SoccerWise - MLS Rivalry Week Schedule Issues, STL Woes + USMNT Gold Cup Prelim Roster

Episode Date: May 20, 2025

St. Louis is in a 10 game winless streak as they prepare for a USOC rematch against Minnesota. David & Tom weigh in on the latest rumors out of the midwest and what has gone wrong for this club. They also dig into Pat Noonan's comments about "Rivalry Week" being a double game week and heat up their other big weekend "Takeouts". Then they dig into the upcoming USOC matches talking through favorites, and most desperate clubs as the road becomes clearer in the Round of 16. 6:43 Pat Noonan On Rivalry Week Scheduling17:55 Maxi Moralez Carrying NYCFC28:40 Zaha’s Struggles In Charlotte34:25 STL City SC Struggles46:30 USOC Round Of 16 Preview1:00:00 Details On Special CWC Transfer Window1:07:45 USMNT Gold Cup 60 Man Reaction Soccerwise Live 2pm ET Every Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday on Youtube/Twitch/Twitter

What's up everybody? Welcome back to Soccer Wise. David Goss and Tom Bogert with you here for what is going to be a very fun episode of Soccer Wise. We're going to talk about all things soccer. That's what we do here on this show. We had Andrew Weeby with us last time we were on here. I think we really enjoyed that going through the rankings of the best rivalries in Major League Soccer. And then we saw them all play out this weekend. Some were good, some were bad. Pat Noonan has some thoughts that we will dig into as the show goes along. Tom, how was your weekend? How are you feeling?

Weekend's good. Everything's nonstop. That's nice. It happens when you get a house and you try to get it all ready. So that's been fun. I look forward to these little breaks of things to do to hang out and talk soccer with you. Have you learned anything so well that you're like low-key people should hire me to do this for them? Not a single thing, no. Nice. Not a single skill set. My wife and father-in-law and mother-in-law, yes. My dad for painting and I don't know, me for carrying garbage. I don't know. I do a lot of ground. You have piano players and you have piano carriers. I'm the piano carrier. It is also a massive profession to pick up garbage and throw it away. I'm in waste management, you know? Yeah, obviously the New Jersey's

true cultural professions. Contractor and waste management. Don't lean into tropes, Tom. Be better than that. I will say for me, this weekend was an interesting one. I think, what was it? Friday night we came in and it was like, huh, I wonder what this weekend's going to look like. Then the New York Knicks play the greatest basketball game in the history of mankind, which was great for us here at Soccerwise. Otherwise the show would have melted down to nothing. They also didn't sweep so we didn't have to have Matt Doyle on to talk about it. It was like a gentleman sweep when you add an injury in, which is kind of what it was. And I would like everyone to know out there that the New York Knicks have never been defeated

in a playoff series that they are healthy. No one has ever defeated them. So everyone who's ever won a championship is fortunate that the Knicks had injuries and that that's what they should be hoping for. And now Indiana is in our crosshairs. We hate Indiana with every fiber of our being. Actually, I'm a huge fan of Indianapolis. I've been twice over the last year and I've had a great time and now Tom is jumping on the floor because

Hey Doyle, we're on live soccer wise right now with Goss The basketball came up was just wondering was wondering if you had any thoughts for the people about game six I don't know. I figured I should open the floor to you and talking about the Knicks beating the Celtics Congratulations to you guys. I know this is like probably the biggest moment of your lives. Yes. He's got two more weeks. He's got two more weeks to save. I'm happy for you guys that you got to experience it. It only took four Celtic starters. Oh, Sam Houser. For you guys to get past. Hey, this is breaks for the game.

Thanks. Sometimes, sometimes you need a little bit of a break. I thought he was just going to hang up. Yeah, me too. Okay. Thanks for answering. Appreciate it. Go, Nick.

You know, it's been quiet for Doyle, so I'm glad he was able to get a little bit in. I look forward to his trolling at extents we have never seen before, when now his team is completely unassociated and unconnected. But don't worry, here at Soccer Wives, we've got our eye on the ball, we stay focused, and we continue moving forward into our MLS and all things soccer conversations that we like to have with obviously the mentions on the side. Shout out to everyone in the chat with us live who's enjoying this. Someone said best sports day ever. NYCFC win Crystal Palace winning that FA Cup. I assume this person Noah is a Crystal

Palace fan. The Mets beat the Yankees on Saturday as well which obviously that's a divider so we're not going to bring that one up. You can't have that one. Then proceed to lose the series, so congratulations there. And the New York Liberty. Raise the banner because there's only one basketball city in the entire world, and that is New York, the heart of it all, the heartbeat of it all. We've got a lot to talk about on this show. US Open Cup, round of 16 comes back this week, so we're going to talk about that.

We've got some news that you've helped break around the soccer world including transfer windows. We've got a little bit of gold cup talk, not fully. We've got 60 person rosters, not full rosters that we will touch on as well. And we are going to dig into what we saw this weekend. And if you are watching live or listening to your podcast and you looked at the title, we are gonna talk about St. Louis. We had a huge St. Louis conversation in the Discord this weekend coming into Monday.

There were some reports and rumors around St. Louis as well, front office decisions. So we're gonna dive into this on this show. If you don't already, subscribe to the Discord. It can get you into those convos. It is, I think, the best place to sort of talk about soccer in North America anywhere, whether you're talking Canada, women's national team, men's national team, leagues, cups, anything in between. It also allows you to input, if you want to, into our newest staple here at Soccer Wise,

which is our Soccer Wise Stories that our intrepid social media expert, but likes to go by admin, Morgan Tenza is putting together for us every single week going forward in which we talk about some of the best stories off the field. I think for us on this show, especially on the NWSL show, we love to talk tactics. We love to talk about what's going on on the field.

You and me love to dive into some of the rosters and all the rules and CBAs and all that type of stuff. But we also enjoy sports because it brings us all together and there are some heartwarming stories. There are some funny stories. There are some fun ones. So Morgan's going to touch on all of those. We've got a spot in the Discord for you to throw in any thoughts. I know people that were up in Minnesota gave us some advice this week pointing us towards the Julian Gressel story, scoring on Mental Health Awareness Day, as he's talked about the sort of mental health challenges he's gone through in being pushed out of the Inter-Miami

team, finding his next steps in life. And of course his family was there for the first time to see him play for Minnesota, and he scored that opening goal. We've got the story about Savvy King and Bay FC and Angel City supporting her as well. So you can get involved in that via the Discord. If not, make sure to follow us, SoccerWiseHQ anywhere on your social medias, especially Blue Sky and Instagram where we're extremely active.

And you can engage with those as well and enjoy them. Tom, in all of that, let's bring us back down, baby, to start our takeouts of the weekend. We're going to start with a Pat Noonan quote. And I think Ben Wright put this one out for us. I did not watch the postgame press conference myself. Casual. Yeah, obviously. Pat Noonan was asked, I believe, about the short turnaround going into Ravelry Week. I touched on this yesterday, didn't have the full quote

So here it is Pat Noonan starts with thanks for teeing me up. So, you know, it's gonna be good It's already locked and loaded baby. The bat is swinging Gary Sheffield style ready to get through the zone He says it makes no sense and that's the result tonight and how we performed has nothing to do with that We could have been so much better But if you're going to look at the schedule and say these are the most important games on the calendar, what are we doing that on the back end of a three game week with all these rivalry matches? It's not just FC Cincinnati vs Columbus. Guys gave everything but you'd like to have it on a full week where maybe it's even more intense. But also the build up, how we talk about it over the

course of a week. This was such a quick turnaround that it was we couldn't talk about Columbus until Thursday. Nobody was talking about this game until we finished our Toronto game. So yeah, I think it took away a little bit of the steam of and the excitement and the build up for it. Everybody that was playing in a rivalry match tonight. But that's something that I think should be pretty straightforward as far as all the big matches. Whatever we think our key matches over the course of the year, let's make sure everybody's fresh

and there's the right buildup to these matches. So that's my take on it. And again, they were better than us. So it didn't affect them clearly. Maybe it affected us, but that's my thought. Foo hoo. That it is asinine to me that this game, these games, sorry, were after a midweek round of MLS. I

saved space for schedule making, seems extraordinarily hard, but this should have been one of the very first things you build the schedule around. What is the most marquee matchups, particularly at this time of year? There aren't as many games of consequence as you would like at this stage of the season. So what was this the 14th match week? You have enough time where the season isn't fresh anymore, but you are still so far away from the playoffs that you can't be like, oh my God must win game or all this could be a potential playoff preview all this kind of stuff. And here we are they're playing what they they play Toronto on Wednesday

and then like noonan said both in terms of the player freshness the preparation and the buildup like I think it's important that he noted that because he's a head coach it's not something that really comes through his purview but it is an important part of building the league and growing the league and focusing on these marquee matchups And it's extremely disappointing. I talked to several people around the league about this during the week. It was like this is stupid I'm trying to pull up a

Direct quote from a coach I'm speaking to and what scheduling at its finest Like let's put this game at the end of this long week with teams having two days to prepare I think that sounds great, obviously being sarcastic. Like, it's not just Newton, and I'm glad Newton put his voice to it on the record, but again, it is the easiest thing to sit here and complain about things without knowing how it goes. Like, this is such an easy layup win.

I don't understand how this was the reality. Yeah, it's one of the big things that came out of this weekend was a ton of zero zero games, low scoring games. I think that's where you see a little bit the lack of pop. And I think to Pat Noonan's point in this quote, which is sort of what I touched on yesterday in the weekend recap, which I do every week

that you can grab early on Monday, sort of get the highlights, the high points. He's not talking about on the field. Correct. Like he's talking about off the field. He's talking about the rivalry and generating the interest. He's talking about what we're talking about as idiot Knicks fans, which is on Saturday. I'm complaining about Tyrese Halliburton. Then he's doing interviews and Reggie Miller's doing podcasts. It doesn't matter. It's not only about on the field,

right? What makes these events special is everything else. And if you want to talk about teams having events and rallies around this stuff, just the news being able to cover it. The reason Rivalry Week exists, and you could question that as well if you want to, which we have had people say, why would you have all these games the same weekend? Why wouldn't you have a rivalry game a week? Which I think is an option. I would agree. I tend to like this. I like having a couple of tent pole events. I would not play a single one of them at the same time. That's like unacceptable to me. The fact that I have to pick between rivalry matches on Saturday night is absurd. But if you're going to move from that, give the time to build it up. Let Columbus local news in Cincinnati local news hear about stories and cover them and let people start to generate interest. And yes, that comes from years,

but it comes in these moments. And, you know, Wilfred Nance said, I haven't seen Onside, right? I respect Pat Noonan. Pat Noonan said the same. I think he probably got done a little dirty on that. Fine. Whatever it is. But when you ask Wilfred Nance about that on Thursday, and then you only have one more interview, like he can't say he's never heard of it if you ask him on Monday, on Wednesday, right? Like you're building these storylines, you're building these experiences,

you're going back and looking at tape and saying, oh, do you remember this fight between you and Miyazaki? Whatever it is, right? We're making all this, I'm making this stuff up now, but like that's what this stuff is built around. And you don't have that because you don't have the time to talk about and build into it. And that's all off the field.

Then it's like, why would we not make this the best soccer game of the year? Why would we not put these players in the position to be as good as they are? And I will add to this, cause I remembered last year, Columbus and Inter Miami were clearly gonna be two of the best teams both times

They matched up was on short rest I think one of them was a moved game for Inter Miami because of Whether it was CC or maybe it was Columbus because of CCC or leagues cup or whatever it ended up being but like If you get into last year, you said what are gonna be the two best games and you push them up against short week So again, you're not getting full rosters you're not getting full build up yes scheduling is hard you're playing every weekend all these teams are playing every weekend like scheduling them together is not the hard part um and all of that i think was the frustration leading into this week and then you end up getting the situation you had which is okay you had canadian classique

and hudson river standalone then you had Sunday standalone. But on Saturday night, it's like I didn't watch Rocky Mountain Cup live. I didn't even tune in for I didn't see the Jack McGlingole until the end of the night in the Texas Derby because I'm watching Cascadia live and you have Hell is Real going on at the same time as all these other games. Philly goes to Atlanta and wins. Chicago blows out Charlotte on the road. You're not paying attention to that because you should be paying attention to the biggest game. We had a bunch of people in the Discord talking about, should it be a full week?

I don't mind that. It has happened in the past where it's like we're for sure. But like you get a Tuesday night game, you get a Wednesday night, Thursday night, Friday night. You could stretch that however you want. And that makes it a little bit more awkward. But I don't mind having the game spread out at least night, Friday night. You could stretch that however you want, and that makes it a little bit more awkward. But I don't mind having the game spread out at least through a Friday night,

and then you get a little bit more standalone windows. Gosh, that brings me right back to several years ago when it was the rivalry week, but it was stretched over kind of 10 days for the teams that have multiple, like real multiple, rivalries, and I just remember the Red Bulls, it felt like they played like four times in 12 days because they had they tried to get NYC, FC, Philly, DC, and New England, all like Red Bull rivalries. Yeah. I think the Red Bull fans in the chat last week when we were

doing the rivalry said like why everyone hates us, which I think is a New York, New Jersey problem. I also think it's a history problem. Like they have a little bit more than that. I think Seattle sort of says the same as well, which is which we heard on the show. And I think that's kind of fair of like they're a standard bear and you're coming after them and all that type of stuff. But it was definitely a letdown. I think Cincinnati in their own right, as Pat says, like their performance wasn't super high level in this game. I said to you last week, I don't think it's been there over the course of the season. You hate this, but I found the stat from Elliot McKinley who put this out, who's one of the What the opposition is like, I'm going to hate Elliot. Now you're putting my friend Elliot's name to this is not, is me.

Who sort of put together the overperforming,performing edge XG for points so far in performances and FC Cincinnati are one of the most Over-performing teams we've ever seen so far this season The thing with Cincinnati which we have talked about is I think the bones are there and the quality is there The performance has not fully been there and I think you saw that again in this Columbus game of like different styles fine They're not gonna have possession. They're not going to have possession at Columbus, but they were not dangerous in the entire second half. And Columbus's inability to finish is the reason that this finished one one.

Yeah, there's that. There's obviously Cincinnati lean on their defense. And again, it's, you'd want to limit more chances. You want to create more yourself, but this is kind of how this team is built. And going back to Columbus, like, yeah, that's been why we were all kind of how this team is built and going back to Columbus like yeah That's been why we were all kind of critical of why didn't they bring in the DP9 or why didn't they bring in? Why did it take until April for Gazdog to come in like the way that you?

keep up with your ex G or overperform your actually is Spending money on really good finishers and really good attackers and they didn't so like is spending money on really good finishers and really good attackers. And they didn't. So like, you can feel bad for Columbus. And in some senses you do, because the way that they play is so brave. And saying like, I don't care if it's Cucho,

Jason Russell Rowe, or Daniel Gosdok playing as some sort of, doesn't matter who's out there. It doesn't matter if we rotate our entire team. We're going to play the same way. And we're going to try to create the same chances. And I respect that. But at this stage, yeah, it'd be nice to have a Kuch Arnandes or using 10 million of that

transfer fee to replace him. So I know that the question was since he faced, but yeah, when it comes down to missing chances and wanting more control, sure. Would you like, I think sometimes we get too much into perceptions rather than realities. Like we're trying to, it's like, oh yeah, like,, like, you know, they haven't been that good this year. So since you have 29 points right now, if they had 25 points, would you be like, oh, this seems really good. And like, maybe they have another level to hit. Like, it's not a bad thing that they've picked up more points.

Yeah, no, 100%. Yeah, I don't. And that's that's where I've come to all the time, which is they have done enough to set the stage for them to be a supportive shield winner and to have home field advantage. Of course. The whole playoffs. Yeah. All of that type of stuff. Like they are, but, and that's part of the frustration, which is they are so good that

not performing, they're able to put a performance where enough results that they are flying high. Now that part of that is they didn't go very deep in CONCACAF. And so they had a little bit of extra space there compared to some of the other teams that are towards the top, like in Inter Miami. And so I think that sort of shades it a bit as well, which is those were bad losses early in the year that are frustrating losses, right? That you got knocked out of a competition that you thought you could compete in. And a lot of that went probably up in the air

or up in smoke when Lucho said what he said, which was like, they were not gonna be prepared for the start of the season the way they thought they were gonna be when they signed Den-K last year to really compete in Conquer Champions. But I think it still leads to some of the frustration externally of like not being able to peak

and be the top team. I will say though, overall, I thought this was one of the best rivalry week games. Like I really enjoyed the energy to the game. I think lower.com field, obviously great spot. I think I saw a T-Fall about the burning, old Cruz Stadium scoreboard on fire, which is epic. But like there's so much in this game

and it's really fun to watch. It's really enjoyable. Both these teams know who they are, know how they wanna play. I think the early part of the day felt similar, except Montreal. Woof! Joel Waterman did his thing early in that game

and it just sent it completely off the rails, but credit to Toronto FC for taking advantage. And I think NYCFC, it's the best I've seen them look. Probably this entire season. It is exciting for them to do that. It's huge to do that with some of the injuries they've had. I thought Julian Fernandez looked really, really good, which is promising.

Alonso Martinez putting the ball in the back of the net. He's huge for them as well. And he's missed chances that he doesn't miss. And so I think a lot of the chance creations there. I will say though, this is one of my takeouts as we get into it. They are a bit Maxi Morales merchants of like, they signed this guy nine years ago.

He is a human marvel to do what he's doing at 38. But they, I mean, they went up to zero and they kept him out there. Like they got, we got into the 75th, 80th minute. He's still on the field and it's like so much of what they do is reliance on a 38 year old who's come off an ACL Injury and they've yet to progress and that's not a knock on like Maxim or else is One of the special players in the history of MLS. You're not gonna just find another one But I still would ask you if he's not in the lineup another one but I still would ask you if he's not in the lineup do you trust them to get results this season and that's worrying for 38 year old who can't

be in the lineup every game. So I appreciate that that you were trying to be as deliberate as possible this is not a critique on Maxi Morales like where I like this is a celebration of him that can be true while saying how in the world have you not added another attacking piece to shoulder the burden from a 38 year old who left a couple years ago to go back home to Rossi Club and then he left Rossi Club to come back home to NYCFC. And again, he is one of the best players, obviously their best player ever. I think that I'd put him ahead of David Villa just because of longevity, everything else, whatever. He's one of the one of the legends of this league. And all this is positive about Maxi. The fact he's doing this at 38 years old, the fact he looks so good. And if you told me he was still 33, I believe you right? Like the way he moves, the way he does everything and how smart he is. It is malpractice that they did not use

their flexibility after selling Santi Rodriguez for what was it 14 or 16 million dollars for a City Football Group club that has all this scouting and they always talk about the scouting network and the connections and everything else and obviously all of the money not just from the the Santi Rodriguez transfer but because their City Football Group it is malpractice that this team did not sign in attacking DP for again I know Pascal Jansen you don't want to block Julian Fernandez and Augustin Ojeda and and that's kind of been an issue in the past Or you know more so Nick Cushing not really trusting those players You had to go out and get a DP attacker that kind of in the Santiago Rodriguez mold where he can play on the wing

Or he could play as a 10 because Hannes Wolf is not that dude He's a good complimentary player. That is not what they needed this one. They needed one more special guy and they just didn't do it. And like you said, if 38 year old Max Morales who has started every single game, if he is not starting, I do not believe they're gonna win. Yeah, and it is a tough spot to be in right now

under a new coach trying to reset things. We have the David Lee questions in the chat right now. We got to dig into St. Louis for a chunk of this show. So maybe NYCFC will be a different show. I took us in the wrong direction to start. You were going to start as positive. Why don't you get us there? Orlando City are very good. They beat Inter Miami this weekend 3-0. This is a team that they showed

at different points of the season. Like their attack was really explosive, but then the defense was lacking. And then kind of they got a few shutouts and then they weren't putting the ball in the back of the net themselves. And then it was Edward Atuesta is great. And then, oh my God, what are they without Edward Atuesta? Like, can it really be that simple? is great and then oh my god what it what are they without Edward at Tuesa like can it really be that simple? Jirbe has been awesome super draft selection I know for a fact he was number one on saw the tweet yeah he's what he was one number one on their board and so yet again Orlando City finding value in the super draft whether they pick in the top five or anywhere so that is that is to

be celebrated Marco Pasalic has been I know that I'm higher on Facundo Torres than you are. Pasalich has been more productive than Facundo Torres. I think that that's just an empirical fact. Well, I'm higher on Facundo Torres. You're higher on Facundo Torres. Don't comment me on pronunciation. It's so crazy that Diego Facundo has had a child now who randomly switched his name and tries to play for the Uruguay national team.

And the Luis Morial redemption tour has been one of my most favorite subplots of the season. He's been legitimately very good. They had some tough conversations with him in the winter and credit to Luis Morial for coming back, working hard and winning his spot back and everything else. And Martino hit. You can go on down the list of just naming all of their success stories. So this is beyond where we were at a point of, okay, there are a lot of individuals are playing well, hey, do we take this team seriously? Like I'm ready to put them in that kind of upper echelon. They're, they're second and expected goals

in MLS. Their expected goal differences is not quite what their actual GD is, but that's normal for one, the stage of the season and two, just the better teams are going to end up having that happen, and whether it's a little bit of luck or a little bit of finishing or whatever. And since they moved David Brekolo to that left-back, elbow-back thing, and really letting Alex Freeman get even further forward than he already was, that's how they found a balance. And this Orlando City team, I think, are legitimately very good. I believe since Ricardo Barrera has been named CSO, I think they're like a 10 game unbeaten run, which is just a funny coincidence.

But yeah, like what Luis Muzzi and Ricardo Marrera has done putting this team together, what Oscar Pereira and his staff has done in putting it on the field and evolving a little bit of late of like they're playing attacking soccer. And that was kind of always the knock on these pre-out teams in Orlando too, earlier in his tenure is like, hey, like, are they going to go for it more? Are they just going to play too cautious? And I think credit to all of these folks. I think they're going to come up in our US Open Cup conversation.

Obviously they're still in it. They're playing Nashville on Wednesday night, which is one of the best games of the round. But we're going to talk a little bit, put some titles down on favorites, StarC Horse, all that type of stuff. And like you said, this is a really good team. It's a team that feels built for knockout competition because they have a lot of individual quality in the attack so they can defend in numbers and have belief that Ojeda, Pasilic, Muriel can get goals. They also can change the game off the bench. They can change styles, whether it's going two up top with a Duncan McGuire running off of center forward,

or just you saw the energy on Sunday. I mean, Duncan McGuire looks like the fastest player on the field coming off the bench, but like that's a million dollar striker that you're now bringing off the bench. And so there is a lot of different options for this team. I would still like for them to strengthen individually at center back. Yes, I'm questioning Rodrigo Slegel for like the 13th year in a row.

I will be proven wrong until I'm proven right and that's kind of part of the experience that we all go through. You want to talk about him celebrating a deflected pass? Unbelievable. I'm surprised he didn't do a knee slide for slightly deflecting a Lino Messi pass. I was so happy. I think part of the reason I don't trust him is because I feel so connected to him. I'm like I gotta get this guy and I'm like there's a reason that we should not be on the field and that's part of what you see with it. I think on some of the XG numbers, I think you're looking at real elite finishers. So yeah, they're not high level chances, but they are for Martino Hayda. I mean that guy breaks the back of the goal every time he strikes the ball, even when it's not in. He's hitting crossbars, he's

ripping shots from all over the field. He's looked really good. You have to tip your cap toss Capreja. The way he has managed Pasalic early into the season, Oheda settling in, Pasalic sort of having this dry spell, Luis Muriel coming back to life. He has managed these personalities really, really well to get to this spot. And then of course you get to Alex Freeman, which is the moment the gold cup 16 man came out I tweeted out Alex Freeman, hi stand up. Part of it is their ability to push him forward and imbalance the field and let him be a true attacker.

A lot of it is his own ability. And I have probably already said this on this show, but like this is where Pro Academy setups are different. Alex Freeman would be a center forward if he played in 1994. He would be the best player on his team and they would play him at that position. And that's okay. There's like learning experience from that.

And there are great players. I do think players should be moved around slightly, learn different roles, responsibilities. But like this guy can be a world-class right back, and he is now an expert at being a right back as a young player, and he can start to build on that and grow on that. And you see when he comes inside sometimes, like sometimes as the ball rotates, he'll float in,

he'll pick up the ball, like he's comfortable. He is not, you know, he's not worried when there are players 360 around him, but he is a game changer coming down the wing, coming off the wing, and it gives Pasalic room to move. Ojeda then slides out left. And I think a lot of credit to Ivan and Gulo as well, as whether he's passing me the ball on purpose or not, whether it's a back pass, I don't know.

It clearly was not, but he has performed really, really well at that left back spot. Big El Clasico del Sol win. It is, as I said yesterday, the largest home league loss in Messi's career out of 313 games. It means something, although Minnesota thought they were setting records last week as well. So maybe these are records that are going to continue to get broken, but it's got to feel good for Orlando fans to like put your rival down when they're at their worst. Were they elegant in triumph? The tweet of Messy in the Pocket was pure class, but I didn't see the Instagram.

So let me go check in and make sure the other Davids haven't embarrassed us in all of this. Or maybe we've surpassed the point where now we're talking about this because maybe there's bigger issues going on around all of this. You had some other takeouts though that you wanted to hit? Yeah. This is the bad side of Wilfred Zaha signing. I think we'll start with the body language stuff, which you knew it was going to with when you have like such a mercurial talent And and like when he's playing really well this stuff looks awesome, right? When he's not playing well him yelling at teammates or the ref or whatever doesn't look so great I've been

Urked a little bit again. I appreciate his directness and honest and honesty when he talks about stuff But like it just gives off, it's never my fault. It's like, oh, oh, I couldn't, you know, by the time I got, you guys didn't pass the ball quick enough to me, so I didn't have enough space to go do so. It's like, always that kind of thing, and him yelling at teammates if the ball goes

a little bit awry. Haven't loved that. But again, that's all part of the Wilfrid Zaha package, and that's a trade off you take 100 times out of 100 if he's performing well. Well he's not. He's got four goals in no-sys, two of those goals are from the penalty spot. Let me read some numbers here of MLS attacking midfielders and wingers, so not DP, just all of them. He is the ninth percentile in expected goals, sorry, expected assists. He's in the 12th percentile of non-penalty expected goals plus expected assists in the 12th percentile of non penalty expected goals plus

expected assists and the 40th percentile in shot creating actions. That's really, really bad. Raw numbers, he has a non-pen XG of 1.8. That's 104th in Major League Soccer, just behind known attackers, Conrad Vollum and Mathias Laborda. Just ahead of Atlanta United third string striker Jamal Tiare, Dallas, I don't even know what to call him, Pedrinho, rotation attacker, and RSL's Jesus Brea, who I don't even know when he was signed. Was it April? Was it March? I don't know. Expected assist, he's less than one, just behind John De Silva, who I don't know if I remember a moment of him playing this

season, I know he has because I've seen the numbers. It's gonna come up in the St. Louis Convo pablo ruiz sergi palencia and he's just ahead of ian fray and press and jud Like hey, man If if we're gonna call out my teammates for they didn't pass me the ball quick enough everything else Um, this isn't good enough, right? And I think he would be the first to tell you that obviously I think the people charlotte would be there to tell you that this isn't To say that this was not right time or things can't go right. It's calling it out right now

This is not good enough and they need more from him It also then circles back to this alone, right? Yeah Like when it happened it was like there's a loan wink wink But like they're gonna sign him cuz like why wouldn't you and now it's like oh pretty fortunate the way this might be formatted. No the loan is until the end of the season. No for sure but like he had a contract for six months after that so yeah but that also might be it if they had bought him and he was a full-time player okay oh my bad yeah yeah went away now course, I can't fully state, Gass Theram. And look at Luis Muriel. I think it still goes to how hard it is to adjust to

this league. I think it goes to a bit for a player like him. It's hard because we have high expectations of control the game for your team. And that's not the type of player he is. Look at Denny Buonga, right? When LAFC is not going right, there's a lot of pressure on Buonga. Buonga doesn't come and LAFC is not going right, there's a lot of pressure on Buonga. Buonga doesn't come and pick up the ball and change the pace of play and change the point of attack. And you know, there's these things that star players can do in other positions more centrally

where maybe they're not creating chances, maybe they're not scoring, they're still dictating the game. And that's not what a winger does. And so you get into this tough spot of like, okay, how can you help us? Like, you're not gonna be a defensive force. You're not leading the press for us. What can you do for us? And at this point it really is, can we just get him isolated and have him start winning battles? And if he starts drawing fouls, like that's that start of like, can we just start getting some production out of this and making the game

a little bit easier for him? And in saying that, this team has gotten huge performances from Pep Biel to keep them elevated. Like the non-DP playing formally of a DP contract, playing on a TAM contract has been the DP for this team and has kept them towards the top of the East. It's hurt Patrick Augeman, like his game, this is the worst year he's had so far on the pro level, and I think he's trying to adjust. Are we going to blame Zaha for that? No, I wouldn't fully blame him. I think it's part of the Integration has been bad. So you're not getting the same type of service that you've gotten in the past. From Kermit Vargas? Like from Azumang?

I think there's a level for Azumang of not being able to predict what's coming. And so he's not making the same runs. And Zaha has said, like, you gotta get across the front post. And I don't know that people fully understand when or where that service is coming in to time it. I also think it's changed the way Charlotte's played. I think they've tried to get it out left more than maybe playing early balls into the channel

that Ajumang was picking up last year Where he's getting more and we've seen the few times this year when they do play early over the top Ajumon still That's where he's created most of his chances They've also now shifted formations at times which takes Abbata out of his correct position. So like there's a lot of Knockdown effect going on here, but Charlotte needs him to be at his peak. That's how they're going to try and take a step from last year of being a good playoff qualifier and losing in that first round to taking that next step. And as you said, like you have to get a little bit more from him.

He's clearly capable of it. And then I think it sort of just falls on Dean Smith to figure out where I think part of my concern has been they don't have true left backs out there. So he doesn't get overlap runs. He can't then come inside. I think some of that spacing has been awkward and weird. That's part of the attempt to adjust this.

But I think we'll see going forward if he's able to sort of break out of this and give them some opportunities. Let's dig into our big story of the day, which is there were reports and rumors around St. Louis City as they came out of a 10 match winless streak that they are currently on. Losing 3-0 to Minnesota on the weekend. They will now play Minnesota in Open Cup on Wednesday night, both on the road. So that's like a bizarre thing that's happening. And there are now there were rumors and reports, I think

coming out of Sweden mainly that Olaf Bellberg might be in trouble at this club. It is his first year as manager. Lutz van en Steele, the sporting director for this group came, you know, onto the media earlier in the week and said like this is unacceptable We are we're unhappy with the performances Whether Olaf Melberg is or isn't leaving and you sort of put some Facts to the report after this things have not gone well for the st. Louis group. Yeah, let's just start with that. Um Yes, he's in trouble. But my clarification on Monday was he has not been sacked yet, which is obviously never a good sign that

somebody has to come out and say, hey, he's not fired yet. They're not happy. This team has been bad. This team has been boring. This team has been overly cautious and it's just not been good enough. But you know, the club's leadership are absolutely continuing to assess his future, but he's still the manager at time of recording. And we'll see how long that lasts. He desperately needs a result, desperately needs a couple things to change. And I don't know if it's going to. There's a lot to go into this. I think one of The first thing that pops up when you hear this is like yeah

This team hasn't been good and that will fall on a manager It seems a little odd to me to fall on a manager who's like two months into his tenure It feels like then you're talking about issues that are probably larger than him if you say This is a continuation of a run from last year, now there was positivity about the second half of last year, so maybe that affects this even more of, well, we thought we were trending in the right direction, we made the signings last summer. Yeah, we should have made them in the preseason, we didn't. And then you come into this year and you probably have a belief that you should pick up where you left off. But if that's the belief, you probably should have kept the same person in charge.

John Hackworth was the manager to close out last year. He is still a part of the club in the front office, but he is not the manager right now. And so if you thought things were going right and that was your proof that things should start better this year, probably should have kept that stuff the same. I would agree. And I was saying it like I thought that Hackworth should have gotten the job. I think that he earned it based on how they were playing and Danny Cruz would have been the assistant.

And I think that's a really strong coaching staff, but they went in a different direction and it has not worked out. St. Louis City, again, I'm gonna give you numbers that you didn't need any numbers to just watch the game. And it's just putrid going forward. And it's just, again going forward and it's just Again, not good enough. It's too cautious. It's too cowardice

They are 28th and MLS in possession Deadlast and field tilt field tilt is essentially how your percentage of passes and touches in the opposing serve So I think it's a more advanced stat than just possession because you know teams like LFC or Philly They can control the game without having the ball and that's modern soccer. So their 30th in field tilt. They are 26th in direct attacks which if you're defending deep and you don't have the ball you have to be going in transition you have to be going quicker or you're just sitting and defending the whole game.

They're in the bottom 10 and shots con conceded, they're a mid table in shots in general. They are, you know, just, I could keep reading numbers like, like, guys, I think that you had the, you know, final third entries at touches in the attacking third, their last in that. And these are things that intrinsically you can feel with your with the eye test, but just confirming it with the raw data. They're basically bottom five in any possession or attacking numbers and defensively they're bottom ten which when you mix those two put you in the bottom five of the Western Conference there's not one thing they can hang their hat on so far this season there's

not one thing where it's like you have teams in the past where you say oh this team struggles because people know their game plan. They want to pump balls into the box. Everything's direct. Okay, fine. At least you have a thing. They don't have any of that so far. And it is frustrating, I think, because there's been in and out in the lineup for two reasons. So the first is injuries. And injuries, you have to talk about with this group, because as much as everyone has injuries, I look through it and I I just said based off what we had as our projected starting lineup you have Joaquin Nielsen who now this is the third year being unavailable. Well this is all this is part of where it's like not all of this is surprise but it all it is all factor so Joaquin

Nielsen has been unavailable for most of this year, Thomas Teutland as well, Chris Durkin's been injured, Roman Berkey's been injured, as has Timo Baumgaller. I'm not gonna do it with all the German names and everything. So you've missed like a ton of your spine for health reasons and unavailability, which is a big part of things.

But then you've got guys like Zhao Klaus, who are available, who are in and out of the lineup, because you don't know what you wanna do and you don't know what you're leaning on. Edward Luvin, I should have added there, is the biggest one that's been unavailable. They kind of knew he would be unavailable. And so that's been really hard for the team to deal with,

but also you get into roster building issues with some of this. So some of this, as I said, is injuries. Others is coaching of, yeah, I don't know if Shao Klaas is performing well enough, so he's in and out of the team, rather than, no, we have underlying belief in numbers saying that this is what we wanna do,

and even if it's not coming off every game, we're still gonna continue to push it and continue to go down this road, which I think makes life easier for players. And so right now it's total chaos. And I think to me, where you land on the manager stuff, and as I heard the rumors come out, it's like, I'm not sure you could blame all of this on him. And I think that would be a quick scapegoat move. And I don't know that the club's any better off if that's what they did.

I share your assessment of, no, this is not one person. Like the scapegoat, yeah, it's true. I think that it's easy to just turn back and look at what Hackworth did with this team last year. And look what we thought. Like we're talking about people being unavailable, and that's totally fair. Marcel Hordo has started every game.

He's got two goal contributions. And part of that's on him. But like, he just doesn't get many opportunities because I don't know, dude, how many times have we made jokes at like, oh, are they starting five center backs, two defensive midfielders and a left back? Like, I don't know what he's exactly supposed to do. And like, again, the long pass share of this, like the team sometimes hits the ball or like more so than others because they don't have the ball a lot. They're hitting it more direct. So like, yeah, I just think that the way that they you if you're going to play boring, you have to be competent if not very good because like look at what Gary Smith and Nashville Gary Smith was an excellent head coach in terms of getting results for that club. He what he did in those first four seasons, while it maybe wasn't the most fun to watch, except for when Hany Mukhtar was killing dudes, he

was super successful. The first year he wasn't, he was gone. Because if you are boring and cautious and not winning, you're going to get the hook. And I think that this team at the very least should be interesting and they've been bad. And I think all of that is on that coach. While like, again, I share your sympathies of, yeah, not all the signings have hit and there's been some injury. It's not all his fault. But enough of it that is his fault that like, I usually give a lot of time to head coaches and stuff. This has been, I don't know, I just don't see it getting better. And this is all then in the context of you've let Bradley Carnell go last year early and he is now being extremely successful in Philadelphia. And I think that adds some

pressure. It's been mentioned. I know from fans in our Discord about this saying like, oh yeah, in you know, in context, this looks really bad because now you have trouble blaming Carnell for the for what happened last year. Now you start to look at things big picture. And as we've said, it got better under Hackworth. They played at a playoff rate. So I guess you could argue that the bones of a playoff team are there, but I struggled to find like,

I mean, Henry Kessler is making over a million dollars. Like you dumped an expiring contract in Tim Parker for a guy who was not, who is not a difference maker for you and there's a reason the Rebs were trying to get off that contract. I think there's a couple of those examples on this team. I think then you also go and look at the context of,

let's take this weekend for example, you lose to Minnesota. Minnesota goes out there and like, they're getting performances out of Carlos Harvey and Will Trapp and Taneo Luis Che. So guys who have either been in this league that they watched and brought in or then using other parts of the ability to build a roster

in MLS where it feels like this St. Louis team is heavily international. And you've brought players in, some that have found their way in the league, some that haven't. There's a wider range of hit rate there And it doesn't feel like there's the strength and depth to manage injuries like this because you don't have players that you know

You can get performances out of and so that's where I think to me some of that comes off the manager and goes into the Front office and says have you built a roster that's good enough because now this is two years So whether it's all off Melberg's fault or not, one, you hired him. So like the pressure falls there. And if you fire a manager in the first, what, four months of the second straight season, then it is bigger picture problems than just their ability to perform as an individual. Yeah, again, I think that these are all fair criticisms. But again, like, I wouldn't look at it as some cost fallacy.

No, that is a symptom of something larger or something to monitor. Is the direction correct? But not wanting to fire a manager two seasons in a row, that doesn't play it. You need to make the right decision for you for now in the moving forward. And what happened last year doesn't.

You can't get Bradley Carnell back, even if they want right? Like it's not something that I think should impact the decision of the future of Olaf Melbrook. Okay I think that's fair. I was sure Zelinski was healthy more. He's been awesome for them and he's a Red Bull 2 legend and an angle rocker so all the things combined. I would love to see him back out on the field. And I think what you saw last year of like playing two up top, having Simon Vettcher on the field, it just gives you an outlet that exists. It allows players to make the game a little easier of like, you can just dump it long.

You could dump it into that central area. You can fight for it. You can also stretch the field. You make like harder for centerbacks for other teams. It is not pretty. It's not impressive. It's not the way maybe you want to play, but it is an outlet that can exist. And that hasn't been the case for other teams. It is not pretty, it's not impressive, it's not the way maybe you wanna play, but it is an outlet that can exist

and that hasn't been the case for this team so far. Last week, as I said, bad week, you have the inability to beat Kansas City, who by the way, since St. Louis has come into the league, Kansas City has been bad, and maybe their only saving grace has been their ability to get big results off of St. Louis. And like, if St. Louis hadn't joined the league three years ago, I don't know where KC would

be right now. Because like all of their tent pole moments in the last three years have just been, well, we made life miserable for St. Louis. And so I guess that's an advantage of having a rivalry. It's that you have this other thing to fall on even if your seasons are bad. And so you come off that, you lose poorly to Minnesota. You're unprepared on long throws. You're unprepared on set pieces.

You know that's a massive part of their game. And this was a bad matchup. It was the two worst teams in possession, which for St. Louis meant they kind of had to play in possession a bit and you're not sure what you're gonna get and you have to adjust. But there was clear difference in this game between we know what we wanna do and we're able to execute it and we're figuring it out

on the fly. And I think you saw the gap in the 3-0 result. And now you do it again on Wednesday night in US Open Cup play. That takes us into our general US Open Cup conversation here. Two games on Tuesday night and the rest of the round of 16 games. I assume that's six of them, if I could do math on the fly. Coming up on Wednesday night, all in sort of the same time window, 7.30 to 9 p.m. Eastern time kicks. Finishing with the Copa de Tejas, which I have been told,

does not count in the results for the overall Copa de Tejas standings between Austin and Houston, after Houston comes off the win on the weekend against Dallas. We decided we were going to go a little big picture here and then we can talk about some games we're going to start with. Each of us picking one for each of these categories and we're going to start with who needs it the most.

As you look at the teams that are in this and reminder right not every MLS team was eligible. Most of the playoff teams last year were not so you're looking at teams that are in this and reminder, right? Not every MLS team was eligible. Most of the playoff teams last year were not. So you're looking at teams that a trophy would be special. A lot of teams that are struggling this year in MLS play. Who needs it the most to win this 2025 US Open Cup? I came down to two teams. So I'm curious if the one I don't pick happens

to be who you pick, but I've landed on DC United. I think that they could use a cup run. I think that they could use any one-off competition, anything to get this team more momentum and more things going. Troy Luzane, it seemed like he was going to be one of the first managers change this season. He has stabilized the team a little bit.

And I'll tell you, man, like a US Open Cup run certainly wouldn't hurt. And again, I know Ben Takei's hurt right now, but if they were to advance and for him to be able to be in this run, you're always gonna have kind of a chance. And I think that'd be a fun storyline, but again, for DC, a team that has struggled and has been pretty mediocre or worse

over the last few years. So touching distance of a trophy, which would be if you go two more rounds, if you get to the semi-final here, that would be, I think, very good for them. I think that they could really, really use it. I think that's the logical answer of like, this is a club that's not going to win MLS Cup and this is a real shot. Now I'm going to want to hear who your other one is.

I say Austin. That was my little one, yeah. Yeah, they spent whatever it was, $30 million in the off season on the attack. They are struggling in league play. It doesn't all fit together. Very obviously. If you are hoping they're all cost there and people now you're waiting like a full year for two of them to hit. Although Vasquez has played in this league before and Berkey was here. I don't know why I said Berkey. Bucari was here last year.

I think there's a lot of stress around the way they play. They do not play free. They do not look comfortable. If you could be Houston in a round of 16, if you could push towards a cup final, you know your building will be full for any game you host in this. And so like if you could throw semis and finals in that building, now you've got something to rally around. You throw that along with the All-Star game coming in. It's like, okay, this is fun again. Like this is what we signed up for. This is what we want to be a part of. It hasn't been fun for a year and a half at a minimum. And so this feels like an opening. And one of those teams where you could say, all right,

year one, it doesn't fully come together. Well, we'll focus on this cup. We'll finish in the playoffs and then we can build into year two saying we've already won a trophy as a group It's very similar what Orlando did when Orlando won it with Oscar prayer. Where was like, okay We are not the team in MLS play all the time that we said we are But we won our clubs first trophy and you just kind of have that in the back pocket To take a lot of the pressure off and and another run that reminds me of of Houston under Ben Olsen when they won I kind of already blanking on the year 22 23

another run that reminds me of Houston under Ben Olsen when they won, kind of already blanking on the year 22, 23. That was a nice proof of concept here. Plus like that fan base, that club was like desperate for games of consequence. These big games, like they got to a Western Conference final as well. And lifting up a trophy like, again, the stupid thing or the obvious thing that I hope that people know,

all 16 of these teams should be desperate to win a trophy. It's a trophy, man. Like though that hardware stays forever. But so Austin are playing Houston and I think that's going to be fun. And like again, if you were to beat Austin, the rivalry, everything else, Houston trying to get back, win this competition again or go deep in this competition again. So again, obviously, obviously all 16 teams here should be feeling the same way. But I think Austin is a really good shot. Goss, for the favorites, I think you're going to pick who is widely viewed as a favorite. Um, so I'm gonna let you go first. I Will say Orlando. Yeah, I think that I mean, I'm curious to see what the chat has to say and non

Particularly neutral observers rather than either Orlando fans or like let's say a Philadelphia fan Minnesota I think Minnesota is the obvious one right now. Okay well so that's who I was going to say Minnesota for me. So you go first with Orlando. I think Orlando as I said in the convo about Orlando which is why I knew they'd come up again later is that they are I think they're a cup team. Like they have the experience in these moments. I think I say this about Max Grapeau all the time as well. I think they're big game players. Like the consistency is maybe not there every week, but you know they're gonna show up.

They're gonna have match winning plays. Schlegel as well locks in for those big moments. And then the ability to use their depth and their attack. Like to get far in this competition, you're gonna have to mix and match a little. They went to Tampa and Gustavo Carballo came off the bench as a young player and gave them two goals. Like not every team can do that. And so they are set up, I think, very clearly to do this. I think the energy and excitement that was created by winning this will mean the club as they get

further along will be like, all right, let's focus here. Let's sort of put our eggs in this basket because we know what it can mean for us and we know what it can mean for our market. And so to me, I think right now they stand above everyone else. Yeah, I think that's fair. And so I think we should mention Philly in this. I think those would be the top three. And like you could lay out an argument for any of these three and I'd be completely good with it. So for me I went Minnesota because I just think that this team is really good and I think in a tournament setting how excellent they are defensively and how excellent they are in set pieces has an outsized role than say a regular season

where over 34 games those things if they don't even out completely there there are tendencies but it isn't like oh man They just got two goals on a long throw How do you win a game against somebody who just got two goals off of a long throw and then they're really difficult to beat defensively so I Hey long what you I hate them so much. I hate you for that. You can't see your worst take ever Good, I'm glad let's just play come on. Let's play ball down and go. Let's go. I like that Eric Ramsey He was telling I think it was Nate and Devin on the call

Like well if we wanted to be a possession team if we took away long throws and we threw it in short and knocked a Couple passes around that would add like 10 to 15 percent. That is not any 15% possession in a game. But like shout out for saying that but also not doing it. Try to sneak that in there So, you know, I rounded up. I love Eric Ramsey. So I appreciate that but um, yeah, so Minnesota like again, like I just think that they have the ingredients here and somebody put in the chat like, you know, Minnesota aren't good enough for M West Cup I You know, I wouldn't they're not one of the favorites but like I I wouldn't go that far yet Like I think that this is legitimately a really really good team. That's where this run is interesting to me is whatever happens in the regular season,

the season will end with will it work for them in the playoffs, right? And that's been the case for all the high pressing teams. That's been the case for all the high possession teams. Like they are an outlier and therefore the question will be asked, does the outlier thing work when a team's focused on you in the playoffs? And for the Red Bulls, that's never been the case, right? Like, so we don't know. I think that's where an open cup run could change that perception, which is, well, it worked in this.

And that's, I think, where there's a ton of value for Minnesota in this and while playing St. Louis for the second straight time at home in the round of 16, it's not going to, like, fully answer that question. I do think a semi and a final for them and a quarterfinal against high You know if it ends up being Orlando or Nashville or Charlotte or whatever These are teams that I think you'll respect going into the postseason that if they can do it in not single round knockout games In the style, they've done it I think it goes a long way to increasing the belief.

And if they win it, now we go back to the other convo. I said of like, okay, if you win this thing, now Eric Ramsey has that in the back pocket. And like you're playing with much different pressure in the postseason this year, which I think they would say is really year one for them. Like, I don't think last year was year one. I think this is their first,

all the DPs in the off season able to set up the roster the way they wanted to. Ramsey what? Joined four months into the year last year and so if you could win something in year one, it changes it. One month in? Yeah, it's like March 1st. No, he got hired or he joined? It was much more than a month in. It was four months in. Didn't Cameron Knowles go like five and oh? That's a month, dude.

Yeah, well, but only if you're doing midweeks, which by the way, we're huge fans of midweeks here, so you should add all the post-match. Sorry, my only pushback here is like, I think that in the general sense of, yeah, like, this could be early on. The other part is I don't think Eric Ramsey is going to be here for a long time. Like, he's already getting requested for interviews for championship clubs. He was on the Southampton list. I believe another, was it West Brom he was linked with? This dude is not going to be here for a long time. He is a bright, rising young coach. I think that there is pressure this year. The Welsh move fast. There's pressure this year. Again, he turned down Champo options, or at least lower league

options before taking the Minnesota job. So like he was already on the radar of a lot of teams in England. And like he's shown that like he wants to consider what's best for him and not just, oh, it's an English team, I'm gonna take that mate. He came here. So he's not gonna jump at the first option, but when there's a right option,

and Minnesota know this too, this is not breaking. They knew that if things go well, he's gonna be a coach on the rise and he's gonna go somewhere else So in that with that being said, I think that if you're Minnesota This is the kind of run that like let's say Ramsey's here for two two and a half years altogether He's like hey, man, we won the open cup. Remember that that was awesome Our final one that we wanted to each pick one for was Dark Horse I'm gonna do my Dark Horse and I'm gonna do my Dark Horse and

I'm gonna do so in dramatic reading. In a world at a time that needs it, in a moment, with very little light, one shines through from the banks of the Cuyahoga River, which I know is located in Ohio and is not where this is. I think it's the Allegheny when someone said. Rises a hound from the river with belief that everyone can follow. Bob Lilly on his horse leading the way. Augie Williams out of the sky to rescue us from what will be an all MLS round after round after round in the US Open Cup. We are all here

for the Pittsburgh Riverhounds, baby. I love this club. I have covered them for many years. Bob Lilly will sit you down in conversation and bring up 2014 Red Bull 2 backup players that players profiles remind him of. He has been in these streets for a while. Kershie, I want to say Wildcats in the early 2000s. He was a Vancouver and Montreal Impact and Whitecaps coach in the A-League and USL days. They are the story to watch right now. They're playing Philly in the next round. That's awesome to see. That's what you're hoping for in this competition. And the way Bob Lilly coaches, ability to change tactics and change matchups,

it's not outside the realm of possibility. I don't know that this is the best Pittsburgh team I've ever seen. They have set points records and set shutout records and all of that in his time, but whatever. I don't care. I get to do whatever I want. It's our show.

I'm picking the Pittsburgh Rounds as the dark horse. Yeah. This is gonna be the team that people are watching and at least for the very least checking scores, they are the last remaining non-MLS team in this competition. And you love a Cinderella story in a cup competition. So I hope that they show well against Philly. Again, we talked about this last time.

Hope Captain Sullivan starting. We'll see what happens in that game. That's one of the ones, that's one of the marquee matchups of this round because it is the lower league team versus an MLS team and that's the only one we have. So yeah, that's going to be a fun story and I think that they're going to get a lot of neutrals rooting for them. For me, I'm going to give you the option to veto this because I think this is on the fringe

of whether I can say Dark Horse or not. Dark Horse? Red Bulls. Are they Dark Horse enough? Like, does that count? Like, again, I'm good for you to veto club. They went to MLS Cup last year. Yeah, but they're below the playoff line right now and I know they spend a lot of time. So like again, I'm good for a veto on that.

Then for me- Well considering they've never won a cup in the club's history, I think you're allowed to say it. Yeah, but like it feels a little bit like, you know, it's like when you say pick an underdog to win and it's like in football, they're like a plus one like spread. It's like, oh yeah, sick underdog pick, bro. Tom has some bones he would like to pick. San Jose. I like, cause I think that they're almost in the similar ballpark as the Red Bulls.

So one of those two. I think a lot of the MLS teams are tough. I think Red Bulls an okay one. Dallas at home this round is like, you would say a favorable matchup. You would say a favorable matchup. You would say that. Just being at home from a team that has to travel a little bit more in what is like now a more regionalized setup.

But this is a leftover group. But if you're saying from basically pure like is this fair to be a Dark Horse? I don't think Nashville is a fair one. I don't think Orlando is. Well Nashville is playing at Orlando. Like in. No I'm just saying but I if you said oh Nashville is a dark horse to Win this whole thing. I don't they're a top four team in the East right now, right?

Like true true true So I think it's hard with the MLS teams to say who is quote unquote a dark horse the fact that the Red Bulls haven't won a trophy and Or like a cop in what? 28 years 27 years whatever the math is at this point 29 years. How long has this league been around? It's longer than it has to be maybe sometimes. I think that allows you to put them in that territory. Curious what other people think as well.

Allegheny, Mon-ha-gela, and the Ohio River. Man, there is no chance I get any of that right. Oh, hi, there's no chance I just pronounce any of it. Yeah, the Ohio one I might have gotten close on. But that's fine, dude. Cuyahoga has my heart and that's where I always stand.

And that's where I always stand. Let's hit a couple other topics before we get out of here. You finally were able to fully report the news that there will be a special transfer window coming for the Club World Cup MLS participant teams before the Club World Cup kicks off on June 15th here in sunny beautiful Miami. June 14th? No? June 14th? Well I should probably fix my calendar then. Yeah I think so. Anyway, so FIFA granted all the federations that have participating clubs in this tournament to have a little special window transfer window before the club World Cup should teams or should Federation sorry

Accept it. So it wasn't a guarantee and it was like FIFA saying hey, you're allowed to do this You don't have to but giving you the option So for a team like Real Madrid who just signed who's in from Bournemouth they get to register him for this tournament And like that was kind of the point. Well MLS is in middle of the season so it's a little bit thornier for them and also MLS has two federations the Canadian and US soccer and So sorry to do there's just so many different strands of this here US soccer authorized that if the league wants to do it they can do it So FIFA said you can do it US soccer said it comes MLS MLS has taken them up on that and they will grant it for the two or three teams that

are in the club world cup. In Miami and Seattle or in LAFC have a play-in game against Club America. Whichever participants are there, whether it's the two or the three, they will be able to sign players June 1st or June 10th, like, you know, the Premier League, okay, this Bundesliga and elsewhere, obviously La Liga so that that aligns. What's difficult for MLS is and to say it will it has to be aligned with roster rules so you can't just sign whoever you want for the club or cup or whatever right but these players if they're signed are allowed to play in MLS games before the secondary transfer window opens which is July 24th.

So that is potentially a big advantage if these teams are able to find the room to bring in a key signing or at least a rotational signing, anything, right? The reason why it's only the participating clubs, this is how it was described to me per sources at the league, is that because the Canadian Fed... like so transfer windows have to do with registration to make a player eligible to play. Because there are no Canadian clubs in the Club World Cup, Canadian Federation were not able to have a special window. Which is a FIFA rule. Correct. If MLS, their two decisions were no the three teams and two or three teams

in Club World Cup cannot use it. Or the 27 American MLS clubs can, and the three Canadian clubs can't. So they felt they were at a lose-lose proposition and decided to, instead of just singling out the three Canadian clubs, we're just going to give the bonus to the two or three American clubs that are in the Club World Cup. And that has come with a lot of criticism of oh my god Like of course Miami are getting an extra-triensional window my pushback again Is that like they they don't have they don't have a TP spot open Unless that there's you know, the Jorialba contract is something that exceptional but they don't have they have flexibility to add a guy or two but it'll be like

You may be a starting level player, but maybe a rotational level player. Same thing. I don't know about L.E.F.C., you know, if Fenerbahce recalled Cengiz Under before this window started. That would be the big one. Then they'd be able to sign a TP. And Seattle, I was just shocked that they were, that they found money to find on the salary cap to sign Ryan Kent. Like, I was celebrating them for that, like, well done to the front office office if they're able to find more money for more put a good all the power to him all that is to say is This might just be

Being upset about something that doesn't really impact But again like we reserve the right to see if there's a couple players signed between June 1st and June 10th And then if they get an extra five games before the transfer window opens in the summer like that's a big thing. I Think I think being upset about it is fair I think the logic around it makes sense and the Canadian side of things is hard I think I think it would feel more unfair if every MLS team that wasn't in the Club World Cup could sign players and the three Canadian ones couldn't I agree but you've done nothing for it one of the frustrations which I do think is fair from people, is I think Seattle have earned this. Seattle

won the CONCACAF Champions League, they are the only team to have done it, they went to a Club World Cup with one hand behind their back because MLS changed no rules, now they've qualified for this one. I could understand some frustration which is it doesn't feel maybe, like some of the other teams have earned the opportunity in the same way and therefore they're being given an advantage Without really being the ones that should have but you don't have the option to give it to Seattle and not give it to Miami and whatever is happening with LAFC is like a whole nother monster I will tell you this if LAFC loses to Club America

I need an LAFC like Club World Cup celebration t-shirt that they were gonna give out On the also they what have two weeks to plan out this trip. I assume there are hotels and training grounds set up for them. But like this is a wild situation that is classic and what happened. But so I can understand the frustration there. And as you said, it's like it's five or six MLS games. I would assume some of those games move if the teams go further because it's right up against it where if you look, it's like it's five or six MLS games. I would assume some of those games move if the teams go further because it's right up against it

where if you look at it, so Seattle play, this is absurd to say, Seattle play Paris Saint Germain on June 23rd, then they play Austin on June 28th, Inter Miami has the same setup. They play Palmaris on June 23rd, they play Atlanta on June 28th. So my guess would be if you win,

if you get out of the group, at least one of those games goes away now It's for MLS games instead of five. So I don't know if that makes you feel any better but like MLS doesn't do enough to award teams for being good This is the conversation we've had around the LA Galaxy all year and is one of the issues in Concalf champion stuff it is one of the issues now and we will see in the Club World Cup So I don't mind trying to use these rules that exist to help them, but of course it's done last minute so the teams can't plan around it. Hence, you don't have

DP spots open, you don't have the availability. Like maybe LFC would have structured Undeer's loan differently, although they wouldn't even know they were in it, so maybe not. Secondly, you have all the roster construction, so you can't do a ton with this. And of course it happens in the middle of season at the last moment with no planning. And I think that leads to a lot of frustration from people. And I think it's fair,

but it's just the reality of what it is. And I, as someone who wants the sport to grow in this region, would rather this exist than not, because I think it puts Potentially the best product on the field For the club world cup for these teams to be on display Although I think likes none of the Seattle games or TV broadcasts here. So that's a whole nother monster TNT put it out But all of them obviously available via stream

After this, let's talk a little gold cup. We have a 60 player roster, which means kind of nothing to us. It is a giant list of names. Dudes just naming dudes at this point. Is there anyone that you'd like to talk about? I said it. I put out on Blue Sky when it came out. Brian Gutierrez, Alex Freeman were two of the ones I was excited about. I'm excited that players I think are being looked at. It feels like there is a genuine open door policy right now, which is everyone gets every opportunity to be seen. And if you are playing well, no matter where you're playing, you're gonna get a conversation. And that at least to me is the best case of what I saw in this 60 minute.

If Brian White isn't on the final Go Cup roster, I'm gonna burn something down. I don't know if that means like a log In a fireplace or something worse, but you've been warned Uh, so Brian White that I hope to see him on the on the final list damien downs I would be very interested to see in this group There's been kind of the will he won't he either get called in or will he won't he? Because he he's represented both the united states and germany at the youth level

Um instagram reporting he is taking down his pictures with the German national team in the past and then brought them back in. And on current Damian Downs Instagram watch, they were down. Keep everyone on tilt. Let no one get comfortable. Yeah. And then Alex Freeman is like he's just absolutely shooting up the charts for like, oh, this is an interesting part. Oh, my God. Like, is he ready for the senior national team right now?

Like I would love to see him in this camp if there's room. Tristan and like, if we got to go deeper, deeper cut a guy like Tristan Blackman, has he done enough for Vancouver? Like I was surprised he wasn't on the January camp, which I would assume is going to mean he faces a really uphill battle to be called to this team. But Marissa Pochettino has shown that like, hey, if you're playing really well, that I don't care, right?

Like if you, if I can- Smashing Boralter. Smashing Boralter's gonna be the heart and soul of this team. We've got the question in here, which is do the missing club world cup players, Noella, Gio or McKinney, change the way they play? I think it's a huge chance to see other options.

I, one of the names that pops out to me about this whole thing is Zendejas. I think it's a huge chance to see other options. I, one of the names that pops out to me about this whole thing is Zendayhas. I've said this many times. I think Zendayhas is a really good player. I don't think he's a star player. And every time he gets to play for the US, it's on a B or C roster where he's supposed to be the best player and he struggles. Now you get him in a roster with Pulisic, with the real center forward options. now you get to see I think what he does for Club America, which is read the game, pop up at the right spots, whether it's scoring or creating. And it's not, oh let's get the ball wide to him, he'll

break someone down, he'll get into the open field, he'll create for us. I just don't think that's fully his game. It's why I didn't mind him at Orlando, because I think he would have fit alongside Ojeda and the center forward options they have. But I think this is a cool chance for him in this group. And I think that's the same for a lot of these players, which is like with this weird mix because of Club World's Cup, you're gonna have guys who have been on national teams

that are not with all the Euro players, play with them for the first time and maybe show what they can add to their games rather than just pure, okay, in a vacuum, are you good enough or have you earned this spot? I think that's an interesting twist to some of this. And I think that's where maybe guys fit in.

Doesn't Max Arvstein fit into that group because he gives you width and can attack from the left back, even if he's not the pure best left back, because we've struggled to find someone who maybe fits around Polisic and what he does at his best. So I think a lot of those go into this. Shout out to John, Sean Zawadzki for just being on this list. That was not one I expected to see. I think a lot of guys that have performed well, you talk about Blackman, Matt Frese on the roster as well.

He's played well enough to get there. Like I think it's nice to have players who have earned the opportunity to get mentioned get mentioned. And that's what a 60 man is that's not what a 24 is there's no like gold stars on the actual roster But at this point you're really pulling in every name That's available to you before we close out one last sad story to I guess sadly finish on The news of the passing of former sporting Kansas City attacking midfielder got ikinda Just 31 years old, passed away. His club, Maccabi Hi-Fi, I think it was, put out the story. He has been in

the hospital for over a month. It ended up that he had cancer and was not able to overcome it. And he passed away this week. It's heartbreaking to hear. We've sadly had other stories now where it's just young people with so much ahead of them that are cut down early in life. It's heartbreaking and you can feel it from the emotion coming out of the Sporting Kansas City club, both from people who worked there and fans who were just around him and got to know him. How much this one hurts. So may his memory be a blessing is what we say. It's heartbreaking to hear. And I think it's one of those moments for all of us

to say that we're all here in this together. And our hearts and prayers go out to his family, the people at Maccabi Haifa, the people that supporting Kansas City as well. And it's a very sad day. So thank you to all of you for listening here with us. And thank you to all of you that were in the chat, hanging out with us as well.

And we will be back very soon as well. So go hug your loved ones off the back of that and we'll talk to you again very, very soon. you