SoccerWise - MLS CUP Edition: Red Bulls & LA Galaxy Road To Cup + TFC Post Herdman

Episode Date: December 3, 2024

The OGs are riding to MLS Cup with a rematch of the Galaxy & Metrostars first ever match in 1996. Tom & David talk through how these two sides got here, of course Riqui Puig's devastating injury, and what the semifinal fallout will be for Orlando & Seattle. On top of MLS cup TFC are in search of a new manager after John Herdman stepped down and New England is wheeling and dealing out of the Bruce Arena era.7:30 ECF Recap & Red Bulls’ Road To MLS Cup 27:30 What Does This Mean For Orlando 31:30 WCF Recap & LA Galaxy’s Road To MLS Cup 40:40 Seattle Post Mortem 46:30 Riqui Puig Injury & What It Means For The Galaxy 53:45 MLS Cup Preview 1:09:10 John Herdman Steps Down In Toronto 1:22:20 San Jose & Revs Rebuilds And TradesSoccerwise Live 2pm ET Every Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday on Youtube/Twitch/Twitter

what's up everybody welcome back to soccer wise david goss here alongside tommy scoops for the biggest week of the year mls cup has been set and it's a throwback baby christina aguilera is on the radio mariah carey taking shots at her as well we've got pogs we've got yo-yos it's 1996 and quite honestly i don't really remember 1996 i remember it better than you but either way we are going back in time with an mls original tom and I think you should show up dressed like it's 1996. Like as I was in 1996? Yes. As a one-year-old?

That's exactly what I mean. That's exactly what I mean. I do a decent job of generally dressing like it's the 90s. Maybe a little bit earlier. By always dressing like you're in an episode of The Sopranos. Yes, exactly. I need to get my track suits ready to go to LA tomorrow. Goss, what is your philosophy or in practice,

what does your packing schedule usually look like? I normally pack within an hour of leaving. And I am actually an efficient packer. I would like that to be known. I think it's mainly because I don't own... You have to be. Also, I don't own anything of consequence. So, like, I'll roll anything up and stuff it in a shoe.

I have my, like, carry-on suitcase, like, roller one. First of all, I've had it for 10 years. Shout-out to Marshalls for holding it down had it for 10 years shout out to marshall's for throat for holding it down 60 bucks 10 years ago still going strong and i can i could do like a week plus out of that bag without even like stretching it or being in danger of it breaking so i'm pretty proud of that but a lot of that is because like nothing i own means anything so i don't have to like be careful and put things in places. You know what I mean?

What an absolute pro. Quick follow up. How does your wife feel about this habit? She feels great because she gets to pack 40% of her stuff in my bag every time we travel because I don't take up that much space. And I but because she packs so much earlier than me, I always am like, oh, no, I won't be able to pack that for you because I won't have space. And then I pack and I'm like, I actually have a ton of space. Do you need stuff?

Which I do think is a nice surprise for her every time. Rather than being like, yeah, exactly. So that's my style. What about you? You leave tomorrow? Yeah, tomorrow early, though. So I'll pack at some point later. Doing laundry right now while we're doing the show.

Just multitasking. No big deal. Just a fact, not a brag. What do you think Weeby does? Like, does he have to bring multiple, like, suit bags for his sockless attire? Like, he can't stuff stuff in his suitcase. It has to all be manufactured and perfect. My guess is he's probably sending like two

bags in advance like if you saw the movie the martian you know they they catapult some of the resources to mars before they get there and then they link up with it that would be my guess of what he did i will tell this one funny story when i started um on extra time being like just i think i was just the producer i don't even know if i was on the show nice tom is holding an extra time mug a throwback continental one um we had this gigantic case of equipment that i would carry around everywhere and it was not made to be carried so it was like the handle was a mess it didn't have wheels it was like such a mess and i think i brought it to one super draft maybe it was philly maybe it was baltimore i don't know and we be like carried it up the stairs one time and someone saw him and they were like oh my god we have to get you guys

new equipment like this can't be the way you're traveling meanwhile i'm taking like the greyhound down with this thing for like 27 hours we be holds it for six seconds and like the executives at mls were like we must we must create a change here for our people. So, so, you know, he travels in style. You know, everything is manicured. I can't wait until he's listening to this on the airplane. Doesn't have Wi-Fi and can't text us rebuttals. It just has to try to wait until his flight lands.

That's what I'm saying. He's going to pay. He's going to pay for the Wi-Fi. He can't hold it in. No, no, no. Business expense. Yeah, for sure. Shout out to Red Bull fans and Galaxy fans.

I am stoked for this week. We've got a lot to talk about. We're going to talk about the victories, of course, on Saturday. We'll talk about what it means for Orlando and Seattle a bit as well. We, of course, will talk about Ricky Pooja's unfortunate injury, which has really changed the way this game and this experience is going to be in this final. And then we've got some news out of Toronto that John Herdman has stepped down. So we'll talk about the future of that club and him.

And you have broken some news around a trade between the New England Revolution and the San Jose Earthquakes, as well as a big signing for the revs i will like to announce here ima boateng start learning san jose man because you are next up and the bruce arena is getting the band back together i don't know what aj delegars is working on right now i've seen him at tst he's probably on the watch list as well for this san jose rebuild there is nothing more reliable than bruce arena going and getting his guys for when he starts a new project at a new team. So we're going to talk about all of that as we dig into the show. We also have some exciting news. On Friday, we are going to do a live stream show. We are going to do it from Venice Beach from a friend of our studio. So we'll get more details and we'll put that out as we go along but famos new york red bulls in favor of our good friend eric gonzalez who is tile i'm using right now as a uh cup holder

for my sahadi's mug of coffee uh but a lot to be excited about this week you are going to get out to la on wednesday i will get out there thursday night uh so if you're going to be at the game please hit us up if you're going to be in the game, please hit us up. If you're going to be in the area, hit us up as well. Please subscribe to our Patreon. If you don't, you can jump to the Discord and message us. We have an incredible Patreon subscriber named Drew, who's a Sporting KC fan who just built, using our depth charts, a chart with all of the players in MLS and when their contract situation is going to be dealt with because you have some players who are in negotiations. Then you have all of the different rounds of re-entry drafts, free agency,

all that type of stuff. It's incredible. And he said, anyone who wants to shoot him a message, he will send it to, he just sent it to me. So I got to dig into it, but you can get a contact with us there as well.

If you want to join the discord, because it is going to be a special one. As I said, two originals facing off Red Bulls looking to make history and win their first mls cup galaxy trying to stretch things and win their six and continue to be the front runner in major league soccer let's start out by talking about the new york red bulls they go to orlando they get the one zero win i said this on the show yesterday, the recap show that I did. This is their third road win this postseason. If you take the three road wins in this postseason and you add the two in 2008 when they were in eight seed going into MLS Cup and getting all the way there, although technically not in eight seed because whatever.

They were in the Western Conference. They were the last team in. All of that. That's five combined road playoff wins. In the 14-year playoff span in between, they won five combined road playoff games. So that is how unprecedented what is happening is on top of the fact that as a three-time Supporter Shield winner and a team that has lost how many games at home in MLS Cup playoffs, they are now headed to MLS Cup once again as a lower seed. Tom, what did you make of this game and the reality of this Red Bull team making this run? Yeah, who knew that you could get

away from the hashtag that's so Metro lifestyle by just going on the road. You can't be upset on the road. So they were the ones doing the upsetting. This is nice that this is their second trip to MLS Cup, but first time as the Eastern Conference champions. So that's a nice little fun wrinkle. But yeah, they thoroughly deserve it. It's why there's so many times during the season I feel like I'm being boring or couching too many things. With like, we talked about New England, for instance. And there was that little stretch in June

where they beat a couple teams, including the Red Bulls. That was exactly when they started their free fall for the second half of the season. And you have to give any team, even what we think are bad teams, like, oh, but what if? What if they win a couple games in a row? Who knows what happens in the playoffs? You know, if you can see a path, and I think with this Red Bull team, we still even could, despite the fact that they lost,

that they won, sorry, three of their final 20 games of the season, including League's Cup, that is disastrous. Yet, like, we could still, okay, like, the defense, we know it should be better. If Forsberg gets back, here they go. And still, as unlikely it was, that's what happened in the playoffs. They've deserved all these wins. You can push back on the NYCFC game with the the xg with the shots everything else i put that way more on game states than i do the red bulls got lucky and got outplayed again nycfc controlled they had a couple really good chances but the red bulls had no reason to go matter their shell after they took a two-nil lead anyway all that being said this wasn't a fluke this wasn't

luck maybe it was a high wire active difficulty but the Red Bulls have earned every every result every play like there's going to be a little bit of luck that comes with any playoff run and I don't think the Red Bulls have had like a crazy amount of it so all in all as they struggled mightily in the second half of the season as long as you kind of still have that belief still have enough of the ingredients that, hey, maybe it can come together. Maybe it can come together for the Red Bulls to do. Yeah. I think what you said is fair about like if you get yourself in the right situation.

I do think there's a few changes, though, for the Red Bulls, right? For the Red Bulls for years, it's been like, well, they get into the playoffs every year you never know what will happen and it didn't happen you never know what would happen confidence came from their their floor their baseline was high right this has been an elite defensive team every single year they've been able to do it with multiple center back pairings Cornell obviously is on this heater right now but they've had great goalkeeper play for many years from Cornell in the past two years ago as well as well as from Luis Robles. And so that's been a huge part of what this whole thing has been built on for years. And yet the other side of the, you never know what could happen is normally, and you have the best player on the field. And for a lot of

teams in MLS history, they have been able to sneak through because they have that player. Houston last year with Ace Ace, right? You go back to Nico Ladero's peak, you go into Jovinko's peak and Josie Altidore and for Columbus at times over the last 10 years, whether the Berhalter, Caleb Porter, Anansi years, there have been times where, well, they won because X player was on their team. Red Bulls haven't had that player. And so even when they were at their peak, like going back and looking through the games, right? They lost to Montreal when they were supporter shield winners. Well, Nacho Piotti was probably the best player on the field in that series.

So even then, when the Red Bulls were a supporter shield winner, they had great players and great teams. They didn't have that player. And Emil Forsberg, I think, is that difference right now. And so you add for the Red Bulls, okay, what makes this run different? One, sometimes the ball bounces your way. Early goals in these games have been huge for them, that they've played from a lead. Cornell playing on a heater, all these other things. But the combination of great defensive base and the best player on the field is a really clean way to go

about winning games on the road, upsetting teams when you have no expectations, and having that internal belief. Part of what was tough for the Red Bulls this year was Forsberg wasn't on the field for large stretches. And so it's hard to have believed in this team when he wasn't there, and so you couldn't see the whole thing come together. And I think if he wasn't a part of it, one, they wouldn't have been an MLS Cup. And I think we would have walked away with a similar, like, the Red Bulls huffed and puffed and didn't know how to get across that line, which is the story we've been telling for 10 years with this club. Yeah, I have one more macro point to build off that before we kind of get in the micro

of the game. I want to say I was talking to somebody who has a very, a very strong knowledge of the history of the Red Bulls Metro stars. and kind of he has really good context on the ownership and the fan like point of view and all the kind of fan discontent that was really hitting ahead last season right I think they got some goodwill when they signed Emil Forsberg and the guy I'm talking to said you know what does it does this mean that ownership is just going to kind of double down you're right see sometimes it is just a crap shooting playoffs or you know we don't necessarily need to spend money on senior players or whatever. I took it the opposite

because it's so clear what Emil Forsberg did to this team. You could have... It doesn't have to be as exactly like everybody else can be U23s, but just get a couple serious, real designated players, and then you can still do the youth development

and everything kind of works in the same direction so if I'm the Red Bulls I'm encouraged by this and two part of like again I know that they chased Timo Werner like that was real then they signed Felipe Carballo in the summer with the DP spot and we were all kind of I don't know is he a DP I was speaking to one other club that was considering signing him would have loved him as a Max Tan player didn't want him as a DP next year I don't know if he will be for the Red Bulls. He's on loan until June under the purchase option. But regardless, he made the difference in

NYCFC. Emil Forsberg saved the entire season. This is a different team with him without Forsberg. So this should embolden this team, this group, this ownership group, sporting department. Have a couple stars, and you can still develop youth and that's gonna get you towards the top of the east again you can't guarantee an mls cup run or anything else like

that every year but it is so very clear look what happens when you spend real big money on a real big in you know in his prime end of his prime star it doesn't all have to be you 22 players um i think that's hopeful listen it's a great week for red bulls and red bull fans i don't want to do too much on the like negative side i worry that this actually will lock them in in a different way which is it's a playoff run no one knows i think forsberg was more happenstance than process sure you had this player in your family of clubs that wanted this move and it all worked out perfectly. I don't see the Forsberg signing and saying, all right, they've got the next six now.

Well, why can't they wind in there? But like maybe not the next six. I'm not saying they can't, but they haven't. And yes, it worked. And so on your side of things, that would be great, which is it worked. Let's keep doing it. Let's do another one. Let's do the next one.

I think it's all right. This one happened if someone else in the red bull family wants to do this great if not we'll sort of poke around these moves we'll talk to the timo verners of the world but i don't know that it really gets over the line because they got to mls cut like they well you could say on the one hand they spent on the other hand you could say like the process is the same as it's always been. And they got over the line, and now they've been the last team in the playoffs twice, and they've made it to MLS Cup over a 15-year span. Like, that's what works for them.

And I don't know which one they will decide. I think the hope would be that the energy that comes from getting here is something that the club decides to take advantage of and say, how do we roll this forward? How do we push things with NYCFC building a building and, you know, our reality changing slightly and the World Cup coming and all the little things that we always talk about, how do we take advantage? And this maybe is the spark that the club needed from the team to push up. And that's the hope. I will say this, let's dig into the game. A huge part of this was the reality that there were three Jersey boys, homegrown players on the field for this game. That is something real that Red Bulls have built. The fact that

a DP, for now, in Carbio goes out hurt and stepping in alongside PDA veteran Daniel Edelman is a Jersey boy in Petereter stroud and the assist comes from john tolkien that is what they have built what they have built is an ability to bring difference makers and legitimate players into their team through their academy which not every team in mls does and i think that is a credit to the red bulls that they were able to get over the line here by having peter stroud be the next guy so what you're saying is every MLS seems to be trying to get several starters from New Jersey. It just want to,

I'm saying that as well. I will point out two defenders from Long Island, but it's Massapequa. So it doesn't totally count. Oh no, this is, this is perfect. It's me and you just like handshaking.

Just okay. I'll give you that. If you give me this and then we'll move forward with that. Yeah, no, like it's a real thing. And again, not, I'm trying to go to the micro move forward with that. Yeah, no, like, it's a real thing. And again, I'm trying to go to the micro, but again, in the macro sense of, like, this is a cheat code in a salary cap league.

If you have a John Tolkien, a Daniel Ellerman, a Peter Stroud, you go on down the list, you talk about all the other years where it's been Tyler Adams or, hell, Brian White wasn't technically homegrown, but he was essentially in the backyard playing for the second team they had to draft them. All of that. These are cheat codes where you can extend the salary cap when you're getting so much more value out of your academy or youth development pipeline. So that's what they got in this game. These are players who have been in the academy for a long time. They've been playing some variation of this tactic for a long time. Every head coach is going to be a little bit different. But generally speaking, they know exactly what they're going to do. What they did so well in this game, and you can say that throughout the whole playoffs,

again, so three road wins of three road games played, all of which have been in 90 minutes and no goals conceded. Like, that's real. Orlando had the one Facundo Torres chance, which he should have scored, but, like, Cornell made a really good save, and that's what happens when you have a good goalkeeper playing really, really well. Outside of that, the Red Bulls choked the space like no other team I've seen. Like, Charlotte did this pretty good against Orlando, but Orlando was still creating chances against Charlotte,

whether or not that they were, you know, scoring a ton of goals or not. There was no room in the channel. There was no room between the centerbacks and the defensive mid. And there was no room wide, like touchline to touchline. I don't understand how they could cover so much space and be so restrictive. They were awesome. There was hardly a foot put wrong. Both newest brothers

were incredible. Andre should have gotten sent off, but in the time he was on the field, he made a really big impact. And it was very smart of Sandra Schwartz to turn around to the bench, immediately sub him out. Again, it's easy to say that in hindsight, but it's not so easy to take off a center back during the game. Regardless, I digress.

This was a masterclass defensively. Every single player was bought in. I thought Emil Forsberg's movement was really, really smart when he noticed, okay, the more desperate Orlando get, I'm just going to peel off in the space that Ivan and Gulo, when he got switched and attacking right back, I'm just going to live in this space and try to kill him in transition. They could have gotten a second goal. So down to a man, each individual performance was great.

As a collective, it was even greater. And the tactical decisions that Sandra Suarez and the staff has made, I think have been really, really strong. Yeah, you said it like this was a team that was well connected they won a few last ditch tackles that you couldn't lose and i think that's the space where it's like how do they cover all this ground they got beat a couple times and they made some huge tackles or you know guys stepped up and closed down space really quickly. That one chance you mentioned was that fear where in watching the NYCFC game, it was either the space Hannes Wolff

or Santi Rodriguez was able to find. Those are the half chances they created. It wasn't the same with Ojeda over the top, but I think it was Ojeda floating into those spaces, Reyes trying to read it and step and then getting beat over the top. And Facundo Torres has to do better there like that's when you say okay what's the baseline what's the win best player on the field if Facundo Torres is the best player on the field he needs to take that first touch

cleaner open up the goal for himself it allows him to shoot to either side and then finish from there and he has been great in those moments over the last five six months that's where he's excelled as Ojeda has gotten into the game. Ojeda goes out left. Facundo Torres comes in off that wing. Ramiro Enrique creates space for them with his run. And Torres comes in and scores. Doesn't score that.

That gives Red Bulls sort of that lifeline. But I thought otherwise Red Bulls were fantastic throughout the first half. The one mistake from Sean Neal is that Enrique picks up. And what I said on the recap show yesterday was i thought orlando ceded possession to new york almost to try and pull them out of their game and i thought it killed orlando's momentum they were never able until the goal was scored to be the team that was jumping all over red bulls and making it feel difficult and i didn't think the crowd got into it and the crowd in in that stadium, when they are on, is a game changer. And it's what we saw the moment the building opened, right?

From the wall on, they were undefeated at home, couldn't get a win on the road that first year. And since then, it's been the same. And I thought they took that, all of those elements out of it. And the Red Bulls never really seeded it. Even late on, they didn't give up good chances when Duncan McGuire and Luis Muriel came on and they went the two forwards and all of that. And as you said, a lot of that goes to the individual 1v1 defending for this Red Bulls team. And then the outlet they have. Like with this team, you can't, I think, against the Red Bull team when you're throwing things forward. And that changes the calculus a little bit as well when you play this team.

I said it yesterday. Big shout to Duncan McGuire for chasing Manuel down, just making it more difficult to let Gaiese in. Like, that's a breakaway, and that's your center forward making the lung-busting run off the bench to get back there and make the play. It should have been 2-0 for the Red Bulls, but they survived at one. Yeah, and the reason Orlando lost is not because of Luis Muriel, but I'm going to take a minute here to... So that play in specific. What I loved is there wasn't...

Muriel was the one defending. He stands there like a statue. There was nothing anywhere close to a handball. He stops playing and turns to the referee close to a handball. He stops playing and turns to the referee as for a handball. Instead, it's Duncan McGuire making a long busting run for 90 yards to come back and play. My second and more central criticism of Luis Morial to mention this game. My dude, who told you you're a center mid? Who told you you're a center mid? How many times could he be combining with the left back or somebody in the left channel for plays a useless

three-yard pass and then the cross goes in and you look over and it's nico lodero challenging in the box because your second forward isn't challenging the box like again this is the barometer for like i was talking myself into super sub good for him that he bought in and that's all still true he did not make any bit of a difference he made the team worse after he got on the field and that was really frustrating to watch that like it's been all season man like yeah sometimes you're gonna have to get shouldered by sean neal it's go in the box you're center forward you're the highest paid partner team go challenge for goals they brought you on to try to salvage this game maybe you could salvage everything so again that that's a tangent that is not why they lost,

but it's part of why they couldn't get back in the game. He did not want to be in the box where there was no space, where there was a couple mean center backs winning everything in the air. He didn't want any part of it. So he decided, I don't want it, and I'm not going to. And then I'm going to hover around the box. So then the actual center midfielders have to vacate that space and do whatever work I was going to do.

And then also, I'm not going to chase back. Who cares? Yeah. Shout out to Dylan Nealiles for being one of those mean center backs as he's converted over to that in this run. And it's allowed Cameron Harper the space to operate down the right wing. And that was a huge part of this game. Hoffa Santos is the outlet for this team. And you mentioned Angulo swapping wings. Ojeda going out there like that's where Orlando's had their success over the course of this. And Harper and Niles took a ton of that away. Sean Niles has been a rock for this team.

Basically from the moment he got drafted, but especially once he got elevated from the second team. And you talk about cheat code stuff. Having a domestic center back on a good contract who you can play different partners with and you can lock into your roster that's a reason teams win like look at the rosters of teams that are successful in major league soccer look at what jackson reagan's going to be for seattle now going forward and now and like

defender of the year john neal has been in that conversation as well the system helps he fits the system but that's a huge get for this team let Let's talk about the goal because we have it. John Tolkien with the service. Reyes with the header. Tolkien, I said it yesterday, he got on the field early in his career, maybe before he was physically ready to play, because of his service with his left foot. And he is an expert at that one thing.

His game is expanded. He can affect the game in a ton of ways. But when you have that weapon, one weapon, it gets you on the field. It allows you to change games no matter what. And his ability from set pieces, you know, is going to be big. For a team, it's going to be big against the Galaxy. Once again, it's one of the best balls I've ever seen him serve in, though.

And this is as someone who watched him in the academy, watched him with the Red Bull stew, and now is watching him at the pro ranks. Exactly. He's one of the better left backs in the academy, watched him with the Red Bull stew, and now is watching him at the pro ranks. Exactly. He's one of the better left backs in the league. They had a bid from, I'm already blanking on the team, I think it was Holsten Kiel, a Bundesliga team that was going to be loaned with a purchase option that auto-triggered if they don't get relegated.

And I kind of reported, but that bid didn't come until after the MLS transfer window closed. They were like, we can't, like, we need him. Like, we can't sanction a sale right now and not be able to replace him so all these things like those are a couple sliding through his moments he's so important for this team he's such a developmental success like both him and the club he's an absolute key player like I know that we're going to get into the matchup in a little bit for LA Galaxy the Red Bulls he is so very important to what the Red Bulls do

because of that attacking outlet and set-piece ability. And Neil Forsberg had a couple of the set-pieces before Tolkien's assist. And sometimes they trade off and, you know, they like to have in-swingers, which I think is generally good. But it's great to have another key set-piece taker on the team.

And I think that he's got better delivery than Forsberg. I think I'd take Forsberg in being goal-dangerous. But regardless, in a playoff run, that is so important. It is. It's incredible how hard he hits that ball. Like one of those things with service, and this is coming off watching the Monday Night Football game last night, and they were talking about touch, right?

It's like there's different ways. Obviously, soccer is way different, but there's so much that happens with the way you strike a ball and what you choose to do. And the reason this is a goal is because of how hard Tolkien hits it. It causes the bend slightly to get around Gaiese into that far post, but it causes the confusion because it's moving so fast that no defender wants to step in and take a touch towards their own goal. But Gaiese doesn't react well to a ball that's probably his because it's on the edge of the six or in the six, but it happens so quickly that he's not able to react. And then Reyes, credit to him, reacts on that far post and makes the play and you

get the 1-0 lead. And like for this Red Bulls team, I went back through these last 15 years and looked at them. They didn't take leads very often. Like that has been the difference. They took the lead against Columbus. They were able to take the lead against NYCFC. You do it once again. Yes, soccer is easier when you're winning. I get that that's very un-nuanced and simple, but it's a reality for Red Bulls that hasn't been the case.

And then they see this one out once again. Real quick, let's talk Orlando and then we'll get into the Western Conference. You already did your Muriel. What do you make of what happened for Orlando? Because I'm getting texts afterwards. Is this it for Oscar? Is this, you know, what does this mean for the club? And in my mind, this was a continuation of what's been going well.

This was a huge letdown to lose at home against the seven seed, to have the opportunity to host the conference finals. That's a huge letdown. But when home against the seven seed to have the opportunity to host the conference finals. That's a huge letdown. But when you look at this club under Oscar Pereja and you say it's one that had never qualified for the playoffs, one that had never won a playoff game, one that had never won a trophy has done all those things. This was another step further. It may have been it might be slower progress than some people want, but I find that all very promising for the club. But it's frustrating. Three open goals in five playoff games and losing 1-0 at home.

What do you take away from this? Yeah, so it's going to be difficult to say again in the immediate aftermath of the game. I think this was a very successful season for this club. They kind of really found their stride during the summer. They were playing some really good bouts of nice football nice football of really creating chances of the pieces all fitting that okay oh I see exactly where Ojeda and Gulo and Torres they complement each other really really well we didn't kind of see that at the beginning of the season and didn't see that last year when Ojeda had to get um Prejas trust so there's all of that, but like, man, it's, it, what a gut punch. It still hurts. Both things can be true that this was a successful season. And also you walk away

shaking your head thinking like, damn, like this was our best chance. Again, no, with no disrespect for the Red Bulls who earned like better team, they deserve to win all of that. They were the fourth seed. And then they got, they didn't have to go on the road once, like other than the round one game where everybody does. Right. You know what I mean? Um, they didn't have to go on the road once, like other than the round one game where everybody does, right? You know what I mean? They didn't have to go on the road once. And they could have taken this LA Galaxy team, I think, like that same way that I think the Red Bulls will have a chance as well. Neither team would have been favored and the Galaxy are the favorite.

But looking at all the circumstances, it doesn't always shake up like this. There are other years where Columbus are just going to be an absolute wagon like they were last year or you know any other circle like maybe it's Orlando that has the bad injury luck or the penalty shootout loss where in another year like these are all variables and again I know that is not nuanced and it's a little bit boring and probably obvious to say but the nature of the playoffs is you're going to need a little bit of luck at all times. And whether you are 100% deserving or not doesn't always equate to moving on. And in this year, they had all the outside circumstances that they can't control, all of that lined up for them. So again, I still think it's a successful season. I would still bring back the head coach,

the front office, everybody, because you can really quickly go, it's really easy to forget what they were like in 2017 right it's really easy now because they've had some success so don't be careful what you wish for if you're looking for greener pastures but all that being said like it's gotta hurt so much that they felt so close and again everything broke their way in this playoffs it is tough to decipher um was this the opportunity missed and therefore you have to move on or was this the slow build and you got to a conference finals which you hadn't been to before I find that listen I don't have the answer to that and I if you walked away from this saying what we said two weeks ago partially you know Lucci walking me through some of the things and then what we came to which was I think Oscars learned from past mistakes and is ready. They played two Oscar Paraha playoff games against

Atlanta and the Red Bulls. They won 1-1-0. They lost 1-1-0. So I don't know that it's going to change a ton, but I still think for a club that had no stability, and now you bring in a new ownership group that's won an NWSL championship and is setting sort of the standard on that side and has had a U.S. Open Cup win and hosted all of these big playoff games and filled the building and had a parade the day after having a sold-out stadium for the MLS Cup Eastern Conference semifinals and all that stuff. I don't know why I said MLS Cup. I think there's too much positive there to say from this moment, we got to wash our hands of this and move on but there are still massive question marks for sure uh you mentioned the favorites for mls cup are going to be the la

galaxy they got the 1-0 victory over the seattle sounders in their conference finals it was a rematch of 2014 same result once again seattle trying to get back into relevance we talked with Albert Rusnak last week and sort of he said oh we're not talking about this as a last stand or a last run but you could feel a little bit of that the Sounders go out there and I thought they made you know problems for the LA Galaxy like we have not seen for weeks now as the Galaxy cruised through most of the end of the regular season and absolutely smoked through most of the playoffs, their opponents. And so Seattle made it tough, made it difficult, and then the Galaxy get the breakthrough.

Finally, through Dejan Jovalic in that late goal, the mistake from Alex Roldan, and the Galaxy are heading to the MLS Cup for the first time in a decade, which is absolutely wild to say. What did you make of this game, and sort of what did you make of what went down in the conference finals? This was the exact game where we would be questioning the Galaxy for months. Can they set up shop on a 1-0 win?

When they're going to be playing the best defensive team in the league, or in general, one of the best defensive teams, Seattle was the best defensive team. Can they find a breakthrough? Will they find the balance? Can they keep a clean sheet? Can they hang on to a lead when pressure comes? All of that is what they did in this game,

and that is championship medal. I think that they had it in them, but I didn't know how sustainable it was going to be or how much that we could expect it to come out. This was answering every question. And I can't keep talking about the game without obviously Ricky Pooch tearing his ACL. Playing the last 30 minutes on a torn ACL

in which he provided the game-winning assist in that time. And there will be a difference in that. I know we're going to spend a lot of time on it, so I'm trying to digress on that. But this was everything that we were worried about. And again, starting with Royce and Pooch in the midfield. And Royce was dealing with injury. to digress on that but this was everything that we were worried about the galaxy and again starting with royce and pooch in the midfield and royce was uh in uh dealing with injury that's why he got subbed off at halftime but all the questions that we've had about the scene they answered in

this game this was exactly everything that we thought could trip up the la galaxy and the way they play and the players that they have and the galaxy held seattle down i think you're a hundred percent right in starting with the fact that this was the nightmare scenario for the galaxy and questioning could they win a messy game the 6-2 game wasn't the question mark right the 5-1 game wasn't the question mark the 5-4 game wasn't the question mark the The question was, could they win a low event, low impact game in which every half chance mattered and you had to give up less than the other team and you had to take advantage of your one? That was the question mark about this Galaxy team. they are in rolling Royce out there once again against a way more difficult opponent than what they faced over the first two rounds and having the belief that like yep we're gonna have the ball we're gonna dominate with the ball that's who we're gonna be and that they could defend

out of that and so I think they get some credit for being able to defend against the Seattle team for stretches of this game in which they were not dominant on the ball and Seattle controlled controlled chunks of this game and if Seattle had another difference maker and maybe that's Paul Rothrock, I don't know right now, but if they had another difference maker, this game might be different, but the galaxy hung in there. They hung around. They were able to defend as a group. They were able to work hard enough.

They stayed locked in and they get their opportunity and they get the win in a moment in which Seattle makes a mistake in their defensive third and boom you jump on it it's two quick passes it's the through ball I said it yesterday on the show it is savable from Stefan Frye when Seattle Sounders go to and win MLS Cups Frye saves all those shots Schmetzer talked about it last week what Frye did for them what he's done his entire career I know he he's frustrated with that. I know Alex Roldan's frustrated with the turnover, but like it's hard to win on the road in the playoffs. It's hard to make zero mistakes over the course of 180 minutes between LAFC and the LA Galaxy and go through. And so they made their one mistake.

They didn't have the difference maker in the attack to affect this, uh, the Galaxy and create a chance for them to have been playing from a lead at that point or to get the equalizer, and they end up losing. And as you said, Ricky Pooj getting hurt, huge part of this game. You have to, for starters, talk about the heroic performance to play through it. And I went back and watched the 30 minutes. He is messing with the knee throughout. There's a moment where he's picks

his leg up to touch his knee and sort of figure it out and the ball pops up to him and he cushions the ball with the leg that has a torn acl and then lays it off for peck to run through um it's an unbelievable performance from him but before we talk about that peckin and pain cell were pretty quiet in this game quiet for large stretches as well. It was not, you know, again, it's not the Galaxy game, and yet somehow they survived. Yeah, again, I give more credit to Seattle than anything else on that. I thought that they were awesome defensively.

I pulled it up. The LA Galaxy had a.84 expected goals. The last time that they were under one and a half, let alone under one, was when they lost to St. Louis on September 1st. It's like 12 games ago. It is also the last game where Kipouge did not start. Yeah. Also, they're the league leaders in expected goals. This is the most pyrotechnically tactic.

They're setting records in the playoffs here for a three-game stretch of how many goals that they scored. Seattle really nullified them. And the Galaxy still found it within them, okay, that they had a little bit less possession than their normal, like that 54%, rather than something closer to 60. Everything they had to fight for

was really, really difficult. Nuhu was awesome against Gabriel Peck. Like you said, Joseph Paints also didn't really make a lot of noise. There wasn't going to be this 27 pass buildup goal, everything was perfect. Guess what? They stayed high up the field, capitalized on a mistake,

ruthless in that goal. So, again, I thought that this was, again, beyond the obvious of getting to MLS Cup, winning the game, first and foremost, everything. I was extraordinarily impressed with the way that they did it because, like you said, what they did against Minnesota and Colorado, we all know that they're capable of, and it's beautiful. It's incredible. It's so much fun to watch. We didn't know if they could do what they did against Seattle.

And I thought that was super impressive. And I think the goal was a microcosm of that. Because it wasn't... And even when they're scoring quicker goals, usually it's in transition. It's like defending a corner kick if they don't concede on it. Or something where the other team is up the field attacking. Seattle weren't. And it still all it took was two players forward one mistake ruthless both

Pooch and Jovovich immediately taking advantage of it and and again like that isn't that's something that they're going to have to be able to do against the Red Bulls as well because the Red Bulls are going to mirror a lot what Seattle did maybe in a little bit of different shape with different kind of threats going forward but Jordan Morris can buy the in behind obviously Albert Rusnak can make the game and that sounds a little bit like Morgan and Forsberg and then you kind of throw in like you said if Paul Rothrock was available that would have made this analogy a little bit better anyway but just in general that like this is what they're going to see against the Rebels they're not going to see another Minnesota Colorado type of game so I

thought that bodes even better for them moving forward. Yeah, I absolutely agree with you. I think you got to give a ton of credit to Greg Vanney in this, that Jovalich has been there and he didn't start him for a while and everyone was yelling, well, he's clearly the starter. And Vanney kept saying he wasn't ready. And now he is ready. And you see the difference in his game to be locked in.

It is not a perfect finish, but the no-look finish on the first touch there, He wasn't ready. And now he is ready. And you see the difference in his game to be locked in. It's a killer. It is not a perfect finish, but the no-look finish on the first touch there, I think that's what catches Fry. Like that little half second of Fry doesn't get his power step, doesn't react quick enough, comes from the ingenuity of Jovalich to get that finish and to stay locked in and connected to the game as a center forward who's not getting a ton of chances and a ton of touches.

I think, you know, you talk all this time about, does Ricky Pooj break this shape? Does he make the shape? All those types of things. Vanny has worked hard to create that setup. Vanny has worked hard to find the right balance in midfield. And Edwin Cerillo and his performances under Greg Vanny have been phenomenal. And we talked to him on the show last week, and he's like,

I wasn't really a full-time player in Dallas. I didn't think I would get traded to a place like the LA Galaxy, and I's like i wasn't really a full-time player in dallas i didn't think i would get traded to a place like the la galaxy and i didn't think i'd be a full-time starter once i got there and he's built so much out of him john nelson's been the right piece to go into this team as a you know as a straightforward somewhat simple left back to allow some other pieces and garces has been a huge addition incredible midway through this season i love the future for jaylen neal i love the idea of playing a young defender like that. But Jalen Neal was making mistakes, and he was hurting this team. And maybe going forward, he's ready to be the full-time starter

alongside Garces if Yoshida's done and whatever. But right now, this was the setup for them to get victories, and it seems like a big way for this. And then you add in for this team, Marco Royce got hurt in the first half and they made the halftime sub. Delgado gets a shot on goal in a dangerous moment, two minutes in, and they shift the midfield a bit, yet they still get a victory. And so to show the way this team can flex in and out with different pieces in different ways shows how far this team has come. Let's finish on Seattle real quick, and then we're going to dig in to MLS Cup. For the Sounders,

maybe the last run, Jao Paulo, Raul Ruiz Diaz, their contracts are up. Rusnak is as well. You know, reading about it with Rusnak and talking to him last week, he does not seem super worried that he is going anywhere, but it is a little bit of a changing of the guard with the Sounders. What do you make of this team and where they stand? Yeah, I think that they're set up really well because of some of the demons that they got past with LAFC and what Rusnak was this season. This was his best year statistically and I think performance wise in MLS. And he's been really good at MLS for a number of years. So for him to have kind of his best season, he really fits with this team.

What I think matters most is what kind of budget will ownership give Craig Weibel in the front office? Because Rui Diaz is going to leave. Oh, it's a DP spot. So you could either use that on a center forward and Morris goes back to left wing or use it on a winger or a 10 or whatever, right?

You figure it out. There are different directions. The team can go in. I trust this front office to make the right decision. They generally have whether, you know, Weibel and RSL and Sean Henderson been at Seattle for a long time as well. The infrastructure of Seattle is they get the better for the doubt on a lot of their signs because they've usually been right.

If ownership gives them money, not worried about the team in any way, if ownership doesn't give them money, I'm kind of also not entirely worried. I would just kind of knock them down a tier because at some point you need to have that high in town. If nothing else, if they were to bring back everybody, like even the players that we know are leaving, like Rui Diaz or whether Jaipao does too, which is going to open up significant flexibility to make big signings.

If they bring back everybody, sign nobody new, a better season for Pedro de la Vega, that might bump them up a tier, right? So this team is so good they have so many good pieces it's gonna be expensive you know there's always gonna be the new contract but like they've dealt with that in the past with Morris and Roldan and Roldan now they've done it with

Reagan there's Obed Vargas been phenomenal if they keep him this winter or look with the Mexican passport I know that there's a ton of teams in Mexico interested in him I don't know where his mind is will i only leave seattle if i'm going to europe or whatever right but like these are the things they have to contend with i generally believe in them even more so if they get money so this this isn't the end of anything for seattle it will be like uh marking to it like a different evolution of the team but this team is still

gonna have a lot of the familiar faces who have had so much success it's just gonna be the same way when they added rooseneck at coming out of those mls cup teams at a rooseneck they win ccc and that's more of what i'm looking at this winter of just like the next evolution of this team yeah um for anyone thinking or wondering like why are we talking? Will Seattle spend? They're one of the bigger clubs in MLS. They do not spend at that level. Pedro de la Vega, their big addition. Right now, he's on $1.1 million. To give you a comparison to the Galaxy, Gabriel Peck's on 2.4. That's who they brought in. Painstills on 3.3. And Fagundes is on 1.4. It's not everything, right? You know, you add into that, you amortize the buys. Fagundes, obviously, a veteran MLS player, so has bumped his number up. But that shows you the level that they spent at.

Like, to bring this team to the next level, they brought in a guy who is not in the upper echelon of major league soccer and i would say this for for this seattle team they have done incredibly well with the middle of the roster pieces roldan and morris obviously the standouts but yaimar coming off of the chad marshalls of the world bringing in south korean internationals at center back like that's been a strength of this team and so the question mark that you're asking, just telling people out there why, is will they bring in that big extra piece on top? Will they bring in the Evanders of the world? Even the Lucho Acostas of the world?

Will they bring in the Cuchos of the world? They have not done that. They have nailed their signings. And they have done it in pieces with Nico Ladero in the past at that stratosphere. They have not done it at this stratosphere yet. And so that's the question because they bring Rusnak back. They are going to be competitive next year. They're going to be a playoff team at a minimum. They're going to be a you never know team once they get to the playoffs. But I think you saw the restrictions, the ceiling on them in this game, the inability to create chances.

The most expensive thing in soccer is goals. And they struggle to get over that line in a lot of their games, not just in the playoffs, in the regular season as well. And I think you see that in some of their spending. But some of the other ideas. This is a team, I think, that leans into MLS veterans more than anyone. Look at Nathan. some of the other ideas this is a team i think that leans into mls veterans more than anyone look at nathan like didn't play all year irrelevant had an unbelievable performance in the playoffs look at what they get in central midfield from all the pieces that they've brought

in look at what they get at some of the fullback and wingback positions and now using tacoma a little bit better i think with the connections with rothrock and manungu and guys like that so my guess would be somewhere like you're talking about. I would bring Rue snack back no matter what, just because, just because you know what you get with him. And then, you know,

other pieces can play off of that. If you do go big with someone else or anything, it's going to make their life easier. Having Rue snack in this team going forward. All right, let's talk MLS Cup. PMSNT in our chat says, is there no concern about how much LA struggled,

especially in the first half? Seems too positive right now in our conversation. Well, let's start with the negative. Let's start with Ricky Pooj's injury. He tore his ACL in the 63rd minute of this game, proceeded to then play 30 minutes, have the assist to win it. You saw the emotion post-game.

He disappeared from the field before the trophy lift had to be brought back out. Clearly, he understood that something bad had happened. And it is like a bizarre experience to talk about. It's almost like a ghost on the field where it's like he's playing and he's there, and yet he knows he won't be there and he won't be available for the biggest game for them before we talk about what it means for this game let's talk about what it means for the la galaxy because these are the injuries where you start to look at a calendar and you start saying eight nine months if that's the layoff and you get hurt this late into a season what does the next season look like what is your sort of

makeup or idea around what this means for the 2025 la galaxy and this club going forward so for me especially right now no season ending under the list um if you get medical updates closer to opening day that suggests that hey this might not be he might not be ready even in september or whatever. It should be something around nine months, nine or 10 months at that point, depending. I don't care. And I thank you all. It's a Ricky Pooch that you can't be like, hey, maybe you'll be back, but maybe it's

better for our club roster building if we use your DP spot on somebody else. So first and foremost, that's where I would start for what it means for next year. The good news is, is like Marco Reus was almost a luxury player for them when they signed him. We were all like, that's awesome. Is he going to even be able to start? Now Diego Fagundes is pushed to the side. Diego Fagundes is a really good player. Ricky Pooch is the most singular player, I think, in terms of the importance to a tactic

and things being built around than just about anybody else in the league. And still, and this will apply obviously for Saturday they have two options to play in the Ricky Pooch spot Fagundes or Royce my assumption is it'll be Fagundes being the one that kind of orchestrates the game like Pooch that would allow Royce to stay further forward and I will add that I was talking to a source who expressed confidence that Marco Royce would be good for the weekend but again you never totally know but that was the early read I will also say part of their early read the Galaxy knew on Saturday without a borderline without a shadow of a doubt he's not going to be available for MLS Cup and they like that sucked

but they found a silver they were like this might not be an acl this might be a midterm injury rather than a long-term injury and hopefully we'll have him for most next year the test came back on sunday when that was what revealed that was a torn acl and he was going to be gone for longer so it was just an extra punch in the gut there so for me don't even talk about season ending injury list unless a doctor pulls you aside and says hey this is worse than we thought i think you start there and figure it out after. Yeah, it's a tough one. The season-ending injury list would mean that he would be completely unavailable next year,

even if he came back, which is hard to predict. But it also means that they could use his roster spot to fill. So they could bring in another designated player. They could, in theory, get to the 2-4-2 setup where they'd only have two DPs because Ricky Pooj would come off the books there. They could bring in another U-22 and get an extra million allocation. And on top of all of that, you would also get the $700,000 in salary cap that a DP covers.

The tough part in Major League Soccer is in a salary cap league, you don't have a ton of resources to waste. And most teams that waste a DP spot struggle to win. It is a huge chunk of the way you've built your team. You take that and you add what you just said. Ricky Pooch is an outlier in Major League Soccer of how central he is to the way his team plays. And it's hard to say what the team will look like for a full season without this guy. And so at some point, there has to be a tough conversation, which is, okay, if you're able, it's December now.

Nine months out means you're talking September next year. Playoffs start in October. Like if anything goes wrong, you're returning in the postseason. No buildup, no practice. Is that something that we find tenable? Is that something we even want to risk? Do we want to push him? Because is he 90 minutes at that point?

Are we going to overdo it? There's a lot of conversations like that that have to happen. And if not, I do think the Galaxy are a team where you could find someone who's not getting the minutes they want. And yeah, I'll go live in LA for a year. Or is it even just a half year? Do you get a DP on loan starting in January through the summer, and then you let them go, and that production is more than what you're going to get from Ricky Pooj?

Royce is going to be a big part of that, but to rely on Marco Royce, as we're going to talk about, seems pretty risky as well with his injury history. Yeah, that's fair, but again, this is just a bad situation, and for me, I'm preserving every opportunity for Ricky Pooj to come back by the end of the season. And that's just where I'm going to stand on this. Yeah, it's a risk at the beginning of the season.

Yeah, maybe you won't be challenging for Shield. But guess what? You spent north of $20 million on Peck and Bainzo. Diego Fagundes, I don't know if they're going to totally be able to bring him back next year because the salary cap is going to get tight. But if he's there, then i think you're really fine but other than that like i just don't i just don't see i'd be really hard to be convinced for this because again like i got him at like ricky pooch just played 30 minutes on tornacio i would doubt that he's saying you

know what maybe i should take you like i bet he's saying guess what i'll i'll be back in july and like that's not realistic but i'm sure that's what he's thinking, you know? And you go back down the list, like, Alan Velasco just came back for a 20 sale. It took him a little bit longer than they expected and what he expected. And it took him a few games after he got back to look the same. So that's the risk you run. But, like, dude, it's Ricky Pooch.

I'm taking that risk. And, like, hey, if I go down that way, I'm going down that way. And, like, again, I think you think about the future, too, with Pooch, in that before the injury stuff came out, people were saying, oh, my, you know, could he leave? Is there going to be an offer? And, like, I'm assuming, I'm not his agent, so I don't know this, but I'm assuming the most, he could make more money at the Galaxy

than, say, a mid-table Spanish club, a Europa League La Liga team. Why would you – like, wouldn't you rather just be the man here where you're best 11, MVP candidate, everything revolves around you in this club, you live in LA, you have all this other – like, wouldn't you just rather do this than – like, again, I don't know this for a fact, but all that being said, it'd be another little boost to say, Ricky, the second that you're ready to play, you'd be back, rather than messing around with, you know, if you're hurt,

we can sign somebody else and then maybe come back next year. So I think that comes into play for me as well. Yeah, I think if you're the Galaxy, he's 25 years old. If you say, if we stick by him this year, he's going to stick by us, and this is a Galaxy lifer from here on out, that's a huge sell. I wonder, and I say this all the time, I do wonder if there's an experienced piece out there, a stopgappy type player that you can bring in,

because the big advantage the Galaxy have in all of this is a clear, distinct style. That style will win them games in a regular season. It'll keep them afloat, even if they don't have Ricky Pooch. It is not easy to do without great talent, but as you said've got peck they've got pain still but like is this a spot where a ladero has to get traded is this a spot where johnny russell will pop up and say yeah you know give me tam money or remote close to that i'll come live in la i'll play high possession soccer whatever it is i don't know if it's one of those two but i do think there are guys in the

league where a team might even say yeah we'll carry some of their contract if you take the rest they're not going to fit with us and there might be a player in there that you can find going into this all right let's talk about this now in the context of mls cup you mentioned it the one game for the la galaxy in the last three months where they not put up put up a one and a half xg or higher was september 1st against st louis it is the last game ricky where they did not put up one and a half XG or higher was September 1st against St. Louis. It is the last game Ricky Pooch did not start or play legitimate minutes for this team than, you know, going into the summer. So it has been a really long time for this team to play legitimate soccer without this player. He is an outlier in Major League Soccer, as I said,

in his touches and the way he affects the game. Him to Carlos Heal is like similar to Carlos Heal to Lewis Morgan. Like these players that are in the upper stratosphere of Major League Soccer are nowhere close to affecting the game the way Ricky Puj does. In that last game that he missed, Jovalich was also out. It was on, you know know a short rest game they ended up starting Bruggeman Delgado and Marco Royce in midfield because Fagundes started out on the wing because Payne still started at center forward and then changed it at halftime and ended up scoring one minute into the second half once they made that change and losing 2-1 to St. Louis but I dug through that game to go

along with I just threw in a Galaxy game in which they played the Rapids in the regular season, but like kind of in a similar setup. And one of the things you see for the Galaxy is basically Ricky Pooja's touches don't exist outside of him. So he gets 90 to 100 touches a game. That leads their team. Yes, other players got five or 10 more, but they had 60 less touches in the game he didn't

play in they created less goal scoring chances they had less shots on goal and both of these games were on the road against teams in a similar sphere both teams that play against the ball like the Red Bulls do and so the big question mark is what do they do now without him Marco Royce went off in the first half it It looked like a groin injury. You were hearing that he could be okay. That I think is massive because if he's not okay, Fagundes is starting in central midfield. They don't have a second attacking guy to play. So like they're changing the midfield no matter what. If Reus is available, you can try and basically mimic what you do a little bit for this team what do you expect to see from this galaxy

team and how much will it affect them yeah let me start with assuming the health of marco royce which is just what i'm going to do unless greg vandy tells us differently and media availability is going into the game so that that's where i'm starting from i think that you just plug fogundes in and you have royce still play like a 10 and you tell fogundes go make the game one of the things that the club likes so much about fogundes is he so again nobody is going to be 100% of what Ricky Pooch gives you there is no other there is no player like that in MLS like even Lionel Messi because they play differently like what he does for this team you won't get 100% starting that so to take that out of the expectations can he give you 80% of that and then an extra 30% on defense or whatever

you know don't check my math on a lot of these things. But the point is he can do some semblance of a Ricky Pooch impersonation on the ball, and they know they're going to get more off the ball against the ball in defense, which I think will be important against this Red Bull team because they will get out in space. Garces is going to be very important because of the way he can defend in transition. Several players are running through my head, whether it was against Seattle or other teams,

where it seemed like the Galaxy were going to be vulnerable to a ball in behind, and Garces just dusts the center forward that he's playing with. And usually guys like Jordan Morris and Calvin Yeboah, guys that we know that are very fast. So that's going to be super key as well, but I think that they're going to be fine. It feels silly to say in one breath, this is just about the most important player to a team's game model in the league. And then also, I think they're going to be okay because I think that they will be.

Again, as long as they're not going to tell Fagundes to be 100% of Ricky Pooch and expect that, hopefully Gabriel Peck will get more touches in the buildup, will more touches in the buildup. We'll have a higher usage rate. Marco Reus has to have a higher usage rate. Again, he didn't look great in the first half, but now that we know why, because of the injury, if Marco Reus gives you a very good game or even just a good game,

I think between the attacking talent, they're going to have, be it. They're going to have enough to be fine and they can play very similar. It won't be the same, but they can play similar enough where Diego Fagundes picks up a lot of the slack and then you redistribute it around to Royce, Peck, Paintsill in terms of building the game and making the game. I think what you said is most likely

what's going to happen I think it makes a ton of sense I think there has to be a thought and a conversation about well if we're asking Fagundes to do these things off the ball that Ricky doesn't do to make us better, are we not just better in this game with Mark Delgado starting next to Cerreo, where we do more things in midfield and we cover more ground and we're harder to play against. And the idea that Royce, Peck, Painsill, and Jovolych can get us goals. And I don't think that's outside the realm of possibility. And so I think that has to be a conversation the Galaxy have. And if they went with that, I wouldn't be shocked. Because I do think the one thing you get with Delgado in there is a little bit of variance whether Delgado and Sorrio step.

And so you at least change up the anticipation for the Red Bulls of you don't know where it's going to come from, and you don't know what it looks like. The advantage of Fagundes in there, besides probably more of a keen goal scoring eye, is he can swap out to the wings and Peck and Payne still can come inside and that starts to change up your attack. So I think there's a few different options. I agree with you, which is the betting odds right now have the Galaxy at minus 125, Red Bulls at plus 280. Like, the Galaxy are still clear favorites at home in this game where they are the number two seed in the West versus the number seven seed in the East playing in front of their crowd. By the way, the atmosphere on Saturday was unreal.

Cannot wait for that atmosphere in the final once again. And I think all of that still exists. But the game, to me me falls on Peck and Painesville. If Peck is the guy that he was against Colorado and Minnesota, he's good enough to win you MLS Cup. He's good enough to be MLS Cup MVP. He's good enough to be the best player on the field. If he's the guy you saw against Seattle, it starts to become a lot more complicated. Because if him and Painesdale can get isolated out wide, Jovlich is not going to create his own chances. While Royce has been good,

he is not as high usage in that he doesn't create as many chances. He seems to play a little bit in sort of third gear for this team. And if you end up in a situation where MLS cups on Diego Fagundes' shoulders, I think that's tough for this team. While if you end up in a situation where MLS cups on Diego Fagundes' shoulders, I think that's tough for this team. While I gained a ton of confidence from the win for them against Seattle, I don't know that they can do it twice in a row. Like I think they need to open up the game, create chances and score goals. And so it's going to be tough if Peck is not that guy. If Peck's on and he's dominating Tolkien and he's able to win that battle, this is a whole different game.

So to me, he's the biggest X factor. He's the biggest opportunity. That's a ton on the Galaxy. Let's talk Red Bulls a little bit here. Carballo's injury, we still don't know. We heard it was a foot injury. Some people were saying pain management there of something he's been dealing with

and just couldn't get through it. Sean Neal has came in listed as an injury. He was able to play the whole time management there of something he's been dealing with and just couldn't get through it. Sean Neal has came in listed as an injury. He was able to play the whole time and Peter Stroud ended up stepping in to central midfield. What are you looking at for this Red Bull team? What are you sort of most focused on? Yeah, this team is super straightforward. Roll it out the same way that they have in the playoffs. If Carbio is available to start and fit enough to play, he starts instead of Stroud. If not, then it's Stroud. It's really straightforward.io is available to start and fit enough to play he starts instead of Stroud if not then it's Stroud it's really straightforward this is going to be the same kind of tactical plan against Columbus or against you know NYC for Orlando I know that Columbus is

closer to what the Galaxy do just in terms of having the ball and different patterns and everything else right but that's what they're going to be like they're going to play the same way that they have all playoffs what it comes down to for me is the way that they absolutely suffocated every attacking space for Orlando's attack. Can they do that against the Galaxy? Is it going to be Gabriel Peck looking frustrated because anytime he touches the ball, he's getting, there's somebody on him immediately.

He doesn't have a lot of space. He's not going to have a lot of space to run into. For Orlando, it was like that. The one where Facundo Torres should have scored, that came from a long ball and an A-plus first touch and an A-plus second touch

from Martino Heda. Everything leading up to the pass of Torres had to be perfect. So if the Galaxy can do that and obviously Peck and Payne are more than capable, then they will find joy

in this game. If they can't, if Sean Neal is, because he'll likely be on the left side of that back three and that would be the channel that peck's going to be trying to take advantage of with tolkien getting forward and everything he means to that attack if sean neil is as good against gabriel peck as he was against facundo torres who does like to cut in a little bit more

than gabriel peck does they're both uh inverted wingers but peck for me plays more like a traditional winger than say tucking as a in as a 10, like Torres does. Maybe that should help. But still, it's a similar type of assignment. And if Sean Niles is really, really good again, and they choke the space, the Galaxies are going to find it really tough. Because we already know in the middle of the field where Fagundes and Royce are going to try to be operating, there's not going to be a ton there. So this game needs to be won by either two special wingers,

and whether or not Jovovich, if he gets that one chance, one half chance, if he buries it. So a lot of this comes down to how, not even how boring can the Red Bulls make the game, right? But how much can they frustrate this attack? Seattle did a really good job. They were almost perfect, but they weren't perfect. You need to be perfect against Galaxy.

I'll be curious to see Red Bull's balance of when they choose to go what numbers they push forward because i think there's an interesting space in this game where you slide harper or tolkien into the front line you you go for at the back not throughout the game but when you're in possession and you're able to create advantages and you're able to create mismatches right if you look at this galaxy team and the difference against the crew was the crew five in the back so like they have that extra defender in their full time mckay yamane goes on the right side and nelson gets caught up the left side and you can get harper out into transition and play through him now you've got three attackers

centrally who are going to occupy every defender and you're able to create overloads or find advantages the red bulls are going to have to find the spaces to break out and take advantage of those chances. And then the defensive responsibility on top of Sean Neal is going to fall on his brother and fall on Andres Reyes. Those wide center backs to me with the Red Bulls, that's the bellwether of the game. When they are good and they win the battles and they're passing guys off correctly who are coming into their zones, this is a team that can win.

And this is a team, I think, set up very well. If they struggle in their 1v1s, if you see moments like Hannes Wolff and Sadie Rodriguez and Ojeda had, I don't think Peck and Payne still let those go the same way. Like, this is the next level. This is the Super Mario, you beat boss after boss. This is the big boss. This is a potentially $ million dollar winger coming out of brazil this is a guinean full international in his prime this is day on jovilich deep into

his time now in mls finishing off chances this is not an nycfc attack that's finding themselves and alonso martinez who just became a striker this is not an orlando team again where yeah they've been good but they've been good for three months like this is every all as you said all of those any of those mistakes all of those pieces have to be perfect i think that's going to be key for the red bulls and then their ability to win 1v1 battles in the attack yeah like if lewis morgan can take a defender out of the play and they get out and running then that's going to be huge for this team as well. I think the Galaxy are favorites. I won't be shocked if the Red Bulls, I'm just saying,

I won't be shocked if the Red Bulls win this game. I think the Red Bulls go into this game the way they've gone into the last three. That if they do their job, they believe that they can get the victory. And that should be the case from what they've seen. And it should be the case, especially with Ricky Pujol,

with the way these two teams line up. And I think that's a really interesting way to go into a final which is not if one team does their job it's over like both teams have the ability to push this game and keep it close if they're able to perform and that's kind of what you want to see at this point of the season uh this is not it for our preview. We will come back on Friday, live show from LA. You can jump into the chat on that one and talk with us as well as send us questions or anything,

comments throughout the week that we can build into our show to talk about maybe what this means big picture for these two clubs and what the scenes are like in LA and what we think it's going to look like

in the final. Dignity Health used to be the home of MLS Cup. It has moved away, both no longer a neutral site and the Galaxy are no longer the dominant force. But now we are back. Red Bulls against LA Galaxy. It is as tail as old as MLS.

And it's going to be a lot of fun to watch it go down on the biggest stage possible. Anything else on this before we move on? The only thing I wanted to add is that there hasn't been a road team to win in 90 minutes since 2015. Sorry, 2015, the Portland Timbers beat the Columbus Crew. And if you remember that game, VAR might have changed a couple of things if VAR was a thing back then. So it is really, really difficult to get to the final and win without penalties on the road. the red bulls have made this entire run on the road they have not conceded a goal away from home um and that's i think just an interesting stuff but if if there's any team

that's built to do this away from home and be this team i gotta tell this story which is i lived in i did a semester living in england in 2008 and i lived in yeah thanks i lived in I did a semester living in England in 2008 and I lived in yeah thanks I lived in a small town and like you know it had main street one pub one Italian restaurant one Chinese restaurant that was it and so I'd go in the pub and do work and every time there was an international break I'd wear my USA jersey watch I'd watch like Europa League on midweeks all that type of stuff there and the week of MLS Cup when the Red Bulls played Columbus at Dignity Health, the bartender who was always there said to me, are you going to come in to watch the game?

And I had no idea what he was talking about. And he was like, MLS Cups this weekend. And I was shocked he knew it. I went, couldn't get the game on. I ended up streaming it on my laptop in the bar. And that was the last time Red Bulls played an MLS Cup. And of course that was in LA as well in Carson. Neutral site against Columbus.

And I was so hyped that this guy was locked in for me that he was like, USA, let's go. Let's watch MLS. This one will be different. I will be in the building, which will be a little bit more interesting and exciting. But still, always great memories. MLS Cups are special. Anyone who's going out there, especially Red Bulls fans traveling, you're going to have a great time. Galaxy fans,

both these fan bases have been through everything. I said we're going to talk about it on Friday. We are fully aware. Both these fan bases have been through a lot. That's so Metro. Chris Klein out. Both these fan bases have suffered through a ton. I think Red Bulls fans would argue they've suffered through more because they don't have the five MLS Cups

to go along with the with the client out. But both these fan bases deserve this, which is a week of celebration. The run, like the adrenaline, the experience of talking to all your friends and family about the run and every game puts it on your calendar. And what are you going to do next? I dipped into a little bit of Red Bulls Reddit yesterday. And everyone's talking about watch parties across the metro area and where you're going to watch and tri-state area and all that type of stuff. So I think it's going to be really cool. I think it's going to be really fun and I'm very excited for this one. Let's close out by talking about our big stories that are going on outside of

this in major league soccer. And I think we can start with Toronto FC. John Herdman has officially stepped away from the club a beautiful Friday afternoon right after Thanksgiving news dump just to see if we could sneak it in there. Maybe no one will notice that I'm no longer manager of this club and maybe no one will talk about it, which is the ideal scenario for any MLS team. Let me read a couple of the official statements. John Herdman, personally, I've made the difficult decision that it's the right time for me to step away from the

club as the organization defines its vision for the future, said Herdman. It has been an honor to wear the TFC crest and contribute to the growth of the club. Working with this dedicated group of players and staff has been a true privilege. I want to thank Keith Pelley and MLSC ownership for the opportunity. I also want to thank the incredible fans for the support

they've shown me both on and off the pitch. I wish the organization success going forward, and I look forward to the next chapter in my career. None of the terms drone, spying, suspensions, or Canadian national team were mentioned in those comments from John Herdman. Keith Pally, the new CEO and president from the MLSE side, went on to say, we appreciate him. We look forward to moving forward as well and whatever is best.

Part of the story of this, of course, is this investigation by the CSA. I will add a comment out of the CSA investigation, which was, quote, the review additionally found that allegations suggesting the men's team used drones to spy on an opponent at Copa America were unfounded. However, it found potential violations by former Canada men's coach John Herdman. John Herdman was not interviewed because he basically refused to so far, but quote, potential violations of Canada Soccer Code of Conduct and Ethics by the former head coach of the men's national team were identified, said Canada Soccer. And Bev Priestman, who was the women's national team coach

when they got caught for the spying scandal, was suspended for one year by FIFA and has just now recently been let go by the Canadian Soccer Association so won't come back and be a part of that program when she returns. All of that is in this conversation. John Herdman did choose to step down, but he may be stepping down a situation which he couldn't even coach the team anyway how do you sort of digest all of this um we'll try to be

respectful because you know we don't know every single nuance on this but the top line that that comes to me is that finally something that he either said flippantly or did flippantly has caught up with him again they didn't make any mention of it in the press release maybe it just was he decided to step away and it was just coincidental timing that the the canadian investigation and stuff this is a guy who sparked controversy with the canadian national team with his, talking about Croatia, and, you know, all that scandal that came, at the World Cup, there's been however many,

dust-ups, with the Canadian national team, with the United States, and everything else, like that, all seem normal, but the spying stuff, is just,

it was laughable, when he kind of came out, and was like, oh, you know, I've never done that in a World Cup, it's like, well,

you carefully chose your words there, and I will say, I like, I remember, we talked about it on this show around that because when he did that press conference i got phone calls from four different people saying i can't believe he's he's actually trying to lie through his teeth about like doing the i think you should leave meme we're all trying to figure out who's responsible for this

and that a lot of people don't like him because of that that kind of error like that's not a one-off thing and that's kind of what i'm building towards is that like he also accused Nick Cushing of punching Jaquil Marsha Ruddy and when he tried to pretend that he was protecting his player by just saying a player except he said a 19 year old player and there's only one 19 year old player on the team so he's not that clever when he's trying to do the thing where I'm trying to protect the player except I'm going to give you a hint that you know exactly. You knew what he was doing, man. So all that is to say, this is a dude who's had enough crap around him, and finally the things that he says flippantly or does flippantly

has caught up, and there are actually consequences for, I mean, I'm trying to, I don't know if there's going to be the right word to say, you know, bad or whatever, right? Like, just a bunch of negative things surrounding him, I mean, I'm trying to, I don't know if there's going to be the right word to say, you know, bad or whatever, right? Like, just a bunch of negative things surrounding him. I think in the sum of its parts, there's been enough. I did work out in doing some calls around it because it was kind of an open secret below the scenes that, like, something was going to happen here or might happen or whatever right and in making calls about this this was a hire driven primarily by uh bill manning who's no longer at toronto fc so that also makes sense why there wasn't exactly a bunch of people at the organization saying no like we need to keep it right like so

all that is to say very curious to see where toronto goes from here it is um it is an absolute mess toronto has been a mess for a while but i think it is important to remember that this is as you said sort of the last piece of the old regime well and we're 45 million dollars to its senior yeah that's true there is still a lot but at least in the structure yeah It is that last piece. There is a lot around John Herdman right now. We'll talk about his future in a couple moments. It clearly was untenable going forward with Toronto FC, so he quote-unquote stepped down.

I don't even know how the mechanisms of all of this happened. And so it is big news, but I think overall it's positive news for Toronto FC. We debated whether or not this year was a step forward it doesn't matter all of that stuff was insignificant in the scale of how big all of this is so there's some where you'd say you know what we have such a clear future and we have taken such a step and he is such a part of this dna that we're gonna fight this with him and it's gonna be a part of this that's not the case of what's happening. And I don't even know if this is fightable and what the punishments will end up. As I said, Priestman suspended for a full year for her role in all of this

as the Canadian Women's National Team coach after John Herdman took over on the men's side. So there's a lot going on. This is good news for Toronto because I think they're a better club without John Herdman as a part of this. I think they're going to be a better club going forward. And I think this is a real opportunity. It's not an opportunity that you want. You don't want your coach to be out because of this.

You don't want to be caught up in all of this. But it is an opportunity all the same. And now you have to make something of it as a club going forward. It'll be a question mark of who the decision maker is, right? Keith Pelley, who we keep talking about, not a soccer person. Bill Manning was not really a soccer person, even though his background's all in soccer. And that led them down some bad roads where they made some like non-soccer makes sense hires or signings. So it'll be a question of who's making the decisions here and how this process works. You're hoping it's a little bit more fluid and professional than it's been in the past.

I said, I think, after Jim Curtin left Philadelphia that he should go to Toronto, even before John Herdman had stepped down. To me, that's a no-brainer. I've been texting with people who have brought up Tata Martino as well. Those are obvious names. Do you have anything else? He's not taking another job for at least half a season. So they're not going to,

unless they do a Minnesota United interim, so Tata, just don't even bother. Okay. Is there anyone else we should be thinking about before I start naming CGL coaches? Yeah, let's talk about real candidates. Gio Savarese is one that I think would make a lot of sense with this team because

what he did really, really well in Portland was harnessing teams around Valerian Chara and if Toronto were going to continue to be a big spending team, which I'd expect them to be this would be a good guy for this team, for this market and again, I just think that he's a good coach that

should be getting another chance at MLS and he came close with Nashville they ended they ended up going with bj cowan instead of him um i know he's interviewed several other places as well um that that's kind of the first name that's available that comes to my mind um and again we'll see what happens with atlanta because atlanta have to be getting closer on their coaching search and then maybe whoever doesn't get that job would be part of the mix for Toronto. You think Atlanta still sits above as an attractive job for a coach? Yes. Because of Garth or because of the market or the team? I think that they have much less baggage,

and in a pure ownership through cap sheet standpoint right now, they have several open DP spots that they're going to put a lot of money into. Arthur Blank has not showed any signs of slowing down with investment. And like MLSC has, and I don't blame them. Like I'm just saying that factually. I'm not saying that in a negative way. They put up a lot of money for Insignia and Brunadeschi. And time and time again, when bill manning was not using

that money wisely i can understand if you're in charge of the checkbook we're not going to write you any more checks okay like we're just gonna we've given you enough money so yeah i mean atlanta hasn't done that and nor will they with guard so that's where i see it and you still need to get out of insignia and decide whatever the hell happens with brinadeski next year so too many press question marks and issues that I would say Atlanta's the top. Yeah, I would agree with you in saying that. I think there will be people that this job is more attractive for, probably for lifestyle point of views of like want to live in Toronto,

want to live in the Northeast, whatever they want to do. To me, as I said, Jim Curtin's the no-brainer here. He knows the league. He's worked at a high level in this league. He's had success. He's built process. You cannot get away from the fact that the GTA is one of the great soccer markets right now for young talent that TFC still needs to tap into.

Jim Curtin has some experience with all of that as well. A Gio Savarese makes sense in this whole thing of being a little bit of a bigger name. I think that's something that will stoke the fan base a little bit better. If you're Toronto FC, now is your chance to build a thing. That is where they have failed since Tim Bezbachenko left this club. Everything has been short term. How do we win now? And when you do that, you give up some resources to try and jump the line. So they've lost a ton of resources because of all of that. And they've not won. You are Toronto.

You need to build a baseline that equals some of the better teams that we talk about where in your bad years, you're making the playoffs. Like the baseline has to be higher. Then you can talk about who's the next Jovinko and who's the next Josie. And how do we reach for the stars? How do we be a global club? How do we win? That's great.

But it's the spine and the process and the pipeline and the players coming through more consistently and the full-time starters that that's where they have failed. And so I would like for them to not make a move here where it's someone who's, can we win MLS Cup in 2026 and try and take advantage of the World Cup and all of that energy? And is there someone who can help you rebuild the club so that it's better going forward? My lower division names that I'm going to throw out there, Bobby Smearneotis, of course. He works just down the street in Hamilton.

He's from Toronto. All the good Toronto players on the Canada national team, they came through Bobby Smearneotis' club in Toronto, not TFC for a reason, and he's won everything. Jason Bent is the other one. He was TFC2 coach, Toronto native. He been greg vanni's assistant with the la galaxy now for the last two plus years so he has a coherent style he's from toronto he knows the area i think it's a style that you can build a club around and help you build a pipeline and danny dicchio the last one um he was in the

tfc obviously he's a player for TFC. Was in their academy. Second team. Assistant with Sacramento two years ago. Head coach at Detroit as well last year. Again, knows the market. Has experience. Has a connection to the club.

Should be a part of this process. Whether those are the guys that get it or not. What? Should he? I don't... This is unnecessarily disrespectful, but do you think that this is where Toronto FC is going to go get the Detroit City FC manager who's been the manager for less than a year?

Is that what you think? Probably not. But he scored the first goal in the club's history. He's lived there for 10 years. He knows soccer. He knows the club. He knows some of the issues. He knows some of the positives.

Listen, is he going to be worse than name the next Hernan Lozada I don't know but he also might be better like there is there is this group of candidates we keep talking about and you could go retread if you want and it might be positive but like we know all the negatives of what Gio Savarese has done in MLS as well we know all the negatives of what Gary Smith brings to a team and so sometimes the unknown isn't always worse. Well, yeah. But then retread using that as a negative connotation, Ben Olsen was technically a retread.

Pablo Mascherani was technically a retread. I mean, probably not the same connotation for Wilfred Nance because he didn't get fired by Montreal. But again, all this, like Jim Curtin was a different manager for a few years. Is the model, which is Wilfred Nance was an academy coach in Montreal that no one had heard of and then ended up being the best coach in the league. Right? If you find talent, you got to be able to use it. And you don't always know where it's coming from.

And it doesn't always have a track record behind it. So that's all I'm saying. That's fair. That's fair. You know, I had a joke that I'm going to save. Nice. Let's finish with this one. The Revs in San Jose.

You've been covering all of this. The Revs in San Jose making a trade. Dave Romney, Ian Harkes, and Mark Anthony Kaye have gone from New England to San Jose. $500,000 in allocation and an international roster spot have gone to New England. New England followed that up by signing a 26-year-old center back from Amiens in France. Mamadou Fofana for you are saying roughly 1.7 million dollars and then his salary in there as well um the start of the Bruce Arena rebuild and I think for the Revs the first time we've seen them really now start to break this

Bruce Arena era apart they found a convenient partner for all of that and then take the next step forward with a what they hope is a centerpiece center back yeah so i'm gonna start by saying that i've reported the romney harx and k trade to san jose they have it hasn't been announced but i'm telling you it's done just was pending league approval when i reported it um so these three players are going to san jose that is a salary dump in some ways for New England. They're trying to clear as much space as they possibly can after a really, really bad season. And it's a restart for San Jose under Bruce Arena. We joked about who are the Bruce, like you said, the Emma Boateng, right? Like this is what he does. And I think that this trade makes him better. Dave Romney, obviously

going to be a starter for the San Jose Earthquakes for what was the worst defense in league history. Mark Anthony Kaye in the rights, like I still think he's a good player. I still think he could fit. Obviously, that's what Bruce Arena believes as well. And Ian Harkes, I think, is a pretty reliable squad rotation starter, right? Like, I think that these are three players that are going to make San Jose better and particularly help usher in the Bruce Arena era. Arena traded for Romney. Arena had Romney in with the Galaxy when he was there. He originally brought him to New England. He originally brought Harkes to New England.

That was the last thing he did before he got placed on administrative leave, essentially. That was that summer. And he traded for Mark Anthony Kaye to bring him to New England as well. So this makes sense and all that. It's a good price for San Jose. And again, it was more about New England opening up flexibility for a continued evolution rebuild on this team, which they've been obviously hard at work at. Fofana comes in.

He's 26-year-old in his prime. He's already got 42 caps for Mali. He has started all of their AFCON qualifiers and their last World Cup qualifier this is a nailed on starter for his international team and he was a nailed on starter the last three and a half years for amiens it's been the french second tier he does have experience in the french first tier this looks has all the makings of a good signing you know you never know exactly what's going to happen when it's ms some guys don't work some guys do but the profile resume and some of the

people i've talked to and like the pathway of you know of the yo-yo teams at the top of League 2 or the bottom of League 1 have had a really good success rate coming to MLS. It's not 100%, but everything about this, I'm optimistic of. Yeah. You add in the trade of Henry Kessler last year, which Tim Parker came back and now off contract. So they've basically saved $1.7 million at center back. And now you bring in a guy who you think is a better player than all those other ones.

Center back has been a bit of a struggle for them to have a locked in starter that you can build things around. And that makes the other players around you better. Brandon by coming off the ACL, okay, if you have a good center back who can cover space and defend, now By can play further into the attack, makes his life easier, makes it easier to replace things at left back. I think it makes a ton of sense for New England, and it is an obvious first move to make. And then you get off all these contracts where on the flip side for San Jose, I don't think they're ideal.

I don't know that you're going to get the value from the contract for K and Romney, but they're only on the last year of their deals. And like, you're not going to rebuild this thing in one day. So you understand Bruce bringing in people who know how he operates, can help set the tone in the locker room, can help set the tone in preseason and training who, you know,

your performances you're going to get. As you said, they are better for having Dave Romney. I don't think that Dave Romney is an elite starting center back in Major League Soccer, but it makes this team better today. And then as you work here and you see what you have, maybe you move on from these players after next year, or maybe they choose to come back because they're happy and they like being there.

So I think all of that makes sense for this Sanose team and makes them a little bit deeper in two positions that they were very thin yes so i think that they're just a better team right now than they were before this trade and that's the best starting spot for this kind of new evolution again like you said good good players cost money and the reason why you're getting three players that you're going to put either starters or your rotation for 500,000 is because of circumstances in New England. So again, I do really like this percentage. I want to say with New England in a wider sense, Bobby Wood, Jonathan Mensah, Dylan Barrero, Dave Romney, Mark Anthony Kaye, Javier Iaga, Tim Parker, seven of their 10 or 11 most expensive players on the salary cap last year are all gone.

There is a report that they are having talks to try to offload Giacomo Veroni. Last I was talking to sources, they didn't know if it was going to happen or not, and they would be fine with him coming back for another year and maybe figure it out. But all of that is to say, if that happens too, man, they're going to have so much flexibility to make a lot more changes

to this team. So look, Yusuf is uh sorry you know yusuf fofana because they sent yusuf in the summer i think that's a good player too fofana comes in um he's not going to be the last there's going to be many more um and we'll see what else the reps go from here but like i think it's been very impressive how quickly they got off of a lot of of players that they were looking to move on from to try to reset the cap yeah they flipped a ton of this roster as they needed to, being a bad team. And a lot of those pieces were pieces that have not helped them win.

Dylan Barrero is an interesting one. Obviously, the injury history is tough. But that's one where if I'm another MLS team, I'm having a conversation for sure. Yeah, 100%. When he's on, you know what you get. Bruce obviously was the one who signed him originally. He is one of the interesting names that's popped out

as we've seen all these teams officially start to release who's coming back and who's not. Don't worry. We're here at SoccerWise throughout the year to cover all of this. We are going to be breaking down offseason stuff the whole time. We've got expansion drafts coming. We've got trade windows opening up right after MLS Cup. So we're not going anywhere.

And I think a chance on those shows with less to cover for us to interact with the chat and hang out if you want to come join us live as well. We're going to get some mailbag episodes in there. I'm working on some interviews for us to line up as we go through the last few weeks of this year and into the beginning of next year. But we've got MLS Cup first. It is around the corner. As we go through the last few weeks of this year. And into the beginning of next year. But.

We've got MLS Cup first. It is around the corner. New York Red Bulls heading to LA Galaxy. Trying to win their first ever MLS Cup. The Galaxy trying to make it a historic 6th MLS Cup as well. Myself and Tom will be in the building for this one. Hit us up if you're going to LA. If not.

We've got all your coverage coming here at SoccerWise throughout the week. The US women are tied with Netherlands 1-1. Myself and Jordan will be back tomorrow to break all of that down. And I've got an interview lined up as well that we're going to run this week going forward. So thank you all for listening. Thank you for all of you that are here live. And we'll talk to you again very, very soon. We'll see you next time.