PHI Survive, Miami Thrive, VAN & SD Riding High + RBNY Fire Head Coach & Sporting Director

What's up, everybody? And welcome back to SoccerWise. David Goss and Tommy Scoops with you bright and early on a Monday morning as we are coming out. of our first weekend of the mls cup playoffs first of 37 over the next 22 months in which mls playoffs will be occurring tom i i'm juiced

I'm alternating off and on, though. You know last week I had Bridgeview Energy and Bridgeview Delivered. And I would say for the most part this weekend delivered as well. And then we sit down to record the show and it's like, oh, but we won't talk about these games because there's two more tonight. And the other thing is this.

I bought tickets to go see the Knicks play in Miami on a Sunday after being off on Saturday, which is a mistake, which meant they went out in South Beach on Saturday night. And it was a 6 p.m. game. there's no chance that even interferes with MLS playoffs because the games are always on Saturday. It'll be day games in the playoffs, get fans in the building, all that stuff.

and then the schedule comes out and it is this back-loaded sunday night playoff schedule which is bizarre so i was on my phone for a little bit of it watching pk shootouts all of that And then I came home and caught back up on all the games. And I'm locked and loaded and ready to go. But it's like an up and down experience. It's a real roller coaster.

Exactly. The highs were Vancouver's crowd was awesome. Philly as well. San Diego as well. I think you hit that perfectly. That was kind of my first takeaway. But yeah, the downside was the Knicks' performance against the Heat. But listen...

The Knicks made a statement win against the Cavs, top of the East. That's really all that matters. Then just completely buried the Celtics because we're going to do that no matter what. Five all-stars on the court for the Celtics. That's an unbelievable matchup. You can't expect the Knicks to get up for a play-in game.

A team that's going to be in the play-in tournament of Heat. I don't know what to expect. It's a clear letdown game. It was a vacation game. Yeah, it was a vacation game. So it was... The biggest story of the weekend, but just kidding, because there were many big stories for the weekend. Chucky Lozano writing apologies on Instagram, penalty kick shootouts. But Tommy Scoops becoming Daddy Scoops is the biggest story that's going around the Internet.

Mazel Tov, Tom. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. It's exciting. It's scary. It's a lot of positive emotions. Everybody's doing great. And yeah, we'll have a wonder if the kid boy or girl will come out with a mustache in February, but we'll find out.

We are very excited. And I think you see – so in Jewish culture, you don't name people after someone alive because the soul will get confused and potentially kill one of the people. Yeah, it's a really, really warm and fuzzy thing. But I do find it odd that – The weekend you announce Cam Scadaboo's ankle goes down as if there can only be one Scadaboo in the world. And I think Scadaboo Scoops is going to be...

The big name, is that correct? Are you ready to reveal that? Yeah, it works for a boy or a girl. We don't know what we're having yet. So we could tweak that. Vibes are vibes. It doesn't matter. That was tough. That was a large adult meathead son going down, and the way that Jackson Dart and Cam Scadaboo headbutted each other said as his ankle was looking in a different direction from the rest of his body just killed me. It's like...

It's like Groot or something where it's like they can only express one thing and then they just do it in happy or sad version. So the headbutt there was very fitting. We are so excited for you.

I am glad that it is finally out there so I don't have to potentially clip and cut out mentions of it. Shout out Michele. I love Michele and he's going to be listening to this. He felt so bad. I had told him because I saw him for coffee and we hadn't said anything publicly yet and then he said it on the show. I was just like, hey man.

that wasn't public yet and the poor guy felt awful it's like i know it's from a place of love um so yeah i i it was michele don't worry anymore it was the same week that we had megan klingenberg on who mentioned becky sauerbrand's new child who hadn't

not announced that yet so i had to go back and edit that out of the show as well so it was a complicated baby week for soccer wise but now everything out in the open uh and now we are able to talk about it which we are very excited about uh congratulations

to you anywhere and the pictures were in my favorite place in the world correct it was yeah that we took those pictures back in august when when we were out out in wyoming and it was delightful hell yes hell yes okay I just look forward to your kid, Megging.

Kalen's kids and then scoring on both of Weeby's kids standing in goal because Weeby's kids love to play goalkeeper because they're Weeby's kids and that's the way his kids would be. Let's dig into some... Kalen's kids are already getting touches in already. We're way back.

Behind. Touch is going to be clean. Kalen was on the sideline for Vancouver FC Dallas. That fade was looking clean by Kalen. I got to tell you that. We love seeing that. Also, you could feel the energy through Kalen. He's vibing on the sideline. He was meant to be there. Weeby was on the sideline. He's back in Canada. Weeby was on the sideline in San Diego. Is that correct? Did I get that right? Yep.

Yeah, which we love to see as well. Kalen, big interviews. Kyle with Bradley Carnell that we're going to be quoting here. And then Michele was on the sideline for the Miami-Nashville game. So I had the chance to get a little bit of coffee with Michele on Friday.

which I always love to do here in Florida. And then I went over to the game. My first time attending an Inter-Miami game. I did so as a fan. So I sat out in the crowd, really experienced it amongst the people. Man of the people. Man of the people. Absolutely. Deep in the corner. enjoying the whole show i will say not a sellout i think friday night doesn't help 8 p.m a little bit better but boom

That is a traffic drive when you are out in the Miami Springs area, just sitting in traffic the entire time. And so it's not the easiest to get people to. There was energy in the building for sure.

you know, scoring three goals helped. And I think that brought a little bit of the juice, but. I will say it felt like from watching on TV that the vibe in like Philly and San Diego and Vancouver was a little bit higher. And that might be expectation, right? Those are three teams that this is like a high of high where for Miami, you're coming off.

the scars of last year and the expectations are that you will be playing at the end of November or in early December. And so that probably weighs down. And I think across these four games, this is the one team as that outlier, as the higher seed. Where there are that expectations, maybe Philly would be as well, just because they have a little bit of that playoff history. But...

still enjoyed the game all the same. So there are temporary stands that have been put up because it's not a real stadium, which because of that, it's like metal bleachers and the fans stomp on the stands and there's like...

It's cool. That part's cool. And then everyone starts chanting Messi all the time, even when he's not even near the ball and nothing's happening. And then everyone starts stomping on the stands. And it's a pretty good bit of energy. There was a lot of that for Miami because BJ Callahan came out and said... We're open. We like to play in possession. We're dangerous. We had almost three XG in the last game on decision day. No.

That's not us. We're going to go in the other direction. We're going to start Brian Acosta. We're going to go with the 4-3-3. We're going to go defensive. We're going to sit in and try and survive and be physical against this Miami team. And spoilers, Tom, it did not work. Nashville was completely out of the game the entire time. Schaffelberg had the one or two breakaways that came off mistakes from Miami. He was not able to keep his feet.

I will say it that way when he had his opportunities and it kind of felt like the Miami goal was always coming. The first goal is like a comedy of errors. I saw it happen live and I was impressed by Suarez like. pressing from left to right and pushing the game. Then watching back on replay, I didn't realize how bad the Jason header was. And that moment was that Suarez.

red but still all the same love it tries to get the ball up the line can't and then the quick turnover the quick transition and i don't know if jason's trying to catch messy offside or if he thinks he has to support Walker Zimmerman, 1v2 against Suarez out wide, but he stops tracking Messi to the far post. Yeah. Messi's the golden boot winner. He was presented the golden boot before the game on the field.

And guess what? He scored an open header because he's going to finish that chance. And Miami goes up 1-0. So while Palacios could have defended it better, for sure, I will say you've got to give credit to that ball by Suarez. He really hit it. Pinpoint.

Really smart movement, as always, by Messi to find that little gap, to find a little space. And the timing between those two is telepathic. So, again, while it could have been defended better, I will give credit to the attackers on that one. It was a good header. Could have finished by Messi as well. funny that

So Messi's, again, overwhelmingly likely to win MVP, and Dreyer is most likely going to be second. A few days later, Dreyer had his own header. He's like, oh, I can do that too, you know? These two guys who don't play the game that way. But yeah, it was a dominant performance by Miami. That first goal, like you said, there was that...

A couple Schaffelberg moments. One of them where he kind of scuffed it. He slipped a little bit when he got into open space. But other than that, Miami did a really, really good job in rest defense, limiting transition. Sam Surridge was really out of the game. He only had...

14 touches um honey muktar was getting on the ball more but they weren't really threatening all that much and miami made them pay with a goal and then when they got the second goal it felt it felt over and i wouldn't often say that about this Nashville team because of

what they can do in attack and how quickly they can explode. But like, it already felt like it was teetering at 1-0. Like, oh my God, like Miami are in so much control and it's so dominant right now. It doesn't even feel like a one goal game. And then the second one came and it was just... A really professional win by Miami and on to game two. I thought a few things went wrong for Nashville. One was I thought set piece service.

coordination, whatever, was terrible. And so if you're not going to threaten as Nashville, going defensive, quote-unquote, in this game from set pieces against Inter-Miami, like... There's not going to be a lot of other chances in there. And the other thing I thought that happened by going more defensive and shifting your shape a little bit was you pulled Surridge farther out wide where he has been good, but I think you made the game easier.

for miami center backs because you had less constant pressure on them where if honey and surge are playing the top two of a 4-2-2-2, they're constantly in the gaps. The center backs constantly have to make decisions. Am I stepping? Am I dropping? Am I passing off? Am I not? And I think you took away a lot of that. And now you just have Surge isolated 1v1 against Ian Frey. And like, okay, Surge, a golden boot winner. He's a good player. And...

Even though he is a big guy, he's he's comfortable at wine. He is dangerous, but that's not going to be a constant threat for you. And so I thought Nashville lost themselves in more than one way with the way they set up and went about the game. And then you're not going to. shut out this inter-Miami team. I think Miami's pressing triggers were good. Like they understood that they could put Jason and Walker under pressure. And there was multiple times where Nashville tried to play out slowly.

from goal kicks. And it almost always ended in an inter Miami opportunity or an inter Miami corner kick or free kick or whatever it was. And then they were able to be dangerous on a lot of those chances. As you said, I end a scores in the six. 60th, it kind of feels over at that point. And then Miami is able to put the final...

tally on whatever it is in the 96th minute. Messi gets another one. It felt like Messi even passed out of one or two more similar to the last game. And I think now you look at over the full 180 minutes that these two teams have played in the week. And it feels like Inter Miami is in Nashville's head. So in the first game, I think it played out by a lot of these blow-bys of Miami cutting the ball back.

unexpectedly, but it was Nashville selling out on everything on trying to slide and block every single pass and close every single angle. And they overplayed themselves. And then in this game, I thought it was the physicality and off ball stuff. The Rodrigo DePaul push like all these.

These little things that it felt like Nashville lost all the half edges and enter Miami while having quality and having home field advantage also has this half edge on Nashville now over the course of these two games. Yeah, for sure. Like, it's going to be, like, obviously, Nashville will have to get game two, but I'm worried about, is this over? Like, it's not...

It's not dead and buried, but like Nashville are going to have to have a big change, like going back to decision day, then game one. Like they've just been completely outclassed over the last 180 minutes against Miami for a matchup that I for sure thought was going to be a little bit tighter than this. And again, it still can be. You look back, like, we're going to talk about Philly, Chicago after this, of course. But, like...

Yeah, that game looked dead and buried in the 80th minute as well. And then all of a sudden, Chicago were a PK shootout away from having complete control of the series. So these things can change, and it doesn't necessarily mean game one has to be like game two, but...

I'm worried for Nashville. There is every chance in the world that Miami goes to Nashville in game two and just takes care of this series and doesn't even get it to a game three. I think the difference with Chicago and Nashville is for Nashville, this is game three. Like with decision day added in and Dallas is in the same conversation. Portland's in the same conversation. Like you've tried two different things now.

And neither of them have worked. And I think for Nashville, this was a regressive performance. So it's hard to then rally. I said this last week when you looked at the shots of the fans in the stadium at Geotas Park on decision day.

it feels like it might be hard for them to rally. And so are you going to have the energy you want? Are you going to have the belief? Are you going to have all of that? But the main thing is like, you have to go for it. And I know DePaul was phenomenal in this game. And I think that changed a lot of things.

And I thought this was one of Inter-Miami's best defensive performances. But some of that was Nashville related of not being as dangerous, not being as aggressive. And like, you have no choice. You have to go for it. You have to try to outscore them. You're not going to shut this attack down.

You're not good enough. No one maybe in the league is good enough right now when they're moderately healthy. So you have to go for it. And that's not what I felt like we saw. And then you bring a guy like a coast in. I thought he struggled as an individual as well. So it doesn't really help in all of that. Brugman, I guess, can't go the full 90 because he would have been my pick if you're saying we're going to add a third center mid. He's...

Just won MLS Cup MVP. He's been in big games. He's been in big moments. But either way, a lot to turn around for this Nashville team. Let's go into the best game of the weekend by far. You just mentioned it. Philadelphia against Chicago to open up a triple header on Sunday. Zinkernagel.

injured in warmups with about 10 minutes to go before the game. So Philip Zinkernagel, a guy we talked about last week, who is top three in our newcomer of the year voting, right behind Andres Dreyer, who is an MVP finalist.

15 goals, 15 assists is a Chicago Fire record for single season goal contributions. He has been the best player on this team. I don't think we can understate. Tom, how big of a moment this was for Chicago. I agree. Um, like with, with, with Zink and I'll going down and then. I'm just going to jump straight to, like, I'm disappointed that Brian Gutierrez wasn't the player that was subbed in for Zinkernagel. Obviously, Zinkernagel has been what...

The team kind of plays through. He is the talisman in attack. Hugo Kuypers has been awesome this season. Jonathan Bamba, a little bit less so. Everything flows through Zingranago. So the knock-on effect was... Now the game has to be made by Bombo or Haile Selassie or you're getting less service to Hugo Kuypers or wanting him to kind of create more like the knock-on effect of it's really, really bad to be without Zingernagel. Full stop, right?

But the worst issue for them is that without bringing on Gutierrez, There was nobody I really trusted to drive the game forward in the final third. And obviously that was by design because they came out in a back five and choosing to leave Gutierrez on the bench so you could bring him in in the second half. The way that they played, I was in shock. Like, I get it. I understand, and it was probably the correct tactical decision by Greg Berhalter, but for this Philadelphia Union, like...

robotic pressing long ball team to be playing a Greg Berhalter team. And it's Berhalter sitting back and giving Philly the ball. Like there was a couple of sequences where Makanya, I don't know that he's ever had this much time on the ball. And he looks so uncomfortable under no pressure.

Yeah. Because, like, he's, like, wired to, like, all right, we go forward, we play into the channels, we diagonal. And then, like, there's one time he just put his foot on the ball and, like, looked around and was like... I don't know what to do. And then he like played like a 10 yard sideways pass. I honestly don't remember if I've ever seen him do that all season. So it was like funny watching them try to compute all this. And in the first half, I think they had like 63% possession.

It was just so jarring to see that both ways because my biggest knock on Berhalter with the national team was it was too much slow, sideways, aimless possession in like... That was the trade-off to control games with the ball and not give up transition moments and everything else. This was the complete opposite. He changed from being super dogmatic. It's like, okay, we're going to sit off the ball. He's done that much more this year with Chicago, again, to be fair.

Like, it was still just jarring to see a Greg Berhalter team against this Philly team, and it's Philly that are trying to be patient in possession with 63% of the ball. It was, so on the Gutierrez front. Nothing. I haven't seen a quote come out postgame. I only saw quotes about Synchronogles injuries. My theory is that he's 22 years old and there are clear questions about.

maturity and where he stands and like being asked to start 10 minutes before a game without being prepared to is kind of a tough experience. But then he takes the second penalty. So there's like some level of trust there. And he's a big time player. And obviously he scored against Orlando. I agree with you. This was Holly Silesi's third start since July 3rd.

But one of them was the midweek game against Miami where he had three assists and they blew them out and basically clinched their spot in the playoffs. So, yeah, I think that's a fair I think it's a fair question. I think no matter what. The loss of Zinkernagel is so big for this team that we probably would have seen the same result throughout that first half of being lethargic, being incapable of connecting passes and really playing.

dangerous play in the final third. The one big chance of the first half is the ball over the top to Jonathan Bamba. Clean first touch, sets himself up, is able to challenge Andre Blake. There is the only time he was really effective in the first half, and it was the only time Chicago was. In saying all that... Because of this lack of possession from Chicago.

Philly wasn't dangerous. Like they didn't create actual chances in the first half. The flurry at the end of the first half is like the classic cross all the way through. Next guy picks it up, cross all the way through, generates a free kick on the edge of the box, last kick of the first half. But Philly wasn't dangerous. And then at halftime, Carnell said to Cale and Kyle, we need to make the game more chaotic.

Like they want to play slow. We want to play fast. And the chaos part is specific because it's not we want to play fast. They want to play slow. It's like we want to play uncomfortable and disorganized. And when we're passing from. You know, station A to station B to station C and connecting passes, that's not disorganized and that's not uncomfortable for people. And that's what Philly is looking for. And you look at their two goals.

In the second half, they both come from turnover moments and transition moments and taking advantage of not being aware at speed. And they both come because of substitutions. The first is Philly subs. Mikel Ura comes on, who I think was carrying a little bit of a knock.

That's why I wasn't in the starting lineup after being there the last few games. Ty Buribo starts for the first time in over a month. Which is crazy, right? Which is crazy on the top. Which is partially international breaks and all that type of stuff as well.

But the way Ura moves on the wing, the way he plays at speed, it's different than Damian and Buribo. And it's... The goal he sets up for Vassilov, neither of those guys are going to set that goal up. So it was big when he came in what he was able to do. Exactly. I think Danny Higginbotham was making really, really good points on the broadcast about... his movement and the differences. And, and I think at halftime, he was saying like, the structure is so good from the Chicago defense that.

The movement has to be not just I'm making a run to try to get the ball. I'm making a run to open up space for a teammate. And I thought Mikel Ura did that really, really well. That was really evident when he got on the field. And part of it too, I think just Philly was wearing Chicago down. It's really hard to play like that. 90 minutes the like all it takes is once one slip up or one slow um rotation all that so i think it was a combination of both things michael ura really accelerated that

and made a really strong impact on the game. I got a text from a friend who was watching the game who doesn't know a ton about MLS, and he was kind of like, in the most genuine way, he's like, I don't, he's like, I know this Philly team is really good. I don't really get why. Just kind of watching the team, and I'm like, well, you don't see the explosive attackers, but, well...

They had two of the Defender of the Year finalists, and I voted for a player who wasn't the finalist. So there's that. I was like, the defensive midfielders, if you watch them for like three games in a row, I thought Dan Lee John-Jacques was awesome. Lukic as well. I thought Lukic was great.

I was kind of going down the list of like, yeah, like you probably need to watch them for a couple of games before you really like appreciate how good this team is. But I think that that played out over the 90 minutes. It was a microcosm of the Philadelphia Union experience for maybe we'll say 85 minutes because...

They get undone on a set piece, and then the Jack Elliott call, and again, all of a sudden, that first penalty getting saved by Philly as well in the shootout, oh boy, this could have been bad. No, it could have changed really, really fast. And one of the differences this year for Philly than past years is Vasilev scores. Milan Oloski scores. Ura comes off the bench and sets it up. They are not the deepest team in the league. Like, there was...

Flashes for me of Kevin Sullivan getting ready to take a penalty feeling like when Paxton Aronson came in in 2022 to MLS Cup and he wasn't ready. And it was like, okay, this team's trying to walk this line of win now and develop for the future. And this is where you see the growing pains on it. But they're deeper than they were back then because they brought Ura off the bench. They have the two different attacking guys that they can go to. They have...

Five to six attacking options across three to four spots. And so Ura comes in, makes a difference in this game for them. And then the next substitution is Chicago's, which is they bring Orgel and Gutierrez on. They switch from a back five to a back. for and 30 seconds later Philly's back into transition back into space. Gutman's a little bit too high up the field. I think even more so than that.

Orgel and Gutierrez and Pineda are just not giving you the defensive cover coming back that you're getting from the guys that they replaced. And Jack Elliott gets cut. There's only one place Olaski can go to score that. And I get it. Elliott's trying to overplay for the cross because if he gets to the end line, he doesn't know who's covering. But like your first job is to keep him outside.

And Oloski cups inside and it's an awesome finish. And it's like, this is a player that they didn't have at the start of the year. This is a player who still is second in goal scoring for San Diego, even having missed half the season. And this is a huge moment where you want these guys to step up.

And it's a big-time goal for Oloski. And these are things that Philly has not always had in the postseason. And they're cruising, Tom. Like Subaru Park's jumping. We're duping all the vibes. And it feels like this is what we expected, right? Philly comes out. They come out with energy. They play a big game, and they're going to win 2-0. And then it all goes up in the air for the final five minutes, which was awesome to watch as a neutral from afar.

Oh, it really was. Like, it exploded. Like, I thought it was a fun game even before that, but it exploded into, like, just pure chaos at the end of the game. And it even seemed like Philly might go get a winner deep into Sabah Stein after the red card and everything else. Talking about the fans and stuff. I believe Quinn Sullivan was on the drum. Is that the correct terminology? Yes. Yeah. Quinn Sullivan, I thought that was really cool. I thought that was a nice touch. I feel like Philly...

Philly as an organization are on top of things, and that was just a nice little thing, and as if the fans needed any more excuse to go crazy, I thought that was helpful. Again, like, the last 20 minutes, 15, like... I believe all four goals were scored after the 70th minute, something to that effect. It went from...

Like a cagey affair. And again, I thought that it was still fun over the first 70 minutes, but it just hit another level of just pure chaos over the end. And that's what we get from a Philly game. And that's what we can get in the playoffs. Like... I'm very curious to see how Chicago are going to respond in game two. I hope Zinkernagel is going to be available. I have no idea. I have not seen any updates. Do you have anything? No, no. The quote post-game was TBD.

So it's oblique injury is what it was confirmed as. I think Joe chats who, if you don't follow, you should does a great job covering all the Chicago soccer teams. He said that Burr halter's line was just. to be determined for next week, which isn't a hard no, but also like it happened 10 minutes before the game. I'd be shocked if Burr Halter had even talked to anyone about it anymore after the game had started when at the moment he gave that quote.

Yeah, it's a good point. I'm sure that there's not a lot of time for assessment there. But again, that's a huge, huge miss. Either way, they have to be more expansive, which we'll play in the Phillies game model and ethos. I don't know, man. I just hope that they're playing the way that they've played all season. This was a super fun team. And again, I understand the draw and the idea of playing the way that they did, but it's just disappointing to change.

how you've played all season to try to get this result on the road. And again, I hope that they're going to be expansive playing with the ball. I hope Gutierrez starts. I hope that...

This could be a big moment for Bamba, particularly without Zingernagel. And again, Bamba was supposed to be the guy in this attack in terms of like the creative force, the one setting up Kuyper is the one that if they needed to break down a defense or if they needed a big moment that he was supposed to be the guy turned out to be Zingernagel.

this could be a big moment for Bamba. I would like to see Bamba play on the right. I just think he's more consistently dangerous coming inside from the right, connecting, either option to lay off the ball. Like, I get...

I get that he gets isolated on the left side, but he's not super dangerous in those moments. And Zinkernagel comfortable coming off the right, playing inside. Fine. If he's not there, I thought Bamba was more dangerous as the second half went along. Part of that was the tactical change. Part of that was adding more. numbers into the attack but I think part of that was him being over on the right side being dangerous forces I mean the goal comes

because he forces Andre Blake into a crazy save, because he laces a shot to the far post from the right side, and then they get the corner kick, and Jack Elliott puts it off the post, and then Bomba's able to bundle it home right on the goal line. I assume he's... onside because the Philly player is inside the goal.

I don't know if anyone talked about this. They didn't. That was what was weird. And the fact that... My understanding is... Gutman, I believe, flicked it as well while there was already the goalkeeper and a player on the line. That wasn't close. I think if you are... Off the end line, you are holding everyone on. Yeah, absolutely. I was just making sure that I was right about that. You can't step out and be like, oh! Exactly. No one's on the field that's affecting that play.

But I think Ura was inside the goal. So it holds everyone on. You get the goal there from Bamba. And then the last goal, the shot from Jack Elliott, it's... A grass cutter from 28 yards out. Was it deflected? I thought it was. Was I seeing things? I haven't seen the deflection on that. I thought he just whacked that thing to the far post.

It's not unnecessary either way. Well, actually, for me, either way. It cuts. You just feel it in the building. You feel the silence in the building. Jack Elliott doesn't celebrate. Class from Jack Elliott. Classic. I don't know, West Virginia, Charleston College grad, whatever random school he went to. West Virginia. Did he go to West Virginia Mountaineers? I thought he went to a lower division school there, but it doesn't matter. And then that...

And then you get the red card. So Aurigel, we know, won't start the next game because he's red card in the 94th minute of this game. And you're in pedal. It's so unnecessary. It's so unnecessary. It's a. pushing match between Wagner and Gutierrez. Orgel comes over and pushes Wagner and he picks up the red card because he's the third guy in. It's the most obvious and all of that. But then it doesn't really matter in this game because you go to penalty kicks and

There's no extra time. So there's no time to play with that man down. And as you said, Philly has the opening shot saved. It's Ura shot that Brady gets down really well and saves. And it's like, oh, wow. Philly's going to lose this game somehow. And the series is over at that point. Like Philly loses this game. This series is over. They're going to Chicago. You fall apart like this. There is just no way you're going to recover.

And then it's the exact same shot the other way that Andre Blake is able to get down and save. That brings back all the energy into the building. Philly sticks their penalty kicks from there. And then Joel Waterman bashes one off the crossbar, which... It's not a bad take. Like it's up in the quarter. It's going in. It's just that half inch away. And that is enough to get Philly over the line.

with like the calmest penalty kick you will ever see just like walks up to it and puts it into the corner and Philadelphia is able to steal and then I think the celebration at the end to me like recovers emotionally for Philadelphia

right? They're running down, they're jumping on Andre Blake. I think it just brought the positive vibes back back. And I think there's a way for them to excuse it and say, all right, we fell asleep for seven minutes, but like, we know who we are coming into this. Exactly like that. It's such fine margins.

But everything was falling down for a minute. We'd be talking about they couldn't hold a lead. What a disaster. They got one foot out. It's like, oh, they won the penalty shootout. Everything's good. And that is genuine. I think that they should feel like that. You try to forget it, move past it.

chalk it up to a couple set pieces, chalk it up to a couple random bounces. I don't think that they necessarily did anything too wrong other than, I guess, you know, the foul that led to the equalizing goal. But still, like, ah. I feel for Chicago in that that was their chance for this series, and I don't think that they're going to get another one. They played well enough to steal this one, and...

Now you've got to go out and beat Philly twice over the last two games. It feels very, very unlikely. Yeah, I mean, the job here is to go home. And when I think one of the big question mark is they went to a flat four, they were more dangerous for the final 15 minutes, but they also gave up a goal in that and they gave up a bunch of big chances. And can they play that way for 90 minutes?

If they play that way, can they outscore Philly? The balance there for Chicago I don't think is an obvious answer. So Zinkernagel's health will be a huge part of this. But then Greg Berhalter has to decide, like, can his team go out and defend long enough to stay in the game? And if not, can they go out and outscore them? It's a similar idea to what Nashville is trying to figure out. Nashville, I think.

Well, actually, no, I think for both of them, it's kind of the same test. It's kind of the same question mark. And it's going to be really big. I will say I voted Chris Brady, young player of the year. I said that last week. The PK save, I felt good. I felt even better when he went and fought Milan Oloski for not handing the ball over after the penalty. Just unnecessary chaos. Now, I will say, I'd rather you, like...

waste time and change the energy when the other team's about to shoot than your own guy walking up and having to wait through it and experiencing it. Maybe not the best idea, but I thought it was a really big moment. He had a couple big saves. in this game as well. Andre Blake had two or three big saves where he wasn't really called on a lot. And there did feel like a bit of confidence for Philly of like, we have Andre Blake. You go into a shootout with him. I think.

You stand a little bit taller. You're feeling a little bit better. And that's a really big moment for this Philadelphia Union team. All right, we've got two more playoff games to go through. But first, while...

Firing off takes and staying in line, Tommy Scoops is also breaking news as I'm watching him. Announced. It was announced. Don't give me credit. Red Bulls announced this. Okay. Well, then Tom. I sent you a press release. I didn't. I just saw you on Blue Sky post it. So that's all I had seen because I was on Blue Sky looking at something else. And obviously, I follow you everywhere so that I could see all of your news. The breaking news coming out that the New York Red Bulls have announced a...

sporting leadership transition. So Sandro Schwartz, the head coach for New York Red Bulls who took them to MLS Cup last year is out of the club. As is, I got to get his name right here. It's Joachim Schneider, right? Yeah, okay. That's what I thought. Who was the sporting director of the team who's also out? Julian de Guzman, who was his number two, now elevates into the head of sport. for the club and they are now on the search for a new head coach Tom we we met like an hour ago

And it was like, oh, there's not a ton of breaking news besides the playoff games. Great. We're going to dig into the playoff games. And then this happens. I mean, they didn't make the playoffs for the first time in 15 years. That was the story coming out of it. But I guess I would say I'm still surprised that this happened. I am too. I think that this is on merit.

I think for both of these guys. And I will say the press release for Jochen Schneider said, you know, he wants to be closer to his family in Europe. So I don't know exactly if we can call that a firing or not, or, or just a confluence of good timing either way. There were serious questions about both of these folks in their job. So let's start with Sandro Swartz. The Red Bulls completely failed to build on any of the momentum from last year's playoff run.

to the point where they regressed this year. And it was really, really disappointing to see. They got a pretty much fully healthy season from Emil Forsberg and wasted it. Just completely wasted it. Chobo Mote was really good. Wasted it. The Red Bulls had like a negative five and a half goal difference. Carlos Cornell was awesome this season. Wasted that too. It was... Just a really disappointing season on the field for the Red Bulls. They were 29th in attack speed, 16th in direct attacks.

that's not a Red Bull team. That's not how they want to play. And it's just like a little inexplicable to me. I know that you want to build out and have different nuances that you can do other than what you're best at. But this...

reminds me a little bit of where Philly was last year. And Philly, I thought, had much more to do with injuries than the Red Bulls. Where Philly was last year, it's like, hey, let's just supercharge depressing and transitions, do what we set out to do. And all of the, like, Peter Stroud, Daniel Edelman. Emile Forsberg has been playing in transition. He's been a Red Bull player for 12 to 14 years, whatever it is, first Leipzig and then New York.

Sean Neewis is not a pass-out-of-the-back kind of defender. He would fit perfectly on this Philly team. He fits perfectly on this Red Bull team when they play their style. You go on down the list, and it's like, all right, why are they... trying to be something that they're not. And they're over-indexing on trying to find different looks and different nuances where they just became a below-average team in MLS this year, straight up. On Joachim Schneider, there's been a lot of misses, man.

There's just straight up has been a lot of misses. And I don't know the exact ins and outs. I don't know if it's totally fair to put the blame squarely on him for not signing Timo Werner. But worse, not having... alternative. Again, I don't know if that's a directive that came from above him or not, but he's the sporting director. He's the CSO. He's going to be the one that that sword falls on. This team finished one spot out of the playoffs.

They had an open DP spot. They've had it open all season. They didn't do anything with it. And they tried to sign Timo Werner. Nothing changed for the entire summer. Nothing changed. And they did not have an alternative. They did not have a backup plan. Kyle Duncan's a TAM player. Wiki Carmona's a TAM player. Victor Bogosh is a U22 initiative. Dennis Gengar. I still don't know how to pronounce his name because he hasn't done anything yet. Right? Like, Ronald Donkor's been good.

Like, Alexander Hack has been a disaster. There's just, you go on down the list, there's just way too, they signed how many left backs this winter? And none of them panned out. So... I agree with everything you said. To me, this is rearranging deck chairs on a Titanic. This is bigger. This is bigger than Sandro Schwartz. It's probably bigger than Schneider as well, right? From the top down.

The Red Bull group doesn't really care about supercharging this thing. Now, I understand the context of all this, which is... Vancouver, the second best team in the West, and Philly won the Supporters' Shield, and neither of those teams spend at a super high level. It still doesn't change the fact that...

This club exists inside of an entity in which it is not. The most important thing in that entity is not this team winning. And so you go from going to MLS Cup on a great playoff run. Your underlying numbers last year are better than they were. Okay.

We're going to move on from that. And maybe it all hinged on Timo Werner. But I don't think it's a huge coincidence that the two biggest players they're willing to spend money on are both guys who have played for Red Bull. It's Emile Forsberg, and now it would be Timo Werner.

So, like, what are the options? I get they brought in Shupa Moting. As we said many times, they replaced Vanzier with Moting, Shupa Moting. That was an upgrade. But you didn't add more to the attack. You just added an individual, and they always lacked a third or fourth option. And Lewis Morgan's injuries are tough, but all of what you said, like...

No one. Well, first of all, some, I mean, all those guys were there before Schneider got there. So yes, re-signing them to contracts, Duncan, Wiki Carmona, all those guys were already there and they are coming in through the Red Bull system. It's not like Jochen Schneider's.

going to Venezuela and scouting Wiki Carmona and figuring that out. But the main thing is just there is a line this team goes up to, and they're not willing to cross that line. And at some point, you have to go all in to try and win. I think it's fair to expect more because there's more talent there. And as I just said, there are other examples in MLS of doing more with less, but like culturally.

The bigger issue is not, okay, can Julian Dick Guzman hit on more of these mid-level signings for us to go over the top? It is that the New York Red Bulls have a cap on how competitive they choose to be, and that cap is self-created. by Red Bull Global above them. And I think that's going to end up being frustrating no matter what. Like, I would say, if I'm St. Louis, I'm interviewing Sandro Schwartz.

Like if I'm any team that thinks at all that we would play potentially a more pressing forward system, I would interview this guy. So that's my opinion of him as a coach from the outside, having never worked around him and not knowing him intimately. Yeah, it's a fair point to say that, like, hey, it's Forsberg and they want a team of Werner. My only pushback is that...

You know, they spent a lot of money on Forsberg. Again, you could say it's a Red Bull global family, whatever, right? But they still did that. That's not something that they were doing in the past, pretty much after the Henri era. Chobamote, like... That was a significant investment. Alexander Hack is the profile of a player that they never signed in the mid-2010s, ever.

It was only like you 23 players signing. And then if you're Aaron Long, you got to just age with the team kind of thing. It was, it was, it was at a nadir in terms of. diversification and age profiles for a serious team that wants to win. It was like they were trotting out a U23 team, essentially. So they're not doing that now. They've had more leeway. And listen, Raheem Edwards, Tim Parker, it's not like those are big, big money signings. But again, those...

They didn't do that in the past either. It was like Corey Burke was like, they signed him in free agency. And I was like, oh my God, they signed somebody who wasn't 21. But also, when Raheem Edwards starts at left back for you... It is the canary in the coal mine. It means you have no other options. You don't know what to do. And you're hoping that he can create something for you. It has been the case for five years now.

Yeah, but again, I think all of your points are fair there. It's just I'm trying to establish that, yes, maybe they have some restrictions here, but... I thought that it was much more difficult, again, at the end of the 2010s, where they were. And, like, I don't know. I'm trying to... I just kind of really criticized them and the outgoing... members, but...

they have had positive steps in terms of, and again, these are all basic things, right? Like this is how teams should be operating, trying to win. You can do multiple things at once. It doesn't need to be a U23 team if you want to sell players. You can also try to win while doing that.

So again, just a larger point of, they've had that here. And Bergen, this summer, that's a guy, that's a TAM signing, I believe. That's a guy that, again, at 28 years old, not a lot of resale value, not a cheap player. These are good things, and I hope that that continues and they just make better decisions. Yeah, so it will be interesting to see where the Red Bulls go from here. They can tap into their own system. I don't know if you heard by Michael Bradley.

is about to go to an MLS next pro final in his first half year as a head coach, it would be really, really fast. I think if we trusted any player to come out of playing and get into coaching really fast and be good at it, Michael Bradley would probably be the guy. I'm not going to be the first person to start that rumor. There are other guys in the Red Bull family, obviously, that could be available.

Looking at you, Chris Armis, I'd be shocked if that was the direction this all went in. But anyone else out of Jesse Marsh's tree or, you know, the rest of the Red Bull coaching tree, it's what we saw with Gerhard Struber. It's what we see with Sandra Schwartz. Like, you know. I think I can't tell you the name because I've never heard of the person because that's the way this is going to go. But I think we'll be able to read the connections once we get there. And obviously Jurgen Klopp.

is fairly heavily involved now at this point. To come coach. Let me put some... Let me say this. So I reported that Jim Curtin graciously took himself out of the running for New England and barring... Very unlikely for him to coach in 26. I think the Red Bulls would be an exception for Jim Curtin. Because he could still live at home. Because of the proximity, because of everything else. My understanding...

is that that's a job that he would be open to, he would consider. So we'll see. But that's the first name that comes to mind for me. So then the question, though, is... We just talked about possession versus non-possession, moving from a pressing team to less of a pressing team. And Philly's turnaround was after he left. And they overcorrected with a former Red Bull coach in Bradley Carnell.

Would Jim Curtin fit this now? I would say the elite talent here maybe fits what he wants to do, but you'd still have to move further away from the Sean Nealists of the world and everything else like that. If you were going to be able to get all the way to this is a team that Jim Curtin. put together and be really successful with. Oh baby, this is all spinning around in my head. What a big moment.

And this is why we like to do this live sometimes. So if you're not watching live, we are live when we record these. Myself and Tom, we change the time a little bit every single day, but we will be back around a similar time on Thursday as well for the next piece of breaking news.

We get there. Tom, you ready to jump back into the playoffs, though? Yeah, the Red Bulls aren't in the playoffs. That wasn't a playoff talk. The Red Bulls are not in the playoffs. Jim Curtin also not in the playoffs right now. Let's talk Vancouver FC Dallas.

The Whitecaps trying to bounce back from decision day. We had some hope around Tristan Blackman from training. That doesn't happen. So, Ralph Presto, your starting center back for your home playoff game, Vancouver, trying to do something they've never done and win a playoff series. They sold out the bottom deck of the stadium, so they went in. to 30 plus thousand capacity which for bc place is starting to push into as big as it can get and they dominated dallas

in the first half. Thomas Mueller's quote that Kalen Carr said on the broadcast when asked, oh, will Dallas be confident after winning 2-1 here? He said they got dominated for 80 minutes up a man. Why would they be confident? And that was the way the Whitecaps played. Dallas went to the back five. Once again, they slid Shaq more in as another center back. They brought pets are Musa back into the starting lineup after being suspended.

Did not bring Logan Farrington into the starting lineup, though. He started on the bench. Sam Sarver and Anderson Julio got the start in the front three. Those three had never played together before for Dallas, and it looked like it. And it felt like it. They got overrun in central midfield. They had no possession or attack in the attacking third. And Ramiro looked like me.

at right wing back up against Ali Ahmed, who is playing full confidence right now. And it was a shellacking in the first half. And yet Dallas was able to hang on, but Daniel Rios gets the opening goal, Tom, and it just kind of felt like a matter of time. Yeah, this was belt to ass here by Vancouver. My God, what a performance from this team.

And it was, this was looked like the second place team in the West versus a non-playoff team. And Vancouver were just imperious. Vancouver, let's remind ourselves. Probably five players from whatever their best 11 is are not starting. And it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter who's on the field. It doesn't matter who comes in off the bench. This is how they're going to play.

Kubas was excellent. Berhalter was excellent. They completely dominated the game from within there. Ali Ahmed was just a terror to this Dallas defense. Vancouver looked...

Every bit of what you would want to see from a team that says, oh, no, no, no. Like, yeah, we've had injuries. Hopefully Brian White and Tristan Blackman will be back soon. But like, yeah, no, like we're here. We're one of the contenders. This is how you take care of business in game one. They couldn't have done more emphatic. The only issue is...

it's just the one game, right? That's the only potential critique you could make of this Vancouver game, that if this was an aggregate series, it'd be over. And like, all these things are obviously out of their control. They did literally everything that they could to show themselves, their fans, the league, everybody else. Hey, we're for real contender. Incredible performance.

I think it, you know, for them resets the like, oh, what does decision day mean? Blah, blah, blah. It means nothing. I think that's really big. As you said, they still have to go and win one more game. But this was in such dominating fashion that. They're going to go into the next two games, no matter what, with a ton of confidence. Daniel Rio. One game. Yeah. One game. Yeah. Okay. Fair. Yeah. I got a lot of pets are Musa stock. He was out there on an Island.

He looked like an MVP. Eric Quill overthought this one. Like him and Farrington are the pairing. That's what's been successful. He moves Romero out of central midfield. He takes Farrington off the field like, great. Sam Sarver ran around last week. I love Sammy Sarver. I'm excited for his future. He's drawn penalty kicks. He's a madman. Like, all of that's great. You weren't good last week.

Like you were bad after being good for a long time because of these two guys. And having the two of them together is more dangerous than having Anderson Julio on the field as well as a third option. which then would allow you to put another piece in midfield and shield your back line a little bit more. I thought the Shaq Moore start was fine, even though he's not a natural center back. Lalis Abubakar struggled so much last week.

I don't know that he helped a ton on the penalty kick that they conceded as well. Urakide gets beat. Ibiaga gets beat. And then all three center backs are around the ball when Urakide gives up the penalty kick. in the end shout out to daniel rios stepping in for brian white scores another goal he got pulled early last week because of the red card it was a you know he reads ali ahmed really well and just goes up and dunks on someone and

That's a nice thing to be able to have in your team. And I think a huge shout to Emmanuel Sabi. I thought he was awesome in this game as well. And that's where Vancouver is so tough right now is they can link up and play through you. But also...

Ahmed and Sabi are so dangerous 1v1, you still have to send an extra number. And when you send that extra number, that means one of Mueller, Kubas, or Berhalter are going to be open. And both of those guys, the balance between when they pick their head up and connect. And when they put their head down and beat the guy in front of them is phenomenal.

And that's like the base point right now, I think, for this Vancouver team of like, if you want to stop them, you have to find a way to stop those two 1v1. Your fullbacks, your wingbacks, whatever they are, have to be better. And I don't think Kamungo can do that at all. And I don't know who you play on. the right side to do that. And that's where the huge question marks come for Dallas.

Yeah, and I think Eric Will was trying to tweak it during the game and moving around Shaq Moore to just desperately do anything to kind of slow down this Vancouver attack. And like you said, Goss, there wasn't... a ton. I think Uruguide is a very, very good center back. I think that was an excellent signing by Dallas. And I don't even think that he was necessarily bad, and he didn't stand a chance.

He gives up a penalty late. Again, I thought that he played generally fine for a team that got absolutely smoked. So if they could clone Uruguide times five for the back five, then they've got a chance. But if that technological advancement does not happen... then I think that they're going to struggle. And again, I don't want to come down too hard on Dallas. Hang on. Before you say that, the XG in this game was 3.47 to 0.42.

that's how hard you can come down on this. Not everybody can be supporting Kansas City and not shoot and win a game because the Galaxy are not here. But for Dallas, genuinely getting... Even if they got to the wildcard game and lost, given where things were midseason, I'd be like, sure, way to bounce back. Things are much less bleak than they appeared to be in June, July. They got up to 7th.

That's an excellent way to bounce back over the second half of the season. Expectations will be different next year, but within the narrow prism of... Even if they lose, maybe not if they lose 4-0 again or something. If this aggregate ends up looking like Colorado versus Galaxy last year, maybe that'll change a little bit. But where we're sitting right now, getting to this point...

is overachieving given where they were in June and July. Yeah. Yes. So the way this ends, I think will be important. I still, I'm so, so Laborda will be back.

for the next game. That's the other big piece of this is Vancouver has survived that huge scare, which we all ask the question of like, if they have no center backs, can they win? And if you lose this game, you're going to Dallas in a must-win game. Your back's up against it. That is now... cleared as much as we joked about it last week as much as we trust vancouver's injury you know updates blackman seems close white seems close if you can manage through this you have a month

until the next round kicks off. Like there is a real chance that Vancouver can go into the next round with confidence and with health and options. And when you have those options now, you still have the guys who are performing. You have more trust right now in Ralph Bariso than you've had in five years. So, like, that's a guy now where if the game states decide it, maybe you're able to throw him out there and you're able to get something, whether it's in central midfield or at center back.

All of these options for Vancouver will create depth for them if they can get the other pieces back. You can alternate between Rios and White. Obviously, you'd love to have Gould fully healthy. But if you don't... Is that a game-changing option off the bench in a playoff game against an LAFC or an Austin?

That's huge for you. So this was a really good night for Vancouver. The crowd was into it. It felt big. It felt important. They are trying to drum up interest in the market as we continue to say. And when you get people in the building and you put performances like this on the field, they will come back.

And whether it's third game of this round or the next round, that building is going to be packed. It's going to be a big deal. And I think that's really exciting for this Vancouver team. Thomas Mueller gets the goal on the penalty kick. So a big moment for him, his first play. off goal and vibes are flowing for this Vancouver team. We'll see if Dallas is able to turn any of it around in this next game. Let's talk San Diego Portland, our final game of the weekend.

Before the game, the big news, of course, was around Chucky Lozano. We talked about his club-imposed suspension coming out of decision day. And the words we were hearing from the front office was...

You know, he needs to do something. to make it up to the team. We had an Instagram post from him before the game started saying, quote, I'm a passionate and competitive person. And by the way, this is Chucky Lozano, not Tom Bogert. So I just want everyone to know that's who's saying this. I'm a passionate and competitive.

who always wants to give everything for the team. Sometimes that same intensity can lead to reactions that don't reflect who I am or the respect I have for everyone around me. I didn't react in the right way and I've already taken responsibility, addressed it and moved forward. What matters most to me is continuing to grow as a player, as a teammate, and as a person. Every day I'm learning.

improving, and doing my best to contribute positively to the team. I'm fully focused on what's ahead, on the goals we share, and on helping San Diego achieve everything we've been working for. We've built something special together. I'm proud to be part of the club's journey for many years to come.

I think we were hearing from Mikey Varus was, that felt real, right? That felt personal. Dude, I feel like I'm going to be copy and pasting that at some point to my men's league group chat. Playoffs started on Wednesday, so. It's Bracktober, by the way. It's Bracktober. It's time to get locked in. If you missed it, by the way, we're doing a special style of bracket so we can compare across leagues where you pick a team in each tier. If you missed the MLS one, it's okay.

Because you could still do the USL Championship, USL League One, and NWSL ones. And you could be in for a prize that we have. The grand prize you are no longer available for, but you can win each league. And inside of each league, we have more prizes for that. We don't have one for Tom's men's league playoff, but we can work on that. We can talk to the developers. There's no value, and obviously we're going to win, and that's just minus 1,000.

Any other thing would be such a big upset. We wouldn't be able to calculate it and put it. I'll talk to Terry Rozier and see if he has ideas of how we could set up lines for this game. Don't tell Damon Jones. I definitely would not. I'll bring my ex. machine, just in case someone else does as well. So Chucky Lozano, what we were hearing was he's available if San Diego wants him. It sounds like Mikey Varus after the game said...

We will see this week, but he'll probably be available for game two for this San Diego team. Tom, so big story not really there now? It's still a huge story. This is the club's...

the record signing highest paid player, one of the highest paid players in the league was essentially, this is because of the international break. It feels like it's going to be like a month between him playing games. Like, uh, what was that? The 4th of October was when that Houston game was, whatever. My point is that he was,

Left out of the team for two games. They haven't called it a suspension, but he's not injured. It's an internal suspension, right? Like, it doesn't need to be literal. He's being held out of the team for not injury. What...

Andrew Wiebe spoke to Mikey Varas after the game on the field and kind of asked him about Chucky. And he said pretty much, like, yeah, we're expecting him to be available. I appreciate the way he's talking about it. He's talking about it like it's an injury. He's like, as long as there's no setback. Right. It's like, if there's not enough...

If he doesn't flip over a second table this week, then he's available. Chicken and rice. We don't know the form of protein, by the way. That's not reporting. That's just rumors. This is good. San Diego... Gets the win. Played well. Portland made it a threat at the end. But for this to not devolve further, for this to not have either side really dig their feet in and then...

We'd be asking questions about his future with this club, which would be disastrous to me. Or him missing any more time would be disastrous, I think. So well done to... Chucky Lozano, first and foremost, for apologizing and everything that he's, whatever he's done to prove to the locker room that he is committed. Well done to Mikey Varus, to the leadership within that club, both in the front office and the players of...

This had the potential of going sideways really bad. And it's still not ideal. You don't want to deal with any of this. But if he just misses his first playoff game, if he comes back and is playing well, and there's no more kind of flare-ups, then...

Well done by everybody involved to make sure that it didn't metastasize and get much worse. It still can. But right now, as long as there's no setbacks, as Mikey Forrest would say, then again, things could be worse and true disaster would be averted. And I will double down on what I said last show, which is even if he doesn't play and is a factor, the fact that it's not a distraction is the win for this San Diego team because they – True.

destroyed Portland in the first half. This game never should have been close. Okay, maybe Shuki's on the field. There's a little bit more finishing quality. Maybe that's the difference between 2-0 and 3-0. And at 3-0, you've killed the game. But like... This San Diego team, with who they are, and I've said this many times, right? Chucky only started 22 games this year. Like, good season from him, but he was not there every single game. Dreyer is the main piece of this team. Yep.

They know how to go and win without him. They know how to play without him. It just can't be that it was this sideshow that took everyone's attention and filled up the room. It was the only thing you were talking about. And so to get it out of the way and move on from it. is huge for them. And then the way they went out there and played was massive. Like, Pantomis was awesome in the first half. The two saves he made to keep it at 0-0, that's how much he was getting blitzed, were absurd.

You assume now he's going to lock down that starting spot. Anyone looking for a goalkeeper, I would call and ask Maxime Crapo what his plans are over the next six to eight months. This San Diego team. The question with a group like this is, okay, can you do it in the playoffs? How does the pressure affect you? When you're a team that plays very free and open, when you invite pressure, when you play out of the back, when you play through trouble, can you do those things when the...

when the chips are down. And it's hard to play that way sometimes. San Diego proved everything to me in this game. And yes, the final score was 2-1. And yes, Portland can feel like they settled in and they found the game a little bit more and whatever. But there was only one team in the stadium. Yeah, I mean, I would say San Diego, yes, it's all the things we do. And then all of a sudden, like, again, absent that...

Jimmer for a double yellow within 60 seconds of each other outside of that. Like they were again, you're right. They had no business having any worries in this game. They give up a goal, and then Portland were genuinely threatening. They had momentum, and...

You start to look around and go, uh-oh, hold on for the rails and see if they can hold on here. Again, they got boosted by that red card, and still I thought Portland had a couple chances when they really shouldn't have. There was a moment of naivete. San Diego... I believe it was either in stoppage time or near the 90th minute. They got a corner kick. They put it in the box and got countered. That should never... How does that happen? How?

So those were the things that I thought were worrying signs for me. They beat Portland 4-0 on decision day. Portland were alive after getting killed in the first step. They didn't put them away.

for a team that they just did and should be able to do. So that's the worry for me, that what happens... in the next round if they get there or like can Portland really push them over the next two games so like yeah like I saw a lot of good stuff from San Diego but we saw kind of some of the the Achilles heels for San Diego here too in this game but at least they went out and played that style like

Because if they hadn't, then I would worry about the belief in it. Because I don't think they're good enough to play any other way. I think if they play any other way, they shoot themselves in the foot. And they lose. So they have to be committed to what they do. And I thought you saw that in this game. And like Portland gets the goal in the first half. That's pretty opportunistic.

Veld I didn't think was good enough, and the matchup between him and Pilcher I thought was the one chance for Portland to take advantage. That's a mismatch. Pilcher's not a natural right back. Veld is a DP. He has struggled a little to settle in.

He's going to be like high on the Goss theorem preseason rankings for next season, as will Jonathan Bamba, by the way. I thought about that in that game. And Anthony was pretty invisible. Moore is pretty invisible. And so there's just not a ton of threat.

from this Portland team right now. And I think you can play through them. So at home in the next game, they have to open up a little more and attack. If that's the case, I think you see something like decision day where San Diego are able to take advantage of the openings. I thought RSL was pretty dangerous in Portland as well, and I would be shocked if this series went to three games. I'd say most of the other series, even like me still being in the bag for Dallas a little bit.

I wouldn't be shocked if it went to a third game right now. Like even Nashville. I think Nashville I would pick as an opportunity to win game two more. than I would this Portland team. So that's how I saw this play out. And I think you're right. The momentum shift a bit. Portland got more comfortable. They got more confident. And the goal helps, of course, but it didn't feel like they were at the same speed, at the same level, at the same connection.

connections uh as the san diego group and that's just a big way to start your first ever playoff race for san diego the building was bumping the celebrations on the goals were cool like there's a real vibe to this and there is In a Western conference that isn't fully loaded, and it's harder to say because we didn't see all the teams, right? We're still waiting to see LAFC, Seattle, Minnesota, teams that we think have a shot at making an MLS Cup run.

I came out of the weekend saying, yeah, this is a San Diego team that should be hosting the Western Conference Finals. Yeah, again, I thought that they were very good. And really quickly, it doesn't matter too much, but in...

I criticized the field. I criticized some things. The field was good, I thought. The playing surface, again, last year there was an NWSL playoff game that had to be moved because the field was so bad. Regular season game. I didn't... Was it a regular season game? Yeah, it was the last game of the regular season. Oh, okay. like a playoff game you know what i mean um so again like that that was a positive it's not super interesting to say out loud but just trying to be fair where

I've been critical and asked questions just to come back around and say, well done to the groundskeeping crew and all that stuff. So, yeah, this team should have aspirations to get to the conference final. It's going to be a bit of a crapshoot, like always, because it's the playoffs. Like we said, there was a lot of positive signs. I know you saw more than me. I try not to focus on kind of the drawbacks, but...

With Chucky Lozano coming in, they'll have a better ability to just outscore teams, which I think will make it interesting. Though, either one of the teams that they would face... I fully agree with you. It's a nightmare matchup for them.

Yeah, like both of those teams are going to like in different ways. Seattle plays with the ball much more than Minnesota, of course, but Seattle can completely lock down a game or start controlling a game. Whereas the way the Minnesota can control game is just...

recoiling all the way back, making it really, really hard for San Diego to break them down and then just rip them through in transition and set pieces and everything too. So either one of those teams is going to pose a real, real threat to San Diego if they get through again. I don't want to say that this one's dead and buried. Yeah.

I think Seattle and Minnesota nightmare set up for them. If that ends up being it, we saw Minnesota go there and win a few weeks ago because they were able to sit deep and keep the game in front of them and then score off a set piece. Big game coming.

up for all of these teams all of these lower seeds that are going home trying to win you said it around that colorado converse you mentioned like colorado galaxy last year i think the perception of the seasons for a lot of these teams is going to be decided here

None of them are favorites, right? They're all the lower seed for a reason. The ones in the East, some of the point numbers put up good points and the standings didn't fall for you. And maybe clubs can go back and reassess it properly. You make it a lot easier if you're able to. at a minimum, go back on the road. At worst, you lose somewhat heroically, and there's a feeling at least coming out of it. But if you get smoked at home in a second leg, except for Chicago.

all of these teams got smoked on the road, you're looking at negative six across two games, negative seven across two games. That's really, really hard. to look internally and say, we have belief in the direction we're going in and we want to continue it. Even though I think most of these teams should because of the expectations coming into this season. And where they've landed. But we'll talk about all of that as it comes. We will obviously be starting to do some obits on some of these teams.

coming out of next weekend. So reminder, all of these teams play on Saturday, and then there's two more games on Sunday. For the MLS playoffs... It's all spaced out. So Monday night has two games. Hell is real. And then Minnesota, Seattle, which is probably as good a doubleheader as you can get. What a night. Yeah. And then Tuesday night, Charlotte hosts NYCFC. Wednesday night, 1030 p.m. Eastern time, LAFC.

host Austin and we'll be back on Thursday morning to break that down to break down everything else you've seen and we'll preview the whole weekend and get you set up for the next series, next round of this round of the playoffs. I don't even know what phrase to use. How many countries are within this country? Next phase.

Within this round of this series of the playoffs. Charlotte NYCFC Tuesday night. Tom, I think that's one we're both excited for. It's a great atmosphere in Charlotte. No Zaha, so huge. Question marks for Charlotte of where the attacking push can come. I talked last week about hoping to see a big game from Toklamati, be able to accept that responsibility and maybe elevate his game.

Is Liela Bada one out there that could bring them a big performance? Vargas is a match winner on his day. So there's a few options in there for Charlotte. And then I think LAFC Austin, I don't know, maybe as big a three, six as we'll ever see in terms of. expectations, even with Austin having won the first two games, two matchups of the year. Yeah, no, that's an interesting idea. LAFC, I think they would be viewed as the favorite in the West.

I don't feel super confident in that, but right. Like I feel that's a fair thing to say. And that's obviously abnormal for a three seed. And then again, so, so this has more to do with LAFC stature and the summer signings signing that they made that rather than.

looking at Austin and being like, oh, they stink. They're a fraud succeed kind of thing. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And some of that goes to their history. A lot of that goes to San Diego and Vancouver's lack of history, but I think...

This weekend quells a little bit of that. And a bunch of that goes to the way Austin's played. And they've really backed their way into this. But this is the only part that matters. They won. They went to U.S. Open Cup final. They played against the ball. They took advantage of their chances. They used...

CJ Faudry off the bench and we're able to sneak in to a final and host it. And if they can sneak a result in the first game against LAFC, you're coming home to your building. Q2 is going to bounce and you've got everything to play for there. And I do think these games going straight to penalty.

kicks opens up some opportunity there for some of these teams and I think that's one for Austin where it's like can we keep the game tight can we keep it closed can we be clean enough in possession where we can hold a lot of the momentum of the game but also not get pressed into mistakes

and then stay alive long enough to be dangerous and whether you're pushing it to PKs or getting a late chance like you did in the Open Cup semifinals. For NYCFC, I don't think it's any of those vibes. I think they have belief that they could go toe-to-toe in Charlotte, and they should. I think that they would have felt that way even if Zaha was playing. But particularly so, this is a huge opportunity for NYCFC to take control of this series. And like you said...

That's how they're going to view this. Think that they are a really strong team, really solid team. Maybe they don't quite have the same ceiling as some of the other teams in the East, but their floor is really high. I just trust this team to show up and play well.

If they do that, they've got every chance to get this game in Charlotte, and particularly without Zaha on the other side. I think this will be a really, really tight game between these two teams. It'll probably be, I don't want to say boring, but this feels like one of those knockout games where... It's just played in the middle third for, you know, before it starts to open up.

Yeah, the one question for NYCFC formation wise, five in the back, four in the back. We've seen Jansen swap between the two of them. So that will be one to watch out for and figure out. And I think you're looking at, of course. Nico Fernandez and Hannes Wolf to be massive in this game because this is a Charlotte team that's going to need to get their fullbacks into the attack.

to try and fill some of the space that Zaha leaves and try and create enough chances for Toklamati to put away in the box or whoever it is. that ends up coming off the bench at center forward as well. So you're looking for more overloads, overlaps, underlaps, whatever it is, to add a little bit to that attack that you're losing in the 1v1 ability of Zaha. And then if you are NYCFC, can you counter that?

And can you take that space quickly? Can you be dangerous? I think Hannes Wolfe has the ability to be a match winner. It has not been as consistent as I expected in MLS, but I think this last half of the year has been his best time in Major League Soccer so far. All right, those are all.

of our playoff games. As I said, we'll be back Thursday morning to go through it. One piece of news coming out of this weekend that we don't have a ton of clarity on yet. Derek Jones and Yaya Boa have both been put on a suspension by Major League Soccer. We don't know why. We don't know the reasoning around it. So we don't have a lot to talk about with it, Tom, but it's one of those things that we'll continue to monitor. Yeah.

Depending on what this is, and I don't even know, kind of, I can't even speculate as to the nature of the investigation. I certainly wouldn't speculate, I should be clear. I don't have any inkling or any information about exactly what this is about, which is concerning.

We'll see. I have no idea on the timeline or anything either. Hopefully that there's nothing untoward here. But again, I wish I had something better to say. I just don't have anything. So I'm just going to deflect and say, hey, should we go re-listen to all those extra time episodes that we did for...

15 straight episodes about how sick of a signing Derek Jones was for Columbus? And how important he was going to be? I mean, seems pretty important. What does he play? He's played in two games this season? Seems pretty important. I think before we started, I just confirmed that he was still on Columbus, which shows how big of an ad he's been. The phrase, by the way. He's played four minutes this season. The phrase, by the way, for these two players has been they've been put on.

administrative leave pending league review of potential violations of MLS league rules. So we have no idea, as you said, what category that even goes into. Yeah. I think the phrasing was... If he's going to make it, it's going to be under Nance in Columbus. And the hope was that he makes it. Don't do a revisionist history. I don't know if MLS nuked any podcast feed or YouTube videos. But I know. I was on the shows, too. I wasn't quite.

as high as you guys. I was in that direction, but I'm going to just blame the rest of you and then I got swept up like a tidal wave. But no, it wasn't an if. It was like, this is huge. You can't kill hope, Tom. Hope is the one thing you cannot kill. Hope is the most dangerous thing you can give a man. Justin Fields, man, bringing the hope back to the world. I saw a highlight of a Jets receiver running free with the ball for 20 yards, and I was like...

Is this AI? How did he get this is the big question. How did the ball get there? Last thing to close out on, big show because of Red Bulls deciding to break news in the middle of it. The reports are from... your own Paul Tenorio in the New York times, uh, that there will be no January camp this year for us MNT. This was a convo we had last week, Diego Luna.

losing in the wild card round won't play a competitive club soccer game for about four months after that and the only thing that a lot of these mls players who

are hoping to be a major part of Pochettino's group that we thought would be the thing getting them back into the conversation for some extent was January camp, being around the coaching, and that will not be the case. We don't have a clear... idea why yet and we don't know what these players will do otherwise um i floated the idea of them going on loan i don't know how realistic that is

For most of these guys, I don't know how useful that is for a lot of these guys. You're not part of that team's plan, so you're at best training. Maybe you're sneaking into some games here or there, but it's a long list of players. are around the serious conversation, right? We're talking about most of the center backs. We're talking about most of the goalkeepers. We're talking about Diego Luna. We are talking about

Luca De La Torre. We just saw Sebastian Berhalter. There's a lot of players that are a major part of Pochettino's plans, and I don't know where it goes from here for them. I would agree. It's very unfortunate for those players that you mentioned that are going to be without competitive games. So in reading Tenorio's article, I thought, like, it's weird timing for this to be...

This isn't a definite for all of the future. Just for the year with the World Cup at home. If there was a time for a January camp, it'd be this year. So that's a little confounding, but I guess the other side of that is... Man, like, what are we going to learn about Diego Luna against Venezuela's D-team or Serbia's... It has nothing to do with the games. You know? Yeah. It's just... I mean... So here's my thing. All these players will be in preseason with their MLS clubs. Not the whole time.

Well, like... Yeah. All of the preseason camps will have kicked off by the... 100%. We don't know because it's not happening. They would miss part of their preseason to be a part of this. My thing is... One, why not leave every stone unturned and take every quarter inch you can get? And one of the like opportunities with all of this, which I've always thought was oddly worded.

is like you have a chance to put national team players together for a longer period of time than any other national team gets. If you are the U.S. or Canada, who, by the way, Jesse was asked about it by me. in January, and he's like, we are working on a January camp for next year. So they're trying to add one for a World Cup while the U.S. is taking one away. Let's just say that you create a better connection and that...

Miles and Tim Ream play better soccer together because they've spent a month together that year. Or Alex Freeman. Like, any of that stuff. Or they get to know Mauricio Pochettino's system better. Or they get to know the coaching staff better. Like, I just can't. I guess I don't see a negative besides money. And you would hope that this isn't the time where that becomes cheaper because you're trying to go as far as you can at a home world cup and change the entire.

view of your program and the sport in your country. Yeah, I would for sure give U.S. soccer the benefit of the doubt that... This is a sporting decision rather than a monetary one. Again, just to read from Tenorio's article, the decision was made in consultation with MLS clubs, which preferred to have their players available for the full preseason ahead of the start of the MLS season. This year? This is the year we're all making that decision?

Again, I understand, but, like, Sonorio also writes, like, he listed all the examples, particularly Diego Luna last year was the big winner from the January camp, and that helped launch him into the team. So it is useful. Jack McGlynn. Patrick Ojemang? That's where Patrick Ojemang broke in. That's true. It was too. But, like, again, my pushback here is these are all known entities. If this was this season and Diego Luna, like, if we were just fast-forwarded a year...

I don't know that he'd have a real chance to break into the team. I just think that the turnaround is too tight at this point. And I think Pochettino said that in September, pretty much like, hey, if you haven't been called in now, if you haven't been part of the pool, it's too late. And I agree with the continuity side of things.

But that kind of falls apart quickly when Pulisic and Richards and Adams and McKinney and whoever aren't going to be available. So how much continuity are you getting? I don't know. We're talking about a coach who cried at the end of the Gold Cup. And has proceeded to call every player who was at the Gold Cup up again because they spent all that time together. And none of the guys you just named were at the Gold Cup. So I'm looking at the last camp. All four goalkeepers were MLS goalkeepers.

Miles Robinson, Tim Ream, Max Arvston, Alex Freeman. Okay, Freeman may not be available. Fine. Christian Roldan, Diego Luna, Patrick, not in MLS anymore. And that's it. Okay, fair. Maybe it's not enough guys. I literally did just name two full position groups. Christian Roldan, a guy that he has said is like everything to them. And he's the perfect soccer player. Like, is it not enough to just do it so that those guys.

are at their best peak going into a World Cup. Forget finding more players. Like, literally just supporting the players who are in your group. Plus, that doesn't include Zendejas, who would be available, coming from Mexico. Maybe... Then you sneak a Richie Ledesma in there, whatever. Okay. On all of that, I think then we're done. MLS playoffs in full swing.

USL playoffs start this weekend. We've got our brackets out, and we're going to be doing a special episode of the Kickback Committee that will be coming out tomorrow. We will be having on Matt Sheldon of Detroit City, longtime USL player. He will sort of give us the ideas of what it's like going into the USL playoffs. And then we're going to talk big picture storylines. And then we will discuss USL League One, who is championed.

by one Knoxville, the player's shield winner. Congratulations to Ian Fuller, head coach of the team. And of course, partner of our own Susanna Fuller here at kickback. So we're going to talk about everything USL in that episode, and we will continue to cover their.

playoffs and everything else going on that's why we did not talk about it in this episode because we have a full episode dedicated to that one jordan angeli is back from vacation so we'll be talking nwsl on wednesday as they head into their decision day this weekend on sunday uh and We are into the best time of the year, as I have said over and over again. It is Bracktober. It is our favorite time of the year.

I'm excited. Thank you for being with me, Tom. Thank you to all of you who are here in the chat, especially experiencing Red Bulls firing their coach and sporting director live with us. And we'll talk to you all again very, very soon.