SoccerWise - Schedule Change, Formats, Big Free Agents + USMNT

Episode Date: November 13, 2025

MLS's owners are sitting down right now to vote on flipping the MLS calendar and changing the league structure. So Tom & David sit down on their own to talk about the pros and cons behind these moves. But this isn't the only news of the week as Tommy Scoops opens the "Ice Cream Shop" on a Nashville club legend entering free agency alongside Quakes star Cristian Espinoza. Plus of course they talk USMNT heading into the big clashes against the Guays.3:18 BOG Vote On MLS Schedule Change21:41 Change Of MLS Format To Single Table33:55 Wilfred Nancy Heading To Celtic?38:00 Walker Zimmerman's Next Destination46:30 Cristian Espinoza MLS Free Agent53:15 FC Dallas Offseason Preview56:40 Austin FC Season Recap1:00:00 Chicago Fire Offseason Preview1:04:05 USMNT Must See

Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Soccer Vice, David Goss and Tom Scoops with you for an electric episode. It's international break, but the news never stops. I missed the show on Monday, Tom. I was away for family things. It worked out pretty well, though, because I lost my voice for the first time in my life, and I've slowly been revitalizing it. So I did a show yesterday with Brianna Pinto. We talked all about the NWSL playoffs.

So if you want to go listen to that one, it's on the soccer-wise feed. Brianna is going to be in the Skills Challenge next week, which is pretty cool. And we broke down all the games, all the craziness and everything we saw. That was the only time I've spoken in the last four days. So I feel somewhat guilty in my personal. relationships that my wife has got out to lunch and dinner with me and it's just a one-sided text message from me to her, but the audience of soccer wise gets my voice whenever they need it. Are you entirely sure that your wife hated that? Yes, I am. She said to me, yes, we went

grocery shopping and she forgot to put in. Okay, so huge bugaboo for me. Our grocery store, publics which everyone thinks is a religion down here is a scam just in general but one of the biggest scams is when you do self-checkout it doesn't take your ID number so you don't get the like buy one get one free all the money off so we went and waited it so sometimes when we think we're waiting for stuff we went and waited in line for the actual register and then she didn't put the phone number in correctly so it didn't work and we walked out and I went and she goes you know It's like you're yelling without yelling. It's almost worse.

Makes it weirder. Makes it more uncomfortable for her. Yeah. So she, I don't think she's been enjoying this at all. I was going to say, I usually make the joke that, you know,

solitary voice of David Gus. Today it's actually the solitary validity voice of David Gus. We also weren't sure if we were going to go live or not because I wanted to have the, the facade of editing, potentially if I needed to.

So we are live on YouTube, which we try and do twice a week. So if you are listening, and that's the place you want to go and get in the comments. Michael Spillane's already in there talking Hamas Rodriguez, not to Orlando. The Hamas Rodriguez to NYCFC is monitoring report, which someone put out, is in a top five of laughable MLS reports that I've seen all time. The team that only spends money on 20-year-olds is going to sign Hamas Rodriguez out of Leon was unreal.

that almost made me fire up for a live show, as did the Walker Zimmerman conversation, which we'll be having coming up in this episode. But, yeah, I was a little worried about it. Then you came on. I immediately just coughed for a minute, and then we will get into it. So I apologize to everyone out there,

but do not worry. Tom is here for the full 90 minutes. He is ready to go box to box and to cover all the ground we need. And we've got a lot to cover. We've got a vote coming up in a little bit from the MLS owner, So a group of billionaires will sit down and make big decisions.

That means me and Tom will sit down. And we will weigh the pros and cons of those decisions, probably more so than the billionaires will and spend more time caring about it and thinking about it. So we'll talk schedule change, format change. You have some news that you've been breaking over the last few days because we are into the Tommy silly season as the playoffs roll along. And we get into the off season.

So the ice cream shop is always open. And of course, we've got U.S. men's national team game coming up. We also, we'd said this a couple times last week, we didn't do our end of season conversation around the teams eliminated in the first round of the playoffs in the second game because we had so much playoffs to talk about. So we will do that right now. Can I say this? I missed the show on Monday. So I'm not going to do a full playoff thing. But I don't know if you got a couple takes that you need to get off your chest. I don't know if you guys mention this. I would argue the moment of the weekend was the shot in the hallway.

when Joseph Rosales was sent off. Did you see this? Yes. A woman came up and asked for an autograph while he got sent off for a red card. We didn't mention this and that is pure, awful oversight on our part. I'm so glad that you came to clean this up.

Unreal, because she's clearly not standing there. So she watched the red card and was like, oh, he's going to walk out now. Let me go see if I could snag an autograph for this guy who potentially just ended his team season in the stupidest fashion by the way. Should have gotten a red card twice like launched out

at Jesus from the ground and then did the head thing. So he was like already done. Got his money's worth. Yeah, which is fair. Although the headbutt thing, you never get your money's worth. It's a fake soccer thing. It doesn't mean anything. Don't do it. It's like the most

embarrassing thing you could do. But the autograph moment was great and she is my MLS MVP right now. The way thing said don't know who she is don't know where she came from i hope i never hear from her again but i love that moment did she ask smetzer for an for an autograph when he was leaving the field and what he called like probably the worst loss of his coaching career for a guy who's lost multiple wellness cups do you think that she got in and tried to get an autograph before that probably

maybe she asked Andrew thomas to do it but only with his left hand hey i saw you broke your finger can i get an autograph with that hand seems like the most inconvenient time to ruin your life if possible um if this woman was to have been at a playoff game potentially in two or three years, this may have been a balmy May evening or afternoon in Minnesota because we, as you and Paul have broken, are about to get word one way or the other if the owners are going to choose to flip the schedule in Major League Soccer in 2027.

So because of the nature of how this has to work, communicating with the players union, communicating with the buildings, I believe there are specific contract languages in people that have season tickets and suites that are assigned for multiple years that they have to be notified in advance X amount of time. Plus, of course, you'd like to set this up with all of your broadcast, donor, or donors, sponsors, although maybe it feels like...

NIL budget. Yeah, maybe it feels that way sometimes in MLS. You have to do all of this in advance. This is why this isn't going to happen no matter what around the World Cup, which is, in its own right, a failure. And we will talk about that failure amongst other failures. as we get into this conversation. But the belief is that they will be voting on a schedule shift as well as a format shift.

Yep. So let's get into the details. Let's start with the schedule shift, which is the biggest part of all of this. So the report is that the season would kick off in late July or early August and then end the regular season in April with the playoffs coming in May. So that would align somewhat closely to a Premier League, a French league, a German league. league, all those types of things that normally kick off mid-August and tend to end in May. And of course, you have to fit the playoffs into all of that.

There are details inside of that then, which is a winter break from mid-December, probably till past the Super Bowl. So some point in mid-February or moving as that moves, which is similar to what's done in Scandinavia, Russia. Germany has a shorter break, but they have what they call a Christmas break. And then a summer break again, then in June to July. which would be shorter than the winter break and would be the quote unquote off season

then you'd go preseason into the regular season. We've talked about this a ton. Is there anything now coming as this feels a bit more official and real that's stuck out to you? So the news that Paul and I've reported, Paul boots on the ground right now. He is at the B.O.G meeting.

So there should be news on this either way later today within a few hours. So follow Paul on blue sky right now. Stay tuned to what Paul says. Well, we write on The Athletic. Yeah, in our story, our strong expectation is that this is going to come to vote. And when it comes to vote, it's going to pass. If they don't do it again today, the league should face a lot of criticism.

And a lot of people feel that way. And we're going to talk about the pros and cons, because there are cons. There is no perfect solution. And I know a lot of fans are kind of honed in on, I don't want to go to a game in Minnesota in February. There probably won't be that many. I think that they would put Minnesota on the road, those kind of things. But what I will say, I just had a press conference with Wilfred Nancy and Isett's all. We'll talk about Wilfred specifically later.

But on the potential calendar flip, and Wilfred gave just a really thoughtful, long answer. And he was just blunt. He goes, quote, if they don't do it, if they don't make the change, if they don't do it, there is no logical thought behind the desire of MLS to become a really good leak. It's as simple as that. If you don't make this change, you can talk and talk and talk. but it's impossible that people overseas will take us seriously. So that's a head coach in this league.

Isatoll talked about it in terms of transfers, which I will say I have not heard a single CSO or sporting executive that I've spoke with, that has said anything but this is really important in terms of buying and selling players to be aligned with Europe in this way. So the technical staffers feel really, really strongly about this. Isatoll spoke to that on the record today. Again, I'm sure the people that I've spoke to casually off the record, they would be saying the same thing on the record, right?

It's not as if it's a difficult opinion or something that they can't say, be honest with. But my point is, everybody I've talked with is firmly in favor of this from a sporting side. So I've heard the same. I've had the same conversations. You know, Zorn Kinetta came on the show and sort of alluded to it, what, two weeks ago? How much easier would be for them? How it would help them enter world market stuff? potentially see an increase in sales and an increase in buys,

which could see an increase in quality of play on the field. I will say from personal experience, most of the technical people I talk to, they are not always the widest thinkers when it comes to how their job affects the rest of the world and what else is happening. Like their goal is to win soccer games on Saturday and Sunday, very rarely Sunday because we've got Apple TV all the way on Saturday night. Hold on, hold on, hold on.

Did you know for the first time in the history of the world we played soccer on sunday this year it was actually on sunday night which was a huge groundbreaking moment yeah history of never happened before yeah it has never happened before i hope that webe's listening to the show like in six days and we get the text back about this because that's always the highlight of our week whenever that happens while he's i don't know stripping wood or something uh somewhere in in the kansas farmland so um that's their focus that's their goal and i think the product does come first like the quality of play on the field improving is what will make the league improve and will help bring more fans in and bring

relevance to the league. It's not the only factor though. And that's one of those things where I feel like I've gotten stuck in a lot of conversations where it's like this is a no brainer. There's no other option. Like it has to be done. It's got to be done. It should be done. You're like for sure, for your job. But your job's not the only one that's happening. So we have obviously some teams that share buildings which will shift and change we have weather which is a huge part of this conversation and you have conflicting schedules with other sports and whatnot to me the biggest issue is people go to soccer games in the summer because it's a fun activity to do like baseball and yeah Minnesota won't host games so Minnesota won't host the game from November 20th to March 20th

and then they're going to cram in home games and then the season's going to be over and this is what we saw with leagues cup right like this boom and bust rather than regular flow of every other week you have a game in and out i think hurts a lot of the lots of fans so i think the move makes sense from all of those sporting sides i don't know from a fan engagement point of view if it actually makes as much sense as everyone says it does and i know the talk about mLS cup being around whatever my issue is not mLS cup my issue is like people going to their local market games 17 to 20 times a year? It's a fair thing to say, and it's definitely impactful.

I don't want to overlook that, again, particularly in the coldest climates. We got somebody in the chat talking about, hey, Utah's lovely in February, just so you guys know, like obviously being sarcastic. Colorado, that's going to be difficult. You think about the iconic snow game for the U.S. national team. That was the March international window, right? like that, so we're not even talking about February December, right? And then

was it this year, or no, last year was L-A-F-C-R-S-O? Or was that? L-CRS. Yeah, yeah, because that was, uh, Carlos Gomez was, it was like all the Colombians scored for R-SL and a snowstorm. Uh, so like, this has happened before and yes, like moving it a little bit further back or potentially further back, it's going to heighten that

possibility, if not probability, but there will still be summer games. I, I understand your point there. but Minnesota will still get those August games Salt Lake will still get those August games and maybe we won't be playing in a hundred degree weather in Austin Yeah fair

I like I would be very very curious as to Like if you polled every single player Would you rather play 90 degrees at 730 p.m. In humidity or would you rather play Again we don't even need to go all the way to the extreme Of like a snowstorm because that's an obvious thing But would you or you know 35 degrees Because Carlos Heel told us it's not football

Right and again that that That is completely and totally fair. I'm assuming that the players would, like, Philadelphia Union did one of those, like, social bits before a training session that I watched this morning that most of the players said, like, no, no, I'd rather it be 90 degrees than 30. So I think that's an interesting side of things. And all of this needs the blessing of the MLSPA. The MLS has to work with them. So, but, like, while this stinks in the winter for Minnesota, Toronto, Montreal, whatever, like, it's going to be awesome to going to L.A.

L.A., San Diego, Miami, Orlando, Texas teams. I don't know how miserable it could possibly be sitting in the stands if you're uncovered in a 98-degree weather game, 90-degree weather game. You show up at the game when it's 95 degrees, two hours before kickoff. I'm somebody who prefers extreme cold over extreme heat, so maybe that's just my own view, taking, you know, hard-sized. But I hate, I hate sweating like that, right? So, again, I genuinely, I'm just saying that I don't know.

the answer. I don't know the majority. I think I'm in the minority, but there were still going to be plenty of lovely weather games in Minnesota and Toronto and everything. Yeah, the extreme heat is a huge factor and I will be fascinated to see if this happens for the first year or two, how many games get moved because of extreme cold and snow versus how many had been getting moved because of extreme heat in the summer or thunderstorms. Like, yeah, you might end up having the same shift or maybe more. I'm not 100% sure. I think though, like some people go to,

we'll look at Toronto for MLS Cup and look at these national team games. Those are like big one-off moments that people come out for. If Toronto's hosting that game that they hosted against Seattle and MLS Cup in that weather and it's regular season game, and let's say they're not a top four team, there's no one in that building.

And there's no one where you have the experience where you're like, I don't have anything to do. I heard about this thing. A friend invited me. I'll just casually go to this outdoor soccer game and I'll get to really like this. I think the... But that can't happen in May in playoffs? It can.

But now we go the other direction, which is there are less teams playing in playoffs. And there are less teams that qualify and there are less teams hosting. And there are less games. So yes, it can happen in August and September and like fall soccer sounds great. Love that. You know, I'm a huge fan of that. I understand there are positives and negatives on both sides. I just think one of the things that gets overlooked with the setup and we're going to call it European.

I'm not calling it international because not every country does this. I refuse to kowtow to the European Western continent and then shift the entire global view around it. The European window is this is the thing people are passionate about. Like, people go to NFL games when it's miserable out because they love it. I don't know that enough people already love this. And will this help people love it? and if the trade-off is, well, Memphis to Pye plays number 10 for Charlotte FC, and people want to come see that.

And, you know, there are five better players on the field for every team. Then, yeah, maybe that ends up being the shift that matters more than the weather. And that's the other big side of it, Tom, which is what Zoran brought to the table, which is like getting deals done for players at a higher level that you can potentially get done in the last week of a window. That was going to be my next point in that. these are all fair considerations, fair criticisms, and again, particularly the most northern-based teams have, and fans of them have reason to gripe.

But I think that it is most important for there to be every avenue for better players to come to the league, because you could have a perfect summer day, and if you're not signing better players, then, yeah, people can come to games, but will that stick? Will that make a lasting impact? Will that continue the trajectory of what this league hopes to be and what it wants to be, drives to be this is a necessary thing to change again i'll go back to will for nancy like he was as blunt as possible this if they don't do this what is the point like everything that they say about their ambitions is not there in terms of transfers and this should have happened after the twenty

six world cup as we've talked about ad nauseum they drugged their feet it should have been decided by now should have been determined we've known that the world cup was going to be here for eight years probably more i forget exactly when it was awarded all of the research that it should have been happening in the following summer. I digress on that. But I think this is just obvious for me. And Isatoll said this too on the press conference. And again, he's not alone.

I've heard the same story from every club, essentially, where it's like, hey, we tried to sign somebody, but they were holding out hope that a premier the club was going to come in. Our window closes. They're not going to say yes to us because of the 10% chance, or maybe their agent is telling them, oh, dude, they're definitely going to bid for sure. Don't worry, trust me. And then at the end of the window comes.

don't bid and then the European windows closed that player's still at the club but he's like oh damn like I would have taken that unless offer if their if their window was still open now and I just think that that is so much more important than anything else because the quality of the league the relevance of the players here is what's going to drive growth or maintaining current core fans that's what I think that that is vastly more important yeah it makes a ton a sense um i think if this is going to happen as that happen hand in hand with like whether it's lifting the salary cap breaking the salary cap bringing more money in whatever it is like if that's the conversation you're having you also have to open up the mechanisms to sign those players and make sure

that teams can keep groups together like that's another big side of this is like okay if the whole pitch is bringing in more good players then you have to be able to build championship teams and keep them together and make it all work and all of this stuff but That's on the owners, which is why this all comes back to this hasn't happened yet. A large part of that is a failure of leadership from MLS as a league office to move its owners in the right direction. A large part of this is the fact, and Sam and Paul wrote about this for months before Sam left us for the better side of the world about the push and pull inside of MLS owners, which is Robert Kraft owns a soccer team because it fills his building the other half of the year. if it's the same half of the year then what's the advantage to him anymore and that's the case for some of these owners it's less now than it was but yet a lot of the power players are owners who already existed before when the league was set up or they are owners of NFL teams who don't want to compete with NFL or do want to compete with NFL whatever it is I think there are a lot of issues that you have inside of this which is why the league has dragged its feet to get the vote done and be able to like move itself in one direction as a whole unit

and then you also have the issue which is from what I've heard they engage the players union really late multiple times on this basically being like we'll decide and we'll let you know and the union was like well we're sort of like one third of this entire thing like players owners in a league

so should probably talk about this and and like I see the advantages for players which is not having this one long layoff so now you get sort of it broken up into two different layoffs, which may actually help your bodies, and maybe it helps teams be at their peak come to the end of the season. Let's talk about the season's setup, by the way, because

the other side of this is a potential format change, which would be a single table broken up into five divisions. The divisions are more NBA style than NFL, which is like they don't really matter, except you play your division teams more and at a worse, the division winner would have to make the playoffs. The assumption is anyone who wins. a division would already be in a playoff spot. So you play teams in your division home and away. You play everyone else in the league one time. So either home or away.

Single table would lead to a supporter shield that looks a bit more fair on paper. But if this is the setup, it's not really that different, right? If you're in a good division, you play good teams more than other teams. You don't play. If the two best teams in the league are not in the same division, someone's getting a home game there where someone else isn't. So, like, it's never going to be properly even unless you play everyone once home and away. Right, and that's not going to happen, given the sheer number of teams in this country.

And, yes, the travel is going to be an issue. You're going to alternate home and away. And, yes, guys, like some years, there will be a harder schedule. I think this is really, really good. Right now, what is it? You don't play, like, eight other teams in the other conference or something? I hate that. A team should be playing each other every year.

There is no perfect solution again. I think this would be better than what it is currently. Again, teams in the East get to play Montreal in D.C. twice. Every year. That's been a pretty good proposition for a while. Back when Sincey were bad, there was, like when Philly won the Supporters Shield, I was in, what, it was at 2020? And that was obviously super weird season because of the pandemic and everything else.

But like one person in the Western Conference was like, they got to beat up on all those bad Eastern Conference teams. And it'll ebb and flow. The East will be better in the West. The West will be better in the East. you're going to get a little bit lucky sometimes with the schedule and other times you're going to get unlucky. Maybe your trip at Miami comes in an international break

or maybe like Lino Messi has a hamstring thing and he's sitting on a game. Those are things that you can't control. Playing teams every single team in the league once while still making sure that you're going to get El Traffica home and home every year. You're going to get Orlando, Miami home and home every year, Cascadia Cup, Copa Tejas, hell is real.

All of those being twice a year is so very important. Man, I don't need the Red Bulls in New England playing. twice a year every single year. I don't, I don't need Austin playing Vancouver twice a year every single year. For them to play every team once in the league, I think is much more important. I don't, because of the pandemic and then just east-west scheduling, there's like a couple teams Miami has never traveled to. Or insert any one of the newer team national. In the chat, Austin has never come to Columbus. That was going, I was building up to that one. And now they can't, they physically cannot allow that

to not happen again and don't worry the fans did not forget. I'm still very much looking forward to that. That is a nice byproduct of this. I'm sure the first game will be whatever makes them will be Austin at home rather than club is at home. But it'll happen and I'm looking forward to that. But again, nothing is perfect. I think that this is much better. I think that this is and the single table it's going to look more like a shield race. We don't have to talk about whether an eighth in the west, but you know, six, you know, 18th in the shield standings. All of this I think is positive. of this is one of my, this is one of the things that I think is more of a no-brainer than stuff,

as well as changing the playoffs structure that we can talk about. As far as Paul and I understand, there's nothing completely decided on the playoffs, which shouldn't come as a surprise. They didn't announce this year's playoffs format until, I don't know, March, April, whatever it was. Which is just the same as last year. Yeah, but we kind of knew,

but it was like maybe they're going to say something different. I guess really quickly on that they are, I've heard different ideas, one of which is like Aussie rules football that if you're like the lower seeded team or like the worst seed team just to take away confusion you have to beat the higher seed team twice whereas game one is an elimination game for you but if you win then you still have to beat the higher seat twice which again making sure that there is as much importance as you can have on the regular season is only a good thing I like league amecis does where if you're the worst seeded team

and you draw guess what you're out yeah me too yeah i think valuing the regular season however you can make sense um one of the issues you run into with those which i would assume it would be home team both times is the way the w nba set up is it's best of three higher seed host the first two games assuming you close out but if you don't you end up at a close out game on the road yeah i don't love that yeah so you have to decide like how that set up and where that is and then do you end up in a whatever do you have a lucky losers bracket which you see in some sporting events where if a higher seed loses, they go into another bracket where you have a second chance

where you could lose. I did see some of the language as well. The idea of like having play forward games from higher seeds while lower seeds then kind of like wait or figure it out, which one of the issues we've seen with MLS playoffs, which should go away, by the way. We should mention this in the schedule. You will avoid the international windows in the middle of the playoffs.

It's really important. Yeah, that is a huge. That was another thing that Nancy pointed to, because the quote about since being like, well, we beat Cincinnati, we scored five goals, Cincinnati scored three, you know, what, this is stupid kind of thing. His first point was L-AFC won and two games that took care of business, and now they won't play for 22 days. And he goes, by the way, they've got a lot of international players who are on international duty. They return from long flights two, three days before a playoff game, the biggest game of the season. And so the layoff has no value, and it only then has. has a disincentive. Yeah, that will be huge. And one of the other things I think Nicholas

Ian Quillen wrote in a Forbes piece, which I thought was interesting, is the other thing, which I should have mentioned in the schedule, is where you're shifting games because of weather, because you have the ability to, because it's just regular season games. So if it snows in December and you have to move a game a day or two or to the spring, that's not as bad as in the current scenario you would just never move that game because it's a postseason game you cannot move a postseason game like you just you're not going to do it to yourself you might not be able to because you have to get them into the next round so all that flexibility changes the international windows change and then of course all these players can go to summer international tournaments gold cups copa americas euros world cups whatever um and you won't lose them from big games which i think is really interesting and really really big i agree that this format That makes more sense. Overall, I would still, I would just do an Apertura Closer. I would have a championship in December and have a championship in May.

And that would be the way my league works. Like, if it's already split, if there is a two month break between regular season games, it is no longer the same regular season in my head. Like, those are two different seasons. So just make them two different seasons. I'm sure the league's cup is going to sneak its way somewhere in there. just snake its way into Southern markets

or maybe even all the way to Mexico if somehow a team in Mexico was capable of hosting a soccer game which I've heard is not possible so I can't really push that too strongly but I agree on the division setup and the single table and it's never going to be even

I know that everyone wants that it's not going to happen and this is probably closer to what it should be it's good that it's a lot of games against regional rivals but not too many like two's right right it's man when they used to do el trafico three times a year we're like hudson river derby it's like all right even even even el trafico which never disappoint yeah they're always good by the third time all right man like we're gonna we're gonna overuse this it's like eating too much

ice cream yeah so uh i think that one makes sense as well and that's probably why i won't pass and somehow it'll be some different setup uh going forward after all of this okay anything else in here that you want to hit before we move on? In the calendar change and the rules, I think I think we've talked about this so many times. I guess I want to actually reply. I don't want two championships a season. Okay.

TikTok Generation, bro, you're going to lose interest if there's not a trophy parade every four months. Like, what's going on here? So on March 3rd, when Minnesota is first in the West and hasn't played a game in, hasn't played a home game in four months. And you look at me and you say, well, this is a Minnesota team. They're a monster at home. They're unbeatable. That is irrelevant to what is occurring. And therefore, to me, what happened already is its own game, its own season, its own championship. Just put a bow on it

and finish it. And then we move on to a second season. You'd also have a potential where you could put less teams in the playoffs or make it single elimination and still have teams be relevant for more of the year because boom the next season just starts later also tom for you your firing coach is week three week four week five i mean there's not a one that even coach who is i don't want that ever i hate that because you can try and change it i know you hate it but that is like the interest and excitement that occurs listen i'm not making this thing up 80% of our Hemisphere does this, and it works for them. Really quickly.

Did you remember that the St. Louis City had, I believe, the longest, if not one of the longest shutout streaks in league history to start the season? Yeah. And then they sucked by the end of the season? Yeah. That happens every year.

But then they would have had a championship. It would have been a cool thing. That would have been fun. And then we wouldn't have moved to the second season and they would have been garbage. They would have missed the playoffs. And then they have to make a decision after that season.

Just talking about, even out-traffico, happening too many times is a bad thing. Like, best of seven round one in November and then also in May. Obviously, I'm not saying that that's the structure. I don't want to, we don't need to further bastardize the playoffs. I would say it would probably be single elimination and your hope would be, it would be less teams, like six teams get in, first round five. We already talk about how the playoffs can be random. So why play a regular season?

It would be less random if you do it more time. It wouldn't be less random. Well, if you do an action more often, it becomes less random. That's, I think, the theory and all of that. I think that's a fair pushback. I accept it. And I don't care. And now we're going to move on to the next topic.

There's a million other things to talk about. Yes. You know, I think there's a really cool potential in all of this to have this like spring break, summer league style preseason thing in January and February. I think as well, people are talking about European. off seasons and then friendlies in the lead-up in July and August, do MLS teams start playing those teams and hosting those teams? Yeah, there's potential there as well.

I think another big one, which I touched on, is just like, can you highlight your players playing an international competition going into June and July? Like, is there an opportunity to really take advantage and be proud and promote players playing in Copa America and a World Cup and a Euros and all of that, which aligns a little bit closer? It doesn't help. Afcon says it's going to move and then doesn't move. So it probably won't move.

Who the hell knows? I don't even know where the Asian Cup is supposed to be in the calendar. I know the Arab Cup's coming up this winter. So not all of it is perfect. And that's the nature of soccer. Like there is not one straight line, which is why I get frustrated when people say international, when they mean European, because like there are still pros and cons. You're not aligned with Brazil and other countries and whatever,

which you're doing business with. But the focus right now is trying to get closer to the top five leagues in the world. And that's where we stand. Speaking of, ice cream shop, getting ready to get open, Scotland, what, top four league, top three league? That's one of the big ones, right? But there are reports or connections between Wilf Renanense and the job opening at Celtic that Brennan Rogers, I believe, is the one who left, which I know really hurts you heavy

in your heart, one of the great lads all time. You were on the press conference with Wilf right before we got on here. what did he have to say about it? I'll just directly quote Wolfrennanci. He was asked about the reports that are linking him with Celtic and turn the question of, you know, how confident are you that you will be the Columbus crew coach in 2026? Wilfranozzi, quote,

I'm not here talking about myself. I have nothing to say about any kind of reports. He could have quashed all of this. He could have said, I'm going to be here for 26. He is under no obligation to do that. but the absence of saying that to a direct question about it and not giving too much more

like the speculation is going to be fair. I believe that there is interest that is real that's about as far as I can have any confirmed information on my end about I don't know if Celtic have reached out to Columbus about an official interview or anything.

They would need to talk to Columbus to get permission for this. Wilfrid Nazi physically being in Ohio at the center today should be good news for Columbus. But this is a story that's not going to go away, particularly because they didn't completely stamp it out today. Man, you've got Columbus fans in a spiral right now. This has been looming for a while, right? We know how good of a coach, Wilfred Nancy is.

He has come up in every form of conversation. Is there a bigger job in MLS that he would leave for? Is it the national team? Will he be considered? Is he going to go to a European team? We've connected him to Belgian teams, to French teams like... Sign out Tien, I believe that was last year. So it's coming at some point.

It feels fairly obvious to say. You have people on both sides who will say things about the Scottish League and Celtic and all of that. It's a big club with a big name. It would be a first opportunity in Europe for him. It's one that could play in European competition a chance for him to show himself. It's the same reason we say why players go, probably even bet more attractive for a coach than a player. because you don't have to improve on yourself against your competition, but he's got a chance to win stuff and be known and be seen.

It would make a lot of sense, and I think it would make me really sad to have him out of the league. Completely agreed, but like you said, this should be happening. He's an incredible coach. He's somebody that I believe you'd feel the same. I have no doubts that he would go over there and be successful, whether it's Celtic, whether it's San Ancian, whether it's insert anywhere. where I don't know if there's a job where I'd be like,

I don't think he can do it because it's Wilfred Nazi. And maybe we're wrong, but that's how we feel. And it is good that he's getting these links. I believe he was on some long list when, when Arnestlott took over at Liverpool to replace Arnestlott, he was somewhere within like the 15 people. Like he didn't get an interview or anything.

Dude around naming guys and Wilfred Nancy got names. But that was real that clubs are, they are well aware of him. and his quality. Celtic would make sense. It depends what else. I don't know exactly what Wilford wants, if anything. I think I've said this on the show before, so apologies for repeating myself I am,

but like Aidan Morris in an interview with me was like, I know this is going to sound dumb to somebody in Europe, but I genuinely believe Wilfred's one of the best coaches in the world. No qualifiers, full stop. And he was like, I hope I get to work with him again one day. Middlesbrough did have a vacancy because their coach left for wolves. but yeah he's this is these calls are going to happen it's probably a when not if situation and I don't know if that win is this winter I don't know he's not going to get any less attractive I don't

think to European clubs if he stays into the 12 months or whatever it is so I'm very very curious to see how this plays out let's talk player side of things you shattered some news over the last few days let's start with walkers emerman who is as of now outside of Taylor Washington is national Nashville SC. Yeah. So Walker Zimmerman will depart Nashville SC when his contract expires this winter. Sources have told me. GM, like Jacobs, after I broke this news, he did a roundtable with some local media. He told, he kind of confirmed it officially to Ben Wright, our good friend Ben Wright. So check out what he said there. This is, this is huge. So Walker Zimmerman was a two-time defender of the year, the first two seasons of Nationalist history. he was the anchor and the most important piece to one of the best defensive runs in recent league history for Nashville from 2020 to 2023-ish he was incredible it was a perfect fit stylistically he resigned with the team he loves that city his family loves that city the club loves him I was told that talks weren't contentious they leave on good standing it wasn't like a really bad awkward divorce it just

just came down to we're not close and i don't think that we're going to bridge that gap in conversations of a new contract and let's have clarity now and clarity early so that you can get a jump start on free agency and and you know everything they came to a decision didn't drag it out and and figure that they were not close it makes sense for where the club stands like the club's identity was that defensive setup and walker zimmerman up and this year and now it has a new identity and so it makes sense that now is the time for both parties that you move on but i don't think we can underrate how successful in addition walkers zimmerman was to this club right as a personality as a face of the team you mentioned the connection to

the market they want a playoff game their first year it was covid not normal playoffs fine they were third in the west their second year they made it to a league's cup final their fourth year and then they won a U.S. Open Cup this year. And like if you are calculating, okay, why do you sign players and what do you put it all together for? Like that's success. And especially for a market that we didn't really know where they would sit in the world of MLS hierarchies and all of that. He's been a massive success. TPs as a defender was not something that a lot of people were doing and still isn't. And I don't think you can deny that it worked completely for this team. and for him, but it does feel like they've outgrown him and if he wants to continue playing

probably at the level he thinks he's at, it's going to be somewhere else. And that's where I find it really interesting where he falls in the league because I think what I saw over the course this year and the concussion was a huge part of his season. It was really scary when it happened. It took a while to come back. I think it probably takes even longer mentally to get comfortable and playing again. but B.J. Callahan wants his team to be more in possession and more in control. And I think Walker can do an extent of that.

I think he's got a decent amount of confidence on the ball. But he doesn't break lines and he gets himself into trouble sometimes in possession. And so he's got to find the right mix for himself for next year. And I think for a team signing him, I think he'll be 33 when the season kicks off. You have to have the right need, which is an aerial threat and a veteran. ball winning centerback in a somewhat win now mode and we argued about what that is yesterday in the group chat for a while the best answer i heard was dallas which would be a homecoming for him it's where he was drafted yep they do not have a starting centerback alongside uruguay urugu is comfortable

in possession he can do a lot of the work that maybe walker slowly starts to lose as he gets a little bit older. And if Pet Tarmus is coming back, I don't think they're that far off from contending in a West. Are they going to be MLS Cup favorites? I find that very hard to believe. But it's playoffs. You never know what happens.

But if they signed Walker's ever made and kept most of the team around and maybe made one or two other improvements, then there are four, there are three to five seed next year going into the regular season. I agree. Dallas, we'll throw out some other team names. I think Dallas is the one that makes the most sense for all of the reasons that you just laid out. I think him and Urugeida would be a good fit next to each other.

I think Uruigida is very good. You noted his passing. The other side of it too is his ability to recover as well. It also depends on exactly how Dallas are going to want to play next year. If you're a high-pressing team, Walker, that's not perfect for Walker, and that's fine. I think stylistically he fits at a number of different teams in this league still. So that just needs to be considered.

I think he will be a good signing, depending on the number and depending on the style. And he will get a tam deal. He'll get a tam deal. I'm just saying you that. Well, the number part is the best thing. He was on $3.4 million is what we have listed. He was a full on CP. So he has to come off that.

100%. The question to me in my head is like, I would have assumed Nashville would have offered him something. So he's walking away. So there is a number threshold. He's not like, I just want to play another year. Whatever it is, I don't care. And if he's doing it for an emotional reason, He would have signed with Nashville.

He's not going to leave to move to another market for an emotional point of view. So the number has to be around a million dollars, which is a lot of money to me, too. I think it has to be more. That's a lot of money for a guy who is his first skill set is his athleticism and his aerial ball winning for a guy who is aging and may not be as comfortable in the other aspects of the game. There's also a ton of value I get in like leadership and off field and all. that type of stuff but i look at the at the standings and you look at teams and you say like okay are you in win now mode and like a san diego uh vancouver they're not going to sign him so it has to be a team that's trying to take a jump but it can't be a team that's so far away that they need him to be good

in three years because i don't know that you trust that that's where the weird in between space comes of like who is the right team is it orlando um um I don't know. I don't know if that's a fit. But while I'm talking about this, generally speaking, all it takes is one team to bid a contract offer to guys that you might not be comfortable with if you were the CSO. And I think that's my argument for why this is going to end up.

Like, Aaron Long is on like a million. I think that's a decent comparison. Like Aaron Long has had some injuries. I think that they're around a similar age and similar pro, similar cons. Both very good players. Aaron Long was awesome for UFC before he got injured this year. And he has been an awesome signing. Zimarin was obviously a designated player for,

and that worked out for Nashville, by the way. There should be no revisionist history there. That ended up being a very good contract. While it was much questioned when that happened, because we just don't see that many DP centerbacks, and there's a reason for that. But this one, this situation, made perfect sense. Walker earned that,

and I think Walker delivered, for the most part, on that contract. They win the trophy. But you look around the league, the Portland Timbers have been desperate for a centerback. Colorado, like Maxu's leaving. San Jose, probably desperate for a centerback. Houston, Kansas City, desperately need one. Again, that doesn't mean that Walker is a perfect fit

or all these teams will be in for Walker. But DC United, Atlanta United, signs a new Tams centerback every six months to try to figure. Montreal, like Toronto, Robin Fraser, probably looks at Walker Zimmer and says, yeah, I can work with that. So I just think you've gone down the line, and it's a fair argument or saying, like, hey, I don't think that this might represent good value.

Jackson Yule got a three-year deal a million per year last winter. So free agency, these things happen. Yeah, that's fair. I would nix a lot of the ones you said, but also, you're right. Jackson, Yule got a million dollars for three years last year. So what do I know? And I think there are ones where it makes sense and it could fit. Charlotte's one as well.

They have to replace Melanda. Do they go? I mean, Tim Rie and Walker's Airman, like, can you just have two of them? and then play that as your back line. So it will be interesting to see where he falls. Let's talk Christian Espinoza as well, because I think this one is fascinating to me. His option has not been picked up by San Jose.

He says he would like to remain in Major League Soccer and now he is a free agent. Correct. So Kristen Espinosa's 2026 contract option was not picked up before the deadline. The San Jose Earthquakes has extended an offer to Christian Espinosa and want to keep him. With those two facts, I was told the option to pick up his 2026 contract expired in this summer.

If they're offering them a new contract, that means that they just missed the deadline. So that's where we're at. That's why Christian Espinoza is available as a free agent, unless San Jose are able to convince him to stay. Personally, I'd be surprised, but there is still ongoing conversations there. Christian Espinoza has been one of the most consistent and very good players in this league. since he got here in 2019. He has had at least eight assists in every single season, including the pandemic shortened 2020 season.

He has played, I believe it's something like 217 of an available 226 games in the regular season. He's there every game. He's got a baseline work rate, off the ball stuff that's strong. And guess what? He's extremely productive and extremely creative. He's routinely among either the assist leaders' chances created. expected assist, all of that.

This guy has not played many playoff games because this team has not been that good. I hope if he does stay in MLS, as what sources told me, that would be the preference, though they are open to proposals abroad. I hope he saves an MLS. I hope he goes to a team that's good because he's a really good player, and I want more people to watch him in high leverage games. Yeah, he's a turnkey addition. Like you said, like he plays a lot. he's played on bad teams and put up production. I don't say that in that a team assumes they're going to be bad.

I'm just saying the floor on this signing is pretty high because the assumption is worst case scenario, he's still going to perform at a high level. Someone in the chat says, isn't this them wanting to get him on less money? No, this is them. There's not $2 million. Yeah, this is them wanting him back.

You're not getting him from Max Day. Probably having messed up the mechanism and now trying to do it on the back end, which is like a fun exercise for me from afar, which is now we're talking to MLS hierarchies. Like, what's more attractive for him? And we know, we think we know where San Jose sits, but you never know what player's decisions are.

He is a win now player. Like, is there a team that has an opening that says, okay, let's just plug and play this one. One of the first names that popped in my head, though, is Toronto. Just because of the way they went after Georgie and now trusting that MLS experience, they obviously need help on the wings. The assumption is the money is higher there

than it is in San Jose. We know the resources and support is. It is one of the bigger clubs in MLS. That seemed like a quick one that popped in my head. Because some of the other ones I think about every team could use them. The question is which team gives him a DP contract or has the opening to give him that spot. And that's where I started to get stuck on some other teams.

You know, and Austin would love to have him. They've got three DPs. They're locked in. It's not going to happen. Are there any other teams that seem obvious to you from afar? Toronto was the first one that came to mind for that reason. Probably should have ridden that town, so we both knew we were going to say it. No, no, no.

I think that's the one that makes the most sense. And it comes down to any team that has an open DP spot or can't open a DP spot should be calling him and making an offer. I think it is that simple to me because of how good he is, how consistent he is, you know what you're getting. And not every, like, we kind of thought we knew what we were getting with, like, Daniel Godzogne in Columbus, nothing is 100% certainty. Chris and Esmos, I think, is a pretty close 100% certainty that you can find.

Yeah. So Toronto being an obvious one, we said any other team that's in competition makes sense. Like a team, as we said, win now that's looking to fill a spot. But I don't know that there's like one other team. I will say we'll see summer or we'll see offseason stuff. If a pecker paints the leaves, the galaxy seem fairly turnkey as well, fits in on one of those wings. Could play a similar role, but that would only be in a situation. in which one of those players leaves.

Does SKC try and find a way to get the space and pony up? Salt Lake City got mentioned in the chat. I think that's a good one. I don't know that the number with Salt Lake City would be so different than San Jose. And I don't know then if you move to do it. But like, yeah, he would make sense on a wing

that they have struggled to fill since Honduras Gomez left. L.A.F.C. wouldn't be a bitch. I don't know that given signings on Young Min and Denny Buonga, we were talking about the top of the line. Like, hey, who could they go get? You could do a whole lot worse Chris has to those and I think he fit pretty well with that front three yeah and that's a move

lafc has made before yes right like they have gone with known quantity also the way the mechanisms work in ls he is a movable asset again which is like do you give him a big deal bring him in the assumption is if you don't end up deciding he's the future and whatever someone else will come and want to get him um so that sort of opens up the door for a lot of different options and he would literally fit on every team. He can play his role one v one. He can connect with players and be more involved. So a really interesting name to watch.

I remember like when Nacho Piotti became available and having what we had conversations like this about like a turnkey player, but not often at this age. And that's where it's like really interesting of like he could play four to six more years in MLS at a high level. Who will it be with? And maybe that becomes the club he's associated to.

rather than San Jose. To close out on Hamas Rodriguez, signing with NYCFC, Orlando. Sorry, I thought you were continuing. No, that's not happening. There's no chance. There's nothing in that rumor. I think people, it's not happening. It's not a, it's not.

I think NYCFCC, like you said, it is pretty funny. I don't have any inside information on this one, but I feel pretty safely at saying that there's nothing there either. Someone brought up St. Louis for Christian Espinoza. I thought about that as well. It makes a lot of sense. They have to figure out between U22s and DPs who they have and who they want to set things up. All right.

Let's close out on a couple of teams we just mentioned. FC Dallas, Chicago, and Austin. So we have not talked about them since their seasons ended because we had the regular season. Then we had everything else going on. And so we are going to dig into that right now. we mentioned it a bit. I'm pretty high on this FC Dallas team. I like this group.

There are clear steps forward. Centerback being the biggest one, hence the Walker's Zimmerman conversation. Anything else about FC Dallas that comes to mind that you're looking at as you head into the off season? So on the Walker's Zimmer conversation, whether it's Walker or somebody else, they need a go-to partner for Uruguay.

As we've seen, it is not easy. It turns out an MLS to sign like a Max Tam centerback, and it worked out. Uri-Gidi's been great. And they have a lot of other. building blocks that I do like. Peter Pedramusa, chief among them. Kayeke, I think, is a good player.

Sebastian LeJet's leaving. That's a TAM contract that's opening up. Schachmore, I think he's been moved around the field. I think he's been good. I know that his cap hit is very high. Martin Paz is a good goalie, but they have another couple other good goal. If there's a move that makes sense, Martin Paz is somebody that I'm almost surprised he's still here

because I know that there's been interest and stuff. So you look at that. What they desperately need is high-level attacking D.P. whether that's a 10 or a winger, just more about the profile and the impact than it is in the position. And, you know, Jesus is injured.

That's a U-22 slot that maybe they could end up getting out of, I don't know what the future holds for him. Enis Sali hasn't played too much. There's a possibility that, so they have four U-22s right now. If one of those two don't come back, you can add two DPs or another U-22.

And, again, they're at a good spot in terms of flexibility, but it is about, it's really important, obviously, to make these signings well. My optimism is assuming that, because if they miss on these signings, then you're back to blow it up territory because at some point Petramus has got to leave, right? Or that's just the cycle of these teams. This is a pivotal offseason for them. I have optimism, but if they get it wrong, it's going to be a difficult couple years

beyond. I mean, the Petsar Musa question I think already exists, right? Like, I wouldn't be shocked if he's not back next year. I've floated the rumors of a cash for, and, like, they need a huge number for that. But we have seen huge numbers, be floated around. And if he doesn't think the team's going to be competitive, how interested is he about sticking around and how competitive can they be or can they convince him that they are going to be? You went through it. There's some weird money on this team that doesn't affect the way the team performs, guys that don't play.

guys that have been hurt if they can clean some of that stuff up and fix it they have the road forward pretty quickly right like the success the second after the year tells you that they're the bones of a successful team are there can you supercharge it and can you add to it this is not a club that has done that very well over the last 10 years like they have been a team that has taken two steps back rather one step forward they tried last year with lucho which gives me a little bit to hope that like they are in a situation where they will try to do that and they have this centerpiece in Musa who is one of the best players they've had in a lot in their entire club's history and can you build around that and push it forward seems no doubt eric will is back

and safely back after the run they went on and making the playoffs and getting out of the playing game and all of that even though it went really poorly um with the playoffs and the actual processing games that they were in next one is austin let's stick in texas i don't know what flexibility they have i don't know what they can do it this is this is one of the weirdest seasons i have ever seen and i don't even know what to do with them um Julio cascante has a club option for 26 they have not released their he's already going to get picked up it's Julio cascante he lives well that that that would be a tan slot um they have an u22 slot And then, yeah, there's been some rumors that we've seen in the Discord

that awesome fans have picked up on that Ushman Bukari's been linked with somebody in Europe. No idea what is true, what is real, what the expectation is here. But the only way to make like a high, high-level signing is if he or Zuni leaves. And that would be a really quick pull-the-plug if it was Zuni. Not that much different on Bukari. That's only 18 months ago. but they would require somebody like that to leave to really make a big, big change at the top of the roster. There's some other guys, like, so Danny Pereira, like his option for 2026,

going to go ahead and assume that they're picking that up. Like, he's one of their best players and not inexpensive contract. But the clock is ticking. Can we get him on a new deal or are we going to move him? Owen Wolf, he's on a contract through 27. We talk about cashers. If he doesn't go to Europe, I'd be calling out. I'd be banging down Austin Doors.

Hey, what's the price for Owen Wolf? We did have that long conversation after they were eliminated of whether or not we thought he would be on this team coming next year and it's a little bit hard to see just because of how attractive. Yeah, that's me. That's me just. No, I know, I know.

But like because of how successful he's been and how tough it's been, but yeah, if he thinks the team's going to be better and obviously they control what's going on, it just feels like they've made a lot of middle of the cat moves. Well, sorry, They spent a ton of money at the top of the cap. None of it helped. Obviously, Brandon Vasquez's injury.

That's unfortunate. And there's nothing they can do about that. But Owen Wolf and Danny Pereira being your best two attackers when you spent, what, $20 million combined on Azuni and Bukari? Yeah. Not a great return. No. But my biggest issue has just been that, like, you know, centerbacks, central midfield, central midfield depth. It just has, they have struck out time and.

time again. They've struck out on MLS veterans. You know, Ilya Sanchez, they tried this year. Alex Ring in the past, good and bad moments for him. And then a lot of it's been international players that they have felt really strongly about that they have struck out on. So they were fourth worst expected goal differential in the Western Conference, but they were the sixth seed, which is like not that far off from the actual standings, but it's just, again, a really weird season and hard to judge. They made a U.S. Open Cup final. They had what, 27% possession in the semifinal. At Minnesota, who doesn't even want the ball? Like all of this again is really hard to judge and they'll have to find internally what they actually think the baseline of this year

was and what to do with it. We've got someone in the chat who's been trying to sell them Diego Gonzalez for about 20 minutes now, which I appreciate RSL fans really trying to push it. Let's hit Chicago here and then we'll finish up. Chicago, first year, or Greg Burrhalter, they make the playoffs, they win the playing game at home, they go, they push Philly in the first leg, and then it all falls apart with Chris Brady's late injury in the second leg. What do you think their judgment will be and what sort of is the work to do? So they've already brought in Anton Salatros from AIK.

He's a full Sweet International who has played, I believe, each of their last 19 internationals, if not like 19 out of 20. He is a regular starter with the Sweden national team. He's coming in at 29 years old He was the captain of AIK He's a box-to-box type midfielder Who can play and break lines And cover ground

They're very excited about him They have Andre Franco Is staying on a permanent deal I was told that They were able to negotiate down The purchase option In light of the ACL injury He'll be back at some point

Late in the season next year Obviously there will be updates on that As we go along But he tore that ACL in September So it'll be a little bit of time Before he's back in the team And he looked really, really good when he signed. So that's absolutely brutal and unfortunate.

I was told in a conversation with Greg Burrhalter, the club are looking at around for new signings. I believe that that did not include Anton Slatros. There are some decisions that they have to make on contract options. There's Tom Barlow and Chase Gasper. Kumami has a purchase option. He's on loan. And I extremely expecting Calhna Costa to not be part of this team next season,

given he was Max Tamish. type player didn't play very much. They just signed another central midfielder that will be viewed as a key starter. They spent $4 million on DeVila. And that's it through like the roster. The way Greg Burhalter was speaking to me when I asked about flexibility and everything

indicated that they will be able to either sign a designated player or a U22 initiative player. And they have the flexibility and he's excited about that. Whether they, that means, so they have technically five U22 players, one of which is Gutzias, he's on loan, he's not factoring in, don't worry about him. Three U-22 initiative players, they signed last year, so they are locked into the U-22 initiative. So that means Brian Gutierrez is either going to be moved because there's plenty of interest.

Again, Colorado tried to push really hard for him in the summer, and they're not the only team that did. Or if they're able to reclassify Gutierrez as just a TAM player rather than U-22 initiative. I do not know, and I'm not trying to read into either, but they are talking to me as with that They know that they can sign a DPUU-22. Gutierrez cannot be a U-22 player, whether he's on the team or not. And Burrhalter said, like, we're open to anything. We just want to make the team better. He talked about the negotiations with, well, he didn't say the names,

but we know the names of Namor and Kevin DeBrena about, like, yeah, like we think Chicago, we think our training facility, our city itself, our team, the way we play, everything else, that, yeah, if we think it makes sense for another global superstar type player, we're going to be in for it. Or if it makes sense for us to go sign a U-22, Or if it makes sense for us to go sign somebody like Jonathan Bamba or, you know, a young DP, younger DP, they are open to all possibilities. They are the opposite of what I said with Austin, which is they have nailed the middle of the roster.

Joel Waterman, Jack Elliott, Phillips and Carnagel, like they've hit it out of the park with those guys. So they've got the flexibility to go take some swings if they want to. And it sounds like Anton Salatros is going to be another one of those middle roster guys that they, it feels like a real. yeah it feels like a really good deal and from what I've seen he looks like he's going to be a really good fit so they feel like a team that is in a good place if they go big or if they want to look at things and say we think Jonathan Bomba year two we think having some of these guys healthy we think another year of cohesion we continue to get better while we leave our options open either way I wouldn't be mad if Chicago went that if they said let's leave the spot open

because we want to be in this global conversation and we know we're going to get better over cohesion and all of that I would believe it on the other side if they take a big swing I could see it working out as well let's close out real quick here with the national team and then we have to get out of here Tyler Adams and Sean Zawatsky both have withdrawn because of injury which we hate to see so Timothy Tillman has been brought into the roster which we also hate to see or at least I do I'm not going to speak for Tom on that one and we were excited to see Tyler sort of run this whole midfield with a tanner testament excuse me finally went and Nadia Morris um as well as what um some other things for me the big thing i'm watching

for is they have to play the back five without richards the whole thing can't be contingent on one guy you have to find a way forward it seems to be the best fit for the entire team so where do you put the pieces that are left to simrine play in the middle um does miles play in the middle whatever it is i want to see them roll that out there again be competitive be good in that setup and show that someone else can fill in in that role. Exactly for what I'm looking forward to or hoping to see. I would like to see Geo Raina and Sebastian Boralter complete a pass to each other. Just see how that all goes.

That'll be a sort that, it honestly is a storyline to follow. We spoke about it when the roster dropped, so I don't need to go too much more in there. But yeah, it's just, I feel like I say this every other window. All right, no, no Pulisic, no McKinney, no Adams, no, no Richards. like, I don't know, man. Poor Zawatsky, by the way, I believe he's been called. Four times. Three, four times that he's at a point.

One was a January camp, I think, so it doesn't count as, like, official, but yeah. And he's been able to, like, they've been minor issues. It hasn't been like, oh, he just did his knee, and then he was out for three different camps. It was like, it's just so unfortunate, man. It is wild that he's so high up on the list that he keeps getting called back in, even though he hasn't been, had the opportunity to show anything. It felt like last camp was the best under Mariso Bochititino. And the whole key is, can that continue?

Uruguay is the toughest opponent they've played. Paraguay is a really good test. So I think if you come out of it and say, they battled, they were right there. There are things we can take from this. Does a roll done show again? Does Baligan show again? Like there are players who have shown in their moments.

Can they do so in this one? I think we'll be a really big part of this one. And that's what I'm watching out for. We will be back next week. we're going to have your reaction to this USM and T camp as well as previews of the playoffs coming up and talking to all these big issues that we like to talk about, complaining about schedules and formats and all this type of stuff. So thank you to everyone who was in the chat, especially today.

Thank you to you to you, Tom. Thank you to my voice for holding up for almost an hour and six minutes. We'll talk to you all again very, very soon. You know what I'm going to do.