World Cup Clocks & Cosmos Comebacks: Morning Espresso, 7.11

Troy Lasain on Wednesday night. That was after a five to two loss in the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup. Two nail lead turned into a five to two loss. This was after the scoreless draw against Atlanta United on Saturday. The club had been planning for a change for a while, according to give Me Sport, and I think you could kind of see that by the way that they didn't really give Lessane a whole lot of talent to work with this season. Viler was previously sporting director at Swiss

club Cervett. He's got a long list of experience. He was at Anderlecht for a long period of time, won the Belgian League. During his time there. He also managed Egyptian giants a La Lee for a little more than a year. He won the league title there as well. Brandon Vasquez of Austin FC, it's been announced that he suffered a season ending ACL tear in his right knee, gonna need surgery. That happened in the Open Cup win against San Jose on Tuesday night. He struggled at Austin

this year. He's got five goals in nineteen games, four more in three Open Cup games, where he's always had success. He's always been the Open Cup hero, Brandon Vasquez. But this is a big loss for Austin FC. They have the worst offense in MLS with fifteen goals in twenty games. Very similar to it Atlanta in that they spent a lot on their attack and the goals have not been

coming from that group. We'll see what they do to try to replace Brandon Vasquez and we'll see if he can get back in time to push for a World Cup spot. But a poor start to this season plus very limited time before the World Cup, it's going to be extremely difficult for him to be in that mix. Atlanta United will be in Toronto on Saturday tomorrow, we make in the trip up there later today. Game will kick off at seven forty. Our pregame coverage on ninety

two nine. The game and the Odyssey app will start at six point thirty. Madison Cruise and Ape Gordon will get you started. Mike Contiy and I will get things rolling. After that. We'll talk to Atlanta United Sporting director Chris Henderson as well at about six fifty five if you want to join us for that. News came out yesterday that Atlanta United President and CEO Garth Loggerway has taken an indefinite leave of absence after recently being diagnosed with

can sure. In the statement, the club said that the prognosis of a complete recovery by the fifty two year old Loggerway is encouraging. He said he would be back.

It's really hard for us, we've gotten to know Garth over the years to hear about this, and we all are thinking about Garth and about his family and hoping for a complete recovery and getting him back here in Atlanta and getting him back with the club where he has worked so hard to get this club where he wants to get it and can't wait for him to resume that work. We're all thinking about Garth loger Way right now, and not just in Atlanta United circles, but

in Major League Soccer circles. You've seen statements from many many clubs around the league, many many people around the league. Just a pretty strong representation of how well thought of Garth Logerway is around United States soccer circles. And we're all thinking about him as he continues to recover from cancer. NWSL updates the Seattle Reign. They have signed a twenty four year old forward me official contract through the twenty

twenty nine season. Former UCLA All Americans, she started her pro career at Tige Grace in Mexico, went to Chelsea for the last two years, but a knee injury limited her to just fourteen matches in those two seasons. Evelyn shores United States U twenty three players. She's signed a contract through twenty twenty eight. After two seasons at the University of North Carolina, was part of their championship team

in twenty twenty four. She scored the winning goal for the US women's team at the soccer tournament TST one million dollar prize that her winning goal captured for that group of players. Not a surprise, but officially announced yesterday Tobin Heath she has retired. Hasn't played for the last three years due to injury. Thirty six goals and forty two assists in one hundred and eighty one appearances for the US women's national team, two World Cup titles, two

Olympic gold medals. This came as part of an announcement yesterday that our friends at Odyssey have acquired The Recap Show. It's the weekly video podcast that Tobin hosts with her partner and former teammate Kristin Press. She said, I never played to be famous or for people to care about me. I just played because I loved it. You could see that in the way that she played. She's one of the most technical players to ever come from the United States.

She was that good. Her skills are just unbelievable, and she never lost that joy with the ball in her career. An incredible player who I think at times sometimes gets overlooked because of injuries and because of being a player who was different because of that skill set. Tobin Heath, one of the all time greats for the US women's national team, announced her retirement at thirty seven years old.

USL North Jersey Pro Soccer maybe not the sexiest name for a new team in USL League One, so they went out and acquired one that has a little bit of sex appeal, The Cosmos. They purchased the primary ownership of the name, logo and other intellectual property from Rocko Camiso, the billionaire who revived the Cosmos well really kept them going after they almost folded after the twenty sixteen season. There's beent some revisionist history on how all that went.

The second version of the North American Soccer League. The Cosmos came in for the twenty thirteen season. They almost folded after the twenty sixteen season, players had left and signed contracts elsewhere. Camiso saved them put them back into functioning order. They got to the championship match in twenty seventeen and lost, and that was the last match played in the old North American Soccer League. So Camiso sold primary ownership of the club to the North Jersey Pro

Soccer group. He reached a small steak. Eric Stover, who was the Cosmos two point zero chief operating officer. He is the co founder of North Jersey Pro Soccer and the CEO. He was involved in signing raul Marco Senna for the Cosmos. He signed a kit sponsorship deal with Emirates.

He signed Giovanni Savaresi as the head coach. The team's going to play in USL League One third Division in twenty twenty six at Hinchcliffe Stadium in Paterson, New Jersey, seventy eight hundred seat venue originally built nineteen thirty two, recently upgraded courtesy of a two point five million dollar contribution from North Jersey Pro Soccer. They will be the Cosmos,

not the New York Cosmos. They will just be the Cosmos like they were I think it was seventy seven through eighty three in the first version of the North American Soccer League, where they dropped the New York part of the name because they were global. This is more about being a North Jersey team as opposed to a New York team. Speaking of Jersey, the Club World Cup final will be in New Jersey on Sunday, PSG versus Chelsea three pm kickoff Chelsea. They've been handed a major

boost Moys' caseto. He has returned to training before the final. Hopefully we'll be able to play. He's been one of the best players in the midfield in the tournament, really starting to get into that conversation of why his transfer fee has been was so large, and maybe being one of the best midfielders in the world. He says he's not quite there yet, but a good performance against the best team in the world in PSG that could change

some of that conversation a little bit. Now there's a lot of debate about kickoff times right now and a lot of people looking ahead to the World Cup next summer and looking at games played in this summer's Club World Cup and how the heat has affected them, and it has there's no way around that. I think some of the conversation earlier on in the tournament was overblown, maybe anticipating what it would look like later in the tournament where we've seen some very very very hot days

and games being played in it. Games are being played at three o'clock strictly for European television convenience. Let's make that understood, because I think there's some people twisting this into different directions, and most of them are not based in the United States. You don't see in the middle of the summer matches being played in Major League Soccer at three o'clock in the afternoon. Do you no, you don't. You don't see many matches games. What have you played

at in the afternoon? In Major League Baseball, for example, occasionally you will get a businessman special, and that's a very random thing. They also play one hundred and sixty two games. If you skip one because it's too hot, that's fine. You don't play games in the middle of the afternoon in the summer in the United States because

we know that it's hot. The only times that these competitions are played in the middle of the afternoon is when people aren't thinking about the players safety, or it's for television purposes, or it's a youth tournament and they're probably not thinking enough about player safety. Thief Pro General Secretary Alex Phillips. He said, we will use common sense arguments. We can use the MLS protocols. They don't play matches at midday and Florida, for example, and haven't done for

a number of years. Yes, most games in the United States start after seven pm. They did the early kickoffs in nineteen ninety four, again for European television convenience. That is the only reason why you had noon and three o'clock kickoffs. It's the only reason why you had it in the Club World Cup. Maybe don't do that. I'm just saying it's not that hard to understand. It's only going to be worse than twenty twenty six. You also

have more thunderstorm potential with afternoon kickoffs as well. It's an easy fix. Have later start times. The only three o'clock early kickoff should be an indoor venues. This isn't difficult. Can you maybe have games in Seattle that start at three o'clock Eastern time? That's a noon kickoff there? We saw some decent success temperature wise with those games in the Club World Cup. Could you have some games further north? I mean maybe, but I don't know how much that's

actually going to help you. In some of these venues play their earlier games in indoor venues. If you have to allocate more games to indoor venues, well you might have to do that, and maybe you should have thought of that before when you were allocating the games in total. Also, look if it means some games start at the same time in the group stage before you get to that point, so be it if that's what's better for the tournament, better for the soccer, better for the players. But the

only people who it's not better for is European television. Sorry, like this isn't this isn't that difficult. Stop being beholden to European television. Don't let them have the power over making the games not be as good, affecting player safety. Make the games be better games. People will watch games at different times. We've seen that now with other sports. Watch the NFL. The NFL games when they're played in Europe and not scheduled around the idea of US television.

By the way, they are in the morning in the US. Those games draw just fine. It will be fine. It's the World Cup. People will watch if they have to stay up late, if they have to get up early, they will do it. Play games at better times because of that reason. Don't play games at bad times because of European television. This is not a difficult conversation. Stop making it so difficult. League matches being played abroad as

another topic that is an interesting one. The Italian Federation is given the green light for a Seria match between Milan and Como to be played in Perth, Australia first major European domestic fixture played outside of its home country. This one's a little more of a logistical necessary. The San Sero will be unavailable on the weekend of the scheduled matchup. It will be hosting the opening ceremony of

the Alano Cortino Winter Olympics. FIFA used to forbid having league matches played in other countries, but they've changed their stance. They had to settle a six year lawsuit with relevant sports based here in the US. Silly season updates. Tottenham Hotspur, they've been busy. Mohammed Kudus from west Ham United. That's done. That's a fifty five million pound transfer. They are chasing Morgan gibbs White of Nottingham Forest for sixty million pounds.

Manchester City we're interested as well. David Ornstein broke the exclusive that Gibbs White was booked in for a medical today. However, Nottingham Forest have made a complaint to the Premier League and are exploring taking legal action because they believe Spurs's approach for gibbs White may have been illegal. Good luck, this is going to be an interesting one. Arsenal's bid

for Chelsea's Noni Madaweke. Looks like it's on. Fifty two million pounds is what it's looking like it's going to cost to get him to arsenal Ordan Henderson he is returning to the Premier League with Brentford, a two year contract for the thirty five year old midfielder after his contract at Ias was mutually terminated Real Madrid. They tried to get it done before the Club World Cup. They really should have gotten it done before the Club World Cup helped that back line they didn't. It looks like

it is going to happen now. Benfica left back Alvaro Carreras, the former Real Madrid player former Manchester United player as well, looks like he's going to head back to Madrid Byron. According to build In, Germany have submitted a fifty two million euro bid for Luis Diaz of Liverpool. Liverpool are ready to open talks for Eintrach Frankfurt's French striker Hugo Ekitik,

the twenty three year old. You'd have some money if you'd do the Luis Diaz deal, but there's also talk about Liverpool wanting to move Darwin Unyez first before bringing in Ekitik So stay tuned a lot of dominoes to fall. There maybe a weird domino falling in port and with Arsenal, their pursuit of the twenty seven year old striker Victor Jolkies is at risk of collapse because Arsenal has had

no communication with Sporting in Lisbon for three days. According to Abolo in Portugal, pick up the phone, answer the email, I don't know, check your spam folder. Leandro Parerez. He has returned to his boyhood club at Boca Junior's. He ended his time at Roma recently presented to the fans yesterday. Fifty thousand fans turned up to welcome him home to La Bonbonera Mionardios. They have officially introduced Edwin Musquerra yesterday, maybe earlier than they should have. That has not been

announced on the Atlanta United side. He's joining on loan with an option to buy. Edwin has just struggled to stay healthy and it makes sense for him to go somewhere where he might be able to get more playing time. We'll see if that happens at Mionardios, who lost in

the final in Columbia last season. Olivia Smith. She is poised to become the first women's player to break the one million million pound transfer barrier after Liverpool accepted a world record offer from Arsenal for the twenty year old Canadian forward. The fee agreed between Arsenal and Liverpool, according to sources, exceeds the one point one million dollars paid by Chelsea for Naomi Germa back in January. Barcelona are

talking again. That's always dangerous. They remain confident and they're talking about being confident, which is also dangerous. That their salary limit issues will be resolved for the first time in three years now. This is after Niko Williams said I don't trust you guys and getting me registered, so I'm not coming. I'm going to sign a new deal with Athletic Klobe and Bill Boo. Barcelona have gone to extreme lengths. They have pulled all kinds of levers to

try to get this done. They've sold off numerous assets. They feel that they will be back in the so called one to one spending rule this summer. So clubs in the top two divisions in Spain they have a salary limit calculated if their wage bill ex seeds that amount. They're only permitted to spend sixty percent of what they save or earn on registering new players until they get

back to that amount that limit. Barcelona appeared to solve that issue in January when they leased four hundred and seventy five VIP seats for the next thirty years for one hundred million euro. However, they're auditors. After you had an auditor and then a four day auditor work period of time I don't know, and then somebody knew it was not included by the third one. It was included by the second one right before the end of the

calendar year. But Crow who is the auditor now, they decided not to include one hundred million euro in their accounts until the product is in use. So somehow they were able to get through the court system. Doniolmo and pow Victor registered even though they shouldn't have because it was hinging on that hundred million euro coming in. It still hasn't come in because it's still not in use.

This is a mess at the moment. Corporate director Monel del Rio told the audio as that they are working, they are calm and they will be in the one to one rule in August. Now, this is also with a new contract for La Migna Mal going to be

signed that's going to increase their wage bill. What del Rio says is Barcelona need the auditor to include the lease of the VIP seats in their accounts that hinges on hosting the Jolan Gomper Trophy in August, which as of now is not going to happen at the Camp new because they don't have the safety permits to do that. If that happens, it would lead to La Liga giving the green light because then you could include that money in there because they have been used. YadA, YadA, YadA, YadA.

The City of Barcelona was upset at Barcelona saying they were going to have sixty thousand seats available for the Joe On Gamper Trophy because they don't have the safety permits. They felt like Barcelona was putting pressure on them. That part has not been resolved as far as I know. Even if they do that, this is the thing, this is when Barcelona starts talking against dangerous. Even if they do that, they got to sign a new deal with

reduced wages for Frankie Diyong. They've got to agree to an exit with marc Andre Tterstagen and probably make another sale, probably sell one of their center backs. Well, Terstagan has said he's not leaving. DeJong probably you can get him to signing a longer deal for less money. All of Barcelona's center backs have said clearly they're not leaving. So you're trying to sign a deal to get this stuff done and you got to move somebody, and everybody says

we're not leaving. Good luck, I guess. Barcelona have also not made any friends by reaching an agreement with the Tourism Board of the Democratic Republic of Congo for the country to appear on their shirt sleeve ten million euro per season over the next three years. Some other clubs have done this as well, but there are some major issues with dr Congo's humanitarian stances and things that the government has done that are not exactly on the good

side of human rights. So Barcelona have said as part of this deal, the Barca Foundation would collaborate on humanitarian projects with the DRC an attempt to collaborate with schools too. This is where Barcelona is right now, and it's not pretty all. That's a lot of talk. We'll see what happens. John Texter, somebody who also likes to talk, somebody who also likes to engage in shenanigans. He did. He did a radio interview on Talk Sport and said some things

that are in intriguing. He believes that Crystal Palace will compete in the Europa League. UEFA's looking at the conflict with Leone. Crystal Palace is owned forty three percent by Eagle Football Group and John Texter. UEFA rules prevent clubs with mutual owners who have quote decisive influence from competing

in the same tournament. Pallace's four general partners Texter chairman Steve Parrish, fellow American businessman David Blitzer and Josh Harris, they all have a twenty five percent say in running the club, Parish effectively being the executive chairman and ultimate decision maker. So Texter agreed to sell the stake that they have in the club to Woody Johnson of the New York Jets. That's still subject to the Premier League

Owner and Director's test. But the UEFA deal for complying on the multi club ownership situation was March first, so that doesn't matter. So all the reporting about that fixing it incorrect. Palace's four principal owners met with U fan club financial control body last month. They argued that Texter did not have decisive influence at palace. Looks like they thought they had it done. Now they they're not so sure. Texture told Talk Sport he thinks they will be admitted.

He said, we sat in front of the UEFA panel and we're all consistent about the lack of decisive influence. I was asked a question by a senior guy at UEFA, and he said, casually in the lunch room, everyone knows you made this glassner higher happen the crystal Palace manager. Texter said, but that's not true at all. I tried to get him at leone, if he spoke French, he'd be there. I told YUEFA that a suggestion is not decisive influence. Nobody tells Steve what to do. He's as

stubborn as anybody. If that's your argument, really somebody stubborn? Come on, YUEFA, like, come on, why is this even still an issue? Uh. Texter also said the reasons about why he's confident quote are in documents that the public hasn't seen. Of course, they are. We shouldn't talk about whether or not at forty three percent vote or whether I have a twenty five percent vote. We could talk

about zero. Said. The document that I signed when I bought the shares says clearly I'm not entitled to have any role in management decisions. I sat there in the room at Yuefa and said, let's stop talking about the twenty five percent. Texter said he would have put his shares into a blind trust if necessary. He didn't. He said, there's no question about the decisive influence part. He said there was little prospect a Palace qualifying when they got

the correspondence from Yuefa in February about the March first deadline. Now, he said, when he bought into Palace, this is another interesting aside. I was negotiating for seventy five percent in twenty twenty one. They the other owners came to me at the eleventh hour before the transfer window and said, hey, we can get you approved faster if you just buy a minority. Before the FA cup, I thought we were

finally going to be the majority owner. But I went from thinking that I was really going to be able to express my love for Crystal Palace more functionally to realizing that I knew I had to leave after they won the FA Cup in an attempt to satisfy you A for rules. Look, we've seen UEFA decisions involving smaller clubs, and we've talked about draw how to United and others

this season. Those have been easily resolved, and the smaller clubs who have had any kind of multi club ownership situations, they have not been allowed to participate in the competition. So Palace should be booted from the Europa League. There's there's no way around it. However, bigger clubs have been playing by a different set of rules for a long time. We'll see. I think the arguments here are ludicrous. Somebody being stubborn doesn't actually mean that you don't have influence,

decisive influence. How do you decide that it's a mess. We'll see what UFA ends up doing with it. Sorry Crystal Palace fans, but the rules are the rules, and other clubs are being held to the rules, and that should be the rule. I've said many times, and I will stand by this, and I'll end it with this. You've got so many changes to the game right now, and clubs in multi club ownership groups. It's only going to become more common. This should not be something to

keep teams out of a competition. Teams should be put into separate groups, separate sides of the bracket, not able to be drawn against one another until the final, to where they're not going to affect the competition. You're only going to get more teams in these situations. It's going to increase, not decrease. Be realistic about how you deal with it as opposed to this sort of situation where you're talking about decisive influence and people being stubborn. It's

time to update the rules. It's time to modernize. Hopefully FIFA, UEFA and other governing bodies can do that. We'll see headed to Toronto today. There will be a pregame show starting at six point thirty tomorrow in ninety to ninety game and the Odyssey app kick off at seven forty Atlanta United and Toronto FC. The unified match will take place at ten am. Myself and Joe Freihoffer will be on the call. You can watch at atlutd dot com. Slash Live Training Ground Dispatch is up for you to

watch as well. That is on our YouTube channel YouTube dot com slash Soccer down Here, thank you so much for being a part of the SDCH network this week a very busy one. Next week will continue as well. Don't forget Sunday Night on ninety two nine the game. You can listen to it Lanty United to You and Columbus. That will be a seven to twenty five broadcast start kickoff just after seven point thirty. Pregame show will start

on the SDH network on our mix Flur channel. Click listen at soccerdown here dot net and you can catch up with that one. But the game will be broadcast on the Game on ninety two nine in the Game on radio and you can listen on the Odyssey app as well. And I'll be back on Monday to recap all of the stuff in a new edition of The Morning Espresso, presented by Oglethorpe University