NWSL with Orlando and Kansas City? And how about the Golden Boot race?

This is an unbelievable question. Let me explain it a little bit to anyone who's not fully paying attention, either to both leagues or to the exact magnitude of what is happening. So in Major League Soccer, you currently have three teams with an over two points per game pace. You've got at the top of the Eastern Conference, Miami and Cincinnati, at the top of the West, LAFC, LA Galaxy slightly behind at 1.9. In history in major league soccer seven teams have ever finished above a two points per game in their season only once ever in 2018 have two teams in the same season done it so anytime you have seen a team break the points per game that two points per game mark they have normally done

it unchallenged and so there wasn't really a race to that shield, except for 2018 when Red Bulls and Atlanta both finished above that mark. Red Bulls ended up winning Supporter Shield on the final day. Atlanta was in a position where win and they clinched it at a Toronto team that had had that huge fall off after winning MLS Cup going to the CCL final. Then they didn't make the playoffs in the final year. Atlanta traveled up to Toronto and lost on that final day. The Red Bulls ended up winning that shield, setting the points record at that year. Then LAFC broke it.

And since New England has broken it in 2021. When New England broke it in 2021, they finished on 73 points. The second highest team was Colorado at 61 in the Western Conference. Philadelphia was second in the East at 54 points. So what you have this year is both a historic season, probably won't break the points record any of the teams at the top of the conversation, but may finish above that two point mark. And to do it in a race is unprecedented in Major League Soccer. Now on the flip side, in NWSL, you have two teams that are still undefeated. 15 games into the season, they are both still undefeated in an absurd mark. Now these two teams are on pace for 58 points this season

when you do the math to 26 matches, which is what gets hard with a little bit here with NWSL. This is going to be the most games ever played in an NWSL season. So you have to go back and look at points per game and then sort of extrapolate it out for a lot of these teams as they go forward. When you look at this 58 points per game for this season. It would be the second best points mark in NWSL history behind 2018 North Carolina. But the other thing about these two teams in Orlando and Kansas City in this NWSL race is they are both currently undefeated. No team has ever gone undefeated in a full season in NWSL history. 2018 north carolina team finished with one loss so if these

teams finish the year undefeated that would set a record if they are able to shift some ties to wins they could break the points per game record and they will most likely break the points overall record because they are going to play the most games ever um the beauty of this is that they play this weekend. These two teams, Orlando and Kansas City, face off for the first time on July 6th. So we'll preview that on Wednesday with Lori. We will talk all about what is coming up. That is just a little note for you to throw in there. So as Blue Penguin said, there's no wrong answers. I go with the NWSL race. The chance to make history for both these clubs. The chance for two teams that didn't make the postseason last year to have this rebound and this response.

You look at what Marta is now able to do in Orlando as her career sort of comes to an end. And then we're going to talk about the Golden Boot race in a second, what the new additions are like in these teams. But to have these two teams push each other week after week, Kansas City, Friday night, 2-0 win. Orlando, Sunday, 2-0 win. They have just gone step for step.

Kansas City explodes for goals. They win a game 5-3. Orlando comes back. They win a game 6-0. These are two teams that are playing at the highest level we've ever seen, and they are pushing each other. And I think that is really, really fun. So I'm going to pick the NWSL race. Let's dig into the golden boot real quick on this one. On the Major

League Soccer side, you've got Chicho Arango and Benteke, who are in this main conversation. So they are both on pace for about 26 or 27 goals over the course of the season. Benteke missing a few games, so it gets a little bit tougher to extrapolate out for what you expect. To me, 27 goals is still the mark for the outrageous season in Major League Soccer. It's no longer the record, but it was for 16 years. So Roy Lasseter set it in early in the 90s in Major League Soccer. It stood from 1996 all the way through to 2012 as the standalone record before BWP tied it in 2012. Since then, Wando and Joseph Martinez have both equaled it. But Joseph tied it in 2019, the same year that Carlos Vela reset his record at 34. So Joseph set it in 2018 at 31. Vela then reset the record the following year in 2019 at 34.

That year, Joseph had 27 and Zlatan had 30. So think about that one year. You have three players who equaled or bettered the record that was set in 1996 that had stood as the standalone record all the way to 2018. To me, that is a year of excellence. That is almost an untouched year. By the way, Vela, 15 assists that year, so 49 goal contributions in 31 games, which is absurd. So you end up in a situation that year where you've got players playing at this excellent level. Arango and Benteke are both on that 27 goal mark,

so there's a pretty good chance that they can match and push each other and get into really special territory but most likely not setting records and not being the first time we've seen multiple players get in a conversation like that so it is a great year in mls it is not the best year then in nwsl you've got you've got got Shawinga right now, who is second in the Golden Boot. Banda, who is first, and Sophia Smith, who is third right now in that conversation as well. Banda came late to the season because she was still playing overseas. And so she right now is on a one goal per game mark for Orlando, but won't be able to play the full complement of 26 games

because was not available at the beginning of the season. Banda, though, could finish on 22 goals this year. Shawinga is on 0.73 and Sophia Smith is on 0.77 for the season. So those are outrageous and absurd numbers. I think you go back two years to Alex Morgan putting up 15 in 17 games for San Diego, being in a race with Sophia Smith, who had 14 goals that year. And of course, that was in a 22-game season. And that's your real comparison. Now, unless Banda continues the one goal per game mark. If Banda comes back down into the 0.7 numbers, even if it's near Smith at 0.77, Sam Kerr still has the best goals per game marks in NWSL history, was over 0.8 per game for three straight seasons.

Lynn Williams was chasing Sam Kerr in all those years. And then Williams slowly increased from 12 to 14 to 16 goals. So you do have one year where Kerr breaks the record for goals per game. And you have Lynn Williams chasing. But I don't know the way this season is playing out where you have these new players changing the league, but then you've got Sophia Smith still carrying her team under an interim manager now they're starting to find their feet tough to say after a weekend like this but you watch this weekend and it's kind of one of those things where it's like showing and band are the new shiny things and everything they do feels so amazing then you go back and you watch Smith

and you say she's capable of everything they are and at sometimes even more because she's plays out on the wing and creates for this team and they're still trying to find things around jesse fleming and she is really the hub of the attack where shawinga i think playing off of some of their great attackers and then banda of course has adriana who scored two goals this weekend has marta as well that there are other pieces in those teams where they're allowed to be singular and allowed to be maybe pure goal scorers at times. It is just, it's so fun. You're looking at three of the great players in the world. You're looking at two players in Banda and Smith

that will meet in the group stage of the Olympics between Zambia and the US. And shout out to the Zambia fans in LA who were right on the corner flag when Banda finally scored and were ready to celebrate security trying to hold them back and they were pure Zambia energy this race feels special so I'm gonna go NWSL again but I think the golden boot one maybe even more than the shield one is

close it just goes to show you how special this season is across these two leagues Trevor J. Morin here who says, what are the odds that Carlos Teran gets a transfer to Europe this summer? What do you think about Chicago fire loaning him to FC Cincinnati for the rest of this season to boost his transfer value for a winter move? Seems like it could be a move to help Cincinnati win now and for the fire to increase the value of a player who both parties would like to move to Europe soon. It's an interesting question, Trevor.

I think it's one of those things that we haven't really seen in Major League Soccer, but could start to change as you start to stratify clubs and say, this is a team that's either a bigger selling team or a team that's in the spotlight more often and has the ability to change a player's value. That hasn't really been the case in Major League Soccer. spotlight more often and has the ability to change a player's value. That hasn't really been the case in major league soccer. It's almost been opposite sometimes where like you send players to Montreal because they'll play them because they don't care as much about pushing for some of the trophies and they have to rotate their pieces rather than double

down and pay for players. And that's where a player gets sold. The Rapids have sort of put themselves in a similar place. The problem with this whole thing is Chicago has to Chicago has been, and I think Tom mentioned it on a show a week or two ago, where he said they have become one of the elite sellers in Major League Soccer. They have done it in at numbers no one else has done with John Duran and Gaga Sloanina. And so Chicago has proven because they've not been good any of those years, that still they are able to at least shop their players and show that they are capable of doing things at a higher level or in a different league based off what they have done in Chicago. Even if what they do in Chicago does not look elite and they struggle as a team.

So Carlos Tehran has 59 starts in his Chicago career, 75 appearances. Gaga Slonina and John Duran combined had 57 starts in their Chicago careers. They both got sold for, you know, I got to do my math here. Eight figure numbers. I was trying to get through all the zeros. Combined, they had 70 appearances uh turan right now has 75 so the assumption there is if carlos turan is going to get sold to europe if he wants to if the team wants to his performances with chicago if he plays well will be enough to get him there and they don't need to send him to a different mls team to get him over the line i also think this is a chicago team with the run they've been on,

even with the loss to Seattle after being up in that game. I think they're a team that has some belief that they can do something this year. And they've got an owner who has expectations. And you don't send Turan to another team as the linchpin of your back three. And a huge piece of that because his athleticism is unique compared to Pineda and Sheehoes or whoever else you have there in what he can do covering over the back and sort of marking or matching up against some of the elite athletic center forwards in Major League Soccer. So I think Duran will probably stay there and I think he'll probably go to Europe in the offseason. Calla K says, okay, after tonight, you have to list your top three Dier and Esprit moments.

Maybe my favorite timber of all time. I love this. I think Doyle put it in his article, the best. These are the types of club legends that create a club culture. It is not always the best player. It's not always the Carlos Velas. It's not always the Sebastian Jovinkos. It's not always the Landon Donovans.

It is these cult classic players players who have these unbelievable moments but also have those ups and downs and are with the team for long enough and Dyron Esprit is that guy there was moments and expectations where Esprit was going to kick on and continue in his form and then look at like a player that you're going to sell overseas or sell to a major league MX club or sell to one of the big teams in Brazil. All of those things that we're seeing a lot of players do now. Esprio was never really able to find that consistency. And by the time he did over the last three years, it was probably a little bit too late

to get a sale for a player who's 30, 31 and moving on. Yet he is part of Portland Timbers lore. One, because he is Mr. October or November, pick your month, where he always elevated his game, scored and assisted in the playoffs and in the biggest moments. Two, because of his performances against Seattle. And three, because he was around long enough to have this connection. And he had these down times that became up times afterwards, where he was down with the Timbers too and struggling for minutes. And then he's a starter scoring a ton of goals. And I think fans latch onto that and fans connect to that. And because you can't afford to keep them and you got to go find new versions and replacements and then move them into the team. There are some players you're always going to have to replace. Atlanta was never going to keep Tiago Amada for

11 years. Cincinnati, and we're going to talk about this player in a little bit, was never going to keep Alvaro Barrial for his entire career. There are other pieces of teams that I'd love to be capable of seeing them more. And that's going to be in our next question. But let me give the three moments. I'm going to stay cliche on these. April 16, 2023, bike kick against the Seattle Sounders. It is your biggest rival. They were trailing 1-0. This was in the 71st minute. The ball gets stood up to the far post. And of course, Dyrone Esprit in the way he only sees the game decides, I'm going to go up and bike this. Bikes it cleanly. That makes it 1-1. Seattle ends up, excuse me, Portland ends up winning 4-1. So they score three more goals after that in the final 20 minutes to crush their rival. A huge moment for the team after a couple down years for Portland. Seattle at this time are on the rise. They feel like they have sort of won this Cascadia Cup and have moved into another stratosphere.

This is one of those performances that brings it down and Dairon scores against his biggest rival. Bike kicks are his thing though. The, probably the singular moment that most people will associate with Dairon Esprit is 2021. The bike kick in which he is chasing for pressure against San Jose. The keeper tries to take a long touch,

trying to go past Dairon on the left side of the box. The ball runs long. Dairon Esprit facing away from goal on the left side of the box decides, I'm going to pop the ball up to myself and bike it over my own head, over the goalkeeper and in. It is one of those moments and i had one this weekend watching the georgia game where someone tried to beat the goalkeeper not on a chip but trying to hit it around the keeper from midfield which i'd never

seen before this is one of those moments i'd never seen before i'd never seen a player say oh i won the ball outside the box the keeper's off his line what i'm gonna do here is flick it up to myself and bike it over their head and And it was the perfect Dairon moment where he has just pure confidence in himself and what he can do that he is able to pull this off is ridiculous. And I think what a lot of people will bring up in Timbersland would be the 2015 playoffs. The second leg, he scores the goal against FC Dallas from an absurd shot from outside the box, one that moves in ways that doesn't really make sense. So he picks it up on the right side, 35 or so yards away from goal, and he's able to hit this knuckling shot into the

top left corner that just breaks the back of the net. It is hit so hard and so cleanly. And this is a pure example of Dairon Esprit. He's in that team that day because Rodney Wallace is suspended. So he's not first option, but he steps up big. He has these huge moments. He scored in the penalty kick shootout against Seattle back in 2018 when they were on the road and in that Western Conference finals and didn't know whether they had won or not because they thought they'd won on away goals. Turns out that away goals didn't count in stoppage time

or an extra time, and then they end up going to MLS Cup anyway. Dairon scores one of those penalty kicks. He is in all these huge moments in this club's history, but he's not the first name. This brings me to the next question from Jesse Nielsen, who says, MLS should have a cap exemption

for legacy players like Esprit. It shouldn't be the case that a player like that who wants to retire here, but the cap scenario makes it imprudent to keep him. Honored and devastated to go to his last match. Please discuss. This is sort of what I was talking about. I love this question. But where do you set something like this?

So how do you choose who's a legend? How do you give that designation? And then how many do you give per team? And this is where I net it out. I say you have to make 200 club appearances. My assumption would be Major League Soccer would make that be MLS appearances. They would probably make it be regular season because that's how a lot of stats finish. I think that's a mistake. I mean, if you play for a team for a

long time that plays in the playoffs, shouldn't you get there earlier? Because your legacy designation is you've made deep runs in playoffs. You've had these huge experiences either way. So I think that's one of the distinctions that you need to hit. And when I went back and looked through all the teams, there are some teams that would have no players, which wouldn't shock you. A few that would have won. The most I really found was 13 or 14 for some of the legacy clubs. This is all time, not like currently. So like a team like Atlanta, that's been around for what now? Seven years? They have Juan Bradguzon. Makes sense. SKC would have 13.

So that's sort of where you're at. Chicago, one of the great clubs all time, not an original, but closer. They've got seven. So those are sort of the numbers you look at in their entire club's history, that amount of players that have played 200 appearances. I think you would then add an age cutoff as well. So like Daniel Shallouy is above that number.

He's only 27 years old. Are you going to be able to put him on this legacy number for the next seven or eight years of his career? I don't know. I don't know that that's the spirit of what we're talking about. But at the same time, I just said I want teams to be able to hold players longer. And I want teams to be incentivized especially to keep homegrowns i want a reality in which your core players or your especially your cult classic players are homegrowns are players that came up through the club and want to be there so eden morris is

not what i'm talking about eden morris is borderline national team player has this huge offer he goes that's fine what i'm talking about is in the future a team being able to hold a player who's around that first team all the time what a mark delgado has done in his career he was a chivas academy player so it wouldn't have been with the galaxy but that sort of concept that sort of ideas i want to incentivize teams to keep that player on their roster the entire time, because I think those will be special club legends. Not that Dairon Esprit isn't and isn't the DNA of what the Portland Timbers are, but you'd love to see some local players be a part

of that, because that's one of the things that's unique about Major League Soccer that is not possible in the other pro professional sports leagues in the U.S. and Canada outside of, of course, when hopefully NWSL develops their academies going forward. So I think you'd add that age cutoff. And then the problem would be, I think you only do one per team. So like you could talk about Dairon Esprit, but Diego Char is going to get that spot. But this ability, this spot, I think back to a few players. One, Javier Morales, RSL legend. Whether they couldn't afford or didn't want to keep him at the end, he finishes his last year in Dallas.

That's just not what I want to see. Now, if Javier Morales at the time says, well, Dallas is going to really play me. I want to be there. I want that experience. Fine. That's great. But I would love for RSL to have had the ability to control whether or not he left. Diego Valeri is an obvious one. Diego Valeri wanted to

get paid again, wanted to play. Now that would have been a little different. I don't know that Portland could have guaranteed him the playing time. Maybe he felt he deserved at that time. Another big one that comes up is Alejandro Bedoya, who we heard going through MLS Cup and then all of through last year. The idea, it sounds like Ernst Tanner just straight up told him, we're not going to bring you back. Like, we can't afford you. So this would solve awkward problems like that. And then you'd have sort of a guarantee of like, well, this player is clearly going to come back. And not only are they going to come back, there's value to the team.

Because the idea of something like this would be like a U22 initiative. Their cap hit would be locked no matter how much you pay them. So you could pay them the $1 million, $1.5 million they deserve. It hits the cap at $150,000, $300,000, whatever it is, which is below the quality of a player like that. And it's an advantage to have that player on your team. Two others that are obvious, Bradley Wright Phillips and Luis Robles. So you couldn't have done both of them, but they're

the two leaders in appearances all time in Red Bull history and neither of them finished their career with Red Bulls. That's the type of thing I think we'd all love to avoid going forward. All right, let's move on to Captain Crunch. Dallas fan here. How in the world is no one talking about Cincinnati's Luca Oriano? I've been watching the league for over 20 years. I've seldom seen anyone play with defenders like Luca did Marco Farfan this weekend, and Farfan is no slouch. I'm just shocked since he picked up a Painsil level attacking player and hardly anyone mentioned it. Or maybe this wasn't expected this soon? It's a good question um i love the comparison to pain still in that he's an attacking player oriano is a quote-unquote wingback slash defender and yet

he puts up similar numbers he was unbelievable he scored one of the goals of the weekend if of course miroslav white or brian drogba as i'm now calling him clearly uh was not a part of the league over the course of the weekend if you haven't seen Oriano comes inside, smacks one with his left foot from 20 or so out, places it in the top corner, pure power, a huge moment for FC Cincinnati with all the injuries they've had and all of that. Now, in trying to break down this question. Oriano is phenomenal. He's elite for his position at some things. He does some other things not as good as some other players. So dribbling, getting into goal scoring spots and finishing.

We talked about it with Tom, I believe, two weeks ago. His finish from half field, I think, was better than Chicho Arango's, and it was different. He powers that ball into the goal rather than chip it and try and place it over a goalkeeper. He's got five goals on the season. That's unbelievable. So the Paintsdale comp is an interesting one. They play different positions. Paintsdale is a true attacker. He's got more goals. He's got four times the assists so far, four to one, so an easy one to do. Then a player like Oriano, and then you bring in the elite wingers in the league.

So I brought in Christian Espinoza. Espinoza pretty much dwarfs Oriano in all the attacking fields. He's an elite chance creator for others, but in Espinoza, where Oriano is an elite chance creator for himself. And he is one of the best 1v1 attackers in Major League Soccer. And he's one of the best goal scoring wingers of all time. Part of the reason I think this has gone under the radar is one Lucho being so good. Lucho is having another unbelievable season. I think that kind of covers up some of what else is going on for Cincinnati, especially in the attack. The other is because he's chasing a lot of these like best wingback stats with

the guy he replaced in Alvaro Bariel. And so I think there's a little bit of a feeling for people that the team and the system create the success in this spot. So I think as Oriano plays well, the idea is another wingback that does it in Cincinnati. It's Cincinnati and not the player, which I think is completely unfair. It's credit to the club that they've both built the system and that they are successful enough in their process of scouting and acquisition that they're able to bring in another player. So let me do the

comp here between the two of them. And basically they're completely different players having the same success in different ways. So Oriano, five goals, one assist in 19 appearances. Barial had five goals and six assists in 34 appearances last year. So they come up in the end, if you extrapolate out the season for Oriano in exactly the same goals plus assists, but obviously in completely different ways. Barial, his game was to get into the box, receive the ball in the box and create chances. So basically he would live on the edge of the box. Lucho Acosta would find him. He would get to the end line. He'd create pullbacks for at the time what they had great goal scorers in Brennan, in Brandon Vasquez, obviously in Lucho himself, which is a different team now. Oriano creates his own chances as a dribbler, but he does them for himself.

So I think in the end, he is better for FC Cincinnati this year, and he might be better for FC Cincinnati overall in his career, but he does it in a different way than Barial and may not have fit as well on last year's team. All of this to say is he's an elite player. It's an unbelievable question. He is so fun to watch. One of the big now questions I think going forward is what's his best position. He came in as a right winger who likes to cut in on his left foot. He then had, of course, this elite stretch for Cincinnati at left wing back. He played right wing back this

week because of all the injuries they have on their back line. DeAndre Yedlin should be starting in that role. When Yedlin gets back there, we don't know based off the center back spots. And so there is still huge question marks about where he will finish. But all of that's a positive. If he's scoring from both sides, who cares? Pat Noonan will be happy. So thank you to Captain Crunch for that one.

Let's move on to side reel here. Preseason consensus was that the Eastern Conference was much stronger than the West. But if you went down the standings and matched the teams up for a single game, one seed versus one seed, two versus two, etc. through the playoff places, how many matchups would you have the Eastern team winning? This is really fun. So I put all the teams together. I did it on points. I didn't do it

on points per game. You still have some wonky. Some teams have played more. Some teams have played less, but I didn't want to finish on potential points for teams. So I put it on points right now. The other part that's really hard is, are we talking about the current team? So when you look at a team like LAFC, do you say, well, Olivia Giroud is a part of that group or not? Then when you look at a team like, let's say, Atlanta, the assumption is Tiago Amada has played his last game as of a day ago. Is he gone or is he a part of this conversation? And if he's gone, we all assume that Atlanta will replace him,

but we don't know who that player will be. We don't know when that player will come. So in theory for our playoffs, you'd have all those players in place. We're going to do this. I think as of right now with a few tweaks, because I'm very inconsistent as a person. And then we're going to do this again, because I think this is really fun. I think we're going to do it again as we go across the season one thing to point out the eastern conference has more teams in the western conference so 15 in the east 14 in the west uh the difference at the bottom of the conferences is stark so Chicago are the worst team in the eastern conference they are on 18 points. That is still better than San Jose and SKC, who are 13th and 14th in the West. So think about that for a second. The 15th place team in the East, which doesn't

even exist in the West, is better than the bottom two teams in the Western Conference. I'm going to do this exercise right now, and I might give a bonus point for something like that, because I think that's an example of one conference being stronger, but fine. The fascinating part of this is I went through and all of these matchups. So what, 14 teams, seven matchups? There have only been no, that number is not right. Sorry, 14 teams, 14 matchups. That makes more sense. There have only been three that have played already

this year so all the rest of them are just pure i'm gonna make up fantasy so you start out miami versus la fc i'm gonna go miami in that one uh second is fc cincinnati against la galaxy so again this one's really tough do you count miles robinson on fc cincinnati i think you do he's with international that's not an injury do you count matt miazga with f I think you do. He's with International. That's not an injury. Do you count Matt Miazga with FC Cincinnati? That's another one that's a little bit tough as well. And then, as I said, do you count players coming in for some of these other teams?

I'm going to go with FC Cincinnati either way. I think Miles is in this team. It's enough at center back. This is a team, I think, that is more cohesive both ways ways where the galaxy have shown these elite attacking numbers still tough defensively so so far 2-0 for the eastern conference rsl against red bull new york rsl the better third place team rsl one of the best teams in major league soccer they have the ability to do some really special things this year so rsl the first western Conference win. Columbus, Colorado. Columbus feels like an easy one.

This is one where points per game a little bit wonky. But either way, I think Colorado probably falls to whoever is fourth place in the East. NYCFC against Portland. This one's a little weird because Portland has won both the matchups against these teams, but they have not been since April. So we are now in July officially. NYCFC went on a massive unbeaten streak, then a winless streak, and now they're back into winning ways. They are a completely different team, as is Portland, in adding Jonathan Rodriguez

and solidifying things as well. I'm going to go with NYCFC at this point. A reminder, I didn't even say this at the beginning. These are going to be one game series and they're going to be at the higher points home field. So, so far the team I've said first has been the home team. So Miami hosting LAFC, Cincinnati hosting the Galaxy, RSL hosting Red Bull New York, Columbus hosting Colorado, and NYCFC on their baseball stadium, whichever one it is, Let's go Mets. They are hosting Portland in this one. Charlotte hosting Houston. This one happened this weekend. Houston was the home team. They won one zero over Charlotte. It was a fifth minute goal,

a really clean goal from all of you. Then over the course of the game, Charlotte just had no ideas. They had no threat. There was no danger in this Charlotte team. They were not able to pressure Houston into mistakes, and they weren't able to hit in transition at all. So we talk about using possession in the way you want to not lose the ball in bad areas. Houston was perfect at it this weekend. I'm going to say also with Houston's playoff experience last year, I take Houston on the road in this game.

Minnesota versus Nashville, two teams that have no idea who they are right now, and up and down Minnesota, a lot of that is internationals, In this game, Minnesota versus Nashville, two teams that have no idea who they are right now. And up and down Minnesota, a lot of that is internationals, which would be back into this team for a game like this. I'm going to go with Minnesota. They had a heartbreaking loss this weekend, but they take leads because they score goals because they've got a lot of options in danger. Nashville, incapable of scoring and been incapable of scoring in big games outside of league's cup last year vancouver against toronto this is a juicy one this is obviously delicious uh one that we often see in the canadian um championship in the voyagers cup whatever you want to call it right now so

vancouver against tfc this was one of my toss-ups that i really didn't know vancouver beat toronto 4-0 on April 6th. Those worlds were a little bit different at the time. I'm going to stick with Vancouver, though, in this one. Toronto has had a lot of moving pieces. They're not as deep. They've got match winners, but I like this Vancouver team still, especially on the back of that comeback.

Seattle against Atlanta, another fascinating one. What do you do with these two teams? But Seattle as the home team, I'm going to take them in this matchup. Austin against Montreal. This one, another big unknown for me. This one, another very even one. But Austin at home, I think they play their style for Montreal. Tough to get goals in a moment like that.

Another one where they haven't matched up this year. So I take Austin in this one. Orlando against FC Dallas. Orlando, I'm going to say, takes this one at home. These two teams, only one point difference in the standings. It's the tightest along with this Philly-St. Louis matchup, which is also a 1.1. These two teams have not faced off. Obviously, two teams with a very similar style now in this conversation does philly have julian caranza i don't think i'm allowed to do that but at the same time does st louis have the two pieces that they're waiting to bring in and do they have az jackson in this one as well either way

philadelphia at home championship pedigree or at least finalist pedigree i'm going to take them in a playoff matchup d DC against Sporting Kansas City. I'm going to go with DC United at home. Another one that hasn't played at all. And then the final one. New England against San Jose. I think I debated this one in a group chat. Where everyone told me San Jose is playing better.

And they're ready. And I agree. And I would have said in the 36th minute of the game against LA Galaxy, you could have convinced me. And then the 37th, it becomes really hard because it was the microcosm of their year. Had a great chance, great opportunities, ball blocked on the line.

They concede a goal and transition the other way between Peck and Painsill. Gorgeous pass from Peck to set up that goal. So I'm going to go with the Rebs in this one, even off the back of their big loss. So let me do a little bit of quick math. Four. Five. in this one, even off the back of their big loss. So let me do a little bit of quick math. Four, five, six, seven, eight. So eight to the Eastern Conference, that means six to the West. And that doesn't include a bonus point for the existence of Chicago, which some would argue

is a bonus point. Some would argue isn't. Let's finish out with an unbelievable message from June here. We got it on the Discord as June just joined. So appreciate you being a part of things. June says, hello, sending this message as my addition to the mailbag. My name's June. I'm a long suffering DC United supporter. I became a fan about 10 years ago when I went to school there and began going to matches. Extra time and you, David, helped me understand and follow the game.

You've been there for me since I began following MLS. I'm excited to be a part of this new project. So thank you. I live now in Poughkeepsie, New York, and last night was able to go to my first in-person D.C. game since I graduated college. Better yet, it was an Atlantic Cup against the Red Bulls. Given the many injuries to our backline and Benteke's suspension, I gotta admit I wasn't optimistic. However, the team held their own and were always in the game even after going a man down. I think they're getting used to it. I was pretty thrilled with

the draw and thought we could even get the win for sections of the game. To be honest, despite our position in the table, this is the best I've felt about the team in a long time. They're always fun to watch. Troy has a clear system that he's able to get the players to commit to. The moves over the winter from the new GM, Ali Makai, were also pretty good. Herrera is arguably the best right back in the league. Bartlett and McVay are decent center backs. Stroud has been a consistent threat. Matty Patola is serviceable and fairly versatile.

Benteke and Klick are deserving DPs, the former being one of the best strikers in the league. And I even think the young homegrowns have a lot of potential if given the chance. Obviously, Cudi Pietro, whose jersey June has, which I love. Mural, Akimbone, Hopkins, and Fletcher, all exciting prospects. However, we've been unlucky with injuries, especially on the back line. Last night, the team played in the back three, and Bartlett was the only natural center back on the field. I was glad to see McVeigh come on at the end,

but it's unclear how match fit he is and what the depth is behind Matai. Due to Canals' season-long injury, the only six we have is Matty, and he's not developed enough to be left alone to guard the back line, or at least when he has, we've given up goals. This move's clicked to a more defensive spot

and is less likely to provide incisive through ball for an assist. I don't know what the question is here, because all of this is answering every question about this team. Given that Allie and Troy have only had one transfer window and it went pretty well, I'm intrigued by what they're planning this summer. There's still an unfilled DP spot and only one U22 slot is filled.

That U22 is Perani, who hasn't lived up to billing and provides nothing creative as a 10. Could the front office fill a few holes this summer and get this team into the playoffs? Obviously it's possible and I'm curious what you and Tom think we might see in my uneducated view i think the most important pickup would be a true high quality six that allows click to go further up the field next i would get defensive reinforcements ideally a stellar center back who can be burn bombs replacement r.i.p a legend just think he's too injury prone at this point in his career but even

just a few decent bodies would be a start the The team has proved they can create chances, but could use more variety beyond just Benteke. Perhaps with an upgrade at the 10, maybe a Gossdaga-like player, doesn't have to be a maestro or on the left wing. Dahomey is a good substitute due to his space, but not a starter. Thoughts and thanks in advance. Love the new show. This was unreal. I could read stuff like this all day, every day.

This was a high-level article about Major League Soccer. So anyone else who has thoughts on their team, feel free to send them over and I'll just use them and encrypt them as my own thoughts going forward. Thank you, June, for all of this. Hope you had a good time at the game. An eventful one, at least you can say that over the course of the match. I think a lot of what you said is right. So for starters, let's start with the positivity. I think that's fair. If you're a DC United fan, you've been rooting for this team that's been aimless. It's tough to be in 13th place. But you look at the course of this season, you say to yourself, we're about a game out of the playoffs right now. And you do have an identity and you are starting to fit pieces together. One of the things you have to remember is you can't flip a roster immediately and so not all your pieces are going to fit into the style that your new manager is bringing in in theory that shouldn't be hard because dc has said going back to pre-wayne rooney that they want to be a pressing team right hernan losada was a part of that. And then Rooney basically threw that off because he's not,

but he's Wayne Rooney. And they decided that that was enough to throw off their own style. And then they've tried to get back to that over the last few years. Troy Lesane is that. But that doesn't mean all these pieces perfectly fit what he wants to do. And I think the biggest one in my conversation or my thought process is that center back role. I think that's one of the biggest spots in which you say to yourself, can you get a piece that fits a pressing style even better? And in saying that, what you want

is someone who can physically win 50-50 battles stepping forward and then be able to cover space over the top and make life really easy. The obvious one in this conversation is Cincinnati, what they had with Mosquera last year, and what they have with Matt Miazga, and then, of course, the Red Bulls and what they have with Niles and Reyes. So you have that clear addition. I think you're right. Birnbaum, obviously, the injuries are unfortunate. I don't that clear addition. I think you're right. Birnbaum,

obviously the injuries are unfortunate. I don't even know that that's really his style. Anyway, I think the key linchpin would be to get that center back and then add into the attack. You are one of those teams in Major League Soccer where if you swapped Gabriel Perani production wise, let's say even for Hernan Lopez, who's coming to San Jose, you're probably in a conversation for a home playoff spot. That's how quick it can change for a lot of MLS teams that are in the same area. I don't know that DC will do that, but I think in adding the U22 slots and just getting more quality and more options across the attack, I think you're going to get a lot closer. So you should be positive.

You've got two newer pieces to the club in McKay and Lesane who are on the same page, who have chosen each other to work with, who have the same, I think, ideas about what wins in Major League Soccer. And if you don't rush the process, you can build something that's really, really successful. Even though Chris Albright and Pat Noonan flipped the reality for FC Cincinnati really fast, that was a club that was spending multi-million dollars. And so while I think it's fair to say FC Cincinnati was a tire fire, and if someone can change that over so quickly to being, I think they were fifth seed in that first year, shouldn't that be the expectation? But you were doing it while they were a seed in that first year. Shouldn't that be the expectation?

But you were doing it while they were misaligned set of pieces. You were doing it with players who were brought in for millions of dollars, like Brenner at $10 million to be game changers. And so I think it's fair to say that DC has some of the pieces, Benteke, Klik, all of that, but not all of them already ready together. And that you kind of have this year to build in the right direction. So that next year is the year where the expectation is that they should launch hard and that they should be able to push in. So I think June, you got the right idea about it. I think you should enjoy this season because I know as a fan, I think that year before the year is the fun one, the year when you're scrappy and upstart, and maybe you're

better than everyone expects. And you're always thinking and upstart and maybe you're better than everyone expects. And you're always thinking, why is no one watching us? Why is no one talking about us? You're always kind of complaining in your head when you hear all-star conversations and best 11s of like, why are these players not in there? Is no one watching? I think that year is really, really fun. One other thing I throw in there for the six conversation, I think Matty Patola is the guy. So they're probably looking at more of an eight to partner him to play both ways. When you look at what Patola does as a pure defender, he is in conversations close to a Nobito and guys like that. He's just not as well-rounded. We're both possession and defending. And I think he struggles to do both. So if you can simplify his life in either way and he's also a young player so the expectation is he will develop

goss theorem he'll be much better next year than he was this year first time you know leaving europe finding his feet all of those types of things but i also think can you simplify his game can you say you're a ball winner be a monster here and like we'll cover the other parts of the field, or you need to rotate possession, you need to be a part of the attacking third, we've got cover for you behind. Either way, I think you have to make his life a little bit easier, and I think those players are out there

at a cheaper option than going out and getting a DP in a spot like that. All right, that's all for me today. A nice, simple little episode for me as a solo. You get to listen to me talk for quite a long time. These questions were unbelievable. This is why I wanted to do this. It feels like I'm having a conversation. It's not me monologuing. It's me talking with you and you all setting the the idea of what you want to hear what you want to talk about. And it took me hours to do all this

research. And it was so much fun. I love digging into these leagues. I love digging into the players in this region i love talking about these ideas and one of the things i think we struggle with because mls and end of yourself change so much every year is historical context so the ones you bring up about the legacy and tyrone espria and the best um shield races ever and all that stuff that stuff that i think we need to be a better soccer culture in this region. And I think we're getting there. So we will be live tomorrow, 2 p.m. Eastern time on YouTube and Twitch with soccer wise with Tom.

And of course we will be live tonight for your USMNT post game show. Good or bad. I've got my expectations, but either way, me and Tom will be there. So log on to YouTube or Twitch. And all of that, of course, will be posted as a podcast in post as well. Enjoy your Monday, everyone.

Happy Canada Day to those who celebrate. We'll talk to you again soon.