SoccerWise - MLS Edition: Behind The Scenes From Coachella, Lucho Update & Galaxy Spending Big

Episode Date: February 11, 2025

Tommy Scoops comes in from lounging poolside in Coachella Valley to take us behind the scenes on all things MLS. Who looked good? Who looked bad? And what are the big whispers around the league. Then Tom & Gass dig in on the latest twists and turn out of the Lucho saga, LA Galaxies young signings, and of course open the "Ice Cream Shop" for DP signings in Philly & more.10:50 Coachella Observations20:03 MLS to Liga MX Transfer Problems37:37 LA Galaxy u22 Signings & Injuries46:00 Ice Cream Shop46:18 Philly New DP Forward51:05 Eddie Atuesta Finally Lands In ORL56:06 FC Dallas Offseason Update & Projected Lucho Roster1:00:02 Rapids u22 CM Signings Soccerwise Live 2pm ET Every Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday on Youtube/Twitch/Twitter

What's up everybody? Welcome back to Soccer Wise. Dave Agass and Tommy scoops together. It feels like it's been a while. For some reason this felt like oh wow we're like back on yet. Last Thursday maybe a little bit of an earlier show you've been out in, California You've been you know, I think I got sent a couple photos of you shrimp cocktails by the pool A couple of I think you were what doing a hot air balloon trip as well So I know you had a good time rumor is you may have worked at some point But you were at Coachella Yeah, California time is back a little bit of a red forehead not so much actually

I've been killing it with a lot of aloe probably isn't there's got to be a point where the too much aloe actually isn't good For you, but that's where I'm at right now. Yeah. No, I wish that I was lounging by a pool. I think One I went in my hotel pool for sure beginning at nights. There's like the first morning I was there it was like 48 degrees just like at sunrise. And I was like, I don't care if it stays this temperature, I'm going in the pool today. I don't care. Thankfully, two hours later it's 75, it's perfect. But yeah, it was just a lot of Ubering to hotels and soccer fields. It is normally in a desert. I think it's cold at night and then it gets warmer once the sun comes out. Thanks guys. I was just saying, my point was I was going in the pool. I think it's cold at night and then it gets warmer once the sun comes out.

Thanks guys. I was just saying my point was I was going in the pool. I didn't care what the weather was going to be. I got you. I understand. I understand completely. I was sad to not be out there, but you're going to take us behind the scenes. You're going to give us all of the lowdown of what you experienced already putting out

some articles on Give Me Sport about some of the conversations that you've had, especially one around MLS and League MX that we're going to touch on here. In this show, we've got a lot to talk about as well. I, giving you trouble, was at the beach on Saturday myself, so I can't really push you too hard. I went to leave the beach and I have a tendency, I don't have great spatial awareness, I didn't normally drive cars in my life. So when I pull into a spot, I pull all the way until you feel that touch. That's how you know you've parked, right?

You get a little bit of a tap on whatever the piece of cement is in front of it. And so I did that to get to go to the beach, park the car, go to the beach. We come back out and my wife's like, you pulled too far forward. And I was like, mmm, I think I pulled forward the right amount. I think it's fine. I look at the car and it's slightly in the grass and I'm like, Oh, well, I guess that's not ideal. And my tire is flat. I have pulled over and nail. Okay, fine. I've changed the tire before. It's been a while but I've changed the tire before. I had to stand on the what is it? Not not the jack. Oh, no, no, like the the tire. I've I think I appreciate you asking me as if I've ever done this before as if

I'm a real man. But dudes and guys, yeah, Dudes and guys, yeah. So I'm not, so this is all you. I had to physically stand on it with my entire body weight and then slowly pump my legs to get the lug nuts to pop. I was out there for an hour and a half dripping sweat in my New York Metz hat. Go Pete Alonzo. Dying. Now I have a question for everyone out there is,

can I patch the tire? Will it hold if I do a patch or do I have to go buy a new tire? Because I'd love to not have to do that again. So that is my question to our soccer wise community. My question to you is, I remember when the text was sent. When did you do this, Gus? What day? What do you mean? What day? What day? Saturday. And you're asking three days later, do I need to get a new tire now? You're just driving around? Like what if what if the answer is yes? I don't really drive my car that often and the donut was flat so I finally got the donut on and I'm like doesn't feel right and I am like all right right it's a different shape so the whole

car is angled anyway. Turns out it's been so long since that tire needed to be changed that the donut had ran out of most of the air. So I drove it home and I parked it and then I've just left it there. So it's just, I don't know. It's like the car's disintegrating. It's sitting in a parking garage with nothing else to do

until I go to the tire shop that I'm gonna go to. You won't make it. I probably won't make it, which is another stressful thing that I'm going to go to. You won't make it. I probably won't make it, which is another stressful thing that I got to figure out. But I was like, oh, I can order a new tire. And then I started reading about patches, and I'm unsure how stable they are. So I need someone to let me know if it's

OK for me to patch a tire. I think it's a four-year-old tire. And if that will last me long enough, or am I going to be on the highway and have my tire Blow out and then I'm gonna have to be you know holding on to the wheel and all of that This is the advice I need from people as a true American now as a car driving American I need to be part of the community I need to understand a flow of true Florida man would would patch it with gum and just keep driving

No, I just grabbed some alligator leather from one of my most recent hunts and, and throw it all in. I'm getting a little bit of feedback in the chat. If you're watching live reminder, we have opened up super chats now, so you can put a little money to some of your comments and then we will read them on the show or post them on the show. We will dig into a lot of different topics we have to talk about Coachella. We have to talk about the latest twists in the Lucho Acosta saga, which just continues and

continues. The LA Galaxy have had a bunch of big news drops since we last talked about them. Reminder, our LA Galaxy season preview has been published already with Josh Guestman of Corner of the Galaxy. Four of the season previews are up via video, standalone videos on our YouTube page. If you want to go watch those, you want to go comment on them or share them around. They have also been posted, eight of our previews as two podcast episodes all mixed together. We've already recorded our first four to run later this week and we're working on the next set of them as well. Unfortunately, it is a league where the transfer window and roster freeze date don't really end and the season just kicks off.

So we are going to just continue to keep pushing them out right up until the whistle. But we've really enjoyed the chats we've had with all of the local podcasts. I appreciate some of the feedback from people so far, as well as some of the recs for different local shows in markets where we maybe don't know anyone already, or we're trying to find more people to connect with and reach out to. It has been really fun for me of just,

this is the part I like. I like people who have like-minded ideas. I like reaching out to them. I like talking to them. I like promoting them. And it's really been good to get feedback as well, as we go out and sort of talk to people and all of that So it has been really enjoyable so far. I hope everyone's liking it. We will get all 30 teams out

So if you haven't seen your team yet, you can find it and there are timestamps alongside all of the podcasts there before we dig into the show a Sad note to start on but one that I want to touch on as you talk about connecting with soccer people One of our own has passed away. We had the seeing red Podcast host, of course mark fishkin on with us last week and marks co-host. Joe Goldstein has passed away from cancer Over the last week I met Joe covering New York Red Bulls to a long, long time ago and have had some incredible

summer nights sitting out on bleachers talking about the sport we love, talking about the most ridiculous and obscene and specific memories and stories and all these things. This sport is a connector. It's what I say all the time. It's the community we all try and build and I think we're all very lucky to be a part of and our community is hurting right now. So if you can send your love to the Seeing Red hosts, send your love and thoughts to Joe's family. And you can also go and donate to the Trevor Project

in Joe's name. And that is a way to sort of honor Joe's memory. So all our thoughts and prayers go out to the Seeing Red family, the Red Bull family, and everyone associated to Joe. We were all lucky to have had Joe in our life and to have covered the game we love. And that's what we're going to continue to do here. Let's go out to California now. Tom, on a little bit of a lighter note, you were out there for a couple of days. There are very few situations where you get a lot of people in the MLS world in one space. It

used to be Combine, it's really not anymore, Superdraft doesn't really exist. Preseason is the one time and people are in a different headspace than we're used to them being. They are less antagonistic, they are less stressed, they are less angry. Just overall what was the experience like out at Coachella? It's beautiful, man. Like, let me even take it a step back of like that area. The Coachella Valley is picturesque. And it is the second year in a row I've gone to this preseason tournament.

I love it. And I knew it was going to be beautiful before I got there. It still blows me away. And like I'm talking to like Uber drivers and, you know, this small talk, which I'm pretty bad at. But even there, I'm in a better mood and just talking and more freely but like I keep saying I know I keep saying this it's gorgeous everywhere you look like the different mountains and the way the Sun hits the mountains at different times of the day it's it's just unbelievable so that area is

incredible the facilities are really really good the hotels the ones that are obviously well out of my price range, but MLS teams, they're not like the facilities there are really, really excellent. There's about a billion golf courses. I don't golf, but a lot of dudes do. Every Uber driver I had during the daytime was 75 years old and just happy and pleasant and good people. So the area is incredible.

There's no shortage of things to do. And again, it's February 11th today. It was, I don't know, 25 degrees in New Jersey when I left to go to California And then when I came back I'd snow in my car. So it is a pretty easy one for me to go to every year It is it's definitely ideal. I love I love a desert by the way I'm like as much as I'm from a coast and Love being on a beach. I absolutely love a desert and they're all different. It's a thing I've learned in life where I'm like,

oh yeah, of course, you know, I've seen a Disney movie. I know what a desert looks like. They're all different and I absolutely love it. So I'm jealous that you were out there for that. And it's a perfect place for all of this. What Sounders go to Spain every year now. You were gonna say it and then you got scared. You were gonna say Marbella.

Marbella and you got scared. were gonna say is it Marbella Marbella yeah got scared Vancouver wasn't sure that Dallas were in Portugal there's a there was a few teams in Marbella I know that fit didn't feel like I think it's kind of offensive Dallas was in Portugal I didn't get hit up like I'm in Portugal with you what do you Dallas what are you doing if you don't have me in the you know in the content in the mix yeah in the mix I should be doing a daily interview with an FC Dallas player in Portugal. I didn't know that was on option. A lot of teams go to Mexico as well. Yes. And part of that is a chance to play other teams because first a lot of teams,

they don't want to play other MLS teams or they've always, you know, they'll play a USL team or a local college team, but it's consistently the same every year. And so I know a lot of front offices feel like the ability to challenge and also you can show a little more because you're not hiding it as much and, and all those different elements. But a lot of this is MLS versus MLS out in Coachella on the field. Let's start there. What sort of stood out to you?

What did you see? What were you paying attention to? I was trying to pay attention to whatever I could. There was a lot of people around that. That's why this is so, again, in my specific job and my specific role, just being able to talk to so many people and see all these people that I annoy via my phone all the time and getting to see them in person is always great. So a lot of talking.

I think my jaw, like too much talking, my throat hurts. But in the games, like I was on the sideline for Austin st. Louis that was the first one I was going to get to watch And I I was I was speaking with with people from each club and I was standing there And my expectations are low for preseason games and like i'm not going to go criticize the team Again, like Kansas City lost six nothing. I'm not sounding the alarms necessarily, right? Like what whatever my thoughts on them were didn't change just because they lost a big preseason game hook us and I was saying like but I was pretty

Pleasantly surprised and I was talking to one of you guys I was like this is really good level like things look sharper than I expected and like one of the teams was like a man like Dar are we we've had some rough ones to get the rust off So like yeah, we look a little bit better right now Both of those teams were mostly full strength like Uzuni isn't there for Austin again, and I don't believe toy shirt was playing for st Louis but generally speaking was most of the first team guys out there. They've gotten games under their belts So things like look sharp looks good. That was nice watching the LA Galaxy on Sunday Elijah Widener was

Excellent, so I knew that he's a very good player, talented player. Didn't know what he might look like in his first games with the Galaxy after joining from Louisville City in the USL Championship. He was awesome. He's a big dude. He's like a modern midfielder. There's a lot of good players in that game, the Galaxy. There was a trialist number 17 that if you're a fan of soccer wise, you might recognize as one Christian Ramirez.

We can't figure that out. Again, Charlotte looked good. Patrick'Damon man, like going from strength to strength from his national team camp Mid again, Minnesota United to go to the other side of that Kansas City six nothing loss. I was Minnesota United I think it was five note halftime or something like that the the Minnesota press was suffocating like the way the way watching that team move and I got to spend a little bit of time with Eric Ramsey the Minnesota United hit coach extremely impressive

intelligent curious Thoughtful I I can't say enough good things about him and again just watching his teams I had a pretty high pretty high expectation of him before getting to spend a little bit of time with him and Again, just because they won six nothing doesn't mean that they're going to be favorites from less cob none of that right it's still preseason game but the way that they move in sync the way that their structure is set and how everybody feels like they're on a rope with each other the center backs all move together the midfield press goes forward together like that's one of the things Ramsey was telling me before the game of like yeah like that's like the positional stuff is really important to me. So whatever our principles are, whether we're deep or high pressing,

we want to be compact everywhere we are in the pitch. And watching them move as a unit was really, really impressive. And you said pitch so we know you know what you're talking about because we know you're a real one. This feels like one of the coaching. It's interesting because I think coaches are one of the biggest storylines in Major League Soccer Like I talked about this I think last week with someone, you know You bring in a Bruce arena Greg burr halter like they're huge names big openings Some moves like a Nico Estevez from Texas to Texas like there's a lot of storylines But I was I just did our DC United preview that I recorded with Gregory Roach

in DC who does a great job at pitch pass and Troy Lassane kept coming up because it takes a while. Yeah. And you've got the Eric Ramsey's and Troy Lassane's of the world and Jesper Sorensen hopes to be on that plane of the big improvement for the team is going to be cohesion. Whether it's the players getting to know each other and the players getting to know the tactics and like what is the peak you can get there. It can be very high in MLS, right?

Jesse Marsh was able to do things. Greg Burrhalter was able to do things in the past. Jim Curtin has been able to do things. Ronnie Dila where they maybe didn't have the best talent on the field all the time. Eric Ramsey feels like one of those and I like the talent in Minnesota. We're going to do our Minnesota preview coming up later. We're going to record. I like a lot of the talent there, but like that feels like one of those and I like the talent in Minnesota. We're going to do our Minnesota preview coming up later. We're going to record. I like a lot of the talent there, but like that feels like one of those teams where if it gels plus the talent is the right fits

for what Ramsey wants to do, that they could be super competitive and they could get really high in the Western Conference. Yeah. And one of the things that Ramsey was telling me before the game and another thing I appreciate because some people try to be super secretive about everything they do and like I was like we don't need to talk before the gaming is just like that's fine we have time like and he said hey one of the things that we're working on here is we want to be able to play Tani and and and Yaboa together we've we tried it a bit last year like we liked it in moments but now we actually have a

preseason again remember he took over him in the end of February early March whatever it was he didn't have a preseason with this team and was able to install his ideas and everything else But he was like yeah like we think that if we can get this right if we can work out the kinks like that's gonna be another kind of dimension that we can go to and The two of them were pressing like crazy They're both they're both monsters in the box and they're both really really good and again watching them kind of play off of each other What was nice.

So that was another thing where the flexibility too, where again, you have your pillars, you have your core principles. Those will never change, but you kind of have to constantly evolve and you kind of have to constantly find little tweaks that you can put in your team. And Minnesota United,

that was kind of one of my questions for him. Hey, you're not gonna sneak up on anybody, not suggesting that that's the only reason why, that's why I reason you were successful, But like, um, you guys didn't have huge expectations last year. Now you have bigger expectations and now teams have a lot of tape on you guys, a full season of tape of what you might do. What, like, what are your thinking? And, and that was why he's like, Hey, yeah, we're already thinking about maybe two forward sometimes we're thinking about this. So we're going to do that. So always being, trying to be one step ahead and

being able to keep your core principles, but also tweak around the edges is very impressive. You put out an article about MLS and LeagueMX and sort of those sales that comes from a lot of conversations you're having. We'll talk about that in a moment. Was anything else big in terms of this is the thing that everyone's interested in or this is the thing everyone's sort of rumbling about? This is the thing that everyone's interested in or this is the thing everyone's sort of rumbling about Yeah, I mean obviously the the cash transfer system that the cash first or Tell me someone called it a cater cash for tell me someone I saw I would start the conversation with cash for so maybe They were that's good Tom. It's fine. You're you're just slowly working Like I barely even noticed Shout out to toodle ramen by the way, who does a great job and loves soccer, who was complimenting our season previews

and then slammed the use of Kade in the thread. I see you Toodle. That wasn't my favorite one. That's why I like Cash for it. You had a bunch of ideas and you're just firing. Cash for it wasn't me and I don't need credit. I don't care about credit. I just wanna find something that's beautiful for all of us.

When is the team loses the team? Even in the Discord. Exactly. Even in the Discord. Exactly. But yeah yeah like that because like again they're all figuring it out and and i'll tell you like jokingly like you i haven't looked at the chat i guarantee you that there's lucho and avander questions in there talking to people in in person like players and gms and coaches those are the

questions i'm getting too it's like hey what's going on with luchuto and Evander which is which is funny because at the end of the day these are all guys and men and women who love this sport too they love talking about it too like they're interested in some ways they're also fans are just curious about things so those were a couple ones and I think lastly it's the immigration stuff if you get it like if you get a if you sign a player right now zero percent chance if they're not if they're not domestic that They're ready for opening day in 11 days I'm talking to a minute Minnesota are figuring this out and like it's like oh we signed this player who came here

You know last week He got to be around training for two days And then he had to then go fly to Ontario to go to the embassy to do his visa appointment or then it's just like those are things that I don't think about enough of. Again, for instance, the South Korean player that Minnesota signed. So he comes halfway around the world, completely new, completely new area team, all that stuff. And oh, by the way, after you get here, then you have to leave again to go do your visa

stuff and oh, while you're trying to learn your teammates a new system, new language, new everything else, okay you need to stop, we need to bring you to the airport because these are the things you need to do to be able to play. So the immigration stuff again, nothing political but just with the new administration things could change and things could be more difficult. That was a talking point and then yeah the the idea of buying and selling with Mexico is always going to be a top of mind. If you want to learn a little bit more about the immigration process and what's going on, you can listen to our interview at Sacrawise with Joel Mendez of the Arce Immigration Law firm down here in Miami.

That is in the feed. If you have listened or not, you can find it in the podcast. Maybe Tom will listen to it and he'll learn a little bit as well. And all of that. Let's talk about this MLS League MX thing. It was an interesting piece that you put out and it is this fight that is happening I think around Major League Soccer which is for so long it was MLS for RSL and it was MLS pushing as a unit. And I think I talked to a lot of people in MLS spheres who are like, why do I care? My job is to

win games. My job is for my team to win games. Do I care about the lot of people in MLS spheres who are like, why do I care? My job is to win games. My job is for my team to win games. Do I care about the growth of the league or the sport in the country? It's not really my job. And there are people who feel that way and there are people who don't. And I think that clashes somewhat in this conversation that you wrote this piece about in which some people are saying, why are we creating a structure in which League of Mechs teams, our competition, can come and buy players for us?

I don't think other people would say look at the money. We're getting from another league Why would we not continue to do that? Yeah, so this all like this the conversations I was having sparked on like Mateusz Bogus and I mean Luca Orieno was another one that cruises who were trying to sign so Luca Mateusz Bogus He's I had I had it wrong in there. He wasn't listed as a U22 initiative, but the general point remains the same. There is a cap on what a U22 player or what a non-DP player can make. And this is where it is the most interesting. He can't be a DP for LAFC because they're holding the spot for Griezmann and that's

fine. Cruz Azul watches you come have your career year. Okay, cool. Here's good money. Very fair money. But we're going to take the player. And the contention of the GM that I was speaking with was like, or like we, you know, again, LAFC, nobody was criticizing LAFC. I actually want to take a step back because I don't want that to get like taken out of context. Everybody's pretty much like, yeah, man, you got to do that. And like it's just about the restraints of if they didn't have a DP spot open to use and they didn't, this would have to happen. And everybody was like, we would have done it too. Well done by them.

But because of the rules being where they are, Cruz Azul can watch 15 players get signed to MLS from Europe, South America, wherever. And nine of them don't work. Six of them do. A couple of those get new contracts at their endless clubs. And then there's a guy like Mateus Bogus who, okay, we know we can give him a big new contract. And so the idea was like, are we taking on the risk? And Mexico just sits back, the big clubs and go, ooh, Bogus was good.

Ooh, Brandon Vazquez was good. Ooh, this, that, right? And so I think it's an interesting concept, and I don't even know what my full opinion on it is, because it's a case-by-case basis, which is what most GMs were saying too, of like, with the bogus one, yeah, I totally get it. Brandon Vasquez, like, in hindsight,

you could say, since he should have given him a DP contract, but like, it wasn't kind of on the table then. And Brandon Vasquez, hell yeah, I would have done the same exact thing he did. And now he gets a market value contract going to Mexico done the same exact thing he did and now he gets a Market value contract going to Mexico stayed there for a year now He's back in MLS on that kind of number rather than being stuck at the the ceilings that were in place here so it has more to do with like the roster rules in in in general and the the cash trade system the cashers are going to help with this because

Deon Yovlitch is not playing for sporting Kansas City literally any other time in M. West history. He's going to T-Race or somewhere else because those were his options. Because there wouldn't be enough allocation money for Kansas City or another team to trade for Dejan Jovovich. So that's going to be helpful, a van or Lucha, all of these things. So we'll see how that kind of matures and evolves. But for right now, kind of at the beginning of this, it's like, all right, well, when a player ages out of U-22, even if they do really good, it's going to be difficult to keep them if you don't have a DP spot. Right. Yeah, I can understand the conversation in the context of these specific rules that

have been created, especially the U-22 one, which is take a flyer on these players that are less known, and it is required because of the way the roster is structured in Major League Soccer. It is one of the only ways that you can add more talent to your team is to use a U-22 and then it's pretty hard to bring them back into your team. And so if it doesn't end up being a cash for it, then it ends up being who else in the world is going to come and get them. Now, I think in terms of just the conversation around MLS and Liga MX, those players, if

they come into Liga MX are also getting sold to Cruisers, Zolan Tigress, right? If Toluca and Nacoxa and maybe even Pumas bring those players in, they also get sold. Like we're talking about the top of the pyramid in the hemisphere, like Brazil and Mexico. Those are the two tops when you talk about spending and stability and the size of those clubs. And then there's the positive on the other side, which is Frankie Amaya is not going for $4 million anywhere else in the world. Fidel Barajas maybe isn't even going for the same deal. You put in, I think Cade Cowell was in your article. Like a lot of these moves are disproportionate because of Mexico, because of the money they have, because of the connection to the Mexican American player,

or the connection to having seen these players in a league's cup or a CONCACAF champions cup, or whatever else there is. So I think there's positive and negative in all of this. The frustration to not be able to re-sign players, I think is fair. It's something we've talked about around the galaxy now for a couple of weeks. We do it every year when an MLS team wins, the salary cap monster and all of that.

I echo those frustrations and I think that's a good place for the next set of product meetings, whatever this whole thing is called, that Sam and Paul reported on so well over the years, for the focus to be. Which is help us keep good teams together. Help us make them better by having stability and if you want the U22 initiative to exist, have mechanisms in it to keep those players if you did a good job. The only result of that shouldn't be you get to sell a player and do it all over again and you get that money. LAFC picked up $9 million. That is a huge deal for them,

but there should be optionality in all of that. Yeah, I agree. So it ended up going in north of 10 million a club record for LAFC. And like you said, like that that is one I think that was pretty straightforward. Like that happens. Yeah. Theoretically, like let's's say they had another DPS fight to give Bogus, like it still would have made sense if he left, like if they didn't want to match, like what Cruz Azul is going to pay. So yeah, I mean, it comes down to just from having a conversation with GMs over the years, it's always like, yeah, roster spots one through three. That's great. We can spend whatever we want. What we need to do to compete with Cruz Azul, the

Monterey, the Chivas, the Club America, whatever, is four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. And U22 initiative helps. But then when these guys are actually really overperforming and with the freedom of movement now and how quickly things move in global soccer, even when you get that career year from Matej Bogus, bang, he's gone immediately. Luca Orieno, they triggered his purchase option. He was asking to leave Oriano. They triggered his purchase option He was asking to leave immediately because he's like, well, I just had my career year I know we agreed to a contract that's gonna go into place right now

Well, well, they want to give me more money over there, right? so it's really difficult for clubs the rules obviously make it tough, but It's it's an interesting kind of point and I think for me like where I land is that like yeah Like both ways is going to happen. You don't want to be in a spot where it's just like, oh, they'll just take the best ones, but they're also not doing that. So again, it's something to monitor,

but largely like super interesting, but I think it balances itself out because there are the big MLS teams with a ton of money to spend that can turn to even some of the big clubs in Mexico and go like Herman Bertrami. It's not that he didn't come to MLS because of money. Like he came to MLS because his wife didn't want to leave that city. So like the big players from Mexican clubs, maybe not as frequently, they will get brought to MLS and brought to MLS.

Yep. I've said for a while now, like you have seen the positive of and you put in your piece the Lucas Zeller Ayan's Lucho Acosta going to Mexico coming back in Raul Ruy Diaz like there are a lot of really great players who probably wouldn't have come to MLS or MLS wouldn't have taken the risk on them originally until you get to see them a little bit closer. I don't understand why any player ever graduates off being a homegrown. I think there should always be an advantage built in to the fact that you've developed a player.

If you want to restrict those rights to the team they came through and you can't trade them on that, that's fine. I think U22 initiative could be something similar. I think you could look at something and say, for, until he's 29, 38, Mateusz Bogus can be on some form of U22 initiative contract with LAFC.

You can't move him to another team off that, fine. But like you did good work. So if you want to, you get to keep that in-house. Let's hit a couple of our super chats before we get out of here. I think maybe your odyssey is finally almost over. Looks like Gideon Zalalam has signed with New Mexico United and Space Kid said, how hard is it to get from USL to MLS?

This is the perfect chance for you to talk about someone you already mentioned Elijah Widener and how excited you were to see him on the field. Yeah for sure like good for Gideon Zellalem. I like that fit in Mexico want to play with the ball He's a ball playing like he's a possession based player He should excel in that team in that league and what has happened with him when he came to MLS is like He wasn't getting consistent playing time. He'll get that there. So if he is to come back to MLS, like he's a special case because we all know that name. We all know who he is.

If he plays really well, if he's fit the whole season, like there's going to be an option for him in MLS again. Absolutely. It's a different case. I will widener. Good. Yeah, I'll throw in here. USL is a less physical slower league.

There are times where it's actually more technical and cleaner. It fits his skill set better. Those things, though, if he shows well in those won't be something that Enema seems looking for because they already know it exists. It is also a reason I would tell people if you like soccer, you should go watch USL. There are some really fun soccer games in USL. There are a ton of fun tactical ideas because it's less of a car crash more often than Major League Soccer is, which is like car crash all the time. Elijah Widener, the interesting thing for me is he is elite

at car crashes. And I think that's where for the galaxy, he could be a really interesting pickup and you got to see him. Yeah. Again, I already said it earlier in the show, so I don't want to say the same things, but he looked really impressive. And again, I talked to people even outside of the LA Galaxy. I talked to people who really know USL or scouts that look at him and like, yeah, this dude is going to be a real player.

It's as if, was he going to go to MLS? His brother, Josh Widener, plays for Benfica, everybody wanted him. There were so many MLS teams that said, we want him, he'll start. And several teams in their recruitment of Elijah Widener said, we believe that he'll start. And they all thought they were the only person saying this. And it was like, no, man, several teams have said that he's got a really good inside chance

at at least being a rotation guy and playing real minutes. Because they knew that was important. If you turn down Benfica you're not going to go play an MLS next pro you're not going to like right like that's just where he was in his development he's a really really good player so Elijah Widener I think that he will translate to Europe as well and it was is he going to go to a smaller European club or is he going to go to MLS first and I I really like in his case coming MLS Josh Widener I think would have been very successful here in the right spot, but I don't blame them for going I would probably would have went to Benfica too. There was Hoffenheim. There's all the teams that wanted him over there

I would pay to go and be in Benfica's Academy It is one the best 75 in the world and two I'm eating anchovies off the grill every single day sardines anchovies bread oil You know life I need. I'm sure that's the- Just to be clear, I wouldn't mind living in Portugal. I don't know if anyone's gotten that from the opening half hour of today's show. And you think that that's what the nutritionists at Benfica are feeding Josh Wilder and Tony?

Yeah, probably. That's probably what's going on. So that's my assumption. Thank you for the question. Thank you there. Adam asks, when do you guys think they will announce the broadcast teams for MLS this season? Well, the season starts in 11 days. So I'd assume sometime between now and in 11 days. I don't have a more specific answer for you, but I'm very excited to see it as

well. Some really good people doing some good work over there and a lot of people that we are big fans of. And that gives us a little chance to I think we mentioned we're gonna do the golden boot draft here So we're gonna have MLS season passes on Andrew Weeby on this platform We're also we're doing some fun stuff with Doyle as often as we can But especially over the next week and a half So I think he's gonna come on this Thursday and we're gonna do a special show to sort of help us go through all the standings and what we think is gonna happen And we're gonna do a special show to sort of help us go through all the standings and what we think is gonna happen

You and me are gonna start to do some predictions next week for awards and all that type of stuff And then we'll have our golden boot draft to help finish things off and as you all know We're already rolling on our season previews and everything else going on there, which It would be helpful to know where MLS MVP finalists Lucho Acosta and Evander were going to play. You said it, everyone's talking about this. There is an element in the conversations I've had and not being at Coachella, but just from afar with people of like, you have to now start.

And a lot of people in this year starting with like, this is great theater. Like this is what the NBA is built on. This is what Super Bowl week is built on. I know it sucks for Portland and Cincinnati fans to hear that and I totally get that. But for all of us from the outside, when the news came out this weekend of like he's got a no trade clause, it was like it just it felt like we were covering James Harden and Dwight Howard and whatever else is going on. It is absolutely absurd. You put out a little bit of new news in terms of maybe some clubs being connected with him. And we are continuing

to follow this story as of today. We're getting closer to resolution. I've been saying that on this show for a while that like so Cincinnati wants a Vander from Portland that they are pushing hard to replace Lucho, but Lucho has to leave to be replaced. And Portland are like, this is nice. We need a a resolution Portland wanted a resolution a week ago probably right like in their minds everybody would have wanted all of their players in place by the beginning of preseason but my point is there is it's it's a domino effect there's going to be like once the first one goes all of this is gonna get sorted and it's gonna happen really really quickly so I've

been on high alert what I can tell you we're recording at 2 30 Eastern Time. As of an hour ago and I haven't gotten any new text since I keep on checking. As of an hour ago Lucho Costa is still with FC Cincinnati in training with the group. Totally confirmed. There FC Dallas and San Jose earthquakes are pushing. FC Dallas I believe are in the driver's seat or at least in pole position. But as you guys have seen with Lucho, Costa, and all these situations, things can change. Things are very fluid. We can go back to the beginning of this that started with, I want to go back to Argentina. Actually, no, I'll just go anywhere else but Cincinnati. So who

knows what the two, maybe, and now again, as you reported, there's a no trade clause, which factually that, if that's factual if that's news it Everything they're not gonna trade him and say go to the airport and yeah I'm sure a team is not spending multiple millions of dollars without talking to him first, right? So that's part of it too. He's still making his mind up about you know, trying to take his time for what's best. So FC Dallas and San Jose are the clubs that are having serious talks with this FC Cincinnati. In turn, FC Cincinnati are having very advanced talks with the Portland Timbers for Evander. And then the Portland Timbers have their advanced talks for David da Costa from Lens. So that's where everything stands. At some point the

music has to stop and people have to sit down in their chairs. That means Evander is staying in a Portland Green chair? Feels unlikely? Not off the table is all I'm saying. And again, I wish that I had a more definitive update, but things change all of the time and sometimes none of the time. So this is one that I'm gonna be on top of. I will give updates as much as I possibly can. I was Got a text about this during the Super Bowl and I was like is this really gonna be happening right now

It wasn't but that's just kind of where my brain is that I'm on Red Alert We got a great comment super chat from Kalin Kayho who says how high will quote Portland Timbers replacement DP number 10 in the Golden Brute draft this year. That's a shout out to you Tom. Look at you. What an idiot. You can, yeah that helps me win that draft. It's funny that nobody, everybody was making jokes when they were like, LOL they're not

going to sign anybody and that was a stupid pick and then all of a sudden when Jonathan Rodriguez is playing really well it's like, well actually he wasn't on the team you can't draft him. That was my Matt Doyle impersonation. So back to back rating change. No the problem was Tom Tom you were asked is Jonathan Rodriguez the nine you're choosing and you said no There's a bigger one. I knew they were signing them and I couldn't say it at that point. What do you want from me? Whoa big scoops Tommy over here So I was hedging my bets with they're gonna if they don't sign John Rodriguez, it'll be a DB. It'll be a different one

I'll take yeah, I'm probably I'm probably gonna take Neymar in the draft this year and just have him I was hedging my bets with they're gonna if they don't sign John Rodriguez, it'll be a DP. It'll be a different one Yeah, I'm probably I'm probably gonna take Neymar in the draft this year and just have him on the deep Exactly deep end of my bench just in case I have to carry that one over On the back end of that congrats to all Philadelphia Eagles fans We hadn't mentioned that yet Morgan made made sure to bring up GoBirds on the Super Bowl commentary. We are still waiting for all of this to fall and where it lands. San Jose was the new name that got brought in. They have their full complement of DPs. It's why we saw Carlos Correzo go back to South America. So you'd have to see what happens off the back end of that. If Lucho ends up there with revenge and something

to prove under Bruce with revenge and something to prove and 87 other people in that situation, that is going to be like the must see theater of Major League Soccer this season. Let's talk about the LA Galaxy here, one of the teams you were able to see because they were a part of putting on this Coachella tournament. They've had a lot of news back and forth over the last week. We did our preview with Josh Guestman. We talked about it. Christian Ramirez got traded right as we were doing that.

So it's in our intro conversation about that. We both really like that move. We like what it can do for that team. They have not stopped there though, Tom. They've continued to sort of push their chips in Yes, so Sanabria you 22 initiative midfielder who that deal was official Will Coons was on corner of the galaxy with Josh Gatsby and Kevin Baxter I was on at the end of the show there was what a what a guest list that was I can't believe that I snuck On to it, but those guys are legends

Anyway, will I bring this up to say that that will coots joked about this He was talking about Sanabria and then kevin baxter or josh said and uh... there was a new kit in there and he goes yeah yet is a duke a new kit accidentally uh... my bosses were thrilled with me uh... it was really beautiful i'd say that much i was able to hear a little bit more about that player talk of the s will myself as well like

they're really excited about him and that's a whatever reportedly five million dollar signing or whatever that's a serious serious addition another serious addition is U22 initiative forward Mathias Nacimentsi from Botafogo that deal is being finalized I don't know exactly all the details but this kid is very talented he's already made 92 or whatever appearances for the Botafogo first team. He's again a rising young forward. We had been saying this on our previews on everything else that he is somebody that the team that with Christian Ramirez coming in and this U22 forward that makes up like a

$700,000 cap hit. Really smart, really really well done by the galaxy and then again talking about Christian Ramirez, he is, he's there, still not announced at time of recording, but those are all the ins at the moment for the LA Galaxy. It's pronounced Maschimento, I'm pretty sure. Is that why you were smiling? I'm looking at you as I'm talking and I was like, did he ask me something different?

And I just. No, but have you ever heard different? And I just, no, but, have you ever heard of Pele? Yeah, yeah, mate. So Pele's real name is Edson Arantes de Nascimento. Most people who know soccer know that. The assumption, my assumption is this is the same name, hence the pronunciation. I'm not the pronunciation king. I know that, but I've heard of Pele, so I know that much at least. Most people who know soccer know, he just casually did a you don't know ball. I'm just saying, it normally is in that knowledge base for most people who have seen the ball

roll down a field and 11 on 11 and all of that type of stuff. It is good for the galaxy to get this move done as you said. Unfortunately immigration a huge issue both in the world and as well in Major League Soccer trying to get players in and trying to get players settled. The LA Galaxy will need more of those players because the other part of the news that you dropped was that Joseph Payne still is going to be out for a large stretch of the early part of the season. Yeah, Joseph Payne still is expected to be out around six or eight weeks with a quad injury fans were asking why he wasn't part of the bench in Coachella and that's why he

Felt something in training and he'd been held out and again the the wording from sources that I'm getting is the expectation is six or eight Weeks, which is tough because of course Ricky pooch is already going to be out until the summer or whenever he comes back from a tourney cl but um the galaxy are now short-handed without two of their three dps for the first however many games of the season it makes sense the forward move specifically because pain still was probably the one who was going to convert into center forward right peck wasn't going to play in there fegun des i think josh talked about it on our show can play a little bit of false nine and in there. But the whole advantage of this attack was that Fugundes can play anywhere. And so wherever you have a hole he can fill in. That's your worst case scenario is that center forward Marco Royce a false nine, not a great scenario.

So to have Christian Ramirez as a known quantity and then Nasci Mento as well as a piece of that, that feels like the as a piece of that, that feels like the one big piece of business that the galaxy had to get done early. Now you can sort of wait as the year goes along and see if there's something else you decide to do. If I keep saying it, cause I think you have to,

if something goes wrong with Ricky and you end up putting a season injury injury list and maybe you're able to make something short term happen in the summer or pain sale, whatever it is, they're up against a lot of it, but this feels like enough talent to remain competitive at least. And for them, just make the playoffs, right? Like keep yourself in the conversation, be fun to watch, make the playoffs like you are, you're operating on house money completely at this point.

And all you can do is just keep your head above water until you can figure out at the end of the year how great you can be. What is your ceiling above water until you can figure out at the end of the year How great you can be what is your ceiling if you're able to get all the pieces together the way what you're saying is fair I understand like kind of what you meant I'm still firmly expecting this team to be towards the top of the the Western Conference even without Ricky Pooch for how like again Whether it's August whether it's September or you know give or take how his recovery goes even without Joseph Payne So here for maybe the better part of six weeks or two months like there's so much talent in this team once again like man watching Amir Garces in person and like

being like field level because it's a preseason tournament like there's I'm not in a press box that dude is unbelievable like who were they they're playing him and Patrick Ajumang likes going he's going step for step with, running past him or shouldering him. Like, the physical battle between those two players, like, it just reminds me, like, God, this guy's such a cheat code right now, and I can't believe that they got him, like, how they did and whatever, right? Like, that, like, he's special, like, Yoshida and Zonka as being the other center backs with this team. The, the midfield trio, like, again, so Edwin Cerreira's gonna start. Sanabria, like, that's a super talented player. Elijah Widener I'm telling you he's ready for minutes

right now. Sean Davis we know how he's ready for minutes. So Diego Fugunos doesn't have to play through the center like he can be the full-time left winger until Joseph Paintsill is back and yeah they'll be thin. One more injury would really really hurt because that's you're already down two DPs and a reminder there's a team that in that setup is starting a Marco Royce Yeah, and and so he's one more injury is a possibility. He didn't play in the preseason game I was there and and he gave an interview. I think where he incorrectly assumed that the LA Galaxy Were given a smaller salary cap because they won the title last year. That was a quote that made the rounds We're given a smaller salary cap because they won the title last year. That was a quote that made the rounds

Yes, they had they had salary cap issues because of the team, but they didn't lose money. So yeah, that's Not pulling they're not pulling their money away somebody somebody did make a joke to me that like I I don't want one of my star players to really know the roster rules because right get out get out of the textbooks I just want you on the field, right? So I think that's encouraging and I'm ready you're also in danger of having them saying my GM is bad at their job. Maybe publicly, maybe in a statement. But anyway, I'm just obviously lighthearted jokes aside. Like I'm very excited for this Marco Roy season.

Hopefully that he'll be 100 percent for most of the year. So all that being said, again, Gabriel Peck, he can carry a team. Christian Ramirez can really carry a load and that's again another reason why I love that trade so much is he can both be a Complimentary piece when you have Peck Royce or pooch and Paintsle out there But then he could also be higher usage when it's Ramirez and Peck and Royce if he's injured or for goon Does if he's getting the ball less or more, whatever it is, Ramirez can be both of those guys. So they're going to be fine.

The defense is going to be better with that midfield I named. There were times when they started Edwin Cereo as the, hey, you get to do all the running for all three midfielders. There's a chance that they start the season with it's Cereo and Davis and Widener or Fagundes as the eight and a half or 10. They're going to be more difficult to play through while also doing everything, a lot of what they did in attack, I think at least. Yeah, I think a lot of that is fair. And Josh's big point on our show is they're not going to play the same way.

So the goals they are able, the less goals they're able to give up because they don't play through Ricky Pooj and have him in central And all these pieces means they won't need to do as much But still interesting to see how they put this together Nascimento as well coming from Brazil. They just did so well with Gabriel Peck so you assume your hope is that they're able to sort of Lean on the same scouts and the same connections to be able to get another big move done. Let's get into our big moves.

Tom, let's get into the ice cream shop. It's been a couple of days, so that means there's a bunch of news that's gone official as well as some that you are reporting on. Let's start with the Philadelphia Union. Yeah. Philadelphia Union, as I reported in this show, we're in the market for Center Forward. I am told they are in advance talks to sign Uruguay youth international Bruno Damiani from Nassia now the deal is not totally agreed yet or being finalized But Philly are pushing failure working. I'm told it's likely to be a designated player

This is a 22 year old center forward who had 12 goals and five assists in like around 2,000 minutes last year on loan with the Uruguayan Club Boston River It is in line with what Philadelphia said they want to be, right? They want to be fully a selling club. You bring in a young DP to be able to give you production now as well as be able to potentially sell them on in the future. Julian Carranza was obviously in a weird situation, but something like that for this team. So for Philadelphia, I think exciting to get a little talent in the door.

This is one of the big unknowns. They have just been one thing for such a long time. So now under Bradley Carnell, no Jack McGlynn in the squad, no Jack Elliott, like a lot of pieces gone in this team. I think at least promising from the fan base that you see some talent come through the door and one that is pretty highly touted coming out of South America. Not the only team making official signings

this week at Nashville as well, bringing in some more talent. Yeah, Nashville SC are finalizing a deal to sign Swedish youth international winger Ahmad Kassem from Elfsborg IF. He's a 21 year old, this will be a U22 initiative signing. He had like around 9 or 10 goal contributions in 1800 league minutes last year. This is a player who has been described to me as a winger, but he can also play as an attacking midfielder if they needed him to play false 9, which I doubt that they will, but that's just the versatile profile that this player gives you. You can play on either side. I think this is a really big addition for this team because another attacking piece,

particularly another winger, the U22 initiative is really, really good for getting attacking depth and getting high talented attackers in the group without having to use a DP spot or anything like that. So I'm a big fan of this signing. I know that they've been working on it for a while. I think I first reported their initial bid was probably like a month ago now or four weeks like so. This is a guy that they've been trying to get over the line for a bit and they got their guy. They went shopping in Scandinavia for TacSef as well. Two players. I think that both seem to have similar profiles, versatility, physicality, good technique, players that are going to fit in and maybe amplify the stars. It feels like a lot of the creativity still falls on

Hany's shoulders, but now they have the pieces that could potentially help draw little attention and finish off a lot of the movement and a lot of the different pieces. We did our preview segment record with some of the members of the Nashville media, 615 Soccer, who's doing a fantastic job. And I think there's a decent amount of excitement around BJ Callahan, the personality, what he's like, how open he is,

what he wants to build from a soccer point of view, being different, what he's like, how open he is, what he wants to build from a soccer point of view being different than what it was under Gary Smith. And it feels like a lot of these pieces fit of the versatility, high level soccer, you'll see exact positions as you go along, but these allow you, these players allow you, if it's a 4-2-3-1 or 4-2-2-2, whatever it ends up being,

they're probably gonna fit into both setups or multiple setups I think that's a good spot to be in for a club that's still trying to find their feet under a new manager Tom what else what else we've got LAFC rejecting opening bids from Grameo for winger Christian Olivera Talks are ongoing there. The LFC are expecting another offer from Grameo He remains with the team in preseason, but we'll see what happens next. I think that there's a possibility a deal gets done here, but obviously it won't happen unless Grameo ups their offers. Christian Olvera has been somebody who arrived to preseason late.

This was one that was kept a little bit more quiet across the league, and he's ready for a move as well. He was linked with Toluca in Liga Mequis last summer, and I believe that he's ready for a move as well. He was linked with Toluca in Ligamecchi's last summer and I believe that he's gone public with some quotes of like, yeah, I'm expecting to leave or whatever and that's why he kind of didn't show up on time for preseason. But, Grammiel were working on it.

LFC ain't giving them away for cheap. So, if they get a deal done, they get a deal done. They're open to a departure, but they're not, you know, it's not like they're pushing them out. So there's a chance that he comes back in plays for this team. He's still there, he's there right now, so yeah. Yeah, yeah, because I think you talked about it,

most of the windows are closed, so if he's gonna go for a move at the size you'd expect, it has to be in the right place. I think it's very odd the way things have gone with him, just because he's an obvious huge contributor on this team but it feels like he expects to be gone. Similar to another LA of C former player now Eddie Atuesta who went came back went and now he's finally back in Major League Soccer this time finally with Orlando which was on and then off and now back on again. They of course have Wilder Cartagena out for the

season with his Achilles injury. They're not like for light changes, but it is a central midfielder. I love this addition. Obviously I'm a big fan of Atuesta's game, his abilities, technique. I think he'll fit in this Orlando team or hopefully he'll give them more of a like a possession like another edge in their possession. I guess you worry about his defensive coverage. Like that's why he fell out of the starting lineup with LAFC. It wasn't anything to do on the ball. It was against the ball. So we'll see that. But again, this is an extremely talented player, proven in MLS. I forget if

he made best 11 one year or not. I know I voted for him one year. And that's in my personal record book. That's really all that matters. So he's been one of the best midfielders in his league. He wasn't perfect last year for LAFC again, like fell out of favor with Steve Trivando, but they get him for I don't know if it's exactly free, but it ain't far off that one year deal plus an option. This is a really great opportunistic signing by Orlando. Just really, really well done here. Yeah, they were they we talked about the Cartagena deal was so good, it was going to be tough to replace him. So just to get minutes in that position of the field, my guess is it shifts a little from two center mids

playing side to side to Araujo sitting a little deeper and covering and Atuasa playing higher. I actually think it could be a good thing. It allows Araujo to focus on that one aspect where one of the issues for Atlanta over the last two years is in some game states, AKA against low block teams, those two center mids would have to find ways to break the other team open and they would start to get pulled out of their most comfortable positions.

So this might actually be a cleaner fit for them. And then obviously you still have the opening of where Ojeda lands and who else is in that central area. But I think for Atu Westa, it's a pretty good spot to fall to have this opportunity for this year. Speaking of center mids, by the way, we didn't mention this one with Nashville Michael Ruiz puts in the chat, Matthew Cochran, signing from Birmingham Legion to Nashville. He's a very good young player. It is a smart move for a club like Nashville that has not produced at the homegrown level to take some chances on players like this who are essentially now Academy prospects for you and homegrown prospects for you without

having the title because they're not from there. I think that's a really cool signing for them. Montreal has decided to do like 37 of these. We've got Brandon Craig, Luca Petroso and Dante Sealy who have all signed with them. Craig, I think the one who has the most potential or the one who's probably the most consistent right now and all of that, Petraso a little bit older and then Dante Sealy's the like take a flyer because this could be a national team player or it could flame out and they kind of have nothing at stake and so it makes a ton of sense

for who Montreal has decided to be and then you were reporting as well I believe on Chicago making a big young move. Yeah they've signed US Youth International Chris Cups to a homegrown deal that has done the 16 year old is currently with the United States youth 17s put in a really good shift in a 22 to nothing win over the US Virgin Islands. Did you watch? I don't know if he played or not. Okay I put it on and I'm like I I'll put this on in the background. And it was one zero in three minutes. I think it was three zero and five minutes. I think it was five zero in 10 minutes. And it was brutal to watch. There's just like, the sport is not built yet for a way out of that. It was just unfortunate. So sorry. No, that was I, I was probably connecting flights coming on my way back from California And I looked at it and I was like does that say five nothing after ten minutes or whatever it was

I was like, oh like yeah at one point I think I texted somebody that they were on pace to win 38 nothing at 36 nothing so brutal. Um, that's a tough one Um, what do you do when you're down five new after ten minutes like all right lads tighten up in the back. Yeah, I Think that might be easier than being up five zero You've got these kids with a chance to represent their country. Yeah, they're fighting for minutes. They're fighting for spots You're up five zero and it's like what do we do now and it was the first game You can't be like well cube only beat them by ten So that's all we need to do and And so you have this weird open space,

and then all of a sudden, you're like, try and play two touch, right? Try and, but it's not the way the game should be at this level. I think unfortunately, you're probably not deep enough as a region to have U-17s across this many teams playing in a competition like this. If Chase Adams scored seven goals,

if I'm Chase Adams' agent, I'm telling all these European teams or going for contract talks with Columbus and being like, well, he scored 17 goals as a U.S. Youth International. I don't know, man. What did Holland score for Norway when he was Youth International? Just saying, he got a really rich contract and don't go game by game luck excellent player so it's again he's gonna score a lot of goals I think for the US youth internationals, it's

Hey, man, he they're on the field against him. What are you gonna do? Put the ball in the back of the net 100% let's finish off here. We've got another center back for FC Dallas. Yeah, you want to try the name? No, not at all. Oh didn't even write it down. I wasn't even going to. Oh, Sase or Hawkeye. I'm going to wait. They so Dallas announced it. I need to go watch some videos. Hopefully they pronounce his name in it is a new centerback. I believe the fee was somewhere in the region of 3 million. I come from Amiens. This is somebody who played for he broke through with Sheffield Wednesday. Celtic signed them. They sent them on loan and then he kind of ended up in France.

24 years old. This is who they want to be, their defensive anchor. We have talked about this Dallas team. They need more defensive reinforcements. You look at them on the depth charts. After they traded in Kosti Tafare, it was like, oh, I hope that they have somebody come in ASAP. And here it is.

Like this is a signing along the lines of, in recent memory, that some of these teams that were able to get to Max Tam is like around this fee. That's like Stéan Gregerson, David Brekolo from Orlando, who are somewhat like, I don't know, Miles Robinson was a free agent, so that's different, but I think that's in the range of what this guy is. Both New England center backs that they signed. I know that they both came with non insignificant fees But not ones that were big enough to make them a DP kind of like what happened with Tiago Martins

The NYCFC. Awoozium? Awoozium, yeah, that's probably a better one because it's kind of the he's been here for shorter But yeah, so that that's kind of the that's kind of the profile that they're bringing in This is who they think is gonna be their new defensive anchor and they need one and if he's Good that solves a lot of problems Let me ask you this real quick before we move on if this if Lucho ends up in Dallas this pure speculation With the rest of this team the way it's built

How hard do I have to sell you to pick this team as a top four team in the West or as a playoff team? So like Peter Musa up top, Kamungo and Chu out wise what we have right now, some optionality there. And then a younger central midfield with a young high level Tam center back and Shaq Moore and Marko Farfon in front of Martin Paz. I'll tell you again, this center back coming in was kind of the biggest thing I was looking at. Obviously the DP-10, especially if it's Lucho Ocosa, MLS MVP, he sold the top of his game

last year. Peter Musa and Lucho Ocosa would excite me to no end. I would absolutely love that duo and I'd be hoping that Peter Musa isn't subject of a transfer bid in the summer that's too good to pass down or something he's pushing for because Lucho Ocosa and Peter Musa would put up a ton of goals and on the on the wings having you know the pace of Leo Chu and Anderson Julio and Bernard Kumiko and kind of whatever else they have like you don't even need any other attackers around Musa and Lucho They're so good

so anything you get from those wingers is gonna be additive and That's the best spot for this team to be in. If they get a killer DP10, hopefully Lucho Ocosta and they already have Peter Musa, who I have as one of the best center forwarders in the league. This like things look a whole lot better than two weeks ago when there was a lot of questions. Yeah, if they get Lucho, they're still a starter away in my mind, but it's not hard because then you kind of have the options of if that starters a winger, great. You slide one of your wingers down the depth chart. Like I think there's still a level, a weak spot in the team that it could be in multiple places. You could

paper over some of that. But if you just added that one more piece, you could contend in the Western Conference. So it's an interesting group if Lucho goes the right way. If it doesn't, I have no idea what we're looking at with this team. Let's finish it up on the Colorado Rapids. Tom, you broke a little news around what has become a very cool logo team. They have a 30th year anniversary logo. It is very good. It is throwbacks to all of the different logos they've had. Then I saw something on Reddit about them trademarking some new potential names, including a mile high thing and whatever else. So we'll see what happens going forward. But the 30 year anniversary logo for the Rapids is pretty bad. Ass. I stopped in the middle of that sentence as the train was coming by in front of me.

I was like, I thought you were being complimentary. Were you just joking? No, yeah. I confused me. Yeah, Colorado Rapids finalizing a deal to sign 21 year old central midfielder Ali Fadal from Valencia. He played at Montverde Academy in Florida for a little bit before he went to Europe and he kind of went directly to Valencia's youth team. He hasn't really broken into the first team, but this is a dynamic central midfielder. This is a low risk play on what they believe is a talented kid. He'll probably need minutes with Rapids too in M. West's next pro to kind of get his feet under him.

And then they do see him being able to break into the rotation and give Chris Ormes another option in the midfield. So this is a high upside play. We don't know if exactly what, if it's going to work, if it's not not going to but it's not one of those where okay if he doesn't work that sucks like we're screwed. Again this is additive if the quicker that he's able to get in and again it doesn't need to be a short-term play. We are closing our ice cream shop here. We have a lot of questions about Toronto FC in the chat. We haven't really talked about them much because they've, you know, outside of the one move,

kind of been quiet. Is there anything you're watching with them? We're working on our preview for them as well. They're one of the teams where it's like, you want to wait till stuff happens, but at some point the season is going to start. Yeah, so I know that they're working. I know that they feel like they were getting closer

on some things. I don't have anything that I'm able to report at this moment I reported before preseason that the team were hoping to be working towards an exit for Lorenzo and senior that has not happened Yeah, I don't know what's gonna happen. I haven't gotten an update on that. I'm assuming that they're gonna bring in a center forward I do like the Theo Corbinu signing. I think that their midfield trio is solid they could use some defensive help but like this is a work in progress but they've had their hands tied like they can't they have their two two DP spots taken like they have an own like the I'm trying to be careful with my wording here so like they they like old Bill Manning, the

president, wasn't he? Gosh, you are well informed on the ownership group, right? Wasn't there some sort of transition or that it didn't look like they were giving ownership was giving a ton of money to the front office, I think is a good way to blanket that. Yeah, he was above both the CFL and MLS teams in MLSC, which is the Maple Leaf sports. It's like a conglomerate that owns multiple sports teams. The amount they're always laser focused and paying attention to each specific team varies. And so Bill Manning was sort of the connection with him leaving. I think there's positives for the club, which is I think he's run things pretty poorly. But the negative was there wasn't

really anyone locked in. They've brought in now a new president to sit over this and be connected from MLSC. But it's almost like there are moments where you have to like earn attention from the parents in Maple Leaf sports to be like, no, no, no, this is worth caring about right now. And they've invested money and it's gone poorly. And so I think right now, if you're Toronto, you're kind of stuck in a like, you need to over perform a bit and get the fans back engaged to get the ownership back engaged. And it's chicken and egg, which is you need the money to be able to do that. Robin Frazier has brought in Stephen Betashor just announced as his assistant. I think the connection back to the great club that they were I think is really important. I think Robin

Frazier is a part of that and Betashore will be a part of that. And I think you'll start to see that come about over the next few months as a way to try and generate some of the interest and some of the attention for this club. But things not going exactly in the right direction. We'll continue to cover it here at Soccerwise.

As we will all other things. We've got a million previews getting ready to get recorded. We will drop them as podcasts. We will drop them million previews getting ready to get recorded. We will drop them as podcasts. We will drop them as videos as well. You can see some social clips. We're having a ton of fun working on all of this and we appreciate so far everyone who's joined us and everyone who's enjoyed it because that's what we're here for and that's what we are doing. Tom, thank you for going to California for me and just doing all the heavy lifting and the heavy work.

I appreciate you. We'll be back of course with Jordan tomorrow. We've got more shows coming up as well with Tom and Doyle this week to cover all things MLS. We are close to the opening of the season. So get ready and get locked in. you