SoccerWise - MLS Soccerwise | Is MLS Making the Playoffs Too Big?

Episode Date: August 20, 2026

MLS is considering major changes to its playoff format, and David Gass and Tom Bogert dig into what it could mean for the league. They also discuss Mark McKenzie's move back to Philadelphia, Nashville's Shield push and the fallout from a heated Philadelphia-Miami matchup.0:00 Intro6:16 MLS Playoff Changes: Is It Too Much?16:19 Mark McKenzie Coming Home24:37 Sporting KC's Record Signing29:46 Tom’s Ice Cream Shop Scoops42:39 Nashville's Quest for the Shield50:20 Philadelphia vs. Miami Gets Heated1:00:21 Houston's Statement Win Over Vancouver1:05:43 Midweek Games Rapid FireFor the sharpest coverage of American soccer, we’ve got you covered:https://linktr.ee/soccerwisehq

Welcome back to Soccer Wise, everyone. David Goss and Tommy Scoops with you coming off a loaded midweek of Major League Soccer. We've got breaking news. We've got everything in between for a big show. If you're listening on Sirius Radio, welcome. And thanks for being here. If not, thanks for being here as well. It's a big week here at Soccer Wise, which we will talk about in just a moment. But Tom, the people have come for what they want.

Midweek analysis. How did your men's league team do? we lost in the semifinal uh disappointing performance from the boys um and you handled it i assume like an adult yeah i'm going out of the parking lot for a while talking about the game one of uh i've got nothing in my life i just have a newborn kid my career and everything else going on what am i going to do we take it seriously we take it seriously um the goalkeeper shows up and he's immediately like, I don't want to be here. And then usually he says that.

And then he said it like four more times. And I was like, this is a bad start. One of our best players just got married, just came from a honeymoon. Congratulations to him. But he did not run on his honeymoon. He did not stay sharp. Two minutes in, he gives the ball away. They score to go down one nothing.

I'm looking at it. I'm like, bro, what are we doing here, man? What's going on? Was it an Italy honeymoon? No, they went to Mexico. Okay. I was going to say, why is he not in the Alexis Sanchez pickup game to stay fit? Come on.

It's a great point. And then I wasn't, I wasn't super great. I wasn't bad, but I wasn't very good. And that's how it goes. We played against a kid who played pro in Guatemala. And the first thing we were saying was just like, all right, like, try to like limit him and try to like, listen, he's going to score. But like, let's not make any ease on him. That first goal to give away rolled right to him 18 yards out.

He took a touch and put it in the bottom quarter. A good start, guys. You sent me a voice memo last night about the game. when I played it, I was in vicinity of my wife. My wife's first question is, is Tom good at soccer? I go, yeah, I think so. I've only played with you a couple of times. Like, I think we've only played twice, maybe, maybe three times.

And they're always like 8 a.m. after a night of drinking with people we don't know. Want to be a man. Want to be a man at night. You got to be a man in the morning. Yeah. And I go, yeah, I think so. And she goes, I don't know. I think he's talking a lot of shit for someone.

Wow. She goes, was Tom good in the game? I go, I don't know. Like, what do you want for me? I was fine. I wasn't great. I was fine. Just to you know, snakes are in the weeds and the haters are out there. Be, I couldn't call coming from inside your house. God, that hurt. Exactly. Exactly. I go, well, he's better than me.

And then she said something that I will not repeat on this show because it was embarrassing to say the least. We've got a lot to talk about what? I was going to say, I think this will be a good transition to the next thing you're going to say. I missed a FaceTime from giant Brian Dunstiff because I had my phone down. in the parking, like yelling about the game that ended two hours prior. Yeah. So Brian Duncef has officially joined us in the Soccer Wise family. We're really excited.

I wouldn't say this to him, but I've been listening to Dunny since I was a kid. And I grew up on a lot of Dunny's analysis. I think for all of us watching the like MLS, whatever was it, MLS live, whatever the streaming service was before the streaming service was before Apple TV. But RSL games were a treat because Dunny knows ball. and Dunny knows, he knows the game internationally, he knows the game domestically. He cares about what he does and he's really good at what he does. So really excited to have him come and join us.

And his first appearance with us is on our new U.S. soccer show that's going to be going every Wednesday. So we're covering the women's national team and the men's national team every single week. We're also going to talk some big picture topics in there. Youth Development, you know, where national team, I feel very strongly right now about where the national team should actually physically play, which is a conversation I'm going to force someone to have that. no one cares about besides me. And then so this week with Dunny, we went through Yanks abroad to get you ready

for the European season. We talk through five or six players who either made moves or have big seasons coming. So it's like 40 minutes and it's great because Dunny right now he's on the ground with the U.S. national team with T&T all the time. He obviously covers all these players in MLS

and he watches a ton. So getting his insights, his point of views was really, really fun. So that show came out yesterday. So go listen to it. We also were able to announce that Jill Lloyden will be joining us, also doing some of the U.S. soccer shows, as well as filling in on the NWSL side of things. You know her voice from calling two to three NWSL games a weekend,

a ton of top level college soccer on the women's side. I would say probably the number one expert in goalkeeping in the U.S., as well as one of the best analysts across the board. So Jill will be joining us, but this week Jordan was with me, and we went through the 27 Women's World Cup depth chart. So we sort of set the stage for what's coming over the next year and how to think about players and where they're battling and the position battles and stuff like that.

So go listen to that. And then tomorrow, I mentioned a couple of times we were debuting our new open mic show and we were doing so with Vanney Sartini. It is amazing. He's a soccer genius and he's a character. So you get all the stuff. You get like comedy like Tom repeating stepbrothers quotes,

like real belly laugh comedy. And you learn a ton about soccer. And I think to me the biggest part that I found interesting is he worked in Italian soccer from the bottom up, including working for the Italian FAA and coaching education as well as style. And then he came to the U.S. as a coaching teacher at U.S. soccer. So he has like real insights of how you would set things up,

how you build a soccer culture, how we build a style going forward, as well as being hilarious. So it's a must listen and that one's coming out early tomorrow. And Tom, we just keep rocking and rolling. That's what we did. What a great way to start open mic with Van Gogh. Artini. That is in the you try to get a big guest when you debut a show and I think you did great there, Gus. Thank you Tom. I really appreciate it. Okay. Let's talk about Major League Soccer now.

And let's start with the news that the Guardian published via Pablo Maurer moments before we came on, which is a heavy possibility of a new playoff format for Major League Soccer at the end of the first full flipped calendar season. So we have a sprint. season coming to start 2027 and then in the fall probably August of 2027 we will start the new calendar in major league soccer which will run from August or September through May going forward similar to how we are used to many of La Liga, EPL, all that type of stuff. In the playoff playoff format the reporting that Pablo put out there is that it will still be five divisions as we understand but the feeling is that there will be 20 teams that make the playoffs

and that won't be determined based off divisions. And the big piece of news is the format inside of the playoffs will be some form of a double elimination knockout game format that takes somewhere between three to four weeks. Tom, you look really excited about this. So Paul and I were working on in the fall on like a big picture thing. and this was what we had heard as the most likely of the formats for the for the, that was discussed for playoffs.

And I was hoping that this didn't come with playoff expansion. But great reporting by Pablo up to 20 teams or whatever. Like why do we keep adding playoff teams? Why? We care deeply about the supporters should. We care deeply about the regular season. Why should an average fan care about the regular season if 20 freaking teams make the playoffs? Yes, the double elimination stuff.

I'm actually good with that because it's supposed to value the playoff. off the regular season more. But for 20 teams and gosh, like it comes down to stupid words like inventory for a streamer, inventory for a meteor rights deal. You're devaluing the inventory while adding numbers. It's so frustrating to me and blatantly obvious to people

who care about the league and care about the game and don't have an NBA. So, yeah, we're going to hear a lot of words like inventory, product. I don't ever want to hear inventory when we're talking about it. Like, it's, it's, It's ridiculous that that's been like, it's like sports washing, but like business washing to us that we're saying these words.

It's stupid. So inside of Pablo's reporting, the mention is that this will mimic very similarly, the AFL playoffs. Like I probably don't have to go further than that, right? Everyone listening here is a huge Aussie rules football fan. It's like just super standard globally to know what AFL means. So you're like, it makes sense.

You're going to follow the hotel. of something that's so culturally popular that that's what you want to mimic. I will mention Ibaric for Carlton. Don't really know what that means, but I lived with an Australian for six months, and that's what he said, so that's what I say now. I'm an Adelaide, Crow's kind of guy myself. Oh, you're a crow's guy? Okay.

Well, Favol is always screwing us, so that's all I know. I went and read the NFL playoffs to understand what this means. I think probably from like Little League Baseball, most of us understand double eliminations. That would be the place. Get the Cooper Sound, buddy. Yeah, that's the place. I think most of us experience it.

The way their format is, which I assume is something MLS is sort of going to consider is, you basically have like lowest seed play in games. So similar to now, wild card game. You get in. And the situation you set up is, and this is where you almost actually, this might actually value the regular season more than the current format is the top four teams play each other for a spot in the semifinals. And the losers then drop into a second elimination bracket with the winners and the lower

seats. And that's where and then the winning teams get buys. Now, I would assume AFL's more like NFL, where rest is great, where what we already have experienced is when you give the top teams too long of buys in MLS, it actually has hurt them, right? This was the whole complaint about the issue. of how do you value the regular season? First seed gets a buy. Okay, now Jim Curtin's team is playing Chicago fire in behind closed scrimmages because they're all for like three and a half weeks

before a playoff game and they've got no edge. But this is an attempt, I think, to find some sort of in between of valuing that and giving advantages while also, and this is your inventory issue, making sure that everyone gets a home game. That is the thing that they want. They want as many playoff games is possible with high leverage and they want to make sure everyone gets a home game now if you want a lot of high leverage games you could make the regular season more meaningful that's the other thing you're allowed to do because then those become high leverage games and the playoffs becomes less so like for example when you watch the NFL and the games really matter because they are trying to make the playoffs and they're trying to win their division that seems to be a little bit of less interest and the more

interest is let's jam everyone inside the playoffs so that everyone has a knockout game to play for at some point in the season. So I am pretty firmly against the idea of like Apertura Clausura because you're just, again, it feels like you're adding playoff games just for the sake of saying you have the inventory. I prefer that to this, honestly, because I'm not against it, by the way. But like in that scenario, so you get more playoff games, right? But only better teams like the, like, let me be careful.

Because if that idea happens, it'll be 20 teams for both. the aperture, like, but, um, but that would be, because then that makes the regular season, and, and if everybody buys in that the aperture and the closer, like, these matter as much as the 2012 almost cup, like the galaxy winning or whatever, like, when you have double to, like, as long as everybody buys in that this is real. And like, then the regular season games are cut in half split between the two half seasons. And then the regular season means more again, too. And you still get your, three points becomes massive when you only play 17 games. Yeah. And and I reiterate, like, I, I think that's bastardizing the playoffs. And you're just,

like, this was when, what, like, 2019? El Traffico was the best thing in that era. One of, like, that was, that's like, when you talk like Barclays era for Premier League, that was like, or like, Barclays era was like when Joseph and Zelatahn had, you know, Bill and Fela had a billion goals. But, like, yeah, El Trifico was sick. And then they tried to do it five times a year. And it was less sick. And that's what the playoffs, like, for me, too, like, John Connerson in our Discord like put in like a made his own like graphic on like Excel and right now

the playing around would be Colorado versus Seattle like Portland versus Galaxy we also like Minnesota and like I'm just looking at this of all these games and what happens when there's win it's it's nonsense to me man yeah I think

it's the main thing is just pick a thing just stop changing it like there's going to be flaws in all of them. There's advantages in all of them. Just pick one and stick with it and be known for it and deal with it. Like the best team doesn't always win

in playoffs. That's a reality. So if that's what you're going to choose as a championship, then that's what you've chosen. If you want to value the shield, then make sure everyone plays each other twice. And then that's the thing that you can elevate. And the playoffs becomes a fun tournament to end the season. You can choose. That's fine. The season is shifting. The divisions are coming.

Okay, here's your chance to do it. if this is what you're going to do, which, by the way, anything that needs to be explained more than once is already an issue. And the jokes I'm making about AFL is for a reason. There's no cultural resonance with something like this. So you have to spoon-feed directions to people, and then they're going to change it in two years. And that's the part that I find frustrating.

We'll obviously continue to talk about this. As we learn a little bit more, we don't have details. This was me pulling the AFL stuff out of what sort of, Pablo was putting down there. The five divisions, not getting equal amount of spots in the playoffs, is going to be a thing because you know there's going to be a division that's loaded.

It's going to be the L.A. Rams being like, we're either the number one seed or the number six seed. Our division is clearly the best. Meanwhile, the Panthers are seven and ten, and they're going to the playoffs and hosting a playoff game. You're going to end up with stuff like that, which like this year, the Eastern Conference is better than the West, in a scenario where everything is equal.

Well, if you're stacking points against bad teams in a different division, you're going to look better, especially because you're going to be playing against your own division. Let me leave you with this one, though, Tom. Great. Could I, could I entice you instead of this format, a private equity owned 211 team, U-15 tournament located at only Wide World of Disney?

Does that interest you more than this? Gianni and Ventino is generational in his scam. It's like he's just so Teflon to shame. One of my group chats, someone was like, oh, this actually sounds like a sick idea actually. And I was just like, what are you talking about? And it was like, it would be like the Little League World Series. And I was like, they have regional qualifiers to make the Little League World Series.

There's not a 211. What do you do? Are you guys all losing your minds? I just think the opportunity to watch 14-year-olds from Kyrgyzstan and Fiji in a generational playoff match is one that a lot of fans can't let go of and it's been a dream for a lot of fans

for the last 12 hours of their life so I can understand that. Congratulations to Appleon Equity for being a part of this and the New York Yankees. Sucks to suck. God damn. All right, let's move into Tom's Real House. Let's go to the ice cream. I need this

more than any to oxygen. Let's go to the ice cream shop. Let's start with the big news, which came out, as always, right after we finished recording on Monday. It's not your fault, Tom. It's not your fault. Mark McKenzie is coming home, but in an interesting move. So Mark McKenzie, U.S.

National Team Centerback, Tom will be a Philadelphia Union player once again, but not right now. Yeah, the Philadelphia Union, I have agreed to a deal finalizing the deal to resign Mark McKenzie from FC to lose. That deal will go through in January. I'm told the fee is around $2.5 million. If they were going to sign him now, it would have been probably double, if not more that he's out of contract in a year and Toulouse their stance

was basically like you could put a $25 million offer in front of us we're not letting him go now and Philly instead of saying like all right we'll save even a little bit more money we'll wait until the summer they were like we're not waiting we're not waiting a year like we really desperately want Mark and like we'll acquiesce

to like the winter but like that's it so the two clubs came to a compromise and he'll join in the winter Mark McKenzie's 27 years old he's a U.S. international he is going to be a DP at least at first, but some key context here is the roster rule changes that we're expecting to happen over a year.

Him and Carvogne might not need to be DPs or Philly might just do that and they'll have a ton of salary cap space because a lot of their team is homegrown. But regardless, this is the kind of signing that we should be seeing with the new salary cap rules. Elias Saeed to Nashville, the purchase option is somewhere between like four and five million.

He'd have to be a DP in previous. series. Now he could just be on the roster. So these are the kind of signings that should be getting more importance and more regularity with the new roster rules that'll happen. But regardless, I really like this for Philly. Really like it from Mark McKenzie.

Again, the club seem as a foundational piece. And a few people have said, what does this mean for Neil Pierre? First of all, Lucas Harrington played 20 games before $20 million for K-Men. I don't know if Neil Pierre is going to be here on February 2nd. Be with Philly at that point. And regardless, you know what's going to

help Neil Pierre's development or the next center back that you bring through, playing next to Mark McKenzie. The same way that Mark McKenzie benefited from playing next to Jacob Glessness in 2020. And Brennan-Erensen benefited from playing next to Alejandro Bedoya. Jim Curtin talked about this all the time. He goes like, you see like we care deeply about youth development, but it means more for winning. Like the scouts are here watching us play high-level games with high-level players.

Like, Badoia's not going to block Aronson the same way that McKenzie won't block Pierre. And I think that's an important aspect of being a club that wants to, bring your academy through and give chances to kids. Like you can do both. You don't need to play as a U-23 team. And in fact, Goss, you know this better than I do in the U-S scene. I think that helps development much more than it harms. Yeah.

He will make Neil Pierre's life easier. He'll make Neil Pierre look better and he will help him be a better soccer player. He will teach him, which is one piece of that. And the other is you can do different things when you have a solid option next to you. I don't know. I mean, it's crazy that right now they're starting Nathan Harris. and Neil Pierre and the question when McKenzie get signed as one. It's like, I think

Nathan Ariel's going to the bench guys. Like curveball, that just might be what happens. But I do think, I think these are, I actually think all three of these players are interesting because they are a model of what I think Academy should end up doing. I think you've got Neil Pierre, who's a super high level player that you produce, but you're going to sell. And the value to the club, in the end, for the most part, it will be the monetary value. So the money comes in,

It helps build the first team. It helps fund the academy. And he's probably a player who moves more than once and they're sell-up. Nathan Harriol also has value. Nathan Harrile is a good squad player of Major League Soccer who can start at multiple positions, understands the city, understands the culture, and should be on this club for 12 years. They should not flip Nathan Harriol for $450,000 allocation money. I agree.

Just because another team comes calling. And that, I think, is super important. And I think MLS will be a better league when a lot of these players who are on the edge of rosters who become club legends start as locals because I think that's a really cool thing for teams to have the mark mccenzie side of this the other piece that i see is we are finally starting as mLS grew out at its academies to have academy players who are coming back and i think this will be one of many where players when they get towards the end of their european careers or you know towards the end they look at it and say well if i'm going to leave i want to go home and i think that's

another piece of academy production that we should think about is we saw it slightly with the James Sands. It's a little bit different. Right. But like in the end, your DPs can be the star young academy players who went through the European careers and come back. So rather than going out and finding an unknown player who doesn't know the market and hasn't been a part of the club, you could sign an equal level player who's connected to the club. And I think, you know, we've seen examples of guys like Georgie Mihailovich and Paxson Aronson who have come to MLS but they don't go back to the club they came through. Right. DeAndre Yadlin another.

The relationship they had. Yeah, exactly. But I think it would be great if that was like first option for some of these players because I think it holds even more value to fans and to the players. The only piece of this that I'm a little surprised by is Mark McKenzie is a starter for Toulouse. And if Mark McKenzie wants to be a starter for the US men's national team, which I don't think is outside the realm of possibility, it was probably playing at to lose and trying to continue to move up the ladder. So at a fairly young age for him, he's choosing not to do that.

And I don't care. I don't think it's wrong. Unlike Paxton Aronson, who it's like, well, where was I going? What was I going to do? George, he was struggling a little bit more to get minutes to be consistent.

Right. Bassett, another one, right, wasn't really playing. Instead of being forced into it, it feels like this is a decision Mark McKenzie made coming out of the World Cup. And fair to him, I think he will still have a place in the national team because he will be a vocal leader

and he will be an experienced guy and he will do even more of that with this team. But it's just that's the decision he's making right now. Yeah. And for him, like, he did it. He went to Europe. He's been there for five or six years. He played in Belgium.

He played for Toulouse. And he played well at both of these clubs. And MLS is a high enough level. Yeah, Toulouse is better. Like, obviously, when you're playing PSG, like that's better. Like, I don't want to, don't get. it twisted or anything, but it's not as if he's like falling off the face of the earth.

You look at just this summer, the national team, all three goalkeepers who are in MLS. Tim Riem, Miles Robinson were playing roles for the national team. Like obviously, Riem was starting and Miles Robinson started once. Alex Freeman, who just left MLS, obviously a different situation because he was a rising player. But it's not as if, you know, okay, no more national team for you, Mark. Like, he'll play well. And particularly if he plays as well as Philly Hope and I would expect him to, he'll still be in and around the team.

your point is a fair one, Goss, where, like, the best case scenario of, okay, you walk your contract down to free agency next summer and then maybe a slightly better club or something to that effect for Mark McKinney to go to. But, like, you know what? Like, he's going to go to Philly. He's going to play every minute. He's going to be an anchor defensively. And there is no worries of, okay, like, is he going to make it or how is he going to look? Like, sure, maybe, like, his form could drop off. Like, that's totally possible.

but he doesn't have to worry about not playing. And if he plays and plays well, he'll be with the national team. It's going to be a big move for Philly. It would be great for the sprint season to see him and Neil Pierre together. And then you assume, I hope so.

And you assume the sale then comes, you know, in the summer when the window's a little bit more open. I'm assuming it's good. Like I'm with Gozo, with Harrington, with I feel like there's a bunch of times that I've been like, well, the club really wanted to keep them

until the next window. and then a $23 million offer game. So I don't want to be naive. And I'm just going to go ahead and assume that, you know, whole city maybe is going to double back down. Hey, we got another $20 million laying around. Like, what about that kid? Which feels like a huge possibility because he's that good.

We're going to do Miami-Filly fight in a little bit. So we're going to stick to ice cream shop. So don't worry. We didn't forget. Don't think that we're passing this over and we forgot about this. We did not. But big news out of Kansas City. Andre Luis has officially been signed.

He's the record signing. And Mono Garcia has officially been bought out by this team as well. Monday, I was saying, yeah, they thought they had to buy them out again. And then three hours after the show. I know. Yeah. Mono Garcia was listening to the show. He's like, wait, I can pick where I go.

Hey, Tom told me that I can get bought out. So this opens a D.P. spot for Kansas City. Kansas City are going to be still very busy at the end of this window. They've got one big D.P. in in Andre Louise to get an $18 million fee, easily a club record double what they had, what their current one was. I think it was like $9 million on Alan Polito. And there's add-ons that take it, I think, to like $22 million or something in that range. Like this is one of the most expensive signings in league history.

And in prime player, it's a bit of a weird. We've talked about it plenty of like the last 12 months. He absolutely blitzed the Portuguese League. and then in January moves to Olympiacos and didn't have this like didn't really settle well and didn't have like a ton of goals or assists. So I'm obviously looking at the time that he had in Portugal. And this is a new version in Kansas City. Peter Malook said, we're going to spend.

We're going to spend big. And they gave like the reason why David Lee was interested in this project was we're going to give you money to spend. And they already have. And guess what? Now they have another DP spot open and they're going to spend again if they're able to. that I know that earlier in the window they were working on Jan Gaboho. And I hinted at it enough. But it was clear if we're able to sign you and Andre Louise, we're going to do it.

And maybe they go back to that player. But that was another $20 million deal. So this is a team that you're going to have to look at over the next 10 or 12 days left in the window that I wouldn't be shocked if they spend another 20 million on another player, depending on what targets that they're talking to right now. It's big to get this work done now because this season's down the drain. They're winless in their last four. four points combined in their last five games, the draw last night against St. Louis, which they dominated, like completely dominated the game, couldn't find the breakthrough.

And then this season's down the drain. But with this sprint season, you get a really quick chance to like jump into a playoff spot, be entertaining, get fans back while you reset things and then hope to be really able to hit in August of 2027. And so if you make these moves now, these players come in, they get settled, they get comfortable, they get on the timeline with MLSS rather than going through the preseason, then coming into January, then coming back in, although it lines up a little bit better now. And they can start to play together. And so I think it's a real sign of ambition that you make this move now because could you have

potentially found a deal for Mono at the end of the window or at the end of the next window and snuck out and gotten out of it? Well, clearly not. They tried all summer. but you would assume if it's going to happen it's going to happen with 32 minutes left in the window Yeah, that's fair Yeah, we'll give you $50,000 for this

And we missed on our first five targets Yeah, exactly But they chose out to do that And that should be pretty exciting for KC fans This team is bad They've made a lot of moves You're hoping a lot of it comes together The entire, you know, pretty much backline

Has been rebuilt You're rebuilding both the wing spots my assumption is you're trying to find a player on this that's a little bit more central because you already have options now on both wings but whatever it ends up being it's probably going to be a bigger profile than Manu Garcia yes um and my parting note here is day on Daniel Litch hang in there brother help is on the way reinforcements are on the way just hang in man so on a buyout now can I interest you in Amanu Garcia for another MLS team?

Maybe, but like, I mean, he's not your DP. That's fair. That's fair. Yeah, I mean, why not? Because that, that obviously changes the, the math on your expectations and what is and isn't a good sign. So here's one. LAFC.

They never replaced Ustakio. They're a different player. Oostokio is a little bit more deep lying, but not completely outside the realm. That's one. as I skim through, I obviously mentioned Chicago. So now it's not a DP spot. It would be Tam, but you're starting to stack a few of those guys in the middle there because now you would have Robin Ludd.

You'd have your hoping the Portuguese guy coming back from injury, Andre Franco, and sort of Celetros in there. But I don't know, those are two that popped to mine. I mean, there's some teams Montreal and Minnesota where I would take anyone on these teams. I'm skimming through as I do this out loud because I hadn't thought about it until this exact moment and I don't have a million other teams to say. So that's what you get right there.

Monagosia, congratulations. Get right in their RISFC. Yeah, you're now an LASC player. You will play three times and then you will move on. Let's talk Breland Bolo for a minute here. I went and did scarves and spikes on Monday. So thanks for having me to Tyler. And at the time I said to them,

I think you guys may have dodged a bullet because I have not been as high on the Breel and Bolo edition to Atlanta United. It sounds like what it sounded like may not sound like what it actually is. So there was a report from the Keep, believe that was Monday, that Ipswich hijacked the deal and Breel and Bola was off to there. I have not updated any reporting on this publicly because one high-level agent put it to me, dude, nobody knows right now. and I had sources that weren't answering.

I had a couple that were that were saying, like, that'd be news to us if that's the case. But if Switch did hijack the deal, they probably wouldn't be talking to Atlanta about, right? So I was holding off, holding off. And I kept hearing confidence from Atlanta that, like, as far as we understand, like, no, we don't have documents signed, but as far as we understand, like, this is still on.

And what I will sit to go, like, inside baseball on the, like, media literacy of reporting. So the keep is a very reputable outlet. Like, so that's why I got- You can keep your reports, Lekeep. But like, so that's why, like, I'm inclined to believe that that's usually true. But, listen, man, I didn't have it confirmed pretty quickly. Ben Jacobs didn't have it confirmed pretty quickly.

Fabricio Romano didn't have it confirmed. People who, David Ornstein, people who cover Ipswich Town didn't have it immediately. So it was just the keep. And like Fabrizio and Orney, reported on another Ipswich signing. So for them to not say anything about Breel and Bolo, let me to believe, okay, maybe like the people that I'm talking to are definitely right.

But where I'm at right now is it's still fluid and I'm probably going to be careful until he's on a plane coming here and signing a contract. But I can pretty safely say saying that it's over, he's going to Ipswich and he declined Atlanta is absolutely not true. All right. Well, there you go for Atlanta fans. That's kind of what they've been waiting to hear. So we will continue to watch this one. And at some point, I will say this was a great signing, whether it's the moment it happens or after he scores his first three goals. Hopefully sometime in the near future. Let's do two smaller ones. And then we'll move to our midweek action.

Minnesota United had signed Maurice Malone, 26-year-old German-American center forward out of currently playing in Austria at Sturm Gratz for the last two years, has scored. somewhere between four and 10 goals over the course of those two years. It was hard for me to find the exact number. So in addition to a team that is sinking right now in the standings, struggles to finish, struggles to score as goals. Does not seem like a huge game changer, but is in addition in those spots and obviously wouldn't take an international roster spot. And then the other one, which really did surprise me when you reported it, Tom,

which is the Colin Guski news. So give people sort of the idea of what's going on. Yeah, we also at Lake, I've agreed to a deal. to acquire Orlando Academy Academy product and U.S. Youth International, Colin Gusky. And I was surprised that I didn't know a ton about it. Like, I know that I was surprised

that a lot of people had takes on this, which is good and it's interesting. And for Orlando, like, they didn't see him having a pathway to regular minutes or he believed that that could be at Real Salt Lake. So they agreed to let him go, which I think is the right thing to do. So wait, I thought the original

I thought what you wrote was this is a loan. Correct. I don't know if there's a purchase option or not. Correct. Okay. That part needs to be defined. Because if it was a sale versus a loan, those are way different. Well, I don't think that you let him go on loan to, I'm assuming that there's, if not a hard and fast purchase option, that there's a, if this works out well, we'll talk. Yeah. Because like, like, we're also at Lake, like, what would they get out of having him for a few months if it's not a long trip? He doesn't make their midfield.

Like it doesn't help in like a playoff put, right? Like not, that's not me saying that it can't work out. But this isn't the sign you make if you're like, all right, we need, we need to push for a few months here. For sure. But it's a domestic player. So it doesn't fill an international roster spot. It's a back of the end roster player. So it doesn't really take up salary cap space.

So if you're RSL and you're looking around saying we could use another body in here, I don't, I could see a world in which you come to a conclusion. You're reaching out to team saying, would you have any interest? in sort of giving options and giving players chances to come here and we'll play them and this one comes up. If it is, this is Colin Gusske's chance to play his way into an RSL signing. I don't love it from Orlando. I do think he is a starting MLS level caliber player. I think if we're talking like in the Chris Durkin, Daniel Edelman for a perfect example, sort of strain, what I've seen from Gusky at the youth ranks, I think he can play up to that level. So I think he's a who could be in Orlando for a long time.

I thought he was a guy who could be in Orlando for a long time. You know, we always kind of have that moment when those guys are what, 21, 22, where it's like, are they going to go to this lower end Belgian team? Are they going to take a risk and try and go to the German second division and try and play through that or do they stay? And I think Guski's got that ceiling, which I think it's a great move for RSL. So I'm a little confused why Orlando would let him go. we have this question from Zeke 109 in the Discord.

It says, is the exit of youth from Orlando City a sign of the decline of the academy? Or is it just a function of the fact that not everyone will work? And you must sometimes let people go or change their scenery for their success. Firmly the latter. So very firmly. Orlando under Luis Buzzi and Ricardo Barrera, they built the academy, basically. They built the second team. And you've got players coming through.

There's Justin Ellis. There's been, you know, plenty of others. and Ellis is starting right now. They just traded to hear Reid Brown, which was a little bit of a surprise to me as well. But having more good players coming from your academy than you're able to put in the first team is the sign of a very healthy youth development pathway.

And there's another question from Ben in the Discord saying as an extension of Zieg's question, does Orlando actually have the reputation of being a club that does right by its players? It does. To me, like, I speak to agents. Like, there's, it's going on a little tangent. Roald Mitchell, Red Bulls, he is very, he's 23,

so he's too old and has dominated next pro. He's not somebody who should be getting any next pro minutes. He's graduated past that. He's not getting any first team minutes, which is totally fine, right? Like, they have the options and they've got another young kid beyond Julian Hall. That's getting the minutes. The Red Bulls rejected a loan offer for Roald Mitchell to go to Denmark. I heard an MLS team asked about him

and they set like a stupidly high price. That's not doing right by your players because he's not playing in the first team and at 23 you don't see a future for him in the first team but you're not letting him go on loan to a Danish club. Orlando in this situation, like this is them doing right. Duncan McGuire, they didn't necessarily want to lose him

but it made sense for everybody. They got the right valuation. It wasn't a charity. But for me, this is absolutely a positive sign. and one more, Philadelphia Union, regarded as if not the best one, absolutely one of the best at youth development in this league.

Just on that iconic GA Cup team that had Cabin-Selvin-Nir-Pierre, Anis Adi-Sidiago, now he's that Benfica B. Jamir Johnson, he's in the USL, he's going to go to Europe. Diego Rosio, he went to Reelso, like now he's in Mexico. And I'm certain that there's like six other guys

that didn't get first-team contracts. Vasquez was on that team, right? Vasquez, yes, David Vasquez, San Diego now. that's the sign of... Or New England? Is he New England? Is he New England now?

I don't know. Didn't you get loaned to New England? San Diego. But that's just like using that as an example of like Philly is pretty much a gold standard right now. And even on that, and there was a couple that I was a little bit surprised about. Like I get a Jamir Johnson, it didn't really have a position that fit the team. But I was like, he's a good player. I think regardless, that's the sign of, okay, we've got too many guys.

And we've got, you know, not just this U-17 team. We've got a guys in the U-15 team that we're really high on. so we can't sign all these homebrones and we got to move a few. Marcus Zambrano is on the revs who was also a Philly Union Academy player who I was thinking of. I agree with you completely. I think what I would say is I think this is more an example of the reality of the first team. So there's two things there.

One, they've put themselves in a win now mode. So with young players like a Colin Gusky, you're not going to force minutes on him because Antoine Grisman's 36 and everything's about winning now. The other is the money they've chosen to spend. They signed three U-22 initiative players out of Brazil. One of them is a center mid. So you're going to play Ottavio, who's a 19-year-old at center mid. You also have Wildercardtaheana and Brian O'Hen and all these other players.

So that was a decision you chose to make. I think there can be fans who don't want those decisions to be made. And that's a totally fair reaction. don't cap academy players for these positions, like have that as part of your roster planning, which I think is a fair complaint to make. But this is the reality of where they stand. So you can't look at things and say,

oh, there's a clear path to get Colin Gusky minutes on our team. To hear Reid Brown as well, they gave him opportunities. They don't feel like he's ready. And St. Louis is in a spot where as good as they've been, they have a year or two to say we're in win now mode. So he can make mistakes and learn, with them and then they can try to get better.

The last piece, as I said on the Neopierre side, one of the things an academy can do is create resources for a team. Not everything's going to be a $22 million sale. So if Orlando City is able to bring in 150K in an international roster spot and another 200K or maybe a sell-on with Guski, then that also is an academy helping your team get better. And it's better than just letting a player play out their contract and then walk away to go to Orange County or whatever it is.

So that's the other side of things that you can use your academy for. And that is such an important point. I was talking to CSL who are basically like to maintain our roster and then maybe this changes now with the future, but like to maintain our like TAM players, we need to sell one player every year to get the gam to keep the team together. And it's such a cheat code to have that coming through the academy in it's mutually beneficial because again, for Colin Gussie or insert any academy kid who's maybe not going get first team minutes, they get to move on while the first team stays the same.

It just gets more money to use to keep the team together. And if the flip side happens, which is Justin Ellis is outperforming Duncan McGuire, then the Tam player leaps. And you bring resources back that way. One, your salary cap takes less of a hit because the homegrown is playing. And two, the resources you bring back via Duncan McGuire is something that you can use to cover the rest of the extra 100, 100 to 200,000. You owe everyone for the raises they get and the bonuses they deserve and all that

type of stuff. So it can go both ways in good roster building. The situation you want to be in is you have options that you've done well in the transfer market to bring in quality players that you can choose between the two. We have seen teams make both decisions. So I don't think this is a bad thing. I completely agree with you, which is there is a reputation for clubs they know treating players well, giving them opportunities, bringing them into the process and saying, hey, we think this could be a good move. We think you would fit here. I mean, if you're Gusky, R.SEL's like a dream situation. They play three 17-year-olds

on opening day this year. Like, that's the spot you want to go and they need to play you and they want to play you and they will also help you get to the next level. Hence why Gozo leaves now and not at the end of the year because that's the reputation you want out there. Orlando also, last piece I'll add, they're in a competitive area

in terms of recruiting. Like, they recruit players across Florida with Inter Miami there, with other team's ability to come in to the open areas of Florida and poll players. And there's lot of talent. So Orlando's conscious of the fact that they have to be really good about this. Colton Swan, by the way, another USU20 international. He is on the move. As you reported, he's headed to Hibs, which is in Scotland, which is one of the top leagues in the world. So a big opportunity

for him to get there. Did you want to add anything else? No, JJ Williams going to heart. We got a couple high performing USL strikers going to Scotland. Cats by 90, baby. University of Kentucky. that's my vibes. Okay, we're going to dig into the midweek now. The games we saw, more of it is the news we saw because I got to be honest with you. It was like a fire hose in my face the entire night. And it was a big 360 night for sure because I could not try and figure out a way to watch all the games, which I don't love because we don't get to dig into it as much and see all the things.

But at the same time, you got to watch all those. And then reminder, there's a full slate of games this weekend. So no early games on Saturday starts at 7.30 full slate of games on Saturday night and then two games on Sunday. Ending with a scorcher. The Sunday night game is Atlanta United against sporting Kansas City. So lock in, baby. Two big clubs. Big signings.

Both teams are making big money as well. But there are some really good games this weekend. St. Louis face off against Houston. Two of the hottest teams in the league, Nashville, Columbus. and Inter-Miamy coming back home finally for the first time back in Major League Soccer, Messi scored his first goal since his father passed away, and he returned on the midweek. Let's start, though, with Nashville.

So we got a comment on Blue Sky from BP Hughes, who says, thinking of Chris Ivy's article, Chris is one of the writers at 615 Soccer, one of our partners, who we love, that the Shield seems to be Nashville's to lose, except that Vancouver's under performing their expected points in Nashville, are overperforming by a lot.

Can Nashville keep this up and another night when they seem to do just enough to win on the field, not the spreadsheets made. I appreciated that ending. Listen, by nature, pretty much always, whoever wins the shield technically is overperforming their underlings. Right, like that's just part of the deal.

That's how you win the shield because the underlyings average a bunch of stuff out. I think it's absolutely real for Nashville. Their combination of high-end attacking talent, individual talent in defense too, but the structure really, they've got match winners all over the field. I think they've got at least one,

if not two centerbacks that are match winners. A goalkeeper that's a match winner. Three DPs in attack plus sod. The midfielders aren't like necessarily match winners, but they fit their roles in this team so perfectly that makes everything kind of churned smoothly. And the head coach is not only good, he's rotating well.

And he's somebody that has his principles, BJ Callahan, but it isn't like, we're going to do this exact same thing every single game. And it doesn't matter if we have tired legs. It doesn't matter who we're playing. He will tweak when he has to. If he doesn't have those four key attacker starting,

he tweaks when he has to. Reed Baker Whiting, like you said on the last show. He's the one stepping into midfield now when that's not how Dan Lovitz plays. But that's because Patrick Yossbach isn't playing. And that's a sign of a team that's going to keep picking up points because they're going to be adaptable,

but also when things get stuck, you roll a ball to honey mooch on special things happen. Yeah, I think the overperforming, you've got the mix of Brian Schrocky's having an unbelievable season. Those numbers are always going to look weird. I mean, he had a save yesterday on Emil Forsberg. That was like outrageous where Forsberg's basically in on goal. And it's like, oh, I'll just tap this in.

And Shwaki goes and makes the save. And Jack Mare was like, I didn't touch it. That was a save. Like he gets credit for that. That's a good teammate. So that, that's part of it. The other side is. Surgeon and Hanian, whatever, are going to overperform finishing because they're elite

finishers. So like to your point of like when you win the shield, you're always going to do that. Adding in Saad, who, you know, that's a whole new player that hasn't been a part of it and Yasback coming back from injury is our understanding. They have a little bit of depth with Dan Lovitz, who hasn't played as much. So you're less on the edge of like, can Andy in a heart stay healthy for the whole year? And if not, we're in trouble. Right. All of this to me says that they can maintain. I say that in a moment where it's like I felt like I knew a lot about teams and then last night happened and it all went down the drain. I think the bigger question with them is not is it their shield to lose because that's 100% true. It's can they break the record?

They are on pace for 78 points right now, which is outrageous. And they're in hot form. They have no other competitions to play in at this point. Is this a team that you think can be there? So I'll take the boring answer. and I think that they can be. I don't think that they will because like you said,

like that is outrageous. That's what they're on 2.3 points a game. That is incredible. That we're having this conversation is a win. And the fact that we feel on our show, it is more interesting to talk about on August 20th,

will they break the record, not will they win the shield? Like that in and of itself is a huge win for Nashville and just a sign of what they've built and what they're doing. No, they don't have other competitions, but like I'm assuming that there's just midweek games in perpetuity.

So they're a fixture, just no matter what. And weird things happen in MLS. And of course, like we're not naive enough to say that like it's over. It's 14 games left. Miami could make up the seven points. Vancouver are very good.

They have a game in hand on the team. So they could be six points behind Nashville if they win that game in hand. But like they are very, very clearly that Shield is theirs to lose rather than, okay, we've got a handful of teams that are here. and I do believe in this team to do that. I don't think I'm going to put the unfair expectation of them setting a record. 74 points for Inter-Miamy.

That's the record right now, 2024. The Rev. 73 in 2021. Again, another team. Outrageous numbers, the amount of wins they had by one goal, last 15 minutes of the game, all that type of stuff. And L-AFC 2019 at 2.1, or sorry, at 72 points. those are the top three all time. We thought no one would break 70.

And then it was in 2018 and then it happened four times in like a six year span. I will be interested to see as it comes down the stretch. If it is a lead six to seven points, just how Nashville chooses to allocate their resources. Do they go for it and say, I mean, this is going to be their first MLS trophy, right? They've won an MLS trophy.

They haven't won MLS Cup. They haven't won the shield. I think that is the season. Like that's the whole goal. You want to win MLS Cup. Amazing. Right now you've got a shot to win the shield. That's the focus of the season.

As you get closer, if you're up by six points, do you look at it and say, all right, let's sort of like rotate people and be ready for the playoffs because we have this in the bag. Or does it become the whole focus

is breaking the record, which I wouldn't fault them for. Like that would be worthwhile. Also, they'd pit into Miami, who, they weirdly have this thing with. So that's the option as well. I was talking to somebody at Nashville who is rightly very proud of the fact that

in most MLS stadiums, especially at the beginning, but still now, there's like not just an appreciation, but like a fandom of Messi, even when they're in a way stadium. You don't have that as much in Nashville. And the people at Nashville is here very proud of that fact.

What more on the underlying numbers, because even I didn't realize, they're 12th in MLS that expect a gold difference. 12 plus two and a half. their gold difference is 25 i knew they were over performing i didn't know that it was by this month the Vancouver white caps expected gold difference plus 29 yeah second place i mean they lost yesterday they lost one zero yesterday at home with five million chances so houston had a bunch too to be fair like yeah i would assume that number keeps going up um if you're listening via serious radio by the way

we're going to go a little bit long so search the on-demand player or anywhere you get your podcasts uh let's dig into the big moment of the night Philadelphia two two against Miami you wrote this fun game. Dan St. Clair back and was awesome. Miami defense and shambles. I just wrote fight stuff. You want to talk about the soccer? You want to talk about the fight?

I want to talk about both. I feel extraordinarily vindicated on Monday for arguing with you two nerds about well, well, doesn't run out of the box enough or pass well enough. He saved three one-on-ones, including one like Maxi Falcone. I've just,

I just don't have any words. It's falcony. It's Falcone when he does this. He left Damiani at midfield to go try to close down a pass to Cabin Solvin that never came. Like he forgot like, oh, I'm actually the last man back. I shouldn't leave the forward all the way up here by himself. Dan St. Clair came up big several times. It was multiple one-on-ones and Miami should have lost their game.

And Dan St. Clair kept them in it. We're finishing from Philly to be fair. Philly has a goal called back, rightly, unfortunately, unfortunately for off sides because because the O'P.R. actually ended up, like, getting back aligned. He was just half a second too late. And this was super fun. And Philly are for real.

And Miami has the highs and the lows that we know that they do. And it's fun that they are a microcosm of themselves basically every time. Yeah, right. It's like every time. The, uh, I, listen, Dean St. Clair, if the floor is like, don't give up bad goals, then, Yeah, he did the job.

You could argue. What is that? I mean, both goals are inside the six. I wouldn't say that he's supposed to save them. I think the first one is a chaotic set piece. And I don't know if you'd expect him to come off his line to punch a little. He probably gets fouled. And that's probably ends up being the only way you avoid giving up that goal.

I don't know that I can blame him for that at all. But can we go on to the other stuff? This game was awesome. Philly are fun. Philly are impressive. The Sullivan brothers are good at soccer. They attack. They create chances.

Alaski was pretty good in this game, although he would say he should have had more. Yes. So in the, I don't know, 80 something, was it that late? Yeah. It was basically what the game ended with. So a play happens.

Quinn Sullivan goes down in the box and Ian Frey tries to walk over him as he was not just involved in the play. Yeah. Like he wasn't the one who Quinn Sullivan felt he got fouled by. Like as he's stepping up over Quinn Sullivan, Quinn Sullivan rightly, I think is pissed off. Yeah, don't put your balls in my face. He jumps up into Ian Frey and starts shoving him, gets him on the ground,

and this starts everything. Everyone's involved. Everyone comes over. Dane St. Claire's out of his goal. Falcone is involved. Everyone's involved. That's what he always.

That's what I'm saying. He rides the line and then he's the guy who's like, come on, we're all being ridiculous. It's like, you started this. And Kevin Sullivan comes in on a heater and he is like quick to be involved. He starts to get pulled back.

He gets into it with Yonik Bright. Yonik Bright. Throw a couple punches. Throws soft, soft. I agree. But like in, throws a couple early jabs just to set the,

just to set the spacing a little. Almost gets a little. but not really. And then the two of them get pulled apart. And then Yonik Bright immediately pointing at Kavana to the ref, like look at him. And it's like, I don't know what you think you're supposed to be looking at him on. Everyone else sort of fights around. It ends up being a red card for Yonik Bright and Kavana, Calvin.

I feel for Kavanaugh there, man. Yeah. It's definitely the, oh, you ran in red card, which is a soft red card to give in context of physical. Like, if it was people talking and then Kavan comes in at 100 miles. per hour and that causes all the fighting, fine. But people were rolling on the ground already in wrestling positions at that point. In my mind, it should have been Quinn Sullivan and Yonick Bright that get red carded. And I would feel for- How did Quinn get mistaken identity?

Because him getting up into Ian Frey and then rolling over on top of him. I'm saying, I'm saying like you're right that like- Oh, how did he get away? Yeah. Yeah. He did a suplex. He took a few notes, guys. And I'm curious to hear your notes on this as well. One, listen man, Ian Frey, you don't get to do the AI step over if you weren't involved.

And not only did he do it, gosh, he held it there. Like, he stood over. No, no, no. Like, that wasn't, oh, my bad, bro. It was like even, it was fully taunting. It was fully like, I don't know, I'm better than you, whatever it is. I don't understand. And Quinn wasn't, like, he didn't even have time to turn to yell at the ref to ask for a penalty.

Like, there wasn't even like, uh, for sure. It was just a weird one. It must have been pent up stuff from the rest of the game, which I didn't fully notice at any point. Okay. That's what. What was your other thing? Two, Kevin Sullivan, dog. Quinn Sullivan, dog.

Good for, uh, yeah, Yannick-Brite, too. Like, again, I don't think that you needed to throw little jabs, but like he was in and like, freight too, right? Well, the Yonik Bright piece, though, ends with, there's a shot up the tunnel. Caving goes in first. and Yonik comes in at 100 miles per hour and he is not going to the locker room. He is chasing cabin up the tunnel.

And it was all in the broadcast, which is shocking, which I love. So more of that, please. If we had had it, I'm sure Red Bull and TFC fans will go back to 2018 and all that stuff. And what could happen in a tunnel if you had a camera there? But Yonik Bright was not done. And he went from on to off to on

pretty quickly across the sequence. Oh, yeah, for sure. Totally agree with you, though, on. So post game, Ryan Richter on the press conference was just, he mainly, from what I heard, focused on Ian Frey and was like, that's, it's, he started this. It's unnecessary. That shouldn't happen. Now, here's one thing. We just saw the end of the Nashville game.

Miami gets under team skin. It already exists. Sometimes it exists from previous games. sometimes it just happens in the game. So I think everyone's like already kind of on edge for some of this stuff. On top of that, I think Ryan Richter has to be happy with this team. Like this is the stuff you want. This is the stuff that felt like it was missing.

You don't want fights. You don't want red cards. But you want energy. You want I'm protecting my own. I mean, you could call it a brother, but literally is a brother in this scenario. But like this is the type of stuff that it just felt like Philly was dead for what, five weeks, six weeks in the middle of the season. They played with energy to start the year.

They just couldn't finish. Then they had injuries. And then it felt like they accepted the fact that they were bad for a little while. And now in the post-Carnel error with Richter, that has completely gone away. And like, this is, this is an energizing thing that comes amidst, what, a five-game unbeaten run where they've been awesome. And they've been one of the best teams in Major League Soccer. Yeah, I picked up 13 of 13 points over the last five games, which is more than they picked up in their

first 17 games or whatever it was 34 it's crazy um yeah the the clin solvin that was uh who's co we taken nice and then the game ends i didn't see until later where quin solvin's walking past messy as the game ends before the whistle really goes and messy gives him a slap the love tap on the back of the neck if you've ever been out with tom it's something you're very familiar with it's with tom buggard 101 big slap to the bat bottom of the neck so I guess Quinn hasn't really fully experienced

Jersey like that I can't I can't beat those allegations do we think messy gets in trouble for this or it's messy and it just moves on so let's take this away from messy because obviously that puts so much more

into the conversation if that was Andy Nahar if Andy DeHard did that I don't think you should get suspended for that because it wasn't I don't think that was a red card offense I think maybe he'll get fine maybe there's some sort of you know escalation or whatever but yeah you can take Messi's name out of this

because that's going to supercharge this conversation I don't I don't think that that warrants like a one game suspension what do you think I agree with you like if it had happened in the 65th minute I could see a fourth official being like, hey, by the way,

like, tensions are already high. This just happened. Let's deal with this. That's different to me than it happens at the end of the game after all of what went down and you're retroactively coming back because it's not like Quinn Sullivan's about to do something dangerous because of that. You know, like there's a difference between we're managing the game versus does this singular action deserve that full punishment. But this is a trend. This is what I keep saying. there is a trend here and

Louis Suarez just came back from not playing in Leagues Cup. Why? I forgot about that. I go to soccer on Tuesday night and someone was like, oh, I didn't Louis Swares play last week. Oh, remember he spit on that guy last week back last year when he stepped on his foot so he couldn't walk away? Like this stuff isn't new. I think it makes a lot of these matchups pretty delicious.

And you always know you're getting a show when Miami's on the field. And now you know you're getting a show when Phillies on the field. Kevin was great in this game. Once again, Neil Pierre scores again. And Philly are now must watch as well. And as you said,

they're the second hottest team in Major League Soccer over the last five games. They are the second hottest team on the Houston Dynamo, who have won their last five games, five straight shutouts, I believe, at least four straight shutouts. Yeah. They went up to Vancouver in a one-versed two matchup,

and they knocked off the white caps in a midweek game. Tom, huge performance for the Houston Dynamo. It really was. We talked about them on Monday that while praising their run, it was Austin, Kansas City, New England, the Galaxy, and a red card to the Galaxy. And now they're going on the road to BC Place

to play Vancouver White Cubs, who are probably the second best team in the league, third best team in the league, really good. Houston played well. If you look at the XG numbers, I don't know. I thought Houston, I think Vancouver ended up having more chances. does that think that had to do with Game State?

But, like, Hector Herrera had a ball cleared off the line by Matisseus Abort. It was a fantastic goal line clearance. They had a couple one-on-ones. They had Bogush that ended up getting caught. And the chance probably didn't come with a really high XG just because he got caught and he ended up taking the shot early. All that being said is that this wasn't a smash-and-grab. While Vancouver are going to be upset that they didn't get a point at least,

it's not as if the Dynamar coming out like a robbery here. and it's they're first in the west, man. They're first in the west. 38 points after 20 games. This run has been awesome for them. It starts defensively. Ben Olson, by the way, Dave, he's not contracted at the end of the year.

Nobody's really talking about that. I wasn't aware of it until very recently. And that's something interesting to watch because if he gets to the offseason with no contract, Houston aren't going to be the only team that wants him. I know that for sources. Like, that's just true. I was going to make a joke because this is the best run Houston's had in four years.

And Ace Ache has played every single game. And like he drops in between the centerbacks and runs the entire attack. And my joke was Ben Olson can only coach Ache Ache. So if you're going to sign Ben Olson after this season, you might also have to move Hector Herrera's family and give him a contract. Because he was signed to be like borderline of club ambassador. And he has now played every single game. He's been so good too.

Like since he got there. Yeah. So the thing about this game that was interesting for Houston, and this was the one game of the night that I, like, put on and watch because I was really excited to watch the soccer, and it was a huge game. Bogus started up top. Technically, Jack McGlynn started on the right wing,

and then they played three center mids on top of Jack McGlitt. So there was a lot of interchange, a lot of connection. I think Bogush gets lost as the center forward. Like he's got the speed, but he doesn't really want to check in and play back to goal in that position. Right. He can't really take guys on one-on-one. He wasn't really an option at times you'd want him to.

So I think it's fine one-offs, but he shouldn't really be considered as a center-forward option for that team. But in their moments, it may they had really high possession because you've got four center mids on the field who are comfortable on the ball. And there was moments, especially in the first half, where Houston would win it back deep and start not. knocking it around guys on the top of their own 18. And then they'd get it into Ace Ache's feet. And he would start to move things around and run it in front of him. So it's another option of what Houston can do. It's a little less cutting edge.

But it allows you to control the game a little bit more. Then once Houston went up, Thomas Mueller comes in and Vancouver starts like coming after you with everything they have. And it's always a show. It's sideline to sideline. It's layoffs and no look passes and let's. this stuff. Alumi had a big chance on a breakaway. That goal sets him up for that probably could have done better on or he could have laid a cross

and then all the pressure at the end. There was 15 chances inside the box, but there's bodies in the box. This was worthwhile as a top of the West game. And I think not just winning. I think Houston toe to toe with Vancouver proved that they belong in this conversation at the top of the West. Yeah. We'll see turning a negative. whether if they play L.AFC in a knockout game in the playoffs, like will we all be on Houston, even if it's in Houston? But this is a team that we were worried about their season was teetering a little bit

or there was worries of like they were kind of around that playoff line bubble, which of course at 7-West, like early in the season, there's going to be a lot of jumbled in the standings. But we didn't see this, Goss. And it's very, been very impressive. And it's starting with defense. And between Guillermo Bogus, McGlynn, Duncan McGuire, I think that they're going to get enough goals to get by

as long as the defense holds up, which get three weeks ago, we were talking about how they need a new goal here, all this stuff and five straight clean suits. And on the goal, Negri, it's an unbelievable strike. But it was also, they had stretched Vancouver sidelines to sideline. So it wasn't just like moment of brilliance out of nowhere. Houston had bent Vancouver around.

And so there's space for Negri to run on and hit that shot, but it's a crazy finish. Oh, my God. I think it's outside of the foot to the far post curling past the goalkeeper. So epic goal, epic win for for Houston. A couple of other big moments that stood out from the day. Nicholas Dorsch had a cross that went in, Josh Ross,

which capped off a come from behind three three draw for Toronto at home against Charlotte in which they were down a man and down three to one in this game. So not great for Charlotte FC. best vibes Toronto's maybe had all season and then it comes out after Robin Fraser says that Nicholas Doris is on his way to the hospital

because he's got a facial fracture. This is on a day by the way when Peyton Miller played with 12 stitches in his face in the New England game. There's a whole other thing. And listen, you needed another neck tattoo. Sebastian Javinko was a legend for this team

and Nicholas Storos is back. He's been so fun, man. I didn't expect to see goal contributions from him, but it's a nice little added bonus. We've said this before, Charlotte can't control games, huh? Yeah, they get like, I mean, it's insane to be up a man and two goals. Yeah, against Toronto, a team that has struggled to attack. And even Robin Frazier, after they won on the weekend was like, it's great.

I'm proud of the boys for three points. We did not play well. It was, it was like, you know, we needed this, you know, we probably do. But like, make no mistake, we didn't play well. And now short legs for. everybody or short rest for everybody and they're down, like a red card and not just a red card, red card of Walker's Inverman.

Down from 1. You just, there's no excuses. You have to finish that game off. And the goal comes like three minutes after the red card. So it was like, oh, wow, it was, it was 2.1, Charlotte. Oh, you're saying Charlotte's third. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. So it was like, it was a real gut punch moment of like, okay, Walker's out. Now we're now. to one can we like hang in this and then two minutes later you're down three one so that was the part I think that's the part I think for Charlotte that really really hurts did you see lia alabata's miss on the front of I don't Toklamati's goal la Bada gets it it gets squared to him to tap in he takes four touches trips over himself tries to push it towards goal gets saved away and then

I don't Oklamati just hammers at home coming back and picking it up. And I will say Alan Saint Maximin was pretty in this game. I finally figured it out. The Gucci headband vibe all by itself. But yeah, this is a Charlotte team that you can't really trust. And I don't know, maybe this is a rallying moment for Toronto FC. If not, it could be one for their Canadian brethren in Montreal. Alexis Sanchez made his debut off the bench right after Noah Strikes scores the

freaking goal of this season. He dribbles like 40 yards and then he takes this shot where you're like, okay, cool. You're tired. You're just going to take a shot now and it's going to go nowhere. And he hammers it on the run into the back of the net, which was an insane goal. Montreal had gifted Columbus a goal earlier on. Goalkeeper literally whiffs on a ball back to him. We're seeing a couple of these. If he wouldn't have gone in. He like deflected it off his leg. And it. And yeah. But Alexis Sanchez makes his debut, Montreal wins a game. All of those things are things we didn't know we'd be saying. So a pretty good day for them.

Another one we didn't think we'd say, Al Hassan Youssef with a freaking hat trick for the red. This is like a defensive midfielder. Insane for the New England Revolution. And they went on the road and beat DC. It was 3.0 in this game. Jack Harrison's been pretty good since he joined. So he had one assist, I believe, in this one.

He had two assists in this one. He had one last game. So three assists in two games so far. In the last two games, his two starts, three assists across three games so far for the reps. He's as advertised. This one's coming inside on the left foot. He can sort of take a defender on either way. I think we were both pretty high on this move when it happened.

And he's performed so far. And the other piece with him is he kind of knows what he's getting into. It doesn't feel like it's going to be the like, oh, let's feel him out. That's getting there. Obviously, physically he's coming out of preseason. but it's not as much of an unknown. Of course, Puso scored. So that one's just a given at this point.

Best player in Major League Soccer. Chicago won bizarre game, weather delayed. And then Levantowski ends up earning a penalty kick and then scoring the winner in a 2-1 win over Orlando. Did you know Antoine Grisman played for Orlando? And Robert Lewandowski played for Chicago. They used to both play in a place called Europe. I don't know.

I heard of that. How did you get his takes on deep dish pizza? I did get his stakes on deep dish pizza. And then the last one to close out on, San Jose, an absolute freeful. Oh, my God. They are the second worst team in Major League Soccer over their last five games, only better than Seattle, who we probably have to talk about as well. Oh, we've done enough dug into that over and over.

So San Jose goes to the LA Galaxy. They go up a man in the 44th minute. Lucas Sanabria gets two yellow cards in the first half. This is the second straight game the galaxy have gone down a man early. I think it was like the 60 something. Yeah, it was about the 60th. Emilio Gar says, yeah, in the last game.

So San Jose has a whole half to play with an advantage. So they had rotated. So then they bring everyone back. Timo Verner comes on at halftime. Preston Jud comes on at half time, everything else. And they lost to the LA Galaxy.

It was nil-nil when the red card happened. Yeah. It was bad. It was very bad. Chuky Lozano got the start. He looked pretty good. in the first half, which is more of what I ended up watching. He looks aggressive.

He's making runs. There's a good combination down the left wing where all will take sort of space, Audet will take sort of space. And Chucky's happy to sort of pinch inside and then make inside out runs and whatnot. And he's, he tried to take guys on. But for San Jose, I mean, this was the darling team time. And one piece of it is you probably got to sign someone. Do you have a whole transfer window here?

your team struggling with injuries, you are also struggling with keeping up this energy level. There's only five points behind Houston. They're still in fourth because of the work that they did in the first half of the season to pick up a lot of points. But man, things look really, really bad. Bruce even said it, even when they were in first. They're like, you know, we're not going to know, you know,

downplaying a shield run. And I, you know, sometimes it's mine games, you know, like nobody believes in us. Oh, we're the other. Like Bruce was like, no, we're not good enough. Like, yeah, I'm happy with how we're playing. But like, we're, let's relax here. And that's come true. Shrek Pidiaks on Blue Sky

wants to know where the timbers get. I think so. I think they're fun. They're better than they were earlier than season. I can say that much for sure. What do you think? They're better than they were early in the season. I'm still somewhere in between.

I think they are still like controlled by game states. Like yeah, Velda gets 40 yards. Then he'll score goals. I still think that there's not the true connection. Yeah, that was a smack. But I still think there's not the true connection where they can create against anyone at any time. This one I loved.

Andrew on blue sky says RSL recent pattern of collapsing and some rumors on reinforcement because I asked what we should talk about. He said you can literally just make them up at this point and we would take it. So should I start making. Colin Galski. Colin Gossi. Manu Garcia potential. How about this one?

Mohammed Sal to R.S. Paul Pagwa is available. I know he wants to come to MLS. I know that. Yeah. Liam Dilap needs to go somewhere because Chelsea's got 100 players. so that's where he's on Man City, whichever one it is, both have 100 players. Maybe Savino.

Moodrick. Maybe Mubric. You missed the layup. Moodrick. I did. I want Moodrick to go on loan to Major League Soccer while he works his way back. There's no PEDs in Utah for two years. Well, he's at altitude.

And the thing was he was doing it to train to be a long distance runner. So it's a perfect spot for him to end up. Okay. On the weekend, as I said, some pretty good game. St. Louis Houston, maybe the best of them on Saturday night. Nashville, Columbus as well, although Columbus dip in form coming out of Leakes Cup, not maybe as many bodies to maintain the quality level. So we'll see if they can bounce back.

And then Nashville can they maintain their hot streak? So we will be back on Monday to review all of this, to recap all of it. Also, whatever other big transfers and big moves happen. And don't forget, Vanity Sartini coming out tomorrow. That'll be on podcast and on the YouTube page. Please share it around to anyone who you think might enjoy. All right. Thank you to you, Tom, for being here.

A lot to go through. Thank you to all of you for listening. And we'll talk to you again very, very soon.