SoccerWise - MLS Edition: Playoffs RBNY, MIN, LAG & SEA Move On + ATL, VAN, CTL & NYCFC Live To Fight Another Day

Episode Date: November 5, 2024

Best weekend of the year in MLS has come and gone so it's time for the Soccerwise squad to get to work. Tom & David jump on to talk about the epic scenes we saw across the league from Daniel Edelman's clincher to Ryan Gauld taking the series back to LA and everything in between. 5:40 Red Bulls Historic Upset 21:00 Columbus Crew's Future Question Marks 31:06 LA Galaxy & The Killer Ps 37:48 Reacting To Colorado Rapids Season 42:30 Minnesota United Ahead Of Schedule 50:40 RSL & Chicho's Future 55:30 Preview LA v MIN 58:40 What Happened To Houston? 1:04:30 Seattle Back To Where They Belong Soccerwise Live 2pm ET Every Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday on Youtube/Twitch/Twitter

what's up everybody welcome back to soccer wise after the epic weekend of soccer david goss and tommy scoops are back with you for your coverage of the m playoffs, half the teams have moved on. Half the series are moving to a game three, and we are ready to roll. Unfortunately, though, I've been told that Tom exclusively covers the SEC now. That he doesn't want to talk about Major League Soccer. So, Tom, run play option, is that what we're doing? Are we talking fullbacks now? No, we're talking exclusively SEC tailgates. College football games are long, long games.

I can tell you, we were at the tailgate a lot longer than the game was. We were there pretty early in SEC country. What was the overall action on the day? Was it 14 hours at the stadium? The game was like 340. I think our Uber dropped us off at like 10 45 pretty impressive and you survived to and you survived to tell the tale are you a fan of one of the two now was it florida georgia yeah it was florida georgia um not like we were technically

supposed to be in the florida section because i guess it was just easier to get tickets there because there was a lot of red in that stadium there's a lot of Georgia fans so uh but yeah it was sick it was fun I can't like dude it's another world down there and like part of me is like dude I went and played soccer at a d3 small d3 school in New Jersey why the hell did I go to one of these schools and just play intramural yeah I've thought that many times when I've gone on trips as well although in fairness you weren't even at one of the two schools. I know. Because it was played at a neutral site.

That was the most impressive part. It still felt like I was on one of the campuses. It was insane. So that's the next one. It's a little soccer-wise SEC football show. What are we talking about? I'm hearing that people are asking us to come do live shows around their big college football games. Get ready to learn Rutgers, buddy. do live shows around their big uh their big college football games uh for everyone going

far listen i've been to multiple ruckers college football games they have never scored more than one touchdown in all the games i have gone to and i went to one in october where it hailed and they lost to penn state like 12 to 9 and it was the worst experience of my entire life and I'm a Jets fan so I have a lot for that to contend with for that to be up there for anyone watching live thank you and get into the chat we want to talk about all of the big games from the course of this weekend anyone listening later welcome as well Tom is wearing his sticker because he voted today. It is election day. I am wearing my vote T-shirt from, I believe, from the Seattle Sounders originally. And I voted early so that I could be here with everyone today.

But if you are listening, please get out and vote. We've got a great show for you. I thought this was the best weekend of the season in Major League Soccer. So we've got that to talk about. Reminder, NWSL playoffs start this weekend. So myself and Jordan will be back on tomorrow. I've got a special segment that I'm working on with Luchi Gonzalez,

who was head coach of San Jose Earthquakes and FC Dallas. He's going to join the show this week to give us a little bit of that perspective. And we're working on an interview for Friday's show. Tom, are we ready to say, or are we going to wait until we get it done? We can say. We can talk about it.

We've got MLS legend Kai Kamara joining the program, unless he flakes on us. Kai would be very personally offended, but that's okay. He's a busy man. I want to say this. I want to say this. Hang on. Let me make sure that I have this number right.

I probably could have had this in the top of my head. Okay. When Kai Kamara comes on this show, you, me, and Kai combined 147 career MLS goals. That's a huge number, Tom. That's like something to be proud of. I think Kai's going to be stoked about that. I think so, too.

He's pulling his weight in that category. Yeah, you know, but it's a team game, so let's not talk about individuals too much as we go through. So we're going to record that with Kai in advance, and we're going to run it on Friday for our show. Mailbag, I'll be recording on Thursday because I'm traveling for a wedding. So get all your questions in early so that I can dig through all of that

as we go into a weekend in which we'll have four MLS playoff series to play in. And all the teams that already won are off until november 23rd i believe so tom we ready oh galaxy you're looking for someone to play ricky has put it out there they are looking for a challenge until then can we get the squad together i don't think that would be very useful for ricky pooch even uh even if he was hopping around on one leg getting two-footed by you and no no no no just just trying to hamper himself to make it fit. Yeah, they are all looking for scrimmages. We saw this in the past when the number one seed would get a bye

and have a long layoff. I believe the Chicago Fire got eliminated one year and went and traveled to play NYCFC in a friendly because they were looking for someone to play as the number one seed. I don't know how this will go this time. I did see, it was funny. Uh, I believe Miami Orlando announced that they're going to play a friendly in Tampa and everyone assumed it was during the break as a game, but it is preseason, but it was just an early announcement. And, uh, I was like, Oh, that's actually kind of smart. Get some scrimmages going around the country

as like a preseason situation going in to the postseason. Let's talk about the teams that have moved on. And let's start, of course, with the New York Red Bulls. One of the great series, one of the great upsets, partially because it was so dramatic, partially because of how good the Columbus crew are, and partially because of the gap that existed between these two teams. So I talked about it yesterday on the weekend recap show.

19-point difference between the two teams. There have only been three upsets in MLS history at the same points margin or larger. The New England Revolution losing to NYCFC in 2021 and the San Jose Earthquakes losing to LA Galaxy in 2005. We both kind of checked this one off. As we went through the series we were previewing, it was, okay, well, Columbus will move on.

Let's get to the next one. And we were very wrong about that. And the New York Red Bulls were able to not just do it once, right? That's the amazing part about this because of the way this series is set up they had to go on the road and get the result and then come home and take the best shot from what many people believed was the best team in the league uh and then Daniel Edelman is the one to put it away in the penalty kick shootout and one of the great moments I think of the kid, academy kid, puts it in the corner,

rolls to the corner, rips off the shirt. The crowd's going nuts. It felt like five, 10 years ago in that building from on TV. You could feel it shaking, which is what makes RBA so great when it's at its peak. And we saw that again, Tom, this weekend. Yeah, so just kind of sticking with that moment. That was really cool.

Daniel Edelman was interviewed after the game, and was kind of like, they like asked him about the celebration. He's like, I want to be honest with you. I don't even remember. He's like, he's like, he's like, Dennis was joking with me that like, you just took your shirt off and you were gone. All of a sudden you're on the other side of the field and then you just kept running. So like, that was just pure limbs, man. That was really, really cool. But Gus, I'm gonna throw it back to you. Like over the course of this series, how did the red bulls do this um it's a great question i would say my takeaway from this series if i were to try and put the games into boxes was that i think sandra won them game one i thought the way they went five at the back you look at it i believe it was the most crosses columbus has ever

hit under wilfred Nance. So it took them out of their element. And we said it last week that Columbus played poorly. And I didn't think they'd play that poorly again. And they didn't in game two. But I think a lot of that was down to Sandro Swartz's tactics, his ideas. And he talked about it coming out of this game of indecision day. We recognize what we had to do.

Right. They had that experience against Columbus. And we said, they said to themselves, like, we have to do something different to beat this Columbus team. I don't think it's going to be the same thing in the next round, whoever they play based off the Columbus, but it was specific to what Wilfred Nance and his team did. And then in the second game, I think you have to give it to the players, right? Where Sandro Schwartz had a wrinkle. He had a surprise.

It caught Columbus off guard. And then Columbus settled. And then we saw the best team that I think from a soccer point of view in the league in this second game. Cucho dropping in at Red Bulls press was phenomenal. But when Columbus broke it, they looked dangerous. And they had ideas when they played into the second layer of how to go from there and you saw the talent sort of start to show and you saw the confidence for columbus and a lot of these red bull players elevated their game to the like bend but don't

break moment cornell of course in the shootout forsberg was phenomenal but i think you go across the back line dylan neal is like that was okay you're gonna go three in the back but it's dylan neal it's like i'm gonna throw kucho in that area I'm gonna have a Matan floating in that area or DeJuan Jones in this game he elevated he played the to the level he had to he won a ton of 50-50 battles Tolkien as well even with the PK miss there's a moment like five games five minutes left in the game where he wins a goal kick and he's just like screaming at the crowd and everyone's locked into it and feeling it. And that was huge as well. The midfield play Edelman in there throughout the flow of the game. And then Morgan and Van Zier who were more threatening in the second game than the first game. Morgan missed the big chance

in the first game, but they had no possession in the first game. In the second game, there was a moment in our group chat where we were talking, and we were talking about how Van Zier doesn't really threaten because he can't create space with his quickness, and in possession, he's not dangerous enough just with the ball at his feet to create space. That all shifted as the second half went along, where he started to create gaps with the ball at his feet,

and I think you saw him get more confident and start to put defenders on their heels and take more risks. And they needed that. And then Morgan gets the finish from no angle. So I would say they won it in the first game. I don't want to say it's a gimmick, but they were able to throw a curveball and throw Columbus off. And then the second game, the belief,

and Emil Forsberg talked about it after the game, like the belief as a group, I think some of that belief comes from getting the win in the first game and being like we know we can beat these guys yeah so a few things for me like one they did the red bull dna we're gonna be hard to sell to play against we're gonna dominate off the ball we're gonna like the crew want to dominate with possession that's fine take the ball we're gonna be really really difficult to play against um i love the formation change i love the tactical tweak i think you were perfect in singling out dylan neilis as how excellent he played i'm almost surprised that they didn't show this look more often during the

regular season and i wonder i don't believe that it was one of those things that like oh we know we can go to this in the playoffs we don't want to show anybody like i i guess that they were just trying to stick with i guess guess, their preferred look. But, like, the way that, like, Kyle Duncan got hurt and, like, right back was always kind of a revolving door. And when Dylan Nielsen's playing right back, he's playing more like an elbow back than, like, the way Kyle Duncan plays, right?

Like, so this look makes so much sense for this team, but it's only really possible with Emil Forsberg and the way that he can elevate the attack. My biggest disappointment to the Red Bulls this year, it wasn't just in the moments where Emil Forsberg wasn't there because he was injured or wasn't playing to his point. My biggest disappointment was they got soft defensively for long stretches of time.

Carlos Cornell, he said it himself. He's like, I wasn't good enough. The back line was too easy to play through. He's like, I wasn't good enough. Right. Like the, the back line was too easy to play through. Like this, like it didn't feel like a Red Bull team. And that more so than Forsberg being out, like led me,

like, that's why I was super dismissive of this. And again, I'm wrong. I'll eat the shit. I'll eat shit right now. Right. Like I,

I deserve. And like, cause again, it wasn't just, no, they can't do this. It was like super dismissive. So I'm not taking,

putting any excuses on that. So the, what, like the, it wasn't just, no, they can't do this. It was, like, super dismissive. So I'm not putting any excuses on that. So, like, in this front trio, we were saying this in May, June. Makes a lot of sense. Dante Van Zier's best moments have been with Lewis Morgan and Emile Forsberg. Yeah. And I think that the trio can, like, bring out each three's, like, kind of better qualities. Yeah, Morgan can stretch the field yep Van Zier can drop in and play to his feet and create a little bit and then Forsberg can use both of them as a tool whether he wants to go in transition with with Morgan or play a little

bit more link up and it doesn't work without Forsberg because like it just becomes too one one-dimensional or too predictable right like so they got back that defensive solidity and, like, their hardest how to play against. And my last point on this is Columbus crew went 1-0 up. I was like, okay, like, this was fun for the Red Bulls. They fought. Like, I thought they played really well until that first goal. And it's like, all right, well, like, now they have to come out of their shell more. Now they have to try to play with the ball a little bit more, do this, whatever, right?

Like, the crew of the better team, like, throughout the course of the season, they took the lead. Now this is where this, like, all right, let's focus on game three, right? Like, the fact that, like, they had that kind of, like, the strength to fight back and take the lead even, and then the strength to give up a 95th-minute equalizer and then go win the penalty shootout right like they tick so many boxes for me this is what we hope this team could be in June and then

we didn't see it for five months or four months whatever it is and what a time for it to come out and again full kudos to the New York Red Bulls yeah you talk about that back line and the strength Andres Reyes took a step back this year after last year coming into New York, and it was like, okay, this is the right fit, right? This was a guy who was, depending on what we're going with, was a DP in Miami or not, was a borderline DP, whatever you want to call it. Didn't even play well there, though, and then we saw it in New York.

Sean Nealis as well has been one of the most consistent centerbacks in the league over the last few years. Both of them I thought struggled this year alongside Cornell. Some of that was injury. Some of that was changes around them. Whatever it was, we saw them all elevate, I think, and play to their level. In this one, we have in the chat, first comment from Sean Lynch that says, Cornell legacy game?

Absolutely. Like, this was the guy they had who was arguably goalkeeper of the year last year and and yeah whenever i can't remember that i can't remember that far back uh even though we're going to talk about all times in a little bit uh and and he he had said you know he expected better of himself both in the shootout at the start when he wasn't able to get near the first few shooters and just in general and he was able to get over the line you know get them over the line makes the huge save with his back against the wall in the fifth shot and like at some point you get to penalty kicks and it you know it is what it is like there's not everything a goalkeeper can do but i think you could see the

confidence in new york that they had belief that he could make the saves and then you get going from there and then Edelman sticks it in the corner and it's like how is he not one of the first shooters if that's the way he's taking it um at that point Tolkien had the first one saved and then otherwise everyone else scored in the normal shots Sean Nealis misses on the sixth or has it saved and then Edelman puts it in the corner and that's one of those moments that you talk about for a club of like daniel edelman i would say from being around obviously i'm i was around red bulls too for a long time and around the youth ranks was the closest they've had to a tyler adams since tyler left so like when you talk about a guy who can potentially come out of the academy and wear the captain's armband daniel edelman's the first one that they've really had maybe you could talk about tolkien but a little bit different you know tolkien's a bit more of

an enigmatic player pops up disappears a little bit has the hair all that stuff where like edelman is like red bull to the core yeah there you go and uh and he's a new jersey guy came through the pda setup into red bulls like all the things that they have built over the years, he is an example of them. So I think to have that be the cherry on top, for him to be the one to finish it off, you could feel it a little bit more for everyone. And like, that's where you go back

and that's going to be the moment we'll look back on, right? We'll see him score, him rip the jersey off, the crowd go wild and it'll be like, ah, that's what that day was, right? When you think about the great goals we've seen and the big moments and when you think back on highlights you'll watch going through into playoffs and you know sizzle reels for teams and all that like that's going to be the thing for this red bull group and that's awesome because you know they've been trying to build it for a while and you need the forsbergs on the field

that's the conversation we're having and we can have in the future again with Red Bulls. But for this week, it all came together and it all worked and it was pretty cool. Yeah. I think that's perfect too. Right? Like I think we've given the Red Bulls enough criticism, everything else, right? Like this should be like, rather than being like, Oh, finally, or Oh, why couldn't you do? Oh, this is what you could have been like. No, they got hot at the right time right now.

And we'll see what happens the next round. Like, dude, they got hot at the right time right now, and we'll see what happens in the next round. Like, dude, if you can beat the Columbus Crew over these two games, and again, like, this wasn't a lucky set piece game. Like, again, like, I know that they were dominated in possession over those two games, but, like, that's how they want to play, right? Like, so this wasn't something like, oh, I'll pat you on the head. That was nice. Good luck. You know, delay your vacations for another week, right?

Like, why not, man? Like, so I thought this was super impressive. And if they play like this, it's, you know, to steal from Emil Forsberg, fuck it, why can't we, right? Why can't they? Everyone's got the same line. I think Rob Valentino is using the same line as well right now. They're all pulling from the Tom Bogert fortune cookie knowledge

about life uh going no they'd be they'd be gone they'd be out yeah true they'd be like nothing matters let me move on uh i don't care about this at all i did the greatest a little bit of the greatest upset conversation yesterday i talked about that that point spread right one of the three biggest two verse seven as well not the biggest we've ever seen. We've seen one eight upsets. Last year, Sporting Kansas City beat St. Louis. My point yesterday was St. Louis last year was fourth in the league,

even though they won the West. And there was a smaller points gap between them and KC than what we saw this year with Columbus, who were second in the league to the record point setter and had, of course, the pedigree of having won things in the past is there any series that pops up to you or is this to you the the biggest upset of all time nah like i didn't do any prep work on this so i like i don't i don't feel like wasn't ready for this segment that this so i don't feel comfortable kind of laying it out but like again like how great this crew team was reigning champions and still being at the top of their games.

Like they steamed through the League's Cup this season. They got to the CONCACAF Champions Cup final. They were really good down the stretch, like for the most part, right? Like, so this wasn't the case where you bring up the St. Louis one from last year. Like the last two thirds of the season, they were a good, like a good, like fourth place-ish type team in terms of like their point total and trajectory, right? Like, so that wasn't anywhere near the same as the Columbus Crew falling in this round. Yeah. The other ones I pulled up yesterday was RSL 2021,

when they beat Seattle in PKs as a 2-7, where that was a one game in Seattle and it felt like there was no chance RSL. When they had zero shots. Yeah, exactly. It was a different it was a different style and i think that's where you go back to the way this series is set up across the three games single standalone of like what the red bulls did was harder and more impressive than a lot of what these other ones were um and if they continue to win i think that shifts things as well so 2005

when the galaxy beat san jose and there was that 19 point gap san jose then beat the revs who were the second best team in the league in the second game if this red bull team goes and beats a cincinnati and mi as they roll forward it'll be the greatest run in mls uh playoff history but that is still to be decided and still to see going forward uh for columbus they came out and they played better a couple decisions by Wilfred Nance in this one. Dwan Jones gets the start, which I thought was interesting. Christian Ramirez doesn't start in this one. Shambus gets the start in his place as that second 10,

with Rossi coming back into the team after the back injury. And I thought Columbus came out flying. It was a little fortunate for the Red Bulls. They were able to stay alive those first 15 minutes. Then Red Bulls settled down. They start to play. Then, as you said, Columbus gets the goal. You're thinking it's over.

Red Bulls equalize. Then I think it's just a brain fart from Camacho. He goes to ground early. Like he doesn't go to ground for the ball. I think he just slides kind of lost in the moment and he ends up fouling Forsberg and then they fight back and get the equalizer. Christian Ramirez comes off the bench.

He gets the goal for them. Arfston scored with his first touch off the bench as well, which is interesting way for it to play out. So what are you thinking about with Columbus right now? Like, is this the end of this group? Is this the defining moment rather than the win last year like what will this mean for this squad oh so first of all no this isn't the defining moment

the defining moment is the trophies the defining was everything else like this is i don't know just about the first um big time like high leverage game that they didn't you know not just show up for but like show up like 100% right like so no this isn't the defining way to look at this team there are a couple scenarios that could play out one is Kucho's back Wolverine's back and they're just the crew again immediately next year and anything that we say after this is going to sound silly and alarmist in retrospect but there is a real scenario in which like they evolve into a new era um and it doesn't need that doesn't mean things are over just mean things are going to be different

or could be different rather so there is at some point like wilfred nancy is going to get an offer from a head coaching job in europe that is attractive uh there's reports at salt nantian and we talked about that on previous shows and i checked before this before the show started they still have not fired the manager nice and so they still have not contacted um uh still have not contacted columbus group for you know official permission or whatever but things get back channeled they are interested that's real that's what i've heard right like so there's a possibility right doesn't mean it's going to happen doesn't right like but that is indicative of what's to come for this team like this is these are some of the prices of success with Cucho Hernandez it's even stronger like I don't really get why a mid-table Premier League

team or better wouldn't put up 22 million dollars or something like that right and if that comes in if part of your pitch to Cucho was we want to get you back in Coleman national team you we want like come here for however many years and we'll let you go back to europe like this is a right stage for your career it doesn't have to be a forever thing so if that happens like this is absolutely a new era like there's a couple contracts that are up uh christian ramirez is one of them um rudy camacho this was the first time over the series where i was like whoa like yeah has whoa, has he lost half a step? Which is probably too premature to say, right? But these things are easier to see in retrospect.

These things are easier to see with hindsight. And we could be in the middle of, wow, was this it for this stage of the Columbus Crew? Because again, even let's say Nancy stays, even if it's just Cucho that leaves, that is absolutely a new era. Because you cannot talk about one era without Cucho that leaves that is absolutely a new era because you cannot talk about one era without like Cucho being at the center at the center of it Darlington Nagby is another one of those guys right like so there is a real possibility that this was it for this iteration this team um I do trust the front office I do trust the infrastructure again I trust Wilford Nancy's here

like they're always that's a cheat code he gets the most out of player everybody on the roster from 1 through 30 um but they do have really strong infrastructure to keep this going, whether or not a couple pieces leave. But it absolutely would be a different era if one or both of Wilfred Nancy and Kucho Hernandez leave. Yeah, if you were to say about this crew group, there are five pieces that are the core of it with Cucho and Nance the center of that Nagby right outside of that Rossi probably in that combo as well um and you could

convince me of the next one whether it's Schulte or Camacho or whatever um if if one of those top two leaves it changes everything yeah if you can keep them together for another year, I don't think you're talking about wholesale makeover changes, right? It's all your Boas contracts up. That's great. You're going to replace that. Maybe one of the fullbacks is gone, Mo Farsi or Max Arfsten, because they get sold.

We had the rumors for Farsi last year. Arfsten signed a new contract this year. We have said this many times. A lot of times young players sign new, longer contracts. It is a way for teams and players to work together to get them sold properly for the right money for them and to the right spot. That doesn't mean they're going to be there for five years. So I could see some of those moves happening. I would like to see them improve central midfield a little bit.

And I think Zawadzki was really good this year, but he is not a replacement for Aiden Morris. And I thought that was a spot they took a half step back that if they're able to re-improve, either you could play Zawadzki at one of the center backs again when you need to, or maybe it protects Camacho a little bit more as he ages going forward

or some of the other defensive pieces in this group. It will be really interesting because if this is it, like if Cucho is gone or Nance is gone going into next year, you're going to look back on a year and a half in which they did things we didn't think teams could do, but they're not going to be leaving with the trophy hall that you'd probably expect from a conversation like that. And I am not a rings culture person. Right. I put up those TFC teams and, you know, TFC losing in the CCL final. But the run they went on to me is still as impressive as anything an MLS team has done. And they didn't win it.

And I think with this Columbus team, you saw a lot of haters sort of come off the top rope and be like, oh, I thought this was the greatest team of all time, which is great. Every other team in MLS history that's made a CCL final hasn't won a playoff series. Most haven't qualified for the playoffs. This team finished second in the league and made it to the first round of the postseason. This is a stratosphere we have not operated in before. Even with the upset that occurred, it becomes easier to talk about if they come back next year and win some more stuff. If they win another league's cup, if they win a shield, if they win an MLS cup, okay,

then it becomes a dynasty across a span of time. And you're talking about three years of success. But if it's just this, it's going to be really interesting to figure out how to parse this alongside some of the great groups. But I think quality of play goes in that. I put 2019 LAFC up with anyone because of the soccer they played and the success they had. And I think that's part of the conversation as well.

It's going to be fascinating to watch. And I think for Columbus fans, like I think most I'm seeing are like, I'm glad for what we had and let's be happy for what it is and all of that. But it's a question, question mark time coming up um over the next few months as you said they've replaced before they replaced celery on with kucho like that's they did that coming off an mls cup uh but there's been some changes as well in the club on

you know higher up with bezbachenko leaving who we had on the show a little while ago and so it's a whole new ball game at times as you go forward. The Red Bulls don't know who they will play yet. So we don't know how to preview that going forward. Should we say that they have no chance of it? Or should we just run the same thing? You would be welcome, Red Bulls fans, if we did that. They will play the winner of NYCFC FC Cincinnati.

Now, I think it did come out on social media that if it was NYCFC, it would be at Red Bull Arena. I don't think that's been confirmed, but it would not be a shocking thing to occur based off the way we've seen that. So that would be wild. On the flip side, if it's FC Cincinnati, it's car crash soccer, and that would be really fun in a single elimination game.

Let me tell you right now. So the Citi Field and Yankee Stadium are unavailable for the dates, I believe, if NYCFC get through. Bro, I would rather fly out to Los Angeles and play the game somewhere in Los Angeles than play that game at Red Bull Arena.

Like, I am petitioning the club. I don't care if you've got to go to Canada or Mexico. Play somewhere else. And play it at Montclair University. Paul Hartford Athletic can be like, you guys are hanging out. Bro, I don't know where they are in construction at the new stadium. If they're flat and they can lay down a pitch. I can actually tell you, I took a picture when I went to the Mets game the other day.

I meant to send it to you. It is flat. Or it is at least nothing standing. Whatever you have to do to not play that game at red bull arena you have to do you have to exhaust every single option like again if even if that includes flying to the west coast if they play in the dirt in a construction site they gotta do the full adidas commercial where the kids draft the teams and they draft zidane and maradona and all of that and that's how they have to intro the players just have two kids be like elise manuel

well field of dreams where they they do the mlb thing yeah yeah does the cornfields have enough space for a soccer field go play at that baseball stadium no don't play red bull arena the most new york thing possible is instead of cornfields it's chop shops in queens behind where the mets play that is the most new york corner you could possibly have the corner flags are just uh rims that are waiting to be attached to a car mufflers just hanging out around the field uh by the way elias manuel not good off the bench trying to seal this game it was like columbus is throwing everything forward we'll just play you into space and manuel was like oh you played it on the left wing i went down the right wing like every single time that was really tough to watch but congratulations to red bull fans uh shout out to our homie yeah i know shout out to the homie eric gonzalez who was

in the bathroom because he thought it would be better luck stayed in the bathroom to watch all of the penalty kick shootouts in the stadium. Did he just sit on the toilet seat? No, he sent me a video of him just alone standing in an empty bathroom because, spoilers, no one else went to the bathroom during the best part of this series slash season slash maybe decade for this Red Bull team. You're out of your mind.

Are we including wild card games as playoff wins and playoff games? What do we decide? I don't know. It shouldn't be a we decision. It should be coming from them. But I'm being serious. Like, NBA, they had the messaging, like, playing around is not the playoffs. If you finish eighth in the regular season but don't make it out of the playing round,

you did not make the playoffs. There has not been something like a central messaging, like, hey, for for for history context like there hasn't been any of that from MLS so Red Bulls won a wild card game last year otherwise this is their first series win since 2018 which is unbelievable to say and shows you how far down it went and a chance to bounce back here so congratulations to them excited to watch it in the next round let's talk about the other teams that clinched before we get into the series that are being pushed to those third games uh let's go out west let's start with the la galaxy uh and the killer peas throwing up i called it a grand slam i wrote this here boom la galaxy hit a grand slam because ricky did a pitch and then hit celebration because I think the Dodgers won the World Series.

Felt very random to do in Colorado in this MLS playoff series for a guy from Spain who's probably never thrown a baseball before in his life. They put up the four spot in the second game, five spot in the first game. They went 4-1 after it was 1-1 at halftime or right before halftime um what do you think tom about what we learned here in this one because the la galaxy 2-7 seed again columbus got knocked off the galaxy looked completely dominant we talked about in the first game no cole bassett no georgie mihailovich georgie came back for this one still no no Cole Bassett, who I had in my best 11. That's how good I thought he was this season. That is not just a piece to try and replace.

What do you make of what we should take away from this? Yeah, I mean, again, it was a complete domination by the LA Galaxy. I think that that is real. I think that all of their strengths were on display. And, again, weather, like, we'll talk about the Rapids in a little bit. I want to focus on the Galaxy. Like, they had their issues, right? The unfortunate of missing their two best players straight up,

or two of their three at least. And, like, it was a watered-down version of the Rapids. So, I wouldn't take, you know, a billion percent of, like, oh, defensive issues are fixed. They're going to be down there, right? But, like, they couldn't do anything about that. They looked awesome. They did not give the Rapids a hint of hope. Right. Like there's a scenario in which Colorado are fighting during that game and then they turn into a game three. Galaxy absolutely stomped them out in that.

So I think that's a phase of what we're worried about of what can you do in the playoffs in these big moments, in these one-offs where, like, yeah, you create a ton of chances during the season, or yeah, like, there are all these things that we know you're a really good team, we know you're really good, but it's like, hey, in these moments, these big-time moments, like, are you ruthless enough, whether that's killing out a game defensively or if that's killing the game with more goals? And that's what they did over these two games.

So I'm trying to, like, ease on this because again like they're whoever they play next i mean sorry they're playing the soda like if if they get to like lefc in the conference final like that's a whole different test than either one of these teams right but like they did what they had to do and they showed if you drew it up perfectly like the only thing would be not giving up a goal right like that that's it so they were they were awesome they were excellent and a lot of people in LA are very excited about this team it was yeah it was a big series I think in just can you take what your theory is and what worked in the regular season and do it in the postseason right can you do it when the pressure turns up all those things and as you said I think

I think especially Payne stills goal to end that first half and be like, okay, the RAS scores the, the, you know, the crowds back in it after let's, let's be real. They stole a goal because Zach Stephan cleared it off of Gabrielle Peck for no reason. And you know, it's a fortunate bounce, but it was also an absurd play from Stephan to try and have the defender close him before he released the ball, as if that was what he was trying to make happen, like he was going to dribble past him. And then Colorado settles a little, and they get the goal from Leraz, and there's energy, and Colorado starts playing on the front foot. And then you see the, like, okay, when the game's against us, and we've talked about this,

I think LAFC's a decent example of, like, the game's against us and we've talked about this i think lafc is a decent example of like the games against them we know you can you know you can trust them or rely on buonga right now the question in the vancouver series is who else it's just him with the galaxy it's all three of them it's four of them if you add jovalich in we saw ricky in game one i think sort of be that guy we've seen peck do it over the course of the season and pain still did it in this one just cuts inside in a pretty tight window and just curls it to the far post and it's just a moment of excellence from an elite player to be like okay we can add this to what we do um i wasn't as like high on this series talking about it coming out of it because i don't know that we learned a ton because the because colorado was so far behind the eight ball and with the

injuries they had already being at a talent deficiency coming into this one and so it's like fantastic for the galaxy that they took care of business but i don't know that it says to me oh this is a team that's ready to win mls cup just coming out of this one so what i think the biggest thing that we learned and like both of us were wrong on this going into this series, Marco Reus didn't start the game. Yeah, 100%. So, is this the best XI going forward? I'm assuming so, right? But, again, they were starting Marco Reus in a lot of big games

after he got into the team, or after he got his feet under him after making the summer move. And both of us firmly expected that he was going to be a first-choice starter. And, again, like, I have serious doubts of whether you can line up against a team like LAFC or a team like the Seattle Sounders, a team like whoever, with, you know, Ricky Pooch technically as an eight, or Marco Reus as an eight-and-a-half, or however you've got to play it, where you have one defensive midfielder and the two of them in front of them and I thought that they were just going to kind

of go down swinging like well this is our identity we're going to do this so I thought I think that's the biggest takeaway for me from this series yeah I think that's yeah I think that's fair and I think the like biggest positive of all of that is like that they're not kowtowing to the name right yes like if that's not the best team then that's not going to be the team that plays where they brought Marco Royce in on a damn deal like he took less money to come I'm not saying there's a promise to play but you're managing personalities you're managing emotions and so um I expected it to stay the same after the win in the first leg but the fact that he didn't start the first leg already was big.

And I think that takes away maybe some of the convo, which is like, okay, against Minnesota at home, that's where you would start him because you're going to have more possession at home. You're going to have more of the game. They're going to sit in. He's a possession player, but I don't think he's, if they're healthy in this, in the best 11 right now going forward. And so, yeah, I think that is really interesting to think about and i think for the galaxy it's just good to get that first series win under the belt for

like this group and be like okay now we can grow and build um they're gonna be challenged when they face off against austin the nine random people we pick up to go play them in this scrimmage coming up in a week or two while ricky waits for this next postseason game. But that is what it is. Do you want to talk about Colorado here? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I was going to frame it to you. Is this a huge worry red flag for the Rapids in like, oh my God, we're not close? Or is it just like, this is brutally unlucky that Georgie got hurt on the final day of the season and Cole Bassett missed the series as well? Which one do you think it more of i think i think it's the second one and my hope for them would be they react to it as the second one and you add to that they got stuck in

a series against the team that takes advantage like this if they had lost 2-0 twice to seattle i don't think it would feel the same and it would have been the same reality which was like they were never going to win those games that's the case against the galaxy it's just this is the team that puts four and five up when you do that to them and you allow them to and other teams in the league don't and that's the matchup that they ended up with in the end in all of this they are never going to be like yeah without our one or two top players we're gonna go dunk on another team in the playoffs that's not going to be their reality without our one or two top players we're gonna go dunk on another team in the playoffs that's not gonna be their reality and like i think that's fine um but to miss what you would say two

of their three best players in a year in which they sold their other best player that's a lot to ask for from any team and i think if you had if you had played this series with one of them fully healthy and you were only missing one of them and you had played this series with one of them fully healthy and you were only missing one of them, and you had played this series at a time when you were coming into it, probably on the right side of that run instead of, you know, if what you saw in League's Cup and Pre-League's Cup was coming into this and you got stomped like this, that would be a different conversation. But I think if you level out the course of this year for them, you should be able to say, like, there's a lot of good things in there we can be competitive there are some weird pieces i still don't get the reggie

cannon move and he struggled this series so i don't want to be like um monday morning quarterback on it but sam vines they brought in like keegan rosenberry's a captain and i get talent but i would like to see how it all fits together then next year, which is they've created some advantages. Can they flip some of those players for players that fit maybe a little bit cleaner in some of these spots, whether it's a Cabral or a Jonathan Lewis, who will probably leave and all of that and whether they can clean it all up to make it make even more sense going forward. But I think this was the right step. I think it would be dangerous for this club to say, like, ah, this doesn't work. We have to try something new.

I'm completely – I'm with you, right? Like, so I think that there's always going to be a case of, like, that team's bringing Marco Reus off the bench. That team has Ricky Pooch, and they just spent more than $20 million on Peck and Bain. So, right? Like, that's going to be a component of that. But as you said, that's just not the reality of Colorado Rapids.

Or, again, most clubs in the league. Like, the hall that the LA Galaxy had this winter was huge and then again adding Mark Royce in the summer um I think it's definitely more to do with just like brutal awful timing for injuries and like it sucks man like we're like I feel for any team in that position um you know again if you're the front office, if you're on the coaching staff of, like, man, like, that League's Cup run, like, that ended up being, like, the top point of their season. They could have played. They played with anybody.

They were as good as anybody in that time. And it's like, cool, like, let's run it back to the playoffs. And then on decision day, your best player twists his ankle and it's hurt. And then the Cole Bassett, I don't even know what it is, right? But, like, Cole Bassett's a guy who rarely misses games. He's the guy who's always there. That's, like, a huge loss. Like, it sucks, man.

So, again, by nature, the people who do these jobs, front office and coaching staff, by nature, they're control freaks right you think that if i prepare if i work harder than everybody else if i think of every scenario more than anybody else i can control as much as i can possibly control and then george mchalvis twists his ankle in the final game of the season you can't control that man you can't control hitting the post a game like soccer you know more so than some of the other sports too like so I like that would I would be pulling my hair out with like how do I plan for this next season how like how do you figure this out right like again I think this is gonna have a really sour uh mark for them but like this was a really really good season it's probably tough to see that right now

if you're a Rabbits fan it's probably tough if you're in that locker room like Jesus Christ we just got killed but like this was a really good season for the Colorado Rabbits. And, again, I'm certain that the front office and coaching staff will have it, frame it that way and understand it with, like, a little bit of time after the games. But just, like, at some point it's like you throw your arms up. It's like, man, like, how do we control for that to happen? Yeah. Alex McCracken in the chat says the one goal RSL scored against Minnesota

looks a lot like what the galaxy are going to want to do uh which takes us into the matchup that these teams are going to have now minnesota knocked off rsl twice not as dramatic of course as what the red bulls did it was a three verse six i think if you looked at some of the statistical models minnesota actually netted out as the favorite going into the series depending on where you looked and what people were doing we both felt pretty good algorithm do you have your algorithm well the thing was when you turn around here what i block it's my old ibm computer and so what i do is i get a bunch of ink i throw it in the computer and then i just start working on it once when

we're not on i'm just crunching numbers left and right. Absolutely. I'm basically Steve Kornacki in here on my own, on my free time. Minnesota won in the shootout both games. So technically they didn't win, if you want to do it that way. But we both thought coming out of the first game that Minnesota was the better team and deserved the result with the performance they put on at RSL. And they came back home, and I thought they were even better in this game.

And they're going to move on now to face the LA Galaxy. But you see what I did for the bottom line here, for anyone listening. I said Minnesota Rebuild flying high. The Loons, the Mega Loon is undefeated or whatever it is going forward. You talk about everything with Colorado. Like this was the perfect moment though for Minnesota because we didn't have expectations.

Like what they've now built under a new front office and with a new head coach, they didn't need to win this series even to prove that it works. And yet they did did and they did it pretty convincingly yeah i i like i'm i'm trying to not repeat myself in that like my analysis is going to continue to be like this is incredible this is ahead of schedule like just because it continues to go on i don't want it to be lost how difficult what eric ramsey what cowdell mod like what this team has done over the course of the season has been like i don't want it to be lost how difficult what Eric Ramsey, what Khaled Ahmad,

like what this team has done over the course of the season has been like, I don't want to become numb to just like, Oh, this is incredible. In this series, like they got a favorable matchup. Real Salt Lake is not the team that we saw in June. Right. Starting with Chicho Rongo is not that guy to the point where he got benched for this game, dude. He got benched for this game. Just he, we were talking about, is mvp in june right like um yeah like that that was wild right like so they had a winnable series like i think

if vancouver were in this situation like they would have been a popular upset pick yeah to beat rios on lake but minnesota earned this by getting to where they are in the standings and that came from a lot of early season results. Like there was, they had a hot streak. I forget if it was either, it was like right around the time that Eric Ramsey was named manager and took over. It was to start the year. I think they were like the last undefeated team in the league.

Like they started the year on fire. With their second interim manager before Eric Ramsey. And like not that many signings in the winter. And Emmanuel Reynosa going AWOL. That happened this year, remember? So, like, that is why they earned this matchup. And, again, you can't control exactly who you're going to play, right? It could have been LAFC or it could have been the LA Galaxy, right?

But, like, they avoided the wild card game, and then they avoided the top two seeds. So they earned this, man. Like, it's easy to say, you know, two draws, two penalties. Of course I can go either way. Of course it can. But like the underlying performance this year, really strong. I thought, and like after that first game, I was like, I don't see real.

So like winning two games in a row against this team. I just don't. RSL could not link up, link a ton of passes in dangerous areas. They didn't really have ways to take advantage of the openings that Minnesota gives you, which is that bongi's you know playing in that right back spot and right wing back and there are moments between in transition moments where he's still shifting back and harvey still figuring out the space and you'd like to see diego luna take advantage of that but with anderson julio on the field julio's trying to stretch the field every single time. So it's predictable and there's not much support. And Crooks is not the guy to help come connect and link up and take advantage of those spots.

And so I think Minnesota handled this really, really well once they knew, because you don't know that Chicho is not going to play. So like, as much as it's great to not face the best talent, it's also a credit to the team to then adjust and say, all right, well, our game plan still stays the way we want it to be. I thought Minnesota was shot out of a cannon in this one. I thought the atmosphere in the stadium was electric, and they took advantage of it. And the two mistakes from Vera and Glad early that were just like

slightly unforced clearance errors, and now Yeboah picks it up. Those, I think, came from the environment a little bit. But Yeboa is a guy who can take advantage by himself and he probably should have laid one off the lot to load for a chance, but like still he's constantly putting pressure on those guys. So they think they have to be perfect and that makes it harder to handle those situations. And then you see the rest of the team sort of come with them. Traps played really well. We have in the chat from McCracken who's like,

we need to upgrade at six and center back. I agree with you. You're not trying to win MLS Cup probably in 2024. Figure that out. Figure that out in a few weeks. Enjoy this run. Let's not talk about upgrades. Just enjoy the hell out of this because this is fun.

And all the pieces that you would say you'd upgrade have stepped up for big moments here. Traps steps up in the shootout and gives you a big moment. We talked about Boxall and his play in the first game and how he physically dominated that battle between him and Chicho and kept the game in front of them. And Rosales, I said last week, my big regret in life was not having him on our underrated best 11. And he steps up with his first goal of the season and it's a gorgeous move but again it's minnesota has a ton of talent and you get sucked in load picks up the ball in a dangerous area yaboa comes close to him all of a sudden every defender is scrambling and rosales reads the spacing and he gets into the area and and the there's the you know the willingness to get the pass over to him and not try and turn

and get your own shot from one of your two best attacking players and he puts it away in a big moment and a goal that was coming it was really fun to watch this game RSL then bring Chicho off the bench and they're able to get the equalizer which was a big moment for them shout out to Emeka Nelly for the season he's had that he ends up being the one to get the goal and uh and then you have to go to penalty kicks and dane st claire is just like absurd at this point he is so much fun you know it's funny you could see carlos cornell's water bottle in the red bull game the camera caught it and like showed it and i'm thinking why are you not throwing that schulte why are you not throwing that into the crowd now i don't know if it works at a way game yeah i don't i don't know if it works. It was such a fist fight.

At an away game? Yeah. I don't know if all of a sudden then you got the supporter section behind the goal, like coming down and bringing the water bottle back. But it's what Dane St. Clair would have done. And Dane St. Clair ends up getting the win for his team. And it was epic. Like, what a cool moment.

And this Minnesota team, like this is another one where i think we're looking at four or five years of they are consistently at least in a conversation for a home playoff game every year at the start wow wow that's a big shout i want to see kind of how a few of these teams evolve moving forward in the offseason like yabola is like in the joseph martinez profile conversation of the player you've acquired, right? At his age, shifting his position, all of that. Robin Ludd is an elite at his level signing. And those are two players that you're locking in long term. Dane St. Clair potentially in that as well.

I agree that I don't know exactly what it's going to look like. But based off the moves they've made so far, I have a ton of trust that that they know what they want and they're going to be able to replace guys with more talent yeah i think it's i think it's a fair conversation i kind of wasn't even considering it because of of like you just kind of thinking of the immediacy of like all right how long like again we've had to readjust our outlook on this team a handful of times this season on either what the expectations are or what the timeline is. And when is it reasonable to expect more, expect less, or like give them more of a break.

Right? Like, so that's something I hadn't even considered. And that makes a lot of sense. Like, again, I have the utmost respect for some of these top players before we kind of get into looking at the matchup with them in the galaxy.

Real Salt Lake. Where do you stand? I guess one on overall benching chicho in this game again he's been not good straight up not good over the last few months right not denying that but one of the benching of him in this game and two he wasn't the first attacking sub off the bench which i I was stunned by, right? Like, I was very, very surprised that he was benched anyway. But, like, so what do you make of this whole situation? Because that feels like a low-key red flag to me. And, like, if I'm the – like, looking at a lot of these teams,

just take whoever the highest paid the guy is for any of these teams to not start a playoff game and to not be the first guy in off the bench. Like, I don't think a lot of dudes are handling that well. He hadn't scored since June. We still don't know what the suspension was for in the middle of the year that is like really the red flag moment where he hasn't scored since then the team took a dip in form now i don't want to underestimate how much andres gomez sale affected all this because gomez was playing as a like all-star level game-changing difference maker and he was doing it at times before luna was playing as consistently and before they had gotten gonsalves and like there were many games where he was the difference on the field and so that made Chicho's

life easier that made Crooks's life easier that made Luna's life easier they didn't replace that this year I think it's fine if it ends up being that Marchuk and Gonsalves together give you the next level of production and that they don't hit year one like that's not a huge surprise and it's unfortunate because I think we said it when Gomez left of like you'd love to say they're the most ambitious team in the world and they're gonna say like no we could win something this year that's just not the reality of the ecosystem we live in with mls and with rsl he's a young player who got a huge offer from league on you have to sell him so i don't want to over compensate there because my feeling right now is like this is a club that hit its ceiling this year and chicho if there's frustration there like they can't afford to hold on to him but i don't

see them getting someone in who's an mvp caliber player out the gate and so that's like the worry for this team but i i feel like that's me overdoing it out, you know, in reacting to this. What do you think? Yeah, so, again, like, I will also say, dude, it takes stones to do what Pablo and Pablo Mastroian and that staff did to bench Chicho. Like, it takes a special type of man manager to be able to do that. And, like, if there is somebody in this league that can do that, it is Pablo Mastroian.

So I want to start there. It was brave choice even though again we can lay out how many games it's been since he scored or how like what the performances are that is still a hugely difficult thing to do personally I wouldn't have done it because if if Chicho isn't playing well where the hell is this team going anyway yeah so like kind of what's the point slash, like, I would be really worried about how that might sit in the future. Like, that's the kind of thing that, like, again, and again, I'm not privy to any of the conversations.

Like, I'm not suggesting that Chicho, like, blew a fuse or is really upset. Like, again, maybe the relationship with Pablo is so good that, like, he can trust him and, like, he could be upset, but not, like, that's it. Like, I, you know, I need to reconsider my future or anything like that could be upset but not like that's it like i you know i need to reconsider my future anything like that and again this is all speculative like but i think those are the those are the risks in a move like this um but again more to the point what i first said is that like this team is not going anywhere in particularly this iteration it's not going anywhere if chitro rongo isn't driving it so like like like for me like I the risk of playing him

versus not playing I'm like I think that it would be worth it like not worth it right I wouldn't call it I think it's because like let's say they scraped by here for sure you're not going to LA and beating the galaxy without Chicho on the field 100% and I think that's a really good point and I think it sort of goes to maybe how desperate it was but also my thing was what i just said was he hasn't scored since june he has one assist in that span as well what happened on decision day in the week before like if if the decision was we have to bench him to motivate him or we have to bench him because we think then like let's look at a calendar at some point and be like when do you make decision? And so back against the wall at this moment, but like, was it too late?

If you have done it earlier and it sort of wakes him up, the reality of it is, I think in Pablo saying, if Pablo says like, well, he wasn't scoring, what do you want me to do? It's your job to get the best out of these guys. And like, that's the best, that's all you can do. And that hasn't been the case with RSL over the last few weeks. And obviously it wasn't in this series. Minnesota against LA Galaxy.

Obviously we've got like nine weeks until this game starts. We will dig into it a ton. We've got international break after this weekend. And then we'll come back and we'll be locked into all of the conference semifinals going forward. But just like first high level, what do you think about with this series? I think this is going to be a very fun one like i think that these two teams are gonna play aesthetic soccer um it'll be the galaxy taking the game to minnesota but like they play against the ball well and they don't do it to like pack in and you know hey try to break us down and like i think they play it to draw you out so that they can transition quickly.

So I'm very excited for this. If the Galaxy, again, we both don't think it's going to happen, but if the Galaxy do revert to putting two of the three midfielders as Pooch and Royce, like, that's how Minnesota wins this series for me. The LA Galaxy is the overwhelming favorite. Maybe overwhelming is too strong. But, like, the Galaxy are absolutely the favorite, particularly now that it's a one-off at home.

But, like, again, if it's Royce and Pooch on the field, if it's just a single pivot in defense and midfield, like, Minnesota will kill you in transition. So the Galaxy have to be at the top of the game. Again, they were good defensively, very good defensively, against the Colorado Rapids. This will be a different animal. But the same style of we're taking the game to you and if they play that way uh they're

gonna win I think easily but like Minnesota are gonna be a more difficult matchup and this is absolutely one that like Minnesota could upset yeah I think LA Galaxy are an overwhelming favorite I think in the saying that that does not mean there's not a path forward for Minnesota to win. That's kind of how I feel about it. Going into this one of just, if we were a year and a half in and we had seen Yeboah and Bongi in moments like this and Pereira elevate in moments like this,

I'd feel differently because in reality, Yeboah is going to have to be off the charts, right? He's going to have to battle the two center backs a ton by himself. But if he's able to win those battles and create chances, you know, on long balls in transition, when they play into his feet, all of that, this is a Galaxy team that's going to struggle. We got to see that happen.

I think the wings are going to be where this one could be won or lost as well. If the Galaxy don't go with Royce and Pooj, which it feels like right now, it feels like that won't happen of you know Nelson and Yamane is that a weakness that a Bongi and Rosales can take advantage of can they win that and if you pin back um galaxy's fullbacks then maybe you have enough numbers to deal with the killer peas and Jovalich but otherwise you're gonna be it's gonna

be 75 percent possession for the galaxy that might feel like a ridiculous thing to say but like we could get close with the way minnesota has played on the road they have been very different on the road than they are at home and of course we are now moving into one game territory one game knockout territory uh let's finish up the uh teams that move on with the seattle hou Houston Dynamo series. I struggled to talk about this one yesterday, Tom, because I don't know what happened. The Houston Dynamo, red card in the first game for Coco Carrasquilla.

In the second game, Hector Herrera, who I calculated had played in 56 Champions League games, had started 10 World Cup games and Olympic gold medal, turns around and spits at a referee in the age of var for a basic yellow card that was a basic yellow card put his team behind the eight ball and they lost in a penalty shootout for the second time in two games coming into this i had a ton of confidence of like at least i know the floor with houston i know what i'm gonna get from them they've been here before that was not the case at all with what we saw.

And it's absolutely mind-blowing the way they lost this series. Extraordinarily disappointing. Just there's no two ways around it, right? This is the second year of the Ben Olsen era of, like, how beautiful they try to play, what they to do how it all fits you go and get a club record center forward mid-season you have Hector Herrera at age 34 he's like still at the back end of his prime or whatever right like he's still towards the top at the top of his game right you have Coco Karskia in his prime shot that he hasn't that an offer hasn't come in that's

acceptable right like and for this to be the way that you lose, like, Coco Carrasquilla losing his mind for a red card in the first game for off-the-ball incidents, essentially off-the-ball, right? The game, the play would stop. And then Hector Herrera to do this, like, this is so unbelievably disappointing, infuriating, frustrating. These are supposed to be your leaders. These are supposed to be the guys you're relying on. And I think the most poetic thing was Hector Herrera gets sent off for spitting at the referee. Dude, it's 2024. It's despicable.

The age of VAR. There's a billion different ways that you can say this is an idiot. This is an idiotic move decision. This is awful, despicable. And it's stupid in the age of VAR. You're not going to get away with it, right? When they're panning, the camera is panning to Coco Carrasquillo on the bench, and the game bug has a little red card thing for Hector Herrera.

Like, that's where you're all let down. Like, that's unacceptable. I don't know what happens now. And, like, again, I try not to be, like, you know, one, you rush to blood, you lose your mind, right, in one situation. Like, this happened before with Carrasquillo. We talked about this on the show um hector herrera isn't exactly known as an angel around the world like any any u.s fan uh thinking about uh about 100 moments with with hector herrera in mexico in that kind of rivalry right like that i'm not

saying that's who this is indicative of who this is a human but like this is this is part of the decision making now yeah in his future like there's a possibility he's played his last game for club they got a club option for 2025 that's 5.2 million 5.3 million it's a lot of money man um and the last thing that you're going to go into those discussions of the future the last thing that happened is he spit at a referee and that's why you're eliminated from the playoffs? Like, that has value in it, man. And, like, it's just really, really disappointing, really frustrating, and, like, I don't know.

I'm at a loss for words. It is. He only played 1,600 minutes this year. He only started 19 games in league play, and then he gets himself sent off in a must-win elimination game. He only played 1,600 minutes this year. He only started 19 games in league play. And then he gets himself sent off in a must-win elimination game. $5.2 million is a lot to spend on that. Like, I think he's great.

I think if you're asking me, if I'm running this team, I'd pick it up. I want to say that. Yeah, I'd pick it up. But if you want to give the argument against it, like he just gave you the front page of the deck where he's like, this is what I did in the most in the biggest moment of the season. Didn't play in the Open Cup run last year and was not available for much of this year because of injuries, which fine, it happens. But you're talking about a player who's not getting younger at this point. And so in making that decision, you're saying, am I going to bring him back for his 35-year season, you know, based off what I saw? And if you can't trust him and he's not fit often enough, then there's no value there.

If you're bringing him back because you're like, he's the leader in the face of our team, that's great. This is not a moment that a player like that does that. And so I think that's where the question marks come up. And I think it's really tough to come out of this series and a series that you were there. Coco gets the red card in the first game. You still make it to penalty kicks. You lose in the shootout. You come home. Okay. Back against the wall. They played the soccer they wanted to play in this game. They created chances. They played sideline to sideline. Like there was, it's not easy for them. It has never been easy for them to create goals. That's a reality.

But you're seeing a lot of it play out, and you're seeing a lot of their danger. And Griffin Dorsey is getting into the attack and all of that. And so to kill yourself in this moment for nothing is what's really, really frustrating. And it makes it, I think, really hard to judge all of this. Like, how close were they? Were they, you know, if he doesn't get the red card, is it they win this game and they go and they win in Seattle? There's no way to calculate any of that out. And that's what really kills the ability to judge this team.

I saw this somewhere and I don't know where. I think Obed Vargas was next to Ache Ache when he did this. And I think someone said, I'm'm sure is Jeremiah Ocean or Nico Moreno one of the two in Seattle and if I'm wrong sorry to whoever it was uh who said Obed was the one who like pointed it out to the ref and Obed of course just chosen to play for Mexico and as a center mid I think he has mentioned that Ache Ache was like his hero as a kid so huge moment for him to be on the field with that player if he had the mental fortitude to be locked in and be like, yo, that guy just got a red card. That would be an elite moment, which I think Obed has the future of an elite player.

And so I think that's big. Shout out to Christian Roldan. I mentioned his quote yesterday on the show where he said we played. It was a C performance for us, but we got by on a C performance. I thought, one, to be able to acknowledge that was huge, and two, the way he plays. Like, he's played on the wing. He's played as a 10.

He's played as an 8. He does all of it. He got the goal for them in this one. Scores the own goal, which is unfortunate. But, like, okay, in the last 20 minutes of this game, if I said to you, Seattle needs a goal and someone's going to step up, who do you think it's going to be? I think at this point we're just saying Christian Roldan every time yeah honestly man yeah he's

he's going under the radar I think really over the last couple years like this is an elite player in MLS this is an elite guy that you want to build around particularly as like a non-dp can't say enough good things about him um moving forward this break is going to be good for them because this should hopefully get uh Rusnak and Morris healthy. Again, I don't know the exact, the latest updates on them, so you can correct me if I'm wrong. But, like, you got a couple weeks because of the international break.

This team is elite defensively. They conceded the fewest goals in MLS this year, despite you've said it, Charlotte, I think three or four times since the season ended. It was Seattle. So, this is an elite team unit and that's going to carry right like again if you want to poke holes you'd be like cool bro like the other team's best players got red cards and back to my games you wanted penalties right like i don't view it that way for this team because I think that they have the bona fides there.

They have the makings of a playoff team that can challenge, and they've done this before. Like, we've seen it. It's not just the uniforms. It's not just the crest. We've seen these players do it. We've seen the Roldans do it. We've seen Stephen Fry do it.

Going all the way down the list, Jordan Morris, right? Like, so I still think that this team can play a little bit better, particularly in the attack, but what they are right now is a team that can challenge LAFC or LA Galaxy or Minnesota. Like this is a team that on any day, they have a legitimate chance to advance in the playoffs because of how elite their defense is.

And they have enough going forward. Yeah. I am still stuck with the attack. Like, I don't know that the solution is on the roster where it's like, oh, if you just play Georgie Mnungu more across Paul Rothrock. Dude, he's electric. He's electric. He's awesome off the bench in moments.

And is he ready to carry that sort of mantle there? If he does, is Roldan the 10? Is Rusnak the 10? Obviously, Jordan being healthy would be huge, and as you said, the layoff is a great opportunity for them to get him and Rusnak fit, but it hasn't clicked all year, and so I don't know that it could happen, but as you said, if you say, you know,

Seattle's going to have the best defense the whole way and they can, you know, grit their way over the line with a goal here or there. They have the guys who have done that before and they have the guys who are capable of that as well. Once again, so to that point, Jeremiah Ocean did tweet this out. He said Sounders have now advanced at least as far as the Western Conference semifinals in 14 of 16 seasons. Only 16 is an MLSls history all originals with the 13 season head start have done that more like yeah this is a team that lives in this time of year and they live in this portion of the season and they are not going to be awed by the moment

they're not going to be intimidated they also might be a a few moments away from hosting in the conference semifinals if van if Vancouver can get the job done and like that is a pretty at least comfortable matchup in a team they play consistently you know and being able to play at home and all of that going forward we've got four huge games coming up this weekend Atlanta against Miami Vancouver against LAFC Charlotte Orlando and NYCFC FC Cincinnati we're going to break all of that down for you on Thursday I'm going to work with Lucci as well to do a little bit of that and then you and me are going to get back together on Thursday afternoon to do it all once again and get you prepped for this one it's going to be fun Vancouver LAFC to start the weekend on Friday

night that feels like the perfect one to be like, okay, are all the lower seeds going to step up and push or was pushing to a game three, sort of the wall that they were going to hit. I think that's the perfect one to start. Everyone's watching Atlanta, Miami, of course, one because of Messi and two, because I think Red Bulls have inspired the whole like, could this happen? And if it does, it is the biggest upset in MLS history, which would be really, really fun. And the other two I'd say are knife's edge. You know, if I told you right now, Orlando and NYCFC go through, I don't think you'd be surprised. If I swept the swap those, would you be surprised as well?

I don't know, man. I can't wait for these games. Like, like, look, I I've been super, super critical of this round one, and I still am. I still prefer it, but, like, we're getting to the knockout games, and, like, there is no, like, oh, man, well, they have a little bit of leeway. Yeah, it's win or go home. Yeah, man. That's all I got to say.

I know I talked your question, but I don't care. No, you're good. I thought this weekend lived up. I thought the atmospheres were fantastic. We talked about Charlotte. It was great. Minnesota was great. Red Bulls, their best crowd in like a decade at this point in that one.

NYCFC was bouncing as well at Citi Field. The House of Champions. Like so much was fun about this weekend. I think it's going to be even better for these four to finish it all out. So we are excited to be on here with all of you talking about it. Thank you to all of you for joining us live. Congrats to all the fans of the teams that won. Sorry for all the fans of the teams that didn't.

Tom's wearing his Knicks shirt because we bleed with you and we feel it very, very much. Thank you to all of you for listening. We'll talk you next time.