The MLS Tactical Paradigm Shift: San Diego's Monte, Inter Miami's Volatility & Roster Dynamics

Hello everybody and welcome to the Total Soccer Show. My name is Taylor Rockwell, it's Tuesday, which means it's time for some MLS updating. We've got games to discuss, teams that are stock up, teams that are stocked down and much, much more. Here with me to talk out all out are two fine fellows up first, a man who loves nothing more than watching Austin and DC unless he can watch Austin versus DC, it's Joe Lowry. Hello, Joe. I watched all of that game. I will take no further questions that's super real and I'm not lying. See there's no way for me to know if you actually did because my questions would just be like, did you see that time that those guys ran into each other? Did you see the other time that they almost got a corner out of that shot? Like there's not really highlight moments in that one. What we were discussing before we started recording was, I'm happy to watch Austin or DC watching them against each other and their current iterations is a little unpleasant. I just don't have any time, sorry, Austin fans for Fakundo Torres playing as a 10, which I know is not, or I don't believe anyways, Nico Estevez is a long-term plan, Owen Wolfe is out injured right now. So the team is going to look different, but 4-2-3-1 with Torres as the 10 and Joseph Rosalas on the right. I just, I'm not there. I'm just not there. I'm sorry. That's how it is and I apologize. I am there for Christian Ramirez scoring a goal one or two days after being signed after he was waved by the galaxy, shout out Christian Ramirez that I'm here for. You should be, Joe, that was a fun moment in an otherwise unfun game, not just because I'm a DC supporter. I'll say this. I did not watch that game. I watched the extended highlights. It is the first time in watching extended highlights I twice had to check to make sure I was watching the highlights and not the actual match footage because they were so high like they were just showing the game. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, here's some lens flare. Cool. And a corner kick. Cool. It really was like, oh, was that? That was a highlight. Okay. That corner went to the back post and no one was there. This weekend was truly awesome and Sunday's games were particular awesome. This was just maybe one that wasn't so awesome. All right. Well, that is Joe Lowry. I hear with us as well a man who knows never to poke the messy bear. It may be small and seemingly cute, but it also is a is vengeful and scary. It's Jeff Reuter. Hello, Jeff. And he's a bit of a troll, isn't he? Well, they always forget this like it's one of those things that sneaks up on me a lot because we're so far removed from Barça and Madrid that I kind of assumed that was where that lived, right? And like Brazil hasn't really been as good as usual to be an Argentina foil and you never really cared about PSG anyway. The man loves arrival that he can just go on and on and on and yeah, he was he was back at his histrionics Florida man, right? I wrote about this in the Guardian, like he's in his Florida man era at this point. Every headline is just very different. He's sick of reading about him. I scored twice. I scored twice. He's like, let's do some other stuff. He's going to grow a mullet, start wrestling gators, drinking butt heavies, messy the floor man. Hang out with Greg Shea. It's happening. A teammate of mine introduced me to the concept of having a dial versus a switch. Some players have the dial that they can calibrate. Some players have a switch that's just on and then they're on. Messi feels very much like a switch player and then he has like an extra switch he can turn on when he wants to get especially aggressive and aggro as he did this weekend. Jeff, should we start there with we're going to go through some of our favorite games the weekend. I'm assuming Orlando Miami is on there for you. That is on the list as he flipped his switch to which is much more expensive and a lot harder to play because there's much less to play on it right now. Really fun game and I think that you saw a lot of the issues that had plagued Miami in their first game against LAFC kind of come back to Roost again against Orlando. Now keep in mind Miami is also kind of at a self-inflicted setback. They chose to reschedule a preseason friendly for 30 or for three days before a rivalry game. I forgot about this. Wow. Against independent, independent devaya out of Ecuador. Yes. And they played this game in Puerto Rico even better. Right. Yeah. Neutral site. At least you could cut down and travel a little bit. Whole thing is a mess. Messi plays the second half of it and gets tackled to the ground by some pitch invaders. He got up on scale. He ended up playing at usual but at the first half the team looked really tired and they also looked like the team that was generally still trying to remember each other's names as they were in possession out of possession especially like they were generally pretty good about finding each other with the ball. But once the ball changed hands, just transition defending was not seamless. The set established defending had gaps in it. Orlando credit finished two really nice shots like they took good chances. One of them just slides under Dan St. Claes gloves. I wasn't a good enough goalkeeper to be able to claim whether he should have saved that or not. But he certainly dove in the correct direction and was very close to it. Second one is just a lovely outer foot kind of swivel to the far post from Martino Hayda and you just can't stop those. But this is where at halftime, so Vetti comes off the bench. They pulled Noel and from left back and you could say they just got more attacking and less defending and they're only good at attacking and not good at defending right now. So it made sense to lean into their strengths. I think this is also leaning into the strength of familiarity though. This is going back to the group, the attacking core that did so well and I'm less cut playoffs last year and was so difficult to stop along the stretch. But I think it's not a surprise. I'm sure the best 11 eventually this season will involve her mom bought a Burda Rame. But right now I'm not confident it does because these guys who are coming in now aren't messy best friends. They don't have that familiarity where at least like three of them know what they're doing and then the rest of the team is figuring it out along the way. There's just there's so much of this where it looks like they're trying to ramp up to their best version maybe a little sooner than they need to, but second half they certainly came out getting busters. Can I drop an alternative take on this game and not drastically alternative from what you said, Jeff, but I've seen a lot of discussion about how this was have your marshmirano's tactical changes that half time feeling a comeback from Miami and that's not what you said to be clear. But I've seen a whole, I've seen a whole lot of that and I've just a very different take and I suppose I was texting with some people half time of this game. It just always looked to me like Miami was the better team in this match from the jump. I actually quite liked a lot of the setup that have your marshmallow brought in this game and I think Jeff, you're right to point out that the goals are land of score two of their first three, two of their only three shots in the first half. They are really impressive finishes on low probability chances. Miami didn't look flawless certainly and there were some problems and we will talk about that, but they were creating chances left and right man, even without sovety on the field. It was it was more of a four three three from the jumps. It was the same setup that we saw Miami use to finish last season and this is maybe where I would differ from you slightly with what you said. It was Bertor Rami playing as in the sovety role from the end of last year where Suarez moved to the bench. We remember that. Messies the nine. The end is on the right and it was sovety and now Bertor Rami on the left and then you had the three men midfield underneath and it was bright as the six to Paul kind of dropping deep on the right side of center midfield and then to Lascaux agovia on the left side. So you had a very familiar shape and Miami were cooking man. They were creating chance after chance box entry after box entry and then Roderick and Paul gives the ball over for no reason and they're on half and all of a sudden a few seconds later, they're down 1-0. Then Oheda has a moment of magic and Griffin Dorsey all of a sudden is is just Marco Pasalich. I don't know what happens there. It's a great goal for Orlando and all of a sudden Miami are like looking their wounds a little bit and then Martiano makes changes because down to goals you assume Orlando is going to be born defensive and they still create chances although they actually did a workshop of creating chances in the second half at least as it relates to clear cut chances. I'm just still a big believer in this Miami team like that's the that's the reality. I think there's so much talent in this group and I think they showed it from the jump. The LAFC game was weird. There's still other issues, but we've already seen Martiano in a macro sense make changes from game one to game two. I think the halftime changes frankly were less impactful and more just ended up becoming part of the narrative. But Miami were all over Orlando for this entire game even if the first half didn't make us feel that way. Is there any issue with Roderick and Paul that you all have spotted because that's two games in a row that he has a mistake essentially that gives the ball away that leads to a goal? I mean, that can just happen at the same time if he's being asked to like bridge the defense of the attack cover a lot of ground operate essentially with not a lot of people around him. Maybe that puts him in a position where he's kind of set up to fail. I think when I think of a Drigo to Paul at his best whether that's with Outletico Madrid or if that's with my or not Miami not Milan Argentina the country as we all know. He's not really playing as the lead midfielder if that makes sense. He's not really the possession hub. He's not going to be the one who's forced to kind of be the protagonist to like breaklines. Like Alexis McAllister would be or Enzo Fernandez or he's not necessarily doing the hard defensive work. He works really well in that sort of second of three midfielder's like kind of more of a luxury kind of I don't even want to say like a cove chitchat necessarily but someone who's going to be like a compliment. And where like he makes he stirs the drink or whatever but he's not necessarily the most important ingredient within it. And so I think that in some ways it is an increase of responsibility. He doesn't have the engine room talent around him that he's used to for clubbing country. I think that he's probably seeing other people try some of these actions that aren't coming off as naturally as he's used to seeing and then wants to try them himself but he doesn't really have that responsibility in his past and hasn't really executed in the same way. It's interesting. I don't know. I think that with him the compliment has always been something that's been so crucial with him whether it's the Messi's bodyguard reputation or like I said some of these midfield partnerships that he's forged over his career. I just don't know if he really knows who his partner is right now and especially again without Sergio Busquets like there's even less familiarity of who that'll be. I think the Miami midfield is the biggest transition from last year to this year. I mean that missing out by his huge as well and he played a big part in the progression responsibilities that maybe we tend to associate with midfielders but more than any other player from last year this year at least in the midfield and forward groups. It's DePaul's role that is different. He is the one who has picked up the Busquets slack in midfield where I looked at this yesterday in American soccer analysis has these numbers. They have this the stat called touch percentage which is a share of a team's total touches accumulated by a player and DePaul is the leader on this team by a country mile. He's taking 14 and a half of every 100 touches for Miami so he's at 14.5%. The next player is Mick Iell center back at 11.6. DePaul is really high. He's above even more Busquets was last year. He is the one who is doing so much of the progression until you're absolutely right to point out and this was the issue that I was really alluding to earlier. Gives the ball up against LAFC goal. Gives the ball up against Orlando goal. That is not going to happen. He's still going to turn the ball over but Orlando's goal man that just doesn't happen very often in this game but still DePaul has not looked 100% sharp. He's had 95% of his moments. This is a made up Joe Stad by the way now so we've moved out of the realm of reality. 95% of the time he has looked like a truly elite MLS ball progressor this season. I didn't see quite as much of that last season but we've already talked about his role has changed and he's got more responsibility. He looks class on the ball for most of the time he's on the field and then the other 5% he's on the yelling at his teammates which is extremely aggravating to me. The dude looks miserable to play with seriously. He is like constantly throwing tantrums on the field. I find it incredibly irritating but DePaul yeah it's supposed he's on that right. I don't know whatever. You can do what he wants. He's at the wine yell versus the like come on man that's got to be like the Bruno Fernandez will give you like the I'm going to yell at you because that wasn't the past that you should have played but you know better is it that or is it the like I was open I'm at it you sort of like it's both it's both but in the frustration is that he does it all the time like I suppose you can do a little bit of both I mean I'm sympathetic to Paul is just better than a lot of these players right and it's difficult to have patients with people when you're better at stuff than they are I think that's just like a fundamental truth of life but to Paul just does it like 80 times a game and it is so aggravating so he's either doing that stuff or he's coughing off the ball but most of the time he's looking awesome and the times he hasn't looked awesome I've really really hurt Miami this year. I'm just curious to see what level DePaul reaches because I think it's becoming very clear in the post boost gets an Alba era that Miami's ceiling is very much tied to his ceiling. They're not 100% overlapping on the Venn diagram but that I think is a very real thing and how David is y'all impacts this team when he's back in the in the actual squad I think he is the starter over Yannick bright he's been out after the passing of his father which of course there's so many things more important than this game but Miami are just not in their final form and even with that man they took Orlando behind the wood shed on Sunday. Here's why I've got issues well I ponder that metaphor here's why I've got issues with Rodrigo to Paul because he's got kids as a fellow kid however I'll tell you this they are not efficient when it comes to watching dishes or cooking food they my kids love to help me do that and it is just an exercise and like yep yep you can keep watching there okay yeah that's how it happens I guess you just got to let him get through it and I'm assuming Rodrigo to Paul is standing there like this is not how we watch the dishes in this house and maybe maybe now it translates to the field as well I don't know exactly what like are we talking a lot of plates filled with meat I'm trying to think of what the Argentine like this situation is going to look like those are typically not even that hard dishes to do so maybe he's actually justified in his frustration I don't know maybe so where should we head next what was your favorite game of the weekend I will get there very very briefly I do want to say shout out to Orlando I think they're bad right now I mean I think it's pretty clear that they're bad they're already do chat in the midfield depth chart injuries are a problem for them hopefully Griezmann comes in and it sounds like maybe we'll get some news on that sooner than later I did want to shout out Oscar Brea for rolling with the kids man in this game we had to hear Reed Brown start it left back for them didn't look like a downgrade over where they've been in that spot he's 19 years old I also thought prior to him coming off in the second half Nolan Miller the 21 year old rookie center back looked quite good for them as well so if Orlando is going to be bad in a pretty competitive Eastern converts you might as well play the kids while being bad so I at least I appreciated that about what Orlando did I want to go to another game on Sunday this was the nightcap after Sunday night soccer this was San Diego to St. Louis City Neil it's just become so routine what San Diego are doing and I don't want that to be the case man I just don't want it to be the case they win this game to nail they are utterly dominant all the way throughout maybe they give up one or two looks that St. Louis could have done a little bit better on but they control this entire game from start to finish and this was sort of I mean I don't know that you want to make quite wants to be San Diego with how he wants to play but they definitely want to look more like San Diego than they've been St. Louis and this was like a master against the pad on sort of situation that felt like St. Louis just couldn't nick the ball off of San Diego and they built from the back with so much precision every player looks like they're firing for San Diego there's so much clarity of responsibility even with look about being a moving over from left back to right back and you get here in Sarge and any full back to this team plays looks capable any any player that this team plays looks capable unders dryer again absolutely electric in this game he gets a goal in a sys he's now the second fastest player in MLS history only behind messy to hit 20 goals and 20 primary assists in league history the next two players behind him on that list guys Sebastian Gioving go and Carlos Vella he reads those markers faster than those two players two of the greatest ever players to touch the field in Major League soccer and he's only behind the greatest player that's ever lived somehow we still don't talk about not to strider enough and just to empty the tank on this game for me apparently Duron Ferry who is that everybody asks apparently Duron Ferry a 19 year old goalkeeper he was San Diego's first ever signing apparently he's the number one now let's let's cast on my back to last year Cegiro Santos gets a pretty nasty injury so Pablo Cisniaga starts and Cisniaga gets suspended so he missed the first game of the regular season this year Duron Ferry gets the start Cisniaga was available for this game on Sunday against St. Louis and it's still the kid who starts in goal in this game San Diego will take literally any opportunity to play the young player over the more veteran player any little excuse they'll hop in that crack and sort of like stretch their arms a little bit broaden it out so that they can actually justify playing the the youngster and for he looks looks good man like I mean he'd have a lot to do in this game defensively but on the ball he looks really really good which is not a surprise given how San Diego recruit now they want to play this team is just awesome like they are I think the best team to watch in this league and it's not just that they're the best to watch they're also one of the best period of playing this sport they look like they're playing three card Monte or the game for if that one does the register like the game where you put the ball out of the cup and then you move the cups around you gotta track like they just move the ball so quickly they have so many different options like Saint Louis at time fully seem to think like with our press we've got them contained and then suddenly San Diego had like a five on three out of nowhere because they would just play out of it had options every single where the ingots and dryer combination should be terrifying to defenses the way they combine the way they move off of each other they could have had I think even more opportunities in this game it just it was I opening to me a person who I think was too dismissive of San Diego not that I thought they were going to be bad but just I think in my enthusiasm for Seattle which may have been a little bit placed I think I was sort of like yeah you know they were really good last year can they do it again we'll see in the answer thus far is they're doing it quite a bit now it is against Montreal it is against a a Saint Louis team that are kind of retooling but two wins seven goals zero against there are worse ways to start the season I'll put it that way yeah totally and we're in this weird world where the top four teams in the West have two clean sheets to start the season so also some like really big goal difference sort of creeping up at the top of that table I mean the the Duran fairy thing is it kind of stems off of something we were talking about in in a season preview week right when we was like the Jonathan bonds and the the John Polskamp's maybe in Kansas City it's like a lot of times teams are just like well at least he's a veteran so we're going to keep starting him but it's like if he's been under performing try someone else and I think with Cisniaga and dos Santos last year there were still you know things to be desired about how they did the goalkeeping part of the goalkeeping job right and so like I think it makes sense to keep that an open competition and you know at one point you talked about you know the master and the paddle on I think what's what's really funny isn't a way like I think that the paddle on also was maybe an influence for the master here if we're forcing too many metaphors like I think that when you when you think of St. Louis City as see they were obviously the best expansion season ever before San Diego completely changed what that looks like hence forth and forever because we might not have another expansion team we might we might not we don't know yet um but with them I think that they probably saw that St. Louis's strengths off the ball sorry Joe were not as replicable once opponents understood how to strategize with the ball against them and then it made it very difficult for them to break through and the second season under Bradley Carnell he gets dismissed and the whole thing kind of falls apart thereafter and I think that for San Diego it probably did help kind of inform like yeah if we are starting our identity from scratch and we have the ability to go from the ground floor and ensure that like every higher we make has a similar at least kind of valuation of what we want to do if not like totally matching our principles of play and our tenants and of our philosophy and stuff like that let's make sure that we can control games better than St. Louis did and at this point now of course St. Louis I completely agree with you both like I think that St. Louis is trying to get to a point where they will be able to do more of that and I think you want to may as the right higher for that sort of an approach but now they're trying to catch up to a team that launched a couple years after them ideologically and I think that that's just kind of fun to see because it implies that there are good ideologies and nonetheless which is not something they were accused of having a decade I just have so many thoughts swirling around around this game around St. Louis as well that we haven't talked about one thing on San Diego and then one thing on St. Louis you know I've been a little I don't even know if critical is the right term but I've been a little just sad I guess that San Diego haven't added another DP right Chucky Luzano is in the exact same spot that he's been in since preview week and since before that I just like to we said preview week Jeff that makes me happy makes you feel like an event and it did feel like an event so this this team still only has understriker as their their active DP and they just keep thinking about what if they invested a little bit more and had it one more piece you know how scary could they be and that's all true like I don't think it's wrong to think any of that stuff but I also was thinking as I was watching this game and I saw what's the the new 18 year old same Brian Zambl the Ivory Coast International who is in the right to dream Academy maybe all maybe listeners don't even know who this is he is come off the bench in both of San Diego's Emma last game so far and he's another right to dream guy Dave's the point of that is they've spent so much money this right to dream group on their you set up and their infrastructure and it's sort of the things we talk about with Philly where okay they're not spending at the first team level but you toss in the Academy spend that's best in class for anyone not with the right to dream connection and all of a sudden they're sort of closer to parity when it comes to spend across the sporting structure and MLS San Diego are doing that stuff to him and I don't know what the numbers are I have to imagine that they're spending eight on on new development and when you're getting Zambl coming off the bench and you're getting Alex mighten coming off the bench all right he's a little bit older you're getting Pedro Soma coming off the bench and he looks immediately competitive for his 30 minutes of this game they're just so good at bringing these young players and the young players are good themselves and that doesn't that doesn't happen for free so I am I'm impressed with San Diego in that respect in St. Louis my big takeaway on them is just they're just not there yet and I don't even mean that from a principle standpoint I mean that from a roster standpoint they're missing Marcel Hartel in this game and he is there one outfield DP that's president accounted for they signed Sergio Córdoba on a loan come in from Switzerland okay we'll see how that comes together but he doesn't have his VC yet they're still missing both of their like actual passie kind of center back guys so this is just not the finished product for St. Louis and I'm basically just gonna give to May half a season before I really try to figure out exactly how well this product is moving towards where they're trying to go I don't know why but whenever I hear Marcel Hartel's name my mind auto completes with shoes on and I think it's just you know I don't get it I've never heard him talk it's before your time got it I've never heard Marcel Hartel talk but like I have ideas of how it sounds and it's probably a lot like Jenny Slade that's probably it on the topic of of randomness Joe if they are gonna sign somebody San Diego which current Norgellan player would you like them to go after since you know the entire roster I'm sure they've only got like the six on their current roster right now I genuinely could not name a single Norgellan player but I'm sure almost any will do and somehow make them even better I have a game I really enjoyed but it also relates to our second segment in which we're gonna talk about teams who have risen the most in our estimations after two weeks of play so let's come back we'll talk about a few of those welcome back to the total soccer show everybody I teased it let's talk the galaxy shall we who had themselves quite a time against Charlotte Joe last week I think you were saying and I agreed that like the Red Bulls opening half against Orlando was the most dominant attacking half the most dominant we've seen from a team LA galaxy heard that and raised you my friend because my goodness did they take Charlotte apart quickly I can't believe this only finished three now when they were up three nil what in like the first 20 minutes or so there's worse ways the game could start for Charlotte but I'm not sure I could say them off the top of my head yeah man this galaxy team was running rampant early on it and this is a weird thing I mean some of this happened in the Red Bull Orlando game on opening weekend it's hard for me to tell where the galaxy's good stops and Charlottes bad begins in a game like this I tend to think this was more Charlotte being tragic than the other way around but but there's room for both of those things right and that's tends to be how games with lopsided scorelines are right that's that's just the reality Charlotte looked like they weren't sure how to play soccer and Tim Reem who very much looked his age in this game and at the same time Gabrielle Peck looked really good on the right side he looks like some of the best version of Gabrielle Peck that we've seen and Joe Klaus looks really comfy in this team and Jeff I know you've got some Joe Klaus stocks I won't go too deep on that but I was surprised that the galaxy they basically dropped their 10 out of this roster so they've been playing with Royces the 10 he moved to the bench in this game and you had Elijah Winder and Lucas Anabria and Edwin Sorrio as their like midfiel treo and Sonabria was playing sort of as a 10 in defense but really there's no creator among that group it's three kind of hard-nosed energetic six eight types and that they still managed to put up three goals on Charlotte again I think it's a lot of Charlotte but the galaxy's front three man needs to be really good for this team to be good this year I think it's that simple and the front three was good in this game at least two thirds of it were great and painted was fine and that is going to be enough for the galaxy to make some teams look awfully silly just always nice to win somebody cracks a door open for you you know I feel you sorry Jeff I hear you do about it being a Charlotte situation because it does feel like the galaxy with their approach thought it let's just see if Zaha ever gets close to defending anybody who constantly have overloads down Charlottes left side and that's pretty much exactly what they did it was just kind of like direct play uh into pack who just had so much fun attacking open space where defenders theoretically where you're absolutely right the Tim Reem like it's a strange one he's not at fault I wouldn't say because he is not the one that makes a lot of the mistakes that lead to him being one-on-one but it's a reminder that Tim the Tim Reem defending one V1 in open space is not a thing that Tim Reem wants to be doing especially at this point in his career he gets dusted for two of these goals again one of them is like his teammate just passing to the galaxy and they're like whoops maybe I shouldn't have done that nicely done pivot intro pivot with the pet the past to a galaxy player that Tim Reem then got to try to defend but it did feel like they were not a lot of answers to the increasing number of questions for Charlotte over to you Jeff spare thought for Harry Toffalo who is the left back who is somehow stuck in the like the midpoint of the triangle between Wilfred Zaha up the wing and Tim Reem beside him and defense without the speed to be able to close these players down anymore and it's just like you know his heat map is I'm showing it here like if you're on YouTube you can see it from football it's it's just like graphical infrastructure here it is just like I'm so glad they added these by the way like football stepping up where FB refs letting us down thank you so much guys uh shout out Kurt Baker but like I I think he is just hugging the touch line for dear life desperately trying to contain Gabriel Peck throughout that shift and it shows and I think that this is where you know having a forward who is such a consistent player like Joao Klaus even if he wasn't the sexiest signing they could have made even if he's not going to be the most famous or most prolific number nine the galaxy have ever had like no one is like you have to be in rarefied air to really enter that conversation these days but I think he's the right striker for them right now because I think that he helps with their press tremendously I think that he is a proper line leader in possession that does help them retain the ball better than they were able to last year in spite of not having Ricky Pooge to a point where I think that they'd actually work together really well as well um you know it's all of the things that we thought they could have fixed if they just loaned in Olivia Juru last year um but with maybe less hair and more uh mileage left in the tires and I think that that's probably a good balance overall I do think he has been exceptional Klaus uh since joining the galaxy I think in the previews in preview week TSS preview week TM uh we did sort of maybe one of us maybe me made a joke about like the galaxy just need everybody to treat Klaus the way everybody did with uh Lewis and there's exactly what happened in this game just exactly it's just like here you go here's the ball sir goes score some goals I don't understand why defenses are doing that but it also does seem to be just exactly what the galaxy identified a player who can help with the press as you all have said be good enough on the ball but arrive in the right spots and just be clinical or the very least very efficient in front of goal and when you have other people around you who can provide and can create having somebody there who you just trust is going to be there to put the ball in the back of the net or put a shot on frame or make life difficult for defenders it just gives you that confidence to pass it off to go for the cross instead of the shot from a tight angle and things just seem to be clicking for the galaxy at a much faster rate all be it against a sort of hapless Charlotte team in this game a Charlotte team who uh was it Zoran Kronetta like today came out it was like more or less like we're not really sure what Wilf is doing but we're going to have a conversation about what's going on in front of me uh this was from will apology that I do not know how to say your name will will does the the radio broadcast for Charlotte FC uh thank you will for this quote is from Zoran Kronetta uh uh I quote I'm waiting for Wilford to start scoring goals in assists then he adds later we will be engaging and talking to Wilf and other players whose contracts are up I saw that man and and this is very much the sense I've gotten from Kronetta and also just the decision I would make because Zoran hasn't been very good he's just not coming back man like his his loan deals up in June and let's uh go to swinter yeah right I mean that that deal was already done through June which is unfortunate for Charlotte I mean he just hasn't been good straight up last year he was he was a a fine player maybe you get away with him being the third best DP on a team but that's not start with situation right now where they're getting a little value out of two different DP spots the haze one of them he was anonymous in this game like he just wants straight up and uh little about uh like what explains that because he is a good player has been a good player is he now I guess is the question he just hasn't seemed terribly interested since leaving palace honestly like from from everything I've seen at every move thereafter there was a little bit of a resurgence at first when he left and some newfound freedom but yeah he just he really hasn't looked to have that same sort of maybe it's a support structure around right like maybe you just need to have that comfort of like yes I know like the the chef knows what I like and so when I go into training I know that I'm eating what I need to and I know the reps and I know the rhythm and I know my route here and I'm really comfortable in that and it's been a lot less comfortable since he's left crystal palace for him right and I think that part of it is also when you were brought in to be the star designated player of an MLS team you expect everything to immediately fall in line around you in much of the same way and there have been other players who have been kind of given that cachet with their respective clubs who have really struggled with the acclimation and failed to deliver because it's not the red carpet treatment that they were kind of assuming would come with it all the time right and they still have to run they still have to defend they still have to recognize pressing triggers they still have to have assistance of just goals right all of these sorts of things and and he just doesn't seem really bought in in that way yeah I agree straight I mean I very much agree since he left palace you have the Galatasaritan which he produced in limited minutes but was sort of in and out of the lineup there and then he has the Leon thing and then he comes to Charlotte right and and I don't want to revise history here I was in favor of this move when Charlotte made it right I want to be clear I think it was a decent you know dark dark throw the board sunflower yeah it just it just hasn't worked and that's okay and I think Charlotte know that they're gonna have a chance to go out and sign somebody reasonably big come the summer but they just can't operate in this way and really hang out at a really high level in the East I still think their floor is a team I at least I think it's pretty high maybe this performance makes me rethink that a little bit across the board I am definitely down on Charlotte relative to where I was coming into the season but on to hot because I think it's an interesting one he's also not really been helped by the the tactical approach around him and I don't mean to take the shot at Dean Smith and all this because I think the style at Charlotte play is fine and you can win trophies and I'm less playing that way but I'm just thinking about the left back cities had on that side and and remember last year when we had a whole bunch of Tim Reem at left back in Zaha on left wing that's just not a pairing that really works right at least not not one that works to kick start an attack where Reem is basically then a third center back in Zaha isn't really gonna hold the width he's much more of a half space guys so there's just no dynamism I think I think Zaha needs somebody to be the width for him to be overlapping somebody to have some more energy around him in the team someone who's gonna do more of the running because he's just not gonna do that Jeff to your point and he hasn't had it now he's got 30 year old Harry Tuffalo second mention of the show well done I just it just doesn't work the construction on that side I don't think works maybe David Schnegg is the starter here but that's a microcosm of a macro problem for Charlotte right now which is that I don't think Dean Smith knows his personnel they're kind of undergoing this this slight principle tweak where they ideally would want to be using a bit more the ball of the auditorium midfield they're missing Melinda badly at this stage and they don't know who their other winger is opposite from Zaha who's not producing there's just a whole bunch of problems I still think this team is gonna be decent this year I think they're four still is high even if I am lower on them but there's a lot of things to be figured out by Dean Smith and co here Joe you know who loves the wolf or Zaha signing the Red Bull New York who I think have a picture of it like that they can point to it's like this is why we don't make signings for real you don't sign anybody who's a name no problems let's talk Red Bulls shall we please forget what I'm supposed to call them but it doesn't matter because I'm gonna call them what I want to call them they have another win strong start to the season playing once again the children it's against Orlando City in the revs so grain of salt there they'll have a point to prove against checks notes Monterey all not sure that's going to tell us one thing anything one where the other but Joe I'm assuming the Red Bulls are for you a team that you are stuck up on yeah no team has risen more in my estimations and I have to imagine Jeff's then Red Bull New York at this stage they you said it well Taylor they were nowhere near as good as they were against Orlando in this game against the revs the revs also just played a more serious game than Orlando so again they're there's both sides of this but the Red Bulls once again control the match they gave up very very few chances and the kids are still all right man they're better than all right Mehmeti looks unbelievable it's all three of the kids combining it's it's Maddie dos Santos playing the ball to Mehmeti who then flicks it on to Julian Hall and that's the only goal in this game that's 17 to 16 to 17 right there like these these dudes aren't just good for children I think that's maybe a key distinction we often talk about when young players on the lineup can you avoid doing bad things right tell you talk about that a lot you know can you not stick out in a bad way if you don't stick out in a bad way that is job well done and that's true but these kids aren't just not sticking out in a bad way some double negatives there my apologies they are actively helping the Red Bulls win games and that is what has been so impressive to me they're not just in the lineup because Michael Bradley and the Red Bull want to become San Diego of the Eastern Conference whatever it is they're in the lineup because they're good enough to be in the lineup and they show that once again in this game don core looked utterly unbelievable for another 45 minutes that dude is insane as the right side of number eight ahead of Mehmeti forceburg still on the left side of sentiment field it was the same team right any of all these pieces that are functioning very well together Justin Che looks phenomenal in that role that he's been asked to play on the right side of a center back duo but he's literally overlapping to the end line I don't know every 10 minutes or so whenever he gets bored and it works the Red Bulls look look good I think they have obvious holes we talked about some of those things last week lack of height in the middle of the back line I do think it's going to be a problem for them they have challenges don't get me wrong but Jeff once again I mean this is the Red Bulls looking like a real team that needs to be taken seriously it's just been a long time since I felt that way about them yeah and in a way that feels different than let's say the playoff run in 2024 where it's like oh well they got forceburg and Morgan on the break so you got to take them seriously right like where it's kind of like that one trick and now this is just kind of like a new sustainability thing and look you're right they will struggle at some point inevitably either they will have international call-ups and players coming back from youth camps I guess at this point and then you know kind of struggling to get back into 90 minute fitness or they will have you know play teams that kind of figure out how to I think you're right Joe I think it's going to be a physicality play I think that the teams are gonna probably start kind of doing some hip-jacks and you know kind of back a thing up and try to get some more space on the ball against the 17 years but at the same point which we you we you we you but I think that what you also do see is like when you look at like Julian Hall starting over Eric Max from Supermotein right like which now is totally fine and permissible because Taylor is very specific prediction has already come true so we can we can put him back on the bench Supermotein right yeah but when you look at it with Charlotte and you have Wilfred Zahad left wing I think the thing that we didn't even say is Ninfasha Bertimus is just wasting away right now as the backup left winger and how much more fun would that team be if they actually had their 18 year old who is a US youth international finally getting those minutes and adding some dynamism to that game state right a player Bayern want by the way just right and probably if Bayern wants one of your guys he's probably good enough to get some minutes any minutes in majorly soccer I was going to save my Dean Smith rant for segment three but maybe we're already halfway through it with with New York it's just I commend the trust that they've had I commend the trust that they were willing to put in Michael Bradley to give him this role so soon and not say they needed kind of another veteran stopgap sort of manager and just say like look maybe the results will come this year maybe they'll come in the future but we think that this is the right manager for us and that's a level of foresight I think that fewer soccer clubs in MLS but especially around the world these days are willing to trust and to actually give that sort of time and I you know I think the fact that they're being rewarded already is impressive you know and I think that that's a testament to this group on the on the red side of this game they haven't changed my estimations at all because I thought they were going to be bad they look bad they look really really bad I mean we'll give Mitchovich some time of course I would want to be given more than two games before I'm really judged I just think the roster is bad Carlisio is is still very good in MLS but he's not what he was before by any stretch the imagination and there isn't a whole lot of quality around him I don't think there's a spoon in the revs future but there might be speaking of things that look bad from this game I did want to note for people who didn't see attendance not ideal at at Red Bull Arena I texted to my buddies who were at the game who reminded me that there was a giant blizzard the past trains were not running so there was no way to get there from New York or no easy way to get there from New York I believe also parking lots like only partially cleared or cleared so that half the parking lot was a giant snowbank so limited parking public transport not that easy and they did point out like unless you are super excited about Michael Bradley and the youth there is kind of a vibe of is this team going to be good or are they just trying to bring through player young players because they have to and they haven't made signings so I think the the jury is still very much out and then a blizzard did not help so we'll see what happens that's that's a totally defensible position as far as the you know who are the names in this team I just want to be clear to people that if if you don't go see Mehmeti now you're going to be you're going to be paying more via airfare to go see him in two years so just let's like be 100% clear on that that's fine that that he doesn't move you just watch him and then and then you'll be moved it is like hyper hyperbolic for sure but like there are shades of watching Red Bulls 2 when we were doing the kickers commentary way back when and being like who is this young kid Tyler Adams in the middle who's like I don't think that's hyperbolic of whatsoever I don't think that's hyperbolic at all all right yeah it like it is that same like I I am glad I saw that kid then because now he is what he is Mehmeti more of the same and flicked on headers for the assist you don't need height if you can just get agility underneath you well done him well done at the other New York Jeff should we should we give some love to NYCFC for a moment since we've talked about them zero times so far on either show yeah it's probably time to especially when you knock off the shield winner in the diamond it's of the game right um you know and it could have been sooner right like see more read had some really good opportunities on the break in the second half and and and I think that that was what was interesting so Phil Philadelphia score is via penalty right and uh you know from from after that I I don't think we spent enough time last year maybe this is the esper sorns and if all where it's like if you're going to talk about one of the new Danish managers it's probably the one who's making a rundown less cup in the caucascaf champions cup we didn't talk a lot about Pascal Yensen I didn't think last season or I certainly didn't write about him a lot including I guess when I was unemployed but um there was a lot of really good sort of adjustment Keaton Parks being able to come back I think he is so vital to that team when he is available and it's also just on a human level really good to see him back playing soccer after everything he's been through over the last few years now frankly he's at a couple of really scary sort of medical situations in his career already but um you know that is a team that I it's one of those teams where like early in the season you can see that they all already are kind of playing for the guys around them right and I know that is such like a fundamental roll the ball out sort of talk but like it does go a long way in these early parts of the season where other teams are not as familiar with each other and so there are going to be more mistakes you can capitalize on if you're actually like locked in and aware and they looked like it Philadelphia looked tired coming out of midweek which was kind of surprising with how much rotation they had done for the conquercaf champions cup you know given Kevin Sullivan a start for example um he only came on and I think like the 82nd minute or something like that but um after Philadelphia went up they really took the foot off the gas and I think the New York City did very well to crawl back into it and then eventually have the chances that they were able to capitalize upon I'm really enjoying the uh I think the Joe metric of do they know each other's names and so far what Orlando and Charlotte seem like they don't know each other's names and my CFC do the Red Bulls I think do even if they're all still the name of children uh Joe any thoughts on New York or should we give love to uh other teams who you are proud of think of just on on the union very quickly well actually no no let's not do that let's do what you said that we wait yeah yeah we'll do we'll do good uh the other good teams that I want to toss out I'll start with rsl they end up beating the Seattle Sanders to one on Saturday night this was a really really fun game I thought it wasn't maybe the best played game across the board but we got to see a lot of kids and then scheme a lot of young US youth national teamers Snyder Bernel came on for Seattle he played uh the the last chunk of this game in central midfield for the last 30 minutes or so and then you had uh Luca Moisa who started in central midfield for rsl he's 17 and then you had Aiden Hazarkani I think I did those names okay he's 18 he scored a goal for rsl in this game in the right half space and then the best of the bunch as far as I'm concerned David Gozo for rsl playing as a right wingback he gets an assist in this game and it's just so dynamic all the way across the board it's not the kids though that are really making me believe in rsl although this it's part of that and Gozo in particular is part of that but Moisa and Hazarkani are not going to be in the best version of this team it's it's the early returns on their new signings and the fact that they're playing good ball without most of those new signings that's making me believe in rsl so we talked about their offseason business quite a bit we previewed them in depth of course uh but this is an rsl team that's still waiting for a bunch of these dudes to come through they're still missing a starting central midfielder they're missing Luna and Ola Tungi right now to injury they're missing uh they only recently just got uh Sanabria at left wingback for them and he wasn't even fully fit in this game he does start they're missing so many pieces from this team but they still look competent they look like they understand where there's supposed to be on the field they understand what the tactical instructions are and then when you toss in the little bit of top end quality that we saw off the bench in this game for Morgan Gillavogui their new DP and I think we finally know how to say his name so that's good for us he looked amazing 27 year old right half space attacker he's going to join their front three he's one of his first touches in this game is a perfectly weighted through ball and behind then later on in this game he gets a breakaway running in behind himself off of a off of an absolute dime from a player that I'd literally never heard of before this season his name is surgery solans 23 year old striker I would not be shocked if he is rsl starting striker later on this year he's a first year player at a college he looks really good rsl are just finding good players man I don't know exactly what it is I don't know exactly what's changed for them but I'm really impressed by their acquisitions and they look good sonabria had a dot of an assist in this game from left wingback he puts an unbelievable text on his balls from the left side he looks like an above average starter Gillavogui looks like a well above average starter and then you're you're looking to go so on right wingback who's only going to improve and I think it could happen relatively exponentially I'm a big believer in the players that are here and I already kind of was I guess coming into this year was higher in rsl than pretty much anybody else that I'd seen maybe I'm even a little higher now I'm in love with what they're doing yeah I had them like eighth I think so like just like wild card I think I might elevate them a little bit too like there's just something about this balance that seems really healthy right I think that last year coming into the season we assume that it was going to be as far as Diego Luna could take them as as far as they would go in this year like I don't think you could accuse them of the same thing I think sonabria is you know I wrote this behind the season I think that he has a chance to be the best left back in majorly soccer right away this season right and and take kai vogners kind of seated thrown and there's some fun with when these two teams play like Seattle fans have all been kind of like rightfully coping with we never do well in Utah right and and that is historically accurate but I think that there also is something kind of fun whenever you have coach a coach mid team against the Craig Weibel team right like there's just so much your DNA between these two front offices at this point that um yeah I'll get into the Seattle of it inside the three because yes I'm a little worried about them too but um really good start for rsl yeah rsl just a tie bow in it they're missing all three starters in the starting 11 from their front line they're missing both projected starters coming in to center midfield and they're missing one starter in their back line I mean and they still put in a better than Seattle performance another playing at home that matters of course that's not nothing man that's not nothing Joe any other teams that you are especially positive on LAFC I'll speak through this we did a bunch on the last because I don't feel they need to do a ton this week they played a very different game against Houston where they were the ones who control the ball on a 2-0 win on Saturday and they're just good at that too I mean they didn't create spades of chances but they control the game they created more chances than the dynamo Ustakio continues to look like a game changer he scores a banger of a goal in this game Delgado scores another one off of the exact same set piece routine from outside the box I was watching the the highlights of this game before I went and watched it all and I swore I was they just dubbed the same clip one after the other uh LAFC just are absurdly talented and I already thought they were going to be good literally everybody thought they were going to be good they're they're probably the best team in the west and I don't know I don't want to be discreetest to Vancouver maybe I'll regret this I'm not exactly sure how close it is hurtful I was about to say uh that's another team Joe that I think we all had positive feelings about when we did the reviews uh but I just wanted to give some some loves to Vancouver who had themselves quite a time in that three-neil destruction of Toronto a game that produced the the first instance I can remember of the Walker Zimmerman face of what have I done like he just looked very very upset with himself very upset with his teammates very upset with his goalkeeper who just came flying out of the goal and got nowhere near the ball and was late to it at the same time not not the great greatest work from Toronto but Vancouver just looked like they're having fun Thomas Muller looks like he is enjoying his time in Major League Soccer is enjoying playing for this team is in enjoying uh subbing on at half time in concaf champion's cup to help inspire a win it's just a really good start to the season for a Vancouver team that we all thought would be good but are are meeting those expectations so deserve a little bit of credit even if Joe thinks they're bad I'm pretty sure that's what the takeaway was yes that's what I heard too uh and to close out like a trio of dappups for western conference team San Jose earthquakes like just yes it's Atlanta yes you have to kind of correct for the opponent but I think what what when I was like kind of hedging my bets on them and saying like sixth seventh somewhere in the western conference it was because I didn't trust the defense like they are defending very well so far and I think that that has really set them up to do well um you know in the rest of their play uh you like to see team over and are like trying to seek out every one of his new teammates to give them a high five after he gets his first assist in the league that's just kind of like the dp etiquette yeah it looks good that's how you do it he probably funded the pizza after the game too uh and then another instant classic Bruce are we reading a quote uh quote the reason we didn't bring in many players this year is because we think these guys are pretty good and uh they looked pretty good so far oh Bruce never change uh well I contemplated thing Joe said earlier that almost certainly will end up in the TSS out of context discord channel we're going to take one more break and talk about some teams that have not quite met our expectations back soon welcome back to the total soccer show it's now time to talk about some teams that have fallen the most in our estimations uh we were already a little bit down slash a lot bit down or Orlando uh and Charlotte would either of you like to kick them further while they're down Jeff kick him Jeff kick him Charlotte sure I guess uh yeah I mean every year in preseason prediction time like I don't know if you guys have this experience there's this team that you want to think are gonna fall off but then you're just like ah but the floor and and Joe you did it in segment to be fair it's like oh but they're floor there's no way and then sometimes you realize you didn't look under the floor and realize they didn't have any like load bearing pillars underneath in the foundation and that whole thing is gonna crumble real quick because it's that old and they needed to replace it um and that isn't supposed to be a Tim Reem joke but I think that when you look at how they are set up right now and and we overlooked it a little bit less I overlooked it I'm not gonna drag you guys down with me on this one when they had that like long winning streak last year and most of those were one goal wins right I think that the the way that you spin that is they are a good team at winning close games I think another way you could put it is they are good enough but they weren't doing much to make a lot of games that they could win by one games that they did win by two or three and I think that in a post-eaf sure on the low MLS there is no team that I look at and say why would you want to play this way in this league with how these opponents are calibrated then Charlotte at this point and and I think that you you also have to look at what their success rate has been in the playoffs like Dean Smith hasn't won a playoff game in 90 minutes like both of the games that they've won they've won one game each in 24 and 25 and both of those were on penalties right again this is like the finest of fine margin sort of management and there's just going to be a certain point where when they know what your weaknesses are you don't have the the you're aren't giving your players the courage to capitalize on their strengths you aren't leaning into your own strengths I don't really know what the issue is there are how you break it but at this point right now it just seems like a team where if you can score first they're going to they're going to look really defeated and just be like well okay I guess that's that and part of that again comes back to the Zaha and the body language and all of it but it's just really see how difficult to see now where they're going to get those sorts of credible results or those incredible results maybe that make us all say okay I underestimated them like I know how they dig out of this and it's winning four straight games one zero that's what it's gonna have to be I think this is a team in Charlotte that we're gonna think differently about in August then we do right now well I know it's true for pretty much every team but if we do cast our minds ahead to the summer window and everything you said was fair Jeff they're gonna have probably two DP spots to play with right if if they are able to move on from Leilabata and just basically take a bath on that deal which I think they probably will and then you have the space to go out at a DP in the form of of Wilford Zaha's deal expiring that's gonna drastically change the makeup of this team and and you pretty much can't miss more on two DPs and Charlotte have missed on these two guys not not that either one of them have been atrocious but you're probably gonna do better on your DP deals and then the other thing I would add is more than Ajama who came off the bench in this game another Ajama in Charlotte not Pat Morrison he is a center back he came on for Andrew privit they are still searching for their Melanda replacement and maybe that ends up being Ajama maybe that ends up being some other combination of center backs that's not Tim Raymond privit I don't know what that looks like but there's gonna be some maturity I think from some of these young players in Oklahoma you could you could push into that too where they now have more responsibility I still am not buying Charlotte as an elite team by any means but I could envision myself buying more of them in August than I am right now the only thing that I will say because I at first my instinct was to fully agree like you can't get much less out of your DP just stop there I think right let me just and then I pulled up Charlotte's historical list of designated players and they've had one sporting director this whole time so I'm crying out I don't forget that's ready Wilford Zaha Pepiel was a DP for one year so there's a win sure great look but they got him off a DP roll so he's still a DP right now but either way yes okay yes so so he still counts we look like it's good Enzo Capetti Camille just just we act yeah Carol Swedersky said in a full Mickey Mouse voice and Jordy Alcivar remember him I don't so like that is the list they have had some ambitious targets there was that window where like every outward Tom Bogart was reporting another winger in Europe that they were targeting and desperately trying to maneuver to acquire and they just couldn't get those deals over the line and it looks like if these are kind of their their their be list sort of targets that they're ending up signing like I don't trust the be list I would hold out until you get back to the a list sign those guys and then play guys like Bershima's more and just kind of try to build something different because right now you are wasting time and talent by you know how they have been approaching it right now Morrison Ajimang and Patrick Ajimang are not related correct I've just been frantically googling this because it's blowing my mind pretty pretty popular last name it turns out which I didn't really realize but it is I just the odds of two players impressive that last name playing for Charlotte and being like around the same ages I think I just assumed and I assumed incorrectly that's what happens when you assume as the old saying goes so we're not overly enthusiastic about Charlotte at present but maybe slightly more optimistic long term anybody else that we should maybe mention is having fallen down in the estimations yeah Jeff take take Seattle why not again this is just Joe like no you do it you do it you do it I will do it that's fine I think with Seattle last year the the reason and I we said this after they lost him in the soda in the first round and I think we were kind of saying this down the stretch as well that that there are Achilles heel was when they were on the back foot and it was the idea that this is a team that their backline doesn't really have the the the legs to be able to defend in transition in the same way they can defend during set phases of possession against them right and set piece defending as well has become an issue for them and it has been for a couple years now but when you look at you know you you you correctly cited that that absolute like the ball of the week of the channel that Giovoge plays but part of that is also now suddenly you've got like this Jackson Reagan and Yamar and new Tolol on skates desperately trying to catch up to it and trying to turn around and none of them have the agility to really do it and so it was wide open terrain for ourselves to run into that just no one was really closing down unless or until Alex Worldon leaves his position and slide centrally and then that wing is wide open and that becomes another danger area for them historically it was an area that they didn't really address and I think in my precies and predictions I was like okay well they kept the cord together and so they can continue the strengths but the weaknesses then get exasperated over time and so that would be the one area where I would hope that they can find a reinforcement I don't even know if it's necessarily a starter per se but it's someone who can play 30 minutes every week off the bench at a minimum right now at center back so that these guys can rest a little bit more and then maybe find a little bit more of that mobility I also personally like I like what Rebecca Whiting did for that sort of like kind of again that athleticism component on the left back but they locked in on new hotola for another contract so that's not happening and he's gone Baker Whiting I'm not I'm not associating excuse me with Jeff's Seattle concern whatsoever I just want that bookmarked for the future why not you're just like you see you see Defender struggling around backwards you're like yeah that's normal that's fine yeah that's fine I mean I I think I had this team fourth in the west coming into the air and I it's I maybe third I don't know that's still right on the one yeah I was somewhere with you like third and MLS cup winning and like thinking and that's different because I don't I don't I don't I kind of never west good yeah you you guys can have this one I suppose I think I mean I think Seattle are still going to be really good Ossazio de Rosario probably needs to start doing a little bit more although I don't think he's looked bad just think he needs to get a little bit more involved but also I don't know there's there's some piece around him that I think still need to click into place they've started a different start on the left wing in both games what I what I will say is I'm not worried about that double pivot man because neither Bernal looks legit and he probably is going to be starting sooner than later over Hassani Dotson who's looked fine by the way and Roldan Christian Roldan not Alex although Alex looks good Christian Roldan scores goal in this game when I set peace he is unbelievable and that double pivot I've started just keying in on him when I watch Sounders games which is not really a sentence I ever thought I would say three years ago probably he is if he was playing in San Diego we would have gushed about him for an hour already the season so he I mean he is just playing so so well on both sides of the ball I think Seattle be fine how you feeling about Columbus Joe because we didn't I didn't think Portland were going to be particularly good yeah they beat Columbus in the opener then Columbus lose again this weekend again draw three draw excuse me but a draw gets bored in Kansas City maybe yeah it does really does how we feel about the crew I am waiting for the crew to hit their full form which I suppose is sort of what we're waiting for all these teams I basically I don't think what we're seeing of Columbus right now is what we're going to see from them in a month or two because I don't think Henrik reads from really quite knows his his best personnel yet and specifically I'm waiting to see how it clicks in in the central midfield double pivot and in the attack because we've seen different alignments so far this season across the two games we didn't see Daniel Gosdog in the first game we talked about that we did see him in this game wasn't very good and then who exactly is going to be in that double pivot we seen Zewatsky we saw him next to Habrun in this game they signed Andre Gomez or I'm still you know kind of curious how he's going to bet into this team it might be a little bit before that actually happens maybe we shouldn't think about him so much but what I know about Columbus is that was some of a Lee looks really good unfortunately he doesn't doesn't score the potential game winning penalty in this game that saved by Polskamp well done to John Polskamp and and but he looks really good on balance he looks good at literally everything on the field defensively in possession he's checking all the boxes for me Rossi's looked really good so far this season I just want to know where the other juice is coming from for Columbus because they've been a little too open which is which is fine if you have the horses to go out there and and make teams pay for that I just don't know that they have quite enough of those horses even as good as those two guys are so the other option then is to be a bit more aggressive like it and to be a bit more assertive in duels and things like that and I'm not sure they have the personnel right now to do that either so the results have been bad for Columbus there's there's no way around that I don't think they've played as poorly as the results have shown and I still think they're probably going to be fighting for a playoff spot but I didn't I didn't think the crew would maybe be fighting I thought they would just be in and and as I watch this team I think maybe there are some holes here and there I'm starting to worry just a little bit not a lot like my opinions on Columbus haven't changed a lot generally our opinions shouldn't be changing a whole lot to do games right but I do think that they have some questions that still need to be answered and and some of them are the same ones from last year I missed the undergumish siding that seems like a really smart acquisition of them he's what only 32 has a pretty established predatory pedigree including winning the European championship but also like it isn't going to score a ton of goals to my memory not I feel like is a good like connective tissue player who can also get stuck in as you need feels it will be a reliably strong performer for the crew ideally he just hasn't played a lot of soccer right in the last couple years which I think is sort of how he ends up in MLS so it's it's kind of a mystery box signing to me in in maybe a less extreme version of how I started we guess but it's just these players that command in sort of I mean it's it's like Zaha that we talked about before I like the idea from Columbus I'm in favor of the signing I just I could not tell you if it's going to work or not it feels like a matter of fitness and availability and I just have no clue what that's going to look like for him I just know that Columbus need more I suppose maybe maybe that's like the simplest way to say it as I was sort of thinking through as I was talking they just need more I don't know if that piece is they do one more attacker but they don't have the DP spot I don't know how they're getting off God's dogs that seems difficult maybe they find a way and if so well done but they need something there or they need something in midfield I just don't think they're quite well rounded as currently constructed I believe that to be fair I believe us to have updated the major league sockers here on the total soccer show gentlemen thank you for going over an hour to talk about all things MLS with me I look forward to doing it doing it again next week but for now Morgan Giajogi is that what we went with today they all done thanks Taylor it got a good laugh out of me before recording started and Jeff Reuter thank you for going with your usual name that is not quite as difficult to pronounce is the one Joe did people used to make a meal out of it so you'd be surprised Jeff Reuters right Reuters right the BBC called me Jeff Router at one point oh that's exciting yeah good good internet on that interview I hope yeah we turned the segment off and on again and it worked better good easy did it all controversial that you're working for the Guardian and not your family's newspaper they did ask like when I was interviewing they were like any relation it's like no no no no don't worry we're good it's not my grandfather news agency Reuter first started this but I want to go my own way thank you both for all of your efforts listeners thank you all for sticking with my ham-fisted segways we very much appreciate it you