Why didn’t MLS change its calendar? Plus, a blockbuster trade & teams we’re worried about | MLS Update

I'm Dane Brugler. I cover the NFL Draft. for the athletic our draft guide picked up the name the beast because of the crazy amount of information that's included i'm looking at thousands of players putting together hundreds of scouting reports

I've been covering this year's draft since last year's draft. There is a lot in The Beast that you simply can't find anywhere else. You can get The Beast and all the great coverage my colleagues do by subscribing to The Athletic. You can do that at theathletic.com. And welcome to the Total Soccer Show. It is a Tuesday, which means it's time to talk Major League Soccer. My name is Taylor Rockwell.

We've got good teams getting better and bad teams staying bad, getting worse, marginally improving. We'll find out here with me to do so. Our two lovely friends up first, a man who knows. that modeling things after Europe is a slippery slope to bicycles and baguettes and a uniform system of weights and measures.

It's Joe, no European calendar for me, Lowry. Hi, Joe. Hey, Taylor. Yeah, I'm going to have a hard time yes-ending that because all the things you mentioned are great and I've been painted as a hater of all of those things. I'm disappointed in my newfound hatred for baguettes and that's all I have to say.

There we go. All right. Thank you for rolling with it, Joe. Rounding out the crew is our man in Minnesota, a fellow who knows that winters up north are totally fine, and a February game in Minneapolis-St. Paul is basically the same as Miami in September. It's Jeff Reuter. Hi, Jeff. Like never, ever discount like just the visceral thrill as you see the orange balls get rolled out and you're just like, they shouldn't be playing this game.

And that's what we've been deprived. Go ahead, Jeff. I was wondering, Jeff, do people, do Minnesota United fans still think about it and are they still scarred by that? What was that, like a 5-1, 6-1 loss to Atlanta with the orange ball? way back in 2017 or whatever year that was. Does that still stick in the minds of Minnesota fans?

It sticks in, but it's more fond. It's actually become something where it's just like it was our rubbish debut, but it was our rubbish debut. And I think it helped that. 90% of that starting lineup left the club within 16 months, if in some cases like three. So it wasn't really like the players that you still have to watch over and over, except for like a couple of exceptions like Francisco. So I think mostly it's fond memories. Yeah. Good. Yeah.

so that we can go straight into the weeds right away. Because orange ball, 5-1 losses, Francisco Calvo, feels like we are on brand immediately. We are so bad. We are not on a European calendar, as my introduction suggested. The MLS Board of Governors voted last week not. to introduce the European calendar. At this point, they authorized a second phase of exploration into a potential move to the international soccer calendar.

Joe, why is that the most MLS sentence I've read? Maybe not ever, but at least this season. Because it is. Yeah, it 100% is the most MLS-y send-ins of all time. I saw this and wrote about it a little bit for backheeled and had the exact same reaction that you did. If you'd asked ChatGPT...

to come up with something that was in the voice of Major League Soccer as an entity. This is what it would have come up with. This is not a surprise, right? I don't think that it... seemed clear what mls was going to do on this calendar topic i don't think there was a clear right or wrong frankly on this calendar topic i know i'm supposed to come up with with maybe i'm supposed to come up with a take on

I have a hard time doing that. I see real benefits. I kind of appreciate that you're not. I think the nuance is important. I see real benefits to both sides, right? The weather stuff is a legitimate concern. And my sense of all this is that one of the biggest obstacles for MLS getting this done... is the investment that we need to come from teams in cold weather markets to actually be able to train through the winter and to go out there. And I talked with Ernst Tanner about this.

to install under pitch heating for you know places that don't have that and to get he called it a field house like to get all of your your winter equipment ready to rock and roll and that costs money and then he tossed in the fact that some of these teams are losing home games in winter markets in the best time of the year

And I think there was conversation from owners about, hey, how are we going to get made right with all these changes, aka who's going to be paying us and compensating us for our difficulty here? I think that's a huge part of why MLS. wasn't able to get this over the line, even though it seems there's clear interest from a number of parties inside the league to accomplish this.

The biggest thing that frustrates me in all of this and the thing that I have a hard time understanding outside of the fact that there's lots of evidence from Major League Soccer that points to exactly what happened being exactly what was always going to happen. The thing that I struggle with is. Why did this meeting about this topic happen last Thursday when the World Cup is just over a year away?

If you're concerned about, hey, how are we going to get infrastructure in place in cold weather markets? How are we going to make these decisions? It's not like you just learned you were hosting a World Cup yesterday. It's not like you just learned about it on Wednesday and met on Thursday. You learned this, I believe it was back in 2018, where the World Cup was given to the USA, Mexico, and Canada.

And at this point, the United States and excuse me, Major League Soccer has done nothing at any like league wide calendar level specifically. to try and capitalize on the back of the momentum from 26. If we're going to make this calendar change, the time to do it is next summer, where you get out of people watching a World Cup and into watching your league. That makes so much sense to me. I'm not necessarily thinking that MLS couldn't do this down the line. They may well still do this.

But this was the moment to do it. If you were convinced that there was a merit to this idea, it's not to do it in 27 or to do it in 28 or to do it in 30, whatever. It's to do it in 26. And that's not gonna happen. I will say, though, if you're trying to get the post-World Cup bump, wouldn't you rather throw them the like...

homestretch of the regular season in the playoffs than the start of the regular season? Like if you're just thinking like when is MLS its most entertaining, right? I don't think many people think it's like right now. until you get to what the last two years has been after the League's Cup break, right? And then you get to the final 10 regular season games in the playoffs. I think that that tends to be MLS's best soccer because...

your squads are in a better state of construction. You've had more time together to work through the rough patches. The stakes feel more real than they do right now, right? Like you can make the playoffs by getting three points from your first 10 games in this league. It's happened. So, like, I don't know if the urgency is necessarily like we needed our home openers to come right after the World Cup. But I think it is, to Joe's point, a clear lack of time.

to get everything massaged and figured out so that the owners of Whether it is the cold weather climates, whether it is the lower spending ones, whether it's the ones that have less to benefit from in the global transfer market, because I do still think that that is like such a outsized driver of this. exploration is how this would change up.

global transfer market um until you get all of those answered like don't rush it it's it's like kind of a ludicrous thing to be like we're gonna vote and we're gonna like install this to start in four Right. Like I know that that is now what the what we've seen with either expansion clubs or like the USL launching leagues, things like that. There isn't that build out phase. And I think that actually a lot of the products suffer for it. because there isn't time to build that organic interest.

really refine that first impression. I think if you're not going to do it right, you might as well just give people your best window of soccer. Yeah, I totally agree with everything you just said outside of maybe where I would hook people in the season. I think hooking them at the start does make sense, but I hear what you're saying. The thing that...

That is still kind of mind-boggling to me, but again, not because we know that this is how MLS operates, is that they had so long to build to this point, and they had so many years worth of data to use. And they just take the can down the road until right before and then said, oh, we can't do it. Right. I think all they did was announce that they have the discovery rights to the European calendar. Oh, guys, we found this. They may or may not activate. Yeah.

They've had seven years since the World Cup was announced as coming to North America. to go and decide to do this and they waited until the last minute they procrastinated and they and they couldn't get it done and that's again i'm not saying that that is the worst thing in the world i'm just saying if you're seriously considering this

I guess that's what I'm saying because you're not seriously considering it this close to the World Cup. And that's where MLS landed. We have tons of evidence at this point that even though the league I think is growing, I truly believe that the quality of play in this league.

is better than it has ever been. And I think that soccer is better. There are really good stories in this league. There are things about MLS that are worth covering, but we have enough evidence that says they have a really hard time getting momentum across their 30 ownership groups to actually make...

seismic change happen to the point where it's clear that they're just not interested in doing that stuff. Like, otherwise they would have operated differently. If they were seriously interested in making a wholesale change to how the league works, they would have done it.

I think that's what confuses me about this. It felt like it started to get leaked. It started to get reported that they were going to vote on it. This was going to be a source of conversation and then there would be a vote. And it felt like the momentum was building towards.

They kind of are going to do this. I thought it was a foregone conclusion, if I'm being totally honest. And maybe that's just my own ignorance and naivete. But I felt like, okay, they're going to vote. It's going to happen. Here we go. Here's the plan.

I guess do vote or don't vote, but it doesn't end up being the plan. And they vote on the like, yeah, maybe one day, possibly if the can lands in a space where we feel comfortable after kicking it, then we will possibly consider it. Why did they even talk about it? Why was this even on the table if they were never going to? No, it's a great question. It really is. Because I think you're right, like your instinct that.

if it's being hyped up ahead of time by, like, as someone who, like, you know... when, when these things come to light worth reporting, it's usually because like Jeff just dancing down that. Go ahead, Jeff. Absolutely. Absolutely. But I'm from the Midwest and I'm used to it. Uh, They get excited. They sense it. They want to get it out there and build interest in it because they've heard that the vote is coming and they've been given.

could be consequential and they want to draw attention to it. Right. And so when that sort of stuff happens and there's no payoff, I mean, like it's, it's, it's. It's not even concepts of a plan, right? Like, it's just like a really confusing sort of where is your focus? This seemed like this must have been the big ticket item. that we've been waiting for since Lionel Messi arrived as well, by the way.

to like fundamentally change this league's fates forever so this must have been it because that's that's the make weight here is that we also it's not just the world cup it's messy and now we do have more time you know according to my colleague david ornstein he's extension to stay at least through 2026 um that's great but like

You have so many factors right now that say this is when you evolve it. And this is when you make your big dramatic swings. You make your radical changes, unlike anything MLS has really done before at a macro level. since its launch or since, you know, like a designated player rule, I guess you could maybe say as well. So for it to just kind of come out as like a. It's underwhelming. You know, it's not inspiring necessarily.

like the person Don Garber necessarily cares about with this type of news. Because I think he's trying to bring in the broader fan, the new fan, whatever it may be. But I think from my perspective, there is a seems to be a growing concern that the league is not doing enough to capitalize on the presence of Lionel Messi now, even if they are promoting it and spotlighting him constantly, that they're not doing enough to then kind of grow from there.

Then we get USL potentially theoretically implementing ProRel in the near future. And it feels like they're taking swings. They're making moves. And so this feels maybe this is incorrect, but from my perspective, this feels like another sort of like, no, not yet. No, we're going to wait. We just want to make sure everything's perfect and we want to make sure everything's and it feels like decision by committee over and over again.

From a mindset of we don't want to risk messing up what we have now. So we're scared to kind of make a change. And maybe that is unfair. But that's what it keeps feeling like to me. And that's where some of my frustration comes from is a feeling that. The league isn't really doing anything to make changes, to feel like it is kind of keeping up with the times and trying to evolve. It feels like they are.

comfortable with the status quo as it is or at the very least afraid of upsetting that apple cart and so here we are i mean i think you're right with a lot of that taylor i do think and I try not to do this, I do think we all probably still discount the progress that MLS is making. Like, truly. I'm not trying to come off as defending MLS and all this stuff. Again, I think the timing of all this on the calendar stuff was a little ridiculous, frankly.

As far as the quality of the league is concerned, if that's the thing that we're concerned about. It's getting better. Transfer records are getting broken all the time to the point where when a player moves for eight figures, we don't bat an eye. Like Atlanta United signed Miguel Amarone, and I know this is anecdotal. They signed Miguel Amarone for eight figures, and we're like, yeah, okay.

That's cool. Kevin Denke signs for FC Cincinnati for $16 million. And we don't blink, right? The league is so clearly getting better. And to bring back a conversation we were having pre-show, Taylor, I know you and Graham were talking about the J-League the other day on Soccer 101. And there were some comparisons between the J-League and MLS. And I don't watch the J-League. I'm not trying to claim that I do.

But I think it is so easy to discount MLS as not a top five league in the world, but MLS is improving truly every season or over from five seasons to the next. The league is in so much of a better spot to the point where I don't necessarily find, I have a hard time poking holes in owners saying, hey, we want to be careful with what we're going to do.

Again, I have no issue with trying to do your due diligence and all this. It is just the timing that I think really stings. So I think the status quo for MLS is not standing still. The status quo for MLS is that they're getting better truly every season.

It's just at what rate is that actually happening? And if people were hoping that Messi was going to come in and they were going to hit the accelerator button, that clearly like really hit it to the point where, hey, we're now the fifth best league in the world. That clearly is not going to happen. And I can understand some frustration there. But to MLS's credit, the product is just so obviously better and there are more stakes now on a spending front than there have.

Joe, we're coming to the end of the initial. Transfer window, whatever the actual terminology is for that one. Joe mentioned, excuse me, Jeff mentioned concerns about the transfer window and the like in relation to the European calendar or the lack thereof. That's another thing that I think you were discussing in your piece about this. failed vote, failure to vote, whatever you want to go with. Can you talk a bit about your concerns regarding transfer wins?

Yeah, so the whole, the reason why I would have shifted the calendar, if I could control everything and also change the weather, I'd also make it cooler in Phoenix while we're at it. If I could do all those things, I think the most compelling reason to change the calendar... outside of playoff timing, is aligning ourselves with the transfer windows for the best leagues in the world. So right now, MLS's primary transfer window runs up until April 23rd. So it is just over a week from today.

Who else is doing business in April in global soccer? Nobody. MLS's summer transfer window closes on August 21st, 23rd. Don't have the dates in front of me. It closes a good week plus before the transfer window closes. From what it used to be. What's that?

And that's later than it used to be. Like they changed that to make it closer and it's still off. Right. It's still off. And so what happens, especially in the summer, which is when South America is doing the biggest chunk of their business, it's when the Western European leagues are doing the biggest chunk of their business. MLS taps out a good week plus before the end of their transfer deadline. And so if an MLS team wants to go sign a good player from a good league over there,

then they have to pay a premium because other teams have no incentive to sell outside of you putting another bundle of cash on the desk for them. They have no incentive to sell because they could wait another week plus and see if they get a better offer, right? So... It is so difficult right now that MLS's busiest transfer window is in the winter and in every other major league in the world.

That is not the case, or at least the leagues that MLS is really trying to chase. That is not the case. They do their business in the summer. And right now, the transfer windows in American soccer, not just MLS, because this is governed by U.S. soccer and a bit by Canada soccer because there are MLS teams in Canada. The transfer windows that MLS are dealing with cut them out of a huge chunk of that business. And so when you hear Zoran Croneta in Charlotte or Chris Albright in Cincinnati,

talk about the transfer windows. They're advocating for the summer one, especially to go later into the season. But then to tie the calendar discussion back in, and I promise I'm almost done, when you are trying to go and make big moves in the summer, even if US soccer and Canada soccer can play ball and they get the transfer window extended in the summer to September 5th or whatever. So you're hanging around till the end and even a few days longer.

than Spain and England and Germany and France and the Netherlands, right? If you're doing that, that's great for business for Major League Soccer teams. You go and sweep up the dregs at the end of the window, you're still playing ball all the way till the end of the window. That's great. The bad news is in the current MLS calendar, your season's basically over and you have maybe six, seven regular season games left.

You're essentially not even signing a player for that season. You're signing them for the next season. So it's a mess. The transfer window stuff is a mess. And it is one of the key inhibitors to MLS growing at a rate that is even faster than what. There is also like one more major missed opportunity that I'll tack on, like to the scenarios you listed where a European club missed on their top targets or couldn't afford them got priced out.

Or a player picked up an injury in the first game of the regular season in mid-August, right? And they need to bring in someone else who is on their list. And maybe a player in MLS is on their list. And so you're getting close to the end of August or September 1st. And you're saying...

Obed Vargas. Well, if Seattle is, they've just closed their window, right? So they're done. They can't bring in another player from abroad, right? They can go for free agent route, I think is still available until the roster freeze, but. Like that's it. That's that's your entire mechanism. And so.

you can't even bring in Aaron Malloy from the USL. And so you're looking and you're saying, OK, maybe no, it's not time, right? Like you just talk yourself into it's not time for us to get rid of Obed Vargas because we cannot. Replace it and we're our level as we're getting close to the postseason the most important part of our schedule

Sorry, ship left the dock. Like we can't possibly move him on. And so then the player's career suffers for it a little bit. Right. If this was their best chance to make that move that they have aspired to in their careers, the team maybe loses out on the highest possible valuation of the player. So you can see where like. not being able to replace makes it even harder to sell.

And so that's where that summer window in particular, I think, really needs to get sorted out, even if they're going to keep the calendar the way it is. And by the way, I'm a calendar flipping skeptic. That won't surprise anyone just based out of St. Paul. Yeah, I think that that is a part of it. The transfer windows that I think is actually where they would see more tangible benefit immediately than just changing the entire season.

All right. Well, I think we all had discussing transfer windows and dates and weather in the opening segment. So let's take a break. We'll come back and we'll talk about some actual MLS action, including some transfers that have happened. One in particular.

Welcome back to the Total Soccer Show. Joe, I'm coming to you for this one because it's about Columbus and happy things in Columbus. We still have the primary window open until April 23rd, I believe. Do I get my dates and my names correct? You both smiled in a grimacing way. One point, Taylor. April 23rd. Okay. All right. All right. April 23rd. Primary window. Cool. And in this current window, Columbus have gotten, I'm going to say better, and Philly have made a choice, Joe.

Yes, that's true across the board. I think this whole deal is fascinating. And I'm very curious to hear what you all think about. So to lay the foundation, the Columbus crew traded with a cash trade. They traded for Daniel Gazdag from the Philadelphia Union for $4 million up front, another $500,000 in conditional money. No idea what those add-ons are. I'm guessing they're fairly achievable. This makes, in the short term, I'm going to just state the obvious stuff and then we can get into more.

In the short term, Columbus just straight up added a dude. They get better. Philly lost a dude. They get worse, right? That is like the simplest way to view this trade in terms of 2025. Thank you. There are two things from the Columbus perspective.

The first is, was it the best possible move for the Columbus crew to make? And the second is, how does Daniel Gosdok fit into this team? And we got a preview of that on Sunday in the crew's 2-1 win over St. Louis. But the first question, was it the best possible move in this window? At that price tag, $4 million for a guy who's on the last guaranteed year of his deal. Maybe not. It is not outlandish, that fee. It's not outlandish, this deal.

But he wants to raise Daniel Gazdag. That's why he didn't end up sticking around in Philly anyway. You assume Columbus are going to give it to him. And he's never been a truly elite DP in Major League Soccer. So it's not like the crew just got a best 11 caliber guy. Daniel Gazdag is not. But the thing about this move for Columbus that I do respect, they're going for it. Like they lost Cucho. They were trying to find a piece in South America. It seemed like that didn't end up working out.

So they go to plan B or plan C or, you know, wherever we are at this point. And I do respect that because they have a window to win trophies now. While Wilfred Nance is in Columbus, they are in contention to win trophies. And they were sort of on the fringes of that a little bit as we talked about, what was that, last week with our Eastern Conference spying and selling.

Sort of on the fringes of that. But if you really want to go for it and you want to win now and you couldn't land an international target, or maybe you just don't want to wait for an international guy to adjust. to the league at this point when you're halfway through april

acquiring Gazdog does make sense. So I don't think this is like the greatest genius Issa Tal move of all time, but I think it's a good move for Columbus in the short term. And I think they're going to resign him to a deal. And as long as Wilfred Nance is there, he's going to be a really useful piece.

A couple of things. One, like factually, he is the best 11 guy. He made it in 2022. But I know your point, which is that like. Well played. It is. It is more about is he going to be now? Are you looking at Daniel Gazdog right now and saying he is going to be better than Lucho Acosta and Leon Omen?

if Hani Mukhtar has a resurgence, like you and Albert Rusnak, Christian Espinoza, right? Like blame some guys. So like, I get what you're saying on that one. And I do agree with you on it. I think what works really well about Kazda. is that he is a profile who benefits from a quality of player around him. And so I think that if you add that Kucho replacement... it can still work. I don't think that this prohibits them and precludes them from signing a guy like that in the summer.

Gazdag can still fit in. I think he's an upgrade over who they were starting, right? I think that he does raise the level of that line right beneath the striker, which I think is vital. to pick up results and not make them, you know, all squeakers. So that's good. But I think you look at Gosdog in Philly this year, right? And there's a couple of things that I love about Dana. Since he joined MLS in 2021, he is the second leading goal scorer, only behind Hani Mukta.

63 goals. 24 of those have been penalties. Which is eight more penalties converted than any other player in Major League Soccer, namely Hani Mukhtar. So, like, he scores an outsized number of penalties. He has scored 24 of his 25 attempts. The only one that he has missed was a safe opinion. I think that you also look at someone who is a better system fit for a possession system.

than he certainly would be with that sort of smash and grab carnell ball um you you actually look and and pass accuracy is such an incomplete statistic right it just doesn't tell you about like the the the ambition of the passing the where the receiver was Daniel Gosdog's past completion rate lowered with every single performance.

So he went from like 91% to 86% to 84% to 82% to 75% to 69%. Like he was not a great fit for how Carnell wants them to play. And I think that you're also going to be able to get more out of him when you move him. He can create chances, which again, bodes well for if they do go on and bring a key piece in the summer to try to catalyze a playoff push. But I think now maybe you're looking for someone who.

more creative and more um also going to be one of those kind of 10 and 10 or even like an 8 and 15 guy over a full season then maybe you're looking for someone who's like We're talking here. So I like the move. I like it a lot. I think Gazdag is a very curious player and very like one of one in MLS in a way. He's not Evander. He's not Lucho Acosta, who I think like those cash transfers made sense.

But I think that this is another validation of the cash transfer system that a player like Daniel Gazdag can be moved to an MLS Cup contender. Yeah, it's a win for that rule, certainly to keep talent inside of Major League Soccer. There's no doubt in my mind about that.

I think you're totally onto something, Jeff, with talking about how Gosdog is a curious player. That's one of the reasons why I like this move so much is he is one of one in this league, where we might quibble a little bit about his fit in a possession team, even if we're going to get to the same point.

Maybe I'm doing new math and you're doing old math. I don't know. We're going to get to the same answer. I don't know how new math works, by the way. I missed all that. But we're going to get to the same place. But I think, I think God's dog is going to be good in Columbus in a possession based team because Nancy is like otherworldly at teaching that stuff.

I don't think we've seen a lot in Philly that tells me, hey, this guy's going to be a dangerous in-possession player. And that might not be his fault because Philly never really did that stuff when he was there. They didn't. But the guy... Really has been so reliant on penalties. And you mentioned him as a chance creator. In 2024, he was in the 38th percentile in expected assisted goals. The 19th percentile for touches in the attacking third among his positional peers.

Like the guy was not demanding the ball. And I think that was still mostly a team-centric thing. But Gosdug is like, in some ways, a really weird fit for a crew team that is the, you know, one of the most possession-oriented teams in this league.

I think it's still probably going to work out just fine because of how good the crew are and how good Nancey is at his job. But Gosdug is a really unique player with all the penalties, with his movement off the ball and how that's been kind of the centerpiece of his game rather than the on-ball stuff.

Like you would expect of a, you know, I've always said this guy's a best 11 player. So, I mean, like you would expect of a 2022 best 11 player, he is much more off ball than on ball in a lot of ways. And I guess quickly to look at the union side of all this. Yeah, please. In some ways.

I don't really blame Philly for this. Four and a half million dollars for a guy in the last guaranteed year of his deal is pretty good business, like in a vacuum. That's pretty good business. And with the stats that we mentioned where if you strip out the penalties, and I did this for back yield, if you strip out the penalty. He's averaged almost less than a third of a goal every 90 minutes in Philadelphia. So if you multiply that over a 2,500-minute season, he has a nine-goal-a-year play.

That doesn't get you on best 11 lists. Scoring nine goals a year doesn't get you on the all-star roster, right? So... He's a weird player. And for Philly, in the system they want to play that is built off of energy rather than needing quality on the ball, if you can get $4 million from one of your players and go use that somewhere else... that's that's great um at the same time this makes philly worse to state the blindingly obvious and

Sending this dude to your direct trophy competition? Yeah, that's not great. And doing it in the middle of the season where they're not going to go out and add another player before the primary window. And if you want to make a move, and Ernst Tanner said they'd be open to doing it in the summer if they need it.

You're in the summer. And as we talked about in the last segment, your season's basically over. So for Philly, in my mind, this absolutely drops them down, like an entire tier of teams in the Eastern Conference. Even if I understand the logic behind this trade, and even if I concede, and I will. that Ernst Tanner has done a better job of turning over rosters than almost anybody in his position in the league.

You move on from Harris Baduninen, you sign Jose Martinez. You move on from Jose Martinez, you sign Jovan Lukic. You move on from Julian Carranza, you got Ty Barribo waiting in the wings. You move on from Bedoya, or try to, you got younger players coming in in central midfield. He's nailed a lot of that stuff. And the Philadelphia Union have been a very good team by and large since he's been there.

If you're a Philadelphia Union fan, this is a classic example of your ownership's unwillingness to spend on the first team roster or maybe even some slightly poor succession planning here from Philly. They signed India Navasilev early on in this window and that's their God's dog replacement. I don't know. So this one's a hard one to swallow for Philly. I see some of the logic behind it, but the timing more than anything else, I think just kills.

Do you think they do anything in the transfer window with the time remaining, Joe? Or do you think they kind of stay as they are? They really did sign Vasilev as their Gosdog replacement. And Vasilev's not a bad player in this league, but I don't think he does much as well as Daniel Gosdog does.

Yeah, I think they're done in this window. It's going to be him. It's going to be the Academy kids trying to fill in at that spot. And if they need to make a move, and I don't know if they will or not, right? Like, I don't know if their production drop-off is going to be so stark that we're all, you know, clamoring for them to go out there and sign another 10. But if they do make that move, it's going to come.

Are there any teams that you think will be particularly busy between now and the end of the window? Jeff, is this where we talk about Julian Russell again? We should. I mean, we really should. The hard part is the precedent is that teams don't. Teams like at this point are like, I've made my... It's like the gods like move actually comes pretty late in the window. Um, Gressel's right there, man.

I am still blown away. Inter-Miami isn't on the rundown, so this is kind of a little bit of a side tangent. not one that's going to cut into anything else we talk about. The lack of rotation for Inter Miami is going to, is a very calculated gamble by Javi Mascherano that like risks. just given the mileage on a lot of the players legs we're going to be asked to like go like 90 minutes right after an international break and like

You hold Lionel Messi from Argentina camp to nurse an injury and then immediately you send him into Chicago for 90 full minutes. Just stuff like that where it's great. You want to have your best players on the field as long as possible. you build a squad of alternatives in the position. And I understand not every team has two options, two starting caliber options at every position, especially in MLS, given its salary cap and its roster restrictions, slots and all that sort of stuff.

You do have other players who can play minutes and certainly are being paid for the opportunity to do so and signed to contracts because they would like to play minutes. So, you know, I think Julian Gressel is the most glaring. I think in goal that switch away from Drake Callender also. not looked inspired either um but i think gressel is a player who's a proven winner he's won i think pretty much everything you can win in north american soccer um from major league soccer's perspective anyway so

He fits a lot of different roles. You can put him in the midfield. You can put him on the wing. You can put him at, like, I would only do an advanced wing back. wingback or anything like that i don't think that that's his game at this point but um if there was one player who could raise a team instantly from within the league who is very like obviously out of favor from his current club, I think.

Yeah, I think Gressel is a name to watch. I think there are two teams that really come to mind for me as teams to watch. RSL is one of them. And Tom Bogert's already reported that they're interested in signing a striker from Boavista. Shout out Boavista, cash and checks instead of trying to pay them. Maybe that'll go better for them. And they clearly have a need. And I've talked with Pablo Mastareni about this.

they're looking for a striker. Like, they're not making any bones about this. They made it very clear. They'll sign somebody before the deadline on Wednesday. The other team I would really watch is Atlantis. who I think are probably going to make a move as well. I don't know if that's going to be Gressel. There's been some interest in Julian Gressel, and Gressel has talked about before he'd like to stay.

On the East Coast, it seems like that stance maybe has softened a little bit as a move has not come and he's still not getting to play soccer. But Atlanta is the other one. And I'm not as confident that they're going to make a move as I am about RSL. sure of it but they have not collected points uh very well this season so far atlanta i think it's clear that they still have a lot of things to iron out they're a team that i think is worthwhile

I will say on RSL, that is late. You let go of Christian Arango last year, and you're just getting around to replacing your starting striker? Yep. This is why we were worried about them. It's a lot of uncalculated gambles and now ownership's floating. And that's been the issue. from what I've heard and from what others have talked about as well.

Kurt Schmidt very much would have liked to have signed a striker and problem master any months ago. And when you're going through an ownership change as RSL are right now, and I think there's probably going to be some movement on that that come in sooner rather than later. And you don't know what your budget is. You don't know where the money's coming from or who it's coming from.

It's hard to go out there and make moves. So I wrote this for back yield already this year. I wrote that if they didn't sign somebody before Wednesday's deadline, I think their season's over. We saw this last year when you're trying to go and add pieces so late in the window.

You can't do it, right? It's just, it's not an effective way. St. Louis waited and they needed pieces. The Rebs waited, they needed pieces and neither of those teams made the playoffs, right? So RSL needs somebody and even then they still need somebody. Jeff, going back to Julian Grasso for a moment, if he were going to stay on the East Coast and move to one of his former clubs, If he asked you, would you advise him to stay in Miami where he is not playing or move to DC United? I would say...

It's better for your career to be playing games than not. So you should go to DC United. Joe, would you agree with that? I mean, yeah, I think Russell needs to go somewhere. Assuming he wants to keep playing soccer, which I would imagine.

You probably want to go somewhere where you're actually going to play. That it would take him back to a club where he's already been and that that club would happen to also be DC United and not say the Vancouver Whitecaps, where I think that would be a much more fun place to be right now.

Yeah, it's not great. It's not great. I just got to ask you guys, like, does your mind ever do this thing where it accidentally photoshops players into jerseys and you swear that they've played there? It was a specific Whitecaps jersey. that they wore that was kind of blocky, that the Revolution has also worn. So in my mind, Julian Gressel had a brief stint with the New England Rebs. He has never played a game there. He has never played a game there. Not for those reasons, but I did.

Just check to make sure he had never played for New England specifically. So yes, I guess in that way, we came to the same incorrect theoretical conclusion. I think talking about Julian Gressel not moving to DC United, which I don't think he should do, is the way I'm going to clunkily transition us to talk about some of the struggling teams in the league, is how I'll put it. Because we've talked about...

Buying or selling Western Conference contenders. We've done the same with the East. Let's talk about some teams that we don't think are maybe going to be contenders. And let's go ahead and start with DC United. Here's what people are saying.

This DC team is an absolute disaster. Even with one of the most dominant goal scorers MLS has ever seen up front, this is simply not a functional team. Their rest defense is shambolic. Their build-out is predictable. Their press is increasingly easy to play through.

Pablo Amar. Benteke is absolutely the best player to have ever been squandered by an MLS team, in my opinion. Could make a case for Zlatan, but, curse word, those Galaxy teams weren't pitiful. And my buddy Patrick, who's been a DC supporter since they... were founded, and I think it's been a much more loyal follower, every game watcher since 2007. He said, I think this might be the worst DC United team I've ever seen, and I could not come up with one off of the top of my head to challenge that.

And there have been some bad DC United teams in their history. There have been some very good ones, but there have been some very bad ones. Jeff, how bleak are things? Let's talk it out. Quite. I think that you look at the squad as it's constructed. You're in year two of a sporting director, right? So Allie McKay came over from Nashville. And so ostensibly, you would assume that they are still in the...

work out from the predecessor's contract phase of the rebuild. But they did make some changes. I think what was interesting is that last year, seemingly, they're too... Their best like consistent, not chance creator, but line breaking threat was their goalkeeper. And then they let him go. And he's at Knott's County in League Two right now. Shout out Tyler Miller. And so you didn't find another player who is among the best lawn. long ball distributive goalkeepers in MLS.

You've lost actually one of your crucial ways that you created chances from what did look like an unsustainable methodology to begin with. So that's not a great place to start. I agree with all of the kind words that are being said about Christian Benteke. He deserves nothing but the best, and he certainly deserves better than the team.

They lost against Cincinnati 1-0 over the weekend. A lot of teams are going to lose 1-0 to Cincinnati this season. So I don't think that that's necessarily like a result. terribly worried about. I think that you look at the scale of how the earthquakes like. just absolutely obliterated them a week before, right? 6-1. And that was the big...

MLS is so confused about its own history. Sorry, this is such a different tangent where they're like saying their 30th anniversary is this year, even though it's their 30th season. And I'm pretty sure it's just because they know they're going to come up against 26. Did I have this conspiracy theory last week too? I think I did.

So they're currently saying this was our 30th anniversary game. And Eric Winalda had the ceremonial first kick. He actually nailed the choreo. It was pretty impressive. He put it right in the upper corner after not making it. So good, good work. Good. Do your own research. That's nice. But then once the game started, the shots looked even easier than like a choreographed ceremonial pregame.

The defending that you see right now from DC is incoherent. The buildup that you see is futile. And if it doesn't get to Benteke, they're just out of ideas. And it's April. It's early April. This is you should still be like fresh from your preseason where if nothing else, you're going back to the back to one and you're going to continue to try to run your plays. and work through the issues and all that sort of stuff. And they just already look rudderless. Like I don't.

They have some pieces that I do like to scale that I think that you can you could definitely envision being on playoff teams besides Ben Teke, Aaron Herrera at fullback. Jared Stroud is like an off the bench chance creator, I think could work. Man, it's ugly. It's incredibly ugly. Not one part of that felt like you were actually convinced by any of that, Jeff. No. Yeah. I'm reaching already.

That's the point, though, right? They traded, who was it, Durkin for Lucas Bartlett and Jared Stroud. Was that the trade? You know, it's just like if that is the scale where that's probably one of the more fun moves they've made in the last two winters.

It's not great, man. I'm so sorry. It's not great. Yeah, and I want to be clear. None of this is a surprise, right? If we're thinking about these teams, because we're talking about some other ones as well. If we're thinking about these teams within the lens of should we be worried about fill in the blank?

My honest answer for DC, of course, is yes. But in a different sense, no, I'm not worried about DC because I'm apathetic about DC United. I'm not worried about the Arizona Cardinals because I never believe in the Cardinals to begin with, right? Like you can't hurt me if I'm not opening myself up to be hurt.

DC United fans, yes, go ahead and be angry about this. I sincerely hope that you're not being let down by whatever's happening on the field right now for DC United. If you looked at this roster in preseason and said, oh, we're going somewhere. Ooh, no, that was never gonna happen. There's one DP on this rock. Center back is still an obvious problem. Your center back signing over the offseason was Kai Rowles signed from the Scottish first tier and not from Celtic or Rangers, right? Like this.

Center back's an obvious problem. There are clear holes in this roster, and there's no top-end talent outside of Christian Benteke. There are some pieces, as Jeff said. that I like in this roster. I think Ja Peglo has been a good signing for them. I like Jared Stroud as a player in this league. I like Borisi now and some of what I've seen from him. Aaron Herrera is a good player. There's talent here, some.

There's not as much talent as almost every other team in this league. Like DC are bordering on CF Montreal here with how they built this roster. And I don't know where to put blame for that. I don't know. I've never spoken with Ally McKay.

I would imagine that a lot of this rests on ownership. When you have one DP on your roster and you don't go sign another one, it's not because your CSO is saying, hey, we don't need any more DPs. That doesn't happen. So ownership is a huge problem. The only other thing on DC. Where I think they are playing at a level still that is beneath them. I think their ceiling is low. I think their ceiling is like a wild card.

Their ceiling's low. That's not a good place to be when your ceiling is in the wildcard spots. But I am a little bit worried for Troy Lesane right now. I want to be clear that he is not the primary issue with this team. It is that the roster is horrible. And I think that that mostly comes from ownership. But Troy Lesane, notably this season, and I don't know how much of DC you guys have watched.

They are less bomb forward to Benteke than they were last year. So last year, they were the most vertical passing team in Major League Soccer, right? The only team in the last two seasons, if we factor in this year and last year, that's more vertical with their passing than last year's DC is this year's Minnesota United. who have the least possession in the league, right? So DC last year were...

the ultimate long ball team. They were taking low percentage passes up to Menteke, who was dominating in the air. And for a while, it was kind of working. And even at the end of the day, they were still a better team last year than they are, than they have been on a points per game basis so far this year. The problem is, this year Lisane has backed off of And their vertical passing distance is about two yards short.

this year than it was last year to the point where they're not even like the most vertical passing team in 2025 in Major League Soccer. Minnesota has surpassed them. They're Colorado, St. Louis, Philly. I mean, they're like seventh on that list. They backed away from the one thing that they were doing well, genuinely well last season in the attacking sense.

And they've traded that for trying to be a little bit more thoughtful in how they build. And this has been a theme all the way through their eight games this season. They will actually move the ball around in the back a little bit and they will try to draw teams forward while still leaving Beteke high. And the idea is they try to sort of like temporarily play through the press or at the very least. stretch out the opposing defensive shape, and then play long to Venteke?

And it's just not working. Like they just don't have the pieces and they don't have the structure or the spacing to accomplish that task effectively. And I think their floor is lowered as a result of that strategy. And so that's why I'm worried for Lesane. It's not because this team should be in the playoffs and it's a crime that they're not, again. This is a horrible roster, truly horrible. But I think Lusane's approach is not working. And I kind of worry for him because...

There's one thing I will add, and this used to be FC Cincinnati's role during their wooden spoon era, where if a team dropped a result to Cincinnati, their coach was immediately on a hot seat. So far, DC has four results. It was in their first four games. Their first two were draws against teams with brand new head coaches. So, you know. a change on Greg Berhalter or Robin Frazier, are you?

But the next two was a win against Sporting Kansas City just before Peter Vermees went and a draw against Montreal. Was that just after Laurent Courtois or was it just before? But the fact that you have to ask, they could end up being the season's Grim Reaper is all I'm saying. So New York Red Bull is up next.

We'll see what happens there. And maybe things could change very, very quickly for at least one coach. Joe, for you, what's another team that maybe you are worried about? It sounds like maybe there's nobody we're going to be. as worried about from a roster construction standpoint than DC United, but there are some other teams that maybe have some issues worth discussing.

Yeah, and there's some teams that are hanging out at the bottom of their respective conference tables that we're probably not going to hit on just because. the answers are so obvious and we've already maybe talked about them too much in the case of the Galaxy or even supporting Kansas City that we did a good beat on recently when Vermees was fired. I'll take us to Houston.

who I'm worried about. I'm not sure this is a playoff team, and I had them in the playoffs before the season started, and there's a couple of reasons for that. But the biggest issue right now for Houston is that Andrzej Linger, I don't know if anybody wants to do a reference I don't get on Andrzej Linger before we move on. Linger still hasn't debuted for this team. That's their DP attacking midfielder that they signed from the Czech Republic.

had him on the field at all. The fans haven't had a chance to check him out yet. Yeah, there it is. Thank you, Jeff. I knew you'd deliver. I needed it in my veins. Variety is the spice of life, my friend. The Dynamo are, if they want to make a surge up the West, right? They're going to have to rely on a bunch of new players. Linger, Dwayne Holmes. Or they're going to have to rely on guys that have been recently injured.

Dwayne Holmes also fits in that bucket. Lawrence and Nolly Nelson. Dwayne Octavius Holmes. Dwayne Octavius Holmes assigned for the Houston Dynamo. I think he broke his leg shortly-ish before signing. So again, he fits in the injured and the new bucket. But he has seven more now. Yes, and they're all going to work great. Seamless, Joe. Seamless. Yes, and in there. I try it. So they need those injured or players who have literally never played soccer for the Houston Dynamics.

to number one, gel quickly with each other and number two, to be actually good. And that could happen because Ben Olsen's tactical framework is super clear. The dynamo of one of the clearest identities in Major League Soccer. I firmly believe that inserting yourself into a team like that where your role is clear and defined is so much easier than hopping into, say, Atlanta United. Who knows? Maybe we'll talk about them later.

But really, there's so much to do for Houston. And they've started the season so slowly to be where they are currently outside of the playoff spots, to be all the way down. excuse me, in 13th in the Western Conference with six points through eight games. They got a lot of ground to cover. And man, they need a lot of things to go right. And that's before we even get to goalkeeper.

to be anything resembling good this year. Yeah, I think because of how slowly things have gone on the player acquisition front and the integration front, I am actively working. What's the issue on the goalkeeping front? Why don't you like Blake Gillingham? I don't feel anything for Blake Gillingham is the real issue. So they've lost Andrew Tarbell for the season and Jimmy Mauer has been injured.

22-year-old Blake Gillingham has been the starter for them in the last few, last couple of games. They just signed Jonathan Bond over from Watford where he was horrific with the Galaxy before. They're just not exactly set in goal at the moment. And add that then to all of the attacking questions. They were a bit better Houston against the Galaxy over the weekend in the attack. They also played up a man for 60 minutes because the Galaxy are ridiculous right now.

Yeah, there's just a lot to do. And all of these things in an ideal sense, and all these things for teams that are actually sitting pretty right now in MLS's conferences. All of these things were done at or before season's beginning. And for Houston, they are trying to ad-lib their way through it too much. Yeah. And I think another issue with the goalkeeper thing is that you are seven games into your season and you've already had three different goalkeepers start.

which is mathematically very difficult to do. So you threaded the needle there. Congratulations. But the hard part is that unsettles your deal. And that also makes so that the communication from the back, the organization, not just on set pieces and walls, but also with how you're moving, what run you're picking up on, which one you're letting off, all of these sorts of things, all of that is changing every other week.

point and they brought in another goalkeeper who is probably going to get thrown into the starting mix so I would guess you'll have four goalkeepers who will start multiple games already. So it's just like, it's a total lack of continuity. And we knew that there would be some turnover in their style and where their chances would come from when Herrera and Karskia both left this winter. And you're seeing...

Jack McGlynn get as many touches as we thought, you know, about 92 per game per 90 minutes. Like that's, you know, he's the midfield focal point at this point. He leads the team in touches per game. So good for his development. Even if the team around him is struggling, you know, he'll be able to get his hero ball changed. He loves a shot from deep, right? We've seen it.

Yeah, I'm worried about them. I think that the only thing I will say, though, is that they regressed more than any other team that was in the playoffs last year, in my opinion. And I think it was most visible just because of some of those headline departures without the corresponding.

replacements coming in um so i'm not surprised necessarily uh i'm not worried about the dynamo because this looked like it was going to be a transition year to get towards 26 so I don't think that they'll factor in a very messy Western Conference. Yeah, it's not great.

I feel like that's going to be the conclusion for every single team we're going to talk about. Let's take a break. We'll come back. We'll talk about some more teams that are struggling. Maybe we'll close with some happier thoughts back shortly.

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Welcome back to the Total Soccer Show. We continue to talk about some teams that maybe should be concerned, maybe already are concerned. Joe, let's talk about Julian Gressel's not once, but maybe future employers, the New England Revolution. Yeah, Rev's not playing good ball this year. You can see it, right? Nobody's seat has been toastier than Caleb Porter's so far this season. I think that is...

is entirely fair to say. They're averaging one point per game, 7.27 games, and it's been bleak. They have still not scored an open play goal. That said, I am less worried about this team today than I was at this time last time. And there's one reason for that. And I think it is a credit to Caleb Porter, without a doubt, for the tactical shift that they had against Atlanta United. So, so far in 2025, prior to this past weekend, where they beat Atlanta 1-0.

Prior to this past weekend, New England had been a 4-2-3-1 team. They were playing with two wingers. And the issue, one of the issues for them, was that the wingers looked real bad. Ignatius Canago and Luca Langone were the two regular starters for them on the wings. Neither one looked effective. Neither one looked dangerous. Neither one was stretching the game to make space for Collette's tail underneath. They looked stagnant, New England. And so to Caleb Porter's very real credit.

against new england he dropped the wingers from his team altogether now ganago still started but he started in the front two next to maxier rudy which is wild that's still happening in the year 25 yeah um yeah it is but but those two guys started up top in what was a 3-5-2

And it was Yusuf and Carlyse Hill sort of playing underneath with Hill having a little more license to kind of roam wherever he wanted. But the wingers, there were no wingers anymore in that setup. There were wingbacks. And it was Feingold on one side and Peyton Miller over on the other.

Those two guys provided more dynamism going forward. I think they are just better players, frankly, than some of the other options that the Rebs have in wide areas. It was a very smart tactical shift against Atlanta to ditch those wide attackers. who just have not been valuable for them. And I think the Revs were better as a result of it. I think they should stick in that shape moving forward. Do I trust?

Their spine still? No, I don't. But they are getting Leah Campana back. That's going to help them a little bit. And I think they will be more defensively solid as well with that extra central defender on the field for them. So I think Caleb Porter probably just found the Revs' best look. There's a chance that he saved his job in the process because there are some quality players here. And you look at the bottom of the East.

And it's not super convincing. You know, I can see a world in which the Rebs climb a little bit here. I don't think that is the most likely world that we're living in. But as far as Caleb Porter is concerned, Yeah, he should be breathing at least a small sigh of relief because I think he's kept his job now for, I think he set himself up to keep his job now for a while.

On paper, is this team obviously better in terms of their construction than DC United? Yes, I think so. I think they have noticeably more top-end talent. Such as? Between Carlos Hill, I like Yusuf in midfield for them. I like Leo Campana as another attacking piece. I don't think it is night and day here. But DC have Christian Metteke and co. And I think you can at least dig a little bit more into that top group.

It just makes me wonder if, to your point, a tactical adjustment, some coaching adjustments maybe could have an impact. In D.C., without a doubt. Yep, I think they could. I think for both of these teams, again, I don't think the Rev ceiling is noticeably higher than D.C. I think their ceiling is probably eighth in the East.

So it's not night and day. And I can't remember if we said obviously there. So maybe I overstated that slightly, the difference between these teams. But yeah, tactical tweaks to make these teams play ball that fits the personnel a bit better would help in both cases. It has. Jeff, any thoughts on New England or should we talk about their vanquished foes, Atlanta? Yeah, I mean, we'll just use it as a seamless change.

It was pretty seamless, thank you. Yeah, good word. I think that you look at the goal that they scored, first of all, is not necessarily... a dumb foul at the edge of the box as a player is about to leave the box and then gets tripped and then

He'll convert it, right? And I guess you could gamify it and you could just dare all of your attackers to dribble at the edge of the box in hopes that they get clumsy challenges. That might actually be really fun to watch, honestly. But I think that the flip side is that we see this with Caleb. We saw this in Portland. He had a core of, you know, peak Diego Chara, peak Darlington Nagby, peak Diego Valeri, and still missed the playoffs with free.

Right. And for whatever reason, Columbus, same sort of thing, won MLS Cup, you know, in a very weird season, to be fair, and then really struggled with a group of players who went on to, you know, with some upgrades, granted, in 2023, went on. So I'm not necessarily sure I see coach who raises the level of the parts that he's handed per se. But I think that you look at.

They look the players who were on the field looked absolutely cohesive and locked in down the stretch for the final 20 minutes. And that game against Atlanta, Atlanta did win the balance of possession. They had more shots. They generated more XG. So they weren't. like totally rattled and shocked and suddenly just like hopelessly crossing the ball into the box. They were really trying stuff.

And it didn't come off. And every time a shot was blocked, you know, you saw three revolution players, you know, all gathering to high five and bro hug and all these sorts of things. And. Every time they were able to clear the ball, there was one player who was fired up and going to his goalkeeper and stuff like that. They looked like they were absolutely in there.

And that is a good way to pick up results in Major League Soccer. It's also a really worrying thing when you contrast it with Atlanta United, who had none of them. And I am worried about Atlanta United. Like, I'll stick my neck out on that one. I'm really, really worried because I don't think that you see any of the DNA that worked for them.

And I'm not just talking about like Miguel Almarone doesn't have Joseph, so you don't have the, you know, this goal celebration and stuff like that. It's not that. It's you don't have the Lorenowitzes. You don't have the Parkhurst. You don't have the guys who are there to do a job and to do their role and to do their role well. and then let others kind of carry the more high risk, high reward sort of attacking stuff, right? Right now you have a lot of sort of...

kind of either finesse players or guys who came to MLS, specifically Atlanta, thinking it would be, you know, a good kind of glamour opportunity. I don't think that you see a lot of like those hard challenges. I think that their midfield looks really. unsettled as constructed right now, even though some of the personnel, it's one of the highest earning midfields, probably in MLS at this point.

And like, I don't think there's been an issue, like a very obvious issue yet with the Almiron and Latila fit, right? Like, correct me if I'm wrong. I don't, I don't think that there's been anything, but like. The record signing is going to still be playing second fiddle, right? So...

I don't know. We've seen it happen where things aren't going to plan for a team and the guy who was signed to be the star striker is still scoring goals, but maybe gets overlooked for penalties or maybe gets overlooked for whatever the case is, right? I just I this roster still looks so messy to me and the way that it's. coming out on the field is that they are doing some good stuff, but they are also leaving their fans feeling absolutely like...

rock bottom about, like, they've seen Frank DeBoer. They've seen Gabriel Heinze. Like, they've seen early stage Gonsly Pineda, right? Like, and yet, this is the moment where I think that you would ask some Atlanta fans, that game against New England, and it was just like... It's just like the most stale hangover that you've ever experienced. And no amount of Pedialyte or food, fried eggs, whatever is going to fix this sucker. And you're just stuck.

and you're stuck in it until it resolves. And right now, that resolution does not seem... Yeah, I am with you on so much of that, Jeff. The thing that I think about most with Atlanta United is... I'm worried about Alexey Maranchuk more than anything. To go back to foundational principles, he had three DPs in MLS, and Lance United have three DPs. They've got Latte Latte, they've got Amarone, they've got Maranchuk.

It is difficult, not impossible, but it's difficult to win MLS Cup or to go out there and win trophies and play the highest levels of this league if you're not getting high-level production from each of those guys.

Alexi Morenchuk has not been producing like a $13.5 million player. In fact, he's not been producing like a $4 million player. Like a $1.5 million player. I am worried that he is just not good. And so far, he has not been good. And I'm worried, I guess, that he's not going to come good. 2024, plays 650 minutes after signing from Atalanta. And he was in the 20th percentile among his positional peers in non-penalty XG plus expected assists.

basically not finding chances for himself, not creating for his teammates. This year, he's been a bit better. He's in the 64th percentile. But again, this guy cost him $13.5 million and much more important than that because this is an Arthur Blank-owned team. It matters that he's taking up a DP spot. The spend is less relevant. It's just fun to say. But really, it's that I am worried that the best version of this team involves Alexey Morenchuk not playing.

Truly. And I am worried that that version of Atlanta United cannot win a trophy. That is how I would summarize my concerns for Atlanta is they need their top end guys to be their top end guys because center back is not a position of strength. Goalkeeper is not a position of strength. The base of midfield doesn't seem to be a position of strength. You need to go and be the Galaxy. That was the whole thing for Atlanta United over the offseason. They talked about how...

We wanted to have Alexi Maranchuk be our quarterback and surround him with speed. That's why they got latte a lot. That's why I liked him so much. that Miguel Maron is still a runner, even at his age now, where he's, you know, he's basically decrepit. I mean, how is the guy still moving? Like it is, you got to lean into the bit. I know it's for the discord. I'm just fanning the discord, right?

They wanted to surround Maranchuk with speed. And Ronnie Dalla called Alexey Maranchuk the quarterback of this. And you know who else in Major League Soccer called a player a quarterback of their team last year? Will Kuntz, talking to me about Ricky Pooch as their quarterback and surrounding that guy with speed.

It is so clear to me that Lance United were trying to take a page, maybe in a whole chapter out of the galaxy's book. And they wanted Moran Chuck to be their version of Ricky Pooge in a, I don't know, Walmart version, not dollar star version, but a Walmart version of Ricky Pooge. Ronnie Dyla has played Alexi Morenchuk and Miguel Maron in four different roles.

so far this season. And we're eight games through the season. They played a 4-2-3-1 with Morancic as a 10, Amarone on the right wing. They played a 4-2-3-1 with Morancic as an 8, Amarone as the 10. Same shape, Morancic as the 10, Amarone on the left. a 3-4-2-1 with Marenchuk and Amarona in the half spaces as those dual 10s. And nothing has been especially convincing. Yeah, I'm worried. I'm worried about this.

Atlanta, for sure. And to be clear, Atlanta's ceiling is still high. And they've got some time to work some things out here. They are quickly watching that time fritter away. But they have some talent in a way that I'm not... I'm not panicked about Atlanta totally missing the playoffs at this stage of the season, although it's possible that they do.

Seattle, I'm not worried about almost at all. I think they're playing legitimately good soccer for the most part. They haven't been getting the right bounces, and they've also been destroyed by injuries so far this year. Jordan Morris has started two games, only two games of a possible eight in MLS play.

Same for Pedro de la Vega, who, you know, like him or not, and I don't like him a whole lot, he gives you a ton defensively in his effort and can do some ball progression stuff. Abba Rusnak has missed two games. Paul Arriola is out injured for the season. And despite all that stuff in playing in CCC, they still have the sixth best expected goal differential in MLS at the moment. They're going to start picking up wins here in Seattle, and they did that on the road.

Yeah, I don't think that they really know, speaking of Dallas, what to do with Jesus Ferreira just yet. Yeah, agreed. And so I think that that's another big variable that they need to solve for and just figure out where you're going to get the best from him, especially once Morris comes back. um if de la vega stays healthy and you know granted you don't have areola but like they they made some calculated moves with the idea that we are going to be a team that is very much constructed

Right. And right now they just haven't been able to put that. So I'm not worried about Seattle either. I think that that that win against Dallas, that could go like a long way to getting over their frustration with how they performed in CONCACAF this year.

Not just the result itself, but also how they absolutely squandered their home leg of that series and didn't even really set themselves up with much of a chance for the return. So they're still figuring out how to get players who are used to being the most important players on their team to become the third. most important player on their team, right? That sort of problem, I think, is something that you can usually work out a little bit.

what Atlanta is looking at, which is just that the construction doesn't seem like it has all of the necessary pieces to actually be coherent. It could be a team we've discussed on this show. It could be a team we haven't discussed on the show.

that you most enjoy watching for whatever reason? Could be one individual player. Could be that they are doing some interesting things. Could be just how bad they actually are and how bad it could get. Who would you say you would be like, oh yeah, I'll watch them play whomever. Oh, man. Jeff, you want to go first? You want me to go first? I would say your option would be Atlanta, New England, D.C., Toronto.

And then what galaxy, I guess is probably the answer. Maybe we should exclude them. Cause I feel like they are like, maybe this question could be named after them, but it's morning. Gacy Houston. I don't think St. Louis are in there quite yet. Seattle aren't in there. I still make time to watch Atlanta and the Galaxy every weekend. I enjoy the top end pieces that those teams have. Although, man.

Gabriel Peck looks like a shell of himself without Ricky Poosh on that team. I think he's better than what he's shown so far this year, but this was the Gabriel Peck we were talking about maybe moving somewhere for 20 plus million dollars because he was electric last season.

And it honestly kind of validates some of my initial scouting I'd done on Gabriel Peck when he was in Brazil, where I watched him and I thought he looked good, but not anything like we saw last year. Well, it turns out when you're playing with Ricky Puj, It's a lot easier to look like a really, really good player. But I love watching Peck. They finally get Peck and Paynesell back on the field together for the first time in the regular season from the opening whistle.

And then they go down to 10-man. Shout out Zanka for just completely blowing that entire game basically for the Galaxy. But I like the Galaxy and Atlanta from a neutral perspective because... they still have the allure of doing something spectacular. It could go in either direction, but it feels like they are operating on the poles in a way that a lot of these other bad teams...

I think if we're looking at teams outside the playoff zone, it's still kind of RSL because on the one hand, I just want to see how Diego Luna is doing. And I want to have hope that he's going to be the reason that we make it to the semifinal of the 20th. world cup so i just need to like continue to track how he's getting us there um they also just defensively are so messy right

which was not supposed to be where they were having their weaknesses. Like you said, it was supposed to be up top. And yet they are so fallible to give up silly goals. They're another team that's doing this, like, you know, try a different goalkeeper than we've had in the past to either raise the valuation or get a little bit more out of it.

Miami as well. It hasn't been working. He's had some like nightmarish when playing out of the back goes wrong clips that have made it on to the main feed of that account. So. That's one for better. The team that I enjoy watching, the team that everyone should be watching that we have talked about recently, so we don't have to blame at this point is Vancouver, who. Very fun. Very like, I trust my players and I trust my players to win games.

Uh, we made it an hour into a podcast without mentioning that Brian White scored four goals over the weekend. Uh, that is the sort of stuff that, uh, man took 10 shots. Brian White took 10 shots on his own. Austin took 11. So he almost outshot his opponent. when they put in like a normal number of shots. Like this isn't one of those where like your defense was stellar and you limit them to four shots and you took five. Nah, nah, this is like high octane stuff.

Daniel Rios is getting like a good run of games as a winger and like Emmanuel Sabi. Like, it's just like it's it's a great collection. It's a very fun and effective start. I think, I don't remember where I had them on my confidence ranking two weeks ago, but I'm still very confident. I think I had them second, like right around Minnesota. I still think that like those two teams, Minnesota is another one that's very fun to watch, but I've talked. I think that they're both here to stay in the top.

Joe, speaking of fun and effective... Yeah. Yeah. I've been just so impressed by Chris Armas and his return to Major League Soccer. I had a chance to sit down with him for about an hour last year. pulled out his tactical whiteboard and was showing me all sorts of stuff. And I don't know, I really came away impressed with him as a coach. It's really easy to do that in those conversations because it's all theory. And I feel like even I've got some decent tactical theory to toss out there.

that maybe I could sway a different version of myself with. But you marry that with what his Rapids team have accomplished on the field. And it's pretty impressive. They were the first team this season over the weekend to kind of take San Diego to task a little bit and to turn.

San Diego's commitment to really short passes out of the back. No team in MLS passes the ball more horizontally in their own third of the field in San Diego, right? San Diego are here to build short passes. They want to play through you, not over. And Colorado knew that, and they didn't shy away from going and pressing. They had the second highest height of their average defensive action against any team that San Diego's played so far.

Seattle, actually two weekends ago now, was the highest. Teams are starting to press San Diego, and the Rapids were the first to do it with real effect, and it paid off. They created a ton of really good chances off of the press. and gave San Diego some real problems. They finally got Colorado Kevin Cabal on the bench, which is a huge step forward. First time all year. He started seven games, didn't make it to his eighth game.

I don't think it's coincidence that one of their best showings of the year came when he was on the bench. Absolutely not. Yeah. The Rapids are a good team. I think they're still a level below the absolute best in the West. And I don't think that should come as a huge shock when you look at their roster.

But man, like Armis deserves real credit for what he's done. And in the Rapids in general, Porek Smith and the players, of course, first and foremost. Frank Taylor, yeah. Yeah, I mean, they are, they're a good team in the Western Conference. Where should Kevin Cabral go if he wants playing timeout wide now? Phoenix Rising, Kevin Cabral, Remy Cabral. I was going to say the Spokane Velocities this year.

Wow. I want the brotherly connection. Kevin Cabral seems like a lovely individual, so I wish nothing but the best for him. Yeah, just not as level. And that's fine. Great. I want to make fun of both of your answers, but they're so perfectly on brand and perfectly on brand for this episode that I will not. I will ask you, Joe, any other maybe positive notes to end on before we consider MLS updated.

I can't remember if I mentioned this at the end of yesterday's show. A couple guys getting back from injury. Matt Miazga back for FC Cincinnati after being out since June with a knee injury. Had surgery. He's not back. I think that's a huge boost for Cincy, who have been picking up results.

but haven't been playing great ball. And we talked about them last week. They haven't had a lot of continuity in the 11. And I think they're getting closer to being back there and that they are picking up points at a really nice clip now when they have been kind of. just barely gasping and getting breaths of air every other game. That's huge for them. So that's a notable thing. And Jonathan Rodriguez coming back for Portland. The West feels up for grabs in a way that I didn't expect.

Vancouver looked like they were going to win the West. It's a little early, but the top four spots in the West in general seem up for grabs in a way I didn't expect because the LA teams have been worse than I thought and Seattle have struggled out of the gates to get results, even though I'm not really worried about them.

Portland getting J-Rod back is huge. He was fantastic for them last year. He and Felipe Mora and Evander were the first trio in MLS history to register 14 goals or more apiece on the same team in the same season. And Rodriguez is the, he's the best returner of that bunch. He's a star for this team out on the left wing. He finally got back on the field after a knee issue in preseason. I believe that was when he suffered that.

and he was up to his little tricks in his 20-plus minutes against supporting Kansas City. 4-2 win for the Timbers. I don't think the Timbers are a great team. They are obviously a better team with Jonathan Rodry. So that is very positive. That's a positive note to end on. Thank you, Joe Lowry, for that, my friend. Thanks, Taylor.

And Jeff Reuter, congratulations to you. I believe you are the first person to ever say the words Spokane Velocity on this episode or on this show together. I could be wrong on that one. Joe can fact check me. I'm sure the Discord will fact check me, but Jeff, well done to you for that and many other things on this episode. Thank you. Thank you very much. Listeners, thank you all so much for listening, continuing to support the show. We very much appreciate it, and we'll talk to you very soon.