Playoffs start with a bang! Gass returns to break down Wild Card + 1st Round

Extratime is exactly how I find out what's going on in the MLS. Get lost! Get lost! Maybe this podcast has influenced me a bit as well. Everybody up here! Every single day goes into the office, into the laboratory.

They're trying to cook up some great stuff for you guys. That's why he's here! From New York, New York, you are listening to Extratime. My I'm Major Weebie with my partners in soccer, Matt Doyle. All the way from Miami, probably sweating. His AC is broken. Sirens might be in the background. It's old Extratime. It's David Gus. David, what's up, man? We've been trying to find one in the grey shirt with the grain beard in the ball bag. Yeah, I'm in a hard time here.

It's like double vision on my stream. What a wonderful, semi-surprise, man. Thanks for coming back and hanging with us. Yeah, it felt like the right time of year. Playoffs are alive. We all care again for the first time in eight months. We're all super excited. I figured out how much it's...

The good vibes have arrived, folks. We're going to have a big show here today. The wildcard games are in the books. They were, well, predictably wild in some ways, extremely depressing. If you're a Portland Timbers supporter, player, manager, or all of the above. We'll talk through all the first round games.

We'll start on Friday, Inter Miami hosting at L.A.D. United. That is at 8.30 p.m. Eastern time. Of course, on In the West Season pass, you can watch it for free, just like all of the first games in the first round, best of three series. There is an hour pre-game show on In the West Season at 7.30 p.m. Eastern.

So throw it on at 7.30 or you're cooking dinner, eating dinner, whatever. Roll it through the game. It's Juliano Messi and Inter Miami's... Well, not Inter Miami's, but Messi's first playoff game.

Look at all that. The best thing we saw, et cetera. We'll talk about the Golden Boot draft, which I think we have invited the winner, but we may deny him access. We'll see how that goes. Before we get there, man, how is Miami? Let's just get a catch up here. I feel like I need to catch up in some ways. I get the memes in the group chat, but I don't get the personal stuff.

Miami is great. It is the greatest city in the freeest state in America. And I'm so excited to be here. Thank you to my overlords for allowing me to be here. Now that I got that out of the way, Miami is excellent. I live in downtown Miami. I'm having a great time. I already looked up bars to go watch Inter Miami on Friday night for the game. So I'm excited to go out. You genuinely see pink on every corner.

Every time Inter Miami plays, we have to go to the airport last time and like everyone's getting out of a cab in Inter Miami, Jersey. So it's cool. It's cool to live in South America for the first time. And I'm really enjoying that. What is you have all these things that have been constant in your life from falafel to just believing your city's the best city in the world? What is the one sort of off the beaten path thing in Miami lifestyle wise?

Whatever it might be, they're just like, Oh, I actually didn't realize that was an awesome amazing thing that I needed. The Middle Eastern food here is unreal. It might be better than New York and like, once I had that locked in, I was shot fired.

Uh oh, I'm chilling. Like I went back for young people and obviously didn't eat for 25 hours. And then after it's like, what do I need to eat? I thought it would be falafel and hummus and have to scramble, scramble to get it in. But it is elite down here. So that has been very, very exciting. Also being 12 minutes from a beach is also a nice lifestyle change.

So, uh, when we booked you, you had an impression that this was just one segment. I'm going to tell you that this is the full show. And my understanding is that you and old Tommy Scoops, Tom Bogart are going to do a full podcast later. So just making sure you're saving the good stuff for extra time. And you're going to rehash everything on soccer wise. Right.

Yeah, I think I'm going to go on soccer wise and be like, as extra time said, as extra time said lately, I'm actually did the the FC Cincinnati podcast last night. The far post. Is that what it's called? I was. And I, one of the questions was prefits with Matt Doyle refused to answer this, but here it comes. So I forgot about that until just now.

So I'm, you know, soccer wise is the place where I answer those questions. What was, what was the question that I refused to answer? It was, um, it wasn't, it was a bit of a journey and Kevin prefaced it by saying, I don't really know what I'm asking. But it was something about the wacky and wildness and sort of like, there's a lot of moments in MLS space where it feels like some things don't matter and some things do matter.

I don't know. I gave an answer that I thought was within 20% of the realm of the question and shout out to Kevin because I really appreciate coming on and there was a lot of fun. Um, and that explanation, that explanation you just offered is, is it in coherent? Yeah. Doyle, you can go listen to the question and the answer and you're end up in the same place again.

Oh, boy, uh, coherency. We hope we'll improve as this show goes on. Give the big sell on soccer wise. We've been given it, but you're here. So do that and then we'll get into the nitty gritty of MLS playoffs. If you care about MLS or NWSL, it's a place where we're covering this stuff. We believe the way deserves to be, you know, same as we've done here, but as often as we can, me and Tom are on at least twice a week talking MLS.

I do NWSL with Jordan Angeli, who everyone will remember from being on this show and she covers NWSL as well as anyone, national teams, all that stuff as well. And then sprinkling conversations with people I find interesting in the MLS world. So we had Tim Bezbachenko last Friday, Ben Pyraman, who runs Charleston battery, which I think is one of the most interesting stories in North American soccer right now, the week before.

Haley Carter, who runs the Orlando City or learned a pride, excuse me, the GM of a team that just set all these records for undefeated streets and winning the shield and was in the military through school and then played goalkeeper professionally. Now runs a team. And so just trying to have a place where people who care about these things feel like they're a part of it. And we've got a discord that's super active.

And I've really enjoyed meeting people there and talking to people and we're working on more live shows as we go along, hopefully at MLS Cup, NWSL Cup as well coming up. We did one at all star, but it's we're on pretty often. I'm putting out right now five shows a week where live three times a week, 2pm or 3pm Eastern time on YouTube.

And so it's just the gap that I think a lot of us feel has been there in majorly soccer. If you care about this stuff, especially this time of year, I know being a Mets fan and a Liberty fan like every time the games. A day of a game you want pregame you want post game you want call and show you want all that experience and we're trying to bring as much of that as we can to the MLS and end of your cell world.

The content is amazing. I'm obviously a dedicated listener. I will also say that discord has disrupted my life because I can't figure out how to mute it. So I get all of the notifications all the time and being who I am. I'm extremely distracted. Once I go in and see we be has responded. I'm like, I'm not getting into this.

I'm a rabbit hole. I name is Andrew we be and then I also say if you like swag, I was sent the beautiful soccer wise purple t shirt that has become one of my go to's in the wardrobe. So I'm a happy MVP within the Patreons to go check out soccer wise go listen. Ton of good stuff there. All right. The first big question for you guys to start the show for Michael Drickel. How long will it take for cat and bridges the gel in the next to liquid.

Title contenders. What do we think here tough one for you mixed fans this week. Yeah, it was hard. You know, I'm sitting here watching the New York Liberty championship parade right now. And it's just like it's tough being from a true basketball city to have a team struggling because you know grassroots all the way through to the top level multiple professional teams.

So it's just like being from a major city. You do feel that and you feel that pressure, but it's just game what. So we know it's just going to get better. We don't worry about it. I do have the WNB 18 do in Boston this year. I'm not a Boston guy. I'm a Celtic guy. There's difference. Okay. Okay. Let me just let me know.

All right. There's our moratorium on NBA talk again Friday Miami Atlanta Saturday, Galaxy Colorado Sunday. You've got two games Orlando Charlotte LAC Vancouver and then on Monday since Nadi New York City Seattle and Houston and two more games on Tuesday. Odds are we'll be back Wednesday to wrap up the entire first leg of the first round. We'll keep you updated on that. Let's dive right into the wild cards. What's the best thing you saw in the wild car games. They've.

It's got to be Joseph. Goose on. We made it the narrative. The talking point right Joseph against his old team in a postseason game. He turned the corner playing really well for Montreal. In a time where I felt like he was done and didn't think that we'd see this ever again. He gets the opening goal. He doesn't celebrate too much and then he gets the penalty and just the whole thing the conversation between him. Goose on the anger, the energy.

He scores. He goes and yells at. Then he goes back. Then they have another shoot off. Then he tries to shake Brad, Guzont's hand and he does the classic walking around screaming shake my hand. And then at the end, the little hug right it was it was competitive juices all along, but you have to think Joseph's taken a thousand penalties in training against Brad, Guzont and that they've talked smack every time over and over and they're obviously two originals and they've been around for a while.

And so Brad, Guzont is 40 years old. He's a 40 year old man and he's playing in a playoff game. And Joseph's only 31, which is wild as well. Both of those shocked me when I looked them up the other day, but it was just a cool moment what you wanted to see and it was a great game. Like this was the perfect start to a postseason where it reminds you immediately like, oh yeah, we don't really know what's going to happen and we can sort of get through on a curveball pretty quickly.

Yeah, the stakes got turned up. I thought the interaction with Guzont and Joseph at the end was interesting because there was so much sort of on field like we are alpha competitors like we know each other deeply and intimately we were the leaders of the land United for a while and now on the opposite side.

And then Guzont's almost like kissing his forehead and like consoling him and you just can see this sort of like difference between what happens between the lines and what happens when it's all over and some of the emotions start to go down just a little bit. But this was a weird game in a lot of ways, because Montreal was dominant. They had the ball they had the chances maybe not clear cut in Atlanta were just sort of scrambling like how do we just put a foot on the ball.

How do we get into this match at all and there was a 23rd minute interaction between Rob Valentino and Brad Guzon and they're talking and you can see Valentino is talking about spacing in the midfield and then Moran Chuck drops in a little bit more fortune pushes up a little bit more and they have the ball for two straight minutes and 45 passes

which you were keen enough to pick out and that's where the goal comes from on the back post and then boom game is game is completely different from then on out. Yeah, I thought you did a good job of breaking it down on the post game show explaining how like these are 45 passes that were kind of side to side and not exactly cutting players out or entire lines of Montreal's defense out of the play, but it just kept pushing them back more like deeper and deeper and was so good.

And then it was a little bit deeper and deeper and was slow and it was methodical and they're going side to side so they were spreading them out. And the whole point of it was to get someone isolated on the back post in this case, Brooks Lenin isolated on the back post against Ricky Edwards who's just not an attentive defender back there and then it ends up on the left side in a decent crossing position.

I don't love crosses from that spot, but if there's nobody getting pressure to the ball because they have just been completely flat and by two straight minutes of possession and you have a kind of a mismatch on the back post and you have the back line a little bit ragged. I think it was waterman who dropped a little bit and kept everything on side like yeah, bang it in there across that ball.

Give it a shot and it was not the prettiest build up I've ever seen, but it was purposeful in a way that Atlanta hadn't been to that point and that they've rarely been throughout this entire season. 45 passes I said at the time it was the longest build up I can remember leading up to a goal though a buddy of mine at the union actually reminded me the union had a 46 past build up against DC United seven years ago, of course, that was 10 man DC United was the regular season.

But this was it was spectacular. It was what you want to see from a team that is trying to make their way into a game on the road in the post season. I love seeing soccer like this. It was a nice moment for an Atlanta United team that I can't believe they're still standing after what they've been for most of the season and after what they were for most of this game.

The way we'll talk about this messier of like there's a lot of outlier moments that's the same as the Marco Fabian Philadelphia union so you can't compare Atlanta United to a team that had outliers like that. Yeah, but look if any of the any occasion here Brooks Lenin is going to be a social media star in like seven years. So we'll see if that goes down a little reality TV in the future.

You're like I said anytime you can isolate Brooks Lenin on the back post you have to do it. And that's like that's the game plan that you're building around. Honestly, I think isolating anybody on the back post against for him Edwards. That's the match in your favorite. Do you do you think Dave you could defend as well on the back post in that moment.

And then the second goal as well. What do you think? I think based off the way it ended me giving up the penalty wouldn't have been worse than what ended up happening, which is what would have happened. I would have turned and just pushed the guy next to me to try and get out of it. And then here comes Joseph Martinez. He gets two goals in the second half. And we go to penalties and Bragg who's on place here.

Well, and we haven't really talked about the moment for Guzan that was the hiccup right like credit to the guzanne. He's been through a lot of things in his career. He handed that first goal to Montreal and then bounced back. And really that was the difference in this game. Just who was going to be more. We did the second half changes work for Montreal. Yes, extremely well. Tom Pierce changed the game completely. It made me wonder why Tom Pierce wasn't in from the start.

Because he can't defend on the back post. Well, that's. Any other takes on this game. I mean, what I come down to on these wild car games is I had fun. They were amazing experiences. There's nothing better than single elimination soccer, but ultimately the like rock fights between basically mediocre teams to get smashed. So I can't take too much away from them realistically. I think in like someone do math for me 90 plus 45 135 minutes into these games.

My thought was like, Oh, wow, it's a playoffs. We don't know anything. And then I remembered something Tom yelled at me right before the Montreal game when we did our preview where he's like, we both were so strong that Montreal would win.

And he's like, we're talking about a team with a negative 18 goal differential that doesn't totally know who we are. Like these teams are not in the stratosphere of the other teams in the playoffs where they have true identities that they stick to through tough moments. And that's kind of what you saw in it, which I'll take it when the stakes are high, but it probably won't play out. These teams are both about to get killed. I'll be shocked if either Atlanta or Vancouver win a game.

This is the middle of the Vancouver have played competitive games against LAFC over the last two years. And I believe it's an 18 to two goal differential across those knockout competition matches that they've played. You never know they're due. So, Doyle, I'm going to assume that that 45 pass buildup is your best thing that you saw. It is. It is. Yeah. Okay. I'll dive into it specifically. Specifically your breakdown of it. Is this how it's taking some more?

This shows become when I left these two complement each other back and forth. Yeah, we just we've missed the edge to be honest. You've missed that edge. You've done them right now. I mean, I don't know. Okay. Okay. I'm sort of existential about all of this about you know, you leave in the show about the playoffs about life in general.

And I often wonder myself, does God exist? And if he does, who does he root for? And is it the New York Liberty to assume that God might root for you or me or the Portland Timbers? And God, as it turns out, works in very mysterious ways. The best thing that I saw was the back and forth, theologically, of course, between Phil Neville pregame saying God is a Timbers fan and reference the fact that the Vancouver White Caps couldn't host their match because of Supercross.

So I had to be played at Providence Park and then after taking a 50 hiding by the Vancouver White Caps, Vanny Sartini noted atheos says God can be a Timbers fan, but God doesn't exist for me, which is just a ice cold line after delivering a nickel to the forehead of your rivals in their stadium in which Portland Timbers just basically did not show up this entire game was they all went to Vancouver.

They didn't know that it was a home. Yeah, I mean this entire game and experience for Timbers fans, as I said players, coaches, front office ownership had to just be miserable. 60th minute you saw the fans streaming out great performance by Vancouver. I had some Vancouver fans had me up saying is this the like one of the best playoff performances of all time and I was like, oh hell no, not even in the stratosphere of that.

I mean, we're talking about a low stakes game against a bad team who basically handed it to you. Was it a good performance in the terms of the Vancouver White Caps history? Yeah, of course they have two playoff wins this being one of them the other being a 50 win against the quakes in 2017. This was one of the worst both of the performances ever both at home.

This one of the worst playoff performances ever or in the levels terms one of the worst play in performances ever because it didn't technically count as a playoff game, which we have also argued. This was shocking Dave like or maybe it was predictable. I'm not sure which it's a team that has huge flaws and strengths and they don't have the ability to dominate the game towards their strengths like the galaxy and what you see.

And so they leave themselves open and exposed and there are ways that Phil Neville could have mitigated this and he chose not to right we seem come all Miller play as a left back for large stretches of this season we've seen them go with extra sort of defensive options in central midfield. We we had a you know we rightfully criticize Rahim Edwards. Claudio Bravo was an order of magnitude worse 100% Rahim Edwards except if we told you this 24 hours ago you would have said yeah.

Yeah. So it's on the person's job who put them on the field to do the exact thing you knew he was going to do as well in all of that where I think for Montreal they probably had less options and a little different situation but I absolutely agree Claudio Bravo was a trojious in this game the pass back on the third goal doesn't defend on the far post at any point including in the sequence of play after his pass back when his team finally recovers and he still doesn't defend his own.

That this day and watching after that was. Yeah, but to parches and defending either. Arahos losing most of his battles as well. Charis should have been red carded twice in the first half.

So to have that many failures across a team to me there's a level of leadership there that across across the back line right and it to be clear it is more than then just the back line but I saw a lot of comments in the post game or like even during the game on social media from Timber's fans being like oh this this better lead to serious investment in the defense and everything a level of lots like they're actually already has been serious investment in the defense Bravo's a tab guy,

mascara's a tab guy come on Miller's a tab guy Dario's who parrots a tab guy I believe Maxime. I wrote. Crepo. A was a raw hose a tab guy yeah Crepo who did not start the game is I believe a tab guy is on 618,000. Okay, so he's almost on a match deal so they've spent a lot of money on this defense. Here's the thing that you don't have to stress about.

Zouparge only has two years left on his deal come on Miller has four or aho has three so it'll get better really fast with these players. Yeah, they've. This is part of well, this is part of. Are we getting to the event or comments now you can't if you want.

So a vendor came out after the game he went on a tweet thread in his feelings so that could never end poorly for anyone involved we can attest to that exactly as Kelly is as Kay, the car says never tweet so you know just fire that into the group chat

and I guess you know fired into the public sphere that's fine to has a has a purpose certainly so he apologizes to the fans for their performance and then he says Portland fans do not deserve the people of power of this club people who say they are men but do not keep their word people who are only there when the team wins and fortunately these are the things we have no control over.

So the vendor sat out of training we know vendor wants a new contract a vendor had connections to the Middle East as well and maybe wanted to leave there's a lot going on in here and I don't know that a vendor is 100% talking about the things I'm about to talk about.

But you talk about the contracts they've given out to the defensive players they have you also talk about the fact that this team has Felipe more on a non max DP deal that they could have bought down and brought in another designated player in this season.

And they finished night in the Western conference and what we saw in the in the wild card game was who they are and so there was space and opportunity for this team to get better both in the moves they've chosen to make and the decisions to make more competitive moves and push this team to a higher etch long and at a time when we're seeing MLS teams make that decision and move up right Columbus great team then they bring in Kucho and they take things up to another level.

I think the acknowledgement that Portland hasn't done that and has sat now in this space for years now right coming off of the Diego Valera years like there has not been a time over the last five years where we have said Portland are in the upper etch long of majorly soccer for quality on the field the atmosphere the relevance in the market the history all of that still stands.

And that's a ability to say there an MLS Cup favorite hasn't been there for a while. I mean, I will say the last playoff game for the timbers and the last one in Portland was 2021 in less cup which they thought they were about to win.

But like that goes to some of what you're talking about in terms of what they were and what they are now because those teams had guys the biggest guys who always stood up in those moments in Valerii in Sebastian Blanco who even when they were struggling with injury or weren't available in the regular season were just like I'm going to warrior this thing out and I'm going to make it happen in the playoffs.

And the coach I think in Joe Severese that may have not always played the most expansive beautiful soccer all a will for Nancy that makes us sort of who in all but seem to always get his guys up for games and certainly big games. And it just I mean they were not for this. And they were not for at all and even when you go back to that they were fifth in the last right and they didn't play a home game till they get to MLS Cup like they have not been a team that weekend a week out.

You can say this is this is the mark this is where this league stands now and there's what we're capable of they are they were 18 with a DNA of like we'll turn on for these big moments once you put us on the stage. And then as you said that wasn't the case this time with a new players and a new cup.

Yeah I just want to read a couple of quotes here from Phil Neville his first year and it ends in frustration and ultimately embarrassment quote tonight was an embarrassment said Phil I take full responsibility. I want to say that we had one player in the pitch verse 11 David ishala quote that's a very responsible responsibility that virus attacks the weakest part of your body I've seen signs of individualism and quitting on the team. I mean it this is like.

You know to your point Dave you said hey when you have flaws like you want to cover them and like all the timbers flaws they just put on center stage in this game and when something like that happens inevitably. You know there's some lashing out that happens and I think you saw some of that post game from the quotes you certainly saw that on Twitter from a vendor and.

You're not going to make progress sit around point and fingers like do we think that this port ends massive changes this off season. No I mean I think they wanted to change on the back line too but Dave's right about the contracts.

I don't think it'll be massive changes I wouldn't be shocked if come on Miller gets traded because like one of the only assets they have and they didn't start him and if you're someone on another team you're happy to give him that contract or pay him for that and it sounds like a vendor wants out and therefore you have the trickle down from that which is a ton of money to spend in that position and you're going to go and try and get.

Basically a vendor like everything about what he did on the field was what you're looking for in that position and that's what they're going to go out and try and get but I would be shocked if the conversation inside of the Portland timbers right now is what we're close we're not that far off even with what happened.

How about the Vancouver White caps we've really dove in on the timbers here you know congratulations the White caps we have often said on this show and in many other places that like what they're missing is the next step is to do it in big games that aren't the Canadian championship it's never happened in conkey calf and they've been there a ton because of the Canadian championship.

It has never happened in the playoffs either and oil it might have been the down bad Portland timbers but by God they put him down bad I mean Ryan God with the seventh hat trick and the less cup playoff history stew Armstrong playing I mean this is not saying that much because he's mostly been hurt and unavailable but his best game as a white cap I'm not sure if he's justified his price tag yet but he's at least given you a vision I mean he would do it he came in for free so he justified that okay well the price that you have to pay the guy.

Every every two weeks money goes into his account and it's not insignificant the amount of it was awesome stew Armstrong was awesome and as he pointed out he has barely played since he arrived I think it was 120 minutes going into decision day I forgot how many minutes he got on decision day we said a long time for the caps that they were missing at least one piece to add a little bit more quality and it was especially apparent last year.

Behind gold and white who were so good up top together they didn't and you know they have kubas as a demitting kubas is great at the mid stuff he doesn't run the show they were missing that piece in central midfield and for one night at least stew Armstrong sure looked like he could fill a big chunk of that need because he was like even within the first 20 minutes before the flood gates opened.

I think I said a text of the group shopping like stew Armstrong's been awesome and it was little touches it was the position he was taking up on buildouts that you know really sucked pressure away from Pedro Vita and allowed him to play a little bit more and it came within the context of the you know vanny going to the 4 3 2 1 Christmas tree which is a little bit of an unorthodox sort of formation and gives gold the chance to run around right give it untether is going to be a lot of money.

And then it untether is gold from any I don't say any but a lot of positional responsibilities and that I think. This team when combined with Armstrong's outstanding performance and extra level of dynamism and once they tilted the field which happened around that 20th minute and we're able to start playing in Portland's box like we know what happens when teams get to play in Portland's box and.

Three goals and insist for gold goal to assist for Armstrong Brian White had a goal and did you have an assist as well I mean it was just all the stuff that we have wanted to see from Vancouver in a playoff game we've talked about it a long time on this show really since vanny took over because we're all fans of of vanny in a lot of ways like and we just wanted to see it happen in a big non-Canadian championship game.

This is big man this was since they've since they've come into MLS other than Canadian championship finals this is their biggest win as a team this is bigger than the 5 nil over San Jose 7 years ago because it's against arrival because it's a little bit unexpected given that they came into this on a 4 game losing streak which apparently they're the first team ever to come into the playoffs on a 4 game losing streak and to drop a net.

It drop a nickel on on the Portland timbers and do it in Portland is remarkable and caps fans were over the moon last night and they were right to be just incredible performance. I would like to recite for you the 2017 Vancouver White Caps 4231 formation that beat the San Jose earthquakes just for just for fun just because this show is this so Marin Marin excuse me I can't even remember how to say his name.

Renovitch in goal nor wins get right back waston and Parker as your center backs Marcel does young as the left back Tony Johnny and Ali gazal are your central midfielders Christian Blanjo's your D Reina and Christian to share a all behind Freddie Montero. What a what a difference in the yours any Tony Johnny reference is a solid one so that was one of it once I saw Tony Johnny and you were on the show day of I was like I just I whether this is going to fall flat on its rate MLS center.

Like I do have kind of like what good content that is any any final thoughts here from the wild card games before he died into the first round anything to clean up. Do we do we think that Vancouver can spend this forward and make a competitive with IFC this year. If you take away the set peace goals they can see it has that would have been competitive. So if they can not shoot themselves in the府 in that way.

of playing in the field. I think they're okay across three games to be competitive within a few. Are you buying? Are you buying it from Stu Armstrong? As a solid player, yeah. Like as a tam level addition, I don't know if he's a DP and he's made his a DP is making two points. I understand. Yeah. Thanks. Okay. I was like, well,

yeah, your salary tables in front of you. I do. I do. What you talked about with what he did in this game, there's a lot of pressure points that Vancouver puts on teams when they're good, right? Goal attacking downfield white, his movement. And so there are openings if you are solid to be good for them. Point being runners have to go with defenders have to go with Brian white. People are chasing Ryan golf. He's putting teams under pressure.

V-days finding, you know, line breaking passes. He did it. The back post is a really good arriving runner as well as a service when he has time. And depending on the setup they choose, sometimes they've got wingbacks out there that are dangerous and pull you wide. So there's gaps and there's holes. They haven't had players capable of taking advantage of them.

So I buy that Stuart Armstrong can be a guy inside of all of that who can be good. I don't think he's a vendor level of if everyone's standing flat footed, I can just break guys down and create the game. No. That's not what they're looking for. And that's not what they're paying for either. So I would say this Vancouver team is better than they were a year ago when they faced off against LAFC. And let me ask you just one more. Vancouver

versus Portland, which team had more talent on the field? Talent is a tough term to use in this because we took a soccer ball and went out to a field. Claudo Bravo and Juan David Muscarra might be the two best players we see, but they are not effective players in the team in the position they play. I would say Vancouver had last week links on the field in that game. We be. I would say the Portland Timbers, if you're just talking

talent, have more talent. But I completely agree with Dave in terms of weak links. I mean, you saw a Raho go play in South America and come a bowl and beat Uruguay and then start against Brazil in front of 60,000 people and then down for nothing wander out of the most dangerous space on the field to let Ryan gold finishes hat trick. I mean, there are just inexplicable plays decision making processes and just sort of like who's going to show up

in this moment moments that it just didn't feel like the Timbers had. I raised my hand. I over indexed on, hey, Vancouver Whitecaps have it one in seven games. The Vancouver White caps are choking it out. The Vancouver Whitecaps are doing Vancouver Whitecaps things. I did not think hard enough about the fact that the Portland Timbers hadn't once in September 18th, that this was objectively not a good team throughout the course of the season.

What was good are the things that distract us and make a smile and we see in the highlights, which is a vander and Jonathan Rodriguez and Mora and Santi doing special things. But basically all season long apart from a stretch in June and July, this has been a team that looks a lot like this. So a lot of work to do. All right, let's dive into the first round. It starts on Friday, Inter Miami, Atlanta United, 8.30 PM Eastern time and endless

season pass. It's free. 7.30 is the countdown show. Fill in the blank as the bar that Dave is going to. He is already promised to buy you drinks if you are a soccer wise patron. I think I heard that in the discord probably. Yeah, I'm sure you did. Yeah, my plan in there myself. Let's break all these up and try to do them in ways that we can easily chunk. So I'm going to say we're going to say, how do we sell it to non-sicos? What's the storyline?

What's the narrative so to speak and eat your parlance? Then the upset forecast, how likely do we think it is and then how does the lower C do it? And then just one thing you want to see in this series can be literally anything. So I think Inter Miami, Atlanta United, how

do you sell it to non-sicos? Pretty darn easy. Lino Messi, Luis Suarez, Sergio Busquets, Jordi Alba, Tatumartino, Tatumartino playing against his former team, massive crowds, the best player of all time in his first in the last cup playoff appearances and big time stakes because the pressure is on Inter Miami. Like they have to win this thing. I don't think that's like a debate to be had. It's just the expectations on reality when they have

the team that they have. So let's hit that upset forecast. Dave, getting in front of the green screen, man, like what kind of fronts we got coming in down there in South Florida. Now you're very familiar. I'm sure with the changing weather patterns, is it enough for Atlanta United to do something historic? If they do cancel all the games, Atlanta has a chance to not get blown out in this. So what's a percentage chance? What's a percentage

chance? I can look upset. I look west over Miami and I normally watch the rain come in. It comes in sheets and then goes away immediately. Yeah, this is going to be a rough one for Atlanta. It's going to be entertaining, I think, for all of us. But I don't know, are we going out of 100%? Are we doing 100%? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll say 10%. Oh, I think that's

cheer up. Is that high? Then I'll say 5%. Okay. How would they do it, Doyle? If the 5% chance comes to be, well, let me just preface this by saying I was on this as MLS before decision day. And I was forced to take the bullet and make the case for Atlanta getting into the playoffs. And I I prefaced the whole breakdown with being like, they have a 1% chance of getting into the playoffs. And of course they did. And now they've been

absolutely battering me on social media. So you're the target of F.E.A., huh? Rob Valentino's famous borrowed Tom Brady line. I missed that. What was this? Oh, well, what do you think F might stand for? Friends. Friends of all. Yes, friends them all. Yeah, that's correct. That's what it stands for. Yeah, man. He should lemonade that. How do they do it? Miami's defense is bad. Miami, like Miami can give up four goals very easily. They

find ways to do it. I think David Martinez helps in a lot of ways. But also he could be in an adventure with the ball in ways that I actually think are on balance better for the team. But also like if he's breaking lines off the dribble and he turns the ball over and it's just Thomas obvious back there. Miami's either down a goal or down to 10 men or

both. It's just does Atlanta have enough solidity to absorb and then hit in those moments when Miami's going to turn the ball over cheaply and expose Avilis and to a lesser extent, expose Sergio Busquets. Busquets was terrible against the Reves on Decision Day. That Bobby would handball the guy that would have made it three two that got called back. Like that came off with like an incredible blue skates turnover and then kept on side by Busquets

as well. So there is like, it's not even scabs. There's like open wounds that teams can pick at. We saw the Reves do it. So it's not an impossible ask from Atlanta to go out and score two three goals. What feels impossible to me? Does the knock it up for? Yeah. Yeah. As long as as long as Messi is 60 minutes healthy, I have no idea how Atlanta doesn't give up three or four goals.

Yeah. I think Dax will probably start and they'll try and flood central midfield. So Muran Chuk probably goes out to the wing and they're going to try and throw everybody they can at these at Messi and try and keep him outside the box and try and keep the ball away from him. Last two times they've played, it hasn't worked. But Doyle is right in the openings that are there. This is an inter Miami team that everything statistically they've

done this year is an outlier and they give up a million chances. This is not an Atlanta team that are that ruthless though. Like when Sabah is on great, so you have to hope that he's on in this game. And he was the last time it was a two two because it was

summertime. But there were multiple moments in that Montreal game. And even I would say on Decision Day where like Sabah and Tiara and whether it's Tyler Wall for Muran Chuk wherever it is are in a transition moment or hey, this might be a transition moment moment and the decision making or the execution is just not sharp. It's like, well, why did you do that? Why did you hesitate there? You had the pass through the lines. Why did you

pass it directly into the feet of the defender? So I mean, can Atlanta be efficient? Can they make a difference? And then the first time questions because because Messi and Miami are going to make the right decisions, Doyle. Yeah, that is the thing, right? Like like just less than 48 hours ago, we saw Atlanta in that second half when they were forced to defend deep. They were overwhelmed by Tom Pierce and Bryce Duke and Joseph Martinez and like,

okay, those have proved to be pretty good players. Miami's players are better than that. Like I don't believe in Atlanta's ability to defend as deep as they're probably going to need to. So then it comes back to like, all right, we're giving up three. Can we get four on the break and from Miami's mistakes? We saw the same in the Orlando game. They were up to one. They had to close out. They sat super deep and Luis Muriel's hitting

line-breaking passes and spoilers. The guys on Miami are better at that than he is. So yeah, it feels pretty dangerous for them. But I would say I would like to see them try and do that. Don't sit in, you know, try and take advantage of your chances. Understand the fact that you're not going to win any of these games one zero. So like the reality is you have to score goals. One thing we want to see all of us, Dave, you mentioned the one thing that

I want to see. That's Dax McCarty starting. I just think whether it's for nostalgic reasons, but more importantly, I think just for tactical reasons and personality reasons, you need somebody in the game that understands the moment that wants the ball in dangerous positions and isn't afraid to just go clatter somebody if you have to on account or attack, to get physical,

to demand more from their teammates. I just felt like throughout that Montreal game, there was no real focal point for Atlanta United to say, okay, how do we slow this down a little bit? How do we calm down? Who's going to get us into just a little bit more sort of stability, whether it's tactically in our shape defensively or with the ball trying to just get a breather and pass it

around a little bit or just to provide some edge. I would love to see Dax McCarty start in this game, whether it's to push Miranchuck to the wing and let him come in off the right on his left foot or it's to say, you know what Bartosz-Sleish? No, today's not your day. My guy, it's going to be Dax's day. He's had a lot more of him than this league than you have. He will step up at the moment we think at a little bit higher level. I would like to see Dax McCarty in the game for any net.

One thing you want. What do you want, Dave? I'd like to see Atlanta take some of their chances. Make it a series. That's pretty much it. I would like to see them put their head down, strike into the firepost. What we saw in the game in Atlanta between these two, which was the draw that felt like it could have thrown into Miami off the points record, Chase, was four or five chances

or half chances in the last 10 minutes that Atlanta didn't take. Like we talked about, a lot of like pullbacks when you should have been in a shooting position, shots that went wide when you were more open than you realized. Not taking the second touch when you thought you had to rush it even though only one person's defending in the area. I would like to see Atlanta take that because that makes it a competitive series and makes it entertaining. One thing, do I like to see Maranchech look like

a 10 million dollar player. 13 technically. Yeah. I don't want to give the three million. I'll get just a little for 10. Also, for 10. By the way, the numbers from the MLS players union release just came out. I like see Maranchech is the most expensive summer signing and Major League soccer making 0.01 million dollars more than a Olivier Jarrou. They need more from them. They need them to they need them to look special. Now he does need runners around him.

He's not a dribbler. He's not Tiago Almada. And so some of that decision-making and bad timing and just lack of support also affects him. But hey, man, it's a lot of money. The expectations are going to be there. All right. Orlando City is a four seed Charlotte's a five seed winner of that one will face the winner of Interminomy at Lanny United. You can watch that match on Sunday 7 30 PM Eastern time. It's the opening match of the day. It's free on Apple TV. There is also a 30 minute

pregame show in less countdown for that one. So how do we sell this the non sickos? Patrick Ozzy Bond. Ozzy mom on a high. That's the only way to sell this game to anybody out there. What do you think Dave? How do we do it? Like, like, upwardly mobile Southern teams that are trying to get a shot at Messi or like what? Yeah. I think you could throw the Charlotte trying to make history thing. Right. They've never played in the playoffs before. You assume that second game. Hold on. Hold on.

I guess they played in a play. Didn't we just decide? I didn't we just decide. Sorry. I'm sorry. That's my L that I'll take it. I'll sit on it. And especially now that they've made it. I assume for the last 12 months, they would have told me they had and now that they're actually in. And this is the real one. I'll make the playoffs this year. They'd be like, no.

But yeah, you assume that crowd's going to be special for the second game. Charlotte has those, you know, special atmospheres, first chance to have this team playing in front of them in a postseason game. All of that is going to have a ton of energy. And so I think that alone is super fun. And while Orlando normally make the game really messy and dirty and in knockout moments, it's always energetic. It's always passionate, right? Like, this is probably the highest chance for a fight,

I would say in the postseason. And like, I'm signing up for that. Yeah, good call. On the upset forecast, I'm seeing some real, some real fronts come in. We've got some, some wind sort of clashing, a little hot cold going on here. I've got a 55% upset forecast for Charlotte FC oil because I think the things that does that mean their favorites. Yeah, their favorites. So you're saying there's a 45% upset forecast for Orlando City.

I don't think if you're saying the seeds are the way they should be. This is new math. Yeah, I'm struggling here. I might have to make some edits to the call. I might just turn it. All right. Let me just marinate this a little bit. Math has always been our strong suit and certainly probabilities. Yeah, Charlotte is 55% to win this thing because I think that their strengths are the things that Orlando struggles with. They're going to be

extremely organized in their blocks. Orlando is not the best home team. They're actually better on the road. And they have often struggled even with Martino Haydots been better with him. But to break down a low-bock, the demands that they do it be an intricate passing and sort of unpredictability. And then look, the DPs are actually firing for Charlotte. So they've got some goal scoring too. Crickets. Was there a question in there for a total? I don't know. I just

want to see what he thought of the tape. I think it's a coin flip. I'm not willing to say that one team has a 55 and one has a 45. If I'm to lean in one direction or the other, it would be Orlando City because of Homefield though as you point out. They haven't been a great home field team this year. I also do think they have more match winners between Faku Torres and Martino Hayda and the trio. Yeah, the trio of four was they have. They have a lot of guys who

could just win you a game. And I'm not sure that Charlotte really have that. I don't trust their wingers a ton. I love Patrick Azzyman. I don't love Carol Sideresky. There's a lot of known unknowns with Charlotte. What I do expect that you hit on is Charlotte's probably going to go back to what we saw from them throughout most of the season. And on Decision Day, which was they can they can defend low all that stuff. We were talking about Atlanta not defending well in their

own box. And you know, certainly Portland struggling if they ever have to sit in the goalkeeper. Like Charlotte can do that without any problems as long as they have private and Melinda together in central defense. And then pushing Tim Reem out to left back just gives them even more solidity in front of the guy who is the best shot stopper in the league this year in Christian Kalina. So they can like I would have no expectations for Charlotte beyond that. Like they are going

to say, all right, Orlando, you have the ball. You come and beat us. And then the impetus is going to be on Orlando to do it. So it's a coin flipping in in my eyes. Yeah, I agree with that. Variability of the difference makers. Like I would say you have a better bet on our landows than you would on Charlotte. 55% on Orlando's. I don't know. You set the you set the whatever the hell we're talking about. I don't even know. The Orlando being home, obviously, the advantage.

The other thing with this Orlando group and hasn't been super successful all the time, but they have two different ways that they can play in that attack because they've played Duncan McGuire with Muriel. And so when you talk about breaking down the low block, if since if Charlotte are going to choose to sit in for a long time, you're going to have a more mobile player and Enrique and players coming in and out of the zones for 60 minutes. And then you're going to have to readjust.

If it is played the way we've seen it play the last few weeks to two center forwards who can both fill the channels who are going to be getting on the end of crosses at that point. And so I think to Orlando's favor, they've got that change of pace that they can use. And I would say this Orlando team pretty much exactly the same as it was a year ago. This is the same series they played against Nashville. And we talked about the same things and they were able to find a way to get

over the line in that one. Can I tell you something that I'm concerned about? And it goes back to what you said Dave at the start of this Orlando breakdown. Oscar has teams muck the game up, make it really physical and kind of ugly in the playoffs. Why? Why? Why do that? You have more talent at virtually every spot. You are designed to use the ball. I the thing I want to see more than anything else in this series is Orlando put their foot on the ball and say, yeah, we can just

outskill you. We can just take you apart because we have those types of players on the field at virtually every spot, including both fullbacks. And the thing about Orlando is like they can send both guys up right and left back and still have that solidity because their central midfielders are so good. And because Robin Johnson is so good at reading the game from center back. So I want to see them lean into that aspect of their personality as a team rather than be the muck it up group

that they like Oscar pariah tends to default to and knock up tournaments. Okay. I see it. There is a 3% upset chance that that happens. Oh yeah. That's good stuff. That's good stuff. If that's what you want to see, I want to see the flip side of Charlotte happy to defend that. But their wingers in particular finally showing up and being four or five times a game difference makers. Like we all bought us had flashes. He's not been consistent enough for this team.

Crow and Vargas has had flashes. He's not been consistent enough. And that's why you see Pat BL moving to that sort of spot on the right side and drop into the hole. Like if it's BL, if it's a Bada, if it's BL and Vargas, whatever the combination for the best possible series, the most fun for all of us, I want to see those guys actually hit their best level in this moment. And if that happens, this is going to be one of those under the radar. Oh wow. This is this is

actually pretty entertaining. First round matchups. We have many goals to pat Ajayman score in this series. We can't put limits on the unlimited. So one point one point five. Are you taking the over? Oh, I'm smashing the I'm life savings on the over life savings. What do you want to see? If the only person who can limit Patrick Oshman is Dean Smith and he's doing as best as he can to make sure that he does. That's what I want to see. I just want to watch him play. He's fine.

He's exciting. It's special when you see a player play at a, you know, at a different level. And I saw Oshman play in Emma's next bro and feel like this guy special and then watch him elevate and move on. And he's benched. How many DPs and he keeps getting pushed behind them and he doesn't deserve it. So I would like to see him score a goal in Charlotte and let the celebration occur. All right. The three and six seed on the other side of the bracket in the East FC Cincinnati

hosting New York City selling it to non-siccos. Lucho Costa. Cincinnati looking for revenge against Columbus in the next round. Four two game in league scup knockouts. Yeah, that's a good one. You have two teams that put up six goals. They've played some wild games as well. Two teams with clear identities facing off against each other. Kevin O'Toole left that. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. I've seen a lot of

people predicting in their MLS bracket challenge bracket. MLS soccer.com go put yours in. I think it's $2,500 grand prize and then aFC copies as well. So get that in. I've seen a lot of people softer wise doesn't have that. Do they know if they do not. But I'm doing for the love of the game. Money is so. I've seen a lot of people predicting this upset New York City to beat Cincinnati. And it's a little bit surprising to me because New York City won three games at Red Bull Arena.

And other than that, they're 10 without a win and kind of got walked a little bit by Montreal on decision day. But then I'm not a surprise because Cincinnati in the second half have been not the Cincinnati. We knew and expected Dave. So what's the upset forecast for you? The upset forecast, I would say is 40%. So that's 40% chance that New York City wins. Yes, got it. Got it. 40% chance that there's a 55% chance. Exactly. What's the path? What's the path?

For NYCFC, I mean, when they're on and finishing and Alonzo Martinez is getting the chances, there's a lot to like about this team. Their ability to control the game in central midfield, playing with the purpose, getting fullbacks into the attack, a lot of variability. And normally, in those moments, then you see the best from San T-Rod where you guys when the game's a little

bit easier. It's when it's tough that I worry about this team of like, who's going to carry them out of those moments, who's going to create special moments or help kill momentum against them and things like that. And I think this Cincinnati team for all of the angst that they felt and I did this show last night and you talked to them. And I don't think there's as much hope this year as they would have thought coming into the postseason. I think they're coming back into a good place in

the postseason. Aweusium's healthy. That's massive for this team. I think that's a huge game changer and their ability to play out of the back and to then be able to push the wingbacks into the attack. And Lucho starts to feel is feeling like he started settled going into the postseason. So the center forward position, I don't love for this Cincinnati team, but I'd argue they have the two best playmakers or the two best match winners in this series in Orazano and Lucho. And they have

more experience in these moments up to spine. I agree with that. I do think New York City is at their best oftentimes when they start to skip lines. Like it's not really that like ping ping ping build through the middle team that we've seen in the past that we love so much. It's more of a like, hey, let's get it direct. Let's get it to Santi on the run. Let's find a lawn zone Martinez in behind etc. And right now since in Adi with the way that that back line has played and the centerbacks have

been like they can be they can be challenged in that way. One thing that you want to see, I would just say, like let's just let's just stick with Luke or a shadow up top. I had pat Newton has had been having to experiment throughout this entire roster. Basically since Matt me ask going down, it's been mad scientist stuff. It's just you never have the same ingredients basically and you're trying to put together a cake. I would like to see Orchano be the candle on that cake.

Dave, they tried it on decision day. Let's get him close to goal. It seems to work out. Oh man, I missed it. I missed for you. I literally don't understand. I looked at right in the eyes as I said it and I was like, Oh, feels good to say this today. Let me just shout real quick for O'Bean and the boat. I think he had a tough year. No, we're near as good as he was last year.

Like this is the big variable to me with Cincinnati, even more so than the centerbacks and the center forwards is which Abino and the boat shows up because if he suddenly captors his 2023 form, this is a team that can win more than one playoff series. This is a team that can go really, really far because his excellence gives the platform for Lucho and theory or a shadow and I guess you, Yucubo to just attack as a three and suddenly since he become really hard to break down.

I think one of their biggest issues just quickly this year has been that they've given the ball away a lot more than previous years and in bad spots and that's been to my eye. It's been a nobo o a decent amount of the time and it's also been Lucho. But if a boy does not play in human eraser and he's being the one given the ball up to, that's where you get turned around in those centerbacks get isolated. What's one thing you want to see Dave and we'll move to the west.

I would say friend YCFC when they when their line of confrontation is high and they're aggressive, they're really effective with their press and they're able to create chances and I think you assume with Cincinnati that you're not going to because they're going to play over you and they're going to play past you and I would say trust your back line and go out and try and win especially

this first game on the road. Like you have nothing to lose to sit in and I think we've seen the best of NYCFC this year when they've extended those lines and tried to play on the front foot and play you know, high line of confrontation and play with pressure. So I would say come out and do that game one because you can readjust yourself for game two, which is the one you're expected to win and then you go into a throw, you know, a toss up in game three. Don't come out and try and protect

things in that opening game. Monday since in adding New York City opening up a double header there, 645 PM Eastern time on Apple TV again that is free. It's the first game of all these round of three series that are free as well. Myself and Kaelin Carr are in the studio so we got a little extra time flavor coming together on countdown and wrap up if you want to tune in for that. Let's go to the Western Conference. Start with the number one seed versus the eight seed LFC Vancouver

White Caps. We've already sort of dipped our toes in these waters. How do you sell it on sickos? I mean LFC are loaded with stars. They have been to two straight in less cups. They are a favorite and we've seen this series be pretty darn entertaining in the past. All of a sudden we did. Yeah, we did. Thank you in the chat. I just skipped Red Bull's crew. I said, you know, I'm going to that game. I'm going to the second leg at Red Bull Arena and I'm

extremely excited about it. How do you sell it on sickos? I mean the crew of the crew. They're the defending teams. They're aesthetically beautiful and they have a direct sort of like, you know, you look in the mirror and you see the dark version of yourself in the Red Bulls. So,

yeah, Clash of Styles. Clash of Styles, Clash of Ideologies. The crew are in a lot of ways the the team that Red Bull's fans wish the Red Bulls would be because the crew got close and then they went out and they invested a lot of money in top-end talent that has led to multiple trophies and the Red Bulls obviously for the past decade have been so close so many times and to be fair, they had that great run of three shields in six seasons. But they never went out and look,

we talked to Brad and Sasha about it all the time in the studio. Like the players were begging for one more piece and now it's more than just one piece that they're missing. They're missing a lot. So, to me, the way you sell it to non-sicos is just the crew are excellent. The crew are arguably the best team in MLS history, arguably the best team on the continent. Why would you not want to watch that? And you don't know how much longer you have. Yeah, and that's not like a,

I know you guys talked about Kucho. That's not like a take on any of that. That's just the reality of the world. You don't know how long things stay together. Well, for non-says going places, like there's so much change, Tim Bezbicenko left, so the clubs already shifted and that's going to affect at some point the way negotiations go and all of that. So this might be your last chance to see them in big moments like these. It's worth tuning in for and the game on decision day was

2-2 in second half, stoppage time and you got a 3-2 winner. So we've already seen the drama this week from Wilfred says that's boring. I actually think it goes the other way. I'm kind of intrigued by that aspect of it. And you know, if the crew are so excellent, the New York Red Bulls are, you know, existential trophy angst incarnate. And so like that's always fun to watch and be a part of. So looking forward to that game at Red Bull Arena. I love going there with the boys.

Upset forecast, I gave a pretty low percentage on this one in my column. I'm not giving the Red Bulls too much of a shot. It's really all about what email Forzburg shows up, I think. Yeah, I don't think it's all about that. I think it like that is a non-negotiable for the Red Bulls to have any shot. That has to happen. Lewis Morgan has to show up. The centerbacks need to be excellent. Carlos Coronel needs to I think have an exorcism after the forum he's been in down the

stretch. But the Red Bulls have what one win across all competitions since July. And that was against a Toronto team that was, was, was knows diving straight into the drink. Yep. It's like this would be the biggest, this would be the biggest upside in Emma Laska playoff history if the Red Bulls win this game. When the, when the series. Yeah. Okay. One thing you want to see, Dave, what is it? I'd like to see Forzburg at his peak because it felt like early in the year we were seeing a great

player come into this league and fit into the system. Two goals, one of PK on decision day. It was the most minute he had played since May for this team in that game. So you're hoping, you know, right time with him. I love everything I see about Columbus. It's all kind of a given. And so that's sort of one of those more question marks that you're hoping to see in this one. I want to see it

go to a game three. I just want to, I just want that sort of like existential moment for both these teams, the crew in terms of, as you said, how long does it last, but also defending a title. And then the Red Bulls have been to confront that that moment. And if we get in the last man, well, goal or three out of this and the, you know, those Brooklyn coffee shops are just, you know, eclectic, apoplectic, just don't know what to do with themselves. Then I'll be a happy man.

What were you doing? I mean, I would take that a three game series. Is there a series? Wouldn't take a three game scenario. Yeah. That's what I wanted more though, because I just want maximum crew to be honest with you. Yeah. I think that's just me. So maximum crew in terms of the amount of Columbus crew we get to watch, but also in how gruey they are in this series. Like I want, like the full, we're filt in the field, 65% of the ball. Steven Marraera is playing as a second forward.

You know, the, the full backs are in for like, I want all of the above from the Columbus crew in this series. That is the thing that I hope to see. All right. Western Conference. We jumped the gun. I jumped the gun a little bit. LAFC Vancouver Whitecaps. A rematch from last year was five two in the first leg. And then things flipped in the second leg. It was just one nothing. And then Fanny's Fartini flipped out and he got suspended after this one Sunday, 945 PM Eastern. You can watch

this one from BMO Stadium. We've already sold it to the non-Sicos. I think we went through that pretty well. I think we did the upset forecast to realistically in our preview. So what's the one thing that you want to see? I want to see Ryan Gold say, hot, he's the working man's MVP. He's the working class MVP. He's on the LA stage. Let him be celebrated. Even if they don't win the series, I want to see him score some goals. I want to see this team be competitive and for him to sort of

have these moments, he's deserved. It's been really fun to watch him come back into the Sky's national team. Not to watch the Sky's national team. They are the worst national team to watch on the planet. I have said this many times, but to watch him, I can tell that you have stopped watching the US national. What's international soccer? Are you talking about the women's damage Iceland tomorrow in Austin? Yeah, I'm happy for you, but that text is too long. I'm not

going to read it. Scotland. Good luck out there. What about you, Dua? What's one thing you want to see? I want to come out of this feeling good about the white caps going forward into 2025. I want to feel like Stuart Armstrong was the guy that they needed and did close the gap on the top teams. Obviously, LFC being the top team in the West. I don't expect the caps to win, but coming out of that series last year, I was like, oh, they have no chance. They stepped onto that field with LFC last year

in the playoffs. Within five minutes, they all of them had nosebleeds. It was just too much for them. I don't want to feel that way in coming out of this series. I want to think, okay, the caps might have the pieces they need. If they get a step forward from Vitae and one of the centerbacks next year, they could actually cook. They could actually do this. I want to see LFC have some moments where they're not just going to counter you to death. A lot of the season for Steve Toronto was trying

to find the moments where they could be a little bit more with the ball. I want to see those come to fruition in this game. That probably means that you need to have a lead of some sort. You need to have to control the game with the ball. I just want to see all that work and that effort and the thought process that went into it and the time on the training field show up in the playoffs. I think that would be really interesting to see Seattle. Satters for Houston,

Dynamo, five C. This is a toss up as well. Selling it to the non-siccos here. This one might be one of the most sicko series. I was going to say selling it to non-siccos is just trying to convert them into sickos before you get to the series. This is fun. I'm excited about this series. We ranked it pretty high and the ones we're going to see don't know that I could sell a lot of people on what we're getting ready for. I'm not sure it's going to be a high-scoring series.

Oh, you don't think? Yeah. I think with just one goal combined in the two games. It feels like a real estate battle. Who's going to control the ball where? Who's going to have the best rest defense shape? Who's going to get the two or three moments and be efficient in them? That's just sort of... I'm buzzing. I have goosebumps just to think about it. They're all going to flip the table. What's the upset forecast, oil?

I don't think there is an upset in this series. It's dead even. It might be decided on set pieces. I think calling it a real estate battle is actually a really good descriptor for what we're going to see in this one. I just want to make the point. This is for the non-siccos. This is something that I think is going to resonate with just the average listener. Over the past really since 2020, possession and points per game and expected points per game had become decoupled

in MLS. There was literally no correlation between possession and your expected points per game. This year, out of nowhere, all of a sudden, possession and points per game and expected points per game are all correlated incredibly strongly, as strong as we have seen in a season in MLS for as far back as we have data. It suddenly matters again. These are two teams that are high possession teams and are willing to use the ball and come up the field with it. If that

doesn't sell the average fan on the street, I have no idea what will. We had Will Coons on the show last week, GM of the LA Galaxy, who are one of these teams. I think his line was possession's back or possession sexy again. They're pretty excited about what they've done. Houston, I think, have led the way in this. You never watch a Houston game in your, you feel let down by what you

saw. Even if you don't see goals, it's sleek, it's pretty, it's fun to watch, it's natural, it's full backs playing back heels in their own box to play it out wide to then restart a play even though it wasn't necessary because Franco Escobar can and no one's going to yell at him. Daniel Starris being the American Batista. Yeah. And doing it for all of LA on the last day of the season. But this is, I think Houston are better than they were last year, even with the injuries

they have. And so for Houston, it's a tight window with Ache Ache at his age in Coco with the attract, you know, how attractive he is and all of this. And Seattle need to bounce back and sort of put them back right. Congratulations to Coco, who was just named a Conca Caff player of the year. I saw that press release go out today. We be how much Ezekiel Ponce stock you got. We were, we were first on the Coco Conca, play of the year, just in a different way. I just want

to say that. You know, I'm holding it. I'm holding it. I wouldn't say that I'm, you know, we're not, we're not going all in. Do you have a, do you have a, do you have a target? Have you lowered the price target a little bit or? No, I think he's had better moments lately. I think he's had better moments and he doesn't have as much support around him as I think he will next year. But that's what I want to see from this series is I want to see the guys that are big time variables in terms

of the dynamo attack. Be more not variable. Like I'll you. I would like to see you be somewhat consistent in challenging back lines and getting into good spots and choosing the right pass and making it or actually cutting inside and trying to get your own shot. Griffin Dorsey, like let's have, let's have a lot of crosses like the one into the head of Daniel Starris if the opportunity is there for Ponce at the near post. And even a guy like Ache Ache, he has not been the same Uber

productive like box score stacker that he was last year. I don't know how long Ache Ache's time and MLS is going to be I believe next year is an option for him in Houston. And that'll be a big decision for Pat on sad and that staff. But I want to see him have a big playoff moment and to, you know, score the goals that make this interesting. And so it's not just a one goal sort of like who's going to make the one mistake sort of series. I want to see those guys express themselves a

little bit and get some final product out of them. I feel the same million dollar option for Ache Ache. So if you are trying to buy stock or really should probably go jump into Ache's investment crew. We feel the same way about Pedro Delevega on the other side. Like everything you just said about very, which by the way, I'm declaring a moratorium on the word variables for the rest of this done show because we've used it a lot. But like Delevega, we've talked about all year. Like he's

the guy who's supposed to elevate Seattle. I thought he was really good for an hour on decision day. That's something we all want to see. We want to see the players who team spend money on justify that expenditure and look like high level difference makers in games like this. Yeah, I'm more of a Rothrock stand personally, but you know, you could go pay to Delevega if that's if that's more your flavor. Rothrock's got that big east blood. So you know, he's up for it.

Yeah. Anything else from this one? I mean, this is one that I think the sick goes are going to be drilling over between possession and expected points per game. Yes. Yes. Yeah. That ain't PME's turn Monday, October 28th. Seattle Houston. In Seattle, you can watch on in less season pass. Fofri, RSL Minnesota United. I think this is a big time upset special possibility. And that's probably how I would sell it. Is that Minnesota United have made 60%

60 something sounds about right? Yeah. I don't remember what I put in the in the column, but RSL are are struggling a little bit. Can't wait to read this column. By the way, really. I'm going to have to go back and reread this column. And before it's published, make sure that I'm actually that it's coherent to reference. I can't wait for all the DMs I'm getting from the American soccer analysis guys. The actual quants reading we these stuff. A column. Good stuff.

It's just remember I was the you're here because of the opta spotlight boys. Now I'm just kidding. That's a joke. That's a complete joke. Upset forecast. How strong is the forecast here? Dave. I can see the rain blowing in. I actually can see the rain blowing in right now. And all the hawks are circling me. So you know it's high. I agree with you. I think this is the loons are circling. Yeah. The loons are circling. They are huge. So I don't know. It might be.

They are unbeaten since they installed the megaloon. Have you guys seen the megaloon? Yes, I have. They are on. Is it is it called the megaloon? Are we just calling it the megaloon? I'm calling it. It's that's a sick name. That's actually it's a dinosaur size. It's an amazing piece of art. Yeah. Like I want to go see it. I want to see it in the heart. It's one of my favorite things happening in MLS. Continue David. I just I didn't realize that would be that big of a megaloon fan.

You've taken on for a while. We're easily entertained with it. Clearly. Well, the second best thing Minnesota United has paid for is Kelvin Uboa over the last 12 months. And he's been worth the you know worth the price of admission. He's been the star that straw that stares the drink right there at the top of the attack for them. And I think it's

brought the penalty merchant penalty merchant. Not at all. Not even a little bit. The through ball he played for Robin Ludd's goal is the only reason you should watch this sport. And if you don't love that, if you're not giving he should win the golden boot for that pass alone. And that's the only reason that you should play. They're better on the back line. They're fun to watch. They've been really good. This is I think as tight as series as you have because RSL or what?

Six unbeaten as well for them. Not as impressive of results. They're ex-dogging it though. Like this is not the RSL from the first half of the year. This is like pure Pablo getting the troops fired up. I mean, like you go out and you die on the field for your team. And the the players being like, yes, we're going to do that. And then Diego Luna shows up. And he's like, I'll handle the rest of it. You guys got us 90% of the way. I'll handle the rest of it.

So I think Minnesota should feel confident. You would hope Minnesota plays it in a way in which they have nothing to lose. Right there. This is earlier than they expected. This is not really going to go down. If it goes poorly on the record for, you know, their new owner, the new setup. And I think Eric Ramsay should hopefully be able to put them in a place to play fairly open. In saying that they've played zero zero games on the road consistently. And don't try and open up

and play, but including at RSL. Exactly. But where they've never won. Where they've never won. It should be noted. Oh, by the way, they're a land of lakes. They don't do altitude. Yeah. I didn't mention this in the Houston Seattle one, but it's a good sort of a dendom to that. The last nine games Houston's played in Seattle. They've lost every single one of them. They have two wins against Seattle in like 15 games since 2017. They're going to not realize that it's it's it's like a house of

horrors. I will say for for excuse me for Minnesota, just to take us back from the aside. Once once they figured out the formation and lineup they wanted to go with Eric Ramsay's had them cooking. Like he had to do so much experimenting through the first two thirds of the season that once they got to that transfer window, they said, Hey, we're going to play a four two three one. You know, Robin Lodz going to be in the middle. Prayer has been pretty solid. We haven't seen him, you know,

express himself necessarily in the attacking side as much. But then you have Bongi. You have Sangbin. You have Fraga Pane. You have Tani, Tani Lache. You have Heli even Tamupuki. Like they have attacking weapons and depth. It's kind of scary in a little bit like, Oh, where did that come from? Yeah, and a lot of it's been on Jefferson DS to have a genuine center back that you can allow to defend one V one. They've had to pack numbers centrally for years now because they haven't been

able to hit consistently on center backs that can defend in space one V one. And so they've had to play three center backs over and over again. But I do think you bow when he drops out of the central area. That's what makes all of this work because Bongi can become the second forward. And Lod can make runs past him if he wants to. And I think that changes the geography a little bit more in which for a while they've only had center forwards that were really sitting on sitting on the

center backs and not adding into the game as much. Is that some Taniolo is shade shade that you just said? I don't think you can throw a shade on a guy who came out of the mean streets of St. Jones and was able to succeed. So I was doing I was doing the match preview for this for on season pass and Anders produces those and he prepped me before this one. He's like I will have

you fired if you do not mention Taniolo is shade. So if you go on season pass and you look at the match preview for RSL versus Minnesota United for like the entire series at least half of it is about Taniolo is shade just staying in Anders good graces. All right. I think that's what you want to see in this match. I want to see Diego Luna do late season Diego Luna stuff. It just

seems like this has become his time of year. Last year as when he truly emerged as a difference maker and he's doing it again when RSL don't have another difference maker showing up like you know I guess I guess I say Diego Luna but what I what I really want to see is Chico be Chico from the first half again. I just not sure we're going to see that. I want to see a mecca and Ellie be a mecca and Ellie from the first half of the season again. He has run out of gas a little

bit and they need him back to his best if they're going to get through this series. Dave. Who do I want to see be who they are? Do I have to name person who's going to be there? What do you want to see? It could be that. No, I would be Luna in this series. Like how rare is it to see a young player have a moment like this in a stage like this to be the match winner in a series at this level. So I think that's what it is and every time you tune in and you watch him play you get what you get what

you sort of ask for and that's pretty fun and pretty unique. All right. The final of our eight first round series best of three two wins and you move on. We didn't give you the format I guess but I think you hopefully know it by now. Everything goes straight to PK as a PK win as a win. Ellie Galaxy Colorado Rapids. Interesting one. Galaxy dropping down to two of course in the

seating battle. They had a tough decision day but in some ways it was a blessing. It's a little bit an easier path I think to the conference final though they'll have to play that one on the road if it is indeed L. A. F. C. you can watch on Saturday. It's a standalone game at 11 p.m. Eastern on Apple TV from Dignity Health Sports Park. I think the South and on sickos is pretty straight

forward like the Galaxy of the Killer P's. They've got this incredible attack to watch and they have this you know best in class history that is just that it's history like it hasn't been the present for a decade now and this is their first real attempt to get back to the top can they do it

and the Rapids have been a plucky nobody believes in us team all season long and this is a perfect situation for a team like that to do something that nobody expects and they have very little pressure given the situation they're in with injuries so it is in a lot of ways a David versus Goliath sort of situation. Yeah nine goals in the two games they've played so far this season five goals in one half in the first game they matched up so for the most part Colorado's kind of gotten

sucked into the Galaxy's game and that's fun that's what you want to watch. I think that five goal game they played moist Bumbito was it center back to it was a totally different backline for the Rapids. Yeah there's there's no no Bumbito to chase down these attackers now makes it more

entertaining because there's more goals in it. Word on the street in Colorado is that Col Bassett is back in training as his Zach Stefan full training but the Col Bassett hasn't played in a long while big part of his game is you know the physical side the the ability to just be everywhere

and to be physical and win balls and then then beat you down the field that's not to discount him technically at all but that's kind of his superpower and then you know no Zach Stefan's going to be in rhythm or where he'll be in that sense but Georgie is probably not going to play

so that's that was such a bad ankle spray man they have no chance without Georgie I'm you know I'm sorry oh mere Fernandez was pretty good on decision day but this team gives up a lot of goals they would need to score a ton to beat the Gallic this Galaxy team it's it's a tough break at the at the wrong time for Colorado but no matter how this one ends and it's I think it'll end into a successful season from the Rapids. One thing you want to see Dave Georgie like if he can get

back and be available for a game that's the whole thing. I want to see the Galaxy be convincing defensively. I want to come out of this feeling like oh you know what even if they have to go on the road against L.A.F.C. the Western Conference Final like they could they could actually do this and I don't feel that way yet and I know Galaxy fans will point to the last meeting of the year between these two teams that the Galaxy came back with four goals in the second half it was

a big day. Yeah but then they were down to like it's not like that was some you know put it on the mantle defensive performance. My frustration and I talked about this with Tom after the Houston game was less just the individual defending and more the mindset once they tied one one of like how to see out the game like even if you're going to do it via possession right have the areas of

the field you want the ball and understand the moment and they were like hitting long switches trying to get out and score a second goal that they didn't need and those are those moments where it's like how can they mitigate what they're bad at and it doesn't feel like this team still with

the success they've had this year understands. Yeah I mean Greg Van he's been pretty honest about this when I've talked to him this year of like there's a big difference in regular season playoffs and this team does not have any real playoff juice they haven't done it so it's an open question as

to how they will handle those moments and we got a little bit of that answer on decision day against Houston but this is going to really clarify it so that's what I want to see I mean I think the league is is better when well when we have as many good teams as possible and historically the galaxy have been one of those good teams just the space that they occupy big market. Big market

market. They are absolutely right man I came up into mosaura com when the galaxy were the galaxy were Donovan and Keen and Beckham and you know Bruce arena and this team that was a juggernaut like that was fun that was a villain for other people to measure themselves against and some of

us remember that is the RSL era but you know or the diamond's up or the dynamo era depending the RSL era I would argue it's just a little bit later than that but yeah I want to see them approach that again and have realistic mls cup dreams they don't just go up and inflames and you know let's see let's see some playoff metal and intelligence and game management in the series

because you got the attack that's not a question. All right that's it you know where to get the schedule mls sarco.com get your bracket and bracket at mls sarco.com our golden boot draft winder has to be announced it I don't want to do it it pains me greatly in the last place

David Goss 95 goals 77 assists just five four. No this is incorrect this is incorrect this is the official we know we agreed during the golden boot draft that we were not counting penalty goals so in last place was at harm and cale in yeah with 84 goals third place was David with 87 goals

and we be you and I tied for first. Oh I like the 70 goals 90 goals that's why I got a job to Goss dog because we all said penalties don't count or the one yeah that's right that's right that's right actually I actually won the tiebreaker um 66 61 on assists but instead of maybe

yeah instead of the thing that I've got a championship but I've got a golden boot title like I'm you know I'm magnanimous in that way and I lose last year because assists didn't count I don't know it's so so long ago it's a different era different times yeah I was playing against

barbers and yeah that was that was like ETR 2.0 you know where ETR I don't know like at least 2.5 at this point okay dude I get two goals for every osmongol because it feels like that might be the miscount you want to have a you want to have a quick golden boot draft ahead of the draft you didn't

do it right now you didn't draft ajimon hey no I don't have to draft ajimon because I already had him as a homegrown player in my system oh oh the fact that you drafted a new England guy he's a new England guy ajimon is in my system mmm MLS next pro I get that that's that seems like a very

wide discovery zone for you you know it depending on the way you see this you know other people that are involved in out on the call might see this as as them winning this with 124 goals and winning by comfortably by a hunt by 25 goals that would be Tom and Kaylen but I you know

Khabisito would be 16 of those goals and you know they said a DP number nine for the timbers and he isn't that's not a number nine the timbers so it's an open question and and also like we decided penalty goals did not count so I don't know what they were doing well I have to I'll have

to I'll have to deal with the Supreme Court on this one and that that Supreme Court is onters so I think it's going to be pretty tough in the quarter of appeals for Tommy Kaylen did you say Supreme Court or God Emperor which one yeah what I what are the what are the time Lord finish it here

Dave's has been such a pleasure to have you LSIerson says who are the top Goss theorem candidates for next year so what will clear out I so I so I so I so I can just start naming names this is the part we just start naming do you know yeah I'll go I'll start a couple TPs Liela Bada and it

was mom Bucari I like some of what I saw from Bucari for the 37 seconds I watched him on the field I think you just slowly fade out during this list just keep going to just like um allah allah on usef at the revs looked awesome on decision day and would love to see more

here's feels like an obvious one team gave up six goals yeah and he looked awesome in that whole thing here's one that I'm curious on who it will be but I'm going to go with shambos right now you know there's a crew guy Max Arvstein style who's going to be your favorite player in the league next

year and you don't know who it is yet so I'm going to guess it'll be him um and then RSL have a few options but I'm going to go with Dominic Marchuck he's been fun this like March to he play yeah he plays aggressive he attacks I don't know that he makes the right decision when he gets into

the final third but I like what I've seen from him and there's this like young kid named Marco Royce who you got to think you're going to get something from at some point and so I'm gonna give him the opportunity let me close out on this one can I do a Mason toy in Portland uh

yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah I gotta get Mason toy back in the game that's it I'm good oh nice oh I didn't know I was like oh I didn't know where that was going I thought that was like the started another half hour or that oh I've got more names but I have to subscribe to soccer

well exactly well you might I'm already a happy subscriber MVP I pay I pay I pay I pay no she root for me give me she root I know that's a lame one but I don't think we've seen the best from him yeah that's lame as hell Andrew okay give me something that's more punk rock all right

Dan Lee's on Jacques I think he's gonna be awesome for Philly at Deemid next year I like I think he is going to host a martina strike mm-hmm yep by the way Bill Oram who's a columnist at the Argonian tweets that a source tells him that a vandor in the timbers have been in a stare down

over a new contract since early September timbers have offered him a three year 13 million dollar guaranteed deal and a vandor of course the last two years remaining on a contract that pays him 2.35 million in other words 600 thousand less than stew arms strong up the scots that's it for

us enjoy the first round of the uh outy 2024 let's cup playoff so you can get all the tv listings in unless soccer dot com watch all the games for free on in less season pass on apple tv David Gauss it's been a pleasure are you going live right now can I can I just switch over to you now we're already late I texted Tom and said it's ETR so you know how it's nice is Tom monologuing uh potential let me get over there and see all right all right I'll see you there audio to everybody