SoccerWise - TFC Say Arrivederci To Their DPs, Gold Cup Chaos + San Diego Shield Chances

Episode Date: July 1, 2025

Tommy has a big ice cream sunday of scoops for all of TFC fans on this warm Canada Day. The guys start in the ice cream shop, go into everything they have seen in Gold Cup and talk through the biggest stories in MLS. 5:40 TFC Part Ways With Insigne & Bernardeschi21:45 Worst DP Signings In MLS History34:30 Canada Knocked Out Of Gold Cup48:00 USMNT Survive Costa Rica1:04:50 San Diego Shield Stock Buy Or Sell?1:12:45 MLS Weekend Reactions  Soccerwise Live 2pm ET Every Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday on Youtube/Twitch/Twitter

We are back! Live and in charge, Tommy Scoops tearing Canada down one province at a time here on Canada Day and David Goss with you for an incredible soccer wise that we have coming up. We are happy to be live once again. Only live show of the week because it is July 4th in the US and therefore Tom and all his patriotism has to be given off contractually is required to be given off but does not take rests on Canada Day has has been made evident

over the last few hours. We will be talking about TFC. We'll be talking about USMNT. We will talk about Canadian men's national team, MLS and everything else in between. But Tom, on this gorgeous summer day, it's Yabu Selle season. Get hyped. Dude, I went to go get Mello's nails clipped at Pet Surprise and I walk in and obviously the dog is named Mello and I happen to just be wearing a Nick's jersey just because I was wearing a Nick's jersey because it's a Tuesday, right? Why not? And I'm like handing off Mello who like desperately doesn't want to go into the little grooming place and the guys, I couldn't tell what the guy was saying. think we're gonna get a coach today? I was like hell yeah brother. It's a big day

to a vet minimum a mid-level exception this is what we live for in the summer the New York Knicks have officially won the 2026 NBA championship which is perfect it would actually wait I actually had not thought about this before the NBA finals will probably be like the week of the World Cup in the US. Next year. This is a pretty good chance. It's like the worst week of my life. Yeah, exactly.

The worst week of my life, the best week. I mean, listen, nightmare scenario is the Knicks make the championship, they lose, and the US loses the opening game of the World Cup, which I believe is in LA. So there's a little space for the parade because I think the parade would probably run from Camden, New Jersey, all the way up through the border of Connecticut and where the mass pike starts.

No, Camden, that's Philly territory. I call that area. Everything is ours. Yabu Selle is ours. We dominate. Everyone's an X-Fan and everyone knows that they're the plucky underdog that everyone wants to root for. And that's why everyone loves us as well.

We are here at Soccer Rise. We've got a great week of shows coming up, working on NWSL interview, looking at here, I'll give some breadcrumbs covering a West Coast team and we have lined up that we're going to run on Thursday we're going to be talking with Ricardo Marrera the Give me a title which I haven't written down yet general CSO of Orlando City and We're also gonna be talking to Sean Francis one of our favorites who we've known for a long time Who does who works on the coolest projects or hobbies or then makes things that make money It is all ambiguous to me and yet he is a US soccer royalty

For people who don't know his name There's not gonna be a great way for us to explain it other than he created as Ray Park FC Those who know me know that that's near and dear to my heart, but like Sean just does so much cool shit, and I think that's the best way I get blank in it So if you're Thursday when this comes out if you were like looking like I don't know who that is like I might skip that If you got some time give it a listen. I promise you hope you fun We haven't even recorded the interview yet, so I'm over promising on Sean's behalf He I believe he's involved in so much cool shit if you will have been around for a little while

I believe he started the MLS insider account, which was the thing pre Tom existing of the way you got about me Means I just canceled that interview Which then became of course Sammy stage, but Sammy Stage outbird dogging. I talked to Sam the other day. We talked about college basketball for like 30 minutes and then it's like, how you doing? How you doing?

And then we were done. It's, you know, just guys hanging out, naming dudes, which I think is a decent chance of what our interviews are going to turn into coming up later today. But we've got a ton to dig into on this show. It was nice to have a full weekend of MLS back this weekend. I enjoyed a good chunk of the games I classically picked to lock in on the games with no goals while there were nine goals occurring in other games at the same time. We also have a bizarre schedule coming up. So I believe NYCFC plays a home game on Thursday.

I assume that's July 4th related because I think- Or Yankees related is usually what I assume. Well, the Yankees are getting swept by the Mets at City Field starting Friday. So this is a bold week for me to say something like that too. Yeah, it's gonna be- It's gonna be the existence of that. So I don't know what the basis of that is.

There are three July 4th games. So those are Friday MLS games. There's like a bunch of Saturday games. And then there is Sunday Night Soccer where you can watch Andrew Weeby live on air. I believe he is in Seattle for Seattle Columbus, which should be a phenomenal game. I don't know if the Gold Cup Steve's keeps going on for the US. Maybe not as exciting, but still pretty exciting. Seattle got a 2-0 win over Austin in their return from the Club World Cup. So a little bit of a weird schedule I think I will come and record a reaction to the Wednesday night games

In Gold Cup to open up our Thursday episode So what you will have some Gold Cup coverage from us do not worry and then we'll have the interviews and then we'll be back Next week with our full slate of shows, but Tom, let's dig in Let's start didn't know where we're gonna have a big thing to talk about didn't know what we were gonna Do Tommy scoops early in the morning and boom you wanted your capicola You wanted your sopressata's you gots your mozzarella's and Tom cuts it all off the Italians are parting ways with TFC Yes, Rhino FC and Italians

Federico Bernadeschi and Lorenzo Insigne agreed mutual contract terminations. As I reported this morning, that is both both of those have went official. Lorenzo Insigne and Federico Bernadeschi are gone. They were no longer Toronto FC players. So for the nerdy technical terms, because a few people have asked about what does this mean? What is this different than a buyout so a buyout just means that it's a unilaterally a club decision and they're just telling the player hey you get paid your contract but you're no longer on the roster buyout is a salary cap slash roster mechanism mutually agreed to terminate a contract means that all both

parties kind of spoke with each other figured out a buyout number that wasn't the full money owed and the rest of the contracts because Insinia is for another 12 months and Bernadeski is at least another 18 months. There are some reports that it got extended further, but I digress that they use their two buyouts for whatever remaining money to remove those players from the salary cap from the roster to open those designated player spots. So Toronto FC have two DP spots open and I think I made a mistake by just talking about the nerd stuff first because we have to say this this era that started with so much hype expectation and widespread applause so

before anybody takes a victory lap like oh I knew this wasn't gonna suck everybody applauded these moves and it is gonna go down as one of the worst eras in Major League Soccer history given the outlay of money, the lack of on-field production and the off-the-field headaches. Undeniable. Now I was one of the people who said it would work. I will admit we were in conversations with people who were less sure. No one who was less sure thought this was going to happen. Of course. Everyone was like, I don't know that Insigne is worth this. Like, is he worth this much money? Or I think the bigger

conversation was, is he marginally this much better than other DP players who had been signed? Now what's funny is part of that conversation ended up becoming around Shaqiri and his number, which I think is in the debate with Insigne as the worst signing in MLS history. So that's another thing to consider in all of this. But you have two players who came in as some of the biggest, most high profile signings. You end up making the playoffs zero times. You won zero Canadian championships. There is not a lot to go for From this team positive and then you talk about the off-field stuff Tom Like that is the kicker to all of this is like coaches fired ruining cultures. I mean in Sydney has been left off the team Banished and then come back in multiple times

So you did miss that they did win a trophy, the wooden spoon in 2023. They were literally the worst team in Major League Soccer, which is pretty incomprehensible. And like you said, the off-field stuff, 23 was when Insidio and Bernadeski led a coup to get Bob Riley fired. And not necessarily even suggesting that he didn't deserve to be fired but they got their wish and then both of them stunk for the rest of the season and it's just I don't even know where to go because I the biggest legacy of this era is that this is one of the most had been one of the most ambitious high spending clubs in the league they gave all the money to these two players.

Bill Manning ends up getting fired because he orchestrated these deals and he famously thought it was a flex to go into a press conference and say, you know, I went to Transfer Market one morning and he said that as if it was a positive thing. I was speaking to a source yesterday who I recounted that joke and it starts live

because I knew that was gonna be the first thing you said. That's the legacy. The other part of the legacy is this is again, one of the most ambitious high spending teams. They could have signed a third DP at any point over the last couple of years. These two players were so detrimental to everything at this club that one of the highest spending ownership said no more money. You guys don't get anything more I Forgot to open this up by saying everyone put your vapes up in the air In honor of burner so I like that so myself Paul Torrio and Josh cloak

we reported out that story on like inside the locker room the chaos and like That literally might be the favorite detail I think I've ever reported. Yeah that Bernadeski had to be yelled at several times for vaping inside the locker room or on the plane You know, you know, it was flavored. You know, it was like cherry pie cherry. Yeah. Yeah with the what with the dreads era But I like I when we heard that we heard that from enough people and it was more or less like we know this is true giving you a heads up we're going with this the person that we said this to just goes how do you guys know like if they were like so defeated that that that was coming out yeah not that they had the a zoom call with the other players to get the votes to get Bob

Bradley fired not that the the fractions in the locker room where they're going back and forth about Bob Bradley and then Mark Anthony Kaye says something and Lorenzo Insinia says, you are like Bob's other son. Like shut up. These are great details, but nothing is going to ever beat that Federico Bernadeschi was so committed to the vape life that he just kept getting yelled at. So 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019. In those four years, TFC went to three MLS Cups and a CONCACAF Champions League final. They were a PK shootout away from losing in two of those and they won one of them.

You could argue a five year span. That's as good as any team in MLS. And they did it reaching heights in ways with Javinco signing and Josie and Michael Bradley and everything else that we had never really seen before. You come out of COVID, which was hard for TFC because of the border. They played in Hartford. They played all over. They actually were very good in 2020 as well. If you remember, they made a push for supporter shield late in that season, not playing at home. They had replaced a lot of those stars with Alejandro Pesuelo and some other pieces that really made sense. The thing that we go back to, and we've talked about this on this show, so we don't have to get into it

heavily is the front office brain drain that occurred. And when you talk about Bill Manning coming into the press conference and saying like, look what I found on transfer market, that is sort of like the end point of that, which is you have Tim Bezbuchenko who goes on to build Columbus. We're leaving directly from Toronto building Columbus into now what the next version of TFC like you could put LAFC in that convo I think you could put Cincinnati in that convo now, but like if you're comparing clubs across

These two five-year spans Columbus as close as you get with the Cucho Hernandez signings and with their continued Success now and their ability to flip players into more talent and all of that Bringing over a number of people who now have, are still working in Columbus or have moved around the league and are working at clubs like LAFC and Charlotte and everywhere else. Um, and Toronto right now is a club in which they sort of reinvested into their past, which was Javinko was the solution. So now Insinia and Bernadeski will be the solution and it was not the case on any level on the field and now they're

kind of directionless Where you sit right now so for Insigne's career he finishes with 15 goals and 10 assists across Basically three full seasons he came in halfway through 2022 and finishes halfway through 2025 56 starts, 4,600 minutes, 15 goals, 10 assists in MLS play across all of those seasons. Bernadesi, which I think is sort of, I have a TFC friend who's been in my chat about this, so I will say this for his sake.

It is a little unfortunate the two are connected the way they are. There is a different feel to the way Berna seems to care about the club and the city and has tried to play. By example, he has played 7,400 MLS minutes, pretty much in the same time period. So 3,000 minutes more, 25 goals, 12 assists, to the 15 goals, 10 assists for Insigne.

Still was not enough to make it worth it. I think the right move is to completely move on and not try and salvage. And I think what you saw over the last five or so months was this attempt to salvage. Can we push Insigne out and just use Bernadeski? And will that be enough? And it hasn't really worked now. Insigne comes back into the team. Maybe it fits Robin Fraser's style a little bit more. It just seemed like there was nothing nothing salvageable at this point. The kicker to all of this is I believe the links are that Bernadeski is going to Bologna. Correct.

Playing for Jeph Sapunov's team. Correct. Correct. This is too good man. This is happy Canada Day to everyone who's celebrating. This is like too much. And we don't know what Toronto will look like. It doesn't seem like they made these moves with a clear next moves to do.

Like it's not, let's get this done today so that we can turn around and sign XDPs. But as you said, it opens up the spots and they have the financial ability, if they want to, to do it. It's hard to say it'll work for this year, but I think what we've seen is the best signings like a Kucho have happened in the summer to allow them to be settled so that the following year they're ready to go. So that's the argument I think the front office will be making to ownership.

First of all, they're not gonna get $22 million in salary to spend. I don't even think that they necessarily want it, particularly for two players. I don't know what level of spend is going to be there, but I hope that it's enough to bring in two designated players. And I hope that they give this front office the trust that, again, it wasn't this front office that did these two moves.

All they've been doing since they've been building out the front office under Jason Hernandez is trying to get out of these contracts as I reported in the winter they brought several offers to learn zone senior about a departure and he rejected all of them and now Bernadeski goes so I'm glad for the for this team for Robin Frazier as well that they can fully go in a new era you look around MLS and there's just no way to withstand these two, like, the two DP misses and of this magnitude and of this, I guess, toxicity within the team. So they've struggled this season, but what I hope to see is they make moves in the summer.

And I think the argument, like you said, Goss, the argument would be, hey, even if, you know, in three weeks from now when the window opens, we might be too far gone from the playoff line. That's not a definite, but let's say hypothetically by July 24th, they're too far gone with eight or ten games left. The argument's ownership is, this is the adaptation period. And if we can get the right deals, the right players right now, get them in now even if it's going to cost a little bit more money this season so that in 2026 we hit the ground running. I hope that's what's going to happen. I think that could happen, but obviously Toronto are going to be very careful with designated player signings right now.

And again, I don't see any sort of crazy wages coming in or necessarily fees, but that doesn't mean that this is going to be like Montreal 2.0. Again, this is mostly speculation, but again, I know that this team have been preparing and hoping for this eventuality where they have these 2DB spots open and needs to go. So they're going to try to get some deals done and we'll see kind of what happens this summer and if not, the winter. This is something I'm going to delve into as a non-expert and for anyone who's already a TFC fan, you know this. This is for people who aren't just to give some context.

Maple Leaf Sports owns Toronto FC. They also own the Toronto Raptors, the Toronto Maple Leafs, their arena as well as of course BMO Field where the Toronto Argonauts play as well. All four of those franchises have fired their president or their head over the last 12 months as Keith Pelly has taken over as the new CEO of Maple Leaf Sports. So for anyone who's a basketball fan, Masai Ujiri was the latest one who was let go very recently. The understanding is as well that Rogers Sports, which is the massive entity that owns the Toronto Blue Jays, as well as their stadium and a ton of the sports network in Canada is coming in to become the majority shareholder of Maple Leaf Sports.

All of that is happening right now. So I think it's part of the reason why you've seen such a change for these four franchises. It also may affect timing going forward of like, is anyone really putting down the 75 million dollar check to sign the next insinue on top of all that Larry Tanabam who's been very committed to spending with Toronto FC and pushing Toronto FC and it's why Javinco and everything happened is potentially be gonna come this minority

owner or there could be a future in which some of these teams get pulled off and put in separate places Larry Tanabam has acquired the rights to a WNBA team that does not exist under MLSE. So there's a little bit of chaos in the market right now. I think that all probably will affect, hey, if you want to spend big is now the time. Are they going to be committed to that big spend? Is this, can we clean up the back end of the books now? Almost like what you see in other sports where it's like a year and I understand for TFC fans, they've been bad for years. They don't want to hear this, but like, can you actually fully commit to a tear down,

reset your caps, reset your salaries and then clean up things to build into the next era? I completely agree, but I think I would push back and say that they've done some of the groundwork for that. Again, first of all, Robin Frazier, one of the biggest, like again, not taking away anything from his tactical, his soccer brain, because it is obviously incredible. It's elite, what he's done in Colorado elsewhere. But one of the big selling points is this dude's going to come in and completely reset the culture. He knows the club. He loves the club. All this stuff. So beyond the on-field stuff, like Robin Frazier is here to repair the culture and everything else And again the predecessor John Herdman was not hired by this current regime, right?

So you go all the way back. That's where I kind of the line of demarcation So there's that there's other deals like keeping Sean Johnson extending him and whether or not you agree with what the number is That's part of the culture That's supposed to be for the foundation for the building blocks. Richie Larray if he can be healthy for a consistent amount of time. Obviously Jonathan Osorio is there. What I'm thinking is over the next several, two windows, like summer winter, I'm expecting like 15 players in and out, honestly. And I think that with Frazier with the handful of like the leadership council you could probably

call it, of Osorio, Johnson, and you just look at the roster, pick out your favorite building blocks from it. I think that they're ready to have that next jump now rather than this time last year it was you know it's just gonna suck for the next 18 months or however long it takes to get out of these deals. But there's no quick fix. And the reason that the hole got so deep was because everything that they've tried to do since Vanny Laffer as Vanny was leaving honestly but even a little bit before

that has been what's a quick fix what's a quick thing yeah what's a quick fix so I I would say that they're a little bit further in that process than starting from zero now the only the other element to then throw in is the stadium will host World Cup games and Where you have talked about this many times on this show we are talking about this in our everyday lives How do these teams take advantage of the bump that will come and for Toronto FC being bad at that time is not ideal So does that accelerate things and all of this is stuff to consider. Let's close out on this one I think we both kind of said,

and I admitted like Bernadette, she had his high moments equals eight assists last year, four and four right now this year, um, 13 goals. The two years before, I mean he started in 2023, he started 31 games in 2024. He started 28 games has started 15 so far this year been on the field has tried, has been a part of it. That's one thing Lorenzo and senior the other the question Everyone's gonna ask is it the worst signing in MLS history? It's it in senior is absolutely in the top five for me. Yeah I've done some prep on this from Like I had a top five ready and like again, for everything that I've laid out already.

So for me, Lothar Matthaus, Rapha Marquez, and Lorenzo Insinia, I think that's the top three with a bullet. You don't think Shaqiri's in there? No, because it wasn't a Zedra. Chicago keeps bending. And Shaqiri ended up leaving quicker. Like, I don't know, man. Like, there is no moments to point to.

Like, at least Insinia would lace up the boots when Messi came to town and play well. What Insinia did when- You mean Shakiri. Shakiri, yeah, well, Shakiri would do that. And then Insinia, when Messi came to town, would, you know, hit one of his questionable injuries, would be just good enough to play 15 minutes off the bench and the only high intensity run He recorded in that game was after the final whistle to get to little messy like John Herdman said something like, you know

Yeah, you could tell he wasn't really able to move but he was the first guy next to messy to get a shirt I don't know right. So Yeah, I think it's Matt Dallas Marquez and Insinia and then I think everybody else so the names that come to mind I I think she carries higher than that because The number they paid for him and the fact that they just didn't I mean they didn't make a playoff They didn't complete they didn't compete with him. I think he's higher than that But I understand your point like they got laughing stock. I mean like it was He wasn't yes, they were they were let's come on, but no let's not got sorry

What I'm saying is is that how many stories that I break about insignia and bad toxicity in like yeah There was none of that was scary. Yeah I Think some of the NYCFC guys have to be up there you like the pillows of the world. They were bad I mean there were big name signings. They were bad and they were bad all together But obviously via saves it because he ends up having you know a decent career, but that whole club turned around when they all left So I think they do go in something like that Those are like kind of the ones that pop out to me

there are a lot of other ladies and tweety should be in there because of it was Big big reason for him of them having sanctions yeah so that's why it moves it's like I think that's the thing with Shakiri like I think it's definitely he's definitely a top ten like we're signing like I hope that I didn't come out sounding like I'm defending it but like I just think that there hasn't been a chance is Shakiri Liverpool tattoo out right after this listen Shakiri could Shakiri could mess around in Hoboken, man. He's got a Hoboken body type. Just dumb truck.

But again, I don't think that, again, I'll go back to Shakiri. This team doesn't spend any money now because of them. Again, maybe it would have been different if Shakiri was after, maybe Joe M Joe Mentaweita was like man I'm sick of losing all this money on so many but like they were able once they got let him go or he helped voluntarily leave last summer they've been right and then went and won this league at the end like 40 goal contributions unbelievable shout out to fire fan 23 an old head in the chat bringing up Denilson who is one of my favorite

MLS trivias there. That's top 10 as well. Top 10 as well. He was part of the original DP signings. Claudio Rainia as well, like never, just because he couldn't stay healthy, ended up not being ideal in that original class of designated players along with

Kwadamak Blanco and David Beckham. The other ones that come to mind, the thing is people bring up these names and a lot of them, like not for the reason you wanted to, but end up to contributing to some winning moments. So you think of like a Nelson Valdez, the key was on the field for Seattle in that playoff run. And so like he was not I wasn't thinking about a Nelson Valdez. Well, I appreciate that.

It was one of the ones that came into one of the chats I'm in but like you have names like that right with guys where you're like even Chicharito like Chicharito had his moments He scored goals. The team wasn't great You know Zlatan as amazing as Zlatan is the team wasn't great with him most of the time but they had high moments and they had one playoff run and whatever so the time but they had high moments and they had one playoff run and whatever so there are some bad ones that are not complete and other train wrecks the Orlando City fan base has now entered the chat with Jose Colman, Brian Roches shout out to Carlos Rivas who ended up in USL for a while I think Roches scores

goals by the way he ended up in Portugal we could do this for the rest of the show cause like I'm thinking of just like insert any Minnesota center forward that they try to replace Yeah, sure is with like any of the Rariga's what one shop like not like that's not like worse to the worst kind of stuff Yeah, cuz they use these are also not Spends at the higher level exactly. My favorite thing to do in the world, by the way is if you're ever around Just if you're around Paul Tonori, just be like, what's Brian Roches doing? He will off memory be like, he scored 15 goals last year in this league.

He for some reason just will throw a Google search in every six weeks just to see how Brian Roches is doing. On Morning Footy a couple weeks ago, the last time I was in, we did something about the worst transfers in history. And I brought up the Honduran Maradona for those old enough in the chat to remember. The use of Dynamo, I believe it was in 2013, they signed a kid from the Honduras League for like a million dollars, it was a DP, and they cited stats from his Wikipedia page. It turns out there was two British kids that were watching the clone of the hundred league for some reason was like

Let's see if we can get one of these guys the premier league and they they went into the Wikipedia and just edited all the stats And made them much better than they were and put a section of like, oh my god He's the next Maradona everybody hunters called him the hunter in Maradona They signed him and put his with fake Wikipedia stats in the club release but when they announced the deal. And so this was good. Like I was like, it makes me laugh. And we know we, our friends absolutely love this. So it makes you smile every time it comes up.

But so Nico Cantor didn't, wasn't aware of that. He's like, this is the funniest thing ever. That's in like 2013 is too late for that because the other one I had was Ali Dia, a player for Southampton. He called Southampton's manager and said, I'm George Wey, I'm my cousin Ali Dia, I play with him at PSG, I play with him at the National,

you need to sign him. And they just sight unseen signed into a one month contract. That was 98, like that stuff can happen. 2013 is too late to be getting fooled by Wikipedia. Anyway, that dude, Alexander Lopez, Honduran Maradona, is with the Honduran National team right now. Is he at Gold Cup?

Yeah. He hasn't played this tournament. He's got the number 10 shirt. I was just, I couldn't believe it. And like Nico texted me, he's like, oh my God, he's still here, he's still with the national team. On the side of just dudes naming dudes, remember the Gilberto who played at TFC who ended up getting pushed out because

they didn't have enough spots for Defoe, Bradley and Josie. He went to, he ended up, he scored 13 goals for Sao Paulo. He scored 50 goals for Bahia in Brazil and he's been playing for Juventud and Cruzeiros. That guy balled. I'm just saying he was the one that fought Jermaine Defoe over the free kick. We've got Kennedy, Iguanamike, Logan here. That's in my top 10. Yeah. Juan Luis and Angano. It was like, that was the Frank Yalop. I think Sean Maloney. Shout out to Sean Maloney, by the way. The similar body type, another Hoboken style who tried to carry things. We have Daniel Gostock to the crew, which is just savage from Andrew Johnson. Let's not go there yet. I think we'll still have a little belief on that one, but I can understand the frustration

a little bit from fans. Okay. Moving on from TFC. I don't want to ever move on. It's great stuff. Kevin Cabral. That is a very good one as well. The thing with all of these is you've got to find the balance of expectation and spend versus end performance. Like how bad can you be based off the expectations? The problem is we kind of sometimes do DP as a blanket statement and it turns out that like this person cost $900,000 and this person cost $14 million and the expectations are probably a little bit different on those two sides. Do not bring up Frank Ohara. I was so locked in on Frank Ohara being a stud for FC Dallas. That team was set up for him perfectly of like they create chances, just be a fox in the box. And Peppy ended up doing it. Peppy did the thing that Frank Ohara was supposed to do.

Frank Ohara died so recorder Peppy can run. Here's the thing I will say and I kind of was saying this last week with LAFC and we'll get into Giroud in a moment though. Some of these signings, if teams do things correctly, you keep these players fluid in that you can flip them back to a league on Maxime. You can flip them back to Brazil, right? Look at what happened with Gregory, look at what happened with Jefferson's, I've written like all of this. Some of these other signings, it's like TFC doesn't operate in a space where they're moving players for 15 million dollars like Frederico Bernadeschi to another team so they kind of got stuck on an island where it's like if you take this risk you pull this player into an environment they're not familiar with they're not going

to move on to the next team in the area although it would be absurd if an MLS team signed one of these players. Dude, I haven't reported this yet. I'm not going to say the team, but there was an MLS team having trade talks for Federico Berndeschi. Stop. That's genius. It's genius. I swear. And like, I don't know, man. Obviously he's going to Bologna. But I thought about texting that team to be like, eh? Veteran minimal maybe? I mean, I was on this for a while with posse well Oh because when into Miami traded for him, he was awesome Thanks for Miami and they made the plebs and then the next year I was like, why is no one signing him? Turns out he probably made a ton of money in the Middle East and hence

Oh, did he go to Turkey? Also, that's a two-game suspension. That's fine. I'll take it kaku playing right now in the Club World Cup or was playing What a flashback. What an experience. Okay, anything else in the ice cream shop from a MLS point of view and then we'll do national team after this? Yeah, nothing. I'll talk about Patrick Gajemong real quick. As of this morning, nothing new has happened again. I reported maybe it was Friday, something like that, time's a flat circle circle I reported several days ago that Darby County had an offer in the region of eight million dollars Patrick Gajamon gave the green light he wants to go to Darby but Charlotte haven't officially accepted it there are

other clubs in the mix and again as of this morning still nothing accepted at the end of last week Darby are so confident they were asking Charlotte can we schedule the medical Charlotte said no because we don't have a deal yet. So that's where things are. Darby are still absolutely in pole position, but nothing is totally accepted. It's getting contentious between the players camp and Charlotte. So we'll see how this plays out. But that's the latest there is that there's no update since Friday. He like had a collision in the corner in the last game. He kind of like went down, held his knee for a second, then like slowly got up.

They had just earned a throw in the U S and you're like, Oh man, dude, there are like millions of dollars swinging on any moment that happens. And he's playing obviously he's under contract, but the contract, as we've talked about, is nowhere near where it should be for him as an individual. And then the amount of money on the line for the clubs, like there's a lot going on as he continues to start for the us men's national team Um, I know you did the You made the bravo news official which we talked about last week Uh, so I think a good move for portland to get that off the books

Be able to move forward and and potentially bring in some attacking support as well anything big before we get to the national team No, because uh, I think everything else has the national team time Timeless Mueller questions are flying right now nothing new nothing new and Hugo Picard. I mentioned on the recap show Yeah, yes, he was in Columbus at the game and you don't think he just went on vacation Yeah I was still getting some things downplayed like I know those final details of sort. I'd say this much Darwin machis for short FC was like the only player that I know of that in recent memory that flew into town and Left without being an officially a player assume that this deal is happening

I'm still on the Columbus vacation situation Maybe it is huge in the Midwest exactly people say Maybe. It is the Paris of the Midwest. Exactly. Many people say it. People say it's the Marseille of the Midwest. It's huge in France right now to make that trip. Let's dig into some national team stuff. Let's talk Gold Cup.

Ooh, baby. What a vibe, what an experience. Across two nights, you get the Panama-Honduras game, Mexico-Saudi Arabia, so like a decent level of chaos and insanity, this is where this sits. So like a decent level of chaos and insanity. This is where this sits. And now we come all the way to Sunday. Canada takes a 1-0 lead in the first half on a penalty kick.

And then what would you call the Jacob Schaffelberg play? A red card. Yeah. I was getting, is he trying out for the Minnesota Vikings? I will say that Jesse Moore said it and I'll talk more about it. But in the postgame press conference, like he was like, yeah, listen, like, I don't think the first one was the yellow, but the second one was like, absolutely. He was like, no complaints there.

Once you're on the yellow, that is definitely a red. And part of it with Shaffer Berg, which I tried to give voice to a little is like the pressing like head down, you take the risk, right? If the defender clears that off you, you're on a breakaway. Like you're trying to take that risk and it's almost like Schaffelberg blanks for the second and doesn't realize he's going to barrel through the actual defender. I know one speed go.

Yeah, he is now my understanding is he is now suspended for the opening game of the World Cup because without qualifying there are no official competition I don't know if that's true. I really hope not because my assumption is CONCACAF is a different competition Yeah, that sounds like it's not right This is the type of thing I saw on the internet and chose to do zero research about and now Tom as a capital J journalist is the one dealing with this one so Shafferberg gets sent off at halftime and like There there's a lot of questions about Canada coming out of this gold cup They dominated the opening game against under is a 6-1 win to many people like putting to bed demons of the two qualifying cycles

pre-hex from 2010 and 2014 in which they got Annihilated down in Honduras to banish their hopes. They then stumbled after that. Curaçao, El Salvador, and then you end up in the second half against Guatemala down a man where Canada could just never get control of the game and they could never get control of their own emotions. And eventually Guatemala finds the equalizer through Rubio Rubin, which is awesome to see. Charles and battery are massive. And Rubio Rubin, which is awesome to see. Charleston battery are massive.

And Rubio Rubin's a great story. Like I love every time he resurfaces and fights back in his own career. Like he could have retired a long time ago and he continues to just love playing soccer and fighting through it. And he will have down years and then he will have up years once again. He gets a huge goal for his country in an epic environment by the way. The Guatemala fans in Minnesota were legit and that's why Gold Cup can be fun. Doing it every two years 97 times has killed a lot of that what we saw in the group stage in some of the environments and all of it overwhelmed Canada and they were probably lucky to get to PKs

then all of a sudden in PKs you get the chance to win it then all of a sudden in PKs, you get the chance to win it. Then all of a sudden you're on your deathbed. Then all of a sudden you're back alive. Then all of a sudden, a 19 year old smashing a PK off the crossbar and you're going home. The whole thing was like an emotional roller coaster. And it ends with maybe the biggest upset in gold cup history. As Guatemala, not a team with any history of success. Canada coming in, I think as betting favorites in this tournament, if not second. And now they're going home, Tom, and you've sort of covered it a bit of the like the postgame fallout from Jesse Marsh of trying to figure out what just happened.

Yeah, let me let's start like, listen, the bigger story is Canada losing. But I want to focus like what an incredible moment for Guatemala Well earned they had to stay in the like again if Canada plays their best they're gonna be Guatemala, but this is how upsets happen and what a moment for them and They continue on in this tournament. It was really really cool watching the emotions after the penalty shootout the prayer circle They had after the game these things like I don't know man Like this stuff is just still really cool for me and those are the things that can can still give you goosebumps and still give you like oh my god like sports can be awesome on the other side of the good just one

of the things to add which is I sort of said this but I didn't really explain one of the really cool things about the growth of the game in Canada and the US is the way it has grown CONCACAF. So you have it on two sides. Guatemala is a great example. There are some teams like Costa Rica where the growth is they can go play in MLS and play in larger professional setups, better training environments, all of that. Guatemala is one where there is a large amount of MLS Academy players who are part of this team. I think there was four in the starting lineup. If you include a Rubio Rubin, you know, US born trained all of that. That's going to be more and more common. Like I can tell you being at a G a cups and MLS next stuff, like you have Honduras scouts and Mexico scouts and Jamaica scouts and El Salvador scouts. And

I think that's really cool. I think it grows the region. I think it grows the strength. I think it gives this jumping off point for now a Guatemala FA to like ride off the back of this. Can they get better sponsorship deals? Can they make more money to help grow the program? Like all these types of things. And I think the region's better for it. I think the international game's better for it.

And it's just epic to watch like an Aaron Herrera where we know from talking to them how much it means to represent this country and where their parents came from. And let's be real, talking about it in a time period right now where a lot of this stuff is shamed or questioned or scared or feared. And for them to be able to like elevate their nation here on this platform is awesome to see Aaron Herrera, I think is one of the best fullbacks in Major League Soccer. I think he should have had a road to the US Men's National Team, which he hasn't.

So for him to now settle and be a star for this team, we saw Alex rolled onto it for El Salvador in World Cup Qualifying. It is cool and it is going to become more and more prevalent. I completely agree. And talking about the emotions and what it means to them, Goss, this isn't a huge monetary boost for these players and they're flying. I don't know if they're all flying coach, but like I remember Rubio Rubin, his first camp with Guatemala at French Guinea, home to Belize, at the Dominican

Republic and home to the Dominican Republic. These ain't glamour international games. Like you're not doing anything other than love of that country and wanting to play international soccer. So it's just to see that all be rewarded and having this journey and having this moment, it's really, really cool. But on to Canada. Listen, Jesse Marsh, God love him, talked a lot, talked a lot heading into this tournament about how much his players wanted to be there and everything else. And yeah, they're missing a couple guys, but doesn't matter.

Just got to be Guatemala. And yeah, penalties are fickle. Red cards happen, random sample size skews things. I don't want to hear a single if. And to be fair to him, he did have one quote in the pressure that has gotten the most buzz was, yeah, we were missing half of our group. This was after he was going around talking about,

everybody wants a beer, all this stuff, right? Like twisting the knife to the US as much as he possibly could and fair play to him. Makes our job more fun. I will give him credit. He took it like an adult. He didn't shy away and Outside of that one line his entire presser was like obviously we're gutted but listen, I believe in this group we need to go through adversity like He didn't just go up there complain about the referee or complain about the pitch or say

You know what if this if that like that was the only line that he said that that came off of like an excuse so I'll give him that but like Canada fans Jesse Marsh like just gotta take this L Stay out of the comments and keep it moving forward and do better in the next international break that is what it is It's an L. Keep it moving. It is We are seeing the unfortunate part of not being in qualifying for a World Cup, which is you have very few opportunities to change the narrative around your team.

It is the same thing the US and Mexico is struggling with right now. So one, congratulations Canada. You are a giant, which means it is a big story when you lose now. This has not been the case for Canada for the previous 30 years in the region. So like backhanded, there's a little bit of the positive. I am not Jesse Marsh, so I can throw out there that like Steven Moustakio, Mois Bombito, Alfonso Davies, Ali Ahmed, Jonathan Osorio, you're missing all those players.

That's a lot of starters, those are really good players. I think that matters because it is not the biggest country in the world. Canada has a limit on its player pool. You can only push it so far. In saying all of that, you're 100% right, which is beat Guatemala. Beat Guatemala in a quarterfinal in a neutral site. You just have to do that. You have to be good enough. I think what's unfortunate is the positive with Jesse is everyone puts their head down and runs into the wall as fast as they possibly can. And I think for Canada, with the player pool they have, with the history that they have,

that is the best case scenario. The problem is when you get thrown off that line, there is not really a plan B and there was no ability. I don't know if we stocky was there if it has changes where they put their foot on the ball and they slow the game a little and they start to take some of the energy out of it They were incapable of doing that and they got sucked into a lot of the energy around the red card and the crowd and everything Else more and more as the game went along I mean you've got Dane St. Clair coming off his line like grabbing jerseys and like there's part of that you love

You love seeing these players like have the confidence and stand up for each other and push things. But at the same time, if you're gonna win a game one zero down a man, like at some point you have to see out the game. They were incapable of that. And now you don't have a competitive game until the World Cup.

So you can make up friendlies in tournaments and you can call them whatever you want. You can try, but this was your last opportunity. And it's why it's we talked about it being so important for the US and Mexico. It's why it was important for Canada. And I have talked over and over for Canada of like, they are trying to win fans. They are not a dominant team and it is not assumed they are going to win. And a lot of people have not watched them.

And John Herman brought a large amount of those fans back and Alfonso Davies and Jonathan David have done that and huge shout out to Jonathan David, by the way, wearing the captain's armband on no contract and like playing right now through a ton of weird surfaces and physicality and all of that while he still has not signed his next deal. And we don't know where he's going. And I think he put a lot on the line for this team to show his commitment which is cool. Winning a gold cup would have been massive. Winning a gold cup would have been like this untouchable thing that all of a sudden the next year runway is all this positivity and now they've got to fight back up from the ground to do that but with all of Jesse's stuff he just has to take that. If you're going to come out and yell then you're going gonna look like an idiot a bunch of the times and he knows that Yeah, and again to be fair damn he did take it and look man. I think that that's a good

Markup points to John Herb and did a lot of incredible work for the Canadian Federation women's and then men's One thing that I hated the most about him is he just talked and then took no accountability responsibility, right? Like for, like again, Jesse, I got watched every minute of Jesse's presser and he did, he took accountability. Like it wasn't excuse, excuse, excuse, excuse, complaining, complaining, complaining. Like you said, like yeah, like that arrow is going to be pointed back to you when you lose, when you were taking a victory lap in the run-ups of the tournament. And again, like he's calculated, he's doing, like he's an incredible motivator. going to be pointed back to you when you lose, when you were taking a victory lap in the run-ups and the tournament. And again, like he's calculated, he's doing like, he's an incredible motivator.

I think he's a really good manager. He was an awesome hire for Canada. And like you said, sometimes there's the risk of that playing style, having this happen, because even if you try to take your foot off the gas, it doesn't come naturally. And like when all the training rightfully so is we go we go we go put on the gas press win the ball back Go forward press like to even say okay now. We're gonna try to kill off a game It's not that easy to just switch to that with 15 minutes left so these are the risks that happen again overall It's a hugely positive manager for this team and what they've done under him has been hugely positive

but this is nothing short of a disaster. Like, not winning the tournament. Stop, stop. Losing to Guatemala is absolutely a disaster. In the quarterfinals of a tournament you were favorited for, dude, there would be, there would be, what are the, like, the dolls that you put little, like.

Voodoo. Voodoo dolls. There would be vooodoo dolls of Marichal Pochettino in the streets if this was the United States. So here's the thing though a disaster to me means that the foundation of what's been built is broken and you restart with a new foundation. I don't believe that's the case for Canada out of this. So that's why I wouldn't use that word.

I would use a failure, a frustration, whatever. But disaster to me means we have pretty much what happened to the US at Copa America. I don't think this is the same. I don't think this is the same where you reassess and say this entire thing is built wrong. I mean, there's so much wrong about CSA and Canada soccer and all of that.

I'm not even, I'm not questioning that. But I'm just saying the nature of the 30 player player pool with Jesse Marsh as the manager Is all still there. Yeah, I Play your pool for the USMNT was still there and they changed the manager. So like I mean again I'm not suggesting that that that's I this was a disastrous performance at tournament. Okay Let's go to the other one which almost was a passers-by for and right after that It's when national team survives against Costa Rica. We talked about it going into this.

This was a tough Costa Rica team to play. I am happy to see, this is me as a CONCACAF nerd, that Costa Rica has found its staples post golden generation. They held on too long. Panama sort of got stuck in this as well. Honduras has been stuck in this for years now. It feels like Costa Rica, especially that midfield three,

sort of has their road forward. They are built though, defensive-based counter-attack. And Max Arfsten gifts them the opening goal opportunity because he gives up a penalty kick that's just like a total brain fart. Then Malik Tillman misses the penalty kick, which is sort of a gift back the other way. The US is able to continue to push and push.

Diego Luna gets the goal, Arfstin the goal, the moment out of the halftime whistle, and then swing all the way back. All of a sudden in the 65th minute, Costa Rica takes control of the game. And I think that to me was the most disappointing part of this performance was that the US was on the road to the win and they were on the road to can you continue to push this game see it out with a 3-1 can you dominate the ball and Something happened in which they seeded that and all of a sudden Costa Rica gains confidence They're playing higher up the field and they're able to create that chance

You know our if thing gets beat one-on- Freese then saves it back out and then you're not tracking runners, no one's quick to react like there is a comedy of errors on that second goal but the second goal is almost less important than like that whole run Costa Rica are the better team for just way too long of that game. Yes and then when it was 2-2 Alonso Martinez was three inches away from putting one in the top corner. He can hit it and like that's again the more it sounds a little reductive and and Too basic to be like all Canada's Canada lost and penalties. That's a disaster, but the United States won in penalties I'm like, yeah, it's a coin slip

But at the end of the day the final result matters and yes Sometimes it's it's a little luck or it's a little like oh if this or if that like this could have been pretty close to disaster like it's a different because Costa Rica are a stronger team than Guatemala is but if you know that part's the context but then the other further context is the Nations League performance by the United States and the friendly performance they've they've, they failed to win seven of their last eight non-January Camp friendlies, the United States. Seven of their last eight they have not won.

And Copa America grouped and Nations League lost the semi-final and lost the third place game. So the context would have been, like again, while the opponent is stronger, it would have been just as bad I'd probably be saying disastrous as well, but they got through Matt Friess the hero in the penalty shootout Alonzo Martinez unlucky on that one in the 85th or 88th minute Whatever it was that almost gave Costa Rica the 3-2 lead and they move on and now they face Guatemala in the semi-finals and it's Again disaster averted is kind of where I'm at for a few days at least and maybe we'll see what happens at the semifinals and it's again disaster averted is kind of where I'm at for a

few days at least and maybe we'll see what happens at the semifinal. And the story in the shootout is Matt Freese saved three of them I don't know did a Harvard project where he explained how the brain works and therefore he's inside of everyone's head and he's able to save penalty kicks. I said I'm gonna pat myself a little bit I had him as my goalkeeper of the year wherever that thing sits I had him as my goalkeeper of the year when we did our midseason in MLS. He's been very good He's earned his way into the team They're obviously huge question mark sex Stefan is injured Matt Turner has not been a starter

We know the whole convo. Is he the starting USMNT goalkeeper? Yeah, I mean I wouldn't write anybody in pen in this position for the opening game of the World Cup. But like, I'm assuming, we'll see how potentially the next two games go or if not maybe just the semi-final. But right now, how do you not have him the starter in September? And then it's, hey, if he keeps it, he keeps it. Because we know his form with NYCFC is going to be strong or you can pretty safely assume Just give it what he's done over. I mean and if it's not he loses the spot, right? exactly yeah, but like

If that like there were question marks like there were question marks about Matt Turner's situation and like again the Leon thing They're figuring that out and again nothing new. Shout out to Michelle Kang. If Leon stay in Ligon He's going and the likelihood is he's gonna be starter But they still need the other goalie. There's here how many times I just said if there Yeah, we know Matt Friese is a starter for NYCFC, right? And we know his like his ability so the control is there and if he plays well with the national team every window It's it's gonna get the closer you get to the World Cup the stronger is gonna be right now I wouldn't write it in pen, but he's absolutely the number one right now

Last week I said I think it was coming into the Switzerland game so now there has been three examples of this I have said consistently on this show I love watching Max Arvstein on this national team he has been every single game must watch in both directions like he's clearly man of the match in this game because he gets his own goal he gives up the penalty kick he gets beat for the goal like he's got he's clearly man of the match in this game because he gets his own goal. He gives up the penalty kick He gets beat for the goal. Like he's got he's bringing the fireworks Do you think he continues to get starts like what does he start in the semi-final? What I mean

Again, I don't feel like rehashing the same criticism of him I like you like what you start talking after this I would have said that last game, but clearly the coaching staff feels different it's kind of the same thing like obviously I've been clamoring for a Brian White start but like I think Damian Downs looked really good when he came on like I don't think he's going to be the starter next game but like those are two guys I think I'd like to see and again I still prefer a player more like Tolkien at this position at the international level than Orphezen.

And like, I think, I know Orphezen is a more technical player outside of set pieces, because Tolkien's really good at that. But the way that Tolkien, like, dude, every time Orphezen's been isolated, or even when he's had a 2v1 defending, he's got beat. And that's where this team is gonna be vulnerable, is in those 1v1 situations with their fullbacks. Guatemala are going to try to isolate him, just like Switzerland did time and time again.

And Costa Rica were doing more and more of that, and that's where a lot of their joy was coming from. How many times do we need to see this before change is made? And going forward, the goal and the assist assist I believe is what he had like obviously that negates a lot of the defensive worries but I'm not banking on a goal and assist from my left back. Yeah the question is just where else it comes from I thought... Quinsolvin I want to see Quinsolvin. I don't disagree with you yeah. I want to see a midfield that has that doesn't have three industrious players

like I think you need to pick two of Burrhalter Adams or Delatory I don't I want to see a midfield that has, that doesn't have three industrious players. Like, I think you need to pick two of Burrhalts or Adams or Delatory. I don't think that you should be starting all three in a game that you're expected to dominate possession. Yeah, I like Delatory in this game. And I think that would be my two, would be Adams and Delatory.

Like I thought, I thought he progressed play a little bit. I think he at least has ideas in the pockets and Against the low block that are different than the basic simple pass Brutal for burr halter to miss the penalty kick it cuts to Greg like it's just We are now in like the deepest darkest recesses of the internet in talking about some of this stuff And I just I went to I was in a Mexican restaurant watching this game and I was just like please don't miss like I don't even care if you lose at this point like just don't miss because

this is gonna be the whole condo he misses they win and I don't know what you do with that at that point Tolkien pretty much came in for the PK he misses Alex Freeman Brian White did too and he didn't take one yeah Alex Freeman. I thought Brian White did too and he didn't take one. Yeah. Alex Freeman though. What were you thinking when you could not believe they had him? I could not. I was saying out loud. I cannot believe he's shooting and then he bangs it into the upper corner. Hey, hey, Kayla, go pick this out. I'm going to put it right there. Good luck. Do you know, I think his family played in Major League Baseball. Did you know I don't know if you've done this but I you know His dad might have played in that stadium before if you know He has a father who played in that stadium if we don't get under of we don't get the reference within the first five minutes

Of the next game we riot that has to be done or I will forget like a goldfish It was no it was a vibe it was an experience it was epic for Matt freeze It wasn't good enough as a performance for the US Pochettino talked about after like you need some of these moments to move on from to learn from I can understand that I think you're seeing some of the players be exposed like Millie Tillman is a really really good player and we're gonna talk about his transfer in a second I don't know that he carries a team. I just don't know that that's his personality.

I don't think that will be the expectation over the next 12 to 18 months with the U.S. It is right now because it is not exactly your full team, although with how little Pochettino has been able to work with players, I think a lot of these guys are gonna earn spots and earn opportunities coming out of this. I think Delatory is fully back into the conversation.

I think Alex Freeman's fully into the conversation. I would be shocked to see if a Quinn Sullivan or Sebastian Barralta or whoever gets the starts going forward, if they're not, Ajamon clearly is, Diego Luna clearly is. So I think a lot of people have earned a lot more opportunity coming out of this gold cup. And if they're able to get over the line here, they should beat Guatemala.

Same as we said about Canada. That may not be the case. Then on the other side, you've got Mexico against Honduras, another huge upset from Honduras. So the same expectations on Mexico, who are every bit unaware of themselves as the US is at this point. That should be the final that we see. It should be fairly dramatic

It gives an opportunity for these players on a big stage to prove that they're capable of carrying through the moment So the Guatemala game similar Costa Rica, it's a team you expect to sit in a bit. You see Rubio Rubin's movement It is different than Alonso Martinez who drops off the front line to shoot from distance He is going to challenge on crosses and all of that And on the flip side the US has a huge height advantage. So if it is John Tolkien, I'd expect you whip in a ton of crosses from that left back spot, which is what he's really good at,

where, excuse me, Arvstein's coming inside to be a goal scorer himself, which I like. I don't know that I love it on the same side as Luna, and that's the part that gets lost with this. And what we talked about, and I would have liked to have seen Tillman, Luna and Quinn Sullivan. I would like to have seen those three. I would still like to see those three against Guatemala and hopefully that's what it is.

Anything else before we move? No, we move. So let's talk Malik Tillman. It sounds like it is going to be a huge summer for him making that big move back to Germany Yeah, by labor cues and are finalizing a deal to sign Malik Tillman from PSV for fee in the region of 40 million dollars He's the Florian Virts replacement, which is big shoes to fill. Of course. They are different players What he showed this year more than he did last year in PSV and again I think he said two really good seasons with that club he did last year in PSV and again I think he's had two really good seasons with that club but last year

he was a guy who his production was really good, but it felt like it was in more in the context of He's like the sixth attacker that like yes, he probably should be getting more minutes But there's a lot of really good attackers in this team He's benefiting a lot from the field tilt that PSV has and obviously he benefited from that this year but he was integral he had a more central role in responsibility he had more importance to whether or not they won games both in particularly the Champions League he played really well and then he was one of the defining factors for them to come back and win the Eredivisie title by winning their last seven games.

He started seven to the last eight when he came back from injury. Like immediately back from injury, right into the 11, he had a ton of goal contribution. So during that run is when it was like, oh, he's ready for the next step. Will it happen this summer? Will it not? And like, I think Byer Leverkusen

is gonna be a really, really good fit. Manchester United fans, maybe in in the chat maybe in the comments Maybe the discord are gonna push back a little bit with Eric tenhawk as the manager That's the only thing that gives me I would have liked this under Chabu Alonso a little bit more But listen a club like viral ever queues and spending 40 million dollars on a player Like he's gonna get every chance to be the guy for this team and I think he's going to take it I Agree, I think it's a nice setup to tactically

I think like we talked about like I don't think he works as like this lone 10 driving the game and I think with Leverkusen it's either one of two tens behind the center forward or he's playing a little bit deeper Which is what we saw at times with PSV I think that's where you saw his game really take off is like he can change the game in between the lines. I think he can drive the game forward with the ball at his feet. He can also get it out and transition quickly. And then that's where he follows up and is a really good goal scorer and a really good finisher.

All of that fits into the Bundesliga. It's obviously a place he's from. It's where he's from. So he's familiar with the country and will be comfortable. And I think all of that fits into what Leverkusen does and what you Said which is this is not a team that just throws out money like this. So They are believing in him. They are going to give him opportunities and It's a big year for him. Like he could be a starter at the World Cup. This sort of elevates him into

He's now performed with the US and now he's playing at a club equal to the other people we talk about in these positions So you can't walk away and sort of discount it and say oh well Christians at Milan and you know way is that you ventus or wherever he ends up being and All the other players in that conversation It's like lever krusin is every bit equal to and if he's a star or performing He might be elevated over those other people. So he kind of controls his own destiny, I think, with a lot of this for the national team, which is huge. And it would be nice if he took another step because I think there is still more to get

to from him. You hear Pochettino talking about him, like he's a quiet guy. How do you find it from him? How does it fit in? I did an interview yesterday for the US soccer podcast, actually on the women's side about talking about like quiet players and how they can elevate and be dominant. Like you have to find your own way to do it. I think him going to a team like this that has expectations coming off the PSV

season, I think will be really cool to watch for him. And it's a big move for the whole US men's national team because right now he's one of the few who's shown up to everything and has performed at high levels. So you'd love to not look at this in three months or five months and be like, ah, he's only started four games and it hasn't gone well. Yeah. Again, I have big expectations for this. I think it's a good fit, cautiously optimistic.

Hope things go well. I think that they will. Then like you were kind of saying of the takeaways from this tournament, I think Tillman is a starter for the first group. Again, like that, it's such a fluid thing. Who knows who's going to be available every time that we think that we do this hypothetical best 11. It never actually happens, whether it's injury or form or whatever. But like, I can see him complimenting like more minutes with Christian Pulisic and Tim Weyha. I think he would compliment them really, really well. And we'll see kind of what this looks like moving forward. But Tillman

and Matt Fries, I think have been the two big winners and Chris Richards, I'd say. I mean, not that his starting spot was really in question, but I think he's taking his game up a level, particularly Crystal Palace. But like this summer with the national team, he looks really good. He looks confident 1A center back and other people around him have struggled, but he looks 1A. And we've had that in the past and you can feel it off Chris Richards of like,

his partner doesn't really affect his play, he hasn't made mistakes. Okay, maybe the next level is like figuring out how to cover more for the people around you, but also the fact that Alex Freeman has played as well as he has is not a coincidence that he's alongside a guy that like he can trust. I will, I'm gonna say this last thing

and then we're gonna move into a little MLS talk because I don't know that I worded this well and someone in the chat said it the reason I like him and the reason Max Arfstein keeps getting on the field is cuz he tries shit huh what did I say or scene oh whatever come on he's with me we're on the same time but he tries things like he tries to make the game happen and I think the US at this gold cup has been better than they have in the past. But like, I think where he's so much, you know, looking for trying stuff people. And

that's why Diego Luna is adored. That's why we like Quinn Sullivan think that's where the Malik Tillman sort of like confidence comes from. He then also gives up chances because he's like a forward playing a left back trying stuff. And the question is the balance of the team. And like I put it in the group chat. Um, someone's like Max Arfsten should never shouldn't play again for the U S I'm like until Wilfred Nance's coach, like he fits the thing he's from. And I would love for the U S to be that thing. They are not yet. I don't know

how Pochettino gets them there. I don't know where it ends, but part of this is finding the balance in a team. And I think that's why he keeps getting rolled out there And I don't mind it because I like that but it is what it is. Okay, let's talk a little MLS It was a big weekend of action. Let's start with San Diego San Diego goes on the road for the second time in the week So they scored eight goals on the road across two games including midweek in Vancouver, right or was that two weeks ago? Am I wrong about my days? across two games, including midweek in Vancouver, right? Or was that two weeks ago? Am I wrong about my dates?

I have zero idea. Great, it doesn't even matter. Undress Dreier continues to be phenomenal. Chucky Lozano comes off the bench. He creates, sets up, and then scores the winner. They get out to an early lead. Shout out to Petsar Musso, who I still have confidence in in my golden boot race.

But speaking of confidence, how much stock of San Diego's shield winners are you willing to buy right now? Stock is high. So, I don't know, do I give you a number? Do I give you a grade? Do I give you a percentage? Do I give, yeah, do I call finance guy?

It's got Bobby Warshaw on the phone, right? He could execute something like this, a little stock. I'm sure you've got a number of financial investors in your comments and chats who are happy to help you out here. Just give me your social security number and bank account routing information. So I'll answer this and say they are absolutely for real in this. And again, it's not a super strong take after 20 games this season. Um, but this is sustainable. This is It's not like the crazy over-performing numbers and it's not like you watch them and it's just like oh somebody's gonna figure something out

And then that's gonna be it like oh if you press them this way or if you don't give them space or if you give them Space to build and try whatever it this team is probably The would it be too strong to say favorite got yeah This team is probably the four teams that are in the mix. San Diego, Vancouver, Philly, and Cincinnati. And Nashville would be a fifth that are between 38 and 40 points. Columbus is right there with 37. Miami have four games in hand right now. So we'll see if they figure into this.

It's wide open. San Diego are absolutely in that top tier of contenders. For me, it's still FC Cincinnati, though OB to Oboto is going to be out for a while. That's going to be difficult to stomach, but I think this team has so much quality in the attack and difference makers plus the defensive structure behind Nuboto, particularly when Miles Robinson gets back from the gold cup. SinCy are still the team that I think is gonna win The shield but since he like I can't argue if you say San Diego, I can't argue you say Vancouver Philly maybe a little bit but like I get all these teams have proven that they are really really good

And I think that they're gonna be in the mix for a while to come. Maybe not to the final day I do see particularly since he San Diego or the two teams I see going to the final day, but I could be wrong San Diego had a spell where it was like oh you can actually play super direct against them Your chances are there and they dropped two or three games in a row weird ones, too I think it was like at Colorado and at RSL which also was like, okay, here's they can't play it out to do They don't know what it's like to travel all of Colorado Charlotte RSL They had three losses in a row in April, right? And those were all teams that you're like, those are teams that make sense because they do play direct and so they're not changing their style, but it

actually fits against San Diego. These last three games you played at Minnesota, at Vancouver, at Dallas. I would have said before this, Minnesota, Vancouver, San Diego and Seattle are my four favorites in the West. Maybe you throw LAFC in there as well, depending on who you are. So to go to two of them and win in a three game span, as well as Minnesota, who again fits perfectly in what we think will beat them. Dallas as well now Dallas not as competitive of a team in that convo, but plays fairly direct. Petter Musa on the break, you know, Kumango and Lucho

Acosta. I think that's really impressive. It's really impressive with the players that they've missed. So I think it goes to show like you were saying, there is not like a one solve that someone's going to figure out. They're able to play their style no matter who they have available to them. They're committed to it, which keeps you sort of as the season goes up and down, keeps you on a decent path. I think being in the Western Conference is an advantage at this point as

you if you're talking about, okay, down the stretch Cincinnati, let's just say their next three games are Chicago, Columbus and Miami. Like I think the East is stronger and there are tougher games in there for Cincinnati. They still play Philadelphia. They still play Orlando. They still have to go at Red Bulls and at Miami We're on the flip side for San Diego. They closed the year San Jose at Houston at Portland. They play Portland twice They still play at Chicago, but they play Toronto So like they don't even playing all the best Eastern Conference teams left and the West a little bit more winnable There are a lot of hard games in there, but I think all of that keeps them in the conversations towards the end. I will be surprised if they win it. I wouldn't say they're the favorites right now just because I think there's like a group mentality thing

that's really hard to win trophies and sort of get yourself over the line. It's hard to believe a team year one can do that. And is still dependent on like, can they keep Andres Dreier fully healthy the full year? And I don't think they can afford to lose him even if they get true clothes on a fully healthy and everyone else fully healthy and All of that. Do you think that with the way things sit there's some Big move or spend that they make to try and solidify things in the summer. I don't think so I mean they have the flexibility but but at every turn even when again like there like there was conversations Kevin De Bruyne but like obviously dating back before the season like By the time that we were in preseason and I like and then the the spring

Every time I asked it was like not like we were not signing a third designated player Yeah, like not for this season at least like maybe we'll change in the future, but we want to be a 2-4-2 team And that's still the case last time I checked I've kind of stopped asking because that you can only have the same question So many times without getting called an a hole But like I think that it's gonna be around the margins I think that they are they are thrilled with so many of the players in this team that There isn't really a big need right like even you look at center forward like Ingvartsson has been injured And then even when it was Valakari as the false nine things worked out well now

Milan Olahosky has nine goals in 400 minutes or whatever the number is and then Tommy Angel is coming off the bench and scoring He couldn't get a minutes for LAFC and Luca Bambino is the one that's starting spot at left back and Oscar Verhoeven is proving to be You know between him and Willie and Jasper Lofstad, whoever, right back's covered. Center back, yeah, it looked like it was supposed to be Paddy McNair and Andres Reyes as the starters. Well, nope, it's Chris McVie, and that worked out too. So you just kind of go up and down the team.

There isn't really anywhere that you'd like, Alex Miten as your third winger, behind you gives on on Andres Dreier. They're good everywhere. So like, I don't even know where you would invest if you were going to make a significant addition. It would. Yeah, right. It would be more depth, like you said, around the margins to try and just make it a little

bit deeper. I think Pilcher and Alasky are the two over the last three weeks that have probably changed this calculus of like, Alasky now you have all of a sudden all of this attacking ability Whether it's on the wing or at center forward that has strengthened the attack because mightens been solid but not game changer Which is sort of what you'd expect for young player coming over for the first time and then Pilcher has Steady things at center back where it felt like if McNair and McPhee were out they were in trouble That's what I felt like the first half of the season, right? That hasn't been the case the last few weeks. And those are the two spots that

it would have said big money. And then as you said, everything else is around the margins. It'd be interesting if they kind of got MLS veteran E pieces, whether it's in trades or you know, internal buys, whatever, to sort of just bring a little bit of that into the group as you go down the stretch of like, okay, how do you finish out a long season? How do you deal with the supporter shield race games? How are you scoreboard watching and not in all of that? So I think I would say right now they're number two favorites to do this. And I think being in the Western Conference is an advantage for them. And I think they're for real. And it's pretty exciting for them. And they continue to be super fun

to watch every single game. Let's continue in on some MLS action from the weekend. The Sandro Schwartz red card. I talked to some refereeing people. There is literally no rule about anything. The whole like we all grew up in this world of like, oh, but I'm on the break. It's a useless thing. It doesn't mean anything. It is just based off the time on the referee's watch. The you would hope that you kill it quick enough that it is not clear that the breakaway is happening. And I think there's a feeling that Minnesota maybe got a little bit more time in their opportunity. It is purely on the

referee's clock. There is no like sort of order to it. But shout out to Sandro Swartz for just being like kind of fun in MLS. He was fun last year in the playoff run. It's coming across the field. Not ideal. Gets the red card. I'm here for it. And just in general, like he does fight for his team. He is kind of scrappy in press conferences. Like I think he's been a really good add to the club and I think he'll look really good putting Timo Werner out there. It looked really good from the stands definitely getting a ban for the red card of sprinting out of the field. Somebody in the refereeing community said like I didn't think

Sandra was gonna be able to outdo himself after MLS Cup but he did this time so referees aren't thrilled with him, but that's okay. You fight your battles. Yeah. Um, that was, that was super interesting. It was funny because the whistle blows, the camera cuts to Forsberg. It was a good, it was a good closeup of him being like, Oh, come on. And we're on the break. And as he turns around, probably to yell at the referee, you see Forsberg just start running because it was instead of him yelling at the referee, he goes, Oh my God, I need to go catch my coach before he screams in the referee's face or something bad happens. So it was funny to watch Forsberg starting to complain and go, whoa, never mind, I need to be the adult in the room right now. I'm second most pissed right now, so I have responsibility and work to do.

Somebody else I talked to at the club was like, didn't expect to be chasing my coach on the field. Again, I don't know if maybe we're being too flippant about it. I know referees probably wouldn't be thrilled by that sight. It was a decisive decision to give a red card. Again, it's not like he was coming out of the field with, I don't know, what was the Mat Meowsga story with the pizza box going into the referee's not good room? I was thinking about, did you watch the- It a clutch fist is why I'm just protecting myself of like why I feel okay Being flippin and kind of laughing about it though. I imagine if I was the referee I would have a much different take so I'm just trying to be fair Did you watch the Acuna Dumfries fight in the Club World Cup between oh my god and enter that was the

Just like looking at each other find a whistle, let's go to the locker room right now and I'm gonna beat the shit out of you. And they looked at each other and started running to the corner. They both knew... Side by side of like, I'm gonna kick your ass. I'm not gonna swing right now because we're in the stadium. You wait till we get right over there buddy, I'm swinging. Also like, it's the US, it's the stadium, there's cameras everywhere.

I don't know what they thought. They're like, oh it's hidden? And they were super conspicuous about it too. Nobody could tell what they were doing Yeah, and then all of a sudden you've got inter teammates tackling a coon you because they couldn't get to dump For you to be like, please don't go in there and get in a fight And that's kind of what I think about when you're like Fours were being like, oh now I have to be the adult in the room That was kind of how everyone else was Yeah, but it was it was a fun game.

It was wild. There was a few wild games this weekend, just like a ton of goals, a ton of back and forth games. Cali Classico to start things out. Bolaroo gets a goal. I said this on the show yesterday. I think he's probably a year late on like I think he'd be at this gold cup if this had happened 12 months ago.

Man, it's a good shout. It's probably too late for it to happen now. I just don't know that he's, I don't know that Puchatino is going to push other players in. You had the New England comeback three goals down at home to Colorado. They come back. I was really disappointed by Orlando. I thought this was an opportunity at a statement win for them.

I thought they were the better team overall. Part of that is game states. Evander is just special, man. And it's not just the free kick, which the free kick is so good. He had a goal this week where someone plays a cross that's like nowhere controllable and his first touch on full sprint is just sublime. And this is where I questioned how he fits into the team and like Lujo does a lot of work off the ball and fit the pressing style. I don't know that Evander's that guy. Evander bad is still double digit goals because he's just too talented at the thing he's good at.

Yeah, exactly. And I get going back to the shield race. That's the player that can paper over cracks up where you go like, oh my God, how did they win this game? Like not necessarily saying that against Orlando, but just like, you're not gonna get a whole lot of XG for the free kick he scored. But guess what, he's capable of doing that, right?

Like, so in the games where you are just, like you could just brute force your way with talent to points, that's how you win the shield. Yeah. It is, he's pretty much the best IP staker now in MLS over the last 10 years and might be ever. Lino Messi?

Lucas El Rayon? Statistically dude, in terms of goals per minute, he is off the charts. That's what he's using? I think he's got like six direct goals from set pieces. I remember doing this around Lucas El Rayon. I think he finished with like seven and that was an extra year or whatever so we'll see but I don't think I don't think of Andrews done yeah I don't think of Andrews done anytime soon so it was a big that was a big result for Cincinnati to go on the road and get a win sort of against to

run a play as they're trying to make up points against other people and it was a really big game Chicago sort of hangs people. And it was a really big game. Chicago sort of hangs on. Again, Charlotte, which was a weird one for them. I need more from Jonathan Bomba. I need more finishing. I know he has prime Gauss theorem at this point, because if he finishes 50% of the stuff he's missing this year, next year,

he is going to be 15 and 15 at a minimum. And if they brought in a number 10, it's like a question though, because if you bring in this, let, it's like a question though, because if you bring in this, let's say it is Kevin De Bruyne, that's going to lead to more chances for him. He needs to finish. Like creativity seems to be his strong suit. He is more comfortable getting to the end line and putting in crosses than he is finishing himself. That's why I wouldn't hate a Thomas Moove fit for this team. He could be more of that

nine and a half. Like again, he's really creative. His creative his assist numbers are really really strong for pirate because he's so smart But like okay in moments of the game where Jonathan Bomba is gonna be the creative hub I'm gonna go be the second forward like I think with a human at left back It is okay to to unbalance the field and say this is where we build Yeah So like I think that they need more of a nine and a half like again Easy to say like they need somebody who can score and create. Like yeah, those players cost a lot of money,

but some profile like that rather than like a pure chance creator. Jerude got his final game for LAFC. I said it yesterday. I thought it was weird he played. I don't know whose decision that is. I just think it's weird. Like he's on another team now.

You're like a hundred years old. Just go and play for them. And for LAFC, he hasn't been good. I liked the moment and you can see how much he matters. another team now you're like 100 years old just go and play for them and for LAFC he hasn't been good I liked the moment and you can see how much he matters to his teammates and again like we talked a little bit with Berna like this is not a he was bad for the group it just didn't work out LAFC now have the openings like do you should did we make a mistake not inserting them in our supporters shield convo no because they haven't shown it and like sure that Did we make a mistake not inserting them in our Supporters Shield Convo?

No, because they haven't shown it and like, sure, let's say that they signed two DPs. What happens when teams sit off against them? And I'm just sick of talking about this, about the hypothetical of what they could look like or whatever. They have three games in hand on San Diego, but they're 13 points back. No, we didn't make a mistake. Okay. We'll revisit it if they go on a run. I think that's fair. Um, all right. So we've got games coming up this week, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Uh, we will have our interviews coming out on Thursday Thursday a little bit of a recap to the gold cup as well And then we will be in the discord the entire weekend watching games

I'll be like 97 hot dogs in I will be four cans of sauerkraut in sauerkraut is key to go Brown mustard. I don't think I could do the Joey Chesnick cuz I need all the toppings. It's like Are you gonna what isn't he back? Oh, is he coming back? Patriot it kind of ruins hot dogs for me watching them guzzle them like I could eat I mean we're talking I could get over five easy Watching them eat them makes it less appealing to me. Did we get in water doesn't do it? No, not at all By the way, I Hilal getting the victory in the Club World Cup over Manchester City,

pretty big moment. Would be cool to see an MLS team be competitive in a tournament like this in any way. I think the gap between Man City and PSG is real. I'm not talking about Inter Miami right now, I'm talking about their overall league. We've done this a couple times over the last few weeks. We don't have to do it again,

and I don't need to be a Petro State pouring money into a team, but like, these are billionaires who can be competitive and they kind of choose not to. And that is a little bit frustrating to watch. On that note, shout out to everyone enjoying Canada Day. Shout out to everyone. On July 4th, we'll be back with all our interviews,

so keep an eye on the feed as well. And shout out to everyone in the chat. It was fun to be live once again and hanging out with everyone and we love you all and we'll talk to you again very, very soon. you