Yah, yaps.
Oh hm hmm, come on, man helps alps scoop for dude.
Gets Friday Day.
Yeah, you ain't kidding. It is definitely one of those days. This is it's yeah, welcome to SDHAM. What's left of it? Yeah, it is going to be. It is one of these days. Literally, Alex Alex for the third time is saying good morning. Yeah, so morning, Michael Valverdi, four card, everybody who's been drifting in and out with us, all okay, So sticking to our timetables, Bart Keeler is going to join us now in fifteen minutes to discuss what we wanted to discuss.
Let's see how long the internet hangs out with us this time. All right, So here's the deal. Leagus Cup changes, Club, World Cup groups. Apparently the schedule's coming out later today. Bart's going to join us over a couple of topics and then we'll get you ready for the weekend. So yeah, take three. Let's see what happens here, all right, So John here, you there and hold your breath, so we'll see what happens once again. Good lord. All right, So
here's the deal. Uh, I couldn't even get through the damn promo. So let me go through the promo on the short version and we'll lay it all out for you once again. Open and Kickoff, Kickoff Coffee, Kickoff Coffeeco dot Com, Soccer down here fifteen When you check out, you get fifteen percent off your purchase. They in turn take ten percent reinvested youth games, youth initiatives, Kickoff Coffee and Kickoff Coffeeco dot Com. Now, now once again we go to the other things that are going on. So
here we go with round number two. Grady Baby, Grady Baby Co, Gratty Baby, Grady Baby Co. You can help out middle school soccer programs tied to Atlanta public schools, and you can do that by going and grabbing soccer is just better in Atlanta. You can grab the sweat, you can grab the t shirt. It's in redd, it's in black. You can do all of that stuff and you can watch that there with them and be a part of what Grady Baby and Grady Baby Co. Are doing as a part of the collaboration with us here
at SDH. Now, third thing, as we mentioned, go to olivin York, Olivianyork dot Com. Scott Flood in the Flood project. They've done great work in putting together our first ever supporter's kit that you can get at Olive and York Black Bass and it is you see, I think of it as two different I think of it as a white lettering and white numerals, and then it looks like it's light blue to me. So you've got the choice of either light blue on black or white on black.
You can go to our friends at Olivi and York. You can catch up with them. You can help out programs that we have earmarked in twenty twenty five to help spread the beautiful game. You can get it with your kit, your supporter's kit, and you can personalize it
if you should so choose. So that's Olivi in York, So Olivi York, Grady Baby co and are our friends that we always like to sit here and discuss here every single morning when it comes to what you can do to help grow the game, especially with our friends at Kickoff Coffee. Now, something not on the board that I found out thanks to Abbey this morning. In the past, you know, you know our relationship with our friends at the Marshall Islands. So this was the last kit that
the Marshall Islands Soccer Federation pieced together. It's gorgeous. From our friends at Player Layer. They now have a new one out and when we have the plans to show you what where you can get it, I imagine it'll be on the website. We can help them out there as well. But they now have, just in time for the holiday season here in the Northern Hemisphere, a new jersey to add to your stacks and it's to the local flora and fauna, and that came out this morning.
This is the last jersey that they put out. Once again, you can get your Marshall Islands Soccer Federation scarf here at SDH. Proceeds go to help out the Marshall Island Soccer Federation. But they now have a new jersey that can be added to your stacks as well. So Marshall Islands, Grady Baby Olive and York Kickoff Coffee, all the things. There you go. That's your morning promo across the board
and we're still on the air. Holy crap. All right, So let me get into League's Cup because that's probably gonna be a shorter discussion than hanging out with Bart. When Bart comes on in ten minutes with Bart. Once again.
Tom Russo had a reffing down here moment involving Everton that he wished to have discussed the article that Steph Yang had out at the Athletic where apparently we have a corporate overlords overseeing var in Major League Soccer and officials and officials are kind of getting creeped out about it, and it adds to the attention of credibility when it comes to folks in the booth. And then JT. Batson had an interview with Amanda Davis at seen an International
discussing coach sharing. I wanted to get into that with Bart, and I also want you to pay a when episode CV one oh five pops up, it'll probably be a review of the window. We'll talk about Bart. We'll talk to Bart about that and get into that discussion. Monday,
Bart's back in his normal time slot. I'm saving my most of my women's national team questions for then, and then reughing down here from the weekend, because once again, before we go this morning, it'll be looking at things that are going on across the planet moments from the weekend and going from there. But one of the questions that I'm going to warn Bart about on Monday, is the goalkeeping situation now that the listen there is done internationally.
If I remember the stat correctly, as it was broadcast on TNT Max and all the other places it was broadcast in the last match of a Listenaire the subsequently four keepers in line. Hi, Bart, Hello, So I'm going to try and piece this together, so we'll see what happens here now that you've wandered up to your particular location. Apparently the signal didn't die and thanks to the diehards that have been hanging out with us this entire time.
So what I'm going to do is, I'm going to let's see if we could start the show all over again. I'm going to start the show all over again. So let's do that because I'm mad as a hornet right now. So, as we're back after a sixteen minute delay, strategic retreat. Strategic retreat, Alex says, bite your tongue, sir, Yeah, So all right, after eleven minutes, all right, so we'll tell you what. Since we're here at the beginning of our number two, almost close to ten oh five, how about this.
And I know that a lot of you are just kind of watching to see what else is gonna go wrong because it is a Friday. So uh yeah, all right, here we go. Let's let's uh, let's do let's do let's do things like this, shall we you know, let's go ahead and run this, all right? So our number two, which is really our number one, and we'll see where we go. Let's see all right, So what's the what's the clock? Yeah, we're live now, four card, Yeah, we're
apparently we're alive. I guess. So what's the time? All right, So let's let's take bets on the juice boxes. A fourth. Good morning. Yes, in this economy, we we like spreading. We like spreading good mornings. So, uh, all right, how long do you think the internet signal is gonna hang out? Now? How long do you think it's gonna hang out? Now? Just asking, I'm taking bets. How long do you think the Internet signal's gonna hang up? It's gonna be with
us because it's been one of those damn mornings. Literally three dumps in the first hour of the show, Nixonian gaps that would make the Watergate investigation proud. And so now we're going to start our number two, which is really turning into our number one. And for this, we're gonna bring Bart in and we're gonna talk things. And if you could hearn your device sideways, sir, sorry, because I'm there.
We go.
I wanted to fill up the screen. I wanted to fill up, all right, So yeah, we had to hear me.
By the way, I'm not on my normal audio.
You you you sound like you're in the room. You're not on your headset. Okay, So as he fixes his audio setting to hook up, oh there it is, all right?
Does that matter?
Well, yeah, I mean it's I thought you were hooking up your headset to the device.
Well that was the headset was the issue, Okay.
All right, all right? So uh, yes, we are. So a couple of things that I wanted to bring you in this morning to discuss, and I don't want to steal from our Monday appearance, so I'm gonna save most of my women's national team talk to Monday. And I also want folks to go listen to episode CV of the Soccer for us P O D and and go through all of what was going on in your collective brains over there as we go. But the goalkeeping question
in conundrum. I'm saving that to Monday, okay. So, and I imagine that you guys are talking about it, and you're over there.
We are, you know, we we're just refusing to accept a listener's request for retirement.
Yeah, that's what we've decided. Yes, you're you're stomping your feet and saying this is not allowed. No, it's not allowed. A couple of things I wanted to get into with you this morning is Tom Russo had requested a review of an egregious off side call in an Everton match.
Areous? Okay?
And so I've got to find the context of said event and then we can get into what.
Yeah, I think it was. I watched this on the highlights for the Premier League Highlights and okay, let's think about this. So I forget the player's name, but there's an attacker who you know, John how if you can, if you pull it up and see it, it's great. But you know, there's a set piece, a free kick from basically five yards from the touch line, about parallel with the top of the the goal arc, you know, so with the penalty arc it so not close to
the goal, but not a shooting opportunity. Everton has lined up with who is they playing?
Oh, Everton and Wolves are lined up, you know, and like a lot of times happens, Everton puts a couple of players, specifically one in particular.
Offside, because that's what a lot of teams do. They have one player that kind of stands offside. That player then basically sets a pick for the Tchaikovsky I don't know how to Tarkowski to come in behind him and when the header that ends up.
Going in the back of the net.
The reason this was called off side is because the player was in an offside position, so they obviously review it and they deemed that he interfered with active play. Now, I think why this was deemed interference with active plays because one of the considerations to be involved in active play is as we've talked about a lot of times. You know, we talked about the interference of a goalkeeper,
but you can also interfere with defenders. And in this case, he basically moves back onside after the ball is kicked and puts hands on an opposing defender, stopping that defender from defending the aerial free kick. Right, And I do think this was Unfortunately, Tom, I do think this is a correct call because he makes an active play in uh the on on the free kick, right. He is not just standing there, you know, he doesn't just happen
to run into someone. There is a physical force of contact with his hands into the defender who's trying to get to the attacker who's making the header. And and to me, that is an offside. Sorry, you got involved in active play, Okay, So sorry Tom. Yeah you came out all right, you know you still won?
What?
Yeah?
Yeah, you went you won fifteen miil. It was the second goal in the sixteenth minute. They were up one mill at the point Tarkowski scores on a header from Dwight McNeil, and then you get the offside check from var So Dale. Johnson's description goes like this, what incidents like this happened? We always hear comments such as why aren't goals ruled out for blocking on every set on every set piece?
Yeah, fair question.
The key factor is this isn't a foul, it's offside.
Correct.
For a foul, the blocking has to be of a sufficient nature and not the normal football contact. Correct for offside any contact, meaning it doesn't have to be a foul which prevents an opponent from being able to challenge for the ball is an offense. As the ball is in flight to Tarkovski, oral Mongala holds Lamina and prevents Wolves from attempting to prevent across from the goals. So Dale Johnson says, you don't have to think Lemina will win the ball, meaning the player for Wolves, only that
his ability to challenge for it has been effected. Had Mangala been on side, the goal would have stood. Had Mangala and Lamina not been in the direct flight of the ball to Tarkovski, the goal stood. And a couple of other examples in this and Dale Johnson goes back to Carabout Cup in twenty two against Chelsea Liverpool and then in February of this year, Virgil van Dyke scores but var steps in as Indo had stopped the run
of Levi Calwell. So it's an offside of fence and it happened directly in front of the run of the score, and so it is a bar intervention that actually did work and it was a.
Positive and I think that is a good indication or specification. This is not a foul. We did not call this back for a fout. This was offside similar. It's very similar to you know, a defender being in the line of sight of a goalkeeper affecting their ability to see or play the ball. In this case, had the defender or the attacker just been in the way, right, I don't think that would have been called. But as Dale points out, it is physical contact. No, it's not a
foul that happens all the time. That's fine, But when you start offside and then do your little pick setting, that's going to be the problem. It's very much John off as a pass interference when normal hand fighting is one thing, right, but when you inotentially make a route to get in front of a defender and prevent them from them getting to play defense, that's going to be an office. So that's basically what the plus was. Office past aperits you know, no goal.
Go back to where you were standing, Bart, Yeah, take number four eighty two minutes in or eighty well seventy seven minutes in I think hour and seventeen. Sure, okay, all right, so let's try this. It's take number four, and now people are going to come storming back in. Hopefully John's here Bart's there. Like I said, we got juice boxes on how long the signal's going to hang out? I don't know what it is, I really don't.
It's just besting with my snarky comments here.
John, Well your starting comment. You're a snarky man, sir. I you know it's like, get to be a part of the snarky brigade. So all right, So that's done so really quickly. Once again, welcome back Kickoff Coffee and Kickoff Coffeeco dot com soccer down here fifteen get your coffee. They take ten percent reinvested. Very cool stuff. Bart's got his coffee. I don't know if it's Kickoff coffee or not. What's the mug?
If Britney survived two thousand and seven, you can handle today, which is probably a good motto for you this morning, John, you.
Ain't kidding brother, all right, Grady baby, Grady baby, co You can get the sweatshirt and the T shirt to help up middle school soccer programs at APS. Soccer is just better in Atlanta. Get it in the red, get it in the black, and you can help out middle school soccer. Also, once again, our friends at Olive and York and Olive and York. We like them because they've come up with our first ever SDH supporter's kit and you can get that thanks to our friends at the
Flood Project Scott Floods Kaiser Permanente. It is a black supporter's kit. You have your choice of personalization, yeah or nay, white personalization or I want to say it's like a light blue. So you can get that at Olive and York. Our friends at the Marshall Island Soccer Federation have a new jersey out just in time for Christmas. I don't
think it's available on the website yet. We can always check and see, but they're gonna send us all to the poorhouse and you can get your Marshall Island scarf that Maddie modeled when she was an intern. How many interns can you say started an international marketing campaign and we're a part of it. I think the answer is one Madison Cruise.
So that's international, yes.
And so Maddie is a part of that. So now that we're relatively caught up, you got your snark out of the way. Involving the moment with Everton and everything, a couple of other things I wanted to get into this morning with you, Jack Batson and coach Sharing and the Steph Yang article at the Athletic before we get into things. But I do want to tease something in particular, absolutely,
and so we've got to do it this way. I know this will shock all of you, but Major League Soccer has named their MVP for the season, the twenty twenty four Landon Donovan, the don Ovan MLS Most Valuable Player, Leo.
Messi, Ricky Poage.
Oh, now Leo Messi. According to MLS Communications as of twenty four minutes ago, which we would have broken had the internetwork, the Argentine becomes the first player in club history to earn the league's highest individual honor after leading Inter Miami to an MLS single season points record supporter shield. More on that later. So I know that you're all shocked. You're all shocked about that. That's why I stopped the
breaking news because we're all shocked about it. Okay, So more into that in a bit, all right, Steph Yang at the Athletic, And we kind of got into this yesterday when the article came out, and as we continue our reffing down here kind of a sidebar this morning and I wanted to get into discussion with you. Headline from Steph Yang MLS refs claim in game interference means they are no longer in control and it was a
wild headline in the first place. And it goes back to a routine check during Crew and Red Bulls during this past season. And so after Var completes the check rule a collision with a keeper in the box was not a foul, a pro manager on site, who was not a match official, told him to take a second look. Transcription of the conversation was given to Steph Yang. Pro manager dips into the conversation involving Var and the on field refs to intercede in a call and have him
take another look. Quote. The structure encompassing the officiating of North American soccer matches sometimes dizzy in combination of acronyms and intermingled bodies pro overseas refereeing as it relates to professional leagues. The Professional Soccer Referees Association the PSRA is a certified labor union representing the rights of the refs themselves. IFAB is an inn organization upholding rules of soccer around
the world. So IFAB regulations mandate VAR decisions must be made by only the on field officials, the video ref and their aforementioned assistant, meaning the interaction above from an interceding official not on the game sheet. Was it odds with the accepted global standards for the use of global replay. According to multiple sources familiar with pro policy and refereeing at the top level men's and women's soccer, interference from
pro has become an habitual problem in MLSNNWSO games. While the presence of a pro manager listing in at a game would be normal as part of their end analysis and oversight, actual participant patient in the in game decision
making process extends beyond their remit So Athletics. If youang expect to several referees, all of whom have several years of experience, claimed the incidents like the one and Crew Red Bulls game were part of a pattern of interference, and two referees who remained unnamed obviously because of job security, requested anonymity and a reprisal. So now you have referees saying that there are bigger issues at stake, the need for viewing public to have faith in their officiating performance,
and that the VAR process is conducted with transparency. You have supervisors coming into the pods at halftime of matches, according to one referee, communication headset where they can listen and talk and talk in and in, and they've come on during the course of the game to help point us in a different direction. Second referee, there's a concern that the protocols in place are not being upheld as
they have been previously enforced. There have been suggestions which fall outside the strict protocol that we've been asked to carry end quote. PRO responded this way two six hundred and forty nine checks in twenty twenty four, of which six two one thousands of one percent prompted comment from a supervisor to a video match official. PRO conducted internal review when this was brought to our attention, and improvements
were immediately made to PROS processes as a result. What say you about that?
Yeah, this is I don't want to say unacceptable, because I understand why PRO would feel compelled to want to intervene in particularly contentious situations. However, however, that's not their job. That is not in the job description, that's not in the writer, that's not in the trip manifest, that is not what they're there for now. If they want to have these conversations after the game, fully fine, But I definitely dislike pro officials being in tune with the headsets.
I think that is a problem. I think that is not something that functioning professional referees should have to deal with. I do believe that, you know, I understand how at my level and the levels leading up to that, I could see where in some cases you could have what essentially amounts to their assigner, right, that's what pro is basically, is the assigner being involved to help with training. You know, I could see that, but not in a sanctioned regular
season league match competition. That is overreached for sure, and does make officials who, by the way, should be operating at their highest you know, for to use the gen Z term, they're locked in.
They should be.
They should be at that level of mental focus. You know, we all as referees do feel a little bit more in tune with the game, maybe when you're being assessed, but they're being assessed every game, and the assessment and the assessor are the least important people during that game. And honestly, it was it was fact, you're going to get her from the players and coaches, which.
How to phrase this, It was concerning, not surprising, Yeah, especially.
In this instance of VAR.
But anything passed anyone in any of these situation suations, I'm not so I found intriguing but not surprising is probably the best way that I can phrase what Steph Yang friends at the athletics. So I thought it was.
I was, uh, oh, here we go again. Ask questions. I guess if you want me to answer them. For the time being, John got kicked out again. We have Uh, he's gonna have to go for a round five. I'll stick around for a little bit so he can figure
it out if it's worth it. So anyway, this is, this particular instance of the Red Bulls and Columbus Crew match is for my opinion, very concerning because during the VAR process trying to again we've talked about this on the show a lot re referee and having someone who's not a match official come in and try to actually referee game is really concerning. That's a problem, and I'm a little disappointed in pro for doing that that I
think they should be better. It wouldn't surprise me if we get similar reports from NWSL, but that wasn't in the article that Steph wrote. Yeah, y'all have questions. I guess put him in there. John is refraining from cursing because he doesn't want you all to hear it. But I think this is already an explicit rating episode. Yeah, if anyone has any questions that you want me to answer about the refereeing that we saw, let me know. Otherwise, Yeah,
let's let's discuss. I love that. Let's talk about Messi. You know, I think the problem I have with the Messy winning MVP is obviously it was. It was written in the Star as well before that, that was in the script for the twenty twenty four season. It would be it would have been I would have taken a heroic effort for someone to beat Messi this year in the MVP race. But I do think that I guy like Ricky Fooch probably deserved it more than Messi. He
was way more instrumental to the way the team played. Messy, you know, was very important. But come on, man, Like, you've got three other World Cup winners on that roster, three World Cup players on that roster, Like, you don't need Messy to win that. Good job for Messy that got them a first round exit, So congrats. What is your line as a ref till a game could be abandoned?
Abandoned at my level would be not really in my control, to be honest, because at the grassroots level, while I may look up at the sky and say, I'll give you two examples, I may look up at the sky and go, hey, we have thunder and lightning. We're going to clear the field. If that match continues to play, or how it gets continued to play, is not something
that's up to me. But you know, if I don't have a league official or the coaches aren't the ones making the decision, then it would just basically be you know, have we gotten to a lot of leagues have their their rules, and most of it is basically have you got to the second half? And if so, you can abandon a match. Officially, I did have one match get abandoned earlier this year because the team showed up with
only ten players. They had a player get hurt early in the second half and they were down like Ford. They actually scored a goal, they scored from a kickoff, but they ended up losing four to one at halftime, and at halftime the coaches came to me and said we're done. While the team could have continued to play with nine players, they opted to not to. I mean
that was poor John. He's struggling anyway. The line for abandonment is basically whether are we allowed to continue to play and how long is it going to be until we play again. Usually I like to try to give as much time as possible, but I think the general rule of thumb is once you've surpassed your playing time slot. So for example, if I have a match scheduled at nine o'clock and we haven't started restarted a match by eleven, then it's likely that match will get abandoned for weather.
Now.
I've also had some issues with parents before where you know, luckily we didn't get there, but we've had issues with parents where if they can't control themselves, especially literally being the adults in the room, we have threatened to kick them all out if not abandoned the match if they didn't, and you know, abandon the match if they didn't leave.
We've had that issue once where a parent did not want to leave and I said, well, we're not restarting this match until you leave, and he tried to stay and I you know, basically call the coaches over and said if he doesn't leave, we're abandoning the match. But that isn't really in the the control of the referee, while the laws of the game may say it does
that very much. Is something that's left up to league officials and more importantly, as a referee, we're going to go to the coaches to help them make that decision, especially at the youth level, because they're the ones kind of in charge of that match for reporting purposes and you know, making sure everyone's safe. So especially at a safety issue, we're going to talk to the coaches and say, hey, this is where we're at, it's probably not safe to
play anymore. Yeah, any other questions, thanks, Rich, Just killing time until John gets back. Yeah, who has a Atlanta United gift on their wish list this year?
And so Bart's hear before even me.
Now I was I was here the whole time, John.
I know you were. And so to continue our conversation, Derek says, being an ar and youth games and having to listen to parents crap is the worst.
Well, crap is the nice way to put it, because they don't use that word. I have gotten a really, I have developed a really good teacher look. I use both as an official and as a center official and an assistant because parents forget that they're the adults sometimes,
Like it's really sad, John. I I had one earlier, like last month, where I mean it was a younger kid in the middle, but like, I am super protective of anyone under the age of like nineteen who is refereeing, because I think we've talked about this on on this show before the turnover, and a lot of that is because younger referees don't like being yelled at, and parents see a kid in the middle and just think that
they don't know anything. You know, this kid has gone through actual training and you're over there and as a parent who barely can run and have opinions on this, and I've I've i've straight up yelled at them before I have and I'm not supposed to like one hundred percent understand this, but I've old assigners and assussers that like they're like, you know, they're given the standard, like don't interact with the coaches, and I'm like, I'm gonna show to tell you, like I'll let them for a
second and it's not bad. I'm just like, hey, that's enough. Type of things you get because you gotta think, John. I mean, I'm not a I'm not a parent, but I've seen this parenting trick. When the kid is not acting right, you gotta give a nice little like shot to their systems so they go, oh, they're serious about this.
You know, sometimes quoting Dale Hansen. Sometimes you just got to pop them in the butt.
Yeah, And so I can't physically do that, I'll do that mentally with a nice little jerk of the oh okay, sorry, And usually they get it because because most of the time they're just being petulant. Yes, they didn't like one call, and now all of a sudden everything has to be Oh they didn't like that I called a throw in
for the other team. Heaven forbid, I miss a throw in, which is going to go straight to the other team anyway, because they're twelve and they don't know how to throw the ball in anyway.
Yes, uh so that was that was the point number two that I wanted to bring in. But yeah, the the idea of corporate overlord overseeing VAAR and impacting decisions that that that drew the people's eyebrow from me when that when the Steph Yang article came out from the Athletic. Not a fan of not a fan of those kinds of things. It's not appropriate, John, No, no, no, no, not appropriate.
Uh.
Third topic that I wanted to discuss with you, and that that you've hung on here for forty two minutes and only been able to talk for like eight uh. J. T. Batson did an interview with Amanda Davis at CNN and CNN International and so he says that he's open to job sharing in top coaching roles and it was a proposal floated by Emma Hayes last week before the draw
with England. She mentioned the arrangement, which is already used by various soccer college programs once again the SECN NSWORTHY, as a way of providing more opportunities for female coaches at the top level. She did not relate the proposal to her own position as head coach and that of Mauritia Pochettino Batsen when asked by a Manda Davis about it, absolutely as to whether he'd be open to the idea.
One of the driving factors quote behind US building a national training center for the first time is around creating those opportunities for a lot more mentorship, a lot more job sharing, a lot more seconds, a lot more opportunities to collaborate as folks are growing in their career. We've got this incredible growing market in soccer, and specifically women's soccer, and you need great talent off the field to be
able to support those on the field. We need to need to have a broad based investment in programs, and job sharing is a great example of those end quote.
A big issue in American soccer, and I would say soccer as a whole anywhere is still lack of females involved with any sort of management or leadership at any level. There are many times that I'll go referee a you know, a string of girls' youth matches, Right, I did this what two weekends ago where I had three matches not a single female coach for, But are total to six girls teams that would be unheard of on the boys side, right.
Obviously they all have men who are coaching them. But when you have a bunch of girls being coached by men, I'm not saying that they can't coach, and that's not the point, but we need more women involved referees, coaches, administrator, oftentimes the only woman in any sort of position of power out there as the athletic trainer. And so this is a good uh. I think JT's hit on a
couple of things. One is that I really love is that unified training center allows your coaches to be here, and so what if the youth seventeen girls coach is also out there at the U twenty boys practice right, That to me is a great use of time and talent of the coaching fool that you have within US soccer.
It also allows for more interaction between the two sides, which means that you're sharing ideas and we you know, the point of DEI to bring up a bad word, apparently, the point of DEI is Dale, raise hail for Rasdale. The point of the I is to bring diverse perspectives and thoughts to the table. And when you only have men, and a lot of times men from a very specific class of people, you're not getting different perspectives. So, you know, I think his point is just more broad about why
are we limiting women to certain jobs? And we just need more women in period in soccer, and so you know, you know, I don't know if he's truly open to say. You know, m A. Hayes coaching both the men's and women's national team, although we've joked that should happen, but now we have Pochatino, So I think they're at least relatively comparable coaches. But you know, I think I do think Emma could have got a better result at Copa America.
But it is something that you see at a lot at the college level where maybe you have well, this is a great example. Actually we talked about Lisa mc cray a lot on this podcast, and the head coach of the women's team there, Cali Morale was the head women's coach at Leonora Ryan when I was there, but coach Adrian Blewett was technically the head coach both the
men's and women's teams. That makes sense, So he was the director of soccer basically, and then you had the head assistants for either team who were kind of done with managing, and so Kelly was really in charge of the women's team, but underneath the director of soccer. And so that does happen a lot of times because budgets are the biggest reason, I think because the unfortunate. Part
of that is it's not because you're being altruistic. You're going, well, it's easier to pay one head coach for both teams, give him a little bit of a bump, and then you know, have two assistants that you're going to have to have anyway. So I don't know, Hi, Nick, I'll hire you.
How do Hi?
This is your internet working? Yeah?
Nick's internet's working.
I'm sure my internet is working.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So it seems to be some trouble there this morning there.
John, Yeah, four dumpouts in the first hour and twenty five minutes, including the thirty minutes to actually think.
And it's not his fault, Nick, This is truly the internet.
So well, folks, I mean I think it was a commando was just said. It was FIFA that was coming down on me once and for all for for everything.
Well, well, I for one salute our new soccer overlords, and uh, you know, I look forward to the crushing oppression ad.
Yes, absolutely, so you get to talk about club World Cup stuff and how enter Miami got a super easy.
Draw to spot.
No. Look, because I have had no internet this morning, we haven't had the chance to talk about the group configurations in the Club World Cup. We haven't talked about what allegedly is going to be happening in League's Cup, nor have we had the chance to discuss what's going to be happening in the last match of the year in Major League Soccer. We've done more is all we.
Need to know about Club World Cup.
John.
We don't know when the games in Atlanta are happening or who's playing yet.
We don't know it's supposed to be today.
That's yeah, hopefully by the end, by today. That's all that matters. That's the most important thing, because that's what we care about. I'm not traveling for Club World Cup. No offense to Club World Cup. That sounds fun, but I'm not traveling for that. But tell me when, what, when, and where the games are when and who the games are for Atlanta, and that way I can start making
my decisions. Also, I'm sure those tickets will be This is going to be a test to see how much they can actually price the twenty twenty six World Cup tickets for FIFA usually does a good job of keeping those prices low. But I am confident we'll.
See mm hmm, so yeah, we will will definitely take a peek at that. But yeah, the the grid is supposed to scheduling grid is supposed to come out later today, so we will find out what it looks like, all right, So then fine, we'll go ahead and take that turn. Since you mentioned Club World Cup, let's go through the groups Group A, Paul Marris, Porto al Ackley and Inter Miami. And apparently the first matchup is going to be Messi and your your current Lendon A Donovan Major League Soccer
most Valuable Player, Lino Messi. Uh, they're going to take on Paul Mayris apparently in the tournament opener at hard Rock. So Group A Paul Mayris, Porto Alckley and interm Miami. So Messi and friends will not be playing at the director set. They'll be playing at the Casino Stadium instead, and we'll see what happens there.
Yeah, that's a button seats game, right there.
Ain't it. Oh, let's say Group B PSG Athletico Madrid, both the Fogo and Seattle Sounders. And I knew, I knew that the longer Seattle was on the table in pot D that you know, And there are only certain things that you could do and map out. Okay, you can't have these teams going up against these teams, and these teams going up against these teams. The longer Seattle was in play, I knew they were going to be put here in Group D to go up against PSG Athletic and both the Fogo. G Thanks, well, the.
Jury is still out of PSG is actually good right now.
So there's that, But the jury's also out on on who they're going to bring for right right. I mean it could be you know, hey, look that that academ kid who was bringing the water barrels on the field. Can we bring can we bring him along? You are starting ten?
That's uh, that's that's correct. But yeah, hey, look good for Seattle they get to host these games. I mean I think legitimately getting to host in Seattle PSG is cool. Yeah, our buddy Thiago Almada he is to come back. Correct still there by then, I don't think.
And John Texter gets an entire tournament to look at on Twitter to see if he can find folks to get to both the Fogo, much like you did find Tiagua Alma. They got a helpful hint about a guy named Thiagua Almada on Twitter and he chased after it. We talked about it yesterday in the handoff with Nino and Nico.
Which is better using Twitter or transfer market to make your decisions?
Oh, that's a good question. That is really a good question. Depends on what your budgets are. Groups.
Well, I'll just say that's one one of those guys won a trophy. The other one is now firing their third head coach in three years.
Well.
Well, here's here's my question regarding Look, the idea is that we found this player on social media. Right, That means that some chuck wagon posted the content, right, Yeah, some poor schmuck out there posted, went through. They probably created a great Thiago Almada video with light, excellent euro techno beats behind it, you know. And uh, I don't know about that, John, That's that's a little concerning. Sounds like you need some pepto. Uh. But but you know,
is this person getting a dime? You know, is there like a finder's fee that we can direct to the person who posted the Thiago Almada content social media that got him to Vota Fogo?
Doubtful? I mean, John Texter, Right now, we know what's going on with Eagle Football Group, so remember Leon. Yeah yeah, so right now I'm guessing the answer to that's a hard no.
Uh.
Group CE Bayern, Munich, Benfica, Boca Juniors and Auckland City. Thanks for dropping by.
Auckland City, a semi pro team. We love it.
Group D Flamengo, Leone, Chelsea and ESPORTID the two Nie from Too Nisia.
I actually think this is an interesting group because we get the Lega a Mechi's team playing in the US, which I think, you know will shock a lot of European fans that that many, you know, passionate fans would be in the US. You know, Chelsea is on a good runniform. Who knows what Todd Bowley does by next summer? And uh yeah, I think that's an I think that's a really interesting group personally.
And I mean I'm I'm staring at that when I'm going Estid the two Nie thanks for dropping by.
Yeah.
Here's my thing is, I think that this could be one of those groups that could I will agree with my with my esteemed colleague, the estimable bart uh with saying that this could be the group to watch out for, but I would not sleep on on our friends from Tunisia. I'm not saying that as a you know, a North African uh, you know fanboy, I will say that I think Tunisia and and there our friends from Liga E Mekis.
Uh.
This is one thing that tends to happen in these summer tournaments here in the United States, is that I saw this way back, uh in the early two thousands when Club America played Milan at the Georgia Dome. And Milan came in and they brought a largely full strength roster and they got ran by Clobe America. I mean, they were not ready for the intensity that the LGA Mechi's team brought. They were not ready for the bat blank insanity that they were willing to engage.
In, and they did.
They did not tried playing catch up until the second half. And I'm just saying, you could see some shocks in this group if the team from Tunisia and the team from Mekis show up and decide to go full boar, don't.
I mean as well? I mean that's the thing that I think a lot of these nick these European teams have never truly dealt with, outside of maybe some trips to the Baltic States is fans who I mean, they're scary to be quite honest.
Yeah, no doubt about it. All right, So that's uh, I'm looking forward to. I'm looking forward to chaos, you know, me and chaos, that's what I'm hunger. Group E, River Plate Yurawa, Red Diamonds from Japan, Mont Today and inter Milan nick in Group E.
Yeah. Yeah, So the Blue and Black team's gonna go do something.
I don't know.
We've got to make sure that the're probably having to work for the airline to ensure that the team could afford to pay their way over. But I want to see where this group ends up because if if they put this group on the West coast, then you could get some butts in seats.
Yes, absolutely, If you.
Put this team on in the southeast, it could be problematic for some of your matchups. But this is gonna be interesting to see where FIFA puts these groups. And because they believe me, Look, they I agree that the seat. You may have some tickets that are moderately affordable, but at the end of the day, you will find groups that are magically playing in certain locations to ensure that you're gonna end up getting some some cash flow coming in from this thing. They want to make this the
most successful Club World Cup in history. They want to make sure that they have a good a good footprint, good road map for how to handle a World Cup coming up. And they have to also sell to the world. And I'm not trying to get political here, but you have to sell to the world that you will have a safe experience here.
In America, yeah, for twenty six and that.
This is also part of the process. So there's a lot riding on this tournament for FIFA, and so I really want to see where they put these u these groups, and especially if somehow, some way Boca and River end up playing each other. Somewhere along this line, you are going to get a lot of security testing h in place. Especially if you end up in the Southeast or if you end up in the Southwest. You could have some
really really interesting dynamics playing out. As we saw H during Copa America in Miami.
This group screamsnick being in Georgia and Florida. It does when you look at all the Yeah, when you look at the sites, You've got Mercedes Bens, You've got Bank
of America up and Charlotte. I can see that very favoring Monterey, the Hiante from Mexico, and then with the Argentinian connection and and Miami and probably Orlando as well, I could see like, yeah, this is gonna be a problem for I know you're you will absolutely hate seeing an Italian team get thropped by some of these South American and Central I know you'll just it'll break your heart.
Big River.
I want to know if if if mon and and are gonna wear their striped kits together because one is white and blue and the other is black, but I think they should try that out.
Absolutely. But yeah, so Nick big urala red diamonds energy.
Massive massive for NICKI I'm the guy who would dress up at like in the inflatable Godzilla outfit when that when they play against Enter and like do like the the inflatable thundersticks. Yeah, that would be me. If you see that at Bank of America Stadium, you just know, all right, that's Nick and they're about to have heage stroke.
That's amazing. Group. F uh we we always mentioned that the Seattle Group is the group of de la Mortes, Group of de la Morte Group f Flamense Dortmund, old Son and Mammelodi sundowns what happened here? Group? I guess they want Dortmund to go through, eh, I.
Would say yes to be fair, like those are yeah, those are the two to get through that group.
I mean that's literally that's what I'm staring at. In this one we mentioned one's a group of death. This one is like the the the group of paper footballs or whatever. In in Group F group g Man City v. DoD Ac out of Morocco, I'll Ian out of the UAE and Juventus nick.
I would like to see. Morocco has put a ton of money from the top down into their program, so into their entire like their entire soccer pyramid has received significant and substantial funding. There is a sincere effort to place Morocco front and center on the world stage at all levels of football. It will be very easy to point at this team out of Morocco and say, okay, they're out, but they will show up ready, guns of blazing, in order to showcase, hey, that money was not wasted, right,
So they want to put on a good showing here. Uh, Youve is I'm not going to say youve is a shell of themselves because they're not, but they will show up with how Italian teams do God bless but go up here and they're not going to work unless they have to. If they don't, it's gonna be very interesting what happens when Enter and Uve get punched in the face. I want to see how that works out. But don't sleep on any of these African teams coming out for Club World Cup.
Well, two things I want to talk about with both Groove G and App is you've got the potential for Americans playing here. Obviously with with Youve you've got McKenny and Weea, with Dortmund you've got Girana and Cole Campbell who's who's making his ways, and Monterrey as well if you want to go see Brandon Vasquez. But Nick, I'm curious how the American connection will help you. They in the stands this summer.
I think it'll be huge. Uh again, it's you know, butts and seats, right, and so if you have the opportunity, it's one thing to.
I mean, if it's closed, I'm going type of right.
Right, And and that's that's the huge thing here is that how often do you get to see your national team heroes, especially if the European based ones play here in America like we saw when.
In the rail matches matches. Yes not the yeah.
Correct, correct. It's one thing to say, Okay, I'm going to go and spend an insane amount of money to watch a team during a player friendly in which my hero will only play half of the game, if like maybe twenty minutes tops, and then they're out. So you know, you get the slow walk off the field, the collapse, everybody's cheering, and then half the stadium empties out. FIFA
does not want that, you know. So it will be good for US men's national team fans to see their heroes in the European clubs probably get some significant playing time, and you know, you will look at this as a brand building exercise.
So do you think they have the strongest.
And no, okay no, I think Milan right now has eclipsed to them just by Polisitics.
Because of politic That makes sense. Do you think youve is up there in terms like because when I think of Italian clubs, I think youve Is. I mean there's a reason but the nickname of the grand.
Old lady or whatever, but yeah, yeah, it looks.
I do think I get your point about Polisic specifically has raised Milan's status, but I think there's a lot of Uve cloud still out there.
There there is. I think that I think that Juve was a far more attractive ticket when you had when you had Buffon and Gold, when you had Kilini, when you had Banucci, when you had that Moron number seven up top, you had you know there were it was a more attractive ticket. You know. It's it's this is a brand that would still have significant drawing power in Europe. But I don't know if it's going to be the same here outside of the of the US men's national team players, But I way, yeah, I.
Think that will still carry a long way. I mean, you're gonna see a lot of red, white and blue and the stands cheering for you.
In my opinion, Yeah, yeah, You'll see a lot of US men's national team kids when you shows up to play, and there will be pressure on them to play those those guys and play them for a while.
Do you enter and you've ay just play in the New York, New Jersey Philadelphia area or are they going to be.
Yes, they will. I think people are going to demand, Yeah, you know a place you don't want to place them in Dallas? Okay, you don't want to place them there.
But I don't. I don't know if Nashville is the play which where I am now, I don't know if Nashville is the place to put the Italian team.
No, but I would certainly look at putting you a in the northeast. And you got to give him a rin?
Are can Tommy DeVito's agent be the official cointosper?
What are we doing if that doesn't happen? If what are we doing as a society if that's not happening?
Oh man, to see once again, here we go working. We're fixing the Club World Cup and it hadn't even started yet.
That's I mean, that's why I'm like, why you know the Mexican teams are going to get in like one of four locations. It's going to be l A. Yeah, probably Florida one of those two, and then Atlanta and Charlotte. There's huge Mexican populations and all three, all four of those places, like's not dumb, Yeah.
Yeah, they they need to they need to fill their coffers. According to Ben Jacobs earlier this morning, uh MESSI and Friends are supposed to play at the Casino and Group A Toy play at the hard Rock Group be expected to be in Los Angeles and i'le no surprise once again the Sounders being attached to Group B. Around half of the other games, according to Jacobs, will take place in New York and Atlanta is also expected to get a big chunk of games. Group H Real Madrid, All Hillal,
Pachuca and f C Salzburg. Hey, Real Madrid, thanks for coming by the Hike.
Think this is a really good opportunity for a Salzburg team that doesn't get a whole lot of Like when they go to the champions You're you know, the UAA Champions League, they get kicked out early because there is that talent gap. I'm curious how a team that has been so good in Austria competes with a Pachuka or you.
Know, I'll have Lee mm hmmm. One. So what you're looking at for venues once again? L A and Seattle. They're thinking that's Group B. You have, you got hard rock and I'm guessing they're gonna try and put it in the Citrus Bawl. I don't know if they're gonna.
Pay and can't imagine that when you get to.
Deeper stages and things.
When you get to the A La Klee versus Porto match, is that going to be in the Citrus Bowl? Or is that an excuse me, camping World or is that an enter and co?
Hey, they they ain't paying us to talk about their equipment. So it's the Citrus Bowl. Bank of America capacity TQL in Cincinnati is twenty six thousand, Rose Bowl listed as
one of the venues. Hard rock capacity of sixty five, g otis listed with a capacity of thirty, the Metal Lands at eighty two five for soccer, Citrus BUWL listed at sixty five for soccer, and yes, the Amber Sand Stadium in Middle Florida with a capacity of twenty seven thousand, the link for sixty nine thousand, lumin at sixty nine thousand, nice, and Audi at twenty And that's what we're staring at.
So DC, they're moving him to Audi Field. They better get some horticulture squared away from that joint, because what was.
The other option? John freaking FedEx? That ain't you'll, I.
Don't know if is FedEx even wide enough?
Is what I'm saying yeah, is actually wide enough, but it's just a terrible stadium.
Well, let's keep in mind the Rose Bowl. The reason why they're playing in the Rose Bowl, they're going to play it off as this historic stadium. That's not the case. The big issue here is in LA when they built the stadium, they didn't build it with FIFA lines in mind, and ownership refuses to remove any seats in order to ensure that they can account they can account for the FIFA lines.
So, uh, Stan crockey once again forgetting that soccer.
Is this sport.
Yeah, so you have this this this modern, like goulous, gorgeous cathedral in LA that you can't even use for the premier sport in the world.
So you've got to haul it up to Pasadena.
And you know CONCA CAF is playing their next two Nations League finals there though.
Yeah, yeah, it'd be it'd be great. Yeah, yeah, it's gonna be a good good job.
Yeah.
But and for those who have never been to Pasadena, it is it. Look, it ain't exactly next door to Los Angeles. The Rose Bull is in a neighborhood. Like you run down from one corner and like.
Yeah, and you park on the golf course. That's how the golf course makes their money, especially for rose ball environments. You park on the golf course, they overcharge you for the parking and then they take the revenue from the parking, and that's how they fix the golf course.
Right.
So, if you've ever seen like the movie kill Bill, right where the bride shows up and faces off against Vivica a fox, that's Pasadena. That neighborhood, that beautiful, little quaint neighborhood is Pasadena. And it's like probably that where they shot that was probably maybe like three minutes away from the Rose Bowl tops. So there ain't exactly a fantastic level of infrastructure there to make that to make
that happen. But Krocky won't make any moves necessary to make any adjustments in his modern technological masterpiece.
So you know, okay, great, let's see. Let me take the tour real quick. It looks like Aaron Opoko has reached a verbal agreement with All Caps. The twenty five year old striker from Kaiser, Slout and Keen to join the MLS in January. Already received fee as an offer worth a two hundred and fifty to three hundred fifty thousand and transfer fees and courting internally. Advice is now being sought on whether to accept the offer otherwise a pre transfer in the summer is looming. We did have
a trade this morning in Major League Soccer. The Loons have acquired and I don't know how talented this individual is from Sporting Kansas City, but Minnesota United has acquired general allocation money from Sporting Wows this morning, and it's an undisclosed amount too, So that's how secretive the talent pool is involving general allocation money wow being acquired from Sporting Kansas City next for the homegrown priorities of Ian
James and Jack cork Camp. So Minnesota United acquires an undisclosed amount of GAM from Sporting Kansas City in exchange for homegrown priorities of Ian James and Jack cort Camp, who I believe are two U seventeen's with the the national team.
So interesting, but.
Yes, so you don't get a specific amount, you don't get specific allocation money, you get an undisclosed amount of general allocation money. So the trade involved something. So it might have been like, you know, a bag of Dorito's and a you serve and.
You know, figuring out Cheetos and U seventeen.
Yes, Messi won the Donovan MVP with thirty eight point four percent of the vote, beating Kuco Hernandez at thirty three points seven. Jorgey Moss optimistic Messi will extend until twenty twenty six translation when the new stadium opens. Quote. I'm very confident he'll be opening our new stadium in twenty six. I'll be sitting with Leo at some point in the off season. I'm optimistic that as long as Leo's health holds up, we'll be seeing him in pink,
according to Ben Jacobs. Ben Jacobs was very busy at the Club World Cup to do and get this. Jacobs asked Jorgey Moss whether Nayma is on their radar and if he's tempted to reunite MSN, Messi, Suarez and Nama. Quote and this is this Isjorgey Moss. We've an unlimited budget. We are aspirational if there's ever a chance to bring the caliber of a player like Neymar we will not head eh. Quote aren't you care? What a man?
Yeah? Sorry, my computer was dying. I need to head Charter.
Actually let's look, let's look at this messy news or this messy quote thing here from Moss. Look, Messy is now officially on about eighty seven percent of all products involving sporting water, beer chips. It is everything that America has promised nil, right, and the old jay Z quote, I'm not a businessman. I'm a business man. So you anybody can be employed by Messy the business and not Messy the team.
Right.
So if you're employed by Messi the man, he can pay you whatever he wants. And so if Neymar says, hey, look how do I get over here? Great, well you sign up with MESSYLLC and we can ensure that we can compensate you whatever is needed for you to come here and play in pink for a while. And there's nothing. It's it's the most beautiful loophole that you.
Can imagining, Nymar Audi Dealership. Oh yeah, Orlando, and just you know, like not not Miami, Orlando where you have a huge Portuguese speaking, Brazilian speaking population, Brazilion.
Perhaps a chain of of Ortho dealerships to make sure that he's got the proper equipment when he's on crutches.
Well, especially when that that injury happens from the December to March timeframe.
Yes, and uh so he's late for training camp. Yeah, he's dinged up. We're letting him rest now.
We're letting him rest down at Carnival.
Yeah.
So ay, if they if Miami makes it happen, beautiful, go for it.
Yeah, go for it. Yeah, I mean if that legitimately, if that's what, if that's what you can if that's what you can make happen, make happen. Test the limits of nil and and sponsorships and things like that. But my larger question is it so Messi wins the don Ovan MVP Award over Koot scho, Evander Binech and Suarez was someone who played in fifty five percent of Miami's matches worthy of getting the MVP award.
How did well?
The question really is, how are we defining most valuable?
Yeah? Oh man, I'm with you, Nick, I mean, are.
We talking about on the field scoring goals or is it to you know, how much did Apple's subscriptions tick up, how much was added to the bottom line, how much viewership jumped this past season? Because if those numbers are markedly improved, he was the most valuable player for the league if he But if you're telling me that from on field perspective, he was more important than bed Teca because who was DC without the decade?
You know, Yeah, And that that gets into the conversation to Nick of well, I agree, ben Teke was more valuable to his team. His team wasn't good, That's true, except against Atlanta.
Well, and they were and Messi and friends won eight of nine in Major League Soccer when he was not in the lineup. Remember he was over two months with the ankle injury. The remember the picture of him on the bench in the KOPA final where his ankle looks like somebody turned a a King scepter upside down and had its substitute as his left leg. I mean, fifty five percent of the matches in a thirty four match competitive season, he gets the MVP, they win eight of
nine with that out him. But to Nick's economic, three dimensional perspective, well.
He also had the I mean, as the release says, more goal, more goal contributions than anyone else in the league. Right now, I think for me, the discussion as we're getting to is, yes, the numbers for Messi look great, but when you talk about most valuable. The wins above replacement seemed pretty darn good for someone. You know, It's
not like he he was necessary war. Yeah, it's not like he his war is that great, because I think anyone to be quite I mean, you put Christian roll Don in that position and he's probably contributing to some goals on you know, a goaligain no fense. But that's just the reality when you have a guy like Luis Suarez, Leo, you know, and all the rest of the talent, you
know it. I still think that Hughgue is the one that got snobbed from all of this discussion because I think when you watched LA Galaxy and watch how instrumental he was to that. I mean, I think he averaged a million touches a game. Yeah I wish I were exaggerating, but like he had an insane amount of touches for ninety and when you look at his team, sure they didn't set a points record, but you know, and it's not like LA is like hurting for talent either. But
they had a very good season. They are now in the final, which I know doesn't play into these voting discussions, but still I think Ricky pug is the one who was snubbed the most in a season where Messi didn't have to be on this team for I mean Messi. Look obviously, I think if Messi's not there, then you don't have all the other players who are there. But if Messi were to not have played this year, as we said, I think Miami would have been just fine.
Are they setting the points record? Maybe not, but they're still probably the number one overall seed and they still get bounced by Atlanta in the first round. There you go.
League's Cup is going to be played in twenty twenty five. Lizziebthcerano came out with that news yesterday, but apparently now and this goes to comments that were made by Ernst Tanner. I want to say last week in Philly, it looks like the League's Cup format may only be eighteen and eighteen. When Ernst Tanner said that it didn't look like the Union were going to be one of the chosen many
that were going to be in League's Cup. So eighteen MLS teams considering this format, eighteen MLS teams and the eighteen Liga m Echis teams for what could be League's Cup in twenty twenty five. Yes it will be played, but now they're trying to figure out to what extent it will be played because of everything going on simultaneously. Gold Cup June fourteen to July six, Club World Cup June fifteen to July thirteen, and League's Cup is expected
to be played in the summer months. So you could have a demolition derby of a schedule involving League's Cup, Gold Cup, Club World Cup here in this particular hemisphere. Remember the twenty three and the twenty four versions of the League's Cup had everybody in the pool. Now they're looking at eighteen plus eighteen and that's what we might be seeing that Once again, that's from Lizziebethcherano over at the four letters.
So look, the only winner here is the Ortho Clinic.
That's it. That's the clinic is the one that wins this, right.
I this is not sustainable. This kind of schedule is not sustainable. It is you are forcing athletes. And before anyone says, oh there are a millionaires, I'm sorry.
You go.
If you know any professional athletes, you go and you see them after they've retired, and you look at them hobbling around your body does not recover. It does not recover.
I have played professionally and I'm still hurting when I wake up every day from playing the time I was foreign telling, I mean, seriously, it's just it's this is not good for them.
It's not And and I don't care what the rev split is. I don't care what it doesn't make up for it. Yeah, the maximum they maximize, they maximize their their visibility in the market. Please no, I'm sorry, Like that's that's like when somebody says, hey, you can do this job, Nick, you'll get paid an exposure, right, Exposure doesn't pay the power bill. Exposure doesn't pay the water bill.
Uh.
And you know the exposure doesn't reconstitute a CLS, MCLs and Achilles. So when you have this kind of ridiculous schedule happening, you're punishing these players, and you're punishing their parent clubs. And initially, when I heard what Ernst Tanner said, I was initially like, well, blank, you Ernst Tanner out of principle. But now I'm like, great, I get to have my players sit to the side and have a reduced schedule. Amazing.
Here's here's my thing about the League Cup is I think the problem with Leagues Cup personally is for those of you who don't remember, in the old format, it was basically for MLS the teams that didn't make CONKAKEP Champions League, all right, and so there was a level of qualification, so it was essentially the Europa Cup, right,
Europa League. Yeah, And I think there is value in that for MLS and League A mechis, who by far have the best, the biggest saturation of good clubs in the Semisphere, to have their own little Europa League, you know, because you do want to reward For example, under this format, you know, like Charlotte would not have doesn't qualify necessarily for a Champions Cup type point, but hey, you had a good season, you get rewarded because you now qualify
for League's Cup. You get an extra you know, two three games throughout the season in a group stage and hey, if you do that then you're going to a quarterfinal, semi final final. That sounds fun, right, That is a way to build hype because you have qualified for it. I think what you have the problem with right now in this current edition is from the MLS side, and I think from the League A Mechi side. The fans aren't buying what's being sold to them because there's no stakes.
It's just like, okay, cool, you have a month break. That's terrible, especially when you're Atlanta and don't know how to win in the League's Cup and.
You know, there's the Zinger sure that I was waiting for.
I was thin here as a fact, John, and so then you sit for three weeks afterwards and you're just like, well, what do we do. That's a that's a bad it's bad format.
You know.
I think this is a step in the right direction. I think the obvious answer is you're gonna have Seattle in Miami not play a League's Cup because they're in Club World Cup. And you're probably you know, I don't know about the selection thing, but you know, Philly didn't make the playoffs, so I don't have they you know, if you want to talk about good teams, and they
shouldn't be in it. But my fear is you're gonna have Seattle on Miami playing this because you've got to have MESSI playing a competition that's MLS based, And that's to next point. That's not good for anyone. But this should be the year coinciding with Champions Cup. This should be the tournament for the people and the teams in LEGA and Mechi's and MLS who did not get in a Champions Cup but still had very good seasons. Give them give me the next eight if.
You will well, And what I would also propose is a widening of the roster eligibilities and make sure that your rosters.
Are john Now you're talking about owners making decisions that make sense, and that's your problem there.
Well, because you're getting to the point. I made this point earlier this week that you're getting to the point with all of these competitions, Nick, can can you help me out? Because Jason pronounces the country better than I do, and I think that you do a good second. Where the Premier League plays, thank you, With all of the competitions they have, that is where we are heading here.
And in that country you have Gummy Bear Cup, You've got FA Cup, you have Premier League, You've got whatever league you're playing in, and in the pyramid you have Johnston's Paint, You've got Europa League. You've got all of these tournaments, and you need to with all of these tournaments now here in this Hemisphere, you've got to loosen
your roster restrictions. So the thirty guys that are there, it's easy for them almost like make it like the NBA and the and the G League, where guys are ten day deals, but you don't restrict how many matches they can play, where you could have call ups and only be eligible. You could be called up for four times to sit on a bench and only play two. No, you got to wipe that off the board.
If you're gonna get the point of having League MLS next pro as a reserves league, if you don't use the reserves.
See I mean that's you saw in Open because you've got League's Cup, you've got Open Cup, you've got regular season, you've got Conker Calf for those that qualify. All of these things that are stacking up, and you're restricting your own roster size, roster health, tournament advancement. You're going to have teams take one of these tournaments. It might be Leagues Cup where you get three weeks off. If you don't get out of group, you could sit there and
tank your group. If it's a large market team. Let's just say if it is a large market team in the old US television ad I breakdown. If a large market team that is attached two Major League Soccer decides because they're in all these damn tournaments, tell you what, we're gonna blow off Leagues Cup. We're gonna blow off this television series on Apple TV and just go through the group stage. We're going to Christmas Tree it under the current roster specs, and then we're gonna take three
weeks off and get healthy. That does not I mean you're not drawing in the audiences and the larger chances at metrics by keeping these clubs engaged in these tournaments and being a part of these television shows that you're creating on Apple. You've got to fix the roster rules.
Here well, because they're not looking at there. There are terms in corporate America that will absolutely warp your brain. Okay, like and you see it on LinkedIn all the time. Uh, they don't want they don't want exciting, amazing competition. They want attentive consumers, right, attentive consumers of product. And that you have to utilize the resources at your disposal to obtain these engaged consumers. And how do you do that? You put your resources out front and center every chance
you get. And the idea is that these engaged consumers will lock onto your product and they will buy the supporting products that you know of your advertisers and services. And you know, I'm sure Family Insurance is a wonderful insurance company that does a good book of business. I have never once looked at purchasing American Family Insurance because they are in the front of Atlanta, United Jersey. But
there they are, right and my partner. But it's you know, at the end of the day, that's all this is, and you the consumer have to make a choice whether you were going to tune into all of this mess
or not. I fundamentally disagree with the fact that we have to have these crazy conversations where we have to look at a team that may tank, because you end up with like Blackpool and I England some years ago, where they take if I remember correctly, there were accusations that they were tanking in the f A Cup because they were concerned about survival in the pren and they were nuking the manager after the game on this and
the manager said, I am the manager of Blackpool. I select the roster, not you, and not anyone else in the media, and it was this huge to do, and I think that you're going to get a situation. You know, I could absolutely see Sporting Kansas City and you know where they end up in front of cameras and conversations are being had.
No, I am the managers, Yeah.
I'm I'm the manager of the general manager. I'm everybody in this organization. Maybe you won't tell me nothing about my roster. And I don't be shocked if some of these other teams do it as well. And and to Bart's point, if you have a next pro you need to have a fluid transition period from roster to roster during periods like this where Garber comes in and says when from this window to this window, you can fluidly move players back and forth, no roster issues.
That is, to me, the point of a reserves team is why. I mean, we saw this with Atlanta United the summer where we're in you know, Open Cup competitions and we gave the young players some chances. That's the point of the Open Cup. That's the point of this because otherwise no offense to you know, the next pro teams, but you're just playing a bunch of guys who are at the same.
Level as you and you won in Charleston with a rotated lineup with second team and academy and next roeral players. What what this?
This is my solution. So here here it is. We're trying to fix the problems. But I think MLS, US Open Cup and Leagues Cup need to allow teams to have a forty player roster and so that or you know, increase whatever the roster sizes by ten. I don't remember what they are at each one.
I mean it's thirty under contract.
But if you go to yeah, but that's MLS. I don't know what it does for, like what the roster I don't know exactly the roster rules, but anyway, it allows teams to have forty teams rostered, and so MLS needs to allow teams to understand that there is the MLS roster. You have thirty. You also then can add up to forty for your roster and then just stipulate like it has to be from your reserve team or academy. That's it, because this is how the European teams get by with it.
Right.
Arsenal is not putting out, Chelsea is not putting out they're best eleven when they go play in an FA Cup third round match, although we might have to because now we're playing Manchester United, which.
Is here's the explicit rating for this.
Sorry, yeah, like this like this episode is gonna yeah, okay, this is this episode deserves an explicit rating. But that's what I don't get, Nick, is like, we have this reserves and these academy systems, but we don't allow them to even dip their foot into the professional waters. Which is the point of having that structure.
On the surface, is the point of having that structure.
Uh.
What it looks like with the way that MLS has structured this is it looks like it's two things, uh, real estate and market share. It looks like, okay, well, you're gonna put an MLS Next Pro team in a city, uh that is, you know, in the surrounding zone of a Major League Soccer club, Uh, to ensure that we expand the fan base, uh that of the parent club in that pyramid, right and where you may have had a you know, one of these MLS Next Pro teams
in Huntsville. Huntsville's I think a prime example because their parent club is Nashville, correct, yes, uh, you know, you're what four hours from Nashville if you're in Huntsville.
Oh no, you're more like two more to.
Okay, two I thought Okay, I thought it was like yeah, yeah, yeah.
Herefore from here to Huntsville too, From Huntsville to Nashville.
There we go. So if if you're two hours from that, you're trying to expand into Alabama, correct, because there's no Major League Soccer team in Alabama.
Son to Huntsville from where I am in East Nashville.
Okay, so there you go. So so you have the MLS start expanding. But if you put the roster rules in place that say you cannot fluidly move these players back and forth at the will of the parent club, then all you're doing is talking real estate and market share. Otherwise it's not there to benefit the parent club. Well
is there to benefit the parent club from player development? Okay? Great, you're talking about all of these resources to move what ten percent of this second division club up to the first team maybe fifteen percent tops, It's okay, what else is it?
Then?
This is what I don't get nick, I urrie with you about like the market share, the visibility, all that like, I totally understand why Nashville has a team in Huntsville, Alabama, which is you know, the next I mean literally, it's not as closer than both Memphis and Knoxville, next closest big city, right. But the problem I have with this is you're not able to actually monitor, in my opinion, those players on your reserves team adequately day in and
day out. And if they're all down in Huntsville, sure you've got scouts and reports, but like, if I'm the GM and the head coach, I want eyes on them as much as possible. And that's why I just don't love the idea of a MLS next Pro team, a reserve team of an MLS team being you know, external
like that. I could understand if it's like Franklin, Tennessee, where it's like, you know, you're forty five minutes south of the city and we're just putting one here because well, you've got an open stadium, you know, Like I mean, if I get it, but I don't love the Huntsville Nashville relationship. I understand the I understand that a little bit better than the independent clubs, but whatever, I just
they're not using this correctly. These tournaments are opportunities to actually use your reserve and your academy players, and MLS continues to restrict that ability. Which if you want to be a selling league, getting a seventeen year old into an open cut match before he becomes eighteen so that you can show him off to the world and say, hey, look which you could be buying in six months time. That makes too much sense for anemal.
Way too much sense. Part way too much sense.
Mm hmm. All right, so before we get out of here, obviously we got to talk about the last game of the end of the year for Major League Soccer. It is Lag and it is Red Bulls. No Ricki Pooge obviously, who played thirty minutes on a torn ligament in his knee and still contributed to the one goal in the match. The man is insane and it is Lag at home hosting Red Bulls. Nikolafy, what say you in this matchup this weekend?
I logic suggests Red Bulls, but.
It is.
There are moments in sports that don't make any damn sense. I'm going back to the New England Patriots in two thousand and one, Drew Bledsoe Rocket arm quarterback who is a statue but could throw the ball further than Uncle Rico goes down with an injury. Everybody thinks that the Patriots are done for. They're no, you know, they don't have an option. This random nobody named Tom Brady steps in and the Patriots going to win the Super Bowl.
I don't know if this is that this is going to mirror that situation, But the Red Bulls as an organization, I think, have a lot of pressure to prove their worst to the Red bull org. From a managerial perspective, there's a lot of pressure there. From a player perspective, there's a lot of pressure. This is an organization that has won nothing but supporter shields. They have to win the big one.
Barely have supporting shields. Yeah, yeah, I have a couple, but yeah, I'm with you, like this is this is yeah.
Give give me, give me, give me, LA. I'll take LA still riculous, LA, I'll take them.
Yeah.
Uh.
The number has decreased over the week. LA g's a minus one sixteen now. It's started basically around minus one thirty. It's dounded well minus one sixteen draw and Red Bulls have pretty much stayed the same draw in ninety minutes is plus two seventy seven in the composite Red Bulls to win outright as a plus two eighty two.
But that that LA line has moved.
LA line moves has moved closer to even money over time.
Look, all I'm saying is that if a line, if a line's moving, Vegas knows something, man at least have a hunch.
Yeah, and diego for probably is going to be in the spot shadow with Rocky Pooje out as the catalyst for two thirds of the killer piece. Yeah, Nick, According to four card, Nick needs to join Picks of the Week in the discord. So, uh, you could be like me and finished last by picking draw all the time.
So you've got that, And we're taking John to the sports book.
No you're not, because but.
The funniest things during soccer over there is when John would pick draws, nothing but draws. It would it would win like once in a blue moon happened. It was the funniest.
Teams you know nothing about. I'm not I'm gonna hedge my bet and sit there and go draw. And you've also got to counter program everybody else on the show. When it came to picks. So you know, it's like, Okay, I've got to figure out a way to advance this somehow everybody's picking one side or the other. It just coincidentally meant that I picked draw, and I ended up picking draw more often than not. So that was that was I'm counter programming without any knowledge, without any.
To watch Jason's face, would it would be like, uh, like inter Mongolia is getting a plus nine hundred job like draw draw.
Raw. Absolutely true. And so we're trying to figure out even if it's in tape form, probably need to have Nick bringback Soccer over there just to even have it on tape, even if it's not live, just to have the episodes available. And we got to figure out a way to make that happen. We've got to bring SOT back so that we'll figure it out. That is that is mandatory, all right. This weekend, it is a bunch
of college championships and advancements and things like that. Columbus States playing tomorrow afternoon at three at Walden against the University of West Florida in the round of eight Division two women, number two ranked team in the country against number one, and it's in Columbus Emery Is in Las Vegas in the final four for Division three women. SCAD continues to win in their turnes. Yes, so SCAD continues
to win. Dalton State continues to win. We're keeping an eye on all of that, trying to catch up with programs as they continue to win in advance, and we'll probably catch up with them early part of next week Tuesday. Next week is gonna be a little wonky because of high school football, so it might end up being an SDHPM. I've got to alert Taylor Hodges about that. There's some
moves and information in USL Championship that have happened. Taylor Dovel assigns a multi year contract extension with lou City. San Antonio FC is inc Torge Hernandez to a multi year deal. Detroit City has signed former Sacramento defender Shane Wheat. Birmingham Legion has signed Ronaldo Damos on loan from GIF suns Fall in Sweden. I initially looked at this like Gift suns Fall. No gif suns Fall with an option to purchase from the Swedish the Swedish clubs, So transactions
of plenty are happening in the USL. New coaches for one Knox in League one in Lexington, SC as they move up to USL Championship. Uh, gossip Berumeran and you window let me get into that and then want to watch or to watch it and how to watch it? And uh quickly as we get into the weekend here. Uh oh, Bart, you're in You're in Nashville. You're you're You're in God's time zone.
I am currently in Nashville, Tennessee.
Okay, because you said East Nashville, I'm like, wait a minute.
See I am in East Nashville.
You're that close to Murphreysboro and the southernmost white castle in the United States. Yes, tremendous.
There's a white castle here.
Oh yes, there is.
Sun Oppery Mills, Baby up Opery Mills.
That is true.
I will be downtown on Broadway tonight, so pray, Actually, don't pray for you. I'll enjoy it.
But I'm going.
I'm up here for concerts.
So oh which concert?
Casey Muscraves is playing two? Go to both of them because I'm addicted.
Understood, Uh Arsenal Chelsea, both targeting a striker, both looking at Newcastle's Alexander Esach Curvery year Ears Alex. Manchester United have also made signing a striker their top priority in the window. Byron have made significant progress regarding a contract extension for Alfonso Davis, who's being monitored by Manchester United. According to Floria and Plettenberger, skuy Germany United, also behind Chelsea and the Racist, signed letcha'se twenty year old Denmark
left back Patrick Dorghu. Chelsea and Brighton manager Graham Potter has been sounded out by both Wolves and west Ham. Dortmund coach Edwin Turzich will not become the new manager of west Ham if Jewel and Lopateeg's relieve of his position, but Casper Schulmand is in contention. David Moyes is among the contenders for Wolves at Garry O'Neil gets sacked, but Looton boss Rob Edwards as an outsider, having been well thought of at the Malinu because he played there for
four years. Bright in Southampton tracking eighteen year old Mother Weell, teenager Lennon Miller, Scotland U twenty one midfielder also interesting to Liverpool and Newcastle. Four letter paper. Take the information at your own peril Liverpool, then contact with Lever cus and removed for Jeremy Frimpong Georgia and Napoli winger Kevichkatkavard. Skellia is attracting interest from Liverpool. Not a shock. That's definitely one of the thing you got to look at
Cavart Skellia from what happened in the Euros. He has definitely got a spot shadow on him. Liverpool monitoring Bayern Munich winger Leroy Sane, who could be sold Manchester City, will allow Kevin de Bruna to join one of cfg's sister clubs when he leaves. It's from the Telegraph from yesterday, Enter Miami, tell me you're shocked. David Beckham have made to Bruna their man in the transferred target, although de
Bruna has been linked to San Diego FC. Everton's Beto and Molly, midfielder Abdulah to Corey, both wanted by Roma. So Guinea BASAs striker Beto Molly midfielder Abdulight de Currey both wanted by Roma. Liverpool confident that Ibrahimo Knate will sign a new contract with the club. Juve and Marseille interested in signing Chelsea's defender Benoa Badi Ashiel Chelsea have made contact with Benfica over signing center back to as A Arrujo, with them willing to let French defender Axel
Desasci leave in January as a makeweight. Wobierre's long term future at Arsenal's in doubt, with the Gunners ready to listen to offers for the midfielder currently on loan at Porto, and Deco, who is the director of football at Barsa, has met with the reps for Jonathan Ta who's out of contract at bier Leracues and next summer. Did I miss anything, gentlemen, No.
I think striker rumors, coach rumors, gim rummers, nothing, But there is the people what they want.
But there is a note on Edwin Mousqueta that came out this morning from Mariano Olson, who has forty thousand followers on the two hundred and eighty character app and he's one of the correspondents for Win Sports in Colombia. Uh Muscata is on the radar of Junior. I'd l to go nacion Al and Millonarios could go out on a loan with an option to buy. No official doors yet, so as I for us for loan with an option
to buy with Edwin Scan it up. What is uh, Nick, what is on your viewing habit this weekend or are you going to not watch much of anything this weekend.
I'm not going to watch much of anything this weekend. That is my that is my plan. Anyway, I've got to get I've got to shoot in Denver coming up. Oh yes, right, so I've got to be uh, I've got to be prepping for that and uh, making sure all the cinema lenses and gear and whatnot's prepped and ready to go. And that will be my That will be my game plan for the weekend.
And I know the part is Casey musgraving this entire weekend, So I don't know how much soccer you're actually going to watch.
I'll watch. I'll have some time in the morning to watch. I'll be able to check out Premier League as in the morning, but probably not too much after that.
Okay, well, why do we.
Put margy'side Derby on it six thirty in the morning over here?
That was well, first off, because it's seven thirty in the morning over here and the same difference. Yeah, but it's but six already hits different. Just I mean, it's like going It's literally it's like having a zero and a price tag and a nine tenths on a price tag. That zero just looms a little larger h ninety nine in a price tag versus an even money, even an even dollar amount, that it just hits you a little different. Yeah,
and six thirty am hits you really different. When you're sitting there and you want to watch a match on seven thirty Eastern time on a Saturday morning. They're trying to start the they're trying to start the weekend early for you. All right, last thoughts before we go on anything, Niko leafy uh.
Just look, be savvy consumers. Friends. Look, just at the end of the day, watch what you want to watch. But make sure that you support your grassroots soccer, right that means getting out and if you know, if you live in the Brookhaven area of the Great State of Jadja, you go and check out Oglethorp, see what's happening at Oglethorpe, see what's happening at Emery and be nice to your
freaking youth league refs. Okay, be nice to them, all right, that it is not a personal vendetta against little Bryson with six rs and three y's in his name.
Because numeral, he's a numeral.
Yeah, yeah, Bryson Bryson, Jamison Willingham. The fourth was off side and somehow it is gehod By, your your local fourteen year old referee. It's not that kid's fault. Be nice to your fricking' refs. You want good refs at a higher level, you need good reps at a lower level. They are learning, so be nice to them man. And this is from the King of Dark Arts himself. Nice to the.
Refs, absolutely true.
So this is how you get away with dark Arts, Nick. You get it on the reps good side and they don't think that you'll do it right.
That's right. Last words from Bart Keeler who's stuck with us for an hour and forty eight minutes and not all of that was on the air.
You know.
Enjoy MLS Cup if you're watching it. I think it's a celebration of our league. It's a wonderful time for us as fans of the league to enjoy the last hurrah that we'll have for a couple of months. Now is a great time December and January to look into becoming a referee. Or a coach. So I was to encourage anyone to go to the US Soccer dot Com website. Look at how you can do that if you feel so behooped. We always need referees, we always need coaches, and we need people who love the game to be
involved in refereeing and coaching. That's my biggest thing. If you love the game and you want it to continue to grow and you want to make it a good place for people, you have to be involved.
Yes, absolutely, so enjoy your games on whatever level it is. Stay warm, and we'll be back with you on Monday to discuss it all. Bart'll be back on Monday to discuss other things like the goalkeeping situation for the women's national team anticipating episode CV with the soccer for USPOD.
Yes, should come to you today.
Oh well, whether there you go, we.
Can your internet is working?
Yeah, really exactly, so it worked for however long it was what an hour and what an hour and fifteen minutes? We actually got something to function here on a run, but no, enjoy it. We'll be back on Monday, and since it is Friday, that means it is one thing on our way out the door. And thanks to everybody who's stuck with us for pricking two hours and forty nine minutes and four dumps of the internet here at
the head end and office HD. So it is the end of the weeks, which means we play this, play safe, everybody, We'll see you on Monday.
War was.
The keys on the typewriter head shark points.
Sticking into our fingers, the dictating equipment starting to asking us questions, and our beepers sends electric shocks just through our.
Body like a cattle prod out in the warehouse. The trucks kept banging into the docks, not even thinking about stopping. Our frail bodies were strapped to the chairs, and our chairs were chained to the desks. Our please for justice were ignored, and the end seemed near. But we busted our save drivers, little bitty balls we've charged high their breakftress the streets. Our hearty gods, yets Friday, Fridayday, Fay Day,