SoccerWise - Soccerwise Lobs Scorchers & Talks SEA w/Noah & Ari + Leagues Cup Phases Down & Fluminense Buys MLS

Episode Date: August 7, 2025

You all know the bet that was put in place between the hosts of Lobbing Scorchers & Soccerwise AND ITS TIME TO COLLECT. Ari & Noah stop by to grovel at Tom's feet, and then denounce Rave Green. Then David & Tom break down where Leagues Cup stands and why, and of course the Ice Cream Shop.1:00 Lobbing Scorchers Pays up & Talks 2025 Sounders30:15 Leagues Cup Update & Format Discussion43:55 Ice Cream Shop Opens Up On Timbers, FCC, Colorado, San Jose, FC Dallas And Much More1:07:30 Wisconsin All-Time 5-a-side

What is up, everybody, welcome back to soccer-wise, David Goss and Tommy Scoob's with you for another fantastic episode. We are going to hit a lot of different things. But to start the show, we've got the biggest thing we could possibly do, which is paying for your debts. Lobbing scorchers are here, Ari and Noah, so that they can grovel at Tom's feet and apologize for all of the misjustices they've ever made against us over the course of time, but specifically related to Ballard FC and Vermont Green. Yeah, thanks for having us, guys. You know, what an intro. A few things were said in the lead-up to the league to Natty. We said some things.

You guys said some things. And then, you know, the outcome is what it is. And we're here to pay our debts. Siping on that Seattle, smoking that Seattle pack here. Take that. Did you paint that yourself, Tom? I know that it looks crappy, but no. I appreciate you even considering that I did.

Hold on. Let me show you. His would be way worse. Oh We got a prop Oh Look how bad this is dude Grateful Dead Chalice

Was this from like a Tuesday Wine and Art Party in Brick New Jersey? I got my wife So one of those Paint and Sip No not Painted Sip It was something

I don't even know what it was called So I was right But she like she made like a beautiful vase Vaz if you're nasty And like something else That like we use regularly And then I like turned to her like a nine-year-old and it's like look at the cup I made and she's like that's so nice you can put it in your office like get it away so speaking of offices are you seem to be in a pretty normal professional situation no what's your deal right now uh well you know thank you one for for having us and uh two for accepting our wager i guess maybe i should have been hopeful that you didn't accept our wage wager uh we'll talk more about how that was a fraudulent win later but uh i'm in a treehouse right now

I was dropping some lore earlier, but one of my friends is a recording artist. There you go. You see that? Wasn't that nice? And he's working on a new album. So we're out here on Orcus Island. One of the many things that's just better than Vermont about Washington in general is we have the San Juan Islands. So it took a ferry over here to detox, detach, record some music. Not me. You would never hear me singing. But we're here in the treehouse slash recording studio. Because listen, I don't care if I'm camping in a yurt. I am coming on soccer-wise. Listen, I own my bets. I own my bets, all right? I don't need to. Tom over here calling the Italian mob on me, all right? Like, you know, I can't, I can't have it. The word is mafia that you're looking for. I like ice cream too much. I have to be able to go to the ice cream shops, okay? It's just, that's how it goes. Would you, are you in a tree house that's elevated because you're scared of being eaten by orcas, which is the other advantage of being in the Pacific Northwest? Great job. Correct. But, you know, the fun fact here is that orcas really, they don't, they don't really mess with people except like rich people on yachts.

So, I mean, you know, however your take on that is, or whoever. sponsoring the show. Yeah, like this could be a, you know, a positive thing. Yeah. Sounds like professional recording artists, Noah over there, is looking down on his fellow riches as he talks about it. Ari, you were not in the video originally placing the bet on the ballard, Vermont Green. I assume you orchestrated the whole thing.

I actually did not orchestrate the whole thing and found out about it when I saw the video like you guys did. But I was with it. Right away, I thought, I was feeling pretty confident, you know, Ballard F.C. had a great season. I didn't even know Vermont Green was a team until I found out Ballard F.C. was playing them. So I was like, all right, they got this, you know, just a little trip to Burlington, Daleville, whatever, and take home the Natty. Didn't pan out like that. But I was all for the wager. Thought we had it in the bag.

But unfortunately, didn't pan out like that. No, you went rogue. I did. I often do. Yeah. Well, it was great because Tom didn't know either. Yeah, I saw the video too. It was just, yeah, exactly. So we've got it. We know who runs these shows here.

We know who's on the front foot. Tom was 20 minutes late to this, so, you know, it's even better. He was breaking some news about, you know, Jackson Reagan's, you know, dog had to get its, get fixed, you know, I don't know. I don't know. Is this big, I'm just kidding. Yeah, it started with promise. It was a good idea, yeah. Tom didn't know about the bet, and yet within 30 seconds of the game ending, you got all caps text from Tommy Scoops telling you to grovel at his feet. He's not going to let a W go by.

That's fair. James Winston. No, I mean, I respect it, man. You know, I listen, I also played D3 soccer for a minute, and I know, like, you got to take your wins when you can get them. That sounds like a bit. Well, the bit was that, like, the team that I was on, we didn't win a single game. So that was, yeah, but I guess that's lore, you know. I'm not on my bits today, guys.

I'm in the tree house. He's just thinking he's thinking about large lyrics. I'm way higher above. I'm on a higher level. Also, in this scenario, your life, just the way it's functioning is the bit because you're in a tree house on an island around orcas. There were parts of the bet that we have to get through. So the first part is this.

You owe us hot sauces. What is the flavoring? What's the situation? with this hot sauce and when should I expect it? This is our world famous Hawksman Frements Lobbing Scorcher's sauce. We are going to get you some bottles shipped out as well as to your admin on social media because listen, we are, we love sharing the wealth. But if you want to get it, lobbing scorchers.com slash sauce.

It's a really great sauce. We recommend it on breakfast burritos. We're both breakfast burrito fiends. We love them. But it's, it's so good. it's like almost like a green salsa like very tomatio forward not too spicy but you get the kick a little bit after but it's not one of those where you're like so we took about three months to produce this it's all locally made here in seattle uh works with local farmers all that kind of stuff it is so good

and uh we will be sending you over a nice little care package from hacks and ferment so we appreciate that um you can enjoy it and that's the that's the least bad part of this bet because really we got the shill and you guys get to taste the greatest sauce of all time so yeah work all right i find it funny you've never heard of vermont green yet you made a vermont green themed hot sauce well yeah i mean it is it's blue on the label you know it's uh it's kind of unfortunate that uh vermont green and the seattle sounders are both green because don't we have to like uh yeah do we renounce the color green or do we have to what it i honestly don't even know the terms i forgot yeah You should give us a list of all the things you hate about green, and I will ask you about specific greens as we go through it, and you can tell me the terrible things about them.

You get to keep kale, dude. I think Ari should start there. Yeah. So Ari, that is the second half of this bet, is you have to renounce the color green and tell us how terrible it is. I hereby on soccer-wise renounce the color green. It's always been a terrible color. As you can see, the Seattle Sounders have gone blue. They don't even like the color green anymore.

So the color green is renounced by lobbing scorchers hereby in recognition of the Vermont green, who, you know, Ballard FC lost to a color. So, yeah, how do you lose to a color? That's pretty degrading, honestly. But, yeah, I don't know. No way, is there anything else to renounce here? Well, I think for one, you should go and turn that green light off in your background.

I think that's part of it. Take the jerseys off the wall. I got a lot of green behind me, so. Yeah. I also will renounce the color green. Famously, I love just gray, just gray things. Are you depressed? Plants that are dead.

Things that are, things that's the beauty of the world is really the Midwest. West. And I just, I, I can't. I can't ever get behind green. And I will never wear the color green again. I will make sure that I send you some videos getting rid of all my green clothes. And the sounders really, like, I will be talking to their director of brand. And I will make sure that they get rid of the color green as well. Rave green, terrible color, mauve green, olives, lettuce, cucumber, asparagus. it's all bad and i brought up a list of shades of green turns out sacramento is a shade of green didn't know okay i'm okay with i'm okay with distancing myself from that one to be honest with you i'm okay with that uh parakeet is a shade of green fern is a shade of green chartreuse chartreuse oh that is a good mouthfeel yeah i haven't i haven't heard a shartreuse reference we denounce it though we denounce i denounce chartruse absolutely i feel like i should call HR after just the words

mouth feel made me uncomfortable I disavow mouthfeel and Sharters and everyone in Seattle will know you hate Rave Green and you live there and you have to for the rest of your lives and that's a reality yeah I apologize

to all of the Vermont fans I wasn't familiar with your game I didn't realize that there were that many of you in that state to be able to go to a game like that I am I I denounce our shit talking, but I look forward to, you know, and now we're even. All right.

Oh, look at this. Look at this guy. This guy literally went into the locker room and stole the team merch. Stole the team merch. That's pretty sick. You did sound good on the call, I will say. Thank you. Appreciate that.

My grandfather's 88th birthday playing the, holding my iPhone while he was, you know, singing and blowing out his candles of some of his. blast moments of his life. So this is how much this game meant to me. And to hear the sweet songs of David Goss was just incredible. So you had the same experience as Bernie Sanders staff, apparently, because he sat and streamed the game as well around a similar age, probably doing a similar thing. Yeah, they went to a college together back in 1910, so it's pretty sweet. Yeah. They're both Brooklyn Dodgers fan. Yeah, they're both Brooklyn Dodgers fans. Seattle sock eyes. So now that we've got

gotten you to work through all your bets. I will tell you this. Knowing Tom as I do, he's happy to go double or nothing. So if you can think of the next thing, Tom's back at the table. He's got the dice back in his hand. Soccer-wise sponsored crowbar. Is that what we're going to put on the table here?

Oh. I mean, I think you guys can think about it. You don't have to have you can use the time in the woods to consider what you want. I'm going to have to ponder how we can exploit Tom's gambling degenerative. Yeah, I think we got to get you guys out here for like a live show in Washington because, you know, the East Coast, like I've said, it's not great. It's not great. I lived there. It's not great. You know, we need to bring you out here to the West Coast. And maybe we can involve some sort of travel in this bet so that we can really bankrupt each other. That's a good double or nothing. Make the podcast budget zero.

Yeah. I feel better about betting when I feel like I'm about to fall off a cliff. how you feel a lot if my team loses okay speaking of all of this before we let you guys go speaking of feeling alive i know both of you obviously hating the color rave green but also being around the seattle sounders do you feel like a lot of children grew up dreaming that one day the seattle sounders would be the number one team in stage three of phase one of the Leagues Cup coming into the MLS only table? Is that like a huge moment in the city's history? Yeah, absolutely. I've been saying, you know, dating back years that phase one of Leagues Cup is

among the most coveted tables that you want to finish at the top of. So, I mean, they don't even need to play the rest of the tournament as far as I'm concerned. Go out on top 3.0 plus 9 GED. that's about as that's about as good as the trophy so yeah I agree it's it's amazing go there be a trophy created for this

is that the feeling around if we have the if we have the tin pot supporter shield which isn't really mean anything you know I think that we should we should get one for this you know I don't disagree with you I think yeah

I appreciate that the club had the vision to ship club World Cup group stage to focus on this. Well, we've been saying for a long time that Leagues Cup is the greatest tournament ever created and that we are very pro-MLS-created tournaments in general. You know, like, just the Open Cup, like, whatever, you know, that's fine. We want the history and the honor and the greatness of this hourglass-shaped trophy, all right? Like, this is what we truly want. To get to the final, the first year, this is Sounders Heritage. Okay. This is,

is sounders heritage we need we need this trophy and uh pro leagues cup podcast famously so it's why you guys are huge playoff fans as well because with nine games to go they finally announced the playoff format major league soccer and i think you're both very in favor of late announcement quick changing competitions over and over again that are invented by major league soccer oh yeah yeah absolutely uh i mean i i agree with everything i know i said about leagues cup unless the sounders had crashed out, in which case it's a cynical cash grab, meaningless trophy that no one cares about. But it was kind of crazy watching the game last night.

Like, going to the game, I was like, man, they've won the first two games. They dropped seven goals on Cruz Azul. Like, they should be in a, in like, pole position to advance, which they were. But then it's like, oh, wow, if they lose, they're out. So, you know, this format, it's a little weird, but it did make every single game. There's, like, no margin for error. high stakes because if they lost that game last night, they would have straight up out of it despite the two games, the two wins to start.

What was your y'all's reaction over the 7-0? Maybe you already talked about it. Famously, I've been in a treehouse away from the world, so I didn't hear it. But I will give you a little insight here in the press box. I have never seen a press box actually like erupt like we were in the supporters section. And that Pedro de la Vega goal, every single reporter next to me in a line stood up and just went like this. Surrender Cobra? It was the craziest thing I've ever seen.

Unbelievable. Yeah, surrender Cobra, literally. Pedro, like, the announcer said De La Vega. And then when they zoomed in on him, I was like that, one that couldn't have been him, two, like, cut off the hair, all of that. Like, is this right? Did I just, like, am I hallucinating? Like, that was one of the greatest goals I've ever seen in my life. Like, and for that to be the seventh and a seven-nil win.

Unreal. Like, what a moment. Tom was so inspired by it. He wanted to start the next show with me, questioning me, like, is Pedro De La Vega here? Has he arrived? Is this the player that can carry this team? Like, Tom was fully bought in from that one goal. I did actually do that. They had more than the one goal. So, yeah, like, could you guys think this team can win the West? Yeah, I mean, they definitely can.

and they certainly can if De La Vega turns out to be this type of player. We're still talking about like a relatively small sample size of him playing like a demigod. But the thing is, the things that he's showing in these last few games are those just types of moments of individual brilliance. Just the fact that we're seeing that he has that stuff in his bag, it's like, all right, if he is even semi-consistently playing at this level, it's a pretty big ceiling changer for for this team like this team has a very strong foundation but like I think the criticism in the last couple years is they've lacked that kind of individual brilliance game changing type player so if de la Vega is that then I think this this team can contend for this league's cup and be a playoff contender for sure I do too

so I want to start with saying yes I do believe that this team is fully capable of winning the West and the West is a little bit more open than I think the top three looks like. Again, I think Seattle, LEFC, and Portland are absolutely in the mix, and it's not like a heavy favorite situation. But the only worries for me is that, again, a small sample size, but the last four MLS games, they've conceded nine goals against some giants in the league of Kansas City, Colorado, Atlanta, and San Jose. And Jackson Reagan and Yymar paired two of those four games. Each of them played three of those four games, so it wasn't like everybody was injured. And with Jordan

Morris, like somebody said in the chat, like if he's healthy, they're a legit cup contender. I agree. He's played 45 plus minute. He has not played 45 minutes more in a game since March 11th. March 11th. Like, so it's a bigger if than I think that I noticed, like

because he was in and out and came back and I thought that he had a run of games, but anytime that he's gotten a little momentum, he's gotten hurt again. Yeah, I mean, I'm... Yeah, go forward. I'm like just... I, I been a little bit more hesitant on Pedro de la Vega than literally every single person on the entire planet he gives me PTSD I'm just I'm just like uh like let's just like let him do his thing but like I don't want to put all that on him like I don't know it's it's hard for me to really get on that

hype train just yet I said it after that that banger gollazo though that like at least he had made his mark in multiple matches that he had he had kind of announced himself as being someone who could be a game-changing player, finally playing on the left for the first time in his Sounders career, which is what he played at Linus and all of these other places, which is surprising that we never saw him out there until now. You see Paul Rothrock now playing on the right. You see Ryan Kent playing. Well, Ryan Kent now injured and also Albert Rusnack injured. We don't know to the extent of that. But to me, even with those two players going down, how deep this team is, I still am not super concerned with that.

that's crazy when you lose your dp 10 the guy who's been powering basically the entire offense and has been an MVP like he's been getting MVP shouts granted you know lower tier probably like a oh yeah he's like could be maybe but regardless he goes down we don't know how long he's going to be out you've got your you've got a winger who's a you know a european star who goes out and you're like oh no we're like i don't feel super nervous so i think the sounders do have the opportunity to win the West. I don't know if that's going to actually happen. I think they've just,

there's been so many games where they've just dropped silly points. And at the end of the day, like, if someone else gets hot in the West, it is, it's wide open and you just really never know. So I'm interested to see. What I'm really more interested to see, though, I think they could take this league's cup.

Like, I hope that they truly, you know, go for it. And it seems like from what I've heard from Brian and from the players is that it's like a player, led movement. They want to cook on this league's cup. They just played in the Club World Cup. They felt like they kind of played well and they like held to themselves but they

wanted a result. They wanted to show that like we're here and we can play with the biggest teams in the world and they did and now they want to say okay listen, League of Mekke's teams you're nothing to us. You're just a 7-0 blip on the map. We are going to make sure that we get your

coach fired. That's what they want. And so I am excited. to see to see this play out and uh you know as for the west i really i'm not sure yet but uh it's it is the fastest route to a cc spot for them and you have to assume just based off the way the results have gone there's a decent chance they play an mLS team in a semi-final so like there is a pretty quick from this point now two game road to that ccc spot which maybe no club and mLS cares about more than seattle so it makes a ton of sense um can we can i ask you what's the deal with Hazu's friend. What does he do? What does he do? Yeah. Well, that was a very polarizing

question among the fan base earlier this season. It was a lengthier process than I think most would have liked to figure out exactly what his role is on the team. Like, I watched him on FC Dallas for years, so I felt like I had a pretty good handle on his game. But watching him like week in, week out, it definitely became a thing of like, what is exactly his position? Like, is he going to be a number 10? Are they going to play him out wide? Can he play up top? They ran him up top a couple times. It didn't really work. It felt like he just wasn't really fitting. But in the last month or so, they've kind of given him consistent run in this wide channel, which he doesn't really play it like a traditional winger, like a Ryan Kent or De La Vega or a Rothrock. But he is,

found a way to be effective and productive in that spot in this last run of games here. And I've loved how he's been looking lately. He's a very unselfish player. He combines with other guys very well. He would rather get an assist than a goal, so I appreciate that about him. The goal scoring numbers have not been there to what were expected so far, but he has started scoring in these last few games. So I actually, I think his stock is up right now.

I know he banged a header off the post last night from point blank range, but it feels like the goals that he used to score at FC Dallas are starting to, he's starting to get those with Seattle, which that is, it feels like it's paying off to what we all were hoping when they made this trade, which we were touting the trade at the time, because we both watch Taisus Ferreira on FC Dallas when he was a best 11 player. I was at his first game when he scored that banger. Yeah, I'm hoping there's even another level to be reached there

as he continues to get more integrated and comfortable. Yeah, it would be nice because on this show, I was like, whoa, that's a DP on a non-DP spot. We saw what he did in Dallas. Yeah, call us Inter Miami, baby. Come on. father sarducci is what we're getting you called right now uh no father dito sargucci yeah uh let me close you guys out on this one is a big question for anyone who's like sort of experience in seattle and understands the club and everything they've built it's a city of great i think star players but also especially center forward so rank these five center forwards and where they sit in the

club's history clint dempsey obfemi martins raoul ria diaz blazing kufo and Rosaze de Rosario. No, Danny Musovsky. Wow, okay. Yeah, I was going to say, where's moose? What is this?

Oh, he's already old news. This is Deerot country now. If there's a game Seattle plays going forward that Dero does not start and he's not injured, there should be investigations on what's going on. Can we get the Dero celebration? I like that. I don't have enough space. I like that take on Dero.

I mean, I got, I got Rui Dero. Diaz 1. I don't know if you would dispute that, Noah, but whenever I get asked this question, I put Ruiz 1. I think Obafemi Martins is a good shout. Dempsey, it's like he was one of those guys that didn't really have like a real position. I don't really consider him a Pier 9 like that. But as far as, like, the top two, I think it goes Ruiz, Oba. Ruiz, the differentiating factor being the the trophies that he led the helped lead the team to and then obfemi martins people forget but uh i mean some of the goals that that guy scored were insane i know this was just a big big question

to do the osase joke but like freddie montaro not being here hurts in the list yeah i wasn't even i wasn't even gonna have you already took a four and a half minute answer yeah don't worry though no he's got seven minutes on this now he's got he's got some crypto to sell you buddy he's got some crypto to sell you for your gambling habits. You're ready to go. Hit him. We're talking Freddie on this? Oh, yeah, dude. He's a big NFD guy. He got in early and also lost a lot

of money early on that, but you know, that's okay. That's good to know on both fronts, just to make sure. You know what? I'm going to say it. Day Rosario won. Yeah, okay. And the rest don't matter. Who else has won a phase one match and therefore phase one standings on that list? Literally in

the history, dude. Never, never, never happened. Danny Musovsky. But I think we should, we should note here. I was famously a Danny Musovsky hater because he did look like he had no feet, not even two left feet, just looked like he had no feet at the beginning of the season, but he found his stride in

dude, what a steal. What a steal for a backup nine who's basically had to play as the starting nine the entire season behind Jordan Morris's injured everything. Dude's killing it. Like, I think he's gonna, if they win a trophy this season, he has to go down as like

one of the best like dog signings just like lucky like not lucky i know his numbers and stuff is like awesome but what a deal by craig waddle there you'd be getting music in the background dads you know what play me out only if you write the bars tom time to kick your mic off in the opening three minutes i think we've actually made it farther than we expected uh you guys promo lobbing scorches promo sounder at heart anything you want to do before you get out of here. Yeah, sub to our YouTube, lobbing scorchers YouTube.

Buy the hot sauce at lovingscorchers.com slash sauce. It's great hot sauce. The Genesis being our Blazing Hot Coach Press Conference of the Week segment. So is there anything else? I think that's it. We're on Instagram. Yeah, Instagram, TikTok. All of that kind of stuff.

Basically anywhere you want to find us is lobbing scorchers. And, you know, we love our soccer-wise boys. if you guys do, if you are a Sounders fan and you listen and you don't know what Soundered Heart is, sounderatheart.com slash LS. You can scroll down, subscribe and support. They are doing their yearly membership drive. It's what keeps Soundard Heart independent. They do incredible reporting. Jeremiah O'Shan, Nico Moreno. Ari writes there. He writes a weekly, what's it called? Newsletter. I don't read my email, so I don't actually get that. But, you know, if you like reading emails, I'll tell you what, Soundard Heart's got a lot of emails for you. So go check.

Check them out. They rock. And they help fund our show. So we appreciate that. You guys do incredible work. Again, jokes aside, it's Seattle are really lucky with Sounder at heart with you guys with everything else they got going on. So anybody listening, check them out. No, and Ari are the best. Appreciate you guys. Thanks for having us. Up the bridges. We'll have you on again soon. Next bet. Next bet. Let's go. All right. And on that note, now we can move into our full on phase two Leaks

Cup conversation. Phase two. The next phase of our show. Yeah. Treehouse. I will say for anyone out there listening who is a general soccer fan in America, you should subscribe to Soundar at heart because they cover MLS NWSL as leagues as well as any platform that we have. We don't have a lot of places that cover these leagues. That is why we have built soccer wise and what we are doing. But they are one of them. So yeah, Lobbing Scorcher's great show. They're on live a ton on YouTube. If you're ever looking for something to watch, something to hang out and sort of soak in the soccer. or vibes with and we always have fun hanging out with them and tom you can cook up your next bet with them and i will i will do it i will be the one the face of it once again because i have that confidence in you and me what we do i love that uh someone through eber in the chat and his acquisition by seattle back in the day because i still believe that eberr is going to be a legit addition tom do you want to talk about not being able to pronounce people's names or understanding them

or do you want to get into Leaks Cup? Excuse? Oh, I thought that I was like, did I miss pronounce somebody's name? Yeah, let's do that real quick. So if you subscribe to our Patreon, you're in the Discord. Things go sideways. It's always fun. It's always interesting. And sometimes, like, you just want to go to things are sideways.

So one of our, one person in the chat, like, Nico Jo Aquini, for some reason, got referenced. And somebody, like, was like, I'm not too proud to admit. I thought that his name was Joe Aquini. Like, his first name was Joe, and his last name was Akini. and I was like we need to stop everything now and lean into all of this because for me the old school legendary NFL running back his name is Frank O'Harris. I thought his name was Frank O'Harris. Two different people there. So I asked around for people in the chat

that they've just had wrong for years and years. I think my favorite one was somebody says, my sister-in-law thought Justin Tuck on the Giants was de Justin Tuck because he's a defensive end and they would put him in the lineup as D.E. Justin Tuck, so she thought it was De Justin. And then another one said Ace Ache, Ache, when we were talking about Hector Herrera, is that another player? I have no idea. So those are fun ones, Gats. You have anything?

Ace Ache is a good one. I appreciate that. I assume my Max Falcone thing goes in here. Even though I just, like, made that up completely. I think his name is Maxi Falcone, and therefore I decided his name was Max Falcone when he's playing the Falcone character. So I guess that would be my version of it

I love this as well I love that he thought he was Frank Oh those are two different dudes Yeah I don't know I don't know if Frank O Harris makes the NFL Mike uh from lines then says greatest Irishman in NFL history So maybe he does back in the day Terry Brad Bradshaw would throw to him if he had to Let's think into leaks up by the way we've gotten a lot of questions about this

We are at soccer wise very excited that Tom Brady figured out how to fix soccer we were able to see some of that interview as well. So, yeah, we're all on board. Like, I think we're all really excited to have the American Lamin Yamal. And then if we're really good at soccer, then other people will like it. And then it will be fun. So that's something that soccer is, like, fully behind.

And we're going to do everything we can to try and help that continue to be a reality and everything else. Let's suck Leagues Cup and where we stand right now. So doing this show on a Thursday, luckily, we don't actually know who has qualified for the next round and how it is set up. We know most of the qualifiers. So on the League of MX side, Toluca, Pachuca, and Tigris have all clinched their spot in the next round. Only four of the top, only the top four teams of 18 qualify for the next round. That is something people are not stoked about, as we have learned over the last few days.

Puebla right now sits in the fourth spot. If Juarez gets pretty much any result tonight, they will jump Puebla and they will move into the top four spots. On the MLS side, Seattle and Miami have clinched their spots. And then Orlando and Portland currently sit in the final two spots right now. They could be passed by the L.A. Galaxy or FC Cincinnati. I'm going to feel safe in saying Orlando is in. They have a plus six goal differential because they smoked NACA. Last night, 5-1.

And Portland are behind them with a plus 5 GD. L.A. Galaxy would need to win. And they would need to win by two plus goals to pass Portland. and then three plus goals to pass Orlando feels somewhat unlikely, although the funny part about Leaks Cup and the way the whole thing has lined up is the teams that are out have absolutely nothing to play for. So the possibility maybe that you could run up a score if you get ahead exists for these teams.

For Cincinnati, they would need to make it dramatic. They play Chivas at home. The LA Galaxy play Santos Laguna at 1115 Eastern time tonight. or maybe that game even got pushed back further because it's a double header and they're worried that the first game might go to penalty kicks and therefore they have to fit the second one in. So that is where we stand right now, Tom.

Any big thoughts on these League's Cups teams and the potential of Leagues Cup? You're muted. Just because we're fresh off that Orlando game and that 5-1 win, the Muriel Hattrick in like what 11 or minutes or whatever is off, The Martino-Hater-Galazzo, oh my God. Like between that and the Pedro de la Vega goal that we talked about with Noanari,

just two of the most fun goals I've ever seen. Just the way I was like, again, it's one of those goals that make you say, like, I wish just one time in my life I can hit a ball like that, right? It's just so aesthetically pleasing. But in terms of bigger picture, the biggest takeaway is whether or not we like the format that may or may not change probably will change because they don't keep any format the same for two years in a row ever for playoffs or Open Cup or Leaks Cup or anything else.

So I think this is an improvement. No, I know that this is an improvement because it is only MLS will say you get these games. It does not pause the season for five weeks so that if you lose early in the group stage, teams would be off for several weeks or like Minnesota didn't have a home game for like five or six weeks last year. So that's an improvement. The top four getting in out of 18 leaves a lot of these last match day games.

you know wanting something right like you lose your first game you're out it's over pretty much almost definitely like we're going to find out after tonight but pretty pretty much the teams that get through are going to have at least seven points so you lose one time and it's over so there's too many games that end up becoming meaningless or too many games that like looks like they're going to be awesome lafc uh tigres that ended up being a good game but like LASC like didn't put Wanga in the squad let alone on the bench like and I would have done the same thing if I was them like the teams are doing everything right so people have seen said top eight that probably makes the most sense but again there's just not enough days to play all

these games so yeah the problem with top eight is then you have to have another round a bigger next round and another quarter finals after that yeah yeah and so like i don't know what you do or how you do it because again like these players just too many games in too short of a period and like there has to be some sort of push pull i know that the club world cup won't happen every year but like let's say Miami, Seattle, or L-A-F-C gets to the next round, and again, Seattle and Miami are already through, and L-A-F-C already eliminated, but, like, that's just so many games for these teams,

particularly over the summer, and it's not fair to the players, it's not fair to the clubs and everything, and then MLS resumes on Saturday. So, yes, eight teams getting through would be better, but you need to take away something. Like, you know, whether it's the best of three for the playoffs, or whether it's, I don't even know what else you could cut,

because MLS obviously doesn't control the FIFA calendar, it doesn't control what the European teams are doing it's just yes that's better but it's just too much yeah I think the question is is like a bunch of games that are not worth watching all at the same time all close together better than whatever other system you create because I think you I would assume the organizing of this they don't want to make it like full on Champions League midweeks that are spaced across a calendar because then you have teams traveling to and from the U.S. more often, and that becomes sort of a pain. That's, like, one solution, which then you can, like, space out the schedule.

And then the other one being that if you put more teams into the next round, which EFleine Juarez would like for us to do, based off what he said coming out of the Pumas into Miami game, then you have another round and you have extra matches and all of that. Ari clearly is team format because he said going to the Seattle game, they'd already won twice. You felt the pressure, all of that. So, like, some of it worked to some extent,

and I think having it all congested is definitely a better idea so that you don't, like, disappear from the season. It's crazy to me that there are MLS games this weekend. I find that really, really odd. Like, it's a disadvantage to the League's Cups teams, which are all the teams that qualified for last year's playoffs. So it feels like a weird thing to, like, punish in a way and have, like, this quick turnaround and come out of.

the other thing that I've heard a ton of from people and it's just not part of the financial plan of all this which is why all of this feels wonky because it's not really geared in soccer is having Mexico teams be at home like it is tough to just watch neutral site games I guess is what you call it right club America hosting in Austin and I get it Club America Chivas de grace they're outliers but even in that it wasn't like Q2 was filled

last night hosting Portland So like you don't even get the full on atmospheres You don't get the full advantage You don't touch base with that And I don't know if that's like having Cholos and Juarez And Monterey be neutral site hosts in Mexico And having like at least a little bit of a closer trip But have it be some sort of crossover

I don't know how you solve that part But it is really hard to watch like Monterey Playing neutral site games in Cincinnati And get up for it And I think if the atmospheres aren't there, then the environment, like, you feel it through the TV and that makes it harder to care about. And then, but then, like, you're going to have Seattle Home Games and Club America and you're going to have Tigris in L.A. And, like, all of that feels really cool and feels really big. But that's the same targeting you've always done.

That's what interlega was back in the day and Super League. And that's what all these summer tours are about. So if that's all it is, and the reality you've walked away from is, like, Puebla and Juarez are not going to draw a crowd across 97, percent of the U.S., then I think you have to acknowledge that at some point and stop trying to, like, jam this hit. Yeah, and like, again, I do hope for the future that the games are on both sides of the border that, you know, in Mexico and in America and Canada, but we'll see. And then it just becomes, like, if you're like Olympia or any non-Mexic, League of MECs

or MLS team that gets the Concaf Champions Cup, it's like, isn't this just the same except they're squeezing us out? so again there is no like i generally generally like this tournament like but it's it's a little bit difficult to you know make it ideal and i don't have a good solution so that's why i i try to preface all of my criticisms with like there is no perfect solution because the best solutions are more games and more travel and then okay is that too much like conge of champions cup and first and foremost there's no room so it's a difficult one i like it we'll see if it portends anything else down the road or let's like you know whenever mLS flips the calendar maybe it goes in the winter

or the timing changes um so that's the thing like this is going to keep changing going to keep evolving the best of league of league's cup is really good and i've said that from the beginning but the worst of leagues cup is really bad so they need to find out how to raise that floor and it'll be something so as i said the la galaxy and cincinnati are the ones to watch tonight galaxy is the late game Cincinnati in that early window. The Red Bulls also have an outside shot at making it into the next round. They are playing tonight as well. So those are the ones you're going to want to tune into.

Those are the ones you're going to want to watch. And then we will move into, as we go through our phases, we will move into midweek matches between leagues games. So you'll have normal games on the weekends and you'll have Leaks Cup stuff in the middle. And then the final and the third place match because the third place team gets a C.C. so there is a playoff for that that will be on a weekend and you will move league games that weekend for the teams that have that also reminder for the red bulls who play and could qualify for this they have the philadelphia union in a u.s open cup makeup game yeah next week so it could

become a bit of a congestion issue for them um going into it Columbus fifth place they're fully eliminated from this one that's like what you talk about which is you see it a point in the opening game that you should have gotten three the whole thing was over uh for for performances in this tournament. I think RSL are one of the big winners. Like, they played well. I thought they outplayed Club America. They beat Corretero yesterday.

They put all the pressure on Corretero, like only a 1-0 win, but they dominated that game. So I think this is one of those teams where it's like, took it seriously and could be something that helps them turn things around going into league play. They also were able to debut some of their big signings to sort of get them into the system and get them comfortable. Big piece of news coming out of last night.

Leonel Messi, out injured for Inter-Maiami. I believe the report is that it's day today. Yeah, so they announced that they gave him scans, and it just said, like, muscle discomfort. Like, it wasn't a tear. It was, like, so Javier Maserrano said that, like, he recovers pretty quickly, probably not going to be ready. He's indicating, like, week to week rather than, oh, he's out four to six weeks, right?

So it's more of a short-term thing, but they don't have an exact timetable because he's close enough, and whenever he's ready, he'll play, and that's it. they looked okay without him. Louis Suarez did his like full on imitation of Messi had the assist on was it the third goal for Allende to slip that one through so a lot to figure out for this team for the next round by the way because Seattle and Inter Miami were the top two teams they will host at their site there are league MX teams that have hosting privileges we have to see who gets through and who they play against to see who would end up hosting like for example. the galaxy have hosting privileges so if the galaxy get through they would host if they don't get through now you have teams that are further down on the hosting privilege thing i think it's key to keep these things as complicated as possible because they're things people already like half don't care about so to make sure that they're harder to understand is really really big let's dig into our favorite part of the year noah talked about it at the beginning the ice cream shop he loves a little bit of gelato in his life a little bit of lactose

as we all do tommy scoops it has been a long few weeks for you We've had the groundbreaking big time signings, the record stuff, and then Flumenense decided they wanted to be the 31st MLS club as well. So I'm glad you're working on your Portuguese. Dig us in a little bit. Let's start with the official moves. Again, everybody knows this, but Thomas Mueller is officially a Vancouver white cap. Sun Hung Min is officially an L.A.F.C. player. Did you watch any of his unveiling, Goss?

I did not. I get that these are things that have to happen, but it was pretty tough. It was pretty tough. The L.A. Councilwoman said, you know, son, we want to help you help USA win the World Cup or something to that effect. And it was a lot of pageantry, a lot of politicians. And then Son got to talk after 30 minutes. But it happens. And he's here.

Can I say, by the way, better that it's a council person than a reporter. Like, it's not her space. Someone should have written her notes better. Fine. People are like so upset about this. Like, oh my God, America, blah. It's like, okay, this person doesn't know they don't care. Yeah.

But it's worse when it was the reporter. in Chicago being like, I'm going to make sure I'm there and I'm going to ask a question and not know what's going on. But yeah, like, it was an interesting press conference. Like, you know, everything you hear about Sunhung Man about, like, how incredible of a person, like, he is, like, you could, it just exuded there. Even like he's transcontinental flight, does a medical, goes to the game two nights ago, all this.

Like, he's probably done interview after interview, like, photos, like, all the stuff that you do when you get signed. And he's sitting there, like, smiling, polite, like, laughing and, like, trying to, like, gave some good quotes. was doing most of it in English. They had a translator because obviously he's been at Spurs forever, but like getting some stuff in his native language and then that being translated.

Like, I don't know, man, you can really feel the magnitude of how big he is and how great that's going to be. And then as for Mueller, like he hasn't been unveiled yet. Mueller, sorry, he hasn't been unveiled yet in terms of like... He hasn't been discovered yet. In terms of a press conference. But I think that'll happen when he arrives. I believe that he gave a quote that he'll, you know, in a week or two.

be able to debut or ready to debut something to them so he's not playing this weekend i'd be positively shocked if sun has paperwork to be able to play this weekend but who knows it's all different for every team so that's where it's at with those two players but again gosh we've covered them ad nauseum already for good reason and we will talk about so unless you have anything else i don't know i don't have anything no i'm excited to watch sun play like i'm excited to see it go on the field but not much to say until we get there and i think we said it when you rumored it like yeah this is going to be explosive like this is going to be it is gasoline on a fire of like a team that's fairly relevant in their market you are bringing a player who is going to be a superhero to a lot

of people in that market and has the potential to crush it on the field which to lafc's credit has been mainly the thing that matters like buonga is a star not because of his nationality or all their off-field stuff like that team's market relevant when they're dangerous and so the hope is that sun does both of them and that will be something since vella we haven't seen yeah exactly and and so I'm really excited and my son said so it was like asking like hey did you did you call ugo lorice and like kind of and like son like laughs it was like one like again he had a lot of really like charming quotes he's like oh like who goes my captain again like i i can't say anything bad like i can only like you know i can only say like scripted nice words or whatever and then

again of course he was just like he's like i love it like he's the best he's so nice there's nothing bad to say like even jokes aside so that'll be cool looking forward to that but um into other news sources have told me that flumenense have agreed a deal and are finalizing a deal to sign lucho costa from fc dallas the fees in the ballpark of four million plus add-ons um luchos agreed like he just needs i think he's in brazil right now finishing the deal got to sign the paperwork and make sure that the verbal everything that was verbally agreed to is in the contract and then that deal will happen um san ozay earthquakes tried to sign them they they pushed late they were hoping to say hey like you know you can't if you stay in america you you still have the chance to

for the national team against citizenship. Now he does not, as far as I understand, at least I'm not an immigration lawyer. I don't know. I'm not smart enough for this. But my understanding is there goes the opportunity for him to get citizenship because now he doesn't live here when he moves to Brazil. And yes, San Jose wanted him in the winter. They were hoping that Ernon Lopez was going to leave this winter. And if they opened a DP spot, they were going to sign them or try to sign them. They were in the mix, as it was Dallas, of course. And San Jose came back again this summer and they just kind of came in a little bit too late. And he kind of gave his words to Fluminense that he was going there.

So Lucho Costa, the era in Dallas last, what, eight months, seven months? This is like, I mean, I guess the most shocking thing about this to me is that San Jose wanted to sign him. It's worse with Joseph and Chichot, man. Like, I was like, I'm in. I'm in. But the rate this has disintegrated from newspaper article about how I'm in love with Cincinnati

and I always want to be here to two teams. in five months, four months. Like that is just unsustainable stuff. And I liked the move for Dallas because I liked what he does on the field. And I, as I have said a million times, think of Musa in the highest regard. And like, I thought he was going to be more productive than Alan Velasco or Jesus Ferrer, either of them. And so you had him coming in at a lower number and all of that. But, I mean, to just push yourself out over and over again from these.

teams I think shows the type of player who don't really want around your your group and I guess for Dallas what it's like a a million dollar haircut in the end yeah and so they had already as part of the initial cash cash they said we'll pick up your option uh in 27 so they're going to get a lot of salary off the books and again like both both parties with each other and said hey this didn't work out and to your point gosh about lucho and musa I picked Dallas to make the playoffs exclusively because of those two. I kept looking at it. I was like, I don't think this team's a playoff team.

There's a lot of questions, a lot of uncertainties, maybe these other signings hit. And I was looking at it, I was like, dude, if they're in fifth place because of Costa has 15 goals and 20 assists and Petramusa has 20 goals, I'm going to feel so stupid that I didn't believe in it. And then, obviously, that hasn't worked out.

But, yeah, it was an interesting situation. And again, like, so you say this about San Jose. If you get a motivated, happy, and a Lucho Costa that fits within the team, But what requires the motivation. Again, that's fair. But that's why people are going to keep trying. No, I get that.

But Cincinnati was one goal away from MLS Cup. They won a shield. And that wasn't the right situation for him. So then he gets to go to Dallas and be the guy and do whatever he wants. And that's, I get it. They're not very good. Like, congratulations. If you want to be on a good team, don't leave the good team.

Because then you're going to be on a bad team because that team's already a good one. And if you want to go somewhere else, you can't be on that team. That's the part that I find really frustrating. And then obviously the reporting around the fact that if he wanted to play for the U.S. men's national team, he, in leaving the country, will probably lose the ability to get his citizenship done in time and be a part of it, which I can't imagine wanting him on that team right now. So I don't know that that's as huge a loss as I would have felt two years ago. And maybe it's a good thing for us that he's like not eligible and can't sort of float right into Pochitino's plans of like, oh, an Argentine creative player, this is perfect for me,

as we saw Mateo Mikovic get a ton of opportunity in January. Who is it? Matko Mihavich is who you meant to. Sorry. Yeah, it was never going to get there on that one. I was about to say it too, so I'm glad that you went first. Yeah, so that's that situation. And now Dallas continues another kind of facelift.

Again, I was around Petramusa. Like, I like Kaike. I like pieces in this team. Marco Farfant officially Tigris now. They still have work to do, obviously, and we'll see if Eric Quilsa head coach in 2026. All right. Moving on from that. We'll stick with, again, Fluminense.

So they have, they're signing Lucho Kosa to be their replacement for Arias, who left for Wolverhampton, like a $25 million deal. They were also trying to sign Santiago Moreno from the Portland Timbers. There is no deal agreed. It was getting closer, though. And by Tuesday night, sources told me that Santi Moreno went to GM Ned Gravoi and said, with the suitcase. said, I'm taking myself and I'm leaving. I'm gone. Whether you do the transfer or not, I'm not coming back.

And he said goodbye to his teammates, I think, to try to pressure this move to happen. He, like, I was reporting this out yesterday, and it was just like, hey, if he's not on the bus, then, like, we'll have something, like, you know, just, hey, just give him the chance that maybe he'll show up. And I was like, you know, sources have told me he's on a plane to Columbia. Like, he's not, he's not coming up. So I will say, again, Portland, we're going to, like, the bid was not. their evaluation of player anyway it was four million uh america de cali i believe was his the club that portland signed him from had 20% of a sell on so portland were saying a four million bid to us is like 3.2 million why would we do that so they were going back and forth and if flumenense

came up they were reluctantly going to let him go but now i don't know man like there is no good resolution here because if santi merino is saying like i'm just not coming back then like they you don't have the player anyway. But if Portland, if Portland say, okay, we'll do the deal, like, hopefully you get closer, then what's to stop the next player from being like, okay, cool, if they reject a bid, but I want them, like, if I just stop showing up. So they're really upset with the player. I don't think that they're thrilled with Fluminense as far as my understanding. They believe that this is tampering, right? And again, like, so they were getting closer on a deal, and now I think the only way a deal happens, and again, sources told me this morning, like,

Oh, and very unlikely. Like, Portland are pissed. We'll see what happens. But I think Fluminza are going to have to pay a premium for, like, whatever, to make everything okay, if this happens. And again, like, Portland, Portland don't want this to happen because they're really upset about the behavior in this situation. Yeah, this one also has cycle pretty quickly. Antony returned from injury last night, which is a good sign for them. It gives them another option in case this gets drawn out or doesn't go the way you'd want.

I would argue they have, I love Santee Moreno as a player. I think he's been underrated by people in general. Like, I think he's been a difference maker in MLS. And as we've said over and over, like I've understood teams that have thought to go and get him and elevate him on their depth chart in terms of options and building teams, not around him, but having him be maybe more central. But I would say Portland has cover for this. And there's like, you know, if they don't pick up a red card yesterday,

I think they probably beat Club America. like they've looked really good over the last few weeks and so this went from this is a concern to me to like obviously you don't want this to happen and he's a really strong asset to try and get something out of to have money to then spend in the future but just make sure it doesn't disturb your club i think as much as possible at this point and flumenense like it's wild man they're just out here they came to the u.s for the club world cup they're like it's kind of nice here oh there's soccer let's acquire this soccer and bring it where we live So this, again, I feel like this is a little bit of reckless speculation. So I want to preface this by, I don't know if this is 100% true. I have a couple people who say that makes sense, but I don't know if it's true either. Apparently, so they got to the semifinals at a Club World Cup. It was like, you know, they were one of the most positive stories. They got a lot of prize money.

What I was told, if they take that prize money out of America and bring it back to Brazil, it gets taxed to hell. But if they sign players in MLS, they have more money to spend because it's not like the taxes of bringing it back to Brazil. and then to like... This sounds like a couple of dudes sitting at the bar being like, no, bro, I'm pretty sure this is that. But this is how the world works. This is how the world works. And so their point is like,

our buying power is going to be stronger in America because the money's there and it like will have a higher percentage of it. Again, that's how it was related to me. And I've asked a couple, but several people were smarter than me and they didn't say it was the dumbest thing they've ever heard. So again, I don't know if this is completely true.

But yeah, it's an interesting one because again, they had a bid for, for Hafa Novahu, three bids, rejected by Colorado. The last of which was that $7 million, and they might come again. So we'll see. And then somebody else said, like, if they don't get him or if they don't get Moreno, like other MLS teams, like they're going to just go to the next ones. Like, again, I don't know if that's, I'm not aware of their thinking.

But this is a very fun plot of the summer that I did not expect to see come. It would be a great injection of cash for MLS teams to use that money to then go and sign other players. and sort of, we've talked about being part of the international window, like, or the transfer market, like Brazil is higher on the food chain. So if you can send players there, you can be another stop like Colombia, like Ecuador, like Venezuela, where players can be developed and then sent there, it would be wild if it was more domestic players. Like, that would be a new dawn if we had them come in and be like, we want, we're looking

at, you know, Quinn Sullivan and Brian Goodman. Tierras. Those are the two additions that we want to make would be an absolutely wild thing for Fulminante. You mentioned Hoff and Navajo, that would be a heartbreaker. Like, we already talked about, Georgie. That would be, like, just catastrophic, I think, for Colorado fans.

But I would not blame them for being extremely worried. Yeah. So, so with Colorado, like, they know that Hoffa's going to go, whether it's this summer, the winter, you know, when they signed him, it was like he was 22 at the time. If you do well, you'll play, you'll play,

play well here you'll help the team and then we'll sell you on like we understand that that's part of the ecosystem so whether that's now or within the next window like probably going to happen and that's part of the business it's like the georgia one's the one that hurt just because of how that went but really quickly with portland so santi probably don't count on him whether he's technically on the team or not if a deal gets on fluminante or not who knows what's going to happen there what we do know is that they're finalizing deals to sign uh christopher velde from olympiocos as a DP fee is somewhere in the ballpark of like five to six million and they're also signed former Red Bull Loney, Felipe Carbio,

unknown from Grimeo. And those are two starters, right? That's a DP and a key center mid. So Portland are reloading and building for the stretch run here. I'll be fascinating to watch Carbio in a non-red Bull system. You saw the goals last year in the playoffs, big game player. You didn't see a ton of him in possession,

creating the game, changing the game. And ground coverage, I think, was good. But, like, it's very specific with the Red Bulls. So I'm actually really excited to see him. in Portland, not saying that I think it will work. I'm just curious to see the full soccer player that he is and how Portland is able to use him. I agree.

I'm looking forward to it as well. Kind of going back to Colorado. So with Georgie gone, so you asked on the show and I was still gathering info about, did Colorado try to offer him a new contract? I was told not, like, they were like more or less able to talk in the winter. Like, they were open to a new deal, but it was kind of clear that like his mind was made up and it was going to Toronto.

How will they replace him? There is two schools of thought, you know, per sources, is one, which is probably the more likely, based on their history and what's available, is they take that money, whatever that they get out of it, because there's still solidarity payments, and then you can convert it to GAM, which is obviously helpful. But, they're not going to get $8 million into their bank account to then go buy players, right? But multiple players from within the league is what they could. They could do cashers. They could do GAM deals, like, hey, how can we replace Georgia Milovic with a couple players rather than just, like, well, have one marquee type player and then using the rest of that money to add to the team. And then the other one is, we could...

How do you replace a Jason Giambi? How do you replace Johnny Dayway? I tried so hard to not say, replace Georgia Bajovic in the aggregate, because that was going to sound too corny. Shout out Moneyball. He's got calves like a race. You see, have you... I'm not even going to go down to some of the jokes.

It gets more and more problems. That was the one I was about to say. I was like, I don't think I want to say it. Anyway, so, but there is a possibility, and this might depend on Hafa Novahu and what happens with Luminense right now, is like, they have targets in Europe, targets that would be much more expensive than trading for players within MLS, and that's something that they're firmly considering. It's like, okay, how about we take the money and try to sign a better DP 10, or like spend more than we ever have rather than, hey, we sell Georgie, let's go get three points. Like, both of those tracks are on the table, and I'm very curious to see which way they go. Okay. Beyond that, FC Cincinnati are making moves.

They've signed Ganean midfielder Samuel Gidey, who's playing in Slovakia, I believe. U-22 initiative, a midfielder. He's already had 105 first-team appearances in Europe, which is strong for a player who's 21 or 22. He can play as a six or an eight, so they believe firmly that he's going to be able to play next to Bucca and also next to Obino Woboto,

which is important for the versatility. But what I'm told is he's more of like a ball player than a destroyer, right? like he can progress the ball better than oboe to abodo and and brian anunga and in terms of like his best skill like the data that they loved is his ball retention numbers are really really good and when you talk ball retention like darling to nagby is a patron state of ball retention and i'm not saying that in anyway but it's just like that style of play rather than say a destroyer or even necessarily like a throughable artist right like he's somebody who is going to help them play possession soccer better And I'm excited to see how quickly he's able to settle

because they're going to need him now because they're going to need center midfield depth with Obinovoto out for however much longer he's out. So I'm excited to see Samuel Gidey, FC Cincinnati. I'm laughing because we for sure have some Fluminense fans in here who are asking questions about Santee Moreno, and I think back to your interactions on social media with Fluminense fans who are now been fans of yours

because you spoke back to them or whatever it is. In this, Corey Baird traded to San Diego as part of FC Cincinnati's moves. On the one hand, I could tell you, great move. This is the Milano-Loski replacement. He's a runner. He can be a factor off the ball with a little bit of quality on the ball. On the other hand, I've been hurt too many times before on the Cory Baird move to another team. Didn't work at L.A.F.C., thought it would be genius.

Did work at Houston, though. Great. Yes. Goes to Cincinnati. Great move. Doesn't work. So, yeah, he has had success in possession-heavy-style teams like Houston. He's had success in possession light teams like RSL, but it's just too hot and cold.

I understand he's not supposed to be like the center force of this team, but he is a clear Milano-Loski attempt at a replacement, but I'm not going to let you spin me yet. I'm not there. I'm excited about it. And like for San Diego, like Cincinnati are covering most of his salary, and he has an option for 26. So you bring a SoCal kid home. He's very excited about the chance to go home, to be where his family is, and get a fresh start with a new team. And again, worst case scenario, if it doesn't work out, they part ways.

So it's, I don't know. I like this one, but like you said, it's, this is more of like depth and rotation, obviously, than like expecting somebody to be a starter. And like, again, even with Milan Alaski, like, I don't think it's fair to even, you know, put that, like that type of, I guess, pressure on this move because, like, San Diego doesn't see it that way. They're, they like them a lot. They're hopeful, but, like, Olaski scored 10,

goals like small like small minutes but like that's still 10 goals what else do we have orlando officially signed spanish defender adrian marine uh from braga i believe and i don't know a ton about it but he said left left back who could also play centerback it's something that they needed and it'll give uh oscar prey another option um elsewhere for orlando talks interest for like uh louis moriel potential exit this summer has cooled i was sold a few weeks ago when i believe it was junior FC in Columbia, that that was all real. And, like, that was a possibility. Luis Moriel even said that he would want to, but hey, I'll honor my contract to Orlando. That's cooled off. Maybe we'll see something in the winter. You know, the interest is still there,

but, like, I'm viewing that this summer as unlikely. And then the big one for them is what happens with Alex Freeman. So he's got 18 months left in his contract. It seems unlikely that he's going to sign a new deal. But he wants to stay, right? Like, they're trying to thread a needle here of, like, particularly the next 12 months. So there's a possibility this summer. They agree a deal with the European team and they loan him back like through next summer.

And I think that'd be the best case in there for everybody. Alex Freeman gets to keep playing. Orlando don't have to, like they still get another 12 months of a really, really good starting right back an All-Star. And they get their money rather than the fear of him maybe leaving for free in 18 months. So that's an interesting one. There's a lot of teams that have been in for him.

I think that they've received like bids from like five or six club something like that so yeah everything there is real and we'll see what happens but um i think the best potential outcome for all parties would be a deal now with a loanback for a year Alex Freeman rocket ship from not a starter to USM&T lockdown starter and now potential playing in another league it makes a ton of sense it would make the most sense for him to continue to progress as a pro where he is while going into the world cup and then off the back of that for any club, the reason they would do it is because they would get a fee locked pre-world Cup.

Because if he goes and plays for the U.S., that number goes up. The disadvantage, of course, is you're loaning him back to another team. You never know what's going to happen. I think that's sort of the give and take that I feel like Orlando could come to an agreement with another team. Yeah, so we'll see what happens there. It's definitely one of the stories to watch. A couple more quick ones.

Columbus crew rejected Middlesbrough's bid of around $3 million. We just rejected it out of hand. They don't want to sell. They've been pretty clear about that. I don't know if Burrow comes back. and Honduras international centerback Julian Martinez 21 years old really talented kid both NYCFC and Philadelphia Union were seriously chasing him and really wanted them but Portuguese club has come in and it seems like he's going to head off to Portugal

but maybe there's a late twist there but I don't I'm not sure all right so that case takes us through our scoops and our ice cream shop we've got a lot more of course coming as the window remains open we will have that for you every single show we'll be back next Monday. Then Tom is going to my favorite place in the world, so he'll be away on vacation a little bit, but we have some great shows lined up for you as well. As MLS resumes out of Leaks Cup, reminder, so Saturday night, a match night, not as large as normal. Sunday, basically, what, six games on Sunday, starting at 6 p.m. Eastern Time running through midnight. So reminder, if you are trying to tune back in, check out the games and check out the schedule there.

Some interesting ones, not as many big ones as you'd like. San Jose against Vancouver on Saturday night, 10.30 p.m. Eastern Time, one of the better games. Philadelphia hosts Toronto. You assume to see Georgie Mihailovich make his debut in that one. That's a really cool one, I think, for Toronto fans that finally have something to be excited about. And tune in for Cincinnati, Charlotte on Sunday, and then the big ones. You close out with Orlando City, Inter Miami on Sunday at 8 p.m. Eastern time, and then L.A. Galaxy hosting the Seattle Sounders, maybe a little less juice this year,

but could be a Leaks Cup semi-final preview going forward, which is what everyone is locked in for and everyone's tuning in for. Before we go, every week we do our 50 states of soccer here across the Kickback Network. We are going to have a live-streamed happy hour coming up 5.30 p.m. Eastern Time today on the Kickback Committee YouTube page. We have Susanna Fuller, who will be there for that myself. Heath Pierce, and then some Wisconsin soccer royalty that's going to be joining us because we are on Wisco this week. So we have all of the different things that we like to do across our 50 states of soccer. We ask questions about the greatest soccer moment in state history, the best players, the best soccer bar, all of this.

We had a really good episode on Tuesday with Peter Wilt who walked us through a lot of what has happened in Wisconsin. and soccer history and some of the best locations and the best places. Here at Soccerwise, we focus in on the field, on the five best players. We create a five-aside, which you don't need a goalie as a debate we had with Jordan yesterday. Tom, I think it's like really the five best players. And then if we're stuck between two and we're between a hair here or there, then you could start to get with like how they would play position all of that. I view it more as I can say because like I'm not shoehorning in a goalkeeper over somebody.

like if it ends up being five forwards I'm fine with that yeah and oh five forwards I'm saying one of those I didn't think you'd be full MLS five centerbacks like yeah like I'm not I'm not looking at positional versatility in this okay so we've gotten a lot of feedback and we are still looking for more because we have not closed out the week yet so we still have the debate that we'll have on um on the happy hour this afternoon this evening wherever you are and join us for that be in the chat send in all your thoughts and hang out with us a clear and obvious few are leslie osborne and jane merritt those are the two that everyone has said that are fully locked in a ton of national team caps a ton of success at college ranks a ton of success at the pro ranks those feel cut in dry obvious after that there is a bit

more of a conversation so jesse marsh has come up a ton the problem now being are we talking pure playing and if we are i would argue jesse mars could be in here But I don't know that it's as obvious as everyone's saying soccer identity, Wisconsin, name this person. And Jesse Marsh comes up pretty quickly. Casey Lloyd is one that we talked about yesterday with Jordan, longtime UNC player, played with the U.S. national team, played across the pro ranks, now married to Zach Lloyd, who played at FC Dallas. And they run a team at TSD that we've seen over the last few years. And she has dominated for the U.S. women's team, winning TST two years in a row, which I don't know. how that goes on a resume for pure soccer on field,

but I think it has to be mentioned. Lauren Sesselman, another one that we did not mention yesterday that we should have, 45 caps for Canada played at a time when there wasn't really a proper pro ranks for a lot of it, so spent some time with the Houston Dash, but not a ton of leagues for her to play in. And Sarah Hagan, another one that we mentioned on the women's side of thing.

On the men's side, Jimmy Banks is one that's come up a lot, 1990 World Cup player, first African-American on a U.S. World Cup roster, his son, J.C. Banks, long-time U.S.L. player. Jimmy Banks coached for a long time at the Milwaukee Engineer University and is considered by many who have seen him, one of the best players, which I think when you go to, like, lore players, players where it's like people don't really understand unless they saw them in person. I think Jimmy Banks could be on that list as well.

Matt Polster and Kate Margraff are tough ones. They were both born in Wisconsin. didn't really, weren't really raised there. I can't speak to their Wisconsin-knit abilities there, but other people can. And then two of the ones that haven't come up as often, which I was surprised by, but I'm bringing up, is Andrea Novakovich, who 28 years old still, has played in Italy most of his career, scored a ton of goals in the Netherlands, has scored some goals in Italy for Venetia, Lecho, and now with Bari, pretty much all

in Siri B, a couple caps with the national team as well. And one of the names that has been sent to us is Esmir Barat Terevich. We need five times. So we're locked in on two. We've got Leslie Osborne and J. Demeret locked. Is Jesse Marshall locked when I put you through this? Like, again, if you want to do the

argument of if it's just on the field stuff, then maybe, but like we talked about on the last show, I would lean that. I think he might still be one. Yeah. And again, I'm saying like he'd still be in the, but it wouldn't be a total lock like we're talking about. And I'm I do think Jimmy Banks, like, and then you pick, then you pick between Casey Lloyd, Novakovich, I think pollsters is a little bit below them.

And again, Esmere one day, it's too early for him. So I feel like I'm missing one name here. No, I think some, by the way, on Esmere, like, I think we'll get to some states where it's like that player has earned it. Like, you don't need to have for resume, but I don't think he is one in this scenario. One that we got on Blue Sky, which I'm really, excited about. And again, this goes to learning about these places and not knowing. Apparently Wesley Matthews was a great soccer player before he went the full basketball route. And someone

was saying that he would have been on this list if he had chosen to stick with soccer. So I thought that was a cool one to learn. That's incredible. When you said Wesley Matthews, I was just like, I immediately went to the NBA player. I was like, is there a soccer player that I don't know of? Like the basketball player? No, the actual basketball player. Wow. Um, okay. So I think to me, I think probably Lauren Sussleman is the next one, 45 caps, Olympic medals with the Canadian national team. Uh, that feels like a pretty big resume to try and overcome. So that would give us Leslie Osborne, J. Demerite, Jesse Marrett, Jesse Lloyd and Lauren Sussleman. I feel pretty good about that one. I do too. Sorry, Jimmy Banks, not Casey Lloyd, Jimmy Banks and Lauren Sussleman. But I will present this to our final committee. on the happy hour we will all come back together and then we will decide on where we land we've got a whole new state lined up for next week it is one that is loaded for talent and that's me saying that as an outsider so I am excited to see all our responses and learn more about it thank you once

again to Ari and Noah from lobbing scorchers always awesome to chat with them always fun to have them on the amount of effort Noah put on to get on this show is hot dwarfs what we do do and we're the hosts of this show and we probably should be a little bit more locked in like he is and Ari one of the best covering soccer and as I said sound art heart lobbing scorches subscribe to all of us so thank you to all of you for listening thank you to you Tom and we'll be back next week with a ton of content for you so shout out everyone and have a good weekend Thank you.