SoccerWise - Weekend Recap USMNT Win, CWC MLS Debuts, KC NWSL Dominance & Philly Shield Leaders

Episode Date: June 16, 2025

David is on to talk through weird CWC vibes, USMNT taking out the Soca Warriors, what KC's dismantling of Lousiville means & Philly Union taking advantage of the Whitecaps wobble.2:50 USMNT Win5:15 MIA & SEA CWC Debuts11:45 NWSL Recap19:30 MLS Recap Soccerwise Live 2pm ET Every Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday on Youtube/Twitch/Twitter

Hey everybody, welcome to Weekend Recap here at Soccerwise. David Goss with you as we go into a big week of soccer coming out of a bizarre weekend of soccer. Gold Cup kicking off here in the United States, the first ever expanded Club World Cup, or as FIFA would call it, the first ever Club World Cup kicking off as well. We saw Inter Miami play against Al-Hali from Egypt and we saw the Seattle Sounders play against Botafogo. LAFC will face off against Chelsea. These are all sentences I kind of never thought I would say. So I apologize if I keep chuckling or laughing as I do it. Myself and Tom will be back tomorrow. So we will react to that LAFC Chelsea game, whatever

it may be. We will also talk about the US men's national team a little bit more in depth than I will do so here. And we will of course have all your MLS coverage. We are getting ready for a big summer coming out of this club World Cup experience. We're going to have teams sort of getting ready for transfer windows. We of course have a ton of big games, including the ones we saw this weekend. So we will have all your coverage around that going forward. That is going to be the week to come. Jordan Angeley, of course, will be back with me as well. I was lucky enough to be at the Palmares Porto game. Yesterday, it was a ton of fun. I'm not sure how it looked on TV. But like the Palmares crowd, which I was right on the edge of the supporter section was bouncing. And it's one of those reminders.

I was talking to a fan who's actually his son plays in the revs Academy, which is, of course, like the small soccer world that is here. And he was like, I haven't seen them in person in a decade. They don't come to the US very often. I don't get back to Brazil as often as I'd like. It's not always during season. So it kind of shows you the spots where this might hit. And I think you've seen it in places, maybe not big enough to fill a giant stadium, but we'll see going forward. I, as Tom has convinced all of you and myself, one, I'm a sucker to, I'm kind of the market demo for this thing.

And three, I love a big event. So I love a staggered schedule of a tournament throughout a day. You add the gold cup in, I got home from the game. I watched the Seattle game. Then I'm watching Suriname Costa Rica, which was a bonkers game, Francisco Calvo just using his powers to just descend across every person. So it was the full soccer experience this weekend, we had of course, a slightly full MLS slate, and a completely full NWSL slate. That was a wild set of games once again. So let's talk first about the US men's national team. Okay, so things are

bad. Clearly, they're not so bad that they're incapable of putting together a strong performance against an extremely weak Trinidad and Tobago team. In the opening game of the Gold Cup group stage, there's some consternation around the fans. Yeah, the team's got to play at a level to make it worthwhile for fans to come there on their first four game losing streak in 40 years like you're coming in against Trinidad and Tobago the opening game, it's not going to be massively supported. And I think you kind of had to have expected that. And I think the team kind of understands that they need to win everyone back

and it's going to be hard in the gold cup. But it was a good promising start. It's been a weird week of like I spent last show last week talking about how great Max Arvestein was I thought against Turkey, then he was part of the train wreck that was the game against Switzerland. I don't know how much of that was tactical, how much of that was personnel leaving him more exposed. He kept coming in so narrow that when he come outside to close dribblers down, it was a complete mess. And he consistently was getting run at from 30 yards away, and then was meeting the attackers in the edge of the box in which you can't make a foul at that point if you feel like you have to because you're giving up a penalty kick. So it was a bizarre game there for him. But it was really

good. Once again, turn on Tobago came I thought Diego Luna was really good. Jack McGlinch shows his skill sets. Once again, it seems like he has landed on at least Chris Richards as first choice at center back Tim Ream getting the start in this one. I think that will be Richards and then rotation around him. And so overall, it was job done for the US men's national team. In that game. They've got Saudi Arabia coming up on Thursday. So we'll preview that game. Saudi Arabia, one of the other teams in the group along with Haiti, which will come up on Sunday, Saudi Arabia played Haiti in their first game, they won one zero, back and forth game from I didn't watch fully. But from what I was able to see Saudi Arabia

scored early on a penalty kick Haiti I thought was more dangerous after the subs they made Saudi Arabia still had a couple chances. I guess in the list of sentences I thought I would never say going back to the club world cut stuff, Saudi Arabia against the US in the gold cup on the west coast of the US was also probably one that wasn't in my on my bingo card going into this. But we are into the modern era of the international soccer game. Besides that, the other two big games to note on were the Club World Cup games. Inter Miami was the opening match of this 2025 Club World Cup. I think it got a pretty big interest from around the world of what

this would be. I have to say personally, big fan of the NBA style walkouts that the players do before the game to kind of give a little bit more of a buzz to that experience walking on the field. It felt I wasn't at the game. It felt from a far fairly buzzy in the building in hard rock. You felt like fans were on their feet the entire game. That was the case I know at the Porto Palmares game. And it felt like you know, you got a decent chunk of inter Miami fans really unfortunate to see that they could not find a way to work with FIFA to get a genuine supporters section. It felt like the game I went to the Porto and Palmares fans were at least portioned on the two ends. So I'm curious to watch as this goes along. Obviously, Seattle was a little bit different because it was

their actual home stadium, but still kind of it seemed like got screwed on the whole ticketing situation. So I think that one was a little unfortunate for Miami. And again, for all Halle fans, when was last time they saw their team play in person? And when are they going to get to do so here in the United States? I thought this game was one of the fascinating games. We haven't had a lot of them yet of the like, what is the team in this league at this level look like a team in this league at this level? That's the biggest I think draw to me about this club World Cup and so Palmeiras Porto think was the first big one we're going to get a couple really interesting ones over the next two days. LAFC Chelsea one of them but I think was the first big one, we're going to get a couple really interesting ones over the next two days. LAFC Chelsea, one of them, but I think it's more like when you look at a situation, Fluminense,

Dortmund I think is really, really interesting. What is Tunis look like against the Flamengo? Like we've just never seen teams crossover from these leagues, Malmoliti, Sundowns, what are they going to look like against UEFA sides? I think that's all part of the interest in this. I think what I walked away from the Inter Miami game with is something that's should be pretty obvious if you follow MLS, which was Inter Miami looked like it had higher level top end talent and Messi is obviously an outlier and all of that. And they looked less consistent across the 11 players including into depth were all early,

I think man for man looked like a stronger team, but did not have the highest hop in talent that Inter Miami was capable. Some absurd goal line clearances for both teams. I don't know how this game ends. Zero zero. Obviously the PK save was huge from a starry Falcone Falcone sorry, but he was being Falcone in that moment. So maybe he is Falcone gives up the penalty. The backline for Inter Miami continues to be chaotic. Busquets I think is struggling right now to keep up with the pace of the game. This one wasn't as dominated in possession as maybe Inter Miami would like. They weren't able to create all of the chances they were like, but I thought there was looks out there for Segovia to sort of attack space a little more and create for I end day to be played in maybe a little bit earlier.

And I thought they didn't take advantage. And that was the big game. I think it felt to me like Palmeros and Porto are probably higher level teams. And if you were going to try and sneak out the group, you wanted to get a win there. And then you want to try and steal a tie on one of the other two games. And that's a big opportunity missed as it was for Seattle, Seattle against Botafogo thought they were the better team for the full 90 minutes. They were definitely the better team. In the second half, I was talking with a friend going into this game. And I was like, you know, I like Seattle, like I'm kind of excited about this. And he was like, Yeah, me too. But you know, what's gonna happen is're going to find the weak points on this Seattle team, the four or five weak points, and they're going to just push on it and push on it. And clearly knew who was probably first on the

list of those weak points. He gives up the foul, which was debated in one of my group chats, whether the referee should have given the call because of the initial shove from the bota Fogo attacker. It doesn't matter. I think every athlete knows if you retaliate, you're going to get called. It's just the case, especially if you extend your arms, knew who gets called for the foul. Botafogo scores on the penalty off the free kick. And I thought at that throughout that time period, I thought it was fairly even. I thought Seattle had more possession maybe than I even expected and looked like themselves more than maybe I expected in this matchup. Then they didn't get quite back to that

immediately. Then you get the second goal off the tail as cross which you know, one of the best crossers in the world. And you go into halftime at two zero. Reebaker Whiting comes on in the second half. That gives them I think a little bit of a boost, more attack from that left back spot, which starts to change the space a little bit. Then you get the star boy Paul Rothrock. He comes off the bench, he helps set up the goal. Christian Roldan was the best player on the field. I thought his Ferreira looked good. I thought he was dangerous when he got around the box. He was able to beat defenders. He got that shot off in the first half that he almost curls into the far post. He danced

on top of the box in the second half, couldn't find enough space to get the shot. They choose to take him off. De La Vega up and down whiffs on a pullback that could have been an opportunity, but that helps create some other chances. In the the end the big chance falls to him to make it to two He's not able to it. There's not a huge window for him to shoot into he's not able to beat the goalkeeper It ends up being the last play of the game I think and it ends to two that's an opportunity missed for Seattle, but a FOGO probably the most you know Attainable team in this you look at Gregory and midfield and Savarino guys who are good MLS players, but not world class, getting into this starting lineup,

even though there's a ton of other talent in this starting lineup for Botafogo, there's a ton of experience. Look at the depth the players they're bringing off the bench versus the players Seattle's capable of bringing off the bench. And you know, unfortunate with the injuries, no Jordan Morris available to you for this one, no Yimar. So it's like, those are huge misses that Seattle can't afford. But even on top of that, I think Botafogo showed their depth. I thought it was a really strong day though, for Seattle.

I think they should be proud of the performance they put in. What it looks like against Atletico Madrid. I have zero idea. Atletico Madrid got slaughtered by PSG who just won the Champions League and locked you know rocked Inter Milan, what it looks like against them. I don't even want to imagine. But I would hope that at least the Seattle Sounders team feels like they can go into that athletic game at home with a little bit of confidence and then you sort of see where you go from there. Full weekend of NWSL games this weekend. We talked a ton

on Wednesday or excuse me on Friday actually, was when our show came out about Louisville in their best running club history. They'd won four of their last five and they were going into Kansas City, the other team that had won four of their last five best team in the league right now. This was going to be the huge test. Well, 19 minutes in it was test failed 100% they gave up three goals in the opening 19 minutes, they got run off the field, they pressed high, they left space behind. And we talked a little bit but maybe not as much as we should have. In the preview of saying, well, showing is going to kill you over the top, via can drop

in or can stretch the field. You've got a few options that can make runs out of midfield. I think Jordan mentioned like, and if you over focus on all of them, Michelle Cooper is back now. And Michelle Cooper was the star of those first 20 minutes, read the space perfectly, got out quickly. The moment turnovers happen in transition, I thought was very aggressive with when she was in possession, making direct runs towards goal rather than always going to the end line. But when she did go to the end line, really good texture and ideas on her crosses the clipped ball to the far post that forces the own goal that the texture on the ball throws the goalkeeper off, it gets it over the first defender makes it really, really unsure for

Malay of what to do with it. Then you get Cooper running in on goal and the one where she runs in on goal, you see Ellie Jean, try and step up to hold you know, to get her caught offside. I think part of that is because Ellie Jean playing right center back. And Michelle Cooper is attacking from the right wing. So the opposite side of the field, and because both fullbacks had bombed forward, it was a little bit of an unnecessary turnover unexpected from Taylor flint, sort of like didn't have ideas just played a ball down the middle, which turns over, I don't know that jeans even going to catch Ellie Cooper. So I started Michelle Cooper. So I think Cooper at that point, Jean at that point has to just try

and take a risk. Cooper reads the space perfectly gets out onto that right wing for Kansas City. So attacking the space left open by Louisville gets in on goal, they're able to make it three zero and Louisville sort of hangs around at that point. Now in the 60th minute, they made two subs they scored in the 60 second minute. I don't want to say that they're directly related. But I will say I think Ari Borges brings a different look to central midfield than okay does. And the success of this Louisville team has come because of their press. You don't want to fully step away from it. But I think when there are matchups or moments where they decide that they're going to be more possession, I would look at Borges and okay, and as sort of the weather

vein for us from the outside saying if Borges is in the group, okay, they think they're going to have more of the ball and they want to use the ball more effectively, or maybe okay, and becomes your high pressing option out of central midfield. We're going to learn a lot about Louisville though, they lose this game, they end up losing this game four to two, they cut it to three to two and like the 87th minute. Schwinga scores late to make it four to they now face Orlando on Friday night at home. They then host Kansas City coming back from the summer break on August 1. And then they travel to Orlando.

And then they travel to Washington and San Diego. So obviously, there's a huge gap to those next second set of games. But if this Louisville team is realistic as a competitor, even if it's just for them historically a playoff team, for the first time, we're going to learn a lot in this stretch. Some other big games that came up Chicago, they played at Soldier Field, it was a double header, I believe at the Chicago Fire, they ended up up to zero in the 13th minute. Ludmila Ludmila both goals. First one a little bit of a mistake in spacing ball over the top. And so she's able to pick it up. goalkeeper doesn't come off their line gets in on goal scores. The second one, it's

a run from her own half. Ludmilla gets out and also finishes once again. So you're thinking, all right, Chicago playing at Soldier Field, a different look trying to appeal to different fan base. This is the moment they concede twice in the last three minutes of regulation in the 87th and 90th. It was a long strike in the 87th to make it to one and then you get a Lindby and Dolo goal in the 90th. So Seattle ends up stealing

a bit of the result from this one. And I just think for Chicago, a case of just like what everything that can go wrong does go wrong at this point. And it wasn't easy for them to see it out, but it felt like they were going to get there. And I think a really, really unfortunate situation that they were not able to get a win with this big crowd in the building in a whole different facility, all that type of stuff they did make a signing though, throughout last week coming into the weekend, they signed German national team defender, either center back or fullback, Catherine Hendritch from Wolfsburg. So the 33 year old was at the Olympics last year for the German national team has over 85 caps going all the way back to 2014 has played

for the last seven years with Bayern Munich and Wolfsburg. So a high level player, a big need for this team, whether it is at center back or at fullback, they need both options really with this group, but you'd love to I think see a player here come in play along stop give you even more possession help the likes of grosso in central midfield control the game a little bit more maybe you can start to put your stamp on games more often they've been more dangerous going forward since loren donaldson was let go but i think they still don't really dominate games and the flow of games. So two zero lead let go by the Chicago team was almost outdone by San Diego. San Diego went up three zero

in the opening 51 minutes I think it was they end up conceding twice, but they close out with a three to win the first half was the Kenza Dali show we have talked about her ability to control the game from deep midfield positions playing behind Gia Corley alongside Savannah McCaskill. But with the way Houston sets up with five in the back and a little bit more space, higher up in central midfield, Jonas Eidevall pushed Kenza Dali higher and she was the central force of everything that happened in the first half driving forward in possession, taking long shots, slipping in early through balls for Cascarino on the right side to you know, moving the defense to one side switching the field quickly. So much well done by Ken

Zadali in this game. Maria Sanchez, who we think is on the verge of transferring to Tigres came off the bench at halftime scored within five minutes of coming on the field, but she might still be on her way out. Who knows for San Diego, they end up giving up a late goal to Oliveri a long strike, then they concede again to make it three two, but they're able to see this one out for the close of the weekend. Portland closed things out on Sunday with a big 2-0 win at home over Washington. They remain undefeated as home at home. And I think this is sort of this case with Portland. They are capable of massive highs right now. This team when they are on the same

page and everyone's playing well and playing confident, they can really knock off anyone. And you see that with this win against Washington, maybe the most complete 90 minute performance we have seen from this group, two of the young strikers tiernan and Torden get the goals for them. They are inconsistent. And that is where you see the up and down and maybe some big losses, followed by some big wins. But the central midfield, a veteran group for them now in coffee Fleming and he Gita really strong game for them. They control most of this game. They get the finishes from two young players and a really good weekend for Portland.

On the Major League Soccer side of things, biggest game of the weekend, the Philadelphia Union, a 98th minute winner over Charlotte FC, a really good Wilfred Zaha goal equalized things after Philly took an early lead. And then Marcus Anderson comes off the bench and helps them with the winner in that 98th minute for Philadelphia that moved them to first place in the supporter shield waste because the Columbus crew knocked off the Vancouver Whitecaps in Columbus to open up that Saturday as well. Of course, big time international absences for both teams. So unfortunately, we see probably the two best quality of soccer teams on the field and you don't see their full groups. You see changes in central midfield for both teams you see changes across the back line. Of course, no Patrick Schulte right now. So

Evan Bush in goal for this Columbus team, but it was a really fun game. Ibrahim Ali, who scored in the second minute, JC Nagando ends up scoring in the sixth minute, and then Diego Rossi with the winner in the 23rd minute. So these two teams came out, they played open, they played their soccer. And I think one of those moments that it's just really unfortunate to not see them at full strength. Speaking of not at full strength, San Diego came from behind twice at Minnesota to win four to two. So Minnesota took an early lead in one of the most bizarre like five minute spans of a game I've maybe ever seen. So you get an own goal from CN Diego, they end up having this awkward back pass that goes past CJ dos Santos but pops over his foot and ends up going in his own goal. And then moments later, Andres

Dreier with one of the best goals you will ever see, he ends up scoring from half field but not in a moment of transition. So normally when you score from midfield or anything like that, it's the balls turned over and the goalkeeper is awkwardly farther off their line than they should be. This was a moment again set defense and Wessel spiel making his debut in Major League Soccer on a short term loan up from Minnesota United to was caught off his line when he shouldn't have been there's no pressure on dryer. So the backline is not playing very high up. And so therefore spiel needs to be deeper, because he does not need to be the one to close off any

ball over the top. It doesn't have to do so from a far distance. dryer recognizes it. And it's an incredible strike, like standing still basically, he perfectly chips him doesn't even bounce in like goes in with power into the back of the net dryer has been awesome this year got a chance to play with the Denmark national team as well recently gets the goal in this one then your boa breaks a three month MLS goal scoring drought. It's a rebound that CJ Dos Santos should have done better with but it comes off a gorgeous build out from Minnesota United down the right side finally ends up on a second ball back. It's Pereira who gets space. Bongi

sets up the whole thing. He's the one who creates the build out. He's the one who sets up the pass for Pereira and the goals knocked down. Then Minnesota comes back once again, they make it two two and then a Losky comes off the bench with a star performance, a run out of midfield to make it three two and then a header a gorgeous header between two centerbacks pops up as Brian Dunsef was saying like a salmon out of water and just skims his head against the ball to make it four to two for this San Diego team. So a big win on a weekend where Vancouver loses and they're able to move up the standings. The other insane game in this weekend was the 3-3 game to start

Saturday between St. Louis and the LA Galaxy. St. Louis continuing to take leads, Klaus gets a hat trick, Galaxy coming back every single time. Marco Royce sets up one of the prettiest goals you will see for Nasty Mento, a no look back heel from the middle of the field that plays Nasty Mento in he's able to finish one v one. Peck gets two goals in this game, one a terrible backpack from Zelinski. It helps sort of cause a slip from Jayden Reed and pecks in on goal and you're thinking that's the winner. Long ball over the top though. Joe Klaus hammers a shot from no angle into the high corner. Big weekend for my golden boot team. Petar Musa was on fire against sporting Kansas City in FC Dallas is three one win

and Joe Klaus with a hat trick as well against his LA galaxy team. So big for the brand for David Goss and you'll love to see it. One other note to throw in there RSL 2-0 win over DC United. Johnny Russell's back baby. He gets a goal. He gets a start and Gozo scores once again, the youngest player to two goals in his major league soccer career. So as I said, we'll be back tomorrow. We're going to talk all things MLS. We're going to talk be back tomorrow. We're going to talk all things MLS, we're going to talk us M&T, we're going to talk club World Cup for these MLS teams and everything else going on. Big congratulations to Tampa Bay, by the way, for winning the first ever USL Super League Championship and all Florida Derby against Fort Lauderdale

CF. So a big win for them. Congratulations to the team. And of course, to Christina uncle, friend of the show, who is the president of the club. I think they're preparing one of the floating parades in Tampa that they tend to do when teams win. To be fair, I don't follow any of the Tampa Bay sports teams, so I've never really watched one, although I hate the Tampa Bay Rays right now because they swept my New York Mets. Thank you to all of you for listening.

Thank you to all of you for being here and we'll be back very, very soon.