SoccerWise - MLS Soccerwise | The International Window Hits MLS

Episode Date: September 24, 2026

The New England Revolution are making a serious push in the East as MLS heads into a huge weekend in the playoff race, with international absences making an impact. David Gass and Tom Bogert dig into what’s behind the Revs’ rise, changes coming in the global player market, and Inter Miami’s growing place in the soccer world.0:00 Intro6:38 USMNT’s Next Generation12:58 Canada’s Injury News15:02 The Revs Are For Real24:42 Brazil’s New Player Rules33:18 MLS Free Agency39:23 Playoff Race & International Absences51:54 Columbus vs. Miami55:06 Miami Goes GlobalFor the sharpest coverage of American soccer, we’ve got you covered:https://linktr.ee/soccerwisehq

Hey, everybody. Welcome to Soccer Wise. David Goss and Tommy Scoops back with you. I was out on Monday. It was the David Tillman for me. It is a very intense day. Spent like nine hours at Temple. You stand for like half of them. You don't eat. You don't drink. And I got back in the car to leave, to go home, to eat for the first time. And the true nourishment was I immediately put on Soccer Wise between you and Doyle. And within 10 minutes, you're just shredding to Zerbi. hairstyle immediately. It was just like, I'm in the car, and it's just like, you know what, if we're doing this, let me talk about that fucking foothawk that he has.

That was your takeaway for the show? That was higher takeaway of the show. You immediately stopped the day of solemn reflection to lock back in there. Yeah. I did appreciate that you did it for Ismail Kone, justice for Ismail. I mean,

just because that's our... It's... it's just ridiculous. And for the club or to be like using that as a I'm pretty sure it was club produced. It was a club video. Yeah. Yeah. To be using that as a selling point.

Yeah. Like, man. Not to do with games gone, rant this early in the show. But like, what, are we here to win games? Or are we here to get clicks on a documentary trailer? What are we doing? What are we?

And, you know, again, that, Ishmael Coni, what a problem he is. but here, here's a link to click to buy a Mason fucking Greenwood jersey. You're free. So I'm back. We're doing another show today. A little bit of a schedule changed this week. So we're going to have our USM&T can't preview,

specifically looking at Peru and Chile coming up tomorrow with Brian Duncef, who got, who had some travel stuff. So we switched that show around and now me and Tom are here. We're going to look forward a little bit to the weekend, but in the light of games gone, it's going to be a bit of a chaos episode. We just had like random topics that we were throwing out at each other. We've got another show like this kind of that we've got plans coming up in a couple of weeks where it's an international break.

We'll have already done our USM&T coverage in our U.S. soccer show. So we're going to do another fun show where we've been talking about some topics of build a Tam team that could win the English championship and I don't know, Shaktar Dinesk and all this other stuff. So if you've got some fun ideas that you want to throw at us, we're going to build an episode around that. Um, we've obviously got a lot of national team coverage coming up, which I got to say, I'm pretty excited. Like I spent the last few days as I got ready for this, catching up on some of the guys I haven't gotten to see. Um, so I've been in the, the minds, Strausburg games on replay, Milan games on replay,

Villarreal games on replay, a couple minutes of Crystal Palace here and there, like the stuff I've missed of some of these guys, dudes are playing. Like that's the vibe. That part, I think, is going to be. really fun. So we'll obviously have your coverage over the next few weeks on all sort of on all the pieces around the national team still have your NWSL coverage. Then we'll have your U.S. Women's National Team roster where we get to those Spain games and a bunch of other stuff around there. But there is MLS this weekend. So we will have your Constantinelsa Tire drive to the

playoff segment coming up later. And we will look forward to Sunday night soccer, which is going to be Columbus against Miami, 7 p.m. Eastern time on Sunday, as you guessed it, from the title of where that started. There are some massive games this weekend. There is a weird amount of games between teams directly next to each other in the standings, four verse five, six versus seven, you know, eight versus nine, whatever. There are a lot of players missing for international duty. So we'll dig into all of that and get you ready for the weekend. We'll be back on Monday. So we will do our live show Monday morning, as we always do. We'll talk, I'll talk MLS, but we'll also talk national team at that point because we will have the USA Peru game that will have already happen. And we'll look forward to the USA Chile game, which will be next Tuesday night coming up as well. So you listening to us on Sirius Radio. Thanks for being here. Always a joy. Always a pleasure to have you. If not, thanks for being here wherever you are as well. Tom, we kind of just have, we're kind of going to popcorn this thing and just go back and forth and pick random topics and talk about random things. Do you have a prefer.

icebreaker game that you'd like to use as a format for this? No, but are you somebody who gets popcorn every time you go to the movies? Yeah, probably. Same. So here's the thing. Do you load up on butter too? Well, the butter is the whole reason you eat it. I love popcorn, but I so badly cannot handle getting the kernel stuck in my throat,

mouth, whatever, that I barely ever eat it. So I like, the moment it's around, I'm like, the hailing 10 pounds of it, but I'm also avoiding it. I don't buy it. I don't really have it around. I did learn how to finally make it just from the kernels,

which is not hard. Did you know that? That sounds like such a in-your-thirties hobby. Yeah. Well, my brother-in-law told me, who deeply was in his 30s at the time when he did. You literally just put oil in a pan.

You close the pot, the pan. You heat it up, you put the kernels in, you just start shaking it. Just the way it's done. And then I get popcorn. That way. But I put it in the microwave, like, God intended or buy it from for $32 at the movie theaters.

So, Orville, Redenbacher, and the ones who came before us, salute. I will say this. I live across the street from a movie theater. It's a fancy one, which is annoying, and it's poorly made because it's Miami. It's, like, unnecessarily expensive for a thing you don't want. They have, like, chicken moho and, like, that type of stuff for, like, $4.00. Yeah, that's what I want to do while I'm watching Jurassic Park. I've been

I think I've been once the entire time I've lived here. So I don't really attend movies as much as I would like to. I like to pretend I do, but I don't really go. Same. Now, you know, now being a father,

it's tough, tough to call it. Of course. We will be cutting this show a little short because Tom's going to have to go move his sprinklers again so that he can make sure

that he's got the entire range of water coverage in his backyard and no automated system for Tom. He does this elbow grease, blue collar mentality. that's how he gets things done.

Okay, let's start off with this. Well, let's start with the national team. So you're headed down tomorrow. You'll be in Orlando and St. Louis. Correct. Which will be cool. I think St. Louis is going to be fun. It's great stadium.

I agree. Orlando, sort of the pit of the world. So sorry on that one. I would ask sort of like, what are you looking forward to as you head into it? What's the vibe already out of camp? Like, what are you thinking about around this USM and T? team. It's of course the talented young players who are likely all to get their debuts over this window and have earned this moment where they're here. This is the whole lifeblood of this window.

Yes, it's the start of the second cycle, Marisa Pocitino, and there is going to be interesting things to look at with Tyler Adams, being a leader as he always is, Chris Richards, probably going to wear the armband because for some reason Pocetino doesn't ever give it to Tyler Adams. So there are still like holdovers or guys that will remain core but who's kidding here this is about cabin solven a jemetti julian hall nil pierre saviord gozo matisse albert all these kind of young guys that are in the camp and that is going to be the dominant topic of a conversation i'm sure for you and dunny on the show and for for what me paul tennoria henry bushner all running at the athletic and everybody covering this because that is what we're all showing up for and one thing that i found

interesting, Tyler Adams and Ajumimedi spoke in the enterprise conference today. And Tyler reflected a little bit when his debut. He made his senior national team debut in November of 2017, a month after the infamous game in Kufa, where the United States failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup. And Tyler Adams' perspective was interesting to me because as he's talking up, Adjimaetti sitting next to him and just the narrative strings there of Adjumummiti is the best midfield talent to come out of the Red Bulls since Tyler Adams. So it was cool that they were doing it together. Audrey's saying, you know, Tyler's a player that he's looked up to and like the way

he carries himself was leadership, all that stuff. And Tyler is saying, I've known about Audrey longer than the other young players that came through here because, of course, came through the Red Bulls. He played a little bit of my brother in the second team. And I'm still so well connected there that like he's, he's like, that was cool. And Tyler Adams was saying like, yeah, like when, when I was brought in and the generally the people in my age group that have formed a young core the qualified for 22 and got to the round of 16

and then became the veterans and the in-prime players at this summer's war cup. It was like, yeah, they didn't really have a choice but to cause up because so many. And like, hey, and we didn't have a choice but to be ready or to be competitive because guess what? Like, we just failed to qualify for 2018.

And my editorializing, not his words, but like that was the time when there was just a gap in production. It was young players like Pousa and then Adams and McKinney and then were coming and then like Bradley and Alta were players that, you know, should have been more bit part players that they had to rely on because there was. Yeah, it was like Nagby and Sebastian

Leggett were the only two players in their 20s on that team. Nagby was like, deuces, I'm out of here. He was an old soul. Get away from me. So it was kind of like, yeah, like we deserved, I feel like I deserve my opportunity about, like they kind of didn't really have a chance. It didn't really have a choice. And we

didn't have a choice, but to go perform and, you know, sink or swim and hopefully swim, and and a lot of them have. For Adjimetti, Julian Hall, Kevin Sullivan, Neil Pierre, Frankie Westfield, all these guys, they've both earned this moment, but also they're going to get to blood in with Tyler Adams, with Chris Richards, and then some of them, maybe they'll be back in November, and maybe they'll be with the U-23s. And it's just a sign of better health of the program, obviously very unhealthy after Kuva because of the symptoms of missing World Cup, but just where the pool is and where that mixture is where all these guys are playing

real key minutes and standout players even at the teenage years. It's not just like, well, we need a new generation. The under 20s, if they're ready or not, you got to be in the senior. For sure. Yeah, I totally agree with you. I mean, I beat this drum for like five years coming out of Kiva through the 2022 World Cup. They were the youngest team in the world, blah, blah, blah.

But they had no leaders, the lean on. Like, you know, Landon likes to complain about everyone. But Landon came into a team with Claudio Arena at his peak and Greg Burlter at his peak and Tony Sonna at his peak and Brian McBride and all these dudes, Emmons-Marcus Beasley came in and what was their job to play?

Just put their head down and play. And I think the hope is that's what Kevin Sullivan and Audrey Medi and Julian Hall for the most part get to do because Chris Richards and Tyler Adams are sort of the backbone that they're built on. I think it's a great point. And I think it's hopefully the future

now, which is there's never this gap. Because for everyone who doesn't remember, the 2018 World Cup failure wasn't just on an inability to play. And it wasn't just on Yergen Cleansman's coaching. It was that age gap that we talked to. There was no in prime players. So when it was over, it wasn't like, okay, like Italy has right now. Can we find a new coach and like reset things and work together? It was what's the future of the program?

Like who plays on this team? And C.J. Sapan got called into that first camp, like all these other guys, Dom Twyre, Kellen Roe, whatever. But there really was no one in their prime. and it was on the young guys soldiers. And for these guys, it's not. And that's the nice part is not only they're going to be supported, they also have to earn their spots. You come in and play poorly.

You won't come back because you're Frank U.S. Field and you come in and you get your shot. And, you know, I think young players should be supported and push. And I thought Paul wrote a really good piece about that in the athletic about Kavan of like Potch has to sort of walk this line now of pushing him but also supporting him because he's a young player and like he's a young person. He deserves to be supported in this environment. but if it doesn't go well, there is Joe Scali sitting there.

There is Timuea, who's captain of Marseille, sitting there who can step in and be a part of this team. There is Virginia Odess, who starts for PSV and just started at the World Cup. So that's where I think it's nice, which it's not just, okay, you're getting called in and like, it's your team, which was a space Greg was forced into and couldn't really get around. We will dig into all of this more on the national team with Duny coming up tomorrow.

So one note, Canada has their camp that they put together under Puerto Bayarta's own Jesse Marsh. And he has put this camp together so there will be games in Toronto and Montreal, I believe, to start. It is trying to think of the inverses. Everyone's playing Peru and Chile. So I'm trying to figure out where Peru and Chile start. I think Chile's in Toronto to start this thing out. And then Canada plays Peru. And then Canada, of course, plays the U.S. in the third game.

And really tough news coming out of the camp today, which is Derek Cornelius, was taken to the hospital with a non-contact lower body injury. I think when you hear that, you think the worst, Achilles, ACL, MCL, whatever it is. And this, of course, is a program that is, has Ismail Kone, who will be out for the foreseeable future because of the broken leg at the World Cup. And it is kind of this bittersweet moment because it is a program where Nathan Saliba has stepped into Villarreal Central Midfield. And he is playing. Liam Miller started the year with a goal and the Premier League has gone on loan, has played well, like there's a lot of positivity

in the Canada group coming out of the World Cup, guys producing, guys taking step forwards, hopefully a next generation of players promised David's made a move to Brighton, like, there's a lot to like in the Canada group. So it's an unfortunate moment for him. Mois Bombito has struggled with, of course, his injuries and then now having to go back on the mend

coming into the World Cup. So centerback, obviously, a huge hole for Canada it has been for a little while. And Cornelius, he's made a great career for himself. Like, I didn't understand the relationship with him in Vancouver. It was him and Theo Baer. I didn't understand either of them. Vancouver sucked, and they were both fine, and they sent them both on loan to Europe.

And Cornelius, like, worked the system similar to like Anali Bedoya, where he just went from club to club and kept playing and kept playing. And he ended up on some legit league on rosters. Yeah. And getting serious minutes and then in Scotland as well. So, yeah, unfortunate news for him, and we'll keep talking about all the national team stuff over the next few weeks as well. Okay, let's jump around a few different topics that we have laid out. I'm going to popcorn us through this.

Let's start with the New England Revolution. Sure. I think we've spent a lot of time on a lot of teams. You know, we like to dive in a little bit deeper when we get opportunities. A lot of his base off production and performance and who's hot or who's struggling, who's in danger of missing the playoffs. I think the revs have kind of gone under the radar on that side of things. They currently sit in second place in the Eastern Conference. They're tied on 46 points with Inter-Miamy.

They have played, I think you could argue, winnable games, which I think has been a part of the reaction to them, but they brought in a slew of players in the last window, Jack Harrison being the highlight of it. They've won four of their last five. They knocked off Orlando 4-2 this weekend. They'd be Chicago and NYCFC before that. and they've really established themselves as, in my mind, a true MLS contender,

and probably they're probably going to at least have a home playoff series in the first round, if not further than that, into the second round. Tom, obviously, you did a lot of reporting around them with the moves they did make and with Peyton Miller now and Brooklyn Raines heading over to the national team callups. What do you make of the revs in 2026? a very very interesting team they got good home results positive home results early in the season and i think we were fair to to say like no that's good like but like let's not get over our skis into where they are in their development this is infinitely better than not picking up results

in games that that are either winnable or getable but you know they're they're not going at miami at lafc at vancccc and and just let's just kind of see where they are in a few months months. And what I've been most impressed by is they've gotten better all season. Maybe not linearly exactly with the results, but right now, as we're recording on September 23rd, they are better than they were on July 1st, which was better than that they were on March 1st. And that is a sign of a good coaching staff and a good group. I personally was dubious of Peyton Miller on the wing. It's like, yeah, this is nice. But thinking about the player himself, I think His best long-term home is in defense as an attacking fullback or a wingback,

whatever you want to call it. In the modern game, teams basically in possession have three at the back. And the widest player, whether you want to call him a wingback or not, he's somebody that's touchline to touchline in the widest channel. And like that just makes sense. You watch so many games. You see so many players, what Zavir Gozo, I think, still might end up as at Crystal Palace, though he might play a little bit further forward.

But Peyton Miller, it was like, okay, like, why are we doing? doing this bit by playing him on the wing. Yeah, maybe that helps now, but like, this is just a band-aid. Like, why not build towards something? And right now he's better than he was then. And he's, he's weaponizing his athleticism pace and intelligent a movement that is working so well to give Carl the Silmore space. Look and Raines has been very good this season. Um, for, you never had any questions about his technical ability and they wanted to play with possession. But hey, will this midfield be too, too easy to play through? And, and they've held up. Uh, Turgerman, I, I think, think is a good fine starting level center forward right now with talent and potentials to

continue to get better. But this team is made around Carlos Hill and they have been better around him. They are not solely reliant on this player. But what Marco Mitrovich and his staff has done has continued to emboldened Carlos Hill that like you are a special player. We want you to be you. But also if you have a game with no goals and no assists, we're not definitely getting shut out. Which I think has been the case a lot of the times in cards. This is more like Bruce Arena's revs in that it was built around Claudeus Hill, but they had all the ways to beat you. And it's a little bit more sophisticated

in terms of the tactics and maybe less of the top end players, but Jack Harrison is awesome. I think that was a great signing. I had a couple people ask, is that really? Is he a DP? Is he a DP in the same in 2020? I disagreed with that notion and the revs the revs haven't heard many of us questions

since he arrived, though. He's missed some time, but like this team went from, oh, that's interesting in a transitional year. Hey, me, if they make the playoffs, that'll be good. So like, oh, this seems going to be favored in their first round playoff series. Yeah. I understood the Jack Harrison questions just because they have a very expensive roster in terms of they have a ton of

tan players and like there's not a, there wasn't a lot of other room. I always thought Jack Harrison was going to be a good addition to the team. I always thought he was going to be a good player. The question with DPs are, are they game changers? I think to your point, Carlos Heel is so much of an outlier

as a game changer. Jack Harrison doesn't have to win you every third game. He just has to be on at the right times, but because he works pretty hard and stays connected to the team, I think he's a really good ad. Peyton Miller does a lot of those things too. So Peyton Miller has been both a good replacement when Harrison's been out in that spot or a good foil to him. And it allows you to get through some of these games with Gaza getting a start on the wing or moving some other people around. The interesting thing as you compare them to Bruce Arena is they don't do anything, you know, outlier. Like when you look at MLS teams that

win, there's normally parts of the game, whether it's pressing, whether it's possession, whether it's defending that they're in the top five somewhere. And like that's their calling card and everything else. They kind of figure out ways to get through the game where the revs are kind of like straight through the middle. They're a strong defensive team, not elite. They're a dangerous attacking team, not elite. They create chances both in set pieces and run of play.

Neither of them are outliers. Carlos Heels the one outlier in the team is he's one of the three or four best pure chance created in the league. But I think the standard is so high across this roster. Like there are very few weak spots. There are not a lot of guys they have to call on where it feels like, okay, they're going to lose the game because this player is on the field, that they can maintain that because other teams are going to dip in and rise.

Look at Chicago. Chicago are in worse form. They come up against the revs. The revs don't drop their level. And the revs win two one. Look at NYCFC. great run. I was really high on them. As they start to fall apart, struggling to finish chances, they come up against the revs, two-one victory. Same with Orlando. Like Orlando loses open cup

semifinal. They take their eye off the ball. They're a little bit open and boom. The revs play straight through them. They win late and like they pour it on. I just think the consistency in everything they do with the revs has been the winning point this year, which doesn't flash or jump off the page. I mean, door target two agreement is a great example. U-22 initiative, seven goals, seven assists. You would take that anything from a player at that age. But it's not 15 goals and it's not 12 assists. Like it's just good enough.

Yeah. Yeah. Or like, he's a very productive and that's why I say he's a good level center forward and particularly within the context of this team because if you have Carlos Hill and now Jack Harrison, bang, two match winners. Peyton Miller has become a match winner, right?

So if you have those players around your number nine, seven and seven is a fantastic output for you 22 player. But we're not like, oh my God, Dor Turgerman, and he's going to be the next $15 million sale, right? And I don't mean that, like, derogatorily towards him. Like, I think he's a good player, but it's almost like middling complimentary. To your point, like, they're stylistic metrics. They are bang, middle of the league in, like, possession.

They are on the lower end of, like, the pressing metrics, the ball won in the final third and passes per defensive action, which is basically how often are you challenging? The two things that they are elite at on a per game basis, they are. they are fifth in MLS, or tied for four, sorry, inexpected goals per shot. So when they're getting chances, they are getting really good ones.

And that is how they're choosing. And they are tied for fifth in expected goals per shot against, which I was a little bit surprised because that shows that a good defense of structure because we know how special Matt Turner is, a shot stop. So you could be 12th to 15th,

and you could still reliably overperform that because of who you have in goal. But like those are the two things that they have been great at this year. And that's kind of why that, okay, maybe things don't always jump off the screen when you're watching them or thinking about them or talking about them. But those are the quiet ways that, like, again, I think that that signs of good coaching. Yeah. And it is an interesting club in that they've spent a lot of money before Marco Mitchevich took over. He has salvaged a lot of what they spent.

They have also continued to spend under him. So it is not a full rebuild, even though the team was on. unsuccessful to end the time with Caleb Porter, but it also wasn't a fully set roster that he's coming in and just, you know, sort of rolling forward Mike Brown style. Like, he's found this in between and they've had a lot of success. We're going to talk about them more over the next few weeks. They have one of the Sunday Night Soccer games. I'm excited to dig in a little bit about their history. I came into Major League Soccer as a fan in the, like, heydays of Jay Heaps and Taylor Twelman and in my mind, Shalry Joseph is the best MLS player of all time and he's my favorite

MLS player of all time. And in the early 2000, Stevie Nichols teams where they were consistently competitive. They had multiple World Cup players on different countries and they were a really great, great roster and they're still looking for, you know, the unattainable for them, which is MLS Cup. So they seem to be on the road towards it this year. Let's go into another random topic that popped up for me, which was that yesterday, the Brazilian Federation and the Brazilian League passed a new rule, which I do think is interesting for MLS fans. So Brazilian League, we have said over and over, it's a dominant league in the Americas. It is an outlier in the Americas in terms of how much money that they're able to spend the strength of the league.

It is dominant across South America. I think it's three or four in Copa Lib, this semi-Fourable. final coming up are Brazilian clubs and then Asudiante's being the fourth Bokan river have not won a Copa Lib in a decade and it has for the most part been all Brazilian teams in the final against each other. And so they passed a rule in which they're going to decrease the amount of international spots that are available to each team on game days going forward. So currently they are allowed to have nine international players registered to their game day rosters. It went up very quickly. from 5 in 2014 to 7 in 2021 or 2023 and then 9 in 2024.

And now they're making a move to slowly decrease that over the next five years. And I think, one, the conversation that Brazil is having is fascinating for all of us that like soccer, which is they're trying to figure out how to win a World Cup again and how to like reset some things. So these were the stats for what they ended up doing. So 95 of the playing matches in 2022 had the full complement of international players. 162 did in 2025. There are 146 players from other countries that have already played this season in the Brazilian League and then 13 that are registered that haven't debuted yet.

And this was the fascinating fact for me. The Brazilian championship at 28 and a half years, average age is higher than Spain, England, Germany, Italy, and France. for average age of players. So Spain is 27, England's 26 and a half. Germany is a little bit less right around 26, as is Italy, and then France is the youngest, which I think you would guess of all of those.

And so this is their attempt to try and reshift things. And I think Doyle talked about a lot during the World Cup with us. One of the issues in Brazilian soccer is Brazilian teams just produce players to sell to Europe. Yeah. Part of the reason they do that is because you can sign veteran players to play the other positions. and they have decided that centerback and winger are the two most expensive positions. And so they push all their talents into those positions. I was talking with some friends last night about this.

And they were like, yeah, well, they don't have the Ronaldinos and Rinaldos anymore. It's like totally. But those players won World Cups because of Dunga and because of Giobarto Silva and because of Lucio and because of Dita. Like, while those players were all-time greats, the roster was all-time greats. And at some point in a soccer culture, you have to have players who pop up up in other positions that are elite at what they do. And the only way to get there is to have full cohesive rosters where Flamengo and Fluminense say, who is our best talent at defensive event?

Who's our best talent at centerback? Who's our best talent at fullback? And start to play those guys there at a younger age. So before we get the direct reason why this impacts MLS, like it is a topic and a concept that I've thought about. I don't think that there's a perfect answer because for us, living, breathing MLS, you say foreign slots, you could say DP slots, to say whatever it is. You spend those on center forwards and attacking midfielders and wingers, like difference makers in the

attack, and maybe your international slots go to centerbacks. And obviously, it's a much different footballing culture. But like, what is the knock on effect of this? I think it'll be generally, I think it's generally a good thing. Because particularly in Brazil, if there's anywhere that you don't need, like, they could have an all Brazilian league and they still be really good, right? And you think about some of the kids that even just directly to MLS that have been sold essentially from Brazilian second teams for $5 million, $7 million. I remember the last 2024J Cup, I believe, whichever one Flamingo is that. I'm like looking at the planet.

It's just like, oh yeah, like these are like their second string 16 year old, 70, because the ones who are at their top string are in the first team or they've already been sold. And it's like, hey, that's centerback to 15 year old, Chelsea has already bid $6 million. Right. It's just like, okay, like, but the point is, is your flamingos, is whoever at any given moment, Palmerish, the higher spending Brazilian teams, and like, okay, we're going to take the best number 10 from the Argentine League and the best center forward from Uruguay and the two best wingers we can find in Colombia.

Or, you know, insert number six. Like, how will this have knock on effects? And again, thinking about how it happens in Mexico and an MLS, what is the right answer? Is there a right answer? And so that's where I think for MLS fans, you should be paying attention, and this is fascinating. Because like you just mentioned, for the most part, the powers in South America outside of Brazil play a lot of their players, a lot of their top players play in Brazil. And then the middle of their rosters all play in Brazil for Paraguay, for Chile, for Uruguay, for Ecuador, for Colombia. the pathway now, which 20 years ago was from your local league to Colo Colo, from Colo to river,

from River to Rio Madrid has now shifted to, for many to Brazil, and then it ends in Brazil. Yeah. And if those players can't go there anymore, there is no obvious answer in the Americas outside of Mexico and the U.S. They are the two richest leagues, or Mexico and MLS. Sorry, Canada. They are the two richest league. Jefferson Saleldo would correct me saying there's no. money in Toronto. Those are two richest leagues outside of Brazil in the Americas. Now, many of these

players will just go to Europe or will be end up on European teams, but not all of them. And there's a real opening here over the next three to five years for MLS teams to get a higher quality of player or a more established player earlier in their careers because of this. The second non-a-con, I think of this will be, it might be a little bit of a resurgence for Argentine clubs who have no ability to compete against Brazil. teams. If that's the case, it might open up more players from the Argentine League to come to Major League Soccer because if top forwards are coming back to River and Pocca and San Lorenzo and Estudiantes and all of that, the players right behind them, now they need playing time. So is it

Matthias Kalars that coming on loan? Is it players at U22 initiative that come to MLS a little bit earlier? There's a real opportunity here for MLS. And you look at some of these teams. I mean, John Arias, right, of the Colombian national team who went to Europe right after the Club World Cup. But one of the best players playing in a team that has Saul, who we saw star already, Gonzalo Plata, Augustine Rossi, and Anthony Valencia, like all of these players are high-quality players. And if more of them become available earlier in their careers are at other times where

maybe they're done with Europe and looking for a next move, it could be a real shopping space for Major League Soccer. So the rule is going to come in slowly over the next few years. I think it decreases by one a year all the way up to 2031 when it finishes at 5. So it's something to watch out for and something to pay attention to for MLS fans because I think it puts a lot of these players on the shopping block that weren't really attainable for major league soccer teams. Yeah, and I think it's all of it's interesting and particularly like how much this rule

has changed in Brazil, like how often the number. It's just weird, right? if this was MLS, we'd be making fun of it for like, oh, you change the playoff format again. Like, of course. Like, so it is always nice to remind ourselves that this isn't always just, always just a unique problem with us. I love the global game of soccer. I love Major League Soccer. I hate Major League Soccer at the same time.

There is a tendency where people call things Mickey Mouse because people only watch one league in the world. Like, if you think things are bizarre, there is so much wild shit that happens outside of England in the global game. that people just refuse to pay attention to or ignore. I mean, imagine being around when they were like, you know what, we're going to do two seasons now. We're going to do Closer Appeture.

It's like, I'm sorry, now there's two of them. There was one. There's two now. I mean, like, all of the stuff. I mean, right now, the Mexican government is bringing a court case against League MX to open up promotion, relationship. So there's a lot going on out there, but a lot to pay attention to. That takes us to free agency, which we hadn't touched on yet on this show.

I was at the dry tour Tugas. I've been in Peru. I've been everywhere. So it didn't really have the time to dig in. You had some names, though, that popped out to you from the list that was put out by Major League Soccer. Yeah, MLS did it updated club roster profiles, and with it, it shows the players who are out of contract who have contract options and when all of that is come to pass. And we're in the fall now. And some of these players might stay with their clubs, of course.

But these are players who are a few months away from officially being MLS free agents. and just a couple names to keep in mind if that were to happen. Like, Tiago Martins, Matthias Laborda, Joao Klaus, Klaus, Kossi DeFari, Stephen Marrera, Sang bin Zhang. Those are kind of six that I looked at. And I don't, if you put the over under at three and a half of how many of these guys will actually hit for a agency, I might take the under.

But I think right now it's interesting to look at and to overview that there's going to be really strong, free agents available in MLS. It's getting stronger every year as the rules loosen and the MLSPA make some ground in negotiating of what qualifies a free agent because just being out of contract doesn't qualify as a free agent in MLS. There are hoops to jump through, but the hoops are getting, the hoops are getting bigger if you have to jump through them in terms of more players can fit, which is good, always good,

but it used to be like when free agency was starting, you know, some of the marquee names would be like, oh, man, that free agent is 30 years old is young, right? And now it's a minimum. We're still a minimum. You got a Diego Fibundas for $1.2 billion. Right. Right. But like you think about Miles Robinson and Albert Rusnak.

I've changed teams at high level kinds. Like those are DPs or Miles Robinson ended up being a DPs. Like last year, Justin Hack, the goalkeepers that moved all the, like, there aren't going to be very good players. And I guess I hadn't totally like dove into that list. Backheeled as well put out Joe Lowry. I think he gave his top 20, top 15. Hell yeah, Joe. Let's go.

I always encourage you to check that with like possible destinations. That's always a good read. But we'll talk a ton about offseason stuff as we're getting closer and closer, but just to put it on the horizon. Yeah, and I think, you know, so the age limit is 24 for free agency and four years. So the odds are you're not really going to get a young player in that. And I do think one of the things we've seen is Christian Espinoza last year was an outlier. I think Rousnak was a bit.

That should have been the first name that I said in terms of like. No, but my point would be this list is mainly centerbacks and goalkeepers, as you've mentioned, have been a big one. I think those are the main categories to think about here because they're less flashy to get transferred overseas when they do well, where if an attacking player does well, there's a pretty good chance they're just going to leave Major League Soccer if they're available or get a big extension to stay. But this is a place where Aaron Long, Walker Zimmerman, I mean, originally in Kosi, Tofarai, you mentioned Justin Hack. there's been like a can you complete your team with a winning player in this position. And I think as you look at that list of Laborta, Tafara, and Stephen Marrera, I think will pop, like is Yon Dime, is St. Louis a connection there. But all of these guys are guys where I think you look at positions that end up staying in the league a little bit longer.

And then positions where you value experience, you know, maybe they don't have the ceiling to then increase or give you a transfer anything. Coming as a free agent, you don't have to out. lay the money. So you can give them the $800 to a million in salary, not have to pay the transfer fee, and then have them on your roster in sort of a win now mode. And it feels like that's where free agency really lives right now. Yeah. And you look at, you know, just naming a bunch of examples that are good, like Jack Elliott in Chicago, Jack Elliott just signed another contract extension. He's been integral to the Greg Burrhalter era with this team and turning around, which is kind of why just a quick look of like Austin FC. I'm expecting them to be a very active in free agency. Because

they have their DP spots filled. Of course, there can always be changes there to try to create room for more money to be spent discretionary funds. But like, this is going to be a Jim Curtin and Kyle El-Mad led team to people with immense MLS experience and respect for the league. And they have a lot of holes to fill and they'll have like salary cap money to spend and allocation money they should be able to spend after some of the deals that they made in a lot of holes. So like, Austin FC, if you're looking to stabilize yourself, like that's a high, floor away. L-EFC, we've used this example before of when they missed the playoffs

in the first time after they had those incredible first few seasons with MLS Cup and then they kind of went too far into, we're just going to sign a bunch of really talented young players from abroad because our scouting network is better than yours. And maybe the Skyny Network is, but guess what? Like, you could do everything correct and sometimes the players don't hit. And then they miss the playoffs. And then the next year

it was like they got like a thousand MLS games of experience between Aaron Long, Ryan Hollingshead, and Ilya Sanchez and all these other guys that they brought in. So look at Like there will be some teams that will make full, full use of that this winter. Okay. One more before we get into our weekend preview.

I think many people have seen the news around the reports of Federico Iguine and sort of his behavior towards a female referee at an MLS next pro game. He has officially been let go by the club. And there was a statement put out by the GM, Issa Tal. There was an original statement and complaint pushed forward by the PSRA, which is the pro referees union that the referee was. a part of. As the complaint came out, disgusting stuff. Absolutely brutal. And I think one of the things obviously here at this show, if you know ball, you know ball, your gender has nothing to do with it. Your gender shouldn't have been anything to do with the way you're treated anyway. So I think right on Columbus for handling it in the end. And I think the only positive you can see in a small

thing like this is the reaction seemed fairly forceful outside of what Iguine did. And I'd be surprised if he worked anytime soon in soccer, anywhere around North America. Okay. Let's dig into the weekend to come in Major League Soccer. It is a full slate of games, by the way. Full compliment on Saturday and then the one game on Sunday. It is an international break. It is an international window.

So I am about to name a lot of players who are not available. But that is going to be a part of what we talk about because this is our tribe to the playoffs presented by Continental Tire, our longtime partner, and supporter of MLS and American soccer. These are six-pointers. And as we've said in the past, it doesn't matter if the players are there or not. In the end of the season,

this is where you're going to sit in the standings based off the points you get here. And these are some massive games. So I put down four or five games to look at for this weekend or to make sure to watch out for. It starts to me with Philly versus Orlando. Philadelphia and sixth, Orlando and seven, two-point difference.

and I do think these are actually the two teams with the worst absences on the international side. So maybe it evens out that it's both of them. Philadelphia has Andre Blake, Dan Lejean Jacques, and then of course the three Americans in Neil Pierre, Kevin Sullivan, and Frankie Westfield. Massive losses. I mean, that's six starters right there for this Philadelphia team. On the flip side for Orlando, they have Brecolo, Cartagena, Justin Ellis, who are three starters. and then probably the guys that would fill in for them are Possolich and Tyrese Spicer, who are also unavailable Possilich with Croatia and Spicer with Trinand Tobago.

These are the two teams, like there are some teams that have three players missing, but there are three superstars, Petarmusa for Dallas. There's some that have eight missing where you're like, yeah, but like five of those don't really play. These are the two where it's both. They're both influential and there's a lot of them to try and fill in. And yet, Tom, as I said, six verse seven, two point. difference like this means everything going towards the playoffs for these two squads yeah and it's funny that you know these are two teams that um went into or came out of the world cup break very below the

playoff line particularly the fedel of union who in said last and now this is these are two good teams that we're expecting both to make the playoffs but their jockey proceeding on top of all of the um international absences and strong greasman left the team's uh open cup semi final laws with an injury, didn't play last weekend. Mike Romaho was at Orlando's training this morning. He was training off to the side. He's doing ball work and stuff, so that could help. Can I say something about this?

Yeah. So Mike Ramahoe posted a video of him training. He's training with Martin Perilman, like one-on-one, who was the interim head coach. I think it was Jill Sackovitz, who did the first interview on the sideline with Anton Griseman when he first joined the team, and it was a second game or whatever, and she asked him, what's one thing that surprised you? And he said the coach. He's very intense. He's very passionate.

He's talked about him three or four times. I think Bartin Palerman's meal ticket right now of why he could be the head coach full time is I think he's Antoine Griseman's guy like within two days. I'm just putting it out there for Orlando fans to get prepared. That's a great point because I didn't even investigate who he was training with. I figured it was in a system. They were literally doing passing drills the two of them around a cone. It's crazy. like the head coach off to the side with the injured player

but in Sanctrangers. Yeah. And the one who would need the least amount of coaching. If he's available, he's starting and playing 90 minutes. It's a medical team thing. It's not a, hey, let's see how he looks. That's a great point. Anyway, there's...

You got to know where your bread gets buttered, you know? And like, this is a great... Listen, it could still be a fine game. My last point on what this matchup could be is like, having Solvin, playing against an Orlando backline that's very gapy. And that will be missing several players.

And Justin Ellis playing in the Philly play a lot of up-tempo, high energy, and space. So Justin Ellis going against Philly would have been a lot of fun to watch and Gavin Sullivan going against Orlando would have been a lot of fun to watch.

But I digress here. Yeah, like you said, three points all matters the same no matter who's there, who's not. It's just really difficult to talk about these games. And it's really difficult for the fan. This is another sidebar.

So the Philadelphia Union hosting Orlando on Saturday. Saturday is when all of the, like, the American soccer public is going to be looking at Orlando for the USA game. I was texting with people in Orlando because I didn't look at the schedule because I figured, there can't be, and I was like, hey, like, are you around? I get in Thursday. Like somebody was like, we're traveling to Philly. I was like, why?

Does the second team have a game? Like, no, the first team. What are you talking about? Yeah. And so it's just so weird, man. Like, this would be the marquee game, like one of them on an all the week. Yeah.

And just the irony that the U.S. is playing in Orlando, or Orlando leaves so that all of these players can not, as just, that wasn't of much value to the conversation of the game this weekend. But let me throw this one out there. Doyle mentioned on Monday's show, Philly hasn't played a lot of depth.

So he's watching a minute, minutes here. Here's a chance for some other guys to prove that they're good enough to play. And I would say, if Griesman is out especially, but I would even argue I trust the other pieces with Philly more than I trust the other pieces that are left with Orlando. Like if you tell me, you know, Philly has both their starting center forwards. They have Indivassel. They have Quinn Sullivan. They have Hazers Bueno who can step in in central midfield in place of Danley because Jovich

is still there. So I would trust more this Philly group that's left than Orlando where it feels like Reckaloa Janssen goes down and it becomes a sieve at the back. And without Justin Ellis, who's connecting play from the front line to the backline. And if no, Grisman, is there that final touch threat in the backline as well? So it's all stuff to watch out for. Right above them, fourth and fifth in the standing. Charlotte sitting on 43 points ahead of Chicago. On 39 points, Chicago has a game in hand.

These two face off this weekend. Chicago maybe has a debate for a worse. A set of international losses, they're missing Chris Brady, Robert Lewandowski, Puso, who's the best player in Major League Soccer. Noah Allen, Robin Lod, Ludd, and the Georgian player whose name I'm going to choose not to say. That is a lot of losses for Chicago. On the Charlotte side, it is mainly the Israeli national team in Lial Abada and Toklamati, Aloko, and then Andrew Johnson.

So, again, probably a stronger Charlotte group. Charlotte in fourth place right now, three points off second. And with Chicago having that game in hand, if they can get a result here of any sort, they can solidify the fact that they control their own destiny to at least be a top. 14 and host a playoff game like they did last year. Out West, the two games that I had highlighted was Dallas, LAFC. Dallas are fourth right now on 44 points. LAFC are six on 41 points.

And LAFC have played one more game than everyone else around them in the standings. Dallas will be missing Petzar Musa and Bernardo Camungo, who has accepted a call up to Tanzania. Where he's originally from, he had tried to play with the U.S. He'd been called into some early friendlies and stuff like that. Career has slowed a bit since then. So he will be heading now to full international duty, as well, Ron Biniamim. And then L.A.F.C. They're going to miss some guys you've heard of before.

They're missing Sun and Buonga. They're missing Schwanier and Jacob Schaffelberg. And they're missing my guy, Jude Terry. Which, by the way, I've got a rant to give later about, like, if Jewettary was going to play 45 to 60 minutes in this game because Schwanier has gone, why is he at a USU-19? team camp. I've said this many times on this show. I think we overvalue youth national teams. Now, both on the men's and women's side, that players have progressed into professional environments. Like getting 90 minutes in a professional environment to me is more valuable than

most youth national team experiences, probably than all, but I'm open to being convinced against that. Well, and this is a Mondo window where it's three weeks instead of the normal. Why can't he just join up Sunday? For sure. That part is they're going to like Portugal or Spain. They're playing the USU-19s are playing Wales, England, and someone else in like a mini tournament. A hundred percent.

Play for your club team. Now is Mark Dosanza's going to play him? I don't know. He has started two or three times over the last month. Schwannier out and then you also need to fill in for Son and Buonga. I would assume there's enough minutes there that Jude Terry would be playing in this game.

I agree. Free Jew Terry and who knows, and all the Zendaya jokes and all that type of stuff that they're doing out in L.A. And then remaining in L.A. The L.A. Galaxy in eighth place face off against the Colorado Rapids in seventh place. Three point gap between them. Colorado has the game in hand. And international absences for this one. Didn't think I was going to be saying this. Chuky freaking Losato is going to be on the Mexican national team again.

And he will be unavailable for the galaxy, as will Harbor Miller. I mean, Rafa calling in his boy. I don't know what this is. I got the email and I had to like triple check it. Is this timestamped correctly, 2026? What happened? Is this 2017? Is he preparing for the 2018 world?

And I'm happy for Chuki. It's just, that was a shock. For the first available window after he started playing it game. Now, one thing we have seen from a lot of national team coaches, I think we, they talked about it on the first touch show. That's coming out today or tomorrow with Susanna is, Juergen Klops called up like 44 players for the German team because it is this huge camp and they're going to train against each other

and guys will come in and out. So this is a larger set of camps and it is the start of a cycle for many coaches where let's take a look at everyone. Didn't think Chuky Olsona was going to be on this list. For Colorado, three big names, Georgie Menungu, Wayne Frederick, who has been a stalwart for them across multiple positions. And then Abu Farkey, who they brought in as the U-22 Initiative Center forward. I think he's looked bright so far since he's played.

He will be with the Israeli national team as well. So there's a big week for Darren Yappy, I think you can say. We have talked about it. It should be his spot. Here is a chance to prove it in a big game and a must win for them. And then the last one I had highlighted with San Jose against Portland. Tom, you were excited to potentially see Nico Secura's healthy, not on the national team, alongside Timo Verner and Preston Jut.

Yeah, and then like we saw this early in the season and how deadly. they were and I think with Edward Lovin joining because team of Werner returned last weekend off the bench and it looks like all three or four these guys, including Lovin, will be available and I'm just really, really curious what the team is going to look like, how much closer to

the first 10 games at the season, because they are better than what they had showed since then and they've started to stabilize a bit, but they've not come close to the same heights as early in the season. And I think that the front three is where that team was so special and the relentlessness they're in.

And I think Edward Lovin is going to help give them some more ball control, won't aid a ton in transition defense, which absolutely killed them before Lovin arrived in that middle part of the year when they absolutely weren't a free fall. So which version are they closer to? I think it's closer to the positive one. And I just really like to fit with Lovin and those three guys. And those three guys are fun as hell to watch earlier in the season.

And we're almost hopefully this weekend see all four star. Rinaldo Vieira out, huge loss for their. He's been phenomenal one of the signings of the year. Useni Buddha, who has been consistently getting called in. We talked about him with the Right to Dream Academy last week. And then Angus Gunn might be an addition by subtraction on that one for San Jose. In goal. On the Portland side, James Pantamis out with the Canadian team.

Finn Sermon was supposed to be with New Zealand. It got worse. He has an MCL injury. He's out four to six weeks. It's tough for the Timbers. Timbers sitting in ninth place. don't really have a ton of touching distance for the teams above them.

For them, it is get in or not right now. And this would have been a big opportunity. It feels like a huge advantage for San Jose coming into this game with more of their pieces. For all the tire needs, make the smart choice in Continental Tire as they sponsor our drive to the playoffs. All season.

They also sponsor Sunday night soccer. So the game this week is Columbus Crew against Inter Miami, 7 p.m. Eastern Time. That game is going to be at Scott's Miracle Grow field, not in Cleveland this time. And I expect to see Lionel Messi in this game. So if you remember, Messi's been called in for a tribute game. It will be the October 6th friendly for Argentine.

They had to save it for when they were playing international superpower, Benin, who he's had so many big moments again. So it makes sense for that to be this. It's a big opportunity for Messi to show what he's capable. of against Benin. But I do, I assume part of the reasoning of why it was that game is so him and Rodrigo DePaul could play in this game when there's no reason to leave your club team when you're not actually trying to be a national team player anymore. So rather than it be the first two friendlies, which would mean they potentially have to miss this game, it'll be the last friendly. DePaul is

fascinating to me, by the way. We've heard nothing. So he's called all the 2022 World Cup winners are coming to this game, which is a good good. guys under which Rodrigo DePaul shows up. He has not announced that he's retired. And I don't know that he was actually competitively called up to the roster. But he was a starter at the World Cup. So my assumption is if he chooses to continue to play for the national team, he would get to. Although he's also a messy sidekick.

And if Messi's gone, maybe no one wants him around anymore. I don't know any of this. But my assumption is DePaul and Messi will be available for this game. but it is like a bloodbath for Miami. Bertrami unavailable. The young Ecuadorian should be centerback, but left back, Cicado, Dane St. Clair, Matias Galarza, Lovin's Delinios, the best player on the team.

And then Daniel Pinter and Luke Shaw, Adam Shaw, Adam Shaw are unavailable. But I think, yeah, I think that Messi and DePaul will be available for this game, which is obviously a huge bonus for them and an opportunity. for Miami to sort of slow some of the bleeding right now in the leak. For what it's worth, Miami in their, like, press release of all their call-ups, denoted that DePaul and Messi, both of them have been called up for the October 6th game. So to your point, like, I think both of them will be here.

And part of that release that says it's Messi's farewell game, all this. And then it just doesn't say anything about DePaul. So I think your point is that, like, we just don't know about his international future, which is interesting. No. But Miami in Major League Soccer have been winless in their last four. So they won the Campione's Cup and then they beat Montreal almost a month ago. That's how long it's been without a win in MLS. So you would assume if Messi's available, he's going to play 90 minutes.

There's going to be, I think this is a super entertaining game because all of the Columbus attacking pieces, Bryce Mendez and Sinti Rodriguez, they're not factors in their national teams. So you have weaknesses defensively for both teams, and you have all the adapting talent available for this game. I wanted to dig in a little bit deeper here, though, for a moment, because we are going to be doing this every week, sort of talking about some big topics around the teams playing on Sunday night. Last week, we did the deep dive on the right stream academy

and what it could look like going towards San Diego. This week I want to bring something up that is slightly eye-test that I went and then found the research to prove, which is anyone who has traveled around the world or watched videos from places around the world, knows the standard uniform, which is random people in Manu, Jersey's, Real Madrid, Barcelona,

maybe depending on what continent and who plays for those teams, Arsenal in Africa or Chelsea in South America. Everyone knows. If you're in a cab in a foreign country, there are going to be scooters driving around you, and there are going to be people wearing those jerseys that I just made. What I have found incredible is over the last three to four years,

Inter Miami has entered that space. And I understand it's messy. And messy is unique. But it is still shocking to me when I travel around the world and see an MLS jersey available. And this is the fake jerseys when you go to the markets. And it's like, oh, do you want all these Mosella jerseys? And you're like, interesting. The material's a little off. Oh, it's. $12. This may not be official. Too good to be true. But it just show the cultural relevance of this club.

The research then backs it up. So inter Miami when they received messy into the team, went from generating 56 million in revenue a year across all revenue to 250 million a year. And obviously their evaluation has skyrocketed. It's almost added a billion dollars. But these were the reports at the end of 2020. Euro-America's sport marketing put these out. Inter-Miamy closed out 2025 as the fifth highest-selling club soccer jersey on the planet.

Incredible. It's incredible. They were behind Rial Madrid, Barcelona, PSG, and Byron Munich. 2.16 million jerseys sold globally for them outdoing Boko Jr.'s, Manchester United, Flamengo, Chelsea, and then the Rinaldozers. I just never thought, no matter what, that we would see a day where that's the case. And you see it on the streets as you travel around the world, which is just absolutely incredible. It really is. And you go places and you go to, even in this country, you go to a, like an MLS game.

And the people who are selling like the non-licensed jerseys, there is always Miami shirts. And usually they are like at the front. You could be a Yankee Stadium. I was there on Friday night. I saw somebody just selling messengers. Like there wasn't, they didn't even, they didn't even, you know,

do the scarf for a hat. And it was just messengers. And I, like, I found that interesting because, like, that's for it to be such a global reach. And I'm pretty cynical to roll my eyes at, like, the super unscientific. Oh, you know, I was on vacation at a resort in Mexico.

And I saw, you know, 17 Chelsea shirts, 11 Miami's shirt. That's not exactly a wide show. But it is more than just like colloquial in that these numbers back it up. And it's truly crazy to be put in that same breath.

Like PSG who have just won back-to-back championship titles, but they've always been like a fashion forward kit attire. And they're a huge club. And so they're always going to be there. They only sold 400,000 more jerseys than into Miami. And like, this is a team that

didn't have a sponsor at a time or had, you know, it took them a little while to get the pink kids. And like, we didn't associate this team with like, we thought, oh, it could be cool, it's nice. It's just like, oh, they just got docked points or they just, you know, hey, the metweedy signing didn't work out. And they're like, it is truly a global revelation on top of them going on global preseason tours.

They're in the same breath as these 10 clubs that you mentioned, but particularly the top five, like, it is astonishing. It is easily explained by the messy phenomenon of it all, but like, that's still, that's part of why you saw it. And this is, it's just unbelievable. I think I told this story on the show. I'm not sure. But I literally, by coincidence, I'm wearing this t-shirt. It's a Portland Timber's T-shirt that I have. It's nice and soft. So when I went to Cairo, I flew in this shirt. When I was going through customs, a customs agent stopped me and said, do you know what that shirt is? And I was like, yeah? And he goes, oh, and I

go, do you know what this shirt is? He goes, yeah, it's an MLS team. And he had the messy, when it was, this was the, it was 2023, so it was the year Messi arrived when I think they either did a special or free season pass at the time to watch Messi and he was watching MLS because of Leonel Messi and knew who the Portland Timbers were. Is all of this going to solve all problems? No, but it is fascinating. It's interesting and it is an avenue to make things better, whether it's teams following in Inter-Miamis wake and then as people tune in and pay attention, their success becomes more relevant to people, or is it just Inter-Miamie becomes the Dallas Cowboys? And there's positive with that, which is when you knock off the Cowboys, everyone knows about you,

and it gives a giant. And it is why Inter-M Miami over the next five, six weeks is on Sunday Night Soccer three times, because they are the heigante. And knocking them off and playing against them is the biggest story you can have in Major League Soccer. So we love Continental Tire for sponsoring us as well as for sponsoring Major League Soccer. Make sure to think about them anytime you go to, buy your tires. And this was fun.

I'm glad we got to do our popcorn show here today. We've got our national team coverage. We've got an interview coming out on Friday with Randy Waldrum, who coached the Trinand-Tibagan women's national team when Jack Warner was in charge of Trinand-Tabego and has stories. And then the Algerian women's national team when he coached for the Nigerian Federation. And it was wild while also coaching college soccer in America. So we did long conversation about what's the future of women's college soccer,

the future of college sports, as someone who's been in it for. almost 40 years. And then his experiences internationally, there are, yes, envelopes and briefcases and chests of cash and jewels and all that type of stuff in there. So I think that's going to be really, really enjoyable. And then as I said, we'll be back live on Monday to break all those things down. Thank you to you, Tom, for being here. Big shout out to Gregory for helping behind the scenes. And big shout out to all of you for listening. And we'll talk to you again very, very soon.