SoccerWise - MLS/USMNT Edition: US-VEN Reaction, Chicago Fire & San Diego Coming Together + Cincy Worries

Episode Date: January 21, 2025

David was in the stands to see the wand that is Jack McGlynn's left foot & the Agy-god himself slot one away in Miami. Tom and Gass give their reactions to the match against Venezuela. Then they dig in on the DP signing Chicago has made and where their roster stands right now. Plus head out to California and talk about the next two big moves San Diego made, LA Galaxy's roster maneuvering & LAFC's rebuild.7:30 USMNT18:20 Chicago Fire34:00 San Diego FC Making Big Moves39:30 LA Galaxy Roster Maneuvers47:20 FC Cincy Updates54:30 Ice Cream shop Cucho Update, ORL DP Search & FC Dallas’s 2025 Plans Soccerwise Live 2pm ET Every Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday on Youtube/Twitch/Twitter

Welcome everybody into SoccerWise, David Goss and Tommy Scoops with you for another week of some in-depth MLS coverage as the moves continue to fly. Huge national team news. A bunch to talk about. But Tom, the biggest story of the day. We cannot wait to get to it. We have to start off. The Colorado Rapids have acquired a first round MLS Super Draft pick from Toronto FC

in exchange for TFC's ability to hire two coaches. Plus a GAM sell-on from the draft pick this is it this is how we win this is the greatest league in the world i love this trade this just makes so much sense for everybody and let's see if the colorado rapids find their next moist bombito they have a lot of lottery tickets now between the trade to acquire literally all of philadelphia union's draft picks for the next three years and they had a had a lot of draft day trades this year. They're just cooking in the draft, and I love it. You better believe that I'm having, we're re-upping, we're redoing our depth charts.

We're doing like, real people who have intelligent brains, who know how to build things and make them useful, are working on them right now. They're going to be really, really cool. I'm really excited for fans to have them, so that that you can like start to play with things a little bit more and look at your team's rosters and how they could change and how you could affect them and what moves look like and all that type of stuff. I'm going to have them build a page in that's literally just a tracker for 20 year cycle to see this draft pick. If like maybe you sell that player and then it becomes two draft picks and

then a little bit more like i want to know how much toronto makes off this this draft pick in the end with all the sell-on percentages on the gam and shout out to the two coaches who got new jobs and got sent to toronto you don't see an assistant coach trade every day tom so i think we'll probably spend the next 30 40 minutes on this and then we'll sprinkle a little bit more once we get there right namor take a back seat to this 100 who exactly he play at slew did he play at the university of vermont is he a hartford stag i think this hartford's not even the stags and i think they don't have a d1 program anymore i think that's fairfield so connecticut backup i did love by the way this weekend was the

classic uh patrick ajumang played at this school and he played at uri have you ever had yes of course shout out d3 legend patrick ajumang did you ever play the school he went to i don't believe so i i think that one of the kids that i was played with transferred there and might be a coach there now. If I'm getting my Connecticut schools. Who was your rival? Montclair State University. MSU. Home of the Red Hawks. God, I hate Rowan. I hate Stockton.

Stockton's my final answer. That's the first one that comes to mind for me. That's the one that... Losers. Hit me in the discord if you went to Stockton. I want to smoke. Didn't the guy who coached Real Madrid go there? Yes.

So that's how I knew that he was going to stink. Real Madrid just sub-chat and you're like, oh really? Stockton? I bet, bro. So not only were they chippy, chirpy, bunch of white boys from Stockton. What the most hate comes from my freshman year we had a head coach who had

been there forever as a legend shout out to O'Crimanko love him he was very clearly about to be asked to retire and then he was but for his last year he was just like pulling out all the stops and saying screw it I'm telling i'm a legend nobody can mess with me we had a 29 year old player who still had eligibility somehow but he was didn't actually have eligibility because he was with fc dallas for like two weeks in preseason one year and thus was not eligible to play ncaa games but our coach brought him back anyway. Then, like, I'm 18 years old. This is a man with a family. He went to, like, one or two training sessions in preseason, and the coach was like, you don't even need to show up to non-conference or any training sessions. Just come to the conference games. And I was like, this guy better be awesome. He shreds

Stockton University. This is, like, the greatest individual performance I've ever seen, because he's a professional player. And then Stockton figured out that this is a guy who played for fc dallas and he's not eligible so uh we weren't we weren't allowed to go to the postseason that year is this the start of nil by the way we're gonna need a name in this do we do i need not lovel palmer i don't know pal Palmer played like a million times in MLS. No, yeah, he was just somebody who went to preseason. There was an ESPN report about it, I remember fine, because we were like, oh, shit, he never even told us.

This is the start of NIL. This is Tom pulling back the, this is your last dance documentary. Like, sit down and be like, whoa, man. And you know, it was crazy. He was an FC Dallas player. He's on the field with us. You will never see it again. That's what we need. I do remember, now that we're talking about fake memories.

I hope that there's so many people in the chat asking about real things, and I'm derailing us for 15 minutes about a Kane University 2013 soccer story. Wes wants to know if I moisturize and shine my head when I shave it. Morgan's shouting out South Jersey. Six says from Connecticut here, and I have no idea what the Hartford Athletic mascot is supposed to be. So maybe I'm in good company there.

And yeah, everyone's on board with us. This is why people come to the show. This is why people are here. Anyone who's new, welcome. If you're listening via podcast, we also stream live on YouTube most of the time when we do the show. So go subscribe there so you get alerts when that happens. If you're listening via podcast, we also stream live on YouTube most of the time when we do the show. So go subscribe there so you get alerts when that happens.

If you're watching on YouTube, subscribe to our podcast because we don't go live every single time. So there are more shows in there. The Casey Stoney interview that I did last week, the new manager of the Canadian Women's National Team, I put that on YouTube. But you did not get the full conversation with Amy Walsh afterwards, former Canadian Women's National team captain, about what the future of the sport is and NSL and all those other things. So you can go to the podcast to listen to things like that. We also had the interviews with Kevin Sullivan and Obed Vargas that I put up on Friday, which was really fun. That was podcast only. So you have to go there and everywhere.

You can subscribe to our Patreon. It gets you access to our Discord where we have all of our conversations. And most of those updates go in as well as access to those depth charts both on the MLS and NWSL side. I'm sure you didn't listen, Tom. But I will give you the notes, which is Obed Vargas. I said, what are you working on? What do you want to add? And he's like, goals and assists.

Like, he didn't even wait. Hell yeah. And I was like, we've seen a little bit of that. He goes, yeah, that's who I am now. Like, I'm an 8. I used to be a 10 growing up. Like, I want to be that eight for this team. He was funny. His one comment, he's like, bro, you're not going to go to MLS and play 10 over like Christian Roldan and Albert Rusak. I was like, yes, dude, this is like borderline when Kevin Paredes cried about playing with Steve Birnbaum. Like this is almost on that level of like, we have

made it and this is what we do. And so I was really excited about that. He was awesome. Kevin was awesome. He's a really funny kid. And he balled this weekend in preseason. He's going to play a ton. Like that's the point of what happened.

And that is a huge part of why Bradley Carnell was hired and what he's going to do. I don't know that he's going to be the best player on the field, but he's going to be special. And he's going to be doing it alongside another special young player in Jack McGlynn, because I was in the building on Saturday. David Goss is 1-0-0 when at games for the U.S. men's national team in 2025. I'm not saying I need a first class ticket, but get me on the plane and get me in the building because the good luck vibes are there. I walked into Chase Stadium, I'm going to say is what it's

called, but I'm not really sure. It doesn't matter. They don't sponsor this show, so I don't need to get it right. And I sat down with my wife and she was like, hey, who are the players I should know? Like she knows Walker Zimmerman. She knows Miles Robinson. She knows the World Cup roster. She knows a lot of the older players because she worked at MLS for a little bit and, and got to know like the Jordan Morris, there's Christian Roldan's of the world. And I was like,

well, Patrick Osmond is the greatest player in the history of the earth. And Jack McGlynn is probably the one guy on the field who I'd expect to play for the full national team. Like I think a lot of other players in this camp will break through. There'll be rotation pieces. Some will surprise us. But I think McGlynn's the one I would say that was on the field to start that game,

where I would say that player will be with the full team as they get older. And boy, was I right. Your boy knows what he's talking about. Jack McGlynn slaps one in the corner. Then two minutes later, Patrick Ajamang, he does that thing where when he breaks out into the open field, he's so comfortable going left or right foot that you can't force him one way.

And it just feels like he has defenders and goalkeepers on skates. Like goalkeepers seem so uncomfortable when he's on the breakaway to try and choose an angle to push him to and he ends up scoring centrally a lot because he can get there from both sides this time he didn't need to got to the left foot got to finish off a little toe poke which is exactly what it needed and man it was just pure ecstasy to be in the presence of greatness like that to see it with your own eyes the oji god in front of his followers showing them why he is the one you know this show was here first you know we were ajumang hive and ozzy gang before

anyone else was there when he was in mls next pro and now we were able to see it on the full stage it was a fun game january camps are normally bad like let's just be real they're incohesive teams normally the atmospheres are not that high. But you were there, so it made it better. I brought it up a level. And spoilers, Venezuelans brought it up a level as well. Like, they were pumped. They were there.

It was announced 18,000. I think it was pretty close to that for a January camp game. Like, I think what we saw in Carson was the, I think the excitement started to fall because it was the same fans that would go every time. And this is not a, this is kind of a deep cut thing. And so to have it year after year there. So I thought this was a cool change up. I enjoyed chunks of the game. There were still parts that weren't cohesive. The big subs are always difficult, but like in general, it was a good time. And to me, I came out the way I went in. Jack McGlynn, i think is at a level above

most of the players in this camp even at his age and i think you saw that in the responsibility he had on the field and the way he played and patrick ajumang like i i know it sounds like a joke sometimes he is a starter in mls coming out of college which is rare at that position and i think if he's given the opportunity this year with the players they're putting together to sort of create for him he should be a 15 plus goal scorer he should be in a golden boot race conversation and he should legitimately be in this usmnt talk yeah i might slow the roll a little bit we need to see more from him in 2025 before we start talking about leapfrogging other players in a regular camp where it's not a january camp bite your tongue i'm just saying like and mcglynn like i hate that

you're setting me up to be the contrary on this but whatever here we go um so yeah like we said about it about ajumang that like how special he is physically and you don't the defenders don't know which side he's going to because defenders don't know which side he's going to because he doesn't know what side he's going to which makes it it's beautiful chaos and I love it we need to see more from him during the season and for a sustained period of time before we talk about a regular a call with a full camp and that's okay too he's still continuing to grow and have potential I just don't want to get it go crazy McGlynn too I'm a huge fan of his I love the way he plays everything else I'm still worried about is he athletic enough to impact the game at a full senior international

level i hope that answer can be yes or that he can be enough where it's not a deterrent but like kind of looking at the way the team plays like he can offer more passing range than some players in in that central midfield pool. But like, I'm a little bit worried that like you can't take away the athleticism from McKinney and Moussa and Adams and everything else that they do outside of their, you know, passing abilities. Like his elite trait is that. Tyler Adams' elite trait is defensive transition. And that's just much more valuable for this group. And I'm getting ahead of myself by even talking about it like that with Jack McGuim,

I would love to see him make a move to Europe, see what he looks like in Germany or the Netherlands or the championship or whatever, and see exactly what he looks like with, I guess, higher level of competition, but with similar physicality that MLS has. Because that's my only holdup on him. It reminds me of Harris Madunianen with the Philadelphia Union. He made 50 caps, I think, for the Bosnian Herzegovina national team. People were telling me, like, if this dude was slightly below average physically, you'd be talking about a Bayern Munich player or, you know,

a player in the Champions League. Like, that was the difference between him being a fun player in Europe and a fun player in MLS to being an elite player in the world all of that i get but hires madunian still made the 50 caps because the thing he was good at he was great at and i think that's where yeah jack lindley's probably not going to be the guy for every game and if he's not good enough to build a team around does he fit into that group because that's a perfect way to put it but tyler adams is a perfect partner for him like there's so many ways this all sets up well for him to be the right piece maybe for the start it's the right piece for the right game right games where you know you're going to dominate possession or games where you know you're going to have to break down

a low block or games where someone else specifically is out and you're going to have to shift the way you play that might be how it starts But I think he's so good at the thing he's good at that I think he's going to end up being a piece that you set other things around to say, yeah, like if we can, we will bring this player in so that they can cover for his deficiencies so that he can do what he does. Great. The thing that even with his struggles that gives me hope is like the fact that he's legitimately in the Philadelphia midfield in a system that shouldn't fit him he's been able to find ways to be good at what he's good at and good enough at what he's bad at to stay on the field for a team that's been competitive through his entire time in a system that doesn't make sense for him and so my hope and I've talked about this with John Tolkien is like as they go to new teams that don't play as high pressing and as open and as athletic of games,

you'll actually see that skill sets that they learn be translated into simpler moments in the game and they'll be even better. So I'm excited. I think once again, this game made me excited. I thought Danny Pereira had a weird performance and like I was watching for him the whole time. And I'm like the only one obviously was paying attention. He kind of played like a demon in a pickup game where he was like, I'm going to stay with the back four. I'm not going to get into the attack.

I'm not going to connect. And I'm just going to cover the back four. And it was like a very odd performance for him. And obviously me being the nerd that I am was locked into that. Plenty of Sergio Cordova jerseys, plenty of Jefferson Soteldo jerseys like it was an MLS graveyard in the crowds with some of the names that were being repped by the um by the Venezuela fans uh but it was fun to watch that my last piece from this game and I don't know if you have anything else is I'm excited for Caden Clark's season uh I I watched Caden come through with

the Red Bulls um academy years, really, into Red Bulls 2. And one of the things that I've always struggled with with him is like, I just, he's not a 10. He's not a pure goal scorer. And I thought it almost hurt him that he had these unbelievable moments early on. Yeah. Because I think he fits other positions better. And I thought he looked really comfortable in this game, even a lack of connection and some of that was because milovich wasn't the right piece at the 10 and so he was struggling to find someone to play off of in places some of that was because ajumang seemed more comfortable sort of sitting towards the other side of the field so again he struggled to find a connection i thought shack more seemed like on purpose sort of started to pull in as a third

center back as the game went along and arfson was the one to push high and to make it sort of like wingbacks but i love kate and clark in the idea as a wingback i love kate and clark in a three-man midfield as an eight or two eights or whatever it is or you know having a center mid that sits with another player underneath the forward and i think think Montreal will use a couple of those setups, but he moves the ball quickly off his feet. He grinds, he hustles, he's in shape, he's clean technically. And so I just think his fit in this Montreal team is going to be really good.

And I'm excited to see what we get from him this season where, okay, now he's finally had an MLS breakthrough and he's had an off season to be settled with a club. Like this is his best chance to put together a good full season in mls so far in his career i completely agree i co-signed every word you said he's if montreal are going to be a playoff team he has to be the driving force in attack again it's not going to be the same way that it's heliocentric with pooch with the galaxy or or cucho with columbus or you any star player, because it'll be more egalitarian where it's spread across.

But if they want to be good, Caden Clark has to be really good. And he can be. And I'm looking forward to seeing that burden on him. Because like you said, he was a really promising, talented youngster. He picked his moments with the Red Bulls. Now he has the more responsibility to drive the game forward to be the guy for Montreal and and again I think he's capable of that and I like and the way that they're set up with the three at the back so he doesn't have to be a pure 10 but

he also doesn't have to be a pure winger because I'm with you I don't think that he fits perfectly to either one of those I love his fit in like the 3-4-2-1 or 1-2, however they end up playing because he'll just dominate those half spaces. It's what we've seen somewhat from Nathan Saliba when he's been at his best with this team. He's not the same player as Ismael Kone. He's not on the level of Ismael Kone. But again, Kone, not pure chance creator, just high level soccer player, good athleticism, can create openings because of those two things, even if it's not pure creativity. And then Kone has another level that he can't get to. All right, let's move back into our MLS sphere.

Let's start with the Chicago Fire because they've officially made a DP signing. It is locked and loaded. You know the name. It is not Neymar's Jonathan Bamba. But we are excited anyway, Tom, for this to finally be over the line. I love this move. I love this move. I love this move. It's only a fee around $2 million is what I was told.

I would have guessed, you know, probably closer to triple that, honestly, before I found the number. To the point where I was, like, texting sources. I'm like, I'm sorry for even throwing this number at you because it must not be real. And it is real. So Jonathan Bamba joins. He's best known for his time at Leo.

He was part of their Shock Ligon title winning team. And the year following that is when Luis Araujo went to Atlanta United. Bamba was the top target for MLS teams on that club. But Leo weren't prepared to let him go. They were prepared to let Luis Araujo go. So he's somebody whose name I've had around MLS for a while. And I'm happy that's coming through. Yes, he didn't fit quite well at Celta Vigo. Part of the reason why the fee is so low is because he signed at Celta Vigo as a free agent when his

legal contract expired. So he had a ton of leverage to say, give me more salary because you're not paying me, paying a transfer fee. And I've heard some, some intel on, on that, that either the contract was getting bigger as the years went on. So, Celta, we're fine with letting this go for really cheap to get kind of the salary off the books. Two things can be true. It didn't work out perfectly there,

but I think he's going to be awesome in MLS. I agree with you. I love this signing. I love that he's entering his prime, that he should be available. I mean, started 24 games in La Liga last year alone. So, like, he should be capable of playing a heavy amount of minutes. Played over 2,700 minutes for Lille two years ago, 2,900 minutes in that championship-winning season for that team.

But he's not over the hill in any way. He's a chance creator on his own, and i think he can fit into a system as well and so this will give chicago this outlet that they haven't had which is sometimes when the game's against you you can get a special moment and all of a sudden you get this relief even if it's just beat a couple guys take a shot reset the field get your lines a little bit higher breathe for a second they haven't had that for a really long time unless it's brian gutierrez and his pops of moments and now you make those guys life easier so gutierrez is getting 1v1 chances kypers is getting on the end of crosses like this all fits really well it's clear from

what uh greg said two weeks ago that this winger position was the focus for them and it's obvious there are i think there are good enough performances across some of the other parts of the field for this and as you said to be in the right place at the right time that can mean everything for a club like if you get one or two of these signings over the line correctly where the number is correct the contract's correct and whether it's he's here for a while or he plays well you sell him you flip that into the next two players whatever it is if you have your plan and you're able to land a couple of these look at the la galaxy like they were built on the back of being at the doorstep of ricky pooch at the right moment and once they got that deal done they were able to start to build the rest of it on the back of that this feels like one of those to me to be

able to get a guy in this form of his like career in this moment, at that number. And again, just going back to his last two years with Leo and looking at the FB Ref advanced stats, he's 97th percentile in progressive passes received. He's up above 70% both years in assists and expected assists, stuff like that, just kind of in that ballpark. And that is obviously a top five league in the world, despite what Cristiano Ronaldo tells you in Saudiudi arabia that's that the saudi league has passed france spoiler alert it has not jonathan bomba was excellent in that league so i think that you

look at the totality of a player's career rather than just like oh it didn't work out in la liga to like the point that we hoped for but even at that like pulling pulling it up even you're good good well let me just throw in there those numbers in france at his age are better than dennis buongas were yeah and that's the comparison you can make now obviously that's tough buonga's a golden boot winner but like on pure profile that's what you're talking about in mls terms in the near in the recent past and like that's a crazy number and again like so the he'll he won't be cheap on salary but like again the all-in price here one chicago fire have plenty of money to spend they

aren't worried about it but like this is an excellent deal and at the bottom of it we can talk about like again if he was four million dollars or whatever it wouldn't make a difference because he's a designated player he hits the cap at a certain point and at some point like yeah you don't want to get taken advantage of in deals, but at some point, screw it, you got to get it done, whatever, right? So that doesn't matter as long as, like, if he stinks for the fire, nobody would be like, well, we only got him for $2 million, right? Like, I think that he's going to be excellent for this team

is kind of the starting point of my analysis here. And then it's a bonus of how favorable the financial terms were on the acquisition costs and again we'll know more for sure about where he slots in salary-wise in mls but i don't expect it to be anything crazy i think it's pretty reasonable so again i i it's easy to be super optimistic about these and when you're looking at a depth chart rather than see it on the field but i really like this fit i really like this. And I think not only is he going to be excellent individually, Hugo Kuyper's just got better. Yeah. There's a lot to love about this. One of the things that didn't happen is that Neymar didn't sign though over the course

of the weekend. Tom, give me an update right now about where this stands. So Neymar gave the green light to do a deal with Santos. And Neymar's contract expires in six months. So, this is really all that matters, is what does he want, where is he going to go. The Chicago Fire were among several clubs across the globe who were in serious preliminary talks with Neymar. Neymar's camp, they listen to a lot of stuff and can't blame them for picking Santos, right?

So, that's kind of where this stands. Nothing's done there, but look. Neymar says, I want to go to Santos. And he's good with whatever the finances are going to be, I'm assuming. It's going to get done. Whether Al-Halal are going to hold out for him to either forego the rest of his salary for the next six months or do it as a loan and figure that out. Because Al-Halal and the Saudi dealmakers in general want him to stay in Saudi Arabia. So

there's a possibility this is just a short-term loan and we'll figure it out again in the summer. So again, theoretically, Chicago could come back. But for me, if I had to guess, that would have more to do with if he comes to MLS, will Inter Miami be in a spot in the next year to be able to add? I'm like, I don't think so. But that is something to kind of keep on your mind. But the news for right now is namor advanced talks return to santos he wants to go back to santos i'm assuming all of that's going to get done am i dumb and i can leave it there if you want yeah i wasn't gonna take that pot shot guys don't worry am i dumb for being excited that any of this even happened?

Like to me, is it defeatist to say, I'm glad the Chicago fire legitimately had this conversation. I'm glad that there feels like there's a piece of the Chicago fire internally that thinks they should be having conversations like this coming off. Of course, 15 years of like trading for, I keep making jokes about Sean Maloney and Flacco Fernandez and conversations like this. Coming off, of course, 15 years of like trading for,

I keep making jokes about Sean Maloney and Flacco Fernandez and guys like that. And then just coming in under a new regime where like, yeah, they spent money on Shaqiri, but they've still struggled to put together a winner. Like I walk away from all of this being like, okay, I'm excited for what Chicago can do. Yes.

And like, I think that that's absolutely true the argument against it is you know let's not be moral victory fc here hey we took a meeting with with neymar hey sporting kansas city had a serious talk with cristiano ronaldo it hasn't made their last three seasons better or whatever right but like well and truly i'm choosing to look at yeah that is great news and i don't like again we haven't been able to question their financial ambition. It's just who's been spending it and how they've been spending it. So the fact that they're looking for this, like what happens, Robert Lewandowski is a name that is always connected to Chicago because he's

a Polish legend and then the community that is there in Chicago and everything else, right? They're going to be linked with these players. And if they're going after Namor and seriously thinking, Hey, we, we have every right to be in this game and we can make it financially worthwhile or at least come close, then they should have that mentality for a Lewandowski or insert any random star in Europe that could be coming to MLS. Like, hey, Chicago should be in this game. It shouldn't just be LA, LA, Miami, right? Like, we are serious about this too. So I'm there as well while understanding some people might be like,

cool, he took a meeting with you. Raise the trophy. And my hope would be that there are people in the front office, starting with Craig Berhalter, who turns to ownership and says, well, if you guys are willing to spend that money on this, we can actually get Better Bank for a buck for the next Cucho. And like your hope is that Chicago, because they should be one of those clubs that resets things a little where it's like, and I think Jonathan Bamba is in line with that.

Finding in prime players like Neymar to me was an outlier in a way that was worth it. Lewandowski, I think is probably close to there, especially in that market. But there aren't a lot of those names anymore. And the league doesn't really work that way. But my hope would be, OK, we've had conversations about these numbers being spent. Let us go do that. And let us go show you that it's worth it because we're going to fill the stadium. We're going to win games and we're going to fill Soldier Field and all those other things. That's the hope going forward. The start of doing that is winning games and being competitive on the field. We've talked about Chicago now a bunch the last week.

Let's sort of like dig in here. I'm going to go to their salary cap table and their depth chart in the SoccerWise document. And what we have right now, Chris Brady and goal as expected. The new right back, Leandro Barroso, who they brought in from Portugal. At right back, Carlos Teran, Jack Elliott, Andrew Gutmann, and then Kellen Acosta and Fede Navarro as the midfield pair behind O'Brien Gutierrez with Philip Zinkernagel at right wing, Jonathan Bamba at left wing, and Hugo Kuypers.

Depth in this team, not bad. Mauricio Pineda can play three spots for them, right? The two center backs, defensive midfield spots, which I like. You've got Gutierrez, who's flexible. You've got, of course, Tommy Barles, big Tom Barlow, at the center forward position as a backup. Jonathan Dean as well. So not the deepest roster, but there's enough options there.

Where do you feel like this team stands right now? I really like it, man. And again, a lot of this comes down to my belief in Jonathan Bomba, of course. But their biggest goals this offseason were to offload as much crap as they could from the previous regime. And to bring in a real-life adult, anchored center back. Bang, Jack Elliott, they did that. He wasn't great for Philadelphia Union last year. I'm choosing to look at the rest of his career than the down year.

I still think he's going to be excellent there are there are other top priorities were bring in a dp hopefully in prime hopefully a big name whatever it is and real excellent dp they've done that with jonathan bomba hail salase right now is technically depth unless that he like either him or zinkernagel right one of those two can't start and then you look at sam rogers maybe he's the backup at center back right now, or if he wins the job. So one of Sam Rogers or Carlos Teran. And then, like you said about Pineda,

that's five, six spots right there that I'm comfortable with any of those guys starting a decent amount. Not 34 games, but you know what I'm saying. So their depth is better than I thought it would be right now. And again, the priorities were more top line. Can you get a Jack Elliott? Can you get a Jonathan Bamba?

And what are you going to do with that other DP spot? Them doing all of that, plus having a little bit of depth on the side, plus this second buyout that has been passed in MLS, I don't think that guess on Jimenez counted as a buyout. I'll have to get further clarification on that in the future. But if he wasn't, you could buy out Orno Suke and Chris Mueller.

And that opens up a significant amount of salary cap right now to go add more players. So I think the Chicago Fire are in a really good spot. And the way that they've turned it around this winter has been really quick and really good. And I don't know if this, I'm assuming this was on purpose. But if it wasn't well done to have it not happen this way, whatever, who cares? They didn't spend resources in the summer when Georg Heitz and Sebastian Pelzer were clearly going to leave in the winter. And there are other examples of teams doing it and not even in a bad way.

Like when Minnesota United signed Timu Pukki, I thought that was a good signing, but it ended with Adrian Heath leaving the club before the end of the season and a completely new regime taking over. And it was clear Timu Pukki is not somebody that they would have signed. Again, that's still, I understand it there, but like Chicago, if they put in 10 million to another DP that just didn't fit what Greg Berhalter wanted, that would be an issue, but they didn't do that. So I think well done to what that they've done so far. And there's still more to come. I will say one of my pet projects mentally this year, I think Mauricio Pineda was like a fits under Greg Berhalter guy.

And he's going to be, whether it's center back center mid or both a guy who plays like 2,500 minutes this year and is just always on the field when good things happen and in different roles in different spots. And I like his fit in this team you mentioned holly salese who's been like a go-to starter being a bent bent's option for this team so you feel a lot better about this group as you said still room to improve i would love to see it be a centerman like someone who can cover a ground and sort of dominate the game a little bit someone that you can play through can be an outlet but there's a

ton of potential with this group i love the jack elliott signing as you said like just to have that like adult nature to that position make chris brady's life easier make carlos terron's life easier and then you look at hugo kypers which we haven't talked a ton about because he kind of feels like a given except that every center forward who plays for g in MLS was like a golden boot winner. And Kuyper's a $12 million signing. So the chance for him to smash some things and to approach 25 goals this year should be on the table because if you look at what Ola Kamara, Jiasi Zardes, Kai Kamara,

all of them did under Greg, and you add to the resume that Hugo Kuyper has and the number he was brought into this league in, and the goals he scored last year in a bad team, there's a ton of potential in there as well, and I think it should be exciting. I obviously got to shout out my young guys. Brian Gutierrez, this is going to be awesome to watch.

Omar Glasgow, I like him in MLS Next Pro. Dylan Borso is one that I saw in the Academy days. I love him. He was a 10. He's probably not going to be a 10 at the pro ranks, but I like him central midfield as well, and I've talked about it. This is Chicago club that is committed now to developing Chicago players as they should be.

The soccer market there is good enough, and that seems to be a huge focus for them, and I'm really excited about what they could do with the addition of the money they're going to spend so let's see what that third dp spot looks like but they have optionality like they're not stressed honestly if they don't see the deal they like i'm fine with them going into the season with this and making it in the summer when it's a better market for you and you have more ability to say like okay this is what we need maybe they come out and say we need a true

winger maybe they come out and say we need a true 10 or brian gutierrez gets an offer because he plays well and you move him on and you try and replace him and do something like that so i think there's a bunch to be excited about if you're a chicago fan i appreciate the person in the chat who's like this was all worth it just to have chicago sports media talk about the chicago fire for one time over the last week and as we said on on the show, Chicago Fire and Chicago Med and Chicago PD, we're coming for you. Your days are over. And now it is the days of Chicago Fire FC.

My wife would like me to say the rookie in 9-1-1, which are her shows as well, because she loves a cop show. Speaking of soccer talent, rich talent areas. So yeah, speaking of developing your own players, let's go to San Diego. We mentioned Luca De La Torre last week. It's officially done, Tom, as San Diego builds their midfield for year one, on top of some other deals that they're getting done as well. Yeah, so we'll start with what went official.

Luca De La Torre, as I first reported, he has been signed by San Diego FC on loan from Salto Vigo with the purchase option. He'll be a tan player, not a DP. He is coming home. Tyler heaps in the press release, their sporting director talked about it. Like what makes this even more special than what his track record was in Europe with the national team is that this is a local boy coming home and

they're very excited about that. They're very happy about that. I love the fit. I think he's going to be good for this team. His main job is going to be make for this team um his main job is going to be make the game and put chucky lozano and a new dp winger in the best spots to succeed and that's a good segue to just say andre's dryer from under like that deal's done uh five million is the fee and he's somebody who i know has been offered around mls for like 10 million in the past

and san diego getting this done for5 million I think is really good. And that was how much that they bid for the Ukraine international, Oleksandr Zubkov, that they really wanted. And they stuck to kind of their budget. And I think that they're getting a really good deal with Andres Dreyer. But that's their DP winger. To go opposite Chico Lozano, Luca Dellatore, and Oni Valacari in the midfield. I'll learn how to say his name when we get to see him play a little bit more, and I apologize. But so now they have a

midfield. They've already had the center back pairing, Andres Reyes and Patty McNair, which I like a lot. We can really see this team right now, and we can really analyze what we think it might look like. It is, I think, a really clean fit from everything I've watched of Dreyer. He feels like what we talked about a week or two ago when we were talking about the Ukrainian international winger, where it feels like a finisher on the opposite side of Chucky, probably less of a true creator himself. Like when you watch him, not as much of a dribbler, but likes to connect, likes to be involved in possession, and then super dangerous if you get him into spots in the box

as a second forward or a crashing winger. And I think that's going to be a huge part of the San Diego team's game, right? It's Chucky beating his man, getting to the end line, creating chances for a center forward, and now for what we think will be Dreyer on that far post. And then Luca Dellatore, as the game opens up, his ability to break defenders down on the dribble and then be able to slot those players through and on goal.

And Dreyer is going to be a huge part of that coming from that right wing position. So it feels at least like a cohesive build for San Diego. Is the high or is the mid-level talent here as cohesive as what we saw from LAFC year one uh Atlanta year one like are they going to be in those conversations for an expansion team I don't think so but it feels like the floor is high enough to remain competitive and like when you get people in the building for the first time you just want them to come to games where it feels like you're in it feels like like you have chances, chances to celebrate, chances to enjoy it.

Make it fun. And this team does feel like it's going to be fun in year one, and Dreyer, I think, goes a long way to that while still protecting, I think, this team's ability to spend in the future, right? If you got Dreyer on the deal inside your budget that you believe in, probably opens up the ability for the club to look at things as it goes forward and be like we could actually take another big risk on someone else because we sort of were able to save ourselves and have like a known quantity yeah and i'm assuming that this team

is going to do two dps for you 22s but i don't know that for sure again like there have been real talks with kevin de bruyne's camp um and, I don't know if they're locked into 2-4 or not. Expansion teams typically like to save resources for the summer window because everybody believes that all of their decisions are right, but you can take a step back and you understand, all right, we're not going to go 30-for-30 on roster spots here. Let's leave ourselves a little flexibility. This is what Nashville's done.

Miami's done this. St. Louis, maybe they didn't. But for the most part, this is what expansion teams do, and that's usually best practices. So that could also play into their flexibility, because then maybe that they do two DPs and they end up with two U22 initiatives by opening day or something like that, and then you could always pivot either way,

whichever way is better for you and seeing the deals that come up. But I digress there. This has the shape of a real team let me throw in on top of that i could see them with the allocation money you get as an expansion team i could see this being a team that goes 242 maybe it's really 23 and doesn't use all that allocation money so that in the summer they decide to shift back you probably haven't used the full two million that you need allocated you could probably shift back to a 3-3 setup and that's at a time when the window opens up and you see how good you are and either either something happens with the de bruyne where he's like all right i'm done i'm in city now it's time or the next piece where it's uh

actually we're third in the west and you know the stadium's packed and the crowd is bumping and Chucky looks comfortable and good and, like, you know, dryer fits and all this stuff. And you're like, all right, let's take a little bit more of a risk than maybe we thought we would year one. And that's sort of the flexibility that's now out there for some of the teams. So I think that should be exciting for San Diego fans. And as you said, it feels like this is going to be a cohesive,

a competitive team. And it's a pretty good starting spot for an expansion side. Let's dig into some of the teams we already know pretty well. You want to stick in California first? Let's do it. All right, let's go LA Galaxy, who have made some interesting moves over the last 48 to 72 hours in their quest for a repeat. Yeah. So I reported this morning,

the LA galaxy have traded Mark Delgado to rival LA FC. I don't have the return yet. I'm assuming that this is going to go official at some point here. So we'll, we'll get that news soon. But the big news is this had to go because they're running up against cap constraints. This was already a roster that they struggled not struggled they had to fight to get onto the cap when they brought in Marco Reus in the summer

and now I don't believe Dejan Jovovich can be a U22 initiative next year because of his age and just everything else that comes with winning a title the cap monster will come get you so this isn't something that they were like we want to get rid of Mark Delgado obviously there's jokes about Greg Vanney and his relationship how long he's been with vanny again i'm certain that they come out of this because he was entering the last year of his contract it sounds like he's getting a new deal from lafc and then at this point it just makes sense that hey if we can't resign you and we need to make some moves to keep getting under the cap anyway this is best for you this is best for us and and let's move on amicably

again as a champion leaving this club so it's obviously a difficult one it's a nuanced one for the galaxy but lefc are getting a getting a really good player i think this is a really interesting move it is as you said the cap casualty mark delgado on 875 000 right now and his contract coming up So you don't want to lose him for nothing And Edwin Cerritos on $400,000 And had outplayed him and was the starter So Mark Delgado was going to be a large piece of this team

Like he was going to play a chunk of minutes As one of two center mids rotating in Could have the potential to win his spot back But it's a lot of money for a team that's in cap issues because that's the nature of winning an MLS, to have on a guy who maybe isn't a full-time starter. And you have a setup now with this club where you've committed to, we're going to play some of our academy pieces to get them ready.

And a lot of them are in central midfield and at the fullback positions, center back as well. And so you need to have, if you're going to be able to get out of the cap constraints a lot of it comes from we're getting more minutes than we expected from academy pieces and on homegrown contracts and all of that that's where it's going to get done and the sean davis trade comes into this as well sean davis was brought back and replaced for gaston bruggeman another player they couldn't afford sean davis struggled I think at times to be the player Nashville wanted him to be which was a replacement for Dax McCarty which I don't think was a totally fair assumption

to make but he got his contract and that's what's required of you he if anything is a inning eater like he will play heavy minutes for you he will cover ground throughout i think he'll keep the game moving in a way that mark delgado did similar which is you you're just setting stages he's not a killer ball guy you're not getting on the end of chances like you've got the attackers in front of you who will do that and i think sean davis probably steps in and can obviously play more minutes than gaston bruggeman and he's almost basically a combination of the two in this roster. And so that was really the one extra spot. We said it.

Everyone in MLS knew that the Galaxy were going to be in trouble. And so they came and said, these are the things we want, right? For the Galaxy, you'd love to give players away that you don't really use. That's not really what people are going to ask for. It was Jalen Neal and Mark Delgado that were going to be two of the highest on the list. And they can't let a fugundes go and they can't try and get out of marco royce because they have to fill in for ricky pooch that's the huge part of this as well as you're going to carry a dp who may not play a single minute for you this season you gotta find ways

to save against that exactly and and i was trying to look through not loopholes but is there a way to get salary cap relief for ricky pooch for half the season and then bring him back there there isn't unless that there's a roster rule change coming um because reading from the 2024 rules and regulations there is no way for his salary cap or spot to open without him being on the season ending injury list and that's just not something that they're going to do because they believe he's going to come back unless they get medical information that says he is out for the season and there is no chance uh which they don't have and they don't believe is going to come they are not going to put ricky pooch on the season in injury list because they're planning

for him to be taking his spot right back as as the attacking fulcrum of this team by the end of the season so they have some moves to make but the way that this is going to work now without Pooch that we talked about, like obviously Marco Reus is going to be very important, Diego Fagundes as well, but I think more of this falls on Gabriel Peck and Joseph Paintsville. You guys now will have more responsibility in the build-up, kind of like an MLS Cup. It felt like Gabriel Peck was getting on the ball more between the lines

rather than in transition or just Ricky Pooch playing you in behind and I think we're going to see more of that next year I'm excited about the proposition but in the midfield it'll be Edwin Cerillo, Sean Davis and Marco Reus probably or Diego Fagundes could come in for one of them even though I don't love the defensive responsibility if you're playing Fagundes and Reus the best that they may try but they have you know four starters for three spots there the same way they have four starters for three spots in the attack. So they're going to be a little thin, but like you said, Sean Davis, inning eater,

Edwin Cerrio has had no issues with health in his career and availability that can obviously change. You can't plan for it, but Cerrio and Sean Davis are as two reliable players that you can, bets you can make in terms of availability and just minutes play. On top of all of this the galaxy re-signed maya yoshida to start the weekend as well so jaylen neal out zonka brought in yoshida brought back as the starter which i think many of us expected and they've been working on the whole time and so you get stability there the defense was obviously way stronger the second

half of the year once garces came in so you keep that backline stable which I think is big for this team where there's probably enough goals in this front line without Ricky Puj with the way the roster is set up if healthy to be able to contend towards the top of the west and to have the stability behind them of like the known quantities you're pretty much going to be starting the same back what six back five whatever it is with sean davis mixed in as you did last year that's a pretty good starting point for this team i think the shields in my mind out of the question just because of trying to manage things around ricky pooch but they should still contend for a home playoff game and if things go the way they think

they should be an mls cup contender with pooch coming back going into the playoffs um i agree with your with your position that it seems unlikely that they'll make a shield run and but you know they'll be in play for cup because of how again particularly when pooch comes back this is exactly what i said about miami last year and then they did the inverse that they right stormed to a points record in the shield and then got eliminated in round one so i'm a little bit shook on that. I'm still feeling that because I think one of my big offseason takes last year was like Orlando to finish ahead of Miami in the regular season,

but Miami to win cup. And it couldn't have been more wrong. So I generally agree with that, but I'm doubting myself a little bit right now. I think that's fair to do. Marco Reus on a team deal is as close to Messi and friends as the rest of MLS can get. Maybe Gareth Bale is as close as the rest can get. It would feel unlikely that Luis Suarez is walking through that door anytime for the LA Galaxy. Although, you never know.

If Beck and Payne still take a step, I think Payne still is the one. I think most people with the Galaxy think there's still a level for him to go. Inside of MLS, could be wrong, and I wouldn't be shocked by it, and it would be fun to watch. But for sure, the Galaxy, with the way they've set themselves up, are still in it. We'll talk about LAFC a little bit more in just a moment. Let's go to FC Cincinnati, though, before we move into the ice cream shop.

And has not been a good start to preseason. Yeah, FC Cincinnati. There's a lot of different ways we can go here. Let's start with what I kind of confirmed and reported this morning after there's been a lot of reports in Brazil about it. But Alvaro Barrial is going to Santos. Maybe they'll pull out of the Neymar deal now that they've got Barrial. You're covered there.

Alvaro Barrial is being loaned to Santos in Brazil. I'm told it's a $300,000 loan fee, which the club can convert to GAM. And it's a purchase obligation at $4 million if Barial plays 65% of the games. And part of this, because his contract was set to expire, I believe, after this year, part of this loan is you need to set to expire, I believe, after this year, part of this loan is you need to bump your contract, extend it one more year, so that they don't just walk it to the end of your deal, and then we lose you for nothing. Obviously. So, he's extended his contract for an extra year.

He goes on loan to Santos. The idea is, things go well, there's not even anything to discuss. The purchase obligation is picked up, he's a santos player this it's fine but this has been one of the weirdest sagas around mls of like he said the the fact that mls players have to extend their contracts to go on loan because they don't want to play for a team is so funny that's that but you sound like an anonymous person on Twitter, the LOL MLS Garber. This isn't an MLS thing. This is a global thing. So Richie Ledesma, he went on loan to NYCFC a couple years ago. They wouldn't let that happen unless he bumped his contract another year

because they didn't want him to run down his contract while on loan for a year. So we'll sanction a loan for a year if you extend your contract to protect the club. It is just, but but other i guess you do still have mechanisms in other leagues like international roster spots in dynastic the fact that mls has these thin situations where it's like well we'll do that but then also we physically can't bring you back at some point during that because we don't have any dp spots open or we're two four two and we don't have the opportunity so So it's like then you get these players within an MLS term who are in this flux where they physically can't play for the team,

but they had to extend their contract so they could go on loan and stay with it. And so you end up in these weird situations. It seems like it's working for Cincinnati, and they're going to get the deal they probably should get for him for the production they got. And last year they were able to cover for him with Assad, and they might be able to do so once again it was made harder by the fact that turns out Yuya Kubo is hanging with Lucho playing dominoes down in Argentina okay look at least Luca Oriano

showed up he's yeah he's he's here so that's one of three holdouts I texted somebody at FC Cincinnati when Luca Oriano said I was like, one down, two to go. And I didn't get an answer for a little while. And the person texting back was like, sorry, I genuinely didn't know who you were referring to because there's a few options. So I was waiting. But yeah, so Lucho Costa, as we well know, is not reporting for preseason. It looks like he's not going to come back. Yuya Kubo might be the least expected holdout in MLS history just because of the character that we associate with him, the team first kind of guy he is where he can play any position on this team.

And I will say he was made a DP forward by a previous regime when he probably shouldn't have been. I would still be sending thank you cards to the previous regime FC Cincinnati had for that initial contract and everything else. So this was weird holdout but that's where fc cincinnati is right now and then i've got more here but we'll i'll let you kind of go go on this one well you just would have thought with kubo the issue would have been when he signed the non-dp deal right he shifted from being a tp where he never played up to the contract didn't deserve the contract shouldn't have been he shifted into being somewhat useful of a player,

and so when that deal finished, they re-signed him to a non-designated player deal. That's where you would have thought the issue was, where he was like, well, this is what I've played here for, this is what I expect, this is what I deserve. That didn't happen. He signed the long-term deal to stay, and now you're getting the issue after having his best season.

It just feels like a weird situation and as you said an unexpected one with a guy like this yeah so that was um yeah i did not see that one coming up talking to people across the league and they're they're kind of saying the same thing like what that what how did that happen i did i did that didn't that wasn't a player i was guessing that was hold out hold out. So there's that. FC Cincinnati are obviously working on sorting Lucho Ocos' future, seeing whatever's happening there, getting Luke Oriano's back. We've talked about it on the show. They were insistent.

He's not leaving. We're planning for him. What else that they're going to do? Going to bring in the U22 initiative center back, and they're going to fill left wing back. I'm told both moves are close, and so we should have some more news there and then i think that for whatever consternation around this roster from fans or whatever and again like when three players hold out i get it you're gonna ask but like um taking a macro step back

they broke the league record transfer signed kevin danke they still have a back three of matt miazga miles ramson and teenage ad. They have Yedlin at right wing back. Buka and Obinu Muboto. And Muboto's not going to be a DP this year. Even looking at our depth charts, that again you can sign up via our Patreon to get access to, I have question marks. That is who the starting left wing back is right now.

And the backup left center back is U22 Initiative signing question mark. And the starting attacking mid is Lucho Acosta with a question mark? Even with all of that, this roster is awesome. And I trust that it's going to get fleshed out in the near future. And again, whether that's Lucho Alden, big DP in, maybe somebody we already know. We'll see. With Orochano there, I don't worry. Because I think they could cover for half the season without Lucho if that's what happens and like they don't get the next deal done in time.

But I will say I was on Laurel Fowler's show last week, Queen City Press, which everyone should subscribe to. She does an awesome job covering the team. And one of the things I said to her when she was like fans feel a little worried, like who's starting left wing back is like last three years you go into the season and you didn't really know who the starting left wingback was because Barial wasn't one before he got converted there. And Assad wasn't on the roster last year. When you started this whole thing, you thought it would be Orijano. So I trust them to get there. But then I said, and you've got Yuyakubo who could fill in anywhere, so it's okay. Didn't know Yuyakubo wasn't showing up to training later that day.

So right and wrong. And I can understand as a fan if you'd be stressed. I'm going to throw this out there for Cincinnati front office. Maybe just start training camp a week later. And then everyone will show up. Maybe they just don't like coming. But tell them that it's the week before. Right.

That family member who you're like, oh yeah, dinner's at 4.30, so be there at four. And it turns out it was at 5.15, but you don't trust them. I still remember when my cousin found out my mom did that to him and he was like heartbroken. He's like, she's been doing this for 10 years

and you've never been on time. So therefore it was the right thing to do the entire time. And it happens to people. So that's our update there on cincinnati we've got a lot of questions going on in the chat we're going to go into the ice cream shop here and i think we're going to start with one that we're getting a bunch here which is what's cucho's story where will cucho be what is his status in major league soccer so cucho hernandez what i was told

is he wants to stay with the columb, but after having another incredible season, expecting or hopeful for a new contract. I'm told that there has been no firm contract offer to him, and that's obviously unfortunate at this stage. But, Botafogo was trying to sign Cucho. I was told that a bid was rejected. I believe it was in the region of like $12 million. And there was a rumor that said Cucho was asking for $8 million a season or something in Botafogo. And that's why the deal didn't happen. It's not true. It's just categorically not true. Cucho Hernandez is not asking for a ludicrous amount of money from Botafogo. Nor is he saying, get me the hell out of here.

I want to leave. But what he does want is a new contract. I think he deserves a new contract. But that's kind of where the news is right now with Guterres and the Columbus crew as we sit here on January 21st. So maybe there's still twists and turns to come, but the top line here is he wants to stay at the club, but I think that he is right to say, I want a new contract.

Yeah, it seems like it sits where you'd expect. Also, with the way the club has progressed and like sold pieces, he becomes more and more important. I think it's fair for him to say we're MLS Cup favorites going into this year and we have gotten rid of some key pieces. We remain MLS Cup favorites and a large part is because I have elevated my performances and I'm such a key part of this team. And we have talked about in light of like he's

probably he is trying to break into the columbia national team it's not something that's historically been done out of mls it's specifically one of those national teams that like hasn't called pieces up of players who play in mls and so he's foregoing or risking not getting back in there to stay with columbus and i think it's fair for him to ask to be repaid for that and, you know, being loyal and all of that alongside. And I cannot imagine how much money Monterey would try to throw at him if, like, you know what I mean? Like, that's just kind of the...

And, again, I'm sure Botafogo would have been offering a very handsome deal as well because they just won Copa Libertadores. They have the ownership with John Texter that includes Europe. So the going rate for a player like Kucho Hernandez is high. And I understand where his desires are on that front about, hey, like, I want to commit to you. Like, can you commit to me, right? Last year he was on $2.89 million guaranteed compensation.

Like, Buonga is at 4 million and i think that that's where a lot of these conversations to start and then we talked about evander touch on evander a little bit the the contract offer portland made for evander during his mvp season was aligned with the buonga deal probably just a little bit more because that's how these things go but like something in the 4 million range i think is incredibly fair again i don't know exactly what what the expectations are from kucho's side but i do know he's not unreasonable next next what's up what do we got next orlando city you were gonna you were gonna keep talking i i didn't know if you're saying do you have any more kucho takes it's like i feel like i just emptied the bag there sorry man um or. Well, Land of City. Well, Land of City are

in advanced talks with a Tucson, Croatia international winger, Marko Pasolic from HNK, Rejica? Can you pronounce? Can you help me out, guys? You got that or no? Zero idea. I was throwing the ball right back at the end of the shot clock. I was hoping you bailed me out there. Anyway, he's a Croatian international. He's got five caps. He was part

of their squad at the Euros. He didn't make an appearance. This is obviously a very talented player he was with Borussia Dortmund's second team he excelled at them like as he was coming up as a young player but he only made two appearances with the first team before going to Croatia where again he's a very good winger but this is a potential DP replacement for Fagundo Torres leaving I'm told that yes, while the talks are very advanced, Hey Orlando, we still have other options on our list. It's he's obviously one of the options and we'll see if they can close this

deal or if they are going to look anywhere else. But right now I can tell you Orlando city advanced talks for Marco Paslich. Is this a Facundo Torres replacement? Is this a potential Martino Hader replacement? Where does it sit? He's a right winger. Yeah.

It feels, I think, promising for Orlando fans because he's 24, so it's not starting over where it's like took Facundo a few months, a year to settle in and sort of find his feet overseas for the first time. This is a bit more of a known quantity, but also with a pretty big high end of like if he hits, you could sell him back into the Bundesliga for a big number in two or three years if that's what you choose to do as a club. So the profile makes a ton of sense. It's a little different than Zendejas, but not totally,

and kind of shows that I think they're committed to finding that type of player who pinches in off the right wing, connects the game a little bit, acts as a second 10 out there, and can be goal dangerous when you need them to. I agree. And again, like you said, this is a player in his prime at 24, again, a little bit younger than Zendaya, so the trajectory would still be going up. But still, this is a 24-year-old, not a 19-year-old.

Let's talk Cruz Az azul because cruz azul funny enough has chosen to join major league soccer recently uh and they are just signing mls players to see if they can be competitive in their expansion year let's start with the connection here to lafc because we didn't talk about lafc in the mark delgado conversation yeah so cruz azul are nearing a deal to sign Matty Boguch from LAFC. I'm told the fee is somewhere in the region of $9 million. Again, I hope to get clarification on specifics and potential add-ons or so on when this deal gets done.

C.L. Merlo has been all over this, expecting this to get done. I haven't gotten an update since I reported that a deal was very close. But the 23-year-old had 15 goals and 7 assists last season, a career year. He can play. He's a winger. He excelled as a false nine for the first half of this season he could play as a free eight and a 4-3-3 he's a very very good player um and cruz azul are nearing a deal to bring him to liga mechies so eight million dollars lafc would make on this right yeah yeah he was like they brought him in for a million? For one million in March of 2023. And he's been excellent.

This is a positive story for both player and club. This is like textbook stuff for LAFC. They have continued to generate more income than almost any MLS team outside of Atlanta over the last four or five years. Their ability, even when they get stuff wrong to flip stuff into deals that break even or make money has been huge I get the deal like that's a huge profit margin on a player even as good as he is and Mateusz Bogus has been

phenomenal for the last 18 months in Major League Soccer he has been for most points of the seasons the only match to on the field it's been load everything up to buonga unless bogus is on the field if he's on the right wing you have to send help there if he's playing center forward you have to be ready to have numbers around him i love the way he plays north to south he plays similar to buonga his head down he attacks he puts defenders on their heels he's so technically clean at high speeds for him to score at from distance even in transition for him to finish off the end of things like he's a phenomenal soccer player and if lafc didn't make this move i'd get it because he's a dp level producer in mls but to make this amount of money is massive

for a club and for them to then turn around and try and reinvest it. That's the point. The DP-level production, he is a DP-level player. And he's a U-22 initiative on this roster. Unless they want to use a DP spot, which they don't. They're saving that for Antoine Griezmann. He's capped at like $700,000 or whatever the exact number is. I don't know for a fact what he's making at Cruz Azul.

You can safely assume it's triple that. Safely. Probably more like quadruple that. So the way that the MLS roster rules are set up right now, they can outpay Liga MX clubs for DPs if they want to. It's a team-by-team basis. Tigres, Monterey, there are a few teams that are going to outbid them, but

the rest of the Liga MX, if you're a DP, you can at least keep that player despite injury. Again, we're just talking about Cucho and Ray Adams, right?, if you're a DP, you can at least keep that player despite injury. Again, we're just talking about Cucho and Ray Adams, right? If you're not a DP, man, all of these big Liga Mequis clubs are going to give you a big pay raise. We talked about this with Brandon Vasquez. He left Cincinnati. He was on about $1 million.

Not bad. Monterey, we're going to triple that, right? And that's just how the way it goes. So I understand why there was no way that they could realistically keep this player because Cruz Azul came in with a fair fee. Again, $9 million, whether it is indeed a little bit more, maybe the add-ons will take it, right? Like, that's a fair, like, you can't turn around to Bogus and say, they didn't pay enough for you, sorry.

You need to not quadruple your salary by going to Liga MX, right? So I get it on both fronts. And the larger point is the way that the rules are set up right now, nine DPs, if a Mexican club really wants them, it's going to be really hard to turn down. I do wonder, do you think there's a world in which with the cash sales now, a situation like this, which is U22, who's DP productive on one team, the next team goes and buys them and ups them.

So like, let's say RSL says, yeah, we'll pay 8 million for this player and he'll be the Chicho Arango replacement and we'll pay them the DP contract. Do you see a world in which that comes? Yeah. But isn't the fine print on that rule?

Like if you're a U22 or DP traded with the cash rate, you have to stay on that. The fine print is you can't be bought off of it right i don't know if the fine print says you can't be elevated that would be defeated that that would be a defeating clause in the rule if that wasn't the case so i'm just going to choose to be optimistic and believe that that but like yeah that's something that makes it you're wild you're gonna trust the mls rules who is this guy um but yeah so like that's just kind of where it is and and like that is a good point to say like okay could another mls team have done that i mean maybe but um i don't think i don't think real salt lake is gonna put on the table and just using them as an example insert any mls club again cruises duel are likely to beat you in a

in a bidding war um i'm going to let myself be spun here. Covincio says enough soccer. Let's go Knicks. Saki Yusai says, are the Knicks still in the WNBA? The New York Liberty are in the WNBA, and they are WNBA champions. Get out of my face right now. New York is a basketball city.

It's the Mecca from the bottom down, public high school championships all the way up through let's go nicks three to the dome right now unrivaled just tipped off here in miami obviously brianna stewart changing the game because that's what new york liberty players do and that just got me hyped and made me do a whole thing so covincio i hate you but i love you at the same time he knew respect thank. Thank you for doing that. Sorry, one more point with LAFC, because I think we have meat left on the bone here.

Mark Delgado obviously coming in. Igor Jesus is also coming in. I've reported that earlier this month. Defensive midfielder, Brazilian. He was playing in Portugal. That deal has been, you know, essentially there for a while. That's over the line. So the midfield ins and outs. First out, Ilyachez edward atuesta lewis o'brien three

of those out in comes igor jesus mark delgado odin tiago home what do you make of that like it's difficult to say about say something like igor jesus and and tiago home that like we don't we we aren't locked in with exactly how they're going to fit in mls so again i'll caution this question to you for an out of that. But like, what do you think about just that midfield shakeup of those three out and these three in? It is one fascinating, and I'm glad you brought us back to this

because I was going to mention it when I was thinking about LAFC earlier. Just the amount of movement that goes through these LAFC rosters year after year. For a team that remains competitive, they flip five or six big time pieces i mean remember when they brought in aaron long like aaron long was the big piece to get all of a sudden he's in the door and then they swap two fullbacks and they swap to center mid and they're changing out dpu 20 or u22 wingers consistently like they are all

over the map what i said when they made the first moves, and now I feel even stronger about it, is they have fit the style of players to what Steve Toronto wants to play. It is not a midfield that is going to create chances against low-block teams by passing through and around them. It is a team that is going to be a menacing transition. I think Mark Delgado fits that for them. I think Igor Jesus fits that for them. And I think that's the case for this team, which is they're going to play through buonga the big

question mark now is without bogus is there enough on the other side david martinez at his peak be that guy david martinez i love him i love but come on we're talking about a team that wants to be a shield winner and a and a title contender in every trophy if if you if we were talking if this podcast existed this time last year you'd have been like dude maddie bogus has your false nine i love maddie bogus but come on here's the thing here's the thing it took the thing It took years to get there with Bogus. Like, that's how long it takes for these young pieces. Martinez was one of them. This is years plural.

This is second year. Years plural. Okay, so two years in now, Davi and Martinez will be the second best player on the field in the biggest games of the year for the best team? Maybe not exactly that, but I think I truly believe he's a starting caliber playing this league. I'll die on this hill.

I'm so excited for Davi and Martinez this season. I'm fine with that's a starting caliber player in this league. I would die on this hill. I'm so excited for David Martinez this season. I'm fine with that, but starting caliber just means you're able to start for a team that's at the median, which is like 10th in the league. Sorry, 15th because there's 10 million plus. Fair enough. I think he's an LAFC caliber starting winger. Okay. So you think he equals Bogush's production production i don't think that that's a

fair way to say it because he just came off a career year that's like 25 goal contributions well who are we comparing him to then that's the story you have to be exactly that player okay so bogus's first year he was three goals four assists his second year he was 15 and seven and that's only in mls yeah my whole point is again i think that you would have said this about bogus last year so i like i believe that martinez can make up a good portion of that i don't think it's fair to say if he doesn't have 15 goals and eight assists that that's a bad season did i just get goss theorem is that what just happened 20 goals right now i'll say it right now 20 goal goal contributions. Let's go. Okay. All comps.

No. MLS. I don't even need to give you all comps. I get secondary assists. MLS rules. 20 goal comps. 20 goal comps. He pulls up from half court. Yeah. Okay. Alright. Juju Watkins over here. Just ready to let it rip.

I'll accept it. It's fine. Let me ask you this. Go ahead. Right now. Right now. me right now Right now The line being Three and a half In the Western Conference So third place and above

Fourth place and down Where does LAFC fit? That is a really good question I don't want to take This was us being like We're going to go quick through stuff We did And now we got to the end of the show

This is good Look I mean Subject to change Just because I haven't dove through Every single go quick through stuff we did and now we got to the end of the show this is good so um look i mean subject to change just because i haven't dove through every single and like i i love to make the joke that every sports radio thing is is every you have 17 people in your top five where you talk about i really like what that team did this offseason guess what not everybody can make the play martinez top five winger in m. And then you just say it about 15 other people. I would say top three, yeah. But don't behold me to that because there's still a month before the season starts.

And, like, I look at it, I see Seattle, LA, LA. Like, those are the three teams I'm expecting to be there. Actually, yeah, I feel pretty firmly that this is a top three team, yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay, I don't have to do it because I asked it, so I'm not going to say it. But I would say in your Western Conference rankings, I think you missed Minnesota. Like, I think Minnesota is going to be a contender from day one with the way they finished last year.

I would put them behind Seattle in that conversation. I think St. Louis is pushing up into that top half of the west yeah i guess it i would give austin a shout the way things have come together and you know i'm always gonna bring my canadians in so i gotta give vancouver a little sprinkle you have to do you have to do that yeah i, I do Yeah, I do Ryan Gould, man All 47 points Come on, we're in the last season Oregon Man's MVP The same roster coming back Love continuity I'm a huge fan of continuity

Is continuity going to make up 20 points? It could be Well, we might not be needing to make up 20 points 15 points That number might be a little bit lower As the season goes along Okay, let's finish off in Texas here Let's start with Houston And then we'll go to Dallas.

Yeah. So, Houston Dynamo. I was told it was a buyout on forward Sebastian Ferreira, but they used the phrasing of mutual termination on their press release. My understanding is still that this counts as one of their buyouts. And it's kind of inconsequential because you can have two. So, if they wanted to do another one. But that's my understanding, unless I hear differently from sources.

Houston Dynamo, the Sebas Ferreira era is over, and they will be looking to bring in DP10. Or they are looking, not will be. They've been on the search. This has been planned for a while. The DP10, though, is borderline replacement for Coco and Ace Ace. Yes. So I just don't know if they get better after all this.

The Sebas Ferrer thing had to happen. So, that's the thing. This is just almost like a bonus, not bonus move, but it's not like they're replacing Sebas Ferrer. Right. But they're not getting better because of this. They're getting back to where they were when last season ended, right? Yeah, that's fair.

But, again, using a DP spot as a 10. getting back to where they were when last season ended right yeah that that that's fair but um again using a dp spot as a 10 like well like i was surprised i did a story go check it out and give me support it's going to be a reference something i reference a lot of compiling all 2019s their dps what their minutes were goals assists and all that i was shocked to see that uh hector herrera had one primary assist one last year so 2023 yes they're they're not gonna be better if that's how you're looking but if you're replacing that dp spot that gave you two two goal two primary goal contract reasons one goal one assist there's that that like that's the argument and saying that hopefully kenyonis is back completely normal after missing last year with an injury and hopefully lawrence and Holly can give you something in the second half of the season

the way he did before he got injured. Those are the arguments for them being better. I'm surprised when I went to the depth chart, because I know Doyle has some level of control of these, that it didn't just say Brooklyn Reigns in all 11 positions. It's filling the whole roster with the legend that is. Let's finish off the show with FC Dallas There's some Petter Musa

Conversation out there And some other stuff around them Where does this Dallas squad stand right now? Yeah, I mean I know that there has always been interest Dating back to last summer From Premier League teams for Petter Musa I don't know how real any of this is right now

And I'll just start with, I'd be really doubtful that there's a number out there that Dallas would accept and be content with, hey, we sold, we moved on from Ferreira, that was planned. We moved on from Alan Velasco because the offer was too good to refuse and he wanted to go to Boca after we re-signed him to a new contract

because we were going to play around him. I don't really know that there's a world that you can turn to your fans and say, oh, by the way, we also sold Peter Moussa. So I get that for large parts of it. But I do think that this would be the MLS version of bottoming out that we see in American sports. If we're going to be bad, let's be terrible. And let's sort of get every asset we can.

I guess my question mark would be, without Alan Velasco this year, how competitive do you think you're going to be? If you think you're building to 2026, do you think Petar Musa is going to play three full years for you at a high level? From a like, is that what his lifestyle looks like point of view?

And if that's not the case, if you get a huge number here to sell to a big club and that's something you can put in, you know, your club's history and say like, this is what we do, this is where we operate, helps you pitch the next guy to say, if you come here, like is buying big this summer, not your best case scenario.

And if getting off Petar Musa now, you're bad this year when you're gonna be bad this year probably anyway to get all the money to sign the players together this summer and build towards 2026 is there not a lot of space there that would make sense in a roster team building point of view i understand your point but they finished top three in their conference one time since 2016 and particularly there's been a couple years where they thought momentum was building under lucio gonzalez and then he got fired in uh was it 2021 same thing things it felt like it was

building under nico esvez that last year again velasco musa and jesus ferrer is going to be my favorite dp trio that never played together pretty much at all, and that's disappointing because I thought that they fit so well, had such high expectations. Never happened. But the point is last year was supposed to be the step forward, and it was an awful year. Fire the coach, new coach comes in. I just don't think that you can realistically turn to your fans and be like,

come to our games, and oh, we care about winning, but next year, I promise, right? We're going to tank for a draft pick. I just don't see there's a world there. These are all humans that want to win now. And, like, if you even want to extrapolate the moves, like, I get where you're going with this. Like, hey, you might not be great next year anyway. There's going to be a lot of moving parts.

Why not a total reset instead of just kind of doing it, you know, 60% of the way? What I'd say is Moose has been here for a year. Let's say you get a guy like him next year. You sell him and sign somebody else that that's comparable and then in a year he's getting offers from abroad and you look at your Luke Oriano with with Cincinnati Cruisers who wanted to buy him Bogus was at LAFC for just under two years like these are the things like like you can't really plan a five-year window with the state of how rosters are built in global soccer and MLS right now.

Wow, that was deep, Tal. That really hit me in the fields. I feel like you just weren't listening and just was like... No, I was exactly listening. Let me just say something, not positive, not negative. Ah, you do what you're going to do. Let's keep it moving. I was fully listening. I get what you're saying.

I would say Luka Orjano is coming back, though. You do get two years, I think, with most of these players at a minimum. And I think it's the extended more if you're competitive. And so I think if you reset yourself with the next player this summer and you also give them the, like, get your feet wet this half year so you're ready to roll through a preseason next year, I think that's the best way to be at your highest competitive level and get into a top three in the western conference but i fully understand not doing it because as you said you've jerked your fans around back and forth and

all this other stuff and so um you need to be able to be competitive and he's a player worth coming out and watching and um so i can understand doing it, but that would be my pitch towards doing it. We have had 5 million questions about Evander, some related to Dallas, some related to Orlando, some related to Cincinnati and Portland and whatever else. We're going to do more on that going forward because it's going to continue to be a conversation, but we wanted to do some other stuff. I said we'd finish in Texas, but Tom, I think you want to finish in Georgia.

Yeah, and not talking about the national championship in college last night. Atlanta United. Nothing new for me on Lattelock or Miguel Amarone. There has been some bigger accounts reporting. I reported four or five days ago that an agreement was reached and the deal was very, very close for Miguel Amarone. My understanding is that that is the same. days ago that an agreement was reached and deal was very very close for Miguel Morón my understanding is that that is the same nothing has changed in over the last 48 hours despite seeing some

additional reporting out there I my understanding is there's nothing new since what I reported that again I'm expecting it to get done and it's very very close but we'll see and then Latteloff I believe somebody in the chat said that he's starting right now for Borough I don't even know Borough we're playing right now. That aligns with my understanding as well, that things are very close again, but not done. And I'm assuming, and this is not directly from sources, so I want to say that this is a bit of me connecting the dots. I feel pretty strongly that Borough are slow playing this and seeing,

is there going to be somebody that comes over the top of Atlanta's bid? And what I, some of the understandings of that, they've been a little bit difficult that there's been like, you know, I reported that they agreed in principle over transfer terms. Well, there was some little finer details about what bucket does this fee come out

of or how much of this, what is the payment plan or whatever, right? Like there are still some details on there, though, that they do have the agreement in principle reached. So we shall see. I understand why Borough, like their leading scorer, one of their best players, they're trying to push for promotion. They're going to try to hold on to him, one, as long as they can so he can play

and they can have time for a replacement. And two, they're going to drag this out as best as they can towards deadline day when English teams start getting desperate and maybe somebody else will pay 25 million for lots a lot right like who knows uh but that's where things stand i still think that things are trending in the right direction miguel maron seems to be the one that is closer um but again i i'd still there's still optimism that both get done but we'll see this is why i love doing this show live. I love that fans can throw stuff at us.

Me too. Things can change as we're doing it. Aiden Morris also starting for Middlesbrough right now. 17th minute against West Brom. Big game. Get locked in, lads. Burrow and Brom. We'll probably log this off and go get two-footed into that.

It's been a lot of fun. I really enjoy doing this show. I think we're having a lot of fun in this Transfer Silly season doing this. So thank you to all of you who have been joining us in the chat for the live shows. Thank you to all of you who are listening to the podcast, sending us messages on Discord. Any five-star

reviews is huge to get us promoted up into the different app stores for wherever you get your podcast. Yeah, anything that is able to move. You know I am. I had Dan Rutstein on this show. We talked about it for like 40 minutes going into the holiday season.

So we appreciate all your support. If you love MLS, NWSL, the national teams in the U.S. and Canada as much as we do, keep coming here because we're going to keep continuing to do what we think is some good work and be the place to talk about all these things. So thank you to all of you for listening. Once again, thank you to all of you for being here. Tom, thanks to you for bringing all of your wisdom,

all of your knowledge, and all of your calm and composure on this one. Although someone did say, I think the coffee was hitting a little bit extra this morning when I didn't think we were yelling that much. I thought we were pretty relaxed. Maybe it was the liberty conversation as well. So thank you all of you

once again, and we'll talk to you again very, very soon. Thank you.