SoccerWise - MLS Soccerwise | What Comes Next for MLS?

Episode Date: July 30, 2026

MLS owners are discussing the biggest roster rule changes the league has seen in years.David Gass and Matt Doyle break down the proposed changes, how they could reshape the way clubs build their rosters, which rules should stay, which could disappear, and what a simpler MLS roster system might look like.Plus, Gass and Doyle discuss reports that Mauricio Pochettino is nearing a USMNT contract extension before wrapping up their Buy or Sell series with the Western Conference. Which teams are they buying, and which are they selling as the playoff race heats up?00:00 Intro & MLS All-Star Banter03:25 Proposed MLS Roster Rule Changes18:58 Mauricio Pochettino Nearing USMNT Extension28:04 Western Conference Buy or Sell1:06:05 MLS Transfer NewsStay Connected🎧 Follow Soccerwise on your favorite podcast app so you never miss an episode.🎥 Watch full video episodes on YouTube: @SoccerwiseHQ🌐 Visit KickbackSoccer.com for more podcasts, news, and coverage from Kickback Soccer Media.📰 Subscribe to The Kickback newsletter for the latest soccer news and analysis: the-kickback.ghost.io📲 Follow Soccerwise on Instagram and Bluesky:Instagram: @soccerwisehqBluesky: @soccerwisehq.bsky.social

Hey, everybody. Welcome back to Sockwise. David Goss and Matt Doyle with you. Tommy Scoops didn't have two shows in a week in his leg. So we're letting him work his way back from the World Cup break. But we got a lot to talk about. I am down at the MLS All-Star game in Charlotte, North Carolina, Queen City, baby. And we've got a lot to go through as there's been news coming out left and right rules, national team coaches, signings. And of course, we've got our buy ourselves in the Western conference that we have to dig into. So Doyle, you feel good doing a little bit of a Tom impersonation here? Are you going to do like a character? I'm not. I'm not very, I'm not much of a character actor. I just kind of have one lane that I stay in. I will say though, this is the Tommy Scoops time of year and he's had a couple of big ones this week. He ranges from you can't get a response to you can't get him off the like phone.

It's like in the two in between where it's like, oh, Tom's texting me every 10 seconds. I got to keep responding versus I haven't heard from Tom in 24 hours after that. I had, I was having a conversation, like a text conversation with him, like, maybe two weeks ago now. And it just like stopped right in the middle. But like, like, I almost texted our group chat being like, Tom's about to break something. 15 minutes later, Duncan McGuire to the Houston dynamo. So that's how it is with him. Yeah.

We love Tom. And we've got our ice cream shop that's open every single show. We'll go through some of it of what Tom's already reported. And of course, the big news around all the rules and the national team coach stuff in this. show. If you're listening on Serious Radio, welcome. Thanks for being here. We will be going through the show. And if we run a little bit long, you can go get the show on demand. But we're going to be a tight 45 here. That's what we've established as I will prepare to head out into the humidity hellscape. That is Charlotte, North Carolina. Now, Secret of Television here. We're

actually pre-recording this show on Wednesday. So we haven't actually seen the MLS All-Star game. So I'm going to have us do a quick recap of our favorite moments of the 2026 MLS All-Star game, which feels pretty fitting based off how the skills challenge went, and then we'll move on from there. And I just have to say, I thought it was a masterstroke for Major League Soccer as a league, and I thought it was really brave of Andrew Weeby to step into goal for the League MX All-Stars in the game last night and to bear down against some of the best

attackers in Major League Soccer. I applaud you, Andrew Weeby. I understand where Cameron gets his skills. from and I am really impressed by what I saw and I think SKC should put in a phone call. Yeah, I mean, they could actually use the help. I do have to question the parenting decision for Andrew modeling goalkeeper behavior for his two young children. I just hope he's doing okay because I did not expect Rafa Marquez of all people to come

out of the crowd and two foot him. Webe, of course, carried off in a stretcher. Still no updates on his well-being. I'm going to wear a little ribbon for the rest of the show. Weeby strong. And I will say one last piece for Weeby. I know he's really excited that Tommy Thompson came out of the crowd as well and played because he's still on the Tommy Thompson hype train.

So that's a good one for him. I did see Tommy yesterday and just immediately I think of Weeby out the gate. Okay. Let's dig into the actual stuff we know and not the stuff we're pretending to predict and talk about. And let's start with the reports of the meeting that will actually be happening right now as we're talking of the board of governors in which it sounds like. They will be getting a presentation from the product committee, which is the small strategy group of owners who works on development of the league from a soccer point of view,

mainly around the rules and how the league can shift. So Tom and Paul putting out this reporting, and it says that the preliminary proposals for a revamped roster building structure will be presented on this Wednesday. It's supposed to be centered around a more open structure, removing many of the restrictions, and how teams spend on the current rosters while also maintaining a carve-out for designated points. players. There also may be rules designed to incentivize MLS teams to sign young players, be it as a young designated player or as a variation of the current U-22 initiative. The proposal would simplify the salary cap structure while allowing teams more freedom to spend across the entire roster. So we don't have the details. But the gist of what we are getting,

Doyle, is instead of having all of these buckets of allocation money and all of these different ways you can sign players where we understand in the conversations we have, in the depth charts that we have, that teams are spending between $12 and $25 million on their roster, that a $6 million salary cap is not actually the reality of what the spend is. And what it sounds like these rules would live around is opening up the process so that there's just a bigger range of salary cap. You don't have to use all these mechanisms and teams can go out and spend more the way they'd like to. There is a huge range of salary budget. That's the term I've always used rather than salary cap because it's not a hard and fast cap like NFL or NBA have. But there's a huge range of

salary budget. I think Interm Miami spends something like $55 million a year, probably more than that now with Casamiro. And if you go off the books, maybe even more. And obviously Montreal. It's a real estate play. Yeah. Exactly. Montreal are a fraction of that, probably 20%, maybe even less. So there's already a range. And the idea with simplifying is it gives more flexibility within that range. And by that, I mean, it makes it easier to get 12 guys all making $1.3 million. And then your 3DPs on top of that. And you build the type of team that that competes with Flamengo or competes with Cruz Azul in Monterey.

And a lot of what is, I think, masked by other talk about efficiency and, you know, adjusting this rule. It's just about trying to make sure that the MLS clubs at the top of the ladder that really want to be aggressive can compete with the best teams in the Americas and can do so on uneven footing in Concaf Champions Cup and hopefully someday Copa Libertadores. The rest of it, I question

whether this is actually going to end up being more efficient. I think actually the Tam maximum puts a kind of handbrake on a lot of the bad instincts that we've seen from MLS CSOs and I think removing that, we are going to see a lot of CSOs pay one million players three and a half million

dollars a year. Like the guarantee if this goes through. But like, that's the omelet making process. Like you're going to break a few eggs and you're going to see, I think, I think there's already a good amount of differential between good CSOs and bad CSOs. I think that's going to be exacerbated. I think we're really going to see the front offices who know what they're doing in terms of talent ID development and integration. If this happens, we're going to see them shine.

rather than just like salary cap mastery. And that's the feedback we've gotten from a lot of the people in those roles where we're like, would you want this opened up? Like, you know, we've seen in the past, Tim Besbichenko and his group handle a lot of these things really well where they're flipping allocation spots for extra allocation money and they're bringing Mark Delgado in on a dispersal draft. Obviously, we saw Chris Albright the moment he got to Sincke, he just keep flipping the opening spot in the allocation order.

So in theory, you think for Chris Albright, oh, this isn't a good thing because my ability to use the rules is able to generate us more of advantages, but they will all say, I think I'm better at this than everyone else. So just open it up and let's all see the examples. Yeah, they'll all say get rid of those stupid rules, like allocation order and discovery rights and priority

and all that nonsense. Yeah, because they all believe that if you just open it up, it shows who's better at what they do. I think the hope is there's a little bit of variance in roster building styles because with the DP set up and Sire kept, like we say there.

are multiple ways, but sometimes it feels like there's one way to build a team. Get your DP attacking piece. Get your high level Tam center back. Go and get your domestic wide player, whether it's a fullback or a wingback who's good against the cap. Bring your one to her home groans in or up. And like that's kind of the nature of an MLS roster. And listen, it's soccer. Like we're not going to recreate the wheel. But the question here is, does one team go out and still spend 45 million on the two DPs and spend big on a top half player and then go cheaper and younger in other spots where another team says we're going to put 11 Jason Palacios levels players on the field and like that's how we're going to spend this money and no one's going to be

in a huge gap above but everyone's kind of going to be in a similar spot and I think the hope with the efficiency piece is I think we're probably in a spot already and we've been for a little while off and on where enough people around the world understand the intricacies of MLS roster rules to push MLS teams because they know, oh, you have to sign this player as a DP. So I have to push you. And now, Toronto, you've waited for Josh Sargent, so you can't sign anyone else. And it has to be a designated player. And you can't go fill the spot for the next six months with someone else, because then you can't get them off your books as your third DP. So I've got you where I want you. And I think that's the same with some of the Tam signings as well,

as you have to get above the minimum threshold. Once you're in there, then now we're working with Tam money. So once I can push you above the $680K, now I can get you to a million dollars because I'm already in that spot. And I think the hope would be this cleans up a little bit of that. Yeah, the other one is the U22 rule, which is just like a massive stimulus for South American clubs. Like MLS teams have spent so much money, most of it bad,

on you 22 players over the past five years. I suspect that a lot of these rules are still going to stick around. Gam in particular, I think works as a way to boost cap space and a tradable asset that actually makes the league more fun and I think probably more efficient. Tam, on the other hand, maybe doesn't. And we are just getting into the weeds. know the difference between Tim and Cam and all that stuff.

But it's not going to be, okay, it's a $10 million floor, $15 million cap, and 3DPs, and nothing else changes. Or everything else changes. Like it's not going to be that cleanest slate. I think it's just going to be a level of simplification. And then beyond that, and we've seen steps in this direction over the last couple of years, but it's still not what it should be. there needs to be more transparency in the amount of money.

And this is something that MLS has been missing out on in 30 years. And anybody who listens to this show knows that this is also Nixwise. And like part of our discussion, like our discussion goes year round because everybody knows the salaries that are being traded in the NBA, the draft picks that are being traded in the NBA. And for avid fans like me and Goss and Tom, like we know the roster building. building models that our teams are using. And this is the first time in Goss's life that the Knicks are actually using a roster building model and not just throwing the biggest amount of money that they can at whoever happens to be the latest star.

Could never be executive of the year, though. Correct. So this is like the second way, the second entry point to following any league. And it's why arguably the transfer window for European teams are a bigger hook to get new fans than the actual game is. There are two ways to follow the sport. One is to follow the actual sport, which all of us do,

but then there's also to follow the roster building of the sport. MLS has never allowed fans an entry point into that. If, in addition to simplifying the rules, they also open up the books so we understand, oh yeah, Lionel Messi is getting $25 million

a year, and for this six months, Casamiro's getting 1.8, but it allows them to pay Massimero, $6 million next year. You know, and on down the list, then it allows fans to have a better understanding of how the league works, how winning teams are built. And that creates more interest. And it also creates more coverage, which is something that MLS desperately needs. And I'm telling you, if they get this right, this propels the league upwards, rocketized overnight.

But I am not 100% convinced they're going to give. get that part of it right because for 30 years, they have been really diligent about keeping the books closed to the point where it's just like paranoia. And it's hard to change that mindset when it's become an intrinsic part of who you are. It is something that we would assume would be in line with the schedule switch that's coming in the flip next year. So the sprint season, obviously to start 2027 and then the new schedule from, you know, end of August through to may to align with the European calendar for most leagues, which the whole purpose of that was to be more competitive in the transfer market and to be more aligned in the transfer market. So if that's

the reason for flipping the schedule, then you might as well make the rule changes alongside that so that front offices and executives are building teams based off the rules that they will be living in because we've seen in the past a bit of an unknown like with this schedule flip. You had front offices saying, we're resigning guys to new six month edition contract. because we think the season's going to end in the summer now, but no one has told us. And like, we've got contracts that end on December 31st, which could be the middle of a season.

And so the hope would be that you can get this done efficiently and you can get this rolled out alongside, at least the knowledge of it coming as you flip the schedule, so teams can start to work under it. But as Tom and Paul put in their article, it's not going to be straightforward or simple. On top of that, the current CBA expires on January 31st, 2028, and the players union has to be a major part of this conversation because they're the ones who are getting paid the salaries.

They're the ones who are living inside of this cap and they're the ones who agreed to the initial CBA before any of this conversation started, what, three, four years ago. Yeah, I think it was even longer than that. It was, God, I think it was 2021, right? So it's five years into the CBA now, I think. And this was a good CBA for the players. It really was. I think the way the minimum salaries came up, free agency rights are great for MLS players now, especially in comparison to like Major League Baseball and even the NBA.

I don't know enough about NFL or NHL to compare it. So like there's a lot that the players did well in this CBA negotiation. But ultimately, I think the owners won it. And the owners like winning. billionaires do not like giving money back, do not like giving flexibility back to anyone, at any point on the salary scale. And I think that that has inhibited the ownership from being aggressive and proactive and saying like, okay, let's go back and open up the CBA that we won and maybe take a loss in terms of raw monetary value in order to give us more flexibility and raise the level of the entire project. I just think it's been stubbornness and a little bit of greed, to be honest with you. And I worried that they will try to hold the line on the CBA up until the bitter end because of that sort of mindset.

So, like, as bullish as I am, and I know I'm coming off a little bit negative about this. Like, I'm really excited about all this. It's been a long time coming. I think it makes the league better. I am, it would be stupid to not be at least a little bit worried that they will find a way to turn $1 into three quarters here. Because that's what they've done a lot, especially over the past three, four years. This also all comes amongst the context that we believe a new commissioner will be announced over the next few weeks. And we know the two finalists, one, Larry Berg being one of the current owners of LAAFC, so has been in these rooms,

in these conversations in the past, but obviously this is going to be a huge factor of the future. So you'd assume there wants to be influenced from whatever commissioner is coming in of how this will work and how this will shift the league going forward. We'll continue to cover it here at Soccerwise and Tom will be the one continuing to break the news. Make sure to follow him everywhere.

I will give a shout on Blue Sky to go follow Armin Kaffai, who wrote a good piece about how these rule changes could affect things, been a data nerd and an MLS nerd along with all of us, has worked around some front offices as well, lives and breathes this stuff as much as any of us. I feel for him because of that, and I love him because of it. So go read his piece. He's also, yeah, it's on a footy analytics, let me get it right. Footy analytic musings on Substack is his newsletter. He's also in the Soccerwise Discord. I was talking to him this morning. I'm going to try to get him to do a Q&A in

the Soccer Wives Discord because you are his people, you know, you are the nerds as well. But he has, his newsletter is great. He proposes a bunch of changes. You know, he's one of those guys, you know, six months ago, he wrote why Gam should go, but he's come around on that already. And he's like, well, you know what? Actually, Gam works for what MLS needs. He lays it all out in his latest newsletter. I can't recommend it highly enough. I saw Daniel Robertson yesterday and they were crying about Dallas soccer and all this type of stuff. So it was good to be back amongst it for me with some people that I've known for a while Chichorito, headed to Athletico, Dallas, which is, I don't know, I guess a huge piece of news.

But let's talk about the news around American soccer. Obviously, Maricio Pochetino reports from Andres Cantor and Tom coming out that Pott is approaching the final sort of negotiation around a four-year extension for his contract as the head coach of the U.S. men's national team to run through the 2030 World Cup. We put out our interview with Dan Helferich, COO of U.S. soccer yesterday. We talked all about it. So you can go back and listen to that one if you've missed it. And he was pretty open about the conversations that they've been having with Potch and how excited they are. So, Doyle, this is not a curveball at all, but it's more confirmation of what we kind of expected. What do you make of this news?

I mean, it feels like a curveball relative to where we were last month. I didn't expect him to be back for a second cycle last month. But between... When he was interviewing from Milan while going into a World Cup. Correct. Yeah. Between the fact that not as many jobs opened up in Europe, like top-tier jobs as I thought would, and the fact that the U.S. lasted long enough for the jobs that were open

to have been filled. And at the same time, went out with such a bad performance that Maricio Pocchino was no longer a hot name for top clubs. It was kind of a confluence of events that now over the past week and a half made it feel inevitable

that he would be the guy to return. And I'm okay with it. I don't think it's a slam dunk. I love the way we played the first four games. of the World Cup, the fifth game that lost to Belgium was our worst game at the World Cup in 20 years. And I think our worst modern performance in a knockout round game in the World Cup. That's tough. We play like Minnows in the Gold Cup final.

That's tough. We lost Nations League for the first time. That's tough. Like there's not a lot in his resume that says, yeah, he definitely earned it. And then on top of that, like historically, our second cycle, coaches don't do great. Bora, Bruce, Bob,

like none of, nobody, obviously Yergan, and even Greg Burrhalter, like none of these guys, in retrospect, none of them, it was the right choice

for the second cycle. And that kind of, like, there's some red flags here. So I, like, I'm not 100% signed off, but there's obviously,

or there's no one who's obviously the right choice. So I kind of get it. I think what's, I think in the context of everything you're saying, hiring him originally made sense because you were in this panic mode coming into a Home World Cup with so little time that you couldn't really fix the problem.

So you needed a little bit of a band-aid. And one of the band-aids you got with Pocetino was buy-in from general public. Oh, he's a big name. Oh, he's the right guy. Oh, he's European pedigree. He'll figure it out. I think you also got buy-in,

or at least reaction from the players. Like, oh, okay, this guy's not going to take my share. shit like he doesn't care about my golfing schedule like he doesn't care about the future of whatever like he's here to win games and i think all of that made sense and then i think the problem is the context out of that that you just laid out which is it led to like kind of the same results which when he was hired was not a guarantee i think that part we we have to state like when he was hired it did not feel like the u.s was going to get out of the group stage it didn't feel like the u.s was a gold cup final team. Like they were in a bad spot at the moment he got hired. They got eliminated from a group

at Copa America behind Panama. There's a Panama team that didn't score a goal at the World Cup. So like, that's where things stood at the time. Now here, I don't see a ton of the evidence through all of what you just went through to say, right, so now he's the right guy to take us to the next level. Like, I feel like it was job accomplished. And this is the frustrating part. I felt that way about Greg. Obviously, I felt that way about Bob in, 2010, why can't we just acknowledge good job. And now we move on to the next spot. And I think part of it is U.S.

Soccer Federation's been playing catch up over the last few years as like, you know, they built a training center. They've shifted. They've grown, like all these things. A lot of what we talked to Dan about, they may not have had the plan in place for four months ago, which is what you needed to do. Like, look at this.

Belgium's already hired their next coach. Like if you're going to let your coach go, you have to have the group of the next people in place. and it didn't feel like U.S. soccer had that. And so you start with the conversation with Pocitino and now you're far behind. Like, not only are all the jobs gone for Potch, but all the other candidates are gone for U.S. soccer. Like it's for both sides.

So I would be shocked if Maricio Pocitino coached the United States and men's national team in 2030. I just don't see that that being the end of it. And I think that can be okay. And you have talked about Copa America in 2028 and how much. much it could mean. And I think it's okay to come together and say, let's go and like win that thing and let's build something towards it. But again, you would be in a spot where in four years, you'd say, huh, well, what would they have done in a four year cycle? Maybe they deserve the shot. And that's this

game that the U.S. has played over and over, over the last 20 plus years that I think can be a little bit frustrating. I assume, and this comes from also that conversation with Dan of like how involved he was with the Toronto hiring, I assume he will be more involved federation overall. than he has been. It felt like he very much came in and it was like, live wherever you want, do whatever you want, help us go far in the World Cup. And now the job is grow the game,

grow the federation, grow the youth national teams, like grow all of this with us. And I think it's nice that he already has a taste of all of that to understand what that means. Because Roberto Martinez could say he wants to do that, but he's got no idea what he's stepping into if that's the case. Right.

And to be clear, if the choice was between Potch and Roberto Martinez, as we did we did well i'm glad potch is back um but i the to your point though it felt like ussf was playing they were behind the eight ball just on the timing of all that especially with matt crocker leaving when he did and so we kind of got railroaded into this if in fact it does end up like that now i i still think it could end up being a good higher i am not holding my breath that he's going to move to Atlanta and be super involved

in the building out of the youth national team system. And I'm fine with that. There's nothing to indicate that he's an expert on any of that. I'll be totally fine if he just continues coaching the national team, continues integrating

a bunch of the young, exciting players coming through and that we look like we did those first four games of the World Cup. That is the only part of the job I care about from the national team head coach. I would add the only other thing, and I don't, I can't tell you right now how he should be involved in this, but I do think one of the lessons from the World's Cup with Scoloni and

Delafonte going to a World Cup final is that there has to be someone who's collecting just good soccer people and putting, keeping them around the game so that then they can surface where needed. And I think that was part of like what happened with Delafonte. He's like, okay, he's a good soccer coach. He can't find a job because he's not the right guy. He goes into soccer education at F.A. He becomes a youth national team coach. I think that's the one thing I want to see U.S. soccer be super aggressive in is like finding roles for good soccer people across the landscape to keep them in the game and then educating them so that they can grow and potentially one day become a CSO or a head coach or the right assistant coach, whatever it is. And I think that's one where

you'd like to see Potch maybe have some influence of coaching education across all of, I mean, most most of the youth national team coaches, assistants head coaches, are like very recent former players. And if Maurice Chopacino is helping coaching education with those people, that becomes the next generation of MLS head coaches and USL head coaches, or it might become the next USM&T head coach. I think that's something I would like to see US soccer be super aggressive in. And you'd hope that POTCH has some form of influence. And it's based off the work around the Toronto higher and my assumption is the work they'll do together to try and help the Olympic team.

there's some idea that that's going to be part of the role. So when this goes official, which feels like it kind of already is, but when it does, we obviously will talk about it a lot more. We have our new U.S. soccer show that we are doing every single Wednesday. So that interview with Dan Helferich, our first, and we'll continue to roll them out. We'll cover both men's national teams and the women's national teams at all times, as well as some of the U-S.U-20s, once again, back out there on the field in the U-20 championships and the Women's U20 World Cup coming up in the fall as well.

All right, let's dig into Major League Soccer. We still owe the Western Conference a Buy Yourself segment. We were not able to get through all of it quick enough on the last show. So we did the Eastern Conference on Monday. We'll do the West now and then we'll talk about some of the news around transfers that we know are going on. So the West, part of the reason we didn't jump on it and do it immediately is a lot more complicated to go through. It is more varied in the amount of games played.

It doesn't help that the Seattle Sounders like lost their stadium for four months. So they're on a whole different range of games. And then across the Western Conference, you have teams that have played 16 games. You have teams that have played 17 games. And you have teams that have played 18 games. So it's a little bit more difficult to do. So what we did was we put it in order of points per game. For now, that is the rate that these teams are on of where they should finish if they continue on the rate that they're at.

and we expanded the field from what we did in the east. So in the east, I think we went from 5 through 11, which was within three points of the playoff line. This one right now, what we have is 4 through 13. So we will get through as much of it as we can. And it starts at the top of this conversation. Well, actually, let's do this, Doyle. The chaos is correct, right?

Like my trouble getting this in a line was in the fact that the West could anything could happen and it doesn't feel like there are clear defined groups outside of the top three. Yeah, I think that's right. There are teams here where I believe in the talent and teams here where I believe in the game model and teams here where I believe in the depth. But I don't think there's anybody where I believe in in all three. So it kind of, you know, it kind of creates a floor and ceiling. situation where it's pretty marginal and like one hot streak can can change it like one one goalkeeper started playing like christian colina did this time last year and suddenly it's six wins in a row

and you're it you know and so it's it's tough to to suss out and we're going to end up looking like idiots and i just went through this on monday because i did my power rankings and i was like is st louis actually the fifth best team in the league and they kind of are um get to that yeah yeah so i yeah Let's dive in. Okay, so we start at the top of this, which is on 1.63 points per game, we have the Houston Dynamo and we have RSL. Houston ends up higher on, I guess, goals against, because their goal differential is worse, and I couldn't figure out why they end up higher.

It doesn't really matter. So that's four and five. So in theory, one of those teams, the fourth place team, is a home playoff seed and a pretty substantial spot to finish in on the season. And then five, of course, starts the teams that would. start in that three game series on the road as we had towards the play in spot um Houston at four RSL at five it's actually the other way around so they're there the first tiebreaker is wins and then the second tire tiebreaker is gold differential yeah no no no they're they're tied on

eight wins each they have the same exact record RSL's goal differential's plus four Houston's is minus one okay yeah right so okay uh I like I think I believe in RSL more than I believe in Houston. RSL have the ability to win games in different ways that we've seen. That said, they've been terrible coming out of the break. They really miss Justin Glad, who over the past 10 years, when he's been on the field, they pick up points at like 1.75 points per game, and when he's off the field, they're like below one point per game.

game. They have not figured out how to replace that guy for a decade or he's not getting any younger. They have real interest in Xavier Gozo, surprisingly less interest in Diego Luna. But to the point where like Gozo might not finish this season and if you

lose a wide dribbler with that kind of like forget the goals. Just the dribbling and the gravity, that changes the shape of the entire team. So there's a lot of variables with this RSL team to the point where even though they have probably the highest ceiling of this group, they also have like a shockingly low floor, which gets back to the point.

All this stuff is incredibly difficult. I think the Gozo stuff, it's interesting how quiet it actually has been. Like I think I thought people would be banging down the door. And part of that's probably the World Cup break of like played well, then just didn't play. And so now you're reinserting him into past conversations. But this is a team that feels very thin. Some of my excitement around Gula Vogi early has waned.

Olatungi does not finish big opportunities. So it's all on salons to sort of carry that spot. Another guy where would you be shocked if someone came in on a couple million dollars? And RSL said, well, we got him for free. Like, what are we going to turn this money down? So I wouldn't be surprised if like two or three major pieces in this team are gone as we get into the home stretch. and this is not a club that is going to be quick to replace those players with experience pieces who are ready to hit the ground running.

And so I have them as a playoff team. I have them closer to the playing game probably when we get down to it, even though, as you said, the ceiling here, if it all stayed together and stayed healthy, would be not only incredibly high, I think it might be the most entertaining group of all the teams we're going to talk about. Yeah, I think I'm in the right place, like in the same place. as you. I think they're, I'm buying them as a playoff team, but not as the fourth best team. Yeah. In, in the Western Conference. What about Houston? Picked up Duncan McGuire, have made some other moves. Obviously, the huge win over Austin. Yeah. I'm buying them as a playoff team.

You know, Guillermo, who I did not see it coming, but he's been one of the acquisitions of the season. And then with Bogush next to him, and then finally getting off the Ezekiel Ponce starting every single game train. It looks like he's going to get moved, which then opens up a D.P. slot. They have playmakers out of central midfield. They've been able to create a situation where they're sort of flexible in their formation so that they play either wingbacks or overlapping fullback.

It works. Like everything that they've done so far has worked. I don't think they have a title winning ceiling in any sense, no matter what happens. but at this point, I think I would be surprised if they dropped out of the playoff race. Like, play it is probably the floor. The one confounding factor is Jonathan Bond is still starting. And he costs them points. They are, on the underlying numbers, they are one of the five worst defenses in the league.

So if you have fears about the goalkeeper and you're conceding a decent amount of chances in front of him, none of that bodes well i was pretty hopeful about over the last week i think the possession they've played which that's the way that you try and blunt some of this they're not going to magically become better defenders can they control the game can they lose the ball in less bad situations um and if the game becomes transitional they are elite transition attacking they just can't defend so they can still hanging games um i feel a lot safer about their floor than rsl i think they will be between four and six when we get there. So I'm buying them as a playoff team for sure. This is the most interesting part of this is this next gap of teams. I'm going to do three together here. So we have on points

per game, we land with Dallas in sixth, Seattle in seventh, and St. Louis in eighth. St. Louis comes in on an eight game on beaten streak, a four game winning streak. If they win their next game, they would tie that start to the franchise's, you know, all time appearance in Major League Soccer, which opened with those first five wins, which got Bradley Carnell an award and ended up a second job and all of that. And it's taken them since then, basically, to get back to that form. And they just made a DP signing. But let's start with Dallas in six, buy or sell on them in the playoffs and then where they fall. Yeah, I buy them as a bottom half of the playoff table team, because they have actually gotten worse since the start of the year. They haven't been able to

to create the kind of attacking chemistry that I had hoped for. They haven't caught in that DP number 10, which is glaring. And I know that Santiago Moreno is a DP nominally. And they'll tell you he's the number 10, but he's not. And I think they have not addressed maybe some depth needs in defense. And then on top of that, they need Ramiro. out there. But Romero does not cover ground.

And so that limits their upside and exposes some downside, especially as they try to tinker with formations and try to be a little more ball dominant. So there's a lot of moving. Like if this team finished ninth, it wouldn't surprise me at all. I do think that they'll stay above the playoff line. They play too hard for that and they have real match winners. but this is it feels more fragile than I expected to at this point for FC Dallas. Yeah.

Everything that I just assumed over time would come has not emerged. Like it was, okay, Eric Fowell found his feet last year playing against the ball and they'll slowly become better with the ball. And it's gone backwards now. Like what they had, I mean, I know it's San Diego, but what they had like 29% possession in their last game. And it was the same at Portland. And there's a winning formula in some of that.

And let me just say you see it in their record. They're a worse home team than they are away. Yeah. Because when they play at home, they try to carry possession and they can't do anything with it. And that's the big conversation around that number 10, that Valentin does not help you break down low blocks and you can't play through them.

And Moreno doesn't either. And so they've not made the team better. Logan Farrington's been in and out with injury, but also has sort of lost his spot at times because of the addition of some of these attackers, that makes the team worse. Because in the end, they are just good at being direct and having a body near Musa that can finish

off of anything he creates or overplaying him ends up making them the most dangerous. I've liked some of the moves they've made at centerback and at wingback. All of it just leaned back into the same thing. And so this is the lowest I have felt on Dallas over the last year. Like I think even last year when they started the year poorly, you could see the bones of,

what they were building and it worked for the second half of the season and I just expected it to grow and move into the next phase this year and instead it's regressed back and sat in the same place. So I think they're a playoff team. I actually don't know about that, but they're not a sixth place team. I think they're like flirting with the ninth place spot at best this season. Let's go to Seattle. The worst team in Major League suck. Yeah, five losses in a row, fire the coach.

I buy them as a playoff team. I think they're fine. Alex rolled on, Jaimar Gomez Andrade and Pedro de la Vega are all back in training. They'll probably lose this weekend again just because I don't think those guys are going to be able to start. And I would hope that they just rotate the hell out of the squad for Leagues Cup, just punt that competition this year. but then on the other side of leagues cup they're expected to be back to full health other than i think jordan morris they'll be fine the sounders aren't going to go anywhere i agree with you um i think i think i saw i think raldon's the one that's supposed to be back first in terms of playing but all of them

alics or christian Alex okay yeah but as you said all of them are back in training um which is really big for this team shocking to see them in this conversation uh and i think that's sort of the angst that you see what the five losses and we're getting questions about Brian Schmetser's safety from Seattle fans who I think have probably been buying jockstraps from his family for 47 years at the youth sports stores in the Pacific Northwest. Number eight then on our list is St. Louis on points per game. And as I laid out, they're the ones with the hot streak. They're the ones.

Eight games unbeaten, four straight wins, the second best form right now behind Inter Miami in all of Major League Soccer. and they closed the deal officially on Carlo Holsey, who will be their new designated player edition. He's Danish. Originally one Danish international cap, sort of found his way through Norway to Turkey and has played in Turkey over the last few years.

We talked about it, as Tom reported it last week. Now it goes official Doyle. So what do you make of his addition and what the St. Louis theme has built? I mean, I haven't seen anything from this guy other than clips. So in clips, they're highlights by definition. he looks really good. If he's as good as those clips make him work, then this team is going to get a real boost in the attacking third. They haven't needed it lately. They've been excellent. And a lot

of it has come from, I think, comfort with the Aondemae's system. And it reminds me of what we saw in Montreal with Wilfred Nancy. It took that team half of his season to figure out how to play so expansively with the ball, but still be a good defensive team. And it's taken, it took St. Louis about half a season to figure that out. And they're cooking now. And we know that this type of game model works in MLS. And then you add the fact that Edward Luvin is back. And he's so good at all the things that the game requires or the blueprint requires.

requires in central midfield. And he also has kind of a natural partnership with Daniel Edelman, who continues to be like super underrated. Those two make a ton of sense together. And you have that identity in your central midfield. And you have sort of rangy centerbacks behind them. And you have an attacker like Hartle and then hopefully the new guy in front of them. Like you can see why all of it works.

Now, the St. Louis fans will say it's not going to work at the level that they need until they get an elite number nine. And they're probably right. Simon Becher, though, man, like the work he does defensively. Yes, we're back on the Simon Betcher train. The work he does off the ball, just being miserable to play against, that's a huge part of St. Louis's identity as a team. So I'm sure Corey Ray is looking for a DP number nine.

I'd be shocked if he wasn't. We know you. Yes. They were in on Hugo Kuyper's. Yeah. They've been fully open about the fact that they bid the same bid Monterey made and Kuyper's picked Higante in Mexico to go win a championship. But that is, that's the clear sign.

And nothing we've heard was, oh, it was this or wholesale. Like we were told they went out to get Hugo Kuyper. So they fully acknowledged what you just said. And I think that's the hope for St. Louis fans is they are working on it. Yeah. And Kipers, to be clear, MLS's golden boot leader still, but he's also the best pressing number nine of any DP 9 in this league.

He is a phenomenal defensive forward. And so that fact tells me that Corey Ray in that front office knows exactly what they need on both sides of the ball. I couldn't be more bullish on this St. Louis team. I pray that Petzar Musa and Lino Messe and everyone else go into a scoring drought. I want Kipers to be golden boot leader

for like as long as humanly possible. I want this guy to score 13 goals with Monterey and still be the golden boot leader. He could win two golden boots in 2026. And he would have been two in the region. And he could win a league's cup. He could do it all. The biggest trophy of them all in the modern era,

but you can do it all. I've said over and over how excited I'm about the St. Louis team. Everything you said about the way that this whole midfield is put together, I think that's the most exciting part about this. addition is, I hope that Lovin doesn't have to extend his game in attacking places the way he has over the last two years because if he didn't, there was nothing else. And now I think he gets to do all the things he does well and focus on those, having a little bit more talent in front of him and having players who can maintain possession in tight spaces can open up backlines with passes

where Lovin then can sit a little bit deeper if he wants to. And I think that's solidity. things in central midfield even more, which is the biggest gap for this St. Louis team to sort of clean up right now short of being able to score more of the opportunities that they create. So I'm excited about the direction they're going in. I think clearly from the additions they're trying to make, they understand the moves that have to be made. I'm not only buying St. Louis in the playoffs. I'm going to put them in fifth.

That's my prediction. Yeah, I'm totally okay with that prediction. It wouldn't, I would take the. over if you made fit the line. I think this team, especially if San Jose falls off and San Jose's not going to miss the playoffs, but given their injuries in their form, San Jose might not be a top three team in the Western Conference. So where we say right now, we're probably in a Houston, Seattle, St. Louis, four through six,

and then Dallas and RSL behind them. Does that feel right? Yeah, I think so. So number nine right now is Minnesota. A team we have not talked a ton about. And that is partially because of the way Minnesota has played and the things they've chosen to do. They're sitting in ninth right now on 1.3,5 points per game on 23 points total ahead of Portland and the LA Galaxy on 21 points total. The Galaxy with the most games played of everyone.

So on points per game, they drop all the way back to 12th. And then San Diego on points per game sits right in. between them. So let's do Minnesota here, right on the line, ninth place, buy or sell that they're a playoff team. I'm selling. I just think that the attack has dried up

and the defense. They have a lot of good professionals in that back line, but they're old and they don't necessarily complement each other. And so it whittles down their flexibility in terms of what they can be

with the ball. And that is like you need more margin for error than that. So yeah, I'm selling it. Yeah, they are, they have been one of the 10 worst defensive teams in major league soccer. And this is for a team that like cannot score goals and cannot create chances. And I like Pereira. It's just a lot of responsibility on his shoulders as one person. This is some of the drawback of the Hamas stuff was just he kind of went on a side quest for three months, four months,

which just could have been work you were putting into having an actual piece in your team who was going to be a part of your future and building around it. But that is not like the whole issue for this group. And so I have Minnesota out of the playoffs right now. Portland now sitting in 10th. New head coach going to take over over the next few games. They've played pretty well under the interim, the huge victory in Seattle. And then the two two come from behind draw against Dallas.

Sorry, two, two, two, draw against Dallas. And then they won this weekend, two one. because Felipe Amor scored both goals. They have an additional game played because they played that World Cup middle, semi-final, final game. Are you buying on the Portland Timbers and the turnaround? I'm buying that they're a better team.

I think I'm selling that they're a playoff team. First of all, we haven't seen Marty Sufentes yet. Maybe all the good stuff that happened over the past three games under Jack Cassidy. Maybe that disappears. one of the things that we should talk like they change their formation right they're playing a single pivot whether it's it's kisado or tico chara against rsl and putting david de costa as sort of the left free eight i think has gotten more out of christopher velda but this is still a team that

i think struggles to keep the ball and if you're playing a single pivot and you're struggling to keep the ball, you are going to open yourself up for a lot of transition defensive moments. And that's not a way to win games, not consistently anyway. And I think as teams get more film, then that is going to become a problem, especially because Sifuentes is going to be rebuilding the pressing structure. Like that has to be his day one job because under Phil Neville, this team never had a coherent pressing structure. And that's like all of that happening.

all at once gives me pause about Portland's ability to continue this hot streak and keep climbing up the standing. So it wouldn't shock me if they ended up in seventh, eighth, ninth place. But I'm not counting on it. Yeah. For some reason, not for some reason, I've been pretty impressed by what I've seen and I'm going to buy on this one. I think you sort of laid out some of the reasons they've gotten better. There is a lot of individual talent in this team. Is there? Yeah.

Christopher Veld's good at soccer. I feel like Bobby right now. Christopher Veld's good at playing soccer. He's good with a ball at his feet. He's good at soccer. And I think if you get into some, if it is a random weekend and you're, if you're playing Austin on August 29th,

who has more match winners on the field? If you're playing Minnesota on Saturday, September 5th, you just named two of the worst teams in the league. But that's what it's going to take to finish ninth in the Western Conference. You know, like I'm not saying they're going to win MLS Cup. I think in that's in this scale of teams, I think they have the most of that while still also having a decent chunk of depth. So that's where I buy them as a playoff team over the next four teams or three teams

that we're going to talk about, including over Minnesota. So I have Portland in. I have them in the playing games. We've got San Diego, LA Galaxy, and Colorado next. By the way, if you're listening via Sirius Radio, we're going to run a little bit long. So search for the full show on the on-demand player or anywhere you get your podcasts.

And thanks for being here. Let's talk San Diego next. Points per game ahead of the galaxy on PurePoints behind because they have less games played. They're bringing in a designated player. Do you have belief that we're going to start to see some of the 2025 San Diego team? I do.

I don't think they're anywhere near as bad as they looked since the end of their Krenkaft Champions Cup run until the World Cup break. And that's not surprising, right? Like, we've seen it year after year after year. Teams that really put a lot into a confidential run tend to suffer emotionally afterwards, win, lose, or draw. And it's no surprise that this happened to San Diego, especially when you add in the wear and tear and then the injuries.

that they suffered. They haven't looked like that team. They started to look like it at home against Dallas this past weekend. They lack some penetration out of central midfield. And one more difference maker, well, here comes a DP. So I am kind of bullish on that, but this still does not look like the team they were when they were flying high around this time last year, when they were able to play against the best teams in the league and get 65% possession and just dominate games and kill them off

with the ball. Like I still need to see some of that from San Diego FC. And I'm not sure it's there in them this season. It's funny because for sure Conquive Championship was a huge piece of the start of their season. Not only are they a new team. They're a fairly young team. So it's like even though there's talent, there's not a ton of experience. It's a lot to deal with.

So now they're through that. Next week they go to Club America on the road in Leagues Cup, by the way. So it's like, oh, they got through all of this. They don't have to worry about that. And then they're like straight back into it. By the way, we will do a full preview of Leagues Cup coming up. So next midweek we'll start Leagues Cup. There will be a full week there where every team in it will play three times.

And now there are games in Mexico for the top teams. So Tigress, Toluca, Club America, they're all hosting. San Diego at Club America. It's a fun one. So I'm going to be tuned in for that one. So we'll talk about that and it's a bit of a factor with some of these teams. I can understand feeling a little more positive about San Diego. It just still feels like a really thin group.

There is not goal scoring. Lewis Morgan is not going to have the Lewis Morgan up year. It's going to be the down year. And it just doesn't feel like there's a ton of other options for them. And so they can't like what I just feel like Portland has a little bit. I don't think they can bail themselves out. out. Like they have to overwhelm you with their style and their quality to get wins. And it doesn't feel like that's getting better as the year goes along. And so I'm going to have San Diego outside

the playoffs. Do you have them out? I think I have them in. From the start of May, they drew L.A.F.C. They drew Seattle. They beat Austin 5-0. They drew Cincinnati. And they scored five against Austin. and then they scored three against Cincinnati. They scored two against LAAFC. They lost four to the caps. And then they lost 1-0 to the rapids coming out of the break. And that was one where it's like, oh, they just don't have the firepower. It was also, I think it was like an hour and 20 minutes weather delay.

It was in Colorado. It was a weird one. Yeah. And then they beat Dallas 1-0. And they strangled the life out of Dallas. But the goal was a 25-yarder, you know, it's not like they were generating a tap. So there's work to be done. The new DP has got a hit.

And then they, like, if they would buy out Chuky Lozano and make another signing, then I think we would both feel comfortable about putting this team in the playoffs. But it doesn't seem like that's going to happen. So outside of Leagues Cup, just over the next month, they've got Minnesota on Saturday on the road. They come back from Leeds Cup. They host L.AFC. And sorry, flip this around. They host Minnesota.

They come back from Leagues Cup. they go to LAFC in Portland and then they host Colorado. And Portland's the same where it's the next six weeks where like they're going to set themselves up because there's winnable games laid on. If they can, if any of these teams can hang around these next few games or move up the standings, they've got a real shot to like solidify themselves. If not, it's coming down to decision day. And it's six pointers here and there all the way through the end.

This leaves us with the Galaxy and the Rapids. the Galaxy obviously have made some moves pack out hoping for the best for him with that injury obviously they've made the addition bringing in Japanese international at center forward a couple other tweaks around the group and the rapids have continued to add pieces as well we didn't talk about the fight after the st louis rapids game apparently de may and wells went after it on the field it had to be broken up coming off the field they will playing an open cup semi-final coming up in a couple weeks, which I absolutely love for those two teams and now for that matchup, buy or sell on these two squads. I'm selling on the Galaxy. I just don't think that they have a style against the ball that works. They don't do a good job of developing their players. You're limited to whatever you can buy in the transfer window and what they've bought is pretty good but it's not it's not great and it ends up being a team that's kind of less than the sum of its parts and sinking um i don't

think anybody would be surprised if the galaxy would we're going to miss the is it like is there a case you can make for the galaxy no they they seem i almost didn't put them in this like they seem like the most obvious out one to me they're easy to play against they don't impose themselves in dominating ways. They don't seem to have, there seems like a number of players who have to play out of position or have to do roles that are uncomfortable for them.

Marco Royce has played as a false nine. They're still soft in central midfield to play against a lot of the times. And if they're not, like if they play the Elijah Wideners and other guys, then they're not super expansive in their possession. I don't love the pairings of most of the centerbacks that they can put together.

I think J.T. Marsenkowski is a legitimate step up in goal. Like, I think they've missed him. And so that's a piece that I like coming back into this group. I like Harbor Miller and I like the spark he brings, whether he gets the starts at left back and left mid. But no, this is another loss season for the galaxy in my mind. Yeah, I'm there with you.

Rapids? So I like the game model. Yeah. They really want to get on the ball. They really want to build from the back. They play hard as hell to their detriment because they lead the league by a mile in red cards and like some of them are like the the rob holding one where betcher just catches him out and forces him to rugby tackle them but a lot of them are like oh they come in a hundred 12 percent

on every single tackle they make and there's a lot of orange cards in there and sometimes orange cards are red and so I think they cost themselves because of that and then the other thing is um the player development curve has not been there for and I know Lucas Harrington has gotten a lot of publicity because Barcelona are interested in justifiably so, but Lucas Harrington is a starting centerback for a team that's on 19 points through 17 games. So it's not like he, you know, is a best 11 caliber player. And then none of the young attackers other than maybe Darren Yappy have taken a big step forward and neither have Paxton Aronson or Josh Atensio.

So like I just went down like I just named half the starting lineup, you know, and so like if you're not getting improvement from your young players and you're not the type of team that can go out and buy three best 11 DPs and you're putting yourself in a hole because you're getting so many red cards. The game model almost doesn't matter. And that's what we've seen from Colorado this season. It's like they like as as admirable as it is that they want to have the ball, all the other stuff around them has not like it's been self-defeating. Yeah. They brought in like Williams who got, had the game winner for them.

And my assumption is going forward will be the replacement for Harrington as a starter because I think if you get an offer from Barstom, Solana you have to sell. And so that will be something they'll have to figure out and sort of manage through. And then obviously Tom reporting on Monday, adding a Tam attacking player that they hope will take a little bit of the load off Paxton Aronson's shoulders. I would disagree slightly that Paxton hasn't improved. I think he's gotten more comfortable in the role in the responsibility.

And one of the things I said on Monday is he's helped them win a bunch of late home games where I think he's understanding like, oh, we're going to have a third gear in the last 15 minutes that other teams coming here won't have. All of that is like 5% margin stuff. It is not this guy has taken a step like Georgi Mihailovich did when he took his big jump going to Montreal and then I think even in Colorado. Like what I'm talking about is we had never seen Paxton be a consistent starter in professional soccer. And like that's the jump he's taking, but he is not taking the jump to I am a superstar

and I can lead a team. And then as you said outside of that, it's been a lot of other guys that have flashes, even Manungu, right? He has flashes. He affects the game. Like you know when he's on the field. He's a factor. He puts teams under pressure. Is it super efficient? No. Is it always dangerous? Does it always lead to goals? Not really. Seeley's the same. And so this is a group that has to like grit and grind into getting out every single half point and every single half advantage that they can find. And then on top of all that, as I mentioned, they've got an open cup semi-final. So like they will play Montreal on September 12th, then they'll play an open cup semifinal, and then they'll play Seattle. And if they win, they're going to have an open cup final in the

middle of October. And because of the way international breaks have changed and all of that with the World Cup, they're going to have to play through all of that. So they're going to lose guys for international they might play their two most important games outside of the regular season and this is a club that has won one trophy like they're going to go for open cup and it's going to have to be a huge part of their season so if who do they lose to international duty i don't know look is harrington i mean he's like assuming he's not sold didn't we just decide that i don't know is georgia minung go not going to go play for what is it benin or wherever he is i i didn't have this off the top of my head i just assume there's three or four, does Dante Sealy not play for Trinidad and Tobago?

I mean, he barely plays for Colorado. Well, making Trinidad Tobago right now is not the hardest thing in the world, unfortunately. Yeah, it may not be a ton of players, but it's, if you're playing through those games, it becomes someone. Yeah. But yeah, I could be wrong about that. I know.

You're probably right. I should have had it up as well. It just doesn't strike me as the type of team. Minungu plays for Burkina Faso. Thank you. If they do lose him, he is a big loss for them because of his ability to tilt the field and open play. But also, as much as I like Colorado's game model, the runs out of midfield that sort of resonate with having a wide dribbling crater, which is what Minungu is, is why they went out and got him, have not been there from the Rapids. And that goes back to Paxton-Arensen, four goals, five assists this year.

It's not a bad return on investment at all, but he's also not the guy who's making those third man runs to the top of the box. And he said in the past, his best years in the Eradivizier came when he was playing deeper as a number eight. So maybe this new signing they made who's more of a chance creator. Maybe he can also be sort of a play finisher with those types of runs. You mentioned the Tencio and his, I'm just to take us off the rails, development, whatever. Like, who should Josh Atensio be? in major league soccer. It's a good question.

Yeah. Because he's, you know, he lost his spot to Obed because Obed's special. I'm always been a huge fan of Josh Attencio's. He does not have the range, I don't think, to dominate a game as a defensive midfielder.

And he does not have final third passing. He can connect the game, but he's not the guy who's your metronome either. Like he does three things well. And the question is, what is the ceiling of that? in MLS because I don't think he's a guy who's leaving MLS at this point, right? Like this is this is where he's going to land being.

Yeah, I mean, if he leaves MLS at any point, it'll be for $3 million to Pachuca or something like that, right? It's not there's no big European team, but I think he's a little ranger in central midfield than you're giving him credit for. Like I think he's sort of a rangy destroyer type with better feet than people realize at the same time, I've always had kind of a suspicion that maybe centerback is his best long-term position. And there was a time with the Sounders a couple years ago, I think in like 22 or 23, they're playing him a lot at centerback. I don't know if that's in his future.

I don't know. I just know that the Rapids, after a pretty promising start, the pieces aren't fitting together and the results are showing it. All right. So the rapids, I have them out. I'm selling you. Yeah, I think I'm selling too. Yeah. Bright start to the season and we'll continue to follow all of this as it all goes along.

Let's finish up with a couple pieces of pretty much official news. It sounds like McCona, Oluathu, McCona from the Philadelphia Union, who we mentioned on Monday. Tom reported has not returned from South Africa to be back with the team coming out of the World Cup break. The reports that Tom is putting out there and others are that a safe. to Rangers in Scotland is about to be closed. The number sounds to be around $4,4.5 million. It's going to be a huge step up for him, obviously, because, you know, Wilfredante couldn't figure out in Scotland

because it's such an elite league to major league soccer. And yet the best player on the championship team Celtic is Austin trustee. But outside of that, you mentioned, like, this was one of the real failures for Philly in the moves they've made over the last few months. that McCona's value tanked from what was probably $10 million closer to now for now. Probably. Yeah, probably like $8 to $10 million.

So enjoy that game. Really good work, Ernst. And yet, I will say on one side with Philly, it, I think is promising how quick they've been. Like they bring Wagner back. They move McCona off. They've pushed Neil Pierre back into the team. It just feels like they're not messing around internally saying like, no, no, no, we were on the right path.

We just have to continue. It's been very quick. to say this was a mess. Let's reshift to who we meant to be. And so I think for Philly, that's the one promise at the end of this season is like, can you fully find your identity again and push to close the year? Yeah, they're avoiding the sunk cost fallacy, which is like good job. No, good job by them.

It's terrible, right? But it, like, they've been a much better and much more watchable team on this side of the World Cup break. And obviously, it's a really small. sample size, but those fans were thirsty for anything that shows progress and sort of aesthetic sense. And they've gotten it real quick. And I think that is cold comfort after one of the worst half seasons in MLS history. But it's better than nothing.

I'm putting Philly on my early League's Cup contender board. It's a thing to play for. Why not? If you're playing better soccer and you probably have no shot at MLS Cup at this point, you might as well go and win that thing. And then like a month from now, they're selling Melanilowski to Tigress for $14 million. They would be drooling if that was an option for them. They would bite your handoff to do it.

Okay. Last few things. Burrhalter went official to Middlesbrough. Super excited for him. Tom, I think putting out some reports that it sounds like Max Arfston will stay, though, that Burrow were in. And it sounds like he will remain a part of the Columbus crew, which is exciting for them. another team, by the way, that has an Open Cup semi-final coming up.

So big opportunity. And then the last thing to hit before we get out of here is Nicholas Dorsch went official for Toronto FC. So we believe it'll start as a designated player contract and then descend from there more of a deeper lying midfielder doil. So Toronto continuing to do work to like piece this roster together on the fly. Yeah. If you just look at it, they have DPs right up the spine now and they're nine, they're 10 and they're number six. than they have Palacio. They also brought in this window.

And I like Quayshow better than you do. Clearly. As a second central midfield, deep-lying central midfield. Like, they have the pieces to play a double pivot. They have Walker Zimmerman, who's still really good. And then the other guy, Kusevich. Yeah, the Chilean International.

Yeah, the veteran centerback. So, like, they have rebuilt the entire spine. And these guys are all. available now. And like we have to, they're 12 winless. Like we have to see them turn around fast. Um, so big opportunity here for Toronto. They were on the edge of our playoff conversation, uh, on the last show. And, um, we won't talk through a bunch of the Western conference teams here. So we've still got a lot coming out for you. We'll be back to recap the weekend, uh, big weekend of MLS action. We will help preview and get into some leagues cup.

It is a convoluted and silly competition, but I like watching League of X teams. play soccer. I like watching it when they're in League MX. I like watching it when they play MLS teams. I think I'm going to go to a couple games because like midweek soccer, what the hell else am I doing in the area? So we'll give you a little bit of hype for that here at Soccerwise. Thank you to all of you for being here and listening. Thank you,

you, Doyle. Big shout out to Gregory and Katie. The help on the back end as well. We'll talk to you all again very, very soon.