SoccerWise - Weekend Recap Edition: Shockers In NWSL & MLS

Episode Date: November 11, 2024

David is speechless at the start trying to intake what a weekend it was of soccer. But it is a podcast and he perseveres to recap all the action. NWSL had a first half brace, a game go to extra time, and a 99' min winner for Gotham. Then he delves into the wild close of the MLS Cup Playoffs first round from shootout drama to Atlanta's historic upset over Miami.Soccerwise Live 2pm ET Every Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday on Youtube/Twitch/Twitter

Wow. Just wow. Welcome everybody to SoccerWise, the weekend recap show. I, of course, am David Goss. I'm going to run you through everything that happened. And I think the question you start with is last weekend recap show. Did I lie or was I wrong when I said it was the best weekend of soccer in North America, taking away the finals and national team stuff we saw in the summer? I thought last week was the peak. But this week, eight knockout matches, two PK shootouts, one of which came about because of a 99th minute PK in the run of play. The other one went nine rounds, had five straight saves, two dramatic saves to push it past the original five

shots. One extra time game with an 88th minute equalizer for the home side. A 102nd minute winner as well. And inarguably the greatest upset in MLS history after we debated it last week with the Red Bulls. Atlanta United make history across MLS and NWSL. It was a weekend we will remember for a very long time. We are headed to the NWSL semifinals with chalk. The top four seeds are all in. On the flip side in Major League Soccer, we don't even know where the chalk is sold anymore. As the top three teams in the Eastern Conference all fall in this opening round of the MLS playoffs.

Headlined, of course, by that Atlanta United win. I'm going to run you through all of it here. Reminder, of course, we'll have your coverage all week of both these leagues, national team as well, on the men's side. So I'll be back with Jordan Angeli to get you ready for these NWSL playoff games. Reminder, if you listened to last week's show,

we were very right. We said there was a clear gap in the league last week's show, we were very right. We said there was a clear gap in the league and that is what we saw play out. Tom Bogert is traveling early on this week. So he'll be back on Thursday to help react to everything. He's still breaking news. So of course, subscribe to our Patreon. That is how you get the access to his feed via our Discord,

as well as a place to chat and hang out and talk about all the games and all the teams and everything else you're seeing going on. And he will be back then. I'm going to have some special guests to help me do some coverage of MLS in the U.S. men's national team. As we go along, we've got some interviews lined up for this week and the next few weeks going forward. It is going to be a really, really fun time. And I am so excited. Let's start with NWSL, of course, as we said, chalk all the way through in this opening round. Last week's show, myself and Jordan said, we wouldn't be shocked if any team won this weekend except Chicago.

And boy, were we right the goal differential in this match was equal to the goal differential across the other three playoff matches this weekend Orlando getting it started on Friday night in style three goals in the first half they were up 4-0 in the 56th minute on Marta's penalty kick. And watch out NWSL because Barbara Banda is back. Only two goals since the international break for the Olympics. First half brace could have had three, maybe four goals with the way that half played out, with the way she played. And for Chicago, their shape was just way too stretched. They did not use possession well enough to be high up the field,

and yet there was a huge gap for Orlando's midfielders to play through balls into Banda and let her get out and run, and that is a recipe for disaster against this Orlando team. Most of the teams we saw late on in the year that were able to start to get results against Orlando and admittedly Orlando was rotating their team after they won the shield even with the undefeated streak on the line all of those teams sat deeper to take away Banda's ability to kill you over the top and kill you with her speed in the open field and force them to play in tighter areas and smaller smaller distances.

Chicago was incapable of that. Orlando took advantage. Orlando was cruising in this one. They got the goals early, which I think gives you that little bit of calm and confidence in a new moment for most of these players. Haven't really played in knockout competitions at a deep level. Didn't go deep in the Summer Cup series. Don't play in CONCACAF competition right now. So this is this first real knockout opportunity for a lot of these players on this Orlando team.

They handled it very well. They set themselves up really well going forward now, and they're able to get the victory. And as I said, if you've got Banda playing the way she is, Marta, another really strong game here. A little bit of injury concern with Summer Yates coming out in the first half. So something to monitor here going into the next round of the postseason. But it was the perfect start for this Orlando squad in their attempt to try and do the double.

Saturday then, to follow that up, we had what felt like it was going to be the closest match of this first half or of this first round. You could argue it was, but all these three games ended up being really, really tight. But what a sea change of style and ability for this Kansas City team. Reminder, CPKC Stadium, the first purpose-built women's soccer-specific stadium in the world, opened in March. The first three games at that stadium, Kansas City won. But they won those games 5-4, 4-2, and 5-2. And now they step into the first ever playoff game at that stadium and they locked down a 1-0 win against the best possession team in the league in North Carolina to move on to the semifinals. It has been a progression over the course of this

year. It has been partially because of the changes in personnel, bringing in an Alana Cook, the emergence of Claire Hutton, bringing in, of course, Schultz in goal to add to what was already becoming a strong back line. It is partially a change in style, playing a little bit less open, which has reduced some of the chances they create, but has also reduced the chances that they give up. And it also has just been more time under Vlatko for him to work with this team and work with this group. Temwa Shawinga, we were worried about the injury a little bit sitting out the final game of the regular season. She is more than fine to go in this one. She gets the goal, a chance she creates herself, gets out into the break, a really good save

on her first opportunity. All of a sudden, you get a shot off the post. You get a second deflected shot and Shawinga able to put away that opportunity to put her team up. But just brutal for Murphy toa into space that were the big difference makers. Otherwise, North Carolina controlled large segments of the game, but they could not create through central midfield. So everything had to go wide for crosses, and Kansas City was able to handle most of them very confidently. A very odd moment late in this game in which Schultz makes a poor save on an initial header at her, knocks it down, goes down to the ground, puts her hand on the ball, and at that point, Matsukubo plays it in. And it looks like an equalizer for North Carolina.

It's called off because of possession from Schultz. I think it was Lori Lindsey, good friend of the show on the call, who felt that that wasn't a fair call, that the ball was still in live play. And I can understand that point of view. Schultz knocks it down, goes down to ground and puts her hand over the ball, which when the ball stops moving like that, that is considered possession, even though it's not in two hands or against the body. The ball is kind of still moving in this play. It is not as if she has had her hand over the ball for 10 seconds and the game has stopped. She is looking to control that ball and it looks like it should have been a goal. It not called North Carolina struggling to get some big chances otherwise Caroline just not herself this season unfortunate to see even though she was able to go

from the start I thought Gomez was really really dangerous throughout this game tried to create chances all across the field gave them a little bit a little bit of a change look of not just being super solidified in your positioning, but a brutal end to the season for Ashley Sanchez, who I said was my midfielder of the year, taken off with 25 minutes left to play in a must-win game in which her team is struggling to get a goal and create chances. That is your leading goal scorer from the year. And so a really tough finish, but huge performance from this Kansas city team. Michelle Cooper looked good.

Once again, Dubinia got the start once again at that center forward position. Then we saw Michelle Prince, Prince come on to help fill that in. Once again, a strong performance in central midfield from this team, a lot to like about this Kansas City team. They now will travel to Orlando next Sunday, I believe, to face off in the semifinals with a chance to come back home to be in a quote-unquote neutral site final at CPK Stadium.

A huge opportunity for this team. Sunday, we had the double double header and it continued the surge of attendance Kansas City sold out Washington 19,000 fans sold out at Audi Field the spirit able to ride that crowd but it was not straightforward I had this pegged as my upset game of the weekend, and it was almost the case. Bay FC took the lead 1-0 in the 82nd minute. Oshuala eventually getting the goal off a pullback, a deflection as well. And then I think you could argue the moment of the season. I think you could maybe argue one of the great moments in NWSL history. Tara McCown steps forward from her center back position, rips a shot in the 88th minute to equalize at home and get her team into extra time.

In extra time, it ends up being an own goal for Didasco. That is the winner for this Washington team. And the Washington Spirit hang on to win 2-1 at home. Post-game, McCown gave an interview with ESPN in which she got very emotional and said that Friday night she had missed her sister's wedding because of the schedule of the game and didn't want it to be for nothing. She steps up. She gets the goal. If you don't know her story, she wears number nine as a center back because she's a converted center forward. This is her second year now playing as a center back. And in a team that has now three arguably elite center backs with Esme Morgan coming into the club, McKeown has never lost her spot.

There has been a battle at the other center back position between Boutel and Esme Morgan, but to show you how important McKeown has become, she has always been the starter alongside one of those two, which is incredible for a player converting from a new position at the pro ranks and shows a little bit of her striker ability in that goal as well. Funny comments postgame as well from Esme Morgan saying, I didn't run over to the team to celebrate with them because I started crying after she scored and I didn't want everyone to see me crying.

So it shows you how much it means to this Washington team. I was a little surprised by the postgame comments from Yonatan Geraldez, who said that they were taken aback by how deep and compact that Bay FC was. If you have been watching, and we've talked about it on this show, since Abby Dahlkemper has gotten to that team, the run that has fueled them into the postseason

has been that deep defensive block and trying to hit in transition through Oshuala, Hill, Kundanaji, and then we saw Penelope Hawking at her best in this game coming off the bench, her speed in transition. I can understand a little bit that I think if you're Washington, you are probably hoping that you could bait at least Kundanaji and Hill into some pressing moments a little bit higher up the field and start to play around those positions. But otherwise, there should never have been an expectation that this Bay team was going to extend their lines on the road. The Houston game was the outlier.

That's what we said coming out of the final week of the season. And that's what we saw once again here in this one. So Washington winning this game. Kou once again here in this one. So Washington winning this game. Kouassi suspended for this one. So she will be back for the next game for them, which will be a huge bonus in the attack. We saw Lacey Santos come off the bench at halftime to add a little bit more into the attack for this team as well. Trini Rodman now fully healthy, which is huge for this group. They will now host Gotham FC in the final game because of Gotham's dramatic winner in this one. It looked like it was headed for extra time as well.

97th minute, Rose Lavelle, the former Seattle Reign player, is the one to put it away to take the 2-1 win for this Gotham team. First, before I get into this game, I want to say a quick happy birthday to Hayden, who I met in New Orleans this weekend, who was there for her birthday and is a huge Portland Thorns fan. Didn't know the result when we met each other. I was very quiet and made sure not to say anything. I hope, Hayden, now that you have learned it, you do not hate me or are mad at me. I'm sorry for the loss, but once again, happy birthday to you. So this game, it played out similar to what I'd say I expected, which was Gotham are suffocating defensively. They do not give you easy chances. They do not give you lazy moments where they are stretched.

And Portland struggled to create one of the lowest XGs in the round of any of the teams in this round of the playoffs. And then Gotham, though, struggling to create as well. There is so much danger to the individuals, though, that at some point Gotham is going to break through. Came first on a set piece, Tiana Davidson in the 67th minute. And I love this set piece. If you go watch it, what you have is you have Portland set up in their zonal marking.

So you've got five defenders across the top of the box. And what Gotham does is instead of what we often see which is players going and standing in offside positions to try and pull players out of the zone or crossing every single Gotham player stepped up in front of the the defender in the zone in front of the one that they were standing in it gave a slight scream it also threw off every single defender. And you see half of Portland's defensive line decide to step with the player that moved out of their zone and half decide to stay. And so you get disorganized. And even with all of that, they were still right on top of Davidson and it had to be a good finish from Davidson, but she's the only one on the far post. All the attention is going

towards the near post. It throws the thorns off. It bounces for Davidson. Gorgeous finish. And of course, Davidson coming back from her injury, a massive part of this team being able to be back in the lineup at that center back position. It was one we debated a lot in the last show of who would play there because you really wanted Jess Carter on the right wing so she could match up with Smith. But with Davidson out, Carter maybe was going to be your top option at the other center play there because you really wanted Jess Carter on the right wing so she could match up with Smith.

But with Davidson out, Carter maybe was going to be your top option at the other center back position alongside Sonnet. And then Portland fought, and credit to them. They fought through. They tried to create chances. Christine Sinclair, we saw come off for the final time in her career. You could see, I think, the emotion in her face, kind of knowing that it was that. And I'm not saying this in a way in which Sinclair didn't think they were going to come back, but it looked different the way she looked around the crowd as she came off in the 65th minute in this one than what we saw in Portland last week when she knew she was going to have another game. And of course, the celebration and the interaction and Klingenberg being the one to come on. And you saw the hugs from her teammates as she came on from Moultrie and Turner.

Different than I think what you're normally giving a player as you sub on for them. And it was a good sub from Rob Gale. It slid Sophia Smith into the center forward position. It gave them more mobility to threaten into the channels. And once you had that from Smith, it started to pull some other pieces around because you could play into Smith suck in the center of the fullbacks a little bit more and create a little bit more space uh gorgeous header from Ryland Turner on the goal to finish it off and equalize it in the 76th minute and you're thinking okay now we are headed to extra time and Rose Lavelle

gets the goal set up by Delaney Sheehan, who came off the bench. You saw the depth of quality for this Gotham team. Jenna Neiswanger, an Olympic medalist now, came off the bench for this team. Bruninha, a Brazilian international, came off the bench for this team. Sheehan, who got the assist as well, came off the bench for this team. It is depth different than most teams in this league and that is even

without a crystal done available to this group right now and for rose lavelle you saw her have a few chances in this game on pullbacks you know ball gets to the end line pulled back across the ground and every time lavelle was too far off the near post to be dangerous, whether she then chose to take a touch and create more or shoot. On the goal that Sheehan sets up, you see Rose Lavelle make an initial run, realize she sucked in too deep, backtracks to get further away so she can make a second run, and on that second run, she's now central to the goal, and that gives her the opportunity to score. It is one of the things that Rose Lavelle is elite at is being goal dangerous coming from a deep midfield position and it's why with some of her teams you don't need true elite center forward finishing because

Rose Lavelle can be a leading goal scorer for this team when you need to she got the goal here a huge moment for this Gotham team and it sets sets up an incredible set of semifinals. The top four teams, everything to play for. I was fascinated to see American Soccer Analysis. They ran the odds, and they have right now the Washington Spirit as the highest odds to make it to the final. So the feeling there is that they have the biggest advantage being at home and against Gotham, where the Pride have a slightly less percentage. So right now it's Spirit 56%, Pride 53%, Current 47% going to Orlando, and Gotham 44%. The Current still have the highest percentage to win the championship

because if they do win, they are then going home, which will be a higher advantage than anyone else can get going and playing at CPKC Stadium in that one. Again, I'm not going to lie. I'm surprised by this for many reasons. One being, I still think the floor on this Gotham team is so high. You saw it in this game. There wasn't really moments where they were ever going to lose. Now think about these other three games we saw. Orlando, dominant. Chicago, as we said, there was a gap between Chicago, Bay, Portland, and North Carolina. Chicago were the easiest opponent in the first round. So give that to Orlando, and Orlando's a home team, and I think Orlando should be favorites over the course of that but Washington trailed against Bay Casey not able to get that final breakthrough maybe a little fortunate to not be 1-1 in that game and even though Gotham gave up the goal I think you saw why this team

is so strong and so dangerous going forward on Carlos Almaraz after the game you could see his energy bringing the team in. He used the flexibility, played Mandy Freeman at left back and right back. He moved Jasmine Ryan around, Ella Stevens as well, showed her flexibility to play out on the wings in this game and once again perform at a really, really high level as Gotham tries to become back-to-back champions this season. Let's move over to the MLS side of things. Friday night got started as well in Major League Soccer in this playoff round with LAFC against Vancouver. Vancouver, I thought, very impressive for large segments of the first half. They really were able to move the ball through central midfield. They had the numbers advantage for

large segments of time in that midfield with Gall dropping in to play alongside Kouas and alongside Armstrong in this match in that area even with LAFC having Bogus as the center forward who could also drop in and play as that third center mid but it was never final third dangerous. All of it was defensive third into middle third. It was that final third that they were not able to create big opportunities throughout large stretches of that first half. Then LAFC, of course, you're not going to shut them out on the road. They're dangerous in transition. They are lethal.

Boguch got the goal in the 62nd minute. And I saw Vanni Sartini's comments post game where you know he talked about the wins they got how proud he was and what they did and I think you saw the evolution and me and Tom will debate it I think on this show because Tom I think was a little bit less in the camp of that they could show evolution with losing although he was texting about Stuart Armstrong and how well he played and that big signing for this team. I thought you saw that. And what I thought was odd was I thought there was a lack of urgency from Vancouver over the last like 10, 15 minutes.

And I say that in a way as someone who doesn't believe kitchen sink, throw everything, lose your play style is always the answer. But the game ended in a way in which it felt like Vancouver wasn't trying to avoid their season ending. And I think even if it's just the last two, three minutes outside of Ryan Galt, who is always throwing his body around and covering ground and doing everything. It just felt like Vancouver sort of allowed this to go. One of the big things I'd love to see Vancouver upgrade in this offseason is their ability on the wings. Because what you saw was LAFC matched and mirrored them in their five in the back.

And they were able to push Polencia and Hollings head out wide to match up 1v1 with Burr Halter and Fafa Pico. And there were large moments, especially in the first half, where those players had to defend in huge chunks of isolation and Pico and Burrhalter could never beat them 1v1. They didn't really try. And I think that's a missing element in this style for Vancouver, which is you've got those runners centrally who pull players around and cause chaos. But every once in a while, you need to have pieces out on the wing who can win their individual battle in a moment of brilliance, open the game

up for you and give you a numbers advantage and attack and things like that. Ali Ahmed gives you some of that. Sometimes it's not his natural game we saw Casado come on I think the hope is Eddie Ocampo can be one of those players but it is one of the pieces they have struggled picking up over the course of time LAFC once again not super impressive in this series but they won two out of three they've been able to get over the line I think you got to give the tip of your cap to Trundle in this one to have sort of the belief to sit Olivier Giroud out the gate, even though he did come on early in that second half. You could see the idea of having a mobile front three,

especially a front three that was able to switch positions a ton because it allowed Buonga, I think, to get openings in which he was able to float inside and pick up the ball ball and then Bogus could fill his spot and Olivero could come across the field but it didn't work out for them and they eventually went to the shift as well. Jesus Murillo able to get on the field I think that's a big one for LAFC because now they've got two weeks off they know that they are going to host throughout the rest of the Western Conference they also now know that if they went out, they will host MLS Cup, which is a huge lift for this team and has to be something that they're focused on and talking about. The other three games in Major League Soccer all happened on Saturday, and what a Saturday it was.

FC Cincinnati against NYCFC. FC Cincinnati not able to find the breakthrough through the run of play dominant though, throughout that segment of time dominant in that they didn't concede chances to NYC FC. I thought throughout 55, 60 minutes, FC Cincinnati was really good in possession to be able to force NYC FC to overplay and overcommit. A lot of it was because of Cincinnati's ability to play quickly, one twos, and then force defenders to come out and leave their areas. But Cincinnati not able to take advantage of that. And I think I texted someone at halftime and said, this feels

like one of those games where Cincinnati is going to regret not being up one zero in that first half. I thought there was enough openings in the attacking third with a little bit more common patience to either locate a player next to you who's in a better position or decide that you do have a shooting opportunity rather than passing it up and trying to move it on to the next player.

You saw the talent from Orojano again. You saw the ideas with Kubo being able to drop in and that pushing Lucho a little higher and Assad coming in off that left wing back position. But I'm going to say what everyone else is saying and we're going to talk about again in a moment. The lack of a true dangerous center forward really coming back to bite this Cincinnati team.

So NYCFC able to get themselves to the penalty kick shootout. And that's where the drama began with this one and where the drama continued. It was Tiago Martins stepping up for the fifth shot as the second shooter of that round with an opportunity to seal the game. Celentano makes the save. You also saw later on another NYCFC shooter

step up with an opportunity to seal the deal. I believe it was Andres Pereira he blasted his over the crossbar and you had five straight misses between the two teams going all the way into the final round in which Ilinic was able to put it away just 19 years old scoring it and you saw just the pure confidence for the slovenian he was he had roman salentano come off his line and start talking to him and and trying to get in his head and he was just smiling and nodding didn't care at all laced it into the corner and pushed his team on to the next round so nick cushion gets his first playoff appearance this year now he gets his first playoff appearance this year. Now he gets his first playoff series victory.

And now his team will host the New York Red Bulls in the first ever MLS playoff Hudson River Derby. We officially got word that it will be at Citi Field. I think there's a circus going on, which was why there was a question mark about where it would be played. NYCFC announcing, though, that it will limit capacity. So the capacity for this one will be maxed at 22,500 it will be interesting to see how much of that is blue and how much of that is red how much can NYCFC like limit the ticket sale on the other side but no one game knockout between these two teams all bets are off anything can happen I think the only thing I feel pretty confident about is that John Tolkien's going to bait

someone into a card, whether it's a yellow or red, at some point in this game. The other news for Cincinnati, besides another disappointing playoff loss, remember last year, up 2-0 against Columbus in the conference finals, ended up losing that game at home. Now they lose to NYCFC in a year in which they would have hosted all the way through to MLS Cup and potentially even MLS Cup if they had been able to get the win after falling to third place. And knowing that, at a minimum, they were going to host in the next round with Columbus having lost last week. Cincinnati falls. Lucho Acosta, some interesting comments post-game about whether or not this would be his last game for this Cincinnati team. He is under contract with this squad and so there's no immediacy for

FC Cincinnati, but it was very interesting to see it even be a question mark with the former MLS MVP. And I think there are many people who voted for him once again this year. The quote from Lucho Acosta, today I played for the fans to remember as my last at the club. I want them to remember me like this. I gave my life for this club. I gave everything. They were amazing years. I'm not saying I'm leaving, but today I'm taking a little break and think well about what's going to happen. A lot of things the club did hurt me. They hurt a lot. To go from having a credible year, winning the Sporting Shield, and then leave a lot of players aside. I've been thinking about this for a while, speaking with people close to me, with my family, And yes, it's something I feel today after losing, but I've been thinking about it a lot. It is like worst case scenario for FC Cincinnati to hear that. And it will be very interesting to see what happens going forward? This was not something that was on my radar. They had already agreed to a new contract with Lucho Acosta, and it felt like that was one that made him whole and made him happy to be there.

He is not the only player on this team that can be a DP in this style. But when you look at how much some of the high-pressingold international center forward Kevin Denke, who was the Golden Boot winner in Belgium last year with 27 goals. Reminder, the Golden Boot winner the year before was Hugo Kuipers, who was signed for roughly $12 million by the Chicago Fire, came in. He scored goals this year on a bad team. This would be a huge signing. This would be the replacement for Brenner. That never worked out,

of course, with Bupenza, as well as trying to fill in some of the production that you lost from Brandon Vasquez. Would this be enough to play Kate Lucho? Is this the problems that he's talking about? He did talk about, you know, players being left aside or pushed aside that maybe they thought could have been difference makers or that he thought the team should have done more to keep. It is an ongoing situation. It's something we're going to continue to cover here at soccer wise going forward but it was not the end of the wild and wackiness of our saturday orlando first charlotte a couple big calls from dean smith in this one drops leo labada along with carol swiderski with the return of pepiel goes on the road and takes a 1-0 lead

but not before there was a little bit of controversy so in the first half the greatest player in the history of the game Patrick Oshimon played through takes a gorgeous touch with his back heel to put it out in front of him and then chips the keeper from outside the 18 on the run. Arguably the best finish of the postseason and then sees the offside flag go up in his face. Called off on a play that you cannot see conclusive evidence that he is offside. The camera angles we have are not very good on this play. If you go and watch it, it's Dagger Dan Thorson, the right back who looks to be holding Ashamang on. The problem is the angle, the best angle that we have

gotten of this play besides the live play. The live play is from the center field midfield line. So that is behind the play in one direction. The other real angle that we've been getting on the replay was from the 18 yard box, which is so far away and from such an awkward angle that you can't really see the depth between Dagger Dan and Ajamang. So that one called off. It remains 0-0 going into halftime. I've gotten a bunch of questions. Why is this one? Why are there not better angles? It's just a money thing. You can add as many cameras as you want to most stadiums. Obviously, older stadiums, they have infrastructure issues that you have to operate around. And obviously, Major League Soccer plays in some multi-use stadiums. And so maybe not set up perfectly. You'd think very specifically about the baseball stadiums being Yankee Stadium and Citi Field, where it might be a little bit more of a struggle. But all of that's a money game. You can build whatever you want. You can install whatever you want. You can pay as much money as you want to bring something in temporarily and take something out. That's the reason why for all the people that are asking that question. And if it's something that interests you, we can dig into that more over the course of the next

few weeks at SoccerWise. We're also starting to work on our offseason ideas. So if that's something that you want to talk about, broadcast positioning, all that type of stuff, happy to dig into that for you. It did, though, put Charlotte obviously in a tough spot. You're on the road. You were never going to dominate the ball. Orlando was always going to control large segments of this game. And that was the case.

And that's how we saw this one play out. But Carol Swiderski comes off the bench with leo labata and they are able to link up for the go-ahead goal late in this second half for this charlotte team the ending the finish eventually deflected off i believe of robin johnson for this charlotte team to take the 1-0 lead and now you're up against it and you just have to hold on and we have seen this Orlando team over the last two months they often will bring on Luis Muriel and Duncan McGuire it gives them the ability to pump the ball into the two center forwards and make life hard in the box

they also have been very dangerous in helping create chances Muriel especially dropping deep and helping create a little bit he has been a bit of a bust year one here, but he scores on his penalty kicks. He scores in shootouts and he has, as I said, created some chances for them late on in games. Orlando, Huff, they puff. They have some big chances in this one. And then you get a penalty kick call in the 99th minute it is heartbreaking for this

Charlotte team but definitely I think you can say an obvious penalty kick call in the end it is Jabril Diani the set the French central midfielder who just decides to hold Duncan Maguire's jersey while Maguire runs away from him towards the goal trying to get on the end of a cross that's very clearly going to land in Kalina's arms safely and not be a dangerous play it's just lazy from Deani and it ends up being the penalty kick the penalty kick then the V, after taking a lengthy amount of time, recommends a review. So the call on the field is penalty. Deani clearly pulling Duncan McGuire's jersey. McGuire then goes down.

He actually gets injured and has to go over and be looked at by the trainers for a very long time. And I have not seen anything about his injury. Obviously, these teams now are off for two weeks with internationals. It's something to monitor though, because he was in real discomfort, whether it was his elbow or his shoulder was unclear to me as they were working on him. Maybe not hurt because of the jersey pulling. It's the way he goes down, not saying it's a dirty play, but it's clearly a penalty. Then the ref, the VAR, after taking this lengthy pause's a dirty play, but it's clearly a penalty. Then the VAR, after taking this lengthy pause to check the play as all plays are checked, recommends for a review,

believing there was a clear and obvious error that a penalty has been called. The referee goes over, doesn't watch it for very long and maintains the play on the field. It was very poorly done over the course of this time. And it was a huge pressure on Facundo Torres, who's waiting to take this penalty. He steps up, it gets saved, and he's the one who's able to get to the rebound. Reminder, any shot that is saved by a goalkeeper, the shooter can put in. If it hits the post and doesn't hit another player, the shooter cannot touch it until another player does touch it so i thought poorly done by the referee i'm glad torres at least put in the um the rebound because i thought that was undue pressure and unnecessary time management and experience and all of that from the refereeing crew in what ended up being a season-saving moment for Orlando and a season-ending moment for Charlotte.

I don't have a clear idea on this. I just want to say, over the course of this series, you saw Biel's red card, which was just a mental error in the first game and completely unnecessary. You see Deani with the PK here. And then, on the shot, there is no one on the right side of the box that crashes for this Charlotte team. Every player on Charlotte's either on the left side of the box or doesn't really make an attempt to crash. It looked like Privet was the closest player who really just walks into the box on the save. Soderiski kind of in the area as well. I don't know that they would have gotten there to put pressure on Torres. I don't know if

they would have been able to beat Torres to the ball or if any sort of pressure around him causes him to miss an open goal, which seems unlikely, but it's just, you see a few mental mistakes here over the course of a series in which Charlotte only scored one goal. So they had to win every half inch. They had to win all of the mental battles, and they were not capable of doing this. You get the reverse of game two once you get to the shootout in this one, which is that Orlando comes out. They score four in a row. This Charlotte team misses their first two shots.

Pep Biel has his saved. Swiderski, a very poor take, has his saved. Westwood scores, and then Jafa Santos is able to finish his off and get the victory for his team. The final game of the weekend, the big upset, the biggest upset in MLS history, Atlanta for the second straight game, knocks off Miami, and we're not talking penalties here.

Atlanta, in regular time, in the run of play, they beat Miami for the second straight time, this time on the road at Chase Freedom Park or whatever it's called. And it is wild. It is absolutely wild that Atlanta was able to pull this off. Miami scores first and you're thinking,

okay, they're going to cruise. This is an Atlanta team that has confidence, but they can't play from behind against this Miami team. They're going to have to open up. That's it. Boom. Two minutes later, Jamal Thier, he gets a goal. Now it's 1-1.

Boom. Two minutes later, Atlanta scores once again. Jamal Thier. And now you are talking about something absolutely ridiculous in this Atlanta team being able to play from a lead, being able to play on the road the way they want to against Miami, and they did the job. I talked about this coming into this series, that Dax McCarty had started all the games against Miami because they flood central midfield and they force Miami to play wide. It is, of course, what everyone tries to do against Miami, but it worked. Once again, very little

of the play for this Miami team came through central midfield. Most of it came from the wings. Messi himself had a few chances on headers in the first half and early in the second half, and eventually he does equalize from a header, but you will take Messi going up for headers over any of the other segment of play that he could create with the ball at his feet from a central position. I do have to say Diego Gomez scored two minutes after Thierry's second goal, which would have tied it at 2-2. And maybe if Miami gets that one, he is eventually called correctly offside. Maybe they're able to come back and win. But Atlanta, they did the job. They did what they had to.

Messi gets the header. Of course, everyone talking about then after that, he goes to grab the ball. Guzan tries to grab it from him. Campagna comes flying in and throws Guzan into the net. Suarez runs over, throws a finger in Guzan's face. But Brad Guzon had the last laugh. He was immense throughout this series. He was the man of the match on the first game. He was the man of the match, even with the mistake in the second game where he gave away the goal. And in this one as well, on the opening goal from Rojas, Guzon probably should have done better with the initial save. He parries the save in a way that allows a second opportunity. And yet he is still man of the match with how well he played over the course of this series, the big saves he made, all the opportunities that he was able to snuff out for this Miami team.

On the winning goal, there is a little bit of controversy. It wouldn't be clearly an MLS playoff game if there wasn't controversy. So this one, Atlanta counters. They had made a move. If you listen to our show last week, you listen to Luchi Gonzalez. He talked about putting Sabalob Sanitza up top to allow him to stretch the field, not make him defend as much. They did not start that way, but they moved to that change later as Ronald Hernandez got pushed to right wing back.

Saba got moved high up the field, and he breaks through. He's able to change the point of attack, pull some players up the field with him. Then as Atlanta is knocking the ball around, Tomas Aviles goes down the inner Miami center back in the box holding his, I think it's his hamstring, struggling. He had been struggling for a couple minutes with either fatigue or cramping or a pulled muscle, whatever it was. He goes down and all the Inter-Miami players start calling for the ball to be played out. The referee never indicates that the ball should be played out. The referee says play on. The team continues to play on. and all of the inter-Miami

players stop defending, and you get a Bartosz Sli's header off, of course, because who else in this game? Pedro Amador cross, another assist for him from Atlanta to go up three to two. Miami's players are livid. Tata Martino's livid. They cannot believe what happened and they cannot believe that Atlanta didn't put the ball out of play or wasn't forced to put the ball out of play or that the whistle wasn't blown to kill play. Aviles ends up getting subbed off in that moment afterwards for Busquets, who finally comes on. We had not seen him for now over a game and a half of play for this Miami team. And Atlanta goes up 3-2.

I have to go back, I think, and rewatch it and see if there's anything I'm missing. My inclination here is that Atlanta's fine. There's no contact. There's no dangerous moment or play that occurs with Aviles. He is struggling struggling he goes down it's on ref it's the referee's call to stop play and I think the referee does the right thing you

cannot stop play every time a player has a cramp that is why his coaches need to be monitoring him he needs to be communicating with his coaches if Aviles can't play then he needs to go off the field and they need to make a substitution if they have one available to them. That does not mean that Atlanta is supposed to stop playing because that's the moment that he has stopped. If there's a collision and it looks dangerous and someone looks like they're physically in trouble and could be in harm's way, yes, kill play and do the right thing. That's not what happens here. And Inter-Miami turns off mentally. Every single player in the defensive third at least stops playing, which is unacceptable from a group of

professional players, especially with the resumes you have here. Schliez continues to run. He makes the run from deep midfield, heads in the go-ahead goal, and that puts them ahead miami still had their chances afterwards i love how much these two teams hated each other by the end i mean you talk about the guzon play you talk about this play but it was constant every single thing was a battle and yelling between the two teams and it felt like a playoff game it felt exactly what you wanted um atlanta clears a ball off the line late on. That Miami almost scores. Messi has two free kicks from the top of the box.

He hits the wall on both of those. And it's good night to the greatest regular season team in MLS history. If you listen to this show already, you know there's been underlying numbers that say this is possible. We have said it week in and week out. How did Miami win this and not tie this? How did Miami tie this and not lose? They have given up chances over and over and over again that teams have not taken. And this Atlanta team was the one to do it. And I'm shocked by it. Coming into it again, it is the largest upset in MLS history. It's the largest points gap. The last record points set by New England

in 2021, they lost in their opening playoff round to an NYCFC team that was fifth in the standings or fourth in the standings. This Atlanta team was ninth in the standings. They went on the road to Montreal just to get into this round of the postseason. And they end up knocking this team off. Huge performances from Dax. Derek Williams was phenomenal throughout. Luis Abram refound his spot in the starting lineup because of Grigerson's injury in game one. He played as well as we've seen him play. Guzan, as I said, just absolutely immense throughout this round of

the playoffs. Muyumba, who had lost his starting spot, he reclaims it, gives them a decent shift. Amador is a gem of a find for this club as well. Just a ton of individual performances that you wouldn't have expected from this Atlanta team. That get them over the line here. And something really interesting is happening. Of course they are trying to make history and go on a run. A reminder Garth Lagerwey president of Atlanta United. So on top of both business and soccer decision making for this club. He is in my mind one of only two. Who has moved from the soccer side over an entire club.

Tim Bezbachenko, the other one. The two are probably considered the best executives in MLS history. Kevin Payne's in that conversation as well. Bruce Arena, for what he's done from the soccer side of things in that conversation as well. Garth Agarway has never hired a manager for an MLS team. He took over RSL when Jason Christ was already in position. He then took over the Seattle Sounders when Ziggy Schmidt was in position. He let Ziggy Schmidt go. An interim was elevated already on the staff in Brian Schmetzer. Brian Schmetzer won MLS Cup in his first year. Brian Schmetzer remained as the head

coach until now, where he just got his contract extension in Seattle. Garth Lagerwey left Seattle. He took over an Atlanta club with Gonzalo Pineda as the head coach. Gonzalo Pineda was relieved of his duties earlier this year. Rob Valentino was elevated to head coach. Rob Valentino has now upset the number one seed in the MLS playoffs. They are on to the next round. They will face off against another Southeast rival in Orlando. They cannot host another game because they are the lowest seed left. But if this team goes on a run, Rob Valentino wins an MLS Cup like Brian Spetzer did. He is probably the head coach of this team coming in next year. It is just an interesting story to follow.

It is one that I'm sure Garth would take, which is he'll take the MLS Cups over the situation of going out and picking the coach. But a big part of being a sports executive, we have said this over and over, people want to hire their people, whether it's because of soccer methodology or background or familiarity or personality type. And Rob Valentino, once again, has been a great soldier for this club. He has inspired them to a great moment

for this club in their history. It has been a long set of down years for this team. So this win over Miami, even with the great history that has occurred of this team, expecting to be the favorites and be the home team and be the hosts and be the Giants and the supporters, you know, winners and all of of that this goes down as one of the great wins in this club's history and we will see what the knock-on effect is going forward all right

gonna continue to cover all of this because as you can tell from how long this episode was there is a lot to talk about right now it's around soccer in North America. So thank you all for listening. If you haven't already, go like us wherever and leave us a review on whatever podcast platform you listen on. Go to YouTube, subscribe to us. You can watch our show live as well. Sometimes when we're on live, when it fits our schedule, we post videos there and across social as well. So thank you all for listening and we'll talk to you again very very soon