SoccerWise - Shield-elphia Winners, Golden Boot Race + US U20s

Episode Date: October 6, 2025

The Philly Union have clinched their second ever shield at home in a storybook ending. Tom & David get back together to discuss this amazing turnaround and where this team ranks all time. Then they follow Denis Bouanga's recent example and get into the goals breaking down the late stretch of the Golden Boot race. Then they go international talking about the US U20s group stage performance and upcoming knock out game vs Italy. Plus sad news on the injury front for Canada.

What is up, everybody, welcome back to soccer wise on a glorious Monday, a championship Monday for multiple teams involved. We have a lot to go over. We have a lot to talk about. And we are back together. David Goss and Tommy Scoops with you. Joe Lowry didn't step into my place. He probably excelled in place of me on Thursday, one of the best in the business.

But I'm back, Tom. Do you feel so warm and cozy? I do feel warm and cozy whenever you're around it. And my body just, it's like I know philosophically that you were back in the greater New York City area in the East Coast, in the tri-state area. And my body is just like, hey, like the different synergy and saying things like WFAN jokes and the fourths are just naturally,

by way of hello we're just like oh wait you didn't want to answer the phone when I called you on the first time you had the wait for make me call a second time that was our hello this morning you could feel the shift in the energy the atmosphere that slight change that slight altering I'm in a place with apples

we've got fall apples which is like arguably the best fall is the best season right I had this fight with Megan Klingenberg I agree okay thank you I agree and I'm somebody who lives on the beach and I think falls the best season I didn't know it was debatable I was unaware that that existed in the world

Like, I didn't know that there was a different viewpoint, possible. That's because places like your tropical rainforest of South Florida plus exotic zoo animals that have been kidnapped and brought to the area. There is no fall. But here's the funny thing is like, so Publix, and if you want to sponsor us Publix, feel free to send me a message. Just hit us up at SoccerWise. They're doing holiday themed ice cream flavors and it's all like fall and Christmas flavors. And you're like, none of this is relevant to your life. You don't, you don't.

Yeah. You're not going heavy cinnamon's and chis and all this stuff because it's not relevant to you. I am back in the Northeast, which is the home of champions. It turns out. It is the home of Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Union, the 2025, the 2025 supporter shield winners. It is the home of Hartford Athletic, the 2025 Yeager Meister Cup winning champions in the USL Championship. They went to Sacramento and knocked off Sacramento Republic. who we did an awesome interview with last Friday with Todd Donovan.

I would highly recommend still going to listen to that. It was a few minutes about the game. It was mainly big picture. He is a president, GM. He sits on the sporting committee in USL. We talked about youth development. We talked about stadium building. We talked about future First Division pro rel.

All of that in between. It is also home to the 2025 Abu Dhabi preseason game champions. New York Nicarbaccas. Get stuffed Philadelphia 76ers. get stuff. What's funny is I was going to come on and talk about the Knicks and then you came on wearing the hat

and I'm like, well, now it's happening. This is all I have to let my dad turn to me yesterday after the Jets. I got here and after the Jets and he goes, so all we have is the Knicks, right? And I was like, that's all we need. It's all we need. It's all we need.

Shit was rough and now we have the Knicks and that is the nature of it. But I didn't realize it was all in the Northeast until we started rolling through that. I guess it is the dominant region of the world. feel free to get back to us if you think a different region of the world has more

value than the Northeast, but I find it hard to believe. Yeah, I knew the Knicks hat was coming on today. And again, not that I thought that the Giants were going to be any good, but there was a sequence against the Saints in which their last eight drives of the game ended. Punt, punt, fumble, fumble,

interception, interception, turn over on downs. Get me my Jaywood Brinson jersey, please. That is not a winning formula. I was on a flight. how you want i was on a flight from denver to new york and i took off right as the football stuff started so i had uh that that's an elite play well yeah well i've actually gotten pretty good at it i'm like now i'm like i would never fly if there's not a football game on because you can guarantee you're going to get it like i thought i'd watch the u20s on my flight we'll talk about the us u 20s

coming up and it was like the only channel unavailable was the was telemundo and fs one um which is what the game was on, but I had the Washington Spirit on, and then I had on my phone, the football game, and the Jets called the timeout with a minute and a half left in the first half,

because they had the Cowboys pinned. They proceeded to give up two touchdowns from that minute 50 on. It was like, okay, cool. Don't have to watch the second half of this one. I have locked and loaded and ready to go. But shout out to the Arsenal Tigers, you sevens, who have gone two and O this week,

sorry, three and O this weekend. I was at two of the game, so I'm an undefeated streak right now, as one of the biggest supporters of the Arsenal Tigers on their side of things. Okay, you did an awesome show on Thursday with Joe Lowry. As I mentioned, go back and listen to that. Joe talked a lot. Big picture stuff around MLS this season, what he's seen, what he thinks.

And Joe's one of the best minds covering Major League Soccer and Soccer in general. And we love Joe. And you should go read back yield because every single week, they are giving you some of the best content around national teams, around clubs, around USL, as well as around MLS. so we highly recommend you go check that out and dig into it as i said we'll talk philly we will talk about some of the other races that are going on in mLS which have somewhat gotten a little bit less anticlimactic on some sides and i've gotten a little desperate for some sides looking at you colorado and we will talk golden boot race because we have that coming as well as it has now heated up thanks to denny buonga deciding that he was going to go super

saying a few weeks ago the moment that sun touched down in the u.s we will talk about the USU 20s, their successful group shade run, the matchup coming up against Italy. We'll talk a little USM&T and Canada as well as they've got the friendlies coming up. So we have the U.S. against Ecuador on Friday night at Q2 Stadium in

Austin. I will be there. So if you are planning to be around there, please hit me up on blue sky and I will be around. I think I will just be hanging for the game. So let me know. And then the U.S. plays Australia in Commerce City at the Rapids next Tuesday.

In reverse, somewhat. Canada, at home in Montreal. That is as big as it sounds. This is a team that hasn't played in Montreal in like a decade. They are playing against Australia at Saputo Stadium on Friday night. And then they face off against Columbia at Red Bull Arena, which I didn't realize what's happening. And I will no longer be here.

And now the only thing I want to do is go to a Canada-Colombia-friendly at Red Bull-Boreen. Because you know it's going to be unreal. 80% Colombians. Yeah. Oh, 80% Colombians. 100%. I have been to multiple Columbia friendlies against like non-North America-based teams

at Red Bull Arena, and it's always packed. And then you got Canada coming in, swacking in. Jesse Marsh back in the building? We're talking New Jersey, the Princeton grad? There's everything. And I didn't know about it. I don't think that's going to translate

to Canadian fans. Tom, I might need to book another flight. I might be back up here. Maybe I'll just take the train. From Austin. Yeah. Well, I'll go Austin, Miami, Miami back up. but it's going to be a good week so we will have your coverage next thursday we'll have full national team talk we're going to do a little bit here today we'll keep talking you 20s as things go along and then we will have all of your sort of recap stuff coming up next week but let's dig into the big story

the philadelphia union for the second time in the club's history they have won a trophy they have won the supporter shield and it was fairly storybook maybe i'm a little bit too like soft on stuff like this but like they've been to two conference finals. They've played NYCFC and both of them. They lost the first one with the crazy COVID game. Then they won the second one to go to MLS Cup. They get a chance to do it after the COVID year where they won the shield to actually do it at home and do it in front of their fans

and create the whole ceremony that they wanted and have the experience that they wanted and interact with the crowd. And of course, it's a club that was built by its fans. So you talk about the history of the supporter shield, being something that the fans created and the fans operate and the fans run, being won now by a club that was created off the back of the Sons of Ben's energy and they're

pushed to have a team in the market. It just all felt very storybooked to me. And then to do it and close it out with a win is like, yeah, you could back into it. Other teams lose. Whatever happens, the points could be secured. But it felt like the perfect way to do it, Tom. And a 1-0 win off a press, off a turnover in midfield, the cupback ball to Ura, who has now turned it on late, everything about the goal was super Philadelphia, everything about the game was super Philadelphia, and what they've done this year, which is hang around and battle the teams in the top half

and dominate the teams in the lower half. And that's what this week was for them from D.C. to this game. And that's what got them over the line and their second ever trophy. Yeah, Philadelphia Union do their things, the Philadelphia Union way, and they do it unapologetically, and they do it with full conviction. And I think that's pretty poetic, too, for just the city that it is. like they've spoke for a while how this team is a microcosm of the city it represents the city

more philosophically even than just putting the name on their shirt like the way they play the the in-your-face style the all-out style of the nature and and i will say one more point there is so tie burrito's the team's the team's leading scorer he didn't he didn't start because this team it's the whole the team is the star traded dana danio gazdog early in the season they'll let players walk and then they'll bring in another one. They traded Jack McGlynn because he was a better fit in Houston than here. And just for everything that we think or worry or consider about them, like at the end of the day, it is going to be a collaboration of just a lot of really good players,

no stand-up players. Even when Ty Bribo was in the goal in boot lead, I think a lot of people were still looking around him and he's kind of fallen off that pace. But so Ty Bribo has 16 goals. They only, they have three players with 10 plus goal contributions. Yeah. which is Briebo, Wagner, and Ura. And then after that, they just got a bunch of guys

who have, you know, between four and nine goal contributions. And that is the very most Philly Union thing of all for me. Yeah, I think you could argue as you go through this team, you've got a lot of players who are top five in the league at their position. You probably don't have a lot that you say is clear number one, but they probably equal any team in the collective of that. And they do it with players who have. stepped in and filled in and were unknowns, quote unquote, coming into it, which I don't know

why I say quote unquote, because I didn't know who these people were. So I'm part of the problem. But like, that's what Philadelphia has done really well. Central midfield's unbelievable. Like the amount of players they have flipped in Central Midfield year after year after year and the amount of quality they continue to find and they do so. I mean, if you're a club anywhere in the world and Philadelphia comes and says we want to sign this player and they're a center mid, triple the price and just see what happens. Philadelphia will say. know but clearly that player is very good and has the ability to be a difference maker i have talked about it i think pretty much since week one i think yovan lukic has been incredible i think he's

one of the best players in central midfield in the league and i think he will push for best eleven daly jean joc has done the same um and mccania stepping into central midfield senator unbelievable yeah a spot where we thought they would have a dp in that role and it ends up being an injury and mccania steps in and has been every bit as good as you would like a centerback to be. And these are all players that are not coming from, for some of them, really common areas that other people are scouting or figuring out. And Jose Martinez was the same.

When he came in, it wasn't like at the time Venezuela was this like huge mining of soccer. Now it has gotten much better. And he is a part of like the tip of that iceberg as a lot of players in MLS ended up becoming. And so you just have this consistent churn of players and the ability to win. Even like Frankie Westfield goes to the U-20s. Like that's missing a potential starter and a guy you could rotate in and Beizzo continues to be there

and be a factor if they need to. Harrell has played centerback, has played fullback and has been a factor at both of them. And then you have the added pieces. They add in DeVaslev in this season. They add Oloski in this season. And Tom, that was kind of on Philadelphia,

which was you look at this game, they both get a start and it's like, oh, there's depth. There's reinforcement. And it kept the level probably a little bit higher late than what we are used to seeing for Philly. Yeah, and even, I know we've made this joke before, but like San Diego didn't want to pay Milano Loski, and then it's the big spending Philadelphia Union who come in and give the deal or whatever that another team wasn't willing to do or felt that it was past their evaluations winning, and it's almost almost always the Philadelphia Union who are the team sending that player away. And the Milano Lovsky signing has been a really important part to this team down the stretch, particularly so after Quinn Sullivan goes down with,

the torn ACL, like Milano Lovsky is, is, like, really crucial to this team in the playoffs, and he's been a starter. He's been playing at the, like, wide attacking midfield. Like, they play the four triple two, and he's just one of the four attackers, but he's not playing as a center forward, and he's just good and good and productive wherever he plays. And, and again, at the time, that was a surprising addition, and one that we all, I think we're positive on, but even more so now, like, we kind of thought maybe it's going to be a luxury and hey, if he doesn't win a starting spot, whatever,

like this team will be fine. Like, no, like, they need him right now, and that was a really, really good signing for this team. I want to talk about McCona. McCona, for me, I had him in top five in my 22-22 vote. He's going to get sold, probably in the winter, but at some point very,

I know that there was a lot of decently sized teams in Europe that wanted him this summer, and the union had already kind of moved on from enough players, and he was crucial enough that they know that they had to wait and can wait. But he came from the South African first division, and he wasn't playing really at all.

At first, he's playing with the second team. They only made him a U-22 initiative signing because of just cap purposes. It wasn't like this was a big transfer fee and like, oh my God, they would have signed him without a U-22 slot. It was just the accounting part of it. And he's just once again another player

who seemingly comes from nowhere that not just pretty good. He's going to be a finals for Devendra for the year on my ballot. It's him, it's Tristan Blackman, it's Michael Boxall. Those are the names that come to mind, just riffing on the time. out my head. McCona's been incredible this year. You talked about Stanley John Juck. You talked

about Jovan Lukic. You're just going down the list. And yeah, I think the charming part of this team is while, it's a good point to say they probably have a lot of guys that are top five of their position in like a decent amount of places around the field. But unlike talking about like, let's just say LASC, where you talk about, oh, Bawanga and Sun and all of that. No, no, no, it's like it's the left back. It's the center back. It's the eight and the six. And it's probably the right back on the goal it's like and then you get to the the attacking spots and it's yeah it's going to be a combination of four or five guys and and guess what none of them are going to be elite but all of them are going to be very good or solid or strong and then just as a team is where

we're going to do this and and again this is the kind of team that lends itself better to a shield race than say you know knockout competition or it's the playoffs or not yeah not that they can't be dangerous in the playoffs but this kind of team and the style of the team plays is built to excel over the regular season, and they did that here, and they are a very, very deserving winner. Yeah, we'll talk about the playoffs in a moment. I think we'll talk as well overall about where this team stands historically

because that's now the territory you enter when you win a trophy like this. 33 goals against Leeds Major League Soccer. That's the big stat for them. That's how they win, as you said, and that is because of the strength of that back, seven, six, eight, whatever you want to call it. 12 home wins

that has become a fortress for them and now they have the ability to host in every round now of course they will go on the road in the first round because nothing matters and we have to create 97 other setups but they will host

in every round they have the potential to host MLS Cup which has never happened for them which would be electric Subaru Park for that would games unreal that'd be incredible place balances just like the the tailgate aspect of

it like walking around that stadium under the bridge what the fans bring and and walking through the tunnel from under kind of the suns have been i don't know man that would be a i think that would play really really well in terms of an atmosphere on and like it'd be up there with the best of the best yeah i went down as a fan just to go watch the first round of the playoffs in 22 which was so fun and then i went back to cover the eastern conference finals when they ended up winning and knocking off nyccc as i said that revenge game from the year before and then go to 2022 MLS Cup where they have some unfinished business. So it's a huge opportunity for them.

They don't know who they will play in the first round, of course, because it'll be that wild card winner. Could be Columbus, could be Chicago. I believe it could still be Orlando as well, as Orlando could drop into that spot, which would be a tough. I mean, Columbus, even with all the injuries they have, we'll talk about it when he gets to the playoffs.

We'll feel like a tough draw. I don't know that it is. Orlando would suck to play in a wild card game. That's like not a thing you got to. earn and I think that would be really unfortunate for this team but either way they talked about it post game they've talked about it all season like they're not going to be intimidated they're going to stick to their style they're very good at what they're good at um and on that question of style I think you look back and I'm looking at supporter shield because I'm looking at all time stuff and you look

back over the last let's say 12 15 years and as you get past the keen and land in galaxy teams the teams that have repeated for supporters shield are the New York Red Bulls, L-AFC in the Philadelphia Union. And I think what you would say about all three of those is they had a very distinct style. And the ebbs and flows of the reality of Major League Soccer, which is it's not the top league in the world. And when players are good, they'll leave.

And you have salary restrictions, so you can't keep squads together all the time, is what we talk about a lot, which is if you have a clear identity that you lean into, you can find pieces, maybe that other people aren't looking for that can help you and continue to progress your team going forward

and you can fill in for pieces or players that you miss. And I think when you look at those three clubs and then you talk about well the revs set a points record then they fall off the face of the earth right after and for multiple reasons but one being like they had a good year but

not everything about it was fully sustainable at that level. Cincinnati has tried and they've stayed around and then you have other teams that pop up have a great year and then it's hard to maintain Atlanta did so fully on the back of talent and so when that talent leaves you have to refine yourself and reformat yourself and I think it goes to show the differences maybe between the regular season and the postseason because maybe the postseason success wasn't there for all of those teams that I just talked about but like what

happens Tom if you have that commitment and you have that like style and and I think you look at three clubs that were built by really strong personalities whether it's coach or as sporting director and have been able to maintain success year and in europe it's a really good point and i think it's a good through line to draw between those clubs where like it's not totally style though there are principle particularly the red bulls in philly um but like even with lefc like while they were more like a parrotechnic attack uh particularly like with the vellishield um they have the structure the defensive identity but but again also just in generality having that committed idea and you know how they want to play and it's not like there are tweaks along as the season goes but

for the most part hey this is how we play and this is how we're going to play and it makes it easier when then if you're missing a player like philly this is a good example you said like westfield's out uh godzog's gone you know whichever two of the three starting level forwards that they have are in they all know what the role is the rest of the team knows yeah whether it's ura or brebo or whether it's damiani yeah every player's a little bit different but we generally know exactly how this is going to go. And I think that that saves for little rounding errors when things aren't totally perfect throughout the season.

Because even when you kind of make mistakes or if there is any level of drop off, it's all going in the same direction. And this is one of like I think the golden rules of squad building, even in a more general sense here, that like if you have that identity, if you have that plan and you're committed to it, then it's easier to rebuild or reload probably would be a better term on the fly rather than you look at the bad teams in this league and the teams that continue we're under trouble where okay we need to overturn the roster and then we're going to go from you know counter attacking team to a pressing team now we're going to go to possession team field off union aren't doing that

um lefc i've kind of had more tweaks around but it's kind of been slower and again it's just so important to have a good plan and stick to it and that gives you a baseline we're in a regular season with so much travel in this league so many games in this league if you can put your brain on autopilot or know that like hey this is my fast one we're just going to close our eyes and throw it here that helps give you a floor that other teams don't have yeah um i think one of the other things that stands out when you look at the list of shields as you go back um we are probably past the time where anyone's going to repeat and i think part of that is how hard and important conca calf has become conca champions i think part of that is leagues cup and like all the crap that gets thrown in like

If you're good, you are worse off the next year than every other team because you have a bunch of bonuses to payout, which often thins out your squad, and you're going to play in the most competitions. You're going to play in Campione's Cup. Like, even though, yeah, it's one added game, but they start to add up. The Galaxy, 2010, 2011 are the last back-to-back winners. And I think now knowing that Interm Miami won't win, Bousquet's retired, so now you're moving into whatever that error is. and I think many of us would be surprised if Philadelphia repeats a shield winner next year because it's so hard

and they will be back in Conca Champions and all of that, yes? All of your points are salient, correct, and they sound better than what I'm going to say, but it's also just numerics. 2010, MLS had 16 teams. 2011 had 18 teams. It was competitive,

and like, I think that there are less and less dumb teams as the years go along, and this is true across all these different sports. It's, it's a, it's a case of numerics and a lot of teams getting smarter. It is, so here's what's interesting about that. We do like the dynasty talk and that's, it's like, why are we focusing on what's next? Like, this in and of itself is a huge, huge achievement. And like, for leagues that have bigger history or even like early MLS where you're like,

all those DC, those early DC United teams. It was like, there was 10 teams in a league then, too. Like, it was extremely impressive. But like, it's just winning one trophy one time is such a huge accomplishment. Yeah. And it's why, I think, like you said, it has to be celebrated. It has to be a big deal for teams, and it's a huge part of their history. It's interesting, though, in the thought process, which I agree with you is the changing of the league has also led to these points records being broken.

Because let's talk about, so Philadelphia is on 66 points right now. They've set their club record for most wins ever in a season already. They still have one game to play. They play Charlotte on the road to close out this season. if they win that game they're on 69 points huge deal for the team yeah that is like exactly what they were gutting for when the season started no matter what they can't break the points record um that one set already why do i not have my there we go because i can't count or read or anything here we go uh into miami last year set the points record 74 points new england

uh three years before 73 lafc in 2019 at 72 Red Bulls at 71. And then if Philadelphia is able to win in the upcoming game, they would move into a tie with FC Cincinnati from two years ago and the New York Red Bulls from 2018, sorry, and Toronto FC from 2017 on 69 points. And that would be fifth all time. So what's fascinating is while all of the less bad teams, less dumb teams, whatever, the points numbers have gotten up. And for a decent amount of that, that's on the same amount of games played. There are other seasons where there were less games played. So now you're going to points per game. And then of course we got the shootout error, which is chaos and doesn't really

help anyone and just makes all this stuff really difficult to deal with. But in context of all time, let's say Philly finishes with a win. Let's say they finish on 69 points and they have a nice season and they're able to move into that tie for fifth place all time with 2017 TFC who went on to win the double, of course, which is a massive part of that. history and Cincinnati did they win the trip all Canadian Championship yeah yeah and Cincinnati who two years ago was able to break out of their funk all time and Lucho had an MVP season and all of that where do you think this Philly season lines up how do you think it's remembered it's funny if you I think if you asked a

hundred MOS fans and let's just take away like no Toronto fans and no Philly fans I think if you asked 100 MLS fans before you read out all the stats hey who's better Toronto or Toronto 2017 or 5025 I think he get 98 people that aren't just saying Toronto but being like that's not even a question right like we hold that side in such reverence and of course that comes with and winning I'm less cop and so but like even just looking at those teams the fact that they could end on on the same amount of points when until LASC and the valley like that 27 Toronto 2017 Toronto team is still held up in the conversation of best single season MLS teams at all time This Philly team, we'll see what happens in the playoffs. But, like, I don't, like, I'd be hard pressed to kind of see that, which is funny. Like, while they are very, very good, it, I was, I was blown away that these two teams have the potential to be on the same amount of points. Yeah. I agree.

I think part of the context to the, like, the way people view them is that Toronto team links a 2016 Cup final loss through a 2018 in February. Yeah. Conquick Champions loss. And so there's this sustained success across 18 to 24 months in there that that comes in the middle of plus winning the treble, which if Philadelphia, I think if Philadelphia goes on and wins MLS Cup, now we're talking about greatest seasons of all time. Oh, for sure. If you're able to link an MLS Cup in this Eastern Conference, which is arguably as hard

of conference as we've ever seen, which we have in the chat here, John O'Donald saying, making the playoffs used to be around 45 points, teams in the East are all above 50 now. so if you can get out of that that's a whole other combo but I think for the regular season it will be interesting to see how this team is viewed because Cincinnati

from two years ago is probably your best comp and then Red Bulls from 2018 but you don't have an MVP on this team you don't have a golden boot winner so there's not going to be like Lucho from two years ago is what stands out it was Cincinnati it was Lucho

you don't have and whether it's Tyler Adams or whoever else you want to talk about that 2018 team for the Red Bulls. Maybe it just ends up being Jesse into Chris Marsh and that's the Chris Armis and that's the face of it, whatever it is. That will be what's interesting as this team is remembered. I think the goals against will be one of those things that teams will be judged by going

forward. And this is the example of an elite defense winning championships and what teams are capable of. But I'm curious what everyone else thinks. So send us some feedback. We'll dig into this more on Thursday as we have time to sort of digest and everything. But the big story, one of the big stories for this team is the shift back to who Philadelphia was, letting Jim Curtin go at the end of last year, bringing in Bradley Carnell, who had been fired in St. Louis,

and there was question marks around, and then recommitting to what they did best. And as much as from the outside, we still said Philly was a pressing team. Internally, they felt they had moved away from it, and they were able to get back to that this year. And that ends up being, they reshifted all their numbers. I think, I don't know if it was Ben or Joe wrote this up. in back yield, but they did all the work for me, so I don't want to do it myself. And they used American soccer analysis to help get there. But they said fewer passes in their own third than any year since Ernst Tanner has arrived. They also hit the fewest in all of MLS this season.

They forced opponents to hit the longest pass based on average vertical distance in MLS. By that metric Philly have become even more aggressive than they were back in 2022 when they nearly won the shield. So they were able to refine what made them great. They were able to lean harder into that. They don't play out of the back. They play forward quickly. Then they go and press you while you try and play out. And if you play short, they win it and they create chances. And if you play long, it's an easy ball for them to wing back because playing long and soccer is really, really hard, which is why you try and get teams to do it as much as possible. That's what Bradley Carnell brought to this team. It's what he did when he was good in St. Louis. It's his background in Red Bull. And it's

another, I think, tip of the cap, Tom to Ernst Tanner for understanding his club, his team, and finding the right guy. Exactly. This was, and just to continue to reframe, like, while I'm going to say that new stylistically, this was what they were going to look like this year, and I thought that that was going to be a higher floor, nobody saw this coming. Like, not a single person, like most people had them missing the playoffs. For them to have gotten to the top tier kind of result of what could have been possibly,

like nothing reasonably expected for this team and getting that higher right and again, tripling down on what they wanted to do. All those numbers from Joe and Ben are really good just to add a couple more like field tilt, fourth in MLS, passes per defensive actions, first an MLS, fourth in attack speed, second in shots. Somehow they're 11th in possession

because I think that they are so difficult to play against through the press. Like you said, more teams have to try to go along. And guess what? When you go along, they have McCona and Glessis that's gobbling up everything. What this team has done, and how they've done it on the fly

is nothing short of extremely impressive I still think that it's too difficult to sit through like ranking like power ranking like front offices and stuff right I've said it for a long long time this Philadelphia Union team is top five and it's always got to it's always been you know Philly and LFC and he climbed down the list

but like right now sitting here today what Ernst Tanner and that team has done with this roster again not just doing it one time, which is hard in and of itself. Overturning this roster three times probably, I think we're in the third evolution of the Philadelphia Union under Ernst Sanders since he joined this club. And doing it on this budget,

it's nobody else has done this. Why, like, L.AFC have been really impressive that they've overturned rosters consistently and still been really competitive. Even with all the money in the world, that's not easy. It's another level doing it. It's finding the next McCona. It's okay, Jose Martinez.

and then Dan Lejean Jacques and Yovan Lukach comes in. They've done this three times at essentially every position but left back and goalkeeper. Yeah. Yep. It is, it's really impressive and it should be applauded. And that's why we spent a lot of time talking about. Congrats to the fans in Philadelphia. Congrats to the club, the team.

I'm sure everyone has seen the pictures of Alejandro Bedoya, nose bleeding, celebrating after a guy who's been with this club through this change of style. He was brought in as a deep. to sort of mimic the model other teams were doing in the league and they made one playoff appearance that way. They got smoked by Toronto and then Ernstanner comes in

and refines who they are. They've become one of the best youth developers and they've taken steps towards that this year. Maybe not as many young players as they would like from their own academy pushed into the team but they don't win this shield of Andrew Rick doesn't play the way. He played this year. They don't win the shield at Frankie Westfield

who we've talked about a bunch doesn't step in and play the way they played. And then I have talked about this over and over. Not everyone has to be a national team player. Like Nathan Harriol, although he is a national team player, doesn't need to go to Europe. Like maybe what they did was if Nathan Harriol can play centerback or right back at an above league average level at both positions for the next 10 years,

that helps them bring the next Neil Pierre through because he can play. And when he doesn't, you don't have to have a $900,000 centerback on the bench who has to be pushed into the team. These are the things that help them, I think, push along and be really, really good. A couple interesting things coming off the back of this. Obviously, Quinn Sullivan, a massive loss. We did the show, I think, last week, and his ACL injury was announced after that. He's been one of the best players on this team. We talked Milan Alaski and Indy Vasslev.

They're going to carry the load of what he did for this team. He was the best chance creator on this team outside of Kai Wagner. And I think that gave him a little bit of a different game. Statistically, some of the stuff him and Oloskey do are similar. I think there's more nuanced to Sullivan's game. I think Oluski is more of a straight-line runner. and finisher, and they're really going to miss, Quinn Sullivan.

He pushed himself into the national team because he was so consistent at that high level. Every single game for the first half of this season, he was a game changer. He had multiple game changing moments. They came from set pieces. They came from the run of play. They came against set defenses,

which I think he's probably as good at in this team as anyone, and that's going to be a huge factor in the playoffs if teams have to go to Philly and sit in. And it sucks for a young player because I think he legitimately was, in the national team conversation going into a World Cup. And in general, you hate to see a player's sort of form be knocked off like that. And now he has to go through the rehab and all of that.

So really, really unfortunate for him. And we're hoping for the best for him going forward. I thought it was a beautiful tribute from the club for Holden Trent for the goalkeeper who passed away tragically in a car accident outside of the team, a young player, a young person with a bright future who was a huge part of the fabric of the club. And so to celebrate him in that exact moment just shows how much he meant. to everyone and how much he meant to the club. And I think a really, really fitting tribute to what this club represents. Again, we've said, not a star. It is the fabric of everyone from the fans all the way through

and a huge representation of that for them. We've talked about Bradley Carnell a couple times. Obviously, his first year with the team, he will be in the running for coach of the year. Tom, do you have a quick power ranking in any of that? I don't want to lock myself into anything off the top of my head. I will be doing this kind of as we get to Decision Day and then after Decision Day submitted that

a quick sidebar should not be submitting any awards until after all of the 34 games have been submitted I use this as a PSA everybody that are voting you did it in February he's obviously

Yeah Enter Miami players 1 through 11 him yeah it's Javier Mastorado of course him sorensen Mike Yvaris like those are the three guys

that I think everybody's going to be considering around and between those three those three I think they're all deserve winners so a long one a way of saying, yes, he's going to be in the mixture.

Yeah. And he deserves to be, he said after the game, we're not the superstars. I'm not the super coach. We don't care. We like it this way. We fly into the radar. We make mistakes. We grow. We learn. We move on. And then we're 66 points later that he said that in the post game interview. He came on this show and spoke very openly. We really appreciated the time. He spent with us going into their Open Cup run. And they've had to manage a lot. The 70 lost to Vancouver. and then the Open Cup semi-final loss, and it felt like the air had come out of the wind, the wind had come out of the sales for this club.

So for them to come back and be able to find their feet again, have the self-belief and like the accountability that, no, we're not going to give up on the season. Like these moments matter, and to refine themselves is really, really huge. That post-game interview question he gave was to one of our own, McKelley Giannone, who we love. He followed that up with a question at the end

about leaving St. Louis. that Bradley Cardell didn't want to answer. Now, Cardell has talked about this publicly. So it was not out of left field for McKellie to ask this question. It also is the clear conversation. It's unfortunate. But what we do is you have these story arcs. So when a player comes back from an ACL injury and win something,

pretty much the first question is always back to the worst moment that they were at their bottom to them represent how they got to the top. And Bradley Carnell didn't want to answer it at the time. I think not only was it a reasonable question from McKellie, I think it was the right question to ask. I thought he did a good job throughout that interview, and Carnell gave some really good answers in the three questions before that,

and I don't think it was out of line at all. I will say, though, there are a lot of people in Major League Soccer that I will slam for not being open to press and open to the conversation topics that should happen around sports. I don't think Carnell is one of them. I think this was an odd moment that just happened.

So I'm not going to come out here and say, you have to do more, because I think there are a lot of teams in MLS that do have to do more. and there are a lot of characters who have to do more. And I don't know that Carnell is one of them. And McKellie's as good as anyone who does what he does. There's a reason he's the only one that has gotten messy on the record

about interesting things over the last year. McKelly is an ace at his job. He also understands storylines and what people want, and he cares passionately about this league. This is not a guy who read a game notes, saw that he coached this team, now this team, and showed up. McKellie watches every single game, and he's living this league week in and week out,

and he has for years. so I think I understand it blowing up I'm surprised they even ran it I'm not the producer of the game so I'm not a part of it and and I think also it became a storyline on its own which this league needs more of there are not enough villains or heroes we are way too much in the middle on so much stuff part of that is what some to many feel like is an infomercial of coverage of this league which is why we created soccer wise and why we want to be here and overall I thought it was an odd way to to be in a championship celebration, but it was a flashpoint, and we need more flashpoints. I agree. In the chat, M.J. Blansef's jokes, Cornell disrespects of McKelle takes them out of the running

for coach of the year, which is kind of funny. He followed it up to set up a better joke. M.J. Blonceth goes, if Carnel walked off on Weeby, more acceptable. And then John O'Donnell says, you don't ask that question when they're literally lifting the trophy. And John, this is what I'm saying. You do.

Go back and watch a Super Bowl trophy lift. and if they have a player on who has come back from an injury or Sequin Barclay with the Eagles and the Giants You should be asking Yeah These are the storylines And this is what

Gravitates people to these moments And this is what elevates these moments From congratulations, you've won to wreck soccer league Because no one cares about this thing To there's fan interest And there's money And there is viewing

And all of that Is because of these storylines So I think that's where These things do matter and these things do get brought up and i guarantee you webe would ask the same question if he was in that situation without ever talking to him about it yeah listen we would ask the same question i probably wouldn't have been smart enough to to get it all in sequence or i would have stumbled over it for 30 seconds like he got like so first of all it wasn't the first like i think what was that gosh

the third kind of question yeah it was the fourth like that if there's a if not the time then when um i'm sure that he was asked ever would have been asked about it in the post game conference with the kind of written media that were there i think it's totally in bounds and he could have said like you know what i want to talk about that you know i want to focus on this guys and i i like it's a good moment yeah i don't like if anybody that's within the league that is looking at this in in a negative way like we're talking because this was really interesting i think that it's something that was a positive like i tweeted the clip because i thought it was a positive like i thought that this was oh my god like he he didn't want to talk about and let's just say do you think he

still feels some type of way about st louis because he does and that is the and like that i don't know man like for me like we need more of that stuff we need to be like it's it i don't know i just thought it was a really fun moment like it was and i don't think it was disrespectful in any way and and and sorry john don't don't the chat saying like yeah talking about your point of like that that's it that's an injury not you're disrespected by another organization If I was Bradley Cornell, I would be desperate for you to ask me that question right there. I would love that. And even if I did a cryptic thing, even if I had to try to do the fake high road of, you know, listen, you know, I'm focused on the guys here.

I would want to be, hey, remember, you fired me when I led you to what was the expansion record two years ago? And then within five months of the next season, I lost all my goodwill and you fired me. And guess what? You guys suck now and you have fired my replacement. Yeah, I'm over here with the supporter shield. I'm going to go, I'm going to go celebrating with my team. I would want to be upset if I was Bradley Cornell. Yeah, and I can guarantee you this.

If Evander wins MVP or MLS Cup, he will be asked about the Portland Timbers. It's a slightly different situation, but like these are storylines. These are things that pop rather than just, you're good, you're great, and it moves along because people like the up and downs and people like being pushed against in and all of that. But either way, as you said, it's a great moment. Philadelphia Union are able to lift the trophy. Tell us where you think they rank all time as a team, because I think this is a really interesting question.

do this league and the sport here is changing so rapidly it is one of the things that we are fighting to do well which is comparing things across errors i think doyle does it better than any of us uh probably because he's a thousand years old and has the knowledge of what the 72 cosmos looked like playing out of the back but because of that i think we have to do more of it and i'm curious what other people think i'm curious what philly fans think how do they compare this in their head against 2020 which was just a bizarre situation uh and how to other teams morgan sort of said in the chat. As a Philly fan, it's odd to me to think about comparing this team to 2017 TFC. But if they finish on the same amount of points, that's the conversation you're

having. And I think it will be really, really fun to have it going forward. The reason that Philadelphia was able to lock things in, so cleanly, you could say, this weekend is because some other teams fell off the mark. We talked about five, six, seven teams being in the MLS supporter shield playoff or in the conversation. And then a lot of teams struggle to keep pace, which is what which is what led Philadelphia to win it all. But we still had some other big finishes this weekend. Vancouver closed out the weekend with a 4-1 win. They sit on 60 points tied in first for the Western Conference.

They have a game in hand because of all the games they've played. But that will come in the international break. It is a team that is heavily struggling right now with injuries and depth. So it'll be fascinating to see what they do there. And they are tied with San Diego FC at the top of the Western Conference. San Diego, they won their 18th game this weekend, a 4-2 win to eliminate the Houston Dynamo. That 18th win is the record for an expansion team in their opening season. So 18 victories, if you want to go points, you want to go whatever, it is the greatest

expansion season in league history, Tom, and it's not a supporter shield, which probably was outside of the realm of what we should have been asking for, but it's a pretty special season for San Diego. Yeah, so for me, taking away Chicago 98 for all the reasons. that I just that's just not an expansion season in the same way it's an expansion season kind of an expansion league yeah yeah um for me this is the best expansion regular season that we've seen uh you have Seattle in 09 that that won the open cup and they were kind of the first team to be like oh no no like you're allowed to just coming and be good immediately you don't have to wait built built upon by Atlanta and LFC when they came in and now San Diego they've all done it in different ways particularly this like the San Diego team did spend some money on Lozano but like Anders wasn't like a huge, huge outlay. Then, so they only did go to two DPs. A lot of their like U22 stuff,

it wasn't like they were putting in big fees on U22s. It was really talented players. And it's just a really, really smart roster build. They have something like $5 million in GAM that they can already be ready to use next season or need, like if they upgrade it center forward, where does this team go? If they get another good centerback

or kind of more coverage just as a team builds out, like this was in A plus season, in their expansion debut, both by results and performance and by, again, underlying style and individual success. Like, they had both the team success and individuals where it's just like, oh, yeah, Chukiluzano was worth it. Honors Dreyer, maybe the signing of the season. You go on kind of down, CJ Dos Santos.

There's questions about him. Is he right? Like, he just hasn't been a starter in MLS yet. Like, do we know if he's good enough? Yep, he's good enough. And you kind of can say that about seven other players. and Severekolf is, I don't know, I'll probably have one of my best 11.

He'll absolutely be in the mix for me. He'll be on my first or second team, which again, I will be doing three teams, as always, until MLS makes it official on their end. But the San Diego team, I don't want to focus on them falling out of the shield race, though they could have been more aggressive this summer. They could have kept Milanolyowski.

They could have replaced Milanolyowski without, like, they got them all pale greener, they got Corey Baird, like, they had room to do more. I don't think that that's the pertinent view on this, because that's just moving the goalposts. And if you do that, you're just going to be miserable all at the time, because even then if you win MLS Cup, it's like, well, did you do it next year, right? Like, we can do that with every team and everybody. What an unbelievable season for San Diego, the best regular season in MLS expansion history.

And if they advance literally one round in the playoffs, it is not a debate whether or not this is the best season again. And, like, the only one that you could really talk about is how much you value Seattle winning the Open Cup, which kind of, like, falls out of this realm. But comparing them to, like, L.A.F.C. and Atlanta in their incredibly special debut seasons, like, San Diego, if they, if they advance literally one round, it's not a debate. Yeah, St. Louis lost in the first round of the playoffs. Atlanta lost in the first round of playoffs. Like, I still look at Atlanta and L.A.F. Okay. They both lost in the first round of the playoffs. I think Demir Krilock and Zach Steth. and gotten their way. I think that was the Dami karate shop like volley.

No, that wasn't the Dami Karate Shop, yeah, man. Which was an epic moment, and RSL kind of owned L.A.F.C. for a little while. After that one, on the flip side of this game, Houston officially eliminated. 4-2 loss in this one coming off what's been a pretty good run, a couple of years, Western Conference Finals' appearance, and a U.S. Open Cup victory. This was the biggest churn of roster in that time period for them. It started all the way in the preseason with Cocoa Koko Kuroskiya going to Mexico. Mikael, a huge loss for them being sold down to Brazil.

And they dumbed the work as the season has gone along to backfill these spots, but all of it happened later. And it really put them behind the eight ball. Jack McGlynn, the big addition for them, the announcement coming that his foot injury will have him out for the rest of 2025, less important for Houston, more important for the national team and for him. But hopefully he'll be back and ready to go next season and fight his way back into the conversation.

And I think he was as advertised, right? He got the chance to be the centerpiece. He was a big chance creator for them. He was their best chance creator. He scored goals. He took set pieces, all of that. What do you make of where this team stands now and what the Houston Dynamo's offseason

and build towards 26 looks like? Yeah, it's difficult because the most, like if we're dissecting what went wrong, it was that it took too long for the replacements to come. And even in goal with Steve Clark, the decision to let Steve Clark leave, their goalkeeping has been an absolute mess this season. Andrew Tarbell started in goal and he got injured and now it's Jonathan Bond. I'm pulling up the like, they have had the third worst goalkeeping group in MLS, like on FV refs like post shot expected goals and minus goals conceded. The only team's worse with DC and supporting Kansas City in terms of under before.

their expected values. Good thing D.C. spent a U-22 spot. Jonathan Bond has been the second worst goalkeeper in the league in that metric with minus seven. So it's like, that's the difference between winning, getting the playoffs and not. And this team has much more issues than Philadelphia did last season. But coming out of last season with Philly, like their underlying numbers were so strong. They had bad injuries. And Andrew Rick wasn't ready last season.

Yeah. And he, I think he led in like seven. or eight goals from outside the box and Andre Blake led in one and that was just a microcosm of those numbers and bang like Andre Blake comes back and they're good Hughes and don't didn't have an Andre Blake

to turn to right like Steve Clark it seems to have been it would have been better but like again it wasn't as that black and white Jack McGlynn awesome sign awesome but that's really it kind of at the top of the roster

you look at like Zico Ponce had 10 goals in you know 2600 minutes solid fine right it's a club record signing but fine i wouldn't call that a failure andre linger has not shown up yet and maybe he will be better next year but he didn't come until the summer as it was griffin dorsey is third on this team and goal contributions with six six goal contributions i think that shows what you kind of need to know

lawrence annulli looked really good when he was signed he i think he is a good player untimely injuries so they have had injuries but mikhail going you can't turn down that number he can't turn down that money, but the timing hurt and just losing Michael, that is not a player that is able to be replaced dollar for dollar in terms of value in the salary cap because he was one of the best centerbacks in a league last year. And it's just, you're not going to be able to replace them. And they struggled to get in a center band. I don't think that they've kind of replaced them really at all, but it was a team in transition in a lot of different ways this season. And it didn't happen over, and again, for factors out of their control as well, but it didn't happen between November

in February. It happened from February until August. Yeah, the factors out of their control is tough because some of it's like an MLS team will never be able to fully cover and anticipate everything that happens. And the other is how early is it in Pat Onstead's tenure where it's like, okay, he was able to find a good starting 11 and these star pieces out of nowhere. It's hard to find the next one up, right? You knew Mikael was going to get bought at some point. You knew Cocoa I didn't think that Godfather was coming this soon, man. And so he hasn't backfilled that spot to say, all right, let's get the third center back on the roster who we think can step in, similar to what we just talked about with

Philly, right? Milan Oloski coming into this team is because there's an anticipation that some of the attacking pieces will be bought next year. That's a pre-deal. McCona being brought into this club was in anticipation of a glasness or Jack Elliott moving on. Houston didn't do that. The question that has to be asked is, should they have, did they have the time?

do they have the capability? And if that's the answer, then, you know, we have the question in the chat of like, is anyone in trouble front office head coach, then that would be the only reason that that would happen. I think it's a little bit too early for a club that's been in the doldrums of the league for 10 years to have said, come in, build a cup winner,

build a Western Conference contender, and have already put in all of your redundancies to be able to flip those players. But you knew Cocoa Karaskiya had performed as a golden ball winner in Conccaf, now multiple years in a row. So you knew that offer was going to come and you knew that you had to fill in

for some of these pieces and I think the real pain of this year was how long it took for some of these deals to get done and to not have any of them in place. Preseason really hurt because you had to try and figure it out on the fly and you're playing linger on the fly

trying to figure out what's his best position while still building the team around Jack McGlynn while not having the defensive reinforcement to really cover for these players and you talk about goalkeeper as well. I think the Bond thing is painful for many reasons. One being, there are multiple teams in MLS that have two goalkeepers better than Jonathan Bond. And the fact that you couldn't go out and find a deal for one of those, I mean, you've got two Canadian national team goalkeepers

on Portland. And Portland doesn't even have, well, they've had a pretty good defense this year. But still, like you could go put offers in there for those players. So I think my assumption would be the team would say, listen, this year, we're basically a Goss theorem team. Everyone's coming back next year for their second year. Lawrence Anali, his first year back from ACL, you're not going to see the best of him. What do you get next year? And I think that's what the team would say internally.

And I'm okay with that. But Griffin Dorsey was asked because his option is available and it would be the last year on his deal. And you don't really want to have a guy on the last year because you're not going to get anything for them. There's, outside of Lingar and Ponzi, not a lot of guys are locked in. And so I think there'll be some internal questions of

if you want to get better, who do you move and how do you set this team up? But I think this was a year of like Houston's accepting the reality, which is they're not going to be the biggest spending team in the league. They're not going to sit at the top of that. They have to perform against the numbers somehow. Ace Ache Ache was an outlier of a signing. And Mikhail and Coco were outliers in terms of what they performed on the numbers they were on.

And they got to find more guys like that. But Philadelphia approved you can do it if you stay consistent. If it was me running this, I would keep everything as is. Because I would believe that over the course of a three, four-year span the ups and downs where this team is nets out at average is better than what I should be as the Houston Dynamo. That doesn't excuse the fact that it's like the fourth largest market in the country and this team should be spending the same amount as Atlanta and just be a really big club. But I think we've sort of passed on that, which is that that's a possibility. In the Western

Conference, Houston officially eliminated Colorado, a huge weekend against them. They drop out of the Western Conference playoff spots with a 1-0 Rocky Mountain College. loss at Salt Lake City. They retain the Rocky Mountain Cup, I believe, but this loss is probably a little bit worse. This officially clinched a playoff spot for Portland in their loss to Seattle, and FC Dallas has moved into the playoff spots alongside RSL right now. FC Dallas are eighth right now on 41 points after a 2-1 win over the LA Galaxy, led by

who else, but MVP frontrun at Petarmusa. And now they play the Galaxy again this weekend in a makeup game. So for Colorado, they currently sit in 10th in the West. They have played more games than RSL and Dallas, and they need them to drop points, both in the games that they have to make up and then in the game on Decision Day for Colorado to jump them. It feels like probably a little bit too much. And Colorado let this one slip time in the middle of this season. Yeah, one win in the last six, they have LFC on the final day of the season.

Throughout this run where they have one win in six, that win was against Houston. but they also played Dallas on RSL and Kansas City when they were technically still alive. Like, they were able to control their own fate there. If you win the games against the teams that you were fighting for those spots for, you have those opportunities so you can't be upset. It's like, oh, man, like Dallas picked up points this weekend.

That's unfortunate. Well, you just lost to Dallas and now you just lost to Real Salt Lake. And those are the two teams right now that are occupying the wildcard spots that I felt really strong in Colorado we're going to hang on to, particularly with, I think, how promising Paxon-Earnson was immediately. and now they're going to be faced with some, like, philosophical questions this winter if they don't get over the line. And it'll be really difficult to pick up because they will need to pick up something, even if Real Salt Lake and Dallas lose both of their last games because of the way that the tiebreakers are working right now.

No, sorry. Yeah, it's because they're one point behind Dallas. Yeah. They would have the winning. They would need at least a point against IFC in the theory that Dallas and Real Salt Lake all dropped their points. So it's just a lot of ifs and a lot of. I don't know, man. It's a team that I felt strongly about that was going to stay over the line,

and they've fallen apart down the stretch, and it's going to be a really interesting offseason. I'll say that much. So RSL plays Seattle in the makeup game. I believe that's because of Club World Cup that that one was rescheduled. And then they play St. Louis in the Decision Day game, their actual game. And as I said, Dallas hosted the Galaxy this weekend. They travel to the Galaxy next weekend, and then they travel to Vancouver on the final weekend of the season. And Vancouver has another make-up game coming this week.

So both teams will not have the international breakoff, but you're coming off technically full rest for that one. So there's a lot that can still happen. But as you said, this is a Colorado team that hasn't beaten the teams they have to head-to-head. I think a lot of it on the fly, there's like some good ideas behind all of it, right? They bring in Rob Holding. They try and resolidify the centerback position, which has been a struggle for them this year. after a number of years where they've been really successful in that spot

and then you lose your talisman in Georgia Mihailovich and from what I see, I think Paxson Aronson can replace that spot. It's a lot to put on someone to now become the center of a team for the first time pretty much in their life, mid-season in a new city, in a new setup. And so my hope would be they believe in what they see

and they're trying to bring a lot of it back. Kudi P.H.O. didn't have the year he'd want to because of injuries. There's a lot to like, but we'll talk about Colorado more when they're officially eliminated going forward. San Jose is still technically alive in all of this. If a million things happen, they would jump Colorado and they would sneak in as the final team in the postseason. That feels fairly unlikely.

They're on 38 points. So they're two behind Colorado and RSL, three behind Dallas. And of course, those top two teams have a game in hand on them. The last big race, quote unquote, to talk about is the golden boot race. Denny Buonga has been electric since Sun joined the team. He is now tied on 24 goals for the lead with Leo Messi. They both have a make-up game coming this week that they will both miss for international break, and then they will come back for their Decision Day games,

and that will decide most of the fate Sam Surge is in second on 23 goals, so one behind, and his Nashville team will face off against Messi in the final. So you're looking at a situation where a Maxi Falcone and a Thomas Avulus, for Messi can really deliver, which means red card coming, penalty kick coming. Sam Surge is 100% going to win the Golden Buddha Award because these guys would let Messi down anytime they possibly can. And then Buonga, obviously, controlling his own destiny on that one.

Scored again late on against Atlanta on Sunday night soccer, probably could have scored two or three. Definitely should have had an assist on a tap-in for Sun late in that game. It was a game that happened. I saw someone put that on blue sky. This is a soccer. This is 90 minutes that did occur. It was a little bit tough to watch.

It felt like I don't want to say LAFC of old, but a team at LAFC who's going to sit in, not really allow them to play, and the struggles at times to break teams down when it's not transition moments. But Bwanga, when he's on a heater like this, is capable of winning every competition, right? This now harkens back to LAFC League's Cup,

LAS Cup, in 2023, the appearance there, where it's like, if you are defensively stout and you have Buonga on form like this, you can beat anyone, and it feels like he's back in there, and that doesn't even include talking about Sun who's playing at a really high level. I agree, and I got distracted.

I know that we should be talking about L.AFC, and we will. Atlanta had 0.08 expected goals against L.AFC. There are three shots, because I'm looking on Opta, so it's just going to be, I don't know, I don't know how long a meter is, but their closest shot was from, like, 27 meters. It's just a really funny shot. That's a lot of meter.

Atlanta United, who spent more money than any team in MLS history before this season. Just remind you. And DeMaltieri has, you know, clearly the starter over the league record signing. It's tough. Anyway, yeah, with L.EFC, yeah, I agree with you in terms of you kind of would want to see them explode again against a bad team and against a team that is going to be sitting in. But they just did that. Three goals against St. Louis. Four against Salt Lake.

Like four against Salt Lake, those two things happened twice. I didn't just go Rain Man and repeat myself. Four against San Jose. These five scenes that they've played, they're not playing them in the playoffs. So if they did, like that would have been nice, but I get the three points to get out of there. Belonga gets his goal and we'll see what happens when they get to the playoffs because, again, they're playing the last three games, Toronto, Austin, Colorado. They played San Diego at the end of August. That was, we'll end up being like the last.

10 games, 10 games previous to whatever they get to the playoffs. And, yeah, like Austin will be in the playoffs, and maybe Colorado will be, probably not, like you said. But it, Edward War Real Salt Lake during the stretch, regardless, they haven't played what we would consider to be a good team in a while. So it is good. It's great to win all these games, but I'm not going to sit here and be like, man, I'd feel a lot better if they won 3-0 against Atlanta. Because ultimately, we are never going to remember this game or think about it probably from whenever our podcast is done recording today. Buanga will miss two games. It's Toronto midweek, and then that Austin game on the weekend during the international break,

he'll be with Gabon, who I believe have already clinched a spot at least in a World Cup playoff qualifier to get to an intercontinental qualifier. But they have the chance to jump. I've been going through the World Cup stuff. They have a chance to jump and clinch outright a World Cup spot. It would be the first in the nation's history. So he'll be away with that. And then they'll finish with the Colorado Rapids on the road in the final game. As we said, for the Rapids, it'll be slightly must win.

win. For L.A.F.C. They might be eliminated by then if both teams win their games in hand. I like the turn of race. LAFC right now, fourth. So if they win one of these games in hand, they would jump to third. If they win both, they have the potential to be first place in the West, in their own destiny, going into Decision Day.

If you were to pick one of these three to win the boot, who do you think it is? I'm going to lean messy on this. Again, so Messy and Belonga are tied on 24. I know. I think that the funniest outcome would be Surrey's doing it. You know he's taking penalties. Messi is up to 41 goal contributions this season. He's only the second player in MLS history to do that following that Carlos Velas season,

which was, again, the best single season in MOS history. And yeah, like, this is a fun race. And then these are three really, really good players. And Bwanga, his heater over the last month or whatever, It's been, has been really, really fun and really cool to watch as these races have heated up. And Messies, obviously, with those goal contributions, making the MVP less of a debate over Anders Dreyer as they fall out of the shield race. I need to pivot and make it about myself, make it about us. For some reason, for our golden boot draft, we just decided not to do keepers, and Bwango would have been on team Kowen and Tom.

But you guys had to change the rules. Like from last year? We did that. We've done that every single year. And did we not do it this year? Yeah, and then when I was like, didn't we, and all of you guys were just like, what are you talking about? It's like, why are you pretending like I'm the one who's wrong?

We've done this the same way every year. And then you look at me like I'm crazy for expecting that again. Do we know where the standings are at there? No. I don't want to know because I don't feel a three Pete's coming. Oh, Tom's not going to win. Or four Pete? I don't know.

I have so many trophies in the cabinet that, you know, me and Kailen got complacent and we enjoyed all of our successes too much. And congrats. you somebody else might win this year and enjoy it because the trophy is going to stay in brick New Jersey for a long time Morgan says that webe is dominating so and we didn't do a midseason redraft Doyle got messy last year yeah you could have gotten on just two years ago Doyle did two years ago then he had messy as a keeper and then this year

we were like no no more keeper you could have had on just linger midseason you could have blown things up you could have veld they could have crushed from the midseason draft going forward you really got robbed on the opportunity for that one There's a huge gap, by the way, from Serge down into the tie right now for fourth, which is Yovalich and MVP frontrunner Petarmusa, who if he goes for six or seven in the next two games could have the chance to ascend. And Dallas does actually have the- And then you would ascend to.

A hundred percent. And Dallas actually does have the potential to get out of the wild card game. They still control their own destiny on that, which would be absolutely wild. We're going to talk MVP's. We're going to talk best 11s. We've got plenty of time to do it. And then as Tom said, we're not supposed to put our ballots in until anything happens. So we have to wait until the last game of the season.

But we've got like the best part of the year coming up. We've got playoffs. We've got Decision Day. We're going to have a ton of coverage here at soccer wise and across kickback. So stick where you are. Keep coming back. Tell other people to watch us. Tell other people to engage.

And if you think people would enjoy this show or would like to yell at us, feel free to send them our way. and we would be happy to spread the umbrella a little bit wider. Quick, some national team talk before we get out of here. USM&Ts, we will dig into more on Thursday, as I said, because the game's coming up. I know you and Joe talked about it when the roster released last Thursday, and I'm very excited for this camp. I'm really excited for the Central Midfield Group, the James Sands, the Tanner Testments, the Aidan Morrises of the world, especially without Tyler Adams,

which congrats to his family on the birth of his second child is why he missed this. But this is necessary. Like you need a world outside of Tyler. Also, you probably still need a partner for Tyler in some setups and against some opponents. Here's a big chance for a lot of these players who have huge skill sets and then huge holes in their game as well to prove that they can be in that space. No Johnny as well here. So which of those players can do enough in possession to be able to earn the spot in the team? And then I think at centerback really exciting.

Mark McKenzie playing in a back three consistently. Kim McCart of Vickers not, but has at times at Celtic if that's what Pochitino is doing going forward. which of them fits in, I think, is going to be really, really big. On the Canada side of things, terrible news around Moisbombo. It is a tibia fracture. He was coming back from a tibia injury. And what's sad is last week, Jesse Marsh said, we have to be careful when he comes into Canada camp.

He's coming off the wrist injury. He's coming off the tibia stress fracture. We have to be careful with him, so he won't start both games. And he gets injured with his club in Nice. And he is a huge factor for this team. I've said it over and over again. He fits the system perfectly. If you're going to press high,

you need guys who could defend more than one player at a time who can cover ground and he's comfortable stepping into midfield in possession so it's a huge loss for them and it comes with Alster Johnston out Fonzie's still out but they're hoping come back in November and San Adacube out as well so a bunch of big losses for Canada and let's finish up with the U-20s they crushed New Caledonia in the first game don't come back in this building New Caledonia you were talking smack pre-game I heard it all the way across the ocean and we won't have that in our It was a 9-1 game, I believe. Then the 3-0 mauling of France was really triggered for a lot of people in the middle of the group stage.

They automatically qualified out of that game, so they rotated against South Africa. They took the 1-0 lead. Then they lose 2-1. They sort of brought a good chunk of the starters in as subs that started out and then brought off the other starters as the game went along. I thought they dominated the game. I thought they pushed, but there were some clear mistakes defensively in the big moments, transition. Boudry had some big saves, but also some saves he pushed back in front of players and was lucky that there weren't goals there. And I do think the cutting edge of this team in the attack still is not fully there.

Like you see the limitations at times on Cole Campbell's game really wants to come on that left foot over and over and over again. And you saw some of it with Zambrano as well getting to start in this game. But I think Gozo was one of the names we sort of earmarked coming into this team, Tom. And I think he's performed at a really high level. Securus has played at a really high level as well. It feels like a lot of the guys you'd want this team to lean on have stepped up. I totally agree. And Bangar Komoski obviously had the big game.

And in the opener, he was somebody that has to be a leader of this team and has to be somebody driving the game. Yeah, just the win against France. And it wasn't, you know, just they ended up being late goals, but it wasn't a fluke. Like that was a deserved, maybe not the exact three-nose scoreline. But like if there was a winner in that game, I think it was pretty clearly in the United States. and that was well earned and just what a nice moment and so that's why I don't put a ton of stock

into the loss against South Africa first of all South Africa are good like I just want to be clear for we do this where like fairly will look and be like oh my God we see France we see Italy like we see the big countries and you go to South Africa at U20s

must not be as good as France or Italy or insert any like traditional power outs here but like their generation breaking through is a really good one and again the United States rotated because they were already through. So it would have been nice to win rather than to lose, but I don't like take anything away from the group stage because of that game, both with the context of where things sat,

plus how good South Africa are. Yeah, it was rotation across the team. So Kohler, who has started all the games at centerback, came out of the team, Noah Cobb, got an opportunity, Taha Bruin. Peyton Miller didn't start in this game. He's been really, really special. So there was a lot of shifts, especially in central midfield.

I like Pedro Soma a lot. I like what I've seen from him in MLS. I like what I see from him at an international. He is a tempo setter. He's not exactly a line breaker. And so that was one of the things I thought they were missing. And I've said this about Ben Ha, since I've seen him play at the youth ranks.

He is a world-class goal scorer in the most bizarre way. He is not a tempo setting central mid. And he is not a guy that dominates the game. And so he's one of the guys where if you take it Securus and Brooklyn reigns out, he's not going to carry that low. going forward. And I thought that was a bad setup for him. And again, it wasn't the most important thing because winning that game was not key to them. But I think you see the limitations in his

game when he gets into a game like that where it should run through him. And that's not who he is and that's not how he's set up. They'll now play Italy coming up in the next game. And so it'll be interesting to see coming out of the last game, who earns their spot back, who is able to get the start and this is a big opportunity like we've had a couple of these youth national team setups where I don't think this is as consequential anymore to the forecast of where this national team is going and all of the players at this age group's careers I said it last week or two weeks or whatever it was like some of these players should be playing with their clubs because it's better for them and a bunch of players who are eligible don't come into this anymore because it's not a

FIFA date and it is more important for them to play for their clubs and the U.S. is a young program and not all these players are going to break through to the national team but you need a little positivity in the group and winning something pushing into a quarterfinal semi-final at a full FIFA level even at the youth ranks I think helps the USM&T helps the feeling around the group and I think this team's good enough when you look at this team I think you're looking at a team and what we've seen in the group stage where the floor is really high and the professionalism is really, really high from a lot of these guys because they have so many minutes under their belt. And then you do have the difference makers. You have the Peyton Millers. You have the

Xavier Gozos. You have the Tahoe Bruns. And so the hope is that all of that elevates against this Italy team. That game's 3.30 p.m. Eastern Time on Thursday. So we'll have coverage of you for that all across kickback. And the potential to move on, I believe it would be Morocco. I don't know who the other team is that they would play in the next round. But that's who they would play if they won. If they had won against South Africa, by the way, they would be playing Colombia in the next round in Chile. So I don't know that that's a better situation than playing Italy in the next round. It is what it is. It's a World Cup and like I'm going to have to beat someone good. And this is a huge opportunity for these young players. But it's been fun to watch them so

far. And I think it's been a really good showing for a lot of these young players. And it's probably been a good showing for a lot of their clubs who are like, hmm, you're interested? Like, let's let's get the let's get the old checkbook out and have some conversations. So it's going to be a big week coming up. We've got full national teams. We've got you 20 World Cups. We've got some big playoff game, potential games as well. And we'll have all your coverage here.

So Tom, it was good to be back with you. Oh, my pleasure. Thank you for covering for me. I heard that you were very excited about Yom Kippor and had a lot of fun. With the day of a tone. Can you make a ruling right now? Sure. Do I need to write an apology on my notes app?

tweet it because I said a, because I asked the question, do you say happy Yom Kippur? Yeah. I don't think I actually, I don't, oh, I didn't even say that on the show because I tried to prepare. I still think that I should be, I should get a suspension. No, you just say happy new year. That's what I was like. Listen, Tom, the year 5776, it's the year of Jackson Darton.

It's the year of apology. Tom, you're back. You're good. Don't worry about it. It's a special year coming up for all of us. But thank you for covering for me. Thank you to all of you for listening. Thank you to everyone who was on live chatting with us.

Don't forget we've got kickback committee coming up. It's going to be a ton of preview around World Cup qualifying around the world. We've got our NWSL show coming up on Wednesday with a huge weekend of action. Louisville maybe on their way to their first playoff appearance in the club's history and so much more. So stick around. Hit us up on socials and we'll talk to you all again very, very soon. Thank you.