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1:00

I'm tired of being and looking at this

1:02

national team through the lens of mediocrity. I

1:04

want this team to be excellent,

1:06

and I want them to live up to their potential. Hello,

1:22

Sunshine. I'm Alexi Lawless, and welcome to the State of

1:24

the Union podcast, where we look at the beautiful game

1:26

on and off the field through the lens of red,

1:28

white, and blue colored glasses. This show will be talking

1:31

MLS 2024, the kickoff special

1:33

with our special guest, Stu Holden,

1:35

the evolution of the elbow, referee

1:38

lockout, the fallacy of form, MLS

1:40

All-Star Game format, Horan's apology, favorite

1:42

MLS jersey, Norwegian crime, more cookie

1:44

talk, and so much more. But

1:47

first, join me as always, my

1:49

friend, my colleague, my guiding light,

1:51

David Mossi, a soccer savant and a

1:54

Fox Soccer researcher and writer. Extraordinaire! Mossi,

1:56

how you doing on this Monday, February

1:58

19th in the year 2020? C Four. I'm

2:01

doing well, especially considering the company I

2:03

have my desk today. What do you

2:05

go over there? Let's sell. It's widen

2:07

out and show the good folks that

2:09

yes, oh my goodness, he's bad. Liar

2:11

Max Yeah, Holden in studio to participate

2:13

on yet another episode of the State

2:15

Of These I think you are far

2:17

and away of the person that has

2:19

been on the show the most appalling

2:21

I'm a calculator. I will suffer as

2:23

that's part of Marcy Savant, the Fox

2:26

Soccer researchers not keeping the tally of

2:28

like taps and goals and and original.

2:30

I can sort of. I'd have any goals

2:32

on the part that's for her. Don't have

2:34

an exact number but you a deathly the

2:37

most frequent guess I've compared to the David

2:39

Brenner of this podcast. Our sure frequent, not

2:41

best yeah David Brenner references. I love it.

2:43

A listen. Go easy on our friend Moss,

2:46

your research said or up couple a days

2:48

we debated whether talking about this but it's

2:50

But we have Zero Three. Sorry for scammed.

2:52

We got a i forgot assess early early

2:55

today recording us on Monday here. We got

2:57

a text from Mossy and he was very

2:59

concerned. From an ascetic perspective as

3:01

to whether his appearance today on

3:03

Personal was going to be acceptable.

3:06

Ah, I did it. It actually

3:08

warm the cockles of my heart

3:10

to hear Masih worry about this.

3:12

Saw Marcy tell the folks what

3:14

that with what ailment has befallen

3:16

you. Add couple of days ago I

3:18

noticed that my right I was small and I

3:20

couldn't figure out why. I went to see an

3:22

optometrist. I. Have some sort of spy.

3:25

Like. Condition, It's nothing serious. He gave me

3:27

some medicine, he said I'll be better know

3:29

a week or so. Ah, but I wasn't

3:31

sure what that would mean for this podcast.

3:33

whether you would even let me on it

3:35

and if so on but assess whether we

3:37

set. Talk about this. I came prepared for

3:39

every eventuality. I even brought sunglasses and case

3:41

you guys thought that was the best thought

3:43

I'd As easy as it is a rock

3:45

the Glass Lebanon is, I don't have a

3:47

Total Goods Zeus, you look good no matter

3:49

what. You are not an animal rights or

3:51

will keep it wide for you today as

3:53

if that's what she was. Ah, I. and

3:55

you also took it for the the the the

3:57

state of the union team in this etti it

4:00

have a had a style and and by the

4:02

way out there everybody pat on their very common

4:04

and usually the remedy from a doctor

4:07

perspective is compresses which

4:09

this doctor that we told you but

4:12

you are so committed to the state of the

4:14

union that you did what well he said it

4:16

the hot compress will make it worse at first

4:18

better in the long run so i haven't done

4:20

it yet because i didn't want to make it

4:22

worse for today's time like that's better so i'm

4:24

going to and get a start

4:27

during the hot compress you get an email from

4:29

his doctor saying you know david masi is listed

4:31

as day to day for the podcast he's got

4:33

a style will see if you can

4:35

get through the first forty five maybe will sell

4:37

them out the second day with a i think

4:39

you're gonna crush it was gone and i'm glad

4:41

it's not since bob kasas at the sochia lint

4:43

there with me and i had

4:46

a situation like this uh... my

4:48

goodness what you look wonderful and as we

4:50

know a lot of people uh... digest the

4:52

state of the union in the visual form

4:54

over there on spotify and you to

4:56

be all the different stuff so i hope the

4:59

you know the the animal nature of michael hos

5:01

over here you're able to get through that and

5:03

if you can't see it your your your five

5:05

but know that he is battling through this

5:08

is not even saying i'm laughing carl my

5:10

goodness hey before we get to what we

5:13

watched uh... i know you are

5:15

an avid listener watcher of the uh... union

5:17

there uh... have you the ongoing debate

5:19

as to uh... the the best girl

5:22

scout cookie and listen we talked to taylor twoman

5:24

last week about it just it just blew up

5:26

as you can imagine kind of catnip out there

5:28

at the evergreen type of topic you have one

5:30

because i know you have a young daughter yeah

5:33

issue involved in this and more well i mean

5:35

what what's your favorite i got a couple bones

5:37

to pick with the ok first one being yes

5:39

my daughter's a girl scout and uh... did

5:41

the fact that you have an ordered cookies

5:44

but you've been eating thin mints in my

5:46

face without supporting my daughter's true that's offensive

5:48

to me so uh... secondly your

5:50

other offensive take is that the men for the

5:52

best girl scout cookie it's not even a

5:54

question it's a moa's tag alongs are like

5:56

a far fourth place the men's

5:58

i can get in board with the innocent solid second

6:00

in the freezer. You know, I've

6:03

been hitting a sleeve a week, minimum. But,

6:05

Samoas without a doubt. Number

6:08

one. So, I thought that Taylor

6:10

was bad. This is even worse, okay? The Samoas, for those

6:12

that don't know, I'll even read it off the site because

6:14

I have it pulled up here. Caramel

6:17

Delight Samoas, right? Crisp cookies

6:19

with caramel, chocolate-y

6:21

strips, and this is the worst part

6:23

about it. And this is why they

6:25

are, in my estimation, the worst Girl

6:27

Scout cookie, coconut. Coconut

6:30

is a ridiculous food. I could go on

6:32

for hours and hours about coconut. You know

6:34

my thoughts of bacon, but coconut is even

6:36

worse. Our good

6:38

friend Katie Whitham. Okay, that's right, you

6:40

know, with your take on bacon, your

6:42

take on chicken wings, and then now

6:44

your take on coconut. No, coconut is

6:46

ridiculous. Katie Whitham, our friend, our colleague

6:48

Katie Whitham, her favorite ice cream is

6:50

coconut ice cream. She would order coconut

6:52

ice cream, which is absolutely ridiculous. Anything

6:54

with, if you take coconut and put

6:56

it on something, it makes it bad.

6:58

Even the best sweetens it. No, it

7:00

doesn't. Without all the guiltiness of chocolate and

7:02

all those different things. It's a nice, happy medium.

7:05

All right, listen. Have you guys watched anything? Last

7:09

night I watched the finale of True Detective.

7:11

Oh, it's over now. So it's done, I

7:13

can binge it now from start to finish.

7:15

The fourth season I think we're at, right?

7:17

Correct. Thank God I checked my

7:19

TV listings because we got some bad information last

7:21

week from award-winning producer Sean Sullivan, who said they

7:23

were skipping a week and the finale wouldn't be

7:25

until the following Sunday. It did in fact air

7:27

this Sunday. I

7:30

enjoyed the finale. I enjoyed this season. A

7:33

lot of TV critics agree with me, including Alan

7:35

Seppenwald, who wrote a glowing review, but there's a

7:37

disconnect here because if you go on X, people

7:40

seem to be very down on this season of

7:42

True Detective, a lot of criticism. So I don't

7:45

know, the critics versus the popular.

7:47

Wait, a disconnect on X, what a

7:49

surprise. Is there anything somebody's positive about

7:51

on X these days? Oh my goodness.

7:55

I watched Grizelda on Netflix.

7:57

I know you have seen it and we exchanged.

8:00

a little text back and forth on this. I

8:02

thought it started phenomenally and I was gripped. I

8:05

was interested to see Sofia Vergara in that role,

8:07

a little bit more dramatic. There

8:09

was a lot of killing constantly, a lot

8:12

of cigarettes, a lot of drugs. And

8:14

then it just kind of, you know, the first two or three

8:16

episodes were good and then it petered out where it was, I

8:18

felt like they were trying to force and overdramatize

8:20

events to keep it interesting and entertaining

8:22

when I think everybody kind of knew

8:24

where it was heading. So

8:26

I kind of found myself

8:28

not as interested by the

8:31

end. Medium, I'd give it six out of ten. Yeah,

8:33

I didn't like it. I wouldn't even give it a six if

8:35

for those who listened a couple of weeks ago when we

8:37

talked about it. The only thing I have

8:39

for you today is a TV series out

8:42

of Norway. Evidently is the most expensive dramatic

8:44

TV series in that country's history. It's called

8:47

Visting, W-I-S-T-I-N-G. It's

8:49

got three

8:51

seasons and it's a crime

8:53

drama and it is in

8:55

Norwegian for 80 to

8:57

90% of it. There is some English

9:00

that shows up. I thought it was

9:02

good. I thought it was really good. I thought it was real gritty

9:05

and I recommend it.

9:08

So three seasons. So it's quick in

9:10

and out. And it's one of

9:12

those things where I got so into it that

9:14

my companion was my map. And so I

9:16

would look at, you

9:19

know, exteriors or landscape

9:21

types of things that they had in it and

9:23

then I'd try to find it on my map

9:25

and pull it up. Oh my gosh. Hey, next

9:27

thing you're going to be knitting, okay? Goodness gracious.

9:29

How are you again? Hey, let's, oh,

9:31

before we get into the soccer, one more thing

9:33

should be said. You mentioned our award-winning team

9:36

and producer Sean, we talked about him last week

9:38

and all his incredible

9:40

awards and stuff like that. We are

9:42

up for a major award. The Ambies,

9:45

all right. The Ambies out there are

9:47

awards for the podcasting world. We are

9:49

up for best interview podcast and we submitted

9:51

the Carly Lloyd one from the Women's World

9:54

Cup, if you remember, where she

9:56

went into a whole lot more detail on

9:58

the really, really interesting. behind the scenes look

10:01

of what she thought was going

10:03

wrong with the US women's national team. All

10:05

that is to say is we continue to

10:07

be looked at as leaders in

10:09

the industry and Mosse this could be your finest

10:11

hour because we as the State of the Union

10:13

being up for this the

10:16

field if you if you want to call

10:18

it that includes one of your idols in

10:20

terms of your favorite TV shows in Julia

10:22

Louise Dreyfus so congratulations buddy. It is rarefied

10:25

air for you. Also Quest Love of the

10:27

Roots. So it's a star-studded category. I do

10:29

find it interesting that we submitted the Carly

10:31

Lloyd interview and none of Stu's 20 appearances

10:34

on this podcast. We're here today to make

10:36

one that's gonna be submitted for next year's.

10:39

Alright listen let's don't bore us get to

10:41

the chorus right should we should we like

10:43

this candle? Let's do it. Alright we are

10:45

coming to you as we said on Monday

10:47

February 19th it is the start of the

10:50

MLS season all the games pick up well

10:52

they start this week this weekend but first

10:54

games are this this Wednesday so yet another

10:56

MLS season is upon us we've talked a

10:58

little bit over the last couple of

11:00

weeks we wanted to get Stu in here with his

11:03

incredible knowledge and history when it

11:05

comes to Major League to Major League

11:07

Soccer. Before we get into some of the

11:10

contenders and pretenders and stuff like that just

11:12

in general as this 2024 season

11:14

kicks off thoughts either on or

11:16

off the field big picture or smaller picture

11:19

in terms of what what is you know

11:21

what is tickling your fancy out there. Well

11:23

the big one you know don't bury the

11:25

lead is Lionel Messi's first full season now

11:27

with Inter Miami. He came mid-season last year

11:29

Miami won the league's

11:32

cup and then you know they came he

11:34

came in at a point where they were

11:36

basically dead last in the Eastern Conference couldn't

11:38

do enough to get into the playoffs and

11:40

make kind of a wonder run there so

11:42

I'm fascinated to see now that you've got

11:44

Messi, Busquets, Jordi Alba, Luis Suarez a

11:46

beautiful heel that will be joining the

11:48

fold so I'm interested there and then

11:50

look there's a lot going on on

11:53

the field and off the field with Major League Soccer I

11:55

know we're gonna get to this there's the backdrop of the

11:57

referees you've got now for the first

11:59

time in a long time, no new expansion team

12:01

this year. So St. Louis came in last year,

12:04

San Diego will join next year. But I think

12:06

now the first real time, we're gonna see some

12:08

of these teams have had a couple of years

12:10

in the league building rosters. What

12:12

can they do? LAFC, is Carlos Vela gonna

12:14

be back or not? They've got a whole new

12:16

look team once again, they're gonna have the pressure.

12:19

I think it's ultimately gonna be a lot

12:21

of the teams we've seen over the past

12:23

couple of years. Front and center once again

12:26

with Seattle, Cincinnati now, trying to go one

12:28

step further than the supporters shield. There's

12:30

a lot of different storylines in there, but Messi is the big

12:32

one there. I think

12:34

he's going to really grip the attention of

12:36

people from outside, the normal MLS fans. Do

12:38

you think that Messi, or

12:40

that MLS, leaning into Messi,

12:42

which I think any business given the asset

12:45

that he is and the value that he

12:47

brings would do so. Do you think that

12:50

it's being too Messi dependent in that all of

12:52

these eggs are in this Messi basket? And I

12:54

guess, do you blame them? Or do you think

12:57

that there is a danger? I think there's questions

12:59

to both of you. Yeah, do you wanna start, Messi? I

13:02

do wonder about the Argentina factor. I

13:04

understand why folks in MLS like the

13:06

fact that he still plays for Argentina.

13:08

I think that adds even more gloss

13:10

to him coming here. But I

13:13

do wonder if there's a chance that Inter Miami

13:15

becomes an afterthought for him. We

13:18

all thought that winning the World Cup might

13:20

be the sort of drop the mic moment,

13:22

but instead what we've come to realize is

13:24

that after all that tension and all that

13:26

pressure, all those years that surrounded his participation

13:28

with Argentina, he's reveling in being able to

13:30

play with Argentina without any more monkeys to

13:32

get off his back having checked off all the boxes.

13:34

And so he's really looking to play as often as

13:36

he can for them. The fact that we're even discussing

13:39

the Olympics is amazing to me. The guy's gonna be

13:41

37 years old. He's already won

13:43

a gold medal. He's already playing in the Copa

13:45

America. Does he need to play in another summer

13:47

tournament and be away from Inter Miami for more

13:49

than two months? But it sounds like it's a

13:51

distinct possibility. You also have World Cup qualifying starting

13:53

up in the fall. Argentina is definitely going to

13:56

qualify. He could probably skip some of those games,

13:58

but I don't think he will because every... chance

14:00

to get on the field now with Argentina. It's a

14:02

celebration of the World Cup title. They're on top of

14:04

the world. They've completely flipped the rivalry with Brazil to

14:06

the point where I'm feeling like I did as a

14:09

Michigan fan during the Jim Trestle era. And

14:11

so I do wonder how many games is he gonna

14:13

play for Argentina this year? How long is he gonna

14:15

be away from Inter Miami? So I think that's a

14:17

bit of a variable that you have to factor in

14:19

when we're talking about Inter Miami's prospects this season and

14:22

Messi. The other part of this

14:24

too is, I don't know,

14:26

how much stock do we take in the preseason performance

14:28

from Inter Miami, which was very bad because pretty

14:31

quickly you could find Messi, he's not been

14:33

on a team like that. Let's say they

14:35

struggle like they did in MLS and they

14:37

do to begin this season. You know, is

14:39

he gonna be disgruntled? Is it gonna become

14:41

the four former Barcelona guys kind of, you

14:44

know, huffing and puffing and not really putting

14:46

as much effort in? So I think it's

14:48

very important that that team gets off to

14:50

a good start to have an engaged Messi

14:52

to create excitement. And look, I

14:55

don't blame Major League Soccer for leaning so

14:57

heavily into Lionel Messi. This is a once

15:00

in a generation, once maybe

15:02

ever type of star. And

15:04

you know, it reminds me a little bit of the

15:06

Jordan era with the NBA in the 90s of where

15:09

you're just having to rely so much on Michael

15:11

Jordan to really drive the NBA forward

15:14

and be that peripheral guy. But you

15:16

know, you run the danger of not having any

15:18

many other stars that are even remotely close to

15:20

what Lionel Messi is and not even having that

15:23

possibility. Because before the couple years before

15:25

Messi came in, it was really about,

15:27

okay, young DP's, young South American talent,

15:30

MLS being kind of this bridge

15:32

league between South America

15:34

and Europe. And you know, that was

15:36

the celebration. But I do think to

15:39

compete in American sports landscape, Stars

15:41

sell, you know, that that's the big

15:43

thing with the NFL, the quarterbacks, Pat

15:45

Mahomes, Joey Burrow, like big guys, big

15:47

stars, people can get behind Messi. But

15:49

Who would you even say is kind

15:51

of the next biggest star in this

15:53

league right now? Yeah, I mean, but

15:55

we just saw the NFL get behind

15:57

Taylor Swift. Yeah. See, Your

16:00

hook your cart okay to in

16:02

this case a rocket ship type

16:04

of moment. It will be interesting

16:06

to see what Mls looks like,

16:08

what messy that the brand and

16:10

the person looks like, If.

16:12

And when reality sets in or and

16:14

I'm at, this is not something that

16:16

I once. But. If it does

16:19

go poorly and the team is not

16:21

playing well at Inter, Miami is struggling,

16:23

which certainly could happen. We're going to

16:25

get into a little bit about, you

16:27

know what people are prognosticating out there.

16:29

I. Have yet to see anybody. Ah,

16:32

That is showing interim I am plenty of people

16:34

talk about mess going to do well but Inter

16:36

Miami as a team I've yet to see. People

16:38

really say this is going to be an elite

16:40

team in twenty twenty four I will say though

16:42

parallel to Enter Miami messy Suarez et cetera the

16:45

young South American thing is still happening. yeah I

16:47

I didn't see amazed at the pool that Mls

16:49

has now the transfer market. We discovered com a

16:51

both Olympic qualifying tournament it with litter with Mls

16:53

players, the fact that a Galaxy that he quoted

16:55

don't know might be headed to enter Miami. and

16:58

you say okay that's and from Miami that's Messy.

17:00

That's an outlier. He wanted an. Argentine, he wants

17:02

to play with him, but Charlotte are being

17:04

heavily linked to loose yeah, Rodriguez, the Uruguayan

17:06

strike who scored all those goals for your

17:08

blinds tournaments Or that's a big time prospect

17:10

that's also getting offers from big clubs in

17:12

Europe and he's actually considering come on a

17:14

plane a must for Charlotte's So I do

17:16

think it's not like the messy thing is

17:18

doing been done in such a way that

17:20

sacrificing all the progress that was made on

17:22

the other front. I still think Mls continues

17:24

to increase. It's poor when it comes to

17:26

younger South American player, but it does if

17:28

increase their pool. But they're also shown that

17:30

they're willing to spend. And that's where the transfer

17:33

values have been inflated. And I think you see

17:35

now. A shift in Atlanta

17:37

United see. Methodology: Whether or

17:39

not necessarily trying to spend the fifteen twenty

17:41

millions, it's that eight, nine ten because you

17:44

feel you can get value. But that's where

17:46

Mls I. I don't know what Luciana Rodriguez

17:48

was gonna potentially be sold to Europe for,

17:50

but if Mls is willing to pay ten

17:52

and give the guy a million, Two million,

17:55

Three million dollar salary, whatever that is for

17:57

young Dps, European clubs are not paying that

17:59

at that. So it

18:01

becomes a nice way for some of these young South

18:03

American players to come to MLS to make more money

18:05

than they would have in Europe and then still have

18:08

the idea that they want to go to Europe and

18:10

have the opportunity if they do well. But as we've

18:12

seen in some of those cases, Barco,

18:14

Atoesta, they end up going back to South

18:16

America because it didn't quite go as well

18:18

or they didn't get the transfer

18:20

fees that they want. So it's not a perfect

18:24

formula, I would say, but it's interesting. And I like

18:26

that MLS want to be players in that market and

18:28

they're willing to overpay. Although, frankly, having some

18:30

of those guys fail in MLS is not the worst

18:32

thing either because it shows you that it's a tough

18:34

league. It's not like a cakewalk. You go there and

18:37

it's guaranteed you're going to play well and increase your

18:39

value. So you want more of

18:41

guys than not to succeed, but having some flops too

18:43

is actually not the worst thing in the world. Well,

18:45

look, let's put a pin in mess seat here. I

18:47

mean, he's going to suck oxygen

18:50

out of the room because of how big he is. He's

18:52

going to suck. No. Take the bull

18:54

take. That's where it's going to be clipped right there. Even for you, that's a

18:56

bull take. He's going to suck a lot

18:58

of oxygen out of the room because he's one of

19:00

the greatest players ever to play

19:02

the game, one of the most famous people on

19:04

the planet. But I don't think he's going to

19:06

suck all of the oxygen out of the room.

19:09

And all of these different stories that we're talking

19:11

about, I think that you're going to get a

19:13

platform from which we can talk about and maybe

19:15

a bigger platform than they would have gotten in

19:17

the past. All right, let's get into a little

19:19

bit about the teams. And

19:22

we're at 29 teams. Who knows where we're

19:24

going? Obviously, 30 come in next

19:27

year with San Diego. And who knows where

19:29

it stops. So there's a lot of teams.

19:31

There's all of these different stories

19:33

that we can talk about both on and off the field. I

19:36

picked some contenders and some pretenders. So

19:39

my three contenders, and again, there's others out there that

19:41

you could certainly pick, and I'm sure that people have

19:43

out there. A lot of people

19:45

talking about Seattle, and I'm certainly on board

19:47

as insufferable as they are. And can you

19:50

imagine if they are back on top and

19:52

winning MLS Cup, however even more insufferable they

19:54

get? I think that they have

19:56

gone through this transition With Lordero

19:59

gone and everything like that.. that we talked about

20:01

the ah you know, the record signing from Mile

20:03

A Noose over there with paper delivery guy that

20:05

type of stuff. So I think that Seattle. Is.

20:08

Absolutely going to be back and in

20:10

the running and maybe a return to

20:12

form of Columbus one when at last

20:14

year they haven't done as a lot

20:16

but they didn't need to do a

20:18

whole a whole lot of whimsy. The

20:21

best of Rossi when it comes to

20:23

Columbus crew to his Puccio. Nag.

20:25

Be. At. When

20:27

all is said and done again telling the Navy

20:29

might come down to be the best Mls player

20:31

in history. As as I just said it, there

20:34

you mention Atlanta up with that Jacko Marcus I

20:36

think he comes into his own this year makes

20:38

me see what's gonna happen with are made up.

20:40

Ah a modest you me and. I.

20:43

Think that's this is a.

20:45

And. Atlanta team that returns to the Elites

20:47

in the way that we look at them.

20:50

Gomez, those are my three. Okay, I'm not

20:52

so sure in Atlanta for one of the

20:54

big ones. they're in a it comes off

20:56

the back of what we were just talking

20:58

about which is that Juggle model is looking

21:00

to try and leave that team. So if

21:03

leaves that's a big loss. Huge hole to

21:05

fill. I will give you that I feel

21:07

lot more confident about and Lana than I

21:09

have in previous seasons because now you have

21:11

Garth Lager Way in pulling the strings. This

21:13

rosters built differently. They're not going as much.

21:16

On trying to hit the big pity, Martinez Barco

21:18

Almada would spend twenty million. Let's see, we can

21:20

read Cooper Investment and sell the modular make a

21:22

better case, but I yeah I don't. I can

21:24

make a better case of a if I was

21:27

going to slip a team in there ahead of.

21:30

And less and your list. I would go with Fc

21:32

Cincinnati now in their seconds both not second

21:34

season but their third season I think under

21:37

Pat Noonan now heads these the a second

21:39

good season Coming off the back of a

21:41

supporters shield sprint, Vasquez has gone to Monterey.

21:43

but you know that Corey Beard is not

21:45

Brenda Vasquez. But I still think that Chris

21:47

Albright can do a lot of work in

21:49

the transfer window and bring in somebody upfront

21:52

along with depends on content of push them

21:54

that they're a good solid. Seems they lose

21:56

one of their centre backs. They bring in

21:58

Miles Robinson. From Atlanta United. I think

22:00

that's where Atlanta could struggle. Is that the

22:02

back? So I got contenders similar but Columbus,

22:04

Cincinnati big role, Midwest over there in Ohio.

22:07

and then I've got Seattle Sounders and Las

22:09

C. I know you said three of of

22:11

Pick a thorough the throats of Columbus try

22:13

to do something. It's only been done three

22:15

times before in league history which is to

22:17

win back to back Mls Cup. You are

22:19

part of a team that did in Houston

22:21

Dynamo. Two thousand and six. Two Thousand seven.

22:23

What was that mindset? Coming back in two

22:25

thousand seven when you guys were a dissenting

22:28

that crap. What advice would you give the

22:30

Columbus. The season as a look to pull off

22:32

the similar yet what I think it would have.

22:34

The big thing is embrace being the champion Anna

22:36

I think some teams think will this is Mls.

22:39

It's such a hard lead to repeat and I

22:41

get that the league has changed since when we

22:43

did it. I think it was only maybe sixteen.

22:45

Seems at that point we're going to be heading

22:47

and with Twenty Nine this year. But for the

22:50

Columbus Crew I think they've got that championship mentality

22:52

that one Mls cup back and twenty two thousand.

22:54

even though this is a totally different seems. Wilfred

22:56

Nazi the coaches a winner. Couture Hernandez is a

22:59

winner. You can have Diego. Rossi now in a

23:01

full season so I think you have enough guys

23:03

in there and darling to nag be you said

23:05

Alexi. He's of the middle of that.

23:07

That guy is a champion. his one wherever he's

23:09

gone. he's one in Atlanta is one in Portland

23:11

is one in Columbus now. and so I think

23:13

they've got the right pieces said said. They certainly

23:16

compete and repeat. I wouldn't that that the betting

23:18

odds of them at the second best favor behind

23:20

in or Miami and I think that's that's about

23:22

appropriate. Okay ah, let's go to some pretenders and

23:24

look. This. Is Mls we

23:27

talk about animal as it is manufactured.

23:29

Parity is by design. You can argue

23:31

that this is how it has become

23:33

the most successful North American Professional Mail

23:35

Soccer league in history. Or and so

23:38

picking who's going to do well, who's

23:40

not screw Well, you know it's it's

23:42

it's not. it's not an exact science

23:44

are okay. so I still not sold.

23:47

Yet. on n y c of seat in

23:49

that's i still think that they elected to the

23:51

team that won him a couple years ago i

23:53

don't think that dot rain out that nicholson was

23:55

i think on the hot seat from the from

23:58

the earth up from the get go your

24:00

friend talus magnum over there and that on those

24:02

types of players keeping put uh... parks and fans

24:04

in these types of players and yes they've had

24:06

some signings uh... and again maybe these

24:08

are signing that are under the radar and until

24:10

the will first whistle blows we won't see actually

24:13

who they are how good that how good they

24:15

are i just don't think that they are back

24:17

to the level of when they want

24:19

to must come so they are certainly one of my pretenders

24:21

you mentioned charlotte and look they might they might find out

24:23

what the name uh... the uh... they

24:26

might find that i still i think

24:29

that this is a much longer term type of

24:31

project and if you're going to do

24:33

a long-term project you probably should do it in the

24:35

league where there is no relegation where you don't have

24:37

that type of pressure but you bring in indian smith

24:39

he's gonna have to get the lay of the land

24:41

literally in terms of the different surfaces the different time

24:44

zones different places that you're playing and again coaching in

24:46

a league where there is this manufactured parity which is

24:48

unique in the world and then st louis uh...

24:51

you know i don't think that they are going to

24:53

be able to double down on what they did uh...

24:55

last year so i was a little bit like that

24:57

i have st louis in my list as well you'd

24:59

be to your point you come out hot year one

25:02

what they did on off the field phenomenal but

25:04

but one of the things we seen in this

25:06

the trend i've seen in mls over recent years

25:08

is teams that play the way that they do

25:10

which is similar ish i don't

25:12

want to lump it in exactly with the

25:14

red bulls but it it's certainly a high-press

25:16

high-intensity high-octane environment they make teams uncomfortable they

25:19

try to win the ball back in great

25:21

chances in the final third they

25:23

fall off by the summer and that's what happened in

25:25

st louis they were hot out the gates and i think they

25:28

won their first five games in the league they

25:30

were flying they rode that momentum then all

25:32

the sudden right a good goalkeeper yeah the

25:34

good goalkeeper berkey played out of his mind

25:36

he he he expected goals against

25:38

he was way above that uh...

25:41

or below that rather but then in the summer

25:43

they had injuries you know claus got injured he

25:45

missed a chunk they started losing games and then

25:47

they lose the first round of the playoffs against

25:49

sporting kids the city so i think one of

25:51

the big challenges for bradley carnel is to try to

25:54

figure out how to manage a whole season because now

25:56

they're in cocky-calf champions cup to so they're starting out

25:58

the season even earlier I

26:00

think you can play that style, but sometimes you

26:02

have to try to dial it back.

26:04

So I've got them in my pretenders list. I don't

26:06

think they can achieve what they did last year. The

26:09

other one, Ellie Galaxy. Again, you

26:11

know, miss the playoffs and you know, they've

26:13

had a lot of changes in the front

26:15

office. Will Coons, over to you. What

26:17

can you do now with this roster? Apparently Greg Vanni's

26:20

taken a step back. Gabriel Peck

26:22

is a player that's going to be coming in

26:24

expected to make a big impact in the beginning.

26:27

The Ovalich is going to be the lead striker. No

26:29

Chicharito. I just don't see it again with this team.

26:31

When I look at what I think their starting lineup

26:33

is going to be on week one, I don't see

26:35

that this is a team. This is based on the

26:37

standards of being the Ellie Galaxy, winning his team in

26:40

Major League Soccer history. You got to be competing for

26:42

championships and I just don't see it. Yeah,

26:45

they also added paint. So they

26:47

made some interesting moves this offseason, but I agree

26:49

with you. I still don't love that team all

26:51

that much. You mentioned NYCFC. They

26:54

could be successful despite what I'm about to say.

26:56

I mean, to your point, they won MLS a

26:58

couple of years ago. We all see the successes

27:00

you don't have in La Liga. But more and

27:02

more, they've started to feel to me like a

27:04

branch of the City Football Group. Redhead of Stepchild,

27:06

my friend. The old selling

27:08

and green ground. It's just about shuffling

27:11

young players around the board and whatever

27:13

personnel moves they make as part of

27:15

a larger City Football Group strategy. They're not hyper

27:17

focused on making moves to win trophies. Oh, we

27:19

have a weakness here. Let's go out and sign

27:21

a proven player to go plug that hole. From

27:24

a business standpoint, I think that's a great business

27:26

model. How do you feel if you're a

27:29

New York City FC fan? I

27:31

wonder. I mean, they've been successful the

27:33

last few years up until last season.

27:36

If they have another bad season this season, I

27:38

think some NYCFC fans are going to start to

27:40

question where they place in this sort

27:42

of overall pecking order of the City Football Group

27:44

and if the strategy is really conducive to being

27:46

successful moving forward. All right,

27:48

let's go to a surprise team here.

27:50

I got the Chicago Fire under Frank

27:52

Clopas. Again, Kellen Acosta has come in.

27:54

Huge signing with Cooper's $12 million

27:57

striker over there coming over from

27:59

Genn. At some point the Chicago

28:01

Fire have to come good, right? So

28:04

I'm eventually yeah, it's this year. So that's my surprise

28:06

team. You got a surprise team you guys I'm

28:09

gonna go with the Word

28:11

and I had him. I just had him. I thought oh Nashville

28:13

SC. How about okay? So they're they're odds to win MLS copper

28:16

plus 2,500 you bet $100 you win Then

28:21

I just think that you know They made a couple

28:23

savvy signings in drew year

28:25

wood who I just think is he's a good player

28:27

I think New York Rebels valued him a little bit

28:29

higher than he actually is within that but I think

28:31

he's a guy that comes in and They've

28:34

signed some good role players within the team. They strengthened

28:36

the middle of the field Defensively, they're

28:38

always very good the way that they play

28:40

is risk averse with Gary Smith fans

28:42

Don't love it But they find

28:45

ways to win games and this is a team

28:47

that almost beat into Miami in the league's cup

28:49

Final and I think put so many eggs in

28:51

that basket that they kind of petered out down

28:53

the stretch in MLS So I've got them as

28:55

my team. Henny muktar is one of

28:57

the best players in the league He does it year in year

28:59

out and I'll go with them as my surprise team to make

29:01

a deep run this year I'm wondering about

29:03

Minnesota They've been a punchline because of the

29:05

coaching situation But there's still some pretty good

29:07

personnel in that team if they can find

29:10

the right coach and I saw they were

29:12

linked today To this young Manchester United system

29:14

the guys 31 years old So

29:17

we'll see if they if they find the right coach. I

29:19

still think they could be a surprise I mean you look

29:21

at their front line to your point Yeah, I mean you

29:23

have Pookie who didn't quite light it on fire just yet

29:25

Robin Ludd I mean they have

29:27

Emmanuel Renoso like he turned up right Lex

29:29

this year. We know so he's here evidently

29:31

he is Okay, he's back. Yes on American

29:33

land Their

29:36

biggest question has been defense, but yeah, I mean

29:38

it's gonna be the first time We haven't seen

29:40

Adrian Heath in the dugout

29:42

for Minnesota United since their franchise began.

29:45

Are you buying Orlando? They add Laudaro

29:47

they add Luis Muriel I'm

29:49

buying Orlando. I love Pireja as a

29:51

coach. I think they continually find a

29:53

way to Change the

29:55

roster each year. They brought in a new center back

29:58

this year Antonio Carlos has

30:00

gone back to I think it's Brazil for to

30:02

play in and I just think that they have

30:04

a good solid a hard team to play against

30:06

they had what 62 63 points last year

30:09

in the Eastern Conference so they they mean

30:11

business Orlando City. Can I just say something

30:13

you mentioned Minnesota and look I know it's

30:16

easy to make fun of a team that hasn't

30:18

named a head coach but if rumors are to

30:20

be believed you mentioned Eric Ramsey is his name

30:22

31 years old or something that he

30:24

would be the youngest coach in Major

30:27

League Soccer history and you

30:29

know coming over from from England

30:31

and an assistant coach over

30:33

there at Manchester United

30:35

evidently the set piece coach under

30:37

Ollie years and years ago there's

30:40

a part of me that says could

30:44

this opportunity we always talk about opportunity in

30:46

this day and age and and you

30:49

know trying to give people

30:51

that either traditionally historically haven't had

30:53

opportunities this is a 31 year

30:56

old Englishman coming

30:58

over to be a coach of Major

31:00

League Soccer are there not any domestic

31:02

coaches that are

31:06

of quality to be able

31:08

to come in and coach and be given

31:10

this opportunity to be given this pathway I

31:13

don't know look Aaron Ramsey might be

31:15

wonderful and he might be another Jose

31:17

Mourinho okay a wunderkind who comes in

31:20

and does things that likes which we

31:22

have never seen but it's just interesting

31:24

to me that in this day and

31:26

age where like I said we we

31:28

work so hard to give people that

31:30

we that either truly do or we

31:33

perceive to have less opportunity less historic

31:35

pathway and that kind of stuff to

31:38

bring them up and yet we're

31:40

cool and yeah well it's an interesting debate

31:42

because I think if you look at American

31:45

young coaches that have done well recently in the

31:47

league that have been given exactly that opportunity SC

31:49

Cincinnati Pat Noonan got his first head coaching job

31:51

and you know he's been a longtime assistant in

31:54

the league longtime player in the league but look

31:56

what he what has he done two years second

31:58

year he wins the supporters shield narrowly

32:01

lose to Columbus at the end of a game

32:03

and were one game away from MLS Cup. Jim

32:07

Curtin is now I think the

32:09

second longest tenured head coach in MLS

32:11

behind Peter Vermees and Schmetzer

32:13

I think in that mix. He was given

32:16

an opportunity as a young American head coach

32:18

has done phenomenal with the Philadelphia Union, Josh

32:20

Wolf at Austin, you know they did well

32:22

their first two years. So to your point

32:24

there's been enough examples where ownership could look

32:27

at this and say hey these

32:29

guys know the league they know how to have

32:31

success why not take a bet there.

32:33

I mean it almost feels a bigger risk to take

32:35

somebody from outside the league. I mean look at Charlotte

32:38

too what they hired. Yellonell

32:40

Ramirez before that booted him halfway through

32:42

the first year. Latanzio booted him and

32:44

now they've hired Dean Smith and they

32:46

were rumored to be looking at Frank

32:48

Lampard and basically anybody but an

32:50

American at that point. Look if the Lunes

32:52

feel that Eric Ramsey is the guy and

32:54

he's the best person for the job in

32:56

this moment more power to

32:58

him and I hope I hope that

33:00

happens but I think it is important

33:03

to recognize that when you hire someone

33:05

that's very young very inexperienced all right

33:08

I think it's fair to be able to look at

33:10

this and say all right well is

33:12

this league about creating opportunities for others

33:14

is this league about creating opportunities domestically

33:16

for players on the field and coaches

33:18

off the field and if it truly

33:20

is are there other options

33:22

that were either neglected not

33:25

talked to or in the context of a competition

33:27

between somebody who's English and somebody who's coming from

33:29

Manchester United they look like a lesser coach. We

33:31

know maybe when it comes to the reality as

33:33

opposed to the perception they aren't a lesser coach.

33:36

Well can I ask you one question? I know

33:38

we're dwelling on this a little bit but you've

33:40

been in this position at the LA Galaxy and

33:42

you one of the coaches you hired was Rude

33:45

Hullet. Why did you feel that was the right

33:47

coach beyond it being Rude Hullet? Just the fact

33:49

that it was somebody outside we don't need to

33:51

get into Rude Hullet. David Beckham wanted it. But

33:55

in hindsight do you feel like I

33:58

mean yeah the answer is yes. I

34:00

would do things very differently today. You would do it

34:02

very differently now today. Okay, that's what I meant. If

34:04

you were in the same position now and I had

34:07

you in charge of Minnesota or Charlotte, who

34:09

would you be looking at as a head coach? Look,

34:11

this argument happens in all countries and cultures

34:13

and all leagues out there. The English have this

34:15

on a constant basis. Hey, why are we

34:17

bringing in and importing in coaches from outside when

34:19

we have plenty of coaches here? So

34:22

this is an evergreen type of topic. So

34:24

anyway, I think we've exhausted that. So

34:27

if you came back at your general manager record, I

34:29

would hope you would do things very differently. That's

34:32

a shot back for the Stuyboy. All right, easy

34:34

Stuyboy, all right. All

34:36

right, let's move on here to some

34:40

aesthetics of MLS. The

34:42

jerseys are out, all the jerseys. And evidently

34:44

there's 29 New Jersey's. I

34:48

don't know, I should probably have looked it up as to who

34:50

that 30-50 team that didn't do one. Maybe it's

34:52

St. Louis or something, the newest team out there. But

34:54

I've gone through them all and tried to

34:56

figure it out. So I have my best

34:59

and my, it's not

35:01

that they're just the ugliest thing in the world, but

35:03

my most disappointing, I guess

35:06

it would be. So my best is

35:08

the folks over there in Austin and

35:10

the jersey that they have come up

35:12

with because I think it's got a

35:14

retro type of feel. It's

35:16

not full

35:20

kit wanker type in terms of

35:23

what it is in that you can wear it

35:25

as a type of t-shirt and I stay with

35:27

jeans and still feel comfortable that, yeah, there is

35:29

an element of soccer. But again,

35:31

you're not walking around a soccer convention or

35:33

something like that as I sit here with

35:35

my Adidas top. And then my

35:37

most disappointing is, and I think you

35:39

share this with me, Stu, if I'm

35:41

correct, Inter Miami, who I

35:44

have extolled the virtues of in terms of

35:46

the pink, but I

35:48

think they need to get much more

35:50

pink. I think they still are not

35:52

leaning into enough pink. And

35:54

so I'm going to say Inter Miami. Now

35:57

they're going to sell a boatload of these things, so

35:59

don't worry about it. messy or the financial part of

36:01

it, the business part of it here, but I

36:04

was a little disappointed. I was a little disappointed

36:06

too because I felt last year's kit was such

36:08

a knockout with the collar and the

36:10

paint. It became kind of an

36:12

iconic kit in that way and I know they planned

36:15

these jerseys a couple years ahead of time.

36:17

The other one I've loved by the way is

36:19

the new L.A.F.C. one, the black and gold, the

36:22

stripes, kind of the I've

36:24

loved that look and the Minnesota space kit I

36:26

think is pretty cool and unique. So one of

36:28

the things I will say I've been impressed

36:31

and also encouraged by MLS's willingness

36:34

to get a little bit crazier again with the term.

36:36

It's a lot more interesting. Didn't you feel like there

36:38

was a period where we were going through it's like

36:40

every Jersey was the same style shell, slap a logo

36:42

on it. Yeah I mean the soccer's

36:44

are fashion these days you know speaking to fashionable

36:47

guys here. As much as I want more pink

36:49

at least I know when I turn the television

36:51

on. That's Miami. That's Miami and there's no question

36:53

about it. I want to see which one of

36:55

you rock into the nightclub. I

36:58

like that inter-Miami one. Okay there you go.

37:00

Different strokes for different folks my friends. Listen

37:03

Stu since we have you here and

37:05

you are knee-deep in this US

37:07

Men's National Team, can I ask a couple questions

37:09

about the US Men's National Team? Yeah let's do

37:11

it. Alright let's do it. We

37:14

talked to Taylor last week and I ask everybody this

37:16

and we've talked about this a lot on the show

37:18

as to what this

37:21

summer means going forward for

37:23

this national team and in

37:25

particular for Greg Berhalter. How

37:27

important is this summer for this national team

37:29

relative to 26 and

37:31

how important is this in terms of even making it

37:34

to 26 when it comes to Greg

37:36

Berhalter? I think it's hugely important and somebody was

37:38

trying to talk me off this the other day

37:40

and I just keep coming back to how big

37:42

this is for Greg Berhalter and how big this

37:44

is for this team because as

37:46

this young group and as we're watching

37:48

if you're watching along with the Paul you're seeing highlights

37:51

from the World Cup and different big moments that this

37:53

team have had and that was kind of 22 was

37:57

the what are we gonna get from this young

37:59

group and I I saw enough there. I

38:01

know the last game was disappointing, but

38:03

I saw enough in Qatar to say,

38:05

hey, these young kids have got something.

38:07

Okay, so that that's the baseline. That's

38:10

that's the building blocks, the structure of the house. But

38:12

now how do you how do you address that house

38:14

up enough that you get the you can

38:16

compete with the big boys on the block? And that that

38:19

is what we're going to find out this summer. I think

38:21

and I maintain this opinion. I think we have a

38:23

really good 11 to 13 core

38:26

players within this group. Beyond that, I think

38:28

it drops off significantly. And I think people

38:30

are overestimating how just how good this this

38:32

group is as a team from one to

38:35

23. And so this

38:37

summer becomes about a competing with big teams, getting

38:40

a marquee win, getting the confidence of

38:42

the group, but also finding out like, do

38:44

you have guys that can compete at that

38:46

level? And I'm not talking about just

38:48

like stepping on the field, the gold cup and

38:50

playing against Mexico and Panama, Jamaica, whatever. Do

38:53

you have guys that can show, you know, maybe

38:55

it's Johnny, right? Like this, he's a good example

38:57

of a player that's doing well in La Liga.

38:59

Now, can he step on the field in the

39:02

US men's national team in that number six position

39:04

if Tyler Adams is not there and just ball

39:06

out against Brazil and Uruguay and Argentina and whoever

39:08

it might be and show that he can be

39:11

a dependable player, not even just like a rotational

39:13

guy, but push Tyler Adams in a meaningful way

39:15

that says, that's my spot. So that's

39:17

what we need to figure out. And I look

39:19

at a couple key positions, goalkeeper and

39:22

striker. I think, you know, Tyler

39:24

Adams, Weston McKinney, Tim Wea, those

39:26

guys are going to be there. But it's who's going to

39:29

be leading the line at number nine and who's going to

39:31

be in the nets because I've lost confidence right now that

39:34

Matt Turner can be that starting goalkeeper in 2026 and

39:37

be like a real commanding number

39:39

one goalkeeper because I'm not sure how many games he's

39:41

going to play before that. Let's

39:44

go to center forward. You mentioned that the US actually has

39:46

two tournaments this upcoming summer. Also the Olympics. You were part

39:48

of the last US team to play in the Olympics back

39:50

in 2008. Matt

39:53

Doyle fired off some interesting posts on

39:55

X this weekend musing

39:57

about which striker should go to which

39:59

competition. He wants to

40:01

split up Balagan and Pepe so they can both start

40:03

this summer. So Pepe would go to the Olympics. Balagan

40:06

would be the starter in the Copa America. You've also

40:08

got Josh Sargent in this mix.

40:10

You've got Duncan McGuire,

40:12

Brandon Vasquez, Haji Wright even. So lay it

40:14

out for me this summer. How would you

40:16

separate them? What's the pecking order

40:18

in each tournament? How do you see

40:20

the U.S. center forward situation right now? Yeah, so

40:23

I'm going to set this up to kick it

40:25

over to you after, Lex, because I think you

40:27

agree with me there. I was looking at this

40:29

last night between our strikers, and I've seen everybody,

40:32

not everybody, but I've seen the

40:34

conversation around the number nine pool

40:36

being like, wow, we finally got a

40:38

deep pool at number nine. Hey,

40:40

no we don't. Like Flo Balagan

40:42

was kind of anointed as like the next

40:45

guy, and I was there. I'm like, this

40:47

guy is exciting. This

40:49

is his opportunity. Big move to Monaco. Well,

40:52

he hasn't started any of the last, I think,

40:54

since November for Monaco. He hasn't scored in the

40:56

league in his last seven games, and this is

40:58

part of the process, right, of being kind of

41:00

the guy finally, as opposed to being the guy

41:03

who has talent, which I think a lot of

41:05

our national team players are in this bucket right

41:07

now. Kids with potential, more

41:10

potential than we've seen before in the past, tons

41:12

of talent, but like can you be

41:14

the guy and take that next step in your

41:16

career where you're doing it consistently, you're doing it

41:18

a big club, and now you're handling

41:21

the pressure and expectations, and you're still

41:23

maintaining that level. Balagan is

41:25

going through one of these periods as a young

41:28

player. He's still so young, so I'm not just

41:30

trying to say these guys are done, but he's

41:32

got to start scoring goals consistently and fighting off

41:34

guys that won his spot. Ricardo Pepe, great record,

41:37

seven goals, 30 games, scored a ton of goals

41:39

for the U.S. in

41:41

recent appearances, all off the bench. He started one game,

41:43

and it was as a winger. So like

41:46

you've got to earn that starting spot at your

41:48

club before I can say like you need to

41:50

be the number nine for the national team. Josh

41:52

Sargson scored a ton of goals right now, 10

41:54

goals in 13 games

41:56

in the championship. He's only not scored in

41:59

four games that he's done. started and he missed almost 20 games

42:01

with an injury on his ankle. So

42:04

he is doing well, but that's also the championship. It's

42:06

not the Premier League. So we got a lot of

42:08

guys that are doing okay and showing a lot of

42:10

potential, but I haven't seen a guy yet

42:12

that I feel confident and I'm tired of

42:14

being and looking at this national team through

42:16

the lens of mediocrity. I want this team to

42:19

be excellent and I want them to live up to

42:21

their potential. So that's where I'm at. I know I'm

42:23

ranting right now. Did you answer the question? I did,

42:25

right? I mean, like, oh, of where the actual, where

42:27

you lay them out? No, but

42:30

I agree with you before you do that.

42:32

There's an inherent contradiction right now in the

42:34

U.S. national team discourse. When it comes time

42:36

to analyzing the talent pool and what guys

42:38

are doing at clubs, people apply one standard

42:40

to it, which leads them to say, wow,

42:42

the U.S. is stacked at this position and

42:44

look at all these great options. But then

42:46

when you talk about expectations for 2026, they

42:49

talk about the U.S. going far and potentially even winning

42:51

the World Cup. And that makes me say, well, wait

42:53

a minute, if that's the expectation, then that sort of

42:55

reframes it for me. And some of these guys you

42:57

were just listing as good options, I don't think are

42:59

good enough on that level. So

43:01

I think the U.S. has to figure out right

43:04

now what is the realistic expectation for 2026

43:06

and then start analyzing players accordingly. Yeah. So

43:08

now it's to you. But Bolligan to the

43:11

Copa America with Josh Sargent. Josh Sargent is

43:13

the most informed of any of the strikers.

43:16

And then Pepe to the Olympics and have

43:18

him start and have him be the guy

43:20

for that team. He's probably got more experience

43:22

than anybody at that position with

43:25

Duncan McGuire. And I forget, is Brandon Vasquez Olympic

43:27

eligible or not? So I might even take him

43:30

to the Copa America as kind of your third

43:32

striker. You? Yeah.

43:35

I mean, so to your point, the

43:37

fact that I don't understand why, well, I

43:39

understand, but I don't think it should be

43:41

the case that Balligan is the incumbent. In

43:45

terms of what he's, I think it's just

43:47

wide open. And if anything, I'm even more

43:49

sure of that now given what Balligan has

43:52

become and is right

43:54

now inherent in going to

43:57

the Olympics is that it is a lower

43:59

level. level, okay, because if

44:01

you are really that good regardless of

44:03

how old you are, especially given the

44:05

fact that from Greg Berhalter's perspective, he needs to

44:07

do everything he possibly can to have a successful

44:10

Copa America, if the US goes and wins a

44:12

gold medal in the Olympics,

44:14

medals in the Olympics, that's all fine

44:16

and well, but relative to Greg

44:18

Berhalter's job and future as we just talked

44:20

about, he needs to have his best players

44:22

in the summer at Copa

44:25

America. So if

44:27

it's, let's just

44:30

say that they

44:32

can only take two forwards, okay? Would

44:35

you say that the pecking order right now is

44:37

Balagan, Sergeant

44:40

Pepe? Is that fair? I

44:42

would. Okay, you say. So of those three,

44:44

Stu, all right? You can only

44:46

take two, so one you are

44:48

cutting, if he goes to the

44:50

Olympics, fine. One you are having as

44:52

a substitute and the other one you're starting. Where

44:54

are you putting those three? So if I'm doing

44:56

it based on right today, I'm starting Josh Sargent.

44:58

I think he's earned it. I think Flo Balagan

45:01

would go, so he would be benched to

45:03

be subbed and then Ricardo Pepe, I

45:06

would send to the Olympics. Now that would be a

45:08

tough conversation, I'm sure, for Pepe because once again it

45:10

would be viewed through the lenses.

45:12

I've been relegated and this is a

45:15

second tier type competition. He

45:17

was cut late, shaded from the World Cup, so you have

45:19

to sell it to him away and hey, this

45:22

is your opportunity to be the guy

45:24

and have a breakout Olympics

45:27

and that's how you kind of show that he's not

45:29

out of the mix by any means because you're going

45:31

to have a bigger roster going forward, but that's how

45:33

I would do it. Let's finish up

45:35

this very long segment and pivot a little bit, Stu,

45:37

because you are a man of so many different hats.

45:39

You have done a million different things and look, we're

45:42

going to talk about the national team for a long

45:44

time to come because it's obviously in

45:46

our wheelhouse and it's important stuff, whether it's this summer

45:48

or going on to 2026. In

45:51

the landscape of American

45:53

soccer, Stu, you really pick them, my friend.

45:56

You were part of the athletes council. in

46:00

that capacity come in for plenty of criticism and

46:02

thank you for doing that because like I said

46:04

it does come in for criticism. And

46:06

you're also part of and have been part now

46:09

for a long time of the US Open Cup

46:11

committee over there at US Soccer. US Open Cup

46:13

is in the news as a

46:15

matter of fact as we are coming on air with

46:18

Jeff Carlisle has confirmed that Arthur

46:20

Madison has resigned as chairman of

46:22

USSS open, US Open Cup committee.

46:25

He said he was asked to

46:27

quote stand down by higher ups

46:29

on multiple occasions in terms of finding

46:31

a solution as it relates to MLS

46:33

participation. He says the cup is in

46:35

quote grave danger. So as we sit

46:38

here on Monday February 9th this

46:41

historic cup

46:43

and celebration of the history that

46:45

does exist in American soccer is

46:48

in grave condition of possibly

46:50

going forward. Can you get and I know you can't

46:53

take us behind the scenes and everything there's plenty of

46:55

stuff that's private out there. But first off what

46:58

is it that you guys discuss and

47:01

has this been coming for a while

47:03

in terms of the fragility of the

47:05

US Open Cup especially relative to the

47:08

power and leverage that MLS has. Yeah

47:11

it's a very nuanced situation and conversation

47:13

quite frankly and you know I have

47:15

been a part of the Open Cup

47:17

committee for a number of years and

47:19

it has always been about

47:21

trying to get the tournament exposure growth.

47:24

Like at the heart of the Open Cup it's

47:27

the longest standing competition

47:29

in the United States and it is

47:34

it has so much you've played many years in the Open

47:36

Cup before even what it is now. I mean we've all

47:38

been a part of that and the beauty of it is

47:40

is that it's open. It is open for anybody to

47:43

join to enter to pull a team

47:45

together to compete for a trophy. You

47:47

have all different leagues competing against each other

47:50

and you know for people that aren't familiar

47:52

I'm assuming almost everybody as part of your

47:54

audience knows what the Open Cup is but

47:57

it's like the FA Cup and the Polkall

47:59

and the the Kings Cup, the couple of

48:01

the array and- It's in danger of going away

48:03

because MLS- And to go in danger- Do not

48:05

participate. Because they're threatened to not participate next year.

48:08

And I think Major League

48:10

Soccer's stance is calendar

48:12

congestion and they added the League's Cup, which by

48:14

the way, was at their own doing, but I

48:16

get it. The League's Cup is more lucrative for

48:18

them. And that's what this all comes down to,

48:20

quite frankly. It's about money. And

48:23

MLS teams don't

48:25

make as much money or they lose money by

48:28

competing in the Open Cup because a lot of

48:30

that money goes to the other teams and it's

48:32

a split revenue share. But quite frankly,

48:34

to me, that's part of why

48:37

you do it, right? It's about growing

48:39

the game. So I get from an

48:41

economic standpoint where this for MLS doesn't

48:43

necessarily benefit the pockets of the owners

48:45

as much. But I

48:47

think, I believe if you're the big dog,

48:49

which MLS are, right? And that's where they have a

48:51

lot of leverage because they're the top league, they're the

48:53

best show in town, that they feel they

48:55

have the leverage that we can stand and say, well, you

48:58

guys need us. Quite frankly, yes,

49:00

everybody's aware that the Open Cup does need Major

49:02

League Soccer to exist in the form that it

49:04

does because that's the allure for low league teams.

49:06

If you and I enter a team, the three

49:08

of us, and we get a

49:10

chance to play against an MLS team in a semifinal, that's

49:13

huge exposure. It's big money. It's

49:15

all the things that come with it. The

49:18

frustrating part for me is, and quite candidly and

49:20

openly, I'm going to be honest, the fact that

49:23

as an Open Cup committee member, I had no

49:25

idea that that announcement was coming from MLS when

49:27

they said that they're pulling their teams out and

49:29

the next pro teams are going to go in.

49:31

I didn't even really have a real conversation with

49:33

people until a couple of days later. So

49:35

say what it is. And I'm saying this for the

49:38

first time publicly now. I've been a little frustrated at

49:40

my inability to have any real impact

49:42

as a part of this conversation. And

49:44

this is somebody that cares deeply about MLS,

49:46

but also about US soccer and the Open

49:49

Cup and lower league teams and

49:51

people having opportunity. And I think that

49:54

MLS has a duty financially or

49:56

not to grow the game as part of

49:58

the position that they are in. the support

50:00

that they have had from US soccer and

50:02

US soccer fans and soccer fans in general

50:04

in this country to get them

50:06

to the point that they are in. So I don't

50:08

know where this is going to net out, honestly, Lex. I

50:11

mean, there was a report

50:13

written just recently about the proposals that

50:15

MLS have provided with the amount of

50:17

teams and when the teams enter. I

50:19

don't want to get into too many specifics from what I've heard

50:22

over the past couple days, but I will say it's pretty accurate

50:25

in the stuff that was reported. And I hope

50:27

that MLS finds a way

50:29

because look, from my understanding, not every

50:31

MLS team, this is not this wasn't a unanimous

50:34

vote at MLS level for teams that

50:36

want to participate or not. What's

50:38

at stake also for the MLS teams is to

50:40

get into the CONCACAF Champions Cup, which is pretty

50:42

lucrative and prestigious in itself. So

50:44

you have a duty to grow the game

50:46

as big as MLS is and as powerful

50:48

as MLS is the

50:51

American soccer ecosystem

50:53

out there. And the

50:55

American soccer culture is

50:57

bigger and is, let's

50:59

be honest, while it needs MLS, it

51:02

is more important. And that's the

51:04

mandate that USS, the

51:07

USS, United States Soccer Federation

51:09

and whatever committees including the Open Cup

51:11

have to do good for soccer in

51:14

general. And look, I

51:18

can be romantic about the tournament and other

51:20

things out there. I am and

51:22

for anybody that's listened over the

51:24

years, I often come down

51:26

to the business side and a

51:29

capitalist type of mentality when it

51:31

comes to that. So it really

51:33

comes down to is how altruistic, how

51:36

charitable does Major League

51:38

Soccer need to be in a situation

51:40

like this? And I bet both sides

51:42

will probably argue different amounts right

51:44

there. This is not going away. We'll

51:47

see if US Open Cup goes

51:49

away. That I think everybody would agree,

51:52

well, not everybody, but most people would agree that

51:54

that would be a pity. Masi, one thing before we

51:56

go to a break. I know this is

51:58

already the longest segment in the history. Alright guys, but

52:01

MLS dealing with this issue, also dealing with the

52:03

refereeing issue. They've locked out the referees. We're going

52:05

to begin the season with replacement refs. I know,

52:07

Alexi, you have a plane to catch because you

52:10

are refereeing the opening game into Miami Rail South

52:12

Lake. You've done some refereeing at the recreational level,

52:14

so a lot of people suggested you as an

52:16

option and apparently you got the call, right? Hey,

52:19

listen, they can do worse for

52:21

me refereeing. I am ready to go. I'm

52:24

not sure I'm real comfortable being a scab

52:26

and crossing that picket line, but again, we

52:28

talked about leverage. This comes down to referees.

52:30

Nobody buys tickets to watch the referees. And

52:32

so be careful what you wish for because

52:35

if these referees, evidently they have 66 referees

52:38

out there from domestically and around the world that

52:40

are looking at and saying, yeah, I'm fine to

52:42

go. I'll go referee. Maybe it's a better opportunity

52:44

in the previous times where

52:46

there have been lockouts and strikes. Some

52:49

referees that have been involved in that have

52:51

gone on to become MLS referees. So they

52:53

look at it as a good opportunity. They

52:55

don't care about crossing a picket line or

52:58

being called scabs when it

53:00

comes to that. But what happens if those referees

53:02

get into place and either there's no change or

53:04

it's better. It's

53:06

looked at as better. So just you have to know again, your

53:09

leverage and your power when it comes to that. All right. This

53:11

is the end of yes, the longest segment in State of the

53:13

Union podcast history, but I think it was worth it. And we

53:16

covered a lot of different stuff. Yeah, submit it to the Ambees.

53:18

Let's go. Exactly. All

53:20

right. games

53:22

that are happening around the world. Okay. Let's

53:25

do a little weekend recap. Should we

53:27

go to Italy first, Mozzin? Yes. AC

53:30

Milan suffered a 4-2 defeat away to Monza,

53:33

but through no fault of Christian Pulisic, he

53:35

didn't start, came on at the half when they

53:37

were 2-0 down, had an assist to Giroud to

53:39

make it 2-1, and then a sensational left-footed strike

53:41

to make it 2-2. Monza

53:43

then scored twice at the end. Moussa also came

53:45

on late. So

53:48

Pioli looks at this game and says,

53:50

all right, this isn't a great team we're playing.

53:52

I can rest some players. We're fighting on multiple

53:54

fronts with Europa and stuff like that. But

53:57

this is a perfect example of... you

54:01

can't disrespect the opponent. And

54:04

ultimately, they got the goals

54:06

that they needed. And yes, they mounted

54:08

a kind of comeback

54:10

when they did put players in. For

54:12

Christian Polisic, he actually comes out looking the

54:15

best of anybody of this game. And purely

54:17

from an American perspective, scored a wonderful goal,

54:19

had another assist, continues to pad his stats

54:21

when it comes to a really good year.

54:24

And again, we always do it. Knock on

54:26

wood, he continues to be healthy. But

54:30

from an AC Milan perspective, well,

54:32

they gave up the Scudetto a

54:34

long time ago. But this isn't

54:37

a good look for them,

54:40

but it's a good look for Christian Polisic. I

54:42

remember speaking to you a couple years ago about

54:44

Musa. And you thought he was the player with

54:46

the highest ceiling in the US pool. And if

54:48

he ironed out a couple of

54:50

the rough edges, he could be like a 60 million

54:53

euro player. He ended up having a bad

54:56

end to his time at Valencia. But it wasn't

54:58

as much in demand in the transfer market as

55:00

I thought he was gonna be. He goes to

55:02

AC Milan, where he's been pretty much a squad

55:04

player. He's at times gotten swept up in the

55:06

Polisic hoopla as part of this larger narrative about

55:08

Americans thriving in Syria. But I don't think his

55:10

season has been all that successful. Are you at

55:13

all concerned about where Musa's at in this grid?

55:15

Do you sense any stagnation at all or not

55:17

concerned? I don't, I still just think he has

55:19

the fundamental tools to be a high level player.

55:21

I think the biggest challenge for Eunice Musa right

55:23

now is, well, A, he had

55:25

a couple of little minor injuries and

55:28

kind of have derailed opportunities and a way to get into

55:30

a team where there's a lot of high pressure. And that's

55:32

part of the trade off with going to a big team

55:35

and being a part of a squad is that if

55:37

you're injured or out, it's hard to

55:39

get back in as a starter. Cause he showed some

55:42

flashes in games where he started and played very well,

55:44

got a couple of run of games, and then he

55:46

was out. I still don't

55:48

know his best position.

55:51

And I think that's

55:53

something we're gonna have to figure out pretty quickly

55:55

here for him to be the type of player that

55:57

I think and expect he can be. I

56:00

don't know if it's a six, is it an eight? Is

56:03

it, you know, an eight and a three? Like

56:06

he can do a lot of different things,

56:08

but if he's going to be, let's say a six, he's

56:11

got to improve some parts of his game, the

56:13

tactical side, and that's where he's in a good

56:15

position in Italy, because it's a very tactical, savvy

56:18

type of environment. So this,

56:20

I think, is a transition season for him from

56:23

being kind of the young up and coming kid

56:25

at Valencia to now establishing himself

56:27

in a Champions League team, a team competing

56:29

for us, Gudetto, and then let's see what

56:31

he does next year. But I

56:33

fully expect him to be a cemented starter for

56:35

the U.S. Men's National Team. Juventus

56:37

held to a 2-2 draw away to

56:40

Verona, McKinney started, Weije came on as

56:42

a sub, Serie A is over, Inter now,

56:44

nine points clear with a game in hand,

56:46

another disappointing result for Uwe. Yeah,

56:49

I mean, here's another Ying and Yang here, and actually

56:51

when we get to England, we're going to have another

56:53

Ying and Yang also, but you got Weston

56:56

McKinney, who is a in-pen

56:59

starter for this team, has

57:02

kind of turned around his career

57:05

in terms of the way that we look

57:07

at him, which is wonderful. It's not going

57:09

to win a title, but he is a

57:11

starter for this team, and arguably their most

57:13

valuable player, maybe, but then you have Weije,

57:15

who has come in and out, came off

57:17

the bench in this game here. I'm

57:20

not worried about Weije, I'm not worried about

57:22

Moussa relative to the U.S. National Team when

57:24

we're looking at what is happening with them

57:26

over in Italy. Would I like both

57:29

Moussa and Weije to be having

57:31

the same type of seasons that

57:33

Polisic and McKinney are having? Yeah.

57:37

But again, I don't think that

57:39

it is problematic for them individually in terms

57:41

of what's happening, and these are certainly far

57:44

cries from what we're going to discuss next,

57:46

which is our friend Gio.

57:49

When it comes to Weije, I had him

57:51

as a right back, I think, for a

57:53

projected lineup for the Copa America. Now, he's

57:55

been playing predominantly as a right wing back

57:57

for Juventus. I

57:59

was just... chastised. I was, you know, talked

58:01

out of the room. Where do you see

58:03

Tim Weyer right now? I mean, he hasn't

58:05

started a consistent amount of games for

58:08

Juventus, but I think we all admit and know

58:10

he's one of the best players in the US

58:12

pool still, but where? I still see

58:14

him as a right-winger. I know you were

58:16

trying to fit as many big names as

58:18

you could, but in your lineup,

58:20

Anthony Robinson gets sacrifice, and I wouldn't do

58:22

that. I think he's progressed

58:24

to the point where he's a lock star. No,

58:26

no, I think it was Serginio Dest, I think,

58:29

who I had sacrificed. Oh, I'm sorry. Anthony's a

58:31

nailed-in starter. I thought you moved Dest to left

58:33

back. I don't know, maybe we can go back

58:35

and listen to the tape. But no, I still

58:37

think, regardless of his issues at club level, he's

58:39

a right-winger for me. The

58:42

red-headed over there. Sorry, shall we go over

58:44

there? Let's go to England. Let's start with

58:47

the good in the championship. Josh Sargent scored

58:49

twice for Norwich in their 4-1 win over

58:51

Cardiff. He has 10 goals in the 13

58:54

championship matches this season. We talked about him from

58:56

a US national team perspective. From a club perspective,

58:58

already some talk about what his next move should

59:00

be in the summer, especially if Norwich don't get

59:02

promoted. And it's interesting. US center forwards have this

59:05

conundrum where, in order to play for good teams,

59:07

they're going to create a lot of chances and

59:09

be on the front foot. They have to go

59:11

to lesser leagues like the Aire de Visier. If

59:14

they play in a top league, it typically tends to

59:16

be on a bottom team that's going to be doing

59:19

a lot of defending. And so Sargent, he's already had

59:21

some bad experiences with Werter Bremman and others. And so

59:23

I'm wondering what his next move, if he gets an

59:25

offer from a bottom half of the table Premier League

59:27

team, let's say, do you think he should be reluctant

59:30

to take that? And it's not the worst thing to

59:32

spend another year in the championship rather than doing that?

59:34

How do you see Josh Sargent's next move? Maybe this

59:36

is as good as it gets. And I'm not saying

59:38

that he can't evolve and that he hasn't evolved and

59:41

hasn't grown. I mean, a lot of these

59:43

players that we're talking about are very different

59:45

than they were four years ago, even two

59:47

years ago. They've physically changed and evolved. And

59:49

I think their mind has

59:51

evolved and has made them better

59:53

soccer players. But this might be

59:56

his ultimate level. You

59:58

weren't here the other day when Mossy was... basically

1:00:00

criticizing not just the year divisie

1:00:02

a but basically holland in general

1:00:04

i hate hates the dutch over

1:00:06

there and what they what they have done in their lack

1:00:09

of ability to defend all that stuff how

1:00:11

do you rate the championship so

1:00:13

someone like josh sergeant doing

1:00:15

well in the championship relative to someone doing well

1:00:17

in their divisie a special goal score i've gotten

1:00:20

in trouble for this take to meet the championship

1:00:22

it's a very physically demanding league it's very competitive

1:00:24

but from a technical standpoint i don't think it's

1:00:26

all that great so you have to sort of

1:00:28

balance those two things out and i think i

1:00:30

played in the championship on loan when i was

1:00:32

coming back on one of my knee injuries and

1:00:34

i my debut is

1:00:36

for chef who wednesday against barnsley it was

1:00:39

a it was a big derby in in

1:00:41

that part of town and in england and i

1:00:43

played center mid and

1:00:47

i played for sixty minutes and

1:00:49

i had a neck uh... injury

1:00:51

at the end of the game because i was just playing ping

1:00:53

pong like this but the ball was barely

1:00:55

on the ground it was just like route

1:00:58

one constant now that's not every team but

1:01:00

is a very physically demanding lead the ball's

1:01:02

not on the on the floor a whole

1:01:04

lot there is a lot of running and

1:01:06

huffing and puffing there's still

1:01:08

like the top teams at the top of the

1:01:10

league between lester and norwich and leads uh... it

1:01:12

switch plays some good soccer so there's there's some

1:01:15

good teams are some good competition i

1:01:17

would actually put josh sergeant in the same box

1:01:19

as uh... ben brierton diaz you remember him or

1:01:21

big ben our friend from chile

1:01:24

a blackburn score goals consistently he

1:01:26

just made a a move

1:01:28

uh... to the premier league in the last transfer

1:01:30

window so but guys scoring like the amount of

1:01:32

goals that just are doing is going in the

1:01:34

championship there there were you

1:01:36

know ten twelve thirteen million pounds to

1:01:40

primarily teams that would buy him but

1:01:42

you make a great point in that it

1:01:45

is going to then a team that's not creating

1:01:47

as many chances not on the front foot very

1:01:49

often and not getting as many looks as goals

1:01:51

you're going from a guy that's gonna score fifteen

1:01:53

goals to like scoring five or six is actually

1:01:55

a pretty good tally for you in

1:01:58

the premier league but you don't turn it down if you're just sergeant

1:02:01

but he's having a phenomenal season I mean he

1:02:03

missed 19 games through injury he scored in every

1:02:05

game that he's played in except for three and

1:02:07

I think he's played in what 13 games

1:02:09

he could it's a great record next season he

1:02:12

could end up on a team like Nottingham forest

1:02:14

which is where we go next oh what a

1:02:16

transition pro as we move up to the Premier

1:02:18

League they had a 2-0 home win over West

1:02:21

Ham Gio Arena in his third match with the

1:02:23

club an unused substitute okay

1:02:25

so now forest isn't even

1:02:27

fighting relegation right they're nice and you know in

1:02:29

that middle and I think that that's going to

1:02:31

continue on and Gio still can't get on the

1:02:33

field I think when it comes down to Gio

1:02:36

Raina is that it's

1:02:39

becoming abundantly clear that

1:02:42

in this particular moment and it could

1:02:44

be argued over the last few years

1:02:47

that his

1:02:49

reliance on talent is

1:02:52

problematic in that talent isn't

1:02:54

enough everybody is

1:02:56

talented at this level and

1:02:59

while I think we have at

1:03:01

times made excuses for him while

1:03:03

at times I think fairly have

1:03:06

given him the benefit of the doubt due

1:03:08

to the talent that he has

1:03:11

the reality is that that

1:03:14

can't be it is if

1:03:16

this is as good as it gets in

1:03:18

terms of his abilities and his and

1:03:20

his talent then it's not good

1:03:22

enough you need something extra and he's not

1:03:24

been able to show it now at Dortmund

1:03:27

and now in this loan and is that

1:03:29

fair yeah it is fair and will it

1:03:31

change in the future maybe I think we

1:03:33

all hope but this is what

1:03:35

Gio is right now yeah not a good look for

1:03:37

him and just quickly and this is why I wasn't

1:03:40

a big fan of this move for Gio to Nottingham

1:03:42

forest because nobody in Nottingham

1:03:44

owes you anything and you're not given

1:03:47

any opportunity just because you're this American

1:03:49

wonder kid and you come from Borussia

1:03:52

Dortmund the stakes are so high

1:03:54

in the Premier League they changed their coach

1:03:56

right before he came in this coach is

1:03:58

trying to figure out and just get results.

1:04:00

It's not about developing players. Gio still needs

1:04:02

to develop to be at that next level.

1:04:05

And that's why I just didn't feel it was a great

1:04:07

move to go into a high pressure environment where if the

1:04:09

team is doing well, I don't care

1:04:11

how well he does in training. He's not getting into

1:04:13

that team as a starter until that team has a

1:04:16

bad run of games. He does well in

1:04:18

a couple bench appearances, et cetera. So for

1:04:20

Gio, it really is about, okay, towards

1:04:22

the end of the season, can I force my

1:04:24

way in to be a contributor off the bench?

1:04:26

Can I maybe get some starts? But

1:04:29

the summer becomes the big move and you got to

1:04:31

do well in the Copa America with the US. And

1:04:33

then you try to find a situation. I know he

1:04:35

signed a new contract at Dortmund. So is it at

1:04:37

Dortmund and it's sink or swim and it's

1:04:40

as a starter or you try to find that move and

1:04:42

you got to drop down a tier in terms of

1:04:44

the level of team you're expecting to play

1:04:46

in. Also in

1:04:49

the Premier League this weekend, Manchester City held

1:04:51

to a 1-1 draw by Chelsea, Liverpool and

1:04:53

Arsenal both won until City lose ground in

1:04:55

the title race. Erlan Holland had some

1:04:57

incredible misses in this match. I have never seen

1:04:59

him so out of sorts. Yeah,

1:05:01

I mean, and he knew it.

1:05:03

This should have been a three point game,

1:05:06

right? But a huge, huge result for,

1:05:10

you know, a, I guess a

1:05:12

beleaguered type of team when

1:05:14

it comes to Chelsea.

1:05:17

So yeah, they still have

1:05:19

a game in hand, but it's

1:05:22

on, man. It is on and

1:05:24

Arsenal, I think, well, I certainly

1:05:26

did, you know, wrote them off a few

1:05:28

weeks ago. I still don't see them

1:05:30

having enough when it comes to it, but

1:05:33

from a table perspective, they're in it. So it's

1:05:35

all to play for and it makes it that much more

1:05:37

exciting. You know where it's not all to play

1:05:39

for though, Massey. Yeah, we go

1:05:41

to Germany next. Leverakusen handled their business

1:05:44

2-1 away win over Heidenheim. Leonard Maloney,

1:05:46

by the way, started that match for

1:05:48

Heidenheim. Bayern Munich suffered a 3-2 defeat

1:05:50

away to Eric Winalda's former club, Buchum.

1:05:52

So they're now eight points back with

1:05:54

12 to play. This was their third

1:05:56

straight defeat in all competitions. And for

1:05:58

the second match, in a row,

1:06:00

Uppamäkanu committed a penalty and was sent

1:06:02

off on the same play. How do

1:06:04

you say it's over in German? It's

1:06:07

done. It's Kaput, right? I

1:06:09

don't know. I mean, they could do a Dortmund and throw

1:06:11

it away at the end. That's what he was saying. I

1:06:14

think if it's still Tukul, no chance. I think Bayern have

1:06:16

got to do what they did, which is they

1:06:18

fired Nagelsmann when he was still in all

1:06:20

three competitions, brought in Tukul, and

1:06:23

it's all gone way lower. But they did

1:06:25

win the league on the last day last season.

1:06:27

Rafael Hahnenstein wrote in the Athletic today that Tukul

1:06:29

is in big trouble. They're thinking about getting rid

1:06:31

of him now and hiring Hansi Flick as an

1:06:33

interim coach until the end of the season. That

1:06:35

would be the most Bayern move ever. But the

1:06:37

guy they have their eye on long term is

1:06:39

Shabi Alonso. The problem is they're going to be

1:06:41

competing with Liverpool there. At one point, it looked

1:06:43

like there was going to be Real Madrid versus

1:06:45

Bayern for Shabi Alonso. I compared it on this

1:06:47

pod to two guys eyeing the same hot girl

1:06:49

at a bar and who's going to make the

1:06:51

move first. Real Madrid took themselves

1:06:54

out of it by re-signing Ancelotti, much to

1:06:56

my chagrin. But

1:06:58

Liverpool have entered the mix now because of

1:07:00

Jurgen Klopp's decision to leave at

1:07:02

the end of the season. It's going to be interesting

1:07:04

to see where Shabi Alonso ends up after he guides

1:07:06

Levertusen it looks like to their first ever Bundesliga time.

1:07:09

It's done. It's over. I'll save this for

1:07:12

another show because it's kind of evergreen. But

1:07:14

the Umar Khanu second yellow and then the

1:07:16

red card up there, it brings up a

1:07:18

much bigger and longer discussion about the way

1:07:20

the game has changed and the way we

1:07:22

were coached as young players in terms of how to jump

1:07:24

and how to get in the air and all that kind of

1:07:26

stuff. But let's see here. Where should

1:07:29

we go to now? I'll just say before we move

1:07:31

on from this, any big European club that

1:07:33

has an opening this summer, you have to at least

1:07:35

put in a call to Jurgen Klopp. Now he seems

1:07:37

pretty dead set on taking a sabbatical and I think

1:07:39

he'll probably stick to that. But it would be a

1:07:41

dereliction of duty to not at least put in the

1:07:43

call. Yes, take a call. If you're a Bayern or

1:07:45

Barcelona, etc. Also

1:07:47

in Germany, Union Berlin with a big

1:07:49

one-nil away win over Hoffenheim. Brendan Aronson

1:07:51

came on as a sub and got the winner

1:07:54

his first goal of the season. Remember Brendan Aronson? Oh yeah,

1:07:56

big Brendan. It was a nice

1:07:58

finish too to come on and have that moment. for

1:08:00

a guy that at one point they were talking about

1:08:02

loaning him out during this last window has

1:08:05

been pretty open, Unyan

1:08:07

Berlin, about his lack of physicality.

1:08:12

He plays tough though, Brennan. He's

1:08:15

a dogged worker. He's going to give you

1:08:17

everything. But I do think sometimes

1:08:19

you could put on a little bit of strength

1:08:21

there that could make him a little bit more of

1:08:23

a consistent contributor. Great time for him and

1:08:25

hopefully that means more minutes. We

1:08:27

go to the Champions League next. We have four

1:08:29

more round of 16 first legs this week. On

1:08:32

Tuesday, PSV will play host to Dortmund. Dest,

1:08:34

Tillman and Pepi all started this past weekend

1:08:36

against Eric Lees. Pepi started on the wing

1:08:38

so they could get him and Luke De

1:08:40

Jong on the field together. Didn't go so great.

1:08:42

Peter Bosch admitted afterwards it's likely not something he's going

1:08:45

to go back to. So I expect Pepi to be

1:08:47

on the bench for this game against Dortmund. All

1:08:50

right, quick. Who's winning? PSG

1:08:52

Dortmund. I think Dortmund advance.

1:08:54

To me they've improved with the additions of Sancho

1:08:57

and Madsen in January. Keep

1:08:59

in mind though, if you're a US

1:09:01

fan you have double reason to root for

1:09:03

PSV obviously because of all the Americans on

1:09:05

that team and you also want Terzic added

1:09:07

there because that might help Gio have a

1:09:10

future at Dortmund. I'm going to go with

1:09:12

the Ernie Stewart surprise package and PSV taking

1:09:14

down Dortmund. Okay, anybody? I'm going

1:09:16

with Dortmund. Inter-Athletico? I've

1:09:19

talked about how much I love this tie. I

1:09:21

like the way both teams are playing. This is

1:09:23

my favorite Simeone team. They actually play more expansively.

1:09:25

Griezmann has been phenomenal. Morata De Pi, guys like

1:09:27

Llorente and Lino on the wings. They went 5-0

1:09:29

the weekend. The Barrios, Rodrigo De Paul, Kokeh in

1:09:32

that midfield. But Inter have been a

1:09:34

machine and they're churning out results. That strike duo

1:09:36

of Lautaro and Marcos Turan is sensational. This one

1:09:38

is too close to call for me and whoever

1:09:40

advances I think could win the whole thing. If

1:09:42

you put me on the spot I will go

1:09:44

Inter. That's a little dance.

1:09:46

I'm going to dance the other way. I'm

1:09:48

going to go with Leti. You're going to leti. Arsenal,

1:09:50

Porto? I think this is

1:09:52

Arsenal all the way. We talked about it. They're

1:09:55

flying 11 goals in the last two Premier League games. I

1:09:58

think Arsenal make a nice run. run in the

1:10:00

Champions League. Which by the way England needs if

1:10:03

they're gonna have that fifth place turn into a

1:10:05

Champions League spot. They only have two teams left,

1:10:07

Arsenal and Manchester City. Well other league have more.

1:10:10

Oh my goodness. Alright so yeah I'm going with

1:10:12

Arsenal too. Napoli, Barca, Napoli fired their coach today

1:10:14

right? Yeah Walter Mazzotti with second managerial change of

1:10:16

the season. They already got rid of Rudy Garcia

1:10:18

earlier. It's been a disastrous title defense for them.

1:10:20

Barca and not feeling all that great either. They

1:10:23

eked out a win over Luca del Torre in

1:10:25

Seltadino this past weekend but we know their issue.

1:10:27

Shavi has already announced he's leaving it in the

1:10:29

season but I think Napoli are an even bigger

1:10:31

mess right now so I would go with Barcelona.

1:10:33

I'll take Barca. Really? Yeah. You're going

1:10:36

Napoli? I'll go with Napoli. And then

1:10:38

talk about burying the lead. Yes so

1:10:40

we did want to ask you

1:10:42

about Mallorca. Oh yeah. You're in the Coppola

1:10:44

Array semifinals. Already had the first leg against

1:10:46

Ral Sociedad. No, no you lost to Sociedad

1:10:49

this past weekend in La Liga. Some refereeing

1:10:51

controversy in that game. Okay. Yeah you have

1:10:53

the second leg coming up. Mallorca has won

1:10:55

the Coppola Array once back in 2003. A

1:10:57

young Samuel Eto. What would

1:10:59

it mean for that club to win this

1:11:01

competition? How fired up are you for this run? Yeah

1:11:03

I got asked this the other day actually but just

1:11:05

kind of how big this game would be and I said

1:11:08

would it be the biggest game in our tenure? We became

1:11:10

owners back in 2016 and on

1:11:14

the top I would say yes but also we've had multiple

1:11:16

promotions into La Liga which I think

1:11:18

over a longer period is bigger

1:11:21

but to be in the semifinal the chance that

1:11:23

a cup final is huge

1:11:25

for where our club and where we've come from and

1:11:27

being in the third division and playing some of these

1:11:30

games to think about standing there in

1:11:33

Seville potentially for a final. But we got a

1:11:35

lot of work to do. I don't

1:11:37

know how you guys feel about this but you know

1:11:39

I thought when the draw came out we had Sociedad

1:11:41

at home in the first match and I loved that.

1:11:43

I thought you know let's get off to a flying

1:11:45

start in the home game and we'll have an advantage

1:11:47

and we'll go on the road and we'll just kind

1:11:49

of hunker down and grind it out. But it ended

1:11:51

up being the opposite which I remember happening a lot

1:11:53

in MLS playoffs when you had those two legs. The

1:11:56

first game was one of the most boring games. I've

1:11:58

seen nobody wanted to attack. Nobody wanted to

1:12:00

concede any chance to make a mistake. You didn't want

1:12:03

to make a mistake now There's no there's no way

1:12:05

goals in this in this tie, but still, you know

1:12:07

No, nobody wanted to really give that edge So in

1:12:09

some ways I see it as us gonna sit in

1:12:11

deep and try to get on the counter We had

1:12:13

a pretty feisty will play associate at by the end

1:12:15

of this three times in the month But

1:12:18

this is a huge game next week and I

1:12:20

I'm I'm nervous Good

1:12:23

luck to you and to my yeah, it'll be a

1:12:25

fun our adopted team group trip over there There

1:12:28

we go. All right, let's take another

1:12:30

quick break when we come back time for ask like Okay,

1:12:33

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

1:12:35

the show where you send in your comments questions and

1:12:37

concerns Keep in mind that our handle out there on

1:12:40

all the social media platforms is SOT you with Alexi

1:12:42

Or you can call into our State of the Union

1:12:44

podcast hotline, which is six five seven five four nine

1:12:47

two two Two nine seven six five seven five four

1:12:49

nine two two nine seven must what other folks want

1:12:51

to know this episode? We have a voicemail. Let's

1:12:53

take a listen right now This

1:12:58

is spits from Washington DC. I

1:13:00

love the podcast both of you

1:13:02

bring amazing insight Ramos

1:13:04

United MLS Cup for fun But

1:13:07

here's why I'm calling last year at

1:13:09

this time Alexi had a

1:13:11

ridiculous take that the

1:13:13

NBA all-star game was somehow

1:13:16

not amazing and I

1:13:18

only wish MLS would have two of

1:13:20

our top stars picking teams,

1:13:23

please with your powers Make

1:13:25

that happen Thank you

1:13:27

guys. Let's go for a great MLS

1:13:29

season. Here we go Okay

1:13:32

spits from DC to

1:13:35

be fair a ridiculous take

1:13:37

from me is kind of redundant

1:13:39

but When it comes to

1:13:41

the NBA NBA all-star game again, we were recording

1:13:44

this on Monday Evidently there was

1:13:46

an NBA all-star game yesterday. Okay, I

1:13:49

had no idea and I certainly watched

1:13:51

none of it The only thing from

1:13:53

I guess all-star weekend from an NBA

1:13:55

perspective that I even remotely I even

1:13:58

cared about but even crossed my radar was

1:14:00

the one-on-one with an NBA

1:14:02

player and a WNBA player were hitting

1:14:04

three points and stuff like that. Also,

1:14:06

they told me that the

1:14:08

ball that the WNBA uses

1:14:11

and the women use is smaller than

1:14:13

the NBA one, is that true? Yeah.

1:14:16

Why? That's

1:14:18

just the rules? Easier to shoot, I

1:14:20

think. Okay, all right. It's lighter, it's more.

1:14:23

All right, got it. Okay, so

1:14:26

to his question, the

1:14:29

MLS All-Star Game, we know it's evolved

1:14:31

over the years, it's gone back and

1:14:33

forth, we've had different teams, we've had

1:14:35

it internal, an intra-MLS type of All-Star

1:14:37

team, or game, we've had

1:14:39

people come over and teams come over and all

1:14:41

that kind of stuff. I think they have at

1:14:44

times done picking in the past, Mazi, am I

1:14:46

wrong? Yeah, I'll just say, I think the NBA

1:14:48

All-Star Game, the game itself is awful and nobody

1:14:50

plays any defense, but I do like that they

1:14:52

use the event as a showcase for the league

1:14:55

and all the stars in the league. I went

1:14:57

on a rant this summer when we

1:14:59

were in Sydney about the MLS All-Star Game after they got

1:15:01

fumped by Arsenal 5-0. I think

1:15:03

MLS is well past the point of feeling

1:15:05

the need to export the star power for

1:15:08

that game and bring in a European club

1:15:10

like Arsenal. There's more than enough star power

1:15:12

in the league, including the biggest star in

1:15:14

the world. And so I think MLS needs

1:15:16

to go back to just an east-west format

1:15:18

and have it be self-contained MLS players, do

1:15:20

you agree? I do, but

1:15:22

I think it was

1:15:24

our last All-Star Game we had was MLS

1:15:27

playing Atletico Madrid in Orlando and we had

1:15:29

this rain delay and it was the lowest

1:15:31

rated All-Star Game on record,

1:15:33

I think, and then they

1:15:35

tried to do versus League MX and that

1:15:37

didn't quite have the bump or

1:15:40

the widespread euphoria that I think that

1:15:42

they would have hoped, at least within

1:15:44

the English language audience, the people that

1:15:46

were watching it in English language, I

1:15:48

think with Spanish language, it did very

1:15:50

well still, as you would expect, because there's a lot of

1:15:52

Mexican stars. Yeah, I

1:15:54

don't know what the perfect recipe is because I

1:15:56

think one of the big challenges that the NBA

1:15:58

All-Star Game is that people... People really tune

1:16:01

in if they are tuning in. They want to see these

1:16:04

big stars that are all on these different teams

1:16:06

competing and having a bit of fun

1:16:08

too, but they want to see them competing together. What

1:16:11

has happened is it's just become this

1:16:14

giant showcase and exhibition and everybody dunking

1:16:16

and nobody playing defense. It's not actually

1:16:18

anything that resembles a game. There's nothing

1:16:21

that you would want to expect of seeing these guys

1:16:23

just bawling out in a street pickup

1:16:26

game where nobody can watch. I

1:16:28

think that's what you want to see as a fan. I do.

1:16:31

I want to see LeBron and Giannis and

1:16:33

Booker and all these guys just going 100%.

1:16:36

We know the reality is that these guys

1:16:38

don't want to get hurt. I

1:16:40

don't care in an all-star game about actually seeing a

1:16:42

game, to be quite honest with you. What do you

1:16:44

want to see then? It's a celebration of the league.

1:16:47

It's a celebration of the players. What

1:16:49

I want to see is what is right now. All

1:16:51

I want to see are, I guess,

1:16:53

what would be called unique events. That's

1:16:56

three-point shooting thing. Skills

1:16:59

competition. They did do that. Fish out

1:17:01

of water type of things. I want to see

1:17:03

these players in

1:17:05

situations where they are not

1:17:09

comfortable or in situations

1:17:12

where they can show even more of the

1:17:14

talent that they have. That

1:17:16

for me is much more interesting, especially if

1:17:18

nobody's going to take it seriously. There's nothing

1:17:20

on the line. You

1:17:23

would watch the Saturday event, which was essentially

1:17:25

the all-star skills challenge from the MLS. Exactly.

1:17:28

That's what they did all on Saturday. Battle of the

1:17:30

Network stars or all this kind of stuff. That's the

1:17:32

stuff that I want to put them on bicycles. I

1:17:35

don't care. But do

1:17:37

different stuff. Show them in different

1:17:39

settings than we normally see them.

1:17:42

Because with that comes sometimes a greater appreciation

1:17:44

for the athletes that they are. Also,

1:17:46

it provides comedy and

1:17:48

it provides viral moments. It gives

1:17:51

you something different because ultimately the

1:17:53

competition of the actual sport has

1:17:56

gone. I don't think you're getting it back no

1:17:58

matter what format you have. So

1:18:00

if I said exporting the star power bringing in

1:18:02

a team from the outside would be importing star

1:18:04

power. Yes Well, you listen, we know you're under the

1:18:06

weather with your style Thank

1:18:11

you so much for the kind words Thank you for

1:18:13

listening and to everybody out there for listening and for

1:18:15

Reviewing and doing all the different things that you do

1:18:17

and in particular when you call into the state of

1:18:19

the union podcast hotline Which is six five seven five

1:18:21

four nine two two nine seven or sending in your

1:18:24

questions out there on all the handles that we have

1:18:26

And using that ask Alexi hashtag. All right, we got

1:18:28

one more segment the end of our shows coming up

1:18:30

here Thankfully Stu is stuck around with us the entire

1:18:32

show. So one more break here. We come back. I'll

1:18:34

get my Okay,

1:18:37

welcome back. It's the end of our show and at the end of

1:18:39

each and every show I give you my one for the road Keep

1:18:42

in mind that this week our US Women's

1:18:44

National Team is in action the W gold

1:18:46

cup They're playing down here close to us

1:18:48

down in Carson, California Let's

1:18:51

see Dominican Republic on Tuesday Argentina on

1:18:53

Friday and Mexico on Monday Which leads

1:18:55

me right into one of our stars

1:18:57

our captain Lindsay Horan a couple weeks

1:18:59

ago we talked about her comments when

1:19:01

it came to the

1:19:03

American fan and how she said

1:19:06

very Clearly and

1:19:08

I guess very honestly that she

1:19:10

didn't think that they were particularly smart and I

1:19:12

took her to task along with a lot of

1:19:14

other people, but I also said

1:19:18

with her or anybody else that I will fight to

1:19:20

my dying breath to To

1:19:23

protect her ability and

1:19:25

freedom to be able to say these

1:19:27

things and I love the fact that

1:19:30

she Is open and honest

1:19:32

about these things? Well, we come to find out

1:19:34

that she has Apologized

1:19:36

for those comments saying that some of

1:19:38

my comment quote some of my comments

1:19:40

were poorly expressed and there

1:19:42

was a massive Lesson learned from

1:19:44

me. So giving me a couple

1:19:47

Copa and asking for forgiveness out there

1:19:50

She also said that every time we step out

1:19:52

to train every time we step out and play

1:19:54

in games We play for you guys and you

1:19:56

are our inspiration. You are our motivation and seeing

1:19:59

you wearing our jerseys and seeing you

1:20:01

screaming our name and chanting USA, that's

1:20:03

what we play for. And

1:20:05

I never wanted to take any of that

1:20:07

away. And continuing on that, the soccer culture

1:20:09

in America is changing and growing so much

1:20:11

in a positive way. So these are all

1:20:13

wonderful comments designed to, like I said, apologize.

1:20:16

Now, I

1:20:18

read this and I said, no, no,

1:20:20

Lindsay, don't do that. I understand why.

1:20:23

And this is not me saying that

1:20:25

there aren't times where apologizing

1:20:28

and saying you're sorry, isn't

1:20:31

appropriate and the absolutely

1:20:33

the thing to do. However,

1:20:36

in this case, it's OK.

1:20:40

You can own these you

1:20:43

can own these comments and

1:20:45

it's OK. The

1:20:47

U.S. fan base, yeah, people will take shots

1:20:50

at you and people will

1:20:52

criticize you going going forward. But

1:20:55

you're a big girl, like I said. And

1:20:57

you know exactly what you are what

1:20:59

you were saying. And I don't

1:21:02

think that this is going to change

1:21:04

anything when it comes to people out

1:21:06

there. Because guess what? People are

1:21:08

still going to love you, Lindsay. All

1:21:10

right. The fan base is not going

1:21:13

away. Even those that disagree, they're not

1:21:15

going anywhere. And it's OK.

1:21:17

It brought about discussion. And as I said

1:21:19

before, whether it's Lindsay Horan or anybody else

1:21:21

out there, if and when I

1:21:23

disagree with things and even vehemently disagree

1:21:25

with something that you

1:21:27

said, as I did here, that's OK.

1:21:30

That's OK for us to have a

1:21:32

disagreement. You don't have to apologize every

1:21:34

single time someone takes you to task.

1:21:36

You don't have apologize every single time

1:21:38

somebody is critical of something that you

1:21:40

said. By the way, if that was

1:21:42

the case, I'd be apologizing each and

1:21:44

every day on a consistent, consistent basis.

1:21:46

It also doesn't mean, like I said,

1:21:48

that there aren't appropriate times for you

1:21:50

to apologize. Now, this is, you

1:21:52

know, not that big a deal. And

1:21:55

that's you know, that she did it. I

1:21:57

think everybody is going to move to move

1:21:59

on. But I read this and

1:22:01

I think I don't think

1:22:04

that she actually believes what she

1:22:06

is saying here Okay What she

1:22:08

believes is the truth that we saw in

1:22:11

all of its honesty out there on the page in

1:22:13

what she said in that moment

1:22:15

of clarity and honesty and

1:22:17

I actually even though I disagree with it, I Love

1:22:20

it. I love the fact that she was being

1:22:22

truthful there I would have loved it even more

1:22:25

had she owned it because this I don't think

1:22:27

was a Moment where

1:22:29

it was justified for her to say

1:22:32

Sorry and to apologize to me to the American

1:22:34

Soccer public that she felt she needed to do

1:22:36

it fine And if she feels better than that,

1:22:39

that's uh, that's all fine and well, but we

1:22:41

can put the lens here and Situation

1:22:43

to rest and move move on because as

1:22:45

I said before she's a player I want

1:22:47

on my team I think she's gonna play

1:22:49

an important role going forward in this new

1:22:52

version of this team She's gonna be one

1:22:54

of those holdovers going forward Right

1:22:56

now and hopefully she is part of bringing this

1:22:58

team back to a point where

1:23:00

it doesn't matter how smart or how

1:23:03

dumb you Are when it comes to the game you look at

1:23:05

this team and said that is my team that is a team

1:23:07

that I want To cheer for and that is my captain over

1:23:09

there Lindsay Iran and that's somebody that I want to cheer for

1:23:12

Stu thank you for joining us today and then

1:23:14

sticking around my friend anything you want to tell

1:23:16

the folks out there Well, first of all, Massey,

1:23:18

I hope your style gets better very soon It's

1:23:21

been a pleasure sitting next to you. It's not

1:23:24

contagious. I think it's grown. Okay I

1:23:27

think it's gotten bigger. So we gotta get those compresses

1:23:30

on And

1:23:32

yeah, it's fun always fun. I feel like again,

1:23:34

we're touching limits where we at hour 30

1:23:37

today Fire

1:23:40

baby, we don't have a window or anything. I know Shawn

1:23:42

Sullivan heads gonna explode This is a Luis

1:23:44

Aguilar lens pod But one

1:23:46

more subject I wanted to broach today is Presidents

1:23:48

Day. Yes, I wanted to ask you

1:23:51

Who is the only person to serve

1:23:54

two non sequential terms something that Donald

1:23:56

Trump is attempting to accomplish? non

1:24:00

Yeah. I

1:24:03

don't know. Grover Cleveland, the 22nd and

1:24:05

24th presidents of the United States. Grover

1:24:07

Cleveland, wow. And you know that historians

1:24:09

count him twice when they say Joe

1:24:12

Biden is the 46th president of the

1:24:14

United States. There's actually only been 45

1:24:17

men that have had the job, but Grover Cleveland, they

1:24:19

counted as 46 different presidencies since he

1:24:21

assumed the office on two different occasions. I

1:24:24

can hear our control room right now. They're clapping.

1:24:26

Evidently, somebody got it back there. Aaron Schechter, USC

1:24:28

grad. Very proud of her. I was

1:24:30

actually going to rattle off all the presidents in

1:24:32

order, but that would be a little show off for you.

1:24:35

You can do it from memory? Oh, yeah. Did

1:24:37

you know? I didn't know that. I

1:24:39

didn't know that. I saw

1:24:41

a video the other day of

1:24:44

a young woman who was having

1:24:46

brain surgery, and there was a point

1:24:48

during the brain surgery where they actually have to

1:24:50

have you awake and functioning,

1:24:52

even though obviously you're drugged up, and

1:24:55

she was able to recite all

1:24:57

the capitals of the United States in a

1:24:59

row, which was just an

1:25:02

amazing type of feat. So

1:25:04

I mean, now that you've teased this, you got to do it. This

1:25:07

is actually perfect fodder for anybody that's

1:25:09

made it this far in the pod.

1:25:11

You're a psychopath. This is an Easter

1:25:13

egg, folks. Go ahead. David Mossy, even

1:25:15

in his state right now with the

1:25:17

stye, he is going to recite each

1:25:19

and every president? Yes. George

1:25:23

Washington, John Adams, Thomas

1:25:25

Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe,

1:25:27

and the other one, John

1:25:29

Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, Martin

1:25:32

Van Buren, William Harrison, John

1:25:34

Tyler, Zachary, I'm

1:25:37

sorry, James K. Polk, Zachary

1:25:39

Taylor, Millard Fillmore, Franklin

1:25:42

Pierce, James Buchanan, Abraham

1:25:44

Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, Ulysses S.

1:25:46

Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James

1:25:48

Garfield, Chester Arthur, Grover Cleveland,

1:25:50

Benjamin Harrison, Grover Cleveland, William

1:25:52

McKinley, Teddy Roosevelt, William Howard

1:25:54

Taft, Woodrow Wilson, Warren Harding,

1:25:56

Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Franklin

1:25:59

Roosevelt. Harry Truman,

1:26:01

Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson,

1:26:04

Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter,

1:26:06

Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush,

1:26:08

Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack

1:26:10

Obama, Donald Trump, Joe Biden. Yeah!

1:26:16

Mic drop! Wow! Five's

1:26:18

done! Ladies and

1:26:20

gentlemen. That's a Michigan education right there.

1:26:22

Wow! The average Michigan state grad

1:26:25

couldn't tell you who the current president is. Or

1:26:28

the non-climbsing grad over here could tell you about seven

1:26:30

of those. Wow! That is

1:26:32

incredible. I mean, listen, each and every show

1:26:34

I come on and I call you a

1:26:36

savant. That is impressive. This is just incredible.

1:26:39

He found a flow in the middle there where he was just

1:26:42

like wrapping them out. Are you ready to set up there? It's

1:26:44

going to be Johnson, Clinton, and then it's Bill Clinton.