SoccerWise - MLS/USMNT Edition: Pochettino Update & MLS Top Free Agents

Episode Date: September 10, 2024

Gass and Tom get together to figure out what the US needs to accomplish against New Zealand Tonight, and how Canada can keep rolling against Mexico. Then they dive into a wacky weekend of MLS with Columbus playing field players in goal & Caleb Porter ethering referees. Plus the MLSPA released the list of 2025 MLS Free Agents today so they cull through to find the top options and most interesting possibilites. 8:55 USMNT & Pochettino Update 18:02 CANMNT Confidence & Mexico Preview 25:44 MLS In International Highlights Of The Week 31:39 Columbus GK Convo 39:30 Caleb Porter Referee Comments 41:58 Tom’s Reporting On Evander’s Future 47:46 MLS Top Free Agents For The OffseasonSoccerwise Live 2pm ET Every Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday on Youtube/Twitch/Twitter

What's up everybody live from Brooklyn, New York, David Goss and Tom Bulgert here ready to talk Aaron Rodgers, New York Jets and why they are the best team in the world. This is Soccer Eyes. As you all know, I mentioned it on my show yesterday, I'm beginning a week-long odyssey on the way to moving to Miami, Florida. And so this is my first stop about a mile and a half south of where I actually live. It's a slow progress trip. And I'm in my parents' apartment. You are in your parents' basement. So we've really accomplished a lot in life. Yeah, we start soccer-wise, and all of a sudden we're in our parents' basements.

So it's all good fun. Goss, I need you to develop a stronger New York accent for when you move to Florida, like something that just wasn't normal for you while living in New York, but just really turn it up to 11 when you get down to Florida. The problem is when I try and do hard New York accents they become Boston accents which is like so random and my Boston accent is terrible I love the Boston accent are you kidding me yeah but mine is bad it's just like I only have one accent it's just this weird fake accent and if I go into it it becomes a weird place I will say this Sam Stachkel can attest to this because he's a huge fan.

The two favorite words that he likes for me to say are Florida and Fort Lauderdale. And he is stoked about me moving down there and having to say those words over and over again. I think it might be the highlight of his life right now. If anyone has any advice, I'm going to be driving down there. Places to stop, things to do, things to snack on, whatever. Let me know. I will be crushing podcasts as well, which I'm very excited about. I will probably listen to SoccerWise five times on the way down just to review everything that we are doing.

We've got a big week of shows. We're going to continue our shows the same. So I did my weekend recap yesterday it's about an hour of insane ramblings of a crazy person uh in which I dug into a little bit of the Columbus crew goalkeeper situation explained sort of what happened what went down um and what my understanding of what they could have done what they chose to do and how it all netted out talked a little Caleb Porter as well talked Alex Morgan's retirement in her final match. And of course, a bunch of USA Canada there. Jordan Angeli will be back with me tomorrow for us to dig into NWSL a little bit more. Some big news going on across

the league over the last few days and some huge matches coming up this weekend, including KC against Orlando. And then you and me, Tom, will be back on Thursday. I think we are going to do our MLS underrated best 11. So if anyone's out there and you're like, this is a name that has to be on that list, send it to us. Because I already went through and did my first call through. And I like some of the names, but I'm not in love with the group that I put together,

which is annoying because I'm always thinking in my head like, oh, this person's underrated. This person's good. And I lost Tom in the middle of all of that. So I'm going to be working on all of that. So feel free to hit us up and send us anything you have and any names that you recommend. And we'll see if Tom comes back. If not, this will become a second one person show of the week. Tom,

you want to join me? Yeah. I want to join you. What, what else did you do yesterday? Did you happen to have a farewell soccer game in New York city? I did. It was my co-ed semifinals with the potential of a double header into a

final. Because I don't know, why would you not make the most important game of the season and the worst case scenario? Shout out to all Megan's friends FC, which is the name of my team. It's also the name of my wife because she started the team. AM F FC,

whose legacy I now am insured will continue on without me. Went down to the field. We won our semifinal 2-1. I injured my ankle on the second play of the opening game. We then immediately played the final. Two teams that brought 37 subs. We had two subs. Soldiered through all of it.

Lost the second game 3-1. Tweaked my ankle in the last minute of the game. Limped off the field. And now I'm super excited to carry my luggage around for the next five days on a bum ankle because today up and down the stairs has been a struggle it's gonna be I'm gonna be living in Miami in a year and a half and be like yeah my ankle's still a little you know from New York my last game in New York going out in a blaze of glory for sure that's why you're not playing going into your wedding right because you know that it's the worst moment possible that you're

gonna get hurt yeah um lower extremities for sure um i also don't trust myself to not play the same way that i play because just my brain just turns off i go instinctually in the field which makes me happy because my brain's always going in a million miles an hour not usually very smart too which is the worst part it's just it's it's just going all the time except for when i play soccer so i wouldn't be thinking about to step into a 50 50 oh my god i'm getting married in a week like let me not do this um so that that's one and i would you know what if it's the wrong day that i curse at the wrong person or whatever right and somebody swings um but i think more importantly because like i i have knock on wood i haven't gotten hurt very much in my

in my career i broke a nose got a concussion in high school i was back in like not very long this was before concussion protocol uh probably maybe that's why my brain's all insane all the time but i'm less worried about that i'm more worried about my wife-to-be having an absolute mental breakdown or a heart attack at the idea of one of those things happening. So me taking a break before my wedding has more to do, I think, with her mental state than my physical state. What a just martyr that Tom is. Stepping away from the game he loves. Yeah. Stepping away from the game he loves for the people around him away from the game he loves um for the people around

him what a mensch uh it was fun shout out to mike who i met uh who is joe lowry's friend who's a legend who just comes up to me i was like do you know joe lowry i was like hell yeah yeah um it was a frustrating game i will say in the final the goalie on this team is the best goalie in the league by a mile he played at the tst tournament i broadcast two of his games and i walked out on the field i was like this doesn't feel right and he basically won he played a blinder like i hit the best left footed volley of my life and he gets his face in the way on a slide it's like no goalkeeper in this league it's putting their body in the way he basically just makes saves and then throws it because it's a 77 side.

He throws it direct to strikers. So he had like three assists in this game. Hold the phone, Cotton. He's got a cannon. Yeah. So shout out to Will for crushing it. And shout out to everyone on my team for grinding through and making it a great last day. I was proud of my squad. I was proud of the way we played.

Were you walking off the field like clapping and crying and kissing the bed kissing the bed get a little walk of honor i took the microphone after alex morgan style and i gave a little speech thanking the fans and just talking about the moments we've we've shared together over the years and in my career we've got a big show so let's get into it we're going to talk usmntNT. We're going to talk Canada, of course. And the MLSPA has put out the free agent list in Major League Soccer for next year. So we're going to go through and talk about some of our top options, where we think they'll land, what we think they could be worth, and all of those things. And as I said, we'll do our underrated best 11 next show. So send me those names. RG Lost, don't worry.

Brad Stover is going to get in because of you. And anyone else who has other names, feel free to present them to us, whether it is via text or more importantly, or sorry, via tweet, or more importantly, you could do it via Discord. So if you subscribe to our Patreon, you get into the Discord. That's where all the mailbag questions came from yesterday. That's what we're talking about. All the games, everything we're watching, chatting through the national team games, all of that.

It also gets you our depth charts, which we are going to reference a lot when we get into this because those depth charts have salary tables. It shows you what teams have spent, what players are making, how many years their contracts are for. So if someone says, oh, Jao Paulo is a good player. Should he end up in Atlanta? What options do they have in central midfield? How long are those people going to be there? You can see that all right there. So it's one of the coolest things that we have.

And that's how you get access to it. So make sure to join and hang out. And we're going to get our next happy hour on the schedule as well for us to hang out with everyone one-on-one we won't do it during the u.s first new zealand match because it's just too high stakes like we can't pull anyone away from being fully focused on the all whites i believe is what they go by um and the new zealand kiwi national team facing off against the u.s men national team. That's going to be 7 p.m. Eastern time tonight at TQL Stadium. It is a comeback match for the U.S. after losing to Canada 2-1. I talked a bit about that game yesterday. It is obviously a low point for this team.

Mikey Varas talked this week about intensity and passion and sort of was like, I can't coach it. I can't force it. but it's an issue. Tim Rehm and Christian Pulisic touched on it as well. Obviously the big story around this team, which has now been updated slightly is Julian Lawrence tweeting today that he believes Mauricio Pochettino will sign officially today with the U.S. men's national team. Tom,

I think I'll just make up a date and throw it out there and see if I can nail that one on the head because that just feels like what everyone's doing at this point. Yeah, that's kind of my view too. I mean, it just obviously depends on where you're looking. Jokes aside, of course. But yeah, that's this volume, this level of energy of talking about when Pochettino is going to be announced.

It's all I've got for this. Again, I reiterate what I said last week in that it is so frustrating that this wasn't done before this window. And again, if Pochettino came in and all would have really changed his vibes and getting another camp, I think all of that's important. But it's not even just because that they lost to canada if they beat canada one nothing kind of who cares because everything's about to change it's going to be new coaching staff so it's just really frustrating that this is taking so long and after saturday it's like i feel even stronger about that um and like one thing from saturday i didn't love Mikey Vars throwing the players under the bus.

I think that you do that in the locker room, completely good with him absolutely lighting them up in the locker room. But for interim manager coming to the press conference and being like, yo, you guys need to have better intensity, it was like real substitute teacher vibes. Like, why didn't you guys fill out that workbook? I really didn't love that. But maybe I saw something out of context.

But that's – I actually do love it because it's like kind of like a self-immolation to inspire them of like, there's no chance he's coaching this team again on that move. But what he's saying – You're going to coach them today. But what he's saying does have to be said and he's like all right i know i'm out the door i'll take you know it's like when you watch succession it's when you watch succession and the people who are like already retiring are the ones that

they always throw under the bus to be like you just say you're the only one who knew about this and then you'll be the one that gets in trouble that's kind of what it felt like but i get your point for sure i mean tim ream i think stepping up and saying it the way he did um it feels pretty something that was pretty known across the team and wasn't really a secret uh he is one of the guys that i said i would not like to see him start again you know who tim ream is you know what you're gonna get it was poor against canada I don't need a bounce back game from Tim Rehm in my view and Mikey Vars said it's a bit of a balance here of getting guys opportunities making sure that the next coaching staff is getting to see different people as well as getting sort of your staples in the team people that have deserved minutes so when I went through lineup and people that I thought about mark mckenzie was like a big one that stood out to me that i would like to see in place of tim

ream just to see him get the opportunity yeah and i agree with that completely like if you just toss out 11 new players it doesn't mean anything all of your data points are completely uncorrelated because it's a lot of the backups or it's a lot of guys who haven't played with each other you need constants in the team controls in the team to really get the data points on the other players chris richards started next to tim ream you didn't need both of them and to your point i think it's pretty obvious that it should be chris richards like moving forward one of the biggest kind of things that pochettino and the new staff will have to decide is who is chris richards partner i feel pretty safe in assuming that chris richards is going to be viewed as the best center back,

or at least, you know, in the medium term. So is it still going to be Reem at E-turn 37 this fall? Or is it going to be Mark McKenzie? Is it going to be Austin Truss? Is it going to be Cameron Carter-Vickers? So I don't really understand why Reem and Richards started a friendly against Canada together under an interim coach.

It does not make any sense to me. Wow. I didn't really think about it in that exact way also didn't realize Tim Rehm was 37 shout out to Tim Rehm no shout out to Tim Rehm because I've got the bum ankle and I can't even move around uh so it is impressive but absolutely and I think in that balance like you said you probably sees Joe Scali again um I don't know exactly what you do in goal that one's not as serious um I don't know if you have any players specifically that you want to bring up but I I mean I I can't see a world that Aiden Morris doesn't start this game not only was the most positive player on the field last game what he's doing at Borough like he's

earned this spot he's earned the opportunity and clearly no one else plays that position yeah um and i don't know like i don't know if he would like because he's obviously a different player than johnny coro so i understand why johnny kind of got the nod i went back and forth when like when we were talking about it last week about whether i want to see like i would love to have seen them both but it makes sense that they didn't both start johnny would have loved to have seen them both yeah he was like i don't want to be a six yeah someone else out here um so yeah adan morris i think that that's the easy answer for me um haji right maybe he's somebody i'm really interested to see how his i guess prominence within the hierarchy of the pool evolves yeah

either grows or kind of falls falls by wayside again, because him and somebody like Malik Tillman is another guy who I think that they're both very good players, like full start. Let's just start right there. But they're not like, you know, a really good center back. Yeah, they could be a better passer or a better ground cover or a better

aerial, but like a really good center back any coach would be like, alright, cool, we can figure it out, particularly with the national team. Hazi Wright's role as a winger but could be an inside forward or maybe Pochettino and his staff see him as a nine. And then same thing with Malik Tillman where he's not quite a 10, but he's not quite a winger and he's not quite an eight. He's just kind of a little bit positionless, but in the right system,

these players can be really excellent. And I'm not entirely sure what that's going to be. And it unfair to mikey varus and this staff to try to figure that out which is another reason why it'd be pretty cool if the full-time staff had just taken over by now but you know i risked so like even at the like i just worked myself into oh you know what i would be excited to see that and then i'm like well you know who cares nothing matters uh you know we we're all gonna it's it's all tough like it's it's like time is a flat circle yeah yeah i was trying to find a different one without without going too too deep too nihilistic into like yeah we're all gonna die one day or whatever i thought i thought that was gonna be a little

too strong so well i started the u.s segment yesterday on the recap show saying this is the low water mark in usmnt history in my time so we already got there on that one i will say a few things one there's never a time I watch Malik Tillman play soccer and don't enjoy watching him or don't enjoy him in the game. I understand there are things he could do better or worse, but I never walk away from a game being like, Malik Tillman's the problem or I don't want to see him on the field. I will say, and obviously this is a ton of projection,

if it's Pochettino, based on what we've seen him set up, if you think about that second forward 10 role that Son played so successfully, of course, is the big one you're going to fall on. That's probably Gio Reyna if he's healthy. Gio Reyna's never healthy. That could be a role that Malik Tillman plays in that spot. It could also be Pulisic. Where he can attack from a little bit deeper. It could be Pulisic a hundred percent, but he also might prefer to play out on the way and decide that he wants to

stay there or Pochettino might decide that he wants to keep him there. But that's definitely true. Haji Wright, I think the interest with Haji Wright is he's a big body. He could be a finisher on the far post. He can come inside and play with his feet. Like his versatility, I think is interesting.

And I thought he played on the front foot when he came on the field in the game against Canada and like if you're looking for intensity and people caring and all that stuff that's sort of what you're going to get in this one we I think will both acknowledge you're not going to walk away from today feeling great because either they're going to beat New Zealand and you're going to say it's New Zealand or they're going to lose and it's going to be the worst thing that's ever happened. I'm pretty sure that's what I'm seeing in the Mexican soccer community right now is like that team's at a low, they beat New Zealand three zero better than losing to New Zealand.

And they don't feel anything coming off of it. You saw the crowds at the Rose bowl. Like no one wanted to be a part of that game. No one wanted to be around. This is a bigger opportunity though for Mexico. They're going to play against Canada in their next match. That match is a little bit later. I think it's an hour and a half later tonight down in Dallas at Jerry world.

I don't think Dak Prescott's going to play in this one, but he will potentially have a new contract when he gets to the stadium for this match. The Canadian men's national team is a big week. They knocked off the U.S. 2-1, and we talked about Mikey Varus' comments about his team. Tom, it's the polar opposite right now for Jesse Marsh. Yeah.

After the game against the United States, I'm very happy for Jesse. I would be taking a victory of that if I was him. I don't care if it was a friendly. I don't care if it was, again, you know, all of the different things that we've been critical about, you know, just the state of the team right now without the full-time head coach taking over before the window, all that stuff.

Like, Jesse March deserves a victory lap after this game. But, like, I understand that he's not going to say, oh, yeah, I'd rather be coaching the United States. But, like, coming out and being like, yeah, oh yeah, I'd rather be coaching the United States. But like coming out and being like, yeah, no, obviously I want to be with Canada. And it's just like, I mean, it felt weird that he kind of had to say it. And like a year ago, that's obviously not the case.

So like, I just think that he's leaving out some truths, some feelings, some analysis. Like I do respect a hell of a lot of that. Like he's still doing uh the cbs podcast he made a goal prediction in the scoreline prediction in that game like i couldn't he got it right like it's it's incredible so like i respect that like how how head-on he takes all this and like one of the quotes like i i i want more people to kind of realize this when it's like oh why do you keep telling us why do you keep talking about this it's like like he's like yeah i mean he's like i answer the questions that you guys ask me it's not like i'm

coming in here and bringing it up and i think that that's mostly true because i do think that like there are varying degrees to how you can answer these questions depending on how much you want to talk about it but like the media spaces you can choose to go into like a podcast that you optionally choose to go on to be asked the question. Yeah. So I don't know. I mean, like again, like I'm, I'm kind of like fencing right now in that,

like I'm making jokes a little bit about Jesse Marsh, but like, I think the overarching feeling is like he deserves every single step of this victory lap. Yep. Yeah. If you felt like you got spurned, you take this other job.

And, and I think there were some question marks when he took it of like, why would you even do this? Right? There was very few question marks for Canada of like, why would you pick him? It was like, we've heard you connected to EPL jobs in Bundesliga, and now you're going to coach Canada.

And so for him to come back three months later and be like, sorry, I made a Copa America semifinal and then I beat the U.S. I mean, if they beat Mexico, like they are. And if they do, they are the best World Cup host country going into 2026. Yeah. Yeah. And I would agree with that right now on Tuesday, September 10th, 2024. Like there's time for that.

That's the only time that matters. That's the only time that matters. That's the only date that matters. So, um, I was about to say, so with Jesse Marsh, like, like when you said kind of like when he was first connected, like why there was Lester, there's all this. Um, so kind of the backstory here. And like, I've been careful about how much, maybe I would say why like the hatred is burning so bright. When he was first connected with the Canadian national team job.

I texted somebody who would have a pretty good idea of Jesse. His situation is his general contract demands and whether or not Canada was, would be able to read it. I was like, they're not going to be able to afford him. Right. Like there's kind of no way. And like the source that texted me back was like pretty much like,

yeah, but Jesse's hatred for us soccer might of no way. And, like, the source that texted me back was, like, pretty much, like, yeah, but Jesse's hatred for U.S. soccer might know no bounds. And, like, that was, like, a mostly serious response. I'll do it for free. Let me at him. And, like, honestly, like, that was a motivation factor for him to take this. Like, he had agreed to take the lesser city job and then he pulled out because he thought he like i don't know how many details i can really get into here but like he was very close to the lesser job i'll just blanket it there and and leave out the exact

details about you know what what is true and what isn't but i'll tell you in his head he's really really angry at U.S. soccer about how all of that happened. And so, yeah, like, again, it's all this more fuel to say that, like, he deserves every moment of this victory lap again, whether you love him, whether you hate him, whether you want him to talk less,

whether you, you know, all of it, like, whatever it is, doesn't matter. This dude's the winner, and he gets to do whatever the hell he wants right now. For Mexico. They've gone the creative route. They've hired Javier Gary for the 37th time in the last 25 years to coach their national team.

It is absolutely absurd. They beat New Zealand three zero in the last game. I'll say a few things in this one that I'm watching for Alistair Johnson. We know injured Sam out of Cuba brought in to replace him him Richie Larea probably gets to start at right back we are either going to see uh Julian Quinones at left mid for Mexico who is the best player in a Mexican jersey right now or we're going to see Sofia Huerta Sofia Huerta Chino mind Chino Huerta Sofia Huerta plays in NWSL. At that left midfield spot, that is going to be, I think,

the battle of the entire day. You've got a player in Richie Larea who is going to start a fight at some point. He is going to try and get forward a little bit. Quinones is like a one-man attack. So if that's the battle, that's something to watch out for and to see how Canada handles it how does Moise Bombito give help but also be able to be positionally sound himself when can Canada get up and press like this is a Mexico team that is going to have a better central midfield than the U.S. had is probably going to be more committed to possessing the ball which

gives you chances to press but also means if you get broken, there are more options to attack. So I think this is a really good test for Canada. The other thing I would watch for is whether it's Juanier and Eustachio again, or someone else gets the start in central midfield, Osorio. I talked about Nico Seager last time. I would be surprised if he didn't play against the U.S. and then gets a start against Mexico. But this Mexican midfield, they will make runs out of midfield and play direct in ways the U.S. didn't, except for the one time Aiden Morris did, which caused the goal. So, Schwanier and Eustachio are going to have to track the Romos of the world, the Pinedas, all of these types of guys, Charlie Rodriguez, Cordova,

whoever it is, they've got five or six options in there. They're going to have to track them out of midfield. They're going to have to try and win 50-50 battles against them. That's not what either of those players are good at. This is the test. But, like, this is the question of I love Chouinard, but if Ustakio is a mainstay in the team, is that midfield tough enough against good opponents?

And if not, then what are the next options? Ismael Kone unavailable because he got injured with Marseille in that one. So that match, 9 p.m. tonight, right off the back of the U.S.-New Zealand game. Obviously, these three national teams don't have World Cup qualifying. Copa America's over. So this is probably what it's going to look like, is they are probably going to optionally play each other. We know the U.S. and Mexico have already agreed to play in Mexico.

And then there's probably going to be one or two national teams that pop into the area and rotate and play everyone. And this time it's New Zealand. I wouldn't be shocked if you see a couple African nations, I wouldn't be shocked if you see Asian nations, especially if some big ones get knocked out early in world cup qualifying, you'd expect me whenever they can to get a UEFA team to come. Connable is kind of going to be impossible because they play every single match day across

because their World Cup qualifying is 500 years long. And we'll talk about some of these MLS players. Actually, let's start there. For MLS players playing in international, we talked last week about the ones we really want to see. We talked about Martin Paz for a while. The Indonesian legend. He had never played a minute, and he was already one of the most popular players in the world because of the Indonesian fan base. He makes his debut.

They play at Saudi Arabia, which is one of the giants of the region. It's also like a 97-hour trip to get from Indonesia to Saudi Arabia. He wins man of the match. They tie 1-1, and he concedes a penalty himself, which if you've watched it, he's trying to play out of the back. He doesn't have an option. He takes a long touch. It gets taken away, and he just slides in and wipes this guy out.

And then he proceeds to save the penalty kick in like the 83rd minute. Martin Paz is a legend. And I was stoked to see all of this go down. Unreal. Unreal. Like this has been so much fun and so cool. Like just being on social media and just seeing like, oh my God, Martin Paz is starting. Like that's awesome.

Here we go. It's happening. And then it's like a video comes out. He like FC Dallas puts up the highlight that he saves the penalty and it's you know within three minutes it's got like a thousand retweets it's just and just all the fans that like love him like what a debut he won man of the match how cool is this this is incredible like i i can't believe all this is real every mls social media admin right now is just sending transfer market pages of indonesian players to their gms being like oh this this guy's available should we bring in a backup left back

and see if we could change some stuff up uh so martin paul's not the only big performance right now like at this exact second mo farci starting for algeria and afghan qualifying had an assist in like the most columbus way. He like ends up being the center forward, plays like a back heel facing away from goal, right inside the six, whatever. So that's a really cool moment for him. Esmir Barakhtarovic gets on the field against the Netherlands. He got an assist to Edin Dzeko,

which you have to think if you're someone who your dream is to play for the Bosnian Herzegovina National Team, that is like the all-time moment incredible and it was it was delightful assist like what like what I really really like about Esmir is that like he's just a different type of player than most kind of in the pool like not not to always use the Clint Dempsey the quote about Clint Dempsey just like he tries shit, but he's got this creativity and this unpredictability that, again, it doesn't always come off, but in his U.S. national team debut, he'd make somebody.

What, his first touch, his second touch? And then he gets into this game, he dribbles somebody and plays an ambitious, incredible ball over the top to Edin Dzeko, who scores. He's got that capability. Whether or not he'll become consistent enough to be like, say he's 25 26 and we're like damn like united states should

have just called him into the olympic team and he would have been in the pool or if it's just gonna be like this is a really cool story of a guy who maybe wasn't gonna be quite good enough to be regular with the u.s national team and look at how awesome it is for basia um it can be a win win but um i'm rooting for the kid because he's just fun as hell. And, again, you see that with New England Revolution. The fact that he does that on his senior Bosnia debut, like, I can't imagine he's had much time with any of these players. And his coaching staff, like, that's awesome. And it's just, like, it can't be understated.

I was going to correct you because you started by saying this is why I like him in the pool. And it's like, well, he's not in the pool anymore. He's a Bosnian. He's got nothing to do. What I'm saying is that he's American, Bosnian, doing national. And in the American pool, we don't have that many wingers. We have better wingers, obviously. Pulisic, Weah, Gio Reyna if he's playing on the wing but like his exact profile is somebody is like a style that that this pool doesn't have because he's unique in terms of

players that are being produced through the American soccer system yes absolutely agree with that uh let's close out with who else but Luis Suarez he got his testimonial send-off match competitive game he got the start, which, in fairness, he's in the push for the golden boot in his club team. He is Luis Suarez. It was at the Centenario in Montevideo, an epic moment, all of this different celebration, a bunch of legends came. They were a part of it.

His family obviously was there as well. It ended up being a 0-0 draw for Uruguay because they were stonewalled by the MLS midfield of Diego Gomez and Andres Cubas for the Paraguayan national team in the uh Aguayan derby or whatever you want to call it by the way I gotta send you I know Gustavo Alfaro who's now coach of Paraguay. He coached Costa Rica in the last cycle. He's got this like long quote about not act like this is your end all be all and like the most important moment in your life. But it was, uh, it got me hyped up. It was ready to go. It was very Joe Missoula of him to throw it in there.

We could do the rest of the show. Just reading off Joe Missoula quotes. Joe Missoula quotes, but we're not. Instead, we're going to talk Columbus crew goalkeeper situation. So if you haven't listened, you can go, well, you can go to the weekend recap. I dug into this for like 15 minutes i went in and i explained what happened to columbus that they ended up in

this situation how they chose to handle it i went through the three or four options of what they could have done and then the reality which was they chose to not bring a backup goalkeeper to make a point to major league soccer abraham romero got called for a red card one that i still think is controversial but no one wants to talk to me about that i have tried and they ended up with sean zawatzky and goal for over a half in this game tom is there anything you want to talk about no and it's and it's funny that like i think by sunday morning i was kind of over the discourse um i don't i don't understand why this has been such

a flashpoint of like i think particularly out of seattle it's a flashpoint wait wait it's a flashpoint because wilfred nonce made it a flashpoint yeah well yeah right if it had happened and after the game he had been like yeah, we got screwed by the schedule, that would have been 20 minutes. Yeah, yeah. So poor choice of words for me. It felt like Seattle folks are insisting it has to be Columbus's fault because if it's not, then their three points doesn't count. I don't understand.

Like Albert Rusnak, his his goal bonuses they're all coming i would be nothing but happy if i'm seattle like that you you caught the columbus crew starting their fourth string goalkeeper without kuto without farce without steve marrera no matter what else happened like is there is not a better time to play the columbus crew than in an international break like this particularly where seattle were only missing two players international they were missing a few others to injury but like, like, if this game was played this weekend, Columbus would have everybody back. And it would be a much more difficult task.

And it would be much less likely that they picked up three points. So I didn't understand why the insistence out of the Pacific Northwest for it to be, no, they screwed up. No, I don't care. It's not the league's fault. It's their fault. It's just like, no, man. Like, no one's taking the points away nobody's taking the goals away like we're

all good man like they're the columbus isn't giving you guys any crap it this is a it's a league thing it's a pa thing it's all this um yeah i would jordan moore said we forced that red card and we i forced it jay where's i forced it by turning your head and over and running past the ball that you had no chance to get on the end of but yes so a couple things for me like i disagree with their i they chose not to to make a point like yes parley and to make a point but also like will for nonsense like yeah like we could have signed a fifth string goalkeeper to uh mls contract and then what like do it for three months and then release him like it's not the right time like he even said he's like i signed my first contract at 18

my career was over at 21 maybe i signed too early like maybe i wasn't good enough but like also maybe like who knows right like and i think his development his developmental record is really strong so i'm just gonna defer to wherever the hell Wiffer Nancy says here. And like, if they had the call, like, you'll never convince me that the spirit of this story is anything but this is extraordinarily stupid that the Columbus crew couldn't have had a second goalkeeper on the bench from there. Like that they had to either go sign a free agent or sign another academy kid to a second team contract and then call that person up all that is insanely dumb to me um the good good i have one more no no i was gonna say in that light i didn't say this specifically yesterday a lot of what i've gotten and i don't know the conversation you've had you've had from people in other mls run offices and stuff is like well they're the rules and you knew the rules and you were told the rules.

So like, yeah, it is what it is, but follow it. I will say two things. One term I didn't mention yesterday was there used to be a pool goalkeeper in major league soccer before teams owned two teams because you should have a backup goalkeeper. And if you were stuck, you should have a backup goalkeeper. Whatever the application process was for that, which was like the league assessing and saying, are these players really hurt? Are these players really unavailable?

Should be the same process to allow. The other term I should have used yesterday, which is a common sense opportunity to say, okay, you can get an extra call. It doesn't have to be rocket science. Sometimes two people who are adults can end up in a conversation. We've never been in this experience, but I'm sure it happens sometimes and say like, oh, that makes sense. Yeah, we'll just do that. Yeah. And look, like the idea of a maximum amount of call-ups, like while I think that this is generally dumb, like the spirit of this from the MLS Players Association

is to protect against cheap teams who are going to call up a second team player 15 times during a season and not give them a first team contract. I completely agree with that. Again, common sense. The crew have been bringing players from their second team. They have the development.

And this is a special circumstance where their third goalkeepers are and their top two goalkeepers are international. How many other teams have two goalkeepers on international duty? None? Maybe? So all of that is to say that like there really should have

been an exemption the red bulls got to call up their back their left uh second team left back seven times this year because three of them came as an olympic exemption except for the fact that the olympic exemption thing i don't believe was ever announced by mls i just saw it in a couple press releases by philly. The friendly, why call up... The Aston Villa thing is bizarre. That makes no... I don't know

who's doing that. Cholte was at the Olympics at that time. Why wasn't that an Olympic... I don't, like, all this is just so dumb. And, like, again,

I'm such a hypocrite. I started this by saying, no, I don't have anything to say and I'm just screaming at you for 10 minutes. The last thing I want to say is what is so frustrating to me in general, so the Columbus Crews fourth-string goalkeeper gets sent off.

It's 0-0 against Seattle in the 45th minute. If they sub in their fifth-string goalkeeper, without Cucho, Moreira, all the other players they're missing, they're down to 10 men, they probably lose. This was all completely avoidable. Like, nothing would have changed. Maybe Rusnak would have gotten two less goals or one less goal or whatever. Like, I'm going to go out on a limb and assume with a fifth-string goalkeeper

losing without several of your best players that they were going to lose if they were down to 10 men for 45 minutes. So, like, all of this was avoidable. And, like, I lose. Like, it's frustrating to just have these conversations where it's like, all right, man, like, well, nothing's going to change. This is all stupid. And here I am, like, being a hypocr to just have these conversations where it's like, all right, man, like, well, nothing's going to change. This is all stupid. And here I am, like, being a hypocrite and just continuing to scream about it

because clearly, like, I care. Are you telling me that you think being down a man and having your fifth string goalkeeper in goal against Seattle, it's impossible to win? Because impossible is an opinion, Tom. And Wilfred Nance will tell you that that that sounds like he's got them right where he wants them. If that had been the situation that had happened,

I spent two hours researching this, talking to people, figuring stuff out yesterday. And I spent like 15 minutes talking about it. I will say it's fun. It's funny. It's bizarre. I don't know that I finished by saying everyone looks bad because I don't think anyone is right,

which is a weird way to go through a situation to try and figure out like, oh, who do I agree with? I walked away being like, I don't agree with anyone. And this whole thing is chaos. So that's where we landed on the Columbus goalkeeper situation. Tommy got more. One less. So I was on CBS asked me to come on and talk about this.

And I saw a comment on like they put up the video and the video starts with Wilfred Nancy talking and then it ends with like with me in it. And somebody commented something to the effect of what the hell is going on with the facial manscaping. And I don't know if he was talking about Wilfred Nancy or me. So apparently in the literal sense, that guy thought nobody looked good either.

So that's just how to point that out there. And now everyone knows that if they jump into the comment section, Tom will read it and he will care. Upper 90 club in the chat says full disclosure. I still a hundred percent thought the crew would win with 10 man and Zawadzki in keeper. That's what Nancy has done to us, which is hilarious.

And I respect the hell out of that. And yeah, they didn't spoilers. Sean Zawadzki, probably by the way, the one crew player, I think that we're allowed to put in the underrated conversation that we're going to have on Thursday.

Cause the rest of them, it's like, well, I mean, they win a million trophies and we celebrate every player, every single game that they play in and it's really tough to find one with that do you want to talk about kayla porter i did a long segment about this yesterday as well just do you got juice for it

so it's it's not a good podcast segment because i just want to sit here and laugh with you about what that was in elite iconic historical press conference and i commend him i like i i appreciate the hell out of him instead of like doing the you know i if i speak i'm in big trouble i can't speak i'll get fined or saying something beating around the bush of trying to be clever he goes just no the referee was a coward the referee has no balls i was like oh my god like in for a penny in for a pound and i respect the hell out of it from kayle. I'm looking forward to the exact wording on the fines that he and Wilfred Nanzi are going to get when it's announced by MLS.

Yo, do you think he's going to get suspended for that? Because, like, I know he didn't threaten death on this guy like Vani Sartini did. But Vani got five games for that and everything else that he did. The fake blowjob thing that he did on the field to the referee after that game.

So whatever it was for the comments and for the on-field antics and the red card, he got five games. Like, there's a possibility Caleb Porter's going to get a game from saying the referee has no balls and it's a coward. There is a possibility. I also wonder, like, Caleb Porter probably has an idea of, like, how much you get fined for this thing. He obviously knows his own income.

Like, what is the percentage of my income I'm willing to give up to ether someone? Because it's probably pretty high. A thousand percent. And, like, that's part of the reason why I respected this so much. One, first and foremost, we've got to be married to the content. Phenomenal content. Well done. Really great execution by Caleb Porter. I don't think he's getting enough credit for that as well um and also it feels pretty

relatable for us and like that's also why i appreciate it yeah i i yelled at my referee like 37 times last night because he didn't give us a penalty when he should have and then he goes what do you want from me and i'm like a penalty exactly what i just said is not a secret so i get it i did say i did say at the end of it though this was not a game where the goal where the referee robbed this team i didn't think it was a penalty what he was asking for on the var play the luca langoni thing like it's a clock he specifically didn't get off the field in time that's the rule and then they conceded a goal this was not a game in which they dominate and deserve to win and they got robbed this was a game that was kind of 50 50 at home against the st louis team that has no shot at the playoffs

that's kind of tough but i get it from kayla porter um there let's dig into a story that you're reporting on right now uh before we get into our mls top free agents evander someone that we celebrated in our mls superstar tiers he i think is someone that i talked about elevating from the tier we put him in which i think was tier b maybe c into the top now we don't even remember that's how committed we are to the star i think i think we had him in star not superstar got it and elevating into the next level because he's leveled up and he's been phenomenal portland hasn't been as good around him which was part of it but he is like worth the money that you pay for price of admission type player uh and now it sounds like his time in portland could potentially end a little bit

earlier than we expected yeah well i mean like the short answer to that right now is no because so the news is uh qatari club submitted a bid for evander uh that was rejected out of hand because the bid was like nine million dollars which is just about just under what they paid for him which is yeah really hilarious that that was the opening bit but um sources believe that they would have went up to you know 16 million or whatever like like that wasn't going to be the final bid but the portland obviously with no ability to replace their best player they weren't going to do this and like even if they could replace him like if this happened you know eight weeks ago i don't think that they would be going out of their way to try to get this

done uh it comes in a backdrop that they're in contract talks right now with evander what i was told is that nothing no agreement is imminent i was also told that there's an offer on the table from uh from portland that is in the region of what denny blanca is making and denny blanca is like the ninth highest paid player in mls before the summer transfer window so that could change but give or take would be one of the you know 10 to 10 to 15 highest paid players in the league. Like there's been, there's been some back and forth between Evander's camp and the club about, you know, just, just the standard stuff.

And so it's not just like a contract and a money thing. It's just been like when, when he was signed, like Gavin Wilkinson was leading that process to start and then gavin wilkinson was let go by the timbers um or mutually parted ways wherever the official phrasing was and then ned grabovoy who was involved obviously as well but then he took over the big chair and kind of finished the deal so you know that there was a couple promises that that that came from from one camp to the other whatever right like so like that's been part of it evander didn't show up to training on sat on Saturday throughout kind of this saga and they were off

Sunday and Monday. They're training today. I haven't asked or gotten any updates if he showed up to training or not because if he's not there again today, this might become

a thing. I will say sources are like sources believe that this will all kind of get resolved and, you know, it's part and parcel of the game and stuff.

But like at least a Qatari club put a little pressure on portland with the bid and and we'll see if if you know a new contract can get over the line at some point soon i think it makes too much sense on both sides for it to not happen but we'll see it is an interesting one because everything we just said the attack's not the problem for portland and they've invested some money in that attack where you could tell me they played two games without a vander and like they're okay santee moreno anthony jonathan rodriguez felipe more like they're eric williamson can play in that 10 role if they need to they can bring pred Paredes into the scene. There's options in there. They're obviously a much better team with him in there. They could survive. But this is sort of one of the things where you look at a player

and you're like, you went from Brazil to Denmark to Portland. It's an odd path that's sort of following these contracts. And, like, then you can't really turn around and be like, why would he want to leave? It's like, well, this was kind of the pathway that he's taken so far, and this is how he's ended up there. I don't think he's not passionate about the game. I don't think he doesn't care about the club.

But this has sort of been the way his career has been laid out for him, and it seems like the potential that it could continue that way, and you've got to be prepared and you've got to be ready for that next move if you're stuck in a situation like that where that's the player that you're relying on the way portland is but i hope that we get to watch evander play soccer some more in this league because i'm probably not going to stream a ton of qatari games next year just because of you know like some of the some of my favorite teams have moved around it just feels more corporate now not watching gabby perera in the qatari stars league no i actually didn't even really know he was there is kaku there is he won uh i think he won the asian champions league and i think he plays

in qatar um that but also clearly i don't care that much and i do not know uh last piece here before we move on to our free agents uh shout out to Nick Markanich for setting for tying the record for the USL goal scoring in one season. I believe on 25 goals for the Charleston Battery. They've still got five games left. He doesn't even really he doesn't technically start at the center forward position. So really impressive for him. I have said this five million times. I will say it five million more.

Ben Pierman, the coach of this Charleston team, has turned player after player into a success story. They flip those players and the next players who come in break the records of the previous players and continue to get better and better. I don't understand how he's not on the top of the list for an MLS club if they're looking for a coach coming out of this season, especially a non-huge market club that's like, oh, we need to use our resources to develop players and to get more out of the sum of the parts than what we have. He would be on the top of my list. And it will be interesting to see how that plays out.

And we'll keep talking about all of that as we go along, unless you want to talk about it right now, Tom. I don't. Oh, yeah, I thought you threw a hand up. No, sorry. That's fair. That's on me. It's on me.

Put my hands up. Let's fair. That's not me. Sorry. Hold my hands up. Let's get into our top free agents. So the MLS Players Association published just an hour or so ago the free agent list for the 2025 season. This offseason coming up that will be available in Major League Soccer. This list puts out every player who could be available. It says the ones that are coming to the end of their contracts, out of contract, and then the ones that have an option that could or could not be picked up.

Reminder, there are no player options in Major League Soccer right now. No player has one. So those are all team options, and a lot of them are going to get picked up. I'll give you this. So the eligible players for free agency now are at least 24 years old and have five years of major league soccer service. Last year, the timeline for this was MLS Cup was on December 9th. Option deadlines were due between December 1st for teams that were already eliminated to December 10th for the MLS Cup winner. And then the complete list was released on December 13th, four days after MLS Cup with both the out-of-contract players and the players whose

options were declined. This year, MLS Cup's on December 7th. So the assumption there is by December 11th, we would know the full list of players that are available based off those options. But this list of players that we have right here are players who are 100% going to be available as free agents going forward. There are some interesting names on this list. There are some really big names on this list. There are some club legends that it would be shocking to see them move uh if they chose to there are also some interesting younger players because 24 years old as the threshold but with guys coming in now as homegrowns players hit free agency at 24 if their contracts are set up that

way for a lot of these young players and make moves and can be like staple players that you can bring in and set things up. Tom, I put like 20 names down and I have moved towards five or six. Do you want to go one to one or do you want to just let rip? So I want you to do your top five first. I feel like, I feel like I've led some of these. So I want,

I don't want to stay in the jury pool here. I want you to give your top five. Let me go from there. Okay. My top five are players that I think are interesting, players that I think will move, and that's part of it

because there are other players that are better, and then players that I think could have a really good future in a different spot. So my five on this list. From five to one. Jackson Yule. I don't know.

I'm not doing it that way. Probably five to one. Jackson Yule, Jesus Murillo, Aaron Long, Russell Canals, and Ryan Raposo. Those are all players that I wouldn't be shocked if they were in a different jersey next year. And I think they could be a good pickup for the team that picks them up. Your top five doesn't have Jaupalo or Albert Rusek? I find those. So those are interesting ones.

And I think they're worth it. They are in the doc you are looking at that I made. They're in that list. And they are available. I have my own doc. I would be. Wow. Wow. Big doc energy today. I'm not gonna lie i'd be

surprised if especially joel palo ended up on a different major league soccer team yeah um and i agree i guess that you're the uh looking more into like again like you've mentioned something about club it's like diego char is on a contract like i can't possibly imagine he's gonna be somewhere else in portland maxi Morales is one. Yeah, those are two that I'm not even considering. Jaap Paul, I think it's more likely that he stays. I don't think that it's impossible that he leaves. Interesting.

Again, obviously with Rusnak, I think that's more likely as well too, depending on where Seattle goes in terms of discretionary spend. Is Craig Weibel in that front office going to get money for transfer fees to bring in new players or not? Because not then they might be like screw it like sure we're not gonna be another dp deal or not whatever right like those are gonna be the

connotation but like i think that it's absolutely realistic that uh either of those players depart the club so for me like i think that they are both absolutely top five in this list so russnack is currently on 2.1 million dollars is what's reported as a designated player um i would be surprised if he was brought back on a dp spot if they can get money to spend because he has not really performed at a dp level it's probably not his best role i put down for a lot of these players reference points for us of other contracts similar quality of players i would argue actually most of the players in this list are better than albert rusak but darlington agby's at 1.4 million dollars uh robin lud's at 1.5 and then martino hata which is just

the more recent signing so i thought fit in here is at about 900 000 so the assumption here is roostak's if he's not going to take a btp deal we'll want a max tam deal and we'll want to be right on the line and right on that threshold seattle could choose to make that move if not roostak could probably get that deal somewhere else in major league soccer if he wants to yeah i totally agree and like so i think that the comps that you put i I think that that's super good. It's super valuable. That's, like, what teams, like, that's what teams and agents are doing right now. But, like, just because of the nature of free agency, you've got to, you know, pay a premium if you want to get a guy.

And with the open market here that benefits the players, like, I'd be surprised if it's not Max Tam or something close to that or hell. Like, it doesn't apply for, like, somebody like San Jose right now, but, like, wouldn't that be a team just in general that would be like, oh, if we could get this free agent DP? Like, Seattle did. Like, Seattle signed him as a DP free agent from Yacht Salt Lake. A team like Colorado, again, like, they have, like, they're situated up top.

They don't have any DP spots anyway. Up top in attacking midfield, they don't have any DP spots anyway. But, like, teams like this that aren't going gonna go out and spend a seven million dollar transfer fee to sign a new ball like you could do much worse than alvaro's like i would be maybe maybe i'd be surprised if he does get a dp deal for agency but i also don't think that's off the table so um and before we extend further i'll give my top five and the valuations wait oh god can i just can i just say one quick thing so only if it's what's funny is there is a team that I think could make that Albert Rusnak move similar to what Seattle did.

And it would be RSL. Like if RSL said to themselves, we lost Barajas. We don't know what's going to happen with Luna. Like this keeps us at the level we're at. It's obviously a whole new ownership group it's a whole different situation but like that's not a ridiculous one that's funny the other one that's interesting to me with him is Houston because like Houston won't have the DT spot

really well I love and and that's another one where you're like how much how many minutes are we getting from Achiachi next year can you take the Lateef money? Can you find some other money somewhere else? If Sebas Ferrer is off the books, that's some money there. And that's, again, a team because a reminder with these free agents, you don't have to pay the transfer fee. So, like, whether you're – Houston might be willing to pay someone else $2 million on contract, but they've got to throw the transfer fee in there.

That takes you over that number, and Albert Rusnak might be a little bit cheaper. I kind of low-key love that houston fit um so so yeah for me my top five would be five jackson you'll think he's a really good player um what did you have he's at like what 900 000 or something right now so he won't be cheap um but like i just good players cost money uh for aaron long um i went back and forth about where to slot him on this i still think that he'd be a top five free agent not quite the same level as when he left the red bulls for um for lafc when he was you know much closer to his defender of the year campaign and like he's going to be in the mix again this year uh three xiao pao for me it depends on the system but like god he's such an incredibly good player um and i think that i hope that he doesn't leave the league if he leaves

seattle i hope you know i think first and foremost it'd be great for him to stay in seattle but if God, he's such an incredibly good player. And I think that, I hope that he doesn't leave the league if he leaves Seattle. I hope, you know, I think first and foremost, it'd be great for him to stay in Seattle. But if he doesn't, like, there should be a robust market for him. Two, Albert Rusneck for me, for all the reasons, like, I think he's a really good player. But, like, if he ends up as a DP, I wouldn't love that if I was the team signing him. But, again, very good player. And number one for me is Jesus Murillo. Like, I just think he's one of the best centerbacks in the league.

And he's at 500,000 right now. And there are caps of the best center backs in the league. And he's at $500,000 right now. And there are caps of what you can pay a free agent. So the raise, what is it, 125% or whatever? The most a non-LEFC team can pay him is going to be less than a million, which is going to be one of the best values in this league. I think much more likely he re-signs in lefc for more but like lefc have proven that like we'll let a player go if if hey we have a number where we value you at and it's just business it's not personal if you want more we won't stand in your way to go get

more they let chicharanga go for a chance to feed latif blessing mahalo poku all those started with contract disputes denny buonga same thing they ended up paying Danny Bawanga, obviously. But, like, they're pretty rigid on this is where we value at. We cannot compromise that because the salary cap is a fixed number. Or, you know, we only have X amount of dollars under the salary cap to do this. So, I think there's a possibility that he could leave. But, like, I'd still be surprised because of how good he is and how excellent he's been in this LAFC team.

What I will be interested to watch with the LAFC center back situations is what they learned from Walker Zimmerman. Because there felt like a big energy out of the Walker Zimmerman trade where he was Defender of the Year in their expansion year, and then they traded him for, at the time, a record fee to Nashville that center backs only have X value in our salary cap. and then they traded him for, at the time, a record fee to Nashville, that center backs only have X value in our salary cap. And we're not going to value any center back.

It had nothing to do with Walker Zimmerman above that. It took them a while to bounce back from that. It took them a while to stabilize that position again. They took a step back because of that. I am curious to see if they have changed their thinking here or if they say to themselves we're not going to spend to bring both these guys back we're not going to spend two 2.5 million dollars at the center back position and then there's a third ilia sanchez is at a contract and and it's funny like it's poetic that you're bringing this up so they got a little too cute and i think that they well, I know that they recognize that because the year that they missed the

playoffs, that was when they were like, oh, we can trade Walker Zimmerman. And, and, you know, a couple of these other like MLS veterans that like,

right. Okay. No, we don't want to overvalue them and overpay them. And then being a bad, they lost the Jordan Harvey's of the world. We can just go sign somebody from South America and like, well,

our scouting is so good. Our deal making is so good. And I was like, everything else. I'm like, I don't think that they were totally wrong, well, our scouting is so good. Our deal making is so good. And I was like, everything else. I'm like, I don't think that they were totally wrong, but they went too far in one direction. And then the next off season in came Ilya Sanchez,

in came Aaron Long, in came Ryan Tarlingshead, in came Franco Escobar. They signed like six dudes with, you know, a collective like 500 MLS games or something like that. So I don't think that they'll make that same mistake again. But again, between Ilya,, Aaron Long, and Jesus Murillo,

can you bring all three of those back? I'm not entirely sure. And given LAFC's history in being comfortable and confident in we're not going to overpay you just to keep it the same, I could see one of those players leaving. Again, it's too early to kind of judge to tell to figure out what's going to happen but like it's not out of the realm of possibility to say the very least um anything anything on that so one of the things

that's tough for these players if they choose to stay in mls is then the market has to exist and like as good as ilia sanchez has been, he's making $1.2 million right now. Oh, he's getting that. At his age and with the way he needs the team to be fit around him because you saw the lack of success at the end of his time at SKC. I don't know that anyone else is giving him a huge contract. SKC let him go because they thought he was cooked three years ago. But he looked cooked because the game was too open and he was chasing and it was a mess and he was chasing and it

was a mess and they didn't control possession enough in the way he needed to for him to look good. That is not the type of player that a team, let's just talk about the teams already, like currently in major league soccer, that on the bottom half of the table can say, Oh no, this guy will solve.

No, that's true. That's true. You cannot walk into door as Chicago fire and say, oh, if we bring him in, that will clean up all the gaps for us. And if that's the case, I think LAFC comes back to the table and say, listen, if your market's here, we're happy to pay that. If you don't want to move, and I think Aaron Long and him

and Iliye are going to be the two in this combo, where Aaron Long, he's already at that max number. I'd be surprised if someone comes and meets that again he will have he will probably say to himself i live in la i play for lafc this is pretty fun so if i'm gonna get 900k from here or in montreal or in colorado then i'll take it here yeah and i would be surprised then if either of those players left for a different number mario i think is different teams are going to try and get creative like oh yeah cincinnati did with miles robinson Surprised then if either of those players left for a different number. Murillo, I think, is different. Teams are going to try and get creative like Cincinnati did with Miles Robinson and try and get in the conversation.

I think they probably bring him back as well. But you never know, and you never know what happens. But that's my take on the LAFC guys and where we end up. A few of these guys, as we mentioned like we'd be surprised if a diego char left maxi morales it feels like he's just playing in new york because that's where he wants to be um and there are a few other ones like that that would be pretty shocking if they made a move there's a couple guys that you say like your team's going to be better if you pick them up a huon pedro santos if you play with the right type of wingbacks and attacking players,

Ariel Lassiter is one of those players as well. We're like, you're not worse off for having him on the roster. You're probably worse off if you're committing a ton of minutes to him. And you're saying like, he's a full-time storm starter and all of that. Fabian Herbers was already on my underrated list. He's on this list.

He's making, he's making 400,000 right right now and i think a lot of the players i compared him with here's an interesting one on the legends list do you think there's a chance that a johnny russell says you know i want to go try and win something dude that was the first name i was going to say because like you talked about that and i was gonna i was gonna ask you this exact question i was like do you think that he's in the same convo as like chara and maxi is that like you just don't see him leaving um for me i i could see it right like he's a club legend like i i again i know i get sentimental and and not you

know cold cold enough for to be a gm or whatever right like i want to see him stay in kansas city but if i was a gm of another team like hey if you can get him at the right number and be like hey man like maybe you could start you know 20 games um but like they're gonna be all the big games you're gonna sit out the midweek games like or or be good of being a game changer off the bench like i think that he would fit on a lot of really good teams as long as he's not going to be really upset to not get 3 000 minutes or 2 800 minutes or something in that realm and he doesn't strike me as a guy who would go crazy about like he seems self-aware enough he's obviously super self-confident as as he goddamn well should be but like he doesn't strike me as a guy who's going to be an issue if you lay out

that like hey you're going to play on a better team and you're going to play 2 200 minutes 2 000 minutes 1800 whatever the number is and like let's go win hey, you're going to play on a better team and you're going to play 2,200 minutes, 2,000 minutes, 1,800, whatever the number is. And like, let's go win something and you're going to play in our big games. He seems like the kind of guy like, hell yeah, like, let's do it. And I think that he would make

a lot of teams better in that like third, like if you start with three forwards, if he's either your third starter or your first guy off the bench, kind of rotating between those spots, that would be an excellent spot for Johnny Russell. I would assume you probably have to overpay him to fill that role, and you'd probably be a team that says to yourself,

actually, I'm just going to say it, like it's a Vancouver, who's like, this is an overpay for Johnny Russell. Why? Because of all the Scottish players? Exactly. I'd be interested. This isn't an overpay for Johnny Russell, but Johnny Russell's quality on 1.2 million is more than because we're not going to go out and sign a real player from outside the league

and so the exactly what you just described if it's eight and eight but also a threat in the playoffs like that's maybe enough for them to say yeah this is worth the money and this is a chance plus he can hang out with ryan galdon they can drink yeah and stewart armstrong and hang out with the squad it's one that i would have said for nycfc a year ago they signed so many guys from uruguay so i don't know i don't know and i don't know that they're in like i don't know that they've ever get in that win now mode situation um so i don't know if what happened, I'm going to keep sort of saying all these names with RSL because they, you know,

he's a player where they could be one piece away and he could be a playoff option. And again, where, how many games is Diego Luna with you next year? Is he with you for the full season? Is this cover and you set yourself up so that you're not scrambling in the summer and all things like that. I'm SKC fans will be pissed that I just connected him to RSL. And I completely understand that. And the other one would be LAFC,

which is if Kike Oliver leaves, if Mateusz Bogusz is halfway out the door, you could see them say, let's cover ourselves here. And if he's not a full-time starter, that's great. and if he's not a full-time starter that's great and if he is we know that we trust him and he fits our system and he could be pretty dangerous yeah i mean is he friends with antoine griezmann that that that's the first that's the first question i

asked that one um i actually think they go back pretty far they're boys yeah yeah the day the antoine griezmann noted big darby county guy um yeah and like again like i feel like that i'm gonna use like you said like some of the similar teams for a couple of these guys that fit but like a guy like johnny russell like you said i think you can go to a win now team and he'd make them better like houston right like i could see him with houston as well um they have again when when anali comes back and when tionis comes back they have two really good young wingers or at least super exciting young wingers to bring in another veteran in that attacking group i think would would be really solid and again like what they were missing

with tionis and why they went and got anali is they like they didn't really have somebody who was just going to eliminate dudes on the dribble and just be kind of dynamic on the back shoulder and can add goals from the wing that's what inali was like immediately after signing uh before he tore his acl that's what johnny russell is too so like they clearly understand that that for our game model to be at it at its best we need to have one of those profiles on the field to balance out like if coco kariski is playing in that like mizala role as like a winger technically but like a central midfielder that drifts wide you're gonna need a balance on the other side somebody who's direct and can uh take players down the dribble and get get behind and score goals so like johnny ross can fit that role as well so i think he makes

sense for houston there's a couple other names like there's like these free agent classes are getting deeper and deeper to your point like it was last year i believe was the first year that they lowered the age restriction and the minimum years and like again like should go without saying but we should keep saying it until it changes there should be no restrictions on free agency other than is your contract up or not that's just what it should be um but you know we're getting closer to that um some other names tim parker i think he he would make sense for a lot of teams depending on the number nick lima as well you already said juan um i'm a little bit

worried about raul ruiz diaz being joseph martinez 2.0 that hasn't gotten great in montreal it didn't go perfect in mohammed the year before um i'd be a little bit worried about signing that deal but like if he's good with being uh rotational or maybe secondary forward like that could work but like i don't know that'd be a big roll of the dice on like again a personality you don't you don't want the superstar when he's kind of on the downswing and the reason why these guys are so great is partly because mentally they're super resilient so i'm sure that raul ruiz diaz thinks he's still one of the best forwards in the league yeah um and that's why he's gotten to the point where he is but like that would be a dicey one to bring him into a new environment. Yeah, absolutely.

He, I mean, I've floated him to Cincinnati and all these other things because like, if you can put him in the right spot, it works. It hasn't worked with Joseph. They're two different people. You don't want to assume, but they are in very similar profiles. It is not an easy job to manage. You're also in a situation where like, I don't know the contracts these guys take. I will say this going back on Jaupalo because it kind of connects to this because xiaopalo is brazilian

it feels like if the contracts come in low he's just gonna go back to brazil there's a ton of money in the game in brazil that was part of the reason i didn't put him in here is like i don't know that he takes the nico lodero deal and lodero's on 800 000 it's not like it's nothing but i think if that's the offer he probably looks at and is like i could play at fortaleza i could play at botafogo like i can go have these options not everyone's like that not everyone's in that conversation um i want to touch on my last one here which i think i put in my top five but did not push back on in any way jonathan lewis410,000 is, I think, a really interesting player. He has major skills and he has major deficiencies in what he does. The comp that I pulled in for us

here was Shonday Silva on $560,000 with Atlanta lewis in the prime of his career he is a game breaker um with his speed he is a dangerous player in the final third he is not the most efficient finisher and yet he scores goals because he gets in great spots a ton of time but you don't really want to play through him so what can you call somebody a game breaker who has three goals in his last 50 or 40 appearances? I would say with his speed, he can affect the game more. He can affect the game more than someone with those stats does, right? If Jonathan Lewis is on the field, it changes the shape of a back line. It changes the reality for everyone.

So I would say he's a guy that I would look at pretty similar to what Colorado did with Omir Fernandez of like, yeah, we can guarantee you some minutes that other teams aren't going to guarantee you. And we need these assets in our team. I look at D.C. United as one of those teams where it's like, can you bring in a guy like this? He's better than Gabriel Pirani at this point already. And he can play north to south. He can play in transition if you get him to press with you, which he's doing pretty well with Chris Armas, Chris Armas, that's an option for you. That's something that could help you out.

So he's one that stood out for me there. And like, he's one that I think if he falls in the right spot, we look back and we go like, how was he available for X number? He can outperform whatever he ends up on next if it's the right place and it's the right situation yeah um i mean i guess it just comes down to like do you believe that there's another step to take and what is the contract value going to be is that 400 000 and like i you could talk me into it like um but i just don't think that another step is coming for him um so i don't know necessarily if i do it but like he could be a valuable like it's funny that he's like better now like it you like i feel like he'll

always just be like a rising young talent to me just from for how long it's been and like some of those moments he had but like yeah it every team needs a profile like this either you know if he can start some games he can somebody that can come in off the bench like you said that pace is is very valuable in any team any system no matter what like you're always going to find some minutes for a guy like that uh for me i just don't see that other step coming and um again maybe that's just about me having the wrong expectations for him um but that's just where i'm at yeah i think that's fair i think it makes sense i think that's the conversation with a bunch of these guys do you think there's a step for a Jackson Yule or is he peaked?

And if he's peaked, where are you valuing that in major league soccer? I think that's the conversation with a few of these guys. And then the rest of the guys are like, what do they have left? And is it enough to make us competitive? Is it enough to be worth it? It's only going to continue to grow. We have a few comments in the chat about San Diego. San Diego is a tough one to pigeonhole here because literally the cutoff is 24 years old.

And this is a club built through an academy set up in Right to Dream that's looking to be young. But you do need MLS experience to be competitive. So it would be interesting to see where they land on this list of like who they target and what positions or what quality of player. Like they might not want players who are starters they might just want the experience and sort of the like guidance side and the leadership side in the locker room without having to play them or do they go and say to aaron long like we'll give you the 1.4 deal here come and be our starting center back and help stabilize us in year one still in southern california so they're going to be a fun add to the league and they're going to be interesting

to watch as well all right that's all for us here by the way josie altidore still listed on this free agent list so the option is still out there and the potential is still there we will be back on thursday here um live as we will be talking about our underrated 11s. We'll preview the weekend. We'll recap the U.S. and Canadian men's national teams as well. NWS Elk Show coming tomorrow. Thank you to Tom, you, for being here. Thank you to me, I guess.

And thank you to all of you for listening. We'll talk to you again very, very soon. Thank you.