Blueberry hot sauce. Yay or nay.
I don't usually nay until I taste it, but the description leads me to a nay, like I'm on the road. I'm on the I'm on the road.
Tonay, Okay, I understood.
I mean, I am readily an individual that I am not into hot food. I'm into hot sauces. I'm not into hot food. I mean full disclosure. Last night for dinner, the Boss made dinner.
In the kitchen.
We actually ate in the kitchen and we had we had chicken breasts and salads and things. And there is a high school football coach friend of mine who he has been experimenting on rubs and hot sauces because he's a big he's a big griller and he any fishes and hunts and those kinds of things, and so what he likes to do is he likes to go down the grilling path and try to come up with a rub.
It literally took him fourteen years to perfect the rub that he got and it is insane and it is so hot for me that I barely can stand it, but it works very very well. I didn't That is one of the rare hot things that I will have in my kitchen, and there are plus ones that actually do make their own barbecue.
Hot sauce too that we have as additions.
Is I am not a hot food person, so I didn't know how random off the wall sauces would fit in your purview either.
Well, I mean I'm thinking, you know, blue you get some sweetness right from the blueberry, so almost like a hot honey type of feel to it. I guess right.
Right, yes, And so that was where That's kind of where I was going with that this morning. And now since Tyler mentioned it, and I figured I would go ahead and bring it through with you and find out how you work with hot food. Speaking of which, how are you with things?
Uh? Club World Cup? Yeah, your name sounds like the.
First time, I think for the first time, I'm yeah, just because it's here. You know, it was it was always like this tournament of like six teams or eight teams and you knew two of them and it was in the middle of the night somewhere in Tokyo or like.
It wasn't.
Like it didn't appeal. But I think the fact that it's here, that that it's that has expanded, you know, group stage to kind of model the World Cup. I I, uh, yeah, let's see, let's see. I think I think it's interesting.
And we were going over like some of the teams to look at and uh, just the novelty factor of having like Auckland and ol Sign and and River Plate and Boca Juniors and botha Fogo and all of these folks outside of you know, those of its that follow the game in Europe will say. I was like, oh, okay, we've got some you know, you know, inter is a part of it, those kinds of things. So I think the novelty for me is part of the attraction to it all.
Yeah, And I think like the Benz has a few matches, right, I think I think that should be buzzing.
Yep.
We have Messi and Friends in Porto, we have Chelsea and lafc is the first one on the sixteenth, Then we have Messi and Friends in Porto on the nineteenth, and then we have in group stage man City and all Ayen is the late night match on the twenty second, and then we have three in the knockouts after that.
So six total.
Yeah, no, So I think, yeah, like I'm not I think again, I think the novelty of it being an expanded tournament here. Yes, yeah, like, let's see, I'm interested.
Okay, all right, So All Star voting is going on for get another week. It closes a week from today. I wanted to get your storylines.
I did. I did mine too. You know what I should have coordinated with you? I have like a screen grab you. Yeah, is there any way I could share that?
You should?
There should be a way to sit there and we'll just put up on your thing. All right, we can walk through the individual names because the top fives I think are posted. We can just walk through it that way. If you can't screen grab and post it, if you can just sit there and flip it on your on your just should be like a screen sharing function. I'm getting see me telling you about technology.
This is rich.
Oh I see share screen Yes.
There you go. Yes, so uh get the document up. Yes, there you go.
And so you get the get the document up, and so we'll walk through your your All Star ballot plus all of your other storylines that you have attached at the halfway point of Major League Soccer. So as you are, as you are attempting to share your screen, what are some of your big storylines so far here at the halfway point.
Holy hell, no, it's like asking me to record this computer screen and audio.
And that that what. We'll just walk through it. Well, we'll talk it through. How about that?
No, no skin off of my nose. Me and technology. I try not to tempt I try not to tempt fate.
All right, I was gonna hit cancel on this whole, this whole, So.
We'll walk through it. Storylines here at the halfway point of the season for you.
Yeah, I mean, I think obviously it starts with Vancouver, right, like obviously the surprise favorites for the Shield at this point, I think you probably could have named four different teams who would who would be the favorites preseason that are in Vancouver. I don't know, I don't know where maybe tenth or so. Maybe preseason you would have had Vancouver in the Shield race. But yeah, here they are, right,
and they've showed consistency, which is rare in MLS. It's it's so rare to get a team consistently good over multiple competitions, despite injuries, despite travel, and they've done that. So of course, now the question mark is Champions Cup, right, like can.
Hey what the hell happened last week against Chrissul.
Yeah, yeah, no, you know, And and there's got to be now credit to Columbus last year because I do remember I was on their next match, which was at NYCFC, the first one back from from losing in the final. Uh and they won that match, and I think they went on on a bit of a run after that, and and they showed, you know that they were a
championship caliber team. Uh And and they they managed that disappointment And it's such a it's such I think it's probably more mental than physical, although the physical part comes in too because again of all of everything that we mentioned about it.
But the.
Yeah, I mean, that's now the question for Vancouver, right like what do they look like, you know, post run to to a to a final that where they fell so flat?
Yes, and you wonder if the international break is a good thing for them so they can just kind of catch their breath a little bit for the second half of the season.
Yeah, they've got Seattle coming up on what is that Sunday? But yeah, then then then a little bit of a break after that for sure. But then that's I think it's at a perfect time definitely.
Yeah.
Uh then if we're talking about Vancouver, then when I mentioned La g and just how crazy it has been to stare at them and go, you've got to be kidding me with this.
Yeah, and and and them too, like you gave him a little bit of a of the leeway, Like yeah, you know, Cup was incredible. We get it. You've you've lost some guys, you have some injuries. It'll take a little bit of time, but you know, not sixteen games worth of of not a half seasons worth of time, right, So.
It's just it's you give up thirty six you find schlepp rocky in ways to lose matches. I mean, it's just it's you sit there and it's like, okay, so how you losing this one? You know, an og off of Yamane's back when he's not looking those kinds of things.
And then even there too, like some some of their ogs were like spectacular, like like you couldn't if you try to have a a better og, like like they've managed to find the best possible ogs, like the most aesthetically pleas of the ogs.
Oh my god, that's fantastic.
Uh So, I mean you look at what you're seeing there, you know, Minnesota, who has you know? Like I said with Eric Ramsey, ball's got cooties, we don't care. And your third and you're only two points out of first San Diego, who I think a lot of folks were sitting there going, Okay, you're an expansion team.
I'm not. Yeah, that's the that's the other one, right, like you you're asked me about like sort of surprises, that's the that's the other I think you you you, I think you include l A G obviously a bad surprise, right, but like I think they Coouver is a pleasant surprise. And and San Diego is the other biggest one in that there wasn't a lot of knowns before, Like everyone knew knew Chooky, but like who are these other guys? Right, who's this dryer guy? We don't know?
You know, like you started a hunter in the nineteen eighties, that's what he.
And uh, you know, but in a in a it's weird to say, because they're they're they're they've been struggling this year, but in a Saint Louis type of way. They established the way they wanted to play very early, right, and they and they stuck to that they got the pieces to play that way, and they've been great. They've been great through this first half of the season. So
that definitely, you know another team that's been a big surprise. Uh, in a in a good way and and in a in a in a sort of after arc drunk socceryway. So hes San Jose, Right, they've been great. Yes, they lead the West, and goals for they're one of the most. And goals against. Why the hell not go over on the juice boxes every time they play a thing?
Yes?
Absolutely true? Uh did Saint Louis? Did all Caps fire o luft Melbourg too soon?
No?
So you thought it was that bad even after fifteen matches? Yes, okay, And so.
Sometimes you have to take a mulligan, I think with some of these.
Well, but then all right, so we talked to the folks at ball watching in Saint Louis last week and we went down this, we went down this rabbit hole. But then how many mulligans does a guy like Lutzpan and Steel get. I'm with you on that, because you know, you bring in Carnel and rookie pitch your first time through the league, you know, you see what happens. You find out systemically that you're good in a one off,
but in the best three you get found out. Then you come back season two and you come off to the slow start, You wig and you let Carnell go, and then you go through the rest of that year with injuries and such, and you don't make the playoffs. And now here in year three you're bringing all off Melbourg and he only lasts fifteen matches. How much of a leash does Fon and Steel get, Now.
That's a great question. I think it will. I think it'll depend on what they look like going forward. And uh, you know, I get. I guess he's unless it's a very short leash, he's certainly gonna be in the in in the decision making process and a big way for the for the next.
Coach, right you would think so.
But that's where I think the short least comes in. Right, So we're gonna give you another chance hire this next guy. But that that's got a hit right away, I think.
And speaking of Carnell, all of a sudden, he's in Philly and it is the Bradley Carnell Show, taking over for Jim Curtin, and you're four points clear of everybody else at the halfway point.
In the East, another surprise. You know you thought Gazdag goes, selling curtain goes. It's gonna be a team that's gonna rely on largely on the on the academy, filtering up good players, and we're gonna we're gonna go on the cheap and see where that brings us. And Typeribo has been one of the best forwards to this point. Right,
a Golden Boot contender had a red Hot Star. He's a guy who has a lot of like he scores his goals in bunches, so like when he gets on a run, he gets scored like eight goals and like a five game span. Right, So the young guys have all played too high levels. They've got some of the best eleven I think in a few different spots.
Right.
Kaive Wagner continues to be one of the best outside backs in the league. And and they're playing you know, they they've they've put all their cards in on energy drink soccer and it's and it's really benefited them.
Well, so now then you look at Messi and friends and literally you don't know which one of them you're gonna get you're gonna get the you're gonna get angry, messy where you just basically take Columbus out back and sit there and uh, you know, lock the door and have them stuck in the backyard and the rainstorm and then no way to get back in the house. Or they're the club that gives up four or five and it turns into absolute chaos.
Where are you leaning with them?
I don't know if it's going to be sustainable with this kind of a pace, with the defense that we've seen, especially in a playoff series.
Yeah, so I think with Miami, the one of the things they need to do.
Stop scory that yeah.
Is, uh, is to not be as messy dependent as they've been. Right. So it's not like, you know, like when Lebron was at his best, Right, It's it's like, give the ball to Lebron, clear out and let him
do his thing. This is a sport with a much bigger field and and and and more than double the players as an NBA court, Right, So you can't just give the ball to Messi and then let him be magical, even though he can do that, right, Like, you've gotta you've got to not always force feed him the ball, I think, which is something that they've been doing a lot of, right, So I think I think that's that's one and you did mention another another important valuable for them.
So let people score as much.
Bill but soccer dot Com drop and by as he always does on Wednesdays. Okay, your top vote getters, Uh no no screen no screen saving needed. Yeah, sorry about that having different categories. And this is from first and foremost. Stop playing league all Star teams. Uh, from outside of your own league. Play yourself, make it, make you know the whole.
Look.
I just that that bugs me more than anything else. It's like, look, make it, make it your league, showcase, your players, have it be. You know, we we fixed the All Star Game back to back years and turned it into Royal Rumble and made it fun. And you know you're not sitting there and you know, raging about the format and what's going on.
Top vote getters.
We have the top fives with a week to go left before July twenty third, at Q two in front of a too small a crowd, And I do want to talk to you about Chicago and that news that came out yesterday before you get out of here. We have our top fives in the categories for top vote getters, and there are seven different categories.
We'll start at the back and work our way forward.
Keeper top five Gallesse Saint, Clair taka Oka, Martin Paz and Carlos Coronell.
What say you, Dylan Butler?
None of those other guy I picked?
Who'd you pick?
Matt Freeze?
Ah? Okay, understood? Okay? And why sir?
I think he's been nycfsc's best player and you don't, which also probably speaks to why they're they're middling in the middle of the of the Eastern Conference. You don't want your goalie to be your best player, but he has been. He's been excellent.
Uh. So.
Left back Jordi Alba, Kai Wagner, Max Arfsten, Ryan Hollingshead, Daniel Love.
It's yeah, I've got Max Arsten there.
Okay, understood? Uh?
Center backs Tristan Blackman from Vancouver, Michael Boxall from Minnesota, Jacob Glesnis, Miles Robinson and Ranko Vesselnovitch.
I've got black men and less okay?
Uh?
Right back, and this one to me seemed like a bit of a slam dunk, although it did kind of as a Laine eight pick from the beginning of the year, Alex Freeman, Andy Nahar Mo, Farcie Griffin, Dorsey, Alex rolled on yeah Freeman, Yes, I had Freeman for me and I was like, okay, I wonder how he is, uh you know, on on a on a vert route, you know, I wonder how he defends that way.
And by the way, just as a disclaimer, yes for mine, MESSI didn't need my vote. Yeah, these guys needed my vote. Yeah, let's let Messi's not part of my eleven.
Yeah.
Hey, look with with the understanding, he will be part of the eleven.
Oh yeah, yeah, he'll be like the special wildcard, kind of like when Johnny and Fantino announced Team thirty two in the Club World Cup, the world was shocked. Attacking mids Evander, Diego Luna, Christiana Spinosa, Lucco Acosta, Pep Biel.
So the first team you mentioned those of my two Evander.
And Luna, Okay, why over the others.
I think a Vander, I think a Vander is in a MVP conversation and he's only going to get better. I think on that team, and Diego Luna is the best version of Diego Luna that we've seen. I think he's he's taken that next step to elite.
So he's been awesome on a.
You know, on a team that you would call bad. Right now.
For ours, I was gonna say, yeah, four, ten and three at the halfway point. They've scored sixteen goals this year, and Diego Luna, I imagine, has had goal actions attached to most.
If not all of them.
Sixteen goals, twenty five allowed in seventeen matches, So that is a goal difference of seventeen and twenty five is one eight over seventeen. It's like one point five to five somewhere in there. But they're not even scoring a goal match and Diego Luna is When RSL is on and Diego Luna gets to show you the Diego Luna that we know is there, it's a fun watch. But for the most of the time this season RSL has
not been a fun watch at all. Forwards, you mentioned the guy that doesn't need really anybody's vote, Baribou, Brian White, Danny Bologa, Onders Dryer.
Where else did you go?
I've got White, I understood, I've got I've got Barribo okay, and I've got Bowanga.
Okay, uh, And I mean Dryer for me, got off to a hot start in San Diego, but he's kind of come back to the rest of the pack a little bit.
Uh.
Inasmuch as San Diego has continued to be successful, Dryer has not helped me out in fantasy as much as he did at the beginning of the season that he has recently.
So I think those front three, I think the front five, if you will, like those three positions of two attacking, those are the hardest. I don't think you mentioned, by.
The way, because that's coming up next. Actually, uh.
Sebastian bar Halter, Sergei Busquets, Jepe Taverskov, Darlington, Nagby.
And our tour. Those are the top five right now.
Yeah, okay, And obviously with what he has been able to do, he has taken national team spots away from other folks, and understandably so with the hot.
Year that he has been having.
So uh, that is the top vote getters, and how Dylan has coordinated his ballot as we go with a week to go left in the voting, it's according to the league, it's not too late to submit your picks and then they give you a link on the two hundred and eighty character app to do so before you leave us. This week, the new stadium deal that was announced in Chicago, we led with that yesterday on a bunch of different fronts. Joe Mansweto continues to invest in
Chicago Fire. They've had to rearrange some dates away from Soldier Field and having to play I think three matches now in the remainder of their schedule at bridge View because of not you're not allowed to have matches within a certain window in and around a Bears game. So Joe Mansueta now sees this plot of land and now wants to invest I think in the neighborhood of six hundred and fifty million dollars to build a new stadium that I think is too small. He's looking at being
at twenty two thousand. I think it needs to be closer to thirty. It would put him middle of the pack when it comes to capacity in Major League Soccer. I love the idea, I don't like the size.
You said that about the you need a Dylan Butler states as well.
Yes, you need to be thirty.
I think you do if you want to in this day and age, in this day and age. When it comes to Major League soccer and the growth of it, I think it needs to be thirty thousand, I think, Dylan Butler estates, I think that your construction crew is selling yourself too short. And I think that the same right now is going on in Chicago.
I honestly do. I think you've got to be thirty.
I don't know. I can see both ways. I think thirty helped for a a Darby match, right, No doubt any of those international friendlies that will come in. But I don't know.
You know, like.
Portland on a Wednesday night, you know you'll see more empty seats than I think the ones that are that are filled. So yeah, I could see it both ways.
Okay, So here's here's here's here's my here, here's my empirical evening.
And I don't think they come with I'm sure there's meetings and board rooms and charts and all kinds of xgsque type things that they get to that number. I don't think it's just dollars and cents thing.
I think, Oh, I'm sure that it has to do with surface area and square footage and lining up everything and all this kind of stuff.
So PayPal Park is.
At eighteen, Subaru is at eighteen to five, Alliance is nineteen six, Audi is twenty lower, dot Com is twenty thousand and eleven.
I don't know what the eleven. I don't know who came up with that one.
Sandy Utah Rio Tinto's twenty thousand, two thirteen. Frisco right Now is at twenty thousand, five hundred before the renovation.
Q two is twenty.
Thousand and seven thirty eight, Stad Suputo is twenty thousand to eight oh one, Children's Mercy is twenty one. The Erector set is twenty one five point fifty before they move into Freedom Park, Bemo is twenty two, Helena Schelle is twenty two thousand and thirty nine, Energizers twenty two five, and Harrison, New Jersey is twenty five thousand.
I like to twenty five. I think that's a good number for.
You know, I can stipulate to twenty five. I just think that when they built in Saint Louis, I thought it was too small. But looking at the crowd last night for the probably hyperpriced Women's Friend with the upper deck was empty, and I mean it was, I mean it was m P empty that. I mean literally those two letters, capital letters. It was an empty it was an empty joint last night and Helena Sheell we talked to Glenn Davis before, and you got to attract folks to your products.
So I'm kind of leaving Houston out to the edges. BMO.
I think that you've created supply and demand. I think that with twenty two thousand, you're creating a a ticket to get to because of what you've created on the field. Oh la la, LAFC.
I hate it is so I was such a big fan of and I get it they needed to do it, but I was such a big fan of pre BMO Field renovation. Yeah, because you can see the CN Tower from the from the press box side, Yes, it was awesome.
Yeah.
Then they put the second stands in and you couldn't see it.
Yeah.
And so now BEMO Field is listed at thirty thousand, nine ninety one in Toronto. That's expandable to forty and I think that that's where they're going with that go round. But Lafc's right now is at twenty two or twenty one, at twenty two Children's Mercy Park. It depends. I think that with the crowd that you have in Kansas City, I think that they'll fill it when they're good. So
twenty one for me, I get it. But I think that in this day and age, I think that you've got to be bigger because of wanting to bring folks in to see your product, wanting to continue to grow the game, have the space for friendlies and internationals and
competitions and all those kinds of things. And so that's why I maintained that Dylan Butler Estates is too small, and I maintain that right now in its current form, the new Joe Mannsweto Estates is too small in its current in its current form, So, like I said, that's
just me venting my spleen. I want the game to grow, and I want it to be in venues where you're not creating supply and demand issues all the time or thinking that you've got to have the live work play environment right up against the freeway and moving train tracks and all this kind of stuff.
So yeah, that's that that's forever balance, right, like the supply and demand versus Wow, there's a lot of empty seats here tonight, Yes, Like did we build this too big?
You kind of like Energizer Park in St. Louis after last night.
So are you do you get a high school weekend off to do more lacrosse and things or are you on the desk this weekend for the half schedule?
Yeah?
So my lacrosse broadcast thing is I have like one, like a one like a late June showcase. But done? Okay, good to go. We did. We did nine games last week.
So massive ending of the Dylan Butler lacrosse three.
Different classifications, semi finals, finals, thankfully all we're at Hopstra, which is a terrific It's become a terrific one of the best lacrosse specific facilities in the in the country, so great press box, the whole thing that comes with it. So that ended on Saturday. So I did. So I had three lacrosse game Saturday. First game it was like a ten in the morning that one goes to overtime then h then after that I come home and do my Saturday MLS shift, which included of course the l
a f C Clube America game. So Sunday I was mostly shot. Wasn't on Sunday, so no no broadcasts, no Saturday night shift this week.
Yay.
So I will I will be on Sunday though.
Okay, so you got you got the Sunday shift. As always, my friend, great to see you, Great to catch up with you. Obviously we get out of the international window, we'll start talking about stuff coming up next week and especially Atlanta United heading to uh the the sand Pit, the sandbox, the U twelve pitch playing next Thursday as Atlanta United goes it takes on the Matt Freeze led NYCFC. As always, my friend, great to see you. Reach out anytime.
You know that you've since you've got the keys to the front door in the garage door opener, you know it can crash it anytime.
It's always great to see in, my friend,