MLS 2025 Season Preview, USMNT Injuries, The Merseyside Derby, and USL's New First Division

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My guy, LD, what's happening? We are back. We are back.
You look like you might be playing golf after this show. You know, mate, it is going to be 72 today.
A bit warm, so I didn't put the sweater on. Yeah, it's a normal February day here.
You are. It's not normal February day here.
Maybe it is. It's like a wind between snowstorms in New York.
It's absolutely Baltic outside, but here we are. You know, you chose to live there, just as a reminder.
Best city in the world, so I'm here. No, I mean, agree to disagree.
Agree to disagree. What's been going on? Nothing.
You know these ski weeks? I don't know if you ever had that with your kids. They give you like a week.
I don't know. Maybe it's a California thing.
Wait, that's like a real school? Yeah, yeah, yeah. They take a week off, and then the problem is a week i don't know maybe it's a california thing wait wait that's like a real school yeah yeah yeah they take a week off and then the problem is is i don't know who set this up they should be fired immediately they set it up so you have the ski week and then it goes into the weekend and then it's let's say president's day and then it's president's day so now you have an extra day with your kids at home and you're like you don't like this is the dump no you should do it saturday sunday president's day is part of the ski week and then you go up Now we have an extra day with your kids at home.
And you're like, this is the dump. No, you should do it Saturday, Sunday.
President's Day is part of the ski week. And then you go up.
Now we have an extra day because they do it at the beginning of the ski week. So like, I'm about to kill my kids is the moral of the story.
Don't do that. For all of our listeners, I am a man of the people.
I don't get ski weeks. Don't have that.
Landon is posh. This is what we've've always known but that's what makes us a dynamic duo I'm actually headed over to um over to London tonight oh you're going tonight for two weeks yeah I'm shooting a neurodiversity documentary gonna sit down um what it's unsurprising a neurodiversity documentary what is that what's that mean're going to have to Google that because you should know.
And then I'm going to sit down at Finch Farm at Everton with David Moyes, Jordan Pickford, Leighton Baines, Seamus Coleman on something separate. Probably going to call or be on the desk for the Everton-Manchester United game.
Yeah, doing a whole bunch of stuff, man. So it's really cool.
All right. Safe trip.
Thank you, brother. As always, follow us on social media at Unfiltered Soccer.
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As always, please leave a comment. Likes.
We had lots of comments and questions this week. We appreciate that, and we'll try to get to most of them.
You can email us at feedback at unfilteredsoccer.com, where Jordan will solicit your questions and take care of them in the AT&T Fan Connection mailbag. So, all right, Tim, this weekend, we're back.
MLS is back. It's crazy how fast that goes, huh? I know.
These teams are all in. I know.
They're in their off-season mode, pre-season, and now all of a sudden it's here again most of the teams went to this Coachella

Valley Invitational that's out a couple hours from where I live a beautiful sunshine it's a really cool event um fans get great access to the players it's a lot of fun lot lots and lots and lots of preseason games so let's just remind people where we left off the galaxy your galaxy Let's go.

MLS Cup champions starting the season this weekend against san diego fc very interesting uh matchup there inter miami won the shield uh messy won the mvp that's where we're at so first thoughts coming into the season yeah um well i mean i, I think jealousy, number one. I think Coachella Valley Invitational is like, I wish I had that when I was playing or when we were playing.
Your team would just try and figure out where you could pitch up in a hotel for two weeks and play possibly one other MLS team, maybe a college team. I know.
So, yeah, the fact that it's moved forward. We both said crazy when we're talking about the MLS preview, like it's back.
When you're not on the grass, like when you're not a player or a coach, like inside of it, it seems so short. Now, when you're a player, you're like, oh, my God, I can't believe, you know, it's not been long enough.
But this on the outside, I mean, we were just taught a couple a couple shows ago right it feels like a couple shows ago we were talking about the endless cup finals so uh yeah i'm excited for a multitude of reasons going into the season i think i think we're seeing which we're going to get into um which should have happened probably a decade ago but we're starting to see some real big names changing clubs um within the league for big fees, which again, I think is the way forward. And that's, that's the way the global market works, you know, interleague wise.
So I'm excited about that. Obviously excited to, you know, I think that Galaxy are really well poised to make another run.
I think, I think Miami is poised to make another run again at the shield and possibly the cup. So, um, yeah, there's a lot of really good storylines in MLS.
Your dynamo. There's an early, uh, rivalry Houston FC Dallas.
Love that. That should be good.
FC Dallas, new coach, uh, Lucho Acosta just went from Cincinnati to FC Dallas. So lots in that one.
Um, are your dynamo ready? Yeah. You know, we're ready.
It's been a good offseason. I think when you feel good about where you are as a club, every club has to trim the fat.
You know, for us, we didn't feel like there needed to be a massive overhaul. We felt very, very good about about things and obviously bringing in Jack McGlynn, I thought was a real coup for, uh, Pat Onstad and our club.
So we feel great about that. And yeah.
And Ponce, you know, getting a full preseason under his belt and feeling like he can hit the ground running. So, um, some more pieces to be added, but early on, really excited for, um, kind of the group that we have, uh, you know, that we've given Ben Olson.
So, uh, looking forward to it. Yeah, it should be good.
Um, this is a very off the radar, I think for most fans, but one personally I'm excited about is San Jose salt Lake. So I've talked about my old assistant coach, Nate Miller at salt Lake.
Uh, they lose Chicho Arango to San Jose in the off season, uh, the earthquakes bring in bruce arena so this is this is just gonna be really interesting salt lake have to go wednesday to herediano in costa rica for a champions cup game and then straight to san jose but i'm really excited to see yeah san jose now with their front four uh including Pellegrini, Chicho Arango, Christian Espinosa.

They've got like some real firepower now.

And Bruce, like this is such a Bruce.

It's classic Bruce, right?

The team has been totally mismanaged.

There's been terrible players brought in.

He comes and makes four or five veteran moves, brings players in.

And all of a sudden, like I expect them to be good this year.

And the interesting thing about the San Jose-Bruce Arena marriage is you've been an attacking player in his system.

I think that's be good this year. And the interesting thing about the San Jose Bruce Arena marriage is you've been an attacking player in his system.
I have obviously as a goalkeeper, but the one thing Bruce does above anything else is he gets players to run through a fricking wall for him. And by the way, once you do that and anybody who's played for Bruce knows once you do that, do what you want, like front four, go express yourself, go enjoy.
Like there's like a blueprint and a foundation that he that he implements and then after that i mean those that front four is really going to enjoy themselves yeah they're not uh bruce is never the guy who's you know there's so many new coaches who are defining the way soccer is played now and changing the way it's played bruce is very simple i mean there was not a lot of patterns a lot of movements that we needed, but he had good players. He had smart players.
He had veteran players who knew how to win. By the way, they also signed Joseph Martinez, another one.
So I expect that he'll get them going. And if they stay healthy, I think, I think they could be really, really good.
Yeah. Agreed.
Do you have just early, early predictions on any favorites, you know, the Miami's, LA Galaxies of the world? Anybody who might surprise you going into the season? Yeah, I think the surprise for me, which will, again, and we'll circle back to so many of these topics, is Columbus. I'm really interested know you look at you look at their overall body of work um in the last two seasons it's been phenomenal right last year okay they had a blip and they got knocked out and that's kind of the ups and the downs of what mls playoffs are like it's the highs and lows and if you can upset columbus it's amazing but like if you're columbus, hang on a minute, we've had an amazing 24 months and you know, last year we have nothing to show for it.
But I still think when you look at that team, it's arguably one of the best teams in MLS based on what they've done over the last few, few seasons consecutively. So I, I would imagine they're going to be there thereabouts come, come the end of the season.
Yeah. Wilfred Nancy's, I think he's, I think he's, I think he's so good.
I didn't realize this till yesterday. I was looking up, you know, there are 12 new head coaches in MLS this year, 12 out of 30, which is insane.
It's almost half the league has turned over their head coaches. So I'm, I'd be really interesting to see how quickly those teams get going.
I want to talk real quick about your former coach, Robin Frazier in Toronto. And, um, just what do you expect? You know, they've, they've got this roster that is, it's such a weird roster.
They've got some homegrown talent. They've got big, big stars.
Um, they're just an interesting team. So how do you think he handles that? Well, I think I'm speaking to Robin.

One of the things is you talk about Bruce and being someone that you want to play for.

That's what Robin is.

Like he is straight between the eyes.

He doesn't make you guess on what he wants.

He's got a really good football brain in terms of how he wants his teams to play and set them up. And look, the good thing about hiring Robin back in Toronto, because he has such history with Toronto is we don't really know what Toronto is.
Right. So when you, when you go back to when they, when they snatched up Michael Bradley and Josie Alstor, they're like, we're spending big money.
We have cornerstone pieces and this is who we are. And that was successful.
And then kind of coming out of that as, as you know, Josie andie and Michael and a few others that started to come to the end of their career, were they still about the big money signings? Were they trying to bring homegrown players through? That, by the way, nothing wrong with that. That's a natural progression of any football club.
And you try and hang on to what you used to do, but maybe it doesn't work. And so what I like about Robin and having him in the door, Robin Frazier at Toronto FC is he can, he can sit down and has sat down and said, right, what,

what does this look like for us? Who do we want to be? Let me know. And I, and I can transition

the club to have success going forward. So I'm looking forward to that.
I always say to him,

the teams that are successful have a very clear identity and that can be whatever you want it to

be. Right.
And we talked about Bruce, like that's way different than Pep Guardiola or Jurgen Klopp or whatever someone else looks like. The teams that have identity, Seattle Sounders have an identity.
You know what they are every year, and that's it. Philadelphia, under Jim Curtin, had an identity.
You knew exactly what they were going to be and what they were about, and that's great. Miami now is building an identity, right? It's kind of different, but that's okay.
But the teams that are just constantly in flux are the ones that struggle, especially in MLS. And I bring that up because the Galaxy went from last year, almost in last place, sorry, two years ago, to winning MLS Cup.
However, you could see if you were paying attention and if you were speaking to people behind the scenes, you could see that there was an identity being recreated and it was an homage to the past identity, which is, yes, big stars, but not right now. It wasn't crazy big stars.
It wasn't Zlatan and Chicharito, that kind. It was just big players, good players, big stars.
And then they had a coach in Greg Vanney who understands the culture too. They had Dan Kalichman there, people who know the club and know the soul and the spirit of the club.
And I, you know, I really want that for Toronto FC too, because it's a massive club in our league when they're doing well. Totally.
Yeah. And look, and what you're saying is, is there's more than one way to win football matches.
I think we get so caught up and you talk about the Pep Guardiola effect across global football. You get so caught up and you have to do it this way.
No, you don't. You have to do it in a way that wins football matches, but that can look 10, 20 different ways.
And we're going to get to David Moyes later, but he's a perfect example, right? Yeah, totally. It's not the sexy young coach.
He just wins. He knows how to win, right? That's exactly right.
Let's talk bigger picture now, MLS. So 30 teams is a lot, right? It's the same as basically all the other major sports.
And so pretty much outside of maybe Vegas and Phoenix and San Antonio, it's every big market, you know, Cleveland, every big market in the country and a few in Canada now have teams. So what does that say about the growth of MLS? I know we both saw it in the beginning days that it didn't look like it does now.
So just, you know, thoughts on that. You know, hats off to the MLS and the owners, you know, and the players that built this league and again, the commissioner's office, because when you're, when you have the luxury of where you and I sit sit and having having been in the earliest stages I mean I I was I I entered the league 24 months after it first started so it started in 96 and I my first game you know or my I first signed in 98 like that wasn't a football club that I signed for it was like some people put some team together like it was it was crazy.
And so like the growth of this league, you know, and look, it took some real hard decisions, a steadfast vision and, and, and time. And wow, we've gotten to a place that is just so impressive in terms of, in terms of valuation of clubs, stadiums, fan base, the Apple TV television contract, the big name that's currently Messi playing in the league, right? Yeah.
I mean, you couldn't have imagined it other than the fact that there were a few people who did imagine it and made it happen. You know, I don't know who said it.
It actually might have been you. I don't know who said this the other day, but with all due respect to and the Premier League, like it's a small country.
It rains most of the time. People aren't going there because it's an amazing place to be.
They go there because the money's great and the competition's great, right? In America, if we get to that point, everybody's going to want to be here. It's the reality, right? And I think that has been the slow progress of the league.

Is it still a ways away?

Yeah, of course.

But the progress of the league is moving towards that. And eventually, you're going to see people say, okay, I get the same offer at Crystal Palace.
And this is happening already, as I do at Charlotte FC. I'm going to choose Charlotte, right? Because they want to be here.
No, I think for so long, and you lived this more than I did, but you constantly saw big global stars come to MLS, come to LA. What did they come for? If they had a checklist and there was a one, two, and a three, soccer would have been under number three.
Yeah. Right? It was for everything else.
It was for lifestyles, for all the other things. We have that draw on that allure.
So, you know, once we continue to get to where we hope so, hope we are like money wise, competition wise. Yeah.
I think people will float, will flood through the gates for sure. Well, the money is getting close, right? The money is getting close.
When you look at some of the contracts, you're like, geez. And, and getting close.
So the competition needs to continue to improve, but it is well on its way. Lots of off-season moves this year, Tim.
I was writing down some of them, and then I just forgot about a bunch of them. So Jovovich goes to Kansas City.
Ferreira goes from Dallas to Seattle. Lucho Costa goes from Cincy to Dallas.
Miguel Amarone back in the league with Atlanta United. Luca De La Torre comes home to San Diego FC, which we'll talk about in a sec.
Chucky Lozano, Mexican star to San Diego FC. Evander goes from Portland to Cincinnati.
I mean, I can go on and on and on. I talked about Chicho Arango, Joseph Martinez.
This is insane. I mean, the movement in the league now, and I don't understand exactly the mechanism or what they call it or whatever, but it's basically transfers within the league.
It's incredible. Oh, Brandon Vasquez, sorry, coming back into the league.
I mean, there's just so many. Look, I think this is going to – I really do.
I think this is going to change the trajectory of the league because we're able to, you're able to now give these guys options within the league, like before, before what would happen. Right.
And we've seen this. If you're really good at Cincinnati, you're a top player.
You're like, I want more. You're the option was always to go abroad.
They'd shop you abroad. Someone would give you a low ball offer.
And I, well, the transfer is not not high enough and then you got to stay here at cincinnati i'm using cincinnati as an example and then the player gets upset and he gets his head turned now which again i you've heard me bang this drum this should have happened years ago if you're if you're seattle and you look at cincinnati's best player and you go hey we want it we want to pay him we we're going to pay $4 million for him because we're going to go pay $4 million for a guy in Slovenia as a striker. But we want the striker in Cincinnati who scored 20 goals last year.
Go pay for him. People were so afraid to do that within the league because God knows why.
I have my own opinions. But I think that they didn't do it because they thought they could do better.
They thought they could go abroad and do better. Some of the best players in MLS are already in MLS.
Yeah. So go get them.
And for me, I love it. Tim, it's just a money thing, right? Like, it's cheaper, or the league has thought for a long time it would be cheaper to go get a young Central American, South American, African, whatever, than to pay Brandon Vasquez more money to stay in the league, which he should have never left the league.
There was no reason why Cincinnati should have ever had to let him go. And so the good news is, is hopefully the league is now understanding that you need to keep good players, and especially good American players, in the league.
Just don't push them out so they have to go to Monterey in Brandon Vasquez's case. If Portland or Austin or whoever it is wants to buy them, let them stay in the league.
That's better for the league. So this is a move in the right direction.
I'm really happy to see it. All right, last thing I want to talk about before we get into a break is my hometown now has a team, San Diego FC.
I have my thoughts. I've watched them build their roster and it's been

very slow. It's been a very, very slow build, but in the last four or five weeks, it's accelerated significantly.
My thoughts are there have been teams in this league that have competed right away and done well. But that was when the league was pretty immature.
It's much more mature now, and it's really hard to do well. So when I look at their roster, Chico Lozano, Luca De La Torre coming back, they made a lot of good interleague signings, meaning people who know the league and married it with a lot of new foreign players who don't know the league at all.
And a head coach who has not coached professionals, right? Or been in the league. So I'm really fascinated.
I don't even have necessarily an opinion on which way it's going to go because it's, there's too much, there's too much volatility involved, but in some cases you could say, wow, this could be lightning in a bottle right away. And in other circumstances, you could say they're going to really struggle because they don't know the league.
So just from your, I guess, experience with expansion teams. I think your point is fair that there was a MLS 1.0 and 2.0 when it comes to expansion teams and that the league wasn't as mature.
I agree with that. What I would say is there's been, we've seen so many, I say so many, enough to convince me that an expansion team can compete.
As recently as St. Louis, who was in the, you know, all the way to the Western Conference Finals, you know, the original was Chicago Fire in 1998 under Bob Bradley, who were a bunch of world beaters.
Like the team that Bob put together, like what? Like I can honestly say this to you. And it's so hard to compare generations.
I'm one of these people who finds it difficult. I can assure you Bob Bradley's best team could step on the field in its prime.
This, this coming MLS season and being at a top, they had some, they had some bad bad guys. When I say bad guys, they had some absolute

winners. Peter Novak, RMS, remember?

Oh my God. Stoichkov.

I mean, a young Josh Wolf. CJ Brown.

They were so good. They were amazing.
Zach Thornton

and Goal. Seattle Sounders competed.

LAFC has competed. Atlanta United

under the tutelage of our dear friend

Carlos Bocanegra. They competed

early on. So

we'll see. I mean, I think San

Diego is such an interesting one because

it falls into the

Thank you. Look, we, we know that you bleed galaxy, right? Are you, do you have, will you support the, will you support that team? I don't mean, will you go there and take your kids there?? Yeah, yeah.
It's the same thing with the Dodgers and the Padres. I grew up watching Vin Scully and listening to him my whole life on KCAL 9 in LA.
I had a little TV in the corner, and every night I would go watch the Dodger game. And the same with the Lakers.
So I'm a through-and and through diehard Dodger fan. But when I moved to San Diego 10 years ago, my kids grow up and my kids love the Padres.
That's cool. So how do you go to the Padres and root against the Padres? Right.
And they used to be the rival. It's going to be the same.
I mean, I love San Diego. I know a lot of the people either involved in the soccer side or the not soccer side at San Diego FC.
Our old president from San Diego Loyal, Ricardo Campos, is there. I want them to succeed and do well.
It's hard for me, though. I played for the Galaxy.
It's not like I watched them. I mean, I lived it, breathed it, and lifted championships.
So I'll root for both. Don't ask me who I'm rooting for this weekend.
I'm not going to answer. Are they playing at Snapdragon? Is that the home stadium? No No, but the home stadium.
Oh, yeah. They're playing at Snapdragon next week.
And they open against St. Louis, maybe? Beautiful stadium.
Yeah, it's going to be awesome. I saw a NWSL game there right before the World Cup Olympics.
And it was Seattle versus San Diego, like the send-off game before. And it was an ECNL tournament for my daughter,

and it was sold out.

I mean, that's an awesome stadium.

That's great.

Really, really cool.

They did a great job there.

All right, we're going to take a break.

When we come back, we are going to talk USMNT.

Lots going on, Champions League, in the leagues, in Europe,

all sorts of stuff, injuries going on.

Right here on Unfiltered Soccer with Landon and Tim,

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LD. Yo.
What's happening?

Back. Yo.
USLNT

on USMNT. Big segment for us.
We love trying to keep up to date with all the US men's national team players, both home and abroad. Big, interesting news, both on the injury front and the performance front.
The injury front has my eyes really wide open. We were gone for a few weeks, so we didn't get into the Ricardo Pepe injury.
It's going to be a long time out for the rest of the season. Probably Gold Cup-ish.
Flo Baligan having shoulder surgery back in December. Malik Tillman still recovering from an ankle.
Serginio Dest has started to train a little bit after his ACL. So not good news.
On the not playing front, we've beat this drum quite a bit. Gio Reyna, and the reason we talk about him is because he's such, you've said this word, he's a generational talent.
And we were running the stats now in the 12 league games this year. He has one start for Dortmund.
His average, Tim, average minutes on the field per 90 minutes on the field is 2.1 minutes. So he comes in and for three minutes here, doesn't play the next three games, comes in for four minutes.
He's got to move, man. He has to move.
This is too important a time. And there's so much opportunity there for him.
That's why it's so frustrating. Yeah, look, I think with, like I said, I love Gio, man.
I love him as one of the very few players we can hold up say, people ask us all the time, Landon, who's a, who's an American world-class player. Who's going to make, like, he's one of them.
He's one of like a few players who have the talent, the natural talent to make it at the top level. And, and for that reason alone, you want to see him playing week in week out, have an impact.
Now, look, I know know you know claudio who we both know and played with and is is heavily in charge of his career and steering it which is i think a good thing and and what i would say about that is geo and his representatives and all of these players who aren't quite getting a sniff literally landon have what are we in almost March? Yeah. About four months to figure out like, Hmm.
Okay.

I've got a massive, massive career defined decision to make in the next four months as to where I'm going to be next year. Yeah.
Right. Because that's it.
Well, the reason, Tim, the reason why is because in 14 months you have a once in a lifetime, You and I would have died to play a world cup in our country yeah i would have given everything and i'm like emotional talking i would have given everything to play in my country in a world cup so so yeah so you think you have you have to imagine you know um so many of these players will i'm hoping and if they're you know if they're listening please talk to your agents and your representatives and figure it out because you have to be playing going into a World Cup and that move has to be made in the summer. And look, I think regarding the injuries, I was bummed, man.
I was really, really bummed with Ricardo Pepe's injury because Flo's been out and Flo before he got injured was looking the part as a nine, right? And then he got injured and Ricardo Pepe kind of grabbed that shirt with both hands and both fists and kind of made it his own. So like, okay, this is good.
And now both are injured. Tillman recovering.
Serginio Desch recovering. Look, the only good part about this is and you've dealt with injuries as well the good part about it is these are young these are young men right these aren't players who are over the hill and you don't know if they're going to come back these guys will hit the ground running and they'll be one excited to be back on the grass because everyone hates being injured but also like they understand I believe they understand that time is of the essence and like if they can come back stronger fitter and healthier sometimes that injury layoff is actually the rest you needed nobody wants it nobody wants it but like imagine coming back 14 months before the world cup with a renewed sense of optimism spirit health like i think we'll be okay but right now playing yeah joy for playing right now i'm like i'm bummed you know yeah well one guy thankfully who has been playing and is playing at an elite elite level is weston mckinney yeah somebody sent me a text uh this morning actually tim and they said can you believe that we had a guy an american wearing the captain's armband for Juventus in a massive game against Inter Milan? And I was like, wow.
And we've talked about this before. I didn't even really bat an eye because you're getting used to it, especially with him.
I was like, that's insane. An American in Italy wearing the armband in a massive game for a huge club.
It's not like, you know, he's like Hellas Verona or some small club. Like this was insane.
And I'm just, it's so fun to watch, man. He and, he and Weah and like, they're just, they are absolutely so fun to watch.
It's fun to watch. And I, and I think, look, I think that's what, big credit has to go to Weston McKinney because you hear a lot, you see him on the pitch and his attitude and his energy is infectious.
Right. And then if you, if you're close enough to the inside, you and I aren't on the inside, but we're close enough to the inside to hear stories about like his attitude and his personality and, and how, how bubbly he is and how much, how much he affects the group in a, in a positive way.
And then you say something like that. He's a captain of the event is, and then it all checks out because if you can be an american and be and where the captains aren't been events even for a short period of time you're doing nearly everything right so look i think what gets everyone excited about about this group is is the way is and mckinney and christian pulisic and tyler adams you know these are these are players where you're like god if everyone can be healthy and everyone can get enough games under the belt together, Anthony Robinson, my God.
Then, then you're like, yeah, we should feel optimistic about having a good run in 2026. So yeah, fingers crossed everyone gets healthy on the pitch and playing regularly in the next 14 months.
But this is a continual story. Yeah, it's great.
And, you know know we're only a year or so removed when weston mckinney got kicked out of camp yeah in nashville i believe it was nashville for making some bad decisions off and sometimes i say to him in those moments i was very critical of him yep sometimes those are the best things that can happen because of course it's a wake-up call and now next thing you know he's wearing the armband for juventus. Good on you, Weston.
Learned from it, grew up, and so happy for him. Okay, can we move on to the Premier League, please? Because last Wednesday, God, I was sitting in Colorado.
We were skiing last week. I was watching the Merseyside Derby, Everton at home against Liverpool.
It's 2-1 Liverpool in the last minute. I'm about to throw something at the TV.
Ball gets clipped across the box, headed on, full volley by Tarkovsky into the roof of the net, and I absolutely exploded. And my wife looks at me and she's like, what hell is wrong with you and I'm like you don't get

it you don't get it she's like it's a game in the middle of the season I'm like you just don't get it so Everton tie 2-2 the last game last Merseyside Derby ever at Goodison god it was so fun to watch man yeah you know I think that um I was on the desk for that game I was in the studio for uh with NBC. And yeah, it was, it was a great game.

I thought that at Liverpool for, uh, with NBC and yeah,

it was,

it was a great game.

I thought that Liverpool handled,

handled themselves.

Well,

I,

you know,

prior to the game,

my,

my,

my initial thought,

which,

which kind of came to fruition in the game was that Moyes was going to,

Moyes was back and he was going to,

and he,

he,

he would know that hit that Everton team can't go toe to toe with

Liverpool.

They can't just play,

play them off the park.

That wouldn't happen.

Liverpool's too talented.

So sometimes, as we talked about,

you have to tell your team to roll your sleeves up and go earn the right to play.

And by the way, get in their face,

dump them on the floor, and see if they like it.

Because most of the teams at the top don't like that.

And that's what Everton did, and they made it tough.

They made it tough for the midfielders to have a clean look into the strikers uh which we know is is liverpool's front three is sensational um and it was a good game football and liverpool handled that and took the lead and i thought it was great i thought the emotion in the stadium both the reds and the blues was fantastic and then uh an epic winner by uh excuse me equalized by tarkovsky and i was on the others i was on at anfield i think in 2015 or 16 I can't remember exactly but Phil Jagielka hit a screamer into the cop end 2014 into the cop end and it was from 22 yards out it was one of the most amazing feelings yeah go google that yeah incredible so it reminded me of that and it was you know what I said on air was this. Darby's have the emotion of Darby's has gotten lost.
Guys are friendly. Everyone's on TikTok and Instagram.
Their home is hugging in the tunnel. I remember the days you'll walk down the tunnel.
You didn't look at anybody. No.
And you walked out the door. Now it's like.
No chance. Your best mate.
You're giving a high five. And that kind of that kind of renewed a sense of optimism of like okay darby's aren't dead like there's still there's still some goodness in it so yeah it was ugly and the fighting at the end too like i love that yeah they need to care man it's great it was it was so great so everton won again on the weekend by the way um i don't know what's that five and seven yeah something won five and six or something.
So well on their way. Who would have bet money?

Who would have even given you odds

on Everton being level with Spurs on points

and ahead of United 25 games into the season?

That's incredible.

I think it's four wins, one draw, and one loss.

Incredible.

Unbeaten in five, I think.

So yeah, well done, David Moyes.

City dismantled Newcastle.

We're not going to spend too much time on them because they still have a ways

until they're back in our good graces.

But Marmouche with the hat trick, very impressive.

Yeah.

It was like a 14 hat trick or something.

He's been so good.

Leicester, Arsenal.

So the big question with Arsenal is how are they going to do without a striker?

Yeah.

Apparently pretty well.

Mikel Marino.

Yeah.

The late brace.

It was interesting.

To win the game.

So, Saka, we know, has been out for a bit. Martinelli's out.
Jesus and Havertz, their two number nines were out. Havertz like tore a hamstring in like warm weather training in Dubai.
Like I'm thinking every time I was at warm weather training, I didn't get out of first gear. So I'm not sure how he did that.
But unfortunately, they didn't have a striker. So leading in, it was like, who are they going to be? Are they going to play Raheem Sterling at the false nine? It ended up being Troussard at the false nine, Sterling to the left, and Waniere out to the right, the young 17-year-old.
It just didn't really work. Nothing really clicked.
And then at the end of the game, which was interesting, LD, because we had heard, we, within our NBC group, and heard, we don't even know, like, there's people that were saying, like, hey, Mikel Marino can play striker. And he hadn't played striker in his career.
Like, there was no games where he played as a recognized striker. So the only thing we could really think of was, like, you know, in training, some guys are, like, really good.
Like, Jack Yelka and Wayne Rooney would put the gloves on, and they'd jump in goal. And you'd be like, yo, in a pinch, these guys could be third goalkeeper, like these kind of crazy rumors.
So we had heard on the inside that like, Hey, McComarino could be an option. We're like, all right, we'll keep that in our back pocket.
Sure enough, that front three didn't work. He brings on McComarino late on and like an ugly nil nil and two brilliant, brilliant finishes a header where he just snaps it into the corner and then a left footed strike that just guides in.
i'm thinking this i think is their number nine for the running because they have to win yeah and look i when you're in a team that has the ball all the time and is has a lot of possession a lot of chances but like especially if they're playing at home yeah it's not take this the right way it's not the hardest position to play right it's hard to score goals but to be somewhat effective you just occupy center back stay in front of the goal in the box good timing with your runs and then he's a good finish i mean he's a high quality player it's not like he's you know center back up there's never scored before so it's not that deep now if you're on the road and you don't have any possession and you have to do all this other dirty work it's harder but in this circumstance i think he's on a good team that has the ball a lot will create a lot of chances no problem with it yeah yeah i think he's successful yeah i think it's a good option uh spurs united they don't deserve any of our time unfortunately just two bad teams nothing really in the game um spurs do win which is huge for ang but not a lot there no No. Look, I think Spurs, both mid-table, below-mid-table teams.
United is a complete overhaul for me, and we've seen that under Ruben Almerin. Hopefully he'll get some time to do that.
I think he will. Ange Bostokoglu, fun, exciting team.
They play one way. He's getting a lot of players, big players back fit.
I expected Spurs to kind of run away with the game but in the end it was one nil so um yeah again a long way to go before both of those teams are relevant yeah agreed okay let's switch gears here some really really interesting news last week Andrew one of our producers sent us on our text um and i got this from a few other people too this new y York Times headline, I think it said something like, move over MLS. There's a new division one coming.
I'm kind of rolling my eyes. Like, whatever.
So USL, who is currently in second division, also has a third division and fourth division league. So USL Championship is the top of their pyramid.
USL League One is next. And then USL League Two is under that.
They have plans, and we're going to have to dig into this more, to start a new Division One professional league in the 2027-2028 season. So people understand there are metrics you have to meet to be a D1 team.
I believe it's 15,000 seat stadium. Correct.
You have to have owners who are capable of spending X amount of money, meaning their net worth is at X amount. So they're capable of losing X amount if everything goes upside down.
So this is big news if they can pull it off. Obviously it's big news for MLS too, who have not really been competing against USL for a long time, but now might be.
So what's your take on all this? Wow. Yeah.
So the good thing about this is this is going to be an ongoing conversation that's targeted to start in the 2027-28 season. We're going to get big news about this constantly, and that's good because we can talk about it.
Look, you and I will – you and I have been owners in the USL. I'm currently an owner in MLS and NWSL.
I attack this conversation, not with any bias, but with a history in this country at every level. And you and I share that.
You talked about some of the requirements. So let's just start there.
It has to be a minimum of 12 teams at launch, expanding to 14 teams by year three. Teams must be in the Eastern, Central, and Pacific time zones.
75% of teams must be in metro areas with 1 million plus people. Stadiums, as you mentioned, must be enclosed with at least 15,000 seats.
That's a big one for me, Landon. That's a big one.
Ownership groups must demonstrate financial viability to sustain operations for at least five years. Okay.
So those are the main talking points, if you will. It's going to be hard.
It's going to be hard to compete. You know, look, now I think there's two sides to this.
MLS started, right? There's been a bunch of iterations of what soccer looks like in America. 1994, the World Cup comes here, and then MLS starts in 1996.
There is no soccer in America, no real soccer in America to speak of. There's teams.
You now have, we've talked about this at the top of the show. We, we now have, have one of the more amazing leagues in the world, right? In MLS, you're now going to start a 12 team league and compete essentially for eyeballs and viewerships with the MLS.
And people will say, no, that's not the case. Kind of is the case.
It is the case. You will, you will compete with MLS and it's going to be really difficult.
I think to to create momentum in those cities and create stadiums. By the way, a 15,000-seat stadium costs a heck of a lot of money.
Yeah, right. Like a heck of a lot of money.
$7,500 million at least, yeah. Yeah, and what I would say is there's probably a lot of loss going into that.
So you're going to have to have investors very similar to how it was in MLS in the early days where you have to be prepared to lose before you win. And I think going back to our pro promotion relegation conversation, if USL in their statement said, that is a possibility, but not really at the start.
I like it. You and I said that maybe promotion relegation in this country does actually originate in USL and then becoming a viable first division that, that they say will rival the MLS and they create a promotion relegation model because then it's not pie in the sky.
Then you have real metrics to measure whether that can live or die here in America. Okay.
So yeah, I have a lot of, I have a lot of thoughts on all this. So promotion relegation, someone asked me, what is going to differentiate this from MLS, right? If USL is able to pull this off.
My first thought was, well, if they can do promotion relegation, that is a differentiator. You and I know being in USL meetings, there are quite a few owners who want to go crazy and want to go spend.
And there are quite a few owners who are like, I want to charge $4.25 instead of $4.20 for the hot dog because I need the money. Right.
And so what this could do is allow those owners who want to go crazy, go. The problem is, Tim, is if you're going to implement promotion relegation, you need everyone on board.
Because from one year to the next, Louisville, great, has their own stadium. They have a bad year.
They're going to be dropped down to the second division. That ain't good for them.
And by the way, whoever comes up, if it's Tulsa or Oklahoma City, if they don't want to spend that money, and now they have to build a 15,000 stadium, right? That ain't going to happen. They're not going to drop a hundred million dollars to build a stadium to know that they go back down.
Well, just period in general, right? Sometimes these, they don't want, they're not, that's not why they're in it. Right.
So the, I like the premise of USL saying we have these owners who want to go crazy and we, we had it and you know, teams would teams would spend three, four, five times more than we did on salaries when I was San Diego.

And you know this with Memphis.

Great, go do it.

Go do it in your own league, in your own division.

You can compete against each other.

That's fine.

But the promotion relegation piece then

becomes virtually impossible because you need every team

from the top in the division one to the bottom

in division three willing and capable and able to do all those things that you just mentioned. Yeah.
I think it's, you know, and again, we don't, we sit here now, we have the same, we have the same statement from the USL that everyone else in America and the world can read. We don't have the ins and outs, but you know, I start to then piece together what can they do differently? Right.
I think what I'd like to see as an example is create, create a luxury tax, say, Hey, you five want to go spend super big, go spend super big. We're going to create a luxury tax and parachute payments and a pyramid that we can actually utilize this.
And so if you're the New York Yankees spend and we'll trickle it down to the milwaukee brewers and and oakland like i i'm i'm okay with that like start create another another sort of system that works differently than mls and see if it works and people look people ask is it is that then the if their success is that then um that steps towards like a merger um what i would say is right now everyone's going to tell you no the example that i would give is pga golf is the epicenter of the golf universe no way some some wild golf lead named live golf is going to compete well guess what well guess what we ain't that far removed from the launch of live golf and i think there's's going to be a merger coming soon. Right.
So on the surface, everyone's going to say no. And I think that's probably the company line and probably the more accurate line.
But if there is some success with the USL being a first division and some sort of luxury tax or promotion relegation, there's always a conversation at the table.

But again, we're far from that.

Well, last thing on it.

Just as you're saying that, I was just thinking, well, if some Saudi Arabian or whoever, could be from anywhere, comes in and says, here's $3, $4, $5 billion, I'll fund the whole thing.

As teams go up and down, I'll fund the whole thing.

And that's not out of the question. That's a drop in the bucket for people like that so that's that is possible that is possible okay i'm sure you guys are gonna have lots of comments on that so please uh ask questions leave comments on your thoughts on that is this good for soccer bad for soccer um is it possible viable etc let's take a break when we come back uh we'll do the AT&T Fan Connection.
All of your questions. There were tons of questions this week.
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And on USLNT, our connections with you will help grow the game. Yeah, AT&T Fan Connection time time as you know it also jordan's favorite time of the week because she gets airtime jordan welcome in jr jr connecting changes everything yep a lot of hands tell us a lot of new hats a lot of new hats jordan uh got a galaxy hat right there.
That is cool. Where'd you get that, by the way? I got it for my birthday.
It's amazing. Happy birthday.
Do we wish you a birthday? Happy birthday, by the way, Jordan. We missed your birthday.
We did that on our text chat. Happy birthday.
Yes. We kept that very quiet from us.
You know, a lady never reveals her age. You don't have to, but you can still say it's your birthday.
Say it's your birthday. Right? Yes.
All the Houston swag is coming. Don't worry.
It's in a box in the mail. It's okay.
The weather's been bad, so I'm sure it's just delayed. Don't give me that.
All right. What do you got for us? Let's do a couple of quick hits first.
Okay. We've got all of our questions this week came from Instagram.
So our first question is from Katerina, who wants to know what you think San Diego FC are going to do this season. Do we need a designated player and are either of you available? No.
To the last one, to the second one, I think this is what I would say without a high profile, Not high profile, without a top quality DP, I think this team probably finishes just outside the playoffs. I think with a quality DP, very good chance San Diego FC makes the playoffs.
Like if they got a Kevin De Bruyne, they can make the playoffs? A Kevin De Bruyne could work, yes. I'm absolutely not available.
If it's pickleball, I'm in. But if it's soccer, completely out.
Yeah, I tend to think, again, without a ton of knowledge with the team, just looking at the roster additions, they can compete for a bottom-end playoff spot. But I would say that would be success because they'll get a ton of momentum from being a first-year team in that city with the fans behind them.
Look, do you need a DP? What no one tells you in this league, and Landon and I will tell you, like, everybody needs a DP. Good DPs are really hard to find.
Like, they caught, they, you know, and I can tell you this from experience,

teams from mid-level European leagues will basically,

they know you're an MLS club and you'll overpay.

So they,

they,

they hike the fee up for a mid-level DP,

which isn't an instant impact type of DP.

So now you're overpaying for what?

For a guy you don't really know much about. And then if you want to go get a big, big, big player, you have to pay money.
So that mid range where most of the teams are operating in is really tricky to bring in a good DP. So just be patient.
And by the way, you could get a good player and a terrible locker room guy or someone who hurts your culture. And that happens over and over and over.
And so it, to get that all right is very difficult. Okay.
This next one might just be a yes or no answer. This one's from Benjamin.
Is Lucho Acosta the answer for Dallas to return to MLS Cup contention? No. No.
Good question, though. I mean, it's a start, but no.
Yeah. Chris wants to know,

there are only three original MLS teams that have never won the cup.

What can they do to get into the picture?

That's Red Bull, Dallas.

Yep.

And what was the third?

Chris's actual.

Yeah, he mentioned the question that he's. Wow, you're a Rebs fan.
It's been tough. How do I say this the right way? Now in MLS, the only way you do that is you have to spend.
Back in the day, you could get away with sort of being, you know, New England in the past were like cheeky, didn't even spend up to the cap what they could have. spent less than that because they'd like to be the team that didn't have to spend to compete but then they never got over the line who's that new england yeah i mean so you just nowadays you have to look at colorado last year like great run salt lake last year great run in the past when you face the big boys with the big big players you're gonna get run over in the playoffs that's a good point um what was the question i know the original teams what was the question oh can one of them get over the hump well yeah what yeah what does what's it gonna take to get over the hump yeah i mean it's hard to argue with landon's point about like can you be a good team and have a good run and get into the playoffs and feel really good about yourselves? Yeah.

And then you run into the buzzsaw of what is LA galaxy.

And then you're like, Jesus, you know, like,

but that was built in a very short period of time too. Right.

Like the most recent galaxy success. So.

Yeah. But they spent him.

I know.

The example is Colorado last year. They were great.

They get into the playoff that It was at a two-game.

Well, it was a two- or three-game series. They go to the Galaxy, and bang, it's 5-0.
Like, heck, and pencil, and you have a lot. They just can't compete with that.
I mean, the one question I would have is, am I still a part of the Red Bull? Like, am I a part of this history? Because I was a Metro star. I don't know if that's gone away but what i would you know

what i would say though the the the negative for for those three teams um we said dallas new england and and red bull is you've had more cracks at it than anybody else yeah that's right and you had cracks when there were like 10 teams in the league and by the way and you went through moments where you spent rebels spent by the way by the way. Marquez, Henri, Cahill.
They spent and still no big success to speak of. So hopefully they get that right.
Here's a question from Jake. What's one MLS matchup you'd like to see become a Derby that currently isn't? I got one.
I got one. Let me ask you before I answer, because you're well more versed in this.
LAFC, LA Galaxy is huge, yes? Yeah. I mean, relatively, yeah.
Is San Jose, LA Galaxy big? It used to be, right? It used to be. Yeah.
So can we do a- I would love that. I would love that back because the – and I'm a Southern California guy.
So Northern California, Southern California, and everything, Dodgers, Giants, Warriors, Lakers, Kings, Lakers, like all these were huge. Let me say this though, right? If you're clever, right, and you now have Bruce Serena up in the north and you now have San Diego, allow LA to do their – the LA teams to do their thing.
Oh, yeah. Good shot.
And almost bypass it. Yeah, I like that.
If you're San Jose and you're San Diego, be like – these teams in the middle are crap. They're not.
But create a marketing scheme that says we own California. And it could be clever and do San Jose, because of Sue San Jose, San Jose, San Diego, because I feel like San Jose LA galaxy, which used to be big has kind of dissipated recently because of the LA El Trafico.
I don't know. It's the, it wouldn't need the name.
It's the San Derby. Yeah.
And, um, you know what they do? The first game they play each other this year year they all take their cleats off and they fight first three minutes amazing yeah all right what else jordan um i have a question here from someone named demarcus beasley get out of here but marcus deasley what is it no it was actually DeMarcus. It really is? Yeah, it was.
He had a little blue checkmark, and it looked like him. So I hope it really is him.
It says, after Kobe, who else in the MLS alumni deserves a statue outside of their MLS club? Oh, what a question. What a great question.
Is he lobbying for himself, by the way?

He might be.

It might be a Houston angle.

It might be a Houston angle.

I don't mind that, Bees.

I don't mind that.

Bring that to the board.

Tim, make it happen.

Come on.

That's a great question.

First of all, thank you, Bees, for the love.

Thanks for following the show, Bees.

Dear friend of ours.

After all we've done for you, it's about time you reciprocated. He's carried us on occasion.
Yes, he has. Okay.
Let me give this a thought. I know one that jumps off the page for me.
The one that jumps off the page for me is Brian McBride and Columbus because those two are synonymous. I don't know if that's the final answer there's one that comes to mind he wasn't there his whole career but most of his career and that was Kyle Beckerman in Salt Lake he kind of epitomized maybe Raimondo too to be honest he epitomized what Salt Lake were for a decade plus um because it doesn't have to be like the you know some attacking genius attacking genius goal scorer.
It just needs someone who means something real to their club. I like the McBride shout.
That's a good one. Naive.
Do you have a statue outside? Mate. You do? I mean, I could send you pictures if you want.
Oh, yeah. I didn't know if it was Beckham or you.
Let's let the fans answer. answer guys do i have a statue outside the galaxy i mean jesus you're on mount rushmore you've got a

statue you're the mls cup mvp is named what i go skiing one week golfing the golfing it's a good

life all right listen demarcus i'm gonna think about this can we come back to this next week

amazing can we get to come on the podcast and answer the question himself great please come

on the car you've been you've been shouted out by j. Trust me, if you say no, there will be wrath.
Well, I got another one for you. Go on.
I'm thinking about how great DC United was in the early days. Is there like an Echeverry shout? Who would be the one? Echeverry could be Jaime Moreno.
That's what I Like, yeah, yeah. I think Echeverry, that's a great shout.
Okay. Interesting.
That's a great shout. I'm throwbacks from Tim Howard, by the way, throwbacks.
I'm going to, I got that. Yeah, the Bumblebee uniform on my bride.
I've got Echeverry with the, the Breathe Right strip on his nose. I got all sorts of things going on.
I love that. All right.
Awesome. Good question.
Thanks guys. Yeah.
All right, JR. Thank you.
All right, Timmy, anything but soccer. I cannot wait to get into this.
I am a massive hockey fan. I grew up.
The hat over there is from Nova Scotia. We are interviewing a legendary coach from the University of Vermont next week, Rob Dow, who also grew up in Nova Scotia.
So we watched this USA hockey game against Canada. By the way, I just saw 4.4 million viewers on ABC the other night.
Incredible. For a hockey game? Insane.
And I was glued to the TV fast. And my family was so into it.
And for people to understand, they're playing this Four Nations Cup. So it's the middle of the NHL season.
Everybody else gets a break, which is nice. And then Sweden, Finland, US, and Canada are playing this round robin.
And the top two teams will play in the final this coming Thursday. The USA, if they had beat Canada whenever this was Saturday, they advanced to the final automatically.
And Canada would have to play another game and win another game to get there. And the USA won 2-1.
This game, Tim, was insane. It was so fun to watch.
You watched, right? Yeah. Well, not only did I watch, I watched it build up.
So let me just say, I am a Chicago Blackhawks fan. I know.
Crazy. And shout out to the Chicago Blackhawks.
They've treated me amazing every time I've been there. I went on recently.
I went on, I went to a game. They played Edmonton Oilers and it was, they again, rolled out the red carpet for me and I was on the pregame show and this was prior to the four nations.
And they were basically trying to draw that parallel on the pregame show. Like what's it going to be like for these players in season, Go play for their country, dot, dot, dot.
And we just talked about how difficult it is in season to kind of stop, pause with your club and then go play for your country. But what an honor it is.
And it was a great, great conversation. I watched the buildup to the game.
And it was PK Subban and Mark Messier, the legend. And Mark Messier was talking about the rivalry, but he was talking about wearing the sweater for Canada.
And he's like, I got this, it was 84, 90 or something. I'm getting those years wrong.
He's like, I got Gretzky on one side. I've got Mario Lemieux on the other and I shouldn't even be on the ice.
And I'm getting goosebumps listening to this guy talk about like Canadian hockey, right? And then you watch the game.

And like I get that there's rest and there's management.

And I get all that, right?

And you get all that.

And we watch the NBA and the in-season tournament and what that means and whether it's been good or bad or whether players compete.

You and I know that when you play for your team, your club team, right, and then you go into an in-season tournament, whether it's, whether it's you pause and you got, you got to come back to the States to play in a world cup qualifier, or you go playing champions league, whatever it is in season where you're not playing, you know, you're playing a different competition. You and I know you go full tilt.
There is no day off. And the puck drops for us Canada.
And these dudes drop their gloves and fight. I like this is mid this is mid-season and there's three fights inside inside the first nine three fights in the first nine minutes or something like that nine seconds nine seconds and i'm thinking to myself well that was incredible and then i watched and i remember thinking i remember the first, obviously the game started to take shape.

The first and second period, I have never seen a faster hockey game.

Like it was moving at the sound of speed.

These guys, and by the way, you've been around hockey players.

Hockey players for me are the best athletes.

The best athletes.

They can skate.

Behind the scenes when they're warming up, they're juggling soccer balls.

They're shooting basketball.

They are the best athletes when it comes to being a professional athlete. It was an insane game.
It was so fun to watch. And, um, this morning, my dad sent me, uh, he sent me a text and he said, they clocked Connor McDavid.
I, the Connor, Connor McDavid's first goal was insane. He receives the puck in the middle of the ice.
And for people to don't know him, he plays for the Oilers. He's this Canadian sensation.
And when you watch him, it looks like he's playing against high school kids. Because when he goes, he just goes.
And I remember playing Cristiano in our prime. And when he would, it was a friendly at the Rose Bowl.
And when he decided to just take the ball and run by you, you could have jumped on his back and it wouldn't have mattered. He would have just kept going the same speed.
And Connor McDavid, they said they clocked him during this goal. He blew by the U S defense.
They clocked him at 35.4 miles per hour, which I believe is the fastest human has ever skated. And he had the puck with him.
It was just, it was insane. The game was insane.
It was three, one, by the way, there was an empty netter at the end. Oh, it was so fun.
And they play. So if Canada wins tonight when the episode drops, the US-Canada will be the final on Thursday in Boston.
Let's go. At the Garden.
I cannot wait. Let's go, dude.
Amazing. All right.
Great show today. Thank you guys for being with us as always.
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