SoccerWise - MLS Soccerwise | Atlanta Chasing Darwin Núñez? Berhalter to Middlesbrough + Lewandowski Debuts

Episode Date: July 23, 2026

Sebastian Berhalter is headed to Middlesbrough, Atlanta United are pursuing a blockbuster signing, and Robert Lewandowski makes his long-awaited MLS debut.David Gass and Tom Bogert break down the biggest MLS transfer news before reacting to another wild midweek MLS slate, including Jack Harrison, Benji Flowers, Casemiro, Antoine Griezmann, Vancouver, FC Dallas, St. Louis and Philadelphia Union.0:00 Welcome Back & MLS Midweek Madness4:07 Sebastian Berhalter to Middlesbrough & Vancouver's Next Move15:51 Atlanta United Chasing Darwin Núñez25:13 Jack Harrison to New England Revolution33:15 Toronto Lands Nicholas Dorsch37:47 Benji Flowers' Chelsea Move & FC Dallas' Future44:50 Casemiro, Discovery Rights & MLS Roster Rules51:30 Robert Lewandowski's MLS Debut54:19 St. Louis Keeps Rolling vs. LA Galaxy58:22 LA Galaxy's Summer Transfer Window1:01:53 Antoine Griezmann Debut & Philadelphia Big Win1:10:26 Around MLS: Austin, Seattle, Colorado & LAFC1:20:11 Final Thoughts

Welcome back to Soccer Wise. David Goss and Tommy Scoop back into our comfortable groove. Tom is hosting an NBA championship t-shirt. I feel like people kind of got off. Like, I feel like the Knicks won at a time when we were shifting into World Cup coverage. What I'm saying is I do feel like people want more Knicks talk on Soccer Wise. Do you think that's true, Tom? Gus, we didn't do any MLS shows during the finals.

I did we do? I think we had one of our last. shows was when they clinched the Eastern Conference Finals. So you were right. People got off way easier and they didn't have to skip the first four minutes and then probably a lot more in the finals. We'll never know. But yeah, I think that we could

go back and revisit it. One of my buddies in Austin complimented the World Cup show, which I appreciate a lot. And then said, except for the daily Nick's drops that I want to made me want to throw my remote at the TV once a day, which I think other people thought was super endearing.

Maybe was their favorite part of the show. we'll never know. We don't need to run the data. We don't do we don't we don't count out of the data nerds here. What we do is we have a fuel for the game. And yeah, if one person tells me they like it and then that's enough for me. Um, it's been a big day for you already. Like it's not that late full disclosure.

It's like 11 o'clock when we're recording this. You've already been up and at him and I didn't really understand why, but we're getting the Joe Dumas, multiple phones, blues keat for like the third time this week. Yo. So, because for some reason, it just align. today where like I knew that I had three or four stories that were ready to go or hoped to be ready to go

and I felt confident in that I don't like to over promise on the Joe Dumas skeet and in our soccer wise discord somebody is I guess a Pelicans fan that is in the Pelicans a Pelicans discord and somebody sends my skeet in there and goes God damn it like we're taking

strays everywhere I'm just trying to follow MLS news and I'm seeing photos of Joe Dumars you're making life hard for them you're killing them So obviously there was a full slate of games on Wednesday night. We'll talk through them. We're probably going to talk through a lot of these big stories that you are breaking as we do the show. And we'll connect back to talk about some of the games.

It was one of those nights with 37 games happening at the same time. I had my phone out. I had my computer out. I'm with my family right now. And my parents were like, oh, you're watching a game on your phone. And I was like, I'm trying to watch a game everywhere. Because this is freaking chaos. And it makes it really hard.

So we're going to dig into as much as we could. see we'll talk about some of the big debuts. Obviously, Antoine Grisman scores a goal on his debut. Robert Lewandowski watches Louis Suarez turn back the clock and all the other things that we'll talk about, Philadelphia Union, Big Win, all that stuff. So we're going to talk through all of that. We'll do it connected to a lot of the news. We have some mailbag stuff.

If we have time, we will get to, not sure that we will. And then we will be back live on Monday at 10 a.m. Eastern time. That's going to be your weekend recap going forward. we're going to get back to that full schedule. We'll have NWSL on Tuesday. We will be launching our new U.S. soccer show on Wednesday of next week. And then we'll be back to talk all the MLS at the end of the week as we are, myself and you every Thursday. So full slate next week, back to our regular schedule.

We appreciate all the feedback we got from people. Thank you to everyone who engaged with the World Cup show. It was so much fun. Thank you to everyone who survived through my death performance on Monday. Monday, but I'm glad we could get back into the swing of things. And as I say, every single time, please share the show with people if you know them getting into soccer, trying to get to a stadium, or just are interested in the world. If you're listening on Sirius Radio, welcome. Thanks for being here. And I'll just say it. When we run long, you can listen to the rest of the show on the on-demand

player or anywhere you get your podcast. All right. Let's get started. And I think we have to start in Vancouver, Tom, because this was sort of the big headline last night, which was said Burrhalter not traveling with the team as they wanted to ensure that his future was decided. And it sounds like the TikTok duo is back together. Yeah, Sebastian Burhalter is off to Middlesbrough sources. Tell me that deal is set. It is all done at two million is about the fee. This is a player who had, I was told like six to ten clubs like seriously pursuing him. There were offers in England, France, and Germany, and Burrhalter ends up choosing Middlesbrough. And I think this is an awesome fit for him.

The $2 million fee is not bad for a player who is going to leave for free in five months. So I'm glad Vancouver getting something. I still think Vancouver should have. I know that they tried to resign him. But maybe this could have been different 18 months ago. But by the time that we got the January 1st and Burrhalter wasn't signed to a new deal, the people in Vancouver were continuing to try. but it was, they understood that at the very best case scenario,

he'll be a, he'll stay with us for the rest of the year, be a free agent and we can hope to try to keep him then. But when he got down to 12 months, it was, he was going to walk this down. And when July 1st hit and teams could officially abroad speak to him, all those teams came. And it was Middlesbrough who get it done. And he reunites with his close friend and former youth teammate, Aidan Morris. I'm sure on social media, I've seen Joe Lowry's put up the video.

They did a funny TikTok dance when they were Columbus crew youth teammate. again, I know that they're very close. And I think that their skill sets are going to compliment each other. Aidan Morris has been fantastic for Burroughs since he joined. He was, he's like one of the leaders on the team now. He's basically in every game starter, you know, who the coach has been,

whether it was Michael Carrick and I don't know if they've changed since then. But there's a high probability that Burrhalter and Morris are starting next to each other for a team that is pushing for promotion in the championship. And I love that. That's sick. I'm sure crew fans, which they saw that day one time on their team.

and sorry crew fans burrow are trying to sign max arsston i don't have any further details and they're not going to do it for the bids that they've that they've put in over the last year or whatever but they still like max arston too so i apologize in advance if there's going to be anything there but again i don't know there's nothing that's imminent there i want to be very clear but they do like that player nico savez was the academy director so maybe they'll bring him in as the head coach for for all of this in the end two million is shocking to me because he could sign a pre-concounter for free and go in January for nothing. So that's like really good work for Vancouver for it to work for the player and for them

and to get something out of it is really big because my assumption was he was going to leave for 200,000 because it's basically nothing. Yeah. And like you said, Goss, like he was gone. There was some possibility of, let me say this. There were several MLS teams ready to make him a DP if that was possible. Okay. But like why would Vancouver trade him within the league?

Like I think that this is the best exit. And this says nothing of what Burrhalter wanted. I don't know if whatever he's getting at Burrow and let's say a DPR from Austin FC, and I'm just using them as a team. I know that they've liked him in the past, but just as a random MLS placeholder, like would he sign a DP deal at another MLS team

or would he want to go to Burrow? Like I don't know that either way. I just know it wasn't possible because if he got to free agency, there are stupid rules at MLS that free agency isn't free. So teams would be capped at what they could offer them. And you could do one of those one year deal plus one year options that Miles Robinson and Justin Hack have done it in previous years to kind of get around it.

But all of that being said, there was no guarantee, though there were teams that wanted to make him a DP if he would entertain. The one year contract would just be for four months because of the sprint season. So it would be a fake four month contract into a one year deal. We live in the stupidest timeline sometimes. Yeah, you know, it's interesting in light of the James Sands move of like, I think a lot of guys tried to go to Europe to make their World Cup push and now pass that you're in this new four-year cycle, I think Spassion Burralter is clearly showing himself an athlete who wants to test himself

at the highest levels to see where he can go and what he can do. Technically, he's one of the best players the U.S. has ever produced. He obviously has limitations with his athleticism. So it'll be interesting to see the championship where he fits. Like his ball service is going to be phenomenal. Yeah. I mean, get it in the mixer. Like just keep getting it in the mixer.

And obviously one of the reasons I love Aidan, Morris says, I think he's a clean, tidy, quick connecting player. And I think Seb Baraltar will connect with that. And it'll look really, really good. On the Vancouver side of things, they go to Cincinnati. They lose 43 in a wild game last night. The big note for them was Ryan Gould, his first start in 500 days, I believe. And he scores two goals in this one.

So in losing Seb Burhalter, they've at least added another piece into midfield while it's not like for like. And now you start looking at the other. pieces in this group and my assumption is Vancouver internally is in a jacie nagando ralph pre-sell ali la razas we'll do it again figure out sort of the next piece to replace it yeah so something that we've discussed plenty but but it should not go without being said as many times as possible the last 18 months for the vancouver white caps have been stellar and they have done it basically the entire time without ryan gault who on january first you know

18 months ago, we would have said, who's the most important player on this team? Ryan Gould. Or like, yeah, I like some of the pieces, but they don't have that super star. But like, Ryan Gould is their closest thing. Best 11 player. Like if he plays like that, maybe they can challenge at the top of the league. Well, he's been injured basically the entire time. And they've been just about the best team in the league, like through and through all these

competitions. So him coming back and looking like Ryan Gald is just, first of all, such a joy. When you think about on a personal note, how difficult this must be for him, for his teammates, all that. You can see in the reactions on the goals. And man, he just looked like himself. So that was fantastic. On the recruitment side,

they will obviously be looking to replace Sparalter. I was talking to somebody at the club this morning, and they're like, yeah, we know that we're light in that position. And they didn't go out and say what you said, but I know that they're confident in their recruitment abilities. I know that they're confident in look at even what they've done on the wings and how they've transitioned to team since Ali Ahmed left in the trade for Jaden Nelson. I know Nelson wasn't like a no doubt about it starter over the last year or whatever

before he was traded awesome. but you look at the team now and you have young players coming through. And Kaysato looks good and all these other options. And if there's anybody to trust or like these, this is one of the groups that you just put your blind trust in between the front office scouting dealmaking. Plus how is this player going to fit under this coaching staff? And between those two things. No, you don't replace Sebastian Barton. You certainly don't replace him on the contract that he's on because he was literally the best midfield in the league I thought last year and pretty much this year as well.

Yeah. And it's a non-DP spot and it's all like the contract is super team friendly. There is no like-for-like replacement in terms of a monetary value. But like you said, Goss, I trust them to make a good replacement or at least bring in a few players that can bring in some semblance of filling the whole of SEP Burr-Alter. And if Ryan Gould has given you more in the attacking third, then you need less from your box-to-box midfield. Yeah, their player development has been arguably the best in major league soccer. And I think your point in mixing it with player ID is there of like whether it's that they identify the right players to come in or they're able to help those players develop into a higher level. It's some mix between the two, which every piece of that, yes, for Sorensen, the group below him and the front office is all still there.

So that's where it's like I was an Ali Laraz fan in Colorado. Injuries sort of stunted him. probably as a player you should externally give up on except it's Vancouver so you never know one thing to note Ranko Veselenevich is returned so played full 90s in the Canadian

championship during the World Cup and then made his MLS return yesterday he wasn't defender of the year finalists for me when he was healthy that gives you the license to move Ralph Precio so there's a little more depth at that center back position

where Pryso has stepped in and that's where it feels like the guys you have, you have options. I don't think Badwell can play in a deeper role. I think he's like a true attacker and you want to keep him whatever closer to goal, which is fine. They could drop Ryan Galdi, but in the pursuit of the next player, there's a lot of options in-house for them to at least continue on over the next few weeks.

And Jessus Swanson and this coach is staff are so tactically smart that if they decide, you know, it would be best for us is putting Preso in as a back three with two centerbacks with them, like, and like doing that where the wingbacks are really going forward even more than they already are and pinching in. So Bodwal is more of like a dual 10 with gold underneath Ryan White. Like they could just bust that out. And if they start like that, I'd be like, instead of worrying, oh, you're, you're changing a really, really good thing.

I'd be like, I trust them. Like, they're in a spot right now where they get the benefit of the doubt on all this. You have anything more in Vancouver because I've won't since you note before we move on. No, I would just say you could do that with Laborda, Blackman, and Veselenevich. That's the flexibility they now have. No, that's a good point. But I just love pre-sobartically in a back three there. But Sincere, I know that we've brought this up several times in the spring.

Miles Robinson was subbed off again in like the 63rd minute. What is going on? He's not played 90 minutes since February. I don't know. And they sent showbert-o Forres on loan. Why does he keep starting if he can't go 90 minutes? Yeah. It seems things in Sincy are weird.

Also, Denké refuses to pass him right there. There was such a tough. moment yesterday. If you haven't seen it, Denke and Evander are on a breakaway to sort of kill the game. They were up four two at the time, I think. And it's just a slide across pass from Denkay to Evander, Sorloth to Holland, if not easier. And Evander taps it in for his second goal of the night and the game's over. And Denké just doesn't pass it. And he gets himself into a tough angle. And he works his way into a pretty good shot because he's a pretty good player. Like Kevin Denkay is legitimate and when he gets a strike on a ball it's dangerous no matter what the angle is and it was

just a bizarre moment denk scored and evander scored separate of that this is a weird team him i would say the other thing is buka's been starting at right wing back he scored two goals in this game he also was at fault for one of the goals they conceded because he can't really move laterally at a wingback position and bruno kaisato cooked him this is freaking bruno kaisedo he like he can get after you so yeah, since he are one of the weirdest teams in Major League Soccer. They have a DP centerback, a Max Sam centerback. Right now they have a U-22 midfielder Lingiti when he drops in or whether it's Muboto, a former DP defensive midfielder,

a U-22 initial centerback who's leaving, but I think, I think Hadebe is still Tam. Nick Hagelin, I think, is a solid at the very least, a very, very solid rotation. You look, and Salentano is a good goalkeeper. How do they keep continuing so many goals? I don't know, ma'am. And Pat Noonan is a defense, like he's a good defensive head coach or has been in the past.

I just, it's one of those teams where you look at it and it just doesn't make sense from the pieces to what ends up happening. But it's must watch. So when since he's on the schedule, you know what came to log in for. Oh my God, yeah. Since you Vancouver, that was such an obvious like much watch. You could order, you could argue, you know, gold's goal, big deflection, maybe a little fluky, but for three, nothing fluky about that one. all right let's move into talking atlanta because you've got some huge news around them as well tom give it to us Atlanta united are as always very financially ambitious in their targets and sources tell myself

and paulton orio the team is pursuing darwin nune as the former liverpool center forward he's at al halal but he's leaving this summer because they screwed him on international roster spots and unlike emmels you can't trade for them in saudi and al halal signed kareem benzema in like after the European windows closed from another Saudi team. This was insane, man. And then told Darwin to not play. Yeah, Darwin Nunez, you've not registered to the team anymore, but we'll still pay you.

We'll let you leave in the summer. And then the poor guy didn't play a competitive game from like February 1st until the World Cup for Uruguay. Probably didn't help. But anyway, he's leaving all hall this summer. Atlanta United have his discovery rates and they are in talks. They are not advanced talks at the moment, but they are pushing.

And if I could take a moment to change from super serious capital J, Tom Bogger, to soccer fan, Liverpool fan Tom Bogger. There are a few players that I want to see in this league more than Darwin Nunez. And like, that sounds hyperbolic, but I'm being so serious. Is this, there has been no ruling, similar to discovery rights,

that your failed World Cup golden boot team that's drafted Darwin Nunes does not get to transfer him to your MLS Golden Boot draft team. I want you to know that because this feels like one of those reports where Tom is putting his finger on. the scale. Just throwing it out there. So back to the serious parts of the news.

Again, they are pursuing Darwin Nunes. They're also in early talks with a number of high-level targets. One of which is Breel-Embo. He plays for Switzerland and I believe Staud René right now in France. Ben Jacobs first reported that the interests or the pursuit of Breland Bolo for Atlanta United. And they won't sign both. And again, this is not, these are not the only two targets.

I think they have four, maybe that they're. in serious talks with, but these would be two of the more expensive players in the league. I don't know if they'd have to pay a fee for Nunez. I don't think so, but his salary would be really, really high. I know there was another MLS team that was licking into him as well. And Briel Ambelo is under Conti joined Ren's last summer, so you'd have to pay a fee. And he's 29, but he's still somebody with 91 caps for Switzerland and a very good or solid European level striker.

So either way, it'd be a lot of money. They don't have a deep spot open right now, but they will soon. Emmanuel Latsai Lath was held out of the team's two-two draw against Charlotte last night with what Chris Anderson was saying active conversations about a departure. What I was told is that there is no like fee agree. Burr-Halter was held out because the borough deal was agreed.

It's set. Lott-Sai-Lath, it is not quite there yet, but they think it's going to get there and it can get there soon. And when everybody knows that he's leaving or wants to leave, he wants to leave, the club wants him to leave, what is the point in bringing him off the benching in Charlotte FC on July 22nd? So that's the situation there.

And that would open a DEP spot, which would facilitate the signing of Nunez enbelo or somebody else. I mean, you're trying to get him off your team because you literally don't want to play him. So the assumption is you don't feel like you're missing a lot if you can't put him out there on the field. And the only chances for him to get hurt. We've heard the reports trying to get out of Lath-Loth for a while. It obviously was a failed signing, one of the record signings in MLS history. And we'll go down as one of the worst moves. in the league's history.

I think the connections here show Atlanta continue to be aggressive and they continue to try and go big. These two moves are little different in that age profile as well as what they're coming off of, right? And Bolo was the starter for Switzerland at the World Cup. He's 29 years old. He was playing in league on last year.

Darwin Nunez hasn't played competitive soccer in six months, was not really a factor for a Uruguay team that failed at the World Cup. is a little bit older. Careful. So he's not older. He's 27. Is he 27?

I thought he was 32. No. Darwin, he will score a billion goals in this, he'll score a thousand goals in this league on a billion shots. So they're both similar players in that they're both finishers. Like they're both guys who will occupy centerbacks. I don't know if I would call Darwin Nunez a great finisher,

but he will score goals. That's the thing. They're both kind of like that. They're both like true center forwards who don't create much. who also their finishing rate is not always the highest at the highest levels. And the question is what level is MLS at? I wanted to be put out there. I would like an MLS seem to sign Tammy Abraham.

That's my pet project for the next two months. Where is he right now? He's at Bournemouth, I think, or Aston Villa, one of the two. I think he's at Aston Villa. And he's getting covered by players. That's the type of player I would like to see them sign. Just one note on the MBL thing. He struggled to get a visa to get into.

the country because of, I think, an open or close trial in his past to get to the World Cup. So it would be then a drastic move to then go get a work visa and move here. But he did get here in the end. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I want to be clear too, or I hope I'm being clear. I think we get into it. I want to be clear that it was something minor. Like, from my recollection was like, I don't know, he, the bar or so, like, yeah, I think it wasn't like a criminal, like. No, I think it was a fight. So he got charged with. the assault and then whether it got dropped or settled or whatever, it popped back up in his visa application to come to the World Cup. So it's just something to note. Do you think this is

the one big move? Is Moranchuk staying? Zalmi Rohn staying like this is it? Dude, I think so, but like, dude, you never know that Atlanta United. Like, they signed two 33 year old centerbacks to start. Yeah, Junior Alonzo made his debut yesterday. He chased the play in the open field like Mihaj does, which looks like you and me. But then like, I don't know, they have a rotating. We're going to need to do a bit one day of just like, you know, two truths and a lie of like Tam level defensive midfielders at Atlanta, United have had in the past five years.

Like Alzate is that I think he's going to leave too, but I don't know. It's just a rotating cast. It's a wild team. But they did come from behind for a two to draw in Charlotte. They got blown out early. Doesn't look good for Charlotte, man. At home against that Atlanta team.

their starters was starting trios Almero Moranchuk Pico midfield of Miombo Riley Sanchez back line of Bayez Alonzo Mihai Yaku and goalkeeper Hoyos and I know Charlotte weren't So that's your example of why things are bad in Charlotte is because of how bad things are

At home like and I say this in almost a positive way the expectations for Charlotte are raised because I think that they are good You're extraordinarily disappointed by that game I know it's MLS, weird things happen. Don't read too much in a one result. Not the best way to come back from break.

No, and I think for Charlotte, there's this weird thing. Like, they're waiting on St. Maxim. It'll make them more dangerous. Maxima. Sorry. They were super, they were super dangerous last night. So there's like the one side, which is, okay, put everything in. You win games for one and it doesn't matter.

There is this inability to control the flow of the game. Like when they knock the ball around, on midfield, whether it's Westwood, you know, Bronico, whoever ends up in that space, PEPBL dropping deeper, they knock it around trying to create chances. They can't like kill off the momentum of the game in that way. And so it just felt like they were up to zero, trying to make it three with no way of closing down and not giving up the two goals that they end up conceding. And Elmi Rohn looks terrible.

Like every ball into his feet is knocked away. he's chasing, he's scrambling, and yet they were still able to create the chances that give you the equalizer, bizarre VAR, early in the game on the first goal. Riley basically rakes a guy's Achilles, it leads to the goal. So now it's like Charlotte's goal being VAR reviewed

to see if there's a red card on Atlanta. And I was told that the goal could still stand unless it's dog so, which I guess makes sense because you can't do. Yeah, you wouldn't give the red card. Yeah. So it was a bizarre moment. I don't, we've had, what, nine years of VAR and MLS, and there's been some weird stuff and

some things that like weird when the first time to have, but you remember that Atlanta San Jose game where Wandoah scored, I believe it was like the tying goal for Atlanta Donovan, but it got VAR'd back because the transition moment that led to Wando's goal, it was actually a penalty for Atlanta. Yeah, yeah, it's a go all the way back. Yeah. Yeah. Somehow in the, we've never had a VAR call on like this team scored, but the other team might have a red card earlier in the play. Like, that's breaking new ground. week. Yeah. So, um, this was another example for all of us to be reminded that on the first day on their debut, I asked Tom if Pepiel would be better than Morancha. And he laughed at me.

And yeah, it hurts when they play each other. Continues to still be good. Curwin Vargas, dangerous game for him. Uh, so a pretty good performance on that side of things. But yeah, huge question marks around this Charlotte group and their ability to like close out games and get actual three points when they should. Um, okay. We talked to Atlanta. Another DP move that sounds like it might be on the verge is a return from the Berkshire Academy alumni, Jack Harrison to the New England area. Yes.

The New England revolutions are closing in on a deal to sign winger Jack Harrison from Leeds United sources. Tell me that deal is being formalized. It's not totally signed and there's still like very small things to deal with. But what I'm told is it's going to happen. Harrison will be a designated place. for the New England Revolution as he leaves Leeds after a long time at the club and a long successful run at the club. He made more than 200 appearances for Leeds. He played every single

game in the championship when they won the championship in 2020. And then the next season, he helped keep them in the league with eight goals and eight assists for Leeds and like a team that just avoided relegation. They needed every one of those goal contributions. Last season, he spent the second half of the year on loan at Fiorentina. And he played more than I recall. I think he had like 15 appearances, a goal and three assists in like a thousand minutes. Like, not bad for somebody who leaves were like when he came back from loan. Okay, like you'll leave again. Hopefully on permanently it's time for both sides to move on.

I really like this fit for New England because I think Harrison is a good player. I think he'll be a very good DP in MLS or at least he'll be worthy of a DP tag. I don't think this is an overpay. We'll see how he looks physically. And that will determine whether this is eh or very good. and gosh, maybe I'm just being optimistic. I think this would be very good. No, I love Jack Harrison as a player.

He was super dangerous in this league. He went overseas and he like really built a career for himself. He was a consistent performer at the EPL level. Was he an elite game changer all the time? Probably not. But you look at the profile of, I mean, we're talking about Lotte Loth for $22 million, who was a championship center forward.

Like Jack Harrison's in that category. And I do think coming into Major League Soccer at his, age now, he can put a team on his back a decent amount of times in his season. The one thing I find odd is this is a club that spent on Luca Langoni and has spent on Griffin, yeah, right? Like, he's on, I think, $800,000. Not, is he really? Not to the same extent, though. Okay. It's just, it feels like a team that has oddly, and then you could argue where Peyton Miller should play or could play. There's also a decent chance. Peyton Miller's not long for this world. So that's fine as well. It just feels like they've invented, well, sorry, not long for this week.

This is Christ. God. We all are on a series of one day contracts. Yeah, yeah. Right. To be fair. But let's not, let's keep back to us and not poor Peyton Miller. And for the most part, it's a team option. Let's choosing to pick it up or not. It's not a player option on those things. I say all of this in saying it's another move where I don't mind the work, revs have done in the grand scheme of the total roster, I just don't fully understand all the time how it fits together. It feels like they've gone out and spent over the last three, four years, and it's very half hazard. And it's not how does it all fit together? It's here's talent, here's opportunity, and then we'll make it work. Now, some of that is, right, Chris Tierney's been

elevated now to like the lead for the first team. You've got a new coach. So I can understand you're trying to clean up past problems, but it's like Tugerman on a team with Leo Campagna, right? It's Brooklyn Raines coming into a team that had already spent a decent chunk of money at central midfield. It's those types of moves where at some point you just can't keep throwing guys on top of each other who all can't play together. So I understand your point in general and generally agree, but you said that they spent money in the midfield. A million of that was on Jackson Yule. You don't not sign Brooklyn Raines because you're, Bank Jackson, Yule a million.

Leo Campana was an interesting one because they had the allocation money from several sales to Europe. And you don't, and you, that's why I liked a Max Tam center forward with a U-22 center forward. Because somewhere in there, you should have a starter. And they hit on Turgam, he's good.

Leo Campana is a player in theory right now. He's just never available. And it sucks, and I don't say that to be dismissive or mean, but in a roster building sense, you cannot rely on any minutes from him right now or any goals from him right now because he's not available consistently. In a way, and I think I've used this with like Darryl D.K.

I think he's an awesome signing for Orlando, not just because I think he's an awesome player, but he's also an injury risk. But if he doesn't play a minute, that Orlando team will have enough an attack. And that's with New England, with Turgam, as long as he's fit and at his age profile, yeah, injuries happen,

but he's a better bet to play all of the time. And then you hope that you get something from Component at this point, and I hope for him that his injury issues can be put behind him. It sucks. He's a good player when he's fit, but it just is what it is. And then on the wings, like Griffin Yow, you were all right, by the way, was 800,000, a little bit more than I thought, more than I thought. And Peyton Miller, Payton Miller is absolutely a wingback, not a winger.

Griffin Yow, I think, would be best as a wingback. So maybe in the future, that's how they'll play. But Jack Harrison, DP, and Luca Langoni, a U-22, who was basically like a soft DP because they signed him at the oldest you could and paid him the most salary you could in the U-22. and I've spoke to people around the league and some teams very clearly in New England as well feel that is how they utilize the U-22 initiative

is sign a 21-year-olds and pay money for it like rather than... Sneak a TEP in rather than sign a U-22. That's the highest level of success. So the strongest 11 is Turgerman with Carlos Hills a 10 and then Jack Harrison and Luca Langoni on the wings and or if you do a 3-4-2-1

and two of those three-winger start and Yao and Miller are playing enough minutes like I really like the options here. And above all, else, I think Jack Harrison is a good signing and where else would you use the DP spot, right? Like it would probably be an attacker and you don't want to sign a DP center forward when you have Turgman unless that there's an exit for Turgerman. And now I'm saying too many if thans and we just go back to the beginning. I think Jack Harrison is good signing and fits in the scene.

Matt Turner coming back. So you're kind of in, I wouldn't say win now mode, but you're in a territory where a 29 year old D.P. is fine. You know, you want to maximize Carlos Heels career. Jack Harrison, he's smooth on the ball. He's clean technically for a guy of his speed. So you can play into his feet. He can link up. But when Jack Harrison gets going downfield, it's like must watch stuff. And I'm really excited to see him back in the league for that purpose.

And that was what popped right out of college at NYCFC when Patrick Vieer got him on the field was like he can dip in between defenders. He can go to his left foot and his right foot. When he gets towards the edge of the box, he's doing so all right. ready at high speed and he can break guys down and be a finisher and a chance creator. So it'll be fun because my assumption is he'll play on the right side where Carlos Hill likes to float and they can pull attention from each other. They can link up slide rule passes from heel into, you know, Harrison beyond the back line. Like all that type of stuff is going to be high quality.

And I think for the revs, you've got a real shot to try and make a push in the Eastern conference this year because you should have a decent chunk of experience, you know, up the spine and in this squad. Two things. One, I'm going to cut you saying slide rule pass and make that my text tone. I like to commentate, Tom.

Two, we were a little doubtful of how serious this team was towards the top of the east. And I thought we did in a respectful way before the break of saying not taking anything away

from the way that they started, but I just don't think the fourth best team in the east. This makes them more serious. And I like that, particularly keeping Matt Turner getting a new loan for him and continuing from them to be a non-DP. Like now this team, I really like the pieces and just signing Jack Harrison

didn't totally, totally sway that. But I think it helps. And did you want to do a big time breakdown on the no-no draw with Toronto? It was a game. I have a friend in Toronto who texted me yesterday because we'll talk about Nicholas Dorch for a moment here who it looks like he's going to be a pretty good addition for TFC. where it was like, oh, Toronto's moving in the right direction.

I like these moves. I like the way they're operating. And then a screenshot of the starting lineup coming out around 630 saying, this is a brutal lineup to have to watch in this game. And then shout out to my buddy Devang who texts to me. I miss Boston Stadium when they called the Gillette right out the gate for this game. Devang is one of my favorites. Yeah, this was a rough game, so we don't have to talk about it more.

I will say, Jules Anthony Vassal, so get out of my face. And shout out to Richie Lorraine, legitimately playing center mid over the last week. He came in the league of 10. He got transitioned into a wingback where he's become really good and fullback, full-time starter at the World Cup,

deserve it. He did not look fully uncomfortable in that spot. But I think the hope would be he doesn't have to play there again. No. Because Nikolash Dorsch is joining the squad, a 28-year-old German center mid at Heidenheim over the last two years, Augsburg.

63 appearances before that. Byron Academy then went to Belgium to find some minutes, came back to Germany and looks to profile as a defensive midfielder, more of a holding midfielder, which is like the biggest need for this Toronto group. Absolutely. Sources tell me the fee is up to $4.2 million. That includes add-ons.

I don't know what the fixed fee is. So the plan is very likely for him to be a DP now and probably through the rest of the season, but he's Tam eligible. And I think that's a really important distinction. and this is a like defensive mid anchor. And this is something, as you said, that they've needed. They had Sifuentes and Sifentes is more of a box-to-box player.

Like he's not the same profile. They brought in Nelson Palacios from Real Salt Lake, who's somebody who I've always really liked the theory of. I feel better about the central midfield group that they're bringing in this player doors. So he's a Bayern Academy graduate. He was a German youth internationally. He won the U20 euros, I believe,

and was a part of that team. And this is somebody who the team looks at, a foundational piece and particularly rebuilding up the spine last summer georgia mojowicz 10 winger whatever makes the most sense of the team this winter spring was josh sergeant in a nearly league record deal and now dorge comes in as a defensive midfielder um they brought in Zimmerman in the winter as a center belt like they they had a lot to go with with this team and this is another one where it's been unfortunate that george mojovitch got injured um josh sergeant just hasn't had any service corbinu corbinu was was injured for a while like this is a team that's a team that's

has struggled with with absences and I just want them to get a month where like when Dorch comes in everybody's fit and just like I think this is going to be a good team we just haven't seen it they haven't been because they haven't performed well because at any given time they're waiting for somebody to either be signed or an injury to to heal for somebody to be playing and when whenever they get sergeant Mahalovic Dorish Zimmerman Larea Corbino shallowie on the field like that's the makings of a solid very good team yeah to me this is the lynch bin signing. They are too easy to play against.

When they get exposed in the, in attacking moments, when they turn it over, they are too open in transition. And then that makes life harder for their centerbacks. And then we're questioning if they're the right guys. It doesn't create the right platform for Jonathan Osorio. Georgie a little bit different because he's a transition monster, but we haven't seen him.

Sorry, dying over here. Okay. Don't worry. This to me is like, this is the move. If they get this one right, I can believe that this is a group that can contend. They haven't gotten it right for five to eight years now.

And that's been like the huge gap in this squad. So this would be massive for them because I do like a lot of the other pieces. I do think there's like a lot of soccer that they can play. A lot of guys who are good on the ball. A lot of guys who can be gold dangerous. I thought the shallowly move was a smart move. We're eating the tea leaves, like all that type of stuff.

But they are just too easy to play against. and they get opened up too quickly and that your hope is what this guy is able to fix. Okay. Another move that came a little bit off the radar for me and ends up potentially being a historic move. Let's dig in to Dallas here for a moment. Let's talk a little bit about Benji Flowers.

Benji Flowers, a highly rated 15-year-old U.S. Youth International, made his second team debut at 14 years old in the fall. he signed a homegrown deal with Dallas. I broke that news this morning that has since been made official. What wasn't in the club's press release was sources tell me that there is a pre-agreed transfer

for Benji Flowers to go to Chelsea when he turns 18. That deal is done. He was in London last week to complete that part of the deal. It is one that comes with an initial fee of $3 million for a 15-year-old who has played like one or two professional games,

which is very encouraging. The homegrown contract itself, is like the second largest in league history is what I was told. The initial fee of $3 million is more, almost as much as like the potential add-ons that Philly could get for Kevin Sullivan.

That was a similarly structured deal and that he signed his homegrown deal and then he's going to Manchester City when he turns 18. But this one has around $7 million in add-ons. So this is a potential deal of up to $10 million for a player who has not made his first team debut, just signed a first team contract,

and has played again, like one or two appearances with the second team. What's very interesting about the deal structure, Goss, the add-ons aren't just Chelsea base. The add-ons start literally right now. It starts with the first clause that can be triggered is him playing X amount of minutes this season. It's not a high number.

I think it's basically a game. So this all incentivizes Dallas to play Benji Flowers. The more he plays over the next few years before he turns 18, the more money they'll get. So Chelsea, I think that's very interesting. And listen, Benji Flowers stinks. I don't think that, or if he's clearly not ready, Dallas, I don't think are going to like shoehorn him into the line, but at least I hope not.

But this gives the team real financial motivation to play him, even though they've already got the deal agreed for him in the future, which I really, really like. There were a number of European teams that were interested in Benji Flowers. There were Mexican teams because he has, I believe, Mexican eligibility. And he would have left for free if he went to Mexico. And so they were negotiating the homegrown deal and the Chelsea transfer simultaneously. And it was like we're not signing the homegrown deal without also signing the future. Like we want the sorted.

We want to pick right now. We don't want to wait until he's 17. And this is what the Kevin Sullivan deal ended up being, right? Which was negotiating his Philly deal in conjunction with negotiating what would be the future move that would end up, we believe, going to Man City on that side of thing. So it's become a little bit of a style to set these things up this way, which makes sense. It's funny to me that a club like Chelsea who will not play him and will have no plan for him when he gets there are the ones who I think smartly are initiating a plan to make sure he plays where he is right now. And it's obviously a huge deal for Dallas who see themselves as one of the great youth developers. There's been a little bit of a drop off there.

part of that is the perception, which is when guys like Chris Reynolds and West McKinney leave before they make debuts with the protein. Chris Richards. I said Chris Reynolds. It's Brian Reynolds and Chris Richards. He debuted before he left. Exactly.

But I think that's part of that perception thing is like, oh, Dallas is not produced as many players, even though they are. It's just they don't play for Dallas ever. Now you get a chance to, similar to Kevin, sort of like promote to the community. Like look at what we've done. look at what this player is capable of,

look at the ceiling of the players that we bring in, as well as to future teams or future players, like, look what we're willing to do. We can help you get to your next level. I've only seen him play maybe once or twice. I just remember a ton of activity. Like, I think I saw him play as a 10. I know some people are saying he could play on or would play on the wing.

And I just remember him sort of affecting the game everywhere and just being connected to the game a ton and it all running around him for a guy who was playing up in age group. So super promising, super exciting for Dallas. Hopefully we get to see him play some like legitimate minutes with a Dallas team. That's pretty good. I got bit. I, I blue-skied it at McKelley last night when Petzar Musa put the goal in at the 86th minute in Portland to make it to one.

I said, babe, wake up. We got a game winning goal from our boy. And then they concede it again to Portland to make it two, too, too. Timbers have been fun, of course, over the last week, created a ton of chances in this game. And then Dallas are just super effective. Like the Petzar Mousa goal laid on. There was a chance they put in the back of the net 30 seconds after Portland scored to equalize. Sarver was just offside, but he creates the chance for Kaike.

Like there is, I don't know, I really like this Dallas team. And I would like to see them maybe make a move or two in this window to give themselves a shot to win the West. So they are going to be active this summer. I was told maybe we'll see another midfielder come in. They were one of the teams that like Sebastian Baraltor. I guess I know everybody in the league likes Sebastian Baraltor. But like that at least showed me. It's like, oh, they have more flexibility than maybe I thought that they did.

With Santhia Moreno technically, I believe, is holding a D.P. Spot obviously Petter-R-Musa. But like you said, Goss, this team is pretty good to very good as is. and you didn't know maybe that was going to be enough or maybe they were going to reassess after. It sounds to me like they are being active and potentially adding to this team

and adding in a higher level way. If I want to be careful to, they are signing a player from USL. That is not what I'm referring to right now. I want to be very clear that there is more to potentially come by this team. So just in case that somebody listens to this and then a notification comes out

that they signed a USL player, which that could also be good, but they are also doing more. Are you triggered because of the Robert Taylor breaking news and Galaxy fans jumping in your mentions and their mentions and just being super angry? No, that was more of me. I was like, oh my God, like I thought that they weren't,

the last I checked in, they weren't close on a DP. Shoot, this must be a DP. And then they signed somebody else after that that also wasn't a DP, which I think is a good deal. We'll talk about that one later. But yeah, it's just so much stuff happening over the last 24 hours. There is a lot going on. So if you're listening on Serious Radio, we're going to say goodbye to you right now.

Thank you for being here. Thank you for joining us. And if you'd like to hear everything else we have to talk about, which is still Robert Lewandowski's debut in Major League Soccer, Antoine Grisman's, Duncan McGuire's debut for Houston, Loik Williams, game winner and his debut for the Rapids, Neil Pierre, making good on our 2030 World Cup roster. Irvin Torres, becoming the man, sunny, sort of arriving and a bunch more. you can go and listen to us on demand or search anywhere you get your podcast. Just search soccer wise. That's the name of the show and that's what we do. All right.

Let's continue on here into those stories and let's start in Miami. Let's do Casamiro first before we get into the game, which was really fun. Just talk about my discovery rights and where I live and where I stand. Instead of a very fun, weird, fun, good, bad, had everything, the three to win from Miami over Chicago. Let's talk about discovery rights because that's what MLS is dictating that we do. So into Miami officially signed Brazilian midfielder Casimir. And about three minutes after Miami made their announcement, MLS made their own announcement. And they said that the league is investigating an allegation over tampering by Miami for this signing. Basically, the eleogosy had his

discovery priority rights, discovery rights. It's basically just a priority to sign a player. If you're listening to this show, you probably know, but just the case, it was put into MLS at a time where the league was more perilous and just a much different league. It was so teams wouldn't bid against each other for players. The idea, not the idea, the rule is, if you have the number one priority for this player, you are the only team in MLS that can talk to this player. If another team wants to, they have to call you first. And then if they request the league that they want to talk to the player, the team that's number one in Discovery has a handful of days. to make a genuine bona fide offer to that player, basically to keep the rights.

In this situation, the Galaxy have been working on Casamiro for a while, visits all of it. He was out of contract, like it was all legal because he was visited, out of contract with Manchester United in the summer, working on it for a while. And the Galaxy's contention in this tampering charge is

Miami contacted the player without being allowed to, and all of a sudden now the player told us he only wants a sign of Miami. me. So the Galaxy end up filing tampering charge. That club, by the way, understands the irony of this situation in that they usually benefit from this.

Yeah, this is the Marco Royce team. And that's why I wanted to bring that up. Because even I brought that up to people, I was like, didn't this just happen? The difference there, the Galaxy's contention on that story is that, yes, Charlotte made Royce a DPR offer. What the Galaxy say is

Royce contacted them. and I think the crux of this is Miami went to Casamira. And then so the Galaxy end up getting Royce's discovery rights. Charlotte, like the Galaxy are doing Miami, Connor drew a stand in the line. Like, this isn't cool, man, to quote the Big Lebowski, this aggression will not stand, man. And the Galaxy had to pay $400,000 in allocation money for Marco Royce.

That's more than Discovery Rights has ever been traded for. So the Galaxy will get compensated for Casamero. I think that will be determined how much after the investigation or at least additional punishments if there is going to be any. The bottom line here is for people who don't care about this and if you don't care about this, I'm so jealous, this is a better way to live. The bottom line is Casamiro is playing for Miami. That will not change.

And the Galaxy will get money, right? Those two things at the end of this, there is no way that they're going to say this was an illegal signing. He's ineligible to play. He is a Miami player. That has happened. But there might be a punishment. It probably, I don't want to speculate. on a punishment, but this is not as serious as the Blazman Tweedy situation in which they had

five DPs, but only listed three, and they got severe sanctions. I don't think, unless that there's more to this that I don't know, I don't think it's that serious, but it's enough for the league to investigate. Let's start here, because this is where everyone starts. Yes, discovery rights are stupid. No, the LA Galaxy did not discover Casamiro as a soccer player. The positive is that the lists have gotten limited. Yes. So there's less discovery rights. And all of this lives inside of the context of what Paul Tenorio wrote about at the Athletic,

which you should go and read, which is a league that is trying to find ways to keep parity, will also expand and operate in a global market. Like this is the part that I think coming out of the World Cup and everyone listening to Colin Coward to understand soccer for the first time struggles with, which is you have a league that's built on the format of the NBA, NFL, and MLB at a time when those three leagues, sorry, I don't watch hockey, so I don't know, they don't compete for players with anyone. Like, the NBA is competing with Real Madrid for a player who

will play zero minutes on the NBA team that he makes. So, like, that's the comparison where in MLS, they don't want a scenario where Miami and Galaxy are bidding against Besheekdas in Guarantina for Casimero because that number just keeps going up. But MLS can't control everyone's ability to sign players fully because Bishikas and Fjornina have a ton of money and can do whatever they want. And that doesn't even include like Saudi and obviously Chelsea and Man City and all of that. That's like where all of this antiquated stuff kind of lives in this awkward space. And so with discovery, what we've come down to is like, what, you get five.

You have to re-up them every year. And then if someone can create a deal around one and a player wants to go somewhere, you have to be able to make a genuine offer to get something back. And for the most part, what you get back is pretty small, right? It's 150, 100,000 allocation money. Like, it's not major anymore. So it works better than it used to work. I think for everyone who's upset about this, there's that positive.

The hope is it works better going forward. The easiest way is to get rid of the entire thing. We're probably still far away from that because of the 800. other rules that MLS is trying to work through for all of these reasons. So I'll throw all of that out there. And then I think on the soccer side, I think Joe Larry said it best. Like if Casamiro can keep the turnovers and mistakes for the team more predictable, his lack of speed and ability to cover ground can probably be covered up.

And overall, the team's probably better. But he was exposed at the World Cup. And he is not getting younger. And he is not going to be surrounded by a number of players who are going to be. getting younger or can cover a lot of ground. So it is really a double down on we are going to control every phase of the game in possession and therefore whatever four goals we score are enough to win the whole thing. And that's kind of the gamble on this.

It'll be fun. And Louis Suarez is back to being a key constant player in this team since Guillermo Hoyos took over his head coach and he scored a couple goals. It looks really good in that three two win over Chicago fire. But gosh on the other side of the field, Robert Lewandalski made his long way to debut, not long awaited, but his is a way to debut in MLS for the Chicago Fire. What did you make of his performance after 63 minutes? He was up.

There's, it wasn't perfect. He doesn't know his teammates yet. So there wasn't as much of like the run before the pass, which I think is a lot of where Levindowski will eat on a lot of this. He'll be across the defender at the near post before they realize because he's an elite goal score and elite chance creator. I think you saw, though. in the box he'll create chances with his own technique and his own movement that aren't real chances

where all falls to him with two guys and he's going to work space to get a shot that a lot of guys don't um and i think he will create chances for his teammates because of that stuff as well i think the pressure and the focus he pulls in when he receives the ball centrally will create spots for zincernago ludd bomba all of that so it wasn't an ideal start no for him obviously the opening goal they scored as a gift from Rokos Rios Novos where he literally whiffs on a ball played back across him, which was a great thing to have for Major League Soccer, the week of the World Cup, when they're trying to get everyone on board. It's causing me death and pain inside my chest.

Ramos Rios Novo was correctly charged with the own goal on this, and I'm very, I'm happy that that's where that one goes down. And by the way, was, was Dane St. St. Clair available? Dan St. Clair is on the bench. They bench. They benched St. Clair. And that was the first thing that happened.

Yeah. I don't know what his health is. He clearly was not healthy for Canada and he was not a full option for them. He's been bad for Miami the entire year. I think him and Yonik Bright are two guys if I'm in Major League Soccer and I've had a hole at those two positions that I'm making phone calls. I'm probably making phone calls around some of these homegrown guys too saying like we'll take him alone because I don't know how many minutes these guys are going to play. I thought Bertrami's set up for Suarez's goal was really good as well. listen for the fire it's weird it's going to be a half step back before it's a full step forward because kipers was so good and nothing i saw yesterday disproves that but also nothing i saw yesterday makes me think levindowski's going to not care or not be a part of this or struggle so it's a guy who's coming off his preseason who's 38 who has played in germany poland and Barcelona playing his debut at 7.30 p.m. in July in Miami and his face looked like that was what was happening. He looked like me on this show on Monday. So like, good luck, Robert. He coughed on the back end of that. Yeah, it's been a really strong performance from me.

While, because we were talking about the galaxy, I moved this one up here. Let's talk St. Louis Galaxy. They face off. St. Louis wins 3-1. Great restart to the season for them. They beat SKC-3-2. they beat the Galaxy 3-1. They have officially signed, or the reports are, your reports are that they've signed. Did they make it official? Carlo Hosa,

I don't believe it's official, but they are signing Carlo Hosa, a Danish attacking midfielder fee around $6 million. He was playing in Turkey at Sandsenpur. He played in the conference league with this club. He's had a really interesting career. So there was a season with Copenhagen that he had, I think, like 16 assists.

And then there are other times where he has, like eight goals and like, you know, five assists. He seems to me, and from a couple of the people I spoke with, of he's going to be super versatile in that he can play in any of their kind of attacking spots in different ways. He's going to be best as like one of those dual tens, if Marcel Hartle remains. And those who play together, I really like that. And then you still have space to go sign like a Tam number nine or bring in another

center forward to compete with Simon Betcher and hopefully add more goals of this scene. But Coloradoosa can be the chief creator, primary creator, and then Marcel Hardle or whoever then ends up being more of the Gold Dangerous player. Or if there are games where they need holes that to go create on for himself, he's also capable of doing that too. So just profile

wise, age, he's in his prime what he's done at different leagues, both Copenhagen and in Turkey, I'm pretty bullish on this deal. And also like you've said, we're Yon de Mae filled. Yeah. I just think that good attacking players are accentuated

in Yon DeMé system. Yeah, I think if you go back and you say Marcel Hardo's playing the best soccer he's played for St. Louis now because Dimei gets you a lot of touches with a lot of optionality when you get those touches because there are runners around you and you can choose do I lay off quickly? Do I turn and go up field? Like all of these little moments that Dimei builds for his players, it sounds like Hulsa will be a part of a lot of them

because he covers a ton of ground and is always connected to the game and then can turn them into danger, which is what a dryer has done in San Diego. But then you look at a guy like Amal Pelagrino who's come in and become super dangerous because they make, as Joel says, they make the game small

and then they can break out and make the game big. And I think this is the intention with a guy like this, as well as flexibility. Like I like the idea when you're early in a build and you're trying to put the pieces together to get a guy who you know can play more than one role because you're not sure. I mean, this is a club that was deep on Hugo Kuyper's, right?

And Hugo Kuypers was an opportunistic move. You don't, you can't anticipate the next opportunistic move, but they were willing to put $8 million on the table for a true center forward. So if you go out and you sign another guy who's a true center forward, like you can't be in those conversations going forward. And I think this is a guy where, for everything I've heard, can play three or four different roles, feel it, play it confidently. and so that can help you maybe build the next two, three pieces after this.

And listen, they're hanging around and they've not even really made addition. So I think to be able to bring this guy in now, have him come out of his preseason, have him come out of a good season and maybe hit the ground running. They're eighth in the West right now based off the two performances in the last week. You know, everyone's got a different amount of games played. But like this feels like a playoff team. And this is the type of move. I think that can help boost you.

at the right time and to get the right person in the building. So pretty exciting, I think. And he has, and I'm bringing this up because my excellent editor, Avi creditor at the athletic found this and was very proud about it. He has one cap for Denmark. He came into that game replacing Andres Dreyer. Just wanted to point that out because he found a photo of it. And I thought that was a delightful detail.

St. Louis wins 3-1 on the road in L.A. The LA Galaxy did not debut their newest signing. but Tom you've got sort of all the updates for us there. Yeah, so the Galaxy signed Japanese forward Kiyogo Furu Hashi from Birmingham City. He was with Celtic for a long time and really, really good for Celtic. Didn't quite pan out with Birmingham, but he's still kind of at the end of his prime. We're in his prime. And it's a non-DP deal.

And I think if you wanted to sign him from Celtic, it would have been like $10 million. Right. In fact. Atlanta tried and sign him. In fact, that's what I was going. They were in for him. and then they signed who's the Japanese American forward

whose name is escaping me and when they signed that player the league site said that they signed Fruhaashi and genuinely is one of the reasons why Atlanta then had no chance to sign that player. Tough. Yeah. So it all comes for a Lyrical. He's in MLS now. It's a non-DP deal

for a five-year contract so they had to kind of spread it out and amortize and I think that that was part of it for him to not be a DP but I think this is potentially a DP level forward. If he's hit, if he plays like at Celtic, it's a clear DP level forward for a non-DP deal. And yeah,

the contract is longer than you might want it to be. But I don't know, gosh, you think about NBA deal. Yeah, he's not going to be as good at 35 as he is at 30. But like, that's five years away from right now.

Yeah, if, if Pooge can come back and be himself for two years in the next three years, like they'll probably be in their primes at the same time. And you still get a ton of goals out of him and it would be worth the deal. And to not use a DP spot to still be able to strengthen on the wings is huge. What does this mean for Zhao Klaus? Like he was injured coming in.

We think he'll be back over the next few weeks. He's on a DP deal. It's up at the end of the year. Is it just future planning at that point? No, that's a good question. So he's still out and they think he'll be back in August, but it's one of those in, I think it's Planter fasciitis or something like that in that it's not a broken wrist. And okay, this is. is four to six weeks or whatever the prognosis would be. This is one of those that like, yeah, it should be around here, but it's like we're going to have to keep monitoring. And this is a

player in Klaus, who has unfortunately proven in his time in M.S. You cannot plan on him playing 30 games. I don't know if you can plan on him playing 25. And I wish that that weren't the case, but like Marco Royce has been playing as a false nine. After like,

I know that like Paintsville is played through the center sometimes. They sold Gabriel Puck and they're going to be swinging big for a DP whenever that comes. I know that they've been in numerous conversations, but like, um, they needed another center forward no matter what, even, even if they believe that class will be back soon. I assume the D.P. is going to be on the wing, right? I would assume for like a change for PEC. I would assume. Yeah. It's a weird team. They've been playing with one hand behind their back for two years now, um, because of Ricky Pooge's injury and then, you know, inability to come back quickly.

and so you have like the one side, which is you have no idea how long it will take him to actually get back to full form. And so you're sort of building the team around him while also having to build a second team that can be competitive without him. And it's a really difficult sort of needle to thread on that one. But to get a non-DP guy who you think can score double-digit goals,

that's a really good part of the equation. Because if you can go out and get a DP winger, who's maybe a guy that can carry the game more than, pack, then maybe you can still be super competitive without Ricky Boege. And then it should all fit together once you bring him in. Okay. Let's go through these next few. Let's try and be a little bit quick because we've got 900 things.

Unfortunately for Orlando fans, 15 signings have happened since Antoine Grisman made his debut somehow. But Grisman makes his debut, scores a goal and a four zero win on the road against San Jose. Kind of like everything went right for Orlando, which is not a bad spot to be in, whether it's because of Griseman or not, I'm not 100% sure from watching that game. But hey, it happens. So might as well enjoy it. So Grisman and Ellis looked really good together.

And I thought that would be the case. But to see it, like, I think it was kind of another level and how quickly it happened. And I think that's just another kind of pat on the back to Ellis for his intelligence and movement alongside of his technical ability and everything. He's called Grisman one of his childhood heroes. And the Griseman goal was not an obvious and easy forward pass by Ellis to make. It was all for turnover and little things like that. He plays the ball forward immediately. And then Griseman has space to turn fake shot and then shoot.

If that pass came a second later, Jamar Ricketts is back and blows up that play making up for his mistake. But little things like that, Justin Allen, like that's the difference between a U21 player and a professional player. And I think we always knew that Justin Ellis had the technique. We didn't quite know about the physicals, but the mental man is really good. So whatever this team ends up filling in as,

And I think some, like, this gives me more hope and expectation that the front three can be O'Heda, Grisman, and Ellis. Like, you don't necessarily need, I think Daryl D.K. probably gives the team the highest ceiling. But, like, at first, I thought to maximize Griseman, you want him to be in the free roll. And obviously, O'Hadahed is not playing as a nine. But between Ellis and Grisman, I think that looks really good. So it goes without saying a four-no win is fantastic for Orlando. San Jose had some chances. Creepo looked very good, which is really important.

And if Craipo plays really well, this is a really good team. If he doesn't, then those mistakes from everywhere else in the field looks really bad. This is Orlando City going on the road to San Jose, one of the best teams in the West, without Martino Hayda and without Marklech. And they win 4-0?

Yeah. Can't say too much. It was a weird. This one in the RSL games were weird in which the two teams that lost played good soccer, made turnovers, led to goals, played good soccer made a turnover led to a goal. It was like a little bit hard to judge.

This is like the best game Yvonne Angulo's played in, I don't know, seven years as well. So that's, that always helps. But as you said, really promising signs for Orlando. Sorry, this got sent to me right as we were talking, which is about three seconds after we finish this. Reports have come out of Brazil that Gabriel Peck broke his leg in training today. Oh, no. He's about to go into surgery. Yeah.

Oh, no. Obviously, it's nothing to do with LA Galaxy anymore. Oh, that sucks so much. but a bizarre, a bizarre connection there to the conversation we just had. And congrats to Orlando for the big win. Greisman comes in. It's the start you would like. And for a team that has to dig their way, sort of out of the bottom of the conference,

it's a pretty good start. They go to, I believe they play Nashville. Yeah. They host Nashville on Saturday. So that's going to be a very different matchup for them. And then they go to the Red Bulls the following week. Before we get to Leagues Cup, by the way. that's happening.

So Leagues Cups coming up to start August. It is a global competition, three countries, two leagues, for the champion of it all. I'm actually a little excited because I realize I live near the Miami Stadium now and tickets are going to be super cheap. I assume they're playing San Luis and Leone

on Wednesdays, both sides of a weekend when they play Monterey, which I would never try and get a ticket for. So I might be hanging out going to a couple of games and yeah, now I'm all in on Leaks Cup. It is the first time, I believe, there will be games in Mexico. So there's, like, some wild matches. I think San Diego goes to Cruz Azul or Club America in, like, the opening day to go play in Mexico City.

Tigress hosts some games and Monterey hosts some games. I think Toluca hosts as well. So thrown into the fire for some of these teams coming out of the World Cup break to go down there and try and get performances. Duncan McGuire made his first start for Houston in a one-to-one draw against DC United, who continue to sort of battle through and get results. And the Philadelphia Union, they won the game, which is Ryan Richter's first career win as a head coach. So congrats to Ryan on that one.

I've covered him both as a player very shortly, no offense, right? And then now as a coach for a long time. Unnecessary. Yeah, I know. He was a youth coach with the Philadelphia Union. He moved up to become an assistant on the first team, then became the head coach at the next pro side. and obviously is now filling in in place of Bradley Carnell as the interim manager.

He is trying to bring this club, I think, a little bit closer to back to their roots. That's exhibited by Kai Wagner coming back into the team. I think even more so exhibited by Kevin Sullivan getting the start. And then Neil Pierre, who we listed on our 2030 soccer-wise U.S. men's national team World Cup roster comes off the bench, gets a goal, then misses a tap in. But that's not really what he's there for. and the centerback, I think, is an example, Tom, of where this club's trying to make sure

that they're putting their resources. Right. And I said on the last show, but it's worth repeating, if there was literally any confidence that Bradley Carnell would play Neil Pierre, he would not have been sent on loan. And I think it's nice that he subs in in the 56 minute in the team's first game.

To start the second half, he's staying, this is one of the biggest talents for me. I think he's incredible. Obviously, when you watch him at G. Cup guys like that union team would stick in my head for a long time because that was Pierre, that was Gavin Sullivan, that was Diego Rosio, Anisayidi,

and you go on Dunlachael I think Frankie Westfield was he part of that team, maybe he's a little older. Regardless, there are so David Vasquez, so many professional players in those teams. And Pierre, him and Kevin Sullivan would often like walk out with each other and Kevin Sullivan is not a tall guy right now,

particularly he wasn't when he was 13 and 14 and Neil Pierre was extremely tall at that age. He just always jumped off. But like his passing has gotten better. He was playing first team minutes on loan and he's ready for MLS. He surpassed the second team, which he's been playing for a while.

And this is what Ryan Richter is here to do. Play this style and play those kids. Cabin Solvin was freaking awesome in this game. Quinn Solvin, huge deal is back from his injury. Neil Pierre getting those minutes like, I don't want to be hyperbogical or like, but like I've not seen anything from Sari Larson.

I don't love Nathan Harrile as a centerback. I think Neil Pierre starts the next game, right? Like he didn't do anything. And like he's a young centerback. He's going to have mistakes. He probably shouldn't start every game or whatever. But it can't get much worse for the union. So I think for the fans, a big day, a big night.

And for U.S. national team fans, listen, you got to watch four players who are going to be started to the 2030 World Cup in this game. That's Neil Pierre, Kevin Sullivan, Julian Hall and Audrey Mehdi. So what a treat. Yeah. I think Mehmeti took a pretty bad knock to the nose. So he might be out a week or two after this one. but he's from Staten Island, so maybe he's used to it and maybe he'll figure it out. But as you said, a big moment for the union.

Shout out to Quinn Sullivan made his return from his ACL injury. Brutal timing on that. Like he was trending towards a national team opportunity. Either way, always tough for a young player to go through something like that. It's cool to see him and Kevin on the field together, both for their family. I think in general, like he did the drum after the game and Kevin was sort of class. happen along with him and celebrating it. Quinn Sullivan was a game changer in Major League Soccer when he was healthy last year.

He's one of the reasons Philadelphia won a supporter shield. There were multiple games where it was a even game in Quinn Sullivan's ability to create out of nothing, whether it's because of his service or because he can break down defenders and get to his spot. it won them somewhere between seven to ten points, which is the difference between winning and losing. And so it's hard off an ACL surgery. You don't know how long it'll take for guys,

but that alone as an addition in this summer could be huge for the team. And then obviously maybe having a little bit more drive, getting back to some of the young players who are fighting for their spots. Speaking of, congrats serving Torres and Austin FC, two assists off the bench. He's the first player to come all the way through Austin's Academy. So to go academy signing at U-14, I think, is the lowest. They go all the way through the teams, into Next Pro, into the first team.

And Davy Arnault puts him on the field late in a 1-1 game against Seattle. And creativity on the top of the box, slip pass for Myroto Azuni. That gets them the winner. And then sort of like not dying on a play laid on. He's able to work some space on the end line. A lot of the work there is Christian Ramirez and Andrew Thomas. but he still ends up with two assists, which is a pretty big moment for a club that,

again, they're trying to reset things. Jim Curtin will come in at the end of the season. They're just trying to make a run, I think, to feel positive to close out the year. Yeah, and these are a lot of players playing for their future.

Like Jim Curtin and the staff will take over in the winter. Obviously, they're watching and analyzing the squad, for any opinions, and we'll see which players are sticking around. Obviously, they already traded Danny Pereira to Montreal, so they've got a lot of allocation money there.

They're going to need to make a bunch of signings. But there are good pieces in this team. A lot of the pieces don't fit. And it'll be up to Curtin, whoever the supporting director is, whoever comes into the front of office, to decide, all right,

these are the core that fits together. And I hope Owen Wolf is part of it. I think Irvin Torres is going to be part of it. And I hope Christian Ramirez is part of it. Like, I think he's just got a place on a lot of teams. It should have a place on a lot of teams. But all that being said,

there's going to be changed, but there are a lot of players that are going to stay with the next regime. And that's the motivation right now for anything else for you guys. switch to like a 5-3-2 Brandon Vasquez gets his first start coming off the ACL. It seems to make sense. Fekuno Torres can kind of float and go find the game.

Rosales and Galaher are very obvious wingbacks with the amount of energy. Their ability both play inside and be confident, but also be game changers out on the wing. And then you've got the two forwards. Azuni can sort of float under Vasquez. I thought Vasquez looked good, not amazing. but good in this game. I think he got one really clean look

that he didn't get all of. And then Uzuni was okay. There are just, there are flashes with him. I'm not, I don't think I'm ever going to end up like fully believing in him for the money they paid as a DP. But I also won't be surprised if he scores 14 or 15 goals

an MLS season, whether it's a different MLS team or with Austin in the future. Or he's not an MLS. And he goes, scores. Most likely. Somewhere else. For Seattle, they gave a shot.

Stuart Hawkins made his debut as a starter at centerback. Snyder Brunell gets a start as well in central midfield coming off the Portland loss. This is not a great way to sort of follow that. I mean, we've gotten, we're getting Brian Schmets there on the hot seat questions in the discord, which was hilarious because it led to the Timbers fans being like, why would you do that? So now Seattle's arguing why Seattle's in a worse spot than the Timbers fans feel

like Seattle is, which is a crazy mental gymnastics to make. But this is, it's a tough run to open up for Seattle. They've got a lot of games to make up on people. So to be dropping points in spots where maybe they thought they'd get them starts to reconfigure the Western Conference a little bit. Yeah. It's a very difficult start to a restart for the season for Seattle. They still have a lot of talent on this team, but it's not been the season.

we thought it would be. So sitting in sixth place right now tied for the least amount of games played in the Western Conference. They are one point above seven, two points above the sort of the log jam to close out the playoff spots, not getting a lot from Jordan Morris or Roosnak, Pauly Prime Times delivering. That's kind of it in the attack right now. So a bunch of questions for this team. The Polly Prime Time goal is going to get lost because there was a midweek game where they lost

three one. But that was electric. That is the most electric tap in, I think I've seen it a while. If you haven't seen it, he goes down and like double knees it as he's just trying to put his body in front of it because it's like an open goal but an awkward bounce and he just needs to like guide it forward. But like isn't it more likely that it just hits like the corner of your knee and just ricochets 15 yards away from goals? I'm not going to lie to you, man. I watched it four times immediately because I thought I had a hilarious blue sky post about scoring with your testicles in there. and I was like so stoked about it.

And I was kind of heartbroken when I saw it like, it fully hit his knees. You couldn't argue was thying up. And I don't. There's a then after that, he walks back to midfield, Newhoo's like giving him directions. He is not listening at all.

He's just screaming at Newhoo. Like, let's go, let's go. Let's go. Then he goes to the bench to grab water and the coaches are giving him direction. And he's fully staring at the fourth official, screaming at the fourth official. And it was like, either he did something.

so wrong or he's just the one guy around for people because I feel like that's what happens when you're a winger is like coaching staff just talks to you because they can't talk to anyone else. Yeah. And he ignored all of it. So yeah, something to watch out for as a Polly Prime Time takes over as the star of this team. Congrats to Loik Williams signed in March from Granada, finished out the Spanish season, then the World Cup layoff, makes his debut at centerback for Colorado Rapids. He ends up scoring the goal in the 96th minute as a winner. This game was weather delayed. It was a little bit choppy. So not the prettiest soccer we've ever seen, but two guys make their debuts for the rapids and one gets a goal. It's a pretty good start to the second half of the

year for them. And it was the seventh time that San Diego has dropped points in the 85th minute or later this season from goals conceded. So that's a tough, tough flip side for a San Diego team that we had big expectations for this season and a San Diego team that's sitting in 13th in the Western Conference, which is not a great spot to be in right now. Let's close out the West with Sonny's brace. If you want to call it that, does he get credit for the second goal? Foot mob says no, but I haven't seen an MLS as a fit. It shouldn't be a goal. But either way, the first goal that he scored was super nice, Buonga, nice goal as well. And this is one of those games that I can't really comprehend. R.S.L.

were gorgeous. They turn it over. It's an L.A.F.C. goal. R.S.L. are gorgeous. They turn it over. It's an L.A.F.C. goal. Now, some of that is Olatungi missed four of the best looks of the season. Diego Luna was bad inside the box. So a lot of that's on R.S.L. But this was Mark Dos Santos' like fever

dream of a game. He was having the best time of his life. Yeah. You say, like, this is L.A.C., man. And this is, for what it's where, I feel like I've done a lot more defending of Steve Strundelow and like, like, 29% possession. To you and Doyle.

Well, guess who fucking won this team? Yeah. And like, it's not a fluke. They do this all the time. And yeah, Real Salt Lake are to blame. But it's MLS. This shit happens. They're not playing Manchester City.

Luser mentality. Sergei Solenz and Victor Olatunji, not fucking Erling Holland. That's why L.AFC are successful. Yeah. Buonga and Sun looked dangerous. Davy Martinez looked good alongside them as well. Schwannier.

played a gorgeous pass to open up the game for them. And like once it starts happening with Sun, you're like, oh, right. Yeah. He's two footed. He's physically the same size as everyone else, right? Because he's actually like, low key, what, six, six one? Six two, right?

Is he six to something like, he's something like, he's like for somebody who made his life as an incredibly fast, tricky and agile winger, it took me into later his career to like, oh my God, It was like, he's tall, he's big, he's physical. And on top of all of that, he does everything at 100 miles per hour. So like he breaks out in the two, three moments here. Like you watch the transition moment that leads to the own goal, which is they get Davy Martinez slipped into the right side in transition.

He's sprinting. Sun cuts across him. So he plays Sun down onto the edge of the box with Buonga crashing on the far post. Son cuts it across and Yedlin I think is making a slide tackle to try and intercept the pass which may not have gotten there. There's a defender to cover. There's a goalkeeper in there as well, but he makes a side tackle and it goes in. You just look at the jerseys like whipping in the wind.

All of what I just described happens at the fastest possible pace. And that's L-AFC and that's what Sun and Buong are built for. And that's what they can be in the heart of. I had hopes with Oostokio coming in to start the year. Yeah, me too. would be one of their balls. They'd have a curve ball. They'd have a fastball. No, they just have a fastball.

That's it. That's who they are. Trebko as a freaking fullback, quote, unquote. They've 19 centerbacks in this team. Like, they are who they are now. That's the way they're going to play the rest of this year. And they are going to be probably favorites in any playoff series they end up in. Yeah. And it'll be frustrating because of, like you said,

this is the game with, with Chiberico, Tafarai, Porches, and Eddie Segura. So you're playing four natural centerbacks and it's just like, come on, man. Yeah. I get the critiques. So a big win for them, though. And RSL, obviously, clearly, I'm still all in on RSL and excited about it and whatnot. Okay. We've got another weekend of action coming up.

So we'll be back on Monday. We didn't talk about those games at all because we had 19 games to talk about. And we had 19 moves that happened in there as well. is real. This weekend want to watch out for. I mentioned Orlando Nashville. That's a really fun matchup. That's a really good game. San Diego, Dallas,

San Jose Galaxy, So Cali Classico in there. And then Portland RSL, last game of the night on Saturday. Portland have opened up and they've played. So they've been fun to watch. Kelsey is crushing it. So you probably have a victory lap to take

in a little bit when you're ready. Christopher Veld looked really dangerous off the bench but never leads to anything. So that's going to kill me and I got to figure out what to do in my baller league fantasy draft thing that I have to figure out. Don't lose your stock. Don't you don't think I should sell? No.

You think he'll be good on Colorado to close up the season? I would think that. I have so many fake MLS trades and transfers to throw around. You don't have to do that one of these shows. I love it. Unfortunately, the real ones keep happening. so we don't have time to talk about the fake ones when we get in there.

We're still in the Discord, so if you're in there, love to chat. I look through the comments on YouTube all the time, so if you're in there and you want to ask us questions or talk about some stuff, otherwise, blue sky, hit us up, talk to us, Instagram as well.

We appreciate you, all of you for listening. Big shout to you, Tom, for being here on a day with your 13 phones going on. Thank you to Gregory and Katie for the help, and we'll talk to you all again, very soon.