0:00

It would be Trump and

0:02

Megan Rapinoe. Holy crap. All

0:05

three of us at the same time,

0:07

Masi. Trump, Megan Rapinoe, and me. That

0:09

is something that you would want to watch.

0:25

Hello sunshine. I'm Alexi Lallis and welcome to

0:28

the State of the Union podcast where we

0:30

look at the beautiful game on and off

0:32

the field through the lens of red, white,

0:34

and blue colored glasses. This show will be

0:36

talking MLS week one in the books. Messy

0:38

money, true detective, the Americans abroad, best week

0:40

ever? Dream guests,

0:42

referees, soccer media, my hypocrisy, and

0:45

so much more. But first joining

0:47

me as always, my friend, my

0:49

colleague, my guiding light, David Masi,

0:51

a soccer savant and a Fox

0:53

soccer researcher, writer extraordinaire. Masi,

0:56

how are you doing on this Monday, February

0:58

26th in the year 2024? I'm

1:01

doing well. I'm happy to be taping at our

1:03

regular time. There was a possibility that Kishan Johnson

1:05

was going to need to use this studio right

1:07

now. And so we would have to

1:10

tape much earlier than usual. But we got

1:12

word last night that Kishan,

1:14

whatever he was planning to do, got canceled. And so

1:16

we're taking. Kishan remind me again,

1:20

played for whom? He

1:23

was a big star at USC. Okay.

1:25

Yeah. And then football, right? Correct.

1:28

Played for the New York Jets, the Tampa Bay

1:30

Buccaneers. Got it. Got it.

1:34

He's a big timer, big legend. So, you know, we would

1:36

we're benevolent here at the State of the Union. So we

1:38

would have taken a little time and moved

1:41

around in order to accommodate him. But like you

1:43

said, we're at our normal time here. Interesting

1:45

weekend, my friend. Did you watch anything that you want

1:47

to talk about? A couple

1:50

of things. Last Wednesday, I mentioned

1:52

on the pod that I was going to see

1:54

a documentary called

1:56

20 Days in Mariupo about the

1:58

Ukraine Russia war. I don't want to dwell on

2:01

it because I'll start crying on the air. It was one

2:03

of the most upsetting documentaries I've ever

2:05

seen in my life. I had nightmares about it.

2:08

I think it's probably going to win

2:10

the Academy Award for best documentary, rightly

2:13

so, but it's a tough watch. Did

2:15

it change your mind about the situation?

2:17

Did it push you, slant you in

2:19

a way after those,

2:21

I guess, two hours or whatever? Didn't change my

2:24

mind, but just made me more hyper focused on

2:27

what's going on. Got it. I

2:29

know people who follow

2:31

us are eagerly

2:33

waiting an update on the stye. How is the

2:35

stye situation? You look great. Yeah,

2:37

I think it's getting better and better. We're in the

2:39

last throes of it, so hopefully

2:42

not much longer. On

2:44

a lighter note, I did binge

2:46

Mr. and Mrs. Smith, which

2:48

was highly recommended by our boss Zach

2:50

Kenworthy, and I enjoyed it, so a

2:52

good recommendation by Zach. I

2:55

have yet to watch it, but I think

2:57

it starts and finishes, so I'm good.

2:59

I'm good finishing it. It's encapsulated and

3:01

all that. I will tell

3:03

you about a couple of things. First in

3:05

terms of a new one, and then one that we've talked

3:07

about but I had not watched yet. First

3:10

out there, it's called, they call him mostly

3:12

harmless. I think it's on Max's where I

3:14

watched it. It's

3:17

this very strange and interesting story

3:19

about what it mounts

3:21

to is amateur online sleuths that

3:24

are trying to solve the death

3:26

of this hiker whose body was

3:28

found on the Appalachian Trail. While

3:33

finding out the identity of the body is

3:35

part of the story, what it really gets

3:37

into is all of

3:40

this infighting that goes on online with

3:42

people that want to solve it, this whole thing

3:44

that has come to be online

3:47

solving of crimes and getting into it. With

3:49

all the technology and information we have, it

3:51

produces sometimes some really incredible results but it

3:54

also shows how you

3:56

can go off the tracks when you are trying to

3:58

figure out some of these things. things, little fiefdoms

4:01

that happened and the

4:03

ownership that takes place and all that kind of stuff. But

4:05

it was interesting. Alright, let's get to True

4:09

Detective because we have talked about this over the last

4:11

couple of weeks. You have

4:13

watched it, you have finished it. I finally

4:15

finished it. I

4:18

thought it was horrible. I did not

4:20

like it. Acting and

4:22

the actors were fine. But

4:25

I know, I think you have mentioned in your

4:27

text that there are definitely two camps in terms

4:29

of the way people are seeing this, right? Correct.

4:33

Alright, I saw

4:36

this fourth season of True

4:38

Detective as, like I said, horrible.

4:41

A knockoff, and

4:43

even this is not even fair, to Twin

4:47

Peaks, a knockoff type of Twin

4:49

Peaks-ish. The whole mystical part of

4:51

it, M. Knight, Shyamalan, whatever type

4:54

of thing that they, I

4:56

guess, were going for completely

4:58

took me out of whatever the

5:00

story was. It wasn't even really

5:03

that much of a crime

5:05

type of scenario. And

5:10

I just didn't get what they were

5:12

going for. And in

5:14

the True Crime type of genre out there,

5:16

I just thought it completely took me out

5:18

of it. I

5:21

completely missed the mark. As I mentioned, many people

5:23

agree with you, including the creator of True

5:25

Detective, Nick Pizzolata, who did the first three

5:27

seasons. He wasn't involved in this season. He's

5:29

been very critical of it on social media,

5:32

which sparked this big controversy. Again,

5:35

the mystical types of stuff that

5:37

was going on and the otherworldly

5:40

type of things that

5:42

were going on, that's

5:45

not what I think of when I think

5:47

of True Crime or when I think of

5:49

this type of series. Now, I know in

5:51

the past in different episodes and different

5:54

seasons, they have gone a

5:56

little bit that way, but this went completely off

5:58

the map for me. So Jodie

6:00

Foster was great. All the acting, like I

6:03

said, was really, really good. But they deserved

6:05

more. I did like the setting so much

6:08

so that I'm thinking of taking a trip

6:10

to Alaska later this year. I was fascinated

6:12

by the whole mood, the vibe.

6:14

I loved placing it at the time of

6:16

year where it's always dark. I found that

6:18

very disorienting. You had no clue what time

6:21

of day it was. Every scene had that

6:23

creepy night feel. That I liked. Well, I

6:25

did go back and watch Insomnia without Al

6:27

Pacino and Robin Williams that is focused around

6:29

that. Even that's more true crime-ish.

6:31

Well, not true crime-ish, but crime-ish when you're talking

6:33

about it and it takes place in those and

6:36

how it can play tricks on your mind. Whether

6:39

it's always dark or whether it's always light, either

6:41

way it can play tricks on your mind. One

6:43

last thing before we wrap up this opening segment.

6:45

I also watched Caribbean enthusiasm last night. And

6:48

one of the main plot points was Larry

6:50

David having very specific taste in eggs. He

6:52

brings his own eggs to the country club

6:54

where he eats breakfast. And we found

6:56

out this morning, Aaron Schechter as well has some

6:59

interesting takes on eggs. She evidently

7:01

likes her eggs really, really dry. Almost, you

7:03

know when you see those pictures of the

7:05

ice slabs falling off where you just kind

7:07

of cut through and it's a big old

7:09

slab that comes off. I like

7:12

them more wet when it comes to, and we're

7:14

talking about scrambled eggs for the most part right

7:16

now. And there are, again, many, many different camps.

7:19

She is of the camp that she wants it

7:21

dry. She can't stand it when it's runny, I

7:23

guess it would be. I

7:25

like I said, I need a little bit of, fluid's

7:29

not the best word, but slop if you will,

7:31

in terms of my eggs. Whether

7:34

I'm putting them on some toast or

7:36

an English muffin or something like that, and

7:38

it works better like that, or whether I'm

7:40

just eating them plain, I

7:42

like a little bit, not too much, not too much but

7:44

a little bit and certainly more than Aaron. So we find

7:47

out all sorts of things. All right, should we light this

7:49

candle, my friend? Let's do it. Where

7:51

should we start? We begin with

7:53

the opening weekend of the MLS season

7:55

more specifically last night at Dignity Health

7:57

Sports Park, the LA Galaxy and InterMyanet.

8:00

He played to a 1-1 draw the

8:02

galaxy the much better team They took the lead in

8:04

the second half through yovalich and

8:06

then messy equalize in stoppage time

8:09

The galaxy were down to ten at that

8:11

point because mark delgado was controversially sent off

8:13

The replacement refs had a no-hitter with two

8:15

outs in the ninth They made it through

8:17

the whole weekend without any major controversies, but

8:20

then in the 88th minute of the final

8:22

game They gave their critics

8:24

some fodder. Yeah before we get to the To

8:27

the second yellow here. So a couple of just

8:29

big-picture types of things number one if you

8:31

are a galaxy fan I think

8:34

you have to be buoyed by this Performance

8:36

this is and again early days,

8:38

but 90 minutes into the 24

8:40

season this galaxy team

8:43

Looks better now. Is it back

8:46

to the elite status that we

8:48

have enjoyed in the past? No, but

8:50

it at least looks better I

8:52

think Greg Vani Look we

8:54

know he's been given a very very long leash So

8:57

this was I think ultimately a good performance

8:59

by the galaxy and you know You look

9:01

at expected goals and all that kind of

9:03

stuff. This was a galaxy three-point win from

9:05

an inter Miami standpoint This is a second

9:07

game in a row now that they

9:09

have been poor and yet they

9:11

have found themselves in Situation

9:14

where they won the first game and now they

9:16

got a point here So four points in their

9:18

first two games if you can play poorly which

9:20

they did and still find ways to get results

9:23

That's a good thing. I don't think it's

9:25

necessarily sustainable when it comes to this team

9:29

Luis Suarez is going to be a

9:31

problem in terms of what he

9:33

is and more importantly what he isn't Busquets

9:37

we've talked about Everybody

9:40

slows down But are

9:43

we just seeing busquets in a

9:45

situation that we don't associate

9:47

with him with and therefore? These

9:50

I hate to say

9:52

problems So just deficiencies and weaknesses that every

9:54

player has certainly he's a world-class player, but

9:56

he certainly has weaknesses They are highlighted given

9:59

the team. He's playing for and the league

10:01

in which he's playing for right now you

10:03

know he was still playing at a high level at

10:06

Barcelona I still think he has plenty left in the

10:08

tank I love him as a

10:10

player so I'm surprised that that performance and

10:12

this narrative now that he's a problem that

10:14

that would be shocking not as much as

10:17

we Suarez on Suarez

10:19

you know it's interesting because in Brazil there's

10:21

still a lot of ignorant disrespect towards MLS

10:23

and a lot of players in recent years

10:25

have moved back and forth between MLS and

10:27

the Brazilian League and people in

10:29

Brazil they cherry pick examples that support their

10:31

narrative like a twesta and they ignore the

10:34

ones that don't like Sotel do and Suarez

10:37

is interesting because if he

10:39

struggles in MLS after

10:41

he was the best player in the

10:43

Brazilian League last season I do wonder

10:45

what that's gonna do to the ego

10:47

of a Haiti MLS hating Brazilians well

10:49

you're our Brazilian expert how

10:51

is it possible that Luis Suarez

10:53

starred in Brazil last that last

10:55

season what we see right now

10:57

I mean no matter what you

11:00

there's attrition and but

11:02

come on man well Taylor twelman came

11:04

on this pod recently he said he doesn't think much

11:06

of the defending in the Brazilian League he might have

11:08

a point maybe well we're

11:10

gonna talk about some people that have starred in

11:12

Brazil and have parlayed that into something even bigger

11:15

and better later on in

11:17

the show a couple more things Joseph Pincil

11:19

I think he's the real deal and I

11:23

think that he's going to be fun to

11:25

watch fun to watch going forward and look

11:28

messy's money messy is

11:31

money and it's it

11:34

when the entire stadium on

11:36

the field and off the field is watching

11:38

this guy he still performs and scores the

11:41

big goal at the at the end of

11:43

the game and it's

11:45

it's just amazing to see there was

11:48

an energy and a renewed energy down

11:50

there in dignity health and

11:53

obviously it's tied to messy

11:55

and if you're watching the show you you see him

11:57

right there and he never gives up he never comes

12:00

off the field he is rarely injured and

12:02

like I said he just produces and

12:04

the mark of a star and one of the

12:06

greatest stars ever is when everybody

12:09

is expecting you to do star-like things

12:12

you do it. Celebrities all throughout

12:14

the building at Norton up there

12:16

with David Beckham and Kim Kardashian's

12:19

kid walking on the field with with

12:21

Messi and it was it was

12:23

a fun atmosphere it's an atmosphere I think

12:25

to be to be celebrated and they got

12:28

what they wanted in that I think if

12:30

you're a galaxy fan you leave they're saying

12:32

we were a better team than in Miami I

12:34

think there's a lot of teams that are gonna leave the

12:36

field thinking that this year but

12:38

also if you're just a soccer fan and you

12:41

just were there for the phenomenon that is Messi

12:43

you left seeing him arguably the greatest player ever

12:45

to play the game reciprocate and

12:47

give you that gift of one of those

12:49

incredible incredible moments so that was you know

12:51

that was a fun game and that

12:54

rightfully will be the highlight of the weekend but

12:57

there's so much more that goes on and we'll

12:59

talk a little bit more about what you should

13:01

and shouldn't focus on when it comes to MLS

13:03

but we got a lot of other action. Well

13:05

to your point the

13:07

original rundown that Shawn Sullivan sent yesterday had

13:09

Columbus Atlanta and as the first game and

13:12

then when Messi scored he flipped it and

13:14

we started with LA Galaxy in Miami I

13:16

know later on in the show your one

13:18

foot road is going to be discussing Don

13:20

Garber's comments about how it's lazy to only

13:23

focus on Messi. Well before we leave this

13:25

and since you did bring up Don Garber

13:29

you know the the titans of industry

13:32

and our industry and soccer out there

13:34

we know that they listen to everything

13:36

that we say including Don Garber which

13:38

was evidenced in his post-game scrum if

13:40

you will with the with the press.

13:42

Bruce and Shawn do we have that

13:44

we can throw up? I'm

13:53

not sure everybody loves calling in a

13:56

fishy day in and day

13:58

out. I thought we had so far weekend.

14:01

Alright so Don Garber

14:03

obviously referencing my take

14:06

on the weekend and my take has not changed I

14:08

thought that and for those that maybe haven't

14:10

been paying attention MLS right

14:12

now is using replacement referees. I didn't think

14:14

they missed a beat I didn't think that

14:16

the referees were a story however if you

14:19

listen in the background right now you will

14:22

hear the

14:25

dulcet sounds of

14:27

Gabriela Chiampi. Do you know

14:29

who this person is, Mosse? I do not. He

14:32

is the referee

14:35

for last night's Inter Miami and

14:37

Galaxy game. He is also

14:40

a composer and

14:42

I thought you know sensitive ponytail guy here

14:44

yeah he had some calls that people disagreed

14:47

with and that's kind of par

14:49

for the course but I

14:51

think in general like

14:54

I said and as Don Garber referenced

14:57

the level of officiating

15:00

was at a perfectly acceptable level I

15:02

give them an A, a

15:04

solid A all across the board. The

15:07

referees were not the story you

15:09

do not want the referees being a story

15:12

although and I want to get

15:14

your take on this Mosse there was a moment that

15:16

I guess was pivotal in terms of a red card

15:18

happening late in the game the galaxy up 1-0 and

15:20

a red card or a second

15:23

yellow card comes and this

15:25

I think is a talking point but

15:27

I don't think it is again if you

15:30

disagree with the call it doesn't mean that

15:32

it was the wrong call.

15:36

I disagreed with the call but to

15:38

your point the regular referees make mistakes too I

15:40

do think it's unfair anytime the replacement refs make

15:42

any kind of mistake to point that and say

15:44

you see you see the situation is untenable to

15:47

your point overall they had a pretty good weekend. I

15:51

mean yeah and again a second

15:54

yellow card and

15:57

going back to your point it's it's a subjective

16:00

type of thing, but ultimately the

16:02

galaxy wasn't able to hold on to that

16:04

three points. All right, let's move on from

16:07

the galaxy game because we don't want to

16:09

give them too much love because I know

16:11

how many people get screaming yellow about that.

16:13

All right, what's next, Masi? So now to

16:15

the match that would have led this podcast

16:17

had Messi not scored for Inter Miami. The

16:19

defending champion Columbus Crew claimed they won a

16:21

home win over Atlanta. Cuccio Hernandez

16:23

with the goal picking up where he left off

16:25

last season. He scored three times against Atlanta in

16:28

that round one series and then of course with

16:30

the MLS Cup MVP, the crew begin

16:32

defense of their crown on the right foot. Yeah,

16:35

a very different climate, 70 degrees

16:38

in Los Angeles and freezing

16:40

cold over there in Columbus, but man oh

16:42

man, it didn't matter to the Columbus faithful.

16:45

They were on fire, wonderful, wonderful

16:47

environment, screaming and yelling and celebrating

16:50

not just MLS Cup champions, but

16:52

the continuation of this elite team.

16:55

Columbus was wonderful from start to finish in

16:57

the way that they played under and the

16:59

way they continue to play under Wilfernansi and

17:01

I think they're just getting better and better

17:03

and better. Now, even though Atlanta

17:05

United lost, I don't think that this is

17:07

a harbinger. I don't think that this is

17:09

necessarily problematic. They lost to

17:11

a better team right now with what Columbus

17:13

is, but I also think Atlanta continues to

17:15

be a work in progress. It was interesting

17:17

that Gonzalo Pineda decided to start Brad Guzzan

17:19

in goal and actually rewarded

17:22

him by saving a penalty, but

17:24

ultimately the better team won with

17:27

Columbus and they keep

17:30

rewarding their faithful when it comes to those

17:32

fans there and it was fun to see.

17:35

LAFC with a 2-1 home win

17:37

over Seattle, Timothy Tillman and Bogus

17:40

who started up front, got the

17:42

goals for LAFC, then Pedro

17:44

de la Vega who had come on as

17:46

a sub, converted a penalty after Jordan Morris

17:48

was taken down by Aaron Long, a nice

17:50

win for LAFC. It was. However,

17:53

again, in the same way that I

17:55

talked about Atlanta, this is not necessarily

17:57

problematic for Seattle. missing

18:01

a bunch of players for

18:03

the sounders, but LAFC again, and LAFC talk

18:09

about a work in progress right now. They

18:11

still have money

18:13

to burn, spaces to burn, DPs to burn. We

18:16

still don't know what's going on with Carlos

18:18

Vela right now, but whatever. They

18:20

don't miss a beat, they get a result, and they

18:22

get a result against what a lot of people were

18:24

picking as the cream of the crop when it comes

18:26

to Seattle. And again, I still think Seattle is going

18:29

to be fine through

18:31

this year. But for Steve Chirundolo and company right

18:33

now, that's the way that you want to kick

18:35

off a season. And to be fair, that's kind

18:37

of how they kick off most seasons. LAFC

18:39

hit the crossbar a bunch of times in this game.

18:42

It was incredible, but they did find a back of

18:44

net twice and picked up the three points. Portland,

18:47

very good debut under Phil

18:49

Neville, a 4-1 demolition of

18:51

Colorado. Brazilian Anthony with two

18:53

goals. Williamson also on the

18:55

score sheet. He started farther up

18:58

the field as a number 10 in place of Evander, and

19:00

then Sam Vines own goal. It was a

19:03

disastrous night for the new look, Rapid, Zach

19:05

Steffen struggling as well. Yeah, I mean if

19:07

you're looking at big losers from the weekend,

19:09

it has to be Chris Armist in Colorado.

19:12

Such high hopes. And again, just one game.

19:14

It's very, very small sample size, but

19:16

this was not a good

19:18

look. They didn't look like they

19:20

were ready for the game. And all of

19:23

those new additions that we're talking about in

19:25

terms of Steffen and Vines and Jamie Halovich

19:27

and these types of players that they

19:30

brought in or brought back in, they're

19:32

on the field. And it just looked disjointed from

19:34

start to finish. And Portland said, all right, you're

19:37

gonna give us these gifts,

19:39

whether it's an own goal here or just wide

19:41

open type of play. I mean

19:43

Portland's gonna take that and say thank you very

19:45

much Mr. Neville off to the races there when

19:47

it comes to the Timbers. And they still have

19:50

DP slots to use. So yeah, exactly. Suddenly the

19:52

outlook pretty good for the Timbers. FC

19:54

Dallas 2-1 win over San Jose. Dante

19:56

Seeley with a stoppage time winner. And

19:59

this is a theme. where teams are not at full

20:01

strength and I guess one of you at full

20:03

strength it's rare that it happens in the same

20:05

way that players

20:07

talk about being a hundred percent you know last time any

20:09

of any of us were a hundred percent

20:11

we were ten years old when it

20:14

comes to teams you're always going to be missing

20:16

something here and Dallas Ferreira not

20:18

playing and you know missing

20:20

players out there and yet they still

20:22

found a way to

20:24

ultimately get the winner with Sealy

20:26

and get that win against

20:29

San Jose I'm still I think

20:32

the jury's still out when it comes to what

20:34

FC Dallas is going to be relative to some

20:36

of the elites over there in the in the

20:38

Western Conference but in my

20:40

expert opinion Masi winning is better than losing so

20:43

these were the games that Sean Sullivan picked

20:45

out what else caught your attention this week

20:47

okay so a couple of things you know

20:49

I mentioned the referees and

20:51

that's just in general what was going on

20:54

and throughout the the weekend again the story

20:56

wasn't the referees which is a good thing

20:58

Christian Benteke for DC

21:00

United three you know

21:03

hat trick and just dominating

21:05

in the air and I just love

21:07

the way that they understand you know

21:10

when you guys talk about basketball I don't know

21:12

a whole lot that's going on but sometimes you

21:14

know when you do the alley-oop thing you just

21:16

lay it up there for the people to go

21:18

up and get right or when you're talking about

21:20

football you know throwing the ball and just putting

21:22

it up there so the wide receivers that are

21:24

really really good at timing and really really good

21:26

at the air can just go up and get

21:28

it or you don't have to throw it exactly

21:30

at them but put it in a space so

21:32

they can go get him in the same way

21:34

that DC United is recognized that you have someone

21:36

like Christian Benteke and he just put put that

21:38

ball up and not only will he go and get

21:40

it but he will also sky

21:43

not only above the field players but

21:45

at times above goalkeepers and it's just

21:47

a wonderful weapon to have and

21:49

you know for DC United that's looking to

21:52

get back to winning ways that's

21:54

the way that you that you start off the

21:56

other thing was you know we're talking about new

21:58

coaches and stuff like that Dean Smith Congratulations to

22:00

him, 1-0 over NYCFC. Charlotte,

22:03

by the way, 60,000 people

22:05

in that opening game there for

22:07

what they are doing. So that's,

22:10

again, fun to see the

22:12

way that these soccer fans, and in

22:14

this case, MLS fans, recognize

22:17

that this is their team and that

22:19

this is an event and that they

22:21

are ultimately rewarded with a win. When

22:24

it comes to, I guess,

22:26

problems out there, I mentioned Chris Armist in Colorado.

22:29

Josh Wolf has got to be on the hot

22:31

seat right now. They were the only team to

22:33

lose at home with Austin.

22:36

Austin looks terrible so far. Rioni,

22:41

I mentioned Benteke and DC United. Rioni

22:44

getting a red card and really

22:46

kind of messing up

22:49

the first game of

22:52

Caleb Porter's career up there in New England.

22:55

That is a problem.

23:00

Did you see the goal from New England?

23:03

What's his name? Heel. What

23:05

a goal. It's so messy-esque in the way that

23:08

he took it and the way he kept it

23:10

close to his body and it was all about

23:12

just generating enough power to put it in the

23:14

far corner. Left foot obviously makes

23:16

it, highlights it that much more in terms of

23:18

its messy-esque type of thing. That

23:21

was wonderful but it was

23:23

unfortunately for the New England Revolution one

23:26

of their only big

23:28

moments there. So those are some things

23:30

that stood out. Anything from you? Big

23:32

picture. There are a lot of MLS

23:34

teams in the CONCACAF Champions Cup. There

23:36

were 10. Vancouver already got knocked out.

23:39

It's going to be interesting to see how those teams

23:41

juggle fighting on multiple fronts early in

23:43

the season. Who

23:46

is fighting on multiple fronts? Who did you say? All

23:49

the MLS teams that are also competing in

23:51

the CONCACAF Champions Cup. Alright

24:00

well we'll see but fighting on multiple fronts, that

24:02

is something that all the best teams in the

24:04

world and it's not necessarily a poison chalice that

24:06

you are handed, it's done and given

24:09

to you because of the success that you have so you better

24:11

be ready to figure it out. Next

24:14

up the women's gold cup, we're taping

24:16

this on Monday morning, tonight the US

24:18

women will look to make it three

24:20

wins out of three, they faced Mexico

24:22

and a little birdie told me that

24:24

you will be in attendance at this

24:26

match. I'm excited to go, we're going

24:28

to see what's going on

24:30

with this team. Who are you going with? I

24:33

think my friend Rob Stone is

24:35

going to join us and possibly Stu

24:37

Holden, we'll see if he shows

24:39

up. We want to check out what

24:41

this new look team is

24:44

about when it comes to this US women's national

24:46

team, although there are some people that have been

24:48

around for a while and that's neither

24:50

here nor there but hopefully I'm much more

24:52

interested in some of the young players and some of

24:54

the new players to see what they're all about. Sean

24:56

Sullivan will also be in attendance, if he texts you

24:58

wanting to meet up, what excuse are you going to

25:00

come up with to avoid that? There's no

25:03

excuse, I'm not meeting up with him, no, no,

25:05

he's on his own, he's a big boy, he

25:07

can figure that out. He told me he has

25:09

an extra ticket for tonight, if I was to

25:11

express an interest and his wife Amanda as well,

25:13

who would he take, me or Amanda? That's

25:16

a hard one man. Well,

25:19

it's not hard for me but it's

25:21

probably hard for Sean. You

25:23

should take Amanda. Incidentally,

25:27

in the US's second game, they beat Argentina

25:29

for nil. Teenager Jaden Shaw scored twice, Alex

25:31

Morgan on target as well, and Lindsay Heran

25:33

from the penalty spot. We talked about Moultrie

25:35

scoring twice in the opener against the Dominican

25:37

Republic, Jaden Shaw here, Corbin Albert, very good

25:39

in the midfield, so some of this young

25:41

talent showing out in this tournament so far.

25:44

They've yet to be tested and this

25:46

is again glorified training and this is

25:48

again, we've seen

25:51

this time and time again with this US

25:53

women's national team that even in a

25:55

reset that

25:57

they're going through right now still dominates.

26:00

is still elite and is still so much better than 99%

26:02

of the competition that they come up

26:05

against. And you got to play

26:07

the teams that are in this type of tournament. So

26:09

it's sometimes it's hard to glean much

26:12

information when you are looking at these

26:14

players. But again, my expert

26:16

opinion, winning is good, scoring goals is

26:18

good. And the opportunity to see new

26:20

blood when it comes to this team

26:22

is not only good, it's essential to

26:25

them having that ultimate success when they

26:27

do come up against the small

26:29

handful of teams that actually are

26:31

elite relative to them. I saw

26:33

that Brazil beat Colombia one. Now I thought

26:35

about sending Melissa Ortiz a taunting email after

26:37

that one, but I held off. You've

26:40

matured a little bit. I don't know if

26:42

it's your style or whatever, but you become

26:44

a whole lot more mature. By

26:47

the way, Brazil won the beach soccer

26:49

World Cup this past weekend, beating Italy

26:51

in the final. You remember

26:53

at the coaching convention, Anaheim, some guy came up to

26:55

me. He was a big beach soccer guy, American, but

26:57

I spent time in Brazil and fell in love with

27:00

it. So I was thinking about him

27:02

this weekend when I saw that. It's

27:05

interesting that in the States, beach soccer has

27:07

not gotten bigger. And we have a

27:09

national team, there's World Cups and all that kind of

27:11

stuff. And if you ever do take

27:13

the time, if you're a soccer fan

27:15

and don't watch beach soccer, to actually

27:17

go see what happens and the way

27:20

that it is played and the technique

27:22

and the strength and the strategy that

27:24

goes into it, it's fascinating. And

27:27

when you just say beach soccer, I guess we

27:29

put beach in front of anything. It

27:31

makes it seem like, yeah, you're just screwing around and whatever.

27:35

But some of the goals that are scored

27:37

and some of the athleticism that is required

27:40

in order to be successful in beach soccer

27:42

is just amazing. But Brazil are the all-time

27:44

leaders in beach soccer World Cup titles, also

27:46

in Futsal World Cup titles, and obviously 11

27:48

aside. We have one sport

27:50

we're good at so we've just invented different variations

27:53

of it so we can win a lot of

27:55

different things. There you go, my friend. Hey, anything

27:57

to win trophies? Trophies

27:59

are good. We'll talk about that in the next segment anything else

28:01

that is it all right Let's take a quick break when we

28:03

come back. Oh, we'll recap a

28:05

historic weekend for Americans abroad and more

28:08

don't go Okay,

28:10

welcome back pretty good weekend mossy when

28:12

it comes to Americans abroad should we

28:14

start there? Yeah, let's begin in Mexico

28:17

Monterey with a 3-0 away win over

28:20

Juarez Brandon Vasquez among the scores hit

28:22

fifth in all competitions a nice

28:24

right footed finish Could

28:27

can this be going any

28:29

better for Brandon Vasquez? Okay, we

28:31

talked to last week. We talked

28:33

to Greg Berhalter about You

28:36

know the decisions that he asked to make and

28:38

if you are someone like Brandon Vasquez You

28:41

weren't on the World Cup team. There were calls for

28:43

what you were doing You

28:45

had kind of a down year last year

28:47

when it comes to Major League soccer you

28:50

make this move even though this move was

28:53

Forced by this structure of Major League

28:55

soccer and You're

28:57

not only making the best of it, but

28:59

you are you are looking Like

29:03

someone that has to be called in Scoring

29:06

goals on a consistent basis and

29:09

I think you know reading between the lines

29:11

in terms of what Greg Berhalter was talking about I

29:14

think that he is impressed with what is going

29:16

on with Brandon and I think

29:18

that he brings Something different

29:20

to the national team because a lot you know we

29:22

know we talk about a lot of these things through

29:24

the eyes of the National team it's great for him.

29:26

It's great for his team. It's great that he has

29:29

you know Hit

29:33

the ground running in terms of his

29:35

Mexican adventure over there as has Our

29:39

friend K. Powell. Yep. He scored and

29:41

Chivas is 3-1 Home

29:43

win over Puma's his third for the club

29:45

and Chicharito came on late his first appearance

29:47

since rejoining Chiva I

29:50

mean and he's Well

29:53

on his way K. Cal to becoming kind of

29:55

a cult Type of hero in the way that

29:57

he looks and then obviously score goals and I

29:59

know we're We're associating success

30:02

with these types of players relative to the

30:04

goals or the assists and

30:06

the way that they play because they're attacking

30:08

types of players and that's what you are

30:10

paying the money for and that's what you want them to

30:12

do and that they are doing it is

30:15

great. So

30:17

congratulations Kade Cowell. I hope for both

30:19

of these players they continue it and

30:21

it will make it next to impossible

30:23

for Greg Berhalter come whether it's in

30:26

March or certainly with all the stuff that's going on

30:28

in the summer not to call them up. And when

30:31

you're scoring goals I guess you're Mexican enough to achieve

30:33

us. Exactly. You get

30:35

more and more Mexican the more goals you

30:37

score. Yes. We go to

30:39

Europe. We'll begin in

30:41

Serie A. Juventus with a 3-2

30:44

home win over Frosinoni. Wesson

30:46

McKinney with two assists both to

30:48

Vlajovic. McKinney started. Timi

30:51

Wea came on as a sub. McKinney did

30:53

suffer a dislocated shoulder. We're

30:55

not sure yet how long he'll be out but that's

30:57

trouble not only for Juventus but potentially for the U.S.

30:59

National team who have the Nations League Final Four coming

31:02

up. Yes. It's strange because

31:04

we were talking to producer Sean before we came

31:06

on air here and he seems to think that

31:08

this is going to rule him out for March

31:12

and Nations League.

31:18

But the way that it was described is

31:20

that this is I

31:22

guess just part of what his body

31:24

has become talking about Wesson McKinney and

31:26

that his shoulder dislocates.

31:29

And we've all seen the either in the movies

31:31

or in real life where it's put back and

31:34

it can be a painful process but you're

31:36

popping it back into joint. I don't know ultimately

31:38

if this is a situation where it's getting to

31:40

the point where he has to have surgery and

31:42

they have to figure this out or if

31:44

just every time it pops out you pop it

31:47

back in. I would think and I'm certainly not

31:49

a doctor that it's

31:51

worse and worse the more it pops out and the more

31:53

times you have to pop it back in. But if

31:56

in this case Wesson McKinney it can be

31:58

popped back in. continue to play

32:00

both for club and country and continue on

32:03

through. I guess that's good from

32:05

a selfish perspective for the US team.

32:08

But if he does need surgery, when

32:10

does Weston McKinney have time to actually

32:12

fix this if this is a problem

32:14

that is fixed through surgery? As

32:17

a Knicks fan, I'm dealing with this right now with Julius

32:19

Randall wondering when he's going to come back. But

32:21

hypothetically, if McKinney were to

32:24

miss the Nations League Final Four, Tyler Adams out as

32:26

well. What does that miniserid look like?

32:28

Can Johnny and Musa, with Gio Reyna, as the

32:30

10? Yeah, I think ultimately that's what it

32:33

looks like. And there's a lot of people that

32:35

are very excited to see that. Again,

32:38

when everybody is there, and I know we're

32:40

pulling Reyna back and fundamentally

32:42

changing the way that they play in order

32:44

to get him on that field and putting

32:46

him at the top of that

32:49

triangle, if you will. But

32:52

we talked about it earlier in the pod. Really,

32:56

are you going to have everybody healthy and available?

32:58

And if the past is any indication, Greg Berhalter

33:01

is not. And so he has had to mix

33:03

and match at different points. And we're just assuming

33:05

that Tyler Adams is going to be fine

33:08

when he comes back in. That's a huge,

33:10

huge assumption. So this might be, in

33:12

a strange way, a blessing in disguise

33:15

for us to see some different looks

33:17

and some different players that, again, can

33:20

give the competition that the positions need

33:22

and that this team needs going forward.

33:24

Speaking of Eunice Musi, he came on

33:27

as a sub for AC Milan in

33:29

their 1-1 draw with Atalanta. Pulisic started.

33:31

Rafael Leon got the goal for Milan.

33:34

Yeah, Pulisic started again, had a chance

33:36

really to score some

33:38

goals. A really nice chance

33:40

over there on that right-hand side coming down. But

33:44

it's not a great result for

33:47

AC Milan. But again, Pulisic,

33:51

I feel like Musi that in the

33:53

past, at this point,

33:56

we would have talked about Pulisic's

33:58

injury. And again, I don't. want to jinx it,

34:00

I'm knocking on wood here, but he

34:03

has been pretty sturdy

34:07

through this period right now. And I hope

34:09

that this is the new norm for Christian

34:11

Pulisic. His body has continued to change and

34:13

to grow and it's gotten to a point

34:16

where he understands what he can and cannot

34:18

do. And this type of longevity in terms

34:20

of health right now, if

34:22

you look back at Christian Pulisic, it's

34:24

kind of a rarity. So I'm excited

34:26

about this version of Christian Pulisic who's

34:29

starting consistently. Yes, he has

34:31

been on the score sheet many, many times,

34:33

not always, usually coming off as a substitute

34:35

in later in the second half, but a

34:38

regular starter for Milan and a regular contributor

34:40

and most importantly in terms of that regularity

34:42

is being healthy and not being injured. So

34:44

here's to more and more of that. I

34:46

mentioned Raphael Leon scoring. It was a great

34:48

goal. We have the Euros this summer. I'm

34:51

really excited to watch him. He

34:55

just smashed it in the

34:57

far upper 90 there from a really acute

34:59

angle, as they say. We

35:01

go to France next. Follerene

35:04

Balagan found the back of the net in

35:06

Monaco's 3-2 away win over L'Annes. He did

35:08

miss a penalty later in the match, but

35:10

the goal was his first in L'Egan since

35:12

November. He kind of needed

35:14

it. I think he needed it individually. I

35:16

think those of us that are looking at

35:18

that number nine position and wondering

35:21

what that group looks like

35:24

and certainly, Follerene Balagan is going

35:26

to be part of that group, but going

35:28

through a drought as a goal scorer is not a

35:30

great look for him, especially if this is the person

35:33

that potentially could be starting. I remember we talked to

35:35

Taylor Tworman over the last couple of weeks here and

35:38

I asked him who's starting in 2026 and

35:40

he said Follerene Balagan. The

35:43

goal that he scored was a great

35:45

individual effort. A

35:47

second effort goes down, gets back up,

35:50

fights off a defender and

35:53

then finds a way to put it in again from an

35:55

acute angle. That's

35:57

good news that Balagan's back on the score.

36:00

sheet for his mentality and

36:02

I guess the way that we are looking at

36:04

him. Bala been one of

36:06

five US players with a goal contribution

36:08

on Sunday in Europe's top five leagues

36:10

according to Opta Jack that's

36:12

the most in a single day since

36:15

the start of the 2006-7 season. So

36:18

this is good this is I mean

36:20

all right well Opta says since

36:23

2006-7? Yes Opta

36:25

Jack not to be confused with

36:27

Opta Joe, Opta Jean, Opta

36:30

Jose you know there's lots of different Optas.

36:32

Really? Yes. But the soccer one is Jack.

36:34

No they're all soccer they cover different leagues

36:37

different areas but yeah Opta

36:39

Jack is my favorite he does a very

36:41

nice job. Alright so Opta Jack

36:43

you'd go hang out with right you know a beer with

36:45

Opta. Absolutely. Next

36:48

up we go to the Netherlands PSD with

36:50

a 7-1 demolition of

36:52

Zwol. Serginio Des assisted

36:55

the first goal. Ricardo Pepe got the all-important

36:57

seventh to seal the victory and it was

36:59

assisted by Malik Tillman. I

37:02

care because they're American but I don't care. PSD

37:05

are threatening to pull off on invincibles they're

37:07

still unbeaten 23 rounds into

37:09

the season Leverkusen also threatening to dead

37:11

in the Bundesliga by the way. So

37:14

that's that's not necessarily that's

37:17

just not losing. Correct. It's

37:19

not undefeated in terms of winning every

37:21

single game. Arsenal famously achieved that in

37:24

the Premier League in the 2003-4 campaign.

37:26

But if you go look there were a lot of draws a lot

37:29

of draws. Arsenal

37:31

fans get very annoyed if you point that out. Really?

37:33

Well then I'd definitely say it. Yes. We

37:36

go to La Liga next. Real Betis

37:38

with a 3-1 home win over Athletic

37:40

Bilbao. Gianni Cardoso another good

37:42

performance including a sensational goal his

37:44

first for the club. Wonderful.

37:46

Wonderful goal from Gianni and

37:48

continues to turn heads. Now

37:51

here's somebody that parlayed his time

37:54

in Brazil into

37:56

bigger and better things and has not missed

37:58

a beat unlike our friend... Mr. Suarez

38:00

over there, Johnny Cardoso, comes over

38:03

and stars, stars for

38:05

Betis, stars in La Liga

38:07

and his turning heads and

38:10

is changing perception of

38:13

him relative to the national team,

38:15

at least for now. I know somebody had

38:17

a go at me over there for the

38:19

fact that I did not rate him. Well,

38:22

I think to be fair, what

38:25

I said is relative to the national team. And

38:27

I think you would agree with me that he

38:29

has yet to really translate

38:32

his form that we're seeing right now with

38:34

the national team. Hopefully that

38:37

happens going forward when he gets called

38:40

in. The

38:43

other thing is that because he played

38:45

in Brazil, he

38:47

was looked at as unique. He

38:50

was a rarity for an American player

38:52

to be playing in Brazil. And he

38:54

benefited. We all use whatever is at

38:56

our fingertips and we all use whatever

38:58

is out there to our advantage. And

39:01

I don't begrudge him that at all. Again, if

39:03

he had been the exact same player and doing

39:05

it somewhere in Major League Soccer,

39:08

the perception of him and maybe even the

39:10

opportunities that he had would

39:12

be different. And so I think

39:14

I said that too. But right now it could

39:16

not be going any better for Johnny Cardoso.

39:18

And the way that this next window and the

39:20

way that this summer is lining up for him,

39:23

especially when it comes to the opportunities that we

39:25

were talking about, Monsey, in terms of the injuries

39:27

there, listen, you take them and

39:29

they come along in so many different ways,

39:31

whether it's injuries to players, whether it's new

39:33

coaches, whether it's just a new direction

39:37

that a team is that is taking

39:39

somebody misses the bus, somebody gets in

39:41

trouble, whatever ends up being, you

39:43

grab it with both hands. And so if

39:45

I'm Johnny Cardoso right now, I'm saying, all

39:47

right, there is going to be an opportunity

39:49

for me to play, to play in a

39:51

position that I like. And

39:54

I need to grab it with both hands and say, I'm

39:57

not letting anybody take this back. And then.

40:00

Then then you're okay because again

40:02

still limited, but he has yet to really

40:04

show it at the national team But we

40:06

go to the Premier League next crystal

40:09

palace with a 3-0 home win over

40:11

Burnley Chris Richards among the scorers Remember

40:13

opta Jack we just talked about yes

40:16

He also tweeted that Richards was the

40:18

12th different US player to score a

40:20

goal in Europe's top five leagues This

40:23

season that's the most in any season this

40:25

century. I mean Great.

40:28

That's wonderful. We have yet to see

40:30

the best of Chris Richards and he

40:33

I mean

40:35

this undeniable talent and potentially

40:40

The starter for this national team going for

40:43

how do you see Chris Richards flushing out when all is

40:45

said and done as we go Through this summer and then

40:47

obviously into 2026. I like him.

40:49

I think he's a starter. Everybody likes him

40:51

Yeah, but you do think that he comes

40:53

good. He's a starter He continues to progress

40:55

continues to evolve and becomes one of the

40:57

starting center backs This summer

41:00

too. Yes Beautiful

41:03

I think I think I tend to agree with before

41:05

we depart the Premier League Another forgettable

41:08

weekend for Gio Raina play just ten minutes and

41:10

Nottingham Forest for two defeat to Aston Villa We

41:12

don't have to get into this today, but I

41:14

did see on Twitter. You already Floating

41:17

MLS out there is a possibility for him.

41:19

Well, no, I the question that I asked over there

41:21

on X is If

41:25

Gio Raina in his current state Were

41:29

to get up and say I want to come to MLS And

41:33

let's let's take out the transfer fee just just for

41:35

now, what would you pay him a

41:37

year? No, is he worth a Million

41:40

dollars a year with two million dollars a year three minute.

41:42

Whatever it ends up being I mean the

41:45

valuation of Gio Raina Given everything

41:47

that has happened right now Because

41:50

again, I think we talked about this last

41:53

last show We seem

41:55

to have bent over backwards to

41:57

accommodate Gio Raina. We seem to

42:00

bent over backwards to give him every benefit

42:02

of the doubt. And

42:04

look, I'll be the first to say

42:06

because of his talent, and I guess

42:08

because of the potential, I think

42:12

we've justified it to ourselves and it's worth

42:15

giving him every opportunity.

42:19

But when it comes to how good he is,

42:22

if you had to put your money where your mouth is, from

42:25

an MLS perspective, how much would you

42:27

pay someone like that? You tell us, call in, let us

42:29

know. All right, Massey, I think we got one

42:31

more thing, right? Yes, Liverpool claimed

42:33

a 1-0 extra time win over Chelsea in

42:35

the League Cup final at Wembley. Virgil van

42:38

Dijk with the winner late in extra time.

42:40

We've talked about Liverpool trying to give Jurgen

42:42

Klopp this fairytale send-off. This was a good

42:44

start. His eighth trophy with the club. He

42:46

has a shot at three more in the

42:49

Premier League, the FA Cup and the Europa

42:51

League. A remarkable victory when you consider

42:53

all the players they had out and the fact that

42:55

they finished this match with a bunch of kids on the field. This

42:58

is the Caribou Cup thing? Correct. What's the

43:00

Caribou Cup again, Remindus? It's the second domestic cup.

43:02

You have the FA Cup and then the lesser

43:05

one of the two is the League Cup. So

43:08

I guess congratulations to Liverpool and to

43:11

Jurgen Klopp. It was

43:13

actually kind of cool to see. This

43:15

is where context is

43:17

important, right? Because Liverpool, I

43:19

saw our friend Piers Morgan over there

43:22

kind of looking down and saying, why

43:24

are you celebrating the Caribou Cup? Well

43:26

first off, it's a trophy. This is

43:28

a perfect example of why leagues

43:31

and sports create tournaments.

43:35

Why having that

43:37

moment is so important

43:40

to the teams and to whatever entity

43:42

it is that creates these types of

43:44

things. That money shot of holding

43:47

up the trophy or in this case walking

43:49

up the stairs to have that

43:51

presentation. That's

43:53

why you play is to win

43:55

and to have those moments where we

43:58

are the champions are playing and they're never going to win. Everybody's screaming

44:01

and yelling and there's music and there's confetti and

44:03

obviously there's silverware in

44:05

this situation. I think the

44:08

context of Klopp leaving and

44:10

everything that he has been, I think

44:13

that there's a sentimentality that not just Liverpool

44:15

fans see, but I think in general people

44:17

can recognize, at least I recognize it even

44:19

if Piers Morgan doesn't. They

44:22

do have bigger fish to fry potentially when

44:24

it comes to the league, when

44:27

I'm talking about Liverpool, but

44:30

I think it was also a dramatic

44:32

and wonderful representation of

44:35

what Jurgen Klopp has been in terms of

44:39

instilling confidence in

44:42

players that are either young or

44:44

inexperienced or lesser known and

44:48

having that payoff and

44:51

that's I guess where his greatness is.

44:54

He makes players believe that

44:56

they are worthy of being in that

44:58

position, that they are worthy of coming

45:00

up against a Chelsea in

45:03

a Cup final where Chelsea has

45:05

spent all of those more millions

45:08

and still find a way to win. I

45:11

think that that is why this is being

45:14

celebrated and I think that that

45:17

is worthy and valid of celebration

45:19

even if the Caribou Cup relative

45:22

to an elite super club, which Liverpool is

45:24

even if they try to make themselves out

45:26

to be the little engine that could and

45:29

just punching above their weight, this

45:31

is still Liverpool. But

45:34

I'm okay. As cynical and as

45:36

grouchy as I can be, I did

45:40

enjoy that, not

45:42

just the result but also the celebration

45:45

after. I didn't see Piers Morgan's post here

45:47

alluding to but just for some context there,

45:49

his beloved Arsenal have been mocked for over-celebrating

45:51

their victories including a recent win over Liverpool

45:53

so I think Piers was probably just wanting

45:56

to return the favor. Probably. That's

45:58

it. I love Piers. Pierce on

46:00

Chelsea. I was texting with

46:02

our colleague Brad Weimer, who's a Chelsea fan

46:05

and also big college football guy. I went

46:07

to Michigan. I attended the Rose Bowl with

46:09

him recently. And we both

46:11

agreed that Chelsea are like one

46:13

of these programs that's throwing crazy and I owe

46:16

money around and getting all these recruits, but then

46:18

not winning on the field because they don't develop

46:20

players that don't establish any kind of culture. This

46:22

was an incredible missed opportunity for them to at

46:24

least slightly change the narrative here. I mean, as

46:26

I mentioned, they were facing a Liverpool team so

46:29

short handed with a bunch of kids on the

46:31

field and still they couldn't get the job done.

46:33

So they're going to finish it's going to be

46:35

another trophy list campaign in a mid table finish

46:37

in the Premier League. And Virgil

46:40

van Dyke kind of rolling back the

46:42

clock. I mean, you remember when he

46:44

was before his injury,

46:47

he was unplayable in that

46:50

he was so dominant of a center

46:52

back at a time where center

46:54

backs, they're

46:56

not like they used to be. This

46:59

was wonderful to see him in this moment, even though

47:01

we talked so much about the youth and the inexperience that

47:04

was on the field that is part of that story. Ultimately,

47:06

it came down to the center back not just once,

47:08

but twice, even though he got one call back, he

47:10

ultimately scored the winner. And very quickly, Chelsea are still in

47:12

the FA Cup. So they still have a crack at

47:14

a trophy. I said for sure this is going to

47:16

be a trophy list season, but we'll see what they

47:18

do there. But yeah, on van Dyke, he

47:20

did have a goal disallowed and regulation, which was

47:22

interesting. Do you want to take a look at

47:25

that? I know you always like to discuss VAR

47:27

decisions. Yeah, so picks

47:29

in the game are

47:33

in part and parcel. Now, sometimes they

47:35

are picks that are you just figure

47:37

out amongst yourselves, or you

47:41

in the course of a set

47:43

piece, you run yourself into a pick,

47:45

whether that person picking knows that he

47:47

or she is supposed to be picking,

47:49

or you're just using them as a shield.

47:52

And they are illegal.

47:56

And especially when in this case, a player

47:58

comes back from an offside. position, pick

48:01

somebody who you can argue

48:04

could have defended and defended better on

48:07

Van Dyke. So I'm

48:09

actually okay, but it

48:11

was a situation that

48:14

cried out for explanation

48:17

and public explanation. It cried out

48:19

for the referee to

48:22

address the crowd. Eventually

48:24

it got to us as viewers at home, but

48:27

this is where I think it's important for

48:30

having the technical capability of doing it.

48:33

And we've talked about MLS, they are going

48:35

to do it when this referee situation gets

48:37

resolved. They are going to have the

48:39

announcements on the field. And I like it because it

48:41

does provide that clarity and that understanding of why something

48:43

like that. Because this is a

48:46

real nuanced, complex type of situation that the

48:48

only way that you see it is because

48:50

of VAR. And even on

48:52

the broadcast, we've now gotten so used to

48:54

in this country, there are always being a

48:56

refereeing guy. We use Dr. Joe Macknick, you've

48:58

also got Christina Unkel, Mark Lattenberg, who we've

49:00

used. And not having that person when situations

49:02

like this arise is a little bit odd. And

49:06

again, to the specific play, you could

49:08

tell when you finally watched it that

49:11

this was a designed play, that

49:14

the pick was designed to get rid of

49:16

whoever was going to be marking Virgil Van

49:18

Dyke and give him the best opportunity to

49:20

get his head on the ball. I had

49:22

no issue with this call. We saw with

49:24

that Leipzig disallowed goal against Real Madrid recently

49:26

that it's a very low bar. If you're

49:28

in an offside position and you interfere at

49:30

all with the play, you're going to get

49:32

called for it. In this case, he clearly

49:34

interfered with the person that would have been

49:36

marking Virgil Van Dyke. So I

49:38

don't know how you can't not call that. So

49:41

to me, that wasn't even that controversial. Once we saw

49:43

the replay and understood the call. Again, it wasn't

49:46

a foul. So it wasn't like

49:48

the contact he made had to cross some sort of

49:50

threshold to be called a foul. It

49:52

was just interfering at all with the

49:54

player's ability to continue marking Van Dyke.

49:57

But that one you have an excuse as to why.

50:00

Van Dyke is able to get to the to

50:02

the ball. Right. So but you have no excuse

50:04

going forward and Ultimately, he

50:06

did it again Wonderful little flick to

50:08

the back post ended up being the winner Congratulations

50:11

to Virgil van Dyke to Uyghur and Klopp and

50:13

to the Liverpool faithful out there for being able

50:15

to raise a trophy The caribou cup like a

50:17

boss Zach Kenworthy. I saw a very classy you

50:20

texted him. Congratulations at the end of the match

50:23

Well, it's it was after a bunch of tweets or

50:25

I've text where I made fun of him But you

50:27

know ultimately like I said, I was moved I was

50:29

moved by the moon I can I

50:31

can even be moved Keith Costigan was absolutely insufferable

50:33

on X but I'll say congratulations to him too

50:36

I'll be the bigger man Anything

50:38

else Massey that is it. All right, let's take another quick

50:40

break when we come back. It's time for Ask Alex Okay,

50:43

welcome back It's time for ask Alexi that part of

50:46

the show where you send in your comments questions and

50:48

concerns and keep in mind that our social media handle

50:50

out there on all the social

50:52

media platforms is SOTU with Alexi or You

50:55

can call into our State of the Union podcast

50:58

hotline, which is six five seven five four nine

51:00

two two nine seven six five Seven five four

51:02

nine two two nine seven. What do we got

51:04

this show? We have a couple of voicemails Let's

51:06

take a listen to the first one right now Hey

51:10

Alexi and Masi, this is Jake from Memphis

51:13

So I'm reading the Beckham experiment by

51:15

the late great grant wall and there's

51:18

a fascinating story in there about how

51:20

Alexi Gave the MVP

51:22

of the 2007 season to

51:25

Chris Klein over Landon Donovan

51:28

despite Landon Donovan being the Highest

51:31

goals for on the team. And so my question

51:33

to you Alexi is how in 2007

51:37

did you give the MVP

51:39

of the Elegazi to Chris Klein when

51:41

he was not the goal scorer, which

51:44

is your criteria for MLS MVP If

51:47

you could explain it, that'd be great. Thank you. Love the

51:49

show guys Thank you

51:51

Jake from Memphis. That's a really good question

51:54

and I appreciate it and I can see how

51:56

you would look at it and think

52:00

I think

52:03

it comes down to believe me. I

52:05

had to go kind of back in my Files

52:08

and in my mind to remember this

52:10

whole scenario and and by the way

52:12

Jake mentions reading Grant

52:15

walls book and it chronicles the good bad and

52:17

the ugly and there was plenty of it all

52:19

in terms of David Beckham's Arrival to MLS

52:22

with the Los Angeles galaxy and yours truly

52:24

was there at the time. There

52:26

was a lot of stuff going on For

52:29

those that remember whether you read the book

52:31

or not This was not a good

52:33

team so I think what it what

52:35

it comes down to Jake is my

52:37

capacity in that moment as the president general

52:39

manager of the Los

52:42

Angeles galaxy I Was

52:44

sitting at a very very different seat than

52:47

I sit in now when it comes to media

52:49

and the way that I talk about an

52:52

MVP of a league

52:54

and again, I'm not trying

52:57

to Say

52:59

that it doesn't appear hypocritical.

53:01

I also think I've changed like

53:03

everybody else over time and

53:05

in that moment in What

53:08

was not a good season and what was

53:10

not a very good team and what let's

53:12

be honest Certainly if you

53:14

read the book you get a better idea at times

53:16

as a real show both on and off the field. I

53:20

think in that moment I

53:22

recognized that the

53:25

calming influence and impact

53:28

in a positive way the

53:31

leadership both on and off the field

53:33

that I just mentioned was missing

53:35

and really necessary and I

53:38

found in Chris Klein and the maturity in

53:41

what Chris Klein brought in that tempest

53:44

I Think

53:46

that's where I came down

53:48

on the side of since I

53:51

was ultimately able to decide this

53:53

Where I was going to or who

53:56

I was going to pick Lannon

53:58

as his document in the book was was

54:00

not happy. And

54:02

I don't blame them. But this

54:06

is also about the dynamic

54:08

of the team. And

54:10

Landon was going

54:13

through the whole thing with with Beckham and

54:15

everything that was going on. Landon

54:18

got plenty of love. Landon got

54:20

plenty of oxygen. And Landon got

54:22

plenty of attention.

54:25

And that's not a reason not to give him

54:28

an award or in this case an MVP award.

54:30

But I think and I don't I don't

54:32

have a written down. I don't remember ultimately what I was

54:34

thinking. But I think to your point

54:36

and to your question Jake that's where I

54:38

was coming from. And in

54:41

that seat doing what is

54:43

best for this situation

54:45

that I know is not a good situation

54:48

and ultimately I got fired for. I

54:51

thought that that was appropriate and

54:53

I thought that that was doing what

54:55

was best for this team in this

54:57

moment. Whenever we've had

54:59

Landon on the pot I've always noticed some tension

55:02

between you two. Now I know why. He's still

55:04

saying. Hey we went at it and I'm sure

55:06

that there were two why not sure. I know

55:08

I definitely know that we had

55:11

moments where we did not see eye-to-eye and where

55:13

we vehemently disagreed.

55:16

And you know that that happens over the course

55:18

of a relationship especially one you know

55:20

with that type of power dynamic going on

55:23

and especially one that went through such a

55:25

crazy thing which was the galaxy

55:27

at that time and incorporating

55:30

I guess David Beckham into it and all

55:32

the craziness that comes with that. It's interesting

55:34

with that book and I know it's sad

55:36

to evoke Grant Wall's name now but that

55:39

book was written as if

55:41

the Beckham thing was an irredeemable failure. The

55:44

tone is what went wrong because that was

55:46

the perception at the time. And

55:48

it's always been amazing to me how Beckham was

55:50

able to flip that narrative, win a couple of

55:52

MLS cups, go out as this

55:54

great success and now as the owner

55:56

of Enter Miami bringing Lionel Messi and

55:58

we'll see how many trophies they win there,

56:01

and he's going to end up looking like

56:03

one of the most successful figures in MLS

56:05

history when there was a point in his

56:07

galaxy career where it was considered a disaster

56:09

and it's amazing how it turned. Yeah,

56:12

but I think from a

56:14

book perspective and the late,

56:16

great Grant Wall, I think he would

56:18

probably say, yeah, there was probably a

56:20

whole other book to be done in

56:22

terms of the arrival and the resuscitation

56:25

of Bruce Arena when he came in and

56:28

what that ultimately ended up and how

56:30

that reflected on Landon and David and

56:33

everybody else there. But

56:35

if it bleeds, it leads, and

56:37

dysfunction is interesting to people. And

56:41

the look underneath the hood that was

56:43

the galaxy at that time, I

56:45

think he saw that that was going to

56:48

be interesting and all the different characters and

56:50

all the different things that went on, including

56:52

the story that Jake brings up. Appreciate it,

56:54

Jake. I appreciate you reading that book. It's

56:56

a real interesting peek into a history and

56:59

a moment in time. And like

57:01

I said, I played a part, made plenty of

57:03

mistakes along the way. And who

57:05

knows, maybe that was a mistake at the

57:07

time there. But that, I think, was what I

57:09

was thinking at the time in terms of doing

57:11

something relative to an

57:14

individual that could create

57:16

more goodwill and benefited more

57:18

people even if in

57:20

the moment that one person that was Landon Donovan didn't

57:22

like it. And by the way, Landon

57:25

and I have moved on. We work almost

57:27

every single year together in different things, including

57:30

this summer we'll be working when it comes to Copa

57:33

America and the Euro

57:35

coverage that we're going to do. And

57:37

he has moved on. I have moved on. I like

57:39

to think to bigger and better things. When you tease

57:41

at the very top of the pod, my hypocrisy, I

57:44

wasn't sure what you were alluding to, but now I

57:46

know. There you go. It's a

57:48

little... We have another voicemail. Let's take

57:50

a listen right now. Hey

57:53

Lexie and Mossy. It's Chase from Dallas. We've

57:56

had some great guests in the pod lately.

57:58

It's a great stew. of course,

58:01

and Greg Gerhalter. I was

58:03

wondering if you had to have one

58:05

dream guest on the podcast, who

58:07

would it be? Can you give us one

58:10

soccer related and one non-soccer related? My

58:12

dream guest would be Jose

58:14

Mourinho, whenever he becomes the

58:17

head coach of the national team

58:20

in 2024 at the end of Copa America.

58:22

Because Greg Gerhalter will be fired. Thank you.

58:25

Interesting. Interesting take

58:27

there, Chase. Interesting

58:29

question. Okay, so you've given

58:31

yours. So, non-soccer

58:34

and then a soccer one, right? So look,

58:36

if I'm going to do a non-soccer, then

58:39

it's probably, I want something that's going

58:41

to make news and global news. So

58:43

I'm torn between Trump and Biden. I

58:46

think Trump would make, I

58:49

guess, more news and he's obviously,

58:53

I think would be more adept in

58:55

what we are doing here in terms of having

58:57

an interview. I'm not sure Biden could

59:00

hang with us when it comes to

59:02

an interview. But if we were one of those two,

59:04

and if I had to just pick one, I still

59:06

think Trump is money and I still think Trump gets

59:08

much more attention.

59:11

When it comes to soccer, now this is

59:14

interesting. I would

59:17

love, and I'm not saying this

59:19

can't happen, and I just haven't

59:22

looked into it or tried it, but I would

59:24

love to interview Megan Rapinoe. I

59:26

would love to sit down on

59:28

a one-on-one with Megan Rapinoe

59:30

and go through everything, both

59:32

on and off the field. I find

59:34

her fascinating, even though

59:37

for anybody that's listened to any length of

59:39

time, you know that I vehemently disagree with

59:42

many, many things that

59:44

she has done and

59:46

said. Until my dying breath, defend

59:50

her right and freedom to be able to do so, as

59:52

I will anybody else out there. But she is

59:56

someone that has made incredible news. Obviously,

59:58

she is someone within the game. game

1:00:00

that has interesting and provocative

1:00:02

views. So yeah, I think that

1:00:05

that would be something interesting. And

1:00:07

again, I just haven't pursued it, but

1:00:09

I'm just answering your question here. I think

1:00:11

that that would be interesting. For

1:00:13

me, I would like to think for

1:00:15

her. I would treat her with respect and

1:00:18

be civil to her. But I'd

1:00:20

also like to talk to her about

1:00:22

things both on and on the soccer field. Things that she's

1:00:24

done that she regrets, things that

1:00:26

she's done that she's incredibly proud of, how

1:00:28

she's thinking about herself in the future and

1:00:30

what she is looking to do. Things

1:00:33

that she disagrees with when it comes to me or

1:00:35

anybody else out there. Things that have been fair or

1:00:37

unfair out there. All

1:00:39

those different things, because she is

1:00:42

a lightning rod. I like big,

1:00:44

bold, arrogant personalities. So I guess

1:00:46

it would be Trump and Megan

1:00:48

Rapinoe. Holy crap! All

1:00:51

three of us at the same time, Massey.

1:00:53

Trump, Megan Rapinoe, and me. That

1:00:56

is something that you would want to watch. Absolutely.

1:01:00

What about you, Massey? The

1:01:02

sports one would be the Brazilian Ronaldo.

1:01:06

His English has improved somewhat. It's still not great. So

1:01:08

I'd probably want to interview him in Portuguese and then

1:01:10

I could translate it. He's

1:01:13

my hero, my favorite human

1:01:15

being. And

1:01:18

non-sports one, I don't know. The

1:01:20

pop-cultry answer would be like a Jerry Seinfeld or Larry

1:01:22

David or Julia Louis-Dreyfuss. You know how big a fan

1:01:24

I am of that whole Seinfeld, Curb universe. But

1:01:27

you know a name that popped my head?

1:01:30

A guy like Salman Rushdie.

1:01:33

He lived such an interesting life. I'd

1:01:35

love to pick his brain on everything he's gone through

1:01:37

and just his thoughts on the world. So

1:01:40

what's it like to have a fatwack? I've

1:01:44

always wondered what his day-to-day life for

1:01:46

like 10 years. Is

1:01:48

he always looking over his shoulder? Insane.

1:01:50

Insane. Alright, well interesting question there Chase. I

1:01:53

appreciate you calling in and I also appreciate

1:01:55

you highlighting the fact that we've done a

1:01:57

really really good job of bringing in the

1:01:59

world. some really interesting guests over the past

1:02:01

few weeks. We're going to endeavor to try

1:02:03

to do more of that. Sometimes it's relative

1:02:06

to schedule, what we can do and we

1:02:08

can't do it out there, but you mentioned

1:02:10

Stu and Greg and I mentioned Taylor Twelman

1:02:12

and the list goes on and on

1:02:14

and on. And we like to have interesting

1:02:16

people in here. Some of them we know their money and they

1:02:18

know they're going to bring it every time. Some of it, it's

1:02:20

a crap shoot and we hope that they bring it. Some of

1:02:23

them, we think they're going to bring it

1:02:25

and then they don't necessarily bring it, but you

1:02:27

want to have, like I said, people that have interesting

1:02:29

ideas in the way that they think about life and

1:02:31

the way that they think about soccer and we will

1:02:33

try to bring more of them on so you don't

1:02:35

just have to listen to our voices. Anything

1:02:38

else, Mossy? That's it. All right, let's take one more quick break

1:02:40

when we come back at the end of our show and I'll

1:02:42

give you my one for the road. Okay, welcome back. It's the

1:02:44

end of our show and at the end of each and every

1:02:46

show I give you my one for the road. The Don Garber,

1:02:48

who we talked about Mossy earlier in the show, is that

1:02:51

a lot to say and it's the opening week

1:02:53

of the seasons you expect him to be out

1:02:55

there talking about things. We also

1:02:57

mentioned the referee situation

1:03:00

which he is dealing with right now and how

1:03:02

he praised our

1:03:06

comments and what we were talking about when it

1:03:08

came to the fact that it's gone very, very

1:03:10

well. But also, Don Garber was in

1:03:12

the news a few days

1:03:14

ago talking about Mossy

1:03:18

and the fascination and

1:03:20

what he feels like is a,

1:03:22

I guess, a

1:03:24

oversaturation when it comes to Mossy. And

1:03:27

he said, quote, it's

1:03:29

easy and somewhat lazy for reporters

1:03:31

to just write about Mossy. It's

1:03:34

like writing about Taylor Swift. There's

1:03:38

so much more here that I think people

1:03:40

need to recognize. I

1:03:44

understand what Commissioner Don Garber

1:03:46

is saying. He

1:03:48

has a responsibility and I think

1:03:50

he has a desire to

1:03:54

point out the fact that there are incredible stories

1:03:56

both on and off the field when it comes

1:03:59

to Major League Baseball. soccer as it kicks off its

1:04:02

29th season in the year 2024 here. However,

1:04:08

in the same way that a few months

1:04:10

ago when our US Women's National Team captain

1:04:12

Lindsay Horan took a shot at the fans, this

1:04:16

is unnecessary. Especially

1:04:20

since if

1:04:22

anybody is both

1:04:25

responsible and

1:04:27

doubling and tripling down on messy

1:04:29

coverage, it's

1:04:31

Don Garber and MLS and certainly

1:04:33

when it comes to their partner

1:04:36

Apple. And it's

1:04:38

exactly what you should do. Last

1:04:41

night, Messi scored a

1:04:43

goal. That

1:04:46

goal ended up tying the game and he scored

1:04:48

it right at the death and he played

1:04:50

the star. And that

1:04:52

moment is viral. It goes

1:04:54

around the world. People will

1:04:56

watch it simply because it

1:04:59

is messy. Producer

1:05:01

Shawn, anybody worth their weight that

1:05:03

works in our industry understands what

1:05:05

rates, understand what clicks, understand what

1:05:08

gets people to subscribe

1:05:10

and understands what brings people

1:05:13

into that tent. And Messi

1:05:15

is often at the very, very top

1:05:17

of that. So when

1:05:21

Don Garber calls

1:05:23

out media and calls out reporters

1:05:25

and calls out writers for being

1:05:27

lazy because they

1:05:29

are talking about not just one

1:05:31

of the greatest players ever to play the game, who happens

1:05:34

to be playing in Major League Soccer, the league in

1:05:36

which they were reporting on, but one of the most

1:05:38

famous people on earth. It's

1:05:42

a little rich. It's a

1:05:44

little rich from Don Garber. And again,

1:05:46

I know that he respects the media

1:05:49

out there and he better because guess

1:05:51

what? There's not enough of them out there.

1:05:54

And most of these men and women, they

1:05:56

work their ass off day in and day

1:05:58

out. Many... to

1:06:01

tell the stories that Don Garber is talking about, whether

1:06:03

he realizes it or not, and I think he does,

1:06:06

but whether he realizes it or not, and

1:06:08

to lump everybody in together and

1:06:10

to call them lazy. If

1:06:14

you are a member of the media out there that

1:06:16

works your ass off day in and

1:06:18

day out to literally spread the gospel

1:06:20

of soccer, and in this case, MLS,

1:06:24

and the commissioner is calling you

1:06:26

lazy because you're talking about messy.

1:06:29

That's a no-go for me. And again,

1:06:31

it's an unforced

1:06:34

error and an unnecessary type

1:06:36

of hit

1:06:39

to talk

1:06:44

about the people, the very people

1:06:46

that are going to spread that gospel

1:06:49

and do it for very little money

1:06:51

and very little attention and certainly very

1:06:53

little fame out there. I

1:06:56

mean, that's just not a good look. And

1:06:58

it will come and go. And again,

1:07:00

I know he was probably trying

1:07:03

to say, look at all these different

1:07:05

stories out there. Those stories will

1:07:07

get told, but Don Garber has

1:07:09

been in the business of sports longer

1:07:11

than most people, and he

1:07:13

knows what sells, and he knows

1:07:16

that stars sell. And he

1:07:18

knows in this particular case, you better

1:07:20

mine that and

1:07:22

mine that product that is messy. And

1:07:25

MLS is doing it day in and day out.

1:07:27

Go look at their website. Go look at the

1:07:29

video that they put out. Go look at their

1:07:31

social media. Go look at everything else. And yes,

1:07:33

they're telling the other stories out there, but there's

1:07:35

only so much bandwidth that people have. There's

1:07:38

only so much time and resources that people have

1:07:40

out there. And so I don't

1:07:42

blame a single person out there for

1:07:46

looking at messy and saying, you know what? That's

1:07:48

what people want to read. That's what people want

1:07:50

to see. That's what people will

1:07:52

be attracted to. And

1:07:55

using it and recognizing

1:07:57

the value out there of what messy

1:07:59

is going. Messy is doing and I

1:08:01

think messy or I think Don Garber in this

1:08:03

case would probably take back what he said about

1:08:07

About people being lazy to reporters out there or

1:08:09

who knows maybe he's smarter than everybody and it

1:08:12

was designed to get people like Me and others

1:08:14

to feel offended to

1:08:16

get riled up and to talk about it

1:08:18

here And that will maybe force some of

1:08:20

those other stories out there those stories will

1:08:22

be Obie obi played

1:08:24

but right now it's about

1:08:26

messy Masi anything before we go MLS

1:08:29

did a seminar here at Fox a couple weeks

1:08:31

ago you and I attended as the John Sullivan

1:08:34

and yeah the way their Marketing people are framing it

1:08:36

is come for the goat and stay for all the

1:08:39

other stories so they want to use messy to attract

1:08:42

New viewers, but then they hope that they see

1:08:44

other things in MLS They like so that even

1:08:46

when messy leaves a couple years from now that

1:08:48

they'll remain MLS then yeah I mean why was

1:08:50

the first game and the only game of

1:08:53

the 2024 season to kick off? Why

1:08:55

did it feature messy? Why did a feature enter Miami?

1:08:58

Why commissioner were you at the messy game last

1:09:00

night? When we had tailored Bowman on the first

1:09:03

couple of questions we asked him weren't messy related

1:09:05

and he even said that's refreshing Because the people

1:09:07

who do cover MLS they do feel like he's

1:09:09

taking a lot of the oxygen out of me

1:09:14

Because it's messy This

1:09:17

is what you signed him for So

1:09:20

milk it for all its worth Because

1:09:23

guess what it's not gonna last forever.

1:09:25

I hope it lasts at least through 2026 but

1:09:29

it might not messy might say forget

1:09:31

it see you goodbye and Then

1:09:33

you're gonna have to pick up and go on But

1:09:36

you can use the messy time to

1:09:38

be better off when that

1:09:40

time comes where you no longer have mess

1:09:42

and You're a fool

1:09:44

if you don't use and you're sure as

1:09:46

hell not lazy if you're talking about this

1:09:49

and none of these people I would never

1:09:51

ever in the same way that I don't

1:09:53

think American soccer fans are dumb I

1:09:56

don't think American media is lazy when it comes

1:09:58

to stock. All right, what else mon? anything

1:10:00

before we go? That is it. Alright, thank you

1:10:02

to everybody for reviewing and downloading and subscribing and

1:10:04

doing all the different things that you that you

1:10:06

do out there. We really appreciate it when it

1:10:09

comes to the State of Union. We'll be back

1:10:11

later on this week with another show, plenty of

1:10:13

other soccer, plenty of other stories. Yes, other stories

1:10:15

that don't involve Messi when it comes to what's

1:10:17

happening on and off the field, but who knows?

1:10:19

There will probably be some stories that do involve

1:10:21

Messi. It doesn't make us lazy. My

1:10:24

friends, we will talk to you again later this week

1:10:26

and until then, and as always, size the day.