SoccerWise - Weekend Recap: MLS Kicks Off, SheBelieves Cup & Dual Nationals In CNL Squads

Episode Date: February 24, 2025

The weekend recap show is back! From 0-60 on soccer in North America Gass had to jump on the mic to give you all the highlights from weekend with huge matches. He runs through all the hits from every week 1 MLS match, and then breaks down Emma Hayes's big squad rotation for USWNT + Canada/US/Mexico are on the recruiting run right now. Soccerwise Live 2pm ET Every Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday on Youtube/Twitch/Twitter

Hey everybody, welcome back to Soccer Wise. David Goss with you here for your highlights from the weekend to get us started for the year. We finished the year last year doing these shows every single Monday. Just giving you a little bit of a taste of maybe if you missed anything big or what the conversation is coming out of the weekend before we get to our live shows for the week. Reminder, Tommy Scrooge will be back with me live on YouTube

as well as out as a podcast Tuesday afternoon. Then Jordan Angeley will be with me on Wednesday once again. We will break down the two, she believes cup matches that we have seen already as we get ready for the finale against Japan, which we now know will be a winner take all opportunity to win the 20, 25 she believes cup. And then Thursday, we've got a special show. We're going to have back heels own total soccer shows, own one of the legends,

Joe Larry to break down things from week one of MLS And dig into week two of Major League Soccer as we get ready for another big weekend of games We've got a ton to talk about over the course of this week We've got national team news on both the men's and women's side And of course all the MLS games. Some big signings now going on in NWSL as well for Canadian women's national team fans, San Diego fans, and of course everyone else in between. So let's dig into some of what we saw this weekend.

Let's start of course in Major League Soccer and let's start in San Diego. They are going to be the host on Wednesday night for the She Believes Cup final between the US and Japan. It will be one of two massive games this week. A San Diego FC coming off their first ever victory in their first ever match against the LA Galaxy will have their home opener coming up on a Saturday

at Snapdragon Stadium. It was an epic match to close the weekend with San Diego going to the galaxy where they got their rings. They put up their six star, everything else happening in the building and San Diego coming away with the two zero winners off the back of Andres Dreier,

the designated player getting two finishes for them. It was a compact, composed performance from the San Diego team in their first ever match. You could see the excitement for Mikey Various and his group after it was over. They were able to hold on to a late flurry from the LA Galaxy but they really were able to put the clamps on the LA Galaxy attack throughout the opening 75 minutes or so. So a really strong opening for this expansion team. We did our preview with the San Diego football group, two mics and a ball on our show

here last week. So you can go listen to that one and it really was a conversation of unknowns with this team. What they would look like, how it would all fit together. I don't know that we got all the answers in week one but it's a great starting point and when you go back and look at the best expansion teams so far in MLS, especially over the last seven to 10 years in this latest wave of MLS expansion, having these composed performances in week one and two, playing as a cohesive group,

that is the key starting point for these teams. You wanna see a Chucky Lozano break out and be a star, that can come, but to have the spine of this team be able to be so compact, to be able to keep the clamps on an LA Galaxy team and not wilt on the road, that is a key way to get started in your road into Major League Soccer. We had a bunch of first time players

score some big winners. Kevin Denke got the winner for FC Cincinnati in his home debut for Cincinnati in a one zero win over the New York Red Bulls. It was an even match. Back and forth, the Red Bulls had some solid looks, but overall you saw the magic of Evander in this game. Dropping shoulders, feints, clipped balls to the far post,

snuck passes around a fullback for a Yedlin running onto it. It is going to be a lot of fun to watch him settle into this team and start to stir the straw for their squad. And of course, Denke not the only debutante to have a big weekend. Emmanuel Latelot with a brace to help Atlanta United with a 3-2 victory over Montreal at home and Miguel Almiron's return to this Atlanta United squad. Montreal, I thought, played a strong game throughout.

They were able to hit immediately coming out of the halftime whistle to make it 1-1. They were able to pull it back to 2-2 as well later on and then eventually falling 3-2 Jonathan Sirouin and up and down performance in this one some unbelievable saves some moments he'd like back especially on that second goal for Laté Lathe but overall I think a performance you'd say is promising for this Montreal team. And when you talk about the mistakes, well, that was a theme across the league.

There is a list out there that Toodle Ramen posted on Blue Sky that Joe Larry was kind enough to cut into a set of clips in which it showed all of the mistakes out of the back for the number of Major League Soccer teams that made that mistake. That goes on top of what were a lot of red cards as well. Thomas Avilas and Kamal Miller, two of the worst early red cards, both for Inter Miami and the Portland Timbers for Miami. Avilas picks up the red card after scoring

in early on in that game in the third minute, I believe it was. So at a one-zero lead into Miami, went down a player, Maxi Morales sets up the goal off the ensuing free kick. Ingenious from Maxi Morales, why? Because he is a soccer god. Just throughout this game, you just see the moments of pure class.

We are talking about a 38-year-old number 10 who can still do it when he's on the field. The question is how much NYCFC can keep him on the field, but all of us should enjoy every moment of Maxime or Alice that we can still get. So that made it 1-1 for NYCFC. They ended up going up 2-1 off a mistaken back pass and turnover from Jordi Alba in the defense. It was the theme over the course of the weekend. Alonso Martinez opened the scoring for his account for the year and then a moment of magic from Messi late on to help set up the equalizer in stoppage time to make it 2-2.

So for Miami, I think drop points. Obviously, you have the concerns about Aviles and what he can do on that back line. We talked about it with Franco on this show. He has mistakes in him both in and out of possession. The red card then of course compounds things. It makes it worse for you in that game. Now he's suspending. Now you go into Champions League.

You're going to Houston on the weekend. How do you stretch this roster? Where are the holes? Those are the issues you come and find. But at the same time, this was a Miami team that looked as likely to score in that second half. Now, GameState is a part of that chasing the game, but it just shows how good they can be in possession,

how dangerous this attack is and why they are. One of the favorites for supporter shield once again. On the flip side for the Portland Timbers, that was not the case. Early red card for Kamal Miller. They weren't lucky enough to have the lead to play off of and the Vancouver Whitecaps own Providence Park right now. I believe

it's a combined 10 to 1 goal scored in the last two matches in Providence Park for Vancouver against the Timbers. Of course that playoff smoking to close out the 2024 season for the Timbers and then this goal here or sorry this game here to start the 2025 season. Perfect start in Major League Soccer play for the Caps. You saw Ryan Gould get a goal. You saw Brian White be a factor. Jada Nelson was phenomenal, filling in for what we think is the Stuart Armstrong role.

And it was a great start to his Vancouver career. And then you get Pedro Vite as well, who I think is one of the players that has to step up if Vancouver is gonna take the next step. And for the Portland Timbers there are massive question marks. We talked for long stretches in the preseason, especially in our preview with Jeremy of Cascade AFC about the need for them to take steps defensively to cover for Evander and the need not to replace Evander one man for one, but to get better as a team overall and that starts on the back line,

having your best defender pick up a red card early was not the way to get there. And the question marks about the organization of this team still exists. And then you have a crucial giveaway from Maxime Crapo in possession to get into the deficit after you've already gone down a player in this one. So overall, a brutal start to the year

for the Portland Timbers. Let's head down to Texas. We saw a derby win for FC Dallas at Houston. A fascinating match. Houston Dynamo are still going to be who they are. They are still going to be possession dominant. Jack McGlynn I am going to enjoy watching. Whether or not he's going down too softly on fouls or not he is still going to be fascinating to watch. He hit the post, he's serving balls from deep, he's progressing it into the final third, picking up the ball and trying to pick apart opponents as well. He is going to be the central force of this Houston Dynamo team, but he did go down a little soft on the second goal for FC Dallas.

Of course, Houston turned it over, a mistake that Petter Moussa put away for the opening goal. Amin Basse with the equalizer. And then, Jack McGlynn on the top of the attacking box in zone 14. He thought he got fouled by Moussa. He goes down, Moussa picks up the ball, hits a gorgeous ball over the top immediately for Anderson Julio, who touches it by Tarbell, who's coming out of goal and puts it in for the lead. The feeling was it would come back for a foul. It did not.

I think McGlynn got fouled. Moussa puts his hand on his shoulder and sort of pulls him down. But I do understand for a referee that McGlynn instinctively went down, assuming the foul would get called, doesn't play through, and then gets punished for it on the backside. So I could see it both ways and I could see it not

being a clear and obvious error and getting called back. Either way, I think both these teams are gonna be fun to watch. We didn't see a ton of Lujo at his best in this game, but you know it's there. It's great to get Musa scoring early. Anderson Julio as well. I thought Kumonga was good throughout this match.

So I think there's a lot to hope for, a lot to be excited about for this Dallas team. And for Houston, I think there is still reason to believe that this team can put up some strong performances this year. We'll learn a lot about them in week two against Miami. Keeping it in Texas, Austin got a 1-0 win at home over sporting Kansas City, a heavily rotated SKC team with them going into the Champions League

or excuse me, the CONCACAF Champions Cup second leg coming up this week in Miami. For Austin, Ouzman Bukhari gets the opening goal. He didn't see the full flow in the attack, but it was a good start for them in this error and at least you get a shutout for a group that has struggled defensively in their time in MLS. No defending really in the Columbus Chicago game and I will take it. I am normally the one who puts on the wrong game on the main TV with you know 360 and split screens going on on other screens. I said I want to see Greg Steen go out there for the first time. I want to see Jonathan Bomba. I want to see a Wilfred Nance team without Cucho Hernandez. So I put this on the big TV and you could not step

away. Five goals in the first half. Chicago took the lead twice. Columbus came back. Both those goals for Chicago from Brian Gutierrez, which I love to see. Jonathan Bomba was a menace down the left wing and Columbus yet still has pure belief in what they do and how they play. Their ability to overload all across the field. Numbers coming at you that you do not expect. Marrera going from center back, out wide right. Fci coming inside, Arvstein on the front line, Shambost stepping into the attack as well.

A ton of movement, a ton of danger, everyone getting on the goal scoring sheet for this Columbus group. It is exactly what you want to see in week one. Merry Christmas to all who celebrate. I'm excited to see it continue for Chicago. The hope was, the idea was, fix the defense first and then you hope the attack starts to spring to life.

It kind of went opposite. Week one, so it's something to monitor and something to watch with this group. A few mistakes playing out of the back for them as well. I think a lot of it was the level of focus and intentionality from the midfielders dropping back to pick up possession. The first mistake from Sergio Oregel is unacceptable.

It's lazy play, not understanding the intensity of what's going on in that moment and how safe you have to be in your own defensive box. And we saw from Zinkernagel as well. So for Chicago, they are going to need to take those steps but they also need to be a bit more cohesive and that's I think one of the stories of this weekend is all of these issues playing out of the back a lot of that came from lack of cohesion and understanding of your team and your group in these high leverage moments and

you see those mistakes worse in your defensive third than in the attacking third you saw it for Philadelphia as well Forcing Orlando into a couple mistakes getting all over the score sheet winning 4-2 in Orlando to open up the Bradley Carnell error One of our own Morgan Tenza on the ground raving about the Quinn Sullivan Performance that she was able to see. There is a good reason for Philadelphia to have a lot of belief this year. Tom yelled it at me in our previews. He said they're gonna go back to full commitment to pressing, playing direct,

and if they can up those numbers, they can get back into a playoff conversation. I had less belief in that. Tom looks right so far in week one. A few more results to go through. We're gonna go through pretty much every game here because it's week one and everyone's excited and we're gonna talk about a lot more Of this tomorrow Feel free if you are already a member of our patreon to jump into our discord and shoot anything into the mailbag

That you want us to make sure we hit coming out of week one If not, you can hit me on blue Sky. You can comment on any of our Instagrams. You can leave a review on any of your podcast platforms with questions or comments, or you can stick it on our YouTube page as well. And as I said, this show will go live on our YouTube page. So if you follow us there, you will see it. You can jump into the comment section.

You can super chat us to make sure that we see what you want us to talk about coming out of week one We go out West. I thought Seattle looked really strong in their game. Georgie Mnungu was awesome He looked like Paul Rothrock looked like for large parts of last year Rothrock in this team as well as Seattle has the depth to fully rotate in their attack So areola Ferreira and Dela Vega taken out of the attack and they took the lead against a Charlotte team that has a lot of promise this year. No Wilfred Zaha in week one because of the birth of his next child and so he

was back over in England and Seattle should have gotten three points out of this one but they left the door open and Charlotte gets a goal off a set piece in the first half with the game against them for Malonda and then they get an own goal, a fortunate one, late on in the first half with the game against them for Malonda. And then they get an own goal, a fortunate one, late on in the second half to steal the 2-2 result there to get a point to come back home. And I think frustrating for sure for this Seattle team, but for them, I think the focus right now

is on other competitions. And so they'll take the point, they'll take the two goals for Jordan Morris, two center striker goals, both the touch off the first cross from Mnungu and then the run out of the middle for the through ball and the finish one-on-one against the goalkeeper. And they'll take that and they'll move on.

One thing to note, I thought in the first half, Eric Williamson looked very good. He looked healthy. If he is fully fit, Eric Williamson for $100,000 in allocation money is going to be the trade of the year, but you got to see more from him. Hopefully he's able to stay on the field going forward. The whole weekend started with an LAFC 1-0 win over Minnesota. I thought Minnesota was phenomenal in the first half. I thought they controlled the pace of play. They had a number of opportunities.

They hit the post twice throughout the game, but especially early from Kelvin Yoboa, who once again, aggressive, physically dominant, skilled. He's able to move defenders around at will, shifting his hips, opening up, faking passes, faking shots, and able to find gaps and find windows. They just couldn't get it to go away. And LAFC did what they do best.

Smash and grab late on in this one, Jeremy Obobese gets the winner for them as he got rotated into the center forward spot in place of Olivier Giroud. There's gonna be questions of who the true starter is at that position this season. And Jeremy Obobese doing his best to make sure he keeps the pressure on.

And you saw this LAFC team, the way they're gonna play, direct a lot of balls over the top, not playing through midfield, having those midfielders cover the ground and connect the game, but not do it through passing and short passing and possession. And the question is, what is the peak for that with LAFC this year?

San Jose are hoping they stay at the peak. The Bruce Arena error started with a flying 4-0 win. Now, of course it meant a second round draft pick and a former MLS Next Pro piece were the connection for the opening two goals, but this is a perfect start for San Jose to get the vibes going early on in this Bruce Arena error. For DC United and TFC, Jun Han, a tough opening match as a rare young international goalkeeper

brought in by DC United to get the start, fumbled his first shot against Bernadesi, made a mistake on the cross for the opening goal for TFC to equalize. Benteke gets another goal to make it 2-1, and then Richie Lurrea able to draw a penalty late on that Berna put into the back of the net. So a 1-1 draw there. This year, two teams that I'm gonna be curious to see what they look like against their next opponents. For TFC, that is going to be on the road

against Orlando for DC United. That is going to be against the Chicago Fire. I'm just curious as the game style shift against them, if the game becomes easier for these teams or harder, it felt like two teams that didn't really want a ton of possession here, trying to figure out where to find the holes, I will say. Me and Gregory Roach talked about Jacob Murrell

in the preview, excited to see him get an assist on that Benteke goal and to close out the weekend to 0-0 St. Louis hosting Colorado off of course their CONCACAF Champions Cup match a 0-0 match and Nashville hosting the New England Revolution 0-0 in that one as well. Nashville some more possession some different ideas from them. I thought TechSaf looked very good in this one and is an interesting piece for this Nashville side. You also had the quotes from Caleb Porter coming out of this one saying,

last year this would have been a loss, this year it's a tie, so it's already an improvement. Okay, you can say that weak one. You can slow play things and slow roll things. That's totally fine. We just have to see that actual jump You can say that weak one, you can slow play things and slow roll things, that's totally fine. We just have to see that actual jump of getting the full wins, of getting the results, of dominating performances.

But Leo Campagna had some big openings in this one. It could have been a win for this revs team and I'm curious to see what they look like now going forward into the next matches. What can they do in their next game at home against Columbus? Let's move into She Believes Cup conversation and Jordan Angeley was right. We were on the show last Wednesday.

We're talking about this roster. What type of teams we wanna see? Who will get minutes? We got the question from our Discord that said, which of the uncapped players do you think gets on the field? Who do you think gets minutes? And I sort I sort of said oh maybe a Gisele Thompson late in the game if you're trying to see out a victory which is

what we saw in the opening game against Columbia I'm not sure where you started Claire Hutton because I don't know if you give her the full responsibility in central midfield Lillil Hannes as well where do you play her and Jordan said if you called the players up, you better trust them. You built the roster for this tournament to give these players opportunities. You better do that. And that is the story with Emma Hayes.

A full flip of all 11 starting players coming out of the first game into the second game. And once again, it was a victory. They beat Columbia in the first match. They beat Australia in the second game and once again it was a victory. They beat Columbia in the first match, they beat Australia in the second match, Linby Indolo gets the goal in the opening minute. It could have been two or three early on. Amisirs was a terror down the wing to open up the match. Australia finally adjusted. They started to create chances towards the end of the first half into

halftime and then not only do you trust 22 players to start for you over the course of this competition so far, but the one player who hasn't, Michelle Cooper comes off the bench and on her first touch scores the winner for you. We talked about Michelle Cooper and what she can bring to this team. She has a background as a true Center forward. She has played out

wide because of the talent that is on the KC Current. And what we said was her ability at both positions makes her really interesting on an international roster where you have limits. You go to tournaments, you don't know where injuries are going to be. You don't know what matchups look like. And Michelle Cooper doing her best to prove that she deserves to be on this team. She comes off the bench. She gets the winner in the 68th minute in the end for this team as Michelle Hyman scored the late goal off the bench as well for Australia to cut it to a 2-1 lead.

Japan did the business once again against Colombia late on but they got a 4-1 victory. So going into this final game, it is a chance to win the She Believes Cup. And I think we saw a lot of exciting pieces for this U.S. team. Jaden Shaw was dominant across the field. Emma Hayes after the game said she will be a factor in this national team. Asked what her best position is. She said she wasn't there yet. And listen, it is going to be an embarrassment of riches for this US women's national team. I had the chance to watch this game with two Australians,

pure Australia fans. They were at the world cup, wearing yellow and gold for this game. And we're talking about the team. And it's like, I had to sort of go back to 2023 and say, at that moment, it had been a jump in a generation, right? You had the old guard that had held on for so long that there weren't players in their prime and it was probably a step too

early for Trinity Rodman and Sophia Wilson and these young players. Now they've established themselves they are extremely young players who are the face and core of this team but the generation just below them is uber talented and we see what we see from Ali Centenor and from Alyssa Thompson and from Jaden Shaw and from Katarina Macario and from Lily Yohannes. And I don't know what your best 11 is going to be all the time but it's so rare to have your best 11 together that I don't think you need to put it in pen and yell it from the mountaintop. I think Emma Hayes is doing the right thing here by saying these are all players that deserve to be involved and even if they're not involved on games. Okay, maybe you'll get questioned later if you don't get a win and

say why didn't you play Jayden Shaw when you said she was a key part of this group maybe when you have your best 23 available and best 11 available and all of that. But the reality right now is you're going to try and figure out how it all fits together and you're always going to try and build plan Bs and plan Cs into things in case unfortunately you do have injuries or you have suspensions and that's the opportunity that Emma Hayes has right now and so there's no reason not to say a Jaden Shaw is one of the best attacking players in the world and she has a huge place to play in this team whatever that looks like going forward and then Katerina

McCarron is the same, Yasmin Ryan is the same and there are so much talent in this group This has been fun to watch for two games. I cannot wait to watch this Japan game I love what I'm seeing out of Japan I think a lot of NWSL fans are loving what they're seeing out of this Japan squad Namely Utah Royals fans as this is the exact preseason you want to see for Amina Tanaka. She came in, she was a presence last year up top for this team but dropping off that front line helping create chances for the wide players for Ali Centenor coming out of that number 10 position.

She gets two goals against Columbia. It is a phenomenal sight to see for Utah fans as well as for Japan fans. And this final game is going to be exactly what you wanted. Everything on the line to play for it. There's going to be high stakes. There's going to be a great atmosphere. These are the tests the U.S. needs to try and create because they really don't have that huge challenge until the World Cup comes up.

And we talked about it coming out of the Olympics. How does Emma Hayes sort of handle this calendar year? She has the ability to test new players, which is what she's doing, and she now has the chance to test them in a high stakes, high intensity game against a high level opponent. So it's a dream situation for the U.S. Women's National Team as well as for all of us as fans. As I said, Jordan will be back with me on Wednesday. So we will preview that match. We will talk about what we have seen so far and then I will have your coverage coming out of that match

as well as we go into the weekend. Let's touch on a few last national team things before we get out of here. And we're gonna touch on the men's side, Concacaf Nations League. We got the 60 player rosters for the four finalists in Concacaf Nations League. We got the 60 player rosters for the four finalists in Concacaf Nations League.

The big story coming into this, Josh Cloquet had already broken at the athletic, which is that Daniel Jebison has been convinced to commit to the Canadian men's national team under Jesse Marsh. That comes off the back of Promise David committing last week. So two players who are playing at a high level in Europe, two young attacking prospects that Canada is able to get to join the fold going

into the 2026 World Cup and everything they've built. Now I've seen some debate about this, and I think the reaction should be excitement for Canada that they're doing a good job, that they're building a program that people want to be a part of, that the message that they're sending out there to players is getting across, that the program is going in the right direction, and that there's real opportunity and that there's a real family atmosphere that you want to be a part of. Do these players raise the ceiling? The hope is yes. Do they raise the floor? I'm not totally sure. I think that you are in a setup right now where you kind of have those positions filled, right? Jonathan David is your center forward, Kyle Lahren an option in there as well,

but it makes the program deeper. It blunts you of course against potential injuries or drops in form. And the ceiling on these players could be higher than what it ends up being for Kyle Lahren over the next two, three years. I don't think it will be over Jonathan David, but we don't know what the future looks like.

I texted with a friend today and said, it turns out Marcelo Flores has played 12 professional soccer games as a starter in a top division. You never know what the future looks like. You wanna have the option to bring as much talent in as you can. You wanna do so by doing it the right way,

not promising minutes. And I think Canada did that. It's a good day for Canada. And they put together their 60 player list going into the Concordia Nations League. Not a ton of surprises in there, but a lot of the talent you'd hope to see. And I think a lot of excitement for Canada fans.

For the US, two names to note on their 60 man list, Noah Key Banks and Damian Downs both in there two players who have eligibility to play for Germany that have played for German youth national teams that are both bouncing around on the edge of Bundesliga or getting starts in the Bundesliga and both clearly opening the door to play for the US men's national team and this Nations League could be the first opportunity to do it. So good work by the US to get them in the fold and this expanded 60 player list will be cut down to 23. So sometimes

as we saw with Baligan the first time when he came into the fold, sometimes it's just that first sort of salvo to say all right we're committed to you, let us show it. The player doesn't want to totally commit yet maybe, and they don't come in, but it's a good first step to take. And the stakes are pretty low by naming 60 players. You're pretty deep on the depth chart there for the most part. Otherwise, a lot of names you'd expect to see

on that nation's league list. And I want to give a shout out to Obed Vargas, makes the list for Mexico. He has fully committed to Mexico. The hope is for him that he could be a central piece of that team. There is not a lot of young talent coming through right now for this Mexican national team.

And he looked good once again in CONCACAF competition. He looked good once again, I thought, in MLS this weekend. So exciting there for Obed Vargas to be a part of that 60 player roster and I'd expect him to make the final 23 as well. And we're going to cover it all here at SoccerWise. So it was a big weekend. I wanted to dig into as much as I could. I wanted to touch on as much as I could, but we will go even deeper over the course of

this week. So thank you to listening for this so far. Make sure to subscribe if you don't to our podcast. Anywhere you get your podcasts, join our Patreon and get you access to our Discord, as well as our depth charts across the MLS and NWSL. And we will be live on YouTube all week as well. So MLS is back, She Believes Cup, final around the corner.

It is a good time for soccer in North America. Thank you all for listening and we'll talk to you again very very soon.