Galaxy's 4th Straight Loss, Forest Upset City, Sergino Dest is Back, and the 2025 NWSL Preview

NWSL, as you rightfully mentioned, has to get away from that stigma of like,

I don't like it here, so I'm off.

Teams are starting to build and move away from that, but it can still get better.

Unfiltered Soccer with Landon and Tim, presented by Volkswagen.

Volkswagen has long been a supporter of soccer in America

and has proudly been a partner of U.S. soccer for the past five years.

LD, what's happening, bud? We're back.

How are you?

We're back. I'm a little tired.
I'm a little tired, bud. Why? Where have you been? I had a belated birthday weekend.
In? In Vegas. That's good for so many.
Yeah, man. I tried to catch up on sleep last night, but the time changed.
We're recording this a little earlier today sorry i'm kind of mad at you guys i apologize where do you where do you stay we stayed at encore this time which was fun um did gambling nice dinner that was it actually um but it was a it was a fun trip it was just a long long long night saturday night how how how many days is is like what's what's what's the sweet spot for you in vegas i know you're close now it's one no now it's one 36 hours one day yeah what's your what's your what's your go-to game what do you what do you know what i like to play now it's kind of a weird game um is pie gal poker you ever played that no i'm not a poker guy all right so it's weird because in one of the casinos they literally don't play it anymore because the odds are so tiny for the casino right so it's it's i won't explain because people are probably already tuning out um you play a hand the dealer plays a hand and, and there's two parts to your hand.

So if you win both, you win the money.

If they win both, they win the money.

Or if you each win one, you push.

And so you can sit there for like 45 minutes and just keep pushing

because the odds are you're going to push.

So it's really fun, but it lasts a long time, so it's nice.

That's my thing about Vegas, LD.

I like to play craps because I can play craps until like 4 in the morning.

And I like games that like – if I went to play blackjack, night's over in like 20 minutes because i i'm just getting housed so um yeah i i'm not a gambler either um on a slightly serious note ld i wanted to um say hello to our friend and a friend of the show tony miola very i spoke to him this morning very recently um he had a he had a massive heart attack, and it was scary for all involved. And I know he means so much to soccer in America and U.S.
soccer fans, and they've wished him well. And he's been amazing through this process, but he's strong.
He just had a checkup. Doctor gave him the all clear, just not too much running in the next month.
So we as a show want to make sure we send our love to Tony Miola. And so glad you're doing well, bud.
Funny, real quick story about Tony Miola. First time I went to national team camp was after the earthquakes won with him in 2001.
It was my first year. And I was like, dude, Tony, I was 18.
I was such an idiot. I go, Tony, I don't see why we wouldn't just win the MLS cup every year.
We're so good. And he looked at me and he goes, Landon, you have no clue what you're talking about, dude.
He's like, just give it a few years. You're not winning MLS cup every year.
Was that a serious comment from you? Yeah, it was. I'm like, dude, we're so good, bro.
We're so good. We won the MLS.
He's like, shut up. Oh, my God.
All right, guys. Follow us, as always, on social media at Unfiltered Soccer.
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We've got some feedback that some people are not happy about. Some comments made particularly about new england revolution that's okay if you want to review that and say that no problem guys email us feedback at unfilteredsoccer.com we can take all of it tim likes the heat i like the love it's good it's good balance all right mls weekend timmy so in vegas i did actually watch the sounders lafc game uh it's fun to watch when you're just sitting around and there's a good balance.
All right, MLS weekend, Timmy. So in Vegas, I did actually watch the Sounders-LAFC game.

It's fun to watch when you're just sitting around,

and there's a bunch of people who presumably have bet a ton of money on it,

and they have no idea what they're watching,

but they're excited about or mad about the game.

So Seattle looked great.

Yeah.

Really good.

I love how much you pay attention to that West Coast corridor. It's, LA, LA, San Diego.
Nobody cares about the late night. Seattle looked great.
I was surprised. LAFC has been really good defensively.
And I watched it, and I just thought something's – I hope it's not a theme. I think it is a theme theme through the season there's some bad defending in MLS like really bad defending and you and you're one of the greatest attackers in the league in the history but like just sometimes we're like defenders I'm thinking I'm certain on your paycheck somewhere it says I am paid to defend and and they just don't do it.
But okay, I'm digressing. Seattle was very good.
I love, I love the atmosphere in Seattle. Like the game kicked off and I was just like, I remember playing there with, with just come back from Europe and I was playing there with Colorado.
And I remember saying to like a couple of young guys in the dressing room, like, if you never, if you never get to the world stage, this is this is as good as it gets like this this place is awesome and they were great i thought they were really really good um big credit to jordan morris he's a former teammate of ours um 87th goal for the club becomes seattle's all-time leading goal scorer it couldn't couldn't happen to a better guy better player uh i'm buzzing for him, he's got that. But then I think he's also in touching distance of 100 goals, right? So you hope over the next two seasons he's able to kind of eclipse that mark, which would be huge for him.
You're seeing, Tim, and I know Seattle's in it too, but these teams that are in the Champions Cup too, they're playing these midweek games. And then LAFC had to travel whatever two and a half hours up to seattle uh afternoon game which just hard like emotionally to get up for that again they had lafc had has some injuries in the in their defense and then they had an injury during the game and they you know their options were go from a back three to a back four and play with two centerbacks or bring on a rookie who's never played a minute against Seattle away.

And they chose not to do that.

And they got battered, but they'll be fine.

But Seattle looked good.

Question for you.

How many goals did you score in MLS?

I don't know exactly.

I think in the 130 range, 140 range. Is that the all-time leading? Is that? Wando.
How many does Wando have? Wait, I think it's Wando now. Or did Kai Kamara pass him? Oh, Kai passed him.
Did Kai pass for first all-time? I don't know. Someone in the chat will tell us.
Someone will tell us. But Jordan, I mean, look, Seattle started late, right, in the league but you know they came in i forget what year they came in but it's been a while um but to score 87 goals dude is it's a lot of goals a lot of goals he'll get he'll get 100 minutes also yeah he'll get 100 he'll get ld is the leader on 144 goals no i'm not the leader yeah all right tell everyone i'm the leader.
We say what we want on this podcast.

Okay, that's fine.

Say it so people believe it.

All right, Miami.

I did see they were down.

Miami was down a man for a long time.

Keeper got sent off, didn't he?

Yeah.

I'm just always impressed with teams when they're able.

Well, the best is when you go down a man and then you score.

And then you're able to win a game. That tells me a lot about a team.
But Miami down a long time, but won at home in a rivalry match against Charlotte. Well, it's becoming a rivalry match in that Southern Corridor.
Another important win for Miami without Messi. He was on the bench.
Do you think he was going to play? No. I think they succumb to social media pressure and just throw him on the bench.
Yeah, I mean, I'm sure there's going to be lots of that. I couldn't imagine there was a scenario where he's going to play, but it's a rest thing.
Look at what I would say for we are at the end of this thing, right Like how many more times is Messi going to lace up his boots and cross the white line? You're looking at less than 18 months. I have no inside information on that, but I'm just looking at it from the vantage point of like the World Cup and his contract and all that.
Like they're trying, and I i have a feeling ld this might be a weekly

segment miami miami won the supporter shield last year they got knocked out in the first round messi missed 14 games all competitions they are going to try and win the mls cup simple simply put i don't even know if they care about the supporter shield this year you know they've they've done that boxed it away. They're going to try and keep pace, perform well,

and keep messy as healthy as humanly possible to play the best possible

minutes from September to November.

They are, they are.

And I know that's hard for people to, to, to think about and balance.

And yes, there's a responsibility to the league and to, to the fans.

But I would imagine David Beckham is thinking if we if number one goal is to lift that cup yeah I mean fans hate it right because even if you're in Miami and you get 17 or 20 times the chances a year to see him you spend all the money you do all the things you prepare you go to the game and then you sit on the bench for 90 minutes and you this sucks. And for away teams, we've talked about it.
It's an absolute disaster. But their job as a team and their job as a front office is to try to win.
I mean, on the soccer side, is to try to win. And they're trying to win MLS Cup.
Quick segue. We lied.
We don't often lie, but when we do, we make sure we tell you.

Landon Donovan is not the leader.

All-time leading goal scorer.

I thought we confirmed I was the leader.

So, number one all-time, Chris Wondolowski, the greediest striker,

most amazing striker.

Love Wondo.

You love that guy.

171 goals.

Kai Kamara, who I'm really impressed with.

I mean, he's had some staying power.

147 goals. And our own Landon Donovan.
Think about this for a minute with Wando. You know what people don't know about Wando is he really started his career in like 23 or 24 years old.
I was playing at 18. Yeah, yeah.
And Wando scored, I'm just doing the math right now, 30. He scored 26 more goals, and he played so many less games.
Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's incredible.
The guy's probably the most underrated MLS striker ever. I'll give you that.
Yeah, I'll give you that. He's a stud.
A team that could use a striker right now, Tim. My LA Galaxy.
What's going on? Oh, my God. This is tough, dude.
This is getting tough to watch. I told you last week, don't be surprised if it continues.
Yeah. I think people are just going to start waking up to the fact that this is going to be a common struggle for the Galaxy.
And you just cannot, the part of MLS that's hard is when you succeed, you get punished. And what I mean by that is when you win, you can't keep players.
So Jovolic, they couldn't make him a DP because they don't have a DP spot. But he deserves, based on performance, to probably be a DP.
Kansas City could. So you've got to move him.
He's not going to turn down doubling his salary. So it's just part of the game but the galaxy are struggling man and without ricky it's it's the struggle's very real um they lost uh marquis delgado too um they've they've lost some big pieces that that were really important and they're struggling and and i think it's going to continue i wish there was.
I wish there was an easy way out, but I think it's going to continue. I mean, what they just need to be careful of is, you know, I know it's three games in, so they almost kind of need a reset.
And what they need to be careful of is, like, getting too far off the pace, right? Like, it's okay to not be great. And we understand the subtractions that they've had and not a ton of additions but i still i don't know i was gonna say this there's an onus on the players to kind of you know these are champions like yes there's one or two missing but like this is a championship level squad and so feel i feel as if they need to be giving more I'm not questioning their effort, but there's, you know, there's a, there's that like championship hangover.
You've, you've probably had that more than more than most, right. Where you just exhaling it like this has been, it is, it is so much easier and it's not easy, but it's so much easier to chase a title than to actually be chased.
And now, now, now everybody's hunting for them. And that's so much harder, you know, meant from a psychological standpoint.
Yeah. This is human psychology, Tim.
And that's when, when we repeated from 2011 in 2011 and 2012, in my mind, that was the best, the biggest feat ever for us as a team, because there is a natural human

cycle from everybody, by the way, from ownership to go, ah, we won, we can relax from front

office to coaches, to players.

It's natural.

It happens.

And it's hard to like go again and go again and go again, especially in a league where

in like in the Premier League, which we'll get to in a second, you're fighting the table,

right?

There's no playoffs.

So for the Galaxy,

it's like, oh, we can chill. We've, you know, halfway through the season, we can turn it on and get into the playoffs.
But to your point, that could be gone fast. And the problem is now

is two losses at home to two teams they really should have beat, San Diego and St. Louis.
And

it's not a knock on those two teams, but it's not like you lost a derby to LAFC or you lost

Thank you. at home to two teams they really should have beat, San Diego and St.
Louis. And it's not a knock on those two teams, but it's not like you lost a derby to LAFC or you lost a Miami coming in or a good Philly team.
They're losing games they should win, and you don't get a chance to get those points back. So it's going to be a slog, man.
Yeah, it is. We're not touching on Philly, but you mentioned Philly.
Barribo, Jesus. He has six goals.
He's on fire. And by the way, Philly are incredible at the moment.
They've got some pieces. Well, just like I said, Tim, Philly's going to be a force to be reckoned with.
People have got some receipts, bro. Can we go back and can we re-film that? And I'll just say what a great hire Bradley Carnell was, and this is going to be a great team.
Amazing. They are incredible, by the way.
By the way, real quick, San Diego FC also unbeaten still. Went into Salt Lake, and they won late.
It was a 1-1 game, but they won a couple late goals when Salt Lake were pushing the game. So big credit there.
If they stay healthy, they can. And they lost Chicoico lazano but if they stay healthy their chance they got a chance to make the playoffs and and do something so yeah for sure keep your eye on that all right primary league i'm gonna let you lead this dude because i was in vegas and flying and i didn't watch uh live any of the games i saw the results but what did you see this weekend you were throwing all your chips into the middle of the table it's fine i was i was working um probably the best game of the weekend actually was uh forest manchester city um one nil forest at home i i personally have never been to the city ground

um which is an incredible incredible stadium with like rich in history i mean you know in the 70s

forest war i know people think that was a million years ago but forest were a european

Thank you. An incredible, incredible stadium with like rich in history.
I mean, you know, in the 70s, Forest were, I know people think that was a million years ago,

but Forest were a European force.

I mean, they were incredible.

And my goalkeeper coach, Chris Woods, who you know from Everton, he was the goalkeeper behind Peter Schultz all those years.

So, I mean, I've heard stories about those amazing Nottingham Forest teams.

At any rate, it's an incredible place to play. It's one of those old school, you know, you talk about Goodison, Everton leaving Goodison for a new home.
But this is one of those old school proper football grounds. And they're really real home field advantage, and they play on that.
And, look, I think, you know, is Nuno Espirito Santo the frontrunner for manager of the season? He has to be.

Oh, he has to be. He has to be.
Him in slot, of course, at Liverpool. But the way that he, what it is, is we haven't seen this from Nuno, which makes it even more special.
At Wolves, again, Wolves are probably where they are. They're about to the bottom of the table.
they had a few good seasons

certainly under Nuno but

it was a more pragmatic style. He had a few match winners, and then he went to Tottenham.
It just didn't work and very quickly was sacked. And so we hadn't really seen, like, what is, who is Nuno Espirito Santo? Very stern, kind of stone-faced.
We're starting to see a smile and an exuberance about him. And his team is fantastic.

He sets them up well.

They've got, I mean, front to back,

they have real staying power in terms of staying in the top four

because you've got a fantastic goalkeeper, Matt Sells.

They've got the most clean sheets in the league.

Real good partnership in the back with Murillo and Milankovic

as the two center backs.

And then what he does is it's kind of that like Portuguese way of like, we're going to create this base at the back, be really solid. And then there's going to be like four or five players.
You go win us the game, but just go win us the game. I need a massive engine from you.
Gibbs white is brilliant in the middle of the field. A Lang on one side, Hudson and Doyle on the other.
And this is the key. He wants them to break, break quickly.
And the second they get their head up, put the ball in the box. because if they put their ball in the box chris was getting on the end of it he's having a fantastic career season so uh yeah forest has been really really good this year he's had a renaissance huh chris wood the big kiwi it's like you watch that team and you're thinking okay does he does do the other pieces really fit with him whatever but they know put it in the box and he's's proven he can score goals.
He's obviously very good in the air, but he's just banging in goals for fun. Yeah, they've been fun to watch.
Yeah, it's a testament to what a proper striker is. Get between the posts.
That's where the goals are scored, and put the ball in. Yeah, he's been fantastic.
Yeah. You know, I was checking the scores in Vegas, and I looked at halftime of the liverpool southampton game and southampton were up one now at halftime and i was like whoa yeah what's going on so i mean i can imagine what the game looked like but in the end all was set right but i i was shocked that was a shocking yeah i think it was i think it was kind of short lived.
It was off of Southampton

throw in

small bone ends up like

kind of challenging

Van Dijk from behind and Van Dijk's

trying to hold him off and wants Allison, the goalkeeper, to

come. It's one of those really slow balls where the

defender should just clear it and it was

massive coming together. The ball falls and

small bone swivels on it, scores and bedlam

right, but it's kind of like we've seen this enough in the world of football where you're like, okay, that's all Liverpool needed because now I can tell you how this is going to go.

And they ran out three one winners and it was in the end pretty comfortable.

And I get the sense that there's going to be a few teams toward the back of the season that are going to have to give Liverpool a guard of honor because I do think they're going to win it pretty comfortably at this point. So 15 points clear now, right? Yeah.
15 points clear, 500 in control, what they need from the remaining nine games. And obviously that doesn't take into account any more drop points from the likes of Arsenal.
So it seems to be a formality, and just for people listening at home, in England what a guard of honor is, if you win it on the last day and the last kick of the ball, you don't get a guard of honor. But when I was at Manchester United, Chelsea, it was the Mourinho teams, and Chelsea had won a league and they won it comfortably,

which meant if a team mathematically has already clinched the title,

then any subsequent games that they play,

let's say they have three games left, every time the teams walk out of the tunnel in the procession,

the respectful thing to do is for the opponent to form a guard of honor

so that the team walks through. Yeah very it's a very english thing um a little bit demoralizing you know when you're like i'm gonna go look at the fixture list and see who they're playing who has to do that crazy that's cool they um they can focus now in champions league right for the most part and their game last week at psg was insane uh they had no business no business getting anything out of the game and they end up winning the game so now they come back home and they've got a one nothing cushion but they got battered by psg psg looked really good really somehow lost the game so that's uh it's probably too bad because i don't it's hard hard to imagine PSG goes to Anfield and wins that game.
No. And they got – they played off the park against PSG.
But for Allison, the goalkeeper who, again, world class, kept them really – not even in the game, but in this tie. You know, you go back to Anfield at 1-0.
This is the crazy thing about Champions League and how you feel. They will have walked away from that game going, oh, that's good.
Really good result. Now we get them back at our place.
And Anfield under the lights is formidable. It's special.
What I always say about Anfield is, and the cop, they recognize moments. And you and I have been a part of that rivalry they they because they've had so many big moments big european moments they recognize them like anfield against psg is going to be like psg is not going to want to walk out of that tunnel it's going to be so daunting because they they understand it's not like oh it's just another knockout yeah we won this trophy no they know that on that night they can create an atmosphere um that will live throughout the test throughout time so um yeah it's a special it's a special place and filling the lights and i think i have a feeling um liverpool turn this result over yeah it's gonna be fun to watch champions league this week will be fun to watch now these second legs with with everything at stake.
United-Arsenal, we don't spend a lot of time there. I am as disappointed as I am in United.
Arsenal, too, they've just kind of petered out. Never really made a run at it.
And so the game didn't mean much, right? It didn't mean much. It just didn't.
The crazy thing is, Land ever since i can you know primarily has gone through phases and it was it was always about manchester united liverpool and then arsenal under wenger came through really heavy and that arsenal arsenal man united rivalry became everything right you know late 90s early 2000s i i was actually a part of um some of those games the some of those big games and it was it was the premier fixture and like we did the build-up to the game this weekend it was just like United stink don't know how they're gonna play Arsenal are very good but they're at the time 16 points back of the title so that's gone um just really really really interesting um kind of where the two teams are um and it's not good for the league right the league's way better when no when both those teams are both those teams yeah i mean the probably the biggest talking point was there's massive you know a couple thousand people protest outside uh old trafford um protesting the Glazers once again you know but

I you know I think about even in the other side of ownership when I look at when I look at Arsenal

they've they've said we need to buy a striker in the last two windows and they haven't done it for different reasons whether that be price or whatever and Isak is a name on everybody's lips and he's going to cost some money what I would say is i'm really interested to see what arsenal does this year because they have a window you know this as you build teams you have a window and they're a really good team they have really great pieces ethan when there he's coming through on the one side he's been he's a generational talent they have so many great pieces they need to strike her so i'm actually thinking don't really and I don't really like to overpay or i wouldn't be in a camp of saying let's go overpay for somebody but if ezak's going to cost the money that he's going to cost he's nailed on to get you 20 goals in a primary he could win you the title and the idea is to win the title it's not really getting the champions anymore they're going to do that right they've won domestic cups it's to win the primary league i think they have to go buy a big top goals yeah and there's no i mean like you can take risks with with players who don't play in the league currently sure or you get a guy who you absolutely know if he's healthy is going to score you you said 20 i think he scored 30 with arsenal yeah right so i think it's a must um chelsea lester chelsea back into the top four they've kind of had a weird season huh really good early really poor through mid-stretch they're starting to find a little bit of form um back in the top four but good for good for the league again when when chelsea are strong yeah just a quick note i mean look chelsea i think are i actually am really happy with chelsea you have a first-year premier League manager right you what went on at Chelsea was like let's buy all the best young players and figure and now he's kind of streamlined the squad and they've had a blip absolutely but you know what happened with that blip they won this week and they went into the top four so I'm not really sure like they're still ahead of schedule for me right Cole Palmer had a brilliant start to the season. He's got no goal involvements in, like, six or seven games.
But, like, that happens. You know, that happens.
There's a bunch of injuries. So, yeah, I'm good with Chelsea where they are.
I think they're, you know, I think next year is a big year for them. All right, dude.
Good weekend in the Premier League. Champions League fixtures when this comes out.

It'll be Tuesday, so Champions League and lots to watch this week.

We're going to take a break.

When we come back, talking U.S. men's national team.

We're only a few weeks now, Tim, from Nations League.

So we're keeping an eye on everybody.

And we'll be back to talk about it right here on Unfiltered Soccer

with Landon and Tim, presented by Volkswagen.

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There's a lot in life that feels like it should be guaranteed that just isn't. Your team winning the championship, the weather being good on game day, your friends remembering who has the tickets.
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Only available with TurboTax Live full service. Everyone's favorite time of the week, USLNT on USMNT, where we talk about the US men's national team.
They're not in camp, so we'll talk about what they're doing in their domestic seasons. Most importantly, headlining this week is Serginio Dest.
Yes, sir. He's back, back, back.
Welcome back, Serginio. 11 months, by the way, Tim.
They took their time. I'm actually really happy to hear that.
Yeah, yeah. And you never know if it was the player who needed a few more months or whatever, but everyone's in such a rush.
They want eight months, nine months. And I don't know the data on this, but the longer you take to come back, the more chances you have of staying healthy.
Yeah, of course. And so if it needs another month, just take the month.
I know it sucks in the short term, but he's 24. Take your time.
Get back. So hopefully, knock on wood, he stays healthy.
But great to have him back. Well, I mean, well played to his physio staff and himself.
You know as well as I do. I was the world's worst.
If I had an injury and the second I sat, and I wasn't injured a lot, thank God, and played through a lot. But if I sat down with my physio or the doctors or the surgeon and they're like, you're going to be out four weeks, in my head, I was going, right, so two and a half weeks, I can be back for sure, right? Like, it didn't even cross my mind.
And, you know, when you're out so long, you feel like you're missing out on everything. You're missing out on a career.
You're like, well, I have to get back. And as you said, the way that rehabilitation and physiotherapy is now implemented in teams, you're like well i have to get back and as you said the the way that rehabilitation and physiotherapy is now implemented um in teams you're going to more than likely if something gets repaired you're going to come back stronger yeah it's getting it's like getting something new put in your body and then you rehab to become stronger and you see that but you have to be able to take your time with it and yeah really happy for the men's national team, but also Destek.
He took his time because that's, I mean, you start to, as we start to break this down, LD, like the U.S. has got a really strong, solid back line all of a sudden, all of a sudden.
But these guys, you know, if you think on the left side, Anthony Robinson, Chris Richards,ards left side center back serginio deaths right back and then who's it who partners chris richard maybe ccv um trustee it looks really strong to me yeah it was a when we talked earlier in past episodes it was a position of weakness right the back line and with serginio back nobody really threatened to take that role permanently so if you if he's back and he's playing well and he's healthy now you have two very very very good i was you know you could argue at points of their career world class outside backs and now you say okay that's a good starting point chris richard's now starting to solidify himself so really to have him back. On the other side of the field, another guy who needed a boost, and that was Christian Pulisic.
Two goals. They were down, I believe they were down 2-0.
Came back in the second half. He scored twice.
They won 3-2. Big win for the club.
They just needed some relief. Yeah.
And for him personally, really good to see him back in scoring. He really needed that.
Yeah, I that yeah i mean i just think the club the club's just not in a great way right now and no they're not i think when when things are are trending and ebbing low players feel that you know supporters feel that so you know i just i love the i love the the fire and the vigor that he plays with it always means something for him to score you can see that by his reaction. So, yeah, obviously scoring a brace is a big moment.
We're leading in in a couple weeks here at the Nations League. Tyler Adams, we continue to talk about.
It's going to get to a point where we don't even need to talk about him because he's just in the team doing well, playing well. So as long as he stays healthy, as always, that's the caveat, stay healthy.
He was named Bournemouth Player of the Month this month, which is an incredible honor to think about an American going into a Premier League club, ingratiating themselves with the fans, their teammates, the coaches, and then becoming a Player of the Month when he just got back. Can't give Tyler Adams enough credit for his attitude, his endeavor, the performances he puts in, the amount of emotion that he cares about every single game.
Think about what that means. It's so difficult, by the way, to be a Premier League's club player of the month.
I mean, your consistency over the course of four or five performances is incredible. We showed a watch party this weekend on NBC in his hometown upstate New York.
They did some bar. They did a Bournemouth Supporters Club watch party.
It was crazy. It's amazing that the amount of attention this kid is getting and all very warranted.
All right, let's move into NWSL. Officially opened last weekend with the Challenge Cup.
Orlando lost in penalties at home to Washington.

But the real season starts this weekend.

I want to start Tim with a player that I coached last year.

Naomi Germa moved to Chelsea in the off season for a record $1 million.

Incredible fee.

Actually,

I think it was over a million dollars.

I think it was 1.1.

Yeah.

Transfer from San Diego wave to Chelsea. I have a lot of thoughts on all of this.
Candidly, for Naomi, I know she wanted to go. I don't love it for NWSL.
Okay. That probably the best center back in the world is leaving and wants to leave.
Now, I all the reasons, but in my opinion, having, I watched a lot of the games now and coached in that the NWSL top to bottom is the best league in the world. Yeah.
Some of the top clubs in the world play in Europe, but their leagues are not great. Chelsea can walk through four or five of those teams without breaking a sweat.
So I get disappointed when a player of Naomi's quality doesn't want to stay here. But I understand it.
The sad part for Naomi, and she's dealt with some injuries in the past in her opening match, she waited a long time to come back to play her first game for Chelsea. They played her 60 minutes.
At the 60th minute. She got injured again.
So she hurt her calf. So now she's out again.
So it's TBD to see how that goes. She's going to be fine.
She's still a top player, but there's been a number. I think the number one talking point for me for NWSL over the off season is they've had, there's so much change in the league and the league still feels a little instable in that way.
And what I mean is very few players get signed to three, four or five year deals. So most players from year to year have the freedom to move.
Yeah. And historically in the league, I'm just going to put this out there historically in the league, players have crazy power that if they're not happy, they can leave.
And it reminded me a little bit of MLS in the early days. It's like if someone wasn't happy with something or whatever, you just call your agent and be like, get me out of here.
And that doesn't happen in mature leagues around the world. So I do want to see that change.
But, you know, we'll walk through some of these. I'll get your opinion first.
well no nwsl has to you make a good point we've both been in usl at the ownership level uh first and foremost and you know usl uh and i had always said it was a mercenary league right and it was a mercenary league because we were signing players in usl to one and one right so one year contract club option for the second And of course we looked after ourselves, right? So now this kid, we had it a bunch of times, kid bangs in 15, 20 goals. And we're like, we're picking up his option because we ain't got to pay him a whole lot.
And Indy or New Mexico or Oakland comes in and offers him double the salary. Well, you know what you have to do? Like a good businessman would tell me, Tim, you're an idiot, but I go yeah i gotta or you gotta pay you gotta pay right and so right it becomes a mercenary league so so players are changing and nwsl as you rightfully mentioned has to get away from and i think they are get away from that stigma of like i don't like it here so i'm off right like teams are teams are starting to build and move away from that but right it can still get better no doubt all right so we'll walk through a few of these so bay fc actually had a great first season last year made the playoffs um they signed one of our players abby dalcomper middle of the year where we traded her there and she was fantastic unfortunately for them they're going through some turmoil now their head coach albertine montoya currently currently under investigation by the NWSL after players from 2024 lodged formal complaints against the coaching staff.
And Tim, I'll be quick. This has become and has been commonplace in this league.
I do want to say, we don't know what happened here. And so let's be careful.
Let's see what happened. Don't jump to conclusions I've learned in life.
There are multiple sides to stories. I'm not saying it did or didn't happen or anything did or didn't happen, but let's be cautious and see how this unfolds.
Yeah, I mean, watch that space. I think the people over at Bay are some really good people, certainly the ownership group.
And, you know, you hope for everybody involved that this gets cleared and there is no issues, but it's something that has to be taken seriously. So we will, we'll watch that space and we'll continue to kind of stay across it as things develop.
Down the I-5, up the I-5 from me, Angel City, strangely still no permanent permanent head coach. They got rid of Becky Tweed at the end of last year.
Larry Earnshaw is serving as the interim. This feels, Tim, this when they came into the league, it was such a massive deal.
Right. And the sister club to LAFC and everything going on with the beautiful state and whatever.
And they've just kind of been, it's been tumultuous forever. And they need to figure out a path forward that makes sense, that is sustainable.
And this is back to what I was saying earlier. This club is a really big club for the league.
And they've just felt like kind of an afterthought because there's so much change. Let me ask you something.
So Mark, the new sporting director that recently named Mark Parsons, I quite like him. I think he'll come in and settle some things down and, to your point, create that pathway.
They don't need to rebrand or re-identify themselves, but just kind of settle things down and streamline it.

I asked you the question, did they get out over their skis a little bit because there was so much hype?

There were so many celebrity investors.

They had everything that you dream about having in terms of starting a club.

And I just wonder, because I've seen this.

I've seen this with ownership groups that I've been a part of.

I've seen this in general from the outside.

All right. starting a club.
And I just wonder, because I've seen this, I've seen this with ownership groups that I've been a part of. I've seen this in general from the outside.
When you buy a club, start a club, invest in a club, it is like, you're so excited. You wear the scarf and you take the pick.
It's amazing. And then you got to get down to the nitty gritty in the day-to-day.
And that's mundane and it's tiresome and it's not fun. Well, the losing's not fun.
No, here's what happens. So it's a great question and a great point.
So the challenge is, is all the excitement, all the bluster, everything going on, whatever, what makes a club great. And you know, this with Everton and clubs, you've met with the galaxy and Everton, what you do every day is what makes your club.
It's not about a press conference or an announcement or a slogan or a mission statement or whatever. It's what you do every day that makes your club great.
And a lot of clubs, I'll just talk, I can't speak exactly specifically, 100% sure with every club in Anubisal, but a lot of clubs get a lot of the promoting and the marketing and stuff right,

and they do a great job,

but they're still struggling with just people,

boots on the ground, people who know what they're doing

and are competent to get things done.

And it's getting better.

And it's part of the problem, Tim, is in our country,

we're still immature in soccer in general.

So you had for a long time, MLS sort of leading the way with quality people, quality workers, quality executives, whatever. USL then struggles because there's only so many.
NWSL struggles because there's only so many. NASL, when it was going to struggle, there's only so many people who know what they're doing.
And it's getting better. It's going to take time, but you have to start by hiring the right people at the top who then can start the process.
That's what it takes. And speaking of right people at the top, at your club, Houston Dash, Fabrice Gautraut, new head coach.
They were bottom of the league last year. I saw just with my own eyes, things start to change at the end of the year, Tim.
So be definitely keeping my eyes on houston as i know you will for sure yeah and obviously bringing in fabrice was was the second hiring and hiring uh angela mangano um she's i think she's special i do i don't say that often but i've had a chance to really sit down with angela see her process uh you know we've given her a lot of autonomy in terms of like, you know what you're doing. You've been, you've been around, you understand what it's going to take to kind of reshape things for this club.
And she has hit the ground running and Fabrice was a fantastic hire. Also some of the, you know, some of the deals caught a lot of eyes that we've, that, that she made in the off season.
You know, Yasmin Ryan was a big one. A big one.
Good player, by the way. Good player, big money.
Good player. Opened a lot of eyes that we've that that she made in the offseason um you know yasmin ryan was a big one a big one good player by the way good player big money good player um opened a lot of eyes and you know one of the things that she knows and look we finished bottom of the league so it's very easy to say you know what the only one way to go is up but it's not just about results results are the most important right but like building a culture and a foundation i hate using our culture because everyone just throws a blanket over it but creating what you're talking about real sustainability like a real core that every day you just said it um you know she has an ability and a workflow that is second to none so yeah really excited about about that and i think the other thing she did was the the we needed a roster overhaul she knew that we had to get younger more dynamic and she brought in players and she she targeted players who had lifted a trophy and when you look at the players we brought in they'd either won the shield or the or the nwcel cup like these were this wasn't by accident right and and you talk about how do you change culture that everyone wants to talk about? Are you bringing people who understand and we're going to question and make sure things are done the right way? So yeah, you know, looking good, high hopes, but got to get it done on the grass.
So excited. Up in Portland, congrats to Sophia Smith Wilson.
She and her husband, Michael Wilson, just announced that they are pregnant, which is awesome. So very happy for her.
She's a top, top, top player. It'd be interesting to see how she gets back.
I'm always amazed, Tim, that these women are able to be pregnant and continue their careers and then stop and then come back. And having lived in a household where my wife was pregnant three times, the last thing on your mind like, you can go play at the top level professionally soccer.
It's incredible. So to see when she gets back, how she gets back.
But really excited for she and Michael. It's an awesome moment.
Yeah. Congratulations to them as a couple.
But that's to them. I will say, I mean, I watched Portland last year and it's so hard for me to put my finger on like what I think about Sophia Smith, the way that she moves across the grass,

her ideas, her vision, like you can see this. I mean, to say that she's special would be, would be probably doing her a disservice.

I mean, she is an incredible striker,

like just watching her movements in and around goal. I mean, she is.

Yeah. Just incredible.
She's really fun to watch so uh hopefully everything is incredible great with their family and then she gets back and we can see the best of her i mean sadly i had to deal with it in person watching her so i did not enjoy it as much as you in those moments but she yeah she is special uh lastly gotham fc they lost lynn williams biendolo to the Reign. Jenna Neiswanger went to Arsenal.
Yasmeen, as you just talked about. Yasmeen Ryan went to Houston.
Crystal Dunn left. So they are a well-run club, and their roster is really good.
But they lost a lot of pieces. And so now how do you reshape that, revamp that? That'll be interesting to follow.
So NWSL starts this weekend. It'll be a lot of fun to follow.
Lots of new player movement. San Diego Wave here right in my backyard.
Lots and lots of change. Felt like a reset for them.
So it'll be interesting to follow. All right, let's dig into one last thing before we take a break.
World Cup expansion for 2030. I can feel people getting pissed off.
You knew it was coming. You knew it was coming.
All right. So FIFA doesn't have enough money.
So that was my comment. A proposal to analyze a 64-team.
Yes, you heard that right. 64-team FIFA World Cup to celebrate the centenary of the FIFA World Cup in 2030.
The first one was in 1930.

Was spontaneously raised by a FIFA council member.

I'm sure nobody talked about it.

You're not having this.

I can already tell.

In the miscellaneous agenda item near the end of the FIFA council meeting held on March 5th, 2025, a FIFA spokesperson said,

the idea was acknowledged as FIFA has a duty to analyze any proposal from one of its council members. I'm sure this was spontaneous.
I'm sure nobody talked about this or thought about this before this moment. But let's get past all that.
I'm going to say this, and I think people are going to hate this. I actually love the idea of having 64 teams.
Love it. Why is that? Love it.
Because this is why, Tim. I've been to a World Cup as a player three times, and I've been as a fan, and I've been as a commentator.
And the greatest thing about a World Cup, the greatest thing, forget about what happens on the field. I mean, it's amazing, whatever, is sitting at a bar or sitting in a square or sitting outside with people someone from ireland hanging out with someone from zimbabwe hanging out with someone from peru hanging out with someone from iceland and they're all drinking beer none of them understand a damn word they're all saying but they're drinking a beer they're hanging out they're watching the game they're celebrating their teams and they're all doing it together.
And they're brought together because of this tournament. And so right now, if it's 32 countries being represented, give me 64.
I want 64 fan bases, 40,000 people traveling wherever it is, Uruguay, Morocco, whatever it is. And I want them there celebrating.
I love it. You're in the more the merrier camp.
Look, from a competitive standpoint, and they'll obviously work out the logistics. What I would say is when you get to a World Cup, you get to 32 teams, just based on how qualification works around the rest of the world.
I don't always think the best teams are in the World Cup, by the world cup by the way right like not like of course not like if you look at europe and how many slots they get right some sometimes the best couple of best teams in the world aren't there well south america too right there's teams in south america same asia so so so if you expand the field you then i think get the best of europe the best of Asia, the best of South America, the best of Africa, North America. Certain teams don't miss out.
Now, one might say you have to, you know, too bad if you miss out, you didn't reach the proper qualification. But what I would say is there are always some teams that I'm like, I wish they were in the World Cup.
And I think if you expand, then you get the best of the best. I guess the real question would be, because I don't want to be too cynical here, but the fact that someone spontaneously brought it up and the fact that they have said this to the press, they let the press know.
Obviously, it's a bit of a trial balloon to see how people react. My guess there's a good chance this happens and they're not just putting it out there for fun you're a very smart man well they just don't want to they're not going to create controversy just to do it so my guess is they're trying to get people used to it so the question then becomes how do you actually make this happen right you can't have my math is terrible but you can't have 16 groups of four, can you? And then maybe the top two, and then you have a round of 32, round of 16, quarterfinals, semis, finals.
Maybe. Or do you make it a knock? You can't make it a knockout tournament.
That would go against everything that the World Cup is, right? Yeah. Because group play is so important.
So I don't know logistically what that means. And by the way, Tim, if they do it once and it's successful, they're doing it again.
They're doing it again in 2034 and 38 and forever. Right.
So I don't think it's a, you know, they said to as a one-time team, a one-time thing. I don't think it's a one-time thing.
No, that I agree with. They're not.
So I'm sure people are going to have opinions on this. Guys, let us know.
Do you want a 64-team World Cup?

Do you want to keep it 32?

Would you go to 48 like it is this time?

Or would you cut it down?

I don't know, 24 like the Olympics.

And let us know.

Let us know your thoughts.

All right, let's take a pause.

When we're back, we will get into your questions on the AT&T Fan Connection.

We'll talk anything but soccer right here on Unfiltered Soccer with Landon and

Tim presented by Volkswagen. We'll be right back.
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It's that time of the week. We love our AT&T fan connection.
Thank you to AT&T. And thank you to our fans.
You guys are always bringing the heat, bringing the love. Jordan, welcome in this week.
How are you? Good morning. What shirt is that? Give me what kit you have on today.
Dublin Bohemians, their partnership with the band Fontaine's DC.

Amazing.

With the what?

He has no idea.

There's a band,

Landon,

called Fontaine's DC.

Yes.

It's called what?

Fontaine's DC.

Okay.

And they did a crossover

with Bohemians.

Bohemians do great,

great collabs. So confused.
Yeah, that's not even as Will House. It's that's not your house.
Cool jersey. What are you doing? I'm good.
How are you doing this week? Good. Yeah, I'm great.
Fantastic. You're going to bring some thunder to us today? What's going on? Yeah, so you guys were spending a little bit of time last week talking about the empty stadium in New England and some fans had some very hot takes.
Well, at least someone's talking about New England. Let's go.
What do you got? We're talking about them. Chris via email said, just wanted to fact check you on Rev's opening night.
There were a ton of fans there. It was 40 mile per hour winds with a low reaching 13 degrees.
We spent the majority of the game in the warming areas. So 23,000 seems accurate to me.
Stop hating bros. Listen, is that a question? Bro, go ahead, Tim.
No, I, I, it's, it's in the similar neck of the woods, bro. Is it Chris? Buffalo Bills Mafia spends zero time in warming areas.
They don't even have a warming area. They don't have a warming area.
They go, oh, it's 14 degrees. I'm going to bring a hat and gloves.
And they pile into that stadium. I'm not having it.
I'm not having. I know it's cold.
I spent my life, sleet, rain, gale force winds, getting out there. Just show up.
Honestly, just show up. It's your team.
There's nothing. There's no supporters.
Well, he did, to be fair. He showed up.
He showed up. Yeah, so fair play.
But none of his mates did because there was nobody there. Well, maybe they were in the warming section, but I was watching television.
I know what I saw. Just turn up.
This one's from David via YouTube. Pretty unfair slash lazy take on New England.
Top five in attendance last year, averaging 30K, even with low early season attendance, which isn't new and is a factor league-wide. They also spent 14 mil in the last two windows.
Do your research. All right, David, let me give you a history lesson, bud.
Here we go. I've been in many MLS, USL, NWSL meetings, and people in these meetings after the game, sometimes it's right after the game, we're sitting around and they'll say, hey, Michael, the janitor who's cleaning up, pick a number between 22 and 27,000 and just give me a random number.
And he'll go 24,612. And they go, okay, that's the announced attendance tonight.
And they put it out there. So whatever the announced attendance is, you can just throw that out the door.
And don't worry about it. You can see what you see.
We can see what we see on TV. I'm not saying that new England didn't have a decent amount of fans.
That is a bigger problem is why are they spreading it out that way? There's lots of stadiums that put fans on one side of the field only.

And the field,

the side of the field that should be on is where the camera is facing.

Right.

So whoever's in charge of that,

sort that out.

New England.

I'm not saying that's your fault as fans,

but sort that out or just put all the fans together,

put them in the lower bowl.

You don't have to open the whole stadium.

I know it's a massive stadium.

Nobody's saying you're Atlanta and you need to sell out 70,000 every week, but there's lots of issues there, dude. So you can be proud of your team and we want you to be proud of your team, but there are problems.
And if you don't acknowledge them, it's going to get worse. And the team is bad and they need to sort it out.
And I, I care about it because New England's one of the originals when I was in the league, and you want them to be good. It's not fun for anybody when it's bad.
So don't protect it. Try to help solve it.
Well, very well said. I mean, look, David, here is David, right? Mm-hmm.
I mean, here's the thing. We do our research more than you can even imagine.
The fact of the matter is, if you that there's, that there's 30,000 people there, fine, fine. It looks horrific on television.
There's no denying that in, in stadium. Cause I've played there.
It's not a, it's not a great place to play. So maybe we're having a bigger conversation as, as, as Landon touched on the stadium, how, how, how you shoot the stadium, how you kind of either tarp the upper bowl and push everyone to the lower bowl, it's been done before, right, Landon? Also, you've spent a lot of money.
If you've ever heard of Everton Football Club, in the last decade, they have also spent a lot of money. It means nothing.
It's how you spend it. So hats off to you guys for for loving your club and repping so uh keep it coming we like to smoke how about some questions let's do it this one came to us via email from ryan who is identifying himself as a west ham fan who enjoys moise ball is that a thing i mean i bet i bet he He enjoys winning.
Do you feel that European fans have too much influence in club decisions, especially coaching changes? In U.S. sports, the first year for a new coach is usually a freebie with improvement expected in year two and things needing to click in year three.
In European football, the leash is much shorter. Great question.
bud well yeah i think by the nature of of the dynamic of of global football european football yeah the fans have a much greater say it's hard for me to say they're more passionate but they do they they do thing like i i lived in you know know, born and raised in New Jersey. The Jets, New York Jets haven't been good for a very long time.
And I don't really know that they fly planes and banners over the stadium. I don't know if they burn things outside of the stadium, whether on that, we're not condoning that or have sit-ins.
And this is what European football clubs do. These fans, they have a voice and a say, and it's loud and it's proud and it's passionate.
So that naturally is going to influence people's decisions. Is it too much? Yeah, probably, probably.
But we, and we see, we see the bad of that Jordan. Oftentimes with people wanting the manager out and saying and doing all the wrong things.
We we see the good of it remember the super league that teams wanted to break away you know what stopped the super league fans fans said over my dead body will this ever happen and they literally protest in droves and and they single-handedly the fan single-handedly stopped something from happening in world football. So there's a lot of influence.
There's, yeah. Is there too much influence? I don't know.
You don't want to stop people from being passionate, speaking their mind, right? The key here is the decision maker at the club, right? Because that's the person who either allows the influence to impact them or just says, I don't care. Let's use Arsenal as an example.
You know who they wanted fired after the first season? Mikel Arteta, right? And the fans were going crazy. Correct.
A few years later, they're top of the league, near the top of the league, fighting for championships. And now it's like, wow, what a great hire.
But in the beginning, the person influence had crumbled, he might've been fired, fired right so the person who makes the decision is the person that that either gets influenced or doesn't and you got to be real careful because that's a slippery slope well let's i mean look we're bringing this back to the beginning west ham and i and i witnessed this because cover the prim league every week and and david moise who's a who's a mentor and a friend of ours, I had a vested interest. All you kept, and we've said this before, all you kept hearing from West Ham is we want to play the West Ham way.
The West Ham way ain't been played since 1966, but David Moyes came in and won football games. So let's get him out.
Let's get Lopetegian, right? We're going to demand that we get Lopetegian or someone someone who's going to play the west hand way that lasted like four months you're going to win football games so you know sometimes like Landon said about Arteta like just pump the brakes a little bit a little bit right and and it's good to have it's good to have some power and some passion but not always I also think it's interesting because you guys are talking specifically about the Premier League but in this this question, he's talking about European fans in general. And in some cases, like in the Bundesliga, they actually have a say in how their club is run because of the 50 plus one rule.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. It's true.
Yeah. And look, but to that point, Jordan, that's great.
And but you need then responsible people who are even keel,

not reacting emotionally,

because then you can make decisions that really hurt you long-term.

So people who are hired to do this as a job and paid money

take it very seriously, as do the fans.

I get it.

But then you need to have a representative for the fans

that really, really understands the big picture.

Totally.

LD, let me give you another one. Nuno Espirito Santo, sacked.
Sacked from Tottenham. Wasn't good enough.
Wow. Guess what? He is actually good enough.
Here's another Everton-related question. This is from Steve via email.
As a Toffee fan, believer in the tradition and concerned follower, is there a future for goodison park as a home to everton women and other underage teams might recruits from japan and elsewhere overseas for the women's game not justify a business plan to keep goodison open it probably it's you probably can't justify it from a business standpoint unless you can find other ways to create revenue but But just as a fan, I love it. I think it would be incredible.
Love it. Same.
I mean, what I would say is that I've heard that tossed around. Love the idea of it.
As you said, it's still a building that needs work. It needs revenue.

It would need some investors because ultimately there are going to be people who want to come in.

And maybe a car park is more lucrative or maybe a high-rise apartment is more lucrative.

We saw that with Highbury and Arsenal.

I think there are apartments now, which is crazy to think about.

But that's the world of business.

So would Landon and I like to see it stay and be the home to Everton women and possibly some of the younger teams absolutely that'd be amazing yeah do you want to see i know something that's happened over the past couple of years is the women's super league teams who are playing things like darby's and stuff are playing them in the men's stadium would you like to see that tradition kind of carry over into the new stadium with like Liverpool women and Everton women playing each other in the new stadium? Yeah. I mean, look, the other thing about it is like, we love Goodison.
I mean, you're not going to get two people who love it more. We absolutely adore it.
But the game does move on. Goodison is always going to have a place in Liverpool, in people's hearts and homes.
That'll never be taken away, but sometimes it is okay to move on. So there's that side of it too.
But yeah, obviously the big women's derbies, you want them in big stadiums because they've shown that they can sell them out. Certainly you look at Arsenal.
So why? Yeah, absolutely. Why not in, in the biggest stadiums possible to give them the atmosphere they deserve.
And it's trending this way, but eventually you want them having their own stadiums and that are special. So regardless of if 12,000, 15,000, 20,000, you want it in that stadium because of the history that's been created.
I mean, that's a really good point, LD. You think about where we are in American soccer

and at the NWSL and specific stadiums

just to the women's league.

England can do that.

Because by the way, they've got pub teams

who have their own stadiums.

Serious, serious.

There should be some investment.

Well, I'll tell you what, Tim.

Kansas City does it here in America, and that stadium is phenomenal.

Absolutely.

And the thing is $11,000.

The fan base totally sold out.

It's phenomenal.

Yeah.

So that should be the gold standard.

Absolutely.

It's incredible.

Totally.

One more question.

This one is from Mimi via email.

It's common knowledge that professional soccer players are the hottest and coolest men in all.

I'm so sorry.

In all of men's sports.

Probably smartest and funniest too, but I'm not sure I can scientifically prove that.

So why isn't there an organized way for them to show off their fashionista side?

Those random articles and Instagram posts don't count.

I'd love to see a whole team walking down the catwalk and showing their fans their inner peacock. What's that? Who's that? Someone called Mimi via email.
I think Mimi is completely accurate. It's 100% true.
And scientifically proven as well. Yeah, I mean, I think the fact, so many teams are doing that now, aren't they? The fashion side of, I think the NBA started, And I think the fact so many teams are doing that now aren't they the fashion side of i think the nba started and i think there's so many teams around europe who have continued that trend certainly some in mls where you have that like catwalk runway entrance to the you know get your wash bag and you think that should be an entrance out the stadium onto the field maybe i mean it's a bit wild but um yeah i think people take those photos really seriously of the way guys walk into the and the women too right like what they're wearing and stuff of course they do by the way it blew my mind when i was with with loyal at the beginning the like first opening day there's all the like all of our team photographers or whatever are standing at the top of the stairs before we walk down.

It's like 4.30.

The game's at 7.30.

I said, what the hell are you guys doing here?

I said, the guys are coming in soon.

I said, so?

They said, well, we got to photograph what they're wearing.

I said, what they're wearing?

What the hell are you talking about?

They have a game in three hours.

You're not the most fashion forward guy, so you don't care. Well, I mean, that's the understatement of the year, bud.

All right right let's

do it i have um sneaking suspicion i might know who this mimi is so um i think i'm gonna i think i'm gonna be quiet now is it a friend of yours family member to say but that's amazing they didn't self-identify to me so i can't confirm or deny anything all right that's it thank you guys Thank you for your question, Mimi.

Appreciate you.

All right, Timmy.

Yep.

ABS.

Anything. identified me so i can't confirm or deny anything all right that's it thank you guys appreciate you all right timmy yeah abs anything but soccer soccer all right this was interesting i did not see this live so i had to go back and look this stephen a smith lebron james thing yeah and for people who don't know stephen a smith big commentator ESPN, just signed a new massively lucrative deal to stay with ESPN.

He's been talking a lot about the LeBron James and Bronny James, LeBron's son deal.

At one point, he said, I believe his quote was, LeBron, can you just make this stop with Bronny James playing in the NBA and everything going on?

So LeBron confronted Stephen A. Smith.
Stephen A. Smith was at the Lakers Knicks game the other night.
And I'm sure somebody or somebody has audio or lip read or something, but LeBron was not happy with Stephen A. Smith.
Stephen A. Smith's comment on first take after that was, that was LeBron James coming up to me, unexpectedly, yeah, right, I might add, to confront me about making sure I mind what I say about his son.
I can't repeat the words because they aren't suited for FCC airwaves, but that's what he was doing. That wasn't a basketball player confronting me.
That was a parent. That was a father.
Your thoughts? I got no issue on either side. Look, here's the thing ld lebron james came into the league as the most highly touted basketball player in the history of basketball right as a high schooler and he's taking he's taking every criticism on the chin and become successful he knows what that landscape looks and feels like he knows that he selfishly, and by the way, selfishly, I do mean in a good way, deserved to push Bronny through to get the golden moment where he gets to play with his son.
That happens once every freaking 10 generations. I got no issue with that.
What I do have an issue with is when you push him through, right? And Rich Paul allegedly goes basically to every team and says, don't draft him. If you draft him, I will send him to Australia to play, right? So that the Lakers pick him.
And he's not good enough to play in the NBA. Show me right now, right? But he gets fast-tracked onto the NBA court because of his dad.
No other player, by the way, in the history of basketball gets that luxury. If you're at the level of Bronny James, you do not get to step on an NBA court.
So he got to step on an NBA court because of his father. I got no issue with that.
That would be amazing to play to play with your son but don't then ask stephen a smith whose job it is by the way he's the best in the world at it his job is to critique and analyze opinions on it and have opinions on it and yeah and by the way you ever seen his salary he's earned. He's earned the fact that he's going to have the hottest take on what is on everybody's mind.
So do I have a problem with LeBron James being a father and saying, hey, cut the crap about my son? Sure. But I have no problem with what Stephen A.
Smith has said and done. We have this tendency in our world to take sides on things, right? And we forget that there's all kinds of nuance and you can understand both sides, right? And truly appreciate both sides.
If I'm a dad and anybody talks about my son that way, they're going to hear from me. Yeah.
Right? Anybody. I don't care who it is..
They're going to hear from me. So I get that.
From LeBron, I get that. Stephen A.
Smith knows what he's doing, dude. He's not stupid.
The reason he just signed a hundred plus million dollar deal is because he does things like this. So he knows when he shows up at crypto.com arena, whatever it is, LeBron's going to see him.
He knows. knows.
He knows what's going on. And fair enough, he took it.
They probably had a brief conversation or whatever. So you know what this reminds me of? This reminds me of the Chris Rock and Will Smith thing.
It's like, you know what's going to happen. If you're Chris Rock and Will Smith sitting right there in the front row and you're talking about his wife, something's probably going to happen, right? And they're both not dumb and they both know they get attention.
So it's one of those things. And I understand all the sides of it.
It is what it is. It's probably done now, I hope.
But it's just interesting. It was interesting to see.
And I get it from a dad's standpoint. Like, that ain't okay.
I get it. Bottom line is LeBron James and Stephen A.
Smith both are well aware of where the cameras are at all times. Oh, dude.
Yeah. For sure.
For sure. All right.
Another good week. Another good show in the books.
Thank you guys all for being with us today. Thanks for the great questions, comments.
You don't like what we say. That's okay.
No problem. We can handle it and we'll have conversation with you.
Happy to drink a beer with you. You New England fans, if we see you in Boston one day, we can talk about it.
Remember, always subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you get your pods. Follow us across all of our social media at Unfiltered Soccer for lots more content.

I'm getting no love in Boston with my Yankee hat.

That's for sure.

So we got to be careful up there.

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Have an amazing week.

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