MLS 2025 Season Preview! Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, Cincinnati, Columbus, DC United, Inter Miami & CF Montreal

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Welcome to the Total Soccer Show and the first of our MLS 2025 season previews. Yes, the 30th season of Major League Soccer kicks off this weekend and we're going in-depth on all 30 of... We'll be looking at how each team is shaping up this season. The key changes... our predictions, and much, much more. My name's Ryan Bailey. Joining me today, it's your friend, it's my friend, it's Taylor Rocco. Hello, Taylor.

Hello, Ryan Bailey. I love MLS preview time. I genuinely do because I get to look back at my ones from last season, which were a mixed bag, but then also go from like, I don't really remember this team. I don't remember any of these players to...

Last night at 1.30 in the morning, being like, who is going to start in the middle for Chicago? Let me try to figure this out. Which of their new sightings, which of their draftees could be involved? It's too much. And I'm excited to talk all about the Eastern Conference today. There we go. Strap it, listener. That's all coming soon. Also coming is Graham Muddland sorts. Hello, Graham.

Hello, Ryan Bailey. I also love these episodes, but then realize halfway through how many teams there are in MLS. How many countries are in this country is basically my vibe while I'm doing the research for these shows every year. Look, Scotland. Not everyone can have a four-team league or whatever it is y'all do.

every match matters Taylor it's the way to go it is not the way to go but I'm not convinced a 30 team league is the way to go either but anyway it's what we're stuck with every match matters when you play the same opponent four times wonderful stuff indeed going on there also joining us Joe Lowry's here. Hello, Joe. We are all seated and ready for our podcasting adventures today. You, sir, appear to be at a standing desk. How very modern of you.

Yes, we're in the midst of an office redesign, even though it looks like there's just a blank wall behind me, because there is. That's objectively true. But it won't be blank for too much longer. That's my hope. I'm standing today because, mostly because I got a new desk, but also because...

These episodes, and we're doing a lot of MLS season preview content this year. We're going to be doing MLS stuff all throughout the season. This is my Super Bowl. Guys, we just had the Super Bowl. No, no, no. This is my Super Bowl. I got to wiggle. I got to move. I'm amped.

There you go. Like a regular David Goss podcasting standing up. Look at you. Look at you. Incredible. I didn't know Goss was podcasting standing. I'd like to think of myself as more of a trendsetter, so I'm just going to ignore that information.

You should do it lying down, like how you watch games, Joe. That should be your thing. Oh, that's good. Wow. Honestly, Graham, what a pull that is. I don't lie down as much anymore because I mostly watch on my laptop, but my eyesight is genuinely not very good, and I feel like I have real problems even with my glasses on. being as close to the screen as humanly possible.

When you said we're in the midst of redesigning the office, I assume you meant you and David Gus because you're doing a standing thing together. 100%. Yeah, he's actually underneath me right now. He's holding me up. The desk is basically up at the ceiling. Gus, can you stop? Dude, stop moving down there. Come on. It's like the...

English language Bundesliga social accounts. You know how they all do it from the same office in New York. There's just a house of MLS content creators. Don Garber's in my guest room. Weeby, be quiet. If you've ever wanted to watch a reality show, a bunch of people in a house all just furiously typing silently, that's the show for you. All right. We've got plenty to get to on this show, so let's get to it. But not before I tell you about patreon.com slash total soccer show.

our bonus feed where, for this week, you'll get some weekend review because we're going to be doing MLS previews in its stead on the main feed for this week only. Also, you get bonus episodes, bonus videos, and access to our Discord server where all the cool kids are hanging out, patreon.com.

slash Total Soccer Show if you'd like to support our endeavour, please and thank you. And just to remind you, these episodes are now on the YouTube's link in show notes if you'd like to see Graham in his Argentina shirt. Looks very nice, Graham. So my plan was to have a relevant shirt for every one of our preview episodes and DHL have let me down today by not delivering my new Enter Miami shirt. So!

I am wearing this Argentina shirt in homage of the GOAT. Not that I'm previewing into Miami, actually, but I presume someone is. So that's the reason. Here's me hoping this show isn't sponsored by DHL, Graham. Wonderful stuff indeed. Let's get to it.

alphabetically, Graham, we'll come to you first. I'd love to hear a little bit about Atlanta United, who, of course, did surprisingly well in the playoffs last season, despite kind of sneaking into the playoff spots on the final day. Not a great regular season, probably by their standards.

What are we thinking for 25? I feel like the Charlotte influence is bleeding in from Ryan's introduction. I'm just going to throw that out there. There's a rivalry between them. I thought you wouldn't be able to tell. There's a lot to say. about Atlanta United before the start of 2025. So strap in. So the recap on last season was, you're right, Ryan, last season was a disrupted one for Atlanta United because they came into 2024 with a team that looked ready to take a big step forward.

They had real talent in players like Giacomacchus and Tiago Amada. They'd gone through that transitional period in 2023. And I think the hope was that they would be really competitive near the top of the East. And then things started to quickly fall apart for that team. So they had a difficult first half of the regular season. Giacomacus left. So did Thiago Alves. in the summer window, Gonzalo Pineda was fired as the head coach in the summer.

And from that point on, Atlanta, it seemed like they were planning for 2025. So they sold other players, including Caleb Wiley, Carlos Bocanrega. He left as the technical director. And Rob Valentino was put in charge as interim manager. I don't think with any great expectations.

of doing anything with all due respect to him. But they started their squad rebuild. They got Maranchuk in. They got Pedro Amador, the fullback in. It was all very chaotic last season for Atlanta United. And it was all with an eye on 2025. And then they snuck into the playoffs and knocked into Miami out of the playoffs as the nine seeds in the East. It was a historically big upset in terms of the seedings. It was the biggest upset in MLS playoff history.

And Brad Guzan stood on his head in that game at Chase Stadium and knocked down at Miami and Messi out. And then they went out to Orlando in the conference semifinals. And we were all left to wonder whether that actually happened, whether that was just a fever dream that Atlanta United knocked down at Miami.

But it actually happened. Then moving into this season, Ronnie Dyla has come in as the new permanent head coach. So Joe is already looking forward to his next strip show, I presume. Dyla is obviously someone who has a track record of success in MLS.

I will admit my kind of personal bias here. I used to talk to Ronnie Dyler every single week when he was at Celtic. I always really liked him as a person. I'm glad that he's back in MLS. And you tell us that every single week as well, Graham, actually. Well, now that he's back in MLS, I will. Yeah, I'll make a point of it.

it's going to be me that gets the strip show this season maybe even more notably Atlanta have brought in Chris Henderson as their new sporting director so he was obviously at Inter Miami for a while also worked with Garth Lagerwey at the Seattle Sounders before that

And that in itself was a statement of intent because I think Henderson is regarded as one of the best in his role in the entire league. And the knock-on of that has been Atlanta being very active in the transfer market over the off-season. They have made a big splash. They have broken the league record. to sign Emmanuel Lattie-Leith from Middlesbrough.

He is a 26-year-old forward who scored 11 goals for Middlesbrough in the championship this season. And they've also brought back Miguel Miron, probably the best player in the history of the club, certainly up there with Joseph Martinez. He's now back in Atlanta. They are hyped for him being...

back. I saw clips of fans at the airport to welcome him back. So there's real excitement around that. They've also signed Matthias Klick from DC United. Santi Sosa is gone. Franco Ibarra is gone. So there's quite a lot of squad reconstruction.

that's happened there and Atlanta hope that all these moves will restore them as a genuine force in MLS because this is a club that for a long time I remember when they first came into the league felt like the future felt like the club that was really pushing the envelope and pushing boundaries And they dipped. I mean, they still made a number of big signings, but a lot of those signings didn't hit. And so this is a new cycle for this team.

In terms of how they play, in an attacking sense, I expect that Atlanta will want to get to Lattie Leith and Almiron as quickly as possible, get to them in open space. Last season, it felt like they maybe didn't have the runners ahead of Maranchuk to really get in behind and stretch.

opposition teams, that looks like something that they've tried to address heading into this season. I looked at some of their pre-season games, maybe it'll be a 3-5-2 with Latty Lath and Almiron as the front two, with Almiron as maybe in a bit of a free roll.

Maybe it'll be a slightly more conventional 4-3-3 in Dyla. The last couple games that I watched, I saw bits of. He's been using a back four in those pre-season games with Amador and Brooks Lennon getting forward at full-back. But one of my concerns about this team...

as I don't think it's entirely clear exactly how they will play in terms of the principles and values of that team beyond, like, the shape. I think, yes, there will be those quick transition moments because of the players that they have brought in. But out of possession... I'm kind of unclear on what they will be. I don't know if the midfield will be able to back up the forward line. Salmiron and Latte Leith are pressing machines. The players behind them...

look a little bit older and maybe don't have the legs to back that up. So I don't know whether it's going to be a sort of full court press or just like pressing triggers in the final third. So that is certainly something I'll be keeping an eye on. The other thing that might hold people back from going all in on this Atlanta team.

is we've been here before with Atlanta when they've made big signings and we thought, here we go. I thought this last season with Pineda and they'd had a transitional season and then things fell apart very quickly. But...

They've signed $30 million worth of top-end talent, and that can't really be ignored. And we might be talking about a team here, if things click, we might be talking about a team that can finish first or second in the East. That's the level for Atlanta. That's where they want to be.

to be winning mls cups they want to be winning supporter shields maybe this season is a year too early for that kind of thing but that's that's that's the target and so to finish off my vsp um is that atlanta will be in the top 10 for possessions one final third per match so for context last season they were 22nd out of 29 teams they weren't a good pressing team last season and as I said I have concerns about whether it will be

a full court press but in terms of the speed of Latte Latte Lath who apparently is like one of the quickest players in the world or something like that I think he's going to absolutely terrify defenders both in and out of possession, whether he's driving at them, whether he's pressing them. Mehron's a really good presser. So I think that's where we're going to see a big uptick from this Atlanta team. I think, just to repeat.

They'll be in the top 10 for possessions won in the final third power match. And that's something you can find on ThoughtMob fairly easily. Wow. So all that needs to happen is they need to Mateus click. I'll see myself out. Yeah, do so.

You're now taking Taylor's teams for the rest of this show. I hate how much I love that from Taylor. And I do kind of hope he comes back. Graham, first of all, phenomenal job. Really, really good stuff there. I think super insightful. And I love that you pinpointed the speed of Latte Loth because I do think that is like a real.

part of him. Wow, Taylor's been gone a lot longer than I thought he was going to be. I think that's a real part of his arrival in Atlanta. And just to really underscore, $22 million. Taylor, well done committing to the bet. You were gone for far longer than we thought. That was great. I had to get my notes. A big part of Atlanta. going for Latte Loth is that

Just as you said, Graham, they want to be faster. Last year, they were a really ponderous team on the ball and a really kind of aimless team defensively. And to have Latte Loth and Miguel Amarón and Sabalob Janice as runners around Alexey Maranchuk, who was a $13 million addition in the summer, that's... 13 on Moranchuk, 22 MLS record on Latte Loth. 22, that's like...

A lot of money. And then Miguel Almiron, which they spent $10 million on to bring him back from Newcastle. To have Almiron and Lobjenice and Latte Laff around Moranchuk, yeah, the midfield is a bit of a concern, but this team is going to score. a bunch of goals in 2025. I think, Graham, you're probably right. I think this team's probably going to be pretty good. There you go.

Yeah, good times ahead for Atlanta. Roof of the stadium still looks like a sphincter. Let's talk about Charlotte FC, shall we? Let's get to the main event here. Charlotte's fourth season. Time flies when you're having fun at the bank, I suppose. This is the second season under Englishman Dean Smith as head coach. The opener is against Seattle this coming Saturday. A 10.30 Eastern start.

Graham, that's past my bedtime. I know it's well within your bedtime, but that's going to be a troubling start. 10.30 Eastern start for that one. The general pattern with Charlotte is... gradual improvement each season, I think we've seen. Last season finishing fifth in the East, ninth the previous two seasons.

And it's been a fairly active off-season so far for Charlotte, mostly in a positive manner, I would say. The big move in terms of outgoing players is DP Karol Sovderski is now gone. He's gone to Panathinaikos in Greece. Approximately $2 million raised from that sale. He made notable contributions during his tenure, including 28 goals and 12 assists over three seasons. I have to interrupt, dear listener, if you're not watching on YouTube. Joe has just...

He's just so mintied himself. Sorry, did I miss anything? I don't know. I assume you guys paused. Wow, this is quite something. If you're only listening on Audio Listen, just go check out the YouTube. This is one of the greatest moments of my life. Is that a bucket hat? Is that what a bucket hat is? It's reversible as well. What's the top? Is it a towel? Or like a muumuu? What is it? It's a Hawaiian shirt, bro. Yeah, a size XXL for Joe Lowry. It fits just right, baby. Ready to bowl.

There are items given away to fans at the stadium each week at Charlotte FC, and Joe appears to be wearing all of them currently, which is wonderful. Well done, Joe. Thanks. So, yes, coming back to Stodoski, he's gone through the out. exit door. For me...

He was more of a Timo Werner than a key earner in Major League Soccer, so I'm not too disappointed about that. We do have a forward in waiting, of course, at Charlotte FC, able to take a more central role now, of course, and that is Patrick Aguemang. Tended to be a super sub last season, expecting to get much more minutes.

and more starts this season as well. A few other players are gone. Jalen Lindsay, local boys out. Junior Urso, little bear, as I like to call him, gone. Jamie Patterson, back to England as well. One interesting one to note is João Pedro, centre-back and occasional left-back.

loaned out to Rio Aave in Portugal. This one has baffled the fan base a little bit because the team, if you are to criticise, maybe doesn't have too much defensive depth. He might have been needed. So that will be an interesting one.

The club didn't exercise his purchase option, but he's been taken back on loan, so he'll still be with the club, which is a very good thing indeed. And a very interesting interleague acquisition of Eric Williamson from Portland, 27-year-old midfielder, DC United Youth product, virtually ever- Present for the Timbers last year. Brought in in exchange for up to $350,000 in GAM.

And while we're talking about GAM, GAM FC over here getting 400 grand in GAM from Atlanta United in exchange for the discovery priority of Miguel Almiron. What a deal. Charlotte FC, Game FC, amazing. We discovered Almiron. Hats off to the business being done there. One other player who's also not coming to Charlotte, Paul Pogba. There's been some rumours over the past few days that he is in advanced talks with the Charlotte FC front office.

I could be wrong by the time this episode comes out but not from what I hear but a player who is coming of course Wilfred Zaha, the new DP winger in Charlotte, who's joined on loan from Galatasaray. Initial loan for one year with a potential extension through next year as well. His visa sorted. He's looking good. He's 32 at this stage.

Probably got a few more seasons in his legs for sure. He wants a long-term move. He wants somewhere where he can settle with his family. So, I mean, that's the kind of thing one would say when you join a new club. So hopefully that one sticks and he stays around as well. So we've got him on the left wing, on the right wing. Lobada.

Agumang up top, sign me up for that front row. Very much enjoying that. In terms of the front office, a few changes as well. The team president was let go and the president of Crown Legacy, the MLS Next Pro franchise, were both let go in the last few months. And there was an ethos that Tepper Sports Entertainment were creating a team president, which is a typical row for soccer, not just a TSE overall group president.

And there's been a kind of a regression because there's an overall group president now instead. So there's a feeling that the club would have been running its own right. And that's not necessarily come to pass from my understanding. But you look at the numbers, there's the Mint City, the supporters club have a podcast and they mentioned the numbers where Charlotte FC makes around $87 million a year. Panthers made around $600 million a year.

So you can see where the priorities are there. So interesting in terms of the front office. What can we expect from Dean Smith? We know he sort of... Typically runs a 4-3-3. Best thing he probably did to this team when he came in is, you know, solidify the defense. Only 37 goals conceded last season, a club record. Encourages the wingbacks to bomb on and all that kind of lovely modern stuff.

He fosters a culture of accountability and unity as well. And he likes to give his defenders wine when they keep clean sheets. A lot of wine flowing in Shard. That's his famous thing as well. Kind of a holistic... Approach to balance of attack and defense is what he'd say. And his emphasis is on attitude, application and teamwork. And that's been pivotal to the team's identity.

Yeah, this is very LinkedIn. This is very Jake Humphrey's behavior that's going on here. So he's probably not saying that every day, but there we are. So looking at the team, as I mentioned, Agumang, Zahar and Lila Bada, or maybe Pep Beal up on the right. Westwood, Ashley Lila.

with the captain being a central midfielder. Brant Bronico probably in there. Eric Williamson, I expect to get in there in the midfield. And the defense last season was Andrew Privet and Adelson Malanda centrally. Tim Ream at left back. Sure, I think that's probably going to continue. They did a decent job there, to be fair. Nathan Byrne right back as well.

Optimism in terms of Charlotte. The team looks better than last year, certainly on paper. It's made some good moves. They've moved on players that needed to move on, particularly that DP I mentioned. And Smith-System gets another year with more stability. The concern, if I was to have any...

be the defensive depth I've mentioned there, maybe not the best depth at fullback, for example. Also, when you've got your Westwoods, your Reams and your Zaha's, three of your biggest players being very much the wrong side of 30, perhaps a concern, but maybe not. We'll see. My very specific prediction for Charlotte FC is there will be a breakout US star this season, but not Patrick Agumang.

I'm calling it, Joe. Nymfasha. Nymfasha Perchovas, I'm saying, is going to be. He's a wide forward. He turns 17 next week. He signed a pro contract with Charlotte at 14. He's about that age where he could very much bust into this team as Adept thought should maybe even get some minutes as well. He is the second homegrown player in the club's history, training with the first squad. He's played a bunch at the US youth level. I think this could be his season where he makes a breakthrough.

On that big national stage, we will see there. He was, when I worked at the club, he was playing up a couple of years in the under 13s. And even then it was like, yeah, this is the guy. So I'm very pleased that he's pushed on. And I hope he does.

Do so. There you go, Joe. Charlotte FC. I love it. You're dressed for the occasion. Thank you. Taylor, yes, you have your pen in the air. I just have a question. What was that specific prediction again? Here we go. Is it not specific enough for you? I'm actually asking what it was. There will be a U.S. breakout star in Charlotte this season, but it won't be Agumang. It will be Nym Fasher. Yeah, that makes sense.

Can we define that just drilling down slightly more? Like, would 1,000 minutes be enough? Would 1,500 minutes in MLS be enough? Where do you fall, Ryan? Or like a USMNT cap? That would probably be enough, right? Does Ryan tweeting, he's a breakout star halfway through the season? That's what we're trying to avoid. That is what we're trying to avoid. Sentiment. Sentiment, Joe. Vibes. No, let's say 10 starts. Let's say maybe even a call-up as well.

Yeah, I love that. And I don't, I mean, I don't honestly don't think he's going to get a call up and 10 starts feels Possible. Also difficult. I am on board, Ryan, with Nifasha Bershamesh being a really talented player. He's going to be 17 in a few days. The challenge, and I went through and did depth charts for all these teams for...

previews that are going up on back. You'll go check those out and read them. The first batch is up today. And you go through and you sort of are building these out for each team. And Charlotte's winger depth chart is so long. They've got like eight dudes. maybe more than that, who could conceivably play on the wing this year. It will be Zaha on one side. I would imagine Abada and BL are going to be sort of rotating around the other side, or BL is more of a number 10 and a 4-2-3-1 at times.

But Bertramas, as talented as he is, I'm a little worried that he's going to get buried on the depth chart. But the guy was training and seemed to impress with Manchester United in their youth system over the offseason. I do think that's a really good shout. And I do think, Ryan...

You are absolutely right to be excited about this team, as I know you are. I think this team could conceivably finish, I don't know, second in the Eastern Conference. I don't think that's likely. I don't think they are the most likely option to finish that high.

But their floor is crazy high, and I think their ceiling is quite high. If Zaha hits, and if you get increased production out of Ajeman and Abada, this team's going to be really, really good. Even if you don't get increased production out of Ajeman, and he gets you... 10, 12 goals and Abada gets you eight goals. And we don't know if Abada is going to be a good player to be clear.

Like, you're still going to be a really good team. You're still going to be one of the better teams in the Eastern Conference. Charlotte are a serious team now, and they were last year in a way that they just weren't in their first two years in MLS. This is a team on the rise, and I think they're going to be really good.

Ryan, obviously Charlotte wanted a Tier 1 attacker because last summer they wanted Almiron before he goes back to Atlanta. There's a couple others they're linked with. I can't quite remember them off the top of my head. They get Zaha. Now... If they get Zaha out of like a couple years ago, great. I think he'll be electrifying in MLS. But he did only play 71 minutes for...

Leon, because he's a Galatasaray player, but he was at Leon, right, on loan for the first half of the season? He barely featured for them, and so there's question marks over the impact that he's going to have. You're on the ground in Charlotte. I think Zaha, in a national sense, is kind of...

of it's kind of flown under the radar just because there's been so much happening in the MLS offseason on the ground in a local sense is there like excitement are people buying shirts like what's the hype level for Zaha and Charlotte Yeah, I've probably got some local bias here, Graham, but it does seem like there is a lot of hype. It does seem like people are talking about him in the town, if that makes sense. And talking to actual players on the team as well, they are like...

I've heard some comments like he's incredible in training, like he's a big step up as well. So that doesn't necessarily translate to the field, of course, and getting minutes, but there is excitement in the team. And in the city, I would say this is probably the most exciting signing we've had so far. Yeah.

I think it is exciting. I am really interested to see how he does. And also, Leo Labada, who I watched a bunch over here in Scotland, I know made a moderate impact in the second half of last season. He's a quality player, so if he's improved after a six-month... period then I think he could be even better this season as well.

Yeah, really excited about him here. Yeah, he showed some really good glimpses last season as well. Wonderful stuff. All right, let's take a quick break. When we come back, Joe Lowry is going to tell us all about the inferior Queen City. Join us then. Total Soccer Show, welcome back to our Eastern Conference Preview, Part 1. Joe Lowry's here. FC Cincinnati is the topic. Let's go, Joe.

I'm not even going to take off my Charlotte gear because it just feels like it's become a part of me now. FC Cincinnati, in terms of last season, they finished on 59 points, third in the Eastern Conference, fifth in Major League Soccer. Really ever since Chris Albright and Pat Noonan have come into this team ahead of the team. 2022 season. They have been Cincinnati, a banner MLS club, and maybe some cracks are starting to show in that armor. And we'll get to that shortly.

But last year, despite injuries at center back, and they really struggled to put healthy bodies on the field in that spot, despite inconsistent striker play, looking at you, Aaron Bupenza, and your bar proclivities and your swinging proclivities, they were still a really good team. They had a chance to follow up.

their supporter shield winning 2023 season with another shield. They didn't quite land that, but they only finished behind Miami and the crew in the Eastern conference. It was a great year in the regular season, less so in the playoffs where they were one of a few Eastern conference teams to drop out in the first round. One of a few high seated Eastern conference.

That loss to NYCFC stings. That loss does not sting as much as everything that happened with Lucho Acosta immediately following that loss, where right after they get sent home by NYCFC, Lucho Acosta says out loud, you know, sort of hints at his coming departure from the club and says, this might be my last ever game with FC Cincinnati. And after three months and a preseason holdout and some fines.

Lucio Acosta was true to his word. It was his last game for FC Cincinnati. There was beef with Chris Albright, their chief soccer officer. And that is a bit troubling. There have been other preseason holdouts for Cincinnati this year as well. Luca Oreano, who was a great player for them in his first season last year. And Yuya Kubo, who was the go-to striker after everything that happened up top for them last year.

Those guys both were late arrivers to preseason. And honestly, I still don't know if Yuya Kubo is even in preseason. Oriano is, but I don't know about Kubo. Ultimately, Acosta was traded to FC Dallas in what was really an extremely disappointing end to an incredible time for the Argentine.

Cincinnati, still, despite some concerns there with Lucho, this Cincy team doesn't stay down for long. They made very, very quick work of signing a striker over the offseason in Kevin Denkay, who was at that point the record MLS incoming transfer fee. It was 16 plus million dollars for Denke from Circle Bruges over in Belgium. And he looks the part up top. Smart folks I've talked to on the other side of the Atlantic really like Denke's game. I've watched him tape. He's a physical player.

Really sharp in the air, impressive strength, good movement in the box, can run in behind a little bit as well. even if that's not his go-to, like Latte Loth. But I really like Denkade. He signed. I believe he was at that final playoff loss against NYCFC. He was there in the stadium. They signed him and had him involved basically before their season was even finished.

And they snag Evander as the replacement for Lucho Acosta, which is a huge move. It's the most expensive interleague MLS cash deal of all time. And he's coming in for $12 million. He had 15 goals and 15 assists last season. He was incredible for Portland. He was an MVP candidate towards the end of the season. For the Timbers, he is a ready-made Lucho Acosta replacement. And Lucho is gone, and that is a concern. Jadozia Waziam is also gone, along with Ian Murphy. Those two were traded.

to Colorado at center back. Kevin Kelsey's gone. He moved back to Shakhtar alone before going over to the Portland Timbers. Nico Joachini was a last minute DP ad in the summer. Made no impact. He's gone as well. And Emil Asad will no longer be tearing people up on the left wing. In terms of how this team is going to play, it's going to be the same recipe, by and large, for Pat Noonan. Pat Noonan is one of the more pragmatic coaches in MLS. It's going to be his fourth season in charge this year.

Noonan is happy for the team to have the ball, but he doesn't demand that they keep it at all costs and play through pressure with these super short, really detailed control passes out of the back.

They're going to be a team that has a decent amount of the ball, but they're not going to monopolize it in the way that the crew do, as an example. Defensively, Cincy will press, but they won't run themselves ragged. They are one of the more aggressive pressing teams in the league, but they don't press like, say, the Union are going to press this year.

There's been a lot of 3-4-1-2 from Pat Noonan. There's also been some 3-4-3. And I don't know what we're going to see from this team other than it's going to be a back three because that's how they built this roster. I don't know if Evander's going to be playing underneath the front two or if it's going to be more of him kind of drifting in that left half space. My gut says probably the latter in that 3-4-3, but it's less about tactics and detailed principles for Pat Noonan than it is about...

getting his dudes in the right spot to go out there and thrive. And since he had enough talent, that that is a really good way of doing business. As far as optimism and concern heading into 2025, the optimism is really easy, guys. The squad is amazing. Like this is a really...

Really, really good team. Going from Lucho to Evander is like the best possible scenario for FC Cincinnati. If you're going to lose Lucho in the first place, going out from within the league, getting a guy who knows the rigors of MLS, who knows the travel, who knows the feel of going through some of these double game weeks.

And getting a guy who got 30 goal contributions last year and was amazing for the Timbers is like just a phenomenal piece of business. Their issues last year elsewhere were at center back and they weren't healthy and they didn't get any consistent striker production. They're going to get that.

This season, they're going to get striker production from Dan Kay, and they've got plenty of center backs that are high-quality players that will be much healthier this year than last year. Between Matt Miazga, Miles Robinson, they also have Tina Chedebe in this team. They signed a U-22 center back from Paraguay that you shouldn't expect a lot from.

from you 22 guys for the most part, nor should you expect a lot from Flores, but they've added talent in that spot and they are going to be healthier this year. They are elites in basically every line of the field. There is so much to like about this team. They will be a shield threat and they will be a cup threat. The concern...

is that there are personality clashes in this team. Lucho Acosta is not the only player to have his issues with Chris Albright. And there are pretty regularly some interesting rumblings about Albright and just about how... Maybe there's some personality challenges in how he deals with players. I don't know, Chris Albright, but that is absolutely the case that's happened this offseason. From the player's perspective, I mentioned those other preseason holdouts. That's a concern.

Evander forcing his way out of Portland, not unlike Lucho forces his way out of Cincinnati, is a huge concern. You don't know how excited he is to actually be in Cincinnati in the long term. There's a lot of questions about the makeup of this team and about the personalities and egos that are in this team. On paper, they look basically bulletproof. Maybe not quite, because you can't be bulletproof in MLS. But this sport's not played on paper. It's played with real people, with real emotions.

and ones that can maybe even burn a great team or should be great team to the ground. I'm not really all that worried about that stuff, but that is the case for, yeah, maybe since he's not going to have as good of a season as it looks like they should. I think they're going to be really good. I'd be shocked if they're not a top four team in the Eastern Conference. They're going to be competing for every trophy this season. In terms of my VSP, Cincinnati's average shot distance.

will be the longest in MLS in 2025. So last year, since he averaged the third longest shot distance in the league at 18.7 yards from goal, only behind FC Dallas and Real Salt Lake. Between Evander, who loves himself a long shot, whether that's from a free kick or just kind of charging forward, or Luca Oreano, who was, again, fantastic last year. He may end up as a DP this year.

He's incredible in the attack, can play a bunch of different spots, is really smooth on the dribble. And he scored multiple long range, like nearly half field bangers last season. Those guys love themselves long shots since you're going to top MLS in that category. And they're also going to be a really, really strong team.

Joe, how do those two things work together? Because I think of like long shots as being significantly lower percentage likelihood go in. So if they're cranking them from distance, couldn't that also be a sign that they're frustrated and not making stuff happen?

100%. And I think that's part of Pat Noonan doesn't give this team like super detailed kill patterns in the final third. There's a lot of freedom for players to figure stuff out. They're going to make bad decisions. I think I've been pretty public about long shots generally not being my favorite despite producing the occasional banger.

They're going to make some bad calls. They're going to do some inefficient stuff on the ball. They're also going to score a ton of goals because their talent is just that good and the players are not just going to settle for long shots. They're also going to combine themselves into the box and hit some cutbacks into Denke. They're going to do plenty of stuff because they're going to have plenty of opportunities to make inroads in that final third, and they're going to score a lot of goals.

Joe, if since you do score some bangers at home and they have like a blessed season, would you regard it as an Evander Holyfield, the stadium? Yes, I would, 100%. Maybe you know this, maybe you don't. Evander was named after Evander Holyfield. 100%. That's 100% true. Which is maybe obvious to everybody on the show already because how many other Evanders do we know? But yes, Ryan, I'm totally willing to go with you on that. No problem. That was worse than the click one, right? Come on.

That was definitely worse. It needed to be said, though. Also, Ryan didn't walk off the stage when he said his. He doesn't believe in himself. That's why. Also, Joe, congratulations to you for studying TSS history. Never before has the phrase super detailed.

killed patterns been said on this show. And it still hasn't been said by me at least. So well done to you. Wow. Appreciate it. There we go. Wonderful stuff. All right. We all know that Chicago famously follows Cincinnati alphabetically. So why don't we go to Chicago now.

Taylor Rockwell's establishment. They haven't suffered enough, Ryan? You had to skip over them? Is that how you want to do Chicago Fire this season? They haven't made the playoffs in seven years, and now you're like, you know what? Cincinnati first. Why not? I see how it is. Yes. Well, yeah, so I assume the headline here is...

No Neymar. Worst team in the East. Bit of a dumpster fire last year. But great. Great. I'll tell you this. Having read about them a lot, kind of sad Neymar's not on this team. Think he would have done a role. But we'll get to that in a second. Because let's start with last season.

They had a rough one. Stop me if you've heard that before about the Chicago Fire as the light turns off in my office. That's fun. They failed to make the playoffs for the seventh straight season. As I said, that's the longest active streak in Major League Soccer. Frank Klopas went from interim manager to permanent manager. to a position in the front office. He is no longer the coach. He stepped down at the end of last season. They finished bottom of the East. 40 goals scored.

62 against, but they did spend money. So they're not bad because they don't spend. They're bad for other reasons, but now they've spent more and they've made a lot of changes, including Greg Berhalter coming in as coach and director of football. They also brought in another Greg with two Gs, Greg Broughton, in from Blackburn and the championship as a sporting director. There seems to be...

Not a ton of clarity on how those two jobs are going to overlap. We'll see how it plays out. Berhalter will be in charge, and the other Greg will be underneath Berhalter. I don't know how much overlap there will be, but just the fact that there are two Gregs makes this all so delightful. Also three Gs. Three Gs in both, 100%. Yeah, there needs to be another. other in there somewhere. Cousin Greg from Succession, just collect Greg's. That should be the transfer strategy.

Cousin Craig would have been at home in Chicago Fire teams of the past, I think. In terms of other business, they've done, as I said, quite a bit. They're returning only 62% of their minutes played last year. That's bottom five in Major League Soccer. Four centerbacks gone.

Andrew midfielder is gone. Jordan Shaqiri, very gone. He left last August, but it's worth reiterating. And a lot of the players that they have parted ways with were 29 years of age or older, which I know, Joe, means that they are geriatric in your view. But that is clearing out.

age and bad contracts in the form of Gaston Jimenez, Federico Navarro, and Rafael Sitchos. I apologize for all of my pronunciations because I can't claim to have watched a ton of Chicago Fire last year. In terms of incomings, they've got, again... A good number. Jonathan Bamba added as a DP attacker, most likely to play inverted on the left wing, even though he is right-footed. He might play as a number 10 because...

There is a need in that spot. He comes in from Salta Vigo for $2 million. They bring in veteran Swiss winger Philipp Zinkernagel. He'll likely start on the right. So you've got two wingers right there. You've got Hugo Kuypers still up top. So I'm guessing if they go with a 4-3-3, they might go with a number of different looks. But if it's a front three, I would guess it looks like some combination of those three. They added Jack Elliott, veteran center back, who's been a consistent strength.

in that position and seems perfect for a Berhalter system. He'll likely be partnered by any number of center backs because, again, they cleared out, I believe, four different center backs from last season. Carlos Teran is returning. He played a bunch last year, so it might be Jack Elliott and Teran. It could be Sam Rogers, who's a new signing from Lillestrom in Norway. Had an erratic time in Scandinavia. Bounced around. Got a lot of loan moves. Didn't get a ton of minutes, so not sure.

how strong he will be. Omar Gonzalez, the famed Omar Gonzalez, signed to be a center back as well. So they've got... options there. We'll see what they want to go with. They have the TAM central midfielder Romeninge Kuwame, who I'm guessing will partner Kevin Acosta as the kind of two deeper midfielders. There are other options there. And they bring in U22 right back, Leonardo Barroso, who...

by all accounts, is an almost immediate starter. He comes in from Sporting Cup to Portugal B. He's only 19 years old. They do have other options there. They have returners. But I think for the amount they're spending to bring him in, and it sounds like in the preseason he has...

done enough so maybe he will be the starter there so you've got a youngster coming in to start more on that in a second because i should first talk about how i think that they are going to play and i think they're going to play unremarkably at first that is my guess and i think this was

In essence, a very smart decision by Greg Berhalter to take this gig and to get the kind of power that he has to make the signings he wants, to bring in the personnel he wants, to make it a team that reflects his style. I think that might take a little bit of time to get going.

And I think that that's fine for a team like Chicago who haven't always felt like they have a plan and have a direction where they're heading. I also don't think that there is a ton of pressure on him to win the supporter shield or challenge for the supporter shield or anything like it. I think battling for the playoffs.

Maybe they would hope to be comfortably in the playoffs, but I think Chicago fans will see progress as a sign of optimism because there hasn't been a ton of happiness for a good long while. So I think that gives Beralter time to build this team, to get them on the same page. And so we might see... Some losses and some draws early. I feel like I've now just made sure that they'll win the first game 5-0.

But I think that they're going to add other players. They still have a designated player spot, I believe. So they could add some more control to their possession game. I think we'll see a good amount of possession, a good amount of slow build, maybe some pressing triggers and the like. But I think there's going to be a lot more control of games for Chicago this year than there was last season, which gets to one of my specific predictions. I have two. One is just a more like...

Shot in the dark, but Sergio Oregel Jr., this is prediction number one, will play 800 or more minutes. He's a 19-year-old homegrown central midfielder who reportedly has been impressing in preseason, and he plays in an area of need. For the fire, as I said, you've got Kellen Acosta, you've got Kiwame, you've got, I think, Pineda, Mauricio Pineda could go centrally as a defensive midfielder. But there's not a ton of depth in the middle of the pitch for Chicago.

Jr. You have zero minutes in the last two seasons since making his debut when he was... Even younger, I think like three seasons ago, he made 11 minutes. He hasn't played any since then. He's played a bunch for Chicago Fire too. But I think he kind of gives you depth in midfield. He can carry the ball forward. I think he can...

do things more than just be a defensive option. And so I think we'll see him get minutes. And if he's already impressed, then I think we'll see him continue to do so. And my second prediction is more about what I think Chicago will look like as the season goes on. And it's that Chris Brady's clean sheet percentage is going up. 20-year-old has been the starter for two seasons now. Don't get excited, Graham. Don't get excited. He had four clean sheets in the regular season last year.

That's good for 11.75%, if my math is correct. I'm saying he's going to have at least seven clean sheets this year. That bumps it up to 20%, because I think there will be a better organization. There will be a... stronger defense both individually but then also as a unit and i think with more control with more of an emphasis on possession i think there's going to be fewer wide open chances fewer breakdowns fewer getting fewer moments of getting shredded on counters and so i think

It's just going to be a harder team to play than they've been in seasons past. So I think they're going to have more clean sheets, if unremarkable clean sheets, at least at first. But I think we'll end up seeing a pretty solid Chicago fire by the end of the year. Yeah, this team's going to be...

Better. I know I basically said nice things about every team that we've done so far, Taylor, but this team really is going to be better. And I think you got to it well with this idea that progress is a reason for optimism. I don't think the Fire are competing for trophies. Taylor, it doesn't sound like you think they're realistically competing for trophies right now. Could they be a summer DP signing away from competing for trophies next year? Yes.

Yeah, probably. Jonathan Bamba looks like a really fun player. I like his profile coming over from Saltavigo. Zinkernagel is super crafty, very clever, and I think ups this team's ceiling a little bit.

And then they've overhauled a bunch of stuff. And you got to it. They overhauled at center back. We're going to see some new starting players along the back line, which is hugely needed. Not that those players are necessarily going to be fantastic because it seemed like Jack Elliott took a bit of a step back this year. This past year, I should say. But they're going to be better.

along the back line. If for no other reason, then it would be hard for them to be worse. Kiwami looks like a really fun player in central midfield. A bunch of minutes in Liga, a bunch of minutes in La Liga. I don't know. It's not a guarantee of success in Major League Soccer, but it's not bad as far as all that goes. And Zingernagel and Bamba flanking Hugo Kuypers, who they spent a ton of money on last offseason and just didn't see any of the ball last year at all.

Kuypers is kind of going to feel like a new signing as well. So I really like a lot of the work that Baralther has done this offseason. Still got questions about the fire. It sounds like that's not unique to me at this point. But man, this team looks, if not like a threat, like a true threat in the East. They look way better and primed to be way better than they were in 2024.

Agreed with all of that, Joe, including the one DP siding away. And that's where I said in the beginning, like, there's an argument that Neymar would have helped this team. Obviously, he's Neymar, so he could always help a team. I haven't paid attention to him in Santos. Graham, it's going swimmingly.

So he scored a penalty last night and got an assist and won the penalty as well. So actually better than I anticipated. But I think with this Chicago Fire team, there is a lack of a number 10. If Berhalter wants to have that sort of creative number 10, which is... a thing he wanted when he was the crew coach, less so the USMNT coach, but I would argue that's because we didn't.

Really have one who was informed who could do that job. And so right now, maybe it's Bamba moving centrally if they do go with a kind of number 10 or like that kind of playmaker. If not, then it's probably Brian Gutierrez, the USMNT or now USMNT. who I think could play out wide on either side and could play as a number 10. It might start as their number 10 if it were that sort of 4-2-3-1 shape. So also...

Very exciting times for him because it seems like in the absence of that creative number 10, he will be given an opportunity and then it's his chance to rise, basically. Thank you very much indeed, Taylor. All right, Graham, the Columbus crew, runners-up in the East last year. Obviously, Welford and Nancy have been kept on, but a big blow with Cucho Hernandez going to hang out with prolific world-famous star Antony.

in Spain now. Well, that's what he is now. I'm very much enjoying that storyline, even if Taylor isn't. And I keep reminding him of that in our Slack chat every time. Thanks, Taylor. Columbus, it has been a rough off-season for them. So a quick recap of 2020.

I think whether or not 2024 was a success for the crew depends on your perspective, to be honest, because for 18 months, Columbus were one of the best teams MLS has ever seen. They won MLS Cup in 2023. They made the Champions Cup final last year as well. and yet they were second in the East Inter-Miami, and then they got bounced out of the playoffs in round one by the Red Bulls. So...

2024 was very much a year of being so close yet so far for the crew who on their day have the capacity to beat anyone and do it with real style as well. It's just whether for this... team two trophies in two seasons actually reflects how good they were and i would argue maybe maybe it didn't reflect that actually and and coming into 2025

There is a sense that Columbus are building again, mainly because they cashed in on Couture, as you say, Ryan. He was their biggest attacking difference maker last season and the season before that. Scored 19 league goals last season. Real Betis paid 13 million euros for him. on European Deadline Day, and now he's gone. On top of that, Christian Ramirez is also gone. He joined the Galaxy. So all of a sudden...

That Columbus front line is looking pretty depleted coming into the season. And keep in mind, Aidan Morris left mid-season last year as well. They absorbed that pretty well. But you compare the team we have now, starting the 2025 season, to the team we had 12 months ago. and they have lost a lot of talent. So that's a real concern for Columbus coming in this season. Lassie Lappelainen has come in from Montreal, where Wilford Nancy previously worked with him.

And that's pretty much it for the crew coming into the new season. And fans are understandably nervous about that. There's reported interest in a striker called Jose Manuel Lopez, who plays for Palmeiras, but nothing apparently has been firmed up there yet.

so as things stand it's Diego Rossi and Jason Russell Rowe to carry the attack and that puts a lot of pressure on them to put up numbers that they've never put up before I mean Diego Rossi has obviously been fairly prolific in the past but has never scored over 20 goals in a single MLS season Russell Rose obviously still developing so that's a real concern for this team the real positive for the crew

is that they still have Wilford Nancy. So there wasn't really any, not that I'm aware of, maybe Joe will correct me on this, but there wasn't any genuine interest. It wasn't like he was close to going to a team. But when last season ended, I sort of wondered if he might be away by the time 2025 came around.

but he's still there and that at least gives Columbus a sense of continuity. Quite possibly the best head coach in MLS history in terms of how that team plays and how quickly he turned them around coming in from Montreal to Columbus. Very, very impressive stuff.

stuff and we know what we're going to get from non-seeball at this point it's possession heavy the crew look to control games but they also take risks they're incredibly ambitious with the ball they're really fun to watch and over the last two seasons and particularly last season I've made a point of watching them as often as I can and it's great that we're going to get another season of

Because as I say, I feared that he might be on his way to Europe. That might still happen this year. It wouldn't surprise me if by the summer there's some real interest involved for Nancy. But for now, it's great that he's still around, even if the Columbus crew don't have the same level of talent. And this is a team that is showing a remarkable power of self-renewal under Wilfred Nancy. He continues to look to the academy for talent. So last season, for example...

I mentioned Aidan Morris, sold to Middlesbrough. He was the main piece for them in central midfield. They didn't really replace him in the transfer market. They went to the academy. They got Sean Zawadski comes into that midfield unit. Looks really impressive in the second half of the season. So is Russell... row about to explode? All of a sudden, is he going to be the Kucho replacement? That would require him to make a massive step up, but if we look at how...

The crew have self-renewed in the past. It's possible, I guess. Max Arsten comes into that team last season, looks really impressive. Is he about to take another massive step forward in his development? So... I don't know if this is sustainable in terms of keeping the crew competitive at the very top of the league to lose that much talent that quickly and still be up there with Inter Miami's and the LAFC's and MLS Cup and so on. But having that sort of youth...

pipeline is just such an advantage for for the columbus crew and they've got a manager who is willing to fast track those players into into the first team and that brings me on to my vsp which is that for all that i've just said about the academy still sustaining this team and nonsense still being around, and that is a real positive.

I do think they're going to have some attacking problems, or at least relative to the last two seasons. So my VSP is that the crew will dip below an average of two goals per regular season game for the first time with Nancy as manager. They've been remarkably consistent in that regard over the last two seasons. They've been at two points. goals.

in each of the last two seasons, I think they're going to dip below two this season for the first time. And this is a bit of a flyer because I don't know who they're going to bring in as the new DP centre forward. I'd imagine that will happen at some point. If it's not in this window, it will happen in the summer. That's surely on the shopping list.

But I do see an attack and drop off coming this season. Very good. All right. If there's no more on Columbus, why don't we take a quick break? We've got three more teams to cover. DC United, Inter Miami and Montreal. Join us after the 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.

But with Betfair's 90-minute guarantee, if your bet is winning at 90 minutes or full-time, we pay out. Betfair. Play different. A place to match odds 90 market or markets with the 90 icon. Sportsbook exclusive. Terms and conditions apply. 18plusbgamblerware.org. Total Soccer Show, welcome back to our Eastern Conference Preview. Part 1.

We're going now to Taylor Rockwell, who's going to tell us all about DC United. Benteke plus 10, or do we have a different name for them this season? No, that's it. We done? We all good with that? That's pretty much it. Yeah, that was pretty much it last season. I'm guessing that will be largely it this season, but maybe there's a little more meat on that bone. 2024 MLS season was a mixed bag, ultimately ending in disappointment as they missed playoffs for the...

fifth consecutive year on the final day, no less. Thanks, Charlotte. Troll is saying it took over as head coach in January 2024. GM Ali Makai continued to overhaul the roster. Christian Benteke had another stellar season, but overall, there were flashes of pressure.

a larger feeling that there's work to be done and maybe more depth is needed. So what's changed this offseason? Not as much as people might have hoped, in my opinion, at least in terms of minutes played. They're returning just over 50% of last season, so even fewer than.

Chicago, who I mentioned previously. Five of 11 starters from the final game of the season are likely to be back in some fashion. That would be defenders Lucas Bartlett and defender Aaron Herrera, attackers Jared Stroud, Gabriel Pirani, and of course... Christian Benteke. They got rid of 30-year-olds Alex Bono, Christian Jaume, Pedro Santos, Matthias Click, all played 2,000-plus minutes last season. I always want to call him Dahomey, but that's more than Alexis Guerrero's thing for Christian.

it is for me but they got rid of a good amount of experience except for the DP spot which they still have, even though Click plays elsewhere. It's great business. They also got rid of some interesting players. Matai Akinboni departed for Bournemouth in January for $1.25 million. Christian Fletcher remained on loan at Nottingham Forest. ADP.

Ted Kudu DiPietro moved to Colorado with the cash market transfer situation. And then Matthias Klick is obviously in Atlanta. So they needed upgrades at goalkeeper, left back, center back, center midfield. And they've added. Some good components in that way. Korea youth international goalkeeper Kim Jong-hong comes in from Jeonbok Hyundai Motors in the Korean top flight, hopefully solidifying a position that was very, very shaky for DC last season. Even the team itself.

was shaky goalkeeping even more so they conceded probably more than they should have so hopefully a more reliable goalkeeper even a younger one will help them 26 year old australian center back kai rolls comes in from heart of lothian graham thoughts yeah

He's decent. That's about it. That's all the thoughts I've got. Australian has a moustache. I don't know if he's still got the moustache. He looks very Australian, quite frankly. It's just like that right there is DC United in a nutshell. Looks very Australian, Graham, just for the record. Looks Australian. That's it. Well, how do you look Australian? It's the moustache. It's the pet crocodile that you're sort of dragging behind you is what I always thought. That's what it is, mate. Yeah.

Could, like, set up a tent in the Outback in under five minutes, that sort of look. Right. Gotcha. 22-year-old Japanese central midfielder Hosai Kijima comes in from San Diego, but really St. Louis. We'll talk about him in a little bit. And 23-year-old right-footed left winger Zhao Peglo, who goes... by Peglow, which makes me happy, comes in from Radomiak Radome. Anybody? Radomiak Radome? We got them? Graham, what league did they play in? Sorry, my bad.

He's Brazilian, right? Peglo. Uh-huh. So, I don't know, like, Colombia or something? Poland! Paraguay. Poland! There you go, yeah. Plus MLS veterans like Brandon Servania, Randall Leal, and Lucas McNaughton. So you have some rolls of the dice, you've got some veteran MLSers coming in, and you've got some solid role players coming in, and that fits...

A very scrappy Troy Lesane team. Last season, they were very direct. They sent the highest percentage of goal kicks long of any team in the league. And second fewest passes attempted per game. Galaxy, Columbus, Houston, Miami, all near the...

top, DC very much near the bottom, as I said, second fewest. So they go direct, they try to find Benteke, they do not try to pass the ball a bunch, they certainly don't try to build out of the back, and then there was, at least in the early days of the season,

An intense reliance on pressing, pressing high, very coordinated pressing. I think injuries and maybe a lack of depth had that fall off a little bit. So at points in the middle and at the end of the season, there was more of a like 5-4-1 look for DC at times.

which is a thing we might see in points this season if they are sort of backs against the wall if they don't have some of their more reliable players in there then maybe they will go with a more defensive and defending counter sort of look but I think early on we might see

a bit more pressing. And I think there are reasons for optimism within this team, having been sort of negative on them from the jump because Christian Benteke is still hanging around. He's 34 years old, but a golden boot winner last season.

You would assume he will be able to replicate a lot of what he did last year, especially with ideally better players playing him better balls in. They've got young designated player Matty Peltola, U22 signing Gabriel Perrani, also still around who already got experience last year.

I can play in the middle as more of a defensive midfielder, but then also at times when they were in that five, four, one was one of your center backs. Pirani can play as a more advanced midfielder or as a like strike partner for Benteke. If you want to go that way, if that's something DC. look for but i think it's going to be another fairly blunt season another uh season of like hard work and hard pressing but then also defend encounter sort of tactics which i think fits dc's

scrappy identity that they have come to embody. My very specific prediction relates to the aforementioned Jose Kojima. I think he's going to complete fewer than 75% of his passes, but will still be popular with supporters. I think last year with St. Louis, Lewis in 783 minutes. His percentage was...

I think maybe 78%, 79% past completion. He didn't get a ton of minutes with the senior team, as you would have guessed from those numbers, had many more opportunities with the reserve team. But I think DC worked the system to get Sandy.

Diego to draft him in the expansion draft to then trade for him, which tells me that they know what they're getting in him and know what they want, which is a scrappy, hardworking central midfielder who maybe isn't going to help you with ball retention, but is going to help you with winning it back with tackles one.

with interceptions, with ball recoveries. And so I think he's going to be a hardworking midfielder who does a lot of sort of unglamorous things and doesn't always complete beautiful passes. But that's not really what they need him to do. And that's not really what I think DC is going to be about. So I think...

He won't complete many passes, fewer than 75%, but I think will still be a very popular player among supporters. I love that VSP, Taylor, because it gets right at the heart of how this DC team want to play. They're not going to be a high pass completion kind of team. They're going to hit long ball after long ball after long ball, looking for Benteke and maybe even looking for some other strikers in this team at the same time.

Troy Lesane has trotted out this preseason attacking group at least once, if memory serves, of Ben Teke, who was very much a pure target nine, Dom Badge, who was very much a pure number nine, and Jacob Murrell, who was also a number nine, and then Randa Leal is sort of like...

like the attacking midfield type in that line somewhere. They're going to play so many vertical balls into whoever their various strikers are on the field at any given time. I don't know that that's going to be a go-to look for this team, but they're going to play direct. They're going to be vertical, not least because...

they don't have a lot of top-end talent, and you got to that well. You mentioned Matty Peltola as a young DP. I don't believe he's going to even be classified as a young DP anymore, which should help.

sort of like dissuade people of the illusion that, oh, maybe he's going to be this top end MLS player. He's not. DC are going to have one DP on their roster all season long. That DP is going to be Christian Menteke. He's their star. They just don't have a lot of other juice around him. And so Lysane is trying to compensate for that.

And this DC team and the front office are trying to compensate for a lack of investment from ownership by saying, hey, let's be the most vertical, aggressive team we can be and see if that gets us results. I don't think it's going to get them a ton of new supporters, though. And I think that remains my frustration. I think...

The location of Audi Field and the area around it with the development put DC in a prime position to be a really, really successful franchise and kind of return to the roots of being a dominant team. And I just think, you know, this is a dead horse. We've talked about this a thousand times.

There was just an opportunity there that they haven't really embraced. And so instead, it will be direct. I think the diehards are going to love this team because they're going to fight and they're going to scrap and they're going to try to find a way to win and they're going to spring some upsets. But I think neutrals...

are not going to be pulled in necessarily by this team. And I think there's going to be games where if it's the right moment and they find a way to fight back and get a 95th minute equalizer or a 96th minute winner, some people will be swayed by this team.

But I think for every one of those games, there's likely to be more, oh, we went long again. And now the other team is stringing together passes for the next 10 minutes. Oh, we got it back. Oh, we went long again. And now the other team is stringing passes together. And I think...

It's an opportunity missed, and in an area that is going to get very hot and very humid in the summer, I'm also not sure how much never having the ball is going to play into their hands. What you should do, Taylor, is bring back the sack boy, Wayne Rooney. Work for Plymouth. You never know.

He did love DC by all accounts. His wife did, yeah. Did she even set foot in DC as he lived in the dormitories of his youth players? That was a weird story. That was a very strange story. That was a very strange story. His kids went to the school there, to be fair. I think he did settle down a little bit in DC. He loved the airport and drinking at it. That's what I heard. Anyway, let's go to a team who I think will probably accrue a few more points in DC United this season.

Miami, gather around your standing desks. Let's get into Miami, who will see in action on Tuesday in the CONCACAF Champions Cup against Sporting KC. They're at home to New York on the opener as well. Last year, I think we all know how Inter Miami did. They won the East with 74 points, an eight-point margin, a record league points tally. They won Supporter Shield, of course.

Against all expectation, though, dumped out in the first round of the playoffs against the aforementioned Atlanta in that bonkers best of three. Did it really happen? Series that Graham mentioned there. But improvement on the previous season, of course, where they didn't qualify for the playoffs, where Messi dragged them off the floor when he... arrived that previous season this season not only in MLS but they're playing the FIFA Club World Cup in that thoroughly

Well-earned berth in the FIFA Club World Cup. They're playing the opening match in Miami. They've got CONCACAF Champions Cup, of course, and League's Cup. So four contests for Inter... Why am I saying Inter? Inter-Miami this season. They're also playing their final year in... Fort Lauderdale at Chase Stadium, which of course is named after David Beckham's favourite member of the Paw Patrol. From 2026, they are going to Miami Freedom Park, which is kind of...

Near the airport in Miami. Lots of exciting stuff on the horizon for them. Even if Messi might not be there in 2026, we're not sure he's got his contract through the season. In terms of changes this coming season, big change, obviously, a new coach. Javier Mascherano, untested at club level. Argentina youth and Olympic coach was Javier Mascherano before this gig. Obviously, he's got a link with Leo Messi and the Barcelona contingent in this squad. The big X factor.

How can he hold this or can he hold this team together? Obviously lacks the relative experience of the likes of Tata Martino, lacks MLS experience, lacks. Club experience lacks experience of coaching experienced vets, let alone experienced vets who are his former colleagues and maybe friends where it might be a slightly difficult dynamic. Who knows? We'll see how that one pans out. That is an X factor. Front office moves. Bit of a revamp there, as mentioned by...

Graham, sporting director Chris Henderson left for Atlanta in December. Then last month, Raul Sanlehi was installed as president of Football Operations. Then in January... He got the boot as well. Sporty decisions at the club no longer his responsibility after reportedly getting on the wrong side of the boss of the team, Leo Messi. Guillermo Hoyos.

the former coach of Leo Messi at Barcelona's Academy has been brought in. Oh man, a Game of Thrones style drama would be so good for this team. I just, I'm sorry. It would be absolutely amazing. I don't think we'll ever see it. Paul. Please make your book amazing. I'm sure it will be. I just can't wait. There you go.

If only there was like, I don't know, like a league produced Drive to Survive documentary series that's maybe coming out, you know, I'm just spitballing here, you know. What's in all, Graham? What's in all? I'm sure it would be indeed. But obviously you're noticing a trend which has been happening since. Messi's arrival of Starfing being suited towards...

A couple of big squad moves. First to address the defensive fragility, we've got Gonzalo Lujan, who's come in from San Lorenzo in Argentina. He's a 23-year-old Argentine. Mascherano called him up to his Argentina youth side. should say so he's a known he is a known quantity to the coach at very least he's perceived to be a quality piece to help with that defensive uh fragility also in uh today allende is it allende joe i don't know sounded good it's double l allende i think it

will be right winger in from Celta Vigo on loan. He is 26. He's also Argentine. Imagine that. He's got an Italian passport as well. I think he's going to play a big role this season. More on that a little later on. That's eight Argentine players in the squad by my count. plus a coach and a sporting director.

We can see what's going on there. So they've retained a lot of key players, made some defensive reinforcements here. Veterans who've previously featured and won some top competitions in Europe. Decent young players coming to the Knicks as well. Good ingredients for a good time here. That's what I'm thinking down in South Florida.

How are they going to play? Give it Messi. Sincerely, if he stays fit and plays 25 games or so, I think they're going to smash it again. Mascherano, as I say, sort of an unknown... quantity but sort of you know the plan is attacking prowess in well that's what's been shown in pre-season anyway they did a tour of south america they had a 5-0 win and a 3-1 win so they ain't scared of getting forward that's for sure under mascherano uh last friday they played in tamper at raymond james stadium

against old Graham's spiritual home Orlando, a 2-2 draw there. Mascherone, obviously, as a player known for his defensive intelligence, so I'm probably expecting a balance of that defensive resilience with some offensive creativity, which you have at his hands here. And he's going to be there to sort of instill some tactical discipline. That's his disciplinarian is the way he's been sort of perceived so far. But also...

being able to adapt to the players he has. So I'm not sure how those two things sit together, but we'll see. You're a disciplinarian for everybody in the squad that's not named Leo Messi, Sergio Busquets, Jordi Albar, Luis Suarez, and then your friendly armor on the shoulder for those four guys.

Nailed it. There we go. So he's played a 4-4-2 in preseason. Messi and Suarez up top. Allende and Cremaci on the wings. You know, your Busquets and your Yannick Bright's in the middle. Jordi Albert left back, et cetera, and so on. Optimism for this team.

They've got the best player in the world. That kind of helps. That really helps. They've kept the core of the team together, as said. They're entertaining. They're very good. They should continue to do so. If I was to have concerns about Inter Miami, front office obviously seems like it would be a good Drive to Survive style.

drama at this point and as noted Mascherano the unknown quantity good he's the reputation he's got is he's known for good man management skills but Frank Lampard had those so you know um it's going to be dependent whether they take to his style whether this idea of more restraint and discipline will work well for veteran players who are former teammates of him as we said there'll be a bit of a divide there my very specific

Prediction for Inter Miami. It concerns the aforementioned Tadeo Allende. I am saying, Joe Lowry, he's going to get 18-plus goal involvements and will be an MLS All-Star this season. Tadeo Allende, write it down. I think...

He is set out for success in this team, particularly because of the 4-4-2. I think that's going to allow him to get forward to support those front two. I think he's going to bang in a ton of assists and get some goals himself. He's already scored twice in three preseason games. He is emerging for me as a big piece of the puzzle. I might be...

being far too bold and got too high on today. Allende stock right now, but this team's going to score a lot of goals. 18 plus goals. I have no objection to that. It's just that there is like, there are so many players on this team who are going to make the all-star vote.

ahead of him, just on name alone, that that's going to be the struggle I see in there. Ah, that's true. Good point, Taylor. Okay. I like that. Well, the VSP, because the main component is the 18 plus gold amongst. Could be nine and nine. You said it, you can't take it back. You got it. Oh, I was going to let you take the All-Star.

I believe you'll find in the TSS bylaws that one official rule is no takesies backsies. That's true. Donna, he's right. I forgot about that. Our lawyer said, why are you phrasing it that way? And I said, don't worry about it, dude. Exactly. Be quiet.

Ryan, I love that shout. I don't know. I haven't seen much of A&A. I do think he's going to play real minutes this year. They also bring in Fafa Pico this offseason from Vancouver. He was a free agent, I suppose. There's a lot to like about this Miami team. You've gotten at it well. The Mascherano thing, I think, is fascinating. Because I got to be honest, I really don't think his job is going to be very hard. At least not in terms of drilling tactics into this team. Because...

He's not going to do that. We know this Miami team is going to play. It's going to basically be the exact same way they played last year. The job is to manage minutes. And I suppose that is the difficulty. The job is to massage egos. I suppose that is the difficulty.

But the hope is that his connection with Messi makes all this a lot easier. I think tactically it's going to be basically a carbon copy of Tata Martino's Miami team because there's only so many ways that you can set out a team with Leo Messi and Luis Suarez who can't run anymore.

In this group, they're just going to score a bunch of goals, and the hope is that the defensive reinforcements. Also, you mentioned Lujan. You did not mention Max Falcon, who's coming into their back line as well. Yes, that's a real person. Yes, I love him so much. Miami are going to be awesome this year. That's great. Love a good bird name. Oh, yeah. Especially when it's Max Falcon. One very quick question. Joe, am I going over the top in my concern that Leo Campagna's gone?

And just like anecdotally, it seemed like whenever they needed someone to come in, when Messi was away at Copa America, which I know is not a factor this year, but just felt like he was glue in the attack where he scored a bunch of goals and just kept them moving forward.

He's obviously gone now. I know Pico, Fafa Pico's come in, but a bit more of like a wide forward than Campagna. It feels like in that sense, they're maybe weaker in my eyes. I think they are weaker at the backup nine spot. I think they're... are stronger in terms of overall attacking depth, if that makes sense. Bringing in Pico and Allende, they're going to have quality in that line of the field. I think we're going to see Leo Alfonso play some minutes as the backup nine this year.

I think it's a fair concern, Graham. It's not high on my list of things that could derail Miami season. I think it is far more likely that the defensive reinforcements just don't really hit. And maybe they take a little bit of attacking regression from last year where they were like way, way, way over their XG. Although you would expect some of that with Messi and Suarez. Maybe not quite as much as they had last year, but it is certainly something to watch, Grimm. It's a good flag. All right.

Joe Lowry, darling. We have one team left in part one of our Eastern Conference previews. It is Montreal. Won't you tell us about that? I would love to. Ryan, CF Montreal finished on 43 points last year, 8th in the Eastern Conference, 17th in Major League Soccer. Just one DP for them last year, which DC United fans are about to become very familiar with. That's not exactly new for CF Montreal, but it was Victor Wanyama.

was a complete non-factor for them in 2024. Despite that, Montreal still did enjoy a better than expected season under first-year manager Laurent Courtois. If you couldn't tell by my tone, that means the bar was in the basement and they just kind of barely stepped over that. They struggled during the...

first half of the year but had a fun streak to end the regular season that propelled them into one of the East's wildcard spots they were a very very long shot even like three weeks before decision day and they managed to hop up in there lots of fun on that last bit of the season Caden Clark

Bryce Duke showed some flashes of real quality as dual attacking midfielders in Courtois' 3-4-3. But it was Nathan Saliba, who we'll talk more about later, in midfield who stole the show really throughout last season.

even with some talented young pieces who did get to enjoy some extra time in the spotlight because ownership doesn't sign DPs. Those guys get lots of minutes, the young players. Even though they've got some of those pieces, Montreal just didn't have enough last year. They fell in the wild card to Atlanta United, but hey.

Guys, they weren't the only MLS team to fall to Atlanta United in the playoffs. So, you know, they had some decent company on that respect. What's changing the offseason? Joseph Martinez is gone. He scored 11 goals last year, is now in San Jose.

Victor Wanyama, the only DP, he's gone as well. The good news is there's a new DP. The bad news is he's a DP in name only. Giacomo Vrioni arrived for basically a bag of peanuts in a trade with the New England Revolution. He is a fine MLS starting striker. He is not really a high.

high-level designated player. On the player side, Jalen Neal comes in via a trade with the LA Galaxy. He'll be a U22 initiative player. Brandon Craig and Dante Seeley on the young player front are also in this team. We talked about them. on a recent episode of USMNT Weekly. Some MLS vets coming in as well, and Fabian Herbers and Prince Owusu. Wouldn't be surprised to see those guys play some pretty serious minutes this season. Really not a lot of inspiring...

I mean, they took a swing on a U-22 initiative player from the Ukrainian second division, which feels like the most Philadelphia Union thing ever. Somehow it happened in Montreal. The other thing I want to highlight as far as incomings go is Corey Ray, who is the new chief soccer officer for this team. He was named as a consultant last summer, had formerly been in the Columbus Crews front office, and he left when Tibes Bachenko left Columbus and Issa Tal was promoted to their...

So Ray left. He was in charge of a lot of the next pro stuff in Columbus and is generally regarded quite highly around major league soccer and the people that I talked to really like Corey Ray and like his eye for talent.

That's an encouragement if you're a Montreal fan. I really think that Ray can find some undervalued players from within the league and help them find real success in Montreal. So Ray is an interesting one to watch moving forward, both in Montreal and maybe his future around the league as well.

Tactically, we know Courtois wants the ball. He was the next pro coach in Columbus when Wilford Nancy was the manager there. Nancy, of course, is still there. Courtois was there before Nancy, but he absolutely does want possession. Only three teams in MLS last year played more short passes than Courtois' team.

That said, those short passes aren't really helping my Montreal progress into the final third in that 3-4-3. They finished just 19th in passes into the final third and dead last in MLS and passes into the 18-yard box, according to FB ref. So tons of short passes.

Not a lot of passes into the final third. Very, very, very few passes. League worst in terms of getting the ball into the box. In year two of the Courtois project in Montreal, I would expect them to show improvement in the final third with those last patterns, the kill patterns that I mentioned earlier.

But it's going to be limited because there just aren't high-level attacking players in this team. And that's kind of what you need to make consistent, impactful runs and movements in the final third. Reasons for optimism. I guess there really aren't. If you define reasons for optimism as...

Things that lead to teams winning trophies. Like maybe they can win the Canadian championship. That's basically a three horse race every year. And Montreal are going to be probably tied for Toronto as underdogs after Vancouver this season.

They're not going to win stuff this year in Montreal. For Montreal, you simply have to define success differently than you do for basically every other team in this league. They don't spend, they spend less on the first team than every team, literally every team in Major League Soccer. They spent the last two seasons with one DP. They're going to do that.

that this year you can have up to three, Montreal do not. And they don't spend transfer fees on those DPs either. It's just not there. So I guess I did the negatives there more than the positives. This team's not gonna win anything and they're probably not gonna be very good. If you're looking for actual optimism, and if you're a Montreal fan listening to this and you're like, wow, this is going to suck, you're probably right.

The optimisms are more aesthetic than they are anything else. You meant that this is the point, Joe, and you're meant to give them a fig leaf. Here we go, fig leaf. Nathan Saliba really is awesome. He's got a Premier League level ceiling, 20 years old, so well-rounded. going to be in that double pivot as an every game starter for montreal for as long as he's here he is truly

Excellent. Like he is one of the best young players in all of major league soccer. He's going to make Montreal several million dollars, which is awesome. I can't wait to see them invest that into the first team. Laurent Courtois system is really fun. And I do like watching this team. They want the ball.

There's a lot of Wilford Nance-esque vibes to how this team plays. And they're going to be quite good and fun moving the ball out of the back. It's just the final third where this is going to all be let down. And this is the team of Americans. Jalen Neal, George Campbell, Caden Clark, Bryce Duke, Brandon Craig, Dante Seeley.

who was just a real one for U.S. Youth National Team fans out there. There's a lot of U.S. angles to watching this team, and there's a lot of young talent. And I like watching players develop and get better, and that is going to be an option when you watch Montreal this year. My VSP.

For CF Montreal, they're going to finish 2025 as the youngest team in Major League Soccer. And that's based off of FB refs average age metric, which is weighted by minutes played. So if you've got a bunch of kids on your roster, technically, and they don't play.

You don't really count as a young team according to this metric from FBRF. I really like this concept. Montreal finished 2024 as the third youngest team in MLS behind the New York teams. This year with Neal's arrival and Saliba's continued emergence, they've got Jekyll Marshall Ruddy who's going to play on the right side.

with those two younger Americans kind of in the half spaces underneath most likely of Rioni. Then you got that back three of Neil and Campbell and Jill Waterman probably in that group as well. That's a really, really young core to this team. They're going to claim that crown of youth for themselves in 2025 if they won't actually be claiming a lot of trophy trophies. there you go another note of optimism for Montreal fans listening Joe is done talking about your team now

So that's one thing. You've got that. I'd like to think that Montreal fans are able to listen to this and just like they're pumping their fists. Like, yes, this guy is saying all the things we're thinking because this is the experience of being a Montreal fan. It's...

It's not fun. Like, they're not a good team. The ownership does not care about putting out a winning product on the field. And that sucks. Like, if you're a fan of Montreal, that really, really stinks. And I wish things were different. I wish things were better. And they're just not. All right.

On that sunny note, let's conclude our Eastern Conference preview. Part one, part two coming to the feed very shortly indeed. But for now, Taylor Rocco, thank you very much indeed for your analysis and research. Thank you for all of that, my friend. Well, that sounds lovely. Graham Rodman, thank you very much indeed for your contributions. Thank you, Graham Bailey. And Joe Lowry, a pleasure as always. Your sartorial prowess.

is amazing as always wow really upped the word game there on the last on the last after ryan really enjoyed this thanks guys i couldn't say the word amazing so i had to slip in sartorial just to sort of it was a good rebound ryan well played thanks Much appreciated. Listener, thank you very much for joining us on this one. As noted, part two of our Eastern Conference previews hit in the feed very shortly. But for now, bye!