SoccerWise - USMNT & MLS Edition: Nations League Roster & MLS Panic Meters w/Michele Giannone (Apple TV)

Episode Date: March 11, 2025

David with a big emergency loan deal for one of the best in the game Michele Giannone (MLS Season Pass Apple TV) to fill in for Tom. First they dig into Mauricio Pochettino's Nations League roster announcement. Then they comb through the recent MLS action. They talk through Michele's favorite things so far this season, and then they put a few stumbling clubs on panic watch.7:20 USMNT Nations League Roster20:00 Mascherono’s Work In Miami + New Signing29:50 Philly’s Impressive Start33:25 How Surprising San Diego’s Start Has Been37:20 Panic Meters Around MLS39:40 Austin45:35 Portland49:50 Houston + Duane Holmes Signing58:50 New England Revs1:05:10 Sporting KC1:08:45 LA Galaxy1:17:06 CCC Preview Soccerwise Live 2pm ET Every Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday on Youtube/Twitch/Twitter

Welcome everybody to Soccer Wise, David Goss alongside one of the best in the business. No Tommy scoops here today. He is off jet setting somewhere fancy around the world. I don't know, Dubai, Singapore, whatever it is. And we have MLS season passes on, but one of my favorites, Michele Giannone, in the building, Michele, you look very well shot right now.

You look like you're in your own Apple TV, TV show. Yeah, this is it. How are you, my man? I'm excited to be here. I'm happy. I want Tom's life. For sure. He's not probably rubbing elbows,

having coffee with Fabrizio Romano, and stuff like that. He's gonna hate that. He's like, I watch him every morning at Morning Foodie, and he's in Sucker Wise. And I don't understand, his days are longer than 24 hours, right? Because it's impossible to do everything that he does.

I just went to Harry Potter World. He's got the little time turner thing so that he can sort of go back and do whatever he needs to do. I don't, all of the good, I don't know that any of either of us could hang in Tom's brain inside of his life. Yeah. To be able to break stories all the time, he had morning footy as you said today and then he's off traveling and he's still breaking Dwayne Holmes stories and loans and it left back to Charlotte FC. So he's grinding all the time. Obviously I love Tom and he will be back next week on the show. McKelley here to fill in with me. I did yesterday the weekend recap, obviously NWSL challenge cup to start things off. So that was the start of the show. And then we I dug into a little bit of the MLS stories USL Championship kicking off last weekend as well. So working on some interviews to cover that. Jordan Angeley will be back with me tomorrow. We're going to do a late show. She

also is away and coming back where we break in breakdown every single matchup for week one of NWSL. But it's a loaded week. Another one of CONCACAF Champions Cup. Now we have a USMNT roster. We've got a lot to go over in Major League Soccer, McKelley, we're gonna do the positive, but unfortunately, week three, we're starting to get into the like negative. And so we got a panic meter lined up for this show just to sort of help us gauge for some of these,

especially winless teams, how worried we should be. That's why I brought you on. You're my worry. You're my worry wart right now. And so you're going to help me with that. I have the hot takes to the hot. Firing coaches already. Yeah, it's you have to.

You are. You have started your first year, though, at Major League Soccer on the Apple TV content. You are doing the MLS 360 show in Spanish. We've seen you on the sidelines as well. And some of the Sunday Sunday night soccer games. I believe you were in Houston last week. You will be in Atlanta this week as well. One of my favorite cities. How's it been so far? How do you, how do you like it? I've been blessed, man. It's, it's been a dream, you know, since, since I started working

and covering Major League Soccer when I was at my former place of work. And now being there, living and breathing and dreaming 24 seven Major League Soccer and having the support from Apple, from other people at Major League Soccer and having the opportunity to do both. I'm loving the studio work. We have a great crew, especially on

the Spanish side. The English guys are amazing. But with the Spanish group, it's been great. I already filed my adoption papers for Gio Sabarese to adopt me. He doesn't know that, but it's happening. I'm going to be his adopted son. Well what? You're already what? Venezuelan,, Italians and now you're covering Major League Soccer together. So that part already. Gio is to shave my head and start dressing like him. He's joined the class dresser in the whole Major League Soccer season pass. His taste in clothing and shoes and food.

The restaurants is what I want to be his son. I already told him that I'm going to be crushed when he leaves us to get up Because he's gonna get another yeah We've already what Tom's reported him as a finalist for three of the jobs that happen this summer Are this all gonna be crushed but I'm so excited for him because I know he really wants it He wants to be back in the game But for now we're taking advantage of of having him in the studio, loving his presence. But it's been great. Again, I'm blessed that I've been doing the studio shows and I've

had the opportunity to do my thing, which is to be on the field, be the silent reporter for Sunday Night Soccer on selected games, which, selected games, I'm going to tell you a secret, it's when Miami plays on the night soccer. Which, two of four so far. So it was pretty often. So we just used them two weeks ago. Sorry, last week or week two, then it's going to be Atlanta, Miami. I'm super excited. It's going to be a great game on paper. I think that's the best stadium in the world except for the turf, but you know, it is what it is. And then in two weeks is Miami, Toronto in Miami. And yeah, it's been great. A lot of traveling, a lot of flying,

but I really miss it. I, it's been great. It's been great. I'm excited to have you on. Obviously you love this league as much as I do. And so it's great to have you as a part of it. We do have a big question in the chat from Jumperdunkis who says, does either of us want to take over the revs?

I think we can push Gio on that one. And then P in the chat says better travel partner, Gio Savarese or Sam Staschkal? Okay, it's... It doesn't matter. Sam already knows the answers, Gio, and that's fine. Is he making the question? I don't know.

I don't have a way to confirm who is or what isn't the in the chat. So I'm gonna assume no. I'm gonna I'm gonna say listen Sam it's a blast. He's is awesome. He doesn't have the taste like Gio. He doesn't have like Gio. He takes us to like the best Italian restaurants in New York, Stanford area, Connecticut. Like he's you know, when you are with like a person that it's it feels like he's bigger than life, like he lives close by, he lives in New York, close by to our Stanford Studios and he took us for dinner to his favorite place where he lives in New York and we will go there. It's like red carpet we were like celebrities superstars

When you are with Gio it's like This is the life. Yeah, this is the life. I love it. So I love you somebody's Gio I think Sam would agree with that as well Even if he is the fake person who put that in the chat. If you're watching live, feel free to send us any questions, any comments. We have our super chats open as well if you want to add a little contribution alongside that. If you're listening via podcast, we love you.

We are glad that you are here. A lot more content coming for you this week. Let's dig into the breaking news, which was today we got a USMNT roster for the Concacaf Nations League coming up next week. So these games will be a week from Thursday. They'll be going on at SoFi Stadium, I believe, in LA. And so it's going to be a semifinal on Thursday and then the finals on Sunday. If the US is lucky enough to make it, which would be a potential to defend

every single championship ever because they've won all of the ones that this has ever occurred. The US will be playing Panama in the opening round. We got the 60 man roster a few weeks ago of what Mauricio Pochettino could draw from. And then we got the 23 here today. I'm not gonna read off all 23 names. Maybe I'll get there at some point.

But most of the names you'd expect to see, the Christian Pulisics of the world, Matt Turner, Zach Steffan in goal, alongside Patrick Schulte, a lot of the star names, Timothy Wea back into this group, Yunus Musa, Weston McKinney, all of them. What has stood out to you scanning over the list

and what do you think are the big storylines? First of all, the goalkeeping situation, which I feel we've been talking about it for the last two years. Schulte has been getting the opportunities lately, especially January camp and the last camp, the first Pochettino big, big call up against Jamaica for the Nations League, if I'm not mistaken, and also Matt Turner. But again, between the three keepers, who's the one that doesn't play? Turner, right?

But he's been the starter for a long time. I know for a fact, and we already know, I don't think it's a surprise, and I think a lot of fans are not happy, but Pogetino really likes Sac-Stefan. He really likes Sac-Stefan. He really likes Sac-Stefan. I think it's going to be between Schulte and Turner. If I have to pick right now, I think he's going to give the nut to Matt Turner because now this is an official game. This is a semifinal of a tournament that you need to win. And Turner has been there for the last two, three years.

Maybe Pochettino can sense that it's a little bit of a big stage that Schulte maybe is not ready for. I'm just saying what I think I would do and I'm projecting it to what I think Pochettino is going to do. So yeah, the goalkeeping situation, I got to say that I'm shocked of not seeing Alejandro Sendejas. I know he's not been like a parental player on the national team lately, but he's been the best player of the best team in the continent for the last 12, 18 months with Club America, he's been great. And when you link to it and see

Yunus Musa listed as a forward, we already know that Pochettino used Yunus against Jamaica as a right winger, right midfielder when they switch shapes to defend. So that gives me a sense that maybe that's the idea of Pochettino using Musa as a right winger or on the right side. We got to remember that Tim Wea is back. So maybe there's a situation when we see Yunus or even Tim Wea as a right back and then the other one as the right midfielder right winger. So that takes Sendejas off the list. Yeah, we don't have Aronson either, which is a surprise.

And then I'm happy to see Brian White and Diego Luna. I think they've been doing great in MLS. I think that the competition for the number nine position, it's always open in the USMNT. For a long time, we thought it was going to be Balogun, but then now Pepe stood up as the guy. He scored goals, but he's injured right now. We got Sargent back. So it's gonna be interesting what Pochettino is gonna do there, but I think, yeah, not Zendejas, Yunus as a forward,

the goalkeeping in the ninth situation is the things that I'm most looking forward to see what happens. Yeah, I think on the goalkeeping side, when you look at the 60 player roster that was available, there's nowhere else he could have gone really. Like Drake Callender is on that list. He doesn't start for his club right now.

And I don't even know if that would be enough to get him back. Sean Johnson was on that list. Diego Kokin is on that list. The only one that would be is Matt Freeze. And like, I don't think I'm banging down a door for Matt Fries right now. Or Frye. Or Frye, yeah. I mean, it's just, there are not a lot of goalkeepers

that are playing at a high level and starting consistently. I would still trust that Matt Turner wouldn't lose me a game even if he's not at his peak. And I don't feel like I can say the same about Schulte or Zach Steffen. And like Steffen's been a really good shot stopper this season. It's been one of his better years so far that we've seen, especially since he's come back to MLS. He's got some weird stuff with positioning off the ball and like he gets caught in weird areas

where he's too close to a post and deflected shots and weird passes, but he's not preset to be ready for those moments. And so even his high level talent in one V one moments, there's still a lot of stuff that has to be cleaned up where with Matt Turner, like he might not win you the game, but I don't think he's gonna lose you the game right now. At center forward, I would expect Josh Sargent to get the starts. And then it's Ajumang and Brian White to try and fill in.

I don't like talking about this because of course, I pray at the foot of Patrick Ojugod. He's been bad so far in the first three games and the Miami game I think probably highlighted that for a lot of people, right? Standalone individual Sunday game. His team goes up a man early. They can't get a goal. But the Seattle game was tough for him. He was disconnected. I thought in the second game against Atlanta at home, his movement opened things up for Pep Biel and Abada and Zaha, his ability to start to pull centerbacks

and understand when they were coming inside, his wide attacking players and to vacate that space, but it was not him individually. And so whether it's a miscommunication with new teammates and Zaha and not having played with BL as much or maybe it's the pressure for him of like he scored the goal in January camp. He's the guy.

They didn't sell him for millions. They also sold DPs like and there's a lot of pressure on his shoulders. So it's good to see him get called up. I think he deserves it for the 12 months of work. I think projecting wise, he can be a difference maker at that position. He just has to sort of figure it back out again. And I'm going to believe in that. And then Brian White, it's like, who else in CONCACAF are you going to throw on the

last 15 minutes to just run through a wall and start to make life miserable? Like if you're chasing a game or you have a lead, you saw what he did against Monterey last week when he came off the bench and like, he just pressures every single thing that happens. And I agree with you of like, he just pressures every single thing that happens. And I agree with you of like, it's nice to see a player playing well be rewarded for that. Like what else can some players do at some point?

And it's also another position of weakness. So put in a guy who's scoring goals, who's playing consistently and who's in a high level of confidence. So those are the big ones around the outside. Obviously the big stars in the middle are going to be what decides this thing in the end, but it's cool to see some young players get opportunities. No bigger maybe than Diego Luna. We heard what Mariso Pochettino said about him in January. He's not had the easiest start to MLS play. I think part of that is the nose. Like

he's dealing with that as an injury. It probably it seems like it's limiting him a bit in terms of how much he can play in training and how much he can play and and sort of breathe and run and the other thing is RSL are not great we're gonna do our panic meters they're not in there exactly because we've talked about them a bunch as well as there's some other stuff going on around them that isn't exactly his fault but it's still cool to see him have earned his spot in January maintain it, and be in here with a bunch of big name attacking players. Yeah, especially after the way he got left off

of the Olympic roster. He was really hurt about that and the fans, me included, because it's been a nice change not covering this team after seven years, and now I just watch it and scream from my couch as a fan, which is pretty nice. not covering this team after seven years. And now I just watch it. From afar. And scream from my couch as a fan, which is pretty nice. But yeah, and going back to Acumen and physically, there's no other striker on the pool, maybe besides Brandon

Vazquez that has physically what he can offer. And going back to Charlotte, like you said, he sometimes feels like an island. Like Charlotte hasn't figured out how to use him because he's a guy that, yeah, he's big. He can move, but he's a big presence in the area against Miami. Miami centerbacks are not that tall. And I don't think Charlotte realized that, that you need to feed him the ball, especially. Every cross was like waist level from Zaha across the box.

Yeah. So I think, I think it's going to need some time to figure out also how to use Saja and how Saja can complement better with BL and between him is going to take time. But again, maybe he doesn't have the time that we think Dean Smith is going to give him, right? He's a young player. He's under pressure, like you said, And if he doesn't start scoring goals, maybe Charlotte in the summer are going to bring another striker or even before the, I mean, the window is still open until April 23rd. So I think there's a lot of pressure, like you said, on Agumam. But I think in the long term, he's going to be fine.

And this also, like this call up maybe helps him mentally. Hey, I'm getting called up to a national team so he gets the confidence back. So I think it's gonna be okay. You see, I mean, you saw in the Miami game, there's one moment and it's funny because the Miami game is one of those classic they played better where they were 10, 11 on 11 than they did a 10 on 11. Yeah, there's one moment where like loose ball slips out to him. He attacks the defender takes a shot because he can shoot with both feet. He's fast. So you're always on your heels. Like that's what makes him great. Those are the types of things though that coming off a bench are easier to do because that's your role rather than can you manage your energy

over 75 minutes? Can you manage the flow of the game? And that's probably the situation he'll be in with the US where if they need a goal, he comes on late. You also mentioned his size as an option on long throws and crosses and set pieces and all that other type of stuff. You brought up Zendejas, which I think is a fair one of like, again, what else can you do? He is the best player on the best team in Mexico, which you could argue is the best team in the region.

He has performed in big moments, scoring huge goals and championships in the playoffs team in the region. He has performed in big moments, scoring huge goals in championships, in the playoffs, in the Ligia, all that type of stuff. He is one of those where I think in the national team, at the national team level, he is better as a piece than as a star. And so he keeps getting called into B-team camps and not looking good because the game is reliant on him

and then can't get called into a team camps because isn't Performing B team camps where I think he'd work a little bit better as a cog keeping the game moving You know helping Pulisic making runs off of him helping whether it's Gia Reyna in this tournament or Weston McKinney or whoever it is Yeah, you know can't get those jump opportunities. You know who he reminds me Reminds him off opportunities. You know who he reminds me reminds him of? And it's a different player, but I think it's the same situation that you are explaining. Sebastian Leger. In the sense of I'm going to explain it because I was told this directly by by Berhalter at one point. We're talking about Leger and he told me Sebastian is a player that when he's surrounded by better players than him, he steps up.

And he's better. But when he has to be the guy, he struggles. And I think that's exactly what you're saying about about send the house. Me I would have called send the house and going back to two players that play in league and make similar. There are six MLS players on this roster. How times change, right? If this is a Greg Berhalter call up, like Twitter X or whatever you want to call it

will be like having a full meltdown. Like Brian White will people will be like ripping their hair off. But again, it's two game window. It's pretty fast. I think there's going to be a 1516 player rotation, at least on the starting 11. The third goalkeeper, which is Stefan, is not going to matter. Maybe Ackerman doesn't even see the field. So people that are complaining about Ackerman, about why like chill within here before.

Yep. It is. It's going to be fun. Canada against Mexico, by the way, the other game. we don't have the Canada roster yet We did get the Mexico roster. So we'll talk about that more as we get those I'm obviously stoked about this Canada team. Jesse Mars has had a pretty good few months as the head coach And we know we don't care. Yeah, I'm proud to be as well Although I still need to work on that passport when I get it done but I think Jesse Mars has maybe taken my role as the honorary Canadian as an American

because of what he's done so far. We talked about Inter Miami a bit. Let's get into some of the favorite things you've seen so far. This is whatever you wanna talk about. And I gave you this topic, just the first three weeks of MLS, what you've enjoyed. You've obviously been in the studio, crunching tape, watching all the games, experiencing it all.

And you wanted to start with Messi himself and Inter Miami. Yeah, not even Messi with Inter Miami and Mascherano. I have to eat a big plate of crow with Mascherano. And I think to be fair, when he got hired, it was a, I mean, he's, uh, well, he's friends with Messi, Suarez, Busquets, Alba from the Barcelona days, and he had a terrible track record as a coach. He just, he had the Argentine under 20 and, and the Olympic team, and he didn't

even qualify Argentina to the world cup, the under 20, then they got in because they switched the, where the tournament was going to be played and Argentina got the nod and then, well, I mean, they didn't qualify, but now they switched the where the tournament was gonna be played and Argentina got the nod and then well I mean they didn't qualify but now they're the home team we're playing here so let's give him a nod and then he went to qualify to two Olympic Games they did okay but it was the most bizarre three games you've ever seen they had the the VAR game game one where they came back out of the locker room to refinish it. It was so weird. Yes. But still it was a team that compared to what Argentina has been historically in Olympic Games and U-20, the talent that they have, it was a letdown.

So this is first coaching, working professional team, right? And because it's Messi, Busquets, but I've been blown away, having the chance to talk to him and seeing what Miami is doing on the field, the shapes they're using, how they switch shapes. And to his credit, the last two games without Messi, they've been playing great. The last three games without Messi. Houston, CONCACAF Champions League, and then again this weekend. And two of those games playing with 10 for a long stretch, right? And

of course it helps that you have probably with Seattle, the best and deeper team in the league that you can rotate. But they've been playing like their A-team, like they play Cavalier with their team, like Suarez played the whole game. The players have, and you could see it, and when you talk with the players, they have bought what he's selling. And you see it, for example, when they switch, you have Tadeo Allende and Telasco Segovia who's been ahead.

Like when you have Messi, Busquets, Alba, and then every player that you bring, they are ahead. That's, it makes Miami probably right now, like unbeatable, honestly. And I'm not the most pro Miami person that, you know, I didn't vote for Messi last year's MVP and you know it, we've talked about this a lot. So I've been blown away especially because they start normally on a 4-2,

on a 4-2-3-1 and then they switch to a 4-3-3, but when they, when they, when they have to defend, they switch to a 4-4-2 and you have a Jende as a right midfielder wide and Telasco Segovia as a left midfielder and they're running their bots off defending, covering space and, and, and every And every sub, it seems to be working. I was super down on Kremaski, but he's been great the last two games. We know he has a big motor, so he's going to run and cover space. But what you see is important when you have a new coach, it's very important that the players buy into it, right?

They buy what you're selling and Miami is doing it. It's very important that the players buy into it, right? They buy what you're selling and Miami is doing it. You see it and playing with 10. Yeah, they ended last game. They played with four defensive midfielders for the last like 20 minutes of the game, but they have to because they're forced to do rotations too. So I'm very excited to see what Miami is gonna become when they keep playing together,

when Messi's feet again, he should be okay to play against Atlanta. He was ready to play against last weekend, but they had to defend playing with 10. So, but yeah, it's been great. And the first one that I said, I have to apologize to Mascherano because it's been great. It's been great. And the first one that I said, I have to apologize to Mascherano because he's been great. He's been great. No notes.

You know, he actually texted me. He's like, I'm actually waiting for Mikele to apologize to me. So he's going to feel really good about this. Good. Thank you. Because now I'm one of the faces of MLS. So you need to pay attention to what I'm saying. No, he absolutely is. Yeah, I agree with you. They've been really good. It was impressive once again. I mean, the whole thing is absurd.

They've gotten a red card in all three games in MLS play and yet they've gotten a result in all three. They've gotten wins in two. The Houston one, I think maybe not as fair because they already had the lead and whatever. The NYCFC finish absurd. And then this performance against them, again against Charlotte and you said it and everyone else saying it like Aende and Segovia are huge ads for them. I think one just to have younger players who can run a little more and cover a little more ground and make life

a little bit easier as well as turn around for midweek games and go again on the weekend. They were deep last year, but they were deep with veteran players who maybe couldn't react to the strains of the schedule. And so rather than trying to protect Messi or losing Messi to injuries, they ended up having to push those players. And I think you saw it down the stretch on the season. So now you've got younger players who can be factors and give you more minutes and cover more ground. But then he's also trusted the Yannick Brights of the world and Noah Allen's of the world, who you need in an MLS roster because of, as every CSO complained about on the athletics MLS survey, which you should go read. Um,

there are weird structures to rosters and you can't just pick, you can't just sign the 23 best players. So you need those players to be a factor and Mascherano I think has used them very well. And of course also like the young players are developing well, right? And of course when I say Miami's unbeatable, they're not obviously. We saw what happened against Atlanta. Yeah except if you play down a man three games and you don't lose, you're bordering on pretty

close. I mean I don't, yeah. So you have another year of Kremaski development, right? Of Ian Frey, of Noallen. Noallen is my size. I'm 5'7". And he's playing center back very well when he needs to play it, right?

And I mean, but he can play as a fullback. Ian Frey can play as a fullback. He can play as a center back. You have Kremaski that can cover a lot of position in the midfield. Yannick Bright, Busquets is playing out of his mind, he looks fresh. Jordi Alba is a freaking train, he doesn't stop, he plays all the game, it's absurd. I've never seen Alba play live before and I saw him on Houston, week two, and on the second half he was in front of me on the touchline by the benches.

And I was just blown away. It's like this guy is playing probably like 30%, 50% of what he played at the level and the intensity of the play at Barcelona. And he, the way he moves, the ball, the touch on the ball, the intelligence and watching Busquets, I'm not discovering hot water here like as a famous Spanish saying. It's like, I'm discovering the water. I'm not saying anything that people don't know already, but watching them live is just absurd. When you see it live on the field, it's like this is ridiculous. So they look great. Mascherano, I think, is doing a great job moving the pieces, switching on the tactical side, different formations, and again, they have another year of development with Frey, Noah Allen, Kremaski, Janik Bright,

and they've hit on every transfer. Segovia give him the best U-22 of the league already for this year. Agenda is absurd. He can play as a right wing, right midfielder. He can play as a nine when Suarez is not here. So they've been bringing players that can play multiple positions, which helps. Yeah. And then they've actually done one more. So I think dropping this morning, they've officially signed Balthasar Rodriguez on loan 21 year old

attacker from Rossing who played on the Olympic qualifying team under Mascherano did not make the Olympics, but played a ton of minutes on that team under Mascherano and played a little bit, I believe with Tomas Aviles at Rossing as well. And again, he's an attacking mid, he plays as a 10 for the most part, he also plays out wide. So you get that flexibility. I also do think the 10 position is the big hole in that I don't think that's the right spot for Segovia.

I don't think it plays to his strengths. I think you wanna get him isolated a little bit more often, or at least give him the freedom to come inside or not. And it felt like moments throughout the Charlotte game where he was more the 10, because Ben Ha had to get taken off because of the red cards, who was starting and everything else. I just thought you saw a little bit more of the limitations to his game,

where if this is a player in Rodriguez who can fill that 10 roll sometimes, one, can you make life easier on Luis Suarez so he doesn't have to do both when Messi's not in? And then can you keep everyone in their right position. So it's another big addition for Inter Miami. They continue to add players who they think they can get legitimate minutes out of and deepen their team and as they go try and go deeper into CONCAC champions cup. They've got Cavalier coming up on Thursday. We'll talk about CCC or CCL, whatever you want. We had someone in the chat who said that their flight to Kingston is tomorrow.

So they have the fever. They are stoked, which I am very jealous of because it's going to be an epic setup for that one. But Inter Miami trying to challenge across all fronts. They're going to need that depth and they're going to need that cohesion. And I think that's what fell apart at the end of last year against Atlanta. And we'll see that revenge game on Sunday night that you will be at. What is your next one? What else has been your favorite so far?

I mean, I got a... Man, I got so much wrong preseason. I mean, Philly. Philly, right? Yeah. I had them on my previews outside of the playoffs. I thought it was going to be a big transition moving on from Jim Curdin and the way they play, selling players like Jack McGlynn and bringing a coach that has a different philosophy. That is the Red Bull style, pressure, pressure, pressure. And the way the three up upfront have been linking up,

of course, Tai Varevo, what can we say, Poacher, big presence on the box. And they bring this Uruguayan that I'm blanking right now to be his- Damiani? Damiani, Damiani, yeah. Damiani, so to be his maybe- You just don't like South American Italian heritage players.

You just, you're anti. Yeah, it's just Venezuelan Italians or plus. So, now under this system, you see again, it's not easy to play this kind of soccer, right? And it's just, again, the caveat is just three weeks. And we know this Red Bull system, this high pressure, asphyxiating the rival. It's difficult to sustain the whole year, but you see it.

If you go back to week two, there's a shot, like a replay that you could see it when Queen Sullivan makes a tackle and he wins the ball, how he celebrates, like he scored a goal. So that tells you that the players are all in, right? With the new coach and the new philosophy. Which by the way, just to throw in here, it's returned to the philosophy

because that, if you ever go to a youth setup in the US, Philly will win, well, sorry, lose. Like they'll force out balls for throw-ins and you will see the team all scream in unison for the first like 10 minutes of every U17 and U15 game. And you can be watching other games and be like, oh, Philly's playing. And that what Quinn Sullivan's doing is the way he was trained. And that sort of, I think, is this idea of Bradley Cardnell is bringing the DNA back so that the Frankie Westfields of the world and the Quinn Sullivan's can play at their highest level.

Yeah, and I don't think, and I think I don't wanna sound repetitive, but I don't think that people understand, truly understand how important and key, vital for players to buy in on the coach, especially when the coach is new. And I mean, Philly went all out in the sense of like, I was told that they were the ones that called Houston

and say, hey, Jack McLean doesn't fit our system. This is the way we're gonna play. We know you like possession. And he was gonna say, f yeah, we'll take him. But it's like Philly went all out. It's like, we're gonna get rid of the players that our coach and our front office think they don't fit the system anymore. This is the way we're gonna play.

And we need the whole locker room to buy in. And if you don't buy in or you don't like, or you don't fit, you're gonna be gone. So, I mean, it's not the best way maybe to work with a locker room. And that can, again, worn out on players physically and mentally through the year. But so far, just in three weeks, it has looked awesome.

Yep. It's been incredible. The run continues with the win over the revs. You've got a couple more in here. Which one do you want to hit next? You tell me. You tell me one. I want to talk to you a little bit about San Diego because yes, I'm Diego in San Diego You've lived there for a few years. So you've seen this club be built from the outside

You've been around it over the last year as they've had big events and brought people into the training grounds and all that stuff And of course, then they get their home debut last week They give up their first goal this week and they get a win without Chuki Lozano. And like this is, I'm not saying they're St. Louis from two years ago. I'm not saying they're going to win MLS Cup, but year one, they are a real team. It's a shocker. San Diego, it's a shocker. I can't believe what I'm seeing. I remember, yeah, I went and saw the training ground facilities right now, which is probably one of the best in the country nowadays, when it was a golf course. They didn't

start building yet. That was like two years ago. And talking with Tom Penn, talking with Mike Ibaras, talking with Tyler, their GM. And it's, it's, they're in sync. And, and you remember when Weeby and Doyle came to the expansion draft and they were talking with Mike Ibaras and they said, Hey, hey, how are your team is going to play? And he did like this, like in our veins, this is the DNA. We won the ball. We don't care where we're playing against who we're playing. This is our identity. And you know, you're thinking it's like, yeah, sure. Right. You say that now. Right. Yeah, sure. And then when you get hammered three zero against

the galaxy on the open, what are you going to do? And zip, they've since minute zero of that Galaxy game on the opening game, they show their identity and they played there. They won at RSL against the Altitude. It's a tough play to play. You're down one zero minute 17 and you came back and after the RSL goal, San Diego was another team. They got the ball back. They start pressuring.

They won the possession, which is difficult to do in altitude again, RSL, and they're playing the way they told us, and they warned everyone that they were gonna play, we're gonna have the ball, we're gonna pressure you, we're not gonna deviate from that. Doesn't matter again, the rival, where we're playing, how the score is, and they're doing it.

I'm hats off, man, because they put their money where they put their mouth. They are doing fire alarm testing in my building for safety reasons, so just warning you if you hear that going on in the background, but I completely agree with you. To actually step on the field and do it in the challenge and do it,

and I think we saw more holes in them against RSL. I think one of the things is the Galaxy and St. Louis. Well, the Galaxy we'll talk about in just a moment. St. Louis. But in general, those are good teams. They have clear identities, which is almost easier, I think, for San Diego to start because they're somewhat more predictable in what you're preparing for. RSL don't have that as much. And so I think you saw some of the gaps in San Diego this week. And yet they came back, as you said, they found their footing. They found their footing as the game got longer, their possession built rather than running

away from it, which is not what you can say the same for Houston this weekend and what they put out on the field. And without Chucky Lozano, they found match winners, they found big moments and like Andres Dreier is fitting in really well. San Diego hosts Columbus this weekend. That is going to be an awesome game to watch. Then they go to Austin, then they host LAFC and Seattle. So it is like a huge run coming up for the San Diego team.

And again, they don't need to win every game. They don't need to be first place. Just play the same soccer through those four games as you've played so far, especially against Columbus, because I just want to watch it. And there's a pretty good chance that you're going to be one of the best teams in the league. Let's jump into our panic meters now.

Are you ready? Yeah, I wanted to say something real quick with San Diego, like, because I've heard this also from the fans here locally. It's like, oh, this is not the team that we got promised. Like, where's the Brayne? Where's Sergio Ramos? Where are the big signings? It's going to be a slow burn. Those players are coming in the future, probably not even this summer. They're trusting in their academy work, but they

they're starting their highest age on the academy that's going to start. It's U-12. Right. So those players are not going to be ready until like three, four years maybe. It's going to be a slow burn. They have the means. They have the identity. Again, they have the plans.

But fans have to separate reality from expectations. And so, I mean, for now it's working. The big players are coming, but it's not gonna be like a cascade coming in. Like in the summer now, the bro in it and all the big names are coming in, three big DPs. So they have a plan and they're executing it and we see it on the field.

Shout out to Luca Bombino for getting minutes, the loan from LAFC as an Academy piece. Let's go into our panic meter. So for this, we were talking about some of the teams this so far that we think are in a little bit of trouble. And so I decided to put this together to put it on a scale for everyone. So we're gonna go, each team,

we're gonna put on a one through five panic meter, five being the worst, 1 being okay. What we have right now to do this is the winless teams in Major League Soccer through three weeks. So Houston, the Rebs, Toronto, Montreal, KC, and the LA Galaxy. We will hit all of those teams in our panic meter. The other teams we could add, the teams sitting on three points right now or are Orlando, Portland,

RSL and Austin. I say that we should take Orlando and RSL out of this. I think Orlando I'm not as worried about you agree. We've done a ton of RSL talks and we won't put that there. They're still looking for the center forward and all of that. Portland and Austin. Where do you think they sit? Would you have them in this conversation? Absolutely. Okay, absolutely. I especially Austin. You want me to give a number right now or just no, let's

say Austin. So for Austin, they're sitting on three points. They started the year at home against SKC reminder and SKC team that is in this conversation as well and one that was coming off Concacaf Champions Cup. They then played at Portland. They lost another team that is in this conversation and they lost this weekend. 1-0 at home to the Colorado Rapids. They now have coming up at LAFC versus San Diego and then at St.

Louis. And so if we're bringing them in here, how high is the panic meter and why? I want to say five, but I'm going to be a little, I want to, I'm going to, I'm going to be, we're going to have to rescale this thing after two. I'm going to say a three. Okay. Right. And I fearful a little bit of Nico Estevez. I love Nico. I think he's a brilliant coach. He has great ideas. But I know that Austin fan base didn't took very well when he got signed. They spend a lot. I mean, you guys talk about the front three spending $3 million between Bucari, Uzuni and Vasquez.

And Uzuni needs time. I was told from people in the building that he's amazing. Uzuni is gonna be great. Like since even in the first training session, there was, they were like, okay, yeah, he's a real deal. We know he can play it and he's gonna play wide as a left winger, but he's number nine.

Like he scored a bunch of goals in the Spanish second division. So there's going to be a little bit of movement and interchangeable between him and Brandon Vasquez. But yeah, there's pressure in Austin. They're starting to mount because we know that's not the fan base. It's once resolves and we know he can be a pressure cooker. And we know the owners of the club spend big. They have a lot of media attention.

We saw Matthew McConaughey on camera the other day on the stadium. So they need results. And I'm fearful. I really want them to give Nico time and give time for him to work with Ouzouni. Now they need more from Dani Pereira. They brought Ilya Sanchez, who's been playing the six, that deep position, so to give more freedom to him, to Pereira, to Wolf. Those guys need to appear because, yeah, you need service from the midfield, right? I'm a little bit worried that they're not going to give Nico plenty of time.

If we get to week 10 and this team is sitting on eight, 10 points, I don't think it's going to happen. But if it happens, I worry that they could trigger that too soon. I think I'm more worried about Niko, job security than Austin as itself, if that makes sense? Yeah, it does. I don't agree, but I understand the point. It's a lot of money to have spent.

And so if it doesn't go right, you don't get rid of the players. Rodolfo Borel is in charge of all of this, not gonna get rid of himself. So it would fall on Nico Esmez. No, I will say, I think where they're at, Borel is connected to Nico because he hired him. And so you're trying to keep that pressure off everyone

as long as possible and trying to keep that intact. But I understand your worry because my worry is structurally, I don't know how it all fits. It was the question I asked sort of all off season is like, Bucari gonna play behind these two, right? Who is the creative force? And that was the problem in the past, which is a completely different team. So it's not technically connected, but like, Druzy was a goal scoring 10 and there was no metronome force that creates chances. Josh Wolfe tried to build it out of the system and it didn't totally work. Maybe Nico Esves can do that as well. But either way, you've got a lot of finishers. You don't

have a ton of creators and you don't have a ton of creators that can operate in tight spaces centrally. And so it shouldn't fall on Danny Pereira because I don't think he should be that player, but it might. And that's the same thing we've said for the last two, three years is, oh, well, it won't be anyone else. So maybe it'll be Danny Pereira. So to have them have spent all this money and be in a better position, but in the same spot is very, very odd to me. And I think Joe Larry wrote about it well on Back Yield. So go read that of just like that lack of a true natural creator in there in a league where that is super common, they've got to find ways to get service to their attacking pieces in a different

way. And they don't have that yet. Talking about the way the team is structured. I've been told by a couple of people in inside the league that they are, they question the Brandon baskets move, how much they spend on him and making him a DP. And then you go by Uzuni and you spend what you spend for basically not the same player, but they're both number nines. And now you have to figure out how to make them work all together, like you said, with

Bukari and see how they fit. So they question that roster structure, especially why. Then if you knew, maybe they didn't, but if you knew or you had Uzuni on your plans, right? Maybe not spending the 10 million and bringing Bando Vasquez as a DP and using it to bring a number 10 and mimic what we are doing with Drusi.

So that's, I think you nailed it right there. But at the end, it falls on Nico to figure it out. Right. And that's, that's a pretty, uh, unfair position to be. I mean, not unfair. He's the coach and he's making a lot of money, but the pressure is there, but, but there's, I think that I think he's under a lot of pressure and hopefully they give him time. But again, you nailed it. The roster structure is not what I would have done and people inside the league have told me it's kind of weird what they did.

So the panic meter there three, I think we agree. Let's set it there. So Austin, we bring into this. Portland is the other one. Portland started the year by again getting smoked by Vancouver early red card doesn't seem to really matter because they don't learn from their mistakes. Then they got the 1-0 win at home over Austin. Then they go to Nashville this weekend. They give up two penalty kicks in the opening what 30 minutes. James Pantema saves

both of them and they still lose 2-0 on the road at Nashville, a team that had been looking for their offensive form already this year. Portland now goes home, they will host the LA Galaxy, they then will go to Colorado, they will host Houston, and then they go to Austin. So a reasonable stretch now coming up for this Portland team. Where's your panic meter for this club? How much are you worried about the Portland Timbers? I mean, I will say also a two or three, but the caveat is that I didn't expect much, much for Portland. So I think they're doing it. They're doing mostly what we've been expecting, obviously. Well, like you said, the red card on the first game,

maybe that was a harsh result that it should have been, or maybe not. It was a harsh result that should have been, but again, with Portland, like I had it on the bottom of the Western conference. The Costa looks like a nice player, like a good player, but he's more as a number 10 that is going to bring a lot of assist. He's not going to score whatever. How are goals? Evander. Evander had 18 or something.

Yes, 18 and 18 assists, something absurd. He's clearly not Evander. I don't think Phil Neville know what he wants to do up front. He's been playing Kevin Kelsey. I know for a fact I was told that Felipe More is starting to get like, why am I not the guy? I should be the guy. So he's not happy coming off the bench.

And I don't think Phil Neville is in love with Felipe Mora. Oh, now I hear it. But it's fine. And I just I just don't think that Portland has a lot of talent to work with. Like this is that's why Evander was so high on my MVP list last year. Like he carried a roster that had no business being what it was. And it's going to be a long year. We know Phil Neville is not loved as a coach for between fans, pundits,

and everyone around the league. So, but I didn't expect, I didn't expect anything from Portland. I'm going to keep talking while the thing goes off. And yeah, I will say like the panic meter, I'm going to go too because yeah, it's happening what I thought it was going to happen. I think he just told me that if there was a real fire, we should have left after giving us this announcement five times about how we shouldn't leave. So now it is finally done.

I agree with you on a lot of this, which is I didn't have huge expectations for Portland. The Evander stuff that I always thought was funny last year is they finished ninth. They were not good last year. So you lose Evander. The idea was, and we did our preview with Cascade FC's own Jeremy, and it was like, well, they'll be better defensively. Well, Kamal Miller picks up a red card. It was McGraw this week. The penalty kick, the opening penalty kick was, you know, gets turned by Surridge

and then dives in from behind going into the box. And structurally, nothing looks better. So you've lost the best attacking player outside of Messi, maybe in the league, you've lost your best player and you have not cleaned anything else up. That's the panic for me is like, I don't understand how Portland's taken. It doesn't feel like they've taken a step forward defensively. They've obviously taken a step back offensively and it's like, well, Jonathan Rodriguez isn't

back. I don't know how far in a hole you can be when Jonathan Rodriguez comes back for the last year's ninth best team and still sort of make any sort of a run this year. So my panic meter is a four for the Portland Timbers because I don't know that a lot of this makes sense. And I think I'd be worried about what this season looks like for this team because all of the worst tendencies of the last 18 months, all are still on display every single week for this team. So those are our two teams on three wins. Now we go into our winless group. Let's start with Houston because Tom reported and then it was made official that they've made an addition this morning. They

brought in Dwayne Holmes, a name a lot of USMNT fans will be familiar with, was one of those guys who went over to Europe at a really young age as a teenager and found his feet in Europe. I believe he's from Georgia originally, the state, not the country, in the United States, and then played it basically in the English Championship his entire career, most recently at Preston North End. He's 30 years old now. So he has been brought in. He was a starter for three years in the championship

and now he's been coming off the bench more this year. So he is coming to Major League Soccer for the first time in his career and Houston brings him in. My reading from the outside is just, it's a fine move. I think he's probably a good player. I don't think he drops your floor, but for a team that's still trying to figure out

how to replace Coco and Aceh Aceh, that has nothing to do with what Dwayne Holmes I think can bring to this roster. So what's your number? So my panic meter for Houston, I think last week it would have been a two and this week it's a three because they got the results in Columbus by changing the way they play and my confidence in this team was no matter how bad the results were they wouldn't do that and I think their ceiling as a club this year is to continue to be a possession team even if they're bad at it at times. Being an outlier, being hard to play against, being a different challenge, being a home team in Houston in the summer that's knocking the ball around and making teams run, that's their ceiling, even if it's not the same as it was the last two years with Aceh Aceh.

And so that gives me a little bit of worry. So I will say it's a three. Okay. Five is the highest, right? Yes. I'm like a seven. Listen, what I saw against Miami was terrible. And I had the field perspective. I was telling you a story that I reported during the broadcast. At one point during the first half, the midfield was so bad that Ben Olson turned around to

Juan Guerra, his assistant, and he's like, I want to take all of them out, like all four. And I told you this, I don't love the McLean R2 double B bot, I don't think McLean is fit for that position. I think McLean shines when he doesn't have to defend that much, he's slow, he's brilliant with the ball, the service, the corner kicks, free kicks, whatever. But we saw the best of McLean when he played this position a little bit on Philly, but we saw it just recently on the January camp with the USMNT when he played as a 10-ish

with people that cover his back. So, and I agree with you, I was listening to your conversation last week when you guys were debating what's missing the most here in Houston. Another center back, I mean, the Mikael loss is huge. Or a 10.

And I agree with you. A 10 is more important in this league. You can have kind of iffy defense. You don't need to have that big center back like Mikael to make it work. But if you have a 10, a big time 10 like Evander with Portland, you can make it work. Right? Mm hmm. Houston has none of that. They have Nicolodeiro. But then he's playing as an eight ish right midfielder. Nico is obviously

not the same player that he was at Seattle. Ben Olsen told me right away, because I had the opportunity to talk with him, they brought Josh Wolf as an assistant this year, one of the best U.S. soccer strikers of all time. He said he's been working with the strikers, especially with Ponce. They need Ponce to score goals, but again, he doesn't get the service because the midfield has been more worried about defending and getting destroyed than actually making plays and having the ball.

They had what, 34% possession against Columbus? It was so bad that from afar, it looked like, okay, we have to play Columbus. Let's just defend for 90 minutes and see what we can hold the 0-0. And going back to Ponce real quick, Ben Olsen told me, like, we truly believe that this guy can be a 20 goal scorer on MLS, but I told him this directly, we need at least 15 from you. If they don't get 15 goals from Ponce, this team is going nowhere, especially with that midfield. I think Holmes can help, but I think you had a player between Basi and Lodeiro that kind of do the same thing

that doing Holmes can do. I don't know, it doesn't move the needle for me, this signing. I think the argument there would be agreed that it's similar to Basi and Lodero. It's another one. So now can you push Ladero a little bit higher or do you not have to start Kowalczyk? It's another option.

Holmes is like Danny Pereira style dribbling center mid, not a passer. And so maybe that opens up more things in the game because you don't really have players that take defenders out of the game. So if the ball doesn't move quick enough and perfectly enough to open up chances. But a year ago, if Houston played Columbus in that game, they would have tried to go toe for toe in possession. And that's not who they are anymore. I think that's the part that's a little scary now.

Ben Olson would probably tell us like, yeah, but at least we scrapped and we were committed and we got the 0-0 where against Miami, they gave up and walked away and like, that's fine. But then it goes into what were your expectations for Houston this year? And then I think that's sort of what sets this. So I'm at a three, you're at a 19 out of five on the scale for this team.

I don't think people have truly understand how big Coco Carrasquilla was. It's like I was making the joke this weekend with the Galaxy. We're going to talk about them. It's like, congratulations, Ricky Pooch for winning the MVP of 2025. Just give it to him already. It's the Peyton Manning MVP where he sat out and they won one game. It is the same thing with Carrasquilla. That midfield, we saw it against Miami and we saw it through the first three weeks. If you get a little bit of pressure on McLean and on Arthur, you're done, you're done.

They're prone to mistakes. And I'm very worried that this team is not gonna make the playoffs this year. So let's continue on here with our win list team. So that gives us Houston. The other team, we've got two more teams sitting on one point and I believe all the other teams are on zero. We've got Toronto, who I don't know, that probably is one again that goes to expectations. They were the last team. Let's talk about Toronto. Okay. They were the last team in our over under.

We're not going to do that deep right now. I also want to throw actually Montreal in this Montreal starts the year on what a seven game road trip or a six game road trip. They're in the middle of it. I'm not going to like throw alarm bells my panic meter for them would be one maybe two right now Prince of Wusu got hurt this weekend that's a little worrying just because he's been good for them but like you're seeing some stuff out of the young players they're on this road trip there There aren't really huge expectations. The hope is just that they don't get so discouraged that everyone's out on the coach. To be, yeah, I mean, to give props to Montreal,

sorry, sorry interruption. They've, I mean, they've played again on the road, like you said, obviously, and they play well against Atlanta. Maybe they should have gotten the tie there. They lost with a goal in the last five minutes or something. They've been playing well and they and they got players back like Opoku, you know. They're gonna get back at some point. I guess Breone is gonna is gonna play their only DP. So as we know, Breone actually came in hurt. So they're just trying to manage him back

to not waste them. So and we know that Courtois, it's probably the most underrated coach in Major League Soccer. He will like make. The best he can do with with the roster that he had, we saw it last year. And yeah, I mean, Montreal, it's against the I can't imagine what it what it's like to be on the road for basically two months yeah so it's seven games yes I went and read it because I should have done that the first time they lost by a goal at Atlanta in a late winner latte lot yeah they lost by one at Minnesota as well who is a team I think is good yeah they lose by two at Vancouver which I think is frustrating

because Vancouver is coming off CCC they're a little bit thinner but they are one of two perfect teams and you have to fly all the way cross country the further ship you're going to take. Now they go to DC, Nashville, Chicago before Columbus to finish it up. DC has started well. There's maybe some results in there. If they can get four points out of that whole, out of the whole thing, I think that's probably enough. But okay, so we're going to move on from the two Canadian teams and let's go into our final few teams and let's start with the refs. The New England Revolution lost once again 2-0. They have yet to score a goal in three games.

It's been at Nashville, home to Columbus and then home to Philadelphia this weekend. They now have on the road at NYCFC. They host the Red Bulls. They go to FC Cincinnati and then they go to Atlanta in their next four games. And of course, the biggest worry from this weekend was that Leo Campana five minutes into the game had to come off the field for a non-contact injury. Kayla Porter, the last quote I think I got was the day of the game where Kayla Porter said, obviously it's difficult to lose your striker. There's no doubt. Not sure what the injury is or how long he's out.

I have to talk to the medical staff, but that's always going to be tough. And now it is three days later and we still haven't gotten any more update on Leo Campagna. Where is your panic meter for this rev squad? It's high. I will say like four or five because it's also zero goal scored. Right. And I agree with what Taylor told me and said, and we're talking about this on the Spanish shows on Saturday and then on the wrap up on on Sunday. I think Caleb Porter should be starting to get scorching hot. And I'm going to explain why he took a team Bruce Arena last, the year before took to the playoffs. And when he got there, he started losing and then he switched his words and his message and he said, no, well, this is not my team, this is Bruce's team.

So we're going to fix it. I'm going to, I'm going to build my team. Right? Now you did it. You did it last year. Now you did it. You did it last year and now you finish it on this off season and you're showing up like this that I, he had, I think seven new players starting in compared to like what 2024 opening day, the only one that repeated was Carles Hill. Right.

When you compare like the starting 11 from 2024 to 2025, the only one that repeated on that starting 11 was Carles Hill. And then on 2025 was six new players that he brought in. This is your team. This is your team. And you, I don't like when coaches throw players under the bus.

It's like, this is not my team. I had to teach some of them how to play again. This is something that he said. Right. So I think, and we know Kelly Porter, right? MLS Cup champion, crashing next year. MLS Cup champion, crashing. He's a two-time MLS Cup champion.

They spend the money and they brought the players that you wanted. It's on you. It's a hundred percent on you. So I would say that the panameter is the players that you want it. It's on you. It's 100% on you. So I would say that the panameter is five hours high on this team. I really like the players they brought. I think they're building something good, but the team is not functioning well. And that falls on him. And now without Campana, if he has to miss several weeks, like you said, their next four,

five or six weeks It's just a brutal schedule this team could be in real trouble And I think I think Alec Potter needs to start feeling the heat a little bit It will be there Especially if they can't score goals and fans are not engaged in the team and like we've seen the crowds Have not I mean obviously the weather is not perfect to go to a soccer game right now in Foxboro But like it has been tough. And then you go into, it sucks losing Leo Campana. They set a transfer, they set a game trade record, right?

Like this is supposed to be a huge piece of your team. Yeah. But Maxia Ruti, like fifth minute, you're gonna bring Maxia Ruti on the field. That makes me think he's gonna be the starter now at that center forward position. It's not, can we move Ganago inside? Can we slide Carlos Heal outside maybe

and become harder to play against? Or can we get more attacking pieces in here? Can we get Peyton Miller involved? Like there's other, I think, options, but with all the pressure that they do have and trying to get all the pieces to fit, I don't know how much he'll tinker with it going forward. And then you're sort of just running out the same thing,

but with Maxia Ruti in 2025 instead of Leo Campagna, which is not a fair comparison. And so I think the worry should be there. I don't totally understand the Jackson Yule edition. I like Jackson Yule as a soccer player. He doesn't make sense in this group because he wants more possession, but that should be Carlos Heal's role, but he doesn't protect Atan.

He doesn't make a ton of runs out of midfield to give Carlos Heal options there or to link up with the wingers. Langone's final third decisions have been tough. He beats one, maybe two defenders, but doesn't have an idea of how he wants to finish it. And then he tries to keep going and going. And so you see a whole team right now that's trying to figure it out on the fly, on the field. I do think Sebaeus and Fofana are good. Like now you look at three games for them,

they shut out Nashville on the road. They give up one goal to Columbus team. That's been one of the most lethal in the league for two years. And then you give up a goal, an opening goal on a set piece against Philly. So like across those, you know, 100 or 268 minutes, that's kind of been okay. The center back pairing has been fine. It is just the attack part

that has been a struggle and now you lose your big striker. So I think four or five is the right call on this one. I think this is like the big worry right now. It doesn't get easier as I read off in the schedule coming up. And it's a club that has not really performed the best when the pressure's been on over the last few years. And I don't know that it's already the most unified group. And so to have this start and to have all of these moves,

I think should be pretty worrying for all of them. Juan Garcia in the chat saying, what do you expect from them? And like, yeah. That's a good question. That would probably be the big scale is, what were your expectations for New England? And then where do they sit right now?

But you spend the money that they spend, you go out and get the talent. I mean, Ganango is a potential DP that's not on a DP deal. So like you're talking about a fourth talent in a group, Leo Campagna the same, like there is a good amount of talent in a group Leo Campagna the same like there is a good amount of talent in this group and there so there should be higher expectations. Let's finish out with our last two.

We've got Sporting Kansas City and the LA Galaxy. Which one do you want to start with? We can leave the big one. Last right Galaxy? Okay. So SKC. SKC. The get right team right now. The what? They're the get right galaxy. Okay, so it SKC SKC the get-right team right now

The what they're the get-right team if you want to get your season going right? I get right DC United you got to play SKC It's so difficult no because we have to Peter Vermeese godlike presence there he makes he's the GM He's the president is the is the president, he's the owner, he's the coach. Obviously, I'm exaggerating on the owner side and president, but he makes all the decisions. He's not going to get fired. He's not going to fire himself. When I see SKC, I'm very high on Jovalich. I've always been super high on Jovalich.

I think they made the right decision on moving on from Alan Pulido and bringing Joe village. But the roster construction, it's weird. I don't love Derek Tommy as a winger situation. I don't think they... I was expecting much more out of their midfield and we're talking about last year. I don't think they know now how to use Agada with Jovovich on the field, which I think it's starting to create an issue.

So yeah, I don't know. I mean, I don't have, I love to say about SKC. I just think it's just a weird roster and with players a little bit that are not playing in their best position, again, like Tommy, I wouldn't put Tommy on the wing. I think the midfield needs a guy like him, like they did in the past. I want to think that they're going to invest on another winger before the window closes or during the summer. Because Jovolych is a guy that needs service. Or maybe you can implement something with Agada playing underneath Jovolych. I don't know. I would say two, three because I expect a little bit more roster construction.

I think the hope would be Manu Garcia gives you some of that and Shiprov gives you some of that. He's good. And Manu Garcia looks good. Yeah. It's that and then it's also just the defensive spine is not any better. And so, Tamilia was not the reason why they shipped Tamilia. It's still sort of the same piece at center back. Zoran Basang being your defensive midfielder now as a converted left back Who just is not really a full-time, you know ball winner does not cover that much ground alongside a Radoja Who doesn't cover that much ground?

It's a lot of the issues you've had that are still there and if the attack was humming then it would Probably cover some of that and you're talking about a playoff team, right? Like you're talking about a 500 team, a team that can battle around between the not, you know, the 10 and the six spot. But so it's all the same defensive issues and the attack has not been improved. And as you said, Jovovich needs service.

Like Jovovich's best season, the reason he was good, so he was playing around what we now know as we get into the galaxy, two of the best attacking pieces in the league, arguably the most important attacking piece in the league. And then, yeah, and then Gabrielle Peck as well. And so his life was completely different there. And SKC, if they're gonna spend that money,

like you have to replicate some of that for him and they just haven't been able to do it. Let's finish on the LA galaxy. I will put SKC at a three. Well, maybe I'll put it at a four, even though I didn't have high expectations because it has not looked any better than what it could have been.

And that probably puts it there. And the LA Galaxy, this now goes to where you kind of expected from them. Three games into the season, they haven't gotten a win, including the loss to Aridiano, the second leg coming up and we'll talk CCC in just a moment. Where are you at on the Galaxy? Before answering that, let me ask you a quick question. Do you think there's a chance looking

at Galaxy right now that they miss the playoffs? I think there's a chance. My bet would be that they don't. That they do make the postseason this year. I agree. But I will say that there's a big chance that they are like a playing team. I would be shocked if they had a home game in the playoffs. Like this is a six seed or down. Yeah, I agree.

So, okay. Galaxy. I would obviously defending champs the expectations. So it should be a five. But I'm gonna be fair here. The injuries are just brutal. When you lost two of your three DPs, Payne still has a month to come back.

He's been a huge miss. Three to four weeks. Ricky is not going to be back until late summer, maybe the end of August, September. Yeah. And after this type of injury, we guess he's going to come back and be similar to the Ricky that we saw last season, but you never know, right? Especially on the mental side, when you have that type of injury for players,

sometimes they don't like, maybe don't want to push too much at the beginning because they probably mentally are like scared of getting re-injured. But I'm sure that Ricky is going to come back. Well, but they brought this kid Sanabria from Uruguay. Now he's out for like a month with the clavicle fracture, right? Defensively, they've been very uneasy. I thought Yoshida was terrible against St. Louis. If it's not for Garces closing everything around him,

I think St. Louis scores five or six goals on that game. Now then you have the two players that need to step up, not step him up. Marco Royce was better against St. Louis, but before that, he was the worst on the field every time he stepped on it. I'm not saying that Marco Royce was going to be Ricky's replacement, but we're going from one side of the spectrum, which is being Ricky's replacement, to far, far away to be the worst on the field.

Like, at least give me something close to here, right? To the Ricky service that I need. Fagundes hasn't looked well playing on the wing. Peck, I don't know what's going on. I think he's feeling the pressure of being the man. He wants to take one on one. And you see that he mentally, he's like, okay, I got to step up. But I think he's pressuring too much.

The, the, the, the miss against St. Louis with the, with the goal, with the whole goal in front of him. It's crazy. I mean, we saw goals from Peck last year that were on tight spaces and he's a great finisher. And I don't understand what's happening. I think it's the pressure of, okay, nobody's stepping up. I got to do it myself. Right?

I would add into that. I think it's the pressure and also the moments where you see him come inside twice against St. Louis and curl that left footed shot. Last year, he's doing that three, four times a game because he's always one V one because you have to send the numbers to Pweeg and you are sorry Ricky and you have to send it to Payne still now pecs seem to numb to against him every time. Yeah. And I don't think he was the elite creator last year. He was the third creator or the second creator. And now he's being asked to do all these other things on top of just the mental side of things, which is

like, oh, by the way, like the whole team's on your shoulders. And I think you're seeing all of that sort of come together. And please, I beg people to go watch the replay of San Luis first goal. Watch Royce. Did you go bow and see it do you see a high oh yeah the set piece where he does not make an attempt he doesn't move yeah he's the one covering and there's what four rebounds and like and he doesn't move yeah it's like I mean if you're not gonna give an F my man what are we doing yeah because since since last year you see that Royce like shies away from the game too much. Sometimes like when you need for him to like take over because he has the talent to do it,

like he shies away. And yeah, it sucks that you're coming from, oh, I have pencil here. I have peg there. I have Ricky next to me. I have Jovo. I have peg there. I have Ricky next to me. I have jovelich up there. I have, so, no man, now you need to step up. And he's not doing it, not even close. He's been terrible.

Yeah, they're, so like Juan Garcia says, shout out to Juan, having an MVP performance today, was 2024 a fluke and 2023 is the real galaxy? And then says like, you can't really use the injuries as an excuse because you knew Ricky Pooj would be out. And I debated Tom on this show all off season of like, would you put him on the season end injury list?

I have said this many times, this galaxy conversation has to happen in a larger context of like, what they are trying to build long term and how this year fits in. I think there's a pretty good chance that Ricky Pooj with his mentality and what he wants. You put him on the season ending injury list. He's unmotivated and maybe he leaves and is like, this club's not committed to me. I'm not committed to this. So, and I agree with that. And then the roster building stuff I think is less, how do you win this year? And like, how do you keep this whole group together in a competitive way as long as you can and Doyle did his whole like they're playing goalkeepers for a certain reason so that they can

get sales if that's the case let's get all the kids on the field like let's do an NBA style tank here and then sell them all and like give them opportunity or know what you have from them and that might be what it ends up being for the Galaxy. They have Haradiano this week of course, then they play at Portland, they play at Minnesota, they host Orlando and then they go to RSL or excuse me, then they host RSL to close out the month. I think there's a pretty good chance that they still get the result against Haradiano and move on which will be positive in one way but make it harder in MLS because they're already thin trying to compete across. And of course the gam numbers coming out that they have no ability to really add

to this team and to improve it at all. So where are you on your scale? What's your number for this team? I mean, it depends on the expectations, right? It's the Galaxies,'s defending champion. So it should be a five. But again, another one. It's not an excuse. Like on MLS, you're so it's such a complicated issue to navigate when you have the salary cap when two of your three DPs are injured when you have probably the second best player in the league behind Messi with Ricky Puch missing six six months seven months of the whole season and the team depends so much of him, right? That I mean it it sounds like an excuse

and I know there's a lot of people that enjoy watching when the galaxy and They hate watch right now because now with galaxy. It's it's hate watch If you're not a fan of the galaxy you're watching to see how bad it keeps getting. So I will say a three or a four, because again, Pain City is coming back in three weeks, in a month. That's going to help a lot. I mean, they have the kids and they have the academy like they did against against St. Louis. Nice pieces.

Yeah, we saw Harvard-Miller. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they have the pieces. I mean, Yamane also got hurt. Like, I mean, we're talking, I mean, it's not just like, oh yeah, your DPs are injured. It sucks. No, like, I mean, like the midfielder that you brought to replace Marquis Delgado now

is injured for a month. Your right back is injured. Your center back is playing terrible. And I don't know, man. I'm going to say 3.5. OK, I'll say a 4. I think it would be a 5. But again, expectations I didn't have super high. And that's where I'll land on in terms of where I think they stand right now.

Let's do CCC real quick. I think the Galaxy playing Eridiano on Wednesday night. That one's at 1030 at home. That's going to be a fun one to watch. I do think the Galaxy have a shot in that one. Inter Miami will go to Cavalier on Thursday. We talked about Inter Miami earlier in the show. They will go down to Kingston and we'll be back on Thursday as well. Before that one, the other match on Wednesday is Vancouver at Monterey and the news came out.

I saw it on Blue Sky from Hard Journalist who says Ryan Gould will be unavailable for a few weeks after suffering a left knee capsule sprain in the first half on Saturday. That was the big dark moment in the 2-0 win for them as they are one of the two perfect teams in MLS. Jaden Nelson went out injured in the first 10 minutes against Monterey in the first leg and then Sam Atakube after scoring a goal what two weeks ago or a week ago he went off injured. So it's a Vancouver team that is already fairly thin. Sorensen it seems like from his starting lineup against Monterey in leg one, the focus is MLS. I have no idea what we're going to see in leg two.

I do not know what like a JC Nagando, editor Ocampo, Tate Johnson squad can look like in Monterey. I liked what I saw in leg one, but I'm a little worried. I think it's an impossible task. Okay. Thank you for putting words through it. Without Nelson, without Gold now, going to Monterrey. Monterrey is flying right now in Ligue 1X. And they have the roster that they have.

It's a little bit... I mean, Monterrey is not as high as Toluca or Mexico City, but you feel a little bit, a little bit. I mean, Monterrey is not as high as Toluca or Mexico City, but you feel a little bit, a little bit like it's uncomfortable to play. It's an intimidating stadium. I think it's one of the best stadiums in the best in the game, and one of the best in the whole continent. And we're talking Monterrey, dude, like, and I think you nailed it. What we saw on the first leg, leaving Brian White, Cuba's on the bench, it said like, okay, we're here. We're going to try and do something. They got the result, but MLS, and especially the way they started on MLS, it needs to be the focus.

So no shame going to Monterrey. Maybe there's a miracle, but I think it's an impossible task. So I think at the end it will work better if it happens what I think is going to happen, that they're going to go out and then all the focus is on MLS and they could keep the momentum going. So if that one's impossible, so that's our Wednesday and Thursday slate, then we've got Seattle at Cruz Azul to start things off tonight at 830. We've got Cincinnati.

So that game's at 0-0. That leg ties at 0-0 right now. We've got Cincinnati at Tigres at 1-1. And then Columbus are hosting LAFC down 3-0. Away goals are still the decider in, I'm just calling it CCL. We're going back to it. So for anyone trying to figure it out, you don't have to go Google it yourself. Conca Champions. That's how you say it. So for anyone trying to figure it out, you don't have to go Google it yourself Conca champions

Champions campione is campione de campione of conca calf Do you have any hope for a Seattle or a Cincinnati? I love Seattle Seattle is gonna is gonna go by their way goal I think it's big and we and we saw on Saturday against LAFC like they're all in on Right on to rotate the, Conca Champions. They rotated heavy. I think they have the pieces. They were so much better than Cruz Azul at home, so much better.

That game should have ended at least 1-0 in favor of Seattle. But now not receiving goal against Cruz Azul. They were with America, like the best league MX team, at least locally for the last year or six months. But Cruze Azul now, they lost and sell me their coach. So they're like, they still have a formidable team and they're still like up there on the League MX, but they're not like the team that they were. Is Chente coaching this team?

No, no. Vicente Sanchez. Yeah, that's what I said. Vicente Sanchez. Oh, Chente? Yeah. Me and Chente go back way. So we're on a nickname basis. I don't know him as Chente. I'm sorry. Yeah, yeah, sorry. Vicente Sanchez. Yeah. He's Vicente Sanchez. Yeah. I mean, it's still Cruz Azul. No, 100%. In Mexico City, in 7,000 feet elevation, it's hard, but I think Seattle has the depth, the quality to at least score one or two times. And I'm betting on a tie on goals there and Seattle moving on.

Congrats to Kalani Kosarienze. He had the, of course, the opening goal for Seattle this weekend and then signed his permanent first team deal for the rest of the year coming out of the Tacoma Defiance. Georgie Mnungu had the assist, Paul Rothrock had the second goal. So the Tacoma Defiance pipeline has been strong. It leads to Seattle's depth. It allows them to go out and spend MLS bucks like the Paul Ariolas and the Hazers Ferreres because they have this core that they don't have to spend

tan money on fullbacks and backups and wingers and centerbacks and all that all that other stuff Smetra confirmed jeremiah oshan put this out that Pedro de la Vega did not travel to Mexico And what he's hearing is that he's they expect him to miss quote a few weeks So he could potentially return in time for a cc a conca cap. Sorry a conca champions Quarterfinal, but either way he won't be available for this game as well. I like Seattle. Like you said, I'm excited for this one.

I think it's going to be one of those classic ties where we look back after the end and say they should have scored at home. Like you cannot leave too much work to do in Mexico. And that's what it feels like it's going to be what we're going to come away with this for Seattle and you know what with Club World Cup and like their ability to I think contend for a supporter shield maybe it won't be the worst thing on the flip side they could contend for this like they're good enough to win this thing and to be the only one to do it and then do it twice and they've done it pretty special as well

and they did it yeah they've done it they want. They know what it's like to go to Mexico and get a result. So I mean, it's not the same players. There's no ideas. There's no alo data right now, but it's Metzer and it's a really deep and good team. So I think they could do it. All right. The other one is Cincinnati going to Tigris. This is going to be so much fun to watch. And it's going to be a great one as well. And we'll be back on Thursday to break it all down for you as I have to go and run out of here. Did not think we would go this long, Michele.

I talked too long, man. Sorry. No, not at all. It was a lot of fun. So thank you to everyone out there for watching. Thank you to all of you live in the chat. Thank you. Number one to you, Michele.

I always love doing this and I know I'll have you back on very, very soon. And we'll talk to all of you live in the chat. Thank you number one to you, Michele I always love doing this and I know I'll have you back on very very soon And we'll talk to all of you again very very soon