SoccerWise - MLS Edition: Playoffs Rolling On, Bruce Arena/San Jose & Nico Estevez/Austin

Episode Date: October 28, 2024

We are halfway through the opening round of the MLS playoffs. Perfect time for Tom & Gass to check in on what we have seen so far, and preview the four matches still to come. And of course Tom still has the news flowing out of teams that are already eliminated with Bruce Arena traveling to San Jose to potentially become their next head coach, and Austin inking Nico Estevez as their second ever head coach. 9:28 MIA v ATL Recap 20:20 LAG v COL Recap 28:02 ORL v CTL Recap 37:12 Pa-Modou Kah’s Coaching Future In Phoenix & MLS 42:08 LAFC v VAN Recap 53:06 FCC v NYCFC Preview 58:44 SEA v HOU Preview 1:02:45 CLB v RBNY Preview + Nancy St. Etienne Rumors 1:06:59 RSL v MIN Preview 1:10:39 Bruce Arena Negotiating With San Jose Reports 1:17:46 Nico Estevez Named Austin FC CoachSoccerwise Live 2pm ET Every Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday on Youtube/Twitch/Twitter

what's up everybody welcome back to soccer wise mls playoffs have begun what a weekend it was of action what a week we've got coming up david goss and tommy scoops with you here tom i have to slide my mic over to get my SoccerWise logo showing from my shirt. I'm feeling pretty fresh on a Monday morning. Little late night MLS on Sunday. It felt good, though. The two games felt they were the most competitive games of the weekend, you could argue, although Atlanta stayed alive.

I went to an Inter-Miami watch party where I went to an Inter an inter Miami bar to watch the game my first time. And it was cool. It's a little tough when the World Series is going up right against it. But I got a couple chance. I heard a couple chance and shout out to man, I do not know the name of the brewery that put the game on for me. When you said when you were like, we were joking in the chats of like, hey, like, are we going gonna go to a bar to watch a game like a couple different people and it's like dude like for people in new york it's like well world series game one is on tonight i think it's gonna be a little tough to get a tv on like apple tv for an mls playoff game and so i'm glad that you found it and i want to hear all the

stories like la tropical was the name of the brewery so shout out to la tropical was the energy bumping or was it just kind of like subdued? Like what was the vibe there? It was medium. It's a home game. So in theory, most of the big fans are at the game, which changed things a bit.

I'd say there was like 20 to 30 inter-Miami fans, jerseys everywhere. I mean, everyone's wearing messy and pink all the time. Like half the people walked in and my wife goes, you think they're a fan or you think they just are wearing pink?

And it's like, you have no idea when you're down here, especially I believe it's breast cancer awareness month. So go donate and do things. And there is a lot of energy around that. Like our building, everything is pink right now. And I'm like, look at these fans stoked for the first round of three game series of the MLS playoffs. And I'm pretty sure none of them know it's even occurring. So it was solid. It was a cool experience.

I will probably try and do it again for the second game. Now that that's an away game and sort of see what the, what the feeling is and whatnot. I had the last second inkling. I was like, maybe I'll go. I'm just like not a drive to stadium person. It's a tough experience for me, but I'll tell you this tom carl anthony towns and josh hart are in the casea center on wednesday night you better believe i'm

taking the metro mover let's go free metro rail to get to the game and i will be in the building msg south this is what we do we dominate and i'm hyped for that dude i'm so jealous that it's gonna be so much fun the the people that i most associate with new yorkers in florida we are a an existence of a human being and now i'm i'm getting looped in which is uh great i got a text from someone this weekend that goes you moved to florida you're just accelerating your retirement and i'm like yeah i just didn't want to wait any longer you got to get there at some point um and andrew vasano self kindly uh comments on my uh my prison room that is yeah i spent i think i went to 14 antique uh decor and um what is it furniture stores this weekend looking and you came back with one table one on air one on air is it

great though how perfect but you went to so many stores this is all i got this is all i need yeah and the batteries are corroded into the back so you can never turn it on so it'll never light up so uh so except this reality and what we do okay tom we have a big show for everyone obviously we've got the playoffs. So we've got four series that have already occurred this weekend, starting on Friday night. And then we've got four that are still to kick off to coming up tonight and then two coming up on Tuesday night. So we'll talk about all of that going forward. And then you're like, all right, well, these teams are eliminated.

So I don't have to talk about these teams anymore for a little while. False because Tommy Scoops is bringing the news. We've got Bruce Arena to San Jose reports. We've also got Nico Estevez officially taking over as Austin FC after you had it first. Austin followed you. Like, classic Austin, right? They thought they'd get to say their own news.

No, Tom tells you who you hired as coach. And Pomo Dukokar my favorite legend who you just broke is headed to usl to be the head coach of phoenix rising yes indeed very very happy for i think that that that's a super interesting one that's fun and uh former canadian premier league coach of the year will depart charlotte after the season we. We are officially a Phoenix Rising podcast now. Joe Lowry is going to become the new host of this show. He broadcasts for Phoenix Rising, and he is a Phoenix native. So you can go to follow his coverage.

Of course, always be going to back yield anyway for all your MLS, USL, NWSL, national team coverage as well. So we've got a big one. You did break a little news, a story about Kevin De Bruyne. We did that on Friday show because you joined me for the mailbag for that one. So go back and listen to that if you'd like to.

And then I did an interview 40 or so minutes with Miguel Lopez, who's FC Porto's U17 coach and works with a tactical periodization organization under the guy, Victor Fraud, who invented it and made it famous under Jose Mourinho and all of that as well. So you can go listen to that episode, the mailbags at the beginning, we talked schedule change as well, off Paul Tenorio's reporting,

and some future rule changes potentially in the beginning of that episode, along with the Kevin De Bruyne news in San Diego. So you can go listen to that if you want to. Before we get into the show, I'm sure a lot of people have seen it. But the sad news that former Philadelphia Union two goalkeeper Holden Trent has passed away this weekend. Everyone it feels like in the soccer community hurting when we lose one of our own really sad. You can go I would recommend go watch Marlon LeBlanc's post-game interview after Philadelphia union two's game, talking about what it meant to the team, how they dealt with it and what they want to do to try and keep pushing his name and his memory along. Um, so our condolences

go to him and, or go to his family, go to the Philadelphia union family and on the entire soccer community overall here in North America. Um the Philadelphia Union, too, won that game. So they are headed to, I believe, the conference finals in MLS Next Pro as the playoffs there roll on. And we continue in Major League Soccer. So let's start with the four games we have seen so far. Started on Friday night with that Miami-Atlanta game and then rolled all the way through to last night.

Four series, Tom. Four home teams. Four victories. No shootouts either. Four in regulation. Does that mean anything to you? Does that prove anything to you coming out the gates? I mean, I am always looking for confirmation that the regular season really matters and every point matters because, you know how it goes. This year can be a slog and when so many teams make the playoffs and then there's a best of three around one all it's like it starts to lose value when it's all this right so like i'm all for any time that we can use confirmation bias to say yeah this is it but i think for me this has a little bit less to do with home field advantage and more to do with these teams were very clearly the better teams. Like I think the only one where you couldn't say very clearly was Orlando and

Charlotte. Cause that was the four or five one that's supposed to be closer, but like, I don't care what the game is played. Atlanta, Miami, like Miami should be winning that game. So I think it's more for me that the better teams won rather than a home

field advantage. And the better teams winning home field advantage, whatever you want to call it, you want the regular season to have mattered that the teams that deserve to move forward. And I think that's what we saw over the course of this weekend. I didn't think Miami was great, and we'll talk about these games. I didn't think LAFC were great, but the advantage of being at home or the advantage of being the more talented team, whatever happened, we saw come out in that first game. If you had to right now pick, do you think that continues? Do you think we get back on the show on Thursday? We'll be back on Thursday, by the way,

to review all the playoffs. And we're talking about eight home teams that won their first game, whether it's shootout or not. Yeah. I mean, yeah, like that's really possible. Like I will say since he NYCFC Seattle,

Houston, plus the, the Charlotte Orlando game that already happened. Those were will say Cincy, NYCFC, Seattle, Houston, plus the Charlotte-Orlando game that already happened. Those were the three series that I think could be toss-ups in round one. So again, we're 4-0 right now for the home teams, and I can see that going through again. I'm sorry, and Real Salt Lake, Minnesota, that's going to be close too. So you got to assume, just law of average,

is one of these away teams is going to pick up the points. That's what I was going to say. And as you said, we're going into the more competitive ones, right? We're getting away from the one eight seeds and we're getting into the four fives and the three sixes, which all feel a little bit closer and feel a little bit more competitive. So my guess is it wouldn't be. But at the same time, if you come out saying six of eight home teams, one, you you're saying in terms of format, you've got excitement, the potential for upsets, and you've got the fact that the teams have earned something over the course of the season. And then, of course, so starting Friday night, we move into the next round of games.

Now you start to see the home teams for the lower seeds come. Can they protect home field advantage? Can they push it to games 3? And if they do, do they pick up momentum there and all that type of stuff? So I think it's going to get really interesting now coming forward over the next few days. Let's start with that opening game. Brad Guzon was a monster.

Miami beat Atlanta 2-1. It was, from an XG point of view, 2.7 to 0.76 in favor of Miami at home. I said I didn't think Miami was great because I didn't think they created a ton of high leverage chances. And I didn't think they pulled apart Atlanta's defense as I expected them to. But they've got Luis Suarez, they've got Diego Gomez, they've got Messi, they've got all that talent. And Tom, in the end, you saw them start their playoff run for the first time with the

victory. Yeah. So again, that's all that matters. matters and again at the end of the day they did create a lot of chances what i will say is i don't think like messi was maybe bad would be too strong i don't think he's very good right like so that's not gonna happen many times if at all again for the playoffs right like so i i think that's what you look at if you're miami about like hey this should have been more comfortable than it was whatever all these things aligned and again brad Guzan being man of the match in this game, I don't think is something that was hugely expected, Guzan is an incredible career, he's not the same guy he was when he first got to Atlanta, right, like, this is just normal stuff, so, like, I don't think that we were looking at this game, like, oh my god, like, Atlanta, if Guzan stands on his head, like,

that's totally possible, like, I don't think that that was the view coming into this game like oh my god like atlanta if guzan stands on his head like that's totally possible like i don't think that that was the view coming into this game so i think a lot of those things aligned where miami still won they weren't at their best particularly messy wasn't their their start but like jordi alba that was an incredible goal like he's been he's been so like i don't think we've talked about him enough this season yeah like he's been phenomenal particularly over like the last like two-thirds of this the season. Anyway, all these things kind of aligned where, yeah, we didn't dominate. I think if we played that whole scenario out ten times, I think it's much more likely that they win by multiple goals than it is to kind of scrape by on the 2-1.

Yeah, it was. Obviously, the injuries were a huge part of this. So Brooks Lennon went down with a dislocated shoulder, and then Stian Gregerson forced out with a hamstring injury pretty early on in this game and so that shifts the defense although the opening goal for miami was in the first 90 seconds uh beautifully done down the left wing and then the the the substitutions happen and miami struggled to score that second goal uh and struggled to be dangerous in messi's performance in this one, I sort of agree with you. Now, he was, I mean, he hit two or three long shots that Guzan had to be great on.

He was not what we've seen in his chance creation for other players. And that's where this game felt very odd to me in that we saw Montreal and we saw Orlando when they pinned Atlanta in, move Atlanta's pieces really well and force Atlanta to scramble and create openings and it didn't feel like Miami did that in a way in which Miami normally does to most teams in major league soccer and that's what was very odd about that this game and I couldn't tell if that was the playoffs and you know Atlanta come in off this high of you travel you win on decision day you win the wildcard game, you come into the building like you're playing at a higher level of energy maybe and you're at that playoff level before the other team. Or if it was just Miami struggling with what they were seeing and the way they were playing.

We talked about it last week. As expected, Dax McCarty gets the start. So they were able to clock Atlanta was able to clog up central midfield a little bit more than they have in other games. And really didn't have much attacking support. And we're like, we're going to try and defend and keep everything in front of us. And I thought they did a pretty good job with that over the course of this game, including when Noah Cobb came on, he played really well. And then he ends up having a hand in the goal as well for this team. So I thought it was overall that good performance from them. You saw the talent difference of like,

there was not a ton for Atlanta to lean on and they weren't able to bring pieces off the bench to really change the game. But Saba scores another big goal for them. And there was a lot of good moments in this game. I totally agree. And like, man, like Saba can be such like an enigmatic figure in that he's capable of this, but he's just been super inconsistent. Like when he's on, like, man, like, Saba can be such, like, an enigmatic figure

in that he's capable of this, but he's just been super inconsistent. Like, when he's on, like, this is, like, when you're looking forward to next year, and again, like, I don't want to do the post-mortem on Atlanta United while they're still playing, right? Like, that's super disrespectful. But, like, getting into the playoffs, winning that wildcard game, I think that was okay.

Like, whatever happens to me are, like, zero expectations. And everything you're building towards 2025, card game i think that was okay like whatever happens to me are like zero expectations and everything you're building towards 2025 if that version of sabah is who they get for the majority of the season if he can be consistent and i don't know if he can but if he can be like that is going to be such a difference for this team because you already have him right like he can help take off that creative burden he could be somebody who understands the spacing around Moranichuk, hopefully a DP forward. And then I don't know where they're going to use the third DP slot.

But if he's your fourth most important attacker, that's phenomenal. It's just like, I don't know if I think we've seen enough of him now that he is what he is. Again, he's really good in transition, but he's inconsistent. And if he wasn't inconsistent, he wouldn't be a tamable contract. He probably wouldn't be here. So I understand these things, but this was a very good version of Saba. And again, there was a moment when it was like, oh my God,

could Atlanta get this to a shootout? Could Atlanta win game one in Miami? This would be incredible um chair had one big chance he was put in through in the first half and tried to like well he tried to like draw contact and act like he got fouled when he was put in on goal just focus on the chance to finish 1v1 and you at that point would have tied the game up and then saba's goal would have put them ahead um as you said saba's goal would have put them ahead. As you said, Saba's not a guy you play through, right?

He's not a guy who can kill the momentum of this game. Maranchuk wasn't either, once again. And I think that is something that obviously it's year one, but they're going to have to settle into. If you remember last year, though, for Atlanta, they went on the road, they got smoked in Columbus. They came home and Tiago Amada, I think he was suspended for the first game. Yeah, for such a stupid card on decision day. Just idiotic. comes out and then he was the best player on the field in game two and they won that game and they went back and they had no chance in game three

and they never really played and they didn't win. This is their chance in game two now, right? Like this is the chance to host the game in front of a huge crowd, prove that your club's a little bit different than it's been over the last few years, let Saba and Moronchuk have this big stage and it's going to be tough because Brooks Lennon dislocated shoulder there's no chance he plays Gregerson we're not sure we'll see what happens with him it's going to be an uphill battle but like if those players play up to their level there's a pretty good chance that they can get a win here and sort of shift momentum so I thought coming out of game one, they should feel better about this than I expected.

Post game, I think the reporters who were talking to the team, Rob Valentino and Guzan especially, they asked about the travel schedule and the schedule for Atlanta around the injuries because Atlanta played Orlando on decision day on last Saturday. Then they traveled up and played Montreal on Tuesday night to travel to Miami and play against Miami on Friday night. And the questions were sort of like,

do you think the injuries had something to do with the schedule? I thought Rob Valentino and Guzon's answers were correct, which is like, we go where they tell us to play. We don't want to make up excuses. This is the ninth best team in Major League Soccer. If you don't want to travel, like, you should win more games. That's the reality of it. It's a gift that there's an opportunity to get into playoffs at that point. And I think the team

kind of understands that as much as you never want to see an injury and you don't want to put players in danger and all of that. I think it's fair to sort of talk about what's the amount of games over the course of a week and, and travel and all of that. But if Atlanta had been better, they would have hosted the wild card or if they'd been better, they wouldn't have played in the wild card. And like that sort of the advantages they wouldn't have played in the wild card. And like that sort of the advantages you're building in to the structure, which is why a Miami can sort of lumber over the line in game one, because they were the best team in the regular season and technically the best

team of all time. Quick shout out at the end here to Ian Frey. He has been through the most absurd injury luck ever. Two ACLs already. He went down with a knee injury. It's heartbreak three acls already yeah and and he went down with another injury in this one and you could see on his face he knows exactly what's going on so that is brutal to see um so um in that moment like when he immediately put his face in his shirt like i was feeling emotional i was like this poor kid man like this is brutal and so you fear the worst you fear that it's an acl and there's a silver

lining here in that it was a meniscus injury and like the macro of this is good news he only tore his meniscus his acl is fine like just shows you all the things everything he's persevered through um what i was told is that he's going to be expected back early in 2025 which again this sucks i cannot imagine going through all these rehabs the the work you have to and how like lonely that can be when everybody else is training you're in the gym you know you have trainers you have he has sport right but like you're not with your teammates you're not on the field with the guy like you have to go through that the worst part of being a pro you do all the bad stuff without any of the good stuff and so he's going to do that again and i don't want to overlook that at all but like

at least he he is expected back early in 2025 and again it makes me sad that we're like wow that's awesome he only tours meniscus but just this poor kid man yeah absolutely brutal um special player and obviously a huge part of this team in terms of the emotional side of things because you see how the other players have reacted every time this happens. And you never want to see it for a young player. So that sucks. For him, inter-Miami, we'll go up to Atlanta now and play. We talked a little bit about this coming into the playoff series.

But, you know, for the teams, you have a week or so in between all the games. So you'd assume for the higher seed teams, you're going to want to try and close things out in game two, but going to Atlanta on turf with messy and Suarez and Busquets and Alba and these older players and the injury troubles they've had, it will be something to watch out for in terms of what lineup they choose to start and how they choose to go about this game. We'll talk about more about that though. On Thursday,

let's get to the second game. Sorry. I have one more point on this, the Miami atlanta no no julian julian gressel not like i like i i'm good with the shift to the three at the back so busquets is like a deep deep line playmaker why is weingart starting over julian gressel at right wing back i do not understand this is a very obvious difference in talent quality uh what like reliability consistency i don't understand it i just don't he hit a pretty clean volley though on the one chance he had and almost forced the goal by the way on the alba goal it was like i think a lot of people thought

it was messy because you've got 18 and 10 and he hit it and like the people around me there was like definitely a vibe like oh messi's the best and you're like he is i don't think he scored but he is the best uh and al was pretty good as well uh la galaxy colorado colorado rapids rip at this point five zero loss in the playoffs you come out of the atlanta game and you look at it and you say like all right teams are going to be competitive this is going to be close the rapids were behind the eight ball from the opening whistle lineup reasons. Georgie Mihailovich, we already thought would be out. Cole Bassett, we thought would be back for this game. He wasn't. Zach Steffen was available, but that was

the only player they were really able to get back from injury. Kevin Cabral as well. I don't think he would be on the top of the list of the attacking players you choose to come back from injury based off that list. But the Galaxy came out flying. They came out completely ready for this moment. Ricky was pushing the tempo. He was pushing the pace. First 15, 20 minutes, everything was going forward. He was attacking.

Then as the game shifted, he dropped a little bit deeper to find the ball and get the game. But Serio and Delgado react really well to that. And so when he comes in and says, oh, I'm going to play left center back in the build out for a little bit deeper to find the ball and get the game. But Serio and Delgado react really well to that. And so when he comes in and says, oh, I'm going to play left center back in the build out for a little bit. Serio knows that he has to push higher and Delgado knows he has to rotate over. And you saw a lot of it come to fruition in a really positive way. And then you see the quality in the final third for this team. It's an LA Galaxy team that has to score goals to win that we know that's the formula so to come out and put up a five spot for them like as much as they'll say oh we love the shutout and all of that

that stuff's not super sustainable for them but the five goals is and they need to be able to do that and it was the perfect start for their playoff race yeah they were they were phenomenal um on the colorado side of it it's um obviously really bad performance an awful way to start the playoffs after such a great season. Things that can't happen when, say, you're the Rapids playing against the Galaxy, particularly without George Mihaljevic. You cannot concede on set pieces. You have to win the set piece margin.

And just some of the, like, I don't even know if they would call them, like, full-blown transition moments. It felt like when the Galaxy pushed the tempo when they got to the final third, like, Colorado really struggled with that. And that, like, it was a little baffling to me because they've, you know, like when when the galaxy pushed the tempo when they got to the final third like uh colorado really struggled with that and that like it was a little baffling to me because they've you know they've had their issues defensively but like yeah that's not really one of them right like so i don't know it was like you said with sustainability i'm not entirely sure but like i'm it's the obvious thing to say they lose five nothing i'm really concerned about the uh the colorado rapids like

um there was just so many things that went wrong. And like you said, we were expecting Cole Bassett back. George Mihaljevic, I don't know if he's going to be ready for Game 2. And if he is, what state will he be in? How much of George Mihaljevic will he be? Going into the game, it was, hey, can they keep it? Even if they lose, keep it close. Hey, maybe try it or whatever.

They shouldn't have been on the same field as Eli Gausi. That is extremely concerning. And that goes into, I'm sure Chris Armis and the coaching staff are like, who cares? This is an aggregate. If we lost 1-0, if we lost 7-0, it's all the same. Who cares? That's tough to just drop off and move forward.

For sure. Yeah, it's tough to turn around off a performance like that. And it's tough to just wake up the next day and say, we're a different team, this doesn't matter. Now, I will say the altitude will help, the weather will help, going home will help. There's more happening for the Rapids than just it's a new game to say, okay, it's a different enough environment

and it will shift things a little bit for them. But for Colorado, the biggest issue in this game, I think was, well, one thing was individual defending moments. Reggie Cannon had a tough game. And you've got a guy in Keegan Rosenberry who's a captain of this team. He has been a solid piece. I thought the Reggie Cannon signing made sense in that he's a player of a high quality that was available. In terms of tactically, it doesn't really fit. He's played left back a couple of times. Now you've got Keegan Rosenberry playing left back. You've already signed Sam Vines.

I know Vines has struggled this year, but you can't have set. You can't say to yourself, well, he's not a starter on our team at this point. And so to then go out and have a game like this, where he looked disconnected from the back line, he struggled with his one V one battles and all of that. That's really, really tough. But for Colorado, it's just, you can't sustain any level of attack the other way. The few times you had Hafa Navarro pick up the ball and start attacking centrally, he didn't have runners.

There's no one around him to be dangerous. And that's how you slow the Galaxy attack, is to try and get Peck and Payne still to say, maybe I have to sit a little deeper to help defend. Maybe I have to come a little deeper to pick up the ball. None of that happened after the first 15 or 20 minutes of this game. And so then the Galaxy start to pour it on.

And I think the biggest part of this performance for them that you come out with is the killer peas, you're going to get the goals. Ricky, as much as he has been good or they've won or lost playoff games in his time, he pretty much shows up. If Jovalich is hot, this is a different team. Like if Jovalich is playing as a top five striker in Major League Soccer, if he's finishing his

chances, there's nowhere to hide against this team. And so to see him score that first goal, to see him play with the confidence he did, the celebrations, I think post-game he dropped a job's not done yet line like that after that i think is like dream scenario stuff for the galaxy i agree like this attack is is very complimentary the issue with the galaxy in years past was it didn't seem like a discernible plan it was oh douglas louise let's get him oh like you know right like this like what will coons and this front office has done and again this is what we were saying in the off season of like, I was higher on Joseph Paintsville just because of,

of his age, um, what he did in Belgium. And I thought that that would be quicker to translate to MLS. And Gabriel, Gabriel Beck has been better than like the two of them. I've been very incredible, but like everything makes so much sense.

And they already had obviously day on your village on the team. He makes so much sense with this attacking quartet. Like it's, I love to see that. And like, these things should be obvious. Sign players are complimentary to each other. Like,

like you have Ricky pooch instead of getting a 33 year old, not exactly fit Brazilian winger, get two dudes who, who run in behind. And these things are obvious things are, these things are simple, but it doesn't always have, doesn't always seem to happen, particularly for the galaxy in the Tam era. It absolutely was are obvious. These things are simple, but it doesn't always seem to happen, particularly for the Galaxy in the Tam era.

It absolutely was not happening. It was, ooh, this guy might be good. Ooh, this guy might be good. How does he fit with the team? Who cares? We'll figure it out. And then they never did figure it out. So credit where credit is due on, again, what should be a basic thing,

but they've absolutely nailed it. Garces has stepped in as the starting right center back. That's a move they made midseason. It's surprising, but it feels, at this this point you're not going to change it uh and the the one figure it out move they've made is marco royce as a tam signing which is like yeah that's the risk you take they started him as a second center mid alongside ricky for a bunch of games didn't start this game came off the bench i do think that's interesting because you are seeing a level of balance with Serio and Delgado as the two center mids behind Ricky. I don't know if this was a, we think we can take Colorado at home in game one.

We don't need to, or if this is, this is the starting 11 when available right now. And unless something changes, you're not bringing Marco Royce in. I think I've, I assumed Royce would start this game because of what they've done and what they've done they did against in El Trafico like that's what they

did in big games this season they chose not to do it in this one I think that's credit to Greg Vanni for sticking to his guns and finding what works and not being obsessed with talent and name and pushing it all in there but it'll be interesting what it looks like if they do get through a round like this and you say going into the next round oh we've got a home game against RSL or we're going on the road against LAFC. Is that not our best 11? Even if it doesn't totally make sense in terms of tactics or whatever, that's talent on the field and trying to get it all together. That's going to be really fascinating to watch with this Galaxy team. I will say this.

I wouldn't be shocked if Colorado bounced back at home. They have this year, as much as it's been a struggle down the stretch. There seems to be a vibe in that building. They want all those League's Cup games in that building at a minimum. So I think I wouldn't count them out yet, but it's going to be an uphill battle going into this second game. Let's jump over to Sunday evening. We started with Orlando against Charlotte. For this Orlando team, they came in sort of in weird medium ground. They had won a ton of games in a row. The loss at home on decision day. They go up against the Charlotte team. As you said, we thought this was a super even matchup. And we talked about Oscar Prea sort of making games messy and all of that and a little bit dirty. And they came out and they played really well in this game.

They get the 2-0 win over Charlotte. I think they set the table pretty well for themselves in terms of a playoff run. And you'd have to say outside of like the insane NYCFC victory back when Rodrigo Schlegel went and goal and like the environment and all that, and that was their first playoff win. This is probably the best postseason game they've played under Oscar Pereja in his time in Orlando. I think you're right. Again, that Schlegel moment was a bigger moment because of how incredible and unique it was. But this was their best performance.

So a couple of takeaways that I had that I was super interested by. So we were previewing this game and saying, will either team be able to break down a low block because again charlotte is one of the best defensive teams in the league both of the teams kind of prefer to play like that they did orlando did and yeah um they it wasn't even like so facuna torres i thought was good ojeda i thought was good angulo it was angulo breaking down the kind of a lock defense which i didn't know he had that in him. All this is extremely encouraging for the Orlando performance. I will say, Charlotte weren't bad. I thought Charlotte were pretty good. There are moments, and it'll still happen in every game,

you can go back to a highlight and be like, what about that Ibotta chance where he tried to chip the keeper? Or what about this, or the Ajimon header when he came in off the bench? Know that you're going to get to, I can tee you i'm like he should be starting he just it's just obvious the best moment of the game is his first touch off the bench in the 71st minute what are you and you got shut out what are we doing i it's just i i there's been enough data on carol swiriski as the center for ajimang is better ajimang is better for this team in this moment right now. Or just play both, and they might now. So Pepiel got an idiotic record at the end of this game.

What did I think about the red, like giving it as a red? Whichever way you want to take it. Yeah, the intent is there. The contact is not. It's a dumb play. It's one of those moments. If I was on his team, I would blame him. He put himself in that situation and he

wasted he gave the referee the opportunity in the opening to do it and what we just said about colorado it's not an aggregate series you're losing two zero like one a goal gets you back in it or it's off just close down and move on to the next game. Now our DP 10 is suspended for the next game because you had to do that. So that's my thoughts on that. And now I would say without it, you should start Ajumang with Swiderski. It shouldn't be an Andor. Have two center forwards in the team.

First of all, make Rodrigo Schlegel mark someone a hundred percent of the game. Like, I don't understand how that's not like the first game plan for a lot of teams. And then you can say to dagger day, okay, if you want to attack,

great, but there's going to be a presence up top. So if you're going to go and push forward and if Santos wants to get into the attack, which they were really good for large segments of the game, if you want to do that, like we're going to have a threat up top. Also,

you'd assume the field to tilt shifts because you're a home team and that changes things slightly. But I thought what you said angulo was really good in this game i thought ohada was phenomenal and i thought the game plan in this for orlando which was clearly to make angula and ohada sit in that left channel and either make burn stay or if he goes make melanda decide what he's going to do and you're putting a young center back in a really tough situation. And I didn't think Westwood and Bronico gave enough help to support.

And you look at the goal that Ojeda scores, and it's like the one time that Ojeda didn't go out wide. And Angulo did. But all the other times, Milanda had to track Ojeda out to the sideline. And it was in build-outs, and it was in moments where they went long against the run of play, like all these things. I thought Orlando had it perfectly in what they thought they could do. But the one thing I will say in all this, and I took screenshots, because I have the worst memory

on the planet, is that I took a screenshot during this game. The real feel in Orlando was 72 degrees with humidity. And at the exact same time, it was 78% humidity. And in Charlotte, it was 54 real feel at the time of the game. Like you could see Charlotte's pressure come slow. They close slow. They did not close down and pressure the back line the way they'd wanted to. And Orlando, a lot of their good moments came playing through Charlotte's pressure. You'd assume that pressure gets better going home with the weather and all of that, which is to Charlotte's advantage in potentially staying in this series. But this was not the start you want to see for a team that I think had a lot of hope and promise coming into this game. Yeah, I mean, again, like I would say

that I thought that they were fine, right? Like I think the better team won, but like it wasn't a super disheartening performance. But, like, again, the red card of Pep BL, like, that is a really sour note to end the game on. It's just so avoidable. I was talking to Devin Kerr, Apple TV broadcaster. He was calling the game with Nate Bucati last night, and he was like, yeah, like, it was a stupid play. He's like, my view was that that was absolutely should have been a red card and that the referee made the correct decision. And, like, the intent was your word you used as well.

And I was asking him his thoughts on the game just in general. And like one of the things he said that I thought was salient and interesting, the way that Charlotte tried to pressure was where we want you to Schlegel. We want you on the ball like that is going to be our pressing trigger. That is where we're going to try to funnel the ball, trying to eliminate early passes to the fullbacks and they weren't super successful in that um made like you said the the the five percent of difference that comes from being sharper in the press that could be the difference in this that that's that's the difference between the press not working and it is working right like so i'm curious to see what that's going to look like in charlotte i don't know if i agree with you in playing two center forwards because pretty quickly they could lose

the central midfield battle if they're outnumbered. Okay, so can I just... So I agree with you, except Araujo and Cartagena, when they win the central midfield battle, don't create chances. So you are in danger of losing possession,

but I don't think you're in danger of losing the game there because Orlando Central midfield are guys who want to work the ball side to side and guys who want to keep the game safe. And unless you think there's someone besides Pepiel for Charlotte who comes into this game and is a dangerous chance creator centrally, you're probably not really going to create most of your chances there anyway. So you're either hitting in transition or you've got two big options that now you can start to get crosses in. So if it's Vargas who comes in with a Bada and those are your two wide guys, like that's one option, or it's just a Bada on one side and burn getting forward on the other side

because you've got Tim Rehm who sort of shifts into that back three. That's the other option as well. So I agree that that could be the issue, but I don't think that's where you lose this game against Orlando I think that's fair but I it's like I still think it just should be Ajumang up top and then again if you need to bring in Swiderski as like a second forward or depending on the game states then you make your decisions from there but I'd still lean that way and and so like Bronico has been really really good down the stretch and i know that he wasn't you know great last night but i i think that that that's where i would lean if i was dean smith it um duncan mcguire hit the crossbar on a breakaway in stoppage time

to sort of seal the deal i obviously have him on my golden boot playoff team and he screwed me so thank you for that duncan mcgu, a shout out to a legend though. He's a good dude. And so I would like to see more goals for the guys that I picked. And I would see, like to see less goals for all the other players. Shout out to Fakou Torres, by the way,

for getting the goal. He, he, yeah, he's had some up and down moments. It was a really well-taken goal. Again, you start to see with Ohada there and Romero Enrique central, Fakou's trying to do

less and he is therefore more productive. And this seems to be the like cleanest fit that Orlando has had. I would say no matter what happens in this series, I feel more hopeful about Orlando going forward right now than I did a year ago when they were second in the Eastern conference. And I think that Orlando fans should be exciting. There are individual upgrades you could make. They are the easier ones of like, you should have probably a higher level starting center back and maybe a fullback and all that stuff. That stuff's easier to fix than like, we don't know how all our attacking pieces that we spent millions of dollars on fit together. So I think you should feel pretty good about that. If you're an Orlando fan, you should feel good about this series.

I will say this though, we've got Charlotte FC fan TV in here. I am hyped for Friday night. I do think the stadium is going to be bouncing. It's a night game, Friday night. This I think is going to be the perfect start to the weekend of this second weekend of playoff games. And whatever Charlotte does on the field, this is a moment they needed a home game. They second weekend of playoff games and whatever Charlotte does on the

field like this is a moment they need they needed a home game they needed a home playoff game to sell and push and so I think this is going to be really really cool to watch uh we mentioned the top obviously he's an assistant at Charlotte so he'll be moving on after the season uh to Phoenix Rising he is a name that we put on the list of potential coaches over and over and over again. He won a CPL championship with Pacific. He then went and coached North Texas and helped them make the postseason all the years he was there. One or two.

I can't remember now. One. There you go. Because you just are writing a piece about this. So you should know. Yeah, that makes sense. And now he's going to a Phoenix team that is eighth entering the playoffs. They went to the championship last year, also has a low playoff team.

And they are someone who has a stacked roster of USL talent. And it's a really cool region with no MLS team, a ton of young talent. Pa is someone who's passionate about playing young players and pushing them through. This feels like a really clean fit. And I would say if it goes even half as well as I expect it to, he will continue to remain on the list of MLS coaching openings. He is someone that you'd think would be interviewed and consistently considered going forward.

Yeah, that's, that's where I'm at with this. So again, Phoenix rising, they're going to name Palmodo car, the next head coach. They are entering their playoffs right now.

They have an interim head coach that is going to preside over the team for the playoffs, of course, continue, same way with Paul Motokawa, going to be with Charlotte for the rest of their season, so this is gonna be, I wouldn't expect an announcement until both Charlotte and Phoenix are eliminated from the playoffs, or winning trophies, whichever one happens, so I don't think anything's gonna come soon, I really, really like this hire phoenix i think that this is ambitious i think pa is a guy like so he's he's in his mid-40s so it's not like he's obviously like young young but like this is a rising coach but he's still somebody who has head coaching experience with pacific and north texas i think that's really important too like right everything that he's and like he's worked under some really good managers as an assistant

he's got a ton of experience there but like this won't be the first time he's, and like, he's worked under some really good managers as an assistant. He's got a ton of experience there, but like, this won't be the first time he's walking into a locker room as the head coach. It's like, whatever growing pains that could be there, or like, just the things that you figure out, like, oh, I didn't consider this when I was an assistant coach, right? Like, he's already done all of that. So I think he could hit that ground running here. I do think that he's going to continue to have legitimate MLS interest. My only worry is just the track record of USL coaches not kind of getting elevated to MLS. Like, they come in to take an assistant job,

but Pa has already been an assistant in MLS. So I think that it'll be different. Again, he's very well-respected around the league. I am super happy for him. I've only heard great things about him, particularly in Charlotte. He was with Cincy for a little bit. He ended his playing career in Portland and then Vancouver,

and he was a player coach for Vancouver's second team. So he's been here a long time. He's a dude that, again, all I hear is good things. So I'm super happy for Pa. I'm super, again, I'm impressed by Phoenix Rising being able to convince Pa. Pa interviewed for CF Montreal. Pa has interviewed for a handful of other jobs

over the last few years. He is a guy that is in the mix for a lot of these coaching jobs. Another side I will say is that it's harder and harder, no matter how many teams MLS has. It's harder and harder to get a coaching job here because of how many people want to be here and how many options there are. If I'm Pa, I'm looking at a guy like Gio Saffraese. He hasn't gotten an offer yet. So if you're him, you're like like i could hold out or i could you know

maybe i'll get it but it's like this is a really good opportunity i love this project phoenix right like this makes a lot of sense for him it makes a lot of sense for phoenix so i i think that that went into it too that like uh maybe that there will be another job interview in mls that line but it's like well what if i pass up on this opportunity and then you know who's the next usl like i love i really like this opportunity i I really like this project. So I'm going to go for it. Yeah, it is. We had Ben Pierman on this show a few weeks ago. You know, Charleston went to a final.

They played young players. They've sold players, all of that. I have said Danny Cruz's name with every job opening that has occurred in Major League Soccer for three, four years now. Louisville are in a different stratosphere when you come to USL. And he did it he changed the team it's not that he took over John Hackworth's team and rolled it out there and they played the team has changed the way they play and the personnel over and over over time and he still hasn't gotten an MLS coaching job it takes a little bit of bravery to hire someone who you

don't have a track record with and isn't already proven. Bobby walked us through it when we did that segment, when Mikey virus got the job, like it is tough to get someone to make the jump. Whether you're an assistant trying to come in or whether you're a head coach, unless you already have a relationship with someone where Chris Albright knew Pat Noonan because he worked with him in the Philadelphia union. And he was his assistant when he was an assistant GM and like it fit together and it made sense.

And you look at other people like that where you're like, who's this person's guy? Who did they play with when they were younger? Who have they worked with? That's a lot of the connections, which unfortunate, but I think if, if Bob goes to Phoenix and is successful, you have a body of work where at a minimum, a GM who wants to hire him or CSO, whatever you want to say, can put his resume on the table and say, this guy deserves this opportunity. No doubt. And no one can question it. And I think this is a good opportunity to do it there in Phoenix. Let's finish out with our final game of the weekend.

The most competitive one, LAFC against Vancouver. I feel like I came in hot on Vancouver two weeks ago. I was so frustrated the way they played. The inability to host a home playoff game that they had earned. All of that. They went out. They smoked Portland. they lit Portland's house on fire, and they said, hey, everyone, go look at that. And then they went into L.A., and they were the better team out the gate

by far in this game. Brian White hits the post. That's a brutal moment. Ryan Gould, equal to, I think, Ricky Pooch, running the game here. When he's high, he's stretching the field, defenders are backtracking and that creates the game. And then he drops in and he helps put pressure on. And I thought Vancouver had some really nice moments. They had a ton of ideas of how they could go about the game.

They couldn't find the finish. And then LAFC, if you give them the half chance, they're going to create it. Do you want to talk about the penalty specifically i mean i i understand the frustration i think that that was the correct call what about you i i thought it was i said it in live time i was like that's a penalty it sucks you don't have a reverse camera angle right if there's an angle if there was a camera on the other side of the box it's going to be obvious yeah i think that it hits his hand you can't

really see it like making his body and it's away from the body you can the box, it's going to be obvious. I think that it hits his hand. You can't really see it. Like making his body bigger. And it's away from the body. You can't really see it in behind. And I don't like the conversation of like, oh, it's tough on Tristan Blackman. It's like, that's not, this is not a fairness debate. Like this is, is it was or was it?

The thing that stood out for me here that killed me was in watching this moment, and I recognized it as it occurred, said it out loud, and then it ends up on the penalty, is that Vancouver had handled everything perfectly. So Laborda, who gets to start at right back once again, and I think Vanny's done well with this Christmas tree of like, we have this central midfield player, whether it's Fafa or Ali Ahmed,

who plays centrally, but then goes out wide and plays as a wingback when we want to defend in that shape or attack from that shape. Laborde is the right back slash right center back. He decides to push forward into the right channel into the attack. Kubasz shields over. He's right near Buanga, knowing that the danger there is the counter attack. Adekube comes inside to pick up the second man, which at the time is Bogus, and you've still got plus numbers with the center backs behind them. They win the ball back, and Adekube comes inside to pick up the second man, which at the time is Bogush. And you've still got plus numbers with the center backs behind them. They win the ball back and Adekube sort of turns and plays it back to his center backs and doesn't look and turns that ball over into Bogush's feet.

And then then and then LAFC is off and racing. And it's one of those moments that kills me because we talked about for Elliott for Vancouver. You've lost to this team three times now in knockout competitions. What's going to be different? And it's like they allowed LAFC out into transition throughout those other games. So here's their fix. And set pieces. Here's their fix.

The rest defense was in the correct place. They read the plate. Like they weren't going to let LAFC beat them in the same way. And then you get the mental mistake from one of your big players, one of your big signings in Adekube, and it allows the opportunity. And then the penalty kick happens. The penalty kick doesn't happen. It's probably a goal. Like you had, you were, you were two against three defensively against Bogush, Kike Oliveira and Blanca. That's the death sentence in major league soccer when that happens. And then after the goal, I thought LAFC finally woke up from 45 to 60 minutes of this game where they got the second goal.

They were dangerous. They were dominant. They were on the front foot. And then they took their foot off the gas after that and allowed Vancouver back into the game. I have struggled with Inter-Miami at times this year, right? The underlying numbers say they're not as dominant as they say. I come on this show once a week and say, I don't know, Philly should have gotten a result. Charlotte should have gotten a result. Atlanta should have gotten a result. I don't really know who LAFC are right now. And

after this many years under Trunzo, I get it's effective, but it's like not enjoyable or dominating to watch. Yeah. I mean, the identity is we're going to kill you in transition with our special players, particularly around Danny Bawanga. We're going to be dominant on set pieces, which is what they've been generally. Unless that I have, there's a stat that could prove me wrong there, but like these are like, we're going to be super dynamic in central midfield.

We're going to have a guy like Ilya Sanchez who can dictate the play, but then we're going to have super athletic midfielders as the dual eights, Louis O'Brien, Tim Tillman, Atwest has been playing that rather than six, like kind of going down the line with all these options, all these players over the last couple of years in that Jose Fuentes is, of course,

that's their identity for me. It's a team that we're going to kill you in transition because these are the strengths of the players, particularly belong. And then they're bringing in a Louis O'Brien. They're bringing in a Tim Tillman when it, when it's kind of clear that Jose Fuentes is going to leave. Like that's kind of the profile they're looking for because that's how they want to open up the game.

And yes, it's much different than what it was under Bob Bradley when Carlos Vela had the single best season in league history in 2019. Like, that's a different team. But for me, like, it's just so enjoyable watching Danny Blanca kill people in transition. Like, I understand that, like, it could be more aesthetic, but, like, I don't blame them at all. Like you said, it's effective. That's all that matters. In this game, from Vancouver, we're good. I keep saying this when you go back to games of this moment here, this moment there.

Stuart Armstrong plays a beautifully, perfectly timed through ball to Brian White. Brian White beats Hugo Lloris inside of the post, no goal. That's at nil-nil. That changes the complexion of the game, right's like 10 minutes into the game you put up you go up 1-0 there and again you talk about the atlanta experience of like you're coming off the high of the playoff wild card win you come in with momentum lafc are off kilter a little you maybe get to halftime up to zero right because you're going to be the one on the front foot it was absolutely a game-changing moment and again to, to the Vancouver game plan side, Stuart Armstrong

in that central midfield, that moment comes off two times that Vancouver wins on the counterpress centrally, where Kubas reads the play and steps forward. And then Armstrong wins it back and Gould wins it back. And you're like, oh, this is how they can win without Iliye in the game because Louis O'Brien and Tillman can get pressured in central midfield if you're able to get close to them. And it all worked. And then, as you say, the moments. It's a half inch. That ball goes in.

It's completely different. I would argue on the golf free kick as well. The golf free kick that hits the upper 90, I think it was first half stoppage time. So at 1-0, him and Armstrong are standing over over it and he curls it left footed to the far right post from the left side it was like the weirdest angle and it curled against the way you would assume and Lloris didn't have that corner cover like if that thing sneaks in and it was close you're at a 1-1 game as well I will say though you mentioned like Blanca and the beauty of it the goal they scored

where Olivera finished from right to left was absolutely gorgeous. And the soccer recognition, the IQ from Hollingshead to understand if Blanca is going to go out to the touchline, I can go fill the left channel. And so he pushes higher up the field than Blanca. That creates a little bit of chaos in Vancouver's backline. Laborda doesn't know if he should go wide or not. And then Buonga doesn't hesitate. It's a one-touch pass into Giroud's feet. The layoff to Hollingshead. It gets to Bogus.

And then as Oliveira's celebration showed, Bogus being selfless enough to play it off to Oliveira instead of take the shot himself from a central area leads to a goal I could be convinced that you are a little let down by Takayoka that you concede a goal from that angle but it's a really good move and it's a really good shot and it was a deserved goal and that 15 minutes was okay LAFC are the best team in the league and this is what you're going to see and this is a team going to MLS Cup it just is odd to me that at home against Vancouver, it's only a 15 minute spell of play like that. And that's the part that I think I sort of get left a little wanting of like, you don't dictate the game, really. You don't control the game in a moment against a team that has come in struggling. And Vancouver should have pure confidence for the second leg, like,

they should go into it believing that they can get the result, that they can push this back to L.A. and that they are close enough to be competitive if they get back to L.A. And that's like all you can ask for if you're one of these lower seeds at this point of the postseason. Yeah, this is a really huge game for Vancouver. Like, again, they I thought they performed very well in like one game on what the correct terminology is. Well, when is is game 15? But like if they lose in two games to LAFC Tom, the MLS playoffs are basically a Grateful Dead song. There's no start, there's no finish.

They just play. It jams and flows within each other. It's just a jam. Jam session. But if they lose at home what are they different than last? I would say the quality

the last week particularly then, like, what are they different than last? And, like, I would say, like, the quality, what the, like, the last week, particularly, in, like, Armstrong, Gould, White, and everything, and Fite, whatever, you know, all of these pieces, like, oh, I see it. This is what you want. And, like, I think that would have been fine last year. I mean, two years ago, definitely. This year, you can't take a moral victory here.

Like, it has to. And, again you can't take a moral victory here. It has to. And again, even a moral victory would be, we won one of the games against LAFC and got eliminated in round one anyway. This is just tough, right? And I think all of our criticisms of, this team shouldn't have been in the wildcard game. This team should have been fighting for fourth. Should have been fighting for home series and playoffs.

They should have absolutely been avoiding LAFC or the LA Galaxy in round one at the very least, right? Like, so... Yeah. And I understand that this is difficult. It's a bad draw. It's difficult. But, like, you got to make it happen. At some point, you just have to make it happen, right?

Like, so... And again, game one was super encouraging. And if they can build on that game two, like you said, if they play this well, win game two, go back to LA at game three, like, I firmly believe that they could do this. And it's, we're at the intersection of believe it can happen versus it has to happen at

some point. It just has to. And the part that they have fallen short on, not just the result purely is the steady performances in the past. When you reach a high level, can you do it again and again? And that's where they have completely failed under Sartini, which is I think part of why Canadian Championship has worked for them because it's one-off high moments and it's not, you know, three weeks in a row. That would be the development to me,

is can they put this performance on the field again with the same ideas and execution this weekend? And then can they do it again the following weekend? And if you see that, I think that's a step forward for Vancouver. But that's the necessity. And that's where American sports are stupid because you play for a full year to like have one postseason game where everything's going to be dictated based on that moment. But that's what we do. So you got to wake up and do it in the moment. Anyway, let's jump into the games we've got coming up this week. Obviously tonight. So pretty soon we'll probably spend less time on these. We've got FC Cincinnati against NYCFC and Seattle against Houston. Not less time because these games aren't any worse. I think these are maybe, this is probably the best day doubleheader that we're going to have this entire round, but there's not a lot of time for this episode to live around that one. So we'll be back on Thursday to review it all for you. And then Tuesday night, Columbus hosting Red Bulls and RSL hosting Minnesota. Let's start with

Cincinnati NYCFC. We have this super high on our excitement list because of what we've seen from these two teams. The 4-2 come from behind win for FC Cincinnati in League's Cup this year, and then NYCFC getting a 3-2 win in the regular season game after that in September coming into this game for Cincinnati, this is like as close to healthy as we've seen them for a pretty long time. So they don't have every option, but it feels like they're going to have true center backs in this game.

It feels like they're going to have wing backs who play as wing backs, and then they're going to have decisions to make in the attack of what they want to do. And for NYCFC, they come in in a pretty good moment. Alonzo Martinez been the best goal scorer in Major League Soccer since the League's Cup, and he will maintain that spot at the center forward position. And then up the spine, it's pretty solid for them. Santi Rodriguez, Keaton Parks has played really well. James Sands has played really well. I was

going to say Justin Hack, and then I got caught in the middle because I knew you'd come through the screen and attack me, and then I had to in the middle because I knew you'd come through the screen and attack me, and then I had to get to Keaton Parks quickly on that one as my transition instead. What's your idea? What's your thought coming into this one Monday night? So I think that both of these,

it's going to be a fascinating series. I think that these are both good teams, even with Cincy being hamstrung with the injuries that they've had and the center forward revolving door that they've had, right? I still think that they're a very good team i think cincy are the bigger threat to columbus or miami i then nycfc because i think that the best version of what cincy can be right now is we're

gonna choke the game you're it's gonna be so difficult for you to to attack because miles robinson chidozie waziem obi waboto all that like that's fine and then guess what we have lucho costa and you don't sorry right like so there is a path if they play to you know whatever the cape their best capabilities are of this current group that is right now there is a genuine path around let's go i really do believe that because of how good they can be defensively and beyond Lucho Costa who can be the best player on the field any single time he plays Lucoriano can have the best moment of any game that he ever played he plays right like so you have the defensive structure the experience the quality and then you have the attacking quality of players that can go win you a game

it's nil nil Acosta picks up the ball 25 yards from goal and then a couple one twos a couple defenders left his way oh my god how did he just get a one-on-one and score like these are the ingredients to postseason success and because of how good Columbus are because of how good Miami are um and then you would look at the LA teams in the west and Cincy being without Miazga and having such huge question marks at center forward, nobody's looking at Cincy. And for me, I do believe that there is a genuine path to a MLS Cup.

I agree with you. And I think, I said on the Cincy pod I did last week, I think that they internally feel that. And they feel that in the positive way of like, we've got a shot. We deserve to be on the field with any of these play with any of these teams we've got the best player on the field we've got a match winner and we've got a match winner and a guy by the way who elevates

last year playoffs two goals to assist for lucho we've seen it in leagues cup we've seen it he loves huge moments with this team he he elevates his game he steps up up. I think Selim Tanel is another guy who this year was a good to positive goalkeeper. He's like Max Krapow style where it feels like that's the, that's the formula and you've got a lot up the spine, but I will say, and I think I said this on the show last week, I really like NYCFC's press right now, the way they pressure and fan out and are able to pick up the ball high up the field. It's what they did to Red Bulls in the Hudson river Derby.

And we're able to win that game. You know, whatever we called it, the blue Lagoon, the blue punch, whatever you want it to call it. Um, curious how blue, whatever you want it to call that game. That's what they were able to do in that

one. And this is a similar matchup, right? Because Cincinnati themselves are a transition team, themselves are a high-press team. And I think if you were able to funnel that ball towards Assad or Ian Murphy or whoever it is along that left side, and you're able to close things down quick enough, you can create some chances and you can get after this Cincinnati team. So I said it, I think tonight is this best night and you're going to have more even games. And I think you're looking at four teams that could all get victories tonight. And I wouldn't be shocked and I wouldn't be surprised.

And I think there's a formula for both these teams to get the win. Cincinnati at home, you'd expect would get there. But I think this will be a three game series. And I think there's a lot of little pieces that could work for both these teams. One of the things I'm interested with with NYCFC, because I always am, is what they choose to do at right back. I think Tavon Gray is very good. I don't know that he creates a ton for you down that wing. And so do they decide, okay, we need to be safe against Assad coming down this wing

and Orojano coming into this space? Or do we want to try and get on the front foot here? And so that's one of those, some teams have those signifiers, right? If the LA Galaxy, you open up the lineup an hour before the game, Marco Reus is in there. That's one thing that's happening. This is a similar one that NYCFC kind of has

those buttons they can push. And then as we mentioned, I believe on Friday, I don't remember when, rumors connecting Nick Cushing going back to England to the Arsenal women's job. So how much does that affect this group? And he has struggled to get them up

for the biggest games in his time there. His first post-season appearance, they haven't made deep Open Cup runs or League's Cup runs or anything really under him as well. So this is a big opportunity for him to prove that he's capable of doing it. The second game, Seattle-Houston. Kata in the chat says, playoffs have been one-sided.

My hope is tonight Seattle versus Houston is a more back-and-forth game. I think Doyle said he got goosebumps thinking about the real estate battle that will occur in possession in this one. But I had this one tagged as one of, I think, the best series of the first round, and I'm excited for this one. But I had this one tagged as one of, I think the best series of the first round. And I'm excited for this one. Do you also have goosebumps about who's going to stand on the blades of turf? Chills. Chills.

I'm actually, so I'm not going to watch the game. I'm going to look at the possession stats and I'm just going to watch the possession chat shift. Yeah. I just want to see it go from 55, 45 to 54, 46. And I just want to see it go from 55-45 to 54-46, and I just want to see that flow throughout the game.

Yeah, I'm very excited for this one. I think we've talked about it plenty, and I don't have anything super new. It's like, can Houston, like, well, Seattle's defense, they had the fewest goals conceded in the league. They were awesome over the last half of the season, maybe two-thirds or whatever the timeline was there. Rusnak's been low-key, really, really good.

Remember when the free agent list came out, and we were talking about it, it's like, dude, he'd be great if you could sign him. You probably could get him at max stamp. I don't think so anymore. I think that price went back up to DP. Good timing for him. Well done by him. They have match winners in attack.

I think Houston are going to control the possession, and those blades of grass. I know that it's taking away the chills and taking away the, the, uh, uh, mystery there,

but like, how are they going to break down Seattle? What will that look like? Can Seattle find transition moments? When Griffin Dorsey is overlapping Coco Karaski as his like little half winger role, like can they get, will,

you know, Jordan Morris drift to that side, or how will that go? I'm very, very curious. Again, this is statistically the best defense in the league, and it's a Houston team that they dominate games, they control games with possession. Will they be able to create the chances against the league's best defense is going to be the

story of the series. Brian Schmetzer, contract extension. We hadn't mentioned it on this show yet. It was signed three or four days ago, believe so coming into this playoff round we don't know years on coaches contracts in major league soccer that's not a thing that's announced uh yay mls that's seattle i expect better from you announce the years of the contract why is this not doing and to your point why is this not mandated by mLS? One, it should be mandated by MLS, but two, it shouldn't have to be. You should just do it.

They just mandated the player years like 18 months ago at soonest. So we're just thankful for that at best. By the way, if you're not a Patreon subscriber, go do it. The salary tables are being updated this week with all of the new MLS PA news. So you will have the clear idea of where players sit in the roster spots, all that type of stuff coming up and is the best way to follow teams as you go into the offseason. I say the Brian Schmetzer contract extension news in that

it felt like coming towards the playoffs, this was potentially going to be a mandate on like, are you turning the page? Obviously, a few of the big names have left and the pieces that are there steph from fry they're if he wants to keep playing they're going to keep playing stuff like that but it did feel like maybe we were coming to a like has this all reached its limit right rusnak was brought in as a short-term real fix to win the conchiaf champions league in 2021 as a

player who knew it not this is the next 10 years of this club. I think with the Schmetzer contract, that puts a lot of that to sleep, which maybe makes this team play a little bit freer because Seattle's possession does not lead to chances. And that's like the problem for Seattle's. They have possession because they're talented and they have a great atmosphere at home and teams just seed it to them. It's not as if Seattle has great ideas of like, we're going to use that possession to suck you in and move you around and

open up chances. It almost hurts them at times at home. And so I didn't know if how that would affect them and how they would continue forward. And your hope is this takes off some of the pressure in the bigger moment and allows the players to focus on things. And maybe they start to reorient themselves. Pedro De La Vega is a big part of

that. If he can be healthy and play like that's a big part of that as well. All right, let's move to Tuesday night here. We've got Columbus hosting the New York Red Bulls. Columbus obviously trying to go for a repeat and change history in Major League Soccer. It's not something we see very often. And I'm not sure it's something we thought would be possible in hand with a cocky calf champions cup final run or a league's cup final run and so columbus are trying to change what they're capable of and also you talk about future planning and all of that there may not be a lot more time for this columbus group as it's currently uh set up let it keep let keep in france one of the reputable papers there has said said that Saint-Étienne, who are currently in a relegation spot early on in Ligue 1, have tried to or reached out to make

contact with Nance about potentially taking over. I'm not saying this happens, but it goes to the point of like Wilfred Nance is a very attractive coaching hire, and he will be a part of a lot of conversations over the next few months. I um and a couple things on this report from the keep one san lancan have not fired their coach yet um and these things usually don't get out because like before the coach is fired like so that that strikes you as a little odd i don't so i don't i am not able to confirm or deny whether or not you know people have reached out to non or Nancy's camp. What I can say, per sources, definitively, the Columbus crew have not been contacted. And again, usually they do make sure, they're not going to ask the Columbus crew for permission

to speak to Nancy if they don't know Nancy would be interested in speaking to them, right? Like, so this is the usual thing of it, but obviously not something that would be happening during the playoffs. This is whatever. So again, maybe they are planning, they are circling when MLS Cupls cup is and like all right this manager has a couple more weeks left before uh we might have to make a change but yeah so for me like this is nothing that would be imminent but to your larger point is the salient one that like this is gonna happen we're gonna get kujo rumors this winter didn't wasn't he connected to like montserrat or something like oh when i was on my

hands i didn't tell if that was a fever dream or not sounds like if I didn't report it I don't really care like somebody said in the chat and I was like what when did this happen okay um but anyway but like that's gonna happen man like that's what success does and these are gonna develop like a coach like Nancy who helps develop players so well like he's gonna look to could look to develop himself so we'll see where this goes but as you say, that creates emergency. The windows are smaller and smaller with current iterations of teams in MLS, in the world of global soccer. It's not you have a few years at your club and then you get bought.

It's like, oh, you have two good months? Bang. Somebody needs a value before another team comes in. So that's just the nature of this. And maybe it is the last ride for this iteration of the Columbus crew, but maybe it's not. We saw this matchup on Decision Day. 2-0 lead for Columbus in the first half, 2-2 at the end of regular time

after Red Bulls stormed back, and then the stoppage time winner for Columbus made it 3-2 in the end. It's what you'd expect, right? Red Bulls don't want the ball. They want to pressure, and Columbus want the ball, and they want you to come and pressure them. And the question is who bends and who breaks. Is that a question?

It doesn't really feel that way. Is that a question? This, honestly, I think this, outside of the Atlanta-Miami series, I think most people have this as one of the most straightforward ones, of like Columbus are so good. The thing with Columbus is we've seen them do it at the high leverage moments. So there's like no lack of confidence that they will perform.

You know, I say the abstract of like, Oh, Red Bulls will press them. Columbus will try and play through it. Who wins? And it's like, what we have seen over the last two years is when that happens,

Columbus wins. That has been the scenario we have seen over and over and over again. So it'd be surprising if it doesn't happen again. The one wrinkle in there is Forsberg once again has come back, got two goals, I believe it was, against Columbus on decision day. That gives them a little bit of a special difference maker to say Columbus falls asleep, especially centrally. They lose possession high and Red Bulls are able to pick it up,

and Forsberg can lead the break. He gets the goal. Now you have an opportunity to potentially play from a lead, but you'd expect Columbus to get the victory in this one, at least to start the series. And the final game of this first round, nine and a half years after it started, as Tom would like you to know, is RSL hosting Minnesota.

This was one we were very excited about as well. Two teams that have found themselves over the course of the season. RSL obviously started hotter, sort of wavered in the middle and have come back on strong in a different way in the second half of the season. In the first half, it was expansive soccer and Chicho dropping in and dominating the game. And in the last segment of the year,

it's been grit and strength and Diego Luna sort of being the match winner on top of all of that. And then a Minnesota team that under Eric Ramsey has made a ton of moves and changes and has found their feet towards the end of this season, but against lower quality competition for the most part, where they've gotten their victories. And I think this one sits in a really fun spot for this series. I completely agree. I think this one sits in a really fun spot for this series. I completely agree. I think this is the hipsters round one series to watch. Like, this is going to be, I think, really fun.

These two teams are, they try to play expansive, but they both have flaws. Like, I think that this is the essence of these round one series for what you want it to be, because I think it's going to be super competitive. I think both of these teams are going to try like again, Minnesota are here early real Salt Lake, you know, they were on before selling Andres Gomez and Chicho Rongo getting suspended and then injured.

Like they were on a trajectory to be challenging with LAFC, LA Galaxy at the top of the Western conference. It's still been a very good year and I can't wait to see who advances here. Yeah, agreed. And I think this is one of those where it's like, if Yeboah elevates and plays the way he can play, that's a star in Major League Soccer that we're talking about going into next year.

And Luna the same. I know Luna has been in the conversations, but if Diego Luna finishes some of the chances he's finished on the national stage in this moment with everyone watching that elevates him from fun, young player to this is the guy everyone game plans around. And this is the guy that you throw on the billboard pregame. And the opposing team puts on the match poster about who they're playing and all of that.

That's really, I think exciting and fun for these two teams. The midfield battle is going to be huge between these two sides. Our cell are really good at killing the game there. And what I think, exciting and fun for these two teams. The midfield battle is going to be huge between these two sides. RSL are really good at killing the game there. And what I watched, I went back and watched the previous matchup, which was 0-0. So take what you will from that. A lot of RSL's chances, though,

were blind balls over the top from right area of center back or central midfield into the left attack where Luna was sitting sort of behind whoever Minnesota decides to put out there at right back. It has been like Carlos Harvey in this weird slides in as a third center back and whoever plays right wing and Bongi or Sang Bin comes back and becomes a bit of a wing back. But with that movement, there's a little bit of a gap in that space right when you win the ball back. And RSL tried to be aggressive about that. So that's something to watch out for. The other is, I'd expect Joseph Rosales on the other side to dominate this game. One of the regrets of my life was that I didn't have him on our underrated best 11. Of my life. And I am sitting in an empty room like a crazy person i have a lot of regrets

and that's one of the big ones of my life uh rosales is arguably the best crosser from the left back position in major league soccer right now and right back has been a problem position andrew brody hasn't been healthy or available they played philip quinton there and he's not naturally comfortable out there. So that's a big area for this Minnesota team to try and take advantage of as well. And as you said, this is what we want from a first round series. This is what we want to see. All right. So that's our preview. We'll be back on Thursday to review it all and react to it. But we've got news to hit before we get out of here. You are reporting that Bruce Serena has taken a flight out west. Talk to us a little bit about what's going on.

Yeah, Bruce Serena is in advanced conversations with the San Jose Earthquakes about their vacant head coaching position. I was told he flew in to San Jose on Friday, and this wasn't another interview. This was with the idea of hammering out an agreement or finding a deal. I have not gotten an update since, but I will say that's where things stood as of Friday. This would be super interesting. This would be his first job since departing the New England Revolution, shrouded in some secrecy. Myself and Pablo Mauro did some reporting on it of the insensitive comments that led to the investigation.

He ended up resigning at the end of the investigation, and he had to be reinstated to MLS via a petition to Don Garber, which happened this year. Yeah, this would be very interesting. I think for me this is more like Bruce Arena wants to go to you. Like Bruce Arena, if he left New England in different circumstances, I don't really think he's considering the San Jose Earthquakes. The other side of that, the optimistic side is, at the beginning

of their process for head coaching search, they, again, they interviewed Greg Berhalter, Bruce Arena, Robin Frazier, Gio Savarese, interim Ian Russell, as either all of the finalists or most of the finalists. And some of the wording that I was getting back was, again, believe it or not,

totally fair to be cynical about this, given everything that this ownership group is for both the San Jose Earthquakes and the Oakland Athletics, was that more money was going to come or whatever, right? Like, do you care about this team were questions that were asked, right? And for what it's worth, they're allegedly saying the right things. Um, so I think that this would be a good hire by San Jose. I was surprised that there was some, you know, reading some of the replies to my tweet and breaking the news of like, oh my God, like, you know, just going with a retread or it's

like, dude, have we forgotten that this guy has the most wins, the most MLS cups, the most supporter shields, the most coach of the years in mls history and sure whatever oh yeah he won in 1998 or 96 yeah he also won the supporter shield with the revolution and that club that club was what we're viewing the chicago fire and what greg burrell was walking into that's what the revs reviewed when bruce arena came in yeah so this and when he was when he went went on administrative leave, they were on pace for 65 points. Then this team, largely with the same core, has been

awful since then. So, I'm just don't agree in any way that the game has passed him by or anything stupid. Like, yeah, he's older. Like, this is going to be a different hire than if you, you know, a 40-year-old, like, with developmental track, right? Like, but this would be an excellent hire for san jose if they get it done yeah um there's a lot in this so i think to start with you said it um and and it's in your piece the quote was

inappropriate and insensitive remarks was why he was originally suspended in new england he then resigned he then petitioned to be let back into the league and commissioner Don Garber. They accepted him back into the league last year when his name started to bounce around as he wanted to work again. He's 73 years old. I'm not best friends with Bruce arena. I don't know how much he's going to change as a human being. And like, there's the off field side to look at this of like,

should you be bringing a person like this into your organization? Has he changed? Does he understand what went wrong? Is he the right person to like lead a group of people? That's one conversation and it should be had the other from the soccer point of view. It's a no brainer. And I completely agree with you when he got the revs job,

I thought the leak had changed too much and it was an unmitigated success. Like, I don't even think you can use that word. I think unmitigated is a negative. So whatever. It was a clear success. He signed Gustavo Bowe like six hours after he took over as the New England Revolution head coach.

And Gustavo Bowe ended up being probably the best DP signing New England had made until Carlos Hill and all that. And all those people. Well, Hill was first. That's true. Yeah. So, but the example in new england was he was able to bring in talent from around the world right he drafted tajan buchanan then

they brought in um barrero which was a great signing as well like they they they hit talent in multiple ways dewan jones and brandon by out of the draft but then also going out and purchasing buxa and being able to like flip some of these roster spots. He showed that he could be competitive and bring people in from different backgrounds, which are a little bit different. And in the Carlos Hill thing, he showed that he could use the pieces that were there, which when you look at this team and Hernan Lopez and Christian Espinosa, you shouldn't throw

the baby out with the bathwater. Like there is something there to work with. But he came to the New England Revolution because Robert Kraft, who is one of the most powerful people in sports in America and one of the biggest owners and a longtime MLS advocate, clearly came and said, tell me what you need and I'll give it to you. But Bruce Arena came to that job from a position of power. He had left the galaxy. He was on his own terms, not coaching, and you had to coax him out. As you said, this is different. Bruce Arena wants

back in the game to prove that he is not, he doesn't want his legacy left what it was with the refs, which was as a human side and as a coaching side. That doesn't mean John Fisher has to give him as much as Robert Kraft had to give him to get him in the door. And so while I think Bruce Arena, what I saw with the with the crafts and with the revs was he is a big name to go into a rich person's room and say, give me the money, I promise you it'll be worth it. And that hasn't always been the case. That also doesn't mean San Jose has to promise him as much to get there. But the assumption being, this team will be better next year. Like the floor with Bruce Arena as the coach is higher. I agree with you.

The league has not passed him by. He is capable of putting together coaching staffs in front offices around him, which is a little different now. He goes from being CSO to not CSO. That have been competitive in modern Major League Soccer. And you'd expect him to do it once again here with this team. And just to be super careful again, like the reporting, I've not reported that anything is agreed or done.

So again, this is all, this is where it's trending. But again, I just, just making sure for people who are listening to this, nothing, nothing is done yet. We can confirm that flights were. People were on flights. Can we track planes? I didn't track.

I can tell you via sources he was in San Jose on Friday. Okay. I'll get on American Airlines later and see where flights were. What time do they fly out of Iceland? Imagine Bruce in a middle seat and you just get onto it. He's definitely a guy who's taking elbows out. These are mine screw you he uh i think it was the galaxy that were quoted back in the day when the teams traveled commercial of like we always show up in our training our uniforms and

people always ask like what are you are you a cheerleading group are you guys raising money are you a boy scout group so though bruce was the one leading them through the airports uh like something out of a mighty ducks video as well um the other piece of news which you reported and then confirmed by themselves austin fc is that nico estevez is going to take over as the second ever head coach of austin fc um so a big move riddle rodolfo Burrell took over as CSO last year, let Josh Wolfe go with one game left to play this season, and then had an interview process. I saw in the Austin FC fan conversations,

a lot of Burrell's quote, you'd be shocked by the people who are interested in this job, which they've taken in a different direction now that it's been announced, which has been really funny to watch. But Nico Estevez at 44 years old takes over his second head coaching job in major league soccer. So he's from Valencia, Spain. Originally he originally came to the U S in 2014 to work under Greg Berhalter as the director of methodology at Columbus crew,

then became an assistant coach, followed Greg to the national team became an assistant coach followed greg to the national team as an assistant coach with the u.s men's national team and then left there to take over the fc dallas head coaching job which he held for two and a half seasons roughly his first year was a 20 point increase in 2022 which is the largest jump in fc dallas history they made the playoffs in 22 and 23, and then he was fired in 2024. At the time, he was 3-8-5.

Overall, he had a 36% win percentage with Dallas, and Josh Wolfe leaves Austin with a 33.8% win percentage just down the road. So you don't have to relearn Texas, as Burrell said. What did you make of as this sort of came about? This being the name and sort of this decision? Interesting. Like when I was reporting on this,

like the first words, like, you know, like Nico Aceves is awesome. I didn't know if it was a joke. Like, I didn't know. Or like, is that real? Like, what do you, is this, no, like it's happening. Like, I was like, really? Okay, like, let me try to track this down so the positives are he he and burrell clearly see the game similar ways right like

one of the things that i keep coming back to burrell talking about josh wolf when he took over he goes i would not have taken this job if i did not if i was not aligned with josh wolf and his game model the way he sees the game the way we see the game right like so nico estevez a lot of the same background as josh wolf right they were assistants together believe in both columbus and the national team or i don't exactly what the time was but like greg barhalter coaching tree they both have similar game models so that's like so again that's how burrell clearly sees the vision of this team the negatives are he might be Josh Wolfe 2.0 like if you're a fan that's probably worried like there was um I forget if this was a message in the discord or a tweet I believe that it was something like that where someone was like Dallas was one of the very few teams we finished ahead of this year, and they fired this guy.

So that's a little tough. And again, you need to be brave to be like, hey, if I think this is the guy, this is the guy. I think that they were aware this wasn't going to be the most popular decision. Again, because he was their rivals coach. Comes from the same tree as Josh Wolfe did. There are a lot of similarities there. So I'm curious to see how it's going to happen. What he needs to do is unlock like so the defensive pieces in this group going to be better

than what he had in his final season with dallas and i genuinely believe that nico esvez did not want to play the boring slow conservative soccer that he ended up the last half year before uh dallas part ways with him i think that was job preservation mode and i want to play more expansive i can't like i cannot with this back line and the midfield that we have right now so i don't think that that's indicative of what nico estevez is or wants to be as a head coach so i think that would be one of the optimistic views um but it never felt like he quite unlocked the attack in Dallas, and that is number one priority here with Austin.

What is the best way for Bukhari, Drusi, Diego Rubio, who just signed a contract extension, is there a DP number nine coming in? Or how do you rework defensive mid for stuff like that? These are the questions. For me, it's more about can you prove that your theory, your game model of what you want it to be that that translates to the pitch and that translates to attractive soccer and winning

games i think it can but i understand that the pessimism yeah and i think one of the things with the coaching higher stuff again you go back to sort of what we talked about with bobby of like the options and the id player people and all of that. I think you also have to remember, like there's a decent amount of these CSOs who basically are coaching the team or want to, like they want the team to play the way they want it to play and be set up. They're not looking for the coach to come in and have the ideas. And so you look at a setup here where Rodolfo Burrell is bringing someone in

who's got experience running locker rooms, who understands major league soccer and who has the same background from Spain as he does. That seems pretty cut and dry clean to say, yeah, this is someone who's going to come and take my players and put them in the system I want them to play and be competitive. Rodolfo Burrell is not going to be in training every day. He's not setting the lineup. But he has the idea of what he wants the club to be and that team to be. And he wants Nico Estevez to sit in that. And so for all of those reasons, it makes sense. They're also the same reasons that if you're an Austin fan, you could be worried

because what if Burrell's wrong? You don't have a no person in the room then, right? You don't have a coach who's saying like, uh-uh, this doesn't make sense. This isn't the way it runs. You're, you're kind of hiring a yes person, but we have seen now over the last few years, this sort of movement towards coaches who have MLS experience because it's a safe hire to say like, well, of course, like if, if it goes wrong, Burrell's like, what do you want from me? I hired a guy who made the playoffs in two of the three years he's coached in major league soccer and was an assistant with the U S men's national team. Like that's the resume that's easy to put up to an ownership group above you and say, like, we hired the right guy. It just didn't go well or whatever you want to say after that. But I can understand from an Austin fan

point of view that it doesn't feel ambitious or different. I mean, you're literally hiring the guy who lost to your team in the Western conference semifinals two years ago, who is sitting behind you in the standings when he got fired and ended up his team behind you in the standings as well from right down the street. But I do think the job is a little bit different between the two teams. Austin is trying to be more of a finished product and be competitive where Dallas wants to sell and move players. Austin hasn't done that yet. They're not connected as much to their academy. And they're going to try and do it with the Bucaris of the world, of like younger signings that maybe they can move and flip later.

But that's not really the reality of this team. They're trying to win. And they think Nico Estevez can do that. It is not an inspiring move. You don't feel inspired. But this is sort of the names that you see moved around um in this space and i think that's what we're feeling from a lot of austin fans they to the point of like burrell's the decision maker before this happened they've

already extended four players diego rubio owen wolf hotter oberon and brennan heinz eich like this is burrell's roster it's his squad it's his team and that's why you go about making these moves they already signed bukari as a dp in the summer um and so like the moves already there it's not estevez coming and saying these are the guys i need it's like here's the guys you get and this is what we this is how we think it'll work and like you go out and start to execute that um going forward any other final thoughts? That's all I got. All right. We're going to be back on Thursday.

A lot more playoff games to be played. I'm very excited. I thought the games on Sunday were fun. Yep, I agree. I thought overall the Orlando Charlotte and Vancouver LAFC, they were fun. They were competitive. They felt like they mattered. And I thought we saw a better level of play or bite to the games. And I expect to see that again over the next four games and then going into

it. One little note, we got a question in the discord about the reports coming out about college soccer and the readjustments. I talked about college soccer a bunch when the show started trying to put together a feature and a piece. So I'm going to try and do some coverage around that this week. We obviously won't have a show on Tuesday because we did the show today.

We'll be back on Thursday for MLS coverage Wednesday, Jordan Angeli to do NWSL and the U S women's national team coming off. So far, the two wins against Iceland heading into the game against Argentina and the final game or the regular season there, the playoffs resuming Friday in major league soccer, and then starting a week later in NWSL. All right.

Thank you so much to everyone for joining us. Thank you everyone who was in the chat to watch live. Anyone listening on the podcast, thank you for supporting us as well. Another fun week last week of coverage. I'm excited once again for this week coming up. Tom, thank you to you for being here and all your scoops.

And we'll talk to you all again very, very soon.