SoccerWise - MLS Transfer Rule Fixes, Big Dawg Cashfer Moves and MLS Jeopardy

Episode Date: January 22, 2026

MLS dropping some big rule changes as Tom & David jump in to to go over all of it. They talk through what this means for MLS teams in 2026 and beyond. Then they dig into the big stories of the week from MIA trying to Big Dawg LAFC to ATL working on their rebuild. There can't be a Soccerwise episode without a long conversation around GAM. And finally the admin puts our hosts through the REAL MLS Jeopardy ringer. 8:20 MLS Transfer Window, Loan & Cashfer Changes17:20 Inter Miami Try To Big Dawg LAFC For Denis Bouanga25:50 LAG Buying Joao Klauss From STL38:50 ATL United Connected To Guido Rodriguez44:30 MLS GAM Release And Minnesota United57:15 Admin MLS Trivia

Welcome, everyone, to Soccer Wise, David Goss and Tommy Scoops with you for an electric show coming up. I've tweaked my back. I think I'm having an allergic reaction to something. My Achilles hurts. Everything that could possibly go wrong physically has gone wrong. But my mind is still sharp, Tom. I'm here for you. Goss, you want to tell the full story on why you think you might be eating something you're allergic to?

Yeah. What happened there? I don't, to be clear, I don't know. But I ordered. Doing your own research. I ordered Venezuelan food last night for dinner because in living in Miami, I've been able to access some foods that I don't normally access in New York. And what I have found is Venezuelan food is my favorite of all of the foods down here.

And there's this thing like a kachapa, which is like sweet corn. And they kind of make it into a pancake. It depends how you get it. I sort of get it like kasi dia. I get the salty cheese inside. You're going sweet and salty. Now you're speaking my language. Now I'm happy.

I don't know. I ate it. I got into bed. I felt like my eyes were getting weird. Like puffy, whatever. I don't know. I like said something, but also like I live in Miami. There's rain.

There's stuff. Who knows what's going on. Allergies come and go. And when I get allergies like, my eyes get weird. So then I went to sleep. I woke up today in my breakfast, whatever. Then I started doing some coffee. I'm like, you know it would be good?

A little bit of sweet corn stuff dipped in a little black coffee. Then it came back. And I'm thinking the only constants in this are one, apartment, which could be the culprit. That'd be tough. Or the food while I'm like continuing to nibble on it. And then I had a moment where I was like, I could stop eating this. Like I'm an adult.

I'm allowed to stop eating this. And then I could decide what I end up being allergic to or not in the end. So it's a tough day for me, Tom. Did you consider telling your body to just grit it out and get over it or no? Did you try that? Listen, I've been doing that with dairy for 21 years. So it's not new to me. I'm not scared.

that if that's the situation. I've been doing it with hot dogs as well. In light of all of that, we still have some NLS that we will talk about. We've got some transfer rule changes that came down. Some of them that are pretty exciting, I think pretty big for teams. We are probably the one show that's going to spend time talking about them. That's why we're here for soccer wise, baby. So we've got that to talk about. We have some potential big cashfers that could be coming through. Atlanta still working on there where you build a really exciting name connected to them. a couple of other moves as well that Tom continues to break. And then I think many people who will be listening to this show know this.

But there was a MLS category in Jeopardy this week. And the contestants nailed it. They got every single one right. I believe one, the main guy who got most of them right and kept picking it, said he was a Chicago fire fan. I've only seen the clip someone put out. And there was no exposition in that clip. It was purely just questions and answers.

I will say my wife wants everyone to know she got a 100 on it, so she thought it was too easy. And she was like really, really strong about that. And the host butchered Christian Bentec's name, which is understandable. That's the only part I saw. I didn't see the questions. Oh, the questions were, well, I could give you some of them. Yes.

One of the questions, the question of Benteke question was, he led the league in goals. What award was he given that he was a shoe in for? A little wordplay there. So that was one. There was a picture of David Beckham. was won. One was who won the 1996 MLS Cup, the first one. Bro, bro. So just think about you're a brainiac and in loving terms because you have to be just

insanely intelligent and a huge memory. You're just a top 1% nerd. And you're like, I'm prepping for Jeopardy tomorrow. And you got screwed with the DC United question. I'm doing science. I'm doing pop culture. I'm doing, you know, 50s England and all like all of the potential topics. And then major league soccer comes out. Yeah. It's brutal. What a difficult draw. And for like, it's just, that's just cruel, I think.

Even as, you know, two of, I think the biggest MLS people on the face of the planet, I think that's very cruel. I agree. The other thing is I used to watch Stump the Schwab a lot from home. Do you ever watch that show? Did you think that it's still on? You were talking about it as if it's, no, I said, have you, did you ever watch it? Oh, I thought you're saying it was like, is it on?

No, no, no, I'm pretty sure he passed away. so I don't think the show's on anymore. Yeah. All right. Bees Schwab as some places in respects. And anytime soccer category would come on, I'd be like, the pressure to get it right is actually more intense than the excitement that it's happening. That's the way I feel when I do, I do on the athletic.

I don't know if you've heard of that. On their app, there's a daily sports trivia connection or daily sports connections. And any time I see like an MLS or NWSL name, I'm like, well, now I got to get the whole thing in 22 seconds. And then I panic. I do worse. I am getting slack in the chat for not saying Ken Jennings name, which I think is fair. And I respect that one. And then, yeah, so those were most of the questions. There was one of the three of the three Canadian teams in MLS, which one is the most Western-based?

And that was obviously Vancouver White Caps. But I agree with you. If I spent my whole life trying to get on Jeopardy and they popped up MLS, I'd be pissed. and then I'd be like, okay, I should probably get this category correct. So we're going to do our own Jeopardy version because our admin Morgan was like, these are too easy. So she's created some questions when we get to the end of the show. She's going to live message us the questions and the answers. And I have a feeling we're going to trip all over ourselves and it's going to be bad. Yeah, it's going to be embarrassing.

So you can all stay locked in for that. There's no win for us here. Because like if we get it immediately, it's like, all right, guys, like sick, dorks. And if we don't get it immediately, it's just like, wow, you're bad at your job. Yeah. So, and we'll talk a little gam. We'll talk a little gam as well as we get there. Social media investigators are at work right now as they are trying to figure out who wants to move where, who doesn't like their team. Caitlin Carr.

Retweets, likes. Yeah. So I'm hoping it's all more reliable than the person who is friends with the person who is friends with the person who is friends with Christian Espinoza's wife, Realtor in L.A. and whatever else ended up happening as he landed in Nashville. Before we dig into the rest of it, the biggest story around MLS this week is the most bizarre story you will ever read, but one of the best written ones. Speaking of The Athletic, Paul Tenorio wrote up an article about Adrian Heath. And if you haven't read it, there's literally nothing we can say because it will not make sense because it doesn't sound real. It was a harrowing tale.

I'm glad to hear he and everyone in his family is okay. and it was an incredibly written piece by Paul Tenorio that you have to go check out. Yeah, this was about a long con that ended with an abduction of Adrian Heath in Morocco. I don't want to spoil too much of the story for those who haven't seen it. It's an incredible story, even if it was poorly told, but the way Paul wrote it was insanely well written. This will sound like it's a little bit of an empty compliment because we're 22 days into the year. This is far and away the best thing I've read in 2026. and I'm not sure how this is going to get beat on the soccer side of things.

I know that there's some wonderful, wonderful writers that we're friends with that are going to try, but this is going to be on the year end. This is one of the best pieces that we've read this year. And I encourage everybody to go check it out. And we make mistakes on the show. So Tom said abducted and you might have thought there was a mistake there. There was not. The story is literally about Adrian Heath traveling to what he thinks is a job interview overseas.

And then he ends up actually being abducted. He is not the only one. And it happened to other people before, and that's why he came out with the article or wanted to do the article to make sure it didn't happen to anyone else. And it is an absolutely absurd story. And it is sort of shows like the global tentacles of this game and how it happens. So once again, glad to hear that everyone's okay. But go read it. It's a must.

Go on to the athletic. And then you can read Tom's stuff as well while you're over there because Tom also is a capital J journalist on the big website. Let's talk transfer rules. We got a couple big drops from Major League Soccer this week. One was the gam totals, which we'll talk about in a little bit. And then the other was the specificities of the transfer windows, this 2026, as well as a couple rule changes coming up. Tom, there's two or three big ones that you landed on. Let's start with the windows.

So the summer window has been extended. And the primary window in MLS, which is the window that starts in January and runs through the start of the season, has shrunk to account for that. So if anyone remembers this conversation we had with Zoran Krenata last year, there is X amount of dates that a federation can have and a league can have an open transfer window, and you can only do it in two different settings. So what MLS has done is they've shortened the primary window,

which now is two months instead of three months, and they've extended the summer window, Tom, through September 2nd. Yes, this is a big, big change, and this is good timing for now, because when the league flips its calendar, it will be aligned with the European transfer and this won't be an issue, but it has been a big issue in the past,

including last year. The league has wanted to do this for several years, and there's a few key and positive updates that come from this. The reason why the league wasn't able to do this previously is because this is a league that spans multiple countries. And when you come to transfer windows, it's not just a league's decision.

It has to be uniform through the Federation. The Federation is usually dictated by the top league or the leagues are all aligned. United's U.S. soccer was open to allowing the transfer window to look like it's going to this year, in which it's two months in the winter instead of three, and then longer in the summer instead of three weeks or whatever, and closing right before, you know, multiple weeks before the European windows closed. The reason they were not able to do that is because the Canadian Federation did not okay this.

So their choices were do what's better for the larger part of the league, but the three Canadian clubs are at a severe disadvantage because the windows are not only not going to be aligned, won't even be close. That's not fair, so they didn't do that. Part of the reason they were able to do this now, or the reason they were able to do this now without having to get an okay from Canada soccer is they got special authorization that the three Canadian MLS clubs count towards registration of U.S. soccer. That means Canada can still satisfy what they want to do with their registration windows for the Canadian Premier League, as is they're right, but the Canadian MLS teams don't have to be caught in the middle between this tug war. And this is huge, huge news

because the window now closes March 26th. It used to close like April 26th, something like a month later. There are no signings or very, very minimal signings, between March 26th and late April. Yeah, there are very few players who are eligible to be signed because their windows are not open and clubs wouldn't be able to give them up or wouldn't even want to. Yeah. So this is really key. And it opens in the summer July 13th, closes September 2nd.

So that I believe will be, I believe will be like a day after the major European windows. so that helps even a little bit too but the World Cup will be going on on July 13th when the window opens and now like Minnesota United is a great example I keep on going back to them from last year the bid for Tanyola was say came in when it was too late for a replacement to come

they did that deal they had to do that deal and they were screwed for the playoffs because they couldn't bring anybody else in a few days later a bid for Joaquin Pereira came in that I think they would have accepted and I know the player wanted and it satiated the clear

club's valuation of the player. But it was after the window closed. It was already after they couldn't replace Daniel OSA. They were kind of like, hey, man, we're sorry. We simply can't take this offer or we're really screwed because we definitely can't bring anybody in. So that's really big. A couple more rules that came with us too and just, I'm going to use Minnesota United because

this is all tied. And they served as a good case study for some of these rules. Another rule that was a no-brainer is that there are no longer age restrictions on intra-MLS loans. That means an MLS club to an MLS club. There are no restrictions. it used to be, you couldn't be over the age of 24, 26, something like that. Minnesota United and the LA Galaxy explored the possibility of Minnesota acquiring Christian

Ramirez on loan from the LA Galaxy in the NLS season. The galaxy were open to it because their season was over. They were respectful of a highly rated veteran and a highly respected veteran and Christian Ramirez. And Minnesota United was like, we need a short-term option at Center Forward. And Christian Ramirez was like, sweet, I get to play in the playoffs and I get to probably be the starter. It worked out for everybody.

but one rule in MLS for no reason that there's an age limit on interleague loans made that impossible. So all these changes, I think, are very positive. A couple of them are no-brainer. For people asking in the chat, so the winter transfer window doesn't open until January 26th. We talk about this once a year because it's not super exciting, but the officials you see are not actually official because MLS teams don't have any games. So they announce players, then they actually register them once. that window actually opens and it's made to be a little bit tighter to the start of the season so that then that window can extend into the season. And as you said in the past, it just was forever at the start of

the year. So now it's less of that and then moves into the summer. I think someone made a good point, which is also you'll probably have more games after that window closes or as towards the end of that window because of the World Cup. Some games are backloaded in Major League Soccer. And then the third comment that we had was, I wonder what happens now going forward as the league shifts to the schedule. My assumption is it will just kind of be the same because you already have a situation where the window goes a month into the season. And so my guess is what they will do is probably start of July into some part of September and then shrink the winter window a little bit to fit somewhere around January. But it will kind of be the same setup,

which is what it is for many teams around the world, which is their seasons start, you know, first week of August and their transfer window runs into September, and then the January transfer window for many leagues is the middle of the season. So there's always going to be windows open and movement with players once teams start playing. And one of the things that you said at the beginning of this discussion, MLS's primary transfer window is the winter. When the calendar flips, the primary transfer window will be the summer.

So they can play around with the dates. they can make the summer longer and the winter shorter. It's kind of like in Europe, it's, you know, multiple months in the summer and one month in the winter. They could do that or they could, you know, keep it like eight weeks and eight weeks. They have, they will have the flexibility in the room. This is almost just like an extra sprint towards that. And again, it's something that I'm very glad that got changed.

And the huge key that Zorin Kreneta said on the interview we did, you've talked to people about it. I've talked to people about it is just moves happen at the end. People don't plan ahead. plan ahead. A lot of things change really late. There are deals to be had. There are players who would be interested in coming to major league soccer or coming to teams who are assessing all their ideas. And then the MLS window would just close. And they would no longer be an option. So it feels like that works. And then on the flip side, if teams sell late, they're willing to

buy late. And that means that MLS teams could sell. And so a lot of the best deals for MLS teams could have been coming at the end of August, early September. And now they'll get a chance to do that with this new setup. So it's a no-brainer. As you said on the loans, loans have been weird in MLS for a while. It seemed like the mechanism was, can we get young players playing time?

Which I understand the impetus to do that, but it's a restriction that was unnecessary. So now that one's lifted, which is great. And then the last big one is taking away the limit on the amount of cash fares that a team can make. I know the obvious one. Yeah, inbound or outbound. So last year it was two for each.

So each team could only make two cash furs and only sell two players in a cash for trade move inside of MLS. And now that limit's been lifted. And I don't know if you've noticed, but some teams have noticed that and are throwing out cash for is left and right. Yeah, you look at Interm Miami as one. I think that this is their team that's been aggressive on the cash for market

and again, obviously some others. And this is just, I'm trying to give the league the benefit of the doubt here of, hey, this was the first year of cashers. We were all trying to figure it out. I'm not really sure whether there was an arbitrary limit. I don't know what the worry was if you just didn't put a limit on it. But again, I'm glad that they reverse course pretty quickly or at least altered this. And the cash for has been an overwhelmingly positive and super interesting introduction to the rulebook for MLS.

And the league is behaving more like some of the bigger leagues in Europe, whether that's good, bad or indifferent. This is just another step towards more modernization. Anything else big you want to hit before we move on? No. Okay. Because that takes us into our big conversation around. ground cashfers. We have Josh Sargent stuff we can talk about. It's less interesting. But Inter-Miamy tried to big dog L-A-F-C in the cash fare pool. And I didn't know that this was a world

we were going to be living it. Inter-Miamy attempted to bring Dennis Buonga over in a cash fair to play on their team as you put out there before they moved on to Bertrami as their big target to improve the team. And like we have seen Inter-Miamy are willing to support. spend discretionary in a way that other teams don't. Teams are happy to take it. L.AFC fails like one. Maybe you weren't going to try that with. So the news here again, according to sources, earlier this winter,

Injim Miami approached LFC, submitted a cash for offer of around 13 million for Denny Boulanga. It was rejected out of hand by LFC in no uncertain terms. This is nothing that is going to happen. We will not negotiate. There's nothing to talk. one line I heard from a source was we would never agree a deal with you or the LA Galaxy

for Danny Bwanga. Not that they would agree from any other teams but it was like particularly we would not agree from Miami or the LA Galaxy. Danny Bwango wasn't pushing for it from what I heard though we can look into some social media stuff later but he would like to revisit his contract terms he's the 19th highest paid player in the league which sounds great except he's made best 11 three years in a row

he scored 20 plus goals three years in a row in the league MVP finalist this year and it's just generally has been regarded as one of the three to four best players in the league every single season

since he arrived since his first the 2022 he wins two trophies first full season was 23 and he's been a marquee player

in this league I'm there are so many different things that are interested about this first of all this is just a fun

story to talk about and an audacious bid for Inter Miami it's no coincidence that they bid for Danny Bawanga again regarded to be the best player

one of the best players in the league like particularly outside of their team with the non-messy category. They signed the reigning MLS goalkeeper of the year, Danes, and Klan, Free Agency, and they made a cash for offer to Vancouver for Tristan Blackman, the reigning defender of the year. This is Inter-Miamy saying, we want to be the first Super Club in MLS. We want to be Bayern Munich.

You know how Byron just buys all the best players from the Bundesliga? You know how PSG just buys all the best players from Ligoon? Byron's like, man, Dorman was good last year. Marcel Sabitzer, why didn't you come this way? And so that's how they're trying to behave And like that's that's not by accident Obviously you look at every single one of these And like if you're able to bring in

I mean each individual case you do it For literally every team in the league If you can sign Dane St. Clair if you can sign Tristan Black We sign Danny Bwong you do it But it's even more than that It's kind of like the Like you said the L.AFC big dog to Miami By saying no and saying like well we would never know

Miami big dog to LASC like doing that's like hey Like that's and that's kind of the message they're trying to send is that hey, we want to be the first real super club in this league, and we're going to stop at nothing. There's a small chuckle in me of like they picked, it's almost, I know this isn't what happened, but it's like they did no scouting, and they were like, can someone pull up the Instagram posts and we'll scroll through defensive player the year of Gold Cupie, the Year of Golden Boot? Like literally, Messi won the Golden Boot, and the second was Dennis Buonga.

And as you said, everyone else just won the awards that they went out and got. I'm shocked that the humanitarian of the year, I don't know who it was this year. Didn't get a offer from, now I got to look it up and see if I didn't get it. The referee of the year is about to get an offer to be a rules expert from them. They're probably going to go for the assistant referee of the year because everyone knows that's really the most competitive part of the conversation where it turns out that Weeby's the only one who knows who anyone is. So we all tell what we're supposed to vote for when we get to that part.

But yeah, this is, this is what we talked about last time. They found the avenues where they can go out and spend. And they are willing to max those avenues out. U-22 initiative and then this. And it's really, really smart because they can't spend maybe in the same way externally because players don't understand the salary cap. And if they're getting bought, they don't want to be a part of it. And obviously, there's more intricacies.

And also they see the success these players already have in the league. And they want to start at a high level. and as we talked about, they want to win in the region. They want players who understand it. Diego Luna was the humanitarian of the year. I found that, but then I wasn't sure because every team posts their person. I didn't know if R.S.L. was saying that's who they picked or who won. They actually would bid on Diego Luna.

So that actually got more realistic than I expected as we got through that. I was hoping that it was going to be somebody's backup right back. Yeah, me too. Evan Bush, probably. And then he could come over and be a part of it. Legend. So it is a sign. It's interesting.

And then it was made slightly more interesting earlier today when Dennis Bunga retweeted someone who said your inches away from your dream club or your inches away from your dream and your club takes it away. I have no idea. I don't know either. I don't know what you accomplished by this either. All the power to them. It's vague. This is this from top to bottom this story is like.

prime. All right, we made it. Yeah, this is like, this is Janus like going to a Wendy's in Philly. And everyone's like, why is he in Philly? And then he gives a speech about dedication and being a janitor and all these things. That's like where we're at right now. Stop asking me about my guy. You know, I stop asking me about the trade. And then like you just keep retweeting things that are like super vague and cryptic.

No, but it's again, it's extremely interesting. We can obviously circle back to Bwanga or anything else if you have more to go there. But like I do want to point to we're talking about a move that didn't have. happen. Let's talk about the move that is happening. I'm told an update, German Bert Tarame, deals all set, just doing paperwork. He will become into Miami's third designated player. It'll be a fee of 15 million going to see up Monterey, making him one of the top 10 most expensive players in MLS history. And this is a really, really good signing. And I almost, I almost felt a little conflicted that the Bert Taran, like, while talking about finding out

about Dennis Blanca and like going through sources and figuring out, oh, by the way, like, is that deal done. And like, I kind of felt a little bad for Bertrami to have in the same story that the Danny Bwanga stuff is more interesting because we didn't know about it and we knew about Bertrami. But we're talking about a move that didn't happen. And while Bongo would have been an A plus plus, like Bertrami, I think is an A. I think this is a freaking awesome sign. Yeah. I was talking to one of my friends who's a season ticket holder for Inter Miami and like, you know, he rattled through all the signings they made. Right after we did the show, I was like, no, I'm aware. I've got them all. I just talked about this for 20 minutes. But

the last thing we landed on was obviously not only the center forward but set pieces like that's one of the places where they could be more dangerous and that's where bertram is a no-brainer right like if bertrami comes in and plays terrible his size is still there that's something that's not going to go away we talked about the goals he scored in the region um really skilled soccer player really really special buonga actually think would have been a little bit more awkward because where would he have played i do think sylvetti's probably a center forward in the end because i think he can be the difference maker there in his career and that could have been an option or it's louis suarez whatever it is but either way you make it work you figure it out with those guys but

bertrami feels like plug and playing it seems really really obvious to me um that he's going to come in one of the things that i didn't know until this week 100% that i think ties into all of this is with a cash fare the money that you spend on the player gets spread across their contract the same as a transfer fee externally in Major League Soccer. So while you can go out and spend these numbers, it will affect the way the player hits your cap, depending on what mechanism they are. So for David Ishala, it doesn't matter, right?

Because you can spend whatever you want on a U-22 initiative on their transfer fee, which the cash for now becomes, and it doesn't affect it, and it doesn't affect a designated player. But it would affect, if they went out and got Blackman and paid the cash for, and then they have to convert them into a Tam player and give them a contract, It's a pretty big hit. Now it turns out we got the numbers. They got a lot of games sitting around that they could use.

But it's not like not, it's not just discretionary spending. It will still affect their cap. And it will affect potentially the LA Galaxy, who you put out a report that I was shocked to see that Santa Claus could be on the move. Yeah, the LA Galaxy are in talks to acquire DP-Fod Klaus from St. Louis City. I'm told that the clubs have agreed to terms that it's a, It'll be a cash deal around two million.

This has been something that has been in the works for a while. Two weeks ago, this move was really close. It cooled off and now it's back. There's optimism that it happens, but it's down to the player and down to the player's side, from what I understand at least. This would be a move that he would occupy the DP spot, as far as I understand at least,

that is going to be vacated by Ricky Pooch being on the season ending injured list. And this is a player in the last year of his contract so they can kind of figure this all out in the winter in a year from now. if things are going well, if you want to resign. Like, they won't be in a spot where you have to sell somebody in a year when Ricky Boots comes back. Yeah.

There's no Giovanni Dos Santos being let go for free because they've got four DPs on their roster, which I think that's probably a large part of this is like bringing in a guy who's a DP this year who can help your team. And based off the number the MLSPA reports, it's not outside the realm of possibility that he would come off a DP contract next year. He's right around 1.2, 1.3 million, which is, the max damn number. And unless he scores 57 goals this year, I think based off the time he's been there,

it would be odd to see him get a huge raise out there on the market. And so if he does well and the Galaxy want to, they could bring him back. In saying all of that, it's still a little bit of an odd move to me. Okay. I don't see where you look at what Klaus did at his best in St. Louis and say, this transfers to the Galaxy's game. and I think it's a gamble on he can be a box finisher off peck and pain still but I think they want him to be a creator for peck and pain still occupy centerbacks similar stuff I've talked about with brandon vaskas like you know suck in defenses play them over the top help set them up the one thing is if they can get out in transition you know he's really really good there but that hasn't been the galaxy's MO a ton they have been dangerous and lethal in transition with peck and pain still,

but for the most part, they dominate possession and teams sit in against them. And that doesn't really feel like a place that Klaus is going to be a difference maker for you, although it does give you the opt out of dumping the ball to the far post for him to try and dunk on guys. Yeah, I think that he would get more chances and as long as he stays healthy,

not fit in terms of like being slow or something, but like fit in terms of hamstrings and all that stuff. I think that he'd put up numbers in his team, but I think that about Christian Ramirez. I think that maybe to a lesser extent, Nassimento, but Nassimento can also play as a winger, who they're finalizing at the year. Different, I think that this, well, first of all,

they were not just bad in the first half of the scene. They were, like, pretty historically unlucky as well. I don't want to, like, I'm not making any excuses for the seat. They were not good enough. It's a, we should be making fun of them for how last year went. The second half of the season, they were good. They were fine, right? And the idea is that they're going to be better.

Sorry to get distracted by Instagram reporting again. But in the chat, Austin Nureberg, said, Klaus liked your Instagram post, and I thought he was kidding. I just looked. Klaus liked my Instagram post where I said, Klaus is close to a move to the other guy. So maybe it's a little bit further along than people. People are being too cautious, but that's funny. Thank you, Austin, for bringing that up.

I didn't even notice. I think he sent us a message on Patreon because he's already on the depth charts. So I think he knows that it's official now. Yeah, Klaus, someone's... I need to make a public comment to Doyle. Stop changing shit that I write on the depth charts, or I'm taking away your editing ability. And I also stop leaving stupid lines and not following the regular copy that comes within.

It's AP styles, right? Do you add somebody? And just doesn't under like all the names are underlined? He just doesn't underline him. I mean, you know how to do that, dude. I know, is this like an alpha thing that you're trying to do to me? I think it better than me? It wasn't and you turned it into one and now you know he's going to stick with it.

Let's take a look at the LA Galaxy here because we haven't talked a ton about them. obviously the early moves Jakob Glesnes, the big one for them bringing him in at centerback and the Justin Hack, the free agent signing that they made for a year and a half. John Nelson has re-signed a guy who's been consistent for them

and now the potential that Zhao Klaus could be a $2 million cash for to come in. So again, that $2 million would be a part of his cap hit if he came off a DP contract, but just for this year and then he would be available to be resigned. Otherwise, with no Ricky Pooge,

this season. You're looking at Payne Still and Peck on the Wings and Marco Royce in a midfield probably three. Tom, with you have options here, but that's one where they have a little bit of depth, but not maybe obvious answers. Yeah, so I think that this is like,

listen, with Jacob Glass says, and Justin Hack, they're going to be good. Goalkeeper's still a question mark. Center forward was a question mark because like that's just kind of what they wanted. They wanted to bring in center forward and if Klaus comes in, I think that'll help. Maybe they'll have flexibility to do something bigger in the summer. I don't know for certain.

Looking at this roster and looking at the profiles and looking back, Greg Vanny hasn't really shown this for some years, definitely hasn't with the galaxy. But I think it's fair to say, you bring in Justin Hack, who was elite as a centerback in a back three, I think you can play in a back two, particularly next to Gillesnesnes. You look at this roster, why can't they play 343? Why can't they play 352? I think that they have the pieces for that. And I think that that's something that Vani did that in the Giovinco, just a lot.

Josie Altador Michael Bradley era. And they had like, and if it wasn't, like Bradley was splitting the centerbacks a lot. Like that's something hack and do. So I just look at that and think that maybe we'll see more looks out of this team. And that's kind of why like DP10, I thought that's where they were going to go. But if they go for a forward, like I can very easily be like, okay, no, no, no, that makes sense. I see that it happens because then you play with more creativity in your wingbacks. And you have two central midfills, whether it's Serio and Winder, Surio and Sanabria,

whoever, whatever the combination is. and then Marco Royce gets to play a little further forward when he plays, or it's paint sill and Peck underneath Klaus or Ramirez or some combination there within. I don't know this for a fact. I want to be clear, this isn't sourcing. It's just, I think that we're going to see more looks from this team in 26 than we did in 25.

Yeah, I think it makes sense. I think it probably fixes some of the defensive frailties that we felt besides just the personnel upgrades bringing in Glesness. The other thing is it makes you less reliant on Marco, Royce who just hasn't been a consistent game changer in major league soccer and if they're going to play the way they've played over the last year and a half like rickie poohge was the point you know the light for all of it they lost that last year that was part of why it was such a struggle to start the year and a lot of that just falls on royce's inability to create chances against set

defenses fairly consistently from central area so if you feel like that's a problem you go three four three you're going to get more numbers probably in the box more often um clouse as obviously a huge threat there so you can get wingbacks higher up to field and you also potentially kill more transition opportunities against you because you have the three centerbacks that are fairly stable there most often. So I think for the galaxy, it all makes sense. I think the ceiling's probably a little bit lower. But the fact that it's a one year deal for Klaus is interesting because it does set you up in a spot where if you like the way it goes, you can use this year to help you build for 27 when Ricky Pooge is back. And it's not just two.

separate identities in which you have to go back to the drawing board in the off season, which feels like the right way to handle a year like this for the galaxy. They've dug themselves a little bit out of the gam hole they were in when Will Coon stuck over and they were like desperate for any scent of a gam buck. They've been able to push themselves back. They're at three and a half million is what the report is, which is not as low as some other teams. So they still have a little bit of space to operate and it shows I think some of the work they've been able to do over the last two years. On the St. Louis side, it pulls a DP off so they could go two-four-two.

They currently have three U-22 initiatives or it opens up a DP spot. You know, we haven't seen them make major moves so far. But now with the coach in place, what do you read from the outside on this one of what they would do going forward? So my understanding is they would take the $2 million and convert it to GAM, which is super valuable and that shows like rather than ownership pocketing the money which is always a nice start um they're not locked into whether they would go two four two or three dps and three twos they would definitely add another forward soon that doesn't mean it definitely be a dp doesn't

necessarily mean to be you 22 um from when i'm russell row baby four million dollar cash for honestly get ready yon damea reunion with christian ramirez um no like it's interesting Because I think it's valuable to open up the D.P. Spot and the fee for a player who's out of contract in a year. And I mean, I didn't know anything in terms of like information on Klaus. But like, I would have guessed that he wasn't coming back in a year. Right. Like so I see it from their point of view. And as long as they have the targets and hopefully ownership will be putting forward money. Like this isn't like Fallu Fall was three or four million in a transfer fee. They spent on Edward Luvon and Yau Klaus. I think Klaus was, I forget what those fees were. But this isn't a team that has spent large. at all. They spent large on the expansion fee. I want to be clear, the stadium all that stuff, right?

Like, it's not as if they're doing nothing, but what good is a DP or U22 slot if you want to fill it with a free agent that's, you know, right? I mean, like, you don't need to go out and spend $15 million for German Bertrami, but I hope that there's going to be a $5 million fee there for Corey Ray and Yon DeMay and the whole front office to work with.

If there, but I don't know if there is. Yeah, I wouldn't be shocked if this was a team that made a, I'm just, you know, a Dante Sealy, Teddy Couti, Piotro style move, maybe for U22 initiative inside the league and being willing to put a little bit more resources stores it, just because of the two guys that we just talked about, their background, their understanding of the league and what wins and whatnot. They are already one of the teams with the highest amount of gam on the report. They had 6.1 million available. That doesn't include potentially going 242.

That doesn't include the Klaus money. so it's a huge bump for them to have this spending, and I would like, I think, to see, rather than try and go big DP, like can you just continue to increase the quality at each position across the board? But they will need a center forward. I don't think Kay and Glover is going to start 15 games this year, unfortunately.

So that's going to be a move for them. The one thing I'll say in all of this is, I think Klaus was very specific to what Lutz Fan and Steel was building with Bradley Carnell. and if the feeling was that he wasn't going to be central to the way they were building, this is a huge out. To get $2 million that you can fully push to gam inside the league, that's a big one for St. Louis.

So my guess would have been they were shopping him a little bit and seeing if anyone was interested, and this feels like the perfect move for them to take advantage of and go with. So big news for both these clubs going forward. And then let's talk a little ice cream shop, Tom, breaking some news across the south now. Yeah, before we get to that, I'll go to the piece of news that I broke as the show started. The New York Red Bulls are closing in on a deal to sign American goalkeeper Ethan Horvath from Cardiff City.

Horvath, 30-year-old, does 10 caps with the U.S. men's national team. He hasn't played for the national team in a while. I assume he's here to be the starter, but I'm sure that they'll at least maybe be a competition. It's him, John McCarthy, on the club. And Ethan Horvath spent the first half of this English season on loan with Sheffield Wednesday in the championship. He returned to Cardiff, who are in the third tier. and now he is closing in on a move to the New York Red Bulls. Carlos Cornell gone.

I think the assumption was they'd go get a starter. They got John McCarthy, A.J. Marcucci's around. I don't know. This doesn't like blow me out of the water, but I wouldn't be shocked if Ethan Horvath was top five in the league in terms of the underlying numbers at the goalkeeper position and they go out and make a move. I think most Red Bull fans, I think all will say,

this is not the one they're waiting for. They're waiting for the big other moves. with the New York Red Bulls. Anything else? No, the Red Bulls are going to be, like, they're not done adding. That's not like the most revealing thing to say, but for fans, I think they're getting

a little bit of consternation for the attacking depth, their options up there. I would expect, hope to see something at some point over the next year before the season starts, but obviously all these situations are fluid, but the Red Bulls did move out a lot of players and salary and getting gam back in some of these trades that they should have.

the flexibility. They have the open DP spot, but they should have the flexibility to continue to be aggressive. Let's talk Atlanta, because this one is, this happens too often in MLS where I'm like, I'd love to see this guy in MLS. And then three and a half years later, they signed. And you're like, that wasn't exactly what I meant. And when you posted Aguido Rodriguez, I was like, whoa, it is 2019 again. And I'm in my peak, League of MX watching. Yeah, Atlanta United are beginning. like exploratory and preliminary talks to potentially sign Gito Rodriguez from West Ham.

It's more about, hey, how can we make this happen? Is it possible? Is it even possible? What is not up for debate is Tata Martino really likes a player Atlanta United front office. I really likes a player. It's not saying anything shocking. He's a good player.

A lot of teams should like him. They don't have a deepy spot open. Doesn't appear like they're looking to have one open. I don't know. I don't know that for 100% certainty. So maybe they could try to get creative if there's a way there or maybe this is just putting in legwork for the future.

But this is a really good player. I think he has 30 caps, something like that for Argentina. Not playing that much with West Ham. He was really good for Real Betis after leaving Club America, where, as you know, he was a star at Club America,

really, really good at Bettis, and then hasn't quite played a ton for West Ham. So he's looking for a new move. And Atlanta United have been missing a good, sometimes even they've just been missing an average defensive midfitter,

but they've been missing a good defensive midfitter, but they've been missing a good defensive midfills. field or since Jeff Lorenowitz retired, I think. And getting, I was like, how far is he going to go with this? I was trying to think. I was like, was Eric Remedy still at the team? And Eric Remedy ain't walking through that door. Who is the first, who is the first D-Mitton?

Before Remedy. Well, that's who I was going to reference Carlos Carmona. That's the one. Carlos Camona ain't walking through that door. And Carlos Caromona was like a Chilean international. And he was very much a, yeah, I'll go play for Tata. I like Tata. I know him.

This sounds cool. It feels like it'll be fun. and he was the first of a long list of like, oh, they're getting guys that other teams wouldn't get because the setup's good. And this feels to me like if Guido can get himself out of a contract or ends up out of contract, like he comes over and does the same thing

because I don't think he's a DP and MLS right now. But Tata has connections and people want to play for him. And I think now Atlanta has even more proof of like, how cool is this? You can play in front of 65,000 people. Your kids can go to school in the U.S., like this is a pretty good. set up listen Thomas Mueller

Rodrigo de Paul weren't DPs when they first came here um lots on any like again I'm not saying anything with knowledge but just like he's played a hundred and seventy seven minutes so far this season for last time six so again who knows if it's possible I want to be clear but I do know that they like them and if they're able to make it work

they're going to do everything that they can to make it work and this is a desperately needed position but I hope that if this is impossible that they have a couple targets ready to go that can replace and be a difference maker in central midfield. But Guido Rodriguez would be a lot of fun. This is a great line from Frankie Cosmos in the chat who says, team with the most unspent gam should be fined and publicly shamed.

It takes us to Minnesota United. And I agree, by the way. It takes us to Minnesota United, who came out on the list on top with 7.259-30-million. in GAM. So they could afford us based off the numbers. How much of that is liquid?

Listen, they're always optimizing. When Minnesota United goes to sleep, they're optimizing. They are always... They just power nap 45 minutes at a time and their money's working on the side.

So they are now the GAM leaders. And then they wake up, they get a coffee. Guess what? I own the coffee shop. More GAM for me. Minnesota, they have obviously... And so we've gotten some questions in chat, which is fair.

I just plugged 400,000 into my phone. I divided it by 365. That's you make $400,000 a year. So with the gam totals are released by MLS. First of all, we celebrated it when they did it last year, continue to more transparency, the better. There's a couple of misnomeras here to start with. Because a couple of people in the chat,

totally fair to like ask this question of, so if Klaus leaves, do we, do our gam totals go up? this is the gam total from my understanding of like before they apply allocation money to the players like this is this is how teams end up with FC Cincinnati had zero dollars of gam elegance I'm pretty sure had the same thing at the start of last season

the totals right now are whatever they want to use because roster cap compliance day is the Friday before the season starts February 20th that's when all the game gets applied so what you're seeing right now is the raw figures the only way teams are adding to this is with sales or trades within the league this isn't like, oh, like they got rid of this player.

Does that mean they get more? No, not yet because these totals aren't accounting for what they're applying. That being said, Minnesota United have replenished or have added to this. And Gam is it view it as an extension of the salary cap. It is very, very valuable. The more gam you can generate, the more flexibility you have, the more you can spend, particularly if your owner wants to put that money in. As I'm losing Goss from the screen.

I'm stretching. His eyes, his eyes are glazing over it. I'm stretching. No, I'm loving this. I'm stretching. So Minnesota, United States. they sold San Diego, they've made some moves.

That's part of why they have the game that they do, why they have the most of them lost. The other part of it is they just don't pay players that much. They were really, really good last year. They have since lost Day in St. Clair, since lost Robin Ludd.

Robin Ludd was their highest paid player at $1.7 million. He's gone. Kelvin Yubo is still there, but he's a designated player. You don't need allocation money for him. Julian Gressel is now the second highest paid player on the team in terms of what's hitting his bank account.

Minnesota United are paying a fraction of what his number is. So he's taking him away. Bongi Hila Wong-Way and Kelvin Yobo are the only two players on this team that are paid more than a million dollars. And is Bongi still a U-22 or no, Goss? Because Yubo is still a D-P, but regardless is- We don't have Bongi listed as U-22. They just don't have a lot of expensive players. So this gives them a ton of flexibility to make further additions, but you need to use the money at some point.

So I'm very curious to see what the next month looks for Minnesota United in terms of player acquisition. Thomas Aviles and Talasco Sogovia, get ready to learn Minnesota, baby. Because you are headed that way. Yeah, this is something I, you know, they're getting made fun of in the chat of like at some point they have to pay players. At some point they have to go out and make moves. I think the Robin Ludd loss was huge as I've talked about. But I do wonder if you can weaponize some of this and be sort of what we talked about with the end of a transfer window of like, can you be the ones around where you find good deals in. inside of MLS, similar to a Julian Gressel deal for the teams that maybe are struggling a little bit,

or can you come in and Godfather on top of some other offers where a team, you know someone's getting offers, you know, teams are interested, can you come in with 500 a million more in gam than them and get the deal done? But this is a situation where Minnesota right now, I mean, they've got a lot of holes, a lot of holes. And so they need to go out and spend some of this money to make this roster like relevant from a competitive point of view. I don't, I don't mind having future plays. I don't mind bringing in young players and, and believing in them like, Triantis looked good, right? They've, they've brought in Bongi in the past. That was a good move. The Thomas Chonkalae flyer, I think we kind of like that move, but like what's it all built around?

Who's going to make the game easier for any of the players that we're talking about? We mentioned on the last show as we were on mariso gonzalez one official young south american um winger that they brought in and then you've been reporting on one more for them correct Minnesota united are in talks about signing a Curacao International writeback his name is charion valerius from NAC brettel elite name it's a great name and i and i'm sure that i budgeted and i can't wait to learn how to say it when he hopefully if the deal is not done from what i'm told advanced negotiations but nothing agreed born in the netherlands um he has not made his debut for Curis Al, but he's eligible now.

So maybe we'll see him at the World Cup, but this is a 20-year-old defender. From what I read, it's athletic wingback type, but he's made half of his professional appearances at centerback and half it right back back. So I don't know if that's a right-sided centerback and a back-three. Like, Minnesota United have been really interesting

with, like, they turned Carlos Harvey into his centerback. Oh, I love. Yeah, and like, that's been, like, that's one of the things they've been really good at is identifying talent and moving them around and seeing how they fit in their system. So while there's some criticism for the question marks,

left from Minnesota United, like they've done a lot of really good things and particularly value signings and stuff. And that's really great. But now if you have the capital, how about you, the potential to accentuate some of those value signings is there. And this is a team that has a lot of goals and saves and chance creation between Tani Olisei, between Danes-Clair and Robin Lod to replace. So they have some holes, but they have every opportunity to fill it. To be clear, None of what we're saying we know off the top of our heads. We are saying all of this because of the depth charts that we have built. If you would like access to them, join our Patreon and get you access to the depth charts.

They are up to date. They have all the DPs, all U-22s, everyone's contract information that we know, how long their contracts are for, what they're getting paid, and all that other information. We will update the gam numbers as well. So that's the spot to be if you want to understand. I challenge you to go to FC Dallas. I think I'm going to start putting in like fake names. because even I've looked at some of it,

they'd be like, oh, that's not a real player. So I might keep you guys on your toes. But then you'll know it's Doyle if it's just written in a different style ink and not underlined, and there's lines around it. I wanted to go to this and start saying names,

but then it's like, well, I don't want to throw these people. That's the thing. I don't like, because that it sounds just mean. Yeah, I mean, Lucius Dietzson. Lucius Deetson, questionable. Yeah. Kaka. I've seen him for Haiti more than Dallas.

Yeah, true. Dallas loves... Jaden Contreras? Who's... Dallas loves a North Texas SC, Haitian

International signing. It is one of the places that they've done very, very well. One more to hit here. Patty McNair headed back to England from San Diego.

Tom, I know it's a tough day for you and your family, so I just want to give you a little bit of space. Yeah, a whole city or finalizing a deal to sign Patty McNair. sources have told me that,

but also the whole city manager came out and said, we expect this to be done tomorrow, so I appreciate the transparency there. What I was told is Patty McNerererer. expressed to San Diego that he wants to go back to England, leaving San Diego for England.

But that's what he wanted, North Irish International. He's had a really, really good career in the championship. Thought he was fine when he played for San Diego? I thought he was going to be better. But good on San Diego for... He was fine. It's just when he went out, he got replaced and they got better. It's not like on him.

I don't think he was the problem at any point. But the team got better when he wasn't on the field. the guys who played instead of him are cheaper. So he seemed like the type of player that you're probably going to move on from. Staying in Southern California, interesting move you put out there. Jamir Johnson has signed with the Orange County.

LA Galaxy acquired his rights from Philadelphia. Youth International, part of what was a really good U-17 group for the Philadelphia Union, in which very few of them are really pushing through. And now we see Anisa Eidi's already gone to San Diego and now Jemir Johnson headed out. we saw Vasquez already move on from this club.

So I don't think it's wrong what Philly's doing, which is they accumulated this talent. They helped develop them. And the way it's going to affect their club the best is by moving them on for fees and gam and transfers and all that type of stuff. But I think unfortunate maybe for the fans of the team that they don't get to see some of these players break through. Even more unfortunate for their like Galaxy,

who spent resources to inquire his MLS right. Yeah, well, I think that was just part of a throw in at the end of that in the I don't know how much of the add-ons of the Jacob Guzzan's trade was part of that. But Jemir Johnson hasn't, has been on the out, not the out, but like he wasn't going to sign professionally with Philly. There's a ton of interest from PSV. I know that that's still active. From what I'm understood, that there's no like final decision or final like anything done signed. He turns 18 in the summer.

Orange County are signing him knowing he's going to play for us and he's not going to be here for a decade, right? He's going to be here until he goes to Europe. So it works out for everybody. They'll probably get a little bit as well with the sound. So they've done this before. I think it's a good move by Orange County. Jemir Johnson, I think part of the problem, but like the quandary with Philly is,

I think he's best as a winger. Gosh, you know him better than I do. I don't like him in Philly. I love him as a player. Because they don't play with wingers. Yeah, I think he's scrappy enough to be a part of Philly. Like when you saw him play, he did enough work against the ball defensively

that it was okay that he was playing more central because it wasn't hurting his game or the team. But at his best, the idea is, his ability to beat guys 1 v1 and create for teammates in wide areas or isolated. And it's hard to get isolated when the game is so narrow with the way Philadelphia plays. So he has always been one that felt a little awkward at Philadelphia. And yet he still maximized a lot of what he did, which shows how good he is. I think he's got a really bright future.

And I worry right now for some of these players with the, oh, I'll just go to Europe. And we're seeing like a third generation of players washed back into Major League Soccer. now with very little pro experience, with very little understanding of what their best position is and what they need to do. But I'm hopeful that it works out for him because he's a high level player. And yeah, Philly probably wasn't the right fit for him. And when you talk about that 17's team, some more Philly youth news. The club has loaned defender Neil Pierre to a club called Lingby, Bold Club in Denmark. And they were very clear that we think that he's good. We think he's going to be great. We don't know what the minutes are on the first team, and he's too

good for MLS Next Pro. So what is a bridge from Next Pro to the first team or maybe just getting minutes now before he can come back to the first team? But this is a move that is alone for you to develop and then come back to Philadelphia. Neil Pierre is awesome. Sorry, it's only only through the summer as well too. I love Neil Pierre. I think he's a future national team guy. I don't, I don't, I don't dislike this. I also, we've talked about this a bunch of times. Sometimes it's just a lifestyle thing. Like he needs to go live on his own. He needs to get outside of the Philly set up.

He needs to cook his own dinner and like figure out life. But you can do that in a way and then come back and still come through with a club that you could be really, really special for. So I love this move for him and it makes a ton of sense. Let's jump in now to the conversation around Gam, which is we got all of these numbers. It doesn't mean a ton on the face of it. I will highly recommend going and reading footy analytics musings fam, which is Armand's substack, who I think does the best job talking about what these numbers are, how they affect clubs, how clubs can use them.

So I would highly recommend going and reading his substack following him on Blue Sky as well. We need to get Dennis Buonga on Blue Sky so that he can start, you know, re-skeeing people instead of retweeting people. but I skimed through his article and his big takeaway, which was my big takeaway, is literally just... I mean, Houston went from last to top four in the league. Like that's the whole...

Yeah, that's the whole reaction to some of this. We still don't know what a Minnesota is going to do and some of the lower spending teams are high because they haven't used it and Miami has crushed it, you know, because of some of the sales they've made, especially you 22 initiative guys,

the Ocampagna, all that type of stuff. Yeah. But the big thing that pops out is Houston third right now with 6.57 in a potential gam for them to use. And Pat Onshead gave multiple quotes over the last two, three years, where he was like, we are just digging ourselves out of long-term moves that were made before we got here, long-term contracts that we couldn't get out of. And we said this on last show, which was the Mikael and Coco moves hit them so late that they weren't really able to activate the money they made to make them better last year.

they are doing it right now. This is just an example of what that looks like on paper. Yeah. I, again, I don't have anything super new to say in Houston. We've covered them because they've been very busy. We've been covering them for very good reasons this winter. There's a couple questions about Bogush. I haven't heard anything to suggest that, like, everything's on track.

Same thing, just a random one because I saw some comments on our last show about Timor Werner. That's happening. It's just paperwork takes some time. It's lawyer stuff, right? And at last I heard you know what that you know what that's like. No, I did I know I know how to say you know what that's like. And that's that's all I want to know that the line by line reading of contracts. Last I heard on Bogus, whatever day that I reported that it was finalizing was that it's in the, it's with the lawyers now, which it's going to get done.

Austin is lowest on this list. It's something we've all known like Austin has complained. I mean, Rodolfo Borell has complained about this out loud that they don't have a ton of allocation money. it's why Joseph Ralsales was a cash for and not a gam trade or something like that. I do think the roster is much better. Like I think they've already done a lot of really good work. So I'm not as concerned this year. And I think they've put themselves in a decent spot with the Owen Wolf contract

and some of the other guys they've re-signed and where they've put them where they should have a consistent core at a decent number and can start to play with some of the numbers around that as they go forward. The big way to get money, by the way, that's not recorded here, is for a team to officially go 242 and get 2 million allocation, that won't come until that roster compliance state, which is then when it becomes official, teams could pick up

two more million in discretionary gam if they wanted to. It would be a surprise if Austin was one of those teams. If Fekundo Torres comes in, they would have to find a way to get off Myrto Ouzuni or Brandon Vasquez, which does not seem like the plan for them. Okay, are we ready to dig in

to a little bit of jeopardy? Walk in. I don't have the music. I don't even know if I could. You probably, I would advise against it, yeah. Oh, you don't think that we should get pulled down. Can we, can we get sued in gam? Can we? I was going to ask.

Minnesota could give us a loan. I was going to ask if Minnesota wanted to send us some. I have Morgan in the chat, and I'm going to have her send us the first question. And then we can get into this. The question is, who was the first MLS super draft pick of all time? Or of this year? Well, Todd Ramos was, Ta Bamos was the first, like, expansion draft

Yeah, but that wasn't super draft. I'm counting that as I have a point. Screw you. Someone I co-hosts a show with, so I want to say his name. Let the record show. Okay, so yes of all time. So this is 1996. What?

Is that not Ta Bamos from Tigris? No, because it's super draft. It's college players. I have a theory that it's Brian McBride. I would also be hearing answers. I don't. Eddie Pope, I think, was already out. Someone just said Nikki Putt.

Yeah, I was just going to tell you, put the chat down, you cheater. Okay, fine. I will look away from the chat. So I'm going to go Brian McBride, and Brian McBride played at Slu is my guess. Who is? I'm sticking. I'm sticking with, I'm sticking with Tabramos.

And I will take it for it. And college is Tigress? Hey, it is a college university Autonomous National Tigress. So there you go. Morgan, hit us with some answers. This is going to be. I can do enough technological issues.

Matt Mickey on Kansas City Wizards from St. Louis University. Do I get the points for the right college with the wrong? I'll agree to split this with you. Okay. We're each on half a point and we're each embarrassed for it or when it's on money.

If this was the $1,000 question, we each get $500. Okay. Morris, hit us with the next one. and yeah this is going to be pretty bad for us I'm not super excited about what we are capable of which MLS player was set up on a blind date with a Kardashian and featured on the show I know the answer to this one

what you don't know the answer to this can you give me a ballpark year like oh three to 2010 um he is about to come through his headphones and ring your guy yeah this is going to be this is for particularly for we be all this um go i i know the answer so it is because i believe they're both

armenian it's aleko askandarian oh that's disappointing i didn't yeah and it like resurfaces every six months and then someone reposts it and whatnot but it's alecco uh was it one question yes so i get all the points on that one a point there we go all right what do you want to do Did you want a money ball? I was making sure it wasn't a two point question. Who has the most appearances in MLS history? And can you guess the number? Do I have buzz?

I'm buzzing in. Nick Romando? Yeah. I know it's a goalkeeper. I think Kyle Beckerman is outfield players. Yeah, well, guess what? She said who's the player, not the outfield player? My number, I'm going to say 485.

Okay. I'll give you, I'll let you answer that one for. I guess technically Jeopardy we're not supposed to answer. Ridiculous reefing in the chats is 589, but I'm not supposed to look at that. Ramando is the only player to break 500. Yeah, so Morgan, you can give us the answer. Nick Romando, 553, Miami Fusion, DC, and R.S.L.

Wild. 553 appearances. Two to two. Okay, two to two. I'll take that. Morgan, hit us with the next one. And I also would like to say that Nick Romando, P.K., expert.

As a short king, considering the typical height for goalkeeper, and we love that. Zippy Tuna says feels like Char has been playing for a century. He will probably approach this at some point. Which former player became an MLS head coach without prior coaching experience? Ooh, there's going to be so many answers on this, but. I know, because so many became interims, like straight into the fire. Grido Guido Pizaro just did it for Tigris Yeah

Steps off the field and coached Which MLS player became a head coach So I have, okay, I have my guess Do you can think for a little bit You can talk? Buzz your guess Buzz, buzz, buzz, Jason Christ Because I think Jason Christ stepped off the field

And there was a whole thing where Dave Chekitts was like Hey, I want you to be coach, you can do it And like we're going to guide you through it and they were kind of right. I'm not looking at my phone because she's texted, but my guess, I don't feel great about this,

but Alexi Lala seems like, seems like, did he coach ever? I don't know. Frank Yallup was the answer. That's what she came up with. There might be. Guess what you lose all your points now.

Next. I put, that was my daily double or whatever. It's hard to say like what is coaching experience count as to, you know? Jim Curtin coached the, the U5s for,

Philly and right off the playing ground. Hey, Aleko Askin Darien was his assistant on that one. It all comes back around. It all comes full circle. I don't know. Okay, what top draft pick did not play a single minute with his team before signing for a major team abroad? Hint in 2003. Top draft pick went abroad in 2003.

Is this someone who played with the national team at all? Can we ask questions? Can you be in one? Because I got nothing right now. Yeah. Oh, three is Clint Dempsey's year, I think. But obviously he played. Brad Guzan came right after

Sasha Kleschen, guys like that Marisa Duh, I think was around then, but played a year, one rookie of the year, and then all the guys that we know are the guys who played They built the training guard, yeah, true. Hint, she already gave us a hint in 2003. No, Morgan, we need another hint.

We need if this person played national team or not. I got nothing on this one. Yes, played with the USM&T. 2003, 36 caps. I think Keith Pierce could be in this area. I think Clarence Goodson could be in this area. This would be really bad if it's Heath and we didn't get it.

It will be. Danny Califf, but I don't know that he would be that high a draft pick. Hint was drafted by Chicago. It's not Bocanegro. I don't remember the 2003 draft. It's not Beasley because Beasley played in MLS. I'm seating my guess for the,

uh, out of respect to the listeners. 2003, USM&T, John Thorrington. Jonathan Specter Johnny Spectacles Damn yeah I didn't even realize

he would have been drafted because I didn't realize he would have been eligible for that Morgan says she was told to make it hard and she's upset that we bailed out on that one Okay is that the last one or do we have one more We do need a tiebreaker We do need a tiebreaker which would have been helpful

if we just know answers to questions Then we wouldn't need a tiebreaker Okay last one here it is Everyone who has hung on to this moment we appreciate you for staying with us. Who did FC? A lot of Superdraft. I did specifically say on Blue Sky,

I'd like more Superdraft. Who did FC Dallas draft number one in 2006, who only scored eight goals in his career? No one of the biggest draft flops. It's so close to Freddie you do, but it's not. It is. No, dude, I got, I got to tell you, I think I know more about MLS than a lot of people.

I got a hole in my game from 2000 to 2008 Superdraft selection. Yeah, I do. did specifically say on blue sky. Yeah, this is on you. This is not a more super draft. This is like a year before I was like watching Simon Borg on ESPN desks doing super draft coverage. Fucking. Or reading soccer by eyes every year for their super draft coverage.

So 06 is probably before me. I'm trying to think of like forwards. Chad McCarthy. I don't even know with that name. Wow. All right. I think Morgan won. I think that's kind of what we came down to.

She says one more not super draft. Beasley never played for MLS is what someone just said in the chat. Beasley played an MLS twice, both before he went to Europe. He's saying, why are you saying that? Oh, I didn't. Who is one of the most wooden spoons? So I'd assume it's a team that has to be. I'm buzzing D.C.

Yeah, that feels like an easy one. I am going to take a shot. It's a good question, Mark. Yeah. I'm going to take a shot on most spoons. Bad team hanging around. I'm going to, I'm not going to go original. I'm going to take a shot on TFC.

So your answer is D.C. I'm TFC. Morgan. And the answer is, please reveal. The answer is, who do you think you are? I am. Get out.

What's up? All right. San Jose, I should have guessed. Those are the two I was going between. They didn't even get, they didn't even exist for a little. Cincinnati. Cincinnati, they made quick work of stuff. This is what happens every time.

I know I've done this speech before when people are like Pat Noon and out. It's like you have, you are tied for second worst in Shield and you've only been a club for six years in major league soccer. How are you upset about a team that's the second? You've never more quickly moved on to a take than literally. losing the trivia. Also impressive for San Jose. They had multiple years where they didn't exist after they moved to Houston. And they still.

If you wanted to get legal, you could say Cheeves USA, the honorary Wooden Spoon winner for since they're defunct. Okay. Well, I think Morgan number one winner, Tom, number two winner, and I will take number three at the end of this one. Thank you. You're number one for hanging out with us. Thank you all of you who were doing a little trivia with us along the way.

I like this. I have an idea where I would like us to do a style where people send us the, you know. Don't we have, didn't somebody in the Discord put together a trivia game? Oh yeah. I think there's a family feud out there. But I've been afraid to like look at it because I don't know where the answers are and I don't want to. I will reach out and I will try and find it.

But I want to do the one where it's like here's the hardest clue. If you can guess the person, you get all the points, then second. And we could do it where it's blacked out. And then we could highlight it as we fail to get there. and we could go from clue to clue to clue, and then everyone can get involved, and everyone can hang out with us. So thank you once again to all of you for listening.

Thank you to Morgan for putting together the questions and stumping us. Thank you to the Superdraft for existing for the core of my fandom and everything else I love, and we'll talk to you all again very, very soon.