SoccerWise - MLS Soccerwise | Leagues Cup Gets Complicated + Brais Méndez Is the Real Deal

Episode Date: August 10, 2026

Zavier Gozo is in London and on the verge of becoming a Crystal Palace player. David Gass and Tom Bogert break down what the move means for the young American, while Tom opens the Ice Cream Shop with the latest details.Then they discuss the LA Galaxy’s additions of Chucky Lozano and Sergi Roberto, Marcel Hartel's departure from St. Louis, and more MLS transfer news before diving into Leagues Cup chaos. Six MLS teams are sitting on six points, Brais Méndez continues to impress for Columbus and the young talent came out to play for Philadelphia and Chicago0:00 Intro7:45 Gozo to Crystal Palace18:53 LA Galaxy's Big Moves22:17 Hartel Leaves St. Louis26:21 Colorado's Transfer Plans29:55 Columbus, Vancouver & Other MLS News40:10 Leagues Cup Chaos: Who Advances?47:52 Brais Méndez Is the Real Deal51:59 NYCFC Finding Diamonds in the Rough55:32 Cavan Sullivan Shines Against Necaxa1:00:55 Chicago's Next Generation1:05:13 Leagues Cup Atmosphere👍 Like • Subscribe • Listen • Follow🎧 Listen & follow Soccerwise on your favorite podcast app:https://soccerwise.captivate.fm/🎥 Watch full video episodes on YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@SoccerwiseHQ🌐 Visit Kickback Soccer for more podcasts, news, and coverage:https://kickbacksoccer.com📰 Subscribe to The Kickback newsletter:https://the-kickback.ghost.io📲 Follow Soccerwise on social media:Instagram: SoccerwiseHQhttps://www.instagram.com/soccerwisehq/Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/soccerwisehq.bsky.social

What's up, everybody. Welcome back to Soccer Wise. Bright and early on a Monday morning, not as early as it normally is. What are you talking about? It's been a day of phone calls. Tom, my flight got in very late last night. So this is bright and early for me. And I'm on the wrong time zone. So I'm out of it. Come on, dude. How am I supposed to transition from central time to Eastern time? Has anyone ever done anything tougher in life than my current transition from central time to Eastern time? I just feel so thrown off. Tom's here with me. Doyle is cavorting in northern Spain eating tinned fish as much as the eye can see. And Tom, you're here for the grind with me. Yeah, we never shy away from the grind. The grind never stops. Hashtag tunnel vision. Hashtag, grindsat, hashtag the league.

That's just what we do. That is just what we do. We have a big show for you today. We've got a bunch of news that Tom's been breaking, starting with Xavier Gozo, landing in London to finish. off his transfer to Crystal Palace, which is going to be one of the big moments of the year and a future. I think U.S. Men's National Team star. So really, really exciting. Moves going official in L.A., some that we've talked about, some that we haven't.

Some news out of St. Louis, as well as Columbus and Colorado for now. But Tom's phone's been going off over the last hour, hour and a half, which is why we are coming to you a little bit late. So it could be a little bit more in there. As the show goes along, we will, of course, look back at the results. we saw in Leaks Cup and sort of set the stage for this final round of games. So we are recording this on Monday. There are no games on Monday night. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday night will be the final round of games for every team in Leagues

Cup. That will decide the quarter finalists. Everyone else will be eliminated. We will be back to MLS regular season play this weekend. So every team's in play. The teams who have been sitting out with nothing to do, they are back into the action on Saturday. So we'll be back at the.

end of the week to preview the weekend and talk about everything going back into the league from there and reset things on the league's cup side. So we have a lot to talk about a lot to do. If you're listening on Sirius Radio, welcome. Thanks for being here. If you're not, thanks for being here as well. If you missed it last week, we announced our official partnership with 615 soccer in Nashville. So if you don't follow them on all your socials already, you should. Instagram, Blue Sky, anywhere else you want. One of the best soccer. out there. We were lucky enough to have Valer and Ben Wright on with us, but we're really excited for the stuff we're doing with them, as well as with Sounder at heart, who continue to produce

some of the best Major League Soccer, NWSL coverage, USL coverage, USL League 2, everything that's in the Pacific Northwest, one of the most soccer crazy areas of the country. I, a little bit of a trip this weekend, Tom, the OG out there crushing it. I was in Milwaukee for the U.S. triathlon national championships in which my father had qualified. He then competed on Sunday. It was a great weekend. Never been to Wisconsin. So the 45th state I've ever been to.

Off the board now. Yeah, I know. I've done some road trips. So I've been through a lot of places. And then obviously, thanks to Major League Soccer and NWSL, I've traveled a decent chunk as well. So that's, but I've never been to the state of Wisconsin. Obviously Forward Madison.

Otherwise, there's not a ton of soccer there. And it was awesome. I had a great time. I am, I think, like a Milwaukee-style person. I think so, too. drank a lot of Miller-Lite, drank a lot of PBRs. PBR's in bottle. It just hits different out of a glass bottle.

People were super friendly, had an amazing time. And then my dad crushed it. So he gave us, he does this every time. I mean, he's very well-tuned to what he does. He trains a lot. So he'll give me exactly like, this is how long the swim will be, and it will be to like the 15 seconds. There's like an open water swim amongst people.

And he's like, I will finish this in 18 minutes and 14 seconds. And he will finish somewhere within like a 30 second span of that. And he basically overperformed on all of his predictions for this one. So we were out on the lake watching that one. And we are not sure, but we think he potentially qualified for the world championships out of his performance. Either way, I was inspired. as I always am.

I was very proud of him. And then after the race, we had this funny experience where this random guy came and sat with us who had raced and was chatting with us. And there's like, in the app, you have like where you finished in your age group, where you finished overall,

where you finished overall on the men's and women's side, depending on which one you entered. And then there was this like other US triathlon team thing that we couldn't understand why the standings were different than your age group. So this guy, starts to explain it to us and he just stops and looks at us he goes have you ever heard of fifa do you know like international soccer and you have this moment where you're like i don't really know how to

explain how deeply that is my entire core in life and i was like yeah yeah i've heard of it i understand and then he used it to explain it in which it didn't make any sense and then i brought it up to you before we started and then you re-explained it to me and it turns out that it's just basically weighted results going back in time that get trimmed off so So fingers crossed, the OG Goss, Bobby Goss, could be headed to Hamburg, Germany next year for the world championships. If not, very proud of him. Incredible performance.

Tom, we got to get a triathlon on the books. No, we don't. We absolutely don't. I'd like your weekend infinitely better than what your dad did, because I cannot comprehend what your dad did. Shout out to your dad. What an absolute legend. Hopefully qualifying for the world championships.

Just keep the dream alive. but for real that's truly unbelievable. Truly unbelievable. There was a 92 year old who finished the race yesterday. 92 years old. He swam. He swam, I think it's like 0.7 miles. He biked 12 miles and then he ran 3.1 miles all at the same time.

Like, are you kidding me? I got nothing there. Just insane. Yeah. That's how I feel to whenever you go to these things, because they all start at like 6.45 in the morning. and they're always blasting music. It's like a festival when you walk in.

Everyone's like high on life. And you're like, these are my people. And then you're like, these are not my people. I am not up doing any of this. Even the day of the race, I don't feel capable of doing it, let alone the training it takes outside of that all the time. It's absolutely wild. But we met a lot of cool people at bars around.

See, I can do that. We closed out Wolski's Tavern, which you get a sticker for. And then, you know, Yeah, it's like I closed out Walski's. And then there's another bar called Zads, which opens at 6 a.m. And apparently if you're there at 6 a.m. for a beer, you also get a sticker. So I tried to pull the double, but it was a little bit too much for us. Yeah.

So that's my life goal. That's my triathlon. That's your triathlons. And it opens ads on the same weekend. That top, can I get a commitment that you'll try that with me? I'm in. I need to get to Milwaukee. We'll do the, that will be the soccer-wise triathlon.

instead of the actual racing running and all of that type of stuff. Let's dig into what we know best. Let's talk a little major league soccer, some leagues cup as well. Let's start with the ice cream shop. Let's open it up, Tom. And let's start with the news that you already broke early on Monday. Yes, Crystal Palace are finalizing the signing of American winger, wingback Zavir Gozo from Real Salt Lake. sources tell me that he is in London right now undergoing his medical today on Monday and completing this deal.

I'm told the fee is in the region of 15 million. a significant fee, a club record fee for Real Salt Lake. I was told that he'll likely join up with his teammates, hopefully by Wednesday for preseason, but that all depends on how smooth things go today, just travel logistics. But again, he is in England to complete this move to Crystal Palace. I was told that as of what was the day that I reported

that this was close at some point last week, even like a day or two after that, Atlago Madrid, we're still trying to hijack it at the very, very end. But Gozo wanted to go to Crystal Palace. I think it's going to be a good fit for him. It's a club where they're not Chelsea. They don't sign 10 players, U-21, and just hope that three work out. For Crystal Palace, like, you have Premier League money, so 15 million won't kill you if it doesn't work out.

But they have a much larger vested interest in this specific player than just like a group of players. And their recruitment over the years has been really, really strong. When we first reported that this deal was getting there, I was told they kind of see him in that, like, attacking trio rather than as a wingback. Obviously, he can do both. I'm very excited to see where his minutes will be, what his development will be like. But Zavir Gozo on the verge of completing his move to Crystal Palace. We've talked about it since you started reporting it.

It's understandable for him that he wants to go now. It's understandable for RSL that they're going to get a really good number because of the year he's had. There's no such thing as a shoe into play at that level. And that's not the case at Crystal Palace. If it's at wingback, I think you could argue Daniel Munoz was the best right back at the World Cup. he's going to be the starter there.

There's reports that they're also spending 20 plus million on another young right wing back right winger coming from Belgium, I believe, and Israeli international. So it's not going to be an easy spot to jump into. I did see Brennan Johnson. It looks like he's headed out the other way. So there's a little more space on that right side.

Gozo, I said it like last week, I think he can be a difference maker off the bench already and impact the game. But he's going to have to fight for minutes. Like this is not going to be easy for him. And the next year is probably going to be a grind, whether it's through training, whether it's in loans. If that decision gets made probably in January would be more likely, whether that's down the table in England or out into a France or a Belgium or something like that. But he's shown that he can like elevate and jump levels when he gets there.

And it probably puts him on a national team radar even more so than he already was where now of a sudden he's got Crystal Palace on his resume. other teams like Athletical Madrid are looking at him. That's how they view him. I mean, in this fall window, he feels like a no-brainer for a Pochitino call in alongside some of the other young players that have been performing super well. I couldn't agree more. I think that he should absolutely be there in this fall window. The only argument I could see is if Pallas kind of asked that he stays to continue

getting his feet under him. But it's August 10th. He'll have more than a month in England. So I would rather see him with the national team. But for me, that's the only argument as to, why he wouldn't be there in the fall. So I'm super excited about this. And you talk about that.

I think he could get some minutes. The profile of what he does is, hey, man, like whether we're losing and chasing the game and you want a difference maker off the bench, depending on availability of the other players as well. And or, hey, if we're, if we're winning and we just want somebody hit you in transition,

he can step right in. It's not like, say, a centerback that, Lucas Harrington, I think he's going to play plenty for Hall City this season, but he's not somebody that you easing off the bench because centerbacks don't do that. You don't get 13 minutes. You don't get eight minutes at the end of a game.

Yeah, just so just the nature of his game. I'm super excited about. Pablo Maasorani did a really good interview. I think it was on MLS countdown or it was some property like that where he was joking like, yeah, I've stopped criticizing his decision making because what I think is a good decision generally or a bad decision generally. Yeah, that doesn't apply to him. He doesn't apply to him.

So he's like, I've learned to coach him differently. And I thought it was, again, Pablo is very interesting. And I thought that was just a really good quote. And we'll see how that kind of continues to develop in England, but I'm very excited. And I think one of the huge green flags with him that a lot of us noticed was he was a winger coming up through the academy. And when RSL talked to him a year ago about sort of formation change, style change, become a wing back, have some more defensive responsibility. He like took it on.

And he was watching tape to learn that position to understand. the shifts in his game. I think he's been fairly committed defensively. Yes. In his role. So I think he's in a pretty good situation where he's an open learner. He's willing to learn. And he's going to be a little bit uncomfortable in this experience.

But the hope is that that elevates him to the next level. And he just seems like a special one. Like we're going to talk about Kevin in this show. Robert Turdine made his first start. We've seen what Neil Pierre does. There's talent with all these players, but there has to be a special level of mentality and the personality that goes along with it.

I've seen Gozo play since he was 14 years old and he was one of the players that when you saw him, immediately you felt those things. And everything we've heard, I'm sure you're the same, about people who have worked with him, front office, coaches, academy coaches, all of that. They've said that since day one. And he sort of has said it to,

he said a lot of the right things. So this is going to be pretty exciting. I think Crystal Palace now becomes a must watch for people. They already probably was with Chris Richards. But I think for all USM&T fans, this becomes like the team to follow a lot easier than Mills. If you don't have to watch championship games on that side of things as well. They brought in Sabal Lopjanita.

Do we think they make a serious other addition? I hope so. We'll see. That's a good question. I hope that Lobejeunze isn't the only replacement. I thought that was a decent move to bring in. I know that they are trying to be serious about this season. They believe that they still have a very good team there.

I know Sergei Solanz has been subject to interest abroad. I hope, and I think that it's more likely hands up with a new contract, but we'll see. There's definitely a lot of interest in Real Salt Lake attackers, even with Gozo being in England now. I will reference this a couple of times. If you don't follow backheeled, If you don't subscribe to backheeled, you should.

It's the best written platform to consume major league soccer and most of North American soccer. Joe Larry, of course, one of our good friends, runs it, has a great team of writers underneath him, Ben Wright at 615 soccer, one of them. Joe wrote one of my favorite articles this weekend about under the radar sort of trade candidates inside of MLS. And this is what I do, which is like the moment someone just signs with a team, I look at the depth chart and it's like, is there excess here? because I love the idea of like a move that works for everyone. I said it when Yonik Bright, you know, the moment Casamero signed him, like everyone's got to be calling about Yonik Bright. He's an all-star.

He continues to perform at a high level. I don't know that Miami can afford to let him go. But of course, the excess of whatever they could bring in, whether it's allocation money or on a cash for it would be pretty big on his side of things. And one of the ones that Joe had on his list was Ender Atkinike, who's been an elite chance creator at right wingback for Cincinnati, but Pavel Buka is basically the starter there now. So like, is Ekinike too much reinforcement to have there?

And if that's the case, what does it take to get him? It's probably a decent chunk of cash because of the way he came into the league. But he's an interesting idea as a right wingback for RSL because he is a chance creator going forward. And he would replace the attacking emphasis that Gozo has where it feels like with Yedlin at that right centerback position, there's a decent amount of cover there. And you can, because that's Cincinnati's issue is they leak goals and Ekinike doesn't defend. Right. And last year, there was interest pretty quickly in Echenique after he broke into Cincinnati,

joined in the summer. And like, like with any other U-22 initiative signing, it was like, hey, just, you know, give him time to get his feet under him. And then he started and it was like, wow, this guy's really good. He's ready. I don't think, I think it has more to do with style that he's not playing in CINCSI right now. to your point, like if you have Brian Ramirez on the other side, well, he's like Echinique in the sense that he's a winger playing wingback, more or less, right?

And so you need to have a little bit better balance, and that's why I think he's ended up getting squeezed out a little bit now. Plus, Bucca's been really good there. He's obviously more of an attacker, but in a different way than Echnieke. And, I mean, for me, I wouldn't do it if I'm since he would have to be some huge, crazy offer, particularly with, is Buka the long-term solution at that position? I don't know, or is it just something that makes sense right now, regardless. Anthonyke is a different profile.

I think he's a really good player. And I would hope to see the future is to Europe for Etchenique. But, you know, we've seen with cashers and particular that everything's on the table. Like, there are guys across the league that you're getting called about. And in the past, it'd just be like, there's no point in trying to, like, before San Francisco. You can't give me the value to move this guy. Yeah. Right.

And it was like kind of the first winter that that, when the rule came in. And like, people were like, yeah, people like, like, high. Honey Mukhtar? Could we get Honey Mukhtar? In the past, you just say no. Could we get Santy Rodriguez? No. And Rodriguez obviously ends up going to South America and the people who were dreaming of Honey Mukhtar knew that that would always have been a long shot.

But that's the point where you can't take any player off the table at this point just because of the cashier. Hugo Kuyper. He ends up going to Monterey. And two years ago, that would have been the only place. But this year, St. Louis tried hard for him. I know other teams really wanted him. So you can't rule anything out with the catchers. Yeah, the U-22 thing.

it just is such a low cap hit that even though you're paying him money in discretionary money out of the ownership's pocket, which maybe they don't want to do, maybe they do. I think the evidence so far in Sincis is they don't really care about that. It's not really a spot where you're like, oh, well, we have to get this off our books. But the flip side is on the cash for a side, if you get real money or if you can get some allocation money in there, then you can go and maybe fill some other holes, which for Cincinnati is pretty vast right now. and they have a ton of resources tied up at the centerback position,

and none of them are playing well. So, like, you could then go use those resources somewhere else. So RSL definitely one to keep an eye on in this one. If you haven't, go to back yield, read that article, subscribe to the website and read everything. They do a winners and losers out of every weekend, incredible USL coverage with John Morrissey as well. I know I've promoted it five million times on this show,

but I will continue to do that. Tom, where do you want to go next on our moves from the weekend? You tell me, dealer's choice. Let's go to L.A. Because everything went official with them. We talked Chuky last time. Sergio Roberto now official as well. So the Galaxy made two pretty big additions to the team.

Yes, this is Chuky Lazzano is officially an LA Galaxy player. We talked plenty about that one, super interested to see how this one goes. But one that came out a little bit of nowhere was Sergio Roberto. and the former Barcelona player, I believe, where was he at Como? Yes. Regardless, he's at the LA Galaxy now. And with Edwin Surio leaving, this was a DM that they were looking to bring in. And on Chuky Lazzano, last show I spoke about like the cap ramifications of why, because he's a DP,

he's already bought down. And there's ways that like, would they be able to have signed Sergio Roberto without Chuki being a DP? I don't think so because of all the allocation money that frees up rather than if Chuky was a max tan player, right? Like these are some of the small things that are the knock-on effects. This is a player who will help with ball progression. Greg Vandy's teams are possession-based teams, and that is the idea here.

I don't know how much he's going to help in transition defense, but he's a really good player, and particularly on the ball, and they're trying to double down more on their strengths. So the LA Galaxy bringing in Sergei Roberto, and that was a deal that, gosh, how long has this been, have they been? been linked with this player?

Like basically since the day, the day, no, before Ricky Poach was signed, because I remember earlier that summer, when I asked somebody about it, it was like, uh, not the Barcelona player trying to sign. And then Poach comes in and Sergio Berzo, since that day has been linked with the galaxy. And he's done his research. He followed me on Twitter like four years ago. He used to pop into Twitter spaces that we would do, talking about MLS. Like, this guy has been waiting for this move over and over again.

Yeah. It's that right. Yeah. Yeah. So on the roster, this is the Edwin Serio replacement. Serio headed to Club America on a sale. And Surio, I think, has been one of the, he's been more the connector for that midfield. And so now Roberto will step into that high possession player. You have to think Ricky Pooge is part of it. When he comes back, two guys on the same soccer brain, soccer DNA. That would be really cool to watch. But I talked about it with Chuki. One of my issues is like he is not high volume. touches you don't play through him exactly. Pain still the same. Roberto, though, I think we'll try and control the game even more than what Serrio did. While he's not a 10, it's just even, you know, it's a bit more of a conductor on the field for a team that wants to be high possession because they have to be. Like they can't defend in space. They're not great at defending for long

stretches of time. So they have to be on the ball. And this guy fits that. And I think he fits the game states that you want to build around Chuky as well. So it makes sense. to make these two moves at the same time. I still am not picking the galaxy to make the playoffs. Like, I think this is intriguing. I will watch, you know. I'm going to be there and see, like, is this going to be fun? But I'm not sold on it being a huge factor this season.

But if Ricky comes back, I like the combination of him and Sergio Roberto in that midfield. And I don't know if Chuki will end up being a part of that one. Let's go now to St. Louis. because we mentioned this as it started to rumble last week, but one in for St. Louis getting Holsa a designated player in sort of that attacking midfield role, and it sounds like one out probably with Marcel Hardle heading the other way. Yes, Marcel Hardle is headed to Hanover in Germany.

The reported fee put it under a million. I haven't heard any confirmation on the numbers, but usually when that happens, if there's no pushback on the number that's being widely reported, then you could at least safely speak to it. what I was told is this was the player asking to go for personal reasons and the club ultimately didn't stand in his way. It hurts for St. Louis fans because Hartle is probably playing the best that he's played since he arrived at the club. I will say St. Louis are very, are definitely pursuing DP targets.

I would be surprised if they don't add a DP or I know that they're trying to at least. I don't know if it will be the same position. Maybe a number nine that opens up that possibility. But I understand why St. Louis fans aren't thrilled by this, but it ends up being something that I was told that was personal reasons. And the player asked as opposed to St. Louis being like, oh, now that you're playing well, okay, get out of here and get out here for a cut rate fee. So it's, it's an odd one. It's an unfortunate one. But that's kind of where things stand right now with St. Louis and this player and Hortle.

Yeah, it's really unfortunate timing that, you know, the time that he felt he had to go home and all of that comes at. as he's peeking in the team, as it feels like the team's built properly around him. And you can see his quality and possession that changes the game versus just the, just the pressing. That was asked of him when he first got there. And Edward Lovin, again, personal reasons out of the team for a while, comes back into the team. It's the right combination around them. It feels like things are building in the right direction.

They went into Leaks Cup as the second hottest team in major league soccer. And they added a designated player who I think is going, was supposed to connect. alongside of this. So if he can hit the ground running, maybe they don't take a step back, but it's hard to feel like they've taken a true step forward for a team that was very slow in the previous transfer market now because the DPs just swap instead of playing together, which I think is really unfortunate. I can understand frustration from St. Louis fans, as you mentioned, like, this is sort of what you've been waiting for, but there's nothing you can really control sometimes when it's outside of soccer and it's a little bit bigger than that. And

And what we've heard with the Hugo Kuyper's move is St. Louis are trying to be aggressive. So I think there should be a belief that when this window closes, it won't be that Hardle and Holso will swap for each other, that someone else comes in. And Holsa is in addition to that and not just a one for one. Yeah. And I think that's why I'm striking at least, at least an optimistic tone or at least a TBD tone. Let me be clear. Like, if that doesn't have, if it's September 3rd and that's it, like that's, I think that's a real, real

big disappointment for St. Louis. It feels unlikely for a team that read the tea leaves well enough to know that Kuyper's was available and was willing to put $8 million on the table to sign him. That another move doesn't happen. Right. But this goes back now to where MLS team stand in the current international windows, which is the deal of a guy for $8 million at that position is going to come at the end of the international transfer window because it's going to be the guy.

who doesn't get signed by the team that's working on three other things. And it goes, right? The EPL down to Portugal, down to Belgium, down to Greece. So that's the problem for St. Louis is Kuyper's, the timing would have been better. I have the belief they'll make the move. The question is, is it September 15th? And this player is, like, in training for their first fill week? And how much does that affect their spot in the standings now that you've lost

hurdle and you're trying to get Hulsa in and comfortable as well? So it feels obvious that they know what they need to do. The question is just timing and what it gets done. Let's finish up with Colorado reports out of Israel, which were picked up by Burgundy Wave, who does a great job covering the rapids. And they were talking about it on Blue Sky, is that there's an offer in for $6 million for center forward

Syed Abu Fari at Maccabi Tel Aviv, age 20. So I think the assumption is this should be U-22. initiative. It goes in line with the Lucas Harrington style lower level leagues, unknown prospects that we could develop and sell. Although $6 million out the gate is you really need that player to hit to be able to make a profit down the road. Yeah. And I think seeing that fee, you see the like level of a player that this is being viewed as in the market. Like the rapids, I do think that the rabbits have been hit with, you know, they don't spend money. Like they've made the most of their outbound transfers like Georgian Milovich, every dollar

went to Paxon-Erensen deal. And there's been others like Hoff and Navajo wasn't cheap. And they're going to be extraordinarily aggressive over the next few weeks with the money that they're getting for Lucas Harrington, which I was told maybe that'll be announced this week that there's no reason. I don't think to fear anything's going wrong. Everything's agreed. The player is bound for whole city.

And they plan to reinvest that money. And if you're spending that much money on a U-22 center forward, which there's definitely interest. I don't know if this is a route that will end up going, but this player has interest elsewhere in Europe. And that's a significant fee. And that's a significant offer from a team that wouldn't be like not being wasteful. I don't think it was money. So I think that's very interesting. I've heard from some scouts in Europe being like, oh, this guy's like legitimately really, really good.

And they've known about it since he was, you know, before he was in the first. It was like the first time he was training with the first team. Kind of like you were saying a little bit about Gozo before. Oh, like you, okay, like that kid's day. Like that kid has a real chance at being something special. So we'll see. I know that there's a lot of permutations on the table for the Colorado Rapids. That's a team to watch over the next few weeks within the end of the transfer window.

Probably going to be one of the more active teams because there's a lot of incoming to do when this Harrington deal does go official. So Colorado, that's a, yeah, Colorado is a team to watch. And we'll see how that attack kind of gets remorse. made or tweaked along the way as they tried to get the better players or get better fit within Matt Wells' system. And this is supposed to be the game plan. You hit on Harrington, you sell at a high number, you break that up now into three or four more gambols, opportunities, but at a higher level, right? The $6 million on this is more than the $1 million that you had been going out to spend on Harrington originally. So the idea is, can you get three or four guys now who can

produce for you and one of them can be the next $17, $20 million sale and then you can roll that into the next set of players. So I think it makes sense, but it's a pretty big expenditure out the gate. And there would be a decent chunk of pressure to like perform now because he had seven goals, three assists last year. I was a 19 year old starting in the first division. 21 starts. So you kind of have to outdo that for that number to grow going forward to then sell on to the next club, which would be big time numbers hitting double digits in one of Coles or assists. And let me be clear. If this is something that they do, it's part of the plan.

It's not like, all right, that's that's Lucas Harrington's money and we're going to move on. Like that's all for everything, right? Like, because they, I believe they still have a deep spot open. So definitely a team to watch. There's a couple more teams that are being active gossip. If you want to, uh, Columbus, Vancouver. What, what's going on?

Let's do that one. Um, yeah, it's one that that kind of broke this weekend. that Daniel Gossdog is potentially on his way to Vancouver. I've been told that it's certainly not done. I think you can know that that's not done by the fact that he played in the Leaks Cup this week and he scored. Did an end up, I forget if it was pregame or postgame interview, which I think goes to show his character's mentality,

even though it hasn't worked out for him in Columbus. If he is to leave soon, nice of him to be able to kind of go out a little bit of a positive. Here's what I was told. As of 40 minutes ago, somebody told me I think he's training with Columbus this morning. The deal is not

done. It's something that is complicated because it would be part buyout, part transfer for Vancouver. So it would open a DP spot for Columbus but Columbus would have to buy out whatever the agreement is

for Vancouver to take X amount of a salary and then Columbus would buy out the rest of it to open up a DP spot and clear that salary. As for Vancouver, I am told that they are signing a Serbian midfielder, Alexa Svetkovich, believe this would be a U-22 initiative deal. He's a number eight. I've heard good things about his physicals,

and this is a profile of a player that I want to see more and more players from the Serbian Croatian League's coming to MLS, particularly some of these brightest talents. And at 21 years old, that is the kind of age profile in the U-22 initiative that you hope can be able to impact the team this year, If he settles in quickly, if he gets a chance and gosh, you and I feel the same about Jasper Sorensen and just going to kind of blindly trust that he's going to make it work. So two things.

One, we be just sat up Undertaker style Jif when you said more players coming from the Balkans. Also, I'm 220 pages into a 1996 paperback book called The Fall of Yugoslavia written by the BBC. So I'm also here for this because I'm learning a lot about every town that I didn't know about. But this is bizarre for one. reason. When Daniel Gosdog left Philadelphia, we all felt he was a system style player. It was a high

pressing team with not a lot of possession. He is a decent box crusher as a quote unquote center mid. Okay, fine. He's a good he's a great PK finisher. All these things he does. None of it fit with Columbus did.

Columbus wants to be high possession, create chances, playing and out of tight spaces, all this stuff. and it hasn't worked. So now he's going to go to the other team, them in San Diego, that you would say are the least style. And on top of that, all the things he does well are 100% in Thomas Mueller's game.

And I argue they're pretty much in Ryan Gold's game as well. And so on the face of it, when Columbus made the move, I said this. Columbus was in a bad spot. They wanted to get talent in the door because they had lost guys like Cucho late in a window. And they just wanted to replace because Isatoll had just taken over and was trying to keep the team competitive. Vancouver now again, Sebastian Burrhalter out the door. You're kind of in a win now mode. If you're getting Gossdog on a lower deal than D.P.

You're probably getting a deal like he's, you know, you're getting value for the signing. But there's no way you'd say Vancouver is the Daniel Gossi. team. So it's like, I get it, but I don't get it at the same time. Yeah, I will say I was confused about the destination and you laid it up perfectly of like the things that didn't work in Columbus, maybe that don't jive perfectly with his game. You'd say something about for Vancouver and San Diego. Tam versus, or if it is Tam, I don't know, non-DP versus DP obviously changes the math here. And yeah, like you said, Thomas Mueller can do a lot of these things.

but it is about talent acquisition and not to be boring or blindly optimistic. Like Jesper Sorensen has figured it out with a lot of these players and gotten the best out of a lot of these players, but you would have said that about word for Nancy, obviously in Columbus, and that's who Daniel Godzog's manager was there for months and months.

So interesting. And there's just so many different strands to pull from this one, and I guess we'll have more information if this does get over the line and when this goes to go over the line. But as of right now, he might still play for Columbus Tuesday in their Leaves Cup game. I don't know.

Everything is very fluid. I would still expect him to depart the crew this summer, whether it ends up at Vancouver or not. But I'm a little bit light on hard and fast information here. But I do know that this is something that's at least been discussed. I just like, my guess would be, if this happens, my guess would be one of the Kenji Cabrera, Bruno Cicado, Emmanuel Sabis are. not on this roster at the end of this window, that one of them moves,

and this is just like a depth, talent piece across the front four, and he's available so you go get him. But, I mean, even if you were, say, false nine, like you'd have Ryan Illumie ahead of him on that list. You still have Brian White. Gold now is actually healthy and back for the first time. So I can, I fully understand it from a Columbus point of view, and you're probably going to get someone to pick up more of his deal now.

He scored three goals. in the last two, three weeks he's playing the best he's played since he got to Columbus. So you're probably going to save as much as you're going to save at this point. Let me mention this on the Columbus side of things. Did you have more that he wants to go into on this one? Bryce Mendes bawling. Oh, he's fantastic. Oh, my God.

Feels like a good time to be like, yeah, we're going to let that guy go because all those minutes are about to get filled by Bryce Mendes. And Taha Bruin looks great. Take an elite man. Chase Adams looked very good in. Leaks Cup play and would love to see him get legitimately more minutes. And the assumption is with the sale of Max Arfston and everything else, there's probably a couple moves more in there for Columbus. And you make this move right now with Gosdog because you have a replacement

lined up. Because otherwise, you just leave him on the, like he's not a Kansas to the team. You leave him on the roster and you do it in the off season unless you have something else lined up. Yeah, I think I'm aligned with that as well. But I haven't heard that like hard and fast from people I've spoke to. But again, I haven't had a ton of in-depth. conversations around this, but I just do know that all the things that that that I do know this is being discussed. It's not something that's just completely false. Okay, anything else before we get

in the league's cup? No, there's been a lot of questions in the chat about Eric Baiy. I don't know when he's going to debut. That has to do with his fitness, has to do with the visa stuff. I don't know. That's what happens when he signed an international player in somebody with injury history and somebody who's coming in during his preseason. I wasn't expecting him to hit the starting 11 and be ready to go on day one. And I don't know if he's in trade doesn't seem to be. I haven't seen anything like that.

But we'll, we'll figure that out. There's been some questions in the chat here about what the Red Bulls doing. Huh? Yeah. Red Bulls was going to be one. I was going to ask you.

Anything. Yeah. I don't. I don't know. I know that they've rejected a bid for Roald Mitchell, a center forward who's been excellent for their second team, but hasn't gotten chances in the first team.

Who I go to Denver. By the way. I think it's weird that he's not allowed to leave because if you're not going to play him, don't know point in the kind of Sunday's real because he's very clearly passed the second team right now he's 23 years old I would like to see him get to go but more importantly they need the centerback probably too uh Bergeron needs to be off the team Chupil Moteng needs to be off the team like there's just still a lot of dead weight within this team that is hampering and get no depth at the same

time yeah it's it's and this is a team that's getting three starters from teenage homegrown that's supposed to desperately increase your depth right which goes to show what Michael Bradley, what Julian de Guzaman kind of inherited this winter, and they're probably performing above expectation, but I was hoping by this point that there would be at least more clearer routes to changing the team,

and they haven't gotten the departures out as fast as maybe they would have hoped. Last one for you. If you had to pick on or set odds, whatever, you think Dane St. Clair is on into Miami's roster at the end of this window? I think so. I mean, that's another one that I haven't heard. I haven't asked the round directly, but doesn't totally fit the style,

but he's still a good goalkeeper. It just doesn't feel like any of the teams where he'd make sense are that desperate to go and like put money on the table to go get him. Yeah. And I like goalkeepers are a weird spot right on the league. There aren't like a ton of, we could talk about, we could analyze about we could say who might need a goalkeeper. I don't think that there's many clubs looking for one, you know?

Yeah. We would say Houston. but I don't think Houston would say Houston. Correct. So that's like, and I think that's the issue with this is like for the struggles he's had this year, you're going to have to put some money on the table to get him out of Miami, whether that's $500,000 allocation money, something around there at a minimum. And I think the teams that we think struggle at goalkeeper, they don't believe that they do.

And they wouldn't say, yeah, that's how we're going to use our resources right now. Like I think they would say if we can improve defensively or if Orlando would say if Robin Yanson's healthy and now with some of these guys coming in and around the team and, you know, Cartagena's back like, oh, Craypo will be better. So I don't worry about that as much where I think we would throw up the alarm bells and say, why wouldn't you go get them? I think Portland's another one where it's like you could argue that he could be the starter there, but it's an argument. So how much money you're going to put on the table to go get him when you're not 100% sure the day he walks in the door, he's the starter. And I think that's the most. teams in major league soccer although i guess red bull would be one but it's the wrong fit because again you need to defend off your line and cover space and that's what he clearly struggles with at intermiami okay let's talk about um leagues cup intermany are in it uh they lost on the weekend it was obviously an emotional game and odd game for them as lino messy's father passed away just before the game so he was unavailable for the matchup against monterey sending you know thoughts out to his family i'm sure this is

where he is going to feel most comforted by hearing that. And it was a big loss for Inter Miami. There was a celebration. Rodrigo to Paul scored and whipped off his jersey, and he was wearing Messi's jerseys underneath it in honor of Leo and his father. And it sets up an interesting final round of Leagues Cup as we have six MLS teams, perfectly on six points going into the final slate of games. So the top four teams qualify for the quarterfinals.

As we said, coming into this competition based off last year, the feeling was seven points was the threshold. I mean, there's a chance. And this is where this tournament is really hard for us to, like, preview. There's a chance all of them win because you only play the teams from the other bracket. This is not a World Cup group where it's like, well, for one team to win, another team has to lose. You know, not every team in a group can end on 12 points. It's impossible.

In theory, every MLS team in this tournament could have gone perfect because you only play the teams from the other competition. So anyone now sitting on three points, even RSL on four or LAAFC on five, you have to scoreboard watch. You don't control your own destiny because you don't play the teams ahead of you. So you have to score board watch

and hope that the league MX teams do you favor. It is the same on the other side for the league MX teams, where I think schedule becomes a fact. here because if results go a certain way, some teams may already know they're eliminated, while other teams may not be, right? So if League MX teams sweep through Tuesday and Wednesday, on Thursday a team might know they have nothing to play for, where an MLS team knows that they still control their own destiny because you have, for example, Chicago on Thursday, although they play Cruz Azul. So that's the one. They're both on six points, where they know what they need to do at the

end of this week. Yeah, it's very fascinating. One little note, there is one MLS team that has zero points. That's a Vancouver White Cup, somebody who we know to be one of the best teams in the league. The League of MX teams, there are eight teams, sorry, nine teams that are zero points. And so it's more open on that side of the bracket. So your point about the LFCs on five points, we're also like on four and then the other set three. LFC and then they obviously don't control their own destiny. like there's possibilities that some of the teams that are perfect right now don't entirely control their own destiny

for sure place is austin fc who are playing club america that's a brutal that's a brutal one to have but yeah um there are some other these like pumas you said Columbus are playing they they are one of those teams with zero points um atlas is who Cincinnati is playing since he will be heavily favored so luca is playing Dallas tuluka is very good but suluka don't have anything to play for basically because of them or maybe they do because it's a little bit more open there but the whole point is Is that like there's a, there's a chance where there's more than four teams on nine points. It's unlikely. But that's a chance.

And that must side of things. A hundred percent. So there are six teams left. And then they all, in theory, control their own destiny on perfect. There's also a world that all of them lose. Yeah. And then everyone on three points has a shot. Yeah.

And on four points and on five points. That's the other side of this, which is like, okay, you know, we have a crew fan in the chat right now. We've got messages over the weekend. on Blue Sky from other fans of other, like, how can we go perfect and not get through or other teams saying, oh, we're finally going to put up six points, but seven's the threshold, whatever it is. But there's also a chance that everyone finishes on six.

Because, again, with the format, everyone could lose in this final game because it's not based off playing each other. So there's not guaranteed points that have to be in there. So we're going to talk about a couple of the specific performances we've seen over the last few days. But just to set the stage the way Tom just, it. This is, I ranked it based off difficulty of matchup for the six teams on six points. So Austin plays Club America at home. I don't know if you saw Providence Park, but home is going to be yellow for that game. Club America is going to blow it out.

Although I believe it was an automatic additional ticket for season ticket holders. I saw this whole conversation online. So two of the three games were like free add-ins for Austin FC fans. And this is one of them. So fans could sell their tickets. Obviously, there's open level of tickets, but it might be a little bit more even. Chicago plays Cruz Azul. Both of them are perfect. That Chicago games on Thursday. So they will know exactly what they need to do, as will Cruz Azul in terms of the standings of what they need to accomplish to get through.

Then not only does Dallas play Toluca. They play at Toluca. Oh, that's right. Because Toluca has the two home games and they went to L.A.F. so it feels a little bit tough to believe that FC Dallas is going to get out of this one talking about the format stuff um it's imperfect for sure I like it better than previous years in that there like we don't need to see new England versus Austin we don't need to see Houston versus we're right like we've seen enough of these there should be as minimal

MLS versus MLS versus the MX games because what's the point of this other than to play this the if we're going to eventually balance out the schedule. Like, if I'm Dallas, I'm like, well, what do you mean? We have to go to Toluca. How did we get this draw? I think Seattle's saying the same thing. Yeah.

Now, the easiest part would be a really good team. You get to, you know, you'd be higher coming into it from last year. And then you get to be a home team. Like Dallas was, what, a seventh in the West last year? Like, that's why this happens. I know that's exactly what you play for in the regular season. Yeah, exactly. You play for the future.

Leagues Cup Stanley. So Dallas is there. Unless it changes again next year. And then Columbus plays Pumas. Charlotte plays Pachuca and FC Cincinnati plays Otloss. All three of those league MX teams are on zero points. So that is going to be a massive factor, I think, in the quality of teams they put out there. And therefore probably ends up being a massive factor of who ends up moving on and where this,

this is set up. All three of those games I just named. So all three teams who are perfect in MLS that can get to nine points, playing teams on zero points, all three of those games are on Tuesday night. Yep. So that will set the line that Austin and Chicago and Dallas and LAFC and RSS will be chasing. LAFC, the lone team on five points, RSL the lone team on four points. Everyone else in MLS is on three points. On the league MX side of things, you have, um, You have Leon who are also perfect. They play against Inter Miami in the next game. And F. C. Juarez, who are also perfect.

And I have no idea who F.C. Juarez plays because I'm sure. Oh, there you go. I was about to say I'm shocked that I knew all of this and was able to rattle. Well, done. Yeah. I feel pretty proud of my Leaks Cup knowledge. And I will be at the Inter Miami Leaks Cup game. If you are listening to us via Sirius Radio, you're going to lose us now.

We're going to chat a little bit about the Leaks Cup games. We have seen. So search soccer-wise on the on-demand player or anywhere. where you get your podcasts. Let's continue in here, though. Let's talk about some of the games that we saw. We mentioned it a little bit, Tom, but Bryce Mendez, unbelievable goal.

He has been everything you could ask for in losing Diego Rossi, having already lost Cucho, Wesum Abu Ali out with injury. He looks plug in play ready to build a team around and is going to, I think, be the signing of this summer. Honestly, man. would a player hitting the ground immediately. He's been everything that people I spoke to kind of suggested of like,

wow, like this guy, this is a real player. Obviously, for the right reasons, we're talking a lot about Lomondowsky. We've talked a lot about Griseman, and those two, I think, are fantastic signings. It's varying degrees. I think Griseman will have the higher sentence because he's a little younger and the more heliocentric way he can play for Orlando. Bryce Mendez, to your point, in his prime, proven over a decade in La Liga. and he just fits the way that Kutois wants to play

and he's somebody that, like when Carlos Hill got to New England, it's like, oh, this is your center, this is your North Star. Everything is around him. And that's what they feel like they've gotten with Bryce Mendez. Diego Rossi is a phenomenal player. It's unfortunate that they had to move him. They ended up doing it. A good fee, he leaves.

For everything that he was really, really great, he's a different type of player in that you don't build the system around Diego Rossi. You build the team around Bryce Mendez and the knock-on effect of the players around him will be exponential. I can't say enough good things about this player. And for it to be so clear after a few games and I get a player who arrived during his preseason, getting used to the league, getting used to the competition, getting his feet under him, like his minutes, like loaded up in his legs. For it to look like this already, this was like what it was for Cucho when he first arrived.

And maybe there would be a dip like there was for Cucho towards the end of his first half season. but from the like the moments that he first arrived and then from there on it was this is one of the best players in the league and that is the ceiling for Bryce Mendez. You mentioned Carlos Heel. I thought of Alejandro Posuelo when I saw in the way he started. I think Posuelo had like four goal contributions in the first five games he played including like two 20 yards stunners that are on the ends of long runs where I think you see the value you get with a little bit more experience. So while his ceiling is not oh, we're going to sell him back. to Real Betis like you did with Cucho for whatever number, a 29-year-old comes in with a little bit more like knowledge of his own game and I think can figure out how to how to fit in quicker.

And as I mentioned, I think with Columbus, it has helped alongside the change to quartas, which is probably even bigger than this. And going back to the soccer style that fits a lot of these players' talents. But I think Taha Habrune has played the best soccer he's played. We've seen Ruvul Caba now come into the team and play legitimate minutes. Chase Adams gets a start. Like if you're going to end this season and not be a championship contender,

the way Columbus has been for the last few years, one of the values you can get is, okay, who are the young building blocks that now we could ship out some veterans, save some space on the cap, and go out and get maybe some bigger style players that can fit in. And to do that, you need to play a lot of these kids. And to see who they are,

you've got to put some support systems around them. and Mendez feels like a guy who can help stir the drink who can help guide these players a safe feet, a set of feet to play into in tight spaces. He just looks awesome. And then the freaking bike kick. Are you kidding me, man? That's one of those where it's like,

I don't understand how that crosses his brain. Because you could flick header that. Like you're on the top of six. You could try and bring it down. You could backtrack to get it on your chest. And he's like, oh, this ball's here. This is the first thing I thought of. So I'm just going to go.

airborne and put this in the back of the net is freaking awesome. It led to a two one win for this Columbus team. So a big performance for them that keeps them perfect in this one. One of the games I watched because I was stuck on a plane so I could only watch FS1. So I watched the Cruz and Zool NYCFC game. It was not the best soccer game I've ever watched. I really like NYCFC. It's unfortunate. They play on a garbage field. They're one of the teams where I look at like a number of the players that could be available. As I mentioned, the backhield article, like a Jada Nelson pops up where you're like, man, I'd love to see him in this system where there's like so much movement.

There's a ton of quality. Malachi Jones is a difference maker. He's come back. He's a bunch of energy for this team. Still don't love Tallis Magno at Center Forward. But Max Murray is a freaking mountain. He is six, five. He is from Kenny Bunkport, Maine.

He played at UVM, which is obviously now a soccer powerhouse. Of course. scored the lone goal for them on a set piece. Gorgeous service. I think it was from Fernandez Merkow, because who the hell else it would be from? Of course. Six, five, man.

And this guy can move. Like, NYCFC's done pretty well in the draft. Kevin O'Toole, been a legitimate factor on the team, obviously all the way back to Jack Harrison, who's now back in this league, Malachi Jones, who I mentioned. But like, if this guy's for real, that is a huge get at the centerback position. I would agree, man.

And we were like, who's the UVM play? that went to San Jose, right? Floriani. Like, there was several players from within that championship winning the NCAA title team of like, maybe like a couple of them could make into the league

and Murray, like, that's not a bad start. And NYCFC are very good at this. Like, they will spend a lot of money City Football Group on young players and they've done that obviously very well. Nico Fernand, Nico Mercow is like they had to, I believe David Lee had to fight like hell

to get that. deal over the line because he was 23 or 24 is like what do you mean he's not 20 or 21 obviously a great use of money but they've also been really good at you know uh kevin o'toole comes through um there have been some other players that are unheralded like both from the academy but both from um either college or or cast off some other teams that i think that's really important in building a team like you can you can want to like your core can be we want to sign talented young players for big money bring them here develop them and move them on that can still be your your your sweet spot. But if you're ignoring the rest of the roster building techniques,

then not only you're doing it a disservice to those players, because at that point, just ran out a U-22 team. And then they won't get, it's an extension of an academy. They won't get better without having some, like, Nico Fernandez has made Augusta significantly better. For sure. Like, I doubt, I was like, all right, I'm out on this guy. He just doesn't have it. And it's like, oh, you put better and some adult players around him. It makes his game easier. It makes things better for him. And, like, you can do all of these things while still keeping your focus on. we want to sign and develop young players, right?

So I think that they deserve credit for that there because with the city football group team, we don't usually associated with that. We'll look at the Deco Frenas. We'll look at Augusta and other players of that ilk. So I think that's good that you shout to that out. Bringing guys from when he scores. Yeah, for sure.

Bringing guys from Brazil on loan. Like that seems, I think in people's had that CFG, but they've hit on more of these. Unfortunately, the one piece, now we can't say this with Fernandez-Mecal, but the one piece they haven't really used is the DP on an experienced player like a Bryce Mendez to elevate the ceiling, which I think is the frustrating part.

And my hope is when they open a new stadium and they're not playing on a baseball field and the ball can actually roll flat that they go out and get that guy to help like cap the whole thing off and put it at a high level. We're talking young players. We obviously should be talking about Kevin Sullivan. Scored the goal, had an assist in the game against Nacoxa. He like took responsibility for not score. in the previous game against Cruz Azul. Like he had three or four chances.

So I understood his point. It probably shouldn't fall on the 16 year old shoulders to do to break through. But that shows a little bit I think where he sees himself. And I think it shows where this team sees him. Like they stay. They don't see him as like a nice piece to have. Like he is a legitimate load bearing piece of what they've built. And he's been awesome for two, three weeks now.

Yep. In a row basically since. Ryan Richter took over. He was fantastic again in this game. Gets a goal, gets an assist, they beat Nacoxa. He was awesome. And he was at 16 years old, I hope the ball goes to his feet.

He has like, take away ages, take away pro, take away everything else. I trust the Philly attack most when the ball's at his foot. When Quinn Sullivan is able to play 90 minutes and be more consistent, the Sullivan brothers as he's attacking midfielers. That is a fantastic starting point.

And I'm not talking about potential. we're talking about right now. He went from like the idea of a player or the potential, that sounds great. All he did some nice stuff with the, you know, the U-17s or the second team. No,

no, no. Like if he was 21 or if he was a little bit older, we'd be like, this is, this is fantastic. And what I'm most impressed by, and I'm not most,

I don't want to sound like I'm trying to be a hipster. What one thing that I'm in, because it's his technique, it's everything that he does. I'm actually more impressed. Yeah, I'm actually more impressed by the way that he presses or like, he's learned to be,

like he's always been physical. I remember there's a story when I believe it was last preseason. So he's 15. They played the Tampa Bay Rowdies or something. Like somebody from the team was like retelling a story of just like he was sprinting into like the 30 year old centerback and trying to fight this guy. Like he doesn't. He started to fight against Cruz Azul and.

Jesus Bueno was right there and Dan Le Danube Dan Jacques was right there. But like he's not scared of those moments and he goes into tackles. And yes. He takes shoulder to shoulder contact. And I think people come in a little stronger than. they would because they're like, oh, I'm going to crush the 16 year old. And he doesn't, he does,

he handles it without also being overwhelming where that's where you start to get called for fouls. Yeah. Like, oh, you're over prepared for it. He handles that stuff really well. Yeah. And, and, just even look at this game. There's, there's,

I'm certain that there's a bunch of comps on Twitter just for all this touches and all this stuff. I'm not, I'm saying that if you didn't watch this game, go watch the comp because you'll see particularly the beginning of the game. There's a ton of defensive. of interactions, or pressing interactions. Like, that, when we talk about either ego or confidence or is it too much too young,

I generally agree that for a lot of players, this is a kid that, like, he hasn't let the bad side of fame or hype really get to him, or I guess in ways that we've seen, because at 16 years old, you got your move to Manchester City, to coach who stupidly wasn't playing you enough to make a point in the front office is fired. you got the guy, Ryan Richter is somebody he had him at the second team, he's championed, known him for a long time. This is the guy that trusts me, I don't need to press. Indy Vassilav, that's what you're out here.

You press, you give me the ball. Al-a-Doh, right? Like, he could be thinking that because that 16-year-olds do that, and particularly somebody who's been told for a long time, fairly, that, like, you're awesome. You're the guy. Manchester City told him, you're awesome. You're the guy.

You're going to be there one day. Like, it's kind of astonishing to me how much he's doing off the ball. and I just really hope that that continues. I've no reason to think that it won't, but we've seen this go negative. Kendri Pius as a kid, he was like playing for the Venezuelan for Ecuadorian first team, national team at 16 when like Chelsea signed him at 15.

He's regressed over a few years. And part of it is you've just been told forever that you're the superstar and it's just going to happen for you. And like Cabin Solvin, what makes him obviously special is what he's doing in the attack, but the totality of his game. and his ability to use his body, and as you said, to not go too far in the wrong direction either way

where he's kicking out of people. I'm sure he'll do something dumb because he's a teenager from Philly. We're all going to, that's all going to happen, right? One day I'm sure he'll get a dumb red card, right? But he's got enough, like, dog in him, but not, like, dirty, right? If that makes any sense at all. And just, like, the creativity, the goals, the final third stuff is real. It's fantastic.

But, like, the totality of his game has been super. impressive to me. They had Nathan Harrell obviously scored another goal or scored the other goal in this game. Neil Pierre starts again. We had him coming out of the World Cup on our 2030 depth chart because we know ball. And we were right. So I love that happening really, really fast. And then Malik Yakupovich got off the bench.

I said this a couple times on this show. I think he's the best prospect at his age from an attacking point of view. I think he's the best center forward prospect. I've probably seen since Ricardo Pepi coming out of the youth ranks. So I'm really excited for his opportunities. That's not for now, but it's cool that he gets little tastes of it here and there to figure out the level and for them to sort of progress him up the ranks. Speaking of the other person most people would say is the best prospect at this age is Robert Turdine

who got his first start in Chicago. So he ends up the youngest starter in Chicago Fire history. He got subbed off at halftime. He was one of three players that got to be. subbed off at half time. So I think it was a little, oh, was it? It has to be premeditated.

For all three of them? I don't know. They were losing. Well, well, Bomba for Zincredongle had to, like, hey, we're going to play 45 minutes each. Right. And the team was much better in the second half. I would argue,

Zincernagel for Bomba leads the team being much better. But he played in central midfield. There was, there's a lot of ground coverage there. I think it was a little bit easy to play through. It's a really young kid. It was all about just getting him that first opportunity. It was a good place to do it in for Chicago. And yet they still also went and won.

Robert Lewandowski missed a chance you would never guess he'd miss at 1-1, laid on inside the box. He ends up scoring the garbage time goal. But Puso de Tazan, and I'm not 100% sure on the last name pronunciation, and I watched multiple videos from South Africa and they just called it Puso. So I'm just going to call him Puso. This kid balls.

This kid's like a for real one. They obviously crushed it with Mbocase, unfortunately out for injury. We have seen players come from South Africa. I sort of went on a rant about this. Australia, South Africa, Israel, Greece, sort of these leagues that sit slightly under major league soccer. Teams have gotten pretty good about going and scouting there.

And the players seem to understand the pipeline of, I can go there. and go to my next move rather than taking a shot in Europe now. And there's a little bit more, MLS is a little bit more hamstrung in terms of roster rules. So you kind of have to play these guys. But everything he touches is dangerous. And it's not just him calling his own number.

Like he makes the right decision of when he beats a guy or gets space, when it's a cross, when it's a pullback, and when he goes for his own shot, probably should have scored in this game so the finishing quality there can get better. But like, whoa. I mean, he might be better than Bamba already. and I don't feel wild saying that.

No, he's been a revelation in that I don't know anything about him when he joined. And he didn't know was this somebody who needed some minutes in the second team or whatever. But like you said, like he's somebody who kind of jumps off the screen when the ball's at his foot. And Chicago Fire has just been really good at a lot of things over the last 18 to 24 months. For Greg Burroughs talking about Robert Trudine, like I believe it was. was when he made he was on the bench and as on you sub and he was asked about it. He was like, yeah, you know, we really want to get him in the game. You know, when some one something's the right moment. And I was like, oh, cool. If you're winning by two goals and yeah, yeah, right. Then he

comes out in the starting line up against, like, it's sensus lagoon in the next game. Like, just think it's funny. But like, Christopher Cups has gotten taste of the first team. Embo Kazi, um, fantastic scouting, bringing him in, letting him win a spot and wins a spot. Um, as you said, he's injured. Right? But like, it's been, they've gone. They've gone. out and gotten Robert Lomodowski, they've hit on a Max Tam and Zincranoggle. They've done development. Obviously, the style of play is infinitely better. Everything fits infinitely better.

They've gotten out of bad deals to overturn the roster. Like, the last year and a half for this club has been really strong across the board. And for for Puso to be working out right now, like, that's just another thing that that is in their cap of, oh, it's a U-22 initiative player that, you know, if you just blindly look at the profile of like the pedigree of the league, his age, the goal contributions, it's like, that could be somebody

who, hey, maybe he makes it or more often with the U-22 initiative, it's what's the guy from Toronto, Cassius, that I don't still know if he's a real player because he was signed

and then loan, loaned, I don't even know if he had a profile voter. I was like, is this the same person? Yeah, for Tunees and now I think he got, he finally got sold back.

Correct. But he was just like, I would look on our depth charts. I was like, this guy's still on the team. Anyway, like, that's not easy. And like,

it wouldn't have, it wouldn't have been the end the world if it didn't work out but like it's just so many different ways to go with this team right now uh league's cup was a delusion of games over the weekend um but it was fun if you missed it seattle finally won they beat curatoro three zero my guy os blanco so tough one for us and the fan base to take on uh Seattle finally breaks what was it then a seven game win this streak or seven straight losses i guess it was uh so they finally break that duct portland hosted club america quote unquote i referenced it before

It was mainly Club America fans in the building. They lost 3-1. And I think Christopher Veld after the game, I've never seen anything like this. He was asked about any, this is the video. So if I quote tweeted it, so you can go check it out. He's answering the question doing the interview outside. Like, he's not in the locker room.

Like, he's on the field. And he's very clearly pissed off. And the question goes, hey, Chris, like, what did you make of the atmosphere? And like, there's a second half of the question that he goes, shit, shit, shit. I've never seen anything like this. And he turns around and just goes, all of the yellow shirts.

I don't know how this is possible. Like as, as Kluberra fans are making the noise after the game, he's complaining about it. It's just poetic, like is now. This obviously sort of made the rounds. And I think this is one of those where it's like, I can understand from his point of view, he's playing a home game in his stadium. You're upset that it doesn't feel like the fans are on your side. But from a soccer culture point of view, I think this is one of the ones that gets lost.

Like, there is probably no country in the world with this exact situation. The league's up first of his kind. Yeah, exactly. Maybe if Juventus played in Buenos Aires and the tickets were open for sale that they would outdraw Boker or river. Like, I don't know that that's true, but maybe. I don't think that's true. It might be, though, because how many people do you know who are like, oh, I'm Italian for, like, McKelley's a Lazio fan in Venezuela.

True. He is not a fan of the local team. Now, that's more of a baseball country. And there's examples of this all over. Liverpool and Tottenham will finish the season and fly to Australia before they take vacation. Like within two days to go play in front of their fans there because they're such a huge fan base. There's not a lot of them. But like this to me is still cool because you have thousands of fans who traveled.

Most of them probably don't live in the Portland area. They probably live on the West Coast or in the Pacific Northwest. And they're like, my team is never going to be closer. I'm going to take this one off opportunity. but it's also still a chance for MLS to put a product on the field that's entertaining for that person to then go home and say, oh, I live near the Sounders. I live near the quakes. I live near the Chicago fire.

That wasn't bad. That was fun to watch. I'll go to that game. But also, like, Club America being a huge team in America in the U.S. is still a massive moment for soccer. And like, that's the progress of the sport that it's available to them and they can go out there. So I think I understood Veld's comments. I think a lot of the discourse after it's.

been a little bit annoying to me and frustrating, but also I think it's pretty cool. And it is like the one saving grace on some of this league's cup stuff where it does feel, especially as the results come through. And there's like nothing for teams to play for. You're like, what am I tuning in for? And then you tune into a bumping atmosphere. And you're like, oh, cool. Like the, you know, the energy in this game is good because they're playing in front of a ton of fans. Then Nacoxa, you know, Kulian Kranza returns to 3,000 fans in Philadelphia. And it feels a little bit different. Um, on that side of things. Anything that I left out from Leaks Cup that you were dying to talk about. No, you know, I'll refresh within the next three days and there's another 18 games and we'll do it

all over again. Yeah. So Tuesday night, full slate of games, Wednesday night, full slate of games, and then Leaks Cup phase whatever finishes on Thursday night. And then we are straight back into MLS play on Saturday. So no rest for these teams. After this, Leaks Cup becomes midweek competition around MLS games. So it becomes like Cockcalf Champions League, like U.S. Open Cup. It becomes an additional competition for these teams to manage around other games, and there are no breaks for

it, which will be nice. It'll just be more soccer for us to consume, which we always enjoy doing. So thank you to all of you who are here live with us hanging out in the chat. Thank you to all of you for listening. Thank you to you, Tom, of course. A big shout to Gregory for helping put this together, and we'll talk to you all again.

Very, very soon.