SoccerWise - Soccerwise: MLS Edition

Episode Date: June 18, 2024

5:00- Shaqiri’s Future W/the Fire19:03 Reaction to Columbus Crew Trade With STL City SC for Aziel Jackson28:08 Inter Miami Changes to Front Office44:20 Kai Wagner’s Comments on Roster Depth52:22 FC Cincy’s Injuries & Boupenza’s Future56:45 Atlanta Replacing Giakoumakis1:00:41 Tanner Tessman’s Future in Serie A Soccerwise Live 2pm ET Every Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday on Youtube/Twitch/Twitter

Welcome everybody to SoccerWise. We are live right now on YouTube and Twitch confirmed because we just watched ourselves live on YouTube and Twitch for 10 seconds while we waited to start this show. David Goss and Tommy Scoops, Tom Bogert here for your SoccerWise Tuesday, MLS edition, USMNT edition, US Open Cup, whatever we choose to talk about in soccer, that's what we do on this show. It is our first live show of the week. It is our first full week of content. If you missed it, you probably don't need to go back at this point because we're going to talk about a lot of it. But I came out with an episode yesterday morning, our weekend recap. We were going to do that every weekend. I will hit you with a pod as early as possible, either on Sunday night or on Monday, so that you have something to digest the weekend of MLS and NWSL action. For the most part, we've got Copa America coming up, so that might throw a little

bit of a wrinkle in there as well. But it's going to be a lot of fun. So that show will be available to you wherever you get your podcasts. This show will be available wherever you get your podcasts as well. I believe we are everywhere. I'm not 100% sure, but I've worked on it. I have gone through the battles and it feels like everyone has told me back. Yes, you are available on our platforms platforms but you can never be sure and if you are not watching live you can go back and watch us on youtube and on twitch

afterwards because you got to see tom's shirt that's the draw for the show is always coming to see tom's shirt time he delivered once again it's summertime baby sometimes a mindset gonna have my little touristy cancun mug as well i'm i'm looking at the beach through my window but you know what i want to look at your sweaty face it just makes me happy that's what i want you already see the sweat my plan's not i saw a couple beats when it was like immediately when you turned off your fan i thought in my head i wonder what the timeline is here and then i saw just one that's like full top yeah it is well i don know today. I think it's about 87 in New York. I live on the top floor of a 300-year-old four-floor walk-up, and I don't have central air or AC.

So when the fan is off and the show is on. Or a beach right next to you like me. The sun is beating. Yeah, the East River is pretty close to me. So after this, I can go for a quick swim. You'll grow a third arm. And dive around in there, exactly. And then I would be the fastest swimmer on the river if I do grow that third arm.

So we've got a lot to talk about today. We're going to have a lot to talk about every episode, but we're going to have a lot to talk about, I think, over the course of the next month or so, Tom, because Transfer Window is open. So there's rumors. There's connections. There's a bunch going on.

We've got a lot of injury and international players as well that are missing. Because transfer window's open. So there's rumors. There's connections. There's a bunch going on. We've got a lot of injury and international players as well that are missing. So that's something that we're going to have to monitor as we go into these weeks. Coming off the weekend into a full midweek of MLS action. Two NWSL games this weekend as well. So a lot going on. A lot to talk about. And a lot of fun to be had. Tom, we're going to start though with a little Euro stuff. I'd like for you to just out loud, read me the starting

lineups for Georgia and Turkey in order. And I'd like you to nail every pronunciation as I get a package right here. Hang on one sec. And you could go start. I thought that was a landline and I was going, I was like, please tell me David Goss has a landline that i was going i was like please tell me david goss has a landline that is so perfect that's what i was looking for no i'm not gonna uh list off the starting lineup for those games i was wanting to watch that game it's very uh disappointing i don't have fubo and like david goss because apparently i'm not a big enough professional to have fubo so no i didn't get to see that game and and i'm just refusing to see any lineups out there anywhere yeah there's just if i don't if i can't watch the game, there's no lineups.

Well, I know your pronunciations for Georgian and Turkish names are on point, so I look forward to that. We are going to preview the midweek coming up. We're going to talk about some of the big performances of the weekend as well as we go through that, and we're going to talk about all the big news. I think the biggest ones right now, Columbus and St. Louis just executed a trade. Aziel Jackson going from St. Louis to Columbus for $650,000 in guaranteed allocation money. That can go up to $900,000. So we'll dig into that as well as preview those games.

The Kai Wagner comments, of course, are going to be big from this weekend. His talk about Philadelphia maybe needing to reinforce, maybe needing to change that lineup a little bit as well. Miguel, not Miguel, Ezekiel Ponce, who you broke the news on last week here on this show, has officially signed as the new DP center forward for Houston as well. 2-2 draw at Atlanta, a good performance for them. So we'll talk about that. But I want to start with a team that's not playing midweek, but I thought was one of the biggest comments of the weekend. Jared and Shaqiri with Switzerland said that he would like to go back to Europe. So you can take that in a lot of different ways. I don't think he meant vacation. I don't think he meant just for a Euros camp.

Tom, what did you make of this when you first heard it? What's your reaction? Yeah, it's obvious. I think that Chicago Fire weren't disappointed to hear it it's what they want as well my first takeaway was you know shakiri saying i want to return to europe chicago if they were on the other side of this press conference would have probably piped in with hey we want you to return to europe too right so this is a mutual this is good both parties are on the same page but with a big money involved we'll see exactly how that can happen there were other quotes from that press conference that I've been trying to track down.

Apparently, Shaqiri wasn't so thrilled with everything in Chicago, which, like, hey, man, it's not great with he leaves and they go on a, this is the best they've looked all season, the four games he hasn't played. So not exactly ideal for your boy's brand there. Jared on Shaqiri. Let's see. I mean, he like awakes from slumber for the European Championship. So I wouldn't say all that much when it was coming to this. But for right now, like Shaqiri, it's not not looking great for you either.

So gosh, for me, it comes down to money. I think if I'm the Chicago Fire, I'm just printing the transcript of this press conference where he said, I want to return here. Oh, do you like do you want to return to europe then like let's find a solution and if he's saying i want you to buy me out because i want to get every dollar and to be fair i'm pro player get your money son i don't blame you at all but how badly do you want to return to europe is it i want to return to europe but also get every dollar in this contract or all i've made plenty of money in my career and particularly plenty of money from chicago fire um let's figure out a solution where you we can both get out of this deal and start anew yeah yeah i i mentioned it yesterday i i thought that's the most likely scenario there's

no one in the world that's paying shakiri the rest of this contract for what this contract is worth for the player he is you mentioned his national team performance didn't play for switzerland against hungary so a guy who had been a locked in starter doesn't start they're only up to one in the second half it was a good game they played really well um they're struggling he's not the guy that comes off the bench so like he's already changed there and if the hope was oh he'll go he'll do his switzerland thing in a big competition and that will lead to the transfer i think he has to get that out of his mind and i think chicago has to get that out of his mind there's no way in my there's no way someone pays for the transfer for him on something close to this contract so they can agree to a deal which i think makes the most sense like you said

they walk into the room with those comments and say if that's's what you want, then this is how you control it. But on the flip side, I think Chicago fans, and this is what I said yesterday, if you want to talk about being a big spending team and Mansueto has spent big, this is where you do it. Like these are the unsexy ways in which you say, okay, we're going to be competitive no matter what. We messed up. We are stuck in this deal.

We have a get out of jail free card, and we are stuck in this deal we have a get out of free jail get out of jail free card and we can do it this way you don't want to use the buyout because they have other guys that they have to get off their books and that's why it's not so obvious because mls teams what it's two buyouts now yeah so they have or well sorry sorry guys that hasn't been officially confirmed um so it's it's the same thing with the three DPs for the 4-2 game stuff. 2-4 game, sorry. I know Weeby's listening. Weeby came up with that, and I love it, and I'm completely still in it.

That hasn't all been confirmed yet. And one thing I heard is that the thing that was getting that they had to keep talking through was the buyout stuff, because the PA has to sign off on all of this. So it has to be sorted within the next few weeks and announced. But the idea is that there's going to be two buyouts, but that isn't confirmed. So if there's only one. Super boring, super boring hair splitting here.

That's what everyone's here for. But if there's only one, it matters because I think Chabilco was bought out this season. Was he bought out? What was the language in that press release? I thought that it was more effectively a buyout, season so they don't have bought out or what was the language in that i thought i thought it i i thought that it was you know more effectively a buyout but i thought it was technically a transfer to legano like that um but again i don't remember there's been a lot of deals like that but yeah as

you said so suke they've been trying to get rid of since the winter gas on jimenez despite signing him to two new contracts they've been trying to get rid of him this entire time which i would say if i could consult for the chicago, maybe don't sign that new contract. You won't have to try to get rid of them. But so between Shaqiri is first and foremost, because of the DP spot and there's gas on him and as, and then are not suitcase or those are three players that they're trying to get rid of,

which would free up significant space. Again, one would be a DP spot and the other two would be significant salary cap. So Chicago could be super fun this summer. They really could be again. They spent 12 million plus another two and add-ons for Hugo Kuipers. He's looking like a very good signing. But he's somebody who I think we'll see the best of him with chance creators around him.

And you're not going to get the high-level chance creator, unlikely, without that DP spot from Shaqiri leaving. And they could add two DPs if Shaqiri leaves. So confirmation, thanks, Jose Nunez, in the chat. And we're also going to grab some of your quotes from later when we talk Philadelphia. It was a transfer. So they do still have the buyout available to them. But you mentioned the laundry list of players. I don't believe they have also an open roster spot.

So to move anyone into the team, they'd have to move someone out. You'd think it starts with Shaqiri. But even if it doesn't, to try and fill DP spots, to try and fill contract spots, they have to move players on. It is an interesting moment to do this because they have played well. So, like, outside of Shaqiri, it's not super obvious where to make moves and what to do. My thought would be it's a set.

It's not obvious, guys? Well, it is, but you look at a moment where Hale Salese comes off a goal. Fabian Herbers is playing well. I think Jonathan dean's been awesome and has locked his spot in i actually thought suket looked okay as a side center back in the last game and you look at this team and you say okay tehran if he's there is locked in as a center back i think at this point you have to look at things and say pineda's locked in as one of these centerbacks.

This is like the role he was born to play as a half center mid, half center back. Yeah. As a wide guy, and he scores the goal in the last game as well. And then you have Sheehos, who I don't think fits this formation as well, but you paid a lot of money and he is a natural center back. So I just say that in saying this is the best Suquette's played his entire time there. This is the best Aragoni's played his entire time there. This is the best Aragonese played his entire time there. That is very fair. So you could just swap all these unknowns and maybe he's out for just good soccer players and then not have to worry about anything and then not have to do it as well.

It will be interesting going forward. My guess would be you go second forward, which is what Shaqiri should be in this team. He's just not going to. it. No, no, no. I disagree. It should be a chance-creating 10. And maybe if you can get goals from that player too. Like, Carlos Hill, chance-creator. But he can score some goals.

But in your mind, it's 5-3-2 or 5-4-1? 3-4-2-1. The non-see ball that has kind of started to take over a little bit more and more. Like, having the proper number nine of Hugo Kuipper's and then the two players underneath can be any combination of things like it could be gutierrez and then like you said it could be a second forward but i really think the bet the way to get the best out of what's around them is a pure chance creator and if you can get goals from that player that's great too but you're when you're doing your profiles when you're when you're uh sorting through, when you're sorting through with data

or scouting everything and looking at numbers and watching players, first and foremost, this has to be a chance creator for me. And I think if you can get goals or 1v1 dribbling on top of that, verticality on top of that, that's cool. But chance creation has to be the bare minimum. Yeah, I agree with you on that. And you're not looking for second Kuypers. You're looking for the guy that drops in deep, creates up chances that's their number one role but i think it's going to

look more like two in the front which is sort of what we've seen with holly salese over the last few weeks we're like gutierrez a little bit deeper yeah the other thing is kellen acosta needs a partner like kellen is not covers every blade of grass and dominates the game type guy. He's very good in MLS. He is not elite in those ways, and very few guys are. And so you look at a situation where that's the other spot they need to fill. The Gaston Jimenez player, they need a real player who can do the things that they want him to do. So they need to fill multiple holes.

They need to do it with not a ton of of roster flexibility and i would look at the quality that they do have quote unquote and wonder their futures of like carlos taran made the comments about wanting to go to europe he said in the course of that interview like that's everyone's goal but like that might be all you have that people want and you may not i think you're correct and you might not be in a situation where you get to choose so it might be oh like we have to give up players we like and want to get some openings and get some flexibility i would look at a few teams in mls that might be willing to take a wing back from you seattle might be one of them alex rolled on with the concussion injury knew who's been up and down they've had injuries as well um with baker whiting like that might be a team where can you just

offload a player? You don't even need to get much for them just to open up roster spots. No, I totally agree. And with Tehran, like, I think that's still the goal for both parties. Like, I know it was in January and then Tehran got hurt, so that makes it a little bit more difficult with transfers. But I think if a reasonable offer comes this summer, Chicago and then Tehran are both interested in it. I think that would happen.

For all of the – again, it sounds like – and we are being pretty critical of some of the things that Chicago has done in the past, and rightfully so. But one thing they've been very good at is transitioning players to Europe. Even their, Eric, quote, bad players. Like, Ali Seyda has been good for Lugano, right? Frankowski starts every game for Poland. Yeah.

It is wild. Again, like, we are right to be critical, but I do want to say that, like, say in the situation of Tehran, like, that's not a place where we can be critical of them. They've absolutely earned the benefit of the doubt there. And again, like, hope springs eternal, right? We'll see what happens with the Open DP spots and everything else if they are able to get out of Shaqiri's deal

and then continue moving forward. But again, for me like it's it's pretty obvious what they need in terms of that chance creator and attack to play with coipers or again maybe if it is a second forward again you could try to talk me into that i'd probably see the light but again that's that's not exactly where i'd see it and then again i i guess defensive additions as well particularly if tehran does go then you take a lot of i, that salary cap budget that opens up with a couple of these guys leaving and just try to go get an anchor center back. And that's much easier said than done. I think that's much more elusive than finding a DP forward in this league

because most to all teams try not to use their DP spots there. So, again, I could see Chicago using that second DP spot on a six. I'd prefer that over center back but if you were like we we found an excellent center we know he's gonna be great uh firewatch i see in the chat literally just listed eight players and was like we just need a better version of all these players which is to our point the one thing i'd say on center back is i would i would i would say you go for the six because they're more versatile depending what formation you play. And they impact more people around them.

And you can cover. If you're playing three center backs, you have Pineda already. You're probably stuck with Sheehoes. You could probably cover for that position the way you play tactically and formation-wise more so than covering for a lack of quality or lack of ground coverage in central midfield or for a lack of pure chance creation in the coverage in central midfield or for a lack of pure chance creation in the attack so that's probably the future for chicago they do not play this week

as you mentioned they've been awesome since um since shakir left for euros a 4-1 win this week over tfc a very thin tfc squad no bernadeschi they're missing Osorio. They're missing Richie Larea for international. Sean John as well. So it's not like the purest performance you've seen, but it comes on the back of the win over the Galaxy. And it was, again, I thought a really strong performance in Ben, but don't break defending and some good chance creation, especially Fabian Hermers, who again, will not lose you MLS games and he will win you some MLS games as well if you put him in the lineup often and not enough uh to Michael as well as to Adrian yes we do check the chat we have them up in both Twitch and Twitter and YouTube

um as we roll along let's go into our next one guys can we go a little bit meta right now and I'm sorry for the like in the chats please let us know what you kind of want and i guess podcast listeners just let us know uh retroactively like do you want us to be going into the chat because my thought is what about the people listening on podcasts like make sure that we're repeating what the comments are when we address them but like i think we can find a little blend for that so so i like that goss but but just just trying to go meta here that you guys are helping shape the show that we're trying to make because we're figuring out as well as you see we got youtube up that that's a step in the right direction we're always improving if you start at

a low base level everything's up and everything's all relativity and as long as we're going in the right direction even if we started a little bit low on the technical side you guys can help us i also appreciate a lot of the advice i've gotten just from people in the community who have hit me up and been like oh you should mark it as this, make it this length, do this, do that. Someone hit me up about making a website, a Seattle Sounders fan from Portland, Maine, who I lost the chat in moving between two Instagrams. So if you want to hit me up again, I would love to talk to you. If not, then we'll be lost and I will platform tom wherever i can find a spot to do it real quick on on that stuff people saying nice things to you yeah the nice things that people have said to

me about the show boom it's all about you i've had sources text me and it's been like i'm so hey congrats on the new show i'm so happy to hear david goss's voice again it goes congrats to you guys immediately i love david goss and'm like, do you want his number? Yeah, tell them to text me because I like to hear nice things. Also, because my wife will always be like, who's texting you? And if I turn around and be like, oh, it's someone saying something nice, it's always a little bit better. Also, by the way, happy birthday to my wife. It was yesterday.

Hence the nice flowers as well and the wrapping paper, whatever, that was all over my living room because she opened her gift and then didn't touch a single piece of what it came in to throw it away. And it was like the purest child reaction to a gift that you can have. So shout out to her as well. And birthday week in my household is finally over, which is my favorite part of birthday week. I already have the lower third up if you're watching live. So you know what we're going to talk about now. Let's talk Columbus Group because this was the big trade here today that we want to dig into. So Aziel Jackson traded to Columbus for $650,000 in allocation. So that's going to be half this year and then half next year guaranteed. Then an extra $250,000 is possible

to take it up to $900,000 based off performances. And St. Louis retains a portion of his sell-on fee if Columbus sell him under whatever contract status it goes from here. Let's start on the Columbus side because that's the exciting part with this. You watch St. Louis this weekend and Jackson was the most active player on the field. He covers all over the field he's comfortable inside he's comfortable outside he's comfortable in space he's comfortable with defenders around him um he wants to take players on like this is a no-brainer for Columbus and I don't think it's an Aiden Morris replacement I just think it makes this team deeper and better

yeah like I'll just say pretty obviously it's not an agent portion place they don't play the same position um it's more about opportunity and this is a player that they've liked for a long time um i was talking to folks around reporting out this trade that columbus really liked him before he went to st louis so when when when his minute he was getting minutes in mls next pro i believe with minnesota um and that's when they first spotted him and they really liked him st louis ends up getting the deal he kills it for st louis in next pro before um before they went to mls gets a deal there and then they've kept tabs on him ever since he had his breakout season last year and now they're able to find a deal for a

really talented rising young player like if we were talking in January, hey, AZ Jackson gets traded this year. One, we'd say, I don't really see a scenario in which that happens. And two, in January, you'd probably say, it's got to be $1.5 million maybe. And then a big sell on it if he goes abroad. I think we were all of the opinion that he was going to have a big year. And then if he leaves, he'd go abroad. Again, reporting out this trade, asking asking around trying to find out the details i was like all right i'm assuming the only way st louis would let him go is if it's a big big deal like

gotta be a million or something right so to find out that they paid 650 000 like that's you know it's still a good turn for st lou Louis. Not what I would have expected. And like the sell on is important because Columbus will bring players abroad. If I'm, if I'm AZ Jackson, obviously I'm probably surprised at how this happened. I know that he loved it in St. Louis and he's had some really good moments over the last year and a

half. My next thought would be, so I'm going to go play for Columbus where every single attacker under Wilford Nancy in the last three years have had their best season ever. All right. I got my bag. Don't worry. I can get myself to the airport.

I'll see you guys later. Right? Like what a recruitment tool that must be for Isatol, the Columbus crew to be like, hey, you go get young attacker. You go get to play for Wilford Nancy. Sweet. Sign me up. I'm in.

Let me give some context here. Aaron Herrera, I think one of the best fullbacks in major league soccer over the last five years not over the last two years the trade this year for him to go from montreal to dc was 500 000 allocation plus who on sort of the same that you're looking at here and that's a player that you're not going to sell in the future didn't have as good a year last year and on a worse contract not a word like good players cost money is what i want to say i i don't want to say it's a bad contract but that like bill to a loma when he was like 800 000 it was because he was on a really good contract and so it was like if he was being paid 200 000 more that this trade would have been

200 000 less right like so that always comes into it as well and az jackson isn't on a big deal yeah and so they're not the same player they're not in the same situation it's just trying to give you the context of like why we're shocked by this number for this player because this is a player that you look at and you say at what he has going on currently and in the future you have to be in the higher ends of a million to two million in a conversation in allocation money to bring this player in also with the assumption if you're're St. Louis, saying, we know you just sold Aiden Morris, we know the money's there,

now it's time to give it to us. Historically, MLS teams struggle in moments like that, like expansion teams. They always have to overpay because everyone knows that they have the allocation money and they want that to be a part of their team. St. Louis has been telling us for a year that bundesliga teams are banging their door down if he's that close to a move and that number is anywhere close to what we think it could be and i'm saying like it doesn't have to be in the millions if it was 500 000 there's no chance you probably get 500 000 out of the percentage you're giving columbus in this so it's very confusing from the outside. You throw Jackson in here and you said it.

He will fit perfectly into what Nance wants to do. He obviously has a ton of experience now in counter-pressing where he's been really good. That's an element that he can bring to this team. That Columbus, not that they don't do it, they do it. But he will do it at an even higher level than some of the pieces in their team. It also just gives them more minutes. With the way Columbus is set up in that everyone can play three positions no matter what happens to injuries or internationals or whatever now you have another player you can slide in and slide someone else around and move someone around matan

can become a wing back if you have to you can slide zawatsky around and bring jackson in a little deeper for moments late in games you can move whoever else basically besides nagby anyone on this team can move around positions jackson's versatile he does all of those things and as i said i think his soccer fits i think he wants the ball in and out of his feet quickly i think he doesn't mind having players around him especially on his first and second touch to try and beat them and that's what columbus does so well and so he's gonna have to work on link-up play and like he's gonna have to work on being a part of those passing patterns as he joins a new team but it feels like a no-brainer it feels like a big moment for columbus in saying they've won a

lot of moves over the last 18 months and bezbachenko leaves and the question is just okay can they continue to do that and this feels like an early one tom of being like columbus is still on the same road yeah absolutely and like again i know that that we talked last week about so bez is out cory ray's out neil mcginnis all those three left in the last few months like isa tall's been here the whole time mark nichols has been here the whole time wilford nancy i'm like i'm sure like just by by way of numbers with losing three people from the front office like i'm sure that he's growing in stature and importance. And again, as his pedigree and resume should dictate. So this is still the same DNA for the Columbus crew,

again, particularly with Issa Tall and Mark Nichols leading in the front office. So it's not surprising to me that they're going to try to do the similar things that they did under Bez. And you look at this attack now, like Dylan Chambost is also being signed, right? And maybe this means he's going to play more number eight than I maybe expected right when he signed, but this attack, it's got, at center forward, you can play Cucho, Jason Russereau, Christian Ramirez.

At that second forward, it's Rossi, and then it's Jackson or Heinz Trosa, or again, Cucho can play there if you have a more traditional nine. And then at attacking mid, it's, okay, then if Cucho's playing as a second forward it could be Rossi it could be Matan it could be Shambos it could be Jackson it could be Heinz Trosa like yeah that's gonna be really difficult to get all these guys minutes but what this team wants is positional versatility and fluidity they had one of the smallest rosters in the league so it doesn't seem that way because

everybody outside of like Rudyy camacho maybe and darlington nagby maybe can play multiple positions everybody else essentially can and even with those two players camacho can play different roles in the back line christian ramirez probably has to be center forward but he's he can drop in and play like everybody on this team can play different ways and so there's a lot of different players, but they can fill a lot of different roles. So I trust Nazi to get the most out of these guys to get the minutes. Look,

hell Christian Ramirez and Julian Gressel weren't playing, weren't starting games at the end of the playoff run last year. Both of those two dudes were absolutely bought in the whole time and they were playing roles off the bench. So if there's anybody who could try to keep everybody happy, it's probably Wilford Nazi. And I think if you're Columbus, you're trying to cover for the minutes you have to put into conca calf which historically kills teams in the

second half of seasons as well as be ready for the playoffs especially if maybe outside of aden morris there are more moves that come just because you've been successful and teams are looking at you and potential transfers pop up and you never know what happens it's the type of player you already want to get in and i think columbus has done a good job as well of when you look at some of these players look at the mo farcees of jason russell rose max arfson's players like this that are continuing to bridge this gap as they hope the academy gets to where they want it to be where like dallas a few years ago could sell a player and then just replace columbus not there yet taha bruin's not there yet like those pieces aren't there yet so you can continue to do this so columbus i mentioned it yesterday they play miami this

week miami coming off the insane comeback at philadelphia with nine players winning it in stoppage time but that does mean aviles and david ruiz are suspended as well as all of their injuries and all the players they're missing before we dig into this game let's talk miami a little bit because this is like right in your wheelhouse i'm going to try and stay with you on this they named a new head of both presidents of both their business and football side today which the football side the interesting part because no one cares about money or business means that this is a new point person who's making all the soccer decisions for this club yes so that's the way that i understand this move this person um was previously uh he was running arsenal and barcelona he was the head of football director of football both of those clubs and he was recently with zaragoza which is also owned by jorge mas um i'm gonna probably butcher

the last name raulul Sonelli. I think I got that right. That's why I said this person. I was just trying to gather the confidence to try to pronounce his name. So, yeah, he comes in as, look, he's top of the food chain in Inter-Miami's sporting department now. And the way that he tried to sell it, he used a quote that was, you know, I'm just the orchestrator.

I like to view my role as an orchestrator. You have the piano and you have the flute. And it sounded really good, right? And then I was talking to a colleague at The Athletic from Europe, and he's like, oh, my God. I interviewed him two years ago when he started at Zaragoza. He gave me almost the exact same quote. So he knows what he's doing in interviews, I guess,

and so that would make me a little bit dubious of this guy. Marc Prezant, who is their head of scouting, chief scout, director of scouting, whatever his exact title is. he's out um there's probably going to be further look if you're chris henderson man like look and and again sonelli in an interview with paul tenorio try to reiterate i've met chris i like chris i want to work with chris all of this i legally but you've heard that plenty of times in these scenarios i think the writing's on the wall for chris henderson and i'm gonna i'm gonna be honest i think that this was the case previously and i like more so on his side of things and this was more me talking to people who who were deducing as well so nothing like completely concrete but like so i know ownership does deal

does like they did the messy deal right and and like it's not like chris henderson was going to be like well actually i don't know if we should sign Lionel Messi, right? But like those big deals, Messi, Busquets, Alba, Suarez, all that comes from ownership and Messi. And now Messi, I've heard he's, Messi is like the one leading, if they end up signing Di Maria, Agent Messi is the one working on it, right? Like so Chris Henderson isn't getting to do some of those big deals. The medium deals, Tata Martino, because of his resume, everything,

like he's earned having some semblance of control. He has a lot of control on like those mid-level signings. Like Weingarten, a lot of the U-22s, Tata helped a lot with. Like, again, these are good problems to have. So at the end of the day, Chris Henderson, who is, who's done, I think, a fantastic job with Miami before and after Mets. Like he got dealt a bad hand with the sanctions and a lot lot of bad contracts from his predecessor and he did really well so right now what what exactly is his role what does he lead is it hey by the way we just agreed to

deal for de maria um figure out the cap like make it work right like he's better than this like he's earned more than this and if i'm'm Atlanta, I'm calling him. I'm Garth. Hey, man, let's get the band back together, right? Like, again, I don't know that there's anything immediate. I want to preface again. This is mostly speculation, plus like a little bit from what I've been talking about with people.

But all of those conversations are happening from people that aren't at Miami. I could be wrong. Chris Henderson could say the more the merrier. I trust him. I believe that I'm still going to be the head of charge, like for day-to-day kind of stuff. this could be completely wrong but from what i've talked about with people and just kind of being around this for long enough that'd be my best guess and i feel pretty decent about it it's it's an interesting way to view it because i think from the outside

the first reaction is like this is the show right this is the once a timeNew-York documentary coming out in 50 years about Pele Cosmos. And, like, you want to be in it. You want to be a part of it. Do you really leave this? Even if your role is not the role that you hope it is. And even if it's not the role you deserve. Because I think for the starting point, for anyone who doesn't know, Chris Henderson was the architect of a lot of what went right in seattle over the last 10 years then he comes to miami miami is a mess and i've said this a million times

two years ago miami were not bad like they made the playoffs in the second half of that year playing without no business making the playoffs with no business and he didn't have a dp spot open to him that he could use long term because they were saving it for messy uh he drafted two center backs that started for them. He went out and signed players that no one else wanted. He brought in pieces like Bryce Duke and all of that. He put together a lot of that. And then now this year, after all you've said of like,

the Moss and Messis are doing these signings, Tata's doing these signings, they just beat Philadelphia in stoppage time, down two players on two draft picks that he made. So even now with the way the roster is, the parts that he's in charge of that we can identify from the outside are hitting and keeping this team alive. Like this roster is able to stay in a conversation for support of shield without Suarez and Messi consistently,

without all these injuries, blah, blah, blah. Cause Campania and Ryan Taylor and all of these Robert Taylor, you're sorry. All these pieces that help them that are part of this group that he he's built out this roster and made it deeper. Drake calendar goalkeeper of the year. Like, are you kidding me? In a situation where this guy comes in, not really being known, they get him on a

homegrown deal like all this stuff are huge moves so it's i guess in my mind that's the way i thought of it first was like you don't really leave this thing atlanta is a huge one to bring up because he worked with garth he likes they obviously liked working together but he did leave to become in charge of a thing so you're right in like he's not right now it's weird to think is atlanta if you are cso in atlanta are you in charge of things like is that garth show and you're working under him or is it doesn't matter because you're cso and that's your job and that's where you want to go if this is in any way real there should be nine teams in mls picking up the phone sorry there should really be 27 teams in mls probably picking

up the phone maybe you could convince me a few you wouldn't do um although with bez leaving columbus maybe one of those came back into the conversation but like if toronto could get him to do it instead of bill manning touching things uh and keep control maybe david lee's one you wouldn't nycfc have done so well erin standard's done so well john thornton but like there are a lot of teams where one most people you talk to say he has the best eye for talent in the u.s soccer pool so like whatever he does in your club you're going to be bringing good players and he's clearly shown in in miami that he understands how to work a cat make moves hit hit against opportunities that you don't really have. I mean, they've had the sanctions, everything,

and they've still been competitive the whole time. But this is Messi's show. So it is a little bit different right now than what we are used to. So Miami-Columbus this week on Wednesday night, full slate of games on Wednesday night, 7.30 p.m. This one kicks things off. So as I mentioned, Aviles, David Ruiz suspended. Messi, Suarez, Rojas are with international.

Redondo's still out. So he depleted into Miami team. On the show yesterday, I made the case, Columbus. They are 11 points behind Miami for Sporting Shield lead with four games in hand. This starts some of that run. And they won MLS Cup last year that they are both in this and this should be their focus what do you make of my take I love that yeah and I would say that's been my view this whole time like I'll talk about power rankings or I'll talk about all this like I think that they're absolutely

in the mix and now like again we're talking about how deep and how versatile they are that like they don't have many irreplaceable players even like again like kucho and nagby are probably that but even with kucho out like they were getting results so i i still think that this is let like at the end of last year everything we were talking about this clumb screw team that's how i view them right now and i don't really care where they're technically listed in the standings because like you said they have a lot of games at hand and they had a lot of games where they were focused on CONCACAF Champions Cup correctly, I would add, and now they've got the rest of the season to just steam up the table, and I think that they're absolutely one of the teams of the Shield.

Yeah, Cincinnati on points per game I think could stretch the lead at the top a little bit, but you're in the conversation if you want to be as I die here in the heat. And why wouldn't you want to be? In New York, yes. So a huge opportunity for Columbus still. That's going to be a really fun one to watch midweek. Let's go over to the St. Louis side of things.

We didn't really touch on them with the Azalea Jackson trade. Like I mentioned a little bit, St. Louis has said Bundesliga teams want him. This is a huge prospect. He's played a ton of minutes for you at a high level. Now let's go try and explain this from this side which is not the value we thought on an allocation that they would recoup for this and then you don't have the opportunity to sell them overseas yourself what are you reading on the tea leaves here of like st louis's side of this

for me it's more about looking forward it made me immediately call somebody in St. Louis and I was like does this mean that the Marcel Hartle deal is done and they're confident it's going to get done I mean at that time of speaking right now I haven't gotten a confirmation that anything is done but I'm pretty heavily expecting that deal for Marcel Hartle to get done and this would be a really great start to their offseason again I'm very surprised I thought Jackson was still going to be part of this but Cedric Teuchuchert, deal's already done. He's going to be ready to debut on their first game after the transfer window opening on July 18th, and he'll have several weeks of training under his belt, and he'll be able to play 90 minutes if they want.

And then Marcel Harto, who had 17 goals and 13 assists for St. Pauli as they won the two Bundesliga last year, this year sorry um but he's a free agent that would be an excellent signing and he's a DP level signing toy shirt is a Tam level signing who probably would have been a DP level signing if they had to pay a transfer fee so these are two significant additions to the attack in the same way that like we didn't know much of anything about João Klaus unless you were super dialed into the Bundesliga or wherever he was on on loan before he got here yeah and Belgian League, the Swiss League. Yeah, and same thing with Edward Loewen.

That was a name a few people knew kind of in more passing. Oh, wasn't he blocked for $7 million a few years ago? Whatever, right? Berkey was the only known commodity to the average MLS fan in terms of coming in last year, and those three were excellent signings, excellent, excellent signings. So Teutcher, Hartle, yeah, my benefit of the doubt for this team. And all of a sudden, those are two new starters. For me, I think that this team, they've been playing a lot of 4-2-3-1,

almost exclusively for the most part. So, I think that they'll go for more of like a box midfield where they have two wide attacking midfielders who aren't really wingers because they don't, like, they'll tell you that we don't play with traditional wingers. So, I think it'll be Klaus and klaus and toychert up top and then hardell as one of the attacking midfielders with probably vasilev or you could push luvin forward and durkin can start with somebody else like kind of more defensive minded at the heart of midfield but this is another team that's going to have a lot a lot of versatility a lot of options

but the the nucleus of klaus toychert hardell lul, Leuven, Dirk, and Vasilev, if that's a starting point, this is a much better team on July 18th than they are today. Yeah, I guess the part that's hard to figure out is it doesn't feel like they're in a crunch for the roster spots or the money. This is not a team that has gone out and spent at a crazy level, so you would have thought they could just bring these players in without losing Jackson.

Yeah, I'm kind of surprised there. But again, they did have a bit of a glut of options there, even with Pompeiu getting injured, which is really, really unfortunate and sad that he's out for the rest of the season. And just some other stuff. Somebody asked about Eric Dyer. Eric Dyer, my goodness. Their left back Dyer in the chat.

Nicholas. Nicholas Dyer, my God. They don't have Eric Dyer. Eric Dyer. My goodness. Their left back Dyer in the chat. Nicholas. My brain is right. Nicholas Dyer. My God. They don't have Eric Dyer. Nicholas Dyer. Somebody asked about Nicholas Dyer in the chat. I'm told that it is likely that he's going to leave this summer if he doesn't start playing more.

And it seems that Bradley Cornell just favors Mark Anich, who's been good. Yeah. But they had high, high expectations for Dyer when they signed him. And they're not going to hold him to, like, they know he's better than a backup in MLS, so they'll probably either loan or transfer him out in Europe, again, if he's not playing. So then they'll be in the market for another left back,

but, again, that's obviously much lower on the priority list than signing guys like Teutcher and Hartle. You mentioned it, Pompeo, the collision this weekend. He's out for the season. Got a surgery, I believe, yesterday morning, and they confirmed it's gonna be like a nine month recovery sorry the chat has let me know that at 2 p.m. they tweeted that Dyer is has been sold so look at this breaking news I can't build the graphic fast enough otherwise I would uh for all of you listening on the podcast reminder we go live 2 p.m. eastern time onuesdays wednesdays and thursdays wednesday

is nwsl with jordan angeli uh if you don't know jordan angeli and you're somebody asked in the chat give give a full minute on uh jordan uh actually did a lot of mls coverage with me as well as just in the league she's from denver originally played professional soccer uh on her own before getting injured she actually has a really cool group that works for people on how to deal with ACL injuries and the recoveries and all of that. She helped my sister. So you, huh? She helped my sister.

My sister's part of the ACL club, yeah. There you go. So you can go to her socials for that. She is tagged in all of our stuff. And then she was the play-by-play, I believe, and color analyst on radio for Colorado Rapids. Then the Columbus crew, the color analyst on TV, and then she also covers NWSL.

And so she is one of the big voices on NWSL week in and week out. If you watch this weekend, I think she called three different games. She knows that league better than anyone, and she knows soccer a lot better than most of the people you will talk to about it. So I'm really excited. It will be our first full show. Doing that tomorrow tomorrow we'll break down all of what happened this weekend on NWSL preview the weekend or midweek there's two games coming up tomorrow including one that I'm going to be on I'm going to be on the MSG broadcast of Gotham against San Diego Wave my

first ever NWSL broadcast and MSG broadcast so I'm very excited about that. We're going to talk about those teams. We're going to get to talk to you and Shaw, all of those things. You heard me do a little bit of it already on the Monday show. And then Thursdays, we'll be back 2 p.m. Eastern time to talk all things MLS, as well as on the U.S. side, because Copa America coming up. The U.S. kicks off this Sunday. Canada against Argentina on Thursday night. So we're going to do a bunch about that on Thursday.

We're going to talk about, you know, matchups, expectations, rosters, all that type of stuff. We might pull in a guest or two as well for the first time to help us with that. It could be one of our best, one of our favorites, Michele Giannone, who is on the road once again, following the U.S. and champing at the bit to get back into the conversation along with us.

And we love him, so we're going to do that. And, of course, I'm always talking Canada. So anytime we need to talk Canada, I am there. I am ready to go. We'll get my guy Josh Cloak on the show as well. Yeah, we can do that. I am so excited for what Thursday is going to be. So for St. Louis, they kick off on wednesday

night against the colorado rapids the rapids in this good set of form we did thursday show we talked half and avaro who scored again um and it sounds like sam vines their one big question mark was out with an illness last weekend and the hope is that he can come back uh but colorado in a really good form any of the underlying numbers you look at right now in MLS, Cole Bassett is a massive difference maker, and I actually think in the end the Georgie Mihailovich injury and slow start to the year is going to be beneficial because Cole Bassett found his feet first,

and it's made life easier for Georgie. It's made life easier for all of these players, and I'm excited to see his career trajectory go in the way it should have years ago and like chris armis to be the one to do it see the smile on my face yeah why amount of extra time shows i sat on as you guys tried to tell me that you didn't think cole bassett as good as i thought he was vindicated good vindicated i'm glad i also don't know that that was me um that was anti cole bassett because i'm a fan but i can't i don't know that that was me um that was anti-cole bassett because i'm a fan but i can't i don't know if it was either i can't a lot of a lot of people are saying this i don't know a lot of people it was probably anders anders was probably anti uh the entire time let's go into philadelphia now

because we want to talk about kai wagner's comments fc cincinnati facing off against philadelphia on wednesday night it's always fun when these two teams match up. Two years ago, of course, the playoff game, Philly wins. Last year, Cincinnati wins. All the matchups, all regular season were wild as well. But let's start with the Kai Wagner comments. So, Tom, you helped bring this out after Jose Nunez, I believe, was the one who got the quotes coming out of the game. Talk to me about the timeline of what's happened and sort of what you make of that. Yeah, first of all, Jose's to me about the timeline of what's happened and sort of what you make of that. Yeah, first of all, Jose's just excellent on the Philadelphia Union beat.

If something happens, he's on it. He does some excellent work. So, yeah, he was at a scrum that Kai Wagner did after the loss to Miami, the very frustrating loss, as the players and Jim Curtin and everybody else felt. And Kai just straight-up shredded the front office and said, you know, hopefully they see that this club needs to spend more money.

And, like, one of the things he said that was super interesting to me was, like, I'm not even saying it has to be millions and millions of players. So I'm assuming he was saying that he understands we're not going to spend $10 million on, like, a new center forward. But, like, one of the direct quotes was, just guys with different profiles. We don't have a single player with pace on the whole field. And then he said, like, with Julian Carranza leaving for Feyenoord, he's like, we don't have a real finisher.

Which, if I'm Mikel Ura, I'm like, all right, dude. First of all, I'm fast, and you don't think I'm a good finisher. This feels like it's directly at Mikel Ura. It's straight at him, yeah. Yeah, so, yeah, like, Kai's frustrated. And like you said, like, we can't just rely on young players to, like, keep doing this. But, like, look, man, that's the Philadelphia Unions that that's their that's their motto that's

what they want to do like this isn't this isn't totally like I'm surprised that it all the bottom dropped out the way it has the way that they haven't been good at home the way that I'm pulling up their expected goals right now their expected goal difference is plus nine and their real their their real goal difference is plus three like yeah i still think this is a good team right and i know it's not a great take to be making right now considering how bad that they've been over the last 10 or 11 games whatever it is but like i think this is more micro than it is macro and part of it is andre blake wasn't great when he's been available now he's gone the backup goalkeeper is a backup goalkeeper like yeah is what it is so that does lead to underperforming

expected goals not having a proper center like a really really good center forward that leads to underperforming goal difference but other than that like i don't know this is just kind of the evolution that happens that this team's been so good for six years. And my biggest fear when they lost, when that Gareth Bale goal went in and they lost in penalties in, in MLS cup, I was like, dude, what if,

what if this was it? What if the window, like how many times can you overturn a roster with, you know, a bottom three to bottom five spend in terms of both salary. And I think more importantly with transfer fees and acquisition costs. So like they have to keep on making magic, but right now now like things are pretty bleak and they've got a month before that the transfer window opens so even if they bring in somebody they they could fall further

over the next month the scary part with them and I agree with most of what you said like the underlying numbers show that this is still a competitive team but it is a team that already had a weird ceiling on it and so they were already fighting against that and if everything's not going your way it's tough he's like now that you've lost caranza does a lot of that go away which is he's a huge chance creator he's a huge finisher he's also sort of like the star that a lot of the attack rolls around you take him off the field you don't have to account for him as an opposing team now you're locked in on now you're locked in on gazdag now you're making quinn sullivan's life harder like does a lot of that go away which is the part that's unknown and unknown at a time when the window opens and if you're going to do something you got to do it now um and i think the

frustration if you're a kai wagner and this one's a little bit harder to say because like he got paid and he's been around and he's a part of this they've sold big with mckenzie and and brendan aronson and some other smaller pieces as well and have not fully reinvested it into the first team so if you are a player who says okay we helped aronson and mckenzie get into the team and get at this level then we lost them and it wasn't replaced in the same way or better i think that's a fair complaint but some of that money has gone to re-sign kai wagner and andre blake and jacob glessis and whatever and then a lot of that's going back into the academy is the assumption from the outside yes and the facilities and stuff like

that yeah the like to be fair to ownership like what they point back at the overall spend is that they put a lot of money into the academy and that's paid off dividends that's very good but like like you said i think that there's room for both um i think in this version of mls so jim curtain i'm gonna build off something that jim curtain has been saying for years that like it is like we shouldn't just be here to develop you like one why are you here if you're not trying to win if you're just trying to develop players like whatever like we want to do both but he's like you know brendan aronson and mark mckenzie made team of the season they made best 11 when they won the shield uh was that 2020 um and part of the reason why teams are paying attention and part of the reason why these players are excelling the way they are is the structure around them as well so if you just want to roll out a

u23 team just developmental team i don't even think that that's best for youth development or bringing academy players along. So, I understand the frustration. Like, one thing that Ernst Tanner says is, you know, when young players come here, we're not going to, you know, just keep signing DPs at your position and block your every chance. And that's true, too. But like you said, there's room in the middle.

So, let's say they reinvest in a DP center forward or even a DP 10 and make kind of Daniel God's dog more of a second striker or whatever you want. Right? Like that DP 10 or that DP forward makes players around him better. So for me, they're like,

I understand why Philly, like Jim Curtin today, I believe he said, you know, Kai was frustrated, you know, and has been at the club for a while. Like he's a,

he's a top player at the club, but he also knows speaking publicly, it doesn't really help anybody. So we've had discussions with, with Kai kind of about frustrated, you know, and has been at the club for a while. Like, he's a top player at the club, but he also knows speaking publicly doesn't really help anybody. So we've had discussions with Kai kind of about that, that, like, maybe it's not great to say it out loud. And like you said, it's easy to point back to, well, you're one of the highest paid players in the team, my man. Like, but I think he's been good enough this season.

I think he has enough cachet to stand on for this. But, like, he has a point. Like, you don't need to sign three new DPs. Just one. Or, like, maybe a good Tampa. Or, like, I like i don't understand like i know that they believe in their academy i thought that they would have signed a u22 initiative player by now because they believe in young players in general and like leon flock if he was signed when the u22 initiative was a thing maybe he would have been um they tried to sign christopher lund before he went to palermo the usm uh the u.s

national team left back he he would have been a U22 initiative. So maybe that's something that we could see in the future, but there is some room to tick this up for the Philadelphia. Although, Kevin Sullivan might end up just being a U22 initiative sign. That's a good point, man. With the way it ends up going for them, which is partially probably why they placed. His salary is going to go out of the race to cap at some point. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, actually not even available um for that if you had to pick blind

right now on june 18th 2024 on august 19th 2024 how many ads do you think philadelphia has made just pure numbers at that point to their roster off the cabin so they're talking about advertising i don't know what do you what kind of question is this yeah no i like your market i'd like your marketing deck delivered immediately uh that's a good question i think i don't even but i don't even think that the total numbers means a ton i think that they'll add like say three players right but like if it's marcus anderson or whatever again grabbing somebody not only that we haven't heard of but from a club in spain that i haven't heard of i didn't even think that that was possible that that mls teams were shopping i think it's one of those clubs that's kind of like a study abroad program where they're like oh you want to come if you apply like

you get to join this team i'm actually not a hundred percent kidding about that as a as a proud study abroad kid that you wanted to do the next 90 minutes of me giving a study abroad story sure did you know that i studied abroad i have a standing desk these are two things that i think we could build a show around i uh i played soccer in spain in a program that was study abroad stories did you know that i studied abroad i have a standing desk these are two things that i think we could build a show around i uh i played soccer in spain in a program that was studying abroad that i paid to go be a part so i know exactly how this works i guess we're done okay that's all that's all i got i feel that's all i got uh let's real quick let's talk cincinnati here um matt miazga had to go out with the game with, I guess, a cut, but a deep one. So he is out injured. He is out for tomorrow night's game 100%. And Pat Noonan's comments

were basically, we don't know when he will be back. Miles Robinson is away with the national team. Ian Murphy got cooked by Christian Espinoza in the last game, but he's available. They've obviously added Kip Keller. It's a dangerous moment here for Cincinnati. Corey Baird's supposed to be back. He is back in training. And then we could talk about Aaron Bupenza if you want. He is back in training. Pat Noonan's comments coming out of the San Jose game were that he had just started training

around Thursday, and it was too early to bring him to a game to travel away and that they wanted him to get some more training under his belt that feels like an easy thing to say now before you have to answer tougher questions if he doesn't work his way back into the team yeah i'll start with bupenz because i think it's pretty straightforward like maybe he'll play again and like i believe that pat noonan's being genuine when he says that like if when he's available for selection he'll be available for selection um it's not like hey man you've got a month to win your spot back or whatever like that's decisions already been made i'd be shocked if he's here all that much longer

like whatever they have to do to work out to open that dp spot i know that they're operating under the assumption that they're breaking into DP and they're going to try to take some big swings, right? Like, so, yeah, maybe he'll play again. And, like, why not if he's there? And, hey, maybe it's not the worst thing in the world to show teams that are thinking about signing him that, like, hey, his jaw's fixed. He's moving good.

Like, everything's all right. Like, he's back to normal, right? Like, if you acquire him, you're acquiring a player who's ready to go right now. But this isn't, like, a reconciliation thing and trying to come back into the team. Okay. I agree with you. I think it's interesting because what if he scores goals? Like what do you do?

I don't think it changes. Yeah. What do you do at that point? I don't think that there's a number of goals that he could score that would change anything. Okay. I really don't. With Miosga out, the assumption being Kip Keller comes into the team. You've got Hagelin.

You've got Murphy. So they've got center back options, but it makes life a little bit easier for the Philadelphia Union as they try and rebound from that brutal loss and try and move back into deeper playoff conversation, make things feel a little bit safer. Houston facing off against Seattle on Wednesday night. Houston, a really good 2-2 performance on the road against Atlanta.

Lateef Blessing off the bench. He gets the goal. It's sort of what we talked about last week when you broke the news on Ezekiel Ponce, which was now you have a little bit more flexibility to move guys like that around. So Lateef comes off the bench. He could start for you if you need to in a few different spots. Now you're able to move some of the players that have been filling in at center forward back into their natural roles, either on the wing or in central midfield,

and have them be a part of things. I think Coco Carrasquilla is going to play in this game and then go back to Panama was something that I saw. I'm not 100 percent sure about that. And then on the Seattle side, Pedro de la Vega still out. Schmetzer's comments this week were he has to train one full week before we're going to put him into a live game. So he started training at the end of last week.

He could be back this weekend. That feels like you're a cat chasing the thing that someone's spinning around. If you want to get there. And then Alex rolled on, obviously a huge question mark. Had to go off the field with a concussion in the last game. Obviously Christian has dealt with those as well. There's no way he plays on Wednesday night. And then Schmetzer said he has to pass concussion protocol to be available.

Once again, that's just a black box that we don't know anything about. And we don't know how long that will be. And there are question marks. Paul Rotherock came off the bench, played a little bit, sort of on that side with Christian sliding deeper, and then swapped to the other side and had the second goal in the game. Seattle, I think their issues don't have everything to do with, like, whether Alex Roldan's available or not for them.

Some of their issues seem fixable, and this weekend felt sort of like on the road to fixing them can i just peek behind the curtains as well again because i want i want to be as uh forthright with the audience as i can uh david goss's notes in our rundown it was it was of course pedro de la vega is still out that i want to know that that was how it was written i think it's important yeah it was it was written that way I forgot about that as I went through it. D.C. Atlanta, since our last show, Yakumakis has gone official. I mentioned it yesterday.

What should fans be looking at at this point? Big summer. Look, there was, again, Yakumakis is out. They're going to sign a DP forward. There's obviously whatever smoke that's going to be forward there's obviously and whatever smoke that's gonna be around tiago amada and that's gonna be there unless i think he signs it unless he signs a new contract which again i know that at every turn they say that that's what they want that's their ideal outcome but they understand that it's probably a transfer abroad he had a quote this week where he talked about he always talks to boca juniors president uh rachel may and he's

probably saying it in a way that i talked to rick elme the former argentine international but he's the boca juniors president so he knows what he's doing when he says that out loud in an interview like he's not so there's going to be that the botafogo leagues that we talked about again i'd be super surprised and like boca juniors just bid three million for alan velasco they don't have the money to to buy just whatever it would cost for for tiago amana but anyway that's going to be something so they can add a dp forward a dp of any kind it'll be a dp forward for yakumakis they can add another dp no matter what because like once the rules officially go into place of the three dps and three 22s i feel overwhelmingly certain that garth lagerwey's view is going to be three

senior dps and three u22 initiatives and so again no matter what happens at the amount of that's two DPs so they're going to be one of the most interesting teams to watch this summer because they're responsible for the three biggest transfer fees in MLS history and I believe four of the top six depending on where Luis Alrujo falls so Atlanta anytime they have flexibility and with Garth Lagerwey leading this they have to bring in a head coachagerwey leading this they have to bring in a head coach so they've got a lot of stuff to watch this summer what they need right now nothing opens until they can't bring new players into July 18th or like they those players can't debut so what they need right now is to not fall too far behind in this race the bottom can't

keep coming out so that they have more room to kind of try to claw back with a new coach and embedding new players. And Thiago Amado is going to leave for the Olympics. So there's a lot with Atlanta United right now. Sorry. And, you know, every game that they need to find a way to manufacture some semblance of points so that they're in a good spot when the window opens on July 18th and whenever they hire a new coach. And they need to stay alive with Abram, Saba, and Schleus all in international duty at these tournaments. Saba with Georgia today.

Gregerson's out with an injury. And they're going up against a D.C. United team that's fairly healthy, not missing a ton of pieces compared to what they have. This feels like a game where Benteke can eat and cook and do whatever he wants against whoever's at center back. Probably Noah Noah Cobb who I like as a prospect but being a prospect and playing in a live game against Christian Benteke are two different situations like Benteke absolutely he had a hat trick against Atlanta last time they played recently and that was Gregerson I believe was out that game I got Noah Cobb started and I think the other starting center back was Derek

Williams if not Luis Abram but like yeah Baglia just cooked that day and he should probably once again here on wednesday which is much needed for dc united um a couple other big games this week la galaxy facing off against nyc fc midweek um pain still obviously back this week on the weekend played about 25 minutes in a weird situation where Johnny Perez got hurt and so the Galaxy subbed made a sub to then fill the gap because they had a time limit on they still got the win against SKC Bruggeman's back in training but probably not available for this game Tiago Martin's still out in the Illinich with the red card on Friday night so he'll be out as well for this match for NYCFC. But two of the teams that want to play,

this is as good a matchup as you're going to get in Major League Soccer, and it's going to be a ton of fun to watch this one go down. I mentioned we're going to do previews of Copa America on Thursday. It kicks off Thursday night for Canada, Sunday night for the U.S. national team. The one little news bit we want to talk about first, Tanner Tessman rumors. The report put out was that inter milan we're looking at acquiring him and then immediately loaning him back for the year to venezia and then you've now helped me put together every other team in syria that might also be included in this conversation yeah let me start with what i assume is going to

happen is i feel very strongly that there is going to be a transfer the teams that i know that are in for tanner tessman again inter milan is real um you could pretty much name any of the big teams in italy and they've they at least have some semblance of interest obviously some much more real than others and i'm gonna be like inter milan like it doesn't surprise me that they move first but but say what, what happens if Napoli comes in? There's probably a better pathway to minutes at Napoli. What if, you know, somebody like a mid table,

uh, Syriac scene that like can promise him like, Hey, you're not going to be in a relegation fight. Like we're not going to be challenging for the title either, but you're going to be at a bigger team and you're probably going to play 80% of the games. As long as you're decent as we think you are.

Whereas an interval on, like you said, could be a lone back or it could be you're on the bench for a lot so that's what's interesting for me with tanner tessman that like i see him leaving venetia absolutely i fight a guess i think john lucabuzio stays but tanner tessman uh there are there are a ton of teams in italy that that really really like him it is uh it's gonna be fascinating olympics coming up the expectation is he's a huge part of that but i don't know if you get sold to a new club and you're gonna go into pre-season like are you gonna go to the

olympics and and that that new club can turn down the olympic right yeah that's not even a requirement because it's not if you're venetia too like if he's still at venetia hell i'd turn it down if i was them like we just got relegated last time we were in syria we need every single point and tanner tessman is not a squad rotation player. He is a key constant starter that they want to sign a new contract. They want to keep, it's not like they're trying to sell him. It's because of all the interest.

And because of where he is with his contract, like unless he resigns and they have to just say, I'll acquiesce to a sale. And that's how the both sides have been working together. But again, if he's still at the club in early August, like I'm keeping him. Yeah.

It's going to be interesting to watch. There's a few moves for U.S. players out there that we'll talk about Canadian players as well. Alphonso Davies and Real Madrid just keep coming up. He's been named captain officially of the Canadian national team. This could be a special summer for him along what has been an incredible career.

And I think that's all for us here. So a full slate of Wednesday night games, which means Thursday we will be back with you live, 2 p.m. Eastern time to cover all of that in Major League Soccer, as well as preview Copa America. Might be a six-hour show. I'll work on trying to trim that down as we go along. And reminder, we're back tomorrow live, 2 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday with jordan angeli talking nwsl thank you to all of you who are watching live thank you to all of you in the chat

uh shout out to covincio already being anti-boca even though we weren't even really talking about them adrian being a legend tyler as well nathan hale uh shout out to all of you that were in there and then thank you to all of you listening via podcast um keep sending us your messages the patreon is now live we are working on setting it up so you can be a part of that mailbag as well as we're going to start doing our extra episode once a week uh our little happy hour with you as a live show for all our patreon subscribers we've got some bonus stuff that uh our our back of house ghosts are working on or whatever we're going to call them in terms of some coverage they're working on getting our depth charts in a clean spot so that you can sort of be on those as well as you watch mls which is how i sit there with my computer open my notes

my depth chart and i watch all of the games nwsl as well and so i think you guys will all really really enjoy that as well as chatting with all of us in the Discord. This is what we do. We cover the sport in this region. Anything soccer-wise you're talking about, soccer-wise is talking about it too. And we had a really good time. I'm glad it worked this time live. I hope everyone enjoys it on podcast.

And we'll be back tomorrow. Thanks, everyone. And we'll talk to you again very, very soon.