SoccerWise - MLS Edition: 2024 Recap & The Offseason's Biggest Stories

Episode Date: December 30, 2024

Happy New Year to everyone from Soccerwise! Tom & David reflect back on 2024 all the biggest (and wildest) stories across the league, and then dig into what they're focusing on this offseason. They will be back later this week with the first live episode of 2025.Soccerwise Live 2pm ET Every Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday on Youtube/Twitch/Twitter

Welcome everybody back to Soccer Wise. Happy Holidays. David Goss and Tom Bogert with you here. It is a special time of year. It's a time of year to be with friends and family. It's the time of year for many to reflect, to set goals, to change. Tom, are you your best self right now? No. Next question. New year, new me. January 1st, right around the corner. Thank you all for listening. We are pre-recording this episode while we were getting ready to pre-record this episode so that it could run for you throughout the holidays while we're taking a moment off before we come back. And we'll be back very soon that i can promise uh tom is sitting here and he is finding out a bunch of news that he did not scoop and he is furious at himself and the world and it's a really good energy to have going into the holidays and for you all to

feel sort of back in your normal lives you maybe have have been like, I haven't felt Tom's anxiety or his anger recently. I've just been sitting around with my family enjoying life. Or maybe you're on vacation or maybe you're still working, but it's a little bit slower, hopefully, during this holiday season. So we got Tom back here for you because we had to. We hope you're all enjoying your time. As I said, we'll be back soon. Right after New Year's, we're going to come back

with our live shows on the MLS side. And then, as you know, Jordan is out traveling, headed to New Zealand right now to be the first to see New Year's. I think Auckland's the first city in the world that hits New Year's based off our times and all that stuff. So I'm going to be filling in for

her and having a few big guests on the NWSL side of things as the new year begins. And as we always say, the news never ends. Every time we think we can take a breath, we sit down to record. Boom, Tom's got to report a new scoop. And it continues on. So on this show, we're going to give you our five favorite storylines or the biggest of 2024. And then the five we are most intrigued by

in this 2025 offseason so things that could maybe have happened in some spots probably not but the things that we are most keyed in on i think the things we feel we're going to be covering show after show and breaking down uh so tom do you feel relaxed and rested and ready to to discuss with the people no i don't feel relaxed and rested uh but that's just my natural state and it is what it is i will say to peek behind the curtain as this was happening we were delayed to start this recording because of me going crazy about these um potential moves that were coming and goss texts our group chat the lovely extra our group chat, the lovely extra time group chat,

some of the people I care about the most. And he goes to them, like, watching Tom freak out about this is great. And I replied with, like, Goss goes, dude, you have a problem. And I was like, yeah, I know. I have a problem. I know.

Thank you. Thanks. I know. I'm here for you. Happy holidays. I'm here for you, though. That's why we do this. Because I am here for you to keep you afloat and to keep you going. Let's start with our 2024 storylines,

and these are not in any particular order of one through five. They're just the big ones that happened this year, and I think we have to start with MLS Cup, right? It's what the whole league is built around. It is our championship. We can fight. We can do a little shield true thing in here if we want and fight about that. But MLS Cup's the big moment.

We were both out there. I talked about it in our recap show about how it was like pure American soccer. But the LA Galaxy were turning to the top of the mountain for the first time to their sixth ring. For the first time in a decade. Just to reestablish that club. As one of the true competitors in Major League Soccer. And to host an MLS Cup. All of that felt huge. And that doesn't even include the Ricky Pooj stuff. Which by itself is probably one of the craziest stories of the year.

This was a club that had been lost. In MLS. Whatever. Choose your number. 3.0. 4.0. They were very much stuck in a time period previous to this and so for them to come into the tam gam new era of mls and finally be victorious i think not only is it our championship and therefore a big story for it to have happened to them the way it did is one of the biggest i think it's going to be one of the biggest things we talk about about 2024 in the future yeah and to again first and foremost they

won ms cup this is leading this podcast no matter who it is no matter what it is but i think the circumstances around it that you've already started to lay out makes much more sense and to furthermore this time last year we had no idea what to make of this team this was chicharito this was douglas costa maybe by december at the end of december they were officially moving on from those players but like the galaxy have had dp spots open in the past the galaxy have had flexibility in the past the galaxy spent money in the past chicago spent money in the past that doesn't guarantee that you're gonna be good um so the fact that this was a team that missed the playoffs this was the team that just had transfer sanctions uh the summer

of yeah 23 wow yeah the summer of 23 this i think we all knew that they were going to be better i think we all had hope and optimism and belief in will koontz belief in greg vanney probably to a lesser extent because again revisionist history is going to be easy to wash this away. But, like, there wasn't a certainty that Greg Vanney wasn't on the hot seat. People were calling for his job last winter. So, with all that, this wasn't a team that was building year over year. This wasn't a team that we saw coming. This was like, all right, Pooch is awesome.

Are they going to be able to put a team around him? How long will this rebuild take? I like Maya Yoshida, but how does he really fit? Are they going to bring back Billy Sharp? Yes, that was a real conversation we were having this time last year. Billy Sharp. Billy Sharp. So all that, like as context, that makes this even more impressive.

In the summer, we were like, yeah, this team is fun. This team is good. Do you really trust them in the playoffs? Hell, decision day, we were having that conversation, you and me. Do you trust them in the playoffs? Then they beat the Colorado Rapids. They kill them, nine goals over two games. Okay, that was the Rapids.

What are they going to do against LAFC or Seattle or Columbus or whoever, any of these teams that were still left at the time? And they did. So this was an extremely fun story. This was a team that was playing beautiful, aesthetic soccer. And then, as you say, the Ricky Pooch tears his ACL in the Western Conference final, plays 32 minutes on it, and delivers the game-winning assist. And then they go to Elm West Cup and win with Adams.

So all in all, the champion is always going to lead this. But this was a particularly fun, interesting champion and season and the arc that they took. The Pooj performance on the torn ACL, I think, will be one of the great ones in MLS history when MLS pays whatever C-list actor to do a top MLS moments of all time video in five, 10 more years. That one will be on there. And on top of that, it feels like this is sustainable, whether it's peck there for a while or not. And obviously Pooja's injury changes a

little bit of the math on this. He's going to miss almost a full year, if not a full year. How does that affect things? How do they cover for him? That's going to be a lot of what we're going to talk about over the course of the next season. But they're not going anywhere. So I think it is now also on top of everything you said is going to be the start of the new era of the LA Galaxy. And hopefully a new era of El Trafico. And like a new era in the Western

Conference. Can San Jose find their feet again? Is the Cali Classico become a must watch, you know, circle game? The Sounders in the Galaxy from 2009 to 2014, that was had to watch biggest games ever. Like I still think of the 2014 Western Conference Finals. It's one of the best series I've ever seen in MLS. Is that now back at a high level? San Diego coming in. Now they get an opportunity to play against an LA Galaxy club that you have to think has a ton of name brand recognition in Southern California, in the San Diego area. And they're doing so coming in, in that first year,

as reigning champions. So all of that just elevates the league and elevates all of these little things around the galaxy and i think it will be you know 2024 will be that starting point for a lot of this and it was fun to watch them do it peck is a special player in this league if he never plays another game he'll go don't go down as one of the best wingers in mls history and i think jovelich and pain still still have more to give and i think they're going to continue to get better for this team as it's built around them and they get comfortable in their roles for jovelich and for pain still getting comfortable

in this league one small question david goss their marketing expert how would you configure six stars on the crest so it's like interesting well personally obviously i you always want to cover the central area like that's the strength of a team so i probably would go diamond and then one on top and one on the bottom and i want my spine to be as strong as possible like i think and you probably want them associated to years the leon flock of the mls cups on this team has to sit right off that little left side and be part of that diamond does that feel like an acceptable answer to you this is so pretty matt wolf would come this is better than i could have ever told me this is better than i could have ever thought of that was an excellent answer the best i was

going to come up with just flying v little muddy ducks action but your answer is so much better i fault quack quack let's continue with the trophies and let's go to a record-setting season for inter miami i knew inter miami would be a part of this list it was hard to say how they are the biggest topic in major league soccer the whole thing is built on messy shoulders at this point but this in the end i think is the cleanest way to describe the year that they set the points record that in theory they were the greatest regular season team in MLS history and they did it with a ton of injuries and a ton of rotation and a ton of competitions to play in they did it in the end off their high-end talent and their depth of their roster and their ability to continue to add talent as the year went along.

They lose Farias. They bring in Redondo. They bring in more pieces at center back. They bring in Weingarten. Whether that was a good thing or a bad thing, they did that. They brought in Monty Rojas and all these other pieces. And they just continued to add talent every time it felt like, okay, that's going to be the death knell.

That's too much in a salary cap league to fill that roster. And they continued to push things. It didn't work in the postseason, but they were able to put up the greatest season in MLS history. And that's not something that I think I expected coming into this year. I thought they'd be a good team, but after what I watched over the first few weeks, after the way the roster looked to be set up

and some of those injuries, I didn't think we would get this year and that i think is the way we're going to remember this 2024 inter miami squad in the land before soccer wise because we debuted during the season um i was getting some of my extra time fill of doing a YouTube channel. And when I was doing regular YouTube videos, I did a season preview. One of the things that I love, I was like, dude,

this is such a great take. I felt great about it. Orlando city to finish above inter Miami in the regular season, but inter Miami to win MLS cup. You were so wrong. I couldn't have had that more wrong. It was completely backwards. Cause this team,

like I knew that they were deep. I knew that obviously were deep i knew that obviously they have a ton of talent but i was you know part of the thesis was messi's not going to play 30 games he's probably not going to play 25 he didn't but guess what they still won all the games without him yeah and then it was like well when messi comes back when he's there for the playoffs and everything is like full firing fully i'm sure that they're going to rest alba and busquets as they can and move players in and out. When it comes time for playoffs, they're just going to run through players, run through teams, and we're going to have these messy moments

like we did in League's Cup. Well, they lost in the first round of the playoffs to Atlanta United, and they were an awesome regular season team because of how deep they were, because of all these players that could both play with Messi, Busquets, Alba, and make them better. But also, when these players were out, they could carry the burden. Mati Rojas played his part. Julian Gressel, from start to finish, I think was the most important in that realm. Leo Campana was very important in that.

Suarez scored a ton of goals. Suarez, probably, obviously, more important. Suarez, I feel like, somehow has gotten underrated. He was one of the biggest reasons they maintained in the non-messy minutes. Yeah, that's a more salient point, and I should have mentioned him before Campana because, again, I think that was a microcosm of what I was thinking going through the season. Yeah, Luis Suarez is going to still be top class.

I didn't care that he looked bad in a preseason game in the Middle East. Who cares? But his knees are where they are that he's not going to play a ton of games Middle East, right? Who cares? He, but like, his knees are where they are that he's not going to play a ton of games. But when he's out there, they're going to be unbeatable, more or less. And so I had that completely wrong. They set the points records too. So it, it's a difficult season to talk about, because it's not clearly a success. And I think it's more failure because of how quickly the playoff run ended. But it's also not clearly a failure because they set the points record. They won the,

they won the shield. They did everything else. They did. They were the, they were the central protagonist of the 2024 MLS season. Absolutely. And I think here at soccer wise in our first year, I don't think we went as over Miami index as other people.

And by other people, I mean everyone, because that's all but the reasons are clear they were the they were the show everything about what happened with them even the side stuff that wasn't fully messy the Redondo transfer the son of an Argentine legend coming into this league at the last minute, Diego Gomez, record setting sale. Like all of that happened. Wasn't exactly messy related, but that was the show. That was the scene.

Tata stepping away the way he did right after the season. Like everything about Miami was the New York cosmos esque story that we thought it might be for the positives and the negatives, by the way, because both of us had that. And they end up finishing, though, at the top. It is now here, Tom. Let me ask you this question. The Revs set the record in 21.

LAFC set it in 19. Red Bull set it in 18. Toronto set it in 17. 24 now for Miami. How long do you think this one stands uh i don't know what i will say is like at some point there's going to be an unreached like the warriors doing the 73 like there's only so many points that you can pick up in a season but into miami's goal for 2025 has to be resetting that record. It's an unfair goal, but that's the unfair expectations that come with this team.

That's what you get for being a global team, for having Messi, for having all the other players, for being, again, I'll use the term again, the central protagonist to the season. Their goal is going to be to win everything that they're playing in, setting records along the way. So it's unreasonable to say that they'll definitely set it in 25 but messi played what 20 games he started 16 games yeah this team could be better this team could be better guys but club world cup next year how many games is that for them how much does that cost we don't know what the league's cup format is as of the recording of this right now we don't know the u.s open cup format so how much else is there now there's no copa america which is

huge it's where he got hurt it was the big moment besides what he missed that will change it as well uh yeah it feels like we're close to it felt even with this one remember with three weeks to go it felt like they weren't going to do it because they had no breathing space anymore they had kind of given up the opportunity to be like oh you have a little bit where you can slip up and it felt like it was done and then they turned it around and they won it and it does feel like we're getting closer to the we've hit the line one of the things that changes that a little bit and we see it more in nwsl but um expansion expansion years change a lot of like for the most part that's that a little bit and we see it more in nwsl but um expansion expansion years change a lot of like for the most part that's maybe a team that starts to pull talent from other teams plus

maybe they're not ready to go at the level they should be at so there might be a few extra points a year like that where all of a sudden a team's in the same conference as them those are six points that maybe shouldn't be accounted for and that's the gap between 71 and 75, and that changes things a little bit. Obviously, six points different, but you know what I mean. So I don't have an answer for that because you said it. You wanted us to throw in here, and San Jose set the record for most goals conceded this year on the conversation about history and greatness.

So that's in there as well. Let's go to our third one, and we are big soccer-wise for MLS, for CONCACAF conversation people. I think this conversation has shifted a ton. I think it happened even before Seattle won. Like the MLS for RSL in 2013 and whatever it was, 2012 in CCL. I don't think that that's the way people feel as much

people are fans of their team which I think is super healthy and great but I am still MLS for CONCACAF and one of the big things when we watch these competitions is like I want to see the best beat the best in the toughest atmospheres in their own way and I felt like that's what Toronto did in 17. Seattle, of course, won the whole thing in 21. Maybe wasn't the road we've seen for some of these other teams at Club America, at Tigres, at Monterey, but Columbus got that. And they went and they beat Tigres on penalty kicks at Tigres after knocking off Houston.

They went and they beat Monterey after trailing in Monterey at altitude against one of the highest priced teams we've ever seen in this region. And then it came up a little bit short for many reasons as they got the run around. That's the term I'm going to use at Pachuca in what ended up being weirdly a single game final in a year where everything else was two legs going up to the final on the road at pachuca uh they got stomach poisoning food poisoning all that type of stuff and uh ended up not being able to put the performance together but i would still say this is one of the great mls conca cap runs yes it was and

during that time like again you can look back on it in totality as you just did and like that was extremely impressive in the moment that run was incredible because like you said all of those teams that they were going against those were giants in league mx going on the road winning those games on the road that's unheard of like you said 2017 toronto they just getting to the final like they did and then they lost in penalties which was really really tough again i know columbus didn't even lose in penalties like they lost in regulation to pachuca there are contacts comes around it but like the run that they had to get to the final was incredible that was between there and leagues cup final which the columbus crew won this year between that ccc run

plus the league's cup final like those few months including a demolition of lefc 5-1 on the road that was probably at this moment the peak of non-c ball right like obviously they won 22 ms cup but like those like we knew coming into 24 what they were about everything they could do how great kucho was everything else those couple months where they were unplayable dude and so you've been you're better with the mls historian stuff than i am you've been in it longer than i have it was it's delusional to be like yeah an mls team's gonna go to t gray it's gonna go to monterey gonna go to club, going to any of these teams. And, brother, if they lost by one, it'd be like, what a great result.

Unreal. But this Columbus Crew team made you believe, dude, they're not the underdogs going to Mexico. Going into the final, we were like, yeah, Pachuca's an awesome team, Solomon Rondon, all these other players, everything else. It's just like, well, all I've known about the crew is that they don't lose and they play this way they're gonna play this way doesn't matter what you throw at them they're gonna win like that was the peak like in kind of the like hype and the mythology around them and like that run like I think there's no way to

quantify that feeling and there's no way to say whether that feeling is fair or not yeah but like I think that that's the biggest takeaway that I had from that run because there's been good results in kaka play there's been dominating teams this columbus crew team was different it was like anytime they stepped on the field yeah we're gonna win yeah and and the style right to have sean zawatsky serving at tigris that's something we hadn't seen before and that's the part that really stands out as you say like the historian stuff what we've seen before and that's the part that really stands out as you say like the historian stuff what we've seen before like rsl had their style they hung on they got some tough results back then toronto fc went and had results i couldn't imagine but like sebastian

jovinko hitting a free kick is not outside the realm of possibility of what's ever happened but having max arvstein and sean zawadzki and Darlington Nagby like dominating these teams in their style on the road in these conditions that we haven't seen before and so that that was what was really special and I think you worded it correctly that was the peak of Nance Ball and I don't know we get back there right the playoff loss we don't know how long he'll be here we don't know how long this team will be together and so that to me will be that oh you want the purest form of this go watch highlights or go watch the games in this little stretch and i think those conca calf games are the center of that even more so than the league's cup final which was incredible but it

was lafc again as they had done a year before at home this was something else so to do it the way they did it in these atmospheres was unbelievable let's go to our next one and it's more general it was the underdog playoff runs we did our preview show for the postseason i think we of the eight series in the first round of the postseason i think both of us went seven chalk and it ended up being four chalk and four upsets and we didn't know with the format three games can a team that's an underdog really do it three two times in a series can they play at that higher level can they do it twice on the road all those things it was of course led by the red bulls not only knocking off that columbus team we talked about but making the run all the way to the final atlanta against miami, one of the biggest upset in MLS history

in terms of point swing. Minnesota doing it in the first round, and NYCFC as well. So it was a new idea of, like, we thought this format was created in a way that would protect the big teams. That wasn't the case, and to see so many of them, I think really was the storyline of the postseason. Yeah. And the next follow-up question.

Of paying it forward. Is this like replicable? Is this what we should expect? Or is this a one-off? Because my view or assumption. Is that I think this is more of a one-off. Because like you said. The best of three.

Gives you more chances. For the better team to win and advance. Rather than just a one-off because like you said, the best of three gives you more chances for the better team to win and advance rather than just a one-off sample size where things can be crazier. It's still a small sample size, but not again, the same as a one game. That was insane. The top three seeds in the East were all knocked out. Miami and Columbus in particular, like again, LA Galaxy, LAFC, they were viewed as, like, real contenders. But it was like, oh, my God, whoever comes out of the East, it's either Miami has to beat Columbus. Or if it's Columbus, they have to beat Cincy and Miami. Or if it's Cincy, same thing, but they have to go on the road to beat those two teams, both of those games.

And then all three of them were out in the first round. Again, like, we were out in the first round again like we were talking about that first round series and like i was insanely dismissive of the eastern uh wild card game being like congratulations you get to get a home game against miami count your money and get ready for next year like i don't even i was like what's the point in talking about this series as if it's a real thing and then atlanta did it so that was completely unexpected for the fact that again all through top three of those seats to be out was extremely unexpected the itch it could have been top four orlando won in penalties i know four five isn't a huge upset

but like there was a real scenario where the top four seeds were all also conference lafc was on the verge against vancouver yeah yeah yeah yeah and again it shows the parody so you shows everything else but like for all those things that happen in ones in one playoffs in one round sorry was really crazy so i thought that was fun right like i've on the record plenty of times saying i absolutely hate this one but like i can still enjoy it right i can still like give it credit where credit's due or like like if i not going to pretend like it sucked, right? Like, so that's just kind of where I'm at. And, again, the cherry on top being that it wasn't just the first round

and then move on. Because of all those other upsets, it helped pave the way for the Red Bulls to get into the final. Number seven seed. And we reached the point by the final and affected by Rekki Pooja's injury where the Red Bulls really didn't feel like huge underdogs. As a seven seed playing against the LA Galaxy on the road who were the two seed, we went into that final, I think people were kind of split.

Most people thought the Galaxy would win, but it didn't feel like this huge gap between them. And what we ended up seeing play out was not a huge gap between them. The Galaxy ran them off the field, they opened in 20 minutes, and the Red Bulls were arguably the better team for the final 60 so that that i think was a huge eye-opener for me of just like the parody in this league is real even in the highest leverage moments as long as you have a couple pieces in place i think you saw the gap between teams with a match winner and teams without a match winner. None of those teams we just mentioned with the upsets didn't have arguably the best player on the field throughout the playoffs they played in. Even as good as Columbus is, Emil Forsberg is arguably the best player on the field

when the Red Bulls stepped on the field against him. And I think that's one of the things you realize. And the other is if you're able to build these spines for these teams and have a cohesive style, you can really do some dangerous things. All right, let's go to our final of this 2024 before we talk about our biggest storylines that we're looking at for the offseason. Tom, we're in your bag right now. So talk transfers for me, baby. Yeah, so this is just another year of big outbound transfers this year didn't have like the georgie petrovich or like

saying alfonso davies or some of the like ones that felt groundbreaking and i think that's where this season's legacy in in this front is is that there wasn't just one there was so many like look man we take for granted the andres gomez one yeah that's 11 million dollars we would be parading that for three years if this was 2019 andres gomez to stoddard neck diego gomez just went official in december to brighton i've been reporting that since the summer tiago amada to botafogo probably going to leon soon guess what tiago amada in his half season gets to win copa libertadores caleb wiley 11 million dollars to Chelsea. A left back, a homegrown left back, $11 million. Yakumakis, Cruz Azul, $10.5 million. They signed him for $4 million 18 months prior. Moise Bambito to Nice. Moise Bambito was playing community college soccer a couple years ago.

What an incredible story. Fidel Barajas, $4 million to Chivas. $4 million. Frankie Amaya, same thing. Toluca. Aiden Morris. Middlesbrough. I've just named 12 players. Mamadou Fall to Barsa B. Bajong Darbo to Byron 2. Caden Pierre to Genk. And I don't even know if I got his first name right.

Is it Caden or Nelson? Honest to God. I think it's Caden. It's not Nelson. Because we would be talking about Pierrere from kansas city to gank ad nauseum eric palmer brown style yeah like i think that i'm sure like not we're starting to take this for granted like people are like oh like why didn't you know why didn't atlanta get 30 million for charlamada you out of your mind like look at all these deals so i think that's the lasting

legacy that it's become routine it's become to a point where yeah we'll talk about caleb wiley for a week in the past we talked about it for three months yeah i i think the when you mentioned like what this year will be remembered as in the legacy i think that healthy part is over the last two three years we've established now mls teams shopping in the middle of the big leagues or at the top of the Belgian league, around the Dutch league, Scandinavia, those. We really like the idea of, especially in their prime, 27, 28-year-old players coming over, a pain still like that. Van Zier was that, we hoped. Pasuela was that. But the reverse of that is also really important so the sustainability of these moves which is as you mentioned outside of caleb wiley

which is a little bit of a weird one these are not man city chelsea these are not huge ones but they're not one-off huge ones this consistency of being in the market now with the middle class of the big five with the top of the teams right outside of that with the portuguese league the belgian leagues of the world like those that's probably more sustainable for mls to operate in that space because there'll be a lot of in and out with those teams consistent conversations knowing those sporting directors noting knowing the people there rather than hoping for the one sale to Chelsea every five years and to live off that. And so I do think that's the healthy part of all of this is if Andres Gomez

is going out and we're pulling players in from leagues like that. And Chicho is, even though he was in MLS already, he's a guy like that. Benfica, his background, then knocking around back down in South America. Can you go and get, you know, prime players from Brazil and Argentina who aren't maybe going to make the jump to Europe anymore but are ready to come here? There is a really stable group, I think, in there of players that can come into the league and places you can sell to. And it's probably going to be more consistent than just, okay,hanie man city once every five years and then that's what we're operating off of as our loan transfer in that time period i completely agree again like that that like the last three names that i mentioned again like it while i still think that we could have talked even more about some of those bigger and bigger deals and like the

routineness about it again you even talk about atlanta united that was a good one right there was george bello then they transferred george bello abroad and bam well guess what caleb wiley's better you talk about new england revolution we love dewan jones i think he's a fringe national team player all that stuff he's gone bang peyton miller holy crap how good is this kid right um just the pipeline continues to get better and better and it'd be and it's more replicable rather than oh man we found clint dempsey this guy's a unicorn or oh man like it's happening much more and more and again my last point again to say is like mamadou fall like barcelona b this is a kid who then who broke through at at lefc as a young center back was awesome goes on loan to uh

second to v real second team in la liga or like they're again the Villarreal's second team in La Liga. Or like, again, the La Liga's team's second team. You see what I'm saying? I'm kind of stumbling over the words here, but you get the point. That would be huge news. That is huge news. That's Barcelona, man, right? And it's a throwaway line here.

That's just like, oh, let me make sure I mention this without forgetting. Aidan Morris has been immediately a fan favorite for Middlesbrough. Like, dude, there was a time where if a U.S. national team stalwart, and Morris isn't that yet. He's a very talented young player. Sasha Kleshin had to go on trial to Celtic. On trial. Now it's like, oh, we're just overlooking Aiden Morris to Burrow.

So while we always want more, and it's fair to want more, we always debate what would be better how to grow the league all that once in a while to just appreciate like wow like we really have come a far way yep let's talk about where we're going then let's talk 2025 we've got the biggest stories in the offseason coming up so let's dig into those big storylines that we're watching for the offseason we're going to do five here, some of the big topics, big teams, big ideas that we're looking forward to digging into and seeing how they develop.

Tom, you've got your finger on the pulse as well as anyone as I watch you be told about moves that you didn't know about and sporting directors laughing at you, saying this is one that you didn't get, so I'm not going to tell you. So you're plugged in. You're ready to go. Let's start with some transfer potential. Let's start with some of the bigger clubs.

I think the biggest one that we want to talk about in terms of what will they do because of what they can do is Atlanta United. Yes. This is a team that is responsible for five of the top seven transfer fees in MLS history. Prior to Kevin Denke signing this offseason as the new league record signing, they're responsible for the top four signings in MLS history. They have an ownership group who has been as committed, if not more committed, than any other in Major League Soccer.

They routinely spend money. They routinely have big ambition. And now guess what? They have Garth Ogle and Chris Henderson running the show. They routinely spend money. They routinely have big ambition. And now guess what? They have Garth Argo and Chris Henderson running the show. They have two open DP spots this winter. The expectations for these are sky high. Again, it's unfair to say I expect them to set a new league record. But if they set a new league record transfer fee,

I'm not going to be surprised in any way. These two, so they signed Alexey maranchuk for around 12 million 12 13 million in the summer these three transfer of these three dp spots from the summer to this winter that's gonna total 40 million 45 million like that's unheard of in this league and that's another sign of hey we're selling at a big number but also we're buying at a big number so atlanta united are the team i am most interested in seeing what happens with their roster build this winter. And in particular, just those two DP spots, but they also have U22 initiatives.

They could spend a lot more money. A couple other teams... Oh, go, go, go. I was going to say LAFC have an open DP spot. That's earmarked for Antoine Griezmann. That's a big story to watch, whether that's this winter, this summer, or whatever. Charlotte FC have one open DP spot. Eventually should have two when Karol Swiderski leaves.

That's another team that's going to spend a lot of money, can spend a lot of money. FC Cincinnati could add another DP. They've just set the league record transfer on Denke. So who knows exactly how much, but they swing big too. There are a lot of teams Chicago Fire have, should end up with two DP spots, depending on how quickly they get rid of

guests on him it is there could be a lot of money spent this winter it's it's all fascinating it's all big i mean charlotte's obviously one of those that's like new to the party and but we keep putting them in these conversations but lafc atlanta are two that keep push things i have said this a million times so i know it's repetitive but the thing I'm most interested in all of this is Chris Henderson has done some of the best talent ID in Major League Soccer. To see him do it now with Arthur Blank's checkbook is what I'm excited about.

How does Chris take that next step to say, oh, yeah, I'm good at finding the diamonds in the rough, but now I'm in the diamond store. How do I pick the best one when those are the options because everything's shiny and impressive and how do you get those deals across the line that is really exciting for me to watch from the outside about all of this and i would love to see charlotte like take all of this potential might and put it into something that really is effective and is consistently a good team be Orlando for the next two three years right be a consistent contender maybe not the favorites every time

and like reset who you should have been from the start based off what their owner feels they should do and how they're spending Bryce Young's back on the field man everything that's old is new like we've all got opportunities to reset ourselves in David Tepper's world. And that's, that's what's on, on deck for them. Let's go to the coaches because this is the huge thing. MLS, we've always talked about the, the reason people want to come here is the stability, the chance to build a project, no relegation. Like you can take some risks as a coach and yet MLS coaches are getting shorter and shorter leashes. And hence we had as many openings as we've ever had in this offseason. So we've already, for where we stand right now, everyone can know, you know, magic of television, this is not live.

Javier Mascherano in Inter-Miami, Greg Berhalter in Chicago, Bruce Arena in San Jose have all signed on. Olaf Melberg in St. Louis, Nico Estevez moving inside of Texas to Austin, and Eric Quill taking over for him in Philadelphia, or sorry, in Dallas. Right now we think Bradley Carnell and Ronnie Dyla could be the next two. Carnell in Philadelphia, Atlanta with Ronnie Dyla,

and that leaves NYCFC Vancouver and Toronto still unknown. The question will be, of all these names and all these places who will be the most successful in 2025 so if we're just going sheer points the obvious first choice is javier mascherano because he walks into a team so why don't we not two points why don't we do biggest improvement which is almost impossible for javier mascherano um yeah so then that that show san jose chicago those are ones like but i'm gonna go with st louis i'm gonna go with all off melbourne i will um caution this with i have no idea if he's a good manager you just like his beard giving him the benefit he's very handsome man i think that this St. Louis roster is ready to go day one.

There are few questions of who fits where. There are no questions about how am I going to play. This is a coach who believes, obviously, in the high-pressing transition model that St. Louis want. So I think that this is going to be the least time for changes. This is going to be the least um oh what what does this new coach want i'm not totally sure and then maybe it clicks in july no no all these players are brought here to play high pressing transition olaf melberg will have his tweaks of course everybody does but the general principles are going to be the same and this team i think is ready to win now

like they were on you know september 1st when everybody was in the team. The summer signings because of everything they did in the summer. So St. Louis, I think, have a ton of room to grow. I agree with you. I think we may have missed them a little bit in the conversation we did right after MLS Cup, which is the last three MLS Cup winners didn't make the playoffs the year before. Which of the non-playoff teams is going to get there? I think we're excited about Chicago, and I think Greg Berhalter is probably a fairly obvious answer in this because, again, Chicago can come from the basement to the middle,

and they could be the biggest turnaround in all of that. But St. Louis ended the year as the best non-playoff team. And so if you think that momentum can sustain into next year, they should easily be a postseason team, and they should probably contend for a home playoff game. And any work between three and six for them I think is a good year especially if all of this stuff hits and you're saying okay this is actually a building block for us to get even better as these players settle in or maybe we find space to add talent here where we need it and so I think

that's a really good shout I think Burrhalter is an obvious one in here. For the unknown ones, I'm starting to feel better about Toronto as it's felt so bad for so long. And it just feels like if they can get, I mean, the obvious one is they can get Jim Curtin done and they can get him there. And whether he wants to or not, I don't know. Just think there's a clear road for them to just be a good MLS team. And they were on the verge of the playoffs this year. So maybe that's not that huge a gap, but that just feels really interesting to me. Let's go to a complete unknown and let's go to San Diego. What does this lineup look like game one? Like that is, it's always fun for us, but it's always difficult as we do our depth charts in preseason to be like, what does this team we've never seen line up before?

How do they line up and on paper what does it feel like the strength of that team's gonna look like and that's gonna be a huge question that we're gonna be talking about for the next few months yes so the strength the idea is build around play around truth lozano he's your guy he's everything that he's the metronome everything goes around what i think that we know right now at time of recording is, I think, guaranteed five starters. Andres Reyes, Paddy McNair, Sirkov, Yepe Sirkov, I hope that I said God damn it. Ingvardsson, the center forward, Chico Lozano, that's five. So I know those five. I think we have a six in C.J. Dos Santos based on what I know. I think that that's going to be

starting goalkeeper. And then there's a six in C.J. Dos Santos based on what I know. I think that that's going to be a starting goalkeeper. And then there's a possibility that Anibal Godoy is seventh. I'm not entirely sure, but at time of recording, there's at least five, probably six, and maybe seven. So we're getting closer to figuring it out. I think that they need another DP, and Tyler Heap said that they're close. I think that they need a couple significant central midfield additions, or maybe at least one, and this team is taking shape. It's going from theory to reality. Like, what, like, Tyler Heaps, that front office has done, it's really

difficult. They go through, like, I've been around enough of these expansion builds and asking questions to the CSOs of, like, yeah, like we do it. Okay. Hypothetically, when they're chasing Chuklazano, it's not done. All right. Let's say we signed Chuklazano. How do we build a team? Okay. This doesn't happen. Who's going to be our new centerpiece? And then how do we build a team? All right. So we signed Chuklazano. What if we go for a DP winger? And this is the build. Or what if we go for a DP central midfielder? And that's the build. So there's so many different permutations about how this can go and the work that goes into figuring out okay if this if this uh tetris piece goes here and this one goes there then where do we do

our resources so there's so many different ways it can go there are a bunch of different ways to get it right a bunch of different ways to get it wrong so i think that we've got five definite six probable and maybe seven right now yeah and just the big thing that stands out to me where we sit right now is often teams state who they want to be either out loud or in their moves early on. And I don't think we know that yet. Like you talk about those six definites. Okay, you've got the two Scandinavian players you've brought in. Are they going to be, is that where they're going to go heavy?

We think with the right to dream setup, they're going to go really young. Not a lot of the pieces we just named are that young. And some teams are going to go MLS experience heavy, like we saw with Nashville. That's not what we see yet. So I think where we sit right now, we still don't know who they are. And they haven't said out loud, really, this is a, you know, we're going to be a clear identity club in this way. They have the right to dream connection. And so that's the feeling of what it'll be. They haven't really vocalized it. So I think that's what will be fascinating

as these moves come together, is them, through their actions and not their words, telling us what is San Diego FC? What does it mean? How does it fit into the context of MLS? What does this club stand for? And so it's going to be fun as these pieces start to come together of like,

oh, that's what they're building. That's who this team is going to be um let's go to the next one here and you put this one down and it's fascinating which is a couple mvp candidates that are saying they don't want to be with the team they're with right now yeah lucho acosta evander these are two want to weigh superstars in this league what is going to happen over the next, hopefully for both of these teams, they figure it out by the start of preseason because it'd be weird to bring back or ask to bring either one of these back

because I'm going to say if both of their minds are made up to not be back, I don't see them showing up. Evander didn't show up on time this year and things were good, right? Lucho Cosa says, you know, Lucho being Lucho is a line that I've gotten back from sources several times and they mean that with love and not with hate. So Lucho Cosa is, you know, Lucho being Lucho is a line that I've gotten back from sources several times. And they mean that with love and not with hate.

So Lucho Cosa, after they lost to NYCFC in the first round of the playoffs, stunned everybody by being like, I think this is the last game I play for this club. It's time. It's whatever, right? Like, Chris Albright, FC Cincinnati want him back. They said no bridges are burned. But Lucho being Lucho. We'll see where that one goes.

Evander, different. It's not no bridges bird there were bridges bird he uh took direct shots at the front office and ownership and you usually don't last long after that what avander did that was smart was say i can't wait to be back in the winter for preseason i love you the fans you're the best fans of the league i'm gonna see you in january so putting all the pressure on them it also goes hand-in-hand with a story you were covering right as we go into the holidays which is an internal transfer market because the way the league is set up right now there's pretty much no chance they'll play in

mls if they don't play for these two teams you cannot you can't compensate a team enough internally to make it worth their while but But if that transfer window opens up, is there a chance that Navander could play somewhere else in MLS? Is there a chance Lucho, rather than having to go to Mexico or Argentina to come back again, could stay in Major League Soccer? And so that will be part of this story. If that does happen and one of those moves happens, that changes the face of the league, which is all of a sudden

all of this is in play and can a red bulls or an lafc where you're saying oh yeah there's a big market people want to be in can they pull inside of mls or can a team that can go to a player and you know an mvp cannon and say we're more stable here or we've got a more exciting project our style fits you better can they go and get them and if not these are two players we'd kill to have an MLS based off their production. Bad for the league to lose players like that. So what do replacements look like and what does the league do going forward to try and avoid situations like this as much as possible? All right, let's close out on this one.

This is a Dave Goss nerd space one. And it's the Club World Cup. You know, the draw just happened people are talking about it people say it's silly and it's friendlies and it's in this weird transfer window space and people don't care but you better believe david goss wants to see al ali here in miami i'm going to be with my habibis in the crowd watching these games play in a muhammad abu treka jersey stoked i love this for a first off time I love watching all of these cultures and clubs and fan bases and everything come together in one space the U.S. is

an obvious place to host it because of the diversity and because of the geographic location and I love having two MLS teams in it and I love that Seattle schedule is just a meat grinder up in Lumen Field hosting Atletico Madrid hosting PSG but Major League Soccer needs to help those teams they did not help Seattle in a competitive way by adding gam or allocation or salary cap space or any assets to help Seattle build for the one club World Cup they played in and they went and I thought they put a decent performance on the field losing one zero, but they had Jackson Reagan in his rookie year, starting his first ever game in a club world's cup.

And so I would like to, I would like to see MLS take this somewhat seriously in the way that these teams earn their spot here. Well, Miami, you could argue, but whatever they set a points record, it's probably enough.

They are in their spot. Their help teams be great. Help teams when they're good stay together help teams when they're great be something that sets the marker in major league soccer this is the this is the line that MLS keeps bumping up against against league MX if Monterey is great if Tigres is good not only do they keep Zinniak they add another piece to take advantage of him when an MLS team is great if tigress is good not only do they keep zhinyak they add another piece to take advantage of him when an mls team is great la galaxy steps off the field from mls cup and trade the mls cup final mvp to another team because they don't have enough salary cap space to keep him there that is the nature of major league soccer i don't mind parody i don't mind salary caps but you have to

be able to stretch it enough to keep it relevant against the rest of the world. And this is going to be a benchmark for that from on the field. I think it's going to be a benchmark for that off the field. And, man, I'm excited to watch some of these teams play in some of the most random games ever. I'm going to every Auckland City game. You already know it. So I was going to kick it right back to you. So the original prompt was,

will this club world cup teams be helped to compete? I've heard some whispers that they might, that they might get some, um, leeway in the salary cap to do so. Uh, don't know that for sure. So I'm just going to whisper it in the podcast.

Don't aggregate me. Don't take me seriously. What I was going to throw back to you is how much does it really matter? Their performances in the club world cup costs. Like if Seattle are in a crazy group, if they go 0-3, 0-0-3, I don't want to do 0-3, no, it's 0-0-3. Wins, draws, loss, that's how it is. Three points, one point, zero point, it makes sense.

If they go 0-0-3, is that really a referendum on MLS stinks, LOL? Yeah. Or is it just, you tell me, what do you think? I don't think so i don't either but i do think something can be gained sure if you pull points off but are you gonna gain that like sorry if if you were again we'll use la galaxy aren't in this they should be instead of miami but whatever let's use the la galaxy point like if they had if they didn't have to trade gas on brookman would that make a difference would that make that much of a difference in those group stage games i think so i and maybe seattle is in such a crazy group that i'm gonna end up being wrong about this

i do think like i think having having an adult at position, I think there's enough talent in Major League Soccer for teams to go and for just 90 minutes to compete at a high level and keep things together. If you're able to have 14 or 15 players you can trust at that level. If you're able to not have a weak link on the field where in some of these moments it's like well does it matter having them there and it's like you go and watch some of these ccl games in the past and ccc games in the past and it's like yeah if you didn't have to play a rookie out of college in their first ever game at the azteca things probably would have gone a little bit better if it was a 28 year old colombian you know borderline international who's comfortable in their skin in that position playing in that spot.

Yes. Gaston Bruggemann playing in Syria and playing with the Uruguayan national team in his past stepping on the field for a team rather than an unknown piece is going to make you a little bit better. I think we've seen in the Tamera that a million, $2 million is a difference maker. It is a fully fledged starter in a lot of positions that aren't the key attacking spots and having one plus starter two plus starters is a big enough gap for mls teams to get you close to being able to be competitive because i would argue and seattle's a tough one because again this group's so tough but like evander deserves to be

on the field with a lot of those players Lucho Acosta PSG tried to sign him whether I thought that made any sense at the time or not that's how good they thought he was so the top end is there and a lot of the middle now is starting to be there but it has to be a little bit deeper and it has to be a little bit stronger so I do think it could make a difference and I do think it could matter but as you have taught me nothing really matters and that is our final moments of 2024 here at sakurai is our first year ever i cannot say enough about how thankful i am to people for their support for their excitement for their engagement um it's why we built this thing we built it on the fly we're gonna have some time now to clean things up and maybe shift them. Any ideas you have

going forward, anything you want as a fan of this league, a fan of NWSL, a fan of the sport in this region, let us know. And we're going to continue to try and build this even better than before. Tom, thank you once again for being here. Thank you for being a part of this. Thank you to Jordan Angeli, of course. Thank you to our SoccerWise dads. Thank you to Morgan Angeli, of course Thank you to our SoccerWise dads Thank you to Morgan Tenza as well And everyone else who helps out along the way And thank you most importantly to all of you Especially to the people in the Discord Who are always chatting with us

Who are always talking the game And the ones who help us organize that a little bit Are fantastic and we could not be luckier To have those people involved with everything we do So, happy holidays to all of you. Happy New Year, whether it's before or after. I'm not sure when this is running still yet, but I think it'll be right before. And we'll be back very, very soon with our next live episode, our first of 2025.

So thank you all once again, and we'll talk to you again very, very soon. We'll see you next time.