SoccerWise - Tom Is Back! MTL Fire ANOTHER Coach, Neymar Cincy Love & A Week Of Big Games

Episode Date: April 13, 2026

It is a GLORIOUS day at Soccerwise with the return of Tom Bogert from paternity leave & the announcement of a new partnership with Sounders At Heart. Tom comes back with bang in the midst of wild Major League Soccer weekend results and CONCACAF Champions League + US Open Cup fixtures. But the news never stops! Montreal has fired another coach, The Rapids pour on six goals, Columbus Crew may have lost DP Wessam Abou Ali for the season AND ALSO FC Cincinnati has reached out to Neymar about heading stateside. David hits it all with his partner in crime. Then he chats with Jeremiah Oshan editor of Sounder At Heart about their new partnership and the state of soccer media in North America.5:30 Julian Hall Wunderkind9:58 LAFC Find Their Academy13:13 Rapids Are Must Watch18:48 MTL Fire Another Coach What Now?31:25 Neymar's Cincy Connection39:42 Wessam Abou Ali Tears ACL In Tough Crew Season46:42 Tom's Top 10 List53:58 CONCACAF Preview1:05:57 USOC Top Matcups1:08:23 Weekend USMNT Review1:12:44 Sounder At Heart Crossover Segment

Back in the Lions Den, soccer wise has returned with the one and only Tommy Scoops back in the building. And David Goss as well, I'm with you. Tom, it's your day. It's your moment. How are you feeling? I feel great. I miss you. I miss this.

I miss the pre-show meetings. I miss figuring out the show. I did genuinely listen to the show and have enjoyed that. You listen to the show more than I do. I respect it. I find it very interesting that you've had guests on and a couple of the closest people in our lives. You've had Webe. occasionally, despite promising every week.

I know whose fault that is, and it's not somebody in this room right now. And you've had Doyle who's a little bit more reliable. And it's really interesting. Both of these dorks duck my first show back because they knew they couldn't handle the heat. And that's just bad teammates. They're setting you up to be on the receiving end of all of this, all of the pentup takes. Everything that's good to come from this show. They were too soft to come in and sit in.

I hate to see it. We've been texting about doing this show for the last week. And the thing that I just realized like an hour or two ago, which I told you right before we got on, is that all of your texts are antagonistic. One of my texts. No, a couple of them, including this comment right here. And it's like, oh, I thought this is a thing we did together. And Tom's like, when I'm back, I'm locking you up. There's nowhere to breathe.

I'm in your face, 15 minutes, end-to-end defense. And I was like, I thought we had Tom were going to do this together. And I think maybe Weeby and Doyle felt that way as well. And they were wrong. It is war at all times. Get the dirt in your hands and ready to go because we're in the gladiators then now. Mimi, Mimi the A Gap, Oklahoma drill.

Let's go outside right now. Okay, so we have a lot to talk about on this show. We've got Namar might be going to Major League Soccer. Oh, coach was fired, which was a little bit of a surprise, but not a shock in Montreal. Unfortunate injury news, it feels like coming out of Columbus. That could affect a designated player. We've got U.S. Open Cup this week. We've got second leg of Conca Calf Champions League, all four MLS, first league MX.

We've got some national team stuff that we do every single week. So we've got a million things to talk about. But we have some big ones off the top. First one is Tom, you got a kit. You're a dad now. I did. If I threatened to roll a car over someone, can you flip it now? Do you have that dad's strength?

Well, if Theo is around, I would hope so. That would be a really bad thing to discover that I. didn't get that gene of the, you know, pretend to fight a fight. Yeah, I think so. It's been, it's been, it's been very great. He's, I'm in, in, you know, the world of the Oscars, I'm definitely supporting actor right now. My, my wife is, you know, best picture, best director, best actress on this. So I'm just doing everything I can in a supporting role because, uh, my wife's awesome and Theo is too. We are glad to have you back. We are sad to pull you away from your bliss that was you listening to the show with your child sleeping on you and texting us

furiously about all the things you disagree with. And now you have to be on live. So I'm sorry about that, but we were so glad to have you away with your family. We are excited to bring Theo into the soccer wise world. And we're glad to have you back. There's somebody beat me to a joke that I was ready to make it at any point. Edwin in the chat. Weeby couldn't be here. He's crying because he's so happy there's another dad in the world. There's a lot of dad energy right now in Weavy's life. He's going to have you fishing soon. He's going to have you golfing after that.

So it's going to be a big deal for them. For us here at the Sockwise family, we continue to grow as well. We just announced our newest partnership. And it is with Sounder at heart, who many of you know very well. If you live in the Seattle, Washington, Pacific Northwest, Cascadia area,

you will know them. You'll know Jeremiah from our shows that we've done, previewing the seasons as well as some other content we've done around Seattle and the Sounders. But they are, I would argue, the best local platform covering Major League Soccer and NWSL in the country. And so we're really excited for this partnership. We are hoping it is the first of many. But myself and Jeremiah are going to sit down at the end of this episode if you're listening

via podcast and chat a little bit about what we're hoping to build and also just the media landscape around soccer media. we alongside you and Doyle and some of the people you've named Joe Laria, the people who are living in this a little bit. So I felt like it was a good opportunity to give some of our insights. Curious to hear what people think. We're really excited to do some stuff with them back and forth, helping them cover the league on a bigger stage, having them help us sort of lock in on some Seattle storylines as well over the next few months and then hopefully years and everything else. So a really, really big moment for us here at the kickback family. Let's dig into the show, though, Tom.

We've got a lot to talk about. We like to start with our best things you saw. Tom, do you have one best thing you saw? Ready with 500. We're both going to have multiple. I think that's how this is going to go. But I'll start with nothing new, but I haven't been on a podcast to be able to talk about it this season.

And it was another great reminder this weekend. The Baby Red Bulls, Julian Hall, Audrey Mehmeti, Maddie Dos Santos. They go on the road to Inter Miami at the new stadium. They get a two-two draw. And Julian Hall, he's not a new commodity, not even this year. Like he was a big-time academy talent, always scoring goals. Always like, okay, like that kid has a chance. But you never know until they get to pro soccer.

I thought that he was encouraging in his minutes last year. But it was, okay, like this, he still needs to develop, both physically, obviously, with technical ability, just normal stuff for a 17-year-old trying to take their first steps into the professional game. Dude, this year, you don't know he's 18 until they do a close-up of him. the way he moves, his physicality, his, he's demonstrative with the ball. He wants to, like, it's a very clear big step forward. He has taken a leap from.

That's a really talented player. Hopefully we're going to see something from him to like, oh, yeah, like this is why teams like Barcelona and big clubs in Europe are all well aware of this kid because he is also one of the brightest talents to come out of the Red Bull Academy since Tyler Adams. Using that as a quick pivot to Audrey Mametti, the positional sense, obviously he plays much, much different than Tyler Adams, but that's been an easy connection. And these two kids are the best talents, I think, to come out of the Red Bull Academy since Tyler Adams. Adjim Mehdi, everything that you've said on this show, everything that is evident to anybody watching, he was awesome.

He scores a goal this weekend. It's not about that for him, right? Like the highlight real that you'll play for him, if you're a scout in Europe, that's like, this is why we need to sign this kid. It has nothing to do with what he's doing in and around the box. It's everything between the 18s. It's the way that he keeps the ball under pressure. There was a moment against Miami where he kind of, he took a touch. And there were, he was pressured, but it wasn't like everybody kind of closing in.

It was they were giving the feeling of we're going to press you. And instead of kind of kicking it away, he noticed that like, yeah, they're pressure, but like I have a time to take two touches and like find the escape route in a circle. And like the kid who just turned 17, like what he's doing is so wise beyond his years. And again, this is no doubt another kid who's going to be at a big club in Europe. We're going to have big clubs after Maddie Dos Santos is somebody a little bit less heralded, left back, different position. he hadn't been on the same like trajectory as like gosh king of the GA Cup you knew about

Audrey and Julian Hall for a long time um I don't know if if Maddie dos Santos was a late bloomer or for his position thing but he's the starting left back to this team all of that is to say it is no longer noteworthy when these three players start because they are starters for this team it is not even necessarily noteworthy when they do something positive to impact a result because these three kids are not passengers that are just trying to help out and tread water in the first team these are kids that are pushing the game forward and helping deliver results

not just be a part of it and I think that as such an important distinction and an impressive one this weekend it is not new but is a continuation of I think one of the main storylines of the league as a whole at the beginning of the season. Yeah, totally agree with you

for them to also sort of like stumble at times after the hot start and now you go down to Miami you play against messy. I mean it's a big moment whether you want to say it or not especially for these young players I thought they handled that really well on the Maddie Dos Santos side, it's like there have been Maddie Dos Santos is in the Red Bull Academy over the last seven years. That's sort of where it's like he's been pushed.

He's played two minutes, all that stuff. There are other guys on that list, but coaches in that club haven't really been pushing kids into the first team. And so a guy like him wasn't getting the chance three years ago, four years ago, five years ago all the time. Joey Zelensky, who's on St. Louis, another one who sort of played in a similar role to him and didn't get a chance Eric Ruiz. So yeah, it's big to see him break through. And with Hall, I think he, one of the things when he was coming through is like, he's like a legitimate center forward goal score. He isn't really a creator. And so he doesn't pop off the screen as much, even though he scores goals.

And the two goals he creates this weekend are like vision, touch, speed. I mean, the first one, he understands whatever Falcone is doing. But at full speed, cuts back and lays the pass off. And the second one is not a chance. He creates a chance out of nothing. and if he adds that to his game and that's something that he like didn't super do even in the youth ranks

like he is more of a straight line runner does his job presses high scores chances that are created for him if he adds a little bit of that then it becomes super dangerous what he's capable of and who he can be can I throw on the back of that one first of all you got made fun of for picking baby bowls as your

first thing back from paternity leave which makes a lot of sense shout out shout out to you Terry scored him banger in his game. It's a miracle that L.A.F.C. has played young kids. Maddie Evans getting the start as well.

These kids have been in the academy like five years making differences. I mean, Terry's been one of the top ranked U.S. Youth National Team kids. And I think Brian Moyer might even be better. And every time someone talks you about them, it doesn't matter because you're just like, well, they're never going to play. LAPC's never going to play them. So for him to get on the field, he almost didn't know how to celebrate because he like, didn't know what to do with himself was great.

It was, I was more focused on the ball as it's leaving his foot, he's drifting towards the corner flag. Like he knew he's like, this is a goal. Like bang. I couldn't tell if he thought it might rebound. And he was drifting like towards the end line.

No, no. The rebound would have been to the other side. And, and yeah, to your point, LFC is a difficult club to break into for young players. We've had these conversations. He's talking about Luca Bombino.

And yeah, like, while that's frustrated, like you can't really, knock the team because of all the success that they had in the first team, right? Like, if they were just a middling team, then I think that you could really criticize them. But they're performing their winning trophy, or at least within the realm of winning trophies if they're not winning trophies, right? So I don't, I don't want to kill them for like not getting too many young players games. Guterre is a player who even at other good teams in MLS.

Like I'm not just, do you don't have to pick like the handful of like at the bottom of the table. He'd be sporting Kansas City's best players on something, right? like in the midfield. He'd start for Real Salt Lake. He'd start for like, you know, or like even some playoff teams or teams that we believe will be playoff teams. This is somebody who might be getting

18 to 20 starts this season. Even with how really strong this performance was, he has earned in a vacuum, earned more time, earned more minutes. You still have Eustaccio, Chuanier, Tim Tillman, and whatever other combinations that they could have in the midfield.

So it's not going to be an indictment of him if he doesn't get another start or too many starts. I hope Mark Dos Santos gets creative in finding ways to, all right, we're going to rotate one of our normal starting central midfielders and Jude Terry's going to play, right? Like we don't need to do it where we drop nine starters. I'm glad that they did. We can't even get him to play Nathan Ordas, Tom. I don't know that we're getting Jude Terry on the field too often.

But again, it was nice to see. And to your point, like it's difficult to break into that team. And Jude Terry, I think enough people who know you soccer circles know how good this kid is. but in reality, like if he was, again, if he was at Real Salt Lake, I think he'd be due for 22 starts this season or he'd at least have the chance to earn that if these performances stayed. Also, at L.A.F.C. there's just no room. Yeah. Also, Jude Terry and Maddie Evans, two of what is a great legacy of the whitest kid on the field being Latino for every L.A. F.C. team. Like, when they were like, oh, Maddie Evans might play Guatemala youth national team. I'm like,

Matthew Evans? And they're like, yeah, man, we got all of them. It is like the most, it's the most LAFC thing ever. Who else is you Terry eligible for? I think he's Mexican. I think he's eligibility for Mexico. Yeah. It's a great one for me to get wrong right now live on the show. So I hope I really knew that. I hope I really nailed that one, but I think so. Mine was the Colorado Rapids. They are a vibe now. They're officially must watch. They're on the list with Vancouver and San Diego. And I don't know who else is like top of that list, Nashville, I guess. Um, they are borderline suicidal in their own box. And it causes pure entertainment.

And they are dangerous. They're aggressive. They're direct. I mean, some of the moments they try to play out on Houston, they're playing guys inside their own box, goal kicks with bodies on them, trying to turn,

go upfield. Um, hafa Navajo looks awesome because he's like, oh, there's space. Everything's one v one. Okay. Yeah,

I'll just turn my defender. and then I'll be charging into space. I thought Darren Yappy looked good again. I still questioned some of what Dante Seeley brings. And then Georgian Munungo comes on the field off the bench. And he should have had an assist in the first 12 seconds being on the field. And he ends up getting an assist. So like he just adds to all of it.

There's a real like vision to what this team does. There's belief. We're going to have Matt Wells on the show later on this week as they prepare to play at Mile High and then host Messi on the weekend. They've got Open Cup against Union Omaha on Tuesday. So we're excited to have them on for the first time and chat with him. But like this team's a vibe and is kind of a must watch. And for anyone who doesn't already know that, we're keying you in now so that you can sort of plan out your weekends when they land on your schedule.

Yeah. And they're one of the reasons they're super watchable is like you said, sometimes they're suicidal going to the back. Like sometimes being an extremely watchable team isn't always like a hundred percent of compliment. It is mostly for the Colorado Rapids. But like this is a team that this game ends six two. And obviously that's abnormal. but each team had two and a half XG. That is not abnormal for Colorado Rapids game.

This is the way that the games go. They want to be wide open. They want to draw you upfield. They want to create transition moments through possession. If they can sometimes, like Doyle posted the clip on Blue Sky against Toronto. When they went down a man and the play that resulted in them making the game 10b 10 because they drew a red card on Toronto,

it was a clear, like Matt Wells had to have said it at halftime, stop and put your foot on the ball until somebody runs to you. And then, like, how coordinated they were to get the ball up the field, rather than a lot of teams with 10 are obviously focused more on defending and defending deep. And they're like, no, no, no, we're going to bring the ball backwards on our own so that you have to go forward so then we can go into space. They have, I think that they have a lot of players that make sense for this. And they came from, like, a high-pressing transition team under Chris Armis.

Or that was the idea. That was a lot of the characteristics within the team. This team has a lot of energy. So there is at least some sort of, like in the Venn diagram, there is a middle ground. but this team is more like, you know, Wilford Ansi's Columbus crew where if you can't trust yourself to try to dribble out of a bad situation, then you're not going to play.

But like, we'll take deficiencies elsewhere. That's kind of the primary. That and the work rate is what kind of I would say for the rapids. They have a lot of guys who work hard, so that helps. But they don't have a large, large majority of guys where you give them the ball under pressure

and they're going to dribble out, right? Like this is still a squad that was mostly signed to play. transition type soccer, pressing type soccer. So what they're doing already, I think it's only going to continue to grow. And it's why I was talking to Porick Smith at some point, like this offseason,

and they have so, Loik Williams, I believe is the centerback that they're signing that's coming this summer. They desperately wanted him in the winter. They tried really, really hard. It ended up not being possible. They could have pivoted in signs that, like they think that they're centerback short right now, right?

Like they think they'd want to have another player there. They end up trading for Cozy Thompson, playing right back, not centerback, of course. but they felt light and it's like we could have went to another target but like we're really focused right now and just getting these right guys and guys that make sense for the system

and yeah like maybe this will harm us a little bit in April or May but we were not going to rush through something here and I think you're going to see more and more that in the summer transfer window and then again in the winter and all the while they're going to be very interesting and hopefully for them a playoff team this year

and I believe that they will be. We'll see what the crowd is this weekend for them I think they're doing some rebrand stuff as well coming up. So hopefully a nice little moment for the club. A question in the chat about George Yipmanuuu being USM-T eligible. No, he plays for Burkina Faso, so we already lost out on that one. I think he's got 10 or 15 caps already. Okay. Sorry, can I just, I be remiss if I don't mention Lucas Harrington for the Colorado Rapids. This guy is a player, man. I don't know how short he's going to be with this team. He is so

much fun to watch. 18 years old, Australian. What I was told is after after so the rapids had to be really proactive to get the signing done and sign them six months before he could come and they were working on it the winter prior so it had more or less a year before he could come another a number of European teams that were interested or trying to get it done and if the rapids waited they wouldn't have got him I had heard that there were some European teams that were trying to do the the Riley McGree where to wrap and sign him and you could already sell him for more money than you sign him before he even comes to the United States

and like obviously the rapids weren't into that at all but that just goes to show that even before he got here he was on the radar of a bunch of teams and like that's only increasing right now with and this I don't know you're looking at it's obviously super early who knows what's gonna happen but moist Mbombedo was sold for what 8 million something in that price range this is he was older

like this is an 18 year old like this is this guy's a player yeah huge a huge addition for the rapids okay let's talk about our big new stories because we have a lot of them um Let's start, I think, with Montreal, CF Montreal for the second time in two consecutive seasons, has fired their coach. They're the first team in MLS history to fire a coach within the first 10 matches of back-to-back seasons.

Last year is Lauren Cortois. This year, it is Marco Donodale, who replaced him. This comes after a two-one loss at home to Philadelphia. A note there, Philadelphia becomes the last team to win their first game of the MLS season. It's the third worst start in MLS history. So there was two coaches potentially sitting on the pressure block for that game. It was Montreal took a one zero lead and then Philly was able to work their way back, Ivan Jaime, with the opening goal on loan designated player.

We have talked about Montreal a lot as a club. Philippe Olafois will be the interim coach for now. I covered him when he coached the USL Montreal two team. 12 years ago, maybe. I remember going into the locker room at Red Bull Arena, and we just sat and talked while we waited for the game. He built the Montreal Academy, the one that did help produce some big-time players.

My understanding is he then joined the ownership group that owns Leone, Leone, which is Eagle. Is it Eagle Group? Yep. And he was, I think, located in Senegal for a little while over the last few years working with one of the clubs, like youth club feeders that they own there, and then he was actually in France with Leone.

And then he came back to Montefarne. Montreal at the end of last year to sort of be everyone has a different phrase for it pathway coach it's like the coach who focuses on the homegrowns who have come into the first team but still need a little bit of coaching because you don't this is literally this job started because of Andrew Carlton where it was like oh if you put the 17 year old kid in the first team and no one pays attention they go off the rails and they probably still need to be helped a little more so Philippe Olaffois was doing that with the first team and now he'll be the interim. But I mean, it's groundhogs day. Like, what are we doing with this club?

What are we supposed to make of any of this? I just so many different directions to go. I'll do a quick one before a longer rant. So, Philbo Fois, join, rejoin the coaching staff in January as an assistant. Last January, Don Adele was added to Laurent Couttsos coaching staff. Maybe just be a little bit less obvious that you're undermining your head coach right before the season, back-to-back years. I don't think this was undermining. Don Adele, but Donodell was undermining.

That one was. Like that was very, very clear. Yeah, two years in a row where, so I think Quetzua was fired right before the home opener last year. And then this year. Yeah, he never coached a home game last year. You'll forget, gets one home game and they lose to the union. This is normalcy for CF Montreal in that chaos and instability. That's the only constant with this ownership group.

You look at how many people have left the front. an office, but let's just kind of stick on the field. They have never had a head coach in their literal entire MLS existence to start a third full season. There's been one person that has completed two years who took over midway and went through. Since 2018, they've had eight managers. Remy Guard, Wilmer Cabrera, Tierra, Tierra, Wilfranzi, Ernesti, Ernan Lousada, Laurent Coutte, Donadale, and now, Wolfois.

They have not spent a single real dollar on a transfer fee to sign a deal. designated player since 2014 when they signed club legend nacho peyati they also brought in dda drugbo they that's when they were putting money into the team and guess what that place was jumping they were one of the most fun and one of the biggest teams in that little era those rivalries with toronto fc were great since then they've just left this team out to sea it's been chaotic it's been one of the lowest spending teams in league each of the last two years they've had the lowest payroll and in 2020, I believe it was the second lowest. And that was only to Orlando City

who had just spent like $10 million on precluded tours. So it wasn't actually the second lowest. It was more like the lowest. What do you can, what can you reasonably expect in terms of results, in terms of competitors, in terms of fans caring with this kind of work, with this kind of budget, with this kind of, even when things go right, they had Jesse Marsh,

ran him out of town after one year. They had Wilfranci, who had to be, convinced to not quit during the year because of the ownership. And then they watched Jesse Marsh go win two sports shows with the Red Bulls and they became a defining team of the end of the 2010s. And they watched Wolfrenonse, they even immediately go to the Columbus crew, who are the defining team of the early 2020s in this league. So even when they get it right with George Amahevich, even when they get it right with

these coaches, even when they get it right with Alistair Johnson and Ishmael Kone, George Campbell, even when they stunk the last couple of years, even when they get a couple of things right? What does it matter? Because it's not going to be sustained in any way. Everything good will go away or be driven away. Yeah. So I don't know what the point of this club is at the moment. I really don't. I feel for fans because I've been thinking about this all day of like how do we talk about this and it's like I'm at my limit and it's not my team. And I've been there, right? I get it. I'm a Jets fan. Like I get it. There is a point you reach where it doesn't matter because of ownership. and the big one is Marsh and Nonsei.

When they've gotten it right, because let's be real where they sit, they're not getting any experienced coach who has other options right now. And no one's leaving a job for them. So their best case scenario is first time coach who is better than we expected. And Nonsei and Marsh are that, like to the T and they both left because their ownership made them not want to be there anymore. So like if you tell me, well, they'll go find the next Mikey Varus or Esper Sorensen, I'm probably looking, I'll probably pick a day on a calendar and say,

I think that that coach probably coaches somewhere else on this date then. Yeah. And like that's the hardest part about all of this. And the spending, I think, is included. But like you could also find your reality. Like if you have some consistency through your front office into your club, you can find some staples of guys who are like, I like it here. my family likes it here.

I want to be here. And you can find young players and then you replace them and it maybe takes a year or two for it to peak again. But like you can create a flow of like where a competitive team off and on and this is our reality inside of the larger league structure. I think maybe RSL would be an example of that right now. Vancouver obviously would be the dream scenario. But that's a really high bar to hit and maybe not possible. But you can't create that because there's no consistency. and there's no logic to what is occurring.

And so it just feels like it's a vibe every single time. And the whole connection to all of it is the ownership group. And that's the one that can't go away. Matthew 20, talk about players who could just beat pillars and staples the club, wanted to stay. They were in contract negotiations. My understanding of that scenario was 20 years camp and Olivier Renard,

I believe it was still sporting director at the time. if they didn't totally agree a contract, they had the framework ready. And then ownership stepped it and said, no. And then that's when he had a transfer request. You don't want the local kid? Like, to be a part of the club? Like, what's the point of the club?

It was like that transfer request, just in case some of the details are at least a little fuzzy, like I feel pretty good about everything I've said. At the very least, that transfer request was not just like, well, I want more money and you're not going to give me more money. was more deep-rooted than that and just kind of a complete breakdown. Another thing that this is all, this part is secondary or tertiary, right? Like, they didn't do post-game media availability.

And like, I'm not going to be capital J guys staying on your soapbox. You're going to talk to us, right? It's written in the CPA. And this isn't a story if you send poor Sanpient. Hey, you're the club captain. I don't believe I know he's not playing much, but Sanpient. When you're the captain, you just kind of have, like, even if we're going to fire Mark and Donald, though, so we're not going to make him speak.

Piet sit at the podium say nothing for six minutes say we feel sorry for the fans and then we'll move on and then this isn't his story they don't even feel the need to fake the bare minimum and I think that is a larger problem

of this team on and off the field and also like MOS are they I reached out to the league have not heard anything I did not get a comment a statement of like they will be punished for this because they're supposed to be and why so like partly like why would

feel the need to even do the bare minimum. And this is the, this is an MLS problem, which is when things are bad, people would rather not be covered than to have to talk about bad things. And then the clubs don't understand why when things get better, the stadium's not filled. Oh, so you wanted to disappear for three months, six months, a year and a half, and then you want to turn on a machine. No, people have to be engaged in this thing. Pain comes with the engagement.

If you make mistakes, it sucks. that's a part of coverage, that's a part of sports, and then people, when they're sad, become even happier when things go well, and then they flood the stadium, and then they want to be a part of it. And it's a great time. And Montreal has over the last 10 years moved away from just being relevant. Like even through the non-say years, it was like, we don't push ourselves out there. We don't expose ourselves.

And I mean, you look at the quotes with Subuto, it was a year or two ago, Bologna of like, you know, trust us. We have our style. Like we have what we do, believe in us. And it's like, to what end? Like state what you, state your goal of what you want to be in major league soccer. And if you say we want to be contending for a miles cup, we want to be the biggest club. You're either lying to us or you're lying to yourself.

Because even if they're a youth development club, it's one of the cheapest academies that is set up. Like they run a lot of what they do through public funding in Canada because there is a setup in which there's a school. that's run and all of that. And like it's worked for you. That's great. But for all of Philly's faults, they invest money. They just invested in the academy. Exactly. And if you don't want to invest money and you want to sit in the middle and you want to take the whatever Apple money you get and whatever else, blah, blah, blah, then that's fine. But acknowledge the reality of who you are and what you're trying to accomplish. And we're back here again with Montreal. And like, here is the most damning thing. MLS has one of the highest home versus away.

swings when it comes to performances. So now in two years, you've let your coaches coach one home game to start the year because you start on this away span. And what did you expect? Like, I would love to start every year with the Saputo kids who run the sporting side to state this is our goal for the first six games. Now the schedule is going to flip. What's going to happen?

Montreal's going to play away games in November, December, and February. They're going to be eliminated by the time they come back in March to a home game. They're going to play 14 home games in a row to end every season. They're already going to be eliminated from playoff contention. It is just chaos and it makes absolutely no sense. So Philippe Olafois will be the head coach, the interim for now. If things go the way they've gone, he'll stay the interim. You know, he'll stay the head coach.

We fired this time next year. Quite honestly, Caleb Porter is a real connection to me if everyone lands there because it's that or it's someone who's not worked in North America. like as a head coach. It is a random name from Central Europe. Or somebody who really, really wants a job that, like, I don't know. I don't know if Gio Saurasei has any interest in this job. But, like, they might get lucky to get a phone call back from him just because he didn't get a couple of the jobs.

And like, again, if you're Danny Cruz, do you take this phone call? I don't know. I mean, again, at the end of the day, like, they have. If you're Ben Pierman, like, those are the guys that we're talking about. You do because there's only 30 of these jobs. and somebody like Danny Cruz just had to go join Minnesota's coaching staff, right? For sure, but we say that. But now we're looking at a three straight coaches that got fired.

And the other thing I would say is for Montreal, I think it's hard for them to hire someone like that, because what are they going to say? We're in a rebuild for the fifth time, like it's the fifth time in a row. So I don't know. I think it'll be a little bit tough for them. I want to move on to Namar here. We'll talk Kevin when we get back around.

Tom, you were doing a little work while you were out. Scoops has to scoop every once in a while. I got a joke from a Henry Bushnell, the excellent writer at the athletic saying, hey, welcome back fraternity leave. Although, I think you very clearly set a record for bylines while technically on paternity leave. Yeah, that's fair.

So, FC Cincinnati have engaged Namar's camp in discussion. Sources told myself and Paul Tenorio, this is very preliminary, but it is very real. There are discussions between both sides. I'm told that it's trying to, to figure out what are Namar's requirements, both financially, as well as kind of off the field on the field, all these things, the very preliminary stuff. And there's still internal conversations at Cincinnati of, is this, should we go all in

on this? Is this what we want? Right? Like, they don't have an open DP spot, but Namar is under contract with Santos through the end of the year. One way it was described to me was even before you decide if you want to be all in on something or even, again, it's Namar, right? Like, we know kind of what the drawbacks could be,

but we know what the upside is for this kind of player. So I don't want to sound disrespectful, like, for a legend of being like, you know, it's a sad. You're still figuring out if they even want to do this, right? But the way it was described to me is that you need in the information gathering phase, in the legwork phase, like, this needs to have, these two things need to be simultaneous because you need to also sell Namar and you while he's kind of selling like whether this would be a right fit to them.

And this is a club that believes, why not us? Yeah, we all assume that Namor would be Miami or L.A. or New York. Or Chicago. That, yeah, and Chicago tried. But, you know, the air quote, glamour cities in the league. There's a lot of jokes to, like, my skeet. And again, I get it of Namor going to Ohio.

Dude, no way. Like, that's mostly the response I've gotten. But Cincinnati, you're like, why not us? And they've done this in the past. You know, they were the first team that was connected with Thomas Mueller. That was all real. they chase them. I know that they've done

some other players that haven't come to light. US national team you look at Weston McKinney and John Sargent they believe with their financial ability to spend

that they can be in these conversations they believe with their training facility and stadium and fans and winning soccer right now that's been

the worst part of anything they've had a really bad start to the season seven points after seven matches and it just looks discombobulated on the pitch

but they believe like why why wouldn't we be a destination for somebody's if we can't can get them to come for a visit to see our facilities for those who haven't. Like, we think that that's going to be a big drawing point. So that's where Cincinnati is here.

And again, whether it's Neymar or whether it's, you know, Kevin Denkay is not a guy who you would expect to have come to MLS or Cincinnati, whatever. He's a golden boot winner in his young 20s in Belgium and those players go to different teams in Europe, right? Like, so this is part, Cincinnati deals with a lot of players. But I will say these conversations and this possibility is real, that it is very preliminary. he would join when so probably next winter or like again it's it's all too early to like pin down any of these but this is not a world cup play for him this is like a larger conversation about where he's playing

next after santos correct yeah yeah for sure and like again like he's he's trying like right now he's trying desperately to prove the carlo enchilote that he should be part of the brazil's world Cup squad this summer and then it'll decide his future. Again, whether I can't, I can imagine that like there could be a possibility for the summer, right? like it's not, that's not something that's off the table. But even talking like timing and specifics is not, it's not there yet, just given where the conversations are.

But again, the conversations will continue to progress and there will be information gathered from both sides. And Cincinnati will try to see if this makes sense and they will try to see if it makes sense for him. But they are definitely a team that is, that is possibly like going to be. in the mix year. And again, I don't know who else his father,

his agent and their people are talking to, but I know Cincinnati is a real, real option. This is like a mind-blowing. I know it's not a mind-blowing thing, but it is a mind-blowing thing. And if it happened, and we're covering Namar at TQL Stadium

and like, Hamas just weren't to Minnesota? Yeah, I mean, Hamas, I think me and Hamas are playing the same amount of minutes in Minnesota. So you can consider whatever you want to consider it. just like absolutely insane.

But I appreciate the reality, and we've said this over and over as they've done this with Cincinnati, which is like, yeah, why not? Why not go out there, get in the market, take the shot, and see what happens and see if whether it's the relationship or if other options fall away. I assume that's what happened with Hamas Rodriguez was like all the other options that maybe you think would be out there and everyone's like, oh, it probably won't be us, fall apart. and all of a sudden, you're the last one at the dance, and Hamazer and Amar looks over, and all of a sudden, you're doing a fox strut together, where that's the whole dream for these teams. So it would be a wild set of circumstances.

Cincinnati, you're in a tough spot again. Denke, red card against TFC on the road on Saturday, put them behind the eight ball. Sergeant forces the own goal in what was a struggle of a game for TFC. They'll now be, they announced they'll be out, without Georgie Mihailovich for at least eight weeks with a pelvic injury. Yeah, that was a really, really tough one for them to take. I thought Shallowie was awesome in this game.

The chance he sets up for for Sergeant, he plays the C-I pass around the back line for Sergeant to get in on goal. One of the best passes have ever seen Daniel Shallowie hit. And then it was his cross that forced the own goal as well. Matt Mioska goes off hurt. So this is a team that has invested millions in the center rack position. and Kyle Smith is probably going to end up playing the most minutes at centerback this season. And somehow, Kenji and Boma Dem, the Dayton Flyer grad, saves the day.

Cincinnati gets the one-one draw down a man in Toronto. And it's a miracle point for them, the second time now in what three weeks for a miracle point? The same with Montreal, but like none of it enough to be where Cincinnati thought they would be at this point of the season. Yeah. things keep getting worse though there was a silver lining that after going a man down after conceding they were and like a bad one

it was unfortunately no goal for it by Jupiter de Flores they were able to fight back and get a draw and like von Pat Noon and like and he was saying this a little bit in his postgame press conference of you know hey we're fighting and it's like hey we got we were bad we got a lot of stuff to fix all of their issues are not going to go away there is nothing that that will magically just be poof okay

next week it's going to be fine they still need to work at that that being said bad team fold in that scenario. Yeah. Good teams fold in that scenario, man. Right? Like if Toronto could have put them, we couldn't have been a chance.

But I think that there is at least a silver lining of positivity that this team didn't go from down one nothing to this game ends three nothing because of two crap goals at the end. And like getting a point back, it's not, again, it's not ideal for this scenario. Now, Dengay is going to be out. But this is, again, bad teams or teams that have lost the locker room with each other, they fold in that scenario. Yeah. It's a good point.

We'll see what to come for Cincinnati and for Toronto as they try and figure things out. Both of them struggling with injuries at the back. Let's talk about one of the worst stories coming out of the weekend. Wessam Abu Ali forced to come off early for Columbus, came off on a stretcher. You could see the emotion in his face. And then we got the official confirmation, I believe, like minutes ago that he tore his ACL. So he'll be out for this season. Designated player coming in last year out of the summer break.

he was the replacement for Cucho. He was tied for the golden boot very early on this season with five goals for a team that has struggled. And now it's just even more problems for a Columbus team that is reeling, reeling coming out of the, well, for non-say years, Tom, and I don't even know where to go with this for this team. Yeah, the silver lining of how disappointing

their beginning of the season has been was like, well, no matter what if the tactics, look either things are awkward, hasn't been as seamless as we hoped. You know, this team is not nearly as fun as they had been. And then all of that said, but they do so have Diego Rossi and Wesum Abilali. And at the bare minimum, if you're competent behind them, you're going to win games. Now Abil Ali is injured.

And this just sucks, man. Every, so he broke his foot at the end of last season, which kind of ruined their potential chance at a last run with Nancy. But between these two injuries or before the injury and then then this. year. When he's on the field, you assume he's scoring. He's won. He was like very quickly proved that he's one of the better best strikers in the league. And you can't, there's just no real way to put it into words of how big of a blow is this for a team. Because like, I'm kind of struggling to come up with something because like it's just bleak for Columbus right now. Yeah, it's bad. And as you said, he's proven on the field that he's worth it and that he can be

a game changer. We've talked about it on this show with Doyle to start this year. Like, he's not Kucho. He doesn't create and score. like Kucho was one of the two best players in the league when he was there, but he's as guaranteed as it comes. I guess the question now becomes like, what is this year for Columbus? What is the plan? You know,

you have the option to put him on an SEI list and open up a DP spot in the summer if you want to, and then you'd have to figure it out in the offseason. They've brought in Andreas Gomez short term as well. It's obviously the first year of a new coach, but they are kind of in a win now mode with the players they have. and the options they have, like, how does Columbus go about dealing with the rest of this year? Windows closed.

Like, it's unfortunately as simple as that. And what the rest of the year is, is obviously try to be competitive, obviously try to be good. Henrik Roodstrom adds to prove why he's, why he convinced the club that he was the right head coach. Like, what he did with Malmoo, everything like that's real.

He had real pedigree. The idea was to build or at least be tangentially related to what Wolfrenon. was while we all knew that there is no one for one replacement but at least something within that realm we haven't seen signs of that so this year is quickly about not trying to scrape for a couple points here or there or draws or whatever like this is about hey this is why you hired me and these are the building blocks and this is why we this is how we can be ready to go again next year when west of mabualli is back yeah um again things are really tight in mLS and

and it's probably a little silly for me to say it so definitively that like, hey, Windows closed, like, don't worry about this team. But, like, they have not given us much, like, a lot of the, hey, maybe Columbus Ken was like, again, built around Abueli and Diego Rossi and then a bunch of ifs. And now one of the very few things that you believed in with this team or knew with this team is gone. Like, it's just a complete gut punch. So if the Windows closed, which I agree with you on, like, this team's not going to win

MLS Cup. They're not going to win a trophy this year, especially the way things. have looked. Now you lose Abu Ali. I think the MLS version of that is Taha Abruen needs to start every game is available for. Like build this guy up for next year. I think you look down the list and you say the same about other homegrowns that they have, Col Moroka, Chase Adams. Like you need to blood these guys and see if they can be a piece of your team because what else are you playing for? I think one of the versions of this is if you get the Max Arfston offer, I think maybe you take it now because otherwise are you going to hold on to him for two more years.

And if that's not the case and you get a number that you like, he's kind of probably the only one in this group, right? You're not selling Diego Rossi for any number at this point. I don't know who else people are coming in for in this team. Maybe Sean Zawatsky and I'd be surprised if you move there. Like I think that's a guy who you probably want to be around for his entire career. Patrick Schulte would be the other one. And I think it'd probably have to be a a pretty crazy deal to pull them away. And my guess would be with the way they're going to play over the next few months, people are not coming in for the goalkeeper out of a team that's going to struggle to

get results. But I think if Columbus is internally, not externally saying, like, yeah, we're in trouble, you have to have some silver linings out of this season. And one of them has to be, these are the homegrown prospects that we can have be a part of our roster, which means we don't need to spend money on backups at these positions. We don't need Jamal Tieri next year. Like if Abu Ali and Rossi are back and Taha and Chase Adams are the next guy's up, boom, that saves you $500,000 to a million on the salary cap.

Now go use that in central midfield or at centerback, whatever you want to do. I think like that has to be stuff you have to accomplish this year. On top of you got to make sure that Rydstrom is like settled in. And there's a clear understanding of what the team does. The Max Arfson stuff I thought was weird of like they're just trying to throw stuff at the wall, but he plays right back for the second half of this game. And one of his great threats is he comes inside and can score goals on his right foot. And that goes away. And if you're losing Abu Ali, then you don't have the guy crashing in the box. And so it's like, I don't want his production

from the right side getting to the end line and cutting it across. I want it on the left side being a goal score and being a threat. But there is, there are not as many cohesive moments for Columbus right now as there were of these like oh boom three passes no one had to break no one had to think it all just happened it's like oh step marera is up top now but no one knows to find him now they find him now it takes three touches for him to get it off his foot and that wasn't the case um at the top under nancey so there's a really tough moment for columbus you feel for abu ali as you said the injury last year took him a while to get into the team in the first place coming out of al halie like it's been a slow process with him and you saw the results

for him. You saw the reason that they went after him and then it all goes away pretty quickly. So obviously we'll continue to cover all things. Columbus on the Orlando side, Robin Yonson returns. Huge moment for them. I think it was the most solid game they've played so far, but you

saw the faults in this team. It should have been 2-0 multiple times in transition. Posolich walking out of a 3v1, Tiago walking out of a 3V1. I don't know what's going on. Duncan McGuire injured last week. wasn't available. I think they missed that point of the attack, even with his struggles this season. And so two teams that we probably wouldn't have guessed would be here, both struggling

at this point of this season. Okay. If you were listening via Sirius Radio, thank you for being here. We're going to go a little bit long because Tommy Scoops is back in the building, baby. So you could search soccer wise on demand or anywhere you get your podcast to listen to the full show. We'll have Jeremiah Ocean coming up as well in a little bit. Before we get into Conccaf in U.S. Open Cup, I don't know what's about to happen. Tom just wrote in the rundown, I have a top 10. So we go to it now? Yeah, I don't know what it means.

So I figured if I'm going to listen to the show, I should just start making notes. So we could have this moment together when I came back that I'm sure that you're very, very excited about. I have most of these dated. It's a trap. Most of these dated, except for the first one, whichever episode Jamie Watson was on. Okay. Jamie, quote, 18-year-old me with highlights of my hair and a puka shell necklace on. I just want that preserved forever.

And Jamie, I would like to put a photo on the Sock-Wise account of that. I just want to live in that moment forever. I want to be friends with that guy. I want to time travel specifically for that. March 9th, Andrew Webey already stopped doing weekly hits on week trip. I think I texted you guys after he did it the first week and was like, I'm going to be here every week. I was like, dude, yeah, right. but this was something

he did the you know any kids and yeah listen maybe we should take it easy on the dad jokes now I don't know you're changing perspectives you know maybe it's not so funny anymore you know right like so let's just be careful about okay take easy

had Ziggas kids to school come on he couldn't have couldn't have planned around that couldn't have figured out that because that changes every day I'm sure March 17th I started running I put on soccer eyes and now I fucking hate you

because I associate your voice is running you also texted me and you said running guy When does it get easier? And I said running sucks. It never gets easier. Four people I'd say to said the same thing. Then why do you do it?

I don't know. I don't know. All these people are like, I just get a runner's high. I think you might be high on something else. There's no world in which that's the thing that gets you going. Yeah, unless you're one of those people.

And you know who I'm talking about, which is the, I'm six to, I weigh 12 pounds. And like, I don't know. I just like like running marathons. You're like,

you're not a real thing. Get away from you. Psychos. Yeah. Thank you. I agree. Also March 17. No, right, just called you hashtag Unk in the chat for being a running guy

and a dad. Well, there would be more updates. Also March 17th. Doyle, quote, what am I not as, why am I not as offended by FC Dallas bunkering than others? This is an easy one because you're a hypocrite.

That's why. It's that simple. That's the entire answer. It's like the HR meme of like, oh, like, oh, you're so sweet. You're so funny. And then a less attractive person walks over. and it's like, oh my God, HR, HR.

That's what Doyle is with anything related to Peter Moose and Fassie Dow's. March 23rd. Doyle, this is going to be a positive one for him. Talking about Zaha getting fouled too much, he just made it offhand, because, yeah, I've wrapped some dirt on it. That's what we like at this program. We like to hear that. We like to put our hands in the dirt, get up, pull ourselves up by our bootstraps,

take our lunch pail and our hard hat and we go to work. Run the damn ball. Damn, fall. I don't have a date for this, but I'm going to say, listen, obviously, I'm a father now with one, you're a real human. but I got to tell you still those 85 young men in the East Carolina University locker room that I look after

those are also my sons every year rebuilding time I did get Willie Chris Whittingham back I know he said it on the show that he beat me in the playoffs beat him in the next playoffs just saying dedicated to win to my Oh yeah what's the feeling on Whitty's work on the draft

Good except he Listen we win as a team we lose this team I had Herman Ruggrami a whole lot lower than he didn't He was just like he's like I'm making an executive decision I was like, that's fair. I empower my staff and my friends to do what they want to do. I will say we both were congratulating ourselves, patting ourselves on the back. I think of the turn was like, it went, Dengay, Bruno Damiani, and then Prince of Wusu or somebody like that.

And we were just like, steal the draft. Nailed it. Games over. Like, why even show up for the rest of the rest of it? Johnny Flynn over Steph Curry had to get it done. I think they have two goals in a combined 21 games. It's all Prince of Wusu penalty kicks, too. Yeah, Damiani.

Somebody has a score for Philly. Also, what if nobody has a score for Philly? That's what, man, I've got Toclamati on my team. The penalty kick miss into the rebound miss was a top 10 seconds for me. Matias Laborda might be our fourth highest score at the moment. But we're coming back. We're going to win.

That's all we know. Team team Tom Whitty Kalin is going to end up at the top. Number six, I think now I have on March 26. Trenorio at Sam's stagego should have come back as an individual. intern at the athletic while I was on paternity leave. And I think that was my favorite moment from the show while I was gone. Did you like that?

I called Paul the greatest writer in American soccer landscape. I'm the one who said that. You just hear from me saying it. I love making him, I genuinely believe that, which is why it's a good bit to keep saying because he doesn't know what to do with himself. It's like,

I know he's not like Irish Catholic repression. I know he's not those things, but it's just like, oh, it's a compliment. I don't know what to do. I'm looking at the ground. I'll say in front of like sources too that we both like,

that he's just like, oh my God, stop it, dude. We reported some things together. One of the stories he did together, he called the sporty director. The sporting director goes, whoa, so Tom's not working and you decide to pick up the phone and make a couple calls.

You decide to do a little bit of work. How about that, Paul? So I think that was good. A couple more here. March 29th, I hit a spam texture with a bofa joke. I just wanted to say that for the record. It brought me great joy. Just know, run up, get done up.

I didn't ask you to spam text. me. So you've set the rules that, you know, this is equal playing field. And if you get caught by me asking what are your Bofa rates, you're going to get done up. It's that simple. March 30th, running question mark, haven't run in 14 days. That is unfortunately still there. March 30th, David Goss, rewatch USA Belgium twice. Why? Yeah. You a master? I did. Why? Yeah, I think so. last one here April 6 Matt Doyle

direct quote because I rewinded it multiple times to make sure I got it word for word quote the best thing I saw progress

I want to see every team make progress and be the best version of themselves did he think he was posting on LinkedIn

like it was a hang in he had a hang in their HR person's poster behind him what he was talking about

I did they're like I had to rewind it because I I couldn't hear him talking over and me going oh my God

do you make up and think where is progress? I'm redesigning and reimagining the way I see progress. Enter my 14-week course, one hour a day, and you could find progress yourself. Matt Dole? Yeah, those are my, those are my observations from the show while it was gone. I would say at the start, I felt like we were getting them as texts, and then maybe you felt like it was becoming high volume. You didn't get all of these. You didn't get all of these. No, I'm saying these were all post the texting period. I feel like early on it was listen and then a media text demanding answers for poorly worded things or things you disagree. No, that's because what happens with us is we'll do

an episode on a Monday and Friday afternoon we just start getting text from Weeby every three minutes of a running commentary or stage school. Less frequently. Yeah. Well, you got to miss this school USM&T rant that came in on like a random Thursday because of some show that we did, which I didn't even remember doing. I'm upset that he didn't include me on that. Well, yeah. Now that you're back in the show, you can be back on the text and you can get all of them. Okay.

Let's talk a little Concaf an open cup before we move on. That was my favorite part of the show. I'm here for it. Let's talk. Cockcalf first, we've got Tuesday night, 9 p.m. Eastern Time, L.A.F.C. at Cruz Azul. And then 1130 Nashville at Club America. This is a perfect schedule for me because I play soccer on Tuesdays. Then I eat a little pizza.

Then I come straight back. And I'm just going to like crush Conca Calfe deep into the night. And these are the ones that maybe are a bit winnable still. But we'll talk about all of it. And then on Wednesday, Toluca heads to the LA Galaxy leading four to two. Might be less winnable. At night p.m. Eastern time. And Tigris heads to Seattle at 11.30 p.m. Eastern time.

leading to zero. And that one is, I think, the biggest question mark maybe that's out there. Well, Nashville, America. So we don't know when the semifinals will be. My understanding is the final is scheduled for May 30th. So the semifinals have to be between the end of Wednesday and May 30th. And it has to happen two times because, of course, the semis are twice. And then the final is once.

As you watch the games last week, as you look at this listed. out for you. Who do you have going through? God, I would love to, I believe wholeheartedly and natural. I think that they have, they have a real chance. And usually we would just set this up as a bit and like knowing that, you know, the MLS team that's tied going to Club America is just going to get throttled. I think that they have a real chance.

It'd be disingenuous for me to be like, dude, they're definitely going to win. They're definitely going to get through. L.EFC, I believe that they are well positioned to handle Cruz Azul with that three goal cushion going to Mexico. So Toluca are one of the, have been the best team in on this continent for about a year, right? Like so the galaxy, that is brutal. But at least that they're still technically in it

with just a two-goal deficit. So I would say for the LAS for the MLS teams, L-AFC for sure, National have a chance. And I do believe in Seattle to, to win and go through. Though it will be difficult without an OIGL. Yeah, I can imagine. So I have L-AFC locked.

I have Galaxy out. Yeah. And I think between Nashville and Seattle, one of them gets through. And I'm not 100% sure who it is yet. So I think two MLS teams get through. On the Nashville side of things, I said it coming out of last week. I was frustrated by what the performance was against America in the first leg. They have done this now where it's like they do just enough.

And just enough would be any scoring tie on the road. This is the hardest game that this team has. ever played as a group. Like, this is harder than going away to enter Miami. And I don't know that they fully understand what's coming. And that was what I think was frustrating in the first leg was like, you got to build the lead. You got to take advantage of these chances.

And I don't think they felt as desperate as they should have throughout that performance where it's like we need a one zero lead at a minimum. It felt like they were comfortable and like we're in this game. We're in this series and it's fine. And then you get smacked around. In saying that, I thought Philadelphia was pretty good in the second leg against Club America. They were.

But then you see the thing that happens, which is 60th minute at altitude after the travel. If you don't, if you're not able to put away your chances, you're going to struggle. This is obviously a Nashville team with a little bit more depth, although I think Alex Muell came off injured against Charlotte, which I don't even want to talk about Charlotte right now. Because for them to put that performance on the field against a Nashville team in between these two legs at home is embarrassing. That was an embarrassing performance for. from Charlotte FC.

And that was the main takeaway from that game, besides the fact that Quasem Pauls, and I love him, and Yazbek and Eddie Tagseth and Ysfield and all that type of stuff. That was a joke of a performance from Charlotte FC. Nashville shows their depth, though, in getting a win in that game.

First of all, Ben Wright, I don't know if he coined this nickname or I just hadn't seen it before, but Ben Wright called Eddie Tagseth, the Norwegian nuisance. I love that. I like that. Love that.

Well done. He's a Mighty Tags that I got all of the stuff. stock Freddie taxes. Well, he's a Liverpool guy, right? Once a red, always a red. I think he was a Liverpool Academy guy, wasn't he? Why do you have me having to be the one that has to know this? You brought it up.

I just said, I really like this. Yeah, he was at Liverpool from 2017 to 2019. He made zero first team appearances. Proper Redmate. Usually that's the kind of guy I would take on loan on football manager, so I'm really disappointed that I didn't, that I didn't know that. He signed as a 14-year-old. Anyway, Nashville.

They have fully rotated twice in MLS because of CCC, both times on the road, and they won both games. Yeah, that's crazy. That's, again, you have every right to be criticizing Charlotte as Columbus, the last one. Very impressive for Nashville, nonetheless, to be able to put those results together. This is tough that we talk about how MLS has grown in some of these games against the Mexican teams and League of Mexican teams and the Conca Champions Cup. The other side of it, too, is I remember, again, the year that Toronto made their run to the final

in the miss the playoffs. The lineups they were putting out when they would fully rotate to really go for CCC was like, oh my God, like this team, they have no chance here, right? And now it's both the top end is really

performing and competing against the best league in the making teams. And then your rotated team, it's not an automatic loss. Like again, more often than not at all, like you should be struggling when nine of your starters aren't playing like LASC. Same thing.

LATFC. a tight off sides call or they would have beat Portland with nine players out of the starting lineup and Bawanga going like 55 minutes or whatever it was right like so I do think that the depth and and the cohesion of the coaching is very impressive and Nashville they don't employ their academy so they're not one where that's where they can lean on the depth all of this depth is players they've acquired brought in they've valued super draft the kokoran signing is like an awesome one for them right they trust him to start and play the 90 against Club America. That's a guy they brought in from USL. Guys they've gone now, they've started to

finally hit on their international siding. Well, Leggie is legit. I think he's one of the best ads of the offseason that goes with Palacios who they nailed last year. And then they still have the Jack Marrows of the world that they can lean back on in games like that. So yeah, it's been pretty impressive. I think my hope with Nashville is they're so dangerous individually with the front three that they can keep their lines tight, keep it clean, and have those counter opportunities. But the worry in that is where they've overwhelmed teams this year is when Yazbek and whoever else is in midfield are secondary runners and secondary options. And that's going to be hard to do at Club America over a 90-minute span. So like you need a moment of brilliance

from Christian Espinosa or Hani or Surridge or you, I don't think you win this series. I think all three of them are good enough to do that, but this can't be a game where it's like we come out of it and the goal scores are Yazbek and a four stone goal from a run from Cochran. If that's the case, then you're giving up four in the other direction. There's nowhere they're going to have the energy to do that consistently. So that's the big one. Toluca, LA Galaxy, the two goals gives them an opportunity. Peck is dangerous. Klaus is dangerous. But as you said, Toluca are a wagon. They're direct. And that's the part. I just think there's too much pressure centrally on the Galaxy to hold up against this team.

Even though it got better after they conceded the two goals in the first leg, it's just too many decisions for a lot of guys to have to make and be on a line that have not proven they're capable of doing that in basically 18 months. And so if it's Mickey Yamane holding his hand up, calling for an offside, if it's a weird mistouch and passback from whoever gets to start at centerback, whether it's just a mistake in defensive midfield, the galaxy give up too many of those. Toluca has the best finisher right now in the region, and they have one of the best creators

as well in Alexis Vega. So it just feels like this is a mountain too high to climb, but the Galaxy played them well last year in Campione, Campio and Coupo Campione. So maybe they'll have some confidence from that. And then Tigris, Seattle, this thing's fascinating. My guess is this ends, this series ends with a 3-3 draw across two legs, and Tigris goes threw on an away goal. That's what's really difficult

because I think Club America are a better team than Tigres. So like mirroring these situations at least for for National that they didn't give up the away goal. And then Seattle they're coming home for this. They didn't get the away goal. So it's really, really perilous.

What do you feel generally on the away goal tie breaker rule because it's not you wait for champions league anymore. It still isn't Concord. KF. if you could pick if this was still rule, would you keep it? I don't mind it.

I think it gives a little bit of gamesmanship. I think in the end, all of it equals out. It forces teams to open up a little more on the road and try and score, but then home teams are a little more defensive or the other way around, where it's like you go for it more, but then you don't want to loot.

Like, yeah, I think it ends up being the exact same. And so I don't feel strongly either way. What about you? I thought that I was going to really like Noah Wage goal. rule as a tiebreaker. And I don't. Like,

I don't, I don't think it's like traditional. Like, again, I'm fine. It's, it's one of those things I don't feel super strongly about.

But like, I've found myself, and this isn't even like, I knew this and was like, it was just like, I would find myself, you know, watch you wait for champions in the afternoon,

the Kock Kemp championship at night. Yeah. And it's like, I think I prefer that the away goals have a little bit of weight, and particularly in like Conca Kankif, right? Like when you're going down to some of these Mexican clubs

and run when some of these Mexican teams are coming to, two MLS stadiums like it's not as daunting for that as it is for the MLS teams going to Mexico but kind of I feel like it should weigh more that like if you if you score a goal at Club America's it's like oh my God like that should be worth more yeah the so my fear the fear for Seattle is they have scored more than two goals once all season it was that Vancouver game where they blitz Vancouver and we thought maybe Vancouver was done and they weren't um but it knocked them out of concaf so that's like the one example of it. It doesn't, it doesn't feel like the attack's been flowing for this Seattle team. Jordan Morris being back helps. And it should. They have Osage de Rosario that they can

lean on if they want to. Jesus Ferreira did not get the start in the last game. That would be an interesting one for me. I'm like, if you need goals, he's a guy that can both finish and create, although he hasn't hit his peak. But like, you got to have the fullbacks high. They have to be a part of the attack. Everyone has to be crashing in some of these moments. And it's just going to leave you exposed to a team that can kill you in transitional moments. They only need half chances. Like, I think even when you look at that game up until the 75th or so minute in the first, like, Seattle was okay, but you make half mistakes around the box and it leads to goals for this team. So it's really tough to think that they're going to be able to overcome this and win it in regulation. And

then you're sort of pushing for can you can you steal two zero here can you hold the line and whatnot so okay we will be back on thursday so we'll get to talk about all of this which will be fun u.s open cup going on on tuesdays and wednesdays u.s women's national team as well we're going to record with jordan and brianna pinto on wednesday uh to do sort of like an nwsl where we stand right now on the season as well as react to the two u.s japan games that we will have seen so far after the tuesday night performance and then we'll obviously talk about the whole camp next week coming off the third game there.

But on the U.S. Open Cup side, some juicy ones, big one for us here at the kickback family, one Knoxville. They face an MLS team for the first time ever. So shout out to Ian and his squad. I know Susanna is doing an interview with some of the one Knoxville ownership group about what it means to them and sort of what this experience will be. They go on the road to play DC United. If you had to pick one, Tom, that's one of the ones you're picking.

So I'm not saying it's happening. Maybe DC United will trust. their club record signing enough to maybe start a game or play more than 40 minutes? I don't want to be crazy. I don't want to be crazy. It could be a bold move from them. How many millions does a player have to be paid to be acceptable to get an opportunity in U.S. Open Cup for this club?

There's a bunch of these fun regional games coming up. One of the ones that stood out to me, Rhode Island hosting the New England Revolution. That's the game supposed to be sick. I would love to get to a game there. That's a really fun one. to watch for Atlanta plays against Chattanooga. I think that's a really fun one as well. Orlando, I believe travels, or no, sorry, Orlando's hosting FC Naples.

So another little regional rivalry. Saddha, Nico Cantor squad. Yep. We got to own a team too, Tom, at some point. Well, you're, I don't know, what's your thing? What's your local team? FZ. Monmouth. Yeah.

Are you going to play this season? They put that up on April Fool's Day. They didn't ask you. So, like, I think that they mostly wanted to get. me with the April Fool's joke of me being like, oh shit, time to get in shape. A few people texted me. It was like, yo, congratulations. And I was just like, I think this is an April Fool's joke.

But I guess I'll see if they put me on the game day roster. Listen, if you're there, I'm there. I'll be on the sideline. As I said, we're going to have Matt Wells on coming up on Thursday. So we'll talk to him about the matchup against Union Omaha that they will have as, I think for Colorado, this has to be a legitimate competition that they're looking at and saying, could we win a trophy? Could we go to a final?

Could we host a final? At this point, all of these clubs in this situation. Chicago, Detroit is a tasty one as well. So the games start at 7 o'clock on both Tuesday and Wednesday. We'll be on Blue Sky the whole time. So you can come hang there, send us what you're seeing, watch some clips from us as well. But a ton of games to talk about.

So we'll recap a lot of that stuff on Thursday show. Last piece here, as we've done every week. And a look at the national team as we head towards the World Cup rosters. Tyler Adams made his return after the month of an injury, 20 minutes to close out the win for Bournemouth. Against obviously Arsenal who are top in the table. So a pretty cool moment for him. And then on the flip side, bad news for a different Red Bull Academy graduate as John Tolkien was subbed off eight minutes into, I don't know how to say, Hofstein Keels game on Friday, which I think me and Doyle had talked about it over the last few weeks. He's around the depth chart.

Like he is probably right now next guy up. I think Doyle had him in a couple of the deputies he did. He started the Uruguay win, right? I know he was in that camp, but like he, that's not that long ago. And that was the best moments under the, in the Pocitino era. And he fits a decent chunk of the, if you're playing the five at the back, his service from the left wing back spot is pretty is maybe as good as anyone's will be. But he also can come inside and play a little because he has background playing centrally

and being around the game. So he made sense as a piece in all of this. That's pretty tough news for him. You know, not the same with Ajamong, but like any injury now, you're starting to look at the timeline and saying, is it four to eight weeks? Georgi Mihailovich was a guy that like, I had in a conversation in case other things happen. And who knows, this injury probably takes him out of that one. A couple of other guys, big performances this weekend, ball again with a goal again.

And Ricardo Pepe got the start and scored a goal in a two zero win. time do you have him on the roster locked at this point? Pebbie? Yeah. Particularly with Ojim, I'm going down, yeah. I still think that both of them were going to go, but I just don't see a scenario in which he doesn't. I know that we are recording during the Leeds game,

but apparently Brendan Aronson has an assist in that game for Leeds United. They were leading 3-0-2-0 last time I checked. They're leading 2-1 now. So they went from 3-0 to 2-1. It's tough. Yeah. I think I saw 2-0 and thought it was the 3 and I'm always more confident and Casamaro scored.

Oh, Casamaro scored for Manchester. He could be a future on a lesser. Oh, you're talking about LA Galaxy, uh, vet minimum signing. Perhaps. Casamira. Galaxy in Miami, they're both pushing. Luna and Gozo both had goals as well. They didn't play this weekend.

Did they not win 3-1? That was two weekends. That was two weeks ago. Yeah, yeah. So I literally just made that up. How did they not play this weekend? I don't know. The amount of times I checked the schedule

because I was like, I was looking at it at a gozo thing. And I was like, what I was just like, am I blind? Like are they playing Sunday? Just being a casual for some reason. Yeah.

And then obviously like, has, so then someone else didn't play this weekend that I'm not picked up on. But like, but didn't Seattle already play on Salt Lake? I'm very confused.

They did already play on the road. Okay. And Darrell D.K. first start in a month, fourth of the season. I put this in here because I'm like, at this point we're starting to do that like, let's name names on the center forward thing if another injury occurs.

I did Logan Farrington on the show last week, so I thought maybe I'd go European this time. And so Darrell D.K. gets, gets to be commented on. Let me tell you what, Darryl D.K. is closer to the national team of Farrington. Okay. Tom, everyone is close to the national team at this point. Believe in yourself.

Even Brian White, maybe. Okay, Tom, how had a feel to be back? I felt great. I thought that I was going to be worried, you know, load management ramping up, trying to get the minutes. I thought that, you know, my throw might be scratchy by the time we got to this. Or my brain might be slow. No, I was ready for all 90 minutes here.

Tom, we're stretching you out. So we go eight innings first start and then we'll scale back. We're going old school. Rollie players. Raleigh fingers stretching you out. As I said, we've got NWSL coming up on Wednesday this week. we've got our second show that will come out on Thursday. A big show's, a week of shows for Susanna.

She has open mic coming up this week and she's on with Walker Zimmerman. And I'd hate to be an Atlanta Hawks fan. Anywhere. I hate to be an Atlanta Hawks fan listening to this show. This week. I originally had that at the top. So if you are listening to the podcast, I'm going to chat a little bit with Jeremiah O'Shan right now. Well, hello, everybody.

Special segment here for us, David Goss. and Jeremiah Ocean, someone you know very well has already been on soccer wise with me. He is the editor of Sounder at Heart. We have both been in the content minds of the soccer world for a long time. And we are very excited to announce that we are going to have a partnership going forward between Kickback Media and Sounder at heart. Sounder at heart, one of the biggest local coverage platforms in the soccer space in North America. doing an incredible job covering the Sounders, the rain,

everything else below that and in between. Not Ballard FC because Ballard lost to Vermont Green in the final, but everything else alongside it. And Jeremiah, I'm very excited for this partnership. We've been talking for a while about doing something like this, and I am very excited to sort of have our first steps as we get into it. Yeah, I'm excited to you. I think this is really cool to have two sort of independent outlets coming together.

you know, we've been trying to partner with various other independent outlets just to come up with different ways that we can drive audience and hopefully some money. So this is, this felt very natural to me. And I think for us, you know, sort of what we have talked about is Soundard Hardy is your source for anything Seattle, Washington, Cascadia, all of that soccer that you want. And then we have soccer wise specifically up into our first touch shows in kickback, which can give you sort of a national vibe or an international vibe as we get into some big soccer that's going to be coming to North

America. So we're going to be doing some crossovers on the audio side, social side, written side as well over the next few months. And as you said, this is something we've all thought about for a while. And Sounded Heart has done some incredible work. And we are in an interesting spot. And I think we wanted to talk a little bit about where media sort of sits around the game in North. North America because you had the experience of the SB nations going away and finding your feet on your own and building what you guys have built. And then obviously for me, building up soccer eyes and it becoming kickback media and where we are, we are very passionate about the idea that the fans in this region deserve high quality coverage and consistent coverage, but it is not

so easy to come by. It isn't. You know, and that's, it's, you know, it is sort of a, depending on your perspective, the state of soccer media right now. Like we were just talking before we started. And in some ways, it is, it feels like really bad and dark and like you see outlets closing and doing all these other things. But on the other hand, you do have all these independent outlets like ourselves, like, like you guys who are doing real journalism and aren't part of a, you know, a team apparatus. Like, like Sounder Heart doesn't take, you know, despite what people seem to think,

Sunder Hart does take money from the Sounders. And, you know, and it is worse in ways, but it is also like there's this opportunity and I do think it's better. And I think this is sort of an example of something that just wasn't possible a few years ago, frankly. Yeah. Yeah. It's an interesting take on it because the other side for me and I think back to when the SB Nation sort of issues occurred, which I think was early 2023, which. which you were coming out of a season in which you had 28 unique local broadcasts in Major League Soccer, which had sideline reporters and hosts and analysts and people that lived in market and went to training and thought about and talked about teams as a job. And you had an SB Nation blog across all those 28 teams that was covering those teams

and was an opportunity in a platform for people who wanted to get into things. Newsrooms as well. I mean, Washington Post and Steve Gough, like that was something we thought would never end. And we hoped it wouldn't. And so it just felt like, I think, a few years ago, there was more of a environment. And it was more spread out. And there was more varied coverage and more options. But in saying all of that, as you say, you know, having team broadcast is not the perfect way to cover a team because they are connected to the team.

And there are things that they're not going to cover, which I think now, as you have independent sources, you have the ability to do that. Yeah, I think you have, like, I think you have more. real news being broken in some ways. I mean, like The Guardian is another example of an outlet who wasn't really covering MLS even a year ago. And now they have a really robust North American, you know, whole coverage that's not just MLS. It's the U.S. national team. It's NWSL. You know, so I think you have, and that's real, you know, like, I don't want to be too, you know, too cool, too weird about it.

But that's like real journalism. They're doing, they're actually calling people, they're writing stuff that is not with the expectation of it being from a fan perspective. And I, and I do think that fan perspectives are super important. Sounder at heart is, leans into that really heavily. But it's, I do think that there's value in that, you know, the athletic is still doing good MLS coverage. And, but you're right on a, on a granular team by team level, there just is not as much of it as there used to be. You know, I know as well as anyone that SB Nation wasn't exactly. paying full-time wages to anybody covering MLS, but they were providing an opportunity

and they created a framework and they had a platform and you know, you could still do those things independently, but it is harder. Yep. And it and it creates some barriers. And, you know, so I'm not, I'm not trying to be polyanage about it and say that things are better than they've ever been. But I just think that sometimes we forget how bad they used to be, you know, they could be really bad. Like there was times, you know, when we both got into this 2009, 2010,

2011, there were virtually no full-time jobs covering MLS at any level for anybody. 100%. And so the fact that there are now some is, you know, in some ways, an improvement. Yeah. I mean, I was never full-time working in the contract way I did at MLS and it was always cobbling together five things and doing college basketball games and working as a security guard at a museum. and then watching games in between. Yeah, and I think we've all had that experience. And that probably never goes away because part of all of this is some of the issues in the business model of journalism and media and all of that,

which is bigger than what we are trying to figure out as individuals ourselves. And that's something that is just happening in the world. And the soccer space is caught up in it. But because there's not legacy stuff, there is not as much to fall back on. And one of the things I've always said is like what I want to be. is I want an MLS or NWSL fan to have, if they want to, the experience that an NFL fan has, which is like, I open up my phone today and Ian Rapport's telling me where every NFL draft player is going to visit to have a meeting.

And I can turn on a TV right now and watch about the NFL, and it's 19 months away, and I don't care about it, and it doesn't matter. But, and maybe the NFL is a bad example, but like that's an option that exists for fans, which hasn't existed for North American soccer fans, I think, in the past. No, it hasn't. And at the same time, I also, you know, I do look at the way that MLS is somewhat, you know, I do think in a lot of ways these are the good old days of covering MLS. Because, you know, I look at the way that Europe is and the way that coverage works throughout Europe, which is much, you know, there's much less access. But there's also like less, like, honestly, like you look at English media.

There's not a lot of like real journalism going on in English media. covering the teams there. Like there's not... Yeah, because they're so far removed. They're so far removed. There's not a lot of beat coverage. You know, there's not a lot of that kind of... And it ends up getting more tabloid-y,

and there is this more of a sort of like, confrontational relationship between the media and the teams that you don't necessarily see in American media. And for me, I like the way that American media covers sports a lot better. I think it tells more interesting stories. And I think there's something to be said about, like, creating the world that we want to live in. And, you know, I used to say this a lot early on when I started covering the Sounders is, you know, there was a lot of bemoaning how Sports Talk Radio wasn't really covering the Sounders. And I, you know, I took that two ways.

One is, yeah, it would be nice if the Sounders were part of the mainstream conversation. But in the other way, I don't really love everything that Sports Talk Radio brings to the table, right? and it does sort of like create this sort of like whoever is the loudest and whoever is the you know has the most outrageous take gets the most attention and I do kind of like that we haven't had to play that game so much at Sunder Heart and I think that's one of the things people like about us now I suppose that also limits are sealing like will never be you know so I don't know but it listen if you're not covering Pulistic cheating scandals like what yeah you know that was how big can you possibly be I did

I will say that's been a real eye-opener for me. I didn't know who this woman was that apparently was his girlfriend. I thought when she was talking about Raya, I thought that was another person. Like, there was so much, like, I got to tell you,

I've never felt older than when I looked at, like, the Instagram post there, and it's like, I don't know any, I don't know any of this. I don't, like,

I was so lost, I thought I was reading like a different language. It was pretty funny. Hey, at least you knew Instagram. At least you had the, the floor is high enough to keep you in the conversation. imposed yeah yeah uh yeah no i i i i totally get what you're saying because i think we have both

had the experience talking to players talking to coaches where they're like yeah you know like i never did this before in my career and obviously the locker room is its own debate and one that i think should be open which is i think people should have access but shouldn't be in that space and it should be organized so that players then have to talk in other spaces and i've always said that but the idea of it, the like psychology of what it all is, is having players and coaches be open to interacting with media, which is then the opportunity to interact with fans in their market. And it's not something in Europe. Like it straight up is that interview in the hallway in front of the Carling Cup, like, you know,

background, right, for 90 seconds. And then a post-game presser at a dais. And like, that is the interaction for. many of these teams and where for us there's opportunities to do remote calls from home and you know podcast appearances and social stuff and to be at trainings and to interact with players and i'll give it an easy example the coverage of paul rothrock comes from the fact that you all get to be around him and you know what he's like right and that has been endearing to fans it's been endearing that it's made him a bigger story maybe than he would have been on top of the

success and of course Brian Schmetser calling him better than messy or whatever happened there. And that's not possible in a lot of markets in other sports, but also in soccer around the world. Well, and I think, you know, talking to Paul, I think one of the things that I appreciate about him is that he recognizes that this is an opportunity for him to tell stories, to tell stories about himself. And he feels comfortable that, you know, credit to him, he feels comfortable sharing these things with us. And I don't know that if he only saw us after he scored goals, like, Like if that was the only time we saw him was like when they happened to pull him out of the, you know, to give us a post game 90 seconds, like you said. I really don't think he would feel comfortable talking to us about, you know, what's going through his head and how he he tells himself these narratives and he kind of creates this whole story around himself, which I think is a really sort of vulnerable place to put himself in.

And he, but he's willing to do that because he understands there's something else going on here. And I love that about American soccer media That it does still feel like you can make connections to players That you can make connections to coaches You know, I just think about some of the ways That Brian Schmetzer interacts with the media And I mean, frankly, there's, I don't know that there's another soccer coach in the world

Who's doing that stuff? Who's like giving... The way he writes people's name down So he could repeat it back is like next level. Right, exactly. Like that stuff that he's constantly, you know, there are times where I almost feel like he's he almost acts too familiar with us because I'm like do you not realize that this is being broadcast to like the world? But I appreciate at the same time

I appreciate that he doesn't seem to care like that he he's going to give Nico and I a hard time just because he knows we have a rapport. You know like does do I think that he you know loves us unconditionally? No like he he treats us like we're just sort of part of the whole ecosystem. And I don't think that's the case, you know, you know, the one of the funniest things about, uh, about Ted Lassow is the Trent, Trent, Trent, trim. Trent Crim. That character is like, look, that character does not exist. That's like an American archetype that they grew into England. Like, there's no way that

Trent, the Trent Crims of England are interacting with the Ted Lasso's of England in that way. Like, yeah, like that's a much more American interaction that they're having. And, uh, And yet that is sort of one of the things that we get to do with Brian Schmetser a lot. And I think that Soundert Hart does a good job of accessing that and playing into it and creating an ecosystem around the club that is different than what you're going to get anywhere else. And I think that, you know, a lot of local soccer media is doing that kind of stuff. Yeah. And there's great work being done across the U.S., across Canada.

we obviously lucky enough in our season previews and yes I understand we did not hit every team I have heard many times I went through a lot of people I don't want to now you're going to make me name the teams that I that's like my ultimate shame I wake up at 315 in the morning I'm like I know I didn't do the CF Montreal nope we did Montreal we did Montreal my shames are Portland

you never talk to that is good that is gold right there My shames are San Jose, I think, is actually one of them. All right. But a lot of that was like we were waiting on, I think Vancouver actually as well, we were waiting on signings to be made and games to happen and stuff like that. And we did not get back around to some of them. So I apologize for that. But over the last two years, we've talked to someone from every team.

And these people are doing incredible work covering their teams. And so that's why we like to highlight it. And we like to tap into that knowledge. And the relationship that someone local has and knowledge and understanding, is always going to be different than it is national. And I get that, right? I'm a Mets Jets and Knicks fan. And whenever someone finally talks about one of my teams

because we're maybe good or we're so bad, I listen for 15 minutes. I'm like, well, you're an idiot. You don't know anything that's going on. You don't understand. It doesn't mean what it means to you. Like, Zach, I'll stop talking about my team. So I get it for some people.

And other people, I think our hope is that we can help be a better fan of the whole league. And not just knowing your opponents and all of that, but like one of the things at MLS that we always had was, numbers went down into MLS Cup sometimes. Right. Because people cared about their teams, but they don't care about the league, which you're not intrinsically supposed to,

but I would hope that if you enjoy watching sporting Kansas City enough, and they lose to San Jose, and San Jose goes and loses to Seattle, and Seattle goes and loses to L.A.C. And then you want to watch the final because you want to watch the best, but you also are into the storylines

and what it means for team building in the future and all of that. So we're trying to help people have that experience, And then, you know, I think going forward, the dream would be that we also are helping other local sources pop up and other people get into the game and other people have platforms to write and report and record and do whatever they want to do in the future. So this is just a first step, but it's one that we're really excited about. We've talked about it for a year plus just back and forth on random conversations. And we were finally able to get something established to start from. and if people have ideas of what they want to see us do together, feel free to send them over.

And yeah, but I'm really, really excited. Jeremiah, anything from you? No, I'm just really, I think this is a great sign of things moving forward. I really hope that this continues to grow. And I'm looking forward to being able to do more work with you guys and to get ourselves out in front of people that we might not have otherwise gotten in front of. Yeah. So, yeah.

So we will continue. to be doing some crossover stuff. You'll continue to see us on each other's feeds, on each other socials and platforms and all that type of stuff. But I know you have to head on a nice little trip to Mexico. You're flipping with the team. Yeah, exactly.

If they come back to the US. I'm going to leave. There's always got to be some Sounders presence in Mexico. Some presence inside of Mexico. And fingers crossed that, because we're pre-recording this, that CCL is going okay in one direction or not. and maybe we'll all be back in Mexico for a final sometime soon.

But yeah, this is a really exciting moment for us, so happy to be with you to launch it and have a good trip. Absolutely. Thank you.