SoccerWise - MLS Divisions, Dayne Heading To Miami, DP Shipped To Poland, Polish Legend Lewandowski Talking Chicago + Cashfers/FA & Yoann Damet

Episode Date: December 18, 2025

The news never stops around MLS. Tom has all the big stories to dig into with a massive Cashfer heading to the Revs, Austin looking to offload DPs, Lewandowski talking to Chicago, and much more. And of course they have to talk about the new MLS Divisions being set up & STL landing on a coaching hire.10:10 MLS Sets 5 Divisions For New League Structure21:00 Yoann Damet Hired As STL Manager29:20 Dayne St. Clair Leaves MIN For MIA42:00 Austin Selling Osman Bukari & Trade For Jayden Nelson51:05 Revs Casher Brooklyn Raines For $1.6mill56:15 Robert Lewandowski Talking To Chicago Fire1:00:45 Rothrock Coming Home w/Hassani Dotson & Friends1:05:05 FCD Sign New Wingback From Sweden

What's up everybody, welcome back to soccer wise, David Goss and Tommy Scoops with you for another big episode, one of our last lives of the year as we are heading towards the holiday break. But we've got a lot to still talk about Tom. It has been a active morning for you. And I've just been sitting around reading your social media and enjoying it. That's really nice because I was going to come in with a joke at you. So you put up, now you're getting a little bit better at social media. I'm proud of you. You put up one of those Instagram trends of, you know, six photos of 2025. I did put that up?

I didn't even know how to do it. I was like, did your wife do this? Did Morgan do this? Did somebody, you did it yourself? So that's even better. It was really funny. I didn't see myself in any of those photos. It was all work-related things for the moment.

most part. Definitely soccer-related things for everything. It actually, it actually wasn't. Juan Soto was in there. I think a pickup game

I played in was in there. That's soccer. Yeah, but it's not working. I'm just saying it's, it's, it's conspicuous of an omission.

Yeah, it was. Sources, if there would be a tabloid in Britain if we were a British podcast asking about Discord in the locker room. Yeah. And I would have given a simple answer. If Tom had showed up to the draw show like he was invited to,

he would have been in the photos, but he wasn't. Yeah. This is also a problem that we have. We don't take pictures together. No. We only, thankfully, when Morgan's around, we do. It's the only time.

And I didn't have those photos because she took them on her phone. She texted it to us. Yeah, but it's not in my camera roll, which is what I was going through at the time. Wait, why didn't you? That's a dude. You're telling yourself again. You're like, I don't need to save this. Second thing.

So I made fun of you. You're going to make fun of myself. As you said, pretty nonstop on the phones doing work. I don't say that to be like, oh, man, guys feel bad for me. I say that because yesterday, going wall to wall, I'm a little bit sick. Again, not a brag, just a fact, just playing through it, no big deal. And I get to, like, 8 p.m. And I have, like, free time.

And instead of watching some show or movie that I want to watch, instead of playing, going back to East Carolina University for NCAA 26, instead of doing any of that, with my free time, I actively chose. Nobody was asking me to do this. I actively chose to spend 90 minutes doing our M.S depth charts. Oh, wow. I'm just mentally ill. The flex is on.

There's no other way around it. It's just like, and that's also why I don't complain much about like how encompassing all these things are because when I get free time, I chose to do that. Yeah. And I felt good about it. I was like, I've been really meaning to do this. This is fun. It's like, what is wrong with me? Matt Duel in the chat says Tom tweeting with a towel over his head like Jordan during his

No, no, no, no, no. Because I went and played soccer last night because it was a 10 p.m. kick. You can't let the boys down in no show at 10 p.m. game. And it's a chippy game. There's definitely, I might have told somebody I was gonna, uh, I don't know if I just say no.

We just to be clear. You can't be legally held liable for anything said on this show. This guy, this guy came in, uh, strong and late on my teammate a couple times. And I said, okay, next time he gets a ball. I'm just getting kicked the shit out of him. And then he took acceptance.

in it and then I told him if you come near me again and then I made a threat and guess who didn't come near me again boom that's how you roll I will say another another example of me being mentally for sure but in bringing up the time between finishing things and playing soccer we be loves in one of our group chats

to like rank all the best beers of like the experience of having a beach beer yeah he's trying really hard to get that bit off the ground he is and I understand where it comes from It's just weeby, so it's wonky and uncomfortable. But I did think recently, one of the best is when you're ready and you haven't left yet and you have this weird gap of like 30 to 40 minutes, do you know what I mean? Like you're going to a wedding, you're going to a party, you're going to something.

And you're like ready to go and maybe your partner is not or you're just not ready to leave yet, but you're early, but you don't leave. And it's like, I'm just to throw on some random college basketball game that I don't care about because I've got nothing else to do. And I can't start something now. that I'm invested in. Oh, my God. Pop a beer or make a quick cocktail and hang out.

That is elite. That is up there. I don't even submit that because that's just like, I don't know. It's like having dinner. And again, maybe I'm telling myself accidentally again. My dad was the king of, all right, we're going to go to like, that's like, it's a pregame for a pregame. I need to be alone with a beverage. Get my mind right before hanging up being like, you're naturally an extrovert.

I'm not. and oh yeah quiet time when I'm with you guys I'm loud as how like this is another thing that I've inherited

for my dad which my like he's like introverted and quite like you put him in like situations like work situations or family stuff

and then when he's with his friends he's loud and then doesn't shut up it's like it's like me but like I need to like I take solace in the

just just me in a middle of light 30 minutes here and then we go to see people getting ready that is an elite that is an elite beverage I have been

genuinely excited for so I'm going to Colorado on Sunday night to celebrate the holidays with my in-laws and then we are going to Mexico at the end of the week for a week yeah as well and both of them I've mentally been like I already know how that first that first breath relaxation and obviously an IPA in Colorado and then probably a little bit of tequila down in Mexico will hit and I'm already super excited about it but we got a lot of MLS to talk about nice you said, we're not going to stop talking about this stuff. So we have one more live show we're going to be doing at the beginning of next week. We have interviews with Andres Donota and Greg Burrhalter, both of them 20 to 30 minutes, where we got to talk about big picture

MLS stuff with two people we really like doing that with, as well as their teams and what's going on. So we'll roll both of those out. And then we have this special episode that we recorded with Bobby Warshaw and Matt Doyle. Speaking of Bobby Warshaw, there is a player who will be coming up, who is coming from Sweden from a club named Geis, which is Bobby's former club. And the only reason I know is because I read his book. And I was like, I know that name and I know how to pronounce it too.

I think I know how to pronounce it. And that is coming out at some point as well over the holidays. It's really, really fun. We basically was just Bobby poking me and Doyle with questions. We talked a lot about... That's any normal conversation on or off microphone. We talked a lot about MLS executives. We talked a lot about what...

type of style you'd want your club to play and what we think is and isn't successful in major league soccer and what people can learn from it. And it's about an hour long, which I'm really excited for everyone to hear. So we'll have all of that coming out. So we'll still have your shows. We also have our kickback 26 coverage. If you haven't listened to it yet and you like soccer or learning about the world, music, history, geography, any of that, it's all wrapped up into one in those shows. I'm really proud of what we've done. We have won for every episode, for every team that's qualified for the World Cup. So 42. I think we've got about 30 out so far and we'll be posting one a day going through till we hit 42 so about two more

weeks posting them and then they will live there so uh please go listen to those please um share them if you think other people would like them rate and review the show so other people can find it um but i'm really really excited about what we're doing there it is also super draft day baby 2 pm eastern time we didn't time out perfectly to track the tracker live while everyone else that would have made for a great podcast for whoever's not listening it would have been elite but we didn't time it out around that i will say i love the super draft we actually when we got on with andre zanota he was like oh are we not talking super draft like he thought we were calling to talk super draft with him he was he was like he's he's a funny guy um and

that's that's that's why he's easy to talk to and so but like that wasn't him being his dry sense of humor that was him being genuine like sincerely genuine and then in the conversation i actually brought it back up because it's like Logan farrington is probably going to me a multi-million dollar player whether it's a cash for or a sale at some point and that's a draft pick and he goes no yeah i know and and it feels like it actually feels like college soccer has pop back up for a lot of mLS front offices whether it's because it's cost effective whether it's because of mLS next pro giving you more roster spots to fit them um it just feels like there's a movement now of we can get finished players who aren't going to be stars but are going to fit our roster

you know backup right back backup center mid potential rotation player like those feel possible now and a lot of that some of these foreign players and it feels like a lot of the american players or Canadian players are a bit closer to being ready and when they come out of the draft than they were forced about a 10 year stretch from like 08 to 2018 where you'd get some but maybe not as big of a hit rate and so it will be interesting to see what happens uh congrats to you dub for winning the college Cup. I don't know that we ever said that on this show. It was an awesome final. I said Richie Aman is a monster. So watch out when they asked us our picks and I picked correctly and I was right. So that I always feel great about. Yeah. Let's talk divisions though in Major League

Soccer. This was a story that you and Paul Tenorial put out over the last 24 hours. And it has to do with as MLS moves its schedule. It is planning to also shift the competition style a little bit. Moving from two conferences to five divisions, five divisions with six teams each, and the story that you were able to put out there is the alignment, what we think of what the divisions will look like. Let me start off the top. It's going to be a single table. So no conferences, which is why that you can do five divisions, so it's not like 18 teams in one conference 12 and the other. Obviously, all the details are being ironed out. We feel very confident in this, but there is the caveat that this hasn't been officially

voted and ratified. There had been some other proposals, but this is the most likely scenario in terms of divisions. But again, this is more about scheduling than anything else, because if you win your division, you're going to be one of the 18 best teams in the league. If you put up that many points,

the odds are you have to be one of the best teams in the league. Right. Right. And so divisions means that you play the other five teams in your division twice, home and home, and the rest of the league you play once. So this is more for scheduling than anything else. Yeah.

And there is no one perfect solution, and it's never going to be in a league that is this big and a country that is this large and with the, again, Canadian teams as well. Two countries. Two countries. It's, it's, um, I think this is the best scenario. But I do, there have been, particularly in the Discord, we've been, everybody's been going back and forth since this started, there is, there are other proposals that can make sense. Because even when I was looking at it, I was like, I don't even really see the other sides.

And I'm like, okay, like, I get it. I do still think that this is the best. In terms of the divisions, the two things that are unfortunate, there's going to be somebody unhappy or there's going to be an air quote, air quote rivalry left out because there's, I don't know, 700 air quote rivalries within this league that have started at different times.

The one that's unfortunate is Cali Classico, San Jose, LA Galaxy will not be in the same division. So Cali Classico will happen now once a year. So it'll still happen every year. But that is probably the biggest thing that isn't continuing the division. That being said, San Jose is being separated from the California teams because if they, if they were in the same group, then the Cascadian teams would have been grouped with the Texas teams. That was the other proposal.

That was something that, from what I heard, none of those six teams wanted because it didn't really make sense. But so if we go by divisions and I don't, gosh, I don't really just want to read out all the teams, like I think that that'll make people go to sleep. but that one is Portland, Seattle, Vancouver, San Jose, Rialto Lake, Colorado. That just kind of makes sense to me geographically. Plus, San Jose views the Galaxy as their biggest rival. The Galaxy view, LFC is their biggest rival. So San Jose getting to have more and more meaningful games, maybe with some of these other teams, while keeping the Cali Classico, I think that there's, maybe it's just me being overly optimistic, but like, I think this makes sense.

I'm pretty much in agreement as well. like there wasn't a perfect scenario in a way to do this um i guess you're and then the other main conversation is dc united getting clopped off of the northeast and not being the atlantic cup not being a division games or not getting two of them a year and where dc sits um the only way you could have shifted all of this which no matter what you're ending up with a team sort of in the middle of nowhere is if you had moved kc further west you had moved a canadian team into that Midwest division and you brought DC into that Northeast division and then you'd have to figure out what you're doing with the Southeast group. That's like the only other process of

elimination that you could go through. And I don't think that helps anyone. Like you want Casey and St. Louis to be in the same one. I like this Midwest group a lot. Like I like the idea of stoking rivalry and having more games between these cities that have rivalry, whether it's already from baseball or or college sports or whatever it is. Like that one actually is one that really excites me about this setup because I think that is a good core of Major League Soccer and a lot of great fan bases that should consistently be playing against each other. I do think the St. Louis and Casey's of the world

should be playing Columbus in Cincinnati and Chicago as much as possible and bringing Minnesota into that. Like I like that setup and I think the rest of it is what it is. San Jose is the most unfortunate one. I don't know anything here, but. I'd be shocked if these were all the teams that are in major league soccer pretty soon. Like, this is a league that will keep, but it's just a reality. So my point, I know that I wasn't disagreeing with what you said.

My point being, I'm not going to go crazy about this because I don't think it will stay static for very long. That's the reality of the way the league is set up, where the sport sits right now. I mean, all this stuff just keeps moving and changing. And so if it's Sacramento that's coming in or Las Vegas that's coming in, whatever it is, or Detroit, all of that's going to change this because those teams will have to be fit into some part of this. Yeah, I think just going back to the expansion, man, you're probably right.

I just, I wish that that wasn't the case. You didn't want to learn another 26 players and get a bunch more sources and break news on the MLS Next Pro movement of a two-team as a third-party market. Jokes aside, and again, the least interesting aspect of this is to make it about ourselves. but like I don't like when when I know you've been doing this all right now when I broke through is I whatever 2018 2019 is when I started working at when I started when I started getting first team call-ups

yeah that was when that was when you guys started being nice to me no you're you're all very welcoming immediately um anyway there was I think 18 teams and 19 and then what was it 20 or 22 and 20 like it's you you could watch I felt like Again, and I think that we still watch more MLS than just about anybody on the planet. Yeah. And I'm second guessing myself because I'm used to like, in 2019, gosh, I think that I watched like 75% of every minute that was played that year. It's physically incapable of doing that.

There's just not enough time with 30 teams and, you know, potentially more. And then shoot, like with league's cup, one of the things I was excited about was like, I'm going to learn a lot more about the Mexican teams. And then it's like, well, you don't know if this is their strong as 11 every day or if somebody had a good day, somebody had a bad day. and like I don't know it's just it is it is a lot to keep hold of it again that's the least interesting side of all of this yeah we have in the chat questions about pro rel which I do think this set up and you started this by saying it is one table it is broken into divisions of how you play

but the standings come back out to one table yeah I do think all of this is potentially spurring something like that I had a conversation in the YouTube comments on one of our videos recently with someone where they were talking about sort of a loser tournament that you could have at the end of this. I think there's probably some opening for that, which is, okay, now you have this set up. What are the second half of the teams do that don't make the playoffs? And is there some competition that you could have that either gets them into a leagues cup or gets them, you know, better standings in an open cup, whether it's home or away or allocation money or whatever it is. I think there's some space for all of this. I think this sets up more of that flexibility to be able

to do it that way. But it does feel like it will bring some normalcy to how you talk about teams. because right now it's like there's no blanket statement to say this is the best team because they went and like you they went and played everyone now playing everyone once means home versus away will be that strength of schedule conversation the big one of okay if you get a lot of the good teams home just by luck this year and not away that will be it but it's not like oh you got to play Montreal three times this year and someone else didn't and I think that part I think that part makes the league more fun to talk about and more fun to consume. I apologize on the front end for the joke I'm about to make, but I think for a competitive balance splitting Montreal and D.C. not to be in the same division was very important. Looking elsewhere, so D.C. is another team that, you know, they get split away from the Northeast teams. And again, I get that that's unfortunate, but those games haven't been super relevant. And who knows if this, like, I think geographically this all makes it most sense. But hey, like, what if D.C. was really good over the last five years.

while the Red Bulls and while Philly were really good, would they, like, it might have been harder to separate them at that point, but D.C.'s division being D.C., National Atlanta, Charlotte, Miami, Orlando. It's unfortunate. It's unfortunate. It's going to be the meme of the clown behind the military soldiers getting ready to go in, like which one doesn't fit. It's just going to be D.C. United. No, come on, I've already made the potts joke, so now I'm really feeling bad. But I'm so what I'm saying, generally, like, I feel bad for,

them in the sense of instead of having a division that they could have had with like Philly, New York, New York where you take a bus ride a train ride like you got to take a flight to all these games. And it like New England can't be in a division

with anybody else but the Northeast teams and but like DC could be in a division with teams below them. So while holding space for I do feel bad for the travel aspect of that but if you look at it as a whole and for DC, if you work for DC Knight or you're a fan of DC United

you don't you don't give a shit about yeah it's their problem it's not my problem but like it's unfortunate for them but it just makes the most sense for everybody yeah the only thing you would have done is you would have moved toronto to the midwest you would have moved dc back in the problem with all of that would have been who would be the other team in the southeast that's like what i was saying before because now you have to pull in a texas team or you have to pull in a st louis or something that doesn't make sense and so it feels like no matter what one to two teams was going to be in a weird spot and lose a rivalry and lose games that make the most sense.

And for DC fans losing Amtrak corridor games, that's as bad as it can be because I love me an Amtrak trip. It is the best thing you get to do. It's when those MLS teams are relevant, you're like, I want to be at every game. Let's go do it. And that won't be the case. So let us know about what you all think. We got a bunch of comments on Blue Sky.

A lot of people sort of landing on the same thing sucks for DC, sucks for San Jose. I think there's a lot of feeling of if DC was more relevant. yeah maybe there would have been a different push if the best games of the league over the last five years were all dc red bull or dc philly or whatever it is then maybe there would have been a way to bend over backwards and keep them in and that's just not the case right now uh with this league they have the number one pick though in the super draft so they have the opportunity to take uh victor webin yama if they want to and then they're going to go pick up tiberibo so there might be a bit of a a big little going on up top for them uh going forward let's stick into all of it we've got all the

news everything every topic coaches players trades transfers casfers all of it going on tom um where do you want to start where do i want to start um let's go with yon dame because i broke this news after our last show it has since been it's been official it's been announced yon dame is the new head coach for st louis city i love the fire i really really do this is why yoan dame did not go with wilfrid nancy to celtic and by the way that seems to be a very good decision even without this job. But he was in the next for Columbus. Justice for wealth, strength for wealth.

Everyone, be on the social media's battling for our guy. Do not cowtow to the Scottish ignorance of the beautiful game. Don't do it. They had 2.05xG yesterday and scored one goal. If you say that to a Scottish fan,

you're going to get, shut up nerd. I did. In a group chat, I did yesterday. Oh, just a group chat, not the Twitter accounts. Anyway, Yon Demet This is why, like he could have went with Nancy to South Dick This is why he stayed Because he knew that he was going to be in the mix

For these jobs And so he's got the St. Louis job I'm very, very excited about this Because we've said this plenty of times But just to reiterate, we are both big believers in Corey Wright I don't know about you But I'm a really big believer in Yohan DeMay And the roster needs a lot of work

I don't know exactly how DeMay wants to play I'm assuming it's going to be with the ball nothing will be the same as as Nancy because every manager is different I think it'll be more nonci than say Bradley Carnell the previous successful manager of St. Louis all of the players that were signed

were signed for Bradley Carnell's type of system so this might be a transition year and I don't know how quickly success may or may not come but I'll just tell you I just firmly believe in this coach and this front office and that's a good starting point as any for me. It feels like

the biggest thing we know right now is there's alignment alignment from the front office down into the coach which if you're trying to rebuild a club if you're trying to create a DNA and identity and all of that that's going to be the most useful thing you can have and so it feels like that's what st louis valued and like i said with colorado you're not going to be at the top of the list maybe uh in terms of the options of what you're going to get so this is less so a risk i think than what colorado did but you are overvaluing talent here he's a young coach he weirdly has been an interim head coach twice in major league soccer for the same club at age 29 and age 30 by the way yeah also to be interim twice for one's team

means things are bad which is kind of we should just say that every time of Cincinnati fans like do you think noon is in trouble and it's like remember when yon dame was interim twice across a two years span for the worst club in history yeah and then he spent a little time as a head coach of l a galaxy too so like he doesn't have a lot of experience here but this is on the belief that he has potential and he has talent and you're going to help bring that out and you're going to create a system that works for it he does not feel like someone who's going to come in and say I need my players and like yell about that which is probably good because as you mentioned st. Louis is stuck on a couple of these roster spots

and they have to make it work for now at least and I think there should be a belief that it can like you look at a lot of these players that we said like oh they were brought in for these high pressing system, still a lot of high technical players. And maybe not pure creativity where it's like, all right, we'll get you isolated. You'll cook one v one. But if you can get that ball moving quickly for them, moving through their feet and then counter pressing high, that's what Bob Bradley has done at his best with LACC. And like, yeah, they don't have that difference changer.

But like that can be successful to the point of you are a playoff team in Major League Soccer. And I think that should be the expectation year one. And I would assume St. Louis wouldn't shy away from that. Right. I go back to a Lucci Gonzalez quote when he took over at San Jose against San Jose has been one of the teams in the basement of the Western Conference. And like he was like, you know, our goal is playoffs. And then I was like partially like at an introductory press conference, you rarely try to put like black and white, yes or no, this is like you can tell me I failed if I didn't do this. And then so I kind of followed up on the question. And he goes, listen, if you're a coach in this league and your goal isn't to make the playoffs, you shouldn't be a coach in this league. Like something to that effect. And There are mitigating circumstances, like, D.C. this year, like, it's a transition year, right? Like, they have a lot going on. Toronto last year, there are situations where it's like, okay, like, realistically, success doesn't necessarily be making the playoffs. But to your point, Goss, I'm certain that this team is aiming for that because it's top,

top 18. It's top nine. Everybody should be aiming for that line, whether you're good, bad, or indifferent. And there's varying degrees of whether it's a disaster if you miss or not. But really quickly on St. Louis, Goss, I think Edward Lovin is going to fit. better in a position-based system. Agreed. Falu Fall, he's a really talented young player, and as long as you can defend well and cover space, like, that's going to be great. I'm curious to see what he's going to be like on the ball and maybe a system with

the war possession. I think Jacques Klaus is going to benefit from this. Toytcher and Hardle, I think that those are just two good players that should be able to fit in different ways. So I was going to ask you, Thomas Totlin is another, if I haven't, if there's anybody that I haven't named or anybody particularly, you feel strongly about that. Like, oh, like, they don't, they're not going to name. need, not only will they not need to replace this player, but like maybe they're going to look

better under a new system. No, I, the, the three names, the, the big ones, right? Hardle, Toy shirt, and Lovin, those are the three where it's like, those are good soccer players and they're going to fit wherever they fit. And I think they're going to pick up what DeMay wants to do quickly. And I think they can make it work. I think Toitlin could be a really good piece in all of this as well. Chris Durkin, I'm interested by, like he's pretty clean on the ball.

He is not a freak athlete. it was always weird that they brought him in. So that's one where he may fit better now. It's center forward where it's curious. Like, is this? It's not good enough. Yeah. Well, and does Jow Klaus fit this?

Does Betcher fit it? Are you getting the best out of them? Is Simon Betcher someone that you look at maybe flipping and say he has more value to someone else than us now? Can we get some attributes for that? Whether it's player for player, one that fits us better, or whether it's some allocation money that we can go use, somewhere a little bit better. I mean, I like Klaus' feet. I like when you play into his feet,

but all the goals he scores are transition goals and scrappy moments and weird moments. And if those don't exist as much, then I think you lose a lot of his superpower that he showed two years ago and three years ago or whatever it was. And I struggled with. But outside of that, I still think a lot of these players fit in really, really well. And I think they should be excited about what can, what can be put on the field with this group. And I still go back to, I remember Anse's first game with Columbus, getting smoked in Philadelphia and watching that game and being like, he's got it.

Like, it won't hit immediately, but he's got it. Now, I don't want to always do that because Wilfred Nonsei is one of one. Like, he's, I think he's the best manager in MLS over the last eight years, whatever it is. And that doesn't mean Yon Demet is going to be the same. But I think it feels like they're committed to a style. They're going to figure it out. And they're going to be able to push to implement that over the course

of the year. Yeah, I think you're right. And we'll see, I guess, how quickly it'll come together, talking about Wolfrennanzi again. I think it'll be a little bit easier to not have four games in 12 days. Whatever's happening. Yoans DeMay will get a full preseason. Are they going to play AIS Roma? I think that'll be helpful.

But again, I want to end this conversation by just reiterating that, like, Yohan DeMay was so very clearly a future head coach in this league. And this winter, I think, is the absolute right time. and if St. Louis didn't hire him now, somebody else would have. Again, whether it was this cycle, Columbus, or the next one, if he got to the next head coaching cycle, he would have been the first name I'd be talking about. So I think this is good, and I'm very excited to see what St. Louis is building,

though they do need to build. As for player news, the biggest one had come over the last 72 hours, intermiami is finalizing a deal to sign Canadian International and reigning MLS goalkeeper of the year, Dane St. Clairons. in free agency um what a signing and let's start you tell me do we go Miami side or Minnesota side first and we'll so we're going to talk about both but you tell me where do you want I think you have to start with Minnesota this is listen um I really like what they have done under this front office coaching staff over the last two years they have made a lot of really

good signings they've done a lot of good things and part of that is they hold firm to valuations and they, from what I hear from agents, they're not easy to negotiate with. But it served them very well. There are some players that signed at other MLS clubs and I don't want to give the examples that they had talks with and was like, that's way past our evaluation,

didn't sign them, they went to the other club, and it was a bad contract. This is almost inexcusable to let Dane's A. Clarke get to free agency. They ultimately did make an offer that was a million or a little bit better. If they made that offer,

he stays. I feel very confident in that. So they got cute. They got too much into the negotiation, too much of trying to win the deal. I think so. I mean, that's, I don't want to speculate too much, but that kind of aligns with some of the other things I've heard and things that usually end up positive. And if you want to have a conversation of is any goalkeeper worth this much money, whatever, in the salary cap, I would disagree because I think some of somebody like Dan St. Clair is absolutely worth it. I think that there are a handful of goalkeepers, Andre, Blake, Roman Berkey, all of these guys. I think that they provide enough value to be more than a million.

But that is a philosophy. There are people who strongly disagree with that, and I think that's fair. They ended up making that offer. So they clearly agreed that they thought he was worth it. This had to have happened. Him getting the free agency, I think, is just a disaster. Like before he left, because they should have gotten this deal done before. And if you're the team that's going to live on, we don't concede goals and we win in PKs, you're the team who values the goalkeeper.

Like, it's your thing. So other teams, it might be true. Like, okay, fine, we're not going to spend that much money there because that's not our core identity and that's not who we are. If you are the third best defensive team in the league and that's what you hang your hat on, having that guy stay. And that means you don't spend big on attacking players, which means the fifth. base of your team is Dane St. Clair. Yeah. Right?

Where we sit right now, it's St. Clair and Boxie. Those are the two. Those are the people that people now are coming to see. They're the people that people in the market know. And obviously, Dane St. Clair has been there since he was drafted. He's been, he is vocal. He's, he's friendly. He's engaging.

Like, he's a good personality. He was the dream scenario for you, which is he's a goalkeeper who doesn't play like the way he acts. he's a genuine personality he's a genuine person that you can market but he plays consistent like a true goalkeeper and makes game winning saves which normally means that you are an issue like pedro guys say where then when you don't make the game winning saves maybe you don't hold up that was never the case with dane st clair and they were able to ride it into the playoffs

and as you said it's mismanagement to let him get to this point it's mismanagement to let it happen going into a world cup you had the ability to sell him like hey you're comfortable here you'll keep playing you'll push for the Canada job you we will market you across everything we are on the border of Canada we will market you in our market like we will make you as big a deal as we possibly can and I think the part then that really hurts is he goes in the league if he had left major league soccer it would have been what it is like everyone understands the ecosystem everyone understands where you exist in terms of an MLS club and if he wants to try his hand at a European team or a big Mexican team whatever it is then it is what it is but he chose

to stay inside the league. He took less money to go play for Inter Miami. And that has to be heartbreaking for Minnesota fans. And that all goes to the mismanagement of this entire thing. Yeah. Yeah. And good on Dane St. Clair having a goalkeeper of the year season in his contract year. It's pretty good timing. That helps with all of this. There was interest from a couple championship clubs. I don't know which ones. And I don't know what exactly the situations were because I'm assuming, I don't know this for a fact. I just want to be clear. I'm assuming the offers from Minnesota, Miami, and whoever else came from free agency

would be more than the championship. Again, it depends on the team. And there's a lot of uncertainty there, six months before World Cup, where I think he should be the Canadian starting goalkeeper, but that's not a given. That's not a definite. So you'd be risking that starting spot

if you go to the championship and don't win a spot right away or struggle and don't adapt, right? So I think it makes sense that he stayed. And now he's going to enter Miami and rich get richer. This is the best goalkeeper. This is L.A. Dodgers stuff right now.

The two-bar key free agents for me was Christian Espinoza and Dane St. Clair. Miami got one of them. And if you're somebody that was reading against Miami, what you could hang your hat on is, for the most part, since Drake Calendar was left out of the team, you could hope that the goalkeeper stuck. Rockos Rios Nova was really good in the playoffs. Or definitely good, at least, right?

Like that was different. Danes-Syclair's another level. And I don't know, man. It's their biggest weakness. Yeah, it's their biggest weakness. And as you said, it's the top free agent option at that position. So it's as good as they could have done. And he's proven in the league.

It's going to be a different style, obviously, for him. And it's going to test him, I think, with his feet a little bit, as well as coming off his line, as challenging as it can be to play with the game in your lap as a goalkeeper. It's also super engaging. And it's a bit more anticipatory of, okay, I know my actions that are coming, and I know how often they're coming, where I think with Miami, it's a bit more unknown. You could be asleep for 25 minutes, and now all of a sudden you've got to come off your line to make a clearance 45 yards from goal because possession fell apart and, you know, someone tried to switch the field and do something creative, and now you're open and exposed. That stuff doesn't really happen in Minnesota. So it'll be a different test for him.

It's probably one that fits what Jesse Marsh is doing, so it gives him a chance to show he can do some of those things. challenge him as a goalkeeper and as a player, but this is a big spotlight for him. And he clearly went because he wants the lifestyle, he wants the experience, and he wants to contend for titles. And they are the reigning champions, and they want to win doubles and trebles and all that type of stuff.

And this is the best way you can get there. It's, there's an insane move. And there are a lot of complaints of like, how's it possible, all this stuff, whatever. The big one is people just want to play with mess.

People want to be around this. People, if they get the opportunity, they're willing to take it. People are willing to, I don't want to say pay for it, but in theory, if you take less money, you are paying for this opportunity in this experience, and people are willing to do it.

And so far we don't have a lot of example of people not enjoying it and coming out the other side. And so it's going to continue to happen until other teams become competitive, until other teams create opportunities where they can say, well, instead of that, why don't you do this? And I guess Minnesota was not able to provide that for him,

but it's shocking because it's one of those, where you thought this guy is so ingrained in the club and the community in all of this that how could he leave yeah and and i feel for the fans i do this is it's a gut punch and particularly like you said where the landing spot is hurts even more um it's not a direct rival but it's a team that just won ls cup the team that that is villainous to the majority of other like mLS diehard ms fans at all the other club so it's not an easy pill to swallow on minnesota side i will say they've been very good at finding value and finding talent. It's not easy to continue to do that over and over again, but...

Do we think Maxime Craypo goes to replace him? I don't know. Yeah, that's an interesting one. Hey, call for Drake calendar. That might not be a bad option if that's a possibility. I don't know. Again, that's just me throwing out names, not saying anything with reporting. But Minnesota, that's their biggest need right now.

They still have a couple other needs to kind of add to the attack, try to diversify their attack. backing portfolio in ways that they can score and be a little bit less relying on set pieces. Like being awesome at set pieces is super great. Doing more in the run of play will make this team go from very good to great if they're able to do that. So that's something for me to watch for this team. Can I just say real quick before we move on?

This also now shakes a little bit my, I had said Robin Ludd was one of my most interesting free agents, assuming he wasn't going to leave. Now Dane St. Clair walks out the door, you're like, well, now anything's on the table. It might mean that they come and they're like, we're not going to play games anymore. more, we need to get him in the door. It also might mean if they're doing what they're doing and people are frustrated with it, that might be the reality of it. So, yeah, and Dane St. Clair is going to get to play with Luis Suarez.

He will really quickly on the free agency stuff. I believe today is the deadline that Minnesota, so I'll use Lode as an example. Minnesota can offer Robin Ludd more money than any other MLS team can because he played for Minnesota. I think starting tomorrow, he just, like that advantage is taken away. so interesting there is a limit to those bird rights or whatever it is i didn't even know that correct yeah i didn't know that until this winter either and that's also why i thought we were i was going to get i was going to get some more news on right free agent signings by today and and that

that was kind of what it was like st clair's going to have to make a decision by then um but like there's a guy like espinoza it seems really unlike that he goes back to san Jose right i'm not expecting a drag on yeah anytime soon um so yeah with miami louis suarez has officially re-signed one year deal for all Miami is at its best I think when like when he's not starting and that's like he's been productive he's been good just stylistically you put messy as a false sign but runners around him that was clearly the best thing Suarez is going to become I mean it'll get awkward if if he's like hey you know if it was like a playoff run I get it I'll be a good soldier if you put me on the bench I don't know if that's going to be a problem or not next year if that's the idea

but hypothetically speaking if he becomes just like a good glorified rotational piece. This is fantastic, right? Like, he was extremely productive last year. And then if you get to a point where, let's say they play a Cockcaf Champions Cup quarterfinal against the League of Mekis team or whatever the bracket shook out to be, he shouldn't be starting those games. Because we just saw that they were at their best in the playoffs without him.

And as long as he's accepting of that, this is great. If not, it's going to be a little bit awkward. We don't want to invoke the Chris Paul Los Angeles-Clipper situation. I doubt that would happen here. Tom, you've got to be out of that. outside his Halloween party reporting on every guest as they show up. But that's the only drawback for this, I think. And you could say opportunity costs of spending the money elsewhere,

but it's not a DP deal. I don't know if it's going to be less than what he made last year. It's a Tam deal, right? You can find the money. You can move some stuff around in the cap to get this quality player that is either going to be an occasional starter or a high-level rotation piece. Yeah, I think the money obviously is important here just because it has to somewhat equal the value of what you're getting as a player.

And all of this is like, okay, if Messi's happy, then it is what it is. I do think Suarez has value for them as a Messi replacement. I do think there is a world in which when Messi's unavailable and that will probably be playing for Argentina and whatever, that Suarez still can be the next guy who does some of what he does. They cannot play together, but he had 10 goals, 10 assists this year. And last year, one of the reasons they won the shield was because of his production when Messi was not there.

Yeah, yeah. And he, so he had 17 goals and 17 primary assists because I did all competitions and MLS only shows you stats for MLS regular season. So who knows if he had some extra secondary assist and other competitions. But that's 34 direct goal contributions in 4,000 minutes. So while both things are true that, yes, they're better

when, like more dynamic when he's not starting, he's still very, very good and very productive. Yep. So I think it makes a lot of sense. it gets a bunch of flack but i don't think uh that's for a ton of value okay let's move on here uh we have a lot of well this was a great line by the way uh in the chat we had from matt show walter says can tom settle my nerves and confirm that someone in the sporting front office has a pulse and is doing something so can you confirm that there are a live human beings that work for sporting

kansas kansas city on the sporting site yeah david david david david lee's hard of work great that's all we were looking for confirmation of life sources say uh we've got a lot of awesome see talk and you've been on this story the entire week. So talk us through where it starts with the current roster and then potential replacements. So Usman Bukari, Austin is finalizing a deal to transfer him to Poland to a club that is like near the bottom of the table in Poland. The reports, I believe, are accurate in the ballpark is $5 million. That's, is this, this feels like there's always money in the Bananstan moment of like, oh yeah, just just go to Poland. there's millions over there.

I, this is, man, if you needed to get on a, if the flights weren't running and you needed to get on a boat to ferry him across, like this is, I didn't, I mean, he's too good for like a buyout situation, but I thought you're going to have to, at least buy out some of his, whatever dead money comes from the contract. Like the fact that they're not like eating their shirt on this trend, they sign him for $7 million. He has four goals in $40,000.

two appearances, nine assists, and he had, like, he looks really great until he gets to the 18. And this is going to open up a DP spot when this deal is being finalized with Writzau Lutz. Again, it's not, this is going to be a Polish league record fee. It's crazy. I think he'll fare better there. In his defense, it was a little bit of an awkward fit in Austin, but he did not, from day one, he did not seem like a $7 million player. He did not seem, he seemed like, um,

if he was a Tam wingback, you'd be like, oh, good sign. Not a $7 million DP wing. So the fact that Austin are able to free up a DP spot this winter is just excellent work. Someone's asking about game in the chat, there wouldn't be any because they're not,

they wouldn't recoup the full value of what they bought him for. Right. But it's the chance to open up the DP spot for that. That is the most, the very most valuable thing. And again, for somebody who, I wouldn't go as far as to say,

untransferable, but that you're going to have to get creative. Four goals, and 42 appearances. It's not great. Not great. Those are worse numbers than right wing back Hermann Johansson had in Sweden that FC Dahl is about to sign.

That dude seems like a player. And that's the type of signing you're saying would be okay. They're not spending $7 million on that guy. It hasn't gone right. It's bizarre as well just because sometimes we overthink these things like, oh, this position, this position, how we'll all fit together. But I was at media marketing last year and there's a moment. Mon Bacari was there and I asked him like, oh, positioning and he's like, no, we're not worried

about it. Like, we'll figure it out. And yeah, Brandon Vasquez's injury was a huge part of this. Yeah. And it made life harder. He was supposed to be the service guy. But as I had talked about going into the season, I thought he would end up being the central point of a lot of the attack and make those guys lives easier for Vazquez.

Like I thought they were playing into Vasquez's feet would open up space for Bukari and Ozuni. I agree. But like, what are we doing? We're spending $30 million in one position. and then the rest of the roster, you have no idea. It just seemed like from the start, a wild decision for Austin. It's why, if I'm an Austin fan, I'm worried about their potential to replace Bukhari and figure this out and go forward

because there was a clear miscalculation from the start, but you're not going to get worse. Four goals nine and just across 42 appearances means you're losing nothing. So whatever you get in replacement and you can put together, and if it is someone from inside the league, I think that would make a lot of sense trying to get some guaranteed production or some sort of floor. The big question everyone's asking us is Christian Esmenosa

and if this is a replacement and this is an opportunity. I've not heard this team. Yeah, it would make all the sense in the world. I would be surprised if for him, if he's talking about the same number with different teams, that this is the one he chooses. With all due respect, why?

Right? Like, it's kind of, I've heard a lot of different team names for Justin Hark and I know a lot of teams are interested in them, if there's a cap in which you can offer him and six playoff teams or like six like of the top teams, like it's just right and then hey, maybe I'm wrong and whatever. But with a couple questions from the chat here on Austin, um, Johnny Ruffier says should Austin's D.P spot be filled with another wing or attacking mid, whatever it is, it needs to be chance creation. Um, whatever, whatever, whether the position is either one. And I don't know

maybe like it depends on exactly how Nico Sves wants to play but it has to be somebody whose primary value is creating chances or you're going to lose your investment on Uzuni and Vasquez Uzuni which was already a very difficult high fee because they had to pay his release cause if they wanted them

they knew that that wasn't like a value steal of a signing that was I respected them going for it if you do not get him chance creation it becomes a waste so this next DP has to be a chance creator first and foremost rather than like a goal score or box to box or whatever right so there's that um and then another

thing that go good well we we hadn't mentioned jaden nelson yet which someone brought up which is in the rundown to do next which i kind of skipped through but um you reported that j nelson's been traded to austin i'm sorry i thought i had to scenes again yes um and the chat is telling us that's been officially announced got something to see he okay you can go uh jaden nelson traded he was an obvious pick i think we talked about it last week when tom went through okay now everyone on Vancouver has to get paid. Everyone performed at a high level. Now it's everyone's chance to get the contract they deserved. Jaden Nelson got pushed out of the team. And I don't think he got pushed out of the team in Vancouver because he struggled to perform. He got pushed out of the team because

there was a lot of high level performers. Emmanuel Sabi being a big one, obviously Ali Ahmed and then Thomas Mueller coming into the team. I've always liked Jaden Nelson. I've always been a huge fan. This was his most productive year. I still don't know if he's a true winger or a high touch connector number eight which is fine for austin like having flexibility is not a worst thing but he what he showed in vancouver this year is he can chance create for guys if that's what you choose to make him do and i think he can do it consistently in a way that few people if anyone on the roster did last year and that's for a guy who's not a dp right so this deal this deal has been announced um vancouver are getting 1.25 million in allocation money plus

the number 17 pick in the super draft well there 20 minutes. He had two goals and six assists in 1,400 minutes. That is way lower than I would have expected. But that's not all comps, right? Because he cooked in CCC early in the year. Yeah, but we just ran through the numbers. I know.

And this like, and one of like, again, one of Bukari's special traits is his physicality, his, he's a nightmare in transition for defenders to deal with. Jada Nelson is too. So you're getting, I don't know, 90% of, what you might get from Bukari without it being a D.P. So I really do like this move for Austin. So it was, by the way, three goals, 10 assists across all comps. Oh, wow.

But that was a goal and three assists in the Canadian Championship, two assists in CCC play. No, again, that's good. And I'm glad that you added that. Like, I, between him, Robert Taylor, Harrow O'Brien, whichever one of those, like, again, if you sign another DP, as I hope that they do,

whichever one of those three at any given time is the starter or somebody coming off the bench and change the game, they're getting the Bukari replacement in terms of production from those three guys, and now they get to head a DP. This is really, really good news for awesome. Yeah. I love the setup.

To me, Jaden Nelson, locked in starter. If it's not on the wings, because you say, okay, we get someone, or O'Brien and Taylor R, then I put him in central midfield. I dropped Danny Pereira a little deeper, and if I keep Owen Wolf, then the three of them in Central Midfield,

I love the pairing of the three of them and the ability to move the ball through them. All of them can beat guys 1 v1 from a central area. And the Jay Nelson stuff, like he played on a bad TFC team from a central area and I thought he was one of the best performers with very little help. So he makes sense to me.

I mean, that number's less than Dante Sealy. That's crazy. That makes no sense to me. You think so? I think Sealy has more potential. I would say that's marginal to me. Okay. And Seeley's floor is way further than Jaden Nelson's.

It feels like Jaden Nelson now has played for three different clubs in a four-year span and has performed at a decent level across all three of them. And it will handle the move and the reset up and learning the system and all of that a little bit better. So I don't know. Either way, it's been a good week for Austin. They also signed John Bell as a free agent. It's a guy I've been high on in the past hasn't really performed. I probably have to give up all my stock on it,

but this might be my last shot. And it's just nice to see a name that's not Heinzike or Julio Cascante maybe starting every game for this team or whatever, whatever's been happening. All right, what's next, Tom? Let's go, stay in Texas. We're going to with Houston and New England. The New England Revolution are finalizing a deal

to acquire Brooklyn Reins and a cash for $1.6 million up front plus $400,000 and add-ons. Brooklyn Raines, as I've been reporting, all off-season, was expecting him to move. He's got 12 months left on his contract. It seemed pretty clear he was not going to re-sign in Houston. So you move him now. And he gets to reunite with his US U-20 World Cup head coach,

Marco Mitrovich in New England. And I think he looked really, really good at that tournament. Obviously, small sample size. But I thought that was the best I've seen in play. And I thought he was good for Houston, like, to be clear. But I thought he played his best with the U-20s. and let's see like mitrovich obviously has to be a driving course for this and in winding him and i'm excited to see what it'll be in new england and for houston because there's 12 months left on his

contract if you asked me to guess what this fee was going to be i would have i would have guessed less so i think this was good i don't see realistically how houston could have gotten any more in this trade than they did no i don't like this move for the revs i love this move for houston i like brooklyn Raines as a player. I don't think his ceiling's super high. I think the U-20 stuff is a red herring a little bit. Like he's maybe more developed some than some other guys at that level. And also like he popped up in good spots and scored goals. That's not what he's going to be. I've had this conversation, I think with Joe Larry actually, because he watched him a bunch being in Arizona before he got to Houston and obviously we were both nerd out and watch as much

youth stuff as we can and MLS and whatever. I don't think he's elite at anything. and I don't think he'll get there. And I think physically he's not going to dominate the game. So I like him as a player. I don't love him. And this feels like a lot for a guy you like but don't love. The one thing is Mitrovich knows him better than anyone. And so the rev should at least have the most confidence in the negotiations.

If other people are coming in and the number starts getting uncomfortable and Mitrovich is sitting there saying this is what I want, okay, at least if you're the revs, you're going to feel more comfortable going into that. but I think this is a weird move for them. We talked about some names connected with them. Was it Edelman that we were talking about last week? As this is a spot for him? Throwing them at any team looking for a midfieler.

But that to me was like, okay, can you just make life easier for a heel in front of you? And can you just like allow the attackers to not have to defend? Brooklyn Raines doesn't really do any of that. He connects the game a little bit. And the goals he scored for the youth national team, we're all coming out of midfield. So like as a late runner, I think he could be a difference. maker, that just feels like a lot to pay for all the things I just said. Yeah, and again, with just the 12 months left in his contract, I don't, I think this is good, right?

If they have the allocation money, and by the way, like, they were able to fund the Leo Kampana trade with Esmer Barak-Tarovic being sold for the allocation money. So even though Kampana was dealt with injuries, so it didn't quite work out, you were able to do that by smart youth development and then transfer. Peyton Miller could be on the move this winter. this would fund this trade and then some so i will give like new england has earned the right to take these shots and why like why not right like i think maybe i rate him a little bit more than you do and i think so i think a lot of people do

the chat the chat is is killing you right now oh yeah um maybe not killing you but um feels like some people are kind of in my in my uh in my dugout on this one matthew showalter says i do feel like we over index youth tournaments a bit too much Boom. Might be the best name in the league. That could be true. Brooklyn Raines is a great name. It is a great name.

But for this, to roll the dice on a highly rated, highly talented US youth international standout, right? Like maybe he never quite makes it, but this isn't like a crazy fee, particularly given the context of if they sell Peyton Miller this winter, it's the only thing that if this doesn't work out, it's just opportunity cost. Rather than like, oh, my God, like we had to, you know, get rid of somebody to make this happen or sacrifice something else. This is good roster building to be in a spot where you don't, they can take some chances. Goss and Thanos both were right. If Peyton Miller gets sold, there's a chance I buy a Peyton Miller jersey to whatever team he goes.

I love Peyton Miller. I love his game. I like his personality. I think he's, I did something for you as soccer a week ago back and they were asked about youth national team guys. And it's like, I think he is going to be one who will contend for the best in the world at his position. Alfonso Davies style where he may not be the most important player on a field because he'll be a left back or a left wingback, but I think he's that good. And so if they

sell him, you hope it's for a lot and you hope there's some sell ongoing. Do we want to go into the big rumor before we? Yeah, let's do it. All right. Robert Lewandowski. If you've ever heard of him, he scored a goal or two for Barcelona. He holds the record for most goals in World Cup qualifying in UEFA history. Want a bunch of stuff at Dortmund and Byron Munich. as well. And he is in legitimate talks with the Chicago Fire. It's a legitimate option.

It's obviously very early preliminary. Let's be very, very careful on how the framing is. But this story isn't bullshit. There's interest. Interest from Chicago. I need to get a graphic or something that's a no bullshit meter.

Yeah. If we're doing the meter, this isn't like, oh my God, sources, final. Like, it's very early. This isn't sources say, Namar is discussing MLS with NWSL

Team Portland Thorns. Right. This is something that they've had on their list. There was a report in Spain, so Greg Burhalter just got back from Europe. There was a report in Spain that part of his trip included a meeting with Robert Lewandowski. I don't have that independently confirmed myself, but I certainly wouldn't be surprised. And this is a guy that they have to be careful to because, listen, if you have a chance to sign Robert Lewandowski, you do it.

But they do have Hugo Kuiper's who's, you know, that those two wouldn't fit together. and then, you know, you could trade them with an M.S. But I say that to say is you got to be careful at, like, if you're Hugo Kuiper's reading this right now or listening to this, you're not, you know, it's super thrilled. But it's not a guarantee. It's not, it's way too early to say whether it be likely or not. But it is definitely a dream that the Chicago Fire have and an interest and that they're going to keep trying to make happen.

It feels safer than an aim more move. It feels safe. But, like, that was also really weird. Oh, you're sorry. You're saying on the field rather than, yeah, sorry, sorry. think in general not just on the field it feels safer than a namar move on the field i think it feels safer even than a kevin de broina move and a lot of the buy-ins obvious yeah he's he's the things he does great he should be able to do great for a long time um the things he does well he should be great

at them in mLS at least for a little bit just because he's such a good soccer player like this is you know what i always say when runy came in the league like oh he's like kind of one of the best 10s in the league when he wants to be. Like, Levantowski has all that potential because he's that good. And then the off-field stuff is super obvious. You're building a new stadium. You've got new ownership. You're moving in the right direction.

You want a big name. You want a big star. And it's one of the biggest Polish communities in North America. And you would tap directly back into that. I think it's a community that was supportive of the club when they were competitive and early on playing at Soldier Field. And then has lost connection through the Bridgeview years and all of that type of stuff. And Chicago, I think fair to them.

like they've built the building blocks down first. They didn't just go straight for big name DP. Well, I guess Shakira, you could say. But under Greg, they haven't. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't do not. Yeah, yeah. Separate those two things significantly.

Yeah. And but I will say that in the interview that we're going to put out with Greg, I asked him about this and I used the phrase big game hunting. And we talked about it a little yesterday. And he didn't shy away from any of it. Like he's like, we want to find the right guy. We want it to work. We are actively having conversations out there about these lists of players.

But it wasn't like, oh, that's crazy. that's out there it was fine for him to say like yep this is a reality of the club we want to be this is part of why it came here and so i think that makes me feel like this stuff is realistic uh and it just comes down to like timing and the right moment or they could just play too up top i mean bang crosses into hugo kuyper's and robert levendowski and just dominate uh i would love that there's literally nothing about greg bar alter that scream not even consider that it's the ralph sampson hekeem elizuan of uh of major like soccer but it's it is real and that should be pretty exciting i think exciting also in the

context of chicago has not hinged their entire future success on this one move it would be it would be part of a larger picture in which they've already secured an elite young centerback they've already brought in joel waterman they've already put some work into central midfield like they are doing all the jobs but this would be another piece of that and not just oh we'll spend all of our energy on bringing him in and then the rest of it will fall into place Yes, that's a great point and something to focus on. And this timing, just because I don't think I've said it directly, this wouldn't happen until after the World Cup, if it were it happened.

Like Robert Lewandowski's playing with Barcelona through the end of the season. He might sign it there for another year. Like, it's not guaranteed that he's going to leave. But if he does, like Chicago are in the mix. But again, the timing-wise, this wouldn't happen until after the World Cup. And to your point, they're still going to be very good without another DP, without Eleven Dousy or without using that spot on somebody else. So Chicago Fire have some real traction for the first time

and a very, very long time. And that is pretty exciting. Can we talk about the biggest name that will probably sign this offseason? Yeah, yeah, big, this should have led it, should have been ahead of Levin Dousie. Pauley Prime Time, Paul Rothrock, sources confirm a report from our guy, Nico Moreno. He is going back to the Seattle Sounders. There was offers on the table from other clubs,

and he wanted to stay in Seattle. He ends up staying in Seattle. So this was another one where it's a little bit disappointed, again, for mirroring the St. Clair, Minnesota stuff. It's a little bit disappointed that this even got the free agency. And it feels right. Like, he makes so much sense within this team. He loves the club. The club loves him.

Feels like this could have gotten done a month ago. But all of all that ends well, that ends well. Paul Rothrock finalizing a deal to return to Seattle. He makes sense in the team. He makes sense being there. I don't know what he's like outside of it. And so it's hard to say like, okay, obviously no one could offer more money so that part of it always felt weird. But like if San Jose had signed him to replace Christian Espenosa, I don't know if he's that guy.

I don't know how he fits into stuff like that. So all of that made it seem like going back to Seattle made the most sense. While there was interest from San Jose, I was told that they never made a formal offer. But that's just an example of like if a team was looking at him, if Austin was looking at him as their big wing upgrade this off season, maybe because the contract he'd end up on, there'd be value there. But I don't know if he's a 29 game starter, you know, double digit assists, 20 plus goal contribution guy. Like maybe he is.

I'm not sure. But he for sure fits within the Seattle setup of we have a lot of high level players and we're looking for someone to break the game every once in a while at the right time in the right way. And I think he's really comfortable there. I will throw in Seattle's officially signed Ryan Saylor, Max Anchor, and Hassani. Dotson. Why, Sondi Dotson is going to need to change his name to something nautical.

Ryan Saylor and Max Anchoring. That is pretty good. He is the only one who's local, though. He's from Seattle. We've joked about him going back there. They've already sold Danny Lava. I would be surprised if Obed Vargas played for this team a lot longer, whether that's this offseason this summer.

One more year left. Whatever it is. He's got a year left on his contract. He's the best, he won U-22. Like, he's the best young player in the league. And Assani Dotson coming off the injury, wasn't going to get the money he wanted, but this is a team that makes a ton of sense for him.

And he gets a chance to go home. I think Ryan Saylor can play an MLS. I thought he showed it with Miami when he got a chance pre-Messy. And these are all like the most Seattle moves ever, which is like, you're probably not going to lose a game because any of these guys are on the field. And that's what Seattle loves is just having these like guaranteed veteran style players that they can churn through.

Yeah. And then on Dodson, Seattle was one of the teams that tried hard to trade for him when he put in his trade. request and then they couldn't agree to terms of Minnesota and then obviously the injury happened so all of this talk stopped so I'm happy for Hassani Dotson a little bit later

than he may have hoped but homecoming to the Pacific Northwest and he signs to Seattle I think that's a very good signing and I was like going through the depth charts for those listening I did update our depth charts if you subscribe to our Patreon I was doing the Seattle one and this is a team that there's

going to be I don't know 15 different combinations of their strongest 11 and like Dotson I'm dead certain he's going to play a ton of minutes and get a ton of games, but if Obed stays, you have to pick three from Christian Rodon, Assani Dotson, Obed Vargas, Auburnessnack, and maybe Hesu's Frera

as a 10th. And your guy, Snyder, Bruno. I think Dodson's going to play a ton of minutes, but like, and then obviously you go to the attack, things that we know of pick three of Morris, Ferreira, Rothrock, Musovsky, Osase de Rosario, and this doesn't include D.P. Peter DeLevago, who's injured.

there's going to be so many different combinations for the midfield and attack that I think that Brian Schmetzer has it's going to be in a good spot next season and this is something that's worked well for them though which is why they've been able to compete across multiple competitions it opens up the flexibility to move Obed when you need to and not be forced into anything or not panic by

on the back end and like you said I think he'll play a lot of minutes because he's also versatile like you could in theory push one of them or Roosnack down to a wing if that's where the injury is and that's the spot you have to feel like a lot of these guys can play a lot of different positions in this group let's talk dallas because i think this one's really exciting we talked with and randre zanota we'll put out that interview coming up but he kept coming back to what they saw the second half of the year and what worked and he kept mentioning simplifying the game

and he kept mentioning the back five or back three whatever you want to call it this signing herman johansen coming in 28 year old from nalbi a i miali seven goals eight assists and 30 appearances in Sweden last year this I think shows again their commitment to the style and the setup and it's the right type of move to bring in where you're trying to get some game-breaking ability along that right side and this feels like a really exciting one I agree and then his I think he had like 17 16 or 17 goal contributions just in the Swedish league alone um over just over 2,000 minutes um hernon johansen is going to be a key player in this team again at wingback when you play the system you need your wingbacks to contribute to goals every year just just

because the like system is the same this this max arsson and mofarsi or and randres ferra are have been so important to the way that the columbus crew attacks and for for dallas particularly if they are playing with musa and farrington as i'm assuming that that's going to be their first look though they do have wingers if you're playing with two forwards up top your wingbacks really need to be creative and this guy man just based on his profile this this seems like a player um I can't pretend like I've watched them in Sweden, but this seems to be like a really good sign. Because you're only watching Geist games.

That's the thing. So you're not going to get sucked into it. Yeah, this feels like the move they should have made. And a lot of this team's like already set up. The big question is the number 10. Yeah. But again, what we saw the second half of the year, with Musa and Farrington up top,

if you have this known quantity down the right side that they can play off up, that can feed the two of them for chance, is in the air for 50-50s, get to the end light, all of that, you can really play the hot hand on the other side of the field, whether it's comminga, whether you slide Dietzen or Anderson Julio out there, whatever it is. And there's probably enough production in this team to threaten a top four spot. Well, yeah, top four spot. We have one more year with that set. Top four spot in the West, yeah, which is already really good and then the potential for a number

10. All right. I think that's most of it for us. If people are asking us, there's no stream of the super draft, we are bumping up against it. We have to get off, because we got to go track the tracker at some point. Refresh, refresh, refresh, refresh, refresh. College lines being drafted into this thing. Any

big ones you want to hit before we get out of here? No. I think, yeah, I think I've spoken off. Nice. Lucas Engel, taking re-entry for RSL. Don't mind that move. Like Tim has a wingback. They still need to make a deal with Burrow. Likeed him as a wingback, loved him as a wide centerback, could be a spot if RISL choose to go that way.

And L.A.F.C. and talks with Amun Boudry. I made the Geist joke at the beginning. It did. And we film was, that's my bad. We never even got there, so I figured I'd bring it in. Matt, I think he didn't name MVP of the live chat today of Matt Duel. He just goes, just asked Buffalo Wild Wings to put MLS's website on the TV. Yeah, he's been on. on fire all show and we appreciate you being here we appreciate everyone joining us live we love doing

this live we've got one more live show as i said we'll figure it out we'll put out the time in advance for an early next week uh probably on monday so that we'll try to yeah we'll try to so that people can get involved get in and we i think we'd love to to talk with the chat some more on that one we'll do our best and uh enjoy learning about the super draft from afar to everyone uh out there and uh congratulations since all the players who get drafted. Superdraft is always one of my favorite days of the year. It's a really cool opportunity to talk to people where it's the best day of their life, and that's a really cool thing to do.

And we've seen it be a huge factor for teams. I mean, there are multiple $10 million super draft players that are going to play in the World Cup next year. So it's nothing to sneeze at, but we're excited about it. We're excited about all the offseason. We'll keep talking about it here, and thank you all for being here. And we'll talk to you again very, very soon. You know,