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A place to match odds 90 market or markets with the 90 icon. Sportsbook exclusive. Terms and conditions apply. And welcome to the Total Soccer Show. My name is Taylor Rockwell, and it's Tuesday, which means it's time to do some MLS updating. Here with me to do the majority of that updating, our two friends. Up first, it's Joe, professional color commentator Lowry. Joe, were you able to make a 1-0 home loss to Tulsa an enjoyable experience?
for the home viewers? You know, I haven't been able to pull everyone. I also wasn't ready for that wound just to be re-exposed to everybody like that. Phoenix Rising did start their season on Saturday. Lots of fun. I had a good time.
I would like to think that some other people either watching in person or via the TVs. I don't know why I made that so complicated on ESPN Plus or wherever else the game was shown. I'd like to think that they had some fun as well. But to be honest, Taylor, I really don't know. Yeah.
Well, I'm sure you did your best, and I'm sure you did it wonderfully. And I'm sure, were you in a suit? Were you in a blazer? How fancy were you? I was in a suit, yes. Although, I actually put a sweater on for the open because the suit felt just a little...
a little too much for the circumstances, but the suit was on during the game also because it was cold, and I'm not going to back down from that, nor am I going to say anything more about the weather because that's lame. I appreciate that. Joining us today is Jeff. I don't know if he's done color commentary, but I assume he'd be good at it. Rooter Jeff, how you doing, my friend?
I'm doing great. Joe, question for you. Is there a local blackout on ESPN Plus? Like, do you at least get the peace of mind that Phoenix fans who were watching were expats who were just happy to see the team again? So even if they lost, it's not like a miserable for the culture of Phoenix.
Yeah, it's a great way to frame a blackout as a positive. No, I'm not aware of there being a blackout. I've always got to peel back the curtain. I've always got the ESPN plus feed rolling during the game so I can toggle back myself and catch little things.
Do you listen to yourself during a call joke? No, no, no, no, no, no. That thing's on mute. I mean, I'm not trying to have the producers deal with my voice in real life and then my voice coming back through the ESPN Plus feed into my mic, into the producers. I don't think I hate it. anybody that much, frankly.
Good to know, because that's like competitive grade when your phone is echoing. Someone has you on speakerphone and you can hear yourself in the background and you're just like, I need to collect my thoughts again. If you were doing that for a full 90 minutes, you would be the consummate professional. Yeah, that's next level. So there you go.
I've heard those stories about like Kanye listening to himself at his own house parties. And I do kind of picture Joe like, oh, that's such a good point, Joe. Great work. Great work. Wait till you hear this one, Seth Rogen.
Yeah, for some reason, people, whenever they come over to my place, don't love it when I just have my own voice rolling via the Total Soccer Show or Phoenix Rising games on the TV. I don't know why. That just is never like as big of a hit as I feel like it should be. I don't know. I feel like I'm missing something. Underappreciated in your time. History will look back fondly. Really is true, Jeff. Really is true.
Speaking of underappreciated in their time, that's my segue to talk about some of the teams we're going to talk about today because we're going to kind of run around the league and do some of the big stories from this weekend or some of the big trends thus far in the season. And we're going to start with the Philadelphia Union, who...
I thought were going to be bad. BAD, all caps. I was very concerned about the sacking of Jim Curtin. I thought it was a mistake. Joe did not. Turns out Joe was right. So with the understanding that I don't know this team as well as I... think i did uh joe can you set the table for people how many academy players are playing for the union right now how many teenagers designated players like what is the makeup of this union team for people who haven't been watching them
Yeah, the union have designated players. They signed Bruno Damiani. Bruno Damiani as a young designated player. They've got Mikel Ura. They have some players who are... at the top of this roster. They also, though, have a lot of teenagers. And that is the Philadelphia Union thing where Kevin Sullivan got minutes a couple of weekends ago. And they're starting Frankie Westfield at right back for this team as a 19-year-old. He made his professional debut.
on match day one and has been quite good for them as a right back. They're starting Olwethu Makanya. I'll admit that's the first time I've ever said his name out loud. I feel like it went pretty well. They're starting Makanya as the center back.
And he's 20 years old. He started every single game next to Jakob Glesnes so far. So it's a young team. And that's what Ernst Tanner wants this team to be. They don't go out and spend a ton of money on flashy designated players. They didn't, frankly, in my mind, have a...
phenomenal offseason where you look at them spending their real cash on Damiani coming in from South America. And I think I talked about this recently. I didn't see Stryker as being a real position of need for this team. They go out there and they add Jovan Lukic in central midfield and they move Jack McGlynn. and going the other way. They also lost
Why is this name escaping me? Leon Flack. They also lost to Leon Flack. They lost like 4,000 plus minutes in central midfield. And Lukic is kind of the guy earmarked to replace some of those minutes. And then they eventually trade for Indy Vassalov as well. Bradley Cornell's former player at St. Louis City. It's just all working right now. The union look...
cohesive in the early stages, even with this odd first team roster. And this isn't new, right? This is kind of the union's way of doing things. And Ernst Tanner is more or less doubling down or at least returning to some of those things from a tactical and from a roster build perspective. This is a team that looks cohesive when so much of the rest of the league...
Does not, right? And you start on the road in Orlando. You win that game 4-2, and Pedro Galese helps you out a little bit because he looks pretty much washed at this point. But you win that game on the road. Yeah, it's not great. And then you go... And you have success against FC Cincinnati. And you win that game 4-1. And you look excellent. I mean, since you're playing in CONCACAF Champions Cup, they've got a big game against Tigres this week.
So you sort of are taking that result with a bit of a grain of salt. But then you go on the road and you beat New England pretty comprehensively. Not that Philly created a ton of chances on Saturday, but they were the better team away from home. And that is really, really hard to do in this league. It should be even harder. to do in this league when you don't have the sorts of top-end talent that a lot of other teams do, but what the Union lack in...
elite playmaker types they seem to be making up for in the early stages of 2025 with genuine buy-in defensively and real cohesion tactically pretty much across the board. Jeff, does that vibe with what you're seeing from the union? Yeah, I would say so. And I think that it's like...
I agree more with Taylor. I thought that there would be a little bit more of an acclimation period to Bradley Carnell, but I think it's worth remembering. Like, Carnell ball is something that I think a lot of players can pretty... comfortably grasp because it is a lot of like trust in yourself, trust in your talents, trust in your belief and just keep busting your butt for 90 full minutes plus stoppage time.
force the opponent into mistakes right and that that sort of mentality that sort of like you can do this so go do this instead of like uh okay look we're we're only on week three of a crash course of a tactical system and ideology um like I think that Cardinal's system actually caters very well to a quick first impression. And I think that especially, like Joe pointed out, during the sloppiest stage of the MLS season, which I think is some of it the most fun soccer. I think like...
MLS Cup playoffs are still unparalleled in the league season. The first... eight weeks of the regular season when teams haven't even finished the primary transfer window. And so you're seeing every team burn through their MLS next pro call-ups to fill their squad numbers. And you have a lot of guys who are in and out because of the international breaks in the spring. And so it's just like every single week is a brand new starting lineup for every single team. That is...
Just American soccer culture at its finest. Just absolute chaos. And I think that if you're a team that plays like Bradley Carnell's teams do, you can exploit that chaos tremendously. And I think that, look, I mean, it's not just that they're doing the smash and grab stuff.
that Ty Barbo is doing his best Joel Klaus impression and collecting back passes or anything like that. It's actually they're creating shots. They're creating their own chances, which is not something that you saw a lot with St. Louis City SC in 2023 even, right? It was a lot of relying on those mistakes.
makes more than it was actually generating the chances yourself. That's what got him into trouble in 2024. So to have them with, you know, the second most frenetic front-end press, very small sample size, but so far it's just Troil Sins DC United that's out pressing them with PPDA and then...
you know expect expected goals per shot they are also in the top five eight whatever so like they're they're generating good looks and and that's that'll play yeah just pretty much throughout the season i love the point you make jeff about this style being one that's easily sort of scalable in the early season, where it's not as if, and you're not saying this, but it's not as if pressing is...
super simple and easy to do. If you're out of sync and you're pressing shape, you're going to get punished. The thing is, in the early season, it's probably difficult for teams to punish you because they're trying to do the even harder thing. of organizing their buildup patterns and trying to play through you. I also love the St. Louis comparison that you made there because
With Bradley Carnell, it's an easy one to make. And there are some similarities in the blindingly hot start that both of those teams have had in Carnell's first year at those respective clubs. But it also just really does seem to be more sustainable, as you're saying, where it is...
It's like legit chances being created in the final third with that XG per shot. I love that stat that you brought up there. It is legitimate ball wins in the final third and accessing that space a whole lot against the Rebs on Saturday. New England just didn't have any attacking joy straight up. And this is when.
We remind ourselves that it's the early season and that the Rebs are probably bad. And that they play for Caleb Porter. And Caleb Porter or Phil Neville are probably in the potato sack race at the moment. There's a lot going on. They haven't scored a goal yet, correct?
New England. No, no, no. Not for the lack of effort. Yeah, yeah. It's a net tattoo problem. That's what counts. Like this, this Philly team looks... legit and the question just is when that advantage eventually wears off to one degree or another and maybe it won't right we've seen teams that want to be direct and play against the ball
and want to press, have lasting success. The New York Red Bulls have done that in the not too, too distant future, distant past, excuse me. The question is what happens when everybody catches up to Philly and has some of the same continuity? I don't know.
But I also didn't have Philly with nine points through three games on my bingo card. Yeah, but let's try, Joe, because I think you're right. Like, when you look at Red Bull teams, and this isn't just Cardinals interim back half of the year before, you know, a Garrett Struber forced him out for the postseason, right? This is Chris Armis. This is Jesse.
Marsh. Late Jesse Marsh, let's say, because there were some really good clashes with Atlanta United in their start, especially in 2018, that conference final. But usually... Carnell Ball, high-octane energy drink soccer, actually is a really dependable formula to get results in Major League Soccer, but not to advance far into the playoffs. I mean, again...
You know, famously, it looked like the first year of the best of three playoff series was going to be an absolute wash once the bracket came out. And then St. Louis City does the format a solid and does MLS a big favor by losing two games out of three immediately.
The first two games, in fact, and then being eliminated as the one seed in the playoffs to show see this format can bring some of this intrigue. Right. And then you see it also with the Red Bulls, where suddenly they have their best run in 15 years. The year that. they sort of ease their reliance on energy drinks and start playing like coherent
So, like, I guess I'm just curious with the squad. They've got a really deep cupboard of attackers who right now I feel like aren't going to be able to get their looks and their touches. You trade Jack McGlynn, who is another high.
Utilization. I have a theory that you actually need to be much more adaptable to succeed in Major League Soccer. And that if you look at the teams that actually do thrive in the playoffs, they are the teams who are willing to game plan for their opponent rather than say our opponent will meet us. It's what's going wrong with LAFC right now, but we'll get there later. So Joe, do you see it with Philly?
That maybe there is that potential that with this group of players and with Bradley Carnell kind of having learned the lessons from his last job, that maybe this will be the group that can get energy during soccer over the line of major league soccer. I don't feel that sort of confidence about Philly. I don't.
feel that sort of confidence about either of the teams that are perfect so far even though it is a lovely story that philly and vancouver are the ones on nine points through three games i think there's a lot to what you're saying jeff and maybe the the way that i would kind of simplify it and reduce it all the way down is
It's hard when you're not a super well-balanced team to have sustained success, right? Or at least it's hard when that imbalance isn't coming in the form of being incredibly committed to the ball. Because I think about a team like Columbus, if we're going to get zoomed out and...
philosophical here. Columbus winning MLS Cup in 2023, where they were one of the best teams throughout the regular season in Will Fernandez's first year there. They were incredibly dogmatic in what they did. And that thing was not Red Bull pressing energy drink soccer like the union are trying to revive becoming.
the foremost team in the league in that way. Or DC United maybe competing with them a bit for that tag. But Columbus were incredibly good and they found the weaknesses in the opposition without massively changing what they did. I think the thing that Columbus did so well though is... Their possession scheme is not just an attacking game plan. It's also a defensive mechanism. And the union don't have...
That sort of way to dictate the terms of the game, where their style is not that. The Red Bull aggression style is not dictating the terms of the game, despite the fact that they might tell you it is because they want to be the aggressor all the time. No, the team with the ball still sets the terms. of engagement and Philly don't have that sort of club in their bag so I don't know I don't see this team as being a long-term title threat but
They also have looked legit really good through three games. So maybe I'm just being slow to reconcile my view coming into the year on Philly with what we're actually seeing. Or maybe I'm being smart and not jumping all over a small sample's eyes. It's hard to say, man. It really is. Why commit? Do one of both. Yeah, I think I had Philly in 11th in my preseason.
predictions as i'm looking at it right now i think i'd be comfortable vaulting them up to six or seven because i mean you know how these things work in mls right the difference between like sixth and ninth is like four points right yeah but like i think i can easily see them in that range but yeah to your point i
still struggle to see them contending at year's end with like the Cincinnati's Miami's Atlanta's Charlotte Columbus. So they've got Nashville St. Louis then inter Miami inter Miami probably a pretty good test of how strong this team is going to be Joe for neutrals. Someone like me who maybe knew that Philadelphia was top of the East.
Knew that we were going to talk about them for this show and still was sort of like, I guess I'll watch that. You say they look really good. What can people sort of expect from this union team? We've talked about it a little bit, but can you distill it down to like, if someone's switching on, what should they expect to see? why should they expect to be entertained or not? Yeah, from a structure standpoint, it's a 4-2-2-2 a lot of the time under Bradley Carnell so far. So it's too...
Pure forwards up top in Ty Baribo and Mikel Ura. And then they do have Bruno Damiani coming off the bench. And he will, I would imagine, earn more minutes as the schedule gets a bit thicker. Philadelphia throughout 2025. And clearly they believe in him because the union don't spend money really on players they don't believe in. Period.
So there's gonna be something there the thing that really entices me I guess there's two things about Philly and how they play It is not this incredibly aesthetic style, but they are hunters against the ball where they really are sort of this pack of wolves that goes after back passes from one center back to another or any time that a player sort of in the back third of the field receives with their back.
to goal and that's a moment to go and pounce. They have really clear pressing triggers and so far they're executing them quite well. The thing in possession that I find really fun is how well the front two play together, Baribo and Ura, how well they're reading each other's movement. And there's a lot of third man runs where let's say Taylor passes the ball to me and Taylor's Quinn Sullivan in this situation. And I'm Mikel Ura. Taylor passes the ball to me. And right as that's happening.
I've always thought of you. I gave you the high potential player, Taylor. You're welcome. I'm really excited about your younger brother, though, if we're being honest. It's Taylor passing the ball to me. Sullivan. Big news. Sullivan to Mikel Ura. And then while that's happening, we're drawing the defense's attention. And Jeff, Ty Baribo, Reuter, is making the run in behind the back line. It's...
It's that third-man run from the third player, which is almost always the second striker, running it behind the back line that Philly are doing so well. But... Really, I kind of bury the lead in all this. The hook is the kids are playing. Quinn Sullivan looks legit good. Again, you're welcome, Taylor. I did you a favor there. Kevin Sullivan is playing minutes at 15 years old, even though he's not playing a lot of minutes right now.
There's talent. And I mentioned Westfield already at right back. There's a lot of young quality in this team, and that's not going away anytime soon. All right, we're going to take a quick break. We will come back. We will talk Vancouver. We'll talk the Galaxy. We'll talk Seattle. We'll talk many, many more teams. Back soon.
Welcome back to the Total Soccer Show. During the break, Jeff, I keep a running list of all of Graham Ruffin's nicknames that we assign him as we go, and I now have to keep one for you because now we have Jeff Tiburibo Reuter. I'm excited for that. I hope you are as well.
How excited are you for the start from Vancouver this season? I'm excited because I think that this offseason was especially difficult for Vancouver Whitecaps fans. Because I think that it started with... a genuinely like startling coaching dismissal. Where like, I don't think there was the obvious evidence of like, oh, that's why Vanny Sartini lost his job. Right. And there's there's ample reason to wonder. He always was.
No head coach in Major League Soccer over the last decade has been more susceptible to getting fined for comments either about the refs, about the refs floating in rivers, about the standard of play in America. I'm sorry, what's that now?
There was a he served a suspension after he had made some joke, thinking that he was off record and also thinking that reporters who heard off record wouldn't report this kind of thing, saying that he wouldn't be surprised if the referee at that game was found floating in the local river.
The following morning, you know, so like he kept his job after that for a full year. I can't imagine why people don't want to be referees. Like, this shortage just doesn't make any sense to me. If only we could find the reason. Right. If only, if only. Instead, you know.
So they let him go, and he was a true culture guy, and he was someone that the fans really rallied behind. He was someone that the players certainly relish playing for. All of the players I've spoken with who have left Vancouver have still said glowing things about Vanny Sartini, even compared to their current coaches. And so that is a little bit of a surprise. They bring in Jesper Sorensen. So you don't really know what you're going to get. Very...
I think even to the most plugged in of like Euro snob slash MLS hybrid fans, right, of us all. Like, I don't think he was on the radar of like, oh, this would be an interesting hire in the same way that even like an Eric Ramsey in Minnesota United, Manchester United assistant. there was some some kind of hype around him and buzz or whatever um there's also that like looming if
MLS moves from fall from spring to fall to fall to spring. What does that mean for Vancouver sort of thing, especially as they're struggling to find a new stadium plan is Greg Kerfoot's kind of waffling and weighing and bringing in consultants to figure out if it's worth. selling the team and would the interested buyer want to keep them. OK, so that's a miserable offseason.
Right. I ensure you lost Papa Pico and that's also a bummer. But like it's doesn't you know, you need the good things to come immediately. And thankfully for them, it has so far. Look, they're playing actually somewhat. similar in terms of underlying data not in terms of like how they actually achieve this thing there still is that like
they will rely on Brian White and Ryan Gold. They don't have Stuart Armstrong anymore. That was like a third of a season experiment. And he will be one of those quintessential trivia questions of like former Premier League players who showed up in MLS for like...
the least amount of time possible um but like they they generate shots they they dominate the ball they have the third highest rate of possession they have an MLS behind uh who is it probably Columbus and San Diego I want to say they have field tilt that's at a very
even higher level. So they're one of those teams that's converting their touches into usable touches, which is always something that's going to be pleasing for aesthetic purposes. And yeah, I mean, they really, really limit shots. That's probably like the most impressive.
is I think under Sartini, and maybe this actually gets to why they let him go, is that they were still very susceptible to give up three or four clear-cut shots to an opponent every single game. And so that means that you're conceding a goal or two every game at minimum. Vancouver has conceded the third fewest shots in MLS behind Columbus and Austin, which is always such a weird pairing in any statistical category. So...
They're being really proactive with their defending and they're being very effective to minimize the duress that the defense is under. And that is something that they were not experiencing before.
Yeah, agreed on all that, Jeff. I think those are phenomenal points across the board. I want to emphasize. Thanks, Joe. You're welcome, Jeff. Montreal, excuse me, Montreal, Vancouver. A lot of love over here. A lot of love over here. Vancouver are doing all this while competing in CONCACAF Champions Cup.
play their fourth CONCACAF Champions Cup game this week. It'll be against Monterey. They will probably lose, especially now that Ryan Gould is out with a knee sprain. He's going to miss a few weeks. Jaden Nelson was incredible to start the season. He's also suffered a recent injury.
That's a concern and probably is going to send this Vancouver team back down to somewhere closer to Earth's orbit sooner rather than later. But they've done all this. They've had a perfect record in Major League Soccer while competing in CCC. And no other team... And MLS has done that. Not into Miami, not the Columbus crew, not LAFC, not the Galaxy, not Cincinnati.
Vancouver is the team that's done that. And I think that deserves a ton of credit. And Jesper Sorensen, you're talking about the switch from Sartini to Sorensen. Honestly, I think the Sartini switch was pretty defensible. I don't know, maybe we're not actually disagreeing about this.
I think we actually did in a group chat that day. Boom. Well, let's air it the dirty laundry. Yeah, let's do it. It seems to me that Sartini only ever performed like right on expectations in Vancouver. Sort of similar. Maybe this will help listeners. to Greg Berhalter, where the U.S., by and large, up to the Copa America,
pretty much been bang on expectations where they dominated CONCACAF, they lost in the round of 16 at the World Cup. It was what you expected. That was Vancouver, where they finished between 6th and 9th in the Western Conference every single season. They don't make a deep playoff run, but they play teams close. That's the roster.
When you look at it, it's a good roster. And when you look at the results, they're like mostly good results. That's fine. And honestly, I don't expect Vancouver to do a whole lot better than they did last year, than they did at basically any point of the Vandy tenure. But I also don't blame Axel Schuster for trying.
I think the reason is he clearly thinks that he could find somebody that would get a little bit more out of this team. And if he's wrong, it's on him. And if he's not, then that's honestly a feather in Axel Schuster's cap. So you go through all of those things. That's my perspective on the coaching change. But Jesper Sorensen...
I'm in quick with two quick thoughts. Number one, was Mark DeSantis' appointment also on Axel Schuster, or are we just giving him a pass on that one? Yeah, that's fair. Number two, I love the Berhalter parallel here, because I think that you have to always kind of put expectations to scale, and I think when you look at the player... pool in the U.S. Men's National Team, which I know we're not really talking about this week, but surprise.
You have to scale the expectations. This isn't a roster that you look at and say that's a World Cup semifinalist. Right. So if you look and say we're winning every CONCACAF competition and we're getting round of 16 quality play, that's probably what this player pool was. And maybe if you can get them to the quarterfinal. Great. Vancouver.
have one of the cheapest owners in major league soccer you have a general manager who uh has made a couple of really good signings at the front end of the roster but has also really struggled to kind of get that sort of like guys four through 11 on the squad that a lot of other really good teams will do
and doesn't have the budget to really raise that level. And they didn't recoup the Alphonso Davies transfer into anything meaningful for the first team, which is such a bummer. So I think I don't know how you can really punish a coach for that. That's just yeah. Yeah, I think all that's fair. This is probably a things can be two things situation where you don't really expect Vancouver to do a whole lot more, but it's also...
somewhat reasonable, I think, to go and try to take another swing, at least, and see if you can find some way to raise the level of your squad because, let's face it, it's not coming through high-priced first-team investment, right? So there's only so many other levels that you can pull here. You look tactically at what Sorensen's doing so far. It's just so much more normal than it was under Vanny Sartini. And maybe this is me drawing some unnecessary parallels just because...
Sartini was such a character off the field, but his teams are also tactically unique in Major League Soccer, where they would defend last season in just a straight up 3-4-3. We talk about, you know, back threes becoming back fives in defense. Oh, no, no, not in Vancouver. The wingbacks are high in line with the midfielders, not in line with the centerbacks.
And it was weird. And it probably did them some good, but it also did them a whole mess of bad. And this year, they're in a pretty straightforward 4-3-3. Occasionally, they'll shift into a 4-4-2 defensively, but it's been a lot of 4-3-3 in basically every phase where Laborda stays a bit deeper on the right side. when Jaden Nelson's healthy because Nelson can then own the wing. And it's just stuff that actually seems to fit in a lot of ways.
I hope Vancouver keep it up, even though I'm skeptical that they will, because they've already been bitten by the injury bug, and they also just straight up got worse, it seems like. And unfortunately, when you look at their first three games, you are at...
Portland and I know Phil Neville's a very polarizing coach apparently he is also a very underperforming coach in Major League Soccer and they they sold their chief playmaker like two weeks before the season and brought in someone who's never been an MLS that's always going to take longer to acclimate than bringing in someone with MLS experience so that's the gamble they chose to make you have the LA Galaxy that we'll get to but wow what a mess right now
Yeah. And then you are hosting Montreal, the Montreal Foot Club. And at that point, also, it's another one of those clubs where it's like, yeah, maybe they'll get up to eighth and maybe they'll finish 14th in their conference. And that's OK. Right. And very similar operating in a similar sort of class of the hierarchy.
and all this sort of stuff. So I want to see them do it against better teams, teams with bigger budgets, because that's where you actually get to see where a club like Vancouver have you, to Joe's point, kind of exceeded the ceiling. that you thought Vanny Sartini presented you. Do you have a coach who can actually get you, even if it is just the difference between sometimes we'll finish fourth, so therefore we can host two of our three home games in the first round, right? That's great.
So we'll see if they can get there, but yeah, they still need a stern test so that we can kind of figure out what their mettle is as we get into the season. I think Quentin Tarantino might be a member of the Montreal Foot Club. I could be wrong. For you both, then, if they're not going to advance best moment today, or maybe they might, but if we're removing that from the equation for a second, what is the fixture that would make you feel more confident about this Vancouver team?
Is there one or is it maybe just sort of if they get to like week 10, match day 10, and they are still putting together results? They've got after Monterey, it's Dallas, home to Chicago, away to Toronto. Home to Colorado, home to Austin, away to St. Louis. Any of those making you feel more confident? I like the next two.
Actually, I think that, you know, when you look at other clubs that have gone through fair amounts of change, right, like Dallas and Chicago both have new coaches as well. Right. So you you're going on sort of a similar level of background. You're not trying to compare them to Steve Shrundelow.
L.A. or Brian Schmetzer, Seattle, certainly, who's been around for almost a decade at this point. But if you go against Eric Quill on the road, you're able to get a result. You're able to slow down Petra Musa and Lucho Costa. That's great, especially when you're on short rest and they're not. That's a really good statement.
of intent. I think that also being able to see off what has been a very tricky Chicago Fire team under Greg Berhalter coming back over the weekend to snatch defeat from the Jaws victory. I think that if you can get through those two with... Four points. It's like, OK, yeah, this is like genuinely a like they're going to be contending at the fringes of the top four in the Western Conference because there is so much of that middle class in that Western Conference right now this season again.
If you get, you know, one win, one loss, okay, we'll kind of see. But if you're getting two points or fewer, then it's like, okay. expectations reset still impressive still very impressive still probably a playoff contender uh bar none but uh you know first in the west uh i think they were first in the west and like May 1st last year, April 15th last year as well. I remember writing something about how the Red Bulls and the Whitecaps were both first in their conference and how crazy it was.
Life echoes itself, doesn't it? Very much so. Yeah, and I'll echo that. I think Jeff's spot on. There's so much mush in the Western Conference where... It really just doesn't feel settled at all in the way that the East is kind of starting to feel. Settled with a couple outliers in Philly and D.C. who maybe we need to see a bit more of going forward. Atlanta maybe to see if they can remedy some things in the early season.
But yeah, Vancouver, over the next few games, I think we'll get a pretty decent idea of where they are. I kind of already think we know who they are, which is that they're going to be a good but not great team at the end of the day. I think the question is more like the 2% chance they end up as a great team and the...
you know, maybe 8% chance Sandep as a mediocre to kind of bad team. Let's hold off on the LA teams for a moment as we round out part two of this episode. Joe, the Seattle Sounders, are they in the mush or are they above the mush in the West? I mean, from the standings perspective, they're in the mush. I still think they're kind of above the mush. And there really are only a couple of teams that I feel...
sort of confident about still, and that's Seattle and LAFC. I could hear it in your voice just then. Yeah, sort of confident. I want people to go out there, open your phone, and look at the Western Conference standings and tell me that you feel good about what you see, okay? Because it's just...
It's really weird right now. Seattle beat LAFC 5-2 over the weekend. The big story was Jordan Morris becoming the all-time leading scorer for Seattle. Just a great long history and to have a leading scorer for that club actually means something. And you can see it to Jordan Morris. It means something to him as a Seattle guy. He scores that goal in the second half off the assist from Paul Rothrock and goes like immediately runs over to the fans, kisses the badge once.
Kisses it again. Oh, and by the way, can I just say something about that record being set by a combination of Jordan Morris and Paul Rothrock feels like an intentional honor to the NASL era of this club, and I can't really articulate it. What's the Roth Roth significance? Two hustle dudes from the area who are able to just like force of will against a team that has a World Cup winning striker. I think that there's something about that that is just so like honor your history.
of the Sounders 100% agree it's the local tie and it's how they play Jeff it's a phenomenal point it really was just kind of a Sounders performance all across the board and I love I love that the Sounders have a history and I love they nod to it all the time. And it's just so rare, not just in this league, but in American soccer. So I really appreciate that. The other thing that was so special about this game for Seattle was it was the first time in 2025.
where their depth actually showed itself and resulted in a... Three points, right? Where Seattle have been weird so far where they end up shooting themselves in the foot on match day one against Charlotte, and that should have been a win, and it turned into a draw. They've been progressing through CONCACAF Champions Cup. They kind of lay a little bit of an egg against Cruz Azul at home, and that's a huge question because...
They've been rotating an MLS play to give themselves a real shot to advance in CONCACAF, and they have the quality to do so. We've been running power rankings over a backheel this year.
And they're like, there's some meat actually attached to them, but that doesn't seem to change the mind of people on social who are dunking all over them all the time, right? And Seattle ranked very highly across my, in Ben Wright's rankings. And every week we post it, people are like, why are Seattle so high? They hadn't won a game. coming into this weekend. And the reason why is because their depth is amazing. And we finally saw it against LAFC where...
It's Koza Rienzi who's coming up from the Tacoma Defiance and next pro who just got himself a first team deal after this performance. It's him scoring a ridiculous goal in the first half. It's Paul Rothrock putting in a shift. It's Danny Leyva starting in midfield in his like 40th season with the Seattle Sounders somehow. It's a really, really deep squad. And they showed it against LAFC, who also rotated. So it's not as if this was one A-team against another A-team.
But between the Morris moment and just all the Sounders depth and their way of tapping into all sorts of atypical player pathways and pipelines to get dudes from college and from Next Pro and from everywhere. into the first team. Morris is an example of that, even though he's a really high profile guy. It's fun. And I think Seattle are a great story right now. I think they're going to be a really, really good team as well. Yeah, I feel really good about picking them to win MLS Cup.
Before the season, because I think that we had to get one in there, didn't you? You had to. I sure did. Yeah. Look, how rare is it that even four weeks into a season, three weeks into a season, you're like, oh, that feels OK still in this league. Like it is an. tried and true MLS tradition to have an early game that makes you go like, oh.
Well, there goes my pick, like way too early before it will actually mathematically be relevant. But I think when you look at Seattle, I mean, to your point, Joe, it's like there's a little addition by subtraction going on here. I loved. The Jesus Ferreira move, I will kind of wait and see how they want to use Paul Areola for the other side of their sort of Dallas two-step that they did. But I think getting Leo Chu out of the forward third actually helps. They wanted to get him...
You know, he gets the ball at the touchline, he runs up it a little bit and then he cuts inside and then he doesn't stuff. And that just never was what he was interested in doing necessarily. He just you never really saw like what the end product was going to be with him. So shipping him as part of that and then having a front for that.
is some combination of more, I guess, like kind of tactical and interplay aware options like Morris and Petra de la Vega, who picked up an injury, hopefully not anything too major because he's looked fantastic at the start of the season. to your point, another one.
You've got Jesus Ferreira. You've got Albert Rusnak, one of the best designated players in Major League Soccer. Paul Arriola. You've got Georgie Manungu coming off the bench and doing pretty much exactly what they hoped Leo Chu could do, but better and way cheaper. So, like, I just think that... They have that depth. They have that quality within their depth as well. I still don't really get Jesus Ferreira as a right winger, but...
We'll see if they keep with that or not. But, yeah, I think really, really good start. And I think that that LAFC game in particular, that's one. But they'll look at that because of the competitive rivalry those two clubs have established over the first six years together and say, like, hey, like.
This is something different. We've got like a higher level and let's let's actually go and, you know, do some stuff with it instead of kind of taking that middle third of the season to rest, recover and then try, which is what the Sounders usually do.
Are we sure they're that deep, though? Because they only got the three goals and the three assists from their five substitutes this weekend. That is an insane amount of depth to bring on. Rusnak Morris, the Roldan brothers, and Georgie Meningu. Only Alex Roldan not contributing a goaler. assist he's really gonna get it together shameful step it up he had one interesting attempt one of those where he's like running and a little off balance and almost falls over trying to kick it
Poor guy tuckering himself out. He's now third on my Roll Down Brother power rankings, where it's Cesar number one, the LA Galaxy's athletic trainer, Christian number two, and Alex number three. As soon as he gets a goal contribution, though, that order shuffles. Does Ben Wright also have hard data behind that power rank?
I would assume so. I haven't asked him, but I'll text him. Okay. Got it. I just think it's nice of Joe to put anybody associated with the LA Galaxy at the top of his list. We're going to talk about them in just a second. First, one more break. At Betfair, we're about finding different ways to play, like with our 90-minute guarantee. We've all been there. The clock ticks over into 90 minutes, and then a speculative cross into the box ricochets off a knee and goes in, ruining your bet.
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At the start of the season and leading into the season, the Kevin Bacon gif from Animal House as the riot is happening. And he's just standing there asking everyone to remain calm. All is well. Jill, shall we remain calm about the galaxy? Is all well with the galaxy this season? I think kind of yes and definitely no.
Are my two answers to that question? Kind of yes, because we're three games into the season. Kind of no, or definitely no, because there are very obviously things wrong with the Galaxy. And not just things that will be fixed by the injury list, which... Feels like it's getting longer every single weekend. Lucas and Abria is now out, and it's a long list of dudes, even before you get to the...
the best player in this roster in his ACL tear. It's Joseph Payne still who is going to change this team when he comes back into it. But there are real, legit... issues where the galaxy have been playing kids that they didn't expect to play the galaxy aren't really here to play the kids and you've got harbor miller who uh very much is like the the classic la child apparently where he
It was like a child model and also an LA Galaxy fan and a really good soccer player all at the same time growing up. And now is starting at right back for them against St. Louis on the weekend. There's a lot to that, and the Galaxy just don't have the same level that we've seen them have for the last, you know, more than a year now, that the first MLS Cup champion to start their title defense with three straight losses in the league, and they've lost four in all competitions. It's...
It's bad right now. It's still too early. And there's still too many pieces to come back into this team for me to think that they're really going to be anywhere near the bottom of the Western Conference. But... For one thing, some specific issues that we haven't talked about already. Because this year we've talked about the midfield imbalance and their inability to progress play. We've talked about...
Some of those struggles, especially in possession and the lack of cohesion between Peck and Christian Ramirez and Marco Reus and Diego Fagundes. I think I've also talked about the left side being a little weird where it's Fagundes and John Nelson. as the two left-siders, and neither one of those guys wants to get high and wide, and there's just no real spacing on the left side of the attack. Those are all issues.
The two issues that really popped to me against St. Louis, because this was their best attacking performance in a 3-0 loss, even though it doesn't sound like it. It really was. Marco Reus looked invested in the attack in a way that he hasn't so far, maybe ever, in his short MLS career. But to stick with Royce for a second, the dude is clearly still not either all the way there on the field or like all the way invested. So either physically or like mentally.
isn't there and you see this in the first goal which is where i'm going to stick for just a second that st louis score it's off of a corner kick and marco royce is like in the box physically mentally is clearly not in the box and oh the andrea pierlo very much so he's like three yards away from the action as the
ball is bobbling around in the Galaxy 6 and literally does not move. His feet are planted to the ground at Dignity Health Sports Park. He does not move a single muscle and watches that entire sequence happen and watches as Cedric Toycher...
puts the ball in the back of the net, and his team is down 1-0 at home in a catastrophic start to 2025. Marco Reus, like, it needs to be more. It needs to be better. And that's in every phase, but especially just with his energy and body language and involvement. The other thing, very quickly. to highlight is, is Michovic in goal, who Greg Vinny has started over MLS Cup, multiple time MLS Cup winning goalkeeper, John McCarthy, Novak Michovic, 23 year old Serbian.
He's just been straight up bat to start this season, where on match day one against San Diego, he plays that hospital ball, if you guys remember, to Amiro Garces that San Diego pounce on and score. That was on him much, much more than it was on Amiro Garces. And then in this game, he's out fumbling. Sometimes you want the ball passed to your shin. I don't know what you're talking about. A slow, lofted ball to your... Sometimes you just have an inch that just needs one point of pressure.
That's just good teammate play, really, is what it was. I don't know how we can spin Mitrovic dropping the ball on a corner kick and starting that scramble that Michael Royce then does nothing to intervene with, but... It's been bad. Those are two goals that you can trace back to a goalkeeper who has struggled when you have a legit good goalkeeper sitting on your bench. And John McCarthy started the CCC game against Aridiano that the Galaxy also lost.
There are just so many issues with this team. The good news is that some of them are fixable. I think John McCarthy starting in this team makes his team better like that. There's a few of those things, but it's been bleak, man. This team is not playing good soccer right now. What would be the argument for why he's not starting John McCarthy?
I would guess it is to justify the investment in a young goalkeeper and then be I mean, like, because they famously now are the only MLS team with zero dollars of general allocation money. None. Every other team has some. They do not. And it's very difficult to retool an MLS roster meaningfully without any. which they do not have. And so I think what they need to do at this point is like...
Sell players. Recoup. It was why they traded Jalen Neal to CF Montreal, right? It's why they were kind of eager to... And look, they really messed up the Gaston Brugman for Sean Davis trade and had to cut Davis a week before the season when he and his family had just relocated.
It's a wild story where you trade for Sean Davis and Nashville are taking on a bunch of his cap hit. And I honestly don't know what happened, Jeff. And I don't know if you know. I don't have any of the inside info into what happened here. But you don't trade for Sean Davis and have Nashville keep a bunch of his salary to...
to cut him just before the season starts. I'm pretty sure it was still an issue with the senior budget, even with the portion Nashville was keeping. It's bizarre. Uncharacteristically poor planning for the club in its current iteration. But the issues are... They don't they don't have the sauce. Right. And like, unfortunately, that is like 99 percent of their problems right now is that they don't have Kipuj, who is probably the best.
player in MLS, not named Lionel Messi, I don't think that you can really... You couldn't do it, could you? You couldn't do it. You couldn't just let it be. You had to add the Messi. I was actually sitting here and thinking like, how do I feel about all these other guys? But no, like I...
I think you're right. Like, I think that Lino Messi is still obviously a one on one class of one on one, whatever. And until he retires, he will be Ricky Pooge is the next guy. And of the guys that, by the way, you would say that most seasons you can depend on him to play 30 games. He is the best. So the. issue is when he's gone, the entire squad was built around him.
Gabriel Peck works because they brought in Joseph Paintsle, who can do pretty similar runs down the flank and keep a defense guessing which way Ricky Pooch is going to spray the ball. The midfield's construction worked because you didn't have to get... players who wanted 85 or more touches because Ricky Pooge would not let them get more than 85 unless half of them were you touch it once and you pass it right back. And it worked really well. And so suddenly you have all of these guys who are...
relatively low usage players who are being asked to do some high usage stuff on the field and it's not their fault but they had not really been brought in to do those sorts of roles and so it is a a big stylistic mismatch they were already one of the slowest wrestling teams in MLS when you talk about direct speed which is meters the ball is advanced towards goal per second of possession they were at 1.14 that's really slow
Could you say that faster next time? Because that was almost too easy to try. Well, I can't because this year they're at 0.9. I can't say it faster because they're not moving faster, Taylor. They are moving at a rate that looks like a bunch of people learning how to play soccer together and look like they're learning each other's names on the fly. It's the quintessential pickup sort of rate of play.
not taking shots they took six in their first game seven in their second game finally figured out how to do it and took more than 20 against st louis in vain but they their their direct attacks have plummeted from 3.7 per game to 1.3 again really small sample size you can't read too much into the data at this
point but what that does tell you is that they don't have that same sort of verve that carried them through the western conference last year and um it's making it very difficult for them to adapt to life without ricky pooch right now Forgive me, didn't they get a sizable chunk of money for Jovalich? What did they do with that game? Well, that was cash. That was straight cash. Oh, right, of course. Trade for cash. The first cash.
cash trade that is how we're called which is which is somehow by the way the funniest of mls's roster rule names in quite some time even though it's like the least like corporate think tank what can we call allocation money right like that one is or or like discovery players, right? Like all of those are silly, but cash trades when transfers is just out there is just like such a very funny MLS sort of thing to do.
It feels on brand. It feels appropriate for the league. Does it feel appropriate for you, Jeff, that LAFC lost their game this weekend? They are still fifth in the West, but they have some problems of their own. Maybe... Fewer than their Crosstown rivals, but still some issues to be dealt with. Yeah, and theirs are actually much more like...
just the heart of what they want to do, which is actually almost harder. Because right now, you have a coach, Steve Strindolo, who pretty famously at this point wants to stick to, look, they'll get the possession numbers just high enough where he can credibly say in press conferences, like, That is not our system. Our system is not one where we defend and counter. We want the ball. We had 51% of the ball. What are you talking about? That's a majority.
And it is 53 would also be right. Right. Exactly. 54. Right. For the sake of argument. But I think that the hard part is it's like usable possession. Right. And it's sort of when do. To put another way, when do your best moments happen? That is what really matters because obviously possession only matters so far as you use it. And I think that a team's...
Chief attacking ideology comes from what generates their best attacks. It's crazy, right? And there is no version of LAFC that is better right now than the version where they are able to get the ball, spring a quick transition to Denny Buanga on the wing, and he... He probably overlooks two teammates who are making smart runs, but those teammates are keeping a defense honest, and then he does his own thing, sets up his own shot, and either scores or gets a corner kick, right?
Right now, they brought in a center forward who is like the platonic antonym. of that ideology right now. And instead of making him a TAM player, Olivier Giroud we're talking about here, when they brought in Gareth Bale and Giorgio Chiellini, they were both TAM players. And what that allows you to do is say that, look, we have at least three players that we are betting on.
more financially and we are kind of catering to them more they didn't need gareth bale to do much more than he did which was minutes wise very little in major league soccer in 2022 to go back to those all-stars of the premier league who came by for a very very short window of time League Soccer, like Stuart Armstrong.
And he came in and he did the one thing that they brought him in to do, which was to score a clutch goal and make an MLS cup so that they could finally get the breakthrough. Right. He did that. Mission accomplished. Giorgio Chiellini. Mission accomplished. I would say that was a very successful signing. Olivier Giroud is one of the highest earning players.
is a major league soccer and ask the chicago fire and toronto fc what kind of pressure comes with having one of these older guys who you bring in from europe who is one of the highest earners and right now unfortunately he looks more like a
Shaqiri or an Insigne, then he looks like someone like a Gareth Bale who's going to be able to come in. And it's as simple as he is a center forward who wants to be involved with every step of buildup. He wants to be a holdup striker at the edge of the midfield, then he wants to spray it off, either kick it back to a midfielder or send it out to the wing, trot, trot, trot, trot, trot.
make it to the edge of the attacking third, collect the ball, hold it up, sort of see what's going on, pass it out to someone, trot, trot, trot, trot, trot, get into the box. He's there for a header, he's there for a death finish, or he's there as kind of a decoy run so that a winger can take their own shot.
That is Olivier Giroud. That is a much slower process than what LAFC tries to do in their best attacks with Denny Buonga. And I don't know how you reconcile having your two most important attackers play so ideologically mismatched. And that is going to be very difficult, I think, for them to figure out without at least one of them making serious sacrifices. And it's a lot harder to get a 38-year-old man to start running like he's like 26.
So I don't really know. So I don't really know how they dig out of this one right now. I'm actually very worried about LAFC's ability to contend for MLS Cup this year. Not to qualify for the playoffs. They'll be fine. They have too much talent. But I really don't know if I would put them next to Seattle. Seattle at the top of the West. Do you all feel like with LAFC under Toronto?
this was always going to be the result results when you add Olivier Giroud in that he doesn't fit the system or the style of the approach. I said a lot about LFC. So Joe, if you have thoughts on this, I'll let you take it. Yeah, sure.
Yes, basically. I like the Giroud signing when he arrived without realizing how tactically inflexible Steve Truendillo was going to be, right? It felt like Giroud was still... sort of near the top of his game in a weird sense, coming over from AC Milan, where he had been really, really good for multiple seasons in Serie A and hadn't shown a real physical decline despite playing so many minutes.
And then he gets to LAFC and they just don't pass him the ball. Like there was some, I can't remember what the stat was, but he was like 50 something among, among strikers last year in touch share. So the percentage of his team's touches in the final third that he was getting compared to, you know. 40-some-odd other strikers in Major League Soccer, they were having more of that than Olivier Giroud. Something is wrong there.
I agree with everything Jeff said, maybe outside of the last bit where I'm just not quite ready to condemn LAFC for a couple of reasons. One is that the West really is pretty much a giant flaming pile of question marks right now. And the other is that... They were a really good team last year, and I still think they're going to be a really good team this year. Like, Olivier Giroud was on this roster last year, and...
They were not all that far away from MLS Cup, right? I mean, yeah, it's fair. I mean, basically, if we assume they're getting nothing out of Olivier Giroud, which they are, like, that's what's happening. I think that's what happened to the end of last year. And they still won the Western Conference and made up. They're getting worse than nothing, Joe. They're getting the absence of a striker who can truly work into that attack like a Chicho Arango cutter, like even a David Martinez.
He, like, makes his weird starts up top. Jeremy Obobese, right? Like, he scored in the opener. He scored the only goal in their opener against Minnesota United, right? And it came from some really smart movement, letting Bawanga sort of get it towards the end line and being that striker at the edge of the box who's able to come and collect and have a good first touch. That's not something Olivier Giroud has the fitness for anymore. Agreed.
Yeah, I totally agree with all that. I guess my point is that Olivier Giroud was starting games for them last year. He started the conference semifinal loss to LAFC. He started two of those three games against Vancouver in a series that they won. He started in their last six wins or whatever it was.
them win the Western Conference. And LAFC were still a really good team. I recognize that this is not the same team where their midfield has changed. Let's not kid ourselves into thinking that, you know...
Ilya Sanchez and Eduardo Atuesta and Luis O'Brien were like game changers for them last year. They weren't, right? Maral Delgado, I think, is a really good player for this team. I like Igor Jesus in midfield. I think there are good pieces in this team. Buonga's a star. I think the key really is if they...
can get something out of that third DP spot. Because if they're not getting anything out of Changi Zunder or if they can't get Griezmann in the summer or whatever it is, that's going to hurt them a lot. But I just don't really see this team being...
So obviously worse than last year. And honestly, I think a lot of the Western Conference might actually be. What if they had two DP spots, Joe? Because I have a way to make them better right now. Go on. All right. So I think of Olivier Giroud as being very good in the air.
Smart in the box, but then also very good at link-up play, very good at directing attacks, helping with possession, facilitating creative attacking play. Do you know who needs that right now? The LA Galaxy. Oh, boy. The LA Galaxy. So, you do it. You do Ricky Pooch to IR. You just say he's not playing this season. So now you...
The Galaxy have an open designated player spot. I have consulted Paul Tenorio. I have, I assume, annoyed him with the number of text messages I had to utilize to make this happen. So they do push to IR, season-long loan for...
Olivier Giroud, the Galaxy, get a marquee name, a player that can help their attack, and the opportunity to make their crosstown rivals look foolish. LAFC, get rid of an Albatross that doesn't fit their style. They get to sign another DP, and they get the opportunity to potentially make their crosstown rivals look foolish. Who says no?
And the man has survived a move from Chelsea to Arsenal, or was it vice versa? So it's not like he's not good for it. He can do it, right? He's the consummate professional. Paul did point out that I believe the issue there is that Giroud, to your point, Jeff, his salary has ballooned. So he likely makes more than Ricky Pooge, which then would make this move not possible. However.
My solution then is that if you're going to get Pooj to agree to go on the IR for the season, maybe you give him a new contract. Maybe you make that contract $1 more than what Olivia Drew makes. And now you are good to go. I love it. Other issue, of course, then, is that the idea that maybe Olivier Giroud is still with LAFC because they want to lure in Antoine Griezmann, as Joe speculated. I've got a solution there.
You've now got an open DP spot. You use that to fill. You bring in Antoine Griezmann. And then with the third now open designated player spot, you sign Kevin Durant. Because we know Antoine Griezmann is the NBA guy. So now you've got Kevin Durant in the team. Griezmann's happy. Drew's scoring goals for the Galaxy.
So good. I've solved this. Taylor, as a Phoenix Suns fan, if that comes with all of the Lakers and Clippers first round picks for the next couple of years, I am all the way in on that trade. I was already in before you got to the Durant bit. If that's going to accelerate the Suns much needed rebuild, I am.
I'm like, who can I drive to the airport to make this happen? Stylistically, though, to your point, it makes a lot more sense. Right. Because like, again, U.S. fans, when you watch Christian Pulisic get the ball at the edge of the attacking third, he's taking his time. He's methodical. It worked because...
Giroud was the exact striker the U.S. never had when Pulisic was doing that stuff on the left wing as the chief facilitator for Berhalter. Rafael Loyal likes to play at a pretty similar rate. He has a little bit more of that sort of downhill running to him than Pulisic does. But, like, that's why Giroud was working so hard.
well still in Milan was that the entire front line and the midfield fit his skill set to a tee absolutely nothing right now but LAFC does and I'm not even sure if Griezmann really fixes it Because like Joe said, their midfield, that's where they've gotten worse, Joe. Since 2022, they have lost Sanchez, Kellen Acosta, Jose Cifuentes. Eddie Atuesta, who I think I'm a little higher on than you are. Louis O'Brien, who I agreed.
didn't really fit this team whatsoever but like was a midfielder who was able to kind of play those sorts of balls and to play that sort of Giroud game and I don't think that they've kept any of them and I think that their midfield looks a lot worse than it has over the last few years through the first three games
Well, we have now spent just under an hour talking about one, two, three, four, five MLS teams. How many are left? Just a few. Just a few. With the time remaining, let's do some quicker hits. Jeff, let's talk Minnesota for a second. Sure. how are things over there uh and if they do do the the calendar switch how are you feeling about that
I'm feeling cold but better prepared after that World Cup qualifier. I think that, look, it's a really replicable blueprint, and there are a lot of questions coming into the year if Minnesota could be the same quality of spoiler away from home that they were last season.
The way that they like to play actually fits that to a tee. You saw it this last weekend against San Jose. They are really, really happy to trust their decision-making when they do have the ball and very happy to give the opponent the ball in the midfield third in particular.
And so their press actually kind of engages at that point. They play their lines really compact as well, which is usually a really good way to make your upfield movement if everyone is at a similar rate of speed, which most of them are. So I think Minnesota is that team actually that I would maybe put above.
LAFC in my contender thing because you also have Kelvin Yeboah now who for the first time since they traded Christian Ramirez and that was all to scale of course because of NASL and then you know expectations of an expansion club this is the best striker that they've ever had And they've signed a lot of designated player strikers over the years who have absolutely flopped. Mender Garcia, Adrian Uno, Angelo Rodriguez. Like, Calvin Yoboa is that guy.
And you see it with like his penalty kick form. You see it with his interplay. He's very, very happy to get assists instead of goals, which is always a good sign, I think, for a striker, right? Like you don't want to see that striker who plays that pass back and then just kind of trots back and does.
look like they got anything out of it i don't know it's just that body language sort of stuff um vibes are great vibes are great up here in minnesota i think if they change the season uh i would imagine they'll be on the road a lot on either side of the winter break that would inevitably have to happen and play a lot more games in the start of the season and the end of the season at home which i think would actually be competitively kind of an advantage for them
Right. To have some of their most important sort of first impression and like stick the landing sorts of games coming in St. Paul. But yeah, I mean, they made most of their offseason moves back in the summer and they had a full preseason and they really benefited.
Yeah, and they can still add one more DP before the end of the season if they flip their roster model. They need something. I think the question is, can that be Owen Jean? I don't know. I don't know what this is going to look like. I think this team needs a little bit more juice in the attack. but they look solid. Like they look super solid to probably more than solid so far in 2025.
I really like the project. I really like that Minnesota United are taking advantage of all the little stuff on the field where the throw-ins are long and into the box every single time. They're taking these direct... They turn all of their... They're dead ball opportunities, throw-ins included, into get the big lads into the box. And I love that. I think that is the strategically smart thing to do. Yeboah is like a student of the game on top of all the things that Jeff said. He like...
lives this stuff. He loves soccer and you can see it in how smart he is and everything that he does on the field. I think this is a really good team. Joe, any other points that you enjoyed from this past weekend that was? Yeah, very quickly, San Diego, I thought looked...
Weirdly great in the attack without Chucky Lozano, where Mike Ivarus moved Marcus Ingvartsen over to the left wing and started Phoenix Rising. Shout out to the hat. Phoenix Rising's former striker, Tomas Inel, who was no good out here in Phoenix, but that's okay. And in San Diego...
Scored goals and created chances. They also gave up chances. They also lost Patty McNair 10 minutes into the second half. I don't think that looked super serious, but I don't know where that is. Depth is a concern for the San Diego team, but they're on seven points through three games and they look. good like they look like a real soccer team and that is
more than I think a lot of folks, even myself included, who I was like decently high on the San Diego team coming into the year. I think I had them eighth in the West. They look like they're going to be better than eighth in the West. The other thing quickly that I wanted to mention is... Some fun youngsters who are playing in MLS. We mentioned the union earlier and they've got their crop. There were...
two fun young players on display in NYCFC's 2-1 win over Orlando City, which was played that game on Saturday on the 10-year anniversary of NYCFC's first ever game. That's a great way to make all of us feel old. Did you read Mixed Disco Roots poem for the occasion? Very much so. It's something about Apple. of the eye. I don't know. Taylor, if you said this, maybe I'll close my thoughts with Mr. Disgroove. Please do. Is that all right? Am I allowed to?
No, and I'll throw to you to set it up in just a second, Jeff. Taylor looks really confused if you're listening. This is a real thing, Taylor. He wrote a poem. Yeah, don't sweat it. While Jeff is pulling up the poem.
Johnny Shore, who is maybe the best name in Major League Soccer, and he was playing against a team that has dagger Dan Thor-Holson. But Johnny Shore, 17-year-old midfielder for NYCFC, started in this game in what was kind of like a triple pivot from Pascoe Jansen, where he would drop in Shore or... would drop in or Maxi Morales would drop in with super fluid and sure looks
Super smooth. Like really, really silky on the ball. Some nice outside of the foot passes. Really solid connecting play. His first ever MLS start. 17 U.S. eligible. Like is a U.S. dude from New York City. is somebody to watch moving forward. And then Alex Freeman, who I think I maybe have mentioned before, right back for Orlando City, son of former Grimmie Packers wide receiver.
He is both an athlete, but is also very technical, especially with his service into the box. Last year didn't feel like maybe a banner year for kids in MLS. It feels like this year is trending towards being something closer to that.
That's actually like a really good point, though, because I remember filling out for the first time like a 22 under 22 ballot last year. And like I got past 10 and I was like, oh, who's even playing minutes right now? Because like there were a lot of teams that were so reliant.
on like kind of their veterans or for whatever reason maybe it was just like a bad year for the academies like almost across the board but like there were not nearly as many like edwards is a great shot freeman is a great shot in particular i think like i think alex freeman has like
It fits really well. And I think also just has that sort of like, I don't know. You know, there are just like some players you watch them and it's like, okay, they need more time. Like 20 minutes spurts right now is like a really good thing. He just kind of has that like, yeah, I would give him 60. Or 90. And let's just see how it goes. He looks comfortable. He looks ready for the next step. He looks comfortable in everything that he's doing right now. Yeah.
Yeah. Fun player. Super fun player. Taylor is still squinting at the mixed disco root pun. Somebody's got to read at least a line of this thing. Congregationists of Yankee Stadium Chapel, you're remembered as much more than Apple. Yeah, nobody said Mixed Discard was good at poetry. We just said that he wrote a poem. What about the AI app he used to write that poem? I think this is all mixed. I completely agree with Jeff. I actually heard during his playing career that he was a poet.
Yeah. And he knew it. He was a poet or he considered himself to be a poet. Should we let listeners decide? Would you like to do the reading, Taylor? Tomato potato, Taylor. I'm not sure I'm going to do it. dramatic justice but a decade gone we took Orlando on in second half no article there in second half I was gifted the ball that led to our loss of innocence and virtue to
Rhyming two with two. That's a choice. Goosebumps erupted for me and those who from the get go and first away chose to travel and offer us love so profound as I glanced up inspired and spellbound. Devoted fans will always mean more than any pep talk from a coach's drawer. Congregationists of Yankee Stadium Chapel, you're remembered of...
As much more than Apple, I salute and thank you from afar. You being emphasized. All walks of stripes. Go claim your star. Mixed disc root, all lowercase. And they say there's no American soccer culture. Look at that. Unbelievable. Our World Cup veterans write beautiful poetry. I was snapping like a beatnik, not telling you to get on with it, Taylor. No, it was good. I picked that up. That was good.
Do you still want to do DC or are you soured on American soccer right now? Yeah, I'm soured on American soccer. I would love to have the confidence to be like, you know what everybody needs to hear from right now? A poem. A poem about my experience in the first game for NYCFC.
That's some irrational confidence there, Mix. From a man named Mix, I guess it's to be expected. You all brought the appropriate amounts of confidence and reason and logic to today's episode. So thank you both very much. Thank you, Jeff, for being here with us once again.
Thank you for having me back. It's been great. Earlier this year than I think last year, which is always a dream. We look forward to more appearances from Mr. Reuter, not Reuter. And from Joe Lowry, we will assume there'll be more appearances from you. Taylor Rockwell, you've hosted this show, and now we are all together. Sad to go. Jeff drinking homemade fizzy water over there. Nicely done, Jeff. Gentlemen, thank you again. Listeners, thank you all very much. We'll talk to you very soon. Bye.