SoccerWise - MLS Edition: Chicho Arango Heading To San Jose + TFC Land Robin Fraser & Vancouver Have Finalists

Episode Date: January 10, 2025

Coming out of MLS's Media Marketing day in Miami David is ready to shine as the new media darling. Tom & David breakdown how Robin Fraser can change things in Toronto, and then dig into the Vancouver Whitecaps hiring process. Tom then shatters our reality breaking the news that Chicho Arango is heading to San Jose in a trade. But thats not all as of course the Ice Cream Shop is open while inside the silly szn. 7:13 TFC & Robin Fraser 18:43 Vancouver Whitecaps Head Coach Finalists 22:29 BREAKING NEWS CHICHO TRADED FROM RSL TO SAN JOSE 40:41 Orlando City Striker & Winger Updates 45:28 Chicago Fire Roster Build Update 56:48 Alan Velasco Transfer Status 1:03:25 Sounders Roster Post Arriola Trade 1:12:40 Coco Carrasquia- Pumas Transfer 1:17:40 Austin DP Update 1:22:43 Ice Cream Shop Soccerwise Live 2pm ET Every Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday on Youtube/Twitch/Twitter

what's up everybody welcome back to soccer wise david goss and tommy scoops here with you for another big episode we've got coaching news around canada We've got some big player acquisitions already. We've got some rumors. We've got some reports. And Tom, you are rocking with the best. You're rocking with the media darling right now, as I spent the full day yesterday at MLS Media Marketing, just holding it down in the press conference room. I basically got interviewed myself. So if you have any big questions that you want answered, just shoot them my way way i'm just glad that you graced me with your presence for this show today i thought that this launched a new career for you i thought that you would have offered to what pat onstead was there there were several coaches there greg berhalter included as you know a head coach

and a sporting director if you convinced him that you were the guy he didn't have to check that with anybody else he just did it on the spot so i didn't even know if soccer wise was going to continue i thought that somebody else was going to sign you i think one of the keys for me obviously i'm all about the team so i'm all about like i'll play anywhere i'll do anything and one of the keys for me is like as a veteran locker room presence like i'm just trying to bring the guys up around me and i'm just trying to make everyone better every single day it's a long season there's a lot of travel different surfaces it's a weird league so i'm just trying to help everyone every step of the way did you feel good did you go to the rookie symposium on how to be as boring as possible in a in an interview because well done you're you're ready for the press tour uh all glory to god uh just

trying to play hard for the team i thank my teammates uh just working hard and and uh try to do my best we have the best fans in the world at this club uh and uh you hit all those notes and bang it is uh it's impressive to watch the range of media personalities in uh in major league soccer you have the people who stick just to that i actually had a conversation with obed vargas who we are going to have an interview with him and cavin sullivan on this show i think we're going to have an interview with him and kavin sullivan on this show i think we're going to use that next week um sat down with both of them yesterday awesome interviews kavin is not just as a player as a person one of a kind like there is he's

sort of if they put you in a real athlete's body. No offense. There's like so much Philly energy with him. He's so funny. He was like laughing about the Eagles and all that stuff. But I was talking to Obed. What are you talking about me and Philly energy? What are you doing? Relax. We're entering Southern Jersey territory, which becomes Philly.

That is Southern Jersey is Pennsylvania. That is, Southern Jersey is Pennsylvania. That is not New Jersey. As a New Yorker, New Jersey is confusing in the way of like, I think Kat's Eagles fan. Like Carl Anthony Towns. That's weird because I thought he was a Newark guy. Yeah, he's a Newark guy. Yeah. Maybe I'm wrong about that.

But whether he is or not, that whole part of the world is confusing to me. Because I didn't know that people could swing in those directions. So this is like a whole experience. I guarantee you Morgan's about to jump through the computer and throw everything around. Um, but I was talking to Obed and I was saying like, I think there's a lot of positives in like being open with the media and

like, obviously I work in it, but like, I think fans resonate with that. And I was saying, I think Christian Roldan is an example of like, Christian comes out, he talks after every game and he's honest and i think when things go wrong whether it's in christian's game or for the sounders i think fans stand behind them longer

and have sort of more of a leash because those players are out there and open and there feels like a connection to them and you know they're fallible where other players, when they keep everything behind closed doors and really never say anything. I don't know that there's as much leniency sometimes when things go wrong or when things are questionable or whatever it is, but either way, the range of media personalities in MLS is vast. Like you are talking about people from every continent, every background that play every position, having to sit down and have conversations with the same people. It's a fascinating day. It's always very fun.

I enjoyed it a lot. And I just want to say to Sam Piet, thank you for taking the time to have a one-on-one conversation with me in front of a room of people, because you better believe I had questions. Can I, am I allowed to share the text you sent us about Sam Piet? I get a text from Gosling that there was like Spanish speaking press in the room that were there obviously. It was mainly Miami based. Right.

And you were there like, who's Sam Piet? And you were elbowing people out of the way, calling for an ISO. This is my time. This is my press conference. I want it. I'm in. On my second question, Sam gave me a look of like, yeah, we're going to do this. Cool.

We talked about Montreal as a soccer city. We talked about the future of CF Montreal. I'll give Montreal fans this because I'm here for you. I asked him basically, like, go back to the Nance years. Where are you at right now in the build? And he's like, we're not starting from ground zero. Like, there is a foundation that was built at the end of last year. We are building on top of that.

And he was pretty adamant about the fact that where they stand right now, based off his experience in the non-SAE years, was like, they are going into a good spot. So I think that's exciting based off the conversation we had last show of like, what Jalen Neal can bring to this team. He kind of like had this phrase where he was like, a lot of guys that didn't play and didn't want to be around or leaving, but a lot of guys who are desperate to play are coming in in the right positions, which I thought was like a cool way to word that and a clean way to put that together. And so there you go, Montreal fans, I'm here for you. I got you. It was a big Canada day. Jesse Marsh came in as the MLS head coach of Canada

soccer and was a great conversation with him as always. And then we are going to talk about every other Canada team besides Montreal for the rest of the show because TFC now officially have a head coach in Robin Frazier and it has given some light to the Vancouver Whitecaps coaching search as well. So we're going to break all of that down as we go into the show. There's some transfer reports to go into with those teams as well. We're going to talk about the Chicago Fire as Greg Berhalter sort of shed a little light on what they're working on, as well as the reporting that you've been doing. We're going to talk Alan Velasco and the huge bids coming out of Argentina for his services

from FC Dallas. And then, of course, the ice cream shop is open, man. It just got up to 60 here. You got to get it going. You working on it right now? What I'm telling you is you see that I'm distracted and typing around. There might be something going on. So there might be more to come here, but here we are.

You have to promise me you will break into the show with the report when it happens. Yes, but I'm trying to see if i need to if i need to ask you to filibuster for two minutes and i walk away to take a to call somebody but i just used all my good samples no that's that's right that's why i was like oh crap we're gonna get to robin frazier uh how about this i'm gonna talk about the new side of robin frazier and then you get ready to just go for I don't know two to 17 minutes on on your thoughts on Robin Frazier let's do it um let's start Robin Frazier Toronto FC have named Robin Frazier their next head coach he was a Toronto FC assistant for 2015 to 2019 that means he was on Greg Vanney's

staff when they won the treble in 2017 and had their best period in club history he takes over for John Herdman who departed the club about a month ago. And there were plenty of names I heard, but Gio Savarese was the other finalist. But Toronto FC went with Robin Frazier. Whoa, huge news there from Tommy Scoops. That sounded so disingenuous. Well, you're like, let me give you the news site. And it's like, are you just going to give me the official report that already toronto yeah my guy tom breaks it all the time this is

expected and unexpected for this toronto fc club i think for a lot of toronto fc fans they've been talking about okay what's this signing gonna be like what's this signing going to be? Like, what's this club going to be going forward? And the idea that it would be almost going back with Greg Vanney's staff to Robin Frazier, I don't think is a negative for Toronto FC. You are talking about the most successful period in the club's history. You're talking about the only successful period in the club's history.

And that's what they're looking to fight for and return to. Jonathan Osorio was at Media Marketing yesterday. It was a different Jonathan Osorio, I would say, than I've ever interacted with before. And just like he's always been so pushing forward and positive. And he had the like, these are the things we can do better. And he talked about the offseason program for them physically and like how they were working to be great. But he very much looked

like someone who plays at a club that had no direction and played at a club where it wasn't clear what the next step was and how close they were getting to the next step his final question and shout out to john molinaro in toronto who asked this question was um like what areas of the field do you think the team needs to strengthen in? And Oso literally said all of them. And then that's it. And then walked away. So that's where this club sits.

The manager can't fix all of that, but the manager can fix some of that. And I think Robin Frazier coming into a place that's comfortable for him, coming into a place he already understands, and with a clear style of play is a way to start to get there the failures if you want to call it that in colorado for robin frazier i don't think are the same issues in toronto robin wanted to play a more expansive style of soccer he wanted to play a possession heavy style of soccer he moved the rapids towards that in a situation in which they don't spend the money to be able to dominate possession with the best skill players on the field. And their number one advantage is

that they play at altitude and you can use the ball to get teams tired. But the idea, I think, for a lot of people and what we're seeing work for Chris Armas is actually the other way of making the game faster, more physical works and helps you take advantage of that environment. So it wasn't the right fit for Robin Frazier. That doesn't mean the right fit doesn't exist. And so we saw Greg Vanney be successful. Robin was a huge part of that. I think there's every reason to believe that that can happen once again.

And so I think there should be some excitement for TFC fans that this signing is happening. I think the biggest excitement is that it's done. Like, they're going to preseason in four or five days, and they didn't have a coach. To just get that finished and start to move forward, I think, is really, really big for this club. And so I can understand some fans, and I've gotten messages from Toronto fans being like, this is underwhelming. But I think in general, this is a pretty good finish to what has been a chaotic process for this club.

Tom, you feel good? Does anybody ever feel good? I'm not quite ready to talk about what I'm going to talk about, so we're sticking with Robin Frazier. I hope that I don't repeat anything you said. But I believe that Robin deserved another chance. I think that this was, I wouldn't say a long time coming because he hasn't been out of a job for that long,

but it is unsurprising that he was in the mix for several vacancies. He interviewed with San Jose this winter. He interviewed with New England last winter. That makes sense. Look, he's a well-respected coach around Major League Soccer. He's, again, he had a lot of success over a two-year period with the Colorado Rapids. Then he kind of changed his system, and injuries happened.

The squad got a little older. All of that, look, things happen, and it didn't end super well in Colorado. But, again, this was very clearly somebody who was going to get another chance in Major League Soccer, just depended on when. And this is something I feel about Gio Sabarese, by the way. And probably, like, Gio has been out of a job, I think, longer than Robin.

So it doesn't surprise me that both of these guys have been in a lot of similar interviews because both of them have similar standing. All I hear is positive about them when I ask people around the league. And this includes Portland about G geo and Colorado about Robin. Like I want to put that out there as well, that I hear more from them about, I can't believe geo or Robin hasn't gotten another job. Like the,

the relationships at their previous clubs are still super strong, which I think, you know, just talks about what they are as people, as characters, as well as what they are as coaches, because that isn't always the case when somebody gets fired from a club. Yeah, that is a lot of what I said, but we are on the same page there.

Ouch. Let me ask you this. What do you think the expectation should be for TFC fans? After this, what should this year be? What does this year need to be? What's the what's the timeline here with robin frazier at this club uh the timeline is is that things are going to accelerate right now um again i'm sure you might have said something about theo corbino coming to

the team that is going to be their first edition of the offseason because tiago andrage was technically their first edition but he um when they took him in the expansion draft, they were like, we'd love to bring him in, but we don't know if that's where his head is at and that's what he wants. And we think he'll be good for us on the field, or we know that we can turn around and sell him for $500,000, which they did.

Yeah, I asked Oso about about corbino they've played together in the national team his eyes lit up when i brought him up uh he talked about him as a player he just it wasn't super specific it was more like the way he grinds the style of play he has how direct he is you know how he puts defenders under pressure all that type of stuff he'd love to have and oso has always had a mind about Toronto and what it means in Canadian soccer and all of that. He ended with a comment about like getting a young Canadian player like that to help be a part of the rebuild here would be huge. And that's one of the things Toronto has never really bridged very well is obviously we talk very often about the inability to move their incredibly talented

academy players up into the first team but besides that having like canadian staples and now with the national team as good as it is and hosting world cup games and all of that now is a good time to have players like that that fit the model i'm not saying to go out and spend 25 million dollars on steven estacchio and like change everything you do about things. But if there is similar players options and one is Canadian, why not take that chance and give that player the opportunity? So he seemed excited about that. I think it's a good addition for them. It would be a weird addition if Bernadeschi and Insigne both came back because he plays in a similar position. That doesn't seem super likely and that i think

also should feel positive for tfc fans the idea that if corbino is being brought in at a million dollars to be a starter on a wing there's probably an opening on a wing somewhere there for this team yeah and i do really like the theo corbino deal it's a loan with a 1 million purchase option i think that is excellent um again if it doesn't work out, low risk, and he moves on. I'm assuming that this is going to work out. I think this is a talented player that just needs more playing time. And he'll have a better pathway playing time for Toronto FC than he did with Granada.

And before that, he was with Wolverhampton, and I think he got loaned out like eight times. Maybe not exactly eight, but his whole career has been transient. Everything has been moving around since he went to Wolves, and that's the nature of going to a Premier League team. It's not easy to break into, and you're going to go on several loans, but that's not really easy for a young player

to really settle and continue growing, so I think that's what he was probably looking for with the move to Granada, and I think that's what he'll get with Toronto FC, so I would be optimistic about this signing. Again, I don't think that I know that this isn't going to be the only edition of the offseason. But this is a good place to start. Somebody made fun of me for saying that Toronto's offseason is going to accelerate now. After this, and someone was like, well, you know, they start preseason in a couple days. So of course, it's like, fair enough. But I think people would have been giving them crap if they signed five players.

And like, what do you don't even have a head coach yet? What are you doing? Right? Like, so there is plenty of time. We need to remember that. Yes, you want to have all 30 players, everybody that you're going to have the entire season. They want a preseason. That's the goal.

That doesn't ever happen that way. And particularly with MLS's transfer window being open into April, whatever, right? But particularly in that February window, when European transfer windows close for everywhere but like Sweden and Norway and Russia, I think, MLS becomes even more... And two days of Turkey, right? I love those two days of Turkey. It becomes even more attractive MLS because you're holding out for your dream move that your agent promised you that doesn't come and it's like okay now are you going to consider the MOS offer or whatever right they have Richie Larea obviously still in the building um so that's one option on the wing I think you get from Oso's answer like they need to strengthen everywhere you'd love to see them bring in center back help you'd love to bring see them bring in a central midfielder that can dominate the game alongside an Oso and Flores, which I think are the two sort of better pieces to build around with this group. They obviously need help at the center

forward position. Like there's a lot of work to do. They probably won't do all of it, but can they do enough of it to be competitive and i think robin fraser coming in with clear ideas tactically of how they can play can give them a little bit of an advantage to if they can hit the ground running to start well it worked for john herdman out the gate john herdman is very good at like smoke and mirrors right at the start of something and sustainability of it is a little bit harder but like flying smoke depends on where you are and what the drones are doing yeah um now we're getting to multiple other conversations tom and uh and you could

probably join my uber driver from last night and have a really deep talk about some of that if you want to nightmare it was sorry it was in its own way um But yeah, there's work left to do for this TFC group. It's a good first start. It is, I think, a familiar name, a comfortable name, but also the one that can be positive. And I think you threw it at me in the pre-show meeting. So let's just say when you have coaches in Major League Soccer who come back around, we have the Ben Olsen examples.

Even Greg Vanney, when he went to the Galaxy, had his low spell and then it came back around we have the ben olsen examples even greg vanney when he went to the galaxy had his low spell and then it came back around like robin frazier having left colorado does not mean robin frazier is a bad coach and does not have the ability to be successful in major league soccer i think that's what toronto fc should be hoping for the other piece of this conversation that brought to light you already mentioned the name is Gio Savarese being a finalist for Toronto FC Tom and you are reporting that he is also a finalist now on the other side of the Canadian coast for the Vancouver Whitecaps job yeah he is one of the finalists for the Vancouver Whitecaps job which again is the only vacancy left in MLS and like Toronto are at the final stage hoping to wrap it up I believe Axel Schuster even said that in a media interview that they will

have a coach with the team in Spain when preseason starts next week for them. So they're at the final stage here. I'm curious to see that there's been a link towards David Wagner. I don't know what's true and what's not true. Other than somebody, it was reported that he's the front runner. I was told like that,

or like a deer isn't a deal is near. I was told that he's the frontrunner. I was told like that or like a deal is near. I was told that wasn't true. I didn't get any confirmation on whether or not he is a finalist, but that's a name I've heard. There's been some other European names that I heard that have varying degrees of truth to it. But what I do know for certain is Jose Averese is one of the finalists there. And look, I'll save my thoughts for this

depending on where Vancouver goes with their search. But I will say that I have a lot of feelings about whether or not Gio Zavarese gets a job in this cycle. And I'll leave it at that. Yeah, we don't know where this goes. For example, I did not think Robin Frazier was a finalist for the TFC job, and he ended up getting it. So this could go in every direction.

But where we stand right now, I think David Wagner is a really interesting option for Vancouver. And when they let Vanny Sartini go, we talked about it a lot on this show. You could understand parts of it. Parts of it were sort of hopeful that something bigger or better could come as Tom steps away. Now,

once again, maybe I think David Wagner could be one of those like I think his experience his background if he's willing to learn major league soccer and be fully invested in it could elevate the Vancouver Whitecaps because as we've said over and over the roster is good it's not great and it is where it's going to be they are not going to spend a huge number to bring in Acucho Hernandez to elevate things in that way so what are the half advantages you can get because of your coach i think david wagner can give you some of that geo savarese at the same time i think would be a really nice option for them we saw with the portland timbers like he's

going to make the playoffs every single year when he gets things right you have the ability to make an mls cup run they do not have a diego valeri probably on this team as good as ryan galt has been but it's not far off i don't think they have a diego chara we have yeah i think this could be a team that could make a long playoff run with geo savarese and the way he's able to keep things settled and motivate his players and keep his players engaged i don't know if the ceiling is there for this team to be different with Gio Savarese as it is for David Wagner, but if I was a Vancouver fan, after what I went through

and losing Sartini and not sure where the club goes, I'd feel pretty good at this moment that those are the two names I'm hearing. Those are two names I think in which Vancouver can feel at a minimum they will be at the same level next year and most likely this club can take steps forward under both of those names. I think that's pretty exciting for this fan base. I want to add in that Jeff Carlisle reporting on the back of this mentioned that Jim Curtin has opted out of interviewing for the Vancouver job. He did so as well with the Toronto job. And I think, Tom, you had mentioned already

that he did so with the Atlanta job as well. So Jim Curtin not in the running for this. And Carlisle's reporting was that he didn't want to move his family right now, that he's willing to wait a little bit, maybe to see what's there in the summer. That's going to be a fun name to have out there as some teams struggle unexpected teams struggle

to have openings with a jim curtain floating around i need to i you you're gonna trust me when i say i need to stop our conversation yeah i've just got it over the line sorry for taking calls and walking away from the chat i have news to break with my friend pp sierra uh colombian leading newsbreaker the san jose earthquakes have acquired star center forward Chicho Arango from Real Salt Lake. I'm told it is for about $1.5 million in Gammon allocation money plus an international roster spot. I don't know if that's the full return,

but Chicho Arango to the San Jose Earthquakes. That deal is done. It is happening right now, and I'm sorry for taking phone calls. No, that's a pretty good one to break. As you went into the Colombian thing, I was like, are we getting James Rodriguez here? That's some good Major League Soccer. That's some good MLS, Tom. Ooh, okay.

So RSL rebuilt their team around Chicho Arango. Had a fantastic 2023-2024. He was in the MVP running up until June. He ended up getting suspended for off-field issues that were never fully reported out and that were never fully disclosed by the club. From that moment on, I think he scored one more goal the rest of the season, and that was coming off the bench in the final playoff game. So not as a starter

it put everything sort of into question mark with this rsl team but we have not seen them sign a replacement we have not seen them make a big move in which you could say oh chicho orango is expendable on this team and so on the rsl side of things that means they're back to square one in a lot of places like the team eight months ago that we talked about andres gomez and chicho arango are two of the best and this team could be special both of those guys are gone they've made half moves diego gonzalez of course um bringing in the young winger as well who i like a lot um to replace gomez but this puts rsl a weird spot now on the flip side woo bruce arena putting together some work you have to assume a certain extent of

this for rsl is like we don't really want to be in the chicho arango business and bruce is willing to take that risk and is less stressed about it. And maybe he thinks, you know, similar to how Chicho really hit strong for a year and a half in RSL, thinks a new location is able to sort of give him a launch point. And we've seen what Bruce has done for center forwards, what he did for Bucsa, what he's able to do, of course, with the LA Galaxy, with some of the great center forwards to bring in a real finisher. The one thing San Jose has is chance creators. Christian Espinosa is one of the best in Major League Soccer on the right wing.

I think you saw from Hernan Lopez an ability to be a high-level chance creator. Chicharrono has been one of the best center forwards over the last five years in MLS, except for the end of last year. And for San Jose, the risk there is, which player are they getting? Yeah, and look, I wonder, this is difficult to formulate thoughts on the fly without saying something either I shouldn't or is half thought out, so I'll bail on where I was going. Yeah, like, there's going to be a lot of questions about what happened in the summer.

Why was he exactly suspended? They didn't reveal any of of the reasons and he clearly wasn't the same guy after yes injuries was part of that too um and those are unanswerable questions at the moment what i will say is i i whether or not he's going to be an mvp candidate that's probably a little bit too steep because i don't think that that expectation should be placed on just about anybody but like leno messi when he comes to the team um he is much more like the guy that we saw in the first half of 2024 and we had seen that consistently at LAFC we saw that well we weren't watching to be fair but at Munoz before he got to LAFC this is who he is this guy is going to score goals Christian Espinosa is one of the best creative wingers in the league.

And people have really started to realize that even when the teams have been bad, I think this is an excellent fit. In Real Salt Lake, Chicho Arango showed he had more to his game than just clinical finisher. And guess what? If all he had to his game was scoring almost a goal per game at LAFC, then that would still be an absolute star forward. He's going to be asked to do just more of that with San Jose Earthquakes.

But now that we know that he can do even more, I think that this adds another dimension to this attack. This attack is really, really strong. Hernan Lopez, his underlying numbers weren't perfect. His box score numbers weren't perfect. I'm going with eye test on this one. I thought he was a very talented player. I don't think the team was really set up super well around him. There was a coaching change. Things were very bad. I don't think that you can judge a player

joining mid-season as to what their team was last year. And what Bruce Arena has been the very best at in MLS history is getting the most out of your best players and i'm trusting that a front four of chicho arango ernan lopez christian espinoza and amal palgrino is gonna put up numbers um chicho arango is a dp he comes into a san jose team that has three dps espinoza grezzo and lopez uh grezzo still has one year left guaranteed on his deal at $1.6 million. So he needs to leave. And Lopez at $1.2. They can't buy him under?

Good question. Good immediate follow-up question. I guess I cannot say that for 100% certainty because there is a lot of secrecy around all of these things. Gus, we could pull up what his, if we go to the soccer-wise, depth charts and salary tables. He's at 1.6 million based off of that. No, absolutely not.

It was a 3 million transfer fee, so very quickly. Glad we worked that out together. Now we got to the final point. Right, too. And what I was told when I was asking about the future of Carlos Grueso earlier this offseason was,

well, we just signed Mark Anthony Kaye and Ian Harkes and whoever. It's just, you know, you can do the math, right? So I'm firmly expecting it to be Carlos Gurezo that is departing this club. And I respect the hell out of the San Jose Earthquakes for not trying to hold on to this. In like, oh, we're not going to push through with any of these targets until the DP leaves. Because then it's going to hurt us in negotiating stance when we try to sell Garezzo.

Bruce Serena was like, no, let's go get him right now, and let's go get this guy. They tried for Brandon Vasquez. That didn't work, and now they pivoted to Chicho Arango, and I got to say, well done. I didn't see this deal as possible. I knew that there was actually a low-key, pretty big possibility that Chicho Arango was going to leave the club this winter.

I thought for sure it was going to go back to Columbia in particular, but generally South America. But San Jose keeps him in the United States. How pissed is Nashville right now that they already made some D-mid moves now that Carlos Correzo is available inside the league? Are they?

I don't know. That just feels like the most Nashville move is for a San Jose former defensive midfielder. If you're talking about inside of MLS, I would be intrigued by San Diego. He's only on one more year guaranteed, and if you don't have to give up much to get him because San Jose has to get out of it. I don't hate having Carlos Guerrezo in your midfield as an expansion team that's trying to have a little bit of experience, someone that can maybe cover some ground. I also don't hate Minnesota as well inside of MLS as a team that could use a little strength and ground coverage in that central area.

I still think Carlos Grazo is a pretty good player in MLS. He's not a MLS MVP. He's not any of that, but on the number he's on and where his contract's at, like if you're willing, if you don't have to give up a ton and then you either let him play out his deal or you could resign him for a lower deal and make him a non-DP player later, like there are teams in MLS that would be better off with Carlos Correzo in their team than not. And so it's something to watch out for, for now for san jose as they're gonna have to make that move with chicho arango coming in i think what you said about bruce and the best

players is interesting because i think with chicho it is fair to say like the player we've seen for the most part is a top five center forward in mls and christian espinoza is probably a top five chance creator on the wing and so like you start to get in a convo where it's a solid spine with enough match winning players to make you competitive this is i mean low bar playoff team right now with what we've already seen them put together but it is that's a difference for san jose like that hasn't been the case for san jose a ton over the last decade and so it's a huge move for them to be able to bring in a piece like that and have all that part done now it's okay around the margins who are your starting center or starting center mids like what's the depth that you can create um you mentioned amal pellegrino like another year in this league a goal scoring winger playing off of chicho orango as the fourth best option so

therefore you can't like have a ton of numbers on him. Espinoza is going to get defensive help towards him on the right wing. Pellegrino should probably score double digit go goals on that back post and double digit goals with his run. Andrew Weavey has been killed by that prediction before. So I'm not going to be the one to take him in my golden boot trap this year. But like there's very reasonable possibility that all that whole setup is pretty good so i think san jose should feel great about that i completely agree

like look uh that front four that that is again if we are getting the version of future rongo that you and i both believe that they are this is one of the best attacking quartets in the league and that i think is a joy because christian espinoza has been on middling teams at best during his time with with this with this club i think if they were in a better spot we would be talking a lot more about this player he has been so consistent and so good for so long but it comes down to like the age-old sports argument is he good enough to be the best player on a really good team i I think in soccer, yes, but their defense have been abominable since he's been there.

And now he doesn't always have to be the best player on the field for this team. Chicho Arango and him will trade that title or work with each other, and then there will be days where Hernan Lopez is the best player on the field. Reminder, Hernan Lopez is this club's record signing, around 6 million that they did last year. So you have three potential match winners. When you talk about Amal Pellegrino, I like the fit a whole lot more when he's your fourth best attacker rather than, okay, our center forward isn't scoring many goals.

Okay, we don't have a DP10 yet. So, hey, do your best here, man. And again, he's up there in age 33 or 34, I think now, from all Pellegrino. But watching him play, he doesn't play like it. And he still has his athleticism, but he's still really good technically. And the balance of having a goal-scoring, back-post-crashing winger with a creative winger on the other side with Christian Espinosa, I think is a really, really good way to put together an attack.

Now, what happens in defense? Dave Rodney is here, one of the, I don't know, 17 players who have joined the club from New England Revolution this offseason. That's immediately going to make their defense better. And listen, they were literally the worst defense in league history last season, so it's not going to be hard to be better. If they can be, again again they don't even need to be a top 10 defense if they're middling i think that this attack is going to put up enough numbers

that i and i trust bruce arena teams because everywhere he's been except for one season of york red bulls things have been good and mls um so with with dave romney and rodriguez is that good enough like what are the fullback situations like? I think that's easier to figure out, both schematically, tactically, and then also with personnel over the next month, than it was to get this DP forward over the line, as we saw with their pursuit of Brandon Vasquez. These are the hardest deals to get. I trust Bruce Arena and his front office to figure out

who's going to be the starting fullbacks, or who's going to be the best partner for Dave Romney in defense. And Bruce has shown, I think he's shown once again, like he's going to lean on some veteran guys, right? Nick Lima, I think has already been brought in. Like whether you're in love with those starting players or not, he's going to get the best out of the top players. He's going to build the whole thing around them. And he's going to get enough of performance out of some of the veterans that have been around his group for a while at those other positions whether he needs to and if he doesn't that means benji kukanovic is playing really well or oscar verhoeven has broken through and is playing really well like he has those two options and he normally will settle on enough of

it that they're fine they're competitive let's talk rsl one more time because i kind of like brain farted all of it right when it happened i think a lot of this and we'll hear as it goes along we'll come back to the way last season ended to have him not starting in your playoff game to have him go off come off the suspension and not score goals and not be a difference maker for your team where is this club now going for um i don't know i'm waiting to again as all this typically i like to have a little bit of time to figure everything out and ask all these follow-up questions i don't know what comes next i feel pretty confident that they're going to go try to get a dp attacker probably a dp center forward elias manuel would currently be the club starter and i think that's the only natural center for they have axel kai who is still a teenager

and unproven at this level i played in it for the second team sometimes whoa dude mls next championship golden boot winner so like let's there's let's have respect. Come on. And what's next? Next pro. These all sound the same. Are we sure this is all real and this isn't? No, I am very much not sure. So, this is all speculation. I'm still waiting for more details to come from Real Salt Lake on what's next. But I feel pretty comfortable saying there's going to be a new center forward. And I doubt that they make this deal without planning to add another dp why did they not sign jeremy abobese if this thing if the

attack was diego gong javez shout out to eg you're welcome for that one diego luna dominic marchuk and jeremy abobese i think you could, if you strengthen everything else, it's fine, while you look for the DP center forward. True, true, true. But you know what I mean? Like, what's your stopgap here? Elias Manilow! Which is, it's not the worst case scenario.

Like, he is a starting center forward in MLS on the right team. It doesn't even sound like you believe that. Ambitions that are not too high. Like, he, yes, he's not a, we're not talking about nothing. But it just feels like there was some stopgap stuff out there for them earlier in the offseason to choose to go to. Now, if they have the DP lined up, you don't need to do that. Like why, you don't need to waste time with that. You can go out and get the big piece and bring them in.

And Manuel's enough to offset minutes while that player gets settled in. But Diego Gonsalves never hit last year. And you know my theorem, but like that's the danger you're in, which is if it takes the player six months, eight months, like this season might already go up in flames if that number nine doesn't hit. So everything now relies on getting that deal done as fast as possible. Fair, but the counterpoint here is, at least last year, they were awesome the first half of the season. And then the deal for Andres Gomez, which we've both said several times,

you absolutely 100% do that every single time. So there was no criticism at all. That is a celebration. But that coincided with Chicharronco's suspension and then injury, and they were not good over the second half of the season. Now, maybe it'll be slow at the beginning of the season, and they build up and peak towards the end of the season. What do you think about that? I like that.

Let me throw something out here that you're going to shoot down immediately. I can't wait. And you're going to get mad at. What about Karol Srodarski? Um, yeah, they could. You're not going to get up to three million in game i i genuinely don't think that that changes anything for this team like i know he had some numbers but like would you feel really good about this team if it was swiderski instead of elias manuel up top yes i am you feel that much

different i am still of the opinion that if he is not supposed to be the best player on the team that he will score 15 goals for a team and have four or five assists i'm still of the opinion that when we talk about center forwards he's probably fifth to tenth best center forward in mls on a team with a creator i strongly disagree i haven't um for those listening i do have my own private top five and top 10 at each position I just have a google like a google sheets that I update because I'm a nerd and weird and stupid and people have said do you want to make it public and I don't really want to because I don't feel like getting arguing with people but I can tell you Swinerski was not under

consideration for my top 10 center forward. Give me seventh on that list. I'm trying to find it. Give me a second here. Mine is so deep in my drive right now that I'm not going to go look for it. But still, the point is made of like, Jao Klaus scored a ton of goals in this league and was a good player on a team that fit his style. Felipe Moura scores a lot of goals in this league on a team

with a lot of creative pieces where he doesn't have much to do and his life is easy. Please keep going because I haven't updated it since preseason apparently last year. It looks really bad. These are some bad takes in here. I'll flame myself. I'll let it go. My top three was one, Kucho. Two, Hany Mukhtar.

Three, Yorgos Yacoumakis. Enjoy Mexico right now. Fourth was Arango. Fifth was Aaron Mupenza. Seventh was Sebastian Drusci, just ahead of Luis Suarez. This is from February 20th of last year. Please don't kill me that much. But look, Cucho's ahead of him obviously peter musa i would take brian white over over carol sardisky i would take brian white in this team over carol sardisky particularly christian bentake is obviously better than him uh suarez yeah what is that that's already we're up to five or six already like yeah well i mean half the guys you

named don't play major league soccer anymore so i'm not sure it's the exact number let me let me throw a couple more wild names at you any of the orlando guys um dude that's a good shout man i mean i know or like orlando signed duncan mcguire to keep him i know what they want but if you're real salt like you bid you bid for duncan mcguire you 100 call duncan Duncan McGuire's on $1.1 million. It's a lot of money for not a starter. It was cost money, man. But he's not a starter on the team. Oh, I thought you were saying that,

like, oh, that's steep for Riel. No, I'm just saying, no, no, no. I'm saying for Orlando, they're in a spot right now. And obviously Muriel's blown up in their face. $4.3 million on a guy who's not starting at the center forward position. Like that's a mess. Probably not going to get fixed inside of MLS unless Orlando's like,

we'll take anything to get off of this. And RSL is like, yeah, if we don't have to go out and sign him outside the league, he has two years left. So you'd owe him $9 million at this point to have him play for you for two years. And maybe your hope is he settled in whatever. But if that's not the case like duncan mcguire said yesterday well my number one goal is to start like that's the whole point it's like we're talking about getting a starting spot in a league where the salary caps are between four and five point six million dollars on a guy who's on a million dollars like it's a lot of money to have on the bench and i don't see a setup in which he's

a starter so i agree with you I think RSL should be in the conversation that's one to reach out on um this is fun man this is why we do the show live welcome to everyone shout out to MJ Blomseff who's having a great day clearly a San Jose fan feeling pretty good about things RSL fans it some what i'm seeing in the chat so far are kind of in a like what are we doing moment it's not completely out of like thin air because of the way last season ended and especially the fact that they that he did not start the final game in a must win playoff game was a huge sign and i think pablo kind of tried to tamper it down and at the end and say like, you know, gave us the best chance to win on the day.

They've already traded Anderson Julio. So it's not like he's replacing him. So it'll be interesting. Diego Luna, a ton of the pressure is going to fall on his shoulders this year. Like he is the most reliable attacking piece coming back. I like Marchuk. I'm excited about him.

Gonsalves, I think they have their idea of how he fits in and what he can bring them but diego luna is the center of their attack right now which is very rare for an mls team so i think that's exciting on its own but it's a lot of pressure for him all right tom you want to move on to the things we were going to talk about yeah yeah yeah i do we do that do you want to break news again before we do it no i but i do thankfully that while this is happening too i've gotten another update on something we're already planning on talking about it's nothing to derail the show about so we'll save it for later okay um let's just mention here because we just did a whole orlando thing let's

just real quick do this uh nico rodriguez you reporting, has been signed a U22 winger, right winger, out of Columbia for this team. But it's a U22 signing for them, which is for the future, but this is not the FACU replacement. Yeah, and I do want to make that clear, that they are still, they're going to spend money to sign a new DP winger. This isn't the FACU replacement. This is somebody to add to the attack.

They have done this in the past, like Gaston Gonzalez was somebody that they, you know, they bring in U22 initiative players and they try to make it where, hey, we really like this kid. We really think it's talented. No pressure on the player to immediately, if you're not good right away, this isn't good, right? Cesar Araujo was their best example of the U22 initiative. Ramiro Enrique has been good as well he was he won the starting job down the stretch so the club are routinely looking towards

the U22 initiative to try to add talented young players particularly attacking ones so again of course we just talked about Cesar Araujo so this is a young winger coming to the team they will be signing a DP probably a right winger but definitely a DPp attacker to come in to replace facundo torres um i reported that there was a bid for alejandro zendejas that's not um again i haven't gotten any new updates to expect that anything would happen so again i i doubt that club america is going to let him go because andre jardin the manager who is staying really loves alejandro uh really loves zendejas so think about like that kind of price point or that kind of ambition i think that would have been a really good signing so it could be somebody in their prime could be somebody younger like facundo torres was but this player this u22 initiative

is not the torres replacement is just adding to the depth of the attack i think that's good news for orlando fans and i think this zendejas one really is like an exciting name where it's like if you're talking about in that profile there's some good players that they could bring in to fill that spot let's move on let's talk Chicago for a minute here um I had a chance to talk with Greg Berhalter yesterday at media marketing and he mentioned that they were looking for a DP left winger still to fill in on the roster. That was because of my question. And as you'd expect, I was credited for that question everywhere that people talked about this on social media.

I know Tom, you're a bit of a credit policeman, so I know you're big on that and, and everything else that I unearthed with my high quality questions over the course of the day, I was credited for it everywhere that it was mentioned. Correct Tom. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Do you have any, do you have anything that you want to say do you just no i know you're always keeping

lists about this stuff and you're always worried about it and i just i appreciate you looking out for me i think that's like a really big key about this show as teammates we pick each other up um did you have any cool news about canada not affording a January camp? Was that a good question? I tweeted the quote that Jesse Marsh said at Media Day yesterday that the Canadian national team wanted a January camp, but in my words here, not his, didn't have the money to do it. And I tweeted four hours later, I get a text from Goss. Like, what the hell?

I asked the question. You also could have just retweeted my blue sky my skeet you could have skeeted me i had already said it did you after i asked the question but no tom we'll make sure to give you credit on all the breaking news that you are on earth you skeet like you text it's like i know it's chaos chaos yeah that's not half truth. It is absolutely chaos. Yeah. I will say, though, I was texting some Canadian friends like, why doesn't Canada have a January camp? And they were all like, oh, it's not really a thing.

I did retweet you. I did reskeet you. Get out of here. Did you? Yeah. I don't even look at your skits, so I don't even know. So I was glad I got that answer. And so greg gave us this answer and he said we feel like jack elliott's one of the best center backs in the league we've gotten that deal done

um they're as we said on the last show they're very high about the tam signing they made already this week they feel like he's going to be a high level tam signing i think greg is trying to allude to the fact that like you're bordering on DP talent there, you know, low end DP. And now a rumor coming out here, a report, sorry, that Guyton Perrine, a 28 year old winger at Auxerre, who's got five goals, four assists and 1100 minutes so far this year, French player out of Lyon Academy has played in the league on his entire career that they are in negotiations to try and bring him in.

There is no official part of the report that says he is dp or tam or how he would feel obviously at 28 can't be a u22 player but are you sure yeah no i with mls rules you guys not really% positive. He might be an MLS next pro all-star. I'm not really sure about that. In general, though, this would not exactly fit the mold because it's a right winger, but I don't know how specific you're going to be about that in the conversations of the players you're identifying. Most of these players can play on both sides. And this sounds like it could be that next big move for the Chicago Fire.

Right. So I've confirmed that there was the bid um i don't know what the designation would be if a deal gets done i was told it's kind of too early or too fluid to even start talking in that direction which leads to me to believe that they're hoping that this would be a tams on it and if that's the case why they just did a tan signing for philip zinkernagel and and again i i will take a step back like if the plighter is very good that's all that matters you don't have to sign a big name you don't have to spend a 10 million transfer fee if you have the correct guy um but it would i would assume that they're not just assume i know the targets that that the kind of targets that are being looked at or the kind of targets that

are being discussed were people abroad who are assuming and discussing. I'm thinking like, I don't know, triple, whatever the fee would be for this player. So not even close. So that would lead me to believe if they can't get it done at max Tam, you probably walk away. But again, I was speaking to a source that didn't say it like that so maybe i'm reading too much into it but i don't know what the designation would be if they get it done this is a player who has a good number of of goal contributions in his uh in league one this year

they were in league league do last year they have five he has five goals four assists and 1100 minutes in league on this season 28 year old w-old winger, in-prime guy. Chicago want to be competitive immediately. This would be a step in the right direction. But for me, again, leaving the possibility that if he becomes as a DP and if he's really good, that's all that matters. Who cares? But before seeing him play for the team, if he's a DP,

I would be underwhelmed given all the other names that I've heard that they have either considered or discussed or, or at least we're looking into. Glasshouse soccer in the chat says fire, trying to emulate the galaxy sign, high impact wingers. If you remember Greg's Columbus crew teams, he had people,

he going in as the 10 who pulled all the strings. And a lot of the strength of those teams was built around Ethan Finley and Justin Miriam on the wings, being able to isolate their players, being able to create chances. And with that, he was able to roll through multiple center forwards and make all of them golden boot contenders. It was Kai Kamara, it was Jossie Zardes, Ola Kamara ended up getting in that conversation as well and so hugo kuypers is already in place um and it makes sense that greg would sort of lean on the center phone or the wing positions to try and strengthen this team it would make sense at a tam level too except that he said the dp comment yesterday right so in theory in this whole conversation it feels like we'd walk away being like okay tam wingers a dp 10 brian gutierrez

works his way into the team across all three of those positions as the season goes along and like that's how this team builds themselves but that's not the comment he made so that means either perrine is not that guy or that they think he is that dp player and can be that high level attacker um so there's work left to do for this chicago team uh greg seemed really excited like when he talked to him i think it's been a long few years for him the obviously the investigation into everything after leaving u.s soccer then coming back then copa america getting fired the pressure of being a national team manager he made the comment again that chicago are a sleeping giant in Major League Soccer.

That's something we all want to hear because it's true. They've got one of the richest owners and one of the biggest markets and a market that has already supported that team. So this is not, okay, can we turn the market

into Chicago Fire fans? Like this team in the late 90s and early 2000s when they started under Bob Bradley, they would get huge crowds at Soldier Field they won trophies they were relevant in that market that all should be possible once again and so I think it's cool to see Greg acknowledge that he didn't say our job this year is to win MLS Cup he said

of course you're always striving for it but like he's not running away from saying that we should be a big team in this league and we need more of those like there isn't really a limit while there is a limit on how many teams can win and all of that like if every team in mls goes out and tries to break the transfer record every single offseason that's fine because most of the players are coming in from outside this league it's not like there's a limit to all of this and it's nba and there's seven good players and you're trying to trade for all of them so chicago being joint joining that is big and greg seems to understand that and seems to be excited about it yeah absolutely and and again i know that he would have gotten assurances on the budget there was no questions about the budget

from joe vincenzo again good better and different whatever's out for chicago you cannot blame the financial ambition from this club not just on the playing roster, but also on like breaking the lease in Bridgeview and now doing a brand new, hugely expensive, state-of-the-art new facilities for training facilities. Like there will be no questions about this team's betting power and ambition on that front. It was just the technical quality from the executives that they've had. Because again, even when it's gone wrong, they've thrown money at the problem and it

just hasn't been the right decision. So I know that Greg Berhalter would have had assurances of like, yes, these are the budgets, these are what we want to do, this is what we want to build. So it doesn't surprise me anything he's saying. He's a process oriented kind of guy, he's, he would have had a dossier on his plan and everything he wants to do, because that's just how he works. so none of this surprises me none of this is again coming seat of your pants kind of thing none of this is coming as a surprise like they're definitely um part of like on the path and and that's why he kind of says you obviously we want to win ms cup immediately but you know right not saying that

in year one or whatever and they're going to try to build this they're going to try to build this sustainably and we'll see where it goes so the columbus crew like he didn't win mls cup with that team they weren't spending money at that time this wasn't a columbus they were a winning team like like what you're saying is they didn't win mls cup they were a winning team in mls everything they did was as good as they could do yeah because revisionist history is coming from the people who didn't like him with the national team was like well what the hell did he ever do in mls and it's like oh that that like i don't is is really devoid of context so i'm really excited to see that hope well hopefully him recreating what he did in columbus but with just a lot more money um i want to mention this as well greg i think

specifically stated this and this is huge He said that they were working on some Chicago homegrowns. And this is a place Chicago missed for years as the academy setup grew around Major League Soccer and MLS Next came into play and all of these things. Chicago fell behind a lot of other teams. And a lot of the talent that's come through has sort of been like stars in their own right and not really through the system of building. They have double, triple down on Chicago. And like, we're not going to go out and get players from San Diego and bring them into our academy. Like, this is one of the best soccer markets in the country. We're going to find our players.

They've already done that before Greg got there. Greg was very specific about saying, like, we're working on Chicago homegrowns. That should be exciting because I think that's one, a way for the club to connect, but two, it should be a way for them to be successful. There are so many national team players, both Canadian and American, who have come out of Chicago. Soccer's FC have generated how many players, Chicago Magic, like all these clubs in that area. Chicago Fire should be dominant on that. They have a really exciting prospect coming through right now. They've got, of course, Gutierrez, who's really special.

The goalkeepers have been special, but it was good to hear that. It's good to hear that that is a focus for this team. We've got a lot of questions in the chat right now. We've got a lot to do here still on the rundown. I think, Tom, we're going to hang out for a little bit after we finish recording the podcast and answer some of the questions for YouTube only and Twitch. So anyone who's watching live, hang around, continue to throw your questions in. You can also bring them back up later. And anyone who's listening on the podcast, if you ever want to join us live, you got to follow us on social media because we have

been a little bit irregular with our live recordings, but we will try and promote them as much as we can in advance. And let's move on to the next topic, which is Alan Velasco, potentially heading back to Argentina, Tom. This reporting has really picked up steam over the last few days. So give us an idea of where we stand right now. So where we stand, I haven't gotten an update yet today but on wednesday boca juniors made a bid of around 10 million and as of yesterday uh fc dallas had not responded to the offer yet there has been reporting in south america that alan velasco will not show up for preseason because he would like this move back to argentina i don't have that confirmed but there's

been several reporters to put that out, which usually would lead to believe that something is there. Again, we'll see. Players should be reporting for Dallas this weekend, I believe. I don't have all of the schedules in front of me, but that's where things stand. As of last night, there was still no decision. What I was told is they were still waiting for the final package

to completely come through, or the best and final offer kind of thing, I guess, because there's another Argentine club that are there in the mix as well beyond Boca Juniors. But usually when Boca Juniors and another Argentine club are in the mix, Boca Juniors gets a player. Have you ever had a conversation with anyone? I can't remember who it was where it was like, yeah, every four years Boca Juniors has a lot of money. And like you have to as an MLS team, be prepared for that fourth year or three years,

whatever it is, where it's like this happened with Nico Ladero, right? Year after year, Boca wanted to sign Nico Ladero, but only one of the three years that they said it, were they actually going to have the money to do it? If it is $10 million,

I think it's kind of a no brainer for FC Dallas, even though you're probably taking a step back for at least the first half of the season. And we now have to talk about Jesus Ferreira leaving and Paul Areola leaving as well. Go, go, go, go, go, go. I was trying to not transition to Seattle. I had one more kind of point on Velasco.

Yeah, I'm not. Go ahead. Tom, I'm with you. I got you. Alan Velasco was acquired for like roughly seven and a half million dollars so to make two and a half million dollars on a guy who scored four goals and had two assists two years ago and then tore his acl and didn't really play last year that's a really good return it allows you to go back into the market and get an Alan Velasco type player and restart the clock of like, this guy wants to be here. We've got two, three years to work with him.

We could put him around Petar Musa, inflate the numbers early on, be competitive under a new coach, and then figure it out going forward. So for FC Dallas, if the deal comes through the way it sounds like, it's a no-brainer to do it, and then you figure it out from there. I understand that thought process, and I don't even necessarily think that you're wrong. But what I would say is when Dallas signed Velasco to a new contract last month, it was with the idea that this will stop the transfer rumors and offers, at least for one transfer window. Their stance was they were surprised that the numbers have gotten to where they are this winter for Alan Velasco. They were firmly planning all around him and Petar Musa as the faces of their club for 2025. And they were really, really excited. And they are reluctant to lose Alan Velasco at this point because, as you said, in 2023 2023 I thought that he was very talented he had a lot

of really good moments but he didn't he was a young player coming to a new league unrealistic to expect him to be uh seven and a half out of ten every single game for the whole season he wasn't he was inconsistent as young players do but he showed some really good moments and then he tours ACL he comes back at the end of this season. Again, like, he showed really good moments, and he looked better by the time that he got a little bit of the rust off. And so 2025 was going to be the year like, okay, we can rely on this guy to be a guy, to be our guy, to be the dude who's pushing the game forward for us, who's coming up with goals and assists, and who is the, you know, winger or attacking midfielder that helps with Petar Musa. So in Dallas's defenses, like they're probably

like, we still haven't even seen the best of what we thought we were getting from Alan Velasco because this was going to be a multi-year thing. It was a developmental player at his age. So I understand why Andre Zenota and the front office and ownership would be like, man, like we haven't even seen all of the things that we were super excited about over a course of a full season. And we selfishly want that and we want to win games and we want to be competitive. And then I guess on the other side, the financial side, you could talk yourself into, well, if there's a 10 million bid right now, what would it be if he's as good as we think this year? And Goss, as you're shaking your head i agree with you there is a limit at some point um so this is a very very fair valuation i would say but i do understand

why dallas would be like i we just want to keep the player we we want him to be his best version of himself with us like we've been wanting and waiting and believing in and and expecting and it's just kind of unfortunate that like on that of things, that the bid came where it is right now, because that's what they wanted. I get a lot of what you're saying. One, I don't begrudge a team from being like, we want talented players, we want to win, we want to be competitive, we're not just, like, moving players in and out. That I'm fine with.

Matthew Dull in the chat makes my point, which is, if Facundo Torres is sold for $12 million, how is Alan Velasco worth $10 million? Let me give you this. The last two seasons in MLS play only, Facundo Torres has scored 14 goals. Alan Velasco's best year in MLS on pure numbers production was six goals, seven assists combined. So he has not produced as many goals slash assists combined as facundo torres has scored alone the last two years doesn't include torres's assist doesn't include u.s open cup runs doesn't include league's cup like there's a lot there alan velasco was on the verge of argentine national team when he was healthy so i get the appeal of like this could be a paradigm

shifting signing slash sale for FC Dallas but with the injury and the risk of everything to get out of this with a nice profit and be able to try and do it again I think is the right decision for this club because if Alan Velasco comes back this year and hits the ground running and Petzar Mususa is still there, this is a good team. It's not a great team. So, like, what's your best-case scenario here, and how do you play that out? And so maybe you don't love the timing because, like you said, they got the contract done.

They felt like they were settled. They felt like they were ready to move on. But this is a pretty big opportunity to get out of it. Now, do you want to talk the rest of this for dallas and seattle which is paul areola it sounds like he's now officially making the move to the seattle sounders yeah areola i was told is done just needs the um approval from the league which i was told is like a formality because they had to go back and forth about some minor minutiae details of the deal.

So they've already brought it to the league, made a change and then brought it back. So this, everybody I've talked to has said this deal is done and it is happening. And Craig Weibel talked about it on, on a press conference saying that we'll probably have news to share. I'm about to kick somebody from the chat who has asked this. This is frustrating.

That is something that is getting – I will not talk about Kokokerski if he sends another comment. Paul Areola is about to be at Seattle Sounders, and my thing with this team and this group in this offseason is – and Jeremiah Oshon has said this, that it's weird to see the reaction from Seattle and this group in this off season is, and Jeremiah Oshon has, has said this, that like, it's weird to see the reaction from Seattle at being like, this sucks,

or this is underwhelming or whatever. And then the reaction from like national media or national fans, I guess, non like national team, super, super, super big fans who obviously you see Paul Ariel Hayes is forever. They're going to criticize it.

But for the national MLS media and national fans around the league are like, wow, been a pretty good all season for Seattle. Like, I think that that dichotomy is weird. Where do you kind of stand on that gospel? Where like the fans of the club are underwhelmed. Whereas the rest of us are kind of being like,

wow, I really like what they've done. If you're a Seattle fan, it's fair to look down the street and say, where's our Evander? And not like the player, but like the buy the 10 million dollar player the like seven million but he's not but he was seven but he's not they spent that money he's what seven he was seven million dollars right that's a four million dollar difference that's like

what is ten minus seven, but what is, we don't know every single number that's in there. We don't know how much more of Vander ended up costing based on production and all of those things. Yeah, Tom, fine. I think it's fair to say like,

where's that for us? Why are we not making that move? We're going into the club world cup. We were just on the verge of hosting MLS cup. We know we need to get over the line. I think it's fair to want that i think the excitement from national media is i think the quicker acceptance that that's not going to happen for seattle they are not right now a market and a team that spends like that and therefore has pivoted as well as you possibly could so the excitement is like if you're not going to sign that guy do this create

this like weird usmntb super team from mls productive players young players that could maybe get better in jesus ferreira or like schmetzer said yesterday like why can't he score 23 goals again so like even the bat the you know it's not just pure production or potential we're not talking about georgie going to montreal we're talking about a jesus ferreira that's already been in the edge of mvp conversations and all that and a guy in paul areola who has been a dp in mls who is now not so you've got two guys on your roster who have been designated players that are not on your team but then at the same time rusnak and morris are low-end border dp so it's like there's four of them in there, which is a great idea,

but I can understand the frustration as a fan who's watched it for a couple of years to say, okay, that's one path, but it's sort of a path we've taken before. Where is our Carlos Vela? Where is our Cucho Hernandez? Where is that? But if you're not going to make that move,

I think they've done as well as possible. I think that that last line completely um is where i'm sitting is like yeah i understand again the 10 million signing or whatever else but i i think that this is pretty clearly shows that ownership wasn't putting that money on the table and i don't think that they could have really done much better in terms of getting what they're bringing into this team and how it's all going to fit. Look, I think that we know what Jesus Ferreira is and what he isn't right now, and I think that's working against him. I think if FC Dallas' former MVP, David Ferreira, never came to MOS, he just either stayed in Columbia or whatever, and Jesus Ferreira, the same exact person, the same exact player,

grew up in Columbia and was a product of the youth academy there. If he put up 18 goals and six assists in the Colombian League and then Seattle bought him, we would all be like, oh my God, what a great signing. He's going to be awesome. This is Tom's favorite thought experiment right now. It's real, man. Yeah, he's not somebody who he's known.

And again, he's two years removed, 18 goals, six assists. He's one year removed from 12 goals, six assists. Yes, last year wasn't great. He still had 11 goal contributions in 1,300 minutes. Yeah. For a team that was not good. And Nico Estevez, by the time, he was forever getting back from injury

and whatever the timeline was. Nico Estevez pretty quickly in the year was like, I need to save my job. The defenders can't defend on this team. We need to play super conservatively. So this wasn't an attacking outlet that this team was having. And yes, this was a disappointing season for Jesus Ferreira. And even at a disappointing season,

he's almost averaging a goal contribution every 100 minutes. Let me, I agree with a lot of what you're saying i would add in i think the five four to five players that will start around jesus ferreira are better than any collection of four to five players jesus ferreira has ever started with with fc dallas like ricardo pepe great obviously at the moment pepe was in this league not at the level of Jordan Morris at the moment Jordan Morris is at right now is a fully fledged experienced player who's played with that center forward position Paxson Pomichael went healthy at his best great didn't get enough of that now you talk about Albert Rusnak Christian rolled on we're gonna run the Obed Vargas interview

next week I said to him like what's your goals, blah, blah. He's like, goals and assists. He's like, I was a 10 in the academy. I want to be a goal scoring eight. I want to add to the game. And I think we've seen that he's capable of it. You throw him in. And then the big question mark in all of this is what you get from Pedro De La Vega. But it still stands that Jesus Ferreira,

your expectation should be that this is his best year in MLS because this is probably his most comfortable role playing with the most talent he's ever played with uh Richie Tover in the chat asked a question which I'm kind of wondering myself which is where do physically on the field Jesus and Paul fit in I asked Jordan Morris the question yesterday Jordan's like I want to be the center forward I believe that's who I am but obviously I'm comfortable playing in a few different roles and Schmetter sort of said like well we think Jesus can stretch the field and do center forward things but we think he can sit inside and sort of help Jordan Morris the way you have it set up in our depth chart right now Tom is Jesus playing on the left wing I think that's probably the right

decision and that's probably where it will start if everyone's healthy and i guess paul areola is the starting left back on this team what where is he starting not at left back so where's he starting i don't know if he is and i think that's the thing is like so paul areola is not a starter that's why i love this deal they're they're getting him for something in the region of a six600,000 cap charge because Dallas is going to eat the rest of the money. And I don't know, maybe they'll buy out the rest of the charge. So he doesn't kind of guess. I don't know. But what I know is that Seattle is only paying like six or 700,000 of his deal. And I love that. So the way that I have it set up, because I was asking myself that question as well when I was changing it up. I was like, I think Pedro De La Vegaga is gonna be the first crack at starting and she says he should all the money invested in the talent that he possibly has yeah so paul ariola was behind him but the thing is ariola can play right wing he can play left wing he can play right back he like if they go particularly if they go to a back three at any point during the season so i think that this is a phenomenal move like i don't love paul ariola as max Tam low DP.

I love Paul Areola at this number. Are you kidding me? That's why I really love this move. I'm shocked to think he's not a starter. And therefore that's the only spot I could see him starting in. Like if they're fully healthy and it's an upgrade in possession on new who Tolo, it also might be a home and away split, right? Where it's like,

oh, home games, team's going to sit in on us. Yeah, we're going to start Areola there because we're going to have more of the ball and that's the way the game's going to be played. I will throw out that I think there was a mention of like Jesus playing in a two up top. I think there's a good world in which there are games they play five

at the back. You slide Jesus alongside Jordan. You can play Areola as that wing back that's probably in scenarios where either De La Vega doesn't work out or there are injuries and you need to fill in for some of these spots Brian Smetzer mentioned Jao Paulo very casually yesterday and sort of talked about the rivalry against Botafogo so I think he's still in the plans there of like will be a piece in central midfield but probably not the starter going into the year and the debate in the chat right now is pretty fun we'll do it after we finish the show of like are seattle fans spoiled should they have expectations um all of that type of stuff let's move into the ice cream shop you ready to go

yeah does anybody want us to talk about coco caserskia i was unclear uh i'm sorry i appreciate you being here i just these these are fun jokes and easy low-hanging fruit so coco kerskia pumas are in serious talks to sign the panamanian international from the houston dynamo i was told as of last night no agreement has been reached yet but we'll see kind of what comes through today. The background here is Pumas just sold Chino Huerta to Anderlecht, a very, very talented player. And Coco Kerskia looks to be who they want to bring in as a replacement. The Houston Dynamo side of this is they love Coco. They understand his desire to take on a new challenge, particularly that challenge they all thought was going to be Europe.

The last year and a half, they have been bracing, ready, willing, and open to sell him to Europe. They lowered their price tag. They wanted to work with Coco Carasquilla even after signing him to a new contract when the expected move 18 months ago didn't happen. They weren't being unreasonable about their ask. The offers just didn't happen. They weren't being unreasonable about their ask. The offers just didn't come. It is in vogue, particularly outside of the top 10 to 12 teams in England that teams don't

want to, they look at a 26 year old like he's old. Yeah. They look at it as, well, we can't sell them on three years later for more money, which I think is ludicrous because what are we doing out here? Are we trying to win games or are we trying to turn a transfer profit? Yes, sustainability is one thing,

but this is swinging too far. I digress. I say that all to say, it's not like the Houston Dynamo are pushing them out the door. It's not like the Houston Dynamo got an offer they can't refuse. The Houston Dynamo in this instance are doing right by Coco Kerskia. One of the bits that I got from reporting on this is, I promise you this isn't going to be an offer that's going to blow us away. We're not going to sell him for nothing or we're not going to get super taken advantage of. But like if Coco Kerskia doesn't get the contract he wants from them, that he's just going to stay here and he's going to be happy. But we are trying to do right by him. He wants this new challenge with Pumas in Mexico, but at the right number for everybody.

And again, even at that, this isn't going to be a huge fee for the use in Dynamo. And we've talked, a theme of the show is kind of doing right by your players, particularly in the buying and selling era and all this player movement and everything that you say. When they're signing Koko Karskia from Spain as a 21, 22-year-old, however long ago it was, it was, hey, you're going to come here for a few

years and then we will sell you back on. You have to make good on that promise. And that's what they're doing here. And again, like they've done right at every step of this situation for the past couple of years. So it's unfortunate to potentially lose Coco Karskia because of how fun he is to watch playing in this league but Houston feels it's more important to do right by him and follow through on a promise Pat yesterday Pat Onstead the GM at media marketing when I asked him about it he like you just said he was like there are there are necessary marks that have to be hit both for the player and the club and we're in the conversation right now of seeing if we can get there um so it feels very like the beneficial mutually beneficial that they're working with um with coco and trying to find the end of this and trying to figure it out

the other thing though um is that in talking about replacing Ace Ace, Pat Onsett talked about how Coco sees himself as the replacement for Ace Ace, and therefore the move they're trying to make is to fill in for Coco already, which sort of helps them get halfway there, which is if they sell Coco and they lose him, it seems like they are furthest down the road with trying to get a number 10 who sort of fits in the pocket and can play in that role and all of that which is great but then they're back to square one in Ache Ache replacement which is probably less uh what they were hoping for where they sit right now um but Pat seemed pretty

positive about getting that number 10 move made um it is not the perfect offseason for houston it's where they sit right now we saw the gam numbers they are the lowest in the league pat talked about the international roster spot that they permanently have traded away and how bad that's been how hurtful that's been to the club and all of that and they're still sort of rebuilding out of like a decade of being the lowest spending team and missing on a couple big moves and missing on a couple big sales and so they're trying to reset who they are and i think they've been pretty they've acknowledged pretty straightforward like where they sit in the hierarchy of the league and trying to get these deals done so for houston fans i can understand being stressed about it and it being

like a struggle coco's been the center of everything a lot of what good has happened for this team but it's the reality of where they sit in the soccer stratosphere right now so um are we are we ready to move i i i told goss i was going to be quick on this and then i spoke for seven straight minutes on coco cascades so i'm sorry about that goss i have one more actually that should have a little bit more time and i promise this will be the last one before we take more questions from the chat and expand more austin fc so what i was told and this was something that i've gotten more info on over the last hour um sebastian triusi potentially leaving for river plate so what i've been told is that austin fc um are obviously open to this

but only at the right price. And it seems like nothing is totally agreed between the clubs and River Plate and Austin. And if nothing is agreed, the club do expect Jiu-Jitsu to arrive in Austin on Saturday for the start of preseason. Expectation versus whether somebody shows up are obviously two different things. The Portland Timbers with Evander last year can tell you that. And there's, you know, Emmanuel Reynoso, the entire Minnesota United experience.

Expectation versus somebody showing up for two different things. But that is laying out the line here that it's not 100% that that's going to happen. The other side of that is

there are reports in Spain that I can confirm that there are, that there is truth to. I'm going to butcher this name. Albanian international Mirto Uzuni. He's a 29-year-old, mostly been a center forward for this team,

which is an interesting profile. That is something that's real. He's scored a ton of goals for Granada. I think he has 14 goals in 18 games in the second division right now. And he could be a potential option for them. But these two deals are obviously connected. They can't sign this player without Joucy leaving. And as I'm reporting right now, there isn't anything totally done with your uc and i think austin are trying to be

careful that they don't that river plate isn't like well you're signing somebody else so give them to us for cheap because they're not prepared to do that i'm texting my albanian friend right now to get a pronunciation for you i should have thought of that earlier that's nice appreciate it i hope he sends back a voice note so you can do to me what i do you have to i hope so too the worst part about pronunciations on voice notes is they go away not voice note on whatsapp and then i'm like okay cool i'll save that for like i'll listen to that again later and then it goes away you're like i had such a plan for all of this um overall this feels positive for austin is that a good way to view it like again the money that they're spending is very impressive and i didn't know if like

again i don't know what the exact fee for driussi is going to be i can't imagine that it's going to be the exact same as what it is for vasquez and like this this player uzuni he won't be cheap he won't be like i don't think he'll be more than vazquez but that's going to be a significant fee it's going to be a significant contract and again this is a player that they're not they're not taking in as a 21 year old and you know hey we'll make our money back later because he's going to be good and i love signings like that and in prime this is a winning type move and again talking about sustainability talking about the reality of being in the selling

and buying business that's good don't have a u23 team don't only sign players because you think you can resell them in the future sign players because you want to win games and i think that's very important and deserves to be applauded that they could have just turned around and put money on a young player that we didn't know hell like that's kind of that ties together with the dallas conversation with velasco like that was a developmental signing, but they believed he was so good that he would be contributing to winning as well. So that's why I'm like, oh man, we were about to get to the point where we think he's ready to carry a team.

Now we have to sell him before we get to see that. So the best of both worlds is that. But again, it's good to have ambitions to sign players that actually help you win games rather than we just want to turn a profit. Usman B bukari yesterday when i asked him about it said he is a winger he sees himself as a winger he feels most comfortable there he can play behind a forward but like that was the last half second in a long answer about how he is a winger so in trying to set this austin team up and how it looks depending whether it's

drucy or not and whatever that's just something to consider with obviously a huge signing that they've made and how this whole thing can fit together. And Brandon Vasquez, obviously a true center forward. So it does feel like you kind of have two pieces in stone there and the rest of it all has to fit around that. But it gives you a starting point and a building point for this team. I just baited Doyle into free money. So I feel pretty good right now in the group chat. And let's continue to roll. In the group chat, I'm the only one that is currently listening.

I think on this podcast. Can you tell the people who are listening what just happened? Doyle mocked me for saying Paul Arian is starting at left back. I said, what's the line of how many games he has to start there? He said three and a half and he's smashing the under. So I feel pretty good about that. for saying Paul Aragon is starting at left back. I said, what's the line of how many games he has to start there? He said three and a half, and he's smashing the under. So I feel pretty good about the fact. Well, I think we need to get terms and conditions because wing back versus left back and a flat back for a wing under.

No, no, no. Not after it's been done do you get to restart. I'm not in on this bet. I'm just trying to help. Anyway. I'm just saying the fine print already exists, and it's on you to read the fine print before you on this bet. I'm just trying to help. Anyway. I'm just saying the fine print already exists, and it's on you to read the fine print before you place the bet. Tom, this is your people.

I do look like a bookie right now. Yeah, you do. This is your problem. Yeah, Matt, not only did he play wingback, he could play as a fullback, and he will. Let's go into these last few moves. Let's start with Igor Jesus. Yeah. Or no, you don't want to.

I think I'm just going to more or less read these off like sentences because we're already going too long. And then, again, people in the chat, we're going to stick around after you hear the music playing and answer questions. So particularly any of these that you want us to talk more about, please put it in there. I see that there's a lot of chats. So, guys, while I'm just monologuing here all of the moves,

start pulling out questions that you like. So, Igor Jesus, 21-year year old defensive midfielder he is very close to joining lafc he was a product of flamengo he's currently playing in portugal at a team that i don't remember off the top of my head because it's not one of the big three but that's a defensive midfielder that is close to lafc fc cincinnati we're working once again on a deal to sign highly rated Swedish youth international center back Malcolm Jang. But Jang has picked Rene in France over FC Cincinnati. Despite FC Cincinnati like two and a half or three million bid. They were working on it for a while. They were confident.

But the beat goes on. They will. I would expect them to be in the market for U22 center back. LA Galaxy have signed 14 year old midfielder vicente garcia he is an american and mexican dual international he has spent time with both of those clubs uh both of those clubs both of those nations in youth international play he's been to camps at both he's a central midfielder again he's 14 this deal won't start as a homegrown but it will turn into a homegrown i don't know exactly what year and a quick nerd point on that i think that you're going to see a whole lot more of these deals with the prevalence

of mls next pro i think that that is my favorite part about mls next pro where you can sign a player tie him down not time down but give him what you believe in him give him a contract that doesn't count towards the first team for a 14 year old who's obviously not going to play for the first team for several years so you start Who's obviously not going to play for the first team for several years. So you start it with the second team, but instead of saying, trust me, bro,

we're going to sign you when you turn 16 or whatever it is. No, here's a contract right now. And then it turns into a first team deal. So I think that's very good. And I'm spending a little bit more time on this because I think we're going to see a whole lot more of that as I'm already lying about how quickly I was going to go defensively.

It was like, now you're talking about 14-year-olds? Joao Ortiz, the Portland Timbers from Independe de Valle. Andy Nahar is being signed by Nashville SC. Nashville have also waived Randall Liao and Elliot Panico. Lassie Lapalainen is going to the Columbus Crew. That's already done. David Goss is probably going to talk a lot about this when we get there.

And we did not get to the MLSsoccer.com um announcing that atlanta signed a player they didn't sign it and quickly deleting it that has caused an international incident maybe we'll talk about that in the chat here goss that's it i'm done talking for the podcast before we get to the chat so if you want to outro the no no let's do the mlssoccer.com thing and then we'll go into the chat i want this to be on the pod and then we'll be done. So MLSSaga.com put out an article yesterday saying that Atlanta United had signed Kaigo Fuhashi from Celtic. Excellent pronunciation. Very confident. Japanese center forward that they had signed came on to goshy a japanese center forward

who was a completely different person and different player and the article came out and it took some of the quotes and from the came on to goshy press conference and put them into an article about furuhashi and that caused the uproar the question we have in the chat 57 different places is is this deal completely dead and is it because of this um tom you worked at mlssoccer.com i have worked around it as well what do you make of what's happened i'll start with i i can't say whether the deal is dead or not and i do want to preface that there was not a deal in place as the best of my understanding so it's not like if this doesn't happen this is absolutely why but

again i will keep working on it this there there was truth to the interest and everything else i don't know how serious or where talks have gone um and again i don't know what if anything has changed since all this happened but the behind the curtain of working at MLSSaga.com, I can say with 100% certainty, Atlanta United did not tell MLSSaga.com, we are signing this player. And from what I had did, like when I started just as like a staff writer,

before I was in the Scubes game, I cannot tell you how many press release, how many newsers that I prepared based on widespread reporting. So this is nothing new. There's nothing nefarious. This is nothing where Atlanta jumped the gun or M was something gone or whatever. And particularly I'll take you to a further step back.

Atlanta United did nothing wrong. And I feel very bad for the people at that club. If this is impacting this potential transfer in any way. Because they did not do anything wrong. All they did was tease a different Japanese player being signed by the team. And again, they did not tell anything to MLS that insinuated a deal was being done for Kyogo. There are a lot of releases prepared in the event that when the announcement comes, they are ready to hit publish

and get the news out and go with that. So this just comes down to it was a mistake, an honest mistake, unfortunately, a very, very bad mistake, but something that is not nefarious and not really too deeper than that. MLS has since released an apology to Celtic, the club that Kyogo plays for. They have put out that statement to several different news organizations in Europe because European outlets, particularly Scottish ones, have been having some fun with this mishap here. But again, I do want to say that I feel for the people involved. It's unfortunate it's worth criticizing, but this was nothing nefarious.

This is nothing bad. It's just a good faith mistake rather than, you know, a bad faith, you know, cabal of a conspiracy. And I would like to say that that's how I feel about this podcast. So thank you. This was a good faith attempt by both of us to put together a coherent and contained podcast. It got out of hand immediately. So I hope you enjoy this hour and a half of conversation. Of course, the breaking news in the middle around San Jose. That's why we love this show.

That's why we love doing this. We want to be the place where people in North America who care about MLS and NWSL feel like they can go to every single day to have the conversations they want to have to react. And that's why we're here.

So if you want to be even more involved, you can jump onto our Patreon, subscribe. It gets you access to our Discord where we're hanging out and chatting all the time. Gets you access to the depth charts, which Tom so kindly is keeping updated, as well as our salary tables, which is the only way to find how much Carlos Carrizo makes and therefore how much, whether or not they can buy him down and all those other things. It also gets your NWSL depth charts, which are changing every single day as free agency

is open there as well. Uh, we've got the two interviews with Obed Vargas and Kevin Sullivan coming up next week that I'm very excited about. We are going to be back for our show. Jordan's still away. So I'm working on some guests on the NWSL side, probably try and do some national team stuff as well. So a lot of fun to come, uh, but we enjoy these Friday shows. It's a nice relaxed time to hang out. Uh, so thank you to everyone for listening. Thank you for being here on the pod. If you are not watching us live ever, we're going to hang out and chat with the chat a little bit here and answer some questions and stuff. So you can go over to go watch that on our YouTube page, subscribe there if you haven't already, and you can always watch us in the future as well