SoccerWise - Weekend Recap: Sinc Sendoff, NWSL Playoffs Set, Red Bull Upset & MLS Playoffs

Episode Date: November 4, 2024

David is riding a high on an all-time great weekend of soccer. Christine Sinclair had the perfect send off in the rain in Portland to set the table for an epic final weekend of NWSL. David runs back through the order of drama all weekend, and looks forward to the first round of the playoffs. Not to be outdone MLS brought the drama as well. Did Red Bulls just pull of the biggest upset in MLS history? Can Atlanta better that? And where do we stand right now. 2:50 NWSL Recap 14:55 MLS Recap Soccerwise Live 2pm ET Every Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday on Youtube/Twitch/Twitter

Hey everybody, welcome back to SoccerWise. What a weekend. That, I think, is the best soccer weekend of the year that we just had. David Goss with you here for the recap of said weekend. NWSL regular season has come to a close. Major League Soccer round one, 87 game playoffs continue on. Some series have finished. Some have more games to come. We've got four more to go, and we are excited for another week of coverage. Maybe outside of Euro and Copa final being on the same day and US Women's National Team in their send-off series

back in, what was it, July? That, I think, is the best soccer weekend I have seen. And the games lived up and the drama lived up. What a time it was. We've got a great week of shows coming up for you. We're going to have a few special guests coming up, but just going to, you know, leak it, tease it a little there as we just lock everything in. I'll be recording the mailbag episode on Thursday because I'm going to be traveling on Friday for a wedding. So make sure to get your questions in early for that one.

Tom will be back tomorrow, 2 p.m. Eastern time live to talk MLS playoffs. Jordan on Wednesday, 3 p.m. Eastern time live to break down the NWSL postseason, which kicks off next weekend. And then Tom will be a different viewpoint as well. And we'll have our interview tagged into that Friday mailbag show. The one we're working on, I think you are all going to really, really enjoy. One note, tomorrow we will have the live show. It is Election Day. I believe that Election Day should be a national holiday.

And me and Tom talked about it, but it is a very big week, of course, in the soccer world. And we were just starting up and getting things going. So we didn't want to do it this year. So I encourage everyone, please go out and vote. Make your voices heard. And hopefully we move towards a day where that is a reality. I've traveled to countries where that is the case. And I think it's just so important for every person

to be involved in the democratic process. Let's dig into the soccer and we got to start, of course, in NWSL with the season over. We have the picture of the playoffs. I'm going to run us through the weekend and what we saw as it happened, and then talk a little bit about the, the mashups we've got coming up. What a perfect start to the weekend. It was of course, Christine Sinclair's final home game with the Portland thorns.

Although I guess in theory, now there could be one more game. If all the lower seeds won and they could potentially host. Who would it be? Bay FC going forward. Most likely we saw here's seeing Sinclair's final game in Portland and it was everything you'd want. And it was perfect. Reigning, of course, the key in Portland.

They played all Canada before the game in honor, of course, of Sinclair, Vancouver native, the all-time leading goal scorer in international history, gold medalist with the Canadian national team. She scored the opener on top of that. And Opta Jack had this tweet, which is unbelievable. So this was Christine Sinclair's 200th career game in NWSL. She scored in that match. She also scored in her first career match, her 100th career NWSL match, her 150th, and now of course this one, which will be her last regular season game. So Christine Sinclair knows how to celebrate a milestone for sure. And the first half was everything Portland could dream of. Sophia Smith back, looking active all over the

field, left and right, being able to float and find the game, be goal dangerous, set her teammates up as well. She scored. Morgan Weaver scored as well. It was Weaver and Smith's first start together this year because Weaver was out with a long-term injury. When she returned, Smith was out with an injury as well. And so finally the attack, fully humming. And then to close it all out, to have Megan Klingenberg be the one to come on for Sinclair, I thought was a really poignant moment. Long-time teammates, of course, have won multiple championships together, have been through the ups and downs. So Sinclair walked over, handed the captain's armband to Sauerbron,

comes off the field in full applause. And it was just, I think, an incredible night. Exactly what you wanted it to be. And Portland gets the 3-0 win against Angel City in this match Sophia Smith postgame got choked up in the interview with Leanne Sanderson talking about Sinclair as I think a lot of us did and you saw Sinclair in the postgame giving a speech to the crowd, talking to everyone. And she said this. She said, this team is not done yet. And you could feel that in this performance.

Smith, as I said, healthy. Weaver, healthy as well. I think it allows the fullbacks to not have to get as high and into the attack as often. And I think you saw more defensive solidity as well. Sagieta looked good in this match. There's options in that central midfield for this team and of course the way Sinks playing gives them a focal point for the two wide players to work off of in the attack. You could feel sort of a Portland team that looks similar right now to what Gotham looked like last year. And that is who they will match up with in the postseason in the first round.

You remember back to last year, Gotham just sneaking into the playoffs at the end, riding some really impressive performances from the addition of Esther, from Midge Purse, of course, trying to extend Allie Krieger, a legend's career, as she had already announced her retirement and had reinserted herself into the starting lineup. And they were able to go on the road and upset Portland on the way to eventually winning the championship. And now it is going to be the opposite. Portland are going to try and go on the road to Gotham, who took care of business for one against Utah on Friday night in that first round matchup. Let me run through the rest of the weekend and then we'll get into those matchups in the postseason. So after Portland won on Friday night, Gotham won as well. That shifted all the pressure onto Saturday night, onto Bay FC and Washington.

Bay needed a result to clinch their playoff spot. Washington needed a result to jump back over Gotham and to solidify their spot in second place. Bay, a bizarre game for them. In Houston against an already eliminated team and over our weather delay. They went ahead 1-0. Then four minutes later, it's 1-1. Then they go up 2-1 and then leveled the first minute of the second half but Bay FC able to win it 3-2 and take the victory it was the Rachel Kundanaji show

she had two goals she was playmaking all over the field working defenders one-on-one if you haven't seen it yet and I can't believe you haven't go see the clip of her standing on the ball in the corner and calling Paige Nielsen over to defend her and then just breaking her ankles as she gets into the box hit the post two maybe three times the goal was unbelievable comes into the box pops up on her and she's able to just lace through it for her opening goal to put them up to one, and then sealed the deal on a beautiful run, and then toe poke at full speed to put them up 3-2 in the end. So Bay, the second ever expansion team to qualify for the postseason in their first year,

and they set the expansion record with 11 wins this season. A lot to be proud of for this team already. And again, as you say with the Portland conversation, a team in form at the right time with elite talent going forward. Quick hat tip to Houston. I think they really played well in this game. They had nothing on the line. You have the weather delay. You're sort of thinking, what are they going to play for here?

And they they fought this entire game. It was not an easy game for them and they i think deserve a lot of credit for staying in this one after everything they've been through this season and our hope is just a better platform for this team to be able to show themselves next year washington then knocked off north carolina a rotated north car North Carolina team Saturday night as well to clinch the number two seed with their 1-0 win. Kaylee Kurtz, shout out. The Iron Woman once again playing every single minute this season. And so Washington solidified coming out of Saturday night.

Orlando in first, Washington in second, Gotham in third, Kansas City in fourth. The only thing that we had left to play for was where Chicago would fall in the standings because with Bay FC's win, Racing Louisville had been solidified as the ninth team in the league for the fourth straight season. They have never made the postseason. It looked like it was going to be a lucky weekend. They had the fortune, I guess, of Snapdragon Stadium being unplayable for San Diego and NWSL deciding that the game would be moved from San Diego to Lynn Family Stadium. So Louisville was going to add this additional home game in what would have been a must-win game if they were still alive. It doesn't happen for them.

They have nothing to play for in the end they end up losing to san diego at home they were down 2-0 in 20 minutes of that game the final game of the weekend kc with nothing to play for smoke chicago at home something to watch out for it no temo shawinga uh they said a potential knee injury and that could have just been a reason or an excuse to not have to play her in a game that had nothing to play for. But the Golden Boot winner, something to monitor going into the postseason. Kansas City ends up setting the NWSL single season record for most goals with 57 on top of all of the records Shawinga has set as an individual this year. So where we stand for the postseason, Friday night, we are going to get Orlando

hosting Chicago Red Stars and Mal Swanson to open up the postseason, the Shield winners, the home team, the right to play against Chicago. Washington will host Bay FC. Gotham will host Portland, as I said, and Kansas City will host North FC. Gotham will host Portland, as I said, and Kansas City will host North Carolina. That KC North Carolina game is noon on Saturday. And then the two games between Washington Bay and Gotham Portland will be on Sunday as a doubleheader, I believe, on ESPN. And the bracket, therefore,

is set. So the winner of the Orlando-Chicago match will play KC North Carolina. And the bracket therefore is set. So the winner of the Orlando Chicago match will play KC North Carolina. And the two Sunday game winners will match up in the next round. We will talk about all of these matchups, all of these games more with Jordan on Wednesday. Honestly, if you told me right now, any team outside of Chicago won the whole thing, I would probably believe you. There's a history there of upsets in NWSL. Last year, Seattle and Gotham combined one home playoff game between the two, end up facing off in the final the year before. Kansas City has a five seed in a different format, played zero home

games, made it to the final the year before that. Chicago and Washington, three and four seeds. They both went on the road and won in the semifinals to make the final. But of course, this is an outlier of a season in NWSL. So I picked Kansas City here as the line fourth place in the league. On points per game, they would have won six of the last seven shields. That's the fourth place team currently in the league. Now, raw numbers, they would have won all but one shield, but this year played at least two more regular season games than any other season in NWSL history. So that's not a perfect comp, but I said this on last week's show. The gap between Kansas City in fourth and North Carolina in fifth is larger than the gap was last year between San Diego, the Shield winners, and Chicago, the last place team in the league. There were four teams

this year, OptiJack just tweeted this out, that averaged at least two points per match this season. That had never happened before in NWSL. There had never been more than one team in one season that had averaged over two points per game. So while precedent tells us upsets and the Bays and Portlands could make a run, I think that's messing with our sense of reality a little. The good teams are not just good. They are great. Letting more teams into the postseason than we've seen in the past as well, who haven't coalesced as a group all year, whether it's because of injuries, form, or transfers. The upset potential that we have seen in the past may not be correct based off what we will see this year. This is what we're going to talk about coming up on Wednesday with Jordan.

Now, I could be wrong. I wouldn't be surprised. First of all, it's soccer, it's single elimination games, anything can happen. Second of all, while there are gaps, and we'll talk about it, I don't think the gaps are on individual talent. I think they're on structure. I think they're on a lot about, for a lot of these clubs, the support they get outside the field, coaching, all of that. But you go into these playoff series, you cannot say that player for player, Bay FC or Portland or North Carolina are not equal to their opponents. So this is going to be fun.

It is going to be absolutely fascinating. This is what we've waited for all year. For Orlando, this is the chance to solidify who they are. Kansas City already won the Summer Cup, but they would love the chance to play at home in the first ever final at their new stadium. Gotham looking for the repeat. Washington looking healthier now with Trini Rodman and Lacey Santos back into the team coming into the postseason under Yonatan Geraldez. There is so much to talk about and so much to watch.

And I cannot wait to cover all of it here at SoccerWise. Speaking of upsets, let's talk Major League Soccer. The New York freaking Red Bulls beat reigning champion Columbus Crew two times back-to-back in this opening series to knock them off. This is the first playoff series win since 2018 for the Red Bulls. They went toe to toe with the best in the league. I said coming out of game one, I don't think Columbus plays that poor again and they didn't. Rossi was back, Cuccio was on and the Red Bulls survived it. They made Columbus uncomfortable after the opening few minutes by changing that formation, using wingbacks, and mirroring Columbus and pushing their press high.

It did not allow Columbus to build out. It did not allow a lot of the moments we are used to seeing of Morera dribbling into midfield, linking up with Nagby, being able to have Cucho then decide when and where he wants to drop in and pick up the ball. It forced Columbus to play into the second layer more often, quicker. And Columbus had some success there. But they were not able to turn up the, I think, speed of play after they broke New York's pressure often enough and make New York scramble.

Arvstein came off the bench after getting rotated out of the starting lineup, scored with his first touch, and then Lewis Morgan a goal from no angle through the legs of Schulte. Forsberg with the penalty in the 80th minute. That put them up 2-1. They could have closed this game out. I thought Manuel was really bad off the bench. Didn't really read the moments his teammates wanted, whether it was to link up with them or go and run into the space, wasted a few opportunities around the box when Columbus had thrown numbers forward to just kill the game.

It opened up the door for Christian Ramirez. His header off the corner kick tied it, sent us the penalty kicks, and what a shootout it was. Columbus going into the fifth shot. Cherebko scores it. It's over. His shot is saved. So Red Bulls push it to the do or die sixth round. Both players miss. Matan and Niles have it saved. Then we get into the seventh

round. Cornell makes another save. And then Daniel Edelman, 21-year-old, Somerset County, PDA kid. This kid is New York Red Bulls, New Jersey through and through till he dies. He steps up with the seventh. He places it in the top corner, rolls off into the crowd to celebrate Jersey off. Everyone's screaming pandemonium in the building. This was one of the great upsets in Major League Soccer history. This was an unbelievable series to watch. Sandro Schwartz outcoached Wilfred Nance.

His team in the second game battled. They battled as a group. Emile Forsberg talked about it a little bit in the postgame, just said we had belief in a group that we could do this, we can continue to push. So just an unbelievable match for this Red Bull team. It's one of the great upsets in MLS history. It might be the biggest upset in MLS history.

I think when we came in to the playoffs, I think me and Tom at one point said this would be the only one we would be surprised it was an upset. The most confidence we had was that Columbus would beat the Red Bulls we were absolutely wrong Red Bulls are the third team in MLS history to knock off a team that had a 19 point gap over them in the regular season they are of course a seven seed beating a two. The other two 19 point gaps was NYCFC in 2021 over the at the time record setting shield winners, New England Revolution, as well as the LA Galaxy who beat San Jose in 2005 on their way to an MLS Cup. And while that gap between New England and NYCFC was huge, NYCFC were the four seed that year in the postseason. So it wasn't like NYCFC was this low seed with the chance to knock off one of the big dogs. It was the fact that New England had stretched the lead on points

so far over everyone. NYCFC that year had a home playoff game in the first round where they knocked off Atlanta for the chance to face the Rebs. Back in 2005, obviously the league was much different, but the Galaxy beat San Jose. And then to their credit, they went and beat the number two seed in the Rebs in MLS Cup to win the whole thing. Some of the other matches or moments that sort of pop to my mind, of course, last year, Sporting Kansas City, a larger seed upset in being an eight seed knocking off the one seed St. Louis in that first round, but it wasn't as big of a point gap there between those two teams. It was only a 12 point gap and that St. Louis team as the number one seed last year were only fourth in the entire Major League Soccer as the top three teams in the East had better records than them.

So they were not the giant that this Columbus team is considered. You've got RSL, who back in 2009, eight seed, last team in, went and upset Columbus in the first round. They were an Eastern Conference team in the postseason because back then the wild card got assigned to whichever conference needed the extra team. We saw the Red Bulls be a Western Conference team back in 2008, of course, in the postseason. So they went and beat Chicago and then went and beat that like Galaxy in MLS Cup, of course, in that shootout with Clint Mathis and Landon Donovan, all that. And the Galaxy were the number two seat. So if the Red Bulls are able to continue this run,

then you start to get into those conversations of continuous upsets. 2009, Chicago were fourth in the East, seventh in the league, 15 points back of D.C. United, and they knocked them off in the conference semifinals. And 2021, remember, RSL beating Seattle in a penalty kick shootout. That was a 2-7 upset, a 12-point gap there. But this has stirred the, are Columbus one of the great teams ever conversations? Is that even fair?

How big of an upset is this? I think it is in that conversation to say it is the biggest upset in major league soccer history and something that I'm very excited to continue to discuss as we go forward in the rest of the postseason Minnesota knocked off RSL for the second straight time in a shootout and they are moving on to the next round Pablo bench Chicho Arango for this one and Arango came off the bench and had an assistant with one of his first touches. That's his first counting stat, goal or assist, since September 21st. He has not scored a goal since July 6th.

Brian Vera returned as well from this one. He was suspended because he got a red card for spitting on a player against Minnesota in the regular season. I think he probably would have wished that he did not return for this one. It was a rough night for him. Had a goal called off for offside fairly. Passive offsides from Matt Crooks. But otherwise, he was terrorized by Kelvin Yeboah

and the rest of this Minnesota attack. And Minnesota, they left their foot off the gas, allowing RSL back into it, forcing it to the shootout. But when they were on, they were electric in this match. Again, there's so much movement across the attack. Lod coming from deep, finding positions that he likes. You've got Bongi playing as that right wing back who slides up high into the attack.

Carlos Harvey this time, we started to see him play a little bit of the Steven Marrera role for the first time pretty much in this setup. Him making runs into the right channel, joining into the attack, whether in possession or as a runner. Yeboah, he continues to dominate his matchups both physically and with his soccer IQ and with his movement. He won a ton of 50-50 balls. He was on the end of everything that RSL made mistakes on to create chances out of it. And he was the one that helped move the ball from right to left to lay it off for Rosales, who came flying in from the left wing back position to

score his first goal of the season. So a huge moment for Minnesota. And of course, the whole thing capped off by Dane St. Clair, his epic performance in the shootout. He is the must watch show in a shootout right now in Major League Soccer. I talked about it last week, the gamesmanship he did with Ojeda and Glad in the previous match, once again, gets his team over the line in a shootout. Atlanta, they are on the verge of what would be a bigger upset than the new york red bulls uh for atlanta because they'd have to go to miami and win it on the road against the points record holder and it would be a larger point gap and of course this is messy and friends it was kind of a surprising win in the end guzan who was their rock last week right the win in the end. Guzan, who was their rock last week, right? The win in Montreal, the staying in

the game against Miami, his ability to make huge saves, coming off his line, making big plays, had the oddest brain fart you will ever see. Going to punt the ball, he kind of maybe felt contact or thought he was going to get contact. So he goes down to draw the foul that the contact never comes. He drops the ball on the top of the box and it's a goal for Miami. And yet Atlanta fought through it. Atlanta showed some real potential in this game. Rob Valentino after the game sort of said we could play free. No one believes in us.

We have nothing to lose in these games. And I think you saw that in this performance. Maranchuk, who was invisible in the first game, he went from 23 touches to 64 touches. He tripled. His passes completed. He got to his left foot whenever he wanted in this game, whether it was for shots or for crosses. He was a difference maker. Amador, another dime.

He's been special at that left back position. And then John De Silva comes off the bench and scores the goal. He lost his starting spot back on September 14th. He got pulled off in the first half against Nashville in a brutal game, both for himself and the team. Hadn't scored since June 15th or had an assist since August. I thought he was going to be a huge part of this team. When you look at what you saw this weekend from Hannes Wolff at Adonis CFC and Fafa Pico up in Vancouver, I thought Silva would be a similar player. Not the player you play through, but a guy who can put pressure on defenses, who can make the runs off the ball, can be a finisher when you need it. He did it in this one. Unbelievable strike in the top corner from distance to win it right before this one was headed to penalty kicks allowing Atlanta for the chance to go back to Miami and try and cause the upset in the other matches we saw Houston losing in a shootout for

the second straight time to Seattle they are eliminated from the playoffs trying to get back to the Western Conference Finals like they did last year. And it's tough to find a lot to say about this series for Houston besides the two red cards. Koko Karaski in the first game. Completely unnecessary. Loses his mind a little bit. Trying to restart play quickly. Gets called for the red card. Now his team has to play

the final 15 minutes or so down a man, and they're not able to score. Lucky enough to get to penalty kicks. They lose in the shootout. Now they come home. No Coco in the team. Must win scenario. And Hector Herrera, the star of your team, the leader of your team. If you think UEFA Champions League and World Cups are the highest level that you can play in, this is a player who has 53 Champions League games under his belt between Porto and Atletico Madrid. A La Liga champion, 10 World Cup games started. He started and won an Olympic gold medal. And he spits at a referee in the second half of a must-win game because of a clear yellow card that he was awarded. He comes in late on Jackson Reagan, fouls Reagan after the ball is away,

gets a yellow card. This is not a yellow card that's leading to a suspension, right? Where you're saying, okay, mentally that's a huge moment because now he knows he's out for the next game. That's not the case. It's not a second yellow card. it doesn't change the pace of play it is not a moment that houston's about to score a goal in where you can't believe it has happened and none of those things would even be excusable for doing what he did and being the level of player so now you've got

hector herrera one of the most experienced players in the region doing something like this you've got Hector Herrera, one of the most experienced players in the region doing something like this. You've got Coco Carrasquilla, who was just awarded CONCACAF Player of the Year, the face of his country's national team that's brought them to so much success over the last few years. One player in his prime, the other one in the twilight of his career who knows better. I do not understand what happened. I don't understand what went down. I don't know where you go from here with these two players. And I don't know what's wrong inside the club. Because these were just two moments of madness. But you don't expect to see two of these in two games in the highest pressure moments of the season.

For a club that last year went and won a U.S. Open Cup in Miami and went to a Western Conference final. So they've played with pressure. They've played in high stakes. And they've done it together. And it's bizarre to watch them crumble like this in these big moments. So Seattle are moving on. I thought Christian Roldan's comments after the game were really telling. And I thought spot on.

He said that they basically played a C game and were able to get over the line they didn't play at their highest peak throughout this series and part of that I think in this game was injuries Jordan Morris not able to play Albert Rusnak as well so they lost the ability to stretch the field they lost some of their ball retention and creativity in midfield luckily for them they're going to get like two years off now to get healthy and try and work on it. But in saying what Roldan did, I don't know the last time I've seen an A game from this Seattle team. So I think you could talk about, you know, a win in Vancouver early in October. But outside of that, you were going back months to talk about this team playing at their peak. You have to see

it at some point in the playoffs. You got by against a Houston team that shot themselves in the foot when you had a little more breathing space in a three-game series. That's fine. You are into single elimination now. You're not going to get chances like that. And so this Seattle team has to elevate their game at some point someone needs to step up and play at a higher level Christian of course scores the goal he always pops up in big moments had the own goal as well unfortunate for him not much he can do about it trying to cover on that far post but this is a Seattle team with a ton of potential still I think unanswered so far this year. Staying in Cascadia, Vancouver. What a game.

Ryan Gould leading from the front. Calm finish early on in this one to give them the 1-0 lead. Then forces an own goal off a corner kick a few minutes later to make it 2-0. Sartini took some risks. Inserted Fafa Pico in place of Pedro Vitae. And played Berhalter at right back in place of Matias Laborda, and got rewarded by both. Fafa was a monster in this game, pressuring everything, forcing Oliveira to defend 1v1, which he absolutely hated, putting Oliveira on his heels,

changing Oliveira's positioning so he couldn't sit high up the field and being an attacking option, and you saw Berhalter's quality in possession out of the right back spot. Big switches of the field, dangerous crosses, playing between the lines into players' feet. One of the biggest wins in Vancouver club history. The crowd looked great. Of course, this team, they've been through a lot, not being able to host that playoff game against Portland. Then they go on the road and get the win. Then I thought they were unlucky to lose against LAFC in the previous game. Then they're able to get the result in this one in front of that crowd to award them. You could hear post game when the players are talking how much it meant to them to have that moment and to give their fans what they thought they deserved

in this one. And now they go back for a game three. LAFC woke up in the second half. Belonga started to attack immediately out the gates in the second half. Belonga's off-ball movement is elite. He can be one of the great finishers in Major League Soccer, being able to find the ball at the right times, whether it's runs through the lines or being a finisher on the far post. Vancouver are cutting that off. Vancouver are aware of where he creates that danger, not allowing passes into those areas. The counter to that is either someone else elevates their game and steps up because there's more pressure on Buonga or Buonga does it in possession and not out of possession. That's what you saw in this second half. Just decided I'm going to take Sebastian Burrhalter 1v1. I'm

going to take Tristan Blackman 1v1. They have to prove they can stop me. They almost couldn't. Takayoka, a couple of huge saves. Buonga, a few shots just wide of the post. That I expect to be a formula coming up in the third game. Charlotte surviving in their series and forcing it back to a third game as well. Three changes in the starting lineup for Dean Smith's side. One forced by BL's red card. I thought Kerwin Vargas was fantastic in his place. Doesn't do the same things, but I thought he was really good down the right wing. BL floats more and affects the game more. Vargas likes to stay out wide right or in the right channel, but was really dangerous and a huge shout out to Brant Bronico, who I thought then stepped in and covered a lot of the ground and did a lot of the things that BL does outside of what Vargas is good at. He connected the game.

He was dangerous. He should have had an assist on a beautifully floated ball after he won it and started the break himself. That Abada heads a little bit high. Gaiese able to make an unbelievable save, but I think Abada probably wishes he put that one in the ground, bouncing lower on Gaiese's body. So a huge game for Bronico. I thought Deani was really good as well. This is a player who hadn't started in six games after starting 21 games this season, hadn't seen the elite level from him that we thought you saw in this game. Ground coverage, winning his tackles,

and then being able to move with the ball in possession and change the points of attack really really impressive from him Gaese was fantastic in this one but Charlotte deserved to push this one to a game three coming up in Orlando Zach Steffen a game he will hope to forget against the LA Galaxy. His mistake in the first half tried to clear it away, was originally unpressured, allowed Peck to close him down, plays it off Peck, but on the left side of the box, and it takes the most wicked deflection off of Peck and rolls back into his own goal.

And against the killer piece, against this Galaxy team, you just can't afford to play behind the eight ball. Leraz gets the goal. It equalizes things. But the game, it's too hard to shut this Galaxy team down. They're going to get their chances. Payne still, once again, coming off the left wing. He curls his shot in late in the first half.

He puts his team up 2-1. And then Ricky Pooj elevating his game, being able to seal the deal late in the 90th, then with the LA Dodgers baseball celebration for the World Series. But this one, Colorado just couldn't afford to play down 1-0 for no reason in an unforced error. Shout out to Georgie Mihailovic. Great to see him back for the full game. Didn't look 100%, but looked close. But still no Cole Bassett in this one for this team.

And we finish out with NYCFC. They played finally up to their level against FC Cincinnati. In this one, they won 3-1. Santiago Rodriguez sealing the deal with the third goal on a penalty. Late on to stretch the lead. But for NYCFC, they did a lot of the things we didn't see in the last game they completed 50 more passes in this one and those passes a lot of them short quick passes in the attacking third didn't allow FC Cincinnati to close them down you saw it on the first goal playing in and out

from the right wing centrally back out moving the ball quick enough to be able to beat FC Cincinnati's scrambling shape and not allow Cincinnati to win the ball quick enough to be able to beat FC Cincinnati's scrambling shape and not allow Cincinnati to win the ball back in dangerous areas. The second goal, a little bit fortunate for NYCFC. Teenage Debi shielding Miles Robinson because he mistimed his jump on a free kick. Miles pops it up in the air and it goes straight to Tiago Martins. And Matt Freeze made a couple big saves, especially late on in this game,

but zero doubt that NYCFC deserved to win this one. If you haven't watched it, I'd recommend to go look at Luca Orogino's goal in this one. It might be the best one we see in the playoffs. A quick little deft touch under pressure to beat the defender, then opens up his hips and powers it to the far post from the top of the box. And CL Merlo reporting today that his option has been picked up by FC Cincinnati. It has been triggered.

So he will be a full-time player for FC Cincinnati under contract for the next two years going forward. We'll have Tom on tomorrow, of course, to talk through all of this. But it was a really strong performance from this NYCFC team, both in and out of possession. They could have sealed it earlier. That's kind of the story with a lot of these games

you talk about. Red Bulls could have sealed it earlier if they kill off their chances. And then you have a situation where you don't get pushed to PKs. But NYCFC got it done in the end. If they can find the middle ground, right, this is a home game. You're always going to have more possession in a home game.

You're always going to play a little bit higher up the field. If they can find the balance between this performance and game one in Cincinnati, they've got a clear shot. Maxi Morales, phenomenal in this game. You'd expect he will start again. That will do a little bit of it for this team. Tavon Gray suspended for this game because of the red card. He will be back next game.

I would be surprised if he entered the starting lineup. I thought Ilanich was fantastic in this one, and we'll get another opportunity. His possession and attacking down the right side, I thought, added an element for this NYCFC team as well but the four series left to play LAFC Vancouver Cincinnati NYCFC Orlando versus Charlotte in Miami Atlanta coming up this weekend LAFC on Friday night and the other three games are all on Saturday on Friday the mailbag show I said I thought we'd see five uh series push to game three game three. It is four. So I wasn't a hundred percent right, but I was close. The ones I picked probably would not have been these. So I

definitely would have been wrong. If you had pushed me on that one, boy, what a week do we have playoffs continuing in MLS, the NWSL playoffs are ready to begin some mouthwatering matchups. It is win or go home time in both leagues. This is why we do it here at SockWise. So thank you all for listening. And we'll talk to you all again very, very soon.