SoccerWise - MLS Soccerwise | MLS Transfer Window Goes Wild

Episode Date: August 27, 2026

The MLS transfer window is heating up, with record-breaking fees and major moves reshaping clubs across the league. David Gass and Tom Bogert break down Kevin Kelsy’s $13 million move to Rangers, Owen Wolff’s record U22 Initiative transfer to Sporting KC, Julian Hall’s new deal, Austin FC’s overhaul and more before diving into MLS’s Leagues Cup collapse and the weekend ahead.0:00 Intro6:24 Portland’s Kevin Kelsy to Rangers 17:03 Owen Wolff to Sporting KC32:49 Colorado’s Big U22 Signing37:02 Julian Hall’s New Deal 43:41 LAFC & Orlando Make Moves, Players Head Abroad52:48 Liga MX Sweeps the Leagues Cup Quarterfinals1:04:08 The Austin FC Rant1:14:35 Weekend WatchlistFor the sharpest coverage of American soccer, we’ve got you covered:https://linktr.ee/soccerwisehq

Welcome back to Soccerwise, everyone. David Goss and Tommy Scoops with you for a Scoot-Tastic show. We've got news on news on news coming up. We have a lot to talk about, a lot to dig into. And Tom, it's Leaks Cup time, baby. You could smell it in the air. You could feel the electricity from coast to coasts across the U.S. and Canada. It is the biggest moment for none of those clubs.

Unironically, Dave, after I played soccer last night, I stopped at a local establishment for a little pizza and a couple of beverages. And I was joking, I was going to high protein pizza with renewal beers. With the we, we, we, I played in a friend's team in one of the lower divisions. And we won the vinyl. And the trophy was like, the trophy was like hilariously small. It was like, I, they had to have done this on purpose. Even the ref was like kind of laughing when he handed us the trophy.

It was like slightly bigger than like a beer can. I was like then like the A division is like the largest and the B division is a little bit smaller. I was like, oh, this is what one of these things. Anyway, I was going to get a little postgame food and I was going to joke with you guys. Should I ask them to put on leagues up when I get there? Because I think it was half time of Toluca Austin. And I didn't even have a chance to do that bit. And I walked in.

I swear to God, it was on the first TV. Wow. Because it was on Fox. Because it was on Fox Sports rather than have a TV. But I was like, that that would have that would have undercut me. I'm glad I didn't send that time. Well, the, the, Funny thing is the first League's Cup game, Chicago, I had just played soccer and I was at a bar.

Look at us. And I was going to ask them to put it on. And I figured, oh, they'll put it on in span. Like I can ask them to put it on 2DN, whatever. Oh, no, Apple owns the rights on both. So they're both equally unaccessible. And the assumption is if you had it on like a Spanish broadcast network that it would probably do a huge number based off the freaking people in L.A. at the Club America game, which was wild and across all of these cities where these teams are not home teams.

They did not play home teams. And for the most part, they were really strong crowds. All four League MX teams won. So there are no MLS teams in the semifinals. A League MX team will win League's Cup for the first time ever as well. So we will talk about what that effect is on Concordcaf Champions League, which is the big piece because of the bids that are given out through League's Cup and how it will affect the competition next year. and we'll talk a little bit about some of the teams that were in this competition. But as I said, today is all about opening up the ice cream shop.

The moment we finished our last show, Tommy's been serving over and over and over again. So we're going to go through all the biggest moves, the $13 million transfer of Kevin Kelsey to Rangers, the Owen Wolf Cash for the Colorado Rapids signing a U-22 initiative multi-million dollar center forward. And a couple other big moves that have happened over the last few days that have opened up space for teams. they've sold players overseas and gotten them off their books. So we'll dig into all that. And then, of course, a weekend coming up back in Major League Soccer, now that Leaks Cup has taken its finish.

If you're listening via Sirius Radio, welcome. Thanks for being here. If we run long, as we tend to do, you can go find the show on the on-demand player. Before we start, I just don't want to forget. So I'm going to do a quick schedule note here. Coming up over the next two weeks are a little bit wonky. So next week, the transfer window closes on September,

second, which is Wednesday. So the legend that he is, Tommy Scoop, first to a live show from the eye of the hurricane. From the middle of the storm, Tom wants to do a live show while I am in Lima,

Peru on vacation, which was poorly planned by me. So Tom is going to do the second show of the week next week. We'll have the normal show live on Monday. We'll have NWSL with Jill Lloyd in on Tuesday. And then on Wednesday, Tom is going to do our second show.

They will do it live during the transfer window on our YouTube page. And then it will come out as a podcast later on. It will be Matt Doyle and some other guests so that people have other people to talk. Doyle has someone to talk to while YouTube phone calls. Brian, Brian Dunst. Dunnys in. I believe him. We locked him.

Yeah. And I believe him, unlike some of our other friends, that if he says that he's in, that he's going to be here. You don't have to be around the bush. Andrew Weeby. Quick, yes, I'm in.

doesn't mean a single thing. Does not even close to connect to reality? It's just a thing that he says when he's going through it. So, yeah, I'm really excited for that show. I can't wait to listen from afar as moves happen. They will talk about them. And of course, a good chance to sort of recap everything that's happened, the whole window.

And going forward, this will become a little bit more regular of transfer windows closing as more of an event because of the league change, schedule change, it will be a little bit cleaner as when seasons start and will make a little bit more sense inside the calendar rather than in the middle of Leagues Cup and MLS playoffs and Open Cup semifinals and everything else in between. The following Monday, we will be off for Labor Day, pouring out for unions and Vanity Sartini, who originated the run for socialism here in North America. So we will be off for that show. We won't have that MLS show to start that week. And then we'll be back on Thursday with the NWSL show on Tuesday.

day, I will be out. So Jordan Angeli will be hosting alongside Jill Lloyd. And we will have our U.S. soccer shows both weeks. So our show came out yesterday with Philadelphia Union Sporting Director John Shear and former Florida State University three-time national champion head coach, Mark Corcorian, who also ran the Washington Spirit for three years. Both of them talking about where college soccer sits in the landscape of pro elite player development on the men's side and on the women's side. So it's a really great conversation if you haven't. listen to it. And then next week, we will be previewing the U-20 Women's World Cup that's coming up. And we'll be talking about some of the big transfers around American players.

We'll be talking about Pachitino's roster selections over the next two weeks as well. And then we've got some open mic special interviews that are coming up. Boom. There it is. You are welcome. Now let's dig into what we want to talk about. Let's start and open up the ice cream shop, Tom. And let's start in Scotland, baby. Come on, you girls. Rangers are finalizing a deal to sign Kevin Kelsey from the Portland Timbers for a fee of 13 million up front plus add-ons plus a sell-on clause. Rangers bid earlier in the window around 10 million and they kept going up to a point where Portland weren't looking to lose Kevin Kelsey. I can tell you new head coach Marty Sefuentes definitely wasn't looking for this move to happen. But kind of when you get up into that 13 million plus add-ons range, it's really hard to turn down.

No, Breiner. The player, the player, the counter argument would be that the timbers believed a deal, maybe not exactly this, but similar, could be here in the winter or the next summer, but would never be higher. Probably not. Probably not. That's fair. That's fair.

But they've had the development of him and they've gotten this really good run of form from Kevin Kelsey. So I understand why fans might not be thrilled. Yeah, for sure. Think the sophisticated ones, they understand like the predicament or the situation. But it's like, oh, man, like, we've been watching them for years. and a half there's been good and bad and like this is finally a run of like consistent goal scoring and the second when that happens as is normal in the world of global soccer is teams are signing players

quicker off of maybe not a smaller sample size but like all right we're convinced that you've hit the next step of your development it's for kevin kelsey it's his movement it's um we know the physicals are there we know all the other stuff it was is it not just his intelligence of movement his timing all that stuff i think that's been the reason behind his goal scoring form has more consistency and that's been really cool to see. But for Rangers, this is their second largest transfer in their club's history. And the last one was the one that the one that's a club record was in 2000. Yeah. Like this is basically a new club record for this team. Though I will say spending more than 13 million in the year 2000, that's probably like a hundred million

adjusted for inflation in today's soccer. So maybe it's not really that close. But it just goes to show that this is, I was surprised that it was Rangers and the money that was going because I thought this kind of fee was what it might take to get Kevin Kelsey out. And we just haven't seen this from Rangers or Celtic in that kind of range. So I think this is going to be good and it's very interesting. It's a complete curveball, as you said, that this level of number is there for a Rangers team that it's not like they're like, oh, we qualified for Champions League group stage. So now we're going to make this move.

Right. Which I think that's like one of the huge things that surprises you. but as I said, I mean, I said this on the last time that this came up, like I would have taken 10 million when that was the number that we were hearing. So I'm not the biggest Kevin Kelsey fan. I get that. He scores goals. I think there's limitations.

Here's my one big complaint. I think I can understand, especially from Portland fans, because he's not a DP. You get $13 million, which is more than a vander cost. Yep. but you can't sign an Evander style player because you don't have the DP opening. And I can understand the frustration there of like, great, you've gotten a huge number.

It can affect us positively down the road, but not specifically in a replacement. Yeah. So I want to put one more bow on Kelsey before focusing on the timbers. What I will say for Rangers, while there's a lot of money and there might be risk in that, Kevin Kelsey, his physical is that if he just plays like he's playing for Portland for Rangers,

they'll sell them for 20 million to the next Ipswich Town Hall City or who was Sunderland. If Middlesbrough gets promoted next year and Kevin Kelsey scores 20 goals in Skyland, they can sell him for a profit. So it could go wrong, of course, like any other transfer, but like I think that he's going to have the baseline where he can bully the bad teams and he'll score several goals. But like he's, I think now shown enough offball excellence or improvements that he'll be good against Celtic. but like he's going to score goals against St. Miran, whether he's good or bad against Celtic. And if that he does enough to, if he plays like he's playing now in Scotland, they will sell him for more as soon as 12 to 18 months.

I feel bad for the kid that he's played, I think this will be what a six club because he played at two South American clubs before he went to Europe, before he went to Cintsey, and then to Portland. On the Portland side of things, it's a good point that you bring up. And if we want to go even deeper into the minutia, stupid U-22 initiative rules mean,

If you spend more than $5 million on a player, which Portland did, it was just under six, so a really good discretionary development and flip good value. They can't convert any of this to GAM. If they traded cash trade for $9 million, if they did a cash trade for $6 million to Seattle, like Danielovich deal, they could have converted all that to GAM. I don't understand, like I like that the cash for you're able to. I don't know why there's stupid restrictions on the DP and U-22 initiatives because this is a success story. There is no mitigating factors.

They spent a lot of money on it, but they're making double. He scored goals. He was a fun player for this team for 18 months. This is all good. And they're not able to convert any of this again, which would be helpful. To your point, can I just, can I just say in that? Yeah. This is complete speculation.

It's got to be a way. Someone in a room must have said, well, what if. CFG or Red Bull Global buys and sells players into and out of for inflated numbers and then it comes into allocation money. It's almost a way of isolating that potential, which is if you sell Santiago Rodriguez to another CFG team for $12 million and they can convert $6 million into gam, it affects the parity inside the league more than if it's just moving money for themselves and then you can go out and spend that money again. I got to think that was part of it, which is all part of the issues of Major League Soccer and trying to create fake parody.

But the other side of that is while we're usually annoyed at all of the rules in the regulations is or up to MLS's discretion. Yeah, yeah. Of that could solve all that. Like, if it's so clearly like money laundering, not the allocation money laundering. If it's Tyler Adams for a fake number to a fake Red Bull Club, you can change it if you wanted to. Yeah.

Right, right. But like, but even then it was like, if they didn't sell them to Leipzig, they would have sold them for more. So like, but all that is to say is, So they can't, they could sign a DP because they have two, I believe. But I'm told that the plan is to stay the 242 roster building model. They have two open U22 slots right now. They're very active in bringing in at least one over the next week.

Yeah. They're going to need to do some other stuff around the roster sucks at Brandon by, towards ACL. So they're going to need a right back because mascara is already on the season ending injured list. But so those are some smaller things that they'll need to do. But a U22 attacker, I don't know. No, in a perfect world, it's somebody who could play wide and through the center because they signed Vincent Jansen. And they really like Gage Guerra.

Like, they believe that he's going to, he's a really, he'll be a good backup forward. That if he has to play a several games, if Janssen is either suspended for a red card or, you know, they have to rotate. Like, they're good with him playing. So it's not like they necessarily like need a center forward for the rest of the season. So the U-22 attacker could be a winger or it could be center forward. But that's what I'd expect for them. By the winter, between now and then, they could add. for U-22 players.

And I'm told that's the plan. And that's how they're going to deepen and deepen the roster for Mardi Syfentes and give more and more options, particularly with a guy who has shown that he'll play young players and develop them. And he's like, so that's how they're going to choose to improve the roster rather than say,

okay, here's $10 million for another DP. My assumption would be in the attempt to sign U-22 initiative players if they want to be competitive this year, the one thing we've seen is the further away from 22 you get the more competitive you are. So if you go for the 22 year old 21 in 11 months and 28 days, it ends up being a bigger hit. And because you have the 13 million that you just brought in, which you can choose to spend, you know, on transfer fee, whatever, as your own club, like outside of it. My guess would be one of the at least the two players if they bring two in would be in that sort of category. if they want to fill in the center forward position short term,

I think Danny Musovsky has to be on the market because they brought in Yovalich and DeRos, the guy you'd keep of the two. Don't know if Seattle and Portland would make that deal between the two of them, but he's like one of the cliche guys. I was trying to think if there was like a homegrown center forward out there who you could acquire and turn to U22 initiative and say to the club. Seymour Reed. NYCFZ.

That would be a big gamble. I agree. Yeah. I was the first name that came to mind of a young forward that maybe isn't having. Yeah, there's not a lot that getting playing time, which is part of the problem. I guess Darren Yappy would be one of them. But he already got the contract in Colorado. And Colorado just signed another center forward.

So he probably won't play a ton of minutes at that position, which I think is his best position. Overall, I think you just couldn't walk away from this if you're Portland. You are ninth in the West right now. You are tied for 10th. Like Kevin Kelsey has been scoring goals and you are still not a great team. You can't turn down $13 million in a market like Portland and walk away from this. And I assume there's some level of sell on as well, which could trigger in the deal. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So then as you said, this was the thing that the frame of reference I was going to take. Rangers doesn't have a ton of frame of reference for this move because as we said, it's a record bringing in, and they haven't

sold that big as big. Celtics, the other one. So Arne Engels went for 25 million, but Dizan Maeda, who's much older, but is a productive center forward who played at the World Cup, was a little over $10 million that they sold the game switch this year. And then the reference point I was going to make is Hysim Hassan, who scored the insane goal against Argentina for Egypt and was playing in La Liga and is one of the best dribblers in Europe. He was brought in for less than $10 million by Celtic this season. So this is a huge move for Rangers. And it continues in Exodus to Scotland of, you know, American-based players, which if they've got money, might as well sell it. Who cares? And for the most part, they've performed when they've gotten

there. Let's move to Owen Wolf here, one that we put up a short video talking a little bit about Tom and the move has gone through for, I think, a big move for both clubs involved. It's born in Kansas City acquired Owen Wolf from Austin FC on a cash for for 4.5 million up front plus another 3.1 in add-ons. It is the biggest U-22 initiative cash for in the brief history of the deal. I believe that there's been 23 cashers at the moment. Owen Wolf for 4.5 million, he would be, I think him alone is like top five in this regard. So it's a very interesting move to me, guys, because they have a lot of money to spend, right? And they're going to spend it on Andre Luis.

They're going to spend it on other DPs. We'll talk more about Kansas City. I'm sure that they'll keep going on U-22s. Discretionary money is not the problem. With the U-22 initiative in particular, but obviously with DPs like any other signing from abroad, there is some level of risk. You don't know if the player is totally going to hit or not or hit the way you want to, fit into the league, whatever.

Well, Owen Wolf, 21 years old, or maybe 22 now, he's got like 150 appearances in MLS already. He had a breakout 2025 season where we already knew he was good, but he went to, he's Austin's best midfielder, and it is

not particularly, like him and Daddy Pereira, but like in the moving forward, it's like if the ball isn't at either one of their feet, you know, tell Usman Bukari to go sit on the bench. I don't, you know, don't look at them. Yeah, what's nice. Watch the game. Yesterday. Watch the league's skip game. There's no creativity through midfield.

So, Owen, spending $4.5 million up front on Owen Wolf is about as high floor as you can get. There's injuries for every player. He's missed most of the year with recovering from hernia surgery. Who, like, hopefully he can be all 100% fit because when he is,

take away the age, take away whatever else. He's one of the best number eights or eight and a halfs in the league. And I think that this is just such a good way to spend money. if you're a team that is completely rebuilding on a versatile player, a player that fits the game model that they want to play, and you know he's good in this league.

With U-22 initiatives, that is not guaranteed. So I really like this for Kansas City's perspective as they have a ton of unknowns, a ton of them. Well, one known is Owen Wolf when he's on the field. He's good, and he's good in this league. And I can't think of a better way

to use the U-22 initiative slot, honestly. I've got to rant about Austin. go ahead there's four places in the show we could do this i think i'm going to save it for leagues cup because it doesn't have to be here i agree with everything you said the the floor on owen wolf super high and the flexibility like he's a high iq soccer player who can connect the game and one of the things i always feel with these teams that are clearly in big rebuild modes is you've got two ways you can do it you can sign the dPs and build everyone around them or you can start to just build a solid soccer team and then bring the DPs in the right

guys at the right time. And a guy like Owen Wolf gives you the flexibility to be able to bring in different types of DPs because he can play with anyone in that position. I think that to me is where it makes a ton of sense as well as on the U22 initiative, the way he's going to hit your roster. He is not going to be a huge expenditure and he's a guy that you can have on that deal for a couple years. And while you're spending big on DPs and trying to bring in TAM players who can actually affect the roster today and probably don't have a big long-term future, Owen Wolf will be there. You're hoping he'll be a consistent performer. You're hoping he'll be healthy. That's that one big question mark. And if that's the case, then it's going to be a great deal against the salary

cap for a long time to come. So it makes so much sense. He also knows the league, as you said in a way, that very few young players do and has been in good positions and has the connection to KC. Like I don't think that's like not important that a club that is in a weird spot inside their market brings in Josh Wolf's son who has a last name that people will recognize as a World Cup veteran who played and worked in that market. He's in the hall like the Ring of Honor or the rafters, whatever Kansas City's name is for like their legends, his name is up there. Like it's like that like you said, I don't.

don't think that that's insignificant. Listen, they don't make this deal, like, that's obviously completely ancillary, but it's a cool bonus of bringing in. Someone in Austin told me that Owen Wolf was just a Nepo baby and wasn't actually good enough. Is 130 appearances in $4.5 million? Let's prove that that's not true. Well, no, no, no. What you, the pivot is now is that nobody else was going to sign them except for a club that Josh Wolf was already at. I think, I think that's where you got to move that griff to. So people keep doing it. That's why we mute on Twitter.

there's a larger Kansas City conversation Beyond Owen Wolf that I want to get to but first on the Austin side they are tearing it down and doing what they can to give Kyle Al-Mod, new sporting director, Jim Curtin, soon-to-be new head coach, the most freedom of rebuilding this roster

and from what I know about the people they're working is you said this about Kansas City. How do you rebuild the team? Do you do the foundation first or the DPs first? They want to do foundation first. They already have the DPs, right? that doesn't mean that they won't try to move

Uzuni out and sign a new one, but they care more about the foundation. And I would have thought Owen Wolf and Danny Pereira, what are the foundational pieces? But they just got six and a half million, or it was a two million in Gam for Danny Pereira, which is very slow. 2.7, I think.

Was it not? So, but. Or maybe 2.1. A combined six and a half for seven million for these two players. So you can't say that they didn't get enough value for these two, though, like you could argue maybe you keep one. Regardless, this is clear in the decks for a new front office and a new coaching staff,

which the coaching staff is somebody we've said, everybody listening to the show knows how positively we feel about Jim Curtin and the job that he can do with this team. Calad Al-Mod took over at CSO of Austin officially this week. This was not his deal. That's not to say that he disagreed with it or anything. Like, I'm just saying factually, this deal has been in the works for a while.

I thought people can maybe deduce, based on what we were wearing in that video that went up, on social. I thought this deal was coming sooner than it did. So this was before I broke the news that Caled Al-Amad was coming. Do not open this can of worms of investigating our attire on videos. You didn't even ask me to change. So I want, and so again, like that never changed, Tom. I want to be clear that like, and maybe, maybe Khal Ahmad thinks this. I don't know, but it's not as if he came in and was like, Owen Wolf, Jesus Christ, out. Somebody get Kansas City on the phone. We want to make this deal on. Like, this has been.

long in the works and now Caled Al-Modd is leading the sporting structure in the last week of the window but I imagine it's going to be more about let's create flexibility than anything else and the other one because so we don't go further we'll talk about Austin later but Jada Nelson is going has signed

for Bolton in around 1.1 million plus which is a great deal it's a fantastic deal Davey Arnault said a couple weeks ago like oh I didn't play him because he wasn't mentally ready when he was on the bench and it's like okay so this who then he then started him last week so it's chaos surprises about that too.

But he and CJ Fodry, where the starting is on the left side and they're both gone. Dude, I was going like before the Austin played last night, I was going through our depth charts, which again, you can get into the Discord

and you can get access to our soccerized MOS depth charts for all the teams if you sign up through the Patreon. But I was like tinkering around in the depth charts. And I was like, I feel like I have a decent time. And I was like,

let me just go double check what their last games were. And I was like, all right, that doesn't look like the right. They probably rotated. And then I went back and I was like, that Fodry and Jaden Nelson and then I went back to game before that I was like that's

the both of them again and I was like I don't know it's put to the 11th now it feels like we might have hit our first ever tanking MLS team and I don't know the value of it but it feels like an NBA team well I mean listen we're talking about the two teams in this transaction sporting Kansas City had 13 senior players going in an opening day fair

but that was them trying to build something this is the cliche which is what asset do we have so that we can generate future assets from it. Like Owen Wolf and Danny Pereira are the two guys that got traded because when you go out into the MLS market and say, we need allocation money to rebuild our team. What will you give us? The first two players everyone else are going to bring up is Danny Pereira and Owen Wolf.

Because of the two best players and best contracts on this team. They are not the two players you want to give up. That's sort of the like cliche tanking thing of like, all right, well, we're going to trade our star wide receiver for two future draft picks because we're not going to win now. So we need the future asset. That's what this feels like because, you know, they would like to give up Uzuni. They would like to give up 80% of the centerbacks they've ever signed. They would like to give up like all of the veteran players that aren't going to be a part

of the future builds, maybe even Facundo Torres. No one wants any of that. So this is what you get. We talked about that a little bit with Kansas City with Danielovich of like, yeah, it's a big surprise, but like, let's be real here. you're not getting gam for anybody else on the team. Yeah. Yeah.

Now, if I'm a fan, I would say, who cares? These are young guys. They'll just be on the team. Like, again, like the day on Yovalich thing, how much money does it cost to go out and get the next Danny Pereira and the next Owen Wolf? I think that's completely fair question. Yeah.

The change with this one is Jim Curtin has a very clear style of play and we'll probably want other players to build that around. And so we'll need these assets to use. and that doesn't include what's going on with DPs and buyouts and the money and the, you know, discretionary spending that they can make if they want to and what they choose to do. So that's like a whole other side of things. But this is clearly the everyone saw the blood in the water. Everyone went to the trough and everyone said these are the two we want.

Like this is what we're willing to give you. By the way, Danny Pereira was 2.1 guaranteed across the two years with an extra 300,000. So it won't be as high as I said. a few notes. If there's blood in the water in your trough, contact the doctor. And I went to the menu. So I did three,

three separate things that make no sense together. Dude, you go to WFA in the water for sharks. Trough is pure farm, which by the way, I got second place at bar trivia on Tuesday. We've never gotten above fifth. It is so hard.

Every week there's a theme. The theme is put out on Instagram before and the theme is like put in by someone the week before. The theme this week was Will Ferrell movies. and your boy cooked. Called me in for that one. We would have won. I walked in after the first round because I had played soccer. And they were like, oh, there's a theme.

I'm like, oh, yeah, you know, I know. Like, I own some DVDs. I don't know. And immediately three questions. I'm just like, boom, boom, boom, boom. Come on. Are you kidding me? I could quote the whole movie.

I overquoted a quote from the ballot of Ricky Bobby that she gave us extra credit, but it was not the right answer. Because I went like the paragraph in rather than the exact answer that you're this guy needs this. It was literally who is John C. Riley's character's Jesus in Ricky Bobby and I'm like well it's not baby Jesus

and I went he's playing cover for he's playing he's lead singer for a stick span cover band and I'm front row wasted screaming along and it's like no it was the line before and I was like yeah the Jesus and a t-shirt because he's like he's serious but you know

he likes the party he likes the party too yeah I'm here to I'm here to have a good I'm sorry, one more on Austin with Owen Wolf. He asked for the move. So contract negotiations and just let's just say interpersonal relationships with everybody

with Rodolfo Burrell was terrible. You look at there's nobody left in the front office for a new regime to fire because they all left because of Rodolfo Burrell. Contract negotiations with Owen Wolf and Owens Wold camp was very, very bad to the point. I was shocked that a deal got signed. So there's still lingering effects

even though it's a new regime and Borrell got fired whenever he did. I figured if he made it through that point, that Wolf would be built one of the players that they'd build around, but I was told he asked for this move. So I'm going to say my awesome rant. I want to hit Casey before we go, though, because there was a little bit of news you had in here that I had not heard yet on the Casey side. Overarching for Kansas City, DP 9, DP 10.

David Lee, the sporting director, has said in press conferences, DP 10 for sure. doesn't take an insider to figure out after you trade Daniel Blitz that they want a DP 9, right? So that's the plan of these two DP spots. They could, when they have the full three that they are going to have for the future, I would not be surprised if those three players cost a total of 60 million in fees. There's already 18 for Andre Louise plus bonuses.

And I'm not saying for sure that that's going to happen. But it's not like, all right, you spent big on this guy and now here's 10 million, 12 million for the other two. Like the Nico Mercow Attempt, like that was in addition to all of this, right? Like that wasn't one of the other. The Mosala wasn't a one of the other with Andre Louise, right?

So the money's there. They're very, very ambitious. DP 10, from my understanding, is the priority right now. And particularly a long-term DP, like somebody that, like, oh, here's a huge fee for a big guy. They are, per sources, Kansas City are in advance talks to sign forward. Paulus Abraham from Hammerby. He's a 24-year-old.

so we obviously can't be U-22. Former Sweden Youth International 11 goals, 3 assists in 1,400 minutes this year. I don't know what it'll cost to get them in, and I don't know if they're going to, if they get this deal done, by the way, it's not a guarantee. I don't know if they're going to bring in another center forward right away.

And maybe if they don't, and this is just me theorizing rather than saying with knowledge, there's a possibility they bring in a DP 10, and then this guy's the forward for the rest of the season. You save money on the cap by making him a DP for three months. So if he comes in, it's a DP tag, they will bring in another DP 9 in the winter, but

everything's on the table for this team. I don't know where it's going to go over the next six or seven days. Will it be two big time DPs plus this guy, Abraham? Will it be Abraham and a DP 10? I don't know. What else is going to come? Everything's on the table for Kansas City. And for everyone to understand, so if you

left Abraham as a DP this year, the Tam you would have needed to use to buy him down to get him to the proper threshold as a Tam player, you save that. And if you don't use it as discretionary, Tam, which I would hope SKC is smart enough not to, you could roll that over.

So you probably could save roughly a million dollars in allocation money that you have for next year. Then you move Abraham to a Tam deal. And at that point, you open up the DP spot, but you've still saved the money from this season, which a loss season. So you could understand for SKC, the thinking here, which is DP 10 at this number, you probably want to make that move in this window, not a January window. Because January window numbers are inflated.

There's less flexibility. So you're in the market now for that guy. But at the nine position, if you can save a little bit off a off season and you don't have the perfect guy lined up, you have more flexibility. And if this guy comes in and scores goals, maybe it also changes your calculation a little bit of where you spend that money. And maybe you have resources to put to a different position. If you think this guy is the next Willie Agata and Doyle's going to draft him for his golden boot draft for four years in a row. and he'll never score another goal in the rest of his career. So that's an option as well that would be out there.

Speaking of in these numbers, this kind of takes us into the Rapids news that you broke. Because the Rapids signed a U-22 initiative, center forward, who scored 11 goals and had three assists in 2,200 minutes across all comps last year. So not far off the Abraham production, although in a worst league in Israel. And it sounds like he's going to be a U-22 initiative,

center forward for the rapids. Yes. Abou Farkey is, well, yesterday was traveling to Colorado to put the finishing touches, complete the deal to come to the Colorado Rapids. The fee is $6 million to Maccabi Tel Aviv. It's a 20-year-old with 10 goals,

three assists in 2200 minutes. He's got, I think, five across all competitions in the early, early stage of this season, that's championship qualification, that's league play. A U-22 initiative vote, six million, that's a serious fee. people I speak to not just like around the deal right because obviously those people are biased

they are very they wouldn't sign the guy for six million and the player wouldn't come here if there wasn't a lot of excitement I talked to a scout in Europe who is like I'm shocked that he's coming to MOS I thought for sure it would be to the championship or Spain or whatever right this is a guy who's well known in Europe and six million fee it makes it it's an investment of some of the Lucas Harrington money and just from ownership and it's one that's not the easiest to turn around and definitely get a profit from. But like they believe really, really heavily in this kid. Like any other U-22 initiative signing, give him time.

And I think we'll see the best of him in 2027 and 2026. And this gives you insurance for Haifa Novahu. I don't know if he'll leave over the next week. And that's, I'm surprised he's still here in a pleasant way. I thought for sure the winter or like July 1st. Like this time last summer, it was, we're happy that if we can, keep him through the season. So it's almost like they're on borrow time with Hava Navajo.

But, you know, they'd love to keep him, right? If he signs a new contract, that would be plan A. But teams are realistic teams you have to succession plan. It's even better if Hafa Navajo stays until the winter. And Abu Farkey has a little bit less pressure on him. And he could play behind Navajo, maybe sometimes with them. But rather than, okay, like you and Darren Yappy are center forwards if Hoff Navajo goes or whatever the machinations is if they were to do other signings.

I really like this deal. And just from people I've spoke to, and this is not the only thing the rapids are working on. They're still working on DP wingers. And the hope is that it's, I will farkey plus a DP wing. He's big. Like he has a large frame.

He's like six foot roughly. And he just turned 20. He made his internationally debut at 19 years old. So to your point about the expectations, like when you put this out and I started looking at his name, he was in message boards and rumors around other teams in Europe. And I think that was the assumption was where he would go. So it feels like a pretty good coup for Colorado to come in and get him.

And then as we said with Owen Wolf, U-22 initiative hits the cap at a really friendly number. So you've got this guy who you could potentially even resign him in a year or two on another U-22 initiative deal. If necessary or you sell him and the hope would be at a minimum you break you. even on the sale in the future. If not, it goes up. I mean, look at Kevin Kelsey. Like, if he scores... A very similar fee.

Yeah, if he scores 15 goals in two years, there's a chance that you could sell him for double the price or anything more. And it gives you, as you said, that flexibility to have with Hoff and Navajo to not be able to sort of like negotiate from a bad spot or try and get the things to fall in place if that's what ends up happening. And from the highlights I've seen and whatnot can go out from the center forward position, create a little bit attack guys 1 v1 as well besides being a pretty big finisher in the middle so similar production to what we're talking about with abraham not a bad deal for the rapids to make

at this point but it feels like a transfer window and flux still with the colorado rapids of like how it will all fit under matt wells and where they're looking to go um but a big move for them speaking of new contracts let's hit uh mr julian hall yeah the red bow new york has signed Julian Hall to a new contract, a U-22 deal, a long-term deal. This is huge for New York because his current deal or previous deal now was set to expire next December.

That's like, Hall obviously wanted to say, but like you can't demand a big fee right now if he can leave in a year, basically after the transfer window closes. So this is huge news. I know that they've been trying for a long time to get a deal done for Julian Hall. They use U-22 initiative slot, which look at what the Red Bulls have done with U-22 initiative slots.

It's better to just promote Julian Hall and maybe Audrey Mumetti one day. But regardless, this is a complete home run for them. He's been their starting center forward. I think he's still the leading goal score. And probably, again, fans don't shouldn't care as much about this. But importantly, this strengthens their like negotiating position when he leaves. Because he will leave. Athletical Madrid, Red Bull Leipzig.

Like, if you were talking to those clubs right now, the, the fees are significantly lower than what they should be because of this contract situation. And they got that solved. Yeah, this is the thing we keep saying, which is when young players sign contract, new contracts with major league soccer teams, that doesn't mean they're staying for that contract. It means the MLS team has said, let's give you a raise. You've earned it. You deserve it. And then we can work together to find the right next move. And we saw what, James Sand sign a contract and then went on loan like the next day.

for whatever it was. So this is just the reality. And this is how most a lot of clubs work. And then for the player, the assumption is if they get sold, they also get a new contract at that point as well. Because for the most part, players,

the expectation is when you move clubs, you're going to get a new deal. So for Julian Hall, it's a raise now to stay in a place he feels good, to keep scoring goals, to continue to push that transfer fee up as well as maybe to continue to sort of find the exact right move that makes the most sense

him and then for the Red Bulls they couldn't afford to lose him. I don't know what Chupu Motang's life is like. Like we haven't brought him up as a player that other teams in MLS would come and try and get. There's not really a team that's so desperate at the center forward position. Maybe it's the Portland Timbers, although they couldn't cover the DP part of it that it's like, oh, you've got to go out and get this guy. But like he just, I mean, he's just there. He's played over the last few weeks, but he is not a full-time starter. He has like no avenue to being a full-time starter. And the Red Bulls are clawing at the bottom of the playoffs right now. But Julian Hall is the reason for a lot of the quality that they have,

along with Mehdi and some of the other pieces. The assumption as well is maybe you get one year to build it around these guys. Like next year. That'd be nice. Yeah. That'd be nice. Like I know that I get nostalgic for times that maybe even they didn't really exist. But like the idea of Namar staying at Santos until when he's 22, 23, like that's awesome.

rather than Franco Massantoano, the deal's agreed when he's 17 and he leaves on his 18th birthday. He played for River Plate for like, he had that free kick and the Kobe Libid Doris. He had, like, that was an awesome moment. In the past, that player gets to stay until he's 20. And now, and like sometimes it works out, like sometimes there are special talents.

But like Massanthuano, it's not easy to get to Real Madrid, but he's loaned somewhere else right now. He didn't break into Madrid. Like, would it have been better for his career to have stayed at his hometown, as Bullihood Club and for the fans to be like, like FC Dallas. Wesen McKinney and Chris Richards, they are, they are so proud of those players as they goddamn well should be.

Neither of them made a first team appearance for FC Dallas. It's, I want to live in a world where Julian Hall and Audrey Mametti play 75 times for the Red Bulls before they move to Europe. I also think, and this, you know, I think that fans would understand if if you built yourself as this club, which the Red Bulls have, and I'll put Philly in here as well. Yeah. I think fans would understand. peaks in valleys, which is we're not going to have the class at the right time every year.

So next year, it should be built around Neil Pierre and Kevin Sullivan and Quinn Sullivan and then, you know, Alasky and all these guys are a part of it. I think fans would accept, okay, let's make a hard run at this with these guys in the team. Then we'll sell them and then it will take two to three years to rebuild. The problem with some of this is the teams don't really rebuild, they just say, okay, well, we'll wait for the next player to come up. And it's like, you got to do the work in between. It's okay to acknowledge that Mehmeti and Julian Hall are special. And Maddie Dos Santos or whoever is coming through next, Tanner Rossboro is not the next Julian Hall. That's okay. And it will take a year or two or three to find the right

other young players that you've pushed through and put them together with the right veterans to make a run. but when you get there, you got to make the effort to actually be freaking competitive and like go for a trophy and then you can tear it down and move it along and get assets and sell them for the right number and push the next young players and give them a year and a half to get comfortable.

And like all the shit that's happening this year, right? The Red Bulls are consciously playing in a way that is not effective to win games to blood their young players and give them opportunities and put them in the right system. Acceptable if there's an end to that means. means to that end, whatever word I'm trying to find there. Unacceptable if it's just like same stuff next year.

We're going to make no new additions. We're going to try and blot a couple other kids. We're going to go out there. We're going to play open. And then we'll sell Julian Hall for $18 million. And then we'll just keep kind of rolling along the way we do. Like there has to be purpose to some of this. And I think it's okay to have down years if the acknowledgement comes from the club that

when we have up years, we're going to make runs for it. And we talk about this as we get to the end with each of these transfer. windows. You know, this is a smash and burr-a-alter thing. What's the price of a trophy? And when you have an eye at that actual trophy opportunity, are you going to do everything you can in that moment to win?

And then afterwards, you can find ways to rework the club and build a backup. So that would be my main point on all of this. And I hope there's an opportunity for them to do that with Julian Hall in the side. One more thought. I know that we've discussed this plenty with

I feel like Caitlin Carr, Andrew Weby, me, you, producer honors, all these people are, we're, I, I, it's cool that he's playing left wing and just playing center forward. Yeah. That's, that's my hope. We mentioned Jaden Nelson sold to Bolton from Austin, one of a couple signings that have gone overseas. The other big one, Stia and Gregerson, which you put out there recently, sold to Malmo. So going a pretty big club in Europe, but the big piece is just opening up the salary crap spot and roster spot. Free transfer. I believe he was a Max Tam or Max Tamish player hasn't worked out for him. A lot of injuries. He showed some flashes early in his days in Atlanta. Those flashes have been

few and far between. Obviously Atlanta are completely overhauling the roster in general, but in particular the defense. And he was not part of that plan. Being able to get out of that contract for free transfer rather than having to buy him out or something is is good for Atlanta as they continue to put this team together. Breeland Bolo should be debuting before long. They've brought in several 33-year-old centerback. So the window is now. And looking forward to if they get a team head, right, Adrian Gill, that's been fun to watch and play. But Cian Gregerson, this was like, this could free up room for a new signing. I don't know that it will 100%. But like before this, they didn't really have any room. And now they could.

I'm not going to talk about it later. That's the most juice you're going to get for me on. that one. One signing that did go official as well. Sergio Vasquez is headed to LAFC, E-22 initiative defensive midfielder. It was the big position open that we knew of. Stephen Ossachio filled it on loan for the first half of the year, not coming back post-world Cup for this team. And I think the clamors have been for anyone who can defend and play a progressive pass for L.A.C. Maybe Sergio Vasquez is that player. Yeah. They need a D-MID and we're not going to pretend as if we've watched the Ecuadorian League,

but L.AFC have had hit and misses like any other club, but like Sifuentes, Eddie Atta, in their early days, like they've done well when they've gone to South America at times. And Igor J-Zus, by the way, I think is a very good player that he's still been out with injury for a year now. So if he's something like Igor J-Zus, like that'll be a very, very useful player. And we'll see how long it will take him to get up to speed against the U-22 initial. I'll say it every time. if he looks like he stinks early on, don't write him off next season.

But it would be frustrating for LAFC fans where, as I said, they've got a runway to a trophy this year. Like they are good enough. They, the West isn't that strong. They obviously have Sun playing better soccer now. Like Davy Martinez may not be there that long.

So I think there's frustration from fans that a move like this, if it's not a guy who can affect the team right now, that that's sort of the planning for this group. before we keep going. If you're listening to Serious Radio, we're going to go a little bit long. So feel free to search on the on-demand player

or anywhere you get your podcast for the rest of the show. We got a couple more moves to talk about and then we'll dig into Leaks Cup and a quick weekend preview of the games to come. Let's start with the moves that Orlando are going to make. They have been desperate for a left back. It's Orlando left back, Atlanta United Defensive Mid,

Austin FC Centerback, Sporting Kansas City centerback. What are the other like mythical creatures that just refuse to exist in the world? Well, Kansas City has signed several centerbacks this year. They always suck. Yeah, I was going to say Atlanta United has signed about 15 DMs. Yeah. So Orlando signed a left back.

Orlando signed Venetius. Yeah. They signed Vinny. Orlando signed left back Venetius, Noguera from Ludo Gorez. This is, it's an interesting story. So, um, they had a. a deal completely agreed club to club club to player to sign john to token from holston kiel um when the deal was like after agreed and like just needed to give a green light like after initially being

open and wanting to come to Orlando he said you know what i want to stay with holson keel to try to win my spot back he he ultimately decided to stay in germany part of that deal was st louis had his discovery rights and when orlando contacted them about hey we want to sign token you have discovery can we get agreed to terms. They said, well, if you're signing a left back, we want to hear Reid Brown. And Orlando said, that's fair enough. And this move would block him anyway. So they had that set.

And then Tolkien decided to stay in Germany. And Orlando could have said, well, to hear Reid brother, you're staying. And they didn't because he was excited about the St. Louis move. St. Louis was obviously excited to get him. And they said, okay, let's renegotiate this deal for Gam and let him go. even though that's going to leave us light right now. And there's no guarantee like now we're going to be scrambling to find a left back. These are some of the smaller things I appreciate and I find it to be interesting.

But thankfully for Orlando, they did get a left back in in Venetius, Noguera, Brazilian who's playing in Europe. He's from the Palmeras Academy and gives them another option. That is interesting stuff. Tolkien would have been, I mean, he's a good fit for most MLS teams. He's a high chance creating fullback who for the most part is pretty good defensively, especially front-footed when he presses. So you could picture a guy like that

whose service is really accurate from every part of the field. Like Tolkien's really good at deep crosses because he's just a clean passer. With Greisman and Justin Ellis and whoever else you have, the way Tyree Spicer plays sort of as a winger and comes off that wing and can dunk on people.

And now obviously Darrell Deakin. So you could understand the move there and sort of the want to do it. And both the guys who have played left back for Orlando over the last few weeks have been Swiss cheese. So the necessity to make a signing at that position

makes a lot of sense for Orlando. I don't know anything about Vincent Vincius. You weren't locked in on Ludo Reds last season? Well, here's what you're going to get from me, though. Vincent Nogara, Philadelphia Union legend. One of my favorite players in MLS history,

deep lying playmaker. He was in the Harris Medunian, Vincent Nogara, Tranquillo Barnetta. world of the Philadelphia Union pre when they went full pressing and started to actually win things. I am going to call this guy Vincent O'Gera for like a year by accident. So I'll apologize right now upfront to both him. The O'Gare family turns out Vincent O'Gera, coach of Strasbourg's women's team in France, which fascinating thing. A busy guy.

I didn't expect to see. And John Tolkien, by the way, is playing again for Holston Kiel. So I assume part of the decision making was he was told he would get. get opportunities and get minutes. He started the last game for this team. Obviously, the season just kicking off, but started the cup game, got 82 minutes against 1860 Munchin. Up to 60s, up to 60s, baby. Anything else you want to hit before I go weirdly into random European moves?

No, because you were dangerously close to getting a football manager, 1860 MUNA ran for me, but I'll leave it. Nathan Saliba, transferred to Villarreal, the third Canadian on this team. So I'm calling them Cavillera Real because there's nothing else really in that name to sneak in and out. I guess it could be Villa Anada Real, but I like Cavillaria. That really rolls off the tongue. All of it.

All of it's pretty smooth and pretty comfortable. The Villa Real Hoosers. Yeah. And Daniel O'Shea already there. And listen, I'm just a huge Nathan Saliba fan. I was beating the drum for him to be a starter for Canada, basically the entire last year, when other guys have been hurt. I don't think he's a game breaker like

in Ismael Kone is, even Ustakio's passing, but I don't think he'll ever lose you a game. I think he's consistent. I think he's a really clean player in midfield. Another great production from Montreal. I hope there's some buy on or sell on there that

happened for them, but this is like the team to watch if you're a Canada fan now. And then the other thing I was going to throw in there is Samadener and scored a bunch of goals against Celtics, so Lask, knock them out Champions League. And I find it funny that that moment occurs. And the reaction to that is, oh, why didn't Philly play him more? Why didn't Philly sign him? Why didn't St. Louis keep him? And like that he's a dominant player. And the reaction is not, maybe the level isn't very

different between MLS and like the edge of Champions League. Like if Sam Adderin is scoring two 35-yard bangers against Celtic and Austin, trust he's the best player on Celtic. I'm going to go out on a limb and assume Celtic is not that much of a higher level. And I would say the same about Lask and the Austrian League. And I think we've seen it from players like Brennan Aronson that have gone to RB Leipzig or sorry, R.B. Salisburg and the productions they've had. So that's my reaction to some of this is like the gap's not that big.

We're seeing it in the championship now with Middlesbrough, MLSFC and all these teams. So that's the only thing I would throw out there on that side. League's Cup. There will be nine League MX teams now in the Conccaf Champions League next year. MLS, baby, you are the author of your own demise. You created a fake competition that guaranteed three spots in CCL coming out of it. And you lost all of them. So four losses for MLS teams against League MX sides all happening in the U.S. Three of them at neutral sites that the League MX team was hosting in.

The other one in Bridgeview between Monterey and Chicago. So there are 27 teams that qualify for CCL. So a third of them will be League MX teams now. Last year, Seattle and the Galaxy both had League's Cup qualifying spots. One of them goes straight to the round of 16. So they avoid the opening round. So that is a League MX team now. We are going to see a large amount of League MX versus League MX competition next year.

And I would be surprised if we see an MLS team in the semifinals of CCL next year, because the format is often where you end up now, sprint season, league change, all of that's going to make things different, but probably not next year exactly. That's probably for the future when teams stay together from fall into spring a little bit more in major league soccer. But this feels like it is going to be now a 12-month sort of pasting

for League MX that they've helped set themselves up in this league's cup. Yeah, I mean, sure. I think that's an interesting view. I'm not ready to write off MLS clubs for next year's Conca Cup championship. But it gives them more numbers. Though, like you said, the Galaxy in Seattle, they didn't exactly go far for MLS teams. No, true. But the thing that you have is

MLS teams can play each other, right? Which is a scenario now that goes away. That's what happened in CCC this year. Nashville and Miami, one of them knocked off each other. And Seattle beat Vancouver. Right. But would Vancouver have been? teagress in the earlier round if that's who they end up facing that's sort of the situation you're in now

which is mLS teams will face league amex team so nashville was one of the two semi-finalists in mLSs they played interm miami right like yes they beat club america but like you have a match up yeah i see where two mLS teams face off against other and one has to go through that now is probably gone with the way they're going to try and organize the bracket to keep teams from the same leagues apart which they try to do it's just impossible sometimes when so many get it. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, I'll reserve judgment for the CCC bracket when it comes out. But it's definitely just basic numerics. Like your point is a good one. Crowd was bumping in L.A.

was pretty big in Commerce City as well for Leone. So there's a Leone fan who hates me in my comments because I say Leon does not have that many fans in the U.S. I was wrong. There you go. Congratulations. Yeah.

And Bridgeview as well. Big crowd. I think that one was Chicago and Monterey. because when the camera turned and they showed behind, it was sector Latino of the Chicago fire fans and all of that, just off camera. And so the results, Chicago probably played the best.

They lost two to one to Monterey. And this is what we talk about over and over again. Victor Guzman hits the winner in this game is a match winning player. Monterey has 12 of them in their team. And Chicago has two to four. And at some point, one of the 12 is going to break. out and do something special, even if you play for Mitya's Almeida. And that was the difference in

that game, even though I thought for the most part, Chicago went toe to toe, sat in a mid block, fairly deep, let Monterey play around and then tried to create chances in transition. It was not Levindowski's best day. It was not the winner. The winner came off a Levindowski failed through ball, I believe, Gus, unless that I'm getting it, because he had a few. He tried to play Puso through on one, which it looked like a really soft played ball. Yes. Yeah. And that created like that game like played like a league amici's game in that um i think chicago were pretty set to like we're not getting played in behind so then when chicago would transition forward um the defensive line wasn't like getting up to midfield immediately so it was you lose the ball on

on an attempted through pass so there were multiple runners going forward the ball turns over and all a sudden it's three monterey players and it's like maricio pinata is like the only person in front of like the chicago back line and it was just kind of end to end in that way in the second half, which was very fun. But yeah, it wasn't, it wasn't Robert Lembowski's best day and in the Hugo Kipers Derby. And Mauricio Paneda out to see in that ocean that occurred in the middle. And he definitely did not enjoy the experience. I'm just saying Robert Lewandowski, can he do it in a human night at altitude in Monterey? Probably not based off what occurred in Bridgeview. So Hugo Kuyper is maybe the winner of that matchup. But a big moment for him. And obviously

Monterey now trophy list for what? seven, eight years looking to just break through under Almeida, Leaks Cup will do for them to start the year. I thought they had the best performance. I would say Columbus was the second best performance of the MLS teams. Club America, fantastic goal, sort of transitional early in like the 11th minute. From there, Columbus played better, but it is the difference now, which is they give up possession in more messy spaces and then the rest of defense is less prepared or just less talented one v one like guys just get beat in one v one situations and so there's opportunity transition against columbus that was the case on the brian rodriguez goal but columbus went down one zero in a

completely hostile environment flags were awesome in this one at dignity health and they end up getting a penalty kick and bryce mendes has his shot saved and that was really the moment of the game even though i had already blues keyed it out after the first goal that it was over i called it they ended up playing better soccer from that moment on Joseph Martinez who got the start put through on a 1v1 chance that he put wide right before the penalty kick occurred and that's sort of the whole thing he's there for

it's kind of been part of his problem is he's no longer as physically dominant so he doesn't create as many chances for himself if he's not perfectly efficient there is not a lot he brings to the game and so he has to put away chances like that obviously early on in his time and then I would say RSL Do you want to talk?

I was a quick note on Columbus that like, just look at the 11 and like how many of these guys do you think in their planning right now opening day 2027 starters Mendez for sure. Schulte, Zawattsky. I think that's it, man. You don't think that Taha Bruins like a locked-in starter? I'll give you that.

And whether he's always starting or not, he's going to play a lot of minutes. I'll give you that. And Stephen Marrera would be the other one. He's, he hasn't, no, I have not heard of contract talks.

His contract is up. If I'm reading between the lines, I'm assuming that he's leaving in this winter. I know that other M-Ls-Seem-Bal wants him. Again, that could change. Maybe I don't know the contract talks, but like,

it's, I would assume he's leaving more than staying. Obviously, Brooks Lannon is, is a squad player if he's here next year. Chambo, he's fine, right? Like, I don't,

I don't, they need to upgrade there. So it's Bryce Mendez, and it's Zawatsky, Shulte, and then I'll give you Taha. So, like, that's three and a half to four. Yeah. And eventually,

you're nice, eventually is potentially Santi Rodriguez. Feel for my guy, Tarun Karamanshi, rooting for him. He elbowed Henry Martin in the face for no reason. A lot of good vibes. Not a ton on the ball that felt as good in this game.

And yeah, I think that's a fair point that there's not a ton of this Columbus team that's going to be around, which is why I would like to see Owen Prestis and Chase Adams just get freaking minutes. Yeah. What are you learning about Joseph Martinez? That he's a thousand years old. Like that's the learning last thing coming up.

Gazala Tapia doesn't do it for you. Dylan Champos? Oh, God. I'd rather eat marbles than have to watch him. Get out of here already. Like so much of this is painful to watch. And yet, I think there's still like hope and promise. Obviously, making this run was part of it.

of it, but now they've dropped in league play. It's four straight losses across all competitions with this one. R.S.L. I thought they were okay between conceding the first and second goals in this game. After losing three zero, I thought they played some bright soccer. Hang the banner. They at least peppered the goal, but there's like no attack right now outside of Sergei Salons. Olatungi is completely out of sorts. He doesn't finish chances you create for him. He doesn't create chances.

Gula Vogi is not a final third. player. He is connector, pass before the pass. He can play you through. I feel like I texted someone this. I feel like he's one of those kids who grew up who didn't have a goal and never learned how to shoot. And it's like he could place a pass perfectly

but he can't shoot. Yeah, exactly. Wasn't that Tempelli? In Tottenham, he was like, oh, yeah, I don't score goals because I grew up playing on a hockey goal. So I just don't know how to shoot like from distance at all or finish. And then without Gozo, you just lose that whole balance.

to the field and like his ability to create down one wing or be the second post finisher. And Diego Luna hasn't been great. So there's just not a lot of spark in the midfield. And spearings went off hurt like 30 minutes into this game. Not that when phenomenal. Yeah, he's been good. So I'm sorry. The Diego Luna screenshot of him sitting on the sideline looking,

just questioning life decisions. That made me sad. And then we have Austin FC who went to Red Bull Arena to play Toluca. obviously. And if I asked you, Austin FC playing a knockout game, script me the way that they lose, it would start with the Joseph Rosales Reddair,

which is what happened. It would be followed by a boneheaded penalty kick after sort of playing okay, a little bit of spark in the attack, but literally no direction to it. Here to a Zuni, hitting deflected shots and then whatever else. And then you'd give up a late second.

goal and you would lose. And guess what? That's exactly what happened. I don't, I don't want to keep the bar that low, but at half time at nil-nil, that's when that's when my friends and I, who somebody was genuinely locked in on Lisa, he texted me about like, where are these games, like I was like getting followed questions. I was like, all right, cool, like, let me help, help this marinate. And then he goes, oh, where's the game tonight? And I was like, I actually don't remember. It's somewhere in America that is in Austin. And he was like, why? And I I was like, I, it's inconsequential for you to know. And at nil, no, no with the red card, I looked at him and I said,

Toluca 5 nothing, like four nothing. Like if you gave me the line to luca minus three and a half, I'd put my freaking mortgage on Toluca. So Austin holding on at one no promotion the game, raised the banner, but like, not bad. Spatok arguing the penalty gig. It's like, it wouldn't be a penalty kick the first five seconds. the second five seconds or the third five second.

But if you hold a guy's jersey while he runs down the field, at some point it's a foul. Then Austin thought they had a PK, which, okay, somewhat reasonable. And Ilya Sanchez was like, I'm done with this. So Davi Arnaud's off the bench. Ilya Sanchez, who had been subbed out off the bench, he gets red carded, he tosses the penny. He goes, Dave Arnaud, no post game was like,

we had this inspirational moment. At halftime, the energy was great of like, we're going to like make history. tonight. We're going to win down a man. It's going to be motivational. And he was like, we didn't, but the energy was great. Like it felt like we were going to. And it's like not exactly what you want to hear. Here's my rant. Austin FC are the weirdest team in Major League Soccer. There are parts of Austin FC that are MLS 1.0. There are parts of Austin FC that are MLS 3.0. And there are parts of Austin that are MLS 6.0. They are the weirdest team in the

obviously hiring Claudio Raina was the biggest mistake you could make. Your CSO clearly wasn't the one running things day to day at NYCFC and then went and fought the U.S. Men's National Team Coach on behalf of his son and had to be let go. So that's like original sin stuff. And a quick interjection as you're rolling. That was known around the league. Academy coaches at NYCFCC got yelled at by Claudio,

despite Gio Raina, he was their best player. And he, they, Claudio was still mad about it. Like, that was not a secret. And one of the reports came out that he was like calling U.S. soccer saying that the referees weren't good enough in Claudio's youth games, like when he was in the DA, and potentially saying stuff about female referees and whether they should or shouldn't be in there. So that was all one thing. Then that gets replaced.

And you end up on Rodolfo Borrell, who I think we have come around to, was not the right choice at that position. Okay, fine. It happens. They have gone out and spent, what, $27 million on designated players, like in one, if you combine all three players. So that doesn't include Bukari coming in, Bukari going out, Faku Torres coming in. Like that's saying, like, the three DPs together that you have on the roster, that collective is what you spent.

That's like 6.0 shit. Like outside of Atlanta, Columbus a little bit. Like, LAFC doesn't really spend those numbers. That is wild stuff. And the part that's hard and confusing under all of it is clearly their scouting's outdated. Clearly their player identification and, like, pathway is outdated because half the players who come in make no sense in the team. And no one until Irvin Torres has come up through the academy in freaking West Texas,

where Ricardo Pepe was playing on a youth. team in El Paso with Santiago Munoz and like it's the best soccer hotbed maybe in the country. All of this sits on top of the fact that they have a spaceship of a stadium that is packed every single week with fans who give a shit

and have some of the best coverage and like engagement in the entire league. I don't think there's a team that's weirder. Like there are one point oh teams who are like we're still a 1.0 team. There are 6.0 teams who maybe suck like Atlanta. There's like but they kind of

sit in their space. I don't think there's a team that's as bizarre to put your finger on as this awesome FC team. You talk about the DPs, their last four. So Bukhari Vasquez, Uzuni Torres, $42 million in face. That's nuts. So the, the, you could compete at the bottom of the Premier League with that freaking transfer outlay.

That's insane. If that was, if that was, uh, should have signed Nikki Jackson. $80 million. Yeah. Like, that is serious financial ambition. And two of those, it's like, all right, Bukari kind of like stunk. Okay, Brandon Vasquez is proven an MLS. And so is Fekundo Torres.

Like, there was like clearly an overpay on Uzuni. But like, they even diversified the profile. It wasn't just, we're going to go to South America and trust an intermediary to bias four players or, right? Like, they tried different things. things. But like you talk about Claudia Raina and and

dude, they got, it was worse with Rolfo Barrel. Worse, man. Like the inner, like we were joking. I mean,

the Joseph Rosales move is wild. Not that you brought in Joseph Rosales. Guy can play. But how much you gave up for another left back. We know who he is in this league. Um, but like Burrell and this was another thing. Like when he got hired,

I was asking people around the league. I had people reaching out be like that. That's a terrible hire. Like he's going to fire Josh Wolf and make himself the head coach immediately. And he didn't do that. So that turned out to be wrong. He didn't do. Credit to him.

But when he came in, it's like people and it wasn't just like executives running these searches. It was like, other head coaches were like, we know this guy. And like somebody from like city football group was like he didn't do anything. Like he was just on pep staff. Like why was he?

But like it's that that's like a 1.0 thing. And then they're spending all the money. It's six point. Like you said, the fans. I feel bad for the fans. When they, they've had one actually genuinely good season. Plus last year was like, it wasn't a good season,

but they deserved to enjoy it the way they did. They finished in the playoffs. They got to the Open Cup final. And they were awesome the entire time. When they stink, the fans are awesome for the most part. Like, I feel for them, man. And here's the other one point oh piece of this is how thin the front office is. Well, that was a personal, sorry, interpersonal.

Like a lot of, a lot of people left and that was on. No, for sure. I mean, part of that is, You've hired people who are terrible to work for consistently. But then the other piece of this is, let's talk about the 6.0 side, even the teams that have failed, they have multiple people in their front office that you would consider a GM in Major League Soccer.

So even Atlanta under Garth and with Boka and Jonathan Specter and Chris Henderson, all of them have either held that role or currently hold that role or have been there. Columbus now, Tim Besbacchenko's back, Jimenez-Tal are part of this. You've got Mark Nichols, who has held that role as well. look at LAFC. Neil McGinnis is someone who people consider a technical director GM level and he's under John Thornton.

So there is more brain power. There is the ability to push back on decisions and you can build a process that's not so personality oriented. And that's like the whole point of these sporting front offices is coaching is going to be personality based. The interaction levels, the social experience around players, it's going to be that. You need someone who has a guidance of a club

that is less connected to wins and losses to keep things on the tracks. That's what John Thorrington does, right? So no matter what's happening, whether Trundlow is staying or going, whether the pressure is on or not, Thorrington has built a process and that's what LAAFC follows. And it helps them avoid peaks and valleys as like things happen. Austin FC has none of those guardrails. They've built none of that.

And yet they're spending $42 million on players. Yeah. Spend $105,000 a year on three salaries in the first. front office, save yourself $22 million. Like, that's the option that exists. And you're not, Bryce Mendez is coming from the same country as Myrto Ozuni at what, the same price?

Less, less, less, less, like not. It wasn't close. I think it was like $8 million versus $12.5. Like, so boom, get yourself three employees who will work full time in that front office and you've saved yourself $4 million. And so I want to be clear here about what they're doing. So part of the reason,

said on the last show of Kyle Al-Amad, and like, it sounds like just like LinkedIn speak, but they truly somebody who can lead a technical staff, like, and be collaborative, which Jim Curtin doesn't want to be a CSO, but like any other coach that is, every coach wants to have say in the player person, of course, for sure. But like somebody like Jim Curtin deserves to have his voice matter and matter a lot in these discussions. They've already got, forget the title that I said, but Dean Costler, somebody who worked with Jim Curtin. He's already working there.

That is probably a number two or like, I think that they're going to hire more people around. So I think it'll be Cald-O-Mod. Obviously, Jim Curtin's going to have a lot of power and a lot of say. But then it'll be like four other people that or three other people, whatever the number ends up being. So like they are, they have learned from this. And I want to be clear that that is the path that they're on.

We've talked about it enough about, I think the world of the Jim Curtain hire, Gaud Al-Modd-Mad, it's somebody whose profile has been in this league. And the idea is hopefully if he gets, if he has more money to spend, there will be more bigger signings. But Minnesota have been good under him. They haven't been this year, but like in general, right? Like, so they're learning from this.

And we'll see kind of where it goes. But at least this is not them just doing the same crap. And like there are genuine and genuinely good reasons to be optimistic about this team moving forward. But like, it's funny, man, just like looking back of like, what, how did this happen? And Austin fans don't need us to. them because they're living it. But I like the part I come away with. So SKC, they have not modernized, right? They got left behind because they were an MLS 2.0 team or 3.0 team who was successful there didn't grow. Now they have to do that. But I think if you asked the club America player last

week at the Leaks Cup game when they played in Austin, I think they would be like, oh, this is a big club, right? I think that's the feeling when you're in the building. And when you, when you experience Austin FC, when you're coming out of the locker room, when you're in that stadium, the branding that they have, the energy in the building, the relevance in the market,

you know, you land, you're around the city, you're seeing their logo. I think that would probably be the feeling for a player like at Club America and be like, oh, this is a big team.

And at the same time, as we're saying, like there are times where there's been like one and a half people in the front office running moves. And that is like a bizarre break. Okay. That was the whole thing.

on Austin FC. We could talk about them again if we want to coming up. You didn't under promise, by the way. You didn't over promise. Sorry, that was well done. On the weekend, I just wanted to point out some games, I think, to make sure to watch out for. It starts on Saturday at 4.30 p.m.

Eastern Time, so one early game. And that should be a good one. It's Seattle against Chicago. It should be Yovalich's debut. This was the advantage of signing day on Yovilich and not going outside the league. He's fully fit. He's ready to play. He's here. He's got his visa. He's been training and he should be a shot in the arm for a Seattle team against a Chicago squad coming

off a midweek game where there'll be some questions of rotation where you put guys. They obviously put a decent chunk of energy into the league's cup because of the way they played in the group stage. So it could be an opportunity for Seattle to get out of this, what, eight game winless streak and try and get their first victory. It would be a really nice way for Yovalich to start. And then you go into Saturday night. The two games I highlighted Nashville Sinsey.

both teams play insane stoppage time games now. Nashville are obviously the most fun team to watch since he always insanity at the last five minutes. So if Nashville is going to pull the two goals in three minutes to close out games thing that they did to Columbus last weekend, then this is going to be a like watch till the 98th minute type game. And obviously Nashville continuing to push the shield. And then Houston San Jose.

Edward Lovin went official this week. Again, like Yovilich. He's inside the country. He's got his visa. he knows the league, he's fit. He didn't play last week because the move was coming. So he should be ready to go against a Houston team that's been one of the two hottest teams in Major League Soccer over the last few weeks. So this could be Tom a pretty good spot for San Jose.

If Loven can fit in to kind of find their feet again because I think this is a good matchup for them. Houston could play through them. But if Houston makes mistakes, if San Jose are direct, there should be openings. My thing is that Houston is really well structured at the moment. and they've gotten kind of more, maybe not more primarily, but like in the past they've been, we want to play possession

and beat you down like that. Like they've scored a lot more goals in transition and they made use of the qualities of their attackers really well. So while my worry is still, until San Jose proves that they can lose the ball without being completely stretched and one or two passes just kills you, I'm just assuming. Like, and Houston, I think are set up well for that.

If San Jose plays like they did earlier in the season, this would be great game. But we haven't seen that for a while. It's still there. I think this is, they weren't as good as they were over the first 10 games at a year when they had nine wins. They're not as bad as they are over the last 10 games or the wins. Yeah. What I would say is for San Jose, if you look at this group right now, you should be able to get Timo Verner,

whether it's in the left channel or just one v.1 at the left back position at A Nali or whoever's playing there. Last game they played Jack McGlynn as quote unquote a winger. So it was like four center mids. if that's the case, then there's space for Jamar Ricketts to take in the left channel as well. Like I think for San Jose, as everyone's learned them, it's like, okay, we're going to take away these options. I don't think Houston's capable of taking it away. If Houston's great, then they can kill San Jose, as you said, with what they do well. And yes, the Guillermo Bogush edition has been, if we sit in with numbers, we can still create chances because we can just play them quick into transition.

but even in doing that, I think Houston will struggle to keep San Jose off the board because I still don't trust their ability to defend 1V1 that much. So that's the big ones on Saturday to look out for Sunday, one game, 7 p.m.

But it's a fun one, St. Louis against Dallas. I think Dallas was one of the darlings the first half of the year. Two games Sunday. There's two games. Columbus, New England. Oh, baby.

My bad. Is that at Yulet Stadium? Scott's Miracle Growfield. I don't remember if there's a dot com. It's a miracle crow game. I didn't realize they were doing day games there. So there were two games on Sunday. I think it's just got moved to be fair.

Maybe because of the league's cup. Who knows? But and then St. Louis Dallas was the other one, which I was going to actually highlight to say, St. Louis had been hottest team. Dallas kind of were the first half of the season. Dallas have been one of the best road teams. They are incapable of winning at home.

So big opportunity here maybe for Dallas to sort of slow St. Louis as they've passed them in the standings, which they currently sit on 33 points, tied for fifth and sixth, along with San Jose, who are on 33 points as well, all the same amount of games played. So four through six, exactly the same in the Western Conference, probably a six-pointer for these two teams who are going to be jostling all the way to the end.

And Petzar Musa is a name that we've brought up with St. Louis, but I would be surprised if they had that type of money. Hugo Kuyper's money is different than Godfather. Petter Musa. I mean, listen, if Atlanta didn't do it, if Kansas City didn't do it. If you could cost this much. and Simon Betcher costs this much. Then Musa cost this much. Kevin Kelsey.

Yeah, you better back up the brinks for that one. All right. This was fun. We'll be back on Monday with the recap show live on the YouTube page. If I can figure out how to work technology, but I'm pretty sure I will be able to. And we also have an open mic episode coming out on Friday. So it'll be with Angie Long, owner of the Casey Currant and Ryan Dell's general manager the Casey current. The Casey, they built the first ever women's soccer specific stadium.

They have a two team. They're the only team in NWSL that funds a two team as well as an academy system around Kansas City. They also opened an academy, which will lead into a first team in Brazil over the next two years. And they bought a Danish team that has qualified for the league phase of the Champions League. So they are spreading a global network.

They wanted to come on and talk about it a little bit. We talked about their background, the work they're doing with Ryan. we got into the weeds of youth development and where it stands and where some of the holes are. With Angie, we talked a little bit about finding that European club and the process and how it all works together. So I think people will really enjoy that one. If you haven't listened to Vanity Sartini yet, go do that. And then we'll be back next week. So thank you, Tom, for being here hanging out with you.

Thank you, David Goss. Big shout out to all of you listening. We'll talk to you again very, very soon.