SoccerWise - MLS Edition: Playoff Round One Reset

Episode Date: October 31, 2024

MLS playoffs round 1 continue (begrudgingly for some people) and Tom & Gass have all your coverage. First they chat about the format coming off some quotes from some players about this three game setup. But the games have to be played so the guys breakdown what they saw in the four games this week, and preview all of this weekends games coming up. 1:58 MLS Playoff Format 14:52 FCC-NYCFC 27:56 SEA-HOU 35:25 CLB-RBNY 44:30 RSL-MIN 55:47 CTL-ORL 1:00:51 COL-LAG 1:07:15 ATL-MIA 1:11:10 VAN-LAFCSoccerwise Live 2pm ET Every Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday on Youtube/Twitch/Twitter

What's up everybody welcome back to soccer wise a little bit of a different time and date here for this show David Goss and Tommy scoops with you here as we cover a little bit of the playoffs that we've seen so far and get you a full preview for the weekend. I believe it is, how many series are there? Eight? So eight games coming up over the course of this weekend. We've got two on Friday night, three on Saturday, and then whatever else is left there on Sunday as my math continues to be really, really strong here, Tom. And we've got a lot to talk about in this show. We've got some format conversations that need to be had. And then we'll talk about the games we've seen and the ones coming up. But a little Wednesday action here.

Do you feel off kilter? You feel ready to go? Hand up. That's on me because I am flying on Thursday. And after we did the show Monday, I was like, dude, my flight's going to be at like three. And it's very easy to check. And I was like dude my flight's gonna be at like 3 and you know it's very easy to check and I was like oh I got too much going on

I'll let you guy whatever I'll text you about it and then I was like oh dude like I'm flying at 11 I don't think this is gonna work so hand up that's on me it's accountability that's all you can ask for and try to strive to be better that's all you can ask for Tom stepping up to the penalty spot blasted over the crossbar and then says we need to be better moving forward.

That one's on me. Listen, I get it. It happens. We will still have our NWSL show that I'll be recording with Jordan later today, so we'll put all that out. And we've got some interesting, maybe some other stuff that will come out the rest of the week. Obviously, I've got the mailbag show on Friday,

but I've been talking to a few different people around the soccer space, so I might throw some interviews in and get a show together as we go along. Four games played since we last spoke. A ton of excitement in there. One open field goal across the four games, two goals in total, two penalty kick shootouts as well. So let's start there before we dig into the specific games, two goals in total, two penalty kick shootouts as well. So let's start there before we dig into the specific games. Justin Ruderman out in LA who covers LAFC very well had this quote from Aaron Long on the best of three format, which was no, we don't like it. We just don't like the best of three. I think those other options are better. I think most of the guys prefer whether it's just home and away or just a single game.

Not sure what the other options in the conversation were. And then to follow that up, so that quote would have come on Sunday. On Monday, Stephen Fry said, and Jeremiah O'Shan, who covers the Sounders as well as anyone out there, put this quote out on the playoff structure from Stephen Fry saying he'd prefer one game rounds. Quote, you can lose the first game 5-0 and tie the next two games, win in PKs, and you're going through. I don't like that. There has been a lot of conversation. We have gotten a lot of messages about the format. We talked about it in the last show, but we're going to talk about it again because it continues to be interesting. And reminder, this is only the second year of this

setup. So we don't have a ton of data points. We're still learning about it. We're still watching it go down. Tom, what do you make coming out of these games, but especially those two quotes from two of the players who have been around this for a while? Yeah, their voice and opinion obviously means significantly more than mine. I've been on record several times.

I hate this format. I hate it um when it was announced ahead of last season i didn't like it that was my initial gut feeling that was my thinking through it talking to people and i did my best and i i think i think i did well enough at open mind maybe i'm wrong i hope i'm wrong because this is our reality it'd be better to enjoy it than to dislike it we're two years in i hate it man i hate it dude like again look at these these last four games and again small sample size it's unfair to call it indicative of everything one goal from open field play the point the on-field spin zone of the best of three rather than a home and home is that leg ones don't matter people don't watch

leg ones they're cagey whatever right like yeah that's what these all these games have been yeah all of them right like so that was the the spit the on-field spin when I when in reality we know the most important reason behind these decisions are more games for Apple TV and home games for every team congratulations you finished with 40 points in eighth place you get a home game that's sick sick. That's awesome, right? Like, again, there are aspects that I like of it. We talked about Charlotte. I'm really happy that they're getting a home game.

I think that's cool. I'm trying to find the positive. So, like, I am still doing this, but they got it perfect in 2022 when they single elimination, straight shot between the international breaks. That was perfect. There was so much momentum there was so much stakes i was looking forward to every single game can't wait to see what's going to happen everything had urgency everything had stakes everything had quality i thought right

like as much as as anything um and then they did that for one year and changed it after that i am just really really disappointed um and again i would doubt that there's going to be a huge change unless there's more push from players publicly, from club stakeholders publicly, whether that's the head coach, CSL, or owner. Because if Apple TV are happy with whatever numbers they're getting from the games, if all the clubs and ownership and business side of things are happy with getting a guaranteed home game in the playoffs,

I don't think that it's going to change because the decisions are being pushed for off the field purposes rather than on the field um it would probably potentially be a positive if it didn't change because as the league continues to expand you'd hope that they don't expand the postseason and add even more teams and more games with the way it stands um i think everything you say has a ton of fairness. Clearly, you're hearing something from the players. I think I don't have a firm opinion yet. I think what you said about, you know, that the competitive nature and all of that is good.

I will say this. As someone who's a sports fan, the flow of a postseason and the momentum of it and the experience of it is a big deal. That's what's fun, right? Last season, the Knicks, we're texting for five weeks about a postseason. And it's every other night and it's every week and all of that where if you get in, you get to the second round, it's two games in two weeks and it's over. You don't get that as much. You do get that in this three game series into the next round and all of that, which I, you know, experienced the world series right now and all of back at the 2022 postseason, just as an example, opening round, you had Cincy win 2-1, Montreal win 2-0, NYCFC smoked inter-Miami there 3-0, Galaxy 1-1-0, and then you had two shootouts, Austin RSL and Dallas Minnesota 2-2 and 1-1, right? You're not going to get 5-4 games, really.

Like, it's the postseason. I think what's been frustrating to me about this round is how scared teams have played. Because the advantage here is it's high pressure games with a little bit less stakes. So go out and play, right? You've got the opportunity where you can make a mistake. And I do think that's the lone advantage here. The Columbus group played their worst game of the year on tuesday night i don't know that columbus deserves to not be in the postseason anymore if they lose three you know two out of three there's zero question that they deserve to be out but at the same time we talked about how excited we were for seattle houston i thought both those teams played scared especially houston over the course of that game i thought ny NYCFC came out, and they played scared,

and they refused to play. And if you're those teams, you had nothing to lose. You had a game in the back pocket coming home that you're expected to win, and then you're in a winner takes all, and then maybe you shut up shop because you can't play in those situations, or the game's too hard, or you think the pressure will build on the opponent at home, whatever. And so if this format doesn't solve that, which has been the age old problem of, you know, home and away goals were created to try and get teams to open up and play in Champions League. And then that moved into every competition, all that. Like, that's the big thing everyone's trying to solve for. If this doesn't solve that, then I don't really know what you have left except for quantity and, you know, inventory to be able to sell and move forward. And I think that's the frustrating part for me

from what you've seen, even with what Stephen Fry saying of like, you know, a team can lose 5-0 and go to penalties and all of that, blah, blah, blah. For sure. But on the flip side is, like, you can make a mistake and still get through if you are the quote-unquote better team. That's what odds are. The odds are that Columbus will win 66% of the time they play the Red Bulls, which is they will win two out of three over the course of time and you see that less in one game and i don't know if we want that or not if we want upsets great if we don't and you want to see the best teams win that's the other side well if you don't like i mean i i don't i don't even like the premise of do you want upsets or do you not because then it's like if you're manufacturing it then it

becomes like kind of less but like if you don't want that make the playoffs four teams like right then then the seven seed cannot upset the the two seed because they're not playing each other right but um i will say the league does have difficulties because of the international breaks and that's nothing that they can control so i understand that if they wanted to expand to this thiscard play-in game, that's probably just too much to fit into between those windows that I was talking about. That's why the seven teams or the one team having to buy, and that's how you do the straight shot, that can fit between the October and November.

So again, I understand that might not be on the table, because the league's expanding, there's more teams, there's going to be 30 next year. Nine teams, including a play-in round, that probably makes sense. I like the play--in round i do want to say that as well so it's not all negative i wonder how this is going to change if slash when the league adopts the fall to spring schedule because the the international breaks will be what is there even one is there one in april is it just march because i think it's march to june yeah so that like the like that will be, I think, more advantageous and more room for either criticism or praise for what they're doing because they won't have some of those outside factors of,

we need to stop playing right now or, you know, we need to consider this. When is the best time to, air quote, lose momentum, right? Like, so I think that was part of the thinking with the best, the round of three, best of three round one series is like it's better to have this long kind of couple weeks or however long that these these rounds take and then you have the the weekend off for the international break and then here we go single elimination like let's run so again it's almost like can we not give the good teams buys because they don't because the buy is almost at a disadvantage at some point and then do it i'll just going through the fifa website 2024 the international

windows at the beginning of the year january february and then um only two in march and that's it till june where you get into the summer so there's no january february international window though well that's that's for afcon i don't actually know if it's a full official right yeah so um so march and then june i believe yes no that's correct so you would have a space there to finish the season and get into a postseason um we have you know a couple people in the comments talking about kevin wallace says if they have to have more inventory play home and home ties or at a minimum play first to five points. So three for a win, two for a PK win, and one for a PK loss. Change the way maybe teams go about trying to play the games.

If you add more value to the win from whatever or you, I guess, get a point out of the PK loss. For me, I think that that just adds too much. Oh, you don't want to have a larger one-on-one explainer to fans who already don't care about this league to get them to pay attention in the postseason? I like the creativity and the problem-solving there, but I think that that's just over-complicating things. Again, it's funny looking at it on Foot Mob and traditional European-based or global soccer stuff,

where it's like all these things. In the play-in round it was like uh mls playoffs round of 32 and then like i was looking at the scores on like on there like the other day and it was like uh leg one i was like what's gonna happen when he gets to game three yeah it uh it is it's not overly complicated but the reality of the single elimination to three games back to single elimination is not exactly the most obvious layout for people. The European mind cannot comprehend. I don't know that the American mind can comprehend. I think you've got people being like, oh, three-game play,

so then the next one's five-game series, and then seven, and you're like, no, no, no, no, no. Then we go back to single elimination. I don't hate the – all right, so I'm the only one pushing my double elimination idea. What you saw in, like, the WNBA was two game – best out of three, the higher seed gets both the first two games. And then if they lose, it goes to the lower seed for the third game. The issue with that is you get an elimination game on the road for the higher team.

But the advantage is if you play well enough, you have a little bit of wiggle room or you don't have to travel as the higher seed. But it doesn't then fix the everyone wants a home game and all that type of thing. Set up, the only way you can really do that is more play and stuff. It's like top four teams get a bye, and then you do four through eight, whatever is a play-in, something like that.

There's not a perfect fix right now. I'm curious more what people think. Feel free to hit us in Discord. I'll do the mailbag episode as well. If this is what you want me to talk about, I can go and talk to some other people and try and figure it out. I think it's telling what the players say,

but the players are also in a little bit of a different headspace, especially coming. I mean, you're Aaron Long coming out of that game. You're like, the series should be over because we just won. Like, of course you don't want to go to Vancouver. Why would you want to go and have to play that game and all of that? So it's interesting. But as I said, I think I was a bit let down by the games we saw in these last four because we said it on Monday, like, these are the more competitive series. I thought you would have two teams that are similar in quality with a level of feistiness and energy that would make the games a little bit of a bite.

And I thought a lot of these teams came out and didn't provide what they had to, whether it was for a lack of quality or lack of bravery, as I said, for what we saw. So let's dig into these games. We'll preview the next round as well as we go through it. Let's start with Cincinnati NYC FC. FC Cincinnati get the 1-0 win at home. I saw a few people in the Cincinnati world say this, and I kind of agree. The most complete game we've seen them play maybe in a month or so and we talked about them coming into this we made the pitch of like why they could be an MLS Cup contender or why they should be in that conversation you saw a lot of that in this game

you saw also the reason why not just the one goal there's not a huge presence up top but overall good defensive solidity from this group and they found solutions as the game went along. Yedlin forced off at halftime for injury. Assad gets sort of pushed a little higher. Powell comes a little deeper as the right wing back. And Assad gets the goal, but a lot of chances created down that left wing. And overall, a pretty perfect first game, Tom, for the Cincinnati group. I completely agree.

This is how I was saying to draw it up, right? Like, you choked the game out with some of that, like, elite defensive spine, which they did. City had a couple chances, but nothing too crazy. Like, this felt super sustainable. And then Lucho Costa and Luke Oriano are your difference makers in attack. And it was, you know, Sato scored the goal, goal but again everything ran through Lucho and and Oriano what I will say too is Yuya Kubo is an absolute treasure like this dude is awesome the way that he can fill any position on the field because he's so incredibly intelligent and he is absolutely relentless with his work rate it fills a lot of gaps that again this would have been

it should let me say this too it should be a step too far to talk about this team as an actual series contender no defender of the year um you know they got nothing from dp number nine and then they missed on a couple targets because his deals weren't happening and nico joe keen he came in and and i liked that as a as like a last ditch like all right we got somebody in shouldn't take long like he knows the league all that stuff he hasn't worked out he just hasn't right like so you're starting with zero natural center forwards and you're without your defender of the year reigning defender of the year that should either one of those things should be enough to knock a team out of legitimate contention it has a bit of persistency they've you said solving problems that's what they've done all season long

which is why i respected the hell out of their resiliency and their chances this postseason and game one was kind of exactly what i was hoping to see maybe a little bit more from lucho but that's because i hold him to an unfair standard because of how incredibly great he is right like so if they play like this they have a real chance to make some noise in the playoffs i think the stat on Lucho is three goals, three assists in his playoff career. I think he's the eighth player in MLS history to have that. So that's where the expectations come from, right? He has performed in big moments in big games, and he helped in this game, even if he wasn't perfect and the game wasn't so easy for him.

And as you said, Cincinnati, strong, resilient, and then they sort of grow into the game and find their moments, and the goal comes off a turnover. Santi Rodriguez just gets stripped in midfield. It's not really a high-pressure moment. He's not really trying to make anything crazy happen, but that's the gap, right? Lucho doesn't make that mistake.

He's the centerpiece of his team. It's been one of the things that has held me back on this NYCFC team over the year, and I've said it over and over again is santi rodriguez is not consistently a game changer at the level of the other guys in this conversation and the players around him need him to be like you don't see the pieces around him and this one alonzo martinez and hannes wolf elevate their games to carry him they're not really capable of that and so you're he needs to show up and he doesn't show up every single game. And then this, you get the negative moment. He gets

stripped in midfield and immediately Cincinnati turn and are able to create the chance. This is a Cincinnati group that the combination, your hope is the system, which has been really successful, but we've seen the limitations of system only in a pressing style in MLS playoffs topped with the overall talent of a Lucho and an Orojano and a Nwobodo and a Miles Robinson being elite players inside of that system. And I think that's what you saw in the end in this game as well. I thought Orojano was going to get a goal. Apparently he was sick the day of the game.

He was phenomenal in this. Yeah, apparently he woke up sick and didn't feel great. You saw him randomly come over to the bench for water a couple times. I saw, yeah, yeah, yeah. Kind of in the flow of play. The electrolyte packs and stuff like that. Yeah, and I thought he was coming over to swap to wing back the first two times I saw him do it because he came to the left side.

And so apparently he was like fluish, symptoms, whatever, under the weather. I thought he was fantastic in this game. Again, he's allowed to play in the attack now. Why? Because Yamil Asad has played really well at the left wing back spot. So you've replaced part of Bar-Yal's production there while still then allowing this talented attacking player

in Orojono to go play higher up the field and be creative. A couple more points. Since you were dominant, I don't think I hammered that point hard enough. They outshot NYCFC 22-6. They outpossessed them, which Cincy doesn't even necessarily want to do. And NYCFC are a team that wants to use possession. The more and more I'm getting momentum here,

I think that I'm going to come around pretty hard on NYCFC after this positive Cincy spot. XG was 3.4 to 0.28. Like, you think about some of the chances at the end like the nico joe keating chance that he didn't finish um a couple like dangerous on set pieces and stuff like that but like this should not have been one nil like it shouldn't have been this was a really really good performance from cincy and again even without the center forward right like you're going to underperform your xg when you don't have a natural center forward out there you don't have you know consistent legitimate goal scorers right like that's part of a symptom

but like 3.4 xg you're going to do well more often than not so all that i really liked all that yamel asad his numbers as a wingback are like 99th percentile in everything in the attack and because again like it's more so a wide midfielder than a wing back the way that they play because of how much space the defenders can um can carry in the way that they play with their wing backs again like barry all last year and oriano at the beginning of this season right like more like a wide midfielder than a wing back or a fullback which is what like the fb ref numbers are against but that's like what he's done to allow oriano to be further forward or without losing what Oriano

was giving him in that spot or at least losing only some of it, right? NYCFC. You opened kind of this segment about just generally disappointed about the cowardice of some of these decisions. Yeah, no Maxi Morales from the start. This team has, quick math,

at least $18 million of South American young attacking talent that Nick Cushing just does not trust in any way. Julian Fernandez, I thought looked good when he played. Doesn't matter. He won't start again. Who cares? Augustin Ojeda has looked good in minutes. Didn't even come off the bench. Jovan Mijatovic, it was like, fine, I guess we have to play you.

Club record signing, Red Star Belgrade, $8.5 million, Serbian Youth International. Again, I know I guess we have to play you. Club record signing, Red Star, Belgrade, 8.5 million serving youth international. Again, I know that these players haven't been perfect. I know that these players have not been consistent to necessarily earn this. But part of that is they haven't gotten any trust. They haven't gotten any leeway. They haven't gotten any run.

At any time that Nick Cushing can play a midfield trio of Sands, Perea,a and Parks he will um and even if that means putting Perea at a winger spot he will it's anti-football it is extremely disappointing from a city football group club that are spending big money on young attacking talent and none of them are taking steps forward under Nick Cushion none None of them. Talis Magno was $8 million up front, up to $12 million with add-ons. My dude couldn't even get off the bench. You don't have room for a $10 million player? Again, I'm not taking away blame.

Magno has to be better. But that's not all him, dude. And if you're the front office, it's almost like with Nashville. They stopped buying. They didn't even think about U22 players. They didn't even think about anybody under 25 because gary smith wasn't playing them if you're the nycfc front office like how do you i would be apologizing joven miyatovich you should be playing more this is like i wasn't lying to you when i sold you this pitch on coming to this club a lot of teams wanted that kid he would have been in a really good spot to

stay at red Star Belgrade. And it's just disappointing that we talk about teams being brave. We talk about teams developing young talent. And it's just not happening with NYCFC the way that it should be. So for the points that Nick Cushing has got, this is what fuels the fans' discontent under him. Because even when they're not always, they're rarely convincing, and they're not bringing along this young talent.

Like, Santi Rodriguez, is that the only young attacker that's taking a lead? Like, Alonso Martinez this season, but I think he was in a different stratosphere as the other players that I'm talking about. Yeah, the guys who have played well, Alonso Martinez and Honda Swolf at times,

they're 24 and 25. Yeah, well, that's what I'm saying. But so is, I think, Alonso Martinez. Oh, Alonzo Martinez and Hannes Wolff at times, they're 24 and 25. Yeah, well, that's what I'm saying. But so is, I think, Alonzo Martinez. Oh, well, Alonzo Martinez is 26. I take that back. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I take that back. Yeah, they're both in that same category of they were both looking to restart

their careers. Jesus. They've both lacked consistency, but they are not players who are new to this game. Yeah, I think everything you said is fair, and you see it in some of the numbers. NYCFC, I think, had six passes into the box the entire game. Minimal passes in the attacking third as well. Again, even if you want to play Pereira, where's your line of confrontation? Press everything high, right?

Try and make the game happen. I understand Cincinnati's not an easy team to do it, but this was the same team you put out there against Red Bulls and got the 5-0 win in the Hudson River Derby. This is a group that has done this in these moments, and that's not what they did at all. And then it gets hard at the end. Tavon Gray picks up the red card. Game was over at that point anyway. I think it's a harsh red card. I understand there's a moment where he looks over, and you can interpret that as lining up the player. I don't think that's what he's doing.

And then you've got the issue of like Lucho's foot shorter than him. And he's trying to go in on the tackle. The fourth official was right there. Like it is in the fourth official's face. You shouldn't miss this call. And then you have VAR and everything all around that. I assume it won't get overturned. And therefore, Tavon Gray will be suspended for the next game. And then Yedlin forced to come out, as I mentioned.

It was a back injury, they said. He slid in the first half. I don't remember seeing this. I just read it or they mentioned it on the broadcast as well. So he was withdrawn for Alvis Powell as the game went along. So monitor that to see if he can get back into this group. But one forced change. as the game went along. So monitor that to see if he can get back into this group. But one force change we know for NYCFC,

probably that same change for FC Cincinnati going forward. I believe the game's at Citi Field. Any big expectations for something different? Can they catch a little bit of the Grimace magic in this one, or is it OMG done for NYCFC? I was going to say how happy he is to be seeing a sporting event at city field at this time of year all i'll say is the mets didn't go down 3-0 against the dodgers so congrats hang the banner yeah i might i might hang it right next to the yankees world series banner for 2024 you do have a lot of room in in your studio here

yeah i might i might have one made up see if i could get someone to sew it for me so you were gonna troll me and then drink your coffee and move on that was it i felt really proud of myself so i took a sip of coffee no i don't i mean i don't know man like i'm expecting i'm i'm pretty down on this nycfc team what have they shown in terms of like bravery and stuff like if since he come in and makes the game really difficult do you trust nycfc to break it down yeah and even if they do do you trust them going back to cincy because i don't really yeah i mean your assumption is the field pitch field tilt shifts because nycfc are at home um maybe there's even a bit of an advantage in the field gets shrunk a little bit it's not

yankee stadium but it's still a little bit of a different format and setup. And NYCFC, for the most part, are good at the two baseball stadiums and everyone else kind of struggles because it's awkward. I think it's a really tough experience to sort of see the sight lines and figure out like where you are on the field and what you're trying to do. But I think Cincinnati are in a really good place right now. Like a lot of what you saw in game one felt muscle memory. And that's when this team's at their peak. right now. Like a lot of what you saw in game one felt muscle memory, and that's when this team's at their peak. And the struggle for a lot of this year has been the injuries in and out and just not having a consistent group that can anticipate movements

and anticipate steps and all of that type of stuff. And you need all those half advantages to win the ball higher up and to win it in the right spots and all of that. And I thought you saw a lot of that in this game on top of a lot of the individual quality. Would I be surprised if NYCFC won? No. My assumption is all the home games would win.

That didn't happen last year. Last year, everyone who won the first game, I believe, won their series. There was not a lot of upsets and there was a surprising amount of teams that lost in the second game and weren't able to extend the series. I wouldn't be surprised if NYCFC did that here, but I would be surprised if they went on to win the series based off game one and based off what we saw over the course of this season. Let's move on.

Let's move back out west. Seattle versus Houston. Another red card, Coco Carrasquilla this time. Seattle knocked off Houston in penalty kick shootouts. The red card was around the 70th minute for Coco. It was like a whole long thing to figure out what he did and what he got it for and all of that. Because there were so many options. There are so many options. I believe Ted Uncle after the game said the red card was for the kick on Jackson Reagan when he was trying to

delay play and down on the ground and not for the hands to Albert Rusnak's face which was a separate yellow card that he picked up which is what I thought the red card was for um and Coco got really upset for something that felt pretty innocuous yeah and I couldn't really understand what was going on through all of this uh and then Seattle not able to get the breakthrough and then they end up winning in penalties seattle deserved to win this game i think i agree taking away the red card from the way they played and like all of that again is on houston i talked about their possession and you know i talked to someone yesterday and they're like you you always talk about houston's possession but is that fun and it's like it's fun because they're normally

again brave with what they do i make the joke all the time franco escobar will play back heels in his own box to start to link up play and move it forward and while there's not always a final third quality to it they're breaking lines in weird spots they're bringing players into the pocket and connecting the ball moves quickly like it's normally pretty and fun to watch there was a few passes even in this game where mikhail clipped it over the midfield line into someone kind of under pressure. They lay off. That's great. All of it was middle third and in their defensive third. None of it was even in the attacking half. And so while Seattle weren't individually dangerous a ton in this game creating chances, they at least were playing in the attacking third. And at some point point the dam's gonna break i think my

favorite moment from this match well i know what i know my favorite moment of the matches is alex rodan scoring the game-winning penalty and then doing a mustache celebration i'll show down for that my second favorite moment i think was um there was a there was a camera angle that caught paul rothrock waving goodbye to coco cascue he's getting the red card. Paul Rothrock was brought all of the little bits to this game. Paulie Primetime, full in full force. What a fun player. But the fact that those are the first two things I'm talking about

shows you what this kind of game was. Seattle are a good team. Seattle are, by goals conceded, the best defensive team in the league. And they have potential match winners in attack. Houston defended well. Houston are difficult to break break down and particularly so after the red card you know that they were playing to get to penalties yeah um so i don't i'm not exactly sure what to make for both of these teams moving forward i still think that this is an open series um seattle very important to win that shootout at home before going down to Houston and again I

think Seattle can win Houston I don't have a ton to take away from this game because I kind of think that it played out the way maybe we feared in terms of like watchability but the way we thought in terms of tactics and the chessboard of everything of as you said there were some good sequences from Houston but not really much in the final third. So they did some good link-up play. Whenever the ball goes, Ajay, Ajay, it's beautiful. He's been so incredible, particularly after how bad he was that first half season. That's been a rejuvenation. It's been phenomenal.

And why I still think that this team has a chance, even without Coco Carrasquilla. Last note on Coco. Last note, sorry, on Coco. He lost his mind. I don't understand. And this isn't the first time it's happened for him, man. He tried to pick up a tactical foul against the United States in the Copa America, and he just absolutely slaughtered somebody and got suspended.

He was one of the best players on the field, and now he's missing the next game because everybody else finds a tactical foul and he just slaughtered somebody. So that's a worry because I particularly, in one-off situations, rush a blood to the head, whatever. We all make mistakes. We all kind of lose our minds here and there. Us never.

But that's concerning. It's really concerning. If I'm Ben Olsen, I'm extraordinarily let down by that. That is not going to happen. So now you don't have Coco for game two. If they lose game two, that's just a really selfish mindless play yeah it there's a piece of it where a lot of this houston team plays you know in third gear and in flow where you want some bite like miguel panse is not giving you bite right right? Artur, as unbelievable as he is, he doesn't give you,

like at some point when the game gets nasty, you want it, but you need it to be reined in and controlled. And this was a moment where it's like, yeah, maybe that could have inspired them. He tries to go quickly to get in a little bit of tussle, but find the line. And he had like five minutes to find the line in the space after that. And he kept going back and back and back to get involved. Turns out maybe maybe it wouldn't have mattered maybe he would have picked up the red card but my

guess is if the fight hadn't happened they probably are not going back to find the red card there and like to find if there was something more behind it i could be wrong about that one the one thing i will say that i took from this game and i'm probably over relying on it because of the red card i thought rui Diaz was really good I thought their best moments were when he was on the field Pedro de la Vega was bad in this game and Rothrock is was fun and had all the like stuff going on but was not super effective I would think about sliding Jordan back out wide and bringing Rui Diaz on from the start especially because in this scenario again with the with the format, game two is

kind of a wash. If you get a win here, great. If you don't, you are coming home to a fortress where you rarely lose for a knockout game and you're going to have confidence and belief in your team. So if you're ever going to do it, it's going to be this game. Rui Diaz has not been a starter this year. He has not been very good, but he played with his head down. He played aggressive. Like he was trying to create chances. He was attacking where it felt like a lot of this game um seattle didn't have the ideas once they got into the final third and they weren't able to create a ton so it would be interesting to see it wouldn't be it would be not shocking on one hand because schmetzer you know he's one of his guys it would be shocking on the other hand because schmetzer doesn't really

change stuff like that's not what he does and so they got the victory in game one you assume as much as he can he will leave things consistent uh for game two as well going forward for houston i mean there's a couple options you assume latif comes into the team to fill in here huh said yeah or kwalchuk exactly yeah so you'd assume it's kind of a quote unquote somewhat like for like change and someone who can sit into that middle space. I thought Bossy was good in this game, but just didn't have enough support around him throughout much of the stretch. Lateef's been very up and down for this team. Let's finish here on the New York teams. Let's talk Red Bulls Columbus.

And I wrote down here in the rundown in all caps, no one could have seen this coming because I can't remember now what's on the show and off the show. So I'm going to pull the curtain away or potentially just reiterate what I've already said. I have pushed this narrative that the Red Bulls come out and they throw a wrench in what you do

and that they played well in game one against Cincinnati last year, even though they got blown out, and that they were going to be a little bit difficult and there'd be some sand in the machine for Columbus. And Tom has said, really? And I keep going, no. And Tom has refused to allow me, refused to allow me to make this point. When the Red Bulls come out and knock Columbus off 1-0 in Columbus in the opening game, it's the first road victory of the entire playoffs. It's the only regulation road victory in the entire postseason. It was one of only two goals in these four-game stretches. Tom, what do you have to say for yourself?

Because we've got the Red Bull fans in the chat who demand a response from you. East Coast bias. i deserve all of this like it's not it's not just i disagreed with you i shut down the entire conversation it's like dude i'm not doing this this is stupid like what are you talking about like give me a break and i did it on multiple occasions like yeah i got nothing to say other than i'm an idiot i'm wrong hand up i deserve this victory lap the only thing i want to say is i I'm an idiot I'm wrong, hand up, I deserve this victory lap The only thing I want to say is I am shocked this wasn't the opening segment

I am shocked this wasn't the opening segment And you would have deserved it I have nothing to say It's not the opening segment because I should have enough Belief in myself To have pushed it and been like No, we should talk about this That's how little I actually believed

It was a thought but not a true belief In there um so that's why i didn't push it and therefore i can't open the show taking a victory lap for something i never actually did uh but there it is this is the possibility now honestly if you ask me what happened listen columbus played the worst game i have seen them play with the quote-unquote starting group which wasn't full because diego rossi out injured for this one um that i've seen them play in a year at this point and so i think right now my feeling is that this was the one-off and like there's a good chance that red bulls play better at home and columbus plays better and red bulls go through because like that's the reality of how close Major League Soccer is but my assumption is Columbus will play better

in game two like there's no way they play the same way because it wasn't just game plan and tactics it was like execution and energy from this Columbus team there was not a ton of quick movement and the ball moving and pulling players out. And I don't think that's purely just tactical setup and like where guys are. I think the game was slow on these Columbus players. And that's something you don't normally see in a Wilfred Nance game. You have to give credit to the Red Bulls and that's what they want to do. Right.

They want to be against the ball. They're comfortable doing it, which I think is the key here. Yes. It's like, you have no choice. You play Columbus. You're not going to have the ball for most teams. It's uncomfortable For this Red Bull team, it's okay. They're kind of already

living in their spot. And I will say, I had a feeling in the second half as I watched this game play out, and you're like around the 75th, even though Lewis Morgan missed the chance where he gets played through, and he's one-on-one with the keeper from 45 yards away and he misses it um where it felt like when greg got jesse where you know the red bulls were this high pressing team and columbus was this possession team and there was this playoff series where greg berhalter was like i don't actually care we're gonna sit in deep we're not gonna be who we are and we're gonna get you for this one and it was like a wild moment when it occurred and it kind of felt like the reverse of that in this one even though it wasn't a tactical shift of like the red bulls got columbus in their exact game plan now it's a good way to put it carlos cornell was good he has not been good i think carlos cornell

even said something to that effect in the postgame press conference like you know i didn't finish the season great um he was super locked in and he was good so that bodes well for the the red bulls um again the crew only creating 0.77 expected goals is abnormal, particularly at home. You've seen all the stats of how dominant the crew are at home under Wilford Nancy. It's like the losses are Miami this year, Cincy this year, that Seattle game with the full rotation,

and then Sean Zawadzki in goal for half the game. Now the New York Red Bulls in the playoffs. This team is borderline unbeatable at home. I honestly, God, don't know if I would have been more surprised if you told me before the series started, one of the Red Bulls or Atlanta are going to win. Who would you be more surprised by? Like, I almost would have been more surprised that the Red Bulls beating Columbus than Atlanta beating Miami, right? And I think that's kind of been the conversation around this series. I almost would have been more surprised that the Red Bulls beating Columbus than Atlanta beating Miami.

And I think that's kind of been the conversation around this series. This has been, I would argue, this series most where it's like we've joked a bit about Atlanta staying close and Miami scoring a ton of goals. But I think in general, when you talk to people around the league and even fans, it felt like this was the series where it's like, well, we know what's going to happen in that one. Talk about the other ones. Yeah. Oh, and that's how I felt about it. And again,

shout out to the Red Bulls for how they played and what they did. They got the goal in the first half, and then that's how they're going to play. They're going to be against the Bulls. Sandro Swartz, after the game, was talking about, we want it to be dominant against the Bulls, out of possession. And that's how this kind of played out. You look at some of these numbers.

709 passes completed to 145 yeah like this is and like the red bulls are happy with that again as you said they're the most comfortable team in a scenario like this if the red bulls played like this down this even without emil forsberg like this side of the game shouldn't have changed like that's why i didn't buy this because it wasn't like they weren't winning games just because they were lacking the Emil Forsberg, the special player attack, though that was part of it true. What I was more concerned about, because, you know, Forsberg will come back and things will look better.

What I was more concerned about was the defense, was Cross Cornell straight up bad, right? Like, so to have this performance that kind of you knew was in them, right? Like, you knew that was in them. And I think that, like like in june i was talking about this team are they gonna push into the towards the top three like are they the best of the rest in the east and like it's just gone downhill so what a time to summon this performance and to dig deep and get it and look they go back to new jersey on sunday emile forsberg leading up

to this game he said fuck it why not us why not right yeah fuck it why not man i uh i opened the stream for us to start the pre-show listening to Kendrick Lamar. They're not like us. And I think I've inspired Tom to be who he is in this show. Let me give a shout out to the Red Bull fans in the chat, especially our homie Eric Gonzalez, who said, need to check Andres Reyes' pocket for Cucho and power friendship over possession for this game. But you talked about being dominant off the ball and all these things. So obviously the Red Bulls pressing everything.

The Red Bulls had 43 clearances to 21 for Columbus. One of the other pieces of this is Columbus's counterpress is elite. And when they play high up the field, they win the ball back high up the field and create chances. They are not a team who only wants it in possession. Like they want to play in your attacking third. The Red Bulls take that away by playing long and having the threat of Lewis Morgan, who as much as he didn't score, he is an elite speedster that can stretch the line

and get behind you and all those things. That makes life harder for this Columbus team because Red Bulls are not going to try and play through it and so when Arfstein gets high and um and Marrera gets high and Farsi gets high and all these players are up in that attacking third there's not the chances they're on top of the fact that Diego Rossi wasn't in the game so you don't have his elite speed to help you close down and Diego Rossi not being in the game means you don't have Christian Ramirez in that same right half spot. And so the chance creation, I think, dipped a little bit. Matan can be good.

He wasn't in this game, and that happens. He's a young player, and that's going to happen sometimes. Maybe Nance was a little slow to make some of the changes in this one, where he normally is pretty aggressive with the changes he wants to make in a game. And that was a little bit surprising and could go down to the, you know, the margins were slim. You lose one zero, like the XG was the same. This was not a blowout. And so for Columbus, you can look at it and say, if we make a move sooner, if we're able to play in this area a little bit more is the chance there. But I think for Red Bulls, obviously you're coming home. This is your chance. Like this is your chance to change a lot think for Red Bulls, obviously, you're coming home. This is your chance.

Like, this is your chance to change a lot of things. You talked about it. Middle of the season, a lot of promise, a lot of hope, and it went off the cliff as you went along. They lost more pieces, it felt like, than they brought in. But Carballo gets the goal in this one. And so that's the guy you brought in. That's the piece you brought in.

It's a set piece, but it is what it is. And so Red Bulls fans should be excited go get portuguese food in uh in harrison or in newark ironbound on yeah on saturday or whenever this game is i do have the schedule down here for us on sunday yeah most of the teams that played this week are playing on sunday the lone team is minnesota rsl who play saturday night um and enjoy this one because Red Bull fans should, I think, for what they got. Diego Rossi, big question mark. It was a back injury. Should be back is what the word is.

That's like – it's scary stuff though. Of course. Like back injuries are huge unknowns. If Columbus had won game one, I bet you he wouldn't even play. But they are in – they have to win now. Like that's where the setup is now, where it's like Red Bulls have stolen home field advantage coming into this one.

You know what? The format is excellent. We're at the must-win stage of the playoffs. That's pretty sweet. We've only been here for a week and a half. That's awesome. I can't wait. Yeah, absolutely.

And remember, decision day, Columbus went to Red Bulls. They went up 2-0. Then it ended up winning 3-2 after a comeback in extra time. So hope is for the neutrals of us is that we get a similar game in this one. Last game we saw this week since our last show, RSL against Minnesota. It was 0-0 in the regular season. It was 0-0 in the postseason. And then Minnesota got the win in the shootout at the end of this one.

I thought Minnesota was the better team. Zachout at the end of this one. I thought Minnesota was the better team. Zach McMath was phenomenal in this game. He made some huge saves on Bongi, on Yeboah, pushed a couple rebounds the right way wide to not allow the second chance. But Minnesota did a lot of the things we thought they would want to do. They found space down the left wing. They were able to create the opportunity, the through ball, where Yeboah gets the one touch on the slide over to Bongi,

where you're like, I'm watching and I yell one touch. But you don't think the player on the field is going to be able to see it and then execute it because the angle is awkward. And he does because he is special. This guy is going to be a really, really big piece going forward. And for this new regime in Minnesota they just won their first playoff game since 2020 like even though it's a shootout even though it's on the road alone they have already accomplished a ton this season totally

agree totally making the playoff if they made the play-in game yeah I would have honest god I'd have been like like for given where they were in the transition given the head they did not have a pre-season under head coach eric ramsey they had they were one of the most active teams if not the most active team in the summer transfer window everything has been on the fly um not quite like cincinnati just because of all the injuries that happened all the change but like this has been a team that like like, it's all been integrating players, leaving players, oh, international break. Now, Taniola Washaney was awesome early in the season.

Then he leaves with Canada. Then he's injured or whatever the sequence was for that. So it has been a lot of change. It's been a lot of bringing these new players in. How do we get the best of this? Can Caden Clark be a wingback? Okay, nope, that can't happen. What about Sung Jae-in Bin?

Yeah, he can. Oh, he can also play up top. That makes sense. This makes sense. And the way that they've been super flexible, the way that they've figured things out along the way while being good, really good down the stretch, is huge credit to Eric Ramsey.

Again, this is a first-time head coach who had zero experience or knowledge of Major League Soccer. Like, I mean, that's probably unfair, right? Like, I know he's an extremely smart guy. I know that he has done his homework. I know that he... But he didn't have the experience of the knowledge.

But, like, he was never here, right? Like, he's never had a Major League Soccer season. Khaled El-Ammad, he went to college here. And, like, that was his... Go Panthers. And he worked for NYCFC right like so he had a little bit of that but like it's different when you're running the show right it's different when you're putting together the team and doing everything that he's done so again just being

competitive throughout the season and I know I've been maybe a little kind to teams like Toronto and DC and Montreal and saying that like yeah they were bad but this is a transition season like this is like good right like yeah it was for Minnesota too and look at them right like so what they did against Real Salt Lake and again they got a very kind first round matchup because Real Salt Lake are nowhere near the same team that they were in June and July when I thought that they were with the top three in the Western Conference right Kichou Rongo has not been the same like he hasn't scored in months right or whatever the figure was sorry um he hasn't at least been the same in. I don't know if that's the exact goal contributions, right? So, it was a

really great performance for Minnesota to get here. I thought that they seemed the more likely. Like, again, like you said, Zach McManth played really well, which is another positive thing at least for Real Salt Lake. And then, game down to penalties. And it's a crap shoot when you get there, and they got game one. Yeah, you

said it. Like, a lot of pieces from Minnesota have come in and been moved and adjusted. And Eric Ramsey's landed on this right wing back sliding into the front line with Carlos Harvey as a right center back. This is a guy, Harvey, who's been in this league for a while. And like a lot of people have assessed that he can't really start in this league. And they've found a way to make it work in a way in which I think actually it's an interesting profile of like, you could probably upgrade that position for a unique player that other people aren't looking for. In someone who can slide out wide and come inside.

Look at what Laborda is doing with Vancouver and like a player probably similar to that. But it's created a runway for Bongi to have space. It allows Lod to go out there if he wants to. He's so good. Oh my God. player probably similar to that but it's created a runway for bondi to have space it allows lod to go out there if he wants to so good oh my god yeah but then lod's starting position is more central so he can come over and link up with perera and link up with yaboa in the left channel we haven't seen it all yet from prayers okay that's fine it takes time to adjust it's tough because the rubric now is against yaboa who has instantly hit the ground running and is awesome and fun to watch stays on the field like you even see the subs he stays on

the field he's in to take the first penalty um he has done all of the dp things that you need to be like yeah we're gonna build a team around this guy and i think a lot to like in all of this and then on the flip side you said it for rsl a lot of promise but the loss of andres gomez has i think compounded the reality that they didn't have a 10 and gonzalez has not stepped into that role so crooks is still in there who is not a 10 and chicho playing as an mvp filled in for some of that and like it's not really probably fair to say Chicho has to be that guy for 37 games and it's not possible and so all of it has compounded and sort of fallen apart to the point where a few pops from Diego Luna are all you really get I like Marchuk I think I had him I have him on my Goss theorem list already for next year he looks really good and he set up the

chance for Gonsalves but it was a guy making a run across him and a little bit of movement and space for him to run into, which like hasn't been, was not the case most of this game. And part of that is having an Elliot right back. Brody was fantastic for this team for 18 months. He's fallen off a cliff. Quinton's getting starts out there. Now a Nelly who's naturally a center mid gets a start out there and like, you don't get width, you don't get danger. And so Marchuk doesn't really get options of a runner outside of him. He's taking two guys on a lot of this game, even as much as Rosales bombs forward. So I thought it was a good performance once again for Minnesota. You get into the penalty kick shootout. And I put this quote in here from Andy Grader, who does a great job at um whatever the website or whatever

the newspaper is in minnesota right now it's twin cities something so you should support it uh he said this quote with with dane st claire who didn't make a save in the shootout but uh rsl missed twice that going into the final shot from brian ojeda he stepped forward and he asked the ref if he misses this is the shootout over? As if he's like not quite sure what round they're on and what's going on. And the ref's like, come on, shut up, go back to the line. I don't know the exact words, but that's basically what happened. And it's like, that is the peak.

I love that stuff. That's me to like, I will go up to PK shooters after you go to PK and be like, which way do you think you're going to shoot? And like talk and constantly like whatever you can get, try and get. The other thing St. Clair said was he's friends with Justin Glad because of the MLSPA they both represent. So he just smirked at him as he went to shoot. And Glad apparently smiled back, and he misses.

And he goes postgame, you know, you never want to see a friend fail. But once you get between the lines, you got to do what you got to do. And it's just like, this is the stuff you dream of. And he didn't make a save, but they won. And Minnesota shooters were very good. And yeah, it's a crap shoot at that point. Like it's a shootout. No one knows what's going to happen.

But that just, that, the asking the ref if they'd win or not made my day. Yeah, that was incredible. Dane St. Clair, the shithousery. This is not new, which is very fun. There was that viral moment with him and Shaqiri last season. And, like, dude, I love it. Like, those games and shit moments are so much fun. Like, that, you know, penalty shootouts are fun to watch to begin with.

But, like, those little wrinkles are cool. And, yeah, Minnesota won that way. And what do you make going into this second game? Can Minnesota close it out? Is there a difference in terms of, like, their philosophies and game plan of, okay, do we need to take the game to them more? Or do, like, how would you kind of set up or what do you think is going to happen here in the next round?

I think the setup will be very similar for Minnesota. I also think the gameplay will be somewhat similar as well like these two teams are 49 51 one way or the other and minnesota had a similar xg but on the road that means they were the much better team because the expectation is you don't right i don't think that means they come home and dominate this game and win for one and all of that i just think these two teams are too tight and RSL is too experienced and comfortable in some of these moments to fall apart like that. And at the same time for Minnesota, as good as Lowe it is coming into space and like playing around the top of the box, they want to create chances in transition.

So they're not going to take the ball, get into the final third and knock it around 87 passes. And so I think for Minnesota's sake, like they kind of want want that setup and they want the game to be played that way and so I would be surprised if it was much different but I do think this Minnesota team has more finishing quality right now and like they have more match winners on the field which is not something I thought I'd be saying coming into this one and so my guess will be this one doesn't go back to Salt Lake. Like I think Minnesota closes this thing out at home. Yeah.

I mean, again, I still think that this is super up in the air between both of these teams. And I'm pretty fascinated to see what game two will look like. If you Joe Rongo can step up to what we've come to expect from this player since, you know,

honestly, any, all of his time in MLS, but particularly since he came to RSL. And yeah, the pressure is going to be on Minnesota, and they like to play against the ball. And we'll see. Like, they had, what, 42% possession?

And, like, that's kind of what they want to be. They want to be a youthful, energetic, transition-based, pressing-style team where the other team has to take the game to them. I'm wondering what that's going to look like against Real Salt Lake when they're at home, when they have the chance to close the series out yeah again there are still a lot like younger players or maybe some inexperienced players in some of these moments does that have any effect on oh like game one we're you know nothing to lose here like we're expected to lose like let's go for it right game oh my god if we win like we're through and then

and then what right like so if there's going to be any sort of factor that factors in at all or not i'm curious to see um there was a moment where box all stepped into midfield with chicho and like dominated him and won the ball back awesome and played away and you're like okay that's in in a setup like that as you said with players who haven't been there you're leaning on the traps and the box halls who are not exactly you know on field quality maybe the best players on this team but they're the leaders, and that's what you want in a moment like that. And it was a big one for them there. Let's preview the other four games we've got coming up this weekend

in these Game 2s. So Friday night, Charlotte versus Orlando and Colorado against the LA Galaxy. Saturday, we've got NYC against Cincinnati, Atlanta against Miami, and then Minnesota and RSL to close things out. And then Sunday, we have the three games of the other teams that just played this week. So Red Bulls Columbus is the first match, Houston versus Seattle the second match, and then Vancouver LAFC closes out this round. As I said

last year, most of the teams who won in game one went and took care of business in game two. I think it was Houston RSL that went to a third game last year and that was kind of it. I guess I could have looked that up and had that in my head, but I didn't, and now we're going to move from there. Let's start with Charlotte versus Orlando. Obviously, Pep BL on the red card would be suspended for this game. My understanding is that Charlotte has appealed Dean Smith, I think in one of the press conferences, was like, felt sure that it would get overturned because he thought it was a ridiculous red card and the reverse angles in slow-mo or making the rounds and you know Charlotte social media and all of that going forward I would be surprised if BL plays in this game outside of that no necessary changes for these two teams no injuries from that first game or anything else big so what do you think we'll see from these two teams, no injuries from that first game or anything else big. So what do

you think we'll see from these two groups? Sort of what's your expectation? I don't know. The Pep BL red card again, that's extremely disappointing, right? Like I was just talking about the Coco Kersky one before, like that's, you got to keep your head there. Like this, if this isn't a one off game, like that has serious implications for that game and beyond so that's really disappointing what I'm expecting is going to be a really strong crowd in Charlotte I'm expecting them to kind of come out and try to take the game to Orlando and that might suit Orlando it like I that style I think does suit, but whether or not Charlotte can overcome that without the guy 10.

Pepiel is supposed to be the person who unlocks the set defense, who has those special moments, who sees the pass, who creates these types of chances, particularly against a team that might sit in, particularly when you're supposed to be on the ball. This is when Pepiel is supposed to be most important.

So if he is unavailable as expected, unless this red card gets overturned, then can Liel Abada do it? Then, like we talked about last show, do you try Karol Swierski as a second forward behind Patrick Ajamang? Again, either way, I think Ajamang should be on the field. And where does it go from there? Like Kerwin Vargas, if there's not a ton of space for him to run into,

what can he do against a luck defense? Liel Abada, is this his big moment in his debut season as the club record signing for this team? So I think those are all the questions I have kind of just thinking about this game. I don't have a strong lean on what a lot of the answers to. I mean, honestly, like, the thing that I feel strongest about is what the crowd's going to be like

and what the atmosphere and everything else that comes there. I think that there's going to be a lot of chances for Orlando on the break with Facundo Torres, with Ivan Angulo and martino jada and you know whether from hero enrique or duncan mcguire up top like there's going to be chances and if they can get the first goal it's going to get that much more difficult for charlotte yeah i agree with you i think for charlotte the conversation is like who can elevate their game and step up and be that attacking difference maker and you know we saw swiderski do it as a quote-unquote 10 at times

with worse forwards in front of him than Ajamang in the past. So that's an option. We've also seen Abada have his flashes and his moments. He's a young player in a new league. It's not consistent yet. It's not where it should be for the money they spent. But he's capable of it. So you have

sort of a few options here. If you're Charlotte of, do we throw Swiderski in there with Ajamang and try and make something happen? Or do we go out there and play the 90 minutes with the belief that a Vargas and a Abada will make that moment themselves? I think it's tough to believe in the second one right now, but you can because you're the one who went out and signed these players because you think that's who they are and what they can do so I think that's a huge part of the conversation and the other part is if you don't start all those pieces who's central midfield because you basically played three you know work courses in the last game if that gets cut down to two who are the two in this? I talked about it on the show on Monday. There was not enough support for Nathan Byrne and Melanda

in trying to deal with Angulo and Ojeda and everything they had to deal with down the Orlando left wing and Charlotte's right wing. So I don't know if you drop one. Does Urso slide over there? Because that's normally where Westwood is, who covers ground but doesn't win a ton of physical battles. Or is it a reason that you say we have to stick with these three

in central midfield to try and cover for this one? The only thing I'll say on the Orlando side is we have not seen them contend at a level they contended at in game one consistently under Oscar Pereja. So I am going to shade right now on the side of, I don't think they play at that level again because I haven't seen it in the past. But what I saw in game one,

I think was better than what I've seen over the last few years. And so Facundo Torres has developed and he's been in this league. Enrique gives them a different look and Ojeda playing at the level he's playing at. I think this is a lot less smoke and mirrors than it's been in the past and a lot more real talent executing in the way they should but

i haven't seen that yet so my assumption would be that in that atmosphere you talked about in that crowd that charlotte's able to find the the enough of the spaces to take a lead and i think playing from a lead should be fairly comfortable for them at home in that whole setup. So my guess, my assumption would be that Charlotte gets a win here. And we'll see a game three in this series going forward. Let's talk about the other game, Colorado LA Galaxy. In this one, Colorado, we thought we'd see Cole Bassett in the last game. We didn't.

He is a huge difference maker for this team. Is he a five-goal difference? I'm not sure. And I think that's the question mark you fall to in this one. I think we could all write the Galaxy starting 11 down right now. Like, you come out of a win like that, you're not changing anything if you don't have to. They're very happy with what they've seen so far. They were dominant in that game.

It falls on Colorado, whether it's personnel changes or individual changes to throw that last game around away and get better and having cole bassett in central midfield would be huge because loraz what he was talking to the ref after yellow card in like the 13th minute chasing around in midfield and you know it's a tough it's a tough assignment like that's a tough set and so omir i think works hard but does not cover the ground bassett does and isn't the difference maker in possession to sort of alleviate things that he is. So I think that's a huge question mark. And the other is Reggie Cannon. Like I wrote in the Discord, I love Reggie.

And he brings a lot of what we talked about with Dane St. Clair, like CONCACAF-y stuff to the game. And he's talking and he's constantly yelling and all that stuff. But he got worked in that game 1v1 and I don't know if you can believe he can flip the performance going into this game partially because he hasn't played a ton in the last few years in consistent teams and he hasn't been in MLS so I think those are the huge question marks that I'm thinking about coming into this one what about you yeah I think you hit all of those that's it for me and like like you said, I think Cole Bassett will make a huge difference. Again, being at home I think will make a huge difference.

And just the knock-on effect, right? Like of can that unlock more for Hoffa Novakou? Can that – if Cole Bassett is on the field, how much easier does that make Omer Fernandez's job? And then you kind of go on down the line. Yeah, like LA Galaxy coming out winning five no like really took a whole lot of momentum out of colorado rapids and out of this series that like i thought and it still can be wide open it still can be closer to um a hard-fought series but like

after that game like i don't think anybody would be surprised if galaxy go out there and win and even maybe win uh comfortably like yeah i do feel bad for the rapids of just like get to the playoffs and georgie myovic no call bassett that that was the identity of your team those are and with hoff and navarro three probably your three most important players you're missing two of them um and this goes back to like moise pompito was transferred over the summer because it was time and that's just another unfortunate symptom of um where the calendar is where the league is right like like it's not like they chose that because they didn't want to have him here but like the first half of the season he was in the defender of the year conversation so um whatever this team peaked at

if you would say the league's cup run if you would say maybe even a little bit before that like it's just a different team that they put out in round one, which is just extremely unfortunate and must be absolutely infuriating to the coaching staff, the front office, to the fans and everything, right? Even the guys in the locker room. Like, man, like, what happened in game one is not indicative in any way of what the season was. Like, maybe some goals conceded and some defensive frailties. That might be it, right? But, like, outside of that, like, that's not this team.

That's not what this team is about so i i mean i i'd be hoping for a bounce back for colorado because particularly if they they lose this and it's a comfortable win for the galaxy like that that's gonna hurt a lot and for all the good work that they've done this year that doesn't take it away but like that's that's a long off season to think about it. And, again, no matter how well they do during, like, the regular season next year, then part of it would be, too. It's like, all right, this is cool. Well, then what's going to happen in the playoffs, right? Like, so, I don't know.

I think that this is low-key an extremely important game for the Colorado Rapids, not obviously just for this playoff series, but just kind of for the vibe check, for where everything is in this project. Like, again, coming out of the leagues cup this it felt like wow this is incredible it's awesome and then like come if they get smoked out of the round one of the playoffs of the LA Galaxy it's like all right like are we really as close as we thought we were and then like those are going to be hard conversations um for the for the leagues cup convo by the way so we've had two years. Last year, 2023, the semifinals were Philadelphia, Inter-Miami, and Nashville with Monterey from League MX.

What? Miami didn't make the playoffs. Philadelphia lost their first playoff game, and Nashville lost their first playoff series as well. This year, you've got Columbus, LAFC. You've got Colorado and Philly. Philly don't make the postseason. Colorado tanked down the stretch. Columbus, we just said, played their worst game of the season in the opening game of the playoffs.

And LAFC got the win in the first round. And LAFC has bounced back. Obviously, they had Open Cup in there as well. They've bounced back over the last two weeks. But they took a nosedive off the top of the Western Conference as well. And I thought Vancouver was the better team in that game. Although, we had a commenter who told me that Carlos Vela played. So LAFC was the better team.

I don't really understand the connection there, but that's something that I'm learning about as we go along. We know the history of CONCACAF competition, Champions League Cup, whatever you want to call it, of how much teams have struggled to get up for that early in the season and then continue at a high level and finish strong. League's Cup is new. We don't really know how it affects teams yet.

But that's a little bit of a glimpse of like if you peak in August, can you find the energy to maintain and then re-peak again? Right. All these high performance sports, the conversation around long term methodology, all of this is like you can't play at peak level for 365 days so how do you build teams to peak at the right moments and then come down at the right moments as well and it's tough it seems like to have something like a league's cup occur and then have this one almost right after it again after you go down into the regular season so it'll be interesting to see how these teams finish. Does Columbus bounce back?

Does LAFC bounce back? And then it's like, no, we're talking about quality and not setup. That could be the conversation. I'm not sure. And you mentioned the players Colorado has lost and the injuries they've had, which is massive. If Georgie and Cole Bassett are healthy for this, but that also could go into it of like the minutes you've played at the level

you've played and ability to maintain that going forward. so that's friday night good start to the weekend then saturday night we start with n or saturday afternoon we start with nyc fc fc cincinnati which we talked about already and then you get atlanta miami uh coming up in this one it uh sounds like arthur blank is buying tickets for atlanta fans to try and get some red and gold in the stadium. The expectation is there'll be a lot of Messi fans at this game. But Atlanta, of course, they're a legitimate team in their market and they pull fans as well. It sounds like they are opening up the 300 level. And Arthur Blank is this is the terminology they use.

Arthur Blank is purchasing a pair of 300 level tickets for the first 5,000 members that request them. And that closed yesterday. So that's a good chunk of seats that you're hoping to push on some serious Atlanta United fans. Expectation being that this building is going to be pretty full and the atmosphere is going to be pretty good. Brooks Lennon, we don't expect to see. Haven't seen an update on Gregerson. I don't expect to see him either't seen an update on Gregerson. I don't expect to see him either with the tight turnaround and the games they've played. I thought Cobb was really good, but it's different when the other team game plans for you and expects you to

be there and you go up against some of the best players in the history of the game in this one. But as we said, coming out of the first game atlanta had a lot to like do you have any expectation that this is going to a third game i i don't i genuinely don't i think that um again you got the brad guzan performance you got the goal on the road against miami you got a messy performance that i'd be surprised if we see again in terms of uh not being so good in the last game i don't think that you're going to get all of that again. And you would need that. You would need, maybe you need Luis Suarez being less than what he has been.

Maybe you would need Sabalob Janisse to take another step up. But, like, I think that they had the performance in game one, and I don't have a ton of confidence that that will get it again. But, again, as we've established several times over on the show, I'm an idiot. These predictions doesn't mean anything man like so um atlanta just put the the classic dead smart to lean into this particular at least they're doing the nobody believes in us when nobody actually believes in them unlike a lot of teams try to co-opt this narrative and be like bro what are you talking about like you're all you're the number two seeds like dude nobody believed in us

freaking everybody believed in you uh they um they He's like, dude, nobody believed in us. Fucking everybody believed in you. They're not like us, Tom. They're not like us. Don't forget that. Yeah, so I think Atlanta showed that if there's enough of fight and grit in them that there's some space for them to create and there's some quality. You'd hope Moron Chuck plays better in this game. Yes, yes. As a home team, what we saw for Atlanta last time they played Miami is

like the game gets hectic. It opens up their space. Mercedes-Benz plays really fast. And so you're able to get in 1v1 situations. And that's where Miami's backline really struggles. I would expect Miami to sort of go five in the back again and try and keep numbers tight centrally and try and keep the game out wide. And I think you trust yourself to be able to win enough of the aerial duels against if it's just chair, like that's not that intensive a battle. And then you sort of challenge Atlanta to, are you going to throw Daniel Rios on early to try and take that risk? And then for Atlanta, it's like, does a Saba and Moranchuk step up because if they play at a high level and they're dangerous and efficient in the final third as we have said a million times there's

chances against this Miami team if you take a lead you get the crowd behind you it's a really good opportunity to steal a postseason game here for this team either way if they play I think at a similar level to the last one even if they lose lose, I think you walk away with a, okay, this was a good reset for the club. Let's get the new coach in. Let's sort of figure out who we are. A lot of pieces are going to change in this group as well. But like you're starting to build at least a culture and an identity of a team that fought and, and went for it and all that type of stuff over the course of this post

season run. Last game of Saturday, Minnesota, RSL, which we already talked about. And then Sunday, the three matchups that we've already discussed, or two of them, sorry, and Red Bulls, Columbus, and Houston, Seattle. And we finish off with Vancouver against LAFC.

We talked about them kind of a ton in the last game. I think we both were kind of excited about Vancouver's performance, but had big question marks about what they would do in game two. Do you have anything else that you're thinking about or has come to you about this series since the last time we discussed it? No, I mean, this is a really, really important game for the Vancouver Whitecaps. And like, I don't know if we got misconstrued. I think that they played well. Like I wasn't saying that LAFC didn't deserve to win

in game one, right? Like they took their chances, they played in transition, and they weathered a storm that, again, Vancouver could have put some chances away, regardless. That was an encouraging enough performance that this is huge. This needs to be where you show progress, where you show, hey, we aren't far off these top teams, or we can challenge these top teams. So I don't know what the

confidence level would be in that exactly happening um because again like lafc are gonna say okay you have to take the end of us you have to beat us like we're gonna sit in and danny blanca is gonna be right there catch him yeah i dare you to try to catch him you know what we're gonna do here's our fastball i'm telling you i'm throwing it right here. Hit it. And we'll see. The one big shift I think that happens in this game is I think LAFC created some chances pressing a little bit higher in the first game, which you assume their line of confrontation is a little bit deeper being on the road. So for Vancouver, you have the issue you just talked about, which is the transition moments when you've pushed high and the space that you leave but they mitigated that okay in that first game now do you take away the turnovers more closer to your third if you can do that then maybe it takes away enough danger for you to get the chances but it's going to come down to finishing for vancouver right they

created enough to take the lead in the last game. They didn't. They've created enough over the time that they've played in Canadian championship games, postseason, League's Cup, all of that at home to be able to win games. And often they've come up losing 1-0 or going to a shootout. And like, that's where that falls. I think the one big question mark for me, big being probably in quotes. I thought Ali Ahmed was really good in the last game. Fafa Pico has played in that spot when they've been more dangerous and more attacking. Is that maybe the move you see from the start? Because it's a home game and you're trying to play on the front foot,

get another goal scorer out there and get a finisher. I think Ali Ahmed is fantastic. I would always have him in the team, but Sartini didn't down the stretch. So he's a guy that's like fighting for his spot there. And if that's the spot that's up for grabs, I wouldn't be shocked if you look at this and say, let's get Fafa on the field. It's another runner in front of Stuart Armstrong for him to play off of. It's another runner to try and pull the back line around a little bit.

And maybe you get more space for a white or a gold. And Pico has been dangerous. He's been really efficient basically since he told you that he didn't want to play in Vancouver anymore, like four months ago, which is why I always tell you, I don't want to do shows with you anymore because I think that'll up my level and bring me to the elite spot.

We will be back, of course, next week because I have to. No, because I'm excited to and because I want to. To review all of this, I've got NWSL coming up with a little U.S. Women's National Team with Jordan Angeli as well here on the platform in a couple moments. And Tom will be off and hanging out over the course of the weekend.

And then we'll be back next week, as I said, to review it all. Congrats to the teams that got the wins. But we're only halfway there. So a lot to dig into as we go forward here in these first round series. We'll talk to you all again very, very soon.