SoccerWise - Playoff-ganza Preview, Best XI's & Messi Contract Extension

Episode Date: October 23, 2025

With the wild card games in the books we now have our bracket locked for the 2025 MLS Playoffs. Tom & Gass give you the breakdown series by series as we prepare for the kickoff of round 1. They also hit on Messi's contract extension & take you through their picks for all the MLS awards.4:00 Messi's Contract Extension10:30 Hell Is Real Preview16:45 MIN-SEA Preview23:20 MIA-NASH Preview27:20 CTL-NYCFC Preview33:30 PHI-CHI Preview + CHI Wildcard Win38:45 VAN-FCD Rematch44:25 SD-POR Rematch AS WELL53:15 LAFC-ATX Preview56:40 MLS Postseason Awards1:11:30 Gass's Best XI

Yeah, turn my headphones up, turn my headphones up. Soccer is back, baby. David Goss and Tommy Scoops with you for arguably the best show of the year. We are into the postseason. We are into the playoffs. And we have so much to preview, so much to talk about, so much to be excited about. Tom, I'm not going to lie.

I have some Bridgeview juice right now. I might be back to a Bridgeview situation. I might be anti-soldier field. Get me back into the building. Not just anti-soldier field. Anti-the-new, beautiful, privately funded downtown location stadium of Chicago are working on. With Joe Mansoido paying for it by himself and not stretching taxpayers' things. Cancel that project in favor of Bridgeview?

That is a plastic set up in stadium. I want heritage and culture. I need Soctopus. Is that the name of that team? Did you see the story? Yeah, yeah, I need that. I did a video that we're going to be putting out about Bethlehem Steel. They built a stadium back in 1913.

That's the history bridge view holds inside of its buildings. It had a vibe. It had a vibe last night. It was somewhat crowded and Brian Gutierrez went off on Orlando. Well, they had a lot to cheer for, Tom. I agree, but still, it's short notice. It's a midweek. It looked miserably cold in Chicago.

Playoff weather is what I like to call it. It looked perfect. Bridgeview is, again, I hear from Paul Tenorio, our resident Chicago expert, that Bridgeview is not the easiest to get to if you're a Chicago resident. So I was pleasantly surprised by it. I was fearing all of those excuses to be fair and valid, and the Chicago fans showed up. I was happy. Are you required now to always mention Paul Tenorio and give fealty to your overlord?

I feel like I normally did that. Yeah. I do it so much to like to a point to just make him uncomfortable about it now, which is one of my favorite things. Okay. I think that's a great plan. And I appreciate that we can be a platform for you to help carry out that initiative as you go along. So we are going to do what we do best, which is we made up a fake draft game. I'm going to try and win. There is no winning and it doesn't matter. And you don't care. And we're going to go about that. So we're going to go through the playoff series that we're most excited about in order. We're going to hit every single series. also are going to be back on Monday. So we're going to be able to recap what goes on in the weekend. But because big brains at the league office in Major League Soccer figured out that if they spread the playoffs out over the course of a week, you'll never know when anyone plays and no one will be able to get to any of the games.

Next Monday, when we come back on, still half the series have been able, haven't kicked off. So we'll be able to preview them for a second time when we get back for that show. We'll talk a little bit about the wild cards as well, and we've got awards to go through. So we have our finalists officially across all the categories. They're pretty straightforward. There's a couple interesting things, I think, that you can read between the lines with of trying to figure out who's going to win and what it looks like. We will give our best 11s.

You've done this 14 times over the course of the week, so it'll be a little bit less newsbreaking from you. And then we will say who we picked for each of these awards as we go through them. But we got to start right here. because it is official a video came out breaking the internet a few hours ago from Miami that I have officially signed a three-year contract extension in the city of Miami and I will be remaining here as the goat for three extra seasons obviously I'm referencing Lionel Messi who is about to win the MVP just won the golden boot his contract was up there has been talk all year I think McKellie Gianone was the only one who got

him on the record to even get close to a conversation about it i love that in the video they look at messy and he's about to say one thing and then he's like yeah i'm not going to talk and then in the video he's sitting signing his contract at a desk it zooms out and he is at the center of what will be the new stadium i think chase freedom park is what it's called right next to the airport i can see it right now it is boots on the ground capital 11 minutes away from me just past loan depot i've got eyes on it but you see my apartment in the video as well In your high-rise building, you know, like one of those like, what is it, the squirrel suits where if you just jump off and then you can just glide?

I think we could try that. Put a GoPro on you. Can I don't know if this is exactly where that goes. I think that was in Tomb Raider, but in my head, it's a Pierce Brosnan and James Bond movie, and I like Pierce Brosnan as a James Bond. I think he doesn't get enough credit, and I want that to be out there. I think that needs to be mentioned early in this show. God, I love this show so much.

Yeah, Lino Messy. Lino Messie, this is obviously, there was no big doubt over his future, but it is nice to have something announced official for the questions to stop because at some point it was going to be, hey, I know that this was close, but kind of what's going on, is there any worry? Like, it's Lino Messie. Like, there's going to be a lot of questions. So it's nice that this is done, dusted, and announced, the announcement video was really cool. I got to give him credit. Like, they put a desk in, and again, the construction area for him to sign and they were really cool photos. There's really cool video. There's no chance that safety precaution-wise he's allowed to be sitting there without that helmet on, steel toes, anything. But you know who gets to decide the rules? The Moss is. Well, it's their construction side. I feel like you should be able to decide those rules. Most tech, dude, it's everywhere, baby.

So, yeah, the biggest news to come from this, again, isn't like the act of him signing. It's the confirmation on what I've been hearing that this is a long-term deal. This is through 2028. He's 38. like that carries him past his 40th birthday. This wasn't just a bumper extension for one more year for him to open Miami Freedom Park at the stadium that they're going to call home

the planning is for 2026 for next season. Like this is for the several years beyond. This is going to be Lino Messi's legacy within this club and everything else that is going to kind of follow him from this career in this league for again, as we said, very, very likely to be the first ever

back-to-back MVP award winner with his exploits this season. And again, now like he's going to carry this team into the next era and they're going to retool a little bit, but this will still be the messy era. I will be the first say, I would be shocked if he played the full three years of this, which is fine. It doesn't matter. The point is the last soccer team he's going to play for professionally is going to be Inter Miami, whenever that moment occurs. And I think that's the guarantee, as you said, that they want. And it's a big moment with the stadium. It feels like,

you know, my construction eye when I drive by. I just drove by on Wednesday when I picked up my wife. I think the building opens early. I think constructions ahead of schedule. I think it's going really well. But the whole point was you want to sell it with him. Like that's the project. That's the next jump. And I have said many times, I think this team has become relevant in the market. I think it's relevant past just him. I think the colors are everywhere. I think people know about it. How you lock that in and you say post messy, we are a giant in our market is by opening that building with everyone wanting to come in it being an event and then from there delivering and having messy as part of that is the key and part of the key is he's under contract through 2028 so all sponsorship

deals all sweet deals minimum of five to seven years whether like that's not even a joke it's it's like that's all part of this year and like let's remember that messy is locked in a percentage to buy when he retires to be a co-owner of this team it financially serves him to be here as long as he can because the longer he's here, the more valuable this club is. And again, I know that that's not the driving force, but it is something worth kind of bringing up. And I know he's obviously very, very happy the lifestyle and just

living in Miami. So that wasn't kind of any doubt. And again, this is a no-brainer and we can be cynical. And again, I know fans of other, like it's fun for fans of other teams to root against him and to root against this, like, villainous team. But like, everybody can take a step back at some point

and be like, we're going to get, whether it ends up being, what, four full seasons of Lienel freaking messy, it's pretty awesome, like just at a baseline level. I think he might play in the World Cup. He keeps being like, oh, I don't know. It's a long time for now. It's like, bro, you just signed a contract

until your 41st birthday. I think you'll make it. On international duty with Argentina in South Florida, where Argentina's built a training ground, and they let him play both international games and also in the middle of it go play for Miami. I think, I think if he's going to play. He's pulling a full LeBron.

that's the whole battle here with all this the one thing that i think about is if you remember with david beckham obviously there was like the short term fixes when he first got there of like can we win immediately which didn't work out and it ended up being when robbie keen arrived when they found the full success and keen ended up carrying the stretch further than beckham did and i wonder with a three-year deal can you now sell a namar whoever it is who's next and be like come we promise you you'll play with him for a while and then it's yours next and we still are sort of waiting and open with what will the next dp spot how will it be filled is this hopefully you know a part of what ends up being the opening of spending and maybe it doesn't have to be a deep spot maybe there's more spots

whatever it is messy being a part of it i think gives the league a better chance of getting any of those rules over the line um miami is going to kick off the playoffs first for us we don't we we have we didn't do the debate this year i think we've agreed on what postseason versus playoffs wild card game is postseason playoffs it didn't count so they haven't started yet Friday night 8 p.m. Eastern time that'll be the first game I will be at the game I'm going as a fan for fun just to watch soccer exactly none of the things I just said so if you're going to be in the area hit me up let me know and I'm very very excited about going to my first home Miami game since I've lived here I've only been to you I've only been to the USMNT friendly

there and then I've been to two games at hard rock I have not been to this and I've been to Miami FC Open Cup games and I've been to Fort Lauderdale USL Super League games but I have not been to a Miami Yeah so yeah I'm yeah I'm fully in the community You know hell yeah just like trying to connect in all of that We are going to go through every single series here for a little bit And talk about them then we'll get to our awards Tom I sit to you first the number one pick

What is the series that you are most excited for for whatever reason you choose I'm gonna go hell is real Cincinnati versus Columbus I think that's That's the first pick for me. I honestly think that this is the best scenario for Columbus in a weird way. Obviously, since you're a really, really good team, but rather than playing Miami or playing Philly or whatever, like Columbus has stumbled into the playoffs, and they've had injuries that that has been part of the issue for them, and we'll see what happens with Lesa. Matt Wally, looks like Diego Rossi is going to be back.

But getting to play your rival, I think, in the first round is going to help boost this team and juice this team again for me like i still have since he getting out but i think that this is going to feel like a conference final but just played over three games over 90 days um so i think i think this is going to be the most fun even when these two teams have been bad or one of the two teams have been bad in the early part of cincinnati's uh lifetime in this league it's been awesome every single time so give me all the the hell is real that that you can give me yeah when these teams pre noon and pre nonce we're struggling as you said they always put on a show this is the series because of the nature of playoffs and how quickly it comes that has the

best chance of having true away fan bases because you can make the drive there is enough time and so having that set up where maybe for a lot of these series can be really hard to get like a large fan base to be able to get somewhere only having a weak notice and all of that and there are not as many of the like east coast close together matchups as we've seen in the past so I agree with you I think this is the one to watch the Diego Rossi news to me. is big about it because without Rossi, yeah, Columbus has a clear idea of how they play and who they are.

Gosdog scores a goal off the bench on Decision Day. That's nice. Jason Russell Roll finally gets a start as well. Like, yeah, there's nice little breadcrumbs in there. It just feels like a mountain too high to climb without someone like Orozi or Wesum Abu Ali. So the quote from Nonsei midweek was that he could have played in the season finale on Decision Day

if it had been a playoff game and now we'll see during the week how does he feel he trained normally so we'll see and that's huge because we weren't sure that rossi would be available for the playoffs his ability to finish obviously his ability to i think draw some defensive pressure and i think for this columbus team it's going to be moments where they're going to have to counterpress at a high level or be able to break out quickly because Cincinnati right now their best attack is their pressure and their ability to win it high which means they're going to going to have to push numbers high and at some point you're going to have to go direct over the top of them and if you can do that and break out you've got a huge opportunity but if you're scared to

go direct if you lose possession immediately so often you're going to not want to do it and I think for Columbus having that outlet in Diego Rossi is massive exactly and then you you kind of hit it off the top there about I would like I would play up or I would feel genuine about the rivalry aspect of this and like hey Columbus will feel like they have a chance no matter what, no matter who's out there. Without Rossi, that would be a lot harder to kind of twist yourself into like full, full confidence that this is actually going to be a series. He is that important to this team.

And again, like, since he have so many individual talents and such like a really good team, and Obi-Noboto returning is massive for them. I think he's going to fill a lot of holes and fix a lot of issues that I think that they've had. And again, maybe it's just me continuing to like blindly say, no, no, no, like this, like my, my brain can't compute that that, you know, you look at the point total and you look at the players on the team you look at the coaching staff you look at the structure you go this has they have to be performing like one of the best teams in the league and while their point total says it is we've been saying all season about the performances

not quite being there and again i genuinely believe that obino boto and this team being fully healthy for pretty much the first time all season including him um and and some others around the team that have been kind of in and out like that if there's a time to start peeking it'd be now and And I think if there's a team that I could trust to go from, we haven't showed it yet, to bang, here it is in game one. I think it's this team because of all of the guys who have already done it. And again, how much respect I have this coaching staff. I've made this joke many times, but tomorrow, the playoffs will kick off on Friday,

October 24th. The conference semifinal will kick off on November 22nd. I say that in saying, like, it's not crazy to think Rossi or Nobado, who have, I mean, nobado's been out for half the season, could actually be in somewhat of form. if you can get out of this round. If you can survive a game or two where maybe he's a little bit, you know,

behind the pace or whatnot. So, yeah, there is real potential for Cincinnati to find themselves here. I think the rivalry, the juice of that is massive. And of course, for the Cincinnati team, they're trying to get revenge because two years ago they lost in the Eastern Conference Finals. They were ahead.

They had home field advantage that time. They would like to be able to take advantage of it this time as well. This game is going to be Monday night at TQL Stadium at 6.45 p.m. Eastern time. Tom, do you have a pick of who you think goes through? Sinci. I did say that. Yes, you did. Sincere in three? I don't know. Since he did this. Okay. I'm going to say Columbus. And that's not a knock on Cincinnati. Yeah, that's not a knock on Cincinnati. Like, I wouldn't be shocked. There will be some series where I would be surprised if it went the other way.

I think Columbus comes in with a little bit of confidence. I think the Rossi stuff helps. the big concern obviously is defending in the box for Columbus and the centerbacks and if they get matched up one-on-one with a Denke or an Evander or if Brenner can bring a little bit of quality in his moments as well but I think this is a Columbus team that has enough comfort in playing against this opponent and in big moments that I think there's more game-breaking ability on this Columbus team and I can just see it as the flip of last year which was everything was going Columbus's way and the Red Bulls somehow

were able to throw a wrench in it and I think that might be the case this year in the other direction. I will pick my series then coming out of this one and I actually am going to stay on Monday night and I'm going to go with Minnesota, Seattle. And I think this is one of those series where it's a 50-50 split in my mind.

I think if Seattle had home field advantage, I would edge them because of the way things have gone from Minnesota, the lack of, a true center forward right now and therefore some of the attacks struggling but i still think this is a minnesota team i saw enough in the open cup even with the upset from austin that this can be a tournament team that when they need to push for goals they can get them on set pieces they can make life stressful and dangerous for you and the two wingbacks or the two fullbacks whatever they end up playing in this one can cause enough pressure and enough threat to overload you and create big

chances and like i'll take a robin lud in a must win moment and a must win game even if he's slightly out of position even if he doesn't have the same players that he could play off of i will still bank on a guy like that and yet seattle are a team coming into this that look like they could be an mLS cup favorite and they are one in the western conference because of their history because of what they've been through and at this point with health where they're landing so i think this is a big one to me this is a coin flip which i'll be locked in for and you know the atmospheres in both buildings are going to be wild yeah i think this is a really good got a top tier pick for uh the the playoff series here both of these teams i think are very very good they do it in different ways

and they have different strengths and different weaknesses i think they're all going to be tight games so because minnesota mostly only plays tight games but um seattle or i don't know i coming out of league's cup we were talking about them as as a favorite if not the favorite um in the western conference things have changed they've slipped a little bit pedro de la vega injury is is really really unfortunate and sad and best of recovery to him but like particularly coming out of league's cup it's like oh my god like this is the guy they paid seven million dollars for and everything else that they had going from they still have a lot and they're really deep so they can handle some of these injuries and they have a little bit of retribution to get to minnesota beat them

both games the season the first time the minnesota swept seattle over a season in their young history like that was a big deal for minnesota like seattle have been the standard in the western conference more or less since that they entered the league in 2009 like this is going to be a really series with two really great home crowds and Minnesota it's it's what we've been saying all year like they have the defensive structure defensive identity and they have the set pieces those things play well and knock out round type games except for if you can see first and like as silly as it is like a lot of this is going to come down to who scores the first goal in any given game because Minnesota are hard as hell to beat to break down when it's tied they're really hard to beat to break

down when when they're winning so Seattle controlling the possession is when what's going to happen if they can limit the moments in transition. If Kelvin Yuboa is just a guy and not like, oh, my God, he's a DP, then Minnesota are going to struggle unless that they really are pulling in and set piece goals. And another little reminder here, there's no extra time. Draws go straight to penalties. There is a possibility, not in this series, but like in any of them,

that a team could go through with two draws and win in penalties and they can get shattered in the other game and go through with like a negative four goal difference because they win in penalties. So that's something to keep in mind. And this one team has Dane St. Clair. And he's a goalkeeper of the year for me. He's a penalty specialist. He's an absolute dog, shit-talking artist.

If they get to a penalty, they're going to feel like they have the edge. I just picture that video of the high school football player. And it's just like starts naming Dane St. Clair, dog. Michael Bauxhall, dog. Will Trap, he's a dog. Dog. And that's how I picture this team being lined up and set up by Eric Ramsey. That's the announcement on the number seven, dog, number one, dog.

There will be one name that will be announced going forward a consistent amount of times from Minnesota, and that's Joaquin Pereira. The designated player, attacker, officially announced today, Tom, that he has signed a contract extension. Yes, he did. The designated player remains at the club after they turned down an offer from Turkey for a down $8 million, a really big valuation for Pereira. So good on Minnesota for coming back around and saying, hey, like, we'll take care of you. Like, we know that you probably get a pay raise in Turkey. We can't lose you right now.

You know, you can go at some point in the future, I'm assuming, but they did write by the player here. And this is kind of an easy situation to do right in terms of salary cap because he's already a DP. So anything you're giving him is just doing the right thing slash like coming out of the owner's pockets, rather than being like, ah, like we're locked into Max Tam here. we can't really move. So well done in Minnesota, and it's good to see Joaquin Pereira, and they're going to need him.

And I think that there should be some pressure on him to help unlock the team rather than just pointing at the set pieces and defense that I keep on regurgitating. He is, he's high on the list for Goss Theorem Award winner this year. We're not going to go through that award today because I haven't sifted through my entire list. But he's high up there because he's one where last year,

I said the opposite to you. We came out of last season, and I was like, I am sold on Kelvin Yaboa, hence him being on my golden boot team that lost but i'm less sold on prayer i don't think he's a game breaker individually and therefore it all has to come within the team and is it worth a dp spot for a guy like that and it flipped this season he has made game breaking plays where he's taking guys you know he's able to beat guys 1 v1 the passing is able to break lines and change defenses and he clearly fits the system this was something i was a little worried about for

cincinnati when lucho left of like okay this is how the team plays not everyone wants to play in that a 10 is not often going to be comfortable being like yeah we'll be against the ball i'll just close down a bunch in front of center mids and then every once in a while we'll be in possession and he fits with all of it really well he clearly reads the players around him very well and he's able to create chances for them and i think he's got another level to go i think we'll see even more goal scoring going forward so this was huge to me because it has not always been easy to get this player into this market like for minnesota they have worked on these big attacking signings for years to try and get them done. Hence why they tried to hold on with Renoso as much as

possible because it took like two and a half years to get him. And so now you've got it right. Yeah, and now you've got it locked in and you don't have to stress about that one, which is really, really big. Both these teams, I wouldn't be shocked if they end up in a final. So this one's Monday night, 9 p.m. Eastern time is when the kickoff is scheduled for. Tom, we are up to you. You are trailing me one to zero right. Well, I thought you're going to go for a snake here. Let's not, let's not, let's not overthink it. Miami Nashville. We might have had more juice for this if they didn't just play on Saturday and Miami just throttled Nashville. And the weird thing is, I don't think Nashville played bad. Like, I thought that they played pretty good. This was just one of those games where

Messi just went nuclear and there's only so much you can do. I still think that this is, like, that that's more of an outlier of what to expect in this series. Like, Miami ended up being a bit of a breeze by the end of that just because of the scoreline and Messi's excellence. I think this is going to be much more hard fought than that game ended up being Nashville can, they can't quite trade blow for blow with Miami, but

they have Honey Mukhtar and Sam Surge and that's not a bad one two punch. We're trying to come up and combat this Miami team. What's going to happen is it's can you take advantage of your transition moments and can you do your best to contain Messi because there is no stopping him. He's had 18

goal contributions or whatever was in the last seven games of the season and it's it's just really really difficult to come up against a player like this they scored two goals that should have been you know a team like national that's usually enough to get a result it wasn't against miami because that's miami and sometimes things are different but i think that this series is going to be harder fought i do think that this will take three games um and it's lino messy it's the the final ride for sergey bousquette's and jordia alba and maybe louis spores this is absolutely one of the best series to watch for round one it is wild that we ended up because of the play-ins with Portland winning three decision day rematches

in the playoffs makes zero sense and the fact that two of them were pastings makes it really hard to be like this is here and I and I get what you're saying at halftime Nashville was up to one XG said that as well I thought they came out the opening 15 minutes and pressed Miami high and we're like we're not scared of you which is awesome to see but it turns out They should have been scared of them because of what happened. What are you going to do? Stab me? As the game went along and in that second half.

And so now we have to figure out where does Nashville fall. One of the big ones to me is I have Andy Naharer in my best 11, which we're going to do. He has to win that matchup. And by that means he has to be the game breaker on that wing, not Jordi Alba. The fact that Alba steps forwarding, steps into the attack and is dangerous has to be a negative for Miami. And that means Nahar has to be filling that space. or in wheel or Schaffelberg or Quasum, whoever it ends up being,

has to take advantage of that space, has to beat guys 1 v.1, and that's where a bunch of the attack has to come from to make Miami make the decision of are we going to sit a little bit deeper, are we going to try and outscore you 7 to 6 in all of this one? Because, yes, Honey and Surge are that good

and Miami's centerbacks are that bad that they can create a little bit, but it has to come from other pieces and, like, it has to come in the flow of the game to make Miami sweat and think, okay, do we not want to, to commit as many numbers, are we in trouble? That's the huge, like, X-factor to me in this whole game. I agree. Like, I like Nashville. They won Open Cup. They have credentials. They have belief

in who they are. It's just really hard to bounce back from a five-two loss against this exact team and say, oh, it'll be different in the next game. And I don't know. I just wonder if they're even tight in game one and they don't get the win. Like, what's the energy in the building in Geodis next week after the performance they put on last week. That's the 8 p.m. game on Friday night, as I said, I will be there. And Sam Surge, an MVP finalist. So congratulations to him. He is not Goss Theorem because he has a year and a half under his belt.

It was a tough one. He would have been obviously first on that list, but he got that half season in coming out of Leagues Cup two years ago, one, which he lost to Miami in the final love. So I am up now with my next pick. It is tough to say a lot of the high lows. seeds so I'm going to stick in my same territory and say Charlotte NYCFC a four or five this is like me like I NCAA tournament I'll watch the eight nine game before I'll watch the one seed because like I want

to see competition I want to see a competitive game I want to see two teams going toe to toe and I talked about this on the kickback committee on Tuesday with Wilfrid Zaha suspended it is kind of like a potential star-rise game for eat on Toklamati he has done it this season he is proven that he is a legitimate starting center forward in this league already at a young age. But most of it comes in the flow of the game. And without Zaha, there's going to be a little bit less threat and danger out there. And I wonder if you can play through him more, if he can create chances for himself. Like a lot of his goals are running on to things where it's good movement from him.

It's great finishing from him. But is there that extra half gear from him in this one? Because you assume Bram Bronico gets the start in central midfield. and like it's industrious as it always is and there's not a ton of creativity coming out of the fullback spots as well so then the game falls on toclamati and vargas and that's a lot of responsibility on two young players one in vargas who has the ebbs and flows high to low um and has big potential but hasn't really done it before hey don't let uh le alabato off the hook here it's a seven million dollar DP signing he's supposed to be yeah yeah and like that that's an indictment in

of itself, but, hey, maybe this is- And PEPL has started to work his way back to health. So, an option there as well. Was there an update? No, not one that I have seen, but I would trust PEPL more than I would trust. I would trust. I would trust a half-injured PEPL more than I would trust. I don't know. I believe in redemption story here.

But yeah, like, that, that can, and this, Charlotte have the home field advantage in game one without Zaha, and we're talking about the threat that NYCFC are going to pose and what NYCFC can do and if what can Charlotte do to combat that whereas like they should be taking the game to NYCFC this is going to be a this should be a fun one I think I hope it's going to be a fun one these two teams like these two teams are very are pretty evenly matched I think NYCFC have pretty quietly been very very good this season because they started slow they bring in a DP in the summer the team just kind of quietly was getting better and getting more and more results as the summer turned to fall and then they would just like lose the DC United and like throw people

off the scent. So this is going to be a really tough series for Charlotte. And again, particularly without Zaha and Pepi L's obviously been out for a while. The last time these two teams played was at Yankee Stadium. And that was the match that NYCFC snapped Charlotte's historic, potentially historic winning streak. So that's kind of a just, they really ran out of esteem by then, Charlotte, like remembering that game and Alonzo Martinez was, was pretty dangerous. It was two P-Ks for Alonzo Martinez in that game. And then Charlotte missed the penalty. in that game as well. I watched it back a couple days ago

because I was like, I remember this game, do I? And I watched it back. And I wouldn't say either team had a flow that made them look obviously better and then PKs obviously throw the whole thing off. Let me give a quick update on Pet BL. This is from the Charlotte Soccer Show

on Blue Sky. So Zorin Kreneta said two days ago, which by the way, we will have a special interview with Zoran Kreneta coming out tomorrow on our soccer-wise feed, a playoff preview, but really like good big picture

MLS conversations about changing of roster rule, schedule flip, perception of the league, as well as what it takes to be successful in his role. He said... Mediatory for him here, huh? Yeah. He said that triggers have been met and that PEPBL has been converted from a loan player to a permanent player. I feel like I've reported this already. But we don't know if it's a DP status yet. He also says PEPL might be available if Charlotte FC were to make MLS Cup final. So he's clearly a few weeks away. Did you report all of that? No. The latter part you were indicating like he's working his way back i was like oh crap like game three i know i thought he

was closer than he is listen this is not any nothing specific to zorrenetta just make it in a faceless anonymous coach executive of a team he might be available if we make mLS cup well what does that sound like to you well the brian white comments i'm like oh okay cool and then i'm like wait wasn't ryan gold supposed to play the cccc he'll be good for the second leg, not the first leg, but the second leg. And hang on. We're going back to Columbus. I wholeheartedly trust Wilford-Nazi with just about anything in my life. So, but like, just got to be careful with a coach saying, like the 49ers last year said, oh, Christian McCaffrey, if this was a real game, he would have been playing in like the beginning of August. And then he was just

gone the entire season. So just, just be careful when they say, oh, no, if that was a real game, he would have played. How many of the, no, no, we, we didn't want to risk him because, you know, they definitely would have played if it was a playoff game. And you have that. Just saying, Be careful. You had that reported right, because you and Kyle are close, right? As an NFL insider, you get along with Kyle. So you knew that one when other people were blind to the issues. No, because I had, I had Christian McCaffrey in fantasy, nothing less interesting than somebody else's fantasy football team.

But that's why that still sticks out in my head. So Charlotte, NYCFC kicks off next Tuesday at 6.45 p.m. Reminder, Zaha suspended for that game. Alonzo Martinez, the difference in the previous matchup, as we said, between these two teams. it's question mark with NYCFC. What formation do you see? Five in the back, four in the back. I think if Zaha was healthy,

we probably would have seen five in the opening game on the road. Now maybe do you try and go for it in that one and say no matter what, we have belief in ourselves at home in game two. Then we figured out game three with no Zaha available. I think that's a real question on the table

for Pascal Janssen, who's had a phenomenal year. They've ended on a high. Top five seed, I think, is a really good bounce back for this club as I start to put things in place going forward and now of course we'll do so under a new chief sporting director which is big for this NYCFC team i think a lot of these players are playing for their spot in the future of this club

because of the way things are set up and the way things are going okay so that was my pick tom we are back around to you i'm going to just go with philly chicago i think that'll be fun that they are uh two styles that are different from each other bridge view chicago obviously coming off uh big post season win, advancing in the playoff round. Of course, Orlando, I don't remember a more one, two, three, Cancun performance in recent memory. Chicago, we're completely not really dominant. Michael Spillane in the chat said, did I miss you guys dumping on Orlando? Because I want it. No, that was it. Just leave it there. I'm sure there'll be some offseason conversations about them. But yeah, Chicago, we're rampant, and now they go play Philly. And again,

Philly are the shield winner. Philly are a really awesome team. But we've seen in the past, like think about those great great red bull teams under jesse marsh and chris armis that would just blitz team throughout the regular season and then get to the playoffs and the pressing style is a little bit different when it's not a midweek game and you know hey we got to go to montreal on on saturday and then we can stop it at the red bulls on wednesday and then we go cross country back home or whatever right like so these get more and more difficult as you go into the playoffs i think philly are going to be very very good but we've seen a bit of a shift like the last two almost cup winners were possession-based teams.

And Philly getting through the gauntlet of the Eastern Conference playing this style, they absolutely can do it. But there is at least precedent for why we should have questions about what their playoff run may or may not look like. Chicago have buoyancy from that win. They have the, you know, Zincranoggle, Kuiper's really, really good. Bomba, I thought it was pretty dangerous in this game. Brian Gutierrez, really, really good.

If Brian Gutierrez and in that front four can really bring it to Philly, which won't be easy given how great to. defensively philly are that's where the game that's where this year is going to be one of lost yeah there's a lot i think to consider in this one which as you said makes it more interesting than a standard eight one series one is chicago comes in with momentum they get this midweek playoff and they're home i don't think it's the worst thing in the world that they played in that game and like had that experience to go into this and the other is quinn sullivan which is to all of the issues you just named okay what your get out and we talk you know i talked about perera what he

can do for a Minnesota. Obviously, through a lot of these series, we're going to talk about the Evanders of the world, Tacosta, what he can potentially do. Like all these teams, I think Quinn Sullivan was that guy for Philadelphia. And he was last time they played Chicago. He had two, he had an assist and a second assist. And he was the one when Chicago got pinned in and they were on the edge of the box. He was able to create something special because of his quality. And that's not there right now for Philadelphia. But they haven't had enough time to readjust and decide, what are we doing going forward? So I think that's going to be really big.

On the flip side for Chicago, these are polar opposites. You go from an Orlando team that's like, let us know if we should attack because we were told we were only supposed to defend. They had 0.02xG in the first half at Bridgeview, did Orlando, versus a Philly team that's like,

well, we're going to play all 11 in the attacking half. And so we're not even going to play a goalkeeper for this one. So it's like, can Chicago adjust to that on the fly, is going to be really, really big. And I think for Philadelphia, the whole key is come out and blitz them early and make Gutierrez uncomfortable and make Orgel uncomfortable. And if you can start to win those battles and put these players who have never been in a playoff game, never been in a big game really at this level before in their careers on the

back foot, then I think you're going to be dangerous. And I disagree on Bamba. I was pretty let down by him in the Orlando game for the reasons I've been let down all year, which is he gets into great spots and he's either two. passive or he's not able to take advantage of when you have open space i mean slaygold stonewalled him twice in the open field one v one which is like that's a matchup you got to win every once in a while if you're going to win a playoff game and as you said they need him to complete the attacking for and they need him because they're going to be out in transition their best chances are going to come

on breaks it's not going to be slow possession buildups it's going to be breaks and i think that's where Chicago has the chance where if they can, you know, steal one with Kipers and Zincernoggle and Bomba out on the run, then you could start to play from a little bit of a lead. Then it starts to shift. Then the pressure goes to Philadelphia. By the way, I don't think we picked winners over the last few. So who do you have winning this one? Philly. And who do you have winning Charlotte and YCCC? I have Charlotte as well. And did we pick Minnesota, Seattle? Minnesota. Okay. I'm going to go Seattle, Charlotte, Philly. uh across i was i was hoping you're going to talk yourself into chicago oh i was hoping you were going to do it no it's not there for me yet all the top three seeds last year in the east lost in round one yeah something i think about wait all the top three seats yeah because oh because miami got upset miami right because we ended up with red bows Orlando was a two seed no three six four seed they were four seed yeah wow okay you've shaken me but not to my core. I'm going to stick with Philadelphia. I'm going to power through that one. Let's go to

my next game, which is Vancouver against FC Dallas. So this is one of the three games on Sunday. So we've got a triple header of playoff games on Sunday, which is going to be fun. Why they're not on Saturday, you ask, MLS doesn't play games on Saturdays, except for every other week of the season and next week when every playoff game is on the Saturday. This one, Vancouver hosting FC Dallas, 7.30 p.m. Eastern time. I think we know what a matchup between these two teams looks like because we just saw it, but there will be a couple of huge elements. No, no Logan Ferrington.

So the league wins. The league absolutely wins. And it feels like Vancouver might win as well in terms of in the crowd. The upper deck has been opened. So they've surpassed the 25,000 tickets that they can sell in the lower deck. And they're opening it up, trying to fill up the building. I know there's a lot of quotes coming out about the Canucks playoff run. Did they go to the Stanley Cup?

Did they win it? No. I don't know. They definitely didn't win it. I think Florida actually won it. Apparently that's a big thing that they're trying to emulate. And then there is all the big news. So Petzar Musa back from suspension, Farrington back from suspension.

Matthias Laborda is suspended for this game. And then Tristan Blackman, the reports are, is in full training this week, which would be huge to get him back at the centerback position. And yes, for Sorrenton's quote on Brian White was, We have to see, but probably not going to see on Sunday, but hopefully next game. So it feels like that one's definitely not happening. And it's probably hopeful that you'll see him in this series at all. I would say of the two, you would take Tristan Blackman because of Laborta's suspension,

Vesolinovich's injury and all of that. But Tom, I have no idea what this matchup looks like because I was underwhelmed by Dallas playing 65 minutes up a man, that entire game, and yet their best player, and probably the Goss Theorem winner of the year, Petzar Musa, as Jason put in the chat for us, is going to be there and just changes all of the spacing and opportunity for Dallas from what they were last week. Yeah, that is absolutely the argument for Dallas, and again, it's a fair one. Like, they're going to look very, very different. Whether or not that truly enough to impact or push Vancouver is another story.

And I don't think that it is. that Dallas should be really proud of where their season was in the summer and what happened to end up getting, not even just towards the playoffs, but out of the wild card game, we're not trying to do moral victories here, but like, I think they're happy to be here. And I don't think that their seasons of failure if they lose this game, particularly given where it was going in the summer. So I just have a ton of respect for Vancouver, as I know you do too, that as long as they have enough of their guys and they don't get a red card early, and even at then they were still

play in their way against Dallas. Like, I think that Vancouver are rightly going to be heavy, heavy favorites, and they should be expected to kind of take care of business against this Dallas team. And again, the bottom of the Western Conference playoffs is much weaker than anybody in the east and obviously the top tier in the West. Like the bottom three in this playoffs, like the corresponding fixtures that they're playing, like those are the only heavy favorites in even this round one. And this is one of them.

So Vancouver, I'm firmly expecting to take care of business. I wish I had that full belief. And yes, I love the concept of if Vancouver have an ounce of life left in them, they're going to play you off the field and they're going to do what they do best. And I fully believe in that. But the Moosa Farrington edition is like even bigger to me because if you don't have centerbacks who steps in with them, can they get behind you, right? If Musa sucks Ralph Pryso centerback in and plays Farrington, and through. Are you playing from behind? Then the pressure starts to build. And I think there's just

real opportunity for Dallas to create chances. One of the obvious things from Saturday, Sunday, when was Decision Day? Saturday. Yeah. Lalas Abu Bakar is in for a day if he gets a start. They were targeting him on and off the ball. Anytime he touched the ball, the press was shifted. He was playing left centerback. They tried to cut off the middle of the field, push the ball onto him. And he gave up the penalty kick against sabi because he got caught and the player got behind him and that's where he goes in for an unnecessary tackle poorly from behind and gets called for the penalty so he is going to be under pressure maybe you can shift him out of the team if you want to make shack more your third center back having musa and farrington back like you could do that and go or go flat four

which i think would be too dangerous for them to shift into at this point but this the addition of those two players just makes this a delicious game in that I wouldn't have had belief for Dallas otherwise and now it's like a whole different thing do you have a pick what what of anything that I said made you question who my pick is I thought maybe you were feeling sauce you were you're trying to bait me into this you're trying to like oh yeah I bet that that's what you thought you were going to do no no no no you don't know what I'm going to do it's Vancouver I'm going to pick Vancouver as well I think it's three games though I think Dallas has interesting a win in them, and I think it's going to be tight, and I wouldn't be shocked if one of them goes to

penalty kicks as well with the way these two teams are set up. Yes, for Sorensen, one of the finalists for Coach of the Year, we'll get to those awards in just a minute time. I think we each have one pick left, and then we are done, so you get to choose your last one. Yeah, I think San Diego Portland is just going to be more fun than LASC, Austin, because I think that the team, that both protagonists are going to be very fun. I think Portland are going to be more open than Austin. And that's a sign of respect to Austin for their defensive ability. So San Diego just beat Portland, what, 4-0 on Decision Day? Portland did get through the wildcard game. Those vibes look good. Phil Neville was very confident. And now they're going to have to try to

run up against his team. Yeah? He's got new father energy. When I asked that halftime, why did you start Felipe Amora by Weeby? After he scored two goals, he said he just had a kid. So he's ready to go. like it was like as if it was obvious like oh no no yeah here's what you were missing i thought you were talking about phil neville i was like what i don't know anything about phil neville's family situation i think his kids are like 18 though yeah that's what i was saying like um anyway talk about philippe mara so yeah congratulations to flea more uh so san diego portland i think that there's going to be a lot of goals in this i do think that portland can get at san diego and at least make it um a bit up and down a bit open like they do have the players

but they've really backslid over the second half of the season here. So San Diego, again, in the theme of the bottom three here in the Western Conference, like our huge, huge underdogs. For San Diego, they may or may not have Truki Lozano. So Chuky Lozano was absent from the team's match day squad on Decision Day. And Mike Yvarez was asked about it after the game, and he just kind of shrugged it off to say how we're dealing with an internal situation. And I've been making calls and figuring it out.

I got a lot of no comments. And I'm able to report per sources that they, They don't know if Chuky Luzano is going to be available for the playoffs due to that internal situation. And what happened was he was subbed out in their last game before Decision Day against Houston at halftime. He was very unhappy about this. He made those feelings now there was a verbal altercation in the locker room. And Churkey Luzano was then, you know, held out of the team for Decision Day. One source said he needs to prove to the locker room how committed he is to the team.

And it was like, honestly, day to day, we don't know if or when he's going to be available for the playoffs. So that is a major storyline to watch for San Diego. So in that game, San Diego was trailing in Houston one zero at halftime. He came off. They ended up winning 4 to 2. They conceded in the 87th minute. Dreyer had two goals. Deloori had a goal.

And then Pellegrino scored in the 103rd minute to seal the deal. And this is just a curveball that's unnecessary. You've had the best season in expansion year, like an expansion year of all time. Chuki has played really well without all the pressure on him. Right. The early injury shifted, I'll think a lot of this season of everyone came into it thinking Chuky had to carry the team. What else would there be? And the moment he got hurt right out the gates, it turned out that the style was the star, the team was the star, and dryer elevated. And even when Chuki came back, I think it made his life easier that it wasn't all on his shoulders. And so you've had this great season. It's all fit together perfectly. And now there's just an unnecessary internal struggle to take you off your game for absolutely no reason. I think it's definitely. devastating if it ends up being something that takes you from beating Portland for zero on decision day to potentially losing a series. But even past that, I have San Diego. I think they have a legitimate shot to go to MLS Cup. Of course. It changes if Chuky's out, but it changes

even more. But that would, if you said Chuky was hurt, I'd be like, okay, I could still see them getting there. This feels like extra stuff that makes everything harder for everyone around the team. no for sure and it's definitely an unfortunate distraction and again just an unfortunate unavailability because chukasana was really really good i think he has no 19 goal contributions in his time like it's still been a very productive season for chuky even if it isn't what maybe he hoped for or particularly with the games played but like i'm sure that he thought he was going to be the MVP finalist honors dryer and i'm not suggesting that there's any animosity there whatsoever i'm just saying when chuky lazano was the first player signed in club history he's

his the faces on all the posters i'm certain that his own stander and was, I want to be one of the best players in the league. I want to, you know, what Carlos Vela did for L.A.S.C., all this stuff. Like, because he is that good. And he has been very, very productive and on the field. So it's unfortunate to not have them. And normally this is one where you're like, yeah, he wants to play. Like, that's normally something that's fixable quickly because the issue here is not,

he wants a new contract, doesn't like the way the team's run. Like, he literally wanted to be on the field more for the team. The fact that it's taken this long is worrying because that means whatever happened is really big. and we're probably in a time crunch where it doesn't end this series. Now, I've said this a million times, the next round doesn't kick off for a month. So you have a month to figure this out if you're able to get through this, which they should still be able to navigate Portland without him. Exactly.

And like, again, like, they people, it was truly day-to-day, right? But they were, the sources I spoke with, we're serious about, like, there's no guarantee that he plays. But, like, this could get resolved soon. To your point, gosh, like, I was, when I was making these calls, I figured I was just going to get the, yep, internal thing, it happened, we're past it, or moving for all, he's available. So I was surprised to hear that, oh, no, like, this is still lingering and this is still a thing. So that would definitely be something to watch. But in terms of San Diego, again, first of all, they, with Anders Dreyer leading the attack, that's enough to beat a lot of teams in this league because of how great he's been.

He's indeed an MVP finalist, as he should be, as is obvious. I think he was clear number two for me. but the other side Amal Palgrino six goal contributions in the last two games San Diego had to work really hard to get that deal done

pretty much right before the deadline they're only paying senior minimum for him from what I was told per sources so not a bad role again between him and Corey Barrett I was like weirdly bullish on Amal Palgrino's fit within this team right because I think he just fits better

with this team than like Bruce Arena San Jose and it was just like I don't know 19 people would have cared about that tape. So even on this show, I was like, there's other things to talk about around the transfer window, but like I feel a little bit of indication, even though his second or last game was his first goal contributions. Like he had a few starts before then,

but I'm here for the Amal Pelgrino era in San Diego. On the Portland side of things, it obviously got better from Decision Day into the playoff game against RSL. Finn Sermon came back, which is huge for them. He's probably their best 1V1 defender. I thought they were still gapy.

I just think RSL couldn't take advantage. If you watch that game, it felt like Luna and Gonzalez found the ball around Zone 14 more often than they should. And they're just not really capable of being dangerous with it as often or the pieces around them. Ola Tune J, his movement's not as dangerous. I thought Gozo had flashes here and there. But it's an RSL team that struggles to score goals because a lot of guys who have responsibility on their shoulders that they're not fully comfortable with. They're not ready for.

And so one of the things coming out of that, by the way, Diego Luna won't play a competitive club soccer game for maybe five months, four months. Norleck, Freeman. So then, yeah. Those are really, really big for their potential standing in the national team. There are friendlies.

There will be a January camp. You'd assume it'll be an extensive one. I wonder if there's a loan in there just to go and, like, play. And obviously, they wouldn't get the full off season. then but if you're Diego Luna and you go on loan on January 1st to a team just to like be competitive and be around it you still would get six weeks off now if they were to give you off whenever the training ends because every team by the way the players are still under contract pass when you get eliminated so for teams that didn't make the playoffs they train for normally three plus weeks

and some other teams will train as well through the players end of their contracts so it's just something to note in all of that for Portland it's obviously a big win for them um we saw on social media, it wasn't really the crowd interaction we expect from a Portland team. And I think that's on everyone. I think that's on the league throwing these games around on schedules where you can't prepare, you're unaware, it's on days where there are never games otherwise. I think it's on the team as well. You backslid into an eighth seed in a year in which it looked like you'd be pushing

for a potential home field advantage and a top four seed. And you do that in the context of Vancouver being the number two team and Seattle being the number five team in your conference. and so it's a team that is now struggling to put together big performances. I was impressed by the assist from Veld. Otherwise, though, it's still not as all coming off for him. And DeCosta was pretty anonymous in that wildcard game. They have to be dangerous because they're not going to shut out San Diego.

So this is similar to the Nashville series. They need to put up goals. They need to be dangerous. Having Chara back in the team obviously helps them. He sat on Decision Day, so that's a little bit of a change. but I can't see Portland overcoming this one. So I have San Diego going through. I assume you do as well.

And we move into the final game to discuss, which is L-AFC against Austin. So this game is next Wednesday. Do I have that right, or is it Tuesday? Time is a flat circle, dude. It is Wednesday. I just want to make sure. I'm going to wake up on Saturday,

and I assume because all of the games all season long have been on Saturday is that I don't have to plan ahead, that I know that there's going to be game Saturday. Right, Gus? You got none. You got none. But next week, don't worry. There'll be about five games on Saturday.

on the following weekend. So L.AFC hosting Austin kicks off next Wednesday, 10.30 p.m. Eastern time. Big note, Usman Bukari, who didn't play on Decision Day, was listed as out. Nico Estevez said was precautionary. He will be back. So he will be available for this team for Austin. Austin went 2 and 0 against LASC. But the last game three weeks ago was in the international break.

So not a full strength. LFC missing Sun, which is probably the biggest one, missing Buonga. maybe that one's even bigger whichever one you want to go with and so that's all a huge shift i think the reason that this game ends up last for both of us is lafc don't love the ball so they like to sit back austin have not been great in possession they've been playing in a in a lower defensive block and so it just feels like a game that's going to have small margins um but not really because it's two teams going toe to toe it's kind of two teams challenging each other to try and go for the win and L.AFC at home, I just think, has too much firepower.

You can't make mistakes at right now against Buonga and Sun. And this does not feel like a backline for Austin that can play perfect two out of three times. No, and I think it does speak much more to LAFC's firepower than Austin's deficiencies. We can talk more about Austin's deficiencies going forward, but like they've been good defensively. This LFC team, it's the only thing that mirrors Miami for me in that, like, you can play really well defensively. and then Sun can just take your soul or Belonga will get one moment in transition and kill you. Just cuts out.

So, again, so I think that this is more play about LASC strength and Austin's weaknesses and, again, when it's a, is it 3-6 this match? Yeah, 3-6. There's a 13-point gap between these teams. There's a 33-gold difference gap between these two teams. And I think that that's a story here. and LFC would be borderline disasters. This would be, again, any one of, I think, the top three in the West here,

it's not quite going to be Miami, Atlanta, because I genuinely don't think we'll ever see that again, just all of those confluence of events and circumstances leading to that. But it wouldn't be far off, like, if one of these three teams fell. Denny Buonga, of course, second in the Golden Boot Race, and he is in the MVP standings as well. Let's go into our awards now. reminder. We will be back on Monday. We will recap what we saw so far this weekend. And then we'll do a full preview of all these games. Once again, hopefully some updated injury news and all of that. And so we will touch on them going into that one. And we have that Zorin Kreneta interview that's going to be coming out tomorrow on our channels. Yeah, he was he's fun to talk to. He's a great target, man. He's a fun guy. Yeah. He's a former super agent who now runs a professional sports team. So he's pretty good at interviews and talking with people and all of that.

Let's go into our awards. We'll announce our winners and then our best 11s. We have the MLS MVP finalists. We kind of debated who the three would be. So they just decided to have five. It's everyone you think would be in it. I was going to say, I thought that they used it because they have been doing three. But I was like, you know it would make a lot more sense?

Five. But I was like, man, I'm already doing my soapbox about the second and third best 11s. Who cares if it's three or five? And I'm very happy, is my point. So all five are listed as finalists, which doesn't mean anything. it means that they are the top yeah i mean it means they're the top five vote getters yeah i don't know if it means anything in terms of these players careers and where they stand but whatever it is the top what four in the golden boot race and it is avander or whatever um in this group i picked

messy you picked messy yeah and then we move on uh the ziggie schmidt mLS coach of the year it is the top three candidates we expected carnell sorenson and mike yvarez that one was three and as it should be i think mckelly was on the show last week he brought up b j callahan i think that's fully fair that he's the fourth option but he's not he's yeah he's a drift and that thinking no disrespect to bj but first of all open cup does not count towards this vote and like those three teams the the three finalists pretty much it feels like in any other year they would be just the obvious each one of them would be the obvious oh my god that's a no-brainer award and we had three of them in the same year did decision day sway you in any way

Varus ended up winning the Western Conference over Sorensen. It didn't sway me because, like, again, it's just, I don't want any of this to sound like it's a negative to the two guys I didn't vote for because they've done an, like, Bradley Carnell. Yeah, it's about the resume over being impressive. No, but like, it's like Bradley Carnell, like, what more does this poor guy have to do to win Coach of the Year? In my defense, I voted for Bradley Carnell in 22.

So I was there for him there. but like he wins he wins a supporter shield with the team that literally nobody picked his supporters shield most people picked him as the playoffs and if people put him in the playoffs like i think i was the high water market like seventh yeah you know to win the shield with that is unbelievable um mikey varza do what he did with is an expansion team to play the way that they played as well so so attractive and and hey even if we concede a goal which playing out of the back guess what we want to do it again and guess what there's a bunch of question marks on our offensive line and dealing with i don't know i got maybe there were other stuff throughout the

season that he's had to deal with and keep everything straight and losing your your leading goal score pretty much just as he was getting going or sorry that you're your leading center forward just as he was getting going in the lanoloski um that was just an unbelievable job but for me it was still jasper sorenson because again he started hours before preseason started this was a team that finished eighth in the western conference last year they weren't particularly winning plot it's or they were a pretty middling team last year and they were returning most of the same except for the new DP they signed who they looked the best with

when him and Gould were on the field together and then they didn't replace him with the DP and the team was put up for sale and we were all asking is this team even saying in Vancouver they better stay in Vancouver but it was a real question and then Ryan Gould gets hurt in like the third game of the season never to be seen until

until October and they were the most aesthetically pleasing the most fun and they've had injuries all season and for me it's just Jasper Sorensen for all that and it's just I wish that there was three awards for these three different coaches because at least Cardinals got the shield and maybe

maybe Varos will get a team trophy but like it's just all three of them are so well deserving winners but I went Sorensen I went Sorensen as well but you did dance around one thing shots fired you know what you need to do and he needs to go read

Landon Donovan's article at the Athletic of the New York Times written by Paul Tenoria about baldness and all of that um is it not a fact that you guys look similar but you don't get me with anti bald i don't look very danish you you put on the sweater on the bj call callahan conversation you you said open cup doesn't count and in all of what you just said the ccc run is a major part of it i understand what you're saying but like like so so listen i know the ccc run didn't happen is yes for sorens and your

coach of the year over the other two guys so listen it's you can't say oh my god they went went down to Monterey and won, and that's one of the reasons why I'm voting for for them. But you can say, well, they were playing midweek every single week. I fully agree with you. Those are different things. Those are different things. What I'm saying is the length they went in the tournament is not exactly why, but we have a history of how unprecedented it is to be as successful as they have been while also being pushed in other competitions. And I think it is fair to say the amount of makeup games and

midweek games and move games and travel goes into why it feels like Esper Sorensen should be voted. on i'm just saying that's a fair question it's a fair question we mentioned on one side we didn't the other side i still think yes for sorenson has a right to the vote even if you say you have to pretend you've never even heard of conca champions and it doesn't even exist he still has probably a running for the vote i voted for him as well in this one on newcomer andres strier is the correct answer did you vote for andrews there is like i've all due respect to philbs ingrenoggle who had a great season. This was the easiest vote for me.

And again, Sincred uncle had a great season. Had a great season. I'm really excited to see what he's like going forward. Like, I think for Chicago, that's a cornerstone player, what can you continue to add around him to make his life easier? How does he get better as he gets more comfortable in the league? All of that.

And obviously, Sun came in and was explosive. But Andres Dreyer, you know, is an MVP finalist. And is a new comer. Was son a finalist? Yeah. Those are the three. All 800. minutes, sick.

Nine goals to assist. Sick. Yeah, there you go. That's all it takes to get yourself in there. It's like when Messi, Messi got votes. He finished second in the year when he used 260 minutes. Yeah, you should feel lucky if son doesn't win. Not just that he was a finalist.

He should feel fortunate if he doesn't win. MLS, young player of the year. This is our first one where I have a vote off of the finalist list, so I know that I won't be correct when this ends up happening. Just a free thinker. You're not a sheep. You're somebody, you know. So one of the things with the young player of the ward,

which we talked a little bit about going into it, but I hadn't put the names down fully, is there were a lot of players that were eligible, that were interesting, that aren't 22 under 22. Yeah, that's, why is it not uniform? No, for sure. So Eddie Aracompo, Quasum, Bolaroo, who you said was one of the best young players.

Did say it. Like soccer. Finn Sermon became available because he is 22, and under 22 and Diego Luna as well. Luna ends up on the finalist list with Alex Freeman and Obed Vargas. I think all three of them are fine to vote for. I agree.

Of the three, I would probably choose Obed. I think there's a good chance Freeman wins it. I think he deserves to win it for his MLS play. I think he might win it because of his national team play. But like all as well that ends well? Yeah, I mean, again, I think all three are deserving winners, like you said. I went with Alex Freeman. I just thought that he was so important.

Orlando did. And Diego Luna, again, obviously he was the heart and soul of the attack for Rio Salt Lake, but again, I just thought that Alex Freeman was a little bit better. And again, like I did consider Obed as well. Obed would be a fair winner, but again, out of those three, I did go with Alex Freeman.

So I went with Chris Brady. I'm just in my own. I don't, again, that's not a crazy vote. Like, that's a fair selection. He was a plus starting goalkeeper at 21 years old for a team that made the playoffs. they ended up winning a playoff game which i didn't know when i voted for him he did so on a team that was really good defensively for most of the season with not the characters that you'd

expect of a great defensive team and he had a plus post shot expected goal differential as well like he was good this year he's important he's a leader for a young player i was really really impressed by that he's my list is 12 people long in all of this i'm actually surprised owen wolf didn't end up on this finalist list i thought he was going to be the one who ended up winning or quinn sullivan um so it will be interesting this way it goes i mean i guess it'll be old bad because he was the 22 under 22 vote uh there mLS defender of the year finalist this is interesting to me black man glasness and wagner i voted for kai wagner i didn't think he would make it so this means that he's in the running to win it obviously by the way for everyone who doesn't know my

assumption because this is how it happens to me the brats you get are massive they're like everyone who's eligible these are the top vote getters that's what the finalist ends up being so this is not who people are voting for and this does not mean it's the only people who are eligible yes everyone who was eligible based off being in the league minutes played whatever it is they are all on the list these are us being told these are the top three the top five whatever it ends up being and the votes have already been cast and it's just MLS teasing them out over time. It means these are the top three vote getters. I picked Wagner.

He played for the second best defensive team. He played a ton of minutes and he was the biggest chance creator on his team that won the supporter shield. No, that's fair. For me, I just view him more as a wingback. Like, the reason why I broke the last, yeah, last year, Stephen Marrera won. I voted for him. While his value was in the attack as well, he was playing as a right-sided centerback more

than like a wingback type of to play. And again, not to split hairs on Kyle Wagner, because he was obviously incredible, but I do want to look at the defensive side of the ball first for this award because we have enough that rewards the attacking players. For me, I went with McCona on the Philadelphia Union, who is not

on the finals list. I was torn between him and Glessis. And so, by the way, you voted for Wagner, and I was torn between the Philly centerback. Which may mean Justin Blackman's about to win defensive player here, which would be said. So I was really torn on Glezzas and McCona. My initial lean was like,

Clessness has more minutes. Like, we know how good he is and like he's won this award before. And I was like, you know, it's close enough. Like, let me, I sampled some sources around the league and some of the guys who I really, really trust their opinions and didn't really have anything to gain by voting one or the other. And I got a majority back from McCona of just being like,

yo, that dude's incredible. And again, maybe that's just because he was newer. But that broke a tie for. me because again i i if they had the equal minutes i would have went mccane i wouldn't have asked anybody it would have felt like i didn't ask anybody who's your MVP right it was right so um but but that's kind of where my thought process went there and why i went with mccano over glissus who again was obviously awesome yeah and they won the supporter shield so i think all these philadelphia players will take that over potentially winning this and i find it hard to believe one of them will win it

because of the split that they'll have across these ended up being just on pure goals the two best defenses in the league. So it makes sense that the three finalists were across them. And it's really unfortunate that Rango Veselenevich ended up injured because I think he would have been the winner if he had played the full season and Vancouver put up the numbers they put up. He is one of the best pure natural centerbacks in major league soccer. And looking forward to him coming back. Let's go to goalkeeper of the year. Matt Freeze, Dane St. Clair and Yohei Takaoka. Similar. Andre Blake didn't have enough minutes probably to get into this conversation. and Andrew Rick

it was going to be hard for him so again similar the best defense in the league in Vancouver Minnesota who are seen as one of the best defensive teams in the league and Matt Freeze

who I'm sure some of this is MLS and some of this is national team it's still deserved from Matt Freeze the big like absence here is Christian Kalina

who helped lead his team to the longest winning streak in MLS history because of the way he played on that nine game stretch yeah um Yo Itakaoka is an interesting one

I did not consider him for a second because I don't think that he's been one of the best goal games in league. He leads the league in shutouts and clean sheets, which I didn't know until 15 seconds ago, which like, but I, you know, I knew how good their defense was, but I thought Yohei Takaoka was in like the bottom percentile in, um, shot stopping advanced metrics, which is what I care the most about because I think that that takes away some noise. Of course, no metric is perfect and no one thing is perfect, but that always helps me really look into like the I teller, like, because I was like, I don't think Takaoka's been really

particularly that great this year and that confirms it but you know he's fine and that's probably unnecessary to put all the reasons well he shouldn't be on the no he's ranked 50th on that list behind Evan Bush Sebastian Bresden Nico Hagan like yeah all of these players played less minutes than him but normally that makes it harder to have better stats uh he fell behind hugel lorice who had a bad year this year and it was not a you know impressive goalkeeper so like James Pantamas, that's where Takayoka fell on that list. I think it's worth mentioning. I think it's worth saying because I think that's why it's a little surprising he ends up on ballots,

except for some of the more wrong numbers of the shutouts, the way the team played, the success of the team. He's good with his feet. Yeah. And I think he's one of the more entertaining characters on the field. Not always for the good reason. No, he always has great reactions to every goal, which for a goalkeeper, I feel like that's something you've got to specialize in and perfect.

I voted Dane St. Clair. Me too. yeah me too so so he was first in american soccer analysis post-shot expected goals versus goals scored essentially how many goals are you saving more than than the average goalkeeper according their models um ASA had him first um FB ref had Sean Johnson first and Dane St. Clairce second again I like to look at both I do trust ASA as my nerds of choice shout out to ASA is the best um but like Dane Dane had Dane had both and like Sean Johnson awesome year awesome year Toronto finished like 12th and yeah and that's not his fault but like you can't be on the

ballot it's a goalkeeper the year for that so you're never gonna win you're never gonna win they're better but um dain st clair for me like for all those reasons and again the i test matches all of that and and just adding all those things together i felt really confident in dame um so those are the big awards there's other awards out there which i don't think we're really going to talk about because they're i don't know weird arbitrary things that are impossible to figure out the comeback player of the year a r the year Yeah, which, yeah, assistant referee of the year. No, I always like the bed-and-bear moment of like comeback player of the year

ended up being like the player who came back from being trashed the year before. Sometimes it's from injuries. Sometimes it's from other stuff. Sometimes it's just from being bad and then being good, which is always great. And then there's some other stuff in there as well. Okay. Best 11s. Let's finish up here.

We don't know what they'll look like across the league. You've put yours out a million places a million times. So we'll start with mine on this one. It's not a shock based off the votes that I just told you and put in. Dane St. Clair in goal, I went with a 4-33. Andy Nahar is the right back. Kai Wagner as the left back and then Glesnes and Boxall as the centerbacks. I think McCona is just as deserving.

Blackman fell behind for me on minutes there. And we had this conversation about him last week when we talked about your best 11. It's just one of those where it's not a quality thing at that point. but if box all is there for every single game and his linchpin to what his team does and his key to what his team does, and I think the throw-in stuff is worth bringing up because it makes you a more impactful player

for your team having an even bigger season. Those were my two, and the formation actually ended up being a, I put together a competitive soccer team that could actually play, which I was super excited about as I did it, but that was not on purpose. And, you know, Nahar and Wagner

are actual dangerous players at their position and really, really special. the three-man midfield, I had Sebastian Burrhalter, to me, was a no-brainer, and Evander was a no-brainer. The third spot was the hardest spot I had. I landed between Danley, Jean-Jacques, Roldon, and then YEPA out in San Diego. And I went through this in like five different ways. It felt like Danley was a step behind the other two, but it was really hard to split between Roldon and YEPA. And I didn't have a lot to. fall on i think i don't even know why i learned on this but i went with i did not go with

christian raldon in this and maybe that's me just knowing i voted for christian roldon like 15 times in the past and this time i didn't need to but it felt like when you look at the overall effect and part of that is just the pure passing numbers because of the style for san diego and i think as well and i know roldon carried the load as rousnack's been hurt and morris has been hurt and all of that feels like san diego's missed a lot of players and yet the the style has maintained, and so I tried to give credit to that, to the guys who were there and kept the engine going and all of that. I think that's fair, and I like that midfield.

And then to your point, like, again, all of the people that you've kind of been splitting arguments within your head to come down to 11, again, we can quibble, we can argue over person by person. Every name you've mentioned, they're completely fair to be on a best 11. Yeah, and this is the, right, this is the pool. We actually have in the chat here, obviously, Serge will be the striker. but for the less games he played an impact on his team could Moosa sneak into a Best 11.

I don't have Surge on my team. I don't either be... So just for those who don't know, we are restricted to the positional limits. And I understand and agree with what MLS has done there. Like, it's not always going to be perfect. And in the past, they restricted you to a formation too. So at least that they gave us more freedom there,

which is nice. But you cannot have all four of Surge, messy, dryer, and Buwanga on your team. because all four are listed as followers. For me, I would have had Surridge on my best 11 and dropped a midfielder and put Messi as like a number 10, but it's simply impossible.

So you have one of those four have to be dropped. So I ended up with Dreyer, Messy, and Buonga, and I'm actually not upset about this. I think it's fair to say Sam Surridge had an unbelievable season, was in a golden boot race. I don't know that I would take Sam Surge on my team over any of the other 10 players on this. I think Sebastian Burrhalter was more important to his team, which had a better season.

I think Evander was that had a better season than Surge was. So I wasn't mad about this at all. And it felt very straightforward to me. It's actually, I mean, Messi's a false nine, whatever in this, but like, who cares? Messies a false nine. That's the reality. And Buonga and Dreyer, I have them listed on the sides they actually play the way they actually play. So it was no question, Messi Dreyer there.

I would have a Vander over Surridge. I would still have the two center mids that I picked. And then really the only question for me would be between Buonga and Surridge. And Boonga is the most important player on his team. And even with the season, Honey is on his team. Like from a cultural point of view, from all those things. And so it's not a knock on anyone. As you said, all these players are in the pool.

I think if I had a second 11, I'd probably have Musa and Surridge as a front two or whatever the setup is in that one. Proper four, four, two, mate. and two bigs up top put it in the mixer and on my second on my second team I have Michael Boggsaw

are you kidding me dude oh my god are you kidding me I'm gonna FM 26 I got I got the beta downloaded I got a notification that it downloaded while we were talking and I was gonna pretend

I got a phone call or something and just never come back but I'm still here I'm still talking maybe that's what I don't have to do literally in 15 minutes whenever we're done that will uh that's an alpha move from you Tom to go to jump on the beta there

and get after it. Yeah, I have a lot of other players. I think I've, so my second 11 actually did end up doing is Sean John and Goal, Freeman, McConaugh, McConaugh, Blackman, and Jordi Alba, with Marcanic as the like last guy out. Zincernagel, Oh, Heda, Musa, Surge, and rolled on. So that's why I ended up with for the 4-4-2. Yeah, I'm just getting to rehash, like, because the only, like, I don't want to sound like I'm leaving people off my second team.

Like, my first one, Blackman, McCona, Glessness as a back three. Christian Rodan, Severikov, Burrhalter, Evander, midfielder, the same front three as you. So those are all the guys that I already had selected. My second team, I went Matt Friesingold, Andy O'Harr, Michael Boxhole, Dilsen Malanda, Kai Wagner, Philip Zinkernagel, Danley Jean-Jacques, Martino Heda, Jordi Alba, because I couldn't split him and Wagner,

and like he plays like a winger a lot anyway. So I felt fine in my own head to argue with myself about that for an official work. In a made-up thing that you created. You got to set the rules. And then Surge and Musa up top. And then the third team. Blake, Freeman, Miles Robinson, Jackson, Reagan, Chris McVee, Christian Espinosa, Owen Wolf, Mark Delgado. You know ball if you have Mark Delgado on the team.

Dan Yovlich, Alonzo Martinez, and Hany Mukhtar. Yeah. I think all those players, yeah, as you said, are fair to be in that. Yovillich ended up, what, fourth in goals on the season for a team that really, really struggled and Alonza Martinez in it is in a territory right now where you could argue he's the cleanest finisher pure finisher in the league with the way he finishes the chances he gets his body shape all the things he does is like a true number nine it's really very impressive and he's come a really long way I'd be surprised if he was playing on NYCFC next year he has very much the feel

of like he's now on the up and it's time for the next option and all of that but in saying that we are clearly stoked this is the best time of the year I think every team's still alive you know it's a bracket set up any of these teams could move on we have a really fun game that we're doing at kickback which I'm going to explain real quick which is

it's not a pure bracket so you go through and we tier the teams and you get points for the teams you pick and the reason we're doing it this way is so that we can do it across all four of the leagues whose playoffs are going to start in the next two weeks so next week USL Championship and USL League One's

playoffs are going to kick off the following week NWSL playoffs are going to kick off, but because they're not like for like, it was like hard to find ways to compare across them. So we set up this way so that now we have a clean slate for everyone to compare across. So if you want to do one of the leagues, just one, you can do that. The link is on our socials everywhere. We'll put it in the bio for this podcast as well. We'll put it in the YouTube. If you just do one, you could win something or you could be winner and just yell at us and be really impressive. But if you want to win the big prize, you've got to do all four of them. So you got to get your picks in by of course Friday night on the MLS side and then

keep doing them going forward. We will have more sheets coming out for USL Championship League 1 and NWSL Tom. We at kickback committee, the whole commit are going to do all of them. We're going to see. I'm talking about the prize, bro. Who is the most ball knowledgeable across all of them? You don't get to anything down. Do I do I get the Buffalo Wildswing gift card or you know, fax it to mail to me? Would you go boneless if I did that? Is this a test? yeah so i prefer bone-in wings but i think at buffalo wild wings i'd go boneless all of this is disgusting to me and i can't how i've answered both ways i played both i played both sides you can't lose you're playing both sides you know you're always going to come out on top

so if you want to play go in put in your um put in your picks if you want to be eligible for the prizes you have to subscribe to our uh newsletter that is our in to try and get you involved we have newsletter twice a week. We have one that's focused around the World Cup and global soccer and everything going on. And then one on Fridays that's focused around the domestic game here in North America with all the biggest stories across all of these leagues. It is time. I called it Bractober, which I was pretty proud of. We have three separate playoffs that are going to start in the next week. Four over the next three weeks. Yeah. Well, Tom, I got to land on something. I respect it.

I think someone else went with Brack Vembur to remember or whatever because of the November to remember thing. Not bad. Yeah. So we're working on it. We're still workshopping, all of that. But the picks are out there. So get involved.

If you don't already subscribe to our Patreon to get you access to our Discord. It is the place to hang out during games. We will be chatting in there all throughout the next few weeks as we watch all of these big games. And the vibes are high because we're in. to the playoffs. It's win now or go home unless you tie and then you win again and then you get the PK shootouts and it's a third game. Whatever it is, this is the time. So thank you to all of you for listening. Thank you to all of you for being here. We'll talk to again very, very soon. Thank you.