SoccerWise - MLS Transfer Window Close San Jose Trades, RSL Transfers, Cherundolo Leaving LAFC & CCC Semifinal Preview

Episode Date: April 22, 2025

It is the most wonderful time of year for Tommy Scoops (and clearly former Revs/current Quakes players). David & Tom breakdown all the latest trades and transfers on the final day of the MLS primary transfer window. They of course also talk through the monumental news around Steve Cherundolo leaving LAFC and they prepare for the massive Inter Miami vs Vancouver semifinal coming up.10:00 Steve Cherundolo’s Legacy At LAFC22:40 LAFC Replacing Dolo29:40 Referee Controversy Across The Weekend39:30 Ice Cream Shop41:20 Noel Buck Cashfer & Role In San Jose47:00 DeJuan Jones Trade Fallout52:45 Oscar Verhoeven Move To San Diego57:06 Boavista Issues Holding Up RSL Transfer For Robert Bozenik1:05:45 CCC Vancouver vs Miami Preview Soccerwise Live 2pm ET Every Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday on Youtube/Twitch/Twitter

Welcome everybody to Tool Time with Tom Bogert, your number one home improvement show on the interwebs both via podcast and video. I'm David Goss, your host. Tom, today we're going to be talking about drywall, painting, scraping, and everything else in between From your wooded basement. You ready to rock? I'm ready to rock. I'm not gonna be able to replicate this though So idea bought a house. Is that elite? Do you have more appreciation for it now? I My father-in-law Despite he has a small business in like the finance world. So obviously he's an expert on all of those things

He's like a contractor level handyman. And I remember asking him, it's extremely impressive. And thankfully he has the most patience in the world is I'm asking him just like, how do you spackle? How do I open this? How do I do this? What can I do? And he goes, you can just go take that trash out. All right, I'll be back in two minutes. And I remember asking him like, I was like trying to find a play way to say like, why are you so good at this? I was like, did you work in construction when you were younger? He's like, no, I just did stuff around the house. It's like, God, you're so much more of a man than I am.

For anyone who doesn't know, Tom has not been on the show the last two shows because Tom closed on his first house last week. So last Thursday show, Tom was busy making the life moves, the life changes that we love to see here at Soccerwise that we love to celebrate. And then since then, Tom has rolled his sleeve up inch by inch, centimeter by centimeter if you want to be a true soccer sicko, a football fan over from the pond and go metric system. And Tommy's working on his house and rebuilding things and keeping me updated as he goes along with, uh, yeah, I'm just breaking news in between coats of paint, you know, just when

I get a minute in between, you know, I got the plumber coming, I'm talking through with him, up source, down source, whatever else, uh, in between all of that. Maybe I'll have some time for a show. I was always doing, uh, what day was it that I broke the Dewan Jones and Noel Buck stuff that came Saturday. I was doing housework all day before I think I broke both of them. One was with the After ear if I took another call. But managing it all then today while I'm painting with my dad, just getting like, he then jokingly goes, I think the paintbrush got stiff. I don't know if the paint that you were supposed to be painting is all dried up now. Well, maybe

we'll have to report more. So that's how that's going. We have a question in the chat for anyone watching live. Please join in and talk to us. And for anyone listening via podcast, welcome. Thank you. By the way, this is soccer wise, so it is not exactly tool time and I probably am about to get sued by Tim Allen and anyone else associated with home improvement. We have a lot to talk about because the transfer window closes tomorrow, which is why Tom is not fully a painter right now.

He is splitting his career time between being the scoops master in the ice cream shop as well as building a house. We will talk about all of what you talked about to Juan Jones, no buck cash first cashers spreading man. I talked to Chris Albright about it last week. He was like, I like that. I was like, you don't like that. You need that.

And you need to spread that. I talked to all the CSOs that I could down at GA Cup and just, you know, threw it in casually in conversation so that they were like, Oh no, I don't know that. I need to know that. So I'm going to just start using it, but I'm not going to ask anyone about it. And that, that is my goal in spreading it all. We'll talk about that. We'll talk about Steve Trujando. We'll talk about Concaff Champions Cup coming up. Maybe we'll talk about some of the teams that are immensely struggling in Major League Soccer. Maybe we'll talk about that. We'll talk about Steve Trujando. We'll talk about Concaf Champions Cup coming up. Maybe we'll talk about some of the teams that are immensely struggling in Major League Soccer. Maybe we'll talk about some of the teams doing well.

Whatever else you want to talk about if you're watching live, put it in the chat. You can put it in a super chat, which means you put a little paid money behind it to support Tom's stucco wall and paint and everything else. Paint is expensive, dude. My God. Yeah. Yeah. I just painted these walls.

I didn't do it. I had someone do it, but I learned that there are many shades of white. Oh my God. Yeah, yeah. I just painted these walls. I didn't do it. I had someone do it, but I learned that there are many shades of white. Oh my God. And the main thing I learned about them is I think they all look like white and I don't care. I have no juice for some of these conversations and I try. I'm an actor, I fake it. So I can give you a tight 40 seconds on something.

Secondary questions, I've got nothing for you. So I do my little bit and someone goes, oh, interesting, well, what if you slid the chair over to this corner? I was like, that's all I had. I've got no more for you. I do not care about the layout of this room at all. But we will get through all of that as we go along. Tom, is there anything big that you've learned that is easier than you thought it was going to be or more obvious than you thought it was going to be? Because I feel like that's part of the experience sometimes where you're like, you know, I don't know how to do anything like you also.

But then you learn one thing and you're like, oh, okay, yeah, that's how that works. And then you realize it's repeatable. A little bit of knowledge is dangerous because then you feel like you're there when you're actually not. I will say and this is what I'm going to put on my resume when I asked Andrew Weeby, the chief dad among us, to knight me into power dad, alpha dad status, because I went, the house we bought has a trampling in the backyard.

It was part of the contract that they were gonna take it out, and like the day before, I was like, if I had to guess, I bet it's gonna be there, and my dad's like, dude, it's 100% Just know that right now. So the trampoline was still in the backyard and I went out with with a screwdriver knife and And some elbow grit and belief my my lunch pail my hard hat It's like 85 degrees Saturday. So I was like, you know, I'm going to do? I'm going to be the neighborhood alpha. I'm going to put on the Grateful Dead, throw on some sunglasses, get some sun, take the

shirt off, and just piece by piece dismantle the trampoline. And that's like the most proud I've been of myself of all time. I will be proud of you, depending on how you answered this question. Did you jump on the trampoline before you did that? That was literally the first thing my wife and I did. Yeah. Because... Trampolines are sick. The dogs didn't love that.

They were confused by the... Yeah. No idea. By the emotions? No idea what was going on. But they did love having a yard, so I'm very happy for them. Yes. And they'll get to see it once we do all this work and get to play with them. Free mellow, baby. Three to the dome. Mellow finally allowed to stretch his legs and play the way he wants.

He is Olympic mellow at this point. He's finally getting to do what he does at his best. We got the jokes already in the chat about super chats necessary for Boa Vista. So let's dig into the show we've got coming up. I did the review show yesterday. If you've missed it, by the way. So last week we had some great episodes we had on. Now I need to remember who we had on. We had Kaelin Carr on. Have you ever heard his name? He is the voice of the generation Adidas cup. Now he is also co manager, co owner of the Tom and Kaelin team, which I think is in first place, but only by a goal ahead of me.

It is a tight, tight pack right now in the golden boot race. He was on the show along with Charles Olczek, the president of MLS next pro. We talked about expansion, the future of the league, where they're going. I mean, it's pretty ambitious stuff in terms of footprint. How many green circles was that one with? We did not talk about that. He technically doesn't run MLS next so we didn't get into the Product of play quality of play rankings that are coming in at MLS next I talked with actual Schuster as well It was supposed to be like 20 minutes and ended up being 48 minutes Because I wish I worked for actual Schuster if you are at the vancouver whitecaps looking for anyone to do any role that takes

No skills call me because I am available And so that was really fun. We talked about the stadium situation, ownership, Pedro Vite's future, Ryan Galt's health, Jesper Sorensen, what he's brought, Sebastian Berhalter, JC Nagando, all of that. You can go back and listen to. We also had Paul Tonori on who talked to us about Kevin De Bruyne and the MLS schedule flip. And I think it was a fun conversation. I think everyone knows with Paul, it becomes allocation disorder like within 30 seconds after we make fun of Tom, who pretty much just becomes allocation disorder.

And it was sort of just his thoughts, I think in general about we are all in this timeline. I think we all feel it of the world cup starts in pretty much a year here in North America. The club world cup starts even sooner if you've not heard because I assume whatever club you are a fan of has sent you 900 emails about getting tickets to the Club World Cup and it doesn't feel like MLS or the soccer structure in general in the United States is ready in Canada. So I think Tom talked about that a bit and then we had Chris

Albright on on Friday who thought Tom, sorry Paul. Congratulations. we had Chris Albright on Friday who thought Tom, sorry Paul. Congratulations. We had Chris Albright on Friday. I sat down with him in person at the GA Cup. He talked about the experience of living through the Evander Lucho saga, building up the academy in Cincinnati and of course, Cavendin Quinn Sullivan. He brought up Quinn for national team and he said, I try to be unbiased. The resumes there. Yeah. Right. Like it's at a minimum a debatable point. And obviously he is family and connected.

Plus he worked at Philly and all of that. Quinn went out and had a goal and assist this weekend. That's like a pretty good way to push the like, no, he's not being biased. Like I'm actually bawling at this point and a lot of things Quinn does are things I think a lot of people liked what Diego Luna brought and other players out which is just The extra half effort of like trying to run things down making sure you're on the back post making more runs in the box All that type of stuff so I could see it happen and I would not be shocked But that was I run down of shows last week did the recap yesterday now Let's dig in today's show Tom I mentioned it on the recap because it was unavoidable even though it wasn't part of the weekend schedule, which is

Steve Cherondolo Announced that the end of last week that he is leaving Lafc at the end of the season to go back to Germany where his wife is from where he has spent I think the majority of his adult life, maybe over 50% of his entire life. He is nicknamed the mayor of Hanover because of what he did at Hanover 96, his entire career. So his entire professional career at one club in Germany, he is fluent in German after retiring. He went in and worked as an academy coach there.

He ended up being a youth national team coach with the German FA Which is like not a really easy thing to happen in your life especially for someone who's not actually from the country and is from a country that many people would say doesn't know soccer as well as Germany and then after that he chose to come over to the US He took the Las Vegas Lights job as at the time it was LAFC 2 for one year and then when Bob Bradley left he took over LAFC so he makes this announcement that means and I have some of the quotes in here but that means he will finish this season he is not walking away today he is not coaching

next week because he got a red card in the Portland game but he is the coach of LAFC through the end of this season and then LAFC will have to figure out what to do next. Trundle's quote was it's an honor to be the head coach of LAFC through the end of this season. And then LAFC will have to figure out what to do next. Toronto's quote was, it's an honor to be the head coach of LAFC. After much reflection and discussion with my family, we made the decision that at the end of this year we'll return to Germany. I love LA and LAFC, but this is the move is in the best interest of my family,

even as it will ultimately take us away from the team, city, and organization and fan base that I'm proud to represent. I'm looking forward to continuing our work with the players coaches and staff to make the 2025 season a success as we keep fighting to win trophies. I think Jeff Carlyle and his ESPN piece Put in some quotes that Steve Jones will gave when he joined Las Vegas About how hard it was to leave Germany at the time from a emotional and family point of view and their connections there and all of that So you'd assume where this timing is is he is not taking a job Specifically in Germany. He is leaving LAFC to go back for life reasons to Germany and then we'll figure that part out later

Yeah, that's what it seems to me. I don't have any information on that. I was very surprised at the announcement I'm also surprised that how early this is. It's mid-April when that was announced. He's still here for another seven or eight months, whatever it is, right? So I guess it's good to have the clarity and it's good to know that he'll be here. I think that was the thing that took me back the most was obviously the news is shocking, but that it's announced now and We'll see if that has any kind of impact on the rest of the season again if the decision is made it is good to Get announced. I'm just I was I guess I was surprised that the decision was made so far before the end of the season

Yeah Clearly because it's a life thing. It's something he has set on a calendar. And I guess for LAFC, there's no disadvantage to putting out there one that the job will be open and available and like start your process, get as many names interested in that process as you can. I do wonder if there is a sentiment coming out of CCC and the way it finished. I don't want to say things have gotten stale

because it's bizarre. It's his third, you know, three and a half seasons in, but maybe there is like, let's turn this into a rally. It's almost like a new manager bump without him actually having left. And to see like, can we galvanize the group in the end of the season? And if you tell anyone, you got to tell everyone, right?

Cause if they tell the team, Tommy Scoob's gonna know know and then it's out there and in between coats of paint and primer and we're working on a new doorway Now all of a sudden the news is out there So once I think Steve Toronto and John Thornton decided to tell the team you have to put it out there But it was so out of the blue, you know that there wasn't really like MLS's website was not prepared for it I think it was like more news coming like People were unsure what they were looking at because the way it came out was so bizarre of what we normally see in a situation Like this and the situation is unique that it was like

What is the second shoe to drop on this and it was just no this is what it is Like him and his family want to move they want to go back to Germany But they don't need they're not in a rush to do it right now. So this is the way it function This is the way it operates My guess would be and what I sort of threw out there yesterday is he has so many ties there that once he gets there He will end up whether it's on a staff or in an academy or continuing whether it's with that Federation I wouldn't be shocked if US soccer had a role for him of like liaison overseas You know someone based in Europe as a lot of the group is now based in the US and scouting players and interacting with clubs

And whatever it is. So, oh, you know, he has an incredible resume for a young Person in that role and it probably won't be a head coach day one But also if you are around and things Yeah, you're not wrong. You come in, especially after a winter break when sometimes there are people get fired. And if it's not division one, division two, division three, whatever it is. Yeah, you're right. I shouldn't probably say that because there is the potential that especially if he finishes this year strong. I mean, I have the stats right

here. But for his time, he has five cup finals. He's won two trophies, the shield and MLS cup both in his first season. He's finished top of the Western Conference two times. He's done a continental he's done it domestic. His resume is as stacked as it can be for someone who's had his time. And that doesn't include this year in which they went to quarterfinals so far. But they if they find their feet are probably going to be a contender again going into MLS playoffs Yeah, I think they're in a bit of a bad way right now Particularly after that elimination to Miami in the concord champions cup, but I firmly believe that this is gonna be a team Competing in every competition that they're in

I mean, I maybe not shield at this point, but you kind of know what I mean So yeah, Steve Trundle Oh and again as we keep saying, he's going to be here for the rest of the season, the book is still being written. But as of right now, I'm going to say this has been an overwhelmingly positive managerial sit. All of those accolades that you said, no, it wasn't always a pretty soccer, but it was effective. And that's what his job is. And that's what they did. And to be consistently in finals and contending for trophies, again, essentially every competition they've been in, they've been contending. And there are going to be the criticisms of not getting more trophies or maybe a couple of those Columbus losses, whatever, right? To be in a now 30-team league

and know that you're in the mix all of the time I think is overwhelmingly positive that being said There if you want to argue the other side It could become pretty strong of like I don't think it can by the way I think you could argue in the arguments and the conversations that have been occurring over the last few weeks of like Should he be the manager for the future, which obviously now is no longer a conversation. There's some argument that you can try and find of like, where is this club going?

But you cannot now look at the resume and say, three years, five cup finals, two times top of the Western Conference in three years, a double in his opening year. Like you can't take that resume and say it was a failure. I agree and again I want to preface this by saying I'm with you I'm saying this I've been the one kind of defending them even when they were falling short in some of these competitions. I don't want to get taken out of context that is my opinion that

is my feeling that is my belief. Oh I messed this up by the way it's three trophies two cups. Yeah no I have open cup written down I it's three trophies to open up. Yeah, no, I have open cup written down. I just wrote the trophies part wrong. Okay, so they've won three trophies in three years now coming in. That that that again, that is elite. Like the other side of this though is you could start again, revisionist history and picking holes and things. Well, 2022, they won the shield on on a point differential, I'm sorry, on a tiebreaker. In most of the world, the tiebreaker is goal difference, which Philly were vastly superior than LAFC.

And like they, I thought were the better regular season team, because they finished level on points. They lose, they win that on a tiebreaker. So that very easily could have went the other way. The second one is MLS Cup. They get the goal in the 128th minute or whatever it was from Gareth Bale and then they win on penalties. Then you can start picking holes in that. Like that could have went the other way really easily. And then what you have left is a sporting Kansas City Open Cup win and you look at this as the worst Kansas City team in about a dozen

years. And again, that's going to be an argument. I know that for a fact because people have made it to us privately, because that is the argument. I don't agree with it. I can see the logic of how you get there. But like, there's nothing but overwhelmingly positive for Steve Toronto, those signed at LAFC because yeah, you can split hairs, but that's how trophies are won, man. Like, you go on down the line, you could say, well, if this, if that, well then, like, Columbus

had to come back and beat Cincy to get to the M.I.S. Cup final that they won over L.A.F.C. There's no guarantee that- Yeah, this is the whole thing. Well, what if this happened? The margins are so thin. And because Denny Belonga missed a one-on-one against a 47 year old goalkeeper again, I don't blame that on Terendolo. Like in that moment, like these are things that happen in such such fine moments and

the game can be cruel. So again, so giving yourself enough chances being in every single competition, being a contender and all of them is I think in and of itself extremely impressive. Yeah, the the reason that you I would never accept someone saying this like oh the margins are thin it could have gone this way that way is if it goes your way both times in one year then it's not a 50-50 at that point right you clearly had the superior upper hand to be able to overcome both times both in the shield like if they had lost MLS cup to Philly that

Trophy would be a different convo. They won on a technicality then they lost head-to-head clearly Philly's a better team Right not the case right they beat them twice one in the season and obviously Shields not perfect because you don't play enough times everyone whatever the other thing is just you cannot debate the floor that Steve Tarantolo built in that if finals and soccer is finicky, as if you get to enough, you'll win enough. And they got to enough because the base of the way this the floor of the way this team played, the way they set up in most playoff games in most knockout games was that they

were going to be hard to beat and that at some point they'd break you down. They didn't overexpose themselves. They didn't open up. We have someone in the chat here, which is 100% true. Paolo says, Bradley played more exciting soccer, but Dolough had the better results. Bob Bradley's LAFC team is my favorite team, probably in MLS. That 2019 Vela team? Yeah. I watch Bob's teams play anytime. And I talk about Bob, I think, elevated to how many people do because I think a lot of people forget.

I think he's the greatest soccer mind in American soccer history. So I have a ton of respect for what he built and what he's done. Steve Turandolo, it looks different. But when I talked to Axel Schuster last week on the show, right, there's the transition from Vanni Sartini to Jesper Sorensen. I asked him, like, is there a right and wrong way? And he said, no. Now everyone disagsen. I asked him like is there right and wrong way and he said no Now everyone disagrees. I have a disagreement, right?

I would want my teams to play a certain way and I don't care how many times we'd lose I'd be a glutton for punishment because I'd be like, yeah But do you remember in the 61st minute when they got pressed and they played out of it and then That one guy played a back heel in the middle of pressure and then they played over the top of the defense But brought it down and reset reset that's a championship to me so I'm loser mentality on some of that but like you can't argue with what Steve Cherundolo has built its sustainability competing now you talk Leaks Cup CONCACAF Champions Cup and MLS so you're talking about international

competition domestic competition it worked on all of those levels and if the fault is they couldn't win at Columbus like welcome to the club No one could obviously the Red Bulls were able to do it last year But like no one could and that even in that scope they still won Three trophies across that time period and so I think there's there's really no way to argue that it didn't work now Let's talk next steps. So, so the quotes from john thorington are Steve's been a tremendous leader for lafc and has proven to be one of the top coaches in our league

What he has achieved during his tenure speaks for itself We're extremely thankful to him for his continued dedication and hard work We support his decision to focus on his family and we and with this move at the end of the season For the remainder of 2025 our goals have not changed. We remain committed to winning trophies this season. We believe we have the people to make that happen, and there will be no better way to close this chapter than with another trophy for LAFC.

Now I think two things come to mind immediately. The first is, how does this affect the recruitment of a potential third designated player if you don't know who your head coach is going to be going forward? And second, who will coach me in this club going forward? That's a good question. I don't think that it should really impact the DP situation because like, look, dude, if you get a killer number 10, if you get a killer winger, right, you just do that.

And like an Alexi Marantchuk, like a big time signing. If you've got to get it right, obviously. When Bob Bradley was leaving, the club, and this probably doesn't fit perfectly because Terundolo didn't play really a similar way, but LAFC's whole thing was, yeah, this is what we want, and this is the style we want, this is everything we want. The Toronto's kind of went the other way. So the idea is if you know what you want as a club, the general kind of profiles that are going to fit in should make sense.

So I still think that they should go ahead and get a DP this summer. Again, even if that's just extending Ching as Uyndir's loan, better than nothing is kind of where I'm sad at. And then on the coaching side, I honestly don't know which direction they're going to go because I could see them going to South America or Europe or just going like, hey, Jim Curtin, like, what do you want? We're going to Atlanta tried that as well. So who knows?

I could see them going from within like they did with Toronto with Auntie Razov and Mark Dos Santos. I think those three names that the curtain, Razov and Dos Dos Santos. I think those three names, the Curtin, Razov and Dos Santos, are the first ones to come to mind. But like, I don't know, man, like, L.A. FC could have the pull if they wanted to get a name brand head coach that maybe other clubs in the league wouldn't have the opportunity to really sway and bring in. Like, man, Bob Bradley was a star higher when they got him. And again, it doesn't't need to be an American it's just kind of where I'm at like I could there's a lot of names out there that you could throw at me I could be like yeah

I could see it. I think that's a great way to say it which is LAFC are in a stratosphere that Atlanta are in that Miami are in The galaxy where you are talking outside of the standard pool where I've got my Apple Note. Hit me up, Apple, come on, I've said it, so give me a little bit of cash for the backend. It's not how negotiating works. Yeah, you're welcome.

With all the coaches. They're all the coaches that are available, right? Lauren Quartois got thrown on that list now. Those are all options. And then for some teams, that are available, right? Lauren Quartois got thrown on that list now. Like those are all options. And then for some teams, those are the only options. And then for a team like LAFC, you don't recycle the Marcelo Gallardo's and Tata Martinos of the world.

And I think even larger than that. Like this is a team with the way they've set themselves up with the atmosphere, with the city, obviously with the success they've set themselves up with the atmosphere with the city obviously with the success they've had they could go anywhere. What I said yesterday on the recap show which I think to me guides a lot of this is the direction of the club is set by John Thornton. It is why LAFC is not in a panic right now because the sporting direction the sporting structure the sporting culture is set by John Thornton, who's not leaving. I don't see that as someone who's like, let's go get Tite and bring in the

former Brazilian national team manager who will be his own voice. And not that he does want another voice in the room, but the largest voice or Tata Martino. Let's be straight up, right? Tata does his own transfers. He finds his own players. He wants his own style. He wants to do what he wants to do. I don't picture that being the way LAFC

will set themselves up where Bob Bradley was almost the perfect in between of new MLS, new John, they had a similar brain, they had a similar background, but then Turandolo was really take my plan and put it into place and that's where I think a lot of these names that I put down yesterday And I was firing from the hip you better believe I had six shooters out Yeah Are all people I think that fit into that profile of one have a background across what John Thornton has done Jim curtain being his former teammate in Chicago the others being assistants right now in Ante and Mark Dos Santos. I threw Jesse Marsh in there. So Marsh's contracts up at the end

of the World's Cup. If you think Jesse Marsh wants to coach your team, which by the way, if you're not playing with the ball, you've got Mark Delgado under contract. You've got Dennis Buonga, Aaron Long, Jeremy Obobici. The long-term contracts on this team are all guys who would play for Jesse at a high level. If you think you can get that done, you don't even care about the first half of next season. You have to do an interim coach for half a season for Jesse takes over. Yeah. And you have two options in that you have one, which is Jesse's worked with enough people that his future assistant could be

someone who has been a head coach. Obviously not Chris Armis, but like guys, like that. Like Bradley or yeah, or yeah, I'm not kidding like like the plan as far as I understood it was when like again Maybe not the plan is too strong But when Bradley was retiring from what I was hearing was hey if Jesse is still managing wherever he is Like come January. I'll go up join his staff And then obviously he got fired from leads I think the timelines a line and then Bob Bradley took over at stop X so Michael doing that but like that's that's something that would be

important yeah Toronto I looked it up I think he was 41 when they hired him to be coach of Las Vegas 42 when he took over which is young for a manager Michael's like 38 or 39 so it which is young for a manager but Michael's like 38 or 39 so it would be a little bit younger but it's also interim or auntie right auntie Rosoff played with Jesse Marsh he works at LAFC right now Mark dos Santos similar has crossed paths if they want to be there they could so I think all of those are possibilities I brought up will for non say of like do you throw a shot across the bow?

Is that your home run? Um, if you can't beat him, join him type thing. He's already moved in major league soccer. I would be shocked just cause like he's got his build and everything. But I like the idea. So you can, uh, one of the absurd ones that I hadn't thought of until just now is Peter Vermeese. Like you have said it, Peter Vermeese has a coach as a sporting director,

let down Peter Vermeese as a coach. Um, some people probably have stock in Peter Vermeese coach out there and it might be someone like John Thornton who's been around for a while and has worked around him or with him over the course of time. So there are huge question marks now for LAFC. I think there's going be fascinating too, because how early can you pick someone who then wants to wait? Like if you start the process now and you find someone, are they just

chilling for six months while Steve Trondell finishes out the season? You know, as this goes along, if you have the option of someone and then another job opens up, are they going to walk away? And then you have to lock them down. And when you lock them down, how do you make all of that work? So there's a ton of question marks around this. It makes the end of the season really fascinating for this team. I do wonder if there is that new manager bounce for them.

It wasn't exactly that way this weekend. They tied Portland 3-3 in a crazy wild man out in Portland. Blanca got called offside twice on two finishes after review Giroud scores a free kick from the top of the box that like the cameraman zoomed in on buonga No one thinks you're shooting He left foots it off the bottom of the crossbar bounces in and goes in his first goal In his mls career

So he has scored in other competitions. He has not scored a goal in about a year in Major League Soccer, League Play. He gets that goal. Portland is pissed. They thought the Buonga PK was a bad call. Cirundolo got sent off 15 minutes before that for yelling at the ref. And I think Phil Neville was pretty pointed, Tom,

in his criticism. Yeah, so what I can say is it's been brewing in Portland I've spoken to a few people there in recent weeks have not been thrilled with the refereeing and some decisions that has gone against them So I think it really boiled over here and after the game Phil Neville said quote on The state of refereeing quote they want to be kings of the castle, it's all about them, they just wanna show they're the main people in this league and unfortunately, it's just not good. So I wanna be clear too,

if you take that tweet out of context and you say, oh, it's a penalty, like get over it or whatever, right? Phil was talking about Steve Cirundolo getting sent off and he even kinda said like, I'm mad that the other team's coach got sent off because I think he like, he started that was a you know a phenomenal game both players sets of players were incredible they should be absolutely proud not the officials the players should be proud once again not

the officials so he was again you could tell that this was something that was brewing and it wasn't a banner weekend in terms of refereeing. Like a couple people in the chat have talked about the Diego Luna red card. It's shocking to me in the age of VAR that that stood. Maybe there wasn't trying to give benefit to that. It wasn't good reply. There was plenty of replies, man. I don't think there's clear and obvious to overturn because nothing happened.

I guess that's clear and obvious to overturn because nothing happened? I guess that's the clear and obvious overturn. And again, not to just make it seem like we're taking shots at MLS refs. In the Champions League last week, what was there, like a six and a half minute VAR break? That should never happen. That is not the point of VAR. And again, the age old, if it's not clear clear and obvious if it takes you 75 replays to do it It's not clear and obvious right like so these are some of the things that are annoying and look like did you see Alex Katranis? Came to the press conference after the game when he wasn't one of these no

No Because he wanted to talk about how bad the refereeing was how Diego Luna had gotten done dirty Because of it and if a player is choosing to do press, that's like, yeah, that shows the level of frustration. Um, yeah, that goes along with Phil Neville. I think there was frustration, what in the Houston game? I'm just trying to like think back through the games. I mean, San Jose, SKC, there's a ton of frustration as well with refereeing and some of the

decisions. Um, Cincinnati, Chicago, I don't know what you're supposed to do about it. Panetta trips on the ref, which leads to the Evander opening goal. So then Chicago's livid, Chris Brady's like sprinting out of the goal, halfway up the field to yell about it. There was a lot of controversial calls. There was a lot of question marks. And what we've gotten in, I know in the discord, which is, you know, a ton of active fans, if you're not a part of it subscribe to the patreon get you access to discord It's the best place to hang out and talk soccer There was a feeling that it was just like lack of

control and flow in games which led to chaotic endings of games because you had situations where Players didn't know what a foul was and I don't disagree with that because I think in general Players didn't know what a foul was and I don't disagree with that because I think in general Phil Neville is just doing what Phil Neville is gonna like he's doing what he's gonna do The referee doesn't want to be the center like none of that's really true for the most part That is referees are under pressure They are uncomfortable in this situation and they don't know how to tamp down and a lot of the referees and pro are not Super experienced because the leagues expanding we're're adding league so like think about pro covering North American soccer, but mainly us. When you add a

USL Super League, and you expand USL League One and championship and MLS and NWSL at the same time, you're expanding the amount of games every weekend. So you're expanding the refs that you're pushing into the player pool, you've then added VAR where you need center referees to be on as well at some point. And you have referees that I think are unprepared for some of these moments and they don't know how to handle it. And so they get caught off guard or they get, um, they,

they're trying to tamp things down very quickly and you can see it with experience referees and you can hear it. Right. We had, of course, what Joe Dickerson and Phillip Dudujic who had his big moment. Okay. Once again, this weekend on and they talked about the communication with players and you hear it from players. Players are like, Oh no, this ref talks to me or this ref knows how to like bring me a little closer. So now my level of volume comes down a little.

So now it's less intense and then you don't have to start showing yellow cards. The Andres Reyes moment was absurd. Like you have to do it because it affects his suspensions. Yeah. Everything was correct. Like what, what, everything was correct. But to have to call and for anyone who hasn't seen it, Andres Reyes brings down Patrick Ajumon, I think as the last man gets called for a free kick outside the box. Then they go to to VAR it turns out it's a penalty which then turns it into a yellow card but he had just picked up a yellow card so Reyes had to come back out of the locker room so that

he could have his red card rescinded be shown a second yellow and then be sent back off the field and then OJ Wong put the PK away shout out to the OJ God got to get back on the scoring charts and San Diego ended up losing 3-0 in the end of this game. But like, Andres Reyes is suspended for this weekend now. But a straight red, he's suspended longer than that. And it's a different sign and it affects, like so that mattered, but it's an absurd thing to watch go down.

No, that was funny. And like just because of all of the disco reports where it's, you know, fined for failing to leave the field in a timely manner. Like Andres Reyes like wasn't going to get a fine for that because he exited the field. There was like no way to come back so we can send you off again. It's again like I'm laughing at just the situation because again they did everything correct. And I kind of want to end this discussion by reiterating my general stance. I don't love talking about referees

I don't because like one unless they're cheating Jalen Bronson I mean Dennis Schroeder obviously raped all over him and Tobias Harris is a cheater born and raised on Long Island Which disgusts me? But otherwise, we don't like to talk about because like again, dude, like every team But otherwise we don't like to talk about refs. Yeah, because again, dude, every team, like club personnel, fans, whatever, you see it through your colored glasses, you think that we're the only teams that ever get screwed by a 50-50 call, and if you talk to MLS fans, they say our referees are the worst. You talk to Premier League fans, they say our referees are the worst.

Then baseball fans, they know our refs are the worst. And then the NBA, it's like, like all but they're rigged there like if you it gets exhausted when you know the chief stuff in the NFL i don't have a ton of time for it it's it's a really difficult job uh... so i don't like to pile on when everybody already is and everybody all always sees it their way so uh... but there was a couple questions that you had and like this should still be criticism i think they're not about gris is in but my gener like look man. Everybody complains about refs and it just it is what it is

Yeah, I agree with you fully Except the Pistons are cheating Do you think Malik Beasley is gonna shimmy as he goes to Cancun in about eight days? Probably up the loons in the chat says why can't you figure out a way to get it give Andre? So is the red card without having him come out like just note it. It's a good question I'm probably something that someone should discuss and figure out. I hope this doesn't happen very often. I think that we can use our brainpower elsewhere. Also, one of our big complaints is it is hard to figure out what's going on

at games, like for broadcasters, but also for fans. So that actually becomes harder. And I guarantee you we would complain about it the other way. Maybe if it happened to be like we don't know what's going on in the building but yes you are right there are ways to figure a lot of this out and adjust a ton of it for Portland I think six unbeaten now they would have liked it to be a win but six unbeaten for them in a row I don't think all the problems are fixed but Jonathan Rodriguez second game back from injury Felipe Mora looking a little bit healthier a little bit more fit. DeCosta is good

It's different than a vander a vander is like an unstoppable force with These flare moments but the way de costa moves and weights balls He finds gaps that just don't exist, especially when he comes out in the channels And now he's able to just like float balls outside of the foot on the ground right to the run of the center forward He's a consistent move. He covers a ton of ground. So he's connecting the game and all of that Understand there's some belief in some of the young pieces along the back line I have not seen enough of it to catapult Portland and say this is different than what we've seen the last few years

But it's trending in the right direction for them right now with LAFC last few years, but it's trending in the right direction for them. Um, right now with LAFC, Sharud gets the goal. I thought Sharud also just played the role. I thought he would play a lot more this weekend, which is like kind of as a creator, like I thought he would drop in more create for Buonga, Martinez, under whoever it is running alongside. But then when he is in the box, he's a legitimate factor. I finished felt like we saw a little bit of that more.

We had some questions about, so he has an option at the end of this year, as does Loris. Whatever coach comes in next, well they would have to decide what he looks like. I haven't like totally given up on Giroud being a factor for this team just because it's there. I agree. Like a lot of the reason they signed him is still there. And I would be surprised if LAFC gave up on the whole thing as well. We now have a transfer window that's closing in how much time, Tom? When does it close?

Tomorrow. Okay, on Wednesday. So, Tuesday, we're recording right now. If you're listening via podcast later and you're listening on Wednesday, you know when it closed. It is right now. We already have had some big moves right before the end of this window as we mentioned

Tom's been breaking them all weekend and a lot of them are connected to San Jose New England I made it I made a joke yesterday I said currently San Jose is working on acquiring Avery John Andy Dorman and Matt Reese Because every former New England Revolution has to play for this team. They picked up two former revs, one directly from the revs and one via Columbus. Noel Buck, the cash for and Dwan Jones, a trade for allocation money. I don't think we have the exact details yet, right? No, not yet.

And obviously all of this is going to get announced again, like not to hedge. Like I was saying on the GosDog stuff. Like I have an idea where it is, but I'm assuming that Buck is going to be announced, or Dewan is going to be announced maybe today. So we'll have the numbers soon enough. And my under, I know that the null Buck is a cashfer. I think Dewan Jones is allocation money, but I don't know that with 100% certainty. But either way, San Jose are bringing in two former revs. And I really, really like both

of these deals for the Quakes, which would be a lot more fun to talk about if they didn't give up five goals to Sporting Kansas City at home this weekend. And I'd be more excited about all of this, but those two things can still be separate. I really like both of these deals for the San Jose Earthquakes. For the quakes they're just the latest victim of the juggernaut that is sporting Kansas City's attack right now. I like both these deals too. I talked about it a little yesterday. Let's start with Noel Buck. So two years ago he made his debut as a 17 year old in MLS in 2022. In 2023 under Bruce Arena, who is coach now of San Jose, he started across the season 22 MLS games in 27 appearances.

He had three goals and an assist under Bruce. Since Bruce left New England, originally he was suspended, then eventually comes back around and is San Jose coach Noel buck in the what two years has played almost 600 minutes in MLS He has started seven games combined across the two seasons and then he went out to Southampton on loan They had him with the u21s He started a few games at the beginning then it was once once a month for two, three months, and then New England terminated the loan and he came back to New England. So he just hasn't really played soccer in two plus years now after being an 18 year old starting center

mid in MLS. And for me at least, the hope is now he goes back to the manager who had trusted him at the beginning and made him look like a future England international is what we were talking about. New England were asking for $7 million for no buck in conversations after those breakout seasons. They probably could have sold them for around half of that. Again, this is all hypothetical, right? But hindsight's 2020. Then Caleb Porter just doesn't like it, doesn't use them. And hey, fair enough, right? Like, managers can have their own opinions on players. He went on loan to Southampton U-21s because it was very clear he was not getting any more playing time in New England. So I might as well take one of these English offers

and English opportunities. It didn't work out at Southampton, but for me, this is an incredibly talented young player. I think he's going to fit really well in San Jose in their kind of 3-5-2 where he'll have somebody like Ian Harks or Bo LaRue next to him when he's playing. So you have kind of the destroyer next to him and he gets to be more tactical and ball progress and do a lot of things with a defensive midfielder next to him and three centerbacks behind him and runners all around like I think Noel Buck is going to be really good for this San Jose Earthquakes team and He does enough physically

I think that adds an element to this group because I think this San Jose Central midfield has played a little light They have been soft to play through they have not tracked runners They don't win as many 50-50 battles as I would like and I think it's been to the detriment of San Jose In which it's not a part of the field they dominate and then it's not a part of the field they create it out of So I think no buck brings all of those things to this team Which is where there's a clear space for him to play which is really really exciting and I think it makes the opportunity For him. Okay, if you do the things you do well, this is how it fits into this team This is what you can be for this group my assumption Tom and we don't know the details shout out to the chat

By the way who cleaned up the details are on to one Jones for us It's a you know, this is a team sport. No one's in here. No, no person's an island in all of this My assumption is though the revs keep some level of sell-on, right? I just become they have to right and this becomes what Jack McGlynn became which is can we send them somewhere? Where he looks better and whatever we get in sell-on from that ends up probably being of more value Then what we're gonna sell outright if we continue to tank his value in our own team. And that's, I'll give the club credit for that too. I'm telling you right now, the ballpark from kind of the fees and figures I've heard, and this has kind of gone on for like a month.

These talks have been going on for a while. They came close to a deal. I thought it was going to happen a couple weeks ago, then it didn't. Something in like the $600,000 ballpark, right? Give or take, a hundred or two thousand right like it's not a ton of money I think that it's a great deal for it's a great roll the dice for Santa's a worst-case scenario like that's okay if it doesn't work out it doesn't work out so I give New England credit for saying like look he's not gonna put he's

training with the second team the last week like he's I don't understand it but at least that they weren't like no like we could have gotten more we should get more maybe we can you know read rehab is value whatever right they said you know what this is better for the player and hey we're still getting some money now and again probably gonna have a cell on attached to it they really should so I give credit to send us to New England sorry for allowing this move to happen and not like demanding every single possible penny they could get.

And your hope then is if he gets sold by the number you think by San Jose and you get 25% of that all combined it starts to get to that number and then as his career goes along there's more sell on knock on as you do you know more moves and whatever. So no buck headed that direction. The Rebs, they won again this weekend. Back to back wins. They scored a goal from the run of play, which is a cool thing to do in soccer

and probably a good idea for this team. They got Campagna back. They started him up top alongside Ganago. So, a little bit of a different look for this team. It seemed to have worked. I think Peyton Miller for sure will be successful in a setup like this. Uh, Eli Feingold got the start on the other side. Maybe that's a spot where one of the wingers starts to play though.

And you can bring him as a wide center back and then you could really open up the attack, whatever it is. The revs are still trying to get healthy and they're still trying to figure out what this group is and what it looks like. Let's move to the next trade, which is Dewan Jones, which as I said, chat helped clean up. Shout out to Dan Nye in here who said 425,000 in gam and an international roster spot for Dewan Jones. So the original trade was 600,000 in gam from Columbus to New England and Will Sands alongside

of it. Basically breaking even the international roster spots worth 200 to 250,000 at this point in the season. And so you basically break even with Will Sands being there, which I think for Columbus, as I said, was worth it. Dwan Jones was available. You know he's useful in MLS. You went out and got him because he was available last year and no one else was doing it. And now you find that he is not a major part of your group and you are able to move him

along to the next deal. And like for San Jose, this is such an obvious win for the way they play. I agree. And a couple of notes on like how this came together. I will start with Duann Jones is very excited to be back with San Jose in this project. Back with San Jose. Back with Bruce in with this project in San Jose. I think it fits him very well. So he was was pushing mate might not be the right word, but like, it's not like he desperately

wanted to leave Columbus. It was like, all alright. This makes a lot of sense. I think for all parties Columbus crew they have Max Orfston Max Orfston is turns out to be a better fit for Columbus and this style and and I think Dwan's gonna be a better fit in San Jose system Columbus it's not like they were trying to get rid of them They again like one of the lines that I was speaking to somebody there was like hey we wanted to do right by him. And again like this is something that we keep coming back to like I think that's important rather than saying hey no like we're gonna have you as a rotational guy. Dwan Jones still has if you have any dream of making the World Cup roster you have to be playing every single

week and he's going to get that in San Jose. He's not definitely going to get that in Columbus because of Max Harffson and everything else with that team. So I think that that was good on Columbus. Nice deal by the revs, by the quakes, by the quakes. And hey, on the other side for Columbus, right, it's not just, this isn't just charity. This opens a lot of spaces, opens a lot of salary cap space for them. They already had plenty.

They have a DB spot open, right? Like they have a ton of flexibility going into the summer. And yeah, they lost to Miami but like things are still really good for this team. There was no reason to have to on Jones on the roster in that. As you said, he wasn't a starter Max Austin was the starter in that spot at the start of this year. All of a sudden it made sense of like, Oh, Max Arfstein is going to play a little higher because I Say this a lot, but like with non say it's not positioned positional depth It's just having enough players because he's so flexible with the way he uses them So like if you think Dwan Jones is good

Which he is then it was worth bringing him in to say if we need to we can move max arvstein up the field into the attack Whatever they probably with the way Nance plays, can get some level of performance and production out of Lassie Lappalainen at 1 18th of the cost. Dude, brother, if you're, if you, there's nobody more juiced about this Lassie Lappalainen move than you, the same way that RIP Extra Time, that Doyle spoke about Derek Jones to the Columbus crew like

it was Cucho Hernandez. So I'm not doing this again. I'm not doing this again. I'm not going to sit here on our show and let this happen. Okay, you can mention Lesley Lobelon. So help me God if you go back in for a second conversation. Say we say what you're gonna say right now and we're keeping it. Okay. He can give you enough of a straight line runner that it doesn't really matter. And like you don't need the value

of having a borderline international. And DeJuan Jones, as you said, forget just making the World Cup team. He should be playing every week. He is too good to be a rotation piece. And when you look at what Victor Costa does and what DeJuan Jones does in all the ways of San Jose right now, we are playing with a back five.

Juan Jones is going to be a wingback. His ability to get high up the field, beat players one v one or connect passes and cross and come inside and be a finisher. It is a clear home run for San Jose to put him in that spot and to put him in the role. And whether it's like now you're talking about is it opposite Christian Espinoza and pick your poison? Are you finding ways to get Espinoza higher into the attack? And now maybe you start to shift things back the other way, which is Espinoza is coming off a front line or out of midfield and right wing back is a safer option. Is it Rodriguez playing out there? Whatever it is, like there's clear ways that you're going to use to Juan Jones. He's going to make you so much better. And he's in his prime.

Like if San Jose is going to build something that's going to last for any amount of time, you need players like this. So it's a home run move for them. It makes sense for Columbus. They've already flipped that international roster spot now 250 K. So in the end they recoup and make a very little bit on all of this. And they keep talent churning through their team. It's the same with AZ Jackson. they end up moving him on. Like to have players that have flexibility because other people want them is an easier way to function as a club and it is a reason

that Columbus continues to be competitive. I think bringing Gosdog in was what I was going to say in that last thing I was going to say. Shifted the we don't have to use our team as high up the field as often. So now Gazdog comes in, that pushes the numbers down a little bit and now you move him back into that team. I went back in for a little nibble but not the full thing. No, that was well done. It was like the Keen Peel sketch where it was like if you do three air pumps in the end zone, it's like the referee leaning there, ready to grab the flag.

Oh, it's two and a half. You're good The last move for San Jose was an interesting one But one I'm a pretty big fan of Oscar Verhoeven is being sent on loan to San Diego with an option to buy He's a US youth international U17 international homegrown Signing for San Jose part of this class that they were hoping would break through with Cruz Medina Led by Nico Tsikiris like a lot of this class that they were hoping would break through with Cruz Medina, led by Nico Tsikiris, like a lot of talent in that group. It has not really come to fruition yet. And so Verhoeven goes to San Diego. Tom, take me behind the scenes a little bit here of like how you heard this come about and what you make of it. San Diego's been pushing for like the better part of six weeks. I'm surprised that this

deal took so long to get done because at the end of the day, it was San Jose's third string right back. And again, like an Academy graduate talking about doing right by players, if he's not going to play for you, loan them to San Diego and then let like if they see the pathway. So San Diego are again, their Academy is going to be robust when it's up and running and has some years behind it to really make it count. They don't have that yet because they just started. So Anis Saidi, the center forward that they got from Philly, loved that trade and Oscar Verhoeven is another one of that mold of like this is a talented young player from somebody else's academy that while we don't have our own 18

year olds or at least like a full class of 18 year olds coming through, he's not playing for you. We like him. We think he fits our style. Let's bring him in and loan with an option I think makes sense for everybody and not an expensive deal. It's not one where San Jose needed to replace him on the depth charts to make it happen. Like this shouldn't have taken so long to get done, but I am glad that in the end it got done and hopefully Oscar Verhoeven will get his feet under him and get some change. Like right now he's probably third string in San Diego as well so he'll have to work up the depth chart there too but clearly they're not going out of their way to acquire a player like this if they don't think that there's a pathway to him to playing real games.

Yeah and I said on the show yesterday I think he fits San Diego style better. So there's a roadmap for him to when he gets on the field that he can be a factor. Like yes, we're lawful sin is, is not a high level right back for most MLS teams, but he can do it because for the most part he plays in possession with San Diego. So that's like a way for, for hoping to get on the field. I love what you said about sort of building that Academy out. I don't I don't know why more expansion teams don't do this, but For anyone to think about the back end of your roster like any talent You can get out of the back end spots of your roster

Makes it easier to roster build because they're off your salary cap books homegrown is included in that It's hard to do as an expansion team because you don't have an academy built out but also a lot of guys who are good in those parts of the roster are like okay I'm on a veteran minimum so I could play anywhere on a veteran minimum I like here like I've already lived here I like this setup I have a spot in the team whatever it is it's impossible to have as an expansion team because you've never existed before if you've not run you know st. Louis ran a two-team We've seen teams come out of USL. That's changed things where those teams have those spots filled. So this is a way to do this and it bridges this gap

until your academy is sending out their own talent. And they've done it in smart ways of Saeedi clearly wasn't going to break through because Philadelphia has only spent money at center forward. It's the only position they've spent money at. And Eddie Davis coming through too. And he's one of five attacking pieces in CJ only and Kevin Sullivan and Ed Davis and I can't even remember his name right now. The San Diego native attacker, Mexican youth international who they're pushing through as well.

So like, yeah, he wasn't going to break through. So they found that Verhoeven clearly the same. Bruce was not super focused on getting him minutes. There is not a lot of minutes to play in that part of the field. And so it makes a lot of sense for San Diego. You mentioned the five three game, sporting Kansas City knocking off San Jose.

They got three in the opening, 28 minutes I think it was. Then Joseph scores one. Chico got a late one, but ended up 5-2 John Poulskamp got an assist and Then Daniel Chalory scored the goal and thought they were gonna meet at midfield to celebrate and Poulskamp was like I'm happy for you, but that's too much for me five goals on five shots on target is tough It is tough, but I would say for KC it feels like it's ticked up a half Amount in energy. They've pressed a little higher Manu Garcia making the run for the third goal it's like that extra effort reading the space and

It feels like they made San Jose uncomfortable defensively by attacking people 1v1 Which they had not done for most of the season So the hope is that's sort of the light at the end of the tunnel. All right, Tom, I need you to get out financial details. We need to get currency exchange numbers produced. We need to talk international law and sporting law. Let's break down what's going on for RSL right now in their quest to find their DP number nine.

Riel Salt Lake are at the final stage of signing DP Center forward, Robert Bozenik from Boavista. Bozenik is in Utah right now, Tuesday doing a medical. He flew, he traveled. As I was kind of saying on the show in recent weeks, this deal has for the most part been agreed for a number of weeks. But the disarray that Boavista are constantly in means it's never, ever simple. It's been a situation of, I mean, I'm trying to be where I can be specific and we're going to have to be vague so I don't get caught saying something that

I don't know this finance world. I don't understand why they're still allowed to make transfers when they don't pay anybody. And all the details of this is going on. So Bozenik pushed for this. He was like, I'm traveling, I'm doing the medical. We're doing this. Like this, this is a deal. All this right. The deal is for 2 million. When I was told 2 million US dollars, Bozenik gets here and now Bo Vista are saying, well, actually we, you know, we actually thought that it was 2 million euros, right? Because that's like 2.3 million US right now. Despite the fact that everything was being negotiated in US dollars and just somebody maybe did a quick Google search of, oh, you know the translate.

Let's answer euros. How to make more money in 10 seconds. We need to talk about what this means for ourself, right? That's more important. We need ourself to create a cryptocurrency that they're able to do this in for Bovisa immediately. My favorite detail is five years ago, five years ago, Bovisa bought Regi Cannon from FC Dallas. They have not paid a single penny. They have been, they were taken to court two or three years ago by Dallas. And they have not... And by Regi, right? Regi took them to court and lost three years ago by Dallas and they have not been by Reggie

right Reggie took them to court and lost on a technicality which I feel bad for the player like they didn't pay him any wages but he filed the lawsuit a couple days something stupid where they gave him like you know $10 and be like look we're on our way to paying your wages whatever was even that is besides the point which is funny as it sounds. Dallas requested, hey, can RSL just directly pay us the fee that they're going to pay Boa Vista? And Boa Vista were obviously like, no, because apparently they have zero intention of paying anybody. After I reported- Boa Vista feels very strongly that you should pay for what you receive. RSL has to pay Boa

Vista. It's the only proper thing to do. As I'm reporting this, they signed Bozenik from Fionord. I get a text from Fionord asking about this deal because hey, they haven't paid us a penny for Bozenik that they signed from us on loan three years ago and two years ago as a purchase option. They don't pay anybody. And now they're haggling over well actually it's in euros and not in dollars and the dude's doing a medical he's probably wearing a real solid shirt right now. What I was told from RSO is they hope to just complete everything today and hopefully that they'll get off this stupid euros versus dollars. I don't know man it's a mess. I don't understand how they're allowed to be run. Somebody sent me like somebody I thought

somebody was making a joke that they didn't pay their electric bill. There's a mess. I don't understand how they're allowed to be run. Somebody sent me, like somebody, I thought somebody was making a joke that they didn't pay their electric bill. There's a report in Portugal that they didn't pay their electric bill at the training facility. And they're not training at the training facility because they can't turn the lights on. And then somebody else made it, like texted me, like, yeah, like, only cold showers, cold water for the showers. I have no idea if that's a joke or if that's serious. I don't know if that's a joke or if that's serious I don't know it's true anymore it's just like dude man yeah it's crazy if you go if you go to both visas like all-time like transfer fee record fees air quote

paid because probably most of them aren't they're like all MLS players Chinozie Iwazium is their record transfer signing from Portia. Peter Musa was second. Reggie Cannon's third. Bozenik's fourth. And then six is Nathan, the Brazilian defender. And seventh is Albert Delis. MLS is propping up this team. Which also might be, if any MLS executives are listening and you think this sounds frustrating, maybe don't do business with it might be a scam. Well, at least if you're buying from them like you can, I don't know, they're a historic

club in Portugal. I feel bad. But it's just been disarrayed for half a decade at least. Yeah. And unfortunately for RSLL it's a timeline now because if you don't get this done and you don't get this over the line by the end of Wednesday you can't have this player on your team through as you've said many times like the summer transfer window opens what the last eight games I think that they're gonna get this through one way or another he again he's there like everybody wants us that maybe he's just gonna throw down and refuse to leave bovis The people are gonna come to get him and he's gonna be like, I'm not going RSL

So just say okay to the euros versus dollars and then never pay it because apparently that's you're just allowed to do that Sometimes in global football if you're bovis We should find who cares what you write on a paper if you have no intention of ever paying it We should find what other countries call them dollars and see what the best one could be and RSL be like oh really? No I thought this was Fijian dollars. I didn't realize that you said US dollars. That's my bad. That's on me. I do also by the way I still owe you five bucks for that last Miller Lite but it was actually five Canadian dollars so I'm gonna pay you back the $4.47 I owe you or whatever it is. For RSL, also like they lost to TFC this weekend.

It was TFC's first win. Obviously the Diego Luna red card was a huge part of that. It was like the 25th minute or something. Thurio Corbinou scored the goal early. Messy turnover from RSL. Decent finish in the corner, then hit the Cristiano Ronaldo celebration. It's like, all right, man, come on. Let's-

I respect it. You guys haven't won it. You guys haven't won it. You haven't really started that often, whatever. Uh, so for RSL, like there's clear reason to be hoping that this gets done. Uh, their ownership sale went through. We talked about it a ton over the last two weeks. We didn't touch on it since it's become official, but the Miller family is taking over the Blitzer group is still involved My understanding is the Blitzer group is still a large part of the soccer decision-making at least as

Time goes along and maybe then there's a bit more of a transition and turnover But the Blitzer group is leaning on the fact that they are a global soccer conglomerate. That's their expertise The Miller family are local and their sports owners. That's their expertise and trying to work the two together. And so this would be a nice start for RSL to get this deal done. It is just a massive hole in this team at that center forward position. Otherwise, I like a lot of this group. It's though low ceiling if you don't have someone who can finish off the chances you create and like lead the attack and help out. Last move we're going to do here is Omer Fernandez traded to the Portland

Timbers for $200,000 in GAM plus five, 50,000 potential extra. I'm in the bag for Omer Fernandez. I like it. I want him to play on my team. He works really hard. He tries a lot. I did like a rant about how he should start for Colorado a few weeks ago because Cabral was like borderline the worst starting attacking player in the league and they were winning or tying games with players coming off the bench and stopped starting them and he couldn't so now he plays for Portland. He's not going to start for Portland either.

But he brings something different to that group. Exactly and so like you have Ari Lasseter coming off the bench and then you have Omer as a rotational guy as well like the dream So like Ari Lasseter like his best strength is like his physical presence So like when you're you know when Phil Neville's looking at the bench All right Well, probably if you're gonna get suspended for the referee the referee comments if somebody's looking at the bench next week and you're thinking Okay, do we need somebody to kill in transition? Do we need somebody's pressing?

Okay, we need a left wing an attacking mid Do we need somebody pressing? Okay we need a left wing, an attacking mid, or a right wing. Omer can do all three of those. I just really really like this move for Portland because like you I really like this player. Yeah and if you follow the Alex Mule career arc, Omer Fernandez is probably on a similar track and could be a difference maker for this Portland group. There are some other half rumors out there to touch on. We're not going to get to all of them here. We'll see what happens.

I'll look in the paint cans today and see if any of those come out. Okay. It seems like a lot of them are about other teams that are also in bankruptcy and have no money and don't know what to do. So if you just follow the paper trail, eventually you'll get through all the MLS transfers. Let's finish up the show by talking about the biggest game of the week. We've got a CONCACAF Champions Cup semi-final coming up on Thursday night. So we're going to preview it all here because we wouldn't have a chance to before that game.

And then we'll figure out our coverage around it. Of course, Miami are traveling to Vancouver for this opening leg. I talked about it on the show yesterday. Columbus hosted Miami this weekend. It was a 1-0 win for Miami in Cleveland. It did a lot of things with C's because of Cleveland and Columbus and the crew. I will say for the 500th time, it makes no sense to me. It was stupid.

I think you talked about it maybe on one of your hits on Go Lazo. It did. You've done wrong by your fans who are hardcore and diehards who are there every day, which is a lot by the way, not saying it's a bad thing to win, but like Columbus plays a lot of games when it comes to concrete calf leagues cup and into MLS playoffs. And that building has been packed every single time. You do wrong by them. And then I just don't understand how you recruit new fans. I don't know how you recruit new fans to an experience that has nothing to do with what you are

But you're shooting got to go to a football game. So there's that as well our good friend McKellar Giannone interviewed him I really enjoyed that interview. That was fun. I Did being able to do that in English like I texted Segway, I'd sex about it and he goes like yeah yeah like he's always like all like I like my English wasn't Great. I was like bro. You speak better English than me like you don't worry at all. That was awesome But yeah, that's just it's just disappointing man. Just like even Wilford honestly before the game being like yeah This is like in a way home game Then don't do it. It's not even like

Kansas City playing at Arrowhead is in the same city So you can still sleep at home and take a bus to the game. It's like a different city and a completely different setup. It shows I think a decent level of what I talked about with I felt like a lot of the show was with Paul last week of like the lack of understanding of how to build sustainable growth through of the sport in this country around these huge events that are occurring. One being messy to being these two FIFA tournaments that are coming up in the next 12 to 14 months. And I think there is going to be a lot of miss in like taking advantage of all of this to grow the sport and grow the structure

and the environment and all of that in the game. I found a few different versions of this roughly. Columbus had it to XG higher than Miami whatever stat you go to it is this huge gap I called Ben Huckram asky a rum deuter on the show yesterday he's just like this weird finds goals find spots he's not the cleanest in possession he's not a true passer he's not a dominant defensive force but like he's on the field he's gonna get chances he's gonna score goals you have no idea why otherwise by the way that's how it feels sometimes otherwise by the way inter-miami pretty much played a first team i mean they set the record for undefeated streak in mls action across now two seasons uh with this

result and of course they knocked col knocked Columbus off who now who were the last undefeated team in MLS. So because this was such a big game, they had no ability to rotate. You could say they rotated like one piece in. You could say they rotated Segovia and Falcone out if you think they're starters, which are debatable. Allende is a starter as well and Lujan is or Noah Allen, whoever it is. So like for this Miami group, it is not going to be easy to now go from Cleveland to Vancouver to play this game. But it was another example of this other club in their bag that they've shown, which is abilities to close out games and win games without being ball

dominant and without a ton of possession, which I think is going to be huge for this Vancouver game. On the Vancouver side of things, tied 0-0 against St. Louis. I thought this was one of the odd pro calls although it probably was correct in the goal that was called off for St. Louis. You don't think so? No, the defender made a play at the bowl. Someone sent me the language. Oh, shut up. That made it look like it was correct and I'm trying to remember how they worded it in that how it's worded in the rule. It's a deliberate play at the ball, but it's not a deliberate play of the ball, I think. So it's like he makes the attempt deliberately. It doesn't hit off him, but he is not attempting

to play the ball where it goes or something Yeah, it was chaos to me. Everyone else seemed pretty good about it. I thought st. Louis looked good They have scored one goal in five games looking good is probably not enough for their fans and they're looking for but I thought they looked More aggressive and more dangerous and again with Vancouver I would say what nine of eleven starters ten of eleven starters in this game like they played their their full team going into the semi-final they rotated against the minnows that are Monterey like they were ready for this game against San st. Louis you kidding me here we go defender has to have control of the ball for it to count as a quote deliberate play or the I

fab law that's what it was so he never had control to count as a quote deliberate play per the I fab law. That's what it was. So you never had control even though you made a deliberate play on the bro. Nerds. Tom in his basement so angry about the world and what he's doing to his beloved game. Literally in my parents basement. On May 25th, 2024, Miami beat Vancouver in Vancouver two to one.

Jordi Alba and Leo Campagna scored the openers. Ryan Galt scored a PK. That is the only time these two teams have ever played each other because if you think about it, Miami came in during COVID. They are probably the two furthest points in the league to travel from. Vancouver was stationed in RSL and then back up in the northwest and all of that. Yeah, these are bad times that we don't want to think about.

Wow. So this is not a crossover that has any history. Leo Campagna no longer on the team, Ryan Galt not currently healthy. What Axel Schuster said on our show last week is he won't be available for this game. They will test things for like two he was clear in saying it is not worth the risk no matter how competitive we are going into like two for the long season for Ryan Gault so I would be surprised if he plays but that also might be dictated by the result in this

first leg and what ends up happening I I said, you know, alluded to in that Miami Columbus game, I think Vancouver needs to dominate the ball and dominate the game. And I would be surprised if Miami doesn't really fall into what they did in Columbus, which is playing against the ball for Vancouver. I think defensively your best bet in this match is to have possession and have the game so that you don't have to worry about defending Miami and letting Miami settle in. It is on turf.

So we have seen Messi start on turf. We have seen him play on turf. We are not 100% sure he'll start. We do know he will travel. That's already been announced. But I think for Vancouver, there's no way out of out of this time without just being who you've been. You cannot adjust overly to this Miami group and I wouldn't think they would with what we've seen from Jesper Sorensen. Yeah and I think that's been the beauty of this Whitecaps team. They play how they play

whether they're at Monterey, whether it's Ryan Gold in or out of the team, whether it's Brian White or not, Sebastian Barolter is there every second of every game, so that's the constant. That dictates the style, cuz you have him and everything else is around him. But that's what I really love about this team so far. Obviously, it's working, cuz if it wasn't, then it'd be really easy to be like, why don't you change anything? They play on their style, and they going to try to make Miami uncomfortable. They're going to try to have some of the ball if they can.

But I think it would be more about territory than it will be ball control, right? Like field control is that a ball control. And if they can do that, like Brian White is going to be a handful for the center backs. They're going to especially a Noah Allen or an Ian Frey. All of them are been really good, but that's a tough bet. And there's going to be, they're going to a Noah Allen or an Ian Frey all of them are been really good But that's a tough bad and there's gonna be they're good like against Miami and have your much runners and really well at limiting it this year Compared to last year, but there's always gonna be a couple opportunities in transition You think about that like Miami Chicago game you think about everything that Columbus did again It's not the same thing

But you can create chances against this team and if you have Brian White up top I'm banking on one of those to go in so I think it's going to be a fascinating first leg how like Miami are the same way like they're going to play how they play doesn't matter if it's home or away doesn't matter if it's like one or like two like dude we're into Miami we're going to work we have Messi would do this so how this one plays out like I could see it going in a couple different directions like I think that this is extremely important for Vancouver to obviously have a positive result going back to Miami. And they have the capability to do it with the personnel, the players, the belief, everything

man. So I'm excited. On that Vancouver front, I would say the shutout is more important than the goal in leg one. Yeah. Because they can score in Miami. I have zero question about that against this Miami team in that environment, travel, whatever. So to me, if you're Vancouver, the top goal coming out of this game is to not concede so that you don't have

the away goal against you. And it's I mean LAFC went in 1-0 and it wasn't enough to get them over the line, but I think for Vancouver It's not gonna completely dictate what they are I'm just saying my view of how this went will be affected more by what they do defensively Yeah from a results point of view than what they do offensively But in saying that I still think I want to see Eddie Arocampo take advantage of the space that Jordi Alba leaves. I want to see Pedro Vite float into that right half channel as well and take advantage of the space. Like I don't want to see Vancouver play on their heels.

And I think not playing on your heels is the way you get that result against an Inter Miami team. But I would take for them, I would take one zero over three one, like coming out of this game. I, I, I agree. Yeah, I agree. 1-0 over 3-1, like coming out of this game. I agree. Yeah, I agree. Oh, you hate that. I was trying to weigh it off.

I had too little advantage. I don't know. It's going to be fun. They are two teams with clear identities. They are two teams who want to play. Nothing about Vancouver they've shown is scared. And obviously for Inter Miami, like right now they're on a run of 12, 18 months where they've been the best team in the world.

They're going to be the best team in the world. They're going to be the best team in the world. They're going to be the best team in the world. They're going to be the best team in the world. They're going to be the best team in the world. They're going to be the best team in the world. They're going to be the best team in the world. They're going to be the best team in the world. They're going to be the best team in the world. They're going to be the best team in the world. They're going to be the best team in the world. They're going to be the best team in the world. nothing about Vancouver they've shown is scared and obviously for Inter Miami like right now they're on a run of

12 18 months where they've been the best team in the region like that's what they've established They set the points record last year. They competed across multiple competitions they don't really have anything to show for it outside of that shield and It it feels obvious and I said, you know no Alan got quoted about it. Like this matters to them. And, but because of the shout out street or the undefeated street and all of that, they have not rotated the group that heavily.

And so now they go into a new environment. They haven't played in Vancouver. They haven't traveled to Vancouver. They haven't played on this turf. I would assume BC plays is gonna be bouncing for this one. You've got all the positive momentum. You've got the stadium news. You've got messy coming to town

like this is going to be a show and Vancouver feels poised for it Miami feels poised for it. There is So much attacking talent this Miami group I think if it was me This would be an eye and a game because he can stretch the field if you're out of possession And he can be a runner off of Suarez and off of messy But if you play Segovia, it maybe gets you more possession and that's one of the things that you're managing and all that I think Falcone will come back into the team

Maybe it's for Noah Allen and it's alongside Lujan or maybe it's for Lujan either way I think that makes you a little bit stronger against those Brian White battles those 50-50s and all of that And then you're just hoping that the show is there like the ball from Suarez the wine got To then the cross to Ben Hawkrom asky is this is why this team set the points record last year And that's why they're capable of going to the concat final and they're capable of winning the whole thing Yeah, so it is gonna be an incredible game We'll have your coverage here on soccer wise under Unbeat Back Live tomorrow to do some NWSL chat with Jordan Angeley.

We will have some shows. Tom, you are going to be grooving, right? Yeah, you'll be in Vegas at the Sphere for Grateful Dead. Let's go. And fingers crossed we will see Tom next week on this show surviving all of that back in his new home. Either way, thank you to everyone in the chat for joining us for this one. Thank you to all of you for listening.

I'm excited for these games. If you don't already, subscribe to the Patreon and get you access to the Discord. I'm going to be in there enjoying these CONCAC Champion semi-finals. We're going to be in there talking NWSL on Tuesday night with Gotham as well as MLS all week long.