SoccerWise - MLS Drama From DP Debuts For Timo Werner To Miami Petty Comebacks And Red Cards Galore

Episode Date: March 2, 2026

The games are flowing as are the goals and the red cards AND THE DRAMA! Gass, Doyle & Wiebe jump on to walk through the best things they saw this weekend, the top headlines of the weekend, and every other detail from the games they saw.3:50 Wiebe’s Messi Effect14:45 Baby Bulls Rampage On23:20 RSL Kids Crush Seattle39:25 San Jose Shining To Start + Timo Werner Debut45:30 Vancouver Dominate TFC51:28 SKC Strong Shower Vs Columbus & Crew’s Questions54:35 Chicago Dispatch Montreal56:05 Rapids Bounce Back & Timbers Worries58:45 Yeboah Leading Minnesota Line1:01:05 Galaxy Offensive Splash & CTL Concerns1:04:15 Superman Saves ATX & Facu Attacking Mid1:07:25 NYCFC Strong Start & Philly Shaky Start1:15:35 Anders Dryer Success & STL Finding Their Feet

Welcome back, everybody, to Sacowize. It came to my attention later on last week. I don't think you guys ever heard the theme song last week, right? I played it in my own ears only. You guys don't even remember. Andrew Weeby and Matt Doyle with me on a Monday morning for our rock and roll show where we like to get started and talk about everything that happened across the weekend. Rock and roll show?

I'm just like so excited. Yeah, it's like a middle-aged dad whose kids. Yeah, middle-aged dad whose kids come home. for Christmas, he's like, oh, this is a rock and roll time with you. I mean, wow. Wow. Exactly. We talked paddle just now.

Yeah. I'm super excited. We're back in the sweet spot of like, we said 10, Doyle's on a 10. I'm on at 10.02. Weeby's on at 1015. It was 08. 08. And we started at 1030.

I want this to be a fact-based podcast. I just, you know, let's stay in that realm. Fact-based sponsored by. And then you could throw your sponsor in movie because I know you always have one in the back pocket. I'm right there. I'm almost there. Okay. I'm almost there.

Don't forget, speaking of sponsorship to go and sign up for tactics free zone. Doyle, the article I saw a drop last night. Mm-hmm. Hard at work. Yeah. And now you're on our show today and we talk MLS all the time. You've got power rankings. I assume.

Power rankings. I think he's going to come tomorrow morning. It was weird when I dropped power rankings last week on like Monday afternoon, right? It was too. You should drop power rankings on Saturday at two. You should power rank the teams before they even play a game. Well, this is why you're in the C-suite, man. You're like, just thinking outside the box on all of it.

Can I, let me make up a deck. I'll put together a deck and show that to you. Even more CC is it's, oh, here's my idea that you do. You do that. Yeah, I have a great idea, but I'd need you to do it for sure. I actually just talked to someone at a conference who has an AI program that could just do it for you. And it would do it before the games are played because you don't need the games to be played. Correct.

I think we can all admit that if Doyle could do decks, he would be all. That's all noise. Like, the AI gives us a signal. Yeah. That's the important. I've read a LinkedIn post that I've now summarized, but not attributed back to LinkedIn. This is a great idea. Let me tell you about it.

Yeah, that's what I learned when I was coming up in the game. So on this show, we are going to talk about the best things we saw this weekend. And there was a lot of them, a wild and wacky weekend of Major League Soccer. We're going to go through some of the top headlines. But I felt week two, team. are still having their home debuts, a lot of big games. I still wanted to hit every game. So we're going to have Weeby with us for a bit.

Then when we let him go, we're going to continue and talk about every single game. If you're listening to us on Sirius Radio, welcome. Thanks for being here. We have a tendency to go long. So if the show goes long, you'll have to go to find our podcast anywhere. You find our podcasts or go to the on-demand player

to get the rest of the show. If you're listening via podcasts or live on YouTube or later on YouTube, we're going to get all of that. Unless Doyle's Internet goes. down and then I know I spent money to upgrade it I spent money to upgrade it this past week it's now a tax write off for me that's big like I'm living in a whole new world in 2026 man as corp doyle on the scene um all right so a lot to talk about let's start with our best things we saw this weekend we be let's start with you and if we're starting off the top and we're starting with you

we know we're going big headlines we are Walmart Saturday showdown now I'm saving that for later. I'll let you have that one, Dave. It was a wonderful evening in Salt Lake City and Sandy, Utah, RSL beating Seattle. But mine is what I watched Sunday night with my boys. You know, it's a great opportunity for me to get home a little earlier doing these Saturday games and just, you know, mainline some MLS and really just sort of shape the present and future of my progeny. And they want to watch Messi. I'm not going to lie to you. They want to watch Enter Miami. And so we watched it. And half time comes around. It's two Orlando City and Cameron looks to me my eldest, he's eight.

And he, Daddy, is Miami going to lose? It's just like inconceivable to him that this is what would happen. And I said, well, you just, be patient here. Things can switch up and don't talk trash to Leon. Like, you could just tell. And I've been on the sideline with Orlando before and I've been on the sideline for this specific game. One, it is very clear that these two sides don't, they don't love each other.

There's no loss between the benches. There's respect, but there's very, very high. competitive fire sort of is there respect I think there is I think it manifests itself in in like anger sometimes and frustration and and competition and you could just tell that messy and the the Orlando bench started to get into it and messy is a little bit like no it's like some the superstars of your you know you think about the stories you heard of Michael Jordan like manufacturing disrespect or manufacturing something internal that that would light him up and messy does it when you watch

Watch him. He just starts, we talked about it last week, starts to smolder. And if you let that smoldering turn into a bonfire, well, then Segovia is looking up and saying, I better not touch this ball again because Leonel's coming on his left foot and bang, there's a goal. And, you know, Miami just have horses. And then if you have a goalkeeper of Maxime Cropos that's not at his best, like that free kick from Messi's, it's well struck. Is it perfectly struck? No, but it still finds the bottom corner somehow. It's a borderline howler from Maxime Cripo. Yes, on the free kick. Yeah, I agree. I agree. But still, he earned and lost the Canada job in like 15 minutes. It was a real seesaw. It was a real seesaw for him and Dane did the same as well.

But then Messi goes to the wall where he's never played in front of and he sees middle fingers staring down at him and he is just loving it. He is just number one. Yeah, he is number one. Shout out of Turo and Morgan Tenseo got a great shot of that for us for the soccer-wise account on that game. Let me ask you this, because there's a million things to hit in this game. But you started with watching with your kids. I guess I don't have kids up that age, but I understand Messi's a big deal. Wait, hey, you don't have kids at that age? Did we just get a

big reveal? We did not. We did not. But the age part is what's interesting to me of like, they have not seen Messi at his peak at Barcelona, which is what made him famous. I understand Argentina. But it's interesting to me when I watch these games and they showed all the kids with the signs who are like Messi's number 10. I'm his number one fan. I want the autograph. I guess it fascinates me and there's part of it that's the industry of it all that he's just getting pumped at everyone. That that's the person that they associate with as like greatness and connect to.

Not because he's not that, but like once he left Barsa, he played a PSG, he's played it into Miami and I guess you probably live in a household where Inter Miami is elevated than others are Argentina, you know, MLS teams are what my boys think of as like, the top of the game because that's what we watch. That's what we think about. It's what we talk about. You know, on Saturday mornings, they're playing soccer games. They're not sitting at home watching EPL games. Like, they're out doing stuff. And so, you know, naturally, that's what they gravitate towards. But I think there's a comparison for me to, like, Michael Jordan growing up. Like, Michael Jordan was my idea of peak athleticism, peak competitive fire, like peak performance.

And not just in terms of the sporting side, because, you know, that was sort of a given, but also the cultural side. For my sons, I've seen Messi be that cultural icon. I mean, he is literally everywhere. Like, he is the jersey they see. He is the guy that they want to play with on FIFA. Like, when they play FIFA, they want to be Argentina. It's, you know, there's a lot of FIFA games

between my five-year-old and eight-year-old that are Argentina against Argentina. Like, it's not, that's what they want to do. Like, or they, it's either that or they're playing, like, Nashville, Chicago Fire. Like, we're really, you know, we're in the trenches, so to speak. Big Hugo Kuyper's family. When they are pretending to be a player downstairs, right now one of them is messy.

One of them is Mbapé again. Or it is like Portland against Minnesota. Andrew Gutman versus Andrew Houtrester. Those are the people that are the elite players for them. They watch MLS. They love MLS. They want to talk about MLS. But like that is who they associate.

And when they go to the store to get a new pair of soccer cleats, there is one name that's on soccer cleats on the wall. Just like when I was growing up, When I went to get new shoes, Jordans were, that was it, man. Like, if you wanted Jordans, you had to get Jordans. That was a sign of cultural status and how cool you were. That's messy for them. And so, you know, when my older son asked for a poster for his room, we just painted his room, just read it his room.

He wanted a messy poster. And he wanted a messy poster that had Argentina, Barcelona, PSG, and Miami. He wanted all of them. They just, they see, to them, it's the goat idea, the greatest. like and that's what you identify with and so that's that's who they identify with yeah i think you see it in the lebron mj debates right of like people like to connect themselves to something they consider greatness even if yeah it's not your thing and you have no association and obviously messy is an exemplification of that uh your kids are not the only one we got a message from colin occ on blues guy

who screenshoted a message someone put up that said the entire will family including the owners of Orlando City stood on the Miami side of the field during warmups taking pictures of Messy and company that spoke volumes about the team so your kids are in good company with the other owners of Major League soccer teams who can connect with it this game starts with the two zero leave for Orlando we're thinking maybe some things are fixed and then it all collapses after Doyle into the fight and messy saying do you want my autograph and all of that like the pettiness the energy for its week two game it's as good as we've ever seen in MLS but What do you make of the performance on the field?

So I'm going to read a quote from Javier Mascherano. The victory belongs exclusively to the players, which is a lie because Mascherano actually made a significant adjustment at halftime. In the second half, they were championship team. There were no tactics, nothing like that, which I like to think is a shout-out to tactics, freezone.com. There was heart, courage, possession, resilience, commitment. I think the team came out because they were champions last year.

Look, all of that is. is right, the second part of it. They up their level of intensity and Messi being the exemplar of that. But also, he dropped Noah Allen, went to a sort of a three, five, two with Messi up top with Bertrami, put on Silvetti on one side, and Iende, the other side is like these flying really high wing backs that completely pinned Orlando into like a back five. It was just a flat back five for Orlando in the second half. after Orlando's shape and give Oscar Pereja a lot of credit.

Orlando's shape caused a lot of problems for Miami in like Miami had a basic 4-2-3-1. Cause a lot of problems for Miami in that first app. Like they could not deal with Griffin Dorsey. Shout out Kaelin Carr. Like bombing forward, getting touches in the box, combining obviously the beautiful goal with Oheda. Like everything was clicking and Mascherano did the smart thing. And he's like, I'm going to mirror it.

And I'm just going to let the talent. decide the game. And it's just more data that says Javier Maasurano is a really good coach. You know, last year was his first job in the big chair for a top team. And the main job when you have players like that is managing the egos. And he obviously did that really well. But along the way, he actually got that team to be much more solid defensively against the ball, really hard to play through by the end of the year. And now this year, new personnel managing a different set of egos with different skill set. Like they're not as good at progressing the ball.

Very clearly they're missing Bousquet and Alba early in this season. But he's still finding solutions. Like I've seen nothing that suggests this isn't going to be an excellent team again this year. I still think they're probably going to be better than last year. The big question after two weeks is, will they actually be better than L.AFC? Because LFC is whacking. LASC is just as good as in, but actually better.

So it's like we already have a really big storyline from the two teams that we all thought we're going to be the two best teams in the league this year. And LAFC went they beat Houston. We're going to talk. We've got Red Bulls coming up. We've got RSL talking about. We've got a lot to talk about.

So we're not going to hang here too long. I will say though with the LAFC thing is if Orlando had been able to find a way to counter what Miami did, which is Selvedi did not. play wingback. He played as a winger. There was no point in which he defended or was along the backline. I and they does not play it either. Like you have to go after. It was a three, three, four, right? Right. Like we call it a three four. It was a three four. It was a three four that Miami played the second. And Orlando, we talked to Grisman last week. We don't have to do it again. They have a,

you know, they're a little bit behind. They have some injuries. But I thought it was a little cowardly the way they then handled it, which was can we dump on defensive midfielders and try and hold on and hang in this game rather than can we go and win this and can we go take it away from them? And Machirano opened that door because he had to. But he was able to get his team back on track. And the award. Wait a minute. It all really fell apart though when Nolan Miller got hurt.

Like that's the thing. Oh my God. The slide tackle in the first half. I'm like, that's those moments where we're living in this fever dream of Michigan graduate defends Lionel Messi in high stakes game. But that's like, that's the beauty of this league and has always been, right?

Like that you feel like, wait a minute, this guy shouldn't be, but he is and that's the joy of all of this and you know i think we've seen that some of miami too when when i see you nick bright go to leon o'm messy and like kiss him on the head after a game i'm like hold on hold on like where are we how is this happening and you know that you got to take real joy in that um the award for miami is they get to go eat mcdonalds at the white house and cash in their calashy polly market on pickles per burger bet uh so inter miami is going to the white house this week if they're still allowed to. I don't know wartime protocols. And that's a big deal for them. And they get to jump on the Messi train just like everyone else. Everyone's taking pictures of and

with Messi. And for Orlando, huge question marks. We talked to Griseman on Thursday with Valer on this show. Clips are up on social as well. You can go find those if you want to. Let's talk about the best team in Major League Soccer, though, because you tried to make it at L.A.F.C. But it's not, Doyle. The best team is the only undefeated team left in the Eastern Conference. The only team on two wins, it is your baby bulls. Yeah, the Red Bulls, I did not expect it to happen this quickly with Michael Bradley in his first job managing a first team. And he has instilled what I would consider like a Wilfred Nancy style of free flowing, but really structured with the ball attack. And they beat the revs 1-0. It wasn't as dominant as what they did against or

Orlando in week one. And they're still leaving goals on the board, right? They could have had two. They could have had three. So there needs to be a little bit more precision in the final third. I think a lot of that is coming from the wingers who are maybe not holding up their end of the bargain. Attention.

Attention. This was what I went to check before. They're doing a fire alarm and check through my building. They are going to play Sweet Caroline at some point, which I don't have the rights to, so that they can come in a test to see if it works in every single unit. Why is that the song choice? I don't know. And last year, because they do it once a year.

Last year the guy came in and he looked at me like 100% and he goes, at least we're playing good music. Like there's a North world in which I wasn't going to be jacked. That sweet Caroline has been blasted through my apartment for the last 25 minutes. Yeah. Also, this is going to be all week because they have to start on the 50th floor and come down and I live in the middle. All right. I guess we be and I will take the rest of this segment, man.

Just the Red Bulls have had. for a long time the ability to control the game without the ball. It's the whole premise behind energy drink soccer. And they still have that. But what they've added, what Michael Bradley's added this year is in players like Adri Mametti especially, who's just, God, I've never seen a 16-year-old American defensive midfielder who's this good. The ability to control tempo with the ball, to use the ball to crack open opposing back lines, really the entire opposing structure. And within that, we're seeing stuff like Justin Shea, who's a centerback in a two, both overlapping and underlapping with and without the ball. And it's become so hard for other teams to track.

I wrote it off after week one because Orlando were just so bad. But week two, look, the revs aren't great. Very clearly, this is a team that has a lot to figure out. But they're not roadkill. They're not without talent. And the Red Bulls were just two levels above what the revs were eight. able to do on the night we be. And it's coming from these guys who are like literal children, half of them or in like Justin Chey, five years ago, he was the Mehmeti. He was the Hull. And he never

lived up to his talent. And now they've harnessed that. And he has become a really effective soccer player. I think that part of it is something that I want to see more and I hope that the league is able to embrace because you're going to, you know, with the rise of sort of more and more transfers and earlier transfers, you're going to have hits, but you're also going to have misses, but that doesn't necessarily mean the talent is gone. I want to dive in and pinpoint something you just said and just kind of, you know, interrogate you a little bit because you said this is the best 16-year-old defensive midfielder American you've ever seen. And my brain is immediately seeing Tyler Adams win championships for the Baby Bulls and then graduate to the first team and ball out and windshields

and, you know, go to Europe and so help me out here. Mamedi, Tyler Adams. Like, how are we, how are we, has this sort of like measuring up? your mind. So Tyler Adams was a wingback at that age, right? Because he played D-Mid as a 16-year-old sporadically for the first team and mostly for the second team. But when he came up to the first team for good, he spent a year and a half playing as a wingback in that bizarreal, it was almost like a 3-3-3-1 the way they were playing it. And he was, I think I voted him Best 11 at that position. And there's a big part of me that still thinks Tyler's best position is out wide. because he does not receive the ball well on the half turn, right?

He is not a 360-degree player when he plays in central midfield. He does not control tempo with the ball. Mehmeti does. Mehmedi looks like he came from La Mascia, man. Like, I watched him, and like I watched Mark Bernal, who's the 18-year-old Bousquet air, who's starting to get more minutes now for Barcelona's first team. and I was holy hell

like they're like mirror images of each other and like that's I know that's a really high compliment but that's where the kid is at this point and there's no reason to think American kids can't get there

there's simply no reason to think that if you look at what our best young players do on the world stage in the U-17s and the U-20s every single time there is no reason to think that we can can't produce kids that good. And Michael Bradley lived it, right?

Like Michael Bradley, 22, 23 years ago was on that path. And he went to Heer and Vien and then he went to Mujun Glabach. And then he went to, God, remind me where he played in Italy. Aston Villa. Camo Verona. Yeah, Verona. Yep.

So he played in all. And like, he seems to have right away said, like, thinking not just I want to get wins for Red Bull, but like I want to sort of widen the pathway that was so narrow when I was coming through 25 years ago. And I like, if I'm a Red Bull fan, I'm going to enjoy the hell out of Julian Hall and Audrey Mametti right now because I think three years from now, these kids could be any team in the world, that type of talent. Three years feels like a stretch as well, sort of, which which will come down to as well. Like if this Red Bull team can continue

and be successful and push with this group, this could be the test for them of like, okay, fine, you won't go out and sign big names. You've created big names. Will you hold them enough to win here or will you not? But besides that, I just wanted to say, I've seen Mehdi and Tyler up close at the same age. I think to Doyle's point,

Mehdi does different things on the field that he's capable of. The Tyler off the field stuff and intangible stuff is the stuff that was like world class where he was like a leader at 16. That stuff is unteachable. It's untouchable. It has value. They both,

I think they're very different, which was why every time me and Tom have talked about Mehdi for the last two years on this show, we have said he's the best prospects since Tyler, but we don't compare them because I think they're so different.

You compare them. Right? Like Tyler, you said the off field stuff from Tyler's world class, also the front foot defending. And the off ball stuff. Yeah.

Yeah. Out of possession. I don't, I don't know. that there's a better central midfielder in the world at blowing up opposing counterattacks before they even start because he reads the game so quickly and his athleticism, his straight line athleticism is unbelievable. He goes from zero to 60 as fast as anybody.

That is a completely different physical skill set and technical skill set than Mehdi. And it was a thing that was world class the moment he stepped into the pro ranks, which Mehdi has this that's already at this level going forward. Di DiSanto sets up the goal as well on the short corner. I thought he played really well from that left back spot. That's a guy that they've pushed through. I mean, all these guys are guys that they've pushed up age groups, that they've pushed through to the pro ranks at a young age.

And I think Sandro Swartz gets some credit on Julian Hall of like the first time he practiced. He was like, this guy's a first team player. And they had the whole like legally he couldn't play at night and all that stuff. And Sandra was like, that's fine. He's part of my team. Like you guys can figure out the game time stuff, but he trains with my team. and that's, I think, been a huge help for Julian Hall that, like, he has been expected to be a first team pro

for two plus years now, and he's playing, like, the experienced part of this group as they put the whole thing together. I've still got question marks on the Kate Calo Ruevo Caba stuff of, like, where at all, some of this creation ends up, dribbling over the end line and tripping over yourself and trying to draw fouls and all that type of stuff. But I think that's a problem you'd rather have if you're Red Bulls than an inability to create chances and get into the final third.

We'll talk revs, I think, more later on. They did get the centerbacks back, so it looked a little better, but it was still underwhelming and unimpressive. But I wanted to one up, you, Doyle. You're talking Red Bull kids. I got to go out west to the RSL kids, who I thought we said it looked good last week in a really tough situation in Vancouver.

Players out for visas and injuries and all of that. They come back into a formation change at home to Seattle, and they played awesome in this one. Weeby, you were there. So let's start with this. Well, give me pronunciations on the three kids. Let's just do that out the gate. It didn't hurt the Connie.

Let's set the line. Luca Moisa. And Xavier Gozo. Yes. It's like it's not that goesos is the one that I struggle with because it's like a mixture. It's not. It's not. It's Xavier.

Xavier is named after Drago. Zavir goes. He's named after Dragba. Yes. That was a very good feature from Charlie Bowman to Melissasocker.com. Shout up to Charlie. on that one. He always digs up some really good details. Gozo, and I'm just going to give you some details from standing on the sideline and then just kind of, you can take him where you want. Gozo is

physically a freak. Like his ability to not just straight line run, but change direction and have a different level of agility than everybody around him is very, very clear watching him. Brian Schmesser was absolutely just, he was beyond a level of anger that I've ever. experience with Brian at halftime. He was like, can somebody make a play on this kid? We are just letting him fly by us all of the time. And I was like, well, that, you know, intern, I was like, yeah, that's both effort and, you know, what you're putting into it. Certainly I don't think the sounders were at their best in that sense defensively, but also this kid's just ridiculous. Like, he will run past a lot of people in this league repeatedly. His positioning, his understanding,

of wingback is very, very raw. And that's not a knock on him at all. He's just picked up this position. He told me he played right back when he was six, eight, seven years old. That's a little bit of a different level than he's doing it now. And the entire game, it is Pablo and Anthony Pullis on the bench, screaming positions, step, drop, inside. Like the whole game, they are yelling at Gozo in every single game phase about where to be on the field.

This is why no one wants to play on the outside. Whether that's defensively, whether that's going. forward, whether that's set pieces. Like, they are literally training him on the fly. And Gozo told me, I talked to him last week. He was like, yeah, man, I'm learning. And it's coming, but he's like, every moment I'm learning. And he said, I can watch a lot of tape.

That's one thing. I just need to do it. And so he says he's learning much more in practice and in games. But my God, I mean, and then to make the decision that he made to drop it to Piole, he's unbelievable. Moisa has a huge engine. I think he's still maybe a step or two behind the game pace in terms of like, getting into the positions and having the physicality to, like, win balls in the right

spots, but he's so active. And when he did get the ball in advanced positions, I thought he was actually really tidy and had a good eye for how to, you know, move the ball forward and find the two tens or find a fullback who's flying forward overlapping. And then herzacani, I mean, he's got something. I'm not sure what the, I'm not sure what it translates to long term. But like, it translates to a good amount of playing time this year off the bench. I don't think as a starter unless injuries like they are now are affecting RSL, but I had a great time talking to with them afterwards. He's like, you know, my family's not here.

They're in California. I'm going to call my mom and dad afterward. They're going to be crying. You know, like he just sort of was in this, you know, in the state that you would be in after your lifelong dream is accomplished. So it was really fun and credit to RSL because they're giving these guys a platform. And Moisa especially, I don't think they thought he was even going to be here. And now he's done two games in.

they invested a ton in this academy right they've tried to build this and this should be the strength of it which is it gives you depth and it potentially gives you star quality to fill in across your starting lineup they are missing yedlin who started last game went down Luna Oletungi andelli and Arias and then Peel went down at the end of this game and looked heartbroken yeah yeah you could tell I hadn't seen that confirmed but that was that's the rumblings that they were they were going to get a scan for it Yeah, it's tough. So that is unfortunately for them more time that they have to fill in, but these kids have stepped up and they've played awesome. And I think what you saw in Vancouver was like confidence to go in battle and not be overawed by the moment of being stuck on the road against the best team in the Western Conference without all of these support systems that should be around you.

And then Gullivogi comes off the bench in this one, Doyle, and just looked really impressive in the 20 minutes he was in there. hits a through ball with his first pass that should have been a goal if Booth knows how to dribble forwards, taking the Brendan Aronson route on that one. But like really big performance from him to be this star

player who could maybe tie some of this together for them. Go ahead, Weeby. I can tell you're on the president. I want your take and then I'll sort of follow up because I have takes on him. They're going to play a two one, right? It's going to be a three, four, two one. And part of that is to put Gozo out wide where he's going to

get sort of more of a runway to receive and go at back lines. And like if you could turn Nuhu into an orange cone, you could turn almost anybody into an orange cone. But that also spreads things out and should give Gula Vogi and either Hezekani or Luna when when Luna gets back, space underneath to operate. So far so good. Like it wasn't like a perfect second half.

It wasn't a great final 25 minutes. But you could see the talent. And with talent usually comes. and product, and that's what this team was missing for good chunks of last year. And you go out and you get a DP to fix that. And bear in mind, they still have a DP slot open. So they have more work that they could do. I kind of hope they just sit on it until the summer and let the kids continue to cook

because through two games, there's no reason to think, oh, we can't, we can't keep this going, right? They played arguably the toughest schedule. Like we both, we all think that Vancouver and Seattle are top five teams at this league. There hasn't been a tougher schedule that anybody else has faced in terms of just the quality of opposition. So I hope they keep it going. And obviously, I think Gilaughey is going to be a big part of that from the whistle starting probably as soon as next week. I want to make sure we just add that, you know, in terms of the investment and what they've done and how they're trying to play, like Juan Manuel and Aubrey on the left is a huge piece as well. I didn't think he was at his absolute best in this game.

but you saw that ball that came across that Herzakani finished. What Pablo told me this week is like what he has is just he chooses the right ball every time and then he always has a secondary action off of every attacking move that he makes. It's never like ball played freeze. It's ball played and move.

I still think he's sort of integrating in the team. I think he got his visa Thursday night. So it was like up in the air whether or not he was even going to be available. Starting at Guilivogi is number one, let's just start just you're next to him. You're saying he is big. He is large.

I don't think he's going to have a ton of issues physically, and you saw that in this game, the way he sort of shrugged off challenges, and not just shrugged off challenges, but stayed really, really balanced and also just field aware in those moments. He's efficient with his touches. He's always finding ways to play forward,

and I think he fits perfectly in sort of the nine and a half. Like, is he a nine? Sometimes, is he a 10? Yeah, sometimes roll that they're going to have him play. He was spraying the ball wide. He was hitting those through balls. He was getting himself. He was drawing fouls.

he probably should have scored. Like I thought that run that he made to get in behind similar to the booth one. Like that is the best mixture of who he can be. It's like, yeah, you can play the through ball. Yeah, he can spin it wide and get in and be a secondary runner. But he can also break through the line when Olatouji inevitably comes back a little bit.

And then when Luna's on the ball with space to look up, good Lord. And then what they want to do is it looks a little bit like what the crew have done under Nazi, but less possession based, I think. Much more like quickly vertical. And you're going to see a lot of times for RSL where five guys are standing in a straight line across the front line like we've often seen with the crew in the past. And it's not going to be static. Like if you were watching Sinabria and Booth in particular, they were switching positions. Booth was pulling wide.

Sanabri was coming inside. Then they're kind of underlapping, overlapping, overlapping when a player gets his head up. And you saw a little bit of that on the goal that Gozo Dishes to Piol as well. Like if Philip Quentin gets time on the ball out there and he has guys who can run past people, dump it over the table. top. Yeah. Dump it over the top. I do think the Yedlin loss is big because not only do I think he helps them in that side, his ability to cover space. Correct. allows Gozo to be more dangerous and make his life easier. Quentin got cooked a couple times, but he can hang and hold and like it doesn't mean they have to change style and formation. Is your clear backup? He is your backup doing what he did.

It feels like a big loss in that you know what you're missing. No doubt. Um, from Yedlin and he'll fit in perfectly when he comes back where some of these other like they're covering for a nellie right now so it's not as heart in jenquah and and ingler not yetlin level like can push forward guys from the three centerback positions but they are mobile and they are willing to step forward and and pass so we we might have to do a session here with lucas angle me and doyle just being like and i haven't even gone fully like doyle has but like come on man you can't go buzz on that that it looks worse but than it does long and it just looks bad in general so can i i'm I might have to hit him up.

Can I just ask on Doyle's side? It's one of the first things I know. This is a, we fresh bick Sunday night. We're making sure Mondays are, you know, you know, this is not bicked.

This is not bick. This was, I have, what kind of technology are you using here? It's like a, it's like a $15 one from, I don't know, might have been from Walmart.

Do you think? I could have been. You know what? It's doing this sort of job that I would expect, you know, a Walmart head shave, trimmer to do. I don't know the technology on this. You guys have to educate me.

You're probably never going to have to learn, man. You got too thick and head of hair. I pray. Uh, weepy was in the house because of the Walmart Saturday game, along with McKelle. Yes, it was. And you know what? Yeah, I was a dream team. McKellie and I also got in 13 holes in the morning. I know you guys are very interested in that. So just 13, because you know, call times. Call times, brother. So I was sign up for 18 and just leave it? Yeah, you just dip out when you have to. Yeah, yeah. No, it was a good time. Did you guys, did you guys get a stake? because I'll tell you, Salt Lake City, super underrated food town.

No, I did. I have sushi. Did you go to Tony's latehirt sushi place? I don't know. I have to go look at what it is. Everyone always tells you to go when you go. His family, Tony Beltron, who is now what? Like assistant GM or whatnot.

His family, I think it's his in-laws, own a sushi restaurant in Salt Lake City, which I'm looking up now, which everyone tells you is the best sushi. Well, listen, I don't remember where we went. I'm just going to tell. you that we went to Tony Beltrons. It was very good. Solly City in general, a wildly underrated place.

Agree. Thank you. It kind of gets a rep that is undeserved and probably because people haven't been there. Yeah, no, listen, it was delightful and RSL are always such a great host. And then, you know, the Seattle Sounders are are a team that I just, I'm so interested in what this year is for so many, so many players on that team. I just, I'm very curious to see how it goes. I don't think that this was a game. that they're going to look back on fondly at all. And I'm incredulous that has been since 2012 that they have one in that building. Like it just, it boggles the mind given how good that team has been and sort of the ups

and downs that RSL have had. But both these teams are looking like playoff teams in the West. There's no doubt about it. Let me say this. So for Seattle, it was their first goal in Sandy, Utah, since 2020. This has been a house of horrors for them. They have not won in 16 games at RSL. and I put down that Freddie Juarez left RSL in the middle of 2021 season.

So while there's an extra year there, there's a little bit of Cursebandbino stuff, you got to ask how many goals Freddie Juarez is worth and whether it's gone right or wrong for Seattle. But I'm hoping this lasts forever. I'm hoping Seattle never wins in Salt Lake. And we have like 100 years where then we can like teach children about Freddie Juarez and what he meant to Salt Lake. Let me ask you guys this is just a random question that I was pondering before and after the game. Who plays more minutes this year at the nine?

Assazi de Rosario or Danny Mosovsky? I think the clock is ticking on Osse. Yeah. I had really high hopes and he has not done a ton over the first couple of games. Your high hopes is that for a guy his size, he has pretty good feet and does some stuff? Because he's not super engaged in the game. Yeah, my high hopes are that he was able to find chances in the box

at a high level as a starter in the way he did last year, primarily coming off the bench. And the way he did in preseason by the way. I think you had like five games in preseason. Yeah. And you know what? He did it in the Leaks Cup final. So like we know it's in there. I just wonder how much how much leash he's going to get because, look, Danny Musovsky is a professional goal score. And you know that he's going to hit a high level. And there's always pressure on the guy trying to take the job. And the clock is ticking a little bit. I would still take. I still think Osat a Saiz is going to put the ball in the back of the net and he's going to win the job and probably be the number one, you know, center forward for this team. But I am less confident of that than I was

12 days ago. So before we get out of this segment, we have to, I have to hit up Kilgore Pilgrim on Blue Sky who a week or two ago when I went through the schedule coming out of CCL for teams and what they have to go through in the league, I said for, I read through Seattle schedule and was like, oh, they start, it's not that hard in terms of matchups. And their immediate response was this team gets crushed in Salt Lake City. So you're an idiot. They followed up to my, my blues guy that I put out there every Sunday night, being like, what should we talk about, being like, talk about RSL's continued dominance over Seattle and Sandy.

So shout out to that person. And then to note for Seattle, because of the field with the World Cup, they won't play a home game until April 12th. they'll play one in Conccaf, which will be in Spokane against Vancouver. Otherwise, they play every game on the road in MLS action. They actually come back home and play RSL in that first game. And then they have a stretch of home games on natural grass at Lumen. And then obviously we go into the World Cup break. I think the quote, Kange gave during the broadcast that Schmetser, someone said,

was like, well, play 17 home games and 17 away games. Like, who cares? That's what Schmetser would say. And that's what's yet. But it's something to pay attention. to which is our beloved Seattle Shield Race. It's probably already dead because of the nature of the way this season's going to go. And it's probably going to be a little bit rocky, especially they've got Vancouver in CCL.

So it's a tough matchup. It's a big one as well. So it's just something to look out for with Seattle. All right, weeps, where are you going to be next week? Oh, good. Look at you. Just guiding me right into it. Yeah, the Walmart Saturday Showdown is going to beautiful Columbus, Ohio, Chicago Fire are in town.

I'm looking forward to a, I think it's a really good matchup in the east, so you can watch that one at 7.30 p.m. Eastern time on Apple TV on Saturday. And this is great timing because the siren call from producer Rich is coming through. Andrew, come record instant replay. So just letting everybody know, remember, if you have referee shouts, controversial calls, things you don't agree with, or things, you know, I guess you could hit me up with things you thought were really well done. You know, I'm on blue sky.

I'm on the platform formerly known as Twitter. So holler at me there. All right. Thanks, for being here. Seven red cards to go look at. So go out. I got my work cut out from you.

Adios, boys. Let's hit some headlines. And then we, as I said, we will touch on every single game from the weekend. Anyone listening to Serious Radio? As I said, we're going to go a little bit long.

So if you want the full show, go to the on-demand player. Or you can go listen wherever you get your podcasts. Let's start in San Jose. where Timo Werner made his debut off the bench in a two zero win over Atlanta. Preston Judd gets another goal. Jamar Ricketts looked good. Duon Jones look good.

Doyle, I know this was a team you were really high on. Maybe it's not the most impressive opponents to start with at home against SKC and Atlanta. But two zero straight out the gate two wins is pretty good. Yeah, easiest schedule in the league so far. Let's be clear on that. But these are also games that they would have figured out a way to give away points last year. And they would have figured that out because they were a sieve defensively. And part of that was Doniel being terrible in goals, a shot stopper in 2025.

The bigger part of it to me was that they got zero defense from that front line. And so they allowed super valuable passes like literally directly into the heart of central midfield. And through two games, the way Preston Judd and Jamar Ricketts and Sinney Bow, Buddha have worked in that front three and then Nico Shakiris underneath them, they are preventing those sort of passes. They're forcing opposing teams wide. Again, it's sporting Kansas City and it's Atlanta. Not want to read too much into it, but the structure is really good. The structure is an improvement as is the effort over last year. And then, you know, Shakiris has been excellent through two games.

He's not putting up huge numbers, but he's been involved in all five of the goal or four of the five goals that they've scored. Like he looks like a two-way number 10 in the way that you want. And then they added, you know, Timo Verner to the mix. Werner came on,

I was surprised at this. He came on for Preston Chud. I thought they would play together because Werner has always played better off a true number nine, which is what Judd is. But he came on and he played the number nine and it would just like instantly changed

everything about the question. because Judd stays high and he occupies the centerbacks and he's a target. He's really good at that. Werner is like swapping places with Buddha, dropping deep, like expecting Shakiris to run off the ball in like into space in front of him and attack that space. And there was, I think for about 15 minutes, there was some confusion. And you could see it because the quakes were still getting to good spots and creating what should have been chances.

But there was no run up the middle. right there is no near post run and at around the 75th minute mark you can see it maybe click a little bit with runner he was like i guess i just kind of got to be a forward here and he was from that point onwards and it led to create the second goal the second goal yeah and that was a 17 pass build up yeah it was beautiful the quakes looked really good the part of this is Atlanta had kind of given up at that point so like again don't read at that point or before the game started um Atlanta looked really bad uh San Jose looked really good. Really, really good. I mentioned Securis, Bolaroo, really good. Ian Harks, he's starting at D-Mid now because Vieira is hurt for a little bit.

He had one of his best games at MLS, in my opinion. And then, Reed Roberts and Daniel Muni in Central Defense, and these are both draft picks from the past couple of years and they're youngish domestic players, and it's easy to overlook that, but

Bruce Arena, man, the way he's developed young domestic centerbacks going all the way back to Eddie Pope 30 years ago. You know, obviously Omar Gonzalez and AJ Deligarza, you know, Henry Kessler before all the injuries in New England. Like he has a track record and it looks like these guys are next in line. The quakes are going to be much better than what people thought they were. Yeah, I thought it was cool. I mean, cool is probably not the right term.

But we talked out of a little bit with Werner of like the thing he does well, he should do great. And if he does it great, he'll be worth it. There is also that little opening with some of these guys where it's like he's such a high level player. Maybe he can do more. And I think you kind of saw it on the goal of like goes into the channel, immediately looks up.

And I thought he dictated the game a little bit for them, for the guys around him, Buddha and whatnot of like, right, you are, you know, a German national team veteran. Like, can you make the game easier for the guys around you and do the thing you do well? And this team puts in so many crosses that he should just get chances, even if he plays poorly. and then you saw the way he changed the space on that goal for them. Milneal ball on Blue Sky asked us to talk about Quakes defensive solidity.

So you were right there with him. And Atlanta, it's just been really, really bad to start the year. Atlanta and Charlotte, I don't know who they wronged. Their schedule started with an away Midwest game back home to an away California game. Opening two weeks, both of them, both of them got smoked on the West Coast. So I don't know what's going on in the battle. They're just Tata, no, they're just Tata Martino, by the way. He had some, oh, he had some quotes afterwards.

And it was, you could read in the negative space. Yeah, sort of like what was left unsaid. I'd imagine it's going to be a brutal week of training for the five stripes because that is an unhappy manager. And the expectation on the road. I put this down three away teams won this weekend. It was L.A.F.C. in Miami, who most would consider two best teams in the league, and NYCFC who also started with two road games in a red card against Philadelphia.

We'll talk about that more. Only one won the first week. So like throw the parlay down of home team results for every single game and see what happens in Major League Soccer because you watch the first four, six games of the weekend on Saturday. And it's like, oh, right, yeah, this is what happens. It's just really hard to go on the road and get a result in MLS. Okay, we are going to talk a little bit here about Vancouver TFC. but again, if you are listening on Sirius, we're going to leave you now.

So go find the show on demand or anywhere you get your podcast. But thank you for joining us. And we're going to talk Canada. TFC have not won in Vancouver in five and a half years, 10 straight matches that they have not beaten Vancouver. And for Vancouver, they get a little bit healthier in this game than they've been in the opening few games where it's been a little bit of a struggle across Concaf and MLS play.

Getting Blackman back is huge for the back line. it moves Laborta over to the left back spot. And Vancouver comes out and just blitzes Toronto off the field. And there's just no, there's no comparison between the two teams when you watch this game. Vancouver were able to create chances out of the back through their buildup. They were aggressive, uh, 1v1 on in the front, you know, attacking third of the field. EZ Jackson looks to be fitting in. Badwall looks awesome so far.

Like they didn't have sobby. They don't have Ali Admet. They don't have Ryan Gould. And this team doesn't really miss. beat. I think that's been like one of the huge strengths of Yesper Sorensen. And I wrote down here, I mean, Ralph Bresso is just an assumed starting centerback now. Yeah. Like that is such a wild world that we live in and Toronto wishes they had someone like him maybe. I don't know how they could have ever had a player like that available to them. But it is so, it's so impressive, his ability

to emboldened these players and then get them to step up and play at a high level. Yeah, it's like what we were talking about with the Red Bulls and Michael Bradley and taking these guys who were at one time considered really high-level prospects that just didn't pan out for whatever reason and now putting them in their early 20s, putting them in a position to succeed and continuing to coach them, right? You could see that Ralph Preso was a better and more confident player than he was a year ago. I thought that the job, Yesper Sorensen did coaching that team last year, was the single best coaching job I've seen in 30 years of covering this league.

And it looks like it's continuing. all three goals, I should say, were off a set pieces. So they're not quite flowing with the ball the way they were at their best last year. Although Brian White had looks. Yeah, he had looks and he finally got one. He scored the third goal on this one.

And with him, okay, you get one. And then they tend to start coming in bunches. So maybe the floodgates open now. But even with it being a little ponderous, the first game and a half, or, well, I guess, counting CCL is the first three games. Everything is in place for me to believe that this will be a top three, top five team in the league at the very least. And we spend a lot of time talking about Messi and son.

Thomas Mueller still got it. Watching this guy play soccer, man. He, oh, his movement, his efficiency, his creativity. in unselfishness with the way he does it is just I don't have the words like I love watching this dude play just love it it will be fascinating when Gould comes back because I still think Mueller could be more effective if he's less central because he could go and find the game off the ball

and find the spaces where he scores goals where like there's some responsibility as a 10 right now in the way he plays for this team which he can do but I don't know if it's his best skill set. And it might just be the two of them swapping and out of the same spaces. And it just makes life easier. Also, that's a world in which Galt gets back on the field and plays,

which I don't know when that's going to happen. The other name that popped in my head this weekend was Veselenevich, which I have not heard much about. He went out in the summer with the ACL. If he comes back, they have, I mean, they have the best centerback department in the league for sure with him in there.

I thought he was better than Blackman the last year and a half when he was healthy. So now you bring that in. It opens up pre-sumperts. to maybe play other positions. Maybe you go through it at the back sometimes if you want to. Like it just creates a lot more options and Vancouver will need them. If they're going to make a concafron, they're going to play in Canadian championship. Like there's a ton of travel with everything they do. So that might just be as simple as that. But that's going to be a huge ad for this team at some point this year. For TFC, we think Josh Sargent's going to be in the building. I assume he'll

play next week. It does not seem like that's going to be enough out the gate with. how tough things have been defensively up the spine and how fragile they've looked, but also a huge star player who scores goals for you can change things. I don't know. I'm open to waiting on it with Toronto FC, but it's been a really bad start to the season. Yeah. I'm not going to exactly give them a mulligan, but patience is necessary. I will say there's some concerning stuff with their positioning.

If you look like they're so, the gaps between their defenders, huge. the positioning of their midfielers that don't really make sense. And so nothing flows in their progression, right? You watch Vancouver play and the next pass is always there, right? It always makes sense. And Toronto have none of that through two weeks.

And it's concerning because I'm not, I'm not convinced it's all a talent issue. You know, like I think this might be Robin Frazier, you know, needing to get into that, into the film room a little bit and figure out how to better transmit his ideas to his team. Shallowie got the start in this one. It was Etienne Jr. up top.

So that will be sergeant spot whenever he's fully available to start, which is a question mark, hasn't played for Norwich, was playing in with the U21s in training and all of that. All right. We're going to hit a bunch of these games now. Some quick thoughts on most of them. I just put them in random orders for the most part time. But I started with SKC, Columbus.

because I don't know. I just really enjoyed this game. I think it's always fun watching Columbus. They're pretty open and flowing. I thought SKC came to play in this matchup. They are not as dangerous as a Columbus team is, and they will probably struggle to control games and dominate possession.

But they seemed up for it. They were fairly direct, and they were dangerous when they did so. I thought they hung in this game, and then the Palskamp PK Save, the building was like jumping. And it reminded me that when this building is good, when this team is competitive,

it has been one of the best atmospheres in soccer in the U.S. for the last 20 years. It was one of the game-changing places to elevate the league and push the sport forward in this country. And it felt very back in that moment. They then proceeded to go on and not create another chance for the final 10 minutes and not go win at home. But I don't know. This, I was so low on SKC. I think this was pretty promising for me of like, okay, this is a team that will be relevant in hanging in an MLS game.

It was a fun moment. And, you know, Dejanovovich is just a professional goal scorer. And a monster. They had, they knew exactly how they were going to get out and transition against this Columbus team and create chances. And they did it a couple times. They got two goals out of it. And that was, that was nice. I still don't think this is a team that's going to be able to compete.

Yeah. You know, 35 points would, would surprise me. Columbus, the head coach, Henry Gristram, he's really. good in the postgame press conferences, he talked about how bad their pressing structure was and why sporting were able to get out in transit. So between that and leaving a couple chances on the board, like they could have had four or five. I, you know, man, one point from two games, both on the road, so grain assault, but he's a really frustrated guy already. And, you know, losing Darlington Nagby, there's, you lose more than just one player, right?

You lose maybe the ability to execute the game plan in the exact style you want. And he's got to solve for that really quick. It feels like, sorry, every major loss on the field they've had over the last two years, they have replaced fine, but worse. Yeah. And you're like half measures behind in all of these spots. And that feels, now you're like, okay. It has a cascade effect.

Yeah, right? If you're 95% as good in this spot as you were two years ago, it actually ends up being more than a 5% loss because that impacts the guys around here. Like Wesum Abu Ali is awesome. Kucho is better. That's just the reality. I mean, I don't know. I wouldn't even put anyone else in Central Midfield in the name with Nagby.

If you want to say it's Swatsky who's replacing him, then whoever's replacing Zawatsky next to him, who's replacing Aidan Morris or whatever. that's a huge step down, whether it's Picard or Gosdog, who scores and comes out of a game with everyone feeling worse about him, which is like a unique experience to be able to have in an MLS game. Let's talk Chicago, Montreal. Chicago went down to down a man and scored twice late on, but out the opening kickoff, Montreal played back and then turned it over straight into Kuyper's feet on literally the opening kickoff of the game, tried to play out throughout

the game, looked directionless, and, Chicago looked pretty efficient with all of it. And like Chicago looked good. It's hard to say that when you play Montreal at home, but I thought Chicago looked good. Yeah, I'm not sure I agree with that. I thought it was just Montreal being terrible. Like maybe a special historical kind of bad.

Like that's what we might be looking at with Montreal. If I'm Greg Burrhalter and I wrote this in my column, I am not allowing the guys to celebrate this win. I am saying we're frustrated because we didn't, put this away by half time. Yeah. Like that is, that is where I would be at if I was Burrhalter after this one.

Don't take anything else away because you're not going to, you're not going to play a team that bad again this year. Yvonne Jaime got the start. So it's first appearance since the injury back in October. There was like two moments where he had a spark. Otherwise, he was invisible in this game as everyone on Montreal was. So I know you're a bit freelance now.

You might be pulled in to write a letter from the ownership group from Montreal to the fans talking about a reset and just give them time because it's all coming pretty soon for this Montreal group once again. Colorado, two zero win over Portland. We've got a lot of questions about Portland. We got a question in the chat as well about Colorado that said, did they fix things or was this Portland being bad? So we, the other question we have is Shrek PDX on Blue Sky who says, what's the real Portland? They're all kind of in the same space. Yeah. I don't, I don't think that there's any difference between this year's. There's likely not going to any difference between this year's Portland and last year's Portland in terms of function

and tactical approach. They just are who they are. And you hope that Colbassett is an upgrade and can make things a little bit better in central midfield. You hope that they have a little more depth, I guess, so that maybe that makes them hold up better over the second half of the season because they were a disaster last year. But also, the reason, the reason is that the reason is that they stayed at the same level in points from 24 to 25. 24, they were just carried by Evander and Cabacita. Those guys obviously weren't around in 25, so how did they stay? It's because they didn't give up set piece goals, right?

Like, they weren't the best defensive team in the league on a set piece, but they weren't a disaster, and against Colorado, they were a disaster. And it's weird that Portland didn't really press the Rapids much when the Like the rapids are very clearly going to try to play out of everything. Through everything. Yeah. And you could make hay with that, especially early in the season when touches are sloppy. And, you know, even if the ideas are there, the execution might not be there.

So it was a confusing performance all around from the timbers. But give the rapids credit, they were pretty good the final 20 minutes against the Sounders in week one. And they were far superior team in week two. They need to get more passing onto the field. if they're going to be a passing team. Like that just you would think. That would be obvious. But I don't know.

I'm not going to say I'm optimistic, but it was a step forward over the first hour that we saw of them. Like they were playing soccer. They weren't just kicking chunks out of everybody. No, I thought they were fun to watch. I thought of Avao was super engaged and involved and dropped in and picked up the ball.

And so if you can get runners ahead of him, you can create chances there. I thought Reggie Cannon was awesome, coming inside, playing super active, being a part of the game. But Portland did not put up a ton of fight and then did not look capable of scoring an equaliser. And the opening goal, I don't know what anyone's doing. No one pressures the ball. Pantamas, I know he takes the half step because of the deflection, but I think he was already off center. And so he is already a step away from where he wants to be.

And it just felt like a comedy of errors for this group. Speaking of Evander, did not play in the one zero loss on the road. to Minnesota. But Kelvin Yerbaba baby, the golden boot race is on. He's got two goals in two games for this team. Minnesota plays soccer now, Doyle,

accept it and move on. Yeah, Michael Boxel basically said that on, I think it was countdown on, you know, leading into the Saturday night games. He was like, it's nice to have,

oh, 40% possession. And they, yeah, they play soccer. But this game, you know, this goal came off a set piece.

you know, it was a Wanda goal, right? He was on his toes for a rebound off a set piece. It was like 17 degrees there. It's, I would not want to play. Yeah, I would not want to play in that. And for for Sinci, like, I'm giving them the Mulligan. This is their fourth game in 10 days, like a four game sequence that started with them playing in like 90 degree weather in the tropics and finishes on the frozen tundra.

I think they're going to be fine. whether or not Evander comes back really soon. But the interesting thing is like, okay, what are we seeing here with Minnesota? What is their ceiling going to be? Because four points from these two games is a good start to the season. Yeah. Dallas, Nashville. We don't need to talk about it.

We don't need to talk about it. Matthew Cochran gets a red card back at his old building. That's kind of how I felt as well. I mentioned Charlotte and whatever curse they got from the schedulers. They go to the Midwest, St. Louis to start the year. Then they come back to Charlotte. Now they go to the Galaxy in theory. But technically they didn't show up.

13 minutes in. Three goals conceded, blitzed out the gate. I wrote down, I could probably play left back for Charlotte because Tofalo is in his own world. I don't know what his spacing is. I don't know what position he plays. But then I was like, maybe I could play left center back for Charlotte. Maybe this game you could have played center back. Yeah.

And then I was like, well, Andrew Pryffitt's passing in the wrong team. so maybe I could play right centerback as well for this team. So I'm open to the idea. Dean Smith, give me a call if you're looking for an extra body. I know you like a veteran. I am old. I am not a veteran because I'm not done it before,

but I am old. But let's talk galaxy first and then we'll get to our question from blue sky. I think it's been more positive. I talked about it with Peck on Thursday of I think he's been engaged. I think he's tried to move around the field. It sort of takes him out of his most dangerous areas, but then puts him in other ones. And this game, it felt like the galaxy,

they go no Marco Royce so it's really like three ground coverage center mids and I thought that opened up for the front three to be able to have flexibility to find the game where they want to and then Sanabria did the work he had to do to at least be a fourth option

in attacking areas to cause chaos yeah and it allowed actually Klaus to be the focal point because Klaus he's like he's a big guy big number nine and you think out he's just going to be a guy who gets into the box but like that's not really his game he likes to drift around and conduct things a little bit.

And by having no number 10 in central midfield, that sort of made Klaus the playmaker. Now, he ended up scoring two of the goals, but I think it gave L.A. some clarity. That said, I don't want to read too much into it because the first 15 minutes of this game were like the first 15, the worst 15 minutes of Andrew Privet's life.

And give credit to the Galaxy, for putting the game away and then keeping the zero. Charlotte, going back to that nine-game winning streak, which ended with that big win over Miami last, I think it was like mid-September. They've now played nine games across all competitions. They've only won two of them. They've only scored two goals in their last five games,

I want to say it is. They're expected goals over that nine-game stretch is minus eight. actual goal difference is minus eight. So none of this is outlier. Like all of this is happening the way it should happen. And like usually you take it with a grain of salt because it's like, well, last year's team, this year's team.

But they brought back a lot of last year's team. Right. Like there's not, there weren't huge changes here. My point is that it's, it's very clearly not working. Their next five are at home. They need to start getting wins.

If they don't, it'll get late real. early for the Charlotte team. The question we had from Blue Sky was from James Perez CTL, who said, why isn't Charlotte playing Bertramas more? I know you've maybe had a thought or two about this, so I was going to let you give the background and then the answer. English coaches just traditionally don't play young players.

There you go. That is both the background and the answer. Bertramas was one of the stars, if you don't know, for the USU 17 team, one of the first homegrown signings for this club. in history, there were reports that he was closing, close to a deal with Byron Munich in this offseason. And it never ended up happening. And then I think Dean Smith sort of when asked about it was like, yeah, well, he trained with the first team a little, but has really been with the second team. Actually, I think he scored an MLS next pro. Yeah, scored a banger this weekend. So

it just feels like the attack is somewhat lifeless for this team. And this is an option. And it feels like Charlotte fans are asking for it, hence what we're getting on Blue Sky. Let's talk Austin, DC. Superman, baby. Christian Ramirez signed. He got cut a week ago, like on Friday afternoon from the LA Galaxy. And then he signs on Friday afternoon this week with Austin FC, and he goes and scores in his debut.

He puts home a set piece that got knocked around, got cleared off the line, and he's able to get it over the line for a one-zero victory over DC United at home for Austin. it wasn't overwhelmingly impressive. DC feels fairly structured and hard to break down, so it's not easy. I think, and this is what I wrote down, I think Fekundo Torres is trying. Like the question that everyone had when they signed him was,

well, he's a finisher, he's not a creator, you need a creator, you need someone centrally. And I don't know when Owen Wolf comes back if he remains in that spot or how it shifts. But in this game, he picked up central areas. I thought he tried to move the game from left to right. He ended up having five chances created one big chance. It is not naturally what he's great at, but he is at least being put in that spot.

We got to put the asteriskana. The five chances he created, I think all five of them were off of set pieces. And his set piece delivery was phenomenal. But if you look at the chance creation numbers, I think Austin generated 1.5 XG and like 1.3 of that was offer starts. It was 0.2 against DC. at home. I couldn't see that through the sun. Right.

Yeah, exactly. Like, and the, it's, look, Fagotaurus is never going to be the type of guy who sits there in possession and just rips open a team with a touch. He will finish those plays off, though,

and he will finish plays off in transition. Right now, Austin's transition decision-making, leaving a lot to be desired. So there's work to do, but, you know, they got the win. It hasn't been a super impressive start to the season. I think they would have hoped for more than four points from these two games at home. But, you know, something to build on at least.

And D.C. hung together. They don't create a lot of chances. They were not dangerous in this game. But they hung in there on the road. Muntiano only played 12 minutes this game. Luis? Lewis? Lewis, I think is Louis Muntiano, right?

But he just wants to go by Lewis. Okay. I miss that. That's why it says it on his jersey. Okay. Well, Louis, uh, played 20 last week and actually played less this week. I don't know what that means. I'm not sure it means anything, but it's something I'm watching for the weeks to come because

he's supposed to be the chance creator for this team. And this team had zero chance creation out there on the day. Yeah, Renner, while they're looking like a sunburned man out there on the sideline in Austin. All right. last two games to talk about and two of the better ones of the weekend. I probably did this order wrong. Let's start with NYCFC at Philly. Fernando's Mercow helps create the opening goal,

has the shot from a tough angle that Hannes Wolf puts away. He got the start once again in that sort of center forward role. No one really plays it. I thought he looked more comfortable in that spot this game than anyone did last week where felt like he understood some of the spaces he had to pick up. But NYCFC, they'll play through Philly. Like they are not scared of it. And so this is a great matchup for them because it's feast or famine.

If they make the mistakes, Philly's going to have the chances and they can score. But NYCFC is not going to back down at any point. And I think you saw through this game, they were able to hold up and eventually they get the victory once the red card happens. Yeah, with Keaton Parks back healthy, pressing DC is air pressing NYCFC is really, really tough. Because he's like he's the most press resistant number eight in the league now that, Darlington Nagbees are tired, and he does it in a different way, but like it's still the same principle. And the number of times they sort of closed in on him and he was able to turn out of that and create downhill attacking momentum for NYCFC. It was a lot. It was a lot. And if Seymour

Reed could have finished one of those two or three breakaways he had after he came on, we might talk about this being sort of a DefCon 2 moment for Phil. I mean, it might be DefCon 2 anyway. Yeah. Right? Because they opened the season at DC and home against NYCFC. And last year, that's six points. And this year, they're sitting on zero points.

They lost McCona to a red card, which I thought was a little harsh. And they, you know, their one goal was, frankly, a gift of a penalty call. They weren't able to sort of lock it down at the end, even playing 10 v. 11. they gave up a late winter. Like all of the, uh-oh, boxes got checked by the union in this one. And I went digging in the numbers because I know what I'm seeing, right? It's a little more scattered.

It's a little less coherent in how they're pressing. And once they do get on the ball, they're definitely less dangerous with it than they were last year. All of the pressing numbers are the same as last year, except for tackles. They're attempting like 20, 25% more tackles per game. and that is a little bit worrying because that tells me they're chasing a little bit.

They're going into more do-or-die desperation moments. Last year, not only were they attempting fewer tackles, they won is over like 46% of them, which was the number one mark in the league. This year, they're only winning 33%, which over the course of the season would have been last in MLS by a mile. And then you go back and you go back,

and you watch NYCFC's opening goal. And the big moment was a missed tackle, just a little bit late in central midfield. And it's like, if you're going to be a pressing team, very clearly they're going to be a pressing team, you know, like there's no indication that there's going to be any change in the game model. You cannot be a team that misses tackles like that.

You can't. Or else you're going to lose. And then the in possession stuff, we talked about Kai Wagner. We knew that that was going to be big. I think Quinn Sullivan is massive as a loss for them of anyone with some ingenuity in possession once it's turned over to break something open, whether it's beating someone under dribble or a pass in the moment or the quality of the pass that you don't expect. And it felt like in this game, then Damiani starts chasing around to try and find the game a little bit because he's not getting set up in the box and now you don't have the finishers in there. And it felt like that cascading effect is the pressure that was relieved last year because the system just created goals.

and they didn't have to go and find it. And now you see the stress of sort of what we've talked about with Red Bulls for years of like, if goals don't come, now the game gets hard. Now everyone gets frustrated. Now they have to go try and figure it out. And now you sort of break down what you're great at. I agree on the red card, but I put on Blue Sky that. Then after that, he asked for VAR for the corner kick that he thought he was wrongly given to

it. It's a freaking corner kick in a regular season game. Get over it. And so, yeah, I agree that the red card was soft. I was upset about that one after that one. Let's close out with this. Whoa, let me ask you this really quick.

Preseason, we were doing our predictions. I chose NYCFC third in the east. Yeah. How do we feel about that? I think I had them fifth. I still don't feel great without the nine. Like they're just,

you look at the heat map, you watch the game, there is not a presence centrally, and you are taking good players out of position. Like, there's no world that you, watch these two games and say, Fernando's Marcao's as dangerous as he should be. Talus Magno comes in. He technically, I think, gets the assist on the goal. If that guy has to

play center forward again, like, that's the end of his season. He's clearly done, right? So I think I like a lot of the way they're set up. I like the spine of the team. Fries has been good to start the year as well. I think the Australian kid they brought in is really good. So then you've blunted, I think, the loss of Justin Hack. And if Keaton Parks is healthy, that's a whole bonus from last year that didn't exist for this team. But the goal scoring still feels thin. So I had them at fifth, I think, which is what they finished last year. I feel fine between three and six with them. But if they had a true center forward, I would feel fine saying like, oh, no, this is a team that challenges the top two in the east. And I don't feel that way. Yeah. How do you feel about

Seymour Reid? I don't, I can't say that I've seen enough minutes at the pro level to say that that's the solution. Let me give a little bit. Like, Like, just the, like, first of all, goal scoring numbers, he's right there with, um, Julian Hall and Ryan Alumi, the Vancouver kid, uh, in Next Pro. The underlying numbers, um, say he has not been as good at receiving the ball in high value spot. He hasn't been bad by any stretch, but he has not been as polished at finding those, like, goals happen here spots.

If I am Pascal Janssen, and I know Reed failed to put away two breakaways, if I'm Pascal Janssen, I am looking at what this team has done in the first two weeks, and I'm saying it's worth it to just play this kid here. It's worth it to get him the reps because he does have the tools. He needs the polish, suffer through it now for the payoff to come later.

A few things. So one, if this group was the way they are right now, does that mean you take O'Hado? off the field. Yeah. That's the guy you, yeah. Okay. Yeah.

I think that's fine. And then you slide, you have the other guys playing. Honest Wolfe and Murkow and then maxi underneath. Yeah. Which I think is fine. And I think if you're getting, if it's not a negative at that center forward position and you're getting those guys

into their best spots, then there's the part where it could be worth it for me, even if Reed isn't putting away the chances in there. What's fascinating to me with NYCFC is like, this is kind of a club that similar to Seattle has low key, like developed college players. and MLS next pro guys. And like M.D. Myers scored a million goals with the next pro team.

They've had a few guys who have done it. And none of them have gotten a look with the first team where the Kevin O'Tooles of the world and the Malachi Joneses of the world have gotten thrown into like high leverage situations immediately. It is just this weird position that they won't take this risk on with these guys they develop. Like I'm not telling them these guys are good. They're telling me they're good.

But then giving them no opportunity. And I just find it very bizarre that it's like this one black. I mean, it's the hardest position to fill. And they did so with Alonzo Martinez. But yeah, it's interesting. But I will say I've been, I wasn't sure on Gustavo from last year. I thought he kind of was like, Banbiar and Ice got pulled into open space and struggled. And I think, and I was worried in a back two because that was like my whole issue.

And I think he's looked okay and the back four has looked okay to start this year, which is promising. Let's start San Diego, St. Louis. So this game was really fun. San Diego are fun. I think St. Louis are up for it. Like the question we have, let's start with Andres Dreyer because let's Anders Dreyer. Let's give him the respect. I literally wrote it wrong.

I wrote it wrong this time. No, blame it on And that's that's auto correct. That's auto correct. Yeah. Second fastest in MLS history to 20 goals and 20 assists behind. Who else? Messy. He scored three minutes in.

He almost had the exact same goal six minutes later. They came out rampant. They did the same in the second half. And St. Louis, I thought, settled otherwise besides that. but he has been everything they thought Chuky Lozano was going to be. And like if he's not, I don't know where this team is. And it's a huge credit to him. He signs the contract extension.

Like this is the face of this franchise for the next four or five years, which is massive for this club. Yeah, he's everything that you want from a DP. He's clearly a best 11 caliber player would have been MVP if it wasn't for the age of Messi. Like the era of Messi, he would have been. an MVP last year. His ability to finish those players off, but then his unselfishness

to make plays for the guys around him, you can't heap enough praise on him. And it all comes back to Mike Yvarez and Tyler Heaps, setting the culture for the whole team. The way every player on the team plays for everyone else, the way they trust young, players like curing sergeant who they got for a bag of balls from houston or uh you know guys who they

took in the the draft like was it eisner this year and pills the pilcher the year before that um going out and getting pedrosoma who looks a lot better so far this year than i thought he did when he arrived middle of season last year he he is going to be like in the conversation for all the young player list stuff by the end of this year i hope so i hope he's clearly on that track yeah yeah um And then, well, he's not going to be in the conversation for that because there's only one guy in the conversation for that. And it's Manu Dua. Yeah. You know, like Manudua is by far the best young player in this league. And the only question with him is will they sell him for $12 million this summer or will they hold on to him through the end of the season? I hope they hold on to him, but I would totally understand if they sell him because they're going to get an obscene offer at some point.

And they just have complete confidence that they can replace guys like that. Yeah. Because why wouldn't you at this point? And just like, I think I tweeted out the drier goal, which is, it's insane goal. You have to go watch it. Like the passes to get out into transition instantly are beautiful. And then the finish is outrageous. And I think I said, like San Diego has been a gift to this league.

And I really mean that because the way they play, is one of the kind. And I feel about them the way I felt about, you know, those first couple of years of Wilfred Nancy with the way he changed the meta for how you win an MLS. And if anything, San Diego are taking it to an even further extent. Which is funny because two of the teams that I think a lot of people don't expect much of that I was kind of high on their performance from this weekend were SKC and St. Louis.

And I think it's literally just if you go in and you try, with these teams. I'm like convinced like, oh, yeah, yeah, you're there. You're right there. Like the game's open. It's fun. And you're playing with them. And I thought St. Louis was okay throughout a lot of this. So the, the question we had on blue sky from Pat Houlihan was, can we have a discussion on how St. Louis can figure out the striker situation ASAP because Betra's continued lack of finishing off positive XG chances along with lack of depth already with totally going out injured. Miggie Perez, not the answer for Lovin as the number eight in the three, four, two, one. So they had a lot of misses.

for this game. So Cordova's not there yet. Loven was unavailable. Hartle was unavailable, which is, and then both of the fall boys, whatever we're calling them, the fall pairing. The fall guys. I've been unavailable the whole season so far. So it's not. Though Mamadu Fall was on the bench. So I think he'll be back.

Look, you're playing shorthanded on the road against San Diego. I thought St. Louis played really well. You can see the ideas. Yeah. Um, already they're really good. Um, the talent isn't there yet. Uh, I love Betcher because of his energy, but he's, he's probably a super sub, right? He's, he's probably not going to be a guy who's, who's clinical enough.

I'm not sure that Sergio Cordova is going to be the answer, but, um, you know, he's only here half a season anyway. Uh, but it's going to take, look, the, the roster didn't get like this overnight, right? It's going to take more than one window to, um, you know, he's going to take more than one window to, um, to unwind what the previous regime did. And if I was a St. Louis fan, I would be really encouraged by what I've seen through two weeks. So, you know, obviously you learned a little bit about the gap between this team

and what it's like at the top of the table. Yeah, everything I've heard from St. Louis is that the front office was so bare in terms of resources of scouting, analytics, all of that, that they just, they're not going to take the risk of the DP, multi-million dollar guy that the team's built around without having that research built in. I think that's where a quarter of a move is like, okay, this guy's played in this league before it's on loan. It's kind of cost free. If he's better than we expected, great.

If he's not, then it is what it is. It's filling the spot and hoping you get something for it. And I think they've taken some risks on some sort of lower end guys, the pulvara, whether it's going to work out at centerback or not, I'm not sure. Jazzy Orozco. Yeah, but like guys like this where it's like, there is talent there.

They haven't gotten their shot or their spot. Can we use these few months while Dime gets his system in place to maybe see if a few of them are worthwhile and a few of them can stick and be a part of this group. So that's, I think, the gamble for them. But yeah, this was an awesome way to end the night with this one. And it feels like we have a pretty good setup of like, if you get San Diego as the late window, you're going to finish on a high. You watch some good games and then watch this one in week two. No Conca Calfe play this week. So no midweek stuff. We've got huge NWSL season preview that we will be starting with Lori Lindsay and Jill Lloyd. And that will be coming out tomorrow.

with our first slate of teams. And then we'll have more MLS talk on Thursday. We're going to try and stick to some bigger picture of conversations. I was really glad to have Valer and Jamie with us last week. So that's going to be that. Obviously, go subscribe to Doyle's newsletter. There's no call to action for Weeby because he works for corporations. So we can just leave him where he is and let him do what he does.

Always appreciate anyone watching live in the chat. Always a fun ad. Thank you to everyone on Blue Sky, who sent us stuff. Thank you to everyone in the Discord as well, who was hanging out. out with us over the weekend. Week two in the books. Still a lot to learn. So we are going to continue watching. We'll be back every Monday with this big show to give you the headlines, everything you miss, talk through every single team. But thank you all for now. We'll talk to again very, very soon.