SoccerWise - MLS Edition: Playoff Push Update, Carlos Vela Details & Mikey Varas In San Diego

Episode Date: September 17, 2024

A massive weekend of swings in the standings means another Soccerwise "Weekend Recap" from Tom & Gass. Like every week down the stretch they go through Best Match, Biggest win for playoff push, Biggest win for shield race (last one?), Who’s back of the week? Bounce back, MY BAD, and Who’s out this week. Plus outside the games big news across California as the guys dig into Vela's return to LAFC & San Diego officially naming Mikey Varas their inaugural coach. And finally a preview of the full midweek of MLS action. 8:19 El Trafico 23:59 Minnesota Playoff Push 33:33 Miami Shield Winners 49:34 Soccerwise Mea Culpas Charlotte, Vancouver & LA Galaxy 58:23 Carlos Vela's LAFC Return 1:05:25 Details On San Diego & Mikey Varas 1:12:08 Midweek MLS PreviewSoccerwise Live 2pm ET Every Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday on Youtube/Twitch/Twitter

what's up everybody welcome back to soccer wise tuesday edition david goss tom bogert here your favorite two-man band out there we're gonna play all the hits here today we've got tom on vocals and on background. What, drums? Maybe a little bass guitar from you? Yeah, I'll shred. You'll shred? I'll shred.

Slap at a bass. And then I'll be your lead singer at times, but other times I'll probably be percussion section. I played the alto saxophone, which was probably a useless thing to have practiced and done in my life i was fine i was uh i didn't practice very much so i got worse as everyone else got that track i i did i did the trombone um in my catholic elementary school uh i was awful i picked it because it was an instrument that was almost larger than me and like everybody else did drum i was like dude i'm not even as a 10 year old i was like bro i'm never gonna do this

i could do hot cross buns really poorly and then when like after fifth grade i was like do i please don't make me do this i can play pop and pomp and circumstance which is the graduation song and when you learn how to play it you learn how to play it like it's a loop, basically. So like in the graduation, you just play it over and over and over again. And any time I go to a graduation, it's like I get the like I can feel it at the base of my neck being like, oh, I got to keep playing. I got to keep playing. I got to keep doing it is the only thing I could still play probably out there. You had a musical weekend, though.

A little music festival for you out on the beach. You were Jersey to the core this week. See here now in Asbury Park, New Jersey. I could walk from my apartment. It was beautiful. Just taking in music on the beach. You had Bruce Springsteen descending on the town that he made famous. His home.

It was the king returning. A little bit like Carlos Vela to LAFC. I tried to put put in the signing But I gotta tell you it was incredible Just standing on the beach listening to Bruce just shred for several hours I'm not like A huge music festival person In that I don't know what is normal

And what is abnormal It's not normal for the headliner To be playing for three and a half hours right No that is Longer than normal at a music it's bruce baby and like he was even taught at the end of the show it's like there's like ordinances in like from there and the stone pony you gotta shut it down yeah and he's just like i'm not going anywhere and then i'm sure even you're not going anywhere chief of the police

chief police was probably there they has to yeah chief of. Chief of Police rolls in in a Springsteen t-shirt. Yeah, probably like, yeah, go ahead. This is sick. Yeah, nobody cares. And he did a couple. He did a surprise show at the Stone Pony, just an iconic music venue that he broke through at in New Jersey the night before. Unfortunately, I wasn't there. But getting to hear Bruce on the beach, all that other stuff, just awesome weekend.

Does he not always, is this not a festival that always happens, that he always performs? So this is the first time he's performed at it. It's every year. But there is some conspiracy theories that apparently this is the last year that this specific town has the rights to this music festival. And now it's like, oh, is Bruce playing? Does that mean that it's going to go somewhere else next year? Does Bruce know that he can close down the show here in Asbury Park?

Or not. But I hope not, because I loved it. Were you tempted to just make it the wedding? Bruce on the beach, just do it in the crowd and then be like this was our anniversary this is what we do it's funny like our wedding is i don't know three blocks from where we were standing yeah the visa's in bruce um and our band is gonna probably be playing a decent amount of bruce and i'm gonna have to sneak in some emails about grateful dead songs that i'm sure my fiancee has not told them to play um and then yeah we'll be good uh well each song will just

take the whole wedding so you only have to you only have to pick like one or two at best and then you can you know that my first date with my wife was at a dead and kind of show yeah when you told me that I was like how did I not know this and you were like it's and we don't like yeah it was like she likes them less than I do. She likes John Mayer and she was 80% of the crowd which thought they were going to a John Mayer concert and we went with a friend who kept

playing Grateful Dead at this like pre-party that we went to and people kept changing it to John Mayer and he looks at me and my friend and goes all of these idiots think they're going to a John Mayer concert. They're going to hate it and I'm going to love watching them hate it. And it was class. It was such a great moment. And it's what I always remember. And of course, it's the reason we're together now. So shout out to Tom and the Dead going forward. I'm glad you had a great weekend. Nice. Just pure

coincidence. This was not planned. We did not know. If you are listening, by the way, Tom just showed his Grateful Dead hat to me. I did not know that was going to happen. So it's just, I guess I can assume it with you. That's fair. Every single time. I'm glad you had a good weekend. It was a wild weekend of MLS action. Of course, we talked about the big rivalry games.

We'll recap them. They were more wild than anyone maybe could have even anticipated. As we go along along we've got a bunch of news actually coming out of california on top of el traffico charlie candle on his way back so light them up if you are an lafc fan and as many ways as you want to take that and then san diego bringing in their officially head coach mikey varas which we talked through a little bit when the rumors came out but you've got some more details about it and now we can really dig into it as we go along we might apologize for some things we have said maybe I'm just putting the maybe there in all caps

because I will not commit to it and of course we've got midweek MLS action Wednesday night games in Major League Soccer they are consequential for the playoff race they are less consequential for the shield race as we will talk about in just a moment there is a weird schedule Tom I went through it to be like oh here are the games to preview and it's like in a league where 97% of teams make the playoffs it is shocking how few like decent matchups there are on this wednesday night which actually makes them unfortunately for fans more important because there's a lot of like you cannot lose games you have nothing to gain but you have a lot to lose if you lose this match yeah it's uh it's a tough

slate when you open up you know finding like i'm trying to catch up from the weekend of course because i missed a decent amount from being at the festival um so that i'm trying to catch up and it's like all right got a good handle on everything red stuff watch as much as i could dad all that and then it's like all right cool oh my god there's more games wednesday it's like it's it's all never ending and you're always like just trying to take a breath of air and then it's like all right let's look into the games and it's like oh jesus there's nothing this week so uh we had a good weekend this weekend. Midweek is going to be for the sickos, and thus I'm expecting some pleasant surprises in that.

When your expectations are the lowest for this league, a Wednesday in September with this kind of crap-looking fixture list, I think it's going to be great. I'm just going to go out on a limb and say that. Let's be real. Patrick Oshawa is going to score a hat-trick. It's going to be my favorite day of the season. In the West, there are only two matchups that have two like both

playoff teams are matching up it's the galaxy versus Portland and it's Houston against Vancouver again 97% of teams qualify for the playoffs and somehow that occurred in the western conference I'm sure I'm missing one but like that's basically how it's broken down and it is absolutely bizarre, but we will dig into it as we go along in this show. Let's start with the weekend. That was, of course, because we, I think I said two weeks ago, I was like every single week we are going to do your recap for the weekend. We're going to tell you the biggest matches, everything that went down, who's in out playoffs, who's out, who had the big wins. I forgot about that immediately and texted you and was like, everything that went down, who's in and out of playoffs, who's out, who had the big wins. I forgot about that immediately and texted you and was like, what do you want to do on

this show? And you're like, what about all the categories you made? So now we are back on the categories. So we start with the best match of the weekend. Tom, this is a no-brainer. Normally, we'll each put one and we'll bounce off each other. It would be hard to put a second match in there. You went through the stats on thursday el traffico always delivers goals opportunities back and forth blah blah blah i think this is the best one ever maybe the zlatan thing

is unique but this is i think this is the best game we've ever seen with the most insanity look yeah it was really good there's nothing that is going to be more insane ever than the Zlatan Ibrahimovic debut. So I think I'm just going to put that to bed for myself. That doesn't take anything away from how awesome this game was and how much fun and how wild and how many different angles you can go. We can start with, hey, Galaxy, did you learn anything from the previous loss to LAFC at the beginning?

The obvious issues of Danny Buonga in transition, losing the ball in bad spots, everything that you would write down as a game plan for LAFC was happening in the first half. And it's like, oh my god, they did this again. Are they, in these current iterations, are they ever going to get over this hump? So that could be the first talking point. But the more obvious one is, four goals in the second half uh incredible comeback some incredible goals awesome atmosphere um and and just a wild game the galaxy proved a lot of doubt like at halftime i was like okay like we don't need to take the galaxy seriously in the playoffs like that's how far out i was and it's

like because if they're doing this today after this has already happened twice this year, in this exact way, Danny Bawanga didn't get any slower. He didn't get any worse at finishing. And LAFC did not change their tactics on how to try to exploit the Galaxy's weakness. And at halftime, when they're down 2-0, it's like, all right, they're just never going to learn.

This is what it is. And then it was an incredible comeback in the second half. All of their strengths, rather than their weaknesses, kind of came to light. All of those wonderful attacking players. Dejan Jovovich was really, really good as well. Again, Ricky Pooch doing Ricky Pooch things. It was a really important win for the Galaxy. One that I think we're going to look back on just in the lore of El Trafico, as you said, and won. But another we could be looking back on when we get to the playoffs and it's like, hey, was that the moment where it was like, oh yeah, like this is going to be an Apex

contender in the West, whereas at halftime, I was all the way out. Yeah, and it's interesting. It was a ridiculous match. It was a ridiculous match, like you said, because the Galaxy basically did all the things they do, both in the negative and the

positive, and that ends up being a 4-2 game like that's how the galaxy are built they are built to give up chances and score chances and create chances you don't expect to see that momentum shift though and i think the galaxy come out of this game and they feel a little bit more weathered like okay you could trust this team to bounce back now you could trust this team in big moments now. You could trust this team in big moments. You come out of that halftime locker room and it's like, you're down 2-0 to your rival at home. Opportunity to win the West. But more importantly, like, this is the game you build up to.

Everyone's watching you. You have now pooped the bed to open things up. You've embarrassed yourself. And, like, the same exact players. It wasn't even, oh, we're going to make changes. Like, it was the same players that walked back on the field and sort of found it within them to turn it around that's a huge moment for the galaxy like you said i think i was as far out i don't know that i've come as far back in on them as maybe other people have out of this performance we'll talk about that coming up in a little bit

but it was greg vanney leaning in as well saying, I'm going to start Marco Royce and Ricky Pooch as my central midfield too. In front of Edwin Cerrio. Bro, you saw that starting 11. Like, oh, you're just like, oh my God. Thoughts and prayers for Edwin Cerrio, his legs, his lungs, his heart, his mental, everything. Like what he was going to have to do behind those two players, those two wonderful attacking players, but that's defending for three.

Yeah. And then you add in, oh, yeah, also, by the way, like Mickey Imani doesn't really defend. And it's like, cool, Edwin Serio, feel free to play 15 positions in this game. And that's what we saw over the first 45 minutes. And so you should go read Doyle's article, as you should every single week. He breaks things down as well as anyone. He talked a little bit about the shifts, but the shifts were the same person now.

And I think that's what's really surprising to me. I think that's the tip of the cap to the players and to Vanny saying, like, okay, it's not always individual changes that have to change. And, like, go and watch the goals. Marco Roy, slide tackles multiple times to win the ball in the open field to help set up chances both of them working harder than they have in the past to help keep things connected and to hang on and then I think the momentum shift when Jovalich scores his goal and it just lifts everyone and you're watching that game and you feel like LAFC are in trouble and yet they're up 2-1 on the road against their opponent and like there it just had this weird feel like LAFC are in trouble and yet they're up 2-1 on the road against their

opponent and like there it just had this weird moment where LAFC for for now years you've always thought okay well they'll get that one in transition like what we felt about I think the Sounders from 2014 to 2019 right of like oh they'll figure this out at some point and like you're gonna have to keep opening up to try and win and try and create. And it's going to kill you at some point. And it didn't. I think there's a few things there. I mentioned this on yesterday's recap show, which I do every Monday.

It's also our mailbag show. So if you want to be a part of that, join the Patreon. You get into the Discord. You can chat with us. We're going to be in there, of course, all of Wednesday night talking, talking all through the NWSL weekend. And that's where we get the mailbag from. But I was talking about this one. And in saying it, you know,

I have zero idea where I was going with that. I went into my, I went into read mode immediately and I have no idea where I was going with my point. Did you say something on yesterday's show that you wanted to reiterate? Yeah, and I have no idea what it was. So shout out to the Galaxy for their big comeback and for their big victory. And it's a huge moment in the course of this season.

It's a huge moment for this team. No pain still in this one. Didn't really matter. I think, again, it shows the, like, how do all these guys start? There's four. They're rarely ever all going to be healthy. And if they are healthy it looks like marco royce is going to play central midfield and like that's the decision and it worked for the

galaxy in this one yeah and like so so doubling down on what you're really good at versus trying to cover up weaknesses i think that's going to be the philosophical debate and decision making for greg vanney and this la galaxy team and add to your point like again at halftime it's kind of like let's double down and the second half was incredible and I think that's going to serve as a proof of concept that like the archetype the archetype sorry of what you would do against the Galaxy is LAFC. LAFC are the top end of that transition uh kill you with pace be difficult to kind of break down and again with Belonga and all of their other attacking talent, that is the best version of that style against you.

So having Ricky Pooch and Marco Reus, like, yeah, again, they gave up two goals in the first half. Pooch had a goal and two assists. Marco Reus had two assists. Like, that's how you draw it up. Dan Jovovich scored twice. Gabriel Peck, maybe on another day, he has a couple goal contributions. Diego Fagundes wasn't really involved in the game, he's probably the the sixth out of those six guys right like joseph paint so maybe he's the one starting opposite gabrielle peck or again if you kind

of tweak it where marco royce goes up there and then you have mark delgado or gaston brugman playing in the midfield with surreal or any combination of that so i can't i really do respect the like hey we're not going gonna adapt to them like it's again all this is much easier to say in hindsight and i want to preface that and that's why i started this negative of like at halftime it's like why were you surprised like was there no justice but like in hindsight after the win like i do respect that like no screw it like we're just gonna be the best at what we do really good and instead of focusing on how can we cover up weaknesses, say, screw it, let's lean into our strengths

and try to just throw a fastball and beat him that way. So the place I was going before, before I got lost, was I've seen the LAFC fans talk about Denny Buongas travel and, like, having the final, throwing the final nail in that coffin by him being elite for 90 minutes and him really only being there for 40 to 45 minutes. I think some of that's fair, right? I think on a different day, LAFC wins this 3-1 and like, that's the story. And so I think for LAFC, unfortunately, and I say, unfortunately, for all of us of like the way they're going to choose to play the game and the way they're going

to choose to handle big games is I think they still walk away saying like, we are who we are and we could have won that game and we should have won that game. And I don't think they changed don't think they changed that but as you said for the galaxy the leaning in this is the columbus conversation like this is literally what we talked about with the mailbag question from last week of why is it okay for columbus to give it up playing out of the back and just laugh but not okay for other teams it's like well they're fully committed to how they play and that is what allows them to be successful the galaxy don't have the ability to sit in and defend if they choose to do that they're going to lose and in this game obviously once it's two zero there's no point in doing it for you the question now is can they be so elite at it that

with their deficiencies they're going to beat everyone and i and i think the door is open for that like that's a genuine opportunity. I mentioned yesterday, Houston looks really good over the last two weeks. A matchup between the two of them would be fascinating to watch because they're both committed to the same idea. Yeah, and then on the other end of that, like, Colorado does, like, they have a lot of, I guess, similarities in how they want to play, just, again, even in the basic terms of with the ball or against the ball.

They want to play against the ball. They want to play in transition. They want to win duels. They want to win duels. They want to transition quick. Like that is in the similar mold of LAFC. If again, we're going to be as simplistic as possible in like possession versus not possession.

Right? Like, so there are going to be like looking at the Western conference and I know we're going to, we're going to talk about the East at some point here, but like it, the way that like the top of the East, again,

with Miami Columbus and Cincy is stronger, I think, than LAFC, LA Galaxy in the West. But, like, one through eight in the West is straight up awesome. And, like, we're at a point where we're watching, like, the middle tier of the East just look awful straight up. Like, a lot of these teams aren't looking like playoff teams, right? Meanwhile, out West, like, you give me any combination of these top eight teams, or 90 with Minnesota because they're playing better, right?

Like, whoever gets it through that play-in game, any combination of these top, of these eight teams, I'm going to watch and I'm going to be super fascinated by, right? And one kind of, one more point on the play styles in the top of the West and everything. Like, I agree with, like like with lefc they could walk away from this and be like i don't know how we didn't win we should have won you use whatever like you know hey buonga like shout out andrew weavey on extra time this is why he's the goat is that he was bringing like he looked up exactly what a travel day back from gabon to los angeles

would be it's like it was like 48 hours and multiple layovers and flight changes like yeah like that's a big part of what happened here. But on the other side, like the other side of this now is because of this, the LA Galaxy are in total control to be hosting that game. If they do get the Western conference final, right. And it's not a foregone conclusion.

Galaxy still have five games left. LAFC have two games in hand while there's seven points behind. So I'm very excited to see how this all plays out, but like, it's a lot different to play at home in a western conference tournament that would be going the road so like i think both sides can take positives from this both sides can say yeah no we're gonna beat them if we play them in the playoffs um and it's just really fascinating to me just like on any given day how these things can all happen i have a question for you that i didn't prep you on and i want you to think about the way you answer it

because it will be clipped and it will be replied to in a little bit on social media. Is Ricky in the MVP conversation? How much does he have to do? So he's got 10 goals and 13 assists for the number one team in the Western Conference right now. Reminder, he will watch this, he will read it, and then he will reply to it after their game on Wednesday night,

I think against Portland. Like, is he top three for you? Can he be top three? What would he have to do? That's a great question. So I think that he's going to be somewhere in that, like, three to five range. Like, I think that this is going to mirror, like,

an NBA conversation in that, you know. Oh, yes. Like, like, an NBA conversation in that, you know. Oh, yes. Like. James Harden toxic conversation. No, not in the way of, like, yeah, I think he should be in the conversation because he's absolutely deserved that. And that, in and of itself, is an awesome thing and should hang his hat on. And I say that and I go so positive on the front end of, like, no, I don't think that he has a real chance to win it. And that's not a slight in any way okay you were the fourth best player of all the players in

major league soccer over an entire season like that's not a slight um i just don't think that like again this is going to be a counting stat kind of thing and it comes available it's like obviously team success plus accounting stats um i don't know if Ricky Pooch will have the numbers in the end there. Like, and hell, Lionel Messi has more goal contributions than he does. And Messi has played, you know, a third of the games. And, like, again, that's not a him to Pooch thing. But, like, there are several players ahead of him with more goal contributions than him. Again, I think that he's one of the most singular players.

Like, I haven't – I'm going to say this offhand without really thinking about best 11 but like i can't imagine i'm not gonna vote him for best 11 like he is one of the handful very best players in mls this year um and he should be in the conversation but in the conversation is where it answered me right like so where it comes to like nba is like and we feel we have a podcast right we're filling time to talk about these topics like think about in the NBA, like, DeMar DeRozan has a sick December. And it's like, is he in the MVP conversation? It's like, okay, yeah, and now what?

Like, and again, like, that's all a positive thing. And these players should be getting recognized while they're playing. But I'm not just going to be like, oh, yeah, he had an awesome game, the biggest game of the weekend. Automatically, yep, let's do that. Like, I think that he's slightly behind the other guys, which, again, he had an awesome game, the biggest game of the weekend, automatically, yep, let's do that. Like, I think that he's slightly behind the other guys, which, again, is still an accomplishment.

Yeah, this is actually an odd year just because, I mean, Messi's probably going to win it while playing, like, seven games because he's Messi and he's going to put up the stats anyway and, like, Miami's going to win. I don't know that Suarez is going to win it. And so, like, votes are going to be all over the place. Obviously obviously last week everyone was having the cucho lucho conversation um we've talked about evander in the convo as well gabrielle peck's got 11 goals and 10 assists but ricky's got a goal in the last two games coming off the league's cup break and like if he goes on a heater

and a tear here and they win the west and run away with the West, I think he will be a top three finalist. Yeah, that's a good shot. And you're right in, like, the accounting stats matters. I think the team might be set up in a way in which he doesn't now. Like, it might be, okay, you come out of the break with Royce there, you know, fully engaged, Peck healthy, Jovlich healthy. Like, yeah, Ricky might put up over the last seven games, he might put up seven goals, seven assists. Like, he might be able to do that.

But, yes, it will be necessary to get in there. The other thing is if the Galaxy stretch this thing, normally people are going to look at team and star and say, who are the top teams, who are the top stars, who gets into this conversation. I don't know if he was in it before. Shout out to Morgan Tenza, who's going to clip this and throw it out there for us. And Ricky's going to tell us if he's in it or not going forward.

So a big moment for this team, a big win for them. As I said, I think one of the best games we've ever seen in this rivalry. It continues to deliver. I talked about Houston Galaxy. I mean, you want El Trafico in the playoffs. There's not a game you want more in a moment like that. It's delivered in the postseason in the past, even though we've had it very rarely, and it has the potential to do it again. Let's go into our other categories.

Let's talk about biggest win for the playoff push. I feel strongly about this one, so I'll start, and I will say Minnesota's win over St. Louis I talked a little bit about this game yesterday Minnesota goes down 1-0 on the road they get Pereira in the starting lineup they get Yeboah in the starting lineup together it is a huge moment for this team and I thought Yeboah was like unplayable in the second half and Bongi is able to put a couple of the chances away uh you get the penalty kick you you get an own goal forced by yoboa but it was a huge moment i think for minnesota because it's not about this year for them completely like this is building towards the future this is year one of a build you'd like to make the playoffs year one and you'd like to do it off the back

of the guys that you think are the future right you don't want a situation here where you're like well the team's better if your bow is not starting if tanny's starting or pookie's starting do we keep forcing him in just so that he gets settled and gets ready they don't have to make that decision anymore they don't have to have that conversation you could see the bones of some of what what will work because robin lud's going to have a ton of freedom in this group. You're going to have some interchange across the front two or three. You allow some of the players, I think, to play to their strengths. Bongi can stay out wide. Sangbin, if he's in there, can stay out wide and be isolated and things like that.

I thought there was a lot of good that came and a lot of good against a tough team. Like St. Louis are at the bottom of the standings. That's not St. Louis. We've talked about them a ton on this show because they have been genuinely competitive. They have improved Klaus back in the starting lineup. And so I think Minnesota had the biggest we can make a playoff push win over the course of this weekend.

Yeah, I do like this answer as well. And particularly given that they're playing. So like, not only does this vault Minnesota like pretty firmly in, like, I'd be a huge disappointment now if they don't hang on to at least that 9th spot. Like, now the conversation becomes, can they get to 8th? Can they host the play-in game? They're one point behind Portland right now.

But they're five points cushioned with the playoff line. So this was a huge performance. It was a game on the road at St. Louis. And St. Louis knew that they had to have St. Louis. St. Louis gets a goal four minutes in. All of that recipe is perfect for Sweet. Like, all the momentum. Oh, my God. Like, here at St. Louis that St. Louis knew that they had to have. St. Louis gets a goal four minutes in. All of that recipe is perfect for Sweet. Like, all the momentum. Oh, my God, like, here comes St. Louis.

Are they going to catch Minnesota? Are they going to, like, really make a push? So the duality of they kind of firmed up where they are. And, like, St. Louis, they're cooked. That's it. It's over. And this is the story of St. Louis this season, man. They go up 1-0.

They have 25 points dropped from winning positions. That's most of the MLS. That's just not good enough. And, like, I think the conversation about regressing to the mean and everything else, like, before the season, I didn't think it was going to be this hard, but, like, this is how it manifests itself. And, like, these are the games that they were picking up points

from losing positions or they were extending their lead and stuff like this where it's like, I don't know if this is repeatable. And it's a big disappointment for St. Louis given that this team on the face of it, as they are currently constructed now, solid team. But even go look back at it, they've had some of these, like Marcel Horto I don't believe debuted that first chance. But still in their last, even their last six games, after the transfer window opened, they won win. One of the ties was 4-4 at Portland, that epic game where they gave

up multiple goals in Stoddard's time. Like, that's two points dropped there. This game, like, they were winning. Like, that could have been five points right there, and they're going, they would be making the playoffs if they didn't throw away so many games. So it's disappointing on St. Louis' side. And, like, that closes the book on them.

And, like, Minnesota can take a deep breath of exhale. And I would say for Minnesota, the game plan here, which I think a lot of it as the game went along, was their ability to suck St. Louis a little bit higher and then play into transition and allow Yeboah to get 1v1 and get into space. And I thought they played out of tight space as well into open space and over the top. You've now got Cincinnati, SKC, and Colorado in your next three. You can keep the game playing.

You don't really have to change things up for those three matchups, right? Those are three teams. SKC, they're just open and they're a mess. The other two are going to press high and they're going to try and press you. They're going to try and create chances with it. And you've now got this option over the top that can threaten them. So you're either going to have those teams say, actually, we have to come a little bit deeper and come out of a mid block and not expose ourselves and open up the space over

the top as much or they go for it and you've got opportunities. And I think you've got a finisher who's capable of doing some special things in your bow, which I'm genuinely really excited about his ability in this league and like what he can bring to this team. And I think you see some of the other pieces starting to come together for them and a little bit of confidence. So if you're a Minnesota fan,

I think you should be excited because it feels like there's a plan and it feels like it's taking steps forward after what's been kind of a rough year or so of just chaos. And like they have not been bad, which in MLS is normally a good thing. Like we had a long NFL debate in one of our group chats yesterday. And it's like the worst thing you can be is in purgatory, in the NBA, in NFL salary cap leagues. That's not the case in MLS because there's no bottom out, get a first draft pick and move on.

Like normally being competitive is worth it because accidentally you'll win and you'll get further into the playoffs every few years. Minnesota didn't feel that way over the last year because they had signed older players and it was all short term and it didn't feel like there was a future. They're not a club with a great academy so where are you finding young players and the future and all of that and a lot of that i think has switched over the last few months and i think should be pretty exciting so that's my playoff push win do you have one yeah for me

it's toronto 2-1 over austin and again the the duality side of this where like toronto this was low key high key a must win if you just kind of look at their schedule they they have kind of a brutal like five of their last six games like they won't be favored in so this was a huge win so now they're five points ahead of atlanta um above the playoff line three points ahead of dc so they're trying to hang on to host this play-in game but again being in the play-in game no matter what is um a win for this team in this season where they were coming from and they needed to have this game the other side of that is austin they're cooked too like i i think um earlier in the season i was saying this several

times like yeah like austin picked up a win here um and like i know that their fans thankfully were going after doyle more than me um about, like, Doyle was being pretty loud about, like, this team isn't good. Like, the XG and all this other stuff, and it's like, congrats, like, you got the three points, but, like, long-term, I don't see this being sustainable. And I was kind of on that as well. They're just not a good team. It's, like, I don't know how many other ways to say it, and, like, I think now we can stop having that charade of,

oh, are they going to make the playoffs? Oh, like, well, does that make them good? Oh, a game's not played in a spreadsheet, mate. They still won three points. Guess what? They had more goals than the other team. That's all the stat that matters. They're not a good team.

And I'm not sure what they need to do in the winter. I think it's pretty clear that they need at least one more high-level addition. And again, Bukhari is somebody who I do like the early signs in him, but they need more. They need to find a like I do like the early signs of him um but like they need more they need to get to find a way to either get the most out of Triusi or think about the future there and like like what does he want what do they want like again I'm still gonna always lean back to that's a very good player and like screw it let's try to figure out how to make it work and I think Bukhari is somebody who works makes sense with him in theory but I think that they need

another kind of high-level player and then more, I guess, depth and rotation. And we'll see what happens. But Austin, I think I'm ready to close the book on them for this year. So what's funny is this game was the opposite for Austin. Their XG was off the charts. Sean Johnson was unreal in this game. And they could not score and could not finish.

I think a lot of the questions that you just talked about, they go down to a number nine. And like, if you need an elite one and what you need to do, Drew, see is very style specific. Like he is not a high, he doesn't want the ball a ton,

but he's not a number nine that holds center backs. He kind of floats in between the two. And he was their elite goal scorer when they had, when they dominated possession and they just needed someone to finish those opportunities. It doesn't feel like they're moving that way with Bukhari. It feels like they're going to try and have a little bit more of a middle style to play and be able to stretch the field sometimes and play in possession sometimes. And so I think you're right in like he's really good,

but he might be really good for you as an asset and like what else he can bring into your team going forward for TFC. I don't think surviving against Austin is really at home is really like the trend you want going into these last few games. As you said, like a brutal stretch for them, Columbus, they go on the road to Colorado. They've got Red Bulls in Miami as well in this final stretch.

And they have been easy to play against over the course of this time. But they've got star talent. And, like, that's what you want at this time of year. The question is if it can elevate itself. This was a good first step for them. And so on that, like, again, no matter what, they needed to come away with three points here. Like, because there have been games where they've had better,

like, either, like, a good performance, and either maybe they dropped points. Or, like, this was, like, in a playoff situation of, Because there have been games where they've had either a good performance and either maybe they dropped the points. This was in a playoff situation of it doesn't matter how it happens, whether you need Sean Johnson to be the man of the match or if you need Austin to not finish well enough. Needs a three-point hit, right? Because they're now five points ahead of Atlanta, and then there's Philly and Montreal, so six points off them total.

They've played one more game than those other teams. Do you trust any of those other teams to make up a five to six point gap at this stage of the season philly maybe but i don't know yeah let's talk about philly because the biggest win for the shield race was the win that ended the shield race miami in leonel messi's return the bounce back when the shield race we are saying is officially over over should i have made a lower third that said shield race over congratulations into miami it is over uh into miami the win in messi's comeback three one win against philly in the end two goals and assist for messi at least two goals i don't know about the assist i don't remember

correct uh the third goal right now it was his assist yeah okay two goals. I don't know about the assist. I don't remember the third goal right now. It was his assist. Yeah. Okay. Two goals and assist for him. And Miami comes all the way back. Philly, of course, lost that game. So that's why I mentioned we can talk about Philly in a moment. I said on the show yesterday, I thought Philly played well. They had their chances. They had opportunities. They made it 1-1. They should have made it 2-2. They had multiple chances to do it. Okay. You could say on the one side it's Inter-Miami, and if Philly plays that way, they're probably fine against most other opponents. The other side is you don't really have that much time left, and you don't have that many points to drop.

Let's start with Miami, though, because you have to. The results without Messi are the reason they won the Supporter Shield, which is incredible. Now he returns, and you see everything. It's not that hard to comprehend why they are the best team in the league um it is sort of surreal to watch at times even this weekend you watch and like it doesn't feel like you can go back through and be like oh good signing here team build it's like a fever dream that this thing's just like happening all of a sudden and

then it's going to be over one day but if you're a miami fan you've got to enjoy it for everything you can i went to a barbershop yesterday in miami with a full wall mural of messy jumping into someone's arm in into miami gear the city is a light man this is why i'm here i have brought the joy yeah for those not watching on the stream goss has a chrome buzz cut like his little thing cut I got my Joseph Martinez move Gavin Sullivan move if I had anything so again like just to go back to the beginning point of what this category

was the shield race when we were discussing this general segment when you were like oh we can do biggest one for shield race like and I was like dude like I don't think that's going to be a thing I was like the only reason that we're trying to talk ourselves into it being alive is because of the respect out of columbus like shield race was for all intents and purposes already over um and now again like i think that's just common knowledge now again it's not mathematical but

the conversation is are they going to break the record i'm 10 points off with six points to go and they're pacing for it and i'd be really surprised at this point if they don't so i would agree with you because the reason that you would say oh they're not going to is because messy and suarez being healthy for the playoffs is all that matters from this moment on and yet they went they won eight games without those without messy in that stretch so like eight of nine crazy right so like in the conversation of oh I don't think they can break the record because they're going to keep themselves healthy that may not matter for this team I think midweek here is an interesting one because that's like a huge test for them they're going at Atlanta who

we will talk about them sucking but like it's on turf midweek. That's going to be a rotation game for this team. And they have their holes. The holes still exist. With that Philly performance, you see the deficiencies on the back line. You see the opportunities out there. Drake Callender having a worse year than he did last year on some opportunities that he should make saves on, but also still capable of some big game-saving moments as well. So his performances have been up and down. The expectation, I think, at this point should be that Inter-Miami set the record. Like, they have the depth.

They have the know-how. And I think there's enough people in this group that are willing to carry this team when Messi's not available. Whether it's Busquets, even though it's not his best position, being willing to drop into the back line and play center back. Whether it's some of the other veteran pieces in central midfield that have stepped up in the big games without some of the stars. And Suarez, who's sitting on the verge of a double-double season in Major League Soccer in his first. And, like, if he stays healthy and plays this stretch, he might be the one who has the MVP numbers in the end for the best team in the league.

Yeah. So right now he's at 17 goals and six assists in just over 1500 minutes like um i'm like suarez was one of my favorite players of all time like he we all know what he did for grammyo and what like this surpasses i think any reasonable expectation for even the most optimistic louis suarez uh seasons here at this stage of his career, even anybody who was like, of course this is going to be an incredible signing. Do you remember in preseason when people were like, why did they even bother signing him? This guy sucks.

That was a thing, dude. Like, unreal. How was that a thing? Because he used to play for Liverpool and everyone else, Liverpool sucks like, I don't want this to get lost in the sands of time that was the dumbest conversation of all, I think in preseason like, I can't even think of a second place

right now, like, oh man they went to Saudi Arabia and played 7 games in 12 days or whatever the hell they did, and it's like, oh, Luis Suarez on one knee, didn't score against some of these teams in mid-season form it's like, oh, Luis Suarez on one knee didn't score against some of these teams in midseason form. It's like, oh, he sucks. Like, why did they bother? Are you kidding me?

Yeah. And the reason they're capable of signing these players is because there's the depth there of like, Suarez was a risk because you don't know how many minutes he's going to play. And Messi, obviously, you didn't know how many minutes he's going to play. Copa America year, all those types of things things but they built out this roster in a way that

they could buttress any of those issues and they still have match winning talent on the field in all of these games they've got leo campagna as an option they've got a ton of flexibility across the front line ryan taylor ben how kramowski whenever he's healthy like they've just got a ton of options and this is a deeper team than we have seen in major league soccer almost ever. And that's, what's been able to keep them afloat in this conversation on the flip side, Philadelphia, as I said, a strong performance. There's a lot of pieces in the team that have been good to be able to put on this performance without Andre Blake,

another big one for them and you put a teenager and goal in a game like that. It's just a wild experience, but they head to NYCFC tomorrow night. They face D.C. and Atlanta at home. That's going to decide this for them, right? Those are the games, D.C. especially, Atlanta one spot ahead of them. Those are the teams they're chasing. That's their opportunity. They have done enough to keep themselves in touching distance here,

but they have to be almost perfect going through this stretch of games to put themselves really back into the playoffs. And I don't think it saves the season for this Philly team, but like they're a team that if they get in, they've got more experience in these games than anyone they're going to play against for the most part outside of Columbus. And they've got success against most of these opponents. Like, I don't think that it should be acceptable. I understand all the complaints and like, this is a team that could have pushed on and didn't. But if you are sitting there right now, I think if you're Philly, say just give us a shot,

like just get us in the back door and let us cause chaos. Yeah. And I think the other side of this too, like it's too late for them to be climbing forward. But like, again, it Miamiami cincy columbus after that everybody kind of sucks like so like if philly were in uh like six now that was to line them up with columbus but like again like those teams below the top three i don't really have any time for it like you'd be like yeah like could philly be the fourth best team maybe because everybody else stinks too like they all stink like it's it's disappointing it's frustrating we're talking about the strength of the eastern conference and like well the top

of the conference like that has held up um red bulls nycfc charlotte like all just very bad toronto has climbed up orlando's climbed the table a little bit but they started off really bad and you can poke holes in some of their wins if you want to be mean or really go with like a ruler here. So like, okay, that wasn't a playoff team. That wasn't a playoff team. Like it's just wide open beyond those three and like not wide open. And this is super fun. It's like wide open.

And I don't really care because I'm not treating any of them as serious to come playoff. Yeah. So for Philly, if they are able to sneak up into the top of the play-in games and all of that, like Miami are a monster, although without Andre Blake, they went down there and performed admirably. If I'm Cincy, I want nothing to do with this team.

They knocked me out of League's Cup. It was a pain in the ass in the playoffs last year. And I think if I'm Columbus even, you're not scared of anyone at any point. But, like, you'd rather play a dc united or an atlanta in the postseason than deal with andre blake and you know jack elliott and jacob gless like all of this shit that has been there before and knows what they're doing and is comfortable in that spot so i think those teams are playoff are going to be watching the bottom of the standings here and be like i think christian benteke's got a couple goals in him. Like, come on, get a little cheering section for Maranchuk and this Atlanta team as well

to see if they can turn things around. Because that would be, I think, the story of that first round in the Eastern Conference. Let's talk about bounce backs. Let me go first because I'll just be quick. It's Lionel Messi. He's back. We haven't seen him in multiple months. Two goals and an assist.

Like, the question was whether he was going to play or not. Then, oh, he's in the lineup. That's back. We haven't seen him in multiple months. Two goals and an assist. Like, the question was whether he was going to play or not. Then, oh, he's in the lineup. That's surprising. Oh, he's playing 90 minutes and he's dominating the whole time. Cool. Like, this is normal. He's got, what, 28 goal contributions now in like 1,100 minutes? It's insane. Okay, that's fair. Now let me ask this.

Is it bounce-back win or bounce back performance? What are we doing in this game? Why do you ask so many questions on a podcast segment? The whole point of this is to be the eye of the beholder. This is how I train. It was always like, oh, we're doing this training game. If I stand in this corner next to this extra goal, can I just tap it in?

That's how you win. That's how you win, Tom. It's not about playing you win by having a good podcast segment nice so I'm gonna say performance then and I'm gonna say FC Cincinnati even in a tie uh we kind of went on for a while in the show last week saying like this is a chance to prove you're not the team that went on that losing streak Lucho finally back in the starting lineup can you settle even without Robinson, they went toe-to-toe with Columbus. It was a performance that looked like a team that could win the Eastern Conference.

They weren't able to get the goal, although Lucho was close and showed you the quality in that finish, even with it being offside, like showed you why he's that MVP convo player and why he's the difference maker for them of when he's on the field and when he's not. So I thought for Cincinnati, it was a big weekend, even though you don't beat your rival at home. And it was like the sign they needed to say, bounce back. Like we're still there for straight up wins.

It would be Montreal and Chicago. Cause they literally bounce back from losing a lot of games to winning. I don't know how much I take from either of them. Like I don't Charlotte have opened themselves up in either of them. Like, I don't. Charlotte have opened themselves up in their own way. Montreal jumps on them. The two early goals in back-to-back moments, like across three minutes. And then Charlotte was never really able to settle in that one.

I think it's great for Montreal to see Bryce Duke score. I think it's great to see Caden Clark get some energy and score. Excellent performance. That's the most important thing. But, like, I don't watch that game also this is lauren cuartas is going to change the entire starting lineup for the next game because that's all he's done over the course of this year and i don't know that i watched that game and say like this is who they are going forward they could build on a couple of these

it's big for chicago give it to him tom starlow elevating against the New York Red Bulls. Come on, everyone's here for it. I have everybody but Red Bulls fans, I'd imagine. Like, I thought, so Kaelin Carr texted us, like, that Barlow scored. I was trying to catch up on everything. This was, like, after the festivals. And, like, I just, like, breathed. Like, again, we had, you know, 400 messages in the chat. And I was like, oh, that was just a joke.

And then I looked at the scores. I was like oh that was just a joke and then i looked at the scores i was like oh good for him that's awesome like cool and like they were like i didn't even notice that was a fixture going in i was like what is he talking about so yeah um good for good for chicago good for montreal um again particularly like what i would say for those like we didn't go back to montreal here they need steps forward they need some of these players that they signed like jakeel marshall ruddy um and kate and clark like a lot of these were upside plays and the idea was well if we stink anyway like let's get young talented players roll the dice here low risk on both of these guys let's see what they've got and kate and clark looked really really good in this game like it was poetic that on his goal, if you've seen the clip,

like I think Doyle's tweeted it, or if you go watch the highlights, or if you highlight, like he tracked the ball over his shoulder on a through ball on the initial one and made a sweet connection with the volley. Like that would have been the goal of the weekend if he put it in. So I was glad that in that scrum is when he ended up getting his goal. It's like a little bit of persistence and a little bit of just a lucky bounce, and I'm glad it fell back to him because persistence and a little bit of just a lucky bounce. And I'm glad it fell back to him because he deserved a goal at the beginning of that play.

So again, he played really well. And that means more for Montreal right now than three points. And I don't know if Laurent Couturier and the coaching staff would agree with that. I don't know. Even necessarily the fans would or wouldn't. Like winning is super important even when the team is bad. But for me, what I'm looking for more isn't whether they can beat charlotte at home in september it's like okay what are the building blocks what are the pieces for next year uh is i don't know that the fans care either way because the fan the supporters group put out a statement after this game being like

this club's a mess and none of this is acceptable i believe one of the supporters groups has like officially walked away as a supporters group for this team and then the other one was like this team refuses to acknowledge montreal impact and come back to our history as well as refuses to be competitive and you can't have both there's a lot of complaints out there where it's like you could hide behind one of them you can't do all of them i I'm 1,000% with the supporters groups on that one. Like, you can't suck and take away the Montreal impact. You need to do one or the other. Preferably neither.

Preferably neither. But I'll accept one. It was odd to see Joseph get the start in all of that of, like, he's on $1.3 million. He's got an option for next year. Who are they baiting against? But there's no way they re-up the contract, you know, on that. So, yeah, maybe you bring him back on a lower deal, but also like why? And so those are some of the weird things that are happening, I think, still with this team.

But you also have to put a competitive team out there week in and week out. On the Caden Clark goal, if you watch from the beginning, it is one of the craziest moments I've ever seen. I think it's Tim Rehm, but it might be Urenen. I'm not sure. Ball comes over the top and they choose to head it back to goal. And they're so far away that Kalina actually has to come off his line and head the ball back away because he's not in his own box when he gets there. And then it's just like pure chaos going into Saliba's chip, Clark with the volley attempt, and then Martinez on the ground, Clark's on the ground. Like the whole thing is chaotic moments.

And I think it shows some of the tough moments that Charlotte's going through right now. Disconnected. I think Kerwin Vargas has moments for them, but like they don't really have anyone in the box when he chooses to cross, and he's always choosing to cross. If that's the case put bl out there play another center mid who can actually cover ground and connect the game and just accept the fact that you're not going to create a million opportunities but you'll be more

dangerous with the ones that you do it feels like vargas is playing a different game than everyone else it's not super helpful right now for this team and that's on top of how disconnected the back line is from the midfield. And that was the issue for this club for the first two years or year and a half that they were in the league before they started to stabilize things a little bit with Melanda and Privet in center back. So that's my only point on Charlotte is my only point. I just had the one point on Charlotte there.

Let's get to our final segment here for the weekend recap. I titled it one way in the writeup. You can choose to call it whatever you want. It's your mea culpa moment. What do you want to call it? Uh, maybe I was wrong. Dot, dot, dot, question mark. So we're not, we're not fully going in on, on that.

It was just a, Hey, like sometimes you go off the cuff here or like, maybe we go in too strong on something that like, Hey, maybe, maybe we pull it back. So the one I'm going to start with here, because a transition here maybe i was a little bit wrong about charlotte we spent a lot of time on these on this very high distinguished program talking about charlotte fc and uh they have one win in their last eight mls games and that stinks that's very unfortunate as you said earlier the defense has not looked as good during During this time, their last two games, loss at home to Atlanta, really bad result. Loss at Montreal, really bad result. Draw

against the New York Red Bulls at home who are, you know, they're not a playoff team without Emil Forsberg. That's where I'm at with that team. And the one before that, draw at Austin, who we kind of buried before. Not exactly a murderer's row of the fixture list right

there and no wins that's really disappointing and after spending so much time of what could swiderski be coming back pep bl like i think again tim ream i think that he has the potential to still elevate this team uh but through whatever a month here things uh are not going great uh for Charlotte FC in terms of results there's still time but um I feel like it's only fair that I come back and say maybe I was a little bit too strong on the positive stuff this is your fault you were wrong Tommy Scoops takes the L with the Charlotte players Sir Minty is standing left of the camera I believe or is it left of the camera, I believe, or is it right of the camera with the weapon face directly at you saying this is what you have to say.

Do you have any more that you want to do? Because I've got one. But you're not out yet. And the other one that I want to, the Stuart Armstrong sign with Vancouver. I do think that I went a little too strong and, like, nothing matters if he's a DP that can't be bought down. He can't be bought down.

I've done that reporting. But like I kind of broke my own golden rule there of like I can kind of question the process. I can question kind of the roster build. But if he's the right player, none of it matters. It does like I can feel like oh it would have been really nice if that was max dam and it would have been really nice if this team like spent more in ownership guess what like that's not a world we live in and so i think that i got i focused too

much on the fact of like i wish that they made a bigger splash i wish that they spent more i wish that this that like and without giving enough i guess credit to the player that maybe could be it again like i might be swinging too far back here in that he scored off the bench against san jose at home but which is everything but that um reminded me like you know hey maybe that was too strong to just completely write it off before you've seen how it is like i'm still leaning that way but like um again i i would once again think that it's important to say you know what maybe i was a little too strong so we do this show twice a week and when we do this show i go into the studio where we record

and then this little thing pops up that says like tom boogert is asking for access and you have to let them in if you look at at the face of Ryan Gould after Stuart Armstrong scored that and like the Scottish bro love when they both recognized and they were like, look at us, look where we are. That's how I feel every time Tom comes into this chat. It's like, let's effing go. Ryan Gould was so happy in that moment.

And the two of them were so like dumb happy that they didn't know what to do with themselves. And they just started patting each other a ton and being like we did it we did it and we're here uh yes five minutes against san jose at home off the bench probably not enough to decide it but to our credit we did say on this show when the signing happened it was better than not making the signing yes just a comment i'm gonna make coming up about carlos vella i don't think it's the right move because I dug through it this weekend, was thinking about stuff.

It's okay for Vancouver to be like, oh, we're going to be a team that's solid, and we're going to leave space open to sit around and see what falls through for us. Like, Stuart Armstrong's a good player. No one else made the signing. And I thought of Lucho Acosta and all of that. Like, when he came back from Atlas, no one thought he was who he is. And anyone who goes back and revisionist history on Lucho Acosta pisses me off

because people didn't think it when he first got to DC and people did not think it when he came back from Cincinnati. In saying all of that, it still is a more ambitious signing than Stuart Armstrong. And they, I think, need to find a way to make these the TAM signings and be open to those DP signings of like,

oh, this all fell through for you. We'll take you on and you can be a competitive piece here and maybe we'll flip you again in the future. But Vancouver is a better team today than they were before they signed him. And they've got a better chance of making a run in this playoffs than without him. Yeah. And that's the thing. Like, again, I still think that the critiques are fair. I still think like I use that line that line that we're hammering home again, that they are better right now than they were if they did not sign Stuart Armstrong,

I use that as a throwaway. Yeah, okay, sure, whatever. And so I did not place enough emphasis on that. And I was speaking to someone with better knowledge than me about how he fits in the group, what he's going to do, how he can connect, break lines, get the ball, and how the knock-on effect on Gould that he'll be freed up to hopefully do more in the attack, and then it's like, oh, so that's part of the move, is that not only do they

believe that this is a very good player, but they believe that then it makes Gould in whatever tier we had him, maybe that bumped him up another tier, and that, like, okay, he went from, like, just a really good DP to, like, oh, is this, like, a match, like, a really good dp to like oh is this like a match like a bigger match winner more of a um you know best 11 type guy rather than just like uh oh if he's your best player you know how far can you go and the other ones are buanga pooch or whatever you kind of going down the list right like so i don't think that i've given enough credit to that side of the signing nor how he fits so um we'll see how it how it goes this will be an even funnier clip if he's just not very good for the rest and i read so much correction one just one finish against san jose at home after they had been mathematically eliminated from the playoffs

earlier than i think should ever happen in major league soccer i've got balloons if you have to um if you have to register two official mia copp's on Stuart Armstrong, both into the positive and back to the negative. Hang on. You're talking, you asked so many follow-up questions about the rules of discussions in here, and now you've hijacked this into, this is an official I was wrong, everything's over, it's done. Yeah, we're gonna make... The whole point of this bit

was, hey, like, let's revisit, like, you know, maybe I was too strong in that one. And now you're like, oh, it's an official mea culpa. You used the word official. Let me explain to you how you should do this. So mine is the LA Galaxy. The LA Galaxy fans decided that they were going to get up on the soapbox this weekend after their come from behind victory against LAFC.

Congratulations. And come after me because I said preseason that this team wasn't very good, that they weren't going to be super competitive, that they had huge issues, and that they were not going to be the return to the LA Galaxy that they are. And I'm going to stand by my take. And I am not going to step down. And that's how you handle the situation. No one.

I'm going to say this. I like to apologize. I didn't realize how bad the Western Conference was going to be this year. So I wasn't fully familiar with your game. I was unprepared for the way this season would play out. And that's where I'm going to leave it. And this was sort of what I was alluding to when we talked about the Galaxy. They showed who they were in this game.

And I don't know that you can run through the playoffs and make MLS Cup conceding twice in the first 20 minutes of every single game. And I don't know if you can run through the playoffs the way they are set up right now, being so committed to that one thing and not being perfect at it, right? Columbus is perfect at it. That's like, that's the bar. They have to get there. I don't think this team is there. And that might be a time thing. They need to be together and more cohesive for longer and be built through, you know, have more players or players that sort of embody it even more going forward, or they might never get there, and most teams don't ever get there.

And, like, the reality of Major League Soccer is outside of Columbus, most teams that play that way don't win MLS Cup. LAFC didn't win MLS Cup playing that way. And then they changed the way they played to go and win it and also brought in freaking Gareth Bale to come off the bench just to get over the line against Philadelphia at home. So I'm going to say that the door is still open. And thank you, Galaxy fans, for reminding me of all of that as we go forward. I think some of the other things I talked about were deficiencies at center back, deficiencies defending 1v1 on the wings, and deficiencies in goal. You saw all of that against LAFC.

So I wouldn't say it's like the total victory package for them. Let's go cross town, though. Let's jump into our ice cream shop here. And you've got a little bit of additional details for us as we talk about some of the big moves in California. Let's start with Carlitos. Yeah. So as is now official after i first reported that carlos

vella has been re-signed by lafc a shock return i think at this point i was i thought it was over talking to sources i thought that there was kind of no chance this was gonna happen it did um and i i interviewed lafc's john thornton to kind of break down like hey how did this happen what happened conversations had been kind of even passively ongoing for a while, even when I think I thought it was more informal was the word that John Thornton used. So what was it like Carlos throws up an IG of him at a pool and LAFC officially responds and like,

look sick, let's talk later, let's catch. Is it like when I'm like, we should grab lunch to people on IG and be like, where are you? And never have an intention of seeing each other? Because like talks have been ongoing. Like it's September. Yeah. That's.

And so that's kind of, I was like, and they're like, no, like, I mean, ownership as well. Like they want Carlos Vela to be part of this. So first let me just get a couple details out of the way. He's not a designated player. They would have had to put that in the press release. And that was kind of, it was a, you can read into what we didn't put in that in the press release, and they didn't. And that was kind of, it was, you can read into what we didn't put in the press release.

Personally, I don't know if teams have to signify if they use Tam on a signing or not, but that was not specified in the press release either. There was an option for 2025, and Thornton didn't want to get into any details financially over what, kept saying, hey, something that made sense for Carlos, something that made sense for us. Their managing owner, Bennett Rosenthal, in in the press release said you know carlos is important to the entire lafc community we simply would not be who we are without him thornton absolutely echoed that sentiment kept coming back to it um said that they wanted him back the whole time there's a reason why that they they do the little like goodbye tweets to all the players like

even uh christian teo was there for what three months and played 110 minutes and like like so like my significance of that is that like they want to they they try to treat things that way like that is the ethos of the club so it was conspicuous that even as there were no serious conversations with carlos vella they were not closing the door on that ownership obviously wanted him back. They were vocal about that. They were involved at the club, all of that. But at the end of the day, they believe that he's going to help this team in 2024. Me personally, I hope that he's still there for 2025 so we don't have to do this all over again. And maybe his pal Antoine Griezmann will be around as well. Who knows? Like, one thing that I find interesting here,

and I think from the outside, because of some of the difficult decisions that LAFC have had to make, like, it's really difficult to be sentimental and how much that kind of values into some of these decisions. In the salary cap league, it's like the old trope. It's not personal, it's business. Like, things aren't that black and white in sports and club cultures and fans all that stuff right like and i kind of like asked thornton that and and he's like i'd push back he's like i i don't know how to be anyone like i am an emotional person he's like there are some gms in all sports that

try to put up a barrier between them in the locker room so that it's easier to like when a tough decision has to be made you can take the emotion he's like i can't do that and he goes like like that that is something that like we want carlos vela to be part of this club like we want there to be a proper goodbye like that's all like he he didn't like like i was like you know how do you kind of not quantify like how does that play into it, or like, are you have, now that everything, like, had to make sense on the field, had to make sense financially, everything else, but like, now that it's all done, can you, like, lean into, he's like, now, like, I, he's like, I can't trip that away when I'm making these decisions, so things are

obviously very difficult, again, on a romantic side, I'm thrilled that this deal got done, I'm honestly very, very surprised, I wrote an article about what's going on with Carlos Vela, probably six weeks ago, a month ago, something like that, talk, like, I wrote an article about what's going on with carlos vela probably six weeks ago a month ago something like that uh talk like i wrote that article as like a this is over i think this is over like and he's just maybe never going to announce his retirement because carlos is carlos he can does whatever he wants and i love that about him like but that was the the impetus behind that article was talking to enough sources to be like i'd be shocked if this happened and it happened and hey man sometimes sports are cool yeah i think for fans it's fun like it's a cool thing to happen i said yesterday like i don't think it's going to

be a meaningful difference in the soccer and on the team and i can understand the like veteran presence who he's been he has been everything you want him to be as a locker room member as a leader as a captain since the club's been founded so anything him coming back into the locker room is positive there are also other ways to do those things like you can have coaches and assistant coaches and club ambassadors and technical staff like there are other ways to bring a person back into a club and have them be around it. I'll be interested to watch Vela play and see if he has anything left to give this team. It's really hard to think he does with all the time off and like no preseason, not getting back into things after the player we saw leave.

I'd be surprised if he does. But as you said, there's like a ton of off field and sentimental stuff here that the spots open. So it's their money and it's not being used on anyone else and the roster freeze has already occurred so like you might as well bring him in as i said with the student arm something like you're not worse than you were yesterday before you had vela i don't know that you're much better but you're not worse than you were you were over there and it is funny to hear the sentimental side because this is a club where like, they win MLS Cup, no money for Chicharango. See, Atuesta helps them get off to a great start.

Okay, we're going to ship you out now. Zimmerman the same. Like they have done that consistently and they're not wrong for it. But it's funny to hear then the other side would be like, oh, that's not really who we are. Now, it feels like Vela is different than all of those people.

Vela is the club. He was the founding player for a reason. So much of what they've done off the field and on the field has been built around him. I mean, you go to LAFC games, for anyone who's never been, it is a Mexican culture. When you are in the stadium, they're playing Mexican music consistently. It's a huge part of the fan base. It was something that the club leaned into. A lot of that's because of Carlos Vela and who he is

and what they wanted to be in bringing him in as a player. And a lot of it's what San Diego is trying to mimic right now, Njuki Lozano and all of that. But it's hard to imagine something being equal to Vela. Then he goes out and he puts up some seasons in which you say he is one of the greatest MLS players of all time and won trophies for that club. So he is not Chicho Arangoango he is not Walker Zerwin he is not an idiot like he's singular in what he means to that club and always will and as you said it will be cool to see him go out

um in the right way with them let's talk San Diego as well I was just gonna say I would say one one fair pushback in case people are listening to this and talking out loud to themselves. If sentiment was a really big part of this, it would have been back in February. Right. Not right. Like, so, again, it was at least something that played a part. Like, I don't want to misconstrue his words, but if you're sitting at home or walking your dog or in your car or at the gym being like, if this was so important, why didn't they do it in January, February, or March?

That's fair, right? I think that's just where I'd put that. All right, take us down the coast. Let's talk San Diego. Yeah, San Diego officially hired Mikey Varas. I got to take some time with Sporty director Tyler Heaps and Mikey Varas himself and spoke with them this morning. One of the questions I asked Tyler Heaps was, you know,

hey, like, and from our conversation with Bobby Warshaw, I was like, oh, I'm very curious. How did you go from, like, hmm, who is interesting? How do we get 100 names and bring the down to 10? He laughed and was like, come on, don't you know how? Like, I listen to the Bobby Warshaw interview. Nice, let's go. Like, that's why I asked.

Soccer-wise fans, baby. What's up tyler uh he lives like no like you know but like bobby that was in like that was that's how teams do it right like that's kind of like they have their pillars of you know they wanted um somebody obviously with youth development somebody who who um sees the game the same way that they do so everything is going to kind of be aligned the two men seem very aligned in Tyler Heaps and Mikey Vars. One of the things that Mikey Vars told me that I found super interesting is that he was looking into San Diego

probably the same way San Diego was looking into him. He was like, I was doing my research and stuff, and he goes like, I wanted to be a part of this in some way. And he's like, I told Tyler that in an interview. He's like, if I didn't get the job, I wanted to be a part of this in some way. And he's like, I told Tyler that. And he's like, if I didn't get the job, I wanted to consult. He's like, I wanted to be involved in some way because he's like, I think that they're doing it right and all this. The other interesting nugget that Mikey Vars gave me, like, that I followed up on to make sure I had it absolutely correctly. He was like, I wouldn't have left in ahead of a home world cup

for something that i didn't feel was was the absolutely the perfect job and i was like when you say that do you mean that you would have been on riso punch as you know staff and he was like there were there were discussions for that yeah um and like i reading myself reading into it i'm assuming that he had a pretty good idea he would have been on the staff if he wanted to continue with u.s soccer so okay the fact that he's leaving before the home world cup like mikey varus is a name that's been in the mix in in coaching searches over the last couple cycles i think that he would have had an offer from somewhere else within the next 18 months probably if not as soon as this winter he was one of those guys that. Oh, he's going to be one of the next candidates.

Oh, he's going to be one of the next candidates. So it's not a situation where, crap, there's 30 of these. Whatever's offered to me, I've got to take it. Like, I think Mikey Varas knew that there would still be options. So the other side of this too is that, like, he's really bought into the club and he feels that this is a vision that fits what he cares about as well and so from the beginning they're everybody's in lockstep and i'm really excited to see how the san diego roster comes together how this game model comes together and what chucky lozano looks

like under mikey varus because mikey varus was like he has the ability to be the best player in the league and it's on me to put him in the best positions to succeed okay um i think for varus it makes a ton of sense right he comes from sacramento fc dallas in the u20s like he if you're talking about youth development background and you want a club that's going to value that i don't know that anyone will more than san diego and that's the right to dream connection and what they're building and then to do it with his now tentacles of like i've worked across texas in the southeast and i've worked across nor and into the Pacific Northwest and across, you know, when you work with a club like Sacramento, you're talking about the Vegas's of the world and you're going into Arizona and all of that. And, and that's what right to dream has said, like they want to cast a wide net and get the

best young players to come and play for their club. He makes sense for all of that. I think if you're him and that's what you believe in you need to have guarantees that the club's going to stand behind you right because what we've seen in major league soccer is oh we believe in this but we don't want to lose games so like we believe in this to this extent and then you either need to start winning now or we're gonna fire you and so I think if he feels like this is the club that's going to be behind him as they look like and as he's probably found from all this research, that's where it becomes like a really special opportunity. Plus the area.

If you're going to try and develop young players, Southern California, not a bad place to do it. Mexico border, not a bad place to do it. And through Right to Dream, not a bad place to do it. I think there's a lot that makes sense here. You've got a little bit of MLS experience, that know-how. And for him, there's not only just like, oh, there's 30 jobs and how many are there. You get a chance to launch something new and do something special. We talk about Carlos Vela. You talk about Bob Bradley in the same breath, right?

To launch something new, to do it at a high level, to do it in a special way. Tata Martino as well. There are only so many chances like that in the world because most leagues don't have new clubs coming through. And so I think that's a big part of this as well. I'm glad to hear that they're listening to us. We're going to try and guide them along the way in their expansion bid. We're going to try and help them build out their roster as they go forward. We've got some fun stuff planned.

Maybe we'll pull Bobby back in to get some more segments. Now this sounds like super self. I was bringing that up to laugh laugh about like, yeah, man, like you didn't you, did you already answer that question? Not like, Oh, they listened to our show. Didn't mean it like that. Too bad, Tom. That's the way I took it.

And that's where I'm going with it. Now talk about Junior Moreno. I don't know why. Oh, that deal's done. I just, um, that came on the roster freeze day as well. Junior Moreno to Houston Dynamo. He was really, really good for Cincinnati. Then his contract expired.

He ended up going to Saudi Arabia. Before Cincinnati, he worked with Ben Olsen in D.C. I really liked his signing. I honestly didn't know that he was a free agent. I thought he was still at his club in the Middle East. You didn't because we did a show where we talked about free agents and available signings, and I brought him up.

Okay. So maybe you need to go talk to Tyler Heaps and be like, hey, have you listened to SoccerWise recently? Anything interesting been said? The point of that was to say I'm shocked that it came all the way down to the roster freeze. That no one else in MLS made this move is surprising. Or like, again, maybe people tried. Maybe the money didn't line up,

or maybe he didn't think the chance, the project or whatever was the right one. But I think it was a really good signing by Houston, and a low-key one that, again, came through on a Friday evening, came through right after the Carlos Vela news, so it probably got buried a little bit for people outside of Houston. But this is a very good signing. Don't they know that you had a Bruce concert this weekend until, like, not make news and do stuff?

The Vela and the Moreno scoops came Friday night. So the concerts were Saturday, Sunday. All right. We thank you for respecting the sanctity of Bruce in New Jersey in Asbury Park. Yeah, Junior Moreno, he's an MLS player. So if you're Houston and you get stuck with injuries, you want to protect Ache Ache down the stretch.

They did this with Jan Gregus as well. It worked fine. They've done it with Lateef. They're trying to build in the back end of their roster, and I think they've done a good job with it going forward. Anything else here? That's it. All right, let's talk Houston.

They play Vancouver. I think that's the best game of Wednesday night. And like I just said, they've looked really good over this stretch. They destroyed RSL at home. There was like a seven minute period where RSL scored, they cut it to 2-1. It looked like it could be 2-2. And then Houston was able to gain control of the game and be able to get their claws in it and finish it off. Ponce looks connected. He looks dangerous. He looks different than the rest of this team. In our whole underrated thing, I said we couldn't say Artur

because he'd done so much, but he's one of the best in the league at what he does. Mikael, another strong performance from him in winning, I think, most of the battles with Chicho Arango and forcing RSL to play a little bit deeper. That's like a tough matchup, I think, for Houston. They have now beat LAFC and RSL, which are two teams that I think are set up to beat them, of like can hit you in transition can hit you from direct balls especially from deep wide areas where they're often leave

people exposed and can get beat 1v1 at the center back position this is a really good stretch for Houston in saying that Vancouver's another team that's set up that way that wants to play direct that wants to play in transition and this is going to be the one that I have on the big tv for this Wednesday night yeah I think it's obvious. And we joked about the lack of top quality games. Yeah. Houston Vancouver is definitely going to be the best one. I'm really excited to watch that again.

Houston have been really, really good lately. Again, they've probably flown under the radar because of where they are in the standings and they're where they are in the standings because of, it was a slow start at the beginning of the season with injuries, everything else. This is a team that's going to be the best version of themselves heading into the playoffs. And that's kind of what you want in the timing.

And like, yeah, now they're sitting in seventh. They're three points off third place. They're four points off LAFC in second place, though. I don't really believe that they're going to fall off, but hey, it's possible because they have a game in hand on some teams around them. But like they can very quickly be working into that hosting round one. And, like, I think that that's pretty low-key because they've been flying under the radar. And they've been playing some really good soccer.

And Houston Dynamo are peaking at the right time. Here's your roster read. They go after this game or roster schedule read. They go to Austin and Seattle. They host New England. They go to St. Louis. And then they new england they go to st louis and then they finish the year at home against the la galaxy on decision day i feel like that that's like uh every year kind of thing it's yeah it is that's true that's tradition this is football heritage

yeah and rsl doesn't play and sits at home and waits to see what happens that is that's the nature of the game and the nature of the beast but But it's a good stretch for Houston to close on. As you said, they are trending at the right time. They look really good going into the postseason. And now you can say, like, we've seen it before. We can trust this team in the playoffs. I think they trust themselves in big games and big, like, must-win moments. And that's really exciting.

And then you add in that little bit of addition of talent. And I talk about this a lot of like, you can see the stress in players when they don't feel like goals are coming in their team. You can watch teams play and you can see the panic and like, I have to hit everything when it bounces out to me. I have to keep peppering the goal. It doesn't feel that way with Houston

because I think partially because of Ponce and what he's brought in. I thought Coco looked awesome this weekend and you saw a level of that of like, Coco wasn't shooting from distance as much. He was head down creating, knowing that chances were going to come for him and the team, and like that's where he's at his best.

Bossy looks really good again as well. So this is going to be a fun one to watch. Curious to see how many minutes Armstrong has in him, and where Vancouver chooses to use him, because they've got a lot of pieces to move around. I already sent the warning shot to my TFC friends. That was like Ralph Preso, back-to-back starts, another Toronto-based player who might succeed with another club.

Watch out. But we are far from that one. We talked a little bit about Atlanta-Miami. Atlanta were one of the big losers of the weekend. They got played off the field by Nashville. And I believe Shonday Silva came out with an injury in the first half as well. So something to note for them. They couldn't get near anyone in central midfield. Hany dominated the game. They continued to play behind the fullbacks and were able to attack the

center backs. So a lot for Atlanta to try and clean up here for this midweek game as they're in must win territory. And I don't know, is this a rivalry? Potentially, who knows? But whatever it is, Atlanta doesn't have a lot of space to waste here. And they've got to try and take a shot. I don't have much to add. There you go. Like, we've had the conversation about Atlanta so many times about, you know, yeah, for this, whatever. Like, just that loss to Nashville, I think, does it for me, like, mentally with them. Not that I thought that they were a threat in the East before that, but it's like, you know, they haven't shown much of anything to, you know, point to of, like, hey, maybe they have a real chance here.

Maybe something like, hey, maybe any given Sunday, right? Anything can happen in any game. That's about as best as I can do. Any given Wednesday, as you call it. Let's close out with this one. So TFC hosting Columbus. That's an interesting one. We said TFC.

Columbus are going to score 19 goals if Toronto defends the way that they did against Austin. And Toronto needs to beat a good team at some point to prove themselves. NYCFC hosting Philly. What, Toronto? No, we just said with the schedule they have left, they're going to have to beat someone decent to make the playoffs.

They have no choice. Honestly, God, I'm not sure if Atlanta are going to, the combination of DC and Atlanta Philly, that two of them are going to make up six points. Well, so Philly travels to NYCFC. Jack Elliott suspended on yellow cards for that one. That's going to be a big one as well. But I want to close out with this one.

Orlando hosting Charlotte. Orlando, they are in an interesting spot. They get back-to-back 3-0 wins. On the one hand, you say great. On the other hand, you look at things. Their last four matches, basically since the break, they've drawn NYCFC. They lost at SKC 3-0, and they beat Nashville and New England at home 3-0.

Better to win than not. The necessary points are in there. I think these are two teams where I'm asking, who's the real version? Charlotte, we talked about already, and Orlando are in there as well of like, are they for real? Are they competitive?

Are they closer to the team they were last year than the team they've been most of this year and i think this is an interesting one to decide yeah that's a good way to put it but even then like i think that if they win we could poke holes in what charlotte has been like again i'm why was we were just very kind of critical of them orlando's last seven wins new england nashville nashville new england dc toronto chicago. Maybe they're not good. Yeah. Again, it's better to win than to not win. But looking at this stretch, we could be, if we get towards deadline day, sorry, decision day, or we get to the playoffs,

and they just get stomped by a good team, it'll be really easy in hindsight to be like, they weren't any good at all. It was just a good run. And then coincidentally, if they do continue turning on, they do that like it's like oh no they definitely you know a flip switched uh at this date when martino jada went to 10 and obviously they were good so i think this is one of those where like in hindsight we're gonna look back and be like oh it was obvious wasn't it but like i don't think it is and i think that this is a team to closely watch down the stretch rafael santos gonna score bangers then it's's there Best goal scorer in the league some say

It is going to be a fun one this weekend And we'll be back on Thursday to recap it all To review it all Whether we're saying they're the best matchups or not I think a lot of these results are going to decide Playoff spots for these teams Where it's like three points you can't afford But interesting to see who's got the depth

To come out midweek to put out the performance They need to as well as who's got the professionalism to get over the line in games like this. Midweek is always wacky. It's always a little bit crazy. And that's what we love here at SoccerWise. So we're going to be back on Thursday to talk MLS. I'll be back tomorrow with Jordan Angeli to talk NWSL as well. Thank you to all of you for listening.

Shout out to everyone in the chat, to you, Tom, and we'll talk to you all again very, very soon.