SoccerWise - Soccerwise: MLS & Copa America Edition

Episode Date: June 20, 2024

09:38 Kei Kamara's Goal Scoring Milestone12:10 Lucho Acosta Playing Out Of His Mind15:40 Matt Miazga Injury Concerns & FCC Summer Transfers20:47 Julian Hall’s Historic Goal22:22 Frankie Amaya Transfer Report & What It Means For Red Bulls32:31 Andres Gomez And RSL Taking The Leap42:39 Canada Copa America Preview54:20 USMNT v Bolivia Preview And Roster Decisions1:00:09 First Ever Rec League Review Soccerwise Live 2pm ET Every Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday on Youtube/Twitch/Twitter

Welcome everybody to SoccerWise, we are live on Twitch and YouTube, shockingly, David Goss and Tom Miller with you here for this episode, we've got a big one coming up for you, we've obviously got midweek MLS action to react to, to talk about. Tom woke up this morning with a finger on the phone. He is breaking news throughout the day. We're going to react to all of it. We're going to try and get our arms around some of these big ones. Frankie Amaya rumors for a big sale down to Mexico.

Some other trade rumors, some other transfer things, as well as some injury news in Cincinnati. And then we've got Copa America. I am sports guy today. I've got my Canada shirt on. I've got my Liberty hat on. I will be going to the Liberty game tonight at 7 o'clock, and then I will run to the bar to watch the second half of Argentina against Canada. And we are not on tomorrow, so we're going to talk to us Bolivia as well,

floating the idea of maybe doing a live reaction show to that. So shoot me a message. If you're interested in that, if you want to be a part of that, if you want us to do that. So we are going to get all of that going as we roll along. Tom, how are you feeling?

I'm feeling pretty good. David, how are you feeling? You look again, very beachy. I did my, my my the way that i prepped for this show is i was doing the rundown from the beach we gotta get you we gotta get wi-fi down there so we can get you show on the beach no too windy too windy it was it was so

bad the other day i i had to make a phone call and like i was that plebe who put the towel over my head because like guys like i can't hear you because it's like, and I was like, I hate every second of this. And you're like, sorry, just tell Neymar I'll call him back to get the report on his next transfer. Paulo in Minnesota says sleeveless. Hell yeah. That's for you, Tom.

I'm wearing sleeves for anyone who's not watching. And anyone listening on the podcast, thank you for listening. We appreciate the support so far. We hope you're enjoying our coverage. not watching and anyone listening on the podcast thank you thank you for listening we appreciate the support so far we hope you're enjoying our coverage we're going to continue to give you the best coverage of MLS and NWSL we did our first full NWSL show yesterday with Jordan Angeli she explained how Angel City was close to their offensive breakout and they were right there they scored three goals last night on her broadcast so that's the type of coverage you're getting we talked about Seattle, their new ownership

as Sounders take over as the managing owner of that group. So that's been really interesting, and it was a lot of fun chatting NWSL yesterday. And we've got all your MLS chats here today. So you can go to the Patreon. It is up. It is live. Go to the Patreon, and you

can be a part of the Discord conversation. You can be a part of the mailbag. So next Monday or Sunday evening, potentially I'm going to do my weekend reaction show. That's going to be built out of all questions we have from the mailbag. We already have some we've pulled into today's show that we really like. So you can go be a part of that. And we are lining up some depth charts for you to be able to access there as

well as our first happy hour episode, which will be exclusive to Patreon subscribers. So go over there, get involved, get connected, and you get the type of coverage like this. We are the only show that opens with a mea culpa. I went on a rant about how Shaqiri doesn't start for Switzerland. He will never play for Switzerland in this Euros. If you thought he was going to play well and boost his transfer value,

you were wrong. Chicago Fire and Switzerland, or sorry, and Shaqiri. And then Shaqiri scores the goal of the tournament, like what, 12 minutes into that game? So there you go. I would like to say you're welcome, like I inspired him, but either way, I am here to issue a mea culpa on this one. And because of of that i will accept relegation into the second round which means your yorgos jakumakis could join the show because that's the type of pressure he needs tom that's what he needs to be really feel alive so like there's just so many problems with the quote that yakumakis gave look if he thinks liga mechis is better than mls and i'd be curious if somebody asked him this six months ago

or if Atlanta gave him a new contract what the answer would have been. But that's totally fair. I totally get it. But his reasoning here, talking about people don't care if you lose, which is, you know, the dog whistle for Pro-Rel. Well, Mexico doesn't have Pro-Rel. And then it's like, well, too many teams make the playoffs. And it's like, well, Mexico also has a very similar ratio of teams

that make the playoffs. And also they have two playoffs. They don't have one playoffs. They have two two playoffs and they also do the league's cup so it's just a really weird like i'm sure that was he was trying to ingratiate himself with the fans as well like just a little layup at the opening press conference but yeah just uh a lot a lot of questionable sourcing there from york's yakimaki's we could press holes in that peer reviewed article we could uh we could put some holes in that. It is 10 of 18 teams in League MX make the playoffs twice a year. Reminder.

Yeah. So that's a little over 55%. In MLS, it's what? 14 of 29. Sorry. 16 of 29. What? 18 of 29?

Jeez. They call it the play-in, but it's all the same. I can't even get there. Which is like 65%, 66%. So more teams in MLS, but you only get one shot at it a year. So you are right, Yakumakis. That one team difference is the big difference between two soccer cultures. And we're going to see how that plays out in Copa America

as these two teams, these nations' national teams, go into that tournament, as well as of course, leagues cup coming up once again. So I think it's going to be fun to see Yakumakis in that. I think there's going to be a lot of teams aiming for him and knowing a decent amount about him. Let's talk MLS midweek.

As we get into all of this news that we want to talk about 51 goals on Wednesday night, third most in a match day in MLS history. That is a meaningless stat. We add a new team every year. 151 goals on Wednesday night, third most in a match day in MLS history. That is a meaningless stat. We add a new team every year. It's just based off when they play and how the match days go together. So congratulations on that.

But it was wild. Tom, I know you were locked in just like goal after goal after goal across the league. It is one of those days where it's fun when they're all together, but it's also chaos. And I enjoy the chaos at moments got like an ncaa tournament vibe but there's like no way you can track everything that's going on across all these games yeah that's why uh it was it's always the beginning of the year i'm like when you're really trying to learn more and more about a bunch of teams and you take the information that you saw in preseason or heard in preseason and your preconceived notion so i really try to have three screens on three different games and try to make the most and really rotate heavy in the first couple weeks right now it's about surviving and

advancing and keeping up mls 360 is an absolute must now on one of my three screens like again early in the season like and i like that show i i love the host i love like i love the idea of the knock of the whip around stuff but early in the season i'm like i need to like see what these teams are doing outside of highlights but like when you get to like a third of the way through the season i've got 360 on one of the tvs all the time and that was wonderful to have last week it's like i'm seeing like a highlight on twitter before they even get to it on 360 because there was so many other goals they had to get to first and it's just out of control it was it was a really fun night yesterday and it was it's good when the midweek uh fixtures are specifically like this rather than just a Saturday because

you need some midweek fun and it fuels the MLS after dark the MLS chaos narrative particularly when it's on a Wednesday rather than a Saturday it just hits different on a Wednesday and the convenience is right now oddly instead of all of the players missing on midweeks being attacking players they were all defenders I don't think a single team started their first team back line and some teams didn't even start a center say is is there a first team back line at this like with all the international call-ups like exactly and get in with the guys if you could do 10 minutes at right back I think they need you I think there is a genuine opportunity to get into an MLS team right now

as a short term loan for that might be our first soccer wise feature that we put together is our grind back into the MLS situation. It was wild. And not only was it wild, but it was like every single team, big mistakes in the back huge openings and so it made it more entertaining i think dallas would have beaten minnesota anyway probably a 2-1 on a normal day so it was 5-3 no difference it's still a slight margin victory

and that type of game we'll dig into that one but let's start with kai kamara equalizing goal late off the bench for lafc Header on the far post. That's what he's there for. It's 145th goal for him. He ties Landon Donovan for second all-time on the goal scoring list. He is behind, of course, Chris Wondolowski, who is at 171. Probably not going to catch him, but maybe. So congrats to Kai.

It's fun to see him do his thing once again. He continues to roll through and we got the question in the discord immediately saying if Kai's going to continue to chase this trophy or chase this record you know he's going to move teams because that's what he does where do you want to see him next and I love this question do you have any ideas god this is I love this question too because on one hand I just want to say phenomenal by Kai Kamara. I know we've waited a little while for this goal to come.

He's been one away for dating back to last season with Chicago. So I'm really happy for him. One of the absolute legends of this league. But that's all well and good to say. To spin it forward and say, okay, what should be his next team is absolute class. It'd be fun if he could have a little FC Cincinnati reunion as he was there in the expansion draft if if you remember fc cincinnati legend coming back to actually put on the jersey

that or san diego would be fun just add it to him and chuki and and a little expansion club and trying to keep up with new clubs with with new jerseys for him just well he'll continue to expand the record and then won't play for san diego on his thing. The one that shocks me that he's never played for is Seattle because Seattle is big. Like, if you're an MLS vet and you want to be on the back end of our roster, we don't care. You've played in this league. We know who you are.

Great. Come on in and be the Kellen Rose of the world, the Will Bruins of the world. They've done it time and time again. That's also a Garth Lagerwey thing, so that puts Atlanta back in the conversation. Here's what I'm going to say. I'm going to break the internet right here.

Peter Vermees leaves Kansas City. Wherever he goes next, that's where Kai Kamara goes. There's a number of openings, and that is the future for both him and Kai. I'm sure SKC fans will have many thoughts in there, some positive, some negative. So let us know what you think on that one where do you think kai kamara ends up let's go into the craziest game of the day fc cincinnati against philly philly comes back from one goal down three separate times before lucho acosta finishes it off um tom it's another game back to back here where lucho puts in an mvp performance and is carrying

cincinnati into the Supporters' Shield conversation when not a lot of other people are stepping up with him. Lucho calls this out of his goddamn mind. He is so much fun to watch. I'm running out of superlatives. I tweeted something to pretty much say that, like, this is a real conversation that happens with sources and people across the league.

Instead of just saying best player, because I think it's disingenuous to call anything a best player when messi's there um i was i was like i thought i was giving a big compliment to lucio saying that like for me like it's clear he's the second best player in the league and then a few people are like why did you shoehorn messi into this i was like well if you call him the best player in the league it's easy to point out well he's argentinian and one of them is currently with argentina at the copa america and i was like i didn't think this was a hot take i I thought this was a compliment or whatever. But, like, I don't have anything else to say.

He's insane. He should be one of the favorites right now for MVP again after winning it last year. He is a one-man attack. He's been involved in, like, two-thirds of their goals. He's, like, Alvaro Barrio. What a Freudian slip there. Luca Oriano has stepped up really well. he's been involved in like two-thirds of their goals he's like of our obvious part y'all what a Freudian slip there uh Luca Oriano it is stepped up really well Kevin Kelsey stepped up a bit but like all this runs through Lucho without Lucho like this team isn't good like they'd be struggling

to score one goal game yeah he's a one-man show and for one of the best teams in the league who's gonna have a new look back line at least for interim, particularly with Miazga out and Myles Robinson gone for Copa America. And you didn't, I didn't think that this team was capable of scoring four goals in a shootout like this. But Lucho Arcoso was like, yeah, sure, I can do that too. Don't worry. Kelsey barely even touches the first one. It's like the scooped ball from Lucho that Kelsey gets a hair on, which is enough to sort of redirect it. But like, there's a decent chance that one's just bouncing in on its own um and as you said he's a one-man attack he drops in he picks up the ball

he plays big switches to change the point of attack or he starts to attack from zone 14 plays one twos gets everyone open and this is a team that sold a dp center forward last year haven't hasn't genuinely replaced him because bupenza is not a part of this team. Lost Brandon Vasquez, still continuing to perform. Bariel, an all-star, borderline best 11, best wingback in the league. He's gone, and yet they've maintained here at the top of the East purely because of him. I will say I think Oriano's midfield chip of the keeper is better than Chicho's. I think it's the best of the year.

Oh, you agree? He fired like just under the crossbar like that thing like not really off his line it is that didn't roll in missile yeah that was the way that he's able to just like obviously he needed a little bit of a wind-up but like not really that looks like he was just gonna play a big switch and he just banged one from, from midfield. That was wild. I'm with you there. I think that was better than she chose. And I think Jake and Taylor talked about it for a while on the broadcast, but like, he is coming good very quickly. It felt like,

okay, you lose Barry all, it took Barry all years to settle in. And yeah, new, new, yeah. New leadership,

all that stuff. Like they, they turned him into what he is like, and obviously credit to Alvaro Barrio, like as well well don't not to be dismissive there but like he they inherited a different player and really made the best out of him and as you say with oriano it took a little while and even quicker right it's quicker and it needed to be and this is sort of the problem we're going to talk about with frankie maya of like replacements take time and so what's the step back on the way to step forward this is so quick for c that it's barely even a blip and he might be better as they go forward or have a higher ceiling

and what he can add to this team let's talk backline though we got a tweet from Jack Emery who says I know Tom was watching that FC Philly match it had everything I wanted to hear you discuss it on soccer wise can FC Cincinnati keep it up if miazga is out long term does his injury change the july window plans for them what can lucho not do so we appreciate first of all everyone tweet us as you're watching games and we'll throw them into the rundown um tom give us the update on miazga yeah matt miazga this is a long-term injury what the discussions are when i'm talking to sources is i hope it's not season ending and there is optimism that it won't be season ending but miazga still needs to get surgery they're going through that process now and the hope the best case scenario is surgery rehab and he's back at some point before the end of the season and playoffs but i want this to be

known this is not a week's thing this is a month's thing unless there's they found another doctor that actually has has a different opinion but right now it's whether or not they need to use a season ending injured list and put them there but as far as i know the optimism is that they're going to try to not do that and so that miazga can come back for the end of the season playoffs but this is a month's injury not a week's injury this is brutal because miles robinson is out with the u.s national team for copa america so that's your first option up now they did add miles this offseason so long term for the year they are able to cover in a way that i don't think they could have last year and i think we saw in the playoffs when miazga was suspended

that they were not as strong defensively miles is more experienced to do that for them kip keller played okay in this game he went out injured in the end of this game they ended up finishing with alvis powell deandre yedlin and ian murphy as their three center backs this is this is a worrying moment and this is where it comes down to lucho they are going to have to score goals to stay in the conversation for supporter shield because they are not going to be able to shut teams out with the way this is set up. The question on Twitter,

does this change FC Cincinnati summer? Do you see them having the space or ability to go get a legitimate center back? So that's, that's the thing here. I don't think it's going to change their plans, but they definitely have to have the discussions of, do we need to put them on season ending injured list?

Because I, they don't have the roster space, the salary cap space, sorry to make a significant ad at center back without that happening. And even that the, the salary cap relief won't be exactly one for one. Like you're not going to get max Tams a lot back, whatever from the hours ago,

but I think it's more valuable again. Like this is all, this is all extremely fluid, and it will be fluid for the next month or whatever, as they see how the surgery goes, how his rehab goes. But for me, it's more valuable that if there's a realistic chance that Miazga can come back, particularly by the end of the season and have some games before the playoffs, I think that's more valuable than, hey, let's try to get somebody on 200,000

in the senior roster spot for Matt Miazga. But the only way that this sizably changes their summer plans is if they put them on season-ending drew lists. If they don't, and again, I don't think that they would make that decision. They have the luxury of time. The potential win doesn't open for another month, and then it'll be open for a month after that. So they have some time before they need to do that.

But I think it's obvious that they're going to try to bring in another body in the back but something like veteran minimum or supplemental roster right rather than say oh we're bringing in a starting caliber player like this is gonna rely a whole lot on miles robinson it is tough for cincinnati it felt like an embarrassment of riches at the back like four months ago when they brought miles in no like 10 days ago yeah it completely changed like you said not only with with so miles like obviously is gone international duty and then miazga gets hurt kind of like you know it wasn't something that was building and then as you say kip keller they still have keller hagland and robinson if

and murphy like if those are your four you can really get by but like you said that makes it really dicey when games are coming thick and fast in the summer. And then what if Murphy's out for a bit? Or what if Kip Keller's out for a bit? Or like whatever. Like at any time, if there's another prolonged absence, it gets real thin, real fast. Yedlin, not one of those guys that you really want to play wide center back as a fullback. I think Alvis Powell.

I was surprised they pushed Yedlin inside first when Powell came on. And then they were forced to play both of them at center back bro what about you yakubo he could play everywhere like he could play everywhere yeah he drew a penalty in this one he did a good job once again he's carrying this team he's carrying awesome on his back i love you yakubo what a what what another positive story from this group that this guy's become indispensable and you get a credit to the coaching staff in the front office for not just being like oh this is a this way he was signed as a dp forward and now he's a guy who could play as a box of box midfielder as as some sort of a 10 as a forward as either wing back and again if you tell me that they're gonna throw him out for 30 minutes at right side center back and just play the like the old andy nahar role i'd be like you know what i

believe it until he proves that he can't maybe he'll be backup goalie as well who knows andy nahar might have to open up his messages to see if fc cincinnati is trying to get in there steven betashore might be in the conversation aj delagarza just played at tst i think all these guys might be in the convo for this uh for this fc cincinnati squad trying to look for all the names they can to fill in there but huge news for them huge news in the sport of shield race as well as in the eastern conference uh let's stay in the east let's talk a little history julian hall equalizing goal off the bench in montreal two two tie for red bulls he is the second youngest goal scorer in mls history behind do you know freddie adieu yeah it's always freddie adieu we gotta get get put it you put in the rundown that would have been my guess but i didn't know for sure you're not supposed to look

at the rundown that's not what it's there for it's there so that you have no idea what's going on um it's always freddie adeep when you do like age stuff in mls yeah at some point someone's gonna have to beat one of his records just so there's one wrinkle in there cavin already did with the youngest to sign his contract right or no he'd be the first person to debut at 14 years old. Something like that. Freddie was 14 because he was 14 when he scored as well. So this is groundbreaking stuff that we're doing. This is high quality stuff.

Julian Hall, someone we've talked about a lot, though. Tom, we talked about it last year when he was not eligible because of his age and his birthday and all of that. Exciting for Red Bulls to get him on the field. Exciting for him to score. And this is sort of who the Red Bulls want to be. And this is a big opportunity for them to push someone through at a young age like this and sort of turn to other prospects and say, this can be you.

Like, this is the plan. And this is our future. And we've heard Sandro Swartz just be completely committed to him. So a big moment for him. But not a great morning for Red Bull fans. You have rattled Red Bull fandom to its core because you hate New Jersey, specifically Tom Bogert.

Let me make sure that I have that lower third up. Tom Bogert live on SoccerWise hates New Jersey. Give us the Frankie Amaya news and sort of what you're hearing. Yeah, Toluca in League MX is very close to a deal to sign Frankie Amaya from the New York Red Bulls. I'm told that deal will be around $4 million,

so it's in like the Aiden Morris to Middlesbrough range. It's not totally finalized or totally done yet because I'm told the plan is Frankie Amaya is playing for the Red Bulls on Saturday, but then I don't know if that would be his last game or not, but the League MX season starts in early July, so I imagine that Toluca wants this to happen as soon as possible but again for all intents and purposes this deal is just about done he did not start on Wednesday night he came off the bench for Red Bulls what's your reaction to this because I have like 87 different thoughts in 87 different directions when you you heard this, when you digested this for the first time,

what did you make of it? It's a good question. For me, the departure isn't surprising because they've, he's wanted a new contract. Nothing has been contentious between club and the players camp. It's more like, hey, like you're, it's like we respected it. If you don't want to give the the salary that we're asking for the contract we want like that's totally fine you gotta do what you gotta do

but on that like you can't block any moves for them because they're like there are teams that would like that's what that's what they believe so i thought that i could see a trade happening i thought i could see something in europe to like a smaller team or like a smaller league uh so league mx is a little bit of a surprise for me but with the money that some of these teams are putting in like again K-Cal was around four million or whatever it was from San Jose Chivas like Daniel Rios got a decent fee from like a million dollar fee from Charlotte to Chivas like the money coming from Mexico so if the players are into it I can see it happening And one more kind of piece of background,

Frankie and my girlfriend plays professional soccer in Mexico. So that's probably something that helped pull here too. So it's a specific one. It's unique, but like the more you unpack it, it's like, okay, that makes sense. But overall, my first thought was, I'm not surprised. He's leaving this summer. Yeah.

I think all of that makes sense. I believe his deal's up this year. He has an option. There's a club option for next year, but you'd have to have him i believe his deal's up this year he has an option there's a club option for next year but you'd have to have him play out his deal at that point you get nothing for him yeah um hence why most teams try and get the deal done before that happens this is also was sort of the conversation with cincinnati he wanted a bigger deal he wanted a place he thought was a higher stepping stone and they were forced to trade him at a time when he was their only asset um because he didn't want to play there and ended up at new york red bulls

my first reaction and the one i come back to and the one i fall on is four million dollars for him is a great deal he is not he did not has not grown to the level i thought he would at red bulls when you watch him in this team when you look the numbers, he is middle of the road right now in Major League Soccer in this position. He's not elite at anything. And I would add, I think the Red Bull system is set up in a way where a lot of guys can play that position for them and do it okay. You look at Sean Davis and what he did and moving on and being fine in Nashville, but not blowing the doors off. You look at what Peter Stroud did early in the year. And I know you tweeted out that this is part of the conversation.

I thought he was phenomenal. It was in a three-man midfield at the time. They were playing him, Edelman, and Amaya while they figured out their attacking pieces early on. But I think he can do the job in this spot. And if you're going to get $4 million and you send him out of the league so you don't have to worry about him improving the quality of a team that is a rival it feels like a no-brainer even though emil forsberg's 32 years old this is the best you've been in years and it's a half step back in the

middle of that which is not what red bull fans want to see yeah i i agree with that particularly that last point i think is an important one this talking to sources about the red bulls plans like they realize this is they want to be in a win now moment because like you said that it hasn't really been like that it's always been like they sell christian gastris mid-season or hey we're gonna sign a 20 year old or 21 year old so again it's really it's really good that they went out and got forsberg everybody i've talked to says that they're working that they want to sign a dp forward this year as well frankie maya like he helps you a whole lot in in the endeavor to winning and being a better team this year what are the like what's the likelihood that they like they're going to go

back in the market and sign a midfielder that's the idea and maybe they sign somebody better than frankie maya but also maybe not and it's more likely the maybe not side particularly over the next four or five months when this team is trying to be pushing for the shield race for league's cup and for the playoffs so on that front i would understand fans i'm being fans being a little upset uh do i have the read wrong i think that he's a fan favorite i believe that his his uh stock is pretty high among supporters so that's not going to be helpful either and i say that because my sister and brother-in-law are red bull fans and they love them when i was talking to them about this today they were very upset to hear it um so family group chats i'm basing that off of

that um but i feel pretty confident that that the red bulls fans like them so yeah if i'm a fan um definitely wait and see and it definitely hurts to lose frankie and my but as you say on the business side of things both for club and probably for player this is a positive move and not a deal that that you could guarantee would be here uh in December right we have someone in the twitch chat who said that he'd argue that um that Amaya is more important to the Red Bulls than what I'm saying um especially the way he fits into I think a lot of that's fair but I think a lot of that is fair, but I think a lot of that is the system. And I thought Amaya would elevate things in that he fits the system perfectly. He covers a ton of ground. He's clean with his first touch.

He can help you press, but also push into the attack. He has not affected the attack at any level that I thought he could. And if it's about winning the ball back and covering ground in midfield, I don't think there's any scouting system and data set in the world better than Red Bulls to find the next guy who can do that. And they've proven that. That's my point. It's like over the last five to eight years, they have proven the ability to find players who can fit specifically in central midfield. They do not prove that they can fill every spot, but center back and central midfield have been successes for them.

We talked about Peter Stroud is already in the team. He got hurt on April 15th, had surgery on April 16th, has not played since. So it's not an immediate one, but if you can get him back over the course of the summer and obviously international break and leagues cup coming up, if you can have him settled in next to Edelman,

I don't think you're taking a huge step back while you go out and find that replacement. I also, and this is going to be my deep cut that I'm going to do. Audrey Mametti, who is 15 years old, starting on Red Bulls 2, I believe is the top prospect at his age in the entire league. He is for sure the top prospect coming out of Red Bulls since Tyler Adams. Different player. Yep.

Both defensive midfielders so in theory if you gave Amaya the big deal at some point you don't want him starting over the next few years because you want Mehmeti in that spot and if Edelman's still there now you've got three I'm just saying I can understand all the pieces of this except for the fact that if you're a Red Bull fan you've been waiting for a win now moment and they are that this does not exactly fit that time. Yeah. And I would say like, I agree. Like scouts I talked to,

they, they said the same line to me. There's like, this is the best prospect that's coming out of the Red Bulls Academy since Tyler Adams. And like Julian, uh, Daniel Edelman,

my God, I'm just messing up names. Daniel Edelman, uh, is a very good professional. You, you, as you 20s captain,

he's a very good player. The people that I've talked to said, yeah, my Medi is, is going to surpass what he is. And that's, that's to say the positivity around Mehmeti rather than something negative on Daniel Edelman so I agree with all that except he's 15 years old not making this transfer right now like no like will he play 2,000 minutes as a 16 year old probably not so I don't I think that's a misnomer in this but I do think it's important to point out that like hey they got a big talent coming and they've proven year over year like

they don't want to block the top top talents and we go back to julian hall like they allowed him to win minutes like sandro swores after he either had his second game of the season or season debut a couple months ago it was like yeah like he's on the field because he earned it and we're gonna like we don't care about age. If you train well, you're going to get put on the bench. You're going to have a chance. He'll be put on the bench only when the New Jersey child labor laws allow him to be put on the bench before he turns 16.

And then once you get around those child labor laws. By the way, where were those child labor laws when I was 14 and 15? Because I don't remember being told that I couldn't work past 8 p.m. because that was certainly not the case case i'll tell you that right now but he like it this is a team that from sporting director from the club philosophy down through the coaching staff they will play these young players so when mameti is ready and i'd be surprised if they don't sign up to a homegrown deal before long when he's ready to make the bench he's going to make the bench and when he's ready in his development to start games he will and when he's ready that they think he can be the regular

starter he will be so i'd be shocked if that's 16 or whatever right and this would be directly related to frankie and maya but that's definitely something to have on the radar so big news um as you sort of rolled through at the beginning a continued flow of players from mls to league mx as well as in the other direction. Like this is becoming a really strong pathway for both leagues. I think Leagues Cup only makes it easier in that you see those players against your competition more consistently. You get to know each other,

as well as those players get to experience the different atmospheres and deciding what they want. These are numbers, you rolled through it, Cade Cowell, Daniel Rios is one that you're not getting from Europe for these players. So I think that's the other side of it is like, if Toluca is saying, this is the move,

this number probably doesn't come back for Frankie and Maya. So you do it now and you figure it out over the next little bit. So a big move, big potential there. Except you're calling it a rumor. I just, I just saw the lower third here. You're calling it a rumor.

Should I not? It hurts. It's me. It's not a rumor. You're looking at me. What's the term that I use? News? Scoop, report, news.

Yeah, do you trust me, David Goss? Do you believe me? I trust you. I just, listen. Are you sure? I don't live in the transfer room space. I'm not a transfer room, so I don't know what terms we use. It just hurts. I'm i'm just you know a normal

person i took down the lower third though just to make you feel better because i felt bad also we're moving on to the next topic let's spread a little love to rsl43win over skc you want to talk andres gomez i always want to talk andres gomez he was in my top three young players on monday's weekend review episode when i was asked that question by Charlie Fiction. And Tom, you were all over it last night as he scored two goals, including a second one that was a chip at full speed on a keeper who was still up coming out, and he still dips it under the crossbar. Andres Gomez has quietly taken the leap this year, and it's been so much fun to watch. Correctly, Chicho Rongo is getting most of the headlines and most of the love when it comes to this RSL attack. But the reason why

this attack is so special is not Lucho Costa is a one-man show. Again, Oriano, Kevin Kelsey doing their parts. But they don't have somebody playing the way that Carlos Gomez is for Real Salt Lake. He's up to 10 goals and 7 assists in 1,400 minutes. That's elite for a 21-or-whatever-year-old winger. He was super highly rated when they signed him. His dynamic athleticism and, like, technical dribbling ability jumped off the screen from the beginning. Like, he had a lot of moments where it was like, oh, my God, if this kid puts it together, he's going to be special.

But we've seen plenty of athletic wingers in MLS that don't learn how to not dribble the ball out of bounds or take a big touch on the end line or again in the case of kate cow just never develop um the the final product that we all thought and hoped that he would this season andres gomez is doing that and he is a legitimate second banana to chicho arango which makes it even easier for diego luna is probably overqualified if you call him like the third option in the attack but that's what makes this attack so special is because of the leap that Andres Gomez is taking uh check that lower third for you report Goss theorem Andres Gomez I made that myself while you were talking

if you're not watching I'm not seeing that on YouTube I'm not seeing that on YouTube you're not going to see the the lower thirds I apologize for that you can always watch us live live, 2 p.m. Eastern time, Tuesday, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, or listen to us as a podcast. We love that as well. On your own time. You're right. He's taken this leap. He's efficient in his movements.

The thing I say about him is he attacks 100% of the time. And so it doesn't come off every time, but he's always putting defenders on their heels. Even that second goal that I talked about with the chip, he picks up a loose 50, 50 ball off a defect, deflected pass where everyone else has stopped playing. Everyone else looks around saying who's going to step and Gomez has already picked up the ball and he's gone. And that's a microcosm moment of just what's what he's like.

Always Luna had to assist in this game. Yeah. Like you said, and he should have had a goal him and and Gomez linked up Gomez played him across Luna had his shot saved by Emilia and then missed the rebound that came straight at him but like that's another young player in this team Barajas got to start in this game Gavin Beavers made a PK save this is all the dream situation for RSL which is they're competitive and they still have that future and they want to be a selling team. They want to have that as part of their style and part of their identity. And they're

doing it all at a really high level. Crooks comes off the bench and scores a goal for them. I don't know that he's a starter with when help fully healthy with this team because of how well these young guys are playing. And I think Gomez is the biggest one. You win games when Chicho doesn't start like that's because of Andres Gomez and that's huge for RSL going down the stretch this season uh let's talk a little Rapids St. Louis Georgie Mihailovic a hat trick I believe seven goals on the season it was a gift from Berkey in some ways um the second goal was Berkey throwing it out trying to get play started quickly but it's not an easy not an easy finish. And it wasn't an easy first touch or an easy finish. That came up, like I was looking at another screen

and I saw him wheeling away in celebration and I could hear the commentators going, oh my God, Berkey's going to want that. When I was waiting for the replay, I thought that Mihailovic was walking behind him and he put the ball down. That was an excellent defensive play. Obviously, Berkey needs to do much, much better. but that was excellent from Georgie Mihailovic if you haven't seen it

Georgie's sprinting back to cover defensively and Berkey tries to throw it long he throws it too low I think is the problem and Mihailovic while facing away takes his first touch clean with the outside of his foot off the throw that was just chucked at him and then on his second touch he hits it with the inside of his left, curls it around the defenders. There are multiple defenders in the way, and Berkey's still in the middle of the goal, on the ground a little bit for the second goal,

gets a PK for the third. I talked about it early in the season. I thought that there was a ton of rust with these guys because they just hadn't played. When you look at the Vines and Georgie Mihailovic's and Zach Steffen's of the world, that's why they're in colorado and they have slowly come along this was one of the games though where you saw chris's tactics which is all of st louis's mistakes were deep in their half they led directly to colorado chances because colorado plays on the front foot including the opening goal literally

being a throw-in into the box but for st louis it's like you make a mistake it's not a middle third where colorado had played most of last year. It's in the defensive third, and he gets the goal. Let's talk St. Louis, though, for a second here. Matt Baker, who covers this team very well on Twitter, put out that Sam Adenarin is involved in current transfer and trade talks per Bradley Carnell in explaining why he was left off the roster for this game. This is a huge turnaround.

Adenerin last year, 11 starts, 8 goals, 1 assist. This year, only 4 starts, 2 goals, 1 assist. Last year, he looked like a linchpin-type player, and now we're getting into the AZL Jackson conversation of, this is a guy who might not be on the team anymore come the end of the window. Yeah, his contract's up at the end of the season, and this has been the story of sam adenarin's 2024 he was left off i forget if it was one or two matchday rosters and bradley

cornell was like he you know his head's not right kind of thing like this has all been kind of transfer speculation i've been trying to get some more details i haven't gotten anything yet on this situation but what i will say is you don't hold a player out because the seattle sounders called and said hey how much is sam a denner you don't call you don't hold a player out because a couple scouts from a european club came and watched him and a preliminary bid was made you hold a player out when you're like this deal's about to get done and i'm told that nothing is done but i think that i'm being downplayed a little bit by the folks i'm talking to because again like even if there was negotiations like plimp like early talks if they were going back and forth or they don't hold a player out unless something is very close and they expect

to get done so i'd be now surprised if he plays again for st louis but maybe something falls apart but that that's how i view this and as you said i'm surprised i'm surprised that they weren't able to drag this out a little bit longer. And like, same thing with AZ Jackson, that like transfer window isn't open for another month. This team is not in a position where they can give up points. They need everything that they can get while they try to hold on for Cedric Teuchert and Marcel Hartl

to debut and be within this team. And again, Hartl, they're very confident that deal is going to get done. But again, nothing's become official yet. But again, I spent the last couple shows saying how impressed i was with what they're doing this summer and how they're reloading and then there's a couple confusing ones with with jackson leaving and now a dinner and halfway out the door uh 12th right now in the western conference and i think the confusing part with this team is like they're a young team it's going to be hard to get that academy up and running they found these bridge players i talk about this all the time of like as you're trying

to get that going can you find young players that can fit in they did that and and they're the ones who were putting out the news being like everyone in the world wants these players and now all of a sudden it feels like this might be the second one that potentially leaves for borderline nothing um on them in the middle of a tough run when they need players to be a part of their group. So it's another confusing one, I think, as you say, for this St. Louis team. All right.

FC Dallas, five, three winners. I mentioned it off the top. Pets are Musa. Is this your team to watch now, Tom? Did they jump up your watchability rates? Are you rewriting the art? Was it an article? It was an article. Yeah. Are you rewriting the article? Was it an article? It was an article, yeah.

Are you rewriting the article? Are you in the minds rewriting the article? I did say in that blurb, I was like, kind of, and it was the same thing with National as well. Like, we'll see what the new coach stuff brings. Like, they played, like, again, they wildly over-perform their expected goals. This is what happens with an air-quote new manager bump.

A lot of it happens just regressing to the mean. But I love the way they played. They seem more on the front foot. They have seven goals in two games under Peter Lucene after, I believe, 17 goals in 17 games or whatever before him. That's crazy. Peter Musa, Hattrick, guess what? This is what $10 million on a Croatian borderline international gets you, right? This is what happens when Jesus Ferreric is starting and gets to get forward more this

happens when you prioritize verticality and not just going sideways all the time so i am like dallas had fallen like i use those watchability rankings that that idea hat tip to zach low and bill simmons from grantland back in the day then espn like that's kind of where it came from like the the original nuggets but then like i turned it into an article and I wrote that because I find myself on Saturday nights all right like who do I want to watch and I was like oh this is probably an interesting like way to spin into an article and well and truly Dallas were so far down that like I was like dude I don't like it's like them in Chicago and I was just like I don't Nashville is like some of these teams man I don't have any juice for and like I need to watch them every so often to make sure that i'm watching everything for every team so that my

takes are fresh and my opinions and they're all set but like like damn like i really don't feel like watching dallas now i'm gonna be like next week i'm all right like let's see what they got let's see if they can build off this um kamunga i thought this was one of his best games maybe of the year and that was a guy that had really fallen apart under nico estevez and has a ton of potential so that was exciting to see as well all right that's our mls chat for the show because copa america starts tonight i've got my canada shirt on i am so excited for this obviously euros has been a blast we're going to cover canada and the u.s here on this show a ton over the next few weeks.

And then after Copa America is over, don't worry, we'll be laser focused on MLS and NWSL and all those things going on. And we've got some messages about USL. We will sprinkle in as much as we can. We've got U.S. Open Cup as well, Leagues Cup. So a ton to talk about. But right now we're going international. Let's start with Canada because they play in the debut. We'll talk U.S. in a little bit because we won't be on again because they play in the debut we'll talk us in a little bit

because we won't be on again until they play bolivia on sunday it's the first ever copa america appearance for canada here in group a they pulled out in 2001 i don't know why i just read in articles i put it in the rundown and i said it may not even be true and then they didn't qualify in 2016 for the centenario because concaf teams had to qualify for that and they were not one of them that's how bad this team was eight years ago like that is the reality which was they had very little chance of getting into that tournament and now eight years on they've played in a world cup they are going to be a part of the host jesse marsh taking over this will be his third match as manager of this team and it will be in a competitive match

against the reigning world cup champions in front of 65 000 let's say 63 000 argentine fans and 2 000 canadian fans because that's my assumption of what those numbers will look like at mercedes-benz i've been to argentina games in russia that felt like you were in buenos aires i can only imagine what atlanta is going to look like a little bit later tonight, the game's 8 PM Eastern time. If you're listening to this one before Alfonso Davies named captain by Jesse Marsh,

a young player, but clearly the face of this generation. He was the one who spoke at the bid for the U S Canada and Mexico years ago, talking about being a refugee coming to Canada, what it meant to him. And he is, I think already club wise,

the greatest player in Canadian national or Canadian history with what he's done in champions league and the rumors around Real Madrid, but unlocking him is key for this team. And Jesse Marsh has said he will play left back in this tournament. He will play left back for this team. We saw John Her herdman push him higher up the field to try and get him involved more often and let him be an attacking piece i want to ask you what a good tournament looks like for canada i want to do so starting with this caveat

and this is something i think about a lot two players on this official canadian copa america roster are over the age of 30 15 are 25 or younger first copa america in the nation's history what is realistic like what should be the thought process for canada fans getting a point like at the world cup group stage right now like obviously much more than that um my first like i'm i'm so mostly curious about how alfonso davis plays the left back and i'm like these smaller international soccer teams like it reminds you of david alba for austria when he was in his prime like like alfonso davis at club level is a left back he's one of the best left backs in the world when you're with canada i loved him as the wingback in that system under john herdman

and that it gave him more flexibility so I was very very curious going into this window or the the two friendlies and welcome to the job Jesse Marsh you know France Netherlands and Argentina good luck meet all your players and get going but yeah for me like why not come here and think you can be competitive and I'm certain that they do Peru and Chile and Argentina that that's not easy obviously but why can't they they get a couple results against peru and chile we'll see what they look like as argentina tonight but i don't think that that's the measuring stick for this group at this tournament what they need is to hopefully get out of the group stage and i wouldn't call it an abject failure if they don't but if they don't look competitive then i would right like so it's it's

fluid for me i'm again a lot of these things i don't go super binary don't look competitive then i would right like so it's it's fluid for me i'm again a lot of these things i don't go super binary and like they have to do this or words of failure but that's kind of where i'm at what about you as our resident canadian without josh cloak on this team like what uh where is your head at with this team and this tournament i've got my canada shirt on i think you're right i think the binary part is tough which is like i think it's a fair expectation to say get out of the group in that Peru and Chile

are both teams that are worse than the teams they were in a World Cup group with where they were competitive and couldn't get over the line. And they are also teams that you will have to beat in the World Cup

that you are hosting. So it's fair to say that you should be able to get results there. It's fair to say that you drew France in France 0-0 two weeks ago and that playing in the u.s against peru and chile which are two of the teams with the way the that

this group got drawn that won't have massive crowds behind them like it is as neutral a site as you're going to get that it's fair to say that you can do enough to get out of the group and if you do that by the, the way this tournament got drawn, groups A and B are separated from C and D. Group B is the worst group by far. It's Mexico, Ecuador, Jamaica. Those are the teams you're talking about. So if that does happen,

I think that's a whole nother conversation, which is like, can you steal a game there? But I think it's fair to say that getting out of the group is the key. But I do think there's a way in which you don't and you come out of this positive. You come out of this and say, we learned a lot about the way this team should set up. These players have learned a lot. But like I had a Canadian friend text me this morning and say, I feel worse than I did against Belgium in the opener because it's Argentina.

And I think that's fair, except at that moment, we didn't know how the Canadian players would react because we had never seen them against an opponent like that in a setting like that. Two years on, all of these players are World Cup veterans. Like most of this group was there, and they've been together a little bit longer. A lot of these guys have progressed. The soccer things that are interesting, and I think why Alphonso Davies now is a full left back makes sense.

You have more athleticism at center back instead of Steven Vittoria you've got Moise Bombito that is like the two ends of the spectrum to cover for space for him as well as in central midfield you went from maybe Sam Piet to Ismael Kone as Steven Eustachio's partner so I think you can cover for Davies more where he can attack from that left back spot he can float he can find the game at times, and you can still cover for him. Maybe against Argentina a little bit tougher, but in general, I think that's part of the idea. And the other idea is he is world-class at this thing. Why take him away from it?

I thought he was fine at the World Cup. The PK sucks. That's a tough moment. But, like, I thought he was fine. I thought he created chances. I thought he was on the ball often enough. I he was dangerous you saw the goal he scores against real madrid like he can play higher up the field and be good but when you give him a runway he's world class so why not try and do that and i think it makes a ton of sense i think it goes with the

talent that the team has of like miller and tajon buchanan are better than your other options at the back so get them on the field with Davies rather than instead of. And I think there should be a lot of hope. I think Canada fans should come in hopeful. I do think this is a big moment tonight in that I talk a lot with this team about winning the public back. They did a lot of that qualifying for the World Cup. The CSA has lost a lot of that because of the insane stuff they've gone through

and battling the team and battling the women's team and not honoring the gold medal like all the things they've done incorrectly everyone's watching tonight so like you put in a tough one one and like you now from here until the summer of 2026 when that world cup kicks off like you are heroes in all of canada and that's a huge chance I'm so juiced I wanted you to keep going for like 15 minutes straight I loved that I'm so ready dude I'm gonna go buy a Canadian shirt that sounded awesome I'm in go Nike finally made them one instead of not having one made for the World Cup because they weren't prepared for them to get there um I said it I think on Tuesday so like there's a chance they lose 5-1 and there's a chance they win 2-1,

and I wouldn't be shocked either way. I would be very surprised. I'd be shocked if they won 2-1. I'm going to go out on a limb here. I'd be surprised if they get ripped open. One of the things that's tough is just Jesse obviously took over recently, so his style is not fully imprinted. Losing by not a lot might be the reason you get out of the group.

Like a difference in a four team group of the top two teams getting out might be how much you lose to Argentina by. And it's your first game. So you don't know what Peru and Chile are going to do. And so, like, if you are down to zero, there has to be a thought process at some point of like, do you close things up and try and hit on the counter and get a free kick or get something like that out there? The one big player and more, I think, even than Alphonso Davies that needs to show up is Jonathan David. We talk about him over and over. His numbers for club are fantastic. His play for club are fantastic.

It's not that he hasn't scored for Canada. He has not been good. There are a lot of attacks that die at his foot he does not play quick enough in this team where i think he's trying to do too much he has to find his level here because their team is not deep enough to cover for him not being one of the best goal scorers in france like that's what you're talking about and then you go and look at him for this team and he has been nowhere near that. And Kyle Lahren has carried the attack at times. That's not the way this should be set up.

No, I completely agree with you there. I feel like Jonathan David, he's padded his goal stats with some of the minnows that they've played and hey, goals all count the same except he needs a big tournament here with the Canadian national team. Jesse Marsh already said he's going to take penalties,

which, hey, that could help. That's a boost, right? So, I don't know. I don't have anything more to say other than you're completely right, and I think that he's going to be one of the rec factors because I trust what Alphonso Davies is going to bring. But if there's not one of the attackers that are really going to step up, and I think like Eustachio is one of my favorite players to watch

on this Canadian national team. I think that you know what you're going to get from him. I think he's going to be very good, and it's going to step up and i think like eustachio is is one of my favorite players to watch on this canadian national team i think that you know what you're going to get from i think he's going to be very good and it's going to be class but the difference the x factor type of player if we want to do some uh wfan sports talk radio who's your x factor in this tournament it's got to be jonathan david because he has a delta between his top form and bottom form is very large and saying that he's the x factor too is a sign of respect of we know how good he can be and if he is really really good like if they finish second in this group and then play ecuador or mexico like i'd favor them to get to the semifinals and again that i reserve the right to change it if they look awful as they're still

trying to get their feet under jesse marsh and and get everything going but like jesse marsh one thing that we know about him is his motivation and the way that he can kind of get a group together so even if it's just vibes no tactics that works on the international stage too so i'm not too too worried but we'll see herdman tried that and they weren't that far off to open up the world cup like they came out on the front foot and they were the better team in the start of all three of their games but then they exposed themselves and opened themselves up the hope is Jesse has that extra 10% tactically that is able to keep them alive it's going to be fascinating reminder Argentina lost to Saudi Arabia in the opening game of the World Cup in the group stage they went on to win the why not us so exactly why not for Canada so that game going down tonight

we'll of course have your reaction in the weekend review coming up on Sunday or Monday. Out for you, and let's talk U.S. now. 6 p.m. Eastern time on Sunday against Bolivia. That one's down in Dallas, I think at AT&T Stadium. So it'll probably be half full, maybe three quarters, with that gigantic stadium in Bolivia, which is just the most random team. So the stat I found is they've won two competitive games

outside of La Paz since 1994. Oh, my God. One was against US in 1995 Copa America. So they feel comfortable with this matchup. And the second one was against Ecuador, I think, in the 2015 Copa. So they haven't won a road qualifier since 1994 World Cup qualifying. They have only won one game at Copa america against the south american squad like this is this is the bottom of the barrel in south america so it's must win for the u.s um let's start with a little lineup stuff like

lineup comes out an hour before the game what's the position you're focused on or what's the name you want to see uh first i mean i could lay out if you want to get dive into bolivia uh their tactics and everything i know that you're locked into that if you just want a monologue for 15 that was most of what i had i gotta let it rip right out the gate no i mean it's it's center forward and like again we've been having the same conversation since world cup qualifying for 22 and we thought we had it completely solved and done with with balligan coming in and that's still probably the answer but he hasn't really taken that if josh sargent was fit he'd be i think he'd be the starter and i think that would be on merit from everything that i've and even from speaking to people that like that's why it's so sad these injuries that that sergeant has had

like he did everything he could to try to get back and and I'm, I think it's a win that he's even on this roster, because even as, you know, a week before it was announced, I was talking to a couple people, and they were like, yeah, probably not, like, and it's sad, it sucks, like, who knows, right, and then he's on the roster, so he's doing everything he can, and I think, I would love to see a fully fit Josh Sargent playing number nine in this tournament, so I don't know if they're going to go Pepe or Balogun. I assume that they would just play it safe and go with Balogun. But Pepe off the bench, this is a good game to get right in for some of the attackers, particularly at center forward.

If Balogun and or Pepe can get on the scoring sheet against Bolivia. Again, this is the group stage game that I have the least use on. Probably almost tied with Panama because we've seen that game a thousand times. We know where it goes right. We know where it goes right. We know where it goes wrong, everything else. But the Uruguay game is most important. I'd probably start Balgan in that one, again, depending on the form of these two forwards

because you're going to need more dynamism in space, more, I guess, that one little moment. I think Ricardo Pepe makes more sense for Bolivia, but if I had to guess, it'd be Berhalter starting uh bowen i agree with you on sergeant um but i don't know that it happens for me bolivia specifically i'm gonna look at central midfield and just say like don't risk tyler in a game like this you don't need him and it should be reina in central midfield in this type of matchup where you need to create chances and should probably be as well yeah sure but like at some point why risk okay we're at a tournament man like let's like why risk i understand but like dude if he can't start then he can't start and yeah like

there's injury risk to playing players in games but like guess what like we're playing games man like do we just put him in bubble wrap until the Uruguay game? I think that's silly. I can understand some of that, but he's played, what, four games in the year? If you've got a limit on what you get from him, I don't need it against Bolivia. Also, I don't even know that he helps you in the way you want. I think Bolivia is a game in which it looks more like what we've seen in Nations League semifinals, which the U.S. has struggled in to break down Honduras and Jamaica and all those types of things. So I think playing Reina centrally, I think having Moussa,

who you can play out through at the base of that midfield, I think a lot of that makes sense, whether he's healthy or not, and I wouldn't even risk him. Otherwise, I think it's a center-forward conversation, and that's it. Pulisic's going to score goals. He has to, and that's what this team's built on. I was going to say, let me throw a hypothetical that this is a waste of time

because I think there's 0% chances happening. But against a team like Bolivia, you think you're going to dominate possession, you're going to dominate chances and everything else. You play Weah at right back. Adam's at number six, so he kind of drops in as just a halfback. You shield the center backs all game. You try to put out fires in transition. And you tell Robinson and

Weah, get forward as much as you want on both sides at the same time so you have the width on both flanks you have somebody who is elite in defensive transition for when that breaks down and if you feel like you're being too adventurous and then that's you can keep gio reina you know he plays in the inverted slot while way is overlapping the whole time i would love to see that i think that'd be fun as hell i think there's zero percent chance that that's what we see i think there's zero percent chance as well um if it was me and i did it i would just play way at right back without any of the other stuff and say like we don't really need a true defensive right back here he's played in similar positions and i would start haji right on the wing quote unquote i like that forward and then i'd still play reina

and musa and um weston mckinney in central midfield um so i'm here for it i think tim way i can do anything he's like the elite christian roldan player of like you put him anywhere he'll figure it out he'd probably play center back for this team and at a decently high level um but also you want to get him near a goal which i understand as well so that's our little breakdown there for the Bolivia game. Super locked in for Bolivia and what they're going to, the problems they might pose. We're ready for it.

Super locked in. If you're still listening, feel free to tweet at me, DM, go into the Patreon, chat with us, join the Patreon and go on to Discord and let us know if you want a little post-game show on Sunday because clearly going to be watching the game. So I will be around and might jump on to chat with everyone online as well. We'll have the weekend review coming out as a pod as early as we can on Monday morning, potentially late Sunday night.

And then we come back into our full shows Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, live 2 p.m. Eastern time. Tom with me on Tuesday and Thursday. Jordan with me on Wednesday. As the transfer window gets closer, as games continue to happen, and, of course, covering all this international soccer consistently for you. We've got the Olympics around the corner for both the men and the women. It's going to be a lot of fun.

It's going to be an interesting one to watch. Tom, anything you want to leave us on? Any big take? I love – no, I'm going to say for people, incentivize to be watching interesting one to watch tom anything you want to leave us on any big i i love no i'm gonna say for people incentivized to be watching live when you can um i just laughed at a comment in the chat oh shit didn't realize the gun show was in town laughing my ass off that people are loving the no sleeves from you it has been most of the commentary i did hear someone say that on my side it's probably suns out buns out but the camera is too hot

to see it and listen when you got legs like mine you gotta show them off as much as humanly possible we we actually are not ready to be done we are starting a new segment every thursday which i forgot about and we're doing it right now what's your rec league review of this week how have you done my my game is tonight at 8 10 i played twice played twice last week, two easy dubs, including against... I show up for my second game last week, and it's like a bunch of young guys. It's like clearly kids that are just graduating. It's like, oh my God, they're going to really run the hell out of us.

And I was going into that game after a crazy long day. It was our first show. I broke like 15 different pieces of news. And I was jokingly like, I feel bad for the first person who ends up on a 50-50 with me. A kid on the other team walks up to me and goes, hey, Tom, what's up? I was like, what's going on? And it was a very kind young man who I've given career advice to before

and somebody that I like a lot. I hadn't seen him in person. And I was like, oh, my God. I'm going to accidentally just blow this poor kid up, and he's going to be like, what the hell, dude? Anyway, thank God I didn't. We won. He played really well.

I was impressed. But that's how it went. And then we'll see what happens tonight. I bounce back on Tuesday night. First game I've played of my season because I've missed so far. We played the team of 24-year-olds who are all in really good shape. We lost 3-1. The referee came up to me postgame and said,

you played fantastic tonight. I thought he was going to say, you can't come back. You're suspended. I'm just throwing that out there. As someone who played center back in a game where we lost 3-1, feels good to get some commentary like that. We struggled to play through the pressure early. Once we went down 2-0, we dominated the game.

We made it 2-1. We had a few cleared off the line. The other team decided that they wanted to score late. So this guy hits a hero ball to the far post. We have no offside in my league because it's 99 yeah and so the seven 99 99 is terrorism by the way that's crazy especially as a center back so yeah this guy takes it down long touch winds up for a huge shot on my keeper so i step in and clear it away comes through the shot goes knee to knee with me goes down in like a heap and it's kind of doing the like yelling thing and being like apologized to me and it's like my tackle was clean you made the

mistake also there's like 30 seconds left in this game that you're winning 3-1 why are you going in on goal right now and now i'm walking around with a bruised knee so just so you know i put my body on the line for the win even though it wasn't gonna happen it was our first game like that i like the squad though i feel good and we are gonna do this for you every single thursday because i play mondays and tuesday nights does yours just float uh wednesday thursday wednesday thursday okay cool so then every thursday you're gonna get your update here right here okay that's all for us here on soccer wise uh we're gonna go watch italy play spain right right now and see what happens there.

We're excited for Copa America. We're excited for everything going on. And we're excited for all of you watching us both live and later on. So thank you for being a part of this. Hope you enjoyed it. This has been SoccerWise MLS edition. We'll talk to you later.