SoccerWise - MLS & Olympic Men's Edition

Episode Date: July 30, 2024

Join Gass and Tom as they participate in the very first Soccerwise mock draft! In this instance, they'll be selecting their own lineups made up of nothing but U-22 players in MLS. Tom will also dip into the ice cream bucket and grab a few scoops for fans of Atlanta, Cincinnati, Minnesota, the Red Bulls, and Los Angeles. You'll also get their live reactions to the pivotal USMNT vs Guinea match in Group B at the Olympics. Be sure to catch Soccerwise live on YouTube and Twitch at 2pm ET every Tuesday (with Gass and Tom), Wednesday (with Gass and Jordan), and Thursday (with Gass and Tom). 5:45 US Olympic Reaction 14:25 Ice Cream Shop Tommy's Scoops 14:32 Atlanta United Sign Alexy Miranchuk 23:45 Minnesota United Sign Kelvin Yeboah 30:25 FC Cincy & Miami Sign New Centerbacks 37:40 Red Bulls Signing JP Gbamin 42:10 How Does Lewis O'Brien Fit For LAFC 49:26 Soccerwise MLS U22 Talent DraftSoccerwise Live 2pm ET Every Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday on Youtube/Twitch/Twitter

Welcome everybody back to SoccerWise, otherwise known as the Bro Corner. I've got the hat, I've got the jersey, USA Women's Rugby knocked off Australia. I'm loving USA right now. The middle of the Olympics, the middle of the men's Olympic game that we are watching. So for all of you watching live with us, welcome in. If you're listening later on, well, you missed a good one. But you can watch us at 2 p.m. Eastern time every single Tuesday and Thursday. Anytime you want to, Tom, name your 13 favorite Olympic events so far

and your seven greatest events this olympics and how many times you've cried handball has been electric handball canoeing good which i found out canoeing is a thing this year i was watching a little judo that sparked in the in the patreon discord that i was like bro there's var in judo this is pretty cool i still don't know how they got points they put up little yellow things i was like, bro, there's VAR in judo? This is pretty cool. I still don't know how they got points. They put up little yellow things. I was like, did he just get a yellow card? Why is there two? Shouldn't he be sent off? And then

obviously the pommel horse viral phenomenon that was yesterday was phenomenal. It's just like having this on in the background during the day and looking up and being like, oh, is that former Houston Rocket, Budlinger, playing beach volleyball right now? Are you kidding me?

This is incredible. And then I watch water polo and just feel the most unhealthy I've ever felt. What an incredible feat of athleticism and cardiovascular. It makes me struggle just sitting in my office watching that. Water polo doesn't make me feel bad because it seems so unhuman that it's like yeah well those are different things yeah like I couldn't do that because I couldn't do that because like I'm not going to be able to

there's no person on the planet that can tread water for like two hours in a row and then also rip people up and down and play a competitive sport at the same time swimming makes me feel bad when they come out and you're like oh cool so that's where all the muscles are supposed to be i can see them while you're walking up to the platform um but i agree with you having it on the background is elite the var in fencing is past the levels of judo it's basically every point they just get point they're just like i got that point the other one's like i got that point and then it's like yeah what did they do in the world before var no idea they don't wonder why like pablo torre did a podcast episode that i

haven't listened to yet and i keep on trying to remind myself to just about like the rampant scandals and cheating that's gone on in fencing. And apparently it still happens. Yeah, I believe two American competitors have filed a lawsuit against one of the American Olympians, saying that they worked with officials to cheat them out of the team, and they're trying to sue to get onto the team and pull that one off. So you got to think there's onto the team and pull that one off so you gotta think

there's really good cohesion in that squad like that that feels like a good locker room to be a part of um for that one obviously we are at halftime of the u.s men's soccer game the women 4-1 winners against germany they've already clinched their spot we will be live tomorrow 3 p.m eastern time assuming based off stoppage time right after that game um as our live post game show so we won't do our normal 2 p.m nwsl show um for that one and we will know i believe who the u.s will have in the next round i spent like a week talking about how the best third place teams in the men's competition get through because i just assumed there was the same amount of teams in the men's and women's Olympics, and there are not.

There are less women's teams than men's teams, so there are third-place teams in that one and not in this one. So the U.S. does need to win to get through. France is doing them a favor, I guess you could say, in beating New Zealand right now as the second half kicks off. We've got a big show for you here. We're going to talk all MLS stuff, League's Cup, all that stuff, while this game's going on.

And then as stuff happens, we can react and shout about it. We've got a draft coming up, our first draft of SoccerWise history. So that's a big moment. We're going to do our best under 22 players. Big news that Tom has been breaking over the course of the week, designated player signings in Minnesota and Atlanta. Some big other reports about players coming in potentially that we will touch on as things go along.

And then we'll give you a little bit of a preview of this week of Leaks Cup action. It's broken up in three day segments, I believe. So today, Wednesday and Thursday night, there are Leaks Cup games across the board. We will have our second ever happy hour hangout for our MVP Discord and Patreon subscribers. That is coming up tomorrow at 5.30 p.m. It is a private Zoom link where you can come hang out and chat. We did our first one two weeks ago, I believe, when I was in Las Vegas. I was going to say in Las Vegas, and I was like, Tom was not in Las Vegas.

But if he was, he was hiding in a different corner of a casino than I was in, and I was like Tom was not in Las Vegas but if he was he was hiding in a different corner of a casino than I was in and I did not see him uh so if you want to be a part of that subscribe to the Patreon right now you get into our discord you get our depth charts you get our salary cap tables all of that as well as of course access to this at the MVP level at the highest level of our subscribers Tom first half we are into the second half of this u.s olympic game two changes to the lineup one for us bucio with an injury um so bucio came out and then the other one coaching decision duncan mcguire taken out so paxton aronson starting at center forward griffin yao on the field as well um And Dietz coming in at the defensive midfield spot.

What have you made of this game? Yeah, I think it's been very good. Hindsight is obvious that Paxton Aronson playing as a false nine has been a very good decision. I was very glad to see Griffin Yao on the starting 11. And, like, when the lineup sheet came out, I was like, are they switching to a back three? Because, like, I was like, I know Dietz can play defensive midfield,

but can he really kind of at this level? And again, I think all of the coaching decisions have worked out. Kevin Paredes getting the goal. I want to go back to the macro because it's been so nice in these two games to watch American men's national team have be the favorite and pretty overwhelming favorite, but there will still be stakes, big stakes in the game, and you never know what's going to happen, to come out and be leading 2-0 after 30 minutes.

Like, I feel like that's not something we got under Berhalter a whole lot in kind of big games, qualifying or anything else, of like, oh, they're supposed to win here. Oh, it's the 30th minute, still 0-0. Oh, okay, it's halftime, it's still 0-0. Now what? And now the pressure goes up. And the fact that they're killing people on set pieces is delightful to me. I've been saying that for four, five, six years now,

that there's too much aerial dominance and should be enough technical quality on set pieces to deliver that this team should be scoring more on set pieces. And at some point, it is no longer a luck thing that averages out. It's like the Colorado Rapids have been one of the top five in MLS every single year for the last five, six years in set piece dominance. Tom, it was a direct shot off of – what does it have to do with height? I'm going back to the New Zealand game.

Oh, got it. Okay. Yeah, like not everybody's going to be watching this live. I'm just talking about in a macro sense. These two games that no i just thought you were talking about the set piece today i didn't realize barralter was gonna get slammed in this so that that was just talking about that was a strong start these general points that like we should be so much better at set pieces i feel like i've been screaming that for years and so it's been very very nice over the last two games to see them be very good at set yeah and they've been very direct i think to your point of like being the favorite team and getting early leads has been they've been very direct in their attack

and they've been aggressive early on in games to at a minimum put yourself in counter-pressing situations higher up the field have your line of confrontation high like play in the attacking third and it's what we saw against new zealand it almost led to an early goal in this one where um Guinea made a mistake playing out of the back and Griffin Yao had his shot tipped off the crossbar and it's like all of that comes from just being in the attacking third and that's what's gonna happen sometimes and so I agree with you it's been really refreshing um to see this team play direct I've been calling for Yao to start for the first two games I just every time he's been on the field for this group, he's looked dangerous and he's dangerous in a different way.

I think than the other attackers that have been a part of this team. And so it's been fun to watch in this one. And it's allowed, I think Georgie to be a little freer. And part of that's Paxton Aronson as well. It feels like Georgie's floated off into the left. He's been dangerous. And then the Aronson ball on the Paredes goal was like chef's kiss beauty and so now it's like these are the things aaronson is great at i think the final

third stuff is not there with him and it's what i've talked about of that final pass or shot decision making and execution where middle third like he's able to turn he plays that through ball inside the defender so the defender has to spin paredes able to cut across and once you get paredes in space like he's gonna dominate he is awesome he is so fun when you get him opened up and in space and this i think has been his best game too because he's gotten the most 1v1 chances yeah i agree kind of on all fronts and and to paxton aronson's final third uh contributions i think that another year on loan in the air divizier which he will have is going to be a very big boon for that that

is a league that i don't know like you look at all the like just going with americans like i know that it's traditionally like if you're a striker who can score you're gonna put up numbers there if you're an attacker who can contribute to goals you're gonna put up numbers there i do michael bradley had like 16 goals one year when he was in the Dutch League. Like, Jose Altidore's best season ever. You just kind of go there like, I think that's going to help fine-tune him because he's going to get a lot of chances.

And like, if he can't do it there, even at a young age, then we'd start to be worried. So like, I'm really looking forward to a full season of Pax and Ernst and the Eredivisie on loan. Shout out to everyone in the chat who is watching live.

Shout out to Morgan, who's on vacation and yet still committed to hanging out and watching the show. I didn't even see that. So that's awesome. Andrew Nystrom, nice to see you again. I think I saw you last week. Says, why do the fencers have leashes on them?

I believe it plugs in the thing that tells the ref whether or not they got touched. Because, again, VAR, no one knows what's going on in those games. So it's a great question. And that's what we're here for as fencing experts who started this podcast to talk about fencing and saber and um e-foil i don't know if that word was right this is what we're here to talk about and this is what we're here to do uh reminder gianluca busio injured so he was pulled out of the team for this game so he's not on the 18 uh player game day roster josh latensio has been added in his place you have to apply through the ioc and fifa for that once you do that you can then

reapply to bring bucio back in when he is healthy it is more lax than it has been in the past in the past it was you're on the team or you're an alternate and if you're an alternate and you come in that player can't return and the alternate stays in the team. That's not the case this year, mainly because soccer players now play 755 games and trying to eliminate some of that stuff. I would not be shocked if at the next Olympics it's 23-player or 28-player rosters and there's no joke about this or whatever.

But that is the option, so that's the expectation. I think going forward, if Busio can get healthy, can come back into the team. The winners of this will play against the winners of, I don't remember the name of the group. Morocco finished top of their group. Argentina finished second. France most likely will be first in this group and will face off against Argentina, which is nuts in the knockout

rounds i believe there are four starters for that argentina team that were in the world cup because you've got the three um starters two of them are overage and julian alvarez and nicholas otamendi enzo fernandez is just super young and then tiago amada who's in this team and scored a goal the other day and then against france obviously tiara henry coaching that team in france france looking for revenge from the last world cup i read a piece that apparently argentine argentine teams are just getting booed out the gate in every event in france because of enzo fernandez song it's not it's not enzo fernandez playing in this tournament oh that's not enzo fernandez in central midfield no ignacio fernandez well that's probably good for enzo fernandez i do not think he should be in i think we'd hear a lot more about it so three world cup players your

point your point remains this squad is insane yeah uh la casette of course scored against the u.s for france a few talented players there so that will be a wild game. And as of right now, it looks like the U.S. will face off against Morocco. They have been the second best supported team. So the atmosphere will be really good for that game because Morocco's connections to France. Hakimi getting the start for that Morocco team, one of the overage players. They've put some really good talent on the field. And Amir Richardson getting the goalocco today could be in the matchup his he is american and moroccan and i think he had a third nation that he could represent

currently playing in france i i think with france would have been the third or rems maybe france was the third there's no point to speculate there's no reason for me to make an educated well thank you for doing it though yeah i call. Yeah. Dude, hands up. Accountability. That's on me. You know what I mean? But he's getting starts from Morocco and Central Midfield. He was a player the U.S. was hoping would represent them. And his father played for the New York Knicks.

Michael Ray Richardson. I believe he came to one of my basketball camps when I was younger and gave a talk. So me and him are very close. Good personal friend. Sugar Ray. I think his point of history is he was the first player suspended for drug policy issues in NBA history. That's his, like, claim to fame.

Cool. It's a tough claim to fame. Charlie's trying to figure out a bottom line to put up with this in the live show to go along with the uh sugar ray richardson is it just the lol nerd yeah uh so so that's all coming up potentially for the next uh olympic game the u.s the leading 2-0 let's dig into our stuff here and obviously eventually it's 102 degrees in here i need to cool off give me those give me the give me the scoops let's go to the ice cream shop let's get the ac running tom hit me with it yeah first i will go with the one that's now official the biggest one of of this group atlanta united has signed alexi maranichuk from atalanta united us hold the deal is worth around 13 million uh contract through 2027 with

an option for 28 he's 28 years old he you know wasn't he wasn't an every game starter for Atalanta but he still had like he was really productive when he was on the field both by box score numbers in goal contributions again mostly chance creation assists is what he's known for and in terms of his underlying numbers they were they were very elite for at his position like upwards of 90 95th percentile and a lot of the chance-creating metrics as per FB Ref. Those players usually do very, very well in this league. Garth Largaway, he has talked about this many times in the past, so just keep bringing it up because it's usually a harbinger of success.

An in-prime player who has had success in multiple leagues. Alexey Maranichuk played really well in his native Russia, and then he went to Atalanta. He's played for Torino as well on loan, if serves well he played somewhere else in Syria he's had success in multiple leagues he's in his prime he's going to come slot right in as a number 10 for this Atlanta United squad we have talked about this a little bit um as the move has come up as you have reported on it and obviously at the forefront of the breaking news so we've chatted about it a little bit i think for atlanta promising to get it over the line as early as possible to

get the player in as early as possible to start to build some things it seems like it'll be rob valentino's job the rest of the year um the dc game was wacky and wild but one of the things you see in that game and most games like they don't control games they're dangerous they can create they can stay in games but they don't control the tempo and the inability to control the temple tempo does not allow them to dominate the game or have the game played the way they want i went and watched a bunch of highlights so shout out to all the djs out there who kept me company through that whole experience the name that popped in my head was evander in watching him play like a very tall fluid languid number 10 um can you know pops into the channel on both sides can finish himself but

also it seems to first and foremost be looking to create and yeah first first and foremost this is about chance creation like that is his elite skill if you take anything away from this conversation if you're listening that is the skill that they want. And I think with Evander, you look at a player who's a double-digit goal scorer but is consistently at first looking to create for his teammates. But I think Portland's probably not the best example because they don't always dominate the flow of games. But they definitely have an ability to settle down and play through Evander

when the game gets a little bit too hectic and I don't believe that um this Atlanta team has that so it would be a really good addition for them and they're scoring like all the pieces around him are in decent form right now Saba looks good um Daniel Rios is on fire right now yep you you know John De Silva when set up the right way can be effective so like it feels like a good time for a player like this to come into this team absolutely um and like you said about dictating the tempo of the game and everything like he's just gonna be a safety blanket if you're in trouble pinging at him like trying to play out of pressure all that stuff so

that's gonna help this midfield trio makes so much sense in theory. Bartosz Sliś, Tristan Miumba, and Alexey Marančuk. Miumba has not been very good this year. Bartosz Sliś, I thought, has been up and down, mostly good except for taking penalties against DC United, apparently. But, like, there's a lot to like about this team in theory, but I felt this, like, I keep on challenging myself, like, again, I think that this is a very like like again i think that this is very

good signing i think that this will bode well for atlanta united but the issue wasn't like i mean tiago amada was not very good this year for for large swaths like so maradona could be in addition there but like yakumakis and amada were not the problem for this team and amada was an mvp finalist last year so in one breath i think that this makes a ton of sense i think it's a very good signing i think it's going to make them better and pretty quickly like better from yesterday to tomorrow right but then i'm like well like wasn't that like amada and yakumaki so like i'm challenging my own kind of takeaway that like yeah this team looks like they should be really solid like the couple of goals they gave up against dc united were elementary and i don't know how you fix that

well the punt off your own goal kick that brooks lennon back is tough or sorry off corner kick is tough between that and then the the long punt that just um i forget if it was gregerson or not and like gregerson i think was an awesome i think he's an awesome player and i'm like i just my brain can't like compute those two facts of yeah this just simply can never happen um so I again I don't I don't really know what to make of them going forward in the interim yeah it's tough because like Muyumba is a really good player in MLS has been consistent and they are soft to play against one I think one of the big I think one of the big issues for them is when you come back down to like who are they their ethos game model whatever term you want to use

they don't have a defined one and so they kind of find their spots and they don't but they can't figure they can't really tell you if the game goes by script how do we win how do we finish this one as time goes on dog duty uh right now in the middle of the show? And that's one of the frustrating things about Atlanta. It's one of the reasons why when people only talk about spending in MLS, when it comes to success and non-success, that's not the whole conversation. Like those are good players that were a lot of money was spent on and there's money spent in the structure as well. There's just not order to the structure like it's a chaotic club it has been now for four or five years basically outside of tata martino's year and a half run everything about atlanta has been reactionary chaotic and i think it has seeped

all the way through into the players yes and and i think so you you brought up i think the best point to all of this is that like yeah rob valentino the plan is for him to be the interim head coach for the rest of the season so maybe none of this is really going to get better until 25 and like i know that they weren't going to try to mortgage the short term um and risk the future and they keep saying that like yeah like we're gonna hire a coach in the winter is the plan and and be set up for 25 and compete immediately then like while we still think we're good this year like you know we're not going to rush into just to hire a new coach just to hire a new coach right now um so yeah like that's going to be difficult for the rest of the year and one point on tata martino

before we can move on is that yes there was or except there was chaos there too by the time he left the whole thing was burnt down well that's why i said a year and a half i didn't even say like the full two years because i think that's that's the experience and the story there is like he was able to meld the chaos to work but it wasn't a long-term it wasn't long-term building and then when he walked out the door and his presence was gone now you had other people Darren Eels mainly who I don't think were equipped to set a culture and handle the situation from there on out that's what you've seen what do you think of the valentino rest of the year

and not mortgaging the short term because i'll say this from my point of view i get it like garth lagoway has has contract safety and if i'm him i want to start out of a window and out of a pre-season clean and say like, this is the line of demarcation on. And this year that you've had this year where you fire your manager, you lose your two star players like, yes, you can be better than you are. And you can make this team. And we've talked about it with what Chris Albright did and how quickly he did in Cincinnati and what some other people have done. You can turn teams around. But I think for Garth and this club, it's like, how do you build yourself into the next LAFC and Seattle and all of that?

And that's harder to do while trying to say, like, how do we get up to fourth this year? Yeah. And again, I think that's all important. And, like, when I did kind of like a reported commentary type piece, like on Atlanta United and what the summer is going to hold. And some of it was in an interview with Garth on the record. And the rest of it was kind of talking to sources

and just things that I knew. And again, because Garth was the voice on the record in the piece, I was surprised that more than a few Atlanta United fans replied was like, oh, I thought 2024 was supposed to be the year. What is this? Just more promises for next year like it was a surprising amount of people kind of turning on garth to me um and and again like maybe that's just a couple people who replied to to the story but like i think that goes to show what lagerweil himself was saying is that like we're not like we can't

use dp spots on developmental players or young players or prospects. Like this is these, this fan base is a win now fan base. They expect to win. They come for winners. They like the money we're putting into this team. We should be winners all that. Yeah. But I was just, just all to say that I was surprised that kind of Garth has, it's been like, you know, it's not the honeymoon phase anymore. No, it is not. It's interesting because i think it's

challenging a lot of what we think we know and should know about mls and what works and what's successful and what isn't uh i think you see the fan lack of support at the dc united game in leagues cup and you can sort of understand um what's going on all right tom that's atlanta for us there let's dig in now to minnesota because this was another big one um that you helped lead the reporting on and another big moment for a club that's still trying to find their feet yeah um i was starting the beginning of the window saying that yeah minnesota united are going to be one of the teams to watch they're going to be busy i don't know you know they weren't going to make a Marana Chuk type splash, but I know that they were going to be trying to do a lot, and here we are.

Kelvin Yeboah is in as a designated player. He's a 24-year-old Ghanaian international striker, but he can play winger, and we've talked about this on the show before. His positional versatility, I am certain, is something that's very important for Eric Ramsey and his team. They have also added center, Jefferson Diaz. He was a starter for Deportivo Cali for the last two years. And I don't have any firsthand knowledge of this player.

And I'm going to preface what I'm about to say is that like just talking about profiles, a 23-year-old starting center back for Deportivo Cali in terms of quality and my expected kind of price on this I will 10 times out of 10 give the benefit of the doubt to this signing and I like they desperately need it as a in addition to central defense we'll see if Jefferson Diaz is the guy a long-term fix but I think that there's a very high hit rate when you get when you do the right kind of scouting in Columbia, both in terms of quality and value for that player. Yeah, it is. It's a roll of the dice coming from what we've seen signings coming

directly from Columbia of like hit and not hit, but you're right in terms of profile of like, it makes sense for this team. And sorry, and value. I don't think that I hit that, that it's like more low risk. It's not going to be like their...

It's not a DP center back. Yeah, or like a Max Tam center back. Or like Michael Ciani or whoever. Just go on down the list of dudes who came in from Europe who immediately was like, oh, this guy's not good enough. Oh my God, he's on 1.4 million. Uh-oh, we might be screwed. Yeah, the teams that choose to go to the french and german lower divisions or first

divisions for center backs you are get you need that to work this is an opportunity for a team that also like we don't know if it's two in the back we don't know if it's three in the back yet either way they're slow at the center back position they do not have a single center back who is versatile so they have some that are okay on the ball they have some that are okay in 1v1 defending is never the same player along that back line below the age of 34 so center back makes a box off yeah uh center back makes sense as a signing for them i think it's the biggest need probably for them outside of that number 10 position or a guy they want to build the attack around although i think robin ludd's been really good um in that team so we talked about it this one makes sense and it makes sense from a point of view of like you probably don't know everything yet so you want versatility because what if

someone else shakes loose what if you come to the end of this year and decide pookie's a must and you have to bring him back with the way he's played or on the flip side he's gonna go and you want a center forward option there is a bat on the field in the usa that was incredible guinea game are you ahead of me i'm just seeing the bat right now i i when you i was looking down it was funny i was pulling up our minnesota united depth charts which you can get by subscribing to our patreon and i i've when i heard you say bat i was like like, what is going on? But the point I was going to make of bringing up the depth chart and that positional versatility, so for anybody listening to this,

when they want to go check it out, there are not that many teams that are allegedly somewhere between three and five players deep at every position. And that does not mean that Minnesota have solved all their depth issues. But all these players can play different roles. And part of the reason why playing this 3-4-2-1 or 5-3-2 have solved all the depth issues, but all these players can play different roles. And part of the reason why playing this 3-4-2-1 or 5-3-2 or however you want to configure it, part of the reason of playing this system is that you can chop and change. You don't have a number nine that just needs to be a number nine now

with Kelvin Yabou. Like, you can play him off Pukki or Tani. You can play Bongi and Sangbin John and Robin Lode, or Robin Lode can play a little deeper. So they have so many different permutations. And Eric Ramsey has been doing this all season. He's been trying a whole lot of those different permutations. And that is only going to continue now with Calvin Yeboah.

Yeah. It's honestly one of the weirder stories of this year, how bad they've been in this stretch. Like, they've missed a ton of players for international. Yeah. But then you talk about that depth, and it's like, they're playing Sangbin at right wing back they've been in this stretch like they've missed a ton of players for international yeah but then you talk about that depth and it's like there's a they're playing sang bin at right wing back because they don't have a spot for him in the attack when for the first two months of the year

he's one of the best attackers in the league now that was form that's not who he is yet day in and day out but that's still talent and that was all without robin ludd who's now come back into the team yeah i i i see what you're saying, Gus. But, like, I would disagree in that. Like, I didn't think that they were as good as their first 12 games or whatever it was. Like, I thought that was not sustainable in any way. Like, I think we've said it. I said it on several shows.

Like, I don't want to rain on the parade and take anything away. Like, you know, hey, you picked up the points and that's what matters. But, like, do not think that this is sustainable. So, I mean, maybe it's just a difference of expectations of, like, hey, you picked up the points, and that's what matters. But, like, do not think that this is sustainable. So, I mean, maybe it's just a difference of expectations of, like, yeah, maybe they're not this bad, but I think that they're closer to this than they were whatever their first 12 games were. Okay. Yeah, I think that's fair.

I would say they're underperforming, and so they're a little bit outside of my expectation. Stop doing radio goss like you say saying i'm okay i respectfully disagree sir yeah i knew you were i knew you were gonna be mad about that but then i had to come off the top rope and be like minnesota united's the best team in the world you're an idiot and i don't really have the juice for that in this moment so i wasn't really gonna give you. And then you called me out on it, which I respect. So, Yeboah, it's a three and a half year deal through 2027 for this team.

24 year old. This is one of their centerpieces now going forward. So it'll be interesting to see if this is, you know, a cornerstone designated player signing. Or do they look at their team and say, like, we think L lud's borderline dp we think our u22s are really good bongi and sangbin they shot the moon with the tanny pick so like maybe they're saying we don't need another renault so we need a piece that fits in and this is a way to get them through the door and we'll see salaries and stuff coming out of this maybe buy down a bowl or something that you could shift around as it goes forward yeah that that's that's true i don't know how this will age and if they will be able to buy down or not but like um in a generality i'm i don't know nobody's told me definitively but i would say 99 sure that this is going to be a team that's two dps and for you 22 initiatives like

i would bet a lot of money on that yeah and they And they've done well with the U22s. Most teams have not. They've been useless signings for a lot of teams. Not the case with Minnesota United. Let's do two more. I think we've got official signings. The center back position in Cincinnati and Miami. Cincinnati, we've talked about this. I mentioned it on Monday's show.

Chidozi Awaziam, 27-year-old Nigerian center back from Boa Vista. It looks like it's through the end of the year with options for the next two years. So on one hand, Cincinnati has learned their lesson of, like, don't do a loan that you can't guarantee you can re-up later if you really want to keep that player. That was the case with Mosquera, where they were not able to bring it back. You hope the options in this one are a little bit cleaner than the one in the Santiaria steal, which was like, oh, no, if he plays the way you want, you're never going to keep this player or get them back.

As Paredes scores his third goal. Shout out to Kevin Paredes doing the business. GA Cup legend. And so we knew Cincinnati needed center backs. Tom, they identified their player they went out they got the business done like everything about this makes sense and now it's just how quickly can this player get you know comfortable in mls yeah this is a player that it's not a short like you're some mascara they knew if he was as good as they thought he was gonna be or even 75

as good as they thought he was gonna be that, or even 75% as good as they thought he was going to be, that was going to be a one-year rental. And they were okay with that at that point. And it worked out fantastically for them. So they knew that that wasn't going to be a long-term piece, almost definitely. For Awuzie, he's somebody who's been on the radar for a long time. I was told as far back as when they signed Matt Miasga. And, like, Matt Miasga was their top target during the time, but Awusium was another person on that list. So they've been tracking him for a long time,

and they weren't just going to sign, like, I know our good pal Matt Doyle was like, oh, what if you, you know, get Matt's Hummels to take, like, a six-month deal and then try to figure it out in the winter? Like, that's not what this is. This is what they hope to be, a long-term solution. And, yeah, it might not fit perfectly in the amount of money that,

hypothetically speaking, of Miazga Robinson and Awusiam in central defense next year. That's a winter problem. And that's something that can be solved. You just move a different player out at a different position. You just solve the salary cap. That's a possibility for next year like this isn't a either or him or miyashi this is a long-term target like what he's he's not just like somebody who has a few caps in nigeria like he was like a regular nigeria he's played in a bunch of different european leagues like again we talk about profiles this one has all the makings of really really good

and then again you add into what fc cincinnati has done under chris albright pat noonan and this new regime i haven't gotten it wrong very often and like i would again lean to assuming that they've got this right and the overarching point that this is a long-term this is a long-term solution not not a a short-term band-aid. I like making this move, one, because I've said they should be in win-now mode. You've got Miles this year, even with Miazga hurt. You've got Lucho playing at this level. You've had the success you've had. The other is, with the way the league is trending and the way the rules are moving,

I like the idea of saying we can figure this out in the offseason. I think in the past, teams were so strapped that it was so clear to everyone else that you were stuck you go back to like the prime examples of giovanni dos santos on the galaxy where everyone's like well you need to get rid of him we know that i think you didn't really have the ability to move players because you were stuck where it's like Cincinnati have assets they know that if they get into a situation like this people will come and take a Yuyakubo for a little bit or even an Alvis Powell or an Ian Murphy or any of these pieces where they can get something they also still have the Bupenza deal to make and like you could decide in the end that you want to

resign someone else to a DP deal and change things around and do whatever you want to try and make it all fit. But I believe they should be in win now mode. And I like that they're doing that. They're not the only team. Miami's in win now mode as well. They've signed a center back in David Martinez on loan for a year. So the deal would run out next June, which will be a thing they will have to deal with.

They are not a team that operates from a position of strength in a lot of this. They just operate from a position of we have Messi and people want to come play here and do things. Is the window done for Miami? I think so. But, like, you know, I can never say that with certainty. In terms of incomings, I believe so, particularly anything major like this. Like this was their one glaring need.

And, again, if they signed somebody who was, like, the third or fourth center back in another MLS team, I would have been like, all right, cool, like, they got the body they needed, that's great, they signed a Paraguay international from River Plate, a player that Atlanta United really, really wanted in 2019, like, I didn't know that they were going to be able to finesse the room for a signing like this, so well done to them. Outside of that, an outgoing that probably won't be initial, Diego Gomez to Brighton is very, very close, as I've been reporting for about a week or so. And that deal, the offer that I reported was more or less what both sides thought were going to be good to go,

is he would stay in Miami for the rest of the season, whether that's as a deal goes through now, loan back, or deal goes through next winter, like an agreement for the winter. Whatever mechanism they all decide makes sense with both FIFA financial fair play stuff. And for Miami, if you think you're going to sell Bengar Kramaski next year, you do the Diego G gomez this year so you get the allocation money now because if you sell both of those players in the same in the same year i believe you don't get three million allocation each you just get you get it once like you get

up to three million i believe it's over the year not just over a window so it would make sense for miami to structure this as deal now and a loan back so they can they can uh turn some of the fee into allocation money be and then sell banger kramowski nets at some point next year or federico rodondo or tommy saviles or you know facundo for us like you kind of going down the list interesting i didn't realize the cap existed for the team i thought the point was there was no cap anymore no but off the new rules yeah the so the person i talked to in miami was describing it to me that like that this is something we have to think of and i was like oh i didn't know that so that's why i found that interesting as well and i wanted to say on the show i thought that

was great that's why you come here toWise for all of your nerdy whatever information. It was a must-have position of need for them. This is a team that just needs Dillon. As you said, this is a pretty high level. Didn't go to Copa America. Hasn't played with the team since World Cup qualifying for Paraguay. And hasn't really started for River Plate over the last year. But you are not going to end up getting Prime Chad Marshall at this point in the window. So this is as good as you're going to get for this team.

Let's talk about a couple more moves coming forward. You had some scoops for us. Let's give Red Bull fans some love because we got like three in the mailbag being like, Tom, save me. Yeah, the New York Red Bulls are finalizing a deal to sign J.P. Gubamin, current Ivory Coast International, but he wasn't with the AFCON. He's dealt with injuries. He's played with Everton. He ended up at League 2.

Again, if you go listen to the mailbag episode, Goss delineated. Sorry. Oh, that was a great ball by Duncan McGuire. I got pulled away. Sorry. Goss explained what happened to lead him to where he is right now very, very well. And I encourage you guys to go listen to it. The short version of it is that he had dealt with injuries.

He left Everton because he was super unhappy. And then ended up in the French second tier because he didn't become a free agent until too late. He's still a free agent now. The deal was contingent on a medical. Fritz Armando reported that the medical is done and everything is good. And then they'll sign him. This is a player who was with Sandro Swartz at Mainz. He's a super athletic, ball-progressing via dribbling rather than passing.

He's somebody who's going to win duels, second balls, first balls, all that stuff. It's like absolutely the kind of player you want in this system. And to add, they are still in the market for another forward. I haven't gotten clarity if if so gubamin could be a designated player or could be bought down um i don't know what kind of profile exactly the red bulls are looking at for forward like all i got was young and i was like i don't know if that means young dp or if that means you 22 or if that just means a young player who's gonna sign on the salary cap right Roko Simic like those rumors are

real from what I've been told like I don't know if like how advanced things are like but I do know this is a thing that is in play and one of options being considered is one of the ways it was described to me so Roko Simic would be a phenomenal signing um if they're able to get it done and get it under the salary cap but again i think fans were worried that gubamin meant that was it and they're done and they're just gonna roll with what they have in attack because he's if he's healthy and all goes well this is a significant signing but i'm told that they're still planning for another one that's really exciting i think for red bulls fans for i think historically it's fair for them to assume like oh that we're gonna get at boat at best get one

and best replace the piece we lose rather than increasing talent um i think with gubamin you said everything that i've sort of seen the one hope is like you're just also talking on another level like you're talking about a guy who came up through the french youth ranks and like he's just really good at soccer and there are moments where that can help you be better than when less good players are on the field and like when you watch it i can't disagree with you here and this is a lead analysis it's a clean first touch clean second touch, ability to get the ball out of your feet at the right time.

There are these little half moments for Red Bulls that they've never really taken advantage of, especially in playoff games when teams sit in and know their style and aren't going to allow themselves to be beaten with their press. And this could be a player that could help you get over that line. I talked about his size a little bit as well as like a late runner at the far post or another option in the box that's something for red bulls that they need to take advantage of because again teams won't let them beat them with their press in postseason action going forward and so this feels like a really good move and it feels like

a good time to do it because you've gotten stuff out of don core and wiki carmona and like all these other pieces so you're in a spot where those are now added assets to your depth but now you bring in a high level starter and you don't end up in a situation where you're trying to throw the whole season on their shoulders how tall is he cost is he not that tall you said six four right i didn't say a number to be you said six four i listened to the podcast no i did? I didn't say a number to be clear. You said 6'4"? I listened to the podcast. No, I didn't. Oh, I didn't know his height. So I never...

I didn't say that on purpose. I just said tall. Well, how tall is he? 6'1". Yeah, so he's tall. I don't think I ever said an actual height. Because I would never know. Somebody back me up in the Patreon is all I got to say.

Yeah, someone come in there. When we get our new polls channel. Jump into the discord mainly main reason i know i wouldn't say that is i never list soccer players heights because they're always done in meters since emmy ocella yeah pretty much because they're always done in meters on transfer market and fvrf and all of that and i'm like well this is this is in a different language so i'm not going to deal with this uh going forward let's talk a couple of the other ones that have you excited. What else are you thinking about right now? What else are you

reporting on that you think could be fun? Yeah, so I've reported that Lewis O'Brien was going to LAFC on loan from Nottingham Forest and between our pre-show meeting and this show going live. That deal has been announced by LAFC. This is a phenomenal move by LAFC.

I thought there was no chance Lewis O'Brien was coming back to MLS. I don't know, man. I'm almost at a loss for words. This midfield is so stacked now, and people were replying to the tweet and talking in the Discord about it. Oh, LAFC fans were like, oh, we really needed more depth or backup. I was like, this dude is too good. I understand that like there's a lot of starting level players to see him i was like oh it feels really weird to

call this guy just a depth option because he's a really significant signing what i was told that i that i kind of heard that like this was a player that before dc signed him and a lot of the framing around dc signing him a couple years ago was this was a wayne rooney special nobody else would have known that this kid was right so you know who had him on their discovery before DC United Columbus crew Columbus crew and you know who left the Columbus crew to go to LAFC Neil McGinnis so I think you could kind of trace the steps here um I get I'm like hesitant on but like I think that's important context because again the Lewis O'Brien thing when when it was first reported was like oh Wayne Rooney like this this is the wayne rooney of fact like dc united you know

we're gonna finish 13th this year but we're gonna get an english player for three months um and he wasn't somebody that people didn't know about all right so and again i'm sure columbus weren't the only team that knew about him as well but anyway my point is this is a really shrewd signing in just a team of shrewd signings kiki al Oliveira is not a DP. Mateus Bogus, another shrewd sign. Like, you go on down the list, Tim Tillman, they get Atch Westerbeg, they get Iliye Sanchez as a free agent when Kansas City were like, you're cooked, we don't want you anymore. And now Kansas City's been trying to replace Iliye Sanchez for the last three seasons, and Iliye Sanchez is just winning trophies with LAFC. That brings me to this,

what is your, give me, I guess, just from the midfield to the forwards, I guess, because there's so much versatility. What is the ideal LAFC starting lineup with Louis O'Brien and now Olivier Giroud? Does Louis O'Brien make the best 11? I think he does. I think what we saw with DC, where they basically played him as a 10 when he's not, and he still performed because again,

I talked about high level soccer and clean first touch and smart decision making and speed of play and like all of that. I don't know about the center backs right now. Like Maria's locked in starter. You could sell me in based off form over the last three months, the other three, but like, that's a good problem to have for this team.

My guess would be tomorrow. would be aaron long uh but sagur could work his way back in there and she knows an option hollings head probably on the left with palencia on the right is what they've built i will say this i think this opens the door to rotating ilia sanchez out more to keep him fitter and healthier going forward i would like to see atuasa play the six a bit in this team just to see how he looks there and i think these other options are all hard-working center mids that can help him if the if your fear is getting overrun and not covering enough ground and not being able to protect himself. If you play a Timothy Tillman and a Lewis O'Brien in that midfield, like they both work pretty hard off the ball. But my guess would be Sanchez,

Atuesta and O'Brien. I know that Timothy Tillman has been a staple in this team. He's injured right now. He's been in and out of the team. I don't, well, Bogus is a different conversation. I think,

because I think you're talking about Bogush on the right. And, like, putting him up into the attack more often and not starting him there. You would start Bogush as that quote-unquote 10? No, like, so, again, I think that I would recoil at any combination of these three. Because, again, well and truly, these are five starting level players. And, to varying degrees, high-level starting players. So I'll start with the attack. Obviously, it's Blanca Giroud, Kiki Alvera.

Like, there would have been a time, there was a time earlier in the season that I would probably be like, all right, can Bogus play on the right wing and you kind of make room for another, you know, central midfield-type player there and start him over Kiki Alvera. You can't do that right now. He's been playing really, really well, and you shouldn't. That would upset the balance of the team. That's an option when they rotate, and they will rotate,

but just we're talking about best 11. I think that that front three is unimpeachable. Giroud, Buanga, Kiki Alvarez. I think the midfield trio, I still think that I would, I don't think that you can take Bogus out. I think it'd be Iliye, Atuesta, and Bogus. And again, I think that's super harsh on Timothy Tillman as well. He's been nothing but super consistent and productive since he got here a year and a half ago.

So I think it's going to be a really interesting challenge for Steve Shrundalo to rotate, to get all these players minutes. It's going to be a fun challenge creatively because then how do you change the formation and then and kind of tweak things oh when when does when does Kai Kamara get to start if Boguch is maybe going to play once in a while as a false nine as Giroud as they try to keep Giroud as fresh as possible going down the stretch so um these are some of like the soccer nerd stuff that I love of like this is why like I don't mind when teams rotate for whether it's the league's Cup or the U.S. Open Cup or the random Wednesday night May game. It'd be like, oh, cool.

Like Messi and Suarez and Busquets aren't traveling from Miami? I wonder where David Ruiz is going to play. And like everyone else is like, damn it, no Messi. And I'm like, well, actually, maybe Ruiz is going to play in the midfield or he could play right back. Like stuff like that. Like we look at these depth charts all the time. Like I think that there's going to be a lot of different permutations. And with the

advancement of five subs, again, that's nothing new, right? But they're going to play as many players as they can, or they should be playing as many players as they can. And I think all these players will get minutes, but rightfully so, I think every single one of those eight attacking players that I listed, eight and a half with Kai Kamara, because he should at least be coming off the bench.

Like, a few players are going to be unhappy with their playing time. Yeah, and, like, Tillman's hurt, and Iliye is an old, and Giroud is coming off a full. Did you say an old? Yeah, he's an old. And Giroud is coming off a full season plus Euros. So, like, you will need to rotate. I will throw this last piece in there.

I think Tillman was the right player last year. This is a team that should control the game more that should control the ball more and tillman is not that player and like you could then argue maybe you move him around into other spots and whatnot whatever um so i wouldn't want to see him starting in this group and i think lewis o'brien by the end of this season if he plays the way he played at dc i think he'll be a starter in this group and i think this team is going to be pretty fun to watch this one like you said like when you first put it out i was like no way like this is like rich get richer and credit to lafc now i will say i think they kind of took their year off last year and buonga was just so good that it meant they went to two finals and

like that's their ability to do that while also being like let's clean things up let's clean our books up a little and let's figure out who we are going forward and that's like an unbelievable team to be able to to have your bad year be last year and then be able to scale up from here going forward um Moving on. Let's let's get into our draft because we got to get you on the road so you can get into into some League's Cup action later tonight. Let's do our young player draft. The main thing here that I don't understand is how I beat you. Like, explain to me how I'm going to win so I understand the rules so that I can game the system.

We'll let our Patreon subscribers decide who has the better team. And for me, the way that we should do this is just and to make it easier so we don't have to go by checking every player's birthday. Just anybody who's 22 or younger right now is eligible to draft.

And we'll just do it in 5, 7, 10, depending on how long you're going to stand at the podium like it's the NFL draft and talk to Mel Kiper. I'm just listening to trade offers. Yeah, I'm going to take the full four minutes. I'm calling my time out. So we can, because I'm ready to go. I've got like 20 deep on my short list,

so I can go for a while. And I think that the voting process should be the same way that we do 22 under 22. 22 some combination however we just decide best of current form current ability potential ability and uh potential like sale price right i think that those are all four things that you would judge uh players that are 22 and younger in major league soccer and i and well again we'll have the the patreon subscribers vote in the channel um and tell us who's best and then maybe we'll have to bring it to an appeals court if i don't win and uh i think we'll do that and you know guys i'll let you have the first pick since you're

we get we don't even have to snake we'll go one two one two one two you guys go ahead are we doing an 11 no because okay so i'm not even prepared for that well i don't know diversity i think positional diversity would be nice but like i'm not gonna kill you if you don't have a left back but do i need a goalkeeper how many 22 how many under 22 goalkeepers are there two that's why it's a valuable pick to make early on if i'm required to have one that's my point you're not required to have one i'm not required so out the gate i can pick any player in major league soccer right right now. That is 22 years or younger. Yes.

I'm going Andres Gomez. Out the gate. That was going to be my first pick as well. Why is he your top pick? One, just pure entertainment. As I have said 87 times this year, I love watching him play. He has been the guy on the field when Chicho's not around, and this team has still won.

So he's accepted responsibility if we're talking like big picture guys I draft or sign or whatever he's already moved to a new country he's already scaled his game he's played in a couple different roles normally as a winger but coming inside playmaking being a goal scorer stretching the field beating guys 1v1 and at this point you're talking about consistency at this point of the season you're saying like even when he's had the suspension or down spells or whatever he's bounced back and played again.

And everyone game plans for him and he is a problem solver in figuring it out. So Andres Gomez is the guy. Yeah, he's the one who had the top of my short list. Sucks to suck. So when I'm talking about the combination of current production and current production,

current ability, what he's doing for this RSL team right now, he's been the perfect Batman to Chicho Arango. Just so his box score numbers, his underlying numbers, eye tests, all that is elite. I think that this is a player that could be sold to. Like, I mean, he was linked. I don't know how loose it was. Rumored is probably what I'm going to call this one.

Of like clubs like Ajax, Borussia Dortmund, and like. Got you, Tom. That makes sense. Rumors. So like in the combination of he's playing really well for one of the best teams in the league, and he's somebody who I think is going to be sold for a whole lot of money one day. And I think that's the crux. That is the spirit of this.

So my next pick, we're going to stay in the Gomez family. Diego Gomez, Inter-Miami. I know that he has less of a sample size in terms of the box score stuff because he was injured this year. It is very clear he is an awesome player. He is somebody who fits really – he can do different positions and different roles because he's very intelligent and he's very athletic, a very great combination. And he's going to be sold to Brighton for about $15 million up front.

That could rise to $18 million. And I don't know where the final fee and all that's going to be sold to Brighton for about $15 million up front. That could rise to $18 million, and I don't know where the final fee and all that's going to fall in. So he's playing a key role for a winning team. He led the Paraguay U23s to the Olympics. If he wasn't injured, he was going to have to choose, do I start for Paraguay's senior team at the Copa America, or do I captain the U23s at the Olympics? I think that all of that is elite, and then again, he'll be one of the most expensive

outbound transfers in league history. He is kicking off in the Olympics, Paraguay is kicking off in the Olympics in like one minute, because the U.S. just closed out the 3-0 win over Guinea to get second place in the group, plus three goal differentials, sitting on six points. France, I think, beat New Zealand 3-0 in their game so pretty handy work from them they moved to the top of the group the u.s will play against morocco if you haven't seen

morocco's support just go watch the last 20 minutes of the morocco argentina game to open up the entire olympics when the morocco fans were ballistic charge the field two hour delay then var one of the wildest ends to a soccer game i've ever seen um and then morocco continued to cruise from there they were up to zero i watched the first half today uh they were up to zero pretty cleanly i believe it was against iraq but now i can't remember who i was watching matched up against who because there's a million countries going through my head at all times all i know is everyone again is rooting against argentina all the time so that's going to be a big one that That one, I believe, is Friday morning at 9 a.m. Eastern time. So a big match for the U.S. Olympic team.

It's the first time they've gotten on the men's side to the knockout stages in 24 years since the 2000 team that had Landon Donovan and all those players. And obviously, if they get the win there, they would move into a semifinal. At the semifinal stage, you guarantee a spot in a medal match. Because if you lose, you go to the bronze medal match. If you win, you've already won a medal. You're going into the gold-silver game. So pretty big moment for them.

And I think you could say the project worked out in the end of, like, the way they built the team, the training camps they did, all these things. This was kind of the point that they were building towards, even if it hasn't been super straightforward at all times in this tournament okay so you said diego gomez correct and and i think one of the things that's tough with these like when you add transfer value in their career into these some of these are really hard because mls teams have already paid 10 million dollars yeah for these players and like there's a really good chance that a really good soccer player never brings in that number over the course of their career because that's astronomical and so i think having diego gomez who it sounds like is about to move for more than probably most players on this list are ever going to be worth

makes a ton of sense going forward which puts me at the like i wanted to go super young and then it's like i probably shouldn't do that too early um so i'm gonna go with leo labata designated player winger already doing his thing my guy what so that's been my guy but i've been all over this signing do you do you maybe wish you hadn't given me first pick no because i don't care about adversity nice the grind is real in the youth rankings. Again, he's already been sold at a number that will probably be more than most of these players. It's only early.

And I think he's fit in pretty quickly on a team that it feels like you're still waiting for his life to be made easier. Whether Swiderski stays and they figure out a way to get all that talent on the field, or they do bring in a 10 and now he's got a true playmaker and someone to take pressure off him. He can go outside and create for teammates. He can come inside and score. He is very young still, and so the idea is hopefully he will learn to dominate games even more going forward.

I think he's played a lot like what we've seen from Sabah Lopes and Itza, but he's younger, and I think there's more potential on a higher ceiling. Absolutely. I agree with all that. I think that he's been an excellent signing by Charlotte FC. I mean, he wasn't cheap, right? He's somewhere between $6 million and $8 million. So shrewd is probably a little bit too far,

but I think that this is a player in any – if they didn't get him in April, like maybe a different European team would, a European team. Sorry. When he came in, um, you know, in the summer transfer window,

or if it happened, all of the things kind of with his Celtic exit happened earlier. So I think that was a really good signing by Charlotte FC. I'm going to stay with Charlotte FC. I'm going to go with the Dills and Melanda from not my next pick. I think that, I think this is the best center back. Damn.

I think this is the best center back on the board because i've i was saying for a while that tomas aviles was kind of the best like u23 center back in the league um it's just very clear that it's it it's melanda um melanda has been so so good under dean smith it's been great and like i don't think that it's even a conversation at the moment as to who the best young center back in mls is just dillson melanda okay well this makes it interesting i'm trying to game theory this around what you're thinking and what you're doing and what you could do. I will take Federico Redondo in my next pick.

Again, you've got the number already there with what he was brought in for, but the expectation is even higher. And I think since coming into this league when healthy, you have seen what people expect of him. So he's already moved countries. Now he's already shown he can succeed in two different leagues. The game can be very simple for him. He is versatile.

So he's flexible. So he seems like a player that teams will want to bring in because he can play alongside a true 10, two eights, alongside a six, as the six, maybe if you really needed to. He kind of fits all across the field um but it's just his ball playing ability and like some of the balls over the top the through balls putting it on the right foot for attackers to be able to turn and go up field on the half turn like all these little things that he makes the game so much easier for and that's not the highlight reel

superstar stuff that he's capable of doing and i was trying to bully you into taking Gomez and Redondo and just being an inter Miami super fan like you are, but you pushed away from it. You stole Melanda from me, which I didn't think any chance that would happen. I went back and forth on that. Well, as to whether it was going to be Melanda or Redondo. And part of the reason why I was like,

dude, I just Diego Gomez. And if I go, if I go better Redondo immediately, then I would have to complete the set with another one of the U22 players. So that's, that's where I landed. Where do you want to go next? Where do I want to go next?

I think Diego Luna. I don't think that he's going to be sold for the same fees that, say, Andre Gomez or Abada or Diego Gomez might be. But right now, if, again, this isn't going to happen, but if he stayed in MLS for the rest of his career, he would just be a really, really good MLS player for his entire career. And I think that that, in and of itself, would be a success. But this is a player who's absolutely going to try his hand in Europe. There's been links with Liga MECI's teams. Those aren't the only teams calling about him, is all I'll say.

Spain, Italy, Belgium, you kind of name it. Any Europa League-level team, they're in for him. So again, Diego Luna, the combination of current productivity and future projection, that's an easy one for me. Didn't go to the Olympics. Could have been the alternate that replaced Gianluca Busio in that team. I still don't care. It doesn't really matter to me.

Tom, clearly you have a hot take on that. No, I just, if I was Luna, I would have, like, same thing with Cole Bassett. The two of them said no to being an alternate. Like, it's almost disrespectful, but I digress. I'm going to go with my next pick. I'm going to stick to the Olympic team. This feels like a dumb pick.

Yeah, I'm going to stick to the Olympic team, and I'm going to go John Tolkien. I think when you talk about Luna and, like, if they stick in MLS, they'd be a great MLS player the rest of their career. I think that you've already checked that box. We'll probably go overseas. I've said this a lot. Like, I don't actually think a pressing team is his best squad to play in

because he's so good on the ball and comfortable in possession and should probably play in a group where he pinches in and they dominate possession and they try and recycle the ball and break teams down and break teams down and break teams down. And I think that might happen as he moves forward. We've heard rumors about him. Are you surprised that he's actually, like, still on the team and has not left yet yeah i mean i thought so he signed a new contract earlier this spring i believe as well me too but like who cares yeah i i think that if he was like

i thought that he was going to transfer maybe this summer around the olympics and then when he signed that new contract like again i know that that doesn't preclude him from moving at any point in the future but like i think that's a pretty strong harbinger that he's not being transferred this summer right so um yeah i thought that surprised me because i get there's going to be a point where like this happened with kai wagner obviously to a different degree because uh tolkien started much earlier and tolkien started much earlier but like at a point like kai wagner i think even 23 24 it's like oh like bundesliga teams don't want to put in any transfer fee to sign them because you know they want to sign an 18 to 20 year old left back that they can maybe sell on for the future it's like well why why does it not matter that he's just a really good player so um there might be a point where

john tolkien that hey maybe it is just too late but um i don't think that that's now i don't think that that's imminent but like you said if he just is an all-star level mls player for the next decade still very strong um where should i go here there's um so i think that we've knocked off a lot of like the elite level talents i mean it depends on a couple of these there's a couple of injury ones that oh'm going back and forth on. Oh, I didn't delve into injury space. For my season-ending injury list. Yeah, if you want to go straight to the SEI list, that's your decision. But it does not open up the cap space again. No, no, no, no.

Look, I think that – I'm not going to overthink it. I'm not going to talk myself out of it. Kiki Oliveira, a Uruguayan international, was on the Copa America squad scoring a bunch of goals for LAFC, and he's really coming good on all the quality that not just LAFC thought. There was a couple other teams in MLS that scattered him that were like, wow, this kid's going to be great. And, yeah, like he's got the production, and he's got the Uruguay National team,

and he's, you know, not an 18-year-old anymore. Not like, not going to be the same fees as some of these players, but, again, I think that is a pretty safe pick i actually thought you were going to go mateus bogus after all of that no i think all there's higher ceiling and higher talent and that's again not to take anything away from bogus but um like we just did our best uh lafc 11 and like i had to find a way to force bogus into the team yeah i think that's fair um bogus is a little bit older and therefore he's already a better player um he's got 18 goal contributions olivera has six this year that obviously doesn't include copa america that olivera played at but I think Bogus turns 23

in like two weeks so we got to get this draft done quickly we need senior leadership yeah to make sure that he stays under the line um and becomes available but I'm gonna go with Bogus here I I think no ha ha I think on that one yeah I think from what I've seen with him again positional flexibility so like he'll fit in a lot of places. But he plays downhill. He plays so fast. And he can finish at a high speed. He can create for others at a high speed, whether it's as the 10 or coming out of the front line.

So I'm going to go with him. Yeah, again, I like it. Like, we've talked about bogus enough that I agree with a lot of what you're saying. My next one. Yeah, I'm going to go. I'm going to go with Chris Brady. I'll be the first to take a goalkeeper. There's your goalkeeper.

Yeah. Again, like he's going to finish high on my 22-22 vote. Shot stopping, his ceiling, his current ability, all of that. I just think he's a very good player. Because of that, I'm going to stay positionalal here i haven't added a center back yet i'm gonna go with jalen neal uh melanda was the obvious first one i think neil is the obvious second one you rate him ahead of total ovules i have struggled watching ovules play this year. I understand potential, but like Neil has been more useful already. And I can't tell you something that obvious is a lead at where it's like,

okay, he struggles in possession. He struggles in these moments. He struggles one view on defending, but this is all it's worth it for this. I think Neil has a bot, a bunch of stuff to clean up as well. And I think he needs to keep

obviously physically developing but i won't be surprised if he's in a national team conversation although i will say this i did the mls next all-star game last week and chatted with a bunch of the academy directors and coaches and all that i do think center back's actually the elite position coming out of the youth ranks right now i think it was eights and tens of the like west mckinney into g arena into that whole conversation i think center back is actually there now and like for all the people being like who's the next u.s center back yeah it's going to take five to eight years for a lot of those to hit at that level but like it's coming and it's coming fast um so i don't know jaylen neal might get surpassed but i'm gonna throw him in there

yeah interesting i'd like me, I still think that Aviles is the next one. For my pick here, or Isla, I think that he's... I probably would have taken him before, but that's okay. You know it's your pick now, so you can just do that. Because I've already got a center back

and a goalkeeper, I think I'm going to go with the fullback here. I'm going to go Juan David Mascara. He's improved so much off the ball this year, which was a big issue last year and at the beginning of this year. From opening day until now, he's just taken leaps and bounds, and that's really the last thing he needs to be, you know, to start to fulfill his potential or come closer to fulfilling his potential. So it's like it's almost like a catch-22 for the Timbers of great like he's not as much of a liability as he was before is awesome and then it's like oh

like now the european offers are really gonna start coming like i um i have not reported this yet like i heard that eagle football holding whatever the john texter botafogo leone group i heard that they either made an offer or were strongly considering making an offer that was that was not, it was probably just about exactly what Portland paid for him, which is like around three, 3 million. It's like, why would we sell him for what exactly we paid for him?

Yeah. I digress. This is a kid who, who's thought very highly of abroad. And I think that there's huge upside here. Okay. It should, we just start running Eagle football group.

It feels like you can just start naming names and like kind of doing whatever you want from that spot which is like kind of fun that's sort of what i assume running soccer teams is like it's just being like basically a football manager um but i could be wrong about that and if i i think i think that's how john texter uh views it as well so hell yeah i wish there's been there's been reporting on this we're like trying to figure out it's just like trying to talk to people and it's like it'd be a people eagle be like i don't know like i think john just called the owner of whatever club that was like the almada stuff was was uh john texture directly wasn't the sporting director of eagle football group it wasn't the sporting director of botafogo or leone or whatever like that was john texter like just doing the negotiations all right um do i need a

center forward i've got like 37 attackers do i need an actual center forward i don't know it's it's the eye the eye of the voters we can do one round really quickly i we i need we need to wrap oh yeah you need to go i'm gonna do two picks real quick just to clean up my team. I'm going to go Gavin Beavers in goal because I need to have a goalie. And I'm going to go Jack McGlynn because Jack McGlynn should be on my team. And you don't deserve Jack McGlynn. Then I'll do... Then I'll take Noel Buck in that category. And I'll do...

Do I have a center forward? I don't think that i do is ajimon csc no he's 23 no i know that would have been your first pick i know i understand you get the ages how tall is he quick yeah uh if you want to center forward i'm gonna go i'm gonna go kevin kelsey i'm i'm gonna go kutias an option i'm gonna go kevin kel Kelsey and leave it at that. Oh, nice. Okay. All right. That's all for us there.

You can watch all these players, obviously, in League's Cup. That's why we kind of wanted to do this. League's Cup, you're seeing some weird rotated lineups. And as Tom said, like, that sometimes is when it's really fun to watch these teams and watch these players. Subscribe to our Patreon. You get access to our Discord, our depth charts, as well as our private happy hour coming up tomorrow. I'm going to make a Discord channel with voting polls for all of these drafts and teams and whatever we continue to do or debates we have going forward. That's where you're going to get to decide winners.

So if you want to be a part of that, you should be a part of that. Come into the Patreon and get there. We've got the game coming up for the U.S. on Friday against Morocco. A really big moment there. So we'll have your coverage going into that. We'll have women's national team postgame show tomorrow after the 1 p.m. game live on YouTube and Twitch, as well as coming out as a podcast as the U.S. have advanced. And we will find out their third opponent and hopefully we just get to see them flow again. Seven goals in two games. That's kind of what you want to see going forward. So thank you to all of you out there watching. Tom, obviously, thank you to you. And we'll talk

to you all again very, very soon.