Midweek MLS, Conference League final this afternoon: Morning Espresso, 5.28

We'll get into that one here in just a minute. Here's a little bit of a shorter edition of the Espresso as we get Match Day started this morning Saint Louis City. They fired all off Melburg fifteen games into his tenure. Saint Louis are fourteenth in the Western Conference with eleven points wins, eight losses, five draws, eleven goals scored in fifteen games, third fewest in MLS defensive form.

They started the season with four straight shutouts. It has not been that good since eleven game unbeaten run, three draws, eight losses in that time span. They started the year with those four straight clean sheets winning two of those matches. David Critchley the head coach of Saint Louis City two. He will take over as the interim coach while the club looks for a new head coach. It's been interesting to see the reaction to this when it came out

last night. League pundits seem to really disagree on the level of talent on the roster. I see some people say that this is a playoff level team and they're underperforming, and I see others say that it's not a playoff level team. I'm kind of in the latter side. I don't know if this team has enough talent to be considered a playoff level team with the types of players that are being brought in as well, because these are not necessarily players that would fit in every other team.

You have a style of play that Lutz fun and Steel seemingly wants to really stick with players that are bringing brought in to fit that that it feels a little more rigid. It feels like you're looking for very specific profiles. It feels like you want the team to play in a very specific way. You're trying to build something here. You're not going for just straight up talent. You're not going to out talent anybody with the way that this team is being built, and that's not the

intention from Lutz Fun and Steel. The problem is, if you're going to build, you're not giving anybody time to build. You're looking for your third full time manager and you haven't finished your third season yet. With this style of play, and with the level of players that you are bringing in and the types of players you are bringing in, I think there has to be more patients. And the

problem is, Saint Louis City. When you launch as an expansion team in MLS, you get extra allocation money, you get a bundle of goodies that helps you build a team faster, to be competitive faster. And we've seen some teams take advantage of that. Saint Louis has not, and they've kind of burned through that window. I think the window is basically shut on that. So now what do

you do? I also have a question, and I said this in the very very beginning, when it became obvious the route that Saint Louis was going to go in terms of style of play, I'm really starting to wonder if this style of play suits the soccer culture of Saint Louis. Saint Louis has a soccer culture goes back decades, one of the more established in the United States. I think there is a mindset of how they like to

see the game played. I do think that entails being more ball dominant and being less pressed dominant, being less focused on what you do off the ball. I think Saint Louis is a soccer city that enjoys the ball. That's not how Luke's Foanan Steel is building this team, and you're into the third year now, where I don't think the patience has been given for the team to build.

I think you have to build it if you're going to go this way, which means you have to take more time for it to reach whatever level it can get to. And the patience is not there. So I don't know where Saint Louis goes next. Do they change up the style of play, probably not, if Finan Steel is still making the decisions. Do they change up their

recruitment policies, probably not. Does anything else dramatically change I hate to say probably not, but that's kind of where I'm leaning the moment, because you'll get a bump from a new coach potentially, and you'll get a coach who suits it and really connects with the group. And I think you're looking at a ceiling which is similar to what they did in year one under Bradley Carnell. I don't know if that ceiling is much higher in the way that they are trying to build, if it's even

truly that high, just have to wait and see. But Saint Louis City, back in the market for a new manager, talked about the game tonight with Atlanta and Orlando. Orlando has won three in a row. They're unbeaten in twelve league matches, six wins, six draws in that time span. Their last league loss was a game three Atlanta ended their unbeaten street or a winning win less streak is

the better way to put it. They have a one game winning streak and they're trying to make it a streak with multiple It's not gonna be easy against Orlando City tonight. We'll see what the lineup looks like for both teams coming off a short rest, Atlanta coming off of a little bit shorter rest. We'll see what the the energy levels can be. These midweek games can be tough, especially the second time in a month where fatigue has started to add up a little bit. Games around the

league tonight that have grabbed my attention. Miami, they have not won in their last four games. They'll host Montreal, who has only won once all season. Feels like a game where if Miami doesn't get a win, things get a little weird as they get ready for the Club World Cup. Columbus winless in their last four to three draw in that time span. They host Nashville, who is unbeaten in their last six, with four wins in that run. San Diego has been one of the big turnarounds here lately.

They go to Seattle four wins in their last five a draw and the other one they had lost three in a row before that, Seattle five to one in two in their last eight Bruce Arena San Jose Earthquakes. They're unbeaten in five three draws out of that five, but still have not lost in five. They'll go to Carson, California to face the La Galaxy, who have lost six of their last seven and are still looking for their

first win in their title defense season. It's just insane for Greg Vanny and all the injuries he's had to deal with but also no wins at all yet this season. We'll just have to wait and see where this goes for the Galaxy. Carlos Vela he announced his retirement yesterday. He still holds the MLS records for most goals in a season with thirty four, most goal contributions in a season with forty nine, and the fastest player to score twenty goals in a season. He did that twenty one games,

all from his incredible twenty nineteen season with LAFC. He will be a black and Gold ambassador now for the club. An incredible career and an incredible player in Major League Soccer. Carlos Vela officially announced his retirement yesterday. The big game today internationally is the Europa Conference League Final. It's Raal Betti's against Chelsea. This competition is kind of turned into, I don't know, the underdog competition and this matchup for

everybody but Chelsea fans sorry Blues. I think a lot of people around the world are rooting for ray A Bettis. They've never won a European title. This is a team led by Manuel Pellegrini and he is a very well respected manager. I think they played good football really excited to see this match because of the scale of the matchup here. On a lot of different levels. It is a little bit of David versus Goliath. Chelsea is scene still as a goliath in terms of spending versus a

team like Rael Betty's. You also get the situation of Enzo Maresca and Manuel Pellegrini in a lot of ways. Pellegrini is Maresca's coaching father. I mean, Maresca played for him at Malaga, was an assistant for him at West Ham. Maresca said, I learned a lot from Manuel. The most important thing was that he told me you have to treat players as if they were your children. And he talks so much about how he's been a mentor to him. Pellegrini said, the truth is I think Zo for his words.

I know him as a player, as a friend and as an assistant at West Ham. We have maintained a relationship off the pitch many times, and I think he's a manager's learned from many worked with Guardiola, as Pellegrini went on to say, he's passionate about football. He's been in the game for a few years and he's doing brilliantly. He's constantly learning from everyone. Pellegrini also kind of foresaw this coming. He texted Maresca at the beginning of the

league phase. He said, see you in the final, and so called him when he saw that both had clinched. He said, I called to tell him I was very happy to play in the final with him. Very cool things in these links between these two clubs. I'm looking forward to seeing the continued revitalization of eastco a player that I've always enjoyed in Spain. He's back in the national team now. But Chelsea's got an opportunity to make some history here. They would be the first team in

Europe to win four different UEFA tournaments. They've won the Old Club Winners Cup, They've won the Europa League, They've won the Champions League. Now they could add the Conference League to that would be very very interesting if they can pull that off. Another little element of history in this Since two thousand and two, in major European finals, when a Spanish team has played national team or club teams,

the Spanish team has won. Spanish teams have not lost a major European final since Liverpool beat A Laves in I believe the two thousand and one UEFA Cup final. That's a lot of finals that Spanish teams have been a to win, not even just against English teams. Let's see if that continues here Raal Betty's and Chelsea three o'clock kick. You can watch it on Paramount plus a couple other updates quickly before we wrap up this edition of the Espresso. Lamin Ya Mal new contract at Barcelona.

He had signed one as he turned pro a couple of years ago, and now he's won the Euros with Spain. He helped Barcelona to a double this season. He could win the Ballan d'Or over this past season at the next awards ceremony. Deal runs through twenty thirty one. And what I'm curious to see is what this will mean for Barcelona's squad expenditure limits. With La Liga. His base salary has jumped over twenty million euros. We know how up against that limit they were last year. I don't

know where the revenues are going to fall. I wonder if they're going to have to reduce spending in other areas because of paying La Mignamal more. And they absolutely needed to pay him more. You got to keep him happy. He could be the best player in the world for the next decade. But what is that going to do for the rest of the squad. We'll find out over time, and then I'm sure there will be five thousand tabloid articles about it, and probably some ways to try to

get around it, maybe more VIP tickets being sold. I don't know. Stay tuned. Manchester United on the other end of the scale, well, maybe the same end of the scale. Actually, they reportedly tried to spread out the payments in multiple different ways, but finally have agreed to pay the release clause for Matteos Kuna of Wolves. It'll cost sixty two and a half million pounds over three payments. Initially tried five payments, then they tried four, and then finally they said,

all right, we'll take this layaway plan. It's three. We're good. Now. They got to do personal terms and all that stuff. Arsenal kind of in the same situation. They are finalizing a deal to sign Orel Sociodid midfielder Martin Zubimendi. This is according to Sky Sports. They've met the conditions of the fifty one million pound release clause in his contract. Arsenal will next do the medical and agree to personal terms.

The step for Arsenal is to bring in a number nine to truly challenge for trophies in a big way. New sporting director Andre Aberta he has been impressed with Victor Yocharis and RBI Leipzig's Benjamin Cesco as another potential target. The two players that have really grabbed his attention. One that had not been mentioned with Arsenal at least lately,

looks like he's headed to Napoli. Jonathan David, the Canadian international Il Correre Dello Sporta, has announced that Napoli have reached a verbal agreement with Jonathan David of Leal and he would be headed to the champion. So Napoli, we don't know what's going to happen with Antonio Conte. There's reports that he's going to sit down with the head of the club, Arrelio de Laurenti's going to sit down on Friday to talk about staying on. It looked like

Conte was going to leave. Now maybe that's not a definite possibility. Maxilegri waiting in the wings, but we do know that Napoli has gone out and is very close to a deal with Kevin de Bruyne, and now it sounds like they have a verbal agreement for a deal with Jonathan David defending champions. Now Napoli trying to reload a little bit here and maybe keep Conte in place. Going to be interesting to watch what happens in Italy. That'll do it for this edition of The Morning Espresso.

Will be back tomorrow to recap Atlanta and Orlando other games around MLS. We'll talk Conference League and we'll start to look ahead more and more to the Club World Cup, the play and match on Saturday between LAFC and Kloop America. All of that to come. Don't forget pregame coverage on nine, eighteen nine in the game for Atlanta United starts at six thirty tonight with a Gordon and Madison Cruz. Kickoff will be at seven forty Garth Loggerway. We'll talk to

Mike Conti and I just before seven o'clock. Hopefully you can join us on the radio and on the Odyssey app.