SoccerWise - MLS Soccerwise | Dejan Joveljić to Seattle, Eduard Löwen to San Jose

Episode Date: August 24, 2026

The MLS transfer market is moving fast, and Tom Bogert has plenty of scoops to break down. David Gass and Matt Doyle join him to dig into Seattle’s move for Dejan Joveljić, Eduard Löwen heading to San Jose and what the latest moves mean for the teams involved. Then they turn to the weekend, including Nashville’s record-setting pace and more from around MLS.0:00 Intro & Leagues Cup Quarterfinals5:56 Dejan Joveljić to Seattle14:58 The Puzzle of Sporting KC’s Transfers24:39 Eduard Löwen Heads to San Jose33:03 St. Louis Expectations42:23 Santi Rodríguez to Columbus47:37 NYCFC's Nico Fernández Mercau Stays Put52:10 Breel Embolo Arrives in Atlanta57:33 Khaled El-Ahmad Moves from Minnesota to Austin1:10:02 Nashville Riding Historic Pace1:14:10 More MLS Weekend NotesFor the sharpest coverage of American soccer, we’ve got you covered:https://linktr.ee/soccerwisehq

What's up everybody? Welcome back to Soccer Wise coming off for me a weekend of beaches. I titled my own weekend. I had like a theme. I had an event. It was a whole thing. And now I'm back with Tom and Doyle. Tom. Are you excited to see me again? I'm always excited to see you. I'm excited to hear your voice. It's always great. How are you doing? Are you excited to see us? Oh, I left the beach and I was like, I cannot wait to talk to Doyle and Tom about thinking about a little Al-in-Ma changing. changing jobs and Dejan Yovalich changing coasts and everything else that's going on. You guys, I was outside the country technically for like 12 hours.

I didn't have a phone on and I was just jonesing to check Tom's blues guy, see what was going on. You took the kickback soccer media super yacht to Subimini from Fort Waterdale. Is that what was on the ice interior area? It's actually a different business stream. I'm running it as a company. And I am really, every time. time they, you pull into port, they say, please listen. They make an announcement to listen to all

crew announcements. And then they don't make a single other announcement. It is such an efficient process. They really, really nailed it. Nice. That's a pretty good day trip, David. I thought you're just leaving it at night. It was a good time. You know, white blue, water, some white sand, but also, all I could think about was all the moves that are happening in Major League soccer. You guys, we were in unprecedented. and in times it feels like. Every time we close the show, 15 other moves happen. And Tom, I assume you haven't slept in five days.

Yeah, sleep hasn't been great, particularly with a six and a half month old baby on top of all these other things. But we're grinding, man. We're getting through it. And just pleasure to be here. Keep chopping wood one day at a time. Go back to the training ground and try to get three points next week. One percent better every day, Tom. Percent better every day.

You're doing it. Hashtag tunnel vision. Hashtag draft day. hashtag leakbound. Okay. Well, I can't figure out YouTube right now. So I'm having a terrible time. But in the meantime, where you have a lot to talk about on this show, we are going to go through all of the big news that's happened.

So we're not going to start with the best things we saw this weekend because that was not the best things that we saw this weekend. It was all these transfers and trades and news that popped out. So we're going to dig through all that. Then we'll talk about the games that were, obviously we will talk about Nashville. right now on a record setting pace in Major League Soccer for the best season in MLS history and some great moments there. We will talk about some of the big goals scored by some of the big names this weekend, as well as Kavana's return from a improperly given red card.

And then we've got a Leagues Cup quarterfinal this week. So here is the Leagues Cup quarter final schedule for you. Monterey plays Chicago. Leone plays Real Salt Lake. Toluca plays Austin FC. And Club America plays Clays. Columbus. Can you guess the four cities that those games are located here? Zero percent chance. Yeah. I know that I know that R.S.L. is playing in Colorado because I saw people complaining about that.

And I know that somebody's playing in Harrison because I saw something about tickets being given away, maybe given away. That's nice. Chicago is Bridgeview. I only know that because there's going to be no football lines. Okay. So we got three of the four at this point. Well, we have the locations, but we're not totally sure who's playing where. Who's playing where. Yeah, fair. So Monterey, I assume, is hosting Chicago at Bridgeview.

Just guessing. Leon is hosting RSL at the Colorado Rapids Stadium. Toluca is hosting Austin at Red Bull. And Club America is hosting Columbus at Dignity Health Baby. L.A. Galaxy. once again, the center of the Leaks Cup story. So I see two sellouts there, right? Like Club America in Carson and Chicago in Greater Monterey in Bridgeview.

I don't think Toluca, I don't think Toluca has the juice. No. To sell out. I think you're looking at maybe nine. No, I'll say 4,000 fans at that game because you're getting zero. I mean, not zero, but like Austin fans are not traveling for that. So it's whoever is an Austin fan in New York. You've lost half the market that you could have of having a home team

plus a League of MXI that has some support in the area. Yeah. To look as it, like they're a, I think over the past 30 years, they are the most successful team in League of Emekis. Like they are, they are number one. They've won more titles than anybody else, including Club America, but they're not one of the grandes in terms of having this sort of global fan.

base that like Club America, Chivas, and even to a lesser extent, like Pumas and Cruz Azul have. I still think I would take the over on 4,000. I think it'll end up with like 10 to 12,000 people in that stadium. I can guarantee one thing. They will announce 10 to 12,000 people. So you and the League's Cup website will be in agreement on that one. Sympatica right there. Whether or not it is true.

So we'll talk about League's Cup. on Thursday, we'll review sort of what happened. We'll sort of set the stage for the semifinal. And of course, the MLS weekend to come next weekend. But if you're listening on Sirius Radio, thanks for being here. If we go a little bit long, you know where to find the show. And if you're not, we love you and we appreciate you being here as well. Let's start with all the news.

And Tom, you wanted to start on Dayan Yovalich, who I hear is a big deal and a big player. Yeah, it's Seattle Sounders finalizing a deal to acquire. fired Daniovalich from sporting KC and a $6 million cash for, this is a big shock because I think we all viewed this complete overhaul in Kansas City of, okay, well, Yovalich is probably the one piece that you're building around or probably the one piece that you're going to continue with. And it's not. He's going to Seattle, a team that hasn't spent money on a transfer fee outside of Pedro

De La Vega. It feels like in years, they definitely haven't spent anywhere near this. I think before De La Vega, it might have been Leo Chu in terms of like actual cash and not allocation money. And it's a team that didn't have any DP spots open. As first reported by Nico Moreno, the plan is extend Albert Rusnak's contract, which will lower his cap hit and thus make him not a DP,

which is funny that we are hopefully a year away from the salary cap changing, and thus Rusnak wouldn't have needed to be extended and bought down because he wouldn't have needed a DP spot. But that's kind of ancillary. primary, Seattle getting one of the very best goal scores in Major League Soccer, a player who scored 18 goals last year

for a sporting Kansas City team that was bottom two in goals and expected goals. Daniel Ovalich will score goals if the three of us are in the midfield. He will score goals no matter what. He gets to go to Seattle, which will be the idea when everybody's fit, it'll be more like when he was in the

LA Galaxy. His last year of the Galaxy, he scored a ton of goals and was integral to them winning MLS Cup in 2024. This is an absolute home run for the Seattle Sounders. I don't understand how the fees $6 million because more teams weren't bidding. So I think that all in of itself is you get one of the best finishers in the league for a team

that has struggled at center forward or at least struggled for the plan at center forward for a bit, even when things were going well. It would be Musafsky in or DeRosario or Morris to play there instead of playing wide or maybe Hayes-Ferra. Now you know, Daniel which is your number nine. Daniel which is going to score 20 goals a season if he's fit and the chances are there, which we expect them to be.

I think it's so very good for Seattle. Yeah, it's a home run for the Sounders. And I have been on this show in my column saying, like, this was not the number one place that they needed to upgrade. I still think that other stuff needs to happen, right? They need to fix their winger spots because Pedro de la Vega is probably done for the season. And without him, they don't have anyone who could beat players 1V1 and create the types of chances that Mussovsky and Osazai Di Rosario and Jordan Morris

all feasted on last year. But to your point, I mean, the margins are a little bit greater for Dejan Yovalich in the box than it is with any of those guys. Still, I do think they need to go out and get a winger. They have two open U-22 slots. The question is whether Adrian Hano is going to keep spending. Because to your point, the last time they spent seven figures on a player, Before this was Pedro de la Vega.

Before that, it was Leo Chu. They are the lowest spending team in the entire league in the 2020s before this move. And that includes teams that are like two years old, right? They spent less money than San Diego, less money than St. Louis, less money than Charlotte. So it's like good first step from Adrian Hanauer. There needs to be steps two and three following this up. So I thought that it was going to be a quicker on Seattle because it's probably more interesting to talk about Kansas City

because I think that there's real debates and thoughts. I thought this was slam dunk, no-brainer, Seattle, well done, move on. So Doyle, I just, I'm a little confused because I feel like me and Goss were hammering the Sounders and what was available to Brian Schmetzer amid this losing streak. And you were saying, no, no, no, they can win like this, you know. And now they spend six minutes. on Daniovich and you're like, okay, cool, this is the first, but there needs to be more.

I guess I'm just surprised that this is, that it had moved from, yeah, that was nice, but what else do you need to do? And I thought that even if this is it, I think that they are significantly better today than they were three days ago. So it's a talent upgrade, and I agree with you that they're significantly better. I thought that, and I still feel like the Sounders healthy without this move, without any other moves, probably ends up being a playoff team. Like, let's all remember where they were in the standings before all these injuries hit.

And they still have this ungodly list of injuries, right? And that's slowly rectifying itself. But if you can get a talent upgrade, that's great. But even when we were talking about this over the past month, I was saying they need a 1V1 player out wide. That is, you know, the whole time I was saying that, and I was pointing out that they have the two U-22 slots to use. Now, whether their coach and their front office and ownership all see eye to eye on that is the big question, because I don't think that they necessarily have in the past. And that, look, if Brian Schmetzer is going to be unwilling to play a 19-year-old winger, then they're not going to go out and get a 19-year-old winger,

right? And then that limits the pool of what they can do because they don't have an owner who's going to go spend $6 million on someone else. Can I? Go ahead. No, I was going to throw out. So, Dei Anniovich 18 goals last year on like one of the worst teams in major league soccer, 21 goals the year before. But the skill set that is going to like shine for Seattle fans is 2,700 minutes last year and

2,300 the year before. Because that's the thing with Seattle is we've gone through the list of talent and players, but then none of them are available. And getting reliability. from a star at this position is going to be massive. And you said it, Doyle, of they still didn't fill in the wing stuff. They're like 24th in XG this year. So they're not high, but they're 12th and big chances missed.

So the stuff they create, they don't really finish. And even if they don't create more, with Yovalich, they will score more goals. I think so, yeah. And it's good. It gets them closer to where they want to be. I just, I was operating on the belief that they weren't going. going to spend money like this for number one. And then number two is like, okay, if they had one point five million dollars to spend,

they shouldn't spend it on number nine. They should spend it on a winger who could stay on the field and actually give that attack something close to the dynamism that it had in the middle of the last summer when they were the best team on the continent. But look, Adrian Hannaauer found his checkbook and he upgraded a spot that matters a lot. Like the locus of all that value that the wingers create. ends up being in the penalty box.

And that's where Dejani Ovalich does his work. I do wonder if now there's also a little money to make on a Mussovsky or De Rosario inside of Major League Soccer, right? Because you've got to think one of those pieces is moving because now you've got the healthy player so you can cover for Jordan Morris and when he plays in there. Tom, you mentioned Seattle and maybe being surprised other teams aren't in this. I mean, we know St. Louis was in for roughly 8 million.

dollars with Hugo Kuyper's. I think Dejohn Yovalich at $6 million would make sense. He doesn't do as many things as Hugo Kuypers. Maybe he's not as good a player, but it's also $2 million less. I think it's pretty shocking that there's not four or five

MLS teams that were willing to put up this number. I firmly agree. I mean, maybe I'm just higher on Dan Yovalich than the average executive or the average analyst or the average fan. I thought that my opinion was pretty lukewarm on yovalich but this weekend um i was talking to a c s o't at another team because

i was like did you know jovalich was available and i was like i knew that he could have been had for you know something in this region i was like why didn't you go sign him like it's like what i keep hearing is kind of like he isn't like we respect him we like he isn't the exact profile we're looking for i'm like well over six million dollars you're not getting prime levendoski you're not getting, you know, Alexander Isshack or, you know, Kai Avers or insert whoever, name the forward you want. Like, yes, there's, there's, okay, he, he doesn't create like a number 10, but like, you know what he does? He scores goals. He presses. Um, and he's really strong in the locker room. Like, you look at the galaxy, you look at this team. He's somebody that just puts up numbers

and does it in a way that's sustainable. And he did that in Europe before he came to MLS. So I, again, I just, I don't know. I, I'm surprised. and I do respect the teams. And that's part of the reason why he was available for Kansas City. If we want to move to that part of the equation that I find to be interesting, is that, like, I was shocked when I was hearing of this move, that I thought that he was somebody that they were building around. I thought that the idea was, all right, Andre Louise is your second of three DPs,

and the third one will be a DP 10. David Lee came out and said that publicly when they were introducing Andre Louise. And I was like, okay, because you have your nine and you have no winger, and then compete to compemba could play on the other side. And, okay, you have three DPs and another winger. And a couple of things that I've been told per sources is they obviously really like Dejan and both on the field, off the field. And while, like, maybe they won't find as good of a finisher, no matter how much money they throw at this. By the way, they will throw a lot of money at both of these open DP spots.

It is not unreasonable to say with 18 million on Andre Louise and whatever they do for the 9 and the 10, whether it's over the next eight days before the window closes or the winter, it's not unreasonable to say 50 to 60 million in total in fees. That's what we're talking about here. Even with that, there's no guarantee that you're going to get as good of a finisher. But the idea is the holistic part of the game

and the game model and how they see this team in the future. It's somebody that's contributing more in the buildup or maybe getting vertical more than Daniel Volich did. And I want to be clear this isn't like criticizing him at the door or anything. But it was just, right, they accepted an offer. And at some point, if that's the value, what do we want to do? They want a different profile moving forward.

The other side of this is they get $3 million in GAM that they can convert the fee to. If they sold him to T-Grakes for the same amount of money, they could not insert the game into the team. They would not have done this deal. This deal is something that they did because it was within MLS and how valuable GAM is to salary cap building. And this is me editorializing. I'm not getting this from sources.

There are no other players in the Kansas City team that have value that you could flip for any amount of GAM, let alone the $3 million that they're getting. So between all of that, they feel like they have a deep. spot the day if they want to spend $50 to $20 million on a center forward they will plus getting the $3 million in gam and I understand that rationale that's did like reporting me that my and analyst that is yeah that $3 million game it could be anything it could be Dan Yoavich who scores 18 goals and in a down season so I think that's just where I am at mentally but that is the rationale per source so my first thought when it happened was I assume what SKC is saying which I've

said about Yovalich all the time he does one thing well it's the most important thing soccer but it's the only thing he does it's why the galaxy had to make the decision but chose not to push another dp out the door and find a way to make day on yovlich one because you at some point if you're going to put this much resource into a player the way mLS roster rules are built you have to they have to be enough for your team to build the whole thing around it but it's really hard to replace the thing he does and it's the most expensive thing to don't know about one point five million dollars like goals cost money everything we have seen is the more money you spend unless you suck at what you do the more goals you're going to get and like there's no world in which you just replace him with an

mLS level player and even if you do you're probably spending the same amount so that's the part where i get lost a little like i understand wanting a player who does more but to the list of people tom named like alexander isaq so they're probably not going to get those players. So you can understand wanting a guy at the center forward position who can drop off and create chances and leads to the press and links up with an Andreas Luis and helps create goals while also scoring. The outset SKC finds that are pretty low.

And at this point, you just brought in resources to then go out and get a center forward. Yeah, philosophically, I kind of disagree. I think that chance creation is what costs money. And you like if I was spending if I was building a roster within the the strictures of the current, you know, MLS salary budget, I would spend on a DP 10 and two DP wingers, right? Because I believe that you can find goal scores, be the young or old, like number nine's who do the simple stuff and get into the box. And if you have so much talent in the other attacking positions, that's going to open up chances that can lead to Danny Mosovsky having a 19. goal season, right? And Danny Musaz, nobody's about to spend $6 million on him. So I think it's the chance creation and the structure. The question I have with Sporting Kansas City is, even if they

do spend $60 million, are they going to get those pieces correct? Because what I've seen so far, the answer is a pretty solid no. The team that we're seeing now is basically David Lee has had two transfer windows, two full transfer windows, and they are worse than they were a year ago when they were one of the worst teams of the decade. Sporting Kansas City at this point in this season is on track to be the worst MLS team of all time in terms of goals allowed, expected goals allowed, goal differential, and expected goal differential. The box score number and the underlying numbers are all aligned. And I'm not saying that David Lee, should be on the hot seat already, but like the team that lost last night, eight of those 11

starters were guys that David Lee has brought in, right? So it's like his fingerprints are all over this team. Last year's team was one of the worst in the league. This year's team, after two full transfer windows almost, is one of the worst of all time. So I like philosophically, I understand sell Dejaniovlich, get that gam, open the DP slot, get the type of guy. And, you know, you want in there and maybe actually spend that open DP slot in another spot. It is what I would do. But there has been zero evidence that David Lee's talent ID and Rafael Vicki's ability to put that talent in a position and in a coherent structure to succeed are up to the job of building anything

other than a 15th place team in the Western Conference. Hard to argue with that one right now. I think if you look at the team, like look at the group that was out there against Atlanta. The assumption is most of those players weren't brought into B starters. Like some of the guys they brought in a struggle. No, I'm immediately going to push back on that because this is a time of year where everybody's going down to their 21st, 22nd, 23rd guy on the roster, right? Like everybody who played this weekend was playing like their seventh game in 24 days. You have to have a deep and functional roster and saying,

oh, well, these guys who weren't brought in to start, doesn't matter. These guys were brought in. They're going to have to contribute if they're going to be anything close to a playoff team in these situations going forward. But they went to the Mercedes-Benz and pushed a three-game winning streak Atlanta to the brink. So maybe they did their job the way you'd expect it to. Okay, we could argue that. The other side, by the way, on the goal scoring piece is Duncan McGuire just went for what?

Two and a half million in Gam? One point five million. It's only $2.5 million if he actually does them. which so far. He has not. They're not great. And like we're hearing the U22 initiative center forward for Colorado Rapids, like $3 million. $6 million.

Six million. Six million. So like I get your point, Doyle, but it does cost money. And unless you develop Julian Hall, the odds are you're going to have to spend between $3 and $6 million to fill in that role. You could make a DP 10 and make it be a U22 initiative player or go and acquire someone inside of MLS. but it still will cost in that range at that position for most MLS teams that are trying to be competitive.

SKC continues this offseason. So Andres Luis set a record. Andre. I mean, Andre Lewis is one of them. Sorry. At this point, we know nothing about what they'll do. But the assumption is, Tom, I guess in what you're saying, they'll be back in that territory for a center forward. DP 9, DP 10.

And that is absolutely the plan. Sources I spoke with, just from the market. And so you stop short of saying definitely two DPs within the next eight days. I'm expecting at least one. They're going to try for two. But what I was told in terms of, like, a guarantee was buy, like, the winter, it'll be three DPs. Because initially, they were the 242 model. And they used half of that allocation money.

And then before, like in the spring. So Peter Malook took over as the owner at the end of January. where you officially. Your offseason planning is already all set and you're trying to execute things and Kansas City had about 15 different things they were doing on the roster and plus the front office infrastructure, everything else. So the planning going into the summer was okay, like the owner saying here's the money, let's go three DPs. So that is that was the plan coming into the summer and now with the day on Yovalich move materializing. Again, by by the start of next season, they'll have three DPs if not by September 3rd. So I'm going to watch out for on the

KEC Front. Sporting Kansas City, as I said, lost at Atlanta, two to one. Seattle broke the losing streak. A one-one draw at FC Cincinnati. Felt like a win. Big results for this Seattle team. We'll talk more about them at the end of the week as we get ready for Yovalich to make his debut. The other piece of this for Seattle, because he's already inside a major league soccer, he's going to be ready to roll and he's going to be ready to go out there and play this weekend, which will be big for them. Let's move to the other huge move coming out of the weekend that I think caught a lot of people by surprise. Edward Lovin, one of the originals at St. Louis City, will be heading to San Jose. He was videoed out on the field, giving an applause, banging the drum, all that stuff. Tom, take us into the details. Yeah, San Jose earthquakes are acquiring Edward Lovin from St. Louis City for an initial 425,000 allocation money, plus another 500,000 in add-ons.

He will be a designated player for the team for the rest of the season just for cap machinations. And they weren't about to go spend a big fee on a new player or anything so that they will buy him down in the future. But this is just to save allocation money and cap space for right now. He joins a San Jose team that are free falling at the moment. And he will give them more quality in the attack. I'm a big fan of Edward Lufin, particularly his ball progression and everything else. The way that this deal happened or the way this deal came about, he has a club option for 2027. So through December.

that'll be halfway through the season when the calendar switches next summer. Lovin approached a club and said, hey, like, what's the plan? Can we talk about a new contract, talk about the options for something else? And St. Louis, with a new front office, a new coaching staff, and a team that's been a bit in flux

in terms of incoming and outgoings. We don't want to discuss this until after, see where we're at after the summer. And Lovin, at 29 years old, don't blame him, was like, hey, I don't really love that. And asked the club, Can my agent explore a potential move if there is a long-term home somewhere else? And St. Louis said, sure, because they respect him and feel he's earned it, and he has.

And what came back is several teams were in for Edward Luevin. San Jose obviously, Minnesota United was a team that pushed really hard. There was a couple others. I don't know how serious, but the two at the end were San Jose and Minnesota. So this deal comes to be Lovin will sign a new contract in San Jose. the move is happening because it's going to be a long-term deal. I guess personally, it'll be nice for him to have a fresh start somewhere else. We don't know the personal side of things.

Personal tragedy, his wife had been battling brain cancer and passed away earlier this season. He didn't make a season debut until April. He loves the city. He loves his club, but I can imagine it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world to get a fresh start somewhere else after all of that. But Edward Lovin, one of the most respected players in the league, when San Jose were in the process, of trying to sign him. They were kind of calling around. People generally know that he's a good dude or whatever,

but you do your due diligence. And what they got back was, no, no, no, this is the best person, like, that we've ever been across

from like numerous people. So that's what San Jose are getting. And that's the level of respect that Edward Loven has around the league. Let's start with San Jose. Then we'll get into St. Louis for San Jose. They started the year, obviously incredible form.

They have fallen down now to 1, 7, and 2, across their last 10 games. It coincides with Nico Securis' injury, but I was thinking about it when we were setting up our show last week. There just hadn't even been reports around signings for a San Jose team that we had said when they started 9-1-1-1, it's a thin roster. This isn't sustainable.

It's fine to not be sustainable. It's not fine to not try and be good. And now of a sudden you bring a guy in who can play across, what, three positions, who can play with most of these guys. just feels like a huge shot in the arm, at least at this point of this season, minus how much he can give you over the next three, four years for this group that had started really, really hot. Yeah, it's a great talent play.

It makes them much better with the ball, which is something that they have struggled with over the course of this slump. If you look at, I mean, there's a bunch of stuff going wrong that wasn't going wrong back in the spring. But one of the big ones is they can. Keep losing the ball cheaply in central midfield. And Edward Lovin does not do that. And at the same time, he makes every team that faces him defend big because he hits a really good switch.

And he picks it quickly. He hits it accurately. He doesn't loft it. Like the switches get there really quick. And Bruce Arena has always liked to play with overlapping fullbacks. And getting those – and that allows those fullbacks to get on the ball and into combination play with the strong side winger. early. And that was something that they were doing early in the season. They haven't done functionally since then. And it's killed them because if your fullback is pushing up and the

ball's getting out there and they're losing possession on the wing while they're 80 yards from goal, then you're looking at countertacks in the other direction and they keep getting eviscerated on that. He doesn't fix the overall problem though, which is the lack of structure after the press is broken. And we saw it in the first 10 minutes this weekend, as I Like, oh man, San Jose's back. They were killing Minnesota United. And then Minnesota suddenly was able to start playing through the press. And they did it twice.

And they got the equalizer. And then San Jose, their shoulders slumped. Like, you could see the body language was bad. And then it turned into a route. So I, like, I like with the sounders, like there needs to be more. And I am less confident in San Jose's ownership that there will be more. not that I'm super confident in the sounder's ownership, but I'm less confident that there will be more coming after this,

but maybe this will be the spark that they need to start playing something closer to what they were in the spring. Certainly it makes them more interesting. And I do think that it fits into what Bruce has always wanted to be, which is a team where your best players are veterans and those veterans are, they have the type of, of skill set that sort of amplifies the talents of everybody else.

So it's a really great fit. I'm surprised that they were able to get him so cheaply because this could end up being kind of an era-defining move for the quakes just because he's so good at making everyone else better. This was the karma gods repaying the fact that they didn't know how to pick up an option on Christian Espinoza. Oh, you lost? arguably the most difference-making player in the history of major

league soccer if that's well ends up bringing the record all right we'll give you 425k for edward louvin right when you need it um i think sometimes we do the like who's the starting 11 too much because you mentioned seven games for teams in 21 days injuries like the odds that everyone's healthy and fit all the time are low i do wonder if there's a formation change of some sort though in this if there is i don't know if it's a 4-2-2-2 I don't know if it's a 5-3-2. I think the easy one is you just put Shakuris out as an inverted right winger who doesn't stretch the field, right? Because Judd is one of those number nines who he wants to stretch the field.

And it allows you to have kind of like two playmaking wingers. And Shakiris, he's a natural 10. And we've seen that this year. He's been really good, though. He was kind of, he was bad this weekend. But he's been really good over the course of this season. still you push them to a different role you drop the midfield a little bit deeper so you're not as gapy and as stretched in that midblock and then because Shakuris is a tidier player on the

ball than Buddha or anyone else who's been playing on that right wing that allows you to push kikanovich or the other right backs forward and get them involved and get with and penetration out wide that way so I do think it it'll end up being a change not necessarily in for but in how the 4-2-3-1 functions. The one thing I would say for San Jose is Timo Verner is incredible right now. Everything he touches creates a chance. No one's putting it away. Can you get him closer to goal more often so that he can put some of this stuff away or his touches come?

Like you talked about those switches. The only person who's isolated in space is Timo Verner right now. And he normally breaks his defender down and gets the end line. And then there's no one there to finish it. This is a huge move for San Jose. talent play now gives them some stability for the future as well let's go to the st louis side we mentioned in tom you mentioned sort of lovin looking for a deal all of that there is a lot of angst inside of the st louis fan base as there should be this is a guy you talked about the life

experience he went through the fan base was very connected to him through that he's an original for this team it hasn't been easy since this team launched the up and down they're also on an 11 game on beaten streak right now, the longest in Major League Soccer. So there has to be some level of, like, grace given to the front office and coaching staff that has put together this run, even if there's frustration watching a guy like this walk out the door. Yeah, I agree there. So, again, that was the rationale and the explaining just factually how this move happened.

If I'm analyzing it, I just pick up, I just tell them, hey, we're picking up your option for 27 and in the winter we can talk again or you know whether you want to stay like for me i i i'm surprised for it's not like this was a groundbreaking fee or anything like that yeah it'll open up salary and it'll get some of the allocation money but like i'd rather just have edward louvin for the next four months and then reassess this in the winter i guarantee san jose they would have been there in the winter or different teams who knows but um they wanted to treat him with respect which which i appreciate and and if anybody at that club has earned it it it's Edward Lufin.

But for me, I just would have said, okay, like we'll guarantee your option or, hey, is this to extend your contract to next summer, which I heard he was open to doing and a guarantee rather than it being an option, I would have done that. But I don't know the exact money ass, but I just think he's a very good player.

No, he doesn't have a perfect fit in the three, four, two, one, because he's not, it doesn't ground cover enough, like Edelman and Dirk. Like, they, the way that they're set up under Yohan Demet is those are like bulldogs, rather than deep-line playmakers. And that's like his game. But he's not like quite like a dynamic number 10.

So I understand that thought. But like I think he's very good at both roles. He's just a good player. I want more good players than the team. Yeah, I don't disagree with any of that. It's not a perfect fit. At the same time, he's smart enough and quality enough to make that team better. I respect that Cory Ray has now seemingly made two moves with this in Hartle where it's like,

hey, this guy's been a loyal servant. Yes. Let's treat players right. Let's have a reputation as treating players right. But now that he's put the pressure on himself to bring in guys who can elevate the team and keep this great run that they're ongoing. And frankly, I've not seen anything in his history that suggests he's not going to accomplish that.

Like, he's done a really good job. Yeah. Say it was a vibe. Like I think in three or four years, we're going to be hearing this. full stories of what's gone on over the last, what, three years? Yeah. What was their expansion year? 20, 23?

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, can you imagine, listen, there's life stuff that goes on, right? Hardle wanted to go back closer to his family in Germany. Loven looking for that next deal. But you've been through the bullshit over the last three years. You're on an 11 game winning streak. You play for you on to May.

It's good. And you're still like, I'm sorry. I got to like refigure. I got to reset. Diet starts tomorrow. Like, I got to get a life change going. still where these players are at, which just shows, I think,

the amount that this team has to rebuild from like a culture point of view. And they are obviously on the way to doing it. This has been incredible. Like, they played Houston toe to toe this weekend without Loven, which I think in all of what you said, they're going to lose a little bit of possession when they can.

Like, there's a difference when Loven's in this team or not. Do they want that possession? I don't know. But you watch them and Houston's maybe, a bit of an outlier as an opponent, they're going to have less of the ball. I think they're going to be incapable of being on the ball as often if they choose to.

But all of that's in the context of Hulse is not playing that much so far. And we don't know what else they're going to do, right? Like they still have these openings. They're still trying to fill that role that they were trying to get Hugo Kuyper's for a top. Yeah, I got to imagine the sense of them signing a foreword by the end of the window. We'll see. I just don't have any updates. And I feel doing a disservice of the fact.

fans by it's been basically the last month of me saying they're still working but i don't have any names i don't have anything they will not sign day on yovalich i think we can guarantee that yeah yeah and it's a disappointment because like it's fair to connect them to him for that for the reason that that they tried for ugo kuyper's they're looking around it's abroad in the league whatever it is i hope that they do because this is a really good team and i think holes is going to fit very very well there's a lot to like within the group uh betcher scored again this weekend he's heard the whispers he's You're in the footsteps. Listen, man, he's a good squad player to have.

And as Sasha Klushton said, Harry Kane-esque of a finish. Listen, when you got Harry Kane on your team, what are you doing? But, you know, there's potential with this team. Again, they're playing very well right now. But I think more, they have more substance than maybe the San Jose 10-game run. San Jose looks like the best team in the league over 10-game span. So I get it for the fans of being upset and waiting for new signings. While, like, they're still ahead of schedule.

If they finish ninth this season, like in February, like, what happens if San Jose finished this ninth? I would have been like, fantastic season. It's going to be a transition year. What you want to see is good foundations. You know what you're building towards stylistically and player personnel-wise. And this team has done both, and done both, particularly the style-wise, better and quicker than I thought they were going to.

And this just feels more real. But there's still that potential of like, all right, you can have a few building blocks by the end of the year. and you have not just the opportunity, but the money there. It's not a surprise that they've been able to sign a DP 9 and that they needed a DP 9 basically since April 1st. Faluk fall this time last year.

He was somebody who we thought was going to be a real player. He was awesome. I don't know if I've watched him one time in this league. I know he's played. I can't remember a single thing. Is there any interest in him around the league? Because, like, I feel like we need to get Joe Lowry on. Falu Fall was a guy who got the ball on his foot.

And it's like, I'm going to try to dribble into midfield every single time. Are you saying this from last year or? Yeah. Okay. I was about to throw the challenge flag and I thought you were talking about in Bocca. No, he no longer plays. No, I'm just like, neither. He's a guy who I thought would have been a part of this.

And he's a guy whose talent is still like seared into my brain. Is there a chance that he is the next. you know, the next guy on the move out of, yeah, okay. No idea. You'd assume so. He didn't come here from Europe to not play, but I have no idea. And he's a U-22, and there are literally 29 other teams in MLS that could use a talented centerback. Just try and push-guess this one.

Well, listen, when Baumgartel, when you've got Jaziel Orozco and Dante Polvara in the building, it's going to be tough for other people to get minutes. And St. Louis has built something really special right now. It's working on a lot of different levels. They won this weekend without Lovin. I have to admit that Alex Matan was pretty good in this game and helped create the goal. A guy I refused to talk about when he signed

because I wasn't going to go down the Matan road again until it was proven. And Yon DeMez has helped prove it. So St. Louis, the 11 match on Beaten Street is the longest major league soccer. it also ended Houston's eight match on beaten streak, which was second in the league. Doyle, I mentioned to you, I think, before we got on,

I still really enjoyed watching Houston in this game. There's still a lot to like. This wasn't a like Houston has no chance or that we had blown anything out of proportion to me from this performance, but these are two of the best soccer teams to watch right now in the Western Conference. Yeah, I mean, the winning streaks kind of speak to that.

it was also kind of self-inflicted on Houston's part. Like the game-winning goal, a game losing goal was Hector Herrera attempting a backheel in his own defensive third that ended up being an immediate turnover. Yeah. So I think that's, there's probably some frustration on that. I saw Tom on mute. I thought he was going to defend. I thought I was going to be Tom Beas like, listen, when you're a real player,

when you're a real player has to make the game for your team, you got to try stuff. I still, I'm still hesitant on Houston because their big move was Duncan McGuire and he has not really fit in. He has not been able to make his mark in any substantial way in that attack. And if he's not going to do that, I don't see any sort of title winning ceiling with this team. Like they need to rediscover the pre-injury, you know, Duncan McGuire is a rookie head, like, 14 goals like they need that guy to show up but he hasn't really been that guy in a couple years now um okay let's talk a little bit uh about santi rodriguez heading from columbus or potentially to columbus from bodafogo and then we're going to name multiple nycfc

players in this conversation um tom let's start with santi rodriguez and sort of Columbus continuing this rebuild yeah i mean unless that there's an update that i haven't seen last I heard was advanced talks that there were different. Why did I put Nico Fernandez in this thing? I don't know why we didn't do it before. Sanji Rodriguez. Santy Rodriguez.

Yeah, Columbus are trying to sign him. They will be able to without God's dog leaving because Abolali is on the season injured list. It's complicated because Botafogo freaking owes everybody money, including NYCFC as far as I understand at least for Santy Rodriguez.

So there was like one proposal of like, Columbus will just pay him in my CFC. And then Atlanta were like, what the hell? What about us? They still haven't paid us anything for Tiago Amata. So it's going to be a little bit complicated there and beyond just trying to make a deal happen. Regardless, he was sold from NYCFC for 15 million plus add-ons to Botafogo. He had, I think he was fine.

It was good in 2025. In 2026, he's not playing that much. He started, I think, only nine games. Not a lot of goal contributions. Makes sense that he'd be on his way back. but because Botafogo have IOUs everywhere around the world. There's a long line for who deserves to get the money first. So I can't imagine that that makes this process easy.

The obviously stat line that will jump out for Columbus fans, and I'm sure Columbus looked at, is not the Botafogo numbers. Doyle is 2024 with NYCFC, 13 goals, 6 assists in 36 starts. He was the center of that team, and that's the guy they're looking for. Yeah, and he kind of split his time between playing as a number 10 and playing on the wing. And he's actually not a perfect fit for either,

but I think he fits really well in a 3, 4, 2, 1. And that's how they line up when they have the ball. So this is like, he's a player I've never been in love with, but he's been productive. He's obviously a good player. He's in his prime. There's not going to be an MLS adjustment, and he's a tactical fit for the team.

Well done. Good job, Isatal and Tim Bespecenko. Now go out there and sign a centerback for the love of God. Eric, bye, you, buddy. Yeah, right. You have to love the idea of next year, Wesumabwe-Ali being the point of the attack with Bryce Mendes and Sandy Rodriguez sitting underneath him.

Just because you guys keep on talking about it like it's a done deal. I want to be clear. It's not. Yeah. All right, Tom. All right, Tom, relax. Mr. Coldwater. Yeah.

When does God's dog play for Vancouver? Yeah, fair point. But when when Daniel Gosnike was signed, we said it makes no sense from a soccer point of view. You can see how this could make sense with Sancy Rodriguez. And I think his ability to drop in and take on some of the attacking sort of impetus will allow Bryce Mendez to continue to float higher and score goals, which he's clearly capable of. And we'll see what the rest of this group looks like, Andres Gomez with a crazy free kick goal this weekend. He's been better.

He is still tough to play two attacking mids in front of who also maybe don't defend a ton. and I think that's going to be a pretty big question mark for Columbus of how this whole thing fits together. It's a bizarre season for the crew, by the way. They are last in the Eastern Conference. They are into a Leagues Cup quarter final and an open cup semi-final. What constitutes a good year, Doyle? A trophy. If they win a trophy, it's a good year.

We always knew that this was going to be a reset. The fact that they hired a coach who got a completely different, tactical approach than Wilford Nancy and then they cut bait with him after a dozen games always meant that they were going to be kind of behind the eight ball. I like what I've seen from them since Laurent Courtois took over. They're not as talented in the box as they were during their best years under Wilfred Nancy. And that means, you know, on one side, that's, that's, there's no Cucho Hernandez, right? Even if Wessam, Abu Ali was healthy. He's not Cucho Hernandez. And on the other side, it's like, you know, Rudy Camacho was not prime Iko Parra,

but he was a really good defender for two and a half years under Wilfred Nancy. And they have not, for some reason, they have not gone out and replaced them. And that means you lose games like the one that they lost this weekend. I will say coming out of this season, the one thing I had said that you should find is can these young guys play for you? because now you don't have to spend the money on the bench for next year, right? Chase Adams, Taha, Bruin, Ruvalcaba. These are guys that should be in your rotation, and that frees up some money as well to go and spend,

maybe put it towards one or two players in bigger positions. Mo Farcy's been really good since coming back as well, which is a player that they've missed for almost two full years. Okay, if you listen to us via Sirius Radio, we're going to go a little bit longer. So search the on-demand player or anywhere you get your podcast. I mentioned Nico Fernandez. because I completely put every NYCFC player together.

Tom, can we talk about this for a second before we move into stuff? The report's coming out that SKC, which is where I should have put this, had bid a potential record bid for him from NYCFC, but it was turned out. So I didn't say it was turned down. I said that the talks are inactive. Nico, Nico Mercow is somebody there. I'm in the ice cream shop right now. That wasn't me given.

That was, I thought that was for dramatic effect. grow up. Sporting Kansas City pushed hard to try to sign Nico Mercow from NYCFC. The final bid ended up at 23 million upfront plus 2 million in add-ons. And what I was told last week

is talks are inactive and it isn't happening. Maybe something changes. I don't know why. I don't think it'd be more attractive without Danieliolich. But that was my understanding that if Nico Mercow is going to leave

NYCFC, probably Europe or maybe something huge in Brazil. or something. But this was a chase that Kansas City had. And Kansas City's sporting director, David Lee, David Lee signed Nico Mercow to NYCFC. So that's the connection there.

And it's very interesting. And it mirrors a theme that we've talked about playing on the show when Atlanta's swung and missed on some big, like, international targets. And Kansas City, we question like, is Andre Louise, is that worth it? Just go Peter Musa, Sanjay Roderick. Call your favorite player in the league and how much would it cost? and Kansas City's made it clear money is not going to be an obstacle.

I'm surprised that this is the only name that I've heard at least that they're trying to get. Why wouldn't you call for Peter Musa? Why would it be Mortino-Heda if that's who you like? Go on down the lid. Just go to the select or sort by goal scored or assists in MLS.

And if you really like that player, call them and be like, how much would it cost? You know that we have the money. And that's what the cash for rule is allowing. And again, I'm not surprised that they try. for Nico Mercow just because we know that the front office loves this player and he's been

one of the best players in the league. I think I'm surprised that this is the only one that I've heard about for Kansas City. And that doesn't mean that they haven't called other teams and done what we've just suggested. But why not spend? If you have the money to spend, I'd want at least one of my three new DPs to be proven in MLS. Tom's SKC shopping list is Evander, Lionel Messi and Prince of Wusu. Those are the three players that Tom are you like soccer and goals plus assist. And put eight defenders on the field because that team scoring goals.

Yeah, David, let me ask you this. NYCFC have, they're now winless in five, and they have one win in their last seven across all competitions. Are they even in like, like the inner circle of contenders has it gotten even tighter and they're just like lodged in there completely? 13 goals. Three assists so far, by the way, and 20 starts for Nico Fernandez. God, guys, I got you. Can I say this? Do you want me to get Doyle or do you want to say something serious?

My serious thing is if NYCFC is really listening to offers for him, then it like kind of confirms a lot of the unserious nature of this club to be a contender. He's a 26-year-old who has started every game who is the hottest player in Major League Soccer. What are you building for? Like what is the point? Yeah. So I know they don't want to listen. the fact that SKC

thinks there's an opening or anyone else is part of the problem. That would be my response and yes, NYCFC will be in an Eastern Conference at my final, or Eastern Conference final after all of this. They'll be inside that hole.

They're going to be in that hole. They were a huge underdog, what, two years ago? No, that's what I'm saying? Like getting there and just, like, how did they get it? And get smoke. Well, maybe Maximum O'Rales will come back right at that time and he will lead them until last.

But yeah, that, I think that's the part to me. Like, yeah, kind of makes sense. SKC are willing to spend money. This is a guy that they would put on that list. Obviously, David Lee's connection, so we know the background there. And, like, if that's what they're willing to spend

on Olympiacos' backup winger at a similar age profile, why wouldn't she go spend on NYCFC's best player? The fact that a team in Kansas City is like, oh, we think we can big dog a team who's about to open up their own stadium in Queens is part of the larger major, league soccer problem that I can't get into right now. Okay.

Should we talk about Breel and Bolo? Sure. Super excited about Breel and Bolo. Tom, how excited? You're in now? I mean, no. Bolo, the deal went official. He's an Atlanta United player, not an Ipswich player in case anyone was curious.

The plane went to Atlanta, not to Ingrid. Breel and Bolo signed for Atlanta United, $18 million fee, one of the most expensive in league history. And he was unveiled to the fans on Sunday night when they won, beating sporting Kansas City 2-1. and this team has a lot of things a lot of things sure he looked at the level of that game it was just like hell yeah I'm home

there's a lot of still a lot of things for Atlanta to figure out but if Mbolo lives up to his profile this is this is a player in his prime that has scored goals in the Bundesliga he's been a key player for Switzerland nationally since I think he was 18

if he lives up to this profile then that's one question answered and that's a very valuable question I've answered. And a really good center forward should make life easier for the players around it, the same way that a really good chance greater should make it easier for a center forward. But you have to sign a big time player that you want to be part of your short, medium, and long-term future.

And Breland Bolo, there is not a question of financial ambition. I think this player is going to fit well in this league. I like this infinitely more than if they went down the Roma Lukaku route. so I'm very curious to see how he gets on but they're going to keep swinging and I respect that would you rather have Breel and Bolo for 18 million or Dejan Yovalich for 6 million yeah probably the latter

but I mean I agree but like when you're a DP you're DP right like it doesn't it's just yeah it's just the owner's money yeah and Doyle you love using that DP spot on that center forward position so you're all in for this yeah it's I don't hate it. It's just it's not how I would do it, but like, I understand, um, like, part of signing a guy like this is marketing. And we all saw the, the crowd at that Atlanta game last night. Like, you, they need to do some marketing and get those fans bought back in. Um, what's happened over the

course of this three game, um, winning streak is that they've actually been functional through midfield for the first time in ages. I'm not sure how real that is, but it's a really impression from Adrian Gill, the kid they got for nothing from Barcelona B. He's a Denver kid. I don't know why he ended up with Atlanta instead of the Rapids. They were showing on the pregame yesterday. They were showing him as a kid like wearing Rapids gear. And then he went off to train in Barcelona for five years. And like he was on the B team. He played real minutes. Yeah. Just couldn't, you know, it's a pretty interesting midfield to, to break through. Yeah. But he has been, he has given them tempo in midfield and a little bit of ball security.

And that in turn has allowed both Cooper Sanchez, who's been a really good player for an 18-year-old this year, and then Tristan Miyumba to play higher as a press. Unbelievable that he's back from the dead. I can't believe it. They've been trying to get rid of him for so long that they forgot they were trying to get rid of. Well, you know, it's weaponized him because he covers so much ground and he has good instincts for hunting the ball.

What he doesn't have is instincts for defending anything that's happening behind him. How did it's it's so funny that like those two skills like they should be aligned that you should be right like it's like when you're saying he's really good of ground cover him. I'm like I agree except he's never covering the right ground when he's playing deeper. I don't get it. But he is now and then on top of that like Miguel Al Maron has come out of the World Cup break with his hair on fire and like he's not 2018 Miguel Almaron but he looks really good. So it's like it suddenly looks pretty functional. I don't think this is going to be a playoff team. Um, but I don't think that it, it, look, man, it's not the disaster that it was a month ago.

There's some actual hope now. And, um, it emanates from that midfield. And hopefully, um, you know, Breel, um, can can kind of benefit from that. So the piece about Mbolo that I do like in the combination with Al Miron is he doesn't do a ton outside of the box. The one thing he does is he seals his man when he. he does drop in and he slips players in behind the centerbacks that have chased him out. And that's where Al Miron scores his goals. And Al Miron doesn't have the speed anymore to break guys down or blow by guys out wide and then

get inside. But if you give him the half step already, he's still a pretty good finisher in that left channel. And I do think that piece will fit. I still don't know who Moran Chuck is in any of this. But I do think that Al Mironi Rohn has played the best. he's played for Atlanta over the last month since he's gotten back there and that piece could fit pretty cleanly.

And then, and Bull is going to win 100% of the things you put up in the air around the six. Whether it's on the back post, middle, it doesn't matter. He's going to win 100% of those. And that might be enough to give you a couple easy goals or like copouts for the wingbacks or full backs to get a couple of goals where now you don't have to play from behind. And this is the team on a three game winning streak. rocking and rolling. Let's talk about Khalid El-Amad heading from Minnesota to Austin. I don't really know what to make this. Tom, it broke my brain a little bit for a second and then I realized I don't

know why. What do you make of when you heard about this and sort of what this means for these two clubs? So, Kyle Al-Hamad has been with Minnesota United for a few years. He hired Eric Ramsey as a head coach. he had a small he's somebody who likes to sign players for value and not spent a lot they haven't spent a ton of money in minnesota doesn't love signing players he sometimes signs players they've they made the playoffs two years in a row they've been a very respectable team uh this year hasn't been perfect or great but like they've had that era what also are getting is a guy who is obviously very familiar with mLS being a cSO in this league for a few years he was sporting director at Barnsley in England, and he worked for City Football Group before that,

as a lead scout in this area, as amongst other jobs. So they get somebody who's experienced in a number of roles, experienced in MLS and abroad, and this is who will be the sporting director when Jim Gerton takes over as head coach in the winter. Dean Costalus is, I think it's a VP of soccer strategy. I'm assuming he would just stay as number two, but he was somebody who worked on Curtin staff in Philly. He's already started with Austin this summer, and now Caled out of He had been the point person in the summer. Caled Al-Hamad is obviously the CSO. That deal is starting now.

And he is going to be the sporting director for the rebuild that Austin are undergoing right now for Minnesota. Hank Stebbins takes over as the interim CSO. He has a very long title. A lot of different things. He's the number two in Minnesota. And he is somebody that negotiated deals very hands-on, like not abnormal for any club to have multiple people negotiating deals, somebody who has experience in getting deals done and working

on things. He is the interim CSO. People around the club really, really like Hank. People around the league have said good things about him, from what I'm told. I'm expecting him to be a candidate for the permanent job. He's going to be the interim for the rest of the year. That is confirmed. We'll see who else kind of pops up in this CSO search.

But I know that Hank Stabins is somebody that is respected within the club and around the group. they just made their first summer signing was Malone, right, Goss? They haven't been very active. And we'll see, they were trying to sign Edward Lovin. We'll see what happens over the next eight or ten days. But this is somebody that's being promoted from within. Makes sense for interim for right now. And I think he's going to have a real chance of the job.

Tom, it's not that hard. It's just head of recruitment, roster strategy, and negotiation. That was his official title just now. I don't know why you can't memorize that. Yeah. So my reaction to this is Minnesota doesn't sign players. Like they haven't signed anyone over the last three years. They are one of the slowest teams to wait a minute.

We need to push back on that because that's wrong off the jump, right? Okay. Because he came in and he immediately signed Calvin Yaboah two and a half million. That's a pretty good signing for that number. Joaquin Pereira was two and a quarter million. That's a pretty good signing. Owen Jen has two million. Not a great signing.

Nicholas Romero, two million. Pretty decent signing. Jefferson Diaz was about 750K. That's pretty good signing. Nectarios Triantis was two and a half million. That's a pretty good signing. There's some misses in there, too.

Dominic Fitz, Keniel Michel Michel from his... I was so in on Dominic Fitz, man. Yeah, that did not work. Yeah. I'll own it. It's some... Jung Huion, who was a South Korea.

Olympic team player who I don't even remember. I've never heard that name out loud. I've only typed it and read it. I've done neither. That's the first time it's entered my brain and it's gone. But the point is they did sign a lot. My initial impression of this

from Kellead Elamad, like from Austin making this guy their GM was like I didn't get it. But just looking at that list, I think there are more hits than misses in the one to $2 million range, one to two and a half million dollar range.

And there aren't a lot of GMs who can actually say that. In particular, getting a guy like Triantus for two and a half million dollars, getting a guy like Joaquin Pereira for less than two and a half million dollars. Like that's actually some good work. So I understand it more than I did 24 hours ago. So my only pushback on that, drill is you named a bunch of guys that he signed the day he got, not the day, but the first. window he came in.

Everyone who has... Third window sucked. Yeah. Everyone who has left since then hasn't been replaced. The team hasn't improved. You've changed coaches. You haven't made their lives easier.

And it feels like they've just spun their wheels over and over again. Outside of the Hamas Rodriguez move. Which in looking back was an even larger failure of it put Joaquin Pereira on the sideline of the team and the style for a little while. It wasted the half of season that Triandis was healthy for. So it's been now a year and a half to two years where he's been one of the worst CSOs in Major League Soccer. Now I will give you, if you want to operate in the 500,000 to 2 million space and Jim Curtin is signing the DPs, then maybe that changes things. Right?

The structure there will be different than it is in Minnesota as well as the spending ability. Yeah. I think that's the glass half full argument, right? It is like, okay, if you can give Jim Curt in a CSO who has a 60% hit rate on guys in the $500 to $2.5 million space and then get the three DPs right on top of that, then you're probably going to be a team that does pretty well. And Austin in their history has never been a team that does pretty well. Even the one good season they had was all just like smoke and mirrors and finishing luck. And they showed that with their next season just cratering out. But if they do that and then they get production from Academy kids like Irvin Torres,

who's been really good over the past few weeks, then maybe they'll finally start to build something instead of just burning bunny. On the Minnesota side, I just think it's a tough reality of the pecking order in Major League Soccer right now. And I don't really know where they stand except for walking prayer scoring the goal of the year and smoking Santa. Doyle would have saved that. Doyle would have saved that. I don't want to be the guy who pisses on a Robona goal. But upon further review after I tweeted,

because I thought it was cool, I watched it a few more times. And I was like, when does Angus Gunn start to dive for this? Yeah. He doesn't die if he falls over. That's Doyle. One more thing.

Wait a minute. When did I? I probably don't. It doesn't cut you down. I thought Weeby was this joke, right? Honestly, Doyle Wee was a little bit more playing than you. This is we're like outside the realm. And it's like that's just the language of intimacy

Among Men. You were correct on Angus Gunn being Not Good from the first day and I tried to push back. So it's like I can't give you full credit for that. So I have to put you in his shoes there. Back to the serious stuff really quickly. Austin of C I reported this. They targeted Chris Albright. Jim Curtin and Chris Albright are very close. They worked together for a long time in Philly. There's been a little bit of dissatisfaction among the SINCY fans with the SINCY front office and failing to take that, you know, one more step. I think him and Pat Nunes have been one of the best partnerships in terms of front office head coach in the league over this half

decade. I don't think that's arguable because of what they inherited versus what they turned into. Some people hilariously are trying to give Jordan Ikemp. Some of the credit just because Luchel Kosa and Brenner were in the team. Neither of them were anything near what they would be under Pat Noon and the Chris Albright era. Austin wanted him. That was the top target. Cincinnati ownership turned down the approach. He said he is not leaving.

You were not allowed to talk to him. In MLS, the rule is if you go from an assistant GM to a GM or assistant coach to a head coach, anything where it's a clear promotion, you can't stop somebody from interviewing. You get compensated, but you can't say no. If it's a head coach to head coach, CSO to CSO. The team can say no, and that's it.

That's where it ends. So Austin wanted Chris Albright, and it sounds like he would have been open to it. I'm certain that that would have been pay raise because of what Austin are trying to put into the team. Financially, you've seen the money they spent on the team. I'm certain Jim Curtin wasn't cheap either. So this is a sign of ambition from this club to try to turn things around and hire the right people to do that. It ends up with Caled Al-Mata. I don't know who else that they spoke to.

I don't know who else that they targeted. but Albright was basically the first call. Can I read you the list of guys that Chris Albright has signed for between 500K and 2.5 million? Pavel Boucha, Luca Origano, and then- Those are two eight-pluses. Yeah, Ender Achenike, Samuel Gehdi, who I love. So if we're four for four, I know it's about to go down, but we're four for four so far. Ayub Jabari, which four for five.

Brian Ramirez, who I think has been good, but not great. Can't score on an open frame against Seattle, though. That was insane. The double hit that Evander puts away. So he has a really great hit rate on those types of signings. Chris Albright's issue has been, he has, I think, overpaid for the talent already on his team. But in terms of an eye for talent in the first place, he's been one of the league's best CSOs. He also is going to end up negative.

Yeah. He also is the first. name when you're like, oh, Jim Curtin got signed. Okay, who are the Philly guys? And Albright, I thought was outside of the realm because he has the job. And he has the job for a high spending team. Like, I understand personal paycheck, but I don't really see a big difference if I'm Chris Albright between managing Cincinnati and Austin.

Like, they spent on Denke. They spent on Avander. Like, there's not much more in Austin, except for the fact that potentially you have to clean up your own mess in Cincinnati to Doyle's point of the guys you paid. we're in Austin. It's someone else's mess. So maybe you could blame them for a little while. But clearly Chris Albright didn't agree. So he's sticking away.

What climate would you prefer? Austin or Sinci? Because I'd prefer Sinci. I think that's unpopular. I don't know if it is though. I wouldn't be able to live, I mean, like the deep south, like Florida, or deep Texas, like desert. Like, I'd rather be cold for seven of the months rather than like I need to go.

To be clear, nothing of the things you said were in the desert. You named two places that are incredibly human. The desert was the four. different region. Because desert's not that bad. I still wouldn't be able to do like Arizona or whatever. Shout out Joe Lowry, New Mexico, wherever.

Any of those places, I can't. But more so, like the humidity of like South Florida, Texas, I know it could be some of it dry. I wouldn't be able to do it. No opinions. No thoughts. No, I have a lot of opinions.

I mean, I live in Miami and I pretty much hate it. But it's just been really eye-opening to see how your brain maps the world. and starts to explain it. That's been a big part of the experience. Okay, Jeannie Wynaldem, superstar for RSL. How hype should I be about this?

I don't think it's happening. I don't like there was interest, there was talks, he was mutually interested. I don't think that this will end up happening. I was going to buy every Liverpool fan of Genie and Aldem RISL jersey. This really ruined my day,

but also save money. You're going to send somebody up to come down. Yeah. And I think we're required on this show in honor of, Andrew Wayby to mention that whole city defeated Manchester United on the back of Maddie Crux. Who's his favorite player? Who's his favorite player in MLS and C.

People are talking about Lucas Harrington. Maddie Crooks, that's where it comes from. Okay, after like six hours of talking, we have come to the weekend. Let's hit the headlines real quick and then we will get out of here. Let's start with the best thing you saw, Doyle. Yours is via one of our friends in Nashville. Yeah, the great Ben Wright picked this up on the broadcast. like four minutes into stoppage time of that crew Nashville game you could hear b j

calahan saying to Andy Nahar Andy I need everything you got two minutes just empty the tank give me everything you got and like literally 30 seconds later andy nahar scores the game winning goal just one of those moments that I wish MLS was better at picking up and like distributing because it's like that was a special moment from what is proving to be a special team. I think you said it at the top of the show. They're on track now to break the supporter shield record, 79 points. They're one of the teams that kind of blew off the leagues cup, and I did not think that was controversial at the time, and it's looking like a great decision now because they have gas on the tank with their starters in a way that some of these other

teams that are falling off a little bit clearly do not. That was such a fun moment at the end of the game and Jason Palacio is that little slip ball into Nahar. He's really, really good. Like him and Wolezzi, man, are so very good together. Shwaki, obviously. Like, what I love most about this team is, is that they have the rare ability to combo that, like, they have individual brilliance and the freedom they're in in the final third, but, like, you really like their structure and their patterns.

Like, doing both that well is very difficult to do together without taking too much away from one of the other. So, yeah, not enough good things to say about. Nashville. Yeah, they play with structure and the players play with initiative and they get a ton, obviously, from their veterans. Honey Mukdar might be having his best season. But at the same time, developing guys like Matt Corcoran, Rebaker-Witing, handing the starting goalkeeper role over to Brian Schwaake, who's probably second in the goalkeeper of the year race at this point and should be in the national team camp. like there's it's just a pluses across the board for the coach the team front office record points 79 points right now

they actually got better over the last week it was 78 when we had this combo last week Doyle you ready to put your name on it put my like new record like yes they're going to break the record guarantee it um barring no you didn't you didn't give me a chance to take a look at what their upcoming schedule is. Oh, WFVN.

So, week one against the Jets win, week two against the band, that's on the last month. Don't worry, Tom, you're about two weeks away. They host since they're at NYCFC, they're at Toronto, they're at Miami, they host Chicago. That is actually a kind of a bear of an upcoming schedule. Someone can say, they're not going to do it.

They are currently the best team, 21 games in an MLS history. Yeah, I think they will end up over 70 points. I think they will win the shield. Now they have a nine point lead on Vancouver, though Vancouver has a game in hand. But I don't think they're going to end up on 75 points. So they're the best team through 21 games in MLS history.

They're just ahead of the LA Galaxy from 96 or 97, 98, which means that they are better than teams that got point, like had shootouts and got, and got two points and all that stuff, right? Like this is not. It was your, it was your stat. I don't know. Well,

my assumption then being better than the galaxy means of that year, that everyone in that territory got listed. So that's pretty impressive. Yeah. So, yeah, Nashville, big, big moment, big victory for them to close it out. And, yeah, has like the special sauce season vibes of, like, everything that happened. Tom, what was the best thing you saw? So I'm going to pivot.

I'm going to have two. And one, listen, Andrew Wee and Kael and Carl on here, they were the only ones who would truly understand. But, you know, when a baby runs on the field, as a father, you think of protecting that child. You think of, I don't know, you think of all the moments ahead of that child for the future, being at a game, doing these things. No. And you treat that child like any other pitch invader, man.

This is a tough world that we live in. You bury that kid. What is security doing? But everyone's reaction to this was, I assume, mine of the sicko world, which was like, oh, someone re-found this clip. Like, this already happened. At the same stadium. Yeah. It's happened twice in MLS, and it happened at the same stadium both times.

There was no world in which I thought that was live. As I watched that clip, I was like, oh, yeah, of course. You know, this is the classic thing resurfaces. Now a whole new set of followers find it. And that's what it is. ridiculous. Also, question marks around the way Payball Park was built. It's just a bolting out of sweets

and onto the field. Minnesota head coach, and thankfully, this was in stoppage time of a 5-1 game. So, and the ball is at the other end of the field. That's always nice. And people could laugh about it. Probably maybe not if you're San Jose, given where the game was. But Cameron Knowles, the Minnesota head coach, was asked about it after the game. And he's like,

yeah, it's probably a little early for a stadium, a lifetime stadium band. So I thought that was funny. The other thing for me was the battle of the USM&T goalkeepers, Matt Freeze and Matt Turner. They were awesome in the one one draw between New England and NYCFC. Matt Turner saved Carlos Hill penalty and then an incredible double save on that like the followup rebound. Again, they were both really, really good. Oh, was that a fake head nod to someone time or is that a real one?

That was the office that I'm in. People are walking by. Got it. seemed perfectly time that you were talking like New Jersey guys and then you just like threw up a finger point. And I thought that was part of the whole vibe. Mine is going to be the Josh Sargent cartwheel. If I knew that there were going to be childlike cartwheels, I would have been more pissed that Josh Sargent's been bad so far since he came over. But he helps lead TFC to a 201 win at Inter Miami as things continue to crumble there, helping stretch the lead for Nashville at the top of the standings.

I don't know, maybe just sergeant will start scoring goals, which would be a nice thing for Toronto FC. Some notes from the weekend to know, Patrick Gassbeck made his return from injury in that Nashville win. So things only getting better for a team that's done pretty well to improve their squad as the season's gone along. LA Galaxy, three straight games with a red card. Not easy. It's not ideal. You got to be impressed. And they ended up in this weird situation where J.T. Marsenkowski was trying to argue that it was a penalty kick so that it wouldn't have been.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then Greg, Greg Vanney after the game was like, I don't know why he's going for that. Like, I think he's just so exasperated by the situation where I think he just answered very honestly about, I don't know why he's going for that ball. Yeah. They rotated in this one, Ruben Ramos Jr. with their goal. And then Chuky had a breakaway to win the game. Oh. And he should have put it away.

And he takes a terrible touch and gives away the opportunity. I think it went out for a goal kick on a breakaway. That's how bad it was in the. end. Charlotte, two goals in two minutes to come from behind at home over DC United. So they get the victory. DC falls out of the playoffs as Antoine Griseman scores a brace against a fully rotated RSL team to bring Orlando above the playoff line. Doyle. So for an Orlando team, a similar to Columbus that we mentioned, they're in a U.S. Open Cup semi-final. And now they are above the play offline and starting to play pretty well getting healthy and in a pretty good spot. Yeah.

They, you know, Grismond being here has changed the vibe. The big thing, though, is like Robin Yonson got healthy. And they've been a playoff caliber team since Robin Yonson got healthy. And I still think they need to do some work around the rest of that back line. They've made some minor moves, like, you know, loaning out Colin Gusky, who's a pretty good homegrown prospect. But like, it feels like bigger moves. need to be made.

And I do wonder, you mentioned, you know, Martino Heda before, just like kind of off the cuff when you were talking about guys in MLS who might be for sale. Like, it kind of makes sense that he's a player that teams would be calling about. And if Orlando does end up selling him and has an open DP slot and some money to reinvest, that things can get really interesting for this team. But because I don't think there are any kind of threat to win a trophy. Um, but they are not fair open cup. They could win that one, but they are, um, like they're better and they're headed in the right direction.

Uh, and that feels good compared to where they were six months ago. Okay. So this is my favorite game. So I'm probably the one on the hook, but if you had to put Martino hit on an MLS team, where would you put them? I mean, if Florida. Well, if sporting Kansas City is really looking for a number 10, right? Like doesn't, doesn't that make a lot of sense? Yeah.

I would just like to see him with Griesman. Can I interest you in Chicago as that 10? No. I think they want to. I think I think Burhalter wants to play with two eights, right? Guys who give them a little more stability in midfield. And, oh, Hayt is not really that type in number 10. He's just a pure attacker.

He's not an orchestrator. One day I'm going to get a yes. One day I'm going to get a yes. Chicago fire. Number 10. Montreal would have been an obvious one if they didn't sign Alexis Sanchez just as like a talent play. Minnesota would be on that list as well. Tom, did you have anyone that I didn't say or think of that you were where you'd want to see him besides Orlando? No, I'd like to see him in Orlando. I've been insistent on that since Creesman signed. I think that the two of them together are going to be really good. I would just like to see that when he comes back from injury. Okay. Good luck. The white caps blitzed FC Dallas for five goals. Someone on blue sky message me and said, how could you not talk about FC Dallas being the away soul?

of Major League Soccer, which Tom, we were actually laughing about this going into that show, which is a funny coincidence about how good they are, but partially also then how bad they are at home to still be sitting in the middle of the Western Conference. So I told him, I promise that we will lead the show with it if you beat Vancouver, and they lost five to zero in this game. Here's the interesting stat. They had 17 shots, eight of them on goal. They scored five goals.

In the previous game, a one zero lost to Houston, they had 17 shots, only one of them on goal, and they scored zero goals. So you shoot, you score, you know, big Michael Scott analysis there for me. Kevin Sullivan, we mentioned he scores after getting that red card rescinded for the fight over Inter Miami. And they continue to be unbeaten in the Ryan Richter error. And then L.AFC, a one-one draw with Portland, Vincent Jansen comes off the bench, gets two yellow cards in three minutes. The second of which was for a weird handball on trying to test the ball down.

L-AFC comes from behind. They get the 1-0 win. Anything I missed that you guys want to point out from the weekend? More Martino-Haded teams. More Martino-Haded teams I'm always here for. On Tuesday, Monterey will, I believe, host Chicago at Bridgeview. Leon will host R.S.L. at the Colorado Rapids. And then on Wednesday, Toluca will host Austin at Red Bull Arena.

And Club America will host Columbus at the L.A. Galaxy. We will be back on Thursday. We'll recap it all, and we will get you set for the weekend. And we will cover any news that Tom breaks. Maybe I'll learn how to use YouTube before then. If not, whatever. Sorry to all of you. Okay, this was fun.

Thank you to both of you for being here. Big shout out to Gregory for carrying the load off behind the scenes. And a big thank you to all of you for listening. And we'll talk to you again very, very soon.